Woolworths customers in Australia who have a Woolworths rewards card can now add their cards to the Wallet app to make it easier to earn and use rewards points when checking out.

Apple added a mention of the new Woolworths Rewards option to its Apple Pay website today, and the feature is outlined on the Woolworths website.

Woolworths customers can open the Wallet app and scan their cards using the standard procedure necessary to add a card to Wallet. From there, the Rewards card is digital and customers can collect and use rewards points and discounts at checkout simply by tapping their iPhones at an NFC-capable register with a finger on the Touch ID Home button.

With the digital card, there’s no need to pull out a physical rewards card when checking out, making for a faster checkout process, especially as the Rewards card will come up automatically when checking out at a Woolworths location. Digital Rewards cards from Woolworths will also show current points balance and savings at a glance in the Wallet app.

Customers who add their Rewards cards to Apple Wallet and then use it at checkout when making a purchase of $0.05 or more can earn 500 bonus points. The promotion will be available through November 30, 2017.

The retail chain has been testing the feature since the spring, and expects it to be in wide use in time for holiday shopping. Is this always going to be a huge time saver? Probably not. However, it may give you a bit of a break if you’re exasperated and just want to know that sweater you were looking for is on its way to your home.

There are some subtler upgrades that have rolled out recently. There’s a “more intuitive” self-checkout system and in-store WiFi with twice the bandwidth. Also, store IT systems now use “bots” that automatically fix some problems. Staff can focus more on helping you and less on fighting their equipment, at least in theory. None of these updates are big in an of themselves, but Target is clearly betting that multiple small tech improvements (plus its more substantial additions) will amount to a noticeable difference.

Catalonia has dominated international headlines in recent weeks in the wake of a banned referendum on splitting from Spain.

Yet, the region in northeast of Spain, which has its own language and distinct customs, has a long history of striving for independence.

One of Spain’s wealthiest region, Catalonia today accounts for 15 percent of Spain’s population and 20 percent of its economic output. Historical disputes and financial grievances have strengthened the cause of independence, yet its its 7.5 million people appear to be deeply divided over the issue.

A defined region of Catalonia was first referenced in the 12th century. The region has been part of Spain since its unification in the 15th century, following the marriage of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile.

Despite always simmering under the surface, Catalonia’s independent spirit did not show up in a prominent way until the 17th century, when the Catalans revolted against the taxation imposed by Philip IV of Spain.

In the decades that followed, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) saw Catalonia backing the conflict’s eventual loser, Archduke Archduke Charles of Austria. With Philip V winning the war, the Catalans were zeroed out and their semi-independence and separate parliament were suppressed by the new king.

In the early 19th century, the Catalan feeling of independence emerged again, leading to a revived effort for political autonomy.

In 1931, Spain’s form of government changed from a monarchy to a republic. Catalonia became semi-autonomous and the national Catalan government, the Generalitat, was reinstated.

However, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the Catalans fought for the losing Republican side. After the war ended, General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist movement suppressed any form of Catalan identity – the Catalan language, customs and autonomy were all repressed until Franco’s death in 1975.

The ensuing Spanish government granted Catalonia partial autonomy in 1977. Two years later, in 1979, the region was given full autonomy.

In 2006, a reformed version of 1979’s statute of autonomy came into force. The new version gave the Catalan regional government more power, specifically on tax and finance matters.

However, in 2010, Spain’s constitutional court struck down the statute’s reformed version, leading to a resurgence in Catalan nationalism.

The court’s ruling took place during the height of a major eurozone economic crisis, which hit Spain particularly hard.

As an economic heavyweight for Spain, Catalonia’s calls for independence grew louder compared to the previous decades.

With Barcelona, a major tourist destination, as its capital and popular beach resorts on its coastlines, Catalonia accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s total GDP.

In the following years, just as the Spanish economy recovered slowly, the Catalan nationalist movement kept gaining momentum. This paved the way in 2013 to a declaration of sovereignty, which was a precursor for a non-binding, highly contested referendum on independence in 2014.

Although Spanish authorities fought the referendum in court, pro-independence campaigners staged a symbolic ballot, organised by volunteers rather than government officials to get around court restrictions. 

Some two million people voted in favour of secession in that non-binding ballot, though turnaround was relatively low.

In the end, more than 80 percent of those who cast their ballots backed a split from Madrid, leading to snap elections in Catalonia.

In late 2015, the new Catalan government, encouraged by the election result, approved a measure for “peaceful disconnection from the Spanish state”, a decision that was again contested by Madrid. The constitutional court in Madrid ruled that Catalonia’s move was illegal.

In March 2017, ex-Catalan leader Artur Mas was barred from public office for two years by a court in Madrid for his prominent role in the 2014 referendum.

But it was that vote that eventually led to the new referendum on splitting from Spain on October 1, 2017.

Spanish police interfered, using force to try to stop Catalans from voting. The Catalan regional government said 90 percent voted for independence, but turnout was less than 50 percent.

After weeks of increasing political uncertainty, the Catalan regional parliament on October 27 unilateraly declared independence from Spain after a secret vote. 

This move angered Madrid, leading Spanish authorities to trigger Article 155 of the Constitution and assume direct control of the northeastern region.

Catalonia’s leaders were sacked and a snap regional poll was announced for December 21.

With iPhone X delivery estimates now at five to six weeks for all carriers, colors, and capacities, customers who want an iPhone X but didn’t pre-order will need to wait until well into December to get their hands on one of the new devices.

There’s still one way to get an iPhone X on launch day – waiting in line. Apple says there will be iPhone X models available for walk-in purchases, but if pre-orders are any indication, supplies are going to be tight. Stores are opening starting at 8:00 a.m. local time for iPhone X sales.

If you’re planning to try for an iPhone X this Friday, make sure to check out these tips to maximize your chances of success.

Pick Your Store

Strategically choosing where you’re going to wait in line for an iPhone X is the most important part of the process. If you’re in a more remote area without a lot of options this isn’t up for debate, but in urban areas where there are a range of Apple Stores, carrier stores, and big box retailers to choose from, it takes a little more thought.

Apple Stores are going to have the most available iPhone X stock, but will also have more people waiting in line than carrier stores or major retailers. In the United States, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile stores will have the iPhone X available for purchase, as will Target and Best Buy locations.

The Palo Alto Apple Store

If you’ve waited in line for an iPhone before, you probably have insight into some of the better locations. In the Bay Area, for example, we have dozens of stores to choose from, but Palo Alto and San Francisco tend to get the most stock. Flagship stores like San Francisco are often well stocked, but draw a lot of customers, while indoor locations like Valley Fair are popular. Smaller Apple Stores like Oakridge and Los Gatos are often more overlooked, and I’ve picked up several launch day items at the former.

These examples are limited to my area, but the same thing goes for every location. Think about how populated an area is, what the waiting conditions are like, and how many iPhones are likely to be available to try to find the best spot. There are hidden gems out there.

If you haven’t waited in line before, ask around for suggestions. The MacRumors forums are a good resource to get tips and chat with others who are going to be waiting in line.

Apple Store employees aren’t going to give out details on the amount of stock that will be available, but sometimes you can get lucky with a third-party retailer, so if you’re going to choose a carrier or a big box store, it’s worth calling ahead just to check.

If the location you’re planning to visit is at an indoor mall, make sure to check the mall policies. Some malls won’t open up overnight and will be closed until the early morning hours.

Go Early

Once you’ve decided on a location, the best advice I can give is go early. iPhone X pre-orders sold out in minutes, so it definitely looks like stock is low. The last thing you want to do is line up at 4:00 a.m. and wait for hours just to not get a new device.

If you can manage it, this is one of those launches where going the night before or even earlier is going to give you the best chance of getting an iPhone X.

An iPhone 7 line on the Wednesday before launch, via Olaenglund

Again, though, this is going to depend on location. Starting the morning before the iPhone X launch, go scout your target store. Drive by to see if there are people waiting outside. It’s best to do this a few times during the day, if possible. Once you see a line start forming, that should give you an indication of when you need to be there.

