Islamabad, Pakistan – Thousands of far-right religious demonstrators continue to block major roads across Pakistan in protest against the acquittal of a Christian woman in a high-profile blasphemy case.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) political party, led by firebrand Muslim leader Khadim Rizvi, organised rallies in cities across the South Asian country on Thursday, despite a warning from Prime Minister Imran Khan not to “force the government to have to take action”.

Aasia Bibi, 53, who was on death row for eight years, was acquitted by the country’s top court on Wednesday, with judges saying the prosecution contained “glaring and stark” contradictions.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling was pronounced, Rizvi led a major protest outside government buildings in the eastern city of Lahore, with fellow TLP leaders declaring the three judges who acquitted Bibi to be “liable to be killed”.

The sit-in protest in Lahore remained the largest TLP demonstration on Thursday, with other major demonstrations being held in the southern city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest. Protesters are also blockading a major highway into the capital, Islamabad.

Most schools and many businesses remained closed in all three cities through the day, with hospitals placed on high alert in case the protests turned violent. Highways were partially shut down, and the federal cabinet held an emergency meeting to discuss the law and order situation.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a televised address to the nation, accused the TLP of attempting to stir religious sentiments for political gains.

“I say to these people: do not confront this state … do not damage this country for your vote bank,” said Khan.

“If you do this, I promise that the government will do its duty … I ask you: do not force the government to have to take action,” he added.

On Thursday, Shehryar Afridi, Pakistan’s minister of state for interior affairs, told parliament that talks were under way with protesters to end the stand-off.

‘Watershed moment’

Blasphemy against Islam and its prophet is a sensitive subject in Pakistan, where the crime can carry a compulsory death sentence.

Increasingly, blasphemy accusations have resulted in mob lynchings and extrajudicial murders.

At least 74 people have been killed in violence related to blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

There are still roughly 40 people on death row, or serving life sentences for blasphemy, in Pakistan, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Bibi’s case had become emblematic of fair-trial concerns in cases related to the country’s blasphemy laws, with two senior political leaders who stood up for her gunned down in 2009 for supporting her.

Rights groups have hailed her acquittal as a watershed moment.

“Justice has finally prevailed. The message must go out that the blasphemy laws will no longer be used to persecute the country’s most vulnerable minorities,” said Omar Waraich, deputy director for South Asia at human rights group Amnesty International.

Tense calm 

At the protest at Islamabad’s Faizabad interchange, roughly 2,000 TLP supporters had gathered to block a major road into the federal capital.

TLP volunteers had visibly beefed up security at the demonstration’s entry and exit points. They barred entry to journalists, saying they would only be allowed to pass after surrendering cameras and other equipment.

Among the protesters, a tense calm prevailed, with many young men interspersed among the crowd carrying sticks and metal rods.

Many sat on reed mats, listening to devotional poems and sermons extolling the virtues of loving Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The TLP mainly represents the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam, which places a particular importance on the veneration of the personage and honour of the prophet. 

Overhead, two military helicopters flew low over the crowd, prompting shouts from many protesters. Two young men manning a barricade angrily shook their sticks at the aircraft.

Further protests are expected on Friday following midday prayers, with other right-wing religious groups joining the TLP in its rejection of the verdict.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim

In August, someone finally gave Carly Rae Jepsen a sword. A few months later, we have our first new song from the pop singer in a year and a half in “Party For One.” Coincidence?

While the campaign to arm the Queen of Emotion was mostly in jest, there’s no denying that once she proudly raised that (inflatable) blade on the Lollapalooza stage, something changed forever. On “Party For One,” Carly Rae sounds confident, even in the face of rejection.

The video, directed by Bardia Zeinali, doubles down on that, placing her in a hotel room, alone, in her underwear, and just having the damn time of her life.

It’s not just her, though; the scenes are intercut with plenty of others suffering through heartbreak by themselves. What they choose to do about it — have dinner in the bath, laugh and cry at the TV all night, DIY some bangs — is where the delicious catharsis comes in.

