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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_presidency_of_Donald_Trump] | [TOKENS: 27426] |
Contents Second presidency of Donald Trump Donald Trump's second and current tenure as the president of the United States began upon his inauguration as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Trump, a Republican, previously served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021. He lost re-election to Democratic candidate Joe Biden in 2020, and then won against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump is the second former U.S. president to return to office.[a] Alongside Trump's second presidency, the Republican Party also currently holds majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate during the 119th U.S. Congress following the 2024 elections, thereby attaining an overall federal government trifecta. During 2025, Trump signed 225 executive orders, the most of any president in a single year since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many of these have been or are being challenged in court. His attempts to expand presidential power and conflict with the courts have been described as a defining characteristic of his second presidency. The Trump administration has taken action against law firms for challenging its policies. On immigration, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, revived numerous immigration laws from his first presidency, attempted to restrict birthright citizenship, and initiated procedures for mass deportations, including nationwide raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In January 2025, Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with Elon Musk briefly overseeing it. DOGE was tasked with reducing federal spending and limiting bureaucracy, and it oversaw mass layoffs of civil servants along with efforts to dismantle government agencies such as the Agency for International Development. Trump has also overseen a series of tariff increases and pauses, which led to retaliatory tariffs from other countries and stock market volatility. In international affairs, Trump has further strengthened U.S. relations with Israel. His administration increased support for Israel in the Gaza war, aided Israel in the June 2025 Iran–Israel war and carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. In early October, Trump's plan for a Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was signed. Amid the Russo-Ukrainian war that began in 2022, the Trump administration undertook multiple attempts at peace negotiations. Trump has authorized a series of lethal strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea, whose legality is widely disputed under both U.S. and international law, and subsequently ordered a military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, the disputed president of Venezuela. As in his first presidency, Trump initiated the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accords, and UNESCO. The Trump administration has been criticized for its targeting of political opponents and civil society. Many of his administration's actions have been found by judges to be illegal and unconstitutional, and have been criticized as authoritarian and contributing to democratic backsliding in the country. Trump is the first president with a felony conviction.[b] At 78 years old and seven months, he is the oldest person to become U.S. president. Following his electoral victories in 2016 and 2024, he is constitutionally ineligible from seeking further terms due to the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, although many of his associates have discussed the possibility of him running for a third term. Milestones Trump, who previously served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, announced his candidacy for the nomination of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election on November 15, 2022. In March 2024, Trump secured the Republican nomination. Trump selected Senator JD Vance of Ohio, a former critic of his, as his running mate, and the two were officially nominated at the 2024 Republican National Convention. On July 13, 2024, Trump was the victim of an attempted assassination during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was a dangerous attempt with the bullet grazing his ear, but he was otherwise unhurt. Early on November 6, 2024, the day after the election, Trump was projected to have secured the presidency. Trump won the presidential election with 312 electoral votes and 49.8% of the popular vote, while Kamala Harris received 226 electoral votes and 48.3% of the popular vote. Trump, upon taking office, became the second president in U.S. history to serve non-consecutive terms after Grover Cleveland in 1893, and the first with a felony to serve the presidency after his conviction in May 2024. In the concurrent congressional elections, Republicans secured a government trifecta after retaining their majority in the House of Representatives and winning back control of the Senate. The presidential transition period began following Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, though Trump had chosen Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick to begin planning for the transition in August 2024. According to The New York Times, Trump was "superstitious" and preferred to avoid discussing the presidential transition process until after Election Day. His transition team relied on the work of the America First Policy Institute, rather than the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that garnered controversy during the election for Project 2025, a set of initiatives that would reshape the federal government. By October, he had not participated in the federal presidential transition process, and he had not signed a required ethics pledge, as of November. During the transition period, Trump announced nominations for his cabinet and administration. Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025. He was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. The inauguration occurred indoors in the Capitol Rotunda. Two days before the inauguration, Trump launched a meme coin, $Trump. In his first weeks, several of Trump's actions ignored or violated federal laws, regulations, and the Constitution. In Trump's first hundred days in office, he signed 143 executive orders, the most of any president in this period, 42 presidential memoranda, 42 presidential proclamations, the Laken Riley Act, a continuing appropriations act, and other pieces of legislation for Congress. Trump's extensive use of executive orders drew a mixed reception from both Republicans and Democrats. Some executive orders tested the limits of executive authority, and others faced immediate legal challenges. Major topics Trump focused on included immigration reform, deportations, applying tariffs on other countries, cutting federal spending, reducing the federal workforce, increasing executive authority, and implementing a non-interventionist foreign policy. Administration Trump's cabinet choices were described by news media as valuing personal loyalty over relevant experience, and for having a range of conflicting ideologies and "eclectic personalities". It was also described as the wealthiest administration in modern history, with over 13 billionaires chosen to take government posts. He nominated or appointed 23 former Fox News employees to his administration. Notably, Trump's nomination of Scott Bessent as Secretary of the Treasury made Bessent the highest ranking openly LGBTQ person to serve in the United States government. Once the second Trump presidency began, White House screening teams fanned out to federal agencies to screen job applicants for their loyalty to the president's agenda. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order asserting to restore merit-based federal hiring practices and "dedication to our Constitution". As part of its U.S. federal deferred resignation program, the Trump administration demanded "loyalty" from federal workers. In a break from politically neutral speech, the Justice Department issued memos about "insubordination", "abhorrent conduct" and vowed to pursue opponents of Trump's cost-cutting efforts "to the ends of the Earth" in what was described by current and former law enforcement officials as a campaign of intimidation against agents insufficiently loyal to Trump. Staffers were dispatched across federal agencies to look for anti-Trump sentiment among government agencies. Some new hires were told to provide examples of what they did to help Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, when their moment of "MAGA revelation" occurred, prove their "enthusiasm", be positively referenced by confirmed loyalists, and provide access to their social media handles. The Associated Press described the intense loyalty tests as a way to separate individuals following traditional Republican orthodoxy from Trump's MAGA ideology. Candidates for top national intelligence and law enforcement positions were given Trump loyalty tests. Candidates were asked to give yes or no responses to whether or not January 6 was an "inside job" and whether or not the 2020 election was "stolen". Those that did not say yes to both answers were not hired. Trump had assistance from Elon Musk, other political operatives, and an antisemitism task force. Advisors were Christopher Rufo in education; Stephen Miller in domestic policy and immigration; and four co-authors of Project 2025: Russell Vought, Peter Navarro, Paul S. Atkins, and Brendan Carr. Executive orders Trump began office with the most executive orders ever signed on the first day of a United States presidential term, at 26 executive orders. Following behind Trump's executive order tally is Joe Biden at 9 executive orders on January 20, 2021, then Barack Obama at 2 executive orders, and Bill Clinton at 1 executive order. Trump's signing of executive orders was described as a "shock and awe" campaign that tested the limits of executive authority. Four days into Trump's second term, analysis conducted by Time found that nearly two-thirds of his executive actions "mirror or partially mirror" proposals from Project 2025, which was seconded with analysis from Bloomberg Government. The signing of many of Trump's executive orders are being challenged in court, with the executive orders affecting federal funding, federal employee status, immigration, federal programs, government data availability, and more. The majority of the early cases were filed in response to executive orders related to the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Executive Order 14158, and the actions taken by Elon Musk and the DOGE team towards federal agencies described as cost-cutting measures. Economic issues, trade, and tariffs In the first quarter of 2025, economic growth was a negative 0.5%. CBS News said the decline occurred because "businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of new U.S. tariffs," . Second quarter economic growth was 3.8% annualized (as if continuing for the full year). In the third quarter, real GDP grew to 4.3%, the fastest rate in two years. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was a U.S. federal statute which constituted the core of the Trump administration's second-term economic agenda. It contains hundreds of provisions. Among the most notable, the Act extends the individual tax rates Trump signed into law in 2017, raises the cap on the state and local tax deduction to $40,000 for taxpayers making less than $500,000, expands work requirements for SNAP benefits, adds work requirements and makes significant spending cuts to Medicaid, and significantly increases spending on defense and border security. The OBBBA has been criticized for limiting health insurance coverage and resulting in an upwards transfer of wealth. It is expected to add a total of $3 trillion to the national debt of the United States by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Because the Senate could not muster 60 votes per filibuster rules, funding for non-essential services ended October 1, 2025. Throughout October and into November, Senate had 14 votes all of which failed to reach the 60-vote threshold. The shutdown ended on November 12. In early October, Senate majority leader John Thune said, "We have a majority of senators — 55 senators have already voted for this clean, short-term, nonpartisan CR," referring to a continuing resolution. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke from the floor of the Senate and said 70% of Americans supported keeping the same money for the Affordable Care Act, informally "Obamacare". In addition, Schumer claimed that a survey by KFF showed that 57% of MAGA supporters also favored keeping the same money for ACA. The governments of 25 states are suing the Trump administration regarding SNAP benefits ("food stamps") which are expected to run out on the first day of November. 1 out of 8 Americans rely on these benefits. SNAP stands for "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program." The administration says that they are prohibited by law from using the "contingency fund" for normal, operational expenses because this money is purposed for extraordinary events such as Hurricane Melissa. The states suing say this both goes against the wording of the law and is a "dramatic change," pointing out that the contingency fund was used for SNAP benefits during the 2019 shutdown. On October 31, a federal judge in Rhode Island cited the Administrative Procedure Act and temporarily ordered the Trump administration to continue SNAP funding. A second federal judge in Boston said the Trump administration's plan to stop SNAP funding during the shutdown was against the law, but did not order payments to resume. On November 7, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily froze the lower court order requiring full payment of SNAP. ABC News stated, "at least nine states had already begun issuing SNAP benefits under the direction of the federal agency that operates SNAP," reportedly including California, Wisconsin, Kansas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. In early November, Trump called for ending the Senate's rule and tradition of the filibuster. On November 6, some Republican senators talked about making a "clean" Continuing Resolution one of the exceptions to the filibuster rule, but it's estimated that this change is unlikely. On November 9, the Senate achieved a 60-vote compromise of a "mini-bus" which will fund certain departments through next September and the rest of government through January 30. SNAP will be funded through September. Senate Republicans agree to have a vote on the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") funding by the 2nd week of December. Eight Democrats voted with Republicans to end the shutdown. On November 12, the House passed the bill, 222 to 209. Trump then signed it into law. During the shutdown pain had been increasing from government workers not getting paid, from SNAP benefits ending, and from understaffed air traffic control. CBS News said, "The moderates viewed the deal — after Republicans leaders refused Schumer's offer — as the best possible offer they could secure, arguing that continuing the shutdown would only inflict more pain without any hopes of a better deal." In addition, Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) was won by a new continuing resolution coming from the White House which reversed the October layoffs. On January 8, 2026, the House of Representatives voted 397 - 28 for a three-bill package, known as a "minibus," which House and Senate negotiators had put forward earlier that week. There was a partial shutdown from January 31 till February 3, 2026. On February 3, the House passed and President Trump signed the Senate version to fund the United States government through September, which the exception of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) only being funding through February 13. This is the result of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over how to move forward from the situation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the end, 21 House Democrats had voted for the funding bill and 21 House Republicans had voted against it. A partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security began on Saturday, February 14, 2026. Most of the government employees affected will be expected to keep working, but their paychecks may be delayed depending on the length of the shutdown. This affects the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress pertains most recently to the situation in Minneapolis, Minnesota and more generally to immigration enforcement policies and actions by the Trump administration. Democrats are asking for judicial warrants before agents can enter private property, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks, the mandatory use of body cams, and new laws for use-of-force standards. In fact, both President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have spoken in favor of body cams starting in Minneapolis and going nationwide as funding becomes available. Trump has been a strong proponent of tariffs both during his campaign and as president. Throughout the first 100 days of his presidency, he implemented tariffs on multiple different countries, though mainly China, Mexico, and Canada, leading to retaliation. On April 2, 2025, a day Trump nicknamed "Liberation Day", he announced a 10% universal import duty on all goods brought into the US (even higher for some trade partners), before ordering a 90-day pause shortly after drops in the market. The Trump administration promised it would achieve 90 trade deals during this period, though only managed to achieve two by the end of the deadline, July 9, as well as ongoing negotiations with China, extending the window until August 1. Trump threatened to raise tariffs on multiple countries after the first deadline was met, including Japan and South Korea. Tariffs were primarily absorbed by importers by compressing profit margins. Oxford Economics estimated that tariffs contributed about 0.4 percentage points to the 2025 September Consumer Price Index's annual rate of 3.0%, keeping inflation above the Federal Reserve's target. Corporate earnings were significantly affected, with global companies reporting more than $35 billion in tariff-related costs ahead of the third-quarter earnings season. On August 29, 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7-4 that many of the Trump tariffs were invalid. The Appeals Court had ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (1977), did not grant the broad powers which the Trump administration was claiming. This decision did not affect some specific tariffs, such as steel or aluminum which were increased under other presidential authority. On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court decided in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the IEEPA did not authorise the president to impose tariffs. All tariffs imposed under IEEPA were struck down. On May 12, the United States and China announced that tariffs would be reduced for a period of 90 days. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would be reduced from 145% to 30% and Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods would be reduced from 125% to 10%. However, this 30% is still more expensive for consumers in the United States compared to the state of affairs before Trump's initial tariffs. On August 11, 2025, this deal was extended for another 90 days. On July 27, 2025, the United States and the European Union concluded a trade agreement, providing for 15% tariffs on European exports. The deal was announced by Trump and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at Turnberry, Scotland. European states committed to $750 billion in energy purchases and $600 billion in additional investments in the United States. From May 13 to 16, 2025, Donald Trump undertook a four-day visit to the Middle East, focused primarily on securing business deals and investments in the United States. In early January 2026, President Trump called for capping credit card interest at 10%. In contrast, Reuters reports that the average American consumer pays more than 19% interest. However, Wall Street analysts say that such a cap would require legislation from Congress which they estimate has "slim odds" of passing. Furthermore, this might hurt the overall economy since consumer spending is a major driver. In January 2026, Trump proposed several actions and policies to make housing more affordable. These included the banning of "large institutional investors" from buying single-family homes, buying up to $200 billion of mortgage debt in order to reduce mortgage interest rates [already started earlier in the month], making 50-year mortgages available, making portable mortgages available, and allowing homebuyers to use their 401(k)s plans for down payments. Critics say the housing shortage is the number one reason for higher prices and that addressing this shortage will take a number of state and local actions. Critics also say that making portable mortgages available would give existing home-owners an even bigger advantage over first-time buyers. In January 2026, Trump announced that he had ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up to $200 billion in mortgage-backed bonds to drive down interest rates for new mortgages. The interest rates have since fallen. Domestic policy In April 2024, former president Trump had declared that abortion should be delegated to states. He said he would not sign a federal ban and criticized the Arizona Supreme Court's ruling in Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes (2024), which upheld an 1864 law. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine (2024) that frozen embryos are living beings. In contrast, Trump positioned himself in favor of in vitro fertilisation (IVF). In January 2025, Trump reinstated the Mexico City policy ("global gag rule"), which had been rescinded by the Biden administration. Since the 1980s, this rule has been put in place during Republican administrations and rescinded during Democratic administrations. In May 2025, in a case involving telehealth prescriptions and the abortion-drug Mifepristone, the Trump administration asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the states involve did not have standing. This case was Missouri v. FDA brought before federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas. The states involved were Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas. In June 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ended the rule which required hospitals to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. In October 2025, the Food and Drug Administration approved a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, allowing three U.S. companies to produce it and expanding access to medication abortion. The administration has not implemented major new restrictions on medication abortion, although Health and Human Services officials announced a review of mifepristone's safety in response to pressure from opponents. During his second presidency beginning in 2025, Donald Trump launched a campaign of anti-LGBTQ+ and especially anti-transgender policies that eliminated federal recognition of transgender people, stripped legal protections, and sought to erase trans identities from public life. Through a series of executive orders, the administration defined sex strictly by birth biology, banned trans people from the military, restricted or defunded gender-affirming healthcare, censored research and education materials, and targeted schools, universities, and cultural institutions accused of promoting "gender ideology". Additional measures barred transgender athletes from sports, limited passport access, and fueled international efforts to undermine trans rights. Accompanied by rhetoric portraying transgender people as a societal threat, these policies triggered widespread legal challenges, condemnation from human rights groups, and a surge in emigration and asylum claims by transgender Americans. Within hours of his January 2025 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the country from the 2015 Paris Agreement, joining only Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries not party to the agreement. The same day, Trump issued Executive Order 14154, "Unleashing American Energy", which included pausing funding for the Inflation Reduction Act, introducing uncertainty as to the energy transition. His administration soon renewed a practice from his first term: removing mentions of climate change across numerous federal government websites that had been reinstated during Joe Biden's intervening term. In April, Trump dismissed the scientists and experts who compile the National Climate Assessments (NCAs) that are required by Congress, the next assessment having been planned for 2028. The globalchange.gov website—established in 1990 to host legislatively mandated reports such as the NCAs—was taken down altogether at the end of June. In May 2025, NOAA said that its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024, and that its information—going as far back as 1980—would be archived. In July, the chief administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency announced rescinding of the 2009 endangerment finding, which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. (The endangerment finding is the scientific determination that underpins the federal government's legal authority to combat climate change.) In concurrence with the attempt to rollback the endangerment finding, Trump's Department of Energy released an assessment titled A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate. The report was assembled by five climate science contrarians and was heavily criticized for cherry-picked evidence, falsehoods, and distortions. The Union of Concerned Scientists called it "deeply flawed [and] anti-science." Climate scientist Andrew Dessler called it "a mockery of science." On February 12, 2026, the EPA formally rescinded the Endangerment Finding. In August, the Bureau of Land Management initiated a review of offshore wind energy regulations and revised its rules to favor fossil fuel production over renewables. On September 23, 2025, Trump told the United Nations General Assembly that climate change is "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world", that scientific predictions "were made by stupid people", and that renewable energy is a "scam". In October 2025, the US used trade and visa threats to sabotage an agreement for cleaner international shipping at the International Maritime Organization. In December 2025, Russel Vought announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research. On January 7, 2026, Trump announced that the United States would be withdrawing from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and 65 other international organizations—alleging the treaties "no longer serve American interests". The next day, Trump's administration announced that the country would be withdrawing from the Green Climate Fund, which since 2010 has provided funds to help poorer nations deal with the effects of climate change. On January 14, the EPA revised its regulations on air pollution so as to no longer consider the dollar value of pollution's impact on human health when determining acceptable levels of polluted air for public health. The Department of Energy issued several emergency orders in 2025 directing coal power plants to continue operating. The cost to ratepayers to maintain and run these aging plants was estimated at $3 billion per year. The Trump administration has sought to drastically expand the US's nuclear power generation, setting a goal to quadruple it by 2050. The administration seeks to revive production at decommissioned plants, such as the plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. It also seeks to promote the construction of new small modular reactors. The administration considers nuclear power generation a strategic priority because of its potential use in powering data centers needed to compete in the international AI development race. Experts are divided on the feasibility of Trump's nuclear power goals, with many expressing skepticism that they can be reached due to the high cost of nuclear power generation, while others say the conditions for financing nuclear power are relatively favorable. Despite efforts to increase nuclear power generation, data centers have led to steep increases in the cost of power in some communities, prompting local backlash. During the June 2025 Los Angeles protests against local immigration raids, against the wishes of the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles, Trump federalized the California National Guard and deployed them to Los Angeles along with 700 Marines. Declaring a crime emergency in August 2025, the Trump administration deployed 2,000 National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C. The administration also federalized the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days. The increased presence was mainly used in tourist areas instead of high-crime areas. In September 2025, Trump announced the deployment of national guardsmen to Memphis, Tennessee, saying that the city "is deeply troubled." Their presence in Memphis started on October 1. U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi said in a social media post that the Memphis Safe Task Force has made more than 50 arrests over two days. Tennessee governor Bill Lee indicated that he believed that any deployment of National Guard troops would include no more than 150 unarmed personnel. Trump has repeatedly singled out Chicago as "next," calling it a "mess" and claiming residents are "screaming" for federal intervention. No formal request has been made by Illinois officials, and crime data shows a decline. As reported by BBC, Chicago has had a declining homicide rate with 19 homicides per 100,000 persons in 2023 and 17 per 100,000 in 2024. On September 6, Trump threatened "Apocalypse Now"-style action against Chicago, writing "I love the smell of deportations in the morning" amid an AI-generated picture of himself as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in front of a burning Chicago skyline with helicopters and that "Chicago [is] about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR". The post was criticized by local elected leaders, with governor of Illinois JB Pritzker writing, "The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal." On Sunday September 28, U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with automatic weapons and full combat gear patrolled high-visibility tourist areas in Downtown Chicago. Federal officers repeatedly fired chemicals at a crowd of 100 protesters after some of this crowd attempted to block a car from driving down a street toward the ICE building. On October 7, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said, "We do know that much like what we've seen in other parts of the country, there is a process that the National Guard goes through before they're actually released into the streets of Chicago or anywhere." On October 9, a federal judge issued a restraining order against the use of National Guard soldiers in Illinois through October 23. In mid-October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit upheld this pause on deployment, but also upheld the federalization. On October 17, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to review this decision. On October 5, a federal judge whom Trump had appointed issued a temporary restraining order against the deployment of the National Guard in Portland, Oregon. This restraining order was effective through October 19. BBC summarized the judge's rationale as being that "the use of the military to quell unrest without Oregon's consent risked the sovereignty of that state and others, and inflamed tensions in the city of Portland." On October 20, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled 2-1 that the Trump administration can go forward with deploying National Guard soldiers in Portland. This conflicts with the decision of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit for Chicago. This case is different because Louisiana governor Jeff Landry has requested the National Guard for large upcoming events: the Bayou Classic college football event November 27–29, New Year Eve and Day celebrations, and Mardi Gras celebrations in February. The New Orleans police superintendent said, "We are working together and planning their deployment". New Orleans had been the site of the January 1, 2025, terrorism attack in which 14 persons lost their lives and at least 57 persons were injured. In early January 2026, federal agents shot and killed Renee Good. On January 24, federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense after attempting to disarm Pretti. However, video shows him holding a cell phone. On January 26, President Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz talked by phone, in a call which Walz described as "productive" and Trump described as "on a similar wavelength." A top official with the U.S. Border Patrol, along with some agents, will be leaving Minnesota. Homeland Security Tom Homan will be traveling to Minnesota. On February 2, 2026, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that all immigration officers in Minneapolis will begin wearing body cams (and nationwide as funding becomes available). Also on February 2, President Trump said that body cams "generally tend to be good for law enforcement because people can't lie about what's happening." The Congressional Budget Office, provided this estimate when requested by Senate Democrats. Deployments to five American cities — Los Angeles, Portland (Oregon), Chicago, Memphis, and Washington, DC — cost approximately $496 million from June through the end of December. Even in cities of Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois, in which National Guard soldiers were prevented from assisting law enforcement due to court order, the stand-by status still largely cost the same amount of money. In April, the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied an extension of benefits for areas in Georgia and North Carolina which had been hit by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Tornadoes hit parts the state of Mississippi in March and a major disaster declaration by the federal government took more than two months, even at the request of Republican governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi. On May 23, the Trump administration approved disaster aid for areas within 8 states including Mississippi, as well as Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Trump and his administration's Make America Healthy Again agenda promoted various anti-science and anti-vaccine claims, which led to a resurgence of whooping cough and measles. They alleged they were working against Big Pharma. On November 14, Trump announced that he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary. This was controversial given Kennedy's repeated endorsement of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. The director of the American Public Health Association, America's largest organization of public health professionals, said, "He is not competent by training, management skills, temperament or trust to have this job." On February 18, Trump signed an executive order calling for the policy recommendations for reducing the out-of-pocket costs of In Vitro Fertilisation. On February 25, Trump signed an executive order to improve healthcare cost transparency. By late April, the Trump administration had placed on leave and then temporarily rehired federal employees in the NIOSH, or National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, who had been involved in monitoring for black lung disease. On June 9, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. He claimed that it "has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine." Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, said "now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion." These firings came before a scheduled June 25 meeting in which the committee was expected to issue new recommendations for vaccines including COVID-19. In late January, several CDC websites, pages, and datasets related to HIV and STI prevention, and LGBT and youth health became unavailable for viewing. In mid-February, around 1,300 CDC employees were laid off. In April, it was reported that among the reductions were the elimination of the Freedom of Information Act team, the Division of Violence Prevention, labs involved in testing for antibiotic resistance, and the team responsible for recalls of hazardous infant products. Additional cuts affected the technology branch of the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which was established during the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 25, 2025, Kennedy announced that the U.S. was stopping its donations to the Gavi vaccine alliance, until Gavi can better demonstrate vaccine safety. The United States had been providing approximately 13 percent of Gavi's budget. On August 5, 2025, Secretary Kennedy announced that he was stopping 22 vaccine projects using mRNA technology, including Covid, RSV, and bird flu. A critic of this funding halt pointed out that mRNA vaccines have the potential for faster roll-out. On December 5, 2025, it was no longer systematically recommended for newborns of mothers having never gotten Hepatitis B to get vaccinated against this infection. The memos sparked indignation among most health experts. On May 14, 2025, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that lawyer Matthew Buzzelli is acting CDC director, though the CDC web site did not list that name. Susan Monarez was confirmed as CDC head on July 31, 2025, but on August 27, she was fired. Monarez disputed the legality of the firing, as it had not been carried out by the president, and it had been falsely reported that she had resigned. The president later officially carried out the firing. The firing was due to her refusing to rubber stamp what were expected to be unscientific recommendations from the senior staff vaccine experts, as well as refusing to fire them. The dispute began over demands from Kennedy and his top staff for changing the recommendation for COVID vaccine to persons with higher-risk conditions and senior citizens only. The official recommendation also affects insurance coverage and whether vaccines are available in pharmacies. Senator Bill Cassidy called for the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to be postponed. He said, "Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children's health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted." The next day, the Trump administration announced the selection of Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O'Neill as a replacement. Following news of Monarez's ouster, at least four other CDC senior officials announced their resignations: Dozens of CDC employees walked out of headquarters and protested in support of Monarez and the departing officials. On September 22, 2025, Trump and other U.S. Department of Human Service officials delivered speeches issuing a major agenda for combating autism. Warnings were for doctors not to recommend during pregnancy the pain- and fever-reducer acetaminophen, which is commonly used as an ingredient in Tylenol. These warnings were issued in spite of the fact that medical experts have found no link between autism and this ingredient, with autism generally established to be a result of complex neurological factors. Scientific American has reported that fever itself in the second [2nd] trimester is a risk factor for autism, and therefore the claims made by the Trump administration are counter-productive. Also on September 22, Trump also spoke in favor of and the FDA approved the use of the chemotherapy drug leucovorin to also help alleviate the symptoms of autism. However, the justification for this approval was based on limited evidence. A CBS News contributor said, "Not all children with autism have this defect, so there's a test you can do to assess whether that's what's at play. For those kids, leucovorin has been shown to help, particularly with speech, getting kids to be more verbal than they were before." The National Institute of Health (NIH) was also granted $50 million in funding for 13 projects to help transform autism research through the proposed Autism Data Science Initiative. Two-thirds of the increase in autism are estimated by an April 2025 Scientific American article to be due to better diagnosis and the desire of parents and schools to get started with early intervention. However, this same article estimates that one-third is due to an actual increase in autism from a variety of factors such as mothers in richer countries being older on average at childbirth, the ability to keep more premature children alive and healthy, and small-particle air pollution during the 3rd trimester which can cause an inflammatory response. On October 9, 2025, Trump and U.S. secretary of health and human services Robert Kennedy Jr. alleged a link between autism and circumcisions. Kennedy cited a 2015 Danish study to justify this claim. The validity of Kennedy's assertion about circumcisions being linked to autism has also been challenged by scientists and medical experts. In December 2025, President Trump announced a deal in which nine major pharmaceutical companies will in 2026 begin offering "Most Favored Nation" pricing to state Medicaid programs. In return, the companies will receive a reduction in tariffs for three years. This announcement brings the total to 14 out of the 17 largest pharmaceutical manufacturers agreeing to this deal, leaving AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Regeneron as the major holdouts. In 2026, the Trump administration plans to start a website named TrumpRx which will not sell drugs directly, but will give patients information and links on pricing. Trump officials said the deal also included more than $150 billion for new investment within the U.S. In addition, several of the companies will be donating pharmaceutical ingredients to the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve. Senior citizens on Medicare will see lower prices in 2026 from the first negotiated prices going into effect from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed in 2022 by President Biden. This includes blood thinners such as Eliquis and Xarelto and diabetes drugs such as Jardiance and Januvia. However, a negative feature of the Inflation Adjustment Act is, that since it penalizes year-to-year increases in drug prices, drug companies have responded by setting higher starting prices. One study found that "launch prices" for new drugs became approximately 50% higher over the three-year period from 2022 to 2024 (inclusive), with an expert saying this practice is likely to continue until it receives a policy response. On January 8, 2026, the House voted 230–196 to extend the higher Biden-era subsidies for another three years. Without this extension, it's estimated that monthly premiums will double for many persons who are signed up for the Affordable Care Act. One House Republican said, "I am voting in favor of this discharge and of this legislation to send it to the Senate, so that the Senate will have the opportunity to put forth a reform package that can pass Congress and become law." President-elect Trump stated his intentions to revive the immigration policies from his first presidency, including a travel ban on refugees from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Other policies included expulsion of asylum seekers by asserting that they carry infectious diseases, deputization of police officers and soldiers to assist in mass deportations, and the establishment of sprawling detention camps. Trump said "there is no price tag" to carry out these deportations. On November 10, 2024, Trump announced that Tom Homan would be "border czar". While border crossings reached record highs during the first half of the Biden presidency, they fell to lower levels near the end of his term, then dropped even further at the start of Trump's presidency. Shortly after he became president on January 20, 2025, the Trump administration ended services for the app of CBP One, reinstated the national emergency at the southern border, ordered the armed forces to draft plans for deployment, and began the steps towards labeling Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Trump increased deportation authorities for the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Marshals Service. He gave ICE the power to deport immigrants who had come to the United States legally under Biden administration programs, and established daily deportation quotas to ICE offices. Trump also signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants as well as immigrants legally but temporarily present in the United States. At least nine lawsuits have been filed challenging the order on constitutional grounds, and as of February 2025[update], four federal judges have issued preliminary injunctions blocking its implementation and enforcement nationwide. On June 27, the Supreme Court limited the ability of individual District Judges to issue injunctions against executive actions, meaning to pause executive action. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of birthright citizenship. District Judges can still issue injunctions in limited circumstances, such as for persons directly involved in a class action lawsuit. On January 22, 2025, Trump ended the policy from 2011 which prohibited immigration arrests in sensitive areas such as courthouses, schools, churches, and hospitals, or during funerals and weddings. NPR reported that a "growing number" of Democrat and Republican officials in cities, states, police departments, school districts and other local governments stated they would not assist in migrant raids citing public safety, civil rights, and administrative capability concerns. On January 29, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, the first legislation of his second term. On the same day, he signed a presidential memorandum to begin expansion of the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center to house up to 30,000 migrants under detention, separate from the high security military prison at Guantanamo Bay. On February 6, U.S. Border Patrol chief Michael W. Banks claimed that illegal border crossings were already down almost 90% since Trump's inauguration, and that criminal prosecutions of those apprehended were up more than 50%. On February 25, Trump announced that the US would launch "Gold Card" residency permits for wealthy immigrants for a price of US$5 million, with an estimated release near the end of March 2025. Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office. In response to injunctions countering his deportations, Trump considered suspending habeas corpus. Stephen Miller in May 2025 said regarding immigration cases that "habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion", and that the Trump administration was "actively looking at" carrying out such a suspension, depending on "whether the courts do the right thing or not"; Article One of the United States Constitution forbids such a suspension "unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." On July 1, Trump toured a newly built facility in the Florida Everglades nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz". This facility is designed to keep 3,000 persons in detention. On July 10, the Department of Health and Human Services announced they would be restricting undocumented immigrants from enrolling for Head Start, a federally funded U.S. preschool program. The administration announced on August 21, 2025, that it would be reviewing all 55 million visa holders in the United States. In October 2025, the White House set a record-low refugee admissions cap of 7,500 for the 2026 fiscal year, primarily for white Afrikaners from South Africa. By December 2025, the Department of Homeland Security reported the deportation of over 605,000 individuals, while an additional 1.9 million people voluntarily left the country. This resulted in a net negative immigration flow in 2025, marking the first such occurrence in 50 years. According to Brookings Institution, the net loss of immigrants ranged from 10,000 to 295,000 people. In January 2026, the U.S. suspended immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, citing concerns over potential financial burdens and a need to reassess immigration procedures to prevent reliance on public welfare. A rule from 2024 had been scheduled to go into effect in Spring of 2025 lowering the allowable silica dust from 100 to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged over an 8-hour shift, with 50 being the standard already enforced by OSHA in other industries. However, industry lawsuits delayed the rule in April 2025, and the Trump administration did not energetically defend the new standard. In addition, a group of seven Republicans in the U.S. House led by Tim Walberg (R- Michigan's 5th Congressional District) signed a letter to the Mine Safety and Health Administration saying the new rule ignored cheaper solutions such as job rotation. In 2018, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that approximately one in five coal miners with at least 25 years' experience in central Appalachia had black lung disease. However, among 11,000 workers who sought chest X-rays from 2020 to 2025, approximately 55% had some form of black lung. CBS News said, "Some angry retired miners with black lung are fighting back, demanding that President Donald Trump honor promises he made to the people who voted him in." On February 13, Charles Ezell, acting director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, signed a directive instructing federal agencies to dismiss probationary employees—generally, federal workers who have held their jobs less than a year, or had been promoted into the excepted service during that time. Ezell told agencies to tell the fired employees that their performance was inadequate, and that they needed to cite no evidence. As of May 12, 2025[update], The New York Times tracked more than 58,000 confirmed cuts, more than 76,000 employee buyouts, and more than 149,000 other planned reductions; cuts total 12% of the 2.4 million civilian federal workers. As of July 14, 2025[update], CNN has tracked more than 128,000 workers laid off or targeted for layoffs. The administration took back some layoffs such as for bird flu and nuclear safety. In December 2025, the Office of Personnel Management launched the United States Tech Force, a two-year hiring initiative intended to recruit about 1,000 technologists (including AI engineers) for federal technology modernization projects across multiple agencies. Trump oversaw mass firings of federal workers at various agencies, many of them described as breaking with precedent or federal law and with the intent to replace them with workers more aligned with Trump's agenda. On January 24, 2025, less than a week into Trump's second presidency, he fired 17 independent inspectors general at federal agencies, which appeared to violate federal law that requires advance notice of dismissals to both chambers of congress with reasons given 30 days in advance. Trump also fired all Democratic but not Republican members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which would prevent the board from meeting quorum and functioning. Trump also fired members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board and 56 senior officials at USAID for allegedly attempting to thwart his priorities. President Trump fired over 160 members of the National Security Council for not aligning with his agenda. On August 22, 2025, the Trump administration fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse who had been the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, reportedly because his preliminary assessments regarding the June bombing of nuclear sites in Iran disagreed with President Trump's public address to the nation that the Iran nuclear program had been set back "basically decades." Also on August 22, CBS News confirmed that Rear Adm. Milton Sands, who had served as commander of Navy Special Warfare, and Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, who had been the chief of the Navy Reserve, both had been fired. In addition, CBS News reported that Maj. Gen. J. Patrick Work, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, had "recently" been pulled from a future role as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. Announced on October 4, Secretary of Defense Hegseth fired Navy chief of staff Jon Harrison. In early August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised their numbers for May from 125,000 new jobs to 19,000, and their June numbers from 147,000 new jobs to 14,000. The BLS frequently revises monthly jobs numbers, but typically not to this extent. For the United States, unemployment is still low at 4.2%. The BLS estimates that 73,000 new jobs were added in July. President Trump fired BLS director Erika McEntarfer. On social media, he wrote, "No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes." In the last 10 years, companies have responded slower to the jobs survey and the percentage of companies responding at all has fallen. However, the survey gets responses from roughly 200,000 business locations, which can be independent companies or franchise owners. Two former commissioners with the BLS, including one appointed by Trump during his first term, made public statements criticizing the firing and supporting Director McEntarfer. Associated Press describes the economic data provided by the United States government as having long being regarded as the gold standard of economic measurement. Trump issued NSPM-7 (National Security Presidential Memorandum-7) on September 25, 2025, directing a government-wide strategy to counter what it characterizes as organized domestic terrorism and political violence. The memorandum cites "common threads" such as "anti-Americanism", "anti-capitalism", "anti-Christianity", support for 'overthrowing' the United States Government, and extremism related to migration, race, and gender. It assigns the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to lead investigations, directs the Department of Justice to prioritize prosecutions and consider domestic terrorist organization designations, and instructs the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to disrupt financial networks, while noting that the directive creates no enforceable rights. Thirty-one[which?] members of Congress later warned in a letter that NSPM-7 raises constitutional and civil-liberties concerns if used to target political dissent or ideological speech. Due to the specific states not cooperating with Trump immigration policy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reduced more than $233 million from Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and state of Washington. In addition, funding was cut to the District of Columbia. In December, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could not do this, stating in her decision, "To hold hostage funding for programs like these based solely on what appear to be defendants' political whims is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful." On March 18, 2025, the Social Security Administration announced they would be implementing tighter identity requirements starting March 31, with this date pushed forward to April 14. The new policy requires takes away the telephone option and requires individuals to either apply online or appear in-person at a field office. Applications for SSDI, Medicare, or SSI are exempted from this in-person requirement, along with applicants subject to extreme situations "such as terminal cases or prisoner pre-release scenarios." This new policy comes at a time the Trump administration is closing some field offices and laying off some Social Security staff. In late March, Wired reported that DOGE was putting together a team to migrate the Social Security base code from COBOL to a more modern programming language, with the goal of achieving this in a matter of months, whereas most experts say it should take several years to do and test this safely. It was reported in mid-April that the Trump administration had placed on the "Death Master File", renamed the "Ineligible Master File", more than 6,000 persons who are legal immigrants whom officials claim are either on a terrorism watch list or have an FBI criminal record. The White House, however, did not provide evidence for this claim. Social Security will "clawback" money from a disabled or retired person's monthly payments in cases in which overpayments are discovered. Overpayments can either be the fault of Social Security or of the recipient, for example, a person on SSDI disability not reporting monthly work income over a certain threshold. The Biden administration had capped the clawback rate at 10%, but this expired on March 27, 2025, reverting to 100%. On April 25, the Trump administration reduced this clawback rate to 50%. In February 2025, Leo Terrell, the chair of the Department of Justice's Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, announced that he would investigate Columbia University, Harvard University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Southern California as part of the Department of Justice's broader investigation into antisemitism on college campuses. Trump's actions targeting higher education were described as part of an intimidation campaign against institutions viewed as hostile to his political views. He targeted higher education by demanding it give federal oversight of curriculum and targeted activists, legal immigrants, tourists, and students with visas who expressed criticism of his policies or engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy. Trump froze billions of dollars in federal funding for multiple universities in express defiance of existing laws prohibiting such actions without following proper legal processes that did not happen. The deals and demands made by Trump were criticized as coercive, a shakedown, and legalized extortion in what Axios described as pursuit of a "cultural crackdown". On September 3, Judge Allison D. Burroughs found Trump's efforts to freeze billions of dollars of funding for Harvard illegal, writing that the government had infringed upon Harvard's free speech rights and that it was "difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country's premier universities". Foreign policy Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people. Trump's second term foreign policy has been described as a mixture of both imperialist and expansionist policies. He engaged in a realist and isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. His administration favored hard power to achieve foreign policy goals, and dismantled or withdrew support from domestic and international organizations dedicated to advancing American soft power. The moves were described as ceding American global influence and creating a void filled by Russia and China. His relations with allies were transactional and ranged from indifference to hostility, and he threatened them with economic tariffs or annexation. He was described as taking the side of Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and overseeing a rupture of the post-1945 rules-based liberal international order and abandonment of multilateralism. Michael Klare wrote that containing the influence of China and preventing the rise of any rival power is the central foreign policy objective of the administration. Trump has attempted to deepen the U.S.-India partnership. Trump's administration saw large drops in global public opinion of the U.S. Countries like Canada, Germany, the U.K., Denmark, and Finland warned their citizens about traveling to the U.S. Trump's second presidency has been characterized by a renewed American interference in the internal affairs of Latin American nations. These efforts have included both threats and promises made to influence the outcomes of elections in Honduras, Chile and Argentina, as well as tariff threats against Brazil and Mexico and military action against Venezuela. On October 20, the United States and Argentina agreed to a currency swap for up to $20 billion. About President Javier Milei of Argentina and his upcoming October 26 mid-term elections, President Trump said, "If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina." The Trump administration also announced plans to increase beef imports from Argentina. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association objected to this plan with their leader saying, "If President Trump is truly an ally of America's cattle producers, we call on him to abandon this effort to manipulate markets." On October 22, Trump posted on social media that American ranchers need to help get beef prices down, and said that ranchers "don't understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil." At Trump's direction, the United States has executed a series of airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea on vessels alleged to be smuggling illegal drugs. As of January 4, 2026, a total of 35 strikes have been conducted, in which 115 individuals have been killed and 2 have been rescued after surviving the strikes. Since the first strike, which was conducted on September 2, 2025, and killed eleven people, the Trump Administration has invoked combatting "terrorism" conducted by drug cartels as a justification for the strikes. Many legal experts have argued that the strikes constitute illegal extrajudicial killings under both U.S. and international law, noting that drug smuggling is generally considered to be a crime, not an act of war, and that the military is categorically prohibited from targeting civilians, even suspected criminals, unless facing a threat of imminent harm. Conservative lawyer and commentator Andrew C. McCarthy, writing in National Review, called the strikes "lawless" and "not legitimate under the law." The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel defended the strikes in a memo that has not been released to the public, endorsing President Trump's claim that the United States is an armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels and arguing that the destruction of drug boats eliminates a source of revenue that could be used to purchase weapons for attacks against the United States. On November 27, The Washington Post published an article alleging that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered the officers responsible for the first airstrike on September 2, 2025, to "kill everyone," on board, prompting Admiral Frank M. Bradley to order a second strike to kill the two survivors of the initial strike, who were clinging to the wreckage of the boat that had been by the initial strike. As no quarter orders are forbidden under the Law of war, the second September 2 strike was widely criticized as constituting a war crime even under the Trump Administration's justification for the boat strike campaign in general, with the chair of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, along with ranking member Jack Reed, promising "vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances." According to The New York Times, five U.S. officials stated that while Hegseth did, on September 2, order the killing of all individuals aboard the alleged drug boat, he did not specifically address what was to be done if any individuals survived the initial strike and was not present when Bradley carried out the second strike. After Hegseth refused to release a video of the second strike to Congress, the United States Senate placed a provision in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act holding back a quarter of Hegseth's travel budget until he showed the video to lawmakers. On January 3, 2026, the United States launched airstrikes in Venezuela, capturing Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The Trump administration has argued that European nations should contribute more to their own defense while the U.S. focuses on China. During his 2024 campaign, he said he would not defend NATO allies if they did not meet the alliance's spending target of 2% of GDP on defense, and that he would "encourage" Russia to "do whatever the hell they want". Trump officials privately expressed contempt for European "freeloading";. Trump's policies and rhetoric accelerated an ongoing European rearmament. Trump called Poland, which exceeds the NATO defense spending target, "one of the best groups of people I have ever met". Trump's administration has also expressed cultural disagreement with Europe and the European Union: in a speech at the 61st Munich Security Conference, Vice President Vance criticized European policies on free speech and democratic values, and accused European leaders of suppressing dissenting views on issues such as immigration. Vance also expressed support for lifting restrictions on the Alternative for Germany, a far-right German political party. While meeting with British prime minister Keir Starmer in February 2025, Trump accepted a request from King Charles III for a state visit in the U.K.; both Trump and Starmer praised the U.S.–U.K. "Special Relationship". The state visit occurred between September 16–18 2025. Trump began a push for peace negotiations to end the Russia–Ukraine war. Trump's first foreign visit as president-elect was to Paris for the reopening of the Notre-Dame de Paris, during which he met with French president Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the war, and met with other European officials. In February 2025, Trump held phone calls with Russian president Vladimir Putin and with Zelenskyy that he said marked the beginning of negotiations. He threatened Ukraine with a suspension of U.S. military aid and Russia with sanctions and tariffs if he decided they were not negotiating in good faith. The U.S. sought a mineral resources agreement with Ukraine though was unwilling to offer postwar security guarantees for Ukraine in exchange. Negotiators reached a deal on the agreement but the agreement fell through after a contentious meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office that ended when the Ukrainian delegation was abruptly asked to leave. Afterwards, the U.K. and France developed a proposal in which a "coalition of the willing" would provide security guarantees to Ukraine. The U.S. and Russia held a summit in Saudi Arabia for peace talks in February and U.S. held a summit with Ukraine the next month, during which Ukraine accepted a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire. Putin did not accept the ceasefire, though on March 18 Russia agreed to a 30-day ceasefire only for strikes on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea, which Ukraine agreed to. On July 9, Trump reversed a previously suspended military aid package to Ukraine following Russia's largest aerial assault on the country, involving hundreds of drones and missiles. The suspension, reportedly authorized by senior defense officials without Trump's prior knowledge. Trump expressed growing frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin, accusing him of insincerity and relentless aggression, saying, "He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people, it's no good." The U.S. are discussing sending 10 Patriot missiles to Ukraine, and Trump said he is reviewing a proposed sanctions bill by Senator Lindsey Graham that would impose 500% tariffs on countries trading with Russia. Although Trump has previously mentioned secondary sanctions, none have been implemented so far, with the president citing their cost and waiting to see if a peace deal would emerge. On July 14, 2025, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs and secondary sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire within 50 days. Trump confirmed a summit meeting between him and Putin to be held on August 15, 2025, in Alaska The high-level summit at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage concluded without progress toward a ceasefire. Following the talks, Trump suggested the United States could assist Ukraine with surveillance flights or air defense support, while ruling out the deployment of ground troops. Trump emphasized that European nations should shoulder the primary burden of assistance and pressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take greater responsibility in securing peace. He further hinted that Ukraine may eventually face difficult choices, including potential territorial concessions, to bring the conflict to an end. In September 2025, Trump urged Europe to stop buying Russian oil and start putting economic pressure on China for funding Russia's war effort. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is "prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our European partners to follow us." In September 2025, the Trump administration approved the delivery of the first two packages of weapons to Ukraine from US stockpiles totalling approximately $1 billion, which would be paid for by NATO allies, under the new mechanism called Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL). The mechanism aims to deliver aid worth up to $10 billion. On September 27, 2025, President Zelenskyy announced a $90 billion arms agreement with the United States in works. On October 22, 2025, the United States imposed sanctions on Russian energy companies Rosneft and Lukoil, affecting their customers in China and India. Trump's administration strained relations with South Africa. Trump suspended all aid to South Africa, saying the country's land expropriation law discriminated against Afrikaners; he also offered Afrikaners refugee status in the U.S. Rubio refused to attend the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Johannesburg and he declared the South African ambassador persona non grata for his criticism of U.S. policies. Rubio condemned the Rwandan-backed Goma offensive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and called for an immediate ceasefire and respect for territorial integrity. In April, U.S. officials entered into talks with the DRC on a minerals deal after a proposal from Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi. In June 2025, President Trump brokered a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, with the U.S. getting "a lot of mineral rights." This potentially brings to an end a 30+ year conflict dating back to the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Each country had accused the other of financing and supporting rebel groups. On June 27, in a deal signed in the White House, each country pledged to end such support, allow the return of refugees, and create a joint security coordination mechanism aimed at resolving disputes. An estimated 6 million persons have died in this conflict, and Trump said that this deal ends "one of the worst wars anyone's ever seen." A critic said, "It risks reducing peace to a transactional exchange. Minerals are only one driver of conflict." Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "This is an important moment after 30 years of war. President Trump is a president of peace. He really does want peace. He prioritizes it above all else." A former prime minister of the DR Congo, Joseph Kabila, expressed skepticism of the peace deal, saying that it was "nothing more than a trade agreement." In April 2025, the U.S. revoked all visas of and barred entry to citizens of South Sudan after a dispute over the deportation of a South Sudanese citizen. In March 2025, the U.S. began a series of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen to counter attacks on Red Sea shipping, with the goal of restoring freedom of navigation and deterring further aggression. U.S. officials accidentally included The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat discussing the military plans, sparking a political scandal and accusations of risking national security and violating records-preservation laws. In May 2025, Trump announced that his administration had reached a ceasefire deal with the Houthis. Trump reinstated his "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran and sought a new set of negotiations to limit Iran's nuclear program. In March 2025, Trump sent a letter to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei urging new negotiations and warning of military action if talks fail. On June 13, 2025, Israeli planes bombed sites in Iran associated with Iran's nuclear program. President Trump stated he was not involved, although Iranian leaders have said they do not believe this. There have been reports that Trump vetoed a plan to kill Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, and that the United States communicated to Israel that Iran has not killed an American and discussions of killing political leaders should not be on the table. In retaliation, Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel, most of which has been shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. As of June 15, 24 people have been killed in Israel and 224 people have been killed in Iran, according to state media. On June 18, Trump said he had not decided whether to join with Israeli bombing runs on nuclear program sites in Iran. Trump said that it is "very late to be talking." An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman told Al Jazeera news that he did not believe the Trump administration could dictate to Israel what it can and cannot do. Regarding whether the United States will strike with B-2 planes carrying "bunker-buster" bombs directed against Iran's Fordo nuclear site (which is buried in a mountain), President Trump said, "Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks." On June 21, 2025, the U.S. attacked three nuclear sites: the Fordow uranium enrichment facility, the Natanz nuclear facility, and Isfahan nuclear technology center. B-2 airplanes took off from the state of Missouri and made the 18-hour flight to Iran, being refueled multiple times en route. Entering Iranian airspace, fighter jets cleared space ahead of them, and a Navy sub fired more than 24 Tomahawk missiles. The leading B-2 dropped two Massive Ordnance Penetrators bombs (MOPs, or "bunker-busters") at the Fordo site. A total of 14 MOPs were dropped at two target sites. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said, "We devastated the Iranian nuclear program, but it's worth noting that the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people." On June 22, Trump said that since the Islamic regime in control of Iran has failed to make Iran great, it should be replaced to "Make Iran Great Again". Later he posted on social media that their constant anger, hostility, and despair have only led them to ruin. The path they're on offers no hope, only more hardship, " I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with honey than you do with vinegar". On August 22, 2025, the Trump administration fired director of Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse. This reportedly was done because General Kruse had made a preliminary assessment that Iran had moved some of their uranium stockpile and that the bombing had only set Iran back a matter of mere months, whereas President Trump had said in a speech to the nation that Iran's program had been set back "basically decades." Senator Mark Warner (Democrat - Virginia), who is vice-chair of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, said, "The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration's dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country." During the 2025–2026 Iranian protests, Trump repeatedly warned the Iranian authorities that the U.S. would "intervene" if the regime did not halt its crackdown on protesters. On January 16, 2026, Trump announced that the Iranian leadership had reportedly canceled over 800 planned executions. After being elected in November 2024, Trump said he wished to end the Gaza war, telling Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end Israel's invasion within two months and warning Hamas that they would have "all hell to pay" if they did not agree to a ceasefire and release all hostages by Trump's inauguration. Trump's incoming administration joined the Biden administration in pressuring negotiations, and Israel and Hamas agreed to a phased ceasefire on January 15, 2025. In February 2025, Trump proposed an American takeover of Gaza in which the territory's Palestinian population would be relocated to allow for its redevelopment, which was criticized by Egypt and Jordan. The ceasefire lasted until March 18, when Israel launched attacks on Gaza. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff blamed Hamas for renewed fighting in Gaza. On May 16, while in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Trump said, "We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving." This is an area of tension between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel claims that Hamas systemically raids food aid in order to support its operations, and Israel has put forward a plan of food distributed through a system of hubs run by private contractors and protected by Israeli soldiers. The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been set up to carry out this plan and announced it would be ready to begin operations by the end of May. On July 28, while in Scotland, President Trump said he believed there was starvation occurring in Gaza. He further added, "Nobody's done anything great over there. The whole place is a mess... I told Israel maybe they have to do it a different way." Israeli Prime Minister said, "And what has interdicted the supply of humanitarian aid is one force, Hamas. Again, the reversal of truth." Asked about an Israeli double-strike on a hospital on August 25, 2025, Trump said he was "not happy about it," adding, "We have to end this whole nightmare." On September 29, 2025, President Trump announced, alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu, a 20-Point Gaza Peace Plan from the White House which consisted of 20 specific points aimed at achieving a ceasefire, the return of Israeli hostages, dismantling Hamas's military capabilities, and establishing a transitional governance structure in the Gaza Strip. In October 2025, President Trump announced his deal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas had been reached and that the remaining hostages would be released. In exchange, Israel will release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving longterm sentences and another 1,700 other prisoners. The Israeli military will withdraw from a "blue line" to a "yellow line" further away from the Gaza coast. Trump was widely praised for negotiating this settlement, including by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. On October 23, 2025, the Knesset passed a bill that would apply Israeli sovereignty to all West Bank settlements. The bill was condemned by Vice President JD Vance as a "very stupid political stunt" and by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as "counterproductive" to Trump's Gaza peace plan. Trump added that "Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened." In September 2025, following an Israeli strike against suspected Hamas terrorists in Qatar's capital city of Doha, President Trump signed an executive order which stated, "The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States." President Biden had begun a closer relationship with Qatar following their help with the 2001 American withdrawal from Afghanistan. In January 2022, Biden named Qatar a "major non-NATO ally," although this was largely a symbolic honor. The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "This is a decision that can be and should have been debated. Instead it comes out of the blue — an executive order following no public debate." In October, Defense Secretary Hegseth announced a training agreement that the Qatar Air Force will build a facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. The United States has a similar arrangement with Singapore, at the same base. Hegseth emphasized that the U.S. will remain in charge of the facility "like we do with all partners." During the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives that toppled the Assad regime in Syria, Trump said that the U.S. should stay out of the conflict. In March 2025, Rubio condemned the massacres of Syrian Alawites. Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Syria after discussing the situation with Mohammed bin Salman and Erdoğan. India rejected Trump's offer to mediate India–China tensions. On February 13, 2025, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi became the fourth world leader to visit Donald Trump at the White House. In early 2025, deportations to Bhutan of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees who had been settled in the US for nearly two decades resulted in statelessness of the deportees following their interrogation and expulsion from Bhutan upon arrival. Some of the refouled refugees, who had encountered largely minor legal issues in the US, were then arrested for illegal entry to Nepal upon seeking to re-enter the refugee camps they had previously inhabited before US resettlement. In response to the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict, Vice President Vance said that, a potential war between India and Pakistan is "none of our business." Trump claimed to have negotiated a ceasefire, a claim that Pakistan corroborated and India denied. In July 2025, Trump criticized India over its continued oil trade with Russia, despite ongoing Western sanctions. On July 30, 2025, Trump announced that Indian products would be subject to 25% reciprocal tariffs upon arrival in the United States starting August 1, and that a "penalty" would be added for the purchase of Russian oil. On August 6, 2025, Trump raised the tariff to 50%, a 25% increase, over India's purchase of Russian oil. In July 2025, Trump's administration reached a trade agreement with Pakistan, in which Trump announced that the United States would help Pakistan develop its large and untapped oil reserves. The agreement also reduced American reciprocal tariffs on Pakistan to 19%, the lowest of any country in South Asia. On August 8, 2025, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev signed a peace agreement in a ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump in the White House, aiming to end the more than 35-year conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In 2025, Trump attempted to negotiate a ceasefire in the border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order that directed the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to restrict Chinese investment in strategic economic areas. Trump blamed China for the opioid crisis in the United States. He said the tariffs are intended to pressure China to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US. Opioids, predominantly fentanyl, have killed over 500,000 Americans since 2012. In September 2025, Trump asked the EU to impose 100% tariffs on China to punish it for buying Russian oil and de facto financing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On October 21, 2025, partly as a consequence of the China–U.S. trade war that included China imposing restrictions on its sale of processed rare-earth elements, Trump signed a deal with Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, over rare-earths and other critical minerals[c] that are needed for commercial clean energy production and technologically advanced military hardware. They each committed to provide at least US$1bn (A$1.54bn) towards a number of projects worth $US8.5bn (A$13bn) in both countries over six months. The deal has been well received by the Australian rare-earths industry and the markets, and is important to the U.S. because rare earths are used in many technologies, including components of the Defense Force such as F-35 fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles. The deal is also seen as a major shift in economic alliances. DOGE dismantled most of USAID, which had been a 10,000-person agency originally tasked to carry-out humanitarian projects. USAID's critics maintained that many of the projects were in fact not all that humanitarian and/or much of the money was not well spent. In January 2025, the administration issued a 90-day stop-work order worldwide, Stop work interrupted about 30 clinical trials, and interrupted projects such as emergency medical care for displaced Palestinians and Yemenis, aid for war refugees on the Sudan-Chad border, and electricity for Ukrainian refugees. The HIV Modeling Consortium estimated the death toll from HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at approximately 15,000 adults and 1,600 children in the one month after Trump's January 2025 funding freeze. A key controversy is whether or not waivers are being made and money actually starting to flow again for the most essential programs. For example, the Associated Press reported on February 19, that waivers for PEPFAR, the program that has saved 26 million lives from AIDS, were not in force, despite a federal judge having lifted the funding freeze. In early February 2025, it was reported that the USAID director of security and a deputy were put on administrative leave after they "blocked efforts by DOGE members to physically access restricted areas" in order to obtain sensitive information. The DOGE members eventually gained access to the information, which reportedly included email as well as classified information for which they did not have security clearance. And they obtained the ability to lock USAID staff out. Musk had earlier tweeted "USAID is a criminal organization" and that it is "Time for it to die." Estimates do vary. Oxfam criticized Musk's policies and actions as the world's richest individual deciding "to shutter the world's largest provider of lifesaving humanitarian aid." USAID staff were instructed to keep away from USAID headquarters while hundreds of USAID staff lost access to USAID computer systems. There have been reports that China has offered to take over development projects if the United States permanently leaves. During a February 6 press conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated, "If it's providing food or medicine or anything that is saving lives and is immediate and urgent, you're not included in the freeze." However, a February 8 CNN article reported that many waivers were not being acted upon because of staff placed on leave, plus payment systems had been taken over. In an interview before the February 9 Super Bowl, Trump said, "Let him take care of the few good ones", referring to Rubio. On February 13, federal judge Amir Ali ordered the Trump administration to continue contracts and grants which were in effect January 19. Chief Justice John Roberts, overseeing cases for the District of Columbia, paused this order. On March 5, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the Trump administration must comply with Judge Ali's order. However, the Supreme Court stated that Judge Ali must clarify the payment obligations with "due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines". On March 10, Judge Ali ruled that the Trump administration must pay for completed projects at the rate of 300 back payments a day, meaning four days for all 1,200 back payments, and this being for projects completed by February 13. A March 11 ABC News article reported that, until recently, no payments were being made because DOGE had disabled the payment system. On March 10, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was cancelling 83% of USAID programs, or approximately 5,200 out of 6,200 programs. The remaining 1,000 programs (approximately) would be moved to the Department of State. As of late March, DOGE no longer lists the details of canceled USAID contracts on its "Wall of Receipts". DOGE lists approximately $12 billion saved, although a former USAID analyst estimates the actual amount is closer to $6 or $7 billion. In early April, USAID announced it was adding back 14 nations to grants under the UN's World Food Programme. These nations include Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador, plus the International Organization for Migration in the Pacific region. However, food aid was not restored to either Yemen or Afghanistan, with a State Department spokesperson saying this was "based on concern that the funding was benefiting terrorist groups, including the Houthis and the Taliban". In June 2025, the White House requested that Congress pass a package of rescissions, or "claw backs", of approximately $8 billion in foreign aid and $1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting including NPR and PBS. The House of Representatives passed the cuts as requested. The Senate excluded the PEPFAR cuts, which is the program started in 2003 during the presidency of George W Bush to help provide HIV medicines to lower-income countries. The Senate passed two preliminary votes in close 51-50 fashion with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking votes. A rescission is one of the exceptions to the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule. President Trump focused on the public broadcasting aspect, criticizing CNN and also "MSDNC" which is a mix of MSNBC and DNC (Democratic National Committee). In a Truth Social post, he wrote, "It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together." In a late night session at 2:00 AM on July 17, the Senate voted 51–48 in favor of the cuts. Later that same day, the House of Representatives voted 216 - 213 for the Senate version, meaning PEPFAR was protected in the amount of $400 million. Regarding the cuts to public broadcasting, service to rural areas became one of the political issues. President Trump stated the United States would help in response to the March 28 earthquake in Myanmar, although the question was asked by a former USAID executive of whether or not the United States will beat other countries in getting there with a relief team(s). Hurricane Melissa was a Category 5 hurricane which first made landfall at Jamaica on October 28, 2025, and then hit other Caribbean islands. Secretary of State Rubio activated a disaster assistance response team. By October 31, three U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopters were deployed to Jamaica to help with relief efforts, with five more on the way. In early November, the State Department promised $12 million in aid to Jamaica, $8 to Haiti, $3 million to Cuba, and 1/2 million to The Bahamas. On January 20, 2025, Trump signed the executive order named "Securing Our Borders". Due to this order, the Uniting for Ukraine parole program is suspended and no new applications from Ukrainian refugees with relatives in the United States are being accepted. On May 12, 59 white South African refugees arrived from South Africa. The Trump administration has been criticized for fast-tracking their applications while pausing other refugee programs. The Trump administration slowed the entry of Afghan refugees into the U.S., including persons who had fought on the U.S. side against the Taliban. A leader of an American veterans group said, "these pilots risked everything for America. Their lives are now on the line because of our failure to follow through on our promises." On May 12, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Noem announced that TPS, or temporary protected status, for Afghan refugees would be ended in 60 days, which is the shortest time period permitted by United States law. This decision cited improved conditions in Afghanistan. The Hill reports that the UN high commissioner for refugees has stated that the situation in Afghanistan has not improved, with a report stating "The large-scale returns are putting even greater pressure on already stretched humanitarian resources." On the other hand, Secretary Noem has pointed to an increase in tourists from China and a drop in the number of Afghans needing assistance from 29 million to 24 million. Fox News reported that the leader of "Afghans for Trump", which formed in the aftermath of President Biden's chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, claimed that conditions have not significantly improved and urged President Trump to reconsider. In the lead-up to his second inauguration, Trump proposed plans and ideas that would expand the United States' political influence and territory. It has been characterized as a revival of the Monroe Doctrine. The last territory acquired by the United States was in 1947 when the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands were acquired. The Trump administration has imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian goods imports that do not fall under Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, with exceptions for steel, aluminum, and Canadian-made passenger vehicle content. Canadian officials responded with retaliatory 25% tariffs, and have even proposed cutting off the supply of Canadian energy into the Northern United States. Manitoba has diverted energy to Canada that it previously supplied to the USA. Peter Navarro, a trade envoy and high-ranking Trump official, has suggested expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance to increase pressure in the trade war. Trump has repeatedly stated his desire for the United States to annex Canada and calling for it to become the 51st state, calling former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau "Governor of the Great State of Canada". Trudeau stated to business leaders in Canada that he believes the annexation threats are a "real thing". The strained relations have led to a "Buy Canadian" movement to boycott American goods and services, and booing the American national anthem during international hockey games. When tariffs were implemented on March 4, Trudeau stated that Trump's goal in the trade war was to weaken Canada in order to annex it. On February 8, 2026, Trump threatened to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, citing Canada's recent trade developments with China and the alleged one-sided nature of the contract (wherein Canada gains all revenue from bridge tolls to pay back construction costs). Trump said the bridge's opening will be delayed until multiple trade and bridge related grievances were resolved. Trump's announcement was criticised by politicians, business leaders and industry groups. On February 12, 2026, the United States House of Representatives voted to repeal the tariffs that had been imposed on Canadian goods during Donald Trump's administration. The resolution passed by a 219–211 vote, with a small number of Republican lawmakers joining nearly all Democrats in support. The tariffs had originally been enacted under a national emergency declaration in February 2025, and their repeal represented a rare bipartisan rebuke of Trump's trade policy. Following the vote, President Trump reportedly threatened political consequences for Republicans who voted against the measure. While passage in the House reflects congressional concern over the tariffs, actual repeal would still require Senate approval and presidential assent, and was expected to face a potential veto. In December 2024, Trump stated a further proposal for the United States to purchase Greenland from Denmark, describing "ownership" and control of the island as "an absolute necessity" for national security purposes. This builds upon a prior offer from Trump to buy Greenland during his first term, which the Danish Realm refused, causing him to cancel his August 2019 visit to Denmark.[better source needed] On January 7, 2025, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland's capital city Nuuk alongside Charlie Kirk to hand out MAGA hats. At a press conference the following day, Trump refused to rule out military or economic force to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal. However, he did rule out military force in taking over Canada. On January 14, the Trump-affiliated Nelk Boys also visited Nuuk, handing out dollar bills to locals. On January 16, the CEOs of major Danish companies Novo Nordisk, Vestas and Carlsberg among others were assembled for a crisis meeting in the Ministry of State to discuss the situation. On the subsequent day, former chief executive Friis Arne Petersen in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the situation as "historically unheard of", while Noa Redington, special adviser to former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, compared the international pressure on Denmark that during the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. On February 12, 2025, a bill was introduced in Congress to advance efforts to acquire Greenland and rename it Red, White, and Blueland. Trump's actions against Greenland have been described as hybrid warfare by academics and analysts. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that "the Kingdom of Denmark—and thus Greenland—is a member of NATO and is therefore covered by the Alliance's collective security guarantee ... I ... strongly urge the United States to cease its threats against a historically close ally." The official Danish threat assessment published by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service in 2025 for the first time mentioned the United States as a threat to national security, alongside Russia and China. In 2026 Greenland and Denmark saw massive anti-Trump protests, the Hands off Greenland protests, where protesters chanted "Greenland is not for sale". In 2024, Trump demanded that Panama return control of the Panama Canal to the United States due to 'excessive rates' being charged for American passage. The United States previously was in control of the Panama Canal Zone from 1903 until 1999, and has invaded Panama before in 1989. Trump told Congress in March 2025 that his administration "will be reclaiming the Panama Canal". Also that month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed the Trump administration to "immediately" present "credible military options to ensure fair and unfettered US military and commercial access to the Panama Canal". On July 22, 2025, the United States informed of its decision to withdraw from UNESCO, effective December 31, 2026. In a presidential memorandum issued on January 7, 2026, Donald Trump directed to start the process of withdrawal of the US from the 66 organizations, agencies and commissions of the United Nations, including UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), calling them "contrary to the interests of the United States". On January 22, 2026, President Donald Trump completed the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, a year after he signed Executive Order 14155 on January 20, 2025. As announced by the Department of Health and Human Services, the United States officially exited the organization, ending its 78-year membership and halting all U.S. funding and participation in the WHO's governance and activities. Although the organization hoped for a reconsideration the day after Trump's executive order, the administration continued with the decision. The administration justified the withdrawal by citing concerns about the WHO's handling of global health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, its resistance to reforms, and its failure to operate independently from inappropriate political influence of other WHO member states. In a joint statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., they said that the WHO "tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it" and it "abandoned its core mission and acted repeatedly against the interests of the United States," including the failure to "hand over the American flag that hung in front of it." The United States still owes outstanding dues to the WHO from 2024 to 2025, raising questions about the legality and financial implications of the exit. Being one of the biggest donors to the WHO, the country's unpaid fees of estimated $260 million has already caused massive job losses at the organization. However, as a response, Washington said they saw no reason to comply. Ronald G. Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), criticized the withdrawal, calling it "a shortsighted and misguided abandonment of our global health commitments" and "scientifically reckless." He emphasized that "It fails to acknowledge the fundamental natural history of infectious diseases" and that "Global cooperation and communication are critical to keep our own citizens protected because germs do not respect borders," adding that global cooperation is "not a luxury" but a "biological necessity." Ethics Trump's second presidency was described by political commentators as having fewer prohibitions on business activity and guardrails against potential conflicts of interest than his first, and for having more opportunities to directly influence Trump. Trump repealed and rolled back anti-corruption measures and ethical standards for himself and his allies, dropped corruption charges against political figures with ties to him, and fired inspectors generals investigating fraud and abuse. The New York Times described Trump as making up statistics "out of thin air", and for accusing government agencies and "anyone he disfavors of corruption and even criminality without proof". His second presidency was described as breaking with decades of ethical norms, and raising substantial corruption concerns. Congressional Republicans largely downplayed or ignored the concerns. Federal judges found many of the administration's actions to be illegal and unconstitutional, and by mid-July, a Washington Post analysis found he defied judges and the courts in roughly one third of all cases against him, actions which were described by legal experts as unprecedented for any presidential administration. His defiance of court orders and a claimed right to disobey the courts raised fears among legal experts of a constitutional crisis. By August 2025, several grant terminations and spending freezes were found by judges and the Government Accountability Office as being illegal and unconstitutional. As of November 2025[update] Trump has issued nearly two thousand pardons and commutations including for some prosecuted during his first presidency. Trump's pardons and grants of clemency favored political allies and loyalists. Lobbyists have told the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets that fees of $1M are standard. Some would-be pardon recipients have offered success fees of $6M for a successful application. Trump frequently bypassed the Office of the Pardon Attorney, and on March 7, 2025, fired its leader, Department of Justice career attorney Liz Oyer, and installed political loyalist Ed Martin in the role. Ed Martin described the rationale for granting pardons as "No MAGA left behind". In April 2025, Oyer testified to the Senate and accused the Justice Department of "ongoing corruption" and that "the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of justice". In 2025, Trump pardoned 42 people charged with white-collar crimes. As of late January 2026, he had pardoned an additional 10 white collar criminals. Trump maintained what The New York Times described as a "pay-for-access" operation, with millions being raised for his pro-Trump PAC, MAGA Inc, which had collected $177 million in the first half of 2025, twice as much than was raised by the Republican National Committee and unusually large for term-limited presidents. Millions were raised from individuals, lobbyists, corporations, and donors to it and other Trump-friendly outlets. Those that gave were granted access to the president and shortly afterward several received presidential pardons, favorable regulatory and policy actions, or appointments for government positions. Examples of criticism included but were not limited to the Trump administration lifting a ban on Central Romana Corporation shipping sugar to the United States following allegations of forced labor at the company. According to OpenSecrets, Fanjul Corp which owns Central Romana had given $1 million to MAGA Inc. Another action criticized was the pardon of Paul Walczak following his mother's attendance at a $1 million per person fund raising "candlelight dinner" sponsored by MAGA Inc. Walczak was alleged by prosecutors to have withheld over $10 million from paychecks of staff at a nursing home for trust fund taxes instead using the money to buy a $2 million yacht among other expenses. Walczak was supposed to pay $4.3 million in restitution prior to his pardon. The Trump administration was also criticized for delaying a rule change which would restrict coverage of skin substitutes under Medicare after Extremity Care "a leading seller of skin substitutes" gave $5 million to MAGA Inc. August 26, 2025 Trump's second presidency included multiple potential conflicts of interest that did not exist during his first term in office, including a publicly traded company in Truth Social, a cryptocurrency venture, new overseas real estate deals involving state-affiliated entities, and several branding and licensing deals selling Trump-branded merchandise. His 2024 campaign was noted for an "unprecedented" mixing of personal business and political fundraising. Trump promoted $59.99 bibles, $399 sneakers, $99 "Victory47" cologne, and $99 Trump-branded NFT digital trading cards for his personal, non-campaign accounts. Trump's campaign was noted for spending large sums of campaign money at Trump-owned businesses, in particular his Mar-a-Lago resort and the Trump National Doral Miami. After winning the election, Trump mirrored his first term's ethics commitments and did not divest from his interests in branding and real estate. He also did not place his assets in a trust managed by an independent trustee. Trump did not adopt his own formal ethics guidelines. Trump transferred his shares of Truth Social into a trust in which he is the sole beneficiary, of which his oldest son is the trustee. Ethics experts described it as falling "well short of the blind trusts and divestitures from private business interests that other presidents have used to avoid ethical conflicts with their job". Trump's son, Eric Trump, said the Trump Organization would continue to pursue business deals overseas, dropping a self-imposed prohibition during Trump's first presidency. Trump profited from holding events at his hotels and golf courses. Trump's conflicts of interest were described as having national-security risks, with particular emphasis placed on relationships with the Saudi and Emirati governments through the Trump Organization and his son-in-law Jared Kushner's investment fund backed by the Saudis. Trump noted that conflict of interest laws did not apply to him and that he was protected by broad immunity for his official actions as president. As part of the Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions, Trump repealed Ethic Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel which prohibited executive branch employees accepting major gifts from lobbyists and two year bans on lobbyists seeking executive jobs and vice versa. Critics described the repeal as the opposite of his pledge to "drain the swamp". Trump also signed Executive Order 14209 to stop the Justice Department prosecuting Americans accused of bribing foreign government officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Trump's wife, Melania, entered into a deal with Amazon to create Melania (film) a documentary about herself, which raised ethics concerns as it was made while she was still in office. In March 2025, Trump praised Tesla's cars on the White House lawn with notes about the cars' features alongside Elon Musk in "something of a sales pitch" which was described in The Nation as "brazenly corrupt". Countries facing tariffs were pushed by the State Department to approve Musk's Starlink satellite service. On April 9, 2025, Trump's encouragement of investors to buy stocks hours before pausing tariffs that sent markets soaring was scrutinized by Democrats and government ethics experts as possible market manipulation. Representative Adam Schiff called on Congress to investigate whether in pausing tariffs, Trump had engaged in insider trading or market manipulation. His use of tariff exemptions also raised concerns of corruption, with claims of insider trading and special exemptions being given to friends and to punish rivals. Trump has suggested those who "invest" within the United States would be able to reduce their tariffs. In May 2025, Trump's intention to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar to serve first as Air Force One and later be transferred to his presidential library elicited rare, bipartisan criticism, with his supporters deriding it as a "bribe", "grift" and "corruption". The Guardian criticized it as an example of a quid pro quo. The Boston Globe described the deal as an example of an increasingly transactional presidency, describing it as more direct than during his first term and showing that he was "willing to bend for anyone who gives him what he craves: praise, prestige, and a cut of the profits". By August 12, the United States Office of Government Ethics reported that Trump had made 690 stock transactions since taking office, including purchasing at least $100 million in bonds from local authorities, gas districts, and major American corporations. CNBC reported that federal law exempted the president and vice president from some conflict of interest regulations. An August 2025 New Yorker Piece entitled "The Number" by David D. Kirkpatrick estimated that Trump had gained over $3 billion from the presidency. The number was calculated from increased business at Mar-a-Lago, legal fees, TrumpStore.com ("the official retail website of The Trump Organization"), deals with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, N7478D, Trump International, Vietnam, Trump's conflict with the media, the Trump Media & Technology Group, 1789 Capital and Trumps activities involving Cryptocurrency. Trump's cabinet were noted to have a large number of potential conflicts of interest, with the Campaign Legal Center finding over 467 that would require recusal, with the most, 106, belonging to Howard Lutnick. Trump Media gifted 25,946 shares of stock of DJT to each of his picks for FBI director, Kash Patel, and education secretary nominee, Linda McMahon, totaling $779,400 each as of January 31, 2025. Both members served as directors for his company, and they later said they would not accept the award. He also gifted thousands of shares to his son. At the 2025 Gaza peace summit, a live microphone recorded Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto asking Trump if he could meet his son, Eric Trump. Trump replied he would have Eric call him. Speculation arose over the involvement of Trump organization. At the time, Eric Trump served as an executive vice president of The Trump Organization, which had business interests in Indonesia, including an operating golf club near Jakarta and a planned resort in Bali. The media described it as a 'hot mic moment'. Prabowo had told Trump that he had also informed Hary, reportedly referring to Hary Tanoesoedibjo, an Indonesian developer with ties to the Trump Organization. The incident prompted criticism. Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, stated that the exchange showed "there is no line between Trump presidential and personal business." In October 2025, Trump demanded the Justice Department pay him $230 million to compensate him for his former federal investigations. The move was described as unparalleled in American history and the starkest example of a conflict of interest due to the president installing his personal lawyers as leaders of the department. You've been so generous in your contributions, very substantial money, fully financed. It's fully taken care of now. And in fact, we'll have money left over and we'll use that for something. Trump's White House State Ballroom will reportedly be heavily funded by private donors. Trump hosted an October 2025 dinner for donors to the ballroom. In October 2025, Trump said that an anonymous private donor has given $130 million to the U.S. government to help pay troops during the government shutdown. While Trump refused to identify the donor, the donor was reported to be Timothy Mellon. The Justice Department reportedly shut down an investigation into Tom Homan accepting $50,000. Of a $200 million ad campaign, the majority ($143 million) reportedly was awarded to Safe America Media LLC with the national emergency designation used to bypass "the normal competitive bidding" procurement process. The LLC was incorporated eight days before the contract award with its address being the home of a Republican consultant. While, "subcontractors hired to do work on the DHS ads are not disclosed in federal contracting databases", a production as part of the contract was run by the Strategy Group. The group's CEO is Ben Yoho who is married to Tricia McLaughlin the assistant secretary for Public Affairs at DHS. USAspending.gov lists the Office of Public Affairs at DHS as the "Funding Office" of the award. Noem had previously required "that she personally approve any payment over $100,000". Noem had previously been accused of intervening as South Dakota governor "to ensure the Strategy Group got the deal". The group paid "up to $25,000" to Madison Sheahan described as "one of Noem's closest advisers in South Dakota". Yoho had also "worked under Lewandowski on the publicity campaign for Noem's 2024 memoir". Another firm, "People Who Think", owned by Jay Connaughton, has a $77 million award for advertising from DHS. In 2023, "Connaughton appeared to have worked" with Lewandowski. The Trump Library Foundation "expects to raise about $50 million" in 2025. MGX Fund Management Limited chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon put $2 billion into World Liberty Financial to invest in binance. Two weeks later, Trump announced "over $200 billion in commercial deals between the United States and the United Arab Emirates—bringing the total of investment agreements in the Gulf region to over $2 trillion" Discussions reportedly involved David O. Sacks and Steve Witkoff. Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. The TRUMP VANCE INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, INC. raised over $700 million. David O. Sacks "stands out as a special government employee because of his hundreds of investments in tech companies, which can benefit from policies that he influences". Trump will host the 2026 G20 summit at Trump National Doral Miami, a resort owned by The Trump Organization. Following the 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela, Trump posted that Venezuelan oil "money will be controlled by me". The main bank account for the oil sells was located in Qatar. Pam Bondi sold between $1 million and $5 million in Trump Media & Technology Group on 2 April 2025. The same day Trump announced Liberation Day tariffs. Trump bought at least a million dollars in Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery bonds. A proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would need the administration's approval. The Interior Department Associate Deputy Secretary, as of 2026, Karen Budd-Falen's husband Frank Falen entered into a deal with a subsidiary of Lithium Americas for $3.5 million. A year after the deal, during the first Trump presidency, Budd-Falen met with the subsidiary while Thacker Pass lithium mine was pending federal review. A 2025 New York Times investigation "traced" over half a billion dollars’ to 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. Of the 346 donors, "more than half of them have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements" of the administration including "pardons, favorable regulatory moves, the dropping of legal cases, access to the president and more." The investigation looked at "a buffet of options (...) presented to donors" including the inaugural committee, Trust for the National Mall, White House State Ballroom, White House Historical Association, America250, Securing American Greatness, Kennedy Center, National Park Foundation (Freedom 250). Unlike MAGA Inc. and the Republican National Committee, donations to the "buffet" do not require disclosure to the Federal Election Commission. At least 32 people in the administration, themselves, their families or their companies, donated at least $250,000 to Trump's "causes after the election". "Since retaking office, the president has lavished his post-election donors with praise and access to himself and his inner circle. (...) The White House has used government platforms to praise major donors to a wider audience." In January 2026, Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion for a leak of the tax returns of Donald Trump. After the 2024 US presidential election, Eric Trump signed a deal for a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLF) with Aryam Investment (which is under Sheikh Tahnoon) making Aryam the largest shareholder in WLF. The deal was described in The Wall Street Journal as "unprecedented in American politics: a foreign government official taking a major ownership stake in an incoming U.S. president’s company." "Disclosures on World Liberty’s website showed the Trump family’s equity interest fell to 38% from 75% last year, indicating someone had likely purchased a stake, but the company has never disclosed a buyer." "The deal placed two Aryam executives, who also held top positions at Tahnoon’s G42, on World Liberty’s five-person board, which at the time included Eric Trump and Zach Witkoff". The two executives also "would play key roles in the U.A.E.’s chip lobbying efforts with the Trump administration". The deal did not include "the rights to future WLFI token sales, leaving the Tahnoon-backed entity out of what was then the company’s only source of revenue". "The deal to purchase the stake was hugely profitable to World Liberty’s founders. (...) Of the first $250 million installment from the Tahnoon-backed company (...) $187 million was directed to Trump family entities DT Marks DEFI LLC and DT Marks SC LLC (...) Trump personally owned 70% of DT Marks DEFI while other family members owned 30% as of the end of 2024". In March 2025, Trump hosted a White House dinner for Tahnoon which included the vice president and multiple members of the cabinet. Former government officials said typically foreign officials meet with their US counterparts rather than the president. The UAE had also pushed for faster review of investments in the US which in May 2025 the US Treasury announced it would launch. In May 2025, at the royal palace in Abu Dhabi, Trump told Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan "Your relationship and mine can’t get better, so I can’t say it’s going to get better because it’s at the highest level it can be". Tahnoon's MGX Fund Management Limited also became a investor in the TikTok USDS Joint Venture following efforts to ban TikTok in the United States. "the Trump Organization, said it wouldn’t enter into new contracts with foreign governments during his presidency but didn’t restrict itself from pursuing new foreign deals with private companies—a change from the first term." Following lobbying from the nursing home industry, including "nearly $4.8 million to MAGA Inc.", the administration revoked a policy change to increase staffing in nursing homes. Reuters reported that the "Office of Management and Budget, which Vought leads, is allocating $15 million of what remains of USAID operating expenses" for Russell Vought. Trump and his family involvement in the cryptocurrency industry have given rise to ethical and legal concerns. On January 17, 2025, Trump launched, promoted, and personally benefited from a cryptocurrency memecoin, $Trump, that soared to a market valuation of over $5 billion within a few hours—a total $27 billion diluted value—through a Trump-owned company called CIC Digital LLC, which owned 80 percent of the coin's supply. Within two days, the $Trump coin became the 19th most valuable form of cryptocurrency in the world, with a total trading value of nearly $13 billion, and a total of $29 billion worth of trades based on a $64 value of each of the 200 million tokens issued by the afternoon of January 19. The New York Times reported that Trump affiliates controlled an additional 800 million tokens that, hypothetically, could be worth over $51 billion, potentially making Trump one of the richest people in the world. Trump also launched a new meme coin named after his wife$, Melania, and promoted it on Truth Social shortly before attending an inauguration rally. The crypto venture was criticized by ethics experts and government watchdogs. The venture and the possibility of foreign governments buying the coin was highlighted as possibly violating the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause. He promoted exclusive access to him for the largest holders of $Trump, including hosting a dinner, which according to The New York Times, certain buyers in interviews and statements said they "bought the coins or entered the dinner contest with the intention of securing an action by Mr. Trump to affect United States policy". He directly benefited from his cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial which engaged in an unprecedented mixing of private enterprise and government policy. It directly solicited access to Trump with secret payments and currency swaps from foreign investors, companies, and individuals with criminal records and investigations. At least one investigation was dropped after payment worth several million was made to the firm, and Trump granted an official pardon to an investor of a company World Liberty had invested in. Trump's family received a cut of all transactions made through the World Liberty, and the company directly advertised its connections to Trump, who disclosed income of nearly US$60 million in an ethics filing. Several actions taken by Trump's administration regarding cryptocurrency were noted to bolster the company's assets and position. A spokeswoman for Trump stated that since his assets were in a trust managed by his children, there were "no conflicts of interest". On May 12, 2025, another family bitcoin company co-founded by Eric Trump in March, American Bitcoin, announced plans to go public by merging with an existing Nasdaq company. During Donald Trump's second presidency, the Trump administration took a series of actions using the government to target his political opponents and civil society. His actions were described by news outlets as part of his promised "retribution" and "revenge" campaign, within the context of a strongly personalist and leader-centered conception of politics. During his 2024 presidential campaign, he repeatedly stated that he had "every right" to go after his political opponents. He undertook a massive expansion of presidential power under a maximalist interpretation of the unitary executive theory, and several of his actions ignored or violated federal laws, regulations, and the Constitution, according to American legal scholars. He threatened, signed executive actions, and ordered investigations into his political opponents, critics, and organizations aligned with the Democratic Party. He politicized the civil service, undertaking mass layoffs of government employees to recruit workers more loyal to himself. He ended the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence, weaponizing it and ordering it to target his political enemies. He utilized several government agencies to retaliate against his political enemies and continued filing personal lawsuits against his political opponents, companies, and news organizations that angered him. By July 2025, Trump had extracted more than $1.2 billion in settlements in a "cultural crackdown" against a variety of institutions that largely chose to settle rather than fight back. He engaged in an unprecedented targeting of law firms and lawyers that previously represented positions adverse to himself. He targeted higher education by demanding it give federal oversight of curriculum and targeted activists, legal immigrants, tourists, and students with visas who expressed criticism of his policies or engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy. He detained and deported United States citizens. Trump's actions against civil society have been described by legal experts and political scientists as authoritarian and contributing to democratic backsliding, and negatively impacting freedom of the press, free speech, and the rule of law. The beginning of Trump's second presidency is largely recognized as the one theorized by political strategist Steve Bannon during Trump's first presidency, here deployed by Stephen Miller. The strategy consists of "flood[ing] the zone of shit," with an impressive number of claims and executive orders with the intent to tire journalists, political opponents and judicial institutions. As such the latter can't react rapidly and appropriately enough, and it nips controversies in the bud because of the flood of information. The administration had already prepared diverse executive orders to allow the signing of 55 executive orders in 20 days, a frequency never-before-seen. Individually, The Hill columnist Chris Truax argues that some of Trump's "ridiculous" and "bizarre" claims and policies, joint with his frequent confabulations, could be partly explained by an early stage of dementia. A month after the beginning of the presidency, the government had been sued 200 times for "executive overreach", which the administration lost for the most part. On Twitter, Trump justified his policies by quoting Napoleon: "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law". In reaction, the American left accused him of acting as a dictator. The right-wing and left-wing media both claim that their policies allowed a hitherto concentration of executive power in US history. Experts and newspapers feared a constitutional crisis because of frequent checks and balances breaches. The Trump administration often questioned the legitimacy of judges blocking his executive orders. According to The New Yorker, Trump's new governance based itself on unconditional loyalty towards himself. Trump allegedly implemented a climate where any criticism even among the Republicans is sanctioned. Figures like Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer acted as ideological safeguards by listing potential dissidents among the party. The administrations openly wanted to concentrate political powers within Trump's hands. They justify it with the unitary executive theory, alleging that by having been elected and with the approval of the Constitution, Trump is warranted in having unchecked and absolute power on the judicial branch, and on politics in general. Legal expert Julien Jeanneney argued that the "unconstitutional" policies of Trump are backed by the Supreme Court, of which a third of the judges had been appointed by Trump during his first presidency, hence making Republican judges the majority. According to Jeanneney most of the judges "seem clearly on Trump's side concerning most of his policies, even when they violate the Court's long-lived principles." Numerous experts of fascism (Jason Stanley, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder, Johann Chapoutot, Paul Lerner, Anne Berg, Diana Garvin, Tiffany Florvil, Claudia Koonz and Asma Mhalla) denounced the authoritarianism of the presidency, which they explicitly linked to fascism. However experts Christopher R. Browning and Roger Griffin contested this comparison, although Browning noted "uncanny resemblances" between Trump and Hitler. Elections during the second Trump presidency Relations with other branches Internal Republican politics On July 7, 2025, the FBI issued a two-page statement saying they had concluded that infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not possess a "client list", even though Attorney General Pam Bondi had hinted in February that such a document was on her desk. Several right-wing media personalities were highly critical of the decision. And per mainstream sources, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is considering resigning and had been feuding with Bondi. One of the reasons given for the non-release is the privacy of the victims. At a White House press conference on the same day, President Trump asked a reporter, "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" In late-July 24, several Senator Republicans spoke in favor of releasing the information. Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) said, "The idea that Trump did something nefarious and Biden sat on it for four years, It's hard to believe. Just put it out. Let people look at it." Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) said, "Anybody who ever met him is going to be mentioned, so I don't think that's a big deal ... but nor is it a reason to withhold the documents." Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said, "I'm where I've been every time you always ask me this question. Release the damn files." On September 3, 2025, at an at large outside press conference on the Capitol steps, legislators were joined by nearly a dozen women who state they had been abused by convicted offender Epstein. Representatives Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and close ally of Trump, urged the House of Representatives to vote to release the full files. House Republican leaders offered an alternative vote to continue investigation by the House Oversight Committee. On September 3, President Trump spoke to reporters from the Oval Office, and said that the call for release of files is a "Democrat hoax that never ends." Similarly, CNN states that Democrats have "sought to weaponize the Epstein issue against Trump and the GOP in recent weeks, trying to force votes that would put vulnerable Republicans in difficult positions. But the tone of Wednesday's press conference was far less partisan." On October 7, Attorney General Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and BBC drew five "takeaways" including "3. Bondi keen to focus on crime" and "4. But Democrats focus on Epstein." However, Senator John Kennedy (Republican - Louisiana) repeated comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that Epstein was "the greatest blackmailer ever." On November 12, 2025, the petition to force a House vote for the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice secured the final required signature from Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the latter being sworn in for her position after the end of the October 2025 government shutdown. On the same day, House Democrats released a series of private emails between Epstein, Gishaline Maxwell, and journalist Michael Wolff. Among them was an email in which Epstein stated that "Trump knew about the girls," though without it being clear that this refers to Epstein's crimes. On November 18, the Epstein Files Transparency Act cleared the House and Senate with overwhelming majorities, requiring the release of all materials relating to the Epstein investigation within 30 days. This would exclude victims' names, as well as material which depicts sexual abuse. The Justice Department may also withhold any materials whose release would "jeapordise an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary." This fact has drawn concern from certain lawmakers, who argue that recently started, ongoing investigations into Bill Clinton and Larry Summers may delay the release of some materials. The Act also requires the executive branch to provide an unredacted "list of all government officials and politically exposed persons" who are included in the material. CNN has expressed scepticism about this aspect of the Act, arguing in an analysis article that "the administration might play games with whatever discretion it has — say, by releasing information that's politically advantageous but withholding other information using the available justifications." Trump has reversed course and now states he favors the release of the material. He signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, and made a lengthy post on Truth Social which included the claim, "Do not forget — The Biden Administration did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him. Historical evaluations and public opinion Professor Christina Pagel mapped the first actions of the Trump administration in a Venn diagram that identifies "five broad domains that correspond to features of proto-authoritarian states". These five domains are: undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law, dismantling federal government; dismantling social protections and rights, enrichment and corruption; suppressing dissent and controlling information; attacking science, environment, health, arts and education, particularly universities; aggressive foreign policy and global destabilization. Journalist Martin Sandu and authoritarian politics researcher Alex Norris described the maximalist interpretation of executive power in Trump's second term as president, including sweeping executive orders, the federal funding freeze, actions against political opponents and the media, pardons of those involved in the 2021 attempted self-coup, the actions of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, and the like as an attempted self-coup. Political scientist Lee Morgenbesser argued the actions of DOGE are a form of state capture. Donald Trump began his second term with another historically low job approval rating, only improving on his lowest-ever rating (occurring in his first term) by three percentage points. President Trump began his first term at 45% job approval, and his second with 47%. According to Gallup, "Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings". In a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted from February 5–7, 2025, Trump reached a career high poll rating of 53%. According to ABC News, Trump's approval rating at the end of his first 100 days in office was 39%, even lower than his already low 42% approval rating at the end of his first 100 days of his first presidency and the worst of any president's approval ratings after their 100 days in 80 years. By July 2025, Gallup found Trump's approval rating reached the lowest for his second term at 37%, largely driven by declining support from independents, and in August, multiple surveys revealed record or near-record low job approval ratings, which Gallup found to be lower than any modern president. As was the case during Trump's first term, the president's approval ratings have remained remarkably stable. His ratings are also very polarized, often with more Republicans than Democrats approving of his leadership. In early June 2025 in response to street protests against ICE actions, President Trump activated and sent 2,100 members of the California National Guard to the Los Angeles area. Reuters reported that the protests were the strongest domestic backlash to Trump since he took office in January, and became a focal point in a national debate over immigration, protest, the use of federal force in domestic affairs, the boundaries of presidential power, and freedom of speech and assembly. On June 14, the Trump administration held the U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. Army and coinciding with President Trump's 79th birthday. The parade is estimated to have cost somewhere between $25 and $45 million. In protest, 50501, Indivisible, and other organizations organized No Kings protests in many American cities. Millions attended the largest protest since Trump was re-elected. No Kings protests (also called No Kings 2.0 and No Kings Day 2.0) took place on October 18, 2025, as part of a series of demonstrations taking place largely in the United States against Donald Trump's policies and actions during his second presidency. The demonstrations, which followed the June 2025 No Kings protests, took place in some 2,700 locations across the country, including the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York City. Organizers of the protests estimated that the protests drew nearly 7 million attendees, while a partnership between data journalist G. Elliott Morris and the Xylom, an independent Atlanta-based science newsroom, estimated 5 million to 6.5 million participants. Either estimate would make this one of the largest single-day protests in American history. See also Notes References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_card] | [TOKENS: 4416] |
Contents Graphics card A graphics card, also known as a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, or display adapter GPU, is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a display device such as a monitor. Graphics cards are sometimes called discrete or dedicated graphics cards to emphasize their distinction to an integrated graphics processor on the motherboard or the central processing unit (CPU). A graphics processing unit (GPU) that performs the necessary computations is the main component in a graphics card, but the acronym "GPU" is sometimes also used to refer to the graphics card as a whole erroneously. Most graphics cards are not limited to simple display output. The graphics processing unit can be used for additional processing, which reduces the load from the CPU. Additionally, computing platforms such as OpenCL and CUDA allow using graphics cards for general-purpose computing. Applications of general-purpose computing on graphics cards include AI training, cryptocurrency mining, and molecular simulation. Usually, a graphics card comes in the form of a printed circuit board (expansion board) which is to be inserted into an expansion slot. Others may have dedicated enclosures, and they are connected to the computer via a docking station or a cable. These are known as external GPUs (eGPUs). Graphics cards are often preferred over integrated graphics for increased performance. A more powerful graphics card will be able to render more frames per second. History Graphics cards, also known as video cards or graphics processing units (GPUs), have historically evolved alongside computer display standards to accommodate advancing technologies and user demands. In the realm of IBM PC compatibles, the early standards included Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA), Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), Hercules Graphics Card, Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA), and Video Graphics Array (VGA). Each of these standards represented a step forward in the ability of computers to display more colors, higher resolutions, and richer graphical interfaces, laying the foundation for the development of modern graphical capabilities. In the late 1980s, advancements in personal computing led companies like Radius to develop specialized graphics cards for the Apple Macintosh II. These cards were unique in that they incorporated discrete 2D QuickDraw capabilities, enhancing the graphical output of Macintosh computers by accelerating 2D graphics rendering. QuickDraw, a core part of the Macintosh graphical user interface, allowed for the rapid rendering of bitmapped graphics, fonts, and shapes, and the introduction of such hardware-based enhancements signaled an era of specialized graphics processing in consumer machines. The evolution of graphics processing took a major leap forward in the mid-1990s with 3dfx Interactive's introduction of the Voodoo series, one of the earliest consumer-facing GPUs that supported 3D acceleration. The Voodoo's architecture marked a major shift in graphical computing by offloading the demanding task of 3D rendering from the CPU to the GPU, significantly improving gaming performance and graphical realism. The development of fully integrated GPUs that could handle both 2D and 3D rendering came with the introduction of the NVIDIA RIVA 128. Released in 1997, the RIVA 128 was one of the first consumer-facing GPUs to integrate both 3D and 2D processing units on a single chip. This innovation simplified the hardware requirements for end-users, as they no longer needed separate cards for 2D and 3D rendering, thus paving the way for the widespread adoption of more powerful and versatile GPUs in personal computers. In contemporary times, the majority of graphics cards are built using chips sourced from two dominant manufacturers: AMD and Nvidia. These modern graphics cards are multifunctional and support various tasks beyond rendering 3D images for gaming. They also provide 2D graphics processing, video decoding, TV output, and multi-monitor setups. Additionally, many graphics cards now have integrated sound capabilities, allowing them to transmit audio alongside video output to connected TVs or monitors with built-in speakers, further enhancing the multimedia experience. Within the graphics industry, these products are often referred to as graphics add-in boards (AIBs). The term "AIB" emphasizes the modular nature of these components, as they are typically added to a computer's motherboard to enhance its graphical capabilities. The evolution from the early days of separate 2D and 3D cards to today's integrated and multifunctional GPUs reflects the ongoing technological advancements and the increasing demand for high-quality visual and multimedia experiences in computing. Discrete vs integrated graphics As an alternative to the use of a graphics card, video hardware can be integrated into the motherboard, CPU, or a system-on-chip as integrated graphics. Motherboard-based implementations are sometimes called "on-board video". Some motherboards support using both integrated graphics and a graphics card simultaneously to feed separate displays. The main advantages of integrated graphics are: low cost, compactness, simplicity, and low energy consumption. Integrated graphics often have less performance than a graphics card because the graphics processing unit inside integrated graphics needs to share system resources with the CPU. On the other hand, a graphics card has a separate random access memory (RAM), cooling system, and dedicated power regulators. A graphics card can offload work and reduce memory-bus-contention from the CPU and system RAM, therefore, the overall performance for a computer could improve, in addition to increased performance in graphics processing. Such improvements to performance can be seen in video gaming, 3D animation, and video editing. Both AMD and Intel have introduced CPUs and motherboard chipsets that support the integration of a GPU into the same die as the CPU. AMD advertises CPUs with integrated graphics under the trademark Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), while Intel brands similar technology under "Intel Graphics Technology". Power demand As the processing power of graphics cards increased, so did their demand for electrical power. Current high-performance graphics cards tend to consume large amounts of power. For example, the thermal design power (TDP) for the GeForce Titan RTX is 280 watts. When tested with video games, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founder's Edition averaged 300 watts of power consumption. While CPU and power supply manufacturers have recently aimed toward higher efficiency, power demands of graphics cards continued to rise, with the largest power consumption of any individual part in a computer. Although power supplies have also increased their power output, the bottleneck occurs in the PCI-Express connection, which is limited to supplying 75 watts. Modern graphics cards with a power consumption of over 75 watts usually include a combination of six-pin (75 W) or eight-pin (150 W) sockets that connect directly to the power supply. Providing adequate cooling becomes a challenge in such computers. Computers with multiple graphics cards may require power supplies over 750 watts. Heat extraction becomes a major design consideration for computers with two or more high-end graphics cards.[citation needed] As of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series, Ampere architecture, a custom flashed RTX 3090 named "Hall of Fame" has been recorded to reach a peak power draw as high as 630 watts. A standard RTX 3090 can peak at up to 450 watts. The RTX 3080 can reach up to 350 watts, while a 3070 can reach a similar, if not slightly lower, peak power draw. Ampere cards of the Founders Edition variant feature a "dual axial flow through" cooler design, which includes fans above and below the card to dissipate as much heat as possible towards the rear of the computer case. A similar design was used by the Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 56 Pulse graphics card. Size Graphics cards for desktop computers have different size profiles, which allows graphics cards to be added to smaller-sized computers. Some graphics cards are not of the usual size, and are named as "low profile". Graphics card profiles are based on height only, with low-profile cards taking up less than the height of a PCIe slot. Length and thickness can vary greatly, with high-end cards usually occupying two or three expansion slots, and with modern high-end graphics cards such as the RTX 4090 exceeding 300mm in length. A lower profile card is preferred when trying to fit multiple cards or if graphics cards run into clearance issues with other motherboard components like the DIMM or PCIE slots. This can be fixed with a larger computer case such as mid-tower or full tower. Full towers are usually able to fit larger motherboards in sizes like ATX and micro ATX.[citation needed] In the late 2010s and early 2020s, some high-end graphics card models have become so heavy that it is possible for them to sag downwards after installing without proper support, which is why many manufacturers provide additional support brackets. GPU sag can damage a GPU in the long term. Multicard scaling Some graphics cards can be linked together to allow scaling graphics processing across multiple cards. This is done using either the PCIe bus on the motherboard or, more commonly, a data bridge. Usually, the cards must be of the same model to be linked, and most low end cards are not able to be linked in this way. AMD and Nvidia both have proprietary scaling methods, CrossFireX for AMD, and SLI (since the Turing generation, superseded by NVLink) for Nvidia. Cards from different chip-set manufacturers or architectures cannot be used together for multi-card scaling. If graphics cards have different sizes of memory, the lowest value will be used, with the higher values disregarded. Currently, scaling on consumer-grade cards can be done using up to four cards. The use of four cards requires a large motherboard with a proper configuration. Nvidia's GeForce GTX 590 graphics card can be configured in a four-card configuration. As stated above, users will want to stick to cards with the same performances for optimal use. Motherboards including ASUS Maximus 3 Extreme and Gigabyte GA EX58 Extreme are certified to work with this configuration. A large power supply is necessary to run the cards in SLI or CrossFireX. Power demands must be known before a proper supply is installed. For the four card configuration, a 1000+ watt supply is needed. With any relatively powerful graphics card, thermal management cannot be ignored. Graphics cards require well-vented chassis and good thermal solutions. Air or water cooling are usually required, though low end GPUs can use passive cooling. Larger configurations use water solutions or immersion cooling to achieve proper performance without thermal throttling. SLI and Crossfire have become increasingly uncommon as most games do not fully utilize multiple GPUs, due to the fact that most users cannot afford them. Multiple GPUs are still used on supercomputers (like in Summit), on workstations to accelerate video and 3D rendering, visual effects, for simulations, and for training artificial intelligence. 3D graphics APIs A graphics driver usually supports one or multiple cards by the same vendor and has to be written for a specific operating system. Additionally, the operating system or an extra software package may provide certain programming APIs for applications to perform 3D rendering. GPUs are designed with specific usages in mind, such product lines are categorized here : Industry As of 2025, the primary suppliers of the GPUs (graphics chips or chipsets) used in graphics cards are AMD and Nvidia. In the third quarter of 2013, AMD had a 35.5% market share while Nvidia had 64.5%, according to Jon Peddie Research. In economics, this industry structure is termed a duopoly. AMD and Nvidia also build and sell graphics cards, which are termed graphics add-in-boards (AIBs) in the industry. (See Comparison of Nvidia graphics processing units and Comparison of AMD graphics processing units.) In addition to marketing their own graphics cards, AMD and Nvidia sell their GPUs to authorized AIB suppliers, which AMD and Nvidia refer to as "partners". The fact that Nvidia and AMD compete directly with their customer/partners complicates relationships in the industry. AMD and Intel being direct competitors in the CPU industry is also noteworthy, since AMD-based graphics cards may be used in computers with Intel CPUs. Intel's integrated graphics may weaken AMD, in which the latter derives a significant portion of its revenue from its APUs. As of the second quarter of 2013, there were 52 AIB suppliers. These AIB suppliers may market graphics cards under their own brands, produce graphics cards for private label brands, or produce graphics cards for computer manufacturers. Some AIB suppliers such as MSI build both AMD-based and Nvidia-based graphics cards. Others, such as EVGA, build only Nvidia-based graphics cards, while XFX, now builds only AMD-based graphics cards. Several AIB suppliers are also motherboard suppliers. Most of the largest AIB suppliers are based in Taiwan and they include ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, and Palit. Hong Kong–based AIB manufacturers include Sapphire and Zotac. Sapphire and Zotac also sell graphics cards exclusively for AMD and Nvidia GPUs respectively. Market Graphics card shipments peaked at a total of 114 million in 1999. By contrast, they totaled 14.5 million units in the third quarter of 2013, a 17% fall from Q3 2012 levels. Shipments reached an annual total of 44 million in 2015.[citation needed] The sales of graphics cards have trended downward due to improvements in integrated graphics technologies; high-end, CPU-integrated graphics can provide competitive performance with low-end graphics cards. At the same time, graphics card sales have grown within the high-end segment, as manufacturers have shifted their focus to prioritize the gaming and enthusiast market. Beyond the gaming and multimedia segments, graphics cards have been increasingly used for general-purpose computing, such as big data processing. The growth of cryptocurrency has placed a severely high demand on high-end graphics cards, especially in large quantities, due to their advantages in the process of cryptocurrency mining. In January 2018, mid- to high-end graphics cards experienced a major surge in price, with many retailers having stock shortages due to the significant demand among this market. Graphics card companies released mining-specific cards designed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and without video output ports. The graphics card industry took a setback due to the 2020–21 chip shortage. Parts A modern graphics card consists of a printed circuit board on which the components are mounted. These include: A graphics processing unit (GPU), also occasionally called visual processing unit (VPU), is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display. Because of the large degree of programmable computational complexity for such a task, a modern graphics card is also a computer unto itself. A heat sink is mounted on most modern graphics cards. A heat sink spreads out the heat produced by the graphics processing unit evenly throughout the heat sink and unit itself. The heat sink commonly has a fan mounted to cool the heat sink and the graphics processing unit. Not all cards have heat sinks, for example, some cards are liquid-cooled and instead have a water block; additionally, cards from the 1980s and early 1990s did not produce much heat, and did not require heat sinks. Most modern graphics cards need proper thermal solutions. They can be water-cooled or through heat sinks with additional connected heat pipes usually made of copper for the best thermal transfer.[citation needed] The video BIOS or firmware contains a minimal program for the initial set up and control of the graphics card. It may contain information on the memory and memory timing, operating speeds and voltages of the graphics processor, and other details which can sometimes be changed.[citation needed] Modern Video BIOSes do not support full functionalities of graphics cards; they are only sufficient to identify and initialize the card to display one of a few frame buffer or text display modes. It does not support YUV to RGB translation, video scaling, pixel copying, compositing or any of the multitude of other 2D and 3D features of the graphics card, which must be accessed by software drivers.[citation needed] The memory capacity of most modern graphics cards ranges from 2 to 24 GB. But with up to 32 GB as of the late 2010s, the applications for graphics use are becoming more powerful and widespread. Since video memory needs to be accessed by the GPU and the display circuitry, it often uses special high-speed or multi-port memory, such as VRAM, WRAM, SGRAM, etc. Around 2003, the video memory was typically based on DDR technology. During and after that year, manufacturers moved towards DDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR5, GDDR5X, and GDDR6. The effective memory clock rate in modern cards is generally between 2 and 15 GHz.[citation needed] Video memory may be used for storing other data as well as the screen image, such as the Z-buffer, which manages the depth coordinates in 3D graphics, as well as textures, vertex buffers, and compiled shader programs. The RAMDAC, or random-access-memory digital-to-analog converter, converts digital signals to analog signals for use by a computer display that uses analog inputs such as cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays. The RAMDAC is a kind of RAM chip that regulates the functioning of the graphics card. Depending on the number of bits used and the RAMDAC-data-transfer rate, the converter will be able to support different computer-display refresh rates. With CRT displays, it is best to work over 75 Hz and never under 60 Hz, to minimize flicker. (This is not a problem with liquid-crystal displays, as they have little to no flicker.[citation needed]) Due to the growing popularity of digital computer displays and the integration of the RAMDAC onto the GPU die, it has mostly disappeared as a discrete component. All current LCD/plasma monitors and TVs and projectors with only digital connections work in the digital domain and do not require a RAMDAC for those connections. There are displays that feature analog inputs (VGA, component, SCART, etc.) only. These require a RAMDAC, but they reconvert the analog signal back to digital before they can display it, with the unavoidable loss of quality stemming from this digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion.[citation needed] With the VGA standard being phased out in favor of digital formats, RAMDACs have started to disappear from graphics cards.[citation needed] The most common connection systems between the graphics card and the computer display are: Also known as D-sub, VGA is an analog-based standard adopted in the late 1980s designed for CRT displays, also called VGA connector. Today, the VGA analog interface is used for high definition video resolutions including 1080p and higher. Some problems of this standard are electrical noise, image distortion and sampling error in evaluating pixels. While the VGA transmission bandwidth is high enough to support even higher resolution playback, the picture quality can degrade depending on cable quality and length. The extent of quality difference depends on the individual's eyesight and the display; when using a DVI or HDMI connection, especially on larger sized LCD/LED monitors or TVs, quality degradation, if present, is prominently visible. Blu-ray playback at 1080p is possible via the VGA analog interface, if Image Constraint Token (ICT) is not enabled on the Blu-ray disc. Digital Visual Interface is a digital-based standard designed for displays such as flat-panel displays (LCDs, plasma screens, wide high-definition television displays) and video projectors. There were also some rare high-end CRT monitors that use DVI. It avoids image distortion and electrical noise, corresponding each pixel from the computer to a display pixel, using its native resolution. Most manufacturers include a DVI-I connector, allowing (via simple adapter) standard RGB signal output to an old CRT or LCD monitor with VGA input. These connectors are included to allow connection with televisions, DVD players, video recorders and video game consoles. They often come in two 10-pin mini-DIN connector variations, and the VIVO splitter cable generally comes with either 4 connectors (S-Video in and out plus composite video in and out), or 6 connectors (S-Video in and out, component YPBPR out and composite in and out). HDMI is a compact audio/video interface for transferring uncompressed video data and compressed/uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant device ("the source device") to a compatible digital audio device, computer monitor, video projector, or digital television. HDMI is a digital replacement for existing analog video standards. HDMI supports copy protection through HDCP. DisplayPort is a digital display interface developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor, though it can also be used to transmit audio, USB, and other forms of data. The VESA specification is royalty-free. VESA designed it to replace VGA, DVI, and LVDS. Backward compatibility to VGA and DVI by using adapter dongles enables consumers to use DisplayPort fitted video sources without replacing existing display devices. Although DisplayPort has a greater throughput of the same functionality as HDMI, it is expected to complement the interface, not replace it. USB-C is an extensible connector used for USB, display port, thunderbolt, power delivery. The USB-C is a 24 pin reversible connector that supersedes previous USB connectors. Some newer graphics cards use USB-C ports for versatility. Chronologically, connection systems between graphics card and motherboard were, mainly: The following table is a comparison between features of some interfaces listed above. See also References Sources External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A2lv%C4%83] | [TOKENS: 698] |
Contents Vâlvă Vâlvă (plural vâlve) is a female spirit mentioned in the Romanian folklore. The Vâlve are believed to walk over the hilltops at night, and are subdivided into Vâlve Albe ("White Vâlve"), who are considered beneficial, and Vâlve Negre ("Black Vâlve" or "Dark Vâlve"), who are considered evil. In certain contexts, they are believed to have human form (especially when they came to protect villages from a storm). They may also appear under various guises, such as shadows or black cats. They also have the ability to shapeshift. Types of Vâlve The Vâlve include several types, among which are: Vâlva Apei ("of the water"), considered as a sort of guardian of the water sources and fountains; Vâlva Bucatelor (roughly, "of the morsels"), protector of the poor people, and of crops; Vâlva Băilor ("of the mines"), defender and protector of mines and tunnels, whose departure means that the deposit is coming to an end; Vâlva Banilor ("of the money"), protector of money; Vâlva Comorilor ("of the treasures"), protector of treasures, who can also signal the spot where these are buried; Vâlva Pădurii ("of the forest"), protector of woodlands, similar to Muma Padurii; Vâlva Ciumei ("of the plague"), controlling bubonic plague and other diseases; Vâlva Zilelor ("of the days"), protector of the days (there is one for each day of the week); Vâlva Cetăţilor ("of the citadels"), defender of ancient ruins. Vâlve of the mines The best known among oral tradition are, still, the Vâlve of the mines. Legends about them flourish around traditional metal exploitation areas in Romania, such as Roşia Montană, a place extremely rich not only in gold, but also in folklore and myth. There, the people still say that you cannot find any gold in the mines without the help of a Vâlvă (which is white). But if one gets too greedy, or spends the money foolishly, or if someone steals the gold or money from the family it was originally revealed to, the Vâlvă will become a black one and will not stop until she will avenge the injustice and disrespect to her. Miners say that anyone can hear her knocking through the galleries just in the next corridor, even if there is no knowledge of that place in the rock or if you know for sure no one can be there at that time. She is producing that strange sound to search for gold to show them, or to help them not get lost. If they don't listen to her advice, the galleries collapse on them. This might got the Efteling inspired by. The Witte Wieven of dive coaster Baron 1898 also do this all See also This Romania-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. This article relating to a European folklore is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. This article about a legendary creature is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Girl] | [TOKENS: 5569] |
