title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Ludogorets made their debut in the 2014–15 Champions League group phase on 16 September 2014, grabbing a 1:1 equalizer away against Liverpool in the 90th minute scored by Dani Abalo, but in an eventual 1:2 loss, as the newly signed goalkeeper Milan Borjan gave away a penalty with a foul on Javier Manquillo, which Steven Gerrard converted to give Liverpool the victory. Ludogorets made their home debut in the 2014–15 Champions League group phase on 1 October 2014, scoring a stunning goal in the sixth minute through' attacking midfielder Marcelinho against Real Madrid, but in an eventual 1:2 loss. In this match, Cristiano Ronaldo took two penalties – the first was saved by goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov, while the second was scored for a 1:1 equalizer. On 22 October 2014, Yordan Minev scored his first goal for Ludogorets, scoring a crucial last-minute winning goal in a 1:0 home win over Basel in the group stage of the Champions League. On 26 November 2014, Dani Abalo scored in the third minute and Georgi Terziev scored his first goal in the 88th minute, grabbing a 2:2 equalizer against Liverpool, in an eventual 2:2 draw.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Ludogorets won their 4th consecutive A Group title, but were left by several main squad players at the end of the season. Georgi Dermendziev was also replaced with Portuguese manager Bruno Ribeiro. The late changes saw Ludogorets being eliminated in the second qualifying round of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League by the underdog Moldovan champions Milsami Orhei.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: With Georgi Dermendzhiev returning at the helm of the squad, during the 2016–17 Champions League, Ludogorets won the qualifiers against Mladost Podgorica and Red Star Belgrade respectively, followed by a success in the play-off against Viktoria Plzeň. Eventually, they became the first Bulgarian team to qualify twice for the group stage of the tournament. In the group stage, Ludogorets achieved two draws against Basel and one against Paris Saint-Germain, which were enough to secure them the third place and a transfer to the knockout phase of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League. Ludogorets however shortly exited the competition after failing to overcome Copenhagen with an initial 1:2 home loss and a 0:0 away draw.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Ludogorets failed to qualify for the groups of the next two editions of the Champion League, but however in both cases managed to enter the groups of Europa League. In the 2017–18 season they finished second in the group behind Braga, eliminating İstanbul Başakşehir and 1899 Hoffenheim, before losing in both matches to Milan in the round of 32.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: In 2019–20, they were eliminated by Ferencváros in the first Champions League qualifying round, but made their way to the group stage of the Europa League, following successful matches against Valur, The New Saints and Maribor in the qualifiers. Ludogorets were subsequently drawn again with Ferencváros, next to CSKA Moscow and Spanish club Espanyol. A 5–1 home win against CSKA Moscow was followed-up by a 3–0 away win against Ferencváros. They lost twice to Espanyol, 1–0 at home and 6–0 away, but finished second, following two 1–1 draws against both CSKA and Ferencváros, eventually securing a place in the knockout stage.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Ludogorets earned their record-breaking 9th Bulgarian Premier League Title during their 75th Anniversary celebration on 8 July 2020 after their win 3:0 vs Levski Sofia. Ludogorets wore their special green and yellow retro kit which was used in 1945 when the club was founded. The logo with the "Л" letter over a yellow background is how the original looked like. The same design was used for a couple of decades, according to the archives. A limited edition of the retro kits were available for the fans. They feature the names of all the important team players over the course of 75 years.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Ludogorets' main kit colour is forest green and the away kit is white. In addition, a black alternative kit is also used in some domestic matches.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: The club's current crest was introduced for the beginning of the 2016–17 season. Ludogorets' supporters chose the new crest, after a poll held on the club's official website, a total of 130 different crest variants were present. A second poll was then held, to pick one from the five most voted logos. However, some of Ludogorets' supporters expressed their dissent with the new crest, which they described as "lacking identity" and "unprofessional", a lack of continuity between the old and new club crests was also noted. Lastly, the supporters pointed out the striking similarity between the new crest and that of Sporting Lisbon. After winning their tenth championship title, Ludogorets added a golden star above their crest.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: In June 2017, Ludogorets reached a sponsorship agreement with English sportswear manufacturer Umbro for the following two seasons. In June 2019, they reached a new long-term agreement with American sportswear manufacturer Nike.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Since 2014, the mascot of the team has been a female eagle called Fortuna, which was originally a gift from Lazio.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Up to twenty foreign nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the First League, however only five non-EU/EEA nationals can be used during a match day. Those non-EU/EEA nationals with European ancestry can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim Bulgarian citizenship after playing in Bulgaria for five years.


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad is the first Bulgarian team has played in all three European tournaments(UCL, UEL, UECL).


title: PFC Ludogorets Razgrad

text: Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: In linear algebra, the Cholesky decomposition or Cholesky factorization (pronounced ) is a decomposition of a Hermitian, positive-definite matrix into the product of a lower triangular matrix and its conjugate transpose, which is useful for efficient numerical solutions, e.g., Monte Carlo simulations. It was discovered by André-Louis Cholesky for real matrices, and posthumously published in 1924.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: When it is applicable, the Cholesky decomposition is roughly twice as efficient as the LU decomposition for solving systems of linear equations.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: where L is a lower triangular matrix with real and positive diagonal entries, and L* denotes the conjugate transpose of L. Every Hermitian positive-definite matrix (and thus also every real-valued symmetric positive-definite matrix) has a unique Cholesky decomposition.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The converse holds trivially: if A can be written as LL* for some invertible L, lower triangular or otherwise, then A is Hermitian and positive definite.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: If a Hermitian matrix A is only positive semidefinite, instead of positive definite, then it still has a decomposition of the form where the diagonal entries of L are allowed to be zero.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: However, if the rank of A is "r", then there is a unique lower triangular L with exactly "r" positive diagonal elements and "n"−"r" columns containing all zeroes.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Alternatively, the decomposition can be made unique when a pivoting choice is fixed. Formally, if A is an positive semidefinite matrix of rank "r", then there is at least one permutation matrix P such that has a unique decomposition of the form with


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: That is, the diagonal elements of L are required to be 1 at the cost of introducing an additional diagonal matrix D in the decomposition.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The main advantage is that the LDL decomposition can be computed and used with essentially the same algorithms, but avoids extracting square roots.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: For this reason, the LDL decomposition is often called the "square-root-free Cholesky" decomposition. For real matrices, the factorization has the form and is often referred to as LDLT decomposition (or LDL decomposition, or LDL′). It is reminiscent of the eigendecomposition of real symmetric matrices, , but is quite different in practice because Λ and D are not similar matrices.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Conversely, given the classical Cholesky decomposition formula_7 of a positive definite matrix, if S is a diagonal matrix that contains the main diagonal of formula_8, then a A can be decomposed as formula_9 where


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: For positive semidefinite A, an formula_9 decomposition exists where the number of non-zero elements on the diagonal D is exactly the rank of A.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Some indefinite matrices for which no Cholesky decomposition exists have an LDL decomposition with negative entries in D: it suffices that the first "n"−1 leading principal minors of A are non-singular.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The Cholesky decomposition is mainly used for the numerical solution of linear equations formula_15. If A is symmetric and positive definite, then we can solve formula_15 by first computing the Cholesky decomposition formula_17, then solving formula_18 for y by forward substitution, and finally solving formula_19 for x by back substitution.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: An alternative way to eliminate taking square roots in the formula_20 decomposition is to compute the Cholesky decomposition formula_21, then solving formula_18 for y, and finally solving formula_23.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: For linear systems that can be put into symmetric form, the Cholesky decomposition (or its LDL variant) is the method of choice, for superior efficiency and numerical stability. Compared to the LU decomposition, it is roughly twice as efficient.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Systems of the form Ax = b with A symmetric and positive definite arise quite often in applications. For instance, the normal equations in linear least squares problems are of this form. It may also happen that matrix A comes from an energy functional, which must be positive from physical considerations; this happens frequently in the numerical solution of partial differential equations.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Non-linear multi-variate functions may be minimized over their parameters using variants of Newton's method called "quasi-Newton" methods. At iteration k, the search steps in a direction formula_24 defined by solving formula_25 for formula_24, where formula_24 is the step direction, formula_28 is the gradient, and formula_29 is an approximation to the Hessian matrix formed by repeating rank-1 updates at each iteration. Two well-known update formulas are called Davidon–Fletcher–Powell (DFP) and Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS). Loss of the positive-definite condition through round-off error is avoided if rather than updating an approximation to the inverse of the Hessian, one updates the Cholesky decomposition of an approximation of the Hessian matrix itself


