title: Léon Degrelle

text: Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle (; 15 June 1906 – 31 March 1994) was a Belgian Walloon politician and Nazi collaborator. He rose to prominence in Belgium in the 1930s as the leader of the Rexist Party (Rex). During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, he enlisted in the German army and fought in the Walloon Legion on the Eastern Front. After the collapse of the Nazi regime, Degrelle escaped and went into exile in Francoist Spain, where he remained a prominent figure in neo-Nazi politics.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle was raised Catholic and during his years at university became involved in politics through journalism. In the early 1930s, he took control of a Catholic publishing house that morphed under his leadership into the Rexist Party. Rex contested the 1936 Belgian general election and won 11 percent of the vote, but slipped into irrelevance by the start of World War II. Degrelle began to collaborate with Nazi Germany as the war began and was detained by Belgian and then French authorities. After the German invasion of Belgium in mid-1940, Degrelle was released and began to change Rex into a mass movement to curry the favor of the Nazis. In 1941, Degrelle organized and himself joined and fought in the Walloon Legion, a unit of the German Army and, after 1943, the "Waffen-SS". His performance in 1944 at the Cherkassy pocket and subsequent decorations turned him into a model for foreign collaborators.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Following the liberation of Belgium in late 1944, Degrelle was stripped of his citizenship and was sentenced to death "in absentia". Early the next year, he fled to Spain, where with the help of the Spanish government he went into hiding from Belgian authorities in August 1946. In the 1960s, Degrelle returned to public life as a neo-Nazi and gained great influence in far-right European circles. He published several books and papers glorifying the Nazi regime and denying the Holocaust.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Léon Degrelle was born on 15 June 1906 in Bouillon, in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, and baptized five days later as Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle. He was the fifth child of Marie Boever and . Édouard, who came from the French Ardennes, later claimed that he had emigrated to Belgium as a result of the introduction of secularism in France. He made a career as a brewer and became a naturalized citizen before World War I. He was elected to the provincial council of Luxembourg for the first time in 1904 and became a respected conservative politician as a member of the Catholic Party. Marie came from a local bourgeois family whose father had been involved in the founding of the newspaper "L'Avenir du Luxembourg".


title: Léon Degrelle

text: The Degrelle family was highly religious; as a child, Léon attended Mass every day and attended a preschool run by the Sisters of Christian Doctrine of Nancy. He completed secondary schooling at the Institut Saint-Pierre de Bouillon. From there, he enrolled at the Collège Notre-Dame de la Paix, in Namur, where he read and subscribed to the ideas of Léon Bloy, Charles Péguy, Léon Daudet, and especially Charles Maurras. Degrelle next enrolled at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur to study law. There, however, he became active in clericalist political activism to the detriment of his studies, which he abandoned in 1925 after failing his exams that year.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Shortly after his failure at Namur, Degrelle was admitted into the prestigious Catholic University of Leuven, which awarded him a diploma of candidacy in philosophy and literature on 27 July 1927. That year, Degrelle joined ("Action catholique de la jeunesse belge", ACJB), a militant clerical youth organization founded by the priest Louis Picard, whom Degrelle had met while studying in Namur. Again preoccupied with activism and reading, Degrelle was a poor student but encountered some professional success as the director of the student newspaper "L'Avant-Garde". At this time, Degrelle also began a successful career as a writer and published several books from 1927 to 1930.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Impressed by Degrelle, Picard encouraged him to become involved in journalism within the ACJB from 1927. The next year, Degrelle began writing pro-monarchy, clericalist pamphlets whose wide circulation brought Degrelle to the attention of "Abbé" Norbert Wallez, another Catholic priest and an admirer of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who worked as a newspaper director. Degrelle accepted an offer from Wallez to become an editor at his newspaper "Le XX Siècle". In 1929, with Wallez's support, Degrelle traveled to Mexico to report on the Cristero War, a rebellion of Mexican Catholics against the incumbent anti-clerical government. On returning to Belgium, Degrelle dropped out of Leuven after failing to attend the exams for his "doctorat de troisième cycle".


