Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information "Fawad Chudhry" exhales over BBC Hard Talk, Courtesy The News International

In BBC interview, Fawad Chaudhry claims attacks on journalists have 'reduced' in Pakistan Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry speaking to Stephen Sackur on BBC programme "HARDTalk". — Photo courtesy BBC HARDTalk Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that attacks on journalists have reduced in Pakistan ever since Prime Minister Imran Khan took over. During an interview with Stephen Sackur for BBC programme "HARDTalk", which was released on Friday, the minister, who was even termed as "one of the government's most robust defender", gave his utmost to negate the impression that journalists are at any more risk in Pakistan than anywhere else in the world. When asked by Sackur if he agrees that the cornerstone of any democracy is the protection of freedom of expression and independent journalism, Chaudhry quoted Article 19 of the Constitution that guarantees such protection. When further pressed to respond to incidences occuring "day after day, month after month" that stand in stark contrast to such freedoms, and that the government is not protecting journalists and freedom of speech, the information minister said he will "obviously contest the claim". "Pakistan is probably one of the freest state[s] as far as media is concerned. We have about 43 international media channels, including BBC, here in Pakistan, we have 112 private channels, 258 FM channels, and 1,569 print publications. "So you can imagine the kind of media we have. The size of the media itself defies your claim," Chaudhry responded by saying. Speaking about the attack on journalist Asad Toor, the minister said that he sent senior police officers to investigate the case and they have obtained closed-circuit footage of the people involved and that "they will be apprehended". He went on to say that such incidents do happen "everywhere in the world, and Pakistan is no exception". When further grilled on what he, as information minister, is doing about it, Chaudhry said: "The situation in Pakistan is not dangerous for journalists only. The situation in the past for Pakistan was dangerous for every citizen because we were fighting this war on terrorism. And yes, many journalists, especially field journalists, have been killed in this war, but so [have] many other civilians." Citing the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a terrorist attack, he said that it begs looking at things from a wider perspective. The minister claimed that attacks on journalists have in fact "reduced" since Prime Minister Imran Khan took over. He further said that "in most of the cases, the culprits were apprehended". Circling back to the attack on Toor and last month on journalist Absar Alam, he said that the investigation has not even concluded and so there is "no reason" to allege that Pakistan is not protecting its journalists while referencing these two incidents. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/841309-in-bbc-interview-fawad-chaudhry-claims-attacks-on-journalists-have-reduced-in-pakistan

15 essential browser extensions you need to go online

You can't navigate the web without these add-ons.

IMAGE: GETTY / MASHABLE

BY SASHA LEKACH1 DAY AGO

Essentials Week spotlights unexpected items that make our daily lives just a little bit better.

---

The right side of my browser window holds an important collection of tools and tricks that I can't internet without. 

The extensions I use on the Chrome browser are mostly practical (they help me block pop-up ads, remember passwords, and save links) but there are plenty of fun browser extensions, and even a few that some people swear save them money. 

So whether you use Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, or even Tor or Brave, here are some must-haves to add, whether you need to be productive or silly.

My trusty collection of browser extensions.

IMAGE: MASHABLE / SCREENGRAB

Get things done

Pocket: This link saver is a life saver. Instead of emailing yourself articles or keeping millions of tabs open, click on the Pocket icon and save the website to your Pocket link collection and add a tag to make it easier to find later.

Clipboard History Pro: You cut and/or copy and paste so many things, but you only have the latest one on your digital clipboard. This extension keeps track of your every copy, so you don't lose anything. You can even search for keywords if something you copied weeks ago comes up again.

Pomodoro extensions: The Pomodoro technique is supposed to keep you focused on getting your work done in timed 25-minute stretches. If the timer built into your browser with this extension can't keep you on track, maybe the website blocking will do the trick.

Keep it private

AdBlocker and Adblock Plus: These do what they set out to do: block pop-ups and other ads that come up on websites. You can whitelist publications and even mess with the settings to block some tracking and online creepiness.

ublock Origin: An open-source version of other ad-blockers.

Privacy Badger: The Electronic Frontier Foundation built this extension to help users block ads and tracking cookies. 

LastPass: This year I'm thankful for my password manager. But seriously. LastPass sits innocuously on your browser and once you're signed in with your master password, it fills in all your passwords and log-in information every time you need to sign into a website or service. I even keep my passport, credit card, and AAA membership info locked into its digital vault. 

How helpful

Wayback Machine: This gem from the Internet Archive gives you a glimpse into the past. Literally. Click on the extension while on a site and see past versions of the same website. If you stumble onto a dead link, you can see an archived version from before it disappeared from the internet.

