Amazing Map Lets You Scroll Through the Entire Known Universe

Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have made one of the most comprehensive maps of the Universe yet, using data previously unreleased to the public.

All-Encompassing

The universe is so vast and old that we can't possibly fathom it all. But we can make some pretty admirable efforts.

Take this stunning new map, put together by astronomers at Johns Hopkins University, that displays the entire known universe in all its glory, showcasing some 200,000 galaxies as tiny dots that span all the way to the cosmos' observable limits.

Using data gathered over 20 years by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, it shows the real positions and colors of the galaxies in a densely packed celestial slice which lets users easily scroll through billions of years.

You've probably seen other maps of the universe before, but likely none this impressive. Excitingly, it uses data previously unreleased to the public, and it might be the most comprehensive cosmic map made for the average Joe yet.

"Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries." said the map's creator and John Hopkins professor Brice Ménard, in a press release.

"But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists," he continued. "Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."

Cosmic Cartography

The map's narrowest point originates from our home, the Milky Way, surrounded by light blue dots of spiral galaxies up to two billion light years away from Earth. Further away, yellow briefly takes over, where elliptical galaxies outshine the dimmer spiral ones.

Then the map takes us into a vibrant gradient of red. These are also elliptical galaxies, but thanks to the phenomenon aptly known as redshifting, their yellow light gets stretched into red.

Lurking behind is a tremendous ocean of blue, where the dots represent quasars, the luminous supermassive black holes at the center of distant galaxies.

Even a few errant red dots, depicting redshifted quasars, are speckled across the universe's penultimate boundary that's shrouded in hydrogen gas.

Finally, the map terminates at 13.7 billion light years away, or years ago, where all that can be discerned is the cosmic microwave background.

More on the universe: NASA Releases Hubble Images of Star Right as It Explodes

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Amazing Map Lets You Scroll Through the Entire Known Universe

So Many People Are Using a Diabetes Drug for Weight Loss That Actual Diabetics Are Having Trouble Getting It

Ozempic, the viral TikTok weight loss drug, is so popular that its creator has declared a shortage — wreaking havoc on the lives of actual diabetics.

At this point, it's likely that Ozempic has somehow come into your personal zeitgeist. The expensive, name-brand version of semaglutide — which, importantly, was originally developed to manage type 2 diabetes — has been in high demand after going viral on TikTok, where it's picking up a reputation as an effective weight loss aid.

"It's the most common medication that I get asked about," Dr. Sudeep Singh, a medical director at a concierge medical practice in Miami, told The Cut. "Everybody knows. Everyone's asking about it. My mom's asking. My neighbors are asking about it. The news is out."

Per a number of reports, Ozempic has been a celeb-guarded secret for some time now, oft-used by starlets who might feel the need to fit into a certain dress for a red carpet. Now the drug is becoming so popular that Novo Nordisk, its creator, has declared a shortage. Tragically, this is all starting to wreak havoc on the lives of actual diabetics, who don't just need the drug to lose a few pounds. They need it to live, and doctors are saying that they're starting to see panic from diabetic patients.

"We're getting calls from our patients who can't find it," Dr. Jonathan Fialkow, chief of cardiology at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, told the Sun Sentinel. Per the paper, Fialkow works with a number of diabetic patients with heart conditions.

"People need it for medical conditions, and pharmacies are out of it," he continued. "The manufacturers aren't able to keep up."

Ozempic, which first went to market in 2017, is what's called a "GLP-1 receptor agonist," which means that it stimulates insulin production and inhibits excess glucose from entering the bloodstream. In other words, it manages blood sugar. And while it's certainly a necessary medication for a lot of type 2 diabetics, there are a lot of very not fun side effects including diarrhea, vomiting and nausea.

But shedding a few pounds is one of those side effects too, and for a lot of consumers out there, it seems that the lure of drug-assisted pound-shedding is enough to outweigh the diarrhea and vomiting of it all — not to mention the reality that the drug, and now others like it, is in short supply for those with the illnesses that Ozempic actually intended to treat. (Last year, Novo Nordisk also started selling a version of semaglutide known as WeGovy that's specifically intended for weight loss, but that one is experiencing shortages as well.)

"Ozempic is not a weight-loss medication," Fialkow continued, adding that "these medications need to be monitored by your doctor."

To that note, while it's possible for weight loss hopefuls to buy Ozempic out-of-pocket, the long term effects still aren't known because nobody has been taking it for very long.

"These medications have been studied in certain populations of people with certain medical conditions," Fialkow additionally told Axios. "When we start using medications and other populations that haven't been studied, while they may be safe, we don't know."

Diet culture is insidious, and it creates immense pressure to slim down. But clearly, the price tag on Ozempic isn't just its extremely high literal price tag, or even the potential "puking your brains out" thing. If you're trying to get your hands on it for the sake of a few pounds gone, maybe, for the sake of those who need it to manage their chronic illness, consider putting it back on the shelf.

READ MORE: Florida diabetics scramble to find drugs suddenly popular for non-intended use: weight loss [Sun Sentinel]

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So Many People Are Using a Diabetes Drug for Weight Loss That Actual Diabetics Are Having Trouble Getting It

Welcome to the land that no country wants

Bir Tawil is the last truly unclaimed land on earth: a tiny sliver of Africa ruled by no state, inhabited by no permanent residents and governed by no laws. To get there, you have two choices.

The first is to fly to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, charter a jeep, and follow the Shendi road hundreds of miles up to Abu Hamed, a settlement that dates back to the ancient kingdom of Kush. Today it serves as the regions final permanent human outpost before the vast Nubian desert, twice the size of mainland Britain and almost completely barren, begins unfolding to the north.

There are some artisanal gold miners in the desert, conjuring specks of hope out of the ground, a few armed gangs, which often prey upon the prospectors, and a small number of military units who carry out patrols in the area and attempt, with limited success, to keep the peace. You need to drive past all of them, out to the point where the occasional scattered shrub or palm tree has long since disappeared and given way to a seemingly endless, flat horizon of sand and rock out to the point where there are no longer any landmarks by which to measure the passing of your journey.

Out here, dry winds often blow in from the Arabian peninsula, whipping up sheets of dust that plunge visibility down to near-zero. After a day like this, then a night, and then another day, you will finally cross into Bir Tawil, an 800-square-mile cartographical oddity nestled within the border that separates Egypt and Sudan. Both nations have renounced any claim to it, and no other government has any jurisdiction over it.

The second option is to approach from Egypt, setting off from the countrys southernmost city of Aswan, down through the arid expanse that lies between Lake Nasser to the west and the Red Sea to the east. Much of it has been declared a restricted zone by the Egyptian army, and no one can get near the border without first obtaining their permission.

In June 2014, a 38-year-old farmer from Virginia named Jeremiah Heaton did exactly that. After obtaining the necessary paperwork from the Egyptian military authorities, he started out on a treacherous 14-hour expedition through remote canyons and jagged mountains, eventually wending his way into the no mans land of Bir Tawil and triumphantly planting a flag.

Heatons six-year-old daughter, Emily, had once asked her father if she could ever be a real princess; after discovering the existence of Bir Tawil on the internet, his birthday present to her that year was to trek there and turn her wish into a reality. So be it proclaimed, Heaton wrote on his Facebook page, that Bir Tawil shall be forever known as the Kingdom of North Sudan. The Kingdom is established as a sovereign monarchy with myself as the head of state; with Emily becoming an actual princess.

Heatons social media posts were picked up by a local paper in Virginia, the Bristol Herald-Courier, and quickly became the stuff of feel-good clickbait around the world. CNN, Time, Newsweek and hundreds of other global media outlets pounced on the story. Heaton responded by launching a global crowdfunding appeal aimed at securing $250,000 in an effort at getting his new state up and running.

Heaton knew his actions would provoke awe, mirth and confusion, and that many would question his sanity. But what he was not prepared for was an angry backlash by observers who regarded him not as a devoted father or a heroic pioneer but rather as a 21st-century imperialist. After all, the portrayal of land as unclaimed or undeveloped was central to centuries of ruthless conquest. The same callous, dehumanising logic that has been used to legitimise European colonialism not just in Africa but in the Americas, Australia, and elsewhere is on full display here, noted one commentator. Are white people still allowed to do this kind of stuff? asked another.

Any new idea thats this big and bold always meets with some sort of ridicule, or is questioned in terms of its legitimacy, Heaton told me last year over the telephone. In his version of the story, Heatons conquest of Bir Tawil was not about colonialism, but rather familial love and ambitious dreams: apart from making Emily royalty, he hopes to turn his newly founded nation which lies within one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet and contains no fixed population, no coastline, no surface water and no arable soil into a cutting-edge agriculture and technology research hub that will ultimately benefit all humanity.

After all, Heaton reasoned, no country wanted this forgotten corner of the world, and no individual before him had ever laid claim to it. What harm was to be caused by some wellintentioned, starry-eyed eccentric completing such a challenge, and why should it not be him?

There were two problems with Heatons argument. First, territories and borders can be delicate and volatile things, and tampering with them is rarely without unforeseen consequences. As Heaton learned from the public response to his self-declared kingdom, there is no neutral or harmless way to claim a state, no matter how far away from anywhere else it appears to be. Second, Heaton was not the first well-intentioned, starry-eyed eccentric to travel all the way to Bir Tawil and plant a flag. Someone else got there first, and that someone was me.

Like all great adventure stories, this one began with lukewarm beer and the internet. It was the summer of 2010, and the days in Cairo where I was living and working as a journalist were long and hot. My friend Omars balcony provided a shaded refuge filled with wicker chairs and reliably stable wireless broadband. It was up there, midway through a muggy evenings web pottering, that we first encountered Bir Tawil.

Omar was an Egyptian-British filmmaker armed with a battery of finely tuned Werner Herzog impressions and a crisp black beard that I was secretly quite jealous of. The pair of us knew nothing beyond a single fact, gleaned from a blog devoted to arcane maps: barely 500 miles away from where we sat, there apparently existed a patch of land over which no country on earth asserted any sovereignty. Within five minutes I had booked the flights. Omar opened two more beers.

Places beyond the scope of everyday authority have always fired the imagination. They appear to offer us an escape when all you can see of somewhere is its outlines, it is easy to start fantasising about the void within. No mans lands are our El Dorados, says Noam Leshem, a Durham University geographer who recently travelled 6,000 miles through a series of so-called dead spaces, from the former frontlines of the Balkans war to the UN buffer zone in Cyprus, along with his colleague Alasdair Pinkerton of Royal Holloway. The pair intended to conclude their journey at Bir Tawil, but never made it. There is something alluring about a place beyond the control of the state, Leshem adds, and also something highly deceptive. In reality, nowhere is unplugged from the complex political and historical dynamics of the world around it, and as Omar and I were to discover no visitors can hope to short-circuit them.

