service

While Europe studies reintroducing military service, Mexico has taken the opposite path: reducing it

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the shift in international policies of the US have caused Europe to no longer trust NATO as a defensive shield, betting on improve your defense resources. Thus, while several European countries debate whether to return to introduce military service mandatory, Mexico decides to take the opposite path and shorten the mandatory military training of its citizens so that it fits better into the lives of young people and is more attractive to them. The change of Mexico. The Government of President Sheinbaum has applied the largest operational change in the conditions of the National Military Service (SMN) in Mexico since 1942. As stated in the article 5 of the Political Constitution of the Mexican States, the service of arms is mandatory for all Mexicans between 18 and 40 years old. This call-up is divided into two modalities: Framed and Available. The former remain quartered for about three months, while the latter remain at the disposal of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) for a year, during which time they are instructed in training sessions on Saturdays. However, with the last reform which has come into effect in January 2026, the training phase has gone from 44 weeks to just 13, with limited classes for those assigned as “On Availability” on Saturdays from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. so that the fulfillment of this duty does not interrupt the studies or work of recruits. New civil-military program. Colonel Juan Sandoval Muñoz, commander of the 78th Infantry Battalion, explained to The Universal that the new “Availability” model prioritizes civil-military subjects to reinforce military values ​​and discipline. The dates for this training are divided into two periods: from February 14 to May 9, and from August 1 to October 24, adding a total of 13 sessions. Participants cover 10 subjects focused on basic training, discipline and support for the population, first aid, civil protection and DN-III-E Plan and knowledge of weapons. All subjects are taught by officers and sergeants of the Armed Forces so that recruits become familiar with the military hierarchy. 13 weeks in the barracks. For its part, the Framed option remains with 13 weeks of admission to barracks, with tailored training as if they were professional soldiers. According to Colonel Sandobal, many of these recruits requested this modality to release their SMN Identity Card in less time, which certifies that they have fulfilled their duty, but they ended up requesting entry into the army or military schools. For this reason, it was decided not to change this modality to keep this recruitment route open, despite being equal in time to the other alternative. European rearmament brings the military back. In Europecountries like Denmark accelerate compulsory military service from 2026 for womenwhich was previously only voluntary, and they extend it to eleven months in its basic version. For its part, Germany is discussing bringing back the voluntary military service before the end of the year, after abandoning it in 2011, and Croatia reactivates it on a mandatory basis with a duration of two months for men starting in January 2026. Other countries like france and Poland are starting ten-month voluntary programs for 18- to 19-year-olds, with the option of joining the reserve or the army if a military crisis arises. In Spain the Minister of Defense continue betting by a voluntary reservation instead of resume military servicebut that does not prevent the debate circulate in the army. At least on a theoretical level. In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Europe has realized an unimportant detail: it does not have enough bullets Image | Government of Mexico, Unsplash (JEsus Herrera)

Taking an important call in a traffic jam is the order of the day. In 1990, a company in Barcelona already offered this service

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Nowadays, as soon as we have some down time, we turn to our mobile: either to scroll infinitely on Instagram or to catch up on email. Although what defined the basis of today’s smartphones was the first iPhone in 2007, the professional point began before, with the blackberry 5810 and your email in 2002 or we can even go back to Nokia 9000 ’96, which introduced the keyboard and its business approach. The late 90s were the beginning of turning the mobile phone into an everyday object. I’m driving and I need a call now. Of course, back in the 90s, carrying a cell phone in the car and answering a work call was unthinkable. Or not, because someone thought of it an exclusive telephone service for drivers in Barcelona pre-Olympic Games. The target audience was those people who were so busy that they could not afford to be disconnected while traveling through the congested business areas of the city. The operation. As they narrate on the Catalan regional television 3Cat, if in the middle of a traffic jam you were lucky enough to find one of those people in white overalls on a scooter, with a fanny pack and the phone stuffed in a shoulder bag, you could ask them. A uniform as characteristic as the backpacks of today’s delivery drivers, but much less common: at that time there were only five workers moving through the busiest traffic points in Barcelona, ​​although they wanted to increase it to 25. If you are standing, they leave you the headset. And if you move, they lend you the device and follow you until you complete the call. The price of the service was 25 pesetas and the minimum call price is 300 pesetas. Because? To begin with, because in 1990 if you wanted to call on the street what there was were booths and analog technology, in Spain specifically MoviLine: the first mobile operator to deploy the original 1G network, owned by Telefónica. And if we talk about devices, the mythical Motorola MicroTAC It was a status symbol for executives. A symbol measuring 23 centimeters and weighing 350 grams. Yes, there were some mobile phones, but they were heavy, with very long antennas and batteries that barely lasted a couple of hours in conversation. On the other hand, having a phone installed in the car was expensive and niche. But the business was not just the telephone, but mobility and time. As businessman Josep Marí says, his idea was “to create the need to find a mobile phone to be able to call to work, home or wherever.” Ahead of his time. This “Automatic Mobile Telephony” service was ahead of its time in that it had a vision of a future need, but faced a market that was not yet ready. As the 90s progressed, telephone technology became more refined and democratized. 1995 brought GSM to the Spanish state on the one hand and, on the other, the liberalization of the telecommunications market, which inaugurated airtel. The operators began to directly control distribution and technical service with franchises and distributors, leaving little room for local independent companies. Scooters before the scooter craze. And if the service itself is surprising, so is the means of transportation: a scooter with a gasoline engine, more specifically the Sport model. of the Go-Ped brand, but quite similar in design and concept to the electric ones that swarm our streets today. His virtue was exactly the same: moving quickly and agilely through the density of Barcelona’s traffic to be able to get in front of the client. In Xataka | This glorious imaginary version of the Galaxy Fold from the 90s is one of those gems that can only be found on the internet In Xataka | A story of pioneers: they already flirted, argued and liked on the party lines of the 90s Cover | 3Cat via Marc Vidal edited with Gemini

