text: Trump threatened Turkey with economic sanctions over its detention of the evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Brunson. On August 1, 2018, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Turkey's justice and interior ministers.


title: Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration

text: In October 2019, Trump ordered the Pentagon to withdraw U.S. troops from Northern Syria to allow Turkey to extend the Turkish occupation of northern Syria, even though the Kurdish fighters the Turks attacked had helped the U.S. against the Islamic State. Pentagon officials stated that they were "completely blindsided" and "shocked" by the order.


text: The Trump administration continued the United States drone strikes in Yemen against the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, that were previously begun and expanded in the previous administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.


text: On February 1, 2020, Trump appeared to confirm reports that the U.S. had killed Qasim al-Raymi, the leader of an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen by retweeting reports claiming that the CIA had conducted a drone strike targeting the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader.


text: A report in "The Washington Post" on February 2, 2017, claimed that Trump berated Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and hung up 35 minutes earlier than planned over a refugee resettlement deal that President Obama had made with Australia where the United States agreed to take 1,250 refugees from camps in Nauru and Manus Island. It was also claimed that Trump suggested Turnbull was attempting to export the next Boston bombers to the United States. Later that same day, Trump explained that although he respected Australia, they were "terribly taking advantage" of the United States. Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey met with Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon the next day, and Sean Spicer described the call as "cordial". Reuters described the call as "acrimonious", and "The Washington Post" said that it was Trump's "worst call by far" with a foreign leader. Notwithstanding the disagreement regarding the resettlement of the refugees Vice President Mike Pence, while on a visit to Australia in April 2017, stated the United States will abide by the deal. The decision was seen as a positive sign of commitment by the Australian Prime Minister.


text: The Trump administration was accused of generally "ignoring" Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. By October 2017, senior diplomatic positions relating to the continent were still vacant, including Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa. U.S. military operations in the region continued, but there were no clear statement of objectives or guidance for the United States Africa Command at the time, headed by General Thomas Waldhauser. Alan Patterson would later serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa from December 2017 to October 2018 and Tibor P. Nagy would become Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs on July 23, 2018.


text: During a summer 2017 meeting about immigration, Trump reportedly said that Nigerians, once they came to the United States, would never "go back to their huts". The White House strongly denied the claim. In a meeting with congressional leaders on January 11, 2018, Trump asked during a discussion of immigration from Africa why America would want people from "all these shithole countries", suggesting that it would be better to receive immigrants from countries like Norway. The comment was condemned as racist by many foreign leaders and a UN spokesman. The African Union said it was "alarmed" by the comment, which "flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice." African ambassadors in Washington planned to meet the following week to discuss a response. They expressed dismay that it took something like this to bring attention to Africa when the continent had so many other issues, such as famine and civil war, that Washington ignored.


text: In September 2020, the United States suspended part of its economic assistance to Ethiopia due to the lack of sufficient progress in negotiations with Sudan and Egypt over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. On October 24, 2020, President Donald Trump stated on a public phone call to Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu that "it's a very dangerous situation because Egypt is not going to be able to live that way... And I said it and I say it loud and clear - they'll blow up that dam. And they have to do something." Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded that "Ethiopia will not cave in to aggression of any kind" and that threats were "misguided, unproductive and clear violations of international law."


text: On August 23, 2018, Trump publicly instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to investigate South African farm attacks, an instruction which was widely described in mainstream media as the administration advocating for an unfounded white genocide conspiracy theory. Trump had apparently gotten his information from a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News. The media roundly berated the move, with "New York" magazine claiming Trump was attempting to "change the conversation — to one about "white genocide" in South Africa", "Esquire" reported that the "President of the United States is now openly promoting an international racist conspiracy theory as the official foreign policy of the United States". According to the SPLC, Trump had "tweeted out his intention to put the full force of the U.S. State Department behind a white nationalist conspiracy theory".


text: Causing "angry reaction in South Africa", many politicians responded critically including former US Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard, RSA Deputy President David Mabuza and Julius Malema MP, who responded to Trump, declaring "there is no white genocide in South Africa", and that the US President's intervention into their ongoing land reform issues "only made them more determined... to expropriate our land without compensation". Trump had previously caused controversy around the topic as a presidential candidate in 2016, when he republished content from a social media account named "WhiteGenocideTM".


text: On October 23, 2020, the Israel–Sudan normalization agreement was finalized between Israel and the Sudan.


text: The Trump administration pursued unilateralist policies abroad in alignment with the "America First" policy.


text: Trump was more adversarial to the European Union than his predecessors, regarding the union more as an economic competitor than a partner in foreign affairs. During his 2016 election campaign, Trump said of the EU, "the reason that it got together was like a consortium so that it could compete with the United States." U.S. foreign policy experts such as Strobe Talbott and Amie Kreppel regarded this assertion as incorrect, emphasizing that though the EU was established in part to rebuild the European economies after World War II, it was not created specifically to compete with the United States and that, in fact, the U.S. government initially approved of the EU's creation.


text: In a 60-minute interview in mid-January 2017, with Michael Gove of the "Times of London" and Kai Diekmann of "Bild", U.S. president Donald Trump criticized the European Union as "basically a vehicle for Germany" claiming that it was a "very catastrophic mistake" on Angela Merkel's part to admit a million refugees – whom he refers to as "illegals". In a letter to 27 European leaders, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, called these "worrying declarations" and claimed that the Trump administration seemed to "question the last 70 years of American foreign policy," placing the European Union in a "difficult situation". The relation soured even more when Jean-Claude Juncker jokingly said it would support the independence of the US State of Ohio and the city of Austin, Texas after Donald Trump backed the Brexit and encouraging other European countries to follow its example.


text: In May 2017, Angela Merkel met with Trump. Trump's nationalist sentiments had already strained relations with several EU countries and other American allies, to the point where after a NATO summit, Merkel said that Europeans cannot rely on United States' help anymore. This came after Trump had said the Germans were "bad, very bad" and threatened to stop all car trade with Germany.


text: In July 2018, Trump stated in an interview with CBS that the European Union is one of the United States' greatest foes globally, citing "what they do to us on trade". He followed this up with a tweet protesting the EU's fining of Google $5.1 billion for a violation of antitrust laws, commenting that the EU continues to take advantage of the US.


text: In December 2019, the United States urged the European countries to blacklist Hezbollah. Its ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell asked these countries to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, after a US civil contractor was killed in a rocket attack in Iraq's Kirkuk Province, which the US official said involved Kata'ib Hezbollah.


text: During the 2016 campaign, Trump called for a "rethink" of American involvement in NATO, stating that the United States pays too much to ensure the security of allies, stating that "NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we're protecting Europe with NATO, but we're spending a lot of money". Later in the same interview, he stated that the U.S. should not "decrease its role" in NATO but rather should decrease U.S. spending in regards to the organization.


text: In a July 2016 interview, Trump "explicitly raised new questions about his commitment to automatically defend NATO allies," questioning whether he, as president, would automatically extend security guarantees to NATO members. Asked about a prospective Russia attack on NATO's Baltic members, Trump stated that he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations "have fulfilled their obligations to us." This would represent a sharp break with U.S. foreign traditions.


text: As president, Trump said in a February 2017 speech that the United States strongly supports NATO, but continued to insist that NATO members were not paying their fair share as part of the alliance. In March 2017, Trump called upon U.S. allies increase their financial commitment to their own defense or compensate the United States for providing it, asserting that Germany and NATO owed "vast sums of money" to the U.S. for defense. In May 2017, on a visit to the new NATO headquarters, Trump called upon NATO to do more to fight terrorism and to add limiting immigration to its tasks. In the speech he did not explicitly reaffirm U.S. commitment to Article V, which obligates all NATO members to respond to an attack against any one member. White House spokesperson Sean Spicer later reaffirmed America's commitment to joint defense. Referencing countries that had not spent the minimum of 2% of their national GDP for defense by 2024, a guideline set by NATO, Trump claimed that "many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years." While most members of the alliance indeed had yet to reach the 2% target, the countries are not in arrears and they "do not owe anything" to the United States or to NATO. In April 2019, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg played down the disputes with Trump, noting in an address to Congress that "there are differences" (noting disputes over trade, energy, climate change policy, the Iran nuclear agreement and burden sharing among NATO allies). Noting that NATO members are on track to increase defense spending by up to $100 billion, Stoltenberg said that "this has been the clear message from President Trump and this message is having a real impact."


text: Critics of Trump charged him with failing to understand or honor the strategic significance of NATO and collective defense to the U.S.'s national security, and of seeing the NATO alliance in transactional terms, with one describing Trump's views on collective defense as more akin to a "protection racket".


text: During the campaign, Trump criticized the United Nations, saying that it was weak, incompetent, and "not a friend of democracy... freedom... the United States... Israel". Upon taking office, Trump appointed Nikki Haley as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. On September 25, 2018, Trump addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. After boasting that his administration had accomplished more in two years than almost any other U.S. administration in history, his speech was interrupted by laughter from the assembly. Trump claimed that the diplomats were laughing with him, rather than at him.


text: In June 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. The withdrawal left the U.S. as one of the world's only countries outside the Paris Agreement (which consolidated each country's voluntary pledge to reduce carbon emissions and aimed to further emissions cuts), and made the U.S. the sole country to withdraw from the agreement after entering into it. Trump's withdrawal formally abandoned President Obama's goal of cutting U.S. emissions by 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. The U.S. withdrawal formally came into effect on November 4, 2020. Trump's decision to withdrawal from the agreement dismayed business leaders and U.S. allies and was condemned by scientists, which warned that U.S. withdrawal would deepen the climate crisis.


