Federal prosecutors have charged a Massachusetts judge and a court officer with conspiracy and obstruction of justice, alleging that they helped an undocumented immigrant escape a courthouse to elude immigration officials.The charges mark the latest skirmish over immigration enforcement between Donald Trump’s administration and local governments who have resisted his crackdown.Investigators claimed the two interfered with an attempt by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to arrest an undocumented immigrant at a 2018 court proceeding.The charges target Massachusetts district court judge Shelley Joseph, 51, and Massachusetts trial court officer Wesley MacGregor, 56, according to court papers filed on Thursday.They focus on an April 2018 hearing in Newton district court, outside Boston, where an Ice agent intended to arrest an unidentified suspected undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic facing a drug charge.They described a huddled conversation between the judge and the defendant’s lawyer in which Joseph asked: “Ice is gonna get him?” and later said: “I’m not gonna allow them to come in here.”She then arranged for the suspect to be released through the court’s rear door while the Ice agent waited in the courtroom’s lobby for him to emerge, according to the indictment.MacGregor was also charged with perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury that heard evidence on the case.Massachusetts US attorney Andrew Lelling said the case was not intended to send a political message.“We did not bring this case in response to the public debate over immigration enforcement,” he said. “This is isn’t a policy seminar, it’s a law enforcement action.”However, state attorney general Maura Healey rejected that assertion. “Today’s indictment is a radical and politically-motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts,” Healey said in a statement.Representatives of the judge and court officer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The state supreme judicial court suspended Joseph without pay following the charges, noting its move “in no way reflects any opinion on the merits of the pending criminal case”.The charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.The suspect has since been caught and is now in federal custody.Massachusetts’ top court in 2017 ruled that state police cannot detain illegal immigrants solely to buy time for federal officials to take them into custody.One of Donald Trump’s top priorities in office has been cracking down on immigration and he has regularly railed against “sanctuary” cities and states that do not cooperate with all aspects of federal immigration enforcement. The president earlier this month floated the idea of transporting undocumented migrants stopped at the US-Mexico border to “sanctuary cities” that do not enforce federal immigration policy, a move that critics called illustrative of the White House’s callous approach to the issue and some Trump allies called impractical. Topics Massachusetts US immigration news

