text: From 1998 to 2009, it used a single maroon Sikorsky S-76C+ twin-engined helicopter, registered "G-XXEA" in honour of "G-AEXX", the Airspeed Envoy that the Queen's uncle, the Prince of Wales, first flew in the King's Flight. The helicopter, the first airframe dedicated solely to royal use, entered service on 21 December 1998. The S-76 is a commercial type widely used around the world, although the Kings's helicopter is fitted with only six seats for more comfort.


title: Air transport of the British royal family and government

text: On 4 November 2009, Sikorsky announced the delivery of a new S-76C++ helicopter to TQHF. This helicopter, registration G-XXEB, is capable of a maximum speed of 178 mph and a ferry range of with a 30-minute fuel reserve. An AgustaWestland AW109S, registration G-XXEC, was operated on long-term lease to TQHF from 2014 to 2019. TQHF took ownership of a second Sikorsky S-76C, G-XXED, in 2019.


text: Airspace restrictions released on 9 September 2022, prior to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, indicated that TQHF had been renamed as TKHF.


text: The cost of royal travel (not including cars) is dominated by royal air travel, but also includes trains and yacht charter. All costs for the previous financial year ending 31 March are documented every year in an Appendix to the Sovereign Grant Report detailing the expenses. The report does not show individual flights but overall trip budgets which may include pre-trip reconnaissance and other associated costs. Only trips in excess of £15,000 are detailed with trips under that amount being presented as a block total. In 2020 total travel costs of £2,825,633 for the year 2019-2020 were reported.


text: The 1999 declaration that the principal purpose of 32 Squadron was to provide communications and logistical support to military operations reduced the charge per hour to the royal travel grant-in-aid for flying in an RAF jet, because now only the variable costs of the flight were expensed to the royal travel budget.


text: However, on 1 April 2010, the hourly rate for journeys by the Queen and the Prince of Wales was increased dramatically from £1,138 for a BAe 125 and £1,846 for a BAe 146, to £9,997 and £13,086 respectively. No journeys were undertaken under these arrangements. On 1 December 2010, the rates were reduced (BAe 125: £4,000 and BAe 146: £5,000 per flying hour).


text: Under these higher prices, the royal family flew only twice on military jets in financial year 2010–2011. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall flew the BAe 146 to Madrid and Lisbon in March 2011 (4 flight hours), and one non-itemised flight was taken on a BAe 125 (1 flight hour).


text: Some criticism was aimed at expensive charters that were employed for visits of King Charles III, during his time as Prince of Wales for trips that some believe were not critical to his role as British heir apparent. Two of the most expensive charters were for visits to South America in March 2009 (£660,594) for a tour related to the Prince's ecological concerns, and a trip to Japan and Indonesia in October and November 2008 that cost £665,674.


text: Between 12 and 16 June 2010, the then-Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall took a four-day short break to their home in Balmoral, Scotland. The charge to the government was £29,786 for a jet to fly them to Aberdeen and to return to London.


text: Prince Charles's choice of chartering an Airbus A319 that seats 29 people for a tour in 2009 to raise environmental awareness was criticised for its carbon footprint.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: "Skjold"-class corvettes (skjold means "shield" in Norwegian) are a class of six light, superfast, stealth missile corvettes in service with the Royal Norwegian Navy. The boats were formerly classed as MTBs (motor torpedo boats) but, from 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy has described them as corvettes ("korvett") because their seaworthiness is seen as comparable to corvettes, and because they do not carry torpedoes. They were built at the Umoe Mandal yard. With a maximum speed of , the "Skjold"-class corvettes were the fastest combat ships afloat at the time of their introduction.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: The "Skjold"-class vessels began with the development of the Royal Norwegian Navy's "Project SMP 6081", and the first preproduction version was ordered on 30 August 1996. The first ship of its class, P960, was launched on 22 September 1998 and commissioned 17 April 1999. A Norwegian Parliamentary White Paper of 2001 recommended building five additional boats, and this was agreed to in 2002. Six "Skjold"-class vessels replaced the Royal Norwegian Navy's previous fourteen s.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: The "Skjold" design is a surface effect craft, constructed of glass fibre/carbon composite materials. Buoyancy is augmented underway by a fan-blown skirted compartment between the two rigid catamaran-type hulls. This provides an alternative solution to the planing hull/vee hull compromise: the air cushion reduces wave slam at high speeds while presenting a low-drag flat planing profile at the waterline.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: To ensure stealth capabilities, anechoic coatings of radar absorbent materials (RAM) have been used in the load-bearing structures over large areas of the ship. This strategy leads to significant weight saving compared to the conventional construction technique of applying RAM cladding to the external surfaces. The ship's profile has a faceted appearance with no right angle structures and few orientations of reflective panels. Doors and hatches are flush with the surfaces and the windows are flush without visible coaming (edge of window aperture) and are fitted with radar reflective screens. The vessels are additionally protected by the Rheinmetall MASS sensor / decoy system.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: The final design was changed compared to the prototype "Skjold", which itself was rebuilt to the new specifications. Most notably, the vessels use 4 gas turbines combined by Renk COGAG gear units built in a lightweight design. The smaller gas turbines rated 2,000 kW turbines are used for cruising speed. For sprint speed a second, larger gas turbine is combined providing a total of 6,000 kW to the waterjet on each shaft line. Two MTU 123 cruise diesel propulsion units used previously at loiter speeds were removed. The foredeck was strengthened to accommodate the addition of a 76 mm Otobreda Super Rapid gun.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: The hull material was produced by a different method to improve strength and minimize vulnerability to fire. The bridge saw some changes, including an upgrade to six weapon systems control consoles.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: In 2020, the Norwegian Government decided to further upgrade the Skjold-class vessels, partially to compensate for the loss of the frigate Helge Ingstad. The upgrades would take place between 2020 and 2024, permitting the Skjold-class to remain up-to-date through to 2030 when replacement vessels were envisaged under terms of the Government's defence plan.


