Generally speaking you can use the mobile website and add the QR based boarding pass to Google Wallet that way - but if you dig into the TOS you'll almost certainly find an alternative way to get a printed pass.
For example Ryanair, who went 'fully digital' last year and stopped accepting self-printed passes, will provide a free of charge boarding pass at the airport so long as you have already checked-in online before arriving at the airport.
I mean they're the discount bus of the skies, designed for students and people on weekend breaks inter-EU. Avoid flying to Paris (Buvais) or certain other 'city' airports, keep your carry-on luggage within limits, and they're basically fine.
They've a safety record that's beyond reproach, and where else are you going to get flights for ~€50 across Europe?
If nothing else they disrupted a predatory pricing cartel. I'm old enough to remember when a flight England->Ireland or Spain->Portugal could be the guts of €300 or €400. Now we have a complete revision on pricing and it paved the way for multiple good budget carriers like Transavia.
Not to mention Michael O'Leary being an absolute rogue with his PR - particularly the recent spat with Elon Musk
Not to mention that from July 1, 2026, the EU is abolishing the €150 duty-free threshold for non-EU shipments. This is specifically targeted at the flood of packages from marketplaces like Temu and Shein.
From July there will be a flat customs duty of €3 for small consignments. This fee applies per category. If your package contains items from different product groups (e.g., a shirt and a cable), you might pay the fee multiple times.
The Goal: To create fair competition for European retailers who can't compete with subsidized shipping and tax loopholes from massive non-EU sellers.
This will obviously have a knock-on effect for larger shipped items which are presumably subsidised at the bottom line by these parcels of fast-fashion and eWaste.
As someone that frequently buys low-cost second hand electronics from Japan, I am a little frustrated about the €3 per-category customs duty. That means a €80 package of various old game cartridges, retro handhelds, digital watches and collectables will now have another €12 to €24 on top of the 21% VAT and €6 handling fee. For an €80 package I am now looking at €15 for shipping and €34 to €46 in import cost. That kills a fun hobby.
I mean no one is listening to an audiobook of an Eternal Golden Braid - even if one existed it couldn't lead to an equivalent outcome compared to reading it. Let's not even get started on the impact on literary devices like Wordplay and Neologisms.
There doesn't need to be an implicit dig; audiobooks are explicitly a different medium, and in the Marshall McLuhan sense obviously thus impact comprehension, retention, and the overall grok.
I wouldn't worry in the slightest - any cultural appropriation offense has long since been hammered out at the altar of American Television.
The Punch Magazine-esque depiction of bucolic ignorance in ST:TNG {1} is probably the worst representation I can think of, but you still have recent romcoms {2} which the Irish Times film review section best describe as "...stunningly regressive stuff."
That said, even the most cutting satire is fully appreciated when done well. Steve Coogan's fantastic double-billing as his own look-a-like from Ireland was very well received here, negative connotations nonwithstanding.
In 2023, UK police forces made around 12,000 arrests under the Communications Act 2003 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988. These laws cover sending messages that are "grossly offensive, threatening, indecent, or menacing over communications networks" (which includes social media). Prosecutions resulting tend to come from a small subset of serious crimes - stalking, incitement to hatred, endangering minors etc...
This was gleefully misinterpreted by Musk, Steven Forbes and the rest of the right-wing braintrust as "12,000 people were arrested for saying politically incorrect things."
Germany at third highest is equally in the realm of complete fantasy. The Tagesschau debunked it and concluded that the German numbers make no sense. There is no statistic in Germany for the number of arrests, but the number of people investigated is lower for the period claimed and not all led to arrests so the number is simply a fabrication.
Finally, the notion that China or Russia would self-report less cases than the UK and expect the figure to be believed is farcical. There isn't even something comparable to the anti-activism laws or the HK47 in the UK.
Is it not simply maintaining the basic TOS and tenets of the UN Charter of Human Rights, and the Rights of the Child, in the face of egregious civil and human rights violations driven BigTech's divine mandate to break things first (like criminal legislation) and apologise later?
What about that hot-topic in the GOP tent? Electoral interference?
//Irish and EU regulators aggressively “censored” social media coverage of Ireland’s 2024 general election and the recent presidential election, a panel of US politicians has claimed in a report.
//The report by the staff on the judiciary committee of the Republican-controlled US Congress alleges “harassment” against tech groups to undermine conservative and populist parties.
//It claims the European Commission and Irish media regulators in Coimisiún na Meán worked with “biased fact-checkers” and “left-wing” non-governmental organisations before the last two Irish elections.
Of course when European regulators do the bare minimum to prevent electoral interference, misinformation, and straight up electoral malfeasance to be propagated in opposition to our media and balance laws, it constitutes bigotry at the expense of the private American interests trying to control them!
Of course this is all a particular coincidence given its the week that French authorities raid X offices in Paris, summoning Musk in a cybercrime probe to determine his complicity in crimes including Holocaust denial and CSAM hosting, generation and distribution.
Another dog and pony show being organised to produce vox-pops for MAGA cultists who define themselves by not reading past the headline, as part of Republican congressman Jim Jordan's '1st Amendment for me, but not for thee' 'constitutionalist' push.
Tbh Linehan was very lucky he was he was cleared of assaulting a teenage trans activist at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September, instead getting away with a minor conviction for damaging her phone.
Well that's because he didn't assault him, just chucked his phone out of the door into the street.
This activist was at the event getting in everyone's faces looking for a reaction, and Linehan was, as usual, hot-headed enough to provide such a reaction.
Ah yes, the inevitable green accounts playing down a 56 year celebrity and anti-trans activist harassing a teenage girl in public
//"He said ‘go away groomer’, ‘go away you disgusting incel’. He called her a ‘sissy porn-watching scumbag’ … He deliberately whacked the phone out of Ms Brooks’s hand.”
To be clear, long before his event, Linehan had persistently called Brooks a "sociopath", "psycho", "domestic terrorist" and "groomer" on X, posting about her dozens of times since at least March of last year. Other claims he makes about the teenage girl include deriding her as “a sociopathic misogynist who harasses women,” and a “dangerous sadist,” and talks about “[sticking] cameras up [her] arse.”
These comments were all made about Brooks when she was underage. Linehan also assaulted her and destroyed her property when she was a minor. Replace the trans component and any reasonable 3rd party would be up in arms, not hiding behind a green account to white-wash their bigotry.
Again, not to put too fine a point on it, but Disco Elysium is one of the most emotionally poignant and utterly impactful pieces of media ever created. But why take my word for it? Have a look at some reviews and reactions - and note that each players experience is dramatically different in outcome and determination based on your playthrough and choices.
For example Ryanair, who went 'fully digital' last year and stopped accepting self-printed passes, will provide a free of charge boarding pass at the airport so long as you have already checked-in online before arriving at the airport.
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