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According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, Armageddon (, from Ancient Greek: Harmagedn,[1][2] Late Latin: Armagedn,[3] from Hebrew: Har Megiddo) is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or a symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end of the world scenario.

"Mount" Tel Megiddo is not actually a mountain, but a tell (a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot)[4] on which ancient forts were built to guard the Via Maris, an ancient trade route linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Megiddo was the location of various ancient battles, including one in the 15th century BC and one in 609 BC. Modern Megiddo is a town approximately 25 miles (40km) west-southwest of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee in the Kishon River area in Israel.[5]

The word Armageddon appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16. The word is translated to Greek from Hebrew har mgidd ( ), har (Strong H2022) meaning "a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively): - hill (country), mount (-ain), X promotion." This is a shortened form of Harar (Strong H2042) "to loom up; a mountain; -hill, mount". Megiddo (Strong H4023) /meg-id-do'/ "Megiddon or Megiddo, a place of crowds.")[6] The name refers to a fortification made by King Ahab (869-50 BC) that dominated the Plain of Jezreel.[7]

Megiddo is mentioned twelve times in the Old Testament, ten times in reference to the ancient city of Megiddo, and twice with reference to "the plain of Megiddo", most probably simply meaning "the plain next to the city".[8] None of these Old Testament passages describes the city of Megiddo as being associated with any particular prophetic beliefs. The one New Testament reference to the city of Armageddon found in Revelation 16:16 in fact also makes no specific mention of any armies being predicted to one day gather in this city, but instead seems to predict only that "they (will gather) the kings together to .... Armageddon".[9] The text does however seem to imply, based on the text from the earlier passage of Revelation 16:14, that the purpose of this gathering of kings in the "place called Armageddon" is "for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty". Because of the seemingly highly symbolic and even cryptic language of this one New Testament passage, some Christian scholars conclude that Mount Armageddon must be an idealized location.[10] Rushdoony says, "There are no mountains of Megiddo, only the Plains of Megiddo. This is a deliberate destruction of the vision of any literal reference to the place."[11] Other scholars, including C. C. Torrey, Kline and Jordan argue that the word is derived from the Hebrew moed (), meaning "assembly". Thus, "Armageddon" would mean "Mountain of Assembly," which Jordan says is "a reference to the assembly at Mount Sinai, and to its replacement, Mount Zion."[10]

The traditional viewpoint interprets this Bible prophecy to be symbolic of the progression of the world toward the "great day of God, the Almighty" in which the great looming mountain of God's just and holy wrath is poured out against unrepentant sinners, led by Satan, in a literal end-of-the-world final confrontation. Armageddon is the symbolic name given to this event based on scripture references regarding divine obliteration of God's enemies. The hermeneutical method supports this position by referencing Judges 4 and 5 where God miraculously destroys the enemy of His elect, Israel, at Megiddo, also called the Valley of Josaphat.[citation needed]

Christian scholar William Hendriksen says:

For this cause, Har Magedon is the symbol of every battle in which, when the need is greatest and believers are oppressed, the Lord suddenly reveals His power in the interest of His distressed people and defeats the enemy. When Sennacherib's 185,000 are slain by the Angel of Jehovah, that is a shadow of the final Har-Magedon. When God grants a little handful of Maccabees a glorious victory over an enemy which far outnumbers it, that is a type of Har-Magedon. But the real, the great, the final Har Magedon coincides with the time of Satans little season. Then the world, under the leadership of Satan, anti-Christian government, and anti-Christian religion the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet is gathered against the Church for the final battle, and the need is greatest; when God's children, oppressed on every side, cry for help; then suddenly, dramatically, Christ will appear on the clouds of glory to deliver his people; that is Har-Magedon.[12]

The Dispensational viewpoint interprets biblical prophecy literally and expects that the fulfillment of prophecy will also be literal, depending upon the context of scripture. In his discussion of Armageddon, J. Dwight Pentecost has devoted an entire chapter to the subject, titled "The Campaign of Armageddon", in which he discusses Armageddon as a campaign and not a specific battle, which will be fought in the Middle East. Pentecost writes:

It has been held commonly that the battle of Armageddon is an isolated event transpiring just prior to the second advent of Christ to the earth. The extent of this great movement in which God deals with "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" (Rev. 16:14) will not be seen unless it is realized that the "battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14)[13] is not an isolated battle, but rather a campaign that extends over the last half of the tribulation period. The Greek word "polemo", translated "battle" in Revelation 16:14, signifies a war or campaign, while "mach" signifies a battle, and sometimes even single combat. This distinction is observed by Trench, (see Richard C. Trench, New Testament Synonyms, pp.301-2) and is followed by Thayer (see Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 528) and Vincent (see Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, II, 541). The use of the word polemos (campaign) in Revelation 16:14 would signify that the events that culminate in the gathering at Armageddon at the second advent are viewed by God as one connected campaign.

