title: Twenty One Pilots

text: On June 16, 2021, the duo announced the Takeover Tour, during which they would spend one full week in each city they visited, performing at small clubs as well as large venues. The tour began in Denver, Colorado in September 2021. On July 23, 2021, the artists Half Alive, Arrested Youth and Jay Joseph were announced as openers for the U.S. leg of the tour. The Icy Tour, a re-branded second leg of the Takeover Tour focusing on arena shows, began in August 2022 and concluded in September. For the first time since the band became a duo almost a decade before, these tours featured a dedicated band of live musicians, though their shows continued to make some use of backing tracks.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: On July 8, 2021, little over a month after the release of "Scaled and Icy", the duo released a music video for the song "Saturday". On September 17, 2021, the duo held a virtual concert in the online video game "Roblox".


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: On November 19, 2021, the duo released "Scaled and Icy (Livestream Version)", which features all of the songs from the livestream concert and "Level of Concern". On December 8, 2021, one year after its initial release, the duo released a music video for the song "Christmas Saves the Year", which utilizes claymation. "The Outside" was issued as the album's fourth and final single on November 24, 2021, followed by a music video on March 18, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the duo performed new versions of several songs, both old and new, on "MTV Unplugged".


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: On July 22, 2022, the duo released a live performance video in collaboration with the Netflix series "Stranger Things", in which they performed a mashup of the show's theme song and their 2016 single "Heathens".


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The duo grew up in strict Christian households where they had to either conceal their pop punk and hip hop albums from the censure of their parents, or find faith-friendly counterparts. Both still identify as Christians. According to Dun, "I'd hide albums like Green Day's "Dookie" under my bed. They'd find a Christian alternative, like Relient K, and make me listen to that." However, his parents eventually relaxed on rock music, even allowing Dun to assemble a live drum kit in their basement. Joseph's very first favorite band was the Christian rap rock trio DC Talk. He taught himself the piano by playing along to songs on the radio by artists like the Beatles and Celine Dion.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The band's musical style has been described as alternative hip hop, electropop, indie pop, pop rock, rap rock, alternative rock, rock, synth-pop, pop, electronica, electronic rock, indie rock, hip hop, and indietronica with reggae, folk, psychedelic, new wave, and funk influences. Because their music contains a mix of many genres, the duo has been difficult to categorize. In response to criticism of their style as trying to be "all things to everyone", Joseph responded, "I'm not trying to be that. I'm being what I want to be for myself." Dun elaborates one of their goals as musicians was to tear down the walls of musical genres and combine different aspects. Joseph said he prefers to be surprised by unpredictable music.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The duo are most frequently categorized as alternative hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop known for its unconventional nature and blending of music styles that is embraced primarily by alternative rock listeners and college radio moreso than rap or pop audiences. They create music borrowing from a wide variety of different genres, most often hip hop, electropop, punk, rock, and reggae. Their songs contain a mixture of musical styles, intertwining rap rock rhymes laced with hard rock energy and piano pop hooks over synth-pop beats and reggae rhythms. Early material is post-emo, following bands such as My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional, with show tune or glam rock esthetics. At the time of their major-label debut album "Vessel", Twenty One Pilots was described as an indie rock duo. The album featured a fusion of rap, piano pop, rock and electronica. Their breakthrough album "Blurryface" expressed elements of pop, EDM, breakbeat, reggae, and dancehall. Over time, hip hop has become an increasingly prominent musical influence for the band. Twenty One Pilots has since been hailed as a leading contemporary alternative rock group, having sent four singles to the summit of the hot rock charts, and ten to the top of the alternative charts, with most of their singles reaching at least the top ten as well.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: Twenty One Pilots initially began with conventional live instrumentation, but they found success as part of a group that creates music on laptops. Both musicians are multi-instrumentalists. The duo achieve their sound through singer Tyler Joseph being a pianist, bassist and keyboardist and drummer Josh Dun playing a live drum kit. Other instrumentation used in songs include synthesizers, piano, electronic keyboards, trumpets, electric guitar and occasionally ukulele. Their tracks most prominently integrate programmed beats and keyboards, along with Dun playing drums. This mixture provides the duo with a rock and electropop crossover sound. Despite their chart-topping dominance of rock charts, many of their songs feature no guitar. For most tracks, software replace traditional rock instruments and loops take precedent over riffs. Some listeners tend to question whether Twenty One Pilots constitute as rock, considering the duo generally neglect the use of guitar, although it has started to become a more prominent instrument in their recent work. According to University of Virginia musicologist Karl Hagstrom Miller, Twenty One Pilots is a prime example of how modern bands are evolving from the guitar-bass-drums format, a staple of punk rock, to "other configurations of musical collaboration."


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: During their songs, Joseph incorporates rapping, singing, screaming, and sometimes crooning. He utilizes a fast-paced style of reciting lyrics that is characteristic of rap music. His rapping voice has a strong emphasis on flow and rhyme schemes, and has been compared to K'naan and Macklemore. While he acknowledges Joseph's style of rapping is often compared to Macklemore, music journalist Carl Wilson opines, "but among the ranks of post-Eminem white rappers, I find Joseph more probing, sardonic, and expressive." However, Joseph doesn't consider himself a rapper. Joseph explains that he never intended to be a rapper, and simply finds the art-form of rap the most effective way of trying to say something with his music. He realized how little the amount of lyrics are in a full song, because they're sung and words are drawn out by melodies. When attempting to write poetry he had written for the lyrics of a song, Joseph found there were "way too many words to fit". He soon found himself just saying the poetry in tempo and realizing that he was rapping. His vocal performance, which sometimes also includes full-throated screaming, coupled with an earnest, patchy way of delivering word play atop Dun's drumming rhythms is part of what allowed the duo to break-out of the alternative scene.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: Tyler Joseph writes lyrics that are often psychodramatic in nature and usually based around his piano parts. He describes his songwriting as well as himself as "very dramatic." Joseph claims he began writing songs because there were things he wanted to say that he didn't know how to in a normal conversation. He is mostly inspired by chord progression and song structure, and his lyrics come afterwards. Joseph usually composes the music first because he has a studio in his basement. He is able to lay down thoughts musically in terms of chord progression, come up with a melody and then fit the lyrics into that song. Their music inspires song lyrics depending on what is being imparted most of the time. However, Joseph also likes to write poetry so sometimes he musically creates a song and then fits the poetry. Dun's energetic drumming lays down a stable, equally prominent rhythm for Joseph as he shifts between the expressive lyrics of his verses and an almost melodic style of rapping during many of their songs.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: Alongside their mixture of musical styles, the band melds relatable rhymes with angsty lyrics. Lyrically, Twenty One Pilots is conventionally post-emo. They coincide with a contemporary wave of emo revival fueled in part by millennial nostalgia for popular music from the early 2000s. Joseph's confessional lines convey personal turmoils and deeply rooted insecurities. Their songs contain moments where personal despair connect to a universal context, often relating to that of faith, location or community. Thus making the band more accessible than other more insular emo-inspired artists. Having been raised in Christian households, the lyrics of their songs rarely engage in profanity and shock value. The duo still identify as Christians, and a significant portion of their fanbase interpret lyrics from their songs as an ongoing negotiation with God. From a more secular perspective, their words center on depression and anxiety, with habitual direct reference to self-harm.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The lyrical themes most prevalent on the band's major-label debut album "Vessel" were introspection and fear. Joseph wrote from a very introspective perspective, offering an inside view of what he was going through at the time. He feels that music is a catalyst to getting your emotions going. While he acknowledges many who write songs about love do so because its widely believed love is the most powerful emotion there is, he disagrees with the sentiment. Joseph instead thinks the emotion of fear is equally as powerful, if not slightly more so. As a result, much of "Vessel" pertained to the power of fear as well as dealing with and trying to find hope, peace and redemption at the end of and inside of fear. Their next studio album, "Blurryface" was much like a concept album in that it was shaped by intimate themes regarding personal issues such as insecurity. Due primarily to the childhood yearnings of their breakout single "Stressed Out", Twenty One Pilots have become emblematic of angst-ridden millennial entitlement. The loose concept album is about Joseph attempting to defeat the alter ego of the titular monster-image representing his insecurities and self-hatred.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: According to the band, their purpose for making music is "to make people think" and encourage them to find joy in what they come to believe in life. Twenty One Pilots derives their band name and philosophy from literary origins. "Bicycle Thief" and "Chill Coat", a play on the last name of the band's lawyer, Jeff Chilcoat, were among some of the rejected band names. This goes back to college days, according to Joseph, when he was studying theater at Ohio State University. He got the band's name and meaning from reading the 1947 play "All My Sons" by American playwright Arthur Miller. In the story, the main protagonist is a war contractor named Joe Keller who crafts airplane parts for war planes. Upon discovering some are faulty and would fail if used, he must decide whether or not to recall them. Keller is forced to make a decision to either spend his money trying to repair the faulty parts or press forward and use them. Though he wants to do what's right, Keller is afraid to lose money and needs to support his family, so he decides to send the parts anyway, to Europe during World War II. As a consequence of his decision, twenty-one pilots perish. At the end of the play, Keller commits suicide. Joseph explained the story's themes of moral dilemma, between choosing the easy and the right decision resonated with him and inspired the name and formation of the band. While the story is morbid, Joseph discovered a lesson within it. It showed him that every decision he makes will have great outcomes or dire consequences. Joseph stated, "We're constantly faced with decisions. A lot of times, the right ones take more work, it takes longer to see benefit; they're the long route. We know in order to get where we want to be and do what we want to be doing, sometimes we have to do what we don't feel like doing. It takes hard work, and the band name is a constant reminder of that."


