text: In the elections held on 5 October 2002, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats won the largest number of parliamentary seats since its creation, receiving 19 seats in the People’s Assembly of Republika Srpska, 3 deputies in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 1 deputy in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats received 7 seats in the Council of Peoples of Republika Srpska and 3 seats in the Council of Peoples of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moderate political parties were offered a partnership to form a new government, but the Party of Democratic Progress decided to remain in the pact with the nationalist parties, so the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats accepted the role of the strongest opposition party, not only in the Republic of Srpska, but throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.


title: Alliance of Independent Social Democrats

text: In this period, the party launched a campaign to collect signatures, with the goal of abolishing conscription into the army and demilitarization of the country.


text: In the 2004 elections, with around 125,000 votes, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats became the strongest party in Republika Srpska and the second in terms of votes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 17 mayor positions were won, 15 of which were in Republika Srpska, and 2 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The number of council seats, compared to the previous local elections four years earlier was much higher, and they were won in all candidate municipalities in Republika Srpska, and in 9 municipalities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the establishment of municipal assemblies, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats has 22 municipal presidents, and a larger number of deputy mayors and vice presidents of municipal assemblies.


text: The end of 2004 was marked by the resignation of the republican government headed by Dragan Mikerević. After an unsuccessful two-year mandate, the Government resigns, and the political parties of the Republic of Srpska reach an Agreement on coordinated political action, with the aim of defining the strategic relationship towards the constitutional arrangement and upcoming reforms: police and defense.


text: At the beginning of 2006, the previous prime minister of Republic of Srpska, Pero Bukejlović, resigned. Ten days after that, on 26 January 2006, the president of Republic of Srpska, Dragan Čavić, asked Milorad Dodik to form a new government, in which, according to the Constitution, there are 16 ministers: eight Serbs, five Bosniaks and three Croats. The Parliament of Republika Srpska supported the appointment of Dodik as Prime Minister on 28 February 2006.


text: The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats achieved their breakthrough in the 2006 general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nebojša Radmanović was elected as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats won 7 seats with 269,468 votes ahead of the Party of Democratic Action with 238,474 (9 seats) and the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina with 219,477 votes (8 seats). Milan Jelić became the President of Republika Srpska (271,022 votes, 48.87%). The party won 41 out of 83 parliamentary seats in the People’s Assembly of Republika Srpska, and Milorad Dodik, the president of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, became the representative for the composition of the new Republika Srpska government. In the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats won 1 place with 12,564 votes (1.46%). The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats won 3 out of 25 seats in the Assembly of Canton 10 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (3,654 votes, 11.99%).


text: In the General Elections of 2010, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats repeated their good result from 2006, and at all levels defeated the united opposition in the coalition Zajedno za Srpska (Serb Democratic Party-Party of Democratic Progress-Serb Radical Party of Republic of Srpska).


text: The joint candidate of the "Alliance of Independent Social Democrats-Democratic People's Alliance-Socialist Party" coalition for the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nebojša Radmanović, received 295,629 votes, i.e. 48.92% of the total number of valid votes. The most significant opponent, the candidate of the Zajedno za Srpska coalition, Mladen Ivanić, received 285,951 votes, or 47.31% of valid votes. A large number of invalid ballots, and a small difference between the two most important candidates, resulted in a complaint by Mladen Ivanić and his Party of Democratic Progress about irregularities during the counting of ballots. The Central Election Commission put an end to such doubts by recognizing the election results.


text: Milorad Dodik, the candidate of the coalition "Alliance of Independent Social Democrats-Democratic People's Alliance-Socialist Party" for the president of Republika Srpska achieved a convincing victory, receiving the support of 50.52% of voters, i.e. 319,618 valid votes.


text: In the elections for the People’s Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, the party won 38% of the valid votes cast (240,727 votes) and received 37 parliamentary mandates, which was enough for the party to preserve the parliamentary majority in the coalition with the Democratic People's Alliance and the Socialist Party.


text: In the elections for the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the party in the Republic of Srpska won 43.30% of the votes, or 8 representatives.


text: The 2014 general elections saw the SNSD enter the race with a coalition of smaller parties; the Democratic People's Alliance and the Socialist Party. The SNSD became the main ruling party of Republika Srpska for the third consecutive time, gaining 29 seats in the Assembly with Dodik re-elected.


text: After the 2018 general elections, for the Serb member of the Presidency, Dodik received a record number of votes, i.e. 368,210 votes or 53.88%, while candidate Alliance for Victory Mladen Ivanić received 292,065 or 42.74%. In the People’s Assembly of Republika Srpska, SNSD remained the strongest political entity with 218,201 (31.87%) votes and 28 seats.


text: Reflecting a trend in Eastern Europe for centre-left parties, it has been characterized as a social-democratic party with left-leaning views on fiscal issues, while having more conservative views on social issues. Since then, the party has gradually abandoned its reformist ideology and confederalism for Russophilia and a more aggressive advocacy of Serbian nationalism and separatism, threatening a proposed secession of Republika Srpska from the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina numerous times. This has also led to the party being expelled from the Socialist International in 2012 for continuing to "espouse a nationalist and extremist" line.


title: Terry Glaze

text: Terrence Lee Glaze (born November 29, 1964) is an American singer and musician best known for his work with heavy metal band Pantera from 1981 to 1986. He appeared on the band's first three albums during their "glam metal" era as the band's lead vocalist before being replaced by Phil Anselmo in 1986. He subsequently joined Lord Tracy as their lead vocalist.


title: Terry Glaze

text: Glaze was the lead singer of Pantera from 1982 to 1986, although he originally joined the band as a second guitarist in 1981, when the band was still rehearsing with original lead singer Donnie Hart. Glaze took over vocal duties in 1982 after Hart left the band, while still contributing some additional guitar parts on some of the band's songs.


title: Terry Glaze

text: His vocal range caught the attention of many record label A&Rs and he was credited for bringing Pantera to the forefront of heavy metal music. However, a dispute with the band's musical direction ultimately led to Glaze leaving Pantera in 1986 with Glaze wanting to keep the glam metal style and the rest of the band wanting to have a heavier sound.


title: Terry Glaze

text: In 1986, Glaze joined three rock musicians from Tennessee to form the band Lord Tracy, releasing one LP ("Deaf Gods of Babylon)" in 1989 through Uni Records. The band broke up in 1991 and Glaze formed another band, Blowphish, which included Mike Malinin (Goo Goo Dolls). When Blowphish failed to land a major record deal, Glaze moved to Prince George's County, Maryland, where he plays locally with his party band The Crayfish, and occasionally gets together with other local musicians.


title: Terry Glaze

text: In May 2006, Glaze appeared throughout VH1's "Behind the Music: Pantera". Notable moments include him talking about Dimebag Darrell being buried with the famous guitar of Eddie Van Halen, used around the "Van Halen II" era.


title: Terry Glaze

text: In April 2010, Rex Brown invited Glaze onstage during an Arms of the Sun gig in Dallas to perform a couple of old Pantera tracks, "All Over Tonight" and "Come-On Eyes". It was the first time since 1986 that Glaze had played with a former Pantera bandmate.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic runes) was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolai Yadrintsev. These Orkhon inscriptions were published by Vasily Radlov and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893.


title: Old Turkic script

text: This writing system was later used within the Uyghur Khaganate. Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Yenisei Kirghiz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian alphabet of the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left.


title: Old Turkic script

text: Many scientists, starting with Vilhelm Thomsen (1893), suggested that Orkhon script is derived from descendants of the Aramaic alphabet in particular via the Pahlavi and Sogdian alphabets of Persia, or possibly via Kharosthi used to write Sanskrit ("cf". the Issyk inscription). Vilhelm Thomsen (1893) also mentioned some reports that the Orkhon script could derive from Hunno-Scythian alphabet, but rejected them as being specious.


title: Old Turkic script

text: Contemporary Chinese sources conflict as to whether the Turks had a written language by the 6th century. The "Book of Zhou", dating to the 7th century, mentions that the Turks had a written language similar to that of the Sogdians. Two other sources, the "Book of Sui" and the "History of the Northern Dynasties", claim that the Turks did not have a written language. According to István Vásáry, Old Turkic script was invented under the rule of the first khagans and was modelled after the Sogdian fashion. Several variants of the script came into being as early as the first half of the 6th century.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The inscriptions, dating from the 7th to 10th century, were discovered in present-day Mongolia (the area of the Second Turkic Khaganate and the Uyghur Khaganate that succeeded it), in the upper Yenisey basin of central-south Siberia, and in smaller numbers, in the Altay mountains and Xinjiang. The texts are mostly epitaphs (official or private), but there are also graffiti and a handful of short inscriptions found on archaeological artifacts, including a number of bronze mirrors.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The website of the Language Committee of Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan lists 54 inscriptions from the Orkhon area, 106 from the Yenisei area, 15 from the Talas area, and 78 from the Altai area. The most famous of the inscriptions are the two monuments (obelisks) which were erected in the Orkhon Valley between 732 and 735 in honor of the Göktürk prince Kül Tigin and his brother the emperor Bilge Kağan. The Tonyukuk inscription, a monument situated somewhat farther east, is slightly earlier, dating to ca. 722. These inscriptions relate in epic language the legendary origins of the Turks, the golden age of their history, their subjugation by the Chinese (Tang-Gokturk wars), and their liberation by Bilge.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The Old Turkic manuscripts, of which there are none earlier than the 9th century, were found in present-day Xinjiang and represent Old Uyghur, a different Turkic dialect from the one represented in the Old Turkic inscriptions in the Orkhon valley and elsewhere. They include Irk Bitig, a 9th-century manuscript book on divination.


