🔥 Strong mag. 5.5 earthquake – Āfar, 64 km east of Ādīgrat, Tigray, Ethiopia, on Monday, Dec 26, 2022 at 3:21 pm (GMT +3)
The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) reported a magnitude 5.1 quake in Ethiopia near Ādīgrat, Tigray, only 12 minutes ago. The earthquake hit early afternoon on Monday, December 26th, 2022, at 3:21 pm local time at a shallow depth of 10 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Our monitoring service identified a second report from the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake which listed the quake at magnitude 5.1 as well. A third agency, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), reported the same quake at magnitude 5.3.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Ādīgrat (pop. 65,000) located 62 km from the epicenter, Adi Keyh (pop. 13,100) 73 km away, and Mek’ele (pop. 215,500) 127 km away.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on October 15, 2022
💭 My Note: Look how the US government has now started blaming the Tigrayan victims for attempting to Break the fascist Oromo regime’s two-year-old abusive Tigray Siege. This is today’s – the same /duplicated content since 2020– press statement from the State Department:
„We further call on the Tigrayan Defense Forces to cease provocative actions. The fighting since the August 24 operation by the Tigrayan Defense Forces near Kobo in the Amhara Region contributed to the return to hostilities, which greatly increases the risk of atrocities and further human rights abuses.„
Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin has appealed for international help to address the humanitarian catastrophe that is occurring in his region.
A bishop living in the midst of what he calls a “devastating genocidal war” and humanitarian catastrophe in the Ethiopian region of Tigray has issued a heart-wrenching appeal for international help as he describes “horrifying acts of brutal crimes” and an unimaginable “magnitude of pain.”
In an Oct. 4 statement, Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat, in eastern Tigray, decried the extent of “extreme brutality,” adding that “no one can assume this magnitude of pain endured by the entire population, under siege and total blockage from all basic services for so long.”
In addition to the violence halting almost “all live-saving humanitarian operations” including food and basic supplies due to a continuing blockade by the Ethiopian government, Bishop Medhin said innocent civilians have faced “all-round attacks with drones and warplanes.”
These have targeted “crowded places, urban and semi-urban centers, marketplaces, health and education facilities,” he said, including a health center run by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul that has been helping thousands of Tigrayans, many of whom are starving children and mothers.
“It is very painful and shocking to see horrifying acts of brutal crimes, indiscriminate rain of artillery, shelling and bombardments of civilians, and then be unable to get support to treat them,” Bishop Medhin said in his appeal. “The continuous brutal shelling and air-bombardment” in Tigray’s northern and eastern border areas “are bringing incalculable destruction of lives and property,” he said.
The conflict in Tigray, which erupted in November 2020, has longstanding and complex causes rooted in a mix of power politics and ethnic rivalries in a territory prized for its copper and gold deposits.
In addition to the bloodshed, since June 2021 the Ethiopia government has imposed a blockade on the region, preventing communications and basic activities such as trade and banking among Tigray’s seven million citizens. This has led to a dire economic situation, food shortages and starvation, as well as obstructions to aid corridors and a ban on internal media reporting on what’s happening to the outside world.
The U.N. has said war crimes during the conflict — fought principally between local Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) helped by Eritrean and other forces — have been committed on all sides, but with the majority committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.
Monasteries, clergy and faithful in the region, whose Christian heritage dates back to the fourth century, have also been attacked. Pope Francis has issued several appeals for peace on behalf of the Tigrayan people, almost all of whom are Orthodox faithful. Ethiopia as a whole has less than 500,000 Catholic faithful, many of them located in the highlands of Tigray.
‘Voice for the Voiceless’
Bishop Medhin, who has been issued a number of impassioned statements over the past year, referred in April to “genocidal massacres of civilians, rampant rape and gender-related violence, looting and burning of property, homes, destruction of places of worship (churches, mosques), economic installations, health institutions, schools, museums.”
Now he says the situation has worsened and noted difficulty in moving around the region due to “no fuel” and survivors of “brutal rape” being unable to receive care due to the blockade. He also said extensive criminal activity is an additional scourge, and over 1.5 million schoolchildren “have been deprived of their right to education for three years.”
In light of the widespread atrocities, Bishop Medhin appealed to local and international institutions to “exercise their moral duty” and be a “voice for the voiceless.” And he called on governments to become aware that this is currently the “largest active war” in the world, to “condemn these brutal genocidal acts,” and bring a “ceasefire and political dialogue to ensure lasting peace.”