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In October 1930, Degrelle was asked by the ACJB to take over the management of "Christus Rex", a small Catholic publishing house named after the popular youth cult of Christ the King. He accepted, staffed it with young radical Catholic students, started publishing mass-circulation magazines, and, having achieved success with these magazines, expanded its catalog with new periodicals over the next three years. In the same period, he popularized a pair of Marian apparitions at Banneux and Beauraing. He produced leaflets and posters for the Catholic Party ahead of the 1932 election, earning "Christus Rex" and Degrelle many conservative allies. From January 1931, with Picard's support as chair of the board of directors, Degrelle and his father purchased controlling stakes in the business. Léon assumed total control of "Christus Rex" by 1933 and used the platform to attack the leadership of the Catholic Party.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: After the 1932 election, Degrelle began to refer to "Christus Rex" as a nationalistic, pro-clerical political movement, which alienated the officially apolitical ACJB. In 1933, the Catholic Party cut its ties with Degrelle, as did the ACJB the following year. To avoid insolvency, Degrelle downsized "Christus Rex"s staff and obeyed a command from the Bishop of Tournai to cancel a rally in Charleroi to avoid further clashes with the Catholic establishment. Over the interwar years, however, Belgian Catholic politics had split between that Catholic establishment and an authoritarian and radically clerical faction of urban, middle class students who viewed the Catholic Party as being weak and complacent. By 1936, Degrelle, who proved to be a charismatic speaker, had become highly influential amongst the latter group.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In early 1935, Degrelle morphed "Christus Rex" into the Rexist Party (Rex), an authoritarian, populist, and strongly clerical faction of francophone Catholic student radicals such as José Streel, Jean Denis, and . Rex's first meeting as a political organization, modeled on Italian fascist meetings, was held on 1 May 1935. There, Degrelle declared that Rex desired to reform the Catholic Party. To that end, on 2 November 1935, in an event dubbed the Kortrijk Coup ("coup de Courtrai"), Degrelle and a party of Rexists interrupted a meeting of Catholic Party leaders at Kortrijk. He denounced the party leaders as corrupt and ineffective, and demanded their resignations. The party leadership responded by expelling Degrelle from the Catholic Party on 6 November, and on 20 November Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey forbade the fraternization of any Catholic priest with Rex. In response, on 23 February 1936, Degrelle announced that Rex would run in the 1936 Belgian general election, the results of which would be announced on 24 May, and on 3 May launched a hastily-organized newspaper, "Le Pays Réel", to serve as Rex's mouthpiece.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Rex, which ran on a populist, middle-class, and anti-democratic platform that united several right-wing elements such as anti-communists and war veterans, won 11.5% of the votes cast and 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives. This was a ringing defeat of the Catholic Party, which lost much of its previous constituency to Rex in the form of protest votes. Degrelle sought to capitalize on Rex's victory by establishing a party bureaucracy and holding rallies. He also continued to attack the "rotten ones" ("les pourris") he alleged dominated Belgium's political and economic establishment. At the prompting of the dissident Catholic politician Gustave Sap, Degrelle publicly revealed a series of what he termed "politico-financial scandals" ("scandales politico-financières"), apparently demonstrating collusion between "high finance" and the incumbent government of the former banker Paul Van Zeeland.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Following the election, Degrelle formed alliances with far-right francophone Belgian groups, then traveled to Italy to meet representatives of the Italian National Fascist Party and received subsidies from them. On 26 September 1936, he met with Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler in Germany to establish relations with the Nazi Party. In October, Degrelle returned to Belgium, met secretly with the Flemish National League ("Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond", VNV), a Flemish nationalist political party, and agreed to collaborate in the formation of a corporatist state with an autonomous Flanders. He then announced a march of Rexists on the capital, Brussels, for 25 October, inspired by Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome. The government banned the demonstration on 22 October and, with the erosion of Rex's alliances and image caused by their meetings with the VNV and the Nazis, the march fizzled.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In March 1937, Alfred Olivier, who had been among the Rexists elected to the Chamber of Representatives, resigned with his staff. Degrelle ran in the snap election in Brussels to determine his replacement, hoping to spark a chain of by-elections until he could force King Leopold III to call for another general election. The rhetoric and aftermath of the 1936 campaign had, however, inspired Belgian politics to form a united front against Rex to defend democracy. In the election, held on 11 April 1937, Van Zeeland personally ran against Degrelle as the candidate of the governing center-left coalition and defeated him with 76% of the votes cast. Degrelle's momentum was decisively broken, and though he provoked Van Zeeland's resignation in October 1937 after accusing him of receiving financial support from the National Bank of Belgium, Rex's membership withered and its fortunes at the polls continued to decline; in the 1939 general election, Rex received only 4.4% of the popular vote. As the 1930s drew to a close, Rex rapidly transformed into a fascist movement and included increasingly antisemitic rhetoric in its publications.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Belgium declared its neutrality, which Rex vociferously supported. Degrelle additionally blamed the war on Britain, France, and "the occult forces of Freemasonry and the Jewish finance", precipitating a further decay of Rex's membership and reputation. In January 1940, Degrelle secretly and unsuccessfully requested German funding for a new, pro-neutrality newspaper. Amid the German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940, Degrelle was detained by the Belgian government, as were other Rexist leaders not enlisted in the Belgian Army such as Victor Matthys and Serge Doring.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle was first imprisoned in Bruges, then was transferred to French custody on 15 May 1940 and interrogated at Dunkirk, and then moved to the Camp Vernet internment camp in southern France as the military situation deteriorated amid the Battle of France. Leopold III surrendered at the head of the Belgian Army on 28 May and became a prisoner of war, while France sought an armistice a month later. In German-occupied Belgium, Degrelle was assumed to have been executed. On 22 July, Rexist journalist Pierre Daye discovered Degrelle in Carcassonne with the assistance of Otto Abetz, a German diplomat Degrelle had met in 1936. Daye and Degrelle arrived in Paris on 25 July and were invited to dinner with Abetz, with whom Degrelle spoke at length about expanding Belgium at the expense of France and the Netherlands.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle returned to Brussels on 30 July, and found that Belgium had been placed under a military administration and that Rex had been reorganized and had formed a militia known as the Combat Formations ("Formations de Combat"). Degrelle began reasserting his leadership, attempting to establish contact with German leadership through Abetz, and adopting facets of Nazi ideology. In early August, Degrelle returned to Paris to meet on 10 or 11 August with Abetz, now the ambassador to France in Paris, and to attempt to convince him of the validity of his territorial designs with the aid of maps of the Duchy of Burgundy. Also at the meeting, however, was Henri de Man, president of the Belgian Labor Party and one of Leopold III's advisors, as Abetz desired an alliance between Degrelle and de Man. They agreed to a pact and met again on 18 August in Brussels to sign an official agreement, sketching out the possible political future of Belgium as a state with no parties and an all-powerful royal government.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On his return to Brussels, Degrelle met with Belgian notables such as , Leopold III's secretary, Albert Devèze, a former minister, and Maurice Lippens at his residence on the . He came to no agreement with any of these men, however, and thus could not form a government. This required the support of Leopold III, who disliked Degrelle, and of the Germans, who were unwilling to delegate any power to Rex, and had orders from Goebbels to ignore Degrelle. Leopold III refused to meet with Degrelle or consider him for the office of Prime Minister, and summons to meet with Nazi leadership promised by Abetz were not forthcoming. Degrelle also failed to gain support for a government under his leadership from the Belgian Catholic Church.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: With his other ventures flagging, Degrelle returned to attempting to gain power through popular support. He relaunched "Le Pays Réel" on 25 August and attempted to transform Rex into a mass movement, beginning with a tour of the country in September and the appointment of Doring and newcomers Félix Francq, Rutger Simoens, and Fernand Rouleau to positions of leadership. The revitalized "Le Pays Réel" achieved some success over late 1940, dramatically expanding the Combat Formations, which began attacking Jewish-owned businesses and engaging in street violence to weaken local governments. Rex remained, however, a minor entity and the disturbances caused by its street violence further angered the German military government, who were collaborating with the Belgian establishment. The Germans ordered the Rexist violence to cease and Rexist leaders complied by the end of 1940.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: By 1941, Belgian leaders including Degrelle had realized that the war would be long and that while it was ongoing, the Germans would not delegate any power to the Belgians. Degrelle became increasingly and publicly pro-Nazi until, on 1 January 1941, in "Le Pays Réel", and in a speech on 6 January, Degrelle declared his support for the German occupation of Belgium. This new orientation was unpopular within Rex, whose members came to be seen as traitors by most Belgians, and sparked another exodus of disillusioned members.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Following the January declaration, the German military administration of General Alexander von Falkenhausen remained unimpressed by Degrelle but began subsidizing Rex, appointed members to civil office, and allowed it to freely organize. In February, it also decided to seek Belgian enlistees in the National Socialist Motor Corps ("Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps", NSKK). Degrelle, who had petitioned the military administration for Rexist units in the German armed forces over late 1940, began to recruit Walloons for a Rexist brigade in the NSKK. He promised 1,000 drivers, but only recruited 300. At the same time, Degrelle began courting members of the working class and socialist leaders via "Le Pays Réel" to replenish Rex's membership, but again achieved little.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: By April, Rex was collapsing from a combination of resignations, defections, popular and sometimes violent hostility from other Belgians, and German indifference. When the military administration appointed new, collaborationist civil servants and officials on 1 April, no Rexists were appointed. In response, Degrelle attacked the military administration in "Le Pays Réel" and was subsequently chastised in person by Eggert Reeder, the head of civil affairs in the military administration. On 10 April, Degrelle wrote to Hitler to request, without success, permission to enlist in the German military. On 10 May, the VNV, who were favored by the military administration and by Nazi ideology, was ceded Rex's Flemish branch in an agreement that also established Rex and the VNV as the only legitimate parties in German-occupied Belgium. No top-level Rexist leaders, however, were consulted—Rex's Flanders branch had acted independently—and Rex was not given the option of refusing the merger. This opened a rift between Rex and more moderate francophone collaborators, who attacked Rex and Degrelle as being impotent and began forming rival parties. The Germans ignored those rivals, but Rex continued to stagnate over May.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On 22 June 1941, Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Degrelle joined other prominent Rexists in announcing his support of the invasion, which he hoped would stem Rex's decline. He again went to meet with Abetz in Paris. In his absence, Rouleau unsuccessfully requested permission from the military administration to organize volunteer units for the Eastern Front. When Degrelle returned from France, he repeated the request. Likely because of instructions from Berlin, the military administration granted Rex permission to form a unit of francophone Belgian volunteers. As the Nazis considered Walloons an inferior people to the Flemish, Walloon and Flemish volunteers would be segregated into different units. Walloons would also only be able to enlist in the regular armed forces.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle announced the permission to organize a volunteer unit at a meeting of the Combat Formations on 6 July and exhorted Rexists to join. Claiming to have Leopold III's support, Degrelle began energetically promoting and organizing his "Walloon Legion" but achieved little. To bolster this venture, Degrelle announced on 20 July that he would enlist as a foot soldier, and gave leadership of Rex to Matthys. As a result, the Walloon Legion ballooned to 850 or 860 volunteers, 730 of whom were Rexists. The force departed Belgium for basic training on 8 August, taking with it much of Rex's provincial leadership. By this time, Degrelle had decided that the Legion was a better political vehicle than Rex, and strove to totally control it. In August, believing Rouleau to be plotting to wrest control of the Legion and then Rex from him, Degrelle ousted him from both.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Beginning in November 1941, the Legion was assigned to anti-partisan operations in occupied Soviet territory. In February 1942 it was attached to the 100th "Jäger" Division and moved to the frontline, where it engaged in combat with regular Soviet forces for the first time on 28 February. By the end of 1942, the Legion was reduced by attrition to 150 men and would have to rely on new recruitment drives to sustain itself. The Legion's battlefield performance was of great value to Degrelle, who came to be appreciated by German officers. In May, he was made an officer and awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, for his conduct in battle.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: As early as September 1941, Degrelle had taken an interest in the "Schutzstaffel" (SS), a paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party led by Heinrich Himmler, and came to see the SS as the most powerful force in Nazi-occupied Europe. In 1942, Degrelle began lobbying for the integration of Walloons into the SS, and in June made a brief visit to Berlin to meet with Nazi functionaries and Rex's interim leaders. Degrelle did not meet any SS leaders during that trip, but after returning to the front from this meeting, the Walloon Legion was briefly assigned to the command of "Waffen-SS" general Felix Steiner. Degrelle met Gottlob Berger, head of the SS Main Office, on 19 December. Himmler also personally warmed to Degrelle, and by the end of the year he was persuaded to name the Walloons a Germanic people.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On 17 January 1943, Degrelle gave a speech at an assembly of Rexists in Brussels in which he declared that Walloons were a Germanic people forced to adopt the French language. He proclaimed a new, "Burgundian" nationalism within a pan-German state. Following the speech, Streel and much of Rex's old guard left the party, Walloon competitors to Rex for German favor evaporated, and Degrelle definitively turned his attentions away from Rex and towards the SS. Over the rest of January and February 1943, Degrelle met with Nazi functionaries in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris to gain influence in the Nazi Party.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On 23–24 May 1943, Degrelle met with Himmler near Rastenburg (Kętrzyn) to discuss the transfer of the Walloon Legion from the German Army to the Waffen-SS. On 1 June 1943, the Legion was integrated into the "Waffen-SS" as the "SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien". Degrelle spent the rest of mid-1943 enriching himself and his family with assets seized by the Germans in Belgium and France, and recruiting for the Legion. He purchased a seized Jewish-owned perfume company, and on 29 July 1943 launched a newspaper named "L'Avenir" that, devoid of the sensational tone and polemics of "Le Pays Réel", found immediate financial success. Also in July, Degrelle attended Mass in his hometown in SS uniform and was refused the sacraments per standing orders from the Belgian bishops. In response, Degrelle and his bodyguards apprehended the offending priest and imprisoned him in Degrelle's home, provoking his excommunication by the Bishop of Namur on 19 August 1943. Degrelle successfully appealed to the Legion's chaplain and the German military chaplain service to have his excommunication overturned.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In October and again in November, Degrelle met with Berger, and at his direction wrote to Hitler to denounce the military administration in Belgium and request an SS-run government, only a few days after sending a letter of praise to Reeder. Reeder was made aware of the letter to Hitler and wrote to German field marshal Wilhelm Keitel, then the commander of the regular German armed forces, to denounce Degrelle. Degrelle rejoined the Legion on 2 November, and nine days later arrived in Ukraine with the unit, now numbering about 2,000 men. On 28 January 1944, the Legion was trapped by the Red Army in the Cherkassy pocket. The Legion was savaged in the subsequent fighting, being reduced to 632 men by the time the encirclement was broken in mid-February. Among the casualties were the Legion's commanding officer, Lucien Lippert, who was killed, and Degrelle himself, who had been injured. Degrelle was promoted to the rank of "SS-Sturmbannführer" (Major) to replace Lippert, but effective control of the Legion was given to another German SS officer.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle was flown to Berlin and became, according to historian Nico Wouters, "the poster boy for all European collaborators." On 20 February, Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Hitler. Two days later Degrelle was sent to Brussels to recuperate and was met there by Matthys and Richard Jungclaus, head of the SS in Belgium. Degrelle was received by collaborators in Brussels on 27 February and in Paris on 5 March, and on 2 April the surviving members of the Legion paraded through Charleroi. Degrelle, however, could not translate his military service into political aggrandizement, as the SS desired for him to remain an instrument of propaganda. While on leave, Degrelle tried to make connections with collaborators in Paris and Flanders without success. On 8 July, Degrelle's brother Edouard, who had had no role in Rex but was sympathetic to the party and the German occupation, was shot and killed in his pharmacy in their hometown. In response, German authorities arrested 46 men and Rexist militants murdered another pharmacist. Returning from a speaking tour in Germany, Degrelle arrived in Bouillon on 10 July to demand reprisals. He wrote to Himmler to request the retaliatory killing of 100 Belgian civilians and was ignored, but on 21 July Rexists attached to the "Sicherheitspolizei" murdered three hostages near Bouillon.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On 22 or 23 July 1944, Degrelle returned to the Legion as it was engaged in the Battle of Narva in Estonia. The Legion was depleted by the fighting and after the battle returned to Germany, where Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 25 August. On 18 September the Legion was expanded and renamed the 28th Waffen-SS Division and placed under Degrelle's acting command. To staff the Division, Degrelle now made service in the Legion mandatory for all Rexists, many of whom were fleeing the then-ongoing liberation of Belgium, and recruited French collaborators who had fled to Sigmaringen and the Spanish volunteers of the defunct Blue Legion. In December, the Legion was assigned an armored unit was moved back to the front in January 1945. It was destroyed in battle by the Red Army at the Battle of the Oder–Neisse in April.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In November 1944, Degrelle was given the title "Volksführer of the Walloons" by Hitler, and in December was promised control of any Belgian territory that the German armed forces would retake in the upcoming Ardennes offensive. Degrelle arrived at the Western Front on 1 January 1945 with a staff of 55. The offensive was a failure, and Degrelle began to plan for an Allied victory. On 30 March, he met with Matthys and Louis Collard, another Rexist leader, and dissolved Rex. In late April, Degrelle abandoned the remains of the Legion near Berlin and headed north. On 2 May, he encountered Himmler near Lübeck and attempted to gain a guarantee of safety for his family from Himmler. He was instead promoted to "Oberführer". Degrelle boarded a German naval vessel bound for occupied Norway where, on 7 May, the day of Norway's liberation, Josef Terboven, former "Reichskommissar" of Norway, put Degrelle and five other men on a Heinkel 111 bound for Francoist Spain and then South America. The next day, the plane crashed on the Beach of La Concha, at San Sebastián, Spain. Degrelle, who had amongst other injuries sustained a broken leg, was hospitalized and detained.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: On 15 May, the Spanish government contacted the British government about deporting Degrelle, but not back to Belgium. In response, Belgium, which made Degrelle's repatriation and prosecution a top priority, asked for British and American support in talks with Spain. America and Britain were ambivalent about the matter as Degrelle had not been named a war criminal by the United Nations War Crimes Commission, but were moved into an active role in June by Belgian protests. The British and Americans decided that, since Degrelle had entered Spain as a member of the German armed forces, he should be taken into Allied custody with 30 other German exiles via an American ship, and communicated this desire to Spain. The Spanish government decided it could not extract diplomatic recognition from Belgium in exchange for Degrelle, and instead justified its reluctance to repatriate Degrelle on human rights grounds. On the night of 21–22 August 1946, Degrelle disappeared from the hospital in which he was recuperating. The Spanish government announced that he had left the country and that his location was unknown, and promised to repatriate Degrelle to Belgium if he returned.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: The Belgian government had sentenced Degrelle to death "in absentia" in 1944 and revoked his citizenship on 29 December 1945. With the assistance of the Spanish government, Degrelle went into hiding in the southern Spanish Province of Málaga and was kept informed about Belgian agents posing as tourists visiting the region to locate him. In 1954, Degrelle was adopted by a local woman he had befriended, Matilde Ramírez Reina, and thereby gained Spanish citizenship under the name José León Ramírez Reina. Degrelle made his first public appearance since the war on 15 December 1954 at a ceremony held to honor Spanish volunteers in the German military. This, and a letter Degrelle wrote to the Belgian newspaper "La Libre Belgique" offering to stand trial in Belgium if the trial was publicized, provoked a diplomatic breach between Spain and Belgium.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: By the 1960s, the Belgian government was content with Degrelle remaining in exile in Spain as long as he remained unprovocative. Degrelle became an increasingly public figure in the 1960s and was frequently discussed by French and Belgian media. He openly associated with other Nazi exiles such as Otto Skorzeny, and wore his SS uniform to his daughter's wedding in 1969, an event reported widely in the Spanish press. On 3 December 1964, Belgium passed a law, named the "Lex Degrelliana", that extended the statute of limitations for death sentences issued for offenses against the Belgian state committed between 1940 and 1945 from 20 years to 30. In 1969, Degrelle began a media campaign to be allowed to return to Belgium. At Belgium's request, an arrest warrant for Degrelle was filed the next year by Spanish police but not served, putting an end to the campaign. By the 1980s, Degrelle was living comfortably, having profited from running a construction company that helped build American airbases in Spain, and under his original name. On 31 March 1994, Degrelle died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in Málaga. Belgium definitively blocked Degrelle's return in 1983 and subsequently forbade the repatriation of his remains.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: After World War II, Degrelle joined other Nazi exiles in denying the Holocaust. In 1979, ahead of Pope John Paul II's visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, Degrelle wrote an open letter to the Pope. In the letter, Degrelle denied that any systematic killing had taken place at Auschwitz and that the "real genocide" was the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bombings of Hamburg and Dresden.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: In its July–August 1985 issue, the Spanish magazine "Tiempo" published an interview with Degrelle in which he repeated his skepticism about the Holocaust, and claimed that Josef Mengele, an SS officer stationed at Auschwitz, was an ordinary doctor and that no gas chambers existed at Auschwitz. Violeta Friedman, a survivor of Auschwitz whose family had been gassed on Mengele's orders, decided to sue Degrelle and "Tiempo". In August, Friedman was introduced by Jewish community leaders Max Mazín and Alberto Benasuly to Catalan lawyer Jorge Trías for legal counsel and was assured of the support of Israel's then-ambassador to Spain, Shlomo Ben Ami.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: The lawsuit went to court in Madrid on 7 November 1985 and was based on the Ley Orgánica 1/82 of 5 May 1982 and the Ley 62/78 of 26 December 1978, protecting the same rights, as Trías realized that it was not possible to sue Degrelle for making his statements under any of the articles of the Spanish Criminal Code which were in force at the time. Friedman and her lawyer thus alleged that Degrelle's statements had sullied the honor of her family as victims of the Holocaust, which Degrelle's lawyer dismissed by stating that Friedman lacked standing as Degrelle had not mentioned her or her family, and motioned for the case to be dismissed. The lower courts were initially favorable to Degrelle, but in 1991 the Supreme Court of Spain ruled in favor of the plaintiff. The court determined that Friedman had standing to sue Degrelle because his statements were not protected by the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of Spain. According to Trías, the case influenced Spanish law about genocide denial, racism, and xenophobia.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle married Marie Lemay, the daughter of a French industrialist, on 27 March 1932. The couple had five children. Their marriage became strained during the war as Degrelle kept mistresses in Brussels and Paris, and Lemay had an open affair with an officer of the "Luftwaffe" until she ended the affair in March 1943 and informed Degrelle of it. The officer, unwilling to end the affair, was found shot in the head and heart near the Degrelle residence on 12 April 1943. Degrelle was cleared of any wrongdoing by Nazi authorities and news of the officer's death was suppressed. Lemay was imprisoned by Belgian authorities and chose not to join Degrelle in Spain. She died in Nice on 29 January 1984. On 15 June 1984, Degrelle married Jeanne Brevet Charbonneau, niece of Joseph Darnand, former commander of the Vichy French paramilitary "Milice".