title: Old Turkic script

text: Old Turkic being a synharmonic language, a number of consonant signs are divided into two "synharmonic sets", one for front vowels and the other for back vowels. Such vowels can be taken as intrinsic to the consonant sign, giving the Old Turkic alphabet an aspect of an abugida script. In these cases, it is customary to use superscript numerals ¹ and ² to mark consonant signs used with back and front vowels, respectively. This convention was introduced by Thomsen (1893), and followed by Gabain (1941), Malov (1951) and Tekin (1968).


title: Old Turkic script

text: A colon-like symbol (⁚) is sometimes used as a word separator. In some cases a ring (⸰) is used instead.


title: Old Turkic script

text: A reading example (right to left): transliterated t²ñr²i, this spells the name of the Turkic sky god, Täñri ().


title: Old Turkic script

text: Variants of the script were found from Mongolia and Xinjiang in the east to the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries.


title: Old Turkic script

text: A number of alphabets are incompletely collected due to the limitations of the extant inscriptions. Evidence in the study of the Turkic scripts includes Turkic-Chinese bilingual inscriptions, contemporaneous Turkic inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, literal translations into Slavic languages, and paper fragments with Turkic cursive writing from religion, Manichaeism, Buddhist, and legal subjects of the 8th to 10th centuries found in Xinjiang.


title: Old Turkic script

text: The Unicode block for Old Turkic is U+10C00–U+10C4F. It was added to the Unicode standard in October 2009, with the release of version 5.2. It includes separate "Orkhon" and "Yenisei" variants of individual characters.


title: Molinism

text: Molinism, named after 16th-century Spanish Jesuit priest and Roman Catholic theologian Luis de Molina, is the thesis that God has middle knowledge. It seeks to reconcile the apparent tension of divine providence and human free will. Prominent contemporary Molinists include William Lane Craig, Alfred Freddoso, Thomas Flint, Kenneth Keathley, Dave Armstrong, John D. Laing, Kirk R. MacGregor, and Timothy A. Stratton.


title: Molinism

text: According to Kenneth Keathley, author of "Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach," Molinists argue that God perfectly accomplishes His will in the lives of genuinely free creatures through the use of His omniscience. Molinists, following Luis de Molina himself, present God's knowledge in a sequence of three logical moments. The first is God's knowledge of necessary truths or natural knowledge. These truths are independent of God's will and are non-contingent. This knowledge includes the full range of logical possibilities. Examples include such statements as "All bachelors are unmarried" or "X cannot be A and non-A at the same time, in the same way, at the same place" or "It is possible that X obtain." The second is called "middle knowledge" and it contains the range of possible things that would happen given certain circumstances. The third kind of knowledge is God's free knowledge. This type of knowledge consists of contingent truths that are dependent upon God's will, or truths that God brings about, that He does not have to bring about. Examples might include statements such as "God created the earth" or something particular about this world which God has actualized. This is called God's "free knowledge" and it contains the future or what will happen. In between God's natural and free knowledge is His middle knowledge (or "scientia media") by which God knows what His free creatures would do under any circumstance. These are "truths" that do not have to be true, but are true without God being the primary cause of them. In "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy", John D. Laing has provided an example of middle knowledge: "If John Laing were given the opportunity to write an article on middle knowledge for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he would freely do so."


title: Molinism

text: The Molinist claims that in this example, God knows what His free creatures would choose under hypothetical circumstances, namely that the Sodomites would have responded in a way that Sodom would still have been in existence in Jesus' day, given that hypothetical situation.


title: Molinism

text: Matthew 11:23 contains what is commonly called a counterfactual of creaturely freedom. But counterfactuals are to be distinguished from foreknowledge, and middle knowledge is to be distinguished from God's knowledge of counterfactuals (because, for example, Thomists affirm that God has counterfactual knowledge). The Bible contains many examples of foreknowledge such as , where God tells Moses that the Israelites will forsake God after they are delivered from Egypt.


title: Molinism

text: Some opponents of Molinism claim that God's foreknowledge and knowledge of counterfactuals are examples of what God is going to actively bring about. That is, when Christ describes the response of the Sodomites in the aforementioned example, God was going to actively bring it about that they would remain until today. Molinists have responded to this objection by noting that scripture contains examples of God's foreknowledge of evil acts. For example, the Israelites forsaking God, or Peter's denial of Christ, are both examples of what one would call overt acts of sin. Yet, according to opponents of Molinism, God is actively bringing about these overt acts of sin. This is fallacious according to the Molinist. In order for this account of prophecy to be valid all prophecies must be wholly good, and never contain evil acts; but this is not what opponents believe to be the case.


title: Molinism

text: Molinists believe that God has knowledge not only of necessary truths and contingent truths, but also of counterfactuals. (God's knowledge of counterfactuals is often referred to as his "middle knowledge", although technically that term is more broad than simply the knowledge of counterfactuals.) A counterfactual is a statement of the form "if it were the case that P, it would be the case that Q". An example would be, "If Bob were in Tahiti he would freely choose to go swimming instead of sunbathing." The Molinist claims that even if Bob is never in Tahiti, God can still know whether Bob would go swimming or sunbathing. The Molinist believes that God, using his middle knowledge and foreknowledge, surveyed all possible worlds and then actualized a particular one. God's middle knowledge of counterfactuals would play an integral part in this "choosing" of a particular world.


title: Molinism

text: Hence, God's middle knowledge plays an important role in the actualization of the world. In fact, it seems as if God's middle knowledge of counterfactuals plays a more immediate role in perception than God's foreknowledge. William Lane Craig points out that "without middle knowledge, God would find himself, so to speak, with knowledge of the future but without any logical prior planning of the future." The placing of God's middle knowledge between God's knowledge of necessary truths and God's creative decree is crucial. For if God's middle knowledge was "after" his decree of creation, then God would be actively causing what various creatures would do in various circumstances and thereby destroying libertarian freedom. But by placing middle knowledge (and thereby counterfactuals) "before" the creation decree God allows for freedom in the libertarian sense. The placing of middle knowledge logically after necessary truths, but before the creation decree also gives God the possibility to survey possible worlds and decide which world to actualize.


title: Molinism

text: Craig gives three reasons for holding that counterfactual statements are true: "First, we ourselves often appear to know such true counterfactuals. Second, it is plausible that the Law of Conditional Excluded Middle (LCEM) holds for counterfactuals of a certain special form, usually called 'counterfactuals of creaturely freedom'. Third, the Scriptures are replete with counterfactual statements, so that the Christian theist, at least, should be committed to the truth of certain counterfactuals about free, creaturely actions."


title: Molinism

text: William Lane Craig calls Molinism "one of the most fruitful theological ideas ever conceived. For it would serve to explain not only God's knowledge of the future, but divine providence and predestination as well". Under it, God retains a measure of divine providence without hindering humanity's freedom. Since God has middle knowledge, He knows what an agent would freely do in a particular situation. So, agent A, if placed in circumstance C, would freely choose option X over option Y. Thus, if God wanted to accomplish X, all God would do is, using his middle knowledge, actualize the world in which A was placed in C, and A would freely choose X. God retains an element of providence without nullifying A's choice and God's purpose (the actualization of X) is fulfilled.


title: Molinism

text: Molinists also believe it can aid one's understanding of salvation. Ever since Augustine and Pelagius there has been debate over the issue of salvation; more specifically, can God elect believers and believers still come to God freely? Protestants who lean more towards God's election to salvation and sovereignty are usually Calvinists while those who lean more towards humanity's free choice follow Arminianism. However, the Molinist can embrace both God's sovereignty and human free choice.


title: Molinism

text: Take the salvation of Agent A. God knows that if He were to place A in circumstances C, then A would freely choose to believe in Christ. So God actualizes the world where C occurs, and then A freely believes. God still retains a measure of His divine providence because He actualizes the world in which A freely chooses. But, A still retains freedom in the sense of being able to choose either option. Molinism does not affirm two contradictory propositions when it affirms both God's providence and humanity's freedom. God's providence extends to the actualization of the world in which an agent may believe upon Christ.


title: Molinism

text: In contrast to the Calvinist acrostic TULIP and the Arminian five articles of remonstrance, Timothy George has devised an acrostic summary for molinism R.O.S.E.S.:


title: Molinism

text: Molinism differs from Calvinism by affirming that God grants salvation, but a person has the choice to freely accept it or reject it (but God knows that if the person were put in a particular situation he or she would not reject it). This differs from Calvinistic double predestination, which states that a person's salvation is already determined by God such that he or she cannot choose otherwise or resist God's grace.


title: Molinism

text: It also differs from Arminianism because it claims that God definitively knows how a person would react to the Gospel message if they were put in a particular situation.


title: Molinism

text: Molinists have internal disagreements about the extent to which they agree with Calvinism, some holding to unconditional election, others holding to conditional election and others still holding to an election that is partly both. Alfred Freddoso explains: “Some Molinists, including Bellarmine and Suárez, agree with the Bañezians that God antecedently elects certain people to eternal glory and only then consults His middle knowledge to discover which graces will guarantee their salvation. Thus, in Peter's case, God would have chosen different graces if those He actually chose had been foreknown to be merely sufficient and not efficacious for Peter's salvation. Other Molinists, including Molina himself, vigorously reject any such antecedent absolute election of Peter to salvation. They insist instead that God simply chooses to create a world in which He infallibly foresees Peter's good use of the supernatural graces afforded him, and only then does he accept Peter among the elect in light of his free consent to those graces.” Other Molinists avoid the issue altogether by holding to the view of trans-world damnation, the idea that the unsaved in this world would have rejected Christ in any world.