The music here matches these sensations, with a tidal wave of synthesized gloss coating the ache of the lyrics: “Party for one / If you don’t care about me / I’ll just dance by myself / Back on my beat.” Classic CRJ! A modern karaoke standard is born.

As fans began suspecting online when news of the song first hit, “Party For One” is indeed the first taste of an upcoming fourth CRJ album, due out sometime in 2019. It’ll be her first proper album since 2015’s EMOTION.

Watch the wild video above and see if you have any sudden cravings for Absolut, Calvin Klein, or Postmates after.

Some people are so obsessed with Halloween that they dress up their pets. Then there are the people who take it to the next level by dressing up their backyard squirrel.

Storyboard artist Sean Chen shared an extremely spooky post on Instagram showing off the Scream mask up outside of a window that happened to attract a neighborhood squirrel.

It is both adorable and horrifying. 

“Finally done with all the kid’s costumes! Made one a while back for our backyard squirrel which she’ll be wearing for Halloween,” Chen captioned the post.

Maybe the squirrel is a fan of irreverent horror satire?

It’s impossible to resist the beauty of tried-and-true squirrel-in-a-mask gags. It’s just too good.

Riace, Italy – The cobbled street leading to an arched passage known as the “water gate”, one of the entrances to the hilltop hamlet of Riace, is as quiet as the valley it overlooks. 

Inside the ancient walls, shops are shut and homes are up for sale. 

“Normality clashes with a world intoxicated with hatred and prejudice,” said Riace’s former mayor, Domenico Lucano, speaking to Al Jazeera by phone from Caulonia, another small town on southern Italy’s Ionic coast.

Accused of aiding undocumented migration, Lucano has found refuge there since he was banned from living in his native village in mid-October. 

“Riace has been destroyed,” he said in his typically emotional manner.

Lucano became Riace’s mayor in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009 and 2014. 

His idea of reviving the dying village’s economy by hosting refugees in homes left empty by Italians who had migrated abroad attracted international spotlight.

Bayram, a 52-year-old from a Kurdish village in southeastern Turkey, was one of 200 kurds who arrived to Riace’s shores in 1998, an event seen by residents as a watershed moment. Of those refugees, he’s the only one who stayed.

“I was escaping war, but I realised here there was a different type of war: it was hunger. My friends said I was crazy to stay,” Bayram recounts. “Riace was very different when I arrived. None of this was here,” he says pointing at the terraces he helped build for an animal park that, it was hoped, would bring visitors. 

But animal shacks now lie empty. 

In the town, the Pakistani kite maker, Afghan embroidery shop and glass blower have been shut since last August after workers stopped receiving salaries when, a year ago, an investigation was opened into the use of public funds for refugees in the town. 

The inquiry involved Lucano and 32 others. 

The only charges still standing against the mayor concern a phone call that allegedly shows him facilitating a “marriage of convenience”, and irregularities in assigning contracts for a door-to-door recycling service to a local cooperative without a public tender.

Bayram, who was a carpenter in his native village, was head of the woodworking workshop, but lost that job alongside two young people from the town. 

At Riace’s peak, the various organisations that operated in the town had created 80 jobs for both locals and refugees, and an additional 14 at the multi-ethnic nursery school, now closed.

The atmosphere has changed, in Riace as in the rest of Italy. We have to go back to our beginnings.

Giuseppe Gervasi, Riace deputy mayor

When the tap was closed on public funds – about two million euro a year – Riace’s ecosystem collapsed. 

As refugee arrivals peaked in Italy in 2015-16, a third of the town’s inhabitants had been asylum seekers. That number had gone down to about 200 in recent months, as people started leaving, looking to make a living elsewhere.

“When we started, for the first three to four years, we didn’t receive any funding. [Lucano’s] organisation, Citta Futura (City of the Future) was born that way. Some tourists would come, but it wasn’t enough to pay the bills,” says Bayram, who at the time worked in construction and volunteered for the organisation.

He now works as a driver and handyman for those refugees left behind, but he has no idea if he’ll ever be paid for it. And for the first time in 20 years, he is thinking seriously about leaving.

A town in limbo

Riace’s two local bars are always open. 