Pentecost, p.340

Pentecost then discusses the location of this campaign, and mentions the "hill of Megiddo" and other geographic locations such as "the valley of Jehoshaphat"[14] and "the valley of the passengers",[15] "Lord coming from Edom or Idumea, south of Jerusalem, when He returns from the judgment"; and Jerusalem itself.[16][17]

Pentecost further describes the area involved:

This wide area would cover the entire land of Israel and this campaign, with all its parts, would confirm what Ezekiel pictures when he says the invaders will 'cover the land'.[18] This area would conform to the extent pictured by John in Revelation 14:20."[19]

Pentecost then outlines the biblical time period for this campaign to occur and with further arguments concludes that it must take place with the 70th week of Daniel. The invasion of Israel by the Northern Confederacy "will bring the Beast and his armies to the defense of Israel as her protector". He then uses Daniel to further clarify his thinking: (Dan. 11:40b-45).[20]

Again, events are listed by Pentecost in his book:

After the destruction of the Beast at the Second Coming of Jesus, the promised Kingdom is set up, in which Jesus and the Saints will rule for a thousand years. Satan is then loosed "for a season" and goes out to deceive the nations, specifically, Gog and Magog.[27] The army mentioned attacks the Saints in the New Jerusalem, they are defeated by a judgment of fire coming down from Heaven, and then comes the Great White Throne judgment, which includes all of those through the ages[28] and these are cast into the Lake of Fire, which event is also known as the "second death" and Gehenna, not to be confused with Hell, which is Satan's domain. Pentecost describes this as follows:

The destiny of the lost is a place in the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8). This lake of fire is described as everlasting fire (Matt. 25:41)[29] (Matt. 18:8)[30] and as unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43-44),[31] 46-48,[32] emphasizing the eternal character of retribution of the lost.

Pentecost, p. 555

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Armageddon is the means by which God will fulfill his purpose for the Earth to be populated with happy healthy humans free of sin and death.[33] They teach that the armies of heaven will eradicate all who oppose the Kingdom of God, wiping out all wicked humans on Earth, leaving only righteous mankind.[34]

They believe that the gathering of all the nations of the earth refers to the uniting of the world's political powers, as a gradual process beginning in 1914 and seen later in manifestations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations following the First and Second World Wars.[35] These political powers are said to be influenced by Satan and his demons in opposition to God's kingdom.[33] Babylon the Great is interpreted as the world empire of false religion, and that it will be destroyed by the beast just prior to Armageddon.[36][37] Witnesses believe that after all other religions have been destroyed, the governments will turn to persecute them, and that God will then intervene, precipitating Armageddon.[38]

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the armies of heaven, led by Jesus, will then destroy all forms of human government and then Jesus, along with a selected 144,000 humans, will rule Earth for 1,000 years.[39] They believe that Satan and his demons will be bound for that period, unable to influence mankind. After the 1,000 years are ended, and the second resurrection has taken place, Satan is released and allowed to tempt the perfect human race one last time. Those who follow Satan are destroyed, along with him, leaving the earth, and humankind at peace with God forever, free of sin and death.[40]

The religion's current teaching on Armageddon originated in 1925 with former Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford, who based his interpretations on the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Psalms as well as additional material from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. The doctrine marked a further break from the teachings of Watch Tower Society founder Charles Taze Russell, who for decades had taught that the final war would be an anarchistic struggle for domination on earth.[41] Tony Wills, author of a historical study of Jehovah's Witnesses, claimed that Rutherford seemed to relish his descriptions of how completely the wicked would be destroyed at Armageddon, dwelling at great length on prophecies of destruction. He stated that towards the close of his ministry Rutherford allocated about half the space available in The Watchtower magazines to discussion of Armageddon.[42]

The teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church state that the terms "Armageddon", "Day of the Lord" and "The Second Coming of Christ" all describe the same event.[43] Seventh-day Adventists further teach that the current religious movements taking place in the world are setting the stage for Armageddon, and they are concerned by an anticipated unity between spiritualism, American Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. A further significant difference in Seventh-day Adventist theology is the teaching that the events of Armageddon will leave the earth desolate for the duration of the millennium.[44] They teach that the righteous will be taken to heaven while the rest of humanity will be destroyed, leaving Satan with no one to tempt and effectively "bound."[45] The final re-creation of a "new heaven and a new earth."[46] then follows the millennium.

For Christadelphians, Armageddon marks the "great climax of history when the nations would be gathered together 'into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon', and the judgment on them would herald the setting up of the Kingdom of God." [47]

In Islam, Armageddon is viewed as a spiritual battle or struggle in the present age between the forces of good, i.e. righteousness, purity and virtue, and the forces of evil. The final struggle between the two comes as satanic influence is let loose with the emergence of Gog and Magog. Satan gathers all his powers, and uses all his methods to mislead people, introducing an age where iniquity, promiscuity, atheism, and materialism abound.

