It’s Villain Week here at Mashable. In honor of the release of Venom, we’re celebrating all our favorite evildoers from film and TV all week long. Spooky, scary!

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Not every video game needs a villain, but a good one can make a strong game even better.

Villains give us reasons to fight. They motivate the story. Sometimes, they even see the error of their ways and switch teams. Usually though, villains represent the ultimate threat, the last obstacle to overcome before you can lean back in satisfaction as a game’s credits roll.

There’s a long and colorful history of memorable video game villains. We’re ranking them here based not on who’s “best,” but rather who’s “worst.” The more evil and detestable, the better.

10. Trevor Philips (Grand Theft Auto V)

Ah, Trevor. Pretty much any playable character in a Rockstar Games release qualifies as an anti-hero. But Trevor’s unhinged and antisocial behavior elevates him above the rest.

I guess he’s not your traditional villain, since you’re actually playing as Trevor for large portions of Grand Theft Auto V. But he’s memorable for his antics as a thief, a liar, and a murderer, and he lives that life whether you’re playing as him or against him.

9. Captain Martin Walker (Spec Ops: The Line)

Spec Ops: The Line delivered one of the most brilliant bait-and-switch twists I’ve ever seen in a story-driven action game. Spoilers ahead.

Your journey through a sandstorm-wracked Dubai is essentially a play on Apocalypse Now. Captain Martin Walker is introduced as one member of a squad that’s been sent to Dubai to restore order in the wake of the “Damned 33rd” Infantry Battalion and their PTSD-addled commander enacting a brutal form of martial law on the local population.

Only that’s not what’s really going on. By the end of the game, you learn that the Damned 33rd’s commander is dead, and many of the atrocities witnessed during the game were actually committed by Walker himself. It’s a dark, powerful turn that, in a matter of minutes, reframes the narrative around the idea that you’ve been a terrible scourge the entire time.

Two all-time great villains so far, and both of them were playable characters. That’s not weird, right?

8. Agent 47 (Hitman)

Technically speaking, the smooth-talking, fabulously bald star of the Hitman series is as lethal as you want him to be. Even though murder is on the menu in the end, every time, there’s nothing stopping you from knocking out possible witnesses instead of just killing them. Hell, your score is higher when you play the part of a conscientious hitman. Yay for only killing who you must!

But! Going completely non-lethal (save for your targets) brings a lot of added challenge to Hitman. It takes a lot more time to render someone unconscious out than snuff them out completely, and when you do the latter they never wake up.

Another playable villain. What’s going on here?

7. Booker DeWitt (BioShock Infinite)

BioShock Infinite is a thrilling game. And a confusing one. Spoilers!

You play as Booker DeWitt, and you’re up against Zachary Comstock, the founder of the floating sky city Columbia who also happens to be an alternate universe version of Booker. You don’t learn that detail about Comstock until the end, though.

And so you spend the game murdering your way across Columbia, which is populated with an army of Comstock adherents. Then, once all truths are revealed, you actually take the step of wiping Comstock — and the city he built — from existence.

Comstock is the villain here, let’s be clear. But Booker is Comstock. So Booker is the villain? Why are all of the best video game villains characters you control?

6. Wander (Shadow of the Colossus)

Let’s just impose a blanket spoiler warning for the rest of this list.

It’s clear early on in Shadow of the Colossus that something isn’t quite right. By the time you’ve led Wander to his first skyscraping Colossus — one of sixteen massive boss fights that make up the sum total of this otherwise combat-free game — you’re nagged by a creeping sense that your efforts to resurrect your dead lady love will involve tearing down this beautiful world.

That’s exactly what happens. Wander defeats the 16 Colossi, only to discover that in the process he’s unleashed a powerful magical being that’s been imprisoned for an unspecified amount of time. Oops.

5. Batman (Batman: Arkham Knight)

I know what you’re thinking. “Batman? Seriously???” 