title: Molinism

text: In 1581, a heated argument erupted between the Jesuits, who advocated Molinism, and the Dominicans, who had a different understanding of God's foreknowledge and the nature of predestination. In 1597, Pope Clement VIII established the Congregatio de Auxiliis, a committee whose purpose was to settle this controversy. In 1607, Pope Paul V ended the quarrel by forbidding each side to accuse the other of heresy, allowing both views to exist side-by-side in the Catholic Church.


title: Molinism

text: Thomas Flint has developed what he considers other implications of Molinism, including papal infallibility, prophecy, and prayer. William Lane Craig uses Molinism to reconcile scriptural passages warning of apostasy with passages teaching the security of believers. Craig has also used middle knowledge to explain a wide range of theological issues, such as divine providence and predestination, biblical inspiration, perseverance of the saints, and Christian particularism.


title: Molinism

text: Molinists have often argued that their position is the biblical one by indicating passages they understand to teach God's middle knowledge. Molina advanced the following three texts: , , and . Other passages which Molinists use are , , , , , , , , and . William Lane Craig has argued at length that many of Christ's statements seem to indicate middle knowledge. Craig cites the following passages: , , , , and . Craig accepts that the most these texts indicate is that God has counterfactual knowledge. In order for this knowledge to be middle knowledge, it must be logically prior to God's free knowledge, something the biblical texts mentioned do not seem to affirm or deny. However, Craig argues that if God's decree were logically prior to His middle knowledge, that would “make God the author of sin and to obliterate human freedom, since in that case it is God who decrees which counterfactuals about creaturely free acts are true, including counterfactuals concerning sinful human decisions. Thus, we have good reason for thinking that if such counterfactuals are now true or false, they must have been so logically prior to God's decree.”


title: Molinism

text: Thomas Flint claims the twin foundations of Molinism are God's providence and man's freedom. Molinism harmonizes texts teaching God's providence (such as or ) with texts emphasizing man's choice (such as or ).


title: Molinism

text: The grounding objection is at present the most debated objection to Molinism, and often considered the strongest. The argument claims that there are no metaphysical grounds for the truthfulness of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. As Hugh J. McCann puts it:


title: Molinism

text: "Perhaps the most serious objection against it is that there does not appear to be any way God could come by such knowledge. Knowledge, as we have seen, is not merely a matter of conceiving a proposition and correctly believing it to be true. It requires justification: one must have good reasons for believing. But what justification could God have for believing the propositions that are supposed to constitute middle knowledge? The truth of subjunctives of freedom cannot be discerned a priori, for they are contingent. It is not a necessary truth that if placed in circumstances C, I will decide to attend the concert tonight. Nor can we allow that God might learn the truth of C from my actual behavior — that is, by observing that I actually do, in circumstances C, decide to attend the concert. For God could not make observations like this without also finding out what creative decisions He is actually going to make, which would destroy the whole purpose of middle knowledge.”


title: Molinism

text: Thus, there are no "truth makers" that ground counterfactuals. Opponents to middle knowledge claim that the historical antecedent of any possible world does not determine the truthfulness of a counterfactual for a creature, if that creature is free in the libertarian sense. (Molinists naturally accept this, but deny that this entails that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom lack truth values.)


title: Molinism

text: Many philosophers and theologians who embrace the grounding objection prefer to claim that instead of counterfactuals of freedom being true, probable counterfactuals are true instead. So instead of truths of the following sort: "God knows that in circumstance C creature X will freely do A" God knows truths of this sort: "God knows that in circumstances C creature X would probably do A." Yet, as Edward Wierenga has pointed out, probable counterfactuals are also contingent truths and fall victim to the same grounding objection.


title: Molinism

text: Molinists have responded to the aforementioned argument two ways. First, as William Lane Craig argues "[I]n order for a counterfactual of freedom to be true, it is not required that the events to which they refer actually exist; all that is required is that they "would" exist under the specified conditions." The idea here is that if we imagine God creating multiple universes in multiple dimensions and giving people libertarian free will in the various universes and letting events all play out, we would have no problem grounding counterfactuals of freedom based on the events in the various universes. But why should God need to create such universes to know how events would unfold, and couldn't how they would turn out ground statements about how they would turn out?


title: Molinism

text: Further objections at this point lead to a second line of response. Alvin Plantinga responds to the grounding objection by saying "It seems to me much clearer that some counterfactuals of freedom are at least possibly true than that the truth of propositions must, in general, be grounded in this way." William Lane Craig follows up on this by pointing out the burden of proof the grounding objector bears. The grounding objection "asserts that there are no true counterfactuals about how creatures would freely act under any given set of circumstances. This assertion is no mere ostensibly undercutting defeater of Molinism, but a putatively rebutting defeater. It makes a bold and positive assertion and therefore requires warrant in excess of that which attends the Molinist assumption that there are true counterfactuals about creaturely free actions" and that "Anti–Molinists have not even begun the task of showing that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are members of the set of propositions or statements which require truth–makers if they are to be true." Thus the grounding objectors must prove a universal negative regarding the falsity of counterfactuals of freedom or they must explain their theory of the basis for truth and prove that theory true.


title: Molinism

text: The difference in perspectives here may be briefly described in the following way. According to critics, the way in which an agent will make a free choice inherently cannot be known apart from observation of the choice being actualized. God may be able to observe these choices via prescience, but even He must still observe them to know them. Therefore, God cannot know what we will do, unless He sees the future. The Molinist position, exemplified by Craig in the preceding paragraph, is 1) to argue this requires potentially heretical arguments relating to a limitation of divine omniscience, and 2) that a choice can be free, and yet the way in which an agent will make that choice can be known apart from observation of the actualized choice itself (and even apart from the actualization of the choice entirely). Critics maintain that this is no longer really a free choice: if it is known of someone that "If she were offered a dollar, she would take it," apart from actually offering that person a dollar, then she is not free to take or not take that dollar. The question hinges upon whether, by the definition of a free choice, it is possible to know which choice will be made independently from the actualization of that choice.


title: Taral Hicks

text: Taral Hicks (born September 21, 1974) is an American actress and singer. Hicks is best known for her acting in such films as 1993's American crime drama film "A Bronx Tale" and her singing in such work as her 1997 debut studio album "This Time" which peaked at No. 4 on "Billboard" Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles.


title: Taral Hicks

text: Hicks began her film career with a role in the critically acclaimed 1993 film, "A Bronx Tale". Her subsequent film roles were small: 1995's "Just Cause" with Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne, and 1996's "Educating Matt Waters" and "The Preacher's Wife" with Whitney Houston. She appeared in the movie "Belly" in 1998. In 2000, she appeared on screen in the short film, "Are You Cinderella?", with actor Wood Harris. Her later film roles were in independent films such as 2005's "The Salon", with Vivica A. Fox, Dondre Whitfield, and Darrin Henson; 2006's "Forbidden Fruits" with Ella Joyce, Fredro Starr, and R&B singer Keith Sweat; 2007's "Humenetomy"; and 2010's "Ex$pendable". Hicks featured in the HBO television series "Subway Stories" in 1997. Two guest roles followed: 2002's "100 Centre Street" in the episode titled "Fathers", and a 2003 episode of "Soul Food: The Series" titled "The New Math".


title: Taral Hicks

text: Hicks co-starred in the musical stage play Tyler Perry's "Aunt Bam's Place" with Paris Bennett, Cassi Davis, Jeffrey Lewis, and Melonie Daniels. It had a 3-day run beginning August 30, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia (Cobb Energy Center) and was filmed for a DVD release on June 12, 2012.


title: Taral Hicks

text: In 1995, Hicks signed a deal with Motown Records and released an album titled "This Time". The single "Ooh, Ooh Baby", written by and featuring Missy Elliott, charted on the Billboard R&B singles chart. However, the lead single intended to debut her singing career was "Distant Lover", an uptempo track produced by Teddy Riley. The album did not take off until the second single, "Silly", a remake of the classic R&B hit by Deniece Williams, was released. Featuring a black-and-white music video directed by Hype Williams, the single charted well on the R&B chart. After collaborating on the video for "Silly", Williams cast Hicks as in his directorial film debut, 1998's "Belly", as Keisha, DMX's girlfriend. The video for "Silly" appeared in one of the film's scenes. Hicks has expressed interest in pursuing a career in gospel music.


title: Taral Hicks

text: Hicks is a 1993 graduate of Grace Dodge Vocational High School in the Bronx, New York. She is the younger sister of actress and singer D'atra Hicks. In 1999, Hicks began dating Loren Dawson, and the couple married in 2001.


title: Basler BT-67

text: The Basler BT-67 is a utility aircraft produced by Basler Turbo Conversions of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is a remanufactured and modified Douglas DC-3; the modifications are designed to significantly extend the DC-3's serviceable lifetime.


title: Basler BT-67

text: Basler Turbo Conversions was founded in 1990 solely focus on converting existing C-47 airframes into the BT-67. Basler custom configures each new build to the clients specifications. Industries served include cargo, military, cloudseeding, scientific research, and various other applications. The conversion includes fitting the airframe with new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turboprop engines, lengthening the fuselage, strengthening the airframe, upgrading the avionics, and making modifications to the wing leading edges and wingtips.


