Free Republic

So, the lack of reproducibility doesn't mean there's a conspiracy or malfeasance, but it does mean that the science isn't settled as Al Gore claims . It cannot be settled until critics have had a chance to rebut the claims. The lack of reproducibility gives the skeptics too much credibility if they are wrong , or not enough credibility if they are right . At the center of the reproducibility debate is Stephen McIntyre and his website ClimateAudit. McIntyre documents his struggles to obtain the raw data and reproduce the results of famous temperature reconstructions. When he finally gets his...

Fearing that Taliban supremo Mullah Omar might be targetted by US drones, Pakistan's ISI has helped him to flee from the border town of Quetta to the mega port city of Karachi, where he has established a new Shura council. One-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban recently found refuge from potential US attacks in Karachi with Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) assistance, the Washington Times reported quoting US intelligence officials. "Mullah Omar travelled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so...

The United States' 39th president sat down with THE NATION'S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SUTHICHAI YOON to discuss major issues affecting the world today. Here are excerpts from the exclusive interview: Suthichai: How do you assess President Obama's performance so far? Carter: He has set a good goal for himself in many ways. He has announced an end to torture. He has announced his goal to do away with nuclear weapons. He has changed the image of my country among many people around the world.Do you think he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, I do. Some people don't agree with that. I...

Russia has now turned into a "criminal state", according to the man who was once its leading foreign investor. Bill Browder of Hermitage Capital was reacting to the news that his lawyer had died in prison in Russia after being held for a year without charge. He told the BBC that his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, had in effect been "held hostage and they killed their hostage." Through Hermitage Capital, Bill Browder campaigned against corruption at some of Russia's largest companies. Russian officials say they are investigating Mr Magnitsky's death. In 2005, Mr Browder was banned from Russia as a threat...

A US sailor cleared of raping a prostitute in a Sydney brothel is "looking forward" to returning to California. While Petty Officer Timothy Davis had admitted using a "lock down manoeuvre" to pin the woman to the bed, he denied forcing himself on her, saying he had only wanted his money back. The 25-year-old had pleaded not guilty to having sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated by causing the woman actual bodily harm. He also denied an alternative charge that, with intent to have sexual intercourse, he recklessly inflicted actual bodily harm on her. After a week-long trial, a jury in...

(IsraelNN.com) The New York Post has revealed that Iran is using Islamic charities in the U.S. to fund pro-Iranian professors in American colleges. According to the newspaper, Iran has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to universities such as Columbia in Manhattan and Rutgers in New Jersey, to fund the employment of lecturers who support and sympathize with the Islamic Republic.

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Rafie al-Issawi discussed with the chief of Google company on Sunday investment opportunities available in Iraq’s communications sector, according to a release by Issawi’s office. “Issawi and Eric Schmidt took up ways to launch investments in the communications field with the objective of providing better services for Iraqi citizens,” read the release as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an engineer, Chairman/CEO of Google Inc. and a former member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. He also sits on the board of...

"At a time when Indian public opinion was looking forward to fruitful results from the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the US, reports from Beijing on Obama's visit to China would strengthen the impression that Obama is not India's cup of tea." .................................................................................... By B.Raman (November 19, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The failure of President Barack Obama to understand the distrust of China in large sections of the Indian civil society has landed the US in a situation in which the considerable goodwill between India and the US created during the administration of his predecessor George...

GAZING from the Great Wall of China last week, US President Barack Obama appeared to be making the most of one of the perks of White House occupancy -- a private guided tour of Asia's most spectacular tourist spot. White House aides exulted that choreographed pictures of this moment would make front pages around the world. Yet an experience Mr Obama declared to be magical turned sour as he returned home to a domestic revolt that is fanning Democratic unease. It was not just that the US media have suddenly turned a lot more sceptical about a president with...

The president’s visit to China was seen as failure, but what if that was just the new standard? Martin Jacques on why the U.S. must get used to decline—and learn humility. Obama’s visit to China last week was starkly different from previous such occasions. The United States has stumbled into a new era. Just a decade ago it all looked so different. President Bush—in one of history’s great miscalculations—believed that the world stood on the verge of a new American century. In fact, the opposite was the case. The defeat of the Soviet Union flattered only to deceive and mislead....