Muslims believe that God appointed Promised Messiah and Mahdi for the spiritual reformation and moral direction of mankind. A brief time of serenity (before the final Day of Judgement) will follow; it is characterized by the assembling of mankind under one faith, Islam.

From Bah' literature a number of interpretations of the expectations surrounding the Battle of Armageddon may be inferred, three of them being associated with events surrounding the World Wars.[48]

The first interpretation deals with a series of tablets written by Bah'u'llh, founder of the Bah' Faith, to be sent to various kings and rulers.[48] The second, and best-known one, relates to events near the end of World War I involving General Allenby and the Battle of Megiddo (1918) wherein World Powers are said to have drawn soldiers from many parts of the world to engage in battle at Megiddo. In winning this battle Allenby also prevented the Turks from killing 'Abdu'l-Baha, then head of the Baha'i Faith, whom they had intended to crucify.[49] A third interpretation reviews the overall progress of the World Wars, and the situation in the world before and after.[48]

The idea that a final Battle of Armageddon will be fought at Tel Megiddo has had a wide influence, especially in the US. According to Donald E. Wagner, Professor of Religion and Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University, Ronald Reagan was an adherent of "Armageddon theology," and "seemed to blend his political analysis with his Armageddon theology quite naturally."[50]

An American militia group called Hutaree, based on the idea that it will soon defend itself from the Antichrist's armies, received wide attention in 2010, when several members were indicted for plotting to kill a police officer and plant roadside bombs along the funeral procession.[51] The charges were dismissed.

Coordinates: 32354.64N 35110.58E / 32.5846222N 35.1834944E / 32.5846222; 35.1834944]

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See also: Mike Pence vice presidential campaign, 2016

Mike Pence

Present officeholder

Prior offices

Governor of Indiana

U.S. House of Representatives Indiana District 6

U.S. House of Representatives Indiana District 2

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Michael Richard "Mike" Pence is the 48th vice president of the United States. He was elected on November 8, 2016. President Donald Trump announced that he had selected Pence as his running mate on July 15, 2016.[1]

Pence served as the 50th governor of Indiana from January 14, 2013, to January 9, 2017. In April 2013, an analysis of Republican governors conducted by Nate Silver of the New York Times ranked Pence as the second most conservative governor in the country.[2]

From 2001 to 2013, Pence served as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. During his final year in the House, Pence was rated a "far-right Republican leader" based on an analysis of bill sponsorship by GovTrack.[3]

As of January 24, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence had cast eight tie-breaking votes in the Senate:

Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana. He graduated from Hanover College in 1981, and he earned his J.D. from Indiana University School of Law in 1986.[11] After graduating from Hanover, Pence worked as an admissions counselor at the college until 1983. He then went to law school and worked as a private practice attorney from 1986 to 1990. From 1991 to 1994, he served as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation and was a talk show host on Network Indiana from 1994 to 2000. In 2000, he began his political career.[12]

Pence is the 48th vice president of the United States. He was elected vice president on November 8, 2016, and sworn in on January 20, 2017.

Pence served as governor of Indiana from January 14, 2013 to January 9, 2017. He was succeeded by Eric Holcomb (R).[13][14]

Pence served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013. In 2000, he won election to Indiana's 2nd congressional district. In 2002, the district was renumbered as Indiana's 6th congressional district. Pence served in the seat until 2013.

The Personal Gain Index (U.S. Congress) is a two-part measurement that illustrates the extent to which members of the U.S. Congress have prospered during their tenure as public servants. It consists of two different metrics:

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org, Pence's net worth as of 2010 was estimated between $11,015 and $169,000. That averages to $90,007.50, which was lower than the average net worth of Republican representatives in 2010 of $7,561,133.[15] Between 2004 and 2012, Pence's calculated net worth[16] increased by an average of 155 percent per year. Between 2004 and 2014, the average annual percentage increase for a member of Congress was 15.4 percent.[17]

Each year National Journal published an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of Congress voted in the previous year. Pence ranked 19th in the conservative rankings in 2011.[20]

Mike Pence voted with the Republican Party 94 percent of the time, which ranked 74th among the 242 House Republican members as of November 2011.[21]

Click on the tiles below to see Pence's issue positions on domestic, economic, and foreign policy when he was a member of Congress, governor of Indiana, and the 2016 Republican vice presidential nominee.

Click the tiles below to learn more about Pence's positions on domestic affairs.

Click the tiles below to learn more about Pence's positions on economic affairs and government regulations.

Click the tiles below to learn more about Pence's positions on foreign affairs and national security.

Click the tiles below to learn more about Pence's character, communications, and leadership positions.

