As a riot rages, a smartly-dressed Chilean sips his soda
SANTIAGO: Wearing dark glasses, a suit and tie and sipping on a soda, the smartly-dressed Chilean standing on a Santiago boulevard looks surprisingly nonchalant about the tumult around him, with riot police chasing down masked protesters.
Chile’s protests began in October over a hike in metro fares but quickly unraveled into sometimes violent riots, looting, and arson that have left more than 26 dead. Students kicked off early rallies, but more than one million more have since joined in anger over social injustices and inequality.
Veteran Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic – who has decades of experience in war zones – took the photo with a telephoto lens last week, immediately recognizing the moment as a surreal image of calm amid chaos.
The subject of the picture turned out to be 68-year old retiree Gino Rojas, a protester, who later told Reuters he saw nothing unusual about the situation.
“In every movement there comes a time to relax,” Rojas said in an interview at his apartment in Santiago several days after the Dec 4 riot. “Obviously in a revolution… you get hot, uncomfortable in your suit and your tie snugs up.”
Rojas, who earlier in his life worked in the credit card department of a Chilean retailer, calls himself an “activist,” and said he joined the marches out of solidarity with the protesters seeking change.
He recalls the moment he stopped in the road and lifted his soda bottle to take a sip.
“When I stopped I was surprised to see (the police) closing in on me in both lanes,” Rojas said. “They came in buses and stopped 10 meters (11 yards) away. I stopped to watch them.”
For Tomasevic, who had already lost one camera to a water cannon amid the skirmishes, the assignment was equal parts tense and rewarding.
“There was a lot of tear gas, a lot of sweating,” Tomasevic said. “I noticed this guy as I followed police.”
“I had seen people coming to protest in suits and well-dressed, which was unusual compared to other places.” (Reuters)
Trump campaign has US President as super villain Thanos
Washington: In a bizarre move, Donald Trump’s campaign has depicted US president as Thanos, the villain of Avengers film franchise.
The 21-second clip shared by Trump War Room shows Trump as Thanos saying “I am inevitable” before snapping his fingers, causing Democratic House leadership to disintegrate in the manner of the climax of “Infinity War”.
This comes as the House Democrats has fast-tracked proceeding in a bid to impeach Trump. The impeachment inquiry was launched by the House Democrats back in September after a phone call made by Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for allegedly asking to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“House Democrats can push their sham impeachment all they want. President Trump’s re-election is inevitable,” the account tweeted.
However, the depiction which was supposed to be light-hearted did not go well with the people. The campaign’s move seems to have backfired after people pointed out that in the movie Thanos had lost.
“Did you watch the movie??? This is the snap that doesn’t work because Iron Man stole the Infinity Stones moments before,” a user asked.
“The Trump campaign is now comparing the President to Thanos, the genocidal villain from The Avengers. This is bizarre. Even for them. (And they leave out the part where Thanos loses in the end),” another user tweeted. “You’ve made Trump a supervillain and depicted him in the scene where his plan to kill everyone in the universe falls apart due to his arrogance and incompetence,” a Twitterati replied. (ANI)