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Biden says he’ll back Ukraine as long as it takes. But some take aim at the price tag

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Polls show a growing number of Americans feel the United States is giving too much aid to Ukraine. That’s helped lead to calls for more scrutiny of how the aid is being used.

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We’re entering a pretty strong El Niño—here’s what that means for a US winter

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The southern United States should see some beneficial rain.

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Soil biology is important for soil health and the soil biological community encompasses all living things including earthworms, insects, nematodes, plant roots, animals, and microbes. Beneficial soil microbes perform fundamental functions such as nutrient cycling, breaking down crop residues, and stimulating plant growth. While the role of microbes to maintain soil health and contribute to crop performance is clear, the soil biological component is extremely difficult to observe and manage. Soil microbes, biological communities, and the functions they perform are dynamic, complex, and not easily interpreted for field practices. Yet, they are getting more attention as farmers are encouraged to practice more holistic management approaches on their farms.

Two articles published in eOrganic by Penn State scientists, Soil Microbes in Organic Cropping Systems 101 and Management of Soil Microbes on Organic Farms, help farmers and people without a background in microbiology simplify information about soil microbial community functions and specific aspects of their management. Although the articles target organic agriculture, their information will be useful to anyone who is interested in learning more about the fundamentals of soil microorganisms. Both articles are briefly summarized here.

Most soil microbes can be classified as fungi, bacteria, archaea, protozoa, or viruses. It has been estimated that a single gram of soil can contain up to several billion bacteria alone. In agricultural systems, soil microbes are directly associated with soil carbon because of the essential role they play in residue decomposition and nutrient cycling. In soils, carbon-based materials include plant litter, compounds released from plant roots, living or dead soil organisms (including microbes), and larger soil fauna like worms and insects, as well as their waste. Collectively, all carbon-based materials, including living things, are known as soil organic matter.

Like all living things, soil microbes need access to nutrition and water and therefore tend to concentrate near sources of soil organic matter. Microbial biomass and diversity tend to be much higher in soil immediately surrounding plant roots, an area known as the rhizosphere, and other organic matter deposits. Due to their close proximity to plant roots, soil microbes significantly affect soil and crop health. Some of the activities they perform include, nitrogen-fixation, phosphorus solubilization, suppression of pests and pathogens, improvement of plant stress, and decomposition that leads to soil aggregation. However, soil microbes can also be harmful to crops if they cause disease or compete for nutrients.

Although microbial diversity is necessary for multiple microbial functions to occur in the soil, including disease suppression, clear relationships between microbial diversity and soil or crop health continues to be difficult to decipher. In general, soils with higher microbial abundance and diversity have a greater chance of containing individuals that perform a particular function under a range of conditions, but there is often a saturation point where more diversity does not result in noticeably improved soil function.

Despite understanding their importance on farms, the diversity and complexity of soil microbial communities make them incredibly difficult to manage. Many strategies do exist for managing soil microbes, however, and range from adding beneficial microbes (inoculants or commercial products) to suppressing harmful microbes (soil fumigation, soil steaming, anaerobic disinfestation, and solarization). These approaches range in cost, labor and equipment needs, scale of application, and measurable efficacy. Additionally, common crop management practices often target other agronomic needs and simultaneously influence soil microbial communities. Examples include tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, and adding compost, manure, or mulch.

Benefits, challenges, and considerations associated with managing soil microbes using different methods are thoroughly outlined in the aforementioned articles. Predicting the overall response of the soil microbial community to any of these practices is challenging. Microbial management practices can help growers achieve specific goals however, any intervention can yield complex or unintended consequences. Farmers have very few tools available to monitor the impacts of microbial soil interventions and are encouraged to focus on the following considerations.

Microbes play an important role in crop and soil health but can be beneficial or harmful.

Current research has not yet optimized microbial contributions to soil systems.

Soil microbial impact on crop and soil health will depend on composition and activities of existing soil microorganisms as well as other soil characteristics.

Farmers are urged to be selective when using time-intensive or financially-intensive management practices.

Performance of some products or practices can be monitored on individual farms but should be considered in small trials.

It is possible to introduce pathogens or other microbes with negative impacts when attempting to introduce beneficials.

Soil building practices can have overall beneficial impacts on soil biological communities and are encouraged to build soil health on farms.

Soil microbial management is also discussed in other resources from Penn State Extension on the following topics:
Managing Beneficial Soil Fungus for Insect Control Factors that Influence the Interpretation of Soil Health Tests

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Understanding and Managing Soil Microbes

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Soil biology is important for soil health and the soil biological community encompasses all living things including earthworms, insects, nematodes, plant roots, animals, and microbes. Beneficial soil microbes perform fundamental functions such as nutrient

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Best Friends Animal Society - Save Them All

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With Best Friends, you're working to save the lives of cats and dogs all-across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.

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Israel-Hamas War: Israel Says It Has Isolated Gaza City After ‘Large’ Attack

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A military spokesman said Israel had “completed our encirclement,” while the U.S. secretary of state warned Iran against widening the conflict. Gazan health officials said the death toll there had exceeded 10,000.

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Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War, which in fact lasted nine years, between 1754 and 1763. British involvement in the conflict began in 1754 in what became known as the French and Indian War. However the warfare in the European theater involving countries other than Britain and France commenced in 1756 (hence the name "Seven Years' War"). Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power, having gained all of New France in North America, ending France's role as a colonial power there. Following Spain's entry in the war in alliance with France in the third Family Compact, Britain captured the major Spanish ports of Havana, Cuba and Manila, in the Philippines in 1762, and agreed to return them in exchange for Spanish Florida. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 formally ended the conflict and Britain established itself as the world's pre-eminent naval power.

The war started poorly for Britain, at the hands of France in North America during 1754-55, and in the Fall of Menorca in 1756. The same year Britain's major ally Austria switched sides and aligned itself with France, and Britain was hastily forced to conclude a new alliance with Frederick the Great's Prussia. For the next seven years these two nations were ranged against a growing number of enemy powers led by France. After a period of political instability, the rise of a government headed by the Duke of Newcastle and William Pitt the Elder provided Britain with firmer leadership, enabling it to consolidate and achieve its war aims.

In 1759 Britain enjoyed an Annus Mirabilis, with success over the French on the continent (Germany), in North America (capturing the capital of New France), and in India. In 1761 Britain also came into conflict with Spain. The following year British forces captured Havana and Manila, the western and eastern capitals of the Spanish Empire, and repulsed a Spanish invasion of Portugal. By this time the Pitt-Newcastle ministry had collapsed, Britain was short of credit and the generous peace terms offered by France and its allies were accepted.

Through the crown, Britain was allied to the Kingdom of Ireland and the Electorate of Hanover, both of which effectively fell under British military command throughout the war. It also directed the military strategy of its various colonies around the world including British America. In India, British possessions were administered by the East India Company.

The Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle succeeded his younger brother as Prime Minister in 1754 and managed domestic affairs for much of the Seven Years' War.

The last major conflict in Europe, the War of the Austrian Succession, had ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle after a bloody war had left large parts of Central Europe devastated. The peace terms were unpopular with many, however, as they largely retained the status quo, which led the people of states such as France, Britain and Austria to believe that they had not made sufficient gains for their efforts in the war. By the early 1750s, many saw another major war as imminent, and Austria was preparing its forces for an attempt to retake Silesia from Prussia.

Despite enjoying a comfortable majority in the House of Commons, Newcastle was extremely cautious and vulnerable to attacks led by men such as William Pitt, the leader of the Patriot Whigs. Newcastle fervently believed that peace in Europe was possible so long as the "Old System", a structure of alliances with European powers in which Britain had formed grand coalitions against Bourbon ambitions in Europe, as well as the alliance with Austria, prevailed, and he devoted much of his efforts to the continuance of his policy.

One of the major concerns for the British government of the era was colonial expansion. During the 18th century, the British colonies in North America had become more populous and powerful and were agitating to expand westwards into the American interior. The territory that was most prized by the new settlers was the Ohio Country, which was also claimed by France. It had economic potential and was considered a strategically-key territory since French control would block British expansion westwards, and French territory would eventually surround the British colonies and pin them against the coast. A number of colonial delegations to London urged the government to take more decisive action in the Ohio dispute.

In the wars of the time, the British tended to avoid large-scale commitments of troops on Continental Europe. They sought to offset the disadvantage of this in Europe by allying themselves with one or more continental powers whose interests were antithetical to those of their enemies, particularly France. By subsidising the armies of continental allies, Britain could turn London's enormous financial power to military advantage.

During the Seven Years' War, the British chose as their principal partner the most brilliant general of the day, Frederick the Great of Prussia, which was the rising power in Central Europe, and paid Frederick substantial subsidies for his campaigns. That was accomplished in the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 in which Britain ended its long-standing alliance with Austria in favour of Prussia, which left Austria to side with France. In marked contrast to France's strategy, Britain strove to prosecute the war actively in the colonies and took full advantage of its naval power. The British pursued a dual strategy of naval blockade and bombardment of enemy ports, combined with rapid movement of troops by sea. They harassed enemy shipping and attacked enemy colonies and frequently used colonists from nearby British colonies in the effort.

The Ohio Country located between Britain's Thirteen Colonies and France's New France saw France and Britain clash. In 1753 the French sent an expedition south from Montreal that began constructing forts in the upper reaches of the Ohio River. In 1754 the Province of Virginia sent the Virginia Regiment led by George Washington to the area to assist in the construction of a British fort at present-day Pittsburgh, but the larger French force had driven away a smaller British advance party and built Fort Duquesne. Washington and some native allies ambushed a company of French scouts at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in late May 1754. In the skirmish the French envoy Joseph Coulon de Jumonville was left dead leading to a diplomatic incident. The French responded in force from Fort Duquesne, and in July Washington was forced to surrender at the Battle of Fort Necessity. Despite the conflict between them, the two nations were not yet formally at war.

The government in Britain, realising that the existing forces of America were insufficient, drew up a plan to dispatch two battalions of Irish regular troops under General Edward Braddock and intended to massively increase the number of Provincial American forces. A number of expeditions were planned to give the British the upper hand in North America including a plan for New England troops to capture Fort Beauséjour and Fortress Louisbourg in Acadia, and others to act against Fort Niagara and Fort Saint-Frédéric from Albany, New York. The largest operation was a plan for Braddock to dislodge the French from the Ohio Country.

In May 1755 Braddock's column blundered into an enemy force composed of French and Native Americans at the Battle of the Monongahela near Fort Duquesne. After several hours' fighting the British were defeated and forced to retreat, Braddock died a few days later of his wounds. The remainder of his force returned to Philadelphia and took up quarters, intending no further action that year. The French remained in control of the Ohio Country.

In the maritime theatre, the British were successful in the Battle of Fort Beauséjour and in their campaign to remove the French military threat from Acadia. After the battle the British began the Great Expulsion called the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) by the British, with the intent of preventing Acadian support of the French supply lines to Louisbourg. The British forcibly relocated 12,000 French-speakers. Two additional expeditions from Albany each failed to reach their objectives, although one, William Johnson's expedition, did establish Fort William Henry and held off a French attempt on Fort Edward in the Battle of Lake George.

When news of the Braddock disaster reached Britain it caused a massive public outcry over the government's poor military preparation. The government appointed William Shirley as the new commander-in-chief in North America, and planned an equally ambitious series of operations for the following year.

Map showing the possessions in 1750 of Britain (pink and purple), France (blue), and Spain (orange) in North America

In the maritime theatre, a raid was organized on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and several on the Chignecto. A British attempt to take Louisbourg in 1757 failed due to bad weather and poor planning. The following year, in part because of having expelled many Acadians, the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) succeeded, clearing the way for an advance on Quebec. Immediately after the fall of Louisbourg the expulsion of the Acadians continued with the removal of Acadians in the St. John River Campaign, the Petitcodiac River Campaign, the Ile Saint-Jean Campaign, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign (1758).

By this point the war in North America had reached a stalemate, with France broadly holding the territorial advantage. It held possession of the disputed Ohio territory but lacked the strength to launch an attack on the more populous British coastal colonies.

One of the most significant geopolitical actions of the time was the slow movement towards Imperial unity in North America started by the Albany Congress, although a Plan of Union proposed by Benjamin Franklin was rejected by delegates.

Britain had been allied to Austria since 1731, and the co-operation between the two states had peaked during the War of the Austrian Succession when Maria Theresa had been able to retain her throne with British assistance. Since then the relationship had weakened-as Austria was dissatisfied with the terms negotiated by Britain for them at the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Prussia had captured Silesia from Austria during the war and Austria wanted British help to recover it. Sensing that it would not be forthcoming, the Austrians approached their historical enemy France and made a defensive treaty with her-thereby dissolving the twenty-five-year Anglo-Austrian Alliance.

Alarmed by the sudden switch in the European balance of power the British made a similar agreement with Prussia at the Westminster Convention. By doing this Newcastle hoped to rebalance the two sides in central Europe-and thereby make a war potentially mutually destructive to all. This he hoped would stop either Austria or Prussia making an attack on the other and would prevent an all-out war in Europe. This would allow Britain and France to continue their colonial skirmishes without formal war being declared in Europe. Frederick the Great had a number of supporters in London, including William Pitt, who welcomed the rapprochement between Britain and Prussia. The Dutch Republic, a long-standing ally of Britain, declared its neutrality in the wake of the Westminster Convention and had no active participation in the coming conflict.

As war in Europe appeared increasingly inevitable, the Newcastle government sought to take the initiative-and make sure that the strategic island of Menorca (historically called "Minorca" by the British) was secured before it fell into French hands. A relief expedition was dispatched under Admiral John Byng to save it. However, once he arrived in the Mediterranean Byng found a sizable French fleet and a 15,000-strong army besieging the fortress. After fighting an indecisive battle he withdrew to Gibraltar, and Menorca subsequently fell. Formal war was finally declared in May 1756, almost exactly two years after the two countries had first clashed in Ohio.

Byng was recalled to Britain and court-martialled. There was violent public outrage about the loss of Menorca, mostly directed against Newcastle. He tried to deflect the blame by emphasising the alleged cowardice of Byng. After being tried by his peers, the admiral was eventually executed by firing squad for "not doing his utmost". By that time Newcastle and his government had fallen. It was replaced by a weaker administration headed by the Duke of Devonshire and dominated by William Pitt.

The major war in continental Europe that the British had hoped to avoid exploded in August 1756 when Frederick the Great attacked and overran the Austrian ally Saxony. Having occupied it he then launched a similarly bold invasion of Bohemia. In both cases the Prussians caught their Austrian enemies by surprise, and had used this advantage to full effect, capturing major objectives before Austrian troops had been fully mobilised. Having besieged Prague, an Austrian counter-attack and a defeat at the Battle of Kolín forced the Prussians back.

Within a short time Prussia was being attacked on four fronts, by Austria from the south, France from the west, Russia from the east, and Sweden from the north. Frederick fought defensive actions trying to blunt the invaders, losing thousands of men and precious resources in the process. He began to send more urgent appeals to London for material help on the continent.

When the war with France had commenced, Britain had initially brought Hessian and Hanoverian troops to defend Britain from a feared invasion scare. When the threat of this receded, the German soldiers were sent to defend Hanover along with a small contingent of British troops under Duke of Cumberland, the King's second son. The arrival of British troops on the continent was considered a rarity, as the country preferred to make war by using its naval forces. As with the Prussians, Cumberland's army was initially overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the French attacks. Following the disastrous Battle of Hastenbeck Cumberland was forced to sign the Convention of Klosterzeven by which Hanover would withdraw from the war-and large chunks of its territory would be occupied by the French for the duration of the conflict.

Prussia was extremely alarmed by this development and lobbied hard for it to be reversed. In London too, there was shock at such a capitulation and Pitt recalled Cumberland to London where he was publicly rebuked by his father, the King, and forced to relinquish his commission. The terms of Klosterzeven were revoked, Hanover re-entered the war-and a new commander was selected to command the Allied Anglo-German forces. Ferdinand of Brunswick was a brother-in-law of Frederick the Great, and had developed a reputation as a competent officer. He set about trying to rally the German troops under his command, by emphasising the extent of the atrocities committed by the French troops who had occupied Hanover, and launched a counter-offensive in late 1757 driving the French back across the Rhine.

Despite several British attempts to persuade them, the Dutch Republic refused to join their former allies in the war and remained neutral. Pitt at one point even feared that the Dutch would enter the war against Britain, in response to repeated violations of Dutch neutrality by the Royal Navy. Similarly the British were wary of Denmark joining the war against them, but Copenhagen followed a policy of strict neutrality.

In London the Pitt-dominated administration had fallen after just six months because of a lack of support in parliament. A period of political stalemate followed, with no real direction to the British war effort. It became apparent that the only way a serious war administration could be put together was by an alliance of leading figures. In 1757 a partnership was formed between the Duke of Newcastle and William Pitt-despite their years of enmity. Newcastle became the head of the administration as Prime Minister, with control of public finances, while Pitt became Secretary of State and de facto war minister with control of much of British military strategy. Other leading figures such as Henry Fox ( Paymaster of the Forces) and the Duke of Bedford were also given positions in the administration.

The new government's strategic thinking was sharply divided. Pitt had been a long-term advocate of Britain playing as small a role on the European continent while concentrating their resources and naval power to strike against vulnerable French colonies. Newcastle remained an old-school continentalist, who believed that the war would be decided in Europe, and was convinced that a strong British presence there was essential. He was supported in this view by George II.

A compromise was eventually established in which Britain would keep troops on the European continent under the command of the Duke of Brunswick, while Pitt was given authority to launch several colonial expeditions. He sent forces to attack French settlements in West Africa and the West Indies, operations which were tactically successful and brought financial benefits. In Britain a popular surge of patriotism and support for the government resulted. Pitt formed a triumvirate to direct operations with George Anson in command of the navy and John Ligonier in charge of the army. A Militia Act was passed in 1757 to create a sizable force to defend Britain, which would free up regular troops for operations overseas.

As a colonel James Wolfe participated in the 1757 Raid on Rochefort. He soon rose to be a general, taking part in the seizure of Louisbourg and leading the British troops who captured Quebec in 1759.

The British had received several requests from their German allies to try to relieve the pressure on them by launching diversionary operations against the French. Pitt had long been an advocate of amphibious strikes or "descents" against the French coastline in which a small British force would land, capture a settlement, destroy its fortifications and munitions supplies and then withdraw. This would compel the French to withdraw troops from the Northern front to guard the coast.

After an urgent request from Brunswick, Pitt was able to put his plan into action, and in September 1757 a British raid was launched against Rochefort in western France. For various reasons it was not a success, but Pitt was determined to press ahead with similar raids. Another British expedition was organised under Lord Sackville. A landing in Saint-Malo was partially successful, but was cut short by the sudden appearance of French troops-and the force withdrew to Britain. Pitt organised a third major descent, under the command of Thomas Bligh. His raid on Cherbourg in August 1758 proved to be the most successful of the descents, as he burnt ships and munitions and destroyed the fortifications of the town. However, an attempt in September to do the same at St Malo ended with the Battle of Saint Cast and the British withdrawing with heavy casualties. This proved to be the last of the major landings attempted on the French coast-though the British later took control of the Belle Île off the coast of Brittany which was used as a base for marshalling troops and supplies. The raids were not financially successful and were described by Henry Fox as being "like breaking windows with guineas". From then on the British concentrated their efforts in Europe on Germany.

Britain and France both had significant colonial possessions in India and had been battling for supremacy for a number of years. The British were represented by the British East India Company (EIC) who were permitted to raise troops. The collapse of the long-standing Mughal Empire brought the clash between the two states to a head, as each tried to gain sufficient power and territory to dominate the other. The 1754 Treaty of Pondicherry which ended the Second Carnatic War had brought a temporary truce to India, but it was soon under threat. A number of smaller Indian Princely states aligned with either Britain or France. One of the most assertive of these Princes was the pro-French Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, who resented the British presence in Calcutta. In 1756 he had succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan who had been a staunch British ally. By contrast he regarded the British East India Company as an encroaching threat.

