It’s 4am in a tiny village in the province of Reggio Emilia and 38-year-old Kloty Jaswantsing is already working hard on the farm. He feeds the cows. He milks the cows. He cleans the cows. Twice a day, every day.
A decade ago, when Jaswantsing imagined his future, he saw himself working as a computer engineer in his native Punjab province in India. But at home, there are more computer engineers than there are jobs.
Others from his village had already made their way to Italy – they said the pristine farms along the Po Valley looked just like home. The difference was that in Italy there was work and the possibility to provide some financial security for his wife and two daughters, now aged eight and 11.
So, eight years ago, Jaswantsing followed the “Sikh Road” to Italy to work in the milk factories. He arrived at the Catellani Gianni Farm in the village of Masone.
At first, the language and culture felt unfamiliar. But Jaswantsing was determined to learn both.
For years, he toiled on the farm while his family remained in India. It was a difficult time. But six months ago, his wife and daughters joined him in Italy. Now, his children attend the local school and Jaswantsing says he feels as though he has finally established a sense of home.
Jaswantsing and his family are part of a growing community from India who now reside in the Parma and Reggio Emilia regions of Italy, aptly named the “Food Valley”. The migration of Indians to the area began in the 1980s and has continued ever since. Now, more than 45,000 of the roughly 170,000 Indians who live in Italy work in 4,000 Food Valley farms and cheese factories.
They work closely with their Italian coworkers and many Italian cheese-makers say they admire the newcomers’ work ethic and their affinity for the livestock. The flat plains with their sweltering summers have become home and the Italian villagers have become their neighbours.
In breaks from work, they play cards together at the village bar and discuss local news stories. During traditional village parties, they celebrate together.
But now, with xenophobia rising across much of Europe, Jaswantsing and his compatriots worry that their close ties to the local community and their years of hard work may be at risk. They read about the wave of populism sweeping through Italy and, although it hasn’t reached their villages, they worry about what might happen if it does.
Still, Jaswantsing says there is a part of him that refuses not to hope for the best and which believes he and his family will primarily be judged on how hard they work.
“We are an honest family and we are [here] to work and to … integrate in[to] this small community,” he says.
The fear of growing racism and xenophobia is just as real for Indians who migrated to Italy decades ago and now have Italian citizenship.
Before he came to Italy, Lal Madan, 57, was a farmer in Punjab. He now works on a farm in the village of Gainago Torrile in Parma province. For decades, he and his wife Kumari Sudesh, 46, have worked 365 days a year as cheese-makers. Their 20-year-old son has followed in their footsteps.
Madan says he is proud to make Parmesan cheese and that it has taken him more than 20 years to learn how. “People eat this cheese in every corner of the planet,” he says proudly.
But working in a small traditional Parmesan cheese factory is not easy. The factory where he works produces 5,000 handmade wheels of Parmesan cheese each year and there is no time for a vacation. But the payoff is that everyone in his family now has an Italian passport.
Madan shares a similar view on the challenges facing Italy as many of his Italian-born neighbours. Taxes, he says, are too high and he worries that the continuing migration to Italy may upset Italians. But what concerns Madan the most is that racism and xenophobia are on the rise not only in Italy but across Europe.
While some like Madan and Jaswantsing are nervous, many newer arrivals say they are willing to risk racism and discrimination if it means a future in Europe.
Sinsh Gursharn, 25, arrived in Italy a year ago. He now lives in Sant Ilario in Reggio Emilia and drives 60km to work his 10-hour shift at a cheese factory seven days a week. While he hears about xenophobia and populism on the local news, he says no news is bad enough to deter him from his objective: for him and his wife to be able to have a baby, buy a house and live their Italian dream.
Across Europe, the far right is on the rise and it has some of the continent’s most diverse communities in its crosshairs.
To the far right, these neighbourhoods are “no-go zones” that challenge their notion of what it means to be European.
To those who live in them, they are Europe. Watch them tell their stories in This is Europe.
Currently, the Supercharger network in Europe is solid in some places, such as Germany, Norway and the UK, spotty in others, such as Poland and Italy, and non-existent in several European countries, including Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Tesla’s map of Superchargers in Europe displays numerous “coming soon” markers, but it’s nice to get a slightly more precise estimate on when the coverage will extend to all of Europe.
