Births Deaths Events Donald John Trump (i/ˈdɒnəld dʒɒn trʌmp/; born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, and the President-elect of the United States. He is scheduled to take office as the 45th President on January 20, 2017. External links References The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner.[1] It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel;[2][3] however, by April 2016, a CNN executive officially described the channel as "no longer a TV news network" and instead as "a 24-hour global multiplatform network."[4] Upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage,[5] and was the first all-news television channel in the United States.[6] CNN References Romans d'Isonzo (Friulian: Romans dal Lusinç, Slovene: Romanž na Soči) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Gorizia in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Trieste and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southwest of Gorizia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,611 and an area of 15.4 square kilometres (5.9 sq mi).[1] Romans d'Isonzo borders the following municipalities: Gradisca d'Isonzo, Mariano del Friuli, Medea, San Vito al Torre, Tapogliano, Villesse. References Selected filmography Robert Adair (3 January 1900 – 10 August 1954) was an American-born British actor.[1] He was born in San Francisco and died in London. Filmography Tom Busby (7 November 1936, Toronto, Ontario, Canada – 20 September 2003, Glasgow, Scotland) was a Canadian actor and agent. Among his film credits were The War Lover (1962); The Dirty Dozen (1967) as Milo Vladek, one of the dozen; and Heavenly Pursuits (1986).[1] ↑ "Tom Busby Actor, one of the famous group in The Dirty Dozen". The Herald. 19 October 2003. Cite news URL http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12530141.Tom_Busby_Actor__one_of_the_famous_group_in_The_Dirty_Dozen/ Source title Tom Busby Actor, one of the famous group in The Dirty Dozen Source date 19 October 2003 Name of publication The Herald ↑ "Obituaries: Sian Busby". The Telegraph. Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (French: [emanɥɛl makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician, senior civil servant, and former investment banker. Born in Amiens, he studied Philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, completed a Master's of Public Affairs at Sciences Po, and graduated from the École nationale d'administration (ENA) in 2004. He worked as an Inspector of Finances in the Inspectorate General of Finances (IGF) and then became an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque. Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (French: [maʁin ləpɛn]; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician. She is the former president of the National Front (FN), a political party in France. She is the youngest daughter of long-time FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and the aunt of FN MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. Filmography Muriel Aked (9 November 1883– 21 March 1955) was a British film actress.[1] She was born to George Henry Aked and his wife Emma (née Bairstow).[2] She was a student at Liverpool Repertory Theatre for six months but left to do war work. She made her screen debut in 1920 in A Sister to Assist 'Er. She also appeared in Can You Hear Me, Mother?, Public Nuisance No.1, Royal Eagle, Fame and Don't Rush Me. References External links Discography Alejandro Ocana, better known by his stage name 2Mex, is a rapper from Los Angeles, California.[1] He is a member of The Visionaries and Of Mexican Descent. He has collaborated with underground hip hop artists such as Jel, Omid, Thavius Beck, Factor, Radioinactive and Isaiah "Ikey" Owens. He is a member of the Project Blowed crew, and he is affiliated with Shape Shifters. Jimbo R. Aquino (born October 13, 1985)[1] is a Filipino former professional basketball player. He last played for the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters in the Philippine Basketball Association. Aaron Abril Galarrita Aban (born April 8, 1982) is a Filipino professional basketball player for the GlobalPort Batang Pier of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Born in Cagayan de Oro City, he graduated his high school at Liceo de Cagayan University and went to Colegio de San Juan de Letran in college. Tauheed Epps (born September 12, 1977),[1][2] known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is a Grammy[3] award-winning American rapper from College Park, Georgia. He initially gained recognition for being one-half of the Southern hip hop duo Playaz Circle, alongside his longtime friend and fellow rapper, Earl "Dolla Boy" Conyers. They are perhaps best known for being signed to fellow Georgia-based rapper Ludacris' Disturbing tha Peace label, as well as their debut single "Duffle Bag Boy". 2 Chainz Terje Aa (born 16 March 1961) is a Norwegian bridge player, WBF World Life Master, and regular member of the Norwegian team since 1993. Teams on which he was a member have placed in the top three of the World Bridge Federation European and World Championships 11 times between 1984 and 2008. Jaak Aab (born 9 April 1960 in Taagepera) is an Estonian politician and a former Minister of Social Affairs of Estonia. He belongs to the Estonian Centre Party (Eesti Keskerakond). Krajang Tularak is member of Khana Ratsadon for Siamese revolution of 1932. Krajang is Thai Chinese born in 1913 at Bang Khla District, Chachoengsao Province join with Khana Ratsadon until 19 years old. Joshua Wong Chi-fung (Chinese: 黃之鋒, born 13 October 1996)[3] is a Hong Kong student activist who serves as secretary general of Demosistō. He is also the convenor and founder of the Hong Kong student activist group Scholarism (now disbanded).[3][4] Internationally known for his prominent role during the 2014 Umbrella Revolution, his major influence in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement has resulted in his inclusion in TIME's Most Influential Teens of 2014, nomination for TIME's Person of the Year 2014[5] and recognition by Fortune as one of the world's greatest leaders in 2015.[6][7] 10 January 2014 ↑ http://www.hkilang.org/NEW_WEB/page/dictionary Association for Conversation of Hong Kong Indigenous Languages Online Dictionary for Hong Kong Hakka and Hong Kong Punti (Weitou dialect) 1 2 Lai, Alexis (30 July 2012). "'National education' raises furor in Hong Kong". Hong Kong: CNN. Retrieved 16 August 2014. ↑ Hsieh, Steven (8 October 2012). "Hong Kong Students Fight for the Integrity of their Education". The Nation. Hong Kong. Retrieved 16 August 2014. 1 2 "Hong Kong Student Leader Joshua Wong Charged With Obstruction". Time. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2014. ↑ Yik Fei, Lam . World's Greatest Leaders: 10: Joshua Wong. Fortune. ↑ AFP. H.K.'s Joshua Wong among 'world's greatest leaders': Fortune. Jennifer Evans is a Welsh actress, best known for landing the lead role of estranged Welsh farm girl Cat Williams in the award-winning (BIFA Raindance Award) horror/comedy feature film Evil Aliens. Peggy Evans (10 January 1921 – 26 July 2015)[1] was an English actress.[2] She trained at the Rank Organisation's The Company of Youth (a "charm school"). 15 August 2015. p. 31. ↑ Profile, ftvdb.bfi.org.uk; accessed 17 August 2015. 1 2 3 Lentz, Harris M. III (2016). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2015. ISBN 9781476625539. Retrieved 19 April 2017. ↑ Johnson, Tom; Miller, Mark A. (2004). The Christopher Lee Filmography: All Theatrical Releases, 1948-2003. Kyrgyzstan competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. Kyrgyzstan competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's third appearance at the Olympics in the post-Soviet era. References Kyrgyzstan competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Kyrgyzstan won their first Olympic medal at these games. 48 competitors, 35 men and 13 women, took part in 59 events in 9 sports.[1] Kyrgyzstan competed in the Summer Olympic Games as an independent nation for the first time at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States. Previously, Kyrgyz athletes had competed for the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The Philippines competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was held in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.[1] This was the nation's twentieth appearance at the Olympics. The Philippines competed in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. The Philippines competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Philippines competed at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States. To date, this was the only Olympic games where Filipinos won more than one medal. The Philippines competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. 28 competitors, all men, took part in 20 events in 6 sports.[1] The Philippines competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in Wembley Park, London, England. 26 competitors, all men, took part in 18 events in 8 sports.[1] Law Psychology Sociology Natural sciences Biology Chemistry Earth and space sciences Mathematics Physics Applied sciences Arts Computer science Humanities Engineering and technology Geography Performing arts Medicine and health sciences History References Languages and literature Philosophy Theology Social sciences Economics Pure mathematics Applied mathematics Outline of academic disciplines The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, 828 metres (2,717 ft) tall Practicing engineers Soil mechanics Soil properties Geotechnical investigation Foundations Shallow foundations Footings Slab foundations Deep foundations Lateral earth support structures Gravity walls Cantilever walls Earthworks Excavation Ground Improvement History ISBN 0-471-08658-4 1 2 Holtz, R. and Kovacs, W. (1981), An Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering, Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-13-484394-0 1 2 3 4 Das, Braja (2006). Principles of Geotechnical Engineering. Thomson Learning. 1 2 Budhu, Muni (2007). Soil Mechanics and Foundations. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-43117-6. 1 2 Disturbed soil properties and geotechnical design, Schofield, Andrew N.,Thomas Telford, 2006. ISBN 0-7277-2982-9 ↑ Soil Mechanics, Lambe,T.William and Whitman,Robert V., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John Wiley & Sons., 1969. ISBN 0-471-51192-7 ↑ Soil Behavior and Critical State Soil Mechanics, Wood, David Muir,Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780132368681. ↑ RAJU, V. R. (2010). Ground Improvement Technologies and Case Histories. Singapore: Research Publishing Services. p. 809. ISBN 978-981-08-3124-0. ↑ Pariseau, William G. (2011). Design analysis in rock mechanics. CRC Press. 1 2 Dean, E.T.R. (2010). Offshore Geotechnical Engineering – Principles and Practice. Thomas Telford, Reston, VA, U.S.A., 520 p. ↑ Randolph, M. and Gourvenec, S., 2011. Layal Abboud (Arabic: ليال عبود‎‎:pronounced [layāl ʿab'boud]; born 15 May 1982) is a Lebanese pop singer, folk music entertainer, sound-lyric poet, concert dancer, fit model, Muslim humanitarian and businesswoman.[1][2][3] Children marching for climate justice (2017). In 2004, the Durban Group for Climate Justice was formed at an international meeting in Durban, South Africa. Here representatives from NGOs and peoples' movements discussed realistic policies for addressing climate change.[12] At the 2007 Bali Conference, the global coalition Climate Justice Now! was founded, and, in 2008, the Global Humanitarian Forum focused on climate justice at its inaugural meeting in Geneva.[13] In 2009, the Climate Justice Action Network was formed during the run-up to the Copenhagen Summit.[14] It proposed civil disobedience and direct action during the summit, and many climate activists used the slogan 'system change not climate change'.[15] In April 2010, the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth took place in Tiquipaya, Bolivia. It was hosted by the government of Bolivia as a global gathering of civil society and governments. The conference published a "People's Agreement" calling, among other things, for greater climate justice.[16] In December 2018, the People’s Demands for Climate Justice, signed by 292,000 individuals and 366 organisations, called upon government delegates at COP24 comply with a list of six climate justice demands [17] Controversial interpretations One contentious issue in debates about climate justice is the extent to which capitalism is viewed as its root cause. This question frequently leads to fundamental disagreements between, on the one hand, liberal and conservative environmental groups and, on the other, leftist and radical organizations. While the former often tend to blame the excesses of neoliberalism for climate change and argue in favor of market-based reform, the latter view capitalism with its exploitative traits as the underlying central issue.[18][19] Hurricane Katrina case study Climate justice is a term used for framing global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature. This is done by relating the effects of climate change to concepts of justice, particularly environmental justice and social justice and by examining issues such as equality, human rights, collective rights, and the historical responsibilities for climate change. A fundamental proposition of climate justice is that those who are least responsible for climate change suffer its gravest consequences.[1][2][3] NASA flood image after Hurricane Katrina. According to one study, Hurricane Katrina provided insights into how climate change disasters affect different people differently,[1] as it had a disproportionate effect on low-income and minority groups.[6] A study on the race and class dimensions of Hurricane Katrina suggests that those most vulnerable include poor, black, brown, elderly, sick, and homeless people.[20] Low-income and black communities had little resources and limited mobility to evacuate before the storm.[21][22] Also, after the hurricane, low-income communities were most affected by contamination,[6] and this was made worse by the fact that government relief measures failed to adequately assist those most at risk.[5][20] Legal actions on climate change issues Tens of thousands of people marching in Copenhagen for climate justice (2009).[23] In 2018, ten families from European countries, Kenya and Fiji filed a suit against the European Union for the threats against their homes caused by the EU greenhouse emissions.[24] Against states Netherlands In 2012, the Dutch lawyer Roger Cox gave the idea of judicial intervention to force action against climate change.[1][26] In 2013, the Urgenda Foundation, with 900 co-plaintiffs, has filed a lawsuit against the Government of the Netherlands "for not taking sufficient measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause dangerous climate change".[25] In 2015, the District Court of The Hague ruled that the government of the Netherlands must do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect its citizens from climate change (Urgenda climate case).[25][27][28] It was described as a "precedent-setting judgment"[27] and as the "world’s first climate liability suit".[28] According to James Thornton, chief executive of Client Earth, "Most remarkably, it is based in essence on established science and the ancient principle of a government's duty of care. That reasoning is applicable in any legal system and will certainly be used by courts in other countries".[1][29] In 2018, a court of appeal in The Hague has upheld the precedent-setting judgment that forces the Dutch government to step up its efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions in the Netherlands.[30] The term climate justice is also used to mean actual legal action on climate change issues.[4] In 2017, a report of the United Nations Environment Programme identified 894 ongoing legal actions worldwide.[5] At the end of 2018, a series of school strikes for climate started worldwide, inspired by Greta Thunberg's original protest in Sweden. After the landmark ruling of the Netherlands in 2015, groups in other countries tried the same judicial approach.[31][32][33] For instance, groups went to court in order to protect people from climate change in Belgium,[4] India,[34] New Zealand,[35] Norway,[36] South Africa,[35] Switzerland[37] and the United States.[31][9][33] Against companies In the United States, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace together with the cities of Boulder, Arcata and Oakland won against the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (state-owned enterprises of the United States government), which were accused of financing fossil-fuel projects detrimental to a stable climate, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (case filed in 2002 and settled in 2009).[39][40][41] In 2016, a government body of the Philippines (the Commission on Human Rights) launched an official investigation concerning climate change against 47 of the world's largest carbon producers.[38][42] In 2017, San Francisco, Oakland and other California coastal communities sued multiple fossil-fuel companies for rising sea levels.[1] In 2018, the city of New York announced that it is taking five fossil fuel firms (BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell) to federal court due to their contribution to climate change (from which the city is already suffering).[43] See also Climate ethics Climate debt Deliberative democracy Earth Summit Ecology Ecological debt Environmentalism Environmental justice Environmental racism Equity Extinction Rebellion Global Justice Movement Greenhouse Development Rights Green banking Social justice Reasons for the differential effects of climate change [Mary Robinson (2018) Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future (Bloomsbury Publishing) ISBN 978-1632869289] [Henry Shue (2016) Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection (Oxford University Press) ISBN 978-0198778745] Bali Principles of Climate Justice Institute for International Integration Studies Space for Movement? Reflections from Bolivia on climate justice, social movements and the state, PDF, edited by Building Bridges collective, July 2010, ISBN 978 0 85316 294 0 Climate Change and Justice: On the road to Copenhagen, PDF, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin 2009 Broome, J. (2006). "Valuing policies in response to climate change: some ethical issues" (PDF). HM Treasury. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2009. Retrieved 28 August 2009. Africa Speaks up on Climate Change, PDF, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Nairobi 2007 FOE Australia Climate Justice Position Paper, December 16, 2006 Vandana Shiva - 2005, Earth Democracy; Justice, Sustainability, and Peace, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-745-X Geoffrey Pleyers, Climate Justice in the global age: a social movement perspective, ISA-Sage, 2015 Goodman, James (2009). "From Global Justice to Climate Justice? Justice Ecologist in an Era of Global Warming". New Political Science. 31 (4): 499–514. doi:10.1080/07393140903322570. Rally for climate justice (2009). The ability of populations to mitigate and adapt to the negative consequences of climate change are shaped by factors such as income, race, class, gender, capital and political representation.[6] As low-income communities and communities of color possess few if any adaptive resources, they are particularly vulnerable to climate change.[6][7] People living in poverty or in precarious circumstances tend to have neither the resources nor the insurance coverage necessary to recover from environmental disasters.[7] On top of that, such populations often receive an unequal share of disaster relief and recovery assistance.[6] Additionally, they generally have less say and involvement in decision-making, political, and legal processes that relate to climate change and the natural environment. History of the term In 2000, at the same time as the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6), the first Climate Justice Summit took place in The Hague. This summit aimed to "affirm that climate change is a rights issue" and to "build alliances across states and borders" against climate change and in favor of sustainable development.[8] Subsequently, in August–September 2002, international environmental groups met in Johannesburg for the Earth Summit.[9] At this summit, also known as Rio+10, as it took place ten years after the 1992 Earth Summit, the Bali Principles of Climate Justice[10] were adopted. Political ecology studies the complex interaction between economics, politics, technology, social tradition and the biological environment. These terraced rice fields in Yunnan, China, evidence how the environment is shaped by and shapes economy and society. Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena. First, changes in the environment do not affect society in a homogenous way: political, social, and economic differences account for uneven distribution of costs and benefits. Second, "any change in environmental conditions must affect the political and economic status quo."[8] Third, the unequal distribution of costs and benefits and the reinforcing or reducing of pre-existing inequalities has political implications in terms of the altered power relationships that then result. In addition, political ecology attempts to provide critiques and alternatives in the interplay of the environment and political, economic and social factors. Paul Robbins asserts that the discipline has a "normative understanding that there are very likely better, less coercive, less exploitative, and more sustainable ways of doing things".[9] inform policymakers and organizations of the complexities surrounding environment and development, thereby contributing to better environmental governance. understand the decisions that communities make about the natural environment in the context of their political environment, economic pressure, and societal regulations look at how unequal relations in and among societies affect the natural environment, especially in context of government policy. Scope and influences Through the discipline's history, certain influences have grown more and less influential in determining the focus of study. Peter A. Walker traces the importance of the ecological sciences in political ecology.[10] He points to the transition, for many critics, from a ‘structuralist’ approach through the 1970s and 1980s, in which ecology maintains a key position in the discipline, to a 'poststructuralist' approach with an emphasis on the 'politics' in political ecology.[11] This turn has raised questions as to the differentiation with environmental politics as well as the field's use of the term of 'ecology'. Political ecological research has shifted from investigating political influence on the earth's surface to the focus on spatial-ecological influences on politics and power—a scope reminiscent of environmental politics. Much has been drawn from cultural ecology, a form of analysis that showed how culture depends upon, and is influenced by, the material conditions of society (political ecology has largely eclipsed cultural ecology as a form of analysis according to Walker.)[12] As Walker states, "whereas cultural ecology and systems theory emphasize[s] adaptation and homeostasis, political ecology emphasize[s] the role of political economy as a force of maladaptation and instability".[2] Political ecologists often use political economy frameworks to analyze environmental issues. Early and prominent examples of this were The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries by Piers Blaikie in 1985, which traced land degradation in Africa to colonial policies of land appropriation, rather than over-exploitation by African farmers, and Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria by Michael Watts in 1983, which traced the famine in northern Nigeria during the 1970s to the effects of colonialism, rather than an inevitable consequence of the drought in the Sahel. Relationship to anthropology and geography Originating in the 18th and 19th centuries with philosophers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Thomas Malthus, political economy attempted to explain the relationships between economic production and political processes.[13][14] It tended toward overly structuralist explanations, focusing on the role of individual economic relationships in the maintenance of social order.[15] Eric Wolf used political economy in a neo-Marxist framework which began addressing the role of local cultures as a part of the world capitalist system, refusing to see those cultures as "primitive isolates".[16] But environmental effects on political and economic processes were under-emphasised.[14] The academic discipline offers wide-ranging studies integrating ecological social sciences with political economy[1] in topics such as degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control, and environmental identities and social movements.[2] Conversely, Julian Steward and Roy Rappaport's theories of cultural ecology are sometimes credited with shifting the functionalist-oriented anthropology of the 1950s and 1960s and incorporating ecology and environment into ethnographic study.[17] Geographers and anthropologists worked with the strengths of both to form the basis of political ecology.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24] PE focuses on issues of power, recognizing the importance of explaining environmental impacts on cultural processes without separating out political and economic contexts. The application of political ecology in the work of anthropologists and geographers differs. While any approach will take both the political/economic and the ecological into account,the emphasis can be unequal. Some, such as geographer Michael Watts, focus on how the assertion of power impacts on access to environmental resources. His approach tends to see environmental harm as both a cause and an effect of “social marginalization”.[25] At its core, it contextualizes political and ecological explanations of human behavior. But as Walker[26] points out, it has failed to offer “compelling counter-narratives” to “widely influential and popular yet deeply flawed and unapologetic neo-Malthusian rants such as Robert Kaplan's (1994) 'The coming anarchy' and Jared Diamond's (2005) Collapse (385). Ultimately, applying political ecology to policy decisions – especially in the US and Western Europe – will remain problematic as long as there is a resistance to Marxist and neo-Marxist theory.[27] Andrew Vayda and Bradley Walters (1999) criticize political ecologists for pre-supposing “the importance ... of certain kinds of political factors in the explanation of environmental changes” (167). Vayda and Walter's response to overly political approaches in political ecology is to encourage what they call “event ecology”,[28] focusing on human responses to environmental events without presupposing the impact of political processes on environmental events. The critique has not been taken up widely. Relationship to conservation There is a divergence of ideas between conservation science and political ecology. With conservationists establishing protected areas to conserve biodiversity, "political ecologists have devoted some energy to the study of protected areas, which is unsurprising given political ecology's overall interest in forms of access to, and control over resources".[29] The arguments against enclosure of land for conservation is that it harms local people and their livelihood systems, by denying them access. As Dove and Carpenter state, "indigenous people have important environmental knowledge which could contribute to conservation".[30] The objection by political ecologists is that land use regulations are made by NGOs and the government, denying access, denying the ability of local people to conserve species and areas themselves, and rendering them more vulnerable through dispossession. In a few cases, perhaps especially tragic local groups have been displaced to create national parks and reserves to ‘conserve’ the forest. Fortunately, most conservation bodies are now aware that, if a group has been using and managing a forest for several thousand years, throwing it off the land is more apt to destroy the forest ecosystem than to preserve it. Political ecologists Some prominent contemporary scholars include: Related journals Scholarly journals that have been key to the development (and critique) of this field include: See also Bibliography The term "political ecology" was first coined by Frank Thone in an article published in 1935.