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The band's name was originally stylized as "twenty | one | pilots" on their earlier cover art; however, by the time of their second album "Regional at Best", the formatting was changed to "twenty øne piløts" with a diagonal line through the Os.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: Former Twenty One Pilots member Chris Salih stated in an interview that Mark C. Eshleman, a longtime friend of and creative director for Twenty One Pilots, created the band's logo by "messing around with shapes". Joseph found that the arrangement resonated with him. Regarding their logo, Joseph stated in an interview that:


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: In 2018, a new logo was unveiled for "Trench"s release. An extra slash on each side was added to the previous logo. The color scheme was changed to yellow for the shapes with a solid black background, thus coordinating with the color scheme for the album's cover art. Joseph explained that, "If you were to look at those two logos that we had done in the past, and put it together, it would create a logo that is two upward slashes and two sideways slashes. It's kind of a continuation of what we've been working on." He further explained that the extra slashes represent "the feeling of being surrounded by something that's protecting you... I knew I wanted that logo to have those extra layers of protection".


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: On February 15, 2021, Joseph uploaded an image to his Instagram story, with the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, psi, over his right eye. With the release of the lead single for "Scaled and Icy", "Shy Away", two months later, this was revealed to be the band's new logo.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: The band's fandom has been dubbed as the "Skeleton Clique" or just the Clique, in reference to the band's use of skeleton iconography in many performances, graphics, and music videos. The Skeleton Clique are represented in the band's official iconography by logos of a skull and alien head atop lines resembling keys. In November 2016, during the Blurryface World Tour, the Wood Green tube station in London was decorated in Clique-related artwork, spanning over one-hundred advertising panels. During the 2017 Tour De Columbus, Twenty One Pilots hosted a public art show, dubbed "Artøpia", exclusively for Clique-related artwork at the Nationwide Arena in the United States.


title: Twenty One Pilots

text: According to Dun, "We played hardcore shows, hip hop shows, no one knew where to put us. But we've approached live shows as a way to build something from nothing." The duo usually perform with pre-recorded keyboard tracks and programmed beats rather than a full band. However, Dun also plays a live drum kit while triggering the pre-recorded backing tracks. A former skater, he often breaks his performance up by using acrobatics, such as backflips. Meanwhile, Tyler Joseph wears masks and occasionally body makeup while rapping and singing. He plays multiple instruments while live wearing a balaclava. During their early shows, Joseph would wear a floral kimono onstage. Dun stated, "We thought it was kind of cool, new and different to wear masks onstage, but yeah, people were confused."


title: Eurasia

text: Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago and the Russian Far East to the east. The continental landmass is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Africa to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean to the south. The division between Europe and Asia as two continents is a historical social construct, as many of their borders are over land; thus, in some parts of the world, Eurasia is recognized as the largest of the six, five, or four continents on Earth. In geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on paleomagnetic data.


title: Eurasia

text: Eurasia covers around , or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. It is also home to the largest country in the world, Russia. The landmass contains well over 5 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population. Humans first settled in Eurasia between 60,000 and 125,000 years ago. Some major islands, including Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, and Sri Lanka, and parts of Japan, the Philippines, and most of Indonesia, are often included in the popular definition of Eurasia, despite being separate from the contiguous landmass.


title: Eurasia

text: According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent. The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity, but their borders are geologically arbitrary and have historically been subjected to occasional change. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and Eurasia is sometimes combined with Africa to make the largest contiguous landmass on Earth, called Afro-Eurasia. Due to the vast landmass and differences in latitude, Eurasia exhibits all types of climates under the Köppen classification, including the harshest types of hot and cold temperatures, high and low precipitation, and various types of ecosystems.


title: Eurasia

text: Eurasia formed between 375 and 325 million years ago with the merging of Siberia, Kazakhstania, and Baltica, which was joined to Laurentia (now North America), to form Euramerica. Chinese cratons collided with Siberia's southern coast.


title: Eurasia

text: Eurasia has been the host of many ancient civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China. In the Axial Age (mid-first millennium BC), a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia.


title: Eurasia

text: Originally, "Eurasia" is a geographical notion: in this sense, it is simply the biggest continent; the combined landmass of Europe and Asia. However, geopolitically, the word has several meanings, reflecting specific geopolitical interests. "Eurasia" is one of the most important geopolitical concepts and it figures prominently in the commentaries on the ideas of Halford Mackinder. As Zbigniew Brzezinski observed on Eurasia:


title: Eurasia

text: The Russian "Eurasianism" corresponded initially more or less to the land area of Imperial Russia in 1914, including parts of Eastern Europe. One of Russia's main geopolitical interests lies in ever closer integration with those countries that it considers part of "Eurasia." This concept is further integrated with communist eschatology by author Alexander Dugin as the guiding principle of "self-sufficiency of a large space" during expansion.


title: Eurasia

text: The term "Eurasia" gained geopolitical reputation as one of the three superstates in "1984", George Orwell's novel where constant surveillance and propaganda are strategic elements (introduced as reflexive antagonists) of the heterogeneous dispositif such metapolitical constructs used to control and exercise power.


title: Eurasia

text: Across Eurasia, several single markets have emerged, including the Eurasian Economic Space, European Single Market, ASEAN Economic Community, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. There are also several international organizations and initiatives which seek to promote integration throughout Eurasia, including:


title: Eurasia

text: In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoenician princess Europa) and Asia which to the Greeks originally included Africa (derived from Asia, a woman in Greek mythology) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion. Especially whether the Kuma-Manych Depression or the Caucasus Mountains form the southeast boundary is disputed, since Mount Elbrus would be part of Europe in the latter case, making it (and not Mont Blanc) Europe's highest mountain. Most accepted is probably the boundary as defined by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in the 18th century. He defined the dividing line along the Aegean Sea, Dardanelles, Sea of Marmara, Bosporus, Black Sea, Kuma–Manych Depression, Caspian Sea, Ural River, and the Ural Mountains. However, at least part of this definition has been subject to criticism by many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder, who saw little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents.


title: Eurasia

text: In modern usage, the term "Eurasian" is a demonym usually meaning "of or relating to Eurasia" or "a native or inhabitant of Eurasia". It is also used to describe people of combined "Asian" and "European" descent.


title: Eurasia

text: Located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Eurasia is considered a supercontinent, part of the supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia or simply a continent in its own right. In plate tectonics, the Eurasian Plate includes Europe and most of Asia but not the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula or the area of the Russian Far East east of the Chersky Range.


title: Eurasia

text: From the point of view of history and culture, Eurasia can be loosely subdivided into Western and Eastern Eurasia.


title: Eurasia

text: Nineteenth-century Russian philosopher Nikolai Danilevsky defined Eurasia as an entity separate from Europe and Asia, bounded by the Himalayas, the Caucasus, the Alps, the Arctic, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, a definition that has been influential in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Nowadays, partly inspired by this usage, the term Eurasia is sometimes used to refer to the post-Soviet space – in particular Russia, the Central Asian republics, and the Transcaucasus republics – and sometimes also adjacent regions such as Turkey and Mongolia.


title: Eurasia

text: The word "Eurasia" is often used in Kazakhstan to describe its location. Numerous Kazakh institutions have the term in their names, like the L. N. Gumilev Eurasian National University (; ) (Lev Gumilev's Eurasianism ideas having been popularized in Kazakhstan by Olzhas Suleimenov), the Eurasian Media Forum, the Eurasian Cultural Foundation (), the Eurasian Development Bank (), and the Eurasian Bank. In 2007 Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, proposed building a "Eurasia Canal" to connect the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea via Russia's Kuma-Manych Depression to provide Kazakhstan and other Caspian-basin countries with a more efficient path to the ocean than the existing Volga-Don Canal.