BTS returns after its members have gone through military service. Now the real war begins: get tickets

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After almost four years of silence, the flagship group of the k-pop phenomenon returns. And he does it in a big way: announcing a world tour of unprecedented dimensions that will travel through 34 countries between April 2026 and March 2027. The announcement was made at midnight on January 13 and marks the official return of the South Korean group after complete mandatory military service of all its members, with a new album scheduled for March that will be their first joint work since 2022. A huge tour. The magnitude of the event transcends the merely musical. The tour will begin with multiple dates in Goyang (South Korea) and Tokyo before traveling across all continents, culminating in Manila in March 2027. The group’s website It also anticipates additional dates in Japan, the Middle East “and more regions”, suggesting that the final scale could be even higher than initially announced. A different panorama. The world of Korean pop that welcomes BTS in 2026 has experienced a radical metamorphosis compared to how they left it in 2022. What was then an emerging phenomenon in the West has been established as mainstream global cultural. When BTS momentarily disappeared, a phenomenon like ‘The K-Pop hunters‘, a film that became the most viewed in the history of Netflix and whose soundtrack dominated the sales charts for weeks. Every day we are more. BTS’s competition has intensified dramatically. Groups like Stray Kids have broken multiple records previously held by BTS: with eight consecutive albums debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 (compared to six for BTS), they have become the group with the most number one albums of any band of the 21st century. Seventeen was the best-selling K-Pop artist in 2025 and his world tour generated $142 million. The evolution of the genre has also transcended linguistic and national borders. Katseyethe global group created through a collaboration between Hybe and Geffen Records, represents this new direction: formed after a selection process that attracted 120,000 applicants from around the world, its six members hail from the United States, the Philippines, South Korea and Switzerland. Her repertoire was documented in the Netflix series ‘Pop Academy: KATSEYE’, and her repertoire is mainly composed of songs in English, aimed at the Western market. And let’s not forget that ‘APT.’Blackpink and Bruno Mars’ Rosé’s 2024 hit, was a best-seller with Grammy nominations. How are the sales? The BTS tour comes amid a deeply deteriorated ticket sales outlook. The last three years have shown that the global technological infrastructure for mass events is facing systematic crises. It all started with Taylor Swift’s debacle with Ticketmaster in November 2022, when the pre-sale of ‘The Eras Tour’ collapsed the system: the platform received 3.5 billion requests on the day of the sale, causing millions of users to be expelled with error messages after hours of waiting. The controversy ended up in the US Senate and Live Nation’s monopolistic dominance in the industry was questioned. Dramas in Europe. The Oasis case, in 2024, showed that Europe was not exempt from similar problems. Tickets advertised at 150 pounds escalated to 355 because of dynamic pricing, and he had to intervene on the issue the british competition authority. In Spain, the most notable cases have been those of Rosalía and Bad Bunnyseasoned with presence of banking institutions giving favored treatment to their clients. K-pop, in short, has not been immune: Blackpink had its own difficulties with the topic, and although the random selection system characteristic of K-pop is fairer, it also generates brutal speculative secondary markets. The strategic dimension. Furthermore, the return of BTS transcends the merely artistic to become a corporate rescue operation. Hybe, the group’s parent company, has seen its position shake during the hiatus of its main assets: the controversy with NewJeans, which we already explained hereeroded market confidence, and the reputational scars are on the table. The ensuing legal battle publicly exposed internal tensions over the treatment of artists and corporate practices. The key is BTS. However, BTS has potential that many of the groups that have continued their legacy cannot replicate. To begin with, they arrived first: they were the ones who transformed K-pop from an Asian niche into a global phenomenon mainstream. They are considered pioneers. But in addition, their fan base has matured economically: ARMYs, as they call themselves, who were 16-20 years old in 2018 are now 23-27, with significantly greater purchasing power. A test return. The BTS tour poses a definitive test for the infrastructure of live music in 2026. Will current anti-bot systems be enough to cope with unprecedented demand? The US BOTS Act of 2016 imposes fines of up to $16,000, and The European Union banned ticketing bots in 2019. But there is much more to take into account, such as international coordination that requires synchronizing not only ticketing technology but also radically different laws, with different regulations for secondary markets, for example. A real challenge that will put one of the biggest musical events in the world to the test. In Xataka | The economic phenomenon of BTS is so gigantic that you can now invest in them on the stock market