One is known as being for and the other against the mayor’s politics. From the old men who hang out there all day, to the refugees in the nearby square, everyone is waiting to see what comes next.

Earlier in October, Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini caused an uproar when he said all refugees living in Riace would be transferred. 

“Some people panicked and left, they thought they’d be deported,” says Rosa, a Cameroonian single mother whose five-year-old is playing in the town’s main square. She like others, has no idea what will happen.

“She loves this town like her own,” says Rosa of her daughter, who has now spent more of her life in Italy than in Cameroon. 

According to locals, three or four families left of their own accord after the announcement. The rest are in a limbo, waiting to see when and where they’ll have to go.

Salvini’s statements were picked up by enough media outlets to have an effect on public opinion. The interior minister, who adopted a hardline on migration as a whole, retracted shortly afterwards, explaining that the transfer to other reception centres would be voluntary – but that those deciding to stay would lose state help. 

The reality is that no one can afford to stay in a place with no income or work opportunities.

Even the local football team, AC Riace, faces an uncertain future. A lot of the players are part of a project for unaccompanied minors. On the pitch, French is the preferred language.

Daniel Yaboah is originally from Ghana, but speaks Italian with the sighing and soft consonants typical of the local dialect. He’s been living in Riace for a decade. His two children, five and nine years old, grew up here. 

The 36-year-old used to be part of the cooperative that ran the rubbish collection service Lucano is accused of assigning without a public tender. He’s now scratching a living as a day labourer.

“Here there wasn’t something like work for Italians, and work for foreigners. We were in it together,” Daniel said. “There has never been a problem between locals and foreigners, like elsewhere in Italy. Things worked, until this mess with funds,” he added.

Lucano’s idea became a model for other hamlets in the region and throughout Italy, which form the Network of Solidarity Towns (ReCoSol). 

The organisation has started a fundraising campaign for Riace. 

“We can create jobs in the workshops, 15 to 20 workshops that can give work to youth from Riace and refugees,” Giuseppe Gervasi, the deputy mayor, told Al Jazeera in the mayor’s deserted office. 

Posters behind him speak of multiculturalism and anti-mafia culture.

“The atmosphere has changed, in Riace as in the rest of Italy,” said Gervasi. “We have to go back to our beginnings.”

On September 6, the day before Mac Miller‘s untimely death, he tweeted out a link to buy tickets for his Swimming tour, promising, “This show is going to be special every night.” The 26-date trek was slated to kick off on October 27 in San Francisco before touching down at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre on October 31. And while we’ll never get to see what Mac had in store for that live show, a formidable lineup of his hip-hop family assembled at the Greek on Halloween to fill the date with a benefit concert that honored Miller’s life in stunning, spirited, and certainly special fashion.

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“Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah! / Lala how the life goes on.” As fans filed into the Greek on Wednesday evening for “Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life,” The Beatles’ classic White Album blasted from the outdoor venue’s speakers. There were plenty of Halloween costumes in the crowd — a skeleton, a Pikachu, an angel, a devil — but even more Miller-emblazoned tees and Pittsburgh gear. The merch tables sold black hoodies with the phrase “’92 til infinity” printed on the front, commemorating Miller’s birth year. In line at the concessions stand, a couple from Phoenix and two girls from Hawaii chatted about their long-but-“worth it” trips there.

When the lights finally dimmed around 7 p.m., a montage of home videos appeared on the big screen, showing a young, smiley Mac dancing and blowing out birthday candles. Miller’s childhood best friend, Dylan Reynolds, took the stage a few minutes later to perform an acoustic cover of “Come Back to Earth,” the cathartic opening track from the rapper’s fifth and final album, Swimming. His sweet, simple performance kicked off three hours of musical tributes from Miller’s friends and collaborators — from J.I.D., who was supposed to open on the Swimming tour, to NJOMZA, who debuted a new song with the heartbreaking hook, “I miss you / I do / It’s true.”