For some launches, I’ve gone early in the morning and been okay, but for others, I’ve waited overnight and still not gotten a device. It’s better to wait a few additional hours and get a spot closer to the front of the line.

Bring a Friend

Waiting in line is better with a friend because if you need to step out of the line to use the restroom or grab a bite to eat, there’s someone to hold your place. It also gives you someone to chat and commiserate with as you stand outside for hours on end. MacRumors readers often plan iPhone launch day meet ups on the forums, and that can be a good way to find someone to wait in line with.

Bring Supplies

If you’re going to be waiting for several hours or camping out overnight, supplies are essential. You’re going to want a comfortable chair to sit in first and foremost, so bring something that’s portable but not uncomfortable, like a beach chair.

Dressing for the weather is important, so check the forecast. Dress warmly in layers so you’re prepared for the cold overnight or in the early morning. A jacket, warm boots, gloves, and a scarf will make standing in the cold more bearable if you’re waiting someplace chilly. If it’s going to rain, bring a raincoat and an umbrella.

Make sure you bring snacks and something to drink, along with entertainment. Charge your iPhone and iPad and bring a battery pack or two if you have them.

Some people bring tents to camp out overnight, but that’s a lot of equipment to deal with when it comes time to pack up. Still, if you’re waiting for more than 12 hours, it’s worth considering.

Apple employees will often provide drinks and snacks in the morning, but employees aren’t out overnight so you should bring your own supplies too.

You can’t bring a bathroom with you, so make sure you scout out the nearest bathroom locations.

Get to Know Your Line Buddies

When you’re waiting in line, make friends. Get to know the people you’re with, and get a feel for how many people are ahead of you. Lines will undoubtedly swell as it gets closer to the 8:00 a.m. launch time as people who have been saving spots have more people join them.

Line swelling can be super frustrating, so it’s worth being aware of ahead of time. Find out if the people around you are saving spots so there are no surprises. If you make line friends, you also have someone to save your spot if you need to step out of line.

Know What You Want

Before 8:00 a.m., store employees will likely come out, suss out the line, ask what color and capacity you want, and let you know if there’s enough available supply to fill demand. Make sure you know what you want and what your backup plan is so this process goes quickly and smoothly.

Make sure you’re an authorized user on your phone account if it’s a shared plan, and have your payment method planned out and ready. You don’t want to run into any hiccups with ordering after waiting in line.

This is also about the time that you should start packing up your supplies and getting ready to head into the store to make a purchase. Most stores will let customers in a few at a time, but from here, the checkout and purchase process should go smoothly.

Essentially, what the development team has done is removed a good deal of the “pay to win” criticisms lobbed at it by making sure you can’t access stuff like Epic Star Cards (high value power-ups) from crates. “To help keep everyone on a level playing field, these Star Cards will primarily be available through crafting, with the exception of special Epic Star Cards available through pre-order, deluxe and starter packs,” a blog post reads.

More than that, if you want a new weapon for a specific class, you’ll have to play as that class to unlock it — not just buy a bunch of crates and hope for the best. Same goes for class-specific gear.

Oh and you’ll need to hit a certain rank before you can start crafting upgraded Star Cards, too. “You won’t be able to buy a bunch of Crates, grind everything up into crafting materials, and immediately use them to get super powerful Star Cards,” the post says. “You can only upgrade the ability to craft higher tier Star Cards by ranking up through playing the game.”

This is all well and good, and should keep things on an even keel in terms of balance. You won’t just be able to drop a bunch of cash on crates and start dominating new players who would rather progress without spending money beyond the game itself. Will EA admit that its decision to shutter Visceral Games was a bad idea and cancel pivot Amy Hennig’s Star Wars game back to its original pitch too? Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen regardless of how much digital ink is spilled.

Star Wars: Battlefront II will be released November 17th on PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.

Yangon, Myanmar – As the sun set and shops and offices closed for the day, Maha Bandoola park started to fill with people. 

Some were here on Tuesday to enjoy the green grounds, a small refuge from the noise and chaos of downtown Yangon.

But many more arrived for an inter-faith prayer event organised by the ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), held outside the City Hall building across the road. 

The event was called “Peace in Myanmar – Ceremony for Inter-Faith Prayers.” 

It was the last in a series of events in the country, the first of which was held six weeks after a group of armed Rohingya fighters attacked border posts and an army base on August 25, killing 12 security officers and provoking a fierce crackdown by Myanmar’s military. 

Since then, hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces, women and girls raped, and villages torched.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh, causing the world’s most pressing refugee crisis. The United Nations human rights chief has described the situation as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.

Myanmar’s government has blamed misinformation for distorting the crisis. 

Call to prayer

In the words of Nyan Win, the NLD’s spokesperson, Tuesday’s event was held so people can pray for peace in the country, and to show that Myanmar is a “multi-religious and diverse society”.

Monks, imams, and priests sat together. Politicians, civil servants, and community leaders came too. 

Religious leaders from different faiths took to the stage in turn to lead the group in prayer and some delivered speeches, preaching harmony and doing right by others. 

Khin Marlar Htwe, a Yangon resident, told Al Jazeera what motivated her to turn up. 

“It’s what good citizens should do. This event can help us achieve unity. It’s important to have open communication with people of other religions so we can have a good relationship with them,” Khin Marlar Htwe said.

Sann Aung, a lawyer, said he welcomed inter-faith gatherings as opposed to events organised by hardline nationalists in Myanmar, which he said only “attacked people”.  

Pro-military rallies have been recently held across the country, which have criticised Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and painted the Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine as a group of extremists intent on creating an Islamic state. 

For an event held partially in response to the violence in Rakhine state, there was no mention of the Rohingya at Tuesday’s gathering. 

The stateless minority, persecuted and unwanted in Myanmar, don’t have many champions here.  

Local reporters who write about the military crackdown in northern Rakhine say they’ve received hate speech and threats from nationalists. 

Rohingya refugees who’ve fled to Bangladesh have testified that a “consistent, methodical pattern” of killings, torture, rape and arson is taking place, said United Nations human rights investigators. 

The Myanmar government and military have denied the accusations. The counter-offensive targets “terrorists” identified as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, they say.  

But the bare denials and the government’s assertion that the crackdown is a legitimate response to “terrorism” hasn’t stopped the influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh.

Critics say it’s not difficult to view the inter-faith prayer events as nothing more than public relations exercises. 

US police say a vehicle has been driven into a bicycle path in New York City, causing “several fatalities and numerous” injuries.

The New York City fire department confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least six people were killed and 15 wounded in the incident on Tuesday at Lower Manhattan.

The city’s police department said on Twitter that one vehicle had struck another, then the driver “got out displaying imitation firearms and was shot by police”.

The suspect was taken into custody after the incident at Lower Manhattan, police said.

The vehicle struck multiple people on the path. There are several fatalities and numerous people injured.

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) October 31, 2017

US President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary, said in a statement.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected,” she added.

More to follow.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned longer term economic growth could weaken in the Gulf region if a months-long diplomatic crisis remains unresolved.

In a report published on Tuesday, the global financial institution said that while the rift has a “limited impact” on current growth, Qatar and its blockading neighbours face a “broader erosion of confidence” from investors.

“A protracted rift could slow progress toward greater GCC integration, and cause a broader erosion of confidence, reducing investment and growth and increasing funding costs in Qatar and possibly the rest of the GCC,” the IMF warned in its Regional Economic Outlook.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and imposed a land, sea and air embargo, accusing it of supporting “terrorism”. Doha has strongly denied the allegation.

As a result of the blockade, business and financial activities were initially interrupted, not only in Qatar but also its neighbouring countries.

In its report, the IMF said Qatar’s sovereign credit rating and outlook was downgraded, raising interbank interest rates. Private sector deposits among citizens and other residents also declined, the institution added.