Google Translate: If you use the Google Translate app you'll appreciate this for your web browsing. Highlight sections of text and the extension will bring up a translation. Viola!

Honey: It's all about the money, honey. The extension finds online coupons for online shopping sites you're browsing. They'll pop up when you're checking out and you can apply the codes for secret online savings.

Just for fun

Cloud to Butt: Anywhere you see the word "cloud" on a website, this switches it to "butt." Take that, butt computing.

Netflix Hangouts: If you really need to watch your Netflix at work make it look like a conference call! Bingeing at the office is now a thing. 

Just Not Sorry: This is more serious than it sounds. Eliminate undermining, qualifying, and unnecessary words from your Gmail emails. The browser adds a squiggly line any time you use words like "just" or "sorry" in a message, so hopefully you'll start treating those words like spelling mistakes. Sorry not sorry.

News Feed Eradicator: Instead of your Facebook newsfeed filled with inane updates from your high school classmates and mother-in-law's neighbor this replaces it all with a refreshing quote about not wasting your time. Take back your time, one feed-obliterating browser extension at a time.

https://mashable.com/article/browser-extensions-essentials-week/

NASA blows hole in world's largest rocket fuel tank (on purpose)

That's a big hole in a big rocket

IMAGE: DENNIS OLIVE / NASA

BY MARCUS GILMER9 MINUTES AGO

Sometimes, NASA blows up rockets on purpose — for science!

Such was the case on Dec. 5 when engineers put a replica of the world's largest fuel tank, NASA's Space Launch System liquid hydrogen tank, through a rigorous pressure test that literally blew it apart to see how much stress it could take.

And NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shared video of the test for us all to enjoy. 

Jim Bridenstine

✔@JimBridenstine

Success! Engineers @NASA_Marshall tested the @NASA_SLS liquid hydrogen test article tank to failure – the tank withstood more than 260% of expected flight loads before buckling and rupturing! #Artemis MORE: https://go.nasa.gov/2OV8BEX 

4,820

3:19 AM - Dec 10, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,094 people are talking about this

The test, which went down at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, was another important step in NASA's Artemis program. It aims to send people back to the moon by 2024, including the first woman to walk on the lunar surface. 

The tank had previously been through dozens of other tests that, according to NASA, "simulated liftoff and flight stresses" before engineers blew the giant hole in its side. The tank blew after taking on more than 260 percent of "expected flight loads" over the course of five hours. 

NASA and Boeing monitored every aspect of the rocket during the test, using "thousands of sensors" as well as high-speed cameras and microphones. 

Built at NASA's Michoud facility just outside New Orleans, the tank stands over 130 feet tall, measures 27.6 feet in diameter, and can store 537,000 gallons of "super cooled liquid hydrogen."

The tank is part of the SLS Core Stage. Its purpose is to "help power the four SLS core stage RS-25 engines for the 8-minute climb to orbit at more than 17,000 miles per hour." Once assembled, the core stage will be 212 feet high, the largest rocket from NASA since the famed Saturn V rockets that were part of the Apollo program.  

In fact, on Monday, just days after the test, Bridenstine was at the Michoud facility to unveil the official SLS Core Stage that will be used for the first Artemis mission.

NASA HQ PHOTO

✔@nasahqphoto

Today @NASA Administrator @JimBridenstine unveiled the assembled rocket core stage for @NASA_SLS that will help power the first #Artemis mission to the Moon. Check out images from the event at our Michoud Assembly Facility: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJUW9JW 

1,104

11:56 PM - Dec 9, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

173 people are talking about this

While there's no specific date set so far for the first Artemis launch, you can check out NASA's general timeline of proposed missions between 2020 and 2024 here. 

https://mashable.com/video/sarahamyharvard/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

'iPhone 12' could get bigger battery because of smaller circuitry

By William Gallagher
Monday, December 09, 2019, 03:41 am PT (06:41 am ET)

A reduction in the size of an essential battery protection circuit for the iPhone could mean that Apple has room to include bigger batteries in the 2020 "iPhone 12" series.

Alongside the battery itself, iPhones have circuitry to prevent overcharging (Image source: iFixit)

Sources within the supply chain claim that the "iPhone 12" expected to be released in late 2020 will feature smaller battery-related circuitry. The custom battery Protection Module Package (PMP) which governs charging is said to be both 50% smaller and thinner. The difference could mean that Apple will be able to increase the size of the battery.

According to The Elec, a Korean website, the reduction and redesign has been done by South Korea's ITM Semiconductor. The company reportedly first supplied the protection module to Apple for the iPhone 11, although it already provides components for the AirPods Pro.