Yes. For all of their technical and narrative excellence, the Arkham games took a weird turn in the last entry — Arkham Knight — when they gave the Caped Crusader a literal tank to use in his never-ending effort to keep Gotham City safe.

The bat-tank doesn’t fire explosive shells and it’s not technically built for destruction. What’s more, remote-operated drones are primarily what you’re shooting at when you’re in the tank. But. It’s a freaking tank. Big, heavy, destroys pretty much anything it rolls through. Collateral damage in the extremes.

Sorry Bats. The game expects us to suspend our disbelief, but Arkham Knight turned you into everything you claim to stand against.

4. Nathan Drake (Uncharted series)

Come on. Nate Drake? The Indiana Jones of video games?!

Have you played an Uncharted game lately? Nathan Drake may be a lovable scamp of a treasure hunter, but he’s also handy with bullets and the guns that shoot them. 

The climbing and puzzle solving in your typical Uncharted game is broken up by extended combat sequences in which you’re expected to lay waste to armies of bad dudes. Sure, Drake doesn’t gun down innocents (at least not knowingly). But make no mistake: He’s a mass murderer. In most civilized countries, dude would spend life behind bars for his crimes.

We’ve gone completely off the rails now. Action video game heroes are actually villains, confirmed.

3. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider reboot series)

Past Tomb Raider games have leaned in on action, but the Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 kicked off a new era for the series, one featuring a much more violent Lara Croft. It’s technically aping Uncharted in a lot of ways, but Uncharted went there first by openly aping Tomb Raider. (And both draw inspiration from Indiana Jones.)

Just like Drake, new Lara is a literal mass murderer. Over the course of any one game in the reboot trilogy, you’ll gun down hundreds of nameless dudes. Her coming of age journey is bathed in blood. She might see herself as a hero and a defender of the little people, but the families of the guys she gunned down would probably feel differently.

2. Mario (Super Mario World)

This could really apply to multiple Mario games where Yoshi also appears. Mario is the scourge of the Mushroom Kingdom, crushing its residents beneath his mushroom blood-soaked boots. But what really makes Mario worthy of god-tier villain status is his cruel treatment of Yoshi.

Yoshi, for those who might not know, is the smiling green dinosaur that Mario can ride like a horse. Yoshi has a number of abilities, including a great high jump. Mario can also use his dino friend as a launchpad, jumping as Yoshi and then jumping off of Yoshi at the apex of the first jump for extra height. 

This usually happens to bridge some otherwise uncrossable gap. Which means it ends with Yoshi inevitably plunging to his death in one of the game’s many bottomless death pits. Not too surprising that a guy who stomps living creatures just because they’re in his way would betray a friend like this.

1. IRL gamers (You know who you are)

Image: Shutterstock / MaryMistan

Twist! #NotAllGamers, amirite?

Here’s a good litmus test: If you’re offended at the idea that real-life gamers are the most dreadful villains in video games then you’re probably part of the problem.

Let’s review. Over the past year alone, angry gamers have prompted firings at two major studios, ArenaNet and Riot Games. They’ve harassed newly jobless Telltale Games developers because the company’s layoffs mean a partially released episodic game (probably) won’t be finished. They got weirdly aggressive over the role women play in a historical strategy game.

And don’t forget GamerGate, the hate group that’s engaged in an open campaign of harassment — primarily targeting women in the industry — since 2014. I’m going to weather a few days of attacks on social media after this publishes, simply because I invoked that detestable group’s name.

Yes, games are always going to struggle to strike the right balance between likable characters and entertaining action. Our favorite heroes are never going to stop being villains from a certain point of view. But the people who play these games aren’t lines of code. They’re people. They’re capable of change. And yet, many choose not to. I can’t think of anything more villainous.

WASHINGTON – Conferring the Medal of Honor on a former Army medic, President Donald Trump praised recipient Ronald Shurer II on Monday as an inspiration who saved lives in Afghanistan, served as a special agent in the Secret Service, and is now battling cancer.

“He’s been fighting it every single day,” Trump said during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House. “He’s a warrior.”