Sitting in a makeshift studio overlooking the Moscow river on a crisp day in November 2013, Donald Trump pouted, stared down the lens of a television camera and said something he would come to regret.Asked by an interviewer whether he had a relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the brash New York businessman could not resist boasting. “I do have a relationship with him,” Trump said.Russia’s strongman had “done a very brilliant job”, Trump told MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, before declaring that Putin had bested Barack Obama. “He’s done an amazing job – he’s put himself really at the forefront of the world as a leader in a short period of time.”Trump, a teetotaler, seemed intoxicated by the buzz surrounding the glitzy event that had brought him back to Moscow: that year’s instalment of the Miss Universe contest that he then owned. Four years later, he is struggling to shake off the hangover.The 2013 pageant has become a focal point for the simultaneous investigations, led by special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees, into whether associates of Trump colluded with Russian officials to help them win the 2016 US presidential election. Investigators are examining closely efforts apparently made by the Russian government to pass Trump’s team damaging information on Hillary Clinton, using Trump’s politically connected Miss Universe business partners as couriers.They are also looking into the $20m fee that Trump collected for putting on the pageant from those same business partners – along with extraordinary allegations about Trump’s private conduct behind closed doors at the Ritz-Carlton hotel during his 2013 stay in Moscow.The Guardian has learned of additional, previously unreported, connections between Trump’s business partners on the pageant and Russia’s government. The ties are likely to attract further scrutiny by investigators who are already biting at the heels of Trump associates.A full accounting of Trump’s actions in the Russian capital as that autumn turned to winter may be critical to resolving a controversy that has already consumed the first eight months of his presidency. “Our committee’s investigation will not be complete unless we fully understand who President Trump met with when he was over in Russia for Miss Universe, and what follow-up contacts occurred,” Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said in an interview.Trump’s attorney, John Dowd, declined to answer when asked whether the president’s team accepts that the Miss Universe contest is a legitimate area of inquiry for investigators. “Fake news,” Dowd said in an email.It was a whirlwind courtship. Trump was instantly taken with Aras Agalarov, the billionaire owner of the Crocus Group corporation, when the two wealthy property developers met for the first time on the fringe of the Miss USA contest in Las Vegas in mid-June 2013.After just ten minutes of discussion, Trump was showing off his new friend. “He clapped me on the shoulder, gave a thumbs up, and started shouting, ‘Look who’s come to see me! It’s the richest man in Russia!’,” Agalarov recalled to a Russian magazine later that year, before clarifying that his fortune – estimated at about $2bn – was far from Russia’s biggest.The meeting had been set in motion only a month earlier, when Agalarov’s son Emin, a pop singer who is well-known in eastern Europe, filmed his latest music video in Los Angeles. His co-star was the reigning Miss Universe, a casting choice that brought the Agalarovs into contact with Trump’s beauty pageant division.The idea of hosting that year’s contest in Russia was raised over dinner by Paula Shugart, Trump’s top Miss Universe executive, according to Emin Agalarov. In a little-noticed interview published in July, Emin said Trump’s organisation seemed to be in need of the money that Moscow could offer. “We have a lot of debts,” he quoted Shugart as saying. Miss Universe denies that Shugart said this.In any case, a price tag of $20m to be paid by Agalarov in return for Trump bringing the Miss Universe contest to Russia was quickly agreed upon. Several Democrats have raised concerns that the payment – like the billions in bank loans he secured to bring himself back from the brink in the early 1990s – may have left Trump indebted to foreign influences.“The pageant was financed by a Russian billionaire who is close to Putin,” Senator Al Franken of Minnesota told a congressional hearing in May. “The Russians have a history of using financial investments to gain leverage over influential people and then later calling in favours. We know that.”Just four weeks after Emin’s video shoot, at the backslapping Las Vegas get-together, Trump announced that the deal was done. Miss Universe would be held at the Agalarov family’s sprawling Crocus City complex on the edge of Moscow, described by Trump as ”Russia’s most premier venue”. In a dreary Vegas hotel banqueting hall, the beaming new business partners ate a celebratory dinner together. Video footage later obtained by CNN showed Trump at his most oleaginous. “What a beautiful mother you have,” he told Emin. The principals were joined by an assortment of hangers-on including Emin’s publicist – a portly Briton named Rob Goldstone. It was Goldstone who would contact Trump’s son Donald Jr during the 2016 presidential campaign with a sensitive message, revealed in emails released last month. The “crown prosecutor of Russia” – assumed to be Goldstone’s garbled billing for Yury Chaika, the Russian prosecutor general – wanted the Trump campaign to have some documents that would “incriminate Hillary”, he said. And the Agalarovs would deliver them.“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin,” Goldstone wrote. Rather than express surprise or question the apparent Kremlin operation Goldstone was describing, Donald Jr pressed ahead and arranged the meeting. “If it’s what you say I love it,” he replied. Aras Agalarov made a suitable sherpa. While not a member of Putin’s inner circle, Agalarov cultivated friendly relations with the Kremlin while rising to the country’s oligarch class with a profitable network of shopping malls. He travelled around in a $44m Gulfstream private jet. Less than two weeks before the Miss Universe finals, Putin awarded Agalarov the prestigious Order of Honor medal, after Crocus had completed for him a billion-dollar transformation of a former military base into a new state university. “I wish to thank you so much for your work and contribution to the development of this country,” Putin told Agalarov and his fellow honorees. Crocus would go on to be further rewarded with more government construction contracts, including for stadiums that are to be used for next year’s soccer World Cup tournament in Russia.Separately, one of Agalarov’s top executives, Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, also has his own relationships with several influential Russians. Kaveladze, a publicity-shy Crocus vice president, was the so-called “eighth man” at the 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Donald Jr hoped to receive dirt on Clinton.While relatively unknown to the public before news of the meeting emerged in July, Kaveladze has in fact been an associate of some of Russia’s richest and most powerful people for the past three decades.The Guardian has established that Kaveladze was involved in the $341m takeover of a US company by a Russian mining firm belonging to an associate of Putin, and was a business partner to two former senior officials at Russia’s central bank.In 2003, the Colorado-based firm Stillwater Mining was bought by Norilsk Nickel, a metals corporation in Moscow led by Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, who is so favoured by Putin that he has played on the president’s “Hockey Legends” ice hockey team .As part of its $341m purchase of the American firm, Norilsk nominated Kaveladze to be one of its five handpicked directors on Stillwater’s new board, according to a filing by the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Kaveladze was billed as the president of “an international consulting boutique” serving a “US and Eastern European clientele”.The deal was the first time a Russian company had ever taken a majority stake in a publicly traded US company. It was viewed as critical by the Kremlin. Putin was reported at the time to have personally advocated for the deal’s approval by US regulators during a meeting with then president George W Bush earlier in 2003.Norilsk was then co-owned by Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov, another major Russian oligarch, who later sold his stake. Prokhorov, who has had mixed relations with the Kremlin, now owns the Brooklyn Nets basketball team in New York. Kaveladze and Prokhorov had been classmates at the Moscow Finance Institute in the late 1980s and formed a partnership selling customised jeans between their studies.Kaveladze’s ascent to the Stillwater board was eventually derailed, according to a source, after the discovery of his earlier involvement in a $1.4bn California-based scheme involving shell companies and transfers from Russia, which US authorities said may have been used for money laundering. Norilsk said he withdrew from the process for personal reasons.The Guardian previously revealed that Kaveladze’s partner in that operation was Boris Goldstein, a Soviet-born banker whose ties to former KGB officers attracted interest from US investigators after he moved to California in the early 1990s. In a remarkable coincidence, the US attorney in San Francisco whose office eventually declined to bring criminal charges over their alleged money-laundering scheme was Robert Mueller, the special counsel now looking into Kaveladze’s reappearance. Also previously unreported is Kaveladze’s close friendship with Andrei Kozlov, who was first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank under Putin for four years before being assassinated in 2006 as he attempted to clean up Russia’s corrupt banking system.At the turn of the 1990s, Kaveladze and Kozlov had gone into business together after graduating from the Moscow Finance Institute. They founded a small publisher and translator of financial books with Dmitry Budakov, another classmate, who also went on to be a senior executive at Russia’s central bank before running a division of the state-owned Bank of Moscow.The young entrepreneurs capitalised on a hunger for financial literature among players in Russia’s rapidly privatising economy, pricing their textbooks at around $250. One book was published in Kaveladze’s name. His 1993 work, Protecting trade secrets in the US: A guide to protecting your business information, remains available in several university libraries.According to an official history of that time, their book publishing outfit, ECO-Consulting, was established as a division of Crocus International, Aras Agalarov’s then-burgeoning business empire. In return for the security of being part of a larger corporation, Kaveladze and his business partners advised Agalarov on economic and financial affairs, according to a memoir of the time by Budakov. “Cooperation was mutually profitable,” he wrote.Kaveladze soon moved to the US, landing first in Pennsylvania. He had earlier spent almost a month visiting the Gettysburg area after graduating in 1989. As a tribute to their departed guest, locals held a “Perestroika” 5,000-metre running race near the site of the civil war battlefield as part of their Labor Day celebrations, according to the Gettysburg Times.When Kaveladze moved to the US, he became close with a middle-aged couple in York, Pennsylvania. Judith Shaw, whose obituary affectionately named Kaveladze as her “adopted son”, died in February 1993; her widower did not respond to requests for comment. Kaveladze eventually bought an apartment in New York.More than 25 years after their first venture, Kaveladze continues to work alongside Agalarov at Crocus. Their company has become one of the biggest corporations in Russia, carrying out government building contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars from Putin’s administration – and sealing international deals with tycoons such as Trump.An attorney for Kaveladze did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication. After this article was first published, an attorney for Kaveladze contacted us to say that Kaveladze considers a number of matters in the article to be inaccurate. In particular Kaveladze denies being business partners with either Prokhorov or Goldstein. In relation to Prokhorov, Kaveladze says that he only worked for his jeans business for two days whilst studying at the Moscow Finance Institute. In relation to Goldstein, he says he has only met him briefly on two occasions. Kaveladze also denies being involved in the takeover of Stillwater Mining by Norilsk Nickel.Before leaving the US for his big Russian show in 2013, Trump made an unusual public appeal. “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow,” he asked on Twitter, and “if so, will he become my new best friend?” A source in Moscow told the Guardian that a meeting with Trump was indeed pencilled into Putin’s diary by aides, but fell off his schedule a few days beforehand.Agalarov later said that Putin sent his apologies to Trump in the form of a handwritten note and a gift of a traditional decorative lacquered box. It is not known whether Trump met any associates of Putin in lieu of the president himself, but he certainly claimed to have.“I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top-of-the-government people,” he said in a radio interview in 2015. “I can’t go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary.”Having flown from the US overnight, Trump arrived in Moscow on 8 November and checked in to the Ritz Carlton hotel. It was a choice that has since become notorious. An opposition research dossier compiled for a private client by a former British spy, which was later published by BuzzFeed News, alleged that the Kremlin held compromising and lurid footage of Trump and a pair of prostitutes during his stay at the hotel. Elsewhere in the dossier, author Christopher Steele wrote that two sources alleged Trump also had illicit sexual encounters in the Russian city of St Petersburg during a separate visit to the country. The sources, according to Steele, said that Aras Agalarov would “know the details”. Trump denies any wrongdoing.It is plausible – but unproven – that attempts were made to surveil Trump during his trip.“If you are in their field of interest then the FSB will absolutely attempt to carry out surveillance,” said a Russian hotel industry source, who did not want the name of his hotel mentioned due to the sensitivity of the topic.The source said there was little that hotel managers could do about FSB demands, and that they are sometimes forced to provide access to rooms for agents. “In the bigger hotels you also definitely have a number of people on the staff who work on the side for the FSB, so they would have had absolutely no problem getting into the room if necessary.”Putin said earlier this year that it was absurd to think the FSB would have bugged or secretly filmed Trump’s room in 2013, as he was not even a politician at that point. Russia did not simply bug every American billionaire who visited the country, according to the president.But the hotel industry source cast doubt on that claim. “Surveillance doesn’t happen that often, but I’m pretty sure Trump would have been of a sufficient level to warrant it,” said the source. “I’ve seen people of lower levels than him watched for sure.”When the late-night talkshow host Stephen Colbert managed in July to gain access to the Ritz-Carlton’s presidential suite, where Trump is said to have stayed, an unexplained power cable was discovered dangling from a section of the bedroom wall that was hidden behind a non-illuminated mirror.Whatever the truth about how closely Trump was being monitored by the Kremlin, a remark he made about Putin during that boast-filled interview with MSNBC seems particularly curious with the benefit of hindsight.“I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today,” Trump said of the Russian president. “He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today – and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form.”Some elements of Steele’s dossier have reportedly been confirmed by investigators, but other details have been shown to be false. And Trump has been backed up on the claims about his private conduct by Emin Agalarov. “While the world tries to figure out what Donald Trump was doing in a hotel in Moscow during Miss Universe – I actually know because he was filming my music video,” he wrote on Instagram.Early in the morning of 9 November, Trump was taking part in filming at the hotel for the video of Emin’s single In Another Life. The video features Emin dreaming about being surrounded by bikini-clad Miss Universe contestants, before waking up to be lectured by Trump and told: “You’re fired.”Yulya Alferova, a businesswoman and blogger who was hired by Crocus Group to help with their social media presence at that time, arrived at the hotel that morning and met Trump shortly after the filming had finished. After a brief conversation, Trump took a shine to her, and Emin invited her to join a small group for lunch.“We talked about Twitter, and I asked him if he agreed that Twitter is the strongest and sometimes the most dangerous social media. He asked me about real estate, because I told him it’s one of my professional interests,” said Alferova, who once achieved notoriety in Russia for posting a photograph of her cat eating black caviar.Later, Trump told her that she should contact him if she was ever in New York. He had his assistant hand her a business card. But there was nothing inappropriate about his conduct, Alferova said, describing Trump as a “gentleman” who always acted “correctly and properly” in their interactions.The pageant went off without a hitch. Gabriela Isler of Venezuela was crowned the winner. An after-party was held for the contestants and friends of the organisers. There were three private boxes: one for the Agalarovs, one for Trump and one for Roustam Tariko, the chief of Russian Standard, the Russian vodka company and bank, which sponsored Miss Russia. The American band Panic! At The Disco provided the music, and contestants mingled with guests. Several were invited into the boxes to speak with Trump and the oligarchs. Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, who had performed at the ceremony, was also there.“Trump was still there when I left at 2am,” a guest at the party told the Guardian. “There were a lot of people there, it was fun but pretty civilised.” Alferova, the businesswoman and blogger, remembered multiple guests approaching Trump and asking for photographs with him.“There were no government people present and no major Forbes List people except Aras [Agalarov] and Roustam [Tariko]” said one of the organisers of the event, suggesting Trump’s boastful claims that “all the oligarchs” attended may have been false.Still, during his Moscow stay Trump also attended a private meeting with leading Russian businessmen at Nobu, the high-end Japanese restaurant chain for which Agalarov owns the Moscow franchise. The dinner was arranged by Herman Gref, Putin’s former energy minister and now chief executive of the state-owned Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank. The bank, which was another sponsor of Miss Universe, was later among the Russian companies sanctioned by the US over Russia’s annexing part of Ukraine in 2014.“He’s a sensible person, very lively in his responses, with a positive energy and a good attitude toward Russia,” Gref told Bloomberg.Agalarov has said he and Trump also met with the businessmen Alex Sapir and Rotem Rosen – Trump’s old partners on the controversial Trump Soho project in New York – to discuss opportunities in Moscow. Agalarov later said they struck an agreement in principle to go ahead. Trump seemed to think so: “TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next,” he said in a thank you note to Agalarov on Twitter. Eight days later, Sberbank announced it was lending Agalarov 55bn roubles ($1.3bn) to finance new projects in Moscow.Trump Tower Moscow, like so many other Russian twinkles in Trump’s eye over the past three decades, did not materialise. But it recently emerged that the conversations continued behind the scenes even after he began his long-threatened campaign for president. In October 2015, four months into his campaign, Trump signed a “letter of intent” to build a tower in Moscow. Pulling the strings on the abortive deal was Felix Sater, yet another Russian business associate of Trump, who once served time in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken cocktail glass. “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater reportedly told Trump’s attorney in an email. “Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it … I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this.”The future of Trump’s presidency may rest on what else was said and done relating to the project – and whether investigators who already smell blood can prove it.On at least three occasions following the Miss Universe trip, Trump had publicly claimed to have met Putin. But when asked by reporters at a campaign stop in Florida in July 2016 to clarify the status of his relationship with the Russian president, as concerns over Russian election interference mounted, Trump gave a rather different version. “I never met Putin,” said Trump. “I don’t know who Putin is.” On 4 October 2017 this article was updated to include comment provided by Mr Kaveladze.It was updated further on 11 October 2017. Topics Russia US politics Vladimir Putin Europe news

