title: Buddhism and violence

text: The Dutugamunu's campaign against king Elara was not to defeat injustice, as the Mahavamsa describes Elara as a good ruler, but to restore Buddhism through a united Sri Lanka under a Buddhist monarch, even by the use of violence. The Mahavamsa story about Buddha's visit to Sri Lanka where he (referred to as the "Conqueror") subdues forces inimical to Buddhism, the Yakkhas (depicted as the non-human inhabitants of the island), by striking "terror to their hearts" and driving them from their homeland, so that his doctrine should eventually "shine in glory", has been described as providing the warrant for the use of violence for the sake of Buddhism and as an account that is in keeping with the general message of the author that the political unity of Sri Lanka under Buddhism requires the removal of uncooperative groups.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: According to Neil DeVotta (an Associate Professor of Political Science), the mytho-history described in the Mahavamsa "justifies dehumanizing non-Sinhalese, if doing so is necessary to preserve, protect, and propagate the dhamma (Buddhist doctrine). Furthermore, it legitimizes a just war doctrine, provided that war is waged to protect Buddhism. Together with the Vijaya myth, it introduces the bases for the Sinhalese Buddhist belief that Lord Buddha designated the island of Sri Lanka as a repository for Theravada Buddhism. It claims the Sinhalese were the first humans to inhabit the island (as those who predated the Sinhalese were subhuman) and are thus the true "sons of the soil". Additionally, it institutes the belief that the island's kings were beholden to protect and foster Buddhism. All of these legacies have had ramifications for the trajectory of political Buddhism and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism."


title: Buddhism and violence

text: With the rise of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a reaction to the changes brought under the British colonialism, the old religious mytho-history of the Mahavamsa (especially the emphasis on the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnicities of Duthagamani and Elara, respectively) was revitalized and consequently would prove to be detrimental to the intergroup harmony in the island. As Heather Selma Gregg writes: "Modern-day Sinhalese nationalism, rooted in local myths of being a religiously chosen people and of special progeny, demonstrates that even a religion perceived as inherently peaceful can help fuel violence and hatred in its name."


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Buddhist revivalism took place among the Sinhalese to counter Christian missionary influence. The British commissioned the Sinhala translation of the Mahavamsa (which was originally written in Pali), thereby making it accessible to the wider Sinhalese population. During this time the first riot in modern Sri Lankan history broke out in 1883, between Buddhists and Catholics, highlighting the "growing religious divide between the two communities".


title: Buddhism and violence

text: The central figure in the formation of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism was the Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933), who has been described as "the father of modern Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism". Dharmapala was hostile to all things un-Sinhalese and non-Buddhist. He insisted that the Sinhalese were racially pure and superior Aryans while the Dravidian Tamils were inferior. He popularized the impression that Tamils and Sinhalese had been deadly enemies in Sri Lanka for nearly 2,000 years by quoting the Mahavamsa passages that depicted Tamils as pagan invaders. He characterized the Tamils as "fiercely antagonistic to Buddhism". He also expressed intolerance toward the island's Muslim minorities and other religions in general. Dharmapala also fostered Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism in the spirit of the King Dutthagamani who "rescued Buddhism and our nationalism from oblivion" and stated explicitly that the Island belongs to the Sinhalese Buddhists. Dharmapala has been blamed for laying the groundwork for subsequent Sinhalese Buddhists nationalists to create an ethnocentric state and for hostility to be directed against minorities unwilling to accept such a state.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Upon independence Sinhalese Buddhist elites instituted discriminatory policies based on the Buddhist ethno-nationalist ideology of the Mahavamsa that privileges Sinhalese Buddhist hegemony in the island as Buddha's chosen people for whom the island is a promised land and justifies subjugation of minorities. Sinhalese Buddhist officials saw that decreasing Tamil influence was a necessary part of fostering Buddhist cultural renaissance. The Dutthagamani myth was also used to institute Sinhalese Buddhist domination with some politicians even identifying with such a mytho-historic hero and activist monks looked to Dutthagamani as an example to imitate. This principal hero of Mahavamsa became widely regarded as exemplary by the 20th century Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists because of his defense of Buddhism and the unification of Sri Lanka that journalists started talking about "the Mahavamsa mentality".


title: Buddhism and violence

text: D. S. Senanayake, who would become Sri Lanka's first prime minister in 1947, reaffirmed in 1939 the common Mahavamsa-based assumption of the Sinhalese Buddhist responsibility for the island's destiny by proclaiming that the Sinhalese Buddhists "are one blood and one nation. We are a chosen people. Buddha said that his religion would last for years. That means that we, as the custodians of that religion, shall last as long." Buddhists monks became increasingly involved in post-independence politics, promoting Sinhalese Buddhist interests, at the expense of minorities. Walpola Rahula, Sri Lanka's foremost Buddhist monk scholar and one of the leading proponents of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, played a major role in advocating for the involvement of monks in politics, using Buddhist king Dutthagamani's relationship with the sangha to bolster his position. Rahula also argued for a just war doctrine to protect Buddhism by using the example of wars waged by Dutthagamani to restore Buddhism. Rahula maintained that "the entire Sinhalese race was united under the banner of the young Gamini [Dutthagamani]. This was the beginning of nationalism among the Sinhalese. It was a new race with healthy young blood, organized under the new order of Buddhism. A kind of religionationalism, which almost amounted to fanaticism, roused the whole Sinhalese people. A non-Buddhist was not regarded as a human being. Evidently all Sinhalese without exception were Buddhists." In reflecting on Rahula's works, anthropologist H.L. Seneviratne wrote that "it suits Rahula to be an advocate of a Buddhism that glorifies social intercourse with lay society ... the receipt of salaries and other forms of material remuneration; ethnic exclusivism and Sinhala Buddhist hegemony; militancy in politics; and violence, war and the spilling of blood in the name of "preserving the religion"".