[3] It has been widely used since then in the context of human geography and human ecology, but with no systematic definition. Anthropologist Eric R. Wolf gave it a second life in 1972 in an article entitled "Ownership and Political Ecology", in which he discusses how local rules of ownership and inheritance "mediate between the pressures emanating from the larger society and the exigencies of the local ecosystem", but did not develop the concept further[4] Other origins include other early works of Eric R. Wolf, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Susanna Hecht, and others in the 1970s and 1980s. Blaikie, P., and Brookfield, H. Land Degradation and Society. Methuen: 1987. Blaikie, Piers. 1985. The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries. London; New York: Longman. Bryant, Raymond L. 1998. Power, knowledge and political ecology in the third world: a review, Progress in Physical Geography 22(1):79-94. Bryant, R. (ed.) 2015. International Handbook of Political Ecology. Edward Elgar Bryant, Raymond L. and Sinead Bailey. 1997. Third World Political Ecology. Routledge. Dove, Michael R., and Carol Carpenter, eds. 2008. Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader. MA: Blackwell. Escobar, Arturo. 1996. “Construction Nature: elements for a post-structuralist political ecology”. Futures 28(4): 325-343. Garí, Josep A. 2000. The Political Ecology of Biodiversity: Biodiversity conservation and rural development at the indigenous and peasant grassroots. D.Phil. Dissertation, University of Oxford. British Library No. 011720099 (DSC D213318). Garí, Josep A. 2000. La ecología política de la biodiversidad. Ecología Política 20: 15-24. Greenberg, James B. and Thomas K. Park. 1994. Political Ecology, Journal of Political Ecology 1: 1-12. Hecht, Susanna & Alexander Cockburn. 1990 [Updated edition 2010]. Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and Defenders of the Amazon. University of Chicago Press. Hershkovitz, Linda. 1993. Political Ecology and Environmental Management in the Loess Plateau, China, Human Ecology 21(4): 327-353. 2002. The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation. Edward Elgar. Paulson, Susan, Lisa L. Gezon, and Michael Watts. 2003. Locating the Political in Political Ecology: An Introduction, Human Organization 62(3): 205-217. Peet, Richard and Michael Watts. 1993. Introduction: Development Theory and Environment in an Age of Market Triumphalism, Economic Geography 68(3): 227-253. Peet, Richard, Paul Robbins, and Michael Watts. (eds.) 2011. Global Political Ecology. Peet, Richard and Michael Watts. eds. 1996. Liberation ecologies: environment, development, social movements. Peluso, Nancy Lee. 1992. Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java. University of California Press. Peluso Nancy Lee & Michael Watts (eds.). 2001. Violent Environments. Cornell University Press. Perreault, T., G. Bridge and J. McCarthy (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology. Routledge. Perry, Richard J. 2003. Five Key Concepts in Anthropological Thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Ritzer, George. 2008. Modern Sociological Theory. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Robbins, Paul. 2012. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. 2nd ed. Blackwell. Rocheleau, D. 1995. Gender and a Feminist Political Ecology Perspective, IDS Institute for Development Studies 26(1): 9-16. 2002. Species of Capital: Ranching, Endangered Species, and Urbanization in the Southwest. University of Arizona Press. Sutton, Mark Q. and E.N. Anderson. 2004. Introduction to Cultural Ecology. Altamira. Vayda, Andrew P. and Bradley B. Walters. 1999. Against Political Ecology, Human Ecology 27(1): 167-179. Walker, Peter A. 2005. Political ecology: where is the ecology? Progress in Human Geography 29(1):73–82. Watts, Michael. 1983 [reprinted 2013]. Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. University of California Press. Watts, Michael. 2000. “Political Ecology.” In Sheppard, E. and T. Barnes (eds.), A Companion to Economic Geography. Blackwell. Walker, Peter A. 2006. Political ecology: where is the policy? Progress in Human Geography 30(3): 382-395. Wolf, Eric. 1972. Ownership and Political Ecology, Anthropological Quarterly 45(3): 201-205. External links Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. Archive of newsletters, officers, award and honor recipients, as well as other resources associated with this community of scholars. The origins of the field in the 1970s and 1980s were a result of the development of development geography and cultural ecology.,[5] particularly the work of Piers Blaikie on the sociopolitical origins of soil erosion.[6] Historically, political ecology has focused on phenomena in and affecting the developing world; since the field's inception, "research has sought primarily to understand the political dynamics surrounding material and discursive struggles over the environment in the third world".[7] Scholars in political ecology are drawn from a variety of academic disciplines, including geography, anthropology, development studies, political science, sociology, forestry, and environmental history. Petra Kelly is one of the founding figures of political ecologist parties throughout Germany and Europe. Political ecology's broad scope and interdisciplinary nature lends itself to multiple definitions and understandings. However, common assumptions across the field give the term relevance. Raymond L. Bryant and Sinéad Bailey developed three fundamental assumptions in practising political ecology: Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade.[1] Economists generally agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency; this can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. Impacts of trade barriers on business Because rich-country players call most of the shots and set trade policies, goods such as crops that developing countries are best at producing still face high barriers. Trade barriers such as taxes on food imports or subsidies for farmers in developed economies lead to overproduction and dumping on world markets, thus lowering prices and hurting poor-country farmers. Tariffs also tend to be anti-poor, with low rates for raw commodities and high rates for labor-intensive processed goods. Trade barriers are mostly a combination of conformity and per-shipment requirements requested abroad, and weak inspection or certification procedures at home. The impact of trade barriers on companies and countries is highly uneven. One particular study showed that small firms are most affected (over 50%).[9] Another negative aspect of trade barriers is that they result in a limited choice of products and would therefore force customers to pay higher prices and accept inferior quality.[10] Before exporting or importing to other countries, firstly, they must be aware of restrictions that the government imposes on the trade. Subsequently, they need to make sure that they are not violating the restrictions by checking related regulations on tax or duty, and finally they probably need a license in order to ensure a smooth export or import business and reduce the risk of penalty or violation. Sometimes the situation becomes even more complicated with the changing of policy and restrictions of a country. Examples of free trade areas Most trade barriers work on the same principle: the imposition of some sort of cost (money, time, bureaucracy, quota) on trade that raises the price or availability of the traded products. If two or more nations repeatedly use trade barriers against each other, then a trade war results. Barriers take the form of tariffs (which impose a financial burden on imports) and non-tariff barriers to trade (which uses other overt and covert means to restrict imports and occasionally exports). With the arrival of the Trump Administration, the U.S. has increasingly adopted tariff-based trade barriers. According to the Administration, these barriers are put in place to help domestic industries that it believes are exposed to unfair competition from imports. It also accuses some foreign countries, notably China, of applying non-tariff barriers to U.S. exporters, such as localization requirements that demand transfer of intellectual property. European Union and the U.S. The EU (collectively) is the United States' largest trading counter-party. United Kingdom and the U.S As of 2018[update], the UK is a member of the EU and the figures below are also included with the US/EU figures above. U.K Exported 65,729 Million dollars worth of goods in 2016 to the U.S.[11] U.S Exported 51,698 million dollars worth of goods in 2016 to the U.K.[11] Mexico and the U.S Mexico exported 32,045 million dollar's worth of goods to the U.S in 2016.[1] U.S exported 24,569 million dollar's worth of goods to Mexico in 2016[11] In theory, free trade involves the removal of all such barriers, except perhaps those considered necessary for health or national security. In practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidize certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. The European Union (EU) is an association of 28 sovereign nations that have agreed to act as one in some spheres, notably trade. It operates the European Union Single Market for trade between themselves, with no tariff or non-tariff barriers. Trade with third countries is also managed collectively, through the European Union Customs Union. The EU operates few trade barriers,[12][better source needed] the more significant of these are sanitary and phytosanitary standards and agricultural product quotas. The EU Binding Tariff Information System records applicable tariffs for external goods or services supplied to a member state. The European Customs Information Portal provides information to businesses in member states on export issues. United Kingdom As of December 2018[update], the UK is a member of the European Union and participates in the EU's collective position on trade. United Kingdom and its top trade partners: Germany is also a member of the EU. Germany's top trade partners are Germany exported 107 billion euros to the United States[16] Germany exported 101 billion euros to France[16] Germany exported 86 billion euros to the UK[16] China joined the WTO in 2001 and since then they have slowly loosened their trade laws. In 2004 they signed their Foreign Trade Law into effect. This made it so all types of businesses can trade globally as long as they have filed the right paperwork.[17] China exported 276.8 billion dollars in goods to the U.S in 2017[18] China exported 273.6 billion dollars in goods to Hong Kong in 2017[18] China exported 56.1 billion dollars in goods to the Netherlands in 2017[18] See also Agricultural policy Customs union Denied trade screening End-use certificate Free trade International free trade agreement Region lock Useful Databases on Trade Barriers ITC's Market Access Map, an online database of customs tariffs and market requirements ITC's Non-Tariff Measures Business Survey database, including regulatory and procedural obstacles that trading companies face both at home and abroad High income countries tend to have less trade barriers than middle income countries which, in turn, tend to have less trade barriers than low income countries.[2] Small states tend to have lower trade barriers than large states.[3][4][5] The most common trade barriers are on agricultural goods.[2] Textiles, apparel and footwear are the manufactured goods which are most commonly protected by trade barriers.[2] Tariffs have been declining in the last twenty years as the influence of the World Trade Organization has grown, but states have increased their use of non-tariff barriers.[2] According to Chad Bown and Meredith Crowley, world trade is "probably" vastly more liberal in current times than was the case historically.[1] According to Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, "for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries trade barriers and transport costs were the most important barriers to trade".[6] They also write, "during the mercantilist era price gaps were as likely to be due to trade monopolies, pirates, and wars as to transport costs and tariffs, which are more easily quantifiable."[6] Georgetown University Professor Marc L. Busch and McGill University Professor Krzysztof J. Pelc note that modern trade deals are long and complex because they often tackle non-tariff barriers to trade, such as different standards and regulations, in addition to tariffs. Due to steadily decreasing tariff barriers since World War II, countries have become increasingly likely to enact trade barriers in the form of non-tariff barriers. National firms often lobby their own governments to enact regulations that are designed to keep out foreign firms, and modern trade deals are one way to do away with such regulations.[7] The barriers can take many forms, including the following: Tariffs Non-tariff barriers to trade include: Import licenses Export licenses Import quotas Subsidies Voluntary Export Restraints Local content requirements Embargo Currency devaluation[8] Trade restriction Trade Between Countries Sustainable energy is a principle in which human use of energy "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1][2] Sustainable energy strategies generally have two pillars: cleaner methods of producing energy and energy conservation. When referring to methods of producing energy, the term "sustainable energy" is often used interchangeably with the term "renewable energy". In general, renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and tidal energy, are widely considered to be sustainable energy sources. However, implementation of particular renewable energy projects, such as the damming of rivers to generate hydroelectricity or the clearing of forests for production of biofuels, sometimes raises significant sustainability concerns. Green energy is energy that can be extracted, generated, and/or consumed without any significant negative impact to the environment.[citation needed] The planet has a natural capability to recover which means pollution that does not go beyond that capability can still be termed green. It represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.[7] When referring to sources of energy, the terms "sustainable energy" and "renewable energy" are often used interchangeably, however particular renewable energy projects sometimes raise significant sustainability concerns. Renewable energy technologies are essential contributors to sustainable energy as they generally contribute to world energy security, reducing dependence on fossil fuel resources,[8] and providing opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases.[8] Various Cost–benefit analysis work by a disparate array of specialists and agencies have been conducted to determine the cheapest and quickest paths to decarbonizing the energy supply of the world, with the topic being one of considerable controversy, particularly on the role of nuclear energy.[9][10][11][12][13] Hydropower Related journals Among scientific journals related to the interdisciplinary study of sustainable energy are: See also Bibliography Among sources of renewable energy, hydroelectric plants have the advantages of being long-lived—many existing plants have operated for more than 100 years. Also, hydroelectric plants are clean and have few emissions. Criticisms directed at large-scale hydroelectric plants include: dislocation of people living where the reservoirs are planned, and release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide during construction and flooding of the reservoir.[14] However, it has been found that high emissions are associated only with shallow reservoirs in warm (tropical) locales, and recent innovations in hydropower turbine technology are enabling efficient development of low-impact run-of-the-river hydroelectricity projects.[15] Generally speaking, hydroelectric plants produce much lower life-cycle emissions than other types of generation. Hydroelectric power, which underwent extensive development during growth of electrification in the 19th and 20th centuries, is experiencing resurgence of development in the 21st century. The areas of greatest hydroelectric growth are the booming economies of Asia. China is the development leader; however, other Asian nations are installing hydropower at a rapid pace. This growth is driven by much increased energy costs—especially for imported energy—and widespread desires for more domestically produced, clean, renewable, and economical generation. Hydroelectric dam in cross section Geothermal One of many power plants at The Geysers, a geothermal power field in northern California, with a total output of over 750 MW. Geothermal energy can be harnessed to for electricity generation and for heating. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. As of 2010, geothermal electricity generation is used in 24 countries,[16] while geothermal heating is in use in 70 countries.[17] International markets grew at an average annual rate of 5 percent over the three years to 2015, and global geothermal power capacity is expected to reach 14.5–17.6 GW by 2020.[18] Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with the Earth's heat content.[19] The greenhouse gas emissions of geothermal electric stations are on average 45 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity, or less than 5 percent of that of conventional coal-fired plants.[2] As a source of renewable energy for both power and heating, geothermal has the potential to meet 3-5% of global demand by 2050. With economic incentives, it is estimated that by 2100 it will be possible to meet 10% of global demand.[3] Biomass and biofuel Biomass is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be burned to produce heat and to generate electricity, or converted to various forms of biofuel. Liquid biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol are especially valued as energy sources for motor vehicles. It is available in many countries, which makes it attractive for reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels. If the production of biomass is well-managed, carbon emissions can be significantly offset by the absorption of carbon dioxide by the plants during their lifespans. If the biomass source is agricultural or municipal waste, burning it or converting it into biogas also provides a way to dispose of this waste.[21] As of 2012, wood remains the largest biomass energy source today.[22] If biomass is harvested from crops, such as tree plantations, the cultivation of these crops can displace natural ecosystems, degrade soils, and consume water resources and synthetic fertilizers.[21][23] In some cases, these impacts can actually result in higher overall carbon emissions compared to using petroleum-based fuels.[23][24] Use of farmland for growing fuel can result in less land being available for growing food. Since photosynthesis is inherently inefficient, and crops also require significant amounts of energy to harvest, dry, and transport, the amount of energy produced per unit of land area is very small, in the range of 0.25 W/m2 to 1.2 W/m2.[25] In the United States, corn-based ethanol has replaced less than 10% of motor gasoline use since 2011, but has consumed around 40% of the annual corn harvest in the country.[23] In Europe in the 19th century, there were about 200,000 windmills, slightly more than the modern wind turbines of the 21st century.[26] They were mainly used to grind grain and to pump water. The age of coal powered steam engines replaced this early use of wind power. The organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development, which includes the four interconnected domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture.[3] Sustainability science is the study of sustainable development and environmental science.[4] At the end of 2008, worldwide wind farm capacity was 120,791 megawatts (MW), representing an increase of 28.8 percent during the year,[28] and wind power produced some 1.3% of global electricity consumption.[29] Wind power accounts for approximately 20% of electricity use in Denmark, 9% in Spain, and 7% in Germany.[30][31] However, it may be difficult to site wind turbines in some areas for aesthetic or environmental reasons, and it may be difficult to integrate wind power into electricity grids in some cases.[5] Solar heating systems generally consist of solar thermal collectors, a fluid system to move the heat from the collector to its point of usage, and a reservoir or tank for heat storage and subsequent use. The systems may be used to heat domestic hot water, swimming pool water, or for space heating.[32] The heat can also be used for industrial applications or as an energy input for other uses such as cooling equipment.[33] In many climates, a solar heating system can provide a very high percentage (20 to 80%) of domestic hot water energy. Energy received from the sun by the earth is that of electromagnetic radiation. Light ranges of visible, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and radio waves received by the earth through solar energy. The highest power of radiation comes from visible light. Solar power is complicated due to changes in seasons and from day to night. Cloud cover can also add to complications of solar energy, and not all radiation from the sun reaches earth because it is absorbed and dispersed due to clouds and gases within the earth's atmospheres.[34] Sketch of a Parabolic Trough Collector Solar thermal power stations have been successfully operating in California commercially since the late 1980s, including the largest solar power plant of any kind, the 350 MW Solar Energy Generating Systems. Nevada Solar One is another 64MW plant which has recently opened.[35] Other parabolic trough power plants being proposed are two 50 MW plants in Spain, and a 100 MW plant in Israel.[36] 11 MW solar power plant near Serpa, Portugal 38°1′51″N 7°37′22″W / 38.03083°N 7.62278°W / 38.03083; -7.62278 Solar electricity production uses photovoltaic (PV) cells to convert light into electrical current. Photovoltaic modules can be integrated into buildings or used in photovoltaic power stations connected to the electrical grid. They are especially useful for providing electricity to remote areas. Large national and regional research projects on artificial photosynthesis are designing nanotechnology-based systems that use solar energy to split water into hydrogen fuel.[37] and a proposal has been made for a Global Artificial Photosynthesis project[38] In 2011, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed what they are calling an "Artificial Leaf", which is capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen directly from solar power when dropped into a glass of water. One side of the "Artificial Leaf" produces bubbles of hydrogen, while the other side produces bubbles of oxygen.[39] Most current solar power plants are made from an array of similar units where each unit is continuously adjusted, e.g., with some step motors, so that the light converter stays in focus of the sun light. The cost of focusing light on converters such as high-power solar panels, Stirling engine, etc. can be dramatically decreased with a simple and efficient rope mechanics.[40] In this technique many units are connected with a network of ropes so that pulling two or three ropes is sufficient to keep all light converters simultaneously in focus as the direction of the sun changes. Japan and China have national programs aimed at commercial scale Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP). The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) won the 2015 International SunSat Design Competition with this video of their Multi-Rotary Joint design. Proponents of SBSP claim that Space-Based Solar Power would be clean, constant, and global, and could scale to meet all planetary energy demand.[20] A recent multi-agency industry proposal (echoing the 2008 Pentagon recommendation) won the SECDEF/SECSTATE/USAID Director D3 (Diplomacy, Development, Defense) Innovation Challenge.[41] MIT's Solar House#1 built in 1939 used seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) for year-round heating. Ocean energy The world's first commercial[42] tidal stream generator – SeaGen – in Strangford Lough. The strong wake shows the power in the tidal current. Portugal has the world's first commercial wave farm, the Aguçadora Wave Park, under construction in 2007. The farm will initially use three Pelamis P-750 machines generating 2.25 MW.[43][44] and costs are put at 8.5 million euro. Subject to successful operation, a further 70 million euro is likely to be invested before 2009 on a further 28 machines to generate 525 MW.[45] Funding for a wave farm in Scotland was announced in February, 2007 by the Scottish Executive, at a cost of over 4 million pounds, as part of a £13 million funding packages for ocean power in Scotland. The farm will be the world's largest with a capacity of 3 MW generated by four Pelamis machines.[46] (see also Wave farm). In 2007, the world's first turbine to create commercial amounts of energy using tidal power was installed in the narrows of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, UK. The 1.2 MW underwater tidal electricity generator takes advantage of the fast tidal flow in the lough which can be up to 4m/s. Although the generator is powerful enough to power up to a thousand homes, the turbine has a minimal environmental impact, as it is almost entirely submerged, and the rotors turn slowly enough that they pose no danger to wildlife.[47][48] Enabling technologies for renewable energy Solar and wind are Intermittent energy sources that supply electricity 10-40% of the time. To compensate for this characteristic, it is common to pair their production with already existing hydroelectricity or natural gas generation. In regions where this isn't available, wind and solar can be paired with significantly more expensive pumped-storage hydroelectricity. There is considerable controversy over whether nuclear power can be considered sustainable. Some forms of nuclear power (ones which are able to "burn" nuclear waste through a process known as nuclear transmutation, such as an Integral Fast Reactor, could belong in the "Green Energy" category). Some people, including Greenpeace founder and first member Patrick Moore,[51][52][53] George Monbiot,[54] Bill Gates[55] and James Lovelock[56] have specifically classified nuclear power as green energy. Others, including Greenpeace's Phil Radford[57][58] disagree, claiming that the problems associated with radioactive waste and the risk of nuclear accidents (such as the Chernobyl disaster) pose an unacceptable risk to the environment and to humanity. However, newer nuclear reactor designs are capable of utilizing what is now deemed "nuclear waste" until it is no longer (or dramatically less) dangerous, and have design features that greatly minimize the possibility of a nuclear accident. Energy efficiency Moving towards energy sustainability will require changes not only in the way energy is supplied, but in the way it is used, and reducing the amount of energy required to deliver various goods or services is essential. Opportunities for improvement on the demand side of the energy equation are as rich and diverse as those on the supply side, and often offer significant economic benefits.[59] The concept of sustainable development was described by the World Commission on Environment and Development in its 1987 book Our Common Future.[1] Its definition of "sustainability", now used widely, was, "Sustainable development should meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[1] Smart-grid technology Smart grid refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation.[64] These systems are made possible by two-way communication technology and computer processing that has been used for decades in other industries. They are beginning to be used on electricity networks, from the power plants and wind farms all the way to the consumers of electricity in homes and businesses. They offer many benefits to utilities and consumers—mostly seen in big improvements in energy efficiency on the electricity grid and in the energy users’ homes and offices.