But as inherently grim as the evening’s agenda was, it ended up being a largely celebratory occasion that only got more adrenalized with each performance. Action Bronson lit up a joint while rapping, “I’m just out here livin’ my best life.” Ty Dolla $ign smashed a guitar and bounded through the crowd during “Blasé,” which he said was one of Mac’s favorite songs. Anderson .Paak got behind the drum kit for a funk-fueled set that included his Mac collab, “Dang!,” while Thundercat‘s groovy contribution featured cameos from Vince Staples and John Mayer, the latter of whom later returned to cover Mac’s “Small Pools.”

By the time Rae Sremmurd made a surprise appearance for “No Type” and “Powerglide” — with a shirtless Swae Lee proclaiming, “Let’s turn up, we on a good vibe” — the crowd was in full-on hype mode. Schoolboy Q kept the energy up with “That Part,” revealing that Mac was in the studio with him the night he wrote the track’s first verse. SZA reminded us that we’ll be all right “long as we got love,” while Chance the Rapper‘s set ran the gamut from sentimental (“Blessings”) to swaggering (“No Problem”). It helped that any lag time between performers was filled with something, whether it was a collection of video tributes from the likes of Lil Wayne and Donald Glover, to a moment of silence for the victims of last weekend’s Pittsburgh shooting.

Travis Scott was tasked with delivering the finale, and he ended his two-song offering (“Goosebumps” and a truncated but fiery “Sicko Mode”) by delivering one of the evening’s most moving speeches.

“We all know Mac is watching over us. I just want everybody to just stay strong,” he said, pacing the stage as a photo of a young, toothless Miller appeared behind him. “If you have a friend with you, always tell them you love them. Always give your mom a kiss, always give your dad a hug. No matter if you’re mad at somebody, the next day, just check on them. Everybody is somebody. We all one, no matter your skin color, your hair, if you’re a rapper, a basketball player. The key word to this whole shit is motherfucking love.”

Motherfucking love was, undeniably, the spirit of the evening. Proceeds from the event benefitted the newly launched Mac Miller Circles Fund, which his family and the Pittsburgh Foundation posthumously established in his honor. It supports the enrichment of youth arts education in underserved communities, and it’s impossible not to think Miller would’ve loved his name being used to inspire new generations of budding artists.

Mac was actually the last person fans heard from at the end of the night. After all of the evening’s performers gathered onstage for one final goodbye, Miller’s voice blasted through the speakers, saying, “Thank you guys so much. Have a great night, everybody.”

Damn… and just when we thought we’d get through the night without crying.

Driving for Uber isn’t always the most rewarding experience. Strangers puke in your car. Riders tip poorly. You might not break even if you’re leasing a car. A recent driver survey from ride-sharing guide Ridester showed the average hourly wage is not even $15.

So Uber has devised a reward program called Uber Pro to motivate and recognize hard-working and committed drivers — and it’s not just about cramming the most rides into a day. Uber wants to reward drivers who offer a high-quality experience and are dedicated to their driving duties.

On Thursday, Uber Pro debuted its pilot program in Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Denver, and New Jersey. Based on how it goes, Uber hopes to expand across the country and eventually internationally.

Drivers unlock rewards if they have at least a 4.85-star rating and a low cancellation rate under 4 percent. Every three months, drivers earn points per trip. The points earned during that period unlock status levels and rewards for the next three months. 

There are four status levels: partner, gold, platinum, and diamond. The higher the status, the better the rewards. But all are focused on improving driver earnings, maximizing drivers’ time, and helping with driver goals on and off the road. 

This isn’t supposed to play into the so-called “” of ride-share driving, but with levels given labels like “diamond” and “platinum” it veers into that territory. Some of the rewards are extra earnings for time and distance driven, cash back at gas stations, 25 percent off car maintenance, and for diamond status, free dent repair. Other rewards include recognition that you’re a Pro driver in the app, priority support, faster airport pickups, and 24/7 roadside assistance.

The other part of Uber’s driver recognition program is free tuition at Arizona State University Online for platinum and diamond drivers. The company sees this as a big perk for its most committed drivers, many who tell Uber they want to eventually open their own business, finish their higher education, or work on their English language skills. The free tuition credit can be transferred to a spouse, domestic partner, child, sibling, parent, legal guardian or dependent. 