title: Basler BT-67

text: Due to the slightly higher fuel consumption of the turbine engines of the BT-67, compared to the original piston designs fitted to the standard DC-3, range on the standard fuel tank, with 45 minute reserve, is reduced from . Basler provides a long-range fuel tank which increases the aircraft range to .


title: Basler BT-67

text: The Basler BT-67 has a gunship version used by the Air Forces of Colombia. The Colombian gunships are equipped with a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) ball, enabling the aircraft to conduct effective nighttime missions.


title: Pepas

text: "Pepas" is a guaracha song by Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Farruko from his studio album "La 167". It was released as single on June 24, 2021, via Sony Music Latin. It reached No. 25 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and number one on the US Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, becoming Farruko's highest-charting single to date. An official remix was released by David Guetta.


title: Pepas

text: Farruko called the song, a "total experiment". He gathered a few people in the studio and asking them to sing a stadium chant that sounded similar to a church choir.


title: Pepas

text: "Pepas" starts off slow, then quickly picks up and morphs into something "reminiscent of pre-COVID-19 pandemic dance parties".


title: Pepas

text: The music video was directed by Mike Ho and released on August 6, 2021. According to a description by Jessica Roiz of "Billboard", it includes "an all-night-long rave with fireworks, dancers, men dressed in neon suits, and Farruko dancing on top of shipping containers".


title: Coupe de la Ligue

text: The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France, was only open to professional clubs in France which play in country's top three football divisions, though the third is not fully professional.


title: Coupe de la Ligue

text: The most successful team in the competition was Paris Saint-Germain with nine wins, including the last edition in 2019–20. The LFP voted to suspend the competition indefinitely to "reduce the season schedule".


title: Coupe de la Ligue

text: Another competition named Coupe de la Ligue existed from 1963 to 1965. In 1982, a Coupe d'Eté (Summer cup) was held before the start of the French league season; the cup was won by Stade Laval. This tournament continued under the name of Coupe de la Ligue, until 1994, before the beginning of the French season.


title: Coupe de la Ligue

text: The tournament in its last format started in 1994 and was initiated by the professional teams because of their displeasure with the Coupe de France, thanks to its built-in home advantage for teams playing in the lower leagues. Entrance to the UEFA Cup, now called the UEFA Europa League, was offered to the winning team. Its first winner was Paris Saint-Germain, after their 2–0 victory over Bastia. The first final decided by a penalty shootout was in 1996 when Metz beat Lyon. The first three finals were held at Parc des Princes; from 1998 edition until 2015, the finals have been held at the Stade de France. Strasbourg and Paris Saint-Germain won the competition at both stadiums. Gueugnon became the first team below the top division of France to win the cup after beating Paris Saint-Germain in the 2000 final. Overall, there were 14 winners of the competition since its inception.


title: Coupe de la Ligue

text: For over 20 years from its inception, finals of the tournament were only held in the Paris area: the first three were at the Parc des Princes and the rest at the Stade de France. This changed in September 2016 when the LFP announced that the next three finals would be held in Lyon, Bordeaux and Lille respectively. The LFP suspended the competition indefinitely after the 2019–20 season, to reduce fixture congestion. In the last final in 2020, Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon drew 0–0 and the former won 6–5 on penalties.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: LinkedIn Learning is an American online learning provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. It is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. All the courses on LinkedIn fall into four categories: Business, Creative, Technology and Certifications.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: It was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman as Lynda.com before being acquired by LinkedIn in 2015. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: LinkedIn Learning was founded as Lynda.com in 1995 in Ojai, California, as online support for the books and classes of Lynda Weinman, a special effects animator and multimedia professor who founded a digital arts school with her husband, artist Bruce Heavin.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: In 2002, the company began offering courses online. By 2004, there were 100 courses, and in 2008, the company began producing and publishing documentaries on creative leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: In 2013, Lynda.com received its first outside investment, raising $103 million in growth equity from Accel Partners and Spectrum Equity, with additional contributions from Meritech Capital Partners. On January 14, 2015, Lynda.com announced it had raised $186 million in financing, led by investment group TPG Capital.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: On April 9, 2015, LinkedIn announced its intention to buy Lynda.com in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, which officially closed on May 14, 2015.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Lynda.com's parent company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 8, 2016.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: In October 2017, Lynda.com was merged and renamed "LinkedIn Learning". In 2019, the site announced that users accessing LinkedIn Learning through their public library would be required to create a LinkedIn profile in order to use the service; the decision faced criticism from librarians and the American Library Association. As of March 2021, libraries started migrating to LinkedIn Learning without requiring patrons to create a LinkedIn profile.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: On June 2, 2021, the lynda.com site was shutdown and is now permanently redirected to LinkedIn Learning.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: In February 2013, Lynda.com acquired video2brain, an Austrian-based provider of online classes in web design and programming, available in German, French, Spanish, and English.


title: LinkedIn Learning

text: On April 7, 2014, Lynda.com purchased Canadian startup Compilr, provider of an online editor and sandbox.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician and former military officer. He became president of the Republic of the Congo in 1997. He served a previous term as president from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as president, he headed the Congolese Party of Labour (PCT) for 12 years. He introduced multiparty politics in 1990, but was stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but placed third.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Sassou Nguesso was an opposition leader for five years before returning to power during the Second Republic of the Congo Civil War, in which his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba. Following a transitional period, he won the 2002 presidential election, which involved low opposition participation. He was re-elected in the 2009 presidential election. The introduction of a new constitution, passed by referendum in 2015 amidst calls for boycott then a dismissal of results by opposition leaders, enabled Sassou Nguesso to stand for another term. He was re-elected in the 2016 presidential election with a majority in the first round.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: A member of the Mbochi tribe, Sassou Nguesso was born in Edou in the Oyo district in northern Congo in 1943. His parents are Julien Nguesso and Émilienne Mouebara. Nguesso was the youngest child in the family. His father was a notable hunter chief in Edou. He received primary education in Fort Rousset, now Owando. He studied in Dolisie Normal College between 1956 and 1960.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He joined the army in 1960 just before the country was granted independence. He received military training in Algeria. In 1962, he returned to Congo and was reassigned to active duty with the rank of second lieutenant. A year later, he joined the Application School for Infantry, at Saint-Maixent-l'École, France whence he graduated with the rank of lieutenant. He returned to join Congo's elite paratroop regiment. He was one of the first officers of the Airborne Group, the first paratroop battalion of the Congolese Army, which was created by Marien Ngouabi in 1965. He commanded the Airborne Group, the army and the Brazzaville Military Zone (ZAB), then headed the Intelligence department of the State Security Services. He became captain, then commander, and was promoted to colonel (1978) and later as army general (1989).


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He was part of the 1968 military coup that overthrew president Massemba Debat and brought Marien Ngouabi to power. He was a founding member of the National Revolution Counsil (Conseil National de la revolution) in December 1968.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In 1968, Sassou Nguessou took part in the military coup led by Commander Marien Ngouabi against Debat: He was a member of the Congolese National Revolution Counsil (Conseil National de la révolution) established on 5 August 1968. Under the leadership of Marien Ngouabi, the group limited the president's powers, before the latter finally resigned on 3 September 1968. Ngouabi officially became head of state in January 1969.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In December 1969, Sassou Nguessou was elected as a member of the first central committee of the new Congolese Labor Party (PCT: Parti Congolais du travail). It was a communist party with a Marxist–Leninist doctrine. It was headed by Marien Ngouabi as president of the central committee, president of the republic and head of state.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: A new constitution was issued on 31 December 1969, which designated the country as the People's Republic of Congo.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In March 1970, following a failed coup attempted by Pierre Kinganga, a former lieutenant who was exiled in the neighboring Congo-Kinshasa, an extraordinary session of the PCT's congress was held, during which Denis Sassou N'guessou integrated the Political bureau of the PCT.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 18 May 1973, Sassou Nguessou who had been corps commander of the airborne group, was made Director of State Security.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In 1975, amid an economic crisis, an extraordinary session of the PCT central committee was summoned . The 8 member political bureau resigned and was replaced by a restricted "Revolutionary Special General Staff" (Etat major spécial révolutionnaire) composed of 5 members and headed by Marien Ngouabi. Sassou Nguessou was one of the 5. At the end of the extraordinary session, Marien Ngouabi asked Sassou Nguessou and 5 other members to craft a paper on the economic and political situation. The paper became known as the "Declaration of 12 December 1975". It recommended the "radicalization" of the revolution".