[64] In its book, the Commission described four key elements of sustainability with respect to energy: the ability to increase the supply of energy to meet growing human needs, energy efficiency and conservation, public health and safety, and "protection of the biosphere and prevention of more localized forms of pollution."[5] Various definitions of sustainable energy have been offered since then which are also based on the three pillars of sustainable development, namely environment, economy, and society.[6] Environmental criteria include greenhouse gas emissions, impact on biodiversity, and the production of hazardous waste and toxic emissions. Economic criteria include the cost of energy, whether energy is delivered to users with high reliability, and effects on jobs associated with energy production. Socio-cultural criteria include the prevention of wars over the energy supply (energy security) and long-term availability of energy.[1] As no source of energy meets these criteria perfectly, sustainable energy sources are sustainable only in comparison to other sources.[1] The nonexistence of perfect energy sources means that promoting efficient use of energy is essential to sustainable energy strategies.[6] Poster to raise awareness about the importance of clean water for good hygiene (poster designed for use in Asian countries) by CAWST.[1] Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases."[2] Personal hygiene refers to maintaining the body's cleanliness. Hygiene is a concept related to cleanliness, health and medicine. It is as well related to personal and professional care practices. In medicine and everyday life settings, hygiene practices are employed as preventative measures to reduce the incidence and spreading of disease. Hygiene practices vary, and what is considered acceptable in one culture might not be acceptable in another. See also In the manufacturing of food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and other products, good hygiene is a critical component of quality assurance. Contamination control Human decontamination Hygiene hypothesis Hygiene program Mysophobia Ritual purification Sanitation International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, ISSN 1438-4639, Elsevier US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Water Sanitation and Hygiene[permanent dead link] The International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene Hygiene Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine[permanent dead link] Centers for Disease Control on hand hygiene in healthcare settings The terms cleanliness and hygiene are often used interchangeably, which can cause confusion. In general, hygiene refers to practices that prevent spread of disease-causing organisms. Cleaning processes (e.g., handwashing) remove infectious microbes as well as dirt and soil, and are thus often the means to achieve hygiene. Other uses of the term appear in phrases including body hygiene, personal hygiene, sleep hygiene, mental hygiene, dental hygiene, and occupational hygiene, used in connection with public health. Hygiene is also the name of a branch of science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health. Medical hygiene Medical hygiene pertains to the hygiene practices related to the administration of medicine and medical care that prevents or minimizes the spread of disease. Medical hygiene practices include: Isolation or quarantine of infectious persons or materials to prevent spread of infection. Sterilization of instruments used in surgical procedures. Use of protective clothing and barriers, such as masks, gowns, caps, eyewear and gloves. Most of these practices were developed in the 19th century and were well established by the mid-20th century. Some procedures (such as disposal of medical waste) were refined in response to late-20th century disease outbreaks, notably AIDS and Ebola. Many people equate hygiene with 'cleanliness,' but hygiene is a broad term. It includes such personal habit choices as how frequently to take a shower or bathe, wash hands, trim fingernails, and change and wash clothes. It also includes attention to keeping surfaces in the home and workplace, including bathroom facilities, clean and pathogen-free. Home and everyday hygiene Home hygiene pertains to the hygiene practices that prevent or minimize the spread of disease at home and other everyday settings such as social settings, public transport, the workplace, public places, etc. Hygiene in a variety of settings plays an important role in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.[6] It includes procedures used in a variety of domestic situations such as hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, food and water hygiene, general home hygiene (hygiene of environmental sites and surfaces), care of domestic animals, and home health care (the care of those who are at greater risk of infection). Simply put, if the chain of infection is broken, infection cannot spread. In response to the need for effective codes of hygiene in home and everyday life settings the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene has developed a risk-based approach based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), also referred to as "targeted hygiene." Targeted hygiene is based on identifying the routes of pathogen spread in the home and introducing hygiene practices at critical times to break the chain of infection. The main sources of infection in the home[7] are people (who are carriers or are infected), foods (particularly raw foods) and water, and domestic animals (in the U.S. more than 50% of homes have one or more pets[8]). Sites that accumulate stagnant water—such as sinks, toilets, waste pipes, cleaning tools, face cloths, etc. readily support microbial growth and can become secondary reservoirs of infection, though species are mostly those that threaten "at risk" groups. Pathogens (potentially infectious bacteria, viruses etc.—colloquially called "germs") are constantly shed from these sources via mucous membranes, feces, vomit, skin scales, etc. The main "highways" for the spread of pathogens in the home are the hands, hand and food contact surfaces, and cleaning cloths and utensils. Pathogens can also be spread via clothing and household linens, such as towels. Utilities such as toilets and wash basins, for example, were invented for dealing safely with human waste but still have risks associated with them. Good home hygiene means engaging in hygiene practices at critical points to break the chain of infection.[1] Because the "infectious dose" for some pathogens can be very small (10-100 viable units or even less for some viruses), and infection can result from direct transfer of pathogens from surfaces via hands or food to the mouth, nasal mucous or the eye, 'hygienic cleaning' procedures should be sufficient to eliminate pathogens from critical surfaces. Some regular hygiene practices may be considered good habits by a society, while the neglect of hygiene can be considered disgusting, disrespectful, or threatening. A tippy tap for hand washing after using a urine-diverting dry toilet in Pumpuentsa, Ecuador Hand hygiene is defined as hand washing or washing hands and nails with soap and water or using a water less hand sanitizer. Hand hygiene is central to preventing spread of infectious diseases in home and everyday life settings.[9] Respiratory hygiene Correct respiratory and hand hygiene when coughing and sneezing reduces the spread of pathogens particularly during the cold and flu season.[1] Carry tissues and use them to catch coughs and sneezes Dispose of tissues as soon as possible Clean your hands by handwashing or using an alcohol hand sanitizer. Food hygiene is concerned with the hygiene practices that prevent food poisoning. The five key principles of food hygiene, according to WHO, are:[14] Prevent contaminating food with mixing chemicals, spreading from people, and animals. Separate raw and cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked foods. Cook foods for the appropriate length of time and at the appropriate temperature to kill pathogens. Hygiene in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet Routine cleaning of (hand, food, drinking water) sites and surfaces (such as toilet seats and flush handles, door and tap handles, work surfaces, bath and basin surfaces) in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet reduces the risk of spread of pathogens.[15] The infection risk from flush toilets is not high, provided they are properly maintained, although some splashing and aerosol formation can occur during flushing, particularly when someone has diarrhea. Pathogens can survive in the scum or scale left behind on baths, showers and wash basins after washing and bathing. Etymology First attested in English in 1676s, the word hygiene comes from the French hygiène, the latinisation of the Greek ὑγιεινή (τέχνη) hugieinē technē, meaning "(art) of health", from ὑγιεινός hugieinos, "good for the health, healthy",[3] in turn from ὑγιής (hugiēs), "healthful, sound, salutary, wholesome".[4] In ancient Greek religion, Hygeia (Ὑγίεια) was the personification of health, cleanliness, and hygiene.[5] In developing countries, universal access to water and sanitation has been seen as the essential step in reducing the preventable infectious diseases burden, but it is now clear that this is best achieved by programs that integrate hygiene promotion with improvements in water quality and availability, and sanitation. This approach has been integrated into the Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 whose second target states: "By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations".[34] Due to their close linkages, water, sanitation, hygiene are together abbreviated and funded under the term WASH in development cooperation. About 2 million people die every year due to diarrheal diseases, most of them are children less than 5 years of age.[35] The most affected are the populations in developing countries, living in extreme conditions of poverty, normally peri-urban dwellers or rural inhabitants. Providing access to sufficient quantities of safe water, the provision of facilities for a sanitary disposal of excreta, and introducing sound hygiene behaviors are of capital importance to reduce the burden of disease caused by these risk factors. Research shows that, if widely practiced, hand washing with soap could reduce diarrhea by almost fifty percent[36][37][38] and respiratory infections by nearly twenty-five percent[39][40] Hand washing with soap also reduces the incidence of skin diseases,[41][42] eye infections like trachoma and intestinal worms, especially ascariasis and trichuriasis.[43] Background Personal hygiene A clear plastic toiletry bag Personal hygiene involves those practices performed by an individual to care for one's bodily health and wellbeing through cleanliness. Motivations for personal hygiene practice include reduction of personal illness, healing from personal illness, optimal health and sense of wellbeing, social acceptance and prevention of spread of illness to others. What is considered proper personal hygiene can be cultural-specific and may change over time. Washing one's hands, a form of hygiene, is the most effective way to prevent the spread of infectious diseases Astronaut taking a hot bath in the crew quarters of the Orbital Workshop (OWS) of the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit. In deploying the shower facility the shower curtain is pulled up from the floor and attached to the ceiling. The water comes through a push-button shower head attached to a flexible hose. Hawaii Apollo 11 display with 9 inch ruler measurement showing its width Hawaii Apollo 11 display with 11 inch ruler measurement showing its height "Presented to the people of California by Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America. "This flag of your state was carried to the Moon and back by Apollo 11 and this fragment of the Moon's surface was brought to Earth by the crew of that first manned lunar landing." If the wooded display went to a country of the world instead of one of the states of the United States then the word "state" was replaced with "nation" or "kingdom".[1] Soviet flag display in Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics Once the displays were given, they became the property of the recipient,[5] and were no longer subject to tracking by NASA. All other lunar sample locations are well documented by the US space agency to this day (with exception to similarly presented Apollo 17 lunar sample displays). NASA no longer gives away any Moon material and tracks all Moon soil material and Moon rocks, with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 display gifts being the only exceptions.[5] NASA keeps meticulous records on all other lunar samples worldwide. The Apollo 11 Moon rock fragment sample displays then came under the public gifts laws of the nation or state that received the display. In the case of each state of the United States public gifts cannot be legally transferred to individual ownership unless certain additional legislation allows it.[2] The recipients were 135 foreign countries, the 50 United States and its provinces, and the United Nations. The nation or state that received the Moon rock display also had its flag taken to the Moon and back by the crew of Apollo 11. The flag was mounted in the center of the commemorative plaque display with a message label below it saying it was a gift to the recipient.[1] The worldwide countries during Nixon's presidency that the plaques were given to were Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Muscat and Oman, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Southern Yemen, Soviet Union, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Upper Volta, Uruguay, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Samoa, Yemen, Yugoslavia, and Zambia.[1][2] Hawaii Apollo 11 display with 7 inch ruler measurement showing its depth Apollo 17 lunar sample display The Apollo 11 lunar sample display is a commemorative podium style plaque display consisting of four rice-size dust particle specimens (dubbed "Moon rocks"), the recipient's flag and two small metal plates attached with descriptive messages. The Apollo 11 podium style commemorative wooden plaque displays were given out as gifts in 1970 by President Richard Nixon to 135 countries worldwide, the 50 states of the United States and its territories.[1][2] History President Richard Nixon asked NASA in November 1969 to make up about 250 presentation displays for 135 nations, the 50 United States and its possessions, and the United Nations that were to receive these displays. Each display included Moon dust from the Apollo 11 first crewed lunar landing mission that were collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. The rice-sized particles were four small pieces of Moon soil weighing about 50 mg total and were enveloped in a clear acrylic button about as big as a United States half dollar coin. This acrylic button magnified the grains of lunar pebbles. The Apollo 11 lunar sample displays were given out as goodwill gifts by Nixon in 1970. Lunar dust soil from the Apollo 11 mission and samples of lunar basalt 70017 of the Apollo 17 mission were mounted on wooden plaque displays for the countries of the world and the United States.[1][2][3] The Apollo 11 lunar sample display is a small podium of 9 inches across and 11 inches high. An acrylic plastic button containing lunar sample Moon rocks (Moon soil dust particles like four small grains of rice) is mounted to a wooden board face plate approximately 9 inches square. The podium display also had mounted on it the recipient's country or state flag (4 inches × 6 inches) (10.16 cm × 15.24 cm)[4] that had been to the Moon and back that laid directly below the acrylic plastic button container. The nylon flag was covered by a half inch clear plastic cover. The small podium display plaque was given to the people of the respective country or state as a gift by United States President Richard Nixon. All 135 countries worldwide received the display, as did the 50 states of the United States and the U.S. provinces. The message explained that the Moon soil material came from the Apollo 11 mission and that their flag was carried to the Moon and back on the first manned mission. It later was discovered that Venezuela's was not flown to the Moon. This was corrected by each of the nation's flags being carried on Apollo 12 and wording changed that their flag "was carried to the Moon and back" without specifying on which Apollo mission.[1] The messages at the bottom of the wooden podium plaque display read: Leonard Harrison State Park IUCN category III (natural monument or feature) View north of Pine Creek Gorge, Pine Creek, and the Pine Creek Rail Trail from the main lookout area in Leonard Harrison State Park Location of Leonard Harrison State Park in Pennsylvania Location Shippen, Delmar, Tioga, Pennsylvania, United States Coordinates 41°41′48″N 77°27′16″W / 41.69667°N 77.45444°W / 41.69667; -77.45444Coordinates: 41°41′48″N 77°27′16″W / 41.69667°N 77.45444°W / 41.69667; -77.45444 Area 585 acres (237 ha) Elevation 1,821 ft (555 m)[1] Established 1922 Named for Leonard Harrison Visitors 142,716[2] Governing body Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Website www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/leonardharrison/ It is on the east rim of the Pine Creek Gorge, also known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, which is 800 feet (240 m) deep and nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) across here. It also serves as headquarters for the adjoining Colton Point State Park, its sister park on the west rim of the gorge. Leonard Harrison State Park is known for its views of the Pine Creek Gorge, and offers hiking, fishing and hunting, whitewater boating, and camping. Early on September 15, Nadine reached hurricane status as it was curving eastward. Soon after, an increase in vertical wind shear weakened Nadine and by September 16 it was back to a tropical storm. On the following day, the storm began moving northeastward and threatened the Azores but late on September 19, Nadine veered east-southeastward before reaching the islands. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born November 20, 1942,[1] at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania,[2] to Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Biden (née Finnegan) and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr.[3][4] The oldest child in a Catholic family, he has a sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Francis and James.[5] Jean was of Irish descent,[6][7][8] while Joseph Sr. had English, French, and Irish ancestry.[9][8] Biden's father had been wealthy, but suffered financial setbacks around the time Biden was born,[10][11][12] and for several years the family lived with Biden's maternal grandparents.[13] Scranton fell into economic decline during the 1950s and Biden's father could not find steady work.[14] Beginning in 1953, the family lived in an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, before moving to a house in Wilmington, Delaware.[13] Biden Sr. later became a successful used-car salesman, maintaining the family in a middle-class lifestyle.[13][14][15] At Archmere Academy in Claymont,[16] Biden played baseball and was a standout halfback and wide receiver on the high school football team.[2][17][13] Though a poor student, he was class president in his junior and senior years.[18][19] He graduated in 1961.[20] At the University of Delaware in Newark, Biden briefly played freshman football[21][22] and, as an unexceptional student,[23] earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 with a double major in history and political science, and a minor in English.[4][25] Biden has a stutter, which has improved since his early twenties.[26] He says he has reduced it by reciting poetry before a mirror,[2][27] but it has been suggested that it affected his performance in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates.[28] Biden in the University of Delaware's 1965 yearbook On August 27, 1966, Biden married Neilia Hunter (1942–1972), a student at Syracuse University,[24] after overcoming her parents' reluctance for her to wed a Roman Catholic; the ceremony was held in a Catholic church in Skaneateles, New York.[29] They had three children: Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III (1969–2015), Robert Hunter Biden (born 1970), and Naomi Christina "Amy" Biden (1971–1972).[24] In 1968, Biden earned a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law, ranked 76th in his class of 85, after failing a course due to an acknowledged "mistake" when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school.[1] He was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969.[30] External links President Joe Biden official website Biden inauguration website Presidential campaign website White House biography (archived) In 1968, Biden clerked at a Wilmington law firm headed by prominent local Republican William Prickett and, he later said, "thought of myself as a Republican".[31][32] He disliked incumbent Democratic Delaware governor Charles L. Terry's conservative racial politics and supported a more liberal Republican, Russell W. Peterson, who defeated Terry in 1968.[31] Biden was recruited by local Republicans but registered as an Independent because of his distaste for Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon.[31] Results of the 1972 U.S. Senate election in Delaware Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (/ˈbaɪdən/ BY-dən; born November 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as the 46th president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under Barack Obama and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. Biden was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and eventually became its chairman. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties issues; led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Biden was reelected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator when he resigned to serve as Barack Obama's vice president after they won the 2008 presidential election; Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012. As vice president, Biden oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to counteract the Great Recession. His negotiations with congressional Republicans helped pass legislation including the 2010 Tax Relief Act, which resolved a taxation deadlock; the Budget Control Act of 2011, which resolved a debt ceiling crisis; and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed the impending "fiscal cliff". His early activity as president centered around a series of executive orders. In addition to emergency actions pertaining to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Biden's orders reversed several Trump administration policies. His reversals included rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, reaffirming protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, halting construction of the Trump border wall, ending the national emergency at the southern border declared by the Trump administration, ending the Trump travel ban imposed on predominantly Muslim countries, and revoking permits for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. On his father's side, he is of Italian and Spanish descent, the great-grandson of immigrants from the northcentral Adriatic Marche region of Italy and Catalonia, and on his mother's side, he has primarily Italian ancestry.[4][12] Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, "Leo" developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers.[13] At the age of four he joined local club Grandoli, where he was coached by his father, though his earliest influence as a player came from his maternal grandmother, Celia, who accompanied him to training and matches.[14] He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday; since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute to his grandmother.[15][16] A lifelong supporter of Newell's Old Boys, Messi joined the Rosario club when he was six years old. During the six years he played for Newell's, he scored almost 500 goals as a member of "The Machine of '87", the near-unbeatable youth side named for the year of their birth, and regularly entertained crowds by performing ball tricks during half-time of the first team's home games.[18][19] However, his future as a professional player was threatened when, at age 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. As his father's health insurance covered only two years of growth hormone treatment, which cost at least $1,000 per month, Newell's agreed to contribute, but later reneged on their promise.[20] He was scouted by Buenos Aires club River Plate, whose playmaker, Pablo Aimar, he idolised, but they were also unable to pay for his treatment due to Argentina's economic collapse.[21][22] His goalscoring idol growing up was Ronaldo, with Messi calling him "the best forward I've ever seen".[23] Messi enrolled at Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, at age 13 As the Messi family had relatives in Catalonia, they sought to arrange a trial with Barcelona in September 2000. First team director Charly Rexach immediately wanted to sign him, but the board of directors hesitated; at the time it was highly unusual for European clubs to sign foreign players of such a young age. On 14 December, an ultimatum was issued for Barcelona to prove their commitment, and Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered a contract on a paper napkin.[1][24] In February 2001, the family relocated to Barcelona, where they moved into an apartment near the club's stadium, Camp Nou. During his first year in Spain, Messi rarely played with the Infantiles due to a transfer conflict with Newell's; as a foreigner, he could only be fielded in friendlies and the Catalan league. Without football, he struggled to integrate into the team; already reserved by nature, he was so quiet that his teammates initially believed he was mute. At home, he suffered from homesickness after his mother moved back to Rosario with his brothers and little sister, María Sol, while he stayed in Barcelona with his father.[3][24][25] After a year at Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, Messi was finally enrolled in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in February 2002. Now playing in all competitions, he befriended his teammates, among whom were Cesc Fàbregas and Gerard Piqué.[26] After completing his growth hormone treatment aged 14,[27] Messi became an integral part of the "Baby Dream Team", Barcelona's greatest-ever youth side. During his first full season (2002–03), he was top scorer with 36 goals in 30 games for the Cadetes A, who won an unprecedented treble of the league and both the Spanish and Catalan cups.[26][28] The Copa Catalunya final, a 4–1 victory over Espanyol, became known in club lore as the partido de la máscara, the final of the mask. A week after suffering a broken cheekbone during a league match, Messi was allowed to start the game on the condition that he wear a plastic protector; soon hindered by the mask, he took it off and scored two goals in 10 minutes before his substitution.[29] At the close of the season, he received an offer to join Arsenal, his first from a foreign club, but while Fàbregas and Piqué soon left for England, he chose to remain in Barcelona.[2][30][31] Often considered as the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record six Ballon d'Or awards[note 2] and a record six European Golden Shoes. He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, six Copa del Rey titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (462), a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (186), a La Liga and European league season (21)[9] and the Copa América (12). Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi relocated to Spain to join Barcelona at age 13, for whom he made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. He established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, and in his first uninterrupted season in 2008–09 he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football; that year, aged 22, Messi won his first Ballon d'Or. Three successful seasons followed, with Messi winning four consecutive Ballons d'Or, making him the first player to win the award four times and in a row.