Several news outlets reported that Pence was traveling to meet with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on July 1, 2016, and that he was formally being vetted as a potential running mate for Trump. Pence's office confirmed the meeting in an official statement, but the governor downplayed a possible VP pick, saying, "I haven't talked to him about that topic. My focus is here in the Hoosier state and that is where it will stay."[22]

On July 15, 2016, Trump announced that he had selected Pence as his running mate.[1]

Pence was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team. The transition team was a group of around 100 aides, policy experts, government affairs officials, and former government officials who were tasked with vetting, interviewing, and recommending individuals for top cabinet and staff roles in Trump's administration. According to The New York Times, Pence took over the transition's chairmanship, which had previously been run by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, on November 11, 2016.[23]

Pence endorsed Donald Trump for the Republican primary in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[24]

Pence had previously endorsed Ted Cruz.[25]

Pence initially filed as a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2016 and ran unopposed in the Republican primary election. However, after rumors had circulated for weeks, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced in the morning on July 15, 2016, via Twitter that Pence would be joining his ticket as his running mate and vice presidential pick. Pence withdrew from the race the same day, just prior to the noon deadline.[26]

Pence was considered a potential Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election. However, he announced that he would not seek the presidency on May 19, 2015.[27][28]

Pence won election as governor of Indiana in 2012. Pence was slated to face Fishers businessman Jim Wallace in the May 8, 2012, Republican primary election, but Wallace was removed from the ballot by the Indiana Election Commission on February 24, 2012, for failing to receive the requisite 500 signatures per congressional district. Thus, Pence was unopposed in the Republican primary, and he defeated former House Speaker John Gregg (D), Rupert Boneham (L), and write-in candidate Donnie Harold Harris in the general election on November 6, 2012.[29][30][31]

In terms of economic development, Pence said, "We would identify personnel in the IEDC with essentially an investment background that we would recruit and say, 'We want you to go to each community in this state and evaluate the assets on the ground. And we want you to meet with business leaders.'"[32]

In a letter to Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) in August 2012, Pence said that if elected governor he would not set up a health insurance exchange in Indiana, leaving the job to the federal government instead. I believe Indiana should take no part in this deeply flawed health care bureaucracy, he stated.[33]

The major issue of the 2012 campaign was jobs, with each candidate detailing their plan to get citizens back to work. Pence said he would create a jobs cabinet made up of business leaders and investment specialists who would support start-up businesses.[34]

On November 2, 2010, Pence won re-election to the United States House of Representatives. He defeated Barry Welsh (D) and Talmage "T.J" Thompson Jr. (Lib.) in the general election.[35]

Pence won re-election to the position of Governor of Indiana in 2012. During that election cycle, Pence raised a total of $14,841,352.

Pence won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. During that re-election cycle, Pence's campaign committee raised a total of $2,684,316 and spent $2,654,178.[37]

Pence and his wife, Karen, have been married since 1985. They have three children: Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey.[11]

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms MikePenceVice President of the United States. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

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Mike Pence - Ballotpedia

Mike Pence is a former congressman and Governor of Indiana who with running mate Donald Trump, won the 2016 election to become the Vice President of the United States.

Growing up, Pence was raised in Columbus, Indiana in an Irish-Catholic household. The young Pence idolized President John F. Kennedy and identified himself in high school as a young Democrat. While studying history at Hanover College, Pence became inspired by Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party.

Shortly after graduating from the Indiana University School of Law, Pence opened his own private practice and entered local politics. He later ran for Congress in 1988 and 1990, but lost both times. Pence then served as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation before making the leap to talk radio with "The Mike Pence Show." The show was later syndicated in 1994 and later he entered television as a morning show host.

By 2000, Pence revived his political career and ran for Congress again, and this time he won. He quickly made a name for himself as a staunch conservative, and opposed President George W. Bushs No Child Left Behind and a Medicare expansion program. He won re-election five times before winning election as governor of Indiana in 2012.

Donald Trump chose Pence to be his running mate in July 2016, and he squared off with Hillary Clintons running mate, Tim Kaine, in a vice presidential debate. After winning the election, he headed Trumps transition team.

Pence has three children, Michael, Charlotte and Aubrey with his wife Karen. They have been married since 1985.

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Libya, country located in North Africa. Most of the country lies in the Sahara desert, and much of its population is concentrated along the coast and its immediate hinterland, where Tripoli (arbulus), the de facto capital, and Banghz (Benghazi), another major city, are located.

Libya comprises three historical regionsTripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest. The Ottoman authorities recognized them as separate provinces. Under Italian rule, they were unified to form a single colony, which gave way to independent Libya. For much of Libyas early history, both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were more closely linked with neighbouring territories than with one other.