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The Cholesky decomposition is commonly used in the Monte Carlo method for simulating systems with multiple correlated variables. The covariance matrix is decomposed to give the lower-triangular L. Applying this to a vector of uncorrelated samples u produces a sample vector Lu with the covariance properties of the system being modeled.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The following simplified example shows the economy one gets from the Cholesky decomposition: suppose the goal is to generate two correlated normal variables formula_30 and formula_31 with given correlation coefficient formula_32. To accomplish that, it is necessary to first generate two uncorrelated Gaussian random variables formula_33 and formula_34, which can be done using a Box–Muller transform. Given the required correlation coefficient formula_32, the correlated normal variables can be obtained via the transformations formula_36 and formula_37.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Unscented Kalman filters commonly use the Cholesky decomposition to choose a set of so-called sigma points. The Kalman filter tracks the average state of a system as a vector x of length "N" and covariance as an "N" × "N" matrix P. The matrix P is always positive semi-definite and can be decomposed into LL. The columns of L can be added and subtracted from the mean x to form a set of 2"N" vectors called "sigma points". These sigma points completely capture the mean and covariance of the system state.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The explicit inverse of a Hermitian matrix can be computed by Cholesky decomposition, in a manner similar to solving linear systems, using formula_38 operations (formula_39 multiplications). The entire inversion can even be efficiently performed in-place.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: A non-Hermitian matrix B can also be inverted using the following identity, where BB* will always be Hermitian:


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: There are various methods for calculating the Cholesky decomposition. The computational complexity of commonly used algorithms is "O"("n") in general. The algorithms described below all involve about (1/3)"n" FLOPs ("n"/6 multiplications and the same number of additions) for real flavors and (4/3)"n" FLOPs for complex flavors, where "n" is the size of the matrix A. Hence, they have half the cost of the LU decomposition, which uses 2"n"/3 FLOPs (see Trefethen and Bau 1997).


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Which of the algorithms below is faster depends on the details of the implementation. Generally, the first algorithm will be slightly slower because it accesses the data in a less regular manner.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The Cholesky algorithm, used to calculate the decomposition matrix "L", is a modified version of Gaussian elimination.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Note that b b* is an outer product, therefore this algorithm is called the "outer-product version" in (Golub & Van Loan).


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: We repeat this for "i" from 1 to "n". After "n" steps, we get A = I. Hence, the lower triangular matrix "L" we are looking for is calculated as


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: For complex and real matrices, inconsequential arbitrary sign changes of diagonal and associated off-diagonal elements are allowed. The expression under the square root is always positive if A is real and positive-definite.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: So we can compute the ("i", "j") entry if we know the entries to the left and above. The computation is usually arranged in either of the following orders:


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Suppose that we want to solve a well-conditioned system of linear equations. If the LU decomposition is used, then the algorithm is unstable unless we use some sort of pivoting strategy. In the latter case, the error depends on the so-called growth factor of the matrix, which is usually (but not always) small.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Now, suppose that the Cholesky decomposition is applicable. As mentioned above, the algorithm will be twice as fast. Furthermore, no pivoting is necessary, and the error will always be small. Specifically, if we want to solve Ax = b, and y denotes the computed solution, then y solves the perturbed system (A + E)y = b, where


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Here ||·|| is the matrix 2-norm, "c" is a small constant depending on "n", and "ε" denotes the unit round-off.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: One concern with the Cholesky decomposition to be aware of is the use of square roots. If the matrix being factorized is positive definite as required, the numbers under the square roots are always positive "in exact arithmetic". Unfortunately, the numbers can become negative because of round-off errors, in which case the algorithm cannot continue. However, this can only happen if the matrix is very ill-conditioned. One way to address this is to add a diagonal correction matrix to the matrix being decomposed in an attempt to promote the positive-definiteness. While this might lessen the accuracy of the decomposition, it can be very favorable for other reasons; for example, when performing Newton's method in optimization, adding a diagonal matrix can improve stability when far from the optimum.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: An alternative form, eliminating the need to take square roots when A is symmetric, is the symmetric indefinite factorization


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: This works as long as the generated diagonal elements in D stay non-zero. The decomposition is then unique. D and L are real if A is real.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: When used on indefinite matrices, the LDL* factorization is known to be unstable without careful pivoting; specifically, the elements of the factorization can grow arbitrarily. A possible improvement is to perform the factorization on block sub-matrices, commonly 2 × 2:


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: where every element in the matrices above is a square submatrix. From this, these analogous recursive relations follow:


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: A task that often arises in practice is that one needs to update a Cholesky decomposition. In more details, one has already computed the Cholesky decomposition formula_61 of some matrix formula_62, then one changes the matrix formula_62 in some way into another matrix, say formula_64, and one wants to compute the Cholesky decomposition of the updated matrix: formula_65. The question is now whether one can use the Cholesky decomposition of formula_62 that was computed before to compute the Cholesky decomposition of formula_64.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The specific case, where the updated matrix formula_64 is related to the matrix formula_62 by formula_70, is known as a "rank-one update".


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: A "rank-n update" is one where for a matrix formula_71 one updates the decomposition such that formula_72. This can be achieved by successively performing rank-one updates for each of the columns of formula_71.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: A "rank-one downdate" is similar to a rank-one update, except that the addition is replaced by subtraction: formula_74. This only works if the new matrix formula_64 is still positive definite.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The code for the rank-one update shown above can easily be adapted to do a rank-one downdate: one merely needs to replace the two additions in the assignment to codice_1 and codice_2 by subtractions.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: then for a new matrix formula_64, which is the same as formula_76 but with the insertion of new rows and columns,


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: we are interested in finding the Cholesky factorization of formula_64, which we call formula_83, without directly computing the entire decomposition.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Writing formula_85 for the solution of formula_86, which can be found easily for triangular matrices, and formula_87 for the Cholesky decomposition of formula_88, the following relations can be found:


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: These formulas may be used to determine the Cholesky factor after the insertion of rows or columns in any position, if we set the row and column dimensions appropriately (including to zero). The inverse problem, when we have


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Notice that the equations above that involve finding the Cholesky decomposition of a new matrix are all of the form formula_96, which allows them to be efficiently calculated using the update and downdate procedures detailed in the previous section.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The above algorithms show that every positive definite matrix formula_97 has a Cholesky decomposition. This result can be extended to the positive semi-definite case by a limiting argument. The argument is not fully constructive, i.e., it gives no explicit numerical algorithms for computing Cholesky factors.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: If formula_97 is an formula_99 positive semi-definite matrix, then the sequence formula_100 consists of positive definite matrices. (This is an immediate consequence of, for example, the spectral mapping theorem for the polynomial functional calculus.) Also,


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: in operator norm. From the positive definite case, each formula_102 has Cholesky decomposition formula_103. By property of the operator norm,


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The formula_105 holds because formula_106 equipped with the operator norm is a C* algebra. So formula_107 is a bounded set in the Banach space of operators, therefore relatively compact (because the underlying vector space is finite-dimensional).


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: It can be easily checked that this formula_109 has the desired properties, i.e. formula_111, and formula_109 is lower triangular with non-negative diagonal entries: for all formula_113 and formula_114,


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Because the underlying vector space is finite-dimensional, all topologies on the space of operators are equivalent.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: This in turn implies that, since each formula_121 is lower triangular with non-negative diagonal entries, formula_109 is also.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: Let formula_62 be a positive semi-definite Hermitian matrix. Then it can be written as a product of its square root matrix, formula_124. Now QR decomposition can be applied to formula_125, resulting in formula_126


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: , where formula_127 is unitary and formula_128 is upper triangular. Inserting the decomposition into the original equality yields formula_129. Setting formula_130 completes the proof.


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: The Cholesky factorization can be generalized to (not necessarily finite) matrices with operator entries. Let formula_131 be a sequence of Hilbert spaces. Consider the operator matrix


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: is a bounded operator. If A is positive (semidefinite) in the sense that for all finite "k" and for any


title: Cholesky decomposition

text: we have formula_136, then there exists a lower triangular operator matrix L such that A = LL*. One can also take the diagonal entries of L to be positive.


title: Porsche 959

text: The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1986 to 1993, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring at least 200 units be produced.


title: Porsche 959

text: The twin-turbocharged 959 was the world's fastest street-legal production car when introduced, achieving a top speed of , with some variants even capable of achieving . During its production run, the 959 was considered the most technologically advanced road-going sports car ever built, and forerunner of all forthcoming sports cars. After the successful introduction of all-wheel drive on more rally-specific cars like the Audi Quattro, it was one of the first pure high-performance sports-cars with all-wheel drive, providing the basis for Porsche's first all-wheel drive 911 Carrera 4 model. Its performance convinced Porsche executives to make all-wheel drive standard on all turbocharged versions of the 911 starting with the 993. The twin-turbo system used on the 959 also made its way to future turbocharged Porsche sports cars. In 2004, "Sports Car International" named the 959 number one on its list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.


title: Porsche 959

text: Development of the 959 (originally called the "Gruppe B") started in 1981, shortly after the company's then-new Managing Director, Peter Schutz, took his office. Porsche's chief engineer at the time, Helmuth Bott, approached Schutz with some ideas about the Porsche 911, or more aptly, a new one. Bott knew that the company needed a sports car that they could continue to rely on for years to come and that could be developed as time went on. Curious as to how much they could do with the rear-engined 911, Bott convinced Schutz that development tests should take place, and even proposed researching a new all wheel drive system. Schutz agreed, and gave the project the green light. Bott also knew through experience that a racing program usually helped to accelerate the development of new models. Seeing Group B rally racing as the perfect arena to test the new development mule and its all wheel drive system, Bott again went to Schutz and got the approval to develop a car, based on his development mule, for competition in Group B.