“These are the drivers who have invested so much in Uber,” Ali Wiezbowski, Uber driver product lead, said in a phone call this week. 

In an op-ed for the Arizona Republic Thursday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and ASU president Michael Crow wrote about the free tuition. 

“We hope to provide a model of how business and academia can leverage knowledge, technology, and scale to help more people gain the skills they need to advance in their lives, serve their families and communities, and contribute to the betterment of society,” they wrote.

To kick off the pilot, drivers who have already completed 3,000 trips over the past three months will be brought into the rewards program.

Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images

Google employees walked out of offices in London and Dublin on Thursday morning in a protest over harassment and inequality. 

It’s expected that thousands of Google staff will participate in a walkout of its 70 offices worldwide over the company’s handling of sexism complaints, abuse of power, pay inequality, and racism in the workplace. 

The protest comes just days after a New York Times report alleged that Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, was given a $90 million payout from Google “while keeping silent” about a string of sexual misconduct claims. Per the NYT story, Rubin had multiple relationships with Google employees and “coerced” oral sex from an employee in 2013 — a claim that the company investigated and found credible. In a statement, Rubin denied the allegations, claiming the NYT story contained “numerous inaccuracies” and he states he “never coerced a woman to have sex in a hotel room.” 

Protestors are calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc to share pay equity data internally and to make its process for dealing with harassment claims fairer. 

Protestors are making formal demands to the tech giant’s management, including a public sexual harassment transparency report, a clear process for safely and anonymously reporting misconduct and harassment, the appointment of an employee representative to the board of directors, and an express commitment to ending pay inequality. 

According to a BBC report, staff participating in the walkout will be leaving a note on their desks to inform colleagues that they are protesting. “I’m not at my desk because I’m walking out with other Googlers and contractors to protest sexual harassment, misconduct, lack of transparency, and a workplace culture that’s not working for everyone,” reads the note. 

The first office to protest was Google’s Singapore location.

Staff in Google’s Dublin office began the walkout at around 11 a.m. GMT.  

Meanwhile, crowds gathered outside Google’s office in Granary Square, London. 

“I’m here protesting against harassment in the workplace to make sure that we don’t protect or support those perpetrators of harassment,” one Google employee told Sky News. 

Protests also happened inside the Google offices. A Google employee tweeted a photo from inside one of Google’s four locations within London. 

Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has told an Israeli newspaper he intends to defy the Palestinians and most of the world by moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Asked in an interview with Israel Hayom published on Thursday if he would move Brazil’s embassy, as he had indicated during his campaign, Bolsonaro said Israel should decide where its capital is located.

“When I was asked during the campaign if I’d do it when I became president, I said ‘yes, the one who decides on the capital of Israel is you, not other nations’,” he told the paper, which is a firm backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Brazil would become the second major country after the United States to do so.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its “united” capital, and its annexation of occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 effectively put the entire city under de-facto Israeli control.

The Palestinians, however, see occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

The international community does not recognise Israel’s jurisdiction and ownership of the city.

The status of Jerusalem

Palestinians say that moving the embassy would prejudge one of the most sensitive issues in the conflict – the status of Jerusalem – and undermine the US’ status as an honest mediator.

In December, President Donald Trump reversed long-standing US policy and recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to boycott his administration.

The embassy was officially transferred on May 14, with Guatemala and Paraguay following suit, though the latter announced last month it would return its embassy to Tel Aviv.

Bolsonaro, 63, who won a runoff election on Sunday, has outraged many with his overtly misogynistic, homophobic and racist rhetoric.

Following his victory, Netanyahu told Bolsonaro he was certain his election “will lead to a great friendship between our peoples and the tightening of links between Brazil and Israel.”

An official in Netanyahu’s office told AFP the Israeli prime minister was “very likely” to attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration ceremony in January.

Dumbledore’s Army is a powerful force in the Harry Potter books and movies, and in real-life too. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry, Ron, and Hermione start the secret organization to teach their fellow Hogwarts students how to defend themselves against the dark arts and, most especially, Voldemort. You-Know-Who is a fictional character, but Donald Trump is real, and worse than the Dark Lord, according to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. 