On 20 June 1756 the Nawab's troops stormed Fort William capturing the city. A number of the British civilians and prisoners of war were locked in the small guard room in what became known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. After the death of many of them, the atrocity became a popular rallying call for revenge. A force from Madras under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive arrived and liberated the city, driving out the Nawab's troops. The Third Carnatic War that followed saw Britain ranged against the Nawab and France. Clive consolidated his position in Calcutta, and made contact with one of the Nawab's chief advisors Mir Jafar attempting to persuade him and other leading Bengalis to overthrow the Nawab. After the British ambushed a column of the Nawab's troops which was approaching Calcutta on 2 February 1757, the two sides agreed the Treaty of Alinagar which brought a temporary truce to Bengal.

Robert Clive, meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, by Francis Hayman

Despite the agreement at Alinagar, neither side was content with the status quo. The British felt that if they did not assert their position, the French would become the dominant power in Bengal. Siraj ud-Daulah was fearful of being forced to accept British suzerainty. His position was weakened by his unpopularity with his own subjects, and the threat of other military enemies to the west. He began to take steps to drive the British out of Bengal entirely.

On 23 June 1757 the Nawab led a force of 50,000 into the field. Ranged against them was a much smaller Anglo-Indian force under the command of Robert Clive. The Nawab was weakened by the betrayal of Mir Jafar who had concluded a secret pact with the British before the battle - and refused to move his troops to support the Nawab. Faced with the superior firepower and discipline of the British troops, the Nawab's army was routed. After the battle Siraj ud-Daulah was overthrown and executed by his own officers, and Mir Jafar succeeded him as Nawab. He then concluded a peace treaty with the British.

Following the Battle of Chandalore when Clive attacked a French trading post the French were driven completely out of Bengal. In spite of this they still had a major presence in central India, and hoped to regain the power they had lost to the British in southern India during the Second Carnatic War.

The Annus Mirabilis of 1759 ( Latin 'wonderful year') was a string of notable British victories over their French-led opponents during that year. Apart from a few isolated victories, the war had not gone well for Britain since 1754. In all theatres except India and North America (where Pitt's strategy had led to important gains in 1758) they were on the retreat. British agents received information about a planned French invasion which would knock Britain out of the war completely. While France starved their colonial forces of troops and supplies to concentrate them on the goal of total strategic supremacy in Europe, the British government continued its policy of shipping their own troops to fight for total victory in the colonies-leaving Britain to be guarded by the large militia that had existed since 1757. The British had entered 1759 anxious about a French invasion, but by the end of the year, they were victorious in all theatres against France.

The succession of victories led Horace Walpole to remark, "Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories". Several of the triumphs assumed an iconic place in the mindset of the British public, reinforced by representations in art and music, such as the popular song Heart of Oak and the later painting The Death of General Wolfe. Frank McLynn identified 1759 as the year which prefigured the rise of the British Empire in eclipsing France as the dominant global superpower. Much of the credit for the annus mirabilis was given to William Pitt the Elder, the minister who directed military strategy as part of his duties as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, rather than to the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle. Recent historians, however, have portrayed the British Cabinet as a more collective leadership than had previously been thought.

Three years later, Great Britain saw a similarly successful year. The Anglo-German army again turned back a French advance on Hanover at Wilhelmsthal, the army helped repulse a Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal, captured Martinique from France, and captured Havana and Manila from Spain. This led some to describe 1762 as a "Second Annus Mirabilis".[citation needed ]

Following Clive's victory at Plassey and the subjugation of Bengal, Britain had not directed large resources to the Indian theatre. The French meanwhile had despatched a large force from Europe to seize the initiative on the subcontinent. The clear goal of this force was to capture Madras, which had previously fallen to the French in 1746.

In December 1758 a French force of 8,000 under the Comte de Lally descended on Madras, bottling up the 4,000 British defenders in Fort St George. After a hard-fought three-month siege the French were finally forced to abandon their attempt to take the city by the arrival of a British naval force carrying 600 reinforcements on 16 February 1759. Lally withdrew his troops, but it was not the end of French ambitions in southern India.

One of Pitt's favoured strategies was a British expedition to attack the French West Indies, where their richest sugar-producing colonies were situated. A British naval force of 9,000 sailed from Portsmouth in November 1758 under the command of Peregrine Hopson. Using Barbados as a staging point, they attacked first at Martinique.

After failing to make enough headway, and losing troops rapidly to disease, they were forced to abandon the attempt and move to the secondary target of the British expedition, Guadeloupe. Facing a race against time before the hurricane season hit in July, a landing was forced and the town of Basse-Terre was shelled. They looked in severe danger when a large French fleet unexpectedly arrived under Bompart, but on 1 May the island's defenders finally surrendered and Bompart was unable to prevent the loss of Guadeloupe.

Orders arrived from London concerning an assault on Saint Lucia but the commanders decided that such an attempt was unwise given the circumstances. Instead they moved to protect Antigua from any possible attack by Bompart, before the bulk of the force sailed for home in late July.

Since early 1758 the British had contributed an increasingly large number of troops to serve in Germany. Pitt had reversed his previous hostility to British intervention on the continent, as he realised that the theatre could be used to tie down numerous French troops and resources which might otherwise be sent to fight in the colonies. Brunswick's army had enjoyed enormous success since winter 1757, crossing the Rhine several times, winning the Battle of Krefeld and capturing Bremen without a shot being fired. In recognition of his services Parliament voted him £2,000 a year for life. By April 1759 Brunswick had an army of around 72,000 facing two French armies with a combined strength of 100,000. The French had occupied Frankfurt and were using it as their base for operations, which Brunswick now attempted to assault. On 13 April Brunswick lost the Battle of Bergen to a superior French force and was forced to retreat.

Battle plan of Minden

The French pursued Brunswick slowly, capturing the strategic town of Minden which could potentially be used to stage an invasion of Hanover. Brunswick was pressured into action by this threat; the French command was also eager to end the campaign with a swift victory to free up troops which would allow them to take part in the proposed invasion of Britain. On the night of 31 July, both commanders simultaneously decided to attack the other outside Minden. The French forces reacted hesitantly when faced with Germans in front of them as dawn broke, allowing the Allies to seize the initiative and counter-attack. However, one column of British troops advanced too quickly and soon found itself attacked on all sides by a mixture of cavalry, artillery and infantry which vastly outnumbered them. The British managed to hold them off, sustaining casualties of a third. When they were reinforced with other troops, the Allies broke through the French lines and forced them to retreat. The British cavalry under Sackville were ordered to advance, but he refused-apparently in indignation at his treatment by Brunswick, though this was at the time popularly attributed to cowardice on his part. In the confusion, the French were allowed to escape the battlefield and avoid total disaster.

Despite widespread praise for the conduct of the British troops, their commander Sackville received condemnation for his alleged cowardice and was forced to return home in disgrace. He was replaced by the Marquess of Granby. The victory proved crucial, as Frederick had lost to the Russians at Kunersdorf. Had Brunswick been defeated at Minden, Hanover would almost certainly have been invaded and the total defeat of Prussia would have been imminent. In the wake of the victory the Allies advanced, pushing the French backwards and relieving the pressure on the Prussians.

The central plank of France's war against Britain in 1759 was a plan to invade Britain, authored by the French chief minister Duc de Choiseul. It was subject to several changes, but the core was that more than 50,000 French troops would cross the English Channel from Le Havre in flat-bottomed boats and land at Portsmouth on the British coast. Aided by a Jacobite rebellion - they would then advance on London and force a peace agreement on the British, extracting various concessions and knocking them out of the war. The British became aware through their agents of the scheme and drew up a plan to mobilise their forces in case of the invasion. In an effort to set back the invasion, a British raid was launched against Le Havre which destroyed numerous flat-boats and supplies. In spite of this, the plans continued to progress and by autumn the French were poised to launch their invasion.

Following naval defeats at the Battle of Lagos and Battle of Quiberon Bay, and with news of the Allied victory at Minden, the French began to have second thoughts about their plan, and in late autumn cancelled it. The French did not have the clear sea they hoped for the crossing, nor could they now spare the number of troops on the continent. A number of flaws in the plan had also become apparent, including the fact that claims of the number of Jacobite supporters were now considered wildly optimistic.[citation needed ]

The campaign was considered a last throw of the dice for the Jacobites to have any realistic hope of reclaiming the British throne. After the campaign the French soon abandoned the Stuarts entirely, withdrawing their support, and forcing them to take up a new home in Rome. Many of the Highland communities that had strongly supported the Jacobites in 1715 and 1745 now had regiments serving in the British army, where they played a key role in Britain's success that year.

The French naval defeat at Quiberon Bay, near Saint-Nazaire in Brittany, proved a devastating setback to the planned invasion, and was one of the major reasons behind its ultimate cancellation.

By 1759 the Royal Navy had expanded to 71,000 personnel and 275 ships in commission, with another 82 under ordinance. During the war the British had instituted a new system of blockade, by which they penned in the main French fleets at anchor in Brest and Toulon. The British were able to keep an almost constant force poised outside French harbours. The French inability to counter this had led to a collapse in morale among French seamen and the wider population.

The French government had devised a plan that would allow them to launch their invasion. It required a junction of the two French fleets in the English Channel, where they would be able to cover a major invasion. However, in August 1759 the French Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral La Clue left harbour and was destroyed at the Battle of Lagos near Portugal. This left only the Channel Fleet at Brest under Conflans. When he tried to break free of the British blockade in November, he was run down and attacked by the British under Admiral Hawke at the Battle of Quiberon Bay. This victory left the British in almost total command of the seas, compounded by the effective use of naval forces in the West Indies, Canada and India. A small French force under Thurot did manage to land on the Irish coast, and menace Belfast before being forced to withdraw and being destroyed by a Royal Navy squadron in the Irish Sea.

The year was rounded out by the news of Wolfe's victory at Quebec, resulting in the capture of the capital of New France (see below). However while 1759 was acclaimed as Britain's 'Annus Mirabilis', for the Prussians the year had been as disastrous as it had been successful for the British. Prussia's armies had suffered a string of defeats and suffered large numbers of casualties. At times Prussia veered close to total collapse, notably after the Battle of Kunersdorf, was now heavily dependent on continued British financial assistance and only survived due to the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.

Following the failure of the British to take Louisbourg in 1757, a second attempt was planned in 1758 and command given to General Jeffery Amherst. Although Louisbourg did not control entry to the Saint Lawrence River, it could not simply be bypassed, and the British decided it must be taken before they could proceed further. After a 44-day siege, the city finally capitulated. One of the figures who benefited most from the campaign was a young British brigadier, James Wolfe, who so impressed Pitt that he was promoted and given command of future expeditions in Canada. Despite their victory at Louisbourg, the British decided to wait for the spring before heading further up the St Lawrence. In the meantime the river was extensively charted by a naval officer, James Cook, later to become famous as an explorer. Despatches carrying news of the victory sparked euphoria in Britain, and were celebrated by numerous bonfires.

The key to British strategy in North America involved taking Quebec City-the capital and largest city of New France. This was to be achieved by the deployment of a massive force up the Saint Lawrence River. Simultaneously an Anglo-American force would march from New York to capture Fort Carillon and possibly Fort Niagara as well. While many, particularly Pitt and the American inhabitants, hoped that Canada could be annexed, others saw it as a bargaining chip to offset potential British losses in Europe. By the time the French realised the scale of the British intentions in Canada, it was too late to send assistance to Quebec. The French government hoped that Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, New France's military commander, would be able to resist for the next year, after which they would send troops to his aid.

Map of the Quebec City area showing disposition of French and British forces. The Plains of Abraham are located to the left.

Wolfe arrived outside Quebec on 28 June. For much of the rest of the summer, he probed the defences of the city, trying to find a way through. Montcalm constantly frustrated him, shifting his own troops about in response. The cat-and-mouse game between the two generals reached a climax towards the end of the summer. If Wolfe could not capture the city he would likely be forced to withdraw in the face of the hostile Canadian winter. An attempt to land on the Montmorency was beaten back at the Battle of Beauport, and almost proved disastrous. Wolfe now searched for another place to land and make his attack. On 12 September the British learned of a convenient landing spot, and Wolfe moved his army there at night. The following day the Battle of the Plains of Abraham took place. It proved to be a decisive British victory, though one in which both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed. The British then took over the city.

Surrender of the French Army in Montreal in 1760

The British were further cheered by the news that Amherst had taken Fort Carillon (after which it was renamed Fort Ticonderoga, as it is known today) and a second expedition had captured Fort Niagara. The French and their native allies were now under increasing pressure, compounded by guerrilla activities spearheaded by Britain's Mohawk allies and Rogers' Rangers. Despite the celebrated victory at Quebec, the campaign was not over-the French still had significant forces at large in North America swelled by refugees from the surrounding countryside. The following spring the French regrouped and launched an attempt to retake Quebec. The Battle of Sainte-Foy took place on 28 April 1760 and proved even bloodier than the previous battle. Though the French prevailed, the British were able to retreat into Quebec. The subsequent siege of Quebec lasted from 29 April until 15 May when British ships arrived to relieve the city which compelled the de Lévis to break off the siege and retreat.

The arrival of British ships and reinforcements ended the French offensive and forced them to retreat in the direction of Montreal. The British pursued, capturing parts of the city on 1 September 1760 after encountering only light resistance. The last French army under Lévis was finally forced to surrender on 6 September 1760 when a second British army under Amherst arrived from the south following the Battle of the Thousand Islands, and an attempt at French reinforcement was stopped in the naval Battle of Restigouche.

The British had responded to the French challenge in North America by striking at the heart of New France. Though it had been a long and costly series of campaigns, it proved to be one of the most successful of Pitt's policies. While a modest French presence remained in Illinois and Louisiana the fighting served to end any significant French military threats in North America for good.

Following the British victory at Madras, their forces took the offensive. A force under Francis Forde captured the port of Masulipatam. Although he still had significant forces in India, the French commander Lally had expected greater support from his own navy, but he was constantly frustrated by the cautious Aché. Fresh British reinforcements arrived, tilting the balance in their favour. The failure of the French navy to secure command of the Indian Ocean opened their own territory to capture.

Pondicherry's capture proved to be a decisive moment in the long-term battle for control in India. After this point, French India was confined to a handful of trading posts stretched along the coast, while the East India Company moved into the interior, extending its conquests to create the wide-reaching territories of British India, and by subsidiary alliances setting up the even wider British Indian Empire. By the end of 1761, the French were fearful that the British forces in India were preparing to strike at the island of Mauritius, and made no effort to reverse their losses in India.

Lord Bute's rise to power between 1760 and 1762 dramatically influenced the emphasis of Britain's war effort. Like the new king, Bute favoured an end to British involvement on the continent.

1760 marked a major milestone in British strategy, caused by the death of George II. His grandson George III was much less committed to a British role in Germany which he saw as unnecessary. He also disliked Newcastle and Pitt, describing them as "knave" and a "snake in the grass", and elevated his former tutor Earl of Bute into a senior role in the cabinet. The dovish Bute soon clashed with Pitt over various aspects of British policy. Bute did give his assent to Pitt's plan for a British expedition to capture the island of Belle Île in 1761.

Bute began to champion the idea that Britain should disentangle itself from the German war, and suggested to Frederick the Great that he might make peace with Austria by giving them back Silesia. Frederick rejected the proposal, although Prussian fortunes were at a low ebb by 1761 following defeats on several fronts. Debates began in London about cancelling all British subsidies to Frederick entirely.

By early 1762-despite the success of Brunswick's army in Western Europe-Russian troops were poised to capture Berlin and a partition of Prussia was actively planned. Frederick was spared by the sudden death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, who was succeeded by the pro-Prussian Peter III. He was an ardent admirer of Frederick and immediately switched Russia from an enemy of Prussia to an ally-withdrawing the threat from Berlin and sending his troops against the Austrians. This dramatically shifted the balance of power in Europe-suddenly handing Frederick the initiative. He recaptured southern Silesia and forced Austria to the negotiating table.

With evidence of growing Franco-Spanish co-operation, Pitt suggested it was only a matter of time before Spain entered the war. The prospect of war with Spain shattered the cabinet unity which had existed up to that point. Pitt strongly advocated a pre-emptive strike which would allow them to capture the annual plate fleet, denying Spain of its vital resources of wealth which were shipped in. The rest of the cabinet refused, and Pitt resigned. In spite of this war with Spain swiftly became unavoidable, and on 4 January 1762 Britain duly declared war on Spain. Almost immediately, British ships under Admiral Charles Saunders moved to blockade Cádiz, the main port for silver from New Spain.

The original Spanish plan was to take Almeida and then to advance towards the Alentejo and Lisbon, but they switched their target to Porto as it would strike more directly at British commerce. Under the direction of the Marquis of Sarria Spanish troops crossed from Galicia into northern Portugal capturing several towns. However, the thrust against Porto stalled in difficult terrain and due to the flooding of the River Esla. British troops began arriving that summer with 6,000 coming from Belle Île under Lord Loudoun and a further 2,000 from Ireland. Spain invested and captured the border fortress of Almeida. A British-Portuguese counter-attack led by John Burgoyne captured the Spanish town Valencia de Alcántara. French forces began to arrive to support the Spaniards, but like their allies they began to suffer high levels of attrition through disease and desertion. In November with problems with their lines of supply and communication the Bourbon allies withdrew and sued for peace. Despite the large numbers of forces involved, there had been no major battles.

El Morro fortress in Havana, stormed by the British in July 1762

In June 1762 British forces from the West Indies landed on the island of Cuba and laid siege to Havana. Although they arrived at the height of the fever season, and previous expeditions against tropical Spanish fortresses failed due, in no small part, to tropical disease, the British government was optimistic of victory-if the troops could catch the Spanish off-guard before they had time to respond. The British commander Albermale ordered a tunnel to be dug by his sappers so a mine could be planted under the walls of the city's fortress. British troops began to fall from disease at an alarming rate, but they were boosted by the arrival of 4,000 reinforcements from America. On 30 July Albermale ordered the mine to be detonated, and his troops stormed the fortress.

The bombardment of Havana

With Havana now in their hands, the British lay poised to strike at other targets in the Spanish Main should the war continue for another year. However, they had suffered 1,800 deaths and more than 4,000 casualties during the siege-almost entirely from disease-and for the moment set about consolidating their hold on the countryside around Havana. During the year of British occupation, commerce in Havana boomed, as the port was opened up to trade with the British Empire rather than the restricted monopoly with Cadiz that had existed before. In 1762, the British imported more than 10,000 African slaves from the British West Indies to Havana, using the city as an entrepôt to supply their Caribbean and lower North American colonies.

Almost as soon as war had been declared with Spain, orders had been despatched for a British force at Madras to proceed to the Philippines and invade Manila. A combined force of 10,700 men under William Draper set off from India in late July, arriving in Manila Bay in September 1762. They had to move swiftly before the monsoon season hit. On 6 October the British stormed the city, capturing it. A large amount of plunder was taken from the city after the Battle of Manila.

Spanish forces regrouped under Simón de Anda y Salazar, who had escaped from Manila during the siege. Rebellions fomented by the British were sabotaged by Spanish agents and crushed by Spanish forces. The British were prevented from extending their authority beyond Manila and the nearby port of Cavite. All agreements made between the British commander and Archbishop Manuel Rojo del Río y Vieyra were dismissed as illegal. Eventually the British forces started to suffer troop desertions and dissensions within the command.

Because news of the city's capture didn't reach Europe until after the Treaty of Paris, no provision was made regarding its status. During the siege, the Spanish lieutenant governor had agreed to a four million payment in silver dollars to the British known as the Manila Ransom in exchange for sparing the city but the full amount was never paid when word of what had happened in the Philippines reached Europe. The Spanish government demanded compensation for crimes committed against the residents of Manila during the occupation and the controversy over the ransom demanded by the British and the compensation demanded by the Spanish lasted many years. The twenty month occupation of Manila ended in 1764.