title: Porsche 959

text: The powerplant is a sequential twin-turbocharged DOHC flat-six engine equipped with 4 valves per cylinder, fuel fed by Bosch Motronic 2.1 fuel injection with air-cooled cylinders and water-cooled heads, with a bore x stroke of for a total displacement of . It was coupled to a unique manual transmission offering five forward speeds plus a "gelände" (terrain) off-road gear, as well as reverse. The engine was largely based on the 4-camshaft 24-valve powerplant used in the Porsche 956 and 962 race cars. These components allowed Porsche to extract at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 5,000 rpm from the compact and efficient power unit.<ref name="1987/88 Porsche 959"></ref> The use of sequential twin turbochargers rather than the more usual identical turbochargers for each of the two cylinder banks allowed for smooth delivery of power across the engine speed band, in contrast to the abrupt on-off power characteristic that distinguished Porsche's other turbocharged engines of the period. The engine was used virtually unchanged in the 959 road car as well.


title: Porsche 959

text: To create a rugged, lightweight shell, Porsche adopted an aluminium and Aramid (Kevlar) composite for the body panels and chassis construction along with a Nomex floor, instead of the steel floor normally used on their production cars.


title: Porsche 959

text: Porsche also developed the car's aerodynamics, which were designed to increase stability, as was the automatic ride-height adjustment that became available on the road car (961 race cars had a fixed suspension system). Its drag coefficient was as low as 0.31 and aerodynamic lift was eliminated.


title: Porsche 959

text: The 959 also featured "Porsche-Steuer Kupplung" (PSK) all-wheel-drive system. Capable of dynamically changing the torque distribution between the rear and front wheels in both normal and slip conditions, the PSK system gave the 959 the adaptability it needed both as a race car and as a "super" street car. Under hard acceleration, PSK could send as much as 80% of the available power to the rear wheels, helping make the most of the rear-traction bias that occurs at such times. It could also vary the power bias depending on road surface and grip changes, helping maintain traction at all times. The dashboard featured gauges displaying the amount of rear differential slip as well as transmitted power to the front axle. The magnesium alloy wheels were unique, being hollow inside to form a sealed chamber contiguous with the tyre and equipped with a built-in tyre pressure monitoring system.


title: Porsche 959

text: The 959 was actually produced at Karosserie Baur, not at the Porsche factory in Zuffenhausen, on an assembly line with Porsche inspectors overseeing the finished bodies. Most of Porsche's special order interior leather work was also done by the workers at Baur.


title: Porsche 959

text: The 1983 Frankfurt Motor Show was chosen for the unveiling of the Porsche Group B prototype. Even in the closing hours of October 9, finishing touches were being applied to the car to go on display the next morning. After the first two prototypes, the bodywork was modified to include air vents in the front and rear wheel housings, as well as intake holes behind the doors. The first prototype receiving those modifications was code named "F3", and was destroyed in the first crash test.


title: Porsche 959

text: The road version of the 959 debuted at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show as a 1986 model, but numerous issues delayed production by more than a year. The car was manufactured in two levels of trim, "Sport" and "Komfort", corresponding to the trim with more creature comforts and a more track focused trim. First customer deliveries of the 959 street variant began in 1987, and the car debuted at a cost of DM431,550 (US$225,000) each, still less than half what it cost Porsche to build each car. Production ended in 1988 with 292 cars completed. In total, 337 cars were built, including 37 prototypes and pre-production models. At least one 959 and one 961 remain in the Porsche historic hall in Stuttgart, Germany.


title: Porsche 959

text: In 1992/1993, Porsche built eight more cars assembled from spare parts from the inventory at the manufacturing site in Zuffenhausen. All eight were "Komfort" versions: four in red and four in silver. These cars were much more expensive (DM 747,500) than the earlier ones. The later cars also featured a newly developed speed-sensitive damper system. The cars were sold to selected collectors after being driven by works personnel for some time and are today by far the most sought-after 959 models.


title: Porsche 959

text: If desired, even more power was available to customer cars by Porsche. According to Paul Frère there was an optional factory upgrade, with an increased top speed of along with the 0–100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration time reduced to 3.4 seconds.


title: Porsche 959

text: The Porsche 959 S (Sport) was built in a failed attempt to get the 959 to U.S. customers as “race cars.” The DOT and EPA gave Porsche a “C-minus” for effort and threatened to crush the cars, which were returned to Germany in a hurry. The Sports are more prized and more expensive today (plus 50%–80% versus Komforts) because of their scarcity and easier maintenance. The 959 Sport versions have different seats incorporating racing-style harnesses, no rear seats, an "S" steering wheel, a factory fitted leather-wrapped roll bar structure, and a more standard-fare coil over strut suspension, rather than the often problematic height-adjustable air suspension.


title: Porsche 959

text: The weight saving and larger turbochargers with increased power output to resulted in a top speed of as tested by "Auto, Motor und Sport" at the Nardò Ring in 1988. Twenty-nine cars were built.


title: Porsche 959

text: The 959 was originally meant for Group B racing but development time took longer than expected. The first development race cars, essentially modified 911 Carrera models with all-wheel-drive system known internally as the 953, were entered in the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally, finishing 1st (René Metge), 6th (Jacky Ickx) and 25th. These cars tested the all-wheel-drive system to be used in the 959. Unlike the World Rally Championship the Dakar didn't require a minimum number of cars built for homologation. In 1985, three cars were entered in the Dakar rally with the proposed 959 body and the rest of the systems but they still used the engine of the 953 rally cars. These cars didn't finish (only one due to mechanical failure however). Afterwards Porsche fitted the cars with twin-turbochargers. Two cars started at the Rallye des Pharaons in October 1985. One of them caught fire, while Saeed Al-Hajri and John Spiller achieved a commanding victory with their 959. At the 1986 Paris-Dakar Rally the 959 finished 1st (René Metge), 2nd (Jacky Ickx) and 6th.


title: Porsche 959

text: By the time the 959 was ready for production and homologation in 1987, the Group B programme was cancelled altogether a year prior thus ending Porsche's participation in Group B.


title: Porsche 959

text: In 1986, the racing variant of the 959, the Porsche 961, made its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driven by René Metge partnering Claude Ballot-Léna, it finished first in its class and 7th overall. It also participated in the IMSA championship in the United States but suffered tyre issues with Daytona Speedway's banking. The 961 returned to Le Mans in 1987 but while in 11th place Canadian/Dutch driver Kees Nierop mis-shifted from 6th into 2nd gear and crashed into the guard-rail. Upon re-joining the track, the car was observed on TV monitors in the Porsche pits to be on fire and the driver was told to stop and get out of the car. Nierop pulled over between marshal stations and this extra time taken to get to the car by the marshals allowed the fire to consume most of the rear end and destroy the car. It was later repaired and put on display at the Porsche Museum.


title: Porsche 959

text: In 2011, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller said in an interview that there was room in the Porsche range for a 959 successor, priced above the most expensive Porsche 911 but below the 918.


title: Porsche 959

text: In 2003, Canepa Design initiated a 959 upgrade program. By making modifications to the 959's turbochargers, exhaust system and computer-control systems, Canepa enabled the 959 to pass emissions requirements, thereby making it street-legal in the United States before falling under the 25 year rule. The upgrade pack has now 3 generations, as well as a sportier trim available.


title: Porsche 959

text: A common myth is that is the 959 was never "federalized" for sale in America. The myth is that Porsche did not provide the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) with four cars required for destructive crash testing, so the car was never certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for street use in the U.S. However this is false as the DOT do not carry out crash testing internally, they simply publish the figures that the manufacturer has released. The manufacturer of a motor vehicle is responsible for their own crash testing. Porsche chose to design and test the 959 to European safety standards only, ignoring NHTSA standards when it was already apparent that the exchange rate between the Deutschmark and US Dollar was so unfavourable that Porsche was losing $200,000 on the sale of each 959.


title: Porsche 959

text: Owners of the few 959s that entered the country paid storage fees to keep their 959s in so-called Foreign Trade Zones (areas adjacent to US ports where goods are not considered to be in the US for legal purposes) as the cars weren't permitted in the US proper.


title: Porsche 959

text: The 959 could not be made street legal in the United States after the 1988 "Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act," also known by U.S. Rep. Robert Smith Walker of Pennsylvania as “the Mercedes-Benz dealers bill.” Otis Chandler, Bill Gates, Bruce Canepa, and others managed to convince the US government to allow the 959 to be imported and thus created the Show or Display law in 1999, where a car is allowed to be imported that did not previously meet federalization, but is considered significantly important to car culture.


title: Porsche 959

text: Microsoft founder Bill Gates bought a 959 in 1988. Since the model did not have NHTSA and EPA approval, the car was denied entry into the U.S. Fortunately for the car, it was stored for 13 years by the Customs Service, rather than being destroyed, as is customary with forbidden automobiles. On August 13, 1999, the "Show or Display" law came into force, allowing usage of the car limited to 2,500 annual road miles. The U.S. Customs Service returned the car to Gates soon after.