YouTube’s best-paid star Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, has yet again used a racial slur on the video-sharing site.The 27-year-old video blogger called an opponent a “fucking nigger” while live-streaming playing the online game Playerunknown Battlegrounds, before correcting himself to “fucking asshole”, adding: “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”It isn’t the first time the YouTube star has crossed the line. In February this year, he lost partnerships with Disney and YouTube after an expose of his regular use of antisemitism and Nazi imagery as props for shock humour.This time, his racist outburst has prompted a bottom-up response, with games companies stating they will fight his attempts to use their work to create his videos. Sean Vanaman, the co-founder of games developer Campo Santo, tweeted that he would be filing a copyright claim in order to force YouTube to remove Kjellberg’s video of Vanaman’s game Firewatch.The video has almost 6m views on YouTube, rendering it a potent source of publicity for Campo Santo and a revenue stream for Kjellberg.Vanaman said: “I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make. “I’d urge other developers and will be reaching out to folks much larger than us to cut him off from the content that has made him a millionaire.”Kjellberg has almost 60 million subscribers on YouTube, and reportedly earned $15m (£11m) from the site in 2016. But the revelations over the course of 2017 may mean his earnings drop substantially.An investigation earlier this year revealed at least nine videos over a six month period contained either antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery, and led to Kjellberg losing valuable revenue streams. Disney-owned Maker Studios co-launched Revelmode – a multichannel network that produced videos, mobile apps and merchandise – with the YouTube star, until the partnership was dissolved following the revelations.Google’s YouTube also parted ways with Kjellberg. The company removed him from its premium advertising network, which pays better rates than the company’s programmatic adverts and attracts prestige clients. He had also been producing a series with YouTube’s subscription service, YouTube Red until Google pulled the plug. The YouTube star eventually hit back with an angry video accusing the media of “out-of-context” reports in an attempt to destroy his career. “Old-school media does not like internet personalities because they are scared of us. We have so much influence and such a large voice, and I don’t think they understand that,” he said. Disney severs ties with YouTube star PewDiePie over antisemitic videos PewDiePie thinks ‘Death to all Jews’ is a joke. Are you laughing yet? Topics YouTube Internet Games news

UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Friday delayed a vote on a demand for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, where pro-government warplanes have been pounding the last rebel bastion near Damascus in one of the deadliest bombing campaigns of the seven-year civil war. A draft resolution aimed at ending the carnage in the eastern Ghouta district and elsewhere in Syria will be put up for a vote in the 15-member council at noon (1700 GMT) on Saturday, Kuwait’s U.N. Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi said. The 24-hour delay followed a flurry of last-minute negotiations on the text drafted by Sweden and Kuwait after Russia, a veto-holding ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, proposed new amendments on Friday. “Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley posted on Twitter. Talks have centered on the paragraph demanding a cessation of hostilities for 30 days to allow aid access and medical evacuations. A proposal for the truce to start 72 hours after the resolution’s adoption has been watered-down to instead demand it start “without delay” in a bid to win Russian support. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moscow does not want to specify when a truce should start. It was not immediately clear how Russia would vote on Saturday. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France to be adopted. “We’re not going to give up. ... I hope that we will adopt something forceful, meaningful, impactful tomorrow,” Olof Skoog, Sweden’s U.N. ambassador, told reporters. Previous ceasefires, however, have had a poor record of ending fighting in Syria, where Assad’s forces have gained the upper hand. The towns and farms of eastern Ghouta have been under government siege since 2013, with shortages of food, water and electricity that worsened last year. Earlier on Friday, the densely populated enclave was bombed for a sixth straight day, witnesses said. The civilian casualties and devastation there are among the worst in Syria since the government captured rebel-held parts of Aleppo in 2016. At least 462 people have been killed, including at least 99 children, and many hundreds injured, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Friday. Syrian state media reported one person was killed and 58 injured in rebel shelling of sites in Damascus, including a hospital. Clouding any potential ceasefire is the Syrian government’s frequently used tactic of pushing rebels to surrender their strongholds after long sieges and military offensives. Insurgents in eastern Ghouta have vowed not to accept such a fate, ruling out an evacuation of fighters, their families and other civilians of the kind that ended rebellions in Aleppo and Homs after heavy bombardment in earlier years. “We refuse categorically any initiative that includes getting the residents out of their homes and moving them elsewhere,” Ghouta rebel factions wrote in a letter to the Security Council. Eastern Ghouta has 400,000 people spread over a larger area than other enclaves the government has recaptured. Late on Thursday, government aircraft dropped leaflets urging civilians to depart and hand themselves over to the Syrian army, marking corridors through which they could leave safely. People inspect missile remains in the besieged town of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam KhabiehLeading up to the Security Council vote, all eyes have been on Russia. Moscow has a history of standing in the way of Security Council measures that would harm Assad’s interests. Germany and France were among the nations to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to support the resolution. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted guarantees that rebel fighters will not shoot at residential areas in Damascus. Damascus and Moscow say they only target militants. They have said their main aim is to stop rebel shelling of the capital, and have accused insurgents in Ghouta of holding residents as human shields. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government planes and artillery hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns across the enclave in the early hours of Friday. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military. Medical charities say more than a dozen hospitals were hit, making it nearly impossible to treat the wounded. A witness in Douma who asked not to be identified said by telephone that the early morning bombing was the most intense so far. Another resident, in the town of Hamouriyeh, said the assault had continued “like the other days.” “Whenever the bombing stops for some moments, the Civil Defence vehicles go out to the targeted places. They work to remove the debris from the road,” Bilal Abu Salah said. Slideshow (4 Images)The Civil Defence there said its rescuers rushed to help the wounded after strikes on Hamouriyeh and Saqba. The emergency service, which operates in rebel territory, says it has pulled hundreds of people out from under rubble in recent days. Hamza Birqdar, the military spokesman for the Jaish al-Islam rebel faction, said it had thwarted nine attacks by pro-government militias trying to storm a front in the southeast of Ghouta. Reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Additional reporting by Dahlia Nehme in Beirut and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Ellen Francis and Paul Simao; Editing by James Dalgleish, Will Dunham and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

HEMO, Syria—At 19-years-old, Berivan Ali is already battle-weary.Four years ago, she joined the war against Islamic State—part of a Kurdish militia allied with the U.S. She has been wounded twice and has shrapnel lodged in her head. During the battle for Raqqa last year, she braved land mines near the front lines.Now, Ms. Ali is done fighting....

When North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward northern Japan's Hokkaido Island late Monday, its trajectory was initially unclear. Fearing the worst, the Japanese government interrupted television programming and issued digital alerts advising locals to find shelter. Though the missile ultimately flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean after a roughly 1,700-mile journey, the flyover was a powerful symbol of North Korea's resolute effort to develop its missile program in spite of longstanding international opposition.North Korea has flown projectiles over Japan twice before. The first instance, in 1998, came with no warning; North Korea gave advance notice of the second, in 2009. The country couched both of those events as being part of satellite launches. Monday's surprise launch came with no such explanation. But it fits into the larger context of North Korea's rapidly escalating nuclear and missile ambitions—and, more alarmingly, it shows outright disdain for President Donald Trump's recent bluster.It was just a few weeks ago, after all, that Trump declared that further threats from North Korea would prompt "fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before." While the rhetoric seemed intended to cow North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, repeated threats against US territory Guam and Monday's missile scare suggest that Trump’s words, along with recent military exercises conducted by the US and South Korea, had the exact opposite impact."It’s nothing out of the ordinary to do what North Korea did in terms of the frequency of the launches, but there may be an added motive in terms of responding to what they perceive as hostile actions, whether it’s US–South Korea military exercises this month or US–Japan exercises that are going on in the Hokkaido area as well," says Frank Aum, a former Department of Defense senior adviser on North Korea. "Or it just may be a message to President Trump and the international community that they are undeterred."While the Japan flyover rightly garnered the most attention, other aspects of the launch seemed designed to provoke as well. For one, the missile did not have a so-called lofted trajectory, as many recent tests have. Instead of being aimed to reach a high altitude and cover less horizontal ground, the missile traveled on a trajectory more similar to what would actually be used in an attack. In the past North Korea has said it used lofted trajectories to keeps its tests from flying over neighboring countries.More North KoreaBrian BarrettYou Can't Just Riff About NukesLily Hay NewmanNorth Korea Just Took the Nuclear Step Experts Have DreadedLily Hay NewmanNorth Korea's Latest Missile Launch Hastens the InevitableLily Hay NewmanNorth Korea Probably Can’t Strike the US Yet—But It’s Still Plenty ScaryThe test also likely used a Hwasong-12 missile, a type of midrange rocket that North Korea would probably use in a launch targeted at or near Guam, a possibility the country has touted in recent weeks. South Korean officials also said after Monday's test that the North launched the missile from Sunan, a populated area where Pyongyang International Airport is located. Since most other missile tests have come from more remote parts of North Korea, Monday's test may indicate launch-system mobility, and faith that at least some missiles can be safely fired—as in, won't explode on the launch pad—near the nation's capital."This was the most provocative act possible that would get the least amount of direct responses back," says James McKeon, a policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. "I would be shocked if Japan or South Korea or the United States actually did anything substantive beyond talking about increasing missile defenses or other tough talk. It’s a provocative behavior, and they’re doing it on purpose to stretch the boundary as far as possible."In the spirit of tough talk, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, promised a swift and appropriate response. President Trump released a carefully worded statement that took several steps back from his previous fire and fury: "The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior," the statement reads, adding, "All options are on the table."As always, the region now hinges on how South Korea, Japan, and the US react. Reports on Tuesday indicated that South Korea was working on new plans to defend itself and invade Pyongyang in the event of a substantive North Korean strike on the country. Despite the Trump administration's recently ramped up sanctions, isolation tactics, and rhetoric against the country, it still seemed caught off guard by the test. Just last week, secretary of state Rex Tillerson remarked that Pyongyang had "demonstrated some level of restraint that we have not seen in the past," and Trump added that same day that he thought Kim Jong-un was beginning to respect the US.'The real question is what is President Trump’s response going to be?' — Frank Aum, Former DOD Senior AdviserThis week's missile test rebuffs that interpretation. "I don’t think [Tillerson] understands North Korea’s thinking. North Korea is very adept at incrementally ratcheting up the pressure to see what the response is," Aum says. "They are going to continue with their tests and we can expect provocations for the rest of the year—it may ultimately get to a sixth North Korean nuclear test. So the real question is what President Trump’s response is going to be. If he doesn’t do anything, then that diminishes the credibility of our deterrence and makes him look weak. If he does do something along the lines of 'fire and fury' then we’re heading toward nuclear escalation, so either way it’s a bad situation."A growing consensus views open talks with North Korean officials, without preconditions, as one of the few viable courses of action left. "Every time they do a launch, especially such a provocative launch like this one, it reinforces the fact that we need to be talking to the North Koreans," McKeon says."There is no military solution for a North Korea with nuclear weapons," said US senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement. "So we must immediately and directly negotiate with Pyongyang for agreement to refrain from nuclear and ballistic missile testing in exchange for confidence building measures from the US to reassure the North Korean government that our military forces in the region are there only to deter and defend, not to attack North Korea."With so few options available, it seems clear that Trump's scorched-earth bluster has not only failed to bring a tenuous situation any closer to a resolution but has actively made it worse. The question now is how much, if any, stable ground between the US and North Korea remains.