In a brief statement after the ceremony, Shurer said he was “incredibly honored and humbled” by the Medal of Honor, and he paid tribute to his comrades in battle.

“It’s really a team effort,” Shurer said.

While a Special Forces combat medic a decade ago, Shurer braved gunfire in Afghanistan to save wounded comrades who were pinned down by Taliban fighters.

In April 2008, in Afghanistan’s Skok Valley, Shurer and his team of commandos were ambushed by an enemy force of more than 200 militants with snipers, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. 

A senior medical sergeant, Shurer sprinted through enemy fire to treat one downed soldier, then dodged more bullets to catch up with members of his unit closest to the fighting. He fought for more than an hour to reach the group, killing several insurgents along the way, according to his commendation for the Silver Star.

Once there, he treated four more critically wounded soldiers and moved through gunfire to treat others. Shurer managed to evacuate the wounded soldiers down a near-vertical 60-foot cliff under fire while shielding them from falling debris, the commendation states.

“Blood all over the place,” Trump said in describing the scene.

Shurer loaded the wounded soldiers onto a helicopter, took command of his squad and headed back to the fight. His actions saved the lives of his teammates, Trump said.

“For more than six hours, Ron bravely faced down the enemy,” the president said. “Not a single American died in that brutal battle, thanks in great measure to Ron’s heroic actions.”

He was honorably discharged in 2009, joined the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team and was assigned to its Special Operations Division in 2014.  He lives in Burke, Virginia, with his wife, Miranda, and sons Cameron, 10, and Tyler, 7, all of whom attended the White House ceremony.

“We stand in awe of your father’s courage,” Trump told Shurer’s children. “I wish I was that popular.”

While praising Shurer’s battle against cancer, Trump also lauded Shurer’s work as a special agent in the Secret Service.

“Ron works here,” Trump said, “right alongside of us.”

Shurer had already received a Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan.

In 2014, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a review of citations for valor since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That examination resulted in the upgrade of several medals, including the most recently awarded Medal of Honor.

Hagel’s review sprung from concern that the standards for conferring awards for valor had been overly stringent at the outset of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In August, Trump made the award posthumously to Air Force Tech Sgt. John Chapman for his heroic fight in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2002.  Chapman was the first airman to be awarded the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

More: Airman John Chapman awarded posthumous Medal of Honor

More: President Trump to award Medal of Honor to Marine whose heroism in Vietnam saved lives

 

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NBC’s “The Voice” may have found its next champion in a Nashville-based singer-songwriter. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Earlier this year, local resident Dave Fenley floored coaches Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson with his “blind audition” on the singing competition — performing an acoustic cover of Travis Tritt’s “Help Me Hold On.”

Fenley’s audition is set to air Monday night, but “The Voice” has already posted a “sneak peek” online to stir up excitement.

Fenley had a robust, gritty and soulful take on Tritt’s 1990 ballad. The audition had Clarkson turning her chair around first, followed by Shelton, who made it clear he knew all the words by heart. 

Both coaches then made their pitch to Fenley to join their team. Shelton tried to bond with him over Tritt trivia — “That was his second single. That was right after ‘Country Club,’ wasn’t it?” — while Clarkson rolled her eyes. 

“(Travis Tritt) is my favorite male vocalist in country,” she said.

“What about me?” Shelton interjected.

“Not you, brother.”

On the other hand, Shelton might be the favorite of Fenley’s mother, who was watching the audition backstage along with other family members.

“My mama wants a neck hug,” Fenley told Shelton.

“Is that right? I give some really good neck hugs to my contestants’ mothers.”

You’ll have to wait and see if that sealed the deal — the preview clip cuts off before Fenley makes his selection. He’s originally from Texas, and it turns out, this isn’t his first reality TV rodeo. He also made it to the semifinals of “America’s Got Talent” in 2013.

“The Voice” airs at 7 p.m. CT Monday and Tuesday on NBC.