We send fewer and fewer paper letters. So Denmark Post has said goodbye to the service after 400 years

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“Denmark is the canary in the mine.” The comment is by Marvin Ryder, researcher at the McMaster University (Canada), and what he talks about is not about markets, finances or geopolitics, but about something that has been part of the daily lives of a large part of the world’s population for centuries: the mail. The postal operator PostNord has decided that on Tuesday, December 30 will send his last letter in Denmark. In fact, it has been removing its characteristic red mailboxes from the streets for months and Monday the 29th will be the last day it accepts certified envelopes. From now on he wants to focus on sending packages, something that makes a lot of sense in view of his results. The question, how Ryder slidesis whether the end of postal mail will be limited to Denmark or will reach more countries. Goodbye letters, goodbye mailboxes. End of cycle in Denmark. The once powerful Danish postal service has decided to adapt to the times and say goodbye to postal mail. It’s not exactly new (the announcement did it months ago), but the effects of the measure will begin to be felt now, with the turn of the year: in 2026 the operator PostNord will stop collecting and delivering letters in Denmark. In fact the company takes time preparing the ground for change: in June it began to withdraw its 1,500 mailboxes from the streets, on the 18th it stopped accepting letters and on the 29th it will collect the last certified envelopes with acknowledgment of receipt. One day later, New Year’s Eve, PostNord will deliver its last envelopes. Chart on letter sending (in millions) from PostNord Danmark. A key figure: 90%. PostNord, a Nordic operator founded in 2009 from the merger of Denmark’s Post Danmarck and Sweden’s Posten AB, has been very clear about its motives. Stop sending letters in Denmark because its users have stopped doing so. Only in the last 25 years has its flow been reduced more than 90% without the demand showing signs of having hit rock bottom. If in 2000 they were distributed more than 1.4 billion of letters, in 2024 they did not reach 200 million. This collapse has coincided with the increase in online commercewhich is precisely where the operator has decided to focus its efforts. From now on in Denmark it will focus exclusively on the parcel service. “We are forced to adapt to the new situation and take the next step to build a strong PosNord for the future,” claims. It makes sense considering that the MitID system already allows Danes to receive all their official notifications digitally, the option chosen by the vast majority of the population. Only 5% of adults has renounced that possibility. Will there be no more letters? Yes. And no. PostNord has decided to turn the page 400 years of postal history (the service operates from the 17th centuryin times of Christian IV), but that does not mean that paper envelopes will no longer be sent. Danes will be able to continue sending letters to each other through Daoa courier firm that is already operational and is now preparing for a considerable increase in activity: if its estimates do not fail, it will go from 30 million letters in 2025 to 80 million in 2026. Of course, the service will be somewhat different for citizens: whoever wants to send a letter will have to go to one of their locations to deliver it or pay extra if they want it to be picked up at home. Question of obligations. In the statement in which it advanced its plans PostNord made it clear that its decision comes preceded by a change at a legal level that, in practice, frees its hands. “Our responsibility for the universal postal service in Denmark was extinguished with the Postal Law which came into force on January 1, 2024, except for mail for the visually impaired, small islands and international mail during a transition period,” clarify. Things will be different in Sweden, where PostNord will continue to operate a mail system “self-financed and profitable” and assuming the postal service. “Difficult decision”. Breaking a tradition that dates back to the 17th century is not easy. And this has been recognized by PostNord, which talks about “a difficult decision” and an “important step” designed to be strengthened in the future. For now, his goodbye has served to unleash collecting fever for his mailboxes: the operator put 1,000 units on sale for between 270 and 200 euros (depending on their state of conservation) and sold out of stock. in just a few hours. It is estimated that its network is made up of about 1,500 mailboxes and in January they will be auctioned another 200. Beyond Denmark. Where PostNord’s movements are probably also followed with interest is in the Post Offices. Although there are signs which suggest that Generation Z is reconnecting with the pleasure of sending written letters, the truth is that postal mail is also going through slow times in Spain. The National Markets Commission calculate that in ten years the exchange of letters has plummeted by 64%, which has forced Correos to try new (and multiple) avenues of business. Parcel shipping is increasing, moving at “record levels”, but precisely for this reason it is a sector with fierce competition in which it is not easy to gain a foothold. In Denmark, the readjustment of the postal service will be accompanied by a snip of staff, with the loss of 1,500 jobs. Images | News Ãresund – Johan Wessman (Flickr) and PostNord In Xataka | Correos wants to be a bank in 2025. It is an eye-catching plan in the face of the continuous closure of bank branches

