Across the world, the biggest smartphone manufacturers are Apple (28%), Samsung (24%), Xiaomi (12%), Oppo (6%) and Vivo (5%). However, there are geographic patterns in popularity, with Apple dominating North America and East Asia, while Samsung leads in South America, Europe, Africa and West Asia in addition to its home turf of South Korea. Xiaomi is the most popular phone brand across South Asia, Spain, Venezuela, Ukraine, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Palestine, while Tecno is popular in West and Central Africa. Oppo, Vivo and Huawei lead in Indonesia, Bhutan and Togo respectively.

Across the world, the biggest smartphone manufacturers are Apple (28%), Samsung (24%), Xiaomi (12%), Oppo (6%) and Vivo (5%). However, there are geographic patterns in popularity, with Apple dominating North America and East Asia, while Samsung leads in South America, Europe, Africa and West Asia in addition to its home turf of South Korea. Xiaomi is the most popular phone brand across South Asia, Spain, Venezuela, Ukraine, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan and Palestine, while Tecno is popular in West and Central Africa. Oppo, Vivo and Huawei lead in Indonesia, Bhutan and Togo respectively.

Low hanging fruit, but whatever. It is what it is.

South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that the state health insurance agency should provide the same benefits to spouses in same-gender relationships as it does to those in heterosexual marriages. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

South Korea, like most of East Asia, neither prohibits nor recognises same-sex relationships. As of now, only three places in Asia - Nepal, Thailand and Taiwan - have full marriage equality.

The Labour party has won over 400 seats (out of 650) in the 2024 UK General Elections, and Keir Starmer is expected to replace Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister. The Conservatives, in power for the last fourteen years, have suffered a rout, losing over two-thirds of their seats. The SNP has collapsed in Scotland, mostly to Labour, and the Liberal Democrats have gained over sixty seats.

(Context: the 2024 Parliament elections in India, for the constituency of Kollam. The numbers in brackets are lead, not change from last election. Source: Election Commission of India)

Preliminary results for the 2024 Indian General election suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party is set to lose its absolute majority in the lower house of Parliament. However, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it leads is projected to cross the halfway mark. The opposition INDIA alliance is projected to more than double its seat count, from 92 to around 200 seats.

I have about 500GB of data (photos, documents, videos etc.) that I have accumulated over the years. Currently, I keep them on my computer and rsync all additions / changes once a month or so to an external hard drive. Do I need to be worried about data loss (sectors going bad, bit rot, bit flip, whatever it is called)?

To clarify,

1. None of this is commercially important; I just don't want to get into a situation where I look up an old family photo or video twenty years down the line and it has got corrupted.

2. Both my computer and the external HD are HDDs. They are fairly cheap here (and very cheap if second hand). Buying SSDs or dedicated hardware would be expensive.

Following the last day of voting for the 2024 Indian Parliamentary elections, exit polls predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Democratic Alliance would retain its majority, winning 340 - 401 seats compared to 353 in 2019. The main opposition INDIA alliance was expected to win 109 - 169 seats, up from 91 in 2019. Three 'neutral' regional parties - the BRS, BJD and TMC, were expected to lose seats.

Compared to 2019, the NDA was expected to win West Bengal from the TMC, and to make inroads into south India, where it has historically been weak. In return, INDIA was expected to pick up seats in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar, and to wrest Telangana from the BRS.

The Supreme Court of India, in a case concerning the protection of the Great Indian Bustard, ruled that the right against climate change is a fundamental right. Fundamental rights are rights guaranteed by the constitution (such as the rights to equality and personal freedom) or 'interpreted' as such by the Supreme Court (so far, only the right to privacy). They apply to all Indian residents, rather than only citizens, and cannot be removed except by constitutional amendment. The court also set up an expert panel to monitor the protection of the bird, and urged governments to speed up expansion of solar power.

A report by the World Inequality Lab, co-authored by French economist Thomas Piketty, has estimated that in 2022-23, India's income and wealth inequalities were at their highest levels since records began in 1922 and 1961 respectively. The richest 1% of the population now own 40.1% of the nation's wealth, higher than in the US (34.9%), China (32.6%) or France (24%). Previously, inequality fell from Indian independence in 1947 to the 1980s and has been rising since.