Answering one Twitter user’s inquiry about Africa, Musk simply said “2020,” though he didn’t specify what kind of coverage that means, exactly.
Musk also said the company is “dramatically increasing” Superchargers within cities, as well as “working with landlords to add home charging to apartment buildings,” which should help out Tesla owners who live in rented apartments.
Tesla’s Supercharger network has expanded tremendously in the last couple of years. The number currently stands at 11,583 stations across the globe, though that’s still far from the company’s self imposed goal of having 18,000 chargers before the end of 2018.
The United Arab Emirates is set to reopen its embassy in Damascus – which has been closed for seven years – on Thursday, according to officials.
The UAE recalled its ambassador from Syria in 2011 after the start of a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, which escalated into a brutal civil war that has now killed more than 360,000 people.
The move – which follows a visit to Damascus by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in December – is seen as another step in efforts by Arab countries to bring the Assad government back into the fold after years of diplomatic isolation.
Rumours of the Emirati embassy reopening had circulated in recent days as renovation work was seen at the building.
An official from Syria’s information ministry invited journalists to cover the event at 1:30pm local time (11:30 GMT) at the embassy in the Abu Rummaneh district of central Damascus. Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper also reported the decision.
According to AFP news agency, the UAE does not yet have an ambassador to Syria but two diplomats are expected to attend Thursday’s ceremony.
The Emirati Foreign Ministry later said the reopening was intended to normalise relations between Syria and the UAE and curb the risk of regional interference in “Arab, Syrian affairs,” according to Saudi-owned TV channel Al Arabiya.
Previously, the UAE was one of several regional powers that backed opposition fighters in Syria, though its role was less prominent than those of Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Turkey, rebel sources have said.
Assad’s government, meanwhile, has been supported by Russia, Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, among others.
Rejoining the Arab League?
Nearly eight years into the war, government forces have regained control of the majority of Syria, with military advances gathering pace this year following the defeat of the last sizeable rebel enclaves near Damascus and the recovery of the southwestern region at the border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Syria was expelled from the 22-member Arab League in 2011, and Arab countries have sanctioned Damascus and condemned its use of military force against the opposition.
However, Thursday’s event, along with al-Bashir’s visit and the reopening of the border crossing between Syria and Jordan, have prompted speculation that relations between Syria and its US-allied, Arab regional neighbours may be beginning to thaw.
The Arab League is set to meet in Tunisia in March, with member state Egypt calling for Syria to be reinstated and the secretary-general, veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul Gheit, saying in April that the decision to suspend Syria had been “hasty”.
“Recent discussions on this issue have not yielded a consensus,” Hossam Zaki, the League’s deputy secretary-general told reporters in Cairo on Monday.
“This does not rule out a possible change of the Arab position in the future,” he added.
It works • Battery life lasts long • Loud front-facing stereo speakers
‘Holographic display’ is garbage • Bulky • shoddily-built construction • So gargantuan it hurts to hold • Laughably outdated Android interface • Where the hell are the modules?
RED deserves credit for running in the opposite direction of mobile trends with the Hydrogen One. It’s too bad they made all of the wrong choices.
The biggest loser of 2018, the worst phone — no, worst product — released this year is, unfortunately, RED’s Hydrogen One phone.
Practically everything about the Hollywood cinema camera maker’s first smartphone is terrible.
The Hydrogen One has been one big disappointment after another since it was announced last year. If its gargantuan, design, dated specs, and exorbitant $1,300 starting price for the aluminum version ($1,600 if you bought the titanium version) doesn’t turn you off, everything else about this monstrosity will.
This review could have come months ago, but I wanted to give the phone and its gimmicky and not-at-all holographic “holographic display” a fair chance as shotgun to my iPhone (I’m a two phone guy — always an iPhone and Android).
For the first week ending in October, I really tried my best to give the Hydrogen One a shot as my daily driver (i.e. as my main phone).
While initial reviews slammed the phone’s camera for being complete garbage, I secretly hoped the handful of post-launch software updates might resolve many of the issues and maybe make the phone a sleeper hit.
Sadly, nearly two months into carrying the Hydrogen One phone, I must declare it the dud of the year.