title: Buddhism and violence

text: In 1956, the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress (ACBC) released a report titled, "The Betrayal of Buddhism", inquiring into the status of Buddhism in the island. The report argued that Buddhism had been weakened by external threats such as the Tamil invaders mentioned in the Mahavamsa and later Western colonial powers. It also demanded the state to restore and foster Buddhism and to give preferential treatment to Buddhist schools. The same year, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike capitalized on the ACBC report and its recommendations as the foundation for his election campaign, using it as the 'blueprint for a broad spectrum of policy', which included introducing Sinhala as the sole official language of the state. With the help of significant number of Buddhist monks and various Sinhalese Buddhist organizations, Bandaranaike became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections. Bandaranaike had also campaigned on the basis of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, drawing influences from the writings of Dharmapala and the Mahavamsa, arguing that it was the duty of the government to preserve the Sinhalese Buddhist nature of the island's destiny. Once in power, Bandaranaike implemented the 1956 Sinhala Only Act, which would make Sinhala the country's official language and hence all official state transactions would be conducted in Sinhala. This put non-Sinhala speakers at a disadvantage for employment and educational opportunities. As a result, Tamils protested the policy by staging sit-ins, which in turn prompted counterdemonstrations by Buddhist monks, later degenerating into anti-Tamil riots in which more than one hundred people were injured and Tamil businesses were looted. Riots then spread throughout the country, killing hundreds of people. Bandaranaike tried to mitigate tensions over the language policy by proposing a compromise with the Tamil leaders, resulting in a 1957 pact that would allow the use of Tamil as an administrative language along with Sinhala and greater political autonomy for Tamils. Buddhist monks and other Sinhalese nationalists opposed this pact by staging mass demonstrations and hunger strikes. In an editorial in the same year, a monk asked Bandaranaike to read the Mahavamsa and to heed its lessons: "[Dutthagamani] conquered by the sword and united the land [Sri Lanka] without dividing it among our enemies [i.e. the Tamils] and established Sinhala and Buddhism as the state language and religion." In the late 1950s, it had become common for politicians and monks to exploit the Mahavamsa narrative of Dutthagamani to oppose any concession to the Tamil minorities.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: With Buddhist monks playing a major role in exerting pressure to abrogate the pact, Bandaranaike acceded to their demands on April 9, 1958 by tearing up "a copy of the pact in front of the assembled monks who clapped in joy". Soon after the pact was abrogated, another series of anti-Tamil riots spread throughout the country, which left hundreds dead and thousands displaced. Preceding the 1958 riots, rhetoric of monks contributed to the perception of Tamils being the enemies of the country and of Buddhism. Both Buddhist monks and laity laid the foundation for the justifiable use of force against Tamils in response to their demand for greater autonomy by arguing that the whole of Sri Lanka was a promised land of the Sinhalese Buddhists and it was the role of the monks to defend a united Sri Lanka. Tamils were also portrayed as threatening interlopers, compared to the Mahavamsa account of the usurper Tamil king Elara. Monks and politicians invoked the story of the Buddhist warrior king Dutthagamani to urge the Sinhalese to fight against Tamils and their claims to the island, thereby providing justification for violence against Tamils. As Tessa J. Bartholomeusz explained: "Tamil claims to a homeland were met with an ideology, linked to a Buddhist story, that legitimated war with just cause: the protection of Sri Lanka for the Sinhala-Buddhist people." In order to appease Tamils amidst the ethnic tension, Bandaranaike modified the Sinhala Only Act to allow Tamil to be used in education and government in Tamil areas, and as a result a Buddhist monk named Talduwe Somarama assassinated him on September 26, 1959. The monk claimed he carried out the assassination "for the greater good of his country, race and religion". It has also been suggested that the monk was guided in part by reading of the Mahavamsa.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Successive governments after Bandaranaike implemented a similar Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist agenda, at the expense of minorities. In 1972, the government rewrote its constitution and gave Buddhism "the foremost place [in the Republic of Sri Lanka]" and making it "the duty of the state to protect and foster Buddhism". With another pact in 1965 that sought to establish greater regional autonomy for Tamils being abrogated (some members of the Buddhist clergy were at the forefront in opposing the pact) and the implementation of discriminatory quota system in 1974 that severely restricted Tamil entrance to universities, Tamil youth became radicalized, calling for an independent homeland to be established in the Tamil-dominated northeastern region of the island. In 1977, anti-Tamil riots spread throughout the country, killing hundreds of Tamils and leaving thousands homeless. A leading monk claimed that one of the reasons for the anti-Tamil riots of 1977 was the Tamil demonization of the Sinhalese Buddhist epic hero Dutthagamani, which resulted in a justified retaliation. Another anti-Tamil riot erupted in 1981 in Jaffna, where Sinhalese police and paramilitaries destroyed statues of Tamil cultural and religious figures; looted and torched a Hindu temple and Tamil-owned shops and homes; killed four Tamils; and torched the Jaffna Public Library which was of great cultural significance to Tamils. In response to the militant separatist Tamil group LTTE killing 13 Sinhalese soldiers, the largest anti-Tamil pogrom occurred in 1983, leaving between 2,000 and 3,000 of Tamils killed and forcing from 70,000 to 100,000 Tamils into refugee camps, eventually propelling the country into a civil war between the LTTE and the predominately Sinhalese Buddhist Sri Lankan government. In the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, Buddhist monks lead rioters in some instance. Cyril Mathew, a Senior Minister in President Jayawardene's Cabinet and a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist who in the year preceding the pogrom reaffirmed the special relationship between Buddhism and Sinhalese and the Buddhist nature of the country, was also responsible for the pogrom. In the months following the anti-Tamil pogrom, authorizations for violence against Tamils began to appear in the press, with Tamils being depicted as interlopers on Dhammadipa. The Mahavamsa narrative of Dutthagamani and Elara was also invoked to justify violence against Tamils. The aftermath of the pogrom spawned debates over the rights to the island with the "sons of the soil" ideology being called into prominence. A government agent declared that Sri Lanka's manifest destiny "was to uphold the pristine doctrine of Theravada Buddhism". This implied that Sinhalese Buddhists had a sacred claim to Sri Lanka, while the Tamils did not, a claim which might call for violence. The Sinhalese Buddhists, including the Sri Lankan government, resisted the Tamil claim to a separate homeland of their own as the Sinhalese Buddhists maintained that the entire country belonged to them. Another government agent linked the then Prime Minister Jayewardene's attempts to thwart the emergence of a Tamil homeland to Dutthagamani's victory over Elara and went on to say, "[w]e will never allow the country to be divided", thereby justifying violence against Tamils.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: In the context of increasing Tamil militant struggle for separatism, militant Buddhist monks founded the Mavbima Surakime Vyaparaya (MSV) or "Movement for the Protection of the Motherland" in 1986 which sought to work with political parties "to maintain territorial unity of Sri Lanka and Sinhalese Buddhist sovereignty over the island". The MSV used the Mahavamsa to justify its goals, which included the usage of force to fight against the Tamil threat and defend the Buddhist state. In 1987, along with the MSV, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, a militant Sinhalese nationalist group which included monks) took up arms to protest the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord which sought to establish peace in Sri Lanka by requiring the Sri Lankan government to make a number of concessions to Tamil demands, including devolution of power to Tamil provinces. The JVP, with the support of the Sangha, launched a campaign of violent insurrection against the government to oppose the accord as the Sinhalese nationalists believed it would compromise the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: From the beginning of the civil war in 1983 to the end of it in 2009, Buddhist monks were involved in politics and opposed negotiations, ceasefire agreements, or any devolution of power to Tamil minorities, and most supported military solution to the conflict. This has led to Asanga Tilakaratne, head of the Department of Buddhist Philosophy in the Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies in Colombo, to remark that "the Sinhala Buddhist nationalists are ... opposed to any attempt to solve the ethnic problem by peaceful means; and they call for a 'holy war' against Tamils". It has been argued that the absence of opportunities for power sharing among the different ethnic groups in the island "has been one of the primary factors behind the intensification of the conflict". Numerous Buddhist religious leaders and Buddhist organizations since the country's independence have played a role in mobilizing against the devolution of power to the Tamils. Leading Buddhist monks opposed devolution of power that would grant regional autonomy to Tamils on the basis of Mahavamsa worldview that the entire country is a Buddhist promised land which belongs to the Sinhalese Buddhist people, along with the fear that devolution would eventually lead to separate country.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: The two major contemporary political parties to advocate for Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism are the JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or "National Heritage Party", the latter of which is composed solely of Buddhist monks. According to A. R. M. Imtiyaz, these groups share common goals: "to uphold Buddhism and establish a link between the state and religion, and to advocate a violent solution to the Tamil question and oppose all form of devolution to the minorities, particularly the Tamils". The JHU, in shunning non-violent solutions to the ethnic conflict, urged young Sinhalese Buddhists to sign up for the army, with as many as 30,000 Sinhalese young men doing just that. One JHU leader even declared that NGOs and certain government servants were traitors and they should be set on fire and burnt due to their opposition to a military solution to the civil war. The international community encouraged a federal structure for Sri Lanka as a peaceful solution to the civil war but any form of Tamil self-determination, even the more limited measure of autonomy, was strongly opposed by hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist groups such as the JVP and JHU, who pushed for the military solution. These groups in their hard-line support for a military solution to the conflict, without any regard for the plight of innocent Tamil civilians, have opposed negotiated settlement, ceasefire agreement, demanded that the Norwegians be removed as peace facilitators, demanded the war to be prosecuted more forcefully and exerted influence in the Rajapaksa government (which they helped to elect), resulting in the brutal military defeat of the LTTE with heavy civilian casualties. The nationalist monks' support of the government's military offense against the LTTE gave "religious legitimacy to the state's claim of protecting the island for the Sinhalese Buddhist majority." President Rajapaksa, in his war against the LTTE, has been compared to the Buddhist king Dutthagamani by the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Other minority groups have also come under attack by Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists. Fear of country's Buddhist hegemony being challenged by Christian proselytism has driven Buddhist monks and organizations to demonize Christian organizations, with one popular monk comparing missionary activity to terrorism; as a result, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists, including the JVP and JHU, who oppose attempts to convert Buddhists to another religion, support or conduct anti-Christian violence. The number of attacks against Christian churches rose from 14 in 2000 to over 100 in 2003. Dozens of these acts were confirmed by U.S. diplomatic observers. This anti-Christian violence was led by extremist Buddhist clergy and has included acts of "beatings, arson, acts of sacrilege, death threats, violent disruption of worship, stoning, abuse, unlawful restraint, and even interference with funerals". It has been noted that the strongest anti-West sentiments accompany the anti-Christian violence since the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists identify Christianity with the West which they think is conspiring to undermine Buddhism.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: In the postwar Sri Lanka, ethnic and religious minorities continue to face threat from Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. There have been continued sporadic attacks on Christian churches by Buddhist extremists who allege that Christians conduct unethical or forced conversion. The Pew Research Center has listed Sri Lanka among the countries with very high religious hostilities in 2012 due to the violence committed by Buddhist monks against Muslim and Christian places of worship. These acts included attacking a mosque and forcefully taking over a Seventh-day advent church and converting it into a Buddhist temple.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Extremist Buddhist leaders justify their attacks on the places of worship of minorities by arguing that Sri Lanka is the promised land of the Sinhalese Buddhists to safeguard Buddhism. The recently formed Buddhist extremist group, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Power Force, founded by Buddhist monks in 2012, has been accused of inciting the anti-Muslim riots that killed 4 Muslims and injured 80 in 2014. The leader of the BBS, in linking the government's military victory over the LTTE to the ancient Buddhist king conquest of Tamil king Elara, said that Tamils have been taught a lesson twice and warned other minorities of the same fate if they tried to challenge Sinhalese Buddhist culture. The BBS has been compared to the Taliban, accused of spreading extremism and communal hatred against Muslims and has been described as an "ethno-religious fascist movement". Buddhist monks have also protested against UN Human Rights Council resolution that called for an inquiry into humanitarian abuses and possible war crimes during the civil war. The BBS has received criticism and opposition from other Buddhist clergy and politicians. Mangala Samaraweera, a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2015, has accused the BBS of being "a representation of 'Taliban' terrorism" and of spreading extremism and communal hatred against Muslims. Samaraweera has also alleged that the BBS is secretly funded by the Ministry of Defence. Anunayake Bellanwila Wimalaratana, deputy incumbent of Bellanwila Rajamaha Viharaya and President of the Bellanwila Community Development Foundation, has stated that "The views of the Bodu Bala Sena are not the views of the entire Sangha community" and that "We don't use our fists to solve problems, we use our brains". Wataraka Vijitha Thero, a Buddhist monk who condemns violence against Muslims and heavily criticized the BBS and the government, has been attacked and tortured for his stances.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism is opposed to Sarvodaya, although they share many of the same influences like Dharmapāla's teachings for example, by having a focus upon Sinhalese culture and ethnicity sanctioning the use of violence in defence of dhamma, while Sarvodaya has emphasized the application of Buddhist values in order to transform society and campaigning for peace.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: These Buddhist nationalists have been opposed by the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, a self-governance movement led by the Buddhist Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne and based in Buddhist ideals, who condemn the use of violence and the denial of human rights to Tamils and other non-Buddhists. Ariyaratne calls for non-violent action and he has been actively working for peace in Sri Lanka for many decades, and has stated that the only way to peace is through "the dispelling of the view of 'I and mine' or the shedding of 'self' and the realization of the true doctrines of the interconnection between all animal species and the unity of all humanity", thus advocating social action in Buddhist terms. He stated in one of his lectures, "When we work towards the welfare of all the means we use have to be based on Truth, Non-violence and Selflessness in conformity with Awakening of All". What Ariyaratne advocates is losing the self in the service of others and attempting to bring others to awakening. Ariyaratne has stated, "I cannot awaken myself unless I help awaken others".


title: Buddhism and violence

text: The beginning of "Buddhist violence" in Japan relates to a long history of feuds among Buddhists. The sōhei or "warrior monks" appeared during the Heian period, although the seeming contradiction in being a Buddhist "warrior monk" caused controversy even at the time. More directly linked is that the Ikkō-shū movement was considered an inspiration to Buddhists in the Ikkō-ikki rebellion. In Osaka they defended their temple with the slogan "The mercy of Buddha should be recompensed even by pounding flesh to pieces. One's obligation to the Teacher should be recompensed even by smashing bones to bits!"