title: Skjold-class corvette

text: The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard expressed interest in the design and leased the P960 for a period of one year, from 2001 until 2002. During that time it was operated by a 14-man Norwegian crew out of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Polaroid is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Lars Klevberg, and based on his 2015 short film of the same name. The film follows high schooler Bird Fitcher, who is given a vintage Polaroid camera that holds dark and mysterious secrets. She soon realizes that those who get their picture taken by it meet a tragic death. It stars Kathryn Prescott, Samantha Logan, Tyler Young, and Javier Botet.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Dimension Films announced the film in 2015, with Klevberg set to direct and Blair Butler writing the script. Principal photography began in Halifax, Nova Scotia on March 9, 2017, and was completed in May 2017. The film was set to be released in August 2017, but was rescheduled several times. By October 2018, Lantern Entertainment, which acquired The Weinstein Company/Dimension's assets through its bankruptcy, and 13 Films, an international distribution and finance company, had struck a deal to co-distribute the film internationally.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: "Polaroid" was theatrically released in Germany on January 10, 2019, by Wild Bunch, and in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2019. It was released in the United States on September 17, 2019 on VOD and on October 11, 2019, in select theatres, by Vertical Entertainment, before streaming on Netflix. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics, with criticism aimed towards the film's heavy reliance on jump scares and its plot.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Sarah and her friend, Linda, are going through a box of her late mother's belongings when they find a Polaroid camera. Linda receives a "like" from her crush, which provokes Sarah to take a photo in lingerie on the Polaroid camera. When the flash goes off, Sarah seems uneasy. Her friend leaves, and Sarah is home alone. When she takes a look at the Polaroid, there is a creepy shadow behind her in the photo of her. Startled, she treats it as a smudge and starts cleaning. She hears eerie sounds in the attic, which she investigates. She gets frightened in the attic and falls, but ends up dangling by her ankles instead of falling to the floor. While feeling a brief moment of relief as her hair dangles in her face, she is then pulled up by an entity and is killed offscreen before her dead body tumbles to the ground.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Shy high school student Bird is given an old Polaroid camera by her co-worker Tyler, who got it from a garage sale. The camera has the initials "RJS" carved into it. Bird snaps a picture of Tyler but later notices an odd smudge-like figure on his photo.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Bird attends a costume party with her best friend Kasey and meets her other friends Mina, Mina's boyfriend Devin, Avery, and Bird's high school crush Connor. She uses her Polaroid camera to take the group's picture and Avery later snaps a selfie with it. Meanwhile, Tyler is killed by the entity, and Sheriff Pembroke informs Bird. At home, Bird sees Tyler's photo free from the shadow, which has mysteriously transferred to Avery's photo.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Avery is killed when the entity snaps her neck. When Bird learns about this, she tries to destroy the camera and attempts to warn her friends. Devin attempts to burn the group photo, but when the flames reach Mina in the photo, her arm spontaneously combusts and the flames cannot be extinguished. Kasey's fingers are slightly singed before Bird stomps out the fire and the photograph restores itself. Mina is taken to the hospital to undergo surgery for her arm; Devin and Kasey stay with her while Bird and Connor leave to learn more about the camera. While in the antique store, Bird is attacked by the entity, which behaves like a photograph: following the same rules as photographic development (i.e. it is sensitive to heat). She questions why she was chased too and notices that her reflection is in the photo's background.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Mina is killed at the hospital by the entity when she is left alone briefly. Devin finds Mina's dead body and blames Bird for her death. Bird and Connor research and discover that the camera was owned by a photography teacher Roland Joseph Sable (RJS) from their school years ago. He was accused of torturing four students and killing three of them while taking maniacal photographs. One of the captives escaped and Roland was killed by police. Devin confronts Bird at the diner and accuses her of being responsible for what happened to Mina. He attempts to take a picture of her as a threat. With Connor and Devin both fighting for the camera, Devin is accidentally snapped by the camera and the shadow transfers to his photo, showing he is next. Devin lunges at Bird, Kasey saves Bird by stabbing Devin's photo with a pencil, injuring him in real life. Devin, upset from being stabbed, becomes aggressive and accidentally slaps Sheriff Pembroke. Devin is detained and is later killed in his cell when Roland manifests and attacks him, but not before telling Bird he realized Mina's death was not her fault.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Connor, Kasey, and Bird learn Roland's wife is alive and visit her. They meet an elderly lady named Lena Sable, who explains that the camera actually belonged to her daughter Rebecca Jane Sable (RJS). Lena explains that Rebecca was "slow," and when gifted with the camera she became very attached to it. As a result, Rebecca was bullied by four classmates, who took the camera and used it to take inappropriate photos of her. She committed suicide out of shame, causing her father Roland to abduct and kill her bullies in a fit of rage. Now even in death, Roland roams, looking for the last bully who escaped to kill him. Lena shows the two a picture of the survivor and they search the yearbooks. Bird finds out that the survivor was Sheriff Pembroke. In an attempt to stop the entity from killing them, Connor takes a picture of Pembroke, who reveals that Roland in truth often sexually assaulted Rebecca; Lena's version of the events was merely just to cover her husband's evil deeds. The four students, including him, were Rebecca's friends trying to warn her of her father's actions upon finding her nude pictures in his possession. Fearing the public would find out, Roland abducted them, prompting Rebecca to kill herself out of misplaced guilt.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Shortly after, Roland manifests and ambushes the group, tearing Pembroke's picture in half, which kills him instantly. Roland stabs through Kasey's leg, impairing her ability to walk. Connor is separated from Kasey and Bird; the girls find safety in the school's showers, with Bird turning on the hot water to create heat, preventing Roland from reaching them. Bird leaves to find Connor, they reunite and she has an idea that involves getting the camera back (having been left where Sheriff Pembroke was killed) and going somewhere where Roland can "fully develop." Roland manifests and drags Connor away, but Bird takes a picture of herself, prompting him to chase her instead. She leads him into the school's dark room, where he is able to fully develop, and sets a trap for him by connecting the camera to a timer, but the photographer, having seen through her plan, manifests in an unexpected area, ambushing her and grabbing her by the neck. As Roland prepares to stab and kill her, she manages to discreetly retrieve the camera and takes a picture of him. Roland is able to knock the camera out of her grasp, but Bird immediately crushes the photo in an attempt to kill him, which in turn crushes Roland in real life (and crushes Bird's fingers, as they were also in the photo). He survives however, and fearing for her life she then resorts to burning it (and doing so, burns her own fingers), disintegrating Roland and finally killing the malevolent spirit for good, where everything had taken place many years ago. She later reunites with her friends, and ultimately throws the camera into a river.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: Dimension Films spearheaded the feature, an adaptation of the 2015 short film "Polaroid", written and directed by Norwegian director Lars Klevberg, who also directed the full length version. Chris Bender, Jake Weiner and Jake Wagner produced with Benderspink, Roy Lee with Vertigo and Petter Onstad Løkke and John Einar Hagen with Eldorado Film, which had produced the short film with Klevberg in Norway.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: The film was originally scheduled to be released on August 25, 2017. It was then pushed back to December 1, 2017, before being moved up to November 22, 2017. It was then pulled from the schedule, with plans to release it in 2018. Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film, and released it on September 17, 2019 on VOD and on October 11, 2019, in select theaters. As of 2020, the film streams on Netflix.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: In October 2018, Lantern Entertainment, which acquired The Weinstein Company's assets through its bankruptcy, including Dimension Films content; and 13 Films, an international distribution and finance company, struck a deal to co-distribute "Polaroid" internationally. The film was theatrically released in Germany on January 10, 2019, by Wild Bunch. The film was released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2019.


title: Polaroid (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . "The Independent" reports that it is considered "worst horror film ever made".


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Kevin Heffernan (born May 25, 1968) is an American actor, writer, producer, and director, and member of the Broken Lizard comedy group.


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Heffernan was born in West Haven, Connecticut. His mother, Catheryn Jane (née Eiby), is the West Haven treasurer, and his father, Eugene Michael Heffernan, worked as a probate judge. His paternal grandfather, William J. Heffernan, was mayor of West Haven.


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Heffernan is a graduate of Fairfield College Preparatory School and later Colgate University, the latter where he was a part of comedy group Charred Goosebeak with other members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. This group would stay together outside college, and become the group Broken Lizard. Heffernan is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, and passed the Connecticut bar exam, but does not practice law.


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Instead, he and the other members of Broken Lizard spent several years to make the film "Super Troopers". They took it to the Sundance Film Festival, and sold the distribution rights to Fox Searchlight Pictures for $3.25 million. It grossed $23.1 million when released in 2001, and Heffernan's comedy acting career was made. Heffernan is best known for his role of Vermont State Trooper Rod Farva in "Super Troopers" and its 2018 sequel "Super Troopers 2".


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: He works especially closely with fellow Broken Lizard member Steve Lemme. They do a two-man touring standup comedy show, a podcast, a web series, and a Netflix special.


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Heffernan also played Landfill and Gil in "Beerfest", and co-starred in the "Dukes of Hazzard" film as "Sheev".


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: He has also appeared on "How I Met Your Mother" (ep. "I'm Not That Guy"), "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Veep", "Arrested Development", "Agent Carter", and in two episodes of season 5 of "The Goldbergs", as Ms.Torg's favorite "chalk throwing" teacher.


title: Kevin Heffernan (actor)

text: Currently, he stars as Chief Terry McConky in the TruTV cable television firefighter comedy series "Tacoma FD". This series launched in March 2019, and is partly based on the stories of Heffernan's cousin William "Bill" Heffernan, who is the historian for the West Haven Fire Department, and a consultant for the program.


title: Modus tollens

text: In propositional logic, modus tollens () (MT), also known as modus tollendo tollens (Latin for "method of removing by taking away") and denying the consequent, is a deductive argument form and a rule of inference. "Modus tollens" takes the form of "If P, then Q. Not Q. Therefore, not P." It is an application of the general truth that if a statement is true, then so is its contrapositive. The form shows that inference from "P implies Q" to "the negation of Q implies the negation of P" is a valid argument.


title: Modus tollens

text: The history of the inference rule "modus tollens" goes back to antiquity. The first to explicitly describe the argument form "modus tollens" was Theophrastus.


title: Modus tollens

text: "Modus tollens" is closely related to "modus ponens". There are two similar, but invalid, forms of argument: affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent. See also contraposition and proof by contrapositive.


title: Modus tollens

text: The first premise is a conditional ("if-then") claim, such as "P" implies "Q". The second premise is an assertion that "Q", the consequent of the conditional claim, is not the case. From these two premises it can be logically concluded that "P", the antecedent of the conditional claim, is also not the case.


title: Modus tollens

text: Supposing that the premises are both true (the dog will bark if it detects an intruder, and does indeed not bark), it follows that no intruder has been detected. This is a valid argument since it is not possible for the conclusion to be false if the premises are true. (It is conceivable that there may have been an intruder that the dog did not detect, but that does not invalidate the argument; the first premise is "if the dog "detects" an intruder". The thing of importance is that the dog detects or does not detect an intruder, not whether there is one.)


title: Modus tollens

text: Every use of "modus tollens" can be converted to a use of "modus ponens" and one use of transposition to the premise which is a material implication. For example:


title: Modus tollens

text: Likewise, every use of "modus ponens" can be converted to a use of "modus tollens" and transposition.


title: Modus tollens

text: where formula_2 stands for the statement "P implies Q". formula_3 stands for "it is not the case that Q" (or in brief "not Q"). Then, whenever "formula_2" and "formula_5" each appear by themselves as a line of a proof, then "formula_6" can validly be placed on a subsequent line.


title: Modus tollens

text: where formula_8 is a metalogical symbol meaning that formula_6 is a syntactic consequence of formula_2 and formula_5 in some logical system;


title: Modus tollens

text: Strictly speaking these are not instances of "modus tollens", but they may be derived from "modus tollens" using a few extra steps.


title: Modus tollens

text: In instances of "modus tollens" we assume as premises that p → q is true and q is false. There is only one line of the truth table—the fourth line—which satisfies these two conditions. In this line, p is false. Therefore, in every instance in which p → q is true and q is false, p must also be false.


title: Modus tollens

text: "Modus tollens" represents an instance of the law of total probability combined with Bayes' theorem expressed as:


title: Modus tollens

text: where the conditionals formula_23 and formula_24 are obtained with (the extended form of) Bayes' theorem expressed as:


title: Modus tollens

text: In the equations above formula_27 denotes the probability of formula_14, and formula_29 denotes the base rate (aka. prior probability) of formula_13. The conditional probability formula_31 generalizes the logical statement formula_2, i.e. in addition to assigning TRUE or FALSE we can also assign any probability to the statement. Assume that formula_33 is equivalent to formula_14 being TRUE, and that formula_35 is equivalent to formula_14 being FALSE. It is then easy to see that formula_37 when formula_38 and formula_35. This is because formula_40 so that formula_41 in the last equation. Therefore, the product terms in the first equation always have a zero factor so that formula_37 which is equivalent to formula_13 being FALSE. Hence, the law of total probability combined with Bayes' theorem represents a generalization of "modus tollens".


