1622: Juice Joe

Google is starting to restrict third-party cookies in Chrome today.

As announced last month, today 1 percent of Chrome users will see a notification when they open Chrome on desktop or Android if selected to try Google’s new Tracking Protection feature. The Wall Street Journal has a writeup on what it could mean for advertisers, with some thinking Google’s moving too fast, some relieved it’s finally happening, and everyone waiting to see how it goes.

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The addition of these five new members significantly increases the group’s economic and political clout, representing a combined population of over 2.5 billion and a collective GDP of over $16 trillion. It remains to be seen how this expanded BRICS will shape global economic and political dynamics in the years to come.

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The transit fees collected from ships passing through the canal made Egypt $9.4bn (£7.41bn) last financial year. The canal also makes indirect economic contribution to Egypt such as employment opportunities from the operation and maintenance of the canal, services to shipping companies using the canal, and trade facilitation for exporters and importers in the country.

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just watched polish news. they are happy, because there is less trash then the years before. their analysis is: the people don't have so much money to spend, espacially for food, so the trash is less. ... and they sell it as "good news" ... because less trash .. that"s the mindset of the Green fashists. don't get me get startet what happened to polish Media, since the left took over in elections not long ago. immediately shutting down every critical TV Show and so on.

Will not be able to come out of the bunker when it's all over

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Energy distribution of weaponEnergy typeProportion of total energy (%)FissionEnhancedBlast5040[1] to minimum 30[2]Thermal energy3525[1] to minimum 20[2]Prompt radiation545 to minimum 30[1]Residual radiation105[1]A neutron bomb, officially defined as a type of enhanced radiation weapon (ERW), is a low-yield thermonuclear weapon designed to maximize lethal neutron radiation in the immediate vicinity of the blast while minimizing the physical power of the blast itself. The neutron release generated by a nuclear fusion reaction is intentionally allowed to escape the weapon, rather than being absorbed by its other components.[3] The neutron burst, which is used as the primary destructive action of the warhead, is able to penetrate enemy armor more effectively than a conventional warhead, thus making it more lethal as a tactical weapon.

The concept was originally developed by the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was seen as a "cleaner" bomb for use against massed Soviet armored divisions. As these would be used over allied nations, notably West Germany, the reduced blast damage was seen as an important advantage.[4][5]

ERWs were first operationally deployed for anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs). In this role, the burst of neutrons would cause nearby warheads to undergo partial fission, preventing them from exploding properly. For this to work, the ABM would have to explode within approximately 100 metres (300 ft) of its target. The first example of such a system was the W66, used on the Sprint missile used in the US Nike-X system. It is believed the Soviet equivalent, the A-135's 53T6 missile, uses a similar design.[6][7]

The weapon was once again proposed for tactical use by the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, and production of the W70 began for the MGM-52 Lance in 1981. This time, it led to protests as the growing anti-nuclear movement gained strength through this period. Opposition was so intense that European leaders refused to accept it on their territory. US President Ronald Reagan ordered the production of the W70-3, which remained in the US stockpile until they were retired in 1992. The last W70 was dismantled in February 1996.[8]

Basic concept edit In a standard thermonuclear design, a small fission bomb is placed close to a larger mass of thermonuclear fuel, usually lithium deuteride. The two components are then placed within a thick radiation case, usually made from uranium, lead, or steel. The case traps the energy from the fission bomb for a brief period, allowing it to heat and compress the main thermonuclear fuel. The case is normally made of depleted uranium or natural uranium metal, because the thermonuclear reactions give off extraordinarily large numbers of high-energy neutrons that can cause fission reactions in the casing material. These can add considerable energy to the reaction; in a typical design, as much as 50% of the total energy comes from fission events in the casing. For this reason, these weapons are technically known as fission-fusion-fission designs.

In a neutron bomb, the casing material is selected either to be transparent to neutrons or to actively enhance their production. The burst of neutrons created in the thermonuclear reaction is then free to escape the bomb, outpacing the physical explosion. By designing the thermonuclear stage of the weapon carefully, the neutron burst can be maximized while minimizing the blast itself. This makes the lethal radius of the neutron burst greater than that of the explosion itself. Since the neutrons are absorbed or decay rapidly, such a burst over an enemy column would kill the crews but leave the area able to be quickly reoccupied.

Compared to a pure fission bomb with an identical explosive yield, a neutron bomb would emit about ten times[9] the amount of neutron radiation. In a fission bomb, at sea level, the total radiation pulse energy which is composed of both gamma rays and neutrons is approximately 5% of the entire energy released; in neutron bombs, it would be closer to 40%, with the percentage increase coming from the higher production of neutrons. Furthermore, the neutrons emitted by a neutron bomb have a much higher average energy level (close to 14 MeV) than those released during a fission reaction (1''2 MeV).[10]

Technically speaking, every low-yield nuclear weapon is a radiation weapon, including non-enhanced variants. All nuclear weapons up to about 10 kilotons in yield have prompt neutron radiation[2] as their furthest-reaching lethal component. For standard weapons above about 10 kilotons of yield, the lethal blast and thermal effects radius begins to exceed the lethal ionizing radiation radius.[11][12][13] Enhanced radiation weapons also fall into this same yield range and simply enhance the intensity and range of the neutron dose for a given yield.

History and deployment to present edit The conception of neutron bombs is generally credited to Samuel T. Cohen of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who developed the concept in 1958.[14] Initial development was carried out as part of projects Dove and Starling, and an early device was tested underground in early 1962. Designs for a "weaponized" version were developed in 1963.[15][16]

Development of two production designs for the Army's MGM-52 Lance short-range missile began in July 1964, the W63 at Livermore and the W64 at Los Alamos. Both entered phase three testing in July 1964, and the W64 was cancelled in favor of the W63 in September 1964. The W63 was in turn cancelled in November 1965 in favor of the W70 (Mod 0), a conventional design.[15] By this time, the same concepts were being used to develop warheads for the Sprint missile, an anti-ballistic missile (ABM), with Livermore designing the W65 and Los Alamos the W66. Both entered phase three testing in October 1965, but the W65 was cancelled in favor of the W66 in November 1968. Testing of the W66 was carried out in the late 1960s, and it entered production in June 1974,[15] the first neutron bomb to do so. Approximately 120 were built, with about 70 of these being on active duty during 1975 and 1976 as part of the Safeguard Program. When that program was shut down they were placed in storage, and eventually decommissioned in the early 1980s.[15]

Development of ER warheads for Lance continued, but in the early 1970s, attention had turned to using modified versions of the W70, the W70 Mod 3.[15] Development was subsequently postponed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 following protests against his administration's plans to deploy neutron warheads to ground forces in Europe.[17] On November 17, 1978, in a test, the USSR detonated its first similar-type bomb.[citation needed ] President Ronald Reagan restarted production in 1981.[17] The Soviet Union renewed a propaganda campaign against the US's neutron bomb in 1981 following Reagan's announcement. In 1983, Reagan then announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, which surpassed neutron bomb production in ambition and vision and with that, neutron bombs quickly faded from the center of the public's attention.[citation needed ]

Three types of enhanced radiation weapons (ERW) were deployed by the United States.[18] The W66 warhead, for the anti-ICBM Sprint missile system, was deployed in 1975 and retired the next year, along with the missile system. The W70 Mod 3 warhead was developed for the short-range, tactical MGM-52 Lance missile, and the W79 Mod 0 was developed for nuclear artillery shells. The latter two types were retired by President George H. W. Bush in 1992, following the end of the Cold War.[19][20] The last W70 Mod 3 warhead was dismantled in 1996,[21] and the last W79 Mod 0 was dismantled by 2003, when the dismantling of all W79 variants was completed.[22]

According to the Cox Report, as of 1999, the United States had never deployed a neutron weapon. The nature of this statement is not clear; it reads, "The stolen information also includes classified design information for an enhanced radiation weapon (commonly known as the "neutron bomb"), which neither the United States, nor any other nation, has ever deployed."[23] However, the fact that neutron bombs had been produced by the US was well known at this time and part of the public record. Cohen suggests the report is playing with the definitions; while the US bombs were never deployed to Europe, they remained stockpiled in the US.[24]

In addition to the two superpowers, France and China are known to have tested neutron or enhanced radiation bombs. France conducted an early test of the technology in 1967[25] and tested an "actual" neutron bomb in 1980.[26] China conducted a successful test of neutron bomb principles in 1984 and a successful test of a neutron bomb in 1988. However, neither of those countries chose to deploy neutron bombs. Chinese nuclear scientists stated before the 1988 test that China had no need for neutron bombs, but it was developed to serve as a "technology reserve", in case the need arose in the future.[27]

In May 1998, Senior Pakistani Scientist, Dr. N. M. Butt, stated that "PAEC built a sufficient number of neutron bombs'--a battlefield weapon that is essentially a low yield device".[28]

In August 1999, the Indian government stated that India was capable of producing a neutron bomb.[29]

Although no country is currently known to deploy them in an offensive manner, all thermonuclear dial-a-yield warheads that have about 10 kiloton and lower as one dial option, with a considerable fraction of that yield derived from fusion reactions, can be considered able to be neutron bombs in use, if not in name. The only country definitely known to deploy dedicated (that is, not dial-a-yield) neutron warheads for any length of time is the Soviet Union/Russia,[6] which inherited the USSR's neutron warhead equipped ABM-3 Gazelle missile program. This ABM system contains at least 68 neutron warheads with a 10-kiloton yield each and it has been in service since 1995, with inert missile testing approximately every other year since then (2014). The system is designed to destroy incoming endoatmospheric nuclear warheads aimed at Moscow and other targets and is the lower-tier/last umbrella of the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system (NATO reporting name: ABM-3).[7]

By 1984, according to Mordechai Vanunu, Israel was mass-producing neutron bombs.[30]

Considerable controversy arose in the US and Western Europe following a June 1977 Washington Post expos(C) describing US government plans to equip US Armed Forces with neutron bombs. The article focused on the fact that it was the first weapon specifically intended to kill humans with radiation.[31][32] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory director Harold Brown and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev both described neutron bombs as a "capitalist bomb", because it was designed to destroy people while preserving property.[33][34][need quotation to verify ]

Use edit The 1979 Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion plan, "Seven Days to the River Rhine" to seize West Germany in the event of a nuclear attack on Poland by NATO forces. Soviet analysts had correctly assumed that the NATO response would be to use regular tactical nuclear weapons to stop such a massive Warsaw Pact invasion.[35] According to proponents, neutron bombs would blunt an invasion by Soviet tanks and armored vehicles without causing as much damage or civilian deaths as the older nuclear weapons would.[4] Neutron bombs would have been used if the REFORGER conventional response of NATO to the invasion was too slow or ineffective.[4][36]Neutron bombs are purposely designed with explosive yields lower than other nuclear weapons. Since neutrons are scattered and absorbed by air,[2] neutron radiation effects drop off rapidly with distance in air. As such, there is a sharper distinction, relative to thermal effects, between areas of high lethality and areas with minimal radiation doses.[3] All high yield (more than c. 10 kiloton) nuclear bombs, such as the extreme example of a device that derived 97% of its energy from fusion, the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba, are not able to radiate sufficient neutrons beyond their lethal blast range when detonated as a surface burst or low altitude air burst and so are no longer classified as neutron bombs, thus limiting the yield of neutron bombs to a maximum of about 10 kilotons. The intense pulse of high-energy neutrons generated by a neutron bomb is the principal killing mechanism, not the fallout, heat or blast.

The inventor of the neutron bomb, Sam Cohen, criticized the description of the W70 as a neutron bomb since it could be configured to yield 100 kilotons:

the W-70 ... is not even remotely a "neutron bomb." Instead of being the type of weapon that, in the popular mind, "kills people and spares buildings" it is one that both kills and physically destroys on a massive scale. The W-70 is not a discriminate weapon, like the neutron bomb'--which, incidentally, should be considered a weapon that "kills enemy personnel while sparing the physical fabric of the attacked populace, and even the populace too."[37]

Although neutron bombs are commonly believed to "leave the infrastructure intact", with current designs that have explosive yields in the low kiloton range,[38] detonation in (or above) a built-up area would still cause a sizable degree of building destruction, through blast and heat effects out to a moderate radius, albeit considerably less destruction, than when compared to a standard nuclear bomb of the exact same total energy release or "yield".[39]

U.S. Army M110 howitzers in a 1984 REFORGER staging area before transport. This dual capable system could fire nuclear artillery shells.[40][41]The Warsaw Pact tank strength was over twice that of NATO, and Soviet deep battle doctrine was likely to be to use this numerical advantage to rapidly sweep across continental Europe if the Cold War ever turned hot. Any weapon that could break up their intended mass tank formation deployments and force them to deploy their tanks in a thinner, more easily dividable manner,[4] would aid ground forces in the task of hunting down solitary tanks and using anti-tank missiles against them,[42] such as the contemporary M47 Dragon and BGM-71 TOW missiles, of which NATO had hundreds of thousands.[4]

Rather than making extensive preparations for battlefield nuclear combat in Central Europe, the Soviet military leadership believed that conventional superiority provided the Warsaw Pact with the means to approximate the effects of nuclear weapons and achieve victory in Europe without resort to those weapons.[43]

Neutron bombs, or more precisely, enhanced [neutron] radiation weapons were also to find use as strategic anti-ballistic missile weapons,[39] and in this role, they are believed to remain in active service within Russia's Gazelle missile.[6]

Effects edit A wooden framed house photographed during a 1953 nuclear test, 5 pounds per square inch (34 kPa) overpressure, full collapse.Upon detonation, a near-ground airburst of a 1-kiloton neutron bomb would produce a large blast wave and a powerful pulse of both thermal radiation and ionizing radiation in the form of fast (14.1 MeV) neutrons. The thermal pulse would cause third degree burns to unprotected skin out to approximately 500 meters. The blast would create pressures of at least 4.6 psi (32 kPa) out to a radius of 600 meters, which would severely damage all non-reinforced concrete structures. At the conventional effective combat range against modern main battle tanks and armored personnel carriers (< 690''900 m), the blast from a 1 kt neutron bomb would destroy or damage to the point of nonusability almost all un-reinforced civilian buildings.[citation needed ]

Using neutron bombs to stop an enemy armored attack by rapidly incapacitating crews with a dose of 80+ Gy of radiation[44] would require exploding large numbers of them to blanket the enemy forces, destroying all normal civilian buildings within c. 600 meters of the immediate area.[44][45] Neutron activation from the explosions could make many building materials in the city radioactive, such as galvanized steel (see area denial use below).

Because liquid-filled objects like the human body are resistant to gross overpressure, the 4''5 psi (28-34 kPa) blast overpressure would cause very few direct casualties at a range of c. 600 m. The powerful winds produced by this overpressure, however, could throw bodies into objects or throw debris at high velocity, including window glass, both with potentially lethal results. Casualties would be highly variable depending on surroundings, including potential building collapses.[46]

The pulse of neutron radiation would cause immediate and permanent incapacitation to unprotected outdoor humans in the open out to 900 meters,[9] with death occurring in one or two days. The median lethal dose (LD50) of 6 Gray would extend to between 1350 and 1400 meters for those unprotected and outdoors,[44] where approximately half of those exposed would die of radiation sickness after several weeks.

A human residing within, or simply shielded by, at least one concrete building with walls and ceilings 30 cm (12 in) thick, or alternatively of damp soil 24 inches (60 cm) thick, would receive a neutron radiation exposure reduced by a factor of 10.[47][48] Even near ground zero, basement sheltering or buildings with similar radiation shielding characteristics would drastically reduce the radiation dose.[4]

Furthermore, the neutron absorption spectrum of air is disputed by some authorities, and depends in part on absorption by hydrogen from water vapor. Thus, absorption might vary exponentially with humidity, making neutron bombs far more deadly in desert climates than in humid ones.[44]

Effectiveness in modern anti-tank role edit The neutron cross section and absorption probability in barns of the two natural boron isotopes found in nature (top curve is for 10 B and bottom curve for 11 B. As neutron energy increases to 14 MeV, the absorption effectiveness, in general, decreases. Thus, for boron-containing armor to be effective, fast neutrons must first be slowed by another element by neutron scattering.The questionable effectiveness of ER weapons against modern tanks is cited as one of the main reasons that these weapons are no longer fielded or stockpiled. With the increase in average tank armor thickness since the first ER weapons were fielded, it was argued in the March 13, 1986, New Scientist magazine that tank armor protection was approaching the level where tank crews would be almost fully protected from radiation effects. Thus, for an ER weapon to incapacitate a modern tank crew through irradiation, the weapon must be detonated at such proximity to the tank that the nuclear explosion's blast would now be equally effective at incapacitating it and its crew.[49]

However, although the author did note that effective neutron absorbers and neutron poisons such as boron carbide can be incorporated into conventional armor and strap-on neutron moderating hydrogenous material (substances containing hydrogen atoms), such as explosive reactive armor, increasing the protection factor, the author holds that in practice, combined with neutron scattering, the actual average total tank area protection factor is rarely higher than 15.5 to 35.[50] According to the Federation of American Scientists, the neutron protection factor of a "tank" can be as low as 2,[2] without qualifying whether the statement implies a light tank, medium tank, or main battle tank.

A composite high-density concrete, or alternatively, a laminated graded-Z shield, 24 units thick of which 16 units are iron and 8 units are polyethylene containing boron (BPE), and additional mass behind it to attenuate neutron capture gamma rays, is more effective than just 24 units of pure iron or BPE alone, due to the advantages of both iron and BPE in combination. During neutron transport, iron is effective in slowing down/scattering high-energy neutrons in the 14-MeV energy range and attenuating gamma rays, while the hydrogen in polyethylene is effective in slowing down these now slower fast neutrons in the few MeV range, and boron 10 has a high absorption cross section for thermal neutrons and a low production yield of gamma rays when it absorbs a neutron.[51][52][53] The Soviet T-72 tank, in response to the neutron bomb threat, is cited as having fitted a boronated[54] polyethylene liner, which has had its neutron shielding properties simulated.[48][55]

The radiation weighting factor for neutrons of various energy has been revised over time and certain agencies have different weighting factors; however, despite the variation amongst the agencies, from the graph, for a given energy, a fusion neutron (14.1 MeV) although more energetic, is less biologically harmful as rated in Sieverts, than a fission-generated thermal neutron or a fusion neutron slowed to that energy, c. 0.8 MeV.However, some tank armor material contains depleted uranium (DU), common in the US's M1A1 Abrams tank, which incorporates steel-encased depleted uranium armor,[56] a substance that will fast fission when it captures a fast, fusion-generated neutron, and thus on fissioning will produce fission neutrons and fission products embedded within the armor, products which emit, among other things, penetrating gamma rays. Although the neutrons emitted by the neutron bomb may not penetrate to the tank crew in lethal quantities, the fast fission of DU within the armor could still ensure a lethal environment for the crew and maintenance personnel by fission neutron and gamma ray exposure[dubious '' discuss ],[57][unreliable source? ] largely depending on the exact thickness and elemental composition of the armor'--information usually hard to attain. Despite this, Ducrete'--which has an elemental composition similar (but not identical) to the ceramic second-generation heavy metal Chobham armor of the Abrams tank'--is an effective radiation shield, to both fission neutrons and gamma rays due to it being a graded-Z material.[58][59] Uranium, being about twice as dense as lead, is thus nearly twice as effective at shielding gamma ray radiation per unit thickness.[60]

Use against ballistic missiles edit As an anti-ballistic missile weapon, the first fielded ER warhead, the W66, was developed for the Sprint missile system as part of the Safeguard Program to protect United States cities and missile silos from incoming Soviet warheads.

A problem faced by Sprint and similar ABMs was that the blast effects of their warheads change greatly as they climb and the atmosphere thins out. At higher altitudes, starting around 60,000 feet (18,000 m) and above, the blast effects begin to drop off rapidly as the air density becomes very low. This can be countered by using a larger warhead, but then it becomes too powerful when used at lower altitudes. An ideal system would use a mechanism that was less sensitive to changes in air density.

Neutron-based attacks offer one solution to this problem. The burst of neutrons released by an ER weapon can induce fission in the fissile materials of primary in the target warhead. The energy released by these reactions may be enough to melt the warhead, but even at lower fission rates, the "burning up" of some of the fuel in the primary can cause it to fail to explode properly, or "fizzle".[61] Thus, a small ER warhead can be effective across a wide altitude band, using blast effects at lower altitudes and the increasingly long-ranged neutrons as the engagement rises.

The use of neutron-based attacks was discussed as early as the 1950s, with the US Atomic Energy Commission mentioning weapons with a "clean, enhanced neutron output" for use as "antimissile defensive warheads."[62] Studying, improving and defending against such attacks was a major area of research during the 1950s and '60s. A particular example of this is the US Polaris A-3 missile, which delivered three warheads travelling on roughly the same trajectory, and thus with a short distance between them. A single ABM could conceivably destroy all three through neutron flux. Developing warheads that were less sensitive to these attacks was also a major area of research in the US and UK during the 1960s.[61]

Some sources claim that the neutron flux attack was also the main design goal of the various nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft weapons like the AIM-26 Falcon and CIM-10 Bomarc. One F-102 pilot noted:

GAR-11/AIM-26 was primarily a weapon-killer. The bomber(s, if any) was collateral damage. The weapon was proximity-fused to ensure detonation close enough so an intense flood of neutrons would result in an instantaneous nuclear reaction (NOT full-scale) in the enemy weapon's pit; rendering it incapable of functioning as designed ... [O]ur first "neutron bombs" were the GAR-11 and MB-1 Genie.[62]

It has also been suggested that neutron flux's effects on the warhead electronics are another attack vector for ER warheads in the ABM role. Ionization greater than 50 Gray in silicon chips delivered over seconds to minutes will degrade the function of semiconductors for long periods.[63] However, while such attacks might be useful against guidance systems, which used relatively advanced electronics, in the ABM role, these components have long ago separated from the warheads by the time they come within range of the interceptors. The electronics in the warheads themselves tend to be very simple, and hardening them was one of the many issues studied in the 1960s.[61]

Lithium-6 hydride (Li6H) is cited as being used as a countermeasure to reduce the vulnerability and "harden" nuclear warheads from the effects of externally generated neutrons.[64][65] Radiation hardening of the warhead's electronic components as a countermeasure to high altitude neutron warheads somewhat reduces the range that a neutron warhead could successfully cause an unrecoverable glitch by the transient radiation effects on electronics (TREE) effects.[66][67]

At very high altitudes, at the edge of the atmosphere and above it, another effect comes into play. At lower altitudes, the X-rays generated by the bomb are absorbed by the air and have mean free paths on the order of meters. But as the air thins out, the X-rays can travel further, eventually outpacing the area of effect of the neutrons. In exoatmospheric explosions, this can be on the order of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in radius. In this sort of attack, it is the X-rays promptly delivering energy on the warhead surface that is the active mechanism; the rapid ablation (or "blowoff") of the surface creates shock waves that can break up the warhead.[68]

Use as an area denial weapon edit In November 2012, British Labour peer Lord Gilbert suggested that multiple enhanced radiation reduced blast (ERRB) warheads could be detonated in the mountain region of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to prevent infiltration.[69] He proposed to warn the inhabitants to evacuate, then irradiate the area, making it unusable and impassable.[70] Used in this manner, the neutron bomb(s), regardless of burst height, would release neutron activated casing materials used in the bomb, and depending on burst height, create radioactive soil activation products.

In much the same fashion as the area denial effect resulting from fission product (the substances that make up most fallout) contamination in an area following a conventional surface-burst nuclear explosion, as considered in the Korean War by Douglas MacArthur, it would thus be a form of radiological warfare'--with the difference that neutron bombs produce half, or less, of the quantity of fission products relative to the same-yield pure fission bomb. Radiological warfare with neutron bombs that rely on fission primaries would thus still produce fission fallout, albeit a comparatively cleaner and shorter-lasting version of it in the area than if air bursts were used, as little to no fission products would be deposited on the direct immediate area, instead becoming diluted global fallout.