According to a Moody’s Investors Service report, from June to July this year, an estimated $30bn were withdrawn from Qatar’s banking system.

Moody’s also estimated that Qatar used $38.5bn of its reserve to support the economy.

Market adjustments

But the situation has since stabilised, and Qatar’s “economy and financial markets are adjusting to the impact of the diplomatic rift”, the IMF said. 

Food supplies and other imports from Saudi Arabia have also been replenished with shipment from Turkey, Iran and elsewhere.   

In the more than four months of the blockade, Turkish exports to Qatar have also jumped by 90 percent to $216m, according to a report by the Aegean Exporter’s Association. 

Qatar’s central bank have also injected liquidity into the banks, and public sector deposits have also increased, said the IMF report.

Qatar’s main exports of oil and gas have not been interrupted, including large volumes of gas supplied to Oman and the UAE, the report added.

The initial concern that “trade disruptions could affect the implementation of key infrastructure projects”, particularly ahead of Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup, has also been “mitigated”, by the availability of an inventory of construction materials and of alternative, and competitive, sources of imports, IMF said.

Kuwait has tried to mediate the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) crisis, as has the US, which has a major military base in Qatar. But so far, diplomatic efforts have been stalled.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani  has recently said he will not bow to pressure from the blockading countries, calling the independence and sovereignty of the Gulf nation a “red line”.

“Our sovereignty is a red line. We don’t accept anybody interfering our sovereignty,” Sheikh Tamim told US television programme 60 Minutes.

He also accused blockading countries of seeking to force a change of leadership in Qatar.

“History as well tells us, teaches us, they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir.”

Sheikh Tamim also expressed his willingness to join a meeting with other GCC leaders, including at Camp David as suggested by US President Donald Trump to resolve the crisis.

But Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa said his country will not take part in any meeting attended by Qatar, unless Doha “corrects its approach”.

In recent days, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa also called for the suspension of Qatar from the GCC.

Honduran authorities have evidence implicating high-level business executives and state agents in the murder of prominent human rights activist Berta Caceres, but have yet to arrest them, a damning new report by a team of international lawyers says.

The report, released on Tuesday morning, also says there have been serious flaws in the government’s investigation into the March 2016 murder of Caceres and, despite orders from a judge, officials have not turned over the remaining evidence to the independent team.

Caceres, one of the most well-known activists in Latin America and a winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, was gunned down in her home just before midnight on March 2, 2016, after years of threats related to her work protecting indigenous communities and campaigning against a hydroelectric dam project.

The independent team behind Tuesday’s report is comprised of five lawyers from Colombia, Guatemala and the United States and was organised at the request of Caceres’ family last year due to concerns over the official investigation.

The family, along with human rights activists and UN officials, repeatedly called on the Honduran government last year to allow for an independent inquiry but the government refused.

To date, eight men have been arrested in connection with the murder, including an active-duty member of the Honduran military and two employees of the company behind the dam project, Desarrollos Energeticos (DESA).

DESA had not responded to e-mails seeking comment from Al Jazeera at the time of publication, but has, in the past, denied any involvement in the murder of Caceres.

When the Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines interviewed a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office last year during an investigation of the murder of Caceres, he acknowledged that the men arrested were not the ones who planned the assassination or gave the ultimate order to carry it out.

Despite this, the Honduran government has yet to arrest anyone else in the 20 months since Caceres was killed.

Long-calculated plan

The independent group’s report says that evidence points to not only a large network that extends to executives in DESA, as well as state officials, but to a long-calculated plan shrouded in corruption.

The report says that the group “has been able to establish the participation of executives, managers and employees of DESA, of private security personnel hired by the company, of state agents and parallel structures to state security forces in crimes committed before, during and after March 2, 2016, the day of the assassination”.

Roxanna Althoz, a US lawyer who was part of the independent group, told Al Jazeera that one of the most troubling revelations from the group’s investigation is that the government has the same data the lawyers based their conclusions on, in addition to even more evidence.

Althoz said that the public ministry “had information about the about the identity and actions and conduct of the intellectual authors for a year and a half and has failed to act”.

A spokesman for Honduras’ attorney general’s office had not responded to requests for comment from Al Jazeera at the time of publication.

The lawyers made several visits to Honduras to conduct dozens of interviews and had access to nearly 40,000 pages of evidence from the government’s own investigation, including text messages, WhatsApp messages and group chats and other telephone and cellular data.

WhatsApp messages

The report includes a number of WhatsApp messages from Sergio Rodriguez, one of the eight men arrested and who was a social and environmental manager for DESA. 

Among the messages from Rodriguez were those from the day after the murder, including one where he forwards a copy of the police report of the crime scene that he received just hours after the killing to an undisclosed DESA executive.

At this time, the report says, Caceres’s family had not yet received that information from police.

The executive later replies, telling him to “relax” and that “everything will turn out fine, you’ll see. Don’t panic and pass it on to others.”

WhatsApp messages documented in the report also show frequent surveillance of Caceres and colleagues from the indigenous rights groups she led, COPINH, something they repeatedly made known to Caceres, according to her daughter.

“They would send her pictures of a place she had been to saying ‘I saw you here,'” Laura Zuniga Caceres told Fault Lines last year.

“That was their control mechanism, their way of saying ‘we are watching you,'” Victor Fernandez, Berta Caceres’s lawyer, told Fault Lines at the time.

‘No one is safe’

Honduras continues to have one of the world’s highest rates of murders against land rights and environmental activists, particularly since a military coup in 2009. 

Many of the projects tied to the murder of land rights activists in Honduras, including the Agua Zarca dam project, involve some of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful families.

Despite millions of dollars in aid from the United States and support for investigative agencies, including the unit responsible for investigating the murder of Caceres, entrenched impunity has long stifled any meaningful investigations in Honduras.

Caceres received numerous death threats in the years leading up to her murder.

But in the initial days after the killing, officials first focused their investigation on members of COPINH, as well as a former boyfriend.

In one of the WhatsApp messages listed in the report, a public relations executive with DESA tells Sergio Rodriguez to raise the question of why “COPINH wants to maintain its role as a victim”.

The PR official, according to the report, goes on to suggest that Rodriguez should, “in passing continue to press the possible motive of passion in the murder of Ms. Berta Caceres”.

Gustavo Castro, the only witness to the murder, told Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines last year that when he met with authorities after the murder, they didn’t seem to be interested in what he had to tell them.

“When they requested that I do a police sketch, the sketch artist was drawing a member of COPINH,” Castro recounted. “I said, ‘That’s not what he looks like! He looks different!’ He erased it and then he drew it again.”

The independent group’s report is based only a fraction of evidence available and even then, the team of lawyers says they were able to point to larger levels of responsibility for Caceres’ murder and new lines of investigation – something the Honduran government has yet to do.

While the lawyers were able to say others were involved, they did not superficially name anyone besides the eight that have been arrested because authorities have not charged anyone else

But the group is still awaiting the larger remaining portion of evidence in the possession of the Honduran government. 

“The public ministry has seized in raids dozens and dozens of computers, telephone chips, SIM cards, iPads, all kinds of electronic apparatus,” Altholz said.

“We are very concerned about what’s going to happen with that evidence,” she added. “What we found is an investigation that falls well short of international standards and seems to be driving towards impunity.”

Given Berta Caceres’ international profile, the fact that the intellectual authors of her murder have not been arrested so long after the crime seems to be proof of the deep roots and staying power of Honduras’ impunity.

When Al Jazeera visited Honduras last year, Caceres’ daughter, Laura, surrounded by photos of her mother, stated the most glaring truth that has emerged since her mother was killed: “After my mom’s assassination, they showed that nobody is safe here.”

Apple recently confirmed that the iPhone X will be available for walk-in customers to purchase at its retail stores when the device launches Friday, November 3, but that will not be the case in two European countries.