title: Eurasia

text: This usage can also be seen in the names of Eurasianet, The Journal of Eurasian Studies, and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, as well as the titles of numerous academic programmes at US universities.


title: Eurasia

text: This usage is comparable to how Americans use "Western Hemisphere" to describe concepts and organizations dealing with the Americas (e.g., Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).


title: War on terror

text: The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks.<ref name="Schmitt/slogan"></ref> The main targets of the campaign are militant Islamist and Salafi-Jihadist armed organisations such as Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and their international affiliates; which are waging military insurgencies to overthrow governments of various Muslim countries.


title: War on terror

text: The "war on terror" uses war as a metaphor to describe a variety of actions which fall outside the traditional definition of war taken to eliminate international terrorism. 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush first used the term "war on terrorism" on 16 September 2001, and then "war on terror" a few days later in a formal speech to Congress. Bush indicated the enemy of the war on terror as "a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them." The initial conflict was aimed at al-Qaeda, with the main theater in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a region that would later be referred to as "AfPak".


title: War on terror

text: The term "war on terror" was immediately criticized by individuals including Richard Myers, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and eventually more nuanced terms came to be used by the Bush administration to define the campaign. While "war on terror" was never used as a formal designation of U.S. operations, a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal was issued by the U.S. Armed Forces.


title: War on terror

text: On 23 May 2013, President Obama announced that the Global War on Terror was over, indicating that the U.S. would not wage war against a tactic but would instead focus on a specific group of terrorist networks. The rise of the Islamic State led to the global Operation Inherent Resolve, and an international campaign to destroy the terrorist organization.


title: War on terror

text: The notion of a "War on Terror" was contentious, with critics charging that it has been used to reduce civil liberties and infringe upon human rights, such as controversial actions by the U.S. including surveillance, torture, and extraordinary rendition, and drone strikes that resulted in the deaths of suspected terrorists but also civilians. Many of the U.S.' actions were supported by other countries, including the 54 countries that were involved with CIA black sites, or those that assisted with drone strikes.


title: War on terror

text: Criticism of the war on terror has focused on its morality, efficiency, and cost. According to a 2021 study conducted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the several post-9/11 wars participated in by the United States in its war against terror have caused the displacement, conservatively calculated, of 38 million people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Philippines and Pakistan; 26.7 million people have returned home following displacement. The study estimated these wars caused the deaths of 897,000 to 929,000 people, including over 364,000 civilians, and cost $8 trillion. Critics accuse participating governments of using the "War on Terror" to repress minorities or sideline domestic opponents, of mainstreaming Islamophobia, and have criticized negative impacts to health and the environment, resulting from the "War on Terror". Critics assert that the term "war" is not appropriate in this context (much like the term "war on drugs") since terror is not an identifiable enemy and it is unlikely that international terrorism can be brought to an end by military means.


title: War on terror

text: The phrase "war on terror" was used to specifically refer to the military campaign led by the U.S., U.K. and their allies against organizations and regimes identified by them as a terrorist, and usually excludes other independent counter-terrorist operations and campaigns such as those by Russia and India. The conflict has also been referred to by names other than the War on Terror. It has also been known as:


title: War on terror

text: The phrase "war against terrorism" existed in North American popular culture and U.S. political parlance prior to the War on Terror. But it was not until the 11 September attacks that it emerged as a globally recognizable phrase and part of everyday lexicon. Tom Brokaw, having just witnessed the collapse of one of the towers of the World Trade Center, declared "Terrorists have declared war on [America]." On 16 September 2001, at Camp David, U.S. president George W. Bush used the phrase "war on terrorism" in an ostensibly unscripted comment when answering a journalist's question about the impact of enhanced law enforcement authority given to the U.S. surveillance agencies on Americans' civil liberties: "This is a new kind of—a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient."


title: War on terror

text: On 20 September 2001, during a televised address to a joint session of Congress, George Bush said, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."


title: War on terror

text: Both the term and the policies it denotes have been a source of ongoing controversy, as critics argue it has been used to justify unilateral preventive war, human rights abuses and other violations of international law. The political theorist Richard Jackson has argued that "the 'war on terrorism,' therefore, is simultaneously a set of actual practices—wars, covert operations, agencies, and institutions—and an accompanying series of assumptions, beliefs, justifications, and narratives—it is an entire language or discourse." Jackson cites among many examples a statement by John Ashcroft that "the attacks of September 11 drew a bright line of demarcation between the civil and the savage". Administration officials also described "terrorists" as hateful, treacherous, barbarous, mad, twisted, perverted, without faith, parasitical, inhuman, and, most commonly, evil. Americans, in contrast, were described as brave, loving, generous, strong, resourceful, heroic, and respectful of human rights.


title: War on terror

text: In April 2007, the British government announced publicly that it was abandoning the use of the phrase "war on terror" as they found it to be less than helpful. This was explained more recently by Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller. In her 2011 Reith lecture, the former head of MI5 said that the 9/11 attacks were "a crime, not an act of war. So I never felt it helpful to refer to a war on terror."


title: War on terror

text: U.S. president Barack Obama rarely used the term, but in his inaugural address on 20 January 2009, he stated: "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred." In March 2009 the Defense Department officially changed the name of operations from "Global War on Terror" to "Overseas Contingency Operation" (OCO). In March 2009, the Obama administration requested that Pentagon staff members avoid the use of the term and instead to use "Overseas Contingency Operation". Basic objectives of the Bush administration "war on terror", such as targeting al Qaeda and building international counterterrorism alliances, remain in place.


title: War on terror

text: In May 2010, the Obama administration published a report outlining its National Security Strategy. The document dropped the Bush-era phrase "global war on terror" and reference to "Islamic extremism," and stated, "This is not a global war against a tactic—terrorism, or a religion—Islam. We are at war with a specific network, al-Qaeda, and its terrorist affiliates who support efforts to attack the United States, our allies, and partners."


title: War on terror

text: In December 2012, Jeh Johnson, the General Counsel of the Department of Defense, speaking at Oxford University, stated that the war against al-Qaeda would end when the terrorist group had been weakened so that it was no longer capable of "strategic attacks" and had been "effectively destroyed." At that point, the war would no longer be an armed conflict under international law, and the military fight could be replaced by a law enforcement operation.


title: War on terror

text: In May 2013, two years after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama delivered a speech that employed the term "global war on terror" put in quotation marks (as officially transcribed by the White House): "Now, make no mistake, terrorists still threaten our nation. ... In Afghanistan, we will complete our transition to Afghan responsibility for that country's security. ... Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless "global war on terror," but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America. In many cases, this will involve partnerships with other countries." Nevertheless, in the same speech, in a bid to emphasize the legality of military actions undertaken by the U.S., noting that Congress had authorised the use of force, he went on to say, "Under domestic law, and international law, the United States is at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their associated forces. We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many Americans as they could if we did not stop them first. So this is a just war—a war waged proportionally, in last resort, and in self-defense."


title: War on terror

text: Nonetheless, the use of the phrase "War on Terror" persists in U.S. Politics. In 2017, for example, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing "the opening salvo in a war that we have waged ever since—the global war on terror."


title: War on terror

text: In May 1996 the group World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders (WIFJAJC), sponsored by Osama bin Laden (and later re-formed as al-Qaeda), started forming a large base of operations in Afghanistan, where the Islamist extremist regime of the Taliban had seized power earlier in the year. In August 1996, Bin Laden declared jihad against the United States. In February 1998, Osama bin Laden signed a fatwa, as head of al-Qaeda, declaring war on the West and Israel; in May al-Qaeda released a video declaring war on the U.S. and the West.


title: War on terror

text: On 7 August 1998, al-Qaeda struck the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans. In retaliation, U.S. President Bill Clinton launched Operation Infinite Reach, a bombing campaign in Sudan and Afghanistan against targets the U.S. asserted were associated with WIFJAJC, although others have questioned whether a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan was used as a chemical warfare facility. The plant produced much of the region's antimalarial drugs and around 50% of Sudan's pharmaceutical needs. The strikes failed to kill any leaders of WIFJAJC or the Taliban.


title: War on terror

text: Next came the 2000 millennium attack plots, which included an attempted bombing of Los Angeles International Airport. On 12 October 2000, the USS "Cole" bombing occurred near the port of Yemen, and 17 U.S. Navy sailors were killed.