title: Porsche 959

text: All 959 cars are now over 25 years old, and therefore no longer need to comply with the unique NHTSA and EPA regulations to avoid destruction by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens or ductus deferens is part of the male reproductive system of many vertebrates. The ducts transport sperm from the epididymis to the ejaculatory ducts in anticipation of ejaculation. The vas deferens is a partially coiled tube which exits the abdominal cavity through the inguinal canal.


title: Vas deferens

text: "Vas deferens" is Latin, meaning "carrying-away vessel"; the plural version is "vasa deferentia". "Ductus deferens" is also Latin, meaning "carrying-away duct"; the plural version is "ducti deferentes".


title: Vas deferens

text: There are two vasa deferentia, connecting the left and right epididymis with the seminal vesicles to form the ejaculatory duct in order to move sperm.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens is continuous proximally with the tail of the epididymis. The vas deferens exhibits a tortuous, convoluted initial/proximal section (which measures 2–3 cm in length). Distally, it forms a dilated and tortuous segment termed the ampulla of vas deferens before ending by uniting with a duct of the seminal vesicle to form the ejaculatory duct.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens is supplied by an accompanying artery (artery of vas deferens). This artery normally arises from the superior (sometimes inferior) vesical artery, a branch of the internal iliac artery.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens receives innervation from an autonomic plexus of post-ganglionic sympathetic fibres derived from the inferior hypogastric plexus.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens is innervated by a variety of different types of nerve ending. Adrenergic synapses are found in the smooth muscle layers. Cholinergic synapses and vasoactive intestinal peptide synapses are found in the connective tissue of the mucosa. Noradrenergic synapses may also be present in the vas deferens.


title: Vas deferens

text: Within the spermatic cord, the vas deferens is situated posterior (and parallel to) the vessels of the spermatic cord.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens traverses the inguinal canal to reach the pelvic cavity; it enters the pelvic cavity lateral to the inferior epigastric vessels. At the deep inguinal ring, the vas deferens diverges from the testicular vessels to pass medially to reach the base of the prostate posteriorly.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens consists of an external adventitial sheath containing blood vessels and nerves, a muscular middle layer composed of three layers of smooth muscle (with a circular muscle layer interposed between two longitudinal muscle layers), and an internal mucosal lining consisting of pseudostratified columnar epithelium (which bears the non-motile stereocilia).


title: Vas deferens

text: During ejaculation, the smooth muscle in the walls of the vas deferens contracts reflexively, thus propelling the sperm forward. This is also known as peristalsis. The sperm is transferred from each vas deferens into the urethra, partially mixing with secretions from the male accessory sex glands such as the seminal vesicles, prostate gland and the bulbourethral glands, which form the bulk of semen.


title: Vas deferens

text: A vasectomy is a method of contraception in which the vasa deferentia are permanently cut, though in some cases it can be reversed. A modern variation, vas-occlusive contraception, involves injecting an obstructive material into the ductus to block the flow of sperm.


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens may be obstructed, or it may be completely absent in a condition known as congenital absence of the vas deferens (CAVD, a potential feature of cystic fibrosis), causing male infertility. Acquired obstructions can occur due to infections. To treat these causes of male infertility, sperm can be harvested by testicular sperm extraction (TESE) or microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA).


title: Vas deferens

text: The vas deferens has a dense sympathetic innervation, making it a useful system for studying sympathetic nerve function and for studying drugs that modify neurotransmission.


title: Vas deferens

text: Most vertebrates have some form of duct to transfer the sperm from the testes to the urethra. In cartilaginous fish and amphibians, sperm is carried through the archinephric duct, which also partially helps to transport urine from the kidneys. In teleosts, there is a distinct sperm duct, separate from the ureters, and often called the vas deferens, although probably not truly homologous with that in humans. The vas deferens loops over the ureter in placental mammals, but not in marsupial mammals.


title: Vas deferens

text: In cartilaginous fishes, the part of the archinephric duct closest to the testis is coiled up to form an epididymis. Below this are a number of small glands secreting components of the seminal fluid. The final portion of the duct also receives ducts from the kidneys in most species.


title: Vas deferens

text: In amniotes, however, the archinephric duct has become a true vas deferens, and is used only for conducting sperm, never urine. As in cartilaginous fish, the upper part of the duct forms the epididymis. In many species, the vas deferens ends in a small sac for storing sperm.


title: Vas deferens

text: The only vertebrates to lack any structure resembling a vas deferens are the primitive jawless fishes, which release sperm directly into the body cavity, and then into the surrounding water through a simple opening in the body wall.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jared Lawrence Hess (born July 18, 1979) and Jerusha Elizabeth Hess ( Demke; born May 12, 1980) are husband-and-wife American filmmakers best known for their work on "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004), "Nacho Libre" (2006) and "Gentlemen Broncos" (2009), all of which they co-wrote and which were directed by Jared ("Nacho Libre" was co-written with Mike White).


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: They also produced music videos for The Postal Service's third single, "We Will Become Silhouettes", and The Killers' Christmas charity single "Boots".


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jerusha was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and Jared was born in Glendale, Arizona. Jared is a graduate of Burton Elementary School located in Kaysville, Utah, which he attended while living in Fruit Heights during his youth. He also attended Manhattan High School in Kansas for two years before transferring to Preston High School in Idaho, from which he graduated in 1997. Many scenes from "Napoleon Dynamite" were filmed there. As a teenager Jared worked in film production with T. C. Christensen.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jared met Jerusha while attending Brigham Young University's (BYU) film school. Together they co-wrote the film "Napoleon Dynamite", which was produced and edited by their classmate Jeremy Coon.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: While at BYU, Jared wrote and directed a student film entitled "Cardboard Only", which is about a seven-year-old Idaho farm boy who struggles to escape boredom while wearing a cardboard box over his head. While at BYU, Jared also wrote and directed a short film entitled "Peluca", which became a prototype for "Napoleon Dynamite" and featured much of the same cast and plotline, including Jon Heder as Seth, "super nerd extraordinaire."


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Besides "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Peluca", Jared has worked as a camera assistant in a number of films and has played minor roles in a few Latter-day Saint comedies. These include "The Singles Ward", "The R.M." and "". Their second movie "Nacho Libre", starring Jack Black, was released on June 16, 2006.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: The third major film made by the Hesses, "Gentlemen Broncos", was released in 2009. It is about a teenager who aspires to be a writer, but after attending a fantasy-writer's convention, he finds that his idea has been stolen by an established novelist. The film stars Michael Angarano as the teenager, Jemaine Clement as the established novelist, and Sam Rockwell as the story's fictional title character who appears in book-come-to-life sequences.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: In 2010, Jared created ads for the Utah State Fair which were run on the radio, but refused on television. The Utah State Fair representatives claimed they refused to run them due to sexual overtones, while Hess claimed the failure to run the ads was because the main actor in them, Markus T. Boddie, was an African-American.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: In 2011, Jerusha directed a film adaptation of the book "Austenland", which was released in 2013. She also co-wrote the screenplay.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jared and Jerusha Hess are also among the executive producers of the "Napoleon Dynamite" series that aired in 2012. In addition, Jared voiced Don Moser, a returning character originally portrayed by Trevor Snarr in the film.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jared was among the executive producers for the Fox TV series "Making History", which premiered in 2017.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: Jared co-directed (with Tyler Measom) a true crime docu-series "Murder Among the Mormons", which premiered on Netflix on March 3, 2021.


title: Jared and Jerusha Hess

text: In 2022, it was announced that Jared will direct the film adaptation of "Minecraft," with Jason Momoa starring.


title: Quds Force

text: The Quds Force () is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Yemeni Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.


title: Quds Force

text: The Quds Force reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. After Qassem Soleimani was killed, his deputy, Esmail Ghaani, replaced him. The U.S. Secretary of State designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Quds Force as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 2019 based on the IRGC's "continued support to and engagement in terrorist activity around the world." This was the first time that the U.S. ever designated another government's department as a FTO.


title: Quds Force

text: While the formation's official name is Quds Force (), it has also been referred to as the 'Quds Corps' () in Persian media.


title: Quds Force

text: The predecessor of the Quds Force, known as 'Department 900', was created during the Iran–Iraq War as a special intelligence unit, while the IRGC was allegedly active abroad in Afghanistan before the war. The department was later merged into 'Special External Operations Department'. After the war in 1988, the IRGC was reorganized and the Quds Force was established as an independent service branch. It has the mission of liberating "Muslim land", especially "al-Quds", from which it takes its name—"Jerusalem Force" in English.