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle had a great influence in the post-war resurgence of fascism. Beginning in 1949, Degrelle began to publish books and give interviews in which he praised the Nazis, denied the Holocaust, attempted to distort the historical record, and aggrandize himself. Degrelle's work formed a large amount of the 20th century, French-language historiography of Belgium during the war until it was refuted by Belgian historian in the 1970s. Degrelle was also influential among post-war far-right groups in Belgium and West Germany, especially former Rexists and members of the Walloon Legion, and especially in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2010s, Italian journalist Alessandro Orsini embedded himself with neo-fascist militias in Italy and reported that Degrelle's writings were required reading among them.


title: Léon Degrelle

text: Degrelle's estate in Málaga became a port of call for neo-Nazis. He established connections with neo-Nazis such as the Spanish Circle of Friends of Europe ("Círculo Español de Amigos de Europa", CEDADE), which would be able to network with neo-Nazi groups throughout Europe through Degrelle and Skorzeny. In the 1960s, a portrait of Degrelle appeared in a work by for the HIAG, a "Waffen-SS" veterans' lobbyist group. He continued to make appearances in German-language, neo-Nazi publications into the 1990s. Degrelle also found friends in the post-Francoist People's Alliance ("Alianza Popular", AP), and in Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the far-right National Front party in France, and Michael Kühnen, a leader of the German neo-Nazi movement of the later 20th century.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: Jai Ram Thakur (born 6 January 1965) is an Indian politician, and was the Chief Minister of the state of Himachal Pradesh from 2017 to 2022. He is a five-time MLA in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, winning continuously since 1998 and has previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party Government of Himachal Pradesh. Thakur was the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj from 2009 to 2012. He is elected to Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Seraj Assembly constituency of Mandi district. He won his first election in the year 1998 from now delimited constituency of Chachiot (Seraj).