Swiss police are investigating new rape allegations against Roman Polanski made by a woman who said the film-maker assaulted her in the town of Gstaad in 1972.St Gallen’s police communications chief, Hanspeter Krüsi, confirmed the details of the allegations, first reported by the New York Times. Krüsi told AFP that police interviewed Renate Langer on 26 September concerning accusations that Polanski raped her in Gstaad when she was 15. Polanski in 1977 pleaded guilty in the United States to having unlawful sex with Samantha Geimer – aged 13 at the time – but fled the country before he could be sentenced. He remains a fugitive from the US justice system. Langer is a 61-year-old former actress who was born in Munich, according to multiple media reports. She is the fourth woman to publicly accuse Polanski of sexual assault. In August, a woman identified only as Robin told a news conference in Los Angeles she was “sexually victimised” by the French-Polish film director when she was 16, in 1973.Robin said she was prompted to come forward out of anger after Geimer urged authorities to finally put her famous case to rest. Robin told reporters she wanted people to know that Polanski, now 84, had victimised others. According to the New York Times, Langer finally decided to approach police in part because of Robin’s example and because her parents are no longer alive. She told the paper she met Polanski while working as a model in Munich and travelled with him to a house in Gstaad, where she said he raped her. Krüsi told AFP it was not yet clear if criminal charges would be filed. Swiss prosecutors can still move forward with the case, although the elapsed time makes it less likely. Polanski’s film career has continued to flourish since he fled the US for France, where many consider him an icon. He has eight Césars – the French equivalent of an Oscar – as well as a best director Academy Award for Holocaust drama The Pianist. Topics Roman Polanski Switzerland Rape and sexual assault Europe news

On Nov. 3, Apple will release its first completely redesigned flagship phone in over three years: the iPhone X. It can be pre-ordered from Oct. 27.Based on the retail prices listed on Apple’s various global sites, we looked at the cost* of the 64GB iPhone X in the countries where it will be available for purchase and ranked them in terms of their dollar, yuan, and pound equivalents.Long story short: Don’t buy your iPhone in Hungary.The iPhone X starts at $999 for the 64 GB version and the 256 GB model costs $1,149 in the US. But if you live elsewhere, you will likely end up paying a lot more than that.The iPhone X costs over the USD equivalent of $1,200 in most countries, with Hungary being the most expensive at the USD equivalent of $1,455.23, almost 50% more than the US price. Country Local Price USD Price Hungary 379,990 Ft 1,455.23 Denmark 8,899 kr. 1,408.27 Sweden 11,495 kr 1,406.37 Italy 1,189 € 1,400.46 Russia 79,990 pyб. 1,390.57 Finland, Ireland, Portugal 1,179 € 1,388.69 Poland 4,979 zł 1,386.81 Czech Republic 29,990 Kč 1,377.02 Norway kr 10,990 1,375.28 India ₹89,000 1,368.21 Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain 1,159 € 1,365.13 Austria, Germany 1,149 € 1,353.35 Luxembourg 1,120.68 € 1,319.99 UK £999 1,317.83 China RMB 8388 1,266.97 New Zealand NZ$1,799 1,253.36 Mexico Mex$23,499 1,237.06 Australia A$1,579 1,234.49 Switzerland CHF 1,199 1,218.50 Singapore S$1,648 1,210.96 Taiwan NT$35,900 1,187.82 UAE AED 4,099 1,115.98 Hong Kong HK$8,588 1,100.67 Canada CA$1,319 1,045.57 US $999 999 Japan ￥112,800 994.67 For years, many of the earliest buyers of the iPhone in stores in the US (paywall) and elsewhere have been Chinese people looking to resell the phones in China for a steep markup. Since 2010, Apple has been selling the iPhone in China directly and is still fighting for dominance in the world’s biggest smartphone market (paywall).Apple has been hoping to ramp up its business in India and China, whose markets are forecast to grow significantly over the next few years. Though it doesn’t appear to have adjusted prices to encourage consumers to make the switch; it’s cheaper for consumers to purchase an iPhone X in Hong Kong or Taiwan than it is to buy one in mainland China. Country Local Price RMB Price Hungary 379,990 Ft 9,634.51 Denmark 8,899 kr. 9,321.83 Sweden 11,495 kr 9,311.25 Italy 1,189 € 9,272.58 Russia 79,990 pyб. 9,207.00 Finland, Ireland, Portugal 1,179 € 9,194.59 Poland 4,979 zł 9,180.87 Czech Republic 29,990 Kč 9,116.37 Norway kr 10,990 9,105.04 India ₹89,000 9,058.39 Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain 1,159 € 9,038.62 Austria, Germany 1,149 € 8,960.63 Luxembourg 1,120.68 € 8,739.78 UK £999 8,723.97 China RMB 8,388 8,388 New Zealand NZ$1,799 8,297.89 Mexico Mex$23,499 8,190.41 Australia A$1,579 8,173.93 Switzerland CHF 1,199 8,067.05 Singapore S$1,648 8,016.01 Taiwan NT$35,900 7,864.06 UAE AED 4,099 7,388.36 Hong Kong HK$8,588 7,287.14 Canada CA$1,319 6,922.31 US $999 6,613.98 Japan ￥112,800 6,585.24 In the aftermath of Brexit, the pound lost almost a fifth of its value and settled into a slump against the dollar, meaning most things became a lot more expensive for Brits. Which means that consumers in the UK will end up paying over 30% more than they would if they bought an iPhone X in the US. Country Local Price GBP Price Hungary 379,990 Ft 1,103.63 Denmark 8,899 kr. 1,067.65 Sweden 11,495 kr 1,066.08 Italy € 1,189 1,061.78 Russia 79,990 pyб. 1,054.10 Finland, Ireland, Portugal 1,179 € 1,052.85 Poland 4,979 zł 1,051.16 Czech Republic 29,990 Kč 1,043.85 Norway kr 10,990 1,042.56 India ₹89,000 1,037.15 Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain 1,159 € 1,034.99 Austria, Germany 1,149 € 1,026.06 Luxembourg 1,120.68 € 1,000.77 UK £999 999 China RMB 8,388 960.41 New Zealand NZ$1,799 950.05 Mexico Mex$23,499 938.03 Australia A$1,579 935.84 Switzerland CHF 1,199 923.50 Singapore S$1,648 917.95 Taiwan NT$35,900 900.34 UAE AED 4,099 845.95 Hong Kong HK$8,588 834.35 Canada CA$1,319 792.59 US $999 757.24 Japan ￥112,800 754.02 As of Sept. 20, iPhone X retail prices were not available on Apple’s website in Andorra, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, or SloveniaWhile it’s traditionally cheaper to buy Apple products in the US, savvy consumers should do their due diligenceAcross the board, Hungarians will end up paying the most for the iPhone X, while consumers in the US will pay the least. But Apple fans in the US looking to score a deal might think about a trip to Japan; US prices do not include sales tax, which varies widely between states, and can add a significant amount to the final purchase price (i.e. iPhone users in Alabama will pay close to 10% sales tax, but residents of New Hampshire won’t pay any tax at all.)In countries where the sales tax is the same in all areas, Apple’s prices typically include tax in the total amount. So, buying an iPhone X in Hungary in reality is a better deal than it appears because the price includes VAT.Apple staggered the sale date of the iPhone 8 around the world, but is releasing the X on the same day for everyone.Consumers will be able to pre-order the iPhone starting Oct. 27 and purchase it beginning Friday, Nov. 3, in Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US ,and US Virgin Islands.* These tables were created using exchange rates on Oct. 20, 2017