One of the earliest schemes Pitt had for colonial expeditions was in West Africa where France had several lucrative but strategically unimportant bases. He was fighting against a great deal of scepticism in the British government, which saw Europe as the main venue of warfare and all other theatres as costly distractions. As an initial test of his strategy Pitt gained support for a British expedition proposed by a New York merchant Thomas Cumming to take the French trading station at Fort Louis on the Senegal River which they did with relative ease, carrying back a large amount of plunder to Britain. Subsequent expeditions also took out French posts at Gorée and on the River Gambia.

British attack on Martinique in January 1762

Despite taking Guadeloupe in 1759, the British attempt to occupy Martinique that year had ended in failure. In 1761 a fresh scheme to attack the French West Indies was drawn up and Martinique was successfully taken by a British force in February 1762. This was followed up by the capture of the islands of Saint Lucia, Grenada and Saint Vincent. In each case many of the local planters and merchants welcomed the invasion, as it ended Britain's naval blockade and restored their access to international trade.

In a final attempt to try to gain some advantage against the British, the French managed to slip an expedition through the British blockade and head towards Newfoundland, considered valuable because of its large fishery. The small British garrison was swiftly overwhelmed and the French believed they could use Newfoundland as a bargaining counter to extract the return of several of their own territories. General Amherst responded by despatching a force of men from New York under his younger brother William Amherst to recapture the island. They managed to defeat a French force at the Battle of Signal Hill on 15 September 1762, forcing the total capitulation of the French expedition three days later.

The participants of the Seven Years' War by 1762

Great Britain, Prussia, Portugal, with allies

France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Sweden with allies

By 1763 the British government had an extreme shortage of money, though not as severe as that facing the French government. The collapse of the alliance with the Prussians ended that costly involvement, and by late 1762 the war around the world was winding towards a close. In Britain the new Bute ministry had taken full control of government, following the departure of Newcastle in March 1762 after a power struggle. The government agreed to an armistice and began fresh negotiations with the French in Paris directed by the Duke of Bedford.

In Britain the negotiations that proceeded to the peace agreement proved hugely controversial. Strong opposition, led principally by Newcastle and Pitt, was raised against the terms which were perceived to be exceedingly lenient towards France and Spain. A mob went so far as to attack a carriage carrying George III in protest at the alleged betrayal. Nonetheless, Bute felt the war needed to be brought to an end, and the terms on offer were reasonable.

Britain held a dominant position at the negotiations, as they had during the last seven years seized Canada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Pondicherry, Senegal, and Belle Île from the French and Havana and Manila from the Spanish. Only one British territory, Menorca, was in enemy hands. Despite suffering a year of defeats, Spain was prepared to fight on-something which their French allies were opposed to. Bute proposed a suggestion that France cede her remaining North American territory of Louisiana to Spain to compensate Madrid for its losses during the war. This formula was acceptable to the Spanish government, and allowed Britain and France to negotiate with more legroom.

Having severed their connection with the Prussians the previous year, the British negotiated a separate peace to the Prussians-dealing with their two principal adversaries France and Spain. Britain received formal control of New France, while handing back Martinique and Guadeloupe. The British were handed all of mainland North America east of the Mississippi River.

In the wake of Britain's territorial expansion Sir George Macartney observed that Britain now controlled " a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets".

Statue of Wolfe in Greenwich Park, east London, overlooking his burial site

The number of casualties suffered by British forces were comparatively light, compared to the more than a million fatalities that occurred worldwide.

France and Spain both considered the treaty that ended the war as being closer to a temporary armistice rather than a genuine final settlement, and William Pitt described it as an "armed truce". Britain had customarily massively reduced the size of its armed forces during peace time, but during the 1760s a large military establishment was maintained-intended as a deterrent against France and Spain. The Bourbon powers both sent agents to examine Britain's defenses believing that a successful invasion of Britain was an essential part of any war of revenge.

The British victory in the war sowed some of the seeds of Britain's later conflict in the American War of Independence. American colonists had been delighted by the huge swathes of North America that had now been brought under formal British control, but many were angered by the Proclamation of 1763, which was an attempt to protect Native American territory-and prevent European settlement. Similarly the issue of quartering the British regular troops became a thorny issue, with colonists objecting to their billeting in private homes. Events such as these contributed to a drift apart between the British government and many of its subjects in the Thirteen Colonies.

The war had also brought to an end the "Old System" of alliances in Europe, In the years after the war, under the direction of Lord Sandwich, the British did try to re-establish this system but European states such as Austria and the Dutch Republic now saw Britain as a potentially greater threat than France and did not join them, while the Prussians were angered by what they considered a British betrayal in 1762. Consequently, when the American War of Independence turned into a global war between 1778 and 1783, Britain found itself opposed by a strong coalition of European powers, and lacking any substantial ally.

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. Faber and Faber, 2001

Anderson, Fred and Cayton, Andrew. The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America 1500-2000. Penguin Books, 2005.

Anderson, Fred. The War that Made America: a Short History of the French and Indian War. Penguin Books, 2006.

Black, Jeremy. Pitt the Elder. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Browning, Reed. The Duke of Newcastle. Yale University Press, 1975.

Brown, Peter Douglas. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham: The Great Commoner. George Allen & Unwin, 1978.

Carter, Alice Clare. The Dutch Republic in Europe in the Seven Years' War. MacMillan, 1971.

Dull, Jonathan R. The French Navy and the Seven Years' War. University of Nebraska, 2005.

Gipson, Lawrence H. The Great War for the Empire: The Years of Defeat, 1754-1757 (1948); The Great War for the Empire: The Victorious Years, 1758-1760 (1950) highly detailed narrative of the British war in North America and Europe.

Hibbert, Christopher. George III: A Personal History. Penguin Books, 1999

Hough, Richard. Captain James Cook: a biography. Hodder & Stoughton, 1995

Keay, John. The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company. Harper Collins, 1993

Kelch, Ray. Newcastle: A Duke Without Money. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.

Longmate, Norman. Island Fortress: The Defence of Great Britain, 1603-1945. Harper Collins, 1993

McLynn, Frank. 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World. Pimlico, 2005.

Middleton, Richard (1985), The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years' War, 1757-1762, Cambridge University Press.

O'Toole, Fintan. White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America. Faber and Faber, 2005.

Rodger NAM. Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. Penguin Books, 2006.

N. A. M. Rodger, The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich (London: Harper Collins, 1993)

Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire. Penguin Books (2008)

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Great Britain in the Seven Years' War - Wikipedia

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Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War, which in fact lasted nine years, between 1754 and 1763. British involvement in the conflict began in 1754 in what became known as the French and Indian War.

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Titanic Card Gets $100,000 At an Auction (Published 1999)

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Boarding pass of Anna Sofia Sjoblom, Swedish passenger aboard ill-fated Titanic, is bought at auction in Seattle for $100,000; buyer identified as Jeffrey Trainer; photo (S)

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JERUSALEM/LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - What lies in wait for Israeli ground troops in Gaza, security sources say, is a Hamas tunnel network hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, described by one freed hostage as "a spider's web" and by one expert as the "Viet Cong times 10".

The Palestinian Islamist group has different kinds of tunnels running beneath the sandy 360 sq km coastal strip and its borders - including attack, smuggling, storage and operational burrows, Western and Middle East sources familiar with the matter said.

The Israeli military accused Hamas on Friday of using Gaza's main hospital, Al Shifa, as a shield for tunnels and operational centres.

"Hamas has turned hospitals into command and control centres and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesman, said.

He showed photographs, diagrams and audio recordings that, he said, showed how Hamas was using hospitals to hide command posts and entry points into the tunnel network. "Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital and other hospitals in Gaza," he said.

It was not possible to verify Hagari's statements. Hamas official Ezzat El-Reshiq said there was "no basis in truth to what was reported by the enemy army spokesman".

The United States believes Israel's special forces will face an unprecedented challenge battling militants while trying to avoid killing hostages held below ground, a U.S. official said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that Iraq's nine-month-long battle to retake Mosul from Islamic State might prove to have been easier than what awaits the Israelis - likely to be "a lot of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), a lot of booby traps, and just a really grinding activity".

Even though Israel has invested heavily in tunnel detection - including a sensor-equipped underground barrier it called an "iron wall" - Hamas is still thought to have working tunnels to the outside world.

After the last hostilities in 2021, Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yehya Al-Sinwar, said: "They started saying they destroyed 100 km of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you, the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500 km. Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20% of the tunnels."

HOSTAGE WITNESS

There has been no corroboration of the comment by Sinwar, who is thought to be hiding underground ahead of an expected Israeli offensive.

But the estimate of hundreds of kilometres is widely accepted by security analysts, even though the blockaded coastal strip is only 40 km (25 miles) long.

With Israel in control of Gaza's air and sea access and 59 km of its 72 km land borders - with Egypt 13 km to the south - tunnels provide one of the few ways for Hamas to bring in weapons, equipment and people.

While it and other Palestinian groups are secretive about their networks, recently released Israeli hostage, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, said: "It looked like a spider's web, many, many tunnels," adding: "We walked kilometres under the ground."

Hamas believes that with Israel's overwhelming aerial and armoured military superiority, tunnels are a way to cut some of those advantages by forcing Israel's soldiers to move underground in cramped spaces that Hamas fighters know well.

An Israeli military spokesperson said on Thursday: "I won't elaborate on the number of kilometres of tunnels but it is a high number, built under schools and residential areas."

Urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an immediate cessation of "aggression" on Gaza and moves toward "a political solution instead of military and security solutions".

UNDERGROUND CITY

Israeli security sources say Israel's heavy aerial bombardments have caused little damage to the tunnel infrastructure with Hamas naval commandos able to launch a seaborne attack targeting coastal communities near Gaza this week.

"Although we have been attacking massively for days and days, the (Hamas) leadership is pretty much intact, as is the ability to command and control, the ability even to try and launch counter attacks," said Amir Avivi, a former brigadier general whose positions in the Israeli military included deputy commander of the Gaza division, tasked with tackling tunnels.

"There is a whole city all over Gaza underneath with depths of 40-50 metres. There are bunkers and headquarters and storage and of course they are connected to more than a thousand rocket launching positions."

Other sources estimated depths of up to 80 metres.

One Western security source said: "They run for miles. They are made of concrete and very well made. Think of the Viet Cong times 10. They have had years and lots of money with which to work."

Another security source, from one of Israel's neighbouring countries, said Hamas' tunnels from Egypt remain active.

"The supply chain is still intact these days. The network involved in facilitating co-ordination are some Egyptian military officers. It is unclear if there is knowledge of this by the Egyptian army," he said.

A small number of narrower, deep, smuggling tunnels were still operating until recently between Egypt and Gaza, according to two security sources and a trader in the Egyptian city El Arish, but they slowed to a near-halt after the war started.

Egyptian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said while inspecting military units in Suez that the army's role was to secure Egyptian borders.

LONG GAME

Hamas is thought to have begun digging tunnels in the mid-1990s, when Israel granted Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization some degree of self-rule in Gaza.

The tunnel network is a key reason why Hamas is stronger in Gaza than in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel's military bases and monitoring devices make it harder to get anything in from Jordan.

Tunneling became easier in 2005 when Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza, and when Hamas won power in a 2006 election.

Shortly afterwards Hamas's military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, captured Gilad Shalit after burrowing 600 metres to raid the Kerem Shalom base on the Gaza border.

A year later Hamas used tunnels in Gaza to launch a military strike against the forces of Arafat's successor as PLO leader, Mahmoud Abbas.

Although the military tunnels remained off-limits to outside eyes, during that era Gaza smugglers would show off commercial tunnels under the Rafah border.

These were around three feet (one metre) wide and used winch motors to haul goods in hollow barrels.

One Rafah tunnel operator, Abu Qusay, said a half-mile tunnel took three to six months to dig and could yield up to $100,000 a day. The most profitable item was bullets, bought for $1 each in Egypt and fetching more than $6 in Gaza. Kalashnikov rifles, he said, cost $800 in Egypt and sold for twice that.

TUNNEL HUNTING

Professor Joel Roskin, a geomorphologist and geologist with Israel's Bar-Ilan University said it was difficult to map the tunnel network accurately from the surface or space, adding highly classified information was essential for 3D mapping and imagery visualisation.

Among the elite units tasked with going underground is Yahalom, specialist commandos from Israel's Combat Engineering Corps known as the "weasels", who specialise in finding and destroying tunnels.

This week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Yahalom fighters, telling them: "I rely on you, the people of Israel rely on you."

Israeli sources said they face an enemy that has regrouped and learned from previous operations.

"There are going to be a lot of booby traps. They have thermobaric weapons that they didn't have in 2021, which are more lethal. And I believe they acquired a lot of anti-tank weapon systems that are going to try to hit our APCs (armoured personnel carriers), tanks," said Amnon Sofrin, a former brigadier general and former commander of the Combat Intelligence Corps.

Sofrin, who was also previously head of the intelligence directorate with Israel's Mossad spy agency, said Hamas would also be trying to kidnap soldiers.

Daphne Richemond-Barak, professor at Israel's Reichman University and author of the book Underground Warfare, said the conflicts in Syria and Iraq had changed the situation.

"What the IDF (Israeli military) is likely to face inside the tunnels is also all of the experience and all of the knowledge that has been gained by groups like ISIS (Islamic State) and has been ... passed on to Hamas."

Reporting by Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem and Stephen Farrell in London; Additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, Phil Stewart in Washington, Nafisa Eltahir and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alison Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Text and video journalist, most recently in Ukraine and as bureau chief in Jerusalem. Stephen has reported from the Middle East, Iraq, South Asia, New York and UK. Previously worked at The New York Times and The Times of London. Co-author of the book 'Hamas: The Islamic Resistance Movement'.

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The Hamas tunnel city beneath Gaza - a hidden frontline for Israel

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What lies in wait for Israeli ground troops in Gaza, security sources say, is a Hamas tunnel network hundreds of kilometres long and up to 80 metres deep, described by one freed hostage as "a spider's web" and by one expert as the "Viet Cong times 10".

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Mr Doodle is back to doodle all the way out in space

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Will Mr Doodle save DoodleLand before the evil Dr Scribble destroys it?

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A slender taper of latticework, its filigree etched in flame against a smoke-darkened sky. Falling.

When the world's most recognizable cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, burned on April 15, 2019, the toppling of its spire was the catastrophe's defining moment - a dreamlike loop endlessly replayed, a stuttering stop-time interval that seemed, improbably, to last forever.

"It was so hard to believe what we were seeing," said Agnes Poirier, a journalist and author who was among the throngs watching the conflagration from the left bank of the Seine. She remembers the desolate cry that went up from the crowd at that moment.

Now the spire is slowly rising again.

The French government had hoped to reopen Notre Dame to worshipers and visitors in time for the Summer Olympics in 2024, when Paris will be a focus of worldwide attention and tourists will crowd the city. That target date is now December of that year.

But setting in place the spire's cross-shaped base - a complex operation that took place after the enormous wooden trestle was constructed and then deconstructed at a sprawling work site 200 miles to the northeast - marked an important symbolic milestone in Notre Dame's rebirth.

The 80-ton support, known as the tabouret, or stool, was built in the town of Briey by carpenters employing centuries-old woodworking craftsmanship as well as modern-day methods such as 3-D modeling and laser measurement. In recent weeks, element by giant element, it was hoisted by cranes onto the cathedral's gusty rooftop, a bravura ballet performed 180 feet in the air.

"A great joy," Jean-Louis Georgelin, the French army general in charge of the restoration, called the base's reassembly - a crucial prelude to the delicate pinnacle eventually attaining its full height of nearly 300 feet above the ground.

"From this summer, we will see the spire ...gradually rising into the sky of Paris," the general said in a statement marking the fire's fourth anniversary.

Poirier, who wrote an award-winning book about the fire and its aftermath, rose early the morning after the fire. In the pink glow of dawn, she gazed at the familiar silhouette of Notre Dame's twin bell towers - and the gaping void left by the missing spire.

"She was injured," Poirier said of the cathedral. "But still standing. Still there."
::
As Notre Dame burned, the spire was both a casualty of the flames and a weapon of destruction that threatened the entire edifice.

Its collapse sent tons of fiery oak timbers laced with molten lead crashing to the cathedral floor, imperiling fragile walls and vaults. Experts later said that had the 400 firefighters been unable to halt the spreading blaze, the cathedral would have burned beyond repair within half an hour. An investigation into the origin of the fire, which began directly under the roof, was inconclusive.

Even before the inferno, the spire was in disrepair, its degraded state a major impetus behind a restoration project launched three years earlier. It was already surrounded by scaffolding when the fire broke out, with the statues adorning it removed for safekeeping just four days earlier.

The cathedral has been spireless before - for nearly 60 years, when the badly deteriorating original, constructed in the 1200s, was taken down in the late 18th century to stop it from falling down on its own.

It was rebuilt under the auspices of the 19th century master architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, whose architectural drawings were carefully preserved in France's National Archives and have served as an invaluable guide to those working to precisely replicate his creation today.

Early in the reconstruction, the design of the replacement spire was the subject of brief but passionate controversy, with proposals that included a sleek glass tower and a roof garden, even a beam of light in lieu of a structure. But traditionalists prevailed, opting to stay faithful to the original.

Before the fire, the cathedral was France's most visited monument, drawing 13 million visitors annually. Even President Emmanuel Macron, who had initially voiced interest in a more modernist design, bowed to a popular wish that whatever alchemy occurred in reconstruction, this particular iconic component - the spire - should return in recognizable form.

"For myself, I was relieved, and I think donors were," said Michel Picaud, the president of Friends of Notre Dame de Paris, a group whose fundraising inside and outside France is helping defray the reconstruction costs, estimated at more than a billion dollars.

Picaud is 69, and in a country where retirement at a relatively early age is a cherished goal, his adult children often chide him for not stepping down. But his wife of 40 years, Cecile, who stood with him into the early-morning hours as the cathedral smoldered nearby, understands his sense of mission, he said.

"At first, I wanted to weep," said Picaud, a Paris native. "But then, I thought only of rebuilding."
::
Nearly 6,000 miles away in Los Angeles, the televised sight of leaping flames tumbled Father German Sanchez into memories of his time as a seminarian in France. To him, Notre Dame was an unchanging presence, a source of immense peace and calm.

What he didn't know was how many among his flock at St. Sebastian's, a multicultural parish in West Los Angeles, would share his sense of loss and dismay when it burned.

"It was astonishing to me, the sentiments everyone seemed to have in common," said Sanchez, a native of Colombia who ministers to the local French-speaking community as well as parishioners from across Latin America and an array of countries including Vietnam, Belgium, Britain and the Philippines.

"Every weekend, we have six continents represented," he said proudly.

Sanchez said he was heartened by the pace of the cathedral's reconstruction, which he has followed closely over the last four years. In the days following the fire, he said parishioners spontaneously asked how they could help - including a 10-year-old boy who gravely informed the priest he had a dollar he wanted to donate.

Some critics inside and outside France have complained that the outpouring of financial support for Notre Dame's rebuilding reflects a turning away from other urgent needs, especially those centered on human suffering - war and hardship, poverty and hunger.

Picaud, the fundraiser, said he didn't see a simple dichotomy.

"If people want to help, there isn't only one 'pot' for their compassion," he said. "You don't need to support only one need, one cause."

Sanchez said he believed emotion surrounding Notre Dame did not necessarily involve religious faith. In a message to his congregation days after the cathedral went up in flames, he called it a house of God, but a home to all.

"Notre Dame is a witness to humanity's history," he wrote. "This fire reminds us how fragile our existence is."
::
Viollet-le-Duc, the 19th century architect, made at least one design choice that might be viewed as a touch of cheekiness, a sly nod to his own vanity - or a paean to his belief that the spire's construction, in his time, was an enormously consequential task.