title: Buddhism and violence

text: During World War II, Japanese Buddhist literature from that time, as part of its support of the Japanese war effort, stated "In order to establish eternal peace in East Asia, arousing the great benevolence and compassion of Buddhism, we are sometimes accepting and sometimes forceful. We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent forcefulness of 'killing one in order that many may live' (issatsu tashō). This is something which Mahayana Buddhism approves of only with the greatest of seriousness..." Almost all Japanese Buddhists temples strongly supported Japan's militarization. These were heavily criticized by the Chinese Buddhists of the era, who disputed the validity of the statements made by those Japanese Buddhist supporters of the war. In response the Japanese Pan-Buddhist Society (Myowa Kai) rejected the criticism and stated that "We now have no choice but to exercise the benevolent forcefulness of 'killing one in order that many may live' (issatsu tashō)" and that the war was absolutely necessary to implement the dharma in Asia. The society re-examined more than 70 texts written by Nichiren and re-edited his writings, making changes in 208 places, cutting all the statements that disagreed with the state Shinto. In contrast, a few Japanese Buddhists such as Ichikawa Haku and Seno'o Girō opposed this and were targeted. During the 1940s, "leaders of the Honmon Hokkeshu and Soka Kyoiku Gakkai were imprisoned for their defiance of wartime government religious policy, which mandated display of reverence for the state Shinto".


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Brian Daizen Victoria, a Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect, documented in his book "Zen at War" how Buddhist institutions justified Japanese militarism in official publications and cooperated with the Imperial Japanese Army in the Russo-Japanese War and World War II. In response to the book, several sects issued an apology for their wartime support of the government.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: In more modern times instances of Buddhist-inspired terrorism or militarism have occurred in Japan, such as the assassinations of the League of Blood Incident led by Nissho Inoue, a Nichirenist or fascist-nationalist who preached a self-styled Nichiren Buddhism.


title: Buddhism and violence

text: Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese new religion and doomsday cult that was the cause of the Tokyo subway sarin attack that killed thirteen people and injured more than a thousand, drew upon a syncretic view of idiosyncratic interpretations of elements of early Indian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Hinduism, taking Shiva as the main image of worship, Christian millennialist ideas from the Book of Revelation, Yoga and the writings of Nostradamus. Its founder, Chizuo Matsumoto, claimed that he sought to restore "original Buddhism" and declared himself "Christ", Japan's only fully enlightened master and identified with the "Lamb of God". His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world, and he claimed he could transfer to his followers spiritual power and ultimately take away their sins and bad deeds. While many discount Aum Shinrikyo's Buddhist characteristics and affiliation to Buddhism, scholars often refer to it as an offshoot of Japanese Buddhism, and this was how the movement generally defined and saw itself.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: Khuda Aur Muhabbat (; ) is a Pakistani spiritual-romantic drama series that aired on Geo Entertainment, 2011. It is based upon novel of the same name written by Hashim Nadeem. Imran Abbas Naqvi and Sadia Khan are featured as the lead role in the first season joined by Kubra Khan, Feroze Khan, Iqra Aziz, Junaid Khan in later seasons.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: Khuda Aur Mohabbat's season1 has a spiritual-love story of two star-struck lovers. Hammad belongs to an elite family and has recently completed his Bachelor's in Commerce. Hammad's strange encounter with Imaan, the daughter of Moulvi Aleemuddin, brings an immense change in his life. Hammad's love at first sight with Imaan eventually leads him to leave his family and his lavish lifestyle as he struggles to be accepted by Imaan's family. After leaving his house, Hammad takes a job at a porter which requires hard labour. In the quest to be suitable for Imaan, Hammad finds spirituality and the true meaning of religion along the way. Despite Hammad's efforts, Moulvi Aleem refuses to understand the idea of love marriage and is unable to forgive Hammad for being in love with Imaan. Due to family pressure, Imaan is forced to marry her cousin Abdullah and begs Hammad to return to his own family. Hammad unable to subside his affection for Imaan is adamant on marrying her. Under nerve-racking circumstances and constant tribulations, Imaan, unable to disobey her father and concurrently feeling sympathy for Hammad, falls critically ill. Meanwhile, Hammad constantly disagrees to return to his home, further aiding in the helplessness felt by Imaan.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: In the aftermath, Imaan is unable to recover from the burden on her heart and eventually dies. Hammad, left shocked by this incident goes into paralysis.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: Two new characters are introduced, Farhad and Mahi who hail from completely different economic and cultural backgrounds. Mahi, who comes from an influential family, must adhere to the conventions and requirements of her family’s class despite her true jovial nature. Farhad on the other hand belongs to a small town and is instantly drawn to the charismatic Mahi and soon forsakes everything for her. Though Mahi appreciates Farhad’s efforts, she does not have the same feelings for him. In the quest to win Mahi’s heart, Farhad finds himself forming a special bond with his creator and becomes a devotee of love.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: It was confirmed that season 2 of the series is in development and will be released in late 2016. Syed Ali Raza Usama was reported to direct the season while Imran Abbas and Sadia Khan confirmed returning as Hammad and Imaan. Later on, Kubra Khan also joined the cast as parallel lead. When asked about the plot of this season, Abbas clarified that the season will repeat the events of first season however they are more detailed this time.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: Babar Javed announced the next season with Imran returning. However it was revealed that Babar was replaced by Abdullah Kadwani as Head of the network. Abdullah revamped the whole project by casting Feroze Khan, Iqra Aziz as lead actors for the season with Syed Wajahat Hussain, directing the season, produce under Abdullah's own production house, 7th Sky Entertainment. Besides Feroze and Iqra, Junaid Khan, Tooba Siddiqui, Sunita Marshall, Asma Abbas and Rubina Ashraf were also reportedly going to join the cast. On September 1, 2020. Feroze posted a pictures on his social media from the sets of the series revealing his character look in the season. The first teaser was released on January 1, 2021 at 08:00pm (PST).


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: The original soundtrack of Khuda Aur Mohabbat's season 1 was sung by Ahmed Jahanzeb while the lyrics were penned by producer, Javeria Saud.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: The original soundtrack of Khuda Aur Mohabbat's season 2 is composed and sung by Ahmed Jahanzeb and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Afshan Fawad while the lyrics are penned down by the producer Javeria Saud.


title: Khuda Aur Muhabbat

text: The original soundtrack of Khuda Aur Mohabbat's season 3 was released on January 29, 2021 at 08:00pm (PST). The OST is composed by Naveed Nashad and lyrics are penned down by Qamar Nashad and it is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Nish Asher. It achieved more than million views within 15 hours. It currently has over 125million views on YouTube, making it Geo's most popular video on YouTube.


title: Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll

text: Kyoto Animation revealed in April 2019 a side story film, with Fujita being announced as its director. The film was completed a day before one of their buildings was arsoned in July 2019. Kotobuki and Yūki were revealed as part of the returning cast of "Violet Evergarden" anime television series in August 2019 to voice the new characters.


text: "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" premiered in Germany on August 3, 2019, and was released in Japan on September 6. The film grossed over million worldwide. A sequel film, "", was released in Japan on September 18, 2020.


text: Violet Evergarden is sent to a prestigious girls' boarding school by request of the Drossel royal family to assist one of the students, Isabella York, in her training as a debutante. As Violet accompanies Isabella, it becomes clear that she does not like attending the school since she finds it difficult to fit in and has no interest in learning any of the skills required for a debutante. She also is not in good health, as she suffers from periodic coughing fits. Isabella is initially distrustful of Violet but becomes more accepting of her when she realizes Violet is not interested in her aristocratic status. Isabella later reveals to Violet that she was Amy Bartlett, an illegitimate child of the York family. She used to live in poverty and adopted an orphan, Taylor, as her younger sister. However, the York family later tracked her down and asked her to join the family, with them promising a better life for Taylor in return. Realizing she couldn't properly care for Taylor, Isabella reluctantly accepted. Isabella then has Violet write a letter for Taylor. With her job done, Violet returns to Leiden. Benedict Blue delivers the letter to Taylor, who now lives at an orphanage.


text: Three years later, Taylor makes her way to Leiden to find the CH Postal Company, where she finally meets Violet and asks to work as a postman. While reluctant to hire a child, Claudia Hodgins allows Violet's request to let Taylor work at the company until he can arrange her return to her orphanage, and assigns Benedict to train her. After taking Taylor along his route, Benedict realizes that Taylor cannot read, meaning she wouldn't be able to read addresses on letters. Violet then decides to teach Taylor. The next day, Violet takes Taylor on a new delivery route. Taylor tells Violet she wants to be a postman so that she can "deliver happiness", just like Benedict did when he delivered Isabella's letter to her. Violet then helps Taylor write a letter to Isabella, and Benedict agrees to track her down to deliver it. Benedict obtains a new motorcycle from Hodgins and takes Taylor with him to find Isabella. Benedict delivers the letter, but Taylor decides not to meet her yet until she becomes a real postman so she can deliver her letters herself. Taylor is later adopted by the Evergarden family, while Violet and Benedict continue their work.


text: Haruka Fujita was revealed to be directing a side-story film that would tell "another story" of Violet Evergarden at Kyoto Animation in April 2019, after previously serving as the series director of the 2018 anime television series "Violet Evergarden". The film adapted the second chapter of "Violet Evergarden Gaiden" light novel volume by Kana Akatsuki. It was originally intended to be a two-episode, 20-minute-long original video animation, but the staff invested excessively in the world that was to be explored in the plot, thus it was expanded into a feature-length film. Fujita proposed to film with a 2.31:1 screen ratio instead of that was previously used for "Violet Evergarden" anime series. The staff did location scouting in Germany, with Fujita explaining that the country was a "different world; the animals are different, the doors are larger than you could imagine, the ceilings are high, and the walls are thick" as compared to the modern parts of Japan.


