Afghanistan did not fall under Al Qaeda’s grip — the Taliban were the senior partners within the country’s borders — beyond the borders was AQ’s AO.
[ALESTIKLAL.NET] After a period of confusion and internal conflict, Western warnings have intensified over the possibility that Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), affiliated with al-Qaida, is close to seizing the Malian capital, Bamako, after a months-long siege.
Western media outlets are sounding the alarm that this African country, where around 95 percent of the population is Muslim, could become the first state in Africa to fall under al-Qaida's control, a development that could later threaten Arab countries, since Mali borders Algeria and Mauritania.
Opponents of the military government in Mali have issued appeals calling on Imam Mahmoud Dicko, who is currently in Algeria, to return and take charge of resolving the escalating political and security crisis after armed groups reached the outskirts of Bamako.
Analysts see this as an indication of how serious the situation has become, since Imam Dicko is considered one of the most influential figures in Mali, and he previously led protests against earlier governments calling for democracy, before the military seized power.
Dicko has also worked as a mediator between the Malian government and armed groups, and he is known for his extensive negotiating experience, which is why many Malians believe he is capable of pulling the country out of the deadlock it has faced during five years of military rule.
WHAT'S NEW?
Since the 2020 coup in Mali, which brought a military council to power, the country has experienced persistent instability that has deepened with the expulsion of French forces and the regime's decision to align itself with Russia as an alternative to France.
After the military ousted the late civilian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020, divisions emerged within the ruling ranks.
In 2021, Colonel Assimi Goita carried out a second coup against the transitional president, retired Colonel Bah Ndaw, and installed himself as head of state.
In September 2025, following clashes between the army and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), al-Qaida fighters imposed an economic blockade on Bamako and prevented fuel from entering the capital.
The blockade came as a retaliatory response to the military government's decision to ban the sale of fuel in rural areas under the group's control, and it resulted in paralysis across the capital, a 500 percent rise in fuel prices, the closure of schools, and the cancellation of flights.
JNIM then turned what had begun as a temporary blockade into a strategy of economic pressure aimed at bringing down the regime from within by magnifying public anger and frustration, and by encouraging either an internal uprising or a military coup against General Goita.
The group seized control of the international roads linking Mali with its neighbors, routes that serve as vital lifelines for a landlocked country with no access to the sea. Among them is the Dakar—Bamako road to the west with Senegal, a crucial corridor for importing food supplies.
They also seized the Abidjan—Bamako road to the south with the Ivory Coast used for transporting fuel and goods, and the Nouakchott—Bamako route to the northwest with Mauritania, an area long used for smuggling weapons and fuel.
Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of JNIM, took advantage of the withdrawal of French forces after a dispute with the new military rulers, and escalated the war against Bamako, seeking to capitalize on the security vacuum to strengthen his influence in Tuareg and Fulani areas.
For the first time, Ghali forged an alliance with Tuareg separatists in a joint front, despite their ideological differences. They cooperated in some battles when interests aligned, and fought each other at other moments.
Al-Qaida declares its aim of establishing an Islamic system based on sharia and a caliphate in line with its ideology, while the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a political and military group founded by Tuareg communities in northern Mali, seeks to create a secular and independent state called Azawad.
Because Imam Mahmoud Dicko, who chaired the High Islamic Council from 2008 to 2019, played a role in the political change of 2020 but later left for Algeria after disputes with the military, the opposition has called for his return to lead a new transitional phase.
They have urged his return on the grounds that he is a figure capable of unifying the population, restoring legitimacy, and negotiating with al-Qaida leaders.
General Goita had pledged to hand power back to civilians by the end of March 2024, but his transitional government announced on 25 September 2023 that the presidential election would be postponed, and the legislative elections cancelled, citing technical reasons.
Although Goita promised, after his two coups in 2020 and 2021, to bring stability, he has instead plunged the country into deeper turmoil, dismantled what remained of the state's institutional foundations, and presided over an increasingly fractured military, according to a study published by the Atlantic Council on 31 October 2025.
For this reason, a former Malian minister living in exile told The Guardian in early November 2025 that a new coup, a third one, could occur within days, since, in his words, ''the country is on the brink of a third successful coup in five year.''
[THEASPENBEAT] Just the lower end, but read the rest.
Women were not enfranchised until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.
I personally am glad that we now allow voting by women, minorities and renters, though I'm not fond of renters.
But we've gone well beyond that. The Founders would be mortified to see the current trend toward what we champion as ''democracy'' and what those Founders would decry as mob rule.
For example, people are allowed to vote without presenting simple proof that they're who they say they are.