Due to anti-terrorism restrictions, Apple will not be selling the iPhone X to customers without a pre-order or pickup reservation in Belgium or France. The news was first reported by the Dutch-language blog One More Thing, and MacRumors has since received confirmation from a reliable source who asked not to be identified.

As best as we’re aware, Apple is simply complying with local laws and regulations discouraging large gatherings and queues in popular tourist areas, due to recent terrorist attacks in cities with Apple retail stores like Brussels and Paris.

Belgian and French customers can still pre-order the iPhone X on Apple’s website for in-store pickup or delivery, although shipping estimates have slipped to 5-6 weeks in both countries. Also, in Belgium at least, Apple will begin accepting reservations for in-store pickup on November 4 at 6:00 a.m. local time.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

In the avalanche of news that was Google’s Pixel 2 event last month, the company kind of glossed over the Fast Pair feature. Understandably so — it had a lot to get through at the event. And besides, it was far from the coolest thing about the company’s new Pixel Buds headphones (that title goes to the Babelfish-esque real-time translation feature).

The feature is similar to what Apple offers up with its W2 chip, offering instant, hassle-free Bluetooth pairing with a couple of taps. Of course, Fast Pair has one key advantage: much greater compatibility. Launched as a Google Pixel exclusive, the feature is starting to roll out to all Android devices running Google Play services 11.7 and greater (requiring Android 6.0 and up, mind).

Apple’s version was a centerpiece of Apple’s AirPods (along with subsequent Beats releases), and Google’s take will certainly benefit from wider availability. In addition to working across Android manufacturers, Fast Pair is also compatible with bluetooth headphones from a variety of different companies. Pixel Buds and Libratone’s solid Q Adapt were the first to be announced, and Google is adding the Plantronics Voyager 8200 headset to the list soon.

The selection is still pretty limited, with Google working with specific early partners to help develop Fast Pair . Though, along with opening it up to a lot more handsets, the company is putting out the call to “Bluetooth accessory” makers in its public forum — a move that indicates the company’s plans to bring Fast Pair to a lot more than just headphones and headsets.

The Pixel Buds were created internally to brace the consumer base for the company’s decision to drop the headphone jack from its new handsets. Opening Fast Pairing up to a much larger ecosystem of compatible devices should cushion the blow even more — and could open more handset manufacturers up to the possibility of dropping the jack themselves.

New emojis. Do you need to hear anything else? Apple just released an iOS update. iOS 11.1 is the first feature update for iOS 11. It adds a couple of new things, starting with dozens of new emojis.

Apple already previewed some of the new emojis, but they are now available to everyone. It includes mythical creatures, such as wizards, fairies, mermaids and vampires. There are some new activities, such as rock climbing and curling.

You’ll also find new clothing elements just in time for the winter, such as gloves, scarf and trench coat. There are a handful of new animals and some new facial expressions. Exploding head might be my favorite one.

Overall, Apple promises 70 new emojis, which makes iOS compatible with Unicode 10.0. A couple of emojis have also been redesigned, such as the bee one.

As always, each emoji character comes in many variations with multiple genders and skin colors when it’s not an animal or an object. And for the first time, some characters are gender neutral.

This update alone is a great way to foster adoption rate. Many people install new iOS updates so that they can see and send new emojis. You don’t want to be left behind when it comes to emojis.

In other news, Apple is bringing back a tiny feature that many people probably don’t use. You can force-press on the left edge of the screen to dim the current app and launch the app switcher again. The company has also added a new gesture. If you force-press on the left edge and swipe, you’ll go straight to the next app. This gesture is much more efficient than double-pressing on the home button.

Finally, iOS 11 comes with a bunch of bug fixes and security updates. In particular, it fixes the KRACK vulnerability. If you’re already running iOS 11, you should update right away as this version should work better than the previous one. Maybe it’ll improve your battery life.

Don’t forget to backup your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes before updating. Then head over to the Settings app, tap General and Software Update.

Juchitan, Mexico – The only room left standing in Mariano Lopez’s home after last month’s deadly earthquake in southern Mexico was a small bedroom.

Lopez and his wife, Isabel Jimenez, have since had to move in with relatives, but over the last few weeks, have visited their Juchitan home to turn the remaining corner into a “biguie'” or an altar for Jimenez’s mother, Guillermina, who died in March.

“The earthquake took our house, but it didn’t take away the happiness we get from receiving visits from our dead, and from this tradition that lives in our hearts,” Lopez told Al Jazeera.

Juchitan is known for its Day of the Dead celebrations. In any other year, the streets of the city centre are crammed with vendors selling the yellow cempasuchil flowers and fruits that are used in the rituals. This year, the celebrations are much more modest.

In the indigenous Zapotec language, which is spoken by most in city, the traditions surrounding Day of the Dead are called Xandu, a Zapotec adaptation of the Spanish “Todos Santos” (“All Saints Day”). Xandu is celebrated between October 29 and 31.

But Juchitan was hit hard by the 8.2-magnitude earthquake that shook southern Mexico on September 7, meaning the celebrations have taken on a new meaning.

‘Juchitan has completely changed’

At least 37 people were killed in the massive tremor, and one out of three homes were left uninhabitable in the city of 75,000.

“Juchitan has completely changed, the dynamic of community life and social life has been cut off,” Gaspar Cabrera Manuel, a Catholic missionary who works in Juchitan, told Al Jazeera.

“People are focused on rebuilding their own houses and their own lives, and they’ve had to put other things aside,” he said.

Thousands still live under tarps, with relatives or in government shelters. Demolition of damaged houses has only just started, and reconstruction is still a long way off.

The federal government has begun handing out payments of 120,000 pesos (around $6,300) to people who lost their houses, but that amount of money is small compared to the value of the destroyed homes.

Oscar de Lima, a resident of Juchitan who organised the Xhie Nee Brigade to perform rescue and reconstruction work after the earthquake, told Al Jazeera that the quake has created a “psychological wound” in the people of Juchitan.

“Some of these houses had generations of hard work and investment put into them,” he said. “And now, people are realising that they’ve lost everything.”

The biguie’

But even in such a difficult situation, the people of Juchitan are keeping alive their pre-Colombian and syncretic Catholic traditions surrounding the Day of the Dead. 

Almost every house in Juchitan was damaged by the quake, and the air is still filled with dust from demolitions. But people can be seen carrying bales of cempasuchil flowers back to their houses – or the lots where their houses once were – to build biguie’s.

The biguie’, the centre of the Xandu rituals, is a shrine that people build in their homes to welcome the dead, who, according to Zapotec tradition, visit their loved ones’ homes on October 30 and 31.

Biguie’ are elaborate structures, consisting of hanging wooden boards decorated with cempasuchil flowers and arrangements of photographs and fruits or snacks preferred by the deceased relative.

Building a biguie’ implies a significant investment of time and money that many in Juchitan are struggling to make this year, so many offerings are much smaller than normal.

But creating an offering for the dead, even a modest one, is still a priority for many.

“The dead come only once a year, so you have to welcome them,” said Cabrera Manuel, the Catholic missionary.

“Even if it’s just a small altar, a seat on the patio. There’s a very strong, intense emotional connection, and it can’t be broken, not even by an earthquake.”

For Lopez and Jimenez, this year’s biguie’ is especially important, partly because many people in Juchitan will not be able to participate in the tradition. They hope Jimenez’ mother’s biguie’ will offer refuge to spirits of the dead whose families are prevented from building offerings.

“This year we are celebrating my mother Guillermina, but it’s not just about her, because she can share it with the others,” Jimenez said.

“The people who died on the streets, the people with no family, the people with nowhere to go to receive the smell of fruits and flowers, it’s also for them, they’re also welcome here.”

The biguie’ is an important tradition that Zapotec people are working to keep alive, but for Lopez, Xandu represents something deeper than any specific material ritual.