text: The film was completed on July 17, 2019, a day before the arson attack at one of the studio's buildings. In light of the massacre, Fujita requested to credit all the staff members who participated in the production of the film despite the studio's mandate of crediting only the individuals with more than one year of experience in their previous works. The film's staff was revealed in August 2019, including screenwriters Takaaki Suzuki and Tatsuhiko Urahata, character designer Akiko Takase, and cinematographer Kōhei Funamoto. In the same month, the cast of "Violet Evergarden" was revealed to be reprising their roles in the film, with Minako Kotobuki and Aoi Yūki joining them to respectively voice the new characters, Isabella York and Taylor Bartlett.


text: Evan Call composed the music for "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll", while Minori Chihara performed the film's ending theme music titled . The single was released in Japan on September 4, 2019. The film's original soundtrack is included in Call's soundtrack album titled "Violet Evergarden: Echo Through Eternity", which was released in Japan on October 21, 2020.


text: A key visual for "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" was released in July 2019. Violet Evergarden's voice actress Yui Ishikawa, singers True and Aira Yūki, and producer Shigeru Saitō attended the film's world premiere in Germany in August 2019 to promote its release. In the same month, a trailer for the film was released. A set of stage greetings for the film's release in Japan began in September 2019, starting at Shinjuku Piccadilly theater. Four short-story booklets written by Akatsuki were given to the moviegoers who viewed the film in Japan: , , , and .


text: "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" held its world premiere at the AnimagiC convention in Germany on August 3, 2019. The organizers revealed that the decision to continue the film's release following the arson attack at Kyoto Animation was "at the express request of the studio". The film was released in Japan on September 6, 2019, and was set to screen for three weeks from the original two-week theatrical run, but it was extended beyond four weeks instead. The film was screened in China on January 10, 2020, making it the first film from Kyoto Animation to be released in the country. The film was released in the United States by Funimation on February 17, 2020, and in the United Kingdom by Anime Limited on March 1.


text: "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" was released on Blu-ray and DVD in Japan on March 18, 2020. It includes the fifth short-story booklet written by Akatsuki titled . Netflix began streaming the film on April 2, 2020, while Funimation released it on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital in the United States on December 1. Anime Limited released the Blu-ray collector's edition for the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 9, 2021, and the standard edition on December 12, 2022.


text: "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" grossed million in Japan and million in other territories, for a worldwide total of million.


text: The film ranked sixth in its opening weekend in Japan, placing behind "" (2019). It earned in its second weekend, dropping to eighth place, and in its third weekend. Outside Japan, the film earned million and ranked third in its opening weekend in China.


text: "Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll" ranked first in premiere satisfaction surveys conducted by the Japanese magazine "Pia" and survey firm Filmarks.


text: Daryl Harding of Crunchyroll lauded the film for its animation, direction, and music, feeling that its 90-minute runtime was not stretched out. He praised the character growth among the existing cast and the new ones that might not appear in future installments. Kim Morrisy of Anime News Network graded the film 'B+', feeling that the "[b]ittersweet theme of treasuring ephemeral experiences is powerful" and lauding its "great production values and direction". However, she felt that the two stories focusing first on Isabella York and second on Taylor Bartlett were "representative of the series' strengths and flaws" due to being "disjointed" and having a "weak transition" between them.


text: In March 2018, a project based on the light novel series was reported to be "in progress". The project was revealed in July 2018 to be an anime film. Produced by Kyoto Animation, "Violet Evergarden: The Movie" is directed by Taichi Ishidate from a script written by Reiko Yoshida. The film was released in Japan on September 18, 2020, after two delays due to the arson attack and the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Namur

text: Namur (; ; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration.


title: Namur

text: Namur stands at the confluence of the rivers Sambre and Meuse and straddles three different regions – Hesbaye to the north, Condroz to the south-east, and Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse to the south-west. The city of Charleroi is located to the west. The language spoken is French.


title: Namur

text: The municipality consists of the following districts: Beez, Belgrade, Boninne, Bouge, Champion, Cognelée, Daussoulx, Dave, Erpent, Flawinne, Gelbressée, Jambes, Lives-sur-Meuse, Loyers, Malonne, Marche-les-Dames, Naninne, Saint-Servais, Saint-Marc, Suarlée, Temploux, Vedrin, Wépion, and Wierde.


title: Namur

text: The town began as an important trading settlement in Celtic times, straddling east–west and north–south trade routes across the Ardennes. The Romans established a presence after Julius Caesar defeated the local Aduatuci tribe.


title: Namur

text: Namur came to prominence during the early Middle Ages when the Merovingians built a castle or citadel on the rocky spur overlooking the town at the confluence of the two rivers. In the 10th century, it became a county in its own right. The town developed somewhat unevenly, as the counts of Namur could only build on the north bank of the Meuse - the south bank was owned by the bishops of Liège and developed more slowly into the town of Jambes (now effectively a suburb of Namur). In 1262, Namur fell into the hands of the Count of Flanders, and was purchased by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1421.


title: Namur

text: After Namur became part of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1640s, its citadel was considerably strengthened. Louis XIV of France invaded in 1692, capturing the town and annexing it to France. His renowned military engineer Vauban rebuilt the citadel. French control was short-lived, as William III of Orange-Nassau captured Namur only three years later in 1695 during the War of the Grand Alliance. Under the Barrier Treaty of 1709, the Dutch gained the right to garrison Namur, although the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 gave control of the formerly Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian House of Habsburg. Thus, although the Austrians ruled the town, the citadel was controlled by the Dutch. It was rebuilt again under their tenure.


title: Namur

text: General Jean-Baptiste Cyrus de Valence's column laid siege to the city on 19 November 1792 during the War of the First Coalition and, after 12 days, the city surrendered on 1 December and its whole garrison of 3,000 men was taken prisoner. France invaded the region again in 1794, annexing Namur and imposing a repressive regime. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna incorporated what is now Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgium broke away from the Netherlands in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, and Namur continued to be a major garrison town under the new government. The citadel was rebuilt yet again in 1887.


title: Namur

text: Namur was a major target of the German invasion of Belgium in 1914, which sought to use the Meuse valley as a route into France. On August 21, 1914, the Germans bombarded the town of Namur without warning. Several people were killed. Despite being billed as virtually impregnable, the citadel fell after only three days' fighting and the town was occupied by the Germans for the rest of the war. Namur fared little better in World War II; it was in the front lines of both the Battle of the Ardennes in 1940 and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The town suffered heavy damage in both wars.


title: Namur

text: After the creation of the Walloon Region, Namur was chosen as the seat of its executive and parliament. In 1986, Namur was officially declared capital of Wallonia. Its position as regional capital was confirmed by the Parliament of Wallonia in 2010.


title: Namur

text: Namur is an important commercial and industrial centre, located on the Walloon industrial backbone, the Sambre and Meuse valley. It produces machinery, leather goods, metals and porcelain. Its railway station is also an important junction situated on the north–south line between Brussels and Luxembourg City, and the east–west line between Lille and Liège. River barge traffic passes through the middle of the city along the Meuse.


title: Namur

text: Namur has taken on a new role as the capital of the federal region of Wallonia. Its location at the head of the Ardennes has also made it a popular tourist centre, with a casino located in its southern district on the left bank of the Meuse.


title: Namur

text: The town's most prominent sight is the Citadel of Namur, now demilitarised and open to the public. Namur also has a distinctive 18th-century cathedral dedicated to Saint Aubain and a belfry classified by UNESCO as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France which are listed as a World Heritage Site.


title: Namur

text: The Couvent des Soeurs de Notre-Dame used to contain masterpieces of Mosan art by Hugo d'Oignies, currently presented in the Musée des Arts Anciens (Rue de Fer). Elsewhere there is an archeological museum and a museum dedicated to Félicien Rops.


title: Namur

text: An odd Namurois custom is the joust on stilts (dating back to 1411) practiced by the stiltwalkers of Namur. The annual Combat de l'Échasse d'Or ("Fight for the Golden Stilt"), held on the third Sunday in September, is the most important joust of the year. Two teams, the Mélans and the Avresses, dress in medieval clothes while standing on stilts and do battle in one of the town's principal squares. Since 2021, Namur stilt jousts are registered on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.


title: Namur

text: Namur possesses a distinguished university, the University of Namur (previously known as the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, FUNDP), founded in 1831. The University of Louvain (UCLouvain) also has several facilities in the city through its UCLouvain Namur University Hospital (CHU UCLouvain Namur), the provinces' largest employer.


title: Namur

text: Since 1986 Namur has been home to the Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film. A jazz (Nam'in'Jazz) and a rock (Verdur Rock) festival both take place in Namur annually.


title: Namur

text: The annual Namur cyclo-cross race, part of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, takes place on the hills around the citadel.


title: Namur

text: Sights near Namur include Maredsous Abbey, Floreffe Abbey, and Annevoie Castle with its surrounding "Jardins d'Annevoie".


title: AdGuard

text: Developed by AdGuard Software Limited, AdGuard offers open-source, free, and shareware products. AdGuard's DNS app supports Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. AdGuard is also available as a browser extension.


title: AdGuard

text: AdGuard Software Limited was founded in 2009 in Moscow. In 2014 AdGuard Software Limited's products became available in Cyprus to where its headquarters were subsequently moved.


title: AdGuard

text: AdGuard Home acts as a recursive DNS resolver, which responds with an invalid address for domains that appear in its filter lists quests. It is similar to Pi-hole.


title: AdGuard

text: The browser extension blocks video ads, interstitial ads, floating ads, pop-ups, banners, and text ads. There is a possibility to handle anti-AdBlock scripts. The product also blocks spyware and warns users of malicious websites. AdGuard Content Blocker is an additional browser extension for browsers Yandex Browser and Samsung Internet, which uses Content Blocker API. It downloads filter list updates and asks browsers to enforce them via Content Blocker API.


title: AdGuard

text: AdGuard has Windows and Mac versions, as well as native mobile versions for Android and iOS. The application sets up a local VPN, which filters all traffic on the mobile device.