title: War on terror

text: On the morning of 11 September 2001, nineteen men hijacked four jet airliners, all of them bound for California. Once the hijackers assumed control of the jet airliners, they told the passengers that they had a bomb on board and would spare the lives of passengers and crew once their demands were met – no passenger and crew actually suspected that they would use the jet airliners as suicide weapons since it had never happened before in history, and many previous hijacking attempts had been resolved with the passengers and crew escaping unharmed after obeying the hijackers. The hijackers – members of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell – intentionally crashed two jet airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both buildings collapsed within two hours from fire damage related to the crashes, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third jet airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth jet airliner crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the jet airliners, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington D.C., to target the White House or the U.S. Capitol. None of the flights had any survivors. A total of 2,977 victims and the 19 hijackers perished in the attacks. Fifteen of the nineteen were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and the others were from the United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt, and Lebanon.


title: War on terror

text: On 13 September, for the first time ever, NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state to be an armed attack against them all. The invocation of Article 5 led to Operation Eagle Assist and Operation Active Endeavour. On 18 September 2001, President Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists passed by Congress a few days prior, the authorization is still active and has been used to justify numerous military actions.


title: War on terror

text: The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists or "AUMF" was made law on 14 September 2001, to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the 11 September attacks. It authorized the President to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or individuals. Congress declares this is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution of 1973.


title: War on terror

text: Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name used by the Bush administration for the War in Afghanistan, together with three smaller military actions, under the umbrella of the Global War on Terror. These global operations are intended to seek out and destroy any al-Qaeda fighters or affiliates.


title: War on terror

text: On 20 September 2001, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, George W. Bush delivered an ultimatum to the Taliban government of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, to turn over Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders operating in the country or face attack. The Taliban demanded evidence of bin Laden's link to the 11 September attacks and, if such evidence warranted a trial, they offered to handle such a trial in an Islamic Court.


title: War on terror

text: Subsequently, in October 2001, U.S. forces (with UK and coalition allies) invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime. On 7 October 2001, the official invasion began with British and U.S. forces conducting airstrike campaigns over enemy targets. Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, fell by mid-November. The remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants fell back to the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, mainly Tora Bora. In December, Coalition forces (the U.S. and its allies) fought within that region. It is believed that Osama bin Laden escaped into Pakistan during the battle.


title: War on terror

text: In March 2002, the U.S. and other NATO and non-NATO forces launched Operation Anaconda with the goal of destroying any remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shah-i-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains of Afghanistan. The Taliban suffered heavy casualties and evacuated the region.


title: War on terror

text: The Taliban regrouped in western Pakistan and began to unleash an insurgent-style offensive against Coalition forces in late 2002. Throughout southern and eastern Afghanistan, firefights broke out between the surging Taliban and Coalition forces. Coalition forces responded with a series of military offensives and an increase of troops in Afghanistan. In February 2010, Coalition forces launched Operation Moshtarak in southern Afghanistan along with other military offensives in the hopes that they would destroy the Taliban insurgency once and for all. Peace talks were also underway between Taliban affiliated fighters and Coalition forces.


title: War on terror

text: In September 2014, Afghanistan and the United States signed a security agreement, which allowed the United States and NATO forces to remain in Afghanistan until at least 2024. However, on 29 February 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a conditional peace deal in Doha which required that US troops withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months so long as the Taliban cooperated with the terms of the agreement not to "allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including Al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies". The Afghan government was not a party to the deal and rejected its terms regarding release of prisoners. After Joe Biden became president, he moved back the target withdrawal date to 31 August 2021. On 15 August 2021, the Afghan capital Kabul fell to a surprisingly effective Taliban offensive, culminating in the fall of the Afghan government and the rise of the Taliban to power once more. On the same day, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in secret, ultimately finding refuge in the United Arab Emirates. The US military and NATO troops took control of Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport for use in Operation Allies Refuge and the large-scale evacuation of foreign citizens and certain vulnerable Afghans. On 19 August 2021, the Taliban redeclared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.


title: War on terror

text: Thus ended the War in Afghanistan between the Taliban insurgency and forces backed by NATO Resolute Support Mission. On 30 August 2021, the United States completed its hasty withdrawal of its military from Afghanistan, shortly before marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The withdrawal was heavily criticized both domestically and abroad for being chaotic and haphazard, as well as for lending more momentum to the Taliban offensive. However, many European countries followed suit, including Britain, Germany, Italy, and Poland. Despite evacuating over 120,000 people, the large-scale evacuation has also been criticized for leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, residents, and family members.


title: War on terror

text: The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was created in December 2001 to assist the Afghan Transitional Administration and the first post-Taliban elected government. With a renewed Taliban insurgency, it was announced in 2006 that ISAF would replace the U.S. troops in the province as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.


title: War on terror

text: The British 16th Air Assault Brigade (later reinforced by Royal Marines) formed the core of the force in southern Afghanistan, along with troops and helicopters from Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. The initial force consisted of roughly 3,300 British, 2,000 Canadian, 1,400 from the Netherlands and 240 from Australia, along with special forces from Denmark and Estonia and small contingents from other nations. The monthly supply of cargo containers through Pakistani route to ISAF in Afghanistan is over 4,000 costing around in Pakistani Rupees.


title: War on terror

text: In January 2002, the United States Special Operations Command, Pacific deployed to the Philippines to advise and assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating Filipino Islamist groups. The operations were mainly focused on removing the Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) from their stronghold on the island of Basilan. The second portion of the operation was conducted as a humanitarian program called "Operation Smiles". The goal of the program was to provide medical care and services to the region of Basilan as part of a "Hearts and Minds" program.


title: War on terror

text: Joint Special Operations Task Force – Philippines disbanded in June 2014, ending a successful 12-year mission. After JSOTF-P had disbanded, as late as November 2014, American forces continued to operate in the Philippines under the name "PACOM Augmentation Team", until 24 February 2015. On 1 September 2017, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis designated Operation Pacific Eagle – Philippines (OPE-P) as a contingency operation to support the Philippine government and the military in their efforts to isolate, degrade, and defeat the affiliates of ISIL (collectively referred to as ISIL-Philippines or ISIL-P) and other terrorist organisations in the Philippines. By 2018, American operations within the Philippines against terrorist groups involved as many as 300 advisers.


title: War on terror

text: Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), now Operation Juniper Shield, is the name of the military operation conducted by the U.S. and partner nations in the Sahara/Sahel region of Africa, consisting of counter-terrorism efforts and policing of arms and drug trafficking across central Africa.


title: War on terror

text: The conflict in northern Mali began in January 2012 with radical Islamists (affiliated to al-Qaeda) advancing into northern Mali. The Malian government had a hard time maintaining full control over their country. The fledgling government requested support from the international community on combating the Islamic militants. In January 2013, France intervened on behalf of the Malian government's request and deployed troops into the region. They launched Operation Serval on 11 January 2013, with the hopes of dislodging the al-Qaeda affiliated groups from northern Mali.


title: War on terror

text: Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa is an extension of Operation Enduring Freedom. Unlike other operations contained in Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF-HOA does not have a specific organization as a target. OEF-HOA instead focuses its efforts to disrupt and detect militant activities in the region and to work with willing governments to prevent the reemergence of militant cells and activities.


title: War on terror

text: In October 2002, the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was established in Djibouti at Camp Lemonnier. It contains approximately 2,000 personnel including U.S. military and special operations forces (SOF) and coalition force members, Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150).


title: War on terror

text: Task Force 150 consists of ships from a shifting group of nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The primary goal of the coalition forces is to monitor, inspect, board and stop suspected shipments from entering the Horn of Africa region and affecting the United States' Operation Iraqi Freedom.


title: War on terror

text: Included in the operation is the training of selected armed forces units of the countries of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency tactics. Humanitarian efforts conducted by CJTF-HOA include rebuilding of schools and medical clinics and providing medical services to those countries whose forces are being trained.


title: War on terror

text: The program expands as part of the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative as CJTF personnel also assist in training the armed forces of Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Mali. However, the War on Terror does not include Sudan, where over 400,000 have died in an ongoing civil war.


title: War on terror

text: On 1 July 2006, a Web-posted message purportedly written by Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western governments that the al-Qaeda network would fight against them if they intervened there.


title: War on terror

text: The Prime Minister of Somalia claimed that three "terror suspects" from the 1998 United States embassy bombings are being sheltered in Kismayo. On 30 December 2006, al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called upon Muslims worldwide to fight against Ethiopia and the TFG in Somalia.


title: War on terror

text: On 8 January 2007, the U.S. launched the Battle of Ras Kamboni by bombing Ras Kamboni using AC-130 gunships.


title: War on terror

text: On 14 September 2009, U.S. Special Forces killed two men and wounded and captured two others near the Somali village of Baarawe. Witnesses claim that helicopters used for the operation launched from French-flagged warships, but that could not be confirmed. A Somali-based al-Qaida affiliated group, the Al-Shabaab, has verified the death of "sheik commander" Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan along with an unspecified number of militants. Nabhan, a Kenyan, was wanted in connection with the 2002 Mombasa attacks.