At a press launch with carrier partner AT&T in late October, RED founder and CEO Jim Jannard candidly summed up the phone before it even launched: “We have no idea what we’re doing.”
Big and hefty
The “scalloped” sides are supposed to make the phone easier to grip, but they don’t.
Image: raymond wong/mashable
The Hydrogen One is technically a phone, but I didn’t get the sense Jannard cared for it as a device for making calls, or texting, or browsing the web.
As he re-introduced the Hydrogen to press and many who hadn’t seen it during the company’s limited preview events before, I could sense he was more enthusiastic at the idea of merely doing something different.
Jannard, after all, was advised by his friends and family he’d never succeed challenging Ray-Ban when he started Oakley sunglasses and he’d never supplant Hollywood film camera powerhouses like ARRI or Panovision with RED digital cameras, and look how that worked in his favor. His two companies ended up disrupting two industries.
Check out those volume buttons.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
While phone makers copy each other and race to the death to shrink the notch, remove it altogether, slim down the bezels, and build foldable phones, Jannard and company tried to dazzle by running in the opposite direction.
Instead of a thinner and sleeker glass-and-metal “sandwich,” the Hydrogen One is a thick and monstrous chunk of metal with aggressive-looking “scalloped” sides and a striking backside with a prominent RED jewel logo. The device is big, heavy, and such a menacing tank that I kept thinking of the phone as brass knuckles every time I gripped it. Seriously, you could probably bludgeon someone with it. And good luck putting them in your pants pocket — don’t be surprised if the phone rips your jeans.
Not your typical phone design, that’s for sure.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
At first I sorta appreciated the size. Typing on it was a good experience since your hands aren’t so cramped holding it. But the phone’s so darn heavy it started to hurt just using it every day. And about the scalloped sides — they’re supposed to make the phone easier to grip, but I ended up dropping the phone more times than devices made of more slippery glass.
I don’t have a problem with the bruises (mostly scratches and dents) from dropping or banging up a phone (I kinda dig the battle-scarred look), but this phone’s built like a tank. It should at least survive better in my filthy dirt and lint-filled backpack better than an iPhone XS or Galaxy Note 9. And yet it doesn’t.
My first review unit somehow acquired a long scratch right between the dual rear cameras. The glass is sapphire, which should be pretty darn scratch-resistant. You either need another piece of sapphire glass or a material that’s harder like diamond to scratch it, but that wasn’t the case. I had only unboxed it and pocketed it in my jeans and gone to lunch. When I came back it was damaged.
My second unit’s sapphire camera cover fared better, but the bruising from daily wear and tear has made me question its build-quality, especially for the price.
Mediocre at every turn
So. Much. Bezel.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Like I said, if the unorthodox design doesn’t offend you, the rest of the phone will.
The bezels above and below the 5.7-inch display (2,560 x 1,440) are the biggest I’ve seen on any phone released this year. But they’re huge for good reason: They contain two very loud front-facing stereo speakers.
A big “forehead” and “chin” are fine when they’re purposeful (like on the Pixel 3 or Razer Phone 2), but on the Hydrogen One, the cutouts for things like the dual selfie cameras, proximity sensor, and speaker grills are sunken in and collect dust. As a result, sometimes my selfies have little speckles of dust around the edges.
There’s a dedicated recording button on the right side of the phone — in case it wasn’t clear what this phone’s priority is — which opens the camera if you long-press it. It’s cool, but a double-press of the power button on many Android phones does the same.
The phone’s marquee feature — its highly anticipated “holographic display” or what RED officially calls “4-View” — is horrible in every sense. It’s nothing more than a marginally better version of the glasses-free display on the Nintendo 3DS.
There’s nothing “holographic” about anything that pops off the display, which is to say it’s not delivering holograms in the Star Wars sense, where a person or object floats in mid-air. Instead, it basically tricks your eyes into thinking there’s depth to the image.
You can’t see it, but this picture has depth like a 3D photo does.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
It wouldn’t be as disappointing if the 3D was at least spectacular, but it isn’t. It’s mediocre. Viewing angles, while slightly better than a Nintendo 3DS’s display, are poor when viewing holographic content anywhere outside of dead-center. And the resolution of the holographic content is extremely low.