“When I feel the strong October breeze, carrying the smell of the cempasuchil and incense, it’s already Todo Santo for me,” he said. “When the winds blow against our bodies, our ears, our hair and our faces, that’s the spirits caressing us, reminding us that we are not alone, and bringing us nostalgia and happiness.”

And like for many others, the Xandu traditions bring Lopez and Jimenez comfort in a situation of extreme adversity.

“It helps us rebuild our souls, our way of thinking and our way of life.”

Rylo has two 208-degree wide-angle lenses that capture your entire surroundings in 4K resolution. Its stabilization technology even allows you to carry the camera while shooting and still get a smooth image. To edit your video, plug it into your iPhone and use the companion app to easily find what frames you want to include in your HD video or alternatively, download the whole thing for a fully immersive 360-degree viewing experience. You can then easily post your videos on Instagram, Facebook or share them directly with others.

What is probably Rylo’s main attraction, however, is the freedom it allows users when it comes to shooting and editing video. Since it captures everything, users don’t have to worry about focusing on anything in particular while using the camera. Instead, Rylo’s software lets you figure that out later. You can simply swivel the view around until you find the direction you want included in your final video, but you can also pick points of interest that the camera will then automatically follow. For example, the Rylo cofounders showed the Verge that a video taken from the roof of a car while it drove across the Golden Gate Bridge could be directed to focus on one of the bridge’s arches. After setting it as a point of interest, the resulting video then smoothly tracked it as the car drove up to, underneath and past it.

Rylo is designed by engineers that worked on Apple’s cameras as well as the Instagram app Hyperlapse. The camera is available now and priced at $499, right in between the GoPro Fusion and Insta360, which are $700 and $300, respectively. As of now, it’s only available for iPhone, but an Android version of the app is in the works.

Astropad’s forthcoming Luna display adapter and software turns your iPad into a wireless, essentially lag-free monitor for your Mac – and the company wanted to make it even cooler by including a clever hack that turned the iPad’s mostly useless front-facing camera into a software button. But, unsurprisingly, Apple has nixed the feature by rejecting the update which included the functionality from the App Store.

The Camera Button was rejected based on section 2.5.9 of the App Store’s review guidelines, which states that apps which alter the behavior of native hardware or software elements will be rejected. It’s amorphous enough that it could definitely apply if Apple feels inclined, which in this case it obviously does.

Still, it’s a bummer, because developers pushing the boundaries of Apple’s available APIs and developer tools is what makes apps, and iOS in general, better. This also looked like a great way to take a tricky UI problem and turn it into an innovative solution.

Astropad’s Luna Display was great before the Camera Button ever came along, however, and it’ll remain great after its gone – still, you gotta feel for the little guy in this scenario.

On Monday, New York police officers Eddie Martins and Richard Hall pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in September.

The victim, Anna Chambers, accused the two plain-clothes NYPD narcotic detectives of kidnapping, sexual assault, and rape. She says that on September 15, after she was arrested for possession of cannabis and an anti-anxiety drug, the officers took her alone to a nearby car park. There, she alleges that she was violently raped by Martins and sexually assaulted by both officers.

DNA from the officers was found after Chambers went to a hospital and had a rape kit done. Hall and Martins both admitted having sexual contact with Chambers, but publicly insisted that the sex was “consensual”, which is an impossible statement given the power dynamic at play. Simply put, there’s no such thing as consent when a police officer has a person in handcuffs, as journalist Natasha Lennard explained in a recent piece for The Intercept. 

As public attention is focused on the multiplying accusations of sexual assault against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Chambers’ case shines light on yet another public sphere in which men pervasively abuse power and authority to commit sex-related crimes: law enforcement. The rates of police officers committing a sex-related crime are “significantly higher” than the general population. 

The true scope of the problem remains unknown. Many victims would not come forward because they have to report the abuse to another police officer; thus, such violent incidents are often called “hidden crimes“. And, as Chambers’ case illustrates, sex-related police crimes are often committed against younger or even underage individuals, who are more vulnerable and less likely to speak out. 

Among many risks that victims face, apart from violent reprisals, are public smear campaigns as happened with Chambers. Prior to the indictment, the NYPD took an actively antagonistic tone towards her, seeking to discredit the young woman’s testimony and smear her character. 

The internal culture of the NYPD is clearly toxic, and has proven time and time again to be a safe harbor for those who’d rather abuse the people they’re supposed to ‘protect’.

 

In a letter to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office obtained by the New York Post, the police officers’ lawyers pointed to Chambers’ rambunctious social media presence and “provocative” selfies as evidence that she was lying about the rape. “This behavior is unprecedented for a depressed victim of a vicious rape,” the letter reads, as if written by someone who has never interacted with a teenager before, let alone one processing brutal trauma under public scrutiny.

The insinuation that there is only one appropriate reaction to this kind of violence is a slap in the face to all sexual assault survivors, and highlights the cruelty and ambivalence with which the NYPD tends to treat its own sexual assault cases.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has a long-standing tradition of violence – particularly against marginalised populations. A quick Google search of “NYPD sexual assault” dredges up case after case – even against their own, as in the case of Deputy Inspector Keith Walton, who in 2016 was charged with felony sexual abuse after allegedly assaulting a female police officer, or in at least three lawsuits last year that involved sexual harassment of female NYPD officers by male co-workers. 

Outside the office, things only get worse. In 2011, Officer Harold Avalos responded to a woman on a domestic abuse call, contacted her at a later date, formed a relationship, and allegedly raped her in a motel. In 2012, Officer Arthur Roldan was charged with raping his former girlfriend at gunpoint in a car park; that same year, independently of Roldan’s case, Officer Michael Pena was convicted of the very same crime. 

In 2013, NYPD highway officer Carlos Becker filmed a Bronx woman while she was in custody, then sent her flirtatious texts. It is alleged that he eventually drugged her at a bar and raped her. Becker was indicted for filming the woman, but the NYPD declined to pursue rape charges. 

In April 2015, NYPD officer Delfin Lantigua pleaded guilty to soliciting sex and cash from a woman who sought a job in his department. In May this year, three NYPD officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn were arrested on charges of sexually abusing at least half a dozen female inmates. The list goes on, and on, and on, and never gets any less horrifying.

Unless they are actually indicted, in the eyes of the NYPD, these men technically have not done anything wrong. True, it is against NYPD policy for officers to have sex on duty; those who do so can be charged with the broad offence of official misconduct, which bars the misuse of official authority for personal benefit.

However, nothing in city law makes the behaviour explicitly illegal. This leaves a loophole for predator police officers to exploit, and the reasoning behind this is unclear. 

Last week, following the news of Martins and Hall’s indictment, New York City Councilman Mark Treyger announced that he would draft legislation that would make it illegal for a police officer to engage in sexual activity with someone in police custody, whether in a police car or in the course of an arrest or law enforcement action.

As its own history makes clear, the NYPD has not been trying all that hard to foster friendly relationships with New Yorkers who do not happen to be white and male. Whether Martins and Halls end up behind bars or not, they have joined a long line of others who have been caught committing shameful, depraved sexual abuse against the people of New York City – and the people owe it to themselves to speak out against these crimes and the broken policing system that shields those who commit them.

We need to serve and protect our own by strengthening community support networks and pushing back against police violence with every ounce of strength we have. The internal culture of the NYPD is clearly toxic, and has proven time and time again to be a safe harbour for those who would rather abuse the people they are supposed to “protect“. Demanding justice for Anna Chambers is only the beginning. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Kenya’s opposition leader has said his coalition will not accept the result of last week’s controversial presidential election rerun, vowing to embark on a political campaign to “restore democracy in the country”.

Raila Odinga made the comments on Tuesday, one day after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner of the October 26 poll. 

Kenyatta took 98.2 percent of the votes, according to official results, but turnout stood at less than 40 percent following a boycott call by Odinga.

“This election must not stand,” Odinga told reporters, saying that the result was not credible and alleging that the electoral body was not in charge of the poll.