title: AdGuard

text: AdGuard operates recursive name servers for public use. AdGuard DNS supports encryption technologies, including DNSCrypt, DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS, and DNS-over-QUIC. AdGuard began testing DNS service back in 2016, and officially launched it in 2018.


title: AdGuard

text: While the company's products have earned positive feedback in industry publications, a series of policies by Google and Apple app stores occurred in 2014 - 2018, which impeded user access to AdGuard's mobile applications.


title: AdGuard

text: In April 2020, Android Central stated that AdGuard uses "a little more processing power to do its thing than uBlock Origin", but it is "the best all-in-one blocking tool for someone who doesn't want to use more than one extension" because it blocks cryptomining. However, Android Central recommended uBlock Origin with a dedicated cryptomining blocker over AdGuard.


title: AdGuard

text: In November 2020, Microsoft Edge Store and Chrome web store were infiltrated with fraudulent add-ons posing as various legitimate VPN browser add-ons, including NordVPN and AdGuard's VPN add-on. Subsequently Microsoft and Google were alerted and actions were taken to remove the imposter add-ons in the various browser stores.


title: AdGuard

text: AdGuard developers have taken up research in order to inform wider audiences on user privacy, cybersecurity and data protection. The following issues are notable cases involving the developers:


title: Nick Hendrix

text: Nick Hendrix (born 19 March 1985) is an English actor, best known for his role as Detective Sergeant Jamie Winter in the ITV police detective show "Midsomer Murders".


title: Nick Hendrix

text: Hendrix was born in Ascot, Berkshire. He grew up in Eton, near Windsor. Hendrix is the nephew of former newscaster Alastair Stewart.


title: Nick Hendrix

text: Hendrix earned a BA in drama at the University of Exeter. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) with a BA in acting in 2010.


title: Nick Hendrix

text: Hendrix appeared in several productions whilst training at RADA, including: "Company", "Measure for Measure", "Alcestis", "The Recruiting Officer", "Look Homeward, Angel", "Macbeth", and "The White Stocking".


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal (Russian:Волго-Донской судоходный канал имени, "В. И. Ленина, Volga-Donskoy soudokhodniy kanal imeni V. I. Lenina", abbreviated ВДСК, "VDSK") is a ship canal in Russia. It connects the Volga and the Don at their closest points. Opened in 1952, its length is , of which is through rivers and reservoirs.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The canal forms a part of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. Together with the lower Volga and the lower Don, the canal provides the shortest navigable connection between the Caspian Sea and the world's oceans, if the Mediterranean is counted, via the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The existence of fortified settlement Tanais in the Don River delta, present since a time in the Bosporan Kingdom 438 BC–


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: 370 AD, strongly suggests the route may have been notable enough to be fortified for more than two thousand years. The Sarkel fortress, on the near (left bank) of the lower Don, was the main control of this Volga trade route.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: In 1569, the Ottoman Empire attempted to connect the Volga and Don rivers via a canal. The Ottomans wanted to create a maritime link to Central Asia (especially the cities of Bukhara, Khwarazm and Samarkand) to facilitate trade. Together with a proposed Suez canal, the Volga-Don canal would also allow Central Asian Muslims to perform pilgrimage to Mecca. According to most historians, the Ottomans managed to dig one-third of the canal, before work was abandoned due to adverse weather. Other historians argue that the Ottomans merely leveled the ground so they could haul ships between the two rivers. In the end, the Ottomans retreated from the area and Russia promised to respect trade and pilgrimage routes to Central Asia.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The first Russian attempts to connect the Volga and Don rivers were ordered by Peter the Great. After capturing Azov in 1696, he decided to build a canal, later named Petrov Val, on the Ilovlya River (a left tributary of the Don) and the Kamyshinka river (right tributary of the Volga). Compared to the canal it was much shorter, connecting a gap of 4 kilometers (2.5 mi), but due to a lack of resources and other problems, this attempt was abandoned in 1701. He initiated a second attempt (the so-called Ivanovsky Canal between Yepifan and Ivan-Ozero) under the administration of Knyaz Matvey Gagarin. However it was too shallow, as it was on the upper Don and the upper Volga via the tributaries the Oka River, the Upa River, and the Shat River in the modern Tula Oblast. Between 1702 and 1707, twenty-four locks were constructed, and in 1707, about 300 ships passed through with difficulty. In 1709 due to financial difficulties caused by the Great Northern War, the project was halted.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: In 1711, under the terms of the Treaty of the Pruth, Russia left Azov and Peter the Great lost all interest in the canal, which was abandoned and fell into ruin. Over time, other projects for connecting the two rivers were proposed, but none were attempted. However, Dubovsko-Kachalinsky railway, which was horse-drawn railway and Volga–Don railway, which is now part of the South Eastern Railway were built in 1846 and 1852 respectively in order link the Volga and the Don at the shortest distance. They were 68 km and 73 km long respectively.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The construction of today's Volga–Don Canal, designed by Sergey Zhuk's Hydroproject Institute, began prior to the Second World War, which interrupted the process. Construction works continued from 1948 to 1952 and the canal was opened on 1 June 1952. The canal and its facilities were built by about 900,000 workers including some 100,000 German POWs and 100,000 gulag prisoners. A day spent at the construction yard was counted as three days in prison, which spurred the prisoners to work. Several convicts were even awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour upon their release.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: Upon completion, the Volga–Don Canal became an important link in the Unified Deep Water Transportation System of the European part of the USSR.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The canal starts at the Sarepta backwater of the Volga, south of Volgograd where Lock No. 1 and the gateway arch are at . It ends in the Tsimlyansk Reservoir of the Don at the town of Kalach-na-Donu. The canal's highest elevation is the Varverovskoye (Barbarian) Reservoir between locks 9 and 10, above the Volga and above the Don rivers. It uses nine one-chamber canal locks on the Volga slope to raise/lower ships , and four canal locks of the same kind on the Don slope that raise/lower ships from river height. The overall dimensions of the locks are smaller than those on the Volga River, however they can bear ships of up to 5,000 tonnes cargo capacity.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The smallest locks are long, wide, and deep. The maximum allowed vessel size is long, wide and deep (the "Volgo–Don Max Class").


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The canal is filled from the Don, with three powerful pumping stations that maintain water levels. Water is also taken from the canal and used for irrigation.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: Cargo transported from the Don region to the Volga include: coal from Donetsk, Ukraine, minerals (both directions), building materials, and grain. Cargo transported from the Volga to the Don includes lumber, pyrites, and petroleum products (carried mostly by Volgotanker boats).


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The canal and the Tsimlyansky water-engineering system (whose chief architect was Leonid Polyakov), form part of an architectural ensemble dedicated to the battles for Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War and for Stalingrad during the German-Soviet War.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: The Russian classical composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote the tone poem "The Meeting of the Volga and the Don" to celebrate its completion.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: According to the Maritime Board ("Morskaya Kollegiya") of the Russian government, 10.9 million tonnes of cargo were carried over the Volga–Don Canal in 2004.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: An alternate source claims 8.05 million tonnes of cargo was transported through the canal in 2006. Most of the cargo was moved from the east to the west: 7.20 million tonnes, and only 0.85 million tonnes the reverse. Just over half of all cargo was oil or oil products (4.14 million tonnes), predominantly shipped from the Caspian region.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: It was reported in 2007 that in the first 55 years of the canal's operations 450,000 vessels had passed through carrying 336 million tonnes of cargo. Recent cargo volume stood at 12 million tonnes a year.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: In 2016, the core of Belarusian nuclear power plant VVER-1200, which weighed 330 tonnes, was 13 meters high, and 4.5 meters in diameter, was transferred to its destination by exploiting Tsimlyansk Reservoir, the Volga–Don Canal, the Volga–Baltic Waterway, and two other connections.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: In the 1980s, construction started on a second canal between the rivers. The new canal, dubbed Volga–Don 2 (; ) would start from the township of Yerzovka on the Volgograd Reservoir, north (upstream) of the Volga Dam, as opposed to the existing Volga–Don Canal that starts south (downstream) of the dam. This would cut the number of locks that ships coming from the Volgograd Reservoir, or from any other Volga or Kama port farther north, would have to traverse on their way to the Don. The project was abruptly cancelled on 1 August 1990 to cut expenditure, by which time more than 40 percent of its funds had already been spent. Since then most of the stone and metal in the abandoned canal and its locks has been looted.