[10] During the 2011–12 season, he set the La Liga and European records for most goals scored in a single season, while establishing himself as Barcelona's all-time top scorer. The following two seasons, Messi finished second for the Ballon d'Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo (his perceived career rival), before regaining his best form during the 2014–15 campaign, becoming the all-time top scorer in La Liga and leading Barcelona to a historic second treble, after which he was awarded a fifth Ballon d'Or in 2015. Messi assumed the captaincy of Barcelona in 2018, and in 2019 he secured a record sixth Ballon d'Or. After his senior debut in August 2005, Messi became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a FIFA World Cup during the 2006 edition, and reached the final of the 2007 Copa América, where he was named young player of the tournament. As the squad's captain from August 2011, he led Argentina to three consecutive finals: the 2014 FIFA World Cup, for which he won the Golden Ball, and the 2015 and 2016 Copa América. After announcing his international retirement in 2016, he reversed his decision and led his country to qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and a third-place finish at the 2019 Copa América. One of the most famous athletes in the world, Messi has been sponsored by sportswear company Adidas since 2006 and has established himself as their leading brand endorser. According to France Football, he was the world's highest-paid footballer for five years out of six between 2009 and 2014, and was ranked the world's highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2019. Messi was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and 2012. In February 2020, he was awarded the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, thus becoming the first footballer and also the first team sport athlete to win the award. Later that year, Messi became the second footballer (and second team-sport athlete) to surpass $1 billion in career earnings.[11] Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ (listen) KAH-mə-lə DAY-vee;[3][4] born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the United States' first female vice president, the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, and the first African American and first Asian American[5][6] vice president. The Tiananmen Square protests, known in China as the June Fourth Incident (Chinese: 六四事件; pinyin: liùsì shìjiàn), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre (Chinese: 天安门大屠杀; pinyin: Tiān'ānmén dà túshā), troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement (Chinese: 八九民运; pinyin: Bājiǔ mínyùn) or the Tiananmen Square Incident (Chinese: 天安门事件; pinyin: Tiān'ānmén shìjiàn). The protests were precipitated by the death of pro-reform Communist general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989 amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social change in post-Mao China, reflecting anxieties among the people and political elite about the country's future. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy that benefited some people but seriously disadvantaged others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge to its legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy,[8] and restrictions on political participation. Although they were highly disorganized and their goals varied, the students called for greater accountability, constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.[9][10] At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the Square.[11] Tina Maharath is an American politician currently serving as an Ohio State Senator from the 3rd District. As a Democrat, Maharath won election to the Senate in a highly close race with Republican challenger Anne Gonzales, after having her campaign written off as a lost cause by most Democrats.[1] Maharath is also notable for being the first Asian-American woman in the Ohio Senate and the first Laotian-American elected into public office.[2][3] Maharath is from Whitehall, Ohio, the daughter of Laotian refugees. Her father served the U.S. Army under the Laos Army while her mother worked as a nurse in the Laos Army.[4] Maharath is a third-generation politician, and the first woman to hold office in her family.[5] Maharath has a bachelors degree in political science from Ohio University.[5] Lenin came under the influence of Karl Marx. Lenin (seated centre) with other members of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1897 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov[lower-alpha 2] (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known by his alias Lenin,[lower-alpha 3] was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party. In 1903, he took a key role in the RSDLP ideological split, leading the Bolshevik faction against Julius Martov's Mensheviks. Following Russia's failed Revolution of 1905, he campaigned for the First World War to be transformed into a Europe-wide proletarian revolution, which as a Marxist he believed would cause the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. After the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Tsar and established a Provisional Government, he returned to Russia to play a leading role in the October Revolution in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the new regime. Early life Childhood: 1870–1887 The ASEAN Summit is a biannual meeting held by the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in relation to economic, political, security, and socio-cultural development of Southeast Asian countries. In addition, it serves as a prominent regional (Asia) and international (worldwide) conference, with world leaders attending its related summits and meetings to discuss various problems and global issues, strengthening co-operation, and making decisions.[1][2] The summit has been praised by world leaders for its success and ability to produce results on a global level.[3] The league of ASEAN is currently connected with other countries who aim to participate on the missions and visions of the league. The league conducts annual meetings with other countries in an organisation collectively known as the ASEAN dialogue partners. ASEAN +3 adds China, Japan, and South Korea. ASEAN leaders hold a conference together with foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum. Leaders of three ASEAN Dialogue Partners (also known as ASEAN +3), namely China, Japan, and South Korea, hold a meeting with the ASEAN leaders. And a separate meeting is set for leaders of two ASEAN Dialogue Partners (also known as ASEAN +CER), namely Australia and New Zealand. From 1975 to 1981, Draghi was first Professor of Economic and Financial Policy at the University of Trento, then of Macroeconomics at the University of Padua, and later of Mathematical Economics at the University of Venice.[23] In 1981, he was appointed Professor of Economic and Monetary Policy at the University of Florence a position that he held until 1994.[24] During this time, he also spent time as a consultant at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.. In 1983, Draghi was also appointed a counsellor to then-Minister of Treasury Giovanni Goria.[25] In 1991, Minister of Treasury Guido Carli and Bank of Italy Governor Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed Draghi as Director General of the Italian Treasury; Draghi held this senior position in the civil service until 2001.[26] During his time at the Treasury, he chaired the committee that revised Italian corporate and financial legislation, and drafted the law that continues to govern Italian financial markets.[27] Draghi was also among the main proponents of the privatisations of many state-owned companies which occurred in the Italian economy through the 1990s. He also chaired the management committee of SACE, implementing a complete reformation of the group and managing the transition from the Mani Pulite corruption scandal. Draghi returned to chair SACE between 1998 and 2001, before the subsequent privatisation. During these years, he was also a board member of several Italian banks and corporations, like Eni, Institute for Industrial Reconstruction, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and Istituto Mobiliare Italiano.[28][29] In 2001, he left the Treasury to become a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[30] Draghi was also appointed a Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International in 2002. He was also made a member of the firm's management committee, holding all of these roles until 2005.[31] He led Goldman Sachs's European strategy and its engagements with major European corporations and governments.[32] After the revelation that off-market swaps had been systematically used by the Greek Government, facilitated by Goldman Sachs, Draghi stated that he "knew nothing" about the arrangement, and "had nothing to do with it".[33] During this period, Draghi also worked as a trustee at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and also spent time as a consultant at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.[5] Mario Draghi OMRI (Italian: [ˈmaːrjo ˈdraːɡi]; born 3 September 1947) is an Italian economist, central banker, academic and civil servant who is serving as Prime Minister of Italy since 13 February 2021.[1][2] He previously served as President of the European Central Bank from 2011 until 2019. Draghi was also Chair of the Financial Stability Board from 2009 to 2011 and Governor of the Bank of Italy from 2005 to 2011.[3] Draghi with President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace After a lengthy career as an academic economist in Italy, Draghi worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. throughout the 1980s, and in 1991 returned to Rome to become Director General of the Italian Treasury. He left that role after a decade to join Goldman Sachs, where he remained until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Italy in 2006. His tenure as Governor coincided with the 2008 Great Recession, and in the midst of this he was selected to become the first Chair of the Financial Stability Board, the global standard-setter that replaced the Financial Stability Forum. He left those roles after his nomination by the European Council in 2011 to serve as President of the European Central Bank. He presided over the institution during the Eurozone crisis, becoming famous throughout Europe for saying that he would be prepared to do "whatever it takes" to prevent the euro from failing.[4] In 2014, Draghi was listed by Forbes magazine as the eighth-most powerful person in the world. In 2015, Fortune magazine ranked him as the world's "second greatest leader".[5] In 2019, Paul Krugman described him as "the greatest central banker of modern times."[6] Moreover, thanks to his monetary policies, he is widely considered the "savior of the euro" during the European debt crisis.[7][8][9][10] After Draghi's term as ECB President ended in 2019, he initially returned to private life. On 3 February 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Draghi was invited by Italian President Sergio Mattarella to form a government of national unity, following the resignation of Giuseppe Conte.[11][12][13] After successful negotiations with parties including the League, the Five Star Movement, the Democratic Party and Forza Italia, Draghi was sworn in as Prime Minister on 13 February, pledging to oversee effective implementation of COVID-19 economic stimulus.[14] Mario Draghi was born in Rome in 1947 to an upper-class family; his father Carlo, who was born in Padua, first joined the Bank of Italy in 1922, and later worked for the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI) and for the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro; while his mother, Gilda Mancini, who was born in Monteverde, Campania, near Avellino, was a pharmacist. He is the eldest of three children: Andreina, an art historian, and Marcello, an entrepreneur.[15] When he was 15 years old he lost his father, who was born in 1895, and soon after at 19 he lost his mother.[16] Draghi studied at the Massimiliano Massimo Institute, a Jesuit school in Rome, where he was a classmate of the future chairman of Ferrari, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, and the future television presenter, Giancarlo Magalli.[17][18][19] In 1970, he graduated with honours in Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome, under the supervision of Keynesian economist Federico Caffè; his graduation dissertation was titled "Economic integration and the variation of exchange rates".[20] In his dissertation, Draghi was particularly critical of Luxembourg Prime Minister Pierre Werner's remarks that European monetary union was "premature".[21] Draghi went on to earn a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976, this time with a dissertation titled: "Essays on economic theory and applications", under the supervision of Franco Modigliani and Robert Solow.[22] The Maya peoples (/ˈmaɪə/) are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical civilization. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.[3] It is estimated that six million Maya were living in this area at the start of the 21st century.[1][2] Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador and western Honduras have managed to maintain numerous remnants of their ancient cultural heritage. Some are quite integrated into the majority hispanicized mestizo cultures of the nations in which they reside, while others continue a more traditional, culturally distinct life, often speaking one of the Mayan languages as a primary language. The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit Guatemala, Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador, as well as large segments of population within the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/;[1] Xhosa: [xolíɬaɬa mandɛ̂ːla]; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party's white-only government established apartheid, a system of racial segregation that privileged whites, he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed president of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. AstraZeneca plc (/ˌæstrəˈzɛnəkə/) is a British-Swedish[2][3][4] multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Cambridge, England.[5] AstraZeneca has a portfolio of products for major diseases including oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation areas. Vial of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (marketed as Covishield in India and in a few other countries).[7] The Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, codenamed AZD1222, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca given by intramuscular injection, using as a vector the modified chimpanzee adenovirus ChAdOx1.[15][16][17][18] One dosing regimen showed 90% efficacy when a half-dose was followed by a full-dose after at least one month, based on mixed trials with no participants over 55 years old.[19] Another dosing regimen showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses separated by at least one month.[19] The research is being done by the Oxford University's Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group with the collaboration of the Italian manufacturer Advent Srl located in Pomezia, which produced the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine for clinical testing.[20] The team is led by Sarah Gilbert, Adrian Hill, Andrew Pollard, Teresa Lambe, Sandy Douglas and Catherine Green.[21][20] On 30 December 2020, the vaccine was first approved for use[9][22] in the UK's vaccination programme,[23] and the first vaccination outside of a trial was administered on 4 January 2021.[24] The vaccine has since been approved by several medicine agencies worldwide, such as the European Medicines Agency,[10][12] and the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA),[4] and has been approved for an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organization.[25] The AZD1222 vaccine is a replication-deficient simian adenovirus vector, containing the full‐length codon‐optimised coding sequence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein along with a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) leader sequence.[26][27] The Responsibility to Protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.[1][2] The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID‑19 vaccine (pINN: tozinameran), sold under the brand name Comirnaty,[15] is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the German company BioNTech in cooperation with Pfizer. It is both the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized by a stringent regulatory authority for emergency use[16][17] and the first cleared for regular use.[18] BioNTech is the initial developer of the vaccine, and partnered with Pfizer for development, clinical research, overseeing the clinical trials, logistics, finances and for manufacturing worldwide with the exception of China.[19] The license to distribute and manufacture in China was purchased by Fosun, alongside its investment in BioNTech.[6][7] The "life cycle" of an mRNA in a eukaryotic cell. RNA is transcribed in the nucleus; after processing, it is transported to the cytoplasm and translated by the ribosome. Finally, the mRNA is degraded. In molecular biology, messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. Transcription is the process of copying a gene from the DNA into mRNA. This process is slightly different in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, including that prokaryotic RNA polymerase associates with DNA-processing enzymes during transcription so that processing can proceed during transcription. Therefore, this causes the new mRNA strand to become double-stranded by producing a complementary strand known as the transfer RNA (tRNA) strand. mRNA is created during the process of transcription, where an enzyme (RNA polymerase) converts the gene into primary transcript mRNA (also known as pre-mRNA). This pre-mRNA usually still contains introns, regions that will not go on to code for the final amino acid sequence. These are removed in the process of RNA splicing, leaving only exons, regions that will encode the protein. Mature mRNA is then read by the ribosome, and, utilising amino acids carried by transfer RNA, the ribosome creates the protein. This process is known as translation. All of these processes form part of the central dogma of molecular biology, which describes the flow of genetic information in a biological system. As in DNA, genetic information in mRNA is contained in the sequence of nucleotides, which are arranged into codons consisting of three ribonucleotides each. Each codon codes for a specific amino acid, except the stop codons, which terminate protein synthesis. The translation of codons into amino acids requires two other types of RNA: transfer RNA, which recognizes the codon and provides the corresponding amino acid, and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the central component of the ribosome's protein-manufacturing machinery. The existence of mRNA was first suggested by Jacques Monod and François Jacob, and was subsequently discovered by Jacob, Sydney Brenner and Matthew Meselson at the California Institute of Technology in 1961.[1] Sputnik V (Russian: Спутник V) is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Registered on 11 August 2020 by the Russian Ministry of Health as Gam-COVID-Vac (Russian: Гам-КОВИД-Вак, romanized: Gam-KOVID-Vak),[2][3] Sputnik V is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is a human adenovirus viral vector COVID-19 vaccine[11] developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of American company Johnson & Johnson (J&J).[6][12] CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine,[1] is an inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech.[2] It has been in Phase III clinical trials in Brazil,[3] Chile,[4] Indonesia,[5] the Philippines,[6] and Turkey.[7] President Bill Clinton visits the NIH in 1995 and hears about the latest advances in HIV/AIDS research from Fauci. Anthony Stephen Fauci (/ˈfaʊtʃi/; born December 24, 1940) is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who serves as the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the chief medical advisor to the president. As a physician with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fauci has served American public health in various capacities for more than 50 years, and has been an advisor to every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan.[1] He became director of the NIAID in 1984 and has made contributions to HIV/AIDS research and other immunodeficiency diseases, both as a scientist and as the head of the NIAID.[2] From 1983 to 2002, Fauci was one of the world's most frequently-cited scientists across all scientific journals.[2] In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded Fauci the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, for his work on the AIDS relief program PEPFAR. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci was one of the lead members of President Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force. In the early stages of the pandemic, The New Yorker and The New York Times described Fauci as one of the most trusted medical figures in the United States.[3][4][1][5] Fauci was appointed as Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden in 2021.[6][7][8][9][10] A 1936 HOLC "residential security" map of Philadelphia, classifying various neighborhoods by estimated riskiness of mortgage loans.[1] Redlining is the systematic denial of various services or goods by federal government agencies, local governments, or the private sector either directly or through the selective raising of prices. This is often manifested by placing strict criteria on specific services and goods that often disadvantage poor and minority communities.[2][3] Prior to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, there were no specific laws that protected minority populations from discriminatory practices in housing and commercial markets. Businesses were therefore able to exploit these groups in order to increase their profits.[3] Redlining was utilized in the housing industry by mortgage companies to suppress minority populations from receiving home loans to buy homes in other neighborhoods as well as to deny them the funds to improve their current homes. The 2021 Myanmar protests are domestic civil resistance efforts in Myanmar in opposition to the coup d'état on 1 February 2021, which was staged by Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces, the Tatmadaw.[5] As of 4 March 2021, at least 1,700 people have been detained, and at least 54 fatalities have occurred in relation to the coup.[2] Protesters have employed peaceful and nonviolent forms of protest,[6] which include acts of civil disobedience, labour strikes, a military boycott campaign, a pot-banging movement, a red ribbon campaign, public protests, and formal recognition of the election results by elected representatives. Protesters in Yangon carrying signs reading "Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi" on 8 February 2021. Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of "All Hallows' evening"),[5] also known as Allhalloween,[6] All Hallows' Eve,[7] or All Saints' Eve,[8] is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October , the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide,[9] the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.[10][11] Easter,[nb 1] also called Pascha (Aramaic, Greek, Latin)[nb 2] or Resurrection Sunday,[5][6] is a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.[7][8] It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as "Holy Week", which contains the days of the Easter Triduum, including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper,[9][10] as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus.[11] In Western Christianity, Eastertide, or the Easter Season, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts seven weeks, ending with the coming of the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday. In Eastern Christianity, the season of Pascha begins on Pascha and ends with the coming of the 40th day, the Feast of the Ascension. Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts which do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the Sun; rather, its date is offset from the date of Passover and is therefore calculated based on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March.[12] Even if calculated on the basis of the more accurate Gregorian calendar, the date of that full moon sometimes differs from that of the astronomical first full moon after the March equinox.[13] Christians (/ˈkrɪstʃən, -tiən/ (listen)) are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ).[6] While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict,[7][8] they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance.[7] Good Friday (often referred to as 'pleasant friday') is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Holy and Great Friday), and Black Friday.[2][3][4] In Christianity, Holy Week (Latin: Hebdomas Sancta or Hebdomas Maior, lit. 'Greater Week'; Greek: Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, romanized: Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit. 'Holy and Great Week') is the week immediately preceding Easter. It is also the last week of Lent, in the West, – Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), Good Friday (Holy Friday), and Holy Saturday – are all included.[1][2] However, Easter Day, which begins the season of Eastertide, is not. Friuli Venezia Giulia (pronounced [friˈuːli veˈnɛttsja ˈdʒuːlja])[lower-alpha 1] is one of the 20 regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste. The name used to be hyphenated as Friuli-Venezia Giulia until 2001. The region is called Friûl Vignesie Julie in Friulian, Furlanija Julijska krajina in Slovene and Friaul Julisch Venetien in German, three languages spoken in the region. The city of Venice ("Venezia") is not in this region, despite the name. Friuli Venezia Giulia has an area of 7,924 km2 and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is traversed by the major transport routes between the east and west of southern Europe. It encompasses the historical-geographical region of Friuli and a small portion of the historical region of Venezia Giulia – also known in English as the Julian March – each with its own distinct history, traditions and identity. Roman ruins in Aquileia In Roman times, modern Friuli Venezia Giulia was located within Regio X Venetia et Histria of Roman Italy. The traces of its Roman origin are visible all over the area. In fact, the city of Aquileia, founded in 181 BC, served as regional capital and rose to prominence in the Augustan era. In 568, Cividale del Friuli (the Roman Forum Iulii (from which the name Friuli is derived)) became the capital of the first Lombard dukedom in Italy. In 774, the Franks, favored the growth of the church of Aquileia and established Cividale as a march. In 1077, the Holy Roman Emperor recognized the territorial powers of the Patriarchate of Aquileia that temporarily extended its rule to areas to the east. In the 6th century, the Alpine Slavs, ancestors of present-day Slovenes, settled the eastern areas of the region. They settled in the easternmost mountainous areas of Friuli known as the Friulian Slavia, as well as in the Kras Plateau and in the area north and south of Gorizia. In the 12th and 13th centuries they also moved closer to Triest. Miramare Castle, built by Archduke Maximilian of Austria in Trieste Ten Mile Range and Dillon Reservoir near Breckenridge, Colorado A view of the arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado Colorado (/ˌkɒləˈrædoʊ, -ˈrɑːdoʊ/ (listen), other variants)[8][9][10] is a state in the Mountain West region of the United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the eighth most extensive and 21st most populous U.S. state. The region has been inhabited by Native Americans for more than 13,000 years, with the Lindenmeier Site containing artifacts dating from approximately 9200 BCE to 1000 BCE; the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route for early peoples who spread throughout the Americas. The state was named for the Colorado River, which early Spanish explorers named the Río Colorado ("Red River") for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861,[1] and on August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Proclamation 230 admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state.