title: Modus tollens

text: where formula_45 denotes the subjective opinion about formula_14, and formula_47 denotes a pair of binomial conditional opinions, as expressed by source formula_48. The parameter formula_49 denotes the base rate (aka. the prior probability) of formula_13. The abduced marginal opinion on formula_13 is denoted formula_52. The conditional opinion formula_53 generalizes the logical statement formula_2, i.e. in addition to assigning TRUE or FALSE the source formula_48 can assign any subjective opinion to the statement. The case where formula_45 is an absolute TRUE opinion is equivalent to source formula_48 saying that formula_14 is TRUE, and the case where formula_45 is an absolute FALSE opinion is equivalent to source formula_48 saying that formula_14 is FALSE. The abduction operator formula_62 of subjective logic produces an absolute FALSE abduced opinion formula_63 when the conditional opinion formula_53 is absolute TRUE and the consequent opinion formula_45 is absolute FALSE. Hence, subjective logic abduction represents a generalization of both "modus tollens" and of the Law of total probability combined with Bayes' theorem.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Many of the roots of the ongoing civil conflict within Ethiopia date back to the mid-twentieth century and earlier. Following the 2018 dissolution of the ethnic federalist, dominant party political coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, there was an increase in tensions within the country, with newly resurgent regional and ethnically based factions carrying out armed attacks on military and civilians in multiple conflicts throughout Ethiopia.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: This tension further escalated when war broke out in the Tigray region between the federal government and the regional government in November 2020. The ENDF and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) entered Tigray and took the capital of Mekelle. The Tigray Defense Forces retook control of most of Tigray in mid-2021 and formed an alliance with the OLA in late 2021. The alliance declared a coalition with seven smaller rebel groups, called the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Emperor Menelik II, King of Shewa, who was of mixed Amhara, Oromo, and Gurage ancestry, through his multi-ethnic Neftenya aristocratic class seized territory in 1889 that are presently known as the Oromia, Sidama and Somali Regions. The League of Nations in 1935 reported that after the invasion of Menelik's forces into non-Abyssinian lands of Somalis, Harari, Oromo, Sidama, Shanqella etc., the inhabitants were enslaved and heavily taxed by the "gebbar" system leading to depopulation.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: During the reign of Haile Selassie and the following Derg epoch, when Ethiopia was mostly ruled by Mengistu Haile Mariam, ethnic discrimination occurred against Afars, Tigrayans, Eritreans, Somalis and Oromos. The Amhara culture dominated throughout the eras of military and monarchic rule. As a result of settling in the southern regions, other ethnic groups assimilated into the imperial culture by adopting the Amharic language, Orthodox Christianity, and other aristocratic cultural traits found in royal court culture. Both peasant Amhara culture and Ethiopian Empire royal court culture have heavily influenced each other; the imperial culture (which influenced and was influenced by Amhara culture) dominated throughout the eras of military and monarchic rule although Siegfried Pausewang concluded in 2005 that "the term Amhara relates in contemporary Ethiopia to two different and distinct social groups. The ethnic group of the Amhara, mostly a peasant population, is different from a mixed group of urban people coming from different ethnic background, who have adopted Amharic as a common language and identify themselves as Ethiopians". Both the Haile Selassie and the Derg government relocated numerous Amharas into southern Ethiopia where they served in government administration, courts, church and in schools, where Oromo texts were eliminated and replaced by Amharic.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Following downfall of the Derg by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1991, Ethiopia entered a short transitional government until formal government was established in 1995. The EPRDF regime notable leader Meles Zenawi appointed as a prime minister shortly after. His rule implemented ethnic federalism to the country, leading to serious ethnic clashes and persecution against Amharas, Oromos, Somalis, and other ethnic groups people, while intensifying Tigrayan nationalism and Tigrayan ethnocratic hegemony.Meles' government committed electoral fraud for over three consecutive cycles since 2000, and was considered an authoritarian regime by international observers. The EPRDF coalition leadership was ended after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, and eventually dissolving the coalition in 2019, by merging most of its parties to multi-ethnic Prosperity Party. Notably, however, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (who had dominated the EPRDF coalition for 27 years) was not included.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Shortly after he became Prime Minister, Abiy began transforming the country's politics, releasing notable political prisoners from opposition parties. However, during his premiership, ethnic violence severely resurfaced and ethnic marginalization was more intense. By 2020, relations between the Abiy government and the now-ousted TPLF had deteriorated significantly, culminating in the start of the Tigray War in November of that year.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In 2014, the federal government under the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), redrew the boundary between the two regions of Afar Region and the Somali Region. As a result, the Afar Region gained three towns from the Somali Region which has tried to gain them back since. Border clashes in April 2021 killed around 100 civilians.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 10–11 January 2019, 58 Qemant people were killed by the Fano militia. The ENDF failed to intervene to stop the massacre.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 22 June 2019 elements of The Amhara Region's Peace and Security Bureau and allied militias loyal by Brigadier General Asaminew Tsige Chief of the Amhara Region security began a coup d'état. Starting with the targeted assassinations of political and military leaders including Se'are Mekonnen (Chief of the General Staff), Gizae Aberra (Aide-de-camp to the Chief of the General Staff), and Ambachew Mekonnen (Chief Administrator of the Amhara Region). The coup d'état ultimately failed with Asaminew Tsige being killed by police near Bahir Dar 36 hours after the start of the coup.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Starting on 18 March clashes erupted in the town of Ataye after Amhara special forces killed a person on the steps of the main mosque in the city. This started off a wave of inter ethnic clashes that spread throughout the Oromia Zone leading to the deaths of 303 people. On 16 April Clashes once again started after OLA fighters attacked the city of Ataye, The clashes continued for two days leading to the deaths of 281 people and the destruction of a quarter of Ataye.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: By November 2021, fighting in the Tigray War had moved south of Tigray Region into Amhara Region, leading to a joint military campaign by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) against federal forces, threatening Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: between 30-31 August 2022, eyewitnesses said that militants from the Amhara Region (whom they claimed were Fano militias) massacred more than 60 people in Horo Guduru, Western Oromia, and displaced 20,000 more. On 6 September, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) confirmed this attack happened, though they declined to say whether the attackers were part of Fano.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The administrator of Kiramu district in the East Welega Zone, Fikadu Hunde, alleged that on 15 October 2022, Fano militias entered the district, killing 30 people and burning down over 50 houses. The EHRC learned of this information, but stated that there "was difficulty in verifying and obtaining accurate information due to the lack of network in the area," according to a statement they made to "Addis Standard".