When statues of the 12 apostles and four evangelists were commissioned to decorate the spire, he had the face of St. Thomas, the patron saint of architects, modeled on his own. While the other figures are depicted with a downward gaze, as if watching over the cathedral and the people of Paris, St. Thomas' likeness looks upward, as if contemplating the spire itself.

The assembled statuary, together with many artifacts of Notre Dame's damage and reconstruction, is currently on display at Paris' City of Architecture and Heritage museum. Curator Lisa Bergugnat said if there was any positive side to the disaster, it was the public getting an intimate look at objects that would be otherwise inaccessible.

"Instead of being high on the spire, they are right here, where people can see them," she said.

When the timbered framework and lead sheathing nears completion, at the end of this year, the statues will be put back.

To Poirier, the author, there is a certain poignancy in the notion of the spire again becoming visible in coming months, bit by bit. Not all loss, she said, is irretrievable.

Sanchez, the priest, understands well the theological underpinnings of all church spires and steeples - a pointing toward heaven, a rising up of prayers. But he sees a more universal symbolism at work as well.

"It draws us upward, not down," he said. "Life is sometimes very difficult, and always we need to have this invitation. Look up."

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Notre Dame cathedral's iconic spire fell in flames. Now it is set to rise again

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One of the most complex phases of the reconstruction of fire-ravaged Notre Dame de Paris is underway: the rebuilding of the cathedral's famous spire.

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Water Authority, East Sunbury Street, Minersville, Pennsylvania

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Water Authority, East Sunbury Street, Minersville, Pennsylvania

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Water Authority, East Sunbury Street, Minersville, Pennsylvania

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Federal government investigating multiple hacks of US water utilities

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Iranian hackers suspected to be behind attacks targeting facilities that use Israeli-made equipment.

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A golden mole that "swims" in sand has resurfaced in South Africa after 87 years in the wilderness when many specialists feared it had become extinct, researchers have said.

Traces of two De Winton's golden moles have been found under the sands of a beach after a "detective novel search", said Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) senior field officer Esther Matthew on Tuesday.
ALSO READ: The City of Tshwane announced a 12-hour water shutdown
EWT and University of Pretoria researchers covered up to 18 kilometres (11.2 miles) of dune habitat a day as they spent months hunting for signs, said Matthew.

Blind moles

The blind moles are cute but excessively timid.

They pick inaccessible areas to burrow homes and have extremely sensitive hearing to detect ground vibrations made by anyone who could be looking for them. The last scientific trace dates back to 1936.
ALSO READ: Malema offers to help July instigator Mdumiseni Zuma
The team used a scent-detecting Border Collie dog, Jessie, to find traces of the moles' tunnels.

There are 21 species of golden moles and the De Winton's were detected using environmental DNA samples - skin, hair and bodily excretions - taken from soil at Port Nolloth beach on the northwest coast.

More than 100 samples were collected from the dunes.

Even now the researchers have not physically seen the blind mole that has an iridescent coat sheen that allows it to "swim" through sand.

To finally make a connection, they have made videos and taken photos.
ALSO READ: How to keep a dog happy with a full-time job
The De Winton's golden mole was one of the top 25 animals on a list of long-lost species drawn up by the Re:wild non-government group in 2017.

Eleven have now been discovered again.

Christina Biggs, a lost species specialist for Re:wild, praised the persistence of the team that found the moles.

"They left no sandhill unturned and now it's possible to protect the areas where these threatened and rare moles live," said Biggs.

DNA

The use of environmental DNA was a "case study on how such forward-thinking technologies can be utilised to find other lost species."
ALSO READ: Fact of the Day: Did you know Apple once had a clothing line - 29 November 2023
The team found traces of four other golden moles in the same region. Matthew said the De Winton's are still threatened by mining and residential developments near the beaches that are their home.

© Agence France-Presse

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Golden mole resurfaces in South Africa after 87 Years

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The elusive De Winton's golden mole has emerged from the shadows of extinction in South Africa after an astonishing 87 years.

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As cell phones have pushed phone booths around the world into the endangered relic territory, the UK has deemed that thousands of its iconic red phone booths will be protected.

The British telecommunications regulator Ofcom has proposed new rules to save about 5,000 of the country's 21,000 booths-known as phone boxes in the UK- due to the fact that they're still in use, especially during emergencies, The Associated Press reported this week.

"Some of the call boxes we plan to protect are used to make relatively low numbers of calls," Ofcom's Director of Connectivity Selina Chadha told AP. "But if one of those calls is from a distressed child, an accident victim, or someone contemplating suicide, that public phone line can be a lifeline at a time of great need... We also want to make sure that people without mobile coverage, often in rural areas, can still make calls."

The protected payphones will be ones in regions with little or no phone service, as well as areas that are accident or suicide hotspots. Any phone that has had more than 52 calls made in the last year will also be saved.

From May of 2019 to May 2020, nearly 150,000 calls were made from payphones to emergency services, and an additional 45,000 were made to other helplines, such as Samaritans, an organization in the UK and Ireland that supports those who need emotional support or at a suicide risk.

About half of the UK's phone boxes have already been removed, according to BT Group (formerly known as British Telecom), and more than 6,500 of them have found new purpose through the Adopt a Kiosk initiative, where authorized community groups can purchase one for £1.

While some serve life-saving needs in other ways, like storing public defibrillators and others have found more creative uses. One in Warley, West Yorkshire, was converted into the World's Smallest Museum, while in another in North Yorkshire bought by the community of Settle, Queen musician Brian May once hosted an art gallery exhibit.

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Why the UK Is Keeping Thousands of Red Phone Booths, Even Though Everyone Has Cellphones

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As cell phones have pushed phone booths around the world into the endangered relic territory, the UK has deemed that thousands of its iconic red phone booths will be protected.

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In the heart of the Serengeti, hippos bathe and hyenas snatch food from hungry lions. Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year Paula Kahumbu brings this world to life in her documentary series Wildlife Warriors, a nature show made by Kenyans for Kenyans. Host Peter Gwin meets up with Paula in the Serengeti to learn how she became an unlikely TV star, and why it's up to local wildlife warriors-not foreign scientists or tourists-to preserve Africa's wild landscapes.

Listen on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music.
TRANSCRIPT
PETER GWIN (HOST): I just spent the morning driving in a 4x4 through rolling grass savannas in Kenya's world famous Masai Mara. Already we've seen a group of cheetahs napping under a large acacia tree and a pair of young male lions lolling in the grass, eyeing a group of zebra and wildebeest nearby. And we passed a majestic pair of giraffes nibbling leaves and a family of black-backed jackals. They were playing a game-looked like tag-in the tall grass.

The early light is golden, the air is cool, and the birds are singing and swooping over the grass as they hunt insects. It's all pretty much a standard morning in the Serengeti ecosystem, home to some of the most iconic wildlife on Earth. And my traveling companion and I are looking for a place to sit down and have a chat.

(to Paula Kahumbu) What do you think? Are we-what would be too close to the hippos?

PAULA KAHUMBU (ECOLOGIST):Um, I think going halfway down the bank over there is not a good idea.

GWIN(to Kahumbu): OK. Because it just freaks 'em out, or it ...?

I'm with Kenyan conservationist Paula Kahumbu. We stop on a high bank overlooking the Mara River. And in the water, a couple dozen hippo heads poke above the surface.

KAHUMBU: That male is talking to these guys down here, and they are a little bit alert because we're here. So they've all gone underwater, and just their nostrils and their eyes are popping up and they're checking us out. And he's warning them that we're here: Don't come this way.

GWIN: Trust me, we listened to the warning. An angry hippo is four tons of bad attitude that can run, in short bursts, faster than a human. So Paula and I keep our distance. Hippos love to hang out in the water, and I always pictured them as good swimmers. But Paula says that's not quite right.

KAHUMBU: You'd think they'd be buoyant. They're fat enough and they've got plenty of gas in there. But no, they're not. They run along the bottom and they do this amazing bouncing run. If you watch them as they move the water, you'll see them. They literally have to kick off the ground.

GWIN: Yeah, wow.

KAHUMBU: You see? Look at them.

GWIN: Yeah.

Traveling in the Serengeti and being surrounded by all its wildlife makes me think about what the future holds for this place. With human activity encroaching at its margins and climate change, some or possibly all of this wildlife could disappear, and Kenya would lose some of its most precious natural treasures. So I was surprised to hear Paula say that many of her fellow Kenyans don't feel like it's their own.

KAHUMBU: Most Kenyans think wildlife is for the entertainment of tourists. It's not something for Kenyans. It's a very strange, like, psychology that we've created in this country by the way that we promote tourism. So it was very much, it's not for you, it's for these foreigners, because they bring in lots of money.

GWIN: But Paula is flipping the script. She's on a mission to bring Kenyan wildlife to Kenyans so that one of Africa's greatest wild landscapes will stay wild.

I'm Peter Gwin, editor at large at National Geographic, and this is Overheard, a show where we eavesdrop on the wild conversations we have here at Nat Geo, and follow them to the edges of our big, weird, beautiful world.

This week: inspiring a new wave of Kenyan wildlife warriors. How Paula Kahumbu is bringing the Serengeti right into Kenyan living rooms. And why the future of Africa's wild places depends not on tourists or foreign benefactors-but on the people who live there.

More after the break.

The greater Serengeti is a place like no other on the planet, and I got to go there earlier this year on assignment for National Geographic magazine. This place is so heart-stoppingly beautiful-so irreplaceable-that we're devoting an entire issue of the magazine to it.

There are about 500 species of birds and more than 70 different large mammal species, including the biggest on land (the African elephant), the fastest (cheetah), and one of the rarest (the African wild dog). It's also home to the wildebeest. More than a million of them travel every year in a 400-mile circuit from northern Tanzania to the Masai Mara. It's the largest animal migration on the planet, and it's a crucial piece of the ecosystem, as wildebeest fertilize the soils and provide food for predators and many other benefits.

Wherever you go in the Serengeti, though, you're bound to encounter wildlife of one sort or another.
(Sound of masked weaver birds)
A colony of masked weaver birds that have built an elaborate hanging city of grass nests in the treetops.
(Sound of colobus monkeys)
A raucous pair of colobus monkeys that-if you're not careful-will jump onto your vehicle

and peer at you through the windshield. You might even stumble upon a clan of hyenas stealing a kill from a lion.
(Sound of hyenas)
Yeah, that really happened. I still get goosebumps thinking about that sound. All of these creatures coexist in an intricate web of life. And that brings us back to the Mara River and the hippos and my chat with Paula Kahumbu, because few people understand what's at stake better than she does.

KAHUMBU: I am an ecologist. I studied elephants for my Ph.D., but I love all these animals.

GWIN: Paula runs a conservation nonprofit called WildlifeDirect. She's a longtime National Geographic Explorer, and in 2021, she was honored as the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. But in Kenya, she's not just a scientist. She's a TV star.

KAHUMBU (on the TV show): On this episode of Wildlife Warriors, join me as I meet Fikiri Kiponda and follow him on his quest to save these mysterious creatures, one turtle at a time.

GWIN: Paula hosts a show called Wildlife Warriors. It's made by a Kenyan TV crew and broadcast to millions of homes in more than 20 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. The interesting thing about Paula is that she never set out to be a TV star. She grew up in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, a huge, metropolitan city with five million people. But it also has a national park with elephants and giraffes, right next to the city.

KAHUMBU: Nairobi National Park makes up 15 percent of the land area of the county of Nairobi and the city-it's bigger than the physical city of Nairobi. And so anybody can go to the park any day and you'll see all these amazing animals. So growing up, nature was-and wildlife-was normal. The idea of there being no giraffes or no elephants is just-it's just not even a possibility for most people.

GWIN: On top of that, Paula had a guide who showed her the animal kingdom up close. And not just anybody: one of the most prominent scientists in Kenya and, for that matter, the world. His name is Richard Leakey.

KAHUMBU: He was actually the head of the National Museums of Kenya and he made a lot of very important discoveries, archaeological discoveries. But it didn't-as a child, I had no idea what any of that meant.

GWIN: So he just lived-he was the guy across the street, right?

KAHUMBU: He was just the guy next door.

GWIN: Now the Leakey family is a scientific dynasty. Richard's parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, started excavating fossils in East Africa almost a century ago, and together they rewrote a lot of what we know about human evolution and that it began in this part of Africa. Richard Leakey followed in his parents' footsteps, making his own discoveries in paleoanthropology. But eventually he turned his attention to conservation. In 1990 he was appointed the first director of the Kenya Wildlife Service and embarked on a major campaign to stem elephant poaching.

So to put it lightly, Richard Leakey is a big deal. And one day, when she was about five years old, Paula was tramping through his yard. She was with her brother, who wasn't much older.

KAHUMBU: We were coming home and we were passing just the gate. There's this beautiful, phenomenal fig tree. And up in the upper branches was a hyrax.

GWIN: OK, a hyrax is a small African mammal. Picture an oversized guinea pig. As Paula and her brother watched it up in the tree, Leakey drove up and rolled down his window.

KAHUMBU: And this guy says to me, What are you children doing? We're like, Oh, look, there's this amazing animal up there. He says, Are you going to kill it? I remember just thinking, What an outrage. Why would I kill an animal?

GWIN: OK, Paula's brother was holding a slingshot. So it wasn't such a crazy question. But Leakey kept talking.

KAHUMBU: And he told us what it was and he said if you're interested in animals, come over to my house and I'll tell you about them. And so we did. We would bring him snakes and lizards and birds and frogs and mice and whatever we could catch. But we learned a lot, and he was incredibly patient.

GWIN: Years later, when it was time to choose a career, Paula knew exactly what she wanted to do: She wanted to study animals.

KAHUMBU: But my parents-when I said I wanted to do conservation, my mother was not at all impressed.

GWIN: Really?

KAHUMBU: Yeah. She was like, That isn't a job. It's not a career. You should be a secretary. So-

GWIN: Really?!

KAHUMBU: So immediately after high school, I was sent off to secretarial college so that I would become a good secretary because that was what girls did in those days. And I survived three months of it, and then I ran away with a friend of mine. We both absconded, and we went to the National Museums of Kenya and went and knocked on Richard Leakey's door like, "Help."

GWIN: If anybody could understand, it would be Richard Leakey. Paula told him that she was thinking about becoming a wildlife ranger.

KAHUMBU: And Richard Leakey said, You don't want to be a ranger. I was like, I do. This is all I want to do. And he said, OK, why do you want to be a ranger? And I told him, I just want to work with wildlife. And he looked at my grades, and he said, Don't you want to go to university? And I was like, I would love to go to university, but we weren't rich enough to go to university. And so he instead invited me to go and do an internship for a year at a research facility.

GWIN: That internship was just the opening Paula needed. She went on to university and later earned a Ph.D. at Princeton. But she never stopped working with Richard Leakey. He cofounded the conservation nonprofit WildlifeDirect and Paula joined the staff in 2007. Now she's the CEO.

Paula's most successful campaign is called Hands Off Our Elephants. It led to the Kenyan government pledging millions of dollars to fight poaching, plus training more than 500 new rangers. According to WildlifeDirect, the campaign decreased elephant poaching in Kenya by 80 percent.

But stopping poaching is only a piece of the conservation puzzle. Paula understood that making real progress meant changing how people think about animals-and for her that meant bringing wildlife straight into Kenyan homes.

KAHUMBU: And we started a TV series where we showed wildlife documentaries, but within weeks Kenyans were asking questions. So these are great documentaries: National Geographic, Disney, you know, Animal Planet, you name it. People love the videos, but they said, But how come there are no Kenyans? How come-don't we have scientists in our country to tell us about our own animals?

GWIN: So Paula thought, Why settle for expensive foreign documentaries? We can highlight some of those scientists. That was the basic idea of her TV show, Wildlife Warriors. Kenyan experts showcasing Kenyan animals. At first, it was a spartan operation.

KAHUMBU: So we got two chairs. We found a host from a television station. She was a very beautiful news anchor who didn't know anything about wildlife. And we would get this news anchor to interview people literally on some chairs.

GWIN: Paula would write the scripts, and the news anchor would ask the questions. They snagged a time slot on a Kenyan TV channel: 10 p.m. on Tuesday nights.

KAHUMBU: And everyone had told me, you know, first, you're not trained in this. You don't know what you're doing. You're wasting donor money. You're-there's no audience, no-Kenyans don't care about this content. Well, we had five million people watching-

GWIN: Wow.

KAHUMBU: -this show. Yeah, it was huge.

GWIN: If five million people wanted to see Paula's barebones TV show, she figured a real outdoors show could be an even bigger hit. Donors gave Paula more money, and she spent a whole year workshopping a show that would spotlight Kenyan wildlife. But there was a problem. Kenya was in the middle of a presidential election, and Paula's TV anchor kept getting pulled into political stories. So Paula realized Wildlife Warriors needed a new host.

KAHUMBU: I tried everything. I tried a number of people to be host, and I couldn't find anybody. But I'd found a company that had the crew that I could work with, and they were looking and they were saying, But why don't you just host it yourself? You know everything. Why are you looking for somebody else-to train somebody else to do what you already do naturally? And so we tried it out, and season one was such a hit.

GWIN: Wildlife Warriors highlights the charismatic animals you think of when you picture the Serengeti. You know, elephants, rhinos, zebras. But it also puts a spotlight on animals people don't necessarily like.

KAHUMBU: I told my crew, I want to film the things that nobody thinks we should film. Start with snakes. My crew are so scared of snakes. It was crazy. They would-often the cameras will [be] abandoned and the crew had gone and left me standing there. They were so scared of the snakes we were filming.

GWIN: Well, I mean, to be fair, Kenya's got some of the most poisonous snakes in the world, right? I mean like black mambas and green mambas.

KAHUMBU: That was the point. That's why we were doing it, because we wanted people to not be so scared, to understand snakes, and to understand what to do if you get bitten by a snake.

GWIN: In Kenya, hundreds of people die from snakebites every year. So in the episode, Paula watches as a scientist spots a snake on the jungle floor. It's a type of viper called a puff adder, and it's extremely dangerous. The scientist corrals the snake into a wooden box. Then he holds it up so Paula can get a closer look.

(Sound from Wildlife Warriors TV show)

KAHUMBU: Oh my god!

SCIENTIST: Do you see the venom?

KAHUMBU: Oh my god. This is unbelievable, Boniface. Aren't you scared?

SCIENTIST: Not scared. I must be absolutely keen on what I'm doing because it's a dangerous snake.

GWIN: Later, another scientist shows her how to milk a snake's venom, which is crucial to making antivenom and saving people's lives. This emphasizes the importance of the scientists' work and the impact it has on daily life.

Wildlife Warriors has also shown Kenyans creatures that many didn't know were in their backyard. In addition to its famous inland game reserves, Kenya has more than 300 miles of tropical coastline. Paula says that many Kenyans don't know that humpback whales live just off their coast. So she focused an episode all about humpbacks.

KAHUMBU (on the Wildlife Warriors show): This is an animal that very few people in this country know even exists. It's one of the biggest mammals in the world and definitely the largest creatures in our waters. I'm going out to sea to try and spot my first whale.

GWIN: Now the finished episode about humpbacks looks really slick. There's great camera work. The show tells a good story. But with nature shows, it's never easy behind the scenes. Paula didn't realize that for her crew, going out to sea would be a brutal assignment.

KAHUMBU: My crew can't swim. But I didn't know that they also suffer from severe seasickness.

GWIN: Oh boy.

KAHUMBU: So we went out on a day, which was a very stormy day, and I was in heaven. I love being out in the sea. They were all-it was like the ICU on that boat. They were so sick.

GWIN: Once they were out in the water, they didn't see any humpbacks. Apparently they'd picked the wrong day. And if that wasn't bad enough, the captain told them they couldn't turn back for another five hours. So there was nothing to do but wait.

KAHUMBU: And my crew were just all asleep or sick. Breakfast is all overboard. And I was watching a little dugout canoe with a fisherman, literally fishing with a line and a rod. I noticed this huge thing just coming, you know, between the fisherman and us. And it was a humpback whale. And she breached with her calf right in front of us, and so I screamed for the crew to come back up to the top to film. They were filming and throwing up, filming and throwing up. They've never forgiven me for this.

