#and the games are both used so possibly broken and region-locked

[tinyredlawyer]

Japanese AA merch haul, and some candy called BIG APOLLO bc I thought it was funny

[stressedoutcanary]

Hold On - Jason Todd x Batgirl!Reader

Summary:

"Hey! I see a vent inside, maybe if we get to the roof-"

BAMMMM

"Of course, just shoot open the lock and alert whoever's inside. What a great strategy! Why didn't I think of it?! Oh I know, because it's dumb!"

Warnings: Language, Canon typical Violence, Occasional Angst lets be real it's Jason we are talking about, Kidnappings..?

Word count: 1.6k

A/N:- I...should be studying right now buttt I had fun writing this and yes, I took the title from the song Hold On by Chord Overstreet, I think it fits this perfectly.

I wasn't going for a series but here we are.

Part 2, Part 3

•°•°•°•°

It was a quite night for Gotham. Every person was busy with their own work and so were you, even if it was a little different from what people down below on the streets were doing. As of yet, you had stopped two muggings, busted a few armed two-face goons trying to rob a bank and were currently running across rooftops.

'Maybeee I can get off easy today, go home, microwave the pizza that has been waiting for me in the fridge, get a nice, warm shower and then straight to bed'

You hummed to yourself at the delightful thought as you sat on a gargoyle overlooking the city. You were enjoying the feeling of the light breeze on your face. It was soothing in a way. Not long after, you were startled by your comms crackling to life out of nowhere as you heard Oracle's automated voice in your ears.

"Batgirl I am going to need you to check out the area near Gotham Central Park for any visible strange activity. There are several missing persons reports filed this week that I have tied up to that particular region."

'So much for a warm bath and a good night's sleep, way to jinx yourself (Y/N), you dumbass'

"Isn't that park under construction or something? You know after the whole Justice League fiasco last month?", you questioned.

"Yep but people still go there, in the mornings for walks and at the nights for certain activities."

"Of course they do, I swear, people here are on a whole different level." You sighed. "Alrighty then Babs, I am on it."

•°•°

After climbing up a couple of fire escapes and swinging off of numerous rooftops you finally reached your target destination. There was a deafening silence when your feet landed on the damp grass. You took in the misted surroundings and decided to look around for something out of the ordinary. There was a broken bright neon sign by the corner of the street which caught your attention, you could only make out the last bit, it spelled Parlor.

'That seems awfully familiar. Something about it is odd but I can't quite place my finger on it'

You were lost in thought when you felt someone move behind you, there was rather little time for you to react so you choose the 'hit first ask questions later' option. You clenched your fist, twisted your upper body and delivered a quick, staggering blow to the shady figure lurking behind.

.

"OWW!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

.

"HOOD?!"

Sure enough, Jason was on the ground clutching his ribs looking like a hurt puppy.

You moved your hands up and massaged you temples. You do not want to deal with him. Not today and if possible not ever. Even though you never let it show, you always avoided a run in with him. He may have become a part of the family again but you were far off from forgiving him.

You watched with narrowed eyes as he got to his feet and and dusted off the grass from his jacket.

"So on a Scale of one to Demon brat, how much do you hate me?", the smirk on his face and the way he wiggled his eyebrows at you almost made you want to smack him with a crowbar yourself.

"What? Dami?! I don't-- I don't hate Damian, he just gets on my nerves sometimes, something you do all the time.", you enjoyed, maybe a little too much, the way Jason's smirk turned into a small pout. You smiled a bit as you shook your head at his childishness.

"Before you start chucking batarangs at me I want to make this clear; No, Oracle did not send me here to be your backup or whatever, I just happen to be investigating the same thing which obviously led me here to you. So how about we work on this together and watch each other's back", Despite the uncertainty of your rejection, he sounded hopeful. It seemed as if he was ready to build the old, worn out bridges of your relationship back up again. It sent an unexpected warmth through your chest.

"Just like old times?"

"Just like old times.", Jason repeated as you both did a rather unsuccessful fist bump and grinned like idiots.

•°•°

You walked up to the seemingly abandoned building, Jason examined the door for traps whereas you decided on taking a look through the glass window.

"Hey! I see a vent inside, maybe if we get to the roof-"

BAMMMM

"Of course, just shoot open the lock and alert whoever's inside. What a great strategy! Why didn't I think of it?! Oh I know, because it's dumb!", you whisper shouted with a scowl. Jason just shrugged and tilted his head to the side, pointing towards the now open door.

"Ladies first, so lead the way, unless you're scared.", it was a playful challenge on Jason's part, one that you were more than ready to accept.

"Oh you're on Red."

You stepped inside and it was all business from there on. You took in the condition of the room; dusty desks, broken glass, oddly placed mannequins and footprints leading up ahead into a long hallway.

"They seem recent enough", Jason gave a slight nod at your discovery.

Considering the darkness of the hallway, you and Jason shared a look and switched on your night vision lenses. You both started taking cautious steps, the occasional soft thud of your boots being the only sound in the vicinity.

The end of the hallway was forked up and there were two rooms at the end of each passageway.

"How is this place so big! it didn't seem this huge from the outside", you could hear the exasperation in Jason's voice. You figured not getting to hit someone might be getting to him or that he was just bored.

"Look I will take the right, you take the left, our comms are already connected, if any one of us finds anything we tell the other and remember we do not engage in a fight alone. Am I clear or do you want me to write that down for you"

"Yes ma'am, but just so you know you are starting to sound like The old man", you rolled your eyes at his comment and went on ahead towards the right as he went the other way.

•°•°

You scrolled through the torn down bookshelf kept in one of the rooms and you were making a mental note in your mind that there were a lot of medical journals in the bunch, when your comms buzzed.

"I am sorry", Jason whispered in a soft voice and you froze for a spilt second, eyes widening.

'No (Y/N) don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he is saying, just focus on finding those missing people and get this over with'

With that thought you tried continuing your investigation as if you had heard nothing.

"I said, I am sorry (Y/N). I know you heard me. I also know you've been avoiding me, cutting me out and you don't have to reply if don't feel like it but...I just wanted you to know..."

"Now is not the right time for this Hood and...for what it's worth I am not looking forward to a forgiveness session with you...", you felt awful for cutting him out the way you did, your heart clenched at the harshness of your words as you clicked off your comms, but you refused to have this discussion right now. If you were being more honest to yourself you just couldn't bear the emotions it would bring, so you chose the easiest way; completely shutting him out.

It was few minutes after the highly uncomfortable talk with Jason that a wall poster had caught your eye. You moved your hand over it, somewhat wiping off the dust, there was something scribbled on it making it harder for you to read the actual text. You squinted, trying to make out the words

"The people need...perfection...and that is what Pretty Dolls Parlor strives to achieve."

You scanned the area near poster for fingerprints and clicked your comms back on.

"Hood, get over here, I found something and I think this is the make or break kind of information", you were waiting for scan to complete, concern creeping up your mind when there was no reply from the other end.

"Red Hood? can you hear me?"

Nothing.

"Red?! Answer me Damnit!!"

A whole lot of Nothing.

As soon as you heard the chime of the scanner signaling its completion, you sped the other way towards the left corridor, towards Jason.

'Jay please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.'

By the time you reached Jason's location you were panting from the lack of breath and were already cursing yourself for bringing Jason along. To say that the man can take care of himself might be an understatement, he is basically a lone wolf, but still the thought of something happening to him while he was with you hurt like hell.

You looked around frantically and almost jumped out of your skin when you stepped on a gun. You heart almost stopped, it was Jason's. To make matters worse, there was no other sign of him or of were he went. You picked up the gun holding it securely in your hand. You could literally hear your heart pounding in your ears.

Suddenly, through the reflection from the glass window in front of you, you caught a glimpse of a man wearing a blank white face mask, you turned around, immediately switching to a fighting stance but that only did so much for you. A flashlight was switched on and shoved near your face, the night vision of your lens intensified the light, blinding you completely.

Before you could react, a metal pole connected straight with the back of your head and just like that you were lights out on the ground.

°•°•°•°•

Author's cute little extra Note:

*wiggling my eyebrows rn*

I might be a little too obsessed with the Arkham Knight game hehe.

Well that ended well for you, didn't it?? Jason's gone missing and you get a nice concussion to garnish your anxiety level? No? Okay I will stop talking now.

Tell me if you want to be tagged for the next parts.💕

[sage-nebula]

Game Review — Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition

About seventeen years ago, I played a Gamecube game called Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and for the most part I really loved it. I got lost in every single dungeon all the time, and I really hated the annoying moogle I had to drag around, but other than that I loved the game. So it makes sense, then, why I would be excited when I heard it was getting a remastered release on Switch.

Overall Score: 6/10

While I was happy to get a chance to play this game again, I feel like Square-Enix whacked both of its kneecaps in two different ways. One, they did a remaster instead of a remake, meaning they just gave it a little polish instead of fixing existing issues; and two, they decided for some reason to port it to mobile phones, which I feel created some issues, though I admit I don’t have any proof of that. While I still enjoyed my time with the game for the most part, it definitely receives a lower score than I think I would have given the original in my youth. More details under the cut, best viewed on my blog for formatting.

The Pros:

This isn’t specific to the remaster, but rather more about the game itself, but one thing I think is notable about the setting is that it’s essentially a post-apocalyptic story, but it’s one where the people haven’t completely fallen into despair and ruin. I mean, some places have; there’s a village called Tida whose caravan never returned and so they all died slow deaths of miasma as their crystal’s protection ran out. But in other villages, including the player’s hometown, people are living their lives as best they can. Some people are even trying to find a way to get rid of the miasma altogether. While of course there is much to stress about and also people’s memories being taken from them, overall the world looks a bit brighter than in most post-apocalyptic stories. It’s always nice when post-apocalyptic stories recognize that even after the end, life still goes on.

I’ve also always rather enjoyed the way the way the game constantly reminds you that you’re not the only caravan out on this journey. You encounter caravans from other towns and villages pretty often, and their stories intersect with yours, growing as the in-game years pass. It’s another thing that makes the world feel alive, because you see again and again that there are other heroes out there, heroes of their own stories, that you’re just one of many in this world trying your best to get by and keep your village alive.

The soundtrack is also something that deserves praise, because it has a very . . . Celtic, I think? flair to it that really suits the setting, especially since the narrator has (what I believe is) an Irish accent. I can’t think of a single bad song in the entire game, and many of them are catchy and bouncy and fun to listen to.

After each little cutscene or dungeon, you get an entry added to the in-game journal, and I enjoy those as well. It helps keep track of the little side stories going on (since they span over years), and I like how some of them change depending on the choices you’re given in any given cutscene. That said, I do have a slight issue with them as well, but I’ll discuss that in a different section.

If you play single-player, the game assigns a moogle named Mog to carry the crystal chalice through the dungeons with you so you don’t suffocate due to the miasma. (In multiplayer, another player has to carry it.) This results in Mog getting tired, saying, “I’m tired, kupo, it’s your turn!” and making you carry it sometimes anyway, even if you’re being chased by monsters. When I played this game as a kid, it seemed like he was saying this EVERY FIVE SECONDS and it was THE MOST annoying thing. But it didn’t feel as frequent this time, and when I looked it up, I saw that the devs actually did extend the amount of time Mog could carry the chalice before he got tired. I appreciated this very much, even if Mog was still annoying.

The Neutrals:

From what I can tell, there wasn’t really a graphics overhaul done, except to increase the jiggle physics on female Selkies, which . . . I’m not a prude, I don’t really care that much (even though it can be distracting), but of all the things you chose to fix, it was this? Square-Enix, please.

While on the one hand I like that there’s no set order that you can encounter the random travel cutscenes in, that they can happen whenever, because it makes it feel like a more realistic journey . . . it also creates the problem that the events will still trigger even if you’re already finished the associated quest line. For example, to get the Unknown Element that lets you reach the final boss area, you have to complete a series of actions in Lynari Desert. You find out what you have to do through a series of travel cutscenes with a swindler named Gurdy, who gives you poem verses that strongly hint at what you need to do. I had a few of these before I reached the desert, but not all of them, so I just looked up a guide to get the remainder of the instructions. Despite this, I still later triggered the final Gurdy cutscene, and so it was like my character was standing there with the desert treasure while Gurdy told her about the desert treasure . . . it’s not a huge deal, but it does show how the idea of having random travel cutscenes is kind of flawed. (Additionally, you can beat the game without even finishing certain stories as a result, so it’s entirely possible you could get to Mio and not know who she’s talking about in the end. It’s not game breaking, but it is a bit of an issue too.)

The Cons:

The LOADING TIMES, OH MY GOD. This game has the longest loading times of any game I have ever played on the Switch, and I confirmed with someone who has played the original a billion times that these loading time issues were not present in the original game, meaning they are a direct result of development on the “remaster.” Literally, the game goes to a blank loading screen that lasts a good minute or two for almost everything. For every cutscene you have, any time you leave or enter a place, hell, even QUITTING THE GAME has a “Closing Software” box for FAR LONGER than any other Switch title, to the point where it made me afraid for a moment that my Switch, brand new though it is, was broken. I don’t know why the loading times are so bad, but I personally blame it on Square-Enix wanting to make the game multiplatform (multiplatform including fucking cell phones), thus not optimizing it for any one console. And on a similar note . . .

Online multiplayer is region-locked. Yes, you read that right. Two friends who I’d originally intended to caravan with live in Europe, and since I live in North America, we were unable to play together since Square-Enix decided to region-lock online multiplayer. It is honestly the most batshit stupid thing I have ever heard of. The only reasoning I can think of for why they did this is because of mobile phone support; it’s entirely possible that there is something within a phone’s SIM card that would make it not possible to play multiplayer across different continents, but honestly I have trouble believing even that since I believe that’s not a problem in other mobile games. Either way, the entire point of online play is to be able to play with anyone, no matter where they are, and the fact that in the year 2020 Square-Enix decided it was a good idea to region-lock online play is fucking ridiculous.

A minor complaint, but you can’t use the left joystick to scroll between items in menus. You have to use the little arrow buttons instead. This was also the case in the Switch port of Final Fantasy XII, so I think it’s a Square-Enix preference thing, but it annoyed me and I wish they’d at least give the option to change button configuration around.

There’s backtracking as the years go on that I personally found kind of annoying, especially when it made me go to dungeons I didn’t particularly like. The thing is, the gameplay in FFCC doesn’t have a lot of variance; you go to three dungeons, you fight three bosses, then the year ends and you repeat it the next year. The only real variety is in the dungeons themselves as you get to explore new ones. But in Year 5, you HAVE to repeat dungeons because you’re blocked off from going to new areas. And at a certain point there stops being new dungeons altogether, so you have to repeat dungeons if you want to get myrrh for the village. And yeah, the dungeons are a bit harder each time, but the layout is still the same, and so it made what was already a repetitive style of gameplay even more repetitive, which honestly made me eager to finish it as quickly as possible despite wanting to grind as long as possible when I first got the game because I wanted to avenge my childhood self, who never managed to beat the final boss.

The four different races to choose from all have different styles of gameplay, and you can make multiple characters in one file to fill out your caravan / open specialty shops all around town. The problem is, the only character in the caravan who gets stat boosts and experience from the dungeons is the one who goes through them, and the dungeons get tougher each time they’re completed. So unless you constantly rotate your characters, creating more characters to fill out the caravan and be able to use different play styles per different boss (such as using a Yuke when facing a boss like Dragon Zombie who can really only be affected by magic) is a pointless waste of time because your extra characters won’t be strong enough to face the boss you need them to face. I don’t know if this was an issue in the original, but it’s definitely a disappointing issue here.

While some of the journal entries change depending on your answer choices, I found it disappointing that the journal entries don’t change (or at least don’t always) change depending on what type of character you chose to play as. The specific example I have in mind is that I chose to play as a Selkie, and through the course of the journey I of course traveled to Leuda, which is home of the Selkies. If you choose to play as a Selkie, you can participate in a minigame there and no one will steal from you. Additionally, since you see in various dungeons that Selkies have had a very rough time of it and for the longest time couldn’t put a home base anywhere, I had it in my head that my Selkie character would feel like she returned home, in a sense, even though she personally didn’t grow up in Leuda. I mean, this is the land of her people, this is where Selkie history is richest, this is the reward they got for all the suffering they experienced. (And sort of still do, since the other races tend to be prejudiced against them, and one Selkie in Leuda even says that he thinks everyone else wants Selkies to just disappear.) But despite all of this, the journal entry for Leuda states that the main character had their wallet stolen and never wants to go back. That sort of entry makes sense if you’re playing as one of the other three races, but it doesn’t fit Selkies at all and was pretty disappointing. That’s just one example, but I’m sure there were others, and it would have been nice if a bit more thought was put into play here.

All in all, I still think that Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is a game worth playing. I really like the worldbuilding, as well as the characters, and I did have fun with it. With that said, though, I think that Square-Enix should have given this game a proper remake instead of a remaster, and should have made it a Switch exclusive (just as the original was a Gamecube exclusive) so that they could optimize it for the hardware, instead of being greedy and putting out one that didn’t play very well just so they could make cross-platform money. But despite those issues, if you want a unique action-RPG, I don’t think that FFCC’s remaster would be a bad choice to try out.

[creepingsharia]

“Clean Our Toilets and Take Our Germs to Your Church!” Muslim Persecution of Christians, March 2020

by Raymond Ibrahim

The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of March, 2020, thematically arranged:

The Kidnap, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christians

Pakistan: A group of motorcycle-riding Muslim men kidnapped and gang raped two 12-year-old Christian boys.  The children were playing video games at a local arcade when a gang of Muslims approached and lured them to check out and eventually sit on their motorcycles.  Once the boys were atop the vehicles, the men rode off to a remote field where “the young boys were beaten till they submitted to the demands of the Muslim men, at which point the 12 year olds were raped,” notes the March 23 report:

After the ordeal Suneel and Harry [the two boys] were threatened not to say anything by the gang as they rode off … leaving the boys behind naked.  Suneel and Harry then tearfully and in pain got dressed and walked for 3 hours till home.  Suneel managed to stagger home at 3:30 am early the following morning and was received by his father Naeem (40 yrs) who had not slept all night. Naeem and other family members were praying for Suneel and were shocked when they found him crying and trembling with fear.

Last reported and according to his mother:

Suneel is not eating properly.  He cries all the time and has said he does not want to go to a local school.  Other boys have been teasing him and it has created a dark sorrow within him.  We cannot take him to church as they are all closed [due to COVID-19] and he is slowly entering a deep depression.

Separately, on March 1, two Muslim men abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forcibly converted her to embrace Islam, and married her off to a Muslim.  Saima Javid was kidnapped while fetching water from a pump near her home.  “I was deeply depressed and thought of committing suicide when I lost my daughter,” her mother said while discussing this incident.  “Young Christian girls are not safe in this country. Muslims consider them as their property or slaves and therefore humiliate them as they wish.”  After confirming that “our daughters are often sexually harassed by influential Muslims,” the girl’s father added that “The police did not listen to us for five days.  However, when news of the abduction went viral on social media, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR # 137/20) against the abductors on March 5.”  As a result, on March 26, the 13-year-old Christian girl appeared in court where she “testified that she had been abducted and was forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry [a Muslim man].” The judge ordered her returned to her family.  “This order marks a rare victory for Pakistani Christians affected by the issue of abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage,” the report correctly observes.