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Benishangul-Gumuz is home to several different ethnicities including the Gumuz, Berta, Shinasha, Mao, Komo and Fadashi. The Gumuz have had tensions with agricultural Amhara, Oromos, Tigrayans and Agaw migrants, who in Metekel Zone constitute minority ethnic groups with some Amhara groups calling for Metekel to be incorporated into Amhara. Large scale land acquisitions by both local and foreign investors have also pushed the Gumuz off the land.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Gumuz are alleged to have formed militias such as Buadin and the Gumuz Liberation Front that have staged attacks against those seen as "settlers". In the Metekel massacre in December 2020, about 200 mostly Amharas, Oromos, and Shinashas were killed by a suspected Gumuz militia. An unidentified armed group took over the county of Sedal Woreda in the Kamashi Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in April 2021.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In March 2020, the leader of one of the groups called "Fano", Solomon Atanaw, stated that the "Fano" would not disarm until Benishangul-Gumuz Region's Metekel Zone and the Tigray Region districts of Welkait and Raya are placed under the control of Amhara Region.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 13 September 2018, clashes broke out in the town on Burayu between various ethnic groups including the Oromo, Amharas Dorzes, Gamos, Wolayitas, Gurages, and Silt'e. These clashes continued for three days leading to 55 people being killed and 670 people being injured.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: After the murder of Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa on 29 June 2020 in the Gelan Condominiums area of Addis Ababa, protests and riots broke out across Oromia. In Hachalu Hundessa home town of Ambo 83 people were killed in riots. In the town of Shashamane, dozens of buildings were destroyed and at least 150 people were killed in ethnic riots and pogroms.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 2 November 2020, between 32 and 54 people were killed when an armed group of about 60 men suspected of being the OLA gathered 200 people in a schoolyard in the village of Gawa Qanqa before opening fire. The attacks were said to be targeted at Amhara people.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 5 March 2021, 29 people were killed when a suspected OLA fighter attacked a church in the village of Abo. The OLA denied responsibility saying that the attack was carried out by an OLA splinter group led by Faqadaa Abdiisaa.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Clashes between the two largest regions, the Oromia region, which constitutes primarily those of the Oromo ethnic group, and Somali region, which primarily constitutes those of the Somali ethnic group, began in December 2016 following territorial disputes. Somalis are mostly pastoralists and Oromos tend to be farmers, as well as pastoralists. It has been difficult to demarcate clear borders between the states as pastoral communities tend to cross borders in search of pasture for their animals.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: This has led to competition, such as for wells and grazing land, over the years, with tens of thousands of people being displaced in some conflicts. In 2004, a referendum to decide on the fate of more than 420 kebeles, the country's smallest administrative unit, gave 80% of them to Oromia, leading to Somali minorities fleeing those areas.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: By 2018, hundreds of people were killed and 200,0000 fled their homes from the resulting conflict. The regional special police of both states, called the Liyu in the Somali region and the Liyu Hail of Oromia state, were both accused of committing atrocities.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: With the succession of Abiy Ahmed to the position of Prime Minister friction began to build between the federal government and Somali regional governments due to Ahmed's reformist vision which clashed with Abdi Mohamed Omar (Abdi Illey) who had ruled over the region with an iron fist for the past 8 years. Despite attempts to negotiate a path forward, the tension between the two men would boil over, when in late July 2018, Abdi Illey ordered the Liyu police to enter into Dire Dawa, an area of Ethiopia outside of the Somali region’s jurisdiction. The Liyu police, up to this point, had mainly been a counterinsurgency force created by the federal government in 2007 to help fight the Ogaden National Liberation Front and were commanded by then Somali regional security chief Abdi Mohammed Omar who would later become the region's president in 2010. Although he was no longer the region's security chief, the Liyu would still continue to report to him. In repose to the "illegal act," federal forces confronted the Liyu and entered Jijiga on August 4.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In November 2021, the Somali State Resistance allied with the Tigray People's Liberation Front and UFEFCF.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In July 2022, the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab launched an invasion from Somalia into Ethiopia's Somali Region; the invasion was the largest attack by al-Shabaab in Ethiopian territory to date.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In the Guraferda woreda of the Bench Maji Zone in the SNNPR in October 2020, about 30 people were killed by an unidentified armed group. The victims were said to have been Amhara.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In 2018, clashes began between the Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), made up of mostly Gedeo people, and the Guji Zone in the Oromia region, made up of mostly Guji Oromos. The clashes led to about 800,000 mostly ethnic Gedeos fleeing their homes. This was a higher number of people and over a shorter period of time than occurred at the height of the more publicized Rohingya crisis in Myanmar the year before. The government pressured the refugees to return to their homes even though they fear for their lives, often by denying refugees access to humanitarian aid.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The Segen Area Peoples' Zone, formerly a zone in the SNNPR, split in 2018 to form the Konso Zone, inhabited mostly by Konso people, as well as the Burji special woreda, Dirashe special woreda and Amaro special woreda and there has been intermittent violence since then. Violence in the latter half of 2020 attributed to Oromo and Konso communities killed dozens of civilians and displaced at least 90,000 people.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The Sidama Zone was previously part of the SNNPR and the Sidama people were the largest ethnic group in that region. In July 2019, clashes between groups on the issue of greater autonomy for Sidama led to deaths and internal displacement. A vote in favor of greater autonomy in the 2019 Sidama Region referendum resulted in Sidama Zone becoming the country's 10th region. A number of other ethnic groups in the region are also pursuing demands to form their ethnic-based state.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: In the Wolayita Zone, at least 17 people were killed in August 2020 by security forces. This was following calls for making a separate region for the Welayta people in the same fashion as the Sidama region for the Sidama people.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The Tigray Regional Government was led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which formerly dominated the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition. Hostilities between the central government and the TPLF escalated after the TPLF rejected the federal government's decision to postponing August 2020 elections to mid-2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing the government of violating the Ethiopian constitution.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The TPLF carried out its own regional elections, winning all contested seats in the region's parliament. In the months before November 2020, Mr. Abiy moved troops toward Tigray and sent military cargo planes into Eritrea. Behind closed doors, his advisers and military generals debated the merits of a conflict. Those who disagreed were fired, interrogated at gunpoint or forced to leave.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: After attacks on the Northern Command by armed forces loyal to the TPLF, which the TPLF called a pre-emptive strike, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) launched an offensive, capturing Mekelle, the capital of Tigray in November 2020. The ENDF was assisted by forces from neighboring Eritrea.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: Throughout much of Western Tigray, security is mostly maintained by uniformed "special forces" from neighboring Amhara states and civil servants have also arrived from Amhara to take over the administration of some Tigrayan towns and cities, a move that risks inflaming ethnic tensions. On 18 December 2020, looting was reported by EEPA, including 500 dairy cows and hundreds of calves stolen by Amhara forces.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 23 November 2020, a reporter of AFP news agency visited the western Tigray town of Humera, and observed that the administration of the conquered parts of Western Tigray was taken over by officials from Amhara region. As of 1 March 2021, several geographical places had been renamed by the new authorities and many residents of Tigrayan ethnicity had been deported to Central Zone. Eyewitnesses report ongoing ethnic cleansing and settlements void of inhabitants.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The Humera massacres in 2020 that killed around 92 people of Tigrayan origin was attributed to Fano and ENDF. The Humera massacres in 2021 that killed Tigrayans were also attributed to Fano and possibly Eritrean soldiers. Fano are also accused of participating in the Mai Kadra massacre, which had both Amhara and Tigrayan victims, while Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council attributed it to local Tigrayan youths.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: The killings continued through 2021, with people being tortured, tied up and thrown in the Tekeze River. The Italian weekly magazine Panorama published a graphic video in which Amhara soldiers killed a group of 9 people in Humera in August 2021 and then put their bodies on fire. The video also shows torturing of one man by Amhara soldiers, then tying him up, preparing to throw him in the river.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: By 31 October, the TDF had claimed to have taken the strategically located city of Kombolcha, 380 kilometres from Addis Ababa, as well as the nearby city of Dessie. The government denied the claims, reporting that fighting was still going on in and around the two cities. The Ethiopian government further claimed that as the TDF entered Kombolcha, they massacred more than 100 youths. TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda denied the claim.


title: Ethiopian civil conflict (2018–present)

text: On 5 November 2021, the Tigray Defense Forces and Oromo Liberation Army joined with other armed and opposition groups in declaring an alliance against the government known as the "United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces". The alliance includes the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul People's Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant People Right and Justice Movement/Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National Liberation Front and the Somali State Resistance. They further pledged to dismantle the government of Prime Minister Abiy, by force if necessary, and form a transitional government. But analysts state that most of the groups “do not have a strong fighting force,” and some of the political groups “have even weaker political programs.” thus making their impact unclear.


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken away, resulting in a total of 3 peaches. Therefore, the "difference" of 5 and 2 is 3; that is, . While primarily associated with natural numbers in arithmetic, subtraction can also represent removing or decreasing physical and abstract quantities using different kinds of objects including negative numbers, fractions, irrational numbers, vectors, decimals, functions, and matrices.


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction follows several important patterns. It is anticommutative, meaning that changing the order changes the sign of the answer. It is also not associative, meaning that when one subtracts more than two numbers, the order in which subtraction is performed matters. Because is the additive identity, subtraction of it does not change a number. Subtraction also obeys predictable rules concerning related operations, such as addition and multiplication. All of these rules can be proven, starting with the subtraction of integers and generalizing up through the real numbers and beyond. General binary operations that follow these patterns are studied in abstract algebra.


title: Subtraction

text: Performing subtraction on natural numbers is one of the simplest numerical tasks. Subtraction of very small numbers is accessible to young children. In primary education for instance, students are taught to subtract numbers in the decimal system, starting with single digits and progressively tackling more difficult problems.


title: Subtraction

text: In advanced algebra and in computer algebra, an expression involving subtraction like is generally treated as a shorthand notation for the addition . Thus, contains two terms, namely "A" and −"B". This allows an easier use of associativity and commutativity.


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction is usually written using the minus sign "−" between the terms; that is, in infix notation. The result is expressed with an equals sign. For example,


title: Subtraction

text: Formally, the number being subtracted is known as the subtrahend, while the number it is subtracted from is the minuend. The result is the difference. That is,


title: Subtraction

text: All of this terminology derives from Latin. "Subtraction" is an English word derived from the Latin verb "subtrahere", which in turn is a compound of "sub" "from under" and "trahere" "to pull". Thus, to subtract is to "draw from below", or to "take away". Using the gerundive suffix "-nd" results in "subtrahend", "thing to be subtracted". Likewise, from "minuere" "to reduce or diminish", one gets "minuend", which means "thing to be diminished".


title: Subtraction

text: Starting from "a", it takes "b" steps to the right to reach "c". This movement to the right is modeled mathematically by addition:


title: Subtraction

text: From "c", it takes "b" steps to the "left" to get back to "a". This movement to the left is modeled by subtraction:


title: Subtraction

text: Now, a line segment labeled with the numbers , , and . From position 3, it takes no steps to the left to stay at 3, so . It takes 2 steps to the left to get to position 1, so . This picture is inadequate to describe what would happen after going 3 steps to the left of position 3. To represent such an operation, the line must be extended.


title: Subtraction

text: To subtract arbitrary natural numbers, one begins with a line containing every natural number (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ...). From 3, it takes 3 steps to the left to get to 0, so . But is still invalid, since it again leaves the line. The natural numbers are not a useful context for subtraction.


title: Subtraction

text: The solution is to consider the integer number line (..., −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...). This way, it takes 4 steps to the left from 3 to get to −1:


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction of natural numbers is not closed: the difference is not a natural number unless the minuend is greater than or equal to the subtrahend. For example, 26 cannot be subtracted from 11 to give a natural number. Such a case uses one of two approaches:


title: Subtraction

text: The field of real numbers can be defined specifying only two binary operations, addition and multiplication, together with unary operations yielding additive and multiplicative inverses. The subtraction of a real number (the subtrahend) from another (the minuend) can then be defined as the addition of the minuend and the additive inverse of the subtrahend. For example, . Alternatively, instead of requiring these unary operations, the binary operations of subtraction and division can be taken as basic.