GWIN (to Kahumbu): How do you have any crew left, Paula?

According to Paula, the first season drew a huge audience: half of Kenya's people have seen the series. That works out to something like 27 million viewers. So people are paying attention. There's clearly a Kenyan audience that wants to learn more about conservation, and that's a big win. And it makes Paula hopeful. But there are still massive challenges.

More after the break.

KAHUMBU: The future for conservation in Africa is perilous right now. I would say we are at a crossroads.

GWIN: Paula sees several major threats to wildlife. Poaching remains a concern, and the effects of climate change loom over the ecosystems. But human activity that crowds into wildlife areas is especially worrying.

KAHUMBU: The main threat-they're losing their habitats. They're losing land, and they're losing land to developments like agriculture. Or wildlife corridors are being affected by housing estates, roads, railways, and all this infrastructure that is cutting up and carving up their land, where they need to move-and preventing them from moving. So the connectivity between protected areas is at risk. That affects core areas.

GWIN: Kenya has more than 50 national parks and reserves. And there are many more privately managed conservancies. There's a popular line of thinking-and one that I've heard repeated many times-that conservationists should focus on tourism in those reserves. The reasoning is that tourism gives an economic incentive to protect wildlife, especially charismatic species like elephants, lions, rhinos, and giraffes. And that's true to a degree. Paula says that tourism is only a part of the solution, and in some places it's just not feasible.

KAHUMBU: I think that this idea that tourism will save wildlife is a message that has undermined conservation and protection of wildlife, because that means that if you're in an area where you can't do tourism because-perhaps there's conflict, it's too isolated, there could be diseases like Ebola-then that would mean you should shut down those things and do something else with that land. And unfortunately, that's what's happening in large parts of Africa.

GWIN: Paula says conservation groups do need more investment. And they could also find more creative ways to make money. Maybe more wildlife reserves could double as solar farms or find other niches. But at the end of the day, she says the solution for African wildlife can only come from Africans.

KAHUMBU: It's going to take the people of Africa to stand up and say, "No." That's what I see. It's going to take people standing up and saying, "It's not OK. We're not going to allow that to happen."

GWIN: In other words, to make sure the Serengeti remains one of the world's great natural wonders, you need a new generation of wildlife warriors.

KAHUMBU: So now is the time to create that mass public awareness and opportunity for people to have a voice, to make sense-not just talking because they heard it somewhere but because we have real life experience and knowledge-that we can actually turn the needle. And if Africa succeeds in defending these wild places and these wild animals, it will be the only continent on Earth that managed. And I think it's possible.

GWIN: Thank you so much, Paula.

KAHUMBU: Thank you, Peter.

GWIN: And thanks to the hippos.

KAHUMBU: Yeah. My bum is so sore.

GWIN (to Kahumbu): I know it. Sitting on this bank, now ...

After our interview, Paula and I climb in the 4x4. And as we're driving through the wide-open grasslands of the Serengeti, we come upon an elephant family.

KAHUMBU: I've counted 18. Did anyone count? This is-it's not a huge family, but it's a nice family.

GWIN: Remember, Paula focused her Ph.D. on elephants. She's seen them up close so many times, and she's taken zillions of photos. But right now, in this moment, with the sun shining just right, she pulls out her phone and snaps another picture.

KAHUMBU: Just look at how the bodies are contrasting that grass. So pretty.

GWIN: Yeah.

KAHUMBU: And this light is really lovely. The grass is so golden.

GWIN: Paula points out two elephants just in front of us. They're both young males. And she starts to explain things I might miss, like how one elephant sticks his trunk in the other's mouth, apparently to taste his buddy's food. Or how their extremely sensitive feet could help them sense thunderstorms from miles away.

KAHUMBU: They have a sense of smell many, many times more powerful than a dog. Look, he's coming right up to us. This is wonderful.
(Sound of camera shutter clicking)
GWIN: In this moment, all you can do is marvel at these elephants-at this landscape that seems to be a relic preserved from an earlier, wilder time. If Kenya's wildlife warriors succeed, this age-old, irreplaceable ecosystem will survive into the future.

We've got a ton of resources to help you explore the Serengeti. We dedicated an entire issue of National Geographic magazine to this amazing place. Check out the link in our show notes.

Subscribers can see stunning photographs by Charlie Hamilton James-who's a previous guest on Overheard-and you can read about the Maasai spiritual leader and the remote mountain forest he protects in the Serengeti. Plus, don't miss Welcome to Earth. It's an original series from National Geographic. All episodes are streaming December 8, only on Disney+.

You can find links for all of that in the show notes. They're right there in your podcast app. And if you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please rate and review us in your podcast app and consider a National Geographic subscription. That's the best way to support Overheard and hear more adventures in places like the Serengeti. Go to natgeo.com/explore to subscribe.
CREDITS
Overheard at National Geographic is produced by Ilana Strauss, Brian Gutierrez, Marcy Thompson, Bianca Martin, and Jacob Pinter. Our senior editor is Eli Chen. Our senior producer is Carla Wills. Our executive producer of audio is Davar Ardalan. Our fact checkers are Robin Palmer and Julie Beer. Our copy editor is Amy Kolczak. Hansdale Hsu composed our theme music, and he sound-designed and engineered this episode.

The National Geographic Society is committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, and funds the work of Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year Paula Kahumbu.

Special thanks to WildlifeDirect for the clips you heard from Paula's TV show, Wildlife Warriors.

This podcast is a production of National Geographic Partners. Whitney Johnson is the director of visuals and immersive experiences. Susan Goldberg is National Geographic's editorial director. And I'm Peter Gwin. Thanks for listening, and see y'all next time.
SHOW NOTES Want more?
See the Serengeti like never before in the December 2021 issue of National Geographic. Along with heart-stopping wildlife photos, subscribers can go inside the planet's largest animal migration: the perilous 400-mile circuit of the wildebeest.

Subscribers can also meet a Maasai spiritual leader who protects a remote mountain forest, and read Paula Kahumbu's essay on the future of African conservation.

Don't miss Welcome to Earth, an original series from National Geographic. All episodes streaming December 8, only on Disney+.
Also explore:
Watch episodes of Wildlife Warriors on its YouTube channel, WildlifeWarriorsTV.

Learn more about the wildlife that makes the Serengeti irreplaceable. African elephants are ecosystem "engineers" who shape their own habitat. Hippopotamuses spend up to 16 hours a day submerged in water-that's why their name comes from the Greek for "river horse."

The National Geographic Society is committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. Learn more about the Society's support of its Explorers.

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How can we protect African wildlife? After captivating TV audiences with a nature show made by Kenyans for Kenyans, a conservationist says it's up to Africans-not outsiders.

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The England squad will wear a unique pre-match top ahead of the 150th Anniversary Heritage Match against Scotland at Hampden Park. The shirt will be auctioned off to raise funds for Alzheimer's Society.

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Does your family love to dance? Join our online dance party on Sunday 3 October between 5pm and 6pm to help people affected by dementia.

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JAKARTA, March 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing hot cloud up to seven kilometres, the country's disaster management agency said in a statement.

The volcano located in Indonesia's Yogyakarta special region erupted around 12 p.m local time (0500 GMT) and a lava flow of 1.5 km was observed, the local authority said.

Residents in the nearby community have been warned to stop any activities in the danger zones, range between three to seven kilometres radius from the crater, the statement said.

Mount Merapi volcano erupts, as seen from Cangkringan, Indonesia, March 11, 2023, in this still image obtained from a video. Sumo Sulis/Handout via REUTERS

The 2,963 metre-high (9,721 feet) Merapi is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes and was already on the country's second-highest alert level.

Official at local monitoring post, Yulianto said no residents have been evacuated.

"This has only been observed as one time event, there have been 5-6 avalanches. If the coverage continue to increase and the distance is further than 7 kilometres, it is likely that the residents will be recommended to evacuate," he said.

Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia has more volcanoes than any other country. Merapi last violently erupted in 2010, killing more than 350 people.

Reporting by Bernadette Christina Editing by Shri Navaratnam

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

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Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupts, spews hot cloud

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Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupted on Saturday, spewing hot cloud up to seven kilometres, the country's disaster management agency said in a statement.

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2023 North India floods on 10 July.jpg

Heavy rainfall during the 2023 monsoon season resulted in severe flooding and landslides across Northern India, primarily affecting residents in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.

A monsoon surge, coupled with a western disturbance has led to the highest rainfall in decades in some parts of the region, causing nearby rivers to overflow, with flooding and landslides washing away vehicles, destroying bridges and roads, and disrupting power and electricity.

In July, at least 105 individuals across Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, were killed over a two-week period of intense rain and flooding, with thousands of others evacuated to relief camps. The floods have led to closure of schools, disruption of flights and train operations in various parts of North India.

Another period of intense torrential rain continued in August, and at least 71 more people were killed in Himachal Pradesh, while 10 others died in Uttarakhand.

The South Asian monsoon season, which spans from June to September, typically brings about 80% of annual rainfall to the region.

In recent years, India has witnessed intensified weather patterns, with the monsoon season becoming more erratic and less dependable over time. The current period of heavy rainfall is occurring closely on the heels of an intense heatwave that also affected much of northern India. While various factors contribute to flooding, experts point to climate change as a significant driver of increased occurrences of heavy rainfall.

The states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan experienced extensive waterlogging due to heavy rainfall.

The state of Himachal Pradesh was the hardest hit, with at least 330 dead, 38 missing and more than 100 injured during flooding since 1 April. More than 1,000 roads were blocked in the state as a result of downed power lines and other damaged infrastructure. Approximately 70,000 tourists were evacuated from the state, as reported by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Rescue operations were led by teams from the Indian army and the National Disaster Response Force. Several districts experienced an entire month's worth of rainfall within a single day. In Manali, roads were swept away by the deluge, leaving both tourists and their vehicles stranded.

Over the weekend of August 12-13, 2023, additional torrential rains hit Shimla, triggering landslides and destroying a temple, homes, and buildings, and killing at least 57 people. The intensity of the rains has been attributed to climate change. The landslides washed out several roads, including the Himalayan Expressway, and sections of the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The additional floods and landslides killed a total of 71 people. A massive landslide destroyed roads and buildings in the city of Shimla.

Cumulatively, since the monsoon hit on June 24, 170 incidents of cloudburst or landsliding have been reported and 9,600 houses have been damaged in Himachal Pradesh. Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has stated that the losses from the combined floods of 2023 have been as high as 10,000 crore rupees, and the damaged infrastructure would take a year to repair.

On 9 July 2023, a high alert was issued in different districts of Punjab due to incessant rains. There were a surfeit of waterlogged roads and many cars were submerged in water. The situation worsened in Patiala and Dera Bassi as fields were inundated. Many roads caved in, disrupting the traffic. The rains did not show any signs of abating as it had been profusely raining for the past three days. On 10 July 2023, an order was passed to close all schools, which reopened on 17 July.

The capital city of Delhi saw over 153 millimetres (6.0 in) rain on 9 July 2023, marking the highest precipitation in a single day in July in over 40 years. Authorities took measures to relocate numerous individuals residing near Yamuna riverbanks to safer areas. In addition, residents in other susceptible regions were advised to make necessary arrangements for potential evacuations. The traffic flow across a critical bridge spanning the river was disrupted, and schools were closed. Flooding in the capital lead to at least one death.

The Yamuna river breached its all-time high-water mark, which had stood for over 45 years. The situation impacted prominent areas, including the street outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence and a major road towards Connaught Place, a renowned business center. Chief Minister Kejriwal urged the federal government to regulate the water release from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana, which contributed to the swelling of the Yamuna river. Flooding of the Yamuna river also resulted in water surrounding the Red Fort.

Sixteen thousand individuals were provided shelter in relief tents arranged by the Delhi government. The state's governor convened with the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to discuss the flood situation. Kejriwal mentioned that an advisory would be issued for private offices to encourage remote work. Due to the flood-like situation, three water treatment plants in Delhi were temporarily shut down. As a result, water was rationed. Furthermore, heavy vehicles, with the exception of those engaged in essential services, were prohibited from entering Delhi.

Due to damage to a national highway, the Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage was suspended. As a result, thousands of pilgrims were stranded in nearby areas. At least four people were killed in the state.

For the first time in history, Haryana was put under a flood warning. Farmers are preparing to lose up to 30% of their rice yield.

Over 2,800 people were evacuated in anticipation of floods.

Heavy rainfall in mid-August caused flooding which killed ten people in Uttarakhand, including a boy and his parents. A total of 75 people were killed throughout the state between April and August.

At least 12 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh during flooding in July.

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Heavy rainfall during the 2023 monsoon season resulted in severe flooding and landslides across Northern India, primarily affecting residents in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.

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Many South African townships are drowning in waste due to a lack of trash collection services. Locals in one township in Nelson Mandela Bay are quite literally getting their hands dirty with creative solutions.

South Africa: Townships & the war on waste

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In Motherwell, a township in Nelson Mandela Bay on South Africa's Eastern Cape, it's not unusual to see children playing amongst piles of dangerous, illegally dumped waste. Locals have been asking the government for proper waste disposal and storage for years - to no avail.

It's a problem across the country. A quarter of a decade after the end of Apartheid, the state has failed to bring water, electricity, as well as waste and sewage treatment to many townships.

In Walmer Township, also in Nelson Mandela Bay, residents have taken matters into their own hands.

Xolani Siwa, for instance, turned a former illegal dumpsite into a vegetable garden that has also been helping to feed those who've lost their jobs due to Covid-19. The garden has created five jobs in the community. Others have established a social recycling project called Re-Trade that supports around 60 informal waste pickers. The waste pickers can trade in their collected waste materials for food, clothing and other essential items at the six-year-old local recycling center. Could Walmer serve as a model for other townships?
A film by Stefan Möhl

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Cleaning up South Africa's townships - DW - 07/03/2020

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Many South African townships are drowning in waste due to a lack of trash collection services. Locals in one township in Nelson Mandela Bay are quite literally getting their hands dirty with creative solutions.

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Zoo de Lisbonne, Praça Marechal Humberto Delgado, Lisbon, Portugal

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Zoo de Lisbonne, Praça Marechal Humberto Delgado, Lisbon, Portugal

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Zoo de Lisbonne, Praça Marechal Humberto Delgado, Lisbon, Portugal

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A delightful red panda has been born at Lisbon zoo. The zoo made the announcement this week, but the little creature is now six months old and ready to 'meet the world' (or at least visitors to the picturesque zoo that sits in the heart of the capital). The 'miracle' of this new arrival is that red panda reproduction is logistically very difficult. Females only come on heat once a year, and their period of fertility lasts between 12 to 36 hours. Red pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. They are on the IUCN Red List of endangered species with less than 10,000 mature individuals living in the wild. Their survival has been threatened by habitat loss and poaching, as well as by dint of their reproductive quirks.

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Red panda - one of world's endangered species - born at Lisbon zoo

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A delightful red panda has been born at Lisbon zoo. The zoo made the announcement this week, but the little creature is now six months old and ready to 'meet the world' (or at least visitors to the picturesque zoo that sits in the heart of the capital).

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Bronx Zoo, Southern Boulevard, The Bronx, NY, U.S.

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Bronx Zoo, Southern Boulevard, The Bronx, NY, U.S.

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Bronx Zoo, Southern Boulevard, The Bronx, NY, U.S.

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Demographics for U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) include:

Accompanied Minors (AM)

Individuals in a Family Unit (FMUA)

Single Adults

Unaccompanied Children (UC)

For a breakdown of encounters by USBP Sector and OFO Field Office, visit Southwest Land Border Encounters (By Component).

To access the data used to build this dashboard, please visit the CBP Data Portal.
Data is extracted from live CBP systems and data sources. Statistical information is subject to change due to corrections, systems changes, change in data definition, additional information, or encounters pending final review. Final statistics are available at the conclusion of each fiscal year.
Note: Internet Explorer has problems displaying the following charts. Please use another browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) to view. When using a mobile device, the charts are best displayed in landscape mode.

U.S. Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations Encounters¹ FY2022

¹ Beginning in March FY2020, USBP and OFO Encounter statistics include both Title 8 Apprehensions, Title 8 Inadmissibles, and Title 42 Expulsions. To learn more, visit Title 8 and Title 42 Statistics.

Related Resources

Previous Year Statistics

Claims of Fear Statistics

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Demographics for U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) include: Accompanied Minors (AM) Individuals in a Family Unit (FMUA) Single Adults Unaccompanied Children (UC) For a breakdown of encounters by USBP Sector and OFO Field Office, visit Southwest Land Border Encounters (By Component).

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Japan's space industry opens potentially an udder-ly new chapter with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from cow dung.

Japan's space industry opened potentially an udder-ly new chapter on Thursday with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from a plentiful local source: cow dung.

The experiment saw the engine blast out a blue-and-orange flame 10-15 meters (30-50 feet) horizontally out of an open hangar door for around 10 seconds in the rural northern town of Taiki.

The liquid "biomethane" required was made entirely from gas derived from cow manure from two local dairy farms, according to Interstellar Technologies chief executive Takahiro Inagawa.

"We are doing this not just because it is good for the environment but because it can be produced locally, it is very cost effective, and it is a fuel with high performance and high purity," Inagawa told AFP.

"I do not think it is an exaggeration to assume this will be replicated ...all over the world," he said. "We are the first private business to do this."

Interstellar, which hopes to be able to put satellites in space using the fuel, teamed up with industrial gas producer firm Air Water.

It works with local farmers who have equipment on their farms to process their cow dung into biogas which Air Water collects and turns into the rocket fuel.

Japan's space industry opens potentially an udder-ly new chapter with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from cow dung.

Resource-poor Japan "must secure domestically produced, carbon-neutral energy now", said Tomohiro Nishikawa, an engineer at Air Water.

"The raw material from this region's cows has so much potential. Should something change in international affairs, it's important that Japan has an energy source that it has already in hand," he added.

'Moon Sniper'

Japan's space agency JAXA launched in September its "Moon Sniper" mission but the sector has been plagued by problems in recent years with two failed missions-one public and one private.

Japan has also had setbacks with its launch rockets, with mishaps after liftoff of the next-generation H3 in March and the normally reliable solid-fuel Epsilon last October.

In July, the test of an Epsilon S rocket, an improved version of the Epsilon, ended in an explosion 50 seconds after ignition.

Biogas derived from cow manure is already being used for fuel around the world, including to run buses in the Indian city of Indore, instead of more polluting conventional sources.

Japan's space industry opens potentially an udder-ly new chapter with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from cow dung.

It helps mitigate the enormous environmental footprint of agriculture, which Greenpeace says is responsible for 14 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Burning biogas also releases greenhouse gases, but so does leaving it to degrade naturally, while runoff from farm animals pollutes waterways and soil.

Air Water's biomethane is already being used by a local dairy and other factories, to heat local homes and to run trucks and ships as pilot programs.

Among participating local farmers is Eiji Mizushita, 58, who raises some 900 milk cows that collectively generate over 40 tons (80,000 pounds) of dung every day.

His farm has an industrial system to automatically collect the waste, ferment it, and turn it into biogas, fertilizer and recycled bedding materials for his animals.

Sales of biogas expands Mizushita's income by about one percent, but he said the effort is worth it.

"I'm excited to think that our cow waste could be used to make it fly," he said of the rocket.

"We need to properly dispose of and use manure. I also think that the government and society should take a more serious look at the importance of natural renewable energy and encourage its production."

© 2023 AFP

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To the moo-n: Cow dung fuels Japan's space ambitions

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Japan's space industry opened potentially an udder-ly new chapter on Thursday with a start-up testing a prototype rocket engine that runs on fuel derived purely from a plentiful local source: cow dung.

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Real-life "castles in the sand" made by an ancient culture have been revealed in the Sahara, archaeologists say.