title: Quds Force

text: Both during and after the war, it provided support to the Kurds fighting Saddam Hussein. In 1982, a Quds unit was deployed to Lebanon, where it assisted in the genesis of Hezbollah. The Force also expanded its operations into neighboring Afghanistan, including assistance for Abdul Ali Mazari's Shi'a Hezbe Wahdat in the 1980s against the government of Mohammad Najibullah. It then began funding and supporting Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance against the Taliban. However, in recent years, the Quds Force is alleged to have been helping and guiding the Taliban insurgents against the NATO-backed Karzai administration. There were also reports of the unit lending support to Bosnian Muslims fighting the Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian War.


title: Quds Force

text: According to the Egyptian newspaper "Al-Ahram", former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad helped fund the Quds Force while he was stationed at the Ramazan garrison near Iraq, during the late 1980s.


title: Quds Force

text: In January 2010, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the mission of the Quds Force was expanded and the Force along with Hezbollah started a new campaign of attacks targeting not only the US and Israel but also other Western bodies.


title: Quds Force

text: In January 2020, Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US airstrike on his convoy outside Baghdad International Airport.


title: Quds Force

text: The Quds force is ran from Tehran, and has ties with armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.


title: Quds Force

text: The force is described as "active in dozens of countries." According to former U.S. Army intelligence officer David Dionisi, the Quds force is organized into eight different directorates based on geographic location:


title: Quds Force

text: According to journalist Dexter Filkins, the force's members are "divided between combatants and those who train and oversee foreign assets," and the force is divided into branches focusing on "intelligence, finance, foreign languages, politics, sabotage, and special operations." Members are chosen both for their skill and "allegiance to the doctrine of the Islamic Revolution."


title: Quds Force

text: In addition, Dionisi asserts in his book "American Hiroshima" that the Iranian Quds Force headquarters for operations in Iraq was moved in 2004 to the Iran-Iraq border in order to better supervise activities in Iraq. The Quds Force also operates a base in the former compound of the U.S. Embassy, which was overrun in 1979.


title: Quds Force

text: According to Filkins and American General Stanley A. McChrystal, it was the Quds Force that "flooded" Iraq with "explosively formed projectiles" which fire a molten copper slug able to penetrate armor, and which accounted for "nearly 20%" of American combat deaths in Iraq (i.e. hundreds of soldiers). In September 2007, a few years after the publication of "American Hiroshima: The Reasons Why and a Call to Strengthen America's Democracy" in July 2006, General David Petraeus reported to Congress that the Quds Force had left Iraq. Petraeus said, "The Quds Force itself, we believe, by and large, those individuals have been pulled out of the country, as have the Lebanese Hezbollah trainers that were being used to augment that activity."


title: Quds Force

text: On 7 July 2008, journalist Seymour Hersh wrote an article in "The New Yorker" revealing that President Bush had signed a Presidential Finding authorizing the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command to conduct cross-border paramilitary operations from Iraq and Afghanistan into Iran. These operations would be against the Quds Force and "high-value targets." "The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," a person familiar with its contents said, and involved "working with opposition groups."


title: Quds Force

text: The size of the Quds Force is classified and unknown. In 2007, Mahan Abedin of Center for the Study of Terrorism said that Quds Force numbers no more than 2,000 people, with 800 core operatives. Scott Shane, who interviewed several American scholars later that year, wrote that estimates range from 3,000 to 50,000. In 2013, Dexter Filkins wrote that the Quds Force has 10,000–20,000 members, "divided between combatants and those who train and oversee foreign assets". The 2020 edition of The Military Balance, published by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), estimated that the force has about 5,000 personnel.


title: Quds Force

text: In 2020, Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute estimated the Quds Force had the "divisional strength military formation" of approximately 17,000 to 21,000 members, split regionally.


title: Quds Force

text: Companies controlled by the Quds Force maintain banking relationships with the Bank of Kunlun, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation.


title: Quds Force

text: While it reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran, there are debates over how independently Quds Force operates.


title: Quds Force

text: Mahan Abedin, director of research at the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism (and editor of "Islamism Digest"), believes the unit is not independent: "Quds Force, although it's a highly specialized department, it is subject to strict, iron-clad military discipline. It's completely controlled by the military hierarchy of the IRGC, and the IRGC is very tightly controlled by the highest levels of the administration in Iran."


title: Quds Force

text: According to a "Los Angeles Times" report, in Abedin's view, "[I]t's a very capable force—their people are extremely talented, [and] they tend to be the best people in the IRGC".


title: Quds Force

text: The Quds Force trains and equips foreign Islamic revolutionary groups around the Middle East. The paramilitary instruction provided by the Quds Force typically occurs in Iran or Sudan. Foreign recruits are transported from their home countries to Iran to receive training. The Quds Force sometimes plays a more direct role in the military operations of the forces it trains, including pre-attack planning and other operation-specific military advice.


title: Quds Force

text: Since 1979, Iran had supported the Shi'a Hezbe Wahdat forces against the Afghan government of Mohammad Najibullah. When Najibullah stepped down as President in 1992, Iran continued supporting Hezbe Wahdat against other Afghan militia groups. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996, Hezbe Wahdat had lost its founder and main leader, Abdul Ali Mazari, so the group joined Ahmad Shah Massoud's Northern Alliance. Iran began supporting the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, who were backed by Pakistan and the Arab world. In 1999, after several Iranian diplomats were killed by the Taliban in Mazar-e Sharif, Iran nearly got into a war with the Taliban. The Quds Force reportedly fought alongside the United States and the Northern Alliance in the Battle for Herat. However, in recent years Iran is accused of helping and training the Taliban insurgents against the NATO-backed Karzai administration. Iranian-made weapons, including powerful explosive devices are often found inside Afghanistan.


title: Quds Force

text: In March 2012, Najibullah Kabuli, leader of the "National Participation Front" (NPF) of Afghanistan, accused three senior leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards of plotting to assassinate him. Some members of the Afghan Parliament accuses Iran of setting up Taliban bases in several Iranian cities, and that "Iran is directly involved in fanning ethnic, linguistic and sectarian tensions in Afghanistan." There are reports about Iran's Revolutionary Guards training Afghans inside Iran to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.


title: Quds Force

text: Following an attack on an Israeli diplomat in India in February 2012, Delhi Police at the time contended that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had some involvement. This was subsequently confirmed in July 2012, after a report by the Delhi Police found evidence that members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had been involved in the 13 February bomb attack in the capital.


title: Quds Force

text: On 11 October 2011, the Obama Administration revealed the United States Government's allegations that the Quds Force was involved with the plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir, which also entailed plans to bomb the Israeli and Saudi embassies located in Washington, D.C. In November, plans to assassinate former advisor of President of the United States John Bolton were discovered.


title: Quds Force

text: It's been reported that Iran has been increasing its presence in Latin America through Venezuela. Little is known publicly what their objectives are in the region, but in 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates denounced Iran for meddling in "subversive activities" using Quds Forces. However, Iran claims it is merely "ensuring the survival of the regime" by propagating regional influence.


title: Quds Force

text: Juan Guaidó, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, accused Nicolás Maduro in January 2020 of allowing Qasem Soleimani and his Quds Forces to incorporate their sanctioned banks and their companies in Venezuela. Guaidó also said that Soleimani "led a criminal and terrorist structure in Iran that for years caused pain to his people and destabilized the Middle East, just as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis did with Hezbollah."


title: Quds Force

text: The Quds Force has been described as the Iranian "unit deployed to challenge the United States presence" in Iraq following the U.S. invasion of that country, which put "165,000 American troops along Iran's western border," adding to the American troops already in Iran's eastern neighbor Afghanistan.


title: Quds Force

text: The force "operated throughout Iraq, arming, aiding, and abetting Shiite militias"—i.e., the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Dawa, and the Mahdi Army—"all" of which "had close ties to Iran, some dating back decades" as part of their struggle against Saddam Hussein's oppressive Arab nationalist regime.


title: Quds Force

text: In November 2006, with sectarian violence in Iraq increasing, U.S. General John Abizaid accused the Quds Force of supporting "Shi'a death squads", while the government of Iran was pledging support in stabilization. Similarly, in July 2007, Major General Kevin Bergner of the U.S. Army alleged that members of the Quds Force aided in the planning of a raid on U.S. forces in the Iraqi city of Karbala in January 2007.


title: Quds Force

text: Former CIA officer Robert Baer asserts the Quds Force uses couriers for all sensitive communications.


title: Quds Force

text: On 24 December 2006, "The New York Times" reported that at least four Iranians had been captured by American troops in Iraq in the previous few days. According to the article, the U.S. government suspected that two of them were members of Quds Force, which would be some of the first physical proof of Quds Force activity in Iraq. According to The Pentagon, the alleged Quds Force members were "involved in the transfer of IED technologies from Iran to Iraq." The two men had entered Iraq legally, although they were not accredited diplomats. Iraqi officials believed that the evidence against the men was only circumstantial, but on 29 December, and under U.S. pressure, the Iraqi government ordered the men to leave Iraq. They were driven back to Iran that day. In mid-January 2007 it was reported that the two alleged Quds force officers seized by American forces were Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chizari and Col. Abu Amad Davari. According to "The Washington Post". Chizari is the third highest officer of Quds Force, making him the allegedly highest-ranked Iranian to ever be held by the United States.