“If allowed to stand, it will make a complete mockery of elections and might well be the end of the ballot as a means of instituting government in Kenya,” added Odinga, leader of the National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition.

“It will completely destroy public confidence in the vote. Reasonable people will not turn out to vote in elections with pre-determined outcomes.”

The poll rerun was called after the country’s Supreme Court annulled an August 8 presidential election – following a challenge by Odinga – because of “illegalities and irregularities” in the voting process.

Odinga withdrew from the repeat poll claiming reforms demanded by the opposition had not been made to the electoral commission.

Ahead of the vote, he had urged his supporters to not participate in what he called a “sham” election and vowed to transform NASA into a “resistance movement” against the government.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Odinga he referred to a programme of “vigorous positive political action” that will include “economic boycotts, peaceful processions. picketing and other legitimate protests”.  

He added: “If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government.”

‘A tirade of conjuncture statistics’

Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced on Monday that 38.84 percent of the registered voters had turned up to cast their ballot in the poll rerun – that is 7.6 million of the 19.6 million registered voters.

In contrast, nearly 79 percent of the registered voters had taken part in August’s annulled election.

But in a victory speech on Monday, Kenyatta denied that many people had not turned up to vote.

“Many Kenyans exercised their democratic rights,” he said after the announcement of the official results by IEBC.

“The narrative locally and internationally therefore the voter turnout was low is inaccurate. It is nothing but a history of political convenience and a tirade of conjuncture statistics,” he added.

Call for talks

The African Union on Tuesday said the poll was credible and urged dialogue between Kenyatta and Odinga.

“Overall, the stipulated procedures for opening, voting, closing and counting were largely complied with,” the AU said in a statement.

“The AU observer mission noted improvements in the technical conduct of the elections.”

In the run-up to the election, Kenya was gripped by almost daily protests and running battles between opposition supporters and security forces.

At least 50 people have been killed in political violence witnessed since August’s annulled polls.

Android users will now be able to battle junk mail and manage their email subscriptions using the new Android app from Unroll.Me.

To be clear, anyone with a smartphone could get the benefits of the service already. You just had to connect you email account, then use Unroll.Me’s features to unsubscribe to the emails you didn’t want and roll-up the rest into a single daily digest.

However, CEO Jojo Hedaya sounds particularly proud of his team’s app interface — first released on iOS and now on Android. The idea is to turn managing your subscriptions into a fun, Tinder-style interaction, where you swipe left to unsubscribe, swipe up to add a newsletter to your daily Rollup and swipe right to just keep it in your inbox.

“I’m very confident this is the best way to remove clutter from your inbox,” Hedaya said.

Do most people really have enough subscriptions for to do much swiping? Well, Unroll.Me says the average user has more than 62 subscriptions on signup. And aside from the swiping, the app also allows you to manage a list of all your subscriptions and read your Rollup.

While you can get a lot done in the app, Hedaya emphasized that he’s not trying to replace a traditional email client.

“In my opinion, past [attempts] to solve the email client game went 75 percent of the way there,” he said. “I wanted to make sure that we had a separate solution that just helps you with email clutter.”

Like Unroll.Me’s other services, the Android app is available for free — the company is owned by Rakuten/Slice and makes its money from user data. (That got Unroll.Me into hot water earlier this year, and as a response, Hedaya has vowed to be more transparent.)

Featured Image: dvs/Flickr UNDER A CC BY 2.0 LICENSE

Nintendo yesterday held its quarterly earnings report [PDF], launching off with details of its “Smart-Device Business” and telling investors how things have been going for Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes, while detailing the upcoming launch of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Although Fire Emblem Heroes is on track to meet the company’s “overall profit objectives,” Super Mario Run appears to be a disappointment in the iOS App Store for Nintendo, which stated it has “not yet reached an acceptable profit point” for the game (via The Verge).

The difference between the two apps lies in their payment structure, with Fire Emblem Heroes a free-to-download title with micro-transactions, and Super Mario Run priced at a fixed $9.99. The company noted that Super Mario Run has now hit the 200 million download mark, and Nintendo was even able to launch the app in countries “not previously reached by our dedicated video game platform business.”

Unfortunately, after about 10 months on mobile devices Super Mario Run still has not made the amount of money that Nintendo predicted for the title, which was its first foray into a mobile app built around one-time payments. Still, the company said that it has “learned a lot in terms of game development and deployment,” which it plans to “take advantage of moving forward.”

Although we have not yet reached an acceptable profit point, we have learned a lot in terms of game development and deployment that we want to take advantage of moving forward.

For Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo said that it “listened to the voices of our consumers,” leading to continual updates to the app since its launch in February. This game is on track to meet Nintendo’s business and profit objectives, and new in-game events will be added soon, as well as Traditional Chinese text. The game will then expand to five more countries and regions: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, Thailand, and Singapore.

Nintendo’s newest iOS game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will follow in the footsteps of Fire Emblem Heroes, bringing in-app purchases to the free-to-download game in the form of Leaf Tickets. For the mobile version of Animal Crossing, Nintendo said that “our objective is to offer a service that allows even consumers who do not normally play games on a regular basis to have a little fun each and every day.”

Nintendo’s first iPhone game, Miitomo, also uses a free-to-download payment structure with in-app purchases, but the company made no mention of that game in its newest earnings report.

Earlier in the year, a senior official at Nintendo reportedly told Nikkei that the company prefers the pay-once strategy of Super Mario Run, and called the freemium aspects of Fire Emblem Heroes an “outlier” in the grand scheme of its mobile gaming plan. Even then, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima — who presented this week’s earnings report — admitted that Super Mario Run “did not meet” the company’s revenue expectations.

To entice old players to return and new players to download, Nintendo updated Super Mario Run in September with a new mode, new characters, and a 50 percent price drop. Nintendo’s earnings report charts are vague, but the company noted an uptick in weekly users thanks to this September update. Prior to that, its weekly users had been dropping precipitously since April.

Ultimately, Nintendo still aims for Super Mario Run to be the “definitive Mario application for smart devices,” so players can likely expect ongoing updates to the app in the future.

A Canadian university lecturer and radio broadcaster has filed a suit in federal court challenging the inaccurate labelling of wines made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and exported to Canada as a “Product of Israel”.

David Kattenburg, a 62-year-old Winnipeg resident and son of Holocaust survivors, had previously submitted a complaint in late March to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) about its labelling procedures, indicating that the grapes used were grown in the occupied West Bank and processed in wineries outside of Israel’s formal borders.

“These falsely-labelled products trouble me as a consumer,” Kattenburg said in July after he filed the original complaint. “Canadians have a right to know that [a product] is made in Israel, if it’s made in some other place. This is a matter of concern. They have the right to truthful labelling.”

Canadian food inspectors initially agreed with Kattenburg’s reasoning and issued a directive to liquor stores on July 11 to stop selling wines made in the occupied West Bank.

But within hours, the agency backtracked, saying it “regrets” the directive it had issued, noting that the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) overrode domestic consumer protection laws.

“Further clarification of the CIFTA indicates that these wines adhere to the agreement and therefore we can confirm that the products in question can be sold as currently labelled,” the food inspection agency said in a statement at the time.

The bilateral trade agreement’s provision that the agency references identifies Israel as “the territory where its customs laws are applied,” and not its internationally-recognised border. Trade between Israel and Canada has tripled to $1.6bn since the agreement was expanded in 2014.

But Kattenburg’s lawyer, Ontario-based Dimitri Lascaris, maintains that the Canadian government is “dressing a political decision up as a legal decision” by invoking the trade agreement, which allowed it to bypass the issue of where the grapes were grown.

“The [Canada-Israel Trade-Agreement] deals with trade barriers, as do all free trade agreements,” Lascaris told Al Jazeera. “You look at the rest of the agreement, there’s nothing there about product labelling. A requirement that all products be accurately labeled is not a trade barrier. That’s a consumer protection law.”