What it is, how it works and what channels this free service offers

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Let’s explain to you What is Samsung TV Plus and how does it work?the free content service that you will find integrated into the Korean manufacturer’s smart televisions. Since it comes already included, you will not need to download anything or register, you will simply have access to its channels from the beginning. Let’s start by explaining what exactly this service is and some of its features. You will see that it is very easy to understand. Then, we will briefly explain part of how it works, and we will finish with a list of channels that it currently offers. What is Samsung TV Plus Samsung TV Plus is a free entertainment service created by Samsung, which is integrated into the manufacturer’s Smart TVs. You do not need to have any type of external device, since you will find it installed directly on the television, something that means you do not have to download anything either. Being a free service, you get the benefits by displaying ads in your content. Does not require any type of registrationso you will not have to create an account or enter your bank details. Instead of having a user account, the content is linked directly to your TV. Another thing you should keep in mind is that you cannot remove this service from the TVit will always be installed. But you will not have any obligation to use it either, it will simply be there for you to access whenever you want or need it. Samsung TV Plus will be shown to you when you turn on the TV, but you can also access directly from the app bar that is in the interface of your television. It’s like one more application in addition to the ones you may decide to install. As we will tell you at the end, the service offers a series of free channels so you have access to hours of content. This number of channels increases over time, so it is advisable to check it from time to time to see if they have added any with themes that you like. And finally, you must remember that Samsung TV Plus It is also available on mobile phones and tablets. Specifically, you will find it on the manufacturer’s Galaxy devices with an Android 11 operating system or higher. How to install/set up Samsung TV Plus Samsung TV Plus no need to installsince it comes installed as standard on all the manufacturer’s compatible televisions. This means that as soon as you connect it you will find it already available. Of course, to be able to use it normally you will need an internet connection on your television. This is an online channel service, so connection is essential to be able to see all its channels. If you want to configure the channel list To rearrange them, you have to press the list or CH List button on the controller. This will open a column with the channels, and on the top right you have a button with a pencil icon called Edit. Within this option, search and select a channel, and you can block it, change its number, delete it or change its name. You will also have another option such as reordering channels, or mark the ones you want as favorites and then access a list where only these appear. How to use Samsung TV Plus To access Samsung TV Plus you just have to turn on the television and press the button Home of your remote control. This will open an application bar at the bottom, and you can click on the icon TV Plus to access it. What channels does Samsung TV Plus offer? Now we are going to give you Samsung TV Plus channel list as of December 16, 2025, which totals more than 70. In it we highlight that Xataka TV is availablewith tests and comparisons, tips and tricks, reports, purchase recommendations and much more. In this list of channels we will include the dial and channel nameso you can access the one you want directly. Entertainment Channels 4001 Canal Sur Andalusia 4004 Style and Life – Rakuten TV 4007 The 1 4035 The 2 4064 MTV Cribs 4066 MTV Originals 4106 RTVE Know and Win 4157 Dhar Mann TV 4186 Yu-Gi-Oh! 4188 Beyblade 4190 Anime Vision 4191 Anime Vision Classics 4200 Pretty Girls TV 4201 Hello! play 4202 Mark Rober TV 4203 Ideas in 5 Minutes 4205 Xataka 4211 Aztec International 4213 Dog Whisperer 4215 Teen Vee 4216 H2O & Friends 4219 2M 4220 The Furniture 4222 Korean by CJ ENM 4223 Fireplace Vibes Series Channels 4002 Tell me how it happened 4235 RTVE The Promise 4236 RTVE La Moderna 4237 Baywatch – Baywatch 4241 FreeTV Stellar 4242 Red Eagle 4243 Heart 4246 BBC Series 4248 Vive Kanal D Drama 4255 The Gipsy Kings – Rakuten TV 4257 K-Drama+ 4260 Mr Bean Animated News Channels 4005 Euronews LIVE 4551 24H 4552 News 360 4553 Business TV 4555 The Country 4557 The Confidential 4561 CNN Headlines 4563 CNBC 4564 Al Jazeera 4565 NBC News NOW 4569 CNN in Spanish 4571 Sky News International 4573 FRANCE 24 FAST 4575 DW 4577 Bloomberg TV+ Crime Channels 4293 The Commissioner 4295 The Midsomer Murders 4297 Forensic Files 4298 All Crime 4299 Crime & History 4301 DATELINE 24/7 4303 True Crimes 4305 Crime – Rakuten TV 4307 Cobra Alert Sports Channels 4603 Tennis Channel 4605 MyPadel TV 4606 Tennis+ 4609 Red Bull TV 4631 Telesport 4633 The League Inside 4635 DFB Play TV 4641 FIFA+ 4658 Motorvision 4663 Rally.TV FAST+ 4671 Surf Channel 4673 World Poker Tour 4675 Conscious Television Children’s Channels 4771 Clan 4772 LooLoo Kids 4774 BABY SHARK TV 4775 Caillou 4777 Pocoyo 4779 duckTV 4781 Cry Babies 4797 SuperToons TV 4803 Maya the Bee 4805 Video Game Heroes 4807 Rabbids: The Invasion 4809 Rugrats 4811 SpongeBob 4815 Rantaro, The Ninja Boy 4821 Pluto TV Kids 4823 iCarly movie channels 4003 Runtime Christmas 4852 100% Christmas – … Read more