Six months later, in January 2011, we touched down at Khartoum International airport with a pair of sleeping bags, five energy bars, and an embarrassingly small stock of knowledge about our final destination. To an extent, the ignorance was deliberate. For one thing, we planned to shoot a film about our travels, and Omar had persuaded me the secret to good film-making was to begin work utterly unprepared. Omar according to Omar was a cinematic auteur; the kind of maverick who could breeze into a desolate wasteland with no vehicle, no route, and no contacts and produce an award-winning documentary from the mayhem. One does not lumber an auteur, he explained, with printed itineraries, booked accommodation or emergency phone numbers. Mindful of my own aspirations to auteurism, this reasoning struck me as convincing.

There was something else, too, that made us refrain from proper planning. As the date of our departure for Sudan drew closer, Omar and I had taken to discussing our plans for Bir Tawil in increasingly grandiose terms. Deep down, I think, we both knew that the notion of claiming the territory and harnessing it for some grand ideological cause was preposterous. But what if it wasnt? What if our own little tabula rasa could be the start of something bigger, transforming a forgotten relic of colonial map-making into a progressive force that would defeat contemporary injustices across the world?

The mechanics of how this might actually work remained a little hazy. Yet just occasionally, at more contemplative junctures, it did occur to us that in the process of planting a flag in Bir Tawil as part of some ill-defined critique of arbitrary borders and imperial violence, there was a risk we could appear to the untrained eye very similar to the imperialists who had perpetrated such violence in the first place. It was a resemblance we were keen to avoid. Undertaking this journey in a state of deep ignorance, we told ourselves, would help mitigate pomposity. Without any basic knowledge, we would be forced to travel as humble innocents, relying solely on guidance from the communities we passed through.

As the two of us cleared customs, we broke into smiles and congratulated each other. The auteurs had landed, and what is more they had Important Things To Say about borders and states and sovereignty and empires. We set off in search of some local currency, and warmed to our theme. By the time we found an ATM, we were referring to Bir Tawil as so much more than a conceptual exposition. Under our benevolent stewardship, we assured each other, it could surely become some sort of launchpad for radical new ideas, a haven for subversives all over the planet.

It was at that point that the auteurs realised their bank cards did not work in Sudan, and that there were no international money transfer services they could use to wire themselves some cash.

This setback represented the first consequence of our failure to do any preparatory research. The nagging sense that our maverick approach to reaching Bir Tawil may not have been the wisest way forward gained momentum with consequence number two, which was that to solve the money problem we had to persuade a friend of a friend of a friend of an Egyptian business acquaintance to do an illicit currency trade for us on the outskirts of Khartoum. Consequence number three namely that, given our lack of knowledge about where we could and could not legally film in the capital, after a few days we inadvertently attracted the attention of an undercover state security agent while carrying around $2,000 worth of used Sudanese banknotes in an old rucksack, and were arrested transformed suspicion into certainty.

On the date Omar and I were incarcerated, millions of citizens in South Sudan were heading to the polls to decide between continued unity with the north or secession and a new, independent state of their own. We sat silently in a nondescript office block just off Gamaa Avenue the citys main diplomatic thoroughfare while a group of men in black suits and dark sunglasses scrolled through files on Omars video camera. Armed soldiers, unsmiling, stood guard at the door. Through the rooms single window, open but barred, the sound of nearby traffic could be heard. The images on the screen depicted me and Omar gadding about town on the days following our arrival; me and Omar unfurling huge rolls of yellowing paper at the governments survey department; me and Omar scrawling indecipherable patterns on sheets of paper in an effort to design the new Bir Tawili flag; me and Omar squabbling over fabric colours at the Omdurman market where we had gone to stitch together the aforementioned flag. With each new picture, a man who appeared to be the senior officer raised his eyes to meet ours, shook his head, and sighed.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, I pointed out to Omar how apposite it was that at the very moment in which votes were being cast in the south, possibly redrawing the regions borders for ever, we had been placed under lock and key in a military intelligence unit almost a thousand miles to the north for attempting to do the same. Omar, concerned about the fate of both his camera and the contents of the rucksack, declined to respond. I predicted that in the not too distant future, when we had made it to Bir Tawil, we would look back on this moment and laugh. Omar glared.

In the end, our captivity lasted under an hour. The senior officer concluded, perceptively, that, whatever we were attempting to do, we were far too incompetent to do it properly, or to cause too much trouble along the way. Upon our release, we set about obtaining a jeep that could take us to Bir Tawil. Every reputable travel agent we approached turned us down point-blank, citing the prevalence of bandit attacks in the desert. Thankfully, we were able to locate a disreputable travel agent, a large man with a taste for loud polo shirts who went by the name of Obai. Obai was actually not a travel agent at all, but rather a big-game hunter with a lucrative sideline in ambiguously licensed pick-up trucks. In exchange for most of our used banknotes, he offered to provide us with a jeep, a satellite phone, two tanks of water, and his nephew Gedo, who happened to be looking for work as a driver. In the absence of any alternative offers, we gratefully accepted.

Unlike Obai, who was a font of swashbuckling anecdotes and improbable tales of derring-do, Gedo turned out to be a more taciturn soul. He was a civil engineer who had previously done construction work on the colossal Merowe dam in northern Sudan, Africas largest hydropower project. On the day of our departure, he turned up wearing a baseball cap with Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics emblazoned across the front, and carrying a loaded gun. As we waved goodbye to Obai and began weaving our way through the capitals rush hour traffic, Omar and I set about explaining to Gedo the intricacies of our plan to transform Bir Tawil into an open-source state that would disrupt existing patterns of global power and privilege no mean feat, given that we didnt understand any of the intricacies ourselves. Gedo responded to this as he responded to everything: with a sage nod and a deliberate stroke of his stubble.

Im here to protect you, he told us solemnly, as we swung north on to the highway and left Khartoum behind us. Also, Ive never been on a holiday before, and this one sounds fun.

Bir Tawils unusual status wedged between the borders of two countries and yet claimed by neither is a byproduct of colonial machinations in north-east Africa, during an era of British control over Egypt and Egyptian influence on Sudan.

In 1899, government representatives from London and Cairo the latter nominally independent, but in reality the servants of a British protectorate put pen to paper on an agreement which established the shared dominion of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The treaty specified that, following 18 years of intense fighting between Egyptian and British forces on the one side and Mahdist rebels in Sudan on the other, Sudan would now become a British colony in all but name. Its northern border with Egypt was to run along the 22nd parallel, cutting a straight line through the Nubian desert right out to the ocean.

Three years later, however, another document was drawn up by the British. This one noted that a mountain named Bartazuga, just south of the 22nd parallel, was home to the nomadic Ababda tribe, which was considered to have stronger links with Egypt than Sudan. The document stipulated that henceforth this area should be administered by Egypt. Meanwhile, a much-larger triangle of land north of the 22nd parallel, named Halaib, abutting the Red Sea, was assigned to other tribes from the Beja people who are largely based in Sudan for grazing, and thus now came under Sudans jurisdiction. And that was that, for the next few decades at least. World wars came and went, regimes rose and fell, and those imaginary lines in the sand gathered dust in bureaucratic archives, of little concern to anyone on the ground.

Disputes only started in earnest when Sudan finally achieved independence in 1956. The new postcolonial government in Khartoum immediately declared that its national borders matched the tweaked boundaries stipulated in the second proclamation, making the Halaib triangle Sudanese. Egypt demurred, insisting that the latter document was concerned only with areas of temporary administrative jurisdiction and that sovereignty had been established in the earlier treaty. Under this logic, the real border stayed straight and the Halaib triangle remained Egyptian.

By the early 1990s, when a Canadian oil firm signalled its intention to begin exploration in Halaib and the prospect of substantial mineral wealth being found in the region gained momentum, the disagreement was no longer academic. Egypt sent military forces to reclaim Halaib from Sudan, and despite fierce protests from Khartoum which still considers Halaib to be Sudanese and even tried to organise voting there during the 2010 Sudanese general election it has remained under Cairos control ever since.

Our world is littered with contested borders. The geographers Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen refer to the dashed lines on atlases as the scars of history. Compared with other divisions between countries that seem so solid and timeless when scored on a map, these squiggles enclaves, misshapen lumps and odd protrusions are a reminder of how messy and malleable the process of drawing up borders has always been.

What makes this particular border conflict unique, though, is not the tussle over the Halaib triangle itself, but rather the impact it has had on the smaller patch of land just south of the 22nd parallel around Bartazuga mountain, the area known as Bir Tawil.

Egypt and Sudans rival claims on Halaib both rest on documents that appear to assign responsibility for Bir Tawil to the other country. As a result, neither wants to assert any sovereignty over Bir Tawil, for to do so would be to renounce their rights to the larger and more lucrative territory. On Egyptian maps, Bir Tawil is shown as belonging to Sudan. On Sudanese maps, it appears as part of Egypt. In practice, Bir Tawil is widely believed to have the legal status of terra nullius nobodys land and there is nothing else quite like it on the planet.

Omar and I were not, it must be acknowledged, the first to discover this anomaly. If the internet is to be believed, Bir Tawil has in fact been claimed many times over by keyboard emperors whose virtual principalities and warring microstates exist only online. The Kingdom of the State of Bir Tawil boasts a national anthem by the late British jazz musician Acker Bilk. The Emirate of Bir Tawil traces its claim over the territory to, among other sources, the Quran, the British monarchy, the 1933 Montevideo Convention and the 1856 US Guano Islands Act. There is a Grand Dukedom of Bir Tawil, an Empire of Bir Tawil, a United Arab Republic of Bir Tawil and a United Lunar Emirate of Bir Tawil. The last of these has a homepage featuring a citizen application form, several self-help mantras, and stock photos of people doing yoga in a park.