The screen is so bad some people said it hurt their eyes looking at the holographic content. At least on the Nintendo 3DS there’s a physical slider to adjust the intensity of the 3D depth if the maximum setting is too much on your eyes.
The “holographic display” is mediocre.
You know how everyone always says “content is king?” Well, it really needed to be true on the Hydrogen One more than any other device, and it failed. Holographic 4-View photos look bad and you can only take these special 3D photos in landscape mode and not portrait. You also can only view them in 4-View within the RED Player app and not Google Photos. And on the topic of limited viewing, the depth in these 4-View pics can only viewed on another Hydrogen One.
Holographic apps are downloaded from the RED|LeiaLoft app; games like Asphalt 8 support the special display but not many others. And take it from me, as good as a game as Asphalt 8 is in 2D, it’ll give you a headache and make you wanna puke in 3D.
Then there’s the Hydrogen Network, a place to rent and buy “holographic” movies. There are some big films like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Ready Player One, and The Avengers, but I’d advise you to steer clear of these just like the crappy holographic games.
The traditional 2D viewing is equally bad. The screen’s too dim and you can actually see the pixels that are used to create the 4-View effect. If you thought a display with a PenTile pixel array was bad, the Hydrogen One’s display takes it to another level.
Somebody needs to tell RED its icons need work.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
And it gets worse. Yes, it really does. Though I have no problems with the responsive fingerprint sensor/power button sunken into one of the right scalloped sides, or the fast charging, or the headphone jack (nice!), or the easily accessible microSD card and nano SIM card tray (doesn’t require a SIM ejector tool), I have to tell you the software is unacceptable.
It’s not only that the Snapdragon 835 chip is already over a year old at this point and can’t keep up or that the software is based Android 8.1 Oreo and not 9 Pie, but that RED chose to give the interface such an egregious skin.
I get that the red, silver, and black icons match RED’s branding, but together with the 3D flipping animations when you switch homescreen pages, the whole UI just looks like we got knocked back to the early days of Android when the Motorola DROID ruled supreme.
Now to be fair, RED did modernize a few things with the latest software update. But still, the whole phone feels alien in 2018. Even the sounds the phone makes when you lock it with the power button or tap the shutter button are cringe. I swear a pack of tourists freaked out when they heard the loud shutter button fire off when I was taking a sunset shot at Brooklyn Bridge Park back in October.
Dual rear cameras, but like they suck.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Oh, and how about its cameras? They’re so crappy, I’m gonna quickly gloss over this section in lieu of my usual comprehensive camera comparisons.
Photos from the Hydrogen One’s dual 12-megapixel cameras look okay at first, but blow them up and compare them to shots taken with an iPhone XR, XS, Pixel 3, or even a OnePlus 6T and you’ll find they lack dynamic range, contrast, HDR stinks, and images are usually grainier. In low-light, the cameras completely fall apart.
Here are some initial photos I shot…they’re not pretty.
Software updates seemed to have increased contrast a little and warmed up the color temperature, but as you can see in the comparison below, the cameras aren’t worthy of $1,000+ phone.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Image: raymond wong/mashable
It’s a little nuts that RED, a camera company known for making the best digital video cameras, failed to make a phone with the best camera for photos and videos.
About the only thing the Hydrogen One gets right is battery life. This thing’s 4,500 mAh battery is one of the largest on any 2018 phone and it just lasts and lasts.
So many unfulfilled promises
And where exactly are the modules that are supposed to snap onto the pins on the back of the phone?
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
It was a long shot to expect RED to make a groundbreaking phone — these days anyone can go to a factory in Asia and cobble together great parts and slap their name onto slab of glass and metal — and the Hydrogen One proved me right.
In the end, the RED Hydrogen One and its gimmicky “holographic display” left me with more emptiness than I had hoped for. The phone’s disappointing on every level and at this point, holding out for the promised modules that are supposed to transform it into a cinema-grade camera with features like a larger image sensor and mount support for virtually any camera lens seems like fraud.
Besides their word, nobody outside of REDs seen this camera module, which makes it as good as vaporware. And by the time it gets released (if it ever gets released), the Hydrogen One 2 (or will it be Hydrogen Two?) will probably be out by then.