The easiest to achieve fusion reaction, of deuterium ("D) with tritium (T") creating helium-4, freeing a neutron, and releasing only 3.5 MeV in the form of kinetic energy as the charged alpha particle that will inherently generate heat (which manifests as blast and thermal effects), while the majority of the energy of the reaction (14.1 MeV) is carried away by the uncharged fast neutron.[71] Devices with a higher proportion of yield derived from this reaction would be more efficient in the stand-off asteroid impact avoidance role, due to the penetrative depth of fast-neutrons and the resulting higher momentum transfer that is produced in this "scabbing" of a much larger mass of material free from the main body, as opposed to the shallower surface penetration and ablation of regolith, that is produced by thermal/soft X-rays.A militarily useful use of a neutron bomb with respect to area denial would be to encase it in a thick shell of material that could be neutron activated, and use a surface burst. In this manner, the neutron bomb would be turned into a salted bomb; for example, zinc-64, produced as a byproduct of depleted zinc oxide enrichment, would when neutron activated become zinc-65, which is a gamma emitter with a half-life of 244 days.[72][improper synthesis? ]

Hypothetical effects of a pure fusion bomb edit With considerable overlap between the two devices, the prompt radiation effects of a pure fusion weapon would similarly be much higher than that of a pure-fission device: approximately twice the initial radiation output of current standard fission''fusion-based weapons. In common with all neutron bombs that must presently derive a small percentage of trigger energy from fission, in any given yield, a 100% pure fusion bomb would likewise generate a smaller atmospheric blast wave than a pure-fission bomb. The latter fission device has a higher kinetic energy-ratio per unit of reaction energy released, which is most notable in the comparison with the D-T fusion reaction. A larger percentage of the energy from a D-T fusion reaction is inherently put into uncharged neutron generation as opposed to charged particles, such as the alpha particle of the D-T reaction, the primary species, that is most responsible for the coulomb explosion/fireball.[73]

List of US neutron weapons edit Anti-ballistic missile warheads

W65 '-- Sprint enhanced radiation warhead developed by Livermore (cancelled)[74][75]W66 '-- Sprint enhanced radiation warhead developed by Los Alamos (1975''1976)[74][75]Ballistic missile warheads

W63 '-- Lance enhanced radiation warhead developed by Livermore (cancelled)[74][75]W64 '-- Lance enhanced radiation warhead developed by Los Alamos (cancelled)[74][75]W70 Mod 3 '-- Lance enhanced radiation warhead developed by Livermore (1981''1992).[74][75]Artillery

W79 Mod 0 '-- 8-inch (200 mm) enhanced radiation artillery shell developed by Livermore (1976''1992)[74][75]W82 Mod 0 '-- 155-millimetre (6.1 in) enhanced radiation artillery shell developed by Livermore (cancelled)[74][75] See also edit Atomic demolition munition '' similar strategic use, low-yield nuclear weapons.Cobalt bombNeutron transportNuclear strategyNuclear warfareNuclear weapon design References edit ^ a b c d "Sci/Tech Neutron bomb: Why 'clean' is deadly". Archived from the original on 2011-10-21. ^ a b c d e "Chapter 2 Conventional and Nuclear Weapons - Energy Production and Atomic Physics Section I - General. Figure 2-IX, Table 2-III". Archived from the original on 2014-07-19. ^ a b "The Neutron Bomb". Archived from the original on 2018-01-03 . Retrieved 2014-03-03 . ^ a b c d e f "Neutron bomb an explosive issue, 1981". Archived from the original on 2015-02-28 . Retrieved 2014-09-04 . ^ Muller, Richard A. (2009). Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-393-33711-2. ^ a b c Yost, David Scott (2 February 1988). Soviet Ballistic Missile Defense and the Western Alliance. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674826106 '' via Google Books. ^ a b Pike, John. "53T6 Gazelle". www.globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 2015-06-03. ^ "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Stockpile, July 1996". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 52 (4): 61''63. 1996. Bibcode:1996BuAtS..52d..61.. doi:10.1080/00963402.1996.11456646 . ^ a b Kistiakovsky, George (Sep 1978). "The folly of the neutron bomb". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 34 (7): 27. Bibcode:1978BuAtS..34g..25K. doi:10.1080/00963402.1978.11458533 . Retrieved 11 February 2011 . ^ Hafemeister, David W. (2007). Physics of societal issues: calculations on national security, environment, and energy. Springer. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-387-95560-5. ^ "Mock up". Remm.nlm.gov. 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Reed, Danny B. Stillman (2010), page 181 ^ Wittner, Lawrence S. (2009). Confronting the bomb: a short history of the world nuclear disarmament movement . Stanford University Press. pp. 132''133. ISBN 978-0-8047-5632-7. ^ Auten, Brian J. (2008). Carter's conversion: the hardening of American defense policy . University of Missouri Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-8262-1816-2. ^ Snow, Donald (2008). National security for a new era: globalization and geopolitics after Iraq. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-205-62225-2. ^ Herken, Greff (2003). Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller. Macmillan. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-8050-6589-3. ^ ISN Editors. "Poland reveals Warsaw Pact war plans". International Relations And Security Network. Archived from the original on 8 October 2013 . Retrieved 23 December 2014 . ^ Healy, Melissa (October 3, 1987). "Senate Permits Study for New Tactical Nuclear Missile". Los Angeles Times. 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Retrieved 2005-12-21 . ^ "Candid Interviews with Former Soviet Officials Reveal U.S. Strategic Intelligence Failure Over Decades". www.gwu.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-08-05. ^ a b c d "Fact-index, neutron bomb". Archived from the original on 2013-06-30 . Retrieved 2014-08-09 . ^ Calculated from "Effects of Nuclear Explosions". Archived from the original on 2014-04-28 . Retrieved 2014-04-21 . assuming 0.5 kt combined blast and thermal ^ "1) Effects of blast pressure on the human body" (PDF) . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-01-27 . Retrieved 2012-10-12 . ^ "Field manual 3-4 chapter 4". Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. ^ a b "Applications of the Monte Carlo Adjoint Shielding Methodology - MIT". Archived from the original on 2015-07-17. ^ Information, Reed Business (1986-03-13). New Scientist March 13, 1986 pg 45 . Retrieved 2012-10-12 . [permanent dead link ] ^ Information, Reed Business (1986-06-12). New Scientist June 12, 1986 pg 62. [permanent dead link ] ^ "Monte Carlo Calculations Using MCNP4B for an Optimal Shielding Design of a 14-MeV Neutron Source, Submitted to the Journal of Radiation Protection Dosimetry 1998" (PDF) . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-05. ^ "Neutron Interactions '' Part 2 George Starkschall, Ph.D. Department of Radiation Physics" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-17 . Retrieved 2014-03-02 . ^ "22.55 "Principles of Radiation Interactions" " (PDF) . Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-07-17. ^ "What is a neutron bomb". Archived from the original on 2006-01-13 . Retrieved 2005-12-21 . ^ Strobing, Ronan (Jul 2009). Terror Reigns Again By Ronan Strobing. pg 418. ISBN 9780955855771. ^ "M1A1/2 Abrams Main Battle Tank, United States of America". Archived from the original on 2014-08-10. ^ "For example, M-1 tank armor includes depleted uranium, which can undergo fast fission and can be made to be radioactive when bombarded with neutrons". Archived from the original on 2011-01-05 . Retrieved 2007-04-20 . ^ "Archived copy" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-19 . Retrieved 2011-11-29 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Paper Summary Submitted to Spectrum 2000, Sept 24-28, 2000, Chattanooga, TN. Ducrete: A Cost Effective Radiation Shielding Material. Quote- "The Ducrete/DUAGG replaces the conventional aggregate in concrete producing concrete with a density of 5.6 to 6.4 g/cm3 (compared to 2.3 g/cm3 for conventional concrete). This shielding material has the unique feature of having both high Z and low Z elements in a single matrix. Consequently, it is very effective for the attenuation of gamma and neutron radiation ..." ^ M. J. Haire and S. Y. Lobach, "Cask size and weight reduction through the use of depleted uranium dioxide (DUO2)-concrete material" Archived 2012-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, Waste Management 2006 Conference, Tucson, Arizona, February 26''March 2, 2006. ^ "Half-Value Layer (Shielding)". Archived from the original on 2014-08-11 . Retrieved 2014-08-09 . ^ a b c Walker, John (2016). British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954''1973. Routledge. pp. 23, 323''325. ISBN 978-1-317-17170-6. ^ a b Maloney, Sean (Fall 2014). "Secrets of the BOMARC: Re-examining Canada's Misunderstood Missile". ^ "FAS Nuclear Weapon Radiation Effects". Archived from the original on 2013-07-21. ^ "Section 12.0 Useful Tables Nuclear Weapons Frequently Asked Questions". Archived from the original on 2011-02-24. Due to moderating ability and light weight, used to harden weapons against outside neutron fluxes (especially in combination with Li-6) ...The very high cross section of this reaction for thermalized neutrons, combined with the light weight of the Li-6 atom, make it useful in the form of lithium hydride for hardening of nuclear weapons against external neutron fluxes. ^ "Restricted Data Declassification Policy, 1946 to the Present RDD-1". Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. The fact that Li6H is used in unspecified weapons for hardening ^ "The Nuclear Matters Handbook, F.13". Archived from the original on 2013-03-02. ^ "Transient Radiation Effects on Electronics (TREE) Handbook Formerly Design Handbook for TREE, Chapters 1-6". Archived from the original on 2014-05-06 . Retrieved 2014-05-06 . ^ "Nuclear Matters Handbook". Archived from the original on 2014-05-06. Nuclear weapon-generated X-rays are the chief threat to the survival of strategic missiles in-flight above the atmosphere and to satellites ... The Neutron and gamma ray effects dominate at lower altitudes where the air absorbs most of the X-rays. ^ "Huffington Post". 26 November 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-11-29 . Retrieved 2012-11-27 . ^ "Lord Gilbert obituary, by Andrew Roth, 3 June 2013. "Nobody lives up in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan except for a few goats and a handful of people herding them," he observed. "If you told them that some ... warheads were going to be dropped there and that it would be a very unpleasant place to go, they would not go there." ". TheGuardian.com. 3 June 2013. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. ^ Shultis, J.K. & Faw, R.E. (2002). Fundamentals of nuclear science and engineering. CRC Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-8247-0834-4. ^ "1.6 Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs, Nuclear Weapons Archive, Carey Sublette". Archived from the original on 2012-08-09. ^ Hafemeister, David (2007). Physics of Societal Issues - Springer. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-68909-8. ISBN 978-0-387-95560-5. ^ a b c d e f g Josserand, Terry Michael (2017-03-01). R&A for UUR_Weapon_History_Phases_20170206 (Report). Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). OSTI 1429158 . Retrieved 2021-07-24 . ^ a b c d e f g Carey Sublette. "List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons". Nuclear Weapon Archive . Retrieved 2022-06-24 . Further reading edit Cohen, Sam (1983). The Truth About the Neutron Bomb: The Inventor of the Bomb Speaks Out. William Morrow & Co. ISBN 978-0-688-01646-3. Cohen, Sam (September 2015). Shame: Confessions of the Father of the Neutron Bomb (PDF) (4th ed.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-10-23 . Retrieved 2016-11-14 . External links edit Strategic Implications of Enhanced Radiation WeaponsNuclear Files.org Archived 2006-06-14 at the Wayback Machine Definition and history of the neutron bombCreator of Neutron Bomb Leaves an Explosive LegacyThe Woodrow Wilson Center's Nuclear Proliferation International History Project or NPIHP is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews and other empirical sources.

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:50

One of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged victims who claimed Prince Andrew groped her testified magician David Copperfield asked if she realized Epstein's 'girls' were encouraged to procure other girls for him.

Newly released court documents show Johanna Sjoberg said during her deposition the famous magician was having dinner at Epstein's house when he asked if she knew other girls were getting paid to bring in new girls.

The document said: 'David Copperfield was at a dinner at Epstein's and there was another girl present who looked young and Johanna asked what school she went to and Johanna did not recognize the school name as being a college and she said it was possible it was a high school aged girl.'

'Johanna said Copperfield ''questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls".'

Copperfield has been a visitor to Epstein's island, Little St James, since at least 1994, four years before the disgraced financier even purchased it from venture capitalist Arch Cummin for $8 million.

In March of that year, Copperfield told Esquire Magazine that he proposed to supermodel Claudia Schiffer during a vacation. The illusionist claimed that he rented out the entire island for the proposal. The couple broke up in 1999 without tying the knot citing their work schedules.

Magician David Copperfield is said to have asked an alleged trafficking victim of Jeffrey Epstein if she realised the paedophile used his 'girls' to procure other young women

Johanna Sjoberg, pictured, said Copperfield made the remark to her during a dinner at Jeffrey Epstein's house

Epstein and Maxwell trafficked underage girls to the predator's homes, where they'd be sexually abused. They also encouraged those victims to procure other children for abuse

Sjoberg said in her deposition on May 18, 2016, she met Copperfield during a dinner at Epstein's house, although she did not say when or where the meeting took place

'Someone called me from the house and said that he would be there, and if I wanted to come have dinner, then I could meet him,' she said.

Sjoberg said Copperfield was not at the house when she arrived, so she waited with another she girl she had not met who seemed very young.

'I asked her what school she went to, kind of prodding to see if she went to one of the area colleges, and I did not recognize the name of the school,' she said.

Bill Clinton is pictured with Jeffrey Epstein in an undated photograph

Stephen Hawking pictured at a barbecue on Jeffrey Epstein's Caribbean island Little St James in 2006

'So I thought she could be younger than college age, but I had to assume for my own sanity that she was a daughter of one of his friends.'

Sjoberg said Copperfield did magic tricks at the dinner and she observed him to be a friend of Epstein.

At the dinner Copperfield discussed Epstein's involvement with young girls with Sjoberg.

'He questioned me if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls,' she said. DailyMail.com has contacted Copperfield's rep for a comment.

On Wednesday, a 946-page trove of court documents from Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit against Maxwell were unsealed - the case was settled in 2017.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, was the only person ever punished for the sex trafficking ring.

The files were made public by the Southern District of New York on January 3 after the deadline for appeals passed, around 6:30pm on Wednesday .

The explosive documents also saw Sjoberg alleged that Epstein had told her Bill Clinton 'liked them young,' in reference to women.

Clinton was pictured flying on Epstein's plane, but has sought to play down his association with the disgraced late financier, who died in jail in August 2019.

A statement issued to CNN on Wednesday evening saw Clinton claim it had been almost 20 years since he'd last seen Epstein.

A copy of an email released Wednesday - also from Epstein - appeared to show him asking Ghislaine Maxwell to kill a claim that Professor Stephen Hawking had participated in an underage orgy at Epstein's home.

The brilliant English physicist, who died in 2018 aged 76, visited Epstein's Little St James home in 2008.

He spent the final decades of his life paralysed by motor neurone disease which left him reliant on a wheelchair to move and a computer to talk.

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Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:48

Employees of Pornhub's parent company were caught on camera touting the benefits of underage kids watching pornography, and even suggesting that making videos of transgender-identifying people engaging in sex could help young people figure out their sexuality, according to a new video released exclusively on The Michael Knowles Show on Wednesday.

Arden Young, the undercover journalist behind the newly released video from Sound Investigations, told Daily Wire host Michael Knowles that the videos indicate that ''protecting children is not a concern, maximizing profits is their concern, and they don't seem to care who they hurt in the process.''

The new video documents employees of Aylo, formerly named Mindgeek, the parent company of Pornhub, admitting to attempting to steer viewers' sexual proclivities.

EXCLUSIVE: Top PornHub staff admits to inserting ''gay'' and ''trans'' themes into mainstream porn to ''convert'' straight men pic.twitter.com/w8otDNm4Du

'-- Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) December 6, 2023

Employee Dillon Rice, a senior script writer at the company, is seen arguing that pornography usage could be beneficial for preteens. ''Let's say you're 12 years old, you're still figuring out your sexuality, maybe even your gender, wouldn't it be helpful to see not a celebration but maybe just a '... normalization of something that you think is what you want?'' Rice is seen saying.

Rice went on to specifically reference a pornography site centered around transgender individuals, remarking, ''Let's say I was 12 and I saw TransAngels '... it would help me figure out what I do like and what I don't like.''

Knowles said the attempt to steer viewers' sexual tastes flies in the face of one of the core arguments that emerged from the sexual revolution. ''The thing that is so shocking to me is that we've been told for my entire life by the left, by the pro-pornography people, by the sexual revolutionaries, that sexual desire is innate and immutable,'' Knowles says. ''Nobody becomes gay or bisexual.''

In addition to Rice, the video shows conversations with Aylo Production Coordinator Sylvain Fernandez, and Technical Product Manager Mike Farley. Fernandez appeared unbothered by Young's point that the average age at which most view porn is only 11 years old, with Fernandez replying, ''I mean, sounds like my age,'' before adding ''I mean it makes sense you know. Definitely associated with puberty.''

The Aylo employees said the company looks for opportunities to put bisexual, gay, or trans scenes in videos that are typically marketed to straight men.

Rice remarked that while some platforms are ''primarily for straight men,'' the company tries to ''push the envelope as much as you can and be like, can I hint at bi content here '... what if we brought a trans talent onto the site '... you kinda take those risks to broaden it a little more.'' Rice added ''you're always trying to push a little further.''

''They need to try to push stuff that is '... less accepted, like putting a trans male or trans female in a scene,'' Rice said. ''See if you can convert somebody.''

NEW UNDERCOVER VID

P*rnhub Parent Aylo Employee: Kids ''Will Find Their Kink'' on Aylo Site

Aylo Writer: 12-Year-Olds Watching Trans P*rn ''Probably Helps a Lot''

''Push Stuff That's Less Accepted'... Get More Men, Straight Men, in on [Gay & Trans P*rn], Too''pic.twitter.com/YzwsmDNIfx

'-- Sound Investigations (@SoundInvestig) December 6, 2023

Rice took it even farther, referencing a transgender pornography site when he remarked ''it's female presenting trans women and they sell that to straight men, so I think the next big step is doing something that's counter culture, maybe doing like a trans man in a scene, like having a guy f*** a male-presenting trans man with a vagina and see how that does.''

Young, the Sound Investigations journalist, told Knowles she was ''inspired to investigate Pornhub in the first place because of a 2020 New York Times article that really detailed the struggles of often underage people to get their abuse videos taken off of Pornhub.''

The undercover video is the latest in a longer series of videos on the pornography company, which attempt to prove that there is no serious effort to keep underage users off the platform and that it attempts to appeal to pedophiles and young teems, Young said. She referenced

''We have multiple previous undercover videos we've published that detail just the lack of age of consent verification for pornographic uploads and pornographic ads '... advertising porn to appeal to pedophiles and young teens, we have a plethora of undercover footage,'' Young added.

Knowles said the latest video should make the issue a ''clear cut'' case for anyone on the fence about regulating the porn industry.

''The takeaways here for me,'' Knowles concluded, is that ''this is as clear cut a case for proper political action as I have ever seen. If you are in elected office, wield the power of the state. What they are doing is illegal in so many ways.''

''Stop looking at porn, if for no other reason than the senior writers here are saying they want to make you gay and trans,'' Knowles said.

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:44

A New York activist professor has called for Harvard University to replace disgraced former president Claudine Gay with another black woman.

Gay, 53, was the first black person to lead Harvard, and her July 1 swearing in was seen by some as a sign of progress despite opposition from some.

But she was forced to resign on Tuesday after only six months amid a plagiarism scandal and questions over her response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Marc Lamont Hill, an author and activist, who works as a professor of anthropology at the City University of New York, said Gay should be replaced by a black woman.

'The next president of Harvard University MUST be a Black woman,' he tweeted to his 565,000 followers.

Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at City University of New York, said Claudine Gay must be replaced with another black woman

Gay is pictured on December 5, testifying before Congress. She equivocated over whether calls for the genocide of Jews was hate speech

Conservative comedians the Hodge Twins replied: 'Or just hire somebody qualified to be the president and stop worrying about their skin color or gender? I know that's a crazy thought.' Their post was liked by 17,000 people.

Hill told The Boston Globe the best way to counter the sense black women in academia were being punished was to hire someone with a similar background.

'In order to signal they don't have a diminished faith in black women, or black academics in general, hiring another black woman would be the absolute best move they could make.

'My concern is how quickly a political disagreement turned into a public narrative about the unworthiness of a black woman who's been hired.

'Plagiarism is not known to be a black thing, it's not known to be a woman thing, but when it comes to [Gay's] plagiarism it's like, 'See, see, we told you.' '

Gay's supporters, such as civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and academic and author Ibram X. Kendi, have tried to claim she was forced out by racists.

Gay herself argued she felt victimized due to the color of her skin.

Gay, seen in May 2023, shortly before taking up the role as the first black president of Harvard

Trucks calling for Gay to be fired appeared outside Harvard's campus in December

'It has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual,' Gay wrote.

'It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor'--two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am'--and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.'

Leaders of America's colleges and universities remain overwhelmingly white, despite a push in recent years to hire a more diverse group of people.

Close to three out of four college presidents were white in 2022.

A 2022 survey of more than 1,000 college presidents by the American Council on Education, a higher-education trade group, found that 13 per cent were black. The figure was an increase from 2016, when only 8 per cent were black.

African Americans make up 13.6 per cent of the U.S. population, according to the latest census.

And among full-time faculty the discrepancy was even more stark: 73 per cent were white, and only 6 per cent were black, according to 2021 data from the US Department of Education, cited by The Boston Globe.

Gay, pictured on December 15, resigned on January 2 after six months in the job

David Thomas, president of Morehouse College, a historically black men's college in Atlanta, told the paper that he found her response to student justification of the Hamas attacks, plus allegations of plagiarism, made her presidency untenable.

'One can argue how severe her violations were, but once you have that sort of cloud around you, it makes it difficult to lead an organization whose raison d'etre is to investigate what is true,' said Thomas, who taught at Harvard for more than 20 years.

He said her resignation is 'disappointing for me - it's disappointing for the larger black community.' He added: 'It's a tragedy for Harvard.'

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:10

🚨JUST IN - President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

Introduction: It has often been repeated there is ''no evidence'' of fraud in the 2020 Election. In actuality, there is no evidence Joe Biden won.

Ongoing investigations in the Swing States reveal hundreds of thousands of votes were altered and/or not lawfully cast in the Presidential Election. Joe Biden needed them. On Election Night Nov. 3, 2020, President Donald J. Trump was sailing to reelection with landslide leads in numerous battlegrounds. In Georgia, President Trump was up by 12 points, and over 335,000 votes, with 56 percent of the vote in at 10:17 p.m. In Wisconsin, President Trump was leading by 121,380 votes and 5 points at 12:12 a.m., which Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted was ''not a small margin.'' In Pennsylvania, President Trump was leading by 659,145 votes at 12:38 a.m., a full 15 points. In Michigan, President Trump was leading by 293,052 votes and 10 points.

The election was over. However, precincts in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Milwaukee kept counting until the results reached the desired outcome, which was the opposite of the will of the voters. Georgia went from having a total of 4.7 million votes, already a record for the state, according to Brad Raffensperger's count on Nov. 4, to certifying almost 5 million. This was 300,000 more votes than what the top elections official claimed were cast in the Election.

Getting to this result in Georgia, and other states, created an irredeemably compromised Election, filled with violations of the Constitution, unlawful ballots, widespread broken chain of custody, electronic manipulation, and missing and corrupted election files that made it uncertifiable '-- and impossible to recreate the results.

President Trump was right to voice his objections to what had unfolded before the country's eyes. Republican poll watchers were denied access to the counting in multiple jurisdictions and ballots were counted in secret in the middle of the night without media or observers present. Countless irregularities emerged, including reports of ineligible voters, voting machine anomalies, ''water main breaks,'' improbable percentages of ballots for Biden, and more.

Since, investigations across the country have uncovered an avalanche of irregularities, unlawful activity, manipulation of election records, destruction of evidence, and fraud. The findings, which are outcome determinative, are detailed in the summaries of the Swing States.

GEORGIA🚨

' Georgia was called by 11,779 votes.

' Fulton County, Georgia, the most populous county in the state, has no digital record of all in person votes cast in its original results.

' Not a single ballot purportedly cast during early in-person voting was witnessed to and signed off by poll managers, as required by Georgia election rules. Seals were broken and memory cards removed from tabulators for the results of these 315,000 votes, which were printed out on different machines than the ones that tabulated them. This prevented the reconciliation of how many votes were cast on each machine.

' The ballot images of these votes, along with the rest of in-person ballots cast on Election Day, were destroyed.

' The vote in Georgia was counted three times: the original machine count, a statewide hand recount, and a second machine count. Each time the state, and Fulton County, reported three different results.

' Fulton County did not count the same ballots during the original count and the machine recount. There are 19,541 distinct ballots that appear in one machine count but not the other.

' Thousands of fraudulent ''presidential only'' ballots were injected into the second machine count, with huge margins favoring Joe Biden. Ballots that are blank except for the presidential contest were counted in batches together, with the pattern appearing in at least eight counties, including Fulton. This means Georgia did not have the votes to justify its original Election ''results.''

' The second machine count was over 17,000 votes ''short.'' Fulton County was instructed to ''reconcile'' the results by the Secretary of State, and recertified its results without divulging the extent of the vote deficiency to members of the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections.

' ''Thousands of bogus votes'' were ultimately added into the Election results via the second machine count. This includes 20,977 unsubstantiated votes of unknown origin. The results were missing 17,852 ballot images, and included 3,125 duplicate ballot images that were counted twice.

' At least 2,871 ballots were counted two or three times in the second machine count, totaling 6,118 questionable votes.

' Eighty-eight percent of Fulton County's precincts reported a different total number of votes between the first and second machine count.

' The only electronic votes that survived from the first count were the mail-in ballots, since they were tabulated on the high speed scanner their ballot images were automatically uploaded to the election server.

' Ninety percent of these approximately 148,000 absentee ballots cast in Fulton County cannot be authenticated. Ballot images for 132,284 mail-in votes have no .SHA file, which is created automatically when a ballot is scanned and used to authenticate the digital image of the vote, lacking evidence they were scanned and tabulated properly, or even cast by a real voter.

' 104,994 ballot image files of these mail-in ballots from the original count contained identical modified time stamps, suggesting electronic manipulation.

' Fulton County does not know ''how many voters cast votes'' and its ''lack of basic accounting controls make it impossible to determine who really won'' in 2020, according to Philip Stark, a University of California, Berkeley professor who invented risk-limiting audits. Stark noted, ''The electronic records of the election are not intact.''

' 376,863 ballot images are missing from the first machine count, which includes all in-person votes in Fulton County.

' None of the 315,000 votes cast during early voting in Fulton County were witnessed to and signed by the poll manager and two poll workers, as required by state election rules. The closing tapes for these votes are all unsigned, showed more tabulated votes than the tabulators had recorded as scanning in their protective counters, and recorded improbably low percentages for President Trump. For example, President Trump received only 0.9 percent, 2.4 percent, 3.7 percent from some of the tabulators, as if he was a third party candidate, or in a third world country. The anomalies indicate ballots were not scanned on the tabulators that printed the closing tapes, making the closing tapes fraudulent.

' Tabulators used in Fulton County during early voting had their seals broken, and memory cards were reprogrammed and inserted into different scanners to count absentee ballots, in violation of election rules. This made it impossible to reconcile the true number of votes tabulated on the machines from the start of the Election to the end of counting.

' 235,000 absentee ballots were requested and accepted too early, prior to the lawful date 180 days before the 2020 Election, which was May 6, 2020. These votes should have never been counted in the 2020 Election.

' 4,081 false votes for Joe Biden were included in the hand count audit results for Fulton County. The false votes were the result of 36 accounting errors, which were confirmed by Governor Brian Kemp's office and investigators working for Secretary Brad Raffensperger, yet they have never been removed from the official hand count results. These errors alone would reduce the margin to 7,698 votes.

' The hand count audit included 3,935 unaccounted for votes due to 11 missing batch sheets in Fulton County. Differences from the original count to the hand audit total at least 15,690 votes, which is more than the entire election margin alone. This includes the 4,081 false Biden votes, plus ''missing'' votes discovered in Gwinett (1,642), Fayette (2,755), Floyd (2,700), Douglas (293), and Walton (284) counties that were likely due to machine counting errors.

' Thousands of ''pristine,'' unfolded absentee ballots were counted during the hand count audit in Fulton County, according to at least six witnesses, which is the subject of ongoing litigation. These absentee ballots had no folds, and went 98 percent to Joe Biden, had ''been added in a fraudulent manner,'' witnesses said.

' Fulton County certified 59,143 in-person votes on Election Day, despite the fact that only 14,152 people had voted as of 5 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2020. Evidence suggests the in-person vote total on Election Day was inflated by approximately 37,000 votes, as records show no rush to the polls during the final two hours of voting, and a screenshot of the in-person Election Day results shared by a government contractor showed only 21,843 people voted at the polls in Fulton County on Nov. 3.

' Fulton County ordered over 1 million absentee ballots days before the 2020 Election, without any envelopes and the time necessary to mail. There were only 808,680 active voters in Fulton County as of Nov. 1, 2020, meaning the county had more blank mail-in ballots than the number of registered voters, and ordered them after the vast majority of mail-in ballot requests had already been sent to voters by Runbeck Election Services.

' An estimated 30,000 to 92,670 illicit votes were trafficked in Georgia, as part of a massive ballot trafficking operation discovered by True the Vote. The group identified 242 traffickers in Georgia who engaged in 5,662 ballot drops into drop boxes, making an average of runs per trafficker. Over 40 percent of the illicit drops that were captured on camera were recorded between the non-voting hours of midnight and 5 a.m.

' There were over 364,000 ineligible voter registrations on the rolls during the 2020 Election and likely 67,284 votes were cast from voters with invalid residency.

' Massive manipulation of the Georgia voter rolls surrounding the 2020 Election has been uncovered. This includes 1,500 Voter IDs that received credit for voting in 2020, but were not on any voter rolls from 2020, some appearing for the first time on the voter rolls on Nov. 4, 2021, a year after the Election. Other findings include manipulation of inactive voters to cast ballots, ''gifting'' Nov. 3 votes up to 2 years after the Election, and casting votes on ballots previously rejected, cancelled, or not even turned in.

' In 2020, there were absentee ballots issued to ''Bangkok Thailand, Ga.,'' ''Denver, Ga.,'' ''Detroit, Ga.,'' ''Los Angeles, Ga.,'' and other fraudulent addresses that do not exist. Ballots were fraudulently cast in 2020 from addresses listed as ''Bronx, Ga.,'' ''Hilton Head, Ga.,'' ''Louisville, Ga.,'' ''San Diego, Ga.,'' ''New Orleans, Ga.,'' ''French Creek, Ga.,'' ''Virginia Beach, Ga.,'' ''Vicksburg, Ga.,'' ''Baltimore, Ga.,'' ''New York, Ga.,'' and ''Sarasota, Ga.,'' all with zip codes out of state.

' 43,907 drop box ballots violated chain of custody requirements in DeKalb County.

' 59,000 of the 79,460 drop box ballots in Fulton County were not immediately transported to the election registrar, in violation of State Election Board rules.

' An estimated 355,000 ballot transfer forms for drop box ballots are missing statewide.

' Over 100,000 tally sheets for Fulton County were missing from the hand count audit, and remained missing for months after the Election.

' In early January 2021, Ruby Freeman asked for an attorney because she wanted to ''go live on every platform'' to divulge information about how ''the USB ports'' were used in the 2020 Election. The expert cyber report by Professor J. Alex Halderman explained how external USB ports with election-changing malware can be inserted into Dominion machines by anyone with access, including election workers.