From our rarefied vantage point at the back of Obais Toyota Hilux, it was easy to look down with disdain upon these cyber-squatting chancers. None of them had ever actually set foot in Bir Tawil, rendering their claims to sovereignty worthless. Few had truly grappled with Bir Tawils complex backstory, or of the bloodshed it was built upon (tens of thousands of Sudanese fighters and civilians died as a result of the Egyptian and British military assaults that ended in the establishment of Sudans northern borders and thus, ultimately, the creation of Bir Tawil). Granted, Omar and I knew little of the backstory either, but at least we had actually got to Sudan and were making, by our own estimation, a decent fist of finding out. We ate our energy bars, listened attentively to tales of Gedos love life, and scanned the road for clues. The first arrived nearly 200 miles north-east of Khartoum, about a third of the way up towards Bir Tawil, when we came across a city of iron and fire oozing kerosene into the desert. This was Atbara: home of Sudans railway system, and the engine room of its modern-day creation story.

Until very recently, the long history of Sudan has not been one of a single country or people: many different tribes, religions and political factions have competed for power and resources, across territories and borders that bear no relation to those marking out the states limits today. A lack of rigid, recognisable boundaries was used to help justify Europes violent scramble to occupy and annex land throughout Africa in the 19th century. Often, the first step taken by western colonisers was to map and border the territory they were seizing. Charting of land was usually a prelude to military invasion and resource extraction; during the British conquest of Sudan, Atbara was crucial to both.

Sudans contemporary railway system began life as a battering ram for the British to attack Khartoum. Trains carried not only weapons and troops but everyday provisions too, specified by Winston Churchill as the letters, newspapers, sausages, jam, whisky, soda water, and cigarettes which enable the Briton to conquer the world without discomfort. Atbara was the site where key rail lines intersected, and its importance grew rapidly after Londons grip on Sudan had been formalised in the 1899 Anglo-Egyptian treaty.

Everything that mattered, from cotton to gum, came through here, as did all the rolling stock needed to move and export it, Mohamed Ederes, a local railway storekeeper, told us. He walked us through his warehouse, down corridors stacked high with box after box of metal train parts and past giant leather-bound catalogues stuffed with handwritten notes. From here, he declared proudly, you reached the world.

Atbaras colonial origins are still etched into its modern-day layout. One half of the town, originally the preserve of expatriates, is low-rise and leafy; on the other side of the tracks, where native workers were made to live, accommodation is denser and taller. But just as Atbara was a vehicle for colonialism, so too was it the place in which a distinct sense of Sudanese nationhood began to develop.

As Sudans economy grew in the early 20th century, so did the railway industry, bringing thousands of migrant workers from disparate social and ethnic groups to the city. By the second world war, Atbara was famous not only for its carriage depots and loading sidings, but also for the nationalist literature and labour militancy of those who worked within them. Poets as well as workers leaders emerged out of the nascent trade union movement in the late 1940s, which held devastating strikes and helped shake the foundations of British rule. The same train lines that had once borne Churchills sausages and soda water were now deployed to deliver workers solidarity packages all over the country, during industrial action that ultimately brought the colonial economy to a halt. Within a decade, Sudan secured independence.

The next morning, as we drove on, Gedo grew quieter and the signs of human habitation became sparser. At Karima, a small town 150 miles further north, we came across a fleet of abandoned Nile steamers stranded on the river bank; below stairs there were metal plaques bearing the name of shipwrights from Portsmouth, Southampton and Glasgow, each companys handiwork now succumbing slowly to the elements. We clambered through cobwebbed cabins and across rotting sun decks, and then decided to scale the nearby Jebel Barkal Holy Mountain in Arabic where eagles tracked us warily from the sky. Omar maintained a running commentary on our progress, delivered as a flawless Herzog parody, and it proved so painful for all in earshot that the eagles began to dive-bomb us. We set off running, taking refuge among the mountains scattered ruins.

Jebel Barkal was once believed to be the home of Amun, king of gods and god of wind. Fragments of Amuns temple are still visible at the base of the cliffs. Over the past few millennia, Jebel Barkal has been the outermost limit of Egypts Pharaonic kingdoms, the centre of an autonomous Nubian region, and a vassal province of an empire headquartered thousands of miles away in Constantinople. In the modern era of defined borders and seemingly stable nation states, Bir Tawil seems an impossible anomaly. But standing over the jagged crevices of Jebel Barkal, looking out across a region that had been passed between so many different rulers, and formed part of so many different arrangements of power over land, our endpoint started to feel more familiar.

The following evening we camped at Abu Hamed, on the very edge of the desert. Beyond the ramshackle cafeterias that have sprung up to serve the artisanal gold-mining community sending shisha smoke and the noise of Egyptian soap operas spiralling up into the night Omar and I saw the outlines of large agricultural reclamation projects, silhouetted in the distance against a starry sky. Since 2008, when global food prices spiked, there has been a boom in what critics call land-grabbing: international investors and sovereign wealth funds snapping up leases on massive tracts of African territory in order to intensify the production of crops for export, and bringing such territory under the control of European, Asian and Gulf nations in the process. Arable land was the first to be targeted, but increasingly desert areas are also being fenced off and sold. Near Abu Hamed, Saudi Arabian companies have been greening the sand blanketing it in soil and water in an effort to make it fertile with worrying consequences for both the environment and local communities, some of whom have long asserted customary rights over the area.

It was not so long ago that the prophets of globalisation proclaimed the impending decline of the nation-state and the rise of a borderless world one modelled on the frictionless transactions of international finance, which pay no heed to state boundaries.

A resurgent populist nationalism and the refugee crisis that has stoked its flames has exposed such claims as premature, and investors depend more than ever on national governments to open up new terrains for speculation and accumulation, and to discipline citizens who dare to stand in the way. But there is no doubt that we now live in a world where the power of capital has profoundly disrupted old ideas about political authority inside national boundaries. All over the planet, the institutions that impact our lives most directly banks, buses, hospitals, schools, farms can now be sold off to the highest bidder and governed by the whims of a transnational financial elite. Where national borders once enclosed populations capable of practising collective sovereignty over their own resources, in the 21st century they look more and more like containers for an inventory of private assets, each waiting to be spliced, diced and traded around the world.

It was at Abu Hamed, while lying awake at night in a sleeping bag, nestled into a shallow depression in the sand, that I realised the closer we were getting to our destination, the more I understood what was so beguiling about it. Now that Bir Tawil was in sight, it had started to appear less like an aberration and more like a question: is there anything natural about how borders and power function in the world today?

In the end, there was no fanfare. On a hazy Tuesday afternoon, 40 hours since we left the road at Abu Hamed, 13 days since we touched down in Khartoum, and six months since the dotted lines of Bir Tawil first appeared before our eyes, Omar gave a shout from the back of the jeep. I checked our GPS coordinates on the satellite phone, and cross-referenced them with the map. Gedo, on being informed that we were now in Bir Tawil and outside of any countrys dominion, promptly took out his gun and fired off a volley of shots. We traipsed up a small hillock and wedged our somewhat forlorn flag into the rocks a yellow desert fox, set against a black circle and bordered by triangles of green and red then sat and gazed out at the horizon, tracing the rise and fall of distant mountains and following the curves of sunken valleys as they criss-crossed each other like veins through the sand. The sky and the ground both looked massive, and unending, and the warm stones around us crumbled in our hands. After a couple of hours, Gedo said that it was getting late, so we climbed back into the jeep and began the long journey home.

Well before our journey had ever begun, we had hoped albeit not particularly fervently that we could do something with it, something that mattered; that by striking out for a place this nebulous we could find a shortcut to social justice, two days drive from the nearest tap or telephone. In 800 square miles of desert, we thought that we could exploit the outlines of the bordered world in order to subvert it.

Jeremiah Heaton, beyond the kingdom for a princess schmaltz and the forthcoming Disney adaptation (he has sold film rights to his story for an undisclosed fee) seems albeit from an almost diametrically opposite philosophical outlook to be convinced of something similar. For him, the fantasy is a libertarian one, offering freedom not from the iniquities of capitalism but from the government interference that inhibits it. Just as we did, he wants to take advantage of a quirk in the system to defy it. When I spoke to Heaton, he told me with genuine enthusiasm that his country (not yet recognised by any other state or international body) would offer the worlds great innovators a place to develop their products unencumbered by taxes and regulation, a place where private enterprise faces no socially prescribed borders of its own. Big companies, he assured me, were scrambling to join his vision.

You would be surprised at the outreach that has occurred from the corporate level to me directly, Heaton insisted during our conversation. Its not been an issue of me having to go out and sell myself on this idea. A lot of these large corporations, they see market opportunities in what Im doing. He painted a picture of Bir Tawil one day playing host to daring scientific research, ground-breaking food-production facilities and alternative banking systems that work for the benefit of customers rather than CEOs. I asked him if he understood why some people found his plans, and the assumptions they rested on, highly dubious.

Theres that saying: if you were king for a day, what would you do differently? he replied. Think about that question yourself and apply it to your own country. Thats what Im doing, but on a much bigger scale. This is not colonialism; Im an individual, not a country, I havent taken land that belongs to any other country, and Im not extracting resources other than sunshine and sand. I am just one human being, trying to improve the condition of other human beings. I have the purest intentions in the world to make this planet a better place, and to try and criticise that just because Im a white person sitting on land in the middle of the Nubian desert He trailed off, and was silent for a moment. Well, he concluded, its really juvenile.

But if, by some miracle, Heaton ever did gain global recognition as the legitimate leader of an independent Bir Tawili state, would his pitch to corporations base yourself here to avoid paying taxes and escape the manacles of democratic oversight actually do anything to improve the condition of other human beings? Part of the allure of unclaimed spaces is their radical potential to offer a blank canvas but as Omar and I belatedly realised, nothing, and nowhere, starts from scratch. Any utopia founded on the basis of a concept terra nullius that has wreaked immense historical destruction, is built on rotten foundations.

In truth, no place is a dead zone, stopped in time and ripe for private capture least of all Bir Tawil, which translates as long well in Arabic and was clearly the site of considerable human activity in the past. Although it lacks any permanent dwellings today, this section of desert is still used by members of the Ababda and Bisharin tribes who carry goods, graze crops and make camp within the sands. (Not the least of our failures was that we did not manage to speak to any of the peoples who had passed through Bir Tawil before we arrived.) Their ties to the area may be based on traditional rather than written claims but Bir Tawil is not any more a no mans land than the territory once known as British East Africa, where terra nullius was repeatedly invoked in the early 20th century by both chartered companies and the British government that supported them to justify the appropriation of territory from indigenous people. I cannot admit that wandering tribes have a right to keep other and superior races out of large tracts, exclaimed the British commissioner, Sir Charles Eliot, at the time, merely because they have acquired the habit of straggling over far more land than they can utilise.