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction is anti-commutative, meaning that if one reverses the terms in a difference left-to-right, the result is the negative of the original result. Symbolically, if "a" and "b" are any two numbers, then


title: Subtraction

text: Subtraction is non-associative, which comes up when one tries to define repeated subtraction. In general, the expression


title: Subtraction

text: can be defined to mean either ("a" − "b") − "c" or "a" − ("b" − "c"), but these two possibilities lead to different answers. To resolve this issue, one must establish an order of operations, with different orders yielding different results.


title: Subtraction

text: In the context of integers, subtraction of one also plays a special role: for any integer "a", the integer is the largest integer less than "a", also known as the predecessor of "a".


title: Subtraction

text: When subtracting two numbers with units of measurement such as kilograms or pounds, they must have the same unit. In most cases, the difference will have the same unit as the original numbers.


title: Subtraction

text: Changes in percentages can be reported in at least two forms, percentage change and percentage point change. Percentage change represents the relative change between the two quantities as a percentage, while percentage point change is simply the number obtained by subtracting the two percentages.


title: Subtraction

text: As an example, suppose that 30% of widgets made in a factory are defective. Six months later, 20% of widgets are defective. The percentage change is = − = %, while the percentage point change is −10 percentage points.


title: Subtraction

text: The method of complements is a technique used to subtract one number from another using only the addition of positive numbers. This method was commonly used in mechanical calculators, and is still used in modern computers.


title: Subtraction

text: To subtract a binary number "y" (the subtrahend) from another number "x" (the minuend), the ones' complement of "y" is added to "x" and one is added to the sum. The leading digit "1" of the result is then discarded.


title: Subtraction

text: The method of complements is especially useful in binary (radix 2) since the ones' complement is very easily obtained by inverting each bit (changing "0" to "1" and vice versa). And adding 1 to get the two's complement can be done by simulating a carry into the least significant bit. For example:


title: Subtraction

text: Methods used to teach subtraction to elementary school vary from country to country, and within a country, different methods are adopted at different times. In what is known in the United States as traditional mathematics, a specific process is taught to students at the end of the 1st year (or during the 2nd year) for use with multi-digit whole numbers, and is extended in either the fourth or fifth grade to include decimal representations of fractional numbers.


title: Subtraction

text: Almost all American schools currently teach a method of subtraction using borrowing or regrouping (the decomposition algorithm) and a system of markings called crutches. Although a method of borrowing had been known and published in textbooks previously, the use of crutches in American schools spread after William A. Brownell published a study—claiming that crutches were beneficial to students using this method. This system caught on rapidly, displacing the other methods of subtraction in use in America at that time.


title: Subtraction

text: Some European schools employ a method of subtraction called the Austrian method, also known as the additions method. There is no borrowing in this method. There are also crutches (markings to aid memory), which vary by country.


title: Subtraction

text: Both these methods break up the subtraction as a process of one digit subtractions by place value. Starting with a least significant digit, a subtraction of the subtrahend:


title: Subtraction

text: where each "s" and "m" is a digit, proceeds by writing down , , and so forth, as long as "s" does not exceed "m". Otherwise, "m" is increased by 10 and some other digit is modified to correct for this increase. The American method corrects by attempting to decrease the minuend digit "m" by one (or continuing the borrow leftwards until there is a non-zero digit from which to borrow). The European method corrects by increasing the subtrahend digit "s" by one.


title: Subtraction

text: The minuend is 704, the subtrahend is 512. The minuend digits are , and . The subtrahend digits are , and . Beginning at the one's place, 4 is not less than 2 so the difference 2 is written down in the result's one's place. In the ten's place, 0 is less than 1, so the 0 is increased by 10, and the difference with 1, which is 9, is written down in the ten's place. The American method corrects for the increase of ten by reducing the digit in the minuend's hundreds place by one. That is, the 7 is struck through and replaced by a 6. The subtraction then proceeds in the hundreds place, where 6 is not less than 5, so the difference is written down in the result's hundred's place. We are now done, the result is 192.


title: Subtraction

text: The Austrian method does not reduce the 7 to 6. Rather it increases the subtrahend hundreds digit by one. A small mark is made near or below this digit (depending on the school). Then the subtraction proceeds by asking what number when increased by 1, and 5 is added to it, makes 7. The answer is 1, and is written down in the result's hundreds place.


title: Subtraction

text: There is an additional subtlety in that the student always employs a mental subtraction table in the American method. The Austrian method often encourages the student to mentally use the addition table in reverse. In the example above, rather than adding 1 to 5, getting 6, and subtracting that from 7, the student is asked to consider what number, when increased by 1, and 5 is added to it, makes 7.


title: Subtraction

text: In this method, each digit of the subtrahend is subtracted from the digit above it starting from right to left. If the top number is too small to subtract the bottom number from it, we add 10 to it; this 10 is "borrowed" from the top digit to the left, which we subtract 1 from. Then we move on to subtracting the next digit and borrowing as needed, until every digit has been subtracted.


title: Subtraction

text: The partial differences method is different from other vertical subtraction methods because no borrowing or carrying takes place. In their place, one places plus or minus signs depending on whether the minuend is greater or smaller than the subtrahend. The sum of the partial differences is the total difference.


title: Subtraction

text: Instead of finding the difference digit by digit, one can count up the numbers between the subtrahend and the minuend.


title: Subtraction

text: The same change method uses the fact that adding or subtracting the same number from the minuend and subtrahend does not change the answer. One simply adds the amount needed to get zeros in the subtrahend.


title: Topgolf

text: Topgolf is a golf driving range game with electronically tracked golfballs and automatically scored drives that started in 2000 and grew to become a multinational sports entertainment company. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, it has locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. In October 2020, publicly traded Callaway Golf announced it was acquiring Topgolf, with the merger completed in March 2021. TopGolf locations in Australia are run by a joint venture of Topgolf International (3.7%) and Village Roadshow Theme Parks. In Canada, a joint venture with Cineplex Entertainment was established to operate locations there, but was abandoned by Cineplex in 2020.


title: Topgolf

text: Twin brothers Steve and Dave Jolliffe had sold their mystery shopping business and were looking for a new project in 1997. Both golfers, they began complaining about golf's issues: the time factor and lackluster driving ranges. Looking to improve the game, the Jolliffes looked to the then-new commercial microchip technology and placed it in the golf ball. From this, they designed a new game, Topgolf, which is a redesigned driving range. In Watford, just outside London, the twins built the first location, which opened in 2000. The golfing community and businesses were not enthusiastic about the game. The PGA and golf equipment companies refused to get involved.


title: Topgolf

text: In 2003, bankers approached Richard Grogan to invest but were rejected. Grogan later had been induced to visit the Topgolf facility in February 2004. Seeing only a 5% return on investment, Grogan turned them down again, although he was otherwise impressed during the visit. Grogan with three other partners—David Main, Eric Wilkinson, Tom Mendell—then struck upon how to increase business by making it an experience by having an event space, larger kitchens, and restaurants, making locations 3 to 4 times the original's size. Grogan, Main, Wilkinson, Mendell founded and started up the US licensee, Topgolf International, and found investors. WestRiver Group was a lead investor.


title: Topgolf

text: Alexandria, Virginia was selected due to its close proximity to Washington, D.C., which could attract government officials from golf courses. This location opened in 2005. This location struggled so Grogan decided, although it is in a colder climate, to open a location in Chicago. Snow closed the location for its first four weeks and caused equipment damage. The next Topgolf location, Dallas, was selected for its connection to golf, a warmer environment, and Fortune 500 companies. With little traffic at any location, Grogan expect to be closed by May 2007. With an energetic Dallas staff in February 2007, Grogan and Main brainstormed a number of low-tech marketing techniques to draw customers as they needed to explain Topgolf like in the UK. After six months, the Dallas facility had a six-hour wait.


title: Topgolf

text: In 2009, Topgolf International (US) acquired Topgolf UK then in July from World Golf Systems the TopGolf intellectual property aspects. By 2011, WestRiver's head Erik Anderson took over the executive chairman post from Grogan. Anderson moved to have newer location be even larger, with a full line kitchen and executive chefs replacing small kitchens and more golfer space. Ten locations were opened in 2013. Topgolf had sales of $163.5 million in 2014 to make the Inc. 500. Mobile phone apps were issued in 2013, with social media digital walls added to locations in 2015.


title: Topgolf

text: By 2015, Topgolf had 28 locations that brought in 8 million customers. In January 2016, the company purchased the World Golf Tour gaming company. Also that year, Protracer golf ball tracking technology was purchased and renamed Toptracer.


title: Topgolf

text: Topgolf and Village Roadshow Theme Parks agreed in 2016 to a joint venture to bring Topgolf to Australia. Village Roadshow received a 67% stake in the joint venture by providing 100% of the startup funds. On June 23, 2016, it was announced that Village Roadshow would open a venue next door to its popular theme parks, Warner Bros. Movie World in Oxenford, Queensland in Australia. This was the first Topgolf venue outside the US and the UK The location opened in June 2018. Village indicated in March 2018 that they were looking for location proposals for up to eight Australia and Asia/Pacific locations. In July 2018, Village Roadshow sold $50 million in shares to fund Topgolf and for other purposes. In August 2018, Topgolf Australia reduced its stake in the joint venture from 33% to 3.7% with options to boost its share back up to 33% before December 31, 2020. Despite this action, Village Roadshow CEO Clark Kirby said the company continues to actively pursue other locations after encouraging financial results from Topgolf Australia.