The only Russian access gate to the ISS remains out of service. And that is forcing NASA to take action

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“We are taking a very serious risk; we have no technical reserves for platform number 31; There is only one position for Soyuz-2 launches (in Baikonur),” warned Dmitri Rogozin, then director general of Roscosmos, on January 25, 2022. That wake-up call went almost unnoticed, but today it takes on unexpected weight. What was then described as a structural vulnerability has become an immediate problem for Russia’s ability to reach low orbit. And, in turn, for the operational balance of the International Space Station. That reflection of 2022 seemed distant until the last takeoff from Baikonur showed that the lack of redundancy is no longer a hypothetical risk. Platform 31/6, from where manned missions and freighters take off to the ISS, was damaged after the launch of Soyuz MS-28 (Expedition 74). The ship docked without problems, but the ramp did not pass the test. From that moment on, the question stopped being technical and became operational: what does it mean for the only infrastructure configured for these missions to be out of service from one day to the next. What happened in Baikonur and how is Russian access to the ISS? The first images of the Baikonur complex after the launch showed that the incident had not been minor. The service platform located under the rocket, a mobile structure of about 20 tons used for access prior to takeoff, a fall appeared in the ramp pit. According to sources consulted by Ars Technica, everything indicates that it was not secured correctly and was ejected by the thrust of Soyuz-2. Roscosmos admitted damage to “several elements” of the complex, although without going into details. The visible magnitude of the impact suggests a more complex repair than the official message indicates. Condition of damaged platform in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Now, one of the least visible elements of the Russian program is the diversity of platforms from which the different Soyuz take off. However, only a subset of them meets the technical and orbital conditions to send crew or cargo to the ISS. That detail explains why the damage in Baikonur generates such an immediate impact on international planning. Current overview of the main ramps: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Site 31/6 (Soyuz-2): ramp used for manned missions and Progress freighters. Currently not operational. Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Site 45 (Baiterek/Soyuz-5): future candidate, still in the testing phase and without certification for missions to the ISS. Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Gagarin’s Start: symbolic installation of the Soviet program, today deactivated and in the process of becoming a museum. Plesetsk, Russia: designed for high and polar orbits, it is not suitable for reaching the inclination of the ISS. Vostochny, Russia: in use for cargo missions, but not configured for crewed flights or missions to the ISS. The temporary paralysis of the Russian capacity to launch missions to the station affects a decisive element of the orbital ecosystem: the Progress freighters. These ships not only transport supplies for the Russian segment, but also provide the fuel necessary to periodically raise the orbit of the ISS and use their thrusters to assist in attitude control. Other ships, such as Dragon or Cygnus, have demonstrated ability to contribute in part to these tasksalthough they do not cover all uses of Progress. NASA’s response was not long in coming. According to internal planning cited by Ars Technica, lThe agency has advanced two Dragon cargo missions to ensure sufficient operating margin in the coming months. CRS-34, initially scheduled for June 2026, moves to May, and CRS-35 moves from November to August. One source describes these changes as a “direct result” of the Baikonur incident. The goal is simple: ensure that the station has supplies without depending on the uncertain schedule of upcoming Progress missions. Launch of Soyuz MS-28 from Baikonur on November 27, 2025 From the outside, the agency has insisted that the station maintains sufficient capacity for the maneuvers of reboot and attitude control and that no immediate impacts are expected. Everything seems to indicate that the rescheduling of the Dragon missions works as an additional cushion. Roscosmos claims to have of the necessary spare parts and maintains that the repairs will be completed “in the near future.” However, the official estimate contrasts with the valuations collected by the Russian newspaper Kommersant. In that publication, Aleksandr Khokhlov, a member of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation, maintains that the repairs could be prolonged from half a year to more than a yeardepending on the actual extent of the damage. Added to this are the extreme temperatures in Kazakhstan in winter and the budgetary pressure derived from the war in Ukraine. What happened at Baikonur reminds us that the architecture of the station depends on both technical decisions and political priorities. NASA has already reinforced its operating margin and now the question is how Russia will respond to a setback that reveals the lack of redundancies in its infrastructure. The pace of repair and the willingness to sustain their participation will mark the stability of the program in the coming months. Ultimately, this episode anticipates the challenges of a stage in which the ISS requires more effort than is sometimes visible. Images | NASA (1, 2, 3) | Roscosmos In Xataka | We already know when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be closest to Earth and what’s better: how to see it