Bir Tawil is no terra nullius. But no mans lands or at least ambiguous spaces, where boundaries take odd turns and sovereignty gets scrambled are real and exist among us every day. Some endure at airports, and inside immigration detention centres, and in the pockets of economic deprivation where states have abandoned any responsibility for their citizens. Other no mans lands are carried around by refugees who are yet to be granted asylum, regardless of where they may be having fled failed states or countries which would deny them the rights of citizenship, they occupy a world of legal confusion at best, and outright exclusion at worst.

Perhaps that is why, as we switched off the camera and left Bir Tawil behind us, Omar and I felt a little let down. Or perhaps we shared a sense of anticlimax because we were faintly aware of something rumbling back home in Cairo, where millions of people were about to launch an epic fight against political and economic exclusion not by withdrawing to a no mans land but by confronting state authority head-on, in the streets. A week after our return to Egypt, the country erupted in revolution.

Borders are fluid things; they help define our identities, and yet so often we use our identities to push up against borders and redraw them. For now the boundaries that divide nation states remain, but their purpose is changing and the relationship they have to our own lives, and our own rights, is growing increasingly unstable. If Bir Tawil the preeminent ambiguous space is anything to those who live far from it, it is perhaps a reminder that no particular configuration of power and governance is immutable. As we drove silently, and semi-contentedly, back past the gold-foragers, and the ramshackle cafeteria, and the heavy machinery of the Saudi farm installations Gedo at the wheel, Omar asleep and me staring out at nothing I grasped what I had failed to grasp on that lazy night of beer drinking on Omars balcony. The last truly unclaimed land on earth is really an injunction: not for us to seek out the mythical territory where we can hide from the things that anger us, but to channel that anger instead towards reclaiming territory we already call our own.

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Welcome to the land that no country wants

Unitary Republic of Bir Tawil – MicroWiki

Bir Tawil, officialy The Unitary Republic of Bir Tawil or The Unitary Republic of Bi'r Tawl, is a nation in between Egypt and Sudan. It was founded on 27 January 2022. The Unitary Republic of Bir Tawil is an unrecognized self-declared state. The Bir Tawil region was previously left unclaimed.The reason the Bi'r Tawl region is unclaimed is due to both Egypt and Sudan claiming the Hala'ib Triangle, and claiming the Bir Tawil Triangle would negate their claim on the 'more valuable' Hala'ib Triangle. Bir Tawil attempts to stay neutral on the Hala'ib triangle dispute.

The Unitary Republic of Bir Tawil is a republic with elections every three years. Every three years the citizens vote for a Minister and a Vice-Minister. Also, every three years the citizens vote for the council members. There are nine roles in the council specializing in certain fields.

The name Bir Tawil (Arabic: , Romanized: Br awl) means tall water well in English. The Unitary Republic area of the name, shows our form of republic, a unitary republic.

Bir Tawil declared independence on 27 January 2022, however, Bir Tawil formed its government on 26 January and wrote its constitution on 28 January. On 27 January NURP (National Unitary Republican Party) was founded and was elected as the major party in the ministerial vote. Then on 2/3/22 the DSPBT (Democratic Socialist Party of Bir Tawil) was approved and formed. Bir Tawil's second Councillor was voted in unanimously after the DSPBT's formation. On March 10, 2022 a civil war was started by the Tawilian United Front. The Tawilian United Front (War) was started due to the election for Chief Councillor, the DSPBT and the CDLP lost the election and formed a rogue political movement and started a revolution that slowly is gaining support. On March 12 2022 the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. This brought the nation to shock. The Minister stated this has brought our nation to shock. The Russian Federation will pay for their actions in Ukraine. Our nation will not stand with this threat to democracy, Slava Ukraini! After this invasion, Bir Tawil issued special postage stamps to support Ukraine and Democracy.

Bir Tawil's Ministry consists of a Minister and Vice-Minister which act as executives. The Minister's Job is to keep the laws constitutional and purposeful. The Minister also tends to the economy and makes sure the civilians are happy, healthy and makes sure they are safe. The Vice-Minister's job is to advise the Minister and keep the Council in check. The council is formed with eight Councillors and one Chief Councillor. Each Councillor has a special area of politics to make sure its needs are attended too. There are nine roles in the council:

Bir Tawil is a disarmed nation without active armed forces; however, Bir Tawil does have a border protection. The Bureau of Border Protection is split into three subdivisions, the Bir Tawil Border Security makes sure the nation is safe and protected from foreign invaders or external terroristic-like threats. The Customs and Border Protection Agency makes sure that foreign threats do not enter the nation. The Bir Tawil Domestic Threats Agency makes sure there are not threats inside Bir Tawil's borders.

Bir Tawil has no relations with any other nation of any sorts but is a member of a faction started and run by itself, named IUDSS (International United Democratic Sovereign States). The IUDSS has an election for the leading states every year (assuming there is more than a single state in the IUDSS). To get into the IUDSS the state must be:

1. Democratic 2. Have More than a one major political party3. Fill out an application to join the IUDSS where more requirements are stated (applications are not available for anything other than in person handouts as of now)

Bir Tawil is a small area located in the Sahara Desert. Bir Tawil consists of mostly sand and sandstone. The highest point is known as Jabal Tawil. The area is not claimed by either Egypt or Sudan making it unclaimed or, in other words "terra nullius".

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AndersenTawil syndrome – Wikipedia

Rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder

Medical condition

AndersenTawil syndrome, also called Andersen syndrome and long QT syndrome 7, is a rare genetic disorder affecting several parts of the body. The three predominant features of AndersenTawil syndrome include disturbances of the electrical function of the heart characterised by an abnormality seen on an electrocardiogram (a long QT interval) and a tendency to abnormal heart rhythms, physical characteristics including low-set ears and a small lower jaw, and intermittent periods of muscle weakness known as hypokalaemic periodic paralysis.[1]

AndersenTawil syndrome is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern. It is caused in most cases by a mutation in the KCNJ2 gene which encodes an ion channel that transports potassium out of cardiac muscle cells. The arrhythmias seen in the condition can be treated with flecainide or beta-blockers, but an implantable defibrillator may sometimes be required. Periodic paralysis can be treated with carbonic anhydrase inhibitors such as acetazolamide. The condition is very rare and is estimated to affect one person in every million. The three groups of features seen in this condition were first described in 1971 by Ellen Andersen, and significant contributions to its understanding were made by Rabi Tawil.

AndersenTawil Syndrome classically comprises three groups of features: abnormal electrical function of the heart, hypokalemic periodic paralysis, and characteristic physical features, although some of those affected will not exhibit all aspects of the condition.[2]

AndersenTawil syndrome affects the heart by prolonging the QT interval, a measure of how long it takes the heart to relax after each heart beat. This, as in other forms of long QT syndrome, can lead to abnormal heart rhythms such as ventricular ectopy or ventricular tachycardia causing palpitations.[2] The ventricular tachycardia seen in AndersenTawil syndrome often takes a form known as bidirectional ventricular tachycardia. The arrhythmias seen in association with the condition can cause sudden cardiac death, but the risk of this is lower than in other forms of long QT syndrome.[1]

The physical abnormalities associated with AndersenTawil syndrome typically affect the head, face, limbs and spine. Abnormalities of the head and face include an unusually small lower jaw (micrognathia), low-set ears, widely spaced eyes (hypertelorism), a broad forehead and nasal root, a high arched or cleft palate, and a long narrow head (scaphocephaly).[3] Abnormalities of the limbs and spine include an abnormal curvature of the fingers, particularly the fifth finger (clinodactyly), fused fingers or toes (syndactyly), short stature, and a curved spine (scoliosis).[3]

The third key feature of AndersenTawil syndrome is intermittent muscle weakness. This can last from seconds to minutes, but in some cases may last for days at a time. Weakness often occurs at times when the levels of potassium in the blood are lower than normal (hypokalaemia), and is referred to as hypokalaemic periodic paralysis. This weakness can however occur at times when potassium levels are normal, triggered by other factors including exercise, cold, or even menstruation.[3]

AndersenTawil syndrome is a genetic disorder which in the majority of cases is caused by mutations in the KCNJ2 gene. The condition is often inherited from a parent in an autosomal dominant manner, but may occur due to a new genetic mutation in the affected person.[3]

Two types of AndersenTawil syndrome have been described, distinguished by the genetic abnormality that is detected. Type 1 AndersenTawil, accounting for about 60% of cases, is caused by mutations in the KCNJ2 gene.[4] In type 2 AndersenTawil, accounting for about 40% of cases, a KCNJ2 mutation is not identified. Mutations in a related gene encoding a similar potassium ion channel, KCNJ5, have been identified in some of those with type 2 AndersenTawil, but in many cases a genetic mutation is not found.[1]

The protein made by the KCNJ2 gene forms an ion channel that transports potassium ions into muscle cells. This specific channel (the inward rectifier potassium channel Kir2.1) carries a potassium current known as IK1 which is responsible for setting the resting membrane potential of muscle cells and is therefore critical for maintaining the normal functions of skeletal and cardiac muscle.[3] Pathogenic mutations in the KCNJ2 gene alter the usual structure and function of potassium channels or prevent the channels from being inserted correctly into the cell membrane. Many mutations prevent a molecule called PIP2 from binding to the channels and effectively regulating their activity. These changes disrupt the flow of potassium ions, leading to the periodic paralysis and abnormal heart rhythms characteristic of AndersenTawil syndrome.[4]

AndersenTawil syndrome increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythms by disturbing the electrical signals that are used to coordinate individual heart cells. The genetic mutation disturbs an ion channel responsible for the flow of potassium, reducing the /K1 current. This prolongs of the cardiac action potential the characteristic pattern of voltage changes across the cell membrane that occur with each heart beat, and depolarises the resting membrane potential of cardiac and skeletal muscle cells.[3]

Cardiac and skeletal muscle cells, when relaxed, have fewer positively charged ions on the inner side of their cell membrane than on the outer side, referred to as their membranes being polarised.[5] The main ion current responsible for maintaining this polarity is /K1, and a decrease in this current leads to less polarity at rest, or a depolarised resting membrane potential. When these cells contract, positively charged ions such as sodium and calcium enter the cell through ion channels, depolarising or reversing this polarity. After a contraction has taken place, the cell restores its polarity (or repolarises) by allowing positively charged ions such as potassium to leave the cell, restoring the membrane to its relaxed, polarised state.[5] The genetic mutation found in those with AndersenTawil decreases the flow of potassium, slowing the rate of repolarisation which can be seen in individual cardiac muscle cells as a longer action potential and on the surface ECG as a prolonged QT interval.[3]

The prolonged action potentials can lead to arrhythmias through several potential mechanisms. The frequent ventricular ectopy and bidirectional VT typical of AndersenTawil syndrome are initiated by a triggering beat in the form of an afterdepolarisation. Early afterdepolarisations, occurring before the cell has fully repolarised, arise due to reactivation of calcium and sodium channels that would normally be inactivated until the next heartbeat is due.[6] Under the right conditions, reactivation of these currents can cause further depolarisation of the cell, facilitated by the sodium-calcium exchanger.[6] Early afterdepolarisations may occur as single events, but may occur repeatedly leading to multiple rapid activations of the cell.[6] Delayed afterdepolarisations, occurring after repolarisation has completed, arise from the spontaneous release of calcium from the intracellular calcium store known as the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This calcium release then leaves the cell through the sodium calcium exchanger in exchange for sodium, generating a net inward current and depolarising the cell membrane.[6] If this transient inward current is large enough, a premature action potential is triggered.