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to clear the desert bordering Syria of Islamic State in a final push to rid Iraq of the militant group, the military said. Fighters stand behind an earth embankment near a military vehicles, on a desert near Syrian border, Iraq in this still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters on November 23, 2017. Hashid Shaabi/Handout via REUTERS TV Troops from the Iraqi army and mainly Shi’ite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were taking part in the campaign against militants hiding in a large strip of border land, Iraqi military officials said. “The objective behind the operation is to prevent remaining Daesh groups from melting into the desert region and using it as a base for future attacks,” said army colonel Salah Kareem, referring to Islamic State by an Arabic acronym. Islamic State fighters who ruled over millions of people in both Iraq and Syria since proclaiming their “caliphate” in 2014, have been largely defeated in both countries this year, pushed out of all population centers to empty desert near the border. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective, but he would declare final victory only after the militants were routed in the desert. [nL8N1NR57C] In the latest operation, Iraqi forces had “purified” 77 villages and exerted control over a bridge and an airport, operations commander Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement. Over 5,800 squared kilometers had been “purified,” he added. On Friday Iraqi forces captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control. Iraqi army commanders say the military campaign will continue until all the frontier with Syria is secured to prevent Islamic State from launching cross border attacks. “We will completely secure the desert from all terrorist groups of Daesh and declare Iraq clean of those germs,” said army Brigadier General Shakir Kadhim. Army officials said troops advancing through sprawling desert towards the Syria border are facing landmines and roadside bombs placed by retreating militants. “We need to clean scattered villages from terrorists to make sure they no longer operate in the desert area with Syria,” said army Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Fairs. Iraqi military helicopters provided cover for the advancing troops and destroyed at least three vehicles used by militants as they were trying to flee a village in the western desert, said the army officer. Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate has swiftly collapsed since July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, after a grueling battle that had lasted nine months. Driven also from its other main bastion in Syria’s Raqqa, Islamic State has since been gradually squeezed into an ever-shrinking pocket of desert straddling the Syria-Iraq frontier, pursued by a range of enemies that include most regional states and global powers. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is believed to be hiding in the stretch of desert which runs along the border of both countries. Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Nick Macfie, William Maclean and Peter GraffOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Has it really been a year since America elected a flabby, racist, melting-candle president? Gosh, how time flies. Trump has achieved so much. From insulting the mayor of San Juan, to insulting the grieving family of a dead soldier, to insulting the family of a woman murdered by Nazis, to absolutely no policy achievements. He truly has done it all. It’s almost scary to consider how close he came to not being able to Make America Great Again: he only won the election by minus 3m votes.But what if Hillary Clinton had gained a few more votes in the midwest, if James Comey hadn’t come out with that October FBI surprise, or if Russia had spent its social media budget on LinkedIn instead of Facebook? How would 2017 have turned out then?Welcome to the Marginally Less Dark Timeline: Hillary Clinton Edition.After a tense night of debate, media commentary and 17 Fox News interviews with Nigel Farage, America wakes up to discover that Hillary Rodham Clinton has won. Donald Trump refuses to accept defeat. He causes consternation in his not-concession speech when he shouts, “Vlad told me we had this in the bag!” Kellyanne Conway later explains that Vlad is the name of the tiny Dracula that only Donald Trump can see.As Hillary prepares for office, Trump still hasn’t declared defeat. His not-concession speech, which started in November, is still going. The networks show 24/7 footage of him shouting about how the media didn’t give him enough coverage. Eventually he heads back to Mar-a-Lago with his new wife Mevanka. (Melania divorced him seconds after CNN called Michigan for Hillary. She had the papers prepared and everything.)At Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump Jr gives his father a hug lasting 2.5 seconds (a personal best), and tells him that no matter what, he’s the president of this house. Donald Trump Sr takes this literally, and declares Mar-a-Lago a new independent country, “Trumpistan”. After all, Robert E Lee, the greatest American of all time, taught him that the most American thing you can do when you don’t like an election result is start a new country in the south.Fox News starts a new show on how to survive the upcoming “Feminazi Apocalypse”. It’s mostly smashing DVDs of the all-female Ghostbusters and shouting “MERRY CHRISTMAS” at every brown person they see.Hillary’s inauguration is a bit of a farce: midway through the ceremony Jill Stein grabs the mic and says that she’s going to let Clinton finish, but Bernie Sanders ran the best campaign of all time (of all time). The theme of the inauguration ball is “At Least I’m Not Donald Trump”. Lena Dunham does five hours of slam poetry. It’s as traumatic as that sounds.The next day, millions of men in the Lads’ March protest against the terrifying new female-orientated world where women might be treated the same as men. In Britain it’s led by Piers Morgan, Justin Lee Collins and Michael Fallon. That last one confuses a lot of people at the time but a few months later it makes perfect sense.Fox News commissions a new show where pundit Tucker Carlson punches a kitten live on air and screams “THIS IS HILLARY’S AMERICA” for two hours. It is a smash hit.Clinton presides over an erratic 77-minute press conference, where journalists ask her: “Do you still have a private email server?”; “How will the new healthcare bill affect the status of your private email server?”; “Is Colin Kaepernick kneeling because of your emails?”; and “How do you sync your professional Outlook account with your Gmail? I’ve been troubleshooting for ages and it’s still not working.”Meanwhile, Florida holds a referendum on whether it should join Trumpistan. The vote is overwhelmingly in favour, although voting records seem sketchy – there are thousands of last-minute electoral roll registrations of people with names like “Chet USAman980131” and “Brad Notarussian2017”.Hillary delicately intervenes in the complicated Syria crisis by dropping a bunch of bombs. It leads to hundreds of pointless deaths and creates hundreds more terrorists, but it does give her a five-point bump in the polls. Millions of little girls around the world see Hillary’s actions and are inspired – it turns out women are just as good as men at killing innocent people via drone strike. One of the bombs dropped is called “The Mother of All Bombs” – while most papers focus on the death and destruction, the Daily Mail asks how the bomb has managed to keep its shape despite its age.Fox News is conflicted – it hates Hillary but it does love bombs – but settles on a compromise: it likes what Hillary did, but she should have been wearing a Trump mask at the time.Bored, Comey decides to open up the Clinton investigation again. The press find a new email in which Hillary misspells Massachusetts, and the Republican Senate votes to open impeachment proceedings.Fox News creates a new animated series portraying Comey as a topless Adonis, crushing injustice and Hillary mugs with his bare hands.Hillary tells the world that the US is definitely staying in the Paris accord. In fact, she loves it so much she’s made a colour-coordinated spreadsheet of all the commitments, and hands it out to everyone at the UN. Sadly, Hillary being so into the accord means that it’s no longer cool, so the rest of the world votes to leave.Meanwhile, Trumpistan successfully annexes the bits of the south that Hillary won’t notice are gone – everywhere except Austin, Texas, and the bits of Atlanta where they film the TV show Atlanta.To distract from impending impeachment, Hillary ups the rhetoric against North Korea, threatening explosive, destructive, reckless trade sanctions. Trump tweets: “If I were president, I’d fly over North Korea, jump out of Air Force One, beat up every single member of Kim Jong-un’s government with my kung fu moves (I know really good kung fu actually, the best, the most amazing), and kick Kim right in the nuts. Then I’d blow up Pyongyang. Not good for North Korea!” When people complain, Twitter maintains that Trump is an entertainer, not a politician – if he were president, he obviously wouldn’t be allowed to say such inflammatory things.The net is closing in on Hillary. Special investigator Robert Mueller has opened a formal investigation against Hillary’s decision to use the same password (chelsea4prez2032) for her Google account and work account. A rumour swirls that Bill Clinton has left Hillary, and the person standing next to her at public engagements is actually noted character actor Harvey Keitel wearing a fake nose and platform shoes. On the plus side, Hillary finally has a majority in the House and Senate – but that’s only because every state apart from New York has been annexed. In every other state millions of Trumpistan flags fly (like the American flag, but instead of stars it’s Trump’s face, and instead of stripes it’s Trump’s face).After much soul-searching, Hillary steps down, in order to spend less time around men who hate her. Unfortunately her vice-president, Tim Kaine, was so forgettable that the secret service has lost him. Thankfully, perennial not-presidential candidate Mark Zuckerberg steps up to fill the void, citing a little known constitutional precedent: “Should the president and the vice-president be incapacitated, the next president should be the one with access to all of your incriminating Facebook messages.” Zuckerberg assumes the presidency, running with his virtual-reality avatar as his vice-president.The one remaining United State has to stand up to a southern, foreign aggressor – Trumpistan. Vote Zuckerberg-Virtual Reality Zuckerberg 2020, and let’s build that wall.• Jack Bernhardt is a comedy writer Topics Hillary Clinton Opinion Donald Trump US politics comment