A more detailed report on the suffering in Tigray was sent out to media by Vincentian Sister Medhin Tesfay, also from the Adigrat diocese, who wrote of “severely limited supplies and means of survival.” Since the blockade began, she said, Tigrayans have been brought to the brink of starvation partly due to “looting and destruction of farming equipment by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.”
“On the streets of Tigray, it has become commonplace to see children folded over in hunger begging for bread and mothers desolately looking for anything to do to make sure that their children don’t perish,” Sister Medhin said. “Hundreds and thousands of desperate people knock on the doors of the Daughters of Charity seeking critical support. There are scores more starving in their homes forgoing food for days on end to make sure that the meagre supplies they have remaining help them last for as long as possible.”
War Crimes
In a Sept. 22 oral statement to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a non-governmental organization, agreed with the Council’s commission of experts on human rights in Ethiopia that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that “war crimes and crimes against humanity” have been committed “in several instances.”
They also concurred with the commission that the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and allied forces are responsible for “widespread and egregious acts of rape and sexual violence against Tigrayans throughout the course of the conflict,” while Tigrayan forces “have committed the same crimes, albeit on a smaller scale, targeting Amhara civilians and Eritrean refugees.”
“The ENDF and its allies have also used starvation as a weapon of war, as well as air and drone strikes on civilian structures, including hospitals, displaced persons camps, educational establishments and markets,” CSW’s oral statement continued, adding that there is enough evidence to suggest the Ethiopian government has been deliberately trying to “systematically destroy a people group.”
On Aug. 24, the ENDF launched a new, largescale military offensive involving “indiscriminate bombing and destruction.” CSW also noted that the first World Food Program airlift in over six weeks recently pulled 34 staff from the region and brought no humanitarian aid, despite an urgent appeal for insulin.
On Oct. 6, the European Parliament passed a resolution that included calling for an immediate ceasefire; condemning the Eritrean forces for invading Tigray and for war crimes and human rights; calling on both the Ethiopian and Tigrayan governments to ensure accountability for perpetrators of war crimes; and calling on EU Member States to impose sanctions against perpetrators.
The Tigrayan people are “living in fear day and night,” a priest who had fled the region told the Register Oct. 14. He also drew attention to a video, posted on social media, of a Tigrayan woman, whose father was killed in the conflict, confronting Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance at the World Bank. She held him responsible for many of the atrocities and accused him of visiting the institution to raise funds to buy more arms.
Holding On to Hope
Despite the worsening situation and encouraged by the power of the Cross, Sister Medhin said she and other Tigrayans continue to have “hope that the end to the war is near” and that “a new chapter for healing, peace and prosperity could be opened.”
“We welcome all who are moved to offer us support in giving our community a chance to survive, and all who can amplify our voice so that the suffering of innocents and the madness that has spread widely ends soon,” said Sister Medhin. “We will continue to pray for deliverance and our efforts to support those in need during their times of need.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on May 15, 2021
For the last six months, communications blackouts and appalling access for human rights researchers and journalists alike have shrouded a conflict raging across the Tigray Region.
But as tens of thousands of Eritrean and Ethiopian national army troops have battled forces loyal to the regional government of Tigray, information has slowly and surely leaked out.
Continuing Atrocities and Denial of Humanitarian Access in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region
US Department of State PRESS STATEMENT
The United States is gravely concerned by the increasing number of confirmed cases of military forces blocking humanitarian access to parts of the Tigray region. This unacceptable behavior places the 5.2 million people in the region in immediate need of humanitarian assistance at even greater risk. The United States unequivocally calls upon the Governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to take all necessary steps to ensure that their forces in Tigray cease and desist this reprehensible conduct. We also again call on all parties to comply with obligations under international humanitarian law, including those relevant to the protection of civilians, and to cease immediately all hostilities and allow relief to reach those suffering and in greatest need of assistance. The Ethiopian government should lead in this regard and immediately facilitate full and unhindered access for humanitarian actors to all parts of the Tigray region.
There are many credible reports of armed forces in Tigray committing acts of violence against civilians, including gender-based violence and other human rights abuses and atrocities. The conduct of the Eritrean Defense Forces and Amhara regional forces have been particularly egregious. The continued presence of Eritrean forces in Tigray further undermines Ethiopia’s stability and national unity. We again call upon the Government of Eritrea to remove its forces from Tigray. Both Eritrean and Ethiopian authorities have repeatedly promised such a withdrawal, but we have seen no movement towards implementation. We equally urge the Government of Ethiopia to withdraw Amhara regional forces from the Tigray region and ensure that effective control of western Tigray is returned to the Transitional Government of Tigray. Prime Minister Abiy and President Isais must hold all those responsible for atrocities accountable.