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 18 March 1977, president Marien Ngouabi was assassinated. Official media stated that the assassination was conducted by a commando group led by Capt. Barthelemey Kikadidi. Others claimed that the assassination was plotted by military officers within the close circle of power.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: A Military Committee of the Congolese Labor Party (Comité militaire du PCT) composed by 11 officers and led by Major Sassou Nguessou immediately took power and repealed the 1973 constitution. Sassou Nguessou acted as interim head of state from 18 March to 6 April 1977, then he conceded his position to general Joachim Yhombi-Opango who became president. Sassou Nguessou held the position of 1st vice president of the committee, while retaining his position of minister of defense.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Shortly after the Ngouabi assassination, Massamba-Debat and his former prime minister Pascal Lissouba were arrested and accused by a courts martial of plotting the assassination. Massamba-Debat was executed on 25 March 1977. Sassou-Nguesso was appointed provisional president on 8 February, before being confirmed, during a special congress on 31 March 1979 as head of the central committee, President of the Republic, head of state and President of the council of ministers, for five years.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 8 July 1979, general elections were held and confirmed the PCT as the dominant political force: the Congolese Labor Party (Parti Congolais du Travail – PCT) won all the seats in the People's National Assembly.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: As the newly elected president, Sassou Nguesso negotiated loans from the International Monetary Fund and allowed foreign investors from France and the Americas to conduct oil and mineral extraction.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Although he was considered by French diplomats as representative of the radical wing of the PCT and as the Soviet Union and Cuba's man, Sassou Nguessou developed and maintained strong relationships with France on which he relied to support the staggering economy. The French oil company Elf Aquitaine played an important role in the exploitation of Congolese oil fields that led to the doubling of oil production and in supporting Congolese government expenses via pre-financing loans.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He visited France in October 1979 and in July 1981 to seek economic support. In October 1980, high ranking French political figures including former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and former prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Pierre Messmer, were guests to the celebration of the Brazzaville centenary.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In May 1980 Sassou Nguessou signed a 20-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union and in the same year sent two delegations to China while a Chinese minister visited Brazzaville. However, the economic impact of these relationships remained marginal: France provided up to 50% of the country's foreign aid while the Soviet Union's contribution did not exceed 1,5%.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Sassou Nguesso was re-elected for a five-year term as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic at the party's Third Ordinary Congress on 27–31 July 1984, He announced the release of Yhombi-Opango. He served as Chairman of the Organization of African Unity from 1986 to 1987. In late 1987 he faced down a serious military revolt in the north of the country with French aid.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: At the PCT's Fourth Ordinary Congress on 26–31 July 1989, Sassou Nguesso was re-elected as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic, and the PCT won all of the seats of the People's National Assembly. With the collapse of the socialist states of Eastern Europe, as well as influence from the French, Sassou Nguesso began to bring the country to capitalism.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In December 1989 he announced the end of government control of the economy and declared a partial amnesty for political prisoners. Over the following year he attempted to improve the failing economic situation and reduce the outrageous levels of corruption. Starting in September 1990 political parties other than the PCT were allowed and Sassou Nguesso made a symbolic state visit to the United States, laying the grounds for a new series of conditional International Monetary Fund loans later that year.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He introduced multiparty politics in 1990 and was then stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but placed third.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In February 1991, a national conference began; the opposition gained control of the conference. The conference's declaration of its own sovereignty was not challenged by Sassou Nguesso. He was subjected to serious criticism and allegations during the Conference, including a claim from some delegates that he was involved in Ngouabi's assassination.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: The first round of elections took place on 24 June, and the second on 19 July. Senate elections took place on 26 July. In the parliamentary election of June–July 1992, the PCT won only 19 of 125 seats in the National Assembly; the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) led by former prime minister Pascal Lissouba, was the largest party. But it could not obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly, with the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI) led by former army General Bernard Kolelas in second position.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In the August 1992 presidential election, Sassou Nguesso was eliminated in the first round, placing third with 17% of the vote. He fared poorly everywhere except the north. The second round was held between Lissouba (UPADS) and Kolelas (MCDDI); Sassou Nguesso backed Lissouba, who won in the second round with 61.32% of the vote.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Lissouba became President of the Republic on 31 August and a new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Stephane Bongho-Nouarra of UPADS, was formed on 7 August. In the meantime, a new alliance of seven parties, including the MCDDI and the Rally for Democracy and Social Progress (RDPS) was constituted. It was soon joined by the PCT, which was unhappy with the distribution of ministerial portfolios, thus ensuring a new parliamentary majority.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 31 October, the National Assembly approved a motion of no confidence against Bongho-Nouarra who resigned. On 17 November, President Lissouba dissolved Parliament, announcing elections to break the deadlock. In December, Claude Antoine Dacosta was appointed Prime Minister at the head of a transitional government.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Civil war started in November 1993, when the opposition parties (UDR and PCT) contested the results of the parliamentary elections (October 1993) giving victory to the coalition supporting President Lissouba (Tendance présidentielle). Armed militia supporting President Lissouba, (Cocoyes, Zoulous and Mambas) clashed with Kolelas' Ninjas and Sassous Nguessou's Cobras. The conflict ended in December 1995, but left at least 2000 dead and more than 100 000 displaced.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: After this episode Sassou spent seven months in Paris in 1996, returning on 26 January 1997 to contest the presidential election scheduled for July.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In May 1997, a visit by Sassou Nguesso to Owando, Yhombi-Opango's political stronghold, led to the outbreak of violence between his supporters and those of Yhombi-Opango. On 5 June 1997, government forces surrounded Sassou Nguesso's home in the Mpila section of Brazzaville, attempting to arrest Pierre Aboya and Engobo Bonaventure, who had been implicated in the violence. Fighting broke out between government forces and Cobras, which led to the second civil war.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: At the beginning of the conflict, Kolelas' militia remained neutral, but on 8 September 1997, he joined the president's camp and became Prime Minister. On 18 September, Angolan troops and airforce entered the battle, providing significant support to Sassou-Nguessou. By 14 October a final assault covered by Angolan Mig aircraft was launched on the Presidential Palace and neighborhoods in south Brazzaville, then on Pointe Noire, against the President's militias (Zoulou, Cocoys, Aubervillois and Mambas) and the Ninjas.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: By October, Sassou Nguesso was in control, while Lissouba as well as Kolelas and Opango left the country. On 25 October 1997, Sassou Nguessou was sworn in.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He repealed the 1992 Constitution, and replaced it with a "Fundamental Act" that concentrated power in the President's hands. General Sassou-Nguesso accumulated the functions of President of the Republic, Head of State, Head of Government, Minister of Defense and Supreme Chief of the Armies.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: A government was announced on 2 November 1997; it consisted mainly of members and relatives of the FDU (Forces Démocratiques unifies, a coalition between the PCT and other parties supporting Sassou Nguessou) as well as two members respectively of UPADS and MCDDI, who were not chosen by the presidents in exile.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: He also called for a National reconciliation forum. However The idea was rejected by Lissouba's followers who continued to strike into the region between the country's economic capital, Pointe Noire and Brazzaville, having cut the railway between the coast and Brazzaville for three months. In December 1997 heavy fighting resumed in the capital's southern suburbs (the Pool area) where the Ninja militia clashed with Congolese and Angolan troops and Cobra militiamen. As many as 1 500 may have been killed in the fighting, and thousands more fled to escape the violence.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: The Forum for Unity and National Reconciliation was held from 5 to 8 January 1998 with 1,420 delegates. It decided upon a transitional period of three years, to be followed by elections under a new Constitution. It also formed a 75-member National Transitional Council (NTC) to act as a legislative body. Members were elected by the forum by mid-January . However, violence did not end. By April 1998, militias opposed to Sassou-Nguesso were operated throughout southern Congo, coordinating their operations. In the beginning of 1999, the violence had resumed in Brazzaville. Peace agreements were signed on 25 December under the auspices of President Omar Bongo of Gabon, ending the civil war, leaving 8,000-10,000 dead, around 800,000 displaced persons and a devastated country .


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: The elections passed peacefully and Sassou-Nguessou won with 89.41% of the votes. Serious malfunctions and acts of manipulation in a few electoral commissions were reported by the European Union Election Observation Mission who reported that these acts did not impact the final result, and called for the sanction of the those responsible in order to prevent the situation from happening again in the next elections.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Sassou-Nguessou was elected Chairman of the African Union, the OAU's successor body, in January 2006. His election was the result of a compromise reached to prevent the chairmanship from going to Omar al-Bashir.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Sassou Nguesso was re-elected as President of the Central Committee of the PCT at the party's Fifth Extraordinary Congress in December 2006. He was re-elected in the July 2009 presidential election with 78.61% of the vote amidst an opposition boycott. He said that his re-election meant continued "peace, stability and security", and he called for an end to "thinking like ... freeloaders" in reference to international aid. At his inauguration Sassou Nguesso announced that he would support an amnesty bill to pardon Lissouba, who had gone into exile after his 1997 ouster and was convicted of crimes "in absentia". Sassou Nguesso said that he wanted the amnesty bill to be presented to Parliament by the end of 2009. As Congo-Brazzaville prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence from France in 2010, Sassou Nguesso noted that the country had far to go in fully realizing the dream of independence: "Our country will not be totally independent until our people are free of the yoke of poverty."


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 27 March 2015 Sassou Nguesso announced that his government would hold a referendum to change the 2002 constitution, which would allow him to run for a third consecutive term. The proposal was overwhelmingly approved by voters, with 92.96% in favor. Turnout was officially placed at 72.44%. However the opposition argued that due to low turnout, the results should be annulled.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: On 20 March 2016, Sassou Nguesso, ran for a third consecutive term of 5 years and was reelected in the first round with 60% of the vote.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: Opposition leader Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas finished second with 15 percent of the vote while retired general Jean-Marie Mokoko, a former security adviser to Sassou Nguesso, came third with 14 percent.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: For the first time in the history of the Republic, these elections were supervised by an independent commission (CNEI: Commission Nationale Electorale Indépendante). The opposition rejected the outcome, alleging fraud and calling for civil disobedience.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: During the presidential election that took place on 21 March 2021, Sassou Nguessou, who faced six challengers for the presidency, came first once again, garnering 88.4% of the votes. His main challenger, Guy Brice Parfait Kolélas, finished second with 7.96%, Mathias Dzon received 1.92%, and the other four candidates each received less than 1% each.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: As the Chairman of the African Union High Level Committee on Libya, Sassou Nguesso stated, "The settlement of the Libyan crisis appears, more than ever, as an absolute urgency", especially because of the possible negative impact of terrorist groups in the south of Libya on neighboring states.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In September 2006, during the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Sassou Nguesso's entourage, including several members of his family, occupied 44 rooms at the Waldorf Astoria that together cost £130,000, including almost £14,000 of room service. The total was pointed out by the British newspaper "The Sunday Times" to be "comfortably more than the £106,000 that Britain gave the Republic of Congo in humanitarian aid in 2006."