Is Congress, behindhand on Barack Obama's deadlines on health care and cap-and-trade legislation, and flummoxed by the failure of the stimulus package to hold unemployment below 10.2 percent, prepared to address the immigration issue next year? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says it better be. The current situation, she told the Center for American Progress on Nov. 13, "is simply unacceptable." We need a "three-legged stool," with provisions to strengthen enforcement, legalize some illegal immigrants and improve "legal flows for families and workers." Ironically, the push for legalization in 2006-07 resulted instead in stronger enforcement measures. Some 600 miles of...

ACHIN, Afghanistan — American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban. The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative,...

The glancing reference to South Asia in the Barack Obama-Hu Jintao joint statement on November 17 in Beijing has raised a storm of comment in India, not least from the South Block which read it as insinuating a third party into what it insists must be a bilateral Indo-Pakistan relationship. We read the statement as insinuating a larger claim. The statement says among other things: ''The two sides support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan [and] are ready to work together to promote peace, stability and development in [the South Asia] region.'' This can be read...

The Fort Hood terror attack that killed 13 adults and an unborn child and left dozens injured was the first such radical Islamic assault on United States soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Now the producers of the startling documentary "TheThird Jihad" have announced a plan to arm citizens with information about the possibilities of more attacks, using strategy in line with the timeless battle adage – "Know thy enemy." Clarion Fund previously partnered with WorldNetDaily.com to stream its powerful documentary "The Third Jihad," which uncovers a stealth influence by radical Islamists to undermine American society.

A homegrown U.S. soldier-jihadist, having never served overseas, slaughters unarmed members of the U.S. military on American soil, and his act is foolishly excused by some as “secondary post-traumatic stress disorder.” Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp detainees responsible for 9/11 are being moved to New York for trial. As U.S. soldiers risk their lives in Afghanistan, our leaders struggle with the political consequences of their commanders’ recommendations. The war on terror is spoken of no more. We’ve adopted a see-no-jihad, hear-no-jihad, speak-no-jihad mind-set. Political correctness rules the day. Before it’s too late, America must again awaken to the unprecedented global threat...

Hackers Expose Climate Brawl Monday Nov 23, 2009 Caroline Overington writes up the story of the hackers breaking in to the East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU), but misses the meat of the story. The Australian can tick that box: “Covered”, but not tick that box, “Incisive”.She includes a few of the emails, but misses the bombshells while wasting column space discussing irrelevancies. As the Australian Senators sit down to assess the meaningfulness of an Emissions Trading Scheme this week, we can only hope they have better sources of information than our national masthead.The extraordinary emails from the East Anglia...

In Indiana, practice for 'civilian surge' in Afghanistan State Dept. enlists Afghans to help prepare Americans for mission CAMP ATTERBURY, IND. -- Outside a scruffy, two-story building, armed and flak-jacketed U.S. soldiers stood watch under a sagging Afghan flag. Inside, the provincial governor, a Hamid Karzai look-alike in a striped robe and Karakul cap, pleaded with two tribal elders to get along. Only the Taliban would benefit from their dispute, the governor's aide said with a nervous click of his worry beads. An American at the table asked to speak. If they couldn't settle their differences over landownership, he gently...

The leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit indicate an astonishing conspiracy of the world’s leading warmist scientists, involving collusion, rigged evidence, suppression of dissent, the possibly illegal destruction of evidence under FOI request, and the smearing of sceptical scientists. now there’s also an Australian link which shows just how closely activists and these scientists, as well as possibly the CSIRO, worked together to present the most alarmist scenarios. In private, the consensus within this “team” of warmist scientists seemed to be tearing apart as the world refused to warm. Money, money, money. Global warming is...

Visitors to America might have noticed the television ads urging us to buy gold. One such “spokesman”, formerly in charge of managing the government’s hoard of the yellow stuff, including the ingots buried at Fort Knox, points out that the value of gold has never fallen to zero. Why investors are expected to find such a modest claim reassuring I can’t imagine. But something is persuading people to buy gold, driving the price to and past $1,100 per ounce, from about $270 at the beginning of this decade, and around $700 when the financial crisis first hit.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Wednesday called US President Barack Obama's strong criticism of the building of additional Jewish homes in a Jewish neighborhood of the Israeli capital a position based on racism. Said Barkat: "Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims, and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem. The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender and the attempt to...