[2] Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it became a state one century after the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas to the east, Oklahoma to the southeast, New Mexico to the south, Utah to the west, and touches Arizona to the southwest at the Four Corners. Colorado is noted for its vivid landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers and desert lands. Colorado is one of the Mountain States and is a part of the western and southwestern United States. Denver is the capital and most populous city in Colorado. Residents of the state are known as Coloradans, although the antiquated term "Coloradoan" is occasionally used.[13][14] Colorado is a comparatively wealthy state, ranking eighth in household income in 2016,[15] and 11th in per capita income in 2010.[16] Major parts of the economy include government and defense, mining, agriculture, tourism, and increasingly other kinds of manufacturing. With increasing temperatures and decreasing water availability, Colorado's agriculture, forestry and tourism economies are expected to be heavily affected by climate change.[17] Denver (/ˈdɛnvər/), officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. State of Colorado. Denver is located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 727,211 in 2019, Denver is the 19th-most populous city in the United States, the fifth-most populous state capital, and the most populous city located in the Mountain states.[17] The metropolitan area surrounding Denver represents a majority of the population and economic activity in the Front Range region, the area where an estimated 85% of Colorado's population lives. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, approximately 12 mi (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is named after James W. Denver, a governor of the Kansas Territory. It is nicknamed the Mile High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5280 feet or 1609.344 meters) above sea level.[18] The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the longitudinal reference for the Mountain Time Zone, passes directly through Denver Union Station. The Rocky Mountains stretch 3,000 mi (4,800 km)[1] in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. The northern terminus is located in the Liard River area east of the Pacific Coast Ranges, while the southernmost point is near the Albuquerque area adjacent the Rio Grande Basin and north of the Sandia–Manzano Mountain Range. Located within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada, which all lie farther to the west. Mount Everest (Chinese: 珠穆朗玛 Zhūmùlǎngmǎ; Nepali: सगरमाथा Sagarmāthā; Tibetan: Chomolungma ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point.[5] Its elevation (snow height) of 8,848.86 m (29,031.7 ft) was most recently established in 2020 by the Nepali and Chinese authorities.[6] It gives its name to the Mont Blanc massif, which itself forms part of a larger range referred to as the Graian Alps. The location of the summit of Mont Blanc is on the watershed line between the valleys of Ferret and Veny in Italy and the valleys of Montjoie, and Arve in France, on the border between the two countries. Ownership of the summit area has long been a subject of historical dispute between the two countries. The Himalayas, or Himalaya (/ˌhɪməˈleɪə, hɪˈmɑːləjə/); Sanskrit: himá (हिम 'snow') and ā-laya (आलय 'abode, receptacle, dwelling'), is a mountain range in South and East Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has many of Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest, at the border between Nepal and China. The Himalayas include over fifty mountains exceeding 7,200 m (23,600 ft) in elevation, including ten of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia (Aconcagua, in the Andes) is 6,961 m (22,838 ft) tall.[1] Greater Tibet as claimed by Tibetan exile groups Tibetan autonomous areas, as designated by China Tibet Autonomous Region, within China Chinese-controlled, claimed by India as part of Ladakh Indian-controlled, parts claimed by China as South Tibet Other areas historically within the Tibetan cultural sphere Tibet (/tɪˈbɛt/ (listen); Tibetan: བོད་, Lhasa dialect: [/pʰøː˨˧˩/] ; Chinese: 西藏; pinyin: Xīzàng) is a region in East Asia covering much of the Tibetan Plateau spanning about 2.5 million km2. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Tamang, Qiang, Sherpa, and Lhoba peoples and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft).[1][2] Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848 m (29,029 ft) above sea level. Hindu Kush (top right) and its extending mountain ranges to the west The range forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region (HKH)[4][5][6] and is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. The range has numerous high snow-capped peaks, with the highest point being Tirich Mir or Terichmir at 7,708 metres (25,289 ft) in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Xayaburi Dam is a run-of-river hydroelectric dam on the Lower Mekong River, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Sainyabuli (Xayaburi) town in northern Laos. Commercial operation of the dam started in October 2019.[3][4] The main purpose of the dam is to produce hydroelectric power, 95% of which is to be purchased by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).[5] The project is surrounded in controversy due to complaints from downstream riparians and environmentalists. Preliminary construction began in early-2012, but work on the dam itself was suspended shortly thereafter due to complaints from Cambodia and Vietnam downstream.[6] After making modifications to the dam's design, Laos started construction with a ceremony on 7 November 2012.[7] The Xayaburi Dam is the first of the 11 dams planned on the lower Mekong.[8] K2, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level, is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest (at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft)). It lies in the Karakoram range, in part in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in part in a China-administered territory of the Kashmir region included in the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang.[3][4][5] The Karakoram is a mountain range spanning the borders of China, India, and Pakistan, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan; its highest 15 mountains are all based in Pakistan. It begins in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) in the west, encompasses the majority of Gilgit-Baltistan (controlled by Pakistan), and extends into Ladakh (controlled by India) and Aksai Chin (controlled by China). It is the second highest mountain range in the world and part of the complex of ranges including the Pamir Mountains, the Hindu Kush and the Himalayan Mountains.[1][2] The Karakoram has eighteen summits over 7,500 m (24,600 ft) height, with four of them exceeding 8,000 m (26,000 ft):[3] K2, the second highest peak in the world at 8,611 m (28,251 ft), Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II. Mauna Loa (/ˌmɔːnə ˈloʊ.ə/ or /ˌmaʊnə ˈloʊ.ə/; Hawaiian: [ˈmɐwnə ˈlowə]; English: Long Mountain[3]) is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in the Pacific Ocean. The largest subaerial volcano in both mass and volume, Mauna Loa has historically been considered the largest volcano on Earth, dwarfed only by Tamu Massif.[2] It is an active shield volcano with relatively gentle slopes, with a volume estimated at approximately 18,000 cubic miles (75,000 km3),[5] although its peak is about 125 feet (38 m) lower than that of its neighbor, Mauna Kea.[6] Lava eruptions from Mauna Loa are silica-poor and very fluid, and they tend to be non-explosive. Mount Etna, or Etna (Italian: Etna [ˈɛtna] or Mongibello [mondʒiˈbɛllo]; Sicilian: Mungibeddu [mʊndʒɪbˈbɛɖɖʊ] or a Muntagna; Latin: Aetna; Greek: Αἴτνα), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina and Catania. It lies above the convergent plate margin between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. It is the highest active volcano in Europe outside the Caucasus[3] and the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps with a current height of 3,326 m (10,912 ft), though this varies with summit eruptions. Mount Vesuvius (/vɪˈsuːviəs/ viss-OO-vee-əs; Italian: Vesuvio[1] Italian pronunciation: [veˈzuːvjo; -suː]; Neapolitan: 'O Vesuvio[2] [vəˈsuːvjə], also 'A muntagna or 'A montagna;[3] Latin: Vesuvius[4] [wɛˈsʊwɪ.ʊs], also Vesevius, Vesvius or Vesbius[5]) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure. The Amazon rainforest, alternatively, the Amazon jungle[lower-alpha 1] or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. The Nile (Arabic: النيل‎, romanized: an-Nīl, Arabic pronunciation: [an'niːl], Bohairic Coptic: ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲟ Pronounced [pʰjaˈro],[4] Luganda: Kiira Ganda pronunciation: [ki:ra], Nobiin: Áman Dawū[5]) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. The longest river in Africa, it has historically been considered the longest river in the world,[6][7] though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer.[8][9] The Nile is about 6,650 km (4,130 mi)[n 1] long and its drainage basin covers eleven countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan, and Egypt.[11] In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan.[12] Map of the Yangtze River basin Golden Island, on The Yang-Tse River, China (LMS, 1869, p.64)[6] The Yangtze or Yangzi (English: /ˈjæŋtsi/ or /ˈjɑːŋtsi/) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows 6,300 km (3,900 mi) in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the sixth-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population.[7] The locations of major Italian rivers This is a list of rivers which are at least partially located in Italy. They are organized according to what body of water they drain into, with the exceptions of Sicily and Sardinia, which are listed separately. At the bottom all of the rivers are listed alphabetically. After entering Switzerland, the Spöl drains into the Inn, which meets the Danube in Germany. Draining into the Tyrrhenian Sea The Garigliano near its mouth The Reno near Casalecchio Tributaries of the Tiber The Tiber: ponte Sant'Angelo (Rome) The Polcevera in Bolzaneto (Genova) Rivers of Sicily The Temo in Bosa Draining into the North Sea Reno di Lei After entering Switzerland, the Reno di Lei drains via the Reno di Avers and the Hinterrhein into the Rhine. Tributaries of the Adige The Adige crossing Verona. Tributaries of the Po The Po in Boretto (RE). Right-hand tributaries Draining into the Black Sea Acqua Granda (or Spöl) Drava (a short section in Italy, continues into Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary) Brembo Enna Parina Stabina Seveso (The Seveso enters the Naviglio Martesana canal which enters the Lambro.) The Drava drains into the Danube on the Croatia–Serbia border. Slizza (three-quarters in Italy, a quarter in Austria) After entering Austria, the Slizza drains via the Gail into the Drava. Frigidolfo or Oglio Frigidolfo branch Arcanello or Oglio Arcanello branch Narcanello or Oglio Narcanello branch Valpaghera Valgrande Ogliolo branch Rabbia Remulo Allione (river) Poia (river) Re Re Clegna Figna Blé Palobbia Poia (creek) Re Lanico Trobiolo Grigna Resio Davine Budrio Dezzo Gleno Re Orso Supine Borlezza (The Borlezza enters Lake Iseo which empties into the Oglio.) Rino di Vigolo (The Rino di Vigolo enters Iseo lake which empties into the Oglio.) Rino di Predore (The Rino di Predore enters Iseo lake which empties into the Oglio.) Sarca (The Sarca enters Lake Garda which empties into the Mincio.) Acqua Granda (half in Italy, half in Switzerland) Rivers draining into Lake Como Draining into the Ionian Sea The Stilaro near Bivongi Another historical source of devastating floods is the collapse of upstream ice dams in Inner Mongolia with an accompanying sudden release of vast quantities of impounded water. There have been 11 such major floods in the past century, each causing tremendous loss of life and property. Nowadays, explosives dropped from aircraft are used to break the ice dams before they become dangerous.[8] The Yellow River or Huang He (listen ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).[1] Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, it flows through nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total drainage area is about 795,000 square kilometers (307,000 sq mi). The Indian Ocean, according to the CIA The World Factbook[4] (blue area), and as defined by the IHO (black outline - excluding marginal waterbodies). The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering 70,560,000 km2 (27,240,000 sq mi) or 19.8% of the water on Earth's surface.[5] It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by the Southern Ocean or Antarctica, depending on the definition in use.[6] Along its core, the Indian Ocean has some large marginal or regional seas such as the Arabian Sea, the Laccadive Sea, the Somali Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Andaman Sea. The Black Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia; east of the Balkans (Southeast Europe), south of the East European Plain in Eastern Europe, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia in Western Asia. It is supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper, and Don. The watersheds of many countries drain into the sea beyond the six that share its coast.[2] The Black Sea covers 436,400 km2 (168,500 sq mi) (not including the Sea of Azov),[3] a maximum depth of 2,212 m (7,257 ft),[4] and a volume of 547,000 km3 (131,000 cu mi),[5] making it the world's largest inland body of water. Most of its coasts rapidly ascend. These rises are the Pontic Mountains to the south, bar the southwest facing peninsulas, the Caucasus Mountains to the east, and the Crimean Mountains to the mid-north. The Adriatic Sea (/ˌeɪdriˈætɪk/) is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to the northwest and the Po Valley. The countries with coasts on the Adriatic are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Tyrrhenian Sea (/tɪˈriːniən/; Italian: Mar Tirreno [mar tirˈrɛːno], French: Mer Tyrrhénienne [mɛʁ tiʁenjɛn], Sardinian: Mare Tirrenu, Corsican: Mari Tirrenu, Sicilian: Mari Tirrenu, Neapolitan: Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. The sea is bounded by the islands of Corsica and Sardinia (to the west), the Italian peninsula (regions of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, and Calabria) to the north and east, and the island of Sicily (to the south).[1] The Tyrrhenian Sea also includes a number of smaller islands like Capri, Elba, Ischia and Ustica.[2] Amalfi Coast, Positano The maximum depth of the sea is 3,785 metres (12,418 ft). The Ionian Sea (Greek: Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, Iónio Pélagos [iˈonio ˈpelaɣos]; Italian: Mar Ionio [mar ˈjɔːnjo]; Albanian: Deti Jon [dɛti jɔ:n]) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania (and western Apulia, Italy) to the north, and the west coast of Greece, including the Peloponnese. All major islands in the sea, which are located in the east of the sea, belong to Greece. They are collectively named the Ionian Islands, the main ones being Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Lefkada, and Ithaca. There are ferry routes between Patras and Igoumenitsa, Greece, and Brindisi and Ancona, Italy, that cross the east and north of the Ionian Sea, and from Piraeus westward. Calypso Deep, the deepest point in the Mediterranean at 5,267 m (17,280 ft), is in the Ionian Sea, at 36°34′N 21°8′E / 36.567°N 21.133°E / 36.567; 21.133.[1][2] The sea is one of the most seismically active areas in the world. The Ligurian Sea: in red the border according to International Hydrographic Organization, in blue the border according to Istituto Idrografico della Marina The Ligurian Sea (Italian: Mar Ligure; French: Mer Ligurienne; Ligurian: Mâ Ligure) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is theorized to be named after the ancient Ligures people. The sea borders Italy as far as its border with France, and the French island of Corsica. In the east the sea borders the Tyrrhenian Sea, while in the west it borders the Mediterranean Sea proper. Genoa is the most prominent city in the area. The northwest coast is noted for its scenic beauty and favourable climate. The Gulf of Venice is a gulf that borders modern-day Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, and is at the north of the Adriatic Sea between the delta of the Po river in Northern Italy and the Istria peninsula in Croatia. Venice (/ˈvɛnɪs/ VEH-niss; Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsja] (listen); Venetian: Venesia or Venexia [veˈnɛsja]) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is on a group of 118 small islands[3] that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges.[3][4] The islands are in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay lying between the mouths of the Po and the Piave rivers (more exactly between the Brenta and the Sile). In 2020, 258,685 people resided in the Comune di Venezia, of whom around 55,000 live in the historical city of Venice (centro storico). Together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE), which is considered a statistical metropolitan area, with a total population of 2.6 million.[5] The entire region was subject to territorial dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia after World War II: after the new boundaries were established in 1947 and the old town was left to Italy, Nova Gorica was built on the Yugoslav side. Taken together, the two towns constitute a conurbation, which also includes the Slovenian municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba. Since May 2011, these three towns have been joined in a common trans-border metropolitan zone, administered by a joint administration board.[6] Udine (US: /ˈuːdineɪ/ OO-dee-nay,[3][4] Italian: [ˈuːdine] (listen); Friulian: Udin; German: Weiden in Friaul; Slovene: Videm; Latin: Utinum) is a city and comune in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (Alpi Carniche). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with the urban area. Trieste (/triˈɛst/ tree-EST,[3] Italian: [triˈɛste] (listen); Slovene: Trst [tə́ɾst]; German: Triest, German pronunciation: [tʁiˈɛst] (listen)) is a city and a seaport in northeastern Italy. It is towards the end of a narrow strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, approximately 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) south and east of the city. Croatia is some 30 km (19 mi) to the south. COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines led by UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, or GAVI), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and others. It is one of the three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, an initiative begun in April 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission, and the government of France as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVAX aims to coordinate international resources to enable the equitable access of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, and COVID-19 vaccines.[1] It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan), and in the south by Borneo, eastern Sumatra and the Bangka Belitung Islands, encompassing an area of around 3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi). It communicates with the East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait, the Philippine Sea via the Luzon Strait, the Sulu Sea via the straits around Palawan (e.g. the Mindoro and Balabac Strait), the Strait of Malacca via the Strait of Singapore, and the Java Sea via the Karimata and Bangka Strait. The Gulf of Tonkin is also part of the South China Sea, and the shallow waters south of the Riau Islands are also known as the Natuna Sea. The Bay of Biscay (/ˈbɪskeɪ, -ki/; French: Golfe de Gascogne, Spanish: Golfo de Vizcaya, Basque: Bizkaiko Golkoa, Occitan: Golf de Gasconha, Breton: Pleg-mor Gwaskogn) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal. The English Channel,[lower-alpha 1] also called simply the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France and links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.[1] Tagalog (/təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/, tə-GAH-log;[4] Tagalog pronunciation: [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority.[5][6] Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages alongside English. Zagreb (/ˈzɑːɡrɛb, ˈzæɡrɛb, zɑːˈɡrɛb/ ZAH-greb, ZAG-reb, zah-GREB;[8] Croatian pronunciation: [zǎːɡreb] (listen))[9] is the capital and largest city of Croatia.[10] It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level.[11] The estimated population of the city in 2018 was 804,507.[6] The population of the Zagreb urban agglomeration is 1,153,255,[2] approximately a quarter of the total population of Croatia. Croatia (/kroʊˈeɪʃə/ (listen), kroh-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska, pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska, (listen)),[lower-alpha 5] is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, with twenty counties. The Mon language (/ˈmoʊn/,[2] Mon: ဘာသာ မန်; Burmese: မွန်ဘာသာ, Thai: ภาษามอญ, formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon people. Mon, like the related Khmer language, but unlike most languages in mainland Southeast Asia, is not tonal. The Mon language is a recognised indigenous language in Myanmar as well as a recognised indigenous language of Thailand.[3] Notes Mon alphabet explanation The southern terminus of the Suez Canal at Suez on the Gulf of Suez, at the northern end of the Red Sea The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس‎ qanāt as-suwēs) is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. Constructed between 1859 and 1869 by the Suez Canal Company formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1858, it officially opened on 17 November 1869. The canal offers watercraft a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, thus avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to London by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi), or 8-10 days.[1] It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) including its northern and southern access-channels. In 2020, over 18,500 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 51.5 per day).[2] The Ludwig Canal in the context of the Rhine and Danube The Rhine–Main–Danube Canal (German: Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal; also called Main-Danube Canal, RMD Canal or Europa Canal), in Bavaria, Germany, connects the Main and the Danube rivers across the European Watershed, running from Bamberg via Nuremberg to Kelheim. The canal connects the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, providing a navigable artery between the Rhine delta (at Rotterdam in the Netherlands), and the Danube Delta in south-eastern Romania and south-western Ukraine (or Constanța, through the Danube–Black Sea Canal). The present canal was completed in 1992 and is 171 kilometres (106 mi) long. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark;[1] 10 June 1921[fn 1] – 9 April 2021) was a member of the British royal family as the husband of Elizabeth II. He was born in Greece, but his family was exiled from the country when he was eighteen months old. After being educated in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, aged 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, whom he had first met in 1934. BBIBP-CorV, also known as the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine,[1] is one of two inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccines developed by Sinopharm. In late December 2020, it was in Phase III trials in Argentina, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over 60,000 participants.[2] BBIBP-CorV shares similar technology with CoronaVac and BBV152, other inactivated virus vaccines for COVID-19 being developed in Phase III trials.[3][4] On December 9, the UAE announced interim results from Phase III trials showing BBIBP-CorV had a 86% efficacy against COVID-19 infection.[5] In late December, Sinopharm announced that its internal analysis indicated a 79% efficacy.[6] While mRNA vaccines like the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and mRNA-1273 showed higher efficacy of over 90%, those present distribution challenges for some nations as they require deep-freeze facilities and trucks. BIBP-CorV could be transported and stored at normal refrigerated temperatures.[7] BBIBP-CorV is being used in vaccination campaigns by certain countries in Asia,[1][9][3] Africa,[4][12][13] South America,[14][8][16] and Europe.[17][18][19] Sinopharm expects to produce one billion doses of BBIBP-CorV in 2021.[20] On March 26, Sinopharm said more than 80 million doses had been administered.[21] No detailed efficacy data of the vaccine has been published in peer-review journals. Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her narrative songwriting, which often takes inspiration from her personal experiences, has received widespread media coverage and critical praise. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift signed with Sony/ATV Tree Publishing in 2004 to become a songwriter and with Big Machine Records in 2005 to become a country music singer. Her eponymous debut studio album (2006) included the Hot Country Songs number-one singles "Our Song" and "Should've Said No" and the pop radio crossover "Teardrops on My Guitar". Swift rose to mainstream prominence with her country pop second studio album, Fearless (2008), which was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and featured the top-five singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me". Swift released her seventh studio album Lover in 2019, while she was involved in a dispute over the ownership of her back catalog after her contract with Big Machine had expired. She explored indie folk and alternative rock on her 2020 studio albums, Folklore and Evermore. The six albums spawned a string of international top-ten singles, including "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "I Knew You Were Trouble", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", "Look What You Made Me Do", "Me!", "You Need to Calm Down", "Cardigan", and "Willow". With sales of over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is one of the best-selling music artists. Her accolades include 11 Grammy Awards (including three Album of the Year wins), an Emmy Award, two Brit Awards, 11 MTV Video Music Awards (including two Video of the Year wins), 12 Country Music Association Awards, 25 Billboard Music Awards (the most wins by a woman), 32 American Music Awards (the most wins by an artist) and 35 Guinness World Records. She ranked eighth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Artists Chart (2019) and was listed on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time (2015). Swift has been included in various power rankings, such as Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (2010, 2015 and 2019) and Forbes Celebrity 100 (placing first in 2016 and 2019). She was named Woman of the Decade (2010s) by Billboard and Artist of the Decade (2010s) by the American Music Awards, and has been recognized for her philanthropic efforts and advocacy of women's and artists' rights.[3] Life and career Swift's childhood home in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989,[4] at the Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania.[5] Her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch;[6] her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), is a former homemaker who previously worked as a mutual fund marketing executive.[7] She has Scottish heritage[8] and was named after singer-songwriter James Taylor.[9] Her younger brother, Austin, is an actor.[10] Swift's great-great-grandfather on her father's side was an Italian immigrant entrepreneur and community leader who opened a slew of businesses in Philadelphia in the 1800s.