They're allowed to vote in many states even though they're not citizens.
They're often allowed to vote even though they're dead.
They can vote multiple times — one time from their main residence, another time from their vacation home in a different state, and another time by mail.
They're allowed to fill out ballots for their elderly grandmother, sign her name to it, and drop it off or mail it in. They can do that for as many grandmothers as ballots they can get their hands on.
This loosening of voting requirements coincides with a dumbing down of the voters. People are allowed to vote even though they graduated from public high schools in Democrat-controlled cities where they didn't learn anything. In fact, they're allowed to vote even though they graduated from no high school at all.
And even the ones who graduated from high school lack a basic education. A recent survey at the University of California at San Diego (ranked one of the leading universities in America) found that 25% of incoming freshmen cannot solve for X in the equation:
7 2 = X 6
I wonder if they could solve for X in the equation:
7 2 = X 2
Or the equation:
7 2 = X
Or the equation:
7 = X
These freshmen have no idea how many students make up 25% of the incoming class of 4,000. But I suspect they do know to label me a misogynist for using the term ''freshmen.''
We can and should re-establish literacy tests for voting. They were outlawed generations ago on the grounds that they discriminated against illiterate Blacks, but today that objection is gone — we're all illiterates now!
Is it any wonder that the state of the union is bad? We have a polarized government of mean girls (most of whom have penises) who don't even try to solve problems. They just play to the mob that elects and reelects them.
And so, the minority party shuts down the government unless they get to act like they're the majority party. They don't really expect that to happen, but it's great theater for a while for the mob in the nickel seats.
And there's Epstein 24/7, as if anyone really needs to see the emails to know that Donald Trump's relationship with a creep who exploited teenage girls might have been worth a whole chapter in The Art of the Deal.
And there's a kooky Jew-hater who's never had a job getting elected in a place that a kooky Black man once dubbed ''Hymie-town'' on a platform of arresting the Prime Minister of Israel and giving everyone free stuff paid for by the Jewish billionaires he'll fleece on their way out of town.
And there's a governor in California running for President on the platform ''OMG, get a look at my hair!''
And 70% of the younger generation approve of socialism, while 45% disapprove and 17% aren't listening to the survey question and 81% pick the New England Patriots by 7.
What's the fate of our once-great republic now that it's descended into mob rule?
History offers some lessons. Witness the mob of the French Revolution and the mob of the Weimar Republic. The path out of mob rule typically goes through despotism, and a lot of people get hurt.
Posted by: Mercutio and Fred ||
11/20/2025 00:00 ||
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Yeah, I didn't know they were still in business either.
by Karen Bass, 43rd Mayor of Los Angeles
[Time Magazine] When President Donald Trump speaks about America’s blue cities, he paints a bleak picture—one of chaos, decline, and despair. He talks about cities like Los Angeles as if it’s a lost cause, a place people have given up on.
But those of us who actually live in cities like Los Angeles can tell you: the image the president is painting could not be further from the truth.
Los Angeles is not broken. Los Angeles is not adrift. Los Angeles is not a hellscape. Los Angeles is an economic engine, a bastion of diverse cultures and storytellers, and home to millions of proud Americans. What’s more, Los Angeles is making real, measurable progress on the issues that people once thought were impossible to solve.
And our story is bigger than just our city. It’s about the importance of local government to deliver results, even when Washington is consumed by division and dysfunction. It’s about why local solutions to local problems have never mattered more—for both our residents and the future of the Democratic Party.
WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN LOS ANGELES
For decades, Los Angeles—like so many across the country—has faced a systemic homelessness crisis. The problem didn’t emerge overnight, and it will not be solved overnight. But we are finally turning a corner. Homelessness in Los Angeles is declining. Street homelessness is down by 10%. That’s not just a statistic—it represents thousands of people who are no longer sleeping on sidewalks or in cars, thousands of Angelenos who finally have a roof over their heads.
Preliminary data shows that this is the second straight year of decline since the crisis exploded. That progress is not accidental. It is the result of sustained, relentless work. Through our signature Inside Safe housing initiative, we have helped thousands of people transition toward stable housing and move hundreds of people inside.
Our Inside Safe initiative is not just a program—it’s a mindset of tackling local problems effectively. It’s about meeting people where they are, with empathy and persistence. Our field teams of outreach workers, mental health professionals, and housing navigators go directly to encampments, talk to individuals, and build trust. They help people move first into temporary housing and then walk with them step-by-step toward permanent stability.