text: In 2020, the United States joined 34 other countries from Asia, Africa, and South America to "reaffirm that there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion," in the "Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family".


text: When announcing his candidacy in June 2015, Trump said that his experience as a negotiator in private business would enhance his ability to negotiate better international trade deals as president. Trump identifies himself as a "free trader," but was widely described as a "protectionist". Trump described supporters of international trade as "blood suckers."


text: Trump's views on trade upended traditional Republican party policies favoring free trade. Binyamin Appelbaum, reporting for the "New York Times", summarized Trump's proposals as breaking with 200 years of economics orthodoxy. American economic writer Bruce Bartlett argued that Trump's protectionist views have roots in the Whig Party program of the 1830s. He noted that many Americans were sympathetic to these views, while saying this was nonetheless not a good justification to adopt them. Canadian writer Lawrence Solomon describes Trump's position on trade as similar to that as of pre-Reagan Republican presidents, such as Herbert Hoover (who signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act) and Richard Nixon (who ran on a protectionist platform).


text: A January 2019 intelligence community assessment concluded that Trump's trade policies and unilateralism had "damaged" traditional alliances and induced foreign partners to seek new relationships.


text: During the campaign, Trump condemned the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying that if elected president, "We will either renegotiate it, or we will break it."


text: During his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after becoming president, Trump stated that he viewed the Canadian situation different than Mexico, and only envisioned minor changes for Canada, with much larger ones for Mexico.


text: During the campaign, Trump vowed to impose tariffs — in the range of 15 to 35 percent — on companies that move their operations to Mexico. He specifically criticized the Ford Motor Co., Carrier Corporation, and Mondelez International. The dispute was partially resolved by the USMCA, which requires Mexican auto manufacturers to pay their workers a minimum wage of $16/hr.


text: After taking office, White House press secretary Sean Spicer noted that Trump was considering imposing a 20% tariff on Mexican imports to the United States as one of several options that would pay for his proposed border wall. The Mexican government stated that if unilateral tariffs were imposed on Mexico, it would consider retaliating by imposing tariffs on goods Mexico imports from the United States.


text: In September 2018, the United States, Mexico, and Canada reached an agreement to replace NAFTA with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). NAFTA remained in force until the ratification of the USMCA in July 2020.


text: During the campaign, Trump proposed a 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports to the United States to give "American workers a level playing field." According to an analysis by "Capital Economics", Trump's proposed tariff may hurt U.S. consumers by driving U.S. retail price of Chinese made goods up 10 percent, because of few alternative suppliers in key product classes that China sells to the U.S. The goods trade deficit with China in 2015 was $367.2 billion. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported in December 2014 that "Growth in the U.S. goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 eliminated or displaced 3.2 million U.S. jobs, 2.4 million (three-fourths) of which were in manufacturing." EPI reported these losses were distributed across all 50 states.


text: Trump pledged "swift, robust and unequivocal" action against Chinese piracy, counterfeit American goods, and theft of U.S. trade secrets and intellectual property, and condemned China's "illegal export subsidies and lax labor and environmental standards." In a May 2016 campaign speech, Trump responded to concerns regarding a potential trade war with "We're losing $500 billion in trade with China. Who the hell cares if there's a trade war?"


text: During the 2016 campaign, Trump opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the Obama administration had negotiated, calling it "insanity. That deal should not be supported and it should not be allowed to happen." He said the US was "giving away" concessions to China. Days after taking office, on January 23, 2017, Trump withdrew from the proposed deal, citing the need to protect American workers from competition by workers in low-wage countries. The international trade agreement never took effect.


text: During the 2016 campaign, Trump called the World Trade Organization (WTO) a "disaster". He said that if U.S. companies moved their manufacturing operations abroad, he would place tariffs of 15–35% on these products when they were sold to U.S. consumers. When informed that this would be contrary to the rules of the WTO, he answered "even better. Then we're going to renegotiate or we're going to pull out [of the WTO]."


text: In late January 2020, the Trump administration banned travel to the U.S. by mainland Chinese nationals, allowing US citizens abroad and legal US residents to return.


text: On March 11, President Trump announced a travel ban on foreigners coming from the Schengen Area, and later added Ireland and the United Kingdom to the list. Unlike the bans on entry by mainland Chinese and Iranian nationals, these were rescinded by Trump and due to expire January 26, 2021.


text: As president, Trump frequently said that he inherited a "depleted" military from his predecessor, Barack Obama, despite evidence to the contrary in regards to funding, readiness, and infrastructure. Retired Army general David Petraeus and military analysts Michael E. O'Hanlon and Lawrence Korb also denied Trump's claims of a U.S. military readiness crisis, regarding them as inaccurate.


text: Under the four fiscal years of the Trump administration, U.S. military funding totaled about $2.5 trillion, about $100 billion in additional funds annually, but spending was lower than during Obama's first term (2009–2013) when using data adjusted for inflation.


text: In the early years of his presidency, Trump sought to shift authority over military operations back to the Pentagon by loosening rules of engagement and reducing White House oversight in the chain of command, a departure from his predecessor. Although the streamlined decision-making was welcomed by many in the military as reducing political micromanaging and increasing military responsiveness and command flexibility, it also drew repeated criticism for sharply increasing civilian casualties abroad. In 2020, "Mother Jones" reported that, under Trump, "the US military was pursuing a strategy that tolerated a higher risk of bloodshed..." in Afghanistan and that from 2016 to 2019, the number of Afghan civilians killed by international airstrikes increased by 330 percent. After 2017, civilian casualties caused by U.S. forces in Yemen escalated in "...the most intensive period of strikes in that country by any U.S. president since 2001," according to Airwars. In April 2017, after approving the use of the MOAB on the battlefield for the first time, Trump commented "What I do is I authorize my military ... We have given them total authorization and that's what they're doing and, frankly, that's why they've been so successful lately."


text: Trump often boasted of the U.S. military's weapons arsenal to the point of exaggeration, with weapons experts noting Trump's comments in regards to the W76-2 thermonuclear warhead and F-35 fighter jet in particular as "extravagant" and "sometimes straying beyond reality..."


text: Under the Trump administration, there was a modest decrease in U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria after an initial increase. By October 2020, there were 4,500 U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan, 3,000 in Iraq, and 750 in Syria, amounting to almost 10,000 combined. Trump's efforts to withdraw additional troops from Afghanistan and Germany were blocked by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which limited his authority to withdraw forces from those countries. Trump vetoed this bill, but the veto was overridden.


text: Trump touted his legacy being the first president in decades to not start any "new wars", only using legislation passed by previous administrations to conduct ongoing foreign interventions and wars he inherited. The Trump administration didincrease drone strokes in Somalia and bolster troop presence in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf region, particularly during the Persian Gulf crisis against Iran.


text: In February 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha Agreement, a peace agreement with the Taliban to conclude the war in Afghanistan. In December 2020, Trump ordered AFRICOM to withdraw 700 U.S. troops from Somalia, dispersing them to other East African countries such as Kenya and Djibouti; U.S. drone strikes and cooperation with Somali forces were expected to continue.


text: Trump ruptured traditional U.S. norms of civil-military relations and strained presidential relations with military leadership. He initially expressed admiration and praise for his generals but began deriding them in both public and private in the later years of his presidency. In 2020, Reuters observed that Trump grew increasingly irritated when the advice of his generals "ran against his wishes," and that he was "frustrated by the wars he inherited and uncomfortable with an apolitical military leadership he sometimes sees as disloyal." In 2020, Trump publicly derided U.S. military commanders, accusing them of pushing for war to benefit military contractors.


text: "The Atlantic" reported in 2020 that while on a visit to France, Trump had disparaged U.S. military personnel, including fallen soldiers, in crude and demeaning language; CNN and Fox News corroborated much of the reporting while Trump denied making the comments. The controversy only further strained his relations with the military late in his term.


text: In May 2020, Trump said he intended to withdraw the US from "Open Skies," a 2002 treaty between three dozen countries that aims to promote military transparency. Under the treaty, participants are allowed to perform reconnaissance flights to gather information about each other's military activities. The European Union said it hoped the US would not withdraw. In explaining his position, Trump alleged that Russia had violated the terms of the treaty; Russia denied doing so.


text: On November 22, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Council stated via Twitter that the 6-month period is over and the US is no longer party to the Treaty.


text: During the campaign, Trump said that the U.S.'s control is getting weaker and that its nuclear arsenal is old and does not work.


text: When asked at March 2016 campaign town hall with MSNBC's Chris Matthews whether he would rule out the use of nuclear weapons, Trump answered that the option of using nuclear weapons should never be taken off the table.


text: During the campaign, Trump expressed support for South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia having nuclear weapons if they would be unwilling to pay the United States for security. He also deemed it inevitable, "It's going to happen anyway. It's only a question of time. They're going to start having them or we have to get rid of them entirely." Trump's tentative support for nuclear proliferation was in contradiction to decades of bipartisan U.S. consensus on the issue.


text: During the campaign, Trump was critical of Pakistan, comparing it to North Korea, calling it "probably the most dangerous country" in the world, and claiming that Pakistan's nuclear weapons posed a "serious problem." He advocated improving relations with India as a supposed "check" to Pakistan. He said that his government would fully cooperate with India in doing so.


text: However, there seems to have been an uptick in relations after Imran Khan came to power. Speaking of Imran Khan in a bilateral summit, Trump said, "I've heard they've made great progress. And under this leader — he's a great leader — I think he wants to make great progress because there's no solution the other way. The other way is only going to lead to death and chaos and poverty. It's all it's going to lead to. I mean, he understands it. Your Prime Minister understands it."