Tensions over Iran's nuclear programme have spurred an arms race in the Gulf with record defence deals being negotiated. Saudi Arabia, long the major arms-buyer in the region, is now being overtaken by relative minnows such as the United Arab Emirates as they share their neighbour's fear of the growing military strength of their Shia neighbour. Iran yesterday began a week-long military exercise to test its readiness against missile attack. The exercise was overtly intended as a message to Israel that any attack on its nuclear programme would be met with strong resistance. "If the enemy wants to test its...

Ahead of Iranian president's arrival in country, protestors from pro-Israel organizations and groups for homosexuals' rights gather in Rio de Janeiro, urge Brazilian president to teach his guests that 'racism is a crime'. Thousands of demonstrators from different religions took part Sunday in a march for peace and against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro. Faced with mounting pressure over his country's atomic ambitions, Ahmadinejad left on a five nation tour Sunday, in a bid to boost ties with Latin America's biggest economy and a rare backer of Tehran's nuclear program.

Armed bands of tribesmen in several provinces have risen up spontaneously against the local Taliban, it has been reported. Coalition commanders have been surprised to find hundreds of fighters taking independent action against the insurgents. They now hope to prompt similar action in other provinces and eventually create a force of thousands of anti-Taliban Fighters in a scheme called the community defence initiative the New York Times reported. United States special forces soldiers have been joining the militias to assist them, while supplying them with ammunition and bags of flour. Col Christopher Kolenda told the newspaper: "We are trying to...

Around 50,000 people took to the streets of the Nicaraguan capital Managua to protest against President Daniel Ortega's plans to seek reelection. Last month, the Supreme Court revoked a constitutional clause prohibiting presidential candidates running for office consecutively and banning presidents from serving more than two terms. The ruling allows the Daniel Ortega to run for a third term in office in the 2011 elections. After a popular revolution overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Mr Ortega joined a five-member junta of national reconciliation. He won the 1984 elections and served as president from January 1985 until 1990. He lost...

Revenge of the Iraqi detainees: Brett Favre jokes Fri Nov 20,2009 By Rick Chandler You think you know how to torture, America? Waterboarding is for schoolchildren. Detainees locked in an internment camp in Iraq are mocking their captors -- members of the Wisconsin National Guard -- with Brett Favre jokes. Evil bastards! It all started when the National Guardsmen began decorating their trucks and other areas of Camp Cropper with Packers colors recently. The prisoners picked up on it, did some research (Wiraqipedia?), and began with the Favre barbs. What goes around comes around, I suppose. I blame Dick Cheney....

By these days Ukrainians are remembering the deliberate extermination decided by J.STALIN of millions of ukrainians(about 6 millions...)by hunger. By those DANGEROUS times where PUTIN ,still grabing the power in Russia and praising STALIN legacy,is threatening UKRAINE i am wondering if OBA-MAO knows something about that history and widely about general History. As thIS POTUS, who pretends to change USA and ...the world ,seems to consider todays Russia as a friendly and reliable country UKRAINE still considers RUSSIA as a threat

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents. At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average. Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning...

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” said Blanche DuBois, in the final words of the play A Streetcar Named Desire. Well, don’t we all. Many citizens probably still cling to the old saw that public debt doesn’t matter because “we owe it to ourselves.” Wrong. Debt always matters. And as for whom we owe it to, it is a lot of kind (or, at least, not yet unkind) strangers. As recently as 1970, foreign holders of U.S. debt were essentially non-existent. But their slice of our obligation pie has steadily increased, especially over the past two decades,...

Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit on Sunday amid warnings that a full blown war is brewing over a festering territorial dispute. Azerbaijan and Armenia held a presidential summit yesterday amid warnings that war was brewing between the countries over a festering territorial dispute. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said the negotiations in Munich were a final attempt to avert a military confrontation. They were convened by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as part of efforts to find a peaceful solution to a problem that has divided the two former Soviet republics since the 1991...

The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but "would explain what happened and why they did it."

Barack Obama's first visit to Asia since his inauguration was one of the most disappointing trips by any U.S. president to the region in decades, especially given media-generated expectations that "Obamamania" would make it yet another triumphal progression. It was a journey of startlingly few concrete accomplishments, demonstrable proof that neither personal popularity nor media deference really means much in the hard world of international affairs. The contrast between Asia's reception for Obama and Europe's is significant. Although considered a global phenomenon, Obamamania's real center is Europe. There, Mr. Obama reigns as a "post-American" president, a multilateralist carbon copy of...