title: Quds Force

text: "The New York Sun" reported that the documents described the Quds Force as not only cooperating with Shi'a death squads, but also with fighters related to al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna. It said that the Quds Force had studied the Iraq situation in a similar manner to the U.S. Iraq Study Group, and had concluded that they must increase efforts with Sunni and Shiite groups in order to counter the influence of Sunni states.


title: Quds Force

text: On 11 January 2007, U.S. forces raided and detained five employees of the Iranian liaison office in Erbil, Iraq. The U.S. military said the five detainees were connected to the Quds Force. The operation drew protests from the regional Kurdish government while the Russian government called the detainments unacceptable.


title: Quds Force

text: Alireza Nourizadeh, a political analyst at Voice of America, stated that their arrests were causing concern in Iranian intelligence because the five alleged officials were knowledgeable of a wide range of Quds Force and Iranian activities in Iraq. According to American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, one of the men in custody was Quds Force's director of operations.


title: Quds Force

text: Iranian and Iraqi officials maintained that the detained men were part of a diplomatic mission in the city of Erbil, Iraq. The five Iranian detainees were still being held at a U.S. prison in Iraq as of 8 July 2007. The U.S. said they were "still being interrogated" and that it had "no plans to free them while they are seen as a security risk in Iraq." Iran said that the detainees were "kidnapped diplomats" and that they were "held as hostages."


title: Quds Force

text: On 20 January 2007, a group of gunmen attacked the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, captured four American soldiers, and subsequently killed them. The attackers passed through an Iraqi checkpoint at around 5 pm, a total of five black GMC Suburbans, similar to those driven by U.S. security and diplomatic officials. They were also wearing American military uniforms and spoke fluent English. Because of the sophistication of the attack, some analysts have suggested that only a group like the Quds Force would be able to plan and carry out such an action. Former CIA officer Robert Baer also suggested that the five Americans were killed by the Quds Force in revenge for the Americans holding five Iranians since the 11 January raid in Irbil. It was reported that the U.S. military is investigating whether or not the attackers were trained by Iranian officials; however, no evidence besides the sophistication of the attack has yet been presented.


title: Quds Force

text: On 2 July 2007, the U.S. military said that information from captured Hezbollah fighter Ali Musa Daqduq established a link between the Quds Force and the Karbala raid. The U.S. military claims Daqduq worked as a liaison between Quds force operatives and the Shia group that carried out the raid. According to the United States, Daqduq said that the Shia group "could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds force".


title: Quds Force

text: In June 2007, U.S. General Ray Odierno asserted that Iranian support for these Shia militia increased as the United States itself implemented the 2007 "troop surge". Two different studies have maintained that approximately half of all foreign insurgents entering Iraq come from Saudi Arabia.


title: Quds Force

text: In December 2009 evidence uncovered during an investigation by "The Guardian" newspaper and Guardian Films linked the Quds Force to the kidnappings of five Britons from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007. Four of the hostages, Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst, Alec Maclachlan, and Alan McMenemy, were killed. Peter Moore was released on 30 December 2009. The investigation uncovered evidence that Moore, 37, a computer expert from Lincoln was targeted because he was installing a system for the Iraqi Government that would show how a vast amount of international aid was diverted to Iran's militia groups in Iraq. One of the alleged groups funded by the Quds force directly is the Righteous League, which emerged in 2006 and has stayed largely in the shadows as a proxy of the Quds Force. Shia cleric and leading figure of the Righteous League, Qais al-Khazali, was handed over by the U.S. military for release by the Iraqi government on 29 December 2009 as part of the deal that led to the release of Moore.


title: Quds Force

text: In a 14 February 2007 news conference U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated his claim that the Quds Force was causing unrest in Iraq, stating:


title: Quds Force

text: I can say with certainty that the Quds force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops. And I'd like to repeat, I do not know whether or not the Quds Force was ordered from the top echelons of government. But my point is what's worse – them ordering it and it happening, or them not ordering it and it happening? And so we will continue to protect our troops. ... to say it [this claim] is provoking Iran is just a wrong way to characterize the Commander-in-Chief's decision to do what is necessary to protect our soldiers in harm's way. And I will continue to do so. ... Whether Ahmadinejad ordered the Quds force to do this, I don't think we know. But we do know that they're there, and I intend to do something about it. And I've asked our commanders to do something about it. And we're going to protect our troops. ... I don't think we know who picked up the phone and said to the Quds Force, go do this, but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government. ...What matters is, is that we're responding. The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing IEDs is preposterous. ... My job is to protect our troops. And when we find devices that are in that country that are hurting our troops, we're going to do something about it, pure and simple. ... does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops.


title: Quds Force

text: Mohsen Sazegara, who was a high-ranking Tehran official before turning against the government, has argued that Ahmadinejad does not control the Guards outside of Iran. "Not only the foreign ministry of Iran; even the president does not know what the Revolutionary Guards does outside of Iran. They directly report to the leader", he said, referring to Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Although Ali Khamenei is the ultimate person in charge of the Quds Force, George Bush did not mention him. According to Richard Clarke, "Quds force reports directly to the Supreme Ayatollah, through the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary guards."


title: Quds Force

text: On 20 September 2007, the U.S. military arrested an Iranian during a raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, a city in the Kurdish-controlled north. The military accused the Iranian of being a member of the elite Quds Force and smuggling powerful roadside bombs, including armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, into Iraq. The military said intelligence reports asserted the suspect was involved in the infiltration and training of foreign fighters into Iraq as well.


title: Quds Force

text: On 22 September 2007, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani criticized the United States for arresting the Iranian and called for his immediate release. Talabani argued he is a civil servant who was on an official trade mission in the Kurdish Region and stated Iraqi and Kurdish regional government representatives were aware of the man's presence in the country. "I express to you our outrage for these American forces arresting this Iranian civil official visitor without informing or cooperating with the government of the Kurdistan region, which means insult and disregard for its rights", Talabani wrote in a "letter of resentment" to Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. David Petraeus.


title: Quds Force

text: On 24 November 2007, US military officials accused an Iranian special group of placing a bomb in a bird box that blew up at a popular animal market in central Baghdad. "The group's purpose was to make it appear Al Qaeda in Iraq was responsible for the attack", Admiral Smith said. He further emphasized there was "no evidence Iran ordered the attack". In May 2008, Iraq said it had no evidence that Iran was supporting militants on Iraqi soil. Al-Sadr spokesman Al-Ubaydi said the presence of Iranian weapons in Iraq is "quite normal," since "they are bought and sold and any party can buy them."


title: Quds Force

text: According to reports produced by Agence France-Presse (AFP), "The Jerusalem Post", and Al Arabiya, at the request of a member of the United States' House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in 2011 Congressional counter-terrorism advisor Michael S. Smith II of Kronos Advisory, LLC produced a report on Iran's alleged ties to Al-Qaeda that was distributed to members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. Titled "The al-Qa'ida-Qods Force Nexus: Scratching the Surface of a Known Unknown", a redacted version of Smith's report is available online via the blog site owned by American military geostrategist and author Thomas P.M. Barnett. The report's Issue Summary section explains: "This report focuses on the history of Iran's relationship with al-Qa'ida, and briefly addresses potential implications of these ties. Additionally, its author provides a list of recommended action items for Members of the United States Congress, as well as a list of questions that may help Members develop a better understanding of this issue through interactions with defense and intelligence officials".


title: Quds Force

text: A member of the Quds Force was alleged arrested with 21 other suspects in the attack on the Israeli and United States embassies on 14 March 2012 in Azerbaijan.


title: Quds Force

text: In 2014, Quds Force was deployed into Iraq to lead Iranian action against ISIL. Iran sent three Quds Force battalions to help the Iraqi government repel ISIL's 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. Over 40 officers participated in the Second Battle of Tikrit, including the commander of the force, Gen. Qasem Soleimani who took a leading role in the operation.


title: Quds Force

text: On 3 January 2020, a drone strike approved by United States President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport killed General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force. He was replaced by General Esmail Ghaani


title: Quds Force

text: In 2011, the Quds Force deployed to Syria. IRGC Commander Jafari announced on 16 September 2012 that Quds Force "were present" in Syria.


title: Quds Force

text: Coinciding with the Geneva II Conference on Syria in 2014, Iran boosted its presence in Syria with several "hundred" military specialists, including senior commanders from the Quds Force, according to Iranian sources and security experts. While recently retired senior IRGC commander told that there were at least 60 to 70 Quds force commanders on the ground in Syria at any given time. The primary role of these forces is to gather intelligence and manage the logistics of the battle for the Syrian Government.


title: Quds Force

text: In November 2015, the Quds Force conducted a successful rescue mission of a Russian bomber pilot who was shot down by a Turkish fighter jet.


title: Quds Force

text: In May 2018, Quds forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights allegedly fired around 20 projectiles towards Israeli army positions without causing damage or casualties. Israel responded with airstrikes against Iranian bases in Syria. At least twenty-three fighters, among them 18 foreigners, were reportedly killed in the strikes.