The muscle weakness seen in those with AndersenTawil syndrome arises from the depolarisation of the resting membrane potential caused by a decrease in /K1.[3] The depolarised resting membrane potential means that sodium channels which are responsible for initiating action potentials are unable to fully recover from inactivation, leading to a less excitable membrane and less forceful muscle contraction.[3]

The mechanisms underlying the skeletal abnormalities seen in AndersenTawil syndrome have not been fully explained. Possibilities include impaired function of osteoclasts, cells which regulate bone growth, or disruption of the bone morphogenetic protein signalling cascade.[3]

AndersenTawil syndrome is generally diagnosed based on symptoms, the findings on examination, and the results of an electrocardiogram.[3] Clinical diagnostic criteria have been proposed which suggest that a diagnosis can be made if two of the following four criteria are met: (1) periodic paralysis; (2) ventricular arrhythmias (frequent ventricular ectopic beats or ventricular tachycardia), a prolonged QT interval when corrected for rate, and/or a prominent U wave; (3) at least two of the following dysmorphic features: low-set ears, wide-set eyes, a small mandible, fifth-digit clinodactyly, and syndactyly; and (4) a family member with confirmed AndersenTawil syndrome.[3]

Genetic testing can be used to identify the specific mutation in an affected person, which if found can assist with screening family members.[3] Other investigations that may be helpful in making a diagnosis include ambulatory ECG monitoring to assess for arrhythmias, measurement of blood potassium levels at baseline and during periods of weakness, and measurement of thyroid function.[7]

The differential diagnosis for a prolonged QT interval includes other forms of long QT syndrome such as RomanoWard syndrome in which only the electrical activity of the heart is affected without involving any other organs; Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome in which a prolonged QT interval is combined with congenital deafness; and Timothy syndrome in which a prolonged QT interval is combined with abnormalities in the structure of the heart, in addition to autism-spectrum disorder.[8] The frequent ventricular ectopy and bidirectional ventricular tachycardia seen in AndersenTawil syndrome can also occur in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.[2]

The intermittent weakness seen in AndersenTawil syndrome also occurs in other forms of periodic paralysis hypokalaemic periodic paralysis, hyperkalaemic periodic paralysis, and paramyotonia congenita.[7]

As a genetic condition, AndersenTawil syndrome cannot be cured. However, many of symptoms of AndersenTawil such as blackouts due to abnormal heart rhythms or periodic paralysis can be successfully treated with medication or implantable devices. The rarity of the condition means that many of these treatments are based on consensus opinion as there are too few patients to conduct adequately powered clinical trials.[3]

Medications should be avoided that further prolong the QT interval such as sotalol and amiodarone as these drugs can promote abnormal heart rhythms.[3] Lists of medications associated with prolongation of the QT interval can be found online.[9] Drugs which reduce blood levels of potassium such as diuretics like furosemide and bendroflumethiazide should also be avoided as these can worsen the tendency to periodic paralysis and arrhythmias.[3] Conversely, potassium-containing supplements to increase blood potassium levels may be helpful.[3] Very strenuous or competitive sport should be discouraged as these may increase the risk of arrhythmias, although gentle exercise should be encouraged.[8]

As in other forms of long QT syndrome which predispose those affected to dangerous heart rhythm disturbances, the risk of arrhythmias can be reduced by taking beta blockers such as propranolol that block the effects of adrenaline on the heart.[3] Other antiarrhythmic drugs such as flecainide and verapamil may also be helpful.[3] Those at highest risk of recurrent arrhythmias such as those who have already had a cardiac arrest may benefit from an implantable cardioverter defibrillator a small device implanted under the skin which can detect dangerous arrhythmias and automatically treat them with a small electric shock.[3]

Periodic paralysis may be improved by taking carbonic anhydrase inhibitors such as acetazolamide.[3]

AndersenTawil syndrome is very rare, and as of 2013 approximately 200 cases had been described in the medical literature.[3] The condition is estimated to affect one person in every 1,000,000.[3]

Although a description of the condition had probably been made by Klein in 1963,[3] AndersenTawil syndrome is named after Ellen Andersen who described the triad of symptoms in 1971,[10] and Rabi Tawil who made significant contributions to the understanding of the condition in 1994.[11][12]

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AndersenTawil syndrome - Wikipedia

Terra nullius – Wikipedia

International law term meaning territory that has never been the subject of a sovereign state

Terra nullius (, plural terrae nullius) is a Latin expression meaning "nobody's land".[1] It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it.[a][3]

Many scholars have noted the similarity between the terra nullius principle and the Roman law term res nullius, meaning nobody's thing. In Roman law, res nullius, or things without owners, such as wild animals (ferae bestiae), lost slaves and abandoned buildings could be taken as property by anyone by seizure. Therefore, some scholars have argued that terra nullius stems from res nullius, but others disagree and claim that the derivation is "by analogy" only.[4][b]

A part of the debate over the history of terra nullius is when the term itself was first used. According to historian of ideas Andrew Fitzmaurice, territorium nullius and terra nullius were two different, albeit related, legal terms. He claims that territorium nullius was first used in a meeting of the Institut de Droit International in 1888 where the legal principles of the Berlin conference were discussed and that terra nullius was introduced twenty years later during legal disputes over the polar regions.[5] Historian M. Connor on the other hand, argues that territorium nullius and terra nullius are the same thing.[6] Both scholars are active in the Australian "history wars" debate.

There is considerable debate among historians about how and when the terra nullius concepts were used. The debate has been especially prevalent in Australia where it was ignited by the history wars caused by the Mabo case in 1992, a landmark decision which decided in favour of native title in Australia and was a pivotal moment in the history of indigenous land rights in Australia. The history wars caused Australian historians to reevaluate the country's history, the dispossession of Aboriginal Australians and whether the land should best be characterised as having been "settled" or "conquered". A part of this debate was over whether terra nullius was ever used by England and other European powers to justify territorial conquest.[c]

Sociologist Robert van Krieken wrote:

On one side of the debate are historians such as Alan Frost and Henry Reynolds who claim that in the 15th and 16th century, European writers adopted the res nullius concept for territorial conquest. Frost writes:

Historians debate whether "first discovery and effective occupation" was applied to territory inhabited by indigenous peoples that European colonial powers sought to acquire or not. According to Frost:

On the other side of the debate are historians which claim that terra nullius is a much younger concept, which did not become formalized before the end of the 19th century. Historian M. Borch writes:

These historians claim instead that territorial conquest was justified from natural law that which has no owner can be taken by the first taker. Michael Connor in his book The Invention of Terra Nullius takes an even more extreme view and argues that no one in the 19th century thought of Australia as being terra nullius. He calls the concept a legal fiction, a straw man developed in the late 20th century:

While several countries have made claims to parts of Antarctica in the first half of the 20th century, the remainder, including most of Marie Byrd Land (the portion east from 150W to 90W), has not been claimed by any sovereign state. Signatories to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 agreed not to make such claims, except the Soviet Union and the United States, who reserved the right to make a claim.

Bir Tawil is an example of a territory often claimed to be terra nullius.[d] Between Egypt and the Sudan is the 2,060km2 (800sqmi) landlocked territory of Bir Tawil, which was created by a discrepancy between borders drawn in 1899 and 1902. One border placed Bir Tawil under the Sudan's control and the Halaib Triangle under Egypt's; the other border did the reverse. Each country asserts the border that would give it the much larger Hala'ib Triangle, to the east, which is adjacent to the Red Sea, with the side effect that Bir Tawil is unclaimed by either country (each claims the other owns it). Tawil has no settled population, but the land is used by Bedouins who roam the area.[d]

Under Serbian control, claimed by Croatia

Serbia and Croatia dispute several small areas on the east bank of the Danube. However, some pockets on the west bank, of which Gornja Siga is the largest, are not claimed by either country. Croatia states the pockets are Serbian, while Serbia makes no claims on the land.[14]

On 13April 2015, Vt Jedlika from the Czech Party of Free Citizens proclaimed the right-libertarian micronation of Liberland on Gornja Siga.[15][16]The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has rejected these claims, stating that the differing border claims between Serbia and Croatia do not involve terra nullius, and are not subject to occupation by a third party.[17] The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on 24 April 2015 that while Serbia considers "Liberland" to be a frivolous matter, it does not impinge upon the Serbian border, which is delineated by the Danube River.[18]

Several territories have been claimed to be terra nullius. In a minority of those claims, international and domestic courts have ruled on whether the territory is or was terra nullius or not.

A narrow strip of land adjacent to two territorial markers along the Burkina FasoNiger border was claimed by neither country until the International Court of Justice settled a more extensive territorial dispute in 2013. The former unclaimed territory was awarded to Niger.[19]

At the request of Morocco, the International Court of Justice in 1975 addressed whether Western Sahara was terra nullius at the time of Spanish colonization in 1885. The court found in its advisory opinion that Western Sahara was not terra nullius at that time.

A disputed archipelago in the East China Sea, the uninhabited Pinnacle Islands, were claimed by Japan to have become part of its territory as terra nullius in January 1895, following the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. However, this interpretation is not accepted by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan), both of whom claim sovereignty over the islands.