title: Volga–Don Canal

text: As of 2007–2008, Russian authorities are considering two options for increasing the throughput of navigable waterways between the Caspian basin and the Black Sea. One option, which reuses the name "Volga–Don 2", is to build a second parallel channel ("second thread") of the Volga–Don Canal, equipped with larger locks long. This plan would allow for an increase in the canal's annual cargo throughput from 16.5 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes. The other option, which seems to have more support from Kazakhstan, who would be either canal's major customer, is to build the so-called Eurasia Canal along a more southerly route in the Kuma–Manych Depression, some of which is the much shallower Manych Ship Canal. Needing less digging than the first option and of little use to traffic to and from the Volga, it would provide a speedier connection between the Caspian and the Sea of Azov. It would also require fewer locks than the Volga–Don, as elevations in the Kuma–Manych Depression are lower.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The NASA COTS award was for and Orbital Sciences expected to invest an additional $150 million, split between $130 million for the booster and $20 million for the spacecraft. A Commercial Resupply Service contract of $1.9 billion for eight flights was awarded in 2008. As of April 2012, development costs were estimated at $472 million.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: In June 2008, it was announced that the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, formerly part of the Wallops Flight Facility, in Virginia, would be the primary launch site for the rocket. Launch pad 0A (LP-0A), previously used for the failed Conestoga rocket, would be modified to handle Antares. Wallops allows launches which reach the International Space Station's orbit as effectively as those from Cape Canaveral, Florida, while being less crowded. The first Antares flight launched a Cygnus mass simulator.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: On December 10, 2009, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) test-fired their Castor 30 motor for use on the second stage of the Antares rocket. In March 2010, Orbital Sciences and Aerojet completed test firings of the AJ-26 engines. On February 22, 2013, a hot fire test was successfully performed, the entire first stage being erected on the pad and held down while the engines fired for 29 seconds.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The first stage of Antares burns RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX). As Orbital had little experience with large liquid stages and LOX propellant, the first stage core was designed and is manufactured in Ukraine by KB Pivdenne and Pivdenmash and includes propellant tanks, pressurization tanks, valves, sensors, feed lines, tubing, wiring and other associated hardware. Like the Zenit—also manufactured by Yuzhmash—the Antares vehicle has a diameter of with a matching 3.9 m payload fairing.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The Antares 100-series first stage was powered by two Aerojet AJ26 engines. These began as Kuznetsov NK-33 engines built in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and early 1970s, 43 of which were purchased by Aerojet in the 1990s. Twenty of these were refurbished into AJ26 engines for Antares. Modifications included equipping the engines for gimballing, adding US electronics, and qualifying the engines to fire for twice as long as designed and to operate at 108% of their original thrust. Together they produced of thrust at sea level and in vacuum.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Following the catastrophic failure of an AJ26 during testing at Stennis Space Center in May 2014 and the Orb-3 launch failure in October 2014, likely caused by an engine turbopump, the Antares 100-series was retired.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Because of concerns over corrosion, aging, and the limited supply of AJ26 engines, Orbital had selected new first stage engines to bid on a second major long-term contract for cargo resupply of the ISS. After the loss of the Antares rocket in October 2014, Orbital Sciences announced that the Russian RD-181—a modified version of the RD-191—would replace the AJ-26 on the Antares 200-series. The first flight of the Antares 230 configuration using the RD-181 happened on October 17, 2016, carrying the Cygnus OA-5 cargo to the ISS.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The Antares 200 and 200+ first stages are powered by two RD-181 engines, which provide more thrust than the dual AJ26 engines used on the Antares 100. Orbital adapted the existing core stage to accommodate the increased performance in the 200 Series, allowing Antares to deliver up to to low Earth orbit. The surplus performance of the Antares 200-series will allow Orbital to fulfill its ISS resupply contract in only four additional flights, rather than the five that would have been required with the Antares 100-series.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: While the 200 series adapted the originally ordered 100 Series stages (KB Pivdenne/Pivdenmash, Zenit derived), it requires under-throttling the RD-181 engines, which reduces performance.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The Antares was upgraded to the Antares 230+ for the NASA Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract. NG-12, launched November 2, 2019, was the first NASA CRS-2 mission to ISS using the 230+ upgrades. The most significant upgrades were structural changes to the intertank bay (between the and RP-1 tanks) and the forward bay (forward of the ). Additionally, the company is working on trajectory improvements via a "load-release autopilot" that will provide greater mass to orbit capability.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: In August 2022, Northrop Grumman announced that it had contracted Firefly Aerospace to build the 300-series first stage, which is similar to Firefly's in-development Beta launch vehicle, and features the same composite structures as well as seven Miranda engines producing of thrust — substantially greater than the previous 200-series first stage. Northrop Grumman states that the new first stage substantially increases the mass capability of Antares.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The announcement occurred as a result of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has jeopardized supply chains for the previous first stages, which are manufactured in Ukraine and use RD-181 engines from Russia.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The second stage is an Orbital ATK Castor 30-series solid-fuel rocket, developed as a derivative of the Castor 120 solid motor used as Minotaur-C's first stage, itself based on a LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM first stage. The first two flights of Antares used a Castor 30A, which was replaced by the enhanced Castor 30B for subsequent flights. The Castor 30B produces average and maximum thrust, and uses electromechanical thrust vector control. For increased performance, the larger Castor 30XL is available and will be used on ISS resupply flights to allow Antares to carry the Enhanced Cygnus.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The Castor 30XL upper stage for Antares 230+ is being optimized for the CRS-2 contract. The initial design of the Castor 30XL was conservatively built, and after gaining flight experience it was determined that the structural component of the motor case could be lightened.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Antares offers three optional third stages: the Bi-Propellant Third Stage (BTS), a Star 48-based third stage and an Orion 38 motor. BTS is derived from Orbital Sciences' GEOStar spacecraft bus and uses nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine for propellant; it is intended to precisely place payloads into their final orbits. The Star 48-based stage uses a Star 48BV solid rocket motor and would be used for higher energy orbits. The Orion 38 is used on the Minotaur and Pegasus rockets as an upper stage.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The diameter, high fairing is manufactured by Northrop Grumman of Iuka, Mississippi, which also builds other composite structures for the vehicle, including the combined fairing adapter, dodecagon, motor cone, and interstage.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: On January 14, 2016, NASA awarded three cargo contracts via CRS-2. Orbital ATK's Cygnus was one of these contracts.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: According to Mark Pieczynski, Orbital ATK Vice President, Flight Systems Group, "A further improved version [of Antares for CRS-2 contract] is in development which will include: Stage 1 core updates including structural reinforcements and optimization to accommodate increased loads. (Also) certain refinements to the RD-181 engines and CASTOR 30XL motor; and Payload accommodations improvements including a 'pop-top' feature incorporated in the fairing to allow late Cygnus cargo load and optimized fairing adapter structure".


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Previously, it was understood that these planned upgrades from the Antares 230 series would create a vehicle known as the Antares 300 series. However, when asked specifically about Antares 300 series development, Mr. Pieczynski stated that Orbital ATK has "not determined to call the upgrades, we are working on, a 300 series. This is still TBD".


title: Antares (rocket)

text: In May 2018, the Antares program manager Kurt Eberly indicated that the upgrades will be referred to as Antares 230+.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The first two test flights used a Castor 30A second stage. All subsequent flights will use either a Castor 30B or Castor 30XL. The rocket's configuration is indicated by a three-digit number and a possible "+" suffix, the first number representing the first stage, the second the type of second stage, and the third the type of third stage. A + sign added as suffix (fourth position) signifies performance upgrades to the Antares 230 variant.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Originally scheduled for 2012, the first Antares launch, designated "A-ONE" was conducted on April 21, 2013, carrying the Cygnus Mass Simulator (a boilerplate Cygnus spacecraft) and four CubeSats contracted by Spaceflight Incorporated: Dove 1 for Cosmogia Incorporated (now Planet Labs) and three PhoneSat satellites – Alexander, Graham and Bell for NASA.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Prior to the launch, a 27-second test firing of the rocket's AJ26 engines was conducted successfully on February 22, 2013, following an attempt on February 13 which was abandoned before ignition.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: "A-ONE" used the Antares 110 configuration, with a Castor 30A second stage and no third stage. The launch took place from Pad 0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. LP-0A was a former Conestoga launch complex which had only been used once before, in 1995, for the Conestoga's only orbital launch attempt. Antares became the largest — and first — liquid-fuelled rocket to fly from Wallops Island, as well as the largest rocket launched by Orbital Sciences.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The first attempt to launch the rocket, on April 17, 2013, was scrubbed after an umbilical detached from the rocket's second stage, and a second attempt on April 20 was scrubbed due to high altitude winds. At the third attempt on April 21, the rocket lifted off at the beginning of its launch window. The launch window for all three attempts was three hours beginning at 21:00 UTC (17:00 EDT), shortening to two hours at the start of the terminal count, and ten minutes later in the count.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: On October 28, 2014, the attempted launch of an Antares carrying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft on the Orb-3 resupply mission failed catastrophically six seconds after liftoff from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. An explosion occurred in the thrust section just as the vehicle cleared the tower, and it fell back down onto the launch pad. The range safety officer sent the destruct command just before impact. There were no injuries. Orbital Sciences reported that Launch Pad 0A "escaped significant damage", though initial estimates for repairs were in the $20 million range. Orbital Sciences formed an anomaly investigation board to investigate the cause of the incident. They traced it to a failure of the first stage LOX turbopump, but could not find a specific cause. However, the refurbished NK-33 engines, originally manufactured over 40 years earlier and stored for decades, were suspected as having leaks, corrosion, or manufacturing defects that had not been detected. The NASA Accident Investigation Report was more direct in its failure assessment. On October 6, 2015, almost one year after the accident, Pad 0A was restored to use. Total repair costs were about $15 million.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: Following the failure, Orbital sought to purchase launch services for its Cygnus spacecraft in order to satisfy its cargo contract with NASA, and on December 9, 2014, Orbital announced that at least one, and possibly two, Cygnus flights would be launched on Atlas V rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As it happened, Cygnus OA-4 and Cygnus OA-6 were launched with an Atlas V and the Antares 230 performed its maiden flight with Cygnus OA-5 in October 2016. One further mission was launched aboard an Atlas in April 2017 (Cygnus OA-7), fulfilling Orbital's contractual obligations towards NASA. It was followed by the Antares 230 in regular service with Cygnus OA-8E in November 2017, with three further missions scheduled on their extended contract.


title: Antares (rocket)

text: The following table shows a typical launch sequence of Antares-100 series rockets, such as for launching a Cygnus spacecraft on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis powers. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output".