Contents American Girl American Girl is an American line of 18-inch (46 cm) dolls owned by Mattel. The dolls portray 8- to 14-year-old girls of various ethnicities, faiths, nationalities, and social classes during different historical periods. They are sold with accompanying books told from the girls' viewpoints. Originally the stories, dolls and accessories focused on various periods of American history, but were expanded to include characters and stories from contemporary life. Offerings expanded over time and currently include baby dolls (Bitty Baby), Truly Me dolls, which vary by eye color, face mold, skin color, hair texture, and hair length, and Girl of the Year dolls which are contemporary characters traditionally available for only one year. A service for ordering a custom-made doll with features and clothing specified by the owner dubbed Create Your Own, was introduced in 2017. American Girl dolls were introduced in 1986 by the Pleasant Company. The company was founded by Pleasant Rowland in Madison, Wisconsin, and later headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin. Its products were originally purchasable only by mail or phone through the company's catalog. In 1998, Mattel purchased the company for $700 million. The company has been awarded the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award eight times and was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2021. Dolls and accessories The Historical Characters line of books and 18-inch dolls, which were modeled after 18-inch dolls made by Götz in West Germany (known as Germany from October 1990) during the late 1980s to the 1990s, were initially the main focus of Pleasant Company, founded by Pleasant Rowland in 1986. The original Historical Characters included Kirsten Larson, Samantha Parkington, and Molly McIntire. Each doll represented a fictional 9-year old girl living during a unique era in American history. Kirsten is a Swedish immigrant in 1854; Samantha, a well-to-do Edwardian-era orphan living in 1904; and Molly, a World War II-era girl in 1944. These original dolls formed the foundation of the American Girl historical collection, which aimed to educate and inspire through storytelling and play. This product line taught important aspects of American history through a six-book series from the perspective of a girl living in that time period. Rowland came up with the idea after she returned from a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, where she noticed there was a significant void in the toy market for quality dolls which resembled children, and she saw an opportunity to provide a more educational alternative to baby dolls or adult dolls, like Barbie, which often attracted controversy for perceived sexualization and imposing unrealistic expectations for young girls. The original books were written at a third-grade reading level and intended for girls who are at least eight years old, however, they did not avoid significant topics such as child labor, child abuse, poverty, racism, slavery, animal abuse and war, but endeavored to share those challenges in a manner appropriate to the understanding and sensibilities of their young audiences. In 1991, Felicity Merriman, a spirited girl growing up during the American Revolution, was introduced as the fourth historical character. Addy Walker was introduced in September 1993 as the fifth American Girl historical character and the first Black doll in the collection, debuting at the National Council of Negro Women's Black Family Reunion Celebration in Washington, D.C. Her storyline is set during the American Civil War, focusing on her escape from slavery in North Carolina with her mother to freedom in Philadelphia in 1864. Addy's six-book Central Series, written by Connie Rose Porter and vetted by Black historians, earned acclaim for its educational and culturally authentic portrayal, selling over a million copies within a year of publication. The character marked a groundbreaking expansion in the brand’s diversity, serving as the only Black historical doll for nearly two decades and becoming a powerful tool for introducing themes of resilience, slavery, and African American history to young readers. In 1995, Pleasant Company released a line of contemporary dolls called American Girl of Today. In 2006, the product line was renamed Just Like You; it was changed again in 2010 to My American Girl, and in 2015 to Truly Me. This line has included over one hundred different dolls over the years. Each doll has a different combination of face mold, skin tone, eye color, hair color, length, texture, and/or style. American Girl states that this variety allows customers to choose dolls that "represent the individuality and diversity of today's American girls." A wide variety of contemporary clothing, accessories, and furniture is also available, and there are regular releases and retirements to update this line. Girls of Many Lands was released by American Girl in the holiday season of 2002. Each doll was 9 inches tall and represented a 12-year-old girl from a time in history; in addition, each doll came with an accompanying book. Along with specific ethnicities, the dolls were given a home country and time periods, such as 1592 England, 1711 France, 1846 Ethiopia, and more. Sculpted by Helen Kish, the dolls were meant for display only and were priced from $48 to $54. The doll line lasted until the Fall of 2005. In 2001, American Girl launched a contemporary character doll named Lindsay Bergman, with her own story and accompanying clothing and accessories. A second contemporary character, Kailey Hopkins, was introduced a little over a year later, Her success led the company to develop contemporary characters each year, as part of a new Girl of the Year product line, and to launch those dolls each year on Jan.1. Every year since, a Girl of the Year doll who has her own unique story, challenge or talent has followed. For example, Mia St. Clair, the Girl of the Year for 2008, was an ice skater, and Marisol Luna, the Girl of the Year for 2005, was a dancer. Bitty Baby is a line of 15-inch baby dolls targeted to children aged three and older. They are cheaper than the 18-inch dolls and as of 2024, retail at $60 each. In 2013, American Girl Publishing released Bitty Baby books, picture books aimed at girls ages 3–6. The Bitty Twins line debuted in 2003 to represent slightly older toddlers and/or preschoolers. The Bitty Twins were the same size as the Bitty Baby dolls. They were discontinued in June 2016. Hopscotch Hill School was released by American Girl in 2003. The dolls were 16 inches (41 cm) tall, came with jointed limbs and painted eyes, and had a slimmer overall body shape. They, along with the stories which came with the dolls written by Valerie Tripp, were aimed at elementary-age girls from four to six years old and were sold until 2006. A reboot of the Historical Characters line dubbed as BeForever was launched in August 2014, complete with redesigned outfits, a two-volume compilation of previously released books, and a "Journey Book" for each character, with players taking the role of a present-day girl who found her way to the past and met up with one of the Historical girls. The line also coincided with the relaunch of Samantha Parkington, whose collection was discontinued in 2008. The BeForever rebranding was removed in 2019, and the dolls were again referred to as "Historical Characters." In June 2016, American Girl unveiled Wellie Wishers, a separate doll line similar to Hopscotch Hill School aimed at younger children and with a focus on nature and the outdoors, positioning it between Bitty Baby and the BeForever/Girl of the Year/Truly Me dolls. As the name implies, dolls from the line wear Wellington (wellie) boots and have a body design distinct from the classic, Götz-derived American Girl dolls. The line was released on June 23, 2016. The names of the Wellie Wishers are: Willa, Camille, Kendall, Emerson, Ashlyn, and Bryant. In February 2017, American Girl released a new line of 18-inch dolls called contemporary characters. The first doll in the line was Tenney Grant, a young aspiring country singer, and songwriter. Other dolls of the modern line include Logan, Tenney's bandmate and American Girl's first-ever boy doll,[a] and Z Yang, who is interested in photography and making stop motion videos. In May 2021, American Girl rereleased the six original historical dolls for their 35th anniversary. The release included Felicity, Kirsten, Samantha, Addy, Josefina, and Molly. In September 2021, American Girl released a new line of 18-inch dolls called World by Us. The dolls and their books promote messages of various social justice issues that are age-appropriate for the line's target audience and cover relevant subjects such as racism, immigration, and climate change. The line debuted with three dolls: Makena Williams, Maritza Ochoa, and Evette Peeters. The line also features doll outfits designed by Harlem's Fashion Row fashion designers. In 2025, The Washington Post reported that American Girl continued to attract interest decades after its founding, driven in part by nostalgia among adult fans and ongoing engagement with the brand's historical characters.[citation needed] Girl of the Year is a line created by American Girl where it features one doll year round. The doll has its accessories and merchandise and her own story. The first Girl of the Year was in the year 2001, which was Lindsey Bergman, who was launched at a "contemporary character" and later repopsitioned as the initial character in the Girl of Year series. The current Girl of the Year, as of 2026, is Raquel Reyes. Listed below are the dolls who have been Girl of the Year from 2001 to 2026. In 2019, American Girl launched the Collector Doll Series. The first doll was the Holiday Collector doll in partnership with Swarovski of which three were produced. In 2020, American Girl again partnered with Swarovski and released three collector dolls; the Sweet as Rose, Boho Chic, and Fuchsia Feathers collector dolls. Only one of each doll was produced, each of which had a gown that included 1,000 or more Swarovski crystals. In August 2023, American Girl released three Disney Princess dolls: Jasmine, Belle, and Rapunzel. In September, they released a series of Nutcracker-related collector dolls, including a toy soldier doll in partnership with FAO Schwarz, and in December, they released The Classic Barbie by American Girl collector doll. In February 2024, American Girl released three more Disney Princess dolls: Cinderella, Tiana, and Ariel. Books The American Girl fiction books have many different variations; each book series shares the some portion of the journey of one American Girl Doll character. American Girl Dolls were created with the goal of educating young children on history, morals, and life lessons through the stories that accompanied each doll. The classic American Girl Doll books follow the journey of one of their historical characters and each series follows a standard structure through six books. This structure is: Meet (doll name), (doll name) Learns a Lesson, (doll name's) Surprise, Happy Birthday (doll name), (doll name) Saves the Day, Changes for (doll name). Some of the American Girl Dolls also have Best Friend books which are books following the storyline of the best friend of one of the American Girl Dolls – a spinoff to the original series. Examples of these include Nellie's Promise by Valerie Tripp (2004), Very Funny, Elizabeth by Valerie Tripp (2005), and Brave Emily by Valerie Tripp (2006). American Girl also published a number of non-fiction books which provided "life advice" for tween girls, as well as activity books including puzzle books, art and craft oriented books, journal style books, and more. The most well-known of the American Girl non-fictions offerings was the book, "The Care and Keeping of You", which sold more than any other non-fiction title in the line. Films In 2004, American Girl teamed up with Julia Roberts's Red Om production company to create the first American Girl movie, Samantha: An American Girl Holiday. The film spawned a franchise that was followed by Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005), Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front (2006), and the theatrically released 2008 film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, starring Abigail Breslin. In 2009, American Girl began releasing direct-to-video and television films based on the Girl of the Year doll for that respective year. The series began with An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong and was followed by McKenna Shoots for the Stars (2012), Saige Paints the Sky (2013), Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight (2014), Grace Stirs Up Success (2015), and Lea To The Rescue (2016). In October 2016, American Girl began releasing new films on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service, beginning with An American Girl Story - Melody 1963: Love Has to Win. This was followed by three more films: Maryellen 1955: Extraordinary Christmas that November, Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance in March 2017, and Corinne Tan in July 2023. In February 2019, it was reported that Mattel Films and MGM announced the development of a live-action children's movie based on the doll line. Following the success of the live-action Barbie film, in December 2023, Mattel Films partnered with Paramount Pictures to develop a live-action feature with Lindsey Anderson Beer serving as the screenwriter and producer. American Girl Place American Girl Place is a brick-and-mortar store selling American Girl dolls, clothes, and accessories. The first store, the 35,000 square-foot American Girl Place, designed by Nancye Green of Donovan/Green, debuted in Chicago, Illinois, in 1998. The original American Girl Place on Chicago Avenue also had a restaurant and 150-seat theater. It was followed by stores in New York City and Los Angeles, and then by additional, smaller stores across the US. Every store included some form of food service, and several doll services, including a doll hair salon where dolls can get their ears pierced and their nails done and a doll hospital where customers can bring in their doll for repair. Earrings and pretend "hearing aids" are also available to be added on for 18-inch dolls. In May 2014, American Girl opened several new "store in stores" in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada in partnership with Indigo Books and Music. All American Girl shops in Indigo stores were permanently closed in July 2023. In 2015, the company announced that they were expanding operations in Mexico with two stores at El Palacio de Hierro's Perisur and Interlomas in Mexico City, and a third in Polanco. All three Mexico stores closed in January 2018. In collaboration with Emirati shopping mall conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim Group, two American Girl stores opened in Dubai in 2017 along with one in Manama, Bahrain in 2018. All three stores in the Middle East had closed by 2020. As of February 2025, the company has seven remaining retail stores, all located in the US. The Los Angeles flagship store reopened in summer 2023 at Westfield Century City after moving from its original location in The Grove. In March 2024, the store formerly located at Galleria Dallas in Dallas moved to The Shops at Park Lane. Magazine The American Girl magazine was run by the American Girl company. It was started by the Pleasant Company in Middleton, Wisconsin in 1992, with the first issue dated November/December 1992. Aimed towards girls ages 8–14, the bimonthly magazine included articles, recipes, advice columns, fiction, arts and crafts, and activity ideas. By the mid-2000's, the magazine reached over 1MM in circulation. American Girl announced in late 2018 that the January/February 2019 issue would be the magazine's last. Digital Products and philanthropy American Girl launched Innerstar University, an online virtual world featuring the My American Girl contemporary doll line, on July 13, 2010. Access to the online world was via a Campus Guide, bundled with the purchase of a My American Girl doll, which contained an access code for the creation of a doll avatar that then navigated to various games, shops, and challenges offered on the virtual campus of Innerstar U. In 2015, when the My American Girl line was renamed Truly Me, the Innerstar University website was shut down. The launch was simultaneous with Shine on Now, a fund-raising effort for Kids In Distressed Situations, National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, National Wildlife Federation, and Save the Children charities. The company has also donated "almost $500,000" over several years to national non-profit homeless housing group HomeAid. These contributions are mainly through its Project Playhouse program.The American Girl company also donated returned merchandise to the Madison Children's Museum, who then sold the products at an annual benefit sale for the American Girl Fund for Children. This practice and the benefit sale were last held in 2023. Reception The company has drawn criticism for the expense of the dolls, which cost as much as $135 without accessories as of June 2024 and $175 for a doll, book, and basic accessories. Buyers can easily spend more than $600 for a doll, outfits, accessories, and lunch in the company's store in New York. One critique of the doll line is that due to the price tag and limited purchase locations, the dolls are often inaccessible to the communities they are intended to represent. Some aspects of the doll's characters and history have also provoked controversy. Some observers questioned why Addy, American Girl's first African-American historical character released in 1993, was portrayed first as a slave (in later stories Addy and her family gain their freedom after the Civil War), while Cecile Rey, American Girl's second black historical character, was portrayed as a well-to-do black girl in New Orleans. In 2017, American Girl released their first African-American Girl of the Year, Gabriela McBride, who is portrayed as a dancer, artist, and poet. In 2005, residents of Pilsen (a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois) criticized a passage in the book associated with the Latina-American doll Marisol, claiming it inaccurately depicted their neighborhood as dangerous. A senior public relations associate for American Girl responded to critics saying: "We feel that this brief passage has been taken out of context in the book." The 2009 limited-edition release of Gwen, an American Girl character experiencing homelessness, was also deemed as controversial. In May 2014, the company was met with criticism on social media over its decision to discontinue four characters from the historical collection, two of them, namely African-American Cécile Rey and Chinese-American Ivy Ling, who represented ethnic minorities. They defended their move as a business decision, as they decided to "move away from the character-friend strategy within the line". The company has also drawn criticism for its recent focus on the contemporary line, specifically the Girl of the Year characters and their backstory, to which was viewed as lacking depth and more critical issues in comparison to the Historical/BeForever characters' backstories. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic series creator Lauren Faust also expressed her concern and criticism of the line in a Twitter post, stating it "was once radically positive for girls before it was homogenized for money". The American Girl Place store in New York City was the center of a labor dispute with Actors' Equity Association (AEA). On August 3, 2006, 14 of the 18 adult actors at the store's now defunct theater went on strike together. AEA reached a two-year contract effective April 1, 2008. All American Girl Place theatres were subsequently closed in September of that year. In February 2017 the company announced that they were changing the certain doll's bodies to incorporate permanently stitched panties. Public reaction to the change—the first since the transition to flesh-colored bodies in 1991—was overwhelmingly negative, as fans of the franchise complained that it stifles customization and devalued a well-established brand "from heirloom quality to be passed down for generations to low-quality retail." The company reversed its decision in May 2017, and customers who bought a doll with permanent underwear were eligible for an exchange to have the dolls retrofitted with conventional torsos. Critics have discussed the issue of representation in American Girl Doll narratives. The company has stated that the "two most significant elements" in the creation of their stories is authentic specificity and universality. The Vice President of Marketing for American Girl has said that "the doll industry has a very heavy responsibility in reflecting what is true about our society". Valerie Tripp, author of many of the books in the American Girl series, says that her goal is to teach children to "challenge assumptions" and to teach them tolerance and compassion towards everyone; she promotes optimism and "cheerful skepticism" rather than "anger, resentment, bitterness, and jealousy." Some critics have argued that these narratives lead to a lack of recognition of injustices, maintaining that all Americans share the same privileges regardless of race or ethnicity. Kaya'aton'my, a Nez Perce character set in 1764, has a story that takes place before American colonization which has been criticized for avoiding the issue of colonialism through pre-Western contact settings. American Girl worked with a Nez Perce advisory board in creating Kaya; the advisory board requested that her storyline take place prior to western settlement, when the culture of the Nez Perce tribe was flourishing. According to senior designer manager Heather Northrop, Kaya's face sculpt was crafted specifically for her, as it needed to vary from the rest of the line in which each doll is smiling just enough to show her two front teeth to accommodate the Nimiipuu's people's beliefs that baring teeth is considered to be impolite. Nanea, a character set in 1941, has a story based on Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson, author of Pearl Harbor Child: A Child's View of Pearl Harbor from Attack to Peace. Nanea's character is of split Hawaiian and European ancestry, so American Girl consulted with Nicholson, a woman with the same heritage, as part of an effort to share more inclusive perspectives and authentic stories with their audience. The 2021 Girl of the Year, Kira Bailey, has a storyline that "focuses on her journey to Australia with her mom, where she plans to work at an animal sanctuary" which is owned by her married aunts Mamie and Lynette. The inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes attracted controversy from conservative groups such as One Million Moms who viewed it as "attempting to normalize same-sex marriage". In October 2022, the Harry Potter line of themed clothing and accessories for the dolls elicited controversy in relation to series creator JK Rowling's views on transgender people. Peyton Thomas of LGBTQ Nation opined that American Girl's inclusion of Potter-themed merchandise runs contrary to the toy line's stated mission of empowerment and inclusion, in particular its public advocacy of the LGBTQ+ community, stating "Is it ethical for American Girl to partner with JK Rowling? And is it ethical for you, the adult doll collector or nine-year-old doll enthusiast, to go along with the partnership? To purchase a Gryffindor sweater for Kit, or perhaps a plush owl for Addy?" American Girl Dolls were created to provide young girls with role models that were connected to historical events. American Girl Dolls and their stories are written with the mission of encouraging each child to "follow their inner star." The company says that, "we take pride and care in helping girls become their very best today, so they'll grow up to be the women who make a difference tomorrow." Readers have shared expectations that the stories portrayed in these books will reflect this message of feminism. Readers have also voiced disappointment in the way in which feminism specifically in relation to the professional world is addressed through the books. A critique of readers is that the brand offers empowerment through "girl power" and "self-determination" without addressing the system that leads to gender discrimination and inequalities in the workplace. The books address feminism in the professional world through teamwork, leadership, and talent but critics dislike how the books provide limited resources to work through real life issues females face in the workplace such as imposter syndrome and workplace harassment. The books have been praised for teaching children about different time periods. However, some critics point out that this interpretation of the past is superficial and inaccurate. In response to this, authors have pointed out that these books are meant for children and at most are meant to give them an idea of the "chronology of American history", introduce them to some key events, an understanding of historical change, and give them an understanding that people of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds have often been treated differently. Culturally, American Girl is firmly rooted in American historical contexts and belief systems. However, this inherent patriotism prevents the brand from appealing to a global market and attracting international consumers. Moreover, the majority of American Girl products, specifically their films and literature are monolingual, thus limiting multilingual communities from engaging with the brand, while simultaneously fortifying English as the apparent ‘norm’. In 2015, the practice of creating and uploading American Girl doll-based stop motion videos (AGSM for short) was featured in a news report for BBC News' Trending site. Besides stop-motion animations and music videos set to popular music, the report covers recurring subject matters in said clips, such as cyberbullying and other social issues among children and teenagers, along with doll customization, photoshoots, and unboxing videos. Social media services such as Instagram and Facebook serve as platforms for fans of the toy line, spawning a community called AGIG, or American Girl Instagram, who photograph their dolls and post their photos on the service. In 2019, the American Girls Podcast, a book-by-book exploration of the series, was launched. Co-hosted by historians Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney, each episode discusses one book from the series, contextualizing the story presented and making connections to elements of relevant pop culture. The podcast received positive attention from The New York Times. In May 2022, the American Girl Podcast Network was launched. The first series of the network, American Girl 10-minute Mysteries, followed American Girl doll Molly McIntire as she tried to solve mysteries. See also Explanatory notes References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Dermer] | [TOKENS: 3617] |
Contents Ron Dermer Ronald Dermer (Hebrew: רון דרמר; born 16 April 1971) is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Strategic Affairs from 2022 until 2025 and as head of the negotiations for hostages' release in 2025. He served as the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2021. Early life Dermer was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida, to Jay Dermer, a lawyer from New York who was Mayor of Miami Beach from 1967 to 1971, and Yaffa, née Rosenthal, born in Mandate Palestine. Her parents, Joseph and Rivka, had fled growing antisemitism in Poland and Germany in the 1930s. A few years after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the family emigrated to Florida. Dermer visited Israel during his childhood to see his grandmother Rivka, who returned to live there after Joseph’s death. His father died of a heart attack in 1984, two weeks before Dermer's Bar Mitzvah. His brother, David Dermer served as Miami Beach mayor from 2001 to 2007. Growing up, Dermer attended Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy, a Jewish Day School in Miami Beach, with Shmuley Boteach. In 1993, Dermer graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Finance and Management. While there, he was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and a founding member of the Jewish Heritage Program run by Rabbi Menachem Schmidt. At a 2014 Wharton School alumni dinner, Dermer said in a speech that he chose to attend the school after reading Donald J. Trump's book The Art of the Deal. Early career Following his time at the University of Pennsylvania, Dermer worked for a year in Washington, D.C., with University of Pennsylvania adjunct professor Dr. Frank Luntz, where he learned about polling and political strategy. Luntz later described Dermer as "the most talented student I've ever had." In 1993, Dermer left Washington to earn an additional degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University. While there, he served as President of the Oxford University L'Chaim Society. In 1995, while still at Oxford, Dermer conducted the polling and formulated the strategy for Natan Sharansky's Yisrael BaAliyah party in its successful 1996 Knesset election campaign. Dermer worked for Sharansky again in the Knesset elections of 1999, and in 2000 Sharansky recommended that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then planning a political comeback, meet with Dermer. Dermer has been advising Netanyahu ever since and is one of his closest confidantes.[citation needed] From 2001 to 2004, Dermer wrote a column called The Numbers Game for The Jerusalem Post. In 2004, he co-wrote with Sharansky the book The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. From 2005 to 2008, Dermer served as the economic attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. This position required that Dermer give up his American citizenship. Dermer explained his decision to do so in an article entitled "Proud to Have Been an American," initially published in the New York Sun and republished in The Jerusalem Post under the title "Why I Left the America I Love". Dermer's appointment as Israel's Minister of Economic Affairs in the United States was made while Netanyahu was serving as Finance Minister under Ariel Sharon. During his tenure as economic envoy, Dermer helped secure the 2007, 10-year memorandum of understanding on military assistance to Israel. He also worked to convince individual states to divest state pension funds from Iran. In 2007, his native state of Florida became the first state to pass divestment legislation. In 2008, after his return to Israel, Dermer worked on Netanyahu's successful election campaign for Prime Minister, and in 2009 Dermer was named Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister. While in the Prime Minister's Office, Dermer was considered Netanyahu's closest adviser and strategic consultant. The Jerusalem Post said he "runs much of the interference with the White House, and is intimately involved in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians … [and] writes many of Netanyahu's speeches". In 2011, Allison Hoffman of Tablet magazine called him "Bibi's Brain", quoting a long-time observer[who?] of Israeli politics as saying, "if you look at Ron, you see Bibi." On 28 December 2012, Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon reported that Dermer's name was being floated as a potential replacement for Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States. The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the report and the Embassy of Israel in Washington spokesman called the report "baseless". In March 2013, Dermer left the Prime Minister's Office, and on 9 July 2013, the Prime Minister's office announced that Dermer would replace Oren as Israel's Ambassador to the United States. Diplomatic career (2013–2021) In September 2016, towards the end of the Obama administration, Israel secured from the United States a 10-year, 38 billion dollar military aid package, the largest deal of its kind at the time. In December 2017, during the first Trump presidency, the US recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and in May 2018 moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. That same month, Israel achieved its top diplomatic priority when the Trump administration withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. In March 2019, the US also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. In 2020, Dermer played a key role in bringing about the Abraham Accords which normalized Israel's relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. In the wake of the Accords, two more normalization agreements with Morocco and Sudan were signed in late 2020. In light of his contribution to the Abraham Accords and the subsequent normalization agreements, Dermer was nominated by Alan Dershowitz, a loyal backer of US president Donald Trump, along with Jared Kushner (Trump's son-in-law), his deputy Avi Berkowitz and US ambassador to Israel David Friedman, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Dermer was also credited by Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, for his work in helping Israel obtain millions of Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines and by the convicted American spy Jonathan Pollard for his work in securing his release and arrival in Israel. Despite tensions over the Iran Deal and Netanyahu's speech to Congress, Dermer helped negotiate a 38 billion dollar military aid package with the US, the largest military aid deal of its kind ever. In 2019, then Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu named Dermer, along with former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, as potential successors. In July 2019, the Israeli Civil Service Commission rejected a request by Netanyahu and then Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, to extend Dermer's term as Israel's Ambassador to the United States because Israel was in the middle of an election campaign and because Dermer's tenure had already been unusually long. Dermer's term was ultimately extended through 20 January 2021, after serving more than seven years in the post. He was succeeded by Gilad Erdan. In 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress over the Iran Deal. Dermer is widely believed to have engineered that speech in which Netanyahu, against the wishes of then-President Barack Obama, urged the US not to become a party to the Nuclear Deal with Iran – the so-called JCPOA—a move members of the Obama administration saw as a politically motivated breach of diplomatic protocol. Despite the allegation, however, both Dermer and Netanyahu were adamant that their opposition to the JCPOA was rooted in profound concerns about the security of the State of Israel and that they had a moral responsibility to speak out on the issue. As Netanyahu stated, the deal “could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people” because it would put Iran, “the foremost sponsor of global terrorism…weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons, and this with full international legitimacy.” A core problem with the Iran Nuclear Deal for both Netanyahu and Dermer were its so-called sunset clauses, in which all restrictions placed on Iran's nuclear program would be “automatically removed” in several years, regardless of Iran's behavior in the region or its continued efforts to destroy the State of Israel. As Dermer stated in 2015, “[Under the JCPOA,] there is no linkage whatsoever between the removal of these restrictions and Iran’s behavior. In 10 years, Iran could be even more aggressive toward its neighbors, sponsor even more terrorism around the globe and work even harder to destroy Israel, and the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program would still be automatically removed.” Dermer went on to stress that the sunset clauses meant that in just a few years, “Iran won’t have to sneak into or break into the nuclear club. Under this deal, it could simply decide to walk in.” President Obama himself admitted this weakness of the deal in an interview on NPR in which he stated that in year 13 of the deal (2028), the breakout time for Iran “would have shrunk almost down to zero.” In July 2015, the Obama administration made the US a party to the JCPOA. In January 2016, the US lifted nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, even as the State Department continued to list Iran as “the foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and even though a majority of the US House of Representatives voted against the deal and a majority of the Senate (58 senators) opposed the deal, with only a filibuster preventing a formal vote against the deal in the Senate. Netanyahu's and Dermer's fight to defeat the nuclear deal with Iran would bear fruit with a change of administration in Washington. In May 2015, two months after Netanyahu's dramatic speech to Congress mobilized opposition to the deal, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president. With the Republican Party firmly opposed to the deal, then-candidate Trump pledged to withdraw from it, calling it “a disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated.” In September 2017 at the United Nations, President Donald Trump called the Iran Deal an “embarrassment” because it gave Iran “cover” to produce nuclear weapons, and in May 2018, Trump withdrew the US from the Iran Deal and reinstated sanctions against Iran. Upon leaving his post as ambassador, Dermer stated Netanyahu's speech to Congress was the “proudest moment” of his tenure in Washington. In an interview, Dermer explained: “That speech was the proudest moment I had as ambassador because the job of an Israeli prime minister is to speak out on matters that affect the security and national survival of his country. A prime minister who wouldn’t answer an invitation to speak before the American Congress and public on such an issue would not be worthy of sitting five minutes in his chair.” He also went on to discuss how Netanyahu's speech to Congress paved the way for the historic Abraham Accords. Professional career (2021–2022) In April 2022, Dermer went to work for Exigent Capital, an investment management firm based in Jerusalem. Dermer led the firm's strategic investments in the Persian Gulf states. Political career (2022–2025) In December 2022, following the 2022 Israeli legislative election, Dermer was chosen to head the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in the Thirty-seventh government of Israel. Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, he was appointed as an observer-member of the Israeli war cabinet. In May 2024, he was critical of the International Criminal Court for “creating a false symmetry between Israel and Hamas." In February 2025, he was appointed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to head the negotiations for the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Dermer announced his resignation as Minister of Strategic Affairs on 11 November 2025. His resignation went into effect on 13 November. Reactions From the beginning tenure as ambassador in Washington, observers and Washington political analysts saw Dermer's appointment as a "mixed bag" for US–Israel relations. According to Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, Dermer was one of the few people Prime Minister Netanyahu trusted enough for the job, and Dermer's understanding of the American political system gave Netanyahu a way to navigate through Washington tactfully. On the other hand, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said, that “among the White House’s inner circle – Denis McDonough, Ben Rhodes – Dermer [was] a red flag” because he was believed to have “incited Congress and Jewish organizations against Obama” on issues related to the Palestinians and Iran. In January 2015, the Israeli Civil Service Commission censured Dermer for allegedly taking part in political campaigning for Prime Minister Netanyahu in violation of Civil Service rules when he said in an interview on a non-Israeli television station that did not target Israeli voters that he trusted that the Israeli public would continue to have confidence in Prime Minister Netanyahu. Also in 2015, Dermer received negative press coverage for his “politically charged” choice of holiday gifts which featured products from the West Bank and the Golan Heights. In a letter that accompanied the gifts, Dermer explained that his holiday gift was a direct response to a recent European Union decision to label goods originating in the West Bank and the Golan Heights as goods originating in “occupied Palestinian territories”. In the letter, Dermer also called the EU decision “the latest effort by Israel’s enemies to destroy the one and only Jewish state.” In December 2016 Dermer accepted an award from the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank led by Frank Gaffney, which was designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC encouraged Dermer to decline the award because it "not only further legitimizes this organization, but could be read as an endorsement of anti-Muslim hate by the Israeli government." Dermer not only rejected the SPLC's criticism but also criticized the SPLC for singling out as anti-Muslim extremists Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, Maajid Nawaz, and especially Ayaan Hirsi Ali who publicly defends the rights of Muslim women. In his remarks, Dermer described "militant Islam" as a "virulent ideology now ascendant in the Muslim world" that must be defeated but also distinguished from Islam itself. On a separate occasion, Dermer distinguished between militant Islam and Islam more broadly, warning his audience that while militant Islamists aim to create a world in which “women are chattel, gays are hanged and minorities are either eliminated or persecuted” they must reject the idea that “the problem is Islam itself.” In fact, during his tenure, Dermer did outreach to the Muslim community, including hosting an annual Iftar dinner at the Ambassador's Residence at which he always made clear that he represented all of Israel's citizens including its more than 1.5 million Muslim citizens. In September 2018, the Israeli Civil Service Commission began an investigation into Dermer's handling of information regarding possible sexual harassment issues related to an employee hired by the State, but the investigation was dropped. After the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, The Intercept reported that Netanyahu had tasked Dermer with designing plans to "thin" the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip "to a minimum," the plan having two main elements: The first would use the pressure of the war and humanitarian crisis to persuade Egypt to allow refugees to flow to other Arab countries, and the second would open up sea routes so that Israel "allows a mass escape to European and African countries." Personal life In 1996 he moved to Israel, and in 1997, he began the process of becoming an Israeli citizen. On 9 August 1998, Dermer married artist Adi Blumberg, the daughter of the chairman of the Bank of Jerusalem, who had grown up in the Old City of Jerusalem. The wedding was presided over by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Adi Blumberg died in February 2000. In December 2000, Dermer was introduced by Chief Justice Aharon Barak to Rhoda Pagano, a Yale University educated lawyer who was clerking at the time at the Israeli Supreme Court. They married in 2002 and have five children together. They live together in Jerusalem. In Israel, he was a quarterback for the national American football team in international competitions and led his team to several championships in the Israeli Football League. In 2014, he was a member of the inaugural class of inductees into the Israeli Football Hall of Fame. During his tenure as ambassador, Dermer visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and helped organize, alongside New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a Pro Football Hall of Fame trip to Israel (2015), which was covered by CBS Sports and included Thurman Thomas and Tim Brown. A second Pro Football Hall of Fame Trip, covered by ESPN, occurred in 2017 and included Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Jim Brown, Mike Singletary, "Mean" Joe Greene, and Bruce Smith. Footnotes Further reading External links |
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Contents Meir Sheetrit Meir Sheetrit (Hebrew: מאיר שטרית; born 10 October 1948) is an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset in two spells for Likud between 1981 and 1988, and again from 1992 until 2005, when he joined Kadima. He remained a Knesset member for Kadima until joining Hatnuah in 2012, for whom he served until 2015. He also held several ministerial posts, including being Minister of the Interior, Minister of Housing & Construction, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Education, Culture & Sport. He was also a candidate for President of Israel in 2014. Early life Sheetrit was born in Ksar es Souk (now Errachidia), French Morocco. His family immigrated to Israel in 1957. He earned a BA and an MA in Public Policy from Bar-Ilan University. Political career Sheetrit began his political career in 1974 as mayor of the city of Yavne, a position he held until 1987. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1981 on the Likud list. He was re-elected in 1984, but lost his seat in 1988. That year he was elected treasurer of the Jewish Agency and served in this position until 1992, when he returned to the Knesset. In 1998 he was appointed Minister of Finance, serving until the fall of Benjamin Netanyahu's first government in 1999. Sheetrit unsuccessfully ran in the September 1999 Likud leadership election. He returned to the cabinet in 2001 as Minister of Justice. After being re-elected in 2003, he was appointed Minister in the Ministry of Finance, where he worked closely with then Minister of Finance Netanyahu who was spearheading a sweeping privatization reform. He was appointed Minister of Transportation in 2004, and later served as Minister of Education, Culture and Sport until 2006. In 2005, Sheetrit left Likud and joined Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party. He was re-elected in 2006 and appointed Minister of Housing and Construction, a post he held until July 2007, when he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs. Between 23 August and 29 November 2006, he also served as Acting Justice Minister following Haim Ramon's resignation on 18 August over an indecent assault indictment. Sheetrit was replaced in the Justice portfolio by Tzipi Livni, who also continued to serve as Foreign Minister. In February 2008, whilst Israeli airstrikes in Gaza were ongoing, Sheetrit told Army Radio that: "If it were up to me, I would hit everything that moves with weapons and ammunition", adding: "I don't think we have to show pity for anyone who wants to kill us." Following Ehud Olmert's resignation as party leader, Sheetrit ran for the party chairmanship. However, he came third out of the four candidates in the election, receiving only 8.5% of the vote. Placed seventh on the party's list, he retained his seat in the 2009 elections In early 2011, he and another MK sprayed air freshener in the Knesset, complaining about the "stench of bad politics". Both MKs were escorted out and speaker Reuven Rivlin condemned the actions. As head of the Knesset Science and Technology Committee, he spoke at the international Wikimania conference held in Haifa in 2011. On 1 December 2012, Sheetrit joined Tzipi Livni's new party, Hatnuah. He disagreed with Livni's decision to run as part of the joint Zionist Union list with the Labor Party in the 2015 elections, and he opted not to contest the elections. Sheetrit contested in the 2014 Israeli presidential election, coming second with 31 votes in the first round, and losing in the second round with 53 votes. Reuven Rivlin won with 63 votes. Sheetrit ran for Mayor of Yavne in 2018 under a local electoral list, but was defeated by Zvi Gov-Ari, winning 20.4% of the vote to Gov-Ari's 58.4%. In November 2021, Sheetrit was appointed to a committee formed to choose a new Attorney General, but decided to forego membership of the committee following public backlash. References External links |
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Contents Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. (doing business as Meta) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads and Manus. The company also operates an advertising network for its own sites and third parties; as of 2023[update], advertising accounted for 97.8 percent of its total revenue. Meta has been described as a part of Big Tech, which refers to the largest six tech companies in the United States, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Nvidia, which are also the largest companies in the world by market capitalization. The company was originally established in 2004 as TheFacebook, Inc., and was renamed Facebook, Inc. in 2005. In 2021, it rebranded as Meta Platforms, Inc. to reflect a strategic shift toward developing the metaverse—an interconnected digital ecosystem spanning virtual and augmented reality technologies. In 2023, Meta was ranked 31st on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest public companies. As of 2022, it was the world's third-largest spender on research and development, with R&D expenses totaling US$35.3 billion. History Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on January 1, 2012. The preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Zuckerberg would retain 22% of the total shares and 57% of the total voting power in Facebook. Underwriters valued the shares at $38 each, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation yet for a newly public company. On May 16, one day before the IPO, Facebook announced it would sell 25% more shares than originally planned due to high demand. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in US history (slightly ahead of AT&T Mobility and behind only General Motors and Visa). The stock price left the company with a higher market capitalization than all but a few U.S. corporations—surpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foods—and made Zuckerberg's stock worth $19 billion. The New York Times stated that the offering overcame questions about Facebook's difficulties in attracting advertisers to transform the company into a "must-own stock". Jimmy Lee of JPMorgan Chase described it as "the next great blue-chip". Writers at TechCrunch, on the other hand, expressed skepticism, stating, "That's a big multiple to live up to, and Facebook will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation." Trading in the stock, which began on May 18, was delayed that day due to technical problems with the Nasdaq exchange. The stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price. At the closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only $0.23 above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value. The opening was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment. The stock set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25, 2012, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline. On May 22, 2012, regulators from Wall Street's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that they had begun to investigate whether banks underwriting Facebook had improperly shared information only with select clients rather than the general public. Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin subpoenaed Morgan Stanley over the same issue. The allegations sparked "fury" among some investors and led to the immediate filing of several lawsuits, one of them a class action suit claiming more than $2.5 billion in losses due to the IPO. Bloomberg estimated that retail investors may have lost approximately $630 million on Facebook stock since its debut. S&P Global Ratings added Facebook to its S&P 500 index on December 21, 2013. On May 2, 2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infrastructure". The earlier motto had been described as Zuckerberg's "prime directive to his developers and team" in a 2009 interview in Business Insider, in which he also said, "Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough." In November 2016, Facebook announced the Microsoft Windows client of gaming service Facebook Gameroom, formerly Facebook Games Arcade, at the Unity Technologies developers conference. The client allows Facebook users to play "native" games in addition to its web games. The service was closed in June 2021. Lasso was a short-video sharing app from Facebook similar to TikTok that was launched on iOS and Android in 2018 and was aimed at teenagers. On July 2, 2020, Facebook announced that Lasso would be shutting down on July 10. In 2018, the Oculus lead Jason Rubin sent his 50-page vision document titled "The Metaverse" to Facebook's leadership. In the document, Rubin acknowledged that Facebook's virtual reality business had not caught on as expected, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on content for early adopters. He also urged the company to execute fast and invest heavily in the vision, to shut out HTC, Apple, Google and other competitors in the VR space. Regarding other players' participation in the metaverse vision, he called for the company to build the "metaverse" to prevent their competitors from "being in the VR business in a meaningful way at all". In May 2019, Facebook founded Libra Networks, reportedly to develop their own stablecoin cryptocurrency. Later, it was reported that Libra was being supported by financial companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. The consortium of companies was expected to pool in $10 million each to fund the launch of the cryptocurrency coin named Libra. Depending on when it would receive approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory authority to operate as a payments service, the Libra Association had planned to launch a limited format cryptocurrency in 2021. Libra was renamed Diem, before being shut down and sold in January 2022 after backlash from Swiss government regulators and the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online services, including Facebook, grew globally. Zuckerberg predicted this would be a "permanent acceleration" that would continue after the pandemic. Facebook hired aggressively, growing from 48,268 employees in March 2020 to more than 87,000 by September 2022. Following a period of intense scrutiny and damaging whistleblower leaks, news started to emerge on October 21, 2021 about Facebook's plan to rebrand the company and change its name. In the Q3 2021 earnings call on October 25, Mark Zuckerberg discussed the ongoing criticism of the company's social services and the way it operates, and pointed to the pivoting efforts to building the metaverse – without mentioning the rebranding and the name change. The metaverse vision and the name change from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms was introduced at Facebook Connect on October 28, 2021. Based on Facebook's PR campaign, the name change reflects the company's shifting long term focus of building the metaverse, a digital extension of the physical world by social media, virtual reality and augmented reality features. "Meta" had been registered as a trademark in the United States in 2018 (after an initial filing in 2015) for marketing, advertising, and computer services, by a Canadian company that provided big data analysis of scientific literature. This company was acquired in 2017 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a foundation established by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, and became one of their projects. Following the rebranding announcement, CZI announced that it had already decided to deprioritize the earlier Meta project, thus it would be transferring its rights to the name to Meta Platforms, and the previous project would end in 2022. Soon after the rebranding, in early February 2022, Meta reported a greater-than-expected decline in profits in the fourth quarter of 2021. It reported no growth in monthly users, and indicated it expected revenue growth to stall. It also expected measures taken by Apple Inc. to protect user privacy to cost it some $10 billion in advertisement revenue, an amount equal to roughly 8% of its revenue for 2021. In meeting with Meta staff the day after earnings were reported, Zuckerberg blamed competition for user attention, particularly from video-based apps such as TikTok. The 27% reduction in the company's share price which occurred in reaction to the news eliminated some $230 billion of value from Meta's market capitalization. Bloomberg described the decline as "an epic rout that, in its sheer scale, is unlike anything Wall Street or Silicon Valley has ever seen". Zuckerberg's net worth fell by as much as $31 billion. Zuckerberg owns 13% of Meta, and the holding makes up the bulk of his wealth. According to published reports by Bloomberg on March 30, 2022, Meta turned over data such as phone numbers, physical addresses, and IP addresses to hackers posing as law enforcement officials using forged documents. The law enforcement requests sometimes included forged signatures of real or fictional officials. When asked about the allegations, a Meta representative said, "We review every data request for legal sufficiency and use advanced systems and processes to validate law enforcement requests and detect abuse." In June 2022, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of 14 years, announced she would step down that year. Zuckerberg said that Javier Olivan would replace Sandberg, though in a “more traditional” role. In March 2022, Meta (except Meta-owned WhatsApp) and Instagram were banned in Russia and added to the Russian list of terrorist and extremist organizations for alleged Russophobia and hate speech (up to genocidal calls) amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meta appealed against the ban, but it was upheld by a Moscow court in June of the same year. Also in March 2022, Meta and Italian eyewear giant Luxottica released Ray-Ban Stories, a series of smartglasses which could play music and take pictures. Meta and Luxottica parent company EssilorLuxottica declined to disclose sales on the line of products as of September 2022, though Meta has expressed satisfaction with its customer feedback. In July 2022, Meta saw its first year-on-year revenue decline when its total revenue slipped by 1% to $28.8bn. Analysts and journalists accredited the loss to its advertising business, which has been limited by Apple's app tracking transparency feature and the number of people who have opted not to be tracked by Meta apps. Zuckerberg also accredited the decline to increasing competition from TikTok. On October 27, 2022, Meta's market value dropped to $268 billion, a loss of around $700 billion compared to 2021, and its shares fell by 24%. It lost its spot among the top 20 US companies by market cap, despite reaching the top 5 in the previous year. In November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees, 13% of its workforce. Zuckerberg said the decision to aggressively increase Meta's investments had been a mistake, as he had wrongly predicted that the surge in e-commerce would last beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. He also attributed the decline to increased competition, a global economic downturn and "ads signal loss". Plans to lay off a further 10,000 employees began in April 2023. The layoffs were part of a general downturn in the technology industry, alongside layoffs by companies including Google, Amazon, Tesla, Snap, Twitter and Lyft. Starting from 2022, Meta scrambled to catch up to other tech companies in adopting specialized artificial intelligence hardware and software. It had been using less expensive CPUs instead of GPUs for AI work, but that approach turned out to be less efficient. The company gifted the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research $1.3 million to finance the Social Media Archive's aim to make their data available to social science research. In 2023, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner imposed a record EUR 1.2 billion fine on Meta for transferring data from Europe to the United States without adequate protections for EU citizens.: 250 In March 2023, Meta announced a new round of layoffs that would cut 10,000 employees and close 5,000 open positions to make the company more efficient. Meta revenue surpassed analyst expectations for the first quarter of 2023 after announcing that it was increasing its focus on AI. On July 6, Meta launched a new app, Threads, a competitor to Twitter. Meta announced its artificial intelligence model Llama 2 in July 2023, available for commercial use via partnerships with major cloud providers like Microsoft. It was the first project to be unveiled out of Meta's generative AI group after it was set up in February. It would not charge access or usage but instead operate with an open-source model to allow Meta to ascertain what improvements need to be made. Prior to this announcement, Meta said it had no plans to release Llama 2 for commercial use. An earlier version of Llama was released to academics. In August 2023, Meta announced its permanent removal of news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada due to the Online News Act, which requires Canadian news outlets to be compensated for content shared on its platform. The Online News Act was in effect by year-end, but Meta will not participate in the regulatory process. In October 2023, Zuckerberg said that AI would be Meta's biggest investment area in 2024. Meta finished 2023 as one of the best-performing technology stocks of the year, with its share price up 150 percent. Its stock reached an all-time high in January 2024, bringing Meta within 2% of achieving $1 trillion market capitalization. In November 2023 Meta Platforms launched an ad-free service in Europe, allowing subscribers to opt-out of personal data being collected for targeted advertising. A group of 28 European organizations, including Max Schrems' advocacy group NOYB, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Wikimedia Europe, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, signed a 2024 letter to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) expressing concern that this subscriber model would undermine privacy protections, specifically GDPR data protection standards. Meta removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February 2024, citing repeated violations of its Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy. As of March, Meta was under investigation by the FDA for alleged use of their social media platforms to sell illegal drugs. On 16 May 2024, the European Commission began an investigation into Meta over concerns related to child safety. In May 2023, Iraqi social media influencer Esaa Ahmed-Adnan encountered a troubling issue when Instagram removed his posts, citing false copyright violations despite his content being original and free from copyrighted material. He discovered that extortionists were behind these takedowns, offering to restore his content for $3,000 or provide ongoing protection for $1,000 per month. This scam, exploiting Meta’s rights management tools, became widespread in the Middle East, revealing a gap in Meta’s enforcement in developing regions. An Iraqi nonprofit Tech4Peace’s founder, Aws al-Saadi helped Ahmed-Adnan and others, but the restoration process was slow, leading to significant financial losses for many victims, including prominent figures like Ammar al-Hakim. This situation highlighted Meta’s challenges in balancing global growth with effective content moderation and protection. On 16 September 2024, Meta announced it had banned Russian state media outlets from its platforms worldwide due to concerns about "foreign interference activity." This decision followed allegations that RT and its employees funneled $10 million through shell companies to secretly fund influence campaigns on various social media channels. Meta's actions were part of a broader effort to counter Russian covert influence operations, which had intensified since the invasion. At its 2024 Connect conference, Meta presented Orion, its first pair of augmented reality glasses. Though Orion was originally intended to be sold to consumers, the manufacturing process turned out to be too complex and expensive. Instead, the company pivoted to producing a small number of the glasses to be used internally. On 4 October 2024, Meta announced about its new AI model called Movie Gen, capable of generating realistic video and audio clips based on user prompts. Meta stated it would not release Movie Gen for open development, preferring to collaborate directly with content creators and integrate it into its products by the following year. The model was built using a combination of licensed and publicly available datasets. On October 31, 2024, ProPublica published an investigation into deceptive political advertisement scams that sometimes use hundreds of hijacked profiles and facebook pages run by organized networks of scammers. The authors cited spotty enforcement by Meta as a major reason for the extent of the issue. In November 2024, TechCrunch reported that Meta were considering building a $10bn global underwater cable spanning 25,000 miles. In the same month, Meta closed down 2 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates doing pig butchering scams. In December 2024, Meta announced that, beginning February 2025, they would require advertisers to run ads about financial services in Australia to verify information about who are the beneficiary and the payer in a bid to regulate scams. On December 4, 2024, Meta announced it will invest US$10 billion for its largest AI data center in northeast Louisiana, powered by natural gas facilities. On the 11th of that month, Meta experienced a global outage, impacting accounts on all of their social media and messaging applications. Outage reports from DownDetector reached 70,000+ and 100,000+ within minutes for Instagram and Facebook, respectively. In January 2025, Meta announced plans to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, citing shifts in the "legal and policy landscape" in the United States following the 2024 presidential election. The decision followed reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to align the company more closely with the incoming Trump administration, including changes to content moderation policies and executive leadership. The new content moderation policies continued to bar insults about a person's intellect or mental illness, but made an exception to allow calling LGBTQ people mentally ill because they are gay or transgender. Later that month, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by Donald Trump for suspending his social media accounts after the January 6 riots. Changes to Meta's moderation policies were controversial among its oversight board, with a significant divide in opinion between the board's US conservatives and its global members. In June 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. has decided to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value which would make it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. In October 2025, it was announced that Meta would be laying off 600 employees in the artificial intelligence unit to perform better and simpler. They referred to their AI unit as "bloated" and are seeking to trim down the department. This mass layoff is going to impact Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit (FAIR) and other product-related positions. Mergers and acquisitions Meta has acquired multiple companies (often identified as talent acquisitions). One of its first major acquisitions was in April 2012, when it acquired Instagram for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. In October 2013, Facebook, Inc. acquired Onavo, an Israeli mobile web analytics company. In February 2014, Facebook, Inc. announced it would buy mobile messaging company WhatsApp for US$19 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed on October 6. Later that year, Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in cash and stock, which released its first consumer virtual reality headset in 2016. In late November 2019, Facebook, Inc. announced the acquisition of the game developer Beat Games, responsible for developing one of that year's most popular VR games, Beat Saber. In Late 2022, after Facebook Inc rebranded to Meta Platforms Inc, Oculus was rebranded to Meta Quest. In May 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced it had acquired Giphy for a reported cash price of $400 million. It will be integrated with the Instagram team. However, in August 2021, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that Facebook, Inc. might have to sell Giphy, after an investigation found that the deal between the two companies would harm competition in display advertising market. Facebook, Inc. was fined $70 million by CMA for deliberately failing to report all information regarding the acquisition and the ongoing antitrust investigation. In October 2022, the CMA ruled for a second time that Meta be required to divest Giphy, stating that Meta already controls half of the advertising in the UK. Meta agreed to the sale, though it stated that it disagrees with the decision itself. In May 2023, Giphy was divested to Shutterstock for $53 million. In November 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced that it planned to purchase the customer-service platform and chatbot specialist startup Kustomer to promote companies to use their platform for business. It has been reported that Kustomer valued at slightly over $1 billion. The deal was closed in February 2022 after regulatory approval. In September 2022, Meta acquired Lofelt, a Berlin-based haptic tech startup. In December 2025, it was announced Meta had acquired the AI-wearables startup, Limitless. In the same month, they also acquired another AI startup, Manus AI, for $2 billion. Manus announced in December that its platform had achieved $100mm in recurring revenue just 8 months after its launch and Meta said it will scale the platform to many other businesses. In January 2026, it was announced Meta proposed acquisition of Manus was undergoing preliminary scrutiny by Chinese regulators. The examination concerns the cross-border transfer of artificial intelligence technology developed in China. Lobbying In 2020, Facebook, Inc. spent $19.7 million on lobbying, hiring 79 lobbyists. In 2019, it had spent $16.7 million on lobbying and had a team of 71 lobbyists, up from $12.6 million and 51 lobbyists in 2018. Facebook was the largest spender of lobbying money among the Big Tech companies in 2020. The lobbying team includes top congressional aide John Branscome, who was hired in September 2021, to help the company fend off threats from Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration. In December 2024, Meta donated $1 million to the inauguration fund for then-President-elect Donald Trump. In 2025, Meta was listed among the donors funding the construction of the White House State Ballroom. Partnerships February 2026, Meta announced a long-term partnership with Nvidia. Censorship In August 2024, Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to Jim Jordan indicating that during the COVID-19 pandemic the Biden administration repeatedly asked Meta to limit certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, on Facebook and Instagram. In 2016 Meta hired Jordana Cutler, formerly an employee at the Israeli Embassy to the United States, as its policy chief for Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. In this role, Cutler pushed for the censorship of accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine chapters in the United States. Critics have said that Cutler's position gives the Israeli government an undue influence over Meta policy, and that few countries have such high levels of contact with Meta policymakers. Following the election of Donald Trump in 2025, various sources noted possible censorship related to the Democratic Party on Instagram and other Meta platforms. In February 2025, a Meta rep flagged journalist Gil Duran's article and other "critiques of tech industry figures" as spam or sensitive content, limiting their reach. In March 2025, Meta attempted to block former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting or further distributing her memoir, Careless People, that includes allegations of unaddressed sexual harassment in the workplace by senior executives. The New York Times reports that the arbitration is among Meta's most forcible attempts to repudiate a former employee's account of workplace dynamics. Publisher Macmillan reacted to the ruling by the Emergency International Arbitral Tribunal by stating that it will ignore its provisions. As of 15 March 2025[update], hardback and digital versions of Careless People were being offered for sale by major online retailers. From October 2025, Meta began removing and restricting access for accounts related to LGBTQ, reproductive health and abortion information pages on its platforms. Martha Dimitratou, executive director of Repro Uncensored, called Meta's shadow-banning of these issues "One of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing". Disinformation concerns Since its inception, Meta has been accused of being a host for fake news and misinformation. In the wake of the 2016 United States presidential election, Zuckerberg began to take steps to eliminate the prevalence of fake news, as the platform had been criticized for its potential influence on the outcome of the election. The company initially partnered with ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, Snopes and PolitiFact for its fact-checking initiative; as of 2018, it had over 40 fact-checking partners across the world, including The Weekly Standard. A May 2017 review by The Guardian found that the platform's fact-checking initiatives of partnering with third-party fact-checkers and publicly flagging fake news were regularly ineffective, and appeared to be having minimal impact in some cases. In 2018, journalists working as fact-checkers for the company criticized the partnership, stating that it had produced minimal results and that the company had ignored their concerns. In 2024 Meta's decision to continue to disseminate a falsified video of US president Joe Biden, even after it had been proven to be fake, attracted criticism and concern. In January 2025, Meta ended its use of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a user-run community notes system similar to the one used on X. While Zuckerberg supported these changes, saying that the amount of censorship on the platform was excessive, the decision received criticism by fact-checking institutions, stating that the changes would make it more difficult for users to identify misinformation. Meta also faced criticism for weakening its policies on hate speech that were designed to protect minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals from bullying and discrimination. While moving its content review teams from California to Texas, Meta changed their hateful conduct policy to eliminate restrictions on anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant hate speech, as well as explicitly allowing users to accuse LGBT people of being mentally ill or abnormal based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In January 2025, Meta faced significant criticism for its role in removing LGBTQ+ content from its platforms, amid its broader efforts to address anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech. The removal of LGBTQ+ themes was noted as part of the wider crackdown on content deemed to violate its community guidelines. Meta's content moderation policies, which were designed to combat harmful speech and protect users from discrimination, inadvertently led to the removal or restriction of LGBTQ+ content, particularly posts highlighting LGBTQ+ identities, support, or political issues. According to reports, LGBTQ+ posts, including those that simply celebrated pride or advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, were flagged and removed for reasons that some critics argue were vague or inconsistently applied. Many LGBTQ+ activists and users on Meta's platforms expressed concern that such actions stifled visibility and expression, potentially isolating LGBTQ+ individuals and communities, especially in spaces that were historically important for outreach and support. Lawsuits Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the company, both when it was known as Facebook, Inc., and as Meta Platforms. In March 2020, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) sued Facebook, for significant and persistent infringements of the rule on privacy involving the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Every violation of the Privacy Act is subject to a theoretical cumulative liability of $1.7 million. The OAIC estimated that a total of 311,127 Australians had been exposed. On December 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 46 states (excluding Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and South Dakota), the District of Columbia and the territory of Guam, launched Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook as an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit concerns Facebook's acquisition of two competitors—Instagram and WhatsApp—and the ensuing monopolistic situation. FTC alleges that Facebook holds monopolistic power in the U.S. social networking market and seeks to force the company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp to break up the conglomerate. William Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, argued the case will be difficult to win as it would require the government to create a counterfactual argument of an internet where the Facebook-WhatsApp-Instagram entity did not exist, and prove that harmed competition or consumers. In November 2025, it was ruled that Meta did not violate antitrust laws and holds no monopoly in the market. On December 24, 2021, a court in Russia fined Meta for $27 million after the company declined to remove unspecified banned content. The fine was reportedly tied to the company's annual revenue in the country. In May 2022, a lawsuit was filed in Kenya against Meta and its local outsourcing company Sama. Allegedly, Meta has poor working conditions in Kenya for workers moderating Facebook posts. According to the lawsuit, 260 screeners were declared redundant with confusing reasoning. The lawsuit seeks financial compensation and an order that outsourced moderators be given the same health benefits and pay scale as Meta employees. In June 2022, 8 lawsuits were filed across the U.S. over the allege that excessive exposure to platforms including Facebook and Instagram has led to attempted or actual suicides, eating disorders and sleeplessness, among other issues. The litigation follows a former Facebook employee's testimony in Congress that the company refused to take responsibility. The company noted that tools have been developed for parents to keep track of their children's activity on Instagram and set time limits, in addition to Meta's "Take a break" reminders. In addition, the company is providing resources specific to eating disorders as well as developing AI to prevent children under the age of 13 signing up for Facebook or Instagram. In June 2022, Meta settled a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, alleged that the company enabled housing discrimination through targeted advertising, as it allowed homeowners and landlords to run housing ads excluding people based on sex, race, religion, and other characteristics. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that this was in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Meta was handed a penalty of $115,054 and given until December 31, 2022, to shadow the algorithm tool. In January 2023, Meta was fined €390 million for violations of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. In May 2023, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta a record €1.2 billion for breaching European Union data privacy laws by transferring personal data of Facebook users to servers in the U.S. In July 2024, Meta agreed to pay the state of Texas US$1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accusing the company of collecting users' biometric data without consent, setting a record for the largest privacy-related settlement ever obtained by a state attorney general. In October 2024, Meta Platforms faced lawsuits in Japan from 30 plaintiffs who claimed they were defrauded by fake investment ads on Facebook and Instagram, featuring false celebrity endorsements. The plaintiffs are seeking approximately $2.8 million in damages. In April 2025, the Kenyan High Court ruled that a US$2.4 billion lawsuit in which three plaintiffs claim that Facebook inflamed civil violence in Ethiopia in 2021 could proceed. In April 2025, Meta was fined €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, by imposing a “consent or pay” system that forces users to either allow their personal data to be used to target advertisements, or pay a subscription fee for advertising-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. In late April 2025, a case was filed against Meta in Ghana over the alleged psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse. Meta moved the moderation service to the Ghanaian capital of Accra after legal issues in the previous location Kenya. The new moderation company is Teleperformance, a multinational corporation with a history of worker's rights violation. Reports suggests the conditions are worse here than in the previous Kenyan location, with many workers afraid of speaking out due to fear of returning to conflict zones. Workers reported developing mental illnesses, attempted suicides, and low pay. In 26 January 2026, a New Mexico state court case was filed, suggesting that Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions. In 2020, the company UReputation, which had been involved in several cases concerning the management of digital armies[clarification needed], filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing it of unlawfully transmitting personal data to third parties. Legal actions were initiated in Tunisia, France, and the United States. In 2025, the United States District court for the Northern District of Georgia approved a discovery procedure, allowing UReputation to access documents and evidence held by Meta. Structure Meta's key management consists of: As of October 2022[update], Meta had 83,553 employees worldwide. As of June 2024[update], Meta's board consisted of the following directors; Meta Platforms is mainly owned by institutional investors, who hold around 80% of all shares. Insiders control the majority of voting shares. The three largest individual investors in 2024 were Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Christopher K. Cox. The largest shareholders in late 2024/early 2025 were: Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and Zuckerberg's former mentor, said Facebook had "the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company". Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has stated that chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has too much power, that the company is now a monopoly, and that, as a result, it should be split into multiple smaller companies. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Hughes said he was concerned that Zuckerberg had surrounded himself with a team that did not challenge him, and that it is the U.S. government's job to hold him accountable and curb his "unchecked power". He also said that "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American." Several U.S. politicians agreed with Hughes. European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager stated that splitting Facebook should be done only as "a remedy of the very last resort", and that it would not solve Facebook's underlying problems. Revenue Facebook ranked No. 34 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue, with almost $86 billion in revenue most of it coming from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising. According to New York, since its rebranding, Meta has reportedly lost $500 billion as a result of new privacy measures put in place by companies such as Apple and Google which prevents Meta from gathering users' data. In February 2015, Facebook announced it had reached two million active advertisers, with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser was defined as an entity that had advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced it had reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the United States. Prices for advertising follow a variable pricing model based on auctioning ad placements, and potential engagement levels of the advertisement itself. Similar to other online advertising platforms like Google and Twitter, targeting of advertisements is one of the chief merits of digital advertising compared to traditional media. Marketing on Meta is employed through two methods based on the viewing habits, likes and shares, and purchasing data of the audience, namely targeted audiences and "look alike" audiences. The U.S. IRS challenged the valuation Facebook used when it transferred IP from the U.S. to Facebook Ireland (now Meta Platforms Ireland) in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building its double Irish tax structure. The case is ongoing and Meta faces a potential fine of $3–5bn. The U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed Facebook's global tax calculations. Meta Platforms Ireland is subject to the U.S. GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Meta Platforms Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if its Irish business relocated to the U.S. Tax relief in the U.S. (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective U.S. rate around 12%. The insignificance of the U.S./Irish tax difference was demonstrated when Facebook moved 1.5bn non-EU accounts to the U.S. to limit exposure to GDPR. Facilities Users outside of the U.S. and Canada contract with Meta's Irish subsidiary, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (formerly Facebook Ireland Limited), allowing Meta to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Meta is making use of the Double Irish arrangement which allows it to pay 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad, India, which houses online advertising and developer support teams and provides support to users and advertisers. In India, Meta is registered as Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd. It also has offices or planned sites in Chittagong, Bangladesh; Dublin, Ireland; and Austin, Texas, among other cities. Facebook opened its London headquarters in 2017 in Fitzrovia in central London. Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. The offices were initially home to the "Connectivity Lab", a group focused on bringing Internet access to those who do not have access to the Internet. In April 2019, Facebook opened its Taiwan headquarters in Taipei. In March 2022, Meta opened new regional headquarters in Dubai. In September 2023, it was reported that Meta had paid £149m to British Land to break the lease on Triton Square London office. Meta reportedly had another 18 years left on its lease on the site. As of 2023, Facebook operated 21 data centers. It committed to purchase 100% renewable energy and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2020. Its data center technologies include Fabric Aggregator, a distributed network system that accommodates larger regions and varied traffic patterns. Reception US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet to Zuckerberg's announcement about Meta, saying: "Meta as in 'we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society ... for profit!'" Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen and whistleblower behind the Facebook Papers responded to the rebranding efforts by expressing doubts about the company's ability to improve while led by Mark Zuckerberg, and urged the chief executive officer to resign. In November 2021, a video published by Inspired by Iceland went viral, in which a Zuckerberg look-alike promoted the Icelandverse, a place of "enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets". In a December 2021 interview, SpaceX and Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said he could not see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse, adding: "I don't see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day." In January 2022, Louise Eccles of The Sunday Times logged into the metaverse with the intention of making a video guide. She wrote: Initially, my experience with the Oculus went well. I attended work meetings as an avatar and tried an exercise class set in the streets of Paris. The headset enabled me to feel the thrill of carving down mountains on a snowboard and the adrenaline rush of climbing a mountain without ropes. Yet switching to the social apps, where you mingle with strangers also using VR headsets, it was at times predatory and vile. Eccles described being sexually harassed by another user, as well as "accents from all over the world, American, Indian, English, Australian, using racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language". She also encountered users as young as 7 years old on the platform, despite Oculus headsets being intended for users over 13. See also References External links 37°29′06″N 122°08′54″W / 37.48500°N 122.14833°W / 37.48500; -122.14833 |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_bulge] | [TOKENS: 1363] |