Which leaves the Hydrogen One as one of the most hyped and ill-conceived phones in years. It’s a miracle RED even shipped it.
With all respect to Jannard and RED, I will always root for the underdog, especially when it comes to trying new things in a stale product category. I love seeing David versus Goliath scenarios. Jannard told press at its launch event “if you concentrate on what we’re doing that others aren’t doing, you’re gonna love it.”
I tried really hard to care about the Hydrogen One’s special features — the “holographic display” and weird design — but I just couldn’t. The bottom line is: If you want a great portable camera, just go and get a great little camera like a Sony RX100 VI or a slightly larger, but still small-ish mirrorless camera like the Sony A6500 or Panasonic GH5. Both shoot 4K video really well and take fantastic photos.
Just don’t spend your money on the Hydrogen One. It hurts to say it, but the Hydrogen One is so much fail and as such, is the rightful winner of the worst tech product of 2018.
Doha, Qatar – U Kyaw Hla Aung is a well-known lawyer and activist who has been fighting for the rights of the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar for decades.
The 78-year Rohingya man was awarded this year’s Aurora Prize by the Armenia-based Aurora Humanitarian Initiative for his advocacy of rights for the persecuted Muslim minority.
He donated the $1m he received in prize money to humanitarian organisations providing medical aid and assistance to Rohingya refugees.
Nearly a million Rohingya people were forced to take shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh after Myanmar’s army, responding to attacks by an armed group, launched a brutal campaign against the minority in the country’s western Rakhine state last year.
The Rohingya have faced persecution in Myanmar for decades. The military junta, which took power following a coup in 1962, stripped the Rohingya of citizenship in 1982.
US law firm says Myanmar committed genocide against Rohingya
Since 2012, following deadly riots between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya, tens of thousands of people from the minority were forced to live in squalid internment camps.
Hla Aung, who was born in the city of Sittwe in Rakhine state, spent more than 12 years in jail for his political work on behalf of the Rohingya people.
Al Jazeera caught up with the veteran activist in November in the Qatari capital, Doha, where he was invited to attend a global health conference.
Al Jazeera:Why have Rohingya been denied citizenship in Myanmar? What is the criteria for citizenship?
Hla Aung: According to the 1948 citizenship law, a person who lived in Myanmar for 10 years and eight years continuously was eligible for citizenship. They are denying us citizenship since 1982.
A person who shows he owns land, should be accepted as citizen. But that’s not happening.
In 1964, Myanmar’s ruler General Ne Win nationalised all the shops, farms and company owned by Indians, Pakistanis and the Chineses. He drove all the foreigners from Myanmar. At that time they didn’t drive out the Rohingya people.
Rohingya belong to this land, they were recognised by the previous democratic governments, including under Prime Minister U Nu. But after the military coup [of 1982], they said Muslims were not a people of Myanmar.
My father owned land and I have documents but they [government] do not recognise it. In 1959, the government issued National Registration Cards to all the people, including Muslims. I also got my National Registration Card.
After driving all the Rohingyas out they will go after all Muslims from across Burma [Myanmar]. They have a plan to drive out all the Muslims from this land.
Al Jazeera: What do you think about the planned repatriation of Rohingya?
Thousands of Rohingya refugees protest repatriation plan
Hla Aung: I do not trust Myanmar officials on the repatriation issue because they have not taken action against people who looted Rohingya property and cattle. So how can these people go back? Also there is no protection [for the returnees] by law or by the government.
Al Jazeera: Can you tell us about the situation on the ground for the Rohingya in Myanmar?
Hla Aung: The government is biased against Muslims. Earlier, Rohingya people were represented in government departments such as the police, military, administration, education etc.
But this has changed over the years.
Successive governments have gradually denied Muslims jobs. I worked for a government company for over 20 years. I was jailed for writing a petition to General Ne Win against forced confiscation of lands belonging to Muslims in 1986.
Al Jazeera: You have lived in Rakhine state for more than 70 years. How were relations between Muslims and Buddhists when you were young?
Hla Aung: Before 1960, we lived together, we had very good relations. We could apply for jobs and that’s how I was appointed as a stenographer. I got a promotion and faced little discrimination because of being a Muslim. Now, even judges discriminate between Muslims and Buddhists.