[11][12] She spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm that her father purchased from one of his clients.[10][14] Swift identifies as a Christian.[15] She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by the Bernadine Franciscan sisters,[16] before transferring to The Wyndcroft School.[17] The family moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania,[18] where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School.[19] He led the premier unit of the Royal Lao Army, 2ème bataillon de parachutistes (Parachute Battalion 2), which campaigned relentlessly during 1959 and 1960. The idealistic young American-trained Lao Theung officer became known worldwide when on 10 August 1960 he and his mutinous paratroopers overthrew the Royal Lao Government in a coup d'état. He declared he aimed at an end to government corruption; to the shock of American officials, he declared U.S. policies were responsible for the ongoing fraud. A logo for Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a binary data designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database using strong cryptography to secure transaction records, to control the creation of additional coins, and to verify the transfer of coin ownership.[1][2] Some crypto schemes use validators to maintain the cryptocurrency. In a proof-of-stake model, owners put up their tokens as collateral. In return, they get authority over the token in proportion to the amount they stake. Generally, these token stakers get additional ownership in the token over time via network fees, newly minted tokens or other such reward mechanisms.[3] Cryptocurrency does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority. Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to a central bank digital currency (CBDC).[4] When a cryptocurrency is minted or created prior to issuance or issued by a single issuer, it is generally considered centralized. When implemented with decentralized control, each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.[5] Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is the first decentralized cryptocurrency.[6] Since the release of bitcoin, many other cryptocurrencies have been created. Countries with confirmed cases of Delta variant as of 10 August 2021 (GISAID) Legend: 10,000+ confirmed sequences 5,000–9,999 confirmed sequences 1,000–4,999 confirmed sequences 100–999 confirmed sequences 10–99 confirmed sequences 1-9 confirmed sequence None or no data The Delta variant, also known as lineage B.1.617.2,[note 1] is a variant of lineage B.1.617 of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.[1] It was first detected in India in late 2020.[2][3] The World Health Organization (WHO) named it the Delta variant on 31 May 2021.[4] By 24 August 2021, the variant had spread to 163 countries,[5] and the WHO indicated that it is becoming the dominant strain globally.[6] Public health recommendations from the 1918 Illustrated Current News, New Haven, CT Spanish flu, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or the 1918 influenza pandemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four successive waves. The name "Spanish flu" is a misnomer,[1] rooted in historical othering of infectious disease origin, which is now avoided.[7] The pandemic broke out near the end of World War I, when wartime censors suppressed bad news in the belligerent countries to maintain morale, but newspapers freely reported the outbreak in neutral Spain. These stories created a false impression of Spain as the epicenter, so press outside Spain adopted the name "Spanish" flu. Limited historical epidemiological data make the pandemic's geographic origin indeterminate, with competing hypotheses on the initial spread.[2] Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the young and old, with a higher survival rate in-between, but this pandemic had unusually high mortality for young adults.[8] Scientists offer several explanations for the high mortality, including a six-year climate anomaly affecting migration of disease vectors with increased likelihood of spread through bodies of water.[9] The virus was particularly deadly because it triggered a cytokine storm, ravaging the stronger immune system of young adults,[10] although the viral infection was apparently no more aggressive than previous influenza strains.[11][12] Malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene, exacerbated by the war, promoted bacterial superinfection, killing most of the victims after a typically prolonged death bed.[13][14] The 1918 Spanish flu was the first of three flu pandemics caused by H1N1 influenza A virus; the most recent one was the 2009 swine flu pandemic.[15][16] The 1977 Russian flu was also caused by H1N1 virus, but it mostly affected younger populations.[15][17] The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which began in December 2019 and is caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is the deadliest respiratory virus pandemic since Spanish flu due to its spread worldwide and high death toll.[18] Medical condition Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Other names COVID, (the) coronavirus Transmission and life-cycle of SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19. Pronunciation /kəˈroʊnəvaɪrəs/ /ˌkoʊvɪdnaɪnˈtiːn, ˌkɒvɪd-/[1] Specialty Infectious disease Symptoms Fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, vomiting, loss of taste or smell; some cases asymptomatic[2][3] Complications Pneumonia, viral sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, kidney failure, cytokine release syndrome, respiratory failure, pulmonary fibrosis, pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, chronic COVID syndrome Usual onset 2–14 days (typically 5) from infection Duration 5 days to chronic Causes Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Diagnostic method rRT-PCR testing, CT scan, Rapid antigen test Prevention Face coverings, quarantine, physical/social distancing, ventilation, hand washing,[4][needs update] vaccination[5] Treatment Symptomatic and supportive Frequency 229,081,792[6] confirmed cases Deaths 4,700,015[6] Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.[7] The disease has since spread worldwide, leading to an ongoing pandemic.[8] Symptoms of COVID-19 are variable, but often include fever,[9] cough, headache,[10] fatigue, breathing difficulties, and loss of smell and taste.[11][12][13] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.[14] Of those people who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classed as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% suffer critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).[15] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months after recovery, and damage to organs has been observed.[16] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.[16] Emma Raducanu (/ræduˈkɑːnuː/;[2] born 13 November 2002) is a British professional tennis player. She has a career-high Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranking of world No. 22 and is the current British No. 1. Raducanu is the reigning US Open champion, and the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon Championships. She made her WTA Tour debut in June 2021. As a wild card ranked outside the top 300 at Wimbledon, she reached the fourth round in her first major tournament. At the US Open two months later, Raducanu became the first qualifier in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating Leylah Fernandez in the final. Xi Jinping (English: /ʃi dʒɪn pɪŋ/ SHEE JIN PING; simplified Chinese: 习近平; traditional Chinese: 習近平; pinyin: Xí Jìnpíng, [ɕǐ tɕîn pʰǐŋ]; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been serving as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. Xi has been the paramount leader of China, the most prominent political leader in China, since 2012. As of 2014[update], the administrative area housed 14,427,500 inhabitants, the largest in Sichuan, with an urban population of 10,152,632. At the time of the 2010 census, Chengdu was the fifth-most populous agglomeration in China, with 10,484,996 inhabitants in the built-up area including Xinjin County and Deyang's Guanghan City. Chengdu is considered a "Beta + (global second-tier)" city classification (together with Barcelona and Washington, D.C.) according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[10] In 2021, Chengdu ranked 35th in the Global Financial Centres Index.[11] Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards[note 3] and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship and one UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most goals (134) and assists (42) in the Champions League, most goals in the European Championship (14), and most international goals by a male player (111). The pope (Latin: papa, from Greek: πάππας, romanized: pappas, "father"),[2][3] also known as supreme pontiff (Pontifex maximus or Summus Pontifex) or Roman pontiff (Romanus Pontifex), is the bishop of Rome, head of the worldwide Catholic Church and head of state or sovereign of the Vatican City State.[4] According to Catholics, the primacy of the bishop of Rome is largely derived from his role as the apostolic successor to Saint Peter, to whom primacy was conferred by Jesus, giving him the Keys of Heaven and the powers of "binding and loosing", naming him as the "rock" upon which the church would be built. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013.[5] Angela Dorothea Merkel[lower-alpha 1] MdB (née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018.[9] A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany.[10] Merkel has been variously described as the de facto leader of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world.[3][12][13] The Moderna COVID‑19 vaccine (pINN: elasomeran[24]), codenamed mRNA-1273 and sold under the brand name Spikevax,[2] is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by American company Moderna, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). It is authorized for use in people aged twelve years and older in some jurisdictions and for people eighteen years and older in other jurisdictions to provide protection against COVID-19 which is caused by infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[20][2][25][5] It is designed to be administered as two or three 0.5 mL doses given by intramuscular injection at an interval of at least 28 days apart.[22][26][8][9] Bitcoin blockchain structure A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography.[1][2][3][4] It's also described as a "trustless and fully decentralized peer-to-peer immutable data storage" that is spread over a network of participants often referred to as nodes.[5] Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in order to get into its hash. As blocks each contain information about the block previous to it, they form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it. Therefore, blockchains are resistant to modification of their data because once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks. Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] (listen)), officially the Italian Republic or Republic of Italy[13][14] (Italian: Repubblica Italiana [reˈpubblika itaˈljaːna]),[15][16] is a country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and several islands surrounding it,[note 1] whose territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region.[17] Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in Southern Europe;[18][19][20] it is also considered part of Western Europe.[21][note 2] A unitary parliamentary republic with Rome as its capital and largest city, the country covers a total area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, as well as the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. With over 60 million inhabitants,[22] Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union. Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.[2] MoneyGram International, Inc. is an American money transfer company based in the United States with headquarters in Dallas, Texas.[3] It has an operations center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and regional and local offices around the world. MoneyGram businesses are divided into two categories: Global Funds Transfers and Financial Paper Products.[4] The company provides its service to individuals and businesses through a network of agents and financial institutions. In 2014, MoneyGram was the second largest provider of money transfers in the world.[1][2][3] The company operates in more than 200 countries and territories with a global network of about 347,000 agent offices.[4] The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York,[3] the company changed its name to the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856 after merging with a competitor.[4] The company dominated the American telegraphy industry from the 1860s to the 1980s,[5] pioneering technology such as telex and developing a range of telegraph-related services (including wire money transfer) in addition to its core business of transmitting and delivering telegram messages. The Korean War (see § Names) was a war between North Korea and South Korea from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953.[49][50][51] It began as an attempt by North Korean supreme leader Kim Il-sung to unify Korea under his communist regime through military force.[52] Two powers entered the war, with the United States under President Truman fighting alongside the South and the newly established People's Republic of China fighting alongside the North. In 1948, as a result of Cold War tensions, the occupation zones became two sovereign states. A capitalist state, the First Republic of Korea, was established in the south under the authoritarian leadership of Syngman Rhee, and a socialist state, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in the north under the totalitarian leadership of Kim Il-sung. Both governments of the two new Korean states claimed to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither accepted the border as permanent. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans fled south in mid-1950 after the North Korean army invaded. A U.S. howitzer position near the Kum River, 15 July G.I. comforting a grieving infantryman M24 Chaffee light tanks of the US Army's 25th Infantry Division wait for an assault of North Korean T-34-85 tanks at Masan Crew of an M-24 tank along the Nakdong River front, August 1950 Pershing and Sherman tanks of the 73rd Heavy Tank Battalion at the Pusan Docks, Korea. Pershing tanks in downtown Seoul during the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950. In the foreground, United Nations troops round up North Korean prisoners-of-war. Auschwitz concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939)[3] during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (Stammlager) in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps.[4] The camps became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Latin: [ˈŋnae̯.ʊs pɔmˈpɛjjʊs ˈmaŋnʊs]; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey the Great (/ˈpɒmpiː/), was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from Republic to Empire. He was also (for a time) a student of Roman general Sulla as well as the political ally (and later enemy) of Julius Caesar. Vang Pao (RPA: Vaj Pov [vâ pɔ̌], Nyiakeng Puachue: 𞄒𞄤𞄲𞄚𞄨𞄳, Pahawh: 𖬖𖬰𖬜 𖬒𖬪𖬵 [vâ pɔ̌], Lao: ວັງປາວ; 8 December 1929 – 6 January 2011)[1] was a major general in the Royal Lao Army.[2] He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. Early life Vang, an ethnic Hmong, was born on 8 December 1929,[3][4] in a Hmong village named Nonghet,[5] located in Central Xiangkhuang Province, in the northeastern region of Laos, where his father, Neng Chu Vang, was a county leader. Vang began his early life as a farmer until Japanese forces invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II. His father sent him away to school from the age of 10 to 15[1] before he launched his military career, joining the French Military to protect fellow Hmong during the Japanese invasion. [citation needed] While taking an entrance examination, the captain who was the proctor realized that Vang knew almost no written French. The captain dictated the answers to Vang so he could join the army. Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, said Vang did not express any embarrassment over this cheating. Fadiman added "it is worth noting that in this incident, far from tarnishing Vang Pao's reputation — as, for example Ted Kennedy's fudged Spanish exam at Harvard University tarnished his — merely added to his mythology: this was the sort of man who could never be held back by such petty impediments as rules."[6] The Lao Issara (Lao: ລາວອິດສະລະ lit. 'Free Laos') was an anti-French, non-communist nationalist movement formed on 12 October 1945 by Prince Phetsarath.[1] This short-lived movement emerged after the Japanese defeat in World War II and became the government of Laos before the return of the French. It aimed to prevent the French from restoring their control over Laos. Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa (Somdej Chao Maha Uparaja Petsaraj Ratanavongsa (Lao: ສົມເດັຈເຈົ້າ ມຫາ ອຸປຣາຊ ເພັຊຣາຊ ຣັຕນວົງສາ) (19 January 1890 – 14 October 1959) was the 1st Prime Minister of Luang Phrabang in French Laos from 21 August 1941 to 10 October 1945,[1] and Head of State of Laos between 12 October 1945 and 4 April 1946. Omicron variant and other major or previous variants of concern of SARS-CoV-2 depicted in a tree scaled radially by genetic distance, derived from Nextstrain on 1 December 2021 The Omicron variant is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) from South Africa on 24 November 2021.[1] On 26 November 2021, the WHO designated it as a variant of concern and named it "Omicron", the fifteenth letter in the Greek alphabet.[2][3] Actors who have played Spider-Man in modern film: (from left to right) Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi films, Andrew Garfield in the Marc Webb films, Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Shameik Moore (voice), among others, in the animated Spider-Verse films. The fictional character Spider-Man, a comic book superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and featured in Marvel Comics publications, has appeared as a main character in multiple theatrical and made-for-television films. Annelies Marie Frank (German pronunciation: [ˈanəˌliːs maˈʁiː ˈʔanə ˈfʁaŋk] (listen), Dutch: [ˈɑnəˌlis maːˈri ˈʔɑnə ˈfrɑŋk]; 12 June 1929 – c. February 1945)[1] was a German-Dutch diarist of Jewish heritage. One of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl (originally Het Achterhuis in Dutch; English: The Secret Annex), in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. It is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films. Zhou Enlai (Chinese: 周恩来; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade–Giles: Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China serving from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and helped the Communist Party rise to power, later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy, and develop the Chinese economy. The ASEAN Football Federation Championship, less formally the AFF Championship, is the primary association football tournament organized by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF). A biennial international association football competition, it is contested by the men's national teams of the AFF, determining the sub-continental champion of Southeast Asia. The competition has been held every two years since 1996 scheduled to be in the even-numbered year, except for 2007, and 2020 (which was postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). Moskva [ˈmɒsk.və] (Russian: Москва, lit. 'Moscow'), formerly Slava (Russian: Слава, lit. 'Glory'), was a guided missile cruiser of the Russian Navy. The ship was the lead ship of the Project 1164 Atlant class, named after the city of Moscow. Being the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, she led the naval assault during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[1][2] The cruiser had previously been deployed in several military conflicts, including in Georgia (2008), Crimea (2014), and Syria (2015).[5][6] With a crew of 510, Moskva was the most powerful surface vessel in the Black Sea region.[1] She sank on 14 April 2022 in the Black Sea, 100 km from the coast of Odessa. Ukrainian officials and the US Department of Defense said Ukraine attacked the cruiser with two R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles.[8] The Russian Ministry of Defence said a fire caused a munitions explosion.[9] The Russian Navy attempted to tow the damaged ship toward Sevastopol, but she sank before reaching the port.[10] Moskva is the largest warship to be sunk in combat since World War II.[11] The Black Sea Fleet (Russian: Черноморский флот, Chernomorsky flot) is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The fleet traces its history to its founding by Prince Potemkin on May 13, 1783. The Russian SFSR inherited the fleet in 1918; with the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, it became part of the Soviet Navy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Black Sea Fleet was partitioned with Ukraine and the Russian Federation received title to most of the fleet and its vessels in 1997. The Black Sea Fleet has its official primary headquarters and facilities in the Russian-occupied city of Sevastopol in Crimea, a de jure territory of Ukraine. The remainder of the fleet's facilities are based in various locations on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, including Krasnodar Krai, Rostov Oblast and Crimea. The current[update] commander, Admiral Igor Vladimirovich Osipov, has held his position since May 2019. The Azov Special Operations Detachment (Ukrainian: Окремий загін спеціального призначення «Азов», romanized: Okremyi zahin spetsialnoho pryznachennia "Azov"), also known as the Azov Regiment (Ukrainian: Полк Азов, romanized: Polk Azov) or Azov Battalion until September 2014, is a neo-Nazi[2][3] unit of the National Guard of Ukraine based in Mariupol in the coastal region of the Sea of Azov.[4] Azov formed as a volunteer paramilitary militia in May 2014,[5] and has since been fighting Russian forces in the Donbas War. It first saw combat recapturing Mariupol from Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists in June 2014.[6] It initially operated as a volunteer police company, until it was formally incorporated into the National Guard on 11 November 2014.[7][8][9] In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the battalion gained renewed attention for its use by Russia in justifying the invasion and during the Siege of Mariupol for its role in the defense of the city.[10] The battalion drew controversy over allegations of torture and war crimes,[11][12] as well as association with neo-Nazi ideology.[13][14] Azov uses controversial symbols,[15][16][17][18][19] including Wolfsangel insignia used by the Nazi SS divisions.[20][21] In March 2015, Andriy Diachenko, a spokesman for the Azov Brigade, told USA Today that 10% to 20% of the group's members are Nazis.[22][23] A provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, passed by the United States Congress, blocked military aid to Azov due to its white supremacist ideology; in 2015, a similar ban had been overturned by Congress.[20][24] Members of the battalion came from 22 countries and are of various backgrounds.[25][26] In 2017, the size of the regiment was estimated at more than 2,500 members,[27] but was estimated to be 900 members in 2022.[28] Kyiv (/ˈkiːjɪv/ KEE-yiv,[10] /kiːv/ KEEV;[11] Ukrainian: Київ, pronounced [ˈkɪjiu̯] (listen)), until recently Kiev (/ˈkiːɛv/, KEE-ev, from Russian: Киев),[12][13] is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180,[14] making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.[15] Kyiv is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural center in Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, and historical landmarks. The city has an extensive system of public transport and infrastructure, including the Kyiv Metro. A Slavic settlement on the great trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kyiv was a tributary of the Khazars,[16] until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. In 1918, after the Ukrainian People's Republic declared independence from Soviet Russia, Kyiv became its capital. From 1921 onwards, Kyiv was a city of Soviet Ukraine, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, and, from 1934, Kyiv was its capital. The city was almost completely ruined during World War II but quickly recovered in the postwar years, remaining the Soviet Union's third-largest city. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991, Kyiv remained Ukraine's capital and experienced a steady influx of ethnic Ukrainian migrants from other regions of the country.[17] During the country's transformation to a market economy and electoral democracy, Kyiv has continued to be Ukraine's largest and wealthiest city. Its armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science and technology, but new sectors of the economy such as services and finance facilitated Kyiv's growth in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of housing and urban infrastructure. Kyiv emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine; parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections.[18][19][20][21] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (/ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Владимир Владимирович Путин; [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn] (listen); born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008.[7][lower-alpha 3] He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. Putin is the second-longest currently serving European president after Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. He worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the administration of president Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and secretary of the Security Council, before being appointed as prime minister in August 1999. He was reelected in 2004. As he was then constitutionally limited to two consecutive terms as president, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev, and returned to the presidency in 2012 in an election marred by allegations of fraud and protests; he was reelected again in 2018. In April 2021, following a referendum, he signed into law constitutional amendments including one that would allow him to run for reelection twice more, potentially extending his presidency to 2036.[8][9] During Putin's first tenure as president, the Russian economy grew on average by seven percent per year,[10] following economic reforms and a fivefold increase in the price of oil and gas.[11][12] He also led Russia during a war against Chechen separatists, reestablishing federal control of the region.[13][14] As prime minister under Medvedev, he oversaw military reform and police reform, as well as Russia's victory in its war against Georgia. During his third term as president, Russia annexed Crimea and sponsored a war in eastern Ukraine with several military incursions made, resulting in international sanctions and a financial crisis in Russia.[15] He also ordered a military intervention in Syria against rebel and jihadist groups.[16] During his fourth term as president, his government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he presided over a military buildup on the border of Ukraine. Putin falsely accused the Ukrainian government of committing atrocities against its Russian-speaking minority,[17] and in February 2022, he ordered a full-scale invasion of the country, leading to widespread international condemnation, as well as expanded sanctions and calls for Putin to be pursued with war crime charges.[9] Under Putin's leadership, Russia has experienced democratic backsliding and a shift to authoritarianism. Putin's rule has been characterised by endemic corruption, the jailing and repression of political opponents, the intimidation and suppression of independent media in Russia, and a lack of free and fair elections.