title: War on terror

text: The Iraq War began in March 2003 with an air campaign, which was immediately followed by a U.S.-led ground invasion. The Bush administration cited UNSC Resolution 1441, which warned of "serious consequences" for violations such as Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration also stated the Iraq War was part of the War on Terror, a claim later questioned and contested. Iraq had been listed as a State sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. since 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.


title: War on terror

text: The first ground attack came at the Battle of Umm Qasr on 21 March 2003, when a combined force of British, U.S. and Polish forces seized control of the port city of Umm Qasr. Baghdad, Iraq's capital city, fell to U.S. troops in April 2003 and Saddam Hussein's government quickly dissolved. On 1 May 2003, Bush announced that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. However, an insurgency arose against the U.S.-led coalition and the newly developing Iraqi military and post-Saddam government. The rebellion, which included al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, led to far more coalition casualties than the invasion. Other elements of the insurgency were led by fugitive members of President Hussein's Ba'ath regime, which included Iraqi nationalists and pan-Arabists. Many insurgency leaders were Islamists and claimed to be fighting a religious war to reestablish the Islamic Caliphate of centuries past. Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces in December 2003 and was executed in 2006.


title: War on terror

text: In 2004, the insurgent forces grew stronger. The U.S. launched offensives on insurgent strongholds in cities like Najaf and Fallujah.


title: War on terror

text: In January 2007, President Bush presented a new strategy for Operation Iraqi Freedom based upon counter-insurgency theories and tactics developed by General David Petraeus. The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 was part of this "new way forward", which along with U.S. backing of Sunni groups it had previously sought to defeat has been credited with a widely recognized dramatic decrease in violence by up to 80%.


title: War on terror

text: The war entered a new phase on 1 September 2010, with the official end of U.S. combat operations. President Obama ordered the withdrawal of most troops in 2011, but began redeploying forces in 2014 to fight ISIL. As of July 2021, there were approximately 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq, who continue to assist in the mission to combat the remnants of ISIL.


title: War on terror

text: Following the September 11 attacks, former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf sided with the U.S. against the Taliban government in Afghanistan after an ultimatum by then U.S. President George W. Bush. Musharraf agreed to give the U.S. the use of three airbases for Operation Enduring Freedom. United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and other U.S. administration officials met with Musharraf. On 19 September 2001, Musharraf addressed the people of Pakistan and stated that, while he opposed military tactics against the Taliban, Pakistan risked being endangered by an alliance of India and the U.S. if it did not cooperate. In 2006, Musharraf testified that this stance was pressured by threats from the U.S., and revealed in his memoirs that he had "war-gamed" the United States as an adversary and decided that it would end in a loss for Pakistan.


title: War on terror

text: On 12 January 2002, Musharraf gave a speech against Islamic extremism. He unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism and pledged to combat Islamic extremism and lawlessness within Pakistan itself. He stated that his government was committed to rooting out extremism and made it clear that the banned militant organizations would not be allowed to resurface under any new name. He said, "the recent decision to ban extremist groups promoting militancy was taken in the national interest after thorough consultations. It was not taken under any foreign influence".


title: War on terror

text: In 2002, the Musharraf-led government took a firm stand against the jihadi organizations and groups promoting extremism, and arrested Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and took dozens of activists into custody. An official ban was imposed on the groups on 12 January. Later that year, the Saudi born Zayn al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah was arrested by Pakistani officials during a series of joint U.S.–Pakistan raids. Zubaydah is said to have been a high-ranking al-Qaeda official with the title of operations chief and in charge of running al-Qaeda training camps. Other prominent al-Qaeda members were arrested in the following two years, namely Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who is known to have been a financial backer of al-Qaeda operations, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who at the time of his capture was the third highest-ranking official in al-Qaeda and had been directly in charge of the planning for the 11 September attacks.


title: War on terror

text: In 2004, the Pakistan Army launched a campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan's Waziristan region, sending in 80,000 troops. The goal of the conflict was to remove the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the area.


title: War on terror

text: After the fall of the Taliban regime, many members of the Taliban resistance fled to the Northern border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Pakistani army had previously little control. With the logistics and air support of the United States, the Pakistani Army captured or killed numerous al-Qaeda operatives such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wanted for his involvement in the USS "Cole" bombing, the Bojinka plot, and the killing of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl.


title: War on terror

text: The United States has carried out a campaign of drone attacks on targets all over the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. However, the Pakistani Taliban still operates there. To this day it is estimated that 15 U.S. soldiers were killed while fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants in Pakistan since the War on Terror began.


title: War on terror

text: Osama bin Laden, his wife, and son, were all killed on 2 May 2011, during a raid conducted by the United States special operations forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.


title: War on terror

text: The use of drones by the Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan to carry out operations associated with the Global War on Terror sparks debate over sovereignty and the laws of war. The U.S. Government uses the CIA rather than the U.S. Air Force for strikes in Pakistan to avoid breaching sovereignty through military invasion. The United States was criticized by a report on drone warfare and aerial sovereignty for abusing the term 'Global War on Terror' to carry out military operations through government agencies without formally declaring war.


title: War on terror

text: After the September 11 attacks, U.S. economic and security aid to Pakistan spiked considerably. With the authorization of the Enhanced Partnership for Pakistan Act, Pakistan was granted US$7.5 billion over five years from FY2010-FY2014.


title: War on terror

text: The United States has also conducted a series of military strikes on al-Qaeda militants in Yemen since the War on Terror began. Yemen has a weak central government and a powerful tribal system that leaves large lawless areas open for militant training and operations. Al-Qaeda has a strong presence in the country. On 31 March 2011, AQAP declared the Al-Qaeda Emirate in Yemen after its captured most of Abyan Governorate.


title: War on terror

text: The U.S., in an effort to support Yemeni counter-terrorism efforts, has increased their military aid package to Yemen from less than in 2006 to more than in 2009, as well as providing up to for development over the next three years.


title: War on terror

text: The Obama administration began to re-engage in Iraq with a series of airstrikes aimed at ISIL starting on 10 August 2014. On 9 September 2014, President Obama said that he had the authority he needed to take action to destroy the militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, citing the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, and thus did not require additional approval from Congress. The following day on 10 September 2014 President Barack Obama made a televised speech about ISIL, which he stated: "Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy". Obama has authorized the deployment of additional U.S. Forces into Iraq, as well as authorizing direct military operations against ISIL within Syria. On the night of 21/22 September the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Jordan and Qatar started air attacks against ISIL in Syria.


title: War on terror

text: In October 2014, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Defense considers military operations against ISIL as being under Operation Enduring Freedom in regards to campaign medal awarding. On 15 October, the military intervention became known as "Operation Inherent Resolve".


title: War on terror

text: With the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), jihadist offshoots sprung up in regions around the world, including the Philippines. The Maute group, composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters led by Omar Maute, the alleged founder of a "Dawlah Islamiya", declared loyalty to ISIL and began clashing with Philippine security forces and staging bombings. On 23 May 2017, the group attacked the city of Marawi, resulting in the bloody Battle of Marawi that lasted 5 months. After the decisive battle, remnants of the group were reportedly still recruiting in 2017 and 2018.


title: War on terror

text: NBC News reported that in mid-2014, ISIL had about 1,000 fighters in Libya. Taking advantage of a power vacuum in the center of the country, far from the major cities of Tripoli and Benghazi, ISIL expanded rapidly over the next 18 months. Local militants were joined by jihadists from the rest of North Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caucasus. The force absorbed or defeated other Islamist groups inside Libya and the central ISIL leadership in Raqqa, Syria, began urging foreign recruits to head for Libya instead of Syria. ISIL seized control of the coastal city of Sirte in early 2015 and then began to expand to the east and south. By the beginning of 2016, it had effective control of 120 to 150 miles of coastline and portions of the interior and had reached Eastern Libya's major population center, Benghazi. In spring 2016, AFRICOM estimated that ISIL had about 5,000 fighters in its stronghold of Sirte.