Before the discovery of oil in the late 1950s, Libya was considered poor in natural resources and severely limited by its desert environment. The country was almost entirely dependent upon foreign aid and imports for the maintenance of its economy; the discovery of petroleum dramatically changed this situation. The government long exerted strong control over the economy and attempted to develop agriculture and industry with wealth derived from its huge oil revenues. It also established a welfare state, which provides medical care and education at minimal cost to the people. Although Libyas long-ruling leader Muammar al-Qaddafi espoused an idiosyncratic political ideology rooted in socioeconomic egalitarianism and direct democracy, Libya in practice remained an authoritarian state, with power concentrated among members of Qaddafis inner circle of relatives and security chiefs. Opposition to the Qaddafi regime reached an unprecedented level in 2011, developing into an armed revolt that forced Qaddafi from power. (For a discussion of unrest in Libya in 2011, see Libya Revolt of 2011.)

Libya is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the north, Egypt on the east, Sudan on the southeast, Niger and Chad on the south, and Tunisia and Algeria on the west.

Libya is underlain by basement rocks of Precambrian age (from about 4 billion to 540 million years ago) mantled with marine and wind-borne deposits. The major physical features are the Nafsah Plateau and the Al-Jifrah (Gefara) Plain in the northwest, the Akhar Mountains (Green Mountains) in the northeast, and the Saharan plateau, which occupies much of the rest of the country.

The Al-Jifrah Plain covers about 10,000 square miles (26,000 square km) of Libyas northwestern corner. It rises from sea level to about 1,000 feet (300 metres) at the foothills of the Nafsah Plateau. Composed of sand dunes, salt marshes, and steppe, the plain is home to most of Libyas population and to its largest city, Tripoli. The Nafsah Plateau is a limestone massif that stretches for about 212 miles (340 km) from Al-Khums on the coast to the Tunisian border at Nlt. West of Tarhnah it rises steeply from the Al-Jifrah Plain, reaching elevations between 1,500 and 3,200 feet (450 and 975 metres).

In northeastern Libya, the Akhar Mountains stretch along the coast between Al-Marj and Darnah. These limestone mountains rise steeply from the coast to about 2,000 feet (600 metres) and then stretch about 20 miles (30 km) inland, reaching nearly 3,000 feet (900 metres) at their highest points.

The Saharan plateau makes up about nine-tenths of Libya. About half of the plateau is sand desert, making it truly a sea of sand. Al-Harj al-Aswad is a hilly basaltic plateau in central Libya. Covered with angular stone fragments and boulders, it rises to about 2,600 feet (800 metres) and is crowned by volcanic peaks. Al-amr Plateau lies south of the Nafsah Plateau. It harbours bare rock outcroppings that rise to 2,700 feet (820 metres). In the Fezzan region in the southwest, a series of long depressions and basins contain wadis (dry riverbeds) and oasis settlements. Mobile sand dunes that reach heights of 300 feet (90 metres) are found in the Fezzans Marzq desert and in the eastern Libyan Desert, which extends into Egypt. The countrys highest elevations are Bkk Btt peak (Picco Bette), which rises to 7,436 feet (2,267 metres) on the Libya-Chad border, and Mount Al-Uwaynt, with an elevation of 6,345 feet (1,934 metres) on the Libya-Sudan-Egypt border.

There are no permanent rivers in Libya. The numerous wadis that drain the uplands are filled by flash floods during the rains but then quickly dry up or are reduced to a trickle. The largest wadi systems are the Wadi Zamzam and Wadi Bayy al-Kabr, both of which empty into the sea on the western coast of the Gulf of Sidra. Other large wadis drain the interior basins of Sirte, Zalan, and the Fezzan. There is also, however, extensive underground water. Numerous oases are watered by wells and springs, and artesian wells tap large deep fossil aquifers in the Fezzan and southeastern Libya; the Great Man-Made River was one of the more ambitious projects designed to make use of these underground reserves. (See map illustrating the phases of the Great Man-Made River project that were planned or completed in the late 20th century.) Along the coastal strip there are several salt flats, or sabkhas, formed by the ponding and evaporation of water behind coastal dunes. Principal salt flats are found at Twurgh, at Zuwrah, and on the Banghz Plain.

The gray-brown soils of the Al-Jifrah Plain and the Nafsah Plateau in the west are fertile, although overirrigation has led to increased soil salination. In the east, the soils of the Barce plainwhich stretches between the Akhar Mountains and the seaare light and fertile. Rich alluvial soils are found in the coastal deltas and valleys of large wadis. On the margins of the Sahara, cultivation and overgrazing have seriously depleted the soil. The rest of the country is covered by wind-eroded sand or stony desert. The soils in these areas are poorly developed, with little organic material.

Libyas climate is dominated by the hot, arid Sahara, but it is moderated along the coastal littoral by the Mediterranean Sea. The Saharan influence is stronger in summer. From October to March, prevailing westerly winds bring cyclonic storms and rains across northern Libya. A narrow band of semiarid steppe extends inland from the Mediterranean climate of the Al-Jifrah Plain, the Nafsah Plateau, and the Akhar Mountains. The desert climate of the Sahara reaches the coast along the southern fringes of the Gulf of Sidra, where Al-amryah (Sirte) Desert borders the sea. Periodic droughts, often lasting several years, are common in the steppe and desert.