One side sees hacked e-mail as a sign of a 'Warmist Conspiracy.' The other says it's being taken out of context. Analysts don't expect it to have much effect on the Senate greenhouse gas bill.Reporting from Washington and London - Is it a "Warmist Conspiracy," or a case of an e-mail being "taken completely out of context"? Regardless, the latest dust-up over the science of climate change appears unlikely to affect the dynamics of either a pending debate in the Senate or international climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month. Conservative bloggers have seized on a series of e-mails between leading...

A Peruvian gang that allegedly killed people and drained fat from their corpses for use in cosmetics may have been inspired by a grisly Andean legend. Hilarió Cudeña Simon, the alleged ringleader, linked the crimes to tales of demonic assassins, known as Pishtacos, who purportedly waylaid victims in pre-Columbian times, police said. Peru reacted with revulsion and horror to reports that scores of peasants may have been butchered by the gang, which was said to have operated in Huánuco, a rural province dotted with Inca temples between the jungle and Andean peaks. The gang have been nicknamed the Pishtacos after...

ROME — A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery. Barbara Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, says in a new book that she used computer-enhanced images of the shroud to decipher faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the cloth. She asserts that the words include the name "(J)esu(s)...

LEXINGTON, Va. — Virginia Military Institute is defending itself against a lengthy investigation into accusations that the school's policies are sexist and hostile toward female cadets, a dozen years after women won the right to enroll. The federal Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has an ongoing investigation of a sex discrimination complaint at the small, state-supported school that so far has taken nearly a year and a half — three times longer than usual. Defenders say VMI has worked hard to recruit women and make them comfortable since the U.S. Supreme Court ordered co-education in 1997, but women...

MORE than 50 million African workers are to be invited to Europe in a far-reaching secretive migration deal, the Daily Express can reveal today. The report, by the EU statistical agency Eurostat, warns that vast numbers of migrants could be needed to meet the shortfall in two years if Europe is to have a hope of funding the pension and health needs of its growing elderly population. It states: “Countries with low fertility rates could require a significant number of immigrants over the coming dec­ades if they want to maintain the existing number of people of working age.  “Having sufficient people...

On Fox's Nov. 22 "Fox News Sunday," former "Special Report" anchor and Fox News senior political correspondent was dead spot on target in many regards when it came to criticizing the tack President Barack Obama has taken with his foreign policy gestures. First, Hume reflected on how Obama reacted on his trip to Asia last week. He noted that Obama was in a tough position, having to rely on borrowed Chinese money. However, "embracing weakness" was not the proper way for Obama to represent the country in Hume's view (emphasis added). "Look, the president is in a weaker position than...

Obama Presidency: A Boon to Islamic Terrorists Obama's General Says: Syria Allied with Al-Qaida, Attacking U.S.; White House Says: Is that a Problem? By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.org Does anyone read the newspapers in the U.S. government? How about checking out the dispatches coming from its generals in the field? Here’s a news story which tells all. A Reuters’ dispatch from Iraq interviews the commander of U.S. forces there. What’s he say?Al-Qaida is joining forces with Saddam Hussein’s supporters. And where are both al-Qaida’s forces fighting in Iraq and Saddam’s backers headquartered with lots of money stolen from Iraq? Syria....

Israel, Germany to discuss missile ships By YAAKOV KATZ A German defense delegation will arrive in Israel next month for high-level talks to focus on an Israeli request to purchase two Meko-class missile ships. The delegation will be led by senior officials from the German Defense Ministry and the German Navy. Talks on the Israeli side will be led by Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris and Navy commander Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom. While the Navy has yet to finalize its order, it is working on a concept under which the 2,000-ton ship would be designed by the German company Blohm...

A deal to free captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit has been finalized, and will be signed in the coming days, according to Hamas sources quoted by Arab media Sunday. Captured IDF soldier Gilad... Al-Arabiya also quoted the sources as saying that something could still go wrong with the deal at any point. The deal would entail 450 Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel, 70 of which were new to the previous list. Some of the Palestinians would be transferred to the Gaza Strip, while others would leave the country. After the Palestinians are released, Schalit would be transferred to Israel...