Comments Related Extras Related Videos Video Transcript Transcript for Apple releases free fix for defective iPhones And today's tech might Apple's free fix were defecting iphones apple says a very small percentage of iPhone eighteen may unexpected leave restart freeze or not turn on at all. You can check the apple web site to see if your book has acted. And a new feature possibly coming to Twitter will let everyone on the platform and note your active. The site does testing a status indicator feature the green dot will appear next year handle if you're actively scrolling through Twitter. No word when or if Twitter will roll out the future interest and receive the president's early and her 2 AM. A mix of the future and the very distant past Manning the front desk at a Tokyo hotel it's using robot dinosaurs to greet guests and I just process check India it tablet that someday can also communicate with customers in form different languages. Those who tech might have a great day. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

An already slow August came to a screeching halt at the US box office, where no major new releases were unveiled. That allowed the Samuel L Jackson-Ryan Reynolds action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard to stay at the top spot for the second week with an estimated $10.1m in ticket sales.But the entire slate of films grossed only about $65m in North America and the top 12 films generated just $49.6m. There have been similarly slow weekends in recent years, including early September in 2014 and in 2016. But not since September 2001 have the numbers been quite so dreadful.Mid-August through early September is historically the sleepiest time of the year for the movie business, but it’s been especially so this year. This August is down 35% from last year, according to comScore. Next week is expected to be just as bad, with no new wide releases scheduled for Labor Day weekend.For many, the weekend’s top entertainment option was Saturday night’s bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. The Fathom Events simulcast of the fight was one of the more popular offerings in cinemas, taking in $2.4m from 481 screens.But the bigger problem was the dearth of significant releases. The six major studios have released only two new wide-release films this August: Sony’s poorly received Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower and Warner Bros’ successful horror spinoff sequel Annabelle: Creation. The latter came in second this weekend with $7.4m, bringing its three-week total to $77.9m. The Weinstein Company’s animated release Leap! was one of the few new films to hit theatres. It earned a scant $5m, according to studio estimates, on Sunday.“It’s a black eye for Hollywood but not a knock-out punch,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “Make no mistake about it, there was little foot traffic in theatres this weekend. But the storyline will change in two weeks when It opens.”That second recent King adaptation is the only light on the horizon for cinemas, which are struggling through the lowest-grossing summer in years. ComScore estimates that this will be the first summer in a decade not to cross $4bn in domestic ticket sales. The summer as a whole is running 14% behind last year with the deadly quiet August a big reason for this.Hurricane Harvey had a minimal effect on nationwide grosses. Instead, mediocre offerings were largely to blame. The Bruce Lee homage Birth of the Dragon opened with $2.5m in 1,618 cinemas for BH Tilt and WWE Studios, while the low-budget Sony film All Saints took in $1.6m from 846 cinemas.One of the few bright spots over the weekend was the expansion of the Weinstein Company’s Wind River, Taylor Sheridan’s thriller set on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The Jeremy Renner-led film expanded to 2,095 cinemas and earned $4.1m in its fourth weekend. Steven Soderbergh’s heist comedy Logan Lucky also held well in its second week, taking in $4.4m. The film’s $15m two-week total, though, isn’t the movie industry game-changer its makers hoped it would be. Topics Movies Box office analysis: US Wonder Woman Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor news

I am Bilal and I am from Syria. I have been here one year. When I came to the UK I couldn’t speak English and it was very important to connect with people.On our journey from Syria we went into Turkey illegally with no passport. It was very dangerous because we didn’t know where we were going and on the way there were four mountains. Many families lost their children in this way. Children walk more quickly than adults and sometimes the Turkish army would catch the parents or the children separately and people would get lost. My family were very lucky – my mother, father and two brothers – that we all stayed together. I knew nobody in Turkey but we had to leave Syria.By luck we registered with the UN and after one month they said the UK had chosen our file, and we came here the legal way. Now I am at school and my home is here. I noticed that one of the most important things for a child is learning and planning for the future, but the children in countries where there is war have no dreams and hopes, and can only think about life and safety.The important thing in this life for children is to give them safety to invent and think about the future.I remember in the last few days before I left my country I had no dreams of the future but when I reached a safe place my dreams began to grow and grow.The migration route was long and hard, but my great dream is that peace prevails and children enjoy a decent life.When we arrived [in the UK] we thought we were in a good state – but when we think about the future we know that maybe we cannot reach our dreams because there are many problems.I am lucky, I am more lucky I think than a lot of children who try to find a safe place – a place of peace. Because of the personal and sensitive nature of this piece, comments will be pre-moderated Topics Conflict and arms Migration and development Syria Children Refugees Middle East and North Africa comment

India is finally getting ready for a bullet train.The country, used to its creaky behemoth called Indian Railways, has for long been fascinated by the high-speed Japanese trains. It was even part of Narendra Modi’s electoral promise in the run up to the 2014 national polls.On Sept. 14, Japanese prime minister (PM) Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for a bullet-train stretch between Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Mumbai in Maharashtra. ”I hope to travel by the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train next time I am here,” Shinzo Abe said following a ceremony in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad.The $16.9 billion project will mostly be funded through a 50-year loan from Japan at a 0.1% annual interest rate. On completion by August 2022, it is expected to cut down the 500-kilometre journey between the two cities from eight hours today to three hours.The route will have 12 stations and will include a 7km under-sea tunnel. Indian Railways will need about 825 hectares of land for the project. The trains will have a top speed of up to 350km per hour, more than double that of India’s fastest trains today.The project is likely to generate some 1.5 million new jobs in the country and the government is firming up plans to set up a similar project between New Delhi and Amritsar via Chandigarh. Modi and Abe also laid the foundation stone at Vadodara for an institute to train around 4,000 people for the project.India will be the first country to import the Shinkansen bullet-train technology after Taiwan.The project, apart from aiming to boost India’s infrastructure sector, is also being seen as a way to leapfrog its transport technology which is still largely obsolete, despite the sector’s size.Many have questioned it for its cost-benefit ratio, though.“This is not the right time for bullet trains in the country but there is a need for improving existing facilities, speed, infrastructure, and comforts of passengers,” E Sreedharan, known as India’s Metro Man and among the country’s best-known railway engineers, said last year.“I was questioned when will India have bullet train? Now, when the project is being launched, they are again questioning what is the need,” Modi said on Sept. 14.Yet, others have cited its long-term benefits in support.“We’d see an entire ecosystem come up around manufacturing of locomotives and rolling stock for future bullet trains, as well as the entire component value-chain, with thousands of suppliers,” a report in The Times of India newspaper said.Set up in 1853, the 164-year-old Indian Railways is the world’s fourth-largest railway network and India’s largest employer with 1.4 million people. It operates 19,000 trains—12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight—daily, raking in a little over Rs1.4 lakh crore ($20 billion) annually.However, it has been bogged down by mismanagement, government apathy, obsolete technology, and an abysmal safety record over the years. Meanwhile, heavily subsidised passenger fares have choked revenue. Modi is now looking to change all that, promising to invest over Rs8.5 lakh crore ($134 billion) to modernise the railway infrastructure.