Along the coast, the Mediterranean climate is characterized by a cool, rainy winter season and a hot, dry summer. The warmest months are July and August, when average temperatures in Banghz and Tripoli, in the Mediterranean zone, reach between the low 70s and mid-80s F (low to upper 20s C) and the low 60s and mid-80s F (upper 10s and low 30s C), respectively. The coolest months are January and February; winter monthly temperatures in Banghz range from the low 50s to low 60s F (low to mid-10s C), while those in Tripoli range from the upper 40s to low 60s F (low to mid-10s C). Banghz has an average annual precipitation of about 10 inches (250 mm), and Tripoli receives an annual average of about 15 inches (380 mm).

Inland from the coast, annual precipitation declines, and its variability increases. Most rain falls in a few days between November and January. Less than 4 inches (100 mm) of rain falls annually in the steppes, and Saharan zones receive less than 1 inch (25 mm). In the Sahara, 200 consecutive rainless days in a year have been recorded in many areas, and the worlds highest degree of aridity has been recorded at Sabh, which averages only 0.4 inch (10 mm) of precipitation annually. Average temperatures at Sabh are in the low 50s F (low 10s C) in January and in the upper 80s F (low 30s C) in July, but these averages mask the fact that temperatures may vary enormously over the course of a day. The dry climate is exacerbated by the ghibli, a hot, arid wind that blows from the south over the entire country several times a year. It is usually preceded by a short lull in the prevailing winds, followed by the full force of the ghibli. The wind carries large quantities of sand dust, which turns the sky red and reduces visibility to less than 60 feet (18 metres). The heat of the wind is increased by a rapid drop of relative humidity, which can fall dramatically within hours.

In years of ample precipitation, the coastal plains are covered with herbaceous vegetation and annual grasses; the most noticeable plants are the asphodel (an herb of the lily family) and jubule. The northern area of the Akhar Mountainswhere the influence of the Mediterranean is most dominantsupports low and relatively dense forest (or maquis) of juniper and lentisc. Annual plants are abundant and include brome grass, canary grass, bluegrass, and rye grass. The forest becomes more scattered and stunted south of the mountain crest, and annual plants are less frequent. In the west, plant life is more sparse on the Nafsah Plateau, where grasslands lie between the barren hills.

In the semiarid steppes, vegetation is also sparse, characterized by pockets of isolated drought-resistant plants. The most commonly found species are saltwort (a plant used in making soda ash) and spurge flax (a shrubby plant), while goosefoot, wormwood, and asphodel also are widespread. Annual grasses grow in the rainy season, and leguminous plants appear in years of good precipitation. Although precipitation is extremely low in the true desert zone and the vegetation cover is scant, some plants from the semiarid region penetrate the occasional wadi valley, and date palms are grown in the southern oases.

Wild animals include desert rodents, such as the desert hare and the jerboa; hyenas; foxes, such as the fennec and the red fox; jackals; skunks; gazelles; and wildcats. The poisonous adder and krait are among the reptiles that inhabit the scattered oases and water holes. Native birds include the wild ringdove, the partridge, the lark, and the prairie hen. Eagles, hawks, and vultures are also common.

Almost all Libyans speak Arabic, the countrys official language. They claim descent from the Bedouin Arab tribes of the Ban Hill and the Ban Sulaym, who are said to have invaded the Maghrib in the 11th century. The governments embrace of Arab nationalism has reduced Western influences, although English is still widely used as a second language in international business and politics. At the beginning of the 21st century, Libyas population included a substantial number of foreign migrant workerslargely from sub-Saharan African countriestemporarily residing in the country. The tribe (qablah), a form of social organization that allowed the grouping of nomadic peoples scattered across the countrys vast spaces, was the foundation of social order for much of Libyas history.

The Imazighen (Berbers) are believed to have been the earliest inhabitants of Libya. The main Amazigh (plural Imazighen) groups were the Luata, the Nefusa, and the Adassa. They lived in coastal oases and practiced sedentary agriculture. Most Imazighen have been assimilated into Arab society except in the Nafsah Plateau region, Awjilah, Hn, Socra, and Zuwrah. The Imazighen of Libya speak languages that are classified as Afro-Asiatic but have adopted the Arabic alphabet. Many are bilingual in Nafusi (an Amazigh language) and Arabic; most are Sunni Muslims. There is also a community of some 30,000 people once called Gypsies but known in North Africa as Dom (see also Roma), who speak Domari (an Indo-European language).