The People's Republic of China and the Philippines both claim the Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal or Huangyan Island (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Hungyn Do), nearest to the island of Luzon, located in the South China Sea. The Philippines claims it under the principles of terra nullius and EEZ (exclusive economic zone). China's claim refers to its discovery in the 13th century by Chinese fishermen (the former Nationalist government on the Chinese mainland had also claimed this territory after the founding of the Republic of China in 1911). However, despite China's position of non-participation in an UNCLOS case, in 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) denied the lawfulness of China's "nine-dash line" claim.[20][21][22][23][24]

Despite this, China continues to build artificial islands in the South China Sea, and Scarborough Shoal is a prime location[citation needed] for another one. Chinese ships have been seen in the vicinity of the shoal. Analysis of photos has concluded that the ships lack dredging equipment and therefore represent no imminent threat of reclamation work.[25]

According to Ian Mitchell, Rockall was terra nullius until it was claimed by the United Kingdom in 1955.It was formally annexed in 1972.[26][27][28]

One of the few micronations to control a physical location, the Principality of Sealand has existed de facto since 1967 on an abandoned British anti-aircraft gun tower in the North Sea. At the point when it was taken over, the tower had been abandoned by the Royal Navy and was outside British territorial waters.[29] Paddy Roy Bates, who styled himself Prince, claimed that it was terra nullius. Despite rejecting this claim on the basis that the tower is an artificial structure, the British government has never attempted to evict the Sealanders, and a court in 1968 confirmed that at that point, the tower was outside British jurisdiction.[30]

In 1987, Britain extended its territorial waters from 3 to 12nmi (5.6 to 22.2km; 3.5 to 13.8mi), meaning that Sealand is now within them.[31]

DenmarkNorway, the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Scotland all claimed sovereignty over the archipelago of Svalbard in the seventeenth century, but none permanently occupied it. Expeditions from each of these polities visited Svalbard principally during the summer for whaling, with the first two sending a few wintering parties in the 1620s and 1630s.[5]

During the 19th century, both Norway and Russia made strong claims to the archipelago. In 1909, Italian jurist Camille Piccioni described Spitzbergen, as it was then known, as terra nullius:

The territorial dispute was eventually resolved by the Svalbard Treaty of 9 February 1920 which recognized Norwegian sovereignty over the islands.

Joseph Trutch, the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, insisted that First Nations had never owned land, and thus their land claims could safely be ignored. It is for this reason that most of British Columbia remains unceded land.[33]

In Guerin v. The Queen, a Canadian Supreme Court decision of 1984 on aboriginal rights, the Court stated that the government has a fiduciary duty toward the First Nations of Canada and established aboriginal title to be a sui generis right. Since then there has been a more complicated debate and a general narrowing of the definition of "fiduciary duty".[citation needed]

Norway occupied and claimed parts of (then uninhabited) eastern Greenland in 1931, claiming that it constituted terra nullius and calling the territory Erik the Red's Land.[34]The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against the Norwegian claim. The Norwegians accepted the ruling and withdrew their claim.

A similar concept of "uncultivated land" was employed by John Quincy Adams to identify supposedly unclaimed wilderness.[35]

The Guano Islands Act of 18 August 1856 enabled citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other governments. It also empowers the President of the United States to use the military to protect such interests, and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States.

Aboriginal peoples inhabited Australia for over 50,000 years before European settlement, which commenced in 1788, but Indigenous customs, rituals and laws were unwritten. It was formally claimed by the settlers that Australia was terra nullius at the time of settlement. This is also described as a "doctrine of discovery".[36]

In 1971, in the controversial Northern Territory Supreme Court case of Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, popularly known as the Gove land rights case, Justice Richard Blackburn ruled that Australia had been considered "desert and uncultivated" (a term which included territory in which resided "uncivilised inhabitants in a primitive state of society") before European settlement, and therefore, by the law that applied at the time, open to be claimed by right of occupancy, and that there was no such thing as native title in Australian law. The concept of terra nullius was not considered in this case, however.[37] Court cases in 1977, 1979, and 1982, brought by or on behalf of Aboriginal activists, challenged Australian sovereignty on the grounds that terra nullius had been improperly applied, therefore Aboriginal sovereignty should still be regarded as being intact. The courts rejected these cases, but the Australian High Court left the door open for a reassessment of whether the continent should be considered "settled" or "conquered".[38][39]

In 1982, Eddie Mabo and four other Torres Strait Islander people from Mer (Murray Island) started legal proceedings to establish their traditional land ownership. This led to Mabo v Queensland (No 1). In 1992, after ten years of hearings before the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia, the latter court found in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ("the Mabo case") that the Mer people had owned their land prior to annexation by the colony of Queensland (18721879).[40] The ruling thus had far-reaching significance for the land claims of all Indigenous Australians (both Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal Australians).

The controversy over Australian land ownership erupted into the "history wars". The 1992 Mabo decision overturned the doctrine of terra nullius in Australia.[41]

The sovereignty of Clipperton Island was settled by arbitration between France and Mexico. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy rendered a decision in 1931 that "'the sovereignty of Clipperton Island belongs to France from the date of November 17, 1858.' The Mexican claim was rejected for lack of proof of prior Spanish discovery and, in any event, no effective occupation by Mexico before 1858, when the island was therefore territorium nullius, and the French occupation then was sufficient and legally continuing."[42]

In 1840, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, Captain William Hobson of the Royal Navy, following instructions from the British government, declared the Middle Island of New Zealand (later known as the "South Island") as terra nullius,[citation needed] and therefore fit for occupation by European settlers. Hobson's decision was also influenced by a small party of French settlers heading towards Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula to settle in 1840.[43][need quotation to verify]

Patagonia was according to some considerations regarded a terra nullius in the 19th century. This notion ignored the Spanish Crown's recognition of indigenous Mapuche sovereignty and is considered by scholars Nahuelpn and Antimil to have set the stage for an era of Chilean "republican colonialism".[44]

View the following chart as if it was a "cross-section" of the earth, stretching from underground to outer space.

restrictions on national jurisdiction and sovereignty

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Terra nullius - Wikipedia

PCHR: Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory IMEMC News – International Middle East Media Center

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR): Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian TerritorySummary for November 18 24, 2021

Israeli forces continued to commit crimes and multi-layered violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties, including raids into Palestinian cities that are characterized with excessive use of force, assault, abuse, and attacks on civilians, turning the West Bank into isolated blocks of land. Israeli settlers continued their attacks, including shooting and wounding Palestinian civilians; meanwhile, Israeli forces continued its razing and demolishing of Palestinian properties, mainly in Hebron and Jerusalem.

The Israeli settlement expansion works continued on Palestinian lands and properties. Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip enters its 15th year under closure, exacerbating the humanitarian hardships across the territory.

Israeli Forces shooting and violation of right to life and bodily integrity:

Soldiers shot and wounded 5 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, in excessive use of force in the West Bank: 3, including a child, were wounded in two separate incidents of army attacks on protestors in Qalqilia. Two others were wounded, including a journalist, in Ramallah.

In the Gaza Strip, PCHR documented 1 Navy shooting at fishing boats off Khan Younis coast.

Army incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:

Soldiers carried out 113 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear among civilians, and attacking many of them. During this weeks incursions, 73 Palestinians were arrested, including 7 children and 3 women.

In the Gaza Strip, the military conducted 2 limited incursions into (eastern) central and southern besieged Gaza Strip.

Demolitions:

PCHR documented 6 incidents:

Hebron: a house and cemetery razed in Yatta.

Salfit: construction vehicle confiscated in Deir Ballout.

Nablus: a street razed near Asira ash-Shamaliya, northwestern Nablus.

Settler-attacks:

Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Israeli occupation authorities continued its collective punishment measures against the Gaza Strip as the 15-year Israeli closure imposed on the territory deepened the populations humanitarian and living crises, as unemployment has skyrocketed at 45%, i.e. 217,000 able workers are unemployed, 63% of whom are youth.

More than half of the Gaza Strip population suffer in poverty, as the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data shows that 53% of the Gaza Strip population is poor; meanwhile, more than 62.2% is classified as food insecure, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Additionally, occupation authorities continued to divide the West Bank into separate cantons with key roads blocked by the Israeli occupation since the 2000 Second Intifada -still closed to this date- and with temporary and permanent checkpoints, where civilian movement is restricted, and they are subject to arrest, especially at al-Karama border crossing, alongside the Palestinian-Jordanian border.

Maher Haroun said to PCHRs fieldworker that:

I am a photojournalist and a reporter at Palestine Times Network, and I am studying media at Birzeit University. At approximately 04:45, while I was covering incidents occurred on the main street of Ein Monjed neighborhood, soldiers, during their withdrawal from the neighborhood, directly fired a rubber bullet around my knee, despite wearing the PRESS-marked vest and presenting away from clashes area. When I felt that I was injured, I tried to sit on the ground, because I couldnt walk. It turned out later that I was hit with a rubber bullet below my knee, and I sustained minor wounds. I received treatment on the spot.

In the evening, a protest launched from Abu Ubaidah Bin al-Jarrah Mosque and headed to Abu Shukheidem building. The army heavily fired teargas canisters at houses and shops in the camp. As a result, dozens of residents suffocated due to teargas inhalation.

a. Land razing, Demolitions, and Notices

Rabayah added that he hired a lawyer to follow the case and take the necessary procedures, but due to the outbreak of coronavirus, no decision was taken in this case. He said that he attempted many times to obtain a license or make a settlement to demolish one floor, but the occupation authorities refused. He pointed out that the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem held 2 hearings relevant to the 2 buildings and issued a demolition decision without informing him as he and his family were surprised with the decision. Around a week ago, the Israeli police ordered him and his brother to self-demolish the buildings and gave them until Wednesday, 24 November 2021, to do so.

Rabayah said that he and his brother refused, as they cannot accept the idea of losing what he has earned for 18 years in minutes. He added the moment the Israeli bulldozers moved into the area to demolish the family houses was the hardest time he experienced in his entire life, especially demolished the houses on the furniture and contents as well as levelling a land planted with trees, which separated the 2 buildings.

It is noteworthy that the Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood extends from Sur Baher village with an area of around 3,000 dunums, and now occupation authorities ban its residents from building on about half of its area, under the pretext of its proximity to the wall that separates the neighborhood from several villages in Bethlehem.

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PCHR: Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory IMEMC News - International Middle East Media Center

Unclaimed lands on earth you can still rule over – JBKlutse

If you did not know, you can still be king or queen and have loyal subjects during your lifetime. Check out these lonely and unclaimed lands you can rule over right now.

1. North East Caye: A scarce piece of island comfortably located just 8 miles off the coast of Riversdale on the Placencia Peninsula. This property is located close to Saddle Caye, Cat Caye, and Manatee Caye and it is presently unclaimed, up for sale. Currently undeveloped and filled with sandy beach, it is home to beautiful coral ridges that make it useful for snorkeling.