New satellite photographs show more than a hundred fortress settlements from a "lost" civilization in southwestern Libya.

The communities, which date to between about A.D. 1 and 500, belonged to an advanced but mysterious people called the Garamantes, who ruled from roughly the second century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.

Researchers uncovered the Garamantes' walled towns, villages, and farms after poring over modern satellite images-including high-resolution pictures used by the oil industry-as well as aerial photos taken during the 1950s and 1960s. (See pictures of Libya's remote Sahara.)

Located about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tripoli, the fortresses were confirmed based on Garamantes pottery samples collected during an early-2011 expedition. That field trip was cut short by the civil war that would end the 42-year regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"We were astonished to see the level of preservation" of the ancient mud-brick compounds, said project leader David Mattingly, of the U.K.'s University of Leicester.

"Although the walls of these sites have slumped a little bit, mainly due to wind erosion, they are still standing 3 to 4 meters [10 to 13 feet] high in places," he said.

(Read "Unseen Sahara" in National Geographic magazine.)

"Extraordinary" Construction

Archaeologists could have easily mistaken the well-planned, straight-line construction for Roman frontier forts of similar design, Mattingly observed.

"But, actually, this is beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire-these sites are markers of a powerful native African kingdom," he said.

What's more, the scientists were surprised that the sites-which include cemeteries and agricultural fields-are so tightly clustered.

(See "Ancient Cemetery Found; Brings 'Green Sahara' to Life.")

For instance, an area of 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) contained at least ten village-size settlements-"that's an extraordinary density," Mattingly said.

Previous knowledge of the Garamantes is based mainly on excavations at their capital, Jarma, some 125 miles (200 kilometers) to the northwest, as well as on ancient Roman and Greek texts.

"We've built up a picture of them as being a very sophisticated, high-level civilization," Mattingly said. (Read about the "lost lords of the Sahara" in National Geographic magazine.)

"They've got metallurgy, very high-quality textiles, a writing system ... those sorts of markers that would say this is an organized, state-level society," he said.

Cash-strapped heritage authorities in Libya have been unable to conduct field research, leaving a gap in knowledge of the ancient civilization, according to University of Oxford archaeologist Philip Kenrick, who was not involved in the new research.

That's why Mattingly and his team-aided by a $3.4-million grant from the E.U.'s European Research Council -have "been breaking new ground on an unprecedented scale," Kenrick said.

Ancient Culture Created Green Sahara

The newfound remains are also a testament to the Garamantes' advanced irrigation technology, which enabled them to create green oases in the desert. (See "High-Tech Energy 'Oasis' to Bloom in the Desert?")

"It's a deep Saharan, hyper-arid environment, and it's only people's ability to exploit groundwater that can change that," project leader Mattingly said.

The Garamantes mined reservoirs of prehistoric water using underground canals to cultivate Mediterranean crops-such as wheat, barley, figs, and grapes-and sub-Saharan African sorghum, pearl millet, and cotton.

Mattingly and colleagues have calculated that 77,000 man-years of labor went into constructing the underground water channels-a figure that doesn't include digging the wells or maintenance. A man-year is a unit of the work done by a person in a year.

Ancient Africans Ran Out of Water?

What happened to the Garamantes remains a riddle, but Mattingly's team suspects that the desert communities declined once groundwater supplies diminished.

Paul Bennett, head of mission of the U.K.-based Society of Libyan Studies, agreed that's a likely scenario.

"Groundwater is a nonrenewable source-as soon as you've tapped the reservoir and emptied it, it's not going to fill again," said Bennett, who was not involved in the new research.

The collapse of the Roman Empire, and increasing conflict in the Mediterranean region, would've also seriously affected the trans-Saharan trade upon which the desert civilization depended, added Oxford's Kenrick.

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"Lost" Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites

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New satellite pictures have uncovered scores of ancient settlements that belonged to a mysterious African civilization.

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In his closing address at COP28, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell lamented the lack of a clear signal to end the fossil fuel era, stating that while a complete turn of the page was not achieved in Dubai, the outcome marks "the beginning of the end" for fossil fuels.

He praised the COP28 outcome for tripling renewable energy targets, doubling energy efficiency goals, establishing a Global Goal on Adaptation framework, and operationalizing the loss and damage fund. He emphasized that these initiatives are a lifeline, not a finish line, and called on governments and businesses to immediately translate pledges into tangible actions.

Stiell stressed the need for faster progress, urging countries to submit ambitious national climate plans that are in line with a 1.5-degree pathway. He further acknowledged the crucial role of ordinary people in driving climate action, and concluded by stating that UN Climate Change remains committed to supporting every step of the journey in the race to a sustainable future.

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UN Climate Change Conference - United Arab Emirates | UNFCCC

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In his closing address at COP28, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell lamented the lack of a clear signal to end the fossil fuel era, stating that while a complete turn of the page was not achieved in Dubai, the outcome marks "the beginning of the end" for fossil fuels.

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Allegiant Stadium, Al Davis Way, Las Vegas, NV

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Allegiant Stadium, Al Davis Way, Las Vegas, NV

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Allegiant Stadium, Al Davis Way, Las Vegas, NV

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100% Guaranteed Tickets - Rest easy knowing your seats are secure and validated by the official marketplace of the NFL.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2024 - LAS VEGAS, NV
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS VS. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

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Usher to Headline Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show

Eight-time Grammy winner Usher will headline the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. His Super Bowl Halftime Show performance will coincide with the release of his ninth studio album, Coming Home. This year will also mark Usher's second time performing on the Super Bowl stage. He previously appeared alongside the Black Eyed Peas in 2011.

Past Super Bowl Performers

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Super Bowl LVIII FAQ

When is the 2024 Super Bowl?

Super Bowl LVIII will take place on Sunday, February 11, 2024.

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When do Super Bowl tickets go on sale?

Super Bowl tickets are not released for sale to the general public. The NFL distributes tickets to the NFL's clubs - including the participating clubs and host club - which make tickets available for sale to season ticket holders and others in their local communities, as well as to partners, sponsors, the host committee and others.

Fans interested in ticket packages, including hospitality offerings, experiences and suite access, may purchase one of the Super Bowl LVIII ticket packages available through On Location at the links above. Ticket packages are available for purchase today.

After Super Bowl tickets are distributed, fans may find tickets available for resale on the NFL Ticket Exchange by Ticketmaster - the Official Resale Marketplace of the NFL. Tickets will remain available for resale on the NFL Ticket Exchange up to 60 minutes after kickoff, for those last-minute decisions.

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The price of Super Bowl tickets on resale often fluctuates drastically based on the game's location, the matchup, seat location, and date of purchase. Generally, the historical cost of the average Super Bowl resale ticket has ranged between $4,000 and $6,000.

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Who is performing at the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show?

The performer for the Super Bowl Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII will be announced soon.

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Kickoff for Super Bowl LVIII will take place at 3:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, February 11, 2024.

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Who's playing in Super Bowl LVIII?

Super Bowl LVIII will be played between the San Francisco 49ers and defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.

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This will be Nevada's first Super Bowl in NFL history.

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Recap: The Last 10 Super Bowl Winners

Get ready for Super Bowl LVIII by reliving the last 10 epic showdowns - from who was named MVP to which team ultimately reigned victorious. Get pumped before this year's game in Las Vegas by revisiting past legendary moments here.

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Super Bowl LVIII Tickets - Feb 11, 2024 Las Vegas, NV | Ticketmaster

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Super Bowl LVIII will take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV in February 2024.

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Great whites, the largest predatory sharks in the world with the most fatal attacks on humans, are tough to imagine as newborn babies. That is partially because no one has seen one in the wild, it seems, until now.

Front view of the great white shark Sternes and Gauna observed. (Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist)

Wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and UC Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes were scanning the waters for sharks on July 9, 2023, near Santa Barbara on California's central coast. That day, something exciting appeared on the viewfinder of Gauna's drone camera. It was a shark pup unlike any they'd ever seen.

Great whites, referred to only as white sharks by scientists, are gray on top and white on the bottom. But this roughly 5-foot-long shark was pure white.

"We enlarged the images, put them in slow motion, and realized the white layer was being shed from the body as it was swimming," Sternes said. "I believe it was a newborn white shark shedding its embryonic layer."

These observations are documented in a new paper in the Environmental Biology of Fishes journal. The paper also details the significance of having seen a live newborn white shark.

Gauna is known online as The Malibu Artist. He has spent thousands of hours filming sharks around the world, and his videos of them swimming close to beachgoers have millions of views. What he and Sternes observed could help solve the longstanding mystery of great white birthing habits.

White shark shedding its pure white outer layer. (Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist)

"Where white sharks give birth is one of the holy grails of shark science. No one has ever been able to pinpoint where they are born, nor has anyone seen a newborn baby shark alive," Gauna said. "There have been dead white sharks found inside deceased pregnant mothers. But nothing like this."

Though the paper authors acknowledge it is possible the white film the shark shed could have been a skin condition, the duo do not believe this to be the case. "If that is what we saw, then that too is monumental because no such condition has ever been reported for these sharks," Gauna said.

For many reasons, the duo believes what they saw was in fact a newborn great white.

First, great white females give birth to live pups. While in utero, the embryonic sharks might feed on unfertilized eggs for protein. The mothers offer additional nourishment to the growing shark pups with a 'milk' secreted in the uterus.

Side view of the newborn great white shark. (Carlos Gauna/The Malibu Artist)

"I believe what we saw was the baby shedding the intrauterine milk," Sternes said.

A second reason is the presence of large, likely pregnant great whites in this location. Gauna had observed them here in previous years, and in the weeks leading up to the observation. "I filmed three very large sharks that appeared pregnant at this specific location in the days prior. On this day, one of them dove down, and not long afterwards, this fully white shark appears," Gauna said. "It's not a stretch to deduce where the baby came from."

Thirdly, the shark's size and shape are also indicative of a newborn. What the two observed was thin, short, and rounded. "In my opinion, this one was likely hours, maybe one day old at most," Sternes said.

Finally, this location off the coast of central California has long been proposed as a birthing location for great whites. "There are a lot of hypothetical areas, but despite intense interest in these sharks, no one's seen a birth or a newborn pup in the wild," Sternes said. "This may well be the first evidence we have of a pup in the wild, making this a definitive birthing location."

Many scholars believe great whites are born farther out at sea. That this pup was filmed so close to shore - roughly 1,000 feet from the beach - is significant because its age means it was likely born in shallow waters.

Great whites are listed as an international endangered species. "Further research is needed to confirm these waters are indeed a great white breeding ground. But if it does, we would want lawmakers to step in and protect these waters to help white sharks keep thriving," Sternes said.

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First-ever sighting of a live newborn great white

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Great whites, the largest predatory sharks in the world with the most fatal attacks on humans, are tough to imagine as newborn babies. That is partially because no one has seen one in the wild, it seems, until now.

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South China Sea raid

Part of Pacific Theater of World War II

Smoke rising from Saigon after facilities and ships in the city were attacked by United States Navy aircraft on 12 January 1945

Date

10-20 January 1945

Location

Status

US victory

Belligerents

United States

Japan

Commanders and leaders

William Halsey Jr.
John S. McCain Sr.

Hisaichi Terauchi

Casualties and losses

Aircraft losses between 3 and 25 January:

98 aircraft, 136 aircrew (combat)

103 aircraft, 31 aircrew (operational)

Losses between 3 and 25 January:

300,000 tons of shipping

615 aircraft

Hundreds of civilians killed and wounded

The South China Sea raid (designated Operation Gratitude) was an operation conducted by the United States Third Fleet between 10 and 20 January 1945 during the Pacific War of World War II. The raid was undertaken to support the liberation of Luzon in the Philippines, and targeted Japanese warships, supply convoys and aircraft in the region.

After attacking airfields and shipping at Formosa and Luzon, the Third Fleet entered the South China Sea during the night of 9-10 January. Aircraft flying from its aircraft carriers attacked Japanese shipping off French Indochina on 12 January, sinking 44 vessels. The fleet then sailed north and attacked Formosa again on 15 January. Further raids were conducted against Hong Kong, Canton and Hainan the next day. The Third Fleet departed the South China Sea on 20 January and, after making further attacks on Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands, returned to its base on 25 January.

The Third Fleet's operations in the South China Sea were highly successful. It destroyed many Japanese ships and aircraft, while losing relatively few of its own aircraft. Historians have judged the destruction of cargo vessels and oil tankers to have been the most important result of the raid, as these losses contributed to closing a supply route which was vital to the Japanese war effort. Subsequent attacks by Allied aircraft and warships forced the Japanese to cease sending ships into the South China Sea after March 1945.

The strategic situation in the Pacific in January 1945. The red shaded area was controlled by the Allies and the remainder was controlled by Japan.

During 1941 and the first months of 1942, Japan conquered or established de facto rule over almost the entire South China Sea region. Control of the sea was vital to the Japanese economy and war effort, as it was the conduit through which essential supplies of oil and other natural resources passed from occupied Malaya, Borneo and the Dutch East Indies. The situation in French Indochina was particularly complex. After a short military confrontation in September 1940 the colonial government, which was loyal to the Vichy French collaborationist regime, permitted the Japanese to use ports and airfields in northern Indochina. In July 1941 the Japanese occupied southern Indochina and established airfields as well as an important naval base at Cam Ranh Bay. The French authorities remained in place as a puppet government. After the liberation of France in 1944, the colonial government sought to make contact with the new Free French government in Paris, and began preparations to stage an uprising against the Japanese. The Japanese also developed plans in 1944 to forcibly disarm the French forces and formally take over Indochina, and their intelligence services rapidly learned of the French authorities' intentions.

As the war turned against Japan, convoys of ships passing through the South China Sea frequently came under attack from Allied submarines and - by late 1944 - aircraft. These attacks were guided by information gained from signals intelligence and long-range air patrols, supplemented by reports from coast watchers along the Chinese coast and other observers in Asian ports. The United States Army Air Forces' (USAAF) Fourteenth Air Force, which was stationed in China, regularly attacked Japanese shipping in the South China Sea area. The command also made periodic attacks on Japanese-held ports in southern China and military installations in Indochina. The Allied clandestine services undertook few activities in Indochina until the second quarter of 1945.

While losses of oil tankers and freighters were increasingly heavy, the Japanese Government continued to order ships to make the voyage through the South China Sea. In an attempt to limit losses, convoys and individual ships took routes well away from the established sea lanes, or sailed close to the shore and operated only at night.

The United States began the liberation of the Philippines on 25 October 1944, with a landing at Leyte island in the central Philippines. After a base was established at Leyte, American forces landed at Mindoro island on 13 December. This operation was conducted to secure airfields that could be used to attack Japanese shipping in the South China Sea and support the largest element of the liberation of the Philippines, a landing at Lingayen Gulf in north-western Luzon that was scheduled for 9 January 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) suffered heavy losses in its attempt to attack the Allied fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 which, when combined with the losses during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, left it unable to conduct further major battles. However, it remained capable of raiding Allied positions.

During late 1944 Admiral William Halsey Jr., the commander of the United States Third Fleet, sought to conduct a raid into the South China Sea and led the development of plans for such an operation. On 21 November he asked Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the head of the United States Pacific Fleet, for permission to begin the attack but was turned down.

Several of the Third Fleet's aircraft carriers and other warships at Ulithi in early December 1944

In December 1944 the United States Navy's high command became concerned that the IJN would attempt to cut the supply line to the planned beachhead at Lingayen Gulf. On 26 December a Japanese naval force operating from Cam Ranh Bay shelled the Allied beachhead at Mindoro, but inflicted no damage. One of the Japanese destroyers involved in this operation was sunk, and all of the remaining ships were damaged by Allied air and naval attacks before returning to Cam Ranh Bay.

As further Japanese raids were expected, senior US Navy officers believed that it was necessary to destroy the IJN's remaining mobile forces, which were thought to be split between Cam Ranh Bay and the Inland Sea in Japan. At this time the Inland Sea was beyond the range of the USAAF's heavy bombers, meaning that an attack into the South China Sea was the only viable option for striking the IJN. The US Navy's intelligence service believed that the Japanese force based at Cam Ranh Bay was built around the two Ise-class battleships. Halsey and Nimitz discussed the proposed South China Sea raid during a meeting held around Christmas 1944 at the US Navy anchorage which had been established at Ulithi atoll in the Caroline Islands. On 28 December Nimitz gave Halsey permission to launch the attack once his fleet was no longer needed to directly support the Lingayen Gulf landings and "if major Japanese fleet units were sighted" in the area. Halsey issued the pre-prepared plans for the operation to his subordinates the same day. Its goals were to attack the Japanese fleet and shipping. In addition, the Americans believed that the presence of a powerful force in the South China Sea would discourage any further IJN operations in the area. While the Fourteenth Air Force was directed to attack Japanese shipping and airfields at Hong Kong in support of the invasion of Luzon, it was not informed of the plans for the Third Fleet to enter the South China Sea. The Fourteenth Air Force was also not briefed on the Fleet's operations during the South China Sea raid, and no attempts were made to coordinate the two forces' activities during this period.

The plans for the raid specified that the Third Fleet would enter the South China Sea via the Luzon Strait before proceeding south-west. The fleet's aircraft carriers would attack Japanese positions on Formosa, and provide support for the landings at Lingayen Gulf on 9 January. Three submarines from the Seventh Fleet were to take up station in the South China Sea to rescue the aircrew of any American aircraft which were forced to ditch. This plan would require the Third Fleet to operate near many Japanese airfields from which attacks could be mounted against the ships. Allied intelligence estimated that about 300 aircraft were usually stationed at Formosa; around 500 were in southern China and northern Indochina, a further 170 in southern Indochina, Burma and Thailand and 280 in the Dutch East Indies. While most of these were Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF) aircraft, which were less effective against warships than IJN aircraft, there was a risk that kamikaze tactics would be employed. In addition, weather conditions were expected to be hazardous as the South China Sea is frequently affected by typhoons during January.

Ships of the Third Fleet en route to the Philippines in January 1945

As of January 1945, the Third Fleet was built around the Fast Carrier Task Force, which was the main US Navy strike force in the Pacific. Control of this force alternated at regular intervals between the Third and Fifth Fleets (commanded by Halsey and Admiral Raymond A. Spruance respectively), with its designation also changing from Task Force 38 to Task Force 58. As Task Force 38 it was commanded by Vice Admiral John S. McCain Sr. In January 1945 Task Force 38 was organized into three fast carrier task groups and a night carrier group. The fast carrier groups were Task Group 38.1 with four aircraft carriers, two battleships, six cruisers and 25 destroyers; Task Group 38.2 with four carriers, three battleships, five cruisers and 24 destroyers; and Task Group 38.3, which comprised four carriers, three battleships, five cruisers and 17 destroyers. The night carrier group, Task Group 38.5, had two carriers and six destroyers, and operated with Task Group 38.2 during the day. These carrier groups embarked around 900 aircraft in total. The other major element of the fleet was a logistics force designated Task Group 30.8, which comprised a varying number of tankers and ammunition ships, several escort carriers transporting replacement aircraft for Task Force 38, and many escorting destroyers. In addition, the fleet was assigned an anti-submarine hunter-killer force designated Task Group 30.7, which comprised an escort carrier and three destroyer escorts and typically operated in support of Task Group 30.8.

Despite the American concerns, the IJN was not about to attack the Allied supply lines and Cam Ranh Bay was not a major fleet base. As of 1 January 1945, both the Ise-class battleships and the small number of other Japanese warships in the region were stationed at or near Singapore, and only escort vessels operated from Cam Ranh Bay. While large numbers of aircraft were located in Japanese-held territories bordering the South China Sea in January 1945, relatively few trained pilots were available to operate them. At this time the Imperial General Headquarters was considering a major offensive against the supply line to Lingayen Gulf, but on 20 January 1945 it decided to concentrate Japan's defensive efforts on the area around the home islands and only conduct delaying actions elsewhere. As a result, the Japanese forces in the South China Sea region at the time of the raid were focused on preparing to resist future Allied attacks. The Japanese believed that US forces could potentially land in Indochina once the liberation of the Philippines was complete, and were also concerned about possible attacks on the area by the British-led South East Asia Command. In an effort to better coordinate the Japanese forces in the South East Asia region, all Imperial Japanese Army and Navy units were placed under the overall control of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group in January 1945. This command was led by Gensui Count Hisaichi Terauchi from his headquarters in Singapore.