title: Biscari massacre

text: The Biscari massacre was a war crime committed by members of the United States Army during World War II. It refers to two incidents in which U.S. soldiers were involved in killing 71 unarmed Italian and 2 German prisoners-of-war at the Regia Aeronautica's 504 air base in Santo Pietro, a small village near Caltagirone, southern Sicily, Italy on 14 July 1943.


title: Biscari massacre

text: As part of the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Seventh United States Army under Lieutenant General George S. Patton and the British Eighth Army under General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery invaded the southeast corner of the island on 10 July 1943. Immediately after landing, the US units headed for the airports located in the southern part of the island, and some massacres of civilians were reported; one happened in Vittoria, where 12 Italians died, including Giuseppe Mangano, podestà of Acate, and his seventeen-year-old son Valerio, who was killed by a bayonet shot in his face.


title: Biscari massacre

text: As part of Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley's II Corps, the 45th Infantry Division was given a difficult task despite the fact that, of the divisions participating in the invasion, it was the only one to be "green," with no previous combat experience. The 45th Division's 157th and 179th Infantry Regiments were given the task of capturing several coastal towns and the Comiso Airport before they linked up with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.


title: Biscari massacre

text: The 180th Infantry Regiment was given the task of capturing the Biscari airfield and linking up the US 1st Infantry Division. The 180th Infantry Regiment performed so poorly in the first 48 hours of the landing that Major General Troy Middleton considered relieving its commander. Instead, the assistant division commander was sent to exercise close supervision over the regiment.


title: Biscari massacre

text: During the capture of the Biscari airfield on 14 July 1943, troops of the 180th Infantry killed 71 Italian and two German POWs in two incidents. In the first incident 35 Italians and two Germans were killed, and 36 Italians were killed in the second incident.


title: Biscari massacre

text: On 14 July 1943, soldiers with the U.S. 180th Infantry Regiment were facing stiff enemy resistance near the Santo Pietro airfield, and by 10:00, they had taken a number of prisoners, including 45 Italians and 3 Germans. The executive officer for the 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, Major Roger Denman, ordered a noncommissioned officer (NCO), Sergeant Horace T. West, 33 years old, to take that group of prisoners "to the rear, off the road, where they would not be conspicuous, and hold them for questioning." The POWs were without shoes and shirts, which was a common practice to discourage escape attempts.


title: Biscari massacre

text: After Sergeant West, with several other U.S. soldiers assisting him, had marched the POWs about a mile, he halted the group and directed that eight or nine of them be separated from the rest and taken to the regimental intelligence officer (the S-2) for questioning. West then took the remaining POWs "off the road, lined them up, and borrowed a Thompson submachine gun" from the company first sergeant (the senior NCO in the Company). When the First Sergeant asked West what he wanted it for, West responded that he was going to "kill the sons of bitches." West then told the soldiers guarding the POWs to "turn around if you don't want to see it."


title: Biscari massacre

text: He then killed the POWs by shooting them with the submachine gun. When the bodies were discovered thirty minutes later, it was noted that each POW had been shot through the heart, which indicated that it had been close range. Investigators later learned that after West had emptied the Thompson into the group of POWs, he "stopped to reload, then walked among the men in their pooling blood and fired a single round into the hearts of those still moving."


title: Biscari massacre

text: The next day, the 37 bodies caught the attention of a chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel William E. King. He reported the event to his senior officers, who at first dismissed it because of the bad press if it were to go public; however, after some convincing, they agreed to go to court for murder.


title: Biscari massacre

text: As commander of C Company, 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, Captain John T. Compton landed south of the Acate River amidst sporadic mortar and small arms fire. Pursuing his first objective, he pushed his company towards Highway 115, joined with some 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers, and attacked several German positions. Compton did not sleep during the first three days of the invasion. He was simply "too excited to sleep." On the fourth day, he managed about an hour and a half of sleep before the attack on the Biscari airfield. Around 23:00, C Company set off and reached the airfield around 1100 on 14 July 1943. Immediately they began to receive artillery, mortar, and sniper fire. The sniper fire was especially deadly. From a concealed position in a nearby draw, the snipers targeted wounded American soldiers as well as the medics attempting to aid them. Out of the 34 men in Compton's 2nd Platoon, 12 were either wounded in action (WIA) or killed in action (KIA).


title: Biscari massacre

text: In an attempt to locate the snipers' firing position, Private Raymond C. Marlow crept down into a nearby draw. He had gone only about 25 yards into the draw before he spotted an Italian soldier with a rifle. Marlow raised his rifle and shouted at the Italian. The Italian ran away and entered a dugout farther in the draw. After a minute or two, the Italian soldier emerged with 35 others, several of whom were in civilian clothing. Marlow walked them up the hill to his outpost and reported to his squad leader, Sergeant Hair. "I told him that I had gotten those fellows that were shooting at us while we were getting out from under that artillery fire," Marlow reported. Acting as an interpreter, Private John Gazzetti asked the prisoners if they had been acting as snipers. He got no response. Hair herded the prisoners out of the draw and asked 1st Lieutenant Blanks what he should do with them. Blanks, in turn, asked Compton for instructions.


title: Biscari massacre

text: Compton asked Blanks if he was sure that they were the same snipers that had been shooting at them all day. When Blanks answered in the affirmative, Compton said bluntly, "Get them shot." Without hesitation, Blanks ordered Hair to assemble a firing squad and shoot the prisoners.


title: Biscari massacre

text: Compton accompanied the firing squad of about 11 men to the ridge overlooking the draw. He told the American soldiers to line up and they positioned themselves about six feet away from the prisoners. The prisoners started pleading for them not to shoot. Gazzetti, the interpreter, asked Compton if he had anything to say to the prisoners. Compton did not have anything that he wanted to ask them. Compton told the men to start firing on his order and stated that he "didn't want a man left standing when the firing was done." Seeing that their fate was sealed, a few of the prisoners began to run. The firing squad opened fire and killed all of the prisoners.


title: Biscari massacre

text: When he was informed of the massacres, General Omar Bradley told General George Patton on the morning of the 15 July 1943 that US troops had murdered some 50-70 prisoners in cold blood. Patton noted his response in his diary:


title: Biscari massacre

text: I told Bradley that it was probably an exaggeration, but in any case to tell the Officer to certify that the dead men were snipers or had attempted to escape or something, as it would make a stink in the press and also would make the civilians mad. Anyhow, they are dead, so nothing can be done about it.


title: Biscari massacre

text: Bradley refused Patton's suggestions. Patton later changed his mind. After he learned that the 45th Division's Inspector General found "no provocation on the part of the prisoners... They had been slaughtered," Patton is reported to have said, "Try the bastards."


title: Biscari massacre

text: The U.S. Army charged Sergeant Horace T. West for "willfully, deliberately, feloniously, [and] unlawfully" killing 37 prisoners of war in the first incident. At his trial, which began on 2 September 1943, West pleaded not guilty. Although he admitted the killings, his non-lawyer defense counsel raised two matters in his defense.


title: Biscari massacre

text: The first was he was "fatigued and under extreme emotional distress" at the time of the killings and was essentially temporarily insane at the time of the commission of the acts. However, First Sergeant Haskell Y. Brown testified that West had borrowed the Thompson and an additional magazine of 30 rounds and had appeared to act in cold blood.


title: Biscari massacre

text: The second defense raised by West's counsel was that he was simply following the orders of his commanding general, who he testified had announced prior to the invasion of Sicily that prisoners should be taken only under limited circumstances. West's regimental commander, Colonel Forrest E. Cookson, testified that the general had stated that if the enemy continued to resist after US troops had come within 200 yards of their defensive position, surrender of those enemy soldiers need not be accepted. The problems with that defense were that the prisoners-of-war had already surrendered, and the surrender had been accepted.


title: Biscari massacre

text: The court-martial panel found West guilty of premeditated murder, stripped him of his rank, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was detained in North Africa for fear that his presence in a federal penitentiary could bring unwanted publicity to him and to his crime. On reviewing West's record of trial, Eisenhower decided to "give the man a chance" after he had "served enough of his life sentence to demonstrate that he could be returned to active duty". After West's brother wrote to the Army and his local US representative, it was decided to "resolve the worrisome matter" and on the recommendation of the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations, the Deputy Commander of Allied Headquarters in Italy signed an order remitting West's sentence on 24 November 1944. He was restored to active duty and continued to serve during the war at the end of which he received an honorable discharge. West died in Oklahoma in January 1974.


title: Biscari massacre

text: In regard to the second incident, Captain John T. Compton was also court-martialed and charged with the premeditated murder of 36 POWs under his charge. He also pleaded not guilty, and relying upon the "respondeat superior" legal doctrine, also defended his actions by claiming that he was merely following orders of his commanding general given in a speech to the officers in his division. On 23 October 1943 the court martial panel acquitted him, but the Judge Advocate's review of the trial declared that in his opinion, Compton's actions had been unlawful. Compton was transferred to the 179th Infantry Regiment and subsequently was killed in action on 8 November 1943 in Italy.


title: Biscari massacre

text: The commanding general named by both West and Compton was Patton. The War Department Inspector General's office conducted an investigation into the killings, and in the course of the investigation General Patton was questioned about the alleged speech. Patton stated that his comments in the speech had been misinterpreted and nothing he had said "by the wildest stretch of the imagination" could have been taken as an order to murder POWs. The investigation ultimately cleared Patton of any wrongdoing.