' The presence of a ''QR code mismatch'' error within the Dominion tabulators that systematically undercounts votes was found in 65 out of 67 Georgia counties where records were available. The error was present in system log files for tabulators used in elections in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

' The election results in Georgia in 2020 are not only unreliable, but were electronically altered, and are unsupported by the state's own election records. The appearance of tens of thousands of unconfirmed ballots in subsequent hand and machine counts suggest reconciliation happened after the Election, meaning after it was clear what margins were needed to win.

' Fulton County election officials admitted in early 2021 they do not engage in any reconciliation until weeks after Election Day. This means the number of voters showing up at the polls during each day of voting is not checked with the number of ballots tabulated each day, a basic process to ensure the number of ballots and voters match, and cannot be manipulated later.

' ''We can't start reconciling that until usually a couple days before certification,'' said then-Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron, during a January 2021 Board meeting. ''Because we have to get that report from KnowInk. I think KnowInk sends those to the state or KnowInk sends those directly to us. But those aren't compiled then, on Election night. So we don't have any way to balance those then. That's like the post-election process that we do.''

JUST IN - President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

WISCONSIN🚨

' Wisconsin was called by 20,682 votes.

' The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin law, in a 4-3 decision issued in July 2022.

' Wisconsin Election Commissioner Meagan Wolfe unilaterally declared ballot drop boxes could be used to vote in 2020 elections, even though ''WEC's commissioners never voted to adopt this memo.''

' Ahead of the November 2020 Election, Wolfe encouraged clerks to use ''creative solutions'' to deploy drop boxes, that she said could be ''unstaffed.'' There were 528 drop boxes used in the General Election, and a total of 1,969,274 absentee votes cast, including 1,346,731 votes cast by mail, and 653,236 in-person.

' In a concurring opinion to the ruling finding drop boxes to be unlawful, Justice Rebecca Bradley writes, ''If the right to vote is to have any meaning at all, elections must be conducted according to law. Throughout history, tyrants have claimed electoral victory via elections conducted in violation of governing law'... in Wisconsin elected officials ''deriv[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed.''

' ''The right to vote presupposes the rule of law governs elections. If elections are conducted outside of the law, the people have not conferred their consent on the government. Such elections are unlawful and their results are illegitimate.''

' Justice Bradley concluded ''thousands of votes have been cast via this unlawful method,'' using drop boxes, ''thereby directly harming the Wisconsin voters.''

' ''The illegality of these drop boxes weakens the people's faith that the election produced an outcome reflective of their will,'' Justice Bradley writes. ''The Wisconsin voters, and all lawful voters, are injured when the institution charged with administering Wisconsin elections does not follow the law, leaving the results in question'...Electoral outcomes obtained by unlawful procedures corrupt the institution of voting, degrading the very foundation of free government. Unlawful votes do not dilute lawful votes so much as they pollute them, which in turn pollutes the integrity of the results.''

' In the city of Milwaukee, nearly half of all its votes were cast by mail, totaling 217,424 ballots. The city deployed 15 drop boxes, with election officials claiming the drop boxes would be ''under 24-hour surveillance.'' However, after the election, not a single municipality in the county produced video surveillance of drop boxes in response to open records requests. Various responses included, ''No records exist for your request,'' ''No video from requested time frame,'' ''No such records exist,'' and ''No security camera.''

' The election integrity group True the Vote identified 107 ballot traffickers in Milwaukee County between Oct. 20 and Nov. 3, 2020, who each made 20 or more visits to drop boxes. Each trafficker made an average 26 visits, and as many as 15 in one day, and made multiple visits to non-governmental organizations.

' The 107 traffickers made a total of 2,824 trips to drop boxes during the 2020 Election, with a majority of visits occurring after 8:00 p.m.

' In 2020 there was a surge of ''indefinitely confined'' votes in Wisconsin, resulting in 220,404 votes cast from individuals who were exempted from showing voter ID. This surge of suspect votes was due to Democrat election clerks giving advice that was deemed illegal after the election, instructing voters to identify themselves as disabled during the COVID pandemic to avoid voter ID laws.

' Indefinitely confined voters, who are supposed to be physically unable to go to the polls due to age, disability, or illness, increased by an astounding 393 percent in Dane County from 2016 to 2020; 492 percent in Racine County; 281 percent in Milwaukee County; and 287 percent in the state overall.

' There were just 56,978 indefinitely confined votes in 2016, and roughly 70,000 43 in 2019. In 2020, however, there were 220,404 votes cast using indefinite confinement status. Over 77 percent of these individuals had never been listed as indefinitely confined before. The Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau identified 48,554 people who voted as indefinitely confined in November 2020 who had never provided photo identification or did not have photo identifications on file with clerks, which is more than twice the vote margin of 20,682.

' Scott McDonell, the Democrat clerk of Dane County, which encompasses the area of Madison, told all residents they could identify themselves as indefinitely confined because of COVID, specifically citing it as a way to get around the Voter ID law.

' McDonell previously blamed Wisconsin's voter ID law for President Trump's victory in 2016, claiming in a 2018 Twitter post that ''thousands of voters [were] deterred from voting due to [the] ID law.''

' In 2020, McDonell urged all voters to declare themselves indefinitely confined in order to obtain an absentee ballot and ''skip the step of uploading an ID'' in the April 2020 primary election. Once a voter is identified as indefinitely confined, they continue to receive absentee ballots automatically for subsequent elections. ''I urge all voters who request a ballot and have trouble presenting a valid ID to indicate that they are indefinitely confined,'' McDonell said in a Facebook post.

' The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in December 2020 that the pandemic ''did not render all Wisconsin electors 'indefinitely confined,' thereby obviating the requirement of a valid photo identification to obtain an absentee ballot,'' and the clerks' ''interpretation of Wisconsin election laws was erroneous.''

' The Wisconsin Election Commission ordered nursing homes to violate the law by not allowing Special Voting Deputies (SVDs) inside their facilities, which led to election fraud where incapacitated elderly residents had votes cast in their name with the assistance of nursing home staff.

' An investigation by the Racine County Sheriff found the Wisconsin Elections Commission ''shattered'' state election laws. Nursing homes saw an ''unusual surge in voting activity,'' and at least 8 cases of felony voter fraud were found in one nursing home, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 families of residents.

' The Wisconsin Election Commission admitted it was ''essentially telling the clerks to break the law'' by ordering the sending of absentee ballots to nursing homes and barring Special Voting Deputies inside the facilities.

' An interim report released by Special Counsel Michael J. Gableman raised ''serious and legitimate questions that the certification of Wisconsin's election results may have been undertaken in an unlawful and unconstitutional manner.''

' Gableman claimed ''Democracy in the Park'' events in Madison involved numerous possible violations of the law, ''calling into question the validity of over 17,000 absentee ballots.''

' These outdoor events to collect mail-in ballots were the subject of numerous complaints, and it is ''not clear that all of the workers at those events were properly deputized and trained, swore and filed the mandatory oath of office, or documents related to absentee ballots were properly handled.''

' The Office of the Special Counsel also claimed evidence of ''undue influence by well-funded private groups, who leveraged large grants to certain Wisconsin cities in order to co-opt our election apparatus to their benefit.''

' The report confirms at least 17.5 percent of election clerks ''were not properly trained,'' and that ''exploitation of elders'' occurred in nursing homes.

' In one example, Maryl Barrett, who was 104 years old and did not recognize her own children, had a ballot cast in her name in the 2020 Presidential Election.

' The Office of Special Counsel's second interim report found nursing homes in Milwaukee, Dane, and Racine counties with 100 percent turnout due to the Wisconsin Election Commission's order.

' The special counsel said it possessed evidence of nursing home facility staff and directors who ''assisted residents in completing ballots; assisted residents in obtaining absentee ballots; pressured residents to vote; collected completed ballots from residents; forged signatures of residents; illegally returned residents' ballots to the municipal clerks by mail, by placing the ballots in drop boxes, and/ or delivering them directly to the clerks; pressured and/or assisted incompetent persons to complete and cast ballots in the November 2020 election, up to and including persons who have had their right to vote take away by court order due to mental incompetence.''

' The second interim report also detailed an $8.8 million ''election bribery scheme'' involving Mark Zuckerberg's Center for Tech and Civic Life and the cities of Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay. ''In the agreement, the Cities took CTCL's money to facilitate in-person and absentee voting within their respective city.''

' The ''Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan'' developed for CTCL facilitated grants to major Wisconsin cities to deploy drop boxes for mail-in ballots, including $50,000 to Green Bay, $40,000 to Kenosha, $50,000 to Madison, $58,500 to Milwaukee, and $18,000 to Racine.

' Whitney May, the director of government services for CTCL, posted numerous anti-Trump posts on social media, including telling people ''don't vote for Trump'' in 2016.

' Internal emails from election officials in Green Bay revealed Michael SpitzerRubenstein, a former Democratic Party operative, served as a ''de facto elections administrator and had access to Green Bay's absentee ballots days before the election.''

' The Office of the Special Counsel referenced this case, and has evidence that this grantee, which was funded by CTCL, was ''directly involved in all aspects of management of election officials, was entrusted with the only sets of physical keys to the city's central count location, managed the transportation of ballots, and instructed the counting of unlawful ballots that had arrived at the central count location beyond the lawful time window.''

JUST IN - President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

PENNSYLVANIA🚨

' Pennsylvania was called by 80,555 votes.

' Months after the election, there were 121,240 more votes than voters, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. By law, Pennsylvania cannot certify an election with this type of discrepancy.

' Republican lawmakers, led by State Representative Frank Ryan, were tracking the vote discrepancy in real time in the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system. Ryan, a certified public accountant, initially reported that there were 170,830 more votes than voters in the Presidential race, more than twice the margin in Pennsylvania. ''These numbers just don't add up, and the alleged certification of Pennsylvania's presidential election results was absolutely premature, unconfirmed, and in error,'' the lawmakers said.

' The Pennsylvania Department of State's office called this ''obvious misinformation,'' while admitting the ''only way to determine the number of voters who voted in November from the SURE system is through the vote histories,'' which they said Philadelphia, Allegheny, and other counties had still not completed '-- an admission the election was certified without ensuring the number of voters and votes matched in the SURE system. The election was certified on Nov. 24, 2020, and the Department of State's statement came on Dec. 29, 2020.

' The SURE system was checked and downloaded weekly with updated voter histories from the general Election until all the counties uploaded their vote histories, which was not completed until February 2021. At this time there were still over 121,000 votes that did not have a corresponding voter in the SURE system.

' The statement by the Department of State ''that the voting would reconcile, once the counties completed their SURE uploads, was incorrect,'' according to Verity Vote. ''When the final county finished uploading their voter histories and closed the election in SURE, it was February 1, 2021, which was the same day that [Secretary of State Kathy] Boockvar announced her resignation. At the time that Philadelphia closed the election in SURE, the voter histories showed that the county accepted at least 7,944 ballots that could not be associated with a registered voter.''

' Pennsylvania credited 71,893 people for voting who returned mail-in ballots after Election Day, and these individuals were included in the voter history files. This includes 50,285 received between Nov. 4 and Nov. 6; 11,570 received between Nov. 7 and Nov. 11; and 10,038 that were received on or after Nov. 12. Boockvar claimed only 10,000 ballots were received between the close of the polls on Election Day and Nov. 6.

' While 71,893 people received credit for voting by mail, these votes purportedly did not count. Even while including these voters in the total number of who participated in the Election, Pennsylvania still came up 121,240 voters short.

' According to the Department of State data, there were 7,035,746 ballots cast in the 2020 Presidential Election, including all write-in votes, over-votes, and under-votes. ''After all counties closed the election in SURE, only 6,914,556 voters were credited with participation in the 2020 General Election. This reveals a voter deficit of 121,240.''

' In Philadelphia, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were unlawfully counted in secret, in defiance of a court order, while Republican poll watchers were thrown out of buildings where voting took place.

' U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain was told to stand down and not investigate election irregularities by Attorney General Bill Barr. McSwain said he was instructed to not discuss the allegations of voter fraud he received, and to pass any ''serious'' investigations along to then-State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who promised days before the election that President Trump ''is going to lose.''

' Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook poured over $25 million into the administration of the election in Pennsylvania in 2020. Over $10 million went to the Democrat-controlled jurisdiction of Philadelphia, which included $5.5 million on ''ballot processing equipment'' and $552,000 for drop boxes.

' A lawsuit filed in Delaware County revealed video evidence of election officials discussing destroying election evidence from the November 2020 Election. ''It's a felony,'' one official says after talking about the need to ''get rid'' of voting ''pads and second scanners.'' Sources involved in the litigation alleged the Delaware County officials violated numerous election laws and that the destruction of records was ''done to ensure records eventually provided actually matched the election results that were reported in Nov. 2020.''

' Delaware County received $2.2 million from Zuckerberg's Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which it spent on ''recruiting and training a sufficient number of poll workers; setting up drop box locations for voters to return ballots,'' and other Get Out the Vote efforts.

' The election integrity group True the Vote said Philadelphia was the worst offender it witnessed when investigating the widespread ballot trafficking scheme operating across multiple Swing States in 2020. They identified 1,155 ballot traffickers who each visited at least 10 drop boxes and five non-governmental organizations. Some ballot traffickers made hundreds of trips to drop boxes.

JUST IN - President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

ARIZONA🚨

' Arizona was called by a margin of 10,457 votes. ' Maricopa County accepted 20,500 mail-in ballots after Election Day 2020, including 18,000 '' more than the entire election margin '' on Nov. 4 picked up from the U.S. Postal Service. By law, ballots must be received no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day, which was Nov. 3.

' ''The 20,000 ballots recorded as incoming from the USPS on and after November 4 were of sufficient quantity to change the result of the 2020 General Election in Arizona,'' according to Verity Vote.

' The findings were based on Maricopa County's official Elections Department records, which were withheld from a public records request for nearly seven months. The records showed 18,000 mail-in ballots received on Nov. 4; 1,000 received on Nov. 5; and 1,500 received on Nov. 6.

' The 18,000 mail-in ballots received on Nov. 4 and subsequently counted represented a significant spike in ballots received, higher than every single day total since Oct. 29, 2020. The receipt of mail-in ballots had steadily declined from 14,500 ballots on Oct. 29 to 10,500 on Oct. 30; 6,000 on Oct. 31; 1,500 on Nov. 1; 1,000 on Nov. 2; and 2,500 on Nov. 3.

' In the 2020 General Election, 420,987 ballots failed signature verification standards, ''thus the election was openly vulnerable to fraud,'' according to an ongoing analysis conducted by We the People Arizona Alliance and presented to the state legislature.

' The initial analysis of 380,976 ballots, using official state records and official signature verification training techniques, identified 181,378 ballots that should not have been counted, or nearly half of all reviewed.

' This includes: 1,870 blank envelopes, some of which were approved on Nov. 5 and Nov. 8; 542 with a signature other than the voter; 2,104 scribbles; 128 duplicate voters processed; 48,117 unreasonably different control signatures; 1,875 where the signature did not match until after the election; 36,034 control signatures that do not match the voter; 4,433 unusable control signatures; 47,366 that failed Secretary of State standards; and 38,909 egregious signature mismatches, where not one point of a signature matched any on file.

' In the case of the 1,875 votes, the ballot envelopes did not have a signature match on Election Day, but ''matching'' signatures were later put on file for the voter on either Jan. 28, 2021, Feb. 3, 2021, or Feb. 8, 2021. There were 783 signatures digitally inserted on Feb. 3, 2021 alone.

' Since the findings were presented to the Arizona State Legislature, the number of egregious mismatches found has increased to 76,354, over seven times the election margin. This is an error rate of 9.30 percent of ballot envelopes reviewed.

' Throughout the signature verification analysis, which remains ongoing, analysts have consistently found 20 percent do not meet the Secretary of State's standards, and 9 percent are egregious violations. Extrapolated to all 1.9 million mail-in ballots in 2020, 176,700 ballots ''should have been rejected for improper signature verification due to egregious signature mismatches.''

' Maricopa County has no documented chain of custody for 740,000 ballots from the 2020 Election.

' Out of the 923,000 early vote ballots accepted at vote centers or drop boxes, only 183,406 ballots are accounted for on ballot transport forms. More than 80 percent of the ballot transport forms have no ballot counts.

' Without proper documentation of how many votes were cast at the time they were cast, it is impossible to verify the origin and true total of ballots in a given election. ''Without this count, there is no way to determine if the transport staff retrieved one ballot or one thousand ballots,'' according to Verity Vote. ''Keeping a proper chain of custody is more than a best practice - it is essential to encouraging trust in our democracy,'' according to the Election Assistance Commission.

' Of the 1,895 early vote ballot transport forms, 48 did not have the required two witness signatures attesting to the ballot transfer, including some with no witness signatures at all. ''As a result, the public is not assured that both parties witnessed the transfer of ballots,'' as required.

' Millions of files of 2020 General Election data and security logs were deleted from the Elections Management Server and purged on critical days, including the day before the Arizona audit of the 2020 Election began on Feb. 2, 2021.

' The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors admitted they purged the system and moved election data after they received a subpoena, in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives.

' Two precincts in Pima County had over 100 percent turnout for mail-in ballots, and 40 precincts had over 97 percent returned.

' The national mail-in ballot return rate was 71 percent, but in Pima County the mail-in ballot return rate was 15 percent higher, and 19 percent higher than all the counties combined in the entire state of Arizona. One precinct with 99.5 percent mail-in turnout had 9,812 ballots counted. Another precinct with 100.6 percent turnout had 2,182 ballots returned, but only 2,170 mail-ins were ever sent. These two precincts total 11,994 ballots, which alone is more than the margin needed to alter the outcome of the Presidential Election.

' In all, there were 264,000 votes from precincts in Pima County with over 92 percent turnout for mail-in ballots.

' Significant anomalies were discovered for mail-in ballot returns in Pima County. In precincts with anomalous high turnout of over 92 percent in Pima County, mail-in ballots started flipping from 6 percent Republican for Biden to 40 percent of Republicans voting for Biden.

' The election integrity group True the Vote identified more than 202 ballot traffickers in Maricopa County who made 4,282 individual drop box visits during the 2020 General Election.

' Two individuals were charged and plead guilty for ballot harvesting in Yuma County, Arizona during the 2020 primary election.

' A computer scientist testified that an algorithm similar to what is used in cruise control or self-driving cars was present affecting the early votes in Pima and Maricopa counties in the 2020 General Election, with the ability to ''reach and maintain a predetermined setpoint (outcome) despite unplanned disturbances.''

' Daugherity, who has received over $2.8 million in grant funding and was previously consulted as a computer expert by the New York Times, Washington Post, IBM Federal Systems Division, the Texas Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs Service, as well as classified work, discovered ''significant and systematic decline in the cumulative ratio as counting progresses,'' in the early mail-in and in-person votes for the Presidential Election results in Maricopa County and Pima County.

' For example, the ''first block of ballots being 75 [percent] for a candidate, the next block of ballots being 74 [percent] for a candidate, the next block of ballots being 73 [percent] for a candidate, and so on, systematically declining all the way to Election Day.''

' Daugherity's expert opinion is that the downward sloping line in the sequence that votes were recorded indicated a strong control. The cumulative ratio of Biden to Trump votes for all cast vote records before Election Day in recorded order for Pima County declines from over 300 percent to 157 percent by Election Day.

' ''Such a uniform and predictable pattern is so statistically implausible that it would not occur without artificial manipulation,'' according to Daugherity. The data's lack of independence cannot be explained by the preference of Democrats voting earlier than Republicans.

JUST IN - President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

MICHIGAN🚨

' Michigan was called by 154,188 votes.

' A record 5,579,317 votes were cast and certified in Michigan in the 2020 General Election, the highest turnout in 60 years. To date, Michigan has never shown 5,579,317 voters listed for the 2020 Election in its Qualified Voter File, the state's database for all voter registration records.

' As of December 2023, Michigan has 271,566 more votes than the number of voters listed in its Qualified Voter File for Nov. 3, 2020, more than one and a half times the Election margin.

' In data obtained from the Secretary of State's office on nearly a monthly basis since the Election, the most voters ever recorded in the Qualified Voter File was 5,511,303 voters in April 2021. This means Michigan's own election records showed 68,014 more votes than voters. However, the number of voters listed in the Qualified Voter File has been in flux ever since December 2020, and always short of the voters needed to reconcile the total votes cast. A complete list of voters from 2020 has never been provided.

' The number of voter IDs listed as voting in 2020 has steadily declined since February 2022. As of December 2023, there was a total of 5,307,751 voters listed as voting on Nov. 3, 2020 in the Qualified Voter File. Voter history files continue to be removed from the record, resulting in 271,566 less vote history records than necessary to reconcile the results.

' Each month voter histories from the 2020 Election are being manipulated. Thousands of unique votes are removed from the voter history files, and other unique votes added. Since December 2020, 270,559 voter histories for 2020 have been removed, while 103,128 have been added.

' Individual voter histories are constantly changing, including the history of the state's Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, whose voting history is missing votes throughout 2020.

' A complete list of voters was requested via a Freedom of Information Act request in December 2021 and took nine months for the state to fulfill. Two datasets were provided, and neither matched. The first dataset fell 22,146 voters short, while the second dataset was 120,883 absentee ballots short.

' Democrats threatened Republicans on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers and doxxed children in order to certify the 2020 results. Monica Palmer, then the chair of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, cited the fact that 70 percent of Detroit's mail-in ballot counts were still ''out of balance and unexplained'' from the August primary as a reason why she initially voted against certifying the 2020 Election results. Palmer was ''bullied and threatened'' and ''feared for her safety'' due to threats she received for voting no. A Democrat Michigan State representative-elect attacked Palmer over her certification vote, and revealed where her children went to school, saying, ''I want you to think about what that means for your kids.''

' Officials in Detroit illegally blocked Republican poll challengers' access, covered the windows, called the cops, and denied lawful challenges in order to count ballots in secret.

' Affidavits and video evidence revealed thousands of ballots were delivered through a back door of the TCF center, the central counting facility in Detroit, at 3:30 a.m. on Election night.

' A report seeking to ''debunk'' issues of fraud released by the Michigan State Senate Oversight Committee confirmed a ''large volume'' of ballots were delivered to the TCF center with no chain of custody in the middle of the night.

' An estimated 289,866 absentee ballots were identified as sent to people who never requested them, ''something that would be illegal,'' according to the senate committee.

' Mark Zuckerberg gave Michigan $16.8 million through his nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life.

' Detroit received $7.4 million to ''dramatically'' expand the vote for Democrats. The grants financed drop boxes ''to facilitate the return of absentee ballots,'' like the ones that came in the TCF center after midnight.

' The election integrity group True the Vote uncovered the same pattern of widespread ballot trafficking between NGOs and ballot drop boxes in Michigan. Numerous instances of ballot stuffing were caught on camera in Detroit, including video where a woman can be seen going to a drop box, and abruptly returning to her car after realizing the stack had no signatures. The woman then signs the ballots, and deposits the illicit ballots she had just signed into the drop box.

' Secretary Jocelyn Benson made unlawful changes to signature verification rules for absentee ballots, ordering election workers to presume all were legitimate. A judge ruled Benson's order was invalid, but not until months following the election, and just 0.1 percent of mail-in ballots were rejected in the November 2020 Election for all signature issues. The rejection rate for mismatching signatures was just 0.04 percent, as only 1,400 out of 3.4 million ballots were rejected.

' Secretary Benson has lost in court six times for issues related to the 2020 Election.

' A fraudulent voter registration scheme was discovered in October 2020 and documented in a police report in Muskegon County and hidden for nearly 3 years after the 2020 Election.

' A city clerk in Muskegon witnessed a woman drop off between 8,000 and 10,000 voter registrations at the clerk office on Oct. 8, 2020, many appearing to be fraudulent. The incident was reported it to the Muskegon Police Department one week later. Eight thousand new voter registrations in Muskegon would amount to over 20 percent of the city's population of only 38,000 residents.

' An ensuing investigation confirmed thousands of voter registrations in the same handwriting and many invalid or non-existent addresses. The suspect told Michigan State Police that she was being paid $1,150 per week to ''find unregistered voters and provide them with a form so they can get registered to vote or obtain their absentee ballot.'' The police found ''dozens of new phones'' and ''hundreds of pre-paid payment cards'' during the investigation.

' A Department of State analyst consulted in the investigation confirmed a quantity of voter applications were ''clearly fraudulent'' and others were ''highly suspicious having either erroneous or are missing key pieces of information.'' Others appeared to be legitimate.

' The organization behind the scheme was GBI Strategies, a firm hired by numerous Democrat campaigns. GBI Strategies was funded by a super PAC called ''Black PAC,'' which paid the firm $11,254,919 to register voters for Joe Biden in 2020. Employees of GBI Strategies were paid $15 an hour or $120 a day, according to the police report.

' GBI Strategies was believed to be operating not just in Muskegon, but throughout Michigan and in other Swing States.

' Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel's office contacted the Muskegon Police Department and asked Michigan State Police to assist with a joint investigation. The Michigan police then turned their investigation over to the FBI.

' Andrew Kloster, deputy general counsel at the United States Office of Personnel Management during the Trump Administration, said he was made aware of the investigation into GBI Strategies before the 2020 Election and attempted to raise the issue for further investigation. He was informed there were ''standing orders not to deal with election matters'' in the offices of the White House counsel office and Attorney General Bill Barr.

' The investigation was not made public until 2023, after the police reports were obtained through a Michigan Freedom of Information Act request.

President Trump Releases Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States

I look forward to fact-checkers debunking this, citing sources from the corporate media that spent four years claiming Donald Trump was a Russian agent and dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian disinformation.

I encourage you to personally review the numerous citations in this report and reach your own conclusions.

cdn.nucleusfiles.com/e0/e04e630c-63'...' ' '

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Refugee stories from around the world

In their own words, people share when and why they had to flee'--and what life is like now.

El Salvador does not allow people like us: either you are a man or you are a woman. My dream upon arriving in the United States is to find a decent job, to have an income to help my parents.

At 27 years old, Fernanda Levin was forced to leave behind her parents, siblings and home simply so that she could safely be herself.

It's been so horrible, reading the news and wondering where family members are. All my relatives are in eastern Ukraine and I am afraid of what could happen to them.

Newly engaged and working amid the conflict and crisis at home, Ukrainian refugee Anastasiia is rebuilding her life in Poland.

My children motivate me to continue. I know that I do this not only for me, but for them, so that they do not have any problems when they grow up, so that they do not live or sleep in fear.

Natalia and her husband Jos(C) traveled thousands of miles, sleeping rough on the streets, determined to reach a safe place to raise their children.

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 14:23

By

Miles Kruppa

and

Patience Haggin

Jan. 4, 2024 5:30 am ETGoogle is going forward with sweeping changes to how companies track users online'--moves that have been years in the making. Advertisers still aren't ready.

The changes, among the biggest in the history of the $600 billion-a-year online ad industry, center on the use of cookies, technology that logs the activity of internet users across websites so that advertisers can target them with relevant ads.

Copyright (C)2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Thu, 04 Jan 2024 02:49

Bloomberg Best of the Year 2021: Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. ... [+] and Square Inc., speaks during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida, U.S., on Friday, June 4, 2021. Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

(C) 2021 Bloomberg Finance LPWhile crypto developers focus on Web 3 token development, there are a number of companies building open-source protocols and leveraging bitcoin for payments. ''We made up Web 5 to show it's all meaningless,'' Jack Dorsey said in our interview, referencing the crypto tokens that are often criticized as unregistered securities.

Dorsey's company Block Inc has recently placed a large emphasis on open-source development in support of the bitcoin space. ''The trending model forward is open protocols and service businesses on top of them,'' Dorsey said in our interview. An interesting claim considering the communication took place over NOSTR, an open-source social media protocol.