👉“There is evidence of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Western Tigray. If carried out with the intent of eliminating Tigrayans, it may be classified as genocide,” says Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
👉“Taken all together, the serious crimes being committed against Tigrayans, including massacres of civilians of all ages, may meet the definition of genocide,” Ms Clark added.
🔥 #TigrayGenocide: A ‘pathetic’ international reaction:
„The silence from key international actors has been deafening”
🔥‘አሳዛኝ’ ዓለም አቀፍ ምላሽለትግራኝ ጭፍጨፋ፤
“ቁልፍ ከሆኑ ዓለም አቀፍ ተዋንያን ዝምታው ያደንቁራል“
👉 Imagine The Outrage if The 150,000 Dead Tigrayan Ethiopians Had Actually Been Palestinian, and The Aggressors Israeli Troops. We’re observing this right now! Watch how the world reacts to the current escalated Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.
Six months into northern Ethiopia’s shadow war, its atrocities are becoming harder to hide
When the first American bombs crashed into Baghdad in January 1991, the nature of war fundamentally changed.
Images of the First Gulf War were bounced off satellites and broadcast live to tens of millions of homes around the world.
Everyone saw how Iraq was systematically taken apart blow by blow. Since then, war has become more visible – its crimes ever harder to hide. But one conflict in the far north of Ethiopia has bucked the trend spectacularly, defying the information age.
For the last six months, communications blackouts and appalling access for human rights researchers and journalists alike have shrouded a conflict raging across the Tigray Region in shadows.
But as tens of thousands of Eritrean and Ethiopian national army troops have battled forces loyal to the regional government of Tigray, information has slowly and surely leaked out.
Humanitarian reports, grainy mobile phone videos, refugees accounts and journalistic dispatches all point the same way: dozens if not hundreds of mass killings, a systematic campaign of rape, ethnic cleansing and starvation being used as a weapon of war.
Last week, another bombshell hit. A video smuggled out of the country shows the head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church Abune Mathias saying the Ethiopian state is committing a ‘genocide’ on the ethnic Tigrayan people.
Several senior independent observers horrified by the tepid international response to the Tigray crisis broke ranks to tell the Telegraph what they thought was happening.
“It is crimes against humanity. It’s the crime of extermination. It’s the crime of mass starvation. It’s certainly a lot worse than Darfur,” says Alex du Waal, one of the foremost international experts on the Horn of Africa.
“There is evidence of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Western Tigray. If carried out with the intent of eliminating Tigrayans, it may be classified as genocide,” says Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand.
“Taken all together, the serious crimes being committed against Tigrayans, including massacres of civilians of all ages, may meet the definition of genocide,” Ms Clark added.
How did it come to this?
Tigray is populated mainly by ethnic Tigrayans who make up a small part of Ethiopia’s myriad of more than 80 ethnic groups.
Despite their small size, the ethnic group has played a huge role in the country’s modern history. In the 1980s, the Tigrayan’s People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led a rebel coalition to oust the Derg, Ethiopia’s Marxist dictatorship.
For the next three decades, the TPLF dominated Africa’s second-most populous nation, with Tigrayans holding key positions in the country’s government, armed forces and economy. But major TPLF abuses led to widespread hatred for the ethnic group.
Ethiopia’s current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed swept to power on a wave of anger at the status quo in April 2018. Mr Abiy moved to sideline the old Tigrayan guard and tried to increase the federal government’s power over regional governments.
Tigray openly resisted and held regional elections. An escalating war of words turned into an open conflict in November 2020. Mr Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a major federal government military base and launched a massive offensive to oust the group.
Mr Abiy enlisted the help of Eritrea, whose dictator Isaias Afwerki is a longtime foe of the TPLF and axe-wielding ethnic Amhara militias, to crush Tigray’s battle-hardened fighters in a three-pronged attack.
But any hopes of a quick blitzkrieg offensive have evaporated. Instead, the conflict has descended into a guerilla war with the Tigrayan Defence Forces, and a vast humanitarian catastrophe spread across the region of six million people.
An estimated 1.7 million people were displaced across the region at the end of March, while 4.5 million people are in need of emergency aid, according to the United Nations.
More than 60,000 refugees made it into eastern Sudan before Ethiopian forces sealed the border, preventing their very own Rohingya moment.
The situation is now so desperate that many women IDPs and refugees are selling sex for as little as £1, says the International Rescue Committee.
Breaking through the blackout
Only a handful of journalists have been granted limited access to Tigray. Their reports tell of horrifying suffering and abuses committed by all parties.
But most human rights analysts and reporters have had to investigate dozens of reported atrocities from a distance, calling up hundreds of survivors on encrypted lines to corroborate accounts and even trying to rent satellites to take pictures of mass graves.