title: Clay Davis

text: R. Clayton "Clay" Davis is a fictional character on the HBO drama "The Wire", played by actor Isiah Whitlock, Jr. Davis is a corrupt Maryland State Senator with a reputation for pocketing bribes. However, throughout the series Davis remains protected by other ranking politicians and Baltimore Police Commissioner Ervin Burrell.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis was known for his idiosyncratic profanity, often when confronted with bad news, comically elongating the word "shit" as "sheeeeeeeee-it".


title: Clay Davis

text: When Lt. Cedric Daniels' detail discovers $20,000 belonging to Baltimore drug lord Avon Barksdale in the car of Davis's driver, they try to expand the wiretap-based investigation to include Davis. Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell calls Daniels into a private meeting with Davis, pressuring him into excluding the senator's alleged involvement. However, Daniels is unwilling to drop the case. Nevertheless, Burrell pulls the plug on the investigation, and Davis's involvement is effectively left buried. However, it is mentioned that Davis has a reputation for taking bribes, and has been under federal investigation for the last two years.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis attends a Democratic Party fundraiser thrown by stevedore union leader Frank Sobotka, accepting contributions in return for assurances that he will vote to construct the granary pier that Sobotka believes will help revitalize the union. After the press reports on criminal activities within the union, Sobotka's lobbyist advises him that none of the politicians—including Davis, presumably—will follow through. Davis is later seen at the groundbreaking ceremony for a dockside condominium being built on the site of the proposed granary pier.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis acts as a consultant for Stringer Bell, taking bribes from the Barksdale Organization while claiming to win state government contracts for the drug empire's legitimate business front, B&B. However, Bell becomes suspicious when he learns that block grants have been given to several city developers instead of B&B. Maurice Levy, Bell's lawyer, concludes that Davis has "rain made" Bell; the senator has played off Stringer's inexperience in legitimate business, taking the money and doing nothing in return. Stringer, furious, tells Slim Charles that he wants him to assassinate Davis, but Barksdale warns him that murdering a public figure will bring too much unwanted attention from the authorities.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis acts as Mayor Clarence Royce's deputy campaign chairman, and is a key fundraiser in his re-election campaign. When Detective Leander Sydnor serves a subpoena for Davis's financial records as part of the Major Crimes Unit's ongoing investigation into the Barksdale Organization's finances, the senator is outraged. In retaliation, he goes to Royce and threatens to cut off the campaign's funding unless Royce interferes with the subpoenas.


title: Clay Davis

text: The day before the mayoral primary, Davis approaches candidate Tommy Carcetti, offering to hold off on bringing out the vote for Royce in exchange for a $20,000 payment. On Election Day, Davis campaigns for the mayor as if his offer to Carcetti had not taken place. After Carcetti defeats Royce, Davis explains that Royce gave more money, pointing out that he could easily have fleeced Carcetti for even more.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis strikes a deal with City Council President Nerese Campbell, offering a $25,000 jump in salary to a replacement commissioner in an attempt to appear as if Carcetti is an ally while believing the amount insufficient to attract any serious candidate. Davis is especially motivated to help Burrell when he learns that the most likely replacement is Daniels, whom he regards as too uncontrollable. Davis opposes Daniels's potential appointment based on his attitude regarding Price.


title: Clay Davis

text: He realizes that Daniels may continue investigations into Davis's alleged money laundering. Davis convinces Campbell and Burrell that Daniels is more interested in serving Carcetti and is unwilling to be of use to the city's black community. To keep Daniels from being promoted, Davis agrees with Burrell's plans to present information regarding illegal activities from Daniels's past.


title: Clay Davis

text: Davis becomes a target of prosecution for State's Attorney Rupert Bond following the MCU investigation. Detectives Sydnor and Lester Freamon are assigned to Bond's unit to lead the investigation at his behest following the rest of the unit's reassignment. Davis approaches Burrell and demands that he stop the investigation. Burrell explains that he would have to go around Daniels to interfere in the case and that acting against Daniels would put him in conflict with Bond and Mayor Carcetti. As a result, Davis and Burrell have a falling-out.


title: Clay Davis

text: Meanwhile, Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman begins a series of grand jury depositions to prepare evidence against Davis, with one of the key witnesses being Price. Learning that Carcetti has planned to replace Burrell, Davis offers to use his connections to smooth the transitions in exchange for help with the case; Carcetti refuses.


title: Clay Davis

text: Having uncovered evidence that Davis lied on a mortgage application, Freamon and Sydnor suggest taking the case to federal law enforcement. However, Bond elects to ignore the evidence, hoping to gain recognition by prosecuting Davis himself. Called to testify, Davis invokes his Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating himself. Davis confronts a press opportunity staged by Bond on the courthouse steps, turning on the charm and denying any wrongdoing.


title: Clay Davis

text: When called to the stand in his own defense, Davis gives a rousing speech defending his public role, claiming the money he took from public funds was his attempt to help constituents and cut through red tape. The jury acquits him, and Davis beams before the assembled cameras and reporters afterward while Bond and Pearlman look on, unable to believe what they have just witnessed.


title: Clay Davis

text: With Bond's case concluded but the mortgage fraud uncharged, Freamon approaches Davis in a bar with the incriminating mortgage paperwork. Not knowing that Freamon has been unable to bring these charges, Davis gives up information about back-room deals involving the city's political elite, including dirt on Levy's leakage of court documents to drug dealers. In a second conversation, Davis is last seen giving Freamon additional information, as well as boasting about conning Stringer.


title: Clay Davis

text: Creator David Simon has said that Clay Davis is based on three politicians in the Maryland State Senate, and that his affectionate use of the word "partner" is based on one of them, saying that everybody in Baltimore knows who this is.


title: Clay Davis

text: In an essay in the official series guide "The Wire: Truth Be Told", William Zorzi implies that Davis is patterned on former Maryland State Senator Larry Young.