Nigeria: On March 12, the Hausa Christian Foundation of Nigeria announced that a young girl named Sadiya Amos had managed to escape from her Muslim kidnappers.  The girl was originally abducted in early January; she was subsequently forcibly converted to Islam and married off to one of her kidnappers.  Sadiya was thereafter kept in a small room under guard.   One day, the guards fell asleep without locking her room.  She managed to sneak out and flee back to her family’s home—only to find her father experiencing his own problems for trying to rescue her: a Sharia court was accusing him of trying to prevent his daughter from embracing Islam—and had even produced a forged certificate to that effect—in an effort to assist her abductors.  The statement adds that,

The case of abducting Christian Girls and their forceful conversion to Islam as well as forcing them into marriage has become a water shed issue in Northern Nigeria….  The moment these girls are abducted, they are subjected to all manners of evil just to take control of their minds. Once they took hold of their minds, these girls will only do everything they are asked to do. While the parents fight for the release of their daughters, these abductors continue to sexually abuse these girls, hypnotized [subliminally influencing?] their food, drinks, clothes, where they sleep, perpetually evoke evil spirit upon them to the point that these girls completely lost their minds and never think of going back to their home. Usually, the moment a Christian girl is abducted they ensure that they get married to her within one or two weeks. She will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant.

Egypt:  An unknown woman posing as a Coptic nun, along with an unknown man posing as her monk assistant, were exposed as frauds who were using their religious garb to target and lure young and trusting Christian girls.  The issue was apparently serious enough for the Coptic pope himself to make a statement disavowing the two charlatans.  On social media, the “nun,” known only as Theodora, had a photo shopped picture of herself with the pope.  It is unclear what the exact scam was—whether it was for later extortion or identifying potential kidnapping victims.  Elaborate schemes to target Christian girls in Egypt are not uncommon.

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: According to a March 8 report titled, “Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians,”

Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Muhammadu Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the “Highway Bandits” 150-200.

According to numerous Christian leaders in Nigeria, the reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the “professional” terrorists of Boku Haram is because one of their fellow tribesmen, the president of the nation, Muhammadu Buhari, is enabling their jihad.

Kenya:  On March 11, Muslims connected with the Islamic terror group, Al Shabaab (“the Youth”) killed two more Christians and abducted a third in yet another roadside ambush.  In the first instance, a passenger bus was stopped and stormed by the terrorists, who proceeded to order all the passengers out. “They abducted the only Christian on the bus, the mechanic, and allowed the others to continue with their journey,” a police officer reported. The second attack occurred an hour later in the same region.  Two medical transporters—both Christians—delivering much needed medicine to Mandera, which has suffered much from ongoing Al Shabaab violence, were stopped in their truck; they were “killed by shooting and their bodies dumped on the roadside,” an official confirmed.  In the previous three months, at least 13 other Christians were killed under nearly identical circumstances in Kenya—yanked out of ambushed vehicles and slaughtered on being identified as Christian.

Pakistan: More details concerning the February 28 torture and murder of Saleem Masih, a Christian farm laborer who dared use water from the same well used by Muslims emerged in a March 3 report: When his tormentors first gathered around and starting beating and kicking him, “they called him chura (filthy Christian cleaner), while making him lick their boots telling him kaffir (non-Muslim) dogs deserve such treatment.”  They then dragged him by the hair and chained him in a barn where the torture began in earnest: they “rolled a thick iron rod across the whole of Saleem’s body which by now had many fractures and internal injuries.  Saleem was tortured and spat at for at least 4 hours until he went unconscious.” The report concludes by quoting Juliet Chowdhry, a Pakistani human rights activist in the UK:

A senseless violent attack has ended the life of a young Christian man, left a mother and father heart-broken and community beleaguered. The men who undertook the attack are so blinded by hate they are showing no evidence of remorse. Overcoming such hate will take a miracle as it is ingrained into every aspect of culture and society in Pakistan and is reinforced via a biased national curriculum.  It will take decades to remove such entrenched intolerance and I fear I will not see it in my lifetime…. Nations such as the UK naively continue to send foreign aid to Pakistan despite the existing social malaise – this naive attitude contributes to Pak-Government apathy and perpetuates the status quo.

The Jihad on Churches

Norway: A Muslim migrant set fire to two churches.  According to the March 21 report, the man, aged 28, from a Middle Eastern or African nation, torched the churches in “revenge” for some unclear but supposedly “blasphemous” treatment of the Koran at the hands of a Norwegian.  He was imprisoned for four weeks, which the court said was “not disproportionate,” as “it is a serious crime.”

United Kingdom: A 23-year-old man who was initially only described as a “Norwegian”—but who was later revealed as a Muslim born to Somali refugees—was arrested for plotting to bomb St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. “Based on the material we seized and reviewed, we believe that he may be suspected of having participated in the terror organization Islamic State,” police added. He is also accused of managing to destroy evidence in a still-in-progress terrorism case in Denmark.  According to the March 23 report, his co-conspirator and fellow arrestee, Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a British woman born as Michelle Ramsden who converted to Islam in 2007, admitted to the planned terror attack: “the goal was to kill as many people as possible in a suicide bomb attack on St. Paul.” Earlier, in an encrypted chat with an undercover police officer, Safiyya had said that she would “rather die young and get to Jannah (paradise) the quickest way possible…  I always know I wanted to do something big… killing one kafir (infidel) is not enough for me.”  She had further expressed a desire to target a church on a Christmas or Easter day, when they would be packed, to kill more people.

Sudan: Unknown militants burned down two churches in the Muslim majority nation.  According to a March 18 report from Dabanga, an independent Sudanese news outlet,

[V]iolence against Christian communities has continued, despite the changes that have occurred in Sudan over the last year…  [T]he first attack took place … in Omdurman on Saturday February 29. A church building of the Sudanese Church of Christ was torched. It is not known who the perpetrators are.  The second incident occurred on March 9, when militants set fire to the Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Bout, El Tadamon local in Blue Nile state. The church was destroyed completely, including the furniture and books within it.

Counting these latest, five churches have been torched in Sudan since the start of 2020.

Indonesia: Around mid-March, authorities closed down another church in response to ongoing protests by the Islamic Defenders Alliance, a Muslim advocacy group—even though the building had been used as a church between 2017 and 2020.  Initially, local Muslims had complained that it had a visible cross, which the congregation quickly removed.  However, that was not enough, and the Islamic Defenders Alliance issued a statement saying, “We, from the alliance, demand that the church be demolished as soon as possible.”  Since Muslims first began protesting the existence of the church, its pastor has tried to find a new place to build a new church, but has been unsuccessful, as local residents reject having a church near them.  “Many Christians across Indonesia face religious persecution that is embedded in the culture and legal system,” said another March report:  “Christianity, both Protestants and Catholics, make up 10% of the population. That’s close to 26 million people that are being affected by this discrimination.”

Pakistan:  A Muslim man beat “to near death” his Christian servant for threatening to quit unless permitted to attend church. Shaan Masih, 21, had never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a household servant to the wealthy and influential Muslim but was pressured into it after his father died.  Shaan “was working from 7am to 7pm every day and suffered a lot of bullying at work, was pushed and beaten,” the report explains.  “He was constantly called a Chura (dirty Christian cleaner) and soon cleaning toilets became a regular part of his work despite his protestations” that his original contract stipulated that he would not clean toilets. Only he, the report adds, “was required to clean the toilets and none of the Muslim servants,” who “were also treated with more respect.”  On March 13, after Shaan asked his employer’s wife if he could leave a little early so he could attend evening mass at church, she exclaimed, “You Chura are always going to those dirty churches and bringing your germs into our home! Before you go, clean our toilets and take our germs to your church so that they can suffer instead.”  Shaan refused: “Being before God is a sacred thing and I want to be comfortable with God and would not feel good, if I clean your toilets before I go.”  When she threatened to fire him, he said he quit and went straight to church; when he returned home, his Muslim boss called and asked him to come and collect his things and get paid.   Shaan “was really pleased about this as he had waited so long for the payment and was beginning to feel pressure from a large number of growing debts.”  According to the report, when he arrived,

Kashif [the boss] and other servants were waiting for Shaan with a hot iron rod and leather belt.  Shaan was resoundly [sic] beaten, spat at and tortured for at least 20 minutes by the family members of Kashif and his servants…  While he was beaten Kashif berated Shaan for leaving his place of work without express permission from him: ‘You are a Chura and should not leave a Muslim masters premises until told to. Your nerve to stand up to Muslims is a blasphemy and I will kill you for this!’ Kashif ran inside his home to grab a gun and shoot Shaan who was by now terrified and in fear for his life.

A servant helped Shaan to escape during the commotion; he “sped towards his home bleeding along the route.”  When a relative opened the door, “he collapsed on the floor” and his mother “began screaming in a panic….  Shaan fell unconscious for several hours from the pain of his injuries.” “The attitude of both the police and medical staff was really disappointing,” Shaan later said in an interview, regarding how both had ignored his pleas for justice and help.  “Despite severe burns on my body and immense pain, they treated me like an animal.”  According to his mother, “He used my son like a donkey, never paid him and then enacted such violence for no reason. I fear he can kill my son anytime he wants because of his influence and power.”

Turkey: The desecration of Christian cemeteries, many of which are attached to churches, is on the rise.  According to a March 14 report, 20 of 72 gravestones in the Ortaköy Christian Cemetery in Ankara were found destroyed.  “These attacks against cemeteries are making the Christian community across Turkey feel incredibly sad and desperate,” an Ankara-based pastor observed:  “Nobody can watch over the graves of their loved ones like a guard.”  In one instance, the desecraters broke a cross off a recently deceased women’s grave in a church cemetery; days earlier, her burial service was interrupted by cries of “Allahu Akbar!”  “My son lies here,” another Christian woman explained: “He died last year. He was 17-years-old. Children his age came here and destroyed his grave. What type of conscience can accept this?…  If my son were alive, he would not do such a thing. They have carried out similar attacks before, and no one was caught.”  An “environment of hate” for Christians is behind this upsurge, said one local journalist:

But this hateful environment did not emerge out of nowhere. The seeds of this hatred are spread, beginning at primary schools, through books printed by the Ministry of National Education portraying Christians as enemies and traitors. The indoctrination continues through newspapers and television channels in line with state policies. And of course, the sermons at mosques and talk at coffee houses further stir up this hatred.

Pakistan: A March 1 report offered more details on the February 2 shooting and axe attack on Christians for daring to build a church on their land.  According to the wife of Azeem Masih (32), who was shot in the head and has lost the ability to speak and other functions:

We were all asleep at 11 pm, as Azeem is a tailor and had to work from early in the morning.   Suddenly we heard an evil-sounding cacophony of shouts.   Some of the local community including Azeem went out of the house to see what was happening – other[s] were dragged out by a local Muslim gang that had gathered around the Christian properties.  The men seemed intent to harm all the Christians; they were threatening to rape all the Christian women and beat and kill all other Christians.   I was shuddering with fear. I got on my knees and prayed and then heard gunshots. After this people could be heard running and screaming.   Someone told me Azeem had been shot, I ran to him and at first I thought he was dead.   I sat their weeping until the police arrived and took us to hospital.  I am heartbroken.   Azeem and I have only recently had a child and he has hardly got to know Tabeel.  Now I do not know if he will ever be able to speak to Tabeel again.  I am not used to seeing Azeem like this; he has become so dependent on others, whereas he was always the first to help them.  Azeem was a healthy and committed husband and father—a man of God who wanted to strengthen the church with a new building.   I cannot understand why these men have acted so violently, as they were not provoked by us—we have tried to live peaceful lives.

COVID-19 Discrimination in Pakistan

Christians and other “infidels” were discriminated against and denied the same aid given to Muslims in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a March 30 report:

A Karachi NGO has denied food aid to poor Hindus and Christians, who like Muslims are suffering from coronavirus….  The Saylani Welfare International Trust has been operating in the Korangi area since 1999, handing out aid and meals to homeless people and seasonal workers.  Two days ago, the welfare organisation refused to give ration cards to non-Muslims, saying that only Muslims are entitled to them.  The reason for this is that Zakat, Islamic alms giving (one of Islam’s five pillars), is reserved for Muslims. The Christian man said he begged for food to no avail.  Farooq Masih, a 54-year-old Christian in Korangi, said that last Saturday, Abid Qadri, a member of Saylani Welfare, with other NGO members, handed out food cards in his area. But, when they got to Christian homes, they just moved on.

“A few days back there was an announcement made through a mosque’s loud speaker in the Sher-Shah neighborhood of Lahore inviting citizens to collect the government’s announced foodstuffs,” a pastor explained concerning another similar incident. “When Christians reached the distribution point and presented their national identity cards, they were asked by staffers to get out of the line claiming the foodstuff was only for Muslim citizens.”   This same pastor received numerous phone calls from his flock, all of whom experienced the same denial. “Christians often face religious hatred and discrimination,” a Christian woman, aged 50, said of her experience. “However, we never thought of this biased behavior by the majority people at this critical time of COVID-19.”

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports at link below.

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2019 Day 12: Enemies To Lovers

Mine | @dean-cas-in-the-impala Rating: Explicit Word Count: 5095 Main Tags and Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Romance, First time, Demon Dean, Angel Cas, Enemies to Lovers Summary: With his grace bound and wings injured, Castiel stumbles into a bar full of demons. Someone saves him from inevitable death, but at what cost?

Coffee Spills and Subway Sandwiches | @asexualcas Rating: General Word Count: 2710 Main Tags and Warnings: No Warnings Apply, College AU Summary: Castiel hates the cold. But not as much as he hates Dean Winchester. When Dean spills scalding coffee on Cas’s new bee shirt, that does nothing to help his dislike for the man. Spending an afternoon hellbent on inconveniencing him? That just might.

Scars | @lemonsorbae Rating: Explicit Word Count: 147565 Main Tags and Warnings: Hate at First Sight, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Domestic, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, From Sex to Love, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Drinking, Underage Drinking, Drug Use Summary: Dean Winchester doesn’t answer to anybody about anything. Not about his ever changing hair color or tattoos, not his music, and definitely not about all the fucks he definitely doesn’t give. Of course, then he meets pretentious, skinny jean wearing, ugly sweater buying Castiel Edlund who’s hardest lot in life is probably alphabetizing inventory at his uncle’s record store, and suddenly Dean has to answer for everything. Castiel, on the other hand, had long since accepted his fate as an anti-social, directionless, and misunderstood soul, with his cat, Meg, and a bottle of whiskey being the only company he needed. But then fate threw him Dean, the abrasive, infuriating punk who wears guyliner, and walks around like the chip on his shoulder is something to be proud of, and Castiel’s carefully constructed life was turned ass over teakettle. After a heated exchange upon first meeting, a mutual loathing afterwards, and the glaring opposites in their lives, neither of them sees the point of mixing oil and water. Which would be all good and well, except neither of them seems to be able to stay away from the other.

The Difference Between a Pirate and a Gentleman | @pimentogirl Rating: Explicit Word Count: 67739 Main Tags and Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, mentions of slavery, pining, slowburn Summary: The Righteous Man, feared pirate captain of The Black Impala, scourge of the Caribbean, is rapidly climbing the chart of The Royal Navy’s Most Wanted list. Although, it’s hard to get the message out: Woodcut wanted posters mysteriously disappear from the noticeboards as fast as they are posted, to be secreted in diaries and scrapbooks, and tales of his daring do are so popular in the taverns and brothels throughout the region, he’s rapidly becoming a folk hero. Lieutenant Castiel James Milton on the other hand is relatively unknown, but well-regarded by the crew of HMS Swallow. They should be sworn enemies, of course, but then being an anglo-french aristocrat born in Tortuga to parents who should never have been together in the first place, Castiel has never been very good at ‘should’, despite his best efforts to do his ‘duty’ to his domineering grandfather, the Earl of Northumberland. By the time his real enemy catches up with Dean, it’s pretty obvious to everyone that there’s very little difference between a pirate and a gentleman…

don’t go breaking my heart | @breathingdestiel Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 2485 Main Tags and Warnings: au, past friends with benefits, misunderstandings Summary: Dean absolutely hates Castiel Novak. He’ll do whatever it takes to stop that asshole from getting the promotion.

The Galaxy’s Most Wanted | @saltnhalo Rating: Explicit Word Count: 10160 Main Tags and Warnings: Space pirates, enemies to lovers, sci-fi Summary: Dean had been the one always up to mischief, running around with his father’s broken laser pistol and constantly getting into places he shouldn’t have been. Sam, in comparison, always seemed to be the smart, studious one – until he reprogrammed the AI in their neighbours’ house to play ‘Happy Birthday’ at the loudest possible volume while keeping all the doors and windows firmly locked. It had taken two experts seven hours to undo the coding that Sam had managed to integrate into the house’s programming. So, yes. They had been exceptional even from the beginning. And when John Winchester crossed one too many people, his sons inherited his beloved ship, and took to the cosmos doing what they knew best: stealing. And they were damn good at it too. Almost unrivalled, across their own galaxy and even those neighbouring. Almost.

Shot Through The Heart | @peanutbutterjelly-pie Rating: Explicit Word Count: 156327 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, UST, Slow Build Summary: As a hunter Dean finds himself more often than not relying on the help of the Men of Letters. Most of the time that’s not much of a problem - if it wasn’t for Castiel, the smartass bookworm with the piercing blue eyes, the messy hair and the rude attitude. Yeah, he’s been an annoying thorn in Dean’s side since day one - and nothing will ever change that! Seriously NOTHING!!

Dean Winchester is Not Afraid of Ghosts | @DesiraeLovesDestiel Rating: Explicit Word Count: 481000 Main Tags and Warnings: photographer Dean/Medium Castiel, paranormal AU, enemies to lovers, hurt/comfort, smut, fluff, angst, humor Summary: When photographer Dean Winchester is not capturing momentous occasions like weddings and graduations with his Nikon, he is moonlighting as the cameraman for the South Shore Paranormal; a ghost hunting series on YouTube, headed by his brother Sam, and Sam’s best friend Gabriel. Despite his brother’s adamance, Dean Winchester does not believe in ghosts. And no one is going to change his mind. Certainly not a scam artist like Castiel Novak. Castiel is a self-proclaimed medium… and Gabriel’s brother. When a member of the SSP team has to leave the crew, Castiel is the replacement, much to Dean’s dismay. But the more they work together, the more Dean is drawn to Castiel, the man stirring up protective instincts usually only reserved for family. What happens when Dean realizes that Castiel is not the fake he always thought he was, but instead, a generous soul that Dean is rapidly falling in love with?

Just A Gigolo | @sheinthatfandom Rating: No Rating Word Count: 1658 Main Tags and Warnings: escort au, escort service, escort dean, escort cas, mentioned clients, switch Dean, implied sex acts Summary: Dean Winchester is the one of the top escorts of his company and uses his charms and personality to steal clients from his friendly rival. Castiel is the top escort of his company and is known for being high class and able to network with politicians and many powerful men. So stealing Dean’s clients is just a bit of fun for him, especially when he gets to rub it in. But what will happen when Castiel decides to see for himself what the draw is to being with Dean?

Classroom Conflict | @galaxystiel Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 5616 Main Tags and Warnings: AU, Human!Castiel, Professor!Castiel, Professor!Dean, university, enemies to lovers, 5+1, Summary: Five times Literature Professor Castiel Novak and Physics Professor Dean Winchester clashed, and one time they didn’t.