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: This operation was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theater, with 53 aircraft and 660 air crewmen lost. It was proportionally the most costly major Allied air raid of the war, and its date was later referred to as "Black Sunday". Five Medals of Honor and 56 Distinguished Service Crosses along with numerous others awards went to Operation Tidal Wave crew members. A 1999 research report prepared for the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama concluded that the bombing campaign in Ploiești was "one of the bloodiest and most heroic missions of all time". One of the downed American planes crashed into a female prison in Ploiești, resulting in the death of 100 civilians and the injury of another 200.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Romania had been a major power in the oil industry since the 1800s. It was one of the largest producers in Europe and Ploiești was a major part of that production. The Ploiești oil refineries provided about 30% of all Axis oil production.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: In June 1942, 13 B-24 Liberators of the "Halverson project" (HALPRO) attacked Ploiești. Though damage was small, Germany and Romania responded by putting strong anti-aircraft defenses around Ploiești. "Luftwaffe" General Alfred Gerstenberg built one of the heaviest and best-integrated air defense networks in Europe. The defenses included several hundred large-caliber 88mm guns and 10.5 cm FlaK 38 anti-aircraft guns, and many more small-caliber guns. The latter were concealed in haystacks, railroad cars, and mock buildings. German and Romanian AA artillery at Ploiești consisted of 52 heavy (88 mm), 9 medium (37 mm), and 17 light (20 mm) anti-aircraft batteries.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The defenses were divided between the German 5th Flak Division (30 heavy, 5 medium, and 7 light batteries) and the Romanian 4th AA Brigade (22 heavy, 2 medium, and 10 light batteries). Half of the manpower of the German 5th Flak Division was Romanian. The Axis had 52 fighters within flight range of Ploiești (Bf 109 fighters and Bf 110 night fighters, plus assorted types of Romanian IAR 80 fighters). For the defense of Ploiești, the Royal Romanian Air Force had aircraft from five "Escadrile" (Squadrons): 61 (IAR 80A), 62 (IAR 80B), 45 (IAR 80C), 53 (Bf 109G) and 68 (Bf 110). These defenses made Ploiești the third or fourth most heavily defended target in Axis Europe, after Berlin and Vienna or the Ruhr, and thus the most heavily defended Axis target outside the Third Reich.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The Ninth Air Force (98th and 376th Bombardment Groups) was responsible for the overall conduct of the raid, and the partially formed Eighth Air Force provided three additional bomb groups (44th, 93rd, and 389th). All the bombers employed were B-24 Liberators.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Colonel Jacob E. Smart planned the operation, based on HALPRO's experiences. HALPRO had encountered minimal air defenses in its raid, so the planners decided Tidal Wave would be executed by day, and that the attacking bombers would approach at low altitude to avoid detection by German radar. Training included extensive review of detailed sand table models, practice raids over a mock-up of the target in the Libyan desert and practical exercises over a number of secondary targets in July to prove the viability of such a low-level strike. The bombers to be used were re-equipped with bomb-bay fuel tanks to increase their fuel capacity to 3,100 gallons.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The operation was to consist of 178 bombers with a total of 1,751 aircrew, one of the largest commitments of American heavy bombers and crewmen up to that time. The planes were to fly from airfields near Benghazi, Libya. They were to cross the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea, pass near the island of Corfu, cross over the Pindus Mountains in Albania, cross southern Yugoslavia, enter southwestern Romania, and turn east toward Ploiești. Reaching Ploiești, they were to locate pre-determined checkpoints, approach their targets from the north, and strike all targets simultaneously.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: For political reasons, the Allied planners decided to avoid the city of Ploiești, so that it would not be bombed by accident.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: On the morning of 1 August 1943, the five groups comprising the strike force began lifting off from their home air fields around Benghazi. Large amounts of dust kicked up during take-off caused limited visibility and strained engines already carrying the burden of large bomb loads and additional fuel. These conditions contributed to the loss of one aircraft during take-off, but 177 of the planned 178 aircraft departed safely.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The formation reached the Adriatic Sea without further incident; however aircraft #28, "Wongo Wongo", belonging to the 376th Bombardment Group (the lead group, about 40 B-24s) and piloted by Lt. Brian Flavelle began to fly erratically before plunging into the sea due to unknown causes. Lt. Guy Iovinea personal friend of Flavelle and piloting aircraft #23 "Desert Lilly"descended from the formation in order to look for survivors, narrowly missing aircraft "Brewery Wagon" piloted by Lt. John Palm. No survivors were seen, and due to the additional weight of fuel, Iovine was unable to regain altitude to rejoin the formation and resume course to Ploiești.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The resulting confusion was compounded by the inability to regain cohesion due to orders to maintain strict radio silence. Ten other aircrews returned to friendly air fields after the incident, and the remaining aircraft faced the climb over the Pindus mountains, which were shrouded in cloud cover. Although all five groups made the climb around , the 376th and 93rd, using high power settings, pulled ahead of the trailing formations, causing variations in speed and time which disrupted the synchronization of the group attacks deemed so important by Smart.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Mission leaders deemed these concerns to be less important than maintaining security through radio silence. The American leaders were unaware that the Germans knew of their presence, though not of their target. Although the Americans' orders would have allowed them to break radio silence to rebuild their formations, the strike proceeded without correction, and this proved costly.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Although now well strung out on approach to Pitești, all five groups made the navigational check point from Ploiești. At Câmpina, the 389th Bomb Group departed as planned for its separate, synchronized approach to the mission target. Continuing from Pitești, Col. Keith K. Compton and Gen. Ent made a costly navigational error. At Târgoviște, halfway to the next check point at Florești, Compton followed the incorrect railway line for his turn toward Ploiești, setting his group and Lt. Col. Addison Baker's 93rd Bomb Group on a course for Bucharest. In the process, Ent and Compton went against the advice of their airplane's navigator and the Halverson Project (HALPRO) veteran Cpt. Harold Wicklund. Now facing disaster, many crews chose to break radio silence and draw attention to the navigational error. Meanwhile, both groups had to face Gerstenberg's extensive air defenses around the Bucharest area in addition to those awaiting them around Ploiești.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The "Hell's Wench" aircraft flown by Lt. Col. Baker and his co-pilot Maj. John L. Jerstad, who had already flown a full tour of duty while stationed in England, was now hit by flak. They jettisoned their bombs to maintain the lead position of the formation over their target at the Columbia Aquila refinery. Despite heavy losses by the 93rd, Baker and Jerstad maintained course and, once clear, began to climb away. Realizing the aircraft was no longer controllable, they kept climbing to let their crew abandon the aircraft. Although none survived, Baker and Jerstad were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for these actions.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Maj. Ramsay D. Potts flying "The Duchess" and Maj. George S. Brown aboard "Queenie", encountering heavy smoke over Columbia Aquila, led additional aircraft of the 93rd and successfully dropped their bombs over the Astra Romana, Unirea Orion, and Columbia Aquila refineries. In all, the 93rd lost 11 aircraft over their targets in Ploiești. One of the bombers, "Jose Carioca", was shot down by a Romanian IAR 80 fighter, which went into a half roll and moved swiftly under the B-24 upside down, raking its belly with bullets. The bomber crashed into Ploiești Women's Prison. Of the 100 civilians killed and 200 injured in this raid, about half occurred when this three-story building exploded in flames. Forty women survived, but there were no survivors from the "Jose Carioca" crew.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Air defenses were heavy over the 376th's target (Romana Americana), and Gen. Ent instructed Compton to attack "targets of opportunity." Most of the 376th B-24s bombed the Steaua Română refinery at Câmpina from the east, and five headed directly into the already smoldering conflagration over the Concordia Vega refinery. At Câmpina, air defenses on overlooking hills were able to fire down into the formation.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: With the 93rd and 376th engaged over the target area, Col. John R. Kane of the 98th Bomb Group and Col. Leon W. Johnson of the 44th Bomb Group made their prescribed turn at Floresti and proceeded to their respective targets at the Astra Romana and Columbia Aquila refineries. Both groups would find German and Romanian defenses on full alert and faced the full effects of now raging oil fires, heavy smoke, secondary explosions, and delayed-fuse bombs dropped by Baker's 93rd Bomb Group on their earlier run. Both Kane and Johnson's approach, parallel to the Florești-to-Ploiești railway had the unfortunate distinction of encountering Gerstenberg's disguised flak train. At tree-top level, around above the ground, the 98th would find themselves to the left and the 44th on the right. The advantage, however, would rest with the 98th and 44th, whose gunners quickly responded to the threat, disabling the locomotive and killing multiple air defense crews.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: With the effects of the 93rd and 376th's runs causing difficulties locating and bombing their primary targets, both Kane and Johnson did not deviate from their intended targets, taking heavy losses in the process. Their low approach even enabled gunners to engage in continued ground suppression of air defense crews from directly above their targets. For their leadership and heroism, both were awarded the Medal of Honor. Lt. Col. James T. Posey took 21 of the 44th's aircraft on a separate assigned attack run on the Creditul Minier refinery just south of Ploiești. Although air defense batteries had already heavily engaged the 93rd, Posey was fully received by the same emplacements. Maintaining a continued low-level approach into the target area took some of the still heavily laden aircraft through tall grass and damage was caused by low-level obstructions. Posey and his aircraftequipped with heavier bombsmanaged to successfully find their marks at Creditul Minier, without loss to the formation.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The last Tidal Wave attack bombed the Steaua Română refinery ( northwest of Ploiești)at Câmpina. The 389th attack led by Col. Jack Wood was as rehearsed at Benghazi. The damage caused by the 376th and 389th attacks heavily damaged the refinery, which did not resume production for the duration of the war. The 389th lost four aircraft over the target area, including B-24 "Ole Kickapoo" flown by 2nd Lt. Lloyd Herbert Hughes. After hits to "Ole Kickapoo" only 30 feet over the target area, the detonation of previously dropped bombs had ignited fuel leaking from the B-24. Hughes maintained course for bombardier 2nd Lt. John A. McLoughlin to bomb, and the B-24 subsequently crash-landed, in an explosive cart-wheel, in a river bed. Hughes (who posthumously received the Medal of Honor) and five crew members were killed, four survived the crash but died of injuries, and two gunners became prisoners of war.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: On their way over Bulgaria, the B-24s were intercepted by three fighter groups, 10 Bf 109s from Karlovo, four Avia B-534s from Bozhurishte, and 10 Avia B-534s from Vrashdebna (Sofia airport). The pilots, Sublieutenant Peter Bochev (five victories), Captain Tschudomir Toplodolski (four victories), Lieutenant Stoyan Stoyanov (five victories), and Sublieutenant Hristo Krastev (one victory) gained their first kills for the Bulgarian Air Force of the war. The new fighter aces were decorated afterwards by Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria personally with the Order of Bravery, the first time in 25 years. Iron Crosses were awarded a month later from the German embassy.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Only 88 B-24s returned to Libya, of which 55 had battle damage. Losses included 44 to air defenses and additional B-24s that ditched in the Mediterranean or were interned after landing in neutral Turkey. Some were diverted to the RAF airfield on Cyprus. One B-24 with 365 bullet holes in it landed in Libya 14 hours after departing; its survival was due to the light armament of the Bulgarian Avia B-534 (only four rifle-caliber (7.92 mm) machine guns).