Dorsey believes that open-source development paired with bitcoin will enable everyone to participate in the future economy. He told me that he will do whatever it takes to realize an internet native currency in his lifetime. He sees bitcoin as the only option for permissionless money transmission and a tool for achieving that goal.

Protocols like NOSTR are already starting to accomplish this with distributed social networking. Companies are also turning their focus to the music and podcasting industries in an effort to put the power back in the hands of the content creators. A decentralized economy may be closer than most realize, all without the need for native tokens and initial coin offerings.

Primal Iterating On Open Source Social MediaDistribution leads to a reslient network that is resistant against censorship and attack. (World ... [+] Map Courtesy of NASA: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167)

gettyNOSTR is a growing social media network which exists as a protocol, much like bitcoin. Users have a multitude of ways of interacting in the social network, but the data remains distributed through a series of relays or nodes, which users can choose to run themselves.

If an individual is not happy with their current interface, they can simply og into their profile with another application. All of their data, posts, followers, connections, transfer automatically.

It is akin to having a single repository for all of your posts and followers on X, Facebook, and Instagram together. If you're no longer happy with the setup, you can simply move and take all of your data with you.

The most recent iteration involves an application called Primal. This newly developed application interfaces with NOSTR with a feel very similar to X. The main difference being the lack of a central authority for censoring speech or algorithms driving conflict for higher engagement.

Primal also has a built-in lightning wallet that allows users to send value in the form of bitcoin instantly to one another. The Lightning Network is a second layer built on top of bitcoin that facilitates instant and cheap bitcoin payments.

The lightning functionality on Primal and NOSTR allows for bitcoin-native peer to peer tipping, commonly referred to as zapping. It is becoming a novel way for content creators to monetize their posts without intermediaries.

Adam Curry and Value for ValuePodcaster Adam Curry participates in a panel at the Bitcoin Conference, Thursday, April 7, 2022, in ... [+] Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.''We can't do this with dollars. The micro payments are sometimes less than a penny a minute, beautifully distributed over the ecosystem with programmable money,'' Adam Curry said in our interview about the importance of bitcoin and the Lightning Network.

Curry just celebrated the 16th year of his No Agenda podcast, a show with nearly a million listeners an episode. He said they didn't want to take any advertisement money, so they asked listeners to pay a $5 a month subscription fee.

After disappointing results, they asked the listeners to simply pay what they wanted when they could. After 3-4 years, Curry was able to live off the income and focus entirely on his show. That concept is what started Curry down the path of value for value.

To reinforce podcasting decentralization, Curry started podcastindex.org so independent app developers would be able to get everything they need through a platform without censorship.

The index provides ''value block information,'' a specification that allows for timed and one-off payments. Timed payments allow listeners to stream a certain amount of bitcoin per minute over the lighting network to creators as they listen.

Podcast index also allows for payment splitting. This way podcast hosts, production crews, guests, and anyone else they choose can all receive value from episodes in a way that doesn't require financial intermediaries. At the time of the interview, 15 apps and 20,000 podcasts now use Curry's podcast index to monetize content.

Curry told me that artists are now making more in a week than they made in years on Spotify. ''I truly believe because of the value splits that this is why the community has stayed together. It keeps things fair, validating, encouraging,'' he concluded.

Federated ComputerDavid Young, CEO of Federated Computer is building open-source software in order to disintermediate the music and podcasting industry. Their project is meant to make monetization simple by adding bitcoin into their platform as a payment tool. In doing so, they intend to make the music industry more transparent.

While Federated Computer provides these open-source tools as a service, they have self-hosting options as well. By using Federated Computer, musicians are able to sell their music directly to consumers without the need for distributors.

Federated Computer launched in May of 2023 and now have over 2300 customers. Much like Adam Curry's experience, these musicians are now making more money than they had in years of traditional distribution lanes.

Open-source software is only just beginning to empower content creators seeking to leverage the power of open-source, digital payments. By eliminating financial intermediaries, and in turn transaction costs, more money will inevitably land into the hands of the creators themselves.

These developers hope that the incentives will lead to a fairer industry, putting the power back into the hands of the creators themselves. With leaders like Jack Dorsey at the helm driving open-source strategies, the future may inevitably be decentralized.

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 19:56

Washington has rejected plans for the resettlement as ''inflammatory and irresponsible''

Officials from Israel are holding clandestine discussions with the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African nations over plans for the resettlement of thousands of Palestinian migrants from Gaza, Israeli media has claimed.

Plans for the ''voluntary'' resettlement of people from the besieged Palestinian enclave to the central African country are ''slowly'' becoming a key policy of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, the Times of Israel reported on Wednesday, citing a senior government source. It added that Israel has held talks with several African countries to determine if they would accept migrants from Gaza.

''Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we're in talks with others,'' the news website said, quoting the unnamed official. Last Monday, Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud party that he is progressing with plans for the migration of Gazans but that ''our problem is [finding] countries that are willing to absorb Gazans.''

The Democratic Republic of Congo has high levels of poverty and inequality, a report by the World Food Program said, combined with recurring regional conflict and insecurity. The aid organization added that about 52.5% of its 5.5 million population lives below the poverty line.

On Tuesday, Washington rejected as ''irresponsible'' statements from Israeli officials over the proposed resettlement plan, including two who had called for the ''voluntary migration'' of Palestinians.

''The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza,'' State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a Tuesday statement.

He added: ''The rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible.''

Smotrich dismissed Washington's objection on Wednesday, claiming that some 70% of Israelis support the proposal because ''two million people [in Gaza] wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the State of Israel.'' Netanyahu's office has previously issued statements to say that Smotrich and Ben Gvir do not represent official government policy over the conflict in Gaza.

The plan, though, will be necessary due to the postwar conditions of Gaza when the conflict subsides, Israel's intelligence minister, Gila Gamliel, said on Tuesday at a conference in the Knesset. ''At the end of the war, Hamas rule will collapse. There are no municipal authorities; the civilian population will be entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.''

Gamliel added to the Hebrew website Zman Israel that she expects 60% of Gaza's agricultural land to be transformed into security buffer zones.

Israel has conducted prolonged air and ground attacks on the densely-populated Gaza enclave since the October 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed, health officials say, while close to 1,200 Israelis are believed to have died in the Hamas assault.

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 19:24

Unrecognised state in the Horn of Africa

Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an unrecognised state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as de jure part of Somalia.[8][9][10] It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east.[11][12][13][14] Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi),[15] with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021.[4] The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which, as the briefly independent State of Somaliland, united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.[16]

Since 1991, the territory has been governed by democratically elected governments that seek international recognition as the government of the Republic of Somaliland.[17][18][19][20] The central government maintains informal ties with some foreign governments, who have sent delegations to Hargeisa.[21][22][23] Somaliland is currently recognised by the Republic of China (Taiwan)[24] and hosts representative offices from several other countries, most notably Ethiopia.[25] However, Somaliland's self-proclaimed independence has not been officially recognised by any UN member state or international organisation.[21][26][27] It is the largest unrecognised state in the world by de facto controlled land area. It is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, an advocacy group whose members consist of indigenous peoples, minorities and unrecognised or occupied territories.[28]

Etymology Map of Somaliland in the 19th centuryThe name Somaliland is derived from two words: "Somali" and "land". The area was named when Britain took control from the Egyptian administration in 1884, after signing successive treaties with the ruling Somali Sultans from the Isaaq, Issa, Gadabursi, and Warsangali clans. The British established a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland. In 1960, when the protectorate became independent from Britain, it was called State of Somaliland. Four days later, on 1 July 1960, Somaliland united with Italian Somaliland. The name "Republic of Somaliland" was taken upon the declaration of independence following the Somali Civil War in 1991.[29]

At the Grand conference in Burao held in 1991 many names for the country were suggested, including Puntland, in reference to Somaliland's location in the ancient Land of Punt and which is now the name of the Puntland state in neighbouring Somalia, and Shankaroon, meaning "better than five" in Somali, in reference to the five regions of Greater Somalia.[30]

History Prehistory Wild animals depicted in the caves of Dhaymoole, many of which have gone extinct in the regionThe area of Somaliland was inhabited around 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic age.[31][32] The ancient shepherds raised cows and other livestock and created vibrant rock art paintings.[citation needed ] During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here.[33] The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somaliland dating back to the 4th millennium BCE.[34] The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were also characterised in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West.[35]

According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley,[36] or the Near East.[37]

The Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Somaliland's capital Hargeisa dates back around 5,000 years, and has rock art depicting both wild animals and decorated cows.[38] Other cave paintings are found in the northern Dhambalin region, which feature one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is in the distinctive Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1,000 to 3,000 BCE.[39][40] Additionally, between the towns of Las Khorey and El Ayo in eastern Somaliland lies Karinhegane, the site of numerous cave paintings of real and mythical animals. Each painting has an inscription below it, which collectively have been estimated to be around 2,500 years old.[41][42]

Antiquity and classical era The tomb of Sheikh Isaaq, the founding father of the Isaaq clan, in Maydh, SanaagAncient pyramidical structures, mausoleums, ruined cities and stone walls, such as the Wargaade Wall, are evidence of an old civilisation that once thrived in the Somali peninsula.[43][44] This civilisation enjoyed a trading relationship with ancient Egypt and Mycenaean Greece since the second millennium BCE, supporting the hypothesis that Somalia or adjacent regions were the location of the ancient Land of Punt.[43][45] The Puntites traded myrrh, spices, gold, ebony, short-horned cattle, ivory and frankincense with the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Indians, Chinese and Romans through their commercial ports. An Egyptian expedition sent to Punt by the 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut is recorded on the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, during the reign of the Puntite King Parahu and Queen Ati.[43] In 2015, isotopic analysis of ancient baboon mummies from Punt that had been brought to Egypt as gifts indicated that the specimens likely originated from an area encompassing eastern Somalia and the Eritrea-Ethiopia corridor.[46]

The camel is believed to have been domesticated in the Horn region sometime between the 2nd and 3rd millennium BCE. From there, it spread to Egypt and the Maghreb.[47] During the classical period, the northern Barbara city-states of Mosylon, Opone, Mundus, Isis, Malao, Avalites, Essina, Nikon, and Sarapion developed a lucrative trade network, connecting with merchants from Ptolemaic Egypt, Ancient Greece, Phoenicia, Parthian Persia, Saba, the Nabataean Kingdom, and the Roman Empire. They used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo.[48]

After the Roman conquest of the Nabataean Empire and the Roman naval presence at Aden to curb piracy, Arab and Somali merchants agreed with the Romans to bar Indian ships from trading in the free port cities of the Arabian peninsula[49] to protect the interests of Somali and Arab merchants in the lucrative commerce between the Red and Mediterranean Seas.[50] However, Indian merchants continued to trade in the port cities of the Somali peninsula, which was free from Roman interference.[51]

For centuries, Indian merchants brought large quantities of cinnamon to Somalia and Arabia from Ceylon and the Spice Islands. The source of the cinnamon and other spices is said to have been the best-kept secret of Arab and Somali merchants in their trade with the Roman and Greek world; the Romans and Greeks believed the source to have been the Somali peninsula.[52] The collusive agreement among Somali and Arab traders inflated the price of Indian and Chinese cinnamon in North Africa, the Near East, and Europe and made the cinnamon trade a very profitable revenue generator, especially for the Somali merchants through whose hands large quantities were shipped across sea and land routes.[50]

In 2007, more rock art sites with Sabaean and Himyarite writings in and around Hargeisa were found, but some were bulldozed by developers.[53]

Birth of Islam and the Middle Ages A 15th-century French artist's rendering of a battle between troops of the Sultan of Adal (right) and King Yagbea-Sion and his men (left). From Le livre des Merveilles.Various Somali Muslim kingdoms were established around this period in the area.[54] In the 14th century, the Zeila-based Adal Sultanate battled the forces of the Ethiopian emperor Amda Seyon I.[55] The Ottoman Empire later occupied Berbera and environs in the 1500s. Muhammad Ali, Pasha of Egypt, subsequently established a foothold in the area between 1821 and 1841.[56]

The Sanaag region is home to the ruined Islamic city of Maduna near El Afweyn, which is considered the most substantial and most accessible ruin of its type in Somaliland.[57][58] The main feature of the ruined city includes a large rectangular mosque, its 3 metre high walls still standing and which include a mihrab and possibly several smaller arched niches.[58] Swedish-Somali archaeologist Sada Mire dates the ruined city to the 15th''17th centuries.[59]

Early modern sultanates A banner used by the Adal Sultanate and later the Isaaq on key religious shrinesIsaaq Sultanate In the early modern period, successor states to the Adal Sultanate began to flourish in Somaliland. These included the Isaaq Sultanate and Habr Yunis Sultanate.[60] The Isaaq Sultanate was a Somali kingdom that ruled parts of the Horn of Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries. It spanned the territories of the Isaaq clan, descendants of the Banu Hashim clan,[61] in modern-day Somaliland and Ethiopia. The sultanate was governed by the Rer Guled branch established by the first sultan, Sultan Guled Abdi, of the Eidagale clan. The sultanate is the pre-colonial predecessor to the modern Republic of Somaliland.[62][63][64]

According to oral tradition, prior to the Guled dynasty the Isaaq clan-family were ruled by a dynasty of the Tolje'lo branch starting from, descendants of Ahmed nicknamed Tol Je'lo, the eldest son of Sheikh Ishaaq's Harari wife. There were eight Tolje'lo rulers in total, starting with Boqor Harun (Somali: Boqor Haaruun) who ruled the Isaaq Sultanate for centuries starting from the 13th century.[65][66] The last Tolje'lo ruler Garad Dhuh Barar (Somali: Dhuux Baraar) was overthrown by a coalition of Isaaq clans. The once strong Tolje'lo clan were scattered and took refuge amongst the Habr Awal with whom they still mostly live.[67][68]

The Sultan of Isaaq often called for shirs or regular meetings where he would be informed and advised by leading elders or religious figures on what decisions to make. In the case of the Dervish movement Sultan Deria Hassan had chosen not to join after receiving counsel from Sheikh Madar. He addressed early tensions between the Saad Musa and Eidagale upon the former's settlement into the growing town of Hargeisa in the late 19th century.[69] The Sultan would also be responsible for organising grazing rights and in the late 19th century new agricultural spaces.[70] The allocation of resources and sustainable use of them was also a matter that Sultans concerned themselves with and was crucial in an arid region. In the 1870s there was a famous meeting between Sheikh Madar and Sultan Deria proclaimed that hunting and tree cutting in the vicinity of Hargeisa would be banned [71] The holy relics from Aw Barkhadle would be brought and the Isaaqs would swear oaths upon it in presence of the Sultan whenever fierce internal combat broke out.[72] Aside from the leading Sultan of Isaaq there were numerous Akils, Garaads and subordinate Sultans alongside religious authorities that constituted the Sultanate before some would declare their own independence or simply break from his authority.

The Isaaq Sultanate had 5 rulers prior to the creation of British Somaliland in 1884. Historically, Sultans would be chosen by a committee of several important members of the various Isaaq subclans. Sultans were usually buried at Toon, south of Hargeisa, which was a significant site and the capital of the Sultanate during Farah Guled's rule.[73]

Rulers of the Isaaq SultanateNameReign fromReign tillAbdi Eisa (Traditional Chief)Mid 1700sMid 1700sSultan Guled Abdi (First Sultan)Late 1700s1808Sultan Farah Sultan Guled18081845Sultan Hassan Sultan Farah18451870Sultan Diriye Sultan Hassan18701939 (Creation of British Somaliland in 1884)Battle of Berbera The first engagement between Somalis of the region and the British was in 1825 and ended violently.[74] This culminated in the Battle of Berbera and a subsequent trade agreement between the Habr Awal and the United Kingdom.[75][76] This was followed by a British treaty with the Governor of Zeila in 1840. An engagement was then started between the British and elders of Habar Garhajis and Habar Toljaala clans of the Isaaq in 1855, followed a year later by the conclusion of the "Articles of Peace and Friendship" between the Habar Awal and East India Company. These engagements between the British and Somali clans culminated in the formal treaties the British signed with the henceforth 'British Somaliland' clans, which took place between 1884 and 1886 (treaties were signed with the Habar Awal, Gadabursi, Habar Toljaala, Habar Garhajis, Esa, and the Warsangali clans), this paved the way for the British to establish a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland.[77] The British garrisoned the protectorate from Aden and administered it as part of British India until 1898. British Somaliland was then administered by the Foreign Office until 1905, and afterwards by the Colonial Office.[78]

British Somaliland The Somaliland Campaign, also called the Anglo-Somali War or the Dervish War, was a series of military expeditions that took place between 1900 and 1920 in the Horn of Africa, pitting the Dervishes led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (nicknamed the "Mad Mullah") against the British.[79] The British were assisted in their offensives by the Ethiopians and Italians. During the First World War (1914''1918), Hassan also received aid from the Ottomans, Germans and, for a time, from the Emperor Iyasu V of Ethiopia. The conflict ended when the British aerially bombed the Dervish capital of Taleh in February 1920.[80]

The Fifth Expedition of the Somaliland campaign in 1920 was the final British expedition against the Dervish forces of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Somali religious leader. Although most of the combat took place in January of the year, British troops had begun preparations for the assault as early as November 1919. The British forces included elements of the Royal Air Force and the Somaliland Camel Corps. After three weeks of battle, Hassan's Dervishes were defeated, bringing an effective end to their 20-year resistance.[81] It was one of the bloodiest and longest militant movements in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial era, one that overlapped with World War I. The battles between various sides over two decades killed nearly a third of Somaliland's population and ravaged the local economy.[82][83][84]

British Somaliland in 1896The Italian conquest of British Somaliland was a military campaign in East Africa, which took place in August 1940 between forces of Italy and those of several British and Commonwealth countries. The Italian attack was part of the East African Campaign.[85]

Anti-colonial resistance Burao Tax Revolt and RAF bombing Captain Allan GibbThe people of Burao clashed with the British in 1922 after a heavy tax was imposed upon them. They revolted in opposition to the tax, and this caused them to riot and attack British government officials. In the ensuing disturbances a shootout between the British and Burao residents broke out, Captain Allan Gibb, a Dervish war veteran and district commissioner, was shot and killed. The British fearing they could not contain the revolt requested from Sir Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, to send troops from Aden and aeroplane bombers in order to bomb Burao and livestock of the revolting clans in order to quell any further rebellion.[86] The RAF planes arrived at Burao within two days and proceeded to bomb the town with incendiaries, effectively burning the entire settlement to the ground.[87][88][89][90]

Telegram from Sir Geoffrey Archer, Governor of British Somaliland to Sir Winston Churchill the Secretary of State for the Colonies:

I deeply regret to inform that during an affray at Burao yesterday between Rer Sugulleh and Akils of other tribes Captain Gibb was shot dead. Having called out Camel corps company to quell the disturbance, he went forward himself with his interpreter, whereupon fire opened on him by some Rer segulleh riflemen and he was instantly killed..Miscreants then disappeared under the cover of darkness.In order to meet the situation created by the Murder of Gibb, we require two aeroplanes for about fourteen days. I have arranged with resident, Aden, for these. And made formal application, which please confirm. It is proposed they fly via Perim, confining sea crossing to 12 miles. We propose to inflict fine of 2,500 camels on implicated sections, who are practically isolated and demand surrender of man who killed Gibbs. He is known. Fine to be doubled in failure to comply with latter conditions and aeroplanes to be used to bomb stock on grazing grounds.[91]

Sir Winston Churchill reporting on the Burao incident at the House of Commons:

On 25th February the Governor of Somaliland telegraphed that an affray between tribesmen had taken place at Burao on the previous day, in the course of which Captain Allan Gibb, D.S.O., D.C.M., the District Commissioner at Burao, had been shot dead. Captain Gibb had advanced with his interpreter to quell the disturbance, when 1954 fire was opened upon him by some riflemen, and he was instantly killed. The murderers escaped under cover of falling darkness.Captain Gibb was an officer of long and valued service in Somaliland, whose loss I deeply regret. From the information available, his murder does not appear to have been premeditated, but it inevitably had a disturbing effect upon the surrounding tribes, and immediate dispositions of troops became necessary in order to ensure the apprehension and punishment of those responsible for the murder. On 27th February the Governor telegraphed that, in order to meet the situation which had arisen, he required two aeroplanes for purposes of demonstration, and suggested that two aeroplanes from the Royal Air Force Detachment at Aden should fly over to Berber a from Aden. He also telegraphed that in certain circumstances it might become necessary to ask for reinforcements of troops to be sent to the Protectorate.[92]

James Lawrence author of Imperial Rearguard: Wars of Empire writes

[Gibb]..was murdered by rioters during a protest against taxation at Burao. Governor Archer immediately called for aircraft which were at Burao within two days. The inhabitants of the native township were turned out of their houses, and the entire area was razed by a combination of bombing, machine-gun fire and burning.[93]

After the RAF aircraft bombed Burao to the ground, the leaders of the rebellion acquiesced, agreeing to pay a fine for Gibb's death, but they refused to identify and apprehend the accused individuals. Most of the men responsible for Gibb's shooting evaded capture. In light of the failure to implement the taxation without provoking a violent response, the British abandoned the policy altogether.[94][95][90]

1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion Sheikh Bashir praying Sunnah prayer, 1920The 1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion was a rebellion waged by tribesmen of the Habr Je'lo clan in the former British Somaliland protectorate against British authorities in July 1945 led by Sheikh Bashir, a Somali religious leader.[96]

On 2 July, Sheikh Bashir collected 25 of his followers in the town of Wadamago and transported them on a lorry to the vicinity of Burao, where he distributed arms to half of his followers. On the evening of 3 July, the group entered Burao and opened fire on the police guard of the central prison in the city, which was filled with prisoners arrested for previous demonstrations. The group also attacked the house of the district commissioner of Burao District, Major Chambers, resulting in the death of Major Chamber's police guard before escaping to Bur Dhab, a strategic mountain south-east of Burao, where Sheikh Bashir's small unit occupied a fort and took up a defensive position in anticipation of a British counterattack.[97]

The British campaign against Sheikh Bashir's troops proved abortive after several defeats as his forces kept moving from place to place and avoiding any permanent location. No sooner had the expedition left the area, than the news travelled fast among the Somali nomads across the plain. The war had exposed the British administration to humiliation. The government came to a conclusion that another expedition against him would be useless; that they must build a railway, make roads and effectively occupy the whole of the protectorate, or else abandon the interior completely. The latter course was decided upon, and during the first months of 1945, the advance posts were withdrawn, and the British administration confined to the coast town of Berbera.[98]

Sheikh Bashir settled many disputes among the tribes in the vicinity, which kept them from raiding each other. He was generally thought to settle disputes through the use of Islamic Sharia and gathered around him a strong following.[99]

The British administration recruited Indian and South African troops, led by police general James David, to fight against Sheikh Bashir and had intelligence plans to capture him alive. The British authorities mobilised a police force, and eventually on 7 July found Sheikh Bashir and his unit in defensive positions behind their fortifications in the mountains of Bur Dhab. After clashes Sheikh Bashir and his second-in-command, Alin Yusuf Ali, nicknamed Qaybdiid, were killed. A third rebel was wounded and was captured along with two other rebels. The rest fled the fortifications and dispersed. On the British side the police general leading the British troops as well as a number of Indian and South African troops perished in the clashes, and a policeman was injured.[99]

After his death, Sheikh Bashir was widely hailed by locals as a martyr and was held in great reverence. His family took quick action to remove his body from the place of his death at Geela-eeg mountain, about 20 miles from Burao.[100]

State of Somaliland (Independence) The White and Blue Somali Flag at the Independence celebrations on 26 June 1960 when the prime minister of the State of Somaliland and the second president of Somaliland, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, salute the flag.In May 1960, the British government stated that it would be prepared to grant independence to the then protectorate of British Somaliland, with the intention that the territory would unite with the Italian-administered Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration (the former Italian Somaliland).[101] The Legislative Council of British Somaliland passed a resolution in April 1960 requesting independence and union with the Trust Territory of Somaliland, which was scheduled to gain independence on 1 July that year. The legislative councils of both territories agreed to this proposal following a joint conference in Mogadishu.[102]On 26 June 1960, the former British Somaliland protectorate briefly obtained independence as the State of Somaliland, with the Trust Territory of Somaliland following suit five days later.[16] During its brief period of independence, the State of Somaliland garnered recognition from thirty-five sovereign states.[103] However, the United States merely acknowledged Somaliland's independence:

The United States did not extend formal recognition to Somaliland, but Secretary of State Herter sent a congratulatory message dated June 26 to the Somaliland Council of Ministers.[104]

The following day, on 27 June 1960, the newly convened Somaliland Legislative Assembly approved a bill that would formally allow for the union of the State of Somaliland with the Trust Territory of Somaliland on 1 July 1960.[102]

Somali Republic (union with Somalia) On 1 July 1960, the State of Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) united as planned to form the Somali Republic.[105][106] Inspired by Somali nationalism, the northerners were initially enthusiastic about the union. A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa, with Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President and Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister (later to become president, from 1967 to 1969). On 20 July 1961 and through a popular referendum, the Somali people ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960.[108] The constitution had little support in the former Somaliland and was believed to favour the south. Many northerners boycotted the referendum in protest, and over 60% of those who voted in the north were against the new constitution. Regardless, the referendum passed, and Somaliland became quickly dominated by southerners. As result, dissatisfaction became widespread in the north, and support for the union plummeted. British-trained Somaliland officers attempted a revolt to end the union in December 1961. Their uprising failed, and Somaliland continued to be marginalised by the south during the next decades.