Al Jazeera: Why do you think there is so much anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar?
Hla Aung: They say that they are afraid of Muslims because they believe Muslims are spreading in the country.
The anti-Rohingya campaign has high-level political backing. But very few people are friendly. Buddhist people hate Muslims. The majority are against Muslims, only a tiny minority want to live together.
Al Jazeera: What are the issues facing the Rohingya community?
Hla Aung: Our people are not well educated. I want to give them education so they can know about their rights. I organise our people to be educated so that they will have courage to fight for their rights. In my opinion education is the first priority for me.
Due to the lack of health facilities 500 to 1,000 will die but without education the whole community will die within 10 years.
Al Jazeera: Tell us about the education initiatives you have undertaken in Rakhine state?
Hla Aung: We have opened schools and appointed nearly 121 teachers since 2012. We are reaching more than 10,000 students in villages.
Rakhine teachers do not come to Muslim villages. We collect some donations from our people to run the schools. I also approached Nobel laurate Shirin Abadi to help get funds.
I was arrested for my education initiatives. President Thein Sein granted me a pardon after one and a half years in prison. I was released on October 7, 2014.
Al Jazeera: Tell us about the democratic transition project pushed by Thein Sein?
Hla Aung: Thein Sein started the process of driving out Muslims from their land. He is the man behind the anti-Muslim policies.
Al Jazeera: You contested elections in 1990. Why didn’t you win?
Hla Aung: I could have won but they didn’t allow me. I was a candidate in 1990 parliamentary election. I was the vice president for National Democratic for Human Rights party.
Before the election, the western commander arrested me. I was imprisoned by a court martial.
Al Jazeera: Tell us about your family.
Hla Aung: My parents were from Mrauk U but I was born in Sittwe during World War II. We fled from one village to the other as the fighting raged. At that time my father was head clerk of the state court. Our house was destroyed by the Japanese army.
In 2012, my house was destroyed by Rakhine terrorists. I have not been able to go back to my own house since then.
I worked for MSF for 14 years until 2012. MSF was kicked out by Rakhine terrorists and the government because the medical charity did not discriminate between Rakhine, Hindu and Muslims.
Al Jazeera: You spent more than a decade in jail. Why?
Hla Aung: I was in jail from 1986 to 1988, another eight years between 1989 and 1997. I was imprisoned for two months in June 2012. My last stint in jail was from July 2013 to October 2014.
The first one was for writing a petition in support of Rohingya farmers. Then I was accused of organising people to set fire to houses. In the 2013 case, I was blamed for stone throwing incident against government officials.
Al Jazeera: Do you think Myanmar will accept Rohingya people?
Hla Aung: They will never accept us. They deny about our existence, they consider us as illegal immigrants.
Al Jazeera: What is the future of Rohingya people? What are your hopes from the international community?
Hla Aung: The future is dependent on the international community, including the UN. We have to organise international community to back the Rohingya cause at the UN.
When I went to Armenia to receive the Aurora award, their government assured me that they will help us. I asked them to stand behind Rohingya at the UN.
Al Jazeera: Are the Rohingyas facing genocide?
Hla Aung: It is indeed genocide because government does not accept the word Rohingya.
The government is not allowing the investigations of cases from the scene of the crimes. The International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar formed by the UN has not been allowed to enter Myanmar.
President Donald Trump is notoriously hard to pin down on details. His view of his performance tends toward lavishly unspecific superlatives—something or other is always the greatest in history. And when he does reach for a statistic, well, it’s an even money bet that it’s got some verifiability issues. But the world beyond Trump’s twitter feed does in fact still operate on data that doesn’t come pre-marinated in self-congratulatory spin. So if you’re wondering how Trump fared in 2018—by measures he has invoked as well as by some he probably might prefer to ignore—POLITICO Magazine has assembled this holiday sampler of numbers that might provide relief from the fire hose of alternative facts.