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In July 2007, British NGO Global Witness published documents that show that the President's son, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from the country's oil sales on shopping sprees in Paris and Dubai. The documents show that in August 2006, Denis Christel, who was the head of Cotrade – the marketing branch of Congo's state oil firm SNPC – spent $35,000 on purchases from designers such as Louis Vuitton and Roberto Cavalli. Reputation management company Schillings Solicitors unsuccessfully attempted to suppress this information.


title: Denis Sassou Nguesso

text: In November 2020, under pressure from Chinese authorities, Sassou-Nguesso and four cabinet minister issued a decree terminating a contract with Australian miner Sundance Resources to develop the huge Mbalam-Nabeba iron-ore deposit, subsequently awarding three permits to a relatively unknown Chinese-backed company, Sichuan Hanlong Group.


title: Aymara people

text: The Aymara or Aimara ( ) people are an indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America; about 2.3 million live in northwest Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Their ancestors lived in the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca in the late 15th or early 16th century, and later of the Spanish in the 16th century. With the Spanish American Wars of Independence (1810–25), the Aymaras became subjects of the new nations of Bolivia and Peru. After the War of the Pacific (1879–83), Chile annexed territory with Aymara population.


title: Aymara people

text: Archaeologists have found evidence that the Aymaras have occupied the Andes, in western Bolivia for at least 800 years (or more than 5,000 years, according to some estimates, but it is more likely that they are descended from preceding cultures). Their origin is a matter of scientific dispute. The region where Tiwanaku and the modern Aymaras are located, the Altiplano, was conquered by the Incas under Huayna Capac (reign 1483–1523), although the exact date of this takeover is unknown. It is most likely that the Inca had a strong influence over the Aymara region for some time. Though conquered by the Inca, the Aymaras retained some degree of autonomy under the empire.


title: Aymara people

text: The Spanish arrived to the western portions of South America in 1535. Soon after, by 1538, they subdued the Aymara. Initially, the Aymara exercised their own distinct culture now free of Incan influence (earlier conquered by the Spanish) but acculturation and assimilation by the Spanish were rapid. Many Aymara at this turbulent time became laborers at mines and agricultural fields. In the subsequent colonial era, the Aymara were organized into eleven tribes which were the Canchi, Caranga, Charca, Colla, Collagua, Collahuaya, Omasuyo, Lupaca, Quillaca, Urbina, and Picasa. Aymara used many of the agricultural and technological techniques from the Spanish like the use of plows, draft animals, wheat, barley, sheep, cattle, and plank boats for fishing, However, the Aymara still engaged in traditional occupations like raising Alpacas, growing native crops, and net fishing.


title: Aymara people

text: In response to colonial exploitation by the Spanish and elite in the fields of agriculture, mining, coca harvesting, domestic work, and more the Aymara (along with others) staged a rebellion in 1629. This was followed by a more significant uprising mostly by Aymaras in 1780 in which the Aymara almost captured the city of La Paz and many Spaniards were killed. This rebellion would be put down by the Spanish two years later. However, uprisings would continue to occur against Spanish rule intermittently until Peruvian independence in 1821.


title: Aymara people

text: The major reforms caused by the Bolivian Revolution of 1952 resulted in the Aymara being more integrated into mainstream Bolivian society. This also caused many Aymara to become severed or not affiliated with their native communities any longer. Most Bolivian Aymara today engage in farming, construction, mining, and working in factories though a growing number are now in professional work. The Aymara language (along with Quechua) are now official languages in Bolivia and there has been a rise of programs to assist the Aymara and their native lands.


title: Aymara people

text: Linguists have learned that Aymara was once spoken much further north, at least as far north as the central parts of Peru. Most Andean linguists believe that it is likely that the Aymara originated or coalesced as a people in this area (see 'Geography' below).


title: Aymara people

text: The Aymaras overran and displaced the Uru, an older population from the Lake Titicaca and Lake Poopó regions. The Uru lived in this area as recently as the 1930s.


title: Aymara people

text: Most present-day Aymara-speakers live in the Lake Titicaca basin, a territory from Lake Titicaca through the Desaguadero River and into Lake Poopó (Oruro, Bolivia) also known as the Altiplano. They are concentrated south of the lake. The capital of the ancient Aymara civilization is unknown. According to research by Cornell University anthropologist John Murra, there were at least seven different kingdoms. The capital of the Lupaqa Kingdom may be the city of Chucuito, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca.


title: Aymara people

text: The present urban center of the Aymara region may be El Alto, a 750,000-person city near the Bolivian capital, La Paz. For most of the 20th century, the center of cosmopolitan Aymara culture might've been Chuquiago Marka (La Paz). Bolivia's capital might have had moved from Sucre to La Paz during the government of General Pando (died in 1917) and during the Bolivian Civil War.


title: Aymara people

text: The Aymara flag is known as the Wiphala; it consists of seven colors patched together with diagonal stripes.


title: Aymara people

text: The native language of the Aymaras is Aymara. Many of Aymaras speak Spanish as a second or first language, when it is the predominant language in the areas where they live. The Aymara language has one surviving relative, spoken by a small, isolated group of about 1,000 people far to the north in the mountains inland from Lima in Central Peru (in and around the village of Tupe, Yauyos province, Lima department). This language, whose two varieties are known as Jaqaru and Kawki, is of the same family as Aymara. Some linguists refer to this language as 'Central Aymara'. 'Southern Aymara' is the language spoken most widely and is spoken by people of the Titicaca region.


title: Aymara people

text: Most of contemporary Aymaran urban culture was developed in the working-class Aymara neighborhoods of La Paz, such as Chijini and others. Both Quechua and Aymara women in Peru and Bolivia took up the style of wearing bowler hats since the 1920s. According to legend, a shipment of bowler hats was sent from Europe to Bolivia via Peru for use by Europeans working on railroad construction. When the hats were found to be too small, they were given to the indigenous peoples. The luxurious, elegant and cosmopolitan Aymara Chola dress, which is an icon of Bolivia (bowler hat, aguayo, heavy pollera, skirts, boots, jewellery, etc.) began and evolved in La Paz. It is an urban tradition of dress. This style of dress has become part of ethnic identification by Aymara women. Many Aymara live and work as campesinos in the surrounding Altiplano.


title: Aymara people

text: The Aymaras have grown and chewed coca plants for centuries, using its leaves in traditional medicine as well as in ritual offerings to the father god Inti (Sun) and the mother goddess Pachamama (Earth). During the last century, there has been conflict with state authorities over this plant during drug wars; the officials have carried out coca eradication to prevent the extraction and isolation of the drug cocaine. But, the ritual use of coca has a central role in the indigenous religions of both the Aymaras and the Quechuas. Coca is used in the ritual curing ceremonies of the yatiri. Since the late 20th century, its ritual use has become a symbol of cultural identity.


title: Aymara people

text: Chairo is a traditional stew of the Aymaras. It is made of chuño (potato starch), onions, carrots, potatoes, white corn, beef and wheat kernels. It also contains herbs such as coriander and spices. It is native to the region of La Paz.


title: Aymara people

text: Most modern Aymara practice a syncretic form of Catholicism infused with native practices and beliefs. Soon after the Spanish conquest, Jesuits and Dominican priests began to convert and proselytize among the Aymara. However, the Aymara continued to practice their native faith and only nominally accepted Christianity. Modern Aymara spirituality includes many syncretic beliefs like folk healing, divination, magic, and more. However, when it comes to the beliefs about the afterlife, the Aymara subscribe to a more standard view as found in traditional Christianity.


title: Aymara people

text: In Aymara mythology llamas are important beings. The Heavenly Llama is said to drink water from the ocean and urinate it as rain. According to Aymara eschatology llamas will return to the water springs and lagoons where they come from at the end of time.


title: Aymara people

text: The Aymaras and other indigenous groups have formed numerous movements for greater independence or political power. These include the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army, led by Felipe Quispe, and the Movement Towards Socialism, a political party organized by the Cocalero Movement and Evo Morales. These and other Aymara organizations have led political activism in Bolivia, including the 2003 Bolivian Gas War and the 2005 Bolivia protests.


title: Aymara people

text: Quispe has said that one of his group's goals is to establish an independent indigenous state. They have proposed the name Qullasuyu, after the eastern (and largely Aymara) region of the Inca empire, which covered the southeastern corner of present-day Peru and western Bolivia.


title: Aymara people

text: Evo Morales is an Aymara coca grower from the Chaparé region. His Movement Toward Socialism party has forged alliances with both rural indigenous groups and urban working classes to form a broad leftist coalition in Bolivia. Morales has run for president in several elections since the late 20th century, gaining increasing support. In 2005 he won a surprise victory, winning the largest majority vote since Bolivia returned to democracy. He is the first indigenous president of Bolivia. He is credited with the ousting of Bolivia's previous two presidents.