2. Rockall:

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This little island rock has zero buildings or people on it. The UK claimed and incorporated Rockall in 1955, however, the Republic of Ireland is yet to recognize this claim, insisting the location is Irish. Iceland and the Faroe Islands can claim they own it too because it is in a remote part of the North Atlantic. This rock is just 25m (82 feet) wide and 17m (56 feet) high and it is actually the remnants of a volcano.

3. Bir Tawil:

This could be the most popular unclaimed land in the world. The reason for its unclaimed status is from a dispute between Egypt and Sudan in 1899. Egypt says the political boundary is the correct one, and Sudan said the administrative boundary is the correct one.

4. The Peoples Republic of Podjistan: This land declared independence from Northern Ireland a decade ago. But, totalitarian leader, Simon Stewart revealed that the future of Podjistan might be in doubt, though he is not ready to sell out and head back into Northern Ireland.

5. Machias Seal Island:

This is another rare disputed territory between Canada and America. However, as both nations keep claiming sovereignty, whoever is born there can claim dual citizenship. It is very barren and has zero trees.

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Unclaimed lands on earth you can still rule over - JBKlutse

A Young Nigerian’s Guide to Learning More About the African Continent – BellaNaija

Formany Nigerians, Africa begins and ends in West Africa. When you ask an average Nigerian to mention countries in Africa, it is common for them to mention Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Benin-Republic, Cte DIvoire, and other neighbouring countries.

A common misconception many Nigerians have about Africa is that it is a continent for only black people and a white person (oyinbo) cannot equally be an African. Theres also the misconception that every black person emerged from Africa. The biggest misconception is that economically, Nigeria is the giant of Africa and all other African countries are not as economically strong or well to do as Nigeria. Its common to hear an average Nigerian say things like small Ghana is fighting with us, ordinary Rwanda too is talking.

That is why BellaNaija is introducing The 54, a series that will explore Africa and the African people.

In this series, we will look into the various African cultures, tribes, people, food, arts and music, economy, politics, regions everything Africa and African.

But for now, lets give you a glimpse of what this series, The 54, is all about and how we intend to take you on this journey with us.

Africa is the second-largest continent in the world with 54 countries in it and a population of 1.216 billion people (as of 2016).

In Africa, there are about3,000 tribes, speaking more than 2,000 different languages. Arabic and Swahili are the most spoken languages in Africa. But with an estimated 35 million people in total, Yoruba isthe largest ethnic group in Africa.

Photo Credit: Banky W and Adesua wedding ceremony

Photo Credit: Toyosi Philips & Etim-Effiong engagement.

Zulu, with an estimated population of 11 million people, is known to be the largest ethnic group in South Africa. The Zulu people became a powerful state in 1818, led by a military leader known as Shaka. Zulubeliefs are formed around the presence of ancestral spirits, known as amadlozi and abaphansi.

Photo Credit: Pinterest/HadithiAfrica

Ovahimba and Ovazimba tribes in Northern Namibia Array, according to the records of the fossil remains in Africa, seems to be the first continent where humans were found. The fossil remains have suggested that humans had inhabited the African continent around 7 million years ago. Thefirst settlements of the Himba people can be traced back to the early 16th century when they crossed the Angolan border and chose Kaokoland (now called Kunene region in Namibia) as their new homeland. The Himba people are known for their red ochre cream.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

The Sinai Bedouin are a group of tribes descending from immigrants who arrived from the Arabian Peninsula between the 14th and 18th centuries. In Africa, the SinaiBedouin people can be found in Egypt.

Because they are mostly nomads, they have never relied on traditional doctors and they take their medicine from nature herbs, plants. They mostly make their meals at home or in the desert, grow their own vegetables, eat meat they have reared and cook fish they have caught.

Photo credit: Pinterest

If you are looking for a place where the women decide who they want to get married to and how many husbands they want, then the Wodaabe tribe is right for you. Pretty and very attractive, the Wodaab men have often women-like elegant faces and it is very important for the men to look pretty for their their women. In some cases, a man who is not so pretty has to share his wife with another more beautiful man, so the probability a pretty child is born is higher. The Wodaab tribe is part of the Fulani who were originally Nomads and herdsmen.

Well explore more of the Wodaabe tribe in our series.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

The Hadza people, in Northern Tanzania, are one of the oldest lineages of humankind. The small tribe consists of approximately 1,300 hunter-gatherers: one of the last in Africa.

According to survival international, the Hadzas homeland lies on the edge of the Serengeti plains, in the shadow of Ngorongoro Crater. It is also close to Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world, where homo habilis one of the earliest members of the genus Homo was discovered to have lived 1.9 million years ago.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Estimated to be about 900,000, the Maasai people, located in Kenya and Tanzania, are among the foremost African ethnic groups in Africa. According to the tribes own oral history, the Maasai originated north of Lake Turkana (north-west Kenya) in the lower Nile Valley. They began migrating south in the 15th century and arrived in the long trunk of land stretching across central Tanzania and Northern Kenya during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Tuareg People

The Tuareg are a group of Berber clans of obscure origin in Northern Africa. Legend states that under their first queen, Tin Hinan, they moved into the Sahara around 400AD. During medieval times, the Tuareg dominated lucrative trade routes across the desert. Timbuktu, renowned throughout the Muslim world as an intellectual centre, was founded by a Tuareg family in the 12th century. They inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. In the Tuareg tribe, it is the men who cover their hair.

Photo credit: Pinterest

If you have watched snippets from Beyonces Black Is King and you love the hairdos, it is important for you to be aware of their origin Africa.

The Mangbetu were known for their elongated heads. The process of elongating the skull began at birth. The babys head was tightly wrapped with a cloth until the desired shape had been achieved. Known as lipombo, the culture was a symbol of affluence among the ruling class. This hairstyle worn by the Mangbetu women was, at a time, very fashionable. This practice can also be traced to the Mayan and Egyptians.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Photo credit: Instagram/nealfarinah

The Bantu people are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa. Bantu as a major linguistic group in Africa whose existence is in record up to about 5000 years ago. The linguistic group comprises of about 300-600 different ethnic groups totaling to over 100 million individuals across the African continent. Bantu knots has its origin in Africa. They have been a traditional African hairstyle for over 100 years. Bantu means people and Ubuntu means person.

Photo credit: Face2faceafrica/Instagram-nealfarinah

In ancient Africa, the Mursi women from Ethiopia were known for their horned heads and their huge lip plates. Pre-pubescent Himba girls, in Namibia, also wore two thick braids in front of their faces that looked like ram horns. Surrounded by mountains between the Omo and Mago rivers, the home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of Ethiopia.

Photo credit: Pinterest/Instagram-nealfarinah

For 25 years, Morocco has celebrated the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. Set up in 1994 and 2001 respectively, this festival comes within the scholarly, artistic, and spiritual tradition of the city of Fez.

Photo credit: fesfestival

The Calabar Festival is arguably the biggest festival in Africa. Attracting over 2 million people yearly from over 25 countries, this month-long festival takes place in Akwa-Ibom. Held yearly, the Calabar Festival takes place on the street and people are allowed to display their colourful traditional attires, dances, and masquerades.

Photo credit: bbcpidgin/folio

The Lake of Stars Festival is an internationally renowned arts and music festival that takes place on the palm-fringed shore of Lake Malawi every year. Lake Malawi, which is the ninth largest lake in the world and third largest and second deepest lake in Malawi, is located between Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Lying within the Western Rift Valley,Lake Malawi is also one of the deepest lakes in the world. For over a decade, Lake of Stars has drawn musicians and visitors from around the world to Malawis shores.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Because of Africas diversity, there are many meals unique to many ethnicities and tribes. Lets explore some yummy African meals.

This meal is an authentic Moroccan soup made of tomato, lentils, and chickpeas. It also includes meat, making it a filling and satisfying dish. There are many variations of this traditional soup and these variations have been passed from generation to generation.

Photo credit: host the toast

The Skoudehkaris is a meal that originated in Djibouti, in East Africa. Skoudehkaris is a flavourful rice dish seasoned with cardamom and cooked with lamb, chicken, beef, or fish.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

This South African dish is prepared outdoor. Potjiekos is a traditional dish that is cooked slowly in an iron pan that is placed on hot coal. Translated as small pot food, Potjiekos is never stirred during the cooking process.

The spiral-shaped cuisine, Boerewors, is also a popular meal eaten in South Africa and Namibia. Shaped into a coil, Boerewors contains at least 90% meat, and 10% spices. Boerewors is traditionally grilled on thebraai(South African barbecue), and its usually served with pap andsous(sauce)

Photo credit: Pinterest

Senegalese Chicken Yassa is a tangy-spicy dish enjoyed in the West African region. Itis a popular Senegalese dish made from caramelized onions, dijon mustard, lemon juice, and chicken cooked in a creamy sauce.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Can we ever talk about West Africa cuisines without mentioning the almighty jollof rice? Jollof rice, also known as benachin in Wolof, is a one-pot rice dish that is popular in many West African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, Senegal, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Cte dIvoire, Liberia, Togo, and Mali. It is also called reddish one-pot dish and varies in these countries.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Believed to be the link between the gods and humans, masquerades are an important part of the African culture. See the various masquerades in Africa:

Eyo from the Yoruba tribe, Nigeria. Source: Pinterest

Gouro masked dancer (Ivory Coast). Source: Androphilia

Egungun Yoruba, Nigeria. Source: Pinterest

Ijele Igbo, Nigeria. Source: Pinterest

Believed to be the cradle of humankind, Africa is the only continent with fossil evidence of human beings.

Fun facts to know:

For many Nigerians, they believe that the phrase Giant of Africa comes with economic power and wealth. Well, it isnt so. Although Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, it is not Africas richest country and close to 100 million Nigerians live in abject poverty.

Fun facts to know:

From the trans-Atlantic slave trade to wars, colonisation, military regimes, independence, and so on, Africa is one continent with rich historical events and stories.

Few things you should know

While these are the basic day-to-day information we should know about the African continent, there is so much more to Africa and Africans. Were going to explore all these and more when we kick off our series, The 54. So watch this space.

In the meantime, heres how you can learn more about Africa:

Google is your friend

Google loves everyone, including you. If you are curious about any aspect of Africa, type it into the search bar and youll be sure of getting replies. You can read more than one site to get the correct information.