Indian Navy keen to buy newer generation aircraft By Gulshan R. Luthra New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) The Indian Navy has floated a Request for Information (RFI) for a newer generation of aircraft which can operate from the two indigenous aircraft carriers it will commission over the next 10 years. The Ministry of Defence and industry sources indicate that the RFI, issued recently, is of a “generic” nature, looking for newer platforms and airborne technologies and what is on offer from some of the well-known manufacturers. The US Boeing and French Dassault have confirmed receipt of the RFI for their...

Students at Al Soonobar School greet Soldiers with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, Nov. 18, in Jaber Mohamed Village, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Lisa A. Cope, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). COL ADDER — U.S. Soldiers here delivered supplies and stuffed animals to students at the Soonobar School in Jaber Mohamed Village, Nov. 18. Lt. Col. Clinton Moyer, chief of civil operations with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, has worked with the school's staff and the local community for roughly a year to build a new school.Moyer, a Clearwater, Kan., native, said the new school...

Following the escalation of protests by Iran’s senior ayatollahs against the regime, some members of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association (the most important organization of clerics affiliated with the regime) are planning to present a new list of “grand ayatollahs” under the supervision of Mohammad Yazdi, Ahmad Jannati and Mesbah Yazdi. According to rumors, the new list of grand ayatollahs will include people such as Jafar Sobhani, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Khoshvaght and a number of other ayatollahs approved by the regime. Credible reports indicate that prominent grand ayatollahs such as Montazeri and Zanjani will not have a place on the...

Shaw wasn’t always skeptical about vaccines. The neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia had his teenage son vaccinated with most of the recommended shots. But then he started studying some of the ingredients commonly found in vaccines. What he discovered caused him to go cold turkey on all shots for his six-year-old daughter. And that includes the vaccine for the H1N1 flu. “I am not convinced H1N1 is sufficiently hazardous to most people to risk the potential downside of the vaccine,” Shaw said over the phone from his office in the research pavilion at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority....

Throughout the history of this country playing the role of a global power, the United States has faced down threats of fascism and communism. The country is now in the throes of a war against terrorism. However, on ABC's Nov. 22 "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," a panel consisting of Washington Post columnist George Will, Liz Cheney of Keep America Safe, University of California, Berkeley professor Robert Reich and Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of The Aspen Institute, warned the next ideological battle facing the country is that which China practices - an authoritarian market society or authoritarian...

KABUL/HERAT: Eighty Taliban on Saturday laid down their weapons and joined Afghanistan’s police force, accepting a government amnesty aimed at ending a vicious insurgency, police said.In a ceremony at police headquarters in the eastern city of Herat, the 80 men handed over their weapons and pledged to end their fight against the government, said Herat police chief Asmatullah Alizai.“Negotiations have been going on with their commander Solaiman, as we have been trying to absorb him into the government,” he said, referring to Mula Solaiman, a former border guard commander who: changed sides a number of times.The decision by the 80...

In the legend of King Canute on the sea shore, it is popularly represented that King Canute was so arrogant that he actually sought to hold back the tides. However, King Canute was actually demonstrating that, for all his power, there were some forces which he could not overcome. As we contemplate the actions of governments around the world, it is possible to wonder whether they have ever heard King Canute's story. In the case of King Canute, he ended up with wet feet. In the case of the world economy, the consequences might not be so mild.

Rubalcaba "sees and listens" to the MP who asked for SITEL. Incident between [Interior Minister] Rubalcaba and [MP] Carlos Floriano after a tense row in the Parliament. According to [PP spokeperson] Esteban Gonzalez-Pons, the minister lost control of himself and went after the Popular Party member of the parliament to threaten him “I see and I hear everything you do” […]. Mercedes R. Martin / P. Montesinos When all the reporters were awaiting news about the liberation of the “Alakrana”, Esteban Gonzalez-Pons surprised everyone with a press conference to explain the incident that happened just a few meters away from...

A 15-year-old Egyptian girl, Dina el-Gohary, has written an emotional appeal to President Obama asking him to use his influence to save her father, Maher el-Gohary, who is being persecuted for his beliefs. "Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt," Dina writes, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency. "We are treated very badly. ... We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country." Dina and her father are...

Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, should be credited for spelling out the obvious. Addressing more than 700 delegates at the second meeting of the Summit on Global Agenda, he assured the audience that DubaiÂ’s economy is humming again. His vision of a new world order cannot be contested, especially as it encompasses the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and other emerging economies. Moreover, his passion to see assertive government control over economic details not only reflects prudence, but also serves as a safety valve to resist the downslide in the aftermath of the...