Earlier this year, the Telegraph obtained the first video evidence of what appears to be a war crime carried out by the Ethiopian army. Around 40 bodies in civilian clothes can be seen in the video at Debre Abay in Central Tigray.
“You should have finished off the survivors,” the cameraman nonchalantly says as soldiers walk past a mortally injured man. One video analysed by CNN, the BBC, Amnesty and Bellingcat shows what appears to be Ethiopian soldiers killing dozens of men, then pushing their bodies off a cliff.
More recently, this paper published testimony from more than a dozen witnesses alleging that Ethiopian and Eritrean troops went from house to house in the Temben region of central Tigray, killing 182 people in the second week of February.
“I saw dead bodies scattered, bodies half-eaten by dogs. The soldiers did not allow anyone to get close to the corpses,” one 26-year-old man told reporters by phone at the time.
Almost every atrocity investigation has been hotly contested or flat out denied as fake news by the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa. One Ethiopian ambassador has even insinuated journalists at this paper were paid up TPLF agents.
Yet observers say such abuses are probably just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. One team of researchers at the University of Ghent has documented almost 500 events where people were allegedly executed or massacred, mainly by Eritrean, Ethiopian national troops or militiamen.
After reporting extensively on the conflict for the last six months, Tsedale Lemma, the founder of the influential Addis Standard, believes ‘genocidal acts’ are being committed.
“Many people argue that because the number of people massacred may not be in its hundreds of thousands, it doesn’t qualify as genocide. What this argument misses is intent.”
“Intent, not just numbers, qualify acts of massacres as genocide. There are objectively corroborated reports of, for example, young men of fighting age being intentionally targeted and massacred.”
There are also reports of Tigrayans being forced to eat leaves to survive, displaced people turning up emaciated at ransacked healthcare centres and dying in their sleep of hunger.
One survey by a cluster of humanitarian groups found that half of all women surveyed were acutely malnourished. Experts have raised the alarm saying that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in the conflict.
The World Peace Foundation based in Boston released a report in April stating that food supplies were being destroyed and that the region’s elaborate food security system was being dismantled.
“There is a campaign that has been started to prevent farming. Regrettably, this campaign is being done by some of those tasked with law enforcement,” Abebe Gebrehiwot, deputy head of Tigray’s interim government, told Ethiopian state media on Monday.
A ‘pathetic’ international reaction
The silence from key international actors has been deafening. Over the last six months, the UN chief Antonio Guterres, the UN Security Council and the African Union have all refused to take any firm stance on the atrocities in Tigray.
Instead, they have spoken in muted tones about the need to get humanitarian access to the region. Part of the reason for this is Ethiopia’s considerable diplomatic heft — the African Union has its headquarters in Addis Ababa.
China and Russia have also blocked any serious attempt by Western nations in the Security Council to condemn the atrocities. Multiple critics said that part of the reason for Mr Guterres’ relative silence on Tigray was that he is up for reelection in January 2022 and needs African votes.
“UN Secretary-General António Guterres has abjectly abandoned his responsibilities. History will not judge him kindly even if he wins enough votes for reelection,” said Mr Waal.
Mr Guterres’ office said he was fully engaged in seeking an end to the conflict and “continues to call for all perpetrators of such violations to be held accountable and face justice.”
For Dr Mukesh Kapila, a former top UN official who raised the alarm about the ongoing genocide in Darfur in 2003, the situation is clear. “If you look at the pattern of killings and other incidents including sexual violence, use of starvation – there is a pattern of genocidal events. They’re taking place in close juxtaposition to each other. That points to a degree of orchestration.
“The fact that these genocidal acts are taking place in repeated places – points towards an organisation, it points towards a strategy. That is why I think of what is going on in Tigray as a set of genocidal acts, which taken together point towards an overall genocide,” Dr Kapila says.
“People are talking about this privately. But it hasn’t caught on publicly because it’s a huge, huge business to accuse a state of genocide. If you declare genocide convention, you are obliged to act,” Dr Kapila claims.
The US is beginning to wake up to the crisis. The US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, issued a stark warning saying that if the violence from Tigray spread across the nation of 110m it would make Syria look like “child’s play”.
Billene Seyoum, the spokesperson for the Ethiopian Prime Minister, hit back against the allegations of atrocities in Tigray.
“Whether from leading Ethiopian or international observers, such allegations need to be procedurally and thoroughly investigated on the ground and the results made public, which international and national human rights entities are doing,” she said in a statement.