title: Topgolf

text: In 2017, Topgolf created a new television series titled "Who Will Rock You", where eight of the best unsigned bands across the country compete for $50,000 and a Topgolf tour. Season one premiered in May 2018 won by Crimson Riot! female-led rock group. A second season with Matador Content and music publisher BMG was agreed upon with a March 28, 2019 start with 12 unsigned bands and a prize of $50,000 and signing with BMG. Topgolf Studios had four series available on its YouTube channel by October 2, 2019. At that time, the unit agreed with Will Smith's Westbrook Media to produce additional series with the unit for Topgolf starting with "This Joka" comedian documentary series.


title: Topgolf

text: Canadian movie theatre company Cineplex Entertainment announced it entered a joint venture with Topgolf in July 2017 to open several Topgolf entertainment locations across Canada. However, in 2020, Topgolf and Cineplex mutually agreed to cancel the agreement due to financial pressure on Cineplex as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Topgolf

text: Topgolf gave the Seattle area a preview of the venue with its first Crush event at T-Mobile Park in February 2017. On April 9, 2019, the company announced the first location for a new smaller version of its venue, Topgolf Lounge, in Kirkland, Washington and it opened in January 2020. On August 3, 2021, Topgolf broke ground on a new venue in Renton.


title: Topgolf

text: In September of 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor forced Topgolf to pay 255 employees in 25 states, over $750,000 in back wages for unpaid overtime. Investigators said the company was paying sales managers and event sales consultants a salary plus commission, with no overtime after a 40 hour work week. They said those employees did not meet supervisory requirements, and were eligible for overtime pay. They added that the investigation was opened after the violations were found at the company’s Loudoun County, Virginia location.


title: Topgolf

text: On October 27, 2020, Callaway Golf Company announced it would acquire Topgolf for $2 billion. At the time, Callaway held a 14% share of Topgolf. Callaway had invested in Topgolf since 2006, with CEO Chip Brewer serving on the Topgolf board since 2012.


title: Topgolf

text: There are multiple Topgolf game variations, the micro chipped golf balls score themselves, providing players with instant feedback on each shot's accuracy and distance.


title: Topgolf

text: There are currently 70+ Topgolf locations, three in the United Kingdom, and one in Australia, Germany, Mexico, the UAE and Thailand. Each Topgolf venue features climate-controlled hitting bays for year-round play, food, beverage, music and HDTVs on which various sports games are shown, such as football, basketball and golf. Topgolf also offers golf lessons, leagues, tournaments, concerts, and corporate and social events.


title: Preamble

text: A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subject of the statute. It is distinct from the long title or enacting formula of a law.


title: Preamble

text: In parliamentary procedure using Robert's Rules of Order, a preamble consists of "Whereas" clauses that are placed before the resolving clauses in a resolution (formal written motion). However, preambles are not required to be placed in resolutions. According to Robert's Rules of Order, including such background information may not be helpful in passing the resolution.


title: Preamble

text: While preambles may be regarded as unimportant introductory matter, their words may have effects that may not have been foreseen by their drafters.


title: Preamble

text: In France, the preamble to the constitution of the Fifth Republic of 1958 was considered ancillary and therefore non-binding until a major jurisprudential reversal by the Constitutional Council in a decision of 16 July 1971. This decision, which began with the words "Having regard to the constitution and its preamble," affected a considerable change of French constitutional law, as the preamble and the texts it referred to, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 and the preamble to the constitution of the Fourth Republic, took their place alongside the constitution proper as texts understood as being invested with constitutional value. The was later appended to the preamble, and the Constitutional Council identified three informal categories consisting of the fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic, the , and the .


title: Preamble

text: In Canada, the preamble to the Constitution Act, 1867 was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Provincial Judges Reference, to increase guarantees to judicial independence. The Bosnian Constitutional Court, particularly citing the case law of the Supreme Court of Canada, also declared that the provisions of the preamble of the Bosnian Constitution are invested with a normative force thereby serving as a sound standard of judicial review for the Constitutional Court.


title: Preamble

text: Due to concern over its potential effects, the draft preamble of the proposed European Constitution, in 2002, caused much controversy because of the possible inclusion of a reference to the Christian heritage of Europe.


title: Preamble

text: Likewise, in Australia in 1999, a referendum on whether to adopt a new preamble was accompanied by a promise that the preamble, if adopted, could not be enforceable by the courts, as some were worried with how the preamble could be interpreted and applied.


title: Preamble

text: In India, the Supreme Court frequently rules unconstitutional amendments which violate the Basic Structure of the Constitution, especially its Preamble.


title: The Prayer (Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli song)

text: "The Prayer" is a song performed by Canadian singer Celine Dion and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. It was written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa and Tony Renis.


text: "The Prayer" was originally recorded in two solo versions for the 1998 film "Quest for Camelot", in English by Dion and in Italian by Bocelli. A duet between Dion and Bocelli later appeared on their respective studio albums, "These Are Special Times" (1998) and "Sogno" (1999), and was released as a promotional single on 1 March 1999. "The Prayer" won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999 and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2000. It received highly positive reviews from music critics and entered adult contemporary charts in Canada and the United States in 1999.


text: In 2008, Dion released a live version of "The Prayer" as a duet with Josh Groban. This music download entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 37 and the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 70.


text: Originally "The Prayer" was recorded as two separate solo versions, Dion's in English and Bocelli's in Italian. They appeared on the "Quest for Camelot" soundtrack in May 1998. The duet was included on albums by both artists, released a few months later on "Sogno" and "These Are Special Times". Bocelli sang original Italian while Dion translated into English. The song won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song from the 1998 film "Quest for Camelot", the second win in a row for a Celine Dion song. In that film, Dion sang it as a solo with slightly different lyrics. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1999 and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2000. Dion performed it with Bocelli at both ceremonies.


text: It was also featured on Dion's compilation "The Collector's Series, Volume One" (2000) and greatest hits "" (2008). A re-recorded solo version by Celine Dion (renamed "A Mother's Prayer") appeared on her 2004 album "Miracle". Dion performed "The Prayer" live during her Taking Chances Tour as a virtual duet with Bocelli on the screen; the performance was released in the "" CD/DVD. The song appeared also on Bocelli's 2007 compilation "". Dion joined Bocelli to perform the song in his "" concert in 2011; the performance was subsequently released on CD and DVD. Both Dion and Bocelli have sung the song with other duet partners, and various other artists have recorded the song, either as a duet or a solo.


text: The original version of "The Prayer" failed to chart on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, but reached number 6 and number 22 on the adult contemporary charts in Canada and the United States, respectively. It has also become popular during Christmas, weddings and, in some cases, funerals and religious services.


text: Paul Verna from "Billboard" called this song a "gorgeous duet". Chuck Taylor from "Billboard" reviewed "The Prayer", calling it "a breathtaking, ultra-lush song, and the tour de force combination of Dion and Bocelli [which] will send a half-dozen chills up your spine". Although he felt that the song is "an unorthodox track for the radio," Taylor called it "affecting," "heartwarming," "absolutely exquisite" and "one of Dion's most radiant performances ever."


text: Celine Dion first performed "The Prayer" live with Josh Groban in 1999, when then 17-year old Groban filled in for Andrea Bocelli at rehearsal for the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. Nine years later, the two performed the song during her CBS TV special "That's Just the Woman in Me", aired on 15 February 2008. This version was released as a music download in the United States and Canada two days earlier. It proved to be much more successful than the original, entering the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 70, becoming Groban's highest-charting song to date as an individual act (he and Dion would both go on to reach number two as members of Artists for Haiti with the song "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" in 2010). It also appeared on a few other "Billboard" charts: Pop 100 at number 50, Hot Digital Songs at number 32 and Hot Digital Tracks at number 29. The single sold 37,531 copies in its first week in the US. In Canada, the song peaked at number 37 on the Canadian Hot 100 and number 19 on the Canadian Top Digital Downloads.


text: Callea first performed this song during Australian Idol 2004, in the week of "contestants choice". He received a standing ovation for this performance and the "Grand Royal Touchdown" from judge Mark Holden. He would go on to be runner-up in this series.


text: At the completion of the show, Callea was signed to Sony BMG, and he released "The Prayer" as his debut single.


text: It was released in Australia on 19 December 2004 and debuted at number 1 on the ARIA Charts. It stayed there for five weeks and was certified 4× platinum by ARIA. It became the fastest-selling single by any Australian artist, and was the second-highest-selling single in Australia within the 2000s overall, and for an Australian artist. The song was included on Callea's debut album "Anthony Callea". The music video includes excerpts of Callea recording the song and was released in 2004.


text: Callea has performed "The Prayer" at numerous concerts as well as the Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne. In 2006, he performed the song in front of Queen Elizabeth II at a Commonwealth Day Service. He also performed it as a duet with Tina Arena on her "Symphony of Life" CD/DVD, released in 2012.


title: Granulocyte

text: cells in the innate immune system characterized by the presence of specific granules in their cytoplasm. Such granules distinguish them from the various agranulocytes. All myeloblastic granulocytes are polymorphonuclear. They have varying shapes (morphology) of the nucleus (segmented, irregular; often lobed into three segments); and are referred to as polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN, PML, or PMNL). In common terms, "polymorphonuclear granulocyte" refers specifically to "neutrophil granulocytes", the most abundant of the granulocytes; the other types (eosinophils, basophils, and mast cells) have varying morphology. Granulocytes are produced via granulopoiesis in the bone marrow.


title: Granulocyte

text: Except for the mast cells, their names are derived from their staining characteristics; for example, the most abundant granulocyte is the neutrophil granulocyte, which has neutrally staining cytoplasmic granules.