title: Clay Davis

text: The character is well known for his elongated pronouncement of the word "shit" as "sheeeeeeeee-it". This mannerism originated with Whitlock's uncle, from whom Whitlock picked up the habit. It is featured in the films "25th Hour" (2002) and "BlacKkKlansman" (2018), after Spike Lee encouraged him to use it. When Whitlock received his first script for "The Wire" it was already written into the part. Davis is also known to speak differently depending on his company: he freely uses black vernacular when among Black people but adjusts his speech to sound "whiter" when dealing with his (largely) white business partners.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Hans Carl Ludwig Augustinsson (born 21 April 1994) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Premier League club Aston Villa, on loan from La Liga club Sevilla and the Sweden national team.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: A product of Brommapojkarna's academy, he played two senior seasons with the club before leaving for IFK Göteborg in 2013. With an injury-filled first year, his breakthrough had to wait until the 2014 season, in which he was named the best left back of the campaign. A move to Copenhagen followed in January 2015 for an estimated record fee of €1.4 million. He has ended up being club champion twice, with Copenhagen in the 2015–16 season and 2016–17 season, and runner-up three times with his teams; in Superettan 2012, Allsvenskan 2014 and in the 2014–15 Danish Superliga. He won one domestic cup title with IFK Göteborg 2012–13 and three consecutive domestic cup titles with Copenhagen in 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson was part of the Sweden under-21 squad that qualified and later won the European U21 Championship in 2015, playing all five games in the main tournament and scoring in the penalty shoot-out against Portugal in the final. He made his first appearance for the senior national team in January 2015, and was part of Sweden's Euro 2016, 2018 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 2020 squads.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson started his football career at age six with Stockholm side IF Brommapojkarna. He was notable throughout his youth years, being the captain for the team's U17 squad and having trials with clubs such as Borussia Mönchengladbach and Sampdoria. After advancing through the youth ranks, he earned a spot in the first team as a 16-year-old in 2011 and made his debut in Superettan later that year. With four appearances in his debut season, including his senior debut in the domestic cup, he came to play almost every game the following year, ending up with two goals and four assists. With two senior seasons and 30 league games for Brommapojkarna, Augustinsson moved to IFK Göteborg in January 2013, turning down offers from several other professional clubs.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: The move to top team IFK Göteborg went well and Augustinsson played most of the games during the pre-season. When Svenska Cupen began in March, he was first-choice as left-back and played two games in the group stage. IFK Göteborg later won the cup against Djurgården in the final. Just a couple of weeks before the start of 2013 Allsvenskan, he picked up a knee injury while playing for Sweden under-21s, which kept him out of action for five months. On his Allsvenskan debut on 25 August 2013 in an away match against Malmö FF he suffered another injury, which meant that he would be out for the rest of the season.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson came back from his second injury in time for the first competitive match in 2014, against Värnamo in Svenska Cupen in early March. He scored his first goal in Allsvenskan on 24 September in the 2014 season, when IFK Göteborg won away against Örebro SK by 4–3. He played 28 league games that season, without being substituted, and assisted for three goals.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: He later earned a spot in Allsvenskan's "Team of the Year 2014" – voted by supporters of the SvenskaFans.com website.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson transferred to F.C. Copenhagen on 5 January 2015 after signing a 4.5-year contract on 6 June 2014. The deal was made so he could be the replacement for Pierre Bengtsson at the left-back position when Bengtsson's contract ended with Copenhagen on 31 December 2014. The transfer fee was estimated at 13 million SEK (approximately €1.4 million), which made him the most expensive wing-back ever bought from Sweden.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Having played every exhibition game during the winter break for Copenhagen, Augustinsson made his Superliga-debut against Vestsjælland when the season restarted in February. He assisted the first goal of the game and scored later himself, playing a key role in the team's 2–0 victory. Ekstra Bladet described it as "the dream debut" and manager Ståle Solbakken said it was the best debut since his own debut for Copenhagen against rivals Brøndby back in the year 2000.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: He came to play 15 league games during the spring season, helping the team reach the second place in the league. He was noted for six assists, which placed him third in the assist-table and which made him the defender with the most assists of the 2014–15 season – despite playing less than half of the games. Defensively Copenhagen only conceded goals in six games, with many experts claiming that he was one of the best players of the spring season.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson played regularly in the Danish Cup as well throughout the spring, and scored a match winning 1–0 goal from a free kick against Esbjerg in the second game of the semifinals. Copenhagen later won the final in May against Vestsjælland, with him providing an assist in the team's 3–2 win. The cup win was his second title of his career and his first for the club.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: The 2015–16 season was Augustinsson's most successful season in his career, winning his first domestic league title and securing his third domestic cup victory. Being rumored with moves to top teams, such as Liverpool, after winning the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Augustinsson stayed in Denmark and played his first complete season for Copenhagen.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: In the league, Augustinsson played every minute of the first 30 games, until he was rested for the final two away games when the trophy was already secured in the middle of May. He assisted to nine goals throughout the campaign, placing him as tied leader with Nicolaj Thomsen and Rasmus Falk. Ekstra Bladet ranked him as one of the five best players for Copenhagen, awarding 5 of 6 stars for his performance, citing an improvement compared to the spring part of the season.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: During the Copenhagen derby at Brøndby on 17 April 2017, Augustinsson had dead rats thrown at him by home supporters as he prepared to take a corner kick. Play was stopped and Copenhagen players attempted to kick the rats off the pitch before stewards arrived to pick up the rodents.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: On 30 January 2017, Werder Bremen announced the signing of Augustinsson for the forthcoming 2017–18 Bundesliga season. In August 2018, upon his return from holidays after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he agreed a contract extension with Werder Bremen.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: On 6 July 2020, Werder Bremen played 1. FC Heidenheim in the second leg of the Bundesliga relegation playoff, having tied the first leg 0–0. In the 90+4th minute, Augustinsson scored to give Werder Bremen a 2–1 lead. They match ended 2–2, and Bremen stayed in the Bundesliga on away goals.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: On 11 July 2022, Augustinsson joined Premier League club Aston Villa on a season-long loan, with the English club having the option to make the transfer permanent at the end of the loan. Augustinsson made his debut for Aston Villa on 2 October 2022, an away Premier League draw against Leeds United, starting the match due to an injury to Lucas Digne. Augustinsson himself, however, would suffer a hamstring injury in the first half of the match and was substituted.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson represented Sweden under-17s and the under-19s 21 times between 2009 and 2013. He has made 19 caps for Sweden under-21s since 2012 and is still eligible to play for the team. His biggest success came for the under-21 team, when they manage to qualify to the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship and later win the tournament, whilst being a key player in Håkan Ericson's squad.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: In 2016, Augustinsson was denied joining Sweden under-23s squad for the 2016 Olympics in August by his club Copenhagen.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Sweden managed to qualify to the European U21 Championship in Czech Republic for the first time since 2004 after a successful qualification. In an exhibition game against Portugal U21 in early 2013, Augustinsson injured his knee and was later out for the rest of the year, which meant he missed most of the qualification games. He was however Håkan Ericson's first choice at the left-back position when he was available and was part of the squad in the games of 2014.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson played every game in the group stage of the main tournament. Before the second game against England, in which Sweden lost, interest from Liverpool was reported.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Sweden however managed to advance from the group, thanks to winning against Italy and drawing against Portugal. After knocking out Denmark in the semi-final by 4–1, Sweden were to play Portugal again in the final. In a goalless match, the first kept clean sheet of Sweden in the tournament, the final had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out. Augustinsson scored his penalty and Sweden won by 4–3. He received international praise for his final performance, described as "outstanding". He earned a spot in The Guardian's 'Team of the Tournament'.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson debuted with the senior team in January 2015, when he started both games in their friendlies against the Ivory Coast and Finland. Sportbladet rated him as the best Swedish player of those two games.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: He received his second call-up in March 2016, playing 90 minutes in Sweden's 2–1 loss against Turkey. On 11 May, Erik Hamrén announced that Augustinsson was going to feature the Euro 2016 squad.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: He remained as unused substitute, behind Martin Olsson, throughout Sweden's disappointing group stage at Euro 2016. Following Hamréns resignation and Janne Andersson's arrival later that summer, Augustinsson got bigger competition when Oscar Wendt re-joined the squad after conflicts with the former head coach. With Andersson's experimenting of the two veterans at the left-back position in the beginning of the World Cup qualification, Augustinsson opened possibilities to join the Sweden under-21 squad, for which he still was eligible to play. Andersson however kept him in the senior squad and Augustinsson came to play the final 30 minutes against Bulgaria in the qualifier in October.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Augustinsson is often referred as a modern wing-back, whose qualities is in his offense, possession, pace and a good left foot. He started out as a central midfielder, but changed position to left-back at age eleven due to tough competition in the midfield. He has always been a specialist in set pieces and takes a lot of corners and freekicks. His role models on the football pitch is former left back Gareth Bale and David Alaba.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Ludwig is the firstborn and grew up in a sports-oriented family in the central parts of Stockholm. His father Hans played football in Swedish Division 1 and his mother Elisabeth played volleyball on an international level for Sweden. His younger brother Jonathan Augustinsson also plays professional football as a left-back.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: The family was part of a nationwide debate in the summer of 2015, about more Swedish national players coming from well-educated families in wealthier neighborhoods. Critics have stated that players like Augustinsson are successful today because of the amount of money the families invest in private training sessions.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Together with his good friends and former teammates from his time in Brommapojkarna, John Guidetti and Simon Tibbling, he is a teetotaler and has never been drunk. Ludwig attended primary schools "Aspuddens skola" and "Nybohovsskolan", both with focus on football.