 

 

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President Donald Trump on Monday slammed critics of his restrictive trade policy during a press conference discussing the new trade agreement reached by the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Trump said his recent steel and aluminum tariffs as well as threats of tariffs on imported cars were a key reason the three countries were able to come to an agreement on an update to NAFTA that Trump is calling the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“By the way, without tariffs, we wouldn’t be talking about a deal,” Trump said. “Just for those babies out there that talk about tariffs. That includes Congress. ‘Oh please don’t charge tariffs.’ Without tariffs, we wouldn’t be standing here.”

Trump launched the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement just days after taking office, and official talks kicked off in August 2017. Little progress was made during the first year of talks, but a furious push to wrap up the deal before the end of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s term at the end of November helped to break the impasse.

The steel and aluminum tariffs will remain in place, Trump said, to bolster the American industries. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer did clarify that talks on the tariffs were ongoing.

Many economists have said Trump’s tariffs will push up costs for American consumers and business and ultimately produce a drag on the US economy.

In addition to the USMCA, Trump also credited the threat of auto tariffs for the European Union’s willingness to negotiate a new trade agreement.

“I announced we’re going to put a 20% tariff, could be 25%, on their cars coming in, and they immediately called and said we would like to start negotiations,” Trump said. “We’re having a successful negotiation. We’ll see what happens. Who knows?”

Trump also took aim at China, the president’s main adversary on trade. The Trump administration recently escalated the US’s trade war with China, imposing new tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.

“And China wants to talk very badly,” Trump said. “And I said, frankly, it’s too early to talk. Can’t talk now because they’re not ready. Because they have been ripping us for so many years, it doesn’t happen that quickly. If politically people force it too quickly, you’re not going to make the right deal for our workers and for our country.”

Instagram has officially named a successor to outgoing CEO Kevin Systrom. 

Adam Mosseri, who previously ran Facebook’s News Feed before moving to Instagram as VP of Product, will take over the role as Instagram’s top exec, the company announced. 

The announcement comes one week after Instagram’s cofounders unexpectedly announced their departure from Facebook, fueling rumors that there were growing tensions between Instagram’s leadership and Facebook’s. 

“We’re confident that under Adam’s leadership, Instagram will evolve and improve and we look forward to the future of the product and community,” Systrom and Instagram cofounder Mike Krieger wrote in a statement announcing the change. 

Though the move was widely expected, it lines up with speculation that Facebook has been looking to increase control over Instagram. Though Mosseri had recently moved over to Instagram during Facebook’s larger executive shakeup, he is most known for his prior role running Facebook’s News Feed.

In addition to overseeing arguably Facebook’s most important product, Mosseri has become a more public face for the company over the last year. As media companies increasingly criticized News Feed changes for negatively affecting publishers, Mosseri became a very public defender of News  Feed, and sought to reassure publishers. He, like a small handful of other high profile Facebook execs, is active on Twitter, where he regularly chats with journalists and responds to criticism.

The biggest question, now, is how much Instagram will change under Mosseri’s leadership (his official title is “Head of Instagram.”) 

Though Instagram had long remained relatively autonomous within Facebook, reports have indicated that autonomy was beginning to disappear, with Mark Zuckerberg asserting more control over the photo sharing app in the wake of Facebook’s many privacy scandals. By instilling Mosseri, who is close with Zuckerberg, as the new head of Instagram, much of that tension is likely to disappear. 

It could also signal that Instagram will soon be integrated more closely with Facebook (Instagram’s founders were reportedly upset that Facebook recently removed Instagram links from user’s Facebook profiles when they cross-posted photos to the social network). 

 In a post on his personal Instagram account, Mosseri thanked Systrom and Krieger for their “incredible” work. 

“I’m humbled and excited about the opportunity to now lead the Instagram team. I want to thank them for trusting me to carry forward the values that they have established,” he wrote.

In the summer of 2016, two political earthquakes hit the European Union and Turkey within a month of each other. On June 23, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, triggering a major existential crisis within the union. Less than a month later, on July 15, the terrorist organisation FETO, having infiltrated the Turkish state and military, tried to overthrow Turkey’s democratically elected government. Although the coup failed, it had a profound effect on Turkey’s political scene and state institutions.