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: Jai Ram Thakur was born to a poor farming family in Village- Tandi, Tehsil- Thunag of Mandi; he was fourth among five siblings – two sisters and three brothers. His father's name is Jhethu Ram who used to work as mason and mother's name is Briku Devi.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: Then he did graduation B.A. from Vallabh Government College, Mandi, (Graduated in 1987). Later he did Post Graduation (M.A.) from Panjab University, Chandigarh.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: Thakur is married to ABVP colleague Dr. Sadhana Thakur and they have two daughters. Sadhana is a doctor, born to a Kannadiga family in Jaipur and brought up there. The couple has two daughters. Both daughters are studying MBBS in Himachal Pradesh. Elder is already studying in Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Tanda while younger got selected to Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College, Ner Chowk in the year 2018.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: He was introduced to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his graduation at Vallabh Government College Mandi, and won first election under the flag of ABVP, beginning his long association with the student organization. He remained Joint Secretary, State ABVP, 1986; Organizing Secretary, ABVP (J&K), 1989–93; State Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha; 1993–95; President: State Bhartiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha, ii) B.J.P. District Mandi 2000–03; Vice President State BJP, 2003–05; and President State Bhartiya Janata Party 2006–09.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: Elected to State Legislative Assembly in 1998, and re-elected in 2003 and 2007 from Chachiot Assembly Constituency which after the delimitation has been renamed as Seraj. Remained Chairman, General Development Committee & Education Committee; and Vice-Chairman, State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: In the year 2009, he was inducted to the council of Ministers and given the portfolio of rural development and Panchayati raj. Also remained Chairman, Rural Planning Committee and Member of various other House Committees before being inducted into Council of Minister as Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister on 09-07-2012.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP won a two-thirds majority but its Chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal received a shocking defeat from the Sujanpur assembly segment. Considering Jai Ram's strong RSS connections and strong political profile, he was the favorite for the top post and was chosen to lead the state. He was the first to become Chief Minister from Mandi district and he served as the 6th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. After BJP lost the 2022 legislative elections, Thakur resigned but was asked to continue in his post by the Governor until a new Chief Minister was selected.


title: Jai Ram Thakur

text: On 11th December, his successor Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu took oath as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Yitzhak Shamir (, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Shamir was a leader of the Zionist paramilitary and terrorist organisation Lehi. After the establishment of the Israeli state he served in the Mossad between 1955 and 1965 and as a Knesset member. He served as the sixth Speaker of the Knesset, and as foreign affairs minister. Shamir was the country's third-longest-serving prime minister, after Benjamin Netanyahu and David Ben-Gurion.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Yitzhak Yezernitsky (later Yitzhak Shamir) was born in the predominantly Jewish village of Ruzhany, Grodno province, Russian Empire (now Belarus), which after World War I returned to Poland, as the son of Perla and Shlomo, owner of a leather factory. Shamir later moved to Białystok and studied at a Hebrew high school network. As a youth, he joined Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement. He studied law at the University of Warsaw, but cut his studies short in order to emigrate to what was then Mandatory Palestine.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: His parents and two sisters were murdered in the Holocaust. Shamir claimed his father was killed just outside his birthplace in Ruzhany by villagers who had been his childhood friends after he had escaped from a German train transporting Jews to the death camps, though this was never confirmed. His mother and a sister were murdered in the concentration camps, and another sister was shot dead. Shamir once told Ehud Olmert that when his father, living under Nazi occupation, had been informed that the extermination of the Jews was imminent, his father had replied that "I have a son in the Land of Israel, and he will exact my revenge on them". According to an obituary, he had dreamed of living in the Land of Israel since he was a boy, and felt immediately at home when he moved there. In 1935, Shamir immigrated to Palestine, where he worked in an accountant's office. He later adopted as his surname the name he used on a forged underground identity card, Shamir. He told his wife this was because Shamir means a thorn that stabs and a rock that can cut steel. In 1944 he married Shulamit, whom he met in a detention camp where she was incarcerated after the ship on which she sailed to Mandate Palestine from Bulgaria in 1941 was declared illegal. They had two children, Yair and Gilada. Shulamit died on July 29, 2011.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Zionist paramilitary group that opposed British control of Palestine. When the Irgun split in 1940, Shamir joined the more militant faction Lehi, also known as the "Stern Gang", headed by Avraham Stern. He was imprisoned by British authorities in 1941. A few months after Stern was killed by the British in 1942, Shamir and Eliyahu Giladi hid under a stack of mattresses in a warehouse of the detention camp at Mazra'a, and at night escaped through the barbed wire fences of the camp. Shamir, together with Giladi, Anshell Shpillman and Yehoshua Cohen, reorganized the movement into cells and trained its members. In his memoirs, Shamir admitted in 1994 what had long been suspected: that the killing of Giladi in 1943 was ordered by Shamir himself, allegedly due to Giladi advocating the assassination of David Ben-Gurion, and arguing for other violence deemed too extremist by fellow Stern members.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In 1943, he became one of the three leaders of the group, serving with Nathan Yellin-Mor and Israel Eldad. Shamir sought to emulate the anti-British struggle of the Irish Republicans and took the nickname "Michael" after Irish Republican leader Michael Collins. Shamir plotted the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne, British Minister for Middle East Affairs, and personally selected Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri to carry it out. Moyne had been targeted due to his perceived role as an architect of British restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine, and in particular, the Patria disaster, which was blamed on him.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In July 1946, Shamir was arrested. He had been walking in public in disguise and a British police sergeant, T.G. Martin, recognized him by his bushy eyebrows. Arrested, he was exiled to Africa, and interned in Eritrea by British Mandatory authorities. Lehi members subsequently tracked down and killed Martin in September 1946. On January 14, 1947, Shamir and four Irgun members escaped the Sembel Prison (a British Detention Camp) through a tunnel they had dug, 200 feet in length, and Mayer Malka of Khartoum subsequently arranged for them to be hidden in an oil truck for three days as it was driven over the border to French Somaliland. They were re-arrested by the French authorities, but Shamir with Malka's assistance was eventually allowed passage to France and granted political asylum. Lehi sent him a forged passport, with which he entered Israel after the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most of Lehi's members joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. Lehi formally disbanded on May 29, 1948. However, the Lehi group in Jerusalem continued to function independently, outside government control. During a UN-imposed truce, Shamir, Eldad, and Yellin-Mor authorized the assassination of the United Nations representative in the Middle East, Count Folke Bernadotte, who was killed in September 1948, when Lehi gunmen ambushed his motorcade in Jerusalem. Lehi had feared that Israel would agree to Bernadotte's peace proposals, which they considered disastrous, unaware that the provisional Israeli government had already rejected a proposal by Bernadotte the day before. The Israeli provisional government drafted an ordinance for the prevention of terrorism and then invoked it to declare Lehi a terrorist organisation, consequently rounding up 200 of its members for "administrative detention" (prison). They were granted amnesty some months later and given a state pardon.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In the first years of Israel's independence, Shamir managed several commercial enterprises. In 1955, he joined the Mossad, serving until 1965. During his Mossad career, he directed Operation Damocles, the assassinations of German rocket scientists working on the Egyptian missile programme.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: He ran a unit that placed agents in hostile countries, created the Mossad's division for planning and served on its General Staff.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir resigned from the Mossad in protest over the treatment of Mossad Director-General Isser Harel, who had been compelled to resign after Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered an end to Operation Damocles.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In 1969, Shamir joined the Herut party headed by Menachem Begin and was first elected to the Knesset in 1973 as a member of the Likud. He became Speaker of the Knesset in 1977, and Foreign Minister in 1980 which he remained until 1986, concurrently serving as prime minister from October 1983 to September 1984 after Begin's resignation.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir had a reputation as a Likud hard-liner. In 1977 he presided at the Knesset visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He abstained in the Knesset votes to approve the Camp David Accords and the Peace Treaty with Egypt. In 1981 and 1982, as Foreign Minister, he guided negotiations with Egypt to normalize relations after the treaty. Following the 1982 Lebanon War he directed negotiations which led to the May 17, 1983 Agreement with Lebanon, which did not materialize.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir won reelection as party leader in the 1984 Herut leadership election, defeating a challenge from Ariel Sharon.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: His failure to stabilize Israel's inflationary economy and to suggest a solution to the quagmire of Lebanon led to an indecisive election in 1984, after which a national unity government was formed between his Likud party and the Alignment led by Shimon Peres. As part of the agreement, Peres held the post of Prime Minister until September 1986, when Shamir took over.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: As he prepared to reclaim the office of prime minister, Shamir's hard-line image appeared to moderate. However, Shamir remained reluctant to change the status quo in Israel's relations with its Arab neighbours and blocked Peres's initiative to promote a regional peace conference as agreed in 1987 with King Hussein of Jordan in what has become known as the London Agreement. Re-elected in 1988, Shamir and Peres formed a new coalition government until "the dirty trick" of 1990, when the Alignment left the government, leaving Shamir with a narrow right-wing coalition. During this period the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip launched the first Intifada, which was suppressed with force by the Israeli government.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir urged the US government to stop granting refugee visas to Soviet Jews, persuading it that they were not refugees because they already had a homeland in Israel and were only moving to the United States for economic reasons. He also termed the emigration of Soviet Jews to the United States rather than to Israel "defection", and called the issuing of US refugee visas to Soviet Jews when Israel was already willing to take them in "an insult to Israel". In 1989, a wave of Jewish emigration began from the Soviet Union after the Soviets allowed their Jewish population to emigrate freely. In October of that year, the US agreed to his requests and stopped issuing refugee visas to Soviet emigrants. Subsequently, Israel became the main destination of Soviet Jewish emigrants. Over one million Soviet immigrants would subsequently arrive in Israel, many of whom would have likely gone to the United States had Shamir not pressed the US government to change its policy.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: During the Gulf War, Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel, many of which struck population centers. Iraq hoped to provoke Israeli retaliation and thus alienate Arab members of the United States-assembled coalition against Iraq. Shamir deployed Israeli Air Force jets to patrol the northern airspace with Iraq. However, after the United States and the Netherlands deployed Patriot antimissile batteries to protect Israel, and US and British special forces began hunting for Scuds, Shamir responded to American calls for restraint, recalled the jets, and agreed not to retaliate.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: During his term, Shamir reestablished diplomatic relations between Israel and several dozen African, Asian and other countries. In May 1991, as the Ethiopian government of Mengistu Haile Mariam was collapsing, Shamir ordered the airlifting of 14,000 Ethiopian Jews, known as Operation Solomon. He continued his efforts, begun in the late 1960s, to bring Soviet Jewish refugees to Israel. Shamir restored diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Israel in October 1991, and following its dissolution, established relations between Israel and his native Belarus in May 1992. Shamir was dedicated to bringing Jews from all over the world to Israel, and called on American Jews to emigrate to Israel in spite of a higher standard of living in the US, saying that he expected even American Jewish youth to realize that "man does not live by bread alone" but to "learn and understand Jewish history, the Bible... and reach the only conclusion: to come on aliya to Israel."