title: Ludwig Augustinsson

text: Although he has been playing football his entire life, he tried out ice hockey in his youth and was part of AIK IF. He is a lifelong supporter of Manchester United and dreams of playing for the club one day.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones", and the 56th overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman, and directed by Jack Bender.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Bran Stark and Meera Reed are rescued from the White Walkers by Benjen Stark. Samwell Tarly returns to his family's home in Horn Hill, accompanied by Gilly and little Sam; Jaime Lannister attempts to rescue the Queen, Margaery Tyrell; Arya Stark defies the Faceless Men; and Daenerys Targaryen rides on Drogon and emboldens her newly acquired khalasar.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" was positively received by critics who praised the return of several notable characters, including Benjen Stark, Walder Frey and Edmure Tully. Further praise was given to other plot points, such as Samwell's return to Horn Hill, and Arya's decision to return to being a Stark rather than a disciple of the Many-Faced God. The episode title is a reference to a famous Dothraki saying used between a Khal and his bloodriders. Filming of Bran's visions was put together precisely and also very carefully chosen. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 6.71 million in its initial broadcast.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Bran and Meera continue to flee the wights. Bran, still in his visions, has visions of events past and future, including Jaime Lannister killing King Aerys Targaryen, a dragon flying over the Red Keep, and wildfire exploding beneath King's Landing. As the wights close in, a rider appears and pulls Meera and Bran onto his horse, allowing them to escape.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Bran awakens to find the rider is his uncle, Benjen Stark, who had gone missing beyond the Wall. Benjen explains that he was stabbed by a White Walker during a ranging, but was saved by the Children of the Forest. He tells Bran that he needs to become the Three-Eyed Raven before the Night King comes south.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: The High Sparrow, along with Tommen, prepares for Margaery's walk of atonement. The High Sparrow allows Tommen to visit his wife, where he discovers that Margaery has become a devout follower of the Faith of the Seven and repented for her sins.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Jaime and Mace Tyrell lead the Tyrell soldiers to the Great Sept of Baelor, where the High Sparrow is presenting Margaery to the people of King's Landing. Jaime orders the High Sparrow to release Margaery and Loras, threatening force against the Faith Militant. The High Sparrow declares that Margaery will not have to perform a walk of atonement, and instead presents Tommen, who announces that he has agreed to unite the Faith and the Crown. When Mace asks Olenna what this means, she bitterly replies it means the High Sparrow has won.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Tommen relieves Jaime from the Kingsguard as punishment for taking up arms against the Faith, to Jaime's dismay. Jaime is instead given orders to oust the Blackfish from Riverrun. Cersei counsels him to use the campaign to show their force to their enemies. Cersei expresses no concern about her upcoming trial, as it will be a trial by combat and she has chosen the Mountain as her champion. Cersei and Jaime then passionately kiss.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Lord Walder Frey receives word that House Tully's former seat Riverrun has been retaken by Brynden "Blackfish" Tully. Walder orders his son Lothar Frey and Black Walder Rivers to recapture the castle. He brings in Edmure Tully, held as a prisoner since the Red Wedding, and declares that they will use him to retake Riverrun.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Samwell, Gilly, and Little Sam arrive at Horn Hill, the seat of House Tarly. Sam warns Gilly not to mention that she is a Wildling, due to his father Randyll's hatred of Wildlings. At dinner, Randyll insults Sam. Gilly defends Sam, but in doing so accidentally reveals her Wildling heritage. Disgusted, Randyll tells Sam that Gilly and Little Sam can remain at Horn Hill, but that he must never set foot in Horn Hill again. Sam bids farewell to Gilly, but then changes his mind and decides to bring her and Little Sam with him to the Citadel. As they leave, Sam takes House Tarly's ancestral Valyrian steel sword, Heartsbane, as well.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Arya returns to watch the play featuring Lady Crane. She sneaks backstage during the last act and poisons Lady Crane's rum. As she attempts to leave, Lady Crane stops her, and they discuss acting and Lady Crane's early life. Arya stops her from drinking her rum, and warns her that her rival Bianca wants her dead. The scene is witnessed by the Waif, who returns to tell Jaqen of Arya's failure. Jaqen gives the Waif permission to kill Arya. Meanwhile, Arya retrieves her sword, Needle, from the rocks where she had hidden it and goes into hiding.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: While riding, Daenerys notices an unusual gust of wind and rides out alone to investigate. As Daario, impatient, prepares to follow her, Drogon flies over the khalasar, having grown much larger, with Daenerys riding on his back. Daenerys lands nearby and rallies the Dothraki by stating that she chooses them all to be her bloodriders, rather than the traditional three chosen by khals. She then asks if they will cross the Narrow Sea with her and help her retake the Seven Kingdoms and they shout their agreements, while Drogon roars.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" was written by Bryan Cogman. Cogman has been a writer for the series since its beginning, previously writing seven other episodes, as well as the subsequent episode. The title of the episode, "Blood of My Blood", is a reference to the famous Dothraki saying between a Khal and his bloodriders.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Cogman described some of the thought process he had when writing the reunion between Samwell and his family, saying, "As much as Sam has gone through, I love exploring those family dynamics. His mother and sister and brother are all fundamentally decent people but his father is just a cold hearted bastard when it comes to his distant son. There's a painful part of the scene where his father just unloads on him and tells him every hateful thing he ever thought about him and Sam can't defend himself. We found that fascinating – Sam has killed a man, he's killed a White Walker, he's emerged as such a great hero, but he still can't stand up to his dad."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Cogman noted, about the Arya storyline in the same interview, that he comes from a theater background, and that "being able to comment on the show and the reactions to the show through the players were so much fun. The show is often accused of being gratuitous in all kinds of way – the violence and the bigness of the characters. It's a huge operatic story. We're able to lovingly spoof ourselves but also play with ideas about how audiences view the show, good and bad, and how a perspective of a story changes. Plus there’s the dramatic deliciousness of Arya watching her own life play out on stage." Weiss also spoke about Arya, saying "We were excited to do the play within the play, and it's a distorted fun house mirror representation of things we've already seen." Benioff continued, "Part of Arya's amusement is just that she knows that they're getting so many details wrong, but she always regretted that she didn't have a chance to watch Joffrey die, and now she gets to. It's obviously a comic version of it, but that gives her great pleasure." Weiss also noted, "Arya is slowly getting seduced by these performances, and Lady Crane, the actress that she's charged with killing, this is somebody who like her has taken as her life's work the job of becoming other people."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: In regards to the final scene of the episode with Daenerys Targaryen riding Drogon and emboldening her newly acquired khalasar, Benioff stated in the "Inside the Episode" featurette that the scene is a reflection of the speech that Khal Drogo gave before his death, with Benioff saying "One of our favorite moments from season one was watching Khal Drogo deliver a speech to his gathered khalasar, that speech clearly lingered in Daenerys's mind, and she's echoing almost the exact same language when she's talking to the Dothraki now. She's basically telling them the promise that one of the great Khals had made years before and saying now is the time to live up to that promise and fulfill it."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: The episode saw the return of several characters from previous seasons and the introduction of new characters that had either been mentioned or had some connection to established characters. Joseph Mawle, who was previously cast to play Benjen Stark and was featured in three episodes in the show's first season before disappearing (as he does in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series that the show is based on). In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Bryan Cogman spoke of the re-introduction of Benjen and Mawle to the show saying "It was great to have Joe Mawle back with us – it must have been a trip for him to step back into the character after so long – but he's also decidedly not the Benjen of season 1. So that was fun to explore." Mawle had been interviewed in 2013, where he expressed his desire to return to the series.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Another return involved the story of the Riverlands with actor David Bradley returning to the show as Walder Frey, who last appeared in the aftermath of the Red Wedding, as well as Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully, who also had not appeared since the Red Wedding episode "The Rains of Castamere", in the third season. Tim Plester, who plays one of Walder's sons also returned but his other son, Lothar, was re-cast, with Daniel Tuite taking over the role.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Several new actors were cast as Samwell Tarly's family in Horn Hill. Samwell's father, Randyll Tarly, had been referenced several times and had been described as "cruel" in his treatment of his oldest son. In an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) spoke about the introduction of his family to the series, stating, "When you see Sam with his father and mother and brother especially, he starts to make sense. The character is contextualized. Why is his psyche the way it is? Why does he behave the way he does? Ever since you first saw him, he comes from this very sincere and heartfelt maternal love, and then there's this monster. You can see why he's so damaged. His emotional life has been pulled in so many different directions. He's so incredibly confused." Actor James Faulkner was cast in the role of Randyll, with Samantha Spiro portraying Samwell's mother and Freddie Stroma and Rebecca Benson portraying Samwell's brother Dickon and sister Talla.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: For Bran's brief vision sequence at the beginning of the episode, actor David Rintoul was cast as King Aerys II Targaryen in a scene that had only been described to that point. It depicts the murder of Aerys, who is repeatedly yelling "burn them all", at the hands of Jaime Lannister.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" was directed by Jack Bender, who also directed the previous episode "The Door", his directorial debut for the series. Bender had been approached to direct for the series but declined due to the extensive time commitment involved in shooting, which he noted in an interview as having to commit to "four-and-a-half to six months because of the enormity of the episodes".


title: Blood of My Blood

text: For the primary King's Landing scene at the Great Sept, with Margaery being presented to the city by the High Sparrow, the grand staircase of the Girona Cathedral in Girona, Spain was used. The cathedral was constructed in the 11th century, and continued its expansion throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, as well as the 18th century. According to prior reports, filming took place over the course of approximately two weeks, with many different challenges involved in shooting at the location, including "extras requiring medical attention due to exhaustion and dehydration," as well as the need for extensive security to close off certain areas, during filming, from the public. Parts of Braavos were also filmed in Girona. In nearby Canet de Mar, Catalonia, Spain, the Castell de Santa Florentina, an 11th-century medieval castle, was utilized for the castle of House Tarly.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: The director of the episode, Bender, conducted an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" following the airing of the episode, and spoke about filming the play with Arya in Braavos, stating "I staged the whole play, we did it, and the producers came in to watch the rehearsal, including all the fart jokes, all that stuff, some of which was written. So, after we watched the rehearsal, and the guys laughed a lot, I said, 'My only concern is, am I mocking your brilliant show too much?' And they said, 'No, do it more!' They're completely unpretentious, David and Dan, and they loved it." He also noted that several other extra scenes were filmed, but were cut from the final version of the episode, noting that they will likely be released as deleted scenes on the DVD for the season.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: In the behind the scenes video published by HBO following the airing of the fifth and sixth episodes, Benioff described Bran's visions at the beginning of the episode as being something that was put together very precisely and purposefully, noting "Even though some of those images flash by in just a fraction of a second each of them was very carefully chosen. And the Mad King was probably the most dramatic of those because we've been hearing about the Mad King from the very beginning of the show, but he's never appeared on screen before. And shooting it, you know, spending a lot of time on what ended up being maybe like a second and a half, couple seconds, of screen time." The new scenes of the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, are interspersed with previously shown footage of the White Walkers, as well as wildfire explosions, and other landmark moments from throughout the series, such as Ned Stark's beheading, the Red Wedding, and Bran falling from the Broken Tower in the series premiere. In the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin, the Mad King is described as having long, unkempt hair and beard, with nine inch long fingernails. The show's version portrayed his look in a more tidy fashion, with David Rintoul playing the role of the Mad King.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Ellie Kendrick, who portrays Meera Reed in the series, in an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter" spoke about the re-introduction of Benjen Stark, or Coldhands Benjen, and working with Joseph Mawle, saying "It was so fantastic. And it's interesting. If you've read the books, then you know about the Coldhands character, who was cut out of the Bran, Meera and Jojen storyline on the show. It was always interesting, having read the books, watching this amalgamation of story lines happen. Benjen is sort of like the Coldhands character in that he's a slightly suspicious guy who is half-dead and half-alive with blue hands. I thought that was very cool, the way it happened. It was a nice marriage between the book and TV revelations rolled into one. I was very excited having him on set. I loved working with Joseph Mawle, and I loved having another member of our rapidly dwindling gang."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" was viewed by 6.71 million American households on its initial viewing on HBO, which was a modest decrease from the previous week's rating of 7.89 million viewers for the episode "The Door", likely due to the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. The episode also acquired a 3.25 rating in the 18–49 demographic, making it the highest rated show on cable television of the night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was viewed by 2.684 million viewers on Sky Atlantic, making it the highest-rated broadcast that week on its channel. It also received 0.126 million timeshift viewers.