Ryanair thought it could build loyalty with a subscription service. Until you’ve remembered what your real business is

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“It has cost more money than it generates” With a brief note and the statements of Dara Brady, CMO of the company, Ryanair has confirmed the closure of Prime, the membership program that sought to retain its customers with advantages that have generated greater costs for the company than benefits. The subscription service of the company has not lasted even a year before its cancellation. Surgical. A test, some results eight months later and a decision: close Prime. Ryanair has confirmed that it is closing its subscription program just eight months after it was launched on the market in a decision that is as firm as it is clean. Subscribers will maintain their benefits but those who had not signed up until last Friday, the 28th, will now no longer be able to do so. They report on the company’s website that customers will maintain their benefits “of exclusive savings on flights and seats for the remaining 12 months of membership.” However, the company’s Prime program already has its days numbered. two million. It doesn’t seem like much for a company like Ryanair, but it speaks volumes about the rigorous cost control that the company manages. The statement includes the words of Dara Brady, CMO of Ryanair, who points out that the program has collected 4.4 million euros in subscriptions but that the benefits delivered are greater than six million euros. That is, in the eight months in which the service has been active, the company has lost less than 250,000 euros per month in the new program. Doesn’t seem like much for a company that has obtained 2,540 million euros in the first quarter of 2025. What did they offer? In its announcement last March, Ryanair offered the following benefits For your subscribers: Priority sale on selected flights Exclusive discounts for some flights Free seat selection for the member and one companion To access these benefits, the client had to pay 79 euros per year. According to the company’s accounts, seat selection alone already amortized the investment from three flights a year. With four flights made per year, we would be amortizing 26 euros on average. The subscription extended for a maximum of one year or 12 flights per year. In addition, I had travel insurance to cancel flights due to injuries or illnesses, the delay of other flights or theft of luggage. Of course, those over 70 years of age were excluded from sickness coverage. Unattractive. “With more than 207 million passengers this year, Ryanair will remain focused on offering the lowest fares in Europe to all our customers, and not just this group of 55,000 Prime members.” The closing of the press release published by the company is a clear confirmation of what happened. The most attractive thing that Prime offered was that the customer could choose (and save money) in the choice of seats but it did not even guarantee that two passengers (one being “non-Prime”) could travel together. It is an incentive that has not been attractive enough for a company where the customer looks for the cheapest way to travel and chooses to add services little by little, depending on how much money you are willing to pay. Nothing premium. Ryanair’s test has convinced the company that it has no room to delve into policies that bring it closer to premium or higher-cost companies. Many of the airlines with higher prices offer cards or loyalty services to keep their customers retained, but this way of acting has not caught on among the Irish company’s customers. The reasons are obvious. When someone chooses Ryanair it is because they expect the lowest possible price for a short flight. And you are willing to sacrifice by traveling with less luggage or accepting 100% digital boarding. You either take it or leave it. And Ryanair knows that the customer will leave it when the competition offers that same flight at a cheaper price. On the other hand, customers who are loyal to higher-cost companies obtain other advantages that do receive greater attention on flights of higher cost and time. For example, loyalty cards companies like Iberia They allow access to VIP lounges or priority boarding, secondary values ​​for those who aspire to travel through Europe at the lowest possible price. To this we must add that the high price paid for the ticket ends up subsidizing these companies for the economic effort they have to make to deliver the benefits to their customers. Photo | Markus Winkler 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