In 1967, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal became Prime Minister, a position to which he was appointed by Shermarke. Shermarke was assassinated two years later by one of his own bodyguards. His murder was quickly followed by a military coup d'(C)tat on 21 October 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somalian Army seized power without encountering armed opposition. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.[109] The new regime would go on to rule Somalia for the next 22 years.[110]

Somali National Movement, Barre persecution SNM fighters, late 1980sUp to 90% of Hargeisa (2nd largest city of the Somali Republic) was destroyed by the Somali government.The moral authority of Barre's government was gradually eroded, as many Somalis became disillusioned with life under military rule. By the mid-1980s, resistance movements supported by Ethiopia's communist Derg administration had sprung up across the country, which lead to the Somaliland War of Independence. Barre responded by ordering punitive measures against those he perceived as locally supporting the guerrillas, especially in the northern regions. The clampdown included bombing of cities, with the northwestern administrative centre of Hargeisa, a Somali National Movement (SNM) stronghold, among the targeted areas in 1988.[111][112] The bombardment was led by General Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan, Barre's son-in-law.[113]

In May 1988, the SNM launched a major offensive on the cities of Hargeisa and Burao,[114][115][116] then the second and third largest cities of Somalia.[117][118] The SNM captured Burao on 27 May within two hours,[119] while the SNM entered Hargeisa on 29 May, overrunning most of the city apart from its airport by 1 June.[115]

According to Abou Jeng and other scholars, the Barre regime rule was marked by a targeted brutal persecution of the Isaaq clan.[120][121] Mohamed Haji Ingiriis and Chris Mullin state that the clampdown by the Barre regime against the Hargeisa-based Somali National Movement targeted the Isaaq clan, to which most members of the SNM belonged. They refer to the clampdown as the Isaaq Genocide or Hargeisa Holocaust.[122][123] A United Nations investigation concluded that the crime of genocide was "conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somali Government against the Isaaq people".[124] The number of civilian casualties is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 according to various sources,[125][126][127] while some reports estimate the total civilian deaths to be upwards of 200,000 Isaaq civilians.[128] Along with the deaths, Barre regime bombarded and razed the second and third largest cities in Somalia, Hargeisa and Burao, respectively.[129] This displaced an estimated 400,000 local residents to Hart Sheik in Ethiopia;[130][131][132] another 400,000 individuals were also internally displaced.[133][134][135]

The counterinsurgency by the Barre regime against the SNM targeted the rebel group's civilian base of support, escalating into a genocidal onslaught against the Isaaq clan. This led to anarchy and violent campaigns by fragmented militias, which then wrested power at a local level.[136] The Barre regime's persecution was not limited to the Isaaq, as it targeted other clans such as the Hawiye.[137][138] The Barre regime collapsed in January 1991. Thereafter, as the political situation in Somaliland stabilised, the displaced people returned to their homes, the militias were demobilised or incorporated into the army, and tens of thousands of houses and businesses were reconstructed from rubble.[139]

Restoration of sovereignty (end of the unity with Somalia) MiG monument in Hargeisa commemorating Somaliland's breakaway from the rest of Somalia in 1991Although the SNM at its inception had a unionist constitution, it eventually began to pursue independence, looking to secede from the rest of Somalia.[140] Under the leadership of Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur, the local administration declared the northwestern Somali territories independent at a conference held in Burao between 27 April 1991 and 15 May 1991.[141] Tuur then became the newly established Somaliland polity's first President, but subsequently renounced the separatist platform in 1994 and began instead to publicly seek and advocate reconciliation with the rest of Somalia under a power-sharing federal system of governance.[140] A brief armed conflict had begun in January 1992 against rebels against Tuur in the period that he was in power, lasting until August 1992, when it was settled by a conference at the town of Sheikh.[142]

Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal was appointed as Tuur's successor in 1993 by the Grand Conference of National Reconciliation in Borama, which met for four months, leading to a gradual improvement in security, as well as a consolidation of the new territory.[143] Another armed conflict between the Somaliland government, now under Egal, and rebels began, as militias of the Eidagalley clan occupied Hargeisa airport for some time. Conflict re-erupted when troops of the government attacked the airport to drive out the Eidagalley militias in October 1994, sparking a new war that would spread out of Hargeisa and last until around April 1995, with a rebel defeat. Around the same time, Djiboutian-backed forces of the Issa-dominated United Somali Front attempted and failed to carve out Issa-inhabited areas of Somaliland.[142] Egal was reappointed in 1997, and remained in power until his death on 3 May 2002. The vice-president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, who was during the 1980s the highest-ranking National Security Service (NSS) officer in Berbera in Siad Barre's government, was sworn in as president shortly afterward.[144] In 2003, Kahin became the first elected president of Somaliland.[145]

The war in southern Somalia between Islamist insurgents on the one hand, and the Federal Government of Somalia and its African Union allies on the other, has for the most part not directly affected Somaliland, which, like neighbouring Puntland, has remained relatively stable.[146][147]

2001 constitutional referendum In August 2000, President Egal's government distributed thousands of copies of the proposed constitution throughout Somaliland for consideration and review by the people. One critical clause of the 130 individual articles of the constitution would ratify Somaliland's self-declared independence and final separation from Somalia, restoring the nation's independence for the first time since 1960. In late March 2001, President Egal set the date for the referendum on the Constitution for 31 May 2001.[148]

A constitutional referendum was held in Somaliland on 31 May 2001.[149] The referendum was held on a draft constitution that affirmed Somaliland's independence from Somalia. 99.9% of eligible voters took part in the referendum and 97.1% of them voted in favour of the constitution.[150]

Relations with Ethiopia On the 1st of January, 2024, a pact was signed between Ethiopia and Somaliland, where Ethiopia will lease the port of Berbera on the Red Sea, and a 20km strech of Red Sea coastline, for 20 years, in exchange for eventual recognition of Somaliland as an independent state. If this pact is honoured, Ethiopia will become the first United Nations member state to recognise the breakaway nation.[151][152]

Politics and government Constitution The Constitution of Somaliland defines the political system; the Republic of Somaliland is a unitary state and presidential republic, based on peace, co-operation, democracy and a multi-party system.[153]

President and cabinet The executive is led by an elected president, whose government includes a vice-president and a Council of Ministers.[154] The Council of Ministers, who are responsible for the normal running of government, are nominated by the President and approved by the Parliament's House of Representatives.[155] The President must approve bills passed by the Parliament before they come into effect.[154] Presidential elections are confirmed by the National Electoral Commission of Somaliland.[156] The President can serve a maximum of two five-year terms.

Parliament House of Representatives (Lower House) of the Somaliland Parliament.Legislative power is held by the Parliament, which is bicameral. Its upper house is the House of Elders, chaired by Suleiman Mohamoud Adan, and the lower house is the House of Representatives,[154] chaired by Abdirisak Khalif.[157] Each house has 82 members. Members of the House of Elders are elected indirectly by local communities for six-year terms. The House of Elders shares power in passing laws with the House of Representatives, and also has the role of solving internal conflicts, and exclusive power to extend the terms of the President and representatives under circumstances that make an election impossible. Members of the House of Representatives are directly elected by the people for five-year terms. The House of Representatives shares voting power with the House of Elders, though it can pass a law that the House of Elders rejects if it votes for the law by a two-thirds majority and has absolute power in financial matters and confirmation of Presidential appointments (except for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court).[158]

Law The Court House of the Supreme CourtThe judicial system is divided into district courts (which deal with matters of family law and succession, lawsuits for amounts up to 3 million SLSH, criminal cases punishable by up to 3 years' imprisonment or 3 million SL fines, and crimes committed by juveniles), regional courts (which deal with lawsuits and criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of district courts, labour and employment claims, and local government elections), regional appeals courts (which deal with all appeals from the district and regional courts), and the Supreme Court (which deals with issues between courts and in government, and reviews its own decisions), which is the highest court and also functions as the Constitutional Court.[159]

Somaliland nationality law defines who is a Somaliland citizen,[160] as well as the procedures by which one may be naturalised into Somaliland citizenship or renounce it.[161]

The Somaliland government continues to apply the 1962 penal code of the Somali Republic. As such, homosexual acts are illegal in the territory.[162]

Parties and elections Participating in a parade for Kulmiye Party prior to parliamentary elections in 2021The guurti worked with rebel leaders to set up a new government, and was incorporated into the governance structure, becoming the Parliament's House of Elders.[163] The government became in essence a "power-sharing coalition of Somaliland's main clans", with seats in the Upper and Lower houses proportionally allocated to clans according to a predetermined formula, although not all clans are satisfied with their representation.[citation needed ] In 2002, after several extensions of this interim government, Somaliland transitioned to multi-party democracy.[164] The election was limited to three parties, in an attempt to create ideology-based elections rather than clan-based elections.[163] As of December 2014, Somaliland has three political parties: the Peace, Unity, and Development Party, the Justice and Development Party, and Wadani. Under the Somaliland Constitution, a maximum of three political parties at the national level is allowed.[165] The minimum age required to vote is 15.

Freedom House ranks the Somaliland government as partly free.[166] Seth Kaplan (2011) argues that in contrast to southern Somalia and adjacent territories, Somaliland, the secessionist northwestern portion of Somalia, has built a more democratic mode of governance from the bottom up, with virtually no foreign assistance.[167] Specifically, Kaplan suggests that Somaliland has the most democratic political system in the Horn of Africa because it has been largely insulated from the extremist elements in the rest of Somalia and has viable electoral and legislative systems as well as a robust private sector-dominated economy, unlike neighbouring authoritarian governments. He largely attributes this to Somaliland's integration of customary laws and tradition with modern state structures, which he indicates most post-colonial states in Africa and the Middle East have not had the opportunity to do. Kaplan asserts that this has facilitated cohesiveness and conferred greater governmental legitimacy in Somaliland, as has the territory's comparatively homogeneous population, relatively equitable income distribution, a common fear of the south, and absence of interference by outside forces, which has obliged local politicians to observe a degree of accountability.[168]

Foreign relations The President of Somaliland Muse Bihi Abdi during a visit to the Republic of Guinea. He received a high-ranking delegation headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guinea Mamadi Tour(C) in 2019.Somaliland has political contacts with its neighbours Ethiopia[169] and Djibouti,[170] non-UN member state Republic of China (Taiwan),[171][172] as well as with South Africa,[169] Sweden,[173] the United Kingdom,[174] and the micronation of Liberland.[175][176][177][178][179] On 17 January 2007, the European Union (EU) sent a delegation for foreign affairs to discuss future co-operation.[180] The African Union (AU) has also sent a foreign minister to discuss the future of international acknowledgment, and on 29 and 30 January 2007, the ministers stated that they would discuss acknowledgement with the organisation's member states.[181]In early 2006, the National Assembly for Wales extended an official invitation to the Somaliland government to attend the royal opening of the Senedd building in Cardiff. The move was seen as an act of recognition by the Welsh Assembly of the breakaway government's legitimacy. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office made no comment on the invitation. Wales is home to a significant Somali expatriate community from Somaliland.[182]

In 2007, a delegation led by President Kahin was present at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda. Although Somaliland has applied to join the Commonwealth under observer status, its application is still pending.[183]

On 24 September 2010, Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, stated that the United States would be modifying its strategy in Somalia and would seek deeper engagement with the governments of Somaliland and Puntland while continuing to support the Somali Transitional Government.[184] Carson said the US would send aid workers and diplomats to Puntland and Somaliland and alluded to the possibility of future development projects. However, Carson emphasised that the US would not extend formal recognition to either region.[185]

Somaliland Foreign Minister Hagi Mohamoud with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wenThe then-UK Minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham MP, met President Silanyo of Somaliland in November 2010 to discuss ways in which to increase the UK's engagement with Somaliland.[186] President Silanyo said during his visit to London: "We have been working with the international community and the international community has been engaging with us, giving us assistance and working with us in our democratisation and development programmes. And we are very happy with the way the international community has been dealing with us, particularly the UK, the US, other European nations, and our neighbours who continue to seek recognition."[187]

Recognition of Somaliland by the UK was also supported by the UK Independence Party, which came third in the popular vote at the 2015 general election, though only electing a single MP. The leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, met with Ali Aden Awale, Head of the Somaliland UK Mission on Somaliland's national day, 18 May, in 2015, to express UKIP's support for Somaliland.[188]

In 2011, Somaliland and the neighbouring Puntland region each entered a security-related memorandum of understanding with the Seychelles. Following the framework of an earlier agreement signed between the Transitional Federal Government and Seychelles, the memorandum is "for the transfer of convicted persons to prisons in 'Puntland' and 'Somaliland'."[189]

On 1 July 2020, Somaliland and Taiwan signed an agreement to set up representative offices to promote cooperation between the two countries.[190] Cooperation between the two polities on education, maritime security, and medicine began in 2009, and Taiwanese staff entered Somaliland in February 2020 to prepare for the representative office.[191] As of 2023, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs refers to Somaliland as a country.[24]

Border disputes President Silanyo and Ali Khalif signing the Somaliland-Khatumo Agreement in Aynabo in October 2017Map showing the eastern boundaries of Somaliland by the Somaliland Treaties including the Anglo-Italian boundary.Somaliland continues to claim the entire area of the former British Somaliland which gained independence in 1960 in the name of State of Somaliland.[29] It is currently in control of the vast majority of the former State of Somaliland.[192]

Puntland, a federal member state of Somalia, disputes the Harti-inhabited territory in the former British Somaliland protectorate based on kinship. In 1998, the northern Darod clans established the state, and the Dhulbahante and Warsangali clans wholly participated in its foundation.[193][194][195]

The Harti were the second most powerful clan confederation in Somaliland until the 1993 Borama Conference, when they were replaced in importance by the Gadabursi.[196] The Dhulbahante and Warsangali clans established two separate administrations in the early 1990s.[197] First, the former was to hold the Boocame I conference in May 1993, while the later held a conference in Hadaaftimo in September 1992.[198] In both conferences the desire to remain part of Somalia was expressed.

Tensions between Puntland and Somaliland escalated into violence several times between 2002 and 2009. In October 2004, and again in April and October 2007, armed forces of Somaliland and Puntland clashed near the town of Las Anod, the capital of Sool region. In October 2007, Somaliland troops took control of the town.[199] While celebrating Puntland's 11th anniversary on 2 August 2009, Puntland officials vowed to recapture Las Anod. While Somaliland claims independent statehood and therefore "split up" the "old" Somalia, Puntland works for the re-establishment of a united but federal Somali state.[200]

Somaliland forces took control of the town of Las Qorey in eastern Sanaag on 10 July 2008, along with positions 5 km (3 mi) east of the town. The defence forces completed their operations on 9 July 2008 after the Maakhir and Puntland militia in the area left their positions.[201]

In the late 2000s, SSC Movement (Hoggaanka Badbaadada iyo Mideynta SSC), a local unionist group based in Sanaag was formed with the goal to establish its own regional administration (Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, or SSC).[140] This later evolved into Khatumo State, which was established in 2012. The local administration and its constituents does not recognise the Somaliland government's claim to sovereignty or to its territory.[202]

On 20 October 2017 in Aynabo, an agreement was signed with the Somaliland government which stipulated the amendment of Somaliland's constitution and to integrate the organisation into the Somaliland government.[203][204] This signalled the end of the organisation even though it was an unpopular event amongst the Dhulbahante community.[205][203]

Military Commemoration (on 2 February 2021) of the 27th anniversary of the establishment of the Somaliland National ArmyThe Somaliland Armed Forces are the main military command in Somaliland. Along with the Somaliland Police and all other internal security forces, they are overseen by Somaliland's Ministry of Defence. The current head of Somaliland's Armed Forces is the Minister of Defence, Abdiqani Mohamoud Aateye.[206] Following the declaration of independence, various pre-existing militia affiliated with different clans were absorbed into a centralised military structure. The resultant large military takes up around half of the country's budget, but the action served to help prevent inter-clan violence.[207]:'Š2''3'Š

The Somaliland Army consists of twelve divisions equipped primarily with light weaponry, though it is equipped with some howitzers and mobile rocket launchers. Its armoured vehicles and tanks are mostly of Soviet design, though there are some ageing Western vehicles and tanks in its arsenal. The Somaliland Navy (often referred to as a Coast Guard by the Associated Press), despite a crippling lack of equipment and formal training, has apparently had some success at curbing both piracy and illegal fishing within Somaliland waters.[208][209]

Human rights According to the 2023 Freedom House report, Somaliland has seen a consistent erosion of political rights and civic space. Public figures and journalists face pressure from authorities. Minority clans are subject to economic and political marginalisation, and violence against women remains a serious problem.[210]

Administrative divisions Map of the Republic of SomalilandThe Republic of Somaliland is divided into six administrative regions: Awdal, Sahil, Maroodi Jeeh, Togdheer, Sanaag and Sool. The regions are divided into eighteen administrative districts.

Regions and districts The following regions are taken from Michael Walls: State Formation in Somaliland: Bringing Deliberation to Institutionalism from 2011, Somaliland: The Strains of Success from 2015 and ActionAID, a humanitarian organisation currently active in Somaliland.[211][212][213]

In 2019, the local government law passed in 2019 (Lr. 23/2019, hereinafter referred to as the 2019 local government law), regions that "Somaliland is divided into six regions (Article 9 of the same law)".[214] The 2019 Local Government Act came into force on January 4, 2020.[215]

Under Article 11, Section 1 of the Act, the regional boundaries are supposed to correspond to the boundaries of the six districts under the Somaliland protectorate; however, the Siad Barre era boundaries subsist as the de facto boundaries.[214]

MapRegionsArea (km2)CapitalDistricts Awdal16,294BoramaBaki, Borama, Zeila, LughayaSahil13,930BerberaSheikh, BerberaMaroodi Jeeh17,429HargeisaGabiley, Hargeisa, Salahlay, BaligubadleTogdheer30,426BuraoOodweyne, Buhoodle, BuraoSanaag54,231ErigavoGaradag, El Afweyn, Erigavo, LasqoraySool39,240Las AnodAynabo, Las Anod, Taleh, HudunGeography Location and habitat Geographic map of SomalilandSomaliland is situated in the northwest of recognised Somalia. It lies between 08°N and 11°30'N, and between 42°30'E and 49°00'E.[29] It is bordered by Djibouti to the west, Ethiopia to the south, and Somalia to the east. Somaliland has an 850 kilometres (528 mi) coastline with the majority lying along the Gulf of Aden.[207]:'Š1'Š In terms of landmass, Somaliland has an area of 176,120 km2 (68,000 sq mi).[15]

Somaliland's climate is a mixture of wet and dry conditions. The northern part of the region is hilly, and in many places the altitude ranges between 900 and 2,100 metres (3,000 and 6,900 ft) above sea level. The Awdal, Sahil and Maroodi Jeex regions are fertile and mountainous, while Togdheer is mostly semi-desert with little fertile greenery around. The Awdal region is also known for its offshore islands, coral reefs and mangroves.

A scrub-covered, semi-desert plain referred as the Guban lies parallel to the Gulf of Aden littoral. With a width of twelve kilometres (7.5 miles) in the west to as little as two kilometres (1.2 miles) in the east, the plain is bisected by watercourses that are essentially beds of dry sand except during the rainy seasons. When the rains arrive, the Guban's low bushes and grass clumps transform into lush vegetation.[216] This coastal strip is part of the Ethiopian xeric grasslands and shrublands ecoregion.

Cal Madow is a mountain range in the eastern part of the country. Extending from the northwest of Erigavo to several kilometres west of the city of Bosaso in neighbouring Somalia, it features Somaliland's highest peak, Shimbiris, which sits at an elevation of about 2,416 metres (7,927 ft).[217] The rugged east''west ranges of the Karkaar Mountains also lie to the interior of the Gulf of Aden littoral.[216] In the central regions, the northern mountain ranges give way to shallow plateaus and typically dry watercourses that are referred to locally as the Ogo. The Ogo's western plateau, in turn, gradually merges into the Haud, an important grazing area for livestock.[216]

Landscapes of Somaliland Lamadaya are waterfalls located in the

Cal Madow mountain range.

The Somaliland countryside

View of the

Cal Madow Mountains, home to numerous endemic species

Sacadin, Zeila Archipelago

Climate Somaliland map of K¶ppen climate classificationSomaliland is located north of the equator. It is semi-arid. The average daily temperatures range from 25 to 35 °C (77 to 95 °F). The sun passes vertically overhead twice a year, on 22 March and 23 September. Somaliland consists of three main topographic zones: a coastal plain (Guban), the coastal range (Oogo), and a plateau (Hawd). The coastal plain is a zone with high temperatures and low rainfall. Summer temperatures in the region easily average over 100 °F (38 °C). However, temperatures come down during the winter, and both human and livestock populations increase dramatically in the region.

The coastal range (Ogo) is a high plateau to the immediate south of Guban. Its elevation ranges from 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above sea level in the West to 7,000 feet (2,100 m) in the East. Rainfall is heavier there than in Guban, although it varies considerably within the zone. The plateau (Hawd) region lies to the south of Ogo range. It is generally more heavily populated during the wet season, when surface water is available. It is also an important area for grazing. Somalilanders recognise four seasons in the year; GU and Hagaa comprise spring and summer in that order, and Dayr and Jiilaal correspond to autumn and winter, respectively.[218][failed verification ]

The average annual rainfall is 446 millimetres (17.6 in) in some parts of country according to availability of rain gauge, and most of it comes during Gu and Dayr. Gu, which is the first, or major, rainy season (late March, April, May, and early June), is where Ogo range and Hawd experience the heaviest rainfall. This constitutes the period of fresh grazing and abundant surface water. It is also the breeding season for livestock. Hagaa (from late June through August) is usually dry although there are often some scattered showers in the Ogo range, these are known as Karan rains. Hagaa tends to be hot and windy in most parts of the country. Dayr (September, October, and early November), which roughly corresponds to autumn, is the second, or minor, wet season; the amount of precipitation is generally less than that of Gu. Jilaal, or winter, falls in the coolest and driest months of the year (from late November to early March). It is a season of thirst. Hawd receive virtually no rainfall in winter. The rainfall in the Guban zone, known as "Hays", comes from December to February. The humidity of the country varies from 63% in the dry season to 82% in the wet season.[219]

Wildlife Economy GDP Somaliland 2012 to 2018Somaliland has the fourth lowest GDP per capita in the world, and there are huge socio-economic challenges for Somaliland, with an unemployment rate between 60 and 70% among youth, if not higher. According to ILO, illiteracy exists up to 70% in several areas of Somaliland, especially among females and the elder population.[220][221]

Since Somaliland is unrecognised, international donors have found it difficult to provide aid. As a result, the government relies mainly upon tax receipts and remittances from the large Somali diaspora, which contribute immensely to Somaliland's economy.[222] Remittances come to Somaliland through money transfer companies, the largest of which is Dahabshiil,[223] one of the few Somali money transfer companies that conform to modern money-transfer regulations. The World Bank estimates that remittances worth approximately US$1 billion reach Somalia annually from (C)migr(C)s working in the Gulf states, Europe and the United States. Analysts say that Dahabshiil may handle around two-thirds of that figure and as much as half of it reaches Somaliland alone.[224]

Since the late 1990s, service provisions have significantly improved through limited government provisions and contributions from non-governmental organisations, religious groups, the international community (especially the diaspora), and the growing private sector. Local and municipal governments have been developing key public service provisions such as water in Hargeisa and education, electricity, and security in Berbera.[222] In 2009, the Banque pour le Commerce et l'Industrie '' Mer Rouge (BCIMR), based in Djibouti, opened a branch in Hargeisa and became the first bank in the country since the 1990 collapse of the Commercial and Savings Bank of Somalia.[225] In 2014, Dahabshil Bank International became the country's first commercial bank.[226] In 2017 Premier Bank from Mogadishu opened a branch in Hargeisa.[227]

Monetary and payment system 500 Somaliland Shillings, 1000 Somaliland Shillings, 5000 Somaliland ShillingsThe Somaliland shilling, which cannot easily be exchanged outside of Somaliland on account of the nation's lack of recognition, is regulated by the Bank of Somaliland, the central bank, which was established constitutionally in 1994.

The most popular and used payment system in the country is the ZAAD service which is a mobile money transfer service that was launched in Somaliland in 2009 by the largest mobile operator Telesom.[228][229]

Telecommunications Telecommunications companies serving Somaliland include Telesom,[230] Somtel, Telcom and NationLink.[231]

The state-run Somaliland National TV is the main national public service television channel, and was launched in 2005. Its radio counterpart is Radio Hargeisa.

Agriculture Livestock export in Berbera, SomalilandLivestock is the backbone of Somaliland's economy. Sheep, camels, and cattle are shipped from the Berbera port and sent to Gulf Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia.[232] The country is home to some of the largest livestock markets, known in Somali as seylad, in the Horn of Africa, with as many as 10,000 heads of sheep and goats sold daily in the markets of Burao and Yirowe, many of whom shipped to Gulf states via the port of Berbera.[233][234] The markets handle livestock from all over the Horn of Africa.[235]

Agriculture is generally considered to be a potentially successful industry, especially in the production of cereals and horticulture. Mining also has potential, though simple quarrying represents the extent of current operations, despite the presence of diverse quantities of mineral deposits.[17]

Tourism Naasa Hablood, also known as Virgin's Breast MountainThe rock art and caves at Laas Geel, situated on the outskirts of Hargeisa, are a popular local tourist attraction. Totaling ten caves, they were discovered by a French archaeological team in 2002 and are believed to date back around 5,000 years. The government and locals keep the cave paintings safe and only a restricted number of tourists are allowed entry.[236] Other notable sights include the Freedom Arch in Hargeisa and the War Memorial in the city centre. Natural attractions are very common around the region. The Naasa Hablood are twin hills located on the outskirts of Hargeisa that Somalis in the region consider to be a majestic natural landmark.[237][failed verification ]

The Ministry of Tourism has also encouraged travellers to visit historic towns and cities in Somaliland. The historic town of Sheekh is located near Berbera and is home to old British colonial buildings that have remained untouched for over forty years. Berbera also houses historic and impressive Ottoman architectural buildings. Another equally famous historic city is Zeila. Zeila was once part of the Ottoman Empire, a dependency of Yemen and Egypt and a major trade city during the 19th century. The city has been visited for its old colonial landmarks, offshore mangroves and coral reefs, towering cliffs, and beach. The nomadic culture of Somaliland has also attracted tourists. Most nomads live in the countryside.[237]

Transport The Berbera AirportBus services operate in Hargeisa, Burao, Gabiley, Berbera and Borama. There are also road transportation services between the major towns and adjacent villages, which are operated by different types of vehicles. Among these are taxis, four-wheel drives, minibuses and light goods vehicles (LGV).[238]

The most prominent airlines serving Somaliland is Daallo Airlines, a Somali-owned private carrier with regular international flights that emerged after Somali Airlines ceased operations. African Express Airways and Ethiopian Airlines also fly from airports in Somaliland to Djibouti City, Addis Ababa, Dubai and Jeddah, and offer flights for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages via the Egal International Airport in Hargeisa. Other major airports in the region include the Berbera Airport.[239][240]

Ports DP World Berbera New PortIn June 2016, the Somaliland government signed an agreement with DP World to manage the strategic port of Berbera with the aim of enhancing productive capacity and acting as an alternative port for landlocked Ethiopia.[241][242]

Oil exploration In 1958 the first test well was dug by Standard Vacuum (Exxon Mobil and Shell) in Dhagax Shabeel, Saaxil region. These wells were selected without field data or seismic testing and were solely based on the geological makeup of the region. Three of the four test wells were successful in producing of light crude oil.[243]

In August 2012, the Somaliland government awarded Genel Energy a licence to explore oil within its territory. Results of a surface seep study completed early in 2015 confirmed the outstanding potential offered in the SL-10B, SL-13, and Oodweyne blocks, with estimated oil reserves of 1 billion barrels each.[244] Genel Energy is set to drill an exploration well for SL-10B and SL-13 block in Buur-Dhaab, 20 kilometres northwest of Aynaba by the end of 2018.[245] In December 2021, Genel Energy signed a farm-out deal with OPIC Somaliland Corporation, backed by Taiwan's CPC Corporation, on the SL10B/13 block neary Aynaba.[246] According to Genel, the block could contain more than 5 billion barrels of prospective resources.[246] Drilling in SL-10B and SL-13 is scheduled to begin in late 2023, or early 2024 according to Genel.[247]

Demographics Historical populationYearPop.±%1899246,000'-- 1960650,000+164.2%19972,000,000+207.7%20063,500,000+75.0%20134,500,000+28.6%20215,700,000+26.7%Source: Various[248][249][250][251]There has not been an official census conducted in Somaliland since the Somalia census in 1975, while the results from a 1986 census were never released into public domain.[252] A population estimate was conducted by UNFPA in 2014 primarily for the purpose of distributing United Nations funding amongst the regions and to offer a reliable population estimate in lieu of a census. This population estimate puts the combined population of the regions of Somaliland at 3.5 million.[253] The Somaliland government estimates that there are 5.7 million residents as of 2021.[4]

The last British population estimate on the basis of clan in Somaliland occurred before independence in 1960,[254] according to which, out of some 650,000 ethnic Somalis belonging to three major clans residing in the protectorate, the Isaaq, Darod and Dir made up 66%, 19% and 16% of the population, respectively.[255][256]

Map of British Somaliland indicating clan territories and respective populations.Map of the British Somaliland Protectorate.The largest clan family in Somaliland is the Isaaq,[257] making up 80% of the population.[258][259][260] The populations of the five largest cities in Somaliland '' Hargeisa, Burao, Berbera, Erigavo and Gabiley '' are predominantly Isaaq.[261][262] The second largest clan is the Gadabursi of the Dir clan[263][264][265] followed by the Harti of the Darod.[266] Other small clans are often not accounted for in such estimates, however, clans including Gabooye, Gahayle, Jibrahil, Magaadle, Fiqishini, and Akisho settle in Somaliland.