You Shook Me | @braezenkitty Rating: Mature Word Count: 12317 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Dean Plays Guitar, Singer Castiel, Singer Dean, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Frottage, Implied/Referenced Homophobia Summary: The Salty Demons are set to compete in a battle of the bands, but when their lead singer drops out at the last minute, they need someone to fill in. Bass guitarist Meg brings in her friend Cas to audition and Sam thinks he’s a good fit, but Dean is worried he’s too punk. With the competition looming though, they don’t have much choice, and Castiel is the best option they have. Dean has to come to terms with the new lead singer and the attraction he feels towards him before he ends up sabotaging the band’s chance at winning the competition.

For This Night and All Nights to Come | @thursdays-fallen-angel Rating: Explicit Word Count: 14554 Main Tags and Warnings: Game of Thrones Fusion Summary: Back in the southern castle Castiel once called home, cold was used to describe a bath that had sat too long and was no longer steaming, or a room with a draft. It was cold if one had to put on a tunic with sleeves to go riding. North of the Wall, cold takes on a whole new meaning. Here, cold means frozen rations and endless snow, frostbitten limbs and stolen breaths. Cold is steel biting at your throat in a wordless threat. Cold is when the dead rise again.

The Age-long Rivalry Between Pilots and Engineers | @cas-lost-grace Rating: Mature Word Count: 7786 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Roommates, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Aliens, Spaceships, Engineer Castiel, Pilot Dean Winchester, First Kiss, Space Battles, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD Summary: Living on a space station isn’t easy. Especially when you share your quarters with someone like Castiel Novak.

Hot Men, Unmasked | @castielrisingabove Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 43195 Main Tags and Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, DC Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood, AU, implied past Meg/Cas Summary: Castiel’s a superhero who just wants to make his big break. When he stumbles upon an attractive anti-hero, he’s left with a choice: turn him in, or work together to solve a crime bigger than both of them.

It’s Affection | @funnywings Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 7711 Main Tags and Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Angst with a Happy Ending, AU, Enemies to Lovers Summary: After getting catfished by a federal agent, Dean is angry at the world and the world is angry right back at him. When one of Sam’s friends from Oxford comes to stay at Mary’s house, he’s determined to be as unpleasant as possible to the newcomer. However, being pissed at the world can only get you so far, and Dean finds in Castiel someone he can confide in truths he rarely likes to admit to himself.

Enemies Closer | @almaasi Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 5291 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Teacher Castiel, Openly Gay Castiel, Student Counsellor Dean Winchester, Openly Bisexual Dean, Nerd Dean Winchester, Middle School, Vandalism, A.V. Club | Audio-Visual Club, Children, Doctor Who References, First Dates, One Shot Summary: A “You caught me keying the wrong car in our middle-school parking lot, but when you found out my motivation you wanted to help me… except now we’re both complicit in the same crime, and we have the power to end each other’s teaching careers – and as they say, keep your friends close but your enemies closer – sooooo is a nerdy date at your after-school A.V. club close enough for you?” AU

Drop Anchor | @almaasi Rating: Explicit Word Count: 42124 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternate Universe, Historical, Romance, Fluff, No Angst, Pirate Castiel, Sailor Dean, Domestic, Settling Down, Desert Island, Hate to Love, Grumpy Castiel, Dominant Castiel, Gardener Castiel, Bi-Curious Dean, Bottom Dean, Shipwreck, Storms, Sharing a Bed, Masturbation, Touch-Starved, Hammock Sex, Cuddling, Tickling, Rimming, Virgin Dean, Epistolary Summary: AU. A sailor and an enemy pirate are marooned on an island together, and while awaiting rescue they accidentally achieve domestic bliss. Or: Dean Winchester is lieutenant of the Royal Trading Ship Echelon. On a pleasantly sunny but particularly catastrophic day, he is marooned on an island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only one man for company. That man is Castiel, captain of the black-sailed Leviathan: a pirate, no less. Given the circumstances under which they are stranded, rescue seems unlikely, and it could be aeons before a ship even comes by. The two of them may as well make the most of their own private island, personal differences be damned.

We’re the New Romantics | @almaasi Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 8138 Main Tags and Warnings: Alternative Universe - High School, Summer Camp, Hate to Love, Bullying, Dean Has a Crush on Castiel, Charlie Bradbury & Dean Winchester Friendship, Smart Dean, Fanboy Dean, Smart Castiel, Hipster Castiel, Punk Castiel, Pierced Castiel, Fanboy Castiel, Aromantic Castiel, Smart Charlie, Star Trek References, Holding Hands, Cuddling, First Kiss, Long-Distance Relationship Summary: “He’s so pretentious.” “Who is?” “Castiel.” Dean sneered as he said the name. “Look at him. He only brought one bag, and it’s tiny. And orange.” “Maybe he doesn’t like carrying a lot of stuff,” Charlie said, shouldering her own rainbow-coloured weekender bag, leading Dean out of the crowd and towards the picnic benches. “Gifted-and-Talented Summer Camp is only four days. A change of clothes and a toothbrush, that’s all most people need.” “What about when he sleeps? Doesn’t he at least need a pair of jammies? And that freaking nose ring. Seriously, he looks like a bull. I wonder if anyone’s ever told him.”

The Law of Fire (WIP) | @katekarnage7 Rating: Explicit Word Count: 42624 Main Tags and Warnings: Western AU, Mentions of Child Abuse, Torture, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Main Character Death. Summary: When Castiel was young there was a fire, a fire which caused much pain and grief for many, however, there was one shining light, one good thing that came from it; Castiel’s adopted little sister, Anna, who had been orphaned by the very same mysterious fire. A year went by, it was relatively happy for the Novaks, but just like all good things, it had to end… It ended when Castiel’s mother died, sending his father into a downward spiral, which left Castiel alone to take care of Anna. Eventually, they were found and raised by the Sheriff of a small town in Kansas. Years later Anna and Castiel would learn that the fire that took so much from both of them wasn’t an accident, it was arson, and that the man who had done it has a bounty on his head, a man by the name of Dean Winchester. They start their mission to track down this man who ruined their lives and the lives of many others, however, when they finally catch up to him, they learn that when it comes to Dean Winchester, there may be more than meets the eye.

Close Up and Personal | @sternchencas Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 19358 Main Tags and Warnings: paparazzi!Dean, celebrity!Cas, Cas with cats Summary: To help his brother Sam to pay for law school, Dean Winchester works as a paparazzi. His current target, award-winning author Jimmy Novak, is so camera shy that most people don’t even know what he looks like, unlike Dean, who finds out when he literally runs into the man. When Jimmy confronts him about ruining his life, Dean tries to change his ways, and in a sudden turn of events, he gets to unravel the secret that is Jimmy Novak, or better, Castiel.

one thousand and ninety-four days ‘verse (Series) | @envydean  Rating: Explicit Word Count: 8096 Main Tags and Warnings: Prison AU, inmate!dean, Inmate!castiel, Rough Sex, Mild Pain Kink, Come Marking, dubcon but mostly con, bottom!dean, top!cas, sassy!cas Summary: In which Dean and Cas are in prison. “Get in your bed.” “Make me.” He teases. Dean smirks, standing up and facing the man. Before Dean can even blink, the man is out of his bed and shoving Dean up against the wall with a deadly quietness.

[thebattlesquare-blog]

Aldershot regional tournament report by Jamie Faulkner

Hey guys, this is my write up for the Aldershot regional I won on Sunday the 15thof April. I originally didn’t even intend to go because I only just got back from a holiday and I was still a little messed up from it in terms of my body clock but, I woke up really early Sunday so it gave me enough time to throw a bunch of jank cards together and attend.

I was on holiday with Josh Ge and Tobi Henriet which was amazing and fun. We didn’t get a huge amount of time to test because we were too busy enjoying Istanbul but we did manage to build a few decks. Mono earth was one of the first decks we built (because we just heard that mono earth came 1st and 2nd at some tournament in Japan) and I think we played like 3 games with the deck before playing more fun stuff. In fact, we only really built the deck to test the power of Kam’lanaut in the mirror. Tobi’s version was more aggressive with loads of 2 drop brave dudes and no board wipes whereas my version had Kam, Zodiark, Shantotto, and Cecil. Naturally, the bigger version of a deck usually wins in a mirror but we did find out that the Psycom wardens in my deck were actually really solid and we also found out that Kam’lanaut simply crushes games. Every time I played that card in the games we tested he just took over the game and I won fairly shortly after. After that discovery our holiday basically became a have fun, enjoy Istanbul, Play 1v1s in LoL and find broken decks abusing Kam. Very fun!

So, I go to bed on Saturday with the intention of just laying in and playing League of Legends all day, didn’t feel like I would have the energy to go to Aldershot so I didn’t bother preparing anything. I did send a message to my friend, Likey asking him if he was going and wanted a lift but he wasn’t so in my mind it was settled that I wouldn’t go. However, I wake up at like 5am for some reason and see a message from another friend, Pedro, asking me for a deck idea. I ask him if he’s going and he needed a lift so I decided since I woke up early I’ll have some fun and throw a deck together. All my cards were still in my suitcase that I hadn’t bothered to unpack yet so I kind of just picked a deckbox at random and it had the half built mono earth deck I had play tested about a week earlier. It seemed like a good idea. Super easy to play, didn’t really matter what cards I put in it as long as Kam was there and the deck was already half built. Here is the link to the deck that I ended up playing:https://ffdecks.com/deck/5788262270500864

There were only a few cards in there I knew I needed. The rest were pretty much just what I found before I Left.

Kam: Best card in the deck? Not sure, Maybe. He takes over games on his own with his amazing body and ability and gives you the option of searching a backup (which is always nice) or searching a massive tempo card. Super cool. People don’t know how to deal with him yet. Abuse him while you can.

Wol: Also a really really good card. Gets advantage straight away. All his effects are useful and I’m happy to say I used all of them consistently today. He’s better played as the second body on the field rather than the first thing you play because then you get instant value.

Psicom Warden: Flan 2.0. I liked flan. I like Psicom Warden. Earth typically has a lot of trouble drawing cards or thinning the deck which is a really cool bonus of playing these 1 drop 11k’s. They also just completely take over a game on their own. In the finals I curved to 4, top decked one and did 7 points of damage with these cards alone. It’s literally the best top deck in the game in the mid game. The only time it’s a bad top deck is if you see multiples early but, in that scenario, it’s not super sad to discard them. And mid game you either top deck them and win cause it’s incredible to top deck or you don’t top deck them because you’ve already taken them out of your deck. No one expected to get killed by my little 3 drop dudes but everyone did.

Prishe: Star sibyl target and dedicated koboldroid yin blocker. In the quarter finals I managed to use the ability 3 times because I kept hitting ex bursts that killed my prishe. Odin, Famfrit, Famfrit. Still won that game, somehow :S

Ingus: Now I’m definitely sure that Ingus is the best of the new Warrior of Light cards. Not only does his effect kind of synergise with earth better than the other cards synergise with their elements. But, He also gets to use the effect WAY more because earth has so many ways to give brave so there are always forwards available to tap down to use the effect after attacking. When this dude is on board your board feels a lot stronger. Also, he synergises really nicely with Raubahn to make him live if you have him and Ennna Kros on field.

Zodiark: It’s really amusing when my opponent goes for turn 3 Setzer Locke from two backups and I just play Kam Zodiark and they lose on the spot.

Momodi: This card is really great to have on the field and realistically it could probably be put up to two but it’s also kind of a dead draw late game and isn’t a turn one backup so I’m honestly not sure. It’s 100% a 1 of in any mono earth deck and possibly a two of If you can find the space.

EDIT: Thought I’d mention Cecil briefly. He’s fine but was never fantastic. Sometimes killed a forward and that was cool and there is definitely synergy with Zodiark and Cecil. It did feel that either my opponents over extended into a board wipe and I just cleaned up or I was the aggressor (most of the time) so there were very few times I needed to play him. I would be happy to cut him to 1 so he is still there and searchable with miner and mog but I don’t draw him too early. Not a super important card to the strategy I think but nice when you can do it.

I will now go over the rounds that I can remember

Round 1: Alex Wu – mono fire

Alex is a good friend and a player I respect. Not great to go against a good player in round 1 of a tournament I’m hardly awake for to be honest.

I curve to 3 while he plays a turn 2 Xande. I answer it with a Kam and then Zodiark the next turn for 7 so his Xande doesn’t kill the Kam. He plays another Xande the turn after that which gets answered by a Raubahn. Finally, he plays a Sabin which got answered by a Cecil and the game was over. We played a few more games so I could get some more reps in with my deck because I didn’t really know what was in it or how to play it yet and the games went pretty much the same. I played a forward and it stuck, he played a forward and I killed it. Funnily enough we swapped decks after a few games and I crushed him with a series of like 4 ex bursts in a row and incredibly lucky draws. Was very funny.  

Round 2: Rob Philips – jank

Rob is one of the best players in the country (and all of Europe) and a teammate who I test versus regularly. Both of us are already qualified for Nationals at this point anyway and neither of us were massively invested in the tournament. I was there to get a bye at nationals and he was there to test his Jank. Weirdly though, in the last 3-5 tournaments we’ve played against each other (since Cardiff) we have played against each other pretty early on in swiss and it’s starting to become a bit of a meme. He knew my deck better than I did because he took a look through it before the tournament (and Rob is actually very good at understanding a deck just by looking at it) but, I knew what his deck did and how to beat it as well because he sent me his list while I was away in turkey so I could test it and see if I could improve it ( I couldn’t). His deck was sort of like an 0tk style combo deck that needed to get a lot of cards in hand to combo off. I knew how fast I needed to play in order to delay that as long as possible and I did. He didn’t draw very well but I also think I played quite well. It got to the point where he was decking out and I was threatening lethal every turn and it was just really obvious he couldn’t win anymore so he scooped.

Round 3:  Cant remember

I do not remember this round at all. All I know is I won in less than 5 minutes and then left to go troll my friend Ryan Stolarski.

Round 4: Callum Hackett – mono water monsters

Callum is another Dark sphere local and a good player. He’s playing a list that makes me want to quit fftcg and move to a farm with no internet. Was my only loss of the tournament. I threw away a hand that had no backups to draw a hand with 4 dark cards. Not great. It would have been fine if I had ever seen a third backup but unfortunately, I was stuck on 2 until about turn 10 so I could never play Kam or Zodiark efficiently. I still almost win though because I took him to 5 or 6 by playing Dadaluma, Wol and the Warden Squad. Eventually, however I just draw nothing but backups for like 3 turns in a row (which is what happens when you don’t see any for the top 25 cards) and I swiftly lost.

Round 5 Dan Meech – Mono lightning

Dan is another friend from Dark sphere (do you see a trend here?). He was x-2 and out of contention for top 8 so I kind of expected him to go easy on me. He didn’t. At all. I misplay really badly turn 2 by playing a Psicom Warden alone when he had two backups and he plays Al-cid + hildibrand + nashu which sucked. Then he plays illua and I’m really feeling the pain. I play Kam searching Zodiark on 5 backups because I knew the only way I would win was if I drew my 1 of Gabranth to scum out the game. He flooded the board and I draw it on 6 damage. Game was over from that point because he had no hand and I had a decent board. Killed 5 things with Zodiark, very flashy!

Quarter Finals: Mitch lander – Water lightning fusoya

Mitch qualified last regional so we both kind of knew it was a chill game for fun.

Game 1:

Hardest game of the tournament for me. I open fairly poorly and he opens well with fusoya and al-cid patrol. I also hit Odin, Famfrit, Cucu (put on top of deck from ephereal summoner) and then another famfrit into damage zone (only the cucu was done from fusoya). Which put me so far behind I felt like I couldn’t even see the cards anymore. I feel like I played exceptionally well from that point forward though because I managed to keep making Mitch use resources while just about clinging to life and still pressuring his life total. Eventually, I had a board of cecil, Kam and Wol vs his board of weak forwards with us both on 6 damage. Easy game from there.

Game 2:

Pretty standard game of fusoya.dek here. Similar things happen to game 1 where fusoya puts in work except this time al-cid also puts in work. It was too much when he played like 4 forwards turn 3-4 and I had no board wipe.

Game 3:

I think Mitch decided he didn’t want to win anymore because I played a Kam searching Zodiark from 3 backups with 3 in hand and he decided to discard his whole hand to dump 3 forwards on the board to try to kill Kam. He only had 1 backup and 0 in hand so it was the swiftest Zodiark of my life. Game was set and done from that point forward, no way to come back for him.

Semi Finals Sam wigmore – mono earth

Sam is a really nice guy and he’s turning into a bit of my kryptonite because every time I go to calamity games he beats me horribly and it’s never fun. He beat me two weeks earlier with mono earth and it was degenerate and seemed like it required no skill which was one of the reasons I wanted to test it :D

The TL;DR of this match should have been I have Kam and Sam doesn’t so I win. However, I didn’t play Kam once so it was kind of irrelevant.

Game 1

He plays Warrior of light turn 1 telegraphing he has a bad hand. I play a backup and pass. He plays Ingus turn 2. I Shantotto. Game over. Situations like this can easily be replicated if you play a normal game of fftcg except one player draws 4 a turn and the other draws normally. That’s what it feels like.

Game 2: We both curve out to 4 backups and play some forwards, But I play Psicom Wardens and position myself to be more aggressive. I think I played around his summons better than He plays around mine and it put us in a position where he was just defensive the whole game. Not even attacking with brave guys. I keep playing 1 forward a turn and hold Kam in hand for when he Shantotto’s me. He plays miner getting back his Shantotto so he can board wipe next turn but I had enough to lethal him from there. This game is a good example of experience I think. Realistically we both had decent draws and the same sort of power level of forwards but I just played more aggressively which put Sam into a defensive mindset which allowed me to just have my way with him. Don’t let players bully you into submission, always be thinking about how to attack back rather than simply not lose!

Finals: Pete Sherratt – mono Ice

Pete is another lovely guy and he seemed really ecstatic that he was in the finals. I could tell he wouldn’t play his best before we even sat down because he asked who was in the finals against him and when told it was me he seemed really unconfident about it. It also seemed like he didn’t really care too much about winning since he was already happy with the nationals place, which is fine. One thing I will say about it is never go into a game thinking you will lose because you are against someone who you perceive as better than you. Similarly, Never go into a game thinking you can just smash it without thinking because you think you are better than your opponent. Give everyone respect and try hard like you are playing in a final of a tournament (especially if you are!) I promise you will surprise yourself occasionally: D

I knew my deck wasn’t tuned for mono ice as much as Sam’s was and I would have to not just play defensively and win of Guy and Yang. I wasn’t entirely sure what the best way to get around Mateus was but I figured if I Hecatoncheir in response to Mateus then it’ll be a good trade of resources. What happened in the games was very different though.

Game 1:

We both curve to 4 and he plays Setzer Locke. I play Psicom wardens and it turns out they are way bigger than Setzer Locke. A quick Kam into Zodiark left me in a position where I just attacked him and he died. Didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it really other than delay it with freeze effects.

From there I decided to just aggro him out because I don’t think he was in the mindset to be able to deal with that. Most people would look at Ice vs Earth and say Ice needs to be the aggressor so I figured that if I took him out of his comfort zone he wouldn’t know what to do.

Game 2: Much of the same happened here. I played Psicom Wardens and Kam. He had no answer at all for them. I switched kam’s element a LOT this game though. Made it dark to zodiark one turn, then switched it to earth just so I could attack into an Orphan. Then back to ice, then earth. I killed his vayne and he just didn’t really have a way to get aggressive. As long as I was in the driver’s seat there was no way Pete would ever be able to win. I solve a really cool lethal puzzle though which involved me using Pellinore and sacrificing my Ingus then using My Monk to buff my Warden to be big enough to kill Orphan and swing in for the last point of damage.