We have nearly doubled the number of people moved into permanent housing since I took office. This didn’t come from political rhetoric or partisan posturing. It came from focusing on what actually works in our communities—treating homelessness not as a public nuisance, but as a human emergency. Housing, housing, housing as if every hobo in the world deserves a rent free apartment in Los Angeles at taxpayer expense. BTW, how many billions have been sunk into this program? How much money was kicked back to politicians like Bass from their developer buddies?
That same spirit is driving progress in public safety too. In 2024, homicides in Los Angeles decreased by 14% compared to the year before—taking the homicide rate to the lowest it has been in 60 years. Citywide property crimes including burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft from vehicles also declined. These numbers represent lives saved, families spared, and neighborhoods that feel safer today than they did a year ago.
When organized retail theft threatened local businesses and workers, we didn’t point fingers—we acted. Our Retail Theft Task Force has made hundreds arrests and recovered more than $36 million in stolen goods, sending a clear message that violence and crime are not welcome in Los Angeles.
Small business is the backbone of our city, and it's why blue cities like Los Angeles prioritize supporting it. Whether it’s cutting red tape for entrepreneurs trying to get started or investing in neighborhood revitalization, local governments must be a partner in growth, not a barrier to it.
THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
These are not abstract policy successes. They are tangible results that Angelenos can feel in their lives. And even more critically, they rebuild a sense of declining trust from the Democratic Party in recent years.
That’s a lesson I believe the Democratic Party—and those running for office—must take to heart.
For Democrats across the country, the work ahead is not just about resisting an administration in Washington that is abusing its power or attacking our values. And make no mistake about it: those threats are serious and we must confront them with the fight they require. Indeed, in Los Angeles, we have done that after the Trump Administration started their authoritarian experiment here—snatching immigrants and innocent civilians off our streets. Oh, boo hoo. And never mind the ones who waved their Mexican flags while throwing rocks at police and ICE agents.
At the same time, we must also constantly remind people what good governance looks like. We must stand up to authoritarianism, while also standing tall for competence, compassion, and tangible results. We must not be afraid to talk about our accomplishments because they are proof that Democratic governance works. That the Democratic Party can and will deliver. Maybe we should withhold judgement until the 2028 Olympics. It could be fun.
In Los Angeles, in cities across California, and in Democratic communities nationwide, local leaders are tackling the issues that keep Americans up at night: housing, safety, affordability, and opportunity. That’s the message we, as a party, should be sharing face-to-face in our neighborhoods.
After the 2024 elections, our path forward as a party is clear. We must regain the trust and confidence of voters. That means showing up, not just in election years, but every day, of every year. It means meeting voters where they are: in community centers, at small businesses, at church gatherings, at kitchen tables. It means listening more than we lecture, and governing in a way that earns belief again in the idea that public service and local government can improve people’s lives.
Good governance at the local level has never been more important. It’s where the abstract becomes concrete, where ideas become outcomes, where people see whether democracy works.
And that’s why I believe the story of Los Angeles is not just a local story—it’s a national one. It’s proof that even in the face of cynicism and division, progress is possible. It’s proof that compassion and competence can coexist.
President Trump will continue to say that blue cities are failures. He’ll say that places like Los Angeles are falling apart. But I invite anyone who believes that to come and see what’s actually happening here.
Because the truth is, cities like Los Angeles are where the future of our collective democracy is being written. Not in rhetoric or tweets, but in the daily work of solving problems and serving people.
That’s what we, as Democrats and as Americans, must continue to believe in and fight for. No mention of the fires, of course. And nothing about the snail's pace of the recovery...or Newsom's plans to grab the land and replace the burned out single family homes with high rise slums. And any homeowner in the entire state of California can tell you about the newer, higher insurance premiums that just might keep the insurance companies from leaving the state altogether. Ouch! Dammit! And the water bill too!
[CityJournal] How some of the state's welfare funds ended up in the hands of a terror group
Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots.
In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community. Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab. As one confidential source put it: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
Our investigation shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding-heart bureaucracy, when imported clan loyalties collide with a political class too timid to offend, and when accusations of racism are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior. The predictable result is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the bill.
If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud, it would probably look a lot like Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program. The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal: to help seniors, addicts, the disabled, and the mentally ill secure housing. It was designed with “low barriers to entry” and “minimal requirements for reimbursement.” Nonetheless, before the program went live in 2020, officials pegged its annual estimated price tag at $2.6 million.
Costs quickly spiraled out of control. In 2021, the program paid out more than $21 million in claims. In the following years, annual costs shot up to $42 million, then $74 million, then $104 million. During the first six months of 2025, payouts totaled $61 million.