title: Blood of My Blood

text: "Blood of My Blood" was positively received by critics who praised the return of several notable characters from past seasons, including Benjen Stark and Walder Frey, as well as Samwell Tarly's return home to Horn Hill and Arya's decision to return to being a Stark, abandoning the teachings of the Faceless Men. It has received an 88% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 44 reviews with an average score of 7.6/10, a decrease over the previous episode. The site's consensus reads "Crucial power dynamics are reassessed and significant characters return in the skillfully plotted and gratifying "Blood of My Blood"."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Matt Fowler of IGN wrote in his review of the episode, "Some sluggish stories took better turns this week – albeit sometimes by just ending things for now – while a book character many thought would never appear on the series made a notable splash, answering a big mystery that the novels hadn’t even revealed yet in the process. There were some great moments in "Blood of My Blood", but mostly the big returns made it possible to salivate for the payoffs (and possible characters) to come." He also continued by noting, "this installment probably speaks, more than any other episode so far this season, to the accelerated rate of payoffs we're now getting that the show isn't directly following the books." Fowler gave the episode an 8.6 out of 10. Laura Prudom of "Variety" also praised the pacing of the episode as well as the season's payoffs, writing "There's a clarity of purpose in Season 6 that certainly gives the impression that we're barreling towards a conclusion instead of just meandering through Dorne or killing time in Qarth."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Emily VanDerWerff of "Vox" likewise praised the structure of the season, noting the recent absence of Ramsay Bolton as a positive, but continuing, "Though it wasn't as good as the last two episodes, "Blood of My Blood" continued the general upswing in quality "Game of Thrones" season six has undergone." VanDerWerff also wrote in her review, ""Blood of My Blood" is another exciting hour of television, even if it's a bit more piece move-y than, say, "The Door". The revelations are milder, the characters mostly talk about what they're going to do next, and the stories go from Point A to Point B, instead of Point X, Y, or Z. But there's still plenty going on that's worth checking out." Comparing the episode to "Book of the Stranger", Jeremy Egner of "The New York Times" said, "The problem with emerging naked from a flaming temple is that it's hard to top. It's hard to top, that is, unless you happen to have a dragon with a flair for dramatic timing."


title: Blood of My Blood

text: Aaron Riccio of "Slant Magazine" criticized the episode, writing in his review "The largest problem with tonight's episode is that it either changes course so abruptly or restates certain theses so redundantly that it feels like a bit of a tease, especially to those not invested in Samwell Tarly's storyline."


title: Takeda clan

text: The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Takeda Shingen, one of the most famous rulers of the period.


title: Takeda clan

text: The Takeda are descendants of the Emperor Seiwa (858–876), the 56th Emperor of Japan, and are a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji), by Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1056–1127), son of the "Chinjufu-shōgun" Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (988-1075), and brother to the famous Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039–1106). Minamoto no Yoshikiyo (1075–1149), son of Yoshimitsu, was the first to take the name of Takeda, which he took when his father granted him Takeda domain in Hitachi Province; thereafter, he was known as Takeda Yoshikiyo.


title: Takeda clan

text: In the 12th century, at the end of the Heian period, the Takeda family-controlled Kai Province. Along with a number of other families, they supported their cousin Minamoto no Yoritomo against the Taira clan in the Genpei War (1180–85). When Yoritomo was first defeated at Ishibashiyama (1181), Takeda Nobuyoshi (1128–86) was applied for help, and the Takeda sent an army of 25,000 soldiers to support Yoritomo. Takeda Nobumitsu (1162–1248), son of Nobuyoshi, fought against the Taira, against Kiso Yoshinaka (1184), distinguished himself in the Battle of Ichinotani (1184), and was appointed "Shugo" (Governor) of Kai province. He also fought against the Northern Fujiwara (1189) and against Wada Yoshimori (1213). During the Jōkyū War, he helped the Hōjō, and led 50,000 soldiers as 'Daishogun of the Tosando' , and in reward received the governorship of Aki province (1221). Takeda Nobuhide (1413–40), eldest son of the Takeda Nobushige (1390–1465), Shugo of Aki, helped the 6th shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394–1441) against the revolt of Isshiki Yoshitsura and was granted the governorship of Wakasa province (1440). Takeda Nobukata (1420–71) inherited the titles of Shugo of Wakasa from his brother Nobuhide, and that of Shugo of Aki from his father Nobushige. During the Ōnin War (1467–77) he occupied Tango province that belonged to Isshiki Yoshinao and received the governorship of Tango province (1469). His brother Takeda Kuninobu (1437–90) inherited the titles of Shugo of Aki, Wakasa, and Tango provinces, but lost Tango in 1474. Until the Sengoku period, the Takeda were Shugo of the provinces of Kai (since Yoritomo), Aki (since 1221), and Wakasa (since 1440).


title: Takeda clan

text: Immediately prior to the Sengoku period, the Takeda helped to suppress the Rebellion of Uesugi Zenshū (1416–1417). Uesugi Zenshū (d. 1417) was the "kanrei" chief advisor to Ashikaga Mochiuji, an enemy of the central Ashikaga shogunate and the Kantō kubō governor-general of the Kantō region. Mochiuji, lord of the Uesugi clan, made a reprisal against the Takeda clan in 1415. This reprisal began a rivalry between the Uesugi and Takeda clans which would last roughly 150 years until the destruction of the Takeda clan at the end of the Sengoku period. While this rivalry existed, the Takeda and the Uesugi still had a huge amount of respect for one another.


title: Takeda clan

text: Takeda Harunobu (1521 – 1573) succeeded his father Nobutora in 1540 and became "shugo" lord of Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. In this period the Takeda began to quickly expand from their base in Kai Province. In 1559, Harunobu changed his name to the better-known Takeda Shingen. He faced the Hōjō clan a number of times, and most of his expansion was to the north, where he fought his most famous battles against Uesugi Kenshin. This series of regional skirmishes is known as the Battles of Kawanakajima. The battles began in 1553, and the best known and severest among them was fought on September 10, 1561.


title: Takeda clan

text: Shingen is famous for his tactical genius, and innovations, though some historians have argued that his tactics were not particularly impressive nor revolutionary. Nevertheless, Shingen is perhaps most famous for his use of the cavalry charge at the Battle of Mikatagahara. The strength of Shingen's new tactic became so famous that the Takeda army came to be known as the "Kiba Gundan" (騎馬軍団), or 'mounted army'. Up until the mid-16th century and Shingen's rise to power, mounted "samurai" were primarily archers. There was already a trend at this time towards larger infantry-based armies, including a large number of foot archers. In order to defeat these missile troops, Shingen transformed his "samurai" from archers to lancers.


title: Takeda clan

text: Shingen died on May 13, 1573, at age 53 from illness. His son Takeda Katsuyori (1546–1582) effectively succeeded Shingen though the nominal head of the family was his grandson Takeda Nobukatsu; Katsuyori continued Shingen's aggressive expansion plan south and westward and was initially successful, briefly achieving the largest extent of Takeda rule. However, he was defeated in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu.


title: Takeda clan

text: After Nagashino, the Takeda clan fell into sharp decline as it had lost many of its most notable samurai during the battle. Katsuyori's position within the clan also became precarious (as he did not fully inherit the clan leadership position); in 1582, two of his relatives defected to the Oda/Tokugawa alliance and Nobunaga succeeded in destroying the Takeda clan shortly thereafter. The campaign saw most of the Takeda followers simply abandoning Katsuyori and the other Takeda family members to their fate. The clan was effectively eliminated, although descendants of the Takeda clan would take prominent positions in the Tokugawa shogunate, established in 1603.


title: Takeda clan

text: Takeda is also a fairly common family name in modern Japan, though it is unlikely that everyone with the Takeda name is descended from this noble house (several divisions of the family have the Takeda name).


title: Takeda clan

text: In fact, most of the real descendants of the Takeda had a different name when they created a cadet branch. It is also acknowledged that members of the clan married into other Japanese families.


title: Takeda clan

text: During the Tokugawa period, several "daimyō" families were direct descendants of the Takeda. In 1868, these "daimyō" families were :


title: Takeda clan

text: In 1868, two branches named Takeda were also ranked among the "Kōke" (the High Families). This title was given to descendants of great dispossessed "daimyo" families of the Kamakura period to Sengoku period such as the Takeda, the Kyōgoku, the Rokkaku, the Ōtomo, the Toki, the Isshiki and the Hatakeyama clans. They received a pension from the shogunate and had privileged missions confided to them.


title: Takeda clan

text: Three major branches of the Takeda clan were established across Japan along with other smaller branches. Due to the establishment of cadet branches, the main Takeda clan in Kai Province is also referred to as the Kai Takeda clan.


title: Takeda clan

text: The Aki Takeda clan, established in Aki Province in the present-day western part of Hiroshima Prefecture.


title: Takeda clan

text: Takeda Nobutake († 1362) was the last Takeda "Shugo" of the two provinces of Kai and Aki. His elder son Nobunari received Kai and the younger Ujinobu received Aki province.


title: Takeda clan

text: The Aki Takeda was granted the governorship of Wakasa province in 1440. The Wakasa Takeda clan was established in Wakasa Province in present-day southern Fukui Prefecture, and separates from Aki province in 1500, when Takeda Motonobu (1461-1521) ruled Wakasa, while his uncle Takeda Mototsuna (1441-1505) ruled Aki. The Wakasa Takeda were known for their patronage of the arts and developing the Takeda school of military etiquette.


title: Takeda clan

text: The Kazusa Takeda clan, established at the beginning of the Sengoku period in Kazusa Province in the present-day central area of Chiba Prefecture. Along with the Satomi clan of Awa Province in the southern part of present-day Chiba Prefecture the two clans replaced the dominance of the Chiba clan in the region. The Kazusa Takeda is also known as the Mariyatsu Takeda, a reference to their base of power, Mariyatsu Castle.


title: Takeda clan

text: The "Kōshū Hatto", composed at some point in the 15th century, is the code of law of the Takeda family, while the "Kōyō Gunkan", composed largely by Kōsaka Masanobu in the mid-16th century, is an epic poem recording the family's history and Shingen's innovations in military tactics.


title: Takeda clan

text: Among the notable members of the Takeda clan was Takeda Nobushige, who wrote the "Kyujukyu Kakun", which introduced the 99 rules for the clan members. Takeda Nobumitsu, who was a noted warrior under the Hojo shikken of Kamakura, became a monk and founded the Takeda family of Kai. Another important figure was Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, who developed the "Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu". Other noted members include Nobuyoshi, Nobutora, Harunobu (Shingen), Katsuyori, Matsuhime


title: Takeda clan

text: Takeda Shingen and his peasant doppelgänger are the main subjects of "Kagemusha", directed by Akira Kurosawa.