ITM Semiconductor is said to currently be one of three suppliers making what are called Protection Circuit Modules or PCMs. Compeq in Taiwan and MinebeaMitsumi in Japan have also made them for Apple. However, what ITM Semiconductor has redesigned is a Protection Module Package (PMP) which appears to be unique to the company.

It's this new PMP which is smaller and so may provide extra room for battery space. Separate reports, though, say that 5G in the forthcoming iPhones will require larger circuit boards which may mean there's still no more space for larger batteries.

Forthcoming 5G iPhones are expected to need larger, more costly motherboards

ITM Semiconductor is reportedly due to complete work on a third plant in Vietnam which is intended to be used solely for Apple. The company is said to be planning a fourth plant and it's also possible that the PMP will be used in tablets and computers as well as phones.

Diplomacy

Large European firms sidestepping ‘futile’ tariffs, not moving from China to US, survey suggests

• ‘Repetitive swings of the tariff hammer have proven anything but strategic,’ according to EU Chamber of Commerce
• But smaller European companies ‘taking a steady beating’ as a result of tariffs

Wendy Wu  

Published: 1:22pm, 9 Dec, 2019

The survey suggested larger European companies had re-routed or relocated to get around the tariffs. Photo: AP

US 

tariffs

 have failed to attract investment to the United States or pressure China into structural reforms, an influential European business lobby group has said after its research suggested large companies had found ways around the charges.

Large European companies operating in China had “effectively sidestepped” tariffs imposed by Washington and Beijing, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in its latest survey on the tariffs on Monday.

However, its survey of firms found that smaller companies were taking “a steady beating” as a result of tariffs.

“China certainly needs timely and wide-ranging reforms, and the right amount of strategic pressure can help move things in the right direction, but repetitive swings of the tariff hammer have proven anything but strategic,” chamber president Joerg Wuttke said.

“That European companies in China have effectively negated tariff effects in a relatively short space of time only serves to highlight the futility of bilateral tariffs in a global marketplace.”

Wuttke also said that US-China trade talks had yet to resolve structural economic issues in China that had long been a source of complaint from foreign business communities.

Large companies with global footprints had re-routed the origins and destinations of US or China-bound products to avoid the US-China trade border, “rendering the bilateral tariffs ineffective”, the survey found.

The chamber said that many companies were moving production out of China, mostly to Southeast Asia and India, and just as many were increasing investment into China, to move supply chains there for products aimed at Chinese customers.

The survey was conducted from September 12 to 20, after the US imposed 15 per cent tariffs on US$125 billion worth of Chinese products on September 1. The chamber first conducted the survey last year, after the 

trade war

 began.

For imports from the US that had been subject to China’s tariffs, the number of European firms that chose to keep product prices the same was twice as great as those that raised prices to pass the costs along to customers, the survey suggested. The first survey had suggested there was an even split.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3041221/large-european-firms-sidestepping-futile-tariffs-not-moving

Youngest Prime Ministers

• Monday, 09 Dec 2019
 
• Today's Paper
 
• Advertise

• Finland's Social Democrats name Marin to be youngest ever prime minister

  By Reuters
  Published: December 9, 2019
  
  
  
  Sarra Marin. PHOTO: REUTERS
  HELSINKI: Finland’s transportation minister Sanna Marin was selected by her Social Democratic party on Sunday to become the country’s youngest prime minister ever, taking over after the resignation of Antti Rinne.
  The 34-year-old Marin, whose party is the largest in a five-member governing coalition, will be the world’s youngest serving prime minister when she takes office in the coming days.
  Rinne resigned on Tuesday after a party in the coalition, the Centre Party, said it had lost confidence in him following his handling of a postal strike.
  “We have a lot of work ahead to rebuild trust,” Marin told reporters after winning a narrow vote among the party leadership. Antti Lindtman, head of the party’s parliamentary group, was runner up.
  Marin has had swift rise in Finnish politics since becoming head of the city council of her industrial hometown of Tampere at the age of 27.
  She will take over in the middle of a 3-day wave of strikes, which will halt production at some of Finland’s largest companies from Monday. The Confederation of Finnish Industries estimates the strikes will cost the companies a combined 500 million euros ($550 million) in lost revenue.
  The centre-left coalition, which took office just six months ago, has agreed to continue with its political program stressing a shift to carbon neutrality after Rinne announced he was stepping down at the demand of the Centre Party.
  “We have a joint government program which glues the coalition together,” Marin said.
  The timing of the change in leadership is awkward for Finland, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, playing a central role in efforts to hammer out a new budget for the bloc.
  https://tribune.com.pk/story/2114227/3-finlands-social-democrats-name-marin-youngest-ever-prime-minister/