Number of campaign rallies Trump held in 2018: 44 [1]
Number of times he visited one of his golf clubs: 67 [6]
Number of war zones visited: 1
Number of 2018 general election candidates Trump endorsed:90 [2]
Percentage of those candidates who won: 55
Percentage increase from 2017 to 2018 of tweets from @realDonaldTrump: 32 [3]
Percentage increase from 2017 to 2018 in references to “witch hunt”: 620 [3]
Percentage decrease from 2017 to 2018 in references to the stock market: 54 [3]
Number of Cabinet secretaries who were removed or quit: 10[4]
Percentage of Trump’s executive staff that has turned over in first two years: 65 [5]
Number of presidents who’ve had more than one chief of staff in their first two years: 4 [5]
Number of presidents other than Trump who have had three: 0 [5]
Number of jobs gained in 2018 (through November): 2.28 million [7]
Number of those jobs (approx.) that were in coal mines: 1,100 [7]
Percentage increase in average hourly earnings in 2018 (as of November): 3.1 [7]
Percentage increase in U.S. trade deficit since Trump took office: 18 [8]
Number of books about Trump that were best-sellers in 2018: 25 [9]
He may be a best-selling author, but the majority of Stephen King’s tweets aren’t about books. They’re about politics.
Trump, more specifically. Although the horror master does tweet about a whole range of things — everything from truly terrifying photos of his dog Molly to his idea for a new type of car — the current President is the most frequently recurring topic on King’s timeline.
He has been for a while now, in fact, and 2018 was absolutely no exception. From the politically analytical to the no-holds-barred blunt, here are some of Stephen King’s most brutal Trump Twitter burns of the past year…
1.
When Blabbermouth Don talks about who has the bigger nuclear button, I think we all know what he’s talking about. It’s your basic dick-measuring contest. Sad!
Legislators, you need to impeach Blabbermouth Don or force him to resign before he kills us all. He is no longer competent to serve as Chief Executive, if he ever was.
Set aside for a moment that Trump is a narcissistic, bad-tempered, lazy, and unprepared president, and consider this: the State of the Union is about to be given by a sexual predator who lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.
Folks willing to give Trump a pass because their 401ks are swelling remind me of Italians willing to give Mussolini a pass because he made the trains run on time.
What fascinates me—mesmerizes me—isn’t so much Trump himself as the American government he’s crafted: a major world power with no policy, no consistency, and no idea what it’s doing.
Dear Group of 7: I am sorry you had to put up with Blabbermouth Don. And embarrassed. Please don’t judge us too harshly. Remember that he lost the popular vote by 3 million. Most of us want nothing to do with that asshat.
The Russians must love Blabbermouth Don. Largely thanks to his incendiary politics of polarization, America has not been so divided against itself since the Great Depression. He is no patriot.
Republicans who remain silent in the face of Donald Trump’s ugly, divisive tactics and attacks, take note of what another Republican said 150 years ago: “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Abraham Lincoln
Just a warning to my British friends: An American dipshit is coming to visit you. Please remember most of us didn’t vote for him; he lost by 3 million votes. His presidency is a statistical anomaly.
George Orwell on Trump and Putin, in 1945: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
I think it would be nice if all the news media got together and refused to report or discuss Blabbermouth Don’s tweets for just one week. Take away the publicity hound’s oxygen. Think of the relief. Think of the QUIET.
Space Force: I keep thinking of one of those old Saturday morning shows with puppets n shit. Retweet ONLY if you think this is possibly the dumbest idea out of Trump’s admittedly dumb head so far.
There’s something weirdly childish about Trump’s tweets—rallies, too. He’s like a little kid, fists clenched, eyes screwed shut, jumping up and down and screaming “I HATE YOU, MUMMY! I HATE YOU, DADDY! I HATE YOU BOTH!”
Trump’s in Pennsylvania playing to the crowd while Florida gets its ass kicked. It’s like Bush overflying New Orleans after Katrina and calling it good. What a loser.
Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric is inciting violent behavior, and he is too cowardly to admit it. If you check his service record…oh wait, Blabbermouth Don chickenshitted his way out of that, too.
The ads say President Trump is delivering results. He’s also delivering hate speech, a pack of lies, and a national debt that’s going to crush our grandchildren.
A Pakistani separatist wanted over an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November has been killed in a suicide blast in Afghanistan, his group has confirmed.
Aslam Baloch was believed to be one of the leaders of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), one of a myriad of armed groups fighting in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province.
He was killed on Tuesday along with four others in a blast in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, the group said in a statement issued late on Wednesday in which they vowed to continue their fight for Baloch independence.