title: War on terror

text: However, the indigenous rebel groups who had staked their claims to Libya and turned their weapons on ISIL—with the help of airstrikes by Western forces, including U.S. drones, the Libyan population resented the outsiders who wanted to establish a fundamentalist regime on their soil. Militias loyal to the new Libyan unity government, plus a separate and rival force loyal to a former officer in the Qaddafi regime, launched an assault on ISIL outposts in Sirte and the surrounding areas that lasted for months. According to U.S. military estimates, ISIL ranks shrank to somewhere between a few hundred and 2,000 fighters. In August 2016, the U.S. military began airstrikes that, along with continued pressure on the ground from the Libyan militias, pushed the remaining ISIL fighters back into Sirte, In all, U.S. drones and planes hit ISIL nearly 590 times, the Libyan militias reclaimed the city in mid-December. On 18 January 2017, ABC News reported that two USAF B-2 bombers struck two ISIL camps south of Sirte, the airstrikes targeted between 80 and 100 ISIL fighters in multiple camps, an unmanned aircraft also participated in the airstrikes. NBC News reported that as many as 90 ISIL fighters were killed in the strike, a U.S. defense official said that "This was the largest remaining ISIL presence in Libya," and that "They have been largely marginalized, but I am hesitant to say they have been eliminated in Libya."


title: War on terror

text: In October 2015, the U.S. began deploying 300 soldiers to Cameroon, with the invitation of the Cameroonian government, to support African forces in a non-combat role in their fight against ISIL insurgency in that country. The troops' primary missions will revolve around providing intelligence support to local forces as well as conducting reconnaissance flights.


title: War on terror

text: Operation Active Endeavour is a naval operation of NATO started in October 2001 in response to the 11 September attacks. It operates in the Mediterranean and is designed to prevent the movement of militants or weapons of mass destruction and to enhance the security of shipping in general.


title: War on terror

text: In a 'Letter to American People' written by Osama bin Laden in 2002, he stated that one of the reasons he was fighting America is because of its support of India on the Kashmir issue. Indian sources claimed that In 2006, al-Qaeda claimed they had established a wing in Kashmir; this worried the Indian government. India also argued that al-Qaeda has strong ties with the Kashmir militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan. While on a visit to Pakistan in January 2010, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated that al-Qaeda was seeking to destabilize the region and planning to provoke a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.


title: War on terror

text: In September 2009, a U.S. drone strike reportedly killed Ilyas Kashmiri, who was the chief of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, a Kashmiri militant group associated with al-Qaeda. Kashmiri was described by Bruce Riedel as a 'prominent' al-Qaeda member, while others described him as the head of military operations for al-Qaeda. Waziristan had now become the new battlefield for Kashmiri militants, who were now fighting NATO in support of al-Qaeda.


title: War on terror

text: On 8 July 2012, Al-Badar Mujahideen, a breakaway faction of Kashmir centric terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, on the conclusion of their two-day Shuhada Conference called for a mobilization of resources for continuation of jihad in Kashmir. In June 2021, an air force station in Jammu (in India-administered Kashmir) was attacked by drone. Investigators were uncertain whether a state or non-state actor initiated the attack.


title: War on terror

text: In the 2010s, China has also been engaged in its own War on Terror, predominantly a domestic campaign in response to violent actions by Uyghur separatist movements in the Xinjiang conflict. This campaign was widely criticized in international media due to the perception that it unfairly targets and persecutes Chinese Muslims, potentially resulting in a negative backlash from China's predominantly Muslim Uighur population. Xi Jinping's government has imprisoned up to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang re-education camps, where they are reportedly subject to abuse and torture.


title: War on terror

text: Russia has also been engaged on its own, also largely internally focused, counter-terrorism campaign often termed a war on terror, during the Second Chechen War, the Insurgency in the North Caucasus, and the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Like China's war on terror, Russia has also been focused on separatist and Islamist movements that use political violence to achieve their ends.


title: War on terror

text: The invasion of Afghanistan is seen to have been the first action of this war, and initially involved forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Afghan Northern Alliance. Since the initial invasion period, these forces were augmented by troops and aircraft from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway amongst others. In 2006, there were about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.


title: War on terror

text: On 12 September 2001, less than 24 hours after the 11 September attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and declared the attacks to be an attack against all 19 NATO member countries. Australian Prime Minister John Howard also stated that Australia would invoke the ANZUS Treaty along similar lines.


title: War on terror

text: In the following months, NATO took a broad range of measures to respond to the threat of terrorism. On 22 November 2002, the member states of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) decided on a Partnership Action Plan against Terrorism, which explicitly states, "[The] EAPC States are committed to the protection and promotion of fundamental freedoms and human rights, as well as the rule of law, in combating terrorism." NATO started naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction as well as to enhance the security of shipping in general called Operation Active Endeavour.


title: War on terror

text: Support for the U.S. cooled when America made clear its determination to invade Iraq in late 2002. Still, many of the "coalition of the willing" countries that unconditionally supported the U.S.-led military action have sent troops to Afghanistan, particular neighboring Pakistan, which has disowned its earlier support for the Taliban and contributed tens of thousands of soldiers to the conflict. Pakistan was also engaged in the Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (a.k.a. Waziristan War or North-West Pakistan War). Supported by U.S. intelligence, Pakistan attempted to remove the Taliban insurgency and al-Qaeda element from the northern tribal areas.


title: War on terror

text: In addition to military efforts abroad, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush Administration increased domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. Various government bureaucracies that handled security and military functions were reorganized. A new cabinet-level agency called the United States Department of Homeland Security was created in November 2002 to lead and coordinate the largest reorganization of the U.S. federal government since the consolidation of the armed forces into the Department of Defense.


title: War on terror

text: The Justice Department launched the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System for certain male non-citizens in the U.S., requiring them to register in person at offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.


title: War on terror

text: The USA PATRIOT Act of October 2001 dramatically reduces restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records; eases restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expands the Secretary of the Treasury's authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadens the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act's expanded law enforcement powers could be applied. A new Terrorist Finance Tracking Program monitored the movements of terrorists' financial resources (discontinued after being revealed by "The New York Times"). Global telecommunication usage, including those with no links to terrorism, is being collected and monitored through the NSA electronic surveillance program. The Patriot Act is still in effect.


title: War on terror

text: Political interest groups have stated that these laws remove important restrictions on governmental authority, and are a dangerous encroachment on civil liberties, possible unconstitutional violations of the Fourth Amendment. On 30 July 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the first legal challenge against Section 215 of the Patriot Act, claiming that it allows the FBI to violate a citizen's First Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights, and right to due process, by granting the government the right to search a person's business, bookstore, and library records in a terrorist investigation, without disclosing to the individual that records were being searched. Also, governing bodies in many communities have passed symbolic resolutions against the act.


title: War on terror

text: In a speech on 9 June 2005, Bush said that the USA PATRIOT Act had been used to bring charges against more than 400 suspects, more than half of whom had been convicted. Meanwhile, the ACLU quoted Justice Department figures showing that 7,000 people have complained of abuse of the Act.


title: War on terror

text: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began an initiative in early 2002 with the creation of the Total Information Awareness program, designed to promote information technologies that could be used in counter-terrorism. This program, facing criticism, has since been defunded by Congress.


title: War on terror

text: By 2003, 12 major conventions and protocols were designed to combat terrorism. These were adopted and ratified by many states. These conventions require states to co-operate on principal issues regarding unlawful seizure of aircraft, the physical protection of nuclear materials, and the freezing of assets of militant networks.


title: War on terror

text: In 2005, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1624 concerning incitement to commit acts of terrorism and the obligations of countries to comply with international human rights laws. Although both resolutions require mandatory annual reports on counter-terrorism activities by adopting nations, the United States and Israel have both declined to submit reports. In the same year, the United States Department of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a planning document, by the name "National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism," which stated that it constituted the "comprehensive military plan to prosecute the Global War on Terror for the Armed Forces of the United States...including the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and a rigorous examination with the Department of Defense".


title: War on terror

text: On 9 January 2007, the House of Representatives passed a bill, by a vote of 299–128, enacting many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission The bill passed in the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 60–38, on 13 March 2007 and it was signed into law on 3 August 2007 by President Bush. It became Public Law 110–53. In July 2012, U.S. Senate passed a resolution urging that the Haqqani Network be designated a foreign terrorist organization.


title: War on terror

text: The Office of Strategic Influence was secretly created after 9/11 for the purpose of coordinating propaganda efforts but was closed soon after being discovered. The Bush administration implemented the Continuity of Operations Plan (or Continuity of Government) to ensure that U.S. government would be able to continue in catastrophic circumstances.


title: War on terror

text: Since 9/11, extremists made various attempts to attack the United States, with varying levels of organization and skill. For example, vigilant passengers aboard a transatlantic flight prevented Richard Reid, in 2001, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in 2009, from detonating an explosive device.


title: War on terror

text: Other terrorist plots have been stopped by federal agencies using new legal powers and investigative tools, sometimes in cooperation with foreign governments.


title: War on terror

text: The Obama administration promised the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, increased the number of troops in Afghanistan, and promised the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq.