[1][2][21] Putin's Russia has scored poorly on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, and Freedom House's Freedom in the World index. Early life Five-year-old Vladimir Putin with his mother, Maria, in July 1958 Map of the Crimean Peninsula The Flag of Crimea (used by both Ukraine as the flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and by Russia as the flag of the Republic of Crimea) Crimea[lower-alpha 1] (/kraɪˈmiːə/ (listen) kry-MEE-ə) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe. It is situated along the northern coast of the Black Sea, and has a population of 2.4 million,[1] made up mostly of ethnic Russians with significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities,[2] among others. The peninsula is almost entirely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov; it is located south of Kherson Oblast in Ukraine, to which it is connected by the Isthmus of Perekop, and west of Krasnodar Krai in Russia, from which it is separated by the Strait of Kerch though linked by the Crimean Bridge since 2018. The Arabat Spit is located to its northeast, a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The present-day definition of the Donbas in Ukraine The Donbas or Donbass (UK: /dɒnˈbɑːs/,[1] US: /ˈdɑːnbɑːs, dʌnˈbæs/;[2][3] Ukrainian: Донба́с [donˈbɑs];[4] Russian: Донба́сс [dɑnˈbɑs][5]) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in southeastern Ukraine.[6][7] Parts of the Donbas are controlled by separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War: the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.[8][9][10] The word Donbas is a portmanteau formed from "Donets Basin", an abbreviation of "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian: Донецький вугільний басейн, romanized: Donetskyi vuhilnyi basein; Russian: Донецкий угольный бассейн, romanized: Donetskii ugolnyi bassein). The name of the coal basin is a reference to the Donets Ridge; the latter is associated with the River Donets. Numerous definitions of the region's extent exist.[11] The most common definition in use today refers to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, whilst the historical coal mining region excluded parts of these oblasts, and included areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Southern Russia.[7] A Euroregion of the same name is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast in Russia.[12] The Donbas formed the historical border between the Zaporizhian Sich and the Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.[4] In March 2014, following the Euromaidan protest movement and the resulting Revolution of Dignity, large swaths of the Donbas became gripped by pro-Russian and anti-government unrest. This unrest later grew into a war between Ukrainian government forces and Russian and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", who were supported by Russia as part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War, which is still ongoing as of 2022. Both republics went internationally unrecognised until their recognition by Russia in 2022.[14] The conflict rendered the Donbas split between Ukrainian-held territory, constituting about two-thirds of the region, and Russian-held territory, constituting about one-third. Russia went on to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including the Ukrainian-government controlled part of the Donbas, in February 2022. Before the war, the city of Donetsk (then the fifth largest city in Ukraine) had been considered the unofficial capital of the Donbas. Large cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) also included Luhansk, Mariupol, Makiivka, Horlivka, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Alchevsk, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. Now[when?] the city of Kramatorsk is the interim administrative centre of the Donetsk Oblast, while the interim centre of Luhansk Oblast is Sievierodonetsk. Macaronesia (Portuguese: Macaronésia) is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean, off the coasts of the continents of Africa and Europe.[1] Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands, which are formed by seamounts on the ocean floor that have peaks above the ocean's surface.[2] Some of the Macaronesian islands belong to Portugal, some belong to Spain, and the rest belong to Cape Verde.[3][4][5] Politically, the islands belonging to Portugal and Spain are part of the European Union. Geologically, Macaronesia is part of the African tectonic plate. Some of its islands – the Azores – are situated along the edge of that plate at the point where it abuts the Eurasian and North American plates.[6][7] Lviv (/ləˈviːv, ləˈviːf/ lə-VEEV, lə-VEEF; Ukrainian: Львів [lʲʋiu̯] (listen)) or Lvov (Polish: Lwów [lvuf] (listen); Russian: Львов [lʲvof]; German: Lemberg [ˈlɛmbɛʁk] (listen); see also other names) is the largest city in Western Ukraine and the sixth-largest city in Ukraine overall, with a population of 717,510 (2021 est.)[4] Lviv is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)[1] (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la science et la culture) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences, and culture.[2][3] It has 193 member states and 11 associate members,[4] as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental, and private sector.[5] Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices[6] and 199 national commissions[7] that facilitate its global mandate. Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (French: [maʁin lə pɛn]; born 5 August 1968), sometimes referred to by her initials MLP, is a French lawyer and politician who is currently one of two candidates in the second-round of the 2022 French presidential election. A member of the National Rally (previously the National Front), she served as its president from 2011 to 2021. She has been the member of the National Assembly for the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais since 2017. David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE[4] (UK: /ˈbɛkəm/;[5] born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president & co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City.[6] He played for Manchester United, Preston North End (on loan), Real Madrid, AC Milan (on loan), LA Galaxy, Paris Saint-Germain and the England national team, for which he held the appearance record for an outfield player until 2016. He is the first English player to win league titles in four countries: England, Spain, the United States and France. He retired in May 2013 after a 20-year career, during which he won 19 major trophies.[7][8] Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut, an aeronautical engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Lee Jung-jae (Korean: 이정재; born December 15, 1972)[2] is a South Korean actor, businessman and former model. He is one of the most successful actors in South Korea.[3][4] José Manuel Ramos-Horta GColIH GCL (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈʁɐ̃muz ˈɔɾtɐ]; born 26 December 1949)[1][2] is an East Timorese politician who is the president-elect of East Timor and is due to take office on 20 May 2022, having previously served as president from 20 May 2007 until 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2006 and Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007. He is a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor". Sgr A and environs, as seen at 90 cm wavelength by the Very Large Array Sagittarius A or Sgr A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way which contains a supermassive black hole. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way. It consists of three components: the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a very bright compact radio source at the center of the spiral, Sagittarius A* ("Sagittarius A-star"). These three overlap: Sagittarius A East is the largest, West appears off-center within East, and A* is at the center of West. The 2021 Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as the 31st Southeast Asian Games or 31st SEA Games, is a biennial regional multi-sport event being held from 12 to 23 May 2022 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Originally scheduled to take place from 21 November to 2 December 2021, it was rescheduled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The competition features 40 sports, mainly those played at the Olympic Games.[3][4] This is the second time that Vietnam hosts the Southeast Asian Games, having previously hosted the 2003 edition. Monkeypox is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus that can occur in certain animals, including humans.[2] Symptoms begin with fever, headache, muscle pains, swollen lymph nodes, and feeling tired.[1] This is followed by a rash that forms blisters and crusts over.[1] The time from exposure to onset of symptoms is around 10 days.[1] The duration of symptoms is typically two to four weeks.[1] Monkeypox may be spread from handling bushmeat, an animal bite or scratch, body fluids, contaminated objects, or close contact with an infected person.[7] The virus normally circulates among certain rodents.[7] Diagnosis can be confirmed by testing a lesion for the virus's DNA.[2] The disease can appear similar to chickenpox.[4] Anthony Norman Albanese ( /ˌælbəˈniːzi/ AL-bə-neez-ee or /ˈælbəniːz/ AL-bə-neez;[nb 1] born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician and the current prime minister-designate of Australia. He has been the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Grayndler since 1996. Albanese was deputy prime minister of Australia under the second Rudd government in 2013 and a Cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard Governments from 2007 to 2013. Albanese was born in Sydney to an Irish-Australian mother and an Italian father. He attended St Mary's Cathedral College, before going on to the University of Sydney to study economics. He joined the Labor Party as a student, and before entering Parliament worked as a party official and research officer. Albanese was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1996 election, winning the seat of Grayndler in New South Wales. He was first appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 by Simon Crean and went on to serve in a number of roles, eventually becoming Manager of Opposition Business in 2006. On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos allegedly opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, killing 21 people. Earlier that day, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother before proceeding to the school.[2] Of the people fatally shot, 19 were children and two were adults,[3] and several other children were wounded. Ramos was also killed, after a shootout with law enforcement officers. Manchester City Football Club is an English football club based in Bradford, Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), it became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club's home ground is the Etihad Stadium in east Manchester, to which it moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923. The club adopted their sky blue home shirts in 1894.[3] It is the fifth-most successful club in English football. Juventus Football Club (from Latin: iuventūs, 'youth'; Italian pronunciation: [juˈvɛntus]), colloquially known as Juventus, or simply Juve (pronounced [ˈjuːve]),[3] is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in 1897 by a group of Torinese students, the club has worn a black and white striped home kit since 1903 and has played home matches in different grounds around its city, the latest being the 41,507-capacity Juventus Stadium. Nicknamed Vecchia Signora ("the Old Lady"), the club has won 36 official league titles, 14 Coppa Italia titles and nine Supercoppa Italiana titles, being the record holder for all these competitions; two Intercontinental Cups, two European Cups / UEFA Champions Leagues, one European Cup Winners' Cup, a joint national record of three UEFA Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and a joint national record of one UEFA Intertoto Cup.[4][5] Consequently, the side leads the historical Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) classification[lower-alpha 2] whilst on the international stage occupies the sixth position in Europe and the twelfth in the world for most confederation titles won with eleven trophies,[7] as well as the fourth in the all-time Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) competitions ranking,[lower-alpha 3] having obtained the highest coefficient score during seven seasons since its introduction in 1979, the most for an Italian team in both cases and joint second overall in the last cited. Manchester United Football Club is a professional football club based in the Old Trafford area of Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Nicknamed the Red Devils, it was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed its name to Manchester United in 1902. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played at Anfield since its formation. Associazione Calcio Milan (Italian pronunciation: [assotʃatˈtsjoːne ˈkaltʃo ˈmiːlan]), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899.[4][5] The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons, in the top flight of Italian football, known as Serie A since 1929–30.[4] Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale (pronounced [ˌinternattsjoˈnaːle]) or simply Inter, and known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries,[8][9] is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is the only Italian side to have always competed in the top flight of Italian football since its debut in 1909. Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is an Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a football club. Ciro Immobile Cavaliere OMRI (born 20 February 1990) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a striker for Serie A club Lazio, for which he is their all time top scorer, and the Italy national team. He is widely considered as one of the most underrated strikers in his generation.[3][4][5][6] The Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation: [balɔ̃ dɔʁ] (listen); lit. 'Golden Ball') is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (founded in 1991) and known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. That partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award The Best FIFA Men's Player. Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly (Arabic: محمد صلاح حامد محروس غالي, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mæˈħam.mæd sˤɑˈlɑːħ ˈɣæːli]; born 15 June 1992) is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Liverpool and captains the Egypt national team. Considered one of the best players in the world and amongst the greatest African players of all time,[6][7][8] he is known for his finishing, dribbling, and speed. Roberto Baggio Cavaliere OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [roˈbɛrto ˈbaddʒo]; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions.[5] He is the former president of the technical sector of the Italian Football Federation. A technically gifted creative playmaker and set piece specialist, renowned for his curling free-kicks, dribbling skills, and goalscoring, Baggio is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.[nb 1] In 1999, he came fourth in the FIFA Player of the Century internet poll,[20] and was chosen on the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002.[21] In 1993, he was named FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Ballon d'Or. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100, a list of the world's greatest living players.[22] Giorgio Chiellini Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo kjelˈliːni, ˈdʒɔr-]; born 14 August 1984) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and captains both Serie A club Juventus and the Italy national team. Considered one of the greatest defenders of his generation, Chiellini is known for his strength, aggressiveness and man-marking, as well as his ability to play in either a three or four-man defence.[3][4] He has also played as a left-back earlier in his career. Pisa (/ˈpiːzə/ PEE-zə, Italian: [ˈpiːza] (listen) or [ˈpiːsa][4]) is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Denisova 4, a molar The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( /dɪˈniːsəvə/ di-NEE-sə-və) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains, and, consequently, most of what is known about them comes from DNA evidence. No formal species name has been erected pending more complete fossil material. Chadchart Sittipunt (Thai: ชัชชาติ สิทธิพันธุ์, RTGS: Chatchat Sitthiphan, pronounced [t͡ɕʰát.t͡ɕʰâːt sìt.tʰí(ʔ).pʰān]; born 24 May 1966) is a Thai politician, engineer, and professor who is the Governor-elect of Bangkok based on the unofficial result published or circulated as of 22 May 2022. He previously was Minister of Transport from 2012 to 2014. In 2019, he announced his intention to contest in the 2022 Bangkok gubernatorial election as an independent candidate.[1] Uvalde (/juːˈvældi/ yoo-VAL-dee) is a city and the county seat of Uvalde County, Texas, United States.[4] The population was 15,217 at the 2020 census.[5] Uvalde is located in the Texas Hill Country, 80 miles (130 km) west of downtown San Antonio and 54 miles (87 km) east of the Mexico–United States border.[6] A member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015. Following Antti Rinne's resignation in the wake of the postal strike controversy, Marin was selected as prime minister on 8 December 2019. Taking office at age 34, she is the youngest person to hold the office in Finnish history,[4][5] as well as the world's third-youngest state leader after Dritan Abazović of Montenegro and Gabriel Boric of Chile. Texas (/ˈtɛksəs/, also locally /ˈtɛksɪz/;[10] Spanish: Texas, Tejas[lower-alpha 1][11]) is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both area (after Alaska) and population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. The City of Arvada (/ɑːrˈvædə/) is a home rule municipality located in Jefferson and Adams counties, Colorado, United States.[1] The city population was 124,402 at the 2020 United States Census, with 121,510 residing in Jefferson County and 2,892 residing in Adams County.[7] Arvada is the seventh most populous city in Colorado. The city is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The Olde Town Arvada historic district is 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Carlo Ancelotti Cavaliere OMRI, Ufficiale OSI (born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Real Madrid. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time,[4][5][6] and is the top UEFA club winning manager with eight titles. Ancelotti is the only manager to have won the UEFA Champions League four times (twice with AC Milan and twice with Real Madrid), and the first and only one to have managed teams in five finals. He has won the FIFA Club World Cup twice, managing Milan and Real Madrid.[7][8] Ancelotti is also one of seven people to have won the European Cup or Champions League as both a player and a manager. Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [reˈal maˈðɾið ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol] (listen), meaning Royal Madrid Football Club), commonly referred to as Real Madrid or simply Real, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (/ˈfɛfəl/;[5] born 19 June 1964) is a British politician serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since 2019. He was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. Johnson has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was previously MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008. Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (Russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, pronounced [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ lɐˈvrof]; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004.[1] As a member of the United Russia party, he served as the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004. The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as Nanking[2]) was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army.[3][4][5][6] Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks. The perpetrators also committed other atrocities such as mass rape, looting, and arson.[note 1] The massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed during World War II.[7] The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners through a round robin group stage to qualify for a double-legged knockout format, and a single leg final. It is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national associations. Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under President Barack Obama.[1] Tara Air Flight 197[3] was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Tara Air for parent company Yeti Airlines from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport in Nepal. On 29 May 2022, the Twin Otter aircraft carrying 22 people (19 passengers and 3 crew) departed at 4:10 UTC (9:55 local time) but lost contact with air traffic controllers about 12 minutes later at 4:22 UTC (10:07 local time).[4][3][6][7] The wreckage was located 20 hours later on a mountainside. All 22 passengers and crew were killed, with at least 21 bodies recovered.[8] This was Tara Air's second deadly accident on this route, after Flight 193 in 2016. Festa della Repubblica ([ˈfɛsta della reˈpubblika]; English: Republic Day) is the Italian National Day and Republic Day, which is celebrated on 2 June each year, with the main celebration taking place in Rome. The Festa della Repubblica is one of the national symbols of Italy. The day commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism. The ceremony of the event, organized in Rome, includes the deposition of a laurel wreath as a tribute to the Italian Unknown Soldier at the Altare della Patria by the President of the Italian Republic and a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome. Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma [ˈroːma] (listen)) is the capital city of Italy. It is also the capital of the Lazio region, the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome, and a special comune named Comune di Roma Capitale. With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km2 (496.1 sq mi),[1] Rome is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions,[1] previously known officially as the European/South American Nations Cup[2] and commonly as the Artemio Franchi Cup,[lower-alpha 1] is an official super cup football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by the winners of the Copa América and the UEFA European Championship. Organised as a quadrennial one-off match, it is a national team equivalent to the former Intercontinental Cup featuring the club champions of Europe and South America.[5] The competition was held twice, in 1985 and 1993, before being discontinued. It was relaunched starting in 2022, where it was branded as the Finalissima (Italian for "grand final"),[1] after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CONMEBOL and UEFA. The Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II is being celebrated in 2022 in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations to mark the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. A longer-run trend of appreciation (or depreciation) is likely to be caused by home country inflation being lower (or higher) on average than inflation in other countries, according to the principle of long-run purchasing power parity.[1] Currency depreciation is the loss of value of a country's currency with respect to one or more foreign reference currencies, typically in a floating exchange rate system in which no official currency value is maintained. Currency appreciation in the same context is an increase in the value of the currency. Short-term changes in the value of a currency are reflected in changes in the exchange rate.[1][2][3][4] In a floating exchange rate system, a currency's value goes up (or down) if the demand for it goes up more (or less) than the supply does. In the short run this can happen unpredictably for a variety of reasons, including the balance of trade, speculation, or other factors in the international capital market. For example, a surge in purchases of foreign goods by home country residents will cause a surge in demand for foreign currency with which to pay for those goods, causing a depreciation of the home currency. Another cause of appreciation (or depreciation) of a currency is speculative movements of funds in the belief that a currency is under- (or over-)valued and in anticipation of a “correction”. Such movements may in themselves cause the value of a currency to change. Sonexay Siphandone (Lao: ສອນ​ໄຊ ສີ​ພັນ​ດອນ; born 26 January 1966) is a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He is the son of former LPRP Chairman Khamtai Siphandon and brother of Viengthong Siphandone.[1] He currently serves as Deputy Prime Minister of Laos. He was elected to the LPRP Central Committee at the 8th National Congress,[1] and to the LPRP Politburo at the 10th National Congress. The 2022 FIFA World Cup Final is an upcoming association football match, the culmination of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the 22nd edition of FIFA's competition for men's national football teams. The match is scheduled to be played at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, on 18 December 2022, the national day of Qatar, and will be contested by Argentina and France. In team sport, a Player of the match or Man of the match or Woman of the match[1][2] award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winning team. Tutankhamun (/ˌtuːtənkɑːˈmuːn/, Ancient Egyptian: twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen (/ˌtuːtənˈkɑːmɛn/)[6] (c. 1341-1323 BC), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC in the conventional chronology) during the New Kingdom of Egyptian history. His father is believed to be the pharaoh Akhenaten, identified as the mummy found in the tomb KV55. His mother is his father's sister, identified through DNA testing as an unknown mummy referred to as "The Younger Lady" who was found in KV35.[7] HTMS Sukhothai (FS-442) (Thai: เรือหลวงสุโขทัย, RTGS: Sukhothai) was a corvette of the Ratanakosin class operated by the Royal Thai Navy. The ship was named after the Kingdom of Sukhothai, traditionally regarded as the first Thai kingdom along the Chao Phrahya river.[2] On 18 December 2022, while on a weather patrol mission in the Gulf of Thailand, high winds and strong waves caused seawater to flow into the warship; this flooding caused a power outage and subsequent loss of control of machinery and steering mechanisms. Sukhothai continued to take on water until eventually sinking overnight. The Royal Thai Navy was dispatched to rescue the crew,[3] and as of 21 December 2022[update], they have confirmed that they have picked up 76 sailors, with 23 of the 105 crew members still missing and 6 sailors dead.[2][3][4][5][8][9][10] Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986 and 2022. Argentina have also been runners up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina have 47 victories in 88 matches. FIFA World Cup finals record FIFA World Cup qualification record Year Round Position Pld W D* L GF GA Pld W D* L GF GA 1930 Runners-up 2nd 5 4 0 1 18 9 Invited 1934 Round of 16 9th 1 0 0 1 2 3 Qualified by opponent's withdrawal[1] 1938 Withdrew Withdrew due to hosting disagreement[2] 1950 1954 Withdrew due to political decision[2] 1958 Group stage 13th 3 1 0 2 5 10 4 3 0 1 10 2 1962 10th 3 1 1 1 2 3 2 2 0 0 11 3 1966 Quarter-finals 5th 4 2 1 1 4 2 4 3 1 0 9 2 1970 Did not qualify 4 1 1 2 4 6 1974 Second group stage 8th 6 1 2 3 9 12 4 3 1 0 9 2 1978 Champions 1st 7 5 1 1 15 4 Qualified as hosts 1982 Second group stage 11th 5 2 0 3 8 7 Qualified as defending champions 1986 Champions 1st 7 6 1 0 14 5 6 4 1 1 12 6 1990 Runners-up 2nd 7 2 3 2 5 4 Qualified as defending champions 1994 Round of 16 10th 4 2 0 2 8 6 8 4 2 2 9 10 1998 Quarter-finals 6th 5 3 1 1 10 4 16 8 6 2 23 13 2002 Group stage 18th 3 1 1 1 2 2 18 13 4 1 42 15 2006 Quarter-finals 6th 5 3 2 0 11 3 18 10 4 4 29 17 2010 5th 5 4 0 1 10 6 18 8 4 6 23 20 2014 Runners-up 2nd 7 5 1 1 8 4 16 9 5 2 35 15 2018 Round of 16 16th 4 1 1 2 6 9 18 7 7 4 19 16 2022 Champions 1st 7 4 2 1 15 8 17 11 6 0 27 8 Total 3 titles 18/22 88 47 17 24 152 101 153 86 42 25 262 135 She began her career as a child actress, receiving recognition for her role as young Jane in The CW comedy-drama series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019). She had her breakthrough by starring as Harley Diaz in the Disney Channel series Stuck in the Middle (2016–2018), for which she won an Imagen Award. She played Ellie Alves in the second season of the thriller series You in 2019 and starred in the family film Yes Day (2021), both for Netflix. Damián Emiliano Martínez (born 2 September 1992) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Aston Villa and the Argentina national team. Scaloni as a Deportivo player Lionel Sebastián Scaloni (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel eskaˈloni][citation needed]; born 16 May 1978) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who currently coaches the Argentina national team. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder. Born in Pujato, Santa Fe, Scaloni debuted as a player for Newell's Old Boys in 1995. He spent most of his professional career in Spain, mainly at Deportivo de La Coruña, with whom he won the 1999–2000 Spanish league title and the 2001–02 Copa del Rey; in total, he amassed 258 games and 15 goals over 12 seasons in La Liga with three different teams. He also played several years in Italy, with Lazio and Atalanta, before retiring in 2015. In 2018, he was named as the outright manager of the under-20 team, and was chosen to lead the Argentina senior team later that year. With the senior team, he guided them to third place at his first international tournament, the 2019 Copa América, in Brazil. Winning the 2021 Copa América, Scaloni became the first Argentina manager in 28 years to win the tournament with the team; the success continued with a victory over the reigning European champions, Italy, in 2022 Finalissima. Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Considered one of the best players in the world,[2] he is renowned for his dribbling abilities, exceptional speed, and finishing.[3] Born in Paris and raised in nearby Bondy, Mbappé began his senior club career in 2015 playing for Monaco, where he won the Ligue 1 title. In 2017, aged 18, Mbappé signed for Paris Saint-Germain on an eventual permanent transfer worth €180 million, making him the second-most-expensive player and most expensive teenage player.[4] There, he has won four Ligue 1 titles and three Coupes de France and is the club's second-highest all-time top goalscorer. He helped PSG attain a domestic quadruple in the 2019–20 season and led the club to its first ever Champions League Final. Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈɛdsõ(w) aˈɾɐ̃tʃiz du nasiˈmẽtu]; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), known mononymously as Pelé (Portuguese pronunciation: [peˈlɛ]), was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA,[1] he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record.[2] From December 21 to December 26, 2022, a historic extratropical cyclone brought blizzard conditions and winter storm to much of the United States and Canada, killing at least 91 people, causing vehicle pileups and road closures as well as cancelling or delaying more than 10,000 flights during the busy Christmas travel season. The storm was unofficially named Winter Storm Elliott by The Weather Channel.[5] The National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York described it as a "once-in-a-generation storm"[6][7][8] in forecasts and NOAA's Weather Prediction Center later remarked that it was a "historic arctic outbreak".[9] December 22, 2022, warnings, watches, and advisories issued by the National Weather Service Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (Swedish: [ˈɡrêːta ˈtʉ̂ːnbærj] (listen); born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation.[1] Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded her parents to adopt lifestyle choices that reduced their own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her Fridays outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Thunberg initially gained notice for her youth and her straightforward and blunt speaking manner,[2] both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticizes world leaders for their failure to take what she considers sufficient action to address the climate crisis.[3] Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, German: [ˈjoːzɛf ʔaˈlɔʏzi̯ʊs ˈʁatsɪŋɐ]; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known by the title "pope emeritus" upon his resignation.[1][10] Al Nassr Football Club (Arabic: نادي النصر السعودي; Naṣr meaning Victory) is a Saudi Arabian football club based in Riyadh. Formed in 1955, the club plays its home games at the Mrsool Park. Their home colours are yellow and blue. Al Nassr is one of the most successful clubs in Saudi Arabia, with an estimated 27 championships in all competitions.[2] At domestic level, the club has won nine Premier League titles, six King's Cups, three Crown Prince's Cups, three Federation Cups and two Saudi Super Cups. At international level, they have won two GCC Champions Leagues and earned a historic Asian double in 1998 by claiming both the Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the Asian Super Cup. Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (French pronunciation: ​[paʁi sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃]), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As France's most successful club, they have won over 40 official honours, including ten league titles and one major European trophy. Giorgia Meloni (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒa meˈloːni]; born 15 January 1977) is an Italian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Italy since 22 October 2022, the first woman to hold this position. A member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2006, she has led the Brothers of Italy (FdI) political party since 2014, and she has been the president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party since 2020. Jiang Zemin[lower-alpha 1] (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as president of China from 1993 to 2003. Jiang was paramount leader of China from 1989 to 2002. He was the core leader of the third generation of Chinese leadership, one of only four core leaders alongside Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. Howard Carter (9 May 1874 – 2 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings. Rishi Sunak (/ˈrɪʃi ˈsuːnæk/ (listen);[1] born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two cabinet positions under Boris Johnson, lastly as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022.[2] Sunak has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond (Yorks) since 2015. In Italian folklore, the Befana (pronounced [beˈfaːna]) is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to Santa Claus or the Three Magi Kings.[1] Befana was a widespread tradition among the whole Italian people, having originated in Rome and having become well known and practiced by the rest of the population during the centuries. Many people believe that the name Befana is derived from the Italians' mispronunciation of the Greek word epifania or epiphaneia (Greek, επιφάνεια = appearance, surface, English: epiphany). Others point to the name being a derivative of Bastrina, the gifts associated with the goddess Strina. In the book Domestic Life in Palestine, by Mary E. Rogers (Poe & Hitchcock, 1865) the author notes: History Tomb KV61 is an unused tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It was discovered by Harold Jones, excavating on behalf of Theodore M. Davis, in January 1910. The tomb consists of an irregularly-cut room at the bottom of a shaft. It was apparently unused and undecorated, thus its intended owner is unknown.[1] Gianluca Vialli Commendatore OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [dʒanˈluːka ˈvjalli, viˈa-]; 9 July 1964 – 6 January 2023) was an Italian football player and manager who played as a striker. Gianluigi Buffon Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [dʒanluˈiːdʒi bufˈfɔn]; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the Serie B club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances. Bouasone Bouphavanh (Lao: ບົວສອນ ບູບຜາວັນ; born 3 June 1954) is a Laotian politician who was Prime Minister of Laos from 2006 to 2010. He was officially appointed to the office by the National Assembly of Laos on 8 June 2006, during a major government reshuffle. He replaced Bounnhang Vorachith who became vice president. Blossomed golden shower tree Cassia fistula, commonly known as golden shower,[3] purging cassia,[4] Indian laburnum,[5] or pudding-pipe tree,[6] is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. The species is native to the Indian subcontinent and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia, from southern Pakistan through India and Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. It is a popular ornamental plant and is also used in herbal medicine. Zinedine Yazid Zidane (French: Zinédine Yazid Zidane;[4] born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most successful coaches in the world. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, ball control, and technique. Butea monosperma is a species of Butea native to tropical and sub-tropical parts of the South Asia and Southeast Asia, ranging across Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and western Indonesia.[1] Common names include flame-of-the-forest, palash, and bastard teak.[1] Revered as sacred by Hindus, it's prized for producing an abundance of vivid blooms, but it's also cultivated elsewhere as an ornamental.[3] Butea monosperma, which grows slowly, creates a stunning specimen tree. Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Phoui Sananikone ຜຸຍ ຊະນະນິກອນ Prime Minister of Laos In office 24 February 1950 – 15 October 1951 Monarch Sisavang Vong Preceded by Prince Boun Oum Succeeded by Crown Prince Sisavang Vatthana In office 18 August 1958 – 31 December 1959 Preceded by Prince Souvanna Phouma Succeeded by Sounthone Pathammavong Personal details Born 6 September 1903[1] Vientiane, Laos Died 4 December 1983 (1983-12-05) (aged 80) Paris, France Political party Independent Party Lao People's Rally Profession Prime Minister Phoui Sananikone[2] (Lao: ຜຸຍ ຊະນະນິກອນ; 6 September 1903, in Laos – 4 December 1983, in Paris) locally known as Phagna Houakhong (Lao: ພຍາຫົວຂອງ) was a politician and served as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Laos from 1950 to 1951 and 1958 to 1959.[1] Since entering government service he had held virtually every top position in the Lao cabinet.[3] The majority of his work as politician concerned the independence and sovereignty of Laos in Southeast Asia, especially in regards of the western-oriented neutrality policy during the height of the Indochina Wars.[4] Funeral plate at Trivaux Cemetery in Meudon, France Prince Boun Oum (also Prince Boun Oum Na Champassak; Lao: ບຸນອຸ້ມ ນະ ຈຳປາສັກ; Thai: บุญอุ้ม ณ จัมปาศักดิ์; RTGS: Bun-um Na Champasak; 2 December 1912 – 17 March 1980) was the son of King Ratsadanay, and was the hereditary prince of Champassak and also Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Laos from March 1949 to February 1950 and again from December 1960 to June 1962.[1] Gareth Frank Bale MBE (born 16 July 1989) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a winger. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wingers of his generation and one of the greatest Welsh players of all time.[2][3][4][5] The Vientiane Times is a bilingual English and Lao newspaper, published daily in Vientiane, Laos. Established in 1994 as a weekly, the paper was started by an agency, Lao Press in Foreign Languages, under the Ministry of Information and Culture.[1] It went to twice per week in 1996 and daily in 2004.[1] It runs to 16 pages.[citation needed] Yeti Airlines Flight 691 (YT691/NYT691) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Yeti Airlines from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu to Pokhara International Airport. On 15 January 2023, the ATR 72-500 operating this flight crashed on the bank of the Seti Gandaki River while landing at Pokhara.[1][2][3] It was carrying 72 people, with 68 passengers including 15 foreign nationals, and four crew. The accident resulted in the deaths of at least 68 people. It is Nepal's worst air crash since 1992 and the worst involving the ATR 72. The number of languages varies according to the priorities of the United States government and the world situation.[15][16] History American private shortwave broadcasting before World War II Before World War II, all American shortwave stations were in private hands.[17] Privately controlled shortwave networks included the National Broadcasting Company's International Network (or White Network), which broadcast in six languages,[18] the Columbia Broadcasting System's Latin American international network, which consisted of 64 stations located in 18 countries,[19] the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio, and General Electric which owned and operated WGEO and WGEA, both based in Schenectady, New York, and KGEI in San Francisco, all of which had shortwave transmitters. Experimental programming began in the 1930s, but there were fewer than 12 transmitters in operation.[20] In 1939, the Federal Communications Commission set the following policy: A licensee of an international broadcast station shall render only an international broadcast service which will reflect the culture of this country and which will promote international goodwill, understanding and cooperation. Any program solely intended for, and directed to an audience in the continental United States does not meet the requirements for this service.[21] This policy was intended to enforce the State Department's Good Neighbor Policy, but some broadcasters felt that it was an attempt to direct censorship.[22] Shortwave signals to Latin America were regarded as vital to counter Nazi propaganda around 1940.[1] Initially, the Office of Coordination of Information sent releases to each station, but this was seen as an inefficient means of transmitting news.[2] The director of Latin American relations at the Columbia Broadcasting System was Edmund A. Chester, and he supervised the development of CBS's extensive "La Cadena de las Americas" radio network to improve broadcasting to South America during the 1940s.[23] Also included among the cultural diplomacy programming on the Columbia Broadcasting System was the musical show Viva America (1942-1949) which featured the Pan American Orchestra and the artistry of several noted musicians from both North and South America, including Alfredo Antonini, Juan Arvizu, Eva Garza, Elsa Miranda, Nestor Mesta Chaires, Miguel Sandoval, John Serry Sr., and Terig Tucci.[24][25][26] By 1945, broadcasts of the show were carried by 114 stations on CBS's "La Cadena de las Americas" network in 20 Latin American nations. These broadcasts proved to be highly successful in supporting President Franklin Roosevelt's policy of Pan-Americanism throughout South America during World War II.[27] World War II Even before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government's Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI, in Washington) had already begun providing war news and commentary to the commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis through its Foreign Information Service (FIS, in New York) headed by playwright Robert E. Sherwood, who served as president Roosevelt's speech writer and information advisor.[28] Direct programming began a week after the United States’ entry into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via General Electric's KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English (other languages followed). The next step was to broadcast to Germany, which was called Stimmen aus Amerika ("Voices from America") and was transmitted on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and included the pledge: "Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war... The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth."[29] Roosevelt approved this broadcast, which then-Colonel William J. Donovan (COI) and Sherwood (FIS) had recommended to him. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term "The Voice of America" to describe the shortwave network that began its transmissions on February 1, from 270 Madison Avenue in New York City. The Office of War Information, when organized in the middle of 1942, officially took over VOA's operations. VOA reached an agreement with the British Broadcasting Corporation to share medium-wave transmitters in Britain, and expanded into Tunis in North Africa and Palermo and Bari, Italy, as the Allies captured these territories. The OWI also set up the American Broadcasting Station in Europe.[30] Asian transmissions started with one transmitter in California in 1941; services were expanded by adding transmitters in Hawaii and, after recapture, the Philippines.[31] By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages.[1] Programming was broadcast from production centers in New York and San Francisco, with more than 1,000 programs originating from New York. Programming consisted of music, news, commentary, and relays of U.S. domestic programming, in addition to specialized VOA programming.[32] About half of VOA's services, including the Arabic service, were discontinued in 1945.[33] In late 1945, VOA was transferred to the Department of State. The VOA ramped up its operations during the Cold War, which also increased its influence.[citation needed] Foy Kohler, the director of VOA during the Cold War, strongly believed that the VOA was serving its purpose, which he identified as aiding in the fight against communism.[34] He argued that the numbers of listeners they were getting such as 194,000 regular listeners in Sweden, and 2.1 million regular listeners in France, was an indication of a positive impact. As further evidence, he noted that the VOA received 30,000 letters a month from listeners all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of requests for broadcasting schedules.[35] There was an analysis done of some of those letters sent in 1952 and 1953 while Kohler was still director. The study found that letter writing could be an indicator of successful, actionable persuasion. It was also found that broadcasts in different countries were having different effects. In one country, regular listeners adopted and practiced American values presented by the broadcast. Age was also a factor: younger and older audiences tended to like different types of programs no matter the country.[36] Kohler used all of this as evidence to claim that the VOA helped to grow and strengthen the free world. It also influenced the UN in their decision to condemn communist actions in Korea, and was a major factor in the decline of communism in the "free world, including key countries such as Italy and France.[34] In Italy, the VOA did not just bring an end to communism, but it caused the country to Americanize.[37] The VOA also had an impact behind the Iron Curtain. Practically all defectors during Kohler's time claimed the VOA helped in their decision to defect. Another indication of impact, according to Kohler, was the Soviet response. Kohler argued that the Soviets responded because the VOA was having an impact. Based on Soviet responses, it can be presumed that the most effective programs were ones that compared the lives of those behind and outside the iron curtain, questions on the practice of slave labor, as well as lies and errors in Stalin's version of Marxism.[34] In 1947, VOA started broadcasting to the Soviet citizens in Russia under the pretext of countering "more harmful instances of Soviet propaganda directed against American leaders and policies" on the part of the internal Soviet Russian-language media, according to John B. Whitton's treatise, Cold War Propaganda.[38] The Soviet Union responded by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts on April 24, 1949.[38] Charles W. Thayer headed VOA in 1948–49.[39] Over the next few years, the U.S. government debated the best role of Voice of America. The decision was made to use VOA broadcasts as a part of its foreign policy to fight the propaganda of the Soviet Union and other countries. The Arabic service resumed on January 1, 1950, with a half-hour program. This program grew to 14.5 hours daily during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and was six hours a day by 1958.[1] Between 1952 and 1960, Voice of America used a converted U.S. Coast Guard cutter Courier as a first mobile broadcasting ship.[40] Control of VOA passed from the State Department to the U.S. Information Agency when the latter was established in 1953[1] to transmit worldwide, including to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and to the People's Republic of China. From 1955 until 2003, VOA broadcast American jazz on the Voice of America Jazz Hour. Hosted for most of that period by Willis Conover, the program had 30 million listeners at its peak. A program aimed at South Africa in 1956 broadcast two hours nightly, and special programs such as The Newport Jazz Festival were also transmitted. This was done in association with tours by U.S. musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, sponsored by the State Department.[41] From August 1952 through May 1953, Billy Brown, a high school senior in Westchester County, New York, had a Monday night program in which he shared everyday happenings in Yorktown Heights, New York. Brown's program ended due to its popularity: his "chatty narratives" attracted so much fan mail, VOA couldn't afford the $500 a month in clerical and postage costs required to respond to listeners' letters.[42] During 1953, VOA personnel were subjected to McCarthyist policies, where VOA was accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and Gerard David Schine of intentionally planning to build weak transmitting stations to sabotage VOA broadcasts. However, the charges were dropped after one month of court hearings in February and March 1953.[43] Somewhere around 1954, VOA's headquarters were moved from New York to Washington D.C. The arrival of cheap, low-cost transistors enabled the significant growth of shortwave radio listeners. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, VOA's broadcasts were deemed controversial, as Hungarian refugees and revolutionaries thought that VOA served as a medium and insinuated the possible arrival of the Western aid.[44] Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest[3] and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster.[4][5] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages[6] which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by a non-American audience. Throughout the Cold War, many of the targeted countries' governments sponsored jamming of VOA broadcasts, which sometimes led critics to question the broadcasts' actual impact. For example, in 1956, Polish People's Republic stopped jamming VOA transmissions,[45] but People's Republic of Bulgaria continued to jam the signal through the 1970s. Chinese language VOA broadcasts were jammed beginning in 1956 and extending through 1976.[46] However, after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, interviews with participants in anti-Soviet movements verified the effectiveness of VOA broadcasts in transmitting information to socialist societies.[47] The People's Republic of China diligently jams VOA broadcasts.[48] Cuba has also been reported to interfere with VOA satellite transmissions to Iran from its Russian-built transmission site at Bejucal.[49] David Jackson, former director of Voice of America, noted: "The North Korean government doesn't jam us, but they try to keep people from listening through intimidation or worse. But people figure out ways to listen despite the odds. They're very resourceful."[50] Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, VOA covered some of the era's most important news, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech[51] and Neil Armstrong's 1969 first walk on the Moon, which drew an audience estimated at between 615 and 750 million people. In 1973, due to the detente policies in the Cold War, Soviet jamming of the VOA ceased.[citation needed] In the early 1980s, VOA began a $1.3 billion rebuilding program to improve broadcast with better technical capabilities. During the implementation of the Martial law in Poland between 1981 and 1983, VOA's Polish broadcasts expanded to seven hours daily. Throughout the 1980s, VOA focused on covering events from the 'American hinterland', such as 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail.[1] Also in the 1980s, VOA also added a television service, as well as special regional programs to Cuba, Radio Martí and TV Martí. Cuba has consistently attempted to jam such broadcasts and has vociferously protested U.S. broadcasts directed at Cuba. In September 1980, VOA started broadcasting to Afghanistan in Dari and in Pashto in 1982.[52] In 1985, VOA Europe was created as a special service in English that was relayed via satellite to AM, FM, and cable affiliates throughout Europe. With a contemporary format including live disc jockeys, the network presented top musical hits as well as VOA news and features of local interest (such as "EuroFax") 24 hours a day. VOA Europe was closed down without advance public notice in January 1997 as a cost-cutting measure.[53] It was followed by VOA Express, which from July 4, 1999, revamped into VOA Music Mix.[54] Since November 1, 2014, stations are offered VOA1 (which is a rebranding of VOA Music Mix).[citation needed] In 1989, Voice of America expanded its Mandarin and Cantonese programming to reach the millions of Chinese and inform the country about the pro-democracy movement within the country, including the demonstration in Tiananmen Square.[55] Starting in 1990, the U.S. consolidated its international broadcasting efforts, with the establishment of the Bureau of Broadcasting.[56] VOA was established in 1942,[7] and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103–415)[8] was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. On July 1, 2014, VOA cut most of its shortwave transmissions in English to Asia.[66] Shortwave broadcasts in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek were dropped too.[66] On August 11, 2014, the Greek service ended after 72 years on air.[67][68] List of languages VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government.[9] Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of US$218.5 million.[10][11] While Voice of America is seen by some foreign listeners as having a positive impact,[1][2] others consider it to be a form of propaganda and a mouthpiece for the US government.[14] Current languages The Voice of America website had five English language broadcasts as of 2014 (worldwide, Learning English, Cambodia, Zimbabwe and Tibet). Additionally, the VOA website has versions in 47 foreign languages (radio programs are marked with an "R"; TV programs with a "T"): "Sansoen Phra Barami" (Thai: สรรเสริญพระบารมี, pronounced [sǎn.sɤ̌ːn pʰráʔ bāː.rā.mīː]; transl. "Glorify His Prestige") is the current royal anthem of Thailand. It was a de facto national anthem of Siam before 1932. A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of bond issued by a government to support public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called coupon payments, and to repay the face value on the maturity date. For example, a bondholder invests $20,000, called face value or principal, into a 10-year government bond with a 10% annual coupon; the government would pay the bondholder 10% interest each year and repay the $20,000 original face value at the date of maturity (i.e. after 10 years). During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has forcibly transferred thousands of Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland.[1] The United Nations has stated that these deportations constitute war crimes.[3][4] The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin (who has explicitly supported the forced adoptions, including by enacting legislation to facilitate them)[5] and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their alleged involvement.[6] According to international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, such acts constitute genocide if done with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation or ethnic group.[7][lower-alpha 1]