Normally I would give shout outs for help with the deck e.t.c but realistically this deck was just a bunch of cards thrown together that happened to do well. Shout out to all the dark sphere guys (and Ryan and Alex) who were there yesterday and made the day fun and a massive shoutout to Josh Ge (and his beautiful girlfriend Sybil) for hosting me in turkey last week and for generally being a bit of a pimpishmotherf. I’d like to think that the trip made me a better player, but realistically the trip probably just made me a better wine drinker and fancy food sharer, lol.

[politicoscope]

Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/hosni-mubarak-biography-and-profile/

Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

Hosni Mubarak Early Life

Hosni Mubarak (Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak) was born on 4 May 1928 in Munofiya. Mubarak was a former Egyptian military and political leader who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force. Hosni Mubarak was the longest serving Egyptian president, having ruled Egypt for almost 30 years until he was swept from power in a wave of mass protests in February 2011. Mubarak was a 24-year-old air force pilot when the military overthrew King Farouk in 1952. The son of a government clerk, he was born Muhammed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak in the Nile Delta village of Kafr Musailha on May 4, 1928, when Egypt was still heavily supervised by Britain, which controlled the Suez Canal. Details of his early life are sketchy. He qualified as a pilot in 1950 and spent more than two years in the Soviet Union a decade later, training to fly bombers.

When much of the air force was wiped out by Israeli warplanes in the Six-Day War of 1967, he was made head of the air force academy, charged with rebuilding air power to hit back. As head of the air force from 1972, he did just that, attacking Israel in 1973. Sadat, who succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, saw in Mubarak a loyal subordinate and made him vice president in 1975. That office would lie vacant under Mubarak, who guarded his power jealously.

As president, Mubarak sent the army in to quell mutineers in the 1980s, and also repaired relations with Arab states after Sadat’s peace with Israel. In 1989, Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League, which moved its headquarters back to Cairo. American money made sure that Egypt never wavered from an arms-length civility toward the Jewish state, and Mubarak played mediator between Israel and the Palestinians down the years. His policies irritated many in the Middle East. After Hamas Islamists took control in the Gaza Strip, adjacent to Egypt, in 2007, Mubarak backed the Israeli blockade of the territory.

Violence by Islamists at home, including attacks on tourist sites and Red Sea resorts, remained a justification for the police state. In 1995, Mubarak survived one of several assassination attempts when Islamist gunmen fired on his car during a visit to Ethiopia.

A command economy fashioned under the Arab socialist Nasser lagged behind countries Egypt was once compared to, such as Turkey or South Korea. Egypt’s population almost doubled under Mubarak, but many remained mired in deep poverty. A spurt of growth in his final decade, fuelled by market reforms overseen by his son Gamal, made some rich, but corruption ensured the wealth stuck to the elite around the head of state, the military and those who found favour in the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

The son of a government clerk, he was born Muhammed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak in the Nile Delta village of Kafr Musailha on May 4, 1928, when Egypt was still heavily supervised by Britain, which controlled the Suez Canal. Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak insisted on keeping his private life out of the public domain while president. Mubarak exhibited a leaning toward the military. A graduate of the Air Force academy, he would serve as its director between 1966 and 1969. In 1972, Sadat appointed him as Air Force commander; he would later receive accolades from the late president over the Egyptian Air Force’s accomplishments during the conflict with Israel.

In 1975, Sadat appointed Mubarak to the post of vice-president and gave him his first taste of mainstream politics as a senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). It was not clear why Sadat chose Mubarak, although some believe it was in reward for Mubarak’s effective tenure as chief of the air force.

Married to a half-British graduate of the American University in Cairo, Suzanne Mubarak, he was known to lead a strict life with a fixed daily schedule that began at 0600. Never a smoker or a drinker, he built himself a reputation as a fit man who led a healthy life. In his younger days, close associates often complained of the president’s schedule, which began with a workout in the gym or a game of squash.

He was sworn in as president on 14 October 1981, eight days after the Sadat assassination. Despite having little popular appeal or international profile at the time, the burly military man used his sponsorship of the issue behind Sadat’s killing – peace with Israel – to build up his reputation as an international statesman.

Mubarak head of the air force academy

Mubarak qualified as a pilot in 1950 and spent more than two years in the Soviet Union a decade later, training to fly bombers. When much of the air force was wiped out by Israeli warplanes in the Six-Day War of 1967, he was made head of the air force academy, charged with rebuilding air power to hit back. As head of the air force from 1972, he did just that, attacking Israel in 1973.

Mubarak Isolated From Arab and Muslim Countries

When Mubarak assumed power, Egypt was isolated from Arab and Muslim countries, many of whom had broken off diplomatic ties after Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In one of its greatest diplomatic defeats, Egypt was kicked out of the Arab League and its headquarters were moved from Cairo to Tunisia. Mubarak’s first foreign policy mandate was to bring his country back into the Arab fold and to resume ties with major players in the region. His first success was in building a relationship with the then influential Arab leader Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, whose country was locked in a bloody war with Iran.

Egypt signed on as Iraq’s ally in the conflict, providing military assistance and expertise to Baghdad. By the time the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Egypt had successfully emerged from its isolation. In 1990, in a move spearheaded by Iraq and Yemen, the Arab League headquarters were returned to Cairo. But the Arab rapprochement was short-lived as Egypt opposed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Mubarak urged Saddam to withdraw his forces from Kuwait; when Baghdad failed to do so, Egypt joined the US-led international effort to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

Hosni Mubarak Trial

By late May 2011, judicial officials announced that Mr Mubarak, along with his two sons – Alaa and Gamal – would stand trial over the deaths of anti-government protesters. So began a protracted series of court appearances – with the former president often been seen in the dock in an upright stretcher wearing his trademark sunglasses.

Hosni Mubarak Trial in Court

He has steadfastly argued his innocence – telling a retrial in August that that he was approaching the end of his life “with a good conscience”.

On 2 June 2012 he was found guilty of complicity in the murder of some of the demonstrators who took part in the wave of protests that began on 25 January 2011. Along with his former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes.

In January 2013 a court upheld an appeal against Mr Mubarak’s and Mr al-Adly’s convictions and granted retrials. Mr Mubarak and his sons were also ordered to be retried on corruption charges for which they were originally acquitted. Mr Mubarak was released from prison in August that year but placed under house arrest before being transferred to a military hospital.

In May 2014, Mubarak was found guilty of embezzlement, and sentenced to three years in prison. Alaa and Gamal were sentenced to four years each. The convictions were overturned in January 2015, but a retrial reinstated the same sentences. An appeals court upheld the sentences a year later, but Alaa and Gamal were freed because of time already served.

In November 2014, Mr Mubarak was finally acquitted in a retrial of conspiring to kill protesters during the 2011 uprising. At the same time, he was also acquitted of corruption charges involving gas exports to Israel.

In March 2017 Egypt’s top appeals court upheld Mr Mubarak’s acquittal and he went free, for the first time in six years.

Mubarak: Egypt’s Quasi-Military Leader

In effect, Mubarak ruled as a quasi-military leader when he took power. For his entire period in office, he kept the country under emergency law, giving the state sweeping powers of arrest and curbing basic freedoms. The government argued the draconian regime was necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, which came in waves during the decades of Mr Mubarak’s rule – often targeting Egypt’s lucrative tourism sector.

He presided over a period of domestic stability and economic development that meant most of his fellow countrymen accepted his monopolisation of power. But towards the end of his tenure in power, Mr Mubarak felt for the first time the pressure to encourage democracy, both from within Egypt, and from his most powerful ally, the United States. Many supporters of reform doubted the veteran ruler’s sincerity when he said he was all for opening up the political process.

Ahead of his declaration that he would not to stand again for the presidency, the US had heaped pressure on him to stand aside, calling for an “orderly transition” of power to a more democratic system. Mr Mubarak won three elections unopposed since 1981, but for his fourth contest in 2005 – after a firm push from the US – he changed the system to allow rival candidates.

Critics said the election was heavily weighted in favour of Mr Mubarak and the National Democratic Party (NDP). They accused the Egyptian leader of presiding over a sustained campaign of suppressing.

‘History will judge me’

The length of his time in power, along with his age and possible successors, had all been sensitive subjects in Egypt until the mass protests allowed the Egyptian people to find a voice. People around Mr Mubarak said his health and vigour belied his age – although a couple of health scares served as a reminder of his advancing years. Rumours about the president’s health gathered pace when he travelled to Germany in March 2010 for gall bladder surgery. They flared every time he missed a key gathering or disappeared from the media spotlight for any conspicuous length of time.

However much Egyptian officials tried to deny them, they kept circulating, with reports in the Israeli and pan-Arab media. The days of mass protests in Egyptian cities prompted Mr Mubarak to finally name a vice-president. On 29 January 2011, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was elevated to the role in what was seen as an attempt by Mr Mubarak to bolster his support in the military. Two weeks later Mr Mubarak’s three-decade rule was over, and in March he was under arrest.

In the past, Mr Mubarak had said he would continue to serve Egypt until his last breath. In his speech on 1 February 2011, he said: “This dear nation… is where I lived, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others.”

Why Was Mubarak Overthrown?

Mubarak policies irritated many in the Middle East. After Hamas Islamists took control in the Gaza Strip, adjacent to Egypt, in 2007, Mubarak backed the Israeli blockade of the territory. Violence by Islamists at home, including attacks on tourist sites and Red Sea resorts, remained a justification for the police state. In 1995, Mubarak survived one of several assassination attempts when Islamist gunmen fired on his car during a visit to Ethiopia.

A command economy fashioned under the Arab socialist Nasser lagged behind countries Egypt was once compared to, such as Turkey or South Korea. Egypt’s population almost doubled under Mubarak, but many remained mired in deep poverty. A spurt of growth in his final decade, fuelled by market reforms overseen by his son Gamal, made some rich, but corruption ensured the wealth stuck to the elite around the head of state, the military and those who found favour in the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Politically, there was talk of reform, not least when former U.S. President George W. Bush was pushing the idea. After winning a series of single-candidate referendums that provided the legal basis of his rule, Mubarak agreed to contest a presidential election in 2005. But the defeat of Ayman Nour, a liberal lawyer who dared challenge him, was no surprise.

By 2010, the NDP felt confident enough of its impunity to claim 90% of the seats in a parliamentary election that saw the Muslim Brotherhood eliminated from the legislature. The resulting public outrage might have subsided, as it had before, had it not been for the sudden success of an uprising in Tunisia just a few weeks later which also prompted protests against Egypt’s ruler.

At first, Mubarak gave little ground to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, comforted by hesitation in Western capitals to cut loose an ally. Only when his generals began to desert him, fearful their own privileges might be swept away, and the Americans sided with the popular will, did he relent, at first insisting he would retire only later but finally flown off to his Red Sea retreat.

“Egypt and I shall not be parted until I am buried in her soil,” he said. He was arrested two months later.

A trial began in August 2011, the sight of Mubarak in a courtroom cage captivating viewers.

Egyptian Revolution of 2011

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s third and longest-serving president, stepped down on February 11, 2011, after an 18-day-long mass uprising aimed at removing him from power. Omar Suleiman, the country’s then newly appointed vice-president, announced the move in a brief statement on state television, hours after Mubarak was reported to have left the capital Cairo for the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The following day Vice-President Omar Suleiman made a terse announcement saying Mr Mubarak was stepping down and the military’s supreme council would run the country.

Mubarak’s resignation followed mass protests in Egypt against his 30-year rule, and came a day after he surprised the people of his country by refusing to resign. The former president succeeded Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated on October 6, 1981 while attending a military parade to commemorate the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Mohamed Mursi Won the Presidency

On June 2, 2012, just before Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi won the presidency, Mubarak was jailed for life for conspiring to murder protesters, sent to Cairo’s Tora Prison though occasionally moved to the smart Maadi military hospital nearby due to claims of failing health. Prison time would be short, however, as another military man, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, overthrew Mursi the following year.

As Sisi launched a crackdown on the Brotherhood that critics said was more severe than anything under Mubarak, the case against the former president was dropped in 2014.

Three years later, following an appeal by the prosecution, Egypt’s top appeals court acquitted him, allowing him to return to his home the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis, not far from the presidential palace he had occupied for nearly three decades.

Hosni Mubarak Death

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who held power for 30 years until he was ousted in 2011 in a popular uprising against corruption and autocratic rule, died on Tuesday 25 February 2020, at the age of 91.

Hosni Mubarak Net Worth

Hosni Mubarak’s vast wealth started to attract widespread press scrutiny, with outlets like the Guardian and ABC News estimating his fortune at as much as $70 billion. However, this amount may be disputed by some people. The precise amount of cash and assets Mubarak and his family allegedly stole may start to come to light as Egypt works with international authorities in their recovery effort.

Hosni Mubarak spoke out and said:

“I do not own any accounts or assets outside Egypt… This is for the Egyptian people to know that their former president has accounts only in one Egyptian bank, according to what I have mentioned in my final financial statement. I agree to offer any authorizations that would enable the Egyptian public prosecutor – through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s contacts with foreign ministries worldwide – to take all the necessary legal procedures to reveal whether my wife, either of my sons, Alaa or Gamal, and I own any properties or assets directly or indirectly, whether they were commercial or personal, since I started working in the military and political public works and until now, so that everyone would make sure that all the allegations handled by the local and foreign mass media about me and my family’s ownership of huge properties abroad were fake.”

How Old is Hosni Mubarak?

Hosni Mubarak was 91 years when he died on Tuesday 25 February 2020.

Hosni Mubarak’s Family

Hosni Mubarak’s Spouse: Suzanne Mubarak (m. 1959). Hosni Mubarak’s Grandchildren: Omar Alaa Mubarak, Mahmoud Gamal Mubarak, Farida Gamal Mubarak, Mohammed Mubarak.

Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak Biography and Profile

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Life After Fallout 76

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The Crucible: How we got here and how to make it right

October 8, 2017

From the moment Bungie stood on stage in LA and announced to the world that D2 PvP would all be 4v4 I had a sinking feeling. From mid year 2 on, I played with a group of friends that ran the raid 3 times a week on our characters and then spent the rest of week running it more to get others thru and then all heading to PvP together before, after and in-between. The immediate thought was how in a game like D1 that in spite of all its missteps, restarts and general lack of cohesive vision; managed to not only succeed but excel by being able to draw players together and create friendships and relationships, Bungie would want to undermine that right off the bat in D2. We spoke to various Devs like Hamrick, and Bakken about it and our concerns, but the response was that the 4v4 was the absolute best experience they could give and the best version of PvP. Sure D1 was a fiasco by the end and PvP was a nightmare of poor balance, poor fixes and endless complaints, but again, in spite of all that we still played because it was the SOCIAL ability to have 6 of us together in an activity that drove us to play. The other huge departure from D1 was going to the casual and competitive playlists in D2. People tend to look back and forget how and why things were and vanilla D1 is largely viewed as the golden age of the Crucible. While I would say 1.1.1 and HoW was the best era, the fact is that year one had a huge problem with players quitting out of matches and subsequently others constantly being dropped into games with little chance to win. As much as many never wanted to accept, D1 PvP was a mixture of many factors when matching teams. Connection, skill, region, team size, etc. Year one the algorithm was weighted more to cbmm which led to a lot of uneven matches, which led to all the quitting. So in year 2, Bungie upped the importance of skill in the matchmaking. The effect was immediately noticeable as games were much more competitive and suddenly every other match we dropped into wasn't already in-progress. Unfortunately it led to a drastic reduction in pub stomps and pub stomps drive streamers views and so they started complaining about all the ''sweaty'' matches. The thing is, it's a competition and it's supposed to be. But that wasn't enough and it wasn't getting sbmm removed so suddenly sbmm became the reason for all the lag that had been in the game since launch. Bungie made many mistakes with D1 PvP. First they created a unique gaming experience by allowing us to use our PvE weapons in the crucible. They created a game where you could be outgunned, but also had a suite of supers, grenades and abilities to help counter whatever we faced and drove the desire to go play PvE and get our own great weapons too. Then Vex and Suros happened. Vex was only available in the raid that almost no one was running and getting and that pissed people off. Then Xur sold Suros and everyone bought and used it and because it's what people saw in their kill feed all day, it had to be op. Nevermind that there were MUCH better weapons like MIDA, Evergreen, The Strangers Rifle and Suros wasn't even the best AR (Up for Anything) and so people called for nerfs and Bungie capitulated and D1 PvP was doomed. So back to D2. It aimed to fix all that was broken in D1. It was built with static weapon rolls. It limited ability spam and effectiveness. It lowered the overall time to kill. I know that there are a lot of players that have issues with all those things, I'm not one. I think the weapons are awesome and you can compete with anything you like. Everyone went on about MIDA... until Xur sold Vigilance Wing and now it's the one and only. Except its not. There are green and blue weapons that we get leveling that are as good or better than endgame legendaries and exotics. Cuboid ARU is the beatliest AR I've faced. I played today with a blue scout and was having no issues getting kills and going positive. Melee and grenades supplement play rather than dictate it. To me it's the closets Destiny has felt weapon wise to the year one experience and I'm glad Bungie didn't cave in to the MIDA complaints. But unfortunately it's everywhere else that the experience falls apart. 4v4 killed a huge part of the social draw of the game. It also led to the proliferation of team-shooting to victory, which led to the casual and competitive playlists being meaningless and a return of the vanilla Destiny issue of players quitting out of matches at staggering rates. In theory a more cbmm playlist and a more sbmm playlist seems like a great idea and compromise to all the fighting in D1. The problem is that great ideas don't always transfer to real world functionality. While it's great that competitive play may try to match players of even skill, it's all rendered completely moot by fireteams and team-shooting. It doesn't matter if we're individually matched as competitors if I'm in a fireteam coordinating our play and you're lone wolf on a team of randoms. It negates the skill factor entirely and as everyone has seen, competitive play is a shit show right now and everyone including the big name streamers are not happy with it. There were a lot of comments about LL not mattering in IB next week and people were disappointed, but again LL is moot. The extra bullet or two it let you survive in D1 or living through a shoulder charge doesn't really matter in the 4v4 D2 world. You could have a random team of 4 all at 305, but a full fireteam at 280 is going to still have a huge advantage. So I get why they chose not to make it a factor, but what is the solution to all this? Obviously the best case scenario is to match full fireteams vs full fireteams. I don't know how realistic that is, but I've heard players say that other shooters do this with minimal increase in queue times. But D2 has another problem with matching that was inexplicably dragged over from D1. Competitive and casual are both RNG on selecting game types. The beautiful thing about early D1 PvP was that if you liked Control, you could play it all day and learn the maps, the key locations to hold that fit how you play. If you preferred Clash, same thing. Lone wolf? Rumble had you covered. D1 was laggy from the start and as much as players again later tried to pin lag on sbmm, the real other reason things degenerated like they did in year 2 was Bungie deciding to lock players out of current endgame PvP if they didn't own expansions. This led to the creation of the classic playlists, which allowed those players to keep playing, but it was also the only real way to go play old maps if you wanted to. This led to a HUGE fragmentation of where players were spending their time. Instead of Control, Clash, IB, Rumble and Salvage, suddenly players were also in Trials and classic playlists and the pools of available players in each was lowered and 2 + 2 = that led to shittier pools of good available connections. Bungie understood that and so here in D2 they've simplified to keep available player pools as high as possible. But again,in simplifying they've created problems worse than those they were trying to fix. The answer was never to dump 6v6, to dump rumble, to not let us queue for specific game types. Do we need to be able to queue for any specific thing we want? No. But the solution would have been to have a weekly focus like D1 did. It could even be daily. Control, Clash, Supremacy, etc and whatever the daily feature is, drop it out of the random hopper. D2 PvP is trying to be everything to everyone all at once and it's ending up being nothing to more. It's not a bad experience but it's broken and alienating in ways that D1 never was and I get that they put a lot into this and it's not working out how they wanted and I know they are legitimately trying to give us the best game they can and again, there is a lot that is great about the play on individual engagement levels. But too much has been sacrificed to get there and if the game is going to thrive it needs some course correction. Know I wrote a book here, but the last thing I will say is to the players crying nerf and shaming others for using what they like. D2 gives everyone access to whatever weapons and play styles you like. If you think something is unbeatable, equip it and use it and be unbeatable.