“Anecdotal and unsubstantiated testimonies cannot count as fact and only serve to perpetuate a skewed narrative of a country. Ethiopia is making and realising commitment towards ensuring investigations take place.”
💭 A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring. 😠😠😠 😢😢😢
❖ “Ethiopian troops and their allies of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Ethiopian forces, the Amhara region special forces and Eritrean soldiers continue to hold their positions, and there are no signs they will withdraw anytime soon.”
❖ “The targets for killings are men and boys, who are being eliminated by armed forces and their allies, and women and girls, who are being repeatedly gang-raped to weaken any resistance.”
❖ “They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future.”
❖ “They are raping and destroying women to ensure that they cannot raise a community in future. They are using rape and food a weapons of war.”
❖ “They want to destroy the people of Tigray. I am not clear why they want to declare genocide on the people of Tigray.”. Abune Mathias
❖ “Churches & monasteries were destroyed in heavy bombardment. Relics have been stolen, items of worship have been burned, belongings of believers have been desecrated.”
❖ “Farmers are being barred from farming and seeds are being blocked from reaching the region”
❖ “Tigrayan men or boys don’t want to die of hunger or be killed like their peers. They are joining the rebels so that they can live,”
“They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future,”
A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring in the region where a military offensive launched in November.
The targets for killings are men and boys, who are being eliminated by armed forces and their allies, and women and girls, who are being repeatedly gang-raped to weaken any resistance, according to the priest.
The cleric’s allegations come as individuals and organizations accuse the Ethiopian troops and their allies of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The Ethiopian forces, the Amhara region special forces and Eritrean soldiers continue to hold their positions, and there are no signs they will withdraw anytime soon.
“They want to annihilate Tigray. By killing the men and boys, they are trying to destroy any future resistance. They want to make sure that nobody can question their actions in future,” said the priest, who did not wished to be named to protect his safety. “They are raping and destroying women to ensure that they cannot raise a community in future. They are using rape and food a weapons of war.”
Earlier in May, Patriarch Mathias, head of the 36 million-member Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, urged international intervention in Tigray while alleging that the Ethiopian army and its allies were committing a genocide.
In a video statement reportedly recorded in April but released in May, Patriarch Mathias termed what happened in Tigray as the highest form of cruelty and brutality. He listed atrocities such as massacres, use of famine as a weapon of war and destruction of churches.
“They want to destroy the people of Tigray. I am not clear why they want to declare genocide on the people of Tigray,” he said in the widely quoted video statement.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali launched an offensive Nov. 3 to fight the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. He accused the leaders of the semi-autonomous region of attacking and looting weapons from a federal army base in Mekele, the capital.
Months on, the fighting is still continuing in at least three areas, according to the priest. He said Eritrean forces are carrying out most of the brutal acts, seemingly to exert revenge for the humiliation suffered during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia.
Some of the documented atrocities include the cliff execution of young men near Aksum and the massacre of 160 people in Bora village in January. Hundreds of priests and thousands of believers were killed, the interreligious Council of Tigray said in February. Churches, monasteries and mosques were destroyed in heavy bombardment.
“Relics have been stolen, items of worship have been burned, belongings of believers have been desecrated,” said the interfaith group, which includes the Catholic Church. “Religious sisters and nuns have been violated and raped, mothers and daughters have been gang-raped.”
The priest said killings and torture are breeding nationalism among Tigrayans. He said men or boys who cannot attend school due to the war and can’t find food or fear being executed were joining the rebel ranks in droves, angry over the atrocities.
“They don’t want to die of hunger or be killed like their peers. They are joining the rebels so that they can live,” he said.
At the same time, farmers are being barred from farming and seeds are being blocked from reaching the region, according to an official from Tigray’s interim authority.
Abebe Gebrehiwot Yihdego, deputy head of Tigray’s interim government, told state-run Tigray TV that preventing farming and seeds from reaching the people would result in hunger.
“These two incidents that looked to supplement each other have no other message but to let the people of Tigray die,” Gebrehiwot said in an interview May 10.
Meanwhile, the Association of Member Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa has issued a humanitarian appeal for the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat. Zambian Bishop Charles Kasonde, AMECEA chairman, said Catholic Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin had requested urgent humanitarian assistance for the people of Tigray.
Kasonde said Medhin had informed the conference that many people had been displaced from their homes and were forced to live in camps inside and outside Ethiopia.
“The people in the affected communities need food, medication, shelter, water, and health and sanitary items,” Kasonde said. “The church in Ethiopia and its Caritas partners are doing their best to assist the suffering communities with the meager resources they have.”
The bishop said with the increasing number of needy cases, the local church was getting overwhelmed.
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Addis Ethiopia Weblog 