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Relations with the US were strained in the period after the war over the Madrid peace talks, which Shamir opposed. As a result, US President George H. W. Bush was reluctant to approve loan guarantees to help absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Finally, Shamir gave in and in October 1991 participated in the Madrid talks. His narrow, right-wing government collapsed, and new elections were necessarily called.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In a February 1992 leadership election, Shamir retained his leadership of Likud, defeating challenges from David Levy and Ariel Sharon.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: One of Shamir's last acts as Prime Minister was to approve the 16 February 1992 assassination of the leader of Hizbullah, Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir was defeated by Yitzhak Rabin's Labour in the 1992 election. He stepped down from the Likud leadership in March 1993 but remained a member of the Knesset until the 1996 election. For some time, Shamir was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Shamir went so far as to resign from the Likud in 1998 and endorse Herut, a right-wing splinter movement led by Benny Begin, which later joined the National Union during the 1999 election. After Netanyahu was defeated, Shamir returned to the Likud fold and supported Ariel Sharon in the 2001 election. Subsequently, in his late eighties, Shamir ceased making public comments.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In 2004, Shamir's health declined, with the progression of his Alzheimer's disease, and he was moved to a nursing home. The government turned down a request by the family to finance his stay at the facility.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir died on the morning of June 30, 2012, at a nursing home in Tel Aviv where he had spent the last few years as a result of the Alzheimer's disease he had suffered since the mid-1990s. He was given a state funeral, which took place on July 2 at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, and was buried beside his wife, Shulamit, who had died the previous year. As his body was lying in state Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin laid a wreath on his coffin and said:


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Israeli President Shimon Peres said that "Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior for Israel, before and after its inception. He was a great patriot and his enormous contribution will be forever etched in our chronicles. He was loyal to his beliefs and he served his country with the utmost dedication for decades. May he rest in peace." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement upon hearing of his death that read: "[Shamir] led Israel with a deep loyalty to the nation. [The Prime Minister] expresses his deep pain over the announcement of the departure of Yitzhak Shamir. He was part of a marvelous generation which created the state of Israel and struggled for the Jewish people." This was despite previous feuds between the two once-Likud members. He was also mourned in the Knesset.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman added that Shamir "contributed greatly to the foundation of the state, which he served his entire life with loyalty and unwavering dedication. He set an example in each position that he held. I had the privilege to be personally acquainted with Shamir, and I will always remember him and his great contribution to the state;" while Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "His whole life, Shamir was as stable as granite and maintained focus without compromises. He always strived to ensure Israel's freedom. His devotion knew no bounds [and he] always sought what's right for the people of Israel and for the country's security."


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Leader of the Opposition and Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich offered her condolences to Shamir's family saying that "he was a determined prime minister who dedicated his life to the state. He followed his ideological path honestly and humbly, as a leader should. The citizens of Israel will always remember the wisdom he demonstrated during the First Gulf War. He showed restraint and saved Israel from undue entanglement in the Iraq War. This decision proved to be a brave and wise act of leadership."


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: His daughter Gilada Diamant said: [My father] belonged to a different generation of leaders, people with values and beliefs. I hope that we have more people like him in the future. His political doing has undoubtedly left its mark on the State of Israel. Dad was an amazing man, a family man in the fullest sense of the word, a man who dedicated himself to the State of Israel but never forgot his family, not even for a moment. He was a special man.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: In 2001, Shamir received the Israel Prize, for his lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: He wrote "Sikumo shel davar", a book which was published in English by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, as "Summing Up: An autobiography" (1994).


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir twice served as prime minister (Israel's head of government). His first stint spanned from 10 October 1983 through 13 September 1984, leading the 20th government during the latter portion of the 10th Knesset. His second stint lasted from 20 October 1986 through 13 July 1992, leading the 22nd government government during the latter half of the 11th Knesset, and 23rd and 24th governments during the 12th Knesset.


title: Yitzhak Shamir

text: Shamir was a member of the Knesset from after his 1973 election until 1996. During the first portion of the 13th Knesset Shamir served as the Knesset's opposition leader (at the time an unofficial and honorary role) from July 1992 through March 1993.


title: Subregion

text: A subregion is a part of a larger region or continent and is usually based on location. Cardinal directions, such as south are commonly used to define a subregion.


title: Subregion

text: The Statistics Division of the United Nations (UN) is in charge of the collection, processing, and dissemination of statistical information for the UN. In 1999, it developed a system of macro-geographical (continental) regions, subregions, and other selected economic groups to report advances towards achieving numerous millennial development goals worldwide. These statistical divisions were devised for statistical purposes and is used for carrying out statistical analysis. The division's first publication was the book "World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics" in 2000.


title: Subregion

text: According to the UN, the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories.


title: Subregion

text: The following is a non-exhaustive list of subregions, arranged alphabetically by region (i.e., by continent); in the UN geoscheme, higher-level, macro-geographical regions are arranged to the extent possible according to continents.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: "Namaste" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of the AMC television series "Better Call Saul", a spin-off series of "Breaking Bad". The episode aired on March 9, 2020, on AMC in the United States. Outside of the United States, the episode premiered on the streaming service Netflix in several countries.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: After a night of drinking and sex, Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler head to work. Jimmy convinces Sticky and Ron, two drug users who had his "50% off" business cards, to keep him as their counsel when they seem ready to accept a free public defender. Jimmy later has lunch with Howard Hamlin, who admits that HHM wronged Jimmy in the past, but says the feud was between Jimmy and Chuck McGill, not Jimmy and the firm. Howard offers Jimmy the chance to join HHM but Jimmy is once again unsettled by the reminder of his previous life.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: Kim recommends an alternate building site to Kevin Wachtell and Paige Novick that will enable Mesa Verde to work around Everett Acker's refusal to vacate his home, but they insist on eviction. Kim looks on as Jimmy uses the Saul Goodman persona in a courtroom con that achieves a mistrial. She asks Jimmy as Saul to represent Acker against Mesa Verde, and Acker agrees. After buying three bowling balls at a pawn shop, Jimmy flings them over Howard's front gate, damaging his expensive car.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: The Albuquerque Police and DEA stake out the last of Gus Fring's dead drops. Diego collects the money, then leads the DEA on a wild chase, eluding them by escaping through a small tunnel after abandoning the cash. While Hank Schrader is disappointed they did not get information on the higher-ups, the DEA and police celebrate the seizure of nearly a million dollars in drug money and the arrests of the three men who made the drug drops. Diego regroups with Victor and they contact Gus to inform him their task is complete. Gus has been seething in anger at Los Pollos Hermanos over the loss of the dead drops, and venting his frustration on Lyle, the assistant manager, by making him repeatedly clean the fryers. After Gus hangs up, Lyle asks if the fryers are clean enough, and Gus replies that they are "acceptable."