As both the EU and Turkey faced grave political crises, relations deteriorated further. The weak response by the EU to the FETO-led coup attempt and their reluctance to extend full political support to the Turkish government increased pre-existing tensions.

Before the summer of 2016, Ankara and Brussels already had serious disagreements on a number of points, including the Kurdish issue, democratic reforms and the way the Turkish security apparatus handled anti-government protests in 2013. 

Two years have passed since that eventful summer and now it is time for both the EU and Turkey to hit the reset button. The visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Germany last week was a good first step in that direction.

The Turkish president described his trip as a “success” while his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was less forthcoming, saying: “This visit isn’t an expression of normalisation – we are a long way from that – but it could be a start.”

Looking back on the past two years, there are indeed quite a few reasons for scepticism. Since 2016, there have been a growing number of political disputes between the two countries.

From the Armenian Genocide bill passed by the German Assembly in 2016, the Incirlik airbase crisis in 2017, the granting of asylum to individuals accused of being part of the July 15 coup attempt, the allegations of espionage against imams affiliated to the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs, the ban on campaigning imposed on Turkish politicians in Germany, Erdogan’s harsh criticism of the German political leadership using Nazi analogy ahead of the Turkish constitutional referendum in 2017, all the way to the jailing of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel and Germany hosting members of FETO and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist group – indeed a lot has happened over the past two years.

But there is also reason for optimism. In fact, over the past few months, there has been a rapid change in the climate of relations between the two countries and more generally between the EU and Turkey. There has been one main reason for this spectacular shift: US President Donald Trump.

Since he was elected president in November 2016, Trump has done much to spoil trans-Atlantic relations, with most EU leaders – especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel – demonstrating an outright aversion to his style of politics. His administration has managed to strain relations with Turkey as well.

In other words, the policies of the Trump White House have radically increased the desire in Brussels and Ankara for convergence on foreign policy, trade and security issues of major concern.

Even before coming to office, Trump pledged to go after NATO, and he did. He has attacked his NATO allies and accused them of not paying their dues. This encouraged the rest of NATO’s members to come together in a united front against his disruptive activities endangering the future of the alliance.

Trump has also caused significant damage to US economic relations with both the EU and Turkey. His decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and his constant threats of levying heavy import taxes on European cars have angered Brussels, which is already concerned about the economic impact of the UK leaving the union. The Trump administration also recently slapped Turkey with a number of economic sanctions.

As the Trump-initiated trade war rages on, it only makes sense for the EU and Turkey to stick together. Turkey is the EU’s fourth largest export market and fifth largest source of imports; the EU is by far Turkey’s number one trading partner. And if there was one aspect of relations that thrived over the past two years of tensions, it was the economic ties.

In addition, Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran and to impose sanctions on the country’s oil exports has further destabilised US relations with the EU. European diplomats scrambled to save the deal, most recently proposing a special financial vehicle allowing companies to sidestep US sanctions. Turkey is also on board about preserving engagement with Iran, having declared that it would itself defy the sanctions.

Security is also another major field of cooperation that has brought Ankara and Brussels closer in recent months. Erdogan has worked hard to prevent another offensive by Syrian government forces and Russia in northern Syria, which could produce another wave of Syrian refugees heading to the Turkish border and potentially to Europe. The Turkish president has engaged with his European counterparts seeking a solution to the crisis, despite the Trump administration playing a continuously disruptive role, supporting a PKK offshoot in northeastern Syria and failing to come up with an unequivocal stance on a future peace process.

While pursuing rapprochement with the EU, Turkey is aware that after Brexit, Germany’s political weight within the union will grow significantly.

For Ankara, it is increasingly clear that better relations with the EU have to be pursued not through Brussels but through Berlin. While there are still many issues to resolve, today the interests of Turkey and Germany overlap more than ever.