title: Aymara people

text: Aymaras themselves make significant distinctions between Bolivian and Chilean Aymaras with the aim of establishing by nationality whom to have say on local issues and who not.


title: Eda Ece

text: Eda Ece Uzunalioğlu (born 20 June 1990) is a Turkish actress best known for her portrayal of Yıldız Yılmaz in the Turkish drama series Yasak Elma.


title: Eda Ece

text: Eda attended Şişli Terakki High School and graduated with a degree in psychology from Istanbul Bilgi University. She's the youngest of three daughters in her family.


title: Eda Ece

text: After appearing in a minor role in 2004 as child actor, she was cast with supporting roles in hit youth series "Hayat Bilgisi", fantasy child series "Bez Bebek" and "Adını Feriha Koydum" until 2012.


title: Eda Ece

text: She started portraying the character of Yıldız in the TV series "Yasak Elma" which more 100 episodes.


title: Eda Ece

text: In 2013, she had her first cinematic lead role experience with "Kızım İçin". She was cast in the comedy films "Kocan Kadar Konuş" and ""Kocan Kadar Konuş: Diriliş"". She played in the Gupse Özay's comedy movies "Görümce" and "Deliha 2". In the same year, she appeared in a leading role in "Mahrumlar" TV film. After getting a part in film "Dede Korkut Hikayeleri: Deli Dumrul", written by Burak Aksak famous writer of hit surreal comedy Leyla ile Mecnun. The film isn't original story of Book of Dede Korkut. It is parody.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The Lebanese liquidity crisis is an ongoing financial crisis affecting Lebanon, that became fully apparent in August 2019, and was further exacerbated by both the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon (which began in 2020) and the 2020 Beirut port explosion. The roots of the crisis run deep and the country experienced liquidity shortages in the years prior to 2019 but the full extent of the fragility of the economy were concealed by the financial engineering of the governor of the central bank. Lebanon's crisis was worsened by U.S. sanctions targeting Syria's government and Iran-backed Hezbollah.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: Since 1997, the Lebanese pound has been pegged to the U.S. dollar at a rate of £L1,507.5 per US$1. The stability of the pound has been the cornerstone of the Lebanese central bank policy for over two decades. It was meant to bring about much-needed stability to the country after a severe devaluation of the Lebanese pound following the end of the Lebanese Civil War.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: Lebanon's post-war economy relied on different sources of foreign currency inflows that were critical to maintain this artificial exchange rate: tourism, real estate, remittances from a diaspora made up of over ten million individuals, a very large financial sector that offered depositors much appreciated anonymity through banking secrecy and high interest rates. These inflows were critical to fund the large trade deficit and the ever growing public debt.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In 2016, Lebanon first witnessed a real slow down in foreign inflows: Between May 2015 and May 2016, the dollar liquidity of the country decreased for the first time in 11 years. As a result, the central bank of Lebanon initiated a series of financial engineering operations which became known in the press as "the swap". The central bank exchanged public debt it owed in Lebanese pounds against Eurobonds, or debt labelled in foreign currency, for the equivalent of US$2 billion. Between June and October 2016, the central bank exchanged these Eurobonds against actual foreign currency with a selection of commercial banks. As a result, the Lebanese economy managed to avoid the consequences of a liquidity crisis at the time, but it increased considerably the public debt in dollars and cost the entire economy a fortune: the International Monetary Fund estimated that the banks that took part in the operation made US$5 billion while the central bank pull-out cost was US$13 billion in foreign currency. If these figures are correct, the banks involved made 40% return on the overall transaction. The central bank repeated similar financial engineering in the following years.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: However, even with these operations, Lebanon kept failing to attract sufficient foreign inflows to match the growing demand. As early as late 2018, some commercial banks started to restrict depositors' access to their own funds in foreign currency: they usually imposed an important additional fee on cash withdrawal in US dollars to deter clients from withdrawing dollar cash.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In August 2019, due to various financial hardships, especially the growing probability that the Lebanese government will default on maturing debt obligations, the black market exchange rate started diverging from the official exchange rate.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: Following the first large demonstration of the 17 October 2019 protest, Lebanese commercial banks closed for an unprecedented two weeks. When they reopened, commercial banks unlawfully restricted depositors' access to their own money in US dollars – despite no official capital control. These restrictions were one of the key factors that shook the confidence of Lebanese people in their own currency and pushed the value of the Lebanese pound below its official exchange rate.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In the fourth quarter of 2019, the black market exchange rate reached £L1,600 per US$1, and increased to £L3,000 per dollar in April 2020, £L14,000 per dollar in March 2021 and £L15,200 per dollar in June 2021. One bank allowed depositors to withdraw Lebanese pounds from their dollar account at £L2,000 to US$1. This caused significant anger towards the banks, with the prime minister sharply criticizing the governor of the central bank over its performance. The USD black market exchange rate continues to fluctuate substantially due to devaluation of the Lebanese pound caused by acute dollar shortages within Lebanon. This dollar shortage also caused 785 restaurants and cafes to close between September 2019 and February 2020 and resulted in 25,000 employees losing their jobs. Consumer goods prices have increased by 580% since October resulting from the worst economic crisis in decades. The economic crisis made Lebanon's gross domestic product fall to about $44 billion from about $55 billion the year before.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The dollar shortage was further exacerbated by the large amount of Lebanese pounds that the central bank printed from 2019 onward. Data from the Lebanese central bank (BDL) suggest that the money supply M1 grew by 266% from December 2019 to December 2021.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The fall of the exchange rate caused the 2019–2021 Lebanese protests, which ultimately resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his cabinet. Following this, the COVID-19 pandemic forced additional businesses to close their doors and to lay off their employees.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: Prime Minister Hassan Diab stated that the country would default on its Eurobond debt and seek out restructuring agreements amid a spiralling financial crisis that affected foreign currency reserves. Lebanon was due to pay a US$1.2 billion Eurobond on 9 March 2020, with another $700million expected to mature in April and a further $600million in June. Due to the lack of foreign currencies, the prime minister said that the reserves had fallen to "a worrying and dangerous level which pushes the Lebanese government to suspend payment of the 9 March Eurobond maturity because of a need for these funds."


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The head of research at Bank Audi stated that Lebanese banks owned $12.7billion of the country's outstanding $30billion Eurobonds as of January 2020. The central bank held $5.7billion and the remainder was owned by foreign creditors.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The debt to GDP ratio sits at 170% as of April 2020. The default is the first one in the history of the country. Foreign currency inflows have slowed and Lebanon's pound has dropped in value compared to the dollar and other currencies. The nation's commercial banks have imposed tough restrictions on dollar withdrawals and transfers to maintain reserves. Due to this Lebanon's sovereign debt became junk rated.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: The shortage of US dollars, which are used in everyday transactions in Lebanon, and the crash in the value of the pound have undercut the country's ability to pay for imports, including essentials such as wheat and oil. Banks have stopped giving short-term loans to businesses and no longer provide them with U.S. dollars for imports, forcing people to turn to the black markets. There is also significant inflation, which caused a massive loss of purchasing power and an increase in poverty. The price of foule or ful, a fava bean common in the region, was up 550% in March 2020 over a year earlier. Sugar has seen an increase of 670%, while wheat, tea, rice, and cigarettes have all gone up nearly 1000% over the same period.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: This liquidity crisis also created a barrier to everyone with accounts in Lebanese banks, as they are unable to access their deposits. Not only are they unable to access their deposits, but they are unable to withdraw any dollars directly. They can withdraw them in the national currency. These depositors needed to preserve the value of their savings, especially following press reports about restructuring of the banking sector. They therefore turned to buying real estate. For example, revenues from land sales of the major real estate developer, Solidere company, soared from nearly $1.3 million to $234.5 million. Also, these depositors turned to buying shares in Solidere company, which lead to a rise of 500% in it between the start of the liquidity crisis and April 2021. Of seven million Lebanese, about 80% are below the poverty line, while an estimated 100,000 with "fresh money"—funds imported since the 17 October 2019 protests—are wealthy and use downtown Beirut restaurants and stores.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: On 1 June 2021, the World Bank released a report which warned that the economic crisis in Lebanon would risk becoming one of the three most severe since the mid-19th century, if its "bankrupt economic system, which benefited a few for so long" weren't reformed. On 11 August 2021, the Central Bank of Lebanon ended fuel subsidies, announcing that they would instead offer "credit lines for fuel imports based on the market price for the Lebanese pound". The decision led to significant increases in fuel prices amid an economic crisis in the country, but the government was unable to alleviate shortages. Days later on 15 August 2021, 33 people were killed in a fuel explosion in the northern Akkar District, exacerbated by the widespread fuel shortages. On 9 October 2021, the country underwent a 24-hour full blackout as the two biggest electricity generators, Zahrani and Deir Ammar, ran out of fuel. Public utilities are only able to offer electricity for a few hours a day because they are unable to buy fuel to power central generators, leading to a massive increase in the number of people buying more expensive power from private generators.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In December 2021, BBC News reported that the economic crisis has caused shortages in the import of vital medicines.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In September 2022, Lebanese Association of Banks announced that the banks would close for three days after depositors, who in 2019 overnight found themselves locked out of their bank accounts and unable to access the majority of their own savings, stormed several branches, holding employees hostage and forcibly demanding to withdraw their savings.