title: War on terror

text: After the 11 September attacks, the United States government commenced a program of illegal "extraordinary rendition," sometimes referred to as "irregular rendition" or "forced rendition," the government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to transferee countries, with the consent of transferee countries. The aim of extraordinary rendition is often conducting torture on the detainee that would be difficult to conduct in the U.S. legal environment, a practice known as torture by proxy. Starting in 2002, U.S. government rendered hundreds of illegal combatants for U.S. detention, and transported detainees to U.S. controlled sites as part of an extensive interrogation program that included torture. Extraordinary rendition continued under the Obama administration, with targets being interrogated and subsequently taken to the US for trial.


title: War on terror

text: The United Nations considers one nation abducting the citizens of another a crime against humanity. In July 2014 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the government of Poland for participating in CIA extraordinary rendition, ordering Poland to pay restitution to men who had been abducted, taken to a CIA black site in Poland, and tortured.


title: War on terror

text: In 2005, "The Washington Post" and Human Rights Watch (HRW) published revelations concerning kidnapping of detainees by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and their transport to "black sites," covert prisons operated by the CIA whose existence is denied by the US government. The European Parliament published a report connecting use of such secret detention Black Sites for detainees kidnapped as part of extraordinary rendition ("See below"). Although some Black Sites have been known to exist inside European Union states, these detention centers violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the UN Convention Against Torture, treaties that all EU member states are bound to follow. The U.S. had ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1994.


title: War on terror

text: According to ABC News two such facilities, in countries mentioned by Human Rights Watch, have been closed following the recent publicity with the CIA relocating the detainees. Almost all of these detainees were tortured as part of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" of the CIA. Despite the closure of these sites, their legacies in certain countries continue to live on and haunt domestic politics.


title: War on terror

text: Major American newspapers, such as "The Washington Post," have been criticized for deliberately withholding publication of articles reporting locations of Black Sites. The Post defended its decision to suppress this news on the ground that such revelations "could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad." However, according to Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting "the possibility that illegal, unpopular government actions might be disrupted is not a consequence to be feared, however—it's the whole point of the U.S. First Amendment. ... Without the basic fact of where these prisons are, it's difficult if not impossible for 'legal challenges' or 'political condemnation' to force them to close." FAIR argued that the damage done to the global reputation of the United States by the continued existence of black-site prisons was more dangerous than any threat caused by the exposure of their locations.


title: War on terror

text: The complex at Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound once used by German intelligence in World War II, is best known as having been the only Russian intelligence training school to operate outside the Soviet Union. Its prominence in the Soviet era suggests that it may have been the facility first identified—but never named—when the Washington Post's Dana Priest revealed the existence of the CIA's secret prison network in November 2005.


title: War on terror

text: The journalists who exposed this provided their sources and this information and documents were provided to "The Washington Post" in 2005. In addition, they also identified such Black Sites are concealed:


title: War on terror

text: The journalists went on to explain that "Such a site, sources say, would have to be near an airport." The airport in question is the Szczytno-Szymany International Airport.


title: War on terror

text: In response to these allegations, former Polish intelligence chief, Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, embarked on a media blitz and claimed that the allegations were "... part of the domestic political battle in the US over who is to succeed current Republican President George W Bush," according to the German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur.


title: War on terror

text: The United States has also been accused of operating "floating prisons" to house and transport those arrested in its "War on Terror", according to human rights lawyers. They have claimed that the US has tried to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees. Although no credible information to support these assertions has ever come to light, the alleged justification for prison ships is primarily to remove the ability for jihadists to target a fixed location to facilitate the escape of high value targets, commanders, operations chiefs etc.


title: War on terror

text: The U.S. government set up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in 2002, a United States military prison located in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. President Bush declared that the Geneva Convention, which protects prisoners of war, would not apply to Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees captured in Afghanistan. Since inmates were detained indefinitely without trial and several detainees have allegedly been tortured, this camp is considered to be a major breach of human rights by Amnesty International. The detention camp was set up by the U.S. government on Guantanamo Bay since the military base is not legally domestic US territory and thus was a "legal black hole." Most prisoners of Guantanamo were eventually freed without ever being charged with any crime, and were transferred to other countries. As of July 2021, 40 men remain in the prison and almost three-quarters of them have never been criminally charged. They're known as "forever prisoners" and are being detained indefinitely.


title: War on terror

text: Since 9/11, al-Qaeda and other affiliated radical Islamist groups have executed attacks in several parts of the world where conflicts are not taking place. Whereas countries like Pakistan have suffered hundreds of attacks killing tens of thousands and displacing much more.


title: War on terror

text: There is no widely agreed on figure for the number of people that have been killed so far in the War on Terror as the Bush Administration has defined it to include the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and operations elsewhere. According to Joshua Goldstein, an international relations professor at the American University, The Global War on Terror has seen fewer war deaths than any other decade in the past century.


title: War on terror

text: A 2015 report by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the Physicians for Social Responsibility and Physicians for Global Survival estimated between to casualties from the War on Terror. A report from September 2021 by Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs "Costs of War" project puts the total number of casualties of the War on Terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at between 518,000 and 549,000. This number increases to between 897,000 and 929,000 when the wars in Syria, Yemen, and other countries are included. The report estimated that many more may have died from indirect effects of war such as water loss and disease. They also estimated that over 38 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars participated in by the United States in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines; 26.7 million people have returned home following displacement.


title: War on terror

text: The total number of terrorist/insurgent/militant deaths since the commencement of the War on Terror in 2001 is generally estimated as being well into the hundreds of thousands, with hundreds of thousands of others captured or arrested. Some estimates for regional conflicts include the following:


title: War on terror

text: In Iraq, some 26,544 insurgents were killed by the American-led coalition and the Iraqi Security Forces from 2003 to 2011. 119,752 suspected insurgents were arrested in Iraq from 2003 to 2007 alone, at which point 18,832 suspected insurgents had been reported killed; applying this same arrested-to-captured ratio to the total number of insurgents killed would equate to approximately 26,500 insurgents killed and 168,000 arrested from 2003 to 2011. At least 4,000 foreign fighters (generally estimated at 10-20% of the insurgency at that point) had been killed by September 2006, according to an official statement from al-Qaeda in Iraq. Insurgent casualties in the 2011–2013 phase of the Iraqi conflict numbered 916 killed, with 3,504 more arrested.


title: War on terror

text: From 2014 to the end of 2017, the United States government stated that over 80,000 Islamic State insurgents had been killed by American and allied airstrikes from 2014 to the end of 2017, in both Iraq and Syria. The majority of these strikes occurred within Iraq. ISIL deaths caused by the Iraqi Security Forces in this time are uncertain, but were probably significant. Over 26,000 ISF members were killed fighting ISIL from 2013 to the end of 2017, with ISIL losses likely being of a similar scale.


title: War on terror

text: Insurgent and terrorist deaths in Afghanistan are hard to estimate. Afghan Taliban losses are most likely of a similar scale to Afghan National Army and Police losses; that is around 62,000 from 2001 to the end of 2018. In addition, al-Qaeda's main branch and ISIL's Afghanistan branch are each thought to have lost several thousand killed there since 2001.


title: War on terror

text: This table shows a comparison of total casualties between the two main theaters of the War on Terror – Iraq (since 2003) and Afghanistan (since 2001) – up until August 2021, as conducted by Brown University.


title: War on terror

text: 1,467 and 2,334 people were killed in U.S. drone attacks as of 6 May 2011. Tens of thousands have been killed by terrorist attacks and millions have been displaced.


title: War on terror

text: The War in Northwest Pakistan resulted in the deaths of 28,900+ militants from 2004 to 2018, with an unknown number captured, per the Pakistani government. The majority of these were killed in engagements with the Pakistan Armed Forces. However, thousands were also killed in American drone strikes.


title: War on terror

text: The December 2006 to January 2009 Ethiopian-led intervention in Somalia resulted in the deaths of 6,000 to 8,000 Islamist insurgents, according to the Ethiopian government. The Kenyan Defence Forces claimed another 700+ insurgents killed in their own intervention of October 2011 to May 2012. American drone strikes, air strikes, and special forces ground raids in Somalia killed between 1,220 and 1,366 militants up to July 2019, according to the New American Foundation.


title: War on terror

text: American forces (mostly via drone strikes) killed between 846 and 1,609 terrorists in Yemen (mostly AQAP members) up to June 2019, according to a variety of media organizations including the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the New America Foundation. An Emirati spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen claimed that they had killed 1,000 al-Qaeda linked militants and captured 1,500 up to August 2018.


title: War on terror

text: Over 1,600 Islamic State fighters (Abu Sayyaf having sworn allegiance to ISIL in 2014) were killed by government forces in the Philippines from 2014 to 2017 alone.