The battle for the Senate is being fought on Republican-friendly turf, and with three weeks until Election Day the GOP is increasingly optimistic that the chamber will remain in the party's grasp.Fears that a fiery Democratic opposition could turn the map upside down have abated some, now that the GOP base is more tuned in following the confirmation fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.But the charged political dynamics of 2018 leave open the potential for drama when results come in on Nov. 6, particularly in 10 close races that will determine whether Republican Mitch McConnell or Democrat Chuck Schumer will be running the Senate next year.After last year's upset in the Alabama special election, Republicans have a slim 51-49 edge in the Senate. Given that and other factors, Democrats have an outside chance to win back control of the Senate if they end up with a net gain of two seats — something that is unlikely but not completely outside the realm of possibility. Enlarge this image Republicans currently have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, with two independents caucusing with Democrats. Renee Klahr/NPR hide caption toggle caption Renee Klahr/NPR Republicans currently have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, with two independents caucusing with Democrats. Renee Klahr/NPR Republicans have their most favorable battleground in a generation as Democrats are playing almost entirely defense, with 10 incumbents up for re-election in states that President Trump won in 2016.Some in the GOP were salivating at a five- or even six-seat gain at the outset of the cycle. But even the hugely favorable map hasn't been entirely immune to political gravity. Sensing a poor climate this year with Democrats energized against President Trump, several top GOP recruits passed on running, leaving Republicans with second- or third-tier candidates in many targeted races. Overall, only around half of those 10 Democratic seats are now considered truly competitive.Republican leaders have thanked Democratic activists for their intense protest tactics over Kavanaugh's confirmation. Polling and campaign donations suggested that it awoke a dormant GOP base. The question is whether they can sustain that energy for the next month, but even a slightly more invested Republican electorate would ease concerns about the party's grip on Senate control.Here's how the races stand with less than a month until Election Day, including battleground states North Dakota, Nevada, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Montana, West Virginia, Texas — and four states that have dropped off the GOP target list: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Enlarge this image Photos: Courtesy of Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Photos: Courtesy of Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Both Republicans and Democrats pinpoint Sen. Heidi Heitkamp as the most likely to lose on Election Day. As a Democrat in a state that Trump carried by 36 points, Heitkamp may have sealed her fate with her vote against Kavanaugh. She filmed a video explaining her vote, pointing out that she voted for Trump's first Supreme Court pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch, but it may not matter. The state's at-large GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer hasn't run a stellar campaign to unseat her — especially with some questionable comments about Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford and the #MeToo movement. Such remarks have derailed campaigns before, but in the polarized climate of 2018 it may not matter in such a GOP-heavy state. Enlarge this image Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Sen. Dean Heller is the only Republican running for re-election this year in a state that Hillary Clinton carried, so he was always going to be highly vulnerable. At first, he looked like he could lose a primary after antagonizing Trump in the 2016 election. But the two mended their relationship, and the White House even persuaded Heller's chief primary challenger to run for the House instead. However, Heller has had to move to the right and cozy up to Trump in return, which could hurt him in the general election against freshman Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen.Republicans feel better about Heller's chances than they did earlier this year, and Rosen will need strong Hispanic turnout and union support from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's vaunted political machine to win. An NBC News/Marist poll last week showed Heller with a 2-point lead but noted that the undecideds leaned Democratic and were anti-Trump, so Heller may have hit his ceiling. Voters don't seem overly enthused by Rosen, but the lean of the state could win out in this environment.Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri lucked out in 2012, after her opponent made controversial comments about rape and abortion that derailed his campaign. Her 2018 opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley, has avoided any major gaffes, though Republicans early on were grumbling about the state of his campaign and fears that he would be closely linked to the disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned over a massive sex scandal in June.Polls show this race is a dead heat. McCaskill voted against Kavanaugh, giving Hawley a fresh opening in the final weeks. It's also a state that has become a lesser battleground at the presidential level, where Democrats haven't won since 1996, and with Republicans also taking back the governorship when Greitens won in 2016.Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was sure to lose his GOP primary after refusing to fall in line with Trump, so he chose retirement instead. Luckily for Republicans, they still got their preferred nominee in Rep. Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel who was the first woman in U.S. history to fly a fighter jet in combat and command a fighter squadron. She still had to survive a bitter — and late — primary that forced her to the right to win, particularly on immigration issues. Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who would make history as the first openly bisexual senator if elected, had a clear path. Sinema has positioned herself as a centrist Democrat, but McSally and Republicans have tried to chip away at her more liberal past when she was a state legislator, including her anti-war activism and calling herself a "Prada socialist."This will be a close fight until the end. Arizona has been changing demographically. Trump carried the state by only 3 points in 2016, but he still dashed growing Democratic hopes of winning statewide, with the governorship and both Senate seats won by the GOP consistently for a decade.Trump may have branded Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly as "Sleepy Joe," but the fact that he has been able to hang on in a state Trump won by nearly 20 points speaks to his political skills, which Republicans privately admit they underestimated. Also, GOP strategists have grumbled that their nominee, Mike Braun, a wealthy businessman who defeated two congressmen to win the nomination, took his foot off the gas pedal after the primary and has been underwhelming. The result is a closer-than-expected contest where Donnelly just might hang on, despite his "no" vote against Kavanaugh.While other Democratic incumbents were long preparing for their tough re-election challenges, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was seen as the most sluggish. Strategists say they're now happy with the state of his campaign, but wealthy GOP Gov. Rick Scott immediately made this a top-tier contest when he jumped in. Republican optimism about a possible slam-dunk has faded since, and Democrats point out that Scott only narrowly won statewide twice in very good GOP years — which this year may not be. Florida is the ultimate swing state, and the governor's race, with the more energizing Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum, could help boost Nelson. This one may still end up being very close, just given the closely divided nature of the state, but Democrats feel a lot better about this race than they did earlier this year, while Republicans are more pessimistic. Enlarge this image Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Tennessee's Senate race is competitive solely because Democrats were able to land a quality candidate in former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who carried all 95 counties when he was re-elected in 2006. He is a pragmatist more in the way previous Tennessee senators have been — including retiring GOP Sen. Bob Corker. But Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee, is a firebrand conservative, and this race is a test of whether candidates can trump party tribalism that has only grown in recent years. Blackburn and the GOP have hammered home that electing Bredesen — even if you may have liked him as governor — could mean handing control of the Senate over to Democrats. Bredesen is still popular, but his numbers appear to be coming back down after leading for much of the race. This is a place where the Kavanaugh hearings — even though Bredesen put out a statement saying he would have supported his nomination, too — may have have energized the Republican base at just the right time.Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is one of the incumbents who have proved their mettle repeatedly, and 2018 may be no different. Most Republicans are underwhelmed by their nominee, state auditor Matt Rosendale. But Trump is still very popular here, and he has a personal vendetta against Tester for having helped torpedo the nomination of Trump's personal physician, Ronny Jackson, to be veterans affairs secretary. However, Tester has a good brand in the state and a good record, especially on veterans' issues, so that message may ultimately fall short.Of the Democratic incumbents in states Trump won, the president carried West Virginia by the largest margin — 43 points. But the established maverick brand of Sen. Joe Manchin, who previously served as governor, may still be able to overcome that. Republicans are increasingly pessimistic about their chances here, especially after Manchin became the sole Democrat to support Kavanaugh's nomination. Republicans say his re-election was probably a done deal before that, but his crossover only further solidified it for strategists, as they privately grumble that state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has been a lackluster candidate. At first, Republicans were just happy the polarizing former coal executive Don Blankenship didn't grab the GOP nomination, but in hindsight now they wish they had put in more manpower to get a third candidate, Rep. Evan Jenkins, through the primary.In Texas, Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke has generated plenty of grass-roots enthusiasm, eye-popping fundraising numbers and national attention with his unconventional campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. And while Texas is a rapidly changing state, it may not have changed enough this year for an upset. It's still worth watching, though, because O'Rourke could help pull Democrats across the finish line in key House races in places like the Dallas and Houston suburbs by boosting turnout in more liberal areas. Cruz is a polarizing figure, including within the GOP, but O'Rourke may find that getting those final few points to topple him is still too big a challenge, blue wave or not. Enlarge this image Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR Four states with Democratic incumbents that voted for Trump — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — have largely dropped off the target list for the GOP. In Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin's numbers are somewhat weak, but Republican nominee Leah Vukmir still remains far behind her in polling. In Michigan, Republicans have been unimpressed with their nominee, John James, against Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Republican challengers in both Ohio and Pennsylvania haven't been able to truly put either Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey or Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on notice.There is one more Democratic incumbent to watch, though. In New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez finds himself in a tougher-than-expected contest after a corruption trial last year. That resulted in a hung jury and an admonishment from the Senate Ethics Committee, and it dented his usually comfortable edge with voters back home. Still, it will take a lot for a Democrat to lose in New Jersey in the political environment of 2018.

There’s been a shakeup at the very top of India’s private sector banking pyramid.Battered and bruised, ICICI Bank has made way for HDFC Bank to take the lead as the country’s largest private sector lender in terms of standalone assets.ICICI Bank’s total asset base, the key parameter to measure a bank’s size, stood at Rs7.87 lakh crore as of September 2017. That’s 19% less than HDFC Bank’s Rs9.33 lakh crore. To be sure, this isn’t the first quarter that HDFC Bank’s asset base has surpassed that of ICICI Bank. The difference has been building up for the last few quarters, with the gap widening progressively.ICICI Bank argued that on a consolidated level (by including its other subsidiary businesses, such as mutual funds and home finance) the bank is bigger. In reply to an email from Quartz, a spokesperson explained: ICICI Bank is the largest private sector bank on the basis of consolidated assets. On Sept. 30, 2017, the total consolidated assets of ICICI Bank was Rs10.23 lakh crore. ICICI Bank directly owns majority stakes in a spectrum of financial services, including insurance, asset management, securities brokerage and fixed income. These businesses have grown to become top players in their respective segments. Further, with the introduction of new accounting standard, IndAS, from FY2019, it is more appropriate to look at businesses on a consolidated basis. An email sent to HDFC Bank remained unanswered.However, analysts explained that typically, for an objective bank-to-bank comparison, only standalone assets are taken into account. “If we take the consolidated business of ICICI Bank, then other businesses apart from banking also come into play and that won’t be a fair comparison,” said Asutosh Kumar Mishra, a senior research analyst at Reliance Securities, a domestic brokerage.ICICI Bank, which has been the largest private lender for years, hasn’t had a smooth run lately. In the last two years, the volume of bad loans on its books has ballooned, requiring it to set aside a higher sum to provision for these. In turn, profitability has taken a beating. And while the bank has been focusing on cleaning up its books, its asset base hasn’t grown significantly. At the end of September, its gross non-performing assets stood at 7.87% of the total gross advances. This led to a steep 30% decline in its consolidated net profit from Rs2,979 crore a year ago to Rs2,071.38 crore. Meanwhile, most Indian lenders are bogged down by bad loans. At Rs7.29 lakh crore in March 2017, these toxic assets were equivalent to 5% of the country’s GDP.“In the last couple of years, ICICI Bank has been caught up in cleaning up its books and changing its strategy due to the change in the business environment,” said Alpesh Mehta, research analyst at Motilal Oswal, a domestic brokerage. “They have been reducing their international business and trying to make their domestic asset business stronger. All this has had an effect on the bank’s growth.”HDFC Bank, on the other hand, is among a select few lenders that have managed to keep their bad loans under check. At the end of September, its gross NPAs stood at 1.26% of its total gross advances.Another factor at HDFC Bank is its focus on retail loans. At a time when the business environment is still sluggish, corporate borrowing from banks has taken a beating, while it has traditionally been a strong business for ICICI Bank. But retail loans—auto, personal loans, credit cards etc—continue to grow at a robust pace, allowing HDFC Bank to get ahead.“There has been pressure on the corporate loan book of banks as there is no significant demand,” said Siddharth Purohit, research analyst at SMC Institutional Equities, a domestic brokerage. “In such a scenario, a lender such as HDFC Bank, which mainly focuses on retail loans and working capital loans, is better placed to grow. I expect HDFC Bank to grow at a faster pace compared to ICICI Bank for the next two years.”In September, the Reserve Bank of India gave a vote of confidence to HDFC Bank by including it in its “too big to fail” category. Being a part of this list means that a crisis at these banks can signal an economic disaster. The State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, and ICICI Bank are the other two members of this club. The markets, too, have given HDFC Bank a thumbs up, with the company emerging as the most valuable lender in the country. It had a market capitalisation of Rs4.73 lakh crore on Nov. 03, 2017.