title: Lebanese liquidity crisis

text: In February 2022, a subpoena was issued by Judge Ghada Aoun after Riad Salameh failed to show up to court for questioning, while his whereabouts were unknown after a raid in his office and two homes, as part of an investigation for alleged misconduct and corruption. This sparked controversy with another security agency that was accused of protecting him from trial. Later on 21 March, Salameh along with his brother Raja were charged for illicit enrichment by Ghassan Oueidat, but also failed to attend for questioning. Raja spent a month in detention, but was released on May 22 while on a record bail of LBP100 billion.


title: Eric Villency

text: Eric Scot Villency (born June 10, 1975) is an American businessman. He serves as the CEO of Villency Design Group, an interior and product design firm.


title: Eric Villency

text: In 1932, Villency's grandfather, Maurice Villency, started a furniture company in New York City. His grandfather's company became the Villency Design Group, and in 1998, Eric Villency became CEO.


title: Eric Villency

text: Villency was named "The Wizard of Wellness" by Well + Good in 2003 and Inc. Magazine named him of the most influential designers to watch in 2016


title: Eric Villency

text: In 2001, he was awarded the FIT “All Star Salute” award, recognizing leaders in design and fashion. In 2002, Villency oversaw the launch of the Maurice Villency flagship store, located on 57th street in midtown Manhattan, and launched the company’s first home accessories collection. In 2006, he launched “Villency Atelier”, a workshop dedicated to custom design and fabrication for design professionals. In 2007, Villency was named the recipient of the IFDA “Design Industry” award. 2008 saw the launch of Villency's business initiative, Villency Pure Design, an environmentally responsible and domestically produced collection of furniture. Villency has lectured at Savanah College of Art & Design


title: Eric Villency

text: Villency has worked in boutique fitness having designed the Peloton indoor bike, the SoulCycle indoor fitness bike, along with fitness equipment for Rumble.


title: Eric Villency

text: Villency is a contributing writer for the "Huffington Post". He has written for The New York Times, "Details", "Best Life", "Women's Health", and "Departures".


title: Eric Villency

text: Villency is the son of Rowann, a mixed media artist, and Robert Villency, the chairman of Maurice Villency. Villency is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.


title: Eric Villency

text: On May 27, 2006, he married former assistant District Attorney of San Francisco and co-host of "The Five" on Fox News Kimberly Guilfoyle on the island of Barbados. On October 4, 2006, Guilfoyle gave birth to their son, Ronan Anthony. On June 23, 2009, it was announced that Guilfoyle and Villency had separated; they divorced in November of that year.


title: Eric Villency

text: In December 2013, he married Swedish designer Caroline Fare in West Palm Beach. Villency and Fare divorced in 2017.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Racism in South Korea comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in South Korea, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and actions (including violence) at various times in the history of South Korea against racial or ethnic groups. It has been recognized as a widespread social problem in the country.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: South Korea lacks an anti-discrimination law, which was recommended by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2015. The law has been reported stalled due to "lack of public consensus".


title: Racism in South Korea

text: An increase in immigration to South Korea since the 2000s catalyzed more overt expressions of racism, as well as criticism of those expressions. Newspapers have frequently reported on and criticized discrimination against immigrants, in forms such as being paid lower than the minimum wage, having their wages withheld, unsafe work conditions, physical abuse, or general denigration.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: In the 2017–2020 World Values Survey, of the 1245 South Koreans surveyed, 15.2% reported that they would not want someone of a different race as a neighbor. This represents a sharp decrease from the 2010-2014 World Values Survey, where of 1200 South Koreans surveyed, 34.1% mentioned that they would not want someone of a different race as a neighbor. In the 2010–2014 survey, 44.2% reported they would not want "immigrants/foreign workers" as neighbors. By the 2017–2020 report, this figure was at 22.0%.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: According to a report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, undocumented migrant children are left without many of the rights enjoyed by their South Korean counterparts. The process used to determine refugees status is designed "not to protect refugees but to keep them out. Migrant workers are only allowed to change their job with their old employer's permission. Migrant workers who work in agricultural sector, small businesses and domestic services are the most vulnerable to discrimination because of the temporary nature of their work.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Scholars believe Korean's strong national identity comes from a long tradition of "thousand years of ‘pure’ ancestral bloodlines, common language, customs, and history" and was strengthened during and after the Japanese colonialism in the 20th century. The Japanese's attempts to erase Korean language, culture and history had constructed ethnocentrism and ethno-nationalism as a method for Koreans to reclaim and maintain their sovereignty.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: According to Katharine Moon, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 is one of the events that shaped Korean's dominant attitude towards immigrants and foreigners. In the 1997 crisis, the IMF forced South Korea to take a bailout and the adverse effect it had on Korean's economy caused the closings of financial institutions, losing jobs for 5% of workers and decreased earnings for the majority of the population.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Overt racist attitudes are more commonly expressed towards immigrants from poorer Asian countries, Latin America and Africa, while racist attitudes toward immigrants of European and Northern American descent are more commonly expressed via subtle racism and microaggressions. However, while Japan is a wealthy Asian country, there exists a significant amount of Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea, largely due to historical grievances and the history of Japanese colonialism in Korea. Attitudes of racism could also correlate to classism — a Singaporean in South Korea would not generally face as much discrimination or negative attitudes as compared to a Filipino or a Cambodian.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Related discrimination has also been reported with regard to mixed-race children, Chinese Korean, and North Korean immigrants. Racism and discrimination against Muslims (who tend to be immigrants or foreign workers) is also common with many Koreans perceiving Muslims as a potential "terrorist group". These negative views stem from the rising prevalence of Islamophobia in Korea and the representation of Muslims and Islam in Korean media.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Due to the lack of an anti-discrimination law, it is common for people not of Korean ethnicity to be denied service at business establishments or in taxis without consequences.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: According to a survey conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea among foreign residents in South Korea in 2019, 68.4% of respondents declared they had experienced racial discrimination, and many of them said they experienced it due of their Korean language skills (62.3%), because they were not Korean (59.7%), or due to their race (44.7%).


title: Racism in South Korea

text: During the COVID-19 crisis, 1.4 million foreigners living in South Korea were initially excluded from the government's subsidy plan, which includes relief funds of up to 1 million won to Korean households. Although all people are susceptible to the virus, only foreigners who are married to Korean citizens were eligible for the money because of their "strong ties to the country". Following backlash, financial aid was extended to most foreigners in August that year.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has made schools in South Korea go fully online but the immigrant and refugee children have not received proper education opportunities due to the lack of appropriate online curriculum for them.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: In March 2021, several regions in Korea ordered all foreigners to undergo testing for COVID or risk a fine. This legislation has been criticized by activists for being discriminatory and racist.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: South Korea implemented a vaccine passport system during the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting access to high-risk venues such as bars, restaurants, and clubs. Korea's vaccine passport system was criticized as being discriminatory because did not recognize the vaccinations of foreigners who had been vaccinated overseas unless one has obtained a quarantine exemption while allowing recognizing overseas vaccinations of Korean nationals with or without a quarantine exemption.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: The then British Ambassador to South Korea, Simon Smith, criticized the vaccine passport on the official Twitter account for the British Embassy in Seoul, saying "If evidence produced by a Korean national of an overseas vaccination is good enough for that vaccination to be registered for the vaccine pass, the same evidence should be good enough to register the overseas vaccinations of foreign nationals too." The United States embassy made a public statement saying, "The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is aware of the Korean Government’s discriminatory policy which prevents U.S. citizens from registering vaccinations received in the United States with local health centers" and that they were raising their concerns to the highest levels of government to resolve this issue.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: On December 6, 2021, the ambassadors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the EU Delegation to Korea jointly urged the South Korean government to recognize overseas vaccinations of foreigners. South Korea reversed their policy on December 9, 2021, allowing non-Korean nationals to register their vaccines, which allowed access to the vaccine passport and the third booster shot.


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Recent legislation—in particular, the Foreign Workers' Employment Act (2004) and Support for Multicultural Families (2008)—have improved the situation of immigrants, more efficiently protecting their human and labor rights. In 2011, the South Korean military abandoned a regulation barring mixed-race men from enlisting, and changed the oath of enlistment to not reference racial purity ("minjok") to citizenship. Similarly, related concepts have been withdrawn from school curricula. This has been accredited in part to international pressure—in particular, concern from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which stated persistent ethnic-centric thinking in South Korea "might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures".


title: Racism in South Korea

text: As of September 2021, South Korea was lacking an anti-discrimination law, which has been globally recommended by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2015. It is frequently discussed in South Korean media and by politicians. As a result, incidents have been reported where people were denied service at business establishments because of their ethnicity. Legislations to protect against discrimination has been brought up in 2007, 2010 and 2012. but the bills faced objections chiefly by conservative Protestants. Another attempt has been made in 2020 by a minor liberal Justice Party to “ban all kinds of discrimination based on gender, disability, age, language, country of origin, sexual orientation, physical condition, academic background and any other reason.”


title: Racism in South Korea

text: Only 40% of mixed-race elementary and middle school students, or students born out of international marriages are considered Koreans by their classmates. Almost 50% of students said they have difficulties maintaining relationships with students who do not share the same nationality background. The reason given by Korean students is because of their classmates' different skin colors (24.2%), fear of being outcast by other Korean students (16.8%), and feeling of embarrassment if being friends with mixed-race children (15.5%)