[accountancyandtaxupdate-blog]

Dispute resolution platform Escalate expands regional presence

Accountancy firms PKF Francis Clark and Armstrong Watson have become the latest businesses to join Escalate, a commercial dispute resolution platform for SMEs that has been shortlisted for the British Accountancy Awards. With the participation of these two firms, Escalate has strengthened it’s on-the-ground national presence to optimise support for SMEs. Chris Clay, one of the architects of the Escalate platform, said: “Both PKF Francis Clark and Armstrong Watson are recognised as leaders in their geographic markets, and bringing them on board is part of our strategy of building a network of best-in-class regional partners to provide cost-effective access to justice for SMEs across the country.” Commercial disputes are an issue encountered by 70% of small businesses, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB estimates that there were at least 3.4m commercial disputes involving SMEs between 2010 and 2015 and that small firms spend £11.6bn annually on disputes. Despite their prevalence, Clay explains that “the traditional dispute resolution model is broken and heavily stacked against claimants.” The current process incentivises the defendant to draw out the process to be as lengthy and costly for the claimant as possible, in hopes they will give up their case. The process can end up stretching up to 18 months, with the claimant racking up vast legal bills. The claimant may also be liable to pay for the defendant’s legal fees should they lose the case. Escalate aims to simplify the currently costly, risky and time-consuming dispute resolution process for SMEs. In a two step-process, licenced corporate recovery specialists will first focus on resolving disputes without litigation through a maximum three-month negotiation period and should this fail, solicitors will then turn to litigation. The process minimises costs through fixed fees that are only payable if the outcome is successful, and all fees are paid on the client’s behalf all the way up to a High Court resolution. There is also a cap on costs to ensure the claimant is always the main beneficiary. Paul Dickson, managing partner of Armstrong Watson, said: “Escalate is a game-changer both for us and our clients.  It has made dispute resolution an ‘accountancy-led’ service, helping the profession to develop a new advisory service to combat the technology-led revenue profile change away from audit and compliance.” Dickson explains that Escalate offers proactive advice and solutions, such as enabling clients to “release cash that is locked up in unresolved disputes” so businesses’ cash flow is not hampered by the dispute process. Commenting on the programme’s growth ambitions, Clay said: “Our national network, which we’ll continue to expand, provides us with the platform we need for the next phase of our growth plans.  This involves partnering with the lending community and membership bodies to integrate Escalate into their packages of lender protection services and value-added member benefits respectively.”

https://www.accountancyage.com/2017/08/31/dispute-resolution-platform-escalate-expands-regional-presence/

[valkyrie-echo]

Project Echo, Part 3: Chapter 34 (The Explosion, Part 2)

Part 3 Summary: Seven years after the events of “Part 2”, Avengers Tower explodes, fulfilling Bucky’s vision. All evidence points to Avengers Shadow-Ops leader Inessa Ryker, who is forced to seek out Bucky in hiding. Together they must determine who the traitor is in their ranks and if their friends are still alive- all while trying to survive deadly ambushes orchestrated by Sam Wilson and his hand-picked army.

Chapter 34: The Explosion, Part 2

"INESSA, WAIT!" Wanda jumped up and spun around- but her voice just echoed back to her in the still city. She looked up at the first stars visible during the sunset and around at the skyscrapers- all dark, all silent. Inessa put her back in the evacuated region of New York, and it was haunting.

Something slammed into her from behind and before Wanda knew it she was airborne, zooming between buildings and up towards the fully-lit Avengers Tower. She looked down at the arms around her torso and breathed a sigh of relief at the dark purple skin. Her arms were pinned to her sides but she leaned her head in to fit under Vision's chin and nuzzled her husband slightly. He responded by brushing his lips lightly against her cheek as they made their final approach to the protection and safety of the Tower.

"Wanda!" Steve was out on the balcony in a flash as Vision landed with his wife. Concern was traced with fear on the Captain's face. He held out a hand as if warding her off, "Are you alright? What happened?"

Vision put himself between Wanda and Steve and clenched his fists, "Wanda has had a difficult day. Don't you think you should let her come inside and take a breath before you proceed with this?"

"Proceed with what?" Wanda assumed the tension was due to her kidnapping, but when Steve looked back at her there was a hint of suspicion in his eyes that made her uneasy. She put a hand on Vision's arm to lead him aside so she could face her boss fully, "You think I'm working with her?"

"You've been gone a long time," Steve watched her carefully, "and you wouldn't be here if Inessa didn't allow it. How do we know you weren't compromised the same way she was?"

Wanda met her husband's eyes and shrugged apologetically before turning back to Steve, "She used the blood magic on me, then let me go."

It felt like the entire world went silent. Vision's face paled (believe it or not, it was possible), Steve took a visible step back, and none spoke. Wanda looked up through the windows of the Tower and saw the faces of her friends pressed there. Leaders and Avengers alike, all waiting for her to come home, all waiting on Steve's cue, "She said the Shadow King was using her to bring something to life, but she didn't know what. Since she couldn't break the blood magic, she simply re-cast the spell. With me in her place. Whatever connection she had to the Shadow King she claims to have broken it, but now I am the one tied to her."

"So the Shadow King burned through Inessa and now he's after you?" Steve's voice was soft, "Maybe that's why the Asgardians could never find him- he just ruins one life and moves on to the next."

"Maybe," as sure as she had been of Inessa's intentions his worlds still scared her. Could that be all this was? A body-snatching parasite waging war on Earth? "Steve, if it's alright with you, can I take myself off of the roster? Vision and I will go- I'll go back to my facility and remain there until we know exactly what Inessa is doing. I don't want you all distracted worrying about what I might do." Wanda spoke plainly, as always. There was no need for her to veil her intentions or parse her words, "It makes the most sense, and you know this."

"I'll have to add my own stipulations," Steve said after a pause, "do you understand?"

Wanda nodded, "Do whatever you have to do. Lock me in a cell or put me in cryo. If she needs me for her plans, it's just safer for the rest of you right now if I am not in the way."

Vision's scowl made it clear enough to Steve what he thought of the idea of his wife being imprisoned. At least as long as they knew Inessa was out there Wanda had a chance. That was Steve's reasoning, at least, "You'll go to Clint and Natasha's facility where you will be under the guard of their teams plus Thor's. That way I know for sure you don't have anything hidden away the Shadow King will use against us and your own team doesn't have to worry about fighting you. You will be confined to quarters, but not imprisoned. Is that alright?"

"It is more than fair," Wanda took Vision's hand in hers, "thank you Steve."

Steve nodded and looked back to the Tower. He opened his comms and repeated his decision to the others inside, then watched as the three teams began to disburse to find their belongings (whatever Inessa hadn't stolen, of course), "Sam, you too. Once you drop them off you can leave them the Quin-Jet and get back here faster than anyone crammed into one of Tony's suits."

"That's not a good decision," Sam warned. Wanda could tell from his tone (and Steve's reaction) that they'd been arguing a lot today, she felt sorry for their leader.

"Shove it up your ass. That's an order."

"There's something else. I don't know if she's Inessa or the Shadow King or what, but you should know she isn't playing nice anymore. She's doing whatever she thinks she needs to and she isn't being gentle about it," Wanda pulled her hair aside and showed Steve a lump on the back of her neck where she'd hit her head when Inessa knocked her out. She also rolled back her sleeves to show off the angry red lines where the cuffs dug into her wrists, "She's chaotic and she isn't giving anyone second chances. Inessa or no- be careful."

He slowly stepped forward and held out a hand- this time without the warning. Wanda shook it, then pulled him into a hug, "You're going to be alright," he reassured her, "we'll figure this out. I promise."

"Be safe," Wanda's voice wavered and she pulled away, "don't take unnecessary risks."

"This isn't goodbye, it's 'See you soon'."

Steve was the one who would have to explain it to the Avengers- what Inessa did to Wanda, their new theories about this Shadow King and his motivations, and formulate a game plan to stop it. A whisper in the back of her mind said that she should feel sorry for him, or for casting the blood magic and killing eight people in cold blood...

But truthfully she was completely numb now. Inessa had known pain, guilt, fear, terror, and the agony of a child trapped with a lifetime's worth of nightmares in her mind. The last few months reminded her of that feeling- like someone skinned your soul raw and shoved it back in. It was a pain she hadn't known since she first returned to her body, before she found a way to heal herself. Red Skull and Emilie had pushed her that far- but you can only bend so much before you break, and she was beyond that point now.

Avengers Tower was a fortress fit for the army it housed. Every entrance was impenetrable, every doorway monitored, every hallway covered, every blind spot accounted for with enough redundancies to protect it from anything. Not a soul went in or out of that place without a background check that would make the CIA's look like basic googling. Inessa was in charge of the Avengers security, but there was a damn good reason she masqueraded as a member of Tower security: she knew every last trick and switch and spent her free time finding creative ways to slip about unnoticed- even one or two with a powerless provision.

There was one point in the entire Tower that was vulnerable to attack: The main sewage line. A gigantic pipe running out of the building into the city line. Every building had one, but Avengers Tower had two- thanks to Inessa. After the devastation of Thanos Tony hired the best crews in the world to rebuild their home in record time with the most cutting edge technology available. While the Avengers moved into the satellite facilities (Inessa stayed with Clint and Natasha back on the farm) any remaining scrap of the original Tower was torn out down to the very foundations of the building.

Throughout the entire process Inessa was there to whisper into the minds of the builders, convincing them that the old sewage line was handled precisely to code- meaning a sheet of plywood was placed over it and a thin layer of cement was poured to hide it away. It was meant as a bit of fun- maybe a smugglers hold, maybe an emergency escape, maybe something to be used in a prank war somehow- the possibilities were endless. She'd even used it a few dozen times over the last couple of years- usually to hide birthday or Christmas presents from both her team and Tony. Now it was her way back in.

Inessa entered the sewers as close to the Tower as possible, then made her way to the curtain of SHIELD issued retro-reflective camo bolted securely to the wall to hide the cleared sewage line. The stench (and any of Eoin's minions who dared wander this close to the Tower) was held at bay by a special personal shield device rigged to sit just behind the camouflage and reinforce the fabric so that it not only looked like just another dingy brick wall, it felt like one.

She'd changed into her uniform before beginning her mission, and not only so that the combat boots would keep her feet dry as she mucked her way through the sewers. Her scythes were mostly decorative (unless she raided a Hydra facility that knew how to defend against her powers), but the right hand one was layered with a microchip in the handle that allowed the person holding it to pass through the shield. The shield and the key were prototypes for a Tower-wide lockdown protocol developed for the new building. Amadeus swiped them at her request- he just thought her intentions for them were a little more practical-joke based.

Inessa cut through the curtain and slipped through the shield into what she'd long thought of as her antechamber. It took almost fifty gallons of bleach, two dozen gallons of fabreeze, and at least a month's worth of candles to chase the toxic stench from the tube, but it was all worth it. Inside she'd built raised platforms that allowed for an easy ascent to the Tower above as well as storage space and even a small bunk, in case she ever needed it. It was far from a safe house, that was what her cavern was for. No, this was closer to a pirate's treasure-trove. A secret place no one knew about.

Maybe she'd always had her suspicions buried deep down, maybe luck was on her side, maybe something else was at play- Inessa always kept the tunnel shrouded, even from Nadya. Tony experimented with his frequencies throughout her adolescence, though he never used them against her. Before Amadeus came she stole one of the emitters to try and learn how to fight through it, beat it, but with her new friend's arrival and his manipulation of Tony's database she felt safe enough to end those experiments. After she created her hideaway the emitter was neatly tucked into a corner. Inessa used it for a new kind of practice- how to slip about undetected without her abilities as even a possibility. Thanks to her own willingness to push her strength and skills Nadya had never even seen this place. If she had Inessa had no doubt Noelle's body would have been found there.

She followed the smooth edges of the tunnel up towards the rough patches were she'd widened it over the years for larger storage space. All in all the space went on for only around fifty feet before it ended in a shining silver ladder. That was where fate stepped in once again: To hide his new security features and special traps, Tony had the walls of Avengers Tower built thicker than necessary on normal buildings. Her thin wood and concrete slab capping off the old sewage line ran right through the inside of two walls.

Well, in all honesty it wasn't fate so much as her swiping the blueprints and making an adjustment of about 6 feet on one end. Either way- between the straight climb up and an army-crawl through the flooring Inessa was 75% sure she could reach the Avengers floors of the Tower. The infrastructure was there- theoretically. In truth Inessa only ever made it up twenty floors before the odd little obstacle course lost her interest. She'd just used her powers to access the pipe through the sewers ever since. Now she had no choice- the only way into Avengers Tower was to literally walk through the walls up well over 100 floors.

It would be difficult enough if she had all day to do it, but Inessa wasn't sure how much time was left before Red Skull and Emilie made their next move. She had to go, now.

The things I do for you assholes.

Her initial plan- ten floors then five minute's rest- only worked the first few times. Then it became ten floors ten minute's rest. Soon after it was 5 floors. Shadow-demon powers didn't do anything to enhance Inessa's strength or stamina, and it didn't help with climbing up a skyscraper. She didn't even know how high she was anymore- did she just complete her 7th set, was she about to complete her 7th set, or was the next one her 7th set? At what point had she changed to 5 floors again?

So much for getting up to the Tower and forcing everyone out. She didn't know what was more difficult now- the low crawl through the floors with her head practically touching both ceiling and floor simultaneously or trying to climb a ladder where the walls were so close together that she had to hold onto a rung almost as far above her head as her arms could go, all because there wasn't enough space to lean back. If Inessa had ever completed her inaugural climb she'd have known the route was impractical at best. It wasn't hard to make a self-ascending ladder anymore- why hadn't she just used those?!

Because 18 year-old me thought it would be FUN to be old-fashioned. Stupid brat. How are you supposed to find Bucky's old arm, fight off the Avengers, get to the balcony, and jump off before it goes boom if you can't even lift your damn arms or legs? Is walking even an option anymore?

The temptation to use her new blood tie was almost overwhelming. She could feel Wanda's strength like it was her own. Her muscles were jelly but her bones were steel. It was like the cure for her exhaustion was sitting behind a door and all she had to do was decide how far to open it. Surely Wanda would understand- it was for the sake of her mission to save everyone else! But as angry as she was, and as much as Inessa looked forward to taking her best shot at giving Steve a black eye for all the trouble he put her through, she couldn't bring herself to do it. No matter what.

She broke her best friend's trust by casting the blood magic. If she activated that curse it would drain life and energy from Wanda just as it had Inessa. She remembered vividly the seizure, the twisting pain in her gut, the fatigue, the fever- everything Emilie put her through thanks to that magic. Inessa wasn't going to inflict that on her friend.

About five feet from the end of the latest crawling portion Inessa's arms gave out. Fine. She hit the stopwatch on her wrist. Ten minutes rest, then she had to press on. Eventually, she knew, the walls would change to Hulk-proof panels, signaling her arrival at the Avengers floors. How much longer until that point was anyone's guess, but she just hoped it would be soon.

Up the ladder, down a short crawlspace, and up just two more floors- a 10 minute journey- the tesseract power cell in Bucky's old arm reached critical mass. The transmitter activated, and the weapon was primed. All that was left was for Red Skull to press a single button and Avengers Tower would blow.

Hurry up little Nessie, he whispered to himself, I want you to see this for yourself.

"I bet she's in the Tower."

"Shut. Up."

"Think about it- if everyone was searching high and low for you, where would you go?"

"Far away from you."

"See? You're an idiot and she's brilliant, so whatever you think she's doing, whatever you would do, is the opposite of what she'd do."

Marie held up her hand and sucked a bit of the heat from the room to form a small ball of fire, "I swear to god, if you don't shut up-"

"You'll what?" Amadeus leaned towards the flame, "Go ahead- tell me. What will you do? Are you going to kill your boss? She's either possessed or evil, they can't decide which and they've issued execution orders. You willfully murder your immediate superior and I don't even know what they'll do to you." He leaned back and smiled as the flames vanished and the room warmed just the slightest bit, "Actually, we've had would-be traitors before. Inessa always sniffed them out before any serious damage was done. What happens to them is rarely pretty."

"I just want some peace and quiet, is that too much to ask? I can't think with all of your talking."

"Think? About what? I hereby order you to tell me."

"That's now how this whole lieutenant thing works, I'm fairly certain." Marie rolled her eyes and hit her head against the wall. She peered at Amadeus and watched him wind up for another joke. Before he could make it she leaned back in abruptly, "Why are you so happy? Any second we'll get word that Inessa is finally dead and you're all happy-go-lucky."

Amadeus nodded, "And you're all doom-and-gloom. So here's how I see it- You found something that proves she isn't a killer, whereas all I found was evidence that she is. Sharing is caring."

"So that's it? You're in a good mood, despite being locked up in here, because you think I found answers? You're even dumber than you look. I'm pissed because I hate Inessa more than anyone up there and instead of letting me help I'm in here with you. So why can't they make up their minds? They trust me enough to let me go with Sam's team to prove she's guilty, but they don't trust me enough to let me hunt her down?"

"Steve's protecting you. I'm the one they don't trust," he snickered. "Inessa targeted you already, declared you enemy-of-the-state. They're worried she's unhinged and will make an attempt on your life. Me? They probably think I'm the one who coded JARVIS to give Inessa a head start. She certainly didn't have the programming capabilities to do something like that herself."

"You do."

"Yes I do. And I know I went to Ellie recently to have memories removed, but I have no idea why or what I did before I went."

"So ask Ellie."

"I can't," he shrugged, "I asked her to take out a block of time. She doesn't even have to look to do that. I was smart- that way she can never tell anyone whatever it is I wanted to hide from myself. I probably was the one who reprogrammed JARVIS, but I did it before Noelle even went missing, back when we were looking at blood magic. There was no reason for me to want to put blocks in JARVIS' system on my own. Inessa must have asked me to."

Or someone else got in there. Marie's passing theory that Nadya might be the real culprit was something she would never vocalize, especially not to a loud-mouth like Amadeus. The plan was to speak to the leaders privately before both teams met to present their evidence for or against Inessa's supposed possession, let them decide for themselves if the evidence pointed towards either half of the Shadow specifically.

No point in worrying now. She was locked in an empty office below the Avengers floors with a decommissioned comm unit embedded in her jawbone and a man who buried his angst beneath annoying quips and failed attempts at humor. Inessa's a grown-ass woman who thinks she's some super-spy. The ball is in her court. I'm not going to give myself a headache trying to get out of here on a 'maybe' and a 'what if'. Let her handle her own problems.

"Look Marie, the truth is I'm sc-" Amadeus' once yearly attempt at being serious was cut short. A deafening siren- more worthy of a nuclear holocaust alarm- blasted through not only the speakers, but the comm units as well. He covered his ears and shouted against the trumpeting roar. He felt a shudder go through the Tower and the lights ramped up even brighter- brighter than he even knew they could go.