Despite these preparations, the Japanese remained unable to counter powerful attacks against shipping in the South China Sea. While the Navy's convoy escort forces had been expanded during 1944, they remained inadequate. The most common type of escort vessel, the , was vulnerable to air attack as a result of their slow speed and weak anti-aircraft armament. The IJN also assigned few fighter aircraft to protect convoys in the South China Sea and, due to the interservice rivalry which badly hindered the Japanese war effort, rejected an offer from the Army to provide additional fighters for this purpose just before the Third Fleet's attacks on French Indochina.

The Third Fleet's approximate route between 9 and 21 January 1945

The Third Fleet sailed from Ulithi on 30 December 1944. On 3 and 4 January its aircraft carriers struck Japanese airfields on Formosa, Okinawa and nearby islands in an attempt to prevent them from being used to attack the Allied forces at Lingayen Gulf. In addition, its strike aircraft attacked Japanese shipping at Formosa, sinking at least three merchant vessels and damaging four frigates. Acting on a request from General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the South West Pacific Area, the fleet struck airfields on Luzon on 6 and 7 January. At around this time Vice-Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, the commander of the Seventh Fleet which was responsible for the Lingayen Gulf landings, asked Halsey to operate west of Luzon to provide air cover during the initial period of the invasion. Halsey believed it would be inappropriate for his force to operate in such a passive role, and instead ordered further strikes on the Japanese airfields in southern Formosa which posed the greatest threat to Kinkaid's command. These took place on 9 January. During the morning of 9 January, Nimitz released the Third Fleet from directly covering the Lingayen Gulf area, and authorized it to enter the South China Sea. Once all the strike aircraft had landed that afternoon Halsey issued orders to execute the planned attack into the South China Sea. During the fleet's operations from 3 to 9 January it destroyed more than 150 Japanese aircraft, but lost 86 of its own, including 46 in accidents.

During the night of 9-10 January the main body of the Third Fleet, including Task Group 30.7, sailed through the Bashi Channel in the northern part of the Luzon Strait. Task Group 30.8 was reduced to six fast tankers, two escort carriers and escorting warships, and reached the South China Sea via the Balintang Channel off the northern coast of Luzon. Neither force was detected by the Japanese, though night fighters operating from the light aircraft carrier USS Independence shot down three transport aircraft that were flying to Formosa from Luzon. The fleet also received a report that a large Japanese convoy of around 100 ships was sailing along the southern coast of China towards Formosa during the night of 9-10 January, but Halsey decided to not attack it as doing so would disclose that his force was in the South China Sea and possibly prompt the IJN to withdraw its battleships from the area.

While it was planned to refuel the fleet's destroyers on 10 January, this was frustrated by bad weather. Instead, the destroyers were refueled during 11 January as the fleet proceeded south-west. Once the destroyers were refueled, the Third Fleet was reorganized for combat. Two heavy cruisers and five destroyers were transferred from Task Group 38.1 to Task Group 38.2. The latter task group, under the command of Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan, was intended to launch air attacks against Cam Ranh Bay from its three large fleet carriers and single light carrier on the morning of 12 January. The Task Group's two battleships, accompanied by destroyers and cruisers, would then bombard the area and finish off ships which were damaged in the air attacks. The choice of targets was informed by intelligence passed on to the Allies by two networks of agents in Indochina. The Third Fleet remained undetected by Japanese forces on 10 and 11 January.

Two vessels under attack off the coast of Indochina on 12 January. The Imperial Japanese Navy tanker Ayayuki Maru is on fire and sinking.

Task Group 38.2 began its approach to Cam Ranh Bay at 2 pm on 11 January. It was followed by Task Groups 38.1 and 38.3, which launched fighter aircraft to provide a combat air patrol over the fleet. Task Group 30.8 remained in the central South China Sea. Before dawn on 12 January, Task Group 38.5 launched aircraft to search for Japanese ships in the Cam Ranh Bay area. The crews of these aircraft radioed back the location of Japanese ships, and conducted an intensive search for the two Ise-class battleships and any other capital ships. When none were located it was believed that the warships had been hidden from view by camouflage; it took several months for the US Navy to learn that they had not been in the area. By 6 am on 12 January Task Group 38.2 was within 50 miles (80 km) of Cam Ranh Bay. It and the other two task groups began launching their first strikes of the day at 07:31 am, about half an hour before sunrise. The Japanese had still not detected the Third Fleet's approach, and were unprepared for an attack.

The American airmen achieved considerable success against Japanese convoys. Two waves of aircraft from Task Group 38.3 attacked a convoy of 10 ships escorted by the seven warships of the 101st Flotilla near Qui Nhơn in central Indochina and sank four fully loaded oil tankers, three freighters, the light cruiser Kashii and three small escort vessels. Another convoy was located and struck near Cape Padaran in southern Indochina, resulting in the loss of a tanker, two destroyer escorts and a patrol boat. A convoy comprising seven vessels was also attacked near Cape St. Jacques in southern Indochina, leading to two freighters, three tankers, three destroyer escorts and a landing craft being sunk or forced to beach.

American aircraft also struck Japanese shipping in the Saigon area. Two freighters and a tanker were sunk at Saigon, and another tanker was destroyed off the coast. The disarmed French cruiser Lamotte-Picquet was mistakenly attacked and sunk at Saigon, despite flying the French flag. Many other ships were damaged in the Saigon area, including five freighters, two tankers, three landing craft, two to four destroyer escorts, a minesweeper and a patrol boat. Several of these ships were beached, and destroyed by a storm later in the month. Other Third Fleet aircraft were used to maintain a combat air patrol over the area between Tourane in central Indochina and Saigon and attack airfields, docks and oil storage facilities. The railway station at Nha Trang and a bridge on the line between Saigon and Bien Hoa were also damaged. The surface strike group, which had separated from Task Group 38.2 at 6:40 am and comprised two battleships, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and twelve destroyers, did not locate any Japanese ships.

The attacks on 12 January were highly successful. A total of 46 Japanese ships were sunk, including 33 merchant vessels with a combined tonnage of 142,285 tons. Twelve of these merchants were tankers. The 13 warships sunk were the light cruiser Kashii, two destroyers, seven coast defense vessels (CD-17, CD-19, CD-23, CD-35, CD-43, CD-51, Chiburi), one patrol boat (No. 103), one minesweeper (Otowa Maru), and a military transport (T-140). While few Japanese aircraft were operational, the American airmen shot down 15 aircraft and destroyed 20 floatplanes at Cam Ranh Bay and another 77 aircraft at various airfields. The Third Fleet lost 23 aircraft. The French colonial government refused to hand over the downed American airmen its forces captured to the Japanese military, and provided them with escorts to the Chinese border. Civilians also rescued American airmen and helped them to escape. As a result, almost all of the US Navy aircrew from planes shot down over Indochina eventually returned to the United States via China.

The Japanese transport ship T.14 exploding after it was attacked at Takao City on 15 January

At 7:31 pm on 12 January, the Third Fleet reversed course and sailed north-east to meet up with Task Group 30.8. This course was maintained the next day in order to evade a typhoon and Japanese search aircraft. Heavy seas made fuelling difficult, though all of the destroyers were eventually refueled on 13 January. On that day, Fleet Admiral Ernest King, the Chief of Naval Operations, directed the Third Fleet to remain "in a strategic position to intercept enemy forces approaching the Lingayen Gulf area from either the north or the south". In passing this order on to Halsey, Nimitz authorized him to attack the Hong Kong area if more worthwhile targets could not be located.

On 14 January the American warships continued to refuel, despite the bad weather. All of the major warships were eventually topped up to at least 60 per cent of their fuel capacity. This consumed most of Task Group 30.8's supplies, and it later separated from the fleet to rendezvous with relief tankers near Mindoro. After fuelling was completed the Third Fleet sailed north to attack Formosa. Weather conditions continued to be bad, and at 3:00 am on 15 January McCain recommended to Halsey that the strikes be cancelled and the fleet sail south. Even so, Halsey decided to continue north and execute the attack. In addition, he ordered aircraft to be launched during 15 January to reconnoiter Amoy, Hainan island, Hong Kong, the Pescadores Islands and Swatow in search of the Ise-class battleships. The newly designated night carrier USS Enterprise flew off search aircraft at 4:00 am that morning.

Strikes were launched from the aircraft carriers beginning at 7:30 am on 15 January; at this time the Third Fleet was about 255 miles (410 km) east-south-east of Hong Kong and 170 miles (270 km) south-west of Formosa. Ten fighter sweeps were dispatched to Formosa, and a further six to airfields on the coast of mainland China. In addition, eight raids were launched against shipping in the Takao and Toshien regions of Formosa. While large numbers of ships were located, these strikes were largely frustrated by bad weather and heavy anti-aircraft fire. The destroyer Hatakaze and No.1-class landing ship T.14 were sunk at Takao City and a tanker was damaged and forced aground. Several of the strikes were diverted to Mako in the Pescadores Islands, where weather conditions were better, and these aircraft sank the destroyer Tsuga. A weather station and radio facilities on Pratas Island was also attacked by aircraft operating from Enterprise. The American pilots claimed to have shot down 16 Japanese aircraft and destroyed another 18 on the ground during the day; 12 US Navy aircraft were lost in combat and accidents. At 4:44 pm the carriers changed course to reach the position from which Hong Kong and other locations in southern China were to be attacked the next day.

Japanese shipping at Hong Kong under attack on 16 January

The British colony of Hong Kong had been captured by Japanese forces in December 1941, and became a significant naval and logistics base. USAAF units based in China attacked the Hong Kong area from October 1942. Most of these raids involved a small number of aircraft, and typically targeted Japanese cargo ships which had been reported by Chinese guerrillas. By January 1945 the city was being regularly raided by the USAAF.

The Third Fleet's first raids for 16 January began to be launched at 7:32 am. The day's operations were focused on Hong Kong, which was struck by 138 aircraft during the morning and a further 158 in the afternoon. The raiders sunk five large tankers and an IJN oiler, and damaged several other ships. The tankers formed part of Convoy Hi 87 which had been diverted from its journey south in an attempt to avoid the Third Fleet. In addition, Kai Tak Airport was badly damaged, and all the aircraft on the ground there at the time were destroyed. Widespread damage was also inflicted on the Kowloon and Taikoo docks. Several less important targets, including the dockyard in Aberdeen and trains on the Kowloon-Canton Railway, were struck by pilots who had been authorized to engage targets of opportunity. The village of Hung Hom, which was located near the Kowloon docks, was heavily bombed and hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded. Stanley Internment Camp was also hit by a bomb that killed 14 of the Allied civilians imprisoned there. The Fourteenth Air Force's 118th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron conducted an attack on shipping at Hong Kong on 16 January which was not coordinated with the US Navy's raids. These were the largest air attacks conducted on Hong Kong during World War II.

The Japanese garrison at Hong Kong strongly resisted the raid, using particularly effective anti-aircraft tactics which the Americans had not previously encountered. A US Navy report described the gunfire the aircraft faced as having been "intense to unbelievable". The TBF Avenger torpedo bombers dispatched against Hong Kong suffered particularly heavy losses as their low-level attack runs were vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. As the Avengers' torpedoes were set to run too deep these attacks achieved little.

The Portuguese colony of Macau was also struck. While Portugal was neutral, the colony's government had been forced to accept the presence of Japanese "advisers" since 1943 and had traded weapons for food supplies. The raid's main target was a stockpile of aviation fuel at the Macau Naval Aviation Center which the Allies had learned from local agents was to be sold to the Japanese. Fort Dona Maria II was also attacked, possibly to destroy a radio station located within or near it, and some damage was inflicted on civilian areas and the city's harbor. Two soldiers and several civilians were killed. Macau's garrison had no effective anti-aircraft weapons, and did not fire on the American aircraft. Writing in 2016, historian Geoffrey C. Gunn stated that it was unclear why Macau was attacked given that the US Government's policy was to respect Macau's neutrality and the gains from destroying the fuel stocks were more than outweighed by the likely diplomatic repercussions. He judged that US Naval intelligence was unaware of the policy towards the colony.

Other attacks were conducted against locations in southern China during 16 January. Strikes were made on the city of Canton, and two raids and two fighter sweeps were conducted against locations in Hainan. In addition, fighter aircraft attacked airfields along the Chinese coast between the Leizhou Peninsula in the west to Swatow in the east, but encountered few Japanese aircraft.

American casualties on 16 January were 22 aircraft shot down in combat and 27 lost in accidents. The Japanese claimed to have downed 10 aircraft over Hong Kong alone. The US Navy pilots reported destroying 13 Japanese aircraft. At least four American airmen were taken prisoner after their planes were shot down near Hong Kong, and a further seven evaded capture and eventually reached Allied-held regions of China. One of the American prisoners was later murdered by a lethal injection at the Ōfuna prisoner of war camp in Japan.

After completing its strikes on 16 January, the Third Fleet turned south to refuel. Because weather conditions were particularly bad the next day, fuelling was not completed. The weather worsened on 18 January, making fuelling operations impossible. During this period Japanese propaganda radio broadcasts claimed that the fleet had been "bottled up", and would be destroyed when it tried to leave the South China Sea. As his meteorologists expected bad weather to continue into 19 January, Halsey decided to depart the South China Sea via the Surigao Strait in the central Philippines rather than sail north around Luzon. But when Nimitz learned of this he requested that the Third Fleet use the Luzon Strait, though Halsey was given discretion to make the final decision on his force's route. Nimitz's reasoning was that if the fleet sailed through the central Philippines its departure would be reported by Japanese forces on bypassed islands, possibly leading to the IJN attempting a raid against the Allied supply lines. In addition, a northerly passage would leave the Third Fleet better placed to undertake its next assignments, which included attacking Formosa again and reconnoitering the Ryukyu Islands.

Halsey chose to follow Nimitz's request. His fleet completed fuelling on 19 January, and proceeded north towards the Balintang Channel; Task Group 30.8 separated from the main body, however, and subsequently passed through the Surigao Strait. During 20 January the fleet sailed east through the Balintang Channel, with a division of destroyers patrolling well ahead of the carrier task groups. Many Japanese aircraft were detected by radar during this period, and 15 which were evacuating IJAAF personnel from Luzon were shot down. No attack was made against the American force. The Third Fleet exited the Balintang Channel at 22:00 that night.

USS Hornet (left) and USS Independence on 26 January 1945

After departing the South China Sea, the Third Fleet proceeded to its next assignments. It attacked airfields and harbors on Formosa again on 21 January, with ten merchant ships being sunk at Takao. But a Japanese aircraft struck the light aircraft carrier USS Langley with two small bombs and the fleet carrier Ticonderoga was badly damaged by two kamikazes. The destroyer Maddox was also hit by a kamikaze but suffered little damage. In addition, McCain's flagship Hancock suffered considerable damage when a bomb fell from a TBF Avenger which had just landed and exploded on her flight deck. Hancock and Ticonderoga were detached from the fleet, and proceeded to Ulithi for repairs. On 22 January the remaining carriers struck the Ryukyu Islands. The main goal of this operation was to gain photographic coverage of Okinawa to help plan an invasion of the island, and airfields and shipping were also attacked. Once this task was completed, the fleet turned south for Ulithi in the evening of 22 January, and arrived there on 25 January. The next day Halsey handed command over to Spruance, and it became the Fifth Fleet.

The South China Sea raid was considered a success. During its operations in the South China Sea between 10 and 20 January, the Third Fleet sailed 3,800 miles (6,100 km) without suffering heavy casualties or a serious mishap. Nimitz later stated that "the sortie into the South China Sea was well-conceived and brilliantly executed" and praised the planning for the fleet's logistical support. He regretted that Japanese capital ships had not been located and attacked. In 1995 the historian John Prados wrote that the Japanese "convoy losses off French Indochina were the most significant outcome of Operation Gratitude". Similarly, Mark P. Parillo judged in 1993 that the destruction of 25 oil tankers during the raid "spelled doom for any long-term Japanese resistance".

The Japanese high command believed that the raid had been conducted in preparation for an invasion of south China. In response, five additional infantry divisions were assigned to the defense of this area. Three of these divisions were released for other operations in March 1945 after the American invasion of Iwo Jima was interpreted as evidence that the Hong Kong-Canton area would be bypassed rather than attacked.

The South China Sea raid also contributed to the Japanese takeover of Indochina. The commander of the Imperial Japanese Army forces in Indochina, Lieutenant General Yuitsu Tsuchihashi, believed that the raid was the precursor an Allied invasion of the area. In reality, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had decided that the US would not participate in the liberation of Indochina and there were no plans for such an operation. As part of efforts to prepare for an Allied invasion and pre-empt the French uprising, on 26 February the Japanese Government authorized the military command in Indochina to execute the takeover plans once preparations were complete. This occurred on 9 March, with the Japanese forces attacking and rapidly defeating most of the French garrisons. The Japanese subsequently installed Emperor Bao Dai to rule over the puppet Empire of Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia and Kingdom of Laos.

The Portuguese Government lodged a protest over the US Navy's violation of Macau's neutrality shortly after the raid on 16 January, and the US Government apologized for the incident on 20 January. An official court of inquiry was held, and in 1950 the United States provided Portugal with a $20.3 million compensation payment for the damage caused to Macau's harbor on 16 January and other accidental raids on 11 and 25 June 1945.

Allied air and naval attacks against Japanese shipping in the South China Sea were expanded during early 1945 as additional USAAF units moved into bases in the Philippines. Land-based patrol aircraft and medium bombers operated over the sea from liberated areas of the Philippines and Dutch East Indies from February. While Allied submarines and these aircraft failed to prevent the escape of the Ise-class battleships when they sailed from Singapore to Japan during Operation Kita in mid-February, the medium bombers were sinking large numbers of Japanese merchant ships by the end of the month. Medium and heavy bombers also raided Japanese-held ports across the South China Sea area. As a result of the air and submarine attacks, the Japanese ceased sending ships through the South China Sea in April 1945.

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Reynolds, Clark G. (1968). The Fast Carriers: The Forging of an Air Navy. New York City: McGraw-Hill. OCLC 24906505.

Spector, Ronald (February 1982). "Allied Intelligence and Indochina, 1943-1945". Pacific Historical Review. 51 (1): 23-50. doi:10.2307/3639819. JSTOR 3639819.

Spector, Ronald H. (1985). Advice and Support: The Early Years (PDF). The US Army in Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History. OCLC 220653520.

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South China Sea raid Part of Pacific Theater of World War II Smoke rising from Saigon after facilities and ships in the city were attacked by United States Navy aircraft on 12 January 1945 Date 10-20 January 1945 Location Status US victory Belligerents United States Japan Commanders and leaders William Halsey Jr.

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Have a look at all the beautiful light works waiting to captivate you
-together with friends, family and fellow festival guests:
COPENHAGEN LIGHT FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2024.

In the program, you will also find details about events during the festival, including the concert series with the DR Vocal Ensemble in Marmorkirken, pop-ups near the light artworks, and the Light Run and Family Run, starting and ending at Ofelia Plads. The event program is continuously updated throughout the festival.

Embark on a journey through Copenhagen's city center and explore Refshaleøen, Ørestad, DR Koncerthuset, Vestre Kirkegård, Nordhavn, and the bridge districts. The light festival extends from February 2nd to 25th, and the light works illuminate every evening from 5 PM to 10 PM.

If you dream of reaching all areas of the city covered by the light festival, take a look at the festival's map featuring walking, running, cycling, harbor bus, and bus routes.

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The annual light festival in Copenhagen is an outdoor event that celebrates light art and lighting design by artists from all over the world.