Read books

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A Young Nigerian's Guide to Learning More About the African Continent - BellaNaija

Bir Tawil – Wikipedia

Unclaimed land in Africa

Unclaimed land in None

Bir Tawil (; Egyptian Arabic: , romanized:Br awl, lit.'tall water well', [bi twil]) is a 2,060km2 (795.4sqmi) area along the border between Egypt and Sudan, which is uninhabited and claimed by neither country. When spoken of in association with the neighbouring Hala'ib Triangle, it is sometimes referred to as the Bir Tawil Triangle, despite the area's quadrilateral shape; the two "triangles" border at a quadripoint.

Its terra nullius status results from a discrepancy between the straight political boundary between Egypt and Sudan established in 1899, and the irregular administrative boundary established in 1902. Egypt asserts the political boundary, and Sudan asserts the administrative boundary, with the result that the Hala'ib Triangle is claimed by both and Bir Tawil by neither. In 2014, author Alastair Bonnett described Bir Tawil as the only place on Earth that was habitable but was not claimed by any recognised government.[1]

On 19 January 1899, an agreement between the UK and Egypt relating to the administration of the Sudan defined "Soudan" as the "territories south of the 22nd parallel of latitude".[2] It contained a provision that would give Egypt control of the Red Sea port of Suakin, but an amendment on 10 July 1899 gave Suakin to Sudan instead.[2]

On 4 November 1902 the UK drew a separate "administrative boundary", intended to reflect the actual use of the land by the tribes in the region.[2] Bir Tawil was grazing land used by the Ababda tribe based near Aswan, and thus was placed under Egyptian administration from Cairo. Similarly, the Hala'ib Triangle to the northeast was placed under the British governor of Sudan, because its inhabitants were culturally closer to Khartoum.

Egypt claims the original border from 1899, the 22nd parallel, which would place the Hala'ib Triangle within Egypt and the Bir Tawil area within Sudan. Sudan, however, claims the administrative border of 1902, which would put Hala'ib within Sudan, and Bir Tawil within Egypt. As a result, both states claim the Hala'ib Triangle and neither claims the much less valuable Bir Tawil area, which is only a tenth the size, and has no permanent settlements or access to the sea. There is no basis in international law for either Sudan or Egypt to claim both territories, and neither nation is willing to cede Hala'ib. With no third state claiming the neglected area, Bir Tawil is one of the few land areas of the world not claimed by any recognised state. Egypt arguably still administers the territory, but it is not marked as Egyptian on government maps.[3][4]

Bir Tawil is 2,060km2 (795sqmi) in size. The length of its northern and southern borders are 95 kilometres (59mi) and 46 kilometres (29mi) respectively; the length of its eastern and western borders are 26 kilometres (16mi) and 49 kilometres (30mi) respectively. In the north of the area is the mountain Jabal Tawil ( ), with a height of 459 metres (1,506ft). In the east is Jebel Hagar ez Zarqa, with a height of 662 metres (2,172ft). In the south is the Wadi Tawil ( ), also called Khawr Ab Bard.

Bir Tawil's climate is, according to the Kppen climate classification, a very hot desert climate (Bwh). During the summer months, approximately three-quarters of the year, temperatures can exceed 40C (104F), while its hottest three months (JuneAugust) can see it as high as 45C (113F). During the brief winters, however (December and January being its mildest months), Bir Tawil can experience milder temperatures with 26C (79F) as its usual temperature peak.

Because the territory is far from the ocean (being at least 200km (120mi) away from the Red Sea), the diurnal temperature range throughout the region is large, varying from 18 to 20C (32 to 36F), year-round.[5]

Due to its status as de jure unclaimed territory, a number of individuals and organizations have attempted to claim Bir Tawil as a micronation. However, none has been taken seriously by the international community, and due to the remoteness and hostile climate of the region, the vast majority of these claims have been by declarations posted online from other locations. None of these claims, or any others, have been recognized, officially or otherwise, by any government or international organization.[7][8]

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Bir Tawil - Wikipedia

Free Private City Bir Tawil Freedom, Prosperity, Security

The founder of the Free Private City Bir Tawil

Bir TawilorBir Tawl(Egyptian Arabic: Br awl[bi twil]or Bir awl, meaning tallwater well) is a 2,060km2(800sqmi) area along the border betweenEgyptandSudan, which is inhabited and claimed by the Free Private City of Bir Tawil. When spoken of in association with the neighbouringHalaib Triangle, it is sometimes referred to as theBir Tawil Triangle, despite the areasquadrilateralshape; the two triangles border at aquadripoint.

Itsterra nulliusstatus results from a discrepancy between the straight political boundary between Egypt and Sudan established in 1899, and the irregular administrative boundary established in 1902. Egypt asserts the political boundary, and Sudan asserts the administrative boundary, with the result that the Halaib Triangle is claimed by both and Bir Tawil by neither. In 2014, author Alastair Bonnett described Bir Tawil as the only place on Earth that washabitablebut was not claimed by any recognised government.

Bir Tawil is 2,060km2(795sqmi) in size. The length of its northern and southern borders are 95 kilometres (59mi) and 46 kilometres (29mi) respectively; the length of its eastern and western borders are 26 kilometres (16mi) and 49 kilometres (30mi) respectively. In the north of the area is the mountain Jabal Tawil ( ), with a height of 459 metres (1,506ft). In the east isJebel Hagar ez Zarqa, with a height of 662 metres (2,172ft). In the south is theWadiTawil ( ), also calledKhawr Ab Bard. There are a few streams in Bir Tawil, which originate inLake Nasser.On 19 January 1899, an agreement between the UK and Egypt relating to the administration of the Sudan defined Soudan as the territories south of the 22nd parallel of latitude.]It contained a provision that would give Egypt control of the red sea port ofSuakin, but an amendment on 10 July 1899 gave Suakin to Sudan instead.

On 4 November 1902 the UK drew a separate administrative boundary, intended to reflect the actual use of the land by the tribes in the region.Bir Tawil was grazing land used by theAbabdatribe based nearAswan, and thus was placed under Egyptian administration fromCairo. Similarly, the Halaib Triangle to the northeast was placed under the British governor of Sudan, because its inhabitants were culturally closer toKhartoum.

Egypt claims the original border from 1899, the 22nd parallel, which would place the Halaib Triangle within Egypt and the Bir Tawil area within Sudan. Sudan, however, claims the administrative border of 1902, which would put Halaib within Sudan, and Bir Tawil within Egypt. As a result, both states claim theHalaib Triangleand neither claims the much less valuable Bir Tawil area, which is only a tenth the size, and has no permanent settlements or access to the sea. There is no basis in international law for either Sudan or Egypt to claim both territories, and neither nation is willing to cede Halaib. With no third state claiming the neglected area, Bir Tawil is one of the few land areas of the worldnot claimed by any recognised state. Egypt arguably still administers the territory, but it is not marked as Egyptian on government maps.[

However, Christoph Heuermann, believer of more competition in governance, set up the Free Private City of Bir Tawil on November 4th 2019. A Free Private City is a new model of living together peacefully. Citizen enter into a public contract which defines both their rights and liabilities. A Free Private City cannot change this contract one-sidedly as governments use to do. Only they can provide freedom, prosperity and security!

You can read more about Free Private Cities here!

Christoph has actually physically been in in Bir Tawil and left several things to mark his claim on Bir Tawil as you can see here. Free Private Cities are real not a joke kingdom micro nation.

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Free Private City Bir Tawil Freedom, Prosperity, Security

Bir Tawil: The land that nobody wants – The Focus

Bir Tawil is a 2006-square-kilometre piece of land sandwiched between Egypt and Sudan that holds the lofty title of being the last unclaimed and uninhabited piece of land on earth, or to give it its funky latin title terra nullius. Alas the story is a little bit more complicated than that

Well this is where it gets interesting. It is less unclaimed, and more the victim (or winner) in a territorial dispute between Egypt and Sudan. During the good old days, Egypt and Sudan formed a condominium controlled by the British Empire, this meant that much like in the border disputes that would later rock the USSR, a proper border wasnt all that important.

The fact that there were two differing maps drawn to mark the border between Egypt and Sudan, whilst not important at the time, would later come back to haunt them. In 1899 and 1902 there were two different boundaries drawn the 1899 border gives the Halaib Triangle to Egypt and Bir Tawil to Sudan, with the 1902 border doing the reverse.

The problem here is that it turns out that the Halaib Triangle is not only really nice (it even has a beach), but that Bir Tawil is essentially a crappy bit of desert. Therefore if you claim one, you cannot claim the other. Unsurprisingly, both claim the good bit, and thus Bir Tawil is unclaimed. Except it is no longer unclaimed

The internet has achieved a lot of good things, from food delivery to Tinder, but it has also given a platform for strange peoples voices to get amplified, and Bir Tawil is now the posterchild for anyone who wants to make their very own country!

In 2014, Jeremiah Heaton of Virginia traveled to Bir Tawil in order to proclaim the Kingdom of North Sudan in his words to make his daughter a real princess. This sounds really cute, except he now genuinely thinks it is his country and that anyone who goes there should ask his permission. His anger now makes me think he probably should have just got her a Barbie like a normal dad.

Sadly, he was not to be the sole claimant to Bir Tawil, and since then there have been claims by the Kingdom of Dixit, The Sultanate of BIrliand, and even the Kingdom of Bir Tawil with its mighty 14 citizens. Most claims to the territory have been made online and as you might imagine have not yet been recognised by the UN.

The very short answer, which I found out the hard way is that no you cant.

Last year I let a group of intrepid travellers to Bir Tawil, with our aim being to raise the flag of the mighty Principality of Islandia, not to claim the land, but more in the interests of a cool trip to a very off-the-beaten-track place, and a little bit of PR.

It was then that we met the actual inhabitants of Bir Tawil, the Ababda tribe who claim Bir Tawil as their historical land.

After we convinced them that we were not with King Heaton who they referred to as that silly man nor any of the other claimants to Bir Tawil, the Ababda tribe politely gave us their side of the story. They were mining their own land and did not take kindly to white folk rocking up with flags and claiming their land online, or otherwise. We listened politely and promised to relay the words of our magnanimous hosts with the rather large guns.

So, whilst officially no country might claim Bir Tawil, if you seriously want to make this piece of desert your dream Libertarian utopia you better be capable of fighting not only the Egyptians and Sudanese, but a heavily armed tribe who have lived here for centuries.

As is often the case, the truth about Bir Tawil really is more interesting than fiction, not that it will stop people claiming the last unclaimed piece of territory on earth.

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Bir Tawil: The land that nobody wants - The Focus