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: Mike Ehrmantraut arrives at Stacey Ehrmantraut's home to watch Kaylee Ehrmantraut but finds Stacey hired another babysitter. She tells Mike she does not feel comfortable leaving Kaylee with him as a result of his previous outburst. As Mike is walking home later that night, he is set upon by the street thugs he previously encountered. They beat and stab him, and Mike wakes up in a pueblo at an unknown location.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: "Namaste" is the directorial debut of Gordon Smith, who had started off as a production assistant on "Breaking Bad" before becoming a screenwriter for both that show and "Better Call Saul". In addition, Smith wrote the screenplay. The episode marks the final appearance of Dean Norris in the "Breaking Bad" franchise as Hank Schrader.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: "Namaste" is a Sanskrit customary greeting; in the episode, it is depicted on the vanity license plate ("NAMAST3") of Howard's car.


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: "Namaste" received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it garnered a 92% rating with an average score of 8.21/10 based on 14 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "Everyone is struggling to keep their cool in a "Better Call Saul" entry that meticulously sets up the season's storytelling pins, racking up suspense for the impending bowling ball that'll knock everything down."


title: Namaste (Better Call Saul)

text: "Namaste" was watched by 1.22 million viewers on its first broadcast, which was a slight increase from the previous week of 1.18 million.


title: North Korean won

text: The Korean People's won, sometimes known as the North Korean won (Symbol: ₩; Code: KPW; Korean: ) or Democratic People's Republic of Korea won (Korean: ), is the official currency of North Korea. It is subdivided into 100 "chon". The currency is issued by the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, based in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang.


title: North Korean won

text: "Won" is a cognate of the Chinese yuan and Japanese yen. All three names derive from the Hanja (), which means "round shape." The won is subdivided into 100 chon (; ; McCune-Reischauer: "chŏn"; Revised Romanization: "jeon").


title: North Korean won

text: After the division of Korea, North Korea continued using the Korean yen for two years, until the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established on 6 December 1947 and the first North Korean won was issued. In February 1959, the second North Korean won was introduced, equal to 100 old won.


title: North Korean won

text: From 1978 on, the North Korean government maintained an iconic rate of 2.16 won to the US dollar (which is said to have been based upon Kim Jong-il's birthday, 16 February).


title: North Korean won

text: Over the decades, however, rampant inflation eroded the currency's value, and from 2001 the government abandoned the rate in favor of those closer to the black market's. A report by defectors from North Korea claimed the black market rate was ₩570 to the Chinese yuan (about ₩4,000 per U.S. dollar) in June 2009.


title: North Korean won

text: The third North Korean won was introduced in a revaluation , the first in 50 years. North Koreans were given seven days to exchange a maximum of ₩100,000 (worth approximately US$40 on the black market) in ₩1,000 notes for ₩10 notes, but after protests by some of the populace, the limit was raised to ₩150,000 in cash and ₩300,000 in bank savings. The official exchange rate at this time was around $740, but black market value of the ₩150,000 was estimated to be near $30. The revaluation, seen as a move against private market activity, wiped out many North Koreans' savings. "The Times" speculated that the move may have been an attempt by the North Korean government to control price inflation and destroy the fortunes of local black market money traders. The announcement was made to foreign embassies but not in North Korean state media.


title: North Korean won

text: As part of the process, the old notes ceased to be legal tender on 30 November 2009, but notes valued in the new won were not distributed until 7 December 2009. North Koreans were thus unable to exchange any money for goods or services for a week, and most shops, restaurants and transport services were shut down. The only services that remained open were those catering to the political elite and foreigners who both continued to trade exclusively in foreign currency. The measure led to concerns amongst North Korean officials that the move would result in civil unrest. China's Xinhua news agency described North Korean citizens as being in a "collective panic"; army bases were put on alert and there were unconfirmed reports of public protests in the streets in a handful of North Korean cities and towns, forcing authorities to slightly increase the amount of currency people were allowed to exchange. Piles of old bills were also set on fire in separate locations across the country, old paper notes were dumped in a stream (against laws of the desecration of images of Kim Il-sung), and two black market traders were shot dead in the streets of Pyongsong by local police, according to international reports. Authorities threatened "merciless punishment" for any person violating the rules of the currency change.


title: North Korean won

text: Pictures of the new notes were published on 4 December 2009 in the "Chosun Shinbo", a North Korean newspaper based in Japan. The paper claimed that the measure would weaken the free market and strengthen the country's socialist system. However, the won plummeted 96 percent against the U.S. dollar in the ensuing days after revaluation. Authorities eventually raised the limit to 500,000 won, Chosun said, and promised no probes into savings of up to one million won, and unlimited withdrawals if savings of more than one million were properly accounted for.


title: North Korean won

text: In February 2010, some of the curbs on the free market were eased and a senior party official sacked after incidents of unrest. Pak Nam-gi, the director of the Planning and Finance Department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, was executed later in 2010. North Korea denied any serious crisis relating to the revaluation.


title: North Korean won

text: The first North Korean coins for circulation were minted in 1959 in denominations of 1, 5, and 10 chon. These coins were often restruck with the original dates in later years; however, 1970 and 1974 dates also appear on the 1 and 5 chon. In 1978, 50 chon coins featuring the Chollima Statue and a rising sun were introduced into circulation during the 1979 currency reform to allow greater flexibility for vendors by eliminating the 50 chon banknote and large amounts of "small change" coinage carried. In 1987, 1 won coins featuring the Grand People's Study House were introduced, but did not fully replace the 1 won note which remained legal tender.


title: North Korean won

text: When the historic 2.16 peg to the dollar was abandoned in 2001 to allow for greater convertibility the coins began to lose value. After 2003, these coins were rarely seen in circulation but were still redeemable. Later, a new set of coins was introduced in 2005 in denominations of 5, 10, 50, and 100 won. These coins were less impressive compared to the older series, being very plain and generic in design. All circulation coins of the Second Won were struck in aluminum.


title: North Korean won

text: Following other socialist economies like Cuba and China, North Korea developed a special system of marking coins for two groups of foreign visitors. Issued in 1983, these coins were part of the "Pakkundon" convertible series. Coins with no "stars" were for general circulation in North Korea, coins marked with one star were for "socialist visitors", and coins marked with two stars were designated for "capitalist visitors". A fourth set, intended for collectors rather than circulation, was struck with the word "specimen" or "example" in Korean characters in the areas where the stars would be. The specimen/example set is the least common of the four. Besides the general circulating coins, there is an abundance of different commemorative coins minted in the name of the DPRK. Most, if not all of them, are sold to foreign numismatists. Some of these are official, state approved coins, others are not.


title: North Korean won

text: Coins were issued in 10, 50 chon and 1 won denominations in 2002, and 1 and 5 chon denominations in 2008. All denominations are struck in aluminum. These coins feature the national coat of arms on the obverse and flowers, particularly the Kimjongilia and the Kimilsungia, on the reverse of the 10 and 50 chon coins. A magnolia adorns the 1 won coin.


title: North Korean won

text: Initially struck in 2002, the coins were intended for use shortly after the dollar peg was removed from the currency. The 50 chon and 1 won coins were smaller than the previous designs, while the new 10 chon coin was the same size as the old. Hyperinflation became a very sudden reality, however, and the new coins were never released as planned. In 2008, 1 and 5 chon coins were also struck when a plan for monetary revaluation began. The coins were finally released into circulation in December 2009, but due to the flawed nature of the revaluation, these coins again have very little value, the 1 and 5 chon coins in particular being virtually irrelevant.


title: North Korean won

text: The first banknotes of "North Korea" were issued in 1945 by the Soviet-backed provisional government above the 38th parallel. These were in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and 100 won. These were discontinued shortly after Soviet forces withdrew and recognized the newly independent state.


title: North Korean won

text: This currency was issued in all-banknote form, with the first banknotes of this issue in denominations of 15, 20, and 50 chon along with 1, 5, 10 and 100 won in 1947. The chon notes had stylized art designs, while the won denominations were fairly uniform in design, featuring a farmer and a worker standing together and holding the symbolic tools. This currency was later revalued in 1959 at a rate of one new won to 100 old won to curb the inflation that had occurred as a result of the Korean War.


title: North Korean won

text: In 1959, the old won was replaced with the Second Won, with price and exchange rates fixed to the U.S. dollar. This banknote series was issued in denominations of 50 chon, and 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 won. These notes were much larger than the previous issue and depicted images representing various industries in the North Korean economy.


title: North Korean won

text: In 1979, the currency was again reformed, and a new banknote series was issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 won. There is ongoing speculation as to why this move was made. All 1959 banknotes were removed from circulation. Circulating coins, however, were not affected by this change. The designs for this issue were much more symbolic and charismatic than previous ones, with Kim Il-sung featuring for the first time on the 100 won note.


title: North Korean won

text: In 1992, another redesign was carried out for banknotes, again in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 won. Older notes were once again withdrawn. These notes were smaller and crisper than the previous issue and depicted more modern themes. The 5 and 10 won banknotes were again issued in 1998, along with a 500 won banknote that same year but were stamped rather than engraved reflecting poorer production quality. In 2002, 1,000 and 5,000 won notes were introduced, followed by a 200 won note in 2005. The former two were identical in design to the 100 won though differing in colors and added security features, but the colored fields behind the text no longer extended all the way to the margins. In 2007, the 500 won had also been revised in this same manner along with being engraved for the first time to protect against counterfeiting. From 1998 onwards, all notes were dated using the Juche year (Juche year) along with the standard dating.


title: North Korean won

text: In 2005, the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea issued commemorative 200, 500, 1000 and 5000 won notes to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the foundation of North Korea. It consists of an overprint on its regular issue notes.


title: North Korean won

text: In 2007, a commemorative version of this banknote series was released, stamped "Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung's 95th Birthday" on all denominations.