When Kattenburg appealed the revoked decision to the agency’s Complaints and Appeals Office (CAO) in August, he was informed that the CFIA would stand by its verdict.

“Now that the CAO has completed its review and the [food inspection agency] has advised that it is standing by its decision, [Kattenburg] was free to seek a judicial review by the Federal Court of Canada. The Federal Court litigation has now formally begun,” Lascaris explained.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, CFIA said “it has no comment as this matter is before the courts”.

Kattenburg’s suit, which was filed last Tuesday, is asking the government to issue an order striking down the legality of the food agency’s decision, which he believes is in violation of Canada’s regulations on food and drugs, and its laws that set requirements for labels to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions.

The Canadian government is saying that “Israel has a right to sell falsely labelled products because they extend its customs law to the occupied territories,” Kattenburg said. . “This is what the CFIA cited… and [that] definition is at odds with international law.” 

In the summer of 2014, an Israeli drone strike in Gaza ended Huda Mohammad’s life, along with her two children, husband, and mother-in-law.

News of her death during the 50-day-long bombardment of the besieged territory reached Adie Mormech a week later when a mutual friend told him on Facebook.

Just two years earlier Mormech, a resident of the northern English city of Manchester, had counted Mohammad among his students while teaching English in the Gaza Strip.  

By the end of the bombing campaign, Israel had killed more than 2,200 people in the territory, of which at least 1,500 were civilians.

That total included Mohammad and another of his students.

For Mormech, the roots of the 2014 war and the ongoing and historic suffering the Palestinian people have been subjected to go back to the Balfour Declaration and Britain’s role in establishing the state of Israel.

In a letter dated November 2, 1917, to leading English Zionist Lord Walter Rothschild, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour promised his country’s help in creating a “national home” for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The letter would be the first step in the eventual establishment of Israel and the associated displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people, many of whom now live in Gaza with their descendants.

The British government refuses to apologise for its role and says it is proud of its part in creating Israel.

I understood, and believe this government should apologise and take responsibility for the green light for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that took place right under the eyes of the 100,000 British soldiers stationed there

Adie Mormech

 

“In Gaza so many people knew about Britain’s role in Palestine and as I’m British they emphasised this role to me,” Mormech said, relating his experiences during the two years he spent in the area between 2010 and 2012.

He added it’s a role the UK has still not taken responsibility for and that is why he will spend the days running up to the anniversary planning and taking part in protests against the declaration.

“I understood, and believe this government should apologise and take responsibility for the green light for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that took place right under the eyes of the 100,000 British soldiers stationed there,” he said.

“It is why we have a duty to stand up and end this UK complicity in Israel’s war crimes.”

‘Brutal policies’

Mormech’s anger at Britain’s role in displacing the Palestinians developed over time by seeking out alternative sources of reporting than mainstream outlets and was hardened by what he saw in the occupied Palestinian territories.

For many Palestinians, the experience of the dispossession brought upon by Balfour is one they are born into.

Dr Issam Hijjawi’s father came from a small village near Nablus in what is now the occupied West Bank.

From there he would travel to Jaffa, which has since been absorbed into the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, to trade organic fertiliser for the town’s famous oranges. 

Instead of helping the Palestinians obtain their state, Britain helped ensure their homeland was destroyed, and that they were brutally made refugees.

Issam Hijjawi

“Even today, as a Palestinian, I do not have freedom to go and follow the track my late father took on his journeys to Jaffa from our small village,” he lamented, before railing against the British role in creating that reality.

“From the very beginning, the actual policy of the British mandate in real terms was aimed at help the Zionist movement in creating Israel as a spearhead to control not only Palestine but the whole Middle East.

“Instead of helping the Palestinians obtain their state, Britain helped ensure their homeland was destroyed, and that they were brutally made refugees.”

Manchester protests

Mormech can usually be found selling books on a large stand between Manchester’s two big universities, in an area that forms a hub for Palestinian activism in the city.

Despite its reputation for pro-Palestinian activism, not far from his stall, at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Hall, pro-Israel groups had planned to host an event celebrating the Balfour Declaration. 

It’s there that the activists from the Manchester Palestinian Solidarity Campaign scored what they consider their first “great victory” in the anti-Balfour Declaration campaign.

Details of the venue were leaked and organisers were forced to relocate the event to another undisclosed venue fearing protests.

“It was the targeted campaign and pressure from students and concerned individuals that managed to drive the Balfour celebrations off campus,” the activists wrote in a statement.

The celebratory tone stems from the symbolism of disrupting a celebration of the Balfour Declaration in the city the people behind it called home.

Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel and the leading figure of Zionism before Israel, lived in Manchester when he co-wrote the first draft of the Declaration, and was arguably the most important figure in making sure Balfour went ahead with sending the letter.

Despite the change of venue, activists in Manchester told Al Jazeera they would continue with their planned protest.

New narratives

While the protests are intended to serve as a source of pressure on the British government to change its policies towards Israel, for the activists taking part, there is also an educative element.

Those Al Jazeera spoke to said they felt the commonly held notions surrounding the establishment of Israel were obscured to mask the suffering of Palestinian people.

Hijjawi called on fellow Palestinian activists to keep up the pressure on the UK government after the centenary of the declaration passes.

Mormech said the UK’s role in worsening the suffering of Palestinians did not end with the Balfour Declaration, but continues to this day through arms sales to the Israeli government.

“This is a battle to end activity that continues Balfour’s legacy of British complicity in Israel’s manufacture and development of killing machines that ruin so many families and destroy so many houses, school, hospitals and communities.

“It has to stop.” 

Testers napped, put on make-up and used their phones on the road. In other words, they’d lost context of where their car was going or how fast it was and would’ve been taken by surprise if they were suddenly given control of the vehicle in dangerous situations. Waymo has been working on ditching the handoff feature since then to allow “passengers to stay passengers.”

The latest version of Waymo’s minivans feature display screens mounted on the back of the front seats. They show messages explaining why the system just did what it did (say, if it stopped to let a pedestrian cross) as well as visualizations of the surroundings. More importantly, they have a new panel with buttons allowing passengers to start the ride, pull it over, call for help and unlock the doors.

While the buttons still give passengers some semblance of control, Waymo chief John Krafcik said his team is working on a technology that will make their ride-hailing dreams more feasible. That feature will give their vehicles the ability to recognize the person who hailed them even if they’re not in the exact spot where they called for a ride.

If you’re in Phoenix, Arizona, you might have already seen Waymo’s new minivans driving people around. You might not have to wait for years on end to see one even if you’re not in Phoenix, though: Krafcik said they’re “really close” to unleashing their self-driving vehicles on public roads.

Deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said ousted Catalan officials will stand in the December 21 elections imposed by Madrid, and that they will respect the outcome.

The sacked regional president arrived at Brussels Press Club for a news conference on Tuesday, amid speculation he and his ministers would seek political asylum in Belgium, which he said was not their intent.

“On Friday, after the declaration of independence, we assumed dialogue was impossible,” Puigdemont said in Catalan, adding that his government tried to engage in dialogue since the dispute began.

The Spanish government dismissed the Catalan regional leadership on Saturday after lawmakers approved the application of Article 155 of the Constitution, which allowed Madrid to assume control of Catalonia.

Puigdemont said he and his government were the “legitimate” representatives of the Catalan people.

The former Catalan government and select members of the parliament were charged by the Spanish prosecutor with sedition, rebellion and more on Monday.

The charges stem from the political process during which Puigdemont declared Catalonia an independent nation after a disputed October 1 referendum on secession.

The Catalan government says 90 percent of voters opted for independence, though turnout was less than 50 percent, in part due to a crackdown by Spanish police.

The charges could result in up to 30 years in prison and “confirm the extreme aggressiveness” of the Spanish government against the Catalan government and parliament, Puigdemont said.

Puigdemont and five former ministers of the regional Catalan government appeared yesterday in the Belgian capital, to the surprise of many.