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Pineapple Express heads for California with flooding, wind, snow starting Wednesday

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All aboard the Pineapple Express this week in California as some coastal ranges could see over 8 inches of rain before the end of the week, while Los Angeles and San Diego could be in for more monumental flooding.

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Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the grandest festival in China, with a 7-day long holiday. As the most colorful annual event, the traditional CNY celebration lasts longer, up to two weeks, and the climax arrives around the Lunar New Year's Eve.

China during this period is dominated by iconic red lanterns, loud fireworks, massive banquets and parades, and the festival even triggers exuberant celebrations across the globe.

In 2023 Chinese New Year festival falls on Jan. 22. It is the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac, which features a 12-year cycle with each year represented by a specific animal. People born in the Years of the Rabbit including 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, and 2011 will experience their Zodiac Year of Birth (Ben Ming Nian). 2024 Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 10 and it is the Year of the Dragon.

Time for Family Reunion

When is Chinese New Year?

Unlike the universal New Year observed on January 1st, Chinese New Year is never on a fixed date. The dates vary according to Chinese lunar calendar, but generally fall on a day between January 21st and February 20th in the Gregorian calendar.

How long is the festival? Most people in China have at least seven days off work, including three days' legal holiday, and the preceding and following weekends. Here's a CNY timetable for recent years, marked in UTC/GMT+08:00.

Why is it called Spring Festival?

The festival date is in January or February, around the Chinese solar term the 'Beginning of Spring', so it is also named the 'Spring Festival'.

When all streets and lanes are decorated with vibrant red lanterns and colorful lights, the Lunar New Year is approaching. What do Chinese people do then? After half a month's busy time with a house spring-clean and holiday shopping, the festivities kick off on the New Year's Eve, and last 15 days, until the full moon arrives with the Lantern Festival. Scroll down and let's look through the core traditions and practices of the Chinese New Year.

House Cleaning and Decorating - half month before

No matter whether in a city apartment or a countryside villa, there must be a diligent housewife exerting all her energies to carry out a thorough clean of the house before Chinese New Year. Sweeping, mopping, wiping, washing... Sometimes the whole family needs to give a hand with the chores, to make sure the house is rid of the old year's dust and is prepared for taking in the fortune of the New Year. Then every house is decorated with the most favored color, the bright Red - red lanterns, Chinese knots, Spring Festival couplets, 'Fu' character pictures, and red window paper-cuts. Read more about How to Decorate for Chinese New Year.

Send Greetings and Red Envelopes through Wechat

With the popularity of instant messaging apps, greeting cards are seldom seen. From the morning to the midnight of the New Year's Eve, people use the app Wechat to send various text messages, voice messages, and emojis, some of which featuring the New Year's animal sign, to exchange greetings and good wishes. Digital red envelopes are becoming considerably popular and a big red envelope in a group chat always starts a happy grabbing game.

Further Reading on CNY Traditions:

What to Eat - Priority of the Festival

In China, an old saying goes 'Food is the first important thing for people' while a modern saying '3 pounds' weight gain atevery festival.' Both show the Chinese people's love of food. There probably are no other people quite like the Chinese who are so passionate and fastidious about cooking. Besides basic requirements of appearance, smell, and taste, they insist on creating festival foods bearing auspicious meanings and bring good luck.

New Year Menu from a Chinese Family

Travel during Chinese New Year - 5 Things You should Know

1. Prepare for crowds:
The 40 days around the festival is a huge peak travel period, when all migrant workers and students are on their way home, contributing to an amazing volume of 3 billion passengers! Remember: Avoid the Spring Festival Travel Rush; if unavoidable, keep away from train travel; if you can't, buy tickets as EARLY as possible.

2. Calm down when hearing the firecrackers:
Spectacular pyrotechnics displays will light up the sky and loud bangs traverse the whole country. Don't panic. It has nothing to do with terrorists, but just celebration.

3. Shortened opening hours:
Public transport, banks, and other public service sectors have shorter opening hours during the holiday. Business comes almost to a stop. Many restaurants and shops close for the holiday.

4. Where to go:
Beijing, Xi'an, and Pingyao feature traditional celebrations of north China, Guangzhou retains south China folk customs, while Harbin is a popular January destination for the exciting ice and snow activities. See 5 Best Places to Go for Chinese New Year 2023.

- Southmost Hainan: 17 ~ 25°C; long-sleeve T-shirt or thin coat

- Southern areas like Guangdong, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Yunnan: 5 ~ 15°C; sweater + jacket or trench coat

- South and east areas including Shanghai & Hangzhou: 2 ~ 10°C; sweater + light down jacket

- Central China including Xi'an & Chengdu: -3 ~ 8 °C; sweater + thick down jacket

- North destinations around Beijing: -10 ~ 5°C; wool sweater + thick parka or down coat

- Northeast cities like Harbin: -30 ~ -10°C; as thick as possible

How to Say Happy New Year in Chinese

Further Reading:

3800 Years' History of Chinese New Year

Originating during the Shang Dynasty (17th - 11th century BC), it used to be a ceremony at the beginning of a year to honor ancestors and heavenly deities. 'Year' has been called 'Nian' in Chinese since the Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC). There was a legend about people fighting against a monster named 'Nian' who was afraid of the color red and loud noises. At the turn of the year, people decorated their houses in red and played with firecrackers to scare it off. Later the turn of the year became an occasion for gathering all family members for feasting, and more food traditions and entertainments are added. Read more about Chinese New Year History and the Legend of Monster Nian.

Chinese New Year Animals - 12 Zodiac Signs

In China, each year is represented by one of the 12 zodiac animals - Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Chinese New Year 2022 is the year of the Tiger. The animal sign is believed to dominate the year and influence the character and destiny of people born in the year. Every Chinese knows his or her own animal sign. Check here to know which Chinese zodiac animal you are, and the fortune prediction for the New Year.

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Chinese New Year 2023: Spring Festival Dates and Celebrations

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Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the grandest festival in China, with a 7-day long holiday. As the most colorful annual event, the traditional CNY celebration lasts longer, up to two weeks, and the climax arrives around the Lunar New Year's Eve.

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U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Headquarters, South Swan Road, Tucson, AZ

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U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Headquarters, South Swan Road, Tucson, AZ

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U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector Headquarters, South Swan Road, Tucson, AZ

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The level of maritime smuggling activity has increased significantly, reaching record levels along the Southern and Central California coast this summer, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In

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Emergency workers in Trinidad and Tobago are racing to clean up a massive oil spill after a mystery vessel ran aground near the Caribbean island, casting a pall over Carnival tourism.

The spill was "not under control" as of Sunday, said Prime Minister Keith Rowley, who add that the country wgrappling with a national emergency.

The mystery vessel capsized Wednesday in waters off the Caribbean island, having made no emergency calls, with no sign of crew, and no clear sign of ownership.

Rowley on Sunday declared a national emergency as oil leaking from the vessel affected nearly 10 miles of coastline.

"Cleaning and restoration can only begin as soon as we have the situation under control. Right now the situation is not under control," the prime minister told journalists.

Divers have so far been unable to plug the leak.

Hundreds of volunteers have been toiling since Thursday to halt the spread of the oil, and the government has asked for even more to lend a hand. Images and video released by the government showed crews working late into the night Sunday.

The leak has damaged a reef and Atlantic beaches, and residents of the village of Lambeau have been advised to wear masks or temporarily relocate.

The government posted satellite imagery on social media, showing affected areas.

"The satellite imagery reveals a distinctive silver-like slick emanating from the overturned wrecked vessel. Additionally, there are noticeable streaks of a thick, black-like substance accompanying the spill," the post says.

The spill comes at the height of Carnival, threatening the tourist business that is crucial to the dual-island nation's economy.

Just how badly tourism will be affected remains unclear. A cruise ship carrying 3,000 people docked in Tobago on Sunday.

Rowley said the mystery vessel might have been involved in "illicit" business, adding: "We don't know who it belongs to. We have no idea where it came from, and we also don't know all that it contains."

Divers spotted the name "Gulfstream" on the craft's side and have identified a length of cable, possibly indicating it was in the process of being towed, Rowley said.

The island's Emergency Management Agency said there were no signs of life on the vessel, which is around 330 feet in length. The agency has posted dozens of images and videos on social media showing the ship and crews scrambling to contain and clean up the oil spill.

First published on February 12, 2024 / 6:19 AM EST

© 2024 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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Mystery ship capsizes in Trinidad and Tobago, triggering massive oil spill and national emergency

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Crews are racing to clean up the oil spill after the vessel ran aground with no sign of crew and no clear sign of ownership.

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists have reached 1.15 billion cut flower inspections this season as the country moves toward Valentine's Day.

This marks the fourth straight year that CBP has surpassed 1 billion cut flowers, with this year's numbers expected to surpass 2022 by the end of the season. Most shipments come from Colombia and Ecuador, most going to Miami and New York. The most popular flowers remain roses, mixed bouquets, and chrysanthemums.

CBP agriculture specialists inspect each flower shipment that enters the United States to prevent the introduction of insects, pests and diseases into the United States. As of Thursday, CBP agriculture specialists intercepted 1,641 insects and pests. In 2022, agriculture specialists inspected more than 1.23 billion cut flowers, intercepting more than 1,975 pests.

"Inspecting and clearing over a billion flowers in such a short time period is an amazing accomplishment!" said Acting Executive Director Dina Amato, Agriculture Programs and Trade Liaison. "CBP's agriculture specialists face an incredible challenge, and they continue to work day and night to protect our agriculture."

People who wish to import flowers, plant materials, and other agricultural items should consult the CBP Information Center section on the CBP website or call (877) 227-5511. For more information on each country of origin's marking requirements for fresh cut flowers, click here.

Travelers into the U.S. should also declare all items acquired abroad to CBP officers to avoid civil or criminal penalties and reduce the risk of introducing pest and disease to the United States. CBP now offers the CBP One mobile app, which allows travelers to request a variety of CBP services, including inspection of agricultural products. The CBP One app can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

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CBP Surpasses 1 Billion Flowers Ahead of Valentine's Day

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists have reached 1.15 billion cut flower inspections this season as the country moves toward Valentine's Day.

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clock 9 Minute Read

Russian forces are likely to peak in late 2024, with increasing material challenges over the course of 2025.

Defeating Russia's attempt to subjugate Ukraine must be based upon an understanding of what Russia is trying to achieve, how it is intending to achieve its objectives, and its capacity to implement this plan. The Russian theory of victory has been through various iterations over the course of the war, but Moscow now has a clear plan for how it intends to proceed. This article seeks to outline Russia's intent in order to provide a basis for planning how its plan can be disrupted. Outlining Russian intent and capacity does not represent an assessment as to the likelihood of it succeeding.

Russian Strategic Objectives

Russia still maintains the strategic objective of bringing about the subjugation of Ukraine. It now believes that it is winning. Surrender terms currently being proposed by Russian intermediaries include Ukraine ceding the territory already under Russian control along with Kharkiv, and in some versions Odessa; agreeing not to join NATO; and maintaining a head of state approved by Russia. The only significant concession Russia proposes is that what is left of Ukraine can join the EU.

The process by which Russia aims to bring about this outcome is in three stages. The first requires the continuation of pressure along the length of the Ukrainian front to drain the Armed Forces of Ukraine's (AFU) munitions and reserves of personnel. Parallel to this effort, the Russian Special Services are tasked with breaking the resolve of Ukraine's international partners to continue to provide military aid. Once military aid has been significantly limited such that Ukrainian munition stocks become depleted, Russia intends to initiate further offensive operations to make significant - if slow - gains on the battlefield. These gains are then intended to be used as leverage against Kyiv to force capitulation on Russian terms. The planning horizon for the implementation of these objectives, which is providing the baseline for Russian force generation and industrial outputs, is that victory should be achieved by 2026.

It is vital to appreciate that Russian goals may expand with success, and given that the Kremlin has violated almost all significant agreements both with Ukraine and NATO, there is no assurance that even if Russia got what it wanted out of negotiations it would not subsequently endeavour to physically occupy the rest of Ukraine or be emboldened to use force elsewhere.

Russian Military Capacity

The Russian military began 2023 with a highly disorganised force in Ukraine comprising approximately 360,000 troops. By the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive in June 2023, this had risen to 410,000 troops and was becoming more organised. Over the summer of 2023, Russia established training regiments along the border and in the occupied territories and, following the mutiny of Wagner forces, endeavoured to standardise its units, breaking down the previous trend towards private armies. By the beginning of 2024, the Russian Operational Group of Forces in the occupied territories comprised 470,000 troops.

quote
While Russian force quality is unlikely to increase so long as the Ukrainians can maintain a significant level of attrition across the force, the Russians will be able to maintain a steady tempo of attacks throughout 2024

Russian forces have reverted above battalion level to the traditional Soviet order of battle of regiments, divisions and combined arms armies, but have been significantly altered below the level of the regiment. Battalions are organised as line and storm battalions, and tend to operate in company groups which fight in small, dispersed detachments. This reflects not only adaptation to battlefield conditions, but also the shortage of trained officers able to coordinate larger formations, with a significant proportion of Russian junior officers currently being promoted from the ranks and receiving condensed officer training, sometimes as short as two months long.

The Russian Group of Forces continues to take significant casualties, but is nevertheless growing in size. Operating at greater scale allows the Russian military to take measures that guarantee the integrity of the front line. Units can generally be rotated out of the line once they have taken up to 30% casualties - the point at which they are judged to be ineffective - and are then regenerated. While no large-scale offensive is currently taking place, Russian units are tasked with conducting smaller tactical attacks that at minimum inflict steady losses on Ukraine and allow Russian forces to seize and hold positions. In this way, the Russians are maintaining a consistent pressure on a number of points. Although the Russian military's aspiration to increase in size to 1.5 million personnel has not been realised, recruiters are currently achieving almost 85% of their assigned targets for contracting troops to fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin therefore believes that it can sustain the current rate of attrition through 2025.

In terms of combat equipment, the Russian Group of Forces holds approximately 4,780 barrel artillery pieces, of which 20% are self-propelled; 1,130 MLRS; 2,060 tanks; and 7,080 other armoured fighting vehicles, primarily consisting of MT-LBs, BMPs and BTRs. These continue to be supported by 290 helicopters, of which 110 are attack helicopters, and 310 fast jets. These equipment sets are limited in how they can be employed by ammunition shortages, especially for key natures like 220 mm multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and fluctuating availability of 152mm ammunition. Some sets, like fast air, are constrained by the availability of pilots with sufficient experience to carry out key missions. Russian air crew losses - including operators in the Il-20 Coot and A-50U Mainstay, shot down - amount to 159 personnel, which given the unevenness of flight hours in Russian squadrons amounts to a serious loss of capability. Nevertheless, the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) can continue to mount a significant sortie rate and deliver stand-off munitions. The overall assessment is that while Russian force quality is unlikely to increase so long as the AFU can maintain a significant level of attrition across the force, the Russians will be able to maintain a steady tempo of attacks throughout 2024.

Russian Industrial Capacity

In terms of Russian industry's capacity to support ongoing operations, Russia has significantly mobilised its defence industry, increasing shifts and expanding production lines at existing facilities as well as bringing previously mothballed plants back online. This has led to significant increases in production output. For example, Russia is delivering approximately 1,500 tanks to its forces per year along with approximately 3,000 armoured fighting vehicles of various types. Russian missile production has similarly increased. At the beginning of 2023, for instance, Russian production of Iskandr 9M723 ballistic missiles was six per month, with available missile stocks of 50 munitions. By the beginning of 2024, not only had Russia used a significant number of these missiles each month since the summer of 2023, but it had increased its stockpile to nearly 200 Iskandr 9M723 ballistic and 9M727 cruise missiles. A similar picture can be observed across other core missile types like the Kh-101.

Despite these achievements, Russia faces significant limitations in the longevity and reliability of its industrial output. Of the tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, for example, approximately 80% are not new production but are instead refurbished and modernised from Russian war stocks. The number of systems held in storage means that while Russia can maintain a consistent output through 2024, it will begin to find that vehicles require deeper refurbishment through 2025, and by 2026 it will have exhausted most of the available stocks. As the number of refurbished vehicles goes down, industrial capacity can go into making new platforms, but this will necessarily mean a significant decrease in vehicles delivered to the military.

quote
Russia has significantly mobilised its defence industry, increasing shifts and expanding production lines at existing facilities as well as bringing previously mothballed plants back online

Another vulnerability for Russia's complex weapons like missiles is the extensive dependence on Western-sourced components. Although Russia has maintained a steady supply of the necessary components owing to the incoherent and lackadaisical approach to sanctions adopted by Western states, a more coherent approach to countering the Russian defence industry could disrupt supply lines. Even with the existing flawed approach, the cost of components has risen by 30% for the Russian defence sector, and it has only managed to stabilise supplies rather than expand them, despite extra investment in this line of effort.

Perhaps the most serious limitation for Russia, however, is ammunition manufacture. In order to achieve its aspiration to make significant territorial gains in 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has assessed an industrial requirement to manufacture or source approximately 4 million 152mm and 1.6 million 122mm artillery shells in 2024. Russian industry has reported to the MoD that it expects to increase 152mm production from around 1 million rounds in 2023 to 1.3 million rounds over the course of 2024, and to only produce 800,000 122mm rounds over the same period. Moreover, the Russian MoD does not believe it can significantly raise production in subsequent years, unless new factories are set up and raw material extraction is invested in with a lead time beyond five years.

This means that to properly resource the armed forces, Russia must - in the short term - further draw down its remaining 3 million rounds of stored ammunition, though much of this is in poor condition. To further compensate for shortages, Russia has signed supply and production contracts with Belarus, Iran, North Korea and Syria, with the latter only able to provide forged shell casings rather than complete shells. Although the injection of around 2 million 122mm rounds from North Korea will help Russia in 2024, it will not compensate for a significant shortfall in available 152mm munitions in 2025. Russian overall artillery production is likely to plateau at 3 million rounds per year of all natures - including MLRS, which is not considered above.

Conclusions

The Russian theory of victory is plausible if Ukraine's international partners fail to properly resource the AFU. However, if Ukraine's partners continue to provide sufficient ammunition and training support to the AFU to enable the blunting of Russian attacks in 2024, then Russia is unlikely to achieve significant gains in 2025. If Russia lacks the prospect of gains in 2025, given its inability to improve force quality for offensive operations, then it follows that it will struggle to force Kyiv to capitulate by 2026. Beyond 2026, attrition of systems will begin to materially degrade Russian combat power, while Russian industry could be disrupted sufficiently by that point, making Russia's prospects decline over time. The latter would require Ukraine's partners to demonstrate a semblance of competence in their measures aimed at countering Russian defence mobilisation, which remains eminently possible in spite of their performance to date.

Adopting an approach that aims to ensure Ukraine's resistance through 2025 not only undermines the Kremlin's theory of victory but also provides sufficient time to establish a rational mobilisation and training process for the AFU such that it can begin to qualitatively outmatch Russian forces, even if the latter continue to increase in overall size. This is critical to building opportunities to continue to threaten Russia's position and thereby force Russia not just to seek negotiations, but to actually negotiate an end to the war on terms favourable to Ukraine. Now is not the time to comply with the Kremlin's understanding of the war's trajectory.
The views expressed in this Commentary are the authors', and do not represent those of RUSI or any other institution. Have an idea for a Commentary you'd like to write for us? Send a short pitch to commentaries@rusi.org and we'll get back to you if it fits into our research interests. Full guidelines for contributors can be found here.

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WRITTEN BY

Dr Jack Watling

Senior Research Fellow, Land Warfare

Military Sciences

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Nick Reynolds

Research Fellow, Land Warfare

Military Sciences

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Pushing on: Russian soldiers sitting on a T-80 tank near the frontline. Image: ZUMA Press / Alamy
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Russian Military Objectives and Capacity in Ukraine Through 2024

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Russian forces are likely to peak in late 2024, with increasing material challenges over the course of 2025.