title: North Korean won

text: In 2009, was initiated to tackle hyperinflation and black market activities. Unlike previous reforms, the 2009 move sparked a nationwide panic when it was announced there would be a two-week waiting period between the withdrawal of the old currency and the introduction of the new currency, coupled with an exchange limit of only 500,000 old won for each person, effectively wiping out savings. The state eventually pulled back on most exchange limits; however, the revaluation proved to be a failure.


title: North Korean won

text: Like the coins for this series, some of the denominations were initially printed in 2002 but were never released into circulation, pointing to a planned monetary revaluation much earlier than 2009 that was never carried out.


title: North Korean won

text: The current series of banknotes of the third won are issued in denominations of 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 won. Kim Il-sung is depicted only on the obverse of the highest denomination, with the 100 won note featuring the Magnolia (National Flower) and other notes depicting North Koreans of different professions and various monuments in North Korea. The exchange rate was 100 second won to 1 third won.


title: North Korean won

text: Unlike all previous series, these notes were all uniform in dimensions rather than staggered in size from smallest to largest. There are rumors that the original designs for the 1,000 and 2,000 won notes depicted Kim Il-sung and had similar design features to the 5,000 won that were scrapped and destroyed due to counterfeiters or thieves breaking into a bank warehouse and stealing early notes or printing materials, resulting in a total redesign of the two denominations in question.


title: North Korean won

text: In 2012, another commemorative series of banknotes was released, this time in the 2002–2009 series but similarly stamped "Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung's 100th Birthday." Once again this stamp appeared on all denominations.


title: North Korean won

text: In 2018, 1,000 and 2,000 won notes were released with an overprint referencing the 70th Anniversary of its independence.


title: North Korean won

text: On 25 July 2014, a new 5,000 won note dated 2013 was released into circulation. Instead of depicting the portrait of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, the note depicts an image of his birthplace in Mangyondae and on the back the International Friendship Exhibition in Myohyangsan that displays gifts he and his son Kim Jong-il received from foreign leaders. There has been ongoing speculation that this could indicate plans for higher denominations to be released later which would depict Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, or possibly both. However the official reason behind the change was to combat counterfeiters.


title: North Korean won

text: Lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused shortages in ink and paper used to print regular KPW banknotes, resulting in the issuance in the second half of 2021 of an emergency currency printed with the word "donpyo" (돈표 or "money coupon"). It is denominated 5,000 won and printed in red ink on white paper of poor quality.


title: North Korean won

text: Shortages in regular KPW banknotes after 2020 have also resulted in a premium in their exchange values in the black markets. The "donpyo" is discounted versus regular banknotes at only 3,800-4,000 KPW, and KPW banknotes have even appreciated versus the US dollar from 8,000 KPW to 5,200 KPW/USD.


title: North Korean won

text: The North Korean won is not traded in the international markets. It is traded in the unofficial black markets at around US$1 = 8,000 KPW as of 2019 and around $1 = 5,000 KPW as of 2021.


title: North Korean won

text: North Korean won are intended exclusively for North Korean citizens, and the Bank of Trade (무역은행) issued a separate currency (or foreign exchange certificates) for visitors, like many other socialist states. However, North Korea made two varieties of foreign exchange certificates, one for visitors from "socialist countries" which were colored red and hence nicknamed "red won", and the other for visitors from "capitalist countries" which were colored blue/green and hence known as "blue won".


title: North Korean won

text: For the 1978 banknote series, foreign certificates, called "Pakkundon", meaning "exchangeable money" were implemented by an overstamp and serial number color. This was intended to protect the value of the national currency in North Korea's command economy. These were first released in 1983 in two forms, one for "socialist visitors" which had a red stamp, and one for "capitalist visitors" which had a green stamp. Another series was released in 1986 with either a blue or red Guilloché style stamp. These were issued in all denominations, except for the ₩100 note, presumably because it was assumed by the government that foreign visitors to North Korea would not show proper respect for its depiction of Kim Il-sung. These notes were discontinued in 1988 and replaced with a new series of Pakkundon in all banknote form that was more distinguishable and unmistakable from generic circulation currency.


title: North Korean won

text: In 1988, the Bank of Trade (무역은행) (as opposed to the Central Bank) issued two unique series of foreign certificates. They both included 1 chon, 5 chon, 10 chon, 50 chon, ₩1, ₩5, ₩10, and ₩50. The series for "capitalist visitors" was blue-green, while the series for "socialist visitors" was pink. The chon notes had a simple design of patterns and corresponding values, while the socialist won notes depict the International Friendship Exhibition, and the capitalist won notes depict the Chollima Statue.


title: North Korean won

text: FECs were used until 1999, then officially abolished in 2002, in favor of visitors paying directly with hard currencies.


title: North Korean won

text: After the 2009 revaluation the BBC reported that in some department stores in Pyongyang, the North Korean won is not accepted; the stores only take Japanese yen and U.S. dollars. As of 2018 it has evolved to most North Korean stores accepting U.S. dollars, euros and Chinese yuan/renminbi, with change from transactions primarily returned in renminbi or U.S. dollars.


title: North Korean won

text: Foreign visitors (and privileged locals) can buy goods priced in 'tied' won using a local debit card, which is credited when exchanging foreign currency at the official bank rate of around 104 won/USD or 130 won/EUR (as of 2012). This card can be used for instance at the famous Pyongyang Department Store No. 1 or at the different stores at the international hotels, where the goods are priced at the tied won rate. This tied won does not exist in the form of bank notes, and is effectively a separate currency and accounting unit for sales involving foreign exchange.


title: North Korean won

text: In normal stores and markets goods are priced in what has been called the 'untied' won or free market rate which is represented by regular KPW banknotes. At for instance the Tongil Market and the Kwangbok Department Store (a.k.a. the Chinese Market) there are semi-official exchange agents who will give in regular banknotes around 8,000 KPW/USD or 10,000 KPW/EUR to locals and foreign visitors alike (as of 2012, or 77 times the tied or official rate). The untied KPW is used for prices in normal shops outside restricted state shops/tied won shops.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Media bias in the United States occurs when US media outlets skew information, such as reporting news in a way that conflicts with standards of professional journalism or promoting a political agenda through entertainment media. Claims of outlets, writers, and stories exhibiting both have increased as the two-party system has become more polarized, including claims of liberal and conservative bias. There is also bias in reporting to favor the corporate owners, and mainstream bias, a tendency of the media to focus on certain "hot" stories and ignore news of more substance. A variety of watchdog groups attempt to combat bias by fact-checking biased reporting and also unfounded claims of bias. Researchers in a variety of scholarly disciplines study media bias.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Before the rise of professional journalism in the early 20th century and the conception of media ethics, newspapers reflected the opinions of the publisher. Frequently, an area would be served by competing newspapers taking differing and often radical views by modern standards. In colonial Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was an early and forceful advocate for presenting all sides of an issue, writing, for instance, in his "An Apology For Printers" that "...when truth and error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter." From around 1790 to the late 1800s, most American newspapers were partisan.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 1798, the Federalist Party in control of Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts designed to weaken the opposition press. It prohibited the publication of "false, scandalous, or malicious writing" against the government and made it a crime to voice any public opposition to any law or presidential act. This part of the law act was in effect until 1801.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: President Thomas Jefferson, 1801–1809, was the target of many venomous attacks. He advised editors to divide their newspapers into four sections labeled "truth," "probabilities," "possibilities," and "lies," and observed that the first section would be the smallest and the last the largest. In retirement he grumbled, "Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 1861, Federal officials identified newspapers that supported the Confederate cause and ordered many of them closed.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In the 19th century, the accessibility of cheap newspapers allowed the market to expand exponentially. Cities typically had multiple competing newspapers supporting various political factions in each party. To some extent this was mitigated by a separation between "news" and "editorial". News reporting was expected to be relatively neutral or at least factual, whereas editorial sections openly relayed the opinion of the publisher. Editorials often were accompanied by editorial cartoons, which lampooned the publisher's opponents.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Small ethnic newspapers serviced people of various ethnicities, such as Germans, Dutch, Scandinavians, Poles, and Italians. Large cities had numerous foreign-language newspapers, magazines and publishers. They typically were boosters who supported their group's positions on public issues. They disappeared as their readership increasingly became assimilated. In the 20th century, newspapers in various Asian languages, and also in Spanish and Arabic, appeared and are still published, read by newer immigrants.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Starting in the 1890s, a few very high-profile metropolitan newspapers engaged in yellow journalism to increase sales. They emphasized sports, sex, scandal, and sensationalism. The leaders of this style of journalism in New York City were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst falsified or exaggerated sensational stories about atrocities in Cuba and the sinking of the USS Maine to boost circulation. Hearst falsely claimed that he had started the war, but in fact the nation's decision makers paid little attention to his shrill demands—President McKinley, for example, did not read the yellow journals.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: The Progressive Era, from the 1890s to the 1920s, was reform-oriented. From 1905 to 1915, the muckraker style exposed malefaction in city government and industry. It tended "to exaggerate, misinterpret, and oversimplify events," and got complaints from President Theodore Roosevelt.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: "The Dearborn Independent", a weekly magazine owned by Henry Ford and distributed free through Ford dealerships, published conspiracy theories about international Jewry in the 1920s. A favorite trope of the anti-Semitism that raged in the 1930s was the allegation that Jews controlled Hollywood and the media. Charles Lindbergh in 1941 claimed American Jews, possessing outsized influence in Hollywood, the media, and the Roosevelt administration, were pushing the nation into war against its interests. Lindbergh received a storm of criticism; the Gallup poll reported that support for his foreign policy views fell to 15%. Hans Thomsen, the senior diplomat at the German Embassy in Washington, reported to Berlin that his efforts to place pro-isolationist articles in American newspapers had failed. "Influential journalists of high repute will not lend themselves, even for money, to publishing such material." Thompson set up a publishing house to produce anti-British books, but almost all of them went unsold. In the years leading up to World War II, The pro-Nazi German American Bund accused the media of being controlled by Jews. They claimed that reports of German mistreatment of Jews were biased and without foundation. They said that Hollywood was a hotbed of Jewish bias, and called for Charlie Chaplin's film "The Great Dictator" to be banned as an insult to a respected leader.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: During the American civil rights movement, conservative newspapers strongly slanted their news about civil rights, blaming the unrest among Southern Blacks on communists. In some cases, Southern television stations refused to air programs such as "I Spy" and "" because of their racially mixed casts. Newspapers supporting civil rights, labor unions, and aspects of liberal social reform were often accused by conservative newspapers of communist bias.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In November 1969, Vice President Spiro Agnew made a landmark speech denouncing what he saw as media bias against the Vietnam War. He called those opposed to the war the "nattering nabobs of negativism."


