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In late October, a US-led coalition jet bombed a small tarn once used by fishermen near the northern Iraqi town of Makhmour, formed by rainfall cradling at the foot of the Qara Chokh, a mountain whose rock face climbs sharply out of the arid plains below.

Staff Colonel Srud Barzanji points out from a windswept Qara Chokh mountain outpost, beyond the hanging mist, to the target of the strike called in by his men in the 46th Brigade of the Peshmerga, Iraqi Kurdistans military force. It hit a group who had appeared in sight for water to drink and to bathe. They were ISIS fighters who had emerged from caves.

The moustachioed Peshmerga commander, 48, had driven up the newly built, winding mountain pass, swinging through checkpoints in his blue-plated Toyota Hilux while joking that he named his dog "Trump" after the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in a US commando raid in northern Syria last month.

To the naked eye, the only thing that separates the green expanse that folds out of the Qara Chokh from any other rural area of Iraqi Kurdistan are the absent gas flares from the oilfields that burn across this region, known for its crude production. No ISIS flags fly above buildings to avoid air strikes, but the group is here.

Lawless mountain areas in northern Iraq like the one in front of the sandbagged Peshmerga base on top of Qara Chokh, roughly 60 kilometres south-east of Mosul, are where Iraqi Kurdish intelligence and military officials say thousands of ISIS fighters are preparing for the groups resurgence after its loss of territory in Iraq and Syria.

Officials say militants are hiding out in hard-to-reach, inhospitable cave complexes and tunnel networks to evade detection near Makhmour, the town they once controlled in 2014, using scare tactics to coerce local villagers, and capitalising on disenfranchised Iraqis largely ignored by Baghdad and mistreated by Iran-backed militias. They are operating in conditions similar to those that helped it to reach its zenith, a demi-state about equal in size to the area of the United Kingdom.

The numbers we believe right now are 4,000 or 5,000 fighters in those gaps armed. This is not including the sleeper cells they have in the cities, where the numbers are high, Lahur Talabany, director of the Zanyari, one of Iraqi Kurdistans two intelligence agencies, told The National at an office attached to an upmarket hotel off of the main thoroughfare in the eastern city of Sulaymaniyah.

The fighters are equipped with Kalashnikovs, suicide vests, sniper rifles and Dushka heavy machineguns mounted on the back of trucks, helping them take over villages and carry out surprise attacks against the Iraqis and the Iraqi Kurds, officials say.

The spy chief's warning comes as fears rise about ISIS capitalising on ungoverned spaces to rebuild to the level of strength that allowed it to overrun Mosul and announce the creation of its proto-state in 2014. A Pentagon report released last month assessed that US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria last month has already emboldened the group in the war-wracked country, not least because more than 100 ISIS fighters escaped from Syrian Kurdish prisons in the Turkish offensive that followed. At least 10,000 remain in prisons across north-eastern Syria, with many more in camps such as Al Hol.

Its a different warfare, they have different tactics, they upgrade their tactics all the time

Lahur Talabany

It was a good job that was done [defeating ISIS]. But unfortunately at the last minute they left it wide open and we see again this problem recurring and its going to be an issue for the region and the international community in the future, Mr Talabany says. Its a new beginning for ISIS.

In Iraq, the fighters are taking advantage in a sliver of ungoverned land between the Iraqi forces on the southern side and the Peshmerga on the northern side that varies in width between two kilometres at its slimmest and 50 kilometres at its widest, according to military officials. The administrative line that divides the two sides stretches from Sulaymaniyah and through the Iraqi provinces of Diyala, Salaheddin and Kirkuk, all the way to the Syrian border, allowing passage in and out of both countries.

The deadly battle between Baghdad and Erbil for the northern city of Kirkuk in October 2017 in the aftermath of the Kurds failed bid for independence has deeply affected trust. It has resulted in a lack of co-ordination and a failure to get joint operations off the ground. The Peshmerga retreated in the face of US-armed Iraqi forces, including Shiite militias whose presence exacerbated tensions. Their conduct in the five-day battle included reports that they rolled over the bodies of Peshmerga fighters in Abrams tanks supplied by the US to fight ISIS.

The above factors have allowed the disputed territory that separates them to become fertile ground not only for ISISs survival, but a sophisticated guerrilla insurgency. The Peshmerga, which has about 1,000 soldiers stationed on the Qara Chokh, do not operate past their frontline because of the steep incline of the mountain and the threat posed by the militants lying in wait.