Few companies provide better tea-leaf-reading fun than Apple, especially in the weeks before its annual fall product launch extravaganza. Apple is many things, but it is never unconsidered, and so you're unusually likely to glean something interesting from the shape and color of a shadow in an event invitation, or learn something new about the company by analyzing the path and style of its corporate elevators.If the leaks and reports are correct, Apple's preparing a docket of announcements to mark the occasion larger than just about any it's ever unveiled at one time. Here's a handy list of everything we expect to see—much of it courtesy of Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.A new iPhone, likely with a new name—no "iPhone 8" here. The new model will be virtually nothing but a gorgeous OLED screen wrapped in a stainless-steel case, save for a small notch at the top. It will use infrared facial recognition to unlock the phone, charge wirelessly, have improved and reconfigured cameras, and run on Apple's latest software and hardware. It likely won't have a home button, or Touch ID at all. And it definitely won't have a headphone jack. It will be expensive, hard to buy, and probably the most desirable phone Apple's ever made.Two updated iPhones, called the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus, including upgrades to the iPhone 7 without re-thinking the design. They'll have better cameras, faster processors, and potentially even a new display similar to the higher-end model. These models should have wireless charging, too.A new Apple Watch, so the Red Sox can more easily steal baseball signs. The new model's starring feature will likely be built-in LTE, so you can connect to the internet without needing your phone. The design appears unlikely to change, which means either Apple's done something remarkable or the Watch's battery will last about four minutes. It will, of course, run Watch OS 4, which improves the Siri experience and leans even harder into fitness.A new version of the Apple TV supporting 4K and HDR content. Apple's bidding for Bond, has $1 billion in its content-buying coffers, and really would very much like for you to watch Planet of the Apps. Apple's huge, game-changing TV play appears stuck in the "wouldn't it be great" phase, but your shows will definitely look better now.More details on the HomePod, Apple's high-fi answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Apple first announced the device at WWDC in June, but offered little in the way of details. Finally we'll learn what Siri can do on the HomePod, and what that funky little screen on top is actually for.A release date and final pitch for iOS 11. The new iPhone and iPad software brings big improvements to Siri, new features in Live Photos, a brand new notifications and lock screen setup, a redesigned App Store, and enough new iPad features to make your tablet feel brand new again. After a long string of betas, iOS 11 should be ready to go.A release date for High Sierra, the latest Mac software. It's not as exciting as iOS 11, but it does make Safari faster and more secure, revamps the whole file system, and helps you sort through your photos and emails. You'll want to update, eventually.More augmented reality fun. After Apple launched the ARKit developer tools, people spent the summer building awesomely weird stuff in AR. Expect some funky demos, new tools and features, and a lot of talk about how your big-screen new iPhone could be the window to a whole new mixed-reality landscape.One thing to watch carefully for during the event: As Apple continues to explain its entire universe of products, how does it plan to make them work together? Apple's always bet on the idea that it can make your computing life better with every subsequent device, which makes the connections between those devices incredibly important. How do the Mac and Watch work in tandem? What good does your HomePod do your iPhone? Apple's made big strides in syncing Siri across devices, unifying file systems, and helping you move from one device to the next. Look for Tim Cook and the other Apple execs to try and make the holistic All Apple Everything case, for why you should dive head-first into Apple's view of the world.As always, there could be a few surprises, too. Like a car! (Not a car.) Apple's lost its secretive mojo a bit, but still manages to keep some things under wraps. No matter what, we'll be riding that twisty elevator down into the Steve Jobs Theater at 10 am on Tuesday, September 12th. You can watch the livestream, and should definitely hang in our liveblog. We'll be there, Watches on and AirPods in, ready for whatever's next.Your iPhone has all kinds of sensitive and important data, which is why you should know how to back it upYou probably don’t want to talk with everyone that calls you. Blocking them might help.Just join the iPhone/iPad life? Here’s how to set it up

Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak has formed a relationship with a for-profit university to help people enter into the technology workforce.Mr. Wozniak is working with Southern Careers Institute to launch Woz U, an education program to help people enter into the tech workforce quickly and affordably. It will also provide services to companies, helping them connect with potential hires and provide training resources to their employees. ...

A spectacular collection of vintage photographs of India is going on sale in an online auction today (Oct. 10).Hosted by StoryLTD, a platform run by Indian auction house Saffronart, the auction features images, albums, and photo books from some of the very first photographers and photo studios in the country, including the legendary Lala Deen Dayal and Bourne and Shepherd. The subjects are often lavishly dressed maharajas and busy street scenes, besides a number of iconic monuments, from the Taj Mahal in Agra to Hyderabad’s Charminar.For those of us without that much cash to spare, here’s a selection of the photos:

India’s lively startup scene may be teeming with “soonicorns”—soon to be unicorns (private billion-dollar startups)—but the non-profit sector has almost completely missed the boom.Private social enterprises are stagnating, primarily due to irregular and unsustainable leadership. For long, the best minds in India have been put off by the dismal salaries, with the non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) limited budgets leaving them with little time and money to groom talent.Now, a non-profit incubator focused on poverty alleviation is trying to plug this talent gap.This week, Bengaluru-based N/Core launched a six-month programme to churn out entrepreneurs in the social sector. Their startups will each receive an “innovation grant” of Rs10 lakh (around $15,600) and access to high-profile ”partners.” These partners include Sanjay Purohit, the former Infosys Consulting chairman; Maneesh Dhir, the former Apple India managing director; K R Lakshminarayan, the Azim Premji Foundation’s chief endowment officer; and Ujwal Thakar, ex-CEO of NGOs Pratham and GiveIndia.A “collective” that includes CEOs of top foundations, leaders in the non-profit sector, founders of unicorns, and authors is also available for consultation. InMobi co-founder and chief technology officer Mohit Saxena and Goonj founder and CEO Anshu Gupta are part of this collective.The goal is to lure individuals who would otherwise shun the sector owing to the “jholawala mindset,” the stereotype of NGO workers being spartan sons of the soil obsessed with cheap sling-bags, said Atul Satija, CEO of N/Core’s parent company, The/Nudge Foundation. Convincing the brightest minds to choose the social sector over going to Stanford, Harvard, and Berkeley, or a corporate career with a huge salary, is a big challenge, he admitted.“The best journalists, doctors, lawyers, architects, (and) business-management graduates do not go into the sector,” Satija, a former chief business officer at mobile advertising firm InMobi, explained. That could explain why only a handful of the over three million NGOs in India succeed in scaling up, he added.Till date, most NGOs have worked hand-in-hand with the government on last-mile delivery of services like healthcare and education. Their biggest share of sponsorship—68%—came from the state last year.So, for private players, one big deterrent to entering the non-profit sector is a lack of precedent where entities have held on their own without governmental backing.Now, by creating a supportive infrastructure in terms of funding and guidance, N/Core hopes to curb the uncertainties associated with the social sector and, thereby, attract more talent.“To build nonprofits which solve large-scale issues, it is an imperative to build a similar ecosystem that our for-profit startups enjoy,” said Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, among N/Core’s founding patrons.That’s just what this incubator is attempting.Over 1,032 candidates from 19 countries applied to be part of its first official batch of incubatees. On Aug. 31, it selected the first cohort of 10 early-stage (up to three-years-old) ventures committed to poverty alleviation. Organisation Founder Field of operation Foundation for Environmental Monitoring Samuel Rajkumar Open-source, low-cost, highly-accurate technology to measure water quality. Sushrat Foundation Shitij Malhotra Reduce stress of government hospital staff using lean, six sigma, and kaizen. Project Potential Zubin Sharma Nurturing entrepreneurship among communities engaged in a wide range of livelihoods. Saarthi Ankit Arora Parental involvement in children’s education among with impoverished. Anahad Foundation Abhinav Agrawal A record label for rare cultural folk songs, creating positive social impact. NavGurukul Abhishek Gupta Software skills for underprivileged young adults, irrespective of education levels, through experimentation and self-learning. Sukhibhava Foundation Dilip Kumar Micro-entrepreneurship in communities to spread menstrual hygiene. The Education Alliance Amitav Virmani Public-private partnerships to improve student learning in government schools. Volunteer for Justice Gaurav Jain ​Create a pro bono culture in the Indian legal system through volunteer groups of legal professionals. ​Akshar Foundation Mazin Mukhtar Tiered teaching model encouraging older students to teach younger ones and fast-track their learning. In most of these cases, such crackdowns choke funds.“It’s as if a foetus is told that once you are born, if you survive for three years, then we will give (a) vaccination,” said Satija. “But that’s when mortality is highest. That’s when you need incubators to support kids.”N/Core believes it can be both the vaccination and nutrition that budding social-sector startups need. In the next five years, it aims to incubate around 100 non-profits—10 startups, twice a year.