title: Quds Force

text: In January 2019, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it had carried out strikes against Iranian military targets in Syria several hours after a rocket was intercepted over the Golan Heights. The Israeli military claimed in a statement that Quds Force positions were targeted and included a warning to the Syrian military against "attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory."


title: Quds Force

text: In April 2021, prominent Syria-based Quds operative Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh became Quds Deputy Commander.


title: Quds Force

text: In January 2018, German authorities conducted raids in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Berlin, searching homes and businesses belonging to ten alleged Iranian Quds Force members, suspected of spying on Israeli and Jewish targets.


title: Quds Force

text: The United States Department of the Treasury designated the Quds Force under Executive Order 13224 for providing material support to US-designated terrorist organizations on 25 October 2007, prohibiting transactions between the group and U.S. citizens, and freezing any assets under U.S. jurisdiction. The Government of Canada designated the Quds Force as a terrorist organization on 17 December 2012. Israel designated the Quds Force as a terrorist organization in March 2015.


title: Quds Force

text: On 23 October 2018, the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, both involved in Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against Quds Force-backed Houthis, designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The designation also included former commander Qasem Soleimani.


title: Quds Force

text: In April 2019, the U.S. made the decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a foreign military, as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department under an immigration statute and their maximum pressure campaign. This designation was done over the opposition of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Defense (DoD).


title: Quds Force

text: On 28 August 2019, when Israel's foreign minister Katz made a visit to the United kingdom, he asked the UK's foreign minister Dominic Raab to designate the Quds Force as a terrorist organization.


title: Quds Force

text: On 1 May 2020, The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated dual Iranian and Iraqi national Amir Dianat, associate of Revolutionary Guards Quds Force officials. The religion, Dianat, who also known as Amir Abdulazeez Jaafar, has been involved in the Quds Force's efforts to generate revenue and smuggle weapons abroad. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also designating "Taif" Mineral Mining Services Company, a company owned, controlled, or directed by Dianat.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth as well as for personal advancement. Altogether, there was a general loss of confidence in the economic future.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted overoptimistic loans by banks and investors, and the lack of high-growth new industries. These all interacted to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence and lowered production.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Industries that suffered the most included construction, shipping, mining, logging, and agriculture. Also hard hit was the manufacturing of durable goods like automobiles and appliances, whose purchase consumers could postpone. The economy hit bottom in the winter of 1932–1933; then came four years of growth until the recession of 1937–1938 brought back high levels of unemployment.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The Depression caused major political changes in America. Three years into the depression, President Herbert Hoover, widely blamed for not doing enough to combat the crisis, lost the election of 1932 to Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a landslide. Roosevelt's economic recovery plan, the New Deal, instituted unprecedented programs for relief, recovery and reform, and brought about a major realignment of politics with liberalism dominant and conservatism in retreat until 1938.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: There were mass migrations of people from badly hit areas in the Great Plains (the Okies) and the South to places such as California and the cities of the North (the Great Migration). Racial tensions also increased during this time.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The memory of the Depression also shaped modern theories of government and economics and resulted in many changes in how the government dealt with economic downturns, such as the use of stimulus packages, Keynesian economics, and Social Security. It also shaped modern American literature, resulting in famous novels such as John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men".


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Examining the causes of the Great Depression raises multiple issues: what factors set off the first downturn in 1929; what structural weaknesses and specific events turned it into a major depression; how the downturn spread from country to country; and why the economic recovery was so prolonged.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Many rural banks began to fail in October 1930 when farmers defaulted on loans. There was no federal deposit insurance during that time as bank failures were considered a normal part of economic life. Worried depositors started to withdraw savings, so the money multiplier worked in reverse. Banks were forced to liquidate assets (such as calling in loans rather than creating new loans). This caused the money supply to shrink and the economy to contract (the Great Contraction), resulting in a significant decline in aggregate investment. The decreased money supply further aggravated price deflation, putting more pressure on already struggling businesses.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The U.S. Government's commitment to the gold standard prevented it from engaging in expansionary monetary policy. High interest rates needed to be maintained in order to attract international investors who bought foreign assets with gold. However, the high interest also inhibited domestic business borrowing.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The U.S. interest rates were also affected by France's decision to raise their interest rates to attract gold to their vaults. In theory, the U.S. would have two potential responses to that: allow the exchange rate to adjust, or increase their own interest rates to maintain the gold standard. At the time, the U.S. was pegged to the gold standard. Therefore, Americans converted their dollars into francs to buy more French assets, the demand for the U.S. dollar fell, and the exchange rate increased. One of the only things the U.S. could do to get back into equilibrium was increase interest rates.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: In the late 20th century, Winner of the Swedish Central Bank Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences economist Milton Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz argued that the Federal Reserve could have stemmed the severity of the Depression, but failed to exercise its role of managing the monetary system and ameliorating banking panics, resulting in a Great Contraction of the economy from 1929 until the New Deal began in 1933. This view was endorsed by Fed Governor Ben Bernanke who in 2002 said in a speech honoring Friedman and Schwartz:


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression. It began on October 24, 1929, and kept going down until March 1933. It was the longest and most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. Much of the stock market crash can be attributed to exuberance and false expectations. In the years leading up to 1929, the rising stock market prices had created vast sums of wealth in relation to amounts invested, in turn encouraging borrowing to buy more stock. However, on October 24 (Black Thursday), share prices began to fall and panic selling caused prices to fall sharply. On October 29 (Black Tuesday), share prices fell by $14 billion in a single day, more than $30 billion in the week. The value that evaporated that week was ten times more than the entire federal budget and more than all of what the U.S. had spent on World War I. By 1930 the value of shares had fallen by 90%.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Since many banks had also invested their clients' savings in the stock market, these banks were forced to close when the stock market crashed. After the stock market crash and the bank closures, people were afraid of losing more money. Because of their fears of further economic challenge, individuals from all classes stopped purchasing and consuming. Thousands of individual investors who believed they could get rich by investing on margin lost everything they had. The stock market crash severely impacted the American economy.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: A large contribution was the closure and suspension of thousands of banks across the country. Financial institutions failed for several reasons, including unregulated lending procedures, confidence in the gold standard, consumer confidence in future economics, and agricultural defaults on outstanding loans. With these compounding issues the banking system struggled to keep up with the public's increasing demand for cash withdrawals. This overall decreased the money supply and forced the banks to resort to short or liquidate existing loans. In the race to liquidate assets the banking system began to fail on a wide scale. In November 1930 the first major banking crisis began with over 800 banks closing their doors by January 1931. By October 1931 over 2100 banks were suspended with the highest suspension rate recorded in the St. Louis Federal Reserve District, with 2 out of every 5 banks suspended. The economy as a whole experienced a massive reduction in banking footholds across the country amounting to more than nine thousand closed banks by 1933.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The closures resulted in a massive withdrawal of deposits by millions of Americans estimated at near $6.8 billion ($ in dollars). During this time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was not in place resulting in a loss of roughly $1.36 billion (or 20%) of the total $6.8 billion accounted for within the failed banks. These losses came directly from everyday individuals' savings, investments and bank accounts. As a result, GDP fell from the high seven-hundreds in 1929 to the low to mid six-hundreds in 1933 before seeing any recovery for the first time in nearly 4 years. Federal leadership intervention is highly debated on its effectiveness and overall participation. The Federal Reserve Act could not effectively tackle the banking crisis as state bank and trust companies were not compelled to be a member, paper eligible discount member banks heavily restricted access to the Federal Reserve, power between the twelve Federal Reserve banks was decentralized and federal level leadership was ineffective, inexperienced, and weak.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Throughout the early 1900s banking regulations were extremely lax if not non-existent. The Currency Act of 1900 lowered the required capital of investors from 50,000 to 25,000 to create a national bank. As a result of this change nearly two thirds of the banks formed over the next ten years were quite small, averaging just above the 25,000 in required capital. The number of banks would nearly double (number of banks divided by Real GDP) from 1890 to 1920 due to the lack of oversight and qualification when banking charters were being issued in the first two decades of the 1900s.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The unregulated growth of small rural banking institutions can be partially attributed to the rising cost of agriculture especially in the Corn Belt and Cotton Belt. Throughout the corn and cotton belts real estate increases drove the demand for more local funding to continue to supply rising agricultural economics. The rural banking structures would supply the needed capital to meet the farm commodity market, however, this came with a price of reliability and low risk lending. Economic growth was promising from 1887 to 1920 with an average of 6 percent growth in GDP. In particular, the participation in World War I drove a booming agricultural market that drove optimism at the consumer and lending level which, in turn, resulted in a more lax approach in the lending process. Over banked conditions existed which pressured struggling banks to increase their services (specifically to the agricultural customers) without any additional regulatory oversight or qualifications. This dilemma introduced several high-risk and marginal business returns to the banking market. Banking growth would continue through the first two decades well outside of previous trends disregarding the current economic and population standards. Banking profitability and loan standards begin to deteriorate as early as 1900 as a result.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Crop failures beginning in 1921 began to impact this poorly regulated system, the expansion areas of corn and cotton suffered the largest due to the dust bowl era resulting in real estate value reductions. In addition, the year 1921 was the peak for banking expansion with roughly 31,000 banks in activity, however, with the failures at the agricultural level 505 banks would close between 1921 and 1930 marking the largest banking system failure on record. Regulatory questions began to hit the debating table around banking qualifications as a result; discussions would continue into the Great Depression as not only were banks failing but some would disappear altogether with no rhyme or reason. The panic of financial crisis would increase in the Great Depression due to the lack of confidence in the regulatory and recovery displayed during the 1920s, this ultimately drove a nation of doubts, uneasiness, and lack of consumer confidence in the banking system.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: With a lack of consumer confidence in the economic direction given by the federal government panic started to spread across the country shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. President Hoover retained the Gold Standard as the country's currency gauge throughout the following years. As a result, the American shareholders with the majority of the gold reserves began to grow wary of the value of gold in the near future. Europe's decision to move away from the Gold Standard caused individuals to start to withdraw gold shares and move the investments out of the country or began to hoard gold for future investment. The market continued to suffer due to these reactions, and as a result caused several of the everyday individuals to speculate on the economy in the coming months. Rumors of market stability and banking conditions began to spread, consumer confidence continued to drop and panic began to set in. Contagion spread like wildfire pushing Americans all over the country to withdraw their deposits "en masse". This idea would continue from 1929 to 1933 causing the greatest financial crisis ever seen at the banking level pushing the economic recovery efforts further from resolution. An increase in the currency-deposit ratio and a money stock determinant forced money stock to fall and income to decline. This panic-induced banking failure took a mild recession to a major recession.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Whether this caused the Great Depression is still heavily debated due to many other attributing factors. However, it is evident that the banking system suffered massive reductions across the country due to the lack of consumer confidence. As withdraw requests would exceed cash availability banks began conducting steed discount sales such as fire sales and short sales. Due to the inability to immediately determine current value worth these fire sales and short sales would result in massive losses when recuperating any possible revenue for outstanding and defaulted loans. This would allow healthy banks to take advantage of the struggling units forcing additional losses resulting in banks not being able to deliver on depositor demands and creating a failing cycle that would become widespread. Investment would continue to stay low through the next half-decade as the private sector would hoard savings due to uncertainty of the future. The federal government would run additional policy changes such as the Check tax, monetary restrictions (including reduction of money supply by burning), High Wage Policy, and the New Deal through the Hoover and Roosevelt administration.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: One visible effect of the depression was the advent of Hoovervilles, which were ramshackle assemblages on vacant lots of cardboard boxes, tents, and small rickety wooden sheds built by homeless people. Residents lived in the shacks and begged for food or went to soup kitchens. The term was coined by Charles Michelson, publicity chief of the Democratic National Committee, to refer sardonically to President Herbert Hoover whose policies Michelson blamed for the depression.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The government did not calculate unemployment rates in the 1930s. The most widely accepted estimates of unemployment rates for the Great Depression are those by Stanley Lebergott from the 1950s. He estimated that unemployment reached 24.9 percent in the worst days of 1933. Another commonly cited estimate is by Michael Darby in 1976. He put the unemployment rate at a peak of 22.5 percent in 1932. Job losses were less severe among women, workers in non durable industries (such as food and clothing), services and sales workers, and those employed by the government. Unskilled inner city men had much higher unemployment rates. Age also played a factor. Young people had a hard time getting their first job. Men over the age of 45, if they lost their job, would rarely find another one because employers had their choice of younger men. Millions were hired in the Great Depression, but men with weaker credentials were not, and they fell into a long-term unemployment trap. The migration in the 1920s that brought millions of farmers and townspeople to the bigger cities suddenly reversed itself. Unemployment made the cities unattractive, and the network of kinfolk and more ample food supplies made it wise for many to go back. City governments in 1930–31 tried to meet the depression by expanding public works projects, as President Herbert Hoover strongly encouraged. However, tax revenues were plunging, and the cities as well as private relief agencies were totally overwhelmed by 1931; no one was able to provide significant additional relief. People fell back on the cheapest possible relief, including soup kitchens providing free meals to anyone who showed up. After 1933, new sales taxes and infusions of federal money helped relieve the fiscal distress of the cities, but the budgets did not fully recover until 1941.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The federal programs launched by Hoover and greatly expanded by President Roosevelt's New Deal used massive construction projects to try to jump-start the economy and solve the unemployment crisis. The alphabet agencies CCC, FERA, WPA and PWA built and repaired the public infrastructure in dramatic fashion, but did little to foster the recovery of the private sector. FERA, CCC and especially WPA focused on providing unskilled jobs for long-term unemployed men.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The Democrats won easy landslide victories in 1932 and 1934, and an even bigger one in 1936; the hapless Republican Party seemed doomed. The Democrats capitalized on the magnetic appeal of Roosevelt to urban America. The key groups were low-skilled and Catholics, Jews, and Blacks were especially impacted. The Democrats promised and delivered in terms of political recognition, labor union membership, and relief jobs. The cities' political machines were stronger than ever, for they mobilized their precinct workers to help families who needed help the most navigate the bureaucracy and get on relief. FDR won the vote of practically every demographic in 1936, including taxpayers, small business and the middle class. However, the Protestant middle-class voters turned sharply against him after the recession of 1937–38 undermined repeated promises that recovery was at hand. Historically, local political machines were primarily interested in controlling their wards and citywide elections; the smaller the turnout on election day, the easier it was to control the system. However, for Roosevelt to win the presidency in 1936 and 1940, he needed to carry the electoral college and that meant he needed the largest possible majorities in the cities to overwhelm rural voters. The machines came through for him. The 3.5 million voters on relief payrolls during the 1936 election cast 82% percent of their ballots for Roosevelt. The rapidly growing, energetic labor unions, chiefly based in the cities, turned out 80% for FDR, as did Irish, Italian and Jewish communities. In all, the nation's 106 cities over 100,000 population voted 70% for FDR in 1936, compared to his 59% elsewhere. Roosevelt worked very well with the big city machines, with the one exception of his old nemesis, Tammany Hall in Manhattan. There he supported the complicated coalition built around the nominal Republican Fiorello La Guardia, and based on Jewish and Italian voters mobilized by labor unions.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: In the 1938 United States elections the Republicans made an unexpected comeback, and Roosevelt's efforts to purge the Democratic Party of his political opponents backfired badly. The conservative coalition of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats took control of Congress, outvoted the urban liberals, and halted the expansion of New Deal ideas. Roosevelt survived in 1940 thanks to his margin in the Solid South and in the cities. In the North the cities over 100,000 gave Roosevelt 60% of their votes, while the rest of the North favored Willkie 52–48%.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: With the start of full-scale war mobilization in the summer of 1940, the economies of the cities rebounded. Even before Pearl Harbor, Washington pumped massive investments into new factories and funded round-the-clock munitions production, guaranteeing a job to anyone who showed up at the factory gate. The war brought a restoration of prosperity and hopeful expectations for the future across the nation. It had the greatest impact on the cities of the West Coast, especially Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Economic historians led by Price Fishback have examined the impact of New Deal spending on improving health conditions in the 114 largest cities, 1929–1937. They estimated that every additional $153,000 in relief spending (in 1935 dollars, or $1.95 million in year 2000 dollars) was associated with a reduction of one infant death, one suicide, and 2.4 deaths from infectious disease.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The Great Depression began in the United States of America and quickly spread worldwide. It had severe effects in countries both rich and poor. Personal income, consumption, industrial output, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as grain farming, mining and logging, as well as construction, suffered the most.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: Most economies started to recover by 1933–34. However, in the U.S. and some others the negative economic impact often lasted until the beginning of World War II, when war industries stimulated recovery.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: There is little agreement on what caused the Great Depression, and the topic has become highly politicized. At the time the great majority of economists around the world recommended the "orthodox" solution of cutting government spending and raising taxes. However, British economist John Maynard Keynes advocated large-scale government deficit spending to make up for the failure of private investment. No major nation adopted his policies in the 1930s.


title: Great Depression in the United States

text: The stock market crash in 1929 not only affected the business community and the public's economic confidence, but it also led to the banking system soon after the turmoil. The boom of the US economy in the 1920s was based on high indebtedness, and the rupture of the debt chain caused by the collapse of the bank had produced widespread and far-reaching adverse effects. It is precisely because of the shaky banking system, the United States was using monetary policy to save the economy that had been severely constrained. The American economist Charles P. Kindleberger of long-term studying of the Great Depression pointed out that in the 1929, before and after the collapse of the stock market, the Fed lowered interest rates, tried to expand the money supply and eased the financial market tensions for several times; however, they were not successful. The fundamental reason was that the relationship between various credit institutions and the community was in a drastic adjustment process, the normal supply channels for money supply were blocked. Later, some economists argued that the Fed should do a large-scale opening market business at that time, but the essence of the statement was that the US government should be quick to implement measures to expand fiscal spending and fiscal deficits.