Arab migrations to the region began with the rise of Islam in the 7th century. The initial Arab incursions were essentially military and had little effect upon the composition of the population. Oral tradition suggests that invasions of the Ban Hill in 1049 and the Ban Sulaym later in the 11th century took major migrations of nomadic tribes from eastern Arabia to Libya. However, scholarship later suggested that these movements too were not invasions but rather slow migrations of Arab peoples that occurred over several centuries.

The Ban Sulaym were composed of four main groupsthe Ban Hebib, the Awf, the Debbab, and the Zegb. The Hebib settled in Cyrenaica, while the others went to Tripolitania. The arrival of these and other Arab groups led to political upheaval and the steady Arabization of Libyas Amazigh populations. The result was that by the 20th century the great majority of Libyas inhabitants were Arabic-speaking Muslims of mixed descent.

Several other social groups exist alongside the tribes. Among these are the sharifs (holy tribes), who came originally from the Fezzan. The sharifs claim direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad; their alleged blood relationship with the Prophet gives them a powerful standing in Muslim society. Extensive tracts of land in the oases of western Libya are under sharifian control.

The marabouts (Muslim religious leaders credited with supernatural powers) arrived in Libya from Saguia el-Hamra, in what is now Western Sahara. The maraboutic tribes are descended from holy men who also claimed a privileged relationship with Muhammad. They believed in an ascetic life, manifested by their hermit lifestyle. In areas where their teachings and way of life made them acceptable to the local inhabitants, they settled and founded tribes pledged to the pure way of life.

The Koulouglis are descended from the Janissaries (elite Turkish soldiers who ruled Libya following the Ottoman conquest) and the Amazigh and Christian slave women with whom they intermarried. They have served since Ottoman times as a scribal class and are concentrated in and around villages and towns. They speak Arabic and practice Islam.

The trans-Saharan slave trade, which continued through the early 20th century, took black Africans and their cultures to Libya, particularly to the Fezzan and Tripolitania. Though they previously spoke Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo languages of the central Sahara and eastern Sudan, today they speak Arabic and have adopted Islam.

Small groups of Tuareg nomads live in the southwest, especially around the oases of Ghadmis and Ght. They are gradually assuming a sedentary lifestyle. In the southeast, isolated nomadic Teda (Tubu) communities are slowly gravitating toward the north and the Al-Kufrah oasis in search of employment.

Most Libyans are Muslim, and the vast majority are Sunnis. There are also very small minorities of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians. In Cyrenaica the influence of the Sansiyyah, a 19th-century militant Islamic brotherhood, remains strong. Although a Jewish minority was long established in Tripolitania, most Jews left the country in the late 1960s, many of them immigrating to Italy.

The majority of the population lives in Tripolitania, mainly in Tripoli and other cities along the coast and on the Nafsah Plateau. A smaller proportion of the people live in Cyrenaica, primarily in Banghz and other coastal cities. The remainder of the population is found in the oasis towns of the Fezzan.

The vast majority of the rural population lives in oases on the coast and is engaged in irrigation farming; plots of land are usually small and held in individual ownership. On the Nafsah Plateau, however, where water is less readily available, a sophisticated agrarian system based on olive- and fruit-tree cultivation and associated livestock raising has evolved. In Cyrenaica, the premodern economy was based on nomadic and seminomadic pastoralism. Arable farming has largely been an adjunct of the pastoral system, with shifting dry-land cultivation rarely entailing sedentary farming. In this zone, land ownership is no longer exclusively communal. In southern Libya, isolated irrigated farming in the oases constitutes a third economic system with roots in the premodern era.

The most common mode of life in rural Libya is sedentary cultivation. In the oases most farmers rely on irrigation, and water is raised from shallow wells either by the animal-powered dal (a goatskin bag drawn by rope over a pulley) or, increasingly, by electric or diesel pumps. Landholdings in the oases are small and fragmented; the average farm of five to seven acres (two to three hectares) is usually divided into three or four separate parcels. In the coastal regions, lowland farmers normally live on their own plots but enjoy rights to graze stock and undertake shifting grain cultivation on communally held land. In Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, most Arab farmers tend to live on plots of between 12 and 600 acres (5 and 240 hectares) that were once part of large estates belonging to Italian settlers.

Pastoral nomadism is practiced in the arid and semiarid regions, particularly in the Akhar Mountains and surrounding steppe lands in Cyrenaica. Nomadic groups subsist primarily on their herds of sheep, goats, and camels but also practice shifting cereal cultivation. These Bedouins move south as soon as pasture sprouts in the fall and remain there until the grasslands disappear and necessitate their return to the northern hills.