On August 1, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services moved to scrap the HSS program, noting that payment to 77 housing-stabilization providers had been terminated this year due to “credible allegations of fraud.” Joe Thompson, then the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, went even further, stating that the “vast majority” of the HSS program was fraudulent.
On September 18, Thompson announced criminal indictments for HSS fraud against Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow, and Anwar Ahmed Adow—six of whom, according a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson, are members of Minnesota’s Somali community. Thompson made clear that this is just the first round of charges for HSS fraud that his office will be prosecuting.
“Most of these cases, unlike a lot of Medicare fraud and Medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren’t just overbilling,” Thompson said at a press conference announcing the indictments. “These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that’s unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota.”
Thompson said many firms enrolled in the program “operated out of dilapidated storefronts or rundown office buildings.” The perpetrators often targeted people recently released from rehab, signing them up for Medicaid services they had no intention of providing. He noted many owners of companies engaged in HSS fraud had “other companies through which they billed other Medicaid programs, such as the EIDBI autism program, the . . . Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services program, the . . . Integrated Community Support program, the Community Access for Disability Inclusion . . . program, PCA services, and other Medicaid-waivered services.”
“What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending,” Thompson said. “I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”
On September 18, the same day that the HSS fraud charges were announced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that a man named Abdullahe Nur Jesow had become the 56th defendant to plead guilty in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
Founded in 2016, Feeding Our Future was a small Minnesota nonprofit that sponsored daycares and after-school programs to enroll in the Federal Child Nutrition Program. The organizations that Feeding Our Future sponsored were primarily owned and operated by members of Minnesota’s Somali community, according to two former state officials with connections to law enforcement.
In 2019, Feeding Our Future received $3.4 million in federal funding disbursed by the state. In the months after the Covid-19 pandemic began, however, the nonprofit rapidly increased its number of sponsored sites. Using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fraud ring claimed to be serving thousands of meals a day, seven days a week, to underprivileged children. In 2021, Feeding Our Future received nearly $200 million in funding.
[AmericanThinker] As New York City celebrates a socialist-Islamist mayor and we approach the tenth anniversary of the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in San Bernardino, it is worth reflecting on the many commonalities that unite the Blue-Green (Democrat-Islamist) alliance.
Many have remarked on the absurdities of these misfit ideologies as bedfellows. LGBTQ often professes love for Hamas irrespective of the latter’s nonnegotiable religious injunction to sentence gays to death.
Feminists who rage against the so-called white western patriarchy offer unconditional support for an unyielding theocratic movement that would institute shariah law, subjugating females as the dhimmified chattel of Muslim men.
Bitter and ofttimes non-telegenic progressive women (AWFLs) are indifferent to the industrial scale rape and sex trafficking of native European girls by male Muslim migrants, perhaps even gratified that tens of thousands of innocent working-class girls are physically and emotionally maimed for life provided it contributes to burning down "the system" or "the West" and furthers the progressive cause.
Still, despite the glaringly inescapable contradictions, birds of a feather flock together. And upon closer examination, the progressive and Islamist movements, both global in scope, have far more in common than meets the eye. Here are ten key ways in which the two totalitarian movements are conjoined at the hip in their marriage of convenience.
Often willing to kill and die for The Cause. Both ideologies are obsessed with destroying their perceived enemies. What do James Hodgkinson, Thomas Crooks, Luigi Mangione, and Tyler Robinson have in common with Mohamed Atta, Nidal Hasan, Omar Mateen, and San Bernardino’s Tashfeen Malik? All were willing to kill and/or die for The Cause. All were obsessed with politics and tribal identity. None were schizophrenic or conventionally crazy. In fact, thanks to DEI and political correctness, Hasan was a frequently promoted and highly compensated psychiatrist in the U.S. Army. If such people could somehow douse lighter fluid on all their perceived enemies, they’d light the match and giggle maniacally while snuffing out countless innocent lives.
Intolerant hatred of any competing ideology. Haters are moved to destroy and it is far easier to destroy than to build. It took seven years to construct the World Trade Center towers and less than two hours to destroy them. For progressives, the objects of their hatred are Republicans, white men, capitalists, and conservatives generally. For Islamists, it’s infidels, women, and gays. (As a bonus, both are really, really united in hatred for Jews and Christians).