From the migration crisis to trade wars, from the Trump problem to the Syrian crisis, and from rising populism to Islamophobia, the two countries need each other to resolve major challenges they are facing.

It is in the best interest of both countries, and the EU as a whole, to seek unity in times of increasing global polarisation, uncertainty and instability that leaders like Trump have brought about.

It is important to remember that 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War I, which brought Turkey and Germany together in a close alliance and which ended with a Turkish-European geopolitical settlement still affecting their ties today. The Turkish reading of history produced a popular saying: “We were declared defeated because of Germany’s defeat.” 

Today, Turkey is betting again on a close relationship with Germany, but this time Europe is different and so is the world. The 20th-century system of camps and axes is antiquated and should not be the basis of our reading of geopolitics today.  

We have to recognise that Turkey and Europe have a geographical, demographic and economic interdependency, as well as major historical and cultural links, which will always pull the two back together, no matter the circumstances.

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

The remnants of Hurricane Rosa are forecast to bring heavy rain and the threat of flash flooding to the Southwest over the next few days.

The now-tropical storm – which had been as strong as a Category 4 hurricane – is poised to make landfall along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Monday evening, where heavy rain was already being reported.

Flood watches are in effect across portions of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, including the cities of Phoenix, Las Vegas, Flagstaff and Salt Lake City. More than 12 million people are at risk of flooding, the National Weather Service said.  

Arizona should see the heaviest rain, the National Hurricane Center said, where up to a half-foot of rain is possible in some areas. This could bring “life-threatening flash flooding” and “dangerous debris flows and landslides,” the hurricane center said.

Flash floods are caused by heavy rain. They can turn otherwise calm dry washes, burn scars and urban areas with poor drainage deadly. Last year, a peaceful swimming hole turned into a raging waterway in Payson, Arizona, killing 10 family members. 

In some desert areas, the rain that’s expected to fall from Rosa is as much rain that would typically fall in an entire year, AccuWeather said. Yuma, Arizona, the USA’s driest city with only about 3.6 inches of rainfall a year, could see nearly that much in the next couple of days.

Although flooding is a serious concern, some of the rainfall will probably be beneficial since the Southwest is experiencing drought conditions, weather.com said. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 40 percent of Arizona is experiencing at least extreme drought, the second-highest category.

As of 2 p.m. EDT, the center of Tropical Storm Rosa was 75 miles west of Punta Eugenia, Mexico, and moving to the north-northeast at 12 mph. Rosa had winds of 45 mph. Several school systems in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula were closed Monday as the storm approached the region.

Tropical Storm Sergio was growing in the Pacific and could become a hurricane Monday, though it posed no immediate threat to land. In the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Leslie should become a hurricane, but it’s also far out to sea and away from any land areas.

Contributing: The Associated Press, The Arizona Republic

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Struggling General Electric just ousted CEO John Flannery after less than a year. The company said on Monday that H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. would take over as chairman and CEO effective immediately.

But the company’s problems date back much further than Flannery’s tenure.

Since achieving a peak market cap of $594 billion way back in August 2000, GE has seen its value tumbled by almost $500 billion. As of Friday’s close, the company was worth just $98 billion.

Business Insider / Joe Ciolli, data from Bloomberg

While GE’s stock spiked as much as 16% on the news of Flannery’s departure, the company’s shares are still down 29% this year. Losses have mounted as investors have grappled with the toxic combination of increasing debt and diminishing profits.

GE’s latest woes stem from continued weakness in its power division, which have been a drag on the overall business. The company said on Monday that it would absorb a goodwill charge of up to $23 billion for the power segment.

On a broader basis, the company has struggled to restructure its portfolio in timely fashion, something for which Flannery was regularly criticized. The company said in June that it would spin off its healthcare business and split from oil giant Baker Hughes in a massive reorganization.

The hits keep coming for GE, which was removed from the bellwether Dow Jones industrial average over the summer. GE shares only recently fell below the $100 billion market cap threshold for the first time since the start of the 9-1/2-year bull market, back in March 2009.

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