title: War on terror

text: From April 2009 to March 2019, Russian military and police (primarily in the North Caucasus) killed 2,329 and captured 2,744 insurgents of the Caucasus Emirate and related groups.


title: War on terror

text: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has diagnosed more than 200,000 American veterans with PTSD since 2001.


title: War on terror

text: Between 363,939 and 387,072 civilians were killed in post—9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other war zones, according to a 2021 report by the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute. Many more may have died due to related effects, including water loss and disease.


title: War on terror

text: The War on Terror, spanning decades, is a multitrillion-dollar war that cost much more than originally estimated.


title: War on terror

text: According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute, the War on Terror will have cost $8 trillion for operations between 2001 and 2022 plus $2.2 trillion in future costs of veterans' care over the next 30 years. Out of this number, $2.313 trillion is for Afghanistan, $2.058 trillion for Iraq and Syria, and $355 billion was spent on other warzones. The remainder was for DHS ($1.1 trillion).


title: War on terror

text: According to the Soufan Group in July 2015, the U.S. government was spending per day in operations against ISIL in Syria and Iraq.


title: War on terror

text: A March 2011 Congressional report estimated war spending through the fiscal year 2011 at $1.2 trillion, and future spending through 2021 (assuming a reduction to 45,000 troops) at $1.8 trillion. A June 2011 academic report covering additional areas of war spending estimated it through 2011 at $2.7 trillion, and long-term spending at $5.4 trillion including interest.


title: War on terror

text: In direct spending, the United States Department of Defense reports spending $1.547 trillion from 2001 to February 2020 in war costs in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.


title: War on terror

text: Criticism of the War on Terror addressed the issues, morality, efficiency, economics, and other questions surrounding the war on terror and made against the phrase itself, calling it a misnomer. The notion of a "war" against "terrorism" has proven highly contentious, with critics charging that it has been exploited by participating governments to pursue long-standing policy/military objectives, including structural Islamophobia, reduce civil liberties, and infringe upon human rights. It is argued that the term war is not appropriate in this context (as in the "war on drugs") since there is no identifiable enemy and that it is unlikely international terrorism can be brought to an end by military means.


title: War on terror

text: Other critics, such as Francis Fukuyama, say that "terrorism" is not an enemy but a tactic, and calling it a "war on terror" obscures differences between conflicts such as anti-occupation insurgents and international mujahideen. With a military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan and its associated collateral damage, Shirley Williams posits that this increases resentment and terrorist threats against the West. There is also perceived U.S. hypocrisy, media-induced hysteria, and that differences in foreign and security policy have damaged America's reputation internationally.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a profile of each billionaire, and includes a tool that allows users to compare the fortunes of multiple billionaires. The index is updated every day at the close of trading in New York.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The index's editorial policy excludes its billionaire founder and majority owner, Michael Bloomberg, from the ranking.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The rankings are updated only on every trading day after the closing bell of every trading day based on New York's time.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires published by Bloomberg News since March 2012. It tracks the 500 wealthiest people in the world. The ranking was designed to provide a more transparent and accountable presentation of the world's biggest personal fortunes. At first, the index only tracked the 20 richest people in the world, and then expanded to 100, 200, 400 and later 500 in October 2016.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: At its launch in 2012, Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim was in the top spot, with an estimated $65.8 billion net worth. Beginning in May 2013, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was the world's top billionaire. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Spanish fashion retailer Amancio Ortega both saw a large increase in their respective net worths during 2016 and 2017 and challenged Gates for the number one spot. Bezos eventually surpassed him in 2018 and by 2021 was surpassed furthermore by Elon Musk, who is considered the richest person on Earth until mid-December 2022 when Tesla's share price fell & Bernard Arnault become the wealthiest person in the world.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The Index reports on hidden wealth and has uncovered more than 400 hidden billionaires since its founding. Bloomberg Billionaires founding editor Matthew Miller said in 2013 that hidden billionaires are identified by "making sure that we have accounted for all the companies in closely-held assets around the world." Some of the billionaires the index has uncovered includes JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon, In-N-Out Burger president Lynsi Torres, Ferrari Motors heir Piero Ferrari and the chairman of Biel Crystal Manufactory Yeung Kin-Man.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: While reporting on hidden billionaires, the index provides coverage of and attempts to put in perspective the wealth of the world's richest people, such as the former Queen Elizabeth II and former US President Donald Trump.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The index offers a dynamic look at the wealth controlled by the world's richest people while trying to offer a new perspective on how the media views and tracks the movement of that wealth. The index "is built to change daily depending on stock fluctuations and economic/company news."


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: To calculate individuals' wealth, the index relies on a mixture of public and private data, tracking stock prices and publicly disclosed holdings as well as calculated values for private companies using derived or reported information that is valued using live comparisons to public competitors.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The valuations are converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates and do not include assumptions about personal debt.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: Journalists have noted that the detailed methodology used for the index is more transparent than the "somewhat vaguer" calculation behind other lists. "The Bloomberg listers say their estimates may be more accurate than the competition's because they have better data and reporting (from Bloomberg terminals and its reporting staff)."


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: The full index is available online on the Bloomberg Terminal for free. There are tools to compare the fortunes of multiple billionaires, track the billionaires whose assets change the most, and analyze the one-year performance of individual billionaires or billionaires grouped by industry, region or nation.


title: Bloomberg Billionaires Index

text: Each billionaire's profile includes explanations of asset valuations and more details of each fortune.


title: New Deal

text: The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Farm Security Administration (FSA), the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). They provided support for farmers, the unemployed, youth, and the elderly. The New Deal included new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and efforts to re-inflate the economy after prices had fallen sharply. New Deal programs included both laws passed by Congress as well as presidential executive orders during the first term of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.


title: New Deal

text: The programs focused on what historians refer to as the "3 R's": relief for the unemployed and for the poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of the nine presidential terms from 1933 to 1969) with its base in progressive ideas, the South, big city machines and the newly empowered labor unions, and various ethnic groups. The Republicans were split, with progressive Republicans in support but conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as hostile to business and economic growth. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal coalition that dominated presidential elections into the 1960s while the opposing conservative coalition largely controlled Congress in domestic affairs from 1937 to 1964.


title: New Deal

text: By 1936, the term "progressive" was typically used for supporters of the New Deal and "conservative" for its opponents. Roosevelt was assisted in his endeavors by the election of a liberal Congress in 1932. According to one source "We recognize that the best liberal legislation in American history was enacted following the election of President Roosevelt and a liberal Congress in 1932. After the midterm congressional election setbacks in 1938, labor was faced with a hostile congress until 1946. Only the presidential veto prevented the enactment of reactionary anti-labor laws." In noting the composition of the Seventy-Third Congress, one study has stated: "Though much of the Democratic congressional leadership remained old-guard, southern, agrarian, and conservative, the rank-and-file Democratic majorities in both houses were largely made up of fresh, northern, urban-industrial representatives of at least potentially liberal bent. At a minimum they were impatient with inaction, and not likely to be silenced by appeals to tradition. They were, as yet, an unformed and reckoned force, one that Roosevelt might mould to his purposes of remaking his party – or one whose very strength and impetuosity might force the president’s hand." As noted by another study, "President Roosevelt's extraordinary legislative accomplishments between 1933 and 1938 owed much to his personal political qualities, but ideologically favourable large partisan majorities in the House and the Senate were a prerequisite of success." From 1934 to 1938, there existed a "pro-spender" majority in Congress (drawn from two-party, competitive, non-machine, progressive and left party districts). In the 1938 midterm election, Roosevelt and his progressive supporters lost control of Congress to the bipartisan conservative coalition. Many historians distinguish between the First New Deal (1933–1934) and a Second New Deal (1935–1936), with the second one more progressive and more controversial.


title: New Deal

text: The First New Deal (1933–1934) dealt with the pressing banking crisis through the Emergency Banking Act and the 1933 Banking Act. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided $500 million ($ today) for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived CWA gave locals money to operate make-work projects from 1933 to 1934. The Securities Act of 1933 was enacted to prevent a repeated stock market crash. The controversial work of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) was also part of the First New Deal.


title: New Deal

text: The Second New Deal in 1935–1936 included the National Labor Relations Act to protect labor organizing, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program (which made the federal government the largest employer in the nation), the Social Security Act and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and the FSA, which both occurred in 1937; and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers. The FSA was also one of the oversight authorities of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, which administered relief efforts to Puerto Rican citizens affected by the Great Depression.


title: New Deal

text: The economic downturn of 1937–1938 and the bitter split between the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) labor unions led to major Republican gains in Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined the informal conservative coalition. By 1942–1943, they shut down relief programs such as the WPA and the CCC and blocked major progressive proposals. Noting the composition of the new Congress, one study has argued that