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: For the Americans, 310 air crewmen were killed or missing, 108 were captured by the Axis, 78 were interned in Turkey, and four were taken in by Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia. Three of the five Medals of Honor (the most for any single air action in history) were awarded posthumously. The Allies estimated a loss of 40% of the refining capacity at the Ploiești refineries, although some refineries were largely untouched. Most of the damage was repaired within weeks, after which the net output of fuel was greater than before the raid. Circa September, the Enemy Oil Committee appraisal of Ploiești bomb damage indicated "...no curtailment of overall product output..." because many of the refineries had been operating previously below maximum capacity.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: The Royal Romanian Air Force carried out 59 sorties during "Tidal Wave", and the Luftwaffe 89. The Americans lost 53 Liberators (including 8 which landed in Turkey and were interned) and 55 more were damaged. The Romanians claimed 20 confirmed or probable air victories for the loss of one IAR 80B and one Bf 110, plus 15 more claimed by Romanian AA guns. Even if optimistic, the Romanian claims compared favorably with the American seven-fold plus exaggerations, during "Tidal Wave" and subsequent raids. The system of air victory confirmations of the Royal Romanian Air Force was stricter than that of the Luftwaffe at the time of the raid. Luftwaffe losses amounted to five aircraft. The American Ninth Air Force was expelled from the theatre.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Through emergency bomb drops on secondary targets, there were casualties at Drenta, Elena, Byala, Ruse, Boychinovtsi, Veliko Tarnovo, Plovdiv, Lom, and Oak-Tulovo.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Given the large and unbalanced loss of aircraft and the limited damage to the targets, Operation Tidal Wave is considered a strategic failure by the Allies.


title: Operation Tidal Wave

text: Several air attacks on Romanian territory were carried out by the Western Allies. Until August 1944, the Royal Romanian Air Force and Romanian flak shot down 223 American and British bombers as well as 36 fighters. Romanian losses amounted to 80 aircraft. "Luftwaffe" pilots shot down 66 more Western Allied aircraft. Total Western Allied casualties amounted to 1,706 killed and 1,123 captured.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: Ronald Romero (born 20 November 1981) is a Chilean singer best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Lords of Black, Rainbow, The Ferrymen, Michael Schenker Group, and Sunstorm. He is set to represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 as the lead singer of Intelligent Music Project.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In 2014, Romero, together with guitarist Tony Hernando, formerly of Spanish band Saratoga, founded the heavy metal band Lords of Black. Romero left the band in 2019 but returned in 2020.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In 2015, Ritchie Blackmore announced his return to rock with a new lineup for his band Rainbow, with Ronnie Romero as the lead singer.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In 2017, Leo Leoni and Hena Habegger of Swiss hard rock band Gotthard formed a side project titled CoreLeoni, with Romero, whom Leoni had met in 2014, joining on vocals. Romero left the project in 2020.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: Also in 2017, Romero joined the supergroup The Ferrymen, which additionally includes Magnus Karlsson on guitar and Mike Terrana on drums. They released their self-titled debut album the same year. The trio released their sophomore album, "A New Evil", in 2019.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In 2018, Romero sang on the album "Metal Souls" by Nozomu Wakai's Destinia, a project launched by the Japanese guitarist in 2014.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In 2020, Michael Schenker announced that Romero would be participating in the upcoming MSG album "Immortal", which is to be released in 2021.


title: Ronnie Romero

text: Also in 2020, Adrian Vandenberg recruited Romero to join his band Vandenberg in recording the album "2020".


title: Ronnie Romero

text: Another new musical venture for Romero in the year 2020 was the Intelligent Music Project, an enterprise created by Bulgarian arts patron Milen Vrabevski in 2010. Romero appears on the album "Life Motion".


title: Ronnie Romero

text: In November 2021, Romero and the Intelligent Music Project were revealed as Bulgaria's entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, with the song "Intention".


title: Ronnie Romero

text: Romero will contribute vocals to the second studio album by Paraguayan heavy metal composer Adrian Benegas, to be released in 2023. The record is also set to feature input from German drummer Michael Ehré (Primal Fear, Gamma Ray), German producer Sascha Paeth (Avantasia, Kamelot), Tunisian bassist Anis Jouini (Myrath), and Dutch guitarist Timo Somers (Delain, Ayreon).


title: Hibernia

text: Hibernia () is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name "Hibernia" was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massalia called the island "Iérnē" (written ). In his book "Geographia" (c. 150 AD), Claudius Ptolemaeus ("Ptolemy") called the island "Iouerníā" (written , where "ου"/"ou" stands for "w"). The Roman historian Tacitus, in his book "Agricola" (c. 98 AD), uses the name Hibernia.


title: Hibernia

text: The High King Brian Boru (c. 941–1014) based his title on being Emperor of the Scoti, which was in Latin "Imperator Scottorum", emperor of the Gaels. From 1172, the Lordship of Ireland gave the King of England the additional title "Dominus Hibernie" ("sic", for "Hiberniae"; also "Dominus Hybernie"), 'Lord of Ireland'. The Kingdom of Ireland created the title "Rex Hiberniae", King of Ireland, for use in Latin texts. Gerard Mercator called Ireland "Hybernia" on his world map of 1541. In 1642, the motto of the Irish Confederates, a Catholic-landlord administration that ruled much of Ireland until 1650, was "Pro Deo, Rege et Patria, Hibernia Unanimis" (English: 'For God, King and Fatherland, Ireland is United').


title: Hibernia

text: By the classicising 18th century, the use of Hibernia had revived in some contexts, just as had the use of Caledonia, one of the Latin terms for Scotland, and Britannia for Britain. "Hibernia" was used on Irish coins in the 1700s, and on a 2016 2 euro coin. Companies such as the Hibernian Insurance Company were established (later renamed the Hibernian Group). The name took on popularity with the success of the Irish Patriot Party. At a time when Palladian classical architecture and design were being adopted in northern Europe, Hibernia was a useful word to describe Ireland with overtones of classical style and civility, including by the prosperous Anglo-Irish Ascendancy who were taught Latin at school. "Hibernian" was used as a term for people, and a general adjective. The Royal Exchange in Dublin was built during 1769–1779 with the carved inscription "SPQH" for "Senatus Populusque Hibernicus" 'the senate and people of Ireland'. The Royal Hibernian Academy dates from 1823.


title: Hibernia

text: Hibernia is a word that is rarely used today with regard to Ireland, except in long-established names. It is occasionally used for names of organisations and various other things; for instance: Hibernia National Bank, Hibernian Insurance Group, Ancient Order of Hibernians, "The Hibernian" magazine, Hibernia College, Hibernian Orchestra, Hibernian Football Club, , and modern derivatives, from Latin like "Respublica Hibernica" (Irish Republic) and "Universitas Hiberniae Nationalis" (National University of Ireland). In Canada, Hibernia lends its name to the Hibernia oil field off Newfoundland, and to a large offshore oil platform, "Hibernia".


title: Hibernia

text: Another occurrence is in familial Hibernian fever or TRAPS (tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome), a periodic fever first described in 1982 in a family of Irish and Scottish descent, but found in all ethnic groups.


title: Hibernia

text: The compound form 'Hiberno-' remains more common, as 'Hiberno-Norse', 'Hiberno-English', 'Hiberno-Scottish', 'Hibernophile', etc.


title: Hibernia

text: The Scottish football clubs Hibernian FC and Dundee Hibernian (now Dundee Utd) have adopted the name.


title: The Motto (Tiësto and Ava Max song)

text: "The Motto" is a song by Dutch disc jockey Tiësto and American singer and songwriter Ava Max from the former's upcoming eighth studio album, "Drive" (2023). The song was written by Tiësto, Max, Claudia Valentina, Lostboy, Pablo Bowman and Sarah Blanchard, while produced by Tiësto and Lostboy. It was released for digital download and streaming by Atlantic and Musical Freedom in various countries on 4 November 2021. It is a dance, EDM and pop song, with the empowering lyrics being about "doing you, having a good time and letting the world know". Upon its release, music critics praised the music and production of the song, the collaboration between the artists as well as the vocal delivery of the singer. The song received a nomination for the Best Collaboration at the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards.


title: The Motto (Tiësto and Ava Max song)

text: "The Motto" peaked atop the charts in the Czech Republic and Poland, and reached the top five on rankings in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Switzerland and Ukraine. The song reached number one on the US "Billboard" Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart as well as number two on the Dance/Electronic Songs ranking. It received gold certifications in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the UK as well as platinum certifications in Austria, Canada, Brazil, Norway, Poland, Portugal and the US. Two official music videos for "The Motto" premiered on Tiësto's YouTube channel on 4 November 2021 and 11 March 2022, respectively. The first video depicts Tiësto and Max time traveling and partying in the 1920s, with the end being inspired by the 1980 psychological horror film "The Shining".


title: The Motto (Tiësto and Ava Max song)

text: Few days prior to its release, Tiësto and Max announced "The Motto" as their collaboration and confirmed the song's release date for 4 November 2021. The song was written by Tiësto (Tijs Verwest), Max (Amanda Ava Koci), Claudia Valentina, Lostboy (Peter Rycroft), Pablo Bowman and Sarah Blanchard, with the production completed by Tiësto and Lostboy. It was released for digital download and streaming by Atlantic and Musical Freedom in various countries on the scheduled date as the third single from Tiësto's upcoming eighth studio album "Drive" (2023). Talking about the song, Tiësto stated, "Ava is such an exciting young talent and her beautiful voice adds such depth to ['the song']," while Max added, "When [he] shared this record with me, I fell in love and couldn't stop playing it." "The Motto" is a dance, EDM and pop song, with an eurodance production. According to Max, the song has an empowerment message and is about "doing you, having a good time and letting the world know".