Sadism and a total lack of empathy. Think of Antifa beating up innocent passersby just for kicks, or BLM enthusiasts executing random people in the streets. Or Virginia attorney general Jay Jones and his voters. Or consider Palestinians torturing and dismembering children and babies in Israel. Neither ideological group ascribes any humanity to their objectified victims. Both groups actually enjoy seeing others suffer as it creates a dopamine rush and makes them feel good about themselves. The ubiquitous yard sign proclaiming "Hate Has No Home Here" is an irony utterly lost on progressive homeowners.
Lying/taqiyya Islamic dawah (proselytizing) requires nonstop noble lying (taqiyya) in defense or furtherance of the faith. Similarly, think of the incessant lying and lies of omission by most of the western news media (for a noble cause, in their view) and the vast majority of university professors. Both groups are shrewd at deceiving and confusing the public, euphemizing and inverting objective truth in the service of turning oppressors into victims and victims into oppressors.
Playing the eternal victim Material envy, all-consuming resentment, and self-pity are unmistakable hallmarks of the progressive and Islamist mindset. Whether it’s Michelle Obama constantly whining about her massively privileged life or your garden-variety Islamist at a routine traffic stop, the practitioners of both ideologies stand shoulder to shoulder atop the winner's podium in the victimhood Olympics.
Holier than thou. Moral exhibitionists feel an irresistible urge to purify and sterilize, casting stones while believing they alone are without sin or fault. Muslim clerics frequently issue fatwas targeting infidels (e.g. Salman Rushdie, Geert Wilders, countless others) for death. Progressives also routinely issue public death threats on social media, along with constant doxing and swatting of high-profile conservatives in the hopes they will be murdered.
Grandiosity/exaggerated sense of self-importance. The AWFLs may loudly despise their own race or seek to emasculate Christians or white men but they enact these performative psychodramas to elevate themselves. Their grandiosity is further fed by their hashtags, symbolic gestures, and Bluesky or X posts. They are not self-loathing, as some conservative critics claim, although many do fear public mockery if they are exposed as hypocritical frauds. And the heroes of the Muslim world deemed worthy of emulation are not creators or inventors (and sorry, algebra was created centuries before the advent of Islam), but rather conquerors (e.g. Muhammad, Saladin) who annexed geographical territory and spread the faith.
Obsessed with status/public image. Both ideologies have positioned themselves as heroic vanguards of the oppressed masses. Interestingly, the progressive ditzes who revere terrorists as brown "noble savages" care nothing for the widespread persecution, slavery, and outright genocide suffered by peaceful Christian people of color at the hands of Islamists in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. It is not suicidal empathy but rather narcissism that allows progressives to climb atop the corpses of their own children in order to plant the flag of ISIS or Boko Haram or Hezb’allah as a way to preen and promote themselves.
Entitled, with a massive chip on the shoulder. Neither progressives nor Islamists observe the Golden Rule. Both are convinced they are owed whatever they want, irrespective of the common good, and they demand it now. Entitled progressives covet easy money, likes, and notoriety merely for stamping their feet and "shouting" their abortion, or proclaiming the need to abolish the police and empty the prisons. Islamist grievances are similarly endless and impossible to mollify, and those who kill in the name of Allah believe they are promised nonstop coitus in heaven with dozens of virgins; the sense of erotic entitlement creates a pretty powerful incentive to wage jihad and kill infidels.
Absolute unwavering self-belief. Self-esteem is not a problem for imperious children trapped in adult bodies imposing their totalitarian values on the world. Contra George W. Bush, Islam does not mean peace, it means submission. You will submit, convert, or be killed under shariah law. Or think of the unshakable fanaticism of the college student who can’t name the river or the sea or formulate a coherent sentence but nevertheless drips with towering sanctimony that she’s right about whatever it is she’s babbling about at any given moment.
With the Blue-Green axis, it’s noteworthy that the socialist megalomaniac Adolf Hitler rued that medieval Germany had not become Islamicized. Hitler considered Christianity soft and weak and contemptible, but believed Islam, with its unapologetic militancy and conquering ethos, would’ve been the perfect vehicle for the German people to conquer Europe and the world.
Indeed, the former Austrian corporal would be right at home in today’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) political party, right there alongside Mamdani, AOC, and, ironically, Bernie Sanders.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
11/20/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
The Blue-Green Axis: Much More than a Dalliance
They're openly commies now, so it should be Red-Green Axis.
#2
NYC can [continue to] go to sh!t as far as I'm concerned, and if Albany wants assist, fine.
But JP Morgan just opened up a sky-scraper a few weeks ago or so. I don't think they will let this punk who never had a job "run" the place, but I do sort of wish that Wall Street would just pull out of New York and take their tax base with them.
The Chicago Board of Trade should consider the same.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[THEASPENBEAT] 