Fans who feel the same way and want to be activists can join The Harry Potter Alliance, a nonprofit that helps Potterheads channel their energy into social justice issues. It offers chapter programs and training programs like the Wizard Activist School, which helps fans develop skills regarding conflict-resolution, engagement, and event-planning. The Granger Leadership Academy is a semi-annual four-day conference where members attend workshops and hear from keynote speakers. 

The organization has chapters in over 25 countries, and in addition to local challenges, they focus on the seven critical issues outlined in their plan for resistance, which include climate change, LGBTQIA+ equality, and racial justice. Everyone who takes part in the nonprofit’s efforts becomes part of Dumbledore’s Army, a parallel to the one featured in the books and movies. 

“We consider ourselves Dumbledore’s Army for the real world because we are all young people or formerly young people who decided a long time ago that it wasn’t up to just the people who are considered leaders in the country, and in our world, to make change,” Katie Bowers, campaigns director for The Harry Potter Alliance, told Mashable. “It’s really up to all of us, and if folks feel like they don’t have the skills to make that change yet, we are here for them.”

Since 2005, The Harry Potter Alliance has engaged with millions of fans, but following the 2016 election, the organization experienced a spike in sign-ups. Nearly 200 new chapters were created, and in total, over 1,000 new members joined. The Harry Potter Alliance is now rallying its members for their latest undertaking: the midterm elections. 

On Thursday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. EST., The Harry Potter Alliance will host a livestream event, in partnership with Latinx Geeks and the #NoOn105 campaign, in order to defeat ballot measure 105 in Oregon. If passed, the measure will repeal the state’s sanctuary law and allow local law enforcement to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in potentially racially profiling and detaining suspected undocumented immigrants. 

To mobilize support against the measure, fans will learn how to make calls to Oregon voters to remind them to vote no and to help them locate ballot drop sites. (Oregon has all-mail elections, which means voters must mail their ballots or drop them off at an official drop box.) 

Fans will also hear from creative professionals, including documentary filmmaker and director Annalise Ophelian (Looking for Leia), actor and undocumented activist Bambadjan Bamba (Black Panther, The Good Place), and comic creator Edgardo Miranda Rodriguez (La Borinqueña). 

The Harry Potter Alliance will also team up with The Women’s March Youth Empower Coalition and take part in its #VoterUp initiative. The goal is to help members put a voting plan into place, and provide information about where and when to vote, as well as which races and ballot measures to study. In addition to sharing messages on social media, The Harry Potter Alliance will reach out to their chapter organizers and list-serves to share resources.

No matter the election results, The Harry Potter Alliance will continue organizing and fighting for marginalized communities. 

“Obviously we’re hoping for some really wonderful outcomes, but whatever happens, we’re going to have an action immediately following that is dedicated to making the point that refugees and immigrants are welcome in our communities and always will be,” Bowers said. 

The ongoing action is known as Owls of Hope, a call to members to write letters to refugees. It’s a response to the Trump administration’s decision to reduce the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. in 2019, from 45,000 to 30,000. The campaign was also inspired by the Hogwarts letters Harry Potter received via messenger owls. 

“Those were sent to Harry, who was … a victim of the first wizarding war and grew up in some pretty rough circumstances, who was able to come to the wizarding world and start an entirely new life,” Bowers said. 

The Harry Potter Alliance, in partnership with , the , and Any Refugee, will deliver the letters to refugees on Nov. 10.

But that’s not all. This fall, The Harry Potter Alliance launched Dumbledore’s Army Fights Back, a campaign that will continue to support marginalized communities throughout fall 2018 and into 2019. In the past, the campaign called attention to the migrant children still separated from their parents, and released an anti-bullying toolkit, Don’t Be a Dursley, to educate members about the sources of bullying, the different types of bullying, what to do if they themselves are being bullied, and why not to be a bystander. 