Synthetic influencers are already selling in the thousands. A startup offers them as a service to manipulate networks

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Influencer accounts created by AI are already a reality, some even have hundreds of thousands of followers. There is a startup that has taken this idea to the next level: they create and manage synthetic influencers to orchestrate massive actions on different platforms, all using AI. Their website reads “Never pay a human again”, a true declaration of intent. Doublespeed. It is the name of the startup that offers the service. Using AI, they create the accounts of these fake influencers and also the content, all with minimal human intervention, just a few finishing touches. Its goal is to “orchestrate actions on thousands of social accounts through the creation and massive deployment of content.” They count in 404media that the startup is financed by the Andreessen Horowitzone of the most important venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Make it look human. The platforms have systems to detect bots, but at Doublespeed they have the solution to make their AI influencers appear human to the algorithms. In addition, the accounts they offer have been used, since newly created accounts with hardly any interactions are easier to detect as bots. The company’s co-founder, Zuhair Lakhani, said in a podcast that use a “mobile farm” (like the click farms) to manage all their accounts and boasted that one client got almost 5 million views in less than a month with 15 of these AI influencers. Raising the level. He astroturfing It is a tactic through which artificial opinions are generated that seek to appear real and spontaneous, all in order to give an impression of support (or rejection) of a topic or product. What Doublespeed does is next level, creating not only the message, but the “persona” who spreads it. Doublespeed sells “packs” between $1,500 and $7,500, depending on the number of posts they want to generate. Cons the rules. The point is that this practice goes against the rules of the main platforms, such as Meta, which they expressly say that accounts that “make a misleading representation of identity to deceive or confuse people” will not be allowed. It is not the first company to offer services of this type, What is striking is that it has one of the largest funds in the world behind it. dead internet. Is a conspiracy theory which says that the internet is full of bots and humans have been replaced by algorithms. There is some truth in it. According to the cybersecurity company Imperva, in 2024 more than half of internet traffic was non-human. With the emergence of AI, networks were flooded with AI Slop and now it also comes in the form of fake influencers. Image | Reshma Mallecha, Pexels In Xataka | The more we know about the evolution of the internet, the closer we come to a conclusion: bots can kill it

Renfe is achieving 96% punctuality in its service. But not in Spain, but in Mecca