The dismissed politicians were expected to apply for political asylum, though Puigdemont said that was not his intent.

Puigdemont detailed goals his dismissed government would pursue from Belgium: “A part of the [the Catalan government] has moved to Brussels to make evident the Catalan problem in the heart of Europe,” he continued.

Puigdemont went on to said the government would support efforts to avoid the destruction of Catalan institutions that could result from the application of Article 155, and that his party, the Catalan Democratic Party, would participate in the December 21 regional elections called by the Spanish government.

Puigdemont called for Europe to respond to the Catalan crisis, saying the “case of Catalonia is the case of the values on which Europe is based”.

Before the news conference began, Mina Andreeva, the spokesperson for the European Commission, said in a statement the European Union’s executive body has not remained in contact with Puigdemont.

Andreeva stated that the commission’s stance that the question of Catalonia’s independence is an internal Spanish matter “has not changed”.

Alan Dye, who was responsible for leading the software design teams that had to decide how to handle the sensor package, says that it felt the most honest.

“We’ve got this amazing True Depth camera system packed into this space at the upper center of the display. And we thought a lot about how to design for that. And ultimately we felt really comfortable with this notion of being really honest about it and allowing for the content to push out into those beautiful rounded corners,” says Dye.

Dye says that Apple did consider using digital bezels. “We did look at various different design iterations and considered some things that kind of acted as digital bezels if you will. But ultimately we never really felt comfortable with this notion of cropping into the content. We really love the new display, we love that it’s edge-to-edge. We love the way that it fits. It feels so perfectly designed for the overall form and so we’re encouraging people just to kind of push the content right out to the corners.”

In use, I have to say, the notch is just zero problem for me. I don’t give a rat’s ass about it. I know I’ll probably catch heat but I’m not carrying water for Apple here. I think it is absolutely a compromise but, after using Face ID and the True Depth camera for other stuff, I am willing to deal with it.

And beyond “dealing with it” I can tell you that as one of a few people outside of Apple to have used it for more than a day — you stop noticing it very, very quickly. It’s a part of the display, the areas to the sides are or aren’t used and that’s it. Major apps like Instagram and Facebook have already been updated for the iPhone X screen and they look fine. Apple had to do some serious engineering to make it to the corners too, as the OLED is flexible.

Watching video in landscape defaults to cropped in and I largely forget to zoom it. YouTube’s new app reminds you to pinch to zoom out so it fills the screen and it looks cool in my opinion. I think it’s neat and a bit futuristic. I’ve been waiting for asymmetrical screens that are tailor made for their use case forever. They’re in every sci-fi movie ever and we’ve all been stuck with rectangles since the iPhone hit. I’m okay with a change.

I (about half jokingly) called the True Depth area a “flap” back in September. Given that when you minimize an app you can see that it is a whole “card” that slides out from underneath – and screenshots show the area filled in, I am technically correct about that. In the interface design world of the iPhone X it is a flap that covers that area, not a notch that cuts that area out. It means nothing but if you like completely malleable digital content to conform to a definite physicality, this paragraph was for you.

If, however, you use your iPhone for data entry or browsing or whatever in landscape, the True Depth camera is going to be bang in your way, especially if it’s on the left. No getting around it. If that bothers you, don’t get an iPhone X. But even if you think it’s going to bother you I’m not sure it actually will once you spend a few days with it.

Which is sort of the mantra of the iPhone X: Give it a few days and it all gets a lot clearer.

Using iPhone X

Day one of using an iPhone X is profoundly strange and cumbersome in a lot of ways. If you’ve spent years whacking a home button you’re not going to be able to break down those memetics in a couple of hours. I had to get used to swiping up, across, down and up again instead of tapping the button, double tapping the button or double tapping and swiping.

Day two is better. Some actions already felt super natural, like tapping on the screen to wake it, swiping across the home bar to switch directly from one app to the next, rather than bringing up the heavy app switcher. Quick and light. Other actions like quickly dropping out of an app still result in a mash of a home button that doesn’t exist.

Day five is the turn. The point at which the hardest habit to break, tapping the home button to move from any other screen to your home screen, is starting to break up.

Day six is when things started getting weird with my old iPhones. I started swiping the home button up and staring stupidly at the screen waiting for it to automatically unlock.

Anecdotally, I got the phone on a Monday and until Saturday I was still stabbing the home button to go home. Today, a week later as I write this, I swiped the home button on my iPhone 7 to try to unlock it. So give it a week or so to acclimate.

Once you do, it’s sweet. The faster 120hz refresh rate of the touch array means that every action is buttery smooth and reacts immediately to your touch. If it didn’t, the whole thing would break down. You no longer have the affordance of the time it takes your finger to leave the home button and reach up to hit the screen before you take action on something. Everything has to happen immediately because your finger never leaves the screen. And that never leaving the screen is so key.

From opening the phone to flipping back and forth between apps to closing one and opening another, it’s all action start to finish. There is no more “out to the home button and back to the screen” bouncing. It’s super-fast and fluid and makes it feel like you’re getting more done more quickly.

The switching from app to app action is not an issue at all on the fingers or hand, by the way. I know there was some super awkward spy stuff out there but you just swipe along the bar left to right or right to left to swap apps. It’s easy and relaxed. If you want to access the switcher with the “swipe up and pause” action, you can, but I don’t see any major need for it.

Grabbing Control Center with your left hand is rough work, and I’m still not sold on the placement of it in the top right corner, or the fact that the controls are at the top.

When you’re walking around with a kid in one arm and trying to snag a FastPass for your next ride and you need to adjust brightness or toggle screen lock or anything like that it is damn near painful to do it the regular way. And it’s only slightly more pleasant using your right hand.

Which is why I am so glad that reachability still exists. It is incredibly useful here. It’s also tied to a much more intuitive activation process. You can pull the whole top of the screen down with a slight “tug down” of the home bar. Then, Control Center is easily reachable with your right hand and at least not impossible with your left. Reachability is now tucked away in Accessibility, if you’re reading this and looking for it.

The strongest recommendation I can make for the new “no home button” paradigm is that after just a week, regular home button actions like double tapping feel much too heavy after just a week of using it. Ten years of the home button, it turns out, was enough to allow us to move on.

Another interface tidbit: I really like the new force-press to activate the camera on the home screen. It feels much more definitive than the fumbly “swipe from right to left” that could go awry on a notification or not trigger because you didn’t quite hit the edge.

I took no special care to preserve battery beyond what I normally would, which is to try to stay off Twitter at Disneyland (you can see that I failed fairly miserably in this regard). The temperature was in the low 90s for the most part, which isn’t crazy for Southern California, but doesn’t do batteries any favors. The reception is still fairly poor in many areas of the park and the radio goes to seek a lot inside rides, leading to greater battery drain. Despite that, and despite the fact that I shot hundreds of photos, the battery lasted all day.

I started the day by unplugging the charger at around 8:24 and skated into our hotel room at about 9:11 PM at 6 percent on power save mode. Not a bad 13 hours 2 minutes on standby and 6 hours, 4 minutes of usage in such punishing conditions. This is far less than I’d expect to get on any typical day, but not at the parks, where batteries go to get tortured. My iPhone 7 did not make it the full day. The iPhone 8 Plus made it, but I didn’t use it as heavily when I wasn’t shooting comparison photos. And the battery is larger.

Physically, the iPhone X is great. Gorgeous, shiny, it looks just fine. It feels heftier and denser like a piece of high-quality watchmaking. The chrome-like stainless steel ring around the phone is picking up some fine abrasions but they look normal, and I tend to run without a case and scratch the junk out of my phones, so it’s not an alarm bell issue. The glass back still looks great, with a multiple layer backing that has a very light pearlescent sheen below the top sheet of glass. I also like that they cut down on trying to “bevel” the camera bump. It is what it is and it looks just fine with as minimal a bezel as possible. From the front, well, you get the screen and you get the notch/flap/True Depth camera array.