WHAT THE FUCK?! He was fairly certain he screamed it, but he couldn't hear his own voice- even WITH his ears covered.

"PROTOCOL ALPHA INITIATED," JARVIS voice rang out, official and emotionless, "PROTOCOL ALPHA INITIATED. SHADOW DETECTED. PROTOCOL ALPHA INITIATED." It repeated at top-volume without end.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! He managed to read Marie's lips as she screamed from the floor. Blood dripped between her fingers from where her eardrums ruptured. Whoever screwed with JARVIS' reporting protocols apparently also cranked up the volume to paralyzing levels.

The shudder oscillated throughout the Tower and Amadeus finally realized what it was- Inessa's frequency, embedded in JARVIS' siren. It was playing so loudly the entire place shivered with it! His stomach clenched and he managed to get to his feet despite the pain and distortion of the blinding light and the torturous sound. Amadeus charged the door and threw his full weight against it. It was no use- it was a Tower door. Steve was probably the only one with a shot at busting through it.

Marie ran to join him but she was just as useless without her hands- and as loud as the siren still was it was bound to be pure mindless torture without at least a little protection. He wasted more time than he'd be willing to admit finding the courage to do what was necessary. They stood in front of the door, helpless, until Amadeus took several quick breaths, screamed with all the might he possessed, and shoved his hands towards Marie.

He knocked her hands off of her ears and replaced them with his, but the agony was almost too much to handle. His knees buckled as the sound drove through his head like a spike, transferring all of his pain and fear into keeping his hands firmly locked on Marie's head. She knew what he was doing, and his sacrifice made her faster. She planted her hands on the door and immediately began to draw heat from them. The metal froze solid, and as fast as she could she returned the stolen energy and then some from the room around them. It was like bending a paperclip one way and then the other very quickly. Rapidly cooling and eating the door warped the metal and made it brittle. After several tries Amadeus' eyes rolled up into his head and his hands went slack. As they fell Marie froze the door, shoved Amadeus aside, and slammed her shoulder into it as hard as she could.

Luckily it shattered. The unlucky part was that the alarm was just as loud outside, and while she covered her ears quickly she couldn't pull Amadeus along to the emergency exit- let alone repeat her trick on that door, which was also certainly locked against Inessa just waltzing in from the streets. Marie tried to pin one ear against her shoulder and grab onto Amadeus with her free hand. She had no idea why she pulled him to the window, but it seemed like the best option.

As suddenly as it started, the siren stopped and the lights shut off entirely. Marie gasped- she could still hear the ringing, her skin still tingled with the vibrations of the sound, but she knew it was gone. She looked out the window and even though she saw mostly spots in the darkness of the abandoned city she was fairly certain that fast red streak was an Avenger. At least, she hoped it was.

Marie put a hand against the glass and pulled every last ounce of energy she could from it. Frozen solid, even the reinforced window broke easily. She kicked at the glass until a small opening appeared and ran back to Amadeus' side. Marie stood at the broken window and tried to will her eyes to adjust to the darkness. If she was really going to jump out of the Tower from this height, she had to be damn sure someone was going to be there to catch them.

She bent down to remove Amadeus' belt and use it to bind him to her more securely- just in case it wasn't a soft catch- and an enormous shudder tipped her over and sent her- and her cargo- tumbling out into the darkness of the city.

As Marie fell backwards towards the streets of New York she saw the Avengers floors of the Tower bulge outward, pull in, and finally erupt in an explosion that shattered the glass on every building for miles. Flame, steel, and concrete blasted in every direction as their home was destroyed. Marie's last sight was going to be one of the worst she could imagine.

The shockwave traveled out in all directions- including down. As fast as they were falling, it slammed into Marie with more force than even a blow from the Hulk would. Just before the world went dark she thought she saw the faintest flash of silver.

A safety harness. The first time Inessa thought of it was when she reached floor 17 where the vertical ascent was one of those special kinds of hell where her arms were stretched so far above her head she could barely climb. The last time she thought of it was near the top of the ladder that would have brought Bucky's discarded arm into her line of sight.

Either Inessa's strength simply gave out or, more likely, a certain Shadow took advantage of the darkness to push down on her. In her thoroughly exhausted state it wouldn't take much to make Inessa's grip on the ladder finally snap. And it did- so she fell.

The crawlspace could hold her weight if she was crawling, but not if she was falling. The floor was supported by the top of air ducts, and so when she fell she broke not only the thin plywood, but also the aluminum square of the duct and the grating on the vent itself.

So, her covert entry into the Tower from the sewers ended with her actually managing to crawl and climb over 130 floors (once the sub-basements were included) only to fall through a vent and crash loudly onto the collection of knives, daggers, and other bladed implements that remained in the armory.

Her uniform absorbed most of the nicks and scrapes when she collided with the metal table, but it did nothing for Inessa when the landing wrenched her leg and dislocated it at her hip. She screamed, but the sound was absorbed by an unholy wailing that seemed to come from all around as JARVIS' siren alerted the whole damn planet to her presence.

Inessa covered her ears and tried to think- down the hall, around the corner, through the lobby, down another hall and through two doors was the medical wing where there was a machine specifically built for injuries like this one. She'd never make it that far with a dislocated leg and the Tower coming to kill her. There was only one other option. Crude? Yes. Recommended? No. Painful? Yes. Did it work? In theory.

She didn't have time to waste on pain or loud noises and bright lights, Inessa hopped for it at full speed. She took deep breaths through each wave of pain. It didn't make it less agonizing, but she didn't let it overwhelm her either. Her ears she still had to cover, but adrenaline made her fast. She only had to go ten feet down the hallway to Uniform Storage, and as she ducked into the doorway she saw Castor and Maya run by, looking for the source of the alarm. It didn't go without notice the blue plastic that completely sealed off their ears- this alarm was Steve's doing. He wanted to stun her with sound and make her an easy target. She wasn't playing along.

Inessa hobbled as best she could to the back of the room where a control panel could be used to create and control any setting on all uniforms worn by the Avengers. Technology, fabric, undergarments, armor- the same technology that went into JARVIS' fabrication of the Iron Man Mach 2 Suit went into the uniform maker. Inessa waved her hand over the screen to activate it, grateful that it was one of the few things in the Tower that didn't require identification to operate.

It took less than five seconds to hit all appropriate buttons. Inessa selected her Unit from a list, selected her name from that list, and hit the "Emergency" button. A panel slid up, revealing a thick black plastic-like substance. Inessa backed into it gingerly. As soon as she touched it she was sucked in. The 'Emergency' button was for Avengers who had issues getting out of their suits (it happened more often than she ever thought it would). The black gel hardened around her in an instant- forcing her body into the exact position of her imprint. She felt her leg grind and with a shout Inessa ripped free of the plastic before the machine cut off her clothing.

Pop! She felt, rather than heard, the bone slip back into place. It was an even greater pain than she'd felt thus far, but it faded quickly and she was able to move her leg once again. I've wasted enough time! Inessa still couldn't run very well between the burning in her leg and the burning everywhere else from her climb, but she felt a strange sense of urgency.

She peeked out into the hall and something caught her eye. The vents in the hallway- all of them- were glowing. It was the same royal blue she'd seen before when she opened up Bucky's arm. It's happening!

Inessa didn't care what happened to her or how painful it was. She ran down the hall as fast as she could towards the server room. Someone tackled her from the side- Maya- but she landed a few solid punches to the kidney before the young assassin could firm up her grip. She shouted into her comms- probably alerting everyone- and rolled off Inessa, knife in hand.

Inessa wasn't sure when she stopped hearing the alarm. Maya's face went white as she watched her enemy advance, but she was still willing to fight. Inessa pulled out her scythes and swung around, faking left to strike right. Maya absorbed her blow with her knife and moved to sweep Inessa's bad leg out from under her. The leader grabbed her collar and dragged her down as she fell. In a fair fight Maya would win, but she wasn't playing fair. Inessa grabbed Maya's ear as they fell and ripped out the blue stopper.

Deaf or no, that sound was designed as a paralytic in a former incarnation, and at this volume a lot of that was still there. It didn't matter what you heard, it mattered what the waves made your body do, and the only way they worked was to react with your brain up-close via the ear. Maya went down just like anyone else would. She scrambled to cover her ear and when Inessa threw the blue plug away she chased after it. Inessa ran in the opposite direction.

She chose a hallway that led towards the very back of the Tower- towards Tony's lab. It had anything she'd need to get into those vents and find the arm before it went off- hopefully kill the sound too. Her leg buckled painfully and Inessa pitched against the door, hard. She caught herself on the lab table and glanced up into a mirror-

Half of her head was encased in black armor. That was what scared Maya, that was what was protecting her from the alarm. Her ears, forehead, and neck were covered, and the darkness was moving forward to cover the rest of her face. The frequency was forcing her out of the body entirely. At least, that's what she believed.

She had no time for this. Inessa kept moving towards the closet at the back of the lab. She'd cleared out most of the contents- all experiments of Tony's- but there were a few toys he'd made for Natasha still in there- grappling hooks were what Inessa was most interest in.

The door was locked, but Inessa had a way through that. She pulled out the left scythe- vibranium- and prepared to slice through the steel chain. A flash of color in the metal door caught her eye and Inessa ducked just in time to miss Steve's shield as it embedded itself in the door- pinning it closed. She turned and threw herself at his knees just as he dove for hers. The result was ideal- Inessa landed on top of Steve and before he could get a grip on her and swing her around she planted her foot firmly in his jaw.

It wasn't enough to even phase Captain America- once again she wished for super-strength, but she used the momentum to jump off of him, out of reach, and towards the door. Steve barked and order and it slammed shut- but not before she saw Clint running at her, bow drawn and tazer arrow at the ready. She would always believe he meant to shoot her- when it was really Steve he was aiming for.

The blue in the vents surged and a blast of light blew outwards. Steve kicked Inessa's leg out from under her and it was only instinct that made her throw herself to the left as the lights went out and everything went dark. Steve struck the right side, denting the floor. She felt the frequency stop and vanished in a puff of darkness, only to reappear a safe distance in front of him. He shouted wordlessly and ripped the blocks from his own ears, "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!" he snarled, "AND I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO HER!"

"NO ONE DID ANYTHING TO ME!" Inessa felt the other Avengers converging on the room. With a wave of her hand they were all swept away to the street below, out of meddling distance, "YOUR HEAD IS SO FAR UP YOUR ASS YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!"

She saw the light building again, and Inessa reached out into the shadows. She felt Natasha, Thor, Banner, Tony, and Clint racing towards the room- then nothing. Steve shouted again and tackled Inessa as she hesitated. She didn't move them, so where were they? Her heart raced, then the wind was knocked out of her. She tried to wriggle away again but he kneeled on her chest with his feet on her hands- she couldn't move.

Steve yanked one of her scythes out of its sheath and drove it down into her shoulder. Inessa screamed, "NO MORE LIES!" He took a deep breath and pulled the weapon out. Steve held it over his head like a sword, blade-down, and smiled, "You're not taking any more Avengers." Black mist began to roll across his arms. Inessa's eyes went wide, but she couldn't use her own abilities- and what was happening to Steve certainly wasn't her own doing.

"NO!" she screamed as the weight began to lift from her.

"What are you doing?" Steve swung the scythe down but it passed through Inessa's throat. He tossed it aside and put his hands around her neck as if he could squeeze the life from her, but all she felt was cold. Inessa threw all of her power into holding him there, keeping whatever was pulling him at bay. The others were gone, she realized with a start- just gone. Inessa heard Nadya roar and the loud scrapes of her talons against the metal terrified her. Inessa was winning, she was keeping the one Avenger Red Skull wanted more than anyone else!

She was too tired, too weak, and too late. Inessa couldn't pull Steve back, and she couldn't stop the other Shadow from taking him with the others, "I KNOW WHO'S DOING THIS!" she threw all of her power into shielding the room- releasing the black armor in the process, "STEVE, I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON NOW AND I SWEAR TO YOU-" her voice broke and even despite the pain and anger she felt tears fall, "I'M COMING FOR YOU ALL. OK? I. WILL. FIND. YOU. AGAIN!"

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" he shouted, "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Even in the end he believed she was his enemy. Steve lunged forward again, tried to hit her, kick her, strike her- anything. Inessa lost her grip on her power and latched instead onto his mind. In an instant he was gone.

She felt him being pulled away and followed his trail as far as the Valley. It vanished into the Bifrost above. Inessa drew back into her own body and began to rock and shake on the floor.

Six years. She had six years to stop this, and all she did was show up in time to see it all destroyed. Her power fell entirely, and Nadya tackled her just in time to sweep both out of the Tower. After all of this, she wasn't about to let the girl die. Not before she and Red Skull had taken all they wanted from her.

Inessa watched the explosion from the building across the street, shielded from the shockwave by her power. She saw something fall from the window of the Tower below the destroyed floors- something the shockwave hit with incredible force. Inessa sent Nadya to save them, whoever they were.

She thought she was numb before, but she was wrong. She was angry before, and sad. Now she was numb. Natasha, Clint, Steve, Thor, Tony, and Banner. The people who saved her, the people who raised her, the only family she ever truly loved- and they were just gone. They could be alive, dead, with Red Skull, with Emilie- anywhere. All because she was short sighted.

How many times had she said she was willing to die to protect her friends? If she had died- would Red Skull still have taken them? Would Emilie have been stopped before Nadya grew strong enough to open doors of her own? Oh God, Inessa watched the Tower burn, I killed them. She saw a streak of red- Sam. Back too late to stop it.

His scream of rage and pain echoed through the streets along with the cries of the Avengers she'd saved. Inessa looked to her side where Nadya appeared, dragging Marie and Amadeus' unconscious forms. "Find Bucky," disgust made her short of breath. All Inessa wanted was to rip the wolf apart, slowly, "NOW!"

It wasn't Inessa who summoned Peter to Niflheim, it was Wanda simply using her identification code. She tried to bring Sam back to one of the facilities, but he camped out in the Tower with those Avengers who were saved the night of the explosion, just in case he missed his chance to kill Inessa. He kept Amadeus and Marie, this time in a more secure room, for added leverage.

Vision recovered Thor's hammer from the rubble, and Steve's shield. He couldn't find Inessa's cave, though, and she refused to heed the calls into shadows that usually brought her running. Two weeks- that was how long it took to make contact.

Inessa agreed to move the couple into her cavern and let them stay there with her- even though it meant Sam's army grew with those members who chose to abandon their facility without a leader to guard.

Heimdall's summons were imminent when Nadya finally signaled that she had caught on to Bucky's scent. Inessa immediately sent Vision to fetch Muhammad- Ouroborous or not it was time for him to send that vision back. It destroyed her life, ruined her chances at stopping the explosion- but without it there wouldn't even be a chance at stopping whatever Red Skull had planned.

Inessa wasn't numb anymore. All she felt was hate, anger, and disgust. It didn't matter that Wanda decided to trust her or that Vision was willing to go along with his wife. She played into Red Skull's plan. She was never meant to save the others- she was meant to be there when they vanished. A month. It took a month to get a lead on Bucky. Red Skull wasn't a patient man- she'd been desperate to start her trip, to save them all and prove to Steve once and for all that she wasn't the enemy- but he probably knew that by now, if he was still alive.

Avengers Tower was gone. Her friends were gone. Wanda's trust was hardly without its doubts and conditions. They came to Inessa because they wanted to believe her- believe that she could find the Avengers leaders and bring them home. The blood tie convinced Wanda, too late, to trust what Inessa had told her all along.

It was plain as day on her face- which was why Wanda vowed to ask only one thing of Bucky before Inessa took him across the galaxy to a fight she hardly had a prayer at winning. Red Skull could die without Inessa shedding a drop of her own blood, they could rescue the Avengers and this hell could have a happy ending- but Inessa didn't intend to come back.

Red Skull broke too much. She'd already decided this was a suicide mission- not because she thought a sacrifice would be needed to assure their victory, but because even if they did win she was through with the pain, the struggle, the uncertainty, anger, fear, rage, fighting, arguing- all of it.

Sex with Bucky wasn't just a display of passion or some kind of stress relief- it was like a final meal for the condemned, just one last bit of light in the darkness. Inessa held him tight and gasped as he moved against her. For him everything was different- they were finally connecting, all secrets between them gone. For her though nothing changed. Bucky was better than she'd hoped- a brilliant and loyal partner in the fight- but the end game was still the same.

Inessa Ryker would die, and 'Project: Echo' would end at last.

Chapter 35: … and Bring an Army

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Ad Industry Powers Consider Adopting Ad Blocking on a Wide Scale

The most important players in advertising and marketing and tech are mapping out a method to kill off the virtual advertisements that have been deemed as the absolute worst with the aid of clients. The maximum in all likelihood method is the adoption of a “generation” — the time period “advert blocker” has baggage among many of the individuals in talks at the concern — that would prevent browsers inclusive of Google Chrome or Microsoft Side from displaying auto-playing video advertisements with sound, pop-up ads, and ads that fast flash or trade colours.

The time period “advert blocker” has baggage among many of the individuals in talks at the concern — that would prevent browsers inclusive of Google Chrome or Microsoft Side from displaying auto-playing video advertisements with sound, pop-up ads, and ads that fast flash or trade colors. The discussions are taking place among contributors of the industry’s Coalition for Higher commercials, consisting of Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, WPP’s ad-buying massive GroupM, Facebook, Thomson Reuters, The Washington Submit, the Interactive advertising and marketing Bureau and the Affiliation of National Advertisers, in line with Chuck Curran, suggest to the Coalition and attorney at Venable LLP.attorney at Venable LLP.list of types of industries

The give up the game right here is to dispose of these types of advertisements which

Can be undercutting the client internet revel in,” Curran stated. “Surely, the one’s advertisements can doubtlessly and seriously undercut the wider internet environment.

A “blocking off mechanism” or “technology” to prevent such commercials from appearing can be put into location earlier than the quiet of this 12 months, Curran predicted. Google stated it does no longer comment on speculation, but said it is been operating closely with the Coalition for Better commercials and its individuals. The IAB declined to remark. GroupM, Facebook, Unilever, and P&G could not right away be reached for the remark.blocking psychology.blocking in theatre

Mobile Apps: Helping the Music Industry to Explore New Horizons

Alike some other industry, the arena of a song has received momentum with the upsurge of cellular apps. Musicians connect to people via using a number of advanced approaches these days and most significantly, navigating the landscape of generation has ended up crucial for them to develop.types of industries

Scope of the song enterprise in ‘Going Digital’

The energy of Stay Streaming: With the introduction of Live streaming, unbiased musicians are becoming a possibility to gain a strong foothold in the enterprise now. They do not want any label of big institutions as some of the tech startups are there to promote them within the world of Digital track. Being Internet-Savvy: It has emerged as vital for participants of the music enterprise to have an active and robust Web presence. As a result, they want to recognize the efficiency of organic search visibility in selling their expertise and use the equal effectively.

Greater Sales Opportunities: Gone are the times when music

Changed into the most effective supply of producing earnings. But, musicians can deploy a group of elements nowadays to make earnings like products, podcasts, and iTune optimization. This, in flip, will assist musicians to link to the sector of mCommerce and prevail. Consistent target audience engagement: In advance, tune corporations incurred big costs simplest for the duration of an album launch. But, the image is exclusive now. The enterprise is shifting to the waft of ‘More regular earnings generation and chronic streaming’. How cellular apps are evolving the music industry.list of common industries

Web Optimisation: Building an online presence and optimizing it has to turn out to be important.