Kandahar police chief Tadin Khan confirmed a suicide bombing had taken place in the provincial capital, killing two civilians. Another Afghan official who spoke anonymously said Baloch and a second member of the BLA were the targets of the attack.
Pakistan’s Samaa Television reported that Aslam was killed along with a number of his commanders in a suicide attack in Aino Maina in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, across the border from Balochistan.
Last month, three attackers stormed the Chinese consulate in Karachi, killing four people. Security forces killed the three attackers who were carrying explosives.
The BLA claimed that assault, labelling Beijing an “oppressor” and “making it clear that China’s military expansionism on Baloch soil will not be tolerated”.
It had warned the Chinese to leave or “be prepared for continued attacks”.
China, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, has poured billions of dollars into the South Asian country in recent years as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.
Counting the Cost – The China-Pakistan economic corridor
Pakistan sees the project as a “gamechanger”, but it presents an enormous challenge in a country plagued by weak institutions, endemic corruption and with a range of armed groups operating in areas slated to host the corridor.
The subject of economic dividends from CPEC is extremely sensitive in some of those areas – particularly in Balochistan.
Since the beginning of the project fighters have repeatedly attacked construction sites, blowing up numerous gas pipelines and trains, and targeted Chinese workers.
Balochistan, on the borders of Afghanistan and Iran, has rich mineral and natural gas reserves but is Pakistan’s poorest province.
The Honor View 20 had a bit of an odd launch. In early December, Huawei teased the phone as its first phone with a hole punch display, revealing some, but not all of its specs.
Then, the company launched the Huawei Nova 4, which is a 6.4-inch smartphone with a hole punch display that comes in two main variants: One with a triple rear camera setup and a 48-megapixel sensor, and the other with a dual, 20-megapixel rear camera.
Now, the Honor View 20 is officially out, and even though it’s a different sub-brand, it sits somewhere in between the two Nova 4 variants.
The Honor View 20 has a 6.4-inch LCD screen, a Huawei Kirin 980 chip, a 48-megapixel rear camera coupled with a 3D TOF sensor, a 25-megapixel selfie camera, 6/8GB of RAM and 128/256GB of storage, a fingerprint scanner on the back and a 4,000mAh battery.
The main differences between this phone and the more powerful Nova 4 version are: A slightly more powerful processor, a bigger battery, but one less camera on the back. In terms of design, the phones are nearly identical on the front, but the View 20 has a horizontally laid-out camera setup on the back, in contrast to the Nova 4’s vertical cameras. The secondary sensor on the View 20 is used to capture depth and can be used to create “3D” photos or create three-dimensional avatars of people.
Image: Huawei
There are also a few design details that make the View 20 a bit different from other phones. First is the use of nanolithography technology to create an “invisible nano texture” on the phone’s body, that results in a gleaming V-shape gradient on the phone’s back. There’s also a Honor View 20 Moschino-branded variant if you’re into that sort of thing.
Software-wise, the View 20 will come with Android Pie coupled with the latest version of Huawei’s EMUI.
The Honor View 20 is available in China in red, blue and black, for the starting price of 2,999 CNY or $436. The maxed-out, 8GB/256GB model costs 3,999 CNY or $582. A global launch will follow on January 22 in Paris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen a test of a new hypersonic missile, declaring that the weapon is impossible to intercept and will guarantee the country’s security over the coming decades.
Speaking to Russia’s military top brass on Wednesday after watching the live feed of the launch of the Avangard system from the defence ministry’s control room, Putin said the test was a “great success” and an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation”.
According to the Kremlin, the missile was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains and hit its target on a test site in Kamchatka, about 6,000km away.
“The Avangard is invulnerable to intercept by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary,” Putin said after the test, adding that the new weapon will enter service next year with the military’s Strategic Missile Forces.
The hypersonic missile was among the array of new nuclear weapons that Putin presented in March, saying that Russia had to develop them in response to the development of the US missile defence system that could erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
When first presenting it, the Russian president said the new missile system has an intercontinental range and can fly in the atmosphere at 20 times the speed of sound, bypassing the enemy’s missile defence.
He emphasised that no other country currently has hypersonic weapons.
Putin has said that Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius that come from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
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