Contents Galactic bulge In astronomy, a galactic bulge (or simply bulge) is a tightly packed group of stars within a larger star formation. The term almost exclusively refers to the group of stars found near the center of most spiral galaxies. Bulges were historically thought to be elliptical galaxies that happened to have a disk of stars around them, but high-resolution images using the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that many bulges lie at the heart of a spiral galaxy. It is now thought that there are at least two types of bulges: bulges that are like ellipticals and bulges that are like spiral galaxies. Classical bulges Bulges that have properties similar to those of elliptical galaxies are often called "classical bulges" due to their similarity to the historic view of bulges. These bulges are composed primarily of stars that are older, Population II stars, and hence have a reddish hue (see stellar evolution). These stars are also in orbits that are essentially random compared to the plane of the galaxy, giving the bulge a distinct spherical form. Due to the lack of dust and gases, bulges tend to have almost no star formation. The distribution of light is described by a Sersic profile. Classical bulges are thought to be the result of collisions of smaller structures. Convulsing gravitational forces and torques disrupt the orbital paths of stars, resulting in the randomised bulge orbits. If either progenitor galaxy was gas-rich, the tidal forces can also cause inflows to the newly merged galaxy nucleus. Following a major merger, gas clouds are more likely to convert into stars, due to shocks (see star formation). One study has suggested that about 80% of galaxies in the field lack a classical bulge, indicating that they have never experienced a major merger. The bulgeless galaxy fraction of the Universe has remained roughly constant for at least the last 8 billion years. In contrast, about 2/3 of galaxies in dense galaxy clusters (such as the Virgo Cluster) do possess a classical bulge, demonstrating the disruptive effect of their crowding. Disk-like bulges Many bulges have properties more similar to those of the central regions of spiral galaxies than elliptical galaxies. They are often referred to as pseudobulges or disky-bulges. These bulges have stars that are not orbiting randomly, but rather orbit in an ordered fashion in the same plane as the stars in the outer disk. This contrasts greatly with elliptical galaxies. Subsequent studies (using the Hubble Space Telescope) show that the bulges of many galaxies are not devoid of dust, but rather show a varied and complex structure. This structure often looks similar to a spiral galaxy, but is much smaller. Giant spiral galaxies are typically 2–100 times the size of those spirals that exist in bulges. Where they exist, these central spirals dominate the light of the bulge in which they reside. Typically the rate at which new stars are formed in pseudobulges is similar to the rate at which stars form in disk galaxies. Sometimes bulges contain nuclear rings that are forming stars at much higher rate (per area) than is typically found in outer disks, as shown in NGC 4314 (see photo). Properties such as spiral structure and young stars suggest that some bulges did not form through the same process that made elliptical galaxies and classical bulges. Yet the theories for the formation of pseudobulges are less certain than those for classical bulges. Pseudobulges may be the result of extremely gas-rich mergers that happened more recently than those mergers that formed classical bulges (within the last 5 billion years). However, it is difficult for disks to survive the merging process, casting doubt on this scenario. Many astronomers suggest that bulges that appear similar to disks form outside of the disk, and are not the product of a merging process. When left alone, disk galaxies can rearrange their stars and gas (as a response to instabilities). The products of this process (called secular evolution) are often observed in such galaxies; both spiral disks and galactic bars can result from secular evolution of galaxy disks. Secular evolution is also expected to send gas and stars to the center of a galaxy. If this happens that would increase the density at the center of the galaxy, and thus make a bulge that has properties similar to those of disk galaxies. If secular evolution, or the slow, steady evolution of a galaxy, is responsible for the formation of a significant number of bulges, then that many galaxies have not experienced a merger since the formation of their disk. This would then mean that current theories of galaxy formation and evolution greatly over-predict the number of mergers in the past few billion years. Boxy/peanut bulge for edge-on galaxies Edge-on galaxies can sometimes have a boxy/peanut bulge with an X-shape. The boxy nature of the Milky Way bulge was revealed by the COBE satellite and later confirmed with the VVV survey with the help of red clump stars. The VVV survey also found two overlapping populations of red clump stars and an X-shape of the bulge. The WISE satellite later confirmed the X-shape of the bulge. The X-shape makes up 45% of the mass of the bulge in the Milky Way. The boxy/peanut bulges are in fact the bar of a galaxy seen edge-on. Other edge-on galaxies can also show a boxy/peanut bar sometimes with an X-shape. Central compact mass Most bulges and pseudo-bulges are thought to host a central relativistic compact mass, which is traditionally assumed to be a supermassive black hole. Such black holes by definition cannot be observed directly (light cannot escape them), but various pieces of evidence suggest their existence, both in the bulges of spiral galaxies and in the centers of ellipticals. The masses of the black holes correlate tightly with bulge properties. The M–sigma relation relates black hole mass to the velocity dispersion of bulge stars, while other correlations involve the total stellar mass or luminosity of the bulge, the central concentration of stars in the bulge, the richness of the globular cluster system orbiting in the galaxy's far outskirts, and the winding angle of the spiral arms. Until recently it was thought that one could not have a supermassive black hole without a surrounding bulge. Galaxies hosting supermassive black holes without accompanying bulges have now been observed. The implication is that the bulge environment is not strictly essential to the initial seeding and growth of massive black holes. See also References External links |
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Contents Kadima Kadima (Hebrew: קדימה, lit. 'Forward') was a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely following the implementation of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan in August 2005, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. With Ehud Olmert as party chairman following Sharon's stroke, it became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats, and led a coalition government. Kadima also won the most seats in the 2009 elections under Tzipi Livni's leadership. It was originally in opposition to the Likud-led coalition government under Benjamin Netanyahu. Kadima was briefly a member of the coalition with Netanyahu, joining the government in May 2012 after striking a deal with Netanyahu; however, Kadima returned to the opposition two months later, leaving the government over a dispute over the Tal Law. Livni was defeated by the more conservative Shaul Mofaz in the March 2012 leadership election. The party's progressive wing, under Livni's leadership, broke away at the end of 2012 to form the new centre-left Hatnua party. In the 2013 elections, Kadima became the smallest party in the Knesset, winning only two seats and barely passing the electoral threshold. The party ceased its political activities in March 2015 when it chose to not contest the 2015 elections. History The party was founded by Sharon after he formally left Likud on 21 November 2005 to establish a new party that would grant him the freedom to carry out the disengagement plan—removing Israeli settlements from Palestinian territory and fixing Israel's borders with a prospective Palestinian state. The name Kadima (literally: "Forward") emerged within the first days of the split and was favored by Sharon. However, the party was initially named "National Responsibility" (Hebrew: אחריות לאומית, Ahrayaut Leumit), which was proposed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and endorsed by Reuven Adler, Sharon's confidante and strategy adviser. Although "National Responsibility" was regarded as provisional, subsequent tests conducted with focus groups proved it more popular than Kadima.[citation needed] However, on 24 November 2005 the party registered as Kadima. The title Kadima may have had a symbolic connotation for many Israelis who associated it with the Hebrew battle cry, meaning 'forward march,' but it was common in Israeli political rhetoric. It had been used by early Zionist leader Nathan Birnbaum, and was the motto of the Jewish Legion of World War I formed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor. The name was criticised by Shinui leader Yosef Lapid, who compared it to Benito Mussolini's newspaper Avanti (Italian for "Forward"). On the day after its founding, Kadima had nearly[clarification needed] 150 members, mostly defectors from Likud. Several Knesset members from Labor, Likud, and other parties joined the new party, including cabinet ministers Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Meir Sheetrit, Gideon Ezra and Avraham Hirschson. Deputy ministers Ruhama Avraham, Majalli Wahabi, Eli Aflalo, Marina Solodkin, Ze'ev Boim and Yaakov Edri also joined, along with Likud MKs Roni Bar-On and Omri Sharon. Former Histadrut chairman Haim Ramon of Labor decided to join shortly thereafter. On 30 November 2005 former Prime Minister Shimon Peres left the Labor Party after more than 60 years with the party and joined Kadima to help Sharon pursue the peace process. In the wake of Sharon's poor health, there was speculation that Peres might take over as leader of Kadima. One poll suggested the party would win 42 seats in the March 2006 elections with Peres as leader compared to 40 if led by Ehud Olmert. Most senior Kadima leaders were former members of Likud and indicated their support for (former Likud) Olmert as Sharon's successor. The ramifications of Sharon's close identification with Kadima moved the party in an unexpected direction due to his mounting medical problems, which began only a few weeks after Kadima was formed. First, Sharon was hospitalized on 18 December 2005 after reportedly suffering a minor stroke. This introduced a serious element of uncertainty for Sharon's and Kadima's supporters. During his hospital stay, Sharon was also diagnosed with a minor hole in his heart and was scheduled to undergo a cardiac catheterization to fill the hole in his atrial septum on 5 January 2006. However, on 4 January 2006, 22:50 Israel Time (GMT +0200), Sharon suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke, and was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem to undergo brain surgery. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert succeeded him as Prime Ministerial candidate. Without Sharon, there was uncertainty about the future of the party. Nevertheless, three polls taken shortly after Sharon's illness showed that Kadima continued to lead its rivals by large margins. Later polls showed Kadima strengthening its power base further, particularly amongst left wing voters who had opposed Sharon in the past. On 16 January 2006, party members chose Ehud Olmert as acting chairman for the March elections. Kadima won 29 seats, and was asked to form a government by president Moshe Katsav. Olmert formed a coalition with Labor, Shas and Gil, the government being sworn in on 4 May. Yisrael Beiteinu joined the coalition in October 2006, but left again in January 2008 in protest at negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Olmert resigned as party leader in 2008, resulting in a leadership election, held on 17 September. The vote was won by Tzipi Livni, who beat Shaul Mofaz, Meir Sheetrit and Avi Dichter. Following her victory, Livni failed to form a coalition government, as she refused to agree to Shas' demands, resulting in early elections in February 2009. In the elections Kadima remained the largest party in the Knesset, winning 28 seats, one more than Likud. However, Likud's Netanyahu was asked to form a government by President Peres following talks with delegations from all parties represented in the Knesset. Livni lost the leadership of Kadima to Shaul Mofaz, considered the leader of the party's right wing, in a leadership election in March 2012. In November, Livni, supported mainly by Kadima's dovish flank, left Kadima with seven other Kadima MKs to form a new centrist political party, Hatnua. In the 2013 legislative election, Kadima lost almost 90% of its vote share from 2009. The party narrowly avoided being ejected from the Knesset, crossing the 2% threshold by just a few hundred votes. The party was reduced to just two MKs, Mofaz and Yisrael Hasson, making it the smallest of the 12 factions in the chamber. Prior to the 2015 elections Mofaz retired from politics after Kadima decided against joining the Zionist Union alliance. Hasson had already left the Knesset in 2013 to become chairman of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Following Mofaz's retirement, Akram Hasson was elected party leader, becoming the first Druze leader of a predominantly Jewish party. However, his leadership was short-lived, with Hasson soon quitting the party to join the Kulanu list, receiving the 12th slot. Kadima subsequently opted to sit out the election. Platform In the early stages, the policies of Kadima directly reflected the views of Ariel Sharon and his stated policies. Early statements from the Sharon camp reported by the Israeli media claimed that they were setting up a truly "centrist" and "liberal" party. It would appear that Sharon hoped to attract members of the Knesset from other parties and well-known politicians regardless of their prior beliefs provided they accepted Sharon's leadership and were willing to implement a "moderate" political agenda. On the domestic front, Sharon had shown a tendency to agree with his past political partner, the pro-secular and outspokenly anti-religious Shinui party (his allies in the 2003 government), which sought to promote a secular civil agenda as opposed to the strong influence of Israel's Orthodox and Haredi parties. One of the Haredi parties, United Torah Judaism, joined Sharon's last coalition at the same time as the Labor Party, after Shinui had left Sharon's original governing coalition. In the past, Shinui had also called itself a "centrist" party because it rejected both Labor's socialism (its economic policies were free-market) and the Likud's opposition to a Palestinian state (however, from an international standpoint, Shinui may have actually been on the centre-right). Justice Minister Tzipi Livni reportedly told Israel Army Radio that Kadima intended to help foster the desire for a separate Palestinian state, a move applauded by leftist Yossi Beilin.[citation needed] Sharon was one of the prime architects pushing for the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier that has been criticized by left-wing and right-wing Israeli politicians, but was a cornerstone of Sharon's determination to establish Israel's final borders, which he saw himself as uniquely suited to do in the so-called "Final Status" negotiations. In a 22 November 2005 press conference, Sharon also mentioned that he favored withdrawing from untenable Israeli settlements in the West Bank, although he declined to give an actual timeline or specifics for the proposed action. Kadima favors continuing a market-based economy with adequate welfare benefits. There has been some debate over where Kadima lies on the political spectrum. Many in the Western media use the term centrist, (in that it is positioned between the Labor Party and Likud). Over the last thirty years, Israel has seen a movement by both the right and the left towards the center. Founder Ariel Sharon spent a career switching between the right of Israeli politics and the left—notably in the 1970s when he served as an aide to then Prime Minister Rabin. Most of its elected membership are former Likud party members, but it also has a number of notable ex-Labor MKs. The previous government of Ehud Olmert was considered left of center, collaborating with the Labor and two sector-socialist parties, Gil and Shas. Following the 2009 elections, with its subsequent political negotiations for a centrist coalition with the Likud and the Labor, it is suggested that the ideological differences of the center-left and center-right in Israel are fairly minor, but the fact that this only lasted 60 days belies this. When Kadima was trying to form a coalition in 2006, the BBC reported that the new party leaned center-right in economic terms while its main coalition partner, Labor, leaned center-left. Labor wanted the Finance Ministry to push through some costly social reforms. It failed to get it, but still insists that the minimum wage, and pension and health benefits, be raised in Israel. At the time, Labor favored a negotiated land agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Kadima had so far refused to speak to any Palestinian leader since the Hamas election and has spoken openly of taking unilateral steps in the West Bank, which the Palestinians oppose. Since then, however, Kadima has directly negotiated with the Palestinian Authority. Following the 2009 elections, Kadima led the opposition in the Knesset. During the elections, Kadima successfully attracted left-of-center voters, to the dismay of Labor and Meretz leaders, who discouraged their supporters from doing so. Neither Labor nor Meretz, who were initially expected to be Kadima's natural allies, recommended Livni as prime minister to Peres, reportedly due to Livni's courting of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. Shimon Peres told Ynet in 2006 that "there is no difference" between Kadima and Labor, and suggested that the two groups unite. He added that neither he nor Kadima founder Ariel Sharon liked the economic policy of Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. The Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn suggested in November 2009, that Kadima does not have any ideological differences with the Labor Party that would prevent a merger. Leaders of Kadima In addition, Shimon Peres, a former head of Labor, served as Deputy Leader, and was elected President as the Kadima candidate. Knesset election results Knesset members After the 2013 election the party had two MKs: See also References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ] | [TOKENS: 1050] |
Contents LGBTQ people LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. Many variants[a] of the initialism are used, such as those incorporating questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group is generally conceived as broadly encompassing all individuals who are part of a sexual or gender minority. Scope and terminology LGBTQ people express a broad array of sexual and gender minority identities. The alternative umbrella gender, sexual, and romantic minorities is sometimes used for this group. Groups that blend into the larger LGBTQ population include: Common variations of the initialism include LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, and LGBTQIA+. Community LGBTQ people may participate in the LGBTQ community, which may be defined by shared LGBTQ culture, by shared geography (such as gay villages), or by participation in LGBTQ-focused organizations. The LGBTQ community includes elements such as LGBTQ social movements (including LGBTQ rights organizations), LGBTQ student groups in schools and universities, and LGBTQ-affirming religious groups. LGBTQ activists and sociologists see LGBTQ community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and other conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. Not all LGBTQ people consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.[citation needed] Culture LGBTQ culture varies widely by geography and the identity of the participants. Elements common to cultures of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people include: Not all LGBTQ people identify with LGBTQ culture; this may be due to geographic distance, unawareness of the subculture's existence, fear of social stigma or a preference for remaining unidentified with sexuality- or gender-based subcultures or communities. The Queercore and Gay Shame movements critique what they see as the commercialization and self-imposed "ghettoization" of LGBTQ culture. History The history of LGBTQ people dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and diverse gender identities and sexualities in cultures around the world. In many cultures this history has involved marginalization and persecution, such that these histories have only in recent decades been pursued and interwoven into more mainstream historical narratives. In 1994, the annual observance of LGBT History Month began in the United States, and it has since been picked up in other countries. This observance involves highlighting the history of the people, LGBTQ rights and related civil rights movements. It is observed during October in the United States, to include National Coming Out Day on October 11. In the United Kingdom it has been observed during February since 2005: Section 28, which had prohibited local authorities from "promoting" homosexuality was repealed in England and Wales in 2003, while the same legislation (named Section 2a in the Scottish legislation) was repealed by the Scottish parliament in 2000. A celebrated achievement in LGBTQ history occurred when Queen Beatrix signed a law making Netherlands the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001, and another when Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2015. Rights The legal rights held by LGBTQ people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—ranging from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. An example of such protections are legal prohibitions against incitement to hatred and violence against LGBTQ people. Laws that affect LGBTQ people include: Even in jurisdictions with strong protections for LGBTQ rights, they may still be subject to discrimination against LGBTQ people. Discrimination Discrimination against LGBTQ people can manifest in legal, institutional, and social forms.: 1 This includes discrimination directed specifically at lesbians, at homosexuals more broadly, at gay men, at bisexuals, at transgender people, at asexual people, at intersex people, and at non-binary people. Opposition to LGBTQ rights exists worldwide. While laws are "a necessary foundation to achieve equality ... protections under the law are not sufficient to eliminate prejudice", and "social equality is not synonymous with equality under the law", according to Ilan Meyer. According to a study by the European Parliament's internal policy body in 2012: "To resolve the vast majority of problems faced by LGBTI people, individuals, society, organisations and authorities must stop regarding their differences as factors which require differential treatment. While this seems self evident, such shifts in attitude cannot be achieved through one-off, short term action, nor through legislation alone. ... in some areas a change of views of some groups may simply not be possible." Some countries practice censorship of LGBTQ issues. Social divides exist over the social acceptance of LGBTQ people, including societal attitudes toward homosexuality. Movements LGBTQ movements are social movements that advocate for the inclusion, recognition, and rights of LGBTQ people. These movements work to secure legal rights, or enact broader social changes aimed at advancing equality and inclusion. In addition, LGBTQ movements and communities work to advance LGBTQ culture. Health LGBTQ people may face disparities in access to care, targeted public health interventions, and the impact of stigma on physical and mental well-being.: 2 The psychology of LGBTQ people covers aspects such as identity development including the coming out process, parenting and family practices and support for LGBTQ individuals. By country Specific LGBTQ people See also Notes References |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacea] | [TOKENS: 3678] |
Contents Crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin word "crustacea" meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (/krəˈsteɪʃə/), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthropods including the more familiar decapods (shrimps, prawns, crabs, lobsters and crayfish), seed shrimps, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, opossum shrimps, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods (insects and entognathans) emerged deep in the crustacean group, with the completed pan-group referred to as Pancrustacea. The three classes Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda and Remipedia are more closely related to the hexapods than they are to any of the other crustaceans (oligostracans and multicrustaceans). The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm (0.004 in), to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m (12.5 ft) and a mass of 20 kg (44 lb). Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of biramous (two-parted) limbs, and by their larval forms, such as the nauplius stage of branchiopods and copepods. Most crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are terrestrial (e.g. woodlice, sandhoppers), some are parasitic (e.g. Rhizocephala, fish lice, tongue worms) and some are sessile (e.g. barnacles). The group has an extensive fossil record, reaching back to the Cambrian. More than 7.9 million tons of crustaceans per year are harvested by fishery or farming for human consumption, consisting mostly of shrimp and prawns. Krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but may be the animals with the greatest biomass on the planet, and form a vital part of the food chain. The scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology (alternatively, malacostracology, crustaceology or crustalogy), and a scientist who works in carcinology is a carcinologist. Anatomy The body of a crustacean is composed of segments, which are grouped into three regions: the cephalon or head, the pereon or thorax, and the pleon or abdomen. The head and thorax may be fused together to form a cephalothorax, which may be covered by a single large carapace. The crustacean body is protected by the hard exoskeleton, which must be moulted for the animal to grow. The shell around each somite can be divided into a dorsal tergum, ventral sternum and a lateral pleuron. Various parts of the exoskeleton may be fused together.: 289 Each somite, or body segment can bear a pair of appendages: on the segments of the head, these include two pairs of antennae, the mandibles and maxillae; the thoracic segments bear legs, which may be specialised as pereiopods (walking legs) and maxillipeds (feeding legs). Malacostraca and Remipedia (and the hexapods) have abdominal appendages. All other classes of crustaceans have a limbless abdomen, except from a telson and caudal rami which is present in many groups. The abdomen in malacostracans bears pleopods, and ends in a telson, which bears the anus, and is often flanked by uropods to form a tail fan. The number and variety of appendages in different crustaceans may be partly responsible for the group's success. Crustacean appendages are typically biramous, meaning they are divided into two parts; this includes the second pair of antennae, but not the first, which is usually uniramous, the exception being in the Class Malacostraca where the antennules may be generally biramous or even triramous. It is unclear whether the biramous condition is a derived state which evolved in crustaceans, or whether the second branch of the limb has been lost in all other groups. Trilobites, for instance, also possessed biramous appendages. The main body cavity is an open circulatory system, where blood is pumped into the haemocoel by a heart located near the dorsum. Malacostraca have haemocyanin as the oxygen-carrying pigment, while copepods, ostracods, barnacles and branchiopods have haemoglobins. The alimentary canal consists of a straight tube that often has a gizzard-like "gastric mill" for grinding food and a pair of digestive glands that absorb food; this structure goes in a spiral format. Structures that function as kidneys are located near the antennae. A brain exists in the form of ganglia close to the antennae, and a collection of major ganglia is found below the gut. In many decapods, the first (and sometimes the second) pair of pleopods are specialised in the male for sperm transfer. Many terrestrial crustaceans (such as the Christmas Island red crab) mate seasonally and return to the sea to release the eggs. Others, such as woodlice, lay their eggs on land, albeit in damp conditions. In most decapods, the females retain the eggs until they hatch into free-swimming larvae. Ecology Most crustaceans are aquatic, living in either marine or freshwater environments, but a few groups have adapted to life on land, such as terrestrial crabs, terrestrial hermit crabs, and woodlice. Marine crustaceans are as ubiquitous in the oceans as insects are on land. Most crustaceans are also motile, moving about independently, although a few taxonomic units are parasitic and live attached to their hosts (including sea lice, fish lice, whale lice, tongue worms, and Cymothoa exigua, all of which may be referred to as "crustacean lice"), and adult barnacles live a sessile life – they are attached headfirst to the substrate and cannot move independently. Some branchiurans are able to withstand rapid changes of salinity and will also switch hosts from marine to non-marine species.: 672 Krill are the bottom layer and most important part of the food chain in Antarctic animal communities.: 64 Some crustaceans are significant invasive species, such as the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, and the Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus. Since the opening of the Suez Canal, close to 100 species of crustaceans from the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific realm have established themselves in the eastern Mediterranean sub-basin, with often significant impact on local ecosystems. Life cycle Most crustaceans have separate sexes, and reproduce sexually. In fact, a recent study explains how the male T. californicus decide which females to mate with by dietary differences, preferring when the females are algae-fed instead of yeast-fed. A small number are hermaphrodites, including barnacles, remipedes, and Cephalocarida. Some may even change sex during the course of their life. Parthenogenesis is also widespread among crustaceans, where viable eggs are produced by a female without needing fertilisation by a male. This occurs in many branchiopods, some ostracods, some isopods, and certain "higher" crustaceans, such as the Marmorkrebs crayfish. In many crustaceans, the fertilised eggs are released into the water column, while others have developed a number of mechanisms for holding on to the eggs until they are ready to hatch. Most decapods carry the eggs attached to the pleopods, while peracarids, notostracans, anostracans, and many isopods form a brood pouch from the carapace and thoracic limbs. Female Branchiura do not carry eggs in external ovisacs but attach them in rows to rocks and other objects.: 788 Most leptostracans and krill carry the eggs between their thoracic limbs; some copepods carry their eggs in special thin-walled sacs, while others have them attached together in long, tangled strings. Crustaceans exhibit a number of larval forms, of which the earliest and most characteristic is the nauplius. This has three pairs of appendages, all emerging from the young animal's head, and a single naupliar eye. In most groups, there are further larval stages, including the zoea (pl. zoeæ or zoeas). This name was given to it when naturalists believed it to be a separate species. It follows the nauplius stage and precedes the post-larva. Zoea larvae swim with their thoracic appendages, as opposed to nauplii, which use cephalic appendages, and megalopa, which use abdominal appendages for swimming. It often has spikes on its carapace, which may assist these small organisms in maintaining directional swimming. In many decapods, due to their accelerated development, the zoea is the first larval stage. In some cases, the zoea stage is followed by the mysis stage, and in others, by the megalopa stage, depending on the crustacean group involved. Providing camouflage against predators, the otherwise black eyes in several forms of swimming larvae are covered by a thin layer of crystalline isoxanthopterin that gives their eyes the same color as the surrounding water, while tiny holes in the layer allow light to reach the retina. As the larvae mature into adults, the layer migrates to a new position behind the retina where it works as a backscattering mirror that increases the intensity of light passing through the eyes, as seen in many nocturnal animals. In an effort to understand whether DNA repair processes can protect crustaceans against DNA damage, basic research was conducted to elucidate the repair mechanisms used by Penaeus monodon (black tiger shrimp). Repair of DNA double-strand breaks was found to be predominantly carried out by accurate homologous recombinational repair. Another, less accurate process, microhomology-mediated end joining, is also used to repair such breaks. The expression pattern of DNA repair related and DNA damage response genes in the intertidal copepod Tigriopus japonicus was analyzed after ultraviolet irradiation. This study revealed increased expression of proteins associated with the DNA repair processes of non-homologous end joining, homologous recombination, base excision repair and DNA mismatch repair. Classification and phylogeny The name "crustacean" dates from the earliest works to describe the animals, including those of Pierre Belon and Guillaume Rondelet, but the name was not used by some later authors, including Carl Linnaeus, who included crustaceans among the "Aptera" in his Systema Naturae. The earliest nomenclatural valid work to use the name "Crustacea" was Morten Thrane Brünnich's Zoologiæ Fundamenta in 1772, although he also included chelicerates in the group. The subphylum Crustacea comprises almost 67,000 described species, which is thought to be just 1⁄10 to 1⁄100 of the total number as most species remain as yet undiscovered. Although most crustaceans are small, their morphology varies greatly and includes both the largest arthropod in the world – the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of 3.7 metres (12 ft) – and the smallest, the 100-micrometre-long (0.004 in) Stygotantulus stocki. Despite their diversity of form, crustaceans are united by the special larval form known as the nauplius. The exact relationships of the Crustacea to other taxa are not completely settled as of April 2012[update]. Studies based on morphology led to the Pancrustacea hypothesis, in which Crustacea and Hexapoda (insects and allies) are sister groups. More recent studies using DNA sequences suggest that Crustacea is paraphyletic, with the hexapods nested within a larger Pancrustacea clade. The traditional classification of Crustacea based on morphology recognised four to six classes. Bowman and Abele (1982) recognised 652 extant families and 38 orders, organised into six classes: Branchiopoda, Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Maxillopoda, Ostracoda, and Malacostraca. Martin and Davis (2001) updated this classification, retaining the six classes but including 849 extant families in 42 orders. Despite outlining the evidence that Maxillopoda was non-monophyletic, they retained it as one of the six classes, although did suggest that Maxillipoda could be replaced by elevating its subclasses to classes. Since then phylogenetic studies have confirmed the polyphyly of Maxillopoda and the paraphyletic nature of Crustacea with respect to Hexapoda. Recent classifications recognise ten to twelve classes in Crustacea or Pancrustacea, with several former maxillopod subclasses now recognised as classes (e.g. Thecostraca, Tantulocarida, Mystacocarida, Copepoda, Branchiura and Pentastomida). The following cladogram shows the updated relationships between the different extant groups of the paraphyletic Crustacea in relation to the class Hexapoda. Ostracoda Mystacocarida Branchiura Pentastomida Malacostraca Copepoda Tantulocarida Thecostraca Cephalocarida Branchiopoda Remipedia Hexapoda According to this diagram, the Hexapoda are deep in the Crustacea tree, and any of the Hexapoda is distinctly closer to e.g. a Multicrustacean than an Oligostracan is. Fossil record Crustaceans have a rich and extensive fossil record, most of the major groups of crustaceans appear in the fossil record before the end of the Cambrian, namely the Branchiopoda, Maxillopoda (including barnacles and tongue worms) and Malacostraca; there is some debate as to whether or not Cambrian animals assigned to Ostracoda are truly ostracods, which would otherwise start in the Ordovician. The only classes to appear later are the Cephalocarida, which have no fossil record, and the Remipedia, which were first described from the fossil Tesnusocaris goldichi, but do not appear until the Carboniferous. Most of the early crustaceans are rare, but fossil crustaceans become abundant from the Carboniferous period onwards. Within the Malacostraca, no fossils are known for krill, while both Hoplocarida and Phyllopoda contain important groups that are now extinct as well as extant members (Hoplocarida: mantis shrimp are extant, while Aeschronectida are extinct; Phyllopoda: Canadaspidida are extinct, while Leptostraca are extant). Cumacea and Isopoda are both known from the Carboniferous, as are the first true mantis shrimp. In the Decapoda, prawns and polychelids appear in the Triassic, and shrimp and crabs appear in the Jurassic. The fossil burrow Ophiomorpha is attributed to ghost shrimps, whereas the fossil burrow Camborygma is attributed to crayfishes. The Permian–Triassic deposits of Nurra preserve the oldest (Permian: Roadian) fluvial burrows ascribed to ghost shrimps (Decapoda: Axiidea, Gebiidea) and crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea, Parastacidea), respectively. However, the great radiation of crustaceans occurred in the Cretaceous, particularly in crabs, and may have been driven by the adaptive radiation of their main predators, bony fish. The first true lobsters also appear in the Cretaceous. Consumption by humans Many crustaceans are consumed by humans, and nearly 10,700,000 tons were harvested in 2007; the vast majority of this output is of decapod crustaceans: crabs, lobsters, shrimp, crawfish, and prawns. Over 60% by weight of all crustaceans caught for consumption are shrimp and prawns, and nearly 80% is produced in Asia, with China alone producing nearly half the world's total. Non-decapod crustaceans are not widely consumed, with only 118,000 tons of krill being caught, despite krill having one of the greatest biomasses on the planet. See also References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitty_Baby] | [TOKENS: 385] |
Contents Bitty Baby Bitty Baby is an American Girl line of 15" infant baby dolls for children ages 3 and up. Bitty Baby's arms, legs, and head are made from vinyl. A precursor to the line called Our New Baby was first released in 1990, which consisted of Caucasian (with blond hair), African-American, and Asian-American variants. The dolls were marketed as a way to get children to adjust to having a young baby in the house. The dolls were gender neutral, unlike the later Bitty Baby; it was expected that the doll could be a younger boy or girl. Bitty Baby dolls at 15 inches (38 cm) are shorter than the normal American Girl dolls which are 18 inches (46 cm) tall. Collections Bitty Baby portrays infants with different skin tone colors and eyes. They have a wide range of accessories such as Pink Paisley Sleeper, Bitty Bear, Backpack, Tee, Bloomers, Dress, Bib, Hat and Shoes, Bottle, Blanket and Memory Book. The line saw another revamp in 2013, removing Bitty Bear from the package and replacing it with a plush "Wishing Star." Full picture books, written by Kirby Larson and illustrated by Sue Cornelison, were also released. Bitty Twins The Bitty Twins are a related line of dolls similar to the Bitty Babies. Originally released in 2003 as slightly older twins, the line was revamped in 2006, aging the dolls as preschoolers along with a redesigned collection. The Bitty Twins were discontinued in 2016 and replaced with WellieWishers, a line of 14.5" dolls marketed towards five to seven year old children. References External links This toy-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. This doll-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-seventh_government_of_Israel#cite_note-toi12oct-17] | [TOKENS: 9915] |
Contents Thirty-seventh government of Israel The thirty-seventh government of Israel is the current cabinet of Israel, formed on 29 December 2022, following the Knesset election the previous month. The coalition government currently consists of five parties — Likud, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party and New Hope — and is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office as the prime minister of Israel for the sixth time. The government is widely regarded as the most right-wing government in the country's history, and includes far-right politicians. Several of the government's policy proposals have led to controversies, both within Israel and abroad, with the government's attempts at reforming the judiciary leading to a wave of demonstrations across the country. Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, opposition leader Yair Lapid initiated discussions with Netanyahu on the formation of an emergency government. On 11 October 2023, National Unity MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper, and Yifat Shasha-Biton joined the Security Cabinet of Israel to form an emergency national unity government. Their accession to the Security Cabinet and to the government (as ministers without portfolio) was approved by the Knesset the following day. Gantz, Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant became part of the newly formed Israeli war cabinet, with Eisenkot and Ron Dermer serving as observers. National Unity left the government in June 2024. New Hope rejoined the government in September. Otzma Yehudit announced on 19 January 2025 that it had withdrawn from the government, which took effect on 21 January, following the cabinet's acceptance of the three-phase Gaza war ceasefire proposal, though it rejoined two months later. United Torah Judaism left the government in July 2025 over dissatisfaction with the government's draft conscription law. Shas left the government several days later, though it remains part of the coalition. Background The right-wing bloc of parties, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, known in Israel as the national camp, won 64 of the 120 seats in the elections for the Knesset, while the coalition led by the incumbent prime minister Yair Lapid won 51 seats. The new majority has been variously described as the most right-wing government in Israeli history, as well as Israel's most religious government. Shortly after the elections, Lapid conceded to Netanyahu, and congratulated him, wishing him luck "for the sake of the Israeli people". On 15 November, the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected members of the 25th Knesset was held during the opening session. The vote to appoint a new Speaker of the Knesset, which is usually conducted at the opening session, as well as the swearing in of cabinet members were postponed since ongoing coalition negotiations had not yet resulted in agreement on these positions. Government formation Yair Lapid Yesh Atid Benjamin Netanyahu Likud On 3 November 2022, Netanyahu told his aide Yariv Levin to begin informal coalition talks with allied parties, after 97% of the vote was counted. The leader of the Shas party Aryeh Deri met with Yitzhak Goldknopf, the leader of United Torah Judaism and its Agudat Yisrael faction, on 4 November. The two parties agreed to cooperate as members of the next government. The Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism stated on 5 November that it will maintain its ideological stance about not seeking any ministerial posts, as per the instruction of its spiritual leader Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, but will seek other senior posts like Knesset committee chairmen and deputy ministers. Netanyahu himself started holding talks on 6 November. He first met with Moshe Gafni, the leader of Degel HaTorah, and then with Goldknopf. Meanwhile, the Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and the leader of its Otzma Yehudit faction Itamar Ben-Gvir pledged that they would not enter the coalition without the other faction. Gafni later met with Smotrich for coalition talks. Smotrich then met with Netanyahu. On 7 November, Netanyahu met with Ben-Gvir who demanded the Ministry of Public Security with expanded powers for himself and the Ministry of Education or Transport and Road Safety for Yitzhak Wasserlauf. A major demand among all of Netanyahu's allies was that the Knesset be allowed to ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu met with the Noam faction leader and its sole MK Avi Maoz on 8 November after he threatened to boycott the coalition. He demanded complete control of the Western Wall by the Haredi rabbinate and removal of what he considered as anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish content in schoolbooks. President Isaac Herzog began consultations with heads of all the political parties on 9 November after the election results were certified. During the consultations, he expressed his reservations about Ben-Gvir becoming a member in the next government. Shas met with Likud for coalition talks on 10 November. By 11 November, Netanyahu had secured recommendations from 64 MKs, which constituted a majority. He was given the mandate to form the thirty-seventh government of Israel by President Herzog on 13 November. Otzma Yehudit and Noam officially split from Religious Zionism on 20 November as per a pre-election agreement. On 25 November, Otzma Yehudit and Likud signed a coalition agreement, under which Ben-Gvir will assume the newly created position of National Security Minister, whose powers would be more expansive than that of the Minister of Public Security, including overseeing the Israel Police and the Israel Border Police in the West Bank, as well as giving powers to authorities to shoot thieves stealing from military bases. Yitzhak Wasserlauf was given the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee with expanded powers to regulate new West Bank settlements, while separating it from the "Periphery" portfolio, which will be given to Shas. The deal also includes giving the Ministry of Heritage to Amihai Eliyahu, separating it from the "Jerusalem Affairs" portfolio, the chairmanship of the Knesset's Public Security Committee to Zvika Fogel and that of the Special Committee for the Israeli Citizens' Fund to Limor Son Har-Melech, the post of Deputy Economic Minister to Almog Cohen, establishment of a national guard, and expansion of mobilization of reservists in the Border Police. Netanyahu and Maoz signed a coalition agreement on 27 November, under which the latter would become a deputy minister, would head an agency on Jewish identity in the Prime Minister's Office, and would also head Nativ, which processes the aliyah from the former Soviet Union. The agency for Jewish identity would have authority over educational content taught outside the regular curriculum in schools, in addition to the department of the Ministry of Education overseeing external teaching and partnerships, which would bring nonofficial organisations permitted to teach and lecture at schools under its purview. Likud signed a coalition agreement with the Religious Zionist Party on 1 December. Under the deal, Smotrich would serve as the Minister of Finance in rotation with Aryeh Deri, and the party will receive the post of a minister within the Ministry of Defense with control over the departments administering settlement and open lands under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, in addition to another post of a deputy minister. The deal also includes giving the post of Minister of Aliyah and Integration to Ofir Sofer, the newly created National Missions Ministry to Orit Strook, and the chairmanship of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to Simcha Rothman. Likud and United Torah Judaism signed a coalition agreement on 6 December, to allow request for an extension to the deadline. Under it, the party would receive the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee which will be given to Moshe Gafni, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Tradition (which would replace the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage), in addition to several posts of deputy ministers and chairmanships of Knesset committees. Likud also signed a deal with Shas by 8 December, securing interim coalition agreements with all of their allies. Under the deal, Deri will first serve as the Minister of Interior and Health, before rotating posts with Smotrich after two years. The party will also receive the Ministry of Religious Services and Welfare Ministries, as well as posts of deputy ministers in the Ministry of Education and Interior. The vote to replace then-incumbent Knesset speaker Mickey Levy was scheduled for 13 December, after Likud and its allies secured the necessary number of signatures for it. Yariv Levin of Likud was elected as an interim speaker by 64 votes, while his opponents Merav Ben-Ari of Yesh Atid and Ayman Odeh of Hadash received 45 and five votes respectively. Netanyahu asked Herzog for a 14-day extension after the agreement with Shas to finalise the roles his allied parties would play. Herzog on 9 December extended the deadline to 21 December. On that date, Netanyahu informed Herzog that he had succeeded in forming a coalition, with the new government expected to be sworn in by 2 January 2023. The government was sworn in on 29 December 2022. Timeline Israeli law stated that people convicted of crimes cannot serve in the government. An amendment to that law was made in late 2022, known colloquially as the Deri Law, to allow those who had been convicted without prison time to serve. This allowed Deri to be appointed to the cabinet. Shas leader Aryeh Deri was appointed to be Minister of Health, Minister of the Interior, and Vice Prime Minister in December 2022. He was fired in January 2023, following a Supreme Court decision that his appointment was unreasonable, since he had been convicted of fraud, and had promised not to seek government roles through a plea deal. In March 2023, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government to delay legislation related to the judicial reform. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had been dismissed from his position, leading to the continuation of mass protests across the country (which had started in January in Tel Aviv). Gallant continued to serve as a minister as he had not received formal notice of dismissal, and two weeks later it was announced that Netanyahu had reversed his decision. Public Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit leader) and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (Likud) both threatened to resign if the judicial reform was delayed.[better source needed] After the outbreak of the Gaza war, five members of the National Unity party joined the government as ministers without portfolio, with leader Benny Gantz being made a member of the new Israeli war cabinet (along with Netanyahu and Gallant). As the war progressed, minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the government if the war was ended. A month later in mid December, he again threatened to leave if the war did not maintain "full strength". Gideon Sa'ar stated on 16 March that his New Hope party would resign from the government and join the opposition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appoint him to the Israeli war cabinet. Netanyahu did not do so, resulting in Sa'ar's New Hope party leaving the government nine days later, reducing the size of the coalition from 76 MKs to 72. Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism party, have indicated that they will withdraw their parties from the government if the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire is adopted, which would bring down the government. Ben-Gvir announced on 5 June that the members of his party would be allowed to vote as they wish, though his party resumed support on 9 June. On 18 May, Gantz set an 8 June deadline for withdrawal from the coalition, which was delayed by a day following the 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation. Gantz and his party left the government on 9 June, giving the government 64 seats in the Knesset. Sa'ar and his New Hope party rejoined the Netanyahu government on 30 September, increasing the number of seats held by the government to 68. The High Court of Justice ruled on 28 March 2024 that yeshiva funds would no longer be available for students who are "eligible for enlistment", effectively allowing ultra-Orthodox Jews to be drafted into the IDF. Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara indicated on 31 March that the conscription process must begin on 1 April. The court ruled on 25 June that the IDF must begin to draft yeshiva students. Likud announced on 7 July that it would not put forward any legislation after Shas and United Torah Judaism said that they would boycott the plenary session over the lack of legislation dealing with the Haredi draft. The Ultra-Orthodox boycott continued for a second day, with UTJ briefly ending its boycott on 9 July to unsuccessfully vote in favor of a bill which would have weakened the Law of Return. Yuli Edelstein, who was replaced by Boaz Bismuth on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in early August, published a draft version of the conscription law shortly before his ouster. Bismuth cancelled the work on the draft law in September 2025, which Edelstein called "a shame." Bismuth released the official version of the draft law in late November 2025. It weakened penalties for draft evaders, with Edelstein saying it was "the exact opposite" of the bill which he attempted to pass. Members of Otzma Yehudit resigned from the government on 19 January 2025 over the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire, which took effect on 21 January. The members rejoined in March, following the "resumption" of the war in Gaza. Avi Maoz of the Noam party left the government in March 2025. On 4 June 2025, senior rabbis for United Torah Judaism Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch instructed the party's MKs to pass a bill which would dissolve the Knesset. Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats announced that they will "submit a bill" for dissolution on 11 June, with Yesh Atid tabling the bill on 4 June. There were also reports that Shas would vote in favor of Knesset dissolution amidst division within the governing coalition on Haredi conscription. This jeopardized the coalition's majority and would have triggered new elections if the bill passed. The following day, Agudat Yisrael, one of the United Torah Judaism factions, confirmed that it would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Asher Medina, a Shas spokesman, indicated on 9 June that the party would vote in favor of a preliminary bill to dissolve the Knesset. The rabbis of Degel HaTorah instructed the parties' MKs on 12 June 2025 to oppose the dissolution of the Knesset, which was followed by Yuli Edelstein and the Shas and Degel HaTorah parties announcing that a deal had been reached, with "rabbinical leaders" telling their parties to delay the dissolution vote by a week. Shas and Degel HaTorah voted against the dissolution bill, which led to the bill failing its preliminary reading in a vote of 61 against and 53 in favor. MKs Ya'akov Tessler and Moshe Roth of Agudat Yisrael voted in favor of dissolution. Another dissolution bill will be unable to be brought forward for six months. If the bill had passed its preliminary reading, in addition to three more readings, an election would have been held in approximately three months; The Jerusalem Post posited it would have been held in October. Degel HaTorah announced on 14 July 2025 that it would leave the government because members of the party were dissatisfied after viewing the proposed draft bill by Yuli Edelstein regarding Haredi exemptions from the Israeli draft. Several hours later, Agudat Yisrael announced that it would also leave the government. Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, Moshe Gafni, the head of the Knesset Finance Committee, Ya'akov Asher, the head of the Knesset Interior and Environment Protection Committee and Jerusalem Affairs minister Meir Porush all submitted their resignations, with their resignations taking effect in 48 hours. Sports Minister Ya'akov Tessler and "Special Committee for Public Petitions Chair" Yitzhak Pindrus also submitted resignations. Yisrael Eichler submitted his resignation as the "head of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee" the same day. The resignations will leave Netanyahu's government with a 60-seat majority in the Knesset, as Avi Maoz, of the Noam party, left the government in March 2025. Despite Edelstein's ouster in August, a spokesman for UTJ head Yitzhak Goldknopf remarked that it would not change the faction's withdrawal from the government. The religious council for Shas, called the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, instructed the party on 16 July to leave the government, but stay in the coalition. The following day, various cabinet ministers submitted their resignations, including "Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, Social Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi and Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli." Malchieli reportedly has postponed his resignation so he could attend a 20 July meeting of the panel investigating whether attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara should be dismissed. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Moshe Abutbul, Minister of Health Uriel Buso and Haim Biton, a minister in the Education Ministry, also submitted their resignation letters, while Arbel retracted his resignation letter. The last cabinet member from the party to submit it was Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur. The ministers who resigned will return to the Knesset, replacing MKs Moshe Roth, Yitzhak Pindrus and Eliyahu Baruchi. Members of government Listed below are the current ministers in the government: Principles and priorities According to the agreements signed between Likud and each of its coalition partners, and the incoming government's published guideline principles, its stated priorities are to combat the cost of living, further centralize Orthodox control over the state religious services, pass judicial reforms which include legislation to reduce judicial controls on executive and legislative power, expand settlements in the West Bank, and consider an annexation of the West Bank. Before the vote of confidence in his new government in the Knesset, Netanyahu presented three top priorities for the new government: internal security and governance, halting the nuclear program of Iran, and the development of infrastructure, with a focus on further connecting the center of the country with its periphery. Policies The government's flagship program, centered around reforms in the judicial branch, drew widespread criticism. Critics said it would have negative effects on the separation of powers, the office of the Attorney General, the economy, public health, women and minorities, workers' rights, scientific research, the overall strength of Israel's democracy and its foreign relations. After weeks of public protests on Israel's streets, joined by a growing number of military reservists, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke against the reform on 25 March, calling for a halt of the legislative process "for the sake of Israel's security". The next day, Netanyahu announced that he would be removed from his post, sparking another wave of protest across Israel and ultimately leading to Netanyahu agreeing to pause the legislation. On 10 April, Netanyahu announced that Gallant would keep his post. On 27 March 2023, after the public protests and general strikes, Netanyahu announced a pause in the reform process to allow for dialogue with opposition parties. However, negotiations aimed at reaching a compromise collapsed in June, and the government resumed its plans to unilaterally pass parts of the legislation. On 24 July 2023, the Knesset passed a bill that curbs the power of the Supreme Court to declare government decisions unreasonable; on 1 January 2024, the Supreme Court struck the bill down. The Knesset passed a "watered-down" version of the judicial reform package in late March 2025 which "changes the composition" of the judicial selection committee. In December 2022 Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir sought to amend the law that regulates the operations of the Israel Police, such that the ministry will have more direct control of its forces and policies, including its investigative priorities. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara objected to the draft proposal, raising concerns that the law would enable the politicization of police work, and the draft was amended to partially address those concerns. Nevertheless, in March 2023 Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon stated that the Attorney General's fears had been realized, referring to several instances of ministerial involvement in the day-to-day work of the otherwise independent police force – statements that were repeated by the Attorney General herself two days later. Separately, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai instructed Deputy Commissioners to avoid direct communication with the minister, later stating that "the Israel Police will remain apolitical, and act only according to law". Following appeals by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, the High Court of Justice instructed Ben-Gvir "to refrain from giving operational directions to the police... [especially] as regards to protests and demonstrations against the government." As talks of halting the judicial reform gained wind during March 2023, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if the legislation implementing the changes was suspended. To appease Ben-Gvir, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the government would promote the creation of a new National Guard, to be headed by Ben-Gvir. On 29 March, thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem against this decision. On 1 April, the New York Times quoted Gadeer Nicola, head of the Arab department at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as saying "If this thing passes, it will be an imminent danger to the rights of Arab citizens in this country. This will create two separate systems of applying the law. The regular police which will operate against Jewish citizens — and a militarized militia to deal only with Arab citizens." The same day, while speaking on Israel's Channel 13 about those whom he'd like to see enlist in the National Guard, Ben-Gvir specifically mentioned La Familia, the far-right fan club of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team. On 2 April, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of a law enforcement body that would operate independently of the police, under Ben-Gvir's authority. According to the decision, the Minister was to establish a committee chaired by the Director General of the Ministry of National Security, with representatives of the ministries of defense, justice and finance, as well as the police and the IDF, to outline the operations of the new organization. The committee's recommendations will be submitted to the government for consideration. Addressing a conference on 4 April, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that he is not opposed to the establishment of a security body which would answer to the police, but "a separate body? Absolutely not." The police chief said he had warned Ben-Gvir that the establishment of a security body separate from the police is "unnecessary, with extremely high costs that may harm citizens' personal security." During a press conference on 10 April, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, in what has been seen by some news outlets as a concession to the protesters, that "This will not be anyone's militia, it will be a security body, orderly, professional, that will be subordinate to one of the [existing] security bodies." The committee established by the government recommended the government to order the establishment of the National Guard immediately while allocating budgets. The National Guard, under whose command will be a superintendent of the police, will not be subordinate to Ben-Gvir. It will be subordinate to the police commissioner and will be part of Israel Border Police. The Ministry of Defense and Finance opposed the conclusions. The Israeli National Security Council called for further discussion on this. The coalition's efforts to expand the purview of Rabbinical courts; force some organizations, such as hospitals, to enforce certain religious practices; amend the Law Prohibiting Discrimination to allow gender segregation and discrimination on the grounds of religious belief; expand funding for religious causes; and put into law the exemption of yeshiva and kolel students from conscription have drawn criticism. According to the Haaretz op-ed of 7 March 2023, "the current coalition is interested... in modifying the public space so it suits the religious lifestyle. The legal coup is meant to castrate anyone who can prevent it, most of all the HCJ." Several banks and institutional investors, including the Israel Discount Bank and AIG have committed to avoid investing in, or providing credit to any organization that will discriminate against others on ground of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation. A series of technology companies and investment firms including Wiz, Intel Israel, Salesforce and Microsoft Israel Research and Development, have criticized the proposed changes to the Law Prohibiting Discrimination, with Wiz stating that it will require its suppliers to commit to preventing discrimination. Over sixty prominent law firms pledged that they will neither represent, nor do business with discriminating individuals and organizations. Insight Partners, a major private equity fund operating in Israel, released a statement warning against intolerance and any attempt to harm personal liberties. Orit Lahav, chief executive of the women's rights organization Mavoi Satum ("Dead End"), said that "the Rabbinical courts are the most discriminatory institution in the State of Israel... Limiting the HCJ[d] while expanding the jurisdiction of the Rabbinical courts would... cause significant harm to women." Anat Thon Ashkenazy, Director of the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that "almost every part of the reform could harm women... the meaning of an override clause is that even if the court says that the law on gender segregation is illegitimate, is harmful, the Knesset could say 'Okay, we say otherwise'". She added that "there is a very broad institutional framework here, after which there will come legislation that harms women's right and we will have no way of protecting or stopping it." During July 2023, 20 professional medical associations signed a letter of position warning against the ramifications to public health that would result from the exclusion of women from the public sphere. They cited, among others, a rise in prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, pregnancy-related ailments, psychological distress, and the risk of suicide. On 30 July the Knesset passed an amendment to penal law adding sexual offenses to those offenses whose penalty can be doubled if done on grounds of "nationalistic terrorism, racism or hostility towards a certain community". According to MK Limor Son Har-Melech, the bill is meant to penalize any individual who "[intends to] harm a woman sexually based on her Jewishness". The law was criticized by MK Gilad Kariv as "populist, nationalistic, and dangerous towards the Arab citizens of Israel", and by MK Ahmad Tibi as a "race law", and was objected to by legal advisors at the Ministry of Justice and the Knesset Committee on National Security. Activist Orit Kamir wrote that "the amendment... is neither feminist, equal, nor progressive, but the opposite: it subordinates women's sexuality to the nationalistic, racist patriarchy. It hijacks the Law for Prevention of Sexual Harassment to serve a world view that tags women as sexual objects that personify the nation's honor." Yael Sherer, director of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence, criticized the law as being informed by dated ideas about sexual assault, and proposed that MKs "dedicate a session... to give victims of sexual assault an opportunity to come out of the darkness... instead of [submitting] declarative bills that change nothing and are not meant but for grabbing headlines". In Israel, during 2022, 24 women "were murdered because they were women," which was an increase of 50% compared to 2021. A law permitting courts to order men subject to a restraining order following domestic violence offenses to wear electronic tags was drafted during the previous Knesset and had passed its first reading unanimously. On 22 March 2023, the Knesset voted to reject the bill. It had been urged to do so by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said that the bill was unfair to men. Earlier in the week, Ben-Gvir had blocked the measure from advancing in the ministerial legislative committee. The MKs voting against the bill included Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Association of Families of Murder Victims said that by rejecting the law, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir "brings joy to violent men and abandons the women threatened with murder… unsupervised restraining orders endanger women's lives even more. They give women the illusion of being protected, and then they are murdered." MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, said that "the coalition proved today that it despises women's lives." The NGO Amutat Bat Melech [he], which assists Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox women who suffer from domestic violence, said that: "Rejecting the electronic bracelet bill is disconnected from the terrible reality of seven femicides since the beginning of the year. This is an effective tool of the first degree that could have saved lives and reduced the threat to women suffering from domestic violence. This is a matter of life and death, whose whole purpose is to provide a solution to defend women." The agreement signed by the coalition parties includes the setting up of a committee to draft changes to the Law of Return. Israeli religious parties have long demanded that the "grandchild clause" of the Law of Return be cancelled. This clause grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, as long as they do not practice another religion. If the grandchild clause were to be removed from the Law of Return then around 3 million people who are currently eligible for aliyah would no longer be eligible. The heads of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish Federations of North America, the World Zionist Organization and Keren Hayesod sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, expressing their "deep concern" about any changes to the Law of Return, adding that "Any change in the delicate and sensitive status quo on issues such as the Law of Return or conversion could threaten to unravel the ties between us and keep us away from each other." The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia issued a joint statement saying "We… view with deep concern… proposals in relation to religious pluralism and the law of return that risk damaging Israel's… relationship with Diaspora Jewry." On 19 March 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke in Paris at a memorial service for a Likud activist. The lectern at which Smotrich spoke was covered with a flag depicting the 'Greater Land of Israel,' encompassing the whole of Mandatory Palestine, as well as Trans-Jordan. During his speech, Smotrich said that "there's no such thing as Palestinians because there's no such thing as a Palestinian people." He added that the Palestinian people are a fictitious nation invented only to fight the Zionist movement, asking "Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn't any." The event received widespread media coverage. On 21 March, a spokesman for the US State Department sharply criticized Smotrich's comments. "The comments, which were delivered at a podium adorned with an inaccurate and provocative map, are offensive, they are deeply concerning, and, candidly, they're dangerous. The Palestinians have a rich history and culture, and the United States greatly values our partnership with the Palestinian people," he said. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also voiced disapproval: "The Israeli Minister of Finance's use, during his participation in an event held yesterday in Paris, of a map of Israel that includes the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories represents a reckless inflammatory act, and a violation of international norms and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty." Additionally, a map encompassing Mandatory Palestine and Trans-Jordan with a Jordanian flag on it was placed on a central lectern in the Jordanian Parliament. Jordan's parliament voted to expel the Israeli ambassador. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a clarification relating to the matter, stating that "Israel is committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan". Ahead of a Europe Day event due to take place on 9 May 2023, far-right wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was assigned as a representative of the government and a speaker at the event by the government secretariat, which deals with placing ministers at receptions on the occasion of the national days of the foreign embassies. The European Union requested that Ben-Gvir not attend, but the government did not make changes to the plan. On 8 May, the European delegation to Israel cancelled the reception, stating that: "The EU Delegation to Israel is looking forward to celebrating Europe Day on May 9, as it does every year. Regrettably, this year we have decided to cancel the diplomatic reception, as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the European Union stands for. However, the Europe Day cultural event for the Israeli public will be maintained to celebrate with our friends and partners in Israel the strong and constructive bilateral relationship". Israel's Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stated: "Sending Itamar Ben-Gvir to a gathering of EU ambassadors is a serious professional mistake. The government is embarrassing a large group of friendly countries, jeopardizing future votes in international institutions, and damaging our foreign relations. Last year, after a decade of efforts, we succeeded in signing an economic-political agreement with the European Union that will contribute to the Israeli economy and our foreign relations. Why risk it, and for what? Ben-Gvir is not a legitimate person in the international community (and not really in Israel either), and sometimes you have to be both wise and just and simply send someone else". On 23 February 2023, Defense Minister Gallant signed an agreement assigning governmental powers in the West Bank to a body to be headed by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who will effectively become the governor of the West Bank, controlling almost all areas of life in the area, including planning, building and infrastructure. Israeli governments have hitherto been careful to keep the occupation as a military government. The temporary holding of power by an occupying military force, pending a negotiated settlement, is a principle of international law – an expression of the prohibition against obtaining sovereignty through conquest that was introduced in the wake of World War II. An editorial in Haaretz noted that the assignment of governmental powers in the West Bank to a civilian governor, alongside the plan to expand the dual justice system so that Israeli law will apply fully to settlers in the West Bank, constitutes de jure annexation of the West Bank. On 26 February 2023, following the 2023 Huwara shooting in which two Israelis were killed by an unidentified attacker, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara and three nearby villages, setting alight hundreds of Palestinian homes (some with people in them), businesses, a school, and numerous vehicles, killing one Palestinian man and injuring 100 others. Bezalel Smotrich subsequently called on Twitter for Huwara to be "wiped out" by the Israeli government. Zvika Fogel MK, of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit, which forms part of the governing coalition, said that he "looks very favorably upon" the results of the rampage. Members of the coalition proposed an amendment to the Disengagement Law, which would allow Israelis to resettle settlements vacated during the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank. The evacuated settlements were considered illegal under international law, according to most countries. The proposal was approved for voting by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on 9 March 2023, while the committee was still waiting for briefing materials from the NSS, IDF, MFA and Shin Bet, and was passed on 21 March. The US has requested clarification from Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog. A US State Department spokesman stated that "The U.S. strongly urges Israel to refrain from allowing the return of settlers to the area covered by the legislation, consistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon and the current Israeli Government's commitment to the United States," noting that the actions represent a clear violation of undertakings given by the Sharon government to the Bush administration in 2005 and Netanyahu's far-right coalition to the Biden administration the previous week. Minister of Communication Shlomo Karhi had initially intended to cut the funding of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (also known by its blanket branding Kan) by 400 million shekels – roughly half of its total budget – closing several departments, and privatizing content creation. In response, the Director-General of the European Broadcasting Union, Noel Curran, sent two urgent letters to Netanyahu, expressing his concerns and calling on the Israeli government to "safeguard the independence of our Member KAN and ensure it is allowed to operate in a sustainable way, with funding that is both stable, adequate, fair, and transparent." On 25 January 2023, nine journalist organizations representing some of Kan's competitors issued a statement of concern, acknowledging the "important contribution of public broadcasting in creating a worthy, unbiased and non-prejudicial journalistic platform", and noting that "the existence of the [broadcasting] corporation as a substantial public broadcast organization strengthens media as a whole, adding to the competition in the market rather than weakening it." They also expressed their concern that the "real reason" for the proposal was actually "an attempt to silence voices from which... [the Minister] doesn't always draw satisfaction". The same day, hundreds of journalists, actors and filmmakers protested in Tel Aviv. The proposal was eventually put on hold. On 22 February 2023 it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu was attempting to appoint his close associate Yossi Shelley as the deputy to the National Statistician — a highly sensitive position in charge of providing accurate data for decision makers. The appointment of Shelley, who did not possess the required qualifications for the role, was withdrawn following publication. In its daily editorial, Haaretz tied this attempt with the judicial reform: "once they take control of the judiciary, law enforcement and public media, they wish to control the state's data base, the dry numerical data it uses to plan its future". Netanyahu also proposed Avi Simhon for the role, and eventually froze all appointments at the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Also on 22 February 2023, it was revealed that Yoav Kish, the Minister of Education, was promoting a draft government decision change to the National Library of Israel board of directors which would grant him more power over the institution. In response, the Hebrew University — which owned the library until 2008 – announced that if the draft is accepted, it will withdraw its collections from the library. The university's collections, which according to the university constitute some 80% of the library's collection, include the Agnon archive, the original manuscript of Hatikvah, and the Rothschild Haggadah, the oldest known Haggadah. A group of 300 authors and poets signed an open letter against the move, further noting their objection against "political takeover" of public broadcasting, as well as "any legislation that will castrate the judiciary and damage the democratic foundations of the state of Israel". Several days later, it was reported that a series of donors decided to withhold their donations to the library, totaling some 80 million shekels. On 3 March a petition against the move by 1,500 academics, including Israel Prize laureates, was sent to Kish. The proposal has been seen by some as retribution against Shai Nitzan, the former State Attorney and the library's current rector. On 5 March it was reported that the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Asi Messing, was withholding the proposal. According to Messing, the proposal – which was being promoted as part of the Economic Arrangements Law – "was not reviewed... by the qualified personnel in the Ministry of Finance, does not align with any of the common goals of the economic plan, was not agreed to by myself and was not approved by the Attorney General." As of February 2023, the government has been debating several proposals that will significantly weaken the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including reducing the environmental regulation of planning and development and electricity production. One of the main proposals, the transferal of a 3 billion shekel fund meant to finance waste management plants from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the Ministry of the Interior, was eventually withdrawn. The Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, has been criticized for using for meeting with climate change denialists, for wasteful and personally-motivated travel on the ministry's expense, for politicizing the role, and for engaging in political activity on the ministry's time. The government has been noted for an unusually high number of dismissals and resignations of senior career civil servants, and for the frequent attempts to replace them with candidates with known political associations, who are often less competent. According to sources, Netanyahu and people in his vicinity are seeking out civil servants who were appointed by the previous government, intent on replacing them with people loyal to him. Governmental nominees for various positions have been criticized for lack of expertise. In addition to the nominee to the position of Deputy National Statistician (see above), the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Shlomi Heisler; the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Itamar Donenfeld; and the Director General of Ministry of Transport, Moshe Ben Zaken, have all been criticized for incompetence, lack of familiarity with their Ministries' subject matter, lack of interest in the job, or lack of experience in managing large organizations. It has been reported that in some ministries, senior officials were enacting slowdowns as a means for dealing with the new ministers and director generals. On 28 July the director general of the Ministry of Education resigned, citing as reason the societal "rift". Asaf Zalel, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, was appointed in January. When asked about attempts to appoint his personal friend and attorney to the board of directors of a state-owned company, Minister David Amsalem replied: "that is my job, due to my authority to appoint directors. I put forward people that I know and hold in esteem". Under Minister of Transport Miri Regev, the ministry has either dismissed or lost the heads of the National Public Transport Authority, Israel Airports Authority, National Road Safety Authority, Israel Railways, and several officials in Netivei Israel. The current chair of Netivei Israel is Likud member and Regev associate Yigal Amadi, and the legal counsel is Einav Abuhzira, daughter of a former Likud branch chair. Abuhzira was appointed instead of Elad Berdugo, nephew of Netanyahu surrogate Yaakov Bardugo, after he was disqualified for the role by the Israel Government Companies Authority. In July 2023 the Ministry of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, and the minister in charge of the Israel Government Companies Authority, Dudi Amsalem, deposed the chair of the Israel Postal Company, Michael Vaknin. The chair, who was hired to lead the company's financial recovery after years of operational loss and towards privatization, has gained the support of officials at the Authority and at the Ministry of Finance; nevertheless, the ministers claimed that his performance is inadequate, and nominated in his place Yiftah Ron-Tal, who has known ties to Netanyahu and Smotrich. They also nominated four new directors, two of which have known political associations, and a third who was a witness in Netanyahu's trial. The coalition is allowed to spend a portion of the state's budget on a discretionary basis, meant to coax member parties to reach an agreement on the budget. As of May 2023, the government was pushing an allocation of over 13 billion shekels over two years - almost seven times the amount allocated by the previous government. Most of the funds will be allocated for uses associated with the religious, orthodox and settler communities. The head of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Finance, Yoav Gardos, objected to the allocations, claiming they would exacerbate unemployment in the Orthodox community, which is projected to cost the economy a total of 6.7 trillion shekels in lost produce by 2065. At the onset of the Gaza war and the declaration of a state of national emergency, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich instructed government agencies to continue with the planned distribution of discretionary funds. Corruption During March 2023, the government was promoting an amendment to the Law on Public Service (Gifts) that would allow Netanyahu to receive donations to fund his legal defense. The amendment follows a decision by the High Court of Justice (HCJ) that forced Netanyahu to refund US$270,000 given to him and his wife by his late cousin, Nathan Mileikowsky, for their legal defense. This is in contrast to past statements by Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, who spoke against the possible conflict of interests that can result from such transactions. The bill was opposed by the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who stressed that it could "create a real opportunity for governmental corruption", and was eventually withdrawn at the end of March. As of March 2023, the coalition was promoting a bill that would prevent judicial review of ministerial appointments. The bill is intended to prevent the HCJ from reviewing the appointment of the twice-convicted chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri (convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust), to a ministerial position, after his previous appointment was annulled on grounds of unreasonableness. The bill follows on the heels of another amendment, that relaxed the ban on the appointment of convicted criminals, so that Deri - who was handed a suspended sentence after his second conviction - could be appointed. The bill is opposed by the Attorney General, as well as by the Knesset Legal Adviser, Sagit Afik. Israeli law allows for declaring a Prime Minister (as well as several other high-ranking public officials) to be temporarily or permanently incapacitated, but does not specify the conditions which can lead to a declaration of incapacitation. In the case of the Prime Minister, the authority to do so is given to the Attorney General. In March 2023, the coalition advanced a bill that passes this authority from the Attorney General to the government with the approval of the Knesset committee, and clarified that incapacitation can only result from medical or mental conditions. On 3 January 2024, the Supreme Court ruled by a majority of 6 out of 11 that the validity of the law will be postponed to the next Knesset because the bill in its immediate application is a personal law and is intended to serve a distinct personal purpose. Later, the court rejected a petition regarding the definition of Netanyahu as an incapacitated prime minister due to his ongoing trial and conflict of interests. Notes References External links |
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Contents Python (programming language) Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically type-checked and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured (particularly procedural), object-oriented and functional programming. Guido van Rossum began working on Python in the late 1980s as a successor to the ABC programming language. Python 3.0, released in 2008, was a major revision and not completely backward-compatible with earlier versions. Beginning with Python 3.5, capabilities and keywords for typing were added to the language, allowing optional static typing. As of 2026[update], the Python Software Foundation supports Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, and 3.14, following the project's annual release cycle and five-year support policy. Python 3.15 is currently in the alpha development phase, and the stable release is expected to come out in October 2026. Earlier versions in the 3.x series have reached end-of-life and no longer receive security updates. Python has gained widespread use in the machine learning community. It is widely taught as an introductory programming language. Since 2003, Python has consistently ranked in the top ten of the most popular programming languages in the TIOBE Programming Community Index, which ranks based on searches in 24 platforms. History Python was conceived in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands. It was designed as a successor to the ABC programming language, which was inspired by SETL, capable of exception handling and interfacing with the Amoeba operating system. Python implementation began in December 1989. Van Rossum first released it in 1991 as Python 0.9.0. Van Rossum assumed sole responsibility for the project, as the lead developer, until 12 July 2018, when he announced his "permanent vacation" from responsibilities as Python's "benevolent dictator for life" (BDFL); this title was bestowed on him by the Python community to reflect his long-term commitment as the project's chief decision-maker. (He has since come out of retirement and is self-titled "BDFL-emeritus".) In January 2019, active Python core developers elected a five-member Steering Council to lead the project. The name Python derives from the British comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. (See § Naming.) Python 2.0 was released on 16 October 2000, featuring many new features such as list comprehensions, cycle-detecting garbage collection, reference counting, and Unicode support. Python 2.7's end-of-life was initially set for 2015, and then postponed to 2020 out of concern that a large body of existing code could not easily be forward-ported to Python 3. It no longer receives security patches or updates. While Python 2.7 and older versions are officially unsupported, a different unofficial Python implementation, PyPy, continues to support Python 2, i.e., "2.7.18+" (plus 3.11), with the plus signifying (at least some) "backported security updates". Python 3.0 was released on 3 December 2008, and was a major revision and not completely backward-compatible with earlier versions, with some new semantics and changed syntax. Python 2.7.18, released in 2020, was the last release of Python 2. Several releases in the Python 3.x series have added new syntax to the language, and made a few (considered very minor) backward-incompatible changes. As of January 2026[update], Python 3.14.3 is the latest stable release. All older 3.x versions had a security update down to Python 3.9.24 then again with 3.9.25, the final version in 3.9 series. Python 3.10 is, since November 2025, the oldest supported branch. Python 3.15 has an alpha released, and Android has an official downloadable executable available for Python 3.14. Releases receive two years of full support followed by three years of security support. Design philosophy and features Python is a multi-paradigm programming language. Object-oriented programming and structured programming are fully supported, and many of their features support functional programming and aspect-oriented programming – including metaprogramming and metaobjects. Many other paradigms are supported via extensions, including design by contract and logic programming. Python is often referred to as a 'glue language' because it is purposely designed to be able to integrate components written in other languages. Python uses dynamic typing and a combination of reference counting and a cycle-detecting garbage collector for memory management. It uses dynamic name resolution (late binding), which binds method and variable names during program execution. Python's design offers some support for functional programming in the "Lisp tradition". It has filter, map, and reduce functions; list comprehensions, dictionaries, sets, and generator expressions. The standard library has two modules (itertools and functools) that implement functional tools borrowed from Haskell and Standard ML. Python's core philosophy is summarized in the Zen of Python (PEP 20) written by Tim Peters, which includes aphorisms such as these: However, Python has received criticism for violating these principles and adding unnecessary language bloat. Responses to these criticisms note that the Zen of Python is a guideline rather than a rule. The addition of some new features had been controversial: Guido van Rossum resigned as Benevolent Dictator for Life after conflict about adding the assignment expression operator in Python 3.8. Nevertheless, rather than building all functionality into its core, Python was designed to be highly extensible via modules. This compact modularity has made it particularly popular as a means of adding programmable interfaces to existing applications. Van Rossum's vision of a small core language with a large standard library and easily extensible interpreter stemmed from his frustrations with ABC, which represented the opposite approach. Python claims to strive for a simpler, less-cluttered syntax and grammar, while giving developers a choice in their coding methodology. Python lacks do .. while loops, which Rossum considered harmful. In contrast to Perl's motto "there is more than one way to do it", Python advocates an approach where "there should be one – and preferably only one – obvious way to do it". In practice, however, Python provides many ways to achieve a given goal. There are at least three ways to format a string literal, with no certainty as to which one a programmer should use. Alex Martelli is a Fellow at the Python Software Foundation and Python book author; he wrote that "To describe something as 'clever' is not considered a compliment in the Python culture." Python's developers typically prioritize readability over performance. For example, they reject patches to non-critical parts of the CPython reference implementation that would offer increases in speed that do not justify the cost of clarity and readability.[failed verification] Execution speed can be improved by moving speed-critical functions to extension modules written in languages such as C, or by using a just-in-time compiler like PyPy. Also, it is possible to transpile to other languages. However, this approach either fails to achieve the expected speed-up, since Python is a very dynamic language, or only a restricted subset of Python is compiled (with potential minor semantic changes). Python is meant to be a fun language to use. This goal is reflected in the name – a tribute to the British comedy group Monty Python – and in playful approaches to some tutorials and reference materials. For instance, some code examples use the terms "spam" and "eggs" (in reference to a Monty Python sketch), rather than the typical terms "foo" and "bar". A common neologism in the Python community is pythonic, which has a broad range of meanings related to program style: Pythonic code may use Python idioms well; be natural or show fluency in the language; or conform with Python's minimalist philosophy and emphasis on readability. Syntax and semantics Python is meant to be an easily readable language. Its formatting is visually uncluttered and often uses English keywords where other languages use punctuation. Unlike many other languages, it does not use curly brackets to delimit blocks, and semicolons after statements are allowed but rarely used. It has fewer syntactic exceptions and special cases than C or Pascal. Python uses whitespace indentation, rather than curly brackets or keywords, to delimit blocks. An increase in indentation comes after certain statements; a decrease in indentation signifies the end of the current block. Thus, the program's visual structure accurately represents its semantic structure. This feature is sometimes termed the off-side rule. Some other languages use indentation this way; but in most, indentation has no semantic meaning. The recommended indent size is four spaces. Python's statements include the following: The assignment statement (=) binds a name as a reference to a separate, dynamically allocated object. Variables may subsequently be rebound at any time to any object. In Python, a variable name is a generic reference holder without a fixed data type; however, it always refers to some object with a type. This is called dynamic typing—in contrast to statically-typed languages, where each variable may contain only a value of a certain type. Python does not support tail call optimization or first-class continuations; according to Van Rossum, the language never will. However, better support for coroutine-like functionality is provided by extending Python's generators. Before 2.5, generators were lazy iterators; data was passed unidirectionally out of the generator. From Python 2.5 on, it is possible to pass data back into a generator function; and from version 3.3, data can be passed through multiple stack levels. Python's expressions include the following: In Python, a distinction between expressions and statements is rigidly enforced, in contrast to languages such as Common Lisp, Scheme, or Ruby. This distinction leads to duplicating some functionality, for example: A statement cannot be part of an expression; because of this restriction, expressions such as list and dict comprehensions (and lambda expressions) cannot contain statements. As a particular case, an assignment statement such as a = 1 cannot be part of the conditional expression of a conditional statement. Python uses duck typing, and it has typed objects but untyped variable names. Type constraints are not checked at definition time; rather, operations on an object may fail at usage time, indicating that the object is not of an appropriate type. Despite being dynamically typed, Python is strongly typed, forbidding operations that are poorly defined (e.g., adding a number and a string) rather than quietly attempting to interpret them. Python allows programmers to define their own types using classes, most often for object-oriented programming. New instances of classes are constructed by calling the class, for example, SpamClass() or EggsClass()); the classes are instances of the metaclass type (which is an instance of itself), thereby allowing metaprogramming and reflection. Before version 3.0, Python had two kinds of classes, both using the same syntax: old-style and new-style. Current Python versions support the semantics of only the new style. Python supports optional type annotations. These annotations are not enforced by the language, but may be used by external tools such as mypy to catch errors. Python includes a module typing including several type names for type annotations. Also, mypy supports a Python compiler called mypyc, which leverages type annotations for optimization. 1.33333 frozenset() Python includes conventional symbols for arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /), the floor-division operator //, and the modulo operator %. (With the modulo operator, a remainder can be negative, e.g., 4 % -3 == -2.) Also, Python offers the ** symbol for exponentiation, e.g. 5**3 == 125 and 9**0.5 == 3.0. Also, it offers the matrix‑multiplication operator @ . These operators work as in traditional mathematics; with the same precedence rules, the infix operators + and - can also be unary, to represent positive and negative numbers respectively. Division between integers produces floating-point results. The behavior of division has changed significantly over time: In Python terms, the / operator represents true division (or simply division), while the // operator represents floor division. Before version 3.0, the / operator represents classic division. Rounding towards negative infinity, though a different method than in most languages, adds consistency to Python. For instance, this rounding implies that the equation (a + b)//b == a//b + 1 is always true. Also, the rounding implies that the equation b*(a//b) + a%b == a is valid for both positive and negative values of a. As expected, the result of a%b lies in the half-open interval [0, b), where b is a positive integer; however, maintaining the validity of the equation requires that the result must lie in the interval (b, 0] when b is negative. Python provides a round function for rounding a float to the nearest integer. For tie-breaking, Python 3 uses the round to even method: round(1.5) and round(2.5) both produce 2. Python versions before 3 used the round-away-from-zero method: round(0.5) is 1.0, and round(-0.5) is −1.0. Python allows Boolean expressions that contain multiple equality relations to be consistent with general usage in mathematics. For example, the expression a < b < c tests whether a is less than b and b is less than c. C-derived languages interpret this expression differently: in C, the expression would first evaluate a < b, resulting in 0 or 1, and that result would then be compared with c. Python uses arbitrary-precision arithmetic for all integer operations. The Decimal type/class in the decimal module provides decimal floating-point numbers to a pre-defined arbitrary precision with several rounding modes. The Fraction class in the fractions module provides arbitrary precision for rational numbers. Due to Python's extensive mathematics library and the third-party library NumPy, the language is frequently used for scientific scripting in tasks such as numerical data processing and manipulation. Functions are created in Python by using the def keyword. A function is defined similarly to how it is called, by first providing the function name and then the required parameters. Here is an example of a function that prints its inputs: To assign a default value to a function parameter in case no actual value is provided at run time, variable-definition syntax can be used inside the function header. Code examples "Hello, World!" program: Program to calculate the factorial of a non-negative integer: Libraries Python's large standard library is commonly cited as one of its greatest strengths. For Internet-facing applications, many standard formats and protocols such as MIME and HTTP are supported. The language includes modules for creating graphical user interfaces, connecting to relational databases, generating pseudorandom numbers, arithmetic with arbitrary-precision decimals, manipulating regular expressions, and unit testing. Some parts of the standard library are covered by specifications—for example, the Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) implementation wsgiref follows PEP 333—but most parts are specified by their code, internal documentation, and test suites. However, because most of the standard library is cross-platform Python code, only a few modules must be altered or rewritten for variant implementations. As of 13 March 2025,[update] the Python Package Index (PyPI), the official repository for third-party Python software, contains over 614,339 packages. Development environments Most[which?] Python implementations (including CPython) include a read–eval–print loop (REPL); this permits the environment to function as a command line interpreter, with which users enter statements sequentially and receive results immediately. Also, CPython is bundled with an integrated development environment (IDE) called IDLE, which is oriented toward beginners.[citation needed] Other shells, including IDLE and IPython, add additional capabilities such as improved auto-completion, session-state retention, and syntax highlighting. Standard desktop IDEs include PyCharm, Spyder, and Visual Studio Code; there are web browser-based IDEs, such as the following environments: Implementations CPython is the reference implementation of Python. This implementation is written in C, meeting the C11 standard since version 3.11. Older versions use the C89 standard with several select C99 features, but third-party extensions are not limited to older C versions—e.g., they can be implemented using C11 or C++. CPython compiles Python programs into an intermediate bytecode, which is then executed by a virtual machine. CPython is distributed with a large standard library written in a combination of C and native Python. CPython is available for many platforms, including Windows and most modern Unix-like systems, including macOS (and Apple M1 Macs, since Python 3.9.1, using an experimental installer). Starting with Python 3.9, the Python installer intentionally fails to install on Windows 7 and 8; Windows XP was supported until Python 3.5, with unofficial support for VMS. Platform portability was one of Python's earliest priorities. During development of Python 1 and 2, even OS/2 and Solaris were supported; since that time, support has been dropped for many platforms. All current Python versions (since 3.7) support only operating systems that feature multithreading, by now supporting not nearly as many operating systems (dropping many outdated) than in the past. All alternative implementations have at least slightly different semantics. For example, an alternative may include unordered dictionaries, in contrast to other current Python versions. As another example in the larger Python ecosystem, PyPy does not support the full C Python API. Creating an executable with Python often is done by bundling an entire Python interpreter into the executable, which causes binary sizes to be massive for small programs, yet there exist implementations that are capable of truly compiling Python. Alternative implementations include the following: Stackless Python is a significant fork of CPython that implements microthreads. This implementation uses the call stack differently, thus allowing massively concurrent programs. PyPy also offers a stackless version. Just-in-time Python compilers have been developed, but are now unsupported: There are several compilers/transpilers to high-level object languages; the source language is unrestricted Python, a subset of Python, or a language similar to Python: There are also specialized compilers: Some older projects existed, as well as compilers not designed for use with Python 3.x and related syntax: A performance comparison among various Python implementations, using a non-numerical (combinatorial) workload, was presented at EuroSciPy '13. In addition, Python's performance relative to other programming languages is benchmarked by The Computer Language Benchmarks Game. There are several approaches to optimizing Python performance, despite the inherent slowness of an interpreted language. These approaches include the following strategies or tools: Language Development Python's development is conducted mostly through the Python Enhancement Proposal (PEP) process; this process is the primary mechanism for proposing major new features, collecting community input on issues, and documenting Python design decisions. Python coding style is covered in PEP 8. Outstanding PEPs are reviewed and commented on by the Python community and the steering council. Enhancement of the language corresponds with development of the CPython reference implementation. The mailing list python-dev is the primary forum for the language's development. Specific issues were originally discussed in the Roundup bug tracker hosted by the foundation. In 2022, all issues and discussions were migrated to GitHub. Development originally took place on a self-hosted source-code repository running Mercurial, until Python moved to GitHub in January 2017. CPython's public releases have three types, distinguished by which part of the version number is incremented: Many alpha, beta, and release-candidates are also released as previews and for testing before final releases. Although there is a rough schedule for releases, they are often delayed if the code is not ready yet. Python's development team monitors the state of the code by running a large unit test suite during development. The major academic conference on Python is PyCon. Also, there are special Python mentoring programs, such as PyLadies. Naming Python's name is inspired by the British comedy group Monty Python, whom Python creator Guido van Rossum enjoyed while developing the language. Monty Python references appear frequently in Python code and culture; for example, the metasyntactic variables often used in Python literature are spam and eggs, rather than the traditional foo and bar. Also, the official Python documentation contains various references to Monty Python routines. Python users are sometimes referred to as "Pythonistas". Languages influenced by Python See also Notes References Further reading External links |
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File:Mips32 addi.svg If possible, please replace any inclusions of this image in articles (noted under the “File links” header) with properly formatted wikitext. After doing so, please consider nominating this image for deletion. Summary Licensing File history Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. File usage The following 2 pages use this file: Global file usage The following other wikis use this file: |
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Contents Opposition (astronomy) In positional astronomy, two astronomical objects are said to be in opposition when they are on opposite sides of the celestial sphere, as observed from a given body (usually Earth). A planet (or asteroid or comet) is said to be "in opposition" or "at opposition" when it is in opposition to the Sun. Because most orbits in the Solar System are nearly coplanar to the ecliptic, this occurs when the Sun, Earth, and the body are configured in an approximately straight line, or syzygy; that is, Earth and the body are in the same direction as seen from the Sun. Opposition occurs only for superior planets (see the diagram). The instant of opposition is defined as that when the apparent geocentric celestial longitude of the body differs by 180° from the apparent geocentric longitude of the Sun. At that time, a body is: The Moon, which orbits Earth rather than the Sun, is in approximate opposition to the Sun at full moon. A more exact opposition occasionally occurs with mathematical regularity if the Moon is at its usual sun and Earth-aligning point so that it appears full and happens to be aligning with the ecliptic (Earth's orbital plane) during the descending or ascending phase of its 5° inclined (tilted) orbit, which is more concisely termed at a node of its orbit, in which case, a lunar eclipse occurs. A more exact, shaded form is when a central area of the earth aligns more precisely: a central lunar eclipse, of which there were 14 in the 50 years to 2000, others being penumbral. The astronomical symbol for opposition is ☍ (U+260D). () Seen from a superior planet, an inferior planet on the opposite side of the Sun is in superior conjunction with the Sun. An inferior conjunction occurs when the two planets align on the same side of the Sun. At inferior conjunction, the superior planet is "in opposition" to the Sun as seen from the inferior planet (see the diagram). Average interval between oppositions When two planets are on the same side of the Sun then from the point of view of the interior planet the other planet is in opposition with the Sun. When two planets are on opposite sides of the Sun, there is an opposition from the point of view of the Sun. In either case, the interval between two such occurrences involving the same two planets is not constant because the orbits are not circular and because the planets perturb one another. But the average interval between them can be calculated from the periods of the two planets. The "speed" at which a planet goes around the Sun, in terms of revolutions per time, is given by the inverse of its period, and the speed difference between two planets is the difference between these. Since the time interval between two oppositions is the time it takes for 360° to be covered by that speed difference, the average interval is: The following table gives these average intervals, in Julian years (of 365.25 days), for combinations of the nine traditional planets. Since Pluto is in resonance with Neptune the period used is 1.5 times that of Neptune, slightly different from the current value. The interval is then exactly thrice the period of Neptune. See also References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life#cite_note-NASA-20180625-76] | [TOKENS: 11349] |
Contents Extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically or conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms such as prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more, or far less, advanced than humans. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology. Speculation about inhabited worlds beyond Earth dates back to antiquity. Early Christian writers, including Augustine, discussed ideas from thinkers like Democritus and Epicurus about countless worlds in the vast universe. Pre-modern writers typically assumed extraterrestrial "worlds" were inhabited by living beings. William Vorilong, in the 15th century, acknowledged the possibility Jesus could have visited extraterrestrial worlds to redeem their inhabitants.: 26 In 1440, Nicholas of Cusa suggested Earth is a "brilliant star"; he theorized that all celestial bodies, even the Sun, could host life. Descartes wrote that there were no means to prove the stars were not inhabited by "intelligent creatures", but their existence was a matter of speculation.: 67 In comparison to the life-abundant Earth, the vast majority of intrasolar and extrasolar planets and moons have harsh surface conditions and disparate atmospheric chemistry, or lack an atmosphere. However, there are many extreme and chemically harsh ecosystems on Earth that do support forms of life and are often hypothesized to be the origin of life on Earth. Examples include life surrounding hydrothermal vents, acidic hot springs, and volcanic lakes, as well as halophiles and the deep biosphere. Since the mid-20th century, researchers have searched for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Solar system studies focus on Venus, Mars, Europa, and Titan, while exoplanet discoveries now total 6,022 confirmed planets in 4,490 systems as of October 2025. Depending on the category of search, methods range from analysis of telescope and specimen data to radios used to detect and transmit interstellar communication. Interstellar travel remains largely hypothetical, with only the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes confirmed to have entered the interstellar medium. The concept of extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent life, has greatly influenced culture and fiction. A key debate centers on contacting extraterrestrial intelligence: some advocate active attempts, while others warn it could be risky, given human history of exploiting other societies. Context Initially, after the Big Bang, the universe was too hot to allow life. It is estimated that the temperature of the universe was around 10 billion Kelvin at the one-second mark. Roughly 15 million years later, it cooled to temperate levels, though the elements of organic life were yet nonexistent. The only freely available elements at that point were hydrogen and helium. Carbon and oxygen (and later, water) would not appear until 50 million years later, created through stellar fusion. At that point, the difficulty for life to appear was not the temperature, but the scarcity of free heavy elements. Planetary systems emerged, and the first organic compounds may have formed in the protoplanetary disk of dust grains that would eventually create rocky planets like Earth. Although Earth was in a molten state after its birth and may have burned any organics that fell on it, it would have been more receptive once it cooled down. Once the right conditions on Earth were met, life started by a chemical process known as abiogenesis. Alternatively, life may have formed less frequently, then spread—by meteoroids, for example—between habitable planets in a process called panspermia. During most of its stellar evolution, stars combine hydrogen nuclei to make helium nuclei by stellar fusion, and the comparatively lighter weight of helium allows the star to release the extra energy. The process continues until the star uses all of its available fuel, with the speed of consumption being related to the size of the star. During its last stages, stars start combining helium nuclei to form carbon nuclei. The larger stars can further combine carbon nuclei to create oxygen and silicon, oxygen into neon and sulfur, and so on until iron. Ultimately, the star blows much of its content back into the stellar medium, where it would join clouds that would eventually become new generations of stars and planets. Many of those materials are the raw components of life on Earth. As this process takes place in all the universe, said materials are ubiquitous in the cosmos and not a rarity from the Solar System. Earth is a planet in the Solar System, a planetary system formed by a star at the center, the Sun, and the objects that orbit it: other planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. The sun is part of the Milky Way, a galaxy. The Milky Way is part of the Local Group, a galaxy group that is in turn part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The universe is composed of all similar structures in existence. The immense distances between celestial objects are a difficulty for studying extraterrestrial life. So far, humans have only set foot on the Moon and sent robotic probes to other planets and moons in the Solar System. Although probes can withstand conditions that may be lethal to humans, the distances cause time delays: the New Horizons took nine years after launch to reach Pluto. No probe has ever reached extrasolar planetary systems. The Voyager 2 left the Solar System at a speed of 50,000 kilometers per hour; if it headed towards the Alpha Centauri system, the closest one to Earth at 4.4 light years, it would reach it in 100,000 years. Under current technology, such systems can only be studied by telescopes, which have limitations. It is estimated that dark matter has a larger amount of combined matter than stars and gas clouds, but as it plays no role in the stellar evolution of stars and planets, it is usually not taken into account by astrobiology. There is an area around a star, the circumstellar habitable zone or "Goldilocks zone", wherein water may be at the right temperature to exist in liquid form at a planetary surface. This area is neither too close to the star, where water would become steam, nor too far away, where water would be frozen as ice. However, although useful as an approximation, planetary habitability is complex and defined by several factors. Being in the habitable zone is not enough for a planet to be habitable, not even to actually have such liquid water. Venus is located in the solar system's habitable zone, but does not have liquid water because of the conditions of its atmosphere. Jovian planets or gas giants are not considered habitable even if they orbit close enough to their stars as hot Jupiters, due to crushing atmospheric pressures. The actual distances for the habitable zones vary according to the type of star, and even the solar activity of each specific star influences the local habitability. The type of star also defines the time the habitable zone will exist, as its presence and limits will change along with the star's stellar evolution. The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, the Solar System was formed 4.6 billion years ago, and the first hominids appeared 6 million years ago. Life on other planets may have started, evolved, given birth to extraterrestrial intelligences, and perhaps even faced a planetary extinction event millions or billions of years ago. When considered from a cosmic perspective, the brief times of existence of Earth's species may suggest that extraterrestrial life may be equally fleeting under such a scale. During a period of about 7 million years, from about 10 to 17 million years after the Big Bang, the background temperature was between 373 and 273 K (100 and 0 °C; 212 and 32 °F), allowing the possibility of liquid water if any planets existed. Avi Loeb (2014) speculated that primitive life might in principle have appeared during this window, which he called "the Habitable Epoch of the Early Universe". Life on Earth is quite ubiquitous across the planet and has adapted over time to almost all the available environments in it, extremophiles and the deep biosphere thrive at even the most hostile ones. As a result, it is inferred that life in other celestial bodies may be equally adaptive. However, the origin of life is unrelated to its ease of adaptation and may have stricter requirements. A celestial body may not have any life on it, even if it were habitable. Likelihood of existence Life in the cosmos beyond Earth has been observed. The hypothesis of ubiquitous extraterrestrial life relies on three main ideas. The first one, the size of the universe, allows for plenty of planets to have a similar habitability to Earth, and the age of the universe gives enough time for a long process analog to the history of Earth to happen there. The second is that the substances that make life, such as carbon and water, are ubiquitous in the universe. The third is that the physical laws are universal, which means that the forces that would facilitate or prevent the existence of life would be the same ones as on Earth. According to this argument, made by scientists such as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere else other than Earth. This argument is embodied in the Copernican principle, which states that Earth does not occupy a unique position in the Universe, and the mediocrity principle, which states that there is nothing special about life on Earth. Other authors consider instead that life in the cosmos, or at least multicellular life, may actually be rare. The Rare Earth hypothesis maintains that life on Earth is possible because of a series of factors that range from the location in the galaxy and the configuration of the Solar System to local characteristics of the planet, and that it is unlikely that another planet simultaneously meets all such requirements. The proponents of this hypothesis consider that very little evidence suggests the existence of extraterrestrial life and that, at this point, it is just a desired result and not a reasonable scientific explanation for any gathered data. In 1961, astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake devised the Drake equation as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at a meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The Drake equation is:: xix where: and Drake's proposed estimates are as follows, but numbers on the right side of the equation are agreed as speculative and open to substitution: 10,000 = 5 ⋅ 0.5 ⋅ 2 ⋅ 1 ⋅ 0.2 ⋅ 1 ⋅ 10,000 {\displaystyle 10{,}000=5\cdot 0.5\cdot 2\cdot 1\cdot 0.2\cdot 1\cdot 10{,}000} [better source needed] The Drake equation has proved controversial since, although it is written as a math equation, none of its values were known at the time. Although some values may eventually be measured, others are based on social sciences and are not knowable by their very nature. This does not allow one to make noteworthy conclusions from the equation. Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are nearly 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all Sun-like stars have a system of planets. In other words, there are 6.25×1018 stars with planets orbiting them in the observable universe. Even if it is assumed that only one out of a billion of these stars has planets supporting life, there would be some 6.25 billion life-supporting planetary systems in the observable universe. A 2013 study based on results from the Kepler spacecraft estimated that the Milky Way contains at least as many planets as it does stars, resulting in 100–400 billion exoplanets. The Nebular hypothesis that explains the formation of the Solar System and other planetary systems would suggest that those can have several configurations, and not all of them may have rocky planets within the habitable zone. The apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations and the lack of evidence for such civilisations is known as the Fermi paradox. Dennis W. Sciama claimed that life's existence in the universe depends on various fundamental constants. Zhi-Wei Wang and Samuel L. Braunstein suggest that a random universe capable of supporting life is likely to be just barely able to do so, giving a potential explanation to the Fermi paradox. Biochemical basis If extraterrestrial life exists, it could range from simple microorganisms and multicellular organisms similar to animals or plants, to complex alien intelligences akin to humans. When scientists talk about extraterrestrial life, they consider all those types. Although it is possible that extraterrestrial life may have other configurations, scientists use the hierarchy of lifeforms from Earth for simplicity, as it is the only one known to exist. The first basic requirement for life is an environment with non-equilibrium thermodynamics, which means that the thermodynamic equilibrium must be broken by a source of energy. The traditional sources of energy in the cosmos are the stars, such as for life on Earth, which depends on the energy of the sun. However, there are other alternative energy sources, such as volcanoes, plate tectonics, and hydrothermal vents. There are ecosystems on Earth in deep areas of the ocean that do not receive sunlight, and take energy from black smokers instead. Magnetic fields and radioactivity have also been proposed as sources of energy, although they would be less efficient ones. Life on Earth requires water in a liquid state as a solvent in which biochemical reactions take place. It is highly unlikely that an abiogenesis process can start within a gaseous or solid medium: the atom speeds, either too fast or too slow, make it difficult for specific ones to meet and start chemical reactions. A liquid medium also allows the transport of nutrients and substances required for metabolism. Sufficient quantities of carbon and other elements, along with water, might enable the formation of living organisms on terrestrial planets with a chemical make-up and temperature range similar to that of Earth. Life based on ammonia rather than water has been suggested as an alternative, though this solvent appears less suitable than water. It is also conceivable that there are forms of life whose solvent is a liquid hydrocarbon, such as methane, ethane or propane. Another unknown aspect of potential extraterrestrial life would be the chemical elements that would compose it. Life on Earth is largely composed of carbon, but there could be other hypothetical types of biochemistry. A replacement for carbon would need to be able to create complex molecules, store information required for evolution, and be freely available in the medium. To create DNA, RNA, or a close analog, such an element should be able to bind its atoms with many others, creating complex and stable molecules. It should be able to create at least three covalent bonds: two for making long strings and at least a third to add new links and allow for diverse information. Only nine elements meet this requirement: boron, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony (three bonds), carbon, silicon, germanium and tin (four bonds). As for abundance, carbon, nitrogen, and silicon are the most abundant ones in the universe, far more than the others. On Earth's crust the most abundant of those elements is silicon, in the Hydrosphere it is carbon and in the atmosphere, it is carbon and nitrogen. Silicon, however, has disadvantages over carbon. The molecules formed with silicon atoms are less stable, and more vulnerable to acids, oxygen, and light. An ecosystem of silicon-based lifeforms would require very low temperatures, high atmospheric pressure, an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, and a solvent other than water. The low temperatures required would add an extra problem, the difficulty to kickstart a process of abiogenesis to create life in the first place. Norman Horowitz, head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory bioscience section for the Mariner and Viking missions from 1965 to 1976 considered that the great versatility of the carbon atom makes it the element most likely to provide solutions, even exotic solutions, to the problems of survival of life on other planets. However, he also considered that the conditions found on Mars were incompatible with carbon based life. Even if extraterrestrial life is based on carbon and uses water as a solvent, like Earth life, it may still have a radically different biochemistry. Life is generally considered to be a product of natural selection. It has been proposed that to undergo natural selection a living entity must have the capacity to replicate itself, the capacity to avoid damage/decay, and the capacity to acquire and process resources in support of the first two capacities. Life on Earth may have started with an RNA world and later evolved to its current form, where some of the RNA tasks were transferred to DNA and proteins. Extraterrestrial life may still be stuck using RNA, or evolve into other configurations. It is unclear if our biochemistry is the most efficient one that could be generated, or which elements would follow a similar pattern. However, it is likely that, even if cells had a different composition to those from Earth, they would still have a cell membrane. Life on Earth jumped from prokaryotes to eukaryotes and from unicellular organisms to multicellular organisms through evolution. So far no alternative process to achieve such a result has been conceived, even if hypothetical. Evolution requires life to be divided into individual organisms, and no alternative organisation has been satisfactorily proposed either. At the basic level, membranes define the limit of a cell, between it and its environment, while remaining partially open to exchange energy and resources with it. The evolution from simple cells to eukaryotes, and from them to multicellular lifeforms, is not guaranteed. The Cambrian explosion took place thousands of millions of years after the origin of life, and its causes are not fully known yet. On the other hand, the jump to multicellularity took place several times, which suggests that it could be a case of convergent evolution, and so likely to take place on other planets as well. Palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris considers that convergent evolution would lead to kingdoms similar to our plants and animals, and that many features are likely to develop in alien animals as well, such as bilateral symmetry, limbs, digestive systems and heads with sensory organs. Scientists from the University of Oxford analysed it from the perspective of evolutionary theory and wrote in a study in the International Journal of Astrobiology that aliens may be similar to humans. The planetary context would also have an influence: a planet with higher gravity would have smaller animals, and other types of stars can lead to non-green photosynthesizers. The amount of energy available would also affect biodiversity, as an ecosystem sustained by black smokers or hydrothermal vents would have less energy available than those sustained by a star's light and heat, and so its lifeforms would not grow beyond a certain complexity. There is also research in assessing the capacity of life for developing intelligence. It has been suggested that this capacity arises with the number of potential niches a planet contains, and that the complexity of life itself is reflected in the information density of planetary environments, which in turn can be computed from its niches. It is common knowledge that the conditions on other planets in the solar system, in addition to the many galaxies outside of the Milky Way galaxy, are very harsh and seem to be too extreme to harbor any life. The environmental conditions on these planets can have intense UV radiation paired with extreme temperatures, lack of water, and much more that can lead to conditions that don't seem to favor the creation or maintenance of extraterrestrial life. However, there has been much historical evidence that some of the earliest and most basic forms of life on Earth originated in some extreme environments that seem unlikely to have harbored life at least at one point in Earth's history. Fossil evidence as well as many historical theories backed up by years of research and studies have marked environments like hydrothermal vents or acidic hot springs as some of the first places that life could have originated on Earth. These environments can be considered extreme when compared to the typical ecosystems that the majority of life on Earth now inhabit, as hydrothermal vents are scorching hot due to the magma escaping from the Earth's mantle and meeting the much colder oceanic water. Even in today's world, there can be a diverse population of bacteria found inhabiting the area surrounding these hydrothermal vents which can suggest that some form of life can be supported even in the harshest of environments like the other planets in the solar system. The aspects of these harsh environments that make them ideal for the origin of life on Earth, as well as the possibility of creation of life on other planets, is the chemical reactions forming spontaneously. For example, the hydrothermal vents found on the ocean floor are known to support many chemosynthetic processes which allow organisms to utilize energy through reduced chemical compounds that fix carbon. In return, these reactions will allow for organisms to live in relatively low oxygenated environments while maintaining enough energy to support themselves. The early Earth environment was reducing and therefore, these carbon fixing compounds were necessary for the survival and possible origin of life on Earth. With the little amount of information that scientists have found regarding the atmosphere on other planets in the Milky Way galaxy and beyond, the atmospheres are most likely reducing or with very low oxygen levels, especially when compared with Earth's atmosphere. If there were the necessary elements and ions on these planets, the same carbon fixing, reduced chemical compounds occurring around hydrothermal vents could also occur on these planets' surfaces and possibly result in the origin of extraterrestrial life. Planetary habitability in the Solar System The Solar System has a wide variety of planets, dwarf planets, and moons, and each one is studied for its potential to host life. Each one has its own specific conditions that may benefit or harm life. So far, the only lifeforms found are those from Earth. No extraterrestrial intelligence other than humans exists or has ever existed within the Solar System. Astrobiologist Mary Voytek points out that it would be unlikely to find large ecosystems, as they would have already been detected by now. The inner Solar System is likely devoid of life. However, Venus is still of interest to astrobiologists, as it is a terrestrial planet that was likely similar to Earth in its early stages and developed in a different way. There is a greenhouse effect, the surface is the hottest in the Solar System, sulfuric acid clouds, all surface liquid water is lost, and it has a thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere with huge pressure. Comparing both helps to understand the precise differences that lead to beneficial or harmful conditions for life. And despite the conditions against life on Venus, there are suspicions that microbial life-forms may still survive in high-altitude clouds. Mars is a cold and almost airless desert, inhospitable to life. However, recent studies revealed that water on Mars used to be quite abundant, forming rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans. Mars may have been habitable back then, and life on Mars may have been possible. But when the planetary core ceased to generate a magnetic field, solar winds removed the atmosphere and the planet became vulnerable to solar radiation. Ancient life-forms may still have left fossilised remains, and microbes may still survive deep underground. As mentioned, the gas giants and ice giants are unlikely to contain life. The most distant solar system bodies, found in the Kuiper Belt and outwards, are locked in permanent deep-freeze, but cannot be ruled out completely. Although the giant planets themselves are highly unlikely to have life, there is much hope to find it on moons orbiting these planets. Europa, from the Jovian system, has a subsurface ocean below a thick layer of ice. Ganymede and Callisto also have subsurface oceans, but life is less likely in them because water is sandwiched between layers of solid ice. Europa would have contact between the ocean and the rocky surface, which helps the chemical reactions. It may be difficult to dig so deep in order to study those oceans, though. Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn with another subsurface ocean, may not need to be dug, as it releases water to space in eruption columns. The space probe Cassini flew inside one of these, but could not make a full study because NASA did not expect this phenomenon and did not equip the probe to study ocean water. Still, Cassini detected complex organic molecules, salts, evidence of hydrothermal activity, hydrogen, and methane. Titan is the only celestial body in the Solar System besides Earth that has liquid bodies on the surface. It has rivers, lakes, and rain of hydrocarbons, methane, and ethane, and even a cycle similar to Earth's water cycle. This special context encourages speculations about lifeforms with different biochemistry, but the cold temperatures would make such chemistry take place at a very slow pace. Water is rock-solid on the surface, but Titan does have a subsurface water ocean like several other moons. However, it is of such a great depth that it would be very difficult to access it for study. Scientific search The science that searches and studies life in the universe, both on Earth and elsewhere, is called astrobiology. With the study of Earth's life, the only known form of life, astrobiology seeks to study how life starts and evolves and the requirements for its continuous existence. This helps to determine what to look for when searching for life in other celestial bodies. This is a complex area of study, and uses the combined perspectives of several scientific disciplines, such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, oceanography, and atmospheric sciences. The scientific search for extraterrestrial life is being carried out both directly and indirectly. As of September 2017[update], 3,667 exoplanets in 2,747 systems have been identified, and other planets and moons in the Solar System hold the potential for hosting primitive life such as microorganisms. As of 8 February 2021, an updated status of studies considering the possible detection of lifeforms on Venus (via phosphine) and Mars (via methane) was reported. Scientists search for biosignatures within the Solar System by studying planetary surfaces and examining meteorites. Some claim to have identified evidence that microbial life has existed on Mars. In 1996, a controversial report stated that structures resembling nanobacteria were discovered in a meteorite, ALH84001, formed of rock ejected from Mars. Although all the unusual properties of the meteorite were eventually explained as the result of inorganic processes, the controversy over its discovery laid the groundwork for the development of astrobiology. An experiment on the two Viking Mars landers reported gas emissions from heated Martian soil samples that some scientists argue are consistent with the presence of living microorganisms. Lack of corroborating evidence from other experiments on the same samples suggests that a non-biological reaction is a more likely hypothesis. In February 2005 NASA scientists reported they may have found some evidence of extraterrestrial life on Mars. The two scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA's Ames Research Center, based their claim on methane signatures found in Mars's atmosphere resembling the methane production of some forms of primitive life on Earth, as well as on their own study of primitive life near the Rio Tinto river in Spain. NASA officials soon distanced NASA from the scientists' claims, and Stoker herself backed off from her initial assertions. In November 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars. It is designed to assess the past and present habitability on Mars using a variety of scientific instruments. The rover landed on Mars at Gale Crater in August 2012. A group of scientists at Cornell University started a catalog of microorganisms, with the way each one reacts to sunlight. The goal is to help with the search for similar organisms in exoplanets, as the starlight reflected by planets rich in such organisms would have a specific spectrum, unlike that of starlight reflected from lifeless planets. If Earth was studied from afar with this system, it would reveal a shade of green, as a result of the abundance of plants with photosynthesis. In August 2011, NASA studied meteorites found on Antarctica, finding adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine. Adenine and guanine are components of DNA, and the others are used in other biological processes. The studies ruled out pollution of the meteorites on Earth, as those components would not be freely available the way they were found in the samples. This discovery suggests that several organic molecules that serve as building blocks of life may be generated within asteroids and comets. In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic compounds ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars. It is still unclear if those compounds played a role in the creation of life on Earth, but Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, thinks so. "If this is the case, life on Earth may have had an easier time getting started as these organics can serve as basic ingredients for life." In August 2012, and in a world first, astronomers at Copenhagen University reported the detection of a specific sugar molecule, glycolaldehyde, in a distant star system. The molecule was found around the protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422, which is located 400 light years from Earth. Glycolaldehyde is needed to form ribonucleic acid, or RNA, which is similar in function to DNA. This finding suggests that complex organic molecules may form in stellar systems prior to the formation of planets, eventually arriving on young planets early in their formation. In December 2023, astronomers reported the first time discovery, in the plumes of Enceladus, moon of the planet Saturn, of hydrogen cyanide, a possible chemical essential for life as we know it, as well as other organic molecules, some of which are yet to be better identified and understood. According to the researchers, "these [newly discovered] compounds could potentially support extant microbial communities or drive complex organic synthesis leading to the origin of life." Although most searches are focused on the biology of extraterrestrial life, an extraterrestrial intelligence capable enough to develop a civilization may be detectable by other means as well. Technology may generate technosignatures, effects on the native planet that may not be caused by natural causes. There are three main types of techno-signatures considered: interstellar communications, effects on the atmosphere, and planetary-sized structures such as Dyson spheres. Organizations such as the SETI Institute search the cosmos for potential forms of communication. They started with radio waves, and now search for laser pulses as well. The challenge for this search is that there are natural sources of such signals as well, such as gamma-ray bursts and supernovae, and the difference between a natural signal and an artificial one would be in its specific patterns. Astronomers intend to use artificial intelligence for this, as it can manage large amounts of data and is devoid of biases and preconceptions. Besides, even if there is an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, there is no guarantee that it is transmitting radio communications in the direction of Earth. The length of time required for a signal to travel across space means that a potential answer may arrive decades or centuries after the initial message. The atmosphere of Earth is rich in nitrogen dioxide as a result of air pollution, which can be detectable. The natural abundance of carbon, which is also relatively reactive, makes it likely to be a basic component of the development of a potential extraterrestrial technological civilization, as it is on Earth. Fossil fuels may likely be generated and used on such worlds as well. The abundance of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere can also be a clear technosignature, considering their role in ozone depletion. Light pollution may be another technosignature, as multiple lights on the night side of a rocky planet can be a sign of advanced technological development. However, modern telescopes are not strong enough to study exoplanets with the required level of detail to perceive it. The Kardashev scale proposes that a civilization may eventually start consuming energy directly from its local star. This would require giant structures built next to it, called Dyson spheres. Those speculative structures would cause an excess infrared radiation, that telescopes may notice. The infrared radiation is typical of young stars, surrounded by dusty protoplanetary disks that will eventually form planets. An older star such as the Sun would have no natural reason to have excess infrared radiation. The presence of heavy elements in a star's light-spectrum is another potential biosignature; such elements would (in theory) be found if the star were being used as an incinerator/repository for nuclear waste products. Some astronomers search for extrasolar planets that may be conducive to life, narrowing the search to terrestrial planets within the habitable zones of their stars. Since 1992, over four thousand exoplanets have been discovered (6,128 planets in 4,584 planetary systems including 1,017 multiple planetary systems as of 30 October 2025). The extrasolar planets so far discovered range in size from that of terrestrial planets similar to Earth's size to that of gas giants larger than Jupiter. The number of observed exoplanets is expected to increase greatly in the coming years.[better source needed] The Kepler space telescope has also detected a few thousand candidate planets, of which about 11% may be false positives. There is at least one planet on average per star. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars[a] have an "Earth-sized"[b] planet in the habitable zone,[c] with the nearest expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth. Assuming 200 billion stars in the Milky Way,[d] that would be 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if red dwarfs are included. The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the trillions. The nearest known exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, located 4.2 light-years (1.3 pc) from Earth in the southern constellation of Centaurus. As of March 2014[update], the least massive exoplanet known is PSR B1257+12 A, which is about twice the mass of the Moon. The most massive planet listed on the NASA Exoplanet Archive is DENIS-P J082303.1−491201 b, about 29 times the mass of Jupiter, although according to most definitions of a planet, it is too massive to be a planet and may be a brown dwarf instead. Almost all of the planets detected so far are within the Milky Way, but there have also been a few possible detections of extragalactic planets. The study of planetary habitability also considers a wide range of other factors in determining the suitability of a planet for hosting life. One sign that a planet probably already contains life is the presence of an atmosphere with significant amounts of oxygen, since that gas is highly reactive and generally would not last long without constant replenishment. This replenishment occurs on Earth through photosynthetic organisms. One way to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet is through spectrography when it transits its star, though this might only be feasible with dim stars like white dwarfs. History and cultural impact The modern concept of extraterrestrial life is based on assumptions that were not commonplace during the early days of astronomy. The first explanations for the celestial objects seen in the night sky were based on mythology. Scholars from Ancient Greece were the first to consider that the universe is inherently understandable and rejected explanations based on supernatural incomprehensible forces, such as the myth of the Sun being pulled across the sky in the chariot of Apollo. They had not developed the scientific method yet and based their ideas on pure thought and speculation, but they developed precursor ideas to it, such as that explanations had to be discarded if they contradict observable facts. The discussions of those Greek scholars established many of the pillars that would eventually lead to the idea of extraterrestrial life, such as Earth being round and not flat. The cosmos was first structured in a geocentric model that considered that the sun and all other celestial bodies revolve around Earth. However, they did not consider them as worlds. In Greek understanding, the world was composed by both Earth and the celestial objects with noticeable movements. Anaximander thought that the cosmos was made from apeiron, a substance that created the world, and that the world would eventually return to the cosmos. Eventually two groups emerged, the atomists that thought that matter at both Earth and the cosmos was equally made of small atoms of the classical elements (earth, water, fire and air), and the Aristotelians who thought that those elements were exclusive of Earth and that the cosmos was made of a fifth one, the aether. Atomist Epicurus thought that the processes that created the world, its animals and plants should have created other worlds elsewhere, along with their own animals and plants. Aristotle thought instead that all the earth element naturally fell towards the center of the universe, and that would make it impossible for other planets to exist elsewhere. Under that reasoning, Earth was not only in the center, it was also the only planet in the universe. Cosmic pluralism, the plurality of worlds, or simply pluralism, describes the philosophical belief in numerous "worlds" in addition to Earth, which might harbor extraterrestrial life. The earliest recorded assertion of extraterrestrial human life is found in ancient scriptures of Jainism. There are multiple "worlds" mentioned in Jain scriptures that support human life. These include, among others, Bharat Kshetra, Mahavideh Kshetra, Airavat Kshetra, and Hari kshetra. Medieval Muslim writers like Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Muhammad al-Baqir supported cosmic pluralism on the basis of the Qur'an. Chaucer's poem The House of Fame engaged in medieval thought experiments that postulated the plurality of worlds. However, those ideas about other worlds were different from the current knowledge about the structure of the universe, and did not postulate the existence of planetary systems other than the Solar System. When those authors talk about other worlds, they talk about places located at the center of their own systems, and with their own stellar vaults and cosmos surrounding them. The Greek ideas and the disputes between atomists and Aristotelians outlived the fall of the Greek empire. The Great Library of Alexandria compiled information about it, part of which was translated by Islamic scholars and thus survived the end of the Library. Baghdad combined the knowledge of the Greeks, the Indians, the Chinese and its own scholars, and the knowledge expanded through the Byzantine Empire. From there it eventually returned to Europe by the time of the Middle Ages. However, as the Greek atomist doctrine held that the world was created by random movements of atoms, with no need for a creator deity, it became associated with atheism, and the dispute intertwined with religious ones. Still, the Church did not react to those topics in a homogeneous way, and there were stricter and more permissive views within the church itself. The first known mention of the term 'panspermia' was in the writings of the 5th-century BC Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. He proposed the idea that life exists everywhere. By the time of the late Middle Ages there were many known inaccuracies in the geocentric model, but it was kept in use because naked eye observations provided limited data. Nicolaus Copernicus started the Copernican Revolution by proposing that the planets revolve around the sun rather than Earth. His proposal had little acceptance at first because, as he kept the assumption that orbits were perfect circles, his model led to as many inaccuracies as the geocentric one. Tycho Brahe improved the available data with naked-eye observatories, which worked with highly complex sextants and quadrants. Tycho could not make sense of his observations, but Johannes Kepler did: orbits were not perfect circles, but ellipses. This knowledge benefited the Copernican model, which worked now almost perfectly. The invention of the telescope a short time later, perfected by Galileo Galilei, clarified the final doubts, and the paradigm shift was completed. Under this new understanding, the notion of extraterrestrial life became feasible: if Earth is but just a planet orbiting around a star, there may be planets similar to Earth elsewhere. The astronomical study of distant bodies also proved that physical laws are the same elsewhere in the universe as on Earth, with nothing making the planet truly special. The new ideas were met with resistance from the Catholic church. Galileo was tried for the heliocentric model, which was considered heretical, and forced to recant it. The best-known early-modern proponent of ideas of extraterrestrial life was the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who argued in the 16th century for an infinite universe in which every star is surrounded by its own planetary system. Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different to that of our earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants". Bruno's belief in the plurality of worlds was one of the charges leveled against him by the Venetian Holy Inquisition, which tried and executed him. The heliocentric model was further strengthened by the postulation of the theory of gravity by Sir Isaac Newton. This theory provided the mathematics that explains the motions of all things in the universe, including planetary orbits. By this point, the geocentric model was definitely discarded. By this time, the use of the scientific method had become a standard, and new discoveries were expected to provide evidence and rigorous mathematical explanations. Science also took a deeper interest in the mechanics of natural phenomena, trying to explain not just the way nature works but also the reasons for working that way. There was very little actual discussion about extraterrestrial life before this point, as the Aristotelian ideas remained influential while geocentrism was still accepted. When it was finally proved wrong, it not only meant that Earth was not the center of the universe, but also that the lights seen in the sky were not just lights, but physical objects. The notion that life may exist in them as well soon became an ongoing topic of discussion, although one with no practical ways to investigate. The possibility of extraterrestrials remained a widespread speculation as scientific discovery accelerated. William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, was one of many 18th–19th-century astronomers who believed that the Solar System is populated by alien life. Other scholars of the period who championed "cosmic pluralism" included Immanuel Kant and Benjamin Franklin. At the height of the Enlightenment, even the Sun and Moon were considered candidates for extraterrestrial inhabitants. Speculation about life on Mars increased in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation of apparent Martian canals – which soon, however, turned out to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilisation. Spectroscopic analysis of Mars's atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U.S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither water nor oxygen was present in the Martian atmosphere. By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic opposition of Mars since 1877 conclusively put an end to the canal hypothesis. As a consequence of the belief in the spontaneous generation there was little thought about the conditions of each celestial body: it was simply assumed that life would thrive anywhere. This theory was disproved by Louis Pasteur in the 19th century. Popular belief in thriving alien civilisations elsewhere in the solar system still remained strong until Mariner 4 and Mariner 9 provided close images of Mars, which debunked forever the idea of the existence of Martians and decreased the previous expectations of finding alien life in general. The end of the spontaneous generation belief forced investigation into the origin of life. Although abiogenesis is the more accepted theory, a number of authors reclaimed the term "panspermia" and proposed that life was brought to Earth from elsewhere. Some of those authors are Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1834), Kelvin (1871), Hermann von Helmholtz (1879) and, somewhat later, by Svante Arrhenius (1903). The science fiction genre, although not so named during the time, developed during the late 19th century. The expansion of the genre of extraterrestrials in fiction influenced the popular perception over the real-life topic, making people eager to jump to conclusions about the discovery of aliens. Science marched at a slower pace, some discoveries fueled expectations and others dashed excessive hopes. For example, with the advent of telescopes, most structures seen on the Moon or Mars were immediately attributed to Selenites or Martians, and later ones (such as more powerful telescopes) revealed that all such discoveries were natural features. A famous case is the Cydonia region of Mars, first imaged by the Viking 1 orbiter. The low-resolution photos showed a rock formation that resembled a human face, but later spacecraft took photos in higher detail that showed that there was nothing special about the site. The search and study of extraterrestrial life became a science of its own, astrobiology. Also known as exobiology, this discipline is studied by the NASA, the ESA, the INAF, and others. Astrobiology studies life from Earth as well, but with a cosmic perspective. For example, abiogenesis is of interest to astrobiology, not because of the origin of life on Earth, but for the chances of a similar process taking place in other celestial bodies. Many aspects of life, from its definition to its chemistry, are analyzed as either likely to be similar in all forms of life across the cosmos or only native to Earth. Astrobiology, however, remains constrained by the current lack of extraterrestrial life-forms to study, as all life on Earth comes from the same ancestor, and it is hard to infer general characteristics from a group with a single example to analyse. The 20th century came with great technological advances, speculations about future hypothetical technologies, and an increased basic knowledge of science by the general population thanks to science divulgation through the mass media. The public interest in extraterrestrial life and the lack of discoveries by mainstream science led to the emergence of pseudosciences that provided affirmative, if questionable, answers to the existence of aliens. Ufology claims that many unidentified flying objects (UFOs) would be spaceships from alien species, and ancient astronauts hypothesis claim that aliens would have visited Earth in antiquity and prehistoric times but people would have failed to understand it by then. Most UFOs or UFO sightings can be readily explained as sightings of Earth-based aircraft (including top-secret aircraft), known astronomical objects or weather phenomenons, or as hoaxes. Looking beyond the pseudosciences, Lewis White Beck strove to elevate the level of public discourse on the topic of extraterrestrial life by tracing the evolution of philosophical thought over the centuries from ancient times into the modern era. His review of the contributions made by Lucretius, Plutarch, Aristotle, Copernicus, Immanuel Kant, John Wilkins, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx demonstrated that even in modern times, humanity could be profoundly influenced in its search for extraterrestrial life by subtle and comforting archetypal ideas which are largely derived from firmly held religious, philosophical and existential belief systems. On a positive note, however, Beck further argued that even if the search for extraterrestrial life proves to be unsuccessful, the endeavor itself could have beneficial consequences by assisting humanity in its attempt to actualize superior ways of living here on Earth. By the 21st century, it was accepted that multicellular life in the Solar System can only exist on Earth, but the interest in extraterrestrial life increased regardless. This is a result of the advances in several sciences. The knowledge of planetary habitability allows to consider on scientific terms the likelihood of finding life at each specific celestial body, as it is known which features are beneficial and harmful for life. Astronomy and telescopes also improved to the point exoplanets can be confirmed and even studied, increasing the number of search places. Life may still exist elsewhere in the Solar System in unicellular form, but the advances in spacecraft allow to send robots to study samples in situ, with tools of growing complexity and reliability. Although no extraterrestrial life has been found and life may still be just a rarity from Earth, there are scientific reasons to suspect that it can exist elsewhere, and technological advances that may detect it if it does. Many scientists are optimistic about the chances of finding alien life. In the words of SETI's Frank Drake, "All we know for sure is that the sky is not littered with powerful microwave transmitters". Drake noted that it is entirely possible that advanced technology results in communication being carried out in some way other than conventional radio transmission. At the same time, the data returned by space probes, and giant strides in detection methods, have allowed science to begin delineating habitability criteria on other worlds, and to confirm that at least other planets are plentiful, though aliens remain a question mark. The Wow! signal, detected in 1977 by a SETI project, remains a subject of speculative debate. On the other hand, other scientists are pessimistic. Jacques Monod wrote that "Man knows at last that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe, whence which he has emerged by chance". In 2000, geologist and paleontologist Peter Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee published a book entitled Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe.[better source needed] In it, they discussed the Rare Earth hypothesis, in which they claim that Earth-like life is rare in the universe, whereas microbial life is common. Ward and Brownlee are open to the idea of evolution on other planets that is not based on essential Earth-like characteristics such as DNA and carbon. As for the possible risks, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking warned in 2010 that humans should not try to contact alien life forms. He warned that aliens might pillage Earth for resources. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans", he said. Jared Diamond had earlier expressed similar concerns. On 20 July 2015, Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, along with the SETI Institute, announced a well-funded effort, called the Breakthrough Initiatives, to expand efforts to search for extraterrestrial life. The group contracted the services of the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia in the United States and the 64-meter Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. On 13 February 2015, scientists (including Geoffrey Marcy, Seth Shostak, Frank Drake and David Brin) at a convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, discussed Active SETI and whether transmitting a message to possible intelligent extraterrestrials in the Cosmos was a good idea; one result was a statement, signed by many, that a "worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent". Government responses The 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 Moon Agreement define rules of planetary protection against potentially hazardous extraterrestrial life. COSPAR also provides guidelines for planetary protection. A committee of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs had in 1977 discussed for a year strategies for interacting with extraterrestrial life or intelligence. The discussion ended without any conclusions. As of 2010, the UN lacks response mechanisms for the case of an extraterrestrial contact. One of the NASA divisions is the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA), also known as the Planetary Protection Office. A part of its mission is to "rigorously preclude backward contamination of Earth by extraterrestrial life." In 2016, the Chinese Government released a white paper detailing its space program. According to the document, one of the research objectives of the program is the search for extraterrestrial life. It is also one of the objectives of the Chinese Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) program. In 2020, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency, said the search for extraterrestrial life is one of the main goals of deep space research. He also acknowledged the possibility of existence of primitive life on other planets of the Solar System. The French space agency has an office for the study of "non-identified aero spatial phenomena". The agency is maintaining a publicly accessible database of such phenomena, with over 1600 detailed entries. According to the head of the office, the vast majority of entries have a mundane explanation; but for 25% of entries, their extraterrestrial origin can neither be confirmed nor denied. In 2020, chairman of the Israel Space Agency Isaac Ben-Israel stated that the probability of detecting life in outer space is "quite large". But he disagrees with his former colleague Haim Eshed who stated that there are contacts between an advanced alien civilisation and some of Earth's governments. In fiction Although the idea of extraterrestrial peoples became feasible once astronomy developed enough to understand the nature of planets, they were not thought of as being any different from humans. Having no scientific explanation for the origin of mankind and its relation to other species, there was no reason to expect them to be any other way. This was changed by the 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which proposed the theory of evolution. Now with the notion that evolution on other planets may take other directions, science fiction authors created bizarre aliens, clearly distinct from humans. A usual way to do that was to add body features from other animals, such as insects or octopuses. Costuming and special effects feasibility alongside budget considerations forced films and TV series to tone down the fantasy, but these limitations lessened since the 1990s with the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI), and later on as CGI became more effective and less expensive. Real-life events sometimes captivate people's imagination and this influences the works of fiction. For example, during the Barney and Betty Hill incident, the first recorded claim of an alien abduction, the couple reported that they were abducted and experimented on by aliens with oversized heads, big eyes, pale grey skin, and small noses, a description that eventually became the grey alien archetype once used in works of fiction. See also Notes References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_of_Many_Lands] | [TOKENS: 1556] |
Contents Girls of Many Lands Girls of Many Lands is a series of books and dolls from the American Girl collection introduced in 2002. Each story is about a 12-year-old girl living in a different time period in different parts of the world. The books, written by award-winning authors, originally came with a matching doll intended for display. The series was discontinued in 2005 and the dolls have become a popular collectible item. Dolls The dolls were first released in 2002, and retired in 2005. They cost between $48 and $54. Books Isabel Campion, living in London, England in 1592, struggles with fitting her father's image of a "proper" girl, her adventurous and free-spirited ways often cause her problems in Tudor society. After making friends with a servant and having the audacity to watch a play at the theater, her father sends Isabel away to stay with her aunt de Vere in an attempt to have her learned in proper etiquette. Along the way she ends up in a situation with robbers, is rescued and then has to disguise herself as a boy to join a group of theatrical performers. Isabel finally reaches Aunt de Vere's estate and quickly develops an admiration for her. Isabel is then taught interesting subjects and helps with her Aunt's clinic. When word reaches that her baby sister, Hope, is ill and it might be the plague, Isabel goes home just in time. Her Aunt and old nurse have given up, but Isabel nurses Hope through the night and identifies that she does not have the plague. Isabel is welcomed home by her father where he tells her that he's sending her back because she has changed and he wants her to continue it. The book was written by Annie Dalton and illustrated by Mark Elliott. In 1711 France, Cécile Revel is the daughter of a poor doctor, although she has learned to read, write and is an independent young lady. After helping a woman who had fallen from a horse, she ends up serving in the Versailles court of King Louis XIV. In the complicated world of court life, Cécile gradually discovers that her heart and spirit are more noble than she thinks. When most of the royal family falls ill, Cécile cannot bear for them all to die in the hands of misguided court physicians, and locking herself and some maids in a room with the young Duke d'Anjou away from the doctors, saving his life. The book was written by Mary Casanova and illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles. Called boyish by her new family for being able to read and write and work in a garden, twelve-year-old orphan Chou Spring Pearl (周 春珠) realizes that her "odd ways" just don't fit in the Sung home, the home she is taken to after her parents die in 1857 during the Second Opium War in Canton, China. She decides to be herself and slowly wins the respect of her benefactor's family, who did not initially respect her family or background. By being courageous and using her sensible practicality, Spring Pearl was able to save the Sung home. The book was written by Laurence Yep and illustrated by Kazuhiko Sano. Neela Sen is an independent-minded and freedom-loving Indian girl who is hoping for peace when preparing for her sister's wedding, dealing with her mother wanting her to marry. Her father is away on "business", or so her mother believes, but he is really marching for peace and India's independence. Neela finds out that he might be hurt and goes to search for him, which results in her traveling all the way to Calcutta. While in the city, which is controlled by Great Britain, Neela learns the importance of India's independence, and sees a world beyond her small rural life. Along the way she is helped by a rich woman with a lavish lifestyle. Neela is able to save her father, and return home. The book was written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and illustrated by Troy Howell. Minuk a young, curious, and mischievous Yup'ik girl in the banks of Alaska must endure the realization that her traditional way of life is changed forever with the arrival of Christian missionaries. Minuk is at first curious about the Hoffs and their strange ways. They have so many new things that she's never seen before. She also realizes that though they are different in some ways, ways about women remain the same. She grows a fondness for them, but realizes that the Hoffs are not as accepting of her people's ways as the Yup'ik are to the Hoffs. The book was written by Kirkpatrick Hill and illustrated by Patrick Faricy. After being kidnapped and brought to the emperor's palace in Gondar, Ethiopia, twelve-year-old Saba discovers that she and her brother are part of the emperor's desperate attempt to consolidate political power in the mid-1840s. Saba and her brother are initially sheltered in their home by their grandmother. Saba's brother, Mesfin, is tired of being treated like a child and encourages Saba to follow him in his disobedience and leave their sheltered home for a while. This gets them kidnapped and taken faraway to the palace of Gondar, where they discover secrets about their family and their past. Then suddenly, Mesfin disappears, and Saba is left all alone in the palace. Saba eventually comes up with a plan to save her brother, and finds the courage to escape the clutches of "the hyena." The book was written by Jane Kurtz and illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles. While trying to help her financially destitute family, twelve-year-old Leyla ends up on a slave ship bound for Istanbul. Finding herself in the beautiful Topkapi Palace, she discovers that life in the sheltered world of the palace harem follows its own rigid rules, although it offers Leyla an unexpected opportunity during Turkey's brief Tulip Period of the 1720s. On the voyage, Leyla is in awe of how vast the world is. But Leyla soon discovers her voyage will lead her to slavery. She is bought at a market and taken to the Topkapi Palace, the secret world of women, where her life changes forever. The book was written by Alev Lytle Croutier and illustrated by Kazuhiko Sano. Twelve-year-old Kathleen Murphy from Ireland comes from a poor family. When she and her sisters are caught for being late to their Catholic school, her mother is asked to come in the next day. However, rather than scold Kathleen, the head suggests she needs an outlet and recommends that she starts Irish dancing. Kathleen dreads this because her rival, Tess O'Hara, is also in the class. However, once she attends, she realizes she loves it. She is devastated when she learns the lessons will cost more than her family can afford, but the teacher, recognizing Kathleen's talent, agrees to teach her for free because she needs talented girls for an upcoming competition. Kathleen makes progress in her dancing as the competition swiftly approaches. However, her dreams suddenly have to take a backseat when her mother becomes gravely ill. But in the end, her mother pulls through, and Kathleen's mother and aunt are able to pull things together at the last moment so that Kathleen is able to compete. When she wins a surprise first place, she thinks that nothing will top this, but it turns out that her aunt has a surprise of her own in the works. The book was written by Siobhán Parkinson and illustrated by Troy Howell. References |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#cite_note-The_New_York_Times-317] | [TOKENS: 10515] |
Contents Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of February 2026,[update] Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$852 billion. Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada; he has Canadian citizenship since his mother was born there. He received bachelor's degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. Musk also became an American citizen in 2002. In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer; the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight. Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008; it has since become a leader in electric vehicles. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left; growing discontent with the organization's direction and their leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI, which became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026. In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes, and rebranding it as X in 2023. His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where he supported Donald Trump. After Trump was inaugurated as president in early 2025, Musk served as Senior Advisor to the President and as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration and returned to managing his companies. Musk is a supporter of global far-right figures, causes, and political parties. His political activities, views, and statements have made him a polarizing figure. Musk has been criticized for COVID-19 misinformation, promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments. His acquisition of Twitter was controversial due to a subsequent increase in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the service, following his pledge to decrease censorship. His role in the second Trump administration attracted public backlash, particularly in response to DOGE. The emails he sent to Jeffrey Epstein are included in the Epstein files, which were published between 2025–26 and became a topic of worldwide debate. Early life Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. Musk therefore holds both South African and Canadian citizenship from birth. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. His maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, who died in a plane crash when Elon was a toddler, was an American-born Canadian chiropractor, aviator and political activist in the technocracy movement who moved to South Africa in 1950. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, a younger sister, Tosca, and four paternal half-siblings. Musk was baptized as a child in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Despite both Elon and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines". Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid. After his parents divorced in 1979, Elon, aged around 9, chose to live with his father because Errol Musk had an Encyclopædia Britannica and a computer. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital. Errol denied berating Elon and claimed, "The [other] boy had just lost his father to suicide, and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?" Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500 (equivalent to $1,600 in 2025). Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a decent but unexceptional student, earning a 61/100 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother to avoid South Africa's mandatory military service, which would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime, as well as to ease his path to immigration to the United States. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs, including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied until 1995. Although Musk has said that he earned his degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997 – a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books. In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic supercapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom of the 1990s, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response. The Washington Post reported that Musk lacked legal authorization to remain and work in the United States after failing to enroll at Stanford. In response, Musk said he was allowed to work at that time and that his student visa transitioned to an H1-B. According to numerous former business associates and shareholders, Musk said he was on a student visa at the time. Business career In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded the web software company Zip2 with funding from a group of angel investors. They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto. Replying to Rolling Stone, Musk denounced the notion that they started their company with funds borrowed from Errol Musk, but in a tweet, he recognized that his father contributed 10% of a later funding round. The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages. According to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time." To impress investors, Musk built a large plastic structure around a standard computer to create the impression that Zip2 was powered by a small supercomputer. The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999 (equivalent to $590,000,000 in 2025), and Musk received $22 million (equivalent to $43,000,000 in 2025) for his 7-percent share. In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company. The startup was one of the first federally insured online banks, and, in its initial months of operation, over 200,000 customers joined the service. The company's investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year. The following year, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition. Founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, Confinity had its own money-transfer service, PayPal, which was more popular than X.com's service. Within the merged company, Musk returned as CEO. Musk's preference for Microsoft software over Unix created a rift in the company and caused Thiel to resign. Due to resulting technological issues and lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in 2000.[b] Under Thiel, the company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million (equivalent to $320,000,000 in 2025). In 2017, Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount, stating that it had sentimental value. In 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. Seeking a way to launch the greenhouse payloads into space, Musk made two unsuccessful trips to Moscow to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from Russian companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras. Musk instead decided to start a company to build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his early fortune, (equivalent to $180,000,000 in 2025) Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and Chief Engineer. SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Although the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA, then led by Mike Griffin. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion NASA contract (equivalent to $2,400,000,000 in 2025) for Falcon 9-launched Dragon spacecraft flights to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million (equivalent to $865,000,000 in 2025) contract to build a spacecraft that NASA will use to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan. In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access. After the launch of prototype satellites in 2018, the first large constellation was deployed in May 2019. As of May 2025[update], over 7,600 Starlink satellites are operational, comprising 65% of all operational Earth satellites. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion (equivalent to $12,000,000,000 in 2025).[c] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk provided free Starlink service to Ukraine, permitting Internet access and communication at a yearly cost to SpaceX of $400 million (equivalent to $440,000,000 in 2025). However, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink. In 2023, Musk denied Ukraine's request to activate Starlink over Crimea to aid an attack against the Russian navy, citing fears of a nuclear response. Tesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million (equivalent to $11,000,000 in 2025), became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007 and the 2008 financial crisis, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.[page needed] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. Tesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first mass production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Under Musk, Tesla has since launched several well-selling electric vehicles, including the four-door sedan Model S (2012), the crossover Model X (2015), the mass-market sedan Model 3 (2017), the crossover Model Y (2020), and the pickup truck Cybertruck (2023). In May 2020, Musk resigned as chairman of the board as part of the settlement of a lawsuit from the SEC over him tweeting that funding had been "secured" for potentially taking Tesla private. The company has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, called Gigafactories. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion (equivalent to $1,200,000,000,000 in 2025), the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020. Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor. In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices to treat neurological conditions like spinal cord injuries. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate six-year human trials. Neuralink has conducted animal testing on macaques at the University of California, Davis. In 2021, the company released a video in which a macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink.[needs update] In 2017, Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels; he also revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system. April 14, 2022 In early 2017, Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. By 2022, Musk had reached 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.[d] Musk later agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. Days later, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter. By the end of April Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included approximately $12.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in equity financing. Having backtracked on his initial decision, Musk bought the company on October 27, 2022. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. Under Elon Musk, Twitter instituted monthly subscriptions for a "blue check", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation and hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover. In late 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Musk also promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll, and five months later, Musk stepped down as CEO and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer (CTO). Despite Musk stepping down as CEO, X continues to struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation, hate speech, and antisemitism controversies. Musk has been accused of trying to silence some of his critics such as Twitch streamer Asmongold, who criticized him during one of his streams. Musk has been accused of removing their accounts' blue checkmarks, which hinders visibility and is considered a form of shadow banning, or suspending their accounts without justification. Other activities In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain, and assigned engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a transport system between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, dubbed the Hyperloop, intended to make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence, intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to the company, and initially gave $50 million. In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board. Since 2018, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning. In July 2023, Musk launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla, and xAI hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. December 16, 2022 Musk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets and the consequent fossil fuel usage have received criticism. Musk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. In December 2022, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, and made temporary bans on the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. In October 2025, Musk's company xAI launched Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia that he promoted as an alternative to Wikipedia. Articles on Grokipedia are generated and reviewed by xAI's Grok chatbot. Media coverage and academic analysis described Grokipedia as frequently reusing Wikipedia content but framing contested political and social topics in line with Musk's own views and right-wing narratives. A study by Cornell University researchers and NBC News stated that Grokipedia cites sources that are blacklisted or considered "generally unreliable" on Wikipedia, for example, the conspiracy site Infowars and the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront. Wired, The Guardian and Time criticized Grokipedia for factual errors and for presenting Musk himself in unusually positive terms while downplaying controversies. Politics Musk is an outlier among business leaders who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom serve in states in which he has a vested interest. Since 2022, his political contributions have mostly supported Republicans, with his first vote for a Republican going to Mayra Flores in the 2022 Texas's 34th congressional district special election. In 2024, he started supporting international far-right political parties, activists, and causes, and has shared misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Since 2024, his views have been generally described as right-wing. Musk supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Donald Trump in 2024. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for Yang's proposed universal basic income, and endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. In 2021, Musk publicly expressed opposition to the Build Back Better Act, a $3.5 trillion legislative package endorsed by Joe Biden that ultimately failed to pass due to unanimous opposition from congressional Republicans and several Democrats. In 2022, gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee. In 2023, he supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to his campaign, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. From June 2023 to January 2024, Musk hosted a bipartisan set of X Spaces with Republican and Democratic candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Dean Phillips. In October 2025, former vice-president Kamala Harris commented that it was a mistake from the Democratic side to not invite Musk to a White House electric vehicle event organized in August 2021 and featuring executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, despite Tesla being "the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space." Fortune remarked that this was a nod to United Auto Workers and organized labor. Harris said presidents should put aside political loyalties when it came to recognizing innovation, and guessed that the non-invitation impacted Musk's perspective. Fortune noted that, at the time, Musk said, "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited." A month later, he criticized Biden as "not the friendliest administration." Jacob Silverman, author of the book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, said that the tech industry represented by Musk, Thiel, Andreessen and other capitalists, actually flourished under Biden, but the tech leaders chose Trump for their common ground on cultural issues. By early 2024, Musk had become a vocal and financial supporter of Donald Trump. In July 2024, minutes after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk endorsed him for president saying; "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery." During the presidential campaign, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally, and during the campaign promoted conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Democrats, election fraud and immigration, in support of Trump. Musk was the largest individual donor of the 2024 election. In 2025, Musk contributed $19 million to the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, hoping to influence the state's future redistricting efforts and its regulations governing car manufacturers and dealers. In 2023, Musk said he shunned the World Economic Forum because it was boring. The organization commented that they had not invited him since 2015. He has participated in Dialog, dubbed "Tech Bilderberg" and organized by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, though. Musk's international political actions and comments have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism, especially from the governments and leaders of France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, particularly due to his position in the U.S. government as well as ownership of X. An NBC News analysis found he had boosted far-right political movements to cut immigration and curtail regulation of business in at least 18 countries on six continents since 2023. During his speech after the second inauguration of Donald Trump, Musk twice made a gesture interpreted by many as a Nazi or a fascist Roman salute.[e] He thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, and then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. He then repeated the gesture to the crowd behind him. As he finished the gestures, he said to the crowd, "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured." It was widely condemned as an intentional Nazi salute in Germany, where making such gestures is illegal. The Anti-Defamation League said it was not a Nazi salute, but other Jewish organizations disagreed and condemned the salute. American public opinion was divided on partisan lines as to whether it was a fascist salute. Musk dismissed the accusations of Nazi sympathies, deriding them as "dirty tricks" and a "tired" attack. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups celebrated it as a Nazi salute. Multiple European political parties demanded that Musk be banned from entering their countries. The concept of DOGE emerged in a discussion between Musk and Donald Trump, and in August 2024, Trump committed to giving Musk an advisory role, with Musk accepting the offer. In November and December 2024, Musk suggested that the organization could help to cut the U.S. federal budget, consolidate the number of federal agencies, and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that its final stage would be "deleting itself". In January 2025, the organization was created by executive order, and Musk was designated a "special government employee". Musk led the organization and was a senior advisor to the president, although his official role is not clear. In sworn statement during a lawsuit, the director of the White House Office of Administration stated that Musk "is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization", "is not the U.S. DOGE Service administrator", and has "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself". Trump said two days later that he had put Musk in charge of DOGE. A federal judge has ruled that Musk acted as the de facto leader of DOGE. Musk's role in the second Trump administration, particularly in response to DOGE, has attracted public backlash. He was criticized for his treatment of federal government employees, including his influence over the mass layoffs of the federal workforce. He has prioritized secrecy within the organization and has accused others of violating privacy laws. A Senate report alleged that Musk could avoid up to $2 billion in legal liability as a result of DOGE's actions. In May 2025, Bill Gates accused Musk of "killing the world's poorest children" through his cuts to USAID, which modeling by Boston University estimated had resulted in 300,000 deaths by this time, most of them of children. By November 2025, the estimated death toll had increased to 400,000 children and 200,000 adults. Musk announced on May 28, 2025, that he would depart from the Trump administration as planned when the special government employee's 130 day deadline expired, with a White House official confirming that Musk's offboarding from the Trump administration was already underway. His departure was officially confirmed during a joint Oval Office press conference with Trump on May 30, 2025. @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. June 5, 2025 After leaving office, Musk criticized the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill, calling it a "disgusting abomination" due to its provisions increasing the deficit. A feud began between Musk and Trump, with its most notable event being Musk alleging Trump had ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on X (formerly Twitter) on June 5, 2025. Trump responded on Truth Social stating that Musk went "CRAZY" after the "EV Mandate" was purportedly taken away and threatened to cut Musk's government contracts. Musk then called for a third Trump impeachment. The next day, Trump stated that he did not wish to reconcile with Musk, and added that Musk would face "very serious consequences" if he funds Democratic candidates. On June 11, Musk publicly apologized for the tweets against Trump, saying they "went too far". Views November 6, 2022 Rejecting the conservative label, Musk has described himself as a political moderate, even as his views have become more right-wing over time. His views have been characterized as libertarian and far-right, and after his involvement in European politics, they have received criticism from world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. Within the context of American politics, Musk supported Democratic candidates up until 2022, at which point he voted for a Republican for the first time. He has stated support for universal basic income, gun rights, freedom of speech, a tax on carbon emissions, and H-1B visas. Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change, and has been a critic of wealth tax, short-selling, and government subsidies. An immigrant himself, Musk has been accused of being anti-immigration, and regularly blames immigration policies for illegal immigration. He is also a pronatalist who believes population decline is the biggest threat to civilization, and identifies as a cultural Christian. Musk has long been an advocate for space colonization, especially the colonization of Mars. He has repeatedly pushed for humanity colonizing Mars, in order to become an interplanetary species and lower the risks of human extinction. Musk has promoted conspiracy theories and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of racism, sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, disseminating disinformation, and support of white pride. While describing himself as a "pro-Semite", his comments regarding George Soros and Jewish communities have been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and the Biden White House. Musk was criticized during the COVID-19 pandemic for making unfounded epidemiological claims, defying COVID-19 lockdowns restrictions, and supporting the Canada convoy protest against vaccine mandates. He has amplified false claims of white genocide in South Africa. Musk has been critical of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war, praised China's economic and climate goals, suggested that Taiwan and China should resolve cross-strait relations, and was described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government. In Europe, Musk expressed support for Ukraine in 2022 during the Russian invasion, recommended referendums and peace deals on the annexed Russia-occupied territories, and supported the far-right Alternative for Germany political party in 2024. Regarding British politics, Musk blamed the 2024 UK riots on mass migration and open borders, criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what he described as a "two-tier" policing system, and was subsequently attacked as being responsible for spreading misinformation and amplifying the far-right. He has also voiced his support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson and pledged electoral support for Reform UK. In February 2026, Musk described Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as a "tyrant" following Sánchez's proposal to prohibit minors under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms. Legal affairs In 2018, Musk was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private.[f] The securities fraud lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. In 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price". In October 2023, the SEC sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. In January 2025, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk for securities violations related to his purchase of Twitter. In January 2024, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders. The Delaware Supreme Court overturned McCormick's decision in December 2025, restoring Musk's compensation package and awarding $1 in nominal damages. Personal life Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Cameron County, Texas, saying that California had become "complacent" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome (an outdated term for autism spectrum disorder). When asked about his experience growing up with Asperger's syndrome in a TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Musk stated that "the social cues were not intuitive ... I would just tend to take things very literally ... but then that turned out to be wrong — [people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out." Musk suffers from back pain and has undergone several spine-related surgeries, including a disc replacement. In 2000, he contracted a severe case of malaria while on vacation in South Africa. Musk has stated he uses doctor-prescribed ketamine for occasional depression and that he doses "a small amount once every other week or something like that"; since January 2024, some media outlets have reported that he takes ketamine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms, cocaine and other drugs. Musk at first refused to comment on his alleged drug use, before responding that he had not tested positive for drugs, and that if drugs somehow improved his productivity, "I would definitely take them!". The New York Times' investigations revealed Musk's overuse of ketamine and numerous other drugs, as well as strained family relationships and concerns from close associates who have become troubled by his public behavior as he became more involved in political activities and government work. According to The Washington Post, President Trump described Musk as "a big-time drug addict". Through his own label Emo G Records, Musk released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud in March 2019. The following year, he released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. Musk plays video games, which he stated has a "'restoring effect' that helps his 'mental calibration'". Some games he plays include Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk once claimed to be one of the world's top video game players but has since admitted to "account boosting", or cheating by hiring outside services to achieve top player rankings. Musk has justified the boosting by claiming that all top accounts do it so he has to as well to remain competitive. In 2024 and 2025, Musk criticized the video game Assassin's Creed Shadows and its creator Ubisoft for "woke" content. Musk posted to X that "DEI kills art" and specified the inclusion of the historical figure Yasuke in the Assassin's Creed game as offensive; he also called the game "terrible". Ubisoft responded by saying that Musk's comments were "just feeding hatred" and that they were focused on producing a game not pushing politics. Musk has fathered at least 14 children, one of whom died as an infant. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2025 that sources close to Musk suggest that the "true number of Musk's children is much higher than publicly known". He had six children with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, whom he met while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child Nevada Musk died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and have shared custody of their children. The elder twin he had with Wilson came out as a trans woman and, in 2022, officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, adopting her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley in 2008. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, then remarried the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated the American actress Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been "pursuing" her since 2012. In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes confirmed they were dating. Grimes and Musk have three children, born in 2020, 2021, and 2022.[g] Musk and Grimes originally gave their eldest child the name "X Æ A-12", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet; the names registered on the birth certificate are "X" as a first name, "Æ A-Xii" as a middle name, and "Musk" as a last name. They received criticism for choosing a name perceived to be impractical and difficult to pronounce; Musk has said the intended pronunciation is "X Ash A Twelve". Their second child was born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of X Æ A-Xii. Elon Musk has taken X Æ A-Xii to multiple official events in Washington, D.C. during Trump's second term in office. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as "an occasional girlfriend". In October 2024, The New York Times reported Musk bought a Texas compound for his children and their mothers, though Musk denied having done so. Musk also has four children with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink: twins born via IVF in 2021, a child born in 2024 via surrogacy and a child born in 2025.[h] On February 14, 2025, Ashley St. Clair, an influencer and author, posted on X claiming to have given birth to Musk's son Romulus five months earlier, which media outlets reported as Musk's supposed thirteenth child.[i] On February 22, 2025, it was reported that St Clair had filed for sole custody of her five-month-old son and for Musk to be recognised as the child's father. On March 31, 2025, Musk wrote that, while he was unsure if he was the father of St. Clair's child, he had paid St. Clair $2.5 million and would continue paying her $500,000 per year.[j] Later reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicated that $1 million of these payments to St. Clair were structured as a loan. In 2014, Musk and Ghislaine Maxwell appeared together in a photograph taken at an Academy Awards after-party, which Musk later described as a "photobomb". The January 2026 Epstein files contain emails between Musk and Epstein from 2012 to 2013, after Epstein's first conviction. Emails released on January 30, 2026, indicated that Epstein invited Musk to visit his private island on multiple occasions. The correspondence showed that while Epstein repeatedly encouraged Musk to attend, Musk did not visit the island. In one instance, Musk discussed the possibility of attending a party with his then-wife Talulah Riley and asked which day would be the "wildest party"; according to the emails, the visit did not take place after Epstein later cancelled the plans.[k] On Christmas day in 2012, Musk emailed Epstein asking "Do you have any parties planned? I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for". Epstein replied that the "ratio on my island" might make Musk's wife uncomfortable to which Musk responded, "Ratio is not a problem for Talulah". On September 11, 2013, Epstein sent an email asking Musk if he had any plans for coming to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly where many "interesting people" would be coming to his house to which Musk responded that "Flying to NY to see UN diplomats do nothing would be an unwise use of time". Epstein responded by stating "Do you think i am retarded. Just kidding, there is no one over 25 and all very cute." Musk has denied any close relationship with Epstein and described him as a "creep" who attempted to ingratiate himself with influential people. When Musk was asked in 2019 if he introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg, Musk responded: "I don’t recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don’t know the guy well enough to do so." The released emails nonetheless showed cordial exchanges on a range of topics, including Musk's inquiry about parties on the island. The correspondence also indicated that Musk suggested hosting Epstein at SpaceX, while Epstein separately discussed plans to tour SpaceX and bring "the girls", though there is no evidence that such a visit occurred. Musk has described the release of the files a "distraction", later accusing the second Trump administration of suppressing them to protect powerful individuals, including Trump himself.[l] Wealth Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$690 billion as of January 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $852 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla. Having been first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, around 75% of Musk's wealth was derived from Tesla stock in November 2020, although he describes himself as "cash poor". According to Forbes, he became the first person in the world to achieve a net worth of $300 billion in 2021; $400 billion in December 2024; $500 billion in October 2025; $600 billion in mid-December 2025; $700 billion later that month; and $800 billion in February 2026. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth potentially $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Public image Although his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries starting in the 2000s, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Musk's actions and his expressed views have made him a polarizing figure. Biographer Ashlee Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his "part philosopher, part troll" persona on Twitter. He has drawn denouncement for using his platform to mock the self-selection of personal pronouns, while also receiving praise for bringing international attention to matters like British survivors of grooming gangs. Musk has been described as an American oligarch due to his extensive influence over public discourse, social media, industry, politics, and government policy. After Trump's re-election, Musk's influence and actions during the transition period and the second presidency of Donald Trump led some to call him "President Musk", the "actual president-elect", "shadow president" or "co-president". Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[m] In 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that, "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too." Notes References Works cited Further reading External links |
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Contents Jews Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים, ISO 259-2: Yehudim, Israeli pronunciation: [jehuˈdim]), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly interrelated, as Judaism is an ethnic religion, though many ethnic Jews do not practice it. Religious Jews regard converts to Judaism as members of the Jewish nation, pursuant to the long-standing conversion process. The Israelites emerged from the pre-existing Canaanite peoples to establish Israel and Judah in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Originally, Jews referred to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah and were distinguished from the gentiles and the Samaritans. According to the Hebrew Bible, these inhabitants predominately originate from the tribe of Judah, who were descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The tribe of Benjamin were another significant demographic in Judah and were considered Jews too. By the late 6th century BCE, Judaism had evolved from the Israelite religion, dubbed Yahwism (for Yahweh) by modern scholars, having a theology that religious Jews believe to be the expression of the Mosaic covenant between God and the Jewish people. After the Babylonian exile, Jews referred to followers of Judaism, descendants of the Israelites, citizens of Judea, or allies of the Judean state. Jewish migration within the Mediterranean region during the Hellenistic period, followed by population transfers, caused by events like the Jewish–Roman wars, gave rise to the Jewish diaspora, consisting of diverse Jewish communities that maintained their sense of Jewish history, identity, and culture. In the following millennia, Jewish diaspora communities coalesced into three major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled: the Ashkenazim (Central and Eastern Europe), the Sephardim (Iberian Peninsula), and the Mizrahim (Middle East and North Africa). While these three major divisions account for most of the world's Jews, there are other smaller Jewish groups outside of the three. Prior to World War II, the global Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million, representing around 0.7% of the world's population at that time. During World War II, approximately six million Jews throughout Europe were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany in a genocide known as the Holocaust. Since then, the population has slowly risen again, and as of 2021[update], was estimated to be at 15.2 million by the demographer Sergio Della Pergola or less than 0.2% of the total world population in 2012.[b] Today, over 85% of Jews live in Israel or the United States. Israel, whose population is 73.9% Jewish, is the only country where Jews comprise more than 2.5% of the population. Jews have significantly influenced and contributed to the development and growth of human progress in many fields, both historically and in modern times, including in science and technology, philosophy, ethics, literature, governance, business, art, music, comedy, theatre, cinema, architecture, food, medicine, and religion. Jews founded Christianity and had an indirect but profound influence on Islam. In these ways and others, Jews have played a significant role in the development of Western culture. Name and etymology The term "Jew" is derived from the Hebrew word יְהוּדִי Yehudi, with the plural יְהוּדִים Yehudim. Endonyms in other Jewish languages include the Ladino ג׳ודיו Djudio (plural ג׳ודיוס, Djudios) and the Yiddish ייִד Yid (plural ייִדן Yidn). Though Genesis 29:35 and 49:8 connect "Judah" with the verb yada, meaning "praise", scholars generally agree that "Judah" most likely derives from the name of a Levantine geographic region dominated by gorges and ravines. The gradual ethnonymic shift from "Israelites" to "Jews", regardless of their descent from Judah, although not contained in the Torah, is made explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE) of the Tanakh. Some modern scholars disagree with the conflation, based on the works of Josephus, Philo and Apostle Paul. The English word "Jew" is a derivation of Middle English Gyw, Iewe. The latter was loaned from the Old French giu, which itself evolved from the earlier juieu, which in turn derived from judieu/iudieu which through elision had dropped the letter "d" from the Medieval Latin Iudaeus, which, like the New Testament Greek term Ioudaios, meant both "Jew" and "Judean" / "of Judea". The Greek term was a loan from Aramaic *yahūdāy, corresponding to Hebrew יְהוּדִי Yehudi. Some scholars prefer translating Ioudaios as "Judean" in the Bible since it is more precise, denotes the community's origins and prevents readers from engaging in antisemitic eisegesis. Others disagree, believing that it erases the Jewish identity of Biblical characters such as Jesus. Daniel R. Schwartz distinguishes "Judean" and "Jew". Here, "Judean" refers to the inhabitants of Judea, which encompassed southern Palestine. Meanwhile, "Jew" refers to the descendants of Israelites that adhere to Judaism. Converts are included in the definition. But Shaye J.D. Cohen argues that "Judean" is inclusive of believers of the Judean God and allies of the Judean state. Another scholar, Jodi Magness, wrote the term Ioudaioi refers to a "people of Judahite/Judean ancestry who worshipped the God of Israel as their national deity and (at least nominally) lived according to his laws." The etymological equivalent is in use in other languages, e.g., يَهُودِيّ yahūdī (sg.), al-yahūd (pl.), in Arabic, "Jude" in German, "judeu" in Portuguese, "Juif" (m.)/"Juive" (f.) in French, "jøde" in Danish and Norwegian, "judío/a" in Spanish, "jood" in Dutch, "żyd" in Polish etc., but derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g., in Italian (Ebreo), in Persian ("Ebri/Ebrani" (Persian: عبری/عبرانی)) and Russian (Еврей, Yevrey). The German word "Jude" is pronounced [ˈjuːdə], the corresponding adjective "jüdisch" [ˈjyːdɪʃ] (Jewish) is the origin of the word "Yiddish". According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition (2000), It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the noun Jew, in phrases such as Jew lawyer or Jew ethics, is both vulgar and highly offensive. In such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such as There are now several Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution like Jewish people or persons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply that Jew has a negative connotation when used as a noun. Identity Judaism shares some of the characteristics of a nation, an ethnicity, a religion, and a culture, making the definition of who is a Jew vary slightly depending on whether a religious or national approach to identity is used.[better source needed] Generally, in modern secular usage, Jews include three groups: people who were born to a Jewish family regardless of whether or not they follow the religion, those who have some Jewish ancestral background or lineage (sometimes including those who do not have strictly matrilineal descent), and people without any Jewish ancestral background or lineage who have formally converted to Judaism and therefore are followers of the religion. In the context of biblical and classical literature, Jews could refer to inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah, or the broader Judean region, allies of the Judean state, or anyone that followed Judaism. Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. These definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud, around 200 CE. Interpretations by Jewish sages of sections of the Tanakh – such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, which forbade intermarriage between their Israelite ancestors and seven non-Israelite nations: "for that [i.e. giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,] would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods"[failed verification] – are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and gentiles. Leviticus 24:10 says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is "of the community of Israel." This is complemented by Ezra 10:2–3, where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children. A popular theory is that the rape of Jewish women in captivity brought about the law of Jewish identity being inherited through the maternal line, although scholars challenge this theory citing the Talmudic establishment of the law from the pre-exile period. Another argument is that the rabbis changed the law of patrilineal descent to matrilineal descent due to the widespread rape of Jewish women by Roman soldiers. Since the anti-religious Haskalah movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries, halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged. According to historian Shaye J. D. Cohen, the status of the offspring of mixed marriages was determined patrilineally in the Bible. He brings two likely explanations for the change in Mishnaic times: first, the Mishnah may have been applying the same logic to mixed marriages as it had applied to other mixtures (Kil'ayim). Thus, a mixed marriage is forbidden as is the union of a horse and a donkey, and in both unions the offspring are judged matrilineally. Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother. Rabbi Rivon Krygier follows a similar reasoning, arguing that Jewish descent had formerly passed through the patrilineal descent and the law of matrilineal descent had its roots in the Roman legal system. Origins The prehistory and ethnogenesis of the Jews are closely intertwined with archaeology, biology, historical textual records, mythology, and religious literature. The ethnic origin of the Jews lie in the Israelites, a confederation of Iron Age Semitic-speaking tribes that inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. Modern Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah. Gary A. Rendsburg links the early Canaanite nomadic pastoralists confederation to the Shasu known to the Egyptians around the 15th century BCE. According to the Hebrew Bible narrative, Jewish history begins with the Biblical patriarchs such as Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob, and the Biblical matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, who lived in Canaan. The twelve sons of Jacob subsequently gave birth to the Twelve Tribes. Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacob's son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. Jacob's descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus, led by Moses. Afterwards, the Israelites conquered Canaan under Moses' successor Joshua, and went through the period of the Biblical judges after the death of Joshua. Through the mediation of Samuel, the Israelites were subject to a king, Saul, who was succeeded by David and then Solomon, after whom the United Monarchy ended and was split into a separate Kingdom of Israel and a Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah is described as comprising the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially, Levi. They later assimilated remnants of other tribes who migrated there from the northern Kingdom of Israel. In the extra-biblical record, the Israelites become visible as a people between 1200 and 1000 BCE. There is well accepted archeological evidence referring to "Israel" in the Merneptah Stele, which dates to about 1200 BCE, and in the Mesha stele from 840 BCE. It is debated whether a period like that of the Biblical judges occurred and if there ever was a United Monarchy. There is further disagreement about the earliest existence of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their extent and power. Historians agree that a Kingdom of Israel existed by c. 900 BCE,: 169–95 there is a consensus that a Kingdom of Judah existed by c. 700 BCE at least, and recent excavations in Khirbet Qeiyafa have provided strong evidence for dating the Kingdom of Judah to the 10th century BCE. In 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II, King of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and deported parts of the Judahite population. Scholars disagree regarding the extent to which the Bible should be accepted as a historical source for early Israelite history. Rendsburg states that there are two approximately equal groups of scholars who debate the historicity of the biblical narrative, the minimalists who largely reject it, and the maximalists who largely accept it, with the minimalists being the more vocal of the two. Some of the leading minimalists reframe the biblical account as constituting the Israelites' inspiring national myth narrative, suggesting that according to the modern archaeological and historical account, the Israelites and their culture did not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion of Yahwism centered on Yahweh, one of the gods of the Canaanite pantheon. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of cultic practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group, setting them apart from other Canaanites. According to Dever, modern archaeologists have largely discarded the search for evidence of the biblical narrative surrounding the patriarchs and the exodus. According to the maximalist position, the modern archaeological record independently points to a narrative which largely agrees with the biblical account. This narrative provides a testimony of the Israelites as a nomadic people known to the Egyptians as belonging to the Shasu. Over time these nomads left the desert and settled on the central mountain range of the land of Canaan, in simple semi-nomadic settlements in which pig bones are notably absent. This population gradually shifted from a tribal lifestyle to a monarchy. While the archaeological record of the ninth century BCE provides evidence for two monarchies, one in the south under a dynasty founded by a figure named David with its capital in Jerusalem, and one in the north under a dynasty founded by a figure named Omri with its capital in Samaria. It also points to an early monarchic period in which these regions shared material culture and religion, suggesting a common origin. Archaeological finds also provide evidence for the later cooperation of these two kingdoms in their coalition against Aram, and for their destructions by the Assyrians and later by the Babylonians. Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews worldwide bear a common genetic heritage which originates in the Middle East, and that they share certain genetic traits with other Gentile peoples of the Fertile Crescent. The genetic composition of different Jewish groups shows that Jews share a common gene pool dating back four millennia, as a marker of their common ancestral origin. Despite their long-term separation, Jewish communities maintained their unique commonalities, propensities, and sensibilities in culture, tradition, and language. History The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele, which dates to around 1200 BCE. The majority of scholars agree that this text refers to the Israelites, a group that inhabited the central highlands of Canaan, where archaeological evidence shows that hundreds of small settlements were constructed between the 12th and 10th centuries BCE. The Israelites differentiated themselves from neighboring peoples through various distinct characteristics including religious practices, prohibition on intermarriage, and an emphasis on genealogy and family history. In the 10th century BCE, two neighboring Israelite kingdoms—the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah—emerged. Since their inception, they shared ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious characteristics despite a complicated relationship. Israel, with its capital mostly in Samaria, was larger and wealthier, and soon developed into a regional power. In contrast, Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem, was less prosperous and covered a smaller, mostly mountainous territory. However, while in Israel the royal succession was often decided by a military coup d'état, resulting in several dynasty changes, political stability in Judah was much greater, as it was ruled by the House of David for the whole four centuries of its existence. Scholars also describe Biblical Jews as a 'proto-nation', in the modern nationalist sense, comparable to classical Greeks, the Gauls and the British Celts. Around 720 BCE, Kingdom of Israel was destroyed when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which came to dominate the ancient Near East. Under the Assyrian resettlement policy, a significant portion of the northern Israelite population was exiled to Mesopotamia and replaced by immigrants from the same region. During the same period, and throughout the 7th century BCE, the Kingdom of Judah, now under Assyrian vassalage, experienced a period of prosperity and witnessed a significant population growth. This prosperity continued until the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib devastated the region of Judah in response to a rebellion in the area, ultimately halting at Jerusalem. Later in the same century, the Assyrians were defeated by the rising Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Judah became its vassal. In 587 BCE, following a revolt in Judah, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, putting an end to the kingdom. The majority of Jerusalem's residents, including the kingdom's elite, were exiled to Babylon. According to the Book of Ezra, the Persian Cyrus the Great ended the Babylonian exile in 538 BCE, the year after he captured Babylon. The exile ended with the return under Zerubbabel the Prince (so called because he was a descendant of the royal line of David) and Joshua the Priest (a descendant of the line of the former High Priests of the Temple) and their construction of the Second Temple circa 521–516 BCE. As part of the Persian Empire, the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of Judah (Yehud Medinata), with a smaller territory and a reduced population. Judea was under control of the Achaemenids until the fall of their empire in c. 333 BCE to Alexander the Great. After several centuries under foreign imperial rule, the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire resulted in an independent Hasmonean kingdom, under which the Jews once again enjoyed political independence for a period spanning from 110 to 63 BCE. Under Hasmonean rule the boundaries of their kingdom were expanded to include not only the land of the historical kingdom of Judah, but also the Galilee and Transjordan. In the beginning of this process the Idumeans, who had infiltrated southern Judea after the destruction of the First Temple, were converted en masse. In 63 BCE, Judea was conquered by the Romans. From 37 BCE to 6 CE, the Romans allowed the Jews to maintain some degree of independence by installing the Herodian dynasty as vassal kings. However, Judea eventually came directly under Roman control and was incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea. The Jewish–Roman wars, a series of failed uprisings against Roman rule during the first and second centuries CE, had profound and devastating consequences for the Jewish population of Judaea. The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73/74 CE) culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, after which the significantly diminished Jewish population was stripped of political autonomy. A few generations later, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) erupted in response to Roman plans to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman colony, and, possibly, to restrictions on circumcision. Its violent suppression by the Romans led to the near-total depopulation of Judea, and the demographic and cultural center of Jewish life shifted to Galilee. Jews were subsequently banned from residing in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and the province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina. These developments effectively ended Jewish efforts to restore political sovereignty in the region for nearly two millennia. Similar upheavals impacted the Jewish communities in the empire's eastern provinces during the Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), leading to the near-total destruction of Jewish diaspora communities in Libya, Cyprus and Egypt, including the highly influential community in Alexandria. The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE brought profound changes to Judaism. With the Temple's central place in Jewish worship gone, religious practices shifted towards prayer, Torah study (including Oral Torah), and communal gatherings in synagogues. Judaism also lost much of its sectarian nature.: 69 Two of the three main sects that flourished during the late Second Temple period, namely the Sadducees and Essenes, eventually disappeared, while Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis of Rabbinic Judaism, which emerged as the prevailing form of Judaism since late antiquity. The Jewish diaspora existed well before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and had been ongoing for centuries, with the dispersal driven by both forced expulsions and voluntary migrations. In Mesopotamia, a testimony to the beginnings of the Jewish community can be found in Joachin's ration tablets, listing provisions allotted to the exiled Judean king and his family by Nebuchadnezzar II, and further evidence are the Al-Yahudu tablets, dated to the 6th–5th centuries BCE and related to the exiles from Judea arriving after the destruction of the First Temple, though there is ample evidence for the presence of Jews in Babylonia even from 626 BCE. In Egypt, the documents from Elephantine reveal the trials of a community founded by a Persian Jewish garrison at two fortresses on the frontier during the 5th–4th centuries BCE, and according to Josephus the Jewish community in Alexandria existed since the founding of the city in the 4th century BCE by Alexander the Great. By 200 BCE, there were well established Jewish communities both in Egypt and Mesopotamia ("Babylonia" in Jewish sources) and in the two centuries that followed, Jewish populations were also present in Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia, Cyrene, and, beginning in the middle of the first century BCE, in the city of Rome. Later, in the first centuries CE, as a result of the Jewish-Roman Wars, a large number of Jews were taken as captives, sold into slavery, or compelled to flee from the regions affected by the wars, contributing to the formation and expansion of Jewish communities across the Roman Empire as well as in Arabia and Mesopotamia. After the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Jewish population in Judaea—now significantly reduced— made efforts to recover from the revolt's devastating effects, but never fully regained its former strength. Between the second and fourth centuries CE, the region of Galilee emerged as the primary center of Jewish life in Syria Palaestina, experiencing both demographic growth and cultural development. It was during this period that two central rabbinic texts, the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud, were composed. The Romans recognized the patriarchs—rabbinic sages such as Judah ha-Nasi—as representatives of the Jewish people, granting them a certain degree of autonomy. However, as the Roman Empire gave way to the Christianized Byzantine Empire under Constantine, Jews began to face persecution by both the Church and imperial authorities, Jews came to be persecuted by the church and the authorities, and many immigrated to communities in the diaspora. By the fourth century CE, Jews are believed to have lost their demographic majority in Syria Palaestina. The long-established Jewish community of Mesopotamia, which had been living under Parthian and later Sasanian rule, beyond the confines of the Roman Empire, became an important center of Jewish study as Judea's Jewish population declined. Estimates often place the Babylonian Jewish community of the 3rd to 7th centuries at around one million, making it the largest Jewish diaspora community of that period. Under the political leadership of the exilarch, who was regarded as a royal heir of the House of David, this community had an autonomous status and served as a place of refuge for the Jews of Syria Palaestina. A number of significant Talmudic academies, such as the Nehardea, Pumbedita, and Sura academies, were established in Mesopotamia, and many important Amoraim were active there. The Babylonian Talmud, a centerpiece of Jewish religious law, was compiled in Babylonia in the 3rd to 6th centuries. Jewish diaspora communities are generally described to have coalesced into three major ethnic subdivisions according to where their ancestors settled: the Ashkenazim (initially in the Rhineland and France), the Sephardim (initially in the Iberian Peninsula), and the Mizrahim (Middle East and North Africa). Romaniote Jews, Tunisian Jews, Yemenite Jews, Egyptian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, Bukharan Jews, Mountain Jews, and other groups also predated the arrival of the Sephardic diaspora. During the same period, Jewish communities in the Middle East thrived under Islamic rule, especially in cities like Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus. In Babylonia, from the 7th to 11th centuries the Pumbedita and Sura academies led the Arab and to an extent the entire Jewish world. The deans and students of said academies defined the Geonic period in Jewish history. Following this period were the Rishonim who lived from the 11th to 15th centuries. Like their European counterparts, Jews in the Middle East and North Africa also faced periods of persecution and discriminatory policies, with the Almohad Caliphate in North Africa and Iberia issuing forced conversion decrees, causing Jews such as Maimonides to seek safety in other regions. Despite experiencing repeated waves of persecution, Ashkenazi Jews in Western Europe worked in a variety of fields, making an impact on their communities' economy and societies. In Francia, for example, figures like Isaac Judaeus and Armentarius occupied prominent social and economic positions. Francia also witnessed the development of a sophisticated tradition of biblical commentary, as exemplified by Rashi and the tosafists. In 1144, the first documented blood libel occurred in Norwich, England, marking an escalation in the pattern of discrimination and violence that Jews had already been subjected to throughout medieval Europe. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews faced frequent antisemitic legislation - including laws prescribing distinctive dress - alongside segregation, repeated blood libels, pogroms, and massacres such as the Rhineland Massacres (1066). The Jews of the Holy Roman Empire were designated Servi camerae regis (“servants of the imperial chamber”) by Frederick II, a status that afforded limited protection while simultaneously entangling them in the political struggles between the emperor and the German principalities and cities. Persecution intensified during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when Jews were accused of poisoning wells and many communities were destroyed. These pressures, combined with major expulsions such as that from England in 1290, gradually pushed Ashkenazi Jewish populations eastward into Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. One of the largest Jewish communities of the Middle Ages was in the Iberian Peninsula, which for a time contained the largest Jewish population in Europe. Iberian Jewry endured discrimination under the Visigoths but saw its fortunes improve under Umayyad rule and later the Taifa kingdoms. During this period, the Jews of Muslim Spain entered a "Golden Age" marked by achievements in Hebrew poetry and literature, religious scholarship, grammar, medicine and science, with leading figures including Hasdai ibn Shaprut, Judah Halevi, Moses ibn Ezra and Solomon ibn Gabirol. Jews also rose to high office, most notably Samuel ibn Naghrillah, a scholar and poet who served as grand vizier and military commander of Granada. The Golden Age ended with the rise of the radical Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, whose persecutions drove many Jews from Iberia (including Maimonides), together with the advancing Reconquista. In 1391, widespread pogroms swept across Spain, leaving thousands dead and forcing mass conversions. The Spanish Inquisition was later established to pursue, torture and execute conversos who continued to practice Judaism in secret, while public disputations were staged to discredit Judaism. In 1492, after the Reconquista, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon decreed the expulsion of all Jews who refused conversion, sending an estimated 200,000 into exile in Portugal, Italy, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1497, Portugal's Jews, about 30,000, were formally ordered expelled but instead were forcibly converted to retain their economic role. In 1498, some 3,500 Jews were expelled from Navarre. Many converts outwardly adopted Christianity while secretly preserving Jewish practices, becoming crypto-Jews (also known as marranos or anusim), who remained targets of the various Inquisitions for centuries. Following the expulsions from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s, Jewish exiles dispersed across the Mediterranean, Europe, and North Africa. Many settled in the Ottoman Empire—which, replacing the Iberian Peninsula, became home to the world's largest Jewish population—where new communities developed in Anatolia, the Balkans, and the Land of Israel. Cities such as Istanbul and Thessaloniki grew into major Jewish centers, while in 16th-century Safed a flourishing spiritual life took shape. There, Solomon Alkabetz, Moses Cordovero, and Isaac Luria developed influential new schools of Kabbalah, giving powerful impetus to Jewish mysticism, and Joseph Karo composed the Shulchan Aruch, which became a cornerstone of Jewish law. In the 17th century, Portuguese conversos who returned to Judaism and engaged in trade and banking helped establish Amsterdam as a prosperous Jewish center, while also forming communities in cities such as Antwerp and London. This period also witnessed waves of messianic fervor, most notably the rise of the Sabbatean movement in the 1660s, led by Sabbatai Zvi of İzmir, which reverberated throughout the Jewish world. In Eastern Europe, Poland–Lithuania became the principal center of Ashkenazi Jewry, eventually becoming home to the largest Jewish population in the world. Jewish life flourished there from in the early modern era, supported by relative stability, economic opportunity, and strong communal institutions. The mid-17th century brought devastation with the Cossack uprisings in Ukraine, which reversed migration flows and sent refugees westward, yet Poland–Lithuania remained the demographic and cultural heartland of Ashkenazic Jewry. Following the partitions of Poland, most of its Jews came under Russian rule and were confined to the "Pale of Settlement." The 18th century also witnessed new religious and intellectual currents. Hasidism, founded by Baal Shem Tov, emphasized mysticism and piety, while its opponents, the Misnagdim ("opponents") led by the Vilna Gaon, defended rabbinic scholarship and tradition. In Western Europe, during the 1760s and 1770s, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) emerged in German-speaking lands, where figures such as Moses Mendelssohn promoted secular learning, vernacular literacy, and integration into European society. Elsewhere, Jews began to be re-admitted to Western Europe, including England, where Menasseh ben Israel petitioned Oliver Cromwell for their return. In the Americas, Jews of Sephardic descent first arrived as conversos in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, where many faced trial by Inquisition tribunals for "judaizing." A more durable presence began in Dutch Brazil, where Jews openly practiced their religion and established the first synagogues in the New World, before the Portuguese reconquest forced their dispersal to Amsterdam, the Caribbean, and North America. Sephardic communities took root in Curaçao, Suriname, Jamaica, and Barbados, later joined by Ashkenazi migrants. In North America, Jews were present from the mid-17th century, with New Amsterdam hosting the first organized congregation in 1654. By the time of the American Revolution, small communities in New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Savannah, and Charleston played an active role in the struggle for independence. In the late 19th century, Jews in Western Europe gradually achieved legal emancipation, though social acceptance remained limited by persistent antisemitism and rising nationalism. In Eastern Europe, particularly within the Russian Empire's Pale of Settlement, Jews faced mounting legal restrictions and recurring pogroms. From this environment emerged Zionism, a national revival movement originating in Central and Eastern Europe that sought to re-establish a Jewish polity in the Land of Israel as a means of returning the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland and ending centuries of exile and persecution. This led to waves of Jewish migration to Ottoman-controlled Palestine. Theodor Herzl, who is considered the father of political Zionism, offered his vision of a future Jewish state in his 1896 book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State); a year later, he presided over the First Zionist Congress. The antisemitism that inflicted Jewish communities in Europe also triggered a mass exodus of 2.8 million Jews to the United States between 1881 and 1924. Despite this, some Jews of Europe and the United States were able to make great achievements in various fields of science and culture. Among the most influential from this period are Albert Einstein in physics, Sigmund Freud in psychology, Franz Kafka in literature, and Irving Berlin in music. Many Nobel Prize winners at this time were Jewish, as is still the case. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, the situation for Jews deteriorated rapidly as a direct result of Nazi policies. Many Jews fled from Europe to Mandatory Palestine, the United States, and the Soviet Union as a result of racial anti-Semitic laws, economic difficulties, and the fear of an impending war. World War II started in 1939, and by 1941, Hitler occupied almost all of Europe. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Final Solution—an extensive, organized effort with an unprecedented scope intended to annihilate the Jewish people—began, and resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe and North Africa. In Poland, three million were murdered in gas chambers in all concentration camps combined, with one million at the Auschwitz camp complex alone. The Holocaust is the name given to this genocide, in which six million Jews in total were systematically murdered. Before and during the Holocaust, enormous numbers of Jews immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. In 1944, the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine began with the aim of gaining full independence from the United Kingdom. On 14 May 1948, upon the termination of the mandate, David Ben-Gurion declared the creation of the State of Israel, a Jewish and democratic state. Immediately afterwards, all neighboring Arab states invaded, and were resisted by the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. In 1949, the war ended and Israel started building its state and absorbing waves of Aliyah, granting citizenship to Jews all over the world via the Law of Return passed in 1950. However, both the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and wider Arab–Israeli conflict continue to this day. Culture The Jewish people and the religion of Judaism are strongly interrelated. Converts to Judaism have a status within the Jewish people equal to those born into it. However, converts who go on to practice no Judaism are likely to be viewed with skepticism. Mainstream Judaism does not proselytize, and conversion is considered a difficult task. A significant portion of conversions are undertaken by children of mixed marriages, or would-be or current spouses of Jews. The Hebrew Bible, a religious interpretation of the traditions and early history of the Jews, established the first of the Abrahamic religions, which are now practiced by 54 percent of the world. Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, and has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life," which has made drawing a clear distinction between Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish identity rather difficult. Throughout history, in eras and places as diverse as the ancient Hellenic world, in Europe before and after The Age of Enlightenment (see Haskalah), in Islamic Spain and Portugal, in North Africa and the Middle East, India, China, or the contemporary United States and Israel, cultural phenomena have developed that are in some sense characteristically Jewish without being at all specifically religious. Some factors in this come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews or specific communities of Jews with their surroundings, and still others from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community, as opposed to from the religion itself. This phenomenon has led to considerably different Jewish cultures unique to their own communities. Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism (termed lashon ha-kodesh, "the holy tongue"), the language in which most of the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were composed, and the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries. By the 5th century BCE, Aramaic, a closely related tongue, joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea. By the 3rd century BCE, some Jews of the diaspora were speaking Greek. Others, such as in the Jewish communities of Asoristan, known to Jews as Babylonia, were speaking Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Babylonian Talmud. Dialects of these same languages were also used by the Jews of Syria Palaestina at that time.[citation needed] For centuries, Jews worldwide have spoken the local or dominant languages of the regions they migrated to, often developing distinctive dialectal forms or branches that became independent languages. Yiddish is the Judaeo-German language developed by Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to Central Europe. Ladino is the Judaeo-Spanish language developed by Sephardic Jews who migrated to the Iberian Peninsula. Due to many factors, including the impact of the Holocaust on European Jewry, the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries, and widespread emigration from other Jewish communities around the world, ancient and distinct Jewish languages of several communities, including Judaeo-Georgian, Judaeo-Arabic, Judaeo-Berber, Krymchak, Judaeo-Malayalam and many others, have largely fallen out of use. For over sixteen centuries Hebrew was used almost exclusively as a liturgical language, and as the language in which most books had been written on Judaism, with a few speaking only Hebrew on the Sabbath. Hebrew was revived as a spoken language by Eliezer ben Yehuda, who arrived in Palestine in 1881. It had not been used as a mother tongue since Tannaic times. Modern Hebrew is designated as the "State language" of Israel. Despite efforts to revive Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people, knowledge of the language is not commonly possessed by Jews worldwide and English has emerged as the lingua franca of the Jewish diaspora. Although many Jews once had sufficient knowledge of Hebrew to study the classic literature, and Jewish languages like Yiddish and Ladino were commonly used as recently as the early 20th century, most Jews lack such knowledge today and English has by and large superseded most Jewish vernaculars. The three most commonly spoken languages among Jews today are Hebrew, English, and Russian. Some Romance languages, particularly French and Spanish, are also widely used. Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other language, but it is far less used today following the Holocaust and the adoption of Modern Hebrew by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In some places, the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general population or the dominant group. For example, in Quebec, the Ashkenazic majority has adopted English, while the Sephardic minority uses French as its primary language. Similarly, South African Jews adopted English rather than Afrikaans. Due to both Czarist and Soviet policies, Russian has superseded Yiddish as the language of Russian Jews, but these policies have also affected neighboring communities. Today, Russian is the first language for many Jewish communities in a number of Post-Soviet states, such as Ukraine and Uzbekistan,[better source needed] as well as for Ashkenazic Jews in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Tajikistan. Although communities in North Africa today are small and dwindling, Jews there had shifted from a multilingual group to a monolingual one (or nearly so), speaking French in Algeria, Morocco, and the city of Tunis, while most North Africans continue to use Arabic or Berber as their mother tongue.[citation needed] There is no single governing body for the Jewish community, nor a single authority with responsibility for religious doctrine. Instead, a variety of secular and religious institutions at the local, national, and international levels lead various parts of the Jewish community on a variety of issues. Today, many countries have a Chief Rabbi who serves as a representative of that country's Jewry. Although many Hasidic Jews follow a certain hereditary Hasidic dynasty, there is no one commonly accepted leader of all Hasidic Jews. Many Jews believe that the Messiah will act a unifying leader for Jews and the entire world. A number of modern scholars of nationalism support the existence of Jewish national identity in antiquity. One of them is David Goodblatt, who generally believes in the existence of nationalism before the modern period. In his view, the Bible, the parabiblical literature and the Jewish national history provide the base for a Jewish collective identity. Although many of the ancient Jews were illiterate (as were their neighbors), their national narrative was reinforced through public readings. The Hebrew language also constructed and preserved national identity. Although it was not widely spoken after the 5th century BCE, Goodblatt states: the mere presence of the language in spoken or written form could invoke the concept of a Jewish national identity. Even if one knew no Hebrew or was illiterate, one could recognize that a group of signs was in Hebrew script. ... It was the language of the Israelite ancestors, the national literature, and the national religion. As such it was inseparable from the national identity. Indeed its mere presence in visual or aural medium could invoke that identity. Anthony D. Smith, an historical sociologist considered one of the founders of the field of nationalism studies, wrote that the Jews of the late Second Temple period provide "a closer approximation to the ideal type of the nation [...] than perhaps anywhere else in the ancient world." He adds that this observation "must make us wary of pronouncing too readily against the possibility of the nation, and even a form of religious nationalism, before the onset of modernity." Agreeing with Smith, Goodblatt suggests omitting the qualifier "religious" from Smith's definition of ancient Jewish nationalism, noting that, according to Smith, a religious component in national memories and culture is common even in the modern era. This view is echoed by political scientist Tom Garvin, who writes that "something strangely like modern nationalism is documented for many peoples in medieval times and in classical times as well," citing the ancient Jews as one of several "obvious examples", alongside the classical Greeks and the Gaulish and British Celts. Fergus Millar suggests that the sources of Jewish national identity and their early nationalist movements in the first and second centuries CE included several key elements: the Bible as both a national history and legal source, the Hebrew language as a national language, a system of law, and social institutions such as schools, synagogues, and Sabbath worship. Adrian Hastings argued that Jews are the "true proto-nation", that through the model of ancient Israel found in the Hebrew Bible, provided the world with the original concept of nationhood which later influenced Christian nations. However, following Jerusalem's destruction in the first century CE, Jews ceased to be a political entity and did not resemble a traditional nation-state for almost two millennia. Despite this, they maintained their national identity through collective memory, religion and sacred texts, even without land or political power, and remained a nation rather than just an ethnic group, eventually leading to the rise of Zionism and the establishment of Israel. Steven Weitzman suggests that Jewish nationalist sentiment in antiquity was encouraged because under foreign rule (Persians, Greeks, Romans) Jews were able to claim that they were an ancient nation. This claim was based on the preservation and reverence of their scriptures, the Hebrew language, the Temple and priesthood, and other traditions of their ancestors. Doron Mendels further observes that the Hasmonean kingdom, one of the few examples of indigenous statehood at its time, significantly reinforced Jewish national consciousness. The memory of this period of independence contributed to the persistent efforts to revive Jewish sovereignty in Judea, leading to the major revolts against Roman rule in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Demographics Within the world's Jewish population there are distinct ethnic divisions, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions. An array of Jewish communities was established by Jewish settlers in various places around the Old World, often at great distances from one another, resulting in effective and often long-term isolation. During the millennia of the Jewish diaspora the communities would develop under the influence of their local environments: political, cultural, natural, and populational. Today, manifestations of these differences among the Jews can be observed in Jewish cultural expressions of each community, including Jewish linguistic diversity, culinary preferences, liturgical practices, religious interpretations, as well as degrees and sources of genetic admixture. Jews are often identified as belonging to one of two major groups: the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. Ashkenazim are so named in reference to their geographical origins (their ancestors' culture coalesced in the Rhineland, an area historically referred to by Jews as Ashkenaz). Similarly, Sephardim (Sefarad meaning "Spain" in Hebrew) are named in reference their origins in Iberia. The diverse groups of Jews of the Middle East and North Africa are often collectively referred to as Sephardim together with Sephardim proper for liturgical reasons having to do with their prayer rites. A common term for many of these non-Spanish Jews who are sometimes still broadly grouped as Sephardim is Mizrahim (lit. 'easterners' in Hebrew). Nevertheless, Mizrahis and Sepharadim are usually ethnically distinct. Smaller groups include, but are not restricted to, Indian Jews such as the Bene Israel, Bnei Menashe, Cochin Jews, and Bene Ephraim; the Romaniotes of Greece; the Italian Jews ("Italkim" or "Bené Roma"); the Teimanim from Yemen; various African Jews, including most numerously the Beta Israel of Ethiopia; and Chinese Jews, most notably the Kaifeng Jews, as well as various other distinct but now almost extinct communities. The divisions between all these groups are approximate and their boundaries are not always clear. The Mizrahim for example, are a heterogeneous collection of North African, Central Asian, Caucasian, and Middle Eastern Jewish communities that are no closer related to each other than they are to any of the earlier mentioned Jewish groups. In modern usage, however, the Mizrahim are sometimes termed Sephardi due to similar styles of liturgy, despite independent development from Sephardim proper. Thus, among Mizrahim there are Egyptian Jews, Iraqi Jews, Lebanese Jews, Kurdish Jews, Moroccan Jews, Libyan Jews, Syrian Jews, Bukharian Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews, Iranian Jews, Afghan Jews, and various others. The Teimanim from Yemen are sometimes included, although their style of liturgy is unique and they differ in respect to the admixture found among them to that found in Mizrahim. In addition, there is a differentiation made between Sephardi migrants who established themselves in the Middle East and North Africa after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s and the pre-existing Jewish communities in those regions. Ashkenazi Jews represent the bulk of modern Jewry, with at least 70 percent of Jews worldwide (and up to 90 percent prior to World War II and the Holocaust). As a result of their emigration from Europe, Ashkenazim also represent the overwhelming majority of Jews in the New World continents, in countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil. In France, the immigration of Jews from Algeria (Sephardim) has led them to outnumber the Ashkenazim. Only in Israel is the Jewish population representative of all groups, a melting pot independent of each group's proportion within the overall world Jewish population. Y DNA studies tend to imply a small number of founders in an old population whose members parted and followed different migration paths. In most Jewish populations, these male line ancestors appear to have been mainly Middle Eastern. For example, Ashkenazi Jews share more common paternal lineages with other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than with non-Jewish populations in areas where Jews lived in Eastern Europe, Germany, and the French Rhine Valley. This is consistent with Jewish traditions in placing most Jewish paternal origins in the region of the Middle East. Conversely, the maternal lineages of Jewish populations, studied by looking at mitochondrial DNA, are generally more heterogeneous. Scholars such as Harry Ostrer and Raphael Falk believe this indicates that many Jewish males found new mates from European and other communities in the places where they migrated in the diaspora after fleeing ancient Israel. In contrast, Behar has found evidence that about 40 percent of Ashkenazi Jews originate maternally from just four female founders, who were of Middle Eastern origin. The populations of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish communities "showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect." Subsequent studies carried out by Feder et al. confirmed the large portion of non-local maternal origin among Ashkenazi Jews. Reflecting on their findings related to the maternal origin of Ashkenazi Jews, the authors conclude "Clearly, the differences between Jews and non-Jews are far larger than those observed among the Jewish communities. Hence, differences between the Jewish communities can be overlooked when non-Jews are included in the comparisons." However, a 2025 genetic study on the Ashkenazi Jewish founder population supports the presence of a substantial Near Eastern component in the maternal lineages. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) indicate that the core founder lineages, estimated at around 54, likely originated from the Near East, with these founder signatures appearing in multiple copies across the population. While later admixture introduced additional mtDNA lineages, these absorbed lineages are distinguishable from the original founders. The findings are consistent with genome-wide Identity-by-Descent and Lineage Extinction analyses, reinforcing the Near Eastern origin of the Ashkenazi maternal founders. A study showed that 7% of Ashkenazi Jews have the haplogroup G2c, which is mainly found in Pashtuns and on lower scales all major Jewish groups, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Studies of autosomal DNA, which look at the entire DNA mixture, have become increasingly important as the technology develops. They show that Jewish populations have tended to form relatively closely related groups in independent communities, with most in a community sharing significant ancestry in common. For Jewish populations of the diaspora, the genetic composition of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jewish populations show a predominant amount of shared Middle Eastern ancestry. According to Behar, the most parsimonious explanation for this shared Middle Eastern ancestry is that it is "consistent with the historical formulation of the Jewish people as descending from ancient Hebrew and Israelite residents of the Levant" and "the dispersion of the people of ancient Israel throughout the Old World". North African, Italian and others of Iberian origin show variable frequencies of admixture with non-Jewish historical host populations among the maternal lines. In the case of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (in particular Moroccan Jews), who are closely related, the source of non-Jewish admixture is mainly Southern European, while Mizrahi Jews show evidence of admixture with other Middle Eastern populations. Behar et al. have remarked on a close relationship between Ashkenazi Jews and modern Italians. A 2001 study found that Jews were more closely related to groups of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors, whose genetic signature was found in geographic patterns reflective of Islamic conquests. The studies also show that Sephardic Bnei Anusim (descendants of the "anusim" who were forced to convert to Catholicism), which comprise up to 19.8 percent of the population of today's Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and at least 10 percent of the population of Ibero-America (Hispanic America and Brazil), have Sephardic Jewish ancestry within the last few centuries. The Bene Israel and Cochin Jews of India, Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and a portion of the Lemba people of Southern Africa, despite more closely resembling the local populations of their native countries, have also been thought to have some more remote ancient Jewish ancestry. Views on the Lemba have changed and genetic Y-DNA analyses in the 2000s have established a partially Middle-Eastern origin for a portion of the male Lemba population but have been unable to narrow this down further. Although historically, Jews have been found all over the world, in the decades since World War II and the establishment of Israel, they have increasingly concentrated in a small number of countries. In 2021, Israel and the United States together accounted for over 85 percent of the global Jewish population, with approximately 45.3% and 39.6% of the world's Jews, respectively. More than half (51.2%) of world Jewry resides in just ten metropolitan areas. As of 2021, these ten areas were Tel Aviv, New York, Jerusalem, Haifa, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Paris, Washington, and Chicago. The Tel Aviv metro area has the highest percent of Jews among the total population (94.8%), followed by Jerusalem (72.3%), Haifa (73.1%), and Beersheba (60.4%), the balance mostly being Israeli Arabs. Outside Israel, the highest percent of Jews in a metropolitan area was in New York (10.8%), followed by Miami (8.7%), Philadelphia (6.8%), San Francisco (5.1%), Washington (4.7%), Los Angeles (4.7%), Toronto (4.5%), and Baltimore (4.1%). As of 2010, there were nearly 14 million Jews around the world, roughly 0.2% of the world's population at the time. According to the 2007 estimates of The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, the world's Jewish population is 13.2 million. This statistic incorporates both practicing Jews affiliated with synagogues and the Jewish community, and approximately 4.5 million unaffiliated and secular Jews.[citation needed] According to Sergio Della Pergola, a demographer of the Jewish population, in 2021 there were about 6.8 million Jews in Israel, 6 million in the United States, and 2.3 million in the rest of the world. Israel, the Jewish nation-state, is the only country in which Jews make up a majority of the citizens. Israel was established as an independent democratic and Jewish state on 14 May 1948. Of the 120 members in its parliament, the Knesset, as of 2016[update], 14 members of the Knesset are Arab citizens of Israel (not including the Druze), most representing Arab political parties. One of Israel's Supreme Court judges is also an Arab citizen of Israel. Between 1948 and 1958, the Jewish population rose from 800,000 to two million. Currently, Jews account for 75.4 percent of the Israeli population, or 6 million people. The early years of the State of Israel were marked by the mass immigration of Holocaust survivors in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Jews fleeing Arab lands. Israel also has a large population of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom were airlifted to Israel in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1974 and 1979 nearly 227,258 immigrants arrived in Israel, about half being from the Soviet Union. This period also saw an increase in immigration to Israel from Western Europe, Latin America, and North America. A trickle of immigrants from other communities has also arrived, including Indian Jews and others, as well as some descendants of Ashkenazi Holocaust survivors who had settled in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Australia, Chile, and South Africa. Some Jews have emigrated from Israel elsewhere, because of economic problems or disillusionment with political conditions and the continuing Arab–Israeli conflict. Jewish Israeli emigrants are known as yordim. The waves of immigration to the United States and elsewhere at the turn of the 19th century, the founding of Zionism and later events, including pogroms in Imperial Russia (mostly within the Pale of Settlement in present-day Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and eastern Poland), the massacre of European Jewry during the Holocaust, and the founding of the state of Israel, with the subsequent Jewish exodus from Arab lands, all resulted in substantial shifts in the population centers of world Jewry by the end of the 20th century. More than half of the Jews live in the Diaspora (see Population table). Currently, the largest Jewish community outside Israel, and either the largest or second-largest Jewish community in the world, is located in the United States, with 6 million to 7.5 million Jews by various estimates. Elsewhere in the Americas, there are also large Jewish populations in Canada (315,000), Argentina (180,000–300,000), and Brazil (196,000–600,000), and smaller populations in Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and several other countries (see History of the Jews in Latin America). According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, about 470,000 people of Jewish heritage live in Latin America and the Caribbean. Demographers disagree on whether the United States has a larger Jewish population than Israel, with many maintaining that Israel surpassed the United States in Jewish population during the 2000s, while others maintain that the United States still has the largest Jewish population in the world. Currently, a major national Jewish population survey is planned to ascertain whether or not Israel has overtaken the United States in Jewish population. Western Europe's largest Jewish community, and the third-largest Jewish community in the world, can be found in France, home to between 483,000 and 500,000 Jews, the majority of whom are immigrants or refugees from North African countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (or their descendants). The United Kingdom has a Jewish community of 292,000. In Eastern Europe, the exact figures are difficult to establish. The number of Jews in Russia varies widely according to whether a source uses census data (which requires a person to choose a single nationality among choices that include "Russian" and "Jewish") or eligibility for immigration to Israel (which requires that a person have one or more Jewish grandparents). According to the latter criteria, the heads of the Russian Jewish community assert that up to 1.5 million Russians are eligible for aliyah. In Germany, the 102,000 Jews registered with the Jewish community are a slowly declining population, despite the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thousands of Israelis also live in Germany, either permanently or temporarily, for economic reasons. Prior to 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands which now make up the Arab world (excluding Israel). Of these, just under two-thirds lived in the French-controlled Maghreb region, 15 to 20 percent in the Kingdom of Iraq, approximately 10 percent in the Kingdom of Egypt and approximately 7 percent in the Kingdom of Yemen. A further 200,000 lived in Pahlavi Iran and the Republic of Turkey. Today, around 26,000 Jews live in Muslim-majority countries, mainly in Turkey (14,200) and Iran (9,100), while Morocco (2,000), Tunisia (1,000), and the United Arab Emirates (500) host the largest communities in the Arab world. A small-scale exodus had begun in many countries in the early decades of the 20th century, although the only substantial aliyah came from Yemen and Syria. The exodus from Arab and Muslim countries took place primarily from 1948. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily in Iraq, Yemen and Libya, with up to 90 percent of these communities leaving within a few years. The peak of the exodus from Egypt occurred in 1956. The exodus in the Maghreb countries peaked in the 1960s. Lebanon was the only Arab country to see a temporary increase in its Jewish population during this period, due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries, although by the mid-1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon had also dwindled. In the aftermath of the exodus wave from Arab states, an additional migration of Iranian Jews peaked in the 1980s when around 80 percent of Iranian Jews left the country.[citation needed] Outside Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia, there are significant Jewish populations in Australia (112,500) and South Africa (70,000). There is also a 6,800-strong community in New Zealand. Since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks, a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their Jewish identity. Assimilation took place in all areas, and during all time periods, with some Jewish communities, for example the Kaifeng Jews of China, disappearing entirely. The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th century (see Haskalah) and the subsequent emancipation of the Jewish populations of Europe and America in the 19th century, accelerated the situation, encouraging Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, secular society. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community. Rates of interreligious marriage vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50 percent; in the United Kingdom, around 53 percent; in France, around 30 percent; and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10 percent. In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious practice. The result is that most countries in the Diaspora have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.[citation needed] The Jewish people and Judaism have experienced various persecutions throughout their history. During Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the Roman Empire (in its later phases known as the Byzantine Empire) repeatedly repressed the Jewish population, first by ejecting them from their homelands during the pagan Roman era and later by officially establishing them as second-class citizens during the Christian Roman era. According to James Carroll, "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if other factors had not intervened, there would be 200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million." Later in medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews by Christians occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and in a series of expulsions from the Kingdom of England, Germany, and France. Then there occurred the largest expulsion of all, when Spain and Portugal, after the Reconquista (the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula), expelled both unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim Moors. In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called ghettos. Islam and Judaism have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religions and administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to certain conditions. They had to pay the jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the Islamic state. Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal disabilities such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims. Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The one described by Bernard Lewis as "most degrading" was the requirement of distinctive clothing, not found in the Quran or hadith but invented in early medieval Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic. On the other hand, Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession. Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and forcible conversion of some Jews by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in Al-Andalus in the 12th century, as well as in Islamic Persia, and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled quarters known as mellahs beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early 19th century. In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard antisemitic themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist publications and pronouncements of Islamic movements such as Hezbollah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Turkish Refah Partisi."[better source needed] Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The history of antisemitism includes the First Crusade which resulted in the massacre of Jews; the Spanish Inquisition (led by Tomás de Torquemada) and the Portuguese Inquisition, with their persecution and autos-da-fé against the New Christians and Marrano Jews; the Bohdan Chmielnicki Cossack massacres in Ukraine; the Pogroms backed by the Russian Tsars; as well as expulsions from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled. According to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19.8 percent of the modern Iberian population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry, indicating that the number of conversos may have been much higher than originally thought. The persecution reached a peak in Nazi Germany's Final Solution, which led to the Holocaust and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews. Of the world's 16 million Jews in 1939, almost 40% were murdered in the Holocaust. The Holocaust—the state-led systematic persecution and genocide of European Jews (and certain communities of North African Jews in European controlled North Africa) and other minority groups of Europe during World War II by Germany and its collaborators—remains the most notable modern-day persecution of Jews. The persecution and genocide were accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in Eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of kilometres by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were murdered in gas chambers. Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation." Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland, the Land of Israel, and many of the areas in which they have settled. This experience as refugees has shaped Jewish identity and religious practice in many ways, and is thus a major element of Jewish history. In summary, the pogroms in Eastern Europe, the rise of modern antisemitism, the Holocaust, as well as the rise of Arab nationalism, all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent until they arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel. In the Bible, the patriarch Abraham is described as a migrant to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees. His descendants, the Children of Israel, undertook the Exodus (meaning "departure" or "exit" in Greek) from ancient Egypt, as described in the Book of Exodus. The first movement documented in the historical record occurred with the resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which mandated the deportation of conquered peoples, and it is estimated some 4,500,000 among its captive populations suffered this dislocation over three centuries of Assyrian rule. With regard to Israel, Tiglath-Pileser III claims he deported 80% of the population of Lower Galilee, some 13,520 people. Some 27,000 Israelites, 20 to 25% of the population of the Kingdom of Israel, were described as being deported by Sargon II, and were replaced by other deported populations and sent into permanent exile by Assyria, initially to the Upper Mesopotamian provinces of the Assyrian Empire. Between 10,000 and 80,000 people from the Kingdom of Judah were similarly exiled by Babylonia, but these people were then returned to Judea by Cyrus the Great of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Many Jews were exiled again by the Roman Empire. The 2,000 year dispersion of the Jewish diaspora beginning under the Roman Empire, as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land, settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to the Iberian Peninsula to Poland to the United States and, as a result of Zionism, back to Israel. There were also many expulsions of Jews during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, (see the Statute of Jewry); in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421, thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of these Jews settled in East-Central Europe, especially Poland. Following the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, the Spanish population of around 200,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and Catholic church, followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Jews fled mainly to the Ottoman Empire, the Netherlands, and North Africa, others migrating to Southern Europe and the Middle East. During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe). This contributed to the arrival of millions of Jews in the New World. Over two million Eastern European Jews arrived in the United States from 1880 to 1925. In the latest phase of migrations, the Islamic Revolution of Iran caused many Iranian Jews to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly Los Angeles, California, and Long Island, New York) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in Canada and Western Europe. Similarly, when the Soviet Union collapsed, many of the Jews in the affected territory (who had been refuseniks) were suddenly allowed to leave. This produced a wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s. Israel is the only country with a Jewish population that is consistently growing through natural population growth, although the Jewish populations of other countries, in Europe and North America, have recently increased through immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but Orthodox and Haredi Jewish communities, whose members often shun birth control for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism discourage proselytism to non-Jews, but many Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the Diaspora in order for them to reconnect to their Jewish roots. Additionally, while in principle Reform Judaism favours seeking new members for the faith, this position has not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples. There is also a trend of Orthodox movements reaching out to secular Jews in order to give them a stronger Jewish identity so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there has been a trend (known as the Baal teshuva movement) for secular Jews to become more religiously observant, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown. Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to Jews by Choice of gentiles who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews. Contributions Jewish individuals have played a significant role in the development and growth of Western culture, advancing many fields of thought, science and technology, both historically and in modern times, including through discrete trends in Jewish philosophy, Jewish ethics and Jewish literature, as well as specific trends in Jewish culture, including in Jewish art, Jewish music, Jewish humor, Jewish theatre, Jewish cuisine and Jewish medicine. Jews have established various Jewish political movements, religious movements, and, through the authorship of the Hebrew Bible and parts of the New Testament, provided the foundation for Christianity and Islam. More than 20 percent of the awarded Nobel Prize have gone to individuals of Jewish descent. Philanthropic giving is a widespread core function among Jewish organizations. Notes References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEANT] | [TOKENS: 857] |
Contents GÉANT GÉANT (Gigabit European Academic Network) is the pan-European data network for the research and education community. It interconnects national research and education networks (NRENs) across Europe, enabling collaboration on projects ranging from biological science, to earth observation, to arts and culture. The GÉANT project combines a high-bandwidth, high-capacity 50,000 km network with a growing range of services. These allow researchers to collaborate, working together wherever they are located. Services include identity and trust, multi-domain monitoring perfSONAR MDM, dynamic circuits and roaming via the eduroam service. Together with European NRENs, GÉANT connects 50 million users in over 10,000 institutions. Through links to research networks in other regions (such as Internet2 and ESnet in the US, AfricaConnect in Africa, TEIN in Asia-Pacific and RedCLARA in Latin America), GÉANT enables collaboration between researchers in over half the world's countries. Co-funded by the European Commission and Europe's NRENs, the GÉANT network was built and is operated by the GÉANT Association. The GÉANT project is a collaboration between 38 partners. History The GÉANT project began in November 2000, entered full production operation in December 2001 (fully replacing a network called TEN-155). Originally due to finish in October 2004, it was subsequently extended until April 2005. The second generation network, named GÉANT2, began in September 2004 and continued through 2009, growing the network to 30 national networks in 34 countries. The next GÉANT project (GN3) began on 1 April 2009 and continued until April 2013. This was then superseded by the GN3plus project which was scheduled to run for two years. It is funded under the EC's seventh research and development Research Framework Programme (often referred to as FP7). This was followed by the GN4 series of projects (GN4-1, GN4-2, and GN4-3) funded within the seven-year Horizon 2020 Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA). The project is now in its fifth iteration (GN5) funded under the seven-year Horizon Europe FPA. GN5-1 ran from January 2023 to December 2024. GN5-2, the current project, started in January 2025. Technology As well as providing the high-bandwidth links across Europe, the GÉANT network also acts as a testbed for new technology. It was the first "hybrid" network deployed on an international scale, combining routed IP and switched infrastructure. This enables the network to offer general traffic alongside virtual "private" network paths for projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider, which have particular requirements involving dedicated bandwidth, security and flexibility. GÉANT supported native IPv6 since 2002 and multicast IPv6 since 2004. It is involved in network research, in areas such as carrier class network technologies, photonic switching, federated network architectures and virtualisation. In 2013 a substantial network migration program was completed, meaning users could be offered multiple 100 Gbit/s links, with the core network supporting 500 Gbit/s and a network design that will support up to 8 Tbit/s. Already, over 1 petabyte of data is transferred every day via the GÉANT backbone network. Participants The GÉANT project is a collaboration between 50 partners: 37 European NREN, IUCC (representing Israel), NORDUnet (representing the five Nordic countries), and 11 associate members. The full list of NREN project partners is available on the website. Global links GÉANT links to research networks in other world regions, including: These links not only help international research collaboration but also aid with projects that deliver societal benefit, such as e-health, telemedicine and weather forecasting/disaster warning systems. Allowing researchers to work within their own countries also stems migration from less developed countries, helping bridge the digital divide. Example projects GÉANT is used by research communities, such as: References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkworms] | [TOKENS: 3421] |
Contents Bombyx mori Bombyx mori, commonly known as the domestic silk moth, is a domesticated moth species belonging to the family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina, the wild silk moth. Silkworms are the larvae of silk moths. The silkworm is of particular economic value, being a primary producer of silk. The silkworm's preferred food are the leaves of white mulberry, though they may eat other species of mulberry, and even leaves of other plants. Domestic silk moths are entirely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. Wild silk moths, which are other species of Bombyx, are not as commercially viable in the production of silk. Sericulture, the practice of breeding silk moths for the production of raw silk, has existed for at least 5,000 years in China, whence it spread to India, Korea, Nepal, Japan, and then the West. The conventional process of sericulture kills the silkworm in the pupal stage. The domestic silk moth was domesticated from the wild silk moth Bombyx mandarina, which has a range from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan, and the far eastern regions of Russia. The domestic silk moth derives from Chinese rather than Japanese or Korean stock. Silk moths were unlikely to have been domestically bred before the Neolithic period. Before then, the tools to manufacture quantities of silk thread had not been developed. The domesticated Bombyx mori and the wild Bombyx mandarina can still breed and sometimes produce hybrids.: 342 It is unknown if B. mori can hybridize with other Bombyx species. Compared to most members in the genus Bombyx, domestic silk moths have lost their coloration as well as their ability to fly. Types Mulberry silk moths can be divided into three major categories based on seasonal brood frequency. Univoltine silk moths produce only one brood a season, and they are generally found in and around Europe. Univoltine eggs must hibernate through the winter, ultimately cross-fertilizing in spring. Bivoltine varieties are normally found in East Asia, and their accelerated breeding process is made possible by warmer climates. In addition, there are polyvoltine silk moths found only in the tropics. Their eggs typically hatch within 9 to 12 days, meaning there can be up to eight generations of larvae throughout the year. Mulberry silkworms are highly sensitive to environmental variables, and diapause - a physiological arrest in development - can be significantly influenced by photoperiod, temperature and humidity. Recent studies have also reported the occurrence of non-diapause eggs in bivoltine races, indicating a more flexible diapause expression than previously understood. Description and life cycle Eggs take about 14 days to hatch into larvae. Larvae have a preference for white mulberry, having an attraction to the mulberry odorant cis-jasmone. They are not monophagous, since they can eat other species of Morus, as well as some other Moraceae, mostly Osage orange. There are five instars before pupation. After they have molted four times, their bodies become slightly yellow, and the skin becomes tighter. The larvae then prepare to enter the pupal phase of their life cycle, and enclose themselves in a cocoon made up of raw silk produced by the salivary glands. The final molt from larva to pupa takes place within the cocoon, which provides a layer of protection during the vulnerable, almost motionless pupal state. Many other Lepidoptera produce cocoons, but only a few — the Bombycidae, in particular the genus Bombyx, and the Saturniidae, in particular the genus Antheraea — have been exploited for fabric production. The cocoon is made of a thread of raw silk from 300 to about 900 metres (1,000 to about 3,000 ft) long. The fibers are fine and lustrous, about 10 μm in diameter. The number of cocoons required to produce a final yield of silk is approximately 4,000–7,000 per kilogram (2,000–3,000/lb); at least 32 million kilograms (70 million pounds) of raw silk are produced each year, requiring nearly 10 billion cocoons.[better source needed] If the animal survives through the pupal phase of its life cycle, it releases proteolytic enzymes to make a hole in the cocoon so it can emerge as an adult moth. These enzymes are destructive to the silk and can cause the silk fibers to break down from over a mile in length to segments of random length, which reduces the value of the silk threads, although these damaged silk cocoons are still used as "stuffing" available in China and elsewhere in the production of duvets, jackets, and other purposes. To prevent this, silkworm cocoons are boiled in water. The heat kills the silkworms, and the water makes the cocoons easier to unravel. Often, the silkworm is eaten. As the process of harvesting the silk from the cocoon kills the pupa, sericulture has been criticized by animal welfare and rights activists. Mahatma Gandhi was critical of silk production based on the ahimsa philosophy "not to hurt any living thing". This led to Gandhi's promotion of cotton spinning machines, an example of which can be seen at the Gandhi Institute, and an extension of this principle has led to the modern production practice known as Ahimsa silk, which is wild silk (from wild and semiwild silk moths) made from the cocoons of moths that are allowed to emerge before the silk is harvested. The moth is the adult phase of the silk worm's life cycle. Silk moths have a wingspan of 3–5 cm (1–2 in) and a white, hairy body. Females are about two to three times bulkier than males (due to carrying many eggs). All adult Bombycidae moths have reduced mouthparts and do not feed. The wings of the silk moth develop from larval imaginal disks. The moth is not capable of functional flight, in contrast to the wild B. mandarina and other Bombyx species, whose males fly to meet females. Some may emerge with the ability to lift off and stay airborne, but sustained flight cannot be achieved as their bodies are too big and heavy for their small wings. The legs of the silk moth develop from the silkworm's larval (thoracic) legs. Developmental genes like Distalless and extradenticle have been used to mark leg development. In addition, removing specific segments of the thoracic legs at different ages of the larva resulted in the adult silk moth not developing the corresponding adult leg segments. Research Due to its small size and ease of culture, the silkworm has become a model organism in the study of lepidopteran and general arthropod biology. Fundamental findings on genetics, pheromones, hormones, brain structures, and physiology have been made with the silkworm.[citation needed] One example of this was the molecular identification of the first known pheromone, bombykol, which required extracts from 500,000 individuals, due to the small quantities of pheromone produced by any individual silkworm.[citation needed] Many research works have focused on the genetics of silk moths and the possibility of genetic engineering. Many hundreds of strains are maintained, and over 400 Mendelian mutations have been described. Another source suggests 1,000 inbred domesticated strains are kept worldwide. One useful development for the silk industry is silkworms that can feed on food other than mulberry leaves, including an artificial diet. Research on the genome also raises the possibility of genetically engineering silkworms to produce proteins, including pharmacological drugs, in the place of silk proteins. Bombyx mori females are also one of the few organisms with homologous chromosomes held together only by the synaptonemal complex (and not crossovers) during meiosis. In the oocytes of B. mori, meiosis is completely achiasmate (lacking crossovers). Even though synaptonemal complexes are formed during the pachytene stage of meiosis in B. mori, crossing-over homologous recombination does not occur between the paired chromosomes. Kraig Biocraft Laboratories has used research from the Universities of Wyoming and Notre Dame in a collaborative effort to create a silkworm that is genetically altered to produce spider silk. In September 2010, the effort was announced as successful. Researchers at Tufts developed scaffolds made of spongy silk that feel and look similar to human tissue. They are implanted during reconstructive surgery to support or restructure damaged ligaments, tendons, and other tissue. They also created implants made of silk and drug compounds which can be implanted under the skin for steady and gradual time release of medications. Researchers at the MIT Media Lab experimented with silkworms to see what they would weave when left on surfaces with different curvatures. They found that on particularly straight webs of lines, the silkworms would connect neighboring lines with silk, weaving directly onto the given shape. Using this knowledge they built a silk pavilion with 6,500 silkworms over a number of days. Silkworms have been used in antibiotic discovery, as they have several advantageous traits compared to other invertebrate models. Antibiotics such as lysocin E, a non-ribosomal peptide synthesized by Lysobacter sp. RH2180-5 and GPI0363 are among the notable antibiotics discovered using silkworms. In addition, antibiotics with appropriate pharmacokinetic parameters were selected that correlated with therapeutic activity in the silkworm infection model. Silkworms have also been used for the identification of novel virulence factors of pathogenic microorganisms. A first large-scale screening using transposon mutant library of Staphylococcus aureus USA300 strain was performed which identified 8 new genes with roles in full virulence of S. aureus. Another study by the same team of researchers revealed, for the first time, the role of YjbH in virulence and oxidative stress tolerance in vivo. Domestication The domestic species B. mori, compared to the wild species (e.g., B. mandarina), has increased cocoon size, body size, growth rate, and efficiency of its digestion. It has gained tolerance to human presence and handling, and also to living in crowded conditions. The domestic silk moths cannot fly, so the males need human assistance in finding a mate, and it lacks fear of potential predators. The native color pigments have also been lost, so the domestic silk moths are leucistic, since camouflage is not useful when they only live in captivity. These changes have made B. mori entirely dependent upon humans for survival, and it does not exist in the wild. The eggs are kept in incubators to aid in their hatching. The earliest archaeological evidence for silk moth domestication is associated with the Yangshao culture of northern China, dating to more than 5,000 years ago. The Chinese also domesticated the common carp over 5,000 years ago. Carp were often raised in ponds on silk farms and were fed silk moth larvae and faeces. This allowed sericulture and aquaculture to be practiced in conjunction. Silk moth breeding is aimed at the overall improvement of silkworms from a commercial point of view. The major objectives are improving fecundity, the health of larvae, quantity of cocoon and silk production, and disease resistance. Healthy larvae lead to a healthy cocoon crop. Health is dependent on factors such as better pupation rate, fewer dead larvae in the mountage, shorter larval duration (this lessens the chance of infection) and bluish-tinged fifth-instar larvae (which are healthier than the reddish-brown ones). Quantity of cocoon and silk produced are directly related to the pupation rate and larval weight. Healthier larvae have greater pupation rates and cocoon weights. Quality of cocoon and silk depends on a number of factors, including genetics. In the U.S., teachers may sometimes introduce the insect life cycle to their students by raising domestic silk moths in the classroom as a science project. Students have a chance to observe complete life cycles of insects from eggs to larvae to pupae to moths. Other than the U.S., this domestic silk moth is utilized in educational settings in several countries, including China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Taiwan. Genome The full genome of the domestic silk moth was published in 2008 by the International Silkworm Genome Consortium. Draft sequences were published in 2004. The genome of the domestic silk moth is mid-range with a genome size around 432 million base pairs. A notable feature is that 43.6% of the genome are repetitive sequences, most of which are transposable elements. At least 3,000 silkworm genes are unique, and have no homologous equivalents in other genomes. The silkworm's ability to produce large amounts of silk correlates with the presence of specific tRNA clusters, as well as some clustered sericin genes. Additionally, the silkworm's ability to consume toxic mulberry leaves is linked to specialized sucrase genes, which appear to have been acquired from bacterial genes. In 2018, Illumina's short reads for 137 strain genomes were published. In 2022, Nanopore's long reads for 545 strain genomes were published. As food Silk moth pupae are edible insects and are eaten in some cultures: In China, silkworms have also been proposed for cultivation by taikonauts as space food on long-term missions. In culture In China, a legend indicates the discovery of the silkworm's silk was by an ancient empress named Leizu, the wife of the Yellow Emperor, also known as Xi Lingshi. She was drinking tea under a tree when a silk cocoon fell into her tea. As she picked it out and started to wrap the silk thread around her finger, she slowly felt a warm sensation. When the silk ran out, she saw a small larva. In an instant, she realized this caterpillar larva was the source of the silk. She taught this to the people and it became widespread. Many more legends about the silkworm are told. The Chinese guarded their knowledge of silk, but, according to one story, a Chinese princess given in marriage to a Khotan prince brought to the oasis the secret of silk manufacture, "hiding silkworms in her hair as part of her dowry", probably in the first half of the first century AD. About AD 550, Christian monks are said to have smuggled silkworms hidden in a hollow stick out of China, selling the secret to the eastern Romans. According to a Vietnamese folk tale, silkworms were originally a beautiful housemaid running away from her gruesome masters and living in the mountain, where she was protected by the mountain god. One day, a lecherous god from the heaven came down to Earth to seduce women. When he saw her, he tried to rape her but she was able to escape and was hidden by the mountain god. The lecherous god then tried to find and capture her by setting a net trap around the mountain. With the blessing of Guanyin, the girl was able to safely swallow that net into her stomach. Finally, the evil god summons his fellow thunder and rain gods to attack and burn away her clothes, forcing her to hide in a cave. Naked and cold, she spit out the net and used it as a blanket to sleep. The girl died in her sleep, and as she wished to continue to help other people, her soul turned into silkworms.[citation needed] Bombyx Mori is the name of a fictitious novel in The Silkworm, a Cormoran Strike detective novel written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Feeding Bombyx mori is essentially monophagous, exclusively eating mulberry leaves (Morus spp.). By developing techniques for using artificial diets, the amino acids needed for development are known. The various amino acids can be classified into five categories: Diseases See also References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States] | [TOKENS: 12580] |
Contents Conscription in the United States In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as "the draft", has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The fourth incarnation of the draft came into being in 1940, through the Selective Training and Service Act; this was the country's first peacetime draft. From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the U.S. Armed Forces that could not be filled through voluntary means. Active conscription in the United States ended in January 1973, and the U.S. Armed Forces moved to an all-volunteer military except for draftees called up through the end of 1972. Conscription remains in place on a contingency basis, however, in that all male U.S. citizens, even those residing abroad, and all male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented but residing within the United States, are required to register with the Selective Service System (SSS) between the ages of 18 and 25. Failure to register for the SSS, when otherwise required, can mean denial of federal employment, federal job training programs, and citizenship if an immigrant. Beginning on December 18, 2026, the requirement for male U.S. residents ages 18 through 26 to register themselves with the Selective Service System will be replaced with a requirement for the Selective Service System to register them "automatically" on the basis of other federal government databases. This results from a provision of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Although it has not been applied in recent American history, U.S. federal law continues to allow for compulsory conscription for militia service under emergency or extraordinary security conditions. The law is described in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution and 10 U.S. Code § 246. Such conscription would apply to able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 45 who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, U.S. citizens, as well as female members of the U.S. National Guard and some other women in certain health care occupations. Conscription has faced strong opposition throughout American history from prominent figures like Daniel Webster, who stated, "A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men." History In colonial times, the Thirteen Colonies used a militia system for defense. Colonial militia laws—and after independence, those of the United States and the various states—required able-bodied non-enslaved males to enroll in the militia, to undergo a minimum of military training, and to serve for limited periods in war or emergency. This earliest form of conscription involved selective drafts of militiamen for service in particular campaigns. Following this system in its essentials, the Continental Congress in 1778 recommended that the states draft men from their militias for one year's service in the Continental Army; this first national conscription was applied irregularly, failing to fill the Continental ranks.[citation needed] For long-term operations, conscription was occasionally used when volunteers or paid substitutes were insufficient to raise the needed manpower. During the American Revolutionary War, the states sometimes drafted men for militia duty or to fill state Continental Army units, but the central government did not have the authority to conscript except for purposes of naval impressment.[citation needed] The 1789 constitution lists among the enumerated powers of Congress the ability to create its own armies and navy for unlimited purposes, and to fund and regulate state militias that could be called up only for federal law enforcement and domestic defense. The new constitution also made the president of the United States the commander-in-chief of both the federal military and the militia when in federal service. The Second Militia Act of 1792 defined the first group who could be called up as 'each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years'. The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion ... Is this, sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, sir, indeed it is not ... Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty? During the War of 1812, President James Madison and his Secretary of War James Monroe unsuccessfully attempted to create a national draft of 40,000 men. The proposal was fiercely criticized on the House floor by antiwar congressman Daniel Webster of New Hampshire. The United States first employed national conscription during the American Civil War. The vast majority of troops were volunteers; of the 2,200,000 Union soldiers, about 2% were draftees, and another 6% were substitutes paid by draftees. The Confederacy had far fewer inhabitants than the Union, and Confederate president Jefferson Davis proposed the first conscription act on March 28, 1862; it was passed into law the next month. Resistance was both widespread and violent, with comparisons made between conscription and slavery. Both sides permitted conscripts to hire substitutes to serve in their place. In the Union, many states and cities offered bounties and bonuses for enlistment. They also arranged to take credit against their draft quota by claiming freed slaves who enlisted in the Union Army. Although both sides resorted to conscription, the system did not work effectively for either. The Confederate Congress, on April 16, 1862, passed an act requiring military service for three years from all white males aged 18 to 35 not legally exempt. It later extended the obligation. The U.S. Congress passed the Militia Act of 1862, which was similar to the 1792 Act except that it allowed African Americans to serve in state militias as soldiers and war laborers for the first time, and additionally authorized a militia draft within a state when it could not meet its quota with volunteers.[citation needed] This state-administered system failed in practice and Congress passed the Enrollment Act of 1863, the first genuine national conscription law, replacing the Militia Act of 1862, which required the enrollment of every male citizen and those immigrants (aliens) who had filed for citizenship, between 20 and 45 years of age, unless exempted by the Act. It set up under the Union Army an elaborate machine for enrolling and drafting men. Quotas were assigned in each state, and deficiencies in volunteers were required to be met by conscription. Still, men who were drafted could provide substitutes, and until mid-1864 could also avoid service by paying commutation money. Many eligible men pooled their money to cover the cost of any one of them being drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which member should go into the army and which would stay home. Another popular means of procuring a substitute was to pay a soldier whose period of enlistment was about to expire—the advantage of this method was that the Army could retain a trained veteran in place of a raw recruit. Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union Army through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted. There was much evasion and overt resistance to the draft, and the New York City draft riots were in direct response to the draft and were the first large-scale resistance against the draft in the United States. The problem of Confederate desertion was aggravated by the inequitable inclinations of conscription officers and local judges. The three conscription acts of the Confederacy exempted certain categories, such as the planter class. Enrollment officers and local judges often practiced favoritism, sometimes accepting bribes. Attempts to effectively deal with the issue were frustrated by conflict between state and local governments on the one hand and the national government of the Confederacy. During the Civil War, there were critics against the policy of conscription. For example, Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and abolitionist strongly advocated against the policy. Douglass asserted, "What is freedom? It is the right to choose one's own employment. Certainly it means that, if it means anything. And when any individual or combination of individuals, undertakes to decide for any man when he shall work, where he shall work, at what he shall work, and for what he shall work, he or they practically reduce him to slavery." The Militia Act of 1903 reorganized the federally-supported state militias as the National Guard, better-aligning their organization, training, and materiel with active-duty needs so they could be more quickly and efficiently put into federal service when needed. In 1933, Congress reorganized the National Guard under its Article I enumerated power to "raise and support armies" instead of its power to "Provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the Militia," avoiding the potential constraint on militia service that it can only be used "to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." Able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 45 not in the National Guard are defined in the Militia Act, and under the laws of some states, as the unorganized militia, which also may be called into state or federal service as needed. In 1917, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson decided to rely primarily on conscription, rather than voluntary enlistment, to raise military manpower for World War I when only 73,000 volunteers enlisted out of the initial 1 million target in the first six weeks of the war. One ascribed motivation was to thwart former president Theodore Roosevelt, who proposed raising a volunteer division, which would have upstaged Wilson. However, there is no evidence that Roosevelt had enough support to carry out that plan, and because Wilson had just started his second term, the former President's prospects for substantial political gain seemed dubious.[citation needed] The Selective Service Act of 1917 was carefully drawn to remedy the defects in the Civil War system and—by allowing exemptions for dependency, essential occupations, and religious scruples—to place each man in his proper niche in a national war effort. The act established a "liability for military service of all male citizens"; authorized a selective draft of all those between 21 and 31 years of age (later from 18 to 45); and prohibited all forms of bounties, substitutions, or purchase of exemptions. Administration was entrusted to local boards composed of leading civilians in each community. These boards issued draft calls in order of numbers drawn in a national lottery and determined exemptions. In 1917, 10 million men were registered. This was deemed to be inadequate, so age ranges were increased and exemptions reduced, and so by the end of 1918 24 million men were registered and nearly 3 million inducted into the military services, with little of the resistance that characterized the Civil War, thanks to a well-received campaign by the government to increase support for the war. The government also shut down newspapers and magazines that published articles against the war, but there was resistance in some areas (see Green Corn Rebellion). The draft was universal and included black men on the same terms as whites, although they served in different units. In all 367,710 black Americans were drafted (13% of the total), compared to 2,442,586 white (86.9%). Along with a general opposition to American involvement in a foreign conflict, Southern farmers objected to perceived unfair conscription practices that exempted members of the upper class and industrial workers. Draft boards were localized and based their decisions on social class: the poorest were the most often conscripted because they were considered the least likely to be the skilled labor needed for the war effort. Poor men were also less likely to convince local boards that they were primary breadwinners who could be deferred to support dependents.[citation needed] Forms of resistance ranged from peaceful protest to violent demonstrations and from humble letter-writing campaigns asking for mercy to newspapers demanding reform. The most common tactics were dodging and desertion, and some communities in isolationist areas even sheltered and defended their draft dodgers as political heroes. Nearly half a million immigrants were drafted, which forced the military to develop training procedures that took ethnic differences into account. Military leaders invited Progressive reformers and ethnic group leaders to assist in formulating new military policies. The military attempted to socialize and Americanize young immigrant recruits, not by forcing "angloconformity", but by showing remarkable sensitivity and respect for ethnic values and traditions and a concern for the morale of immigrant troops, with the aim of blending them into the larger society. Sports activities, keeping immigrant groups together, newspapers in various languages, the assistance of bilingual officers, and ethnic entertainment programs were all employed. The Conscription Act of 1917 was passed in June. Conscripts were court-martialed by the Army if they refused to wear uniforms, bear arms, perform basic duties, or submit to military authority. Convicted objectors were often given long sentences of 20 years in Fort Leavenworth. In 1918, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker created the Board of Inquiry to question the conscientious objectors' sincerity. Military tribunals tried men found by the Board to be insincere for a variety of offenses, sentencing 17 to death, 142 to life imprisonment, and 345 to penal labor camps. Many of these sentences were commuted after the war's end. In 1917, a number of radicals and anarchists, including Emma Goldman, tried to challenge the new draft law in federal court, arguing that it was a direct violation of the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the Selective Draft Law Cases on January 7, 1918. The decision said the Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war and to raise and support armies. The Court, relying partly on Emerich de Vattel's The Law of Nations, emphasized the principle of the reciprocal rights and duties of citizens: It may not be doubted that the very conception of a just government and its duty to the citizen includes the reciprocal obligation of the citizen to render military service in case of need, and the right to compel it. To do more than state the proposition is absolutely unnecessary in view of the practical illustration afforded by the almost universal legislation to that effect now in force. Conscription was unpopular from left-wing sectors at the start, with many Socialists jailed for "obstructing the recruitment or enlistment service". The most famous was Eugene Debs, head of the Socialist Party of America, who ran for president in 1920 from his Atlanta prison cell. He had his sentence commuted to time served and was released by President Warren G. Harding on December 25, 1921. Also notably, the Industrial Workers of the World attempted to obstruct the war effort through strikes in war-related industries and not registering, but it did not meet with large success. Although draft riots were not widespread, an estimated 171,000 people never registered for the draft, while another 360,000 people never responded to induction orders. Conscientious objector (CO) exemptions were allowed for the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren only. All other religious and political objectors were forced to participate. Some 64,700 men claimed conscientious objector status; local draft boards certified 57,000, of whom 30,000 passed the physical and 21,000 were inducted into the U.S. Army. About 80% of the 21,000 decided to abandon their objection and take up arms, but 3,989 drafted objectors refused to serve. Most belonged to historically pacifist denominations, especially Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravian Brethren, as well as a few Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. About 15% were religious objectors from non-pacifist churches. Ben Salmon was a nationally known political activist who encouraged men not to register and personally refused to comply with the draft procedures. He rejected the Army Review Board proposal that he perform noncombatant farm work. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, he again refused a proposed desk job. He was pardoned and released in November 1920 with a "dishonorable discharge." The draft ended in 1918, but the Army designed the modern draft mechanism in 1926 and built it based on military needs, despite an era of pacifism. Working where Congress would not, it gathered a cadre of officers for its nascent Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, most of whom were commissioned based on social standing rather than military experience. This effort did not receive congressionally approved funding until 1934, when Major General Lewis B. Hershey was assigned to the organization. The passage of a conscription act was opposed by some, including Dorothy Day and George Barry O'Toole, who were concerned that such conscription would not provide adequate protection for the rights of conscientious objectors. However, much of Hershey's work was codified into law with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (STSA). In the summer of 1940, after Nazi Germany conquered France, Americans supported the return of conscription. One national survey found that 67% of respondents believed that a German-Italian victory would endanger the United States, and that 71% supported "the immediate adoption of compulsory military training for all young men". Similarly, a November 1942 survey of American high-school students found that 69% favored compulsory postwar military training. The World War I system served as a model for that of World War II. President Roosevelt's signing of the Selective Training and Service Act on September 16, 1940, began the first peacetime draft in the United States. The 1940 law instituted conscription in peacetime, requiring the registration of all men between 21 and 35. It also reestablished the Selective Service System as an independent agency responsible for identifying young men and facilitating their military service. Roosevelt named Lewis B. Hershey to head the System on July 31, 1941; he remained in post until 1969. This act came when other preparations, such as increased training and equipment production, had not yet been approved. Nevertheless, it served as the basis for the conscription programs that continue to the present. The act set a cap of 900,000 men to be in training at once, and limited military service to 12 months unless Congress deemed it necessary to extend such service in the interest of national defense. An amendment added 18 more months to this service period on August 18, 1941. After the Pearl Harbor attack the STSA was further amended (December 19, 1941), extending the term of service to the duration of the war plus six months and requiring the registration of all men 18 to 64 years of age. During World War II, 49 million men were registered, 36 million classified,[failed verification] and 10 million inducted. 18- and 19-year-olds were made liable for induction on November 13, 1942. By late 1942, the Selective Service System moved away from a national lottery to administrative selection by its more than 6,000 local boards. On December 5, 1942, presidential Executive Order 9279 closed voluntary enlistment for all men from the ages of 18 to 37 for the duration of the war, providing protection for the nation's home front manpower pool. The Navy and Marine Corps began procuring their personnel through the Selective Service System in early 1943. The Navy and Marine Corps enlisted inductees and volunteers under the same service agreements, but with different service obligations, while the Army placed wartime inductees and volunteers into a special service component known as the Army of the United States, commonly known as the "AUS"; service commitments were set at the length of the war plus six months. Paul V. McNutt, head of the War Manpower Commission, estimated that the changes would increase the ratio of men drafted from one out of nine to one out of five. The commission's goal was to have nine million men in the armed forces by the end of 1943. This facilitated the massive requirement of up to 200,000 men per month and would remain the standard for the length of the war. The World War II draft operated from 1940 until 1946 when further inductions were suspended, and its legislative authorization expired without further extension by Congress in 1947. During this time, more than 10 million men had been inducted into military service. However, the Selective Service System remained intact. Draft evasion accounted for about 4% of the total inducted. About 373,000 alleged evaders were investigated with just over 16,000 being imprisoned. Opposition was nonetheless encountered, especially in the northern cities where some African-Americans protested the system. The Nation of Islam was at the forefront, with many Black Muslims jailed for refusing the draft, and their leader Elijah Muhammad was sentenced to federal prison for 5 years for inciting draft resistance. Organized draft resistance also developed in the Japanese American internment camps, where groups like the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee refused to serve unless they and their families were released. 300 Nisei men from eight of the ten War Relocation Authority camps were arrested and stood trial for felony draft evasion; most were sentenced to federal prison. American Communists also opposed the war by forming the "American Peace Committee", which tried to organize a coalition of anti-war groups. This lasted until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, whereupon they changed the committee's name to the "American People's Committee" and supported aid to Britain, the draft and other preparations for war. Of the more than 72,000 men registering as conscientious objectors (CO), nearly 52,000 received CO status. Of these, over 25,000 entered the military in noncombatant roles, another 12,000 went to the Civilian Public Service program, and nearly 6,000 were imprisoned for having refused any service. The second peacetime draft began with passage of the Selective Service Act of 1948 after the STSA expired. The new law required all men of age 18 to 26 to register. It also created the system for the "Doctor Draft", aimed at inducting health professionals into military service. Unless otherwise exempted or deferred (see Berry Plan), these men could be called for up to 21 months of active duty and five years of reserve duty service. Congress further tweaked this act in 1950 although the post–World War II surplus of military manpower left little need for draft calls until President Harry S. Truman's declaration of a national emergency in December 1950. Only 20,348 men were inducted in 1948 and only 9,781 in 1949. Between the Korean War's outbreak in June 1950 and the armistice agreement in 1953, Selective Service inducted over 1.5 million men. Another 1.3 million volunteered, usually choosing the Navy or Air Force. Congress passed the Universal Military Training and Service Act in 1951 to meet the demands of the war. It lowered the induction age to 18½ and extended active-duty service commitments to 24 months. Despite the early combat failures and later stalemate in Korea, the draft has been credited by some as playing a vital role in turning the tide of war. A February 1953 Gallup Poll showed that 70 percent of Americans surveyed felt that the SSS had handled the draft fairly. Gallup reported that 64 percent of the demographic group including all draft age men (males 21 to 29) believed the draft to be fair. To improve equity in the system, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order on July 11, 1953, that ended the paternity deferment for married men. In large part, the change in the draft served the purposes of the burgeoning Cold War. From a program that had just barely passed Congressional muster during the fearful prelude to World War II, a more robust draft continued as fears now focused on the Soviet threat. Nevertheless, some dissenting voices in Congress continued to advocate for voluntary military service. The onset of the Cold War coincided with men born during the Great Depression beginning to reach military age. Hershey and other supporters of the draft frequently pointed out that the Depression had resulted in a substantial reduction of the birth rate in order to back up their doubts regarding the return to an all-volunteer military at a time when it was known that the number of men reaching military age was going to fall significantly. The Korean War era marked the first time that any form of student deferment had been used. During the Korean War, a student carrying at least 12 semester hours was spared until the end of his current semester. Though the United States signed the Korean War Armistice on July 27, 1953, technology brought new promises and threats. American air and nuclear power fueled the Eisenhower doctrine of "massive retaliation." This strategy demanded more machines and fewer foot soldiers, so the draft slipped to the back burner. However, SSS director Gen. Hershey urged caution, fearing the conflict looming in Vietnam. In May 1953, he told his state directors to do everything possible to keep the SSS alive in order to meet expected needs. Following the 1953 Korean War Armistice, Congress passed the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 with the aim of improving National Guard and federal Reserve Component readiness while also constraining its use by the president. Toward this end, it mandated a six-year service commitment, in a combination of reserve and active duty time, for every line military member regardless of their means of entry. Meanwhile, the SSS kept itself alive by devising and managing a complex system of deferments for a swelling pool of candidates during a period of shrinking requirements. The greatest challenge to the draft came not from protesters but from lobbyists seeking additional deferments for their constituent groups such as scientists and farmers. Many government leaders felt that the potential for a draft was a critical element in maintaining a constant flow of volunteers. On numerous occasions, General Hershey told Congress that for every man drafted, three or four more were scared into volunteering. Assuming that his assessment was accurate, this would mean that more than 11 million men volunteered for service because of the draft between January 1954 and April 1975. The policy of using the draft to incentivize voluntary enlistment was unique in American history. Previous drafts had not aimed to encourage individuals to enlist in order to gain preferential placement or less dangerous postings. However, the incremental buildup of the Vietnam War without a clear threat to the country bolstered this focus. Some estimates suggest that almost one-third of all eligible men were conscripted during the period of 1965–69. This group represented those without exemption or resources to avoid military service. During the active combat phase, the possibility of avoiding combat by selecting their service and military specialty led as many as four out of 11 eligible men to enlist. The military relied upon draft-induced volunteerism to meet its quotas, especially for the Army, which accounted for nearly 95% of all inductees during the Vietnam War era. For example, defense recruiting reports show that 34% of the recruits in 1964, up to 50% in 1970, indicated that they had joined voluntarily in order to avoid placement uncertainty via the draft. These rates dwindled to 24% in 1972 and 15% in 1973 after the change to a lottery system. Accounting for other factors, it can be argued up to 60% of those who served throughout the Vietnam War era did so directly or indirectly because of the draft. In addition, deferments provided an incentive for men to follow pursuits considered useful to the state. This process, known as channeling, helped push men into educational, occupational, and family choices that they might not otherwise have pursued. Undergraduate degrees were valued. Graduate work had varying value over time, though technical and religious training received nearly constant support. War-industry support in the form of teaching, research, or skilled labor also received deferred or exempt status. Finally, married and family men were exempted because of the positive social consequences. This included using presidential orders to extend exemptions again to fathers and others. Channeling was also seen as a means of preempting the early loss of the country's "best and brightest" who had historically joined and died early in war. In the only extended period of military conscription of U.S. males during a major peacetime period, the draft continued on a more limited basis during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While a far smaller percentage of eligible males were conscripted than in war periods, draftees by law served in the Army for two years. Elvis Presley and Willie Mays were two of the most famous people drafted during this period.[citation needed] Public protests in the United States were few during the Korean War. However, the percentage of CO exemptions for inductees grew to 1.5%, compared to a rate of just .5% in the past two wars. The Justice Department also investigated more than 80,000 draft-evasion cases. President John F. Kennedy's decision to send military troops to Vietnam as advisors was a signal that Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey needed to visit the Oval Office. From that visit emerged two wishes of JFK with regard to conscription. The first was that the names of married men with children should occupy the very bottom of the callup list. Just above them should be the names of men who were married. This policy was implemented in practice, but was not encoded into statute by Congress. Men who fit into these categories became known as Kennedy Husbands. Many early rank-and-file anti-conscription protesters had been allied with the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. The signing in 1963 of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty left them free to focus on other issues.[citation needed] Syndicated cartoonist Al Capp portrayed them as S.W.I.N.E. (Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything). Protest activity increased after the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Consequently, there was some opposition to the draft even before the major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began. The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War allowed a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college students. Besides being able to avoid the draft, college graduates who volunteered for military service (primarily as commissioned officers) had a much better chance of securing a preferential posting compared to less-educated inductees. Contrary to popular belief, the large majority of American soldiers who participated in the war, and who were killed in combat, were in fact volunteers and not draftees. As U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam increased, more young men were drafted for service there, and many of those still at home sought means of avoiding the draft. Since only 15,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were sent to South Vietnam, enlistment in the Guard or the Reserves became a popular means of avoiding serving in a war zone. For those who could meet the more stringent enlistment standards, service in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard was a means of reducing the chances of being killed. Vocations to the priesthood, the ministry, and the rabbinate soared, because divinity students were exempt from the draft. Doctors and draft board members found themselves being pressured by relatives or family friends to exempt potential draftees. The marriage deferment ended suddenly on August 26, 1965. Around 3:10 pm, President Johnson signed an order allowing the draft of men who married after midnight that day, then around 5 pm, he announced the change for the first time. This caused a last-minute rush to the altar by thousands of American couples. Some conscientious objectors objected to the war based on the theory of Just War. One of these, Stephen Spiro, was convicted of avoiding the draft, but given a suspended sentence of five years. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford. Between 1964 and 1973, 9,087,000 men and women would serve in the armed forces in some capacity. Of these, 2,594,000 would be deployed to Vietnam. 1,766,910 would be drafted into the military serving throughout the world. Most of those who were drafted went into the Army and fewer than 42,700 went into the Marine Corps. The Navy and Air Force did not accept draftees. From a pool of approximately 27 million, the draft raised 2,215,000 men for military service (in the United States, South Vietnam, and elsewhere) during the Vietnam War era. The majority of service members deployed to South Vietnam were volunteers, even though[clarification needed] hundreds of thousands of men opted to join the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard (for three or four year terms of enlistment). If drafted, they would only serve for two years, but would have no choice over their military occupational specialty. Of the nearly 16 million men not engaged in active military service, 96% were exempted (typically because of jobs including other military service), deferred (usually for educational reasons), or disqualified (usually for physical and mental deficiencies but also for criminal records including draft violations). The requirements for obtaining and maintaining an educational deferment changed several times in the late 1960s. For several years, students were required to take an annual qualification test. In 1967 educational deferments were changed for graduate students. Those starting graduate studies in the fall of 1967 were given two semester deferments becoming eligible in June 1968. Those further along in their graduate study who entered prior to the summer of 1967 could continue to receive a deferment until they completed their studies. Peace Corps Volunteers were no longer given deferments and their induction was left to the discretion of their local boards. However most boards allowed Peace Corps Volunteers to complete their two-year assignment before inducting them into the military. On December 1, 1969, a lottery was held to establish a draft priority for all those born between 1944 and 1950. Those with a high number no longer had to be concerned about the draft. Nearly 500,000 men were disqualified for criminal records, but fewer than 10,000 of them were convicted of draft violations. Finally, as many as 100,000 eligible men fled the country. During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft. He had become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University, and in part due to the efforts of ardent anti-draft activist-economist and Nobel laureate, Milton Friedman. Friedman has been quoted in interviews as stating: In the realm of policy, I regard eliminating the draft as my most important accomplishment. Nixon also saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam War movement since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own probability of having to fight in it was gone. There was opposition to the all-volunteer notion from both Congress and the Department of Defense, so Nixon did not take immediate action toward ending the draft early in his presidency. Instead, the Gates Commission was formed, headed by Thomas S. Gates, Jr., a former Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. Gates initially opposed the all-volunteer army idea but changed his mind during the course of the 15-member commission's work. The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription. The existing draft law was expiring at the end of June 1971, but the Department of Defense and Nixon administration decided the draft needed to continue for at least some time. In February 1971, the administration requested Congress to extend the draft for two years, to June 1973. Senatorial opponents of the war wanted to reduce this to a one-year extension, eliminate the draft altogether, or tie the draft renewal to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Vietnam; Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska took the most forceful approach, trying to filibuster the draft renewal legislation, shut conscription down, and directly force an end to the war. Senators supporting Nixon's war efforts supported the bill even though some had qualms about ending the draft. After a prolonged battle in the Senate, a September 1971 cloture was achieved over the filibuster, and the draft renewal bill was approved. Meanwhile, military pay was increased as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the U.S. Army began. With the end of active U.S. ground participation in Vietnam, the last draft call was issued on December 7, 1972, applying to men born in 1952 and earlier. On February 2, 1972, a drawing was held to determine draft priority numbers for men born in 1953, but in January 1973, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced that no further draft orders would be issued. In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956 in case the draft was extended, but it never was. Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, believed to be the last drafted enlisted ranked soldier still on active duty, retired in 2011. Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph E. Rigby, the last Vietnam War-era drafted soldier of Warrant Officer rank, retired from the army on November 10, 2014, after a 42-year career. December 28, 1972, had been scheduled to be the last day that draftees would be inducted that year. However, President Nixon declared that day a national day of mourning due to the death of former President Truman, and Federal offices were closed. Men scheduled to report that day were never inducted since the draft was not resumed in 1973. On July 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued Presidential Proclamation 4771 and reinstated the requirement that young men register with the Selective Service System. At that time, it was required that all males, born on or after January 1, 1960, register with the Selective Service System. Those who were now in this category were male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25; they were required to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday even if they were not actually eligible to join the military.[citation needed] The Selective Service System, still essentially what it was in 1980, describes its mission as "to serve the emergency manpower needs of the Military by conscripting untrained manpower, or personnel with professional healthcare skills, if directed by Congress and the President in a national crisis." Registration is possible online or by mail. Registration forms are available at U.S. Post Offices. The Selective Service registration form states that failure to register is a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment or a $250,000 fine. In practice, though, no one has been prosecuted for failure to comply with draft registration since 1986, in part because prosecutions of draft resisters in the 1980s proved counter-productive for the government, and in part because of the difficulty of proving that noncompliance with the law was "knowing and willful". In interviews published in U.S. News & World Report in May 2016, current and former Selective Service System officials said that in 1988, the Department of Justice and Selective Service agreed to suspend any further prosecutions of nonregistrants. Many men do not register at all, register late, or change addresses without notifying the Selective Service System. Even in the absence of prosecution, however, failure to register may lead to other consequences. Registration is a requirement for employment by the federal government and some state governments, as well as for receiving various state benefits such as driver's licenses. Some collateral sanctions formerly in effect have been repealed: "From 1982 to 2021, males were required to register with Selective Service System to receive Title IV Federal student aid.... This requirement was eliminated by the FY 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act.... [F]ailing to register with Selective Service System no longer impacts students' eligibility for Title IV student aid. Effective July 1, 2022, applicants will no longer be able to register with Selective Service System via the FAFSA." An "automatic" registration provision was included and enacted in Section 535 of the NDAA for fiscal year 2026. Beginning on December 18, 2026, the Selective Service System will be required to identify, locate, and register all male (as assigned at birth) U.S. residents 18 to 26 years old on the basis of other existing federal databases. Men will no longer be required to register themselves or be subject to penalties for failing to do so. This was noted to be the most significant change to Selective Service since the self-registration system began in 1980. Regulations implementing and establishing procedures for "automatic" registration, including notices required for data collection, data matching, and data use, will be issued by the Selective Service System in 2026. Healthcare personnel In 1951, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a two-year program to train doctors, veterinarians, statisticians, and other health workers in epidemiology. Eligible health workers drafted into general military service during the Korean and Vietnam Wars could instead enlist in the EIS to guard against potential biological warfare. On December 1, 1989, Congress ordered the Selective Service System to put in place a system capable of drafting "persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care and professional occupation", if such a special-skills draft should be ordered by Congress. In response, Selective Service published plans for the "Health Care Personnel Delivery System" (HCPDS) in 1989 and has had them ready ever since. The concept underwent a preliminary field exercise in Fiscal Year 1998, followed by a more extensive nationwide readiness exercise in Fiscal Year 1999. The HCPDS plans include women and men ages 20–54 in 57 different job categories. As of May 2003, the Defense Department has said the most likely form of draft is a special skills draft, probably of health care workers. Legality In 1918, the Supreme Court ruled that the World War I draft did not violate the United States Constitution in the Selective Draft Law Cases. The Court summarized the history of conscription in England and in colonial America, a history that it read as establishing that the Framers envisioned compulsory military service as a governmental power. It held that the Constitution's grant to Congress of the powers to declare war and to raise and support armies included the power to mandate conscription. It rejected arguments based on states' rights, the 13th Amendment, and other provisions of the Constitution. Later, during the Vietnam War, a lower appellate court also concluded that the draft was constitutional. United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968). Justice William O. Douglas, in voting to hear the appeal in Holmes, agreed that the government had the authority to employ conscription in wartime, but argued that the constitutionality of a draft in the absence of a declaration of war was an open question, which the Supreme Court should address. During the World War I era, the Supreme Court allowed the government great latitude in suppressing criticism of the draft. Examples include Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919) and Gilbert v. Minnesota, 254 U.S. 325 (1920). In subsequent decades, however, the Court has taken a much broader view of the extent to which advocacy speech is protected by the First Amendment. Thus, in 1971 the Court held it unconstitutional for a state to punish a man who entered a county courthouse wearing a jacket with the words "Fuck the Draft" visible on it. Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971). Nevertheless, protesting the draft by the specific means of burning a draft registration card can be constitutionally prohibited, because of the government's interest in prohibiting the "nonspeech" element involved in destroying the card. United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968). Since the reinstatement of draft registration in 1980, the Supreme Court has heard and decided four cases related to the Military Selective Service Act: Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), upholding the Constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register for the draft; Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), 468 U.S. 841 (1984), upholding the Constitutionality of the first of the federal "Solomon Amendment" laws, which requires applicants for Federal student aid to certify that they have complied with draft registration, either by having registered or by not being required to register; Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985), upholding the policies and procedures which the Supreme Court thought the government had used to select the "most vocal" nonregistrants for prosecution, after the government refused to comply with discovery orders by the trial court to produce documents and witnesses related to the selection of nonregistrants for prosecution; and Elgin v. Department of the Treasury, 567 U.S. 1 (2012), regarding procedures for judicial review of denial of Federal employment for nonregistrants. In 1981, several men filed lawsuit in the case Rostker v. Goldberg, alleging that the Military Selective Service Act violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by requiring that men only and not also women register with the Selective Service System. The Supreme Court upheld the act, stating that Congress's "decision to exempt women was not the accidental byproduct of a traditional way of thinking about women", that "since women are excluded from combat service by statute or military policy, men and women are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft, and Congress' decision to authorize the registration of only men therefore does not violate the Due Process Clause", and that "the argument for registering women was based on considerations of equity, but Congress was entitled, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to focus on the question of military need, rather than 'equity.'" The Rostker v. Goldberg opinion's dependence upon deference on decision of the executive to exclude women from combat has garnered renewed scrutiny since the Department of Defense announced its decision in January 2013 to do away with most of the federal policies that have kept women from serving in combat roles in ground war situations. Both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force had by then already opened up virtually all positions in sea and air combat to women. Lawsuits were filed challenging the continued constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register with the Selective Service system: National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System (filed April 4, 2013, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; dismissed by the District Court July 29, 2013 as not "ripe" for decision; appeal argued December 8, 2015 before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals; reversed and remanded February 19, 2016), and Kyle v. Selective Service System (filed July 3, 2015, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey), brought on behalf of 17-year-old Elizabeth Kyle-LaBell by her mother, Allison. Elizabeth tried to register, but as a female, was not eligible. In February 2019, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that male-only conscription registration breached the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, overturning the previous ruling on the grounds that the policies of the armed forces regarding women had changed significantly, such that they can now be used interchangeably with men. In a case brought by non-profit men's rights organisation the National Coalition for Men against the U.S. Selective Service System, judge Gray H. Miller issued a declaratory judgement that the male-only registration requirement is unconstitutional, though did not specify what action the government should take. That decision was reversed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A petition for review was then filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision by the Court of Appeals due to the fact that Congress was actively investigating removing the male-only requirement. Conscientious objection According to the Selective Service System, A conscientious objector is one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles. ... Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims. The Supreme Court has ruled in cases United States v. Seeger (1965) and Welsh v. United States (1970) that conscientious objection can be by non-religious beliefs as well as religious beliefs; but it has also ruled in Gillette v. United States (1971) against objections to specific wars as grounds for conscientious objection. There is currently no mechanism to indicate that one is a conscientious objector in the Selective Service system. According to the SSS, after a person is drafted, he can claim conscientious objector status and then justify it before the Local Board. This is criticized because during the times of a draft, when the country is in emergency conditions, there could be increased pressure for Local Boards to be more harsh on conscientious objector claims. There are two types of status for conscientious objectors. If a person objects only to combat but not to service in the military, then the person could be given noncombatant service in the military without training of weapons. If the person objects to all military service, then the person could be ordered to "alternative service" with a job "deemed to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety, and interest". Selective Service reforms The Selective Service System has maintained that they have implemented several reforms that would make the draft more fair and equitable. Some of the measures they have implemented include: Conscription controversies and proposals since 2003 The effort to enforce Selective Service registration law was abandoned in 1986. Since then, no attempt to reinstate conscription has been able to attract much support in the legislature or among the public. Since early 2003, when the Iraq War appeared imminent, there had been attempts through legislation and campaign rhetoric to begin a new public conversation on the topic. Public opinion since 1981 has been largely negative. In 2003, several Democratic congressmen (Charles Rangel of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, John Conyers of Michigan, John Lewis of Georgia, Pete Stark of California, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii) introduced legislation that would draft both men and women into either military or civilian government service, should there be a draft in the future. The bill was defeated on October 5, 2004, with two members voting for it and 402 members voting against. Of those who introduced the bill, only Stark voted in support. This statement was in reference to the U.S. Department of Defense use of "stop-loss" orders, which have extended the Active Duty periods of some military personnel. All enlistees, upon entering the service, volunteer for a minimum eight-year Military Service Obligation (MSO). This MSO is split between a minimum active duty period, followed by a reserve period where enlistees may be called back to active duty for the remainder of the eight years. Some of these active duty extensions have been for as long as two years. The Pentagon stated that as of August 24, 2004, 20,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines had been affected. As of January 31, 2006 it has been reported that more than 50,000 soldiers and reservists had been affected. Despite arguments by defense leaders that they had no interest in re-instituting the draft, Representative Neil Abercrombie's (D-HI) inclusion of a DOD memo in the Congressional Record which detailed a meeting by senior leaders signaled renewed interest. Though the conclusion of the meeting memo did not call for a reinstatement of the draft, it did suggest Selective Service Act modifications to include registration by women and self-reporting of critical skills that could serve to meet military, homeland-defense, and humanitarian needs. This hinted at more targeted draft options being considered, perhaps like that of the "Doctor Draft" that began in the 1950s to provide nearly 66% of the medical professionals who served in the Army in Korea. Once created, this manpower tool continued to be used through 1972. The meeting memo gave DOD's primary reason for opposing a draft as a matter of cost effectiveness and efficiency. Draftees with less than two years' retention were said to be a net drain on military resources providing insufficient benefit to offset overhead costs of using them. Mentions of the draft during the presidential campaign[which?] led to a resurgence of anti-draft and draft resistance organizing. One poll of young voters in October 2004 found that 29% would resist if drafted. In November 2006, Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) again called for the draft to be reinstated; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rejected the proposal. On December 19, 2006, President George W. Bush announced that he was considering sending more troops to Iraq. The next day, the Selective Service System's director for operations and chief information officer, Scott Campbell, announced plans for a "readiness exercise" to test the system's operations in 2006, for the first time since 1998. On December 21, 2006, Veterans Affairs secretary Jim Nicholson, when asked by a reporter whether the draft should be reinstated to make the military more equal, said, "I think that our society would benefit from that, yes sir." Nicholson proceeded to relate his experience as a company commander in an infantry unit which brought together soldiers of different socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels, noting that the draft "does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving". Nicholson later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstating the draft. On August 10, 2007, with National Public Radio on "All Things Considered", Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, National Security Adviser to the President and Congress for all matters pertaining to the United States military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed support for a draft to alleviate the stress on the Army's all-volunteer force. He cited the fact that repeated deployments place much strain upon one soldier's family and himself which, in turn, can affect retention. A similar bill to Rangel's 2003 one was introduced in 2007, called the Universal National Service Act of 2007 (H.R. 393), but it has not received a hearing or been scheduled for consideration. At the end of June 2014 in Pennsylvania, 14,250 letters were erroneously posted to men born in the 19th century calling upon them to register with the Selective Service. This was attributed to a clerk at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation who failed to select a century during a transfer of 400,000 records to the Selective Service; as a result, the system did not differentiate between men born in 1993 (who would need to register) and those born in 1893 (who would almost certainly be dead). This was compared to the "Year 2000 problem" ("Y2K bug"), in which computer programs that represented years using two digits instead of four digits were expected to have problems beginning in the year 2000. The Selective Service identified 27,218 records of men born in the 19th century made errantly applicable by the change of century and began sending out notices to them on June 30. On June 14, 2016, the Senate voted to require women to register for the draft, though language requiring this was dropped from later versions of the bill. In 2020, the bipartisan National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service issued a final report recommending that the military improve enlistment rates through improved outreach and recruiting rather than a renewed draft. However, it also recommended that the U.S. Department of Defense perform regular national mobilization drills to rehearse a recommencement of the draft. In 2020 and 2021, bills were introduced in Congress either to repeal the Military Selective Service Act or, alternatively, to replace all references to "male" in that act with non-gendered language. Either of these proposals, if enacted, would remove any gender and sex conditionality related to the draft. Neither proposal was enacted. In 2024, an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 was proposed that males "between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered" with Selective Service. If enacted, the amendment would enable automatic draft registration using data from other federal databases. Other proposed amendments to the 2025 NDAA included exempting any potential conscripted females from combat assignments during a future draft, removing the registration requirement for federal employees, and requiring Senate confirmation of the Selective Service System Director. None of these proposed amendments were included in the final 2025 NDAA version, aside from an amendment allowing for federal employment of veterans that did not register with Selective Service that provide proof of military service and an amendment "to update the types of information that the Department of Defense may obtain from the Selective Service System" to include "full names, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, and mailing addresses furnished." Non-citizens The Selective Service (and the draft) in the United States is not limited to citizens. Howard Stringer, for example, was drafted six weeks after arriving from his native Britain in 1965. Today, non-citizen males of appropriate age in the United States, who are permanent residents (holders of green cards), seasonal agricultural workers not holding an H-2A Visa, refugees, parolees, asylees, and illegal immigrants, are required to register with the Selective Service System. Refusal to do so is grounds for denial of a future citizenship application. In addition, immigrants who seek to naturalize as citizens must, as part of the Oath of Citizenship, recite the following: ... that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also allows the recital of a "Modified Oath for Religious or Conscientious Objections" with either or both of the clauses "that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by law" deleted. Statistics Numbers reflect the year draftees entered military service. See also Footnotes References and further reading External links The dictionary definition of conscription at Wiktionary |
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Contents Barnard 30 Barnard 30 is a dark cloud in the Lambda Orionis ring, north of Lambda Orionis, also called Meissa. The region is about 1300 light years from Earth. The Barnard 30 cloud is one of the regions in the Lambda Orionis Ring where the population of young stars is concentrated, together with the Lambda Orionis cluster and Barnard 35. It contains Herbig-Haro Objects, young stars, brown dwarfs and multiple T Tauri stars. The young population includes HK Orionis, a Herbig Ae/Be star and HI Orionis, a T Tauri star. The stellar population in Barnard 30 is about 2-3 million years old and is therefore significantly younger than the central Lambda Orionis cluster. This cloud is likely shaped by the massive star Meissa and this star is also responsible for triggering star-formation in this cloud. A possible supernova 1 million years ago that possibly has formed the Lambda Orionis ring might be an additional trigger for the star-formation in this region. The region contains a reflection nebula. Observations The emission region associated with Barnard 30 has a low surface brightness and covers a large region of the sky. Because Barnard 30 shares the same constellation as the famous Orion Nebula it is rarely imaged. Gallery References |
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Contents Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of February 2026,[update] Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$852 billion. Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada; he has Canadian citizenship since his mother was born there. He received bachelor's degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. Musk also became an American citizen in 2002. In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer; the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight. Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008; it has since become a leader in electric vehicles. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left; growing discontent with the organization's direction and their leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI, which became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026. In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes, and rebranding it as X in 2023. His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where he supported Donald Trump. After Trump was inaugurated as president in early 2025, Musk served as Senior Advisor to the President and as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration and returned to managing his companies. Musk is a supporter of global far-right figures, causes, and political parties. His political activities, views, and statements have made him a polarizing figure. Musk has been criticized for COVID-19 misinformation, promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments. His acquisition of Twitter was controversial due to a subsequent increase in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the service, following his pledge to decrease censorship. His role in the second Trump administration attracted public backlash, particularly in response to DOGE. The emails he sent to Jeffrey Epstein are included in the Epstein files, which were published between 2025–26 and became a topic of worldwide debate. Early life Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. Musk therefore holds both South African and Canadian citizenship from birth. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. His maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, who died in a plane crash when Elon was a toddler, was an American-born Canadian chiropractor, aviator and political activist in the technocracy movement who moved to South Africa in 1950. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, a younger sister, Tosca, and four paternal half-siblings. Musk was baptized as a child in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Despite both Elon and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines". Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid. After his parents divorced in 1979, Elon, aged around 9, chose to live with his father because Errol Musk had an Encyclopædia Britannica and a computer. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital. Errol denied berating Elon and claimed, "The [other] boy had just lost his father to suicide, and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?" Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500 (equivalent to $1,600 in 2025). Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a decent but unexceptional student, earning a 61/100 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother to avoid South Africa's mandatory military service, which would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime, as well as to ease his path to immigration to the United States. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs, including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied until 1995. Although Musk has said that he earned his degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997 – a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books. In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic supercapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom of the 1990s, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response. The Washington Post reported that Musk lacked legal authorization to remain and work in the United States after failing to enroll at Stanford. In response, Musk said he was allowed to work at that time and that his student visa transitioned to an H1-B. According to numerous former business associates and shareholders, Musk said he was on a student visa at the time. Business career In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded the web software company Zip2 with funding from a group of angel investors. They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto. Replying to Rolling Stone, Musk denounced the notion that they started their company with funds borrowed from Errol Musk, but in a tweet, he recognized that his father contributed 10% of a later funding round. The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages. According to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time." To impress investors, Musk built a large plastic structure around a standard computer to create the impression that Zip2 was powered by a small supercomputer. The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999 (equivalent to $590,000,000 in 2025), and Musk received $22 million (equivalent to $43,000,000 in 2025) for his 7-percent share. In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company. The startup was one of the first federally insured online banks, and, in its initial months of operation, over 200,000 customers joined the service. The company's investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year. The following year, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition. Founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, Confinity had its own money-transfer service, PayPal, which was more popular than X.com's service. Within the merged company, Musk returned as CEO. Musk's preference for Microsoft software over Unix created a rift in the company and caused Thiel to resign. Due to resulting technological issues and lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in 2000.[b] Under Thiel, the company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million (equivalent to $320,000,000 in 2025). In 2017, Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount, stating that it had sentimental value. In 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. Seeking a way to launch the greenhouse payloads into space, Musk made two unsuccessful trips to Moscow to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from Russian companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras. Musk instead decided to start a company to build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his early fortune, (equivalent to $180,000,000 in 2025) Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and Chief Engineer. SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Although the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA, then led by Mike Griffin. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion NASA contract (equivalent to $2,400,000,000 in 2025) for Falcon 9-launched Dragon spacecraft flights to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million (equivalent to $865,000,000 in 2025) contract to build a spacecraft that NASA will use to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan. In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access. After the launch of prototype satellites in 2018, the first large constellation was deployed in May 2019. As of May 2025[update], over 7,600 Starlink satellites are operational, comprising 65% of all operational Earth satellites. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion (equivalent to $12,000,000,000 in 2025).[c] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk provided free Starlink service to Ukraine, permitting Internet access and communication at a yearly cost to SpaceX of $400 million (equivalent to $440,000,000 in 2025). However, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink. In 2023, Musk denied Ukraine's request to activate Starlink over Crimea to aid an attack against the Russian navy, citing fears of a nuclear response. Tesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million (equivalent to $11,000,000 in 2025), became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007 and the 2008 financial crisis, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.[page needed] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. Tesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first mass production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Under Musk, Tesla has since launched several well-selling electric vehicles, including the four-door sedan Model S (2012), the crossover Model X (2015), the mass-market sedan Model 3 (2017), the crossover Model Y (2020), and the pickup truck Cybertruck (2023). In May 2020, Musk resigned as chairman of the board as part of the settlement of a lawsuit from the SEC over him tweeting that funding had been "secured" for potentially taking Tesla private. The company has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, called Gigafactories. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion (equivalent to $1,200,000,000,000 in 2025), the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020. Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor. In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices to treat neurological conditions like spinal cord injuries. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate six-year human trials. Neuralink has conducted animal testing on macaques at the University of California, Davis. In 2021, the company released a video in which a macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink.[needs update] In 2017, Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels; he also revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system. April 14, 2022 In early 2017, Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. By 2022, Musk had reached 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.[d] Musk later agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. Days later, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter. By the end of April Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included approximately $12.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in equity financing. Having backtracked on his initial decision, Musk bought the company on October 27, 2022. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. Under Elon Musk, Twitter instituted monthly subscriptions for a "blue check", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation and hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover. In late 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Musk also promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll, and five months later, Musk stepped down as CEO and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer (CTO). Despite Musk stepping down as CEO, X continues to struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation, hate speech, and antisemitism controversies. Musk has been accused of trying to silence some of his critics such as Twitch streamer Asmongold, who criticized him during one of his streams. Musk has been accused of removing their accounts' blue checkmarks, which hinders visibility and is considered a form of shadow banning, or suspending their accounts without justification. Other activities In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain, and assigned engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a transport system between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, dubbed the Hyperloop, intended to make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence, intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to the company, and initially gave $50 million. In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board. Since 2018, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning. In July 2023, Musk launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla, and xAI hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. December 16, 2022 Musk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets and the consequent fossil fuel usage have received criticism. Musk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. In December 2022, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, and made temporary bans on the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. In October 2025, Musk's company xAI launched Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia that he promoted as an alternative to Wikipedia. Articles on Grokipedia are generated and reviewed by xAI's Grok chatbot. Media coverage and academic analysis described Grokipedia as frequently reusing Wikipedia content but framing contested political and social topics in line with Musk's own views and right-wing narratives. A study by Cornell University researchers and NBC News stated that Grokipedia cites sources that are blacklisted or considered "generally unreliable" on Wikipedia, for example, the conspiracy site Infowars and the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront. Wired, The Guardian and Time criticized Grokipedia for factual errors and for presenting Musk himself in unusually positive terms while downplaying controversies. Politics Musk is an outlier among business leaders who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom serve in states in which he has a vested interest. Since 2022, his political contributions have mostly supported Republicans, with his first vote for a Republican going to Mayra Flores in the 2022 Texas's 34th congressional district special election. In 2024, he started supporting international far-right political parties, activists, and causes, and has shared misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Since 2024, his views have been generally described as right-wing. Musk supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Donald Trump in 2024. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for Yang's proposed universal basic income, and endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. In 2021, Musk publicly expressed opposition to the Build Back Better Act, a $3.5 trillion legislative package endorsed by Joe Biden that ultimately failed to pass due to unanimous opposition from congressional Republicans and several Democrats. In 2022, gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee. In 2023, he supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to his campaign, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. From June 2023 to January 2024, Musk hosted a bipartisan set of X Spaces with Republican and Democratic candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Dean Phillips. In October 2025, former vice-president Kamala Harris commented that it was a mistake from the Democratic side to not invite Musk to a White House electric vehicle event organized in August 2021 and featuring executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, despite Tesla being "the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space." Fortune remarked that this was a nod to United Auto Workers and organized labor. Harris said presidents should put aside political loyalties when it came to recognizing innovation, and guessed that the non-invitation impacted Musk's perspective. Fortune noted that, at the time, Musk said, "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited." A month later, he criticized Biden as "not the friendliest administration." Jacob Silverman, author of the book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, said that the tech industry represented by Musk, Thiel, Andreessen and other capitalists, actually flourished under Biden, but the tech leaders chose Trump for their common ground on cultural issues. By early 2024, Musk had become a vocal and financial supporter of Donald Trump. In July 2024, minutes after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk endorsed him for president saying; "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery." During the presidential campaign, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally, and during the campaign promoted conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Democrats, election fraud and immigration, in support of Trump. Musk was the largest individual donor of the 2024 election. In 2025, Musk contributed $19 million to the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, hoping to influence the state's future redistricting efforts and its regulations governing car manufacturers and dealers. In 2023, Musk said he shunned the World Economic Forum because it was boring. The organization commented that they had not invited him since 2015. He has participated in Dialog, dubbed "Tech Bilderberg" and organized by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, though. Musk's international political actions and comments have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism, especially from the governments and leaders of France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, particularly due to his position in the U.S. government as well as ownership of X. An NBC News analysis found he had boosted far-right political movements to cut immigration and curtail regulation of business in at least 18 countries on six continents since 2023. During his speech after the second inauguration of Donald Trump, Musk twice made a gesture interpreted by many as a Nazi or a fascist Roman salute.[e] He thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, and then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. He then repeated the gesture to the crowd behind him. As he finished the gestures, he said to the crowd, "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured." It was widely condemned as an intentional Nazi salute in Germany, where making such gestures is illegal. The Anti-Defamation League said it was not a Nazi salute, but other Jewish organizations disagreed and condemned the salute. American public opinion was divided on partisan lines as to whether it was a fascist salute. Musk dismissed the accusations of Nazi sympathies, deriding them as "dirty tricks" and a "tired" attack. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups celebrated it as a Nazi salute. Multiple European political parties demanded that Musk be banned from entering their countries. The concept of DOGE emerged in a discussion between Musk and Donald Trump, and in August 2024, Trump committed to giving Musk an advisory role, with Musk accepting the offer. In November and December 2024, Musk suggested that the organization could help to cut the U.S. federal budget, consolidate the number of federal agencies, and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that its final stage would be "deleting itself". In January 2025, the organization was created by executive order, and Musk was designated a "special government employee". Musk led the organization and was a senior advisor to the president, although his official role is not clear. In sworn statement during a lawsuit, the director of the White House Office of Administration stated that Musk "is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization", "is not the U.S. DOGE Service administrator", and has "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself". Trump said two days later that he had put Musk in charge of DOGE. A federal judge has ruled that Musk acted as the de facto leader of DOGE. Musk's role in the second Trump administration, particularly in response to DOGE, has attracted public backlash. He was criticized for his treatment of federal government employees, including his influence over the mass layoffs of the federal workforce. He has prioritized secrecy within the organization and has accused others of violating privacy laws. A Senate report alleged that Musk could avoid up to $2 billion in legal liability as a result of DOGE's actions. In May 2025, Bill Gates accused Musk of "killing the world's poorest children" through his cuts to USAID, which modeling by Boston University estimated had resulted in 300,000 deaths by this time, most of them of children. By November 2025, the estimated death toll had increased to 400,000 children and 200,000 adults. Musk announced on May 28, 2025, that he would depart from the Trump administration as planned when the special government employee's 130 day deadline expired, with a White House official confirming that Musk's offboarding from the Trump administration was already underway. His departure was officially confirmed during a joint Oval Office press conference with Trump on May 30, 2025. @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. June 5, 2025 After leaving office, Musk criticized the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill, calling it a "disgusting abomination" due to its provisions increasing the deficit. A feud began between Musk and Trump, with its most notable event being Musk alleging Trump had ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on X (formerly Twitter) on June 5, 2025. Trump responded on Truth Social stating that Musk went "CRAZY" after the "EV Mandate" was purportedly taken away and threatened to cut Musk's government contracts. Musk then called for a third Trump impeachment. The next day, Trump stated that he did not wish to reconcile with Musk, and added that Musk would face "very serious consequences" if he funds Democratic candidates. On June 11, Musk publicly apologized for the tweets against Trump, saying they "went too far". Views November 6, 2022 Rejecting the conservative label, Musk has described himself as a political moderate, even as his views have become more right-wing over time. His views have been characterized as libertarian and far-right, and after his involvement in European politics, they have received criticism from world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. Within the context of American politics, Musk supported Democratic candidates up until 2022, at which point he voted for a Republican for the first time. He has stated support for universal basic income, gun rights, freedom of speech, a tax on carbon emissions, and H-1B visas. Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change, and has been a critic of wealth tax, short-selling, and government subsidies. An immigrant himself, Musk has been accused of being anti-immigration, and regularly blames immigration policies for illegal immigration. He is also a pronatalist who believes population decline is the biggest threat to civilization, and identifies as a cultural Christian. Musk has long been an advocate for space colonization, especially the colonization of Mars. He has repeatedly pushed for humanity colonizing Mars, in order to become an interplanetary species and lower the risks of human extinction. Musk has promoted conspiracy theories and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of racism, sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, disseminating disinformation, and support of white pride. While describing himself as a "pro-Semite", his comments regarding George Soros and Jewish communities have been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and the Biden White House. Musk was criticized during the COVID-19 pandemic for making unfounded epidemiological claims, defying COVID-19 lockdowns restrictions, and supporting the Canada convoy protest against vaccine mandates. He has amplified false claims of white genocide in South Africa. Musk has been critical of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war, praised China's economic and climate goals, suggested that Taiwan and China should resolve cross-strait relations, and was described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government. In Europe, Musk expressed support for Ukraine in 2022 during the Russian invasion, recommended referendums and peace deals on the annexed Russia-occupied territories, and supported the far-right Alternative for Germany political party in 2024. Regarding British politics, Musk blamed the 2024 UK riots on mass migration and open borders, criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what he described as a "two-tier" policing system, and was subsequently attacked as being responsible for spreading misinformation and amplifying the far-right. He has also voiced his support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson and pledged electoral support for Reform UK. In February 2026, Musk described Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as a "tyrant" following Sánchez's proposal to prohibit minors under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms. Legal affairs In 2018, Musk was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private.[f] The securities fraud lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. In 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price". In October 2023, the SEC sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. In January 2025, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk for securities violations related to his purchase of Twitter. In January 2024, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders. The Delaware Supreme Court overturned McCormick's decision in December 2025, restoring Musk's compensation package and awarding $1 in nominal damages. Personal life Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Cameron County, Texas, saying that California had become "complacent" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome (an outdated term for autism spectrum disorder). When asked about his experience growing up with Asperger's syndrome in a TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Musk stated that "the social cues were not intuitive ... I would just tend to take things very literally ... but then that turned out to be wrong — [people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out." Musk suffers from back pain and has undergone several spine-related surgeries, including a disc replacement. In 2000, he contracted a severe case of malaria while on vacation in South Africa. Musk has stated he uses doctor-prescribed ketamine for occasional depression and that he doses "a small amount once every other week or something like that"; since January 2024, some media outlets have reported that he takes ketamine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms, cocaine and other drugs. Musk at first refused to comment on his alleged drug use, before responding that he had not tested positive for drugs, and that if drugs somehow improved his productivity, "I would definitely take them!". The New York Times' investigations revealed Musk's overuse of ketamine and numerous other drugs, as well as strained family relationships and concerns from close associates who have become troubled by his public behavior as he became more involved in political activities and government work. According to The Washington Post, President Trump described Musk as "a big-time drug addict". Through his own label Emo G Records, Musk released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud in March 2019. The following year, he released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. Musk plays video games, which he stated has a "'restoring effect' that helps his 'mental calibration'". Some games he plays include Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk once claimed to be one of the world's top video game players but has since admitted to "account boosting", or cheating by hiring outside services to achieve top player rankings. Musk has justified the boosting by claiming that all top accounts do it so he has to as well to remain competitive. In 2024 and 2025, Musk criticized the video game Assassin's Creed Shadows and its creator Ubisoft for "woke" content. Musk posted to X that "DEI kills art" and specified the inclusion of the historical figure Yasuke in the Assassin's Creed game as offensive; he also called the game "terrible". Ubisoft responded by saying that Musk's comments were "just feeding hatred" and that they were focused on producing a game not pushing politics. Musk has fathered at least 14 children, one of whom died as an infant. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2025 that sources close to Musk suggest that the "true number of Musk's children is much higher than publicly known". He had six children with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, whom he met while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child Nevada Musk died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and have shared custody of their children. The elder twin he had with Wilson came out as a trans woman and, in 2022, officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, adopting her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley in 2008. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, then remarried the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated the American actress Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been "pursuing" her since 2012. In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes confirmed they were dating. Grimes and Musk have three children, born in 2020, 2021, and 2022.[g] Musk and Grimes originally gave their eldest child the name "X Æ A-12", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet; the names registered on the birth certificate are "X" as a first name, "Æ A-Xii" as a middle name, and "Musk" as a last name. They received criticism for choosing a name perceived to be impractical and difficult to pronounce; Musk has said the intended pronunciation is "X Ash A Twelve". Their second child was born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of X Æ A-Xii. Elon Musk has taken X Æ A-Xii to multiple official events in Washington, D.C. during Trump's second term in office. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as "an occasional girlfriend". In October 2024, The New York Times reported Musk bought a Texas compound for his children and their mothers, though Musk denied having done so. Musk also has four children with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink: twins born via IVF in 2021, a child born in 2024 via surrogacy and a child born in 2025.[h] On February 14, 2025, Ashley St. Clair, an influencer and author, posted on X claiming to have given birth to Musk's son Romulus five months earlier, which media outlets reported as Musk's supposed thirteenth child.[i] On February 22, 2025, it was reported that St Clair had filed for sole custody of her five-month-old son and for Musk to be recognised as the child's father. On March 31, 2025, Musk wrote that, while he was unsure if he was the father of St. Clair's child, he had paid St. Clair $2.5 million and would continue paying her $500,000 per year.[j] Later reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicated that $1 million of these payments to St. Clair were structured as a loan. In 2014, Musk and Ghislaine Maxwell appeared together in a photograph taken at an Academy Awards after-party, which Musk later described as a "photobomb". The January 2026 Epstein files contain emails between Musk and Epstein from 2012 to 2013, after Epstein's first conviction. Emails released on January 30, 2026, indicated that Epstein invited Musk to visit his private island on multiple occasions. The correspondence showed that while Epstein repeatedly encouraged Musk to attend, Musk did not visit the island. In one instance, Musk discussed the possibility of attending a party with his then-wife Talulah Riley and asked which day would be the "wildest party"; according to the emails, the visit did not take place after Epstein later cancelled the plans.[k] On Christmas day in 2012, Musk emailed Epstein asking "Do you have any parties planned? I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for". Epstein replied that the "ratio on my island" might make Musk's wife uncomfortable to which Musk responded, "Ratio is not a problem for Talulah". On September 11, 2013, Epstein sent an email asking Musk if he had any plans for coming to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly where many "interesting people" would be coming to his house to which Musk responded that "Flying to NY to see UN diplomats do nothing would be an unwise use of time". Epstein responded by stating "Do you think i am retarded. Just kidding, there is no one over 25 and all very cute." Musk has denied any close relationship with Epstein and described him as a "creep" who attempted to ingratiate himself with influential people. When Musk was asked in 2019 if he introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg, Musk responded: "I don’t recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don’t know the guy well enough to do so." The released emails nonetheless showed cordial exchanges on a range of topics, including Musk's inquiry about parties on the island. The correspondence also indicated that Musk suggested hosting Epstein at SpaceX, while Epstein separately discussed plans to tour SpaceX and bring "the girls", though there is no evidence that such a visit occurred. Musk has described the release of the files a "distraction", later accusing the second Trump administration of suppressing them to protect powerful individuals, including Trump himself.[l] Wealth Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$690 billion as of January 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $852 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla. Having been first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, around 75% of Musk's wealth was derived from Tesla stock in November 2020, although he describes himself as "cash poor". According to Forbes, he became the first person in the world to achieve a net worth of $300 billion in 2021; $400 billion in December 2024; $500 billion in October 2025; $600 billion in mid-December 2025; $700 billion later that month; and $800 billion in February 2026. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth potentially $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Public image Although his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries starting in the 2000s, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Musk's actions and his expressed views have made him a polarizing figure. Biographer Ashlee Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his "part philosopher, part troll" persona on Twitter. He has drawn denouncement for using his platform to mock the self-selection of personal pronouns, while also receiving praise for bringing international attention to matters like British survivors of grooming gangs. Musk has been described as an American oligarch due to his extensive influence over public discourse, social media, industry, politics, and government policy. After Trump's re-election, Musk's influence and actions during the transition period and the second presidency of Donald Trump led some to call him "President Musk", the "actual president-elect", "shadow president" or "co-president". Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[m] In 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that, "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too." Notes References Works cited Further reading External links |
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