The hashtag #StoptheSnatchers is a major component of the campaign. It was originally created by the NYC chapter, New York Dumbledore’s Army, in summer 2018, in response to the Trump-led family-separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. As many Potterheads know, the hashtag is a reference to the snatchers (essentially bounty hunters) introduced in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They bearing a striking resemblance to ICE, considering they roamed the country, trying to catch Muggle-borns because they were deemed illegal by Voldemort and his administration…I mean the Ministry of Magic. 

To help support The Harry Potter Alliance, consider donating to Resistance is Magic, an Indiegogo fundraiser that will fund Dumbledore’s Army Fights Back. It ends on Saturday, Nov. 3. Perks include Harry Potter posters, shirts, and more. You can also start or join a chapter, join the mailing list, or volunteer. Whether you’re a brave Gryffindor, a loyal Hufflepuff, a witty Ravenclaw, or a cunning Slytherin, this is a movement you’ll want to be a part of. 

Image: bob al-greene / mashable

By Lisa A. Goldstein2018-11-01 11:00:00 UTC

Welcome to , an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2018 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

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There are a lot of things kids and parents fight over, and video games are often high on the list. Many parents, especially those who don’t play video games themselves, may be reluctant to let kids play games over concerns about safety, violence, or even simple screen time. The good news is that there are plenty of resources to move your family game discussions away from a reflexive “no” and toward a more nuanced articulation of house rules. 

The information below will help you understand more how your kid’s favorite games are played and what kind of content they include. This is distinct from a family policy on gaming as screen time or coming after other activities. Once you choose what games you’ll allow, then you can create a framework for how and when they’re played. 

This vast and growing world of gaming can feel overwhelming, but there are a variety of resources and tools to help make informed decisions, says Eric Watson, primary contributor to , a website that bills itself as providing honest gaming news for families. “Use the Internet!” he says. 

The content of games, especially those with violence, can make some parents wary. But there are many popular games by players. Whole categories of mobile games, which are often overlooked as being “video games,” are relatively violence-free. 

A good place to start an evaluation of a game is the – the ESRB rating assesses age appropriateness, content, and interactive elements. It’s a bit of a blunt instrument, but it’ll give you a rough sense of the content of the game. The nonprofit includes recommendations for a variety of games for all ages of kids. If you have a more specific questions, try the database on . 

In addition to calling upon these resources, David Bickham, PhD,  staff scientist at The Center on Media and Child Health and an instructor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, suggests playing the game to see how it works if possible. Otherwise, he says, watching online videos about the game can be helpful. Your kid can help you here – streams abound on YouTube and Twitch. 

Safety precautions

If parents are while playing a video game, a key question to ask is if the game has an open chat (like Minecraft). “This is a large concern for many parents and likely a valid one,” says Dr. Bickham, “because it puts children in a real-time potentially non-moderated conversation with unknown children, teens, and adults. There’s a possibility for sexist, violent, and harassing language.”

Even if the game doesn’t have an open chat, other pieces of software provide chat opportunities that are typically unmonitored, Dr. Bickham adds. He recommends talking to your child about concerns you might have and looking for settings that allow playing without the chat feature.

Some games are predicated on large groups of players engaging simultaneously, meaning kids are playing with strangers online in default settings. Fortnite: Battle Royale is perhaps the best current example of that genre. It is possible to set some game servers to friends-only. 

“The best way to know exactly who your kids are playing with is to limit online interaction altogether and encourage local play with real friends,” says Watson. The Nintendo Switch system fosters this kind of play with several games with local multiplayer options, like Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Watson lays out some other details to consider:

• Is the game primarily played online (like Wizard101)?

• Are there any in-app purchases or microtransactions (small payments which allow users to purchase in-game currency and speed up progress; Tiny Tower has this). You can restrict these in your phone settings for mobile games. 

• What parental controls are available for the game and/or console or platform it’s played on?

• Can certain features – like voice or text chat – be turned off, and if so, can they easily be turned back on when you leave the room?

The important thing to remember is that you know your children better than anyone, Dr. Bickham says. “Be alert for aspects of games that you know might upset, frighten, or otherwise negatively impact your child,” he says. “The app store is full of games that will match interest and ability level of kids, so if you don’t like one that your child wants to play, look around for a game that meets a similar need using a different approach.”

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