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Starting in the 21st century, social media became a major source of bias, since anyone could post anything without regard to its accuracy. Social media has, on the one hand, allowed all views to be heard, but on the other hand has provided a platform for the most extreme bias.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2010, President Obama said that he believed the viewpoints expressed by Fox News was "destructive for the long-term growth" of the United States.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2014, the Pew Research Center found that the audience of news was polarized along political alignments.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In late 2015, Donald Trump started his campaign while addressing his concern with the media, calling some information relayed in the media, "fake news." This came shortly after the media began to critique Trump's statements. Information circulated regarding Trump's previous sexual comments made about women.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Beginning around 2016, reports concerning "fake news" became more prominent. It is thought that the use of social media during the Presidential election played a large role in the election of Donald Trump.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: A 1956 American National Election Study found that 66% of Americans thought newspapers were fair, including 78% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats. A 1964 poll by the Roper Organization asked a similar question about network news, and 71% thought network news was fair. A 1972 poll found that 72% of Americans trusted "CBS Evening News" anchor Walter Cronkite. According to Jonathan M. Ladd's "Why Americans Hate the Media and How it Matters", "institutional journalists were [once] powerful guardians of the republic, maintaining high standards of political discourse." Additionally, according to P. Bicak of Partisan Journalism (2018), within the 1988, 1992, and 1996 elections, there were evident paragraphs favoring the Democratic and Republican candidates.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: However, Gallup Polls since 1997 have shown that most Americans do not have confidence in the mass media "to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly". According to Gallup, the American public's trust in the media has generally declined in the first decade and a half of the 21st century. Again according to Ladd, in "2008, the portion of Americans expressing 'hardly any' confidence in the press had risen to 45%. A 2004 Chronicle of Higher Education poll found that only 10% of Americans had 'a great deal' of confidence in the 'national news media,'" In 2011, only 44% of those surveyed had "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust and confidence in the mass media. In 2013, a 59% majority reported a perception of media bias, with 46% saying mass media was too liberal and 13% saying it was too conservative. The perception of bias was highest among conservatives. According to the poll, 78% of conservatives think the mass media is biased, as compared with 44% of liberals and 50% of moderates. Only about 36% view mass media reporting as "just about right".


title: Media bias in the United States

text: A September 2014 Gallup poll found that a plurality of Americans believe the media is biased to favor liberal politics. According to the poll, 44% of Americans feel that news media are "too liberal" (70% of self-identified conservatives, 35% of self-identified moderates, and 15% of self-identified liberals), 19% believe them to be "too conservative" (12% of self-identified conservatives, 18% of self-identified moderates, and 33% of self-identified liberals), and 34% find it "just about right" (49% of self-identified liberals, 44% of self-identified moderates, and 16% of self-identified conservatives).


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2016, according to Gottfried and Shearer, "62 percent of US adults get news on social media," with Facebook being the dominant social media site. Again, this seemed to be a major contributor to the presidential election of Donald Trump. According to an article in the "Journal of Economic Perspectives", "many people who see fake news stories report that they believe them". Trump himself before, during, and after his presidency had and has a highly contentious relationship with the news media, repeatedly referring to them as the "fake news media" and "the enemy of the people," at the same time praising far-right pro-Trump fringe outlets. Trump has regularly lied and promoted conspiracy theories during his presidency.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2017, a Gallup poll found that the majority of Americans view the news media favoring a particular political party; 64% believed it favored the Democratic Party, compared to 22% who believed it favored the Republican Party.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2017, the trust in media by both Democrats and Republicans changed once again. According to a September 2017 Gallup poll, "Democrats' trust and confidence in the mass media to report the news 'fully, accurately and fairly' has jumped from 51% in 2016 to 72% this year—fueling a rise in Americans' overall confidence to 41%. Independents' trust has risen modestly to 37%, while Republicans' trust is unchanged at 14%."


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Shortly before the 2020 election, the Gallup poll showed that confidence in the mass media has continued to decline among Republicans and independent voters, to 10% and 36%, respectively. Among Democratic voters, confidence rose to 73%.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: A Gallup poll released in October 2021 showed 68% of Democrats, 31% of independents, and just 11% of Republicans trust the media a great deal or fair amount. Both Democrats' and independents' trust decreased 5% over the past year.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: According to Jonathan M. Ladd, "Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters", "The existence of an independent, powerful, widely respected news media establishment is a historical anomaly. Prior to the twentieth century, such an institution had never existed in American history." However, he looks back to the period between 1950 and 1979 as a period where "institutional journalists were powerful guardians of the republic, maintaining high standards of political discourse."


title: Media bias in the United States

text: A number of writers have tried to explain the decline in journalistic standards. One explanation is the 24-hour news cycle, which faces the necessity of generating news even when no news-worthy events occur. Another is the simple fact that bad news sells more newspapers than good news. A third possible factor is the market for "news" that reinforces the prejudices of a target audience. In 2014, "The New York Times" wrote: "In a 2010 paper, Mr. Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro, a frequent collaborator and fellow professor at Chicago Booth, found that ideological slants in newspaper coverage typically resulted from what the audience wanted to read in the media they sought out, rather than from the newspaper owners' biases."


title: Media bias in the United States

text: As reported by Haselmayer, Wagner, and Meyer in "Political Communication", "News value refers to the overall newsworthiness of a message and can be defined by the presence or absence of a number of news factors." The authors contend that media sources shape their coverage in ways that are favorable to them, and are more likely to present messages from outlets their viewers/readers favor. They conclude that majority of what individuals see, read, and hear is pre-determined by the journalists, editors, and reporters of that specific news source.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in their book "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" (1988), proposed a propaganda model thesis to explain systematic biases of United States media as a consequence of the pressure to create a profitable business.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Part of the propaganda model is self-censorship through the corporate system (see corporate censorship); reporters and especially editors share or acquire values that agree with corporate elites to further their careers. Those who do not are marginalized or fired. Such examples have been dramatized in fact-based movie dramas such as "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "The Insider" and demonstrated in the documentary "The Corporation". George Orwell originally wrote a preface for his 1945 novel "Animal Farm", which pointed up the self-censorship during wartime when the Soviet Union was an ally. The preface, first published in 1972, read in part:


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In the propaganda model, advertising revenue is essential for funding most media sources and thus linked with media coverage. For example, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), "When Al Gore proposed launching a progressive TV network, a Fox News executive told "Advertising Age" (October 13, 2003): 'The problem with being associated as liberal is that they wouldn't be going in a direction that advertisers are really interested in... If you go out and say that you are a liberal network, you are cutting your potential audience, and certainly your potential advertising pool, right off the bat.'" An internal memo from ABC Radio affiliates in 2006 revealed that powerful sponsors had a "standing order that their commercials never be placed on syndicated Air America programming" that aired on ABC affiliates. The list totaled 90 advertisers and included major corporations such as Walmart, General Electric, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, FedEx, Visa, Allstate, McDonald's, Sony, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as government entities such as the United States Postal Service and the United States Navy.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: According to Chomsky, US commercial media encourage controversy only within a narrow range of opinion to give the impression of open debate, and they do not report on news that falls outside that range.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: Herman and Chomsky argue that comparing the journalistic media product to the voting record of journalists is as flawed a logic as implying auto factory workers design the cars they help produce. They concede that media owners and newsmakers have an agenda but that the agenda is subordinated to corporate interests leaning to the right. It has been argued by some critics, including historian Howard Zinn and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, that the corporate media routinely ignore the plight of the impoverished while painting a picture of a prosperous America.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: In 2008, George W. Bush's press secretary Scott McClellan published a book in which he confessed to regularly and routinely, but unknowingly, passing on misinformation to the media, following the instructions of his superiors. Politicians have willingly misled the press to further their agenda. Scott McClellan characterized the press as, by and large, honest, and intent on telling the truth, but reported that "the national press corps was probably "too" deferential to the White House", especially on the subject of the war in Iraq.


title: Media bias in the United States

text: FAIR reported that between January and August 2014 no representatives for organized labor made an appearance on any of the high-profile Sunday morning talkshows (NBC's "Meet the Press", ABC's "This Week", "Fox News Sunday" and CBS's "Face the Nation"), including episodes that covered topics such as labor rights and jobs, while current or former corporate CEOs made 12 appearances over that same period.