Fixed, permanently occupied villages were not typical features of nomadic life among the Bedouins of the Libyan steppe and desert, although towns have existed in the coastal zones since Phoenician, Greek, and Roman times. With the arrival of the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century, however, the new authorities founded towns and villages in the hinterland and desert that served as military posts or administrative centres; some of these sites have been occupied ever since. Other smaller, temporary settlements began as gathering places for nomadic tribes during periods of summer residence in the oases or in pastures in the hills. In the west, however, Amazigh populations are thought to have maintained a more or less continuous series of fortified nucleated villages in the western Nafsah Plateau. In the southern oases, the villages served both as defense posts for the scattered communities and as watering and provisioning points on the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Since independence and the discovery of oil in the mid-20th century, economic development has led to the expansion of villages into towns and has attracted migrants from rural areas to these growing urban centres.

The two main cities are Tripoli and Banghz. They contain about one-third of the countrys entire urban population and about one-fourth of the total population. Tripoli, with a metropolitan population of more than two million people, is the de facto political capital and the most important economic centre. Banghz, with its metropolitan area of more than one million people, is the primary city in Cyrenaica. The modern cities have developed around the old city centres (medinas), with satellite towns and villages in surrounding oases. Shantytowns housing recent rural-to-urban migrants are also found near the two cities, although the government has built low-income housing.

Other important centres include Gharyn, Al-Khums, Mirtah, Tjr, Sq al-Jumah, Janzr, and Al-Zwiyah in the west and Ajdbiy, Al-Marj, Al-Bay, Darnah, and Tobruk (ubruq) in the east. These cities are primarily regional administrative and commercial centres with some light industry. Several have petroleum refineries and petrochemical installations.

Libyas rate of population growth is among the highest in North Africa. The influx of foreign workers into the country since the 1960s accounts for part of this rapid growth, but Libyas annual rate of natural increase (birth rate minus death rate) has also been quite high. In the late 20th century and into the early 21st, death rates steadily declined to substantially below the world average, but birth rates remained relatively high. On the whole, Libyas population is quite young: more than half of the population is younger than 30 years of age; of that, about one-fourth is younger than 15. Libyas infant mortality rate is the lowest in continental Africa and far below the global rate, portending continued rapid growth well into the 21st century.

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Libya | History, People, & Government | Britannica.com

Colin Flaherty discusses and review news coverage of a teen getting corner in a bathroom stall at McDonalds and getting punched over and over again

Below is a good link to the story.https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...WELLINGTON, Fla. A mother says a video of her 15-year-old son being beaten up in a McDonalds bathroom in Wellington, Florida is being shared among students at Wellington High School.

Im terrified for my kid, said the victims mother, whose name Scripps sister station WPTV in West Palm Beach chose to withheld to protect her sons privacy.

The minute-long video shows a teenager kick open the stall door then proceed to punch the victim, who crouches on top of the toilet. The attacker is also yelling profanities. He pulls the victim to the ground and continues punching and kicking him.

He eventually asks the victim, who is still on the tile floor of the bathroom stall, to put the passcode into his phone. He grabs the phone from his hand then throws it onto the ground.

I was furious first of all then I became scared and then it was like disbelief, the victims mother said.

She said the incident happened Tuesday after school.

He ordered some food, he went into the bathroom and he was followed into the bathroom, she said

Palm Beach Sheriff's Office confirmed an incident happened Tuesday and that a 17-year-old juvenile was arrested.

I havent slept in days since I saw this video because how do you see your kid treated like that for no reason? the mom said.

She said another teenager took the video. She said her son doesnt personally know either the attacker or the person taking the video.

In the video, youll see this guy kick the stall door open and proceed to beat the crap out of my kid, telling him that its because his friend did something wrong, she said.

Her son is a sophomore at Wellington High School. She said he plays football for the school.

She found out about what happened Wednesday when she said she got a call from PBSO. She said students at Wellington High School were sending the video to each other and her sons friend brought it to the schools attention.

She said that friend was the person the attacker in the video brought up that he had some sort of issue with, but she said her son doesnt know the attacker besides hearing of him around school.

You see all this stuff on Facebook and you see it on Instagram and you see videos of these kids beating each other up, what has happened to our youth? She said.

She said her son filed a police report with PBSO. WPTV has requested a copy of that report.

This is the third attack of this nature reported in the past month. The first, a gang of girls attacked a fellow student at a park in West Boca at the end of December. And on Sunday, a video showed an attack between girls in Martin County. In these cases, police have arrested the attackers.

"Bullying has been around forever and fighting has been around forever, but I do think were more aware of it because there are so many cameras around taping it," said Dr. Raphi Wald, a licensed psychologist.

Dr. Wald said those videos cause even more lasting pain for victims.

"Im sure many victims feel like theyre retraumatized every time they walk in somewhere when there are people that have seen that video," he said.

He said social media and texting can escalate problems due to lack of non-verbal cues.

"A lot of times what happens is the person thats receiving the message thinks that the worst possible vocal intonation is associated with the message theyre receiving and that really can lead to fights," he said.

Dr. Wald said parents should monitor their teens' social media activity and talk to them about the risks involved with using it.

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Colin Flaherty: Bathroom Beat Down - YouTube