title: Ben Gillies

text: Benjamin David Gillies (born 24 October 1979) is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of Australian rock band Silverchair from 1992 until the band went on hiatus in 2011. In 2003, Gillies formed Tambalane with Wes Carr, initially as a songwriting project; they released a self-titled album in 2005 and toured Australia but subsequently folded. By June 2011, after Silverchair's disbandment, Gillies was in the final stages of about 12 months of working on his solo album, and he said that it was not a continuation of his earlier work with Tambalane. In 2012, he formed Bento, in which he performs lead vocals, and released the band's debut album "Diamond Days".


title: Ben Gillies

text: Benjamin David Gillies was born on 24 October 1979 in Merewether, a suburb of Newcastle. He started as a quad drummer in the band The Marching Koalas, before forming a grunge group, Innocent Criminals, at the age of 12 with friends Daniel Johns and Chris Joannou. Playing originally at school and other venues in the Newcastle area, they came to attention after a weekend music workshop at the Tanilba Bay Progress Hall funded through the Arts Council of New South Wales in March 1994. By October 1994, under their new name Silverchair, their first EP "Tomorrow" had reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Silverchair went on to release five No. 1 albums, "Frogstomp" (1995), "Freak Show" (1997), "Neon Ballroom" (1999), "Diorama" (2002) and "Young Modern" (2007).


title: Ben Gillies

text: Gillies formed the band Tambalane in 2002 while Silverchair was in hiatus following Johns' illness, releasing a self-titled album featuring the singles "Little Miss Liar" and "Free" before the band folded in 2005. He then returned to work with Silverchair.


title: Ben Gillies

text: In May 2011, Silverchair announced an "indefinite hibernation" and that they were not likely to work together "in the foreseeable future". By June, Gillies was in the final stages of working on his solo album, he had been working on it for about 12 months and said that it was not a continuation of his earlier work with Tambalane.


title: Ben Gillies

text: In 2021, Gillies released the song "Yesteryear" which became a track on his five-song EP "The Relative Relatives".


title: Ben Gillies

text: In June 2010, Gillies married Jakica 'Jackie' Ivancevic. His wife, known as Jackie Gillies, works as a professional psychic and featured on the TV series "The Real Housewives of Melbourne".


title: Ben Gillies

text: In September 2020, Gillies was interviewed as a special guest on an episode of the "Too Much of Not Enough" Silverchair podcast, produced by Australian fan Daniel Hedger.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The Dance of the Forty-One or the Ball of the Forty-One (Spanish: ) was a society scandal in early 20th-century Mexico, during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz. The incident revolved around an illegal police raid carried out on 17 November 1901 against a private home on Calle de la Paz (since renamed Calle Ezequiel Montes) in Colonia Tabacalera of Mexico City, the site of a dance attended by a group of men, of whom 19 were dressed in women's clothing.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The press was keen to report the incident, in spite of the government's efforts to hush it up, since the participants belonged to the upper echelons of society. The list of the detainees was never published. Only 41 men were officially arrested, however there were rumors that Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, son-in-law of President Porfirio Díaz was also in attendance. Of the 41 men arrested for "offense to morals and good manners", most paid for their freedom and only 12 were eventually sent to work in the Yucatán.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The scandal was called by prominent writer Carlos Monsiváis "the invention of homosexuality in Mexico", due to it being the first time homosexuality was openly spoken about in the Mexican media. The event was derided and satirized in the popular media of the era. The group was frequently termed the 41 maricones. With the rise of the LGBT movement, the event has been depicted more empathetically in contemporary media.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: In the early 20th century in Mexico performing dances where only men or only women attended was done frequently, albeit in a clandestine way due to discrimination and public condemnation of sexual diversity at the time. Several sources reported the celebration of parties and public events as parades with transvestite men and women, although they were justified as costume parties.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The presumed organizers of the party would have been the son-in-law of then-President Porfirio Díaz, Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, married to his daughter , and Antonio Adalid, nicknamed "Toña la Mamonera", godson of Maximilian I of Mexico and Carlota of Mexico; Other sources quoted the journalist Jesús "Chucho" Rábago and the landowner Alejandro Redo as frequent organizers. The party began the night of November 17 secretly in a house rented for that purpose in what were the limits of Mexico City, the Colonia Tabacalera. Media cite the fourth street of La Paz (current Ezequiel Montes or Jesus Carranza) where the guests had gathered in different carriages. The party included, in addition, the "Raffle of Pepito", a contest where the prize would be a sex worker.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: Around three o'clock on the morning of November 18, the police raided the house after a transgender woman opened the door. This was stated in a journalistic note of the time:


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: A rumor, neither confirmed nor denied, soon emerged, claiming that there were in reality 42 participants, with the forty-second being , Porfirio Díaz's son-in-law, who was allowed to escape. Although the raid was illegal and completely arbitrary, 19 of the 41 were convicted and conscripted into the army and sent to Yucatán where the Caste War was still being fought:


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: Most of the names of 41 are not known. Historian Juan Carlos Harris found some of them listed in the records of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Seven of the convicted ( Pascual Barrón, Felipe Martínez, Joaquín Moreno, Alejandro Pérez, Raúl Sevilla, Juan B. Sandoval and Jesús Solórzano) filed a writ of protection against their conscription to the army. Their claim was that homosexuality was not illegal in Mexico. Hence, the charge was simply replaced, to be a crime against decency, leaving the punishment the same


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: On 4 December 1901 there was a similar raid on a group of lesbians in Santa María, but that incident received far less attention.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: As a result of the scandal, the numbers 41 and 42 were adopted by Mexican popular parlance to refer to homosexuality, with 42 reserved for passive homosexuals.


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The incident and the numbers were spread through press reports, but also through engravings, satires, plays, literature, and paintings; in recent years, they have even appeared on television, in the historical "telenovela" "El vuelo del águila," first broadcast by Televisa in 1994. In 1906 Eduardo A. Castrejón published a book titled "Los cuarenta y uno. Novela crítico-social". José Guadalupe Posada's engravings alluding to the affair are famous, and were frequently published alongside satirical verses:


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: Such was the impact of the affair that the number 41 became taboo, as described by the essayist Francisco L. Urquizo in 1965:


title: Dance of the Forty-One

text: The feature film "Dance of the 41 ()" is a fictionalized retelling of the events surrounding the dance, focusing on Ignacio de la Torre. Since there is little historic evidence of the events, including the attendants, the film takes significant artistic license. It premiered in November 2020 at the Morelia International Film Festival. The movie was directed by David Pablos, written by Monika Revilla, produced by Pablo Cruz and stars Alfonso Herrera as Ignacio de la Torre y Mier.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: In cosmology, the cosmological constant problem or vacuum catastrophe is the disagreement between the observed values of vacuum energy density (the small value of the cosmological constant) and theoretical large value of zero-point energy suggested by quantum field theory.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: Depending on the Planck energy cutoff and other factors, the quantum vacuum energy contribution to the effective cosmological constant is calculated to be as little as 50 and as much as 120 orders of magnitude greater than observed, a state of affairs described by physicists as "the largest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of science" and "the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics".


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: The basic problem of a vacuum energy producing a gravitational effect was identified as early as 1916 by Walther Nernst.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: He predicted that the value had to be either zero or very small. In 1926, W. Lenz concluded that "If one allows waves of the shortest observed wavelengths λ ≈ 2 × 10 cm, ... and if this radiation, converted to material density (u/c~10), contributed to the curvature of the observable universe – one would obtain a vacuum energy density of such a value that the radius of the observable universe would not reach even to the Moon."


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: With the development of inflationary cosmology in the 1980s, the problem became much more important: as cosmic inflation is driven by vacuum energy, differences in modeling vacuum energy lead to huge differences in the resulting cosmologies. Were the vacuum energy precisely zero, as was once believed, then the expansion of the universe would not accelerate as observed, according to the standard Λ-CDM model.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: After the development of quantum field theory in the 1940s, the first to address contributions of quantum fluctuations to the cosmological constant was Yakov Zel'dovich. In quantum mechanics, the vacuum itself should experience quantum fluctuations. In general relativity, those quantum fluctuations constitute energy that would add to the cosmological constant. However, this calculated vacuum energy density is many orders of magnitude bigger than the observed cosmological constant. Original estimates of the degree of mismatch were as high as 120 orders of magnitude; however, modern research suggests that, when Lorentz invariance is taken into account, the degree of mismatch is closer to 60 orders of magnitude.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: The calculated vacuum energy is a positive, rather than negative, contributing to the cosmological constant because the existing vacuum has negative quantum-mechanical "pressure", while in general relativity, the gravitational effect of negative pressure is a kind of repulsion. (Pressure here is defined as the flux of quantum-mechanical momentum across a surface.) Roughly, the vacuum energy is calculated by summing over all known quantum-mechanical fields, taking into account interactions and self-interactions between the ground states, and then removing all interactions below a minimum "cutoff" wavelength to reflect that existing theories break down and may fail to be applicable around the cutoff scale. Because the energy is dependent on how fields interact within the current vacuum state, the vacuum energy contribution would have been different in the early universe; for example, the vacuum energy would have been significantly different prior to electroweak symmetry breaking during the quark epoch.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: The vacuum energy in quantum field theory can be set to any value by renormalization. This view treats the cosmological constant as simply another fundamental physical constant not predicted or explained by theory. Such a renormalization constant must be chosen very accurately because of the many-orders-of-magnitude discrepancy between theory and observation, and many theorists consider this ad-hoc constant as equivalent to ignoring the problem.