Be you’re a musician, a DJ, or an organizer, Net optimization is big for selling the skills at its best. Apps substantially help in optimizing skills throughout the Web thereby, integrating it nicely with logo cognizance. Area-based totally Advertising: Vicinity is one of the important factors that determines the achievement of musicians. With the assist of Area-based cell apps, you can personalize your Advertising sports and hit the target audience in the right region and right time.

Popularity Management: With such a lot of gamers in the music enterprise,

It’s miles crucial for agencies to fetch superb evaluations and hold an aggressive facet. Managing online Reputation is crucial for a logo and with cell apps, you can set off listeners to give opinions and enhance your profile. Content material Display: Placing the Content perfectly across the media channels is critical for musicians. Adhering this reality, mobile apps allow customers to place the Content material at the forefront with right optimization techniques, thereby letting musicians hook up with customers easily. Purchase and Charge: Apps provide the scope to music listeners to shop for song or products. This, in turn, allows musicians to get into the palms of clients and generate Sales which, isn’t always viable with different options like downloading or Live streaming.

The Difference Between Buying and Adopting a Dog

If you’re considering adding a new puppy into your circle of relatives, have you taken into consideration visiting your nearby safe haven or puppy adoption employer? There are many motives why these locations ought to be considered before a pet “purchase” is made. Beneath are only some reasons amongst many. before you head out to the pet keep at your mall, take a minute to think about adoption.

The maximum apparent purpose someone could need to adopt a pet is the truth that a pet’s life is largely stored through the adoption. Shelters and pet companies attempt their exceptional to maintain the animals alive and placed them in suitable houses, but on occasion, the animals are euthanized; there are just too many homeless pets and now not enough loving houses. By means of adopting a pet, you can ensure that the puppy you select is safe while establishing up a spot at the pet business enterprise for another pet in want.

A 2nd reason to undertake in preference to “buy

Is the fee. most of the pets at the shelters have acquired all in their vaccinations, and that they were spayed or neutered. Although there may be the value associated with adoption, it is minimum as compared to what it might price which will attain those veterinary offerings for your personal. Plus, the quantity you pay allows hold the shelter jogging, so other pets and families can benefit from the safe haven’s applications.

Some humans have the wrong ideas approximately pets in shelters

It’s commonplace for a person to assume that the puppy becomes despatched there due to awful conduct. In truth, many pets that grow to be in shelters had been deserted due to divorce, relocation, or incapacity of the owner to care for the puppy. So, don’t suppose that shelters are full of misbehaving animals. Visit a shelter, and spend a while with the animals. You can discover a puppy that completely suits your persona.

Trust it or no longer, there is often a higher selection of animals at a shelter than there’s at a pet keep.

Puppy stores are more restricted in the range and type of the pets they create, whilst shelters take in pets of all ages and breeds. There are regularly tons of puppies to select from, especially the ones which have been rescued. however, not anybody is seeking out a puppy; and it is easy to find a housebroken person canine at a safe haven. Many shelters provide internet websites with pics and statistics approximately all in their animals to be had for adoption. journeying the internet page can prevent plenty of time, especially if you have a specific pet in mind.

Pro’s and Con’s for Blocking or Deleting Your Ex on Facebook

Many humans soar on the risk to delete or block their ex from their Facebook account as quickly as the opportunity provides itself. It also includes a selection made inside the warmness of the instant, pushed by means of anger or grief. However would it not be greater strategic to permit your ex to see what you’re as much as for some time before you lock them out of your digital world absolutely? There are apparent pro’s and con’s associated with both deleting them, or maintaining their digital friendship.

It is easy to get irritated with the individual you have got just broken up with, run domestic, log onto Fb and take terrific pride in deleting them out of your buddies listing. So permit’s examine the pros and cons of keeping your ex-companions digital friendship straight away after a breakup. You may then determine for yourself what route of action fine suits your state of affairs or situation.

So let us start with the positives associated with maintaining off on clicking the ‘delete’ button:

You will be capable of hold tabs on wherein they’re, what they may be doing and who they’re doing it with with the aid of seeing their test wins, pix and posts uploaded to their web page. This may are available in very on hand in case you move in similar circles and want to keep away from “bumping’ into them at a famous bar or eating place.

They will be the type to specific their emotions digitally with the aid of posting on their wall how they have been stricken by the breakup. This can provide you with an insight into their persona or feelings that They may no longer be able to show in character and/or carry readability to the state of affairs need to it have ended abruptly?

You may see what they may be saying to their pals and what their friends are announcing

To them which may also offer precious intelligence about the split, that you wouldn’t otherwise be privileged to in man or woman. You will be very amazed as to what can be made public after their friends assume it’s throughout with you. Smash united states of America can be tough sufficient as is without having to peer chatter across our on-line world about the complete ordeal, so what are the terrible aspects associated with leaving them at the friends listing?

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MIRABOOK NOTEBOOK WORKS WITH A VARIETY OF MOBILE SMARTPHONE

One of the extra ahead-searching era ideas nowadays is the idea of connecting a telephone to a larger show and external peripherals like a keyboard and mouse. The combination can offer the mobility blessings of a VARIETY smartphone tool with the productivity benefits of a pocket book or computing device Computer.

Some of the agencies are operating especially on pocketbook formats that paintings broadly speaking with Home windows 10 Cell gadgets, which include HP’s Lap Dock that works with its Elite x3 telephone and the NexDock. Now, there’s another participant within the market, with the Mixes’ Mira book that’s now available to pledge at IndieGoGo.

Mixes’s is a French startup that’s been supplying “

Cell convergence” products because 2015. The Mira book is the ultra-modern product that it hopes will provide a notebook-like revel in that mates with Some of the different telephone and Pc platforms. In reality, it’s the Mirabook’s assist for the following distinct convergence solutions that makes it exceptional:

Phrases of hardware, the Mira book is an aluminum-finished clamshell with a Complete HD (1,920 x 1,080) decision 13.three-inch IPS display, keyboard, and touchpad, and further storage and battery existence that plugs into One of the supported platforms to provide a bona fide notebook enjoy. Connectivity is supplied by way of USB Type-C for input and charging, and USB Type-C, HDMI, USB Kind-A, and audio jack connections offer for flexible output.

For best 5 extra days

The Mira book may be pledged on the drastically reduced value of $180, down from the expected retail rate of $299. Everyone who pledges on the early-hen rate receives three “secret tickets” that can be used to skip alongside the savings to buddies and households. Ordinary early-chook pricing might be $199 inclusive of the 3 secret tickets, and Normal pledges will run $249.

Mixes’ plans to deliver the Mira book international beginning in December 2017. The corporation has a fixed IndieGoGo purpose of $50,000 and has to date raised 13 percentage from a total of 37 backers. There’s a month left to get in on the deal, so if you’re searching out a flexible Mobile convergence product to apply along with your cell phone, the Mira book looks as if an appealing alternative.

Let Your Kids Enjoy A Variety Of Activities At A Trampoline Park

Children call for lots. They’re very difficult to delight. That is why dad and mom often feel pressured in which to take them for a weekend day trip. Well, the real fun in recent times is available most effective at a trampoline park and you have to remember the fact that. These parks percent in a whole lot of unique and lively activities no tried in advance by most kids. So, you should plan the weekend to be at an area where activities are limitless for Kids. The fine element, These parks are an amusing heaven for Kids and adults alike! Their trampoline place tends to be large enough to deal with a whole lot of Youngsters collectively.

As soon as in the park premise,

Youngsters can do a number of jumpy and spongy things to experience glad and have amusing. First and predominant, they could experience the exhilaration of jumping between trampolines. Then next, they can take please in bouncing off the partitions even without fear about any effects to the frame. With a helpful surface below, you’ll be able to feel tempted to fly thru the air or have interaction in a few daring form of the aerial act not achieved before. Even as playing struggle beam, Youngsters can attempt to push the opponent off into a large foam pit and experience amusing.

In addition, gymnastic actions can be practiced conveniently,

Or you’ll be able to simply sense the delight that comes from going for walks down the tune. Site visitors can assume a big pit full of smooth foam cubes to provide them gentle contact after they dare and fly thru the air to land on to it. Such landings are so safe and comfy that you might repeat the act over and again for positive. For the less adventurous lot, there may be rope swing to enjoy and instruction a few clean swinging movements with a gentle quality touchdown. What is more, These parks are also accurate while you love sports like basketball.

Pinnacle parks have centers for Visitors to paintings on their dunking skills and research a trick or two in the sport of basketball. maximum of them even allow the possibility to play the game of dodgeball, score points, show stable protecting movements and stay away from the ball fearlessly. In addition, These places are the first rate for Youngsters aged 1-five as they can soar and play in a particular region within the park. Traffic can enjoy a superb selection of ingredients and beverage alternatives (simplest non-alcoholic though). What’s more, you could additionally get meals and healthful snacks and combat off any sign of tiredness readily.

Notebook Air Disassembling Experience

I trust that many humans could have heard of the product before Mi Notebook Air being launched. Put apart the product itself, we saw yet again the Xiaomi Employer setting foot on a brand new product category of the era enterprise. As a purchaser like anybody else, I personally decide on the products which are true sufficient themselves rather than their well-known brands. And today, I’d want to the percentage the disassembling system of the 2 variations of Xiaomi Mi Pocketbook Air.

12.5-inch Mi Notebook Air

Firstly, allow’s have a look at some details of the 12.5-inch model. At the entire, the internal structure of this Notebook may be very compact. It is based At the Intel Middle M3 processor, which make the passive cooling machine keep numerous area.

In addition, we are able to see that the 12.five-inch Mi Pocketbook Air adopts the abnormally formed battery design. And the speakers are on the perimeters. On the center of the motherboard, there may be Intel Core M3 processor. It is worth mentioning that there may be a prepared self-multiplied M.2 SSD interface within this PC.

Compared to 13.3-inches model, the 12.5-inch one is a bit smaller, and the entire weight is ready 1.07kg. This tool could be very clean to carry and area, that’s exceptionally suitable for those office customers and enterprise vacationers.

13.three-inch Mi Pocketbook Air

there’s absolute confidence that the 13.3-inch model is fantastically stronger than the 12.5-inch one on performance. This Notebook makes use of an unmarried brass and dual-fan cooling configuration, and the air outlet is placed inside the hinge. In fact, for such a slender laptop, despite the fact that the area of the hole might not be conducive to the warmth dissipation, this might be handiest and relatively an awesome answer.

What’s extra, the thirteen.three-inch model is equipped with Samsung 256G SSD. And it also affords users with an extra reserved M.2 SSD SATA interface for upgrading on their personal if wanted.

As for the gaming revel in of thirteen

Inch Mi Notebook Air, I have discovered that the frames performances are quite decent after attempting a few mainstream gunfight and MOBA games. In truth, the performance of the images card, GeForce 940MX, is tremendously sufficient for playing most games, and the 1G of reminiscence is not right for not anything.

Further, I attempted the bracelet unlocking with the aid of putting the Xiaomi Mi Band 2 close to the lock screen standby interface of the PC. This sounds maybe complete of the era. But, there are 3 conditions to reap this function, the upgraded Win10 RS1 machine, an appropriate Xiaomi software program, and eventually, the Xiaomi Mi Band 2.

Sooner or later, the 13.three-inch model features “a tool with three displays” by way of outputting display screen interfaces with a 4K resolution one by one due to the HDMI interface.

Matters in Common

Each version adopts the keyboard with a key manner of one.3mm. From a brief-time period view, it feels better than my MacBook Seasoned. But for longtime typing, the keyboard of most notebooks could be extra tiring than any impartial kind keyboard. So the small hole At the keyboard experience won’t be so critical for deciding on.

Mobile Phone Repair Tips To Help Your Save Money

For lots human beings, getting your smartphone constant or repaired is a very high-priced flow. And so, each time they get a cracked smartphone’s display screen, dropped their telephone within the lavatory or their battery is now not running, they usually just opt to buy a new one. But, having your telephone constant or repaired is really not that pricey best in case you know the proper factor to do.

Clients have plenty of misconceptions which might also both be grounded on some truth or are honestly untrue. Professionals in cell telephone repair proportion a few recommendations below on a way to save cash on your cellular smartphone restore.

In most instances, there is still an excessive chance that your cell phone can be repaired. So instead of truly shopping for a new one, simply have it checked first so that you will realize your alternatives. You can honestly have your telephone constant. You may buy parts online and watch or study tutorials. However, one key aspect that you need to recognize is that repairing a cell tool calls for some technical capabilities and plenty of staying power.

Every now and then

It’s far extra fee-effective to deliver your device to a skilled expert rather than test along with your tool. You could save time, money and attempt, and expect better consequences. Additionally, premium manufacturers have restricted one-year warranties. And if your device is by chance broken, it is particularly probably that the warranty has already been voided. truly positioned, in case you convey your device to a third birthday celebration keep, you don’t ought to worry approximately voiding the guarantee because it already is.

And as compared to carrier carriers who will convince you to shop for a new device, 0.33 birthday celebration shops will try to do their satisfactory to repair your smartphone first before recommending to you to shop for a brand new one. so you can certainly rely on their abilities and knowledgeable before you’re suggested to buy a brand new cell cellphone.

[theblackshades]

Astral Travel and the Seven Planes

Flashback to some centuries ago and I would have been burnt at the stake had I mentioned if I had revealed that I actually traveled on the astral plane, seen the future or could read someone’s thoughts that I have an astral body, probably burnt twice. Even as recently as twenty years ago when I spoke openly about my astral senses people looked if I was ‘gaga’ at me as. I remember a game I played I was with a group of people, I would perch myself up in a corner near the ceiling and watch everyone including myself interacting with myself as a young child and later too as an adult, when. I enjoyed doing that and did it naturally. I did this without giving it a second thought, not being aware it was my astral body that was floating up there. I knew though that it as a right part of myself. Earlier on I used to believe that everyone else could do the same until I learned otherwise. Of course I did not share this experience with anyone. I had to be careful to be with the proper people in the right surroundings to mention anything about my busy life that is inner other dimensions of being. Today ‘astral travel’ is a buzzword spreading like crazy fire over the worldwideweb. More and more people are curious and want to know about astral projection. Real or perhaps not, it appears to me that every second person I meet claims to having had an ‘out of body experience’ or is an old hand at ‘astral travel.’ Some travel while meditating, others while resting and yet others via lucid dreaming. Many experience this phenomenon at times of crisis and have had near death experiences.

Traditional science has not yet caught up with thousands years old esoteric secret knowledge. The door to this esoteric kingdom of knowledge still remains locked to many scientific minds. But it really is opening very slowly by sheer force of the masses that not only believe, but also know and sense through personal experience. More than ever before physicists and scientists are joining the spiritual onward march, mainly because they have no choice as they find themselves at a cul-de-sac and have no where else to turn. More and more physicists that are spiritual speaking out and because they are physicists their words have more clout. This might be news that is good about time too.

In this essay I shall share with you all that I know about the astral plane, as a ‘baby’ occultist. First let me explain that there is nothing sectarian nor mystical about an occultist. A mystic is someone who believes in the presence of other planes of being without being interested to find out such a thing in detail as to the hows and whys. Most saints fall into this category. An occultist is a mystic who does not only believe but goes a step further to do extensive research and to experiment, to observe and experience with oneself. Famous occultists are for example, Edgar Cayce, Pythagoras, C. W. Leadbeater and Gopi Krishna. There are hundreds of other occultists that are famous in the eastern and the western worlds and perhaps thousands scattered all over the world, that are not famous at all. All these social people know of and are in constant touch with other dimensions of existence.

Here’s what I found as I surfed the internet on astral travel.

‘Amazing Scientific Breakthrough enables you to have a Astral that is successful projection 20 minutes! Learn how to leave your body, walk through walls, fly around your neighborhood, meet your deceased loved ones, communicate together with your guides and teachers, travel through time to witness past or future events and much much more! 100% guaranteed or your money back!’

Now who can say No to such a fascinating invitation!

Unfortunately, many dabble today in a mystical globe oblivious of the fact there is some danger when one is ignorant of the details and the hazards involved when entering other dimensions. I aspire to shed some light on this for you in this article and to raise your curiosity so that you will continue to research, to read more writings and studies about astral travel and to understand as much as you possibly can, before you venture out to send your astral body to explore unknown worlds.

schmuck gravur männer günstig The oldest therefore the latest occult teachings inform the student that there are seven planes of being. The lowest is what we know as the material plane; the second is the plane of forces; the third is the astral plane and the fourth is what we know as the plane that is mental. Above these four planes are three more planes but we shall not be pressing these at this time since we should concentrate on the plane that is astral. For information only, you should know though that each of these seven planes have seven sub-planes each, and each of the sub-planes have seven sub-divisions, and this goes on to the seventh degree of each of the sub-divisions. I will leave you to figure out the mathematics of that one.

These planes are not consists of matter nor are they group of straight layers. The planes are graded according to their respective levels of vibration of energy, matter being the degree that is lowest of vibrations of energy and these planes interpenetrate each other in the same point of space. ‘A plane of being is not a place but a state of being’ as one teacher that is ancient it. Every student of physics knows that a point that is single of may contain vibrations of heat, light of many shades, magnetism, electricity, etc. each manifesting its own rate of vibration and not interfering with the others. Every beam of sunlight contains many different colors, each with its rate that is own of, and yet not crowding out the others. Prana or ‘vital force’ is found on the plane of forces.

In occult teachings there are frequent references to the regions that are astral the inhabitants and phenomena of these regions. The astral regions are vibrational manifestations on the astral plane that occupy the same space once the material regions, neither one interfering using the other. Your message ‘astral’ is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘related to a star’ and was originally used when describing the heavens of the Greek, the abode of the Gods. From this sense the term widened to be used to indicate ‘ghost-land’ to ancient people. They believed that disembodied spirits and angelic beings of a higher order inhabited this ghost-land. The occultists that are oriental their very own terms derived from old Sanskrit roots, which were much older than the Greek terms, but as these terms confused western occult students, they settled to using the Greek terms. In ancient times they were familiar with the astral and other dimensions of life. This knowledge was lost someplace along the relative line as humans advanced becoming more material bound arriving to our century.

There are two avenues of approaching the plane that is astral. One is by employing the astral senses; the other is by visiting with the astral body. Each associated with physical senses of man has its astral counterpart, which functions regarding the plane that is astral as the physical senses do upon the material plane. Thus every human being has, the power of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting on the plane that is astral by way of these five astral senses. In addition to these five some humans have developed two more senses and these likewise have their counterparts on the astral level. Basically everyone can be trained to develop these senses that are astral.

One can with training develop astral vision, which is perception through astral sight. There is a documented case of a blind woman who is being operated on. Each of the doctors and nurses, what they were wearing and even their features and the color of their eyes after the operation when she woke up, she was able to describe the operation room, she could describe in detail. She could tell them exactly which doctor operated although she was anaesthetized on her and how many were assisting, she could even repeat the conversations they had while operating. This was a mystery but to the occultist it was no mystery at all to the doctors. She had obviously seen and heard everything with her astral sight and hearing. Although her physical eyes had been reduced, her astral vision was not. She had obviously detached her astral body from her physical body and was floating around in the operating room everything that is watching on.