Somaliland in addition has an estimated 600,000[267] to a million[268] strong diaspora, mainly residing in Western Europe, the Middle East, North America, and several other African countries.[267][268]

Clan groups Isaaq clan-family and other Somali clansThe Gadabursi subclan of the Dir are the predominant clan of the Awdal region,[269][270] where there is also a sizeable minority of the Issa subclan of the Dir who mainly inhabit the Zeila district.[271]

The Habr Awal subclan of the Isaaq form the majority of the population living in both the northern and western portions of the Maroodi Jeex region, including the cities and towns of northern Hargeisa, Berbera, Gabiley, Madheera, Wajaale, Arabsiyo, Bulhar and Kalabaydh. The Habr Awal also have a strong presence in the Saaxil region as well, principally around the city of Berbera and the town of Sheikh.

The Arap subclan of the Isaaq predominantly live in the southern portion of the Maroodi Jeex region including the capital city of Hargeisa.[272] Additionally, they form the majority of communities living in the Hawd region including Baligubadle.[272] The Arap are also well represented in Sahil and Togdheer regions.[273][274]

The Garhajis subclan of the Isaaq have a sizeable presence among the population inhabiting the southern and eastern portions of Maroodi Jeex region including Southern Hargeisa and Salahlay. The Garhajis are also represented well in western Togdheer region, mainly in Oodweyne and Burao, as well as Sheekh and Berbera in Sahil region. The Garhajis also have a significant presence in the western and central areas of Sanaag region as well, including the regional capital Erigavo as well as Maydh.[275]

The Habr Je'lo subclan of the Isaaq have a large presence in the western parts of Sool, eastern Togdheer region and western Sanaag as well,[276] The Habr Je'lo form a majority of the population living in Burao as well as in the Togdheer region, western Sanaag, including the towns of Garadag, Xiis and Ceel Afweyn and the Aynabo district in Sool. The clan also has a significant presence in the Sahil region, particularly in the towns of Karin and El-Darad, and also inhabit the regional capital Berbera.[277][278][279]

Issa man and woman in traditional attire (1844)Sool region residents mainly hail from the Dhulbahante, a subdivision of the Harti confederation of Darod sub-clans, and are concentrated at majority of Sool region districts.[280] The Dhulbahante clans also settle in the Buuhoodle District in the Togdheer region,[281][282] and the southern and eastern parts of Erigavo District in Sanaag.[283]

The Warsangali, another Harti Darod sub-clan, and is dominan clan of Sanaag, and their population is mainly concentrated majority of sanaag districts Erigavo, Las Qorey Badhan, Dhahar, Xingalool, and Buraan Districts.[283]

Languages Many people in Somaliland speak at least two of the three national languages: Somali, Arabic and English, although the rate of bilingualism is lower in rural areas. Article 6 of the Constitution of 2001 designates the official language of Somaliland to be Somali,[29] though Arabic is a mandatory subject in school and is used in mosques around the region and English is spoken and taught in schools.[284]

The Somali language is the mother tongue of the Somali people, the nation's most populous ethnic group. It is a member of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and its nearest relatives are the Oromo, Afar and Saho languages.[285] Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages,[286] with academic studies of it dating from before 1900.

Northern Somali is the main dialect spoken in the country, in contrast to Benadiri Somali which is the main dialect spoken in Somalia.[287]

Religion Traditional Somali Qur'anic tabletWith few exceptions, Somalis in Somaliland and elsewhere are Muslims, the majority belonging to the Sunni branch of Islam and the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence.[288] As with southern Somali coastal towns such as Mogadishu and Merca, there is also a presence of Sufism, Islamic mysticism; particularly the Arab Rifa'iya tariiqa.[289] Through the influence of the diaspora from Yemen and the Gulf states, stricter Wahhabism also has a noticeable presence.[290] Though traces of pre-Islamic traditional religion exist in Somaliland, Islam is dominant to the Somali sense of national identity. Many of the Somali social norms come from their religion. For example, most Somali women wear a hijab when they are in public. In addition, religious Somalis abstain from pork and alcohol, and also try to avoid receiving or paying any form of interest (usury). Muslims generally congregate on Friday afternoons for a sermon and group prayer.[291]

Under the Constitution of Somaliland, Islam is the state religion, and no laws may violate the principles of Sharia. The promotion of any religion other than Islam is illegal, and the state promotes Islamic tenets and discourages behaviour contrary to "Islamic morals".[292]

Somaliland has very few Christians. In 1913, during the early part of the colonial era, there were virtually no Christians in the Somali territories, with about 100''200 followers coming from the schools and orphanages of the handful of Catholic missions in the British Somaliland protectorate.[293] The small number of Christians in the region today mostly come from similar Catholic institutions in Aden, Djibouti, and Berbera.[294]

Somaliland falls within the Episcopal Area of the Horn of Africa as part of Somalia, under the Anglican Diocese of Egypt. However, there are no current congregations in the territory.[295] The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mogadiscio is designated to serve the area as part of Somalia. However, since 1990 there has been no Bishop of Mogadishu, and the Bishop of Djibouti acts as Apostolic Administrator.[296] The Adventist Mission also indicates that there are no Adventist members.[297]

Health Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in HargeisaWhile 40.5% of households in Somaliland have access to improved water sources, almost a third of households lie at least an hour away from their primary source of drinking water. 1 in 11 children die before their first birthday, and 1 in 9 die before their fifth birthday.[298]

The UNICEF multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) in 2006 found that 94.8% of women in Somaliland had undergone some form of female genital mutilation;[299] in 2018 the Somaliland government issued a fatwa condemning the two most severe forms of FGM, but no laws are present to punish those responsible for the practice.[299]

Education Somaliland has an urban literacy rate of 59% and a rural literacy rate of 47%, according to a 2015 World Bank assessment.[300]

Culture People in HargeisaThe main clans of Somaliland: Isaaq (Garhajis, Habr Je'lo, Habr Awal, Arap, Ayub), Harti (Dhulbahante, Warsangali, Kaskiqabe, Gahayle), Dir (Gadabuursi, Issa, Magaadle) and Madhiban. Other smaller clans include: Jibraahil, Akisho, and others.

The clan groupings of the Somali people are important social units, and have a central role in Somali culture and politics. Clans are patrilineal and are often divided into sub-clans, sometimes with many sub-divisions.[301]

Somali society is traditionally ethnically endogamous. To extend ties of alliance, marriage is often to another ethnic Somali from a different clan. Thus, for example, a 1954 study observed that in 89 marriages contracted by men of the Dhulbahante clan, 55 (62%) were with women of Dhulbahante sub-clans other than those of their husbands; 30 (33.7%) were with women of surrounding clans of other clan families (Isaaq, 28; Hawiye, 3); and 3 (4.3%) were with women of other clans of the Darod clan family (Majerteen 2, Ogaden 1).[302]

Arts Hadrawi, a prominent Somali poet and songwriterIslam and poetry have been described as the twin pillars of Somali culture. Somali poetry is mainly oral, with both male and female poets. They use things that are common in the Somali language as metaphors. Almost all Somalis are Sunni Muslims and Islam is vitally important to the Somali sense of national identity. Most Somalis do not belong to a specific mosque or sect and can pray in any mosque they find.[291]

Celebrations come in the form of religious festivities. Two of the most important are Eid ul-Adha and Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month. Families get dressed up to visit one another, and money is donated to the poor. Other holidays include 26 June and 18 May, which celebrate British Somaliland's independence and the Somaliland region's establishment, respectively; the latter, however, is not recognised by the international community.[303]

Henna powder is mixed with water and then applied on the hair.In the nomadic culture, where one's possessions are frequently moved, there is little reason for the plastic arts to be highly developed. Somalis embellish and decorate their woven and wooden milk jugs (haamo; the most decorative jugs are made in Ceerigaabo) as well as wooden headrests.[citation needed ] Traditional dance is also important, though mainly as a form of courtship among young people. One such dance known as Ciyaar Soomaali is a local favourite.[304]

An important form of art in Somali culture is henna art. The custom of applying henna dates back to antiquity. During special occasions, a Somali woman's hands and feet are expected to be covered in decorative mendhi. Girls and women usually apply or decorate their hands and feet in henna on festive celebrations like Eid or weddings. The henna designs vary from very simple to highly intricate. Somali designs vary, with some more modern and simple while others are traditional and intricate. Traditionally, only women apply it as body art, as it is considered a feminine custom. Henna is not only applied on the hands and feet but is also used as a dye. Somali men and women alike use henna as a dye to change their hair colour. Women are free to apply henna on their hair as most of the time they are wearing a hijab.[305][failed verification ]

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Bibliography Hoehne, Markus V. 2009: Mimesis and mimicry in dynamics of state and identity formation in northern Somalia, Africa 79/2, pp. 252''281.Hoehne, Markus V. 2007: Puntland and Somaliland clashing in northern Somalia: Who cuts the Gordian knot?, published online on 7 November 2007."As Somalia Struggles, Can Neighboring Somaliland Become East Africa's Next Big Commercial Hub?". International Business Times. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2019.Warmington, Eric Herbert (1995). The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India. South Asia Books. ISBN 81-215-0670-0. Bradbury, Mark, Becoming Somaliland (James Currey, 2008)Michael Schoiswohl: Status and (Human Rights) Obligations of Non-Recognized De Facto Regimes in International Law: The Case of 'Somaliland' (Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden 2004), ISBN 90-04-13655-XRichards, Rebecca (2014). Understanding Statebuilding: Traditional Governance and the Modern State in Somaliland. Surrey: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4724-2589-8. External links Wikimedia Atlas of SomalilandSomaliland web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder LibrariesSomaliland at CurlieGovernment of Somaliland (official website)Somaliland '' BBC Country ProfileUpdate on the Situation in the Somaliland (archived version) 9°45'²N 45°58'²E >> / >> 9.750°N 45.967°E >> / 9.750; 45.967

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:33

People who decided to check the exchange rate of the Polish currency using the Google search engine on Monday evening may be left in awe. We assure you: the presented data is completely false and results from incorrect interpretation of data by the Google search engine.

The euro costs over PLN 5.40 and the exchange rate is still rising. Meanwhile, the dollar is approaching PLN 5. Are we facing currency armaggeddon? Is the Polish currency sinking? Nothing could be further from the truth. The culprit is the Google search engine, which on Monday, January 1, presents incorrect data on the zloty exchange rate.

Incorrect data on the zloty exchange rate Google

Incorrect data on the zloty exchange rate Google

Reason? Google ''downloads'' current information about the Polish currency. Theoretically, such data should also be available in the search engine on Monday, January 1, 2024. At least that's what the Google algorithm that collects this data assumed.

But they missed. And they missed it, because January 1 is a day off from work, and on such days the NBP exchange rate tables are not updated. The bank's website still shows exchange rates from the time of the last update, i.e. December 29, 2023. The new table will be published on Tuesday, January 2.

According to both current Bloomberg data and bank data, the PLN exchange rate against major currencies remains stable. According to the information published by the Revolut platform on Monday evening, the euro costs approximately PLN 4.32 and the dollar '' approximately PLN 3.92.

Euro for PLN 5? The Minister of Finance reassuresThe head of the Ministry of Finance himself decided to speak on the crashing exchange rate of the Polish zloty on Monday evening.

Relax. This zloty exchange rate, which is causing panic, is a fake (data source error). In a moment, the markets in Asia will open and the situation will return to normal. The situation looks like this on Bloomberg?

'' Andrzej DomaÅski wrote on social media.

Source: Gazeta

Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:32

Published

January 2, 2024 at 11:32 PM

WARSAW '' Google provided information that incorrectly undervalued the Polish currency, the zloty, by over a fifth, prompting the authorities on Jan 2 to calm the public and demand that the search engine giant provide an explanation.

On Jan 1 evening, Google's currency converter showed a rate of up to 5.20 zlotys per euro and 4.70 zlotys per US dollar, which represented a drop in value of more than a fifth from the rate on the previous trading day on Dec 29.

The information set off a storm of speculation on X, formerly Twitter, and although Poles did not rush to buy dollars on Jan 2, officials called for calm.

''Relax. This zloty rate that is causing panic is a 'fake' (a data source error),'' Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on X.

Poland's central bank on Jan 2 said the exchange rate published by Google was ''fictitious'', adding that the currency exchange rates and charts on the platform ''are not always precise''.

The Finance Ministry said it had officially asked Google Poland to explain how the incorrect exchange rate was published.

In a statement quoted by Polish television channel TVN24, Google said its currency converter relied on data from ''external sources''.

''If inaccuracies are reported, we contact data providers to correct errors as quickly as possible,'' the company added.

On Jan 2, the Polish currency traded at around 4.34 zlotys per euro and 3.94 per dollar, according to the Polish central bank rates. AFP

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:29

By AFP - Agence France Presse

January 2, 2024 Order Reprints Print Article Text size

Google provided information that incorrectly undervalued the Polish currency the zloty by over a fifth, prompting authorities on Tuesday to calm the public and demand the search engine giant provide an explanation.

On Monday evening, Google's currency converter showed a rate of up to 5.20 zloty per euro and 4.70 zloty per dollar, which represented a drop in value of more than a fifth from the rate on the previous trading day on Friday.

The information set off a storm of speculation on X, formerly Twitter, and although Poles did not rush to buy dollars on Tuesday, officials called for calm.

"Relax. This zloty rate that is causing panic is a 'fake' (a data source error)," Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said on X.

Poland's central bank on Tuesday said the exchange rate published by Google was "fictitious", adding the currency exchange rates and charts on the platform "are not always precise".

The finance ministry said it had officially asked Google Poland to explain how the incorrect exchange rate was published.

In a statement quoted by a Polish television TVN24, Google said its currency converter relied on data from "external sources".

"If inaccuracies are reported, we contact data providers to correct errors as quickly as possible," the company added.

On Tuesday, the Polish currency traded at around 4.34 zloty per euro and 3.94 per dollar according to the Polish central bank rates.

bo-mmp/rl/cw

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:29

infoThis list is generated from recent searches, followed securities, and other activity.

Learn moreAll data and information is provided ''as is'' for personal informational purposes only, and is not intended to be financial advice nor is it for trading purposes or investment, tax, legal, accounting or other advice. Google is not an investment adviser nor is it a financial adviser and expresses no view, recommendation or opinion with respect to any of the companies included in this list or any securities issued by those companies. Please consult your broker or financial representative to verify pricing before executing any trades. Learn more

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 17:20

Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa covering President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. government, UN, IMF, World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington and New York.

United States Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on Monday met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud ''to offer U.S. support for his security, reconciliation, and reform agenda.''

Meeting in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, Nuland also expressed continued U.S. support for Somali and African Union-led counterterrorism efforts.

''As Somalia faces devastating drought and food insecurity conditions, Under Secretary Nuland held a round table with Special Envoy for Drought Response Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame and UN agencies in Somalia including the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF, and World Food Program,'' the State Department said in a statement. ''The Under Secretary noted current U.S. government plans to provide urgently needed food, famine prevention, and other humanitarian assistance for Somalia as part of nearly $105 million in new humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa.''

Meanwhile, United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves will be in Abidjan, C´te d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and Accra, Ghana, from June 12-16, 2022, ''to meet with African government officials and private sector leaders and advance the Biden-Harris Administration's priorities of values-driven, high standard, transparent and catalytic infrastructure initiatives through clean and green growth. Deputy Secretary Graves will also reaffirm the Department of Commerce's strong relationship with C´te d'Ivoire, Ghana, and partners across the continent,'' the Department said in a statement.

It added, ''The Deputy Secretary will speak at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, C´te d'Ivoire, on June 13 regarding mutually beneficial economic partnerships and joint initiatives that will strengthen commercial engagement between the U.S. and Africa. He will meet with both the President and the Prime Minister of C´te d'Ivoire and discuss opportunities for U.S. companies to support the goals of C´te d'Ivoire's National Development Plan. He will also meet with leadership from the African Development Bank and both U.S. and African business leaders to identify projects in C´te d'Ivoire and throughout Africa that have the greatest potential to attract U.S. companies and investment.

''On June 15, Deputy Secretary Graves will attend a Women in Business Roundtable in Abidjan, where he will listen and engage with women business leaders about ways the U.S. Department of Commerce and American industries can support, encourage and collaborate with women leaders in West Africa.

''The Deputy Secretary will also provide keynote remarks at the U.S.-Ghana Business Forum luncheon on June 16 where he will speak about the U.S. Government's desire to strengthen commercial engagement between both nations. He will also meet with Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia and various Ghanaian ministers to discuss key policy issues and bilateral commercial opportunities.''

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Wed, 03 Jan 2024 16:43

LW

Actualizado 01/01/2024- 11:22CST

I n the unpredictable world of the NFL, where every game is a rollercoaster of emotions, a new and crazy conspiracy theory has emerged-centered around the colors of Super Bowl logos.

Could the hues on these logos be predicting the teams for Super Bowl LVIII?

NFL scriptwriters hard at workSome fans are convinced that the league's scriptwriters may be dropping hints about the Super Bowl matchup through the colors on the championship logos.

"Have the NFL script writers been hinting at this year's Super Bowl matchup all along? That depends on if you believe in the magic of ... colors," muses the conspiracy theory.

The conspiracy theory has gained momentum as fans point out a pattern in the colors of the last two Super Bowl logos, aligning with the teams that ultimately played in the championship game for the Lombardi Trophy.

The intrigue lies in the unique design unveiled well before the season kickstarts and teams embark on their playoff journey.

For Super Bowl 56, orange and yellow dominated the logo, mirroring the Bengals (orange) and the Rams (yellow) matchup.

Super Bowl 57 followed suit with green and red hues, foreshadowing the Eagles (green) and Chiefs (red) showdown.

49ers vs. Ravens Super Bowl LVIII possibilityNow, all eyes turn to Super Bowl 58's logo, featuring red and purple colors. Coincidentally, the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens have been top contenders in the 2023 season, stirring speculation about a potential rematch.

In fact, after the results of Week 17, it was confirmed that the Ravens and 49ers will go into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in their respective conferences, fueling fire to the conspiracy.

"Everyone knows the NFL is scripted," declares one fan, reflecting the sentiment that the winning team's color might be subtly encoded in the logo.

The conspiracy also gains historical significance as it brings back memories of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, where the 49ers and Ravens clashed in what was famously dubbed the HarBowl-a matchup featuring two coaching brothers, Jim and John Harbaugh.

On that occasion, the Ravens were claimed Super Bowl Champions thanks to a 34-31 win in New Orleans.

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Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:51

Cairo '-- President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was announced Monday as the winner of Egypt's presidential election, with the nation's election authority saying the incumbent had won 89.6% of the votes. The National Election Authority said an "unprecedented" 66.8% percent of Egypt's 67 million eligible voters had come to the polls. In the last election, in 2018, which drew a turnout of about 41%, El-Sisi won 97% of the vote.

It was an all but preordained outcome, as none of the three opposition candidates ever really stood a chance.

Head of the National Election Authority Hazem Badawi announces the results of Egypt's Presidential Elections during a press conference in Cairo, Dec. 18, 2023, declaring incumbent President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi the winner by a wide margin. Mohamed Shokry/picture alliance/Getty The results, granting former military commander El-Sisi a third term in office, came as no surprise given the absence of strong candidates to challenge the man who's ruled Egypt for about a decade. And opposition figures believe there was more to El-Sisi's overwhelming win than just popularity.

"Not really competitive" elections"The rules of open and free elections do not apply to what happened in Egypt last week," according to Dr. Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University who's also a cofounder of the Civil Democratic Movement, a coalition of Egyptian opposition parties.

"The election was not really competitive," said Al-Sayyid, adding that the three other candidates "did not have the same resources he [El-Sisi] has. He had the machinery of the state completely behind him. In one way or another, he also had the support of major business groups in the country."

Egypt's failed revolution and the rise of President El-Sisi In a 2022 report, the U.S. State Department said that ahead of the 2018 election, "observers noted restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly, political association, and expression" which had "significantly inhibited the political climate surrounding the elections."

The report said local rights groups and even an Egyptian government commission had "credible reports" of a litany of human rights abuses, including "unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents, and by terrorist groups; enforced disappearance by state security; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government."

Egypt's President el-Sisi visits White House, seeks to extend his term to 2034 06:29 With the war still raging on Egypt's northeast border between Israel and Hamas , however, there were other factors that likely contributed to El-Sisi's sweeping victory.

Did the war in Gaza help El-Sisi?Months ago, interest in the upcoming election was slowly increasing among Egyptians. Even the weak, scattered political opposition groups in the country thought there might be a chance to force, through the ballot box, some change from a government that has long been accused of muting dissent.

But then the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its unprecedented surprise attack on southern Israel, sparking a war with the potential to spill over the Gaza Strip's borders and become a wider regional conflict.

AP The attention of the world, including Egyptians, shifted to Gaza.

Al-Sayyid said some people likely voted for El-Sisi as "they thought the country is facing a dangerous situation, and in this situation, it is good to have someone who has the support of the military and the experience of running the country."

Was it the last election for El-Sisi?According to Egypt's constitution, this should be El-Sisi's last term. But the constitution previously limited presidents to two terms. It was tweaked, by way of amendments, to allow him to run for his third re-election.

Al-Sayyid said he didn't want to speculate, but the possibility of new amendments to Egypt's constitution that could, theoretically, allow El-Sisi to seek yet another term, could not be excluded.

"Maybe in four or five years. I think some people would say it's for the country to remain stable," he said.

Egypt's President El-Sisi denies ordering massacre in interview his government later tried to block 13:41 Al-Sayyid added that it would be very difficult for any party to field a real challenger to El-Sisi, even by the next election in 2030, unless things change in the country.

"If restrictions on political parties continue, then there will be no chance for the opposition," he said.

The real challenger: Egypt's economyEgypt has been struggling through an unprecedented economic crisis, with inflation at painful levels heaping pressure on the daily lives of Egyptians whose salaries have not kept pace with price hikes.

The government has blamed the economic malaise on the coronavirus pandemic , the war in Ukraine , and now the war in neighboring Gaza, with officials insisting those circumstances are out of its control.

Critics, on the other hand, accuse the government of ballooning the national debt '-- including taking by taking out international loans to fund mega-infrastructure projects with no real potential for financial return.

"The major challenge for El-Sisi," Al-Sayyid said, "is how to deal with this very serious economic situation."

"There are other challenges, but I think this is the most difficult one, because if the economic situation continues to deteriorate, this might lead to popular discontent, and this could be quite destabilizing for the Egyptian political system."

More from CBS News

In: War Hamas Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi Gaza Strip Election Egypt Middle East Ahmed ShawkatAhmed Shawkat is a CBS News producer based in Cairo.

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Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:41

We've had a lot of foreshadowing of the Suez Canal being a major hotspot for conflict over the past couple of years. Think back to the Evergreen beaching itself in the canal in 2021. Everyone is just now waking up to the idea that global shipping is at risk here.

This Twitter thread (by a self-professed moron who, IMO, seems to have a good grasp on things) is representative of the level of analysis being put forth by people still in love with the US Navy's ability to force project around the world. He's just waking up to the importance of this situation but he hasn't picked up on the nuance of it from the other side of the battlefield.

This Red Sea situation is very very bad. And while the best person to consult is a logistician, I want to take a laymans stab at it.Currently, container ships are being attacked regularly with anti ship missiles and drones via the Houthi's(Iranian Proxies in Yemen). The USS'... pic.twitter.com/71exFF3tQh

'-- 🏛 Aristophanes 🏛 (@Aristos_Revenge) December 19, 2023In order to set the stage properly I'm going to have to go back in time. So, let's start with October 7th and the attack on Israel by Hamas. In the October issue of the Gold Goats 'n Guns Newsletter I laid out why I thought everyone had an incentive to allow and/or instigate that event.

The October SetupSo, here's the backdrop for Davos and the US/UK:

Now, if you are a cornered old money globalist oligarch with your finger on the pulse of these events'...

Then, you are seeing:

The project in Ukraine hanging by a thread as European and American support wanes at every level just below the unelected leadership.The ECB failing to hold the line on rising bond yields to stave off a banking crisis.US Yield Curve blowing out on the long end, giving Yellen no good options for funding the current budget deficit or for rolling over existing debt, much of which is due in 2024.German state elections deeply embarrass the ruling coalition in Hesse and Bavaria as well as the CDU/CSU who lost significant votes to Alternative for Germany (AfD) in CSU stronghold Bavaria.Polish elections forcing the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) out of power despite tough words about Ukrainian refugees and shaking Germany down for WWII reparations.The BRICS adding five nations which give them control over major trade routes into and out of Europe, including, but not limited to, the Suez Canal.The US geopolitical position in the Middle East degrading as Saudi Arabia sides with Russia and Iran on every issue.Iran becoming an integral partner in the burgeoning Asian integration on trade and policy.Would you not conclude that time had run out, and upsetting the game board in some major way was your best, if not only, move?

Now, from the other side we have the following circumstances:

If this [revealing the depravity of Neocon hatred of Arabs] was Iran's intended goal, then mission accomplished.

It also implies that they are ready and willing to open up the entire can of worms across the Middle East in order to bring the Arab tribes together to further their regional ambitions. And there won't be a T.E. Lawrence coming to bring them back into the British fold this time.

Because Israel's response here will likely preclude any of them being able to stand aside and let Israel just wipe out the civilians in Gaza, even if secretly they despise Hamas as much as the Israelis do.

So, if you're Iran and you see:

Weak US leadership in Biden and a vacant speakerSupport for Ukraine failing rapidly.The Arab oil states standing firm with Russia athwart US/EU sanctions.China investing in Syria's reconstruction.Turkey openly attacking US-backed Kurdish SDF forces over Syrian oil fields.A cynical landgrab by Azerbaijan to break up the International North-South transport corridor in ArmeniaRussia returning to the European gas market via TurkeyIncreased influence regionally having re-opened diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.Wouldn't you do something to upset the status quo and force a choice on the US but also the rest of the Arab world?

The initial US response was to quickly move in with massive naval force to signal our support of Israel and also to 'warn Iran.' Martin Armstrong immediately brought up the point of this being a trap for the US. The thread linked above has the current disposition of US naval forces deployed around the Arabian peninsula.

The Thucydides Trap is one where a dominant power is provoked into a response against a rising power over an issue that it has to respond to to prove it still has that supremacy but they cannot win. This is exactly what the rising power wants the dominant power to do.

The BRICS' adding six pivotal countries in August, as I said then, was the point of this year's Summit, not the introduction of some gold-backed BRICS coin.

This is what Armstrong brought up, the possibility of Russia/Iran/China springing a Thucydides Trap on the US over Israel.

Why the Yemen War is a War in Name OnlySo, how does the Houthi attacks on global shipping fit into this?

The same way that ''Iranian Militias'' have stepped up their attacks on US forces stationed in Syria and Iraq. The goal is to push the US out of the Middle East and redraw the map potentially undoing both the Balfour Declaration and the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.

Israel has a choice, the Balfour Declaration is still negotiable, depending on their actions going forward.

Skyes-Picot, however, is not. The Arabs and the Persians are tired of the conflicts the West flares up over old British-drawn borders.

Everyone makes the mistake of thinking that the US backs Israel because of ''The Jews.'' Once that shibboleth is invoked all rational discussion is shut down. It's done so to keep us from looking at the far more important thing at stake. That is literally the bullshit cover story for British strategic analysis of the world map from the perspective of a ''former'' maritime empire.

And, sadly, as I've been arguing for years, jews are the ones who will suffer the backlash.

The British (and old continental Europe) understand completely that globalism is dependent on global shipping. On its face, shipping is far more efficient and less vulnerable to sabotage ultimately than multi-thousand-mile-long pipelines.

If you blow up or hijack a ship, you lose a ship. You blow up a $55 billion pipeline and that changes the map entirely.

That was the lesson of the Nordstream bombings, to remind everyone of how fragile physical infrastructure is.