title: Granulocyte

text: Neutrophils are normally found in the bloodstream and are the most abundant type of phagocyte, constituting 60% to 65% of the total circulating white blood cells, and consisting of two subpopulations: neutrophil-killers and neutrophil-cagers. One litre of human blood contains about five billion (5x10) neutrophils, which are about 12–15 micrometres in diameter. Once neutrophils have received the appropriate signals, it takes them about thirty minutes to leave the blood and reach the site of an infection. Neutrophils do not return to the blood; they turn into pus cells and die. Mature neutrophils are smaller than monocytes, and have a segmented nucleus with several sections(two to five segments); each section is connected by chromatin filaments. Neutrophils do not normally exit the bone marrow until maturity, but during an infection neutrophil precursors called myelocytes and promyelocytes are released.


title: Granulocyte

text: Neutrophils have three strategies for directly attacking micro-organisms: phagocytosis (ingestion), release of soluble anti-microbials (including granule proteins), and generation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).


title: Granulocyte

text: Neutrophils are professional phagocytes: they are ferocious eaters and rapidly engulf invaders coated with antibodies and complement, as well as damaged cells or cellular debris. The intracellular granules of the human neutrophil have long been recognized for their protein-destroying and bactericidal properties. Neutrophils can secrete products that stimulate monocytes and macrophages; these secretions increase phagocytosis and the formation of reactive oxygen compounds involved in intracellular killing.


title: Granulocyte

text: Neutrophils have two types of granules; primary (azurophilic) granules (found in young cells) and secondary (specific) granules (which are found in more mature cells). Primary granules contain cationic proteins and defensins that are used to kill bacteria, proteolytic enzymes and cathepsin G to break down (bacterial) proteins, lysozyme to break down bacterial cell walls, and myeloperoxidase (used to generate toxic bacteria-killing substances). In addition, secretions from the primary granules of neutrophils stimulate the phagocytosis of IgG antibody-coated bacteria. The secondary granules contain compounds that are involved in the formation of toxic oxygen compounds, lysozyme, and lactoferrin (used to take essential iron from bacteria). Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) comprise a web of fibers composed of chromatin and serine proteases that trap and kill microbes extracellularly. Trapping of bacteria is a particularly important role for NETs in sepsis, where NET are formed within blood vessels.


title: Granulocyte

text: Eosinophils also have kidney-shaped lobed nuclei (two to four lobes). The number of granules in an eosinophil can vary because they have a tendency to degranulate while in the blood stream. Eosinophils play a crucial part in the killing of parasites (e.g., enteric nematodes) because their granules contain a unique, toxic basic protein and cationic protein (e.g., cathepsin); receptors that bind to IgG and IgA are used to help with this task. These cells also have a limited ability to participate in phagocytosis, they are professional antigen-presenting cells, they regulate other immune cell functions (e.g., CD4+ T cell, dendritic cell, B cell, mast cell, neutrophil, and basophil functions), they are involved in the destruction of tumor cells, and they promote the repair of damaged tissue. A polypeptide called interleukin-5 interacts with eosinophils and causes them to grow and differentiate; this polypeptide is produced by basophils and by T-helper 2 cells (TH2).


title: Granulocyte

text: Basophils are one of the least abundant cells in bone marrow and blood (occurring at less than two percent of all cells). Like neutrophils and eosinophils, they have lobed nuclei; however, they have only two lobes, and the chromatin filaments that connect them are not very visible. Basophils have receptors that can bind to IgE, IgG, complement, and histamine. The cytoplasm of basophils contains a varied amount of granules; these granules are usually numerous enough to partially conceal the nucleus. Granule contents of basophils are abundant with histamine, heparin, chondroitin sulfate, peroxidase, platelet-activating factor, and other substances.


title: Granulocyte

text: When an infection occurs, mature basophils will be released from the bone marrow and travel to the site of infection. When basophils are injured, they will release histamine, which contributes to the inflammatory response that helps fight invading organisms. Histamine causes dilation and increased permeability of capillaries close to the basophil. Injured basophils and other leukocytes will release another substance called prostaglandins that contributes to an increased blood flow to the site of infection. Both of these mechanisms allow blood-clotting elements to be delivered to the infected area (this begins the recovery process and blocks the travel of microbes to other parts of the body). Increased permeability of the inflamed tissue also allows for more phagocyte migration to the site of infection so that they can consume microbes.


title: Granulocyte

text: Mast cells are a type of granulocyte that are present in tissues; they mediate host defense against pathogens (e.g., parasites) and allergic reactions, particularly anaphylaxis. Mast cells are also involved in mediating inflammation and autoimmunity as well as mediating and regulating neuroimmune system responses.


title: Granulocyte

text: Granulocytes are derived from stem cells residing in the bone marrow. The differentiation of these stem cells from pluripotent hematopoietic stem cell into granulocytes is termed granulopoiesis. Multiple intermediate cell types exist in this differentiation process, including myeloblasts and promyelocytes.


title: Granulocyte

text: Examples of toxic materials produced or released by degranulation by granulocytes on the ingestion of microorganisms are:


title: Granulocyte

text: Granulocytopenia is an abnormally low concentration of granulocytes in the blood. This condition reduces the body's resistance to many infections. Closely related terms include agranulocytosis (etymologically, "no granulocytes at all"; clinically, granulocyte levels less than 5% of normal) and neutropenia (deficiency of neutrophil granulocytes). Granulocytes live only one to two days in circulation (four days in spleen or other tissue), so transfusion of granulocytes as a therapeutic strategy would confer a very short-lasting benefit. In addition, there are many complications associated with such a procedure.


title: Granulocyte

text: There is usually a granulocyte chemotactic defect in individuals suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus.


title: Granulocyte

text: Research suggests giving granulocyte transfusions to prevent infections decreased the number of people who had a bacterial or fungal infection in the blood. Further research suggests participants receiving therapeutic granulocyte transfusions show no difference in clinical reversal of concurrent infection.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: At the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 550-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding. As Adolf Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of Europe's last escape routes. Portugal was able to maintain its neutrality until 1944, when a military agreement was signed to give the United States permission to establish a military base in Santa Maria in the Azores and thus its status changed to non-belligerent in favour of the Allies.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: At the outbreak of World War II, Portugal was ruled by António de Oliveira Salazar, the man who in 1933 had founded the "Estado Novo" ("New State"), the corporatist authoritarian government that ruled Portugal until 1974. He had favoured the Spanish nationalist cause, fearing a communist invasion of Portugal, yet he was uneasy at the prospect of a Spanish government bolstered by strong ties with the Axis. Salazar's policy of neutrality for Portugal in World War II thus included a strategic component. The country still held overseas territories that, because of their poor economic development, could not adequately defend themselves from military attack.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, the country expected to remain neutral. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding and Portugal remained neutral during the entire war.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: On 15 May 1940, Salazar's important role in the war was recognised by the British: Douglas Veale, Registrar of the University of Oxford, informed Salazar that the university's Hebdomadal Council had "unanimously decided at its meeting last Monday, to invite you [Salazar] to accept the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Civil Law".


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Salazar's decision to maintain the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed the Portuguese Island of Madeira to come to the aid of the Allies and in July 1940 around 2,500 evacuees from Gibraltar were shipped to Madeira. At the same time "Life" magazine, in a long article titled: "Portugal: The War Has Made It Europe's Front", called Salazar "a benevolent ruler", described him as "by far the world's best dictator, he [Salazar] is also the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator", and added that "the dictator has built the nation". "Life" declared that "most of what is good in modern Portugal can be credited to Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (...) The dictator is everything that most Portuguese are not – calm, silent, ascetic, puritanical, a glutton for work, cool to women. He found a country in chaos and poverty. He has balanced the budget, built roads and schools, torn down slums, cut the death rate and enormously raised Portuguese self-esteem."


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In September 1940, Winston Churchill wrote to Salazar congratulating him on his ability to keep Portugal out of the war, asserting that "as so often before during the many centuries of the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, British and Portuguese interests are identical on this vital question."


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Despite Portuguese neutrality, in December 1941, Portuguese Timor was occupied by Australian and Dutch forces, which were expecting a Japanese invasion. Salazar's reaction was violent. He protested, saying that the Allies had violated Portuguese sovereignty and jeopardised Portuguese neutrality. A strong Portuguese garrison force (about 800 men) was then sent from East Africa to take over the defence of East Timor but did not arrive on time; on 20 February 1942 the Japanese began landing troops in Timor.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Portugal managed to remain neutral despite extraordinary pressures from both sides. Both the Allies and the Axis sought to control the strategically located Azores islands during World War II. Salazar was especially worried about a possible German invasion through Spain and did not want to provoke Hitler; nor did he want to give Spain an excuse to take sides with the Axis and invade Portugal due to the strategic importance of the Canary Islands. Both the United Kingdom and the United States devised several plans to set up air bases in the Azores regardless of Portugal's disapproval. The plans were never put into operation.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In 1942 Lajes Field on the Azores was assigned the name Air Base No. 4 and the Portuguese government expanded the runway and sent troops and equipment to Lajes, including Gloster Gladiator fighters. Military activity in the Azores grew as the Gladiators' role progressed into flying cover for Allied convoys, reconnaissance missions and meteorological flights.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In August 1943, Portugal signed the Luso-British agreement, which leased bases in the Azores to the British. This was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic, allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the Mid-Atlantic gap; helping them to hunt U-boats and protect convoys. Churchill surprised members of parliament (MPs) when he said he would use a 14th-century treaty; many MPs had not known that Portugal and England had the oldest operational alliance in the world, the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373. Churchill ended his speech saying:


title: Portugal during World War II

text: A few months later, on 1 December 1943, British and U.S. military representatives at RAF Lajes signed a joint agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and United States Navy (USN) at Lajes Field. The agreement established guidelines and limitations for the US to ferry and transport aircraft to Europe via Lajes Field. In return, the US agreed to assist the British in improving and extending existing facilities at Lajes. Air Transport Command transport planes began landing at Lajes Field immediately after the agreement was signed.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In 1944, Portugal signed an agreement with the United States allowing the use of military facilities in the Azores. American forces constructed a small and short-lived air base on Santa Maria Island.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: By the end of June 1944 more than 1,900 American aircraft had passed through Lajes Air Base. Using Lajes, the flying time relative to the usual transatlantic route between Brazil and West Africa was cut nearly in half from 70 to 40 hours.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Lajes also served as one of two main stopover and refuelling bases for the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships (blimps) in 1944. The US Navy sent six Goodyear-built K-ships from Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Massachusetts to their first stopover base at Naval Station Argentia Newfoundland and then on to Lajes Field in the Azores before flying to their final destination at Port Lyautey, French Morocco. From their base with Fleet Air Wing 15 at Port Lyautey, the blimps of USN Blimp Squadron ZP-14 (Blimpron 14) conducted night time anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surveillance of German U-boats around the Straits of Gibraltar using magnetic anomaly detection (MAD). In 1945, two ZP-14 replacement blimps were sent from Weeksville, North Carolina to the Bermudas and Lajes Air Base before going on to Port Lyautey.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In 1945, a new air base was constructed in the Azores on the island of Terceira and is currently known as Lajes Field. This base is in an area called Lajes, a broad, flat sea terrace that had been a farm. Lajes Field is a plateau rising out of the sea on the northeast corner of the island. This Air Force base is a joint American and Portuguese venture. Lajes Field continues to support United States and Portuguese military operations. During the Cold War, the United States Navy's P-3 Orion anti-submarine squadrons patrolled the North Atlantic for Soviet submarines and surface spy vessels.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Portugal allowed the United Kingdom to trade and receive credit backed by the pounds sterling, allowing Great Britain to obtain vital goods at a time when they were short on gold and escudos and while all other neutrals were prepared to trade sterling only against gold. By 1945 the United Kingdom owed Portugal over $322 million under this arrangement.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Another delicate issue was the trade of wolfram (tungsten). Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany became dependent on Portugal and Spain for their wolfram supplies, since it was of particular value in producing war munitions. To maintain her neutrality, Portugal set up a strict export quota system in 1942. This concept of neutrality through equal division of products supplied to belligerents was different from that of the Northern European neutrals who worked on the basis of "normal pre-war supplies". However, in January 1944, the Allies began pressuring Salazar to embargo all wolfram sales destined for Germany. Portugal resisted, defending their right as a neutral state to sell to anyone and fearing that any reduction in their German exports would prompt Germany to attack Portuguese shipping. Salazar's fears were not groundless as, despite Portuguese neutrality, the steamer "Ganda" was torpedoed and sunk by the Germans in June 1941. On 12 October 1941 the neutral ship "Corte Real" was stopped for inspection by "U-83" 80 miles west of Lisbon. The U-boat opened fire with the deck gun, setting the ship on fire and finally sinking her with two torpedoes. On 14 December 1941 the unescorted (and neutral) "Cassequel" was hit in the stern by one of two torpedoes from U-boat-108 about 160 miles southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, and sank immediately. The "Serpa Pinto" was likewise stopped and boarded in 1944 (26 May) in the mid-Atlantic by the German submarine "U-541", but the ship was ultimately allowed to proceed after the German naval authorities declined to approve its sinking. On 5 June 1944, just before the Normandy invasion, following the threats of economic sanctions by the Allies, the Portuguese government opted for a complete embargo on wolfram exports to both the Allies and the Axis, thereby putting 100,000 Portuguese labourers out of work.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Just a few days before the end of the Spanish Civil War, on 17 March 1939, Portugal and Spain signed the Iberian Pact, a non-aggression treaty that marked the beginning of a new phase in Iberian relations. Meetings between Franco and Salazar played a fundamental role in this new political arrangement. An additional protocol to the pact was signed on 29 July 1940, after the fall of France. The pact proved to be a decisive instrument in keeping the Iberian Peninsula out of Hitler's continental system.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In November 1943, Sir Ronald Campbell, the British ambassador in Lisbon, wrote:strict neutrality was the price the allies paid for strategic benefits accruing from Portugal's neutrality and that if her neutrality instead of being strict had been more benevolent in allies' favour Spain would inevitably have thrown herself body and soul into the arms of Germany. If this had happened the peninsula would have been occupied and then North Africa, with the result that the whole course of the war would have been altered to the advantage of the Axis.The British diplomat Sir George Rendell stated that the Portuguese Republican Government of Bernardino Machado was "far more difficult to deal with as an ally during the First War than the infinitely better Government of Salazar was as a neutral in the Second."


title: Portugal during World War II

text: A similar opinion is shared by Carlton Hayes, the American Ambassador in Spain during World War II, who writes in his book "Wartime Mission in Spain": [Salazar] didn't look like a regular dictator. Rather, he appeared a modest, quiet, and highly intelligent gentleman and scholar...literally dragged from a professorial chair of political economy in the venerable University of Coimbra a dozen years previously in order to straighten out Portugal's finances, and that his almost miraculous success in this respect had led to the thrusting upon him of other major functions, including those of foreign minister and constitution-maker.Hayes is very appreciative of Portugal's constant endeavours to draw Spain with Portugal into a genuinely neutral peninsular bloc, an immeasurable contribution, at a time when the British and the United States had much less influence, toward counteracting the propaganda and pleas of the Axis.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: The number of refugees that escaped through Portugal during the war has estimates that range from one hundred thousand to one million; an impressive number considering the size of the country's population at that time (circa 6 million). "In 1940 Lisbon, happiness was staged so that God could believe it still existed," wrote the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The Portuguese capital became a symbol of hope for many refugees. Thousands flooded the city trying to obtain the documents necessary to escape to the United States or Palestine. Not all found their way.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: On June 12 Salazar issued instructions to the Portuguese consulates in France to provide the Infanta Marie Anne of Portugal, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and Infanta Maria Antónia of Portugal Duchess of Parma with Portuguese Passports. With these Portuguese Passports the entire entourage of the royal families could get visas without creating problems to the neutrality of the Portuguese Government. This way Zita of Bourbon-Parma and her son Otto von Habsburg got their visas because they were descendants of Portuguese citizens. Following the German annexation of Austria, Otto was sentenced to death by the Nazi regime.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: On June 13, Salazar again acted fast, in order to support the King of Belgium and his family. Salazar sent instructions to the Portuguese Consulate in Bayonne saying the "Portuguese territory is completely open" to the Belgian royal family and their entourage.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: On 26 June 1940, four days after France's armistice with Germany, Salazar authorised the main Office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS-HICEM) in Paris to be transferred to Lisbon. According to the Lisbon Jewish community, Salazar held in high esteem Moisés Bensabat Amzalak, the leader of the Lisbon Jewish community, allowing Amzalak to play an important role in getting Salazar's permission for the transfer.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: In July 1940, the civilian population of Gibraltar was evacuated due to expected attacks from Germany and Italy. At that time, Portuguese Madeira agreed to host about 2,500 Gibraltarian evacuees, mostly women and children, who arrived at Funchal between 21 July and 13 August 1940 and remained there until the end of the war. In 2010 a monument was commissioned in Gibraltar and shipped to Madeira, where it was erected next to a small chapel at Santa Catarina park, Funchal. The monument was a gift and a symbol of ever-lasting appreciation from the Gibraltarians to the Madeirans.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: The Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, helped an undetermined number of refugees, and his actions were not unique by any means. Issuing visas in contravention of instructions was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe, although some cases were directly supported by Salazar. The Portuguese Ambassador in Budapest, Carlos Sampaio Garrido, helped an estimated 1,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944. Along with Carlos de Liz-Texeira Branquinho, under Salazar's direct guidance, they rented houses and apartments to shelter and protect refugees from deportation and murder. On 28 April 1944, the Hungarian Gestapo raided the ambassador's home and arrested his guests. The ambassador, who physically resisted the police, was also arrested, but managed to have his guests released on the grounds of extraterritoriality of diplomatic missions. In 2010, Garrido was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Other Portuguese who deserve credit for saving Jews during the war include Augusto Isaac de Esaguy, Professor Francisco Paula Leite Pinto and Moisés Bensabat Amzalak. A devoted Jew and a supporter of Salazar, Amzalak headed the Lisbon Jewish community for 52 years, from 1926 until 1978.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: Historian Carlton Hayes, the American Ambassador in Spain during the war, writes of a "prodigious number of refugees", who began pouring into Spain in November and December 1942. Most were Frenchmen, half starved, without money or clothes, and Hayes writes of the decisive intervention of the Ambassador Pedro Teotónio Pereira in favour of 16,000 French military refugees who were trying in 1943 to get from Spain to North Africa in order there to join the Allied forces. In that group were also included Poles, Dutchmen, and Belgians, most of whom were soldiers or would-be soldiers. According to Hayes, the Poles in particular were destined to perform brilliant feats in the later Italian campaign.


title: Portugal during World War II

text: After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, recruits from France, Spain, Belgium, the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans signed on. The foreigners who served in the Waffen-SS numbered "some 500,000", including those who were pressured into or conscripted.