The ordinary clairvoyant has flashes of this astral vision, as a rule but not through an act of will. The occultist that is trained however, is able to shift from one set of senses to the other, whenever he wishes to do so. With training an occultist can function at will on both planes at the same time. A clairvoyant has no need to go into a trance nor to leave the physical body to experience the astral plane all she needs to do is move her perspective.

The other way is to travel to the plane that is astral. The individual leaves his physical body to travel on the astral plane in his astral body in this case. The body that is astral composed of an ethereal substance of a very high degree of vibration. It is not matter and yet it is not force but in between. The astral body is an exact counterpart of the physical body but survives the latter by a number of years but it is not immortal and finally disintegrates just like the body that is physical. The advanced occultist is able to leave the physical body that remains in a state of sleep or trance, and to visit at will anywhere on the plane that is astral. The astral body, however, is connected with the physical body by a thin, cobweb like thread of ethereal substance, which extends or contracts as he travels away from or toward the body that is physical. If the filament is broken by an accident on the plane that is astral his physical body dies and he is never able to return to it. Such accidents do occur but are rare and history that is occult records showing their occasional occurrences. Tales have also been told of astral bodies getting lost on the astral plane and are unable to find their way back for their physical bodies for a long time. In the meantime, the physical body is declared dead and is buried. I will leave it to your imagination to think of what are the results if and when the astral body after a long time, finally finds its way back to the physical body that has, in the meantime, been declared dead and has already been buried. The soul that is poor talk about having a nightmare!

Just as steam is as real as water and ice, the astral is just as real and fixed as is the material world. To the traveler on the astral plane the scenery and everything they see seems as solid as the most solid material to the physical eye. The astral world has its geography, forms and things just as has the material world. The law of Change operates on the astral just as on the material plane. The astral has its laws just as has the material world. These laws must be learned and observed otherwise the inhabitants of the astral world as well as the visitor will have to bear the consequences. There are regions, points of space, places, kingdoms, countries etc. regarding the astral just as there is on the physical plane. As an example one can travel from Zurich to Bombay in a twinkle of an optical eye, by merely wishing to do so. You can without leaving your seat, travel, traverse all the sub-planes, one after the other, witness the scenery, the inhabitants and their activities, and return to the material world, all in a moment of our time if you have the knowledge and power. You can also descend you wish on the physical level, visit far away friends and loved ones if you wish to the material plane and travel with your astral body to anywhere.

In traveling through the astral world, you meet with many strange inhabitants, some pleasant and others unpleasant, some have passed on from the material plane and others who are natives of the astral plane, who have never dwelt in the material world. Often astral shells and spirit that is apparently real which are nothing but semi vitalized thought forms, artificial entities, are mistaken for departed loved ones. Astral shells are astral corpses, just once the body that is physical the grave is the material corpse, which the soul has left to move on to spiritual realms. Artificial entities are those formed by people who pray with a passion, example a mother prays for angels to protect her children. The angel forms actually take shape and exist on the astral level in such cases. Many family ghosts have been created and kept in being by just the constantly repeated belief and tale in their reality. Many haunted houses are explained in this way. Repeated thought and repeated belief will serve to keep such entities alive, otherwise they would in time disappear. On certain planes of the world that is astral occur or living beings that were never human and never is because they belong to an entirely different order of nature. Normally these entities are invisible to humans but in certain conditions can be sensed by astral vision.

On the astral plane there is no time, no distance, no hindrance, you can experience a lot in one second, you can go through walls, you can travel from one end of the world to another in an instant. You can go forwards and backwards in time and you can fly. You have experienced all of this at least once in your dreams. You can meet loved ones long gone and you can meet your guardian spirits. All of this is true. You can astral travel without having a clue or remembering passing it off as a dream or you can travel consciously. You can learn to reach that particular state of mind or in other words, a different state of consciousness in order to travel on the astral plane and keep the memory of it. All of this and even more you and I, as every one else, can afford to do without a doubt. In the majority of cases, however, people are perhaps not prepared for such adventures if met with demanding situations could go mad from the shock.

It is known that very advanced souls travel that is often astral their spiritual guides at night while their material bodies sleep deeply, to attend spiritual classes where they receive intensive advanced spiritual teachings. It is also said that many indigo children, whom are reincarnated advanced souls, attend spiritual schools at night while their physical bodies are fast asleep. There has always been throughout the ages indigo children born but in our time today these are typically here in masses to help humanity to get through the great shift cycle that we are experiencing.

It's erroneous to think that astral vision unexpectedly dawns on anyone. In the majority of cases it is a slow development that is gradual. Many people possess it to a degree and fail to further develop it for want of proper instruction. Many have occasional flashes of astral vision. If you must experiment and try out any of the advertised on the web technical help to enter into astral travel, then here is one little piece of advice. When going through the plane that is astral do not listen to anyone beckoning to you to join them, you could be tricked into staying there, look forward not backward, look upward not downward. It’s imperative that you feel no fear, fear attracts negativity that you have faith in your heart and. Consider within your soul is a spark of the Divine Flame and also this will protect you.

Could it be possible that someone can in fact teach you to definitely travel on the level that is astral in twenty minutes as claimed in one of the websites on the internet, I really cannot say one way or another. Perhaps those with very high advanced consciousness can. We see miracles happening every day. On the other hand, could it just be possible that you are hypnotized into believing that you are traveling through an astral plane and told to remember whatever is said to you during the hypnosis. This could very well be possible. Once again all I can say is take heed, handle with care. The more light you have it is in you the less risky. If you are someone who is inclined to being negative and afraid then I would say stay away. Some gurus still insist it is risky and dangerous for untrained novices to travel through the astral world without an experienced guide. If you still are burning to experiment, so be it, go at your own risk. You may be irritation to take to this novice experience and you go ahead along with it blindly and survive without a problem. It reminds me of when I first learnt to ski. When on the top associated with hill I just let go and skied straight downhill totally unafraid, thrilled with the speed and the wind in my face, loving every second of it. It now and how silly I was then, I know it was a miracle that I did not topple over and break both my legs when I think about. It absolutely was my total ignorance of the rules that saved me. Now that I know how to ski I’d never dream of going straight downhill so fast and if I did I would probably break all my bones. The ignorance or innocence, call it what you want, is what often saves us from calamities. The principle that is same here too with astral travel, like children get away with many things that we grown ups could not do, total innocence and a fearlessness can save the day. At least now you've got an basic idea what to expect. There is much more to know, but this is a good beginning.

[politicoscope]

Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

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Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

Hosni Mubarak Early Life

Hosni Mubarak (Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak) was born on 4 May 1928 in Munofiya. Mubarak was a former Egyptian military and political leader who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in the Egyptian Air Force. Hosni Mubarak was the longest serving Egyptian president, having ruled Egypt for almost 30 years until he was swept from power in a wave of mass protests in February 2011. Mubarak was a 24-year-old air force pilot when the military overthrew King Farouk in 1952. The son of a government clerk, he was born Muhammed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak in the Nile Delta village of Kafr Musailha on May 4, 1928, when Egypt was still heavily supervised by Britain, which controlled the Suez Canal. Details of his early life are sketchy. He qualified as a pilot in 1950 and spent more than two years in the Soviet Union a decade later, training to fly bombers.

When much of the air force was wiped out by Israeli warplanes in the Six-Day War of 1967, he was made head of the air force academy, charged with rebuilding air power to hit back. As head of the air force from 1972, he did just that, attacking Israel in 1973. Sadat, who succeeded Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, saw in Mubarak a loyal subordinate and made him vice president in 1975. That office would lie vacant under Mubarak, who guarded his power jealously.

As president, Mubarak sent the army in to quell mutineers in the 1980s, and also repaired relations with Arab states after Sadat’s peace with Israel. In 1989, Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League, which moved its headquarters back to Cairo. American money made sure that Egypt never wavered from an arms-length civility toward the Jewish state, and Mubarak played mediator between Israel and the Palestinians down the years. His policies irritated many in the Middle East. After Hamas Islamists took control in the Gaza Strip, adjacent to Egypt, in 2007, Mubarak backed the Israeli blockade of the territory.

Violence by Islamists at home, including attacks on tourist sites and Red Sea resorts, remained a justification for the police state. In 1995, Mubarak survived one of several assassination attempts when Islamist gunmen fired on his car during a visit to Ethiopia.

A command economy fashioned under the Arab socialist Nasser lagged behind countries Egypt was once compared to, such as Turkey or South Korea. Egypt’s population almost doubled under Mubarak, but many remained mired in deep poverty. A spurt of growth in his final decade, fuelled by market reforms overseen by his son Gamal, made some rich, but corruption ensured the wealth stuck to the elite around the head of state, the military and those who found favour in the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Hosni Mubarak Biography and Profile

The son of a government clerk, he was born Muhammed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak in the Nile Delta village of Kafr Musailha on May 4, 1928, when Egypt was still heavily supervised by Britain, which controlled the Suez Canal. Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak insisted on keeping his private life out of the public domain while president. Mubarak exhibited a leaning toward the military. A graduate of the Air Force academy, he would serve as its director between 1966 and 1969. In 1972, Sadat appointed him as Air Force commander; he would later receive accolades from the late president over the Egyptian Air Force’s accomplishments during the conflict with Israel.

In 1975, Sadat appointed Mubarak to the post of vice-president and gave him his first taste of mainstream politics as a senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). It was not clear why Sadat chose Mubarak, although some believe it was in reward for Mubarak’s effective tenure as chief of the air force.

Married to a half-British graduate of the American University in Cairo, Suzanne Mubarak, he was known to lead a strict life with a fixed daily schedule that began at 0600. Never a smoker or a drinker, he built himself a reputation as a fit man who led a healthy life. In his younger days, close associates often complained of the president’s schedule, which began with a workout in the gym or a game of squash.

He was sworn in as president on 14 October 1981, eight days after the Sadat assassination. Despite having little popular appeal or international profile at the time, the burly military man used his sponsorship of the issue behind Sadat’s killing – peace with Israel – to build up his reputation as an international statesman.

Mubarak head of the air force academy

Mubarak qualified as a pilot in 1950 and spent more than two years in the Soviet Union a decade later, training to fly bombers. When much of the air force was wiped out by Israeli warplanes in the Six-Day War of 1967, he was made head of the air force academy, charged with rebuilding air power to hit back. As head of the air force from 1972, he did just that, attacking Israel in 1973.

Mubarak Isolated From Arab and Muslim Countries

When Mubarak assumed power, Egypt was isolated from Arab and Muslim countries, many of whom had broken off diplomatic ties after Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In one of its greatest diplomatic defeats, Egypt was kicked out of the Arab League and its headquarters were moved from Cairo to Tunisia. Mubarak’s first foreign policy mandate was to bring his country back into the Arab fold and to resume ties with major players in the region. His first success was in building a relationship with the then influential Arab leader Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, whose country was locked in a bloody war with Iran.

Egypt signed on as Iraq’s ally in the conflict, providing military assistance and expertise to Baghdad. By the time the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Egypt had successfully emerged from its isolation. In 1990, in a move spearheaded by Iraq and Yemen, the Arab League headquarters were returned to Cairo. But the Arab rapprochement was short-lived as Egypt opposed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Mubarak urged Saddam to withdraw his forces from Kuwait; when Baghdad failed to do so, Egypt joined the US-led international effort to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

Hosni Mubarak Trial

By late May 2011, judicial officials announced that Mr Mubarak, along with his two sons – Alaa and Gamal – would stand trial over the deaths of anti-government protesters. So began a protracted series of court appearances – with the former president often been seen in the dock in an upright stretcher wearing his trademark sunglasses.

Hosni Mubarak Trial in Court

He has steadfastly argued his innocence – telling a retrial in August that that he was approaching the end of his life “with a good conscience”.

On 2 June 2012 he was found guilty of complicity in the murder of some of the demonstrators who took part in the wave of protests that began on 25 January 2011. Along with his former Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes.

In January 2013 a court upheld an appeal against Mr Mubarak’s and Mr al-Adly’s convictions and granted retrials. Mr Mubarak and his sons were also ordered to be retried on corruption charges for which they were originally acquitted. Mr Mubarak was released from prison in August that year but placed under house arrest before being transferred to a military hospital.

In May 2014, Mubarak was found guilty of embezzlement, and sentenced to three years in prison. Alaa and Gamal were sentenced to four years each. The convictions were overturned in January 2015, but a retrial reinstated the same sentences. An appeals court upheld the sentences a year later, but Alaa and Gamal were freed because of time already served.

In November 2014, Mr Mubarak was finally acquitted in a retrial of conspiring to kill protesters during the 2011 uprising. At the same time, he was also acquitted of corruption charges involving gas exports to Israel.

In March 2017 Egypt’s top appeals court upheld Mr Mubarak’s acquittal and he went free, for the first time in six years.

Mubarak: Egypt’s Quasi-Military Leader

In effect, Mubarak ruled as a quasi-military leader when he took power. For his entire period in office, he kept the country under emergency law, giving the state sweeping powers of arrest and curbing basic freedoms. The government argued the draconian regime was necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, which came in waves during the decades of Mr Mubarak’s rule – often targeting Egypt’s lucrative tourism sector.

He presided over a period of domestic stability and economic development that meant most of his fellow countrymen accepted his monopolisation of power. But towards the end of his tenure in power, Mr Mubarak felt for the first time the pressure to encourage democracy, both from within Egypt, and from his most powerful ally, the United States. Many supporters of reform doubted the veteran ruler’s sincerity when he said he was all for opening up the political process.

Ahead of his declaration that he would not to stand again for the presidency, the US had heaped pressure on him to stand aside, calling for an “orderly transition” of power to a more democratic system. Mr Mubarak won three elections unopposed since 1981, but for his fourth contest in 2005 – after a firm push from the US – he changed the system to allow rival candidates.

Critics said the election was heavily weighted in favour of Mr Mubarak and the National Democratic Party (NDP). They accused the Egyptian leader of presiding over a sustained campaign of suppressing.

‘History will judge me’

The length of his time in power, along with his age and possible successors, had all been sensitive subjects in Egypt until the mass protests allowed the Egyptian people to find a voice. People around Mr Mubarak said his health and vigour belied his age – although a couple of health scares served as a reminder of his advancing years. Rumours about the president’s health gathered pace when he travelled to Germany in March 2010 for gall bladder surgery. They flared every time he missed a key gathering or disappeared from the media spotlight for any conspicuous length of time.

However much Egyptian officials tried to deny them, they kept circulating, with reports in the Israeli and pan-Arab media. The days of mass protests in Egyptian cities prompted Mr Mubarak to finally name a vice-president. On 29 January 2011, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was elevated to the role in what was seen as an attempt by Mr Mubarak to bolster his support in the military. Two weeks later Mr Mubarak’s three-decade rule was over, and in March he was under arrest.

In the past, Mr Mubarak had said he would continue to serve Egypt until his last breath. In his speech on 1 February 2011, he said: “This dear nation… is where I lived, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others.”

Why Was Mubarak Overthrown?

Mubarak policies irritated many in the Middle East. After Hamas Islamists took control in the Gaza Strip, adjacent to Egypt, in 2007, Mubarak backed the Israeli blockade of the territory. Violence by Islamists at home, including attacks on tourist sites and Red Sea resorts, remained a justification for the police state. In 1995, Mubarak survived one of several assassination attempts when Islamist gunmen fired on his car during a visit to Ethiopia.

A command economy fashioned under the Arab socialist Nasser lagged behind countries Egypt was once compared to, such as Turkey or South Korea. Egypt’s population almost doubled under Mubarak, but many remained mired in deep poverty. A spurt of growth in his final decade, fuelled by market reforms overseen by his son Gamal, made some rich, but corruption ensured the wealth stuck to the elite around the head of state, the military and those who found favour in the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Politically, there was talk of reform, not least when former U.S. President George W. Bush was pushing the idea. After winning a series of single-candidate referendums that provided the legal basis of his rule, Mubarak agreed to contest a presidential election in 2005. But the defeat of Ayman Nour, a liberal lawyer who dared challenge him, was no surprise.

By 2010, the NDP felt confident enough of its impunity to claim 90% of the seats in a parliamentary election that saw the Muslim Brotherhood eliminated from the legislature. The resulting public outrage might have subsided, as it had before, had it not been for the sudden success of an uprising in Tunisia just a few weeks later which also prompted protests against Egypt’s ruler.

At first, Mubarak gave little ground to the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, comforted by hesitation in Western capitals to cut loose an ally. Only when his generals began to desert him, fearful their own privileges might be swept away, and the Americans sided with the popular will, did he relent, at first insisting he would retire only later but finally flown off to his Red Sea retreat.

“Egypt and I shall not be parted until I am buried in her soil,” he said. He was arrested two months later.

A trial began in August 2011, the sight of Mubarak in a courtroom cage captivating viewers.

Egyptian Revolution of 2011

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s third and longest-serving president, stepped down on February 11, 2011, after an 18-day-long mass uprising aimed at removing him from power. Omar Suleiman, the country’s then newly appointed vice-president, announced the move in a brief statement on state television, hours after Mubarak was reported to have left the capital Cairo for the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The following day Vice-President Omar Suleiman made a terse announcement saying Mr Mubarak was stepping down and the military’s supreme council would run the country.

Mubarak’s resignation followed mass protests in Egypt against his 30-year rule, and came a day after he surprised the people of his country by refusing to resign. The former president succeeded Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated on October 6, 1981 while attending a military parade to commemorate the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Mohamed Mursi Won the Presidency

On June 2, 2012, just before Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi won the presidency, Mubarak was jailed for life for conspiring to murder protesters, sent to Cairo’s Tora Prison though occasionally moved to the smart Maadi military hospital nearby due to claims of failing health. Prison time would be short, however, as another military man, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, overthrew Mursi the following year.

As Sisi launched a crackdown on the Brotherhood that critics said was more severe than anything under Mubarak, the case against the former president was dropped in 2014.

Three years later, following an appeal by the prosecution, Egypt’s top appeals court acquitted him, allowing him to return to his home the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis, not far from the presidential palace he had occupied for nearly three decades.

Hosni Mubarak Death

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who held power for 30 years until he was ousted in 2011 in a popular uprising against corruption and autocratic rule, died on Tuesday 25 February 2020, at the age of 91.

Hosni Mubarak Net Worth

Hosni Mubarak’s vast wealth started to attract widespread press scrutiny, with outlets like the Guardian and ABC News estimating his fortune at as much as $70 billion. However, this amount may be disputed by some people. The precise amount of cash and assets Mubarak and his family allegedly stole may start to come to light as Egypt works with international authorities in their recovery effort.

Hosni Mubarak spoke out and said:

“I do not own any accounts or assets outside Egypt… This is for the Egyptian people to know that their former president has accounts only in one Egyptian bank, according to what I have mentioned in my final financial statement. I agree to offer any authorizations that would enable the Egyptian public prosecutor – through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s contacts with foreign ministries worldwide – to take all the necessary legal procedures to reveal whether my wife, either of my sons, Alaa or Gamal, and I own any properties or assets directly or indirectly, whether they were commercial or personal, since I started working in the military and political public works and until now, so that everyone would make sure that all the allegations handled by the local and foreign mass media about me and my family’s ownership of huge properties abroad were fake.”

How Old is Hosni Mubarak?

Hosni Mubarak was 91 years when he died on Tuesday 25 February 2020.

Hosni Mubarak’s Family

Hosni Mubarak’s Spouse: Suzanne Mubarak (m. 1959). Hosni Mubarak’s Grandchildren: Omar Alaa Mubarak, Mahmoud Gamal Mubarak, Farida Gamal Mubarak, Mohammed Mubarak.

Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak Biography and Profile