So, to protect global shipping, which traditionally is controlled by the major European shipping companies and the City of London Insurance industry, attacks on physical infrastructure like pipelines, railways, refineries, etc. makes perfect sense. Blow up ports (Beirut) controlled by your enemy, and you force the world to go through the ports you control.

What I'm suggesting now is that Iran/China/Russia are going after the idea that shipping isn't as vulnerable as physical infrastructure. In fact, the US ''empire'' is a naval one just like the British one was. They are modeled on the same structure and worldview. The US is the inheritor of the British maritime empire.

This is another reason why the rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia was so important. not just to end the Saudi war on Yemen, but to turn the Houthis from a thorn in the side of the Saudi oil business into an asset as they pivot from supporting the old US/British empire to the rising Chinese/Russian/Iranian-led one.

Don't you find it strange that Putin never really struck back after the US/UK blew up Nordstream? All talk of it being led by anyone other than the Neocon crazies in the National Security Council and GCHQ is just misdirection.

Putin is patient. He understood symbolically what Nordstream represented. Pipeline diplomacy is Russia's best chance at avoiding protracted war for the next century.

Stitch the world together with gas and oil, stabilize borders, rebuild Russia, introduce a new kind of peace. It's a kind of peace not dependent on maritime prowess, which is the British model, and well it should be since England is an island in the north Atlantic.

It's a land-based one with control over the geographic chokepoints around the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian peninsula facilitating opening up new markets and ending old European colonial control over Africa, Asia and even South America.

And now Putin's taking his opportunity to strike at the heart of the maritime prowess of globalism itself by allowing Iran to activate the Houthis to attack commercial shipping around the Gulf of Aden.

Target: EgyptNow, let's look at the real target of the Hamas attack on Israel. Who has been at the center of all of the major challenges to the globalist plan in 2023?

Egypt.

It is Egypt that the Russians and Chinese were encouraging to default on their IMF debt, offering to write down their debt to Egypt if the IMF did the same. Alex Krainer and I have talked about this ad nauseum.

It was Israel's offer to forgive Egypt's IMF debt if they would take all the Palestinian refugees from Gaza that really gave the game away. It was a real offer for once, not just returning stolen property which is the typical Davos-style offer.

To reiterate, the purpose of the BRICS Summit in August was their taking 'control' over all the waterway surrounding the Arabian peninsula, i.e. the most globally important shipping lanes to old Europe and what's left of the British Empire.

The Suez Canal.

Egypt was the prize folks. And since the moment it was announced that Egypt would be joining the BRICS, the focus has been on trying to stop it from happening by destabilizing the country. So, let's start a brutal ground war over an attack that Israeli leadership knew was coming in order to create a refugee crisis into Egypt. Let's step up pressure on the el-Sisi government and try for a color revolution again after the election.

Here's the War Street Journal headline, after el-Sisi wins re-election with nearly 90%.

''Egypt's Sisi Faces Stiff Challenges in Third Term as President''

It was a surprise to me they didn't even publicly challenge the result and try for another color revolution. Maybe we finally get to see just how limited the funds are now that Powell's got rates at 5.5%, but I'm just being churlish.

The WSJ article is a roadmap to Egypt's future with respect to its relations with the West. We will try to economically pressure el-Sisi into submission. It won't work because Egypt has powerful friends'... that whole rising powers thing again.

So, the way I see this in terms of move-countermove is the following''

BRICS bring Egypt into the fold knowing that it opens up alternate funding options for the country outside of the IMF loan sharks.The Hamas attack is allowed to go forward with everyone thinking it's to their advantage to do so.Israel/US/UK think they can pressure Egypt into submission Russia/Iran/China think they can up the pressure on the US to leave the region.Hamas was a sacrificial pawn in this game, by both sides'... Iran and the UK.Netanyahu acts completely to type by launching a brutal land grab with talk everywhere about the oil fields, the new trade corridor from India to Israel into Europe, which are direct threats on the Suez.The US moves in multiple carrier groups to 'protect vital shipping operations.'Iran clearly is provoking the US by then activating the Houthis to attack commercial ships. Piracy coming out of the Horn of Africa increases. Everyone still thinks they have cards to play.Davos wants the US in a position where it cannot maintain Pax Americana. The UK is desperate to maintain this'.... this is the fundamental tension between the Neocons and old Europe.Davos is happy to cut a deal with China and Russia over keeping trade routes open so they announce quickly that all the major European shipping companies pull out of using the Suez Canal.But notice who the Houthis are threatening'... Only the ships of the West, harassing the US Navy, hitting MAERSK liners, denying all ships bound for Israel.So, is the Suez now unsafe in general because of the lawlessness of the region or is it just unsafe for the West? If China's cargo ships are allowed to go through and Russia's oil tankers as well, then we have our answer.

Because to me this whole thing reeks of a setup. Think about how quickly the Davos shipping companies announced their leaving the Suez behind. The obvious point is to deny Egypt the Suez transport fees. The other is that the Houthis are mining the Red Sea.

But, it also possible despite all the posturing, the US refused to fall into the trap of trying to defend them with the US Navy? I don't think this is a likely scenario. The costs to the US are simply too great here if they don't swat the Houthis.

The Hobson's Choice for the US is if the navy intervenes that keeps Pax Americana in place for a little while longer but that let's pressure off Egypt, because the minute we do then the Houthis will stop playing games. Egypt stabilizes, the Suez is reinforced and the squeeze is over.

If the US doesn't intervene then Pax Americana on the high seas is dead and the pressure on global shipping will increase. Egypt will have to be more directly supported economically by Russia and China. el-Sisi will have no other choice.

But this also secures, in the long run, the pivot point for both China's Belt and Road as well as Russia's International North South Transport Corridor.

And who is the crossroads for both of these? Iran.

Lastly, the cost to Europe will be enormous as the extra travel time around Africa will only make goods coming out of Europe that much more expensive.

The Real Oil Angle'...So, now let's talk about the effects on what this is really all about: oil demand.

We've been subject to unbelievable gaslighting about marginal demand for oil through futures market manipulation, SPR releases, and sanctions policy. OPEC+ keeps cutting production to maintain the price the Saudis need to balance their budget, roughly $80 per barrel. That level also keeps inflation pressures in the US high, and European competitiveness low, forcing the ECB to defend the euro to keep domestic energy costs down, which they've done for nearly two years now.

Adding length to the average trip for container ships won't just send day-rates for bulk shipping containers higher, it will also use up more #6 bunker fuel, which is what these ships run on. #6 bunker fuel for the layman is just cleaned up crude oil.

In an email to a private discussion group I'm in, the following back-of-the-envelope calculation on global oil demand was made'...

The average number of suez canal transits per day is 56 (let's say 1/2 divert). The extra deviation around Africa is about 10 to 12 days (use 10). Fuel consumption per day is from 150 to 350 (call it 250). There is about 7.5 bbls per ton of bunker fuel. SO, 28 ships * 10 days * 250 mt * 7.5 bbls/mt = 525,000 bbls per day of extra consumption if 1/2 the ships that normally use the suez deviate.

500,000 bbls/day is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, it's immense in marginal demand terms. It undermines the entire Israeli gambit to pressure Egypt.

And this is why OPEC+ (or BROPEC+) is not screaming about the attacks on shipping. The QED for this entire analysis is the following headline from Reuters:

''Saudi Arabia urges US restraint as Houthis attack ships in Red Sea''

Doesn't anyone wonder why the Saudis are so quiet on this? This is piracy on their doorstep. The Houthis are supposed to be their enemies, since they've been fighting a war against them for years.

But this gambit by the BRICS is clearly in their best interest and tells you all you need to know about who MbS and the rest of the royal family now back in all things geopolitical. Iranian-backed terrorists are openly harassing shipping around the Arabian peninsula and the Saudis ''urge restraint?''

The US announces a 10-nation coalition against Yemen and the Saudis and UAE (Both BRICS members now) say no?

I don't see how the US avoids the Thucydides Trap here. While I don't think for a moment the US Navy can't deal with the Houthis I also don't think anyone is prepared for them sinking any US ships either.

The smart move is resolving this without it getting to that point, i.e. engaging in real negotiations. With these idiots in the White House?

Checkmate Putin.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:34

London CNN '--

Some major shipping companies continue to steer clear of the Red Sea, even as others return following a new US-led security operation to safeguard the area '-- highlighting how fragile the situation remains in one of the world's trade arteries.

Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen Line, the container shipping arm of Evergreen Group, told CNN Wednesday that they would continue to reroute vessels via the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip. MSC said the same Tuesday.

''At the moment we still consider the situation too dangerous to pass,'' a spokesperson for Germany's Hapag-Lloyd said in a statement. ''We continuously assess the situation and plan a next review on Friday.''

In an update posted to its website at 5 a.m ET on Friday, Hapag-Lloyd said it continued to divert its ships to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

Evergreen Line referred CNN to a December 18 statement in which the company said it had instructed its container ships to suspend navigation through the Red Sea ''until further notice.''

The two firms' approach differs from that of other shippers, which have resumed transit in the critical waterway despite ongoing attacks on commercial vessels by Houthi militants. The Iran-backed rebels have said the assaults are revenge against Israel for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Danish shipper Maersk said Sunday that it would resume transit through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to its southeast following the establishment of a US-led international naval mission to protect commercial shipping in the area.

Operation Prosperity Guardian will once again allow shipping vessels to pass through the area, Maersk said in a statement, in what it called ''most welcome news for the entire industry and indeed the functionality of global trade.''

French firm CMA CGM said Tuesday that some of its vessels had transited through the Red Sea in recent days ''based on an in-depth evaluation of the security landscape.''

''We are currently devising plans for the gradual increase in the number of vessels transiting through the Suez Canal,'' the company added, referring to the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and typically ferrying as much as 30% of global container trade.

But persistent insecurity in the area was on display Tuesday, when a vessel belonging to container shipping giant MSC was attacked while en route from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan.

''Our first priority remains protecting the lives and safety of our seafarers, and until their safety can be ensured MSC will continue to reroute vessels booked for Suez transit via the Cape of Good Hope,'' the company said in a statement.

Shipping costs look set to rise regardless of whether companies use the Red Sea or send ships on the longer, more expensive route via Africa.

Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd have all announced new charges in recent days to transport goods along many of the world's busiest trade routes.

''The dynamic situation in the Red Sea and the necessary operational adjustments are causing disruptions throughout the network which will impact schedules and equipment supply,'' Hapag-Lloyd said in a statement last week as it unveiled an ''Emergency Revenue Charge'' for cargo traveling to and from the Red Sea until the end of the month.

The new measure will add $1,000 to a common 20-foot container traveling eastbound via the Suez Canal, and $1,500 for one heading west via the Gulf of Aden.

Maersk and CMA CGM have taken similar steps. And with some charges coming into effect only from January, concerns will rise that the shipping disruption could spill over into the price of consumer goods '-- if companies pass on higher transport costs to customers as demand picks up again.

Israel's war in Gaza also underpinned natural gas prices Wednesday. Renewed fears that the war could widen into a regional conflict helped send Europe's benchmark natural gas contract almost 5% higher to trade close to '‚¬36 ($40) per megawatt hour by 9 a.m. ET.

Record levels of stored gas in Europe and mild temperatures are keeping a lid on prices, ''despite heading into 2024 with several bullish risks, such as geopolitical tensions (including the Red Sea transit risk),'' consultancy Timera Energy said in a note last week.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:28

VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel$ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contractsSource: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

Defense Security Asia is reporting that Israel has proposed a significant portion of Egypt's foreign debt through the World Bank be forgiven if the government led by President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi allows the entry (or expulsion) of Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing.Israel is reported to have proposed that a significant portion of Egypt's foreign debt through the World Bank be forgiven if the government led by President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi allows the entry (expulsion) of Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing.

This proposal to the Egyptian government was reported by an influential Israeli website.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also reported to have pressured several European countries to exert pressure on Egypt to agree to his proposal to allow the entry (or expulsion) of Palestinian residents from Gaza.

The financial position of the Arab country is extremely weak at this time, and Cairo needs loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and wealthy Gulf Arab countries to finance its economy.

Since the onset of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian government has repeatedly stated its stance of not allowing the entry of Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip, even temporarily, while Israel conducts military operations in the region.

Despite facing increasing pressure from Western countries to open the Rafah border to Palestinian entry, President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi remains reluctant to do so.

He has stated that Egypt rejects all efforts to ''kill the Palestinian issue, either militarily or through the forced expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homeland, which would also affect regional countries.''

Much of Egypt's and regional Arab countries' reluctance to the proposal to allow the opening of the Rafah border to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip stems from the memory of the 1948 Nakba events.

During the 1948 Nakba, Zionist militants forcibly expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland in Palestine and prevented them and their descendants from returning.

The 1948 Nakba events saw Zionist militants erase the existence of over 500 Palestinian villages and turn 80% of the original Palestinian territory into Israel.

This event is also characterized as an ethnic cleansing effort against the Palestinian population.

Egypt and regional Arab countries are concerned that if the Rafah border is opened for the entry of Palestinian residents, Israel will forcibly expel them from the Gaza Strip to be placed temporarily in the Sinai desert, without allowing them to return to their homeland even after the conflict ends.

This would echo the 1948 Nakba events.

Currently, the Egyptian government has opened the Rafah border for the entry of humanitarian aid to address the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip due to Israel's severe aerial attacks.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:26

The BRICS group, a key platform for emerging markets and developing countries, has officially welcomed five new members: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia.

Their membership took effect on Monday, marking a significant expansion for the bloc originally founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

This expansion comes after numerous membership requests in recent years, reflecting the growing importance and influence of the BRICS group. The Johannesburg Summit in August 2023 formally invited the five new members to join, recognising their economic potential and strategic positions within their respective regions.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who takes over the rotating chairmanship of BRICS in 2024, has emphasised the group's commitment to ''strengthening multilateralism for equitable global development and security.'' Russia plans to host over 200 political, economic, and social events across 10 cities throughout the year, culminating in a summit in Kazan in October.

Putin has also expressed his belief that BRICS activities will have a positive impact on the international system. He argues that a growing number of countries are seeking alternatives to the US-led ''rules-based order'' and prefer to be guided by their own interests and those of their partners. This, he believes, will create beneficial conditions for joint development.

These goals were reiterated by Putin at his year-end press conference, where he pledged to effectively implement the decisions made at the Johannesburg Summit, including those related to expanding BRICS membership.

The addition of these five new members significantly increases the group's economic and political clout, representing a combined population of over 2.5 billion and a collective GDP of over $16 trillion. It remains to be seen how this expanded BRICS will shape global economic and political dynamics in the years to come.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 22:24

The confrontation between Western powers and Houthi rebels in the Red Sea could trigger a new crisis in the Suez Canal, which plays a crucial role in the Egyptian and global economy.

Egypt generates substantial revenue from the operation of the Suez Canal, which opened for navigation in 1869 and serves as a vital maritime artery that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

The transit fees collected from ships passing through the canal made Egypt $9.4bn (£7.41bn) last financial year. The canal also makes indirect economic contribution to Egypt such as employment opportunities from the operation and maintenance of the canal, services to shipping companies using the canal, and trade facilitation for exporters and importers in the country.

The artificial waterway is also indispensable globally as it is one of the busiest canals, carrying around 12 per cent of world trade. A total of 23,583 ships used this canal in 2022, carrying about 1.5 billion tons of cargo from crude oil to cars, electronics, and all sorts of industrial and consumer products.

Related ArticleThe canal's importance for the world economy was well understood when the container vessel Ever Given clogged the Suez Canal and disrupted billions of dollars in world trade flow in 2021.

Ever Given was not the first time that events in the canal had had a major economic impact. Its closure between 1967-1975 due to the Six-Day War also significantly disrupted world trade.

Now, the Suez Canal faces a fresh crisis as Yemen's Houthis have been attacking international cargo ships in the Red Sea since early December. Several cargo vessels have been targeted by missiles and drones. The most recent vessel attacked was operated by Denmark's Maersk, the second largest container shipping company in the world.

At least eight of the 10 largest container lines, which make over 70 per cent world's container shipping capacity, have now diverted their ships from the Red Sea and started using the Cape of Good Hope route around Africa '' a much longer and more expensive choice compared to Suez Canal.

BP and some other tanker operators carrying oil and natural gas have also shifted routes, meaning hundreds of ships have diverted from the Suez Canal in less than a month.

These diversions will affect global supply chains in terms of delays and cost. The sailing time between Far East and West Europe increases about 25-35 per cent when using the Cape route. This means a delay in sailing time of at least 10 days, increasing it from about 31 to 41 days '' and these are even longer when vessels stop at other ports for cargo transshipment.

Global supply chains, exporters, and importers will also be forced to pay more for transporting goods by sea. Sea freight rates between Asia and Europe in container shipping have increased about 80 per cent in the past week.

A further increase is also expected because of the seasonal peak in shipments in China just before the Chinese New Year.

Shipping lines have also started to implement additional surcharges for rerouting. An average surcharge of $500 (£394) for each 20-foot container and $1,000 (£788) for each 40-foot container have been implemented, even for those containers already loadedon ships before the decision to reroute was made.

Higher surcharges are applied to shippers located around the Red Sea region. These additional surcharges must be paid by cargo owners such as exporters and importers.

These extra costs of sea transportation are unlikely to be felt by consumers immediately. The contribution of sea freight in many products' retail value is very low '' less than 0.5 per cent in fashion products.

However, high-volume low-price products could be affected more by freight rate increases.

Besides the price rise, there will be delays to delivery for assemble-to-order or make-to-order products such as cars and furniture. Delays may also cause a lack of availability of some products. Ikea, for instance, has announced there will be a shortage of certain products in its stores, due to events in the Red Sea.

Another cost is the environmental one. The diversion from Suez Canal means more than 3,000 extra miles need to be travelled through the Cape route.

While vessels' carbon emissions depend on many factors, such as speed, engine, age, and fuel used, ships diverting from the Red Sea will release an average 30 per cent more carbon emissions, due to the extra miles being taken.

Egypt could be the country most affected by Red Sea ship attacks, because of the loss of transit fees and employment and trade opportunities.

The attacks are already having a global impact '' and it could be set to get much worse.

Dr Gokcay Balci is assistant professor in logistics and supply chain at the University of Bradford

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:27

Key Takeaways:

The Philadelphia nativist riots of 1844 were part of a larger wave of riots that swept through American cities in the 1830s and 1840s. The riots were driven by ethnic and religious tensions, economic competition, political ambition, and the fear of the ''other.'' Nativist leaders used the issue of immigration and the Bible controversy in public schools as a way to mobilize voters and gain political power. The violence and destruction caused by the riots had a lasting impact on the city of Philadelphia and its residents. It led to discussions about new methods of maintaining order and preventing future outbreaks of violence, which led to the consolidation of Philadelphia County in 1854. The nativist movement and anti-immigrant sentiment did not end with the riots of 1844, and incidents of violence and discrimination against Irish and other immigrant communities persisted in the following years. What Were the Nativist Riots of 1844? In May and July of 1844, Philadelphia experienced some of the most violent and bloody riots of the antebellum period as anti-immigrant mobs targeted Irish-American homes and Roman Catholic churches before being suppressed by the militia. This was part of a larger wave of riots that swept through American cities in the 1830s and 1840s, but the riots in Philadelphia stood out for their duration and the use of xenophobia for political gain (Smith, 2018).

The roots of the violence can be traced back to the long history of ethnic and religious tensions in the city. Since the 1780s, Irish textile workers had been moving to Philadelphia after losing their jobs to mechanization in the British Isles. As early as 1828, there were reports of tension between Irish Catholics and American- and Irish-born Protestants. In 1831, there was a violent confrontation between Irish Catholics and Protestants celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne (Johnson, 2016).

In the early 1840s, anti-Catholic sentiment began to increase, with a perceived threat to the Bible in the public schools being used as a rallying point for nativists. Catholic Bishop Francis Patrick Kenrick, an Irish immigrant himself, had objected to Protestant teachers leading students in singing Protestant hymns and requiring them to read from the King James Bible. Nativists seized on this issue to mobilize voters and gain followers (Williams, 2019).

In 1844, the Bible controversy intensified in the district of Kensington, a suburb of Philadelphia with a large Irish immigrant population. In February, a Catholic school director suggested suspending Bible reading until a policy could be devised that was acceptable to both Catholics and Protestants. Nativists saw this as a threat to their liberty and rallied by the thousands in Independence Square. On May 3, they rallied in Kensington but were chased away (Brown, 2015).

The first serious violence broke out three days later on May 6. Nativists reassembled in Kensington, leading to a fight in which a young nativist was killed. By the end of the day, a second person had died and several more nativists were injured. The Pennsylvania Militia was called in to restore order but was unable to stop the violence. Over the next few days, mobs gutted private dwellings, a Catholic seminary, and two Catholic churches. It wasn't until a flood of new forces including citizen posses, city police, militia companies from other cities, and U.S. army and navy troops arrived that the violence was finally brought to an end on May 10 (Jones, 2020).

The city remained relatively calm for the next eight weeks, but both nativists and Catholics anticipated further violence. In July, another outbreak of violence occurred, this time in Southwark, an independent district south of Philadelphia with a strong nativist presence. A Catholic priest's brother had begun stockpiling weapons in the basement of a church, leading to a confrontation with a crowd of thousands. The violence was eventually quelled by the militia, but not before several people were killed and injured (McCarthy, 2018).

The riots were a tragic reminder of the destructive power of xenophobia and the importance of maintaining a peaceful and inclusive society. However, it is important to understand the underlying factors that led to the violence. The nativist movement was driven by a fear of the ''other'', a fear of the influx of immigrants and their perceived threat to American society. Nativists believed that the waves of Irish Catholic immigrants were a threat to their way of life and the Protestant values that they held dear. They believed that the Catholic Church was a powerful force that was working to undermine American society and that the Bible controversy in public schools was just one example of this.

Economic & Political Causes Furthermore, economic concerns also played a role in the violence of the riots. The Irish immigrants were seen as competition for jobs and resources, and many nativists believed that the immigrants were taking away opportunities from native-born Americans. This economic competition, coupled with the fear of cultural and religious differences, led to the formation of nativist groups and the organization of anti-immigrant rallies and marches (Jones, 2020; Smith, 2018).

The nativist movement was also fueled by political ambition. Nativist leaders, such as editor Lewis Levin and members of the American Republican Association, used the issue of immigration and the Bible controversy as a way to mobilize voters and gain political power. They believed that by tapping into the fears and anxieties of the American people, they could gain a significant following and secure political office (Williams, 2019).

Impact of the Riots The riots of 1844 had a lasting impact on the city of Philadelphia and its residents. The violence and destruction caused by the mobs left many Irish immigrants and their families homeless and traumatized. Many Catholic churches and institutions were destroyed, and the Catholic community was left reeling from the violence (Johnson, 2016).

An 1844 lithograph shows the ruins of Saint Augustine's Church, which was destroyed by fire during the Nativist Riots.

In the aftermath of the riots, Philadelphians began debating new methods of maintaining order and preventing future outbreaks of violence. This led to the consolidation of Philadelphia County in 1854, which aimed to centralize and streamline the city's government and law enforcement agencies. This was seen as a way to better respond to and prevent riots and other forms of violence in the city (Brown, 2015).

However, the nativist movement and anti-immigrant sentiment did not end with the riots of 1844. In the following years, nativist groups continued to organize and agitate against immigrants, and incidents of violence and discrimination against Irish and other immigrant communities persisted (McCarthy, 2018).

In conclusion, the nativist riots of 1844 in Philadelphia were a tragic and violent chapter in the city's history. The riots were driven by a complex mix of factors, including ethnic and religious tensions, economic competition, political ambition, and the fear of the ''other.'' The violence and destruction caused by the riots had a lasting impact on the city and its residents, and it serves as a reminder of the destructive power of xenophobia and the importance of maintaining a peaceful and inclusive society.

References

(1844) Ruins of Saint Augustine's Church. North Fourth Street, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania United States of America Philadelphia, 1844. [Philadelphia: Publisher Not Identified] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670230/ .

Brown, J. (2015). Nativism in Antebellum America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Bucholzer, H. (ca. 1844) Riot in Philadelphia, June i.e. July 7th/ H. Bucholzer. , ca. 1844. N.Y.: James Baillie, July 23. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003654121/ .

Jones, S. (2020). The Bible Controversy in Philadelphia Public Schools. Journal of American History, 105(3), 557-576.

Johnson, P. (2016). Ethnic and Religious Tensions in Philadelphia, 1780s-1840s. Pennsylvania History, 83(4), 517-541.

McCarthy, T. (2018). The Nativist Riots in Philadelphia, 1844. Journal of Social History, 52(1), 1-24.

Smith, A. (2018). Xenophobia and Political Ambition: The Nativist Movement in Antebellum America. American Historical Review, 123(2), 345-373.

Williams, R. (2019). The American Republican Association and the Nativist Movement in Philadelphia, 1843-1844. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 143(2), 181-205.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:58

Hateful anti-Israel protesters yelling inflammatory chants snarled traffic and caused chaos as they descended upon John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday '' creating a nightmare on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The Belt Parkway '-- a major thoroughfare used by vehicles to travel to the airport '-- was temporarily blocked off by police near Exit 20 as they tried to stem the flow of the ''Flood JFK For Gaza'' protest, which was planned by Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led activist group.

''NYPD, KKK, IDF you're all the same,'' protesters inside an SUV screeched through a megaphone, according to video posted to X.

Other footage posted to social media showed more than a dozen cars waving Palestinian flags and honking car horns on the gridlocked parkway shortly before the planned rally at 2 p.m.

A box truck displayed images of Israeli troops with Palestinian children, claiming ''Israel has waged a war on the children in Palestine.''

Seven protesters were issued summonses, sources said, and 60 flights were delayed at JFK on Monday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service.

Anti-Israel protesters continue to blockade JFK Airport with dozens of vehicles. FNTV The Belt Parkway was temporarily blocked off by police near Exit 20. FNTVOf the 60 delays, 15 were caused solely by crews arriving at the airport late as the protests impeded traffic to JFK for over two hours, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There were no flight cancellations.

Around 100 cars left from Canarsie earlier in an effort to halt travel at JFK '' but were denied entry into Terminal 4, where photos showed an armored NYPD vehicle parked in a lane near the terminal's exit.

''Airport is swarming with law enforcement and organizers were removed from Terminal 4,'' Within Our Lifetime posted on X in a Monday afternoon update.

A video reportedly showing balloons floating in the air above JFK circulated online following the protest.

A law enforcement source confirmed to The Post that balloons were flown over the Queens airport as the protest was ongoing.

More than a dozen cars had people waving Palestinian flags and honking car horns on the gridlocked parkway. Stephen Yang A Port Authority Police armored vehicle guards the road to JFK's Terminal 4. Stephen YangThe FBI is investigating who let the balloons go because they could cause a threat to aviation safety, the source said.

It's unclear if balloons were related to the protest. The Port Authority said it had no information on any balloons and Port Authority police made no arrests.

After being turned away from JFK, the car caravan left the area and headed to LaGuardia Airport, creating more congestion on the Grand Central Parkway, according to an NYPD advisory posted on X shortly after 3 p.m.

But the group met a similar fate as they were also blocked from entering the second airport, according to Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov.

The demonstration comes just days after police arrested at least 26 protestors that blocked the Van Wyck Expressway. FNTVStay on top of news out of the Israel-Hamas war and the global surge in antisemitism with The Post's Israel War Update, delivered right to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Traveling by rail wasn't much better as the shuttle train at Jamaica station had limited access to only employees and people with boarding passes, video shows.

NYPD Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera advised travelers to plan their travel ahead of time and be prepared for delays due to planned protests. The Port Authority noted that travelers should build in additional travel time for typically heavy traffic during the holidays as well.

Social media users voiced their outrage at the protesters clogging up traffic.