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While AVE customers in Spain are very familiar with the wave of service delays, especially during this last summerRenfe boasts in Saudi Arabia of figures that seem from another world: more than 96% punctuality and “anecdotal” cancellations in the high-speed service that operates between Mecca and Medina, according to the company. The truth is that the Haramain High-Speed ​​Railway numbers contrast with what we have here in Spain. The Saudi showcase of Renfe. The Spanish company leads the consortium that manages this pioneering high-speed train in Saudi Arabia, responsible for the complete operation: from driving to ticket sales. Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, presented these data at the Saudi International Rail in Riyadh, where he assured that the project is “one of the most successful in the world.” The figures that Renfe displays outside the home. The Haramain connects Mecca and Medina over 453 kilometers, with stops at Jeddah and the international airport. According to Renfe, since its inauguration in October 2018, the service has transported 29.2 million passengers, with a year-on-year growth of 20%. In the last year, the operator claims to have achieved more than 96% punctuality, measured with a margin of up to five minutes late, and operated 70,000 consecutive services without a single cancellation. The litmus test of Ramadan. Just like show According to its figures, during the March 2025 campaign, the service mobilized 1.35 million pilgrims, 40% more than the previous year. 3,410 trips were made with up to 132 trains running on the same day. The average punctuality reached 98.5% in this case, says Renfe, without recording cancellations. These are figures that are hardly seen in the company’s Spanish reports. The contrast with Spain. Last summer four out of ten high-speed trains They arrived late in Spain. Between June and August, 6,554 long-distance and AVE trains suffered delays of more than 15 minutes, according to pointed out El Mundoaffecting 2.5 million passengers. However, only three out of every hundred were able to claim compensation after tightening reimbursement conditions that Renfe applied in July 2024. Now it takes an hour of delay to obtain 50% of the ticket, when before 15 minutes were enough. Minister Óscar Puente recognized in September that the system will continue to have incidents “for at least two more years.” What’s coming now. Renfe has reaffirmed its commitment to Saudi Arabia and its ambitious Vision 2030 plan, which includes new railway projects. Among them, a high-speed line between Riyadh and Qiddiya, whose tender could be launched in the first half of 2026. Cover image | Tim Adams In Xataka | Renfe has found a scapegoat for its problems on the Madrid-Barcelona line: Talgo and its AVRIL trains

The secret to continuing to accumulate LEGO sets is not to keep them. This rental service helps you with that.

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Any adult LEGO fan have run into a similar problem. It is enormously enjoyable to set up the sets, but once finished comes the drama: where do we place it? The lack of space in modern homes or the impossibility of collecting several sets due to the space they occupy has led to the creation of a business especially aimed at those who do not want to give up building new sets, but do not need to keep them. Brick Borrow rents LEGO sets… which are then returned. How it works. Brick Borrow offers users the possibility of renting iconic sets by paying a fixed fee, always for an unlimited time. The amount of the fee determines what can be rented as follows: Mystery Set (9.99 euros): Brick Borrow chooses which set to send. Only one set per month. Builder (14.99 euros): The customer chooses what they want from the Brick Borrow catalogue. Unlimited loans every month. Only one set at a time. There is an annual version with a small discount. Master (24.99 euros): Like Buider, but with two sets per month. There are dozens of available setsin a catalog that is constantly growing, and as expected, we can find some of the most iconic: Mario Kart, the Shire from ‘The Lord of the Rings’, the Temple of the Golden Idol from Indiana Jones, Snow White’s cabin, the Creeper from ‘Minecraft’, the house from ‘Up!’, the ship from ‘Jaws’, a Concorde, Hogwarts, the Infinity Gauntlet, a bonsai, Sonic’s first level, Darth Vader’s helmet and a long etcetera… The wonderful world of AFOLs. This is a service clearly aimed at adult LEGO fans (or AFOL: Adult Fans Of LEGO), a typology that ranges from rigorous collectors to creative builders who see LEGO as a form of artistic expression, and who often value the building experience as much or more than the result. Rental introduces an interesting dimension for them: it democratizes access to complex or expensive sets that are sometimes inaccessible to a large part of the community. Aspects that a child does not appreciate, such as completism or playing with rare sets, are thus more accessible to this type of adult fans. To ride. It is more than proven therapeutic value of play in adults. But in addition, services like Brick Borrow (there are others, especially in the US: NetBricks, Brick Library, Blockria, Brickdrop, Lend A Brick, Chorley Bricks and many more) allow us to focus on an aspect of LEGO that sometimes goes unnoticed: building rather than enjoying the finished set. The activity of assembling blocks works as a mental escape and relaxation, similar to meditative or creative practices. The concentration on small pieces and the satisfaction of seeing a structure take shape generates a binding pleasure that transcends simple fun. The economics of access. There is a global trendlinked to a market increasingly dominated by subscriptions and temporary access to goods, for people looking for andxexperiences without the burden of storage or constant spending. Brick Borrow is not a unique experiment: we have seen it before on platforms that rent luxury clothing either technology. It implies a more responsible use of the product, promoting the so-called economy of access and reuse, repair, recycling and waste reduction, unlike the traditional linear model of “use and throw away”. The products and materials thus maintain their value for as long as possible, minimizing the environmental impact and promoting sustainable consumption. In Xataka | I worked for eight years in a sex shop. This is how the sector has changed and this is how it has changed me

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