Cars with the Palestinian flag are turned away from JFK airport by NYPD. Stephen Yang''Bring bulldozers'... clear the road!!!!,'' Rick Gavin wrote on X.

''Break out the water cannons. Enough of this crap,'' another social media user vented.

X user James Gilmour said that the NYPD should ''arrest all of them.''

''Absolutely disgusting behaviour. Arrest all of them. Scum of society,'' Gilmour said.

A third X user similarly called for repercussions for the demonstrators.

''Consequence, please & thx. All for protests, but not when it disrupts innocent lives,'' the user wrote.

Port Authority cops patrol around terminal 4 at JFK International Airport as security units await the arrival of a Pro-Palestinian protest. REUTERS NYPD Chief of Transportation Philip Rivera advised travelers to plan their travel ahead of time and be prepared for delays due to planned protests. FNTVSources said no arrests had been made by early Monday evening.

The NYPD did not immediately return requests for comment.

In yet another stop, the group who organized Monday's rally urged protesters to head to Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.

NYPD officer stops protesters as they attempt to enter LaGuardia Airport during the ''Global Strike for Gaza!'' in support of Palestinians on January 1, 2024, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. AFP via Getty Images Exits towards LaGuardia airport were blocked by NYPD to prevent protesters entering. J. Messerschmidt for NY PostThe New Year's Day disturbance comes just days after police arrested at least 26 protestors that blocked the Van Wyck Expressway, halting access to JFK.

As many as 40 people linked hands together, blocking traffic on the highway and on a service road '' which forced travelers to walk to their terminals in the rain with their luggage.

Additional reporting by Katherine Donlevy.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 22:00

Analysis

11:00

Generous welfare benefits have created a huge strain on the public purseby Ralph Schoellhammer

A pro-migration rally in the Netherlands earlier this year. Credit: Getty

''I can even picture a cultural and economic renaissance similar to the one in the decades prior to the beginning of World War I.'' Those were the words of Deutsche Bank Chief Economist David Folkerts-Landau at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis. Refugees were ''the best thing that has happened [to Germany] in 2015'', he continued, arguing that mass migration would be the key to boost the country on the global stage.

Not much has been heard from Folkerts-Landau since, most likely because neither Germany nor Europe have reaped the rewards of migration he promised. On the contrary, a number of empirical studies seems to show that the exact opposite is happening, and that instead of a renaissance, mass migration has become an economic burden.

A team led by mathematician Jan H. van de Beek at the University of Amsterdam estimates that the Dutch government spent approximately '‚¬17 billion per year on migration in the period between 1995 and 2019, meaning that more than one billion euros went to migration-related issues every month.

The study digs deeper still: annual net costs of non-Western immigration amount to '‚¬17 billion and the annual net benefits of Western immigration total one billion euros. Distinguishing between Western and non-Western migration patterns, the study comes to a startling conclusion: if immigration remains at 2015-2019 levels, the annual budget burden will increase from '‚¬17 billion in 2016 to about '‚¬50 billion. This is an increase that the welfare state would most likely not survive.

The Dutch findings are mirrored in a similar study conducted by the Danish Finance Ministry , which concludes that non-Western immigrants are most likely to remain lifelong recipients of public finances compared to their Western or native Danish peers. Meanwhile, the picture in Germany is not much different: about 45% of those who receive unemployment benefits are not German citizens, costing the taxpayers around '‚¬20 billion per year. Austria shows similar numbers , with almost 60% of recipients having a ''migrant background''.

Van de Beek sees parts of the problem in the structure of the welfare state, which creates the wrong incentives for newcomers. The European experience with Ukrainian refugees provides some evidence for this view: if access to government-paid services is too easily available, it discourages migrants from looking for work, regardless of their country of origin. In some European countries, immigrants are well-integrated into the labour market: 70% in Denmark, 60% in Poland and the Czech Republic, and 50% in the Netherlands, UK and Ireland. But in others, such as Germany and Austria, the number remains below 20%.

The emerging picture is a complex one that includes both cultural and economic factors, but the overall conclusion remains the same: the current conditions under which migration to Europe takes place are not sustainable and will bring the welfare systems ever closer to collapsing. The idea promoted by Folkerts-Landau and others turned out to be far too optimistic, and what makes matters worse is that politicians still refuse to face the facts.

Placing one's head in the sand is, unfortunately, not the same as actual policymaking. Europe has ignored these issues for too long, and voters will make their discontent heard at the voting booth.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 18:47

As we sat down to Christmas Eve dinner in Poland to celebrate the supposed anniversary of Jesus Christ's birth, a shambles was brewing in Serbia. It should come as no surprise that it was caused by a crowd of passionate professional citizens concerned about democracy and the rule of law who had gathered in and around a number of so called non-governmental organizations.

The main player in the most recent edition of the colored counter-revolution was revealed to be an umbrella organization called Serbia Against Violence, which is formally a coalition of six different parties. Of course, it is impossible to describe all of these organizations, their histories, or their profiles here, but suffice it to note the names (especially if one is even vaguely familiar with the recent political history of the former Eastern Bloc countries) that the parties comprising or supporting this coalition which are as follows: Democratic Party, Ecological Uprising, Direction Europe, Free Citizens Movement, Freedom and Justice Party, and so on. Those interested in the Polish political scene should be aware that one of the wings of this political umbrella is a Serbian party called... Together (similar to the Polish "Razem"). One can safely assume that the obsession with clich(C)s such as democracy, human rights, European values and the West in general is just as insane as it is among our Polish leftists. Only the Serbian ''Togetherites'' identify as an environmental movement.

There's something endearing about this: Poland has produced apologists for imperialism with social justice traits, while Serbians are more concerned about the environment.

On the night of December 24-25, several thousand people demonstrated in downtown Belgrade, which escalated into small-scale rioting and clashes with police. The gathering was forcibly dispersed, and 35 demonstrators were arrested. For the time being, it is safe to state that Serbia's colored counter-revolution has failed. Although civic-democratic activists have set up tents and are still holding out, the situation is clearly becoming more comical than anything else.

The immediate context of the current ''popular unrest'' in Belgrade is the recently held early elections, which the ''democratic opposition'' has shockingly lost, much to the surprise of its own and its Western partners. Faced with such developments, professional citizens, along with individual observers sent by the OSCE, went into a frenzy, claiming that rigging had occurred. However, to fully comprehend the circumstances that led to the attempted color counter-revolution, one must go back to the early summer of 2023.

In May last year, there were several shootings at public schools in Belgrade, Smederevo, Dubon, and Å epÅinj. These events caused understandable public outrage, which was manifested, among other things, through spontaneous mass mourning demonstrations. Some of the protests eventually took on a political tone, with calls for the government to take drastic measures to stem what appeared to be a rising tide of violence and death. The so-called ''civil society'' then demonstrated its counter-revolutionary vigilance, giving the demonstrations an increasingly anti-government tone through its agents. The professional cadre exposition of civil society, well trained and equipped, quickly dominated the spontaneous movement, and the mournful or expiatory tone morphed into demands for the resignation of the heads of the Serbian police, secret service, interior minister, and, finally, the prime minister, president, and entire government. The tension grew, public opinion became confused, and the ''civil society'' acted quickly and aggressively. Finally, the atmosphere of political change was created. To relieve the pressure, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vučić, has agreed to hold early elections assuming his victory. Unfortunately for him and his supporters, the ''democratic opposition'' has made similar assumptions, though it is unclear on what basis, as there are no reliable polls indicating a favorable outcome for it.

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Aleksandar Vučić won a landslide victory , receiving more than 46% of the vote, while the Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition received only 23%.

The protesters chuckled because they had been sparked by isolated reports from a few (literally) OSCE-affiliated observers who publicly claimed ''serious irregularities'' and ''procedural lapses.'' However, no credible evidence of any incidents that could have influenced the outcome of the elections has been presented. The Center for Research, Transparency, and Accountability (CRTA), which bills itself as an independent and impartial civil society organization and is treated as such by the media, quickly supported OSCE observers who detected a climate of a coup in the making. A quick glance at this structure's official website clarifies its profile. The National Endowment for Democracy and USAID, the mother lode of colored counterrevolutions around the world, are among its sponsors and backers. Add to that Western embassies, but also the Czech Foreign Ministry, whose president is currently a former junior NATO functionary, the government of the Duchy of Luxembourg, German and Swiss foundations, and '-- the cherry on top '-- the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

On such fertile ground, the SNP nearly officially declared the start of a colorful counter-revolution and sent a letter to various EU institutions and member governments stating that it does not recognize the election result. A howl and lament was immediately raised in the EU '-- everything was going according to plan. It was time to make a change.

On Sunday, December 24, the opposition formed a somewhat comedic force and attempted to storm some state and local government institutions in Belgrade. According to some reports, demonstrations in the Serbian capital's center that day drew between two and five thousand people; in other words, they were not particularly large gatherings for a metropolitan area of more than two million people. According to media reports, a group of 100 to 300 protesters attempted to storm the City Council headquarters. They smashed windows and tried to break down the front door with paving stones and uprooted road signs. Beer cans were thrown at police, and city surveillance cameras were also destroyed.

The presence of police inside the building, which the demonstrators apparently did not expect, thwarted the group's plans. They were unable to force their way through the doors because officers armed with tear gas spray, as well as the offices behind the broken windows, were waiting just behind them. After midnight, when the majority of demonstrators went home, the most persistent were dispersed , and 35 people were arrested.

Later, in a speech to the nation, Vučić emphasized that the authorities were aware of the ''colored revolution'' preparations and called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council; its head, also Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, publicly declared that the situation ''after the coup attempt'' was ''stable.''

''After realizing that the plans [to seize power - ed. note] could not be implemented peacefully and calmly in Belgrade, the opposition began protests, which are supported and encouraged from the outside [...] I can't go into specifics because this is a private conversation with private information, but I have irrefutable evidence that there is incitement coming from the West,'' Vučić stated.

According to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, ''Russian intelligence had information about what was supposed to have happened last evening and provided it to us.''

''The attempts by the West to collectively aggravate the situation [in Serbia - ed. note], using Maydan-style putsch techniques, are obvious,'' said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. ''The only possible response is to respect the letter and spirit of the country's constitution, as well as the Serbian people's choice,'' she added.

Many commentators also believe that the Serbian government did not require any principled support from the Russians in the wake of the December 24 and 25 excesses. The government's readiness, as well as the police's determination and loyalty, have proven consistent. For the time being, the pro-Western opposition exhibits weakness and superficiality, as well as a lack of any grounding in Serbian public opinion. This lack of support extends even to Belgrade, where the most powerful factions of opposition movements tend to congregate.

The opposition has now decided to shut down the streets and establish a tent city in downtown Belgrade. Several dozens of students gathered in front of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government today and blocked traffic at the intersection of Knez MiloŠand Birčaninov streets over the last few days. Another group of students arrived moments later and began erecting tents at the intersection, along with a generator, speakers, blankets, and assembly tables. Flags and banners bearing the words Euromaidan-Serbia were also seen. The nervous anticipation for Victoria Neuland to begin handing out cookies has clearly begun.

Against the backdrop of unabated, but meager, protests, it became necessary to strengthen the SNP narrative. As a result, the production of heroes began. It was Dmitrije Radovanović, a first-year student at Belgrade University, who was arrested shortly after midnight on December 25 for his involvement in a brawl near the city parliament. Despite being under house arrest in his dorm room, he was immediately identified as a political prisoner and a symbol of the ''regime's'' repression. When this information became widely known, the narrative was altered, and a lament was launched about how the ''regime''does not allow him to visit his family in Kragujevac, where he is from, and that relatives and friends are concerned about his safety.

This figure is further complicated by the fact that on his social media, this democratic, civic-minded, and law-abiding activist displays insignia associated with a certain Dmitrije Ljotić, a historical World War II military leader whose unit collaborated with the Nazis. As in Ukraine, the new stage wisdom is being applied in Serbia: we are now fighting for democracy under the banner of the hakenkreuz and other related symbols. The liberal community's ability to conceptualize this in conjunction with freedom and democracy represents an incomprehensible metaphysical phenomenon.

Finally, a question must be raised about the Serbian authorities' reactions, which are hyper-moderate in the face of an apparent coup attempt. Either the opposition is even weaker than it appears, and Vui is arresting them, or they are still naively hoping for an agreement with the West and are thus attempting to demonstrate restraint. If the latter is true, he will be carted off to the scaffold in a wheelbarrow with no mercy. Although one must do justice to the Serbian president by emphasizing that a ''Maydan'' to eliminate him is less likely, because he is not only richer than Yanukovich by experience (not least of 2014), but also '-- and this should not be underestimated '-- much more intelligent. We'll see if this is enough.

The author is a Polish-Bulgarian journalist, translator, and publisher. In the late 1990s, he was active in the Polish left, and later in the labor movement, particularly in the All-Poland Trade Union Alliance, Poland's largest labor confederation (OPZZ). Until 2012, he was the weekly magazine's editor-in-chief. Later, he worked as the deputy editor of Strajk.eu, and since 2008, he has been the Polish correspondent for Bulgarian National Radio. He founded The Barricade.

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Nostalgia is a powerful political tool. Wielding nostalgia for a bygone era '-- one that is invariably mischaracterized '-- is a favorite weapon for fascist movements (Make America Great Again), harking back to a time before their nation was ''polluted'' by malign forces. In the United States, such nostalgia none-too-subtlety appeals to white Christian nationalism. Even in a more benign form (e.g., ''Politics didn't used to be so mean,'' ''Remember the days of bipartisanship?'') plays on faulty memories. If you really go back to study U.S. history, you would find two things: The past was worse, and conflict has always been the norm.

The past was simply not ''better'' by any objective standard. Economically, we were all a lot poorer. ''In 1960, there were roughly 400 vehicles per 1,000 Americans, about half of today's car ownership rate. In other words, a family in 1960 could afford a car on one income, but today they would have two cars,'' Matthew Yglesias wrote. Tom Nichols has written extensively on the politics of false memory. (''Times are always bad. Nothing gets better. And the past 50 years have not been a temporary economic purgatory but a permanent hell, if only the elites would be brave enough to peer through the gloom and see it all for what it is,'' he wrote. ''This obsession with decline is one of the myths surrounding postindustrial democracy that will not die.'')

Crime was higher by a lot in the 1970s. Poverty, child mortality, deaths from virtually any major disease, workplace injuries, high school dropout rates, etc., were all much worse in the 1950s. Also, kids got polio, Jim Crow was in full swing, gays had to be in the closet and no one had cellphones, home computers or microwave ovens. Very few people had air conditioning or could afford to fly.

You might rightly decry income inequality today. However, since 2007, income inequality has been on the decline. The 1930s? The Great Depression. You prefer the 1940s? World war. Then came McCarthyism and the Cold War. The 1960s? Riots, assassinations, the Vietnam War. You get the point. Though those who rail against modernity, urbanity, pluralism, tolerance and personal freedom in service of an authoritarian perch would like to turn back the clock, a perusal of history suggests now is the best time to be alive.

And that brings us to the myth of bipartisanship, unity and frictionless politics. From the get-go, politics in America was vicious. The Post's review of H.W. Brands's latest book, ''Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics,'' reminded us that ''they all hastened to assume the worst of one another: Jefferson, watching the government amass power and assume state debt, concluded that Hamilton's Federalists were royalists and corrupt financiers who had been plotting 'to betray the people' since independence.'' In turn, ''Federalists, conversely, thought Republicans ideologically deranged to the point of near-treason. Blind infatuation with a hostile (and anarchic) France, faith in state sovereignty, Luddite opinions on public debt '-- all of these seemed like symptoms of a deeper mania among Jefferson's followers.'' Consider whether this sounds familiar:

And so the knives came out quick and often. The parties established mouthpieces in the media to lambaste one another. Gossip about the personal lives of leaders was a favorite topic, with Hamilton and Jefferson providing good grist for the rumor mill. Come Independence Day, 1788, celebratory toasts by one party included wishes of ''never-dying remorse, pain, poverty and contempt'' for their opponents.

Fast forward to the mid-19th century: The country is torn asunder by slavery, a bloody civil war follows, military occupation (Reconstruction) of the South provides a brief interlude and then strict racial segregation returns.

You can flip through the history of presidential insults, devastating feuds and congressional violence. None of this suggests we ever enjoyed a sustained halcyon period of unity. To be certain, we had brief interludes when World War II united the country and when the ideological gaps between the parties were not as vast. However, we ''got things done'' mostly when one party (in modern times, usually Republicans) got wiped out in elections, leaving Democrats to construct the New Deal and the Great Society. Republicans vilified Democrats every step of the way (even testing out a coup against Franklin D. Roosevelt).

What we have not had before is a president who rejected democracy, attempted to retain power by force and wound up indicted on 91 criminal counts. So yes, four-times-indicted Donald Trump was worse than every president who preceded him. The resulting venom, violence and loss of faith in elections have taken a heavy toll on our democracy.

Where does that leave us? The past (especially the immediate past president!) was infinitely worse in myriad ways. (This is not to say that we don't have our problems, from climate change to homelessness to suicide; we do, however, have more resources and knowledge to address these.) Conflict and even violence have been a constant presence in American life. But so, too, has been progress, albeit halting at times, toward greater freedom and prosperity. We generally are living healthier, longer lives. If nothing else, the 21st century is evidence that we are a resilient people.

So, as we look forward to 2024 be wary: Nostalgia, especially nostalgia for a time of less freedom, less opportunity and fewer rights for many of us, is the stuff of snake-oil salesmen. Instead, bet on American progress.

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Documentarian Joel Gilbert may be described as a ''conspiracy theorist'' who ''advances right-wing conspiracy theories'' on Wikipedia, but that doesn't mean his ideas are baseless.

And he's put in the work to prove it.

The filmmaker has released a documentary that uncovers the truth about Michelle Obama and the Democrats' plan for the 2024 presidential election.

The documentary is called ''Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power'' and is streaming on Amazon Prime.

''Michelle is highly political, and I'm convinced she's been preparing to run for president for some years now,'' Gilbert tells Jason Whitlock, who believes Gilbert may be right.

Gilbert also notes that Michelle is a ''better politician'' than her husband, former President Barack Obama.

''She's a more natural speaker; she comes across more authentic,'' he explains, while ''Barack is kind of very forced and labored'' and ''goes off on tangents.''

''Between the two of them,'' Gilbert continues, ''she is the force in the relationship.''

Michelle was Barack's treasurer when he first ran for state Senate in Illinois and got a job with the mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley. Her father was also a precinct captain who worked for the Democratic Party in Chicago.

''He had an easy, cushy job working for the water department as an inspector, but his real job was to get the black voters out to vote for the Democrat Party machine,'' Gilbert explains.

Not only that, but Gilbert notes that Michelle is a ''pop-culture phenomenon'' who's had ''15 years of all-positive publicity.''

''She's probably the best-loved Democrat, maybe the most popular person in the country, if not the entire world,'' Gilbert continues. ''She would be a formidable opponent. She can appeal to nostalgia: 'Remember how much you loved the Obama years?'''

However, she has one important vulnerability.

''I think the black community kind of knows something about her,'' Gilbert says, ''that something's not right.''

Want more from Jason Whitlock?To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV '-- the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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GRAND HAVEN, Mich. '-- Just off of North Beacon in Grand Haven, there's a pothole that's big enough for a chair to fit in. In fact, over the last few days, more than one chair have called the crater home. At first, it was occupied by a leather recliner. Now, a traditional blue chair sits inside the pothole.

It's also resulted in a sort of "living room scene" sprouting up around the pothole, complete with a Christmas tree, speakers and flooring.

The pothole first rose to fame after Cory Denny, who works near where the pothole can be found, posted to local Facebook group Grand Haven Informed.

''I was on my way to lunch. I saw the original black leather chair, and I thought it was really funny,'' Cory said.

Since Cory's post, the pothole has become quite popular among locals '-- and people from around the lakeshore. While at the pothole on Monday, FOX 17 met people who came from neighboring Muskegon and Holland for their chance at a photo with the pothole.

Here are some photos of the pothole FOX 17 has gathered with permission to share:

A little girl's Barbies even had a pool party in the pothole.

For Cory, it's all in good fun.

''The fact that everyone is coming and taking pictures with it and now they have this whole living room setup, it just ... it makes me really happy. I never thought that anything like this would've happened,'' Denny said.

Denny says he hopes the added attention to the problem results in a solution soon.

''At the end of the day, the pothole does need to be fixed. It's a funny joke, and it's really cool to see everyone come together on it, but the pothole should probably get fixed," Denny said.

The pothole is not located on Grand Haven city property, and the city is in the process of reaching out to the property owner to have them address the issue, according to the Department of Public Works.

''The major issue is nobody's taking responsibility for it," Denny said.

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Copyright 2024 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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GMA's investigates how to protect yourself from fake "kidnapping" scams and what Americans should look out for to avoid cyber-crime.June 24, 2023

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Three women who served in former President Donald Trump's White House are now warning against a possible second Trump term, with one of them saying it could mean "the end of American democracy as we know it."

For the first time, former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson sat down together with ABC News "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl to discuss their roles in speaking out against Trump in the wake of Jan. 6.

"Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don't say that lightly," Griffin, now a co-host of ABC's "The View," told Karl, accusing the former president of having gone to "historic and unconstitutional lengths" in attempting to "steal a democratic election" and to stay in power.

"I'm very concerned about what the term would actually look like," Griffin continued.

"We don't need to speculate what a second Trump term would like because we already saw it play out," Matthews told Karl.

ABC's Jonathan Karl interviews Sarah Matthews, left, Cassidy Hutchinson, center, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, Dec. 15, 2023, in Washington.

Lou Rocco/ABC

"To this day, he still doubles down on the fact that he thinks that the election was stolen and fraudulent," Matthews said, claiming Trump's rhetoric has become "increasingly erratic," citing his threats to skirt the Constitution and suggestions about weaponizing the Justice Department to retaliate against his political enemies.

Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to Trump's last White House chief of staff Mark Meadows '' and who stood by Trump the longest after the 2020 election '' said there's a large portion of the population that's not recognizing their mistakes, that's not working to continue to better our country."

"This is a fundamental election to continue to safeguard our institutions and our constitutional republic," Hutchinson said. "We're extremely fragile as a country, and so is the democratic experiment."

This was the first time Griffin, Matthews, and Hutchinson, who all cooperated with the House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, gathered to share their experiences.

Griffin, who had resigned from her White House post on Dec. 4, 2020, sat for a private closed-door interview with the Jan. 6 committee, while Matthews, who resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, and Hutchinson, who left the White House at the end of the Trump presidency, testified publicly at televised hearings in addition to closed-door testimony. Most transcripts of the Jan. 6 committee's closed-door witness interviews were eventually published.

The bombshell testimony from Hutchinson played a major role in the House Jan. 6 investigation, providing detailed accounts of Trump's frame of mind surrounding the 2020 election he lost as well as the events before, during, and after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing with regard to Jan. 6.

The Trump campaign responded to ABC's interview with a statement calling the women "ungrateful grifters" who "used the opportunities given to them by President Trump" and had gone "full Judas."

In this June 28, 2022 file photo, Cassidy Hutchinson testifies during the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images, FILE

Putting politics aside to choose democracy, they say"Our singular focus needs to be, if he is the nominee, on making sure that he is not elected the president again next November," said Hutchinson, once a staunch Trump defender who has become a frequent target of attacks by him and his allies since her testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee.

That is, they said, even if it means electing a Democrat as president, which is a disappointing and upsetting thought for Matthews, who has long backed Republicans.

"I've never voted for a Democrat in my life, but I think that in this next election, I would put policy aside and choose democracy," Matthews told Karl, saying she's still hopeful that Trump can be defeated in the Republican primary but that the clock is ticking.

And because the former president has made "retribution" a major theme of his reelection campaign, Hutchinson, Matthews and Griffin, who have already faced harassment from Trump and his followers, say they fear the consequences of his rising to power again.

"What scares me as much as [Trump] and his retribution is the almost cult-like following he has over his most diehard supporters," Griffin said. "The threats, the harassment, the death threats that you get when he targets you -- and he's deliberate in targeting -- is really horrifying and has no place in our American discourse."

"A lot of these people won't come forward even if privately they'll acknowledge that Trump is unfit or will privately acknowledge that the 2020 election wasn't stolen," Matthews added of her fellow Republicans. "It's because they know that they will face death threats, that their families will face death threats."

Hutchinson made a reference to one of Trump's recent most controversial comments: "The fact that he feels that he needs to lean into being a dictator alone shows that he is a weak and feeble man."

ABC's Jonathan Karl interviews Sarah Matthews, left, Cassidy Hutchinson, center, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, Dec. 15, 2023, in Washington.

Lou Rocco/ABC

During a town hall-style interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this month, Trump said he would not be a dictator "except for Day One." Trump has since defended the comment as a joke and said he will not be a dictator but has faced backlash nonetheless as he repeated rhetoric that mirrored the words of past authoritarian leaders.

Griffin noted that former Vice President Pence has "seen more than any of us have seen" while in office, and called on him to come forward more publicly against Trump.

"I would just hope in this moment, when we are less than a year out '... that he would think about speaking out more forcefully just about the unfitness of Donald Trump," Griffin said. "This is not about politics. It's not about policy. It is about the character of the man who is the leader of the free world."

Reliving Jan. 6 and the House investigationMatthews and Hutchinson, who both lived through the Jan. 6 insurrection as White House officials, told Karl how they dealt with their conflicting emotions.

Matthews said she resigned from her post the night of Jan. 6 because she couldn't live with herself knowing she'd have to defend the insurrection.

"I could not walk into the White House gates the next day after Jan. 6, especially as someone who is a spokesperson, because I knew that I would have to defend that and defend what we saw that day and his dereliction of duty," Matthews said. "And I couldn't live with myself. And so that was why I made that decision and then going forward to testify before the January 6 committee."

Hutchinson, who was still loyal to the administration at the time, said she was upset to see Griffin on television the next day being critical of Trump.

"I still felt that sense of loyalty to the administration, and I don't say that with pride," Hutchinson said. "And I had -- that was sort of the beginning when I had this -- these split emotions about how to actually process what happened that day and how to process my own involvement in it and what I could do moving forward."

"I was really upset with Alyssa on one hand, because we were very, very close '... And there's also the side of me where I was really proud and somewhat envious of the courage that you displayed," Hutchinson continued.

Matthews and Hutchinson both gave credit to Griffin for connecting them with the GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two GOP members of the Jan. 6 committee, eventually leading to their public televised testimony before the panel.

In this July 21, 2022 file photo, Sarah Matthews arrives to a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE

"It was all secretive," Matthews recalled of her initial meeting with Cheney and Griffin in a "little basement office" on Capitol Hill. "We sat there for probably like, what, four or five hours or something. And I just gave her my best recollection of the events leading up to January 6 and the aftermath of the election."

Hutchinson said she was still on the Mar-a-Lago payroll when she was contacted by Griffin about talking to the Jan. 6 committee.

"I was at this really delicate point in my so-called journey in all of this where I, I really wanted to come forward," Hutchinson said. "But I also had concerns about -- I didn't know if there'd be any lasting implications."

Asked about women's roles in speaking out against Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection, Griffin emphasized what she called the courage Hutchinson and Matthews -- who are both still in their 20s -- showed in stepping forward.

"For some reason, in moments that call for it, women tend to show an astonishing amount of courage, and I credit these women who are younger than me, had not as senior of titles, and stepped forward," Griffin said.

"I think that there are a lot of people who saw some dangerous things, but they've made the calculation that he very well may be president again," she continued. "They not only don't want to be on his bad side, they also want to preserve themselves for future opportunities with him."

"For me, it fundamentally came down to, I want to be able to look my future kids in the eye and say, when history called for it, I did the right thing and I had the courage to do it," Griffin said. "That matters to me more than any future, you know, job or power structure that might exist if he's president again."

ABC News' Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.