It is useless for me, I cannot lose my Peshmerga for nothing. You see the area, says Col Barzanji, an edge of frustration in his voice. The force has lost more than 2,000 fighters and had more than 10,000 wounded in the battle against ISIS.

Their posts stretch 500 metres either side of the main outpost marked by a large red tower. The red-capped, camouflaged Peshmerga fighters mostly stand around, so elevated above the militants that they do not even have to man the guns pointing out towards the enemy. Untidy beds can be seen inside the main outpost building where the foot soldiers sleep, and desks scratched with graffiti sit inside pillboxes. Col Barzanji heads back down the mountain at night to another base a 10-minute drive away.

While the Peshmerga are dug in and ready, the terrain makes it hard to reach the enemy. But that means it is similarly difficult for the ISIS fighters to breach the Kurdish line of defence.

If you have a stone in your hand, you can kill them, Col Barzanji says of the Peshmergas 46th Brigade of the strategic vantage point the Peshmerga have over the militants. He estimates their numbers to be about 250 fighters in the mountain ranges eastern and western areas, but exact figures are difficult to confirm.

The US-led coalition assisting the Peshmerga told The National it estimates the number in the Qara Chokh to be closer to 100. Col Mark Andres, a US commander training and advising the Peshmerga, says they move in groups of five to 10 people, largely for defensive purposes, and may be mistakenly double counted.

The flat plain below the fortified hilltop is left to the ISIS fighters, bar the weekly coalition or Iraqi air strikes called in by the Peshmerga or Iraqi security forces, both assisted by US adviser teams.

Col Barzanji points out two parallel streams in the distance. He says fighters have dug tunnels two kilometres long between them with jackhammers powered by generators.

Its easy [for them], there are too many caves in the mountain. They make tunnels in the side of the mountain. They make zigzags to save themselves for when the air force drops the bombs. They are smart, very smart, he says.

Its too difficult to find them. They [are] hiding themselves. They are not coming outside, they just come outside for the water, they prefer the spring water.

Water is the fighters life support. Villagers either sympathetic to the group or coerced by fear provide the fighters with water and food. The Iraqi military once poisoned the natural springs the militants were using, Col Barzanji says, but it was washed out within three days.

Some of the fighters sleep in the village houses they have wrested from locals, while others sleep in the caves. Any operation to oust them would require the work of elite Iraqi and Kurdish special forces, well trained at combating guerrilla warfare and discovering militant hideouts.

Even the Kurds, who are experienced mountain fighters, admit they face great difficulty with a new kind of combatant operating in this terrain. The fighters often move about under the cover of darkness. The Iraqi Kurds say they require night vision goggles and thermal imaging, as well as jammers to stop remote-controlled bombs.

Its a different warfare, they have different tactics, they upgrade their tactics all the time, says Mr Talabany, the Kurdish spy chief. They find new ways of being able to protect themselves and ways of preserving themselves.

Col Andres says the fighters are using pretty ingenious ways of sustaining themselves in the mountains, where the sheer, 30-metre drop of the mountain has created dead space where the fighters can gather uninterrupted.

Daesh fighters have really used every single nook and cranny to situate their locations well, he says.

Photographs taken on Peshmerga missions to root out ISIS militants, seen by The National, show how ISIS fighters use the natural springs to cool watermelons and canned fizzy drinks. Kurdish forces have also found coffee, tea, sugar and batteries alongside Kalashnikovs.

Its like a picnic, Col Barzanji says.

Images also show leafy brown tarpaulins used to cover and disguise cave entrances. He says his fighters have found solar panels used by their adversaries below for power.

The biggest pocket of ISIS fighters in northern Iraq can be found in the Hamrin mountains where Mr Talabany says about 2,500 fighters hide with ease. It is a mountain range that connects five provinces, allowing the group easy access to different areas of the country.

A primary goal of the forces battling ISIS remnants in northern Iraq is to remove the sanctuaries they seek: mountain caverns, like those once used by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan. So the coalition is focusing on striking their hideouts more so than the individuals themselves, Col Andres says.

Thats in fact a more effective strategy right now, because they need a place to stay and need a place to store supplies.

We are squeezing them.

The fighters are trying their best to disguise themselves, with vehicles stolen from locals to confuse the forces either side of them. The militants have even extended the exhaust pipes on their motorbikes, according to the Peshmerga forces, to make them less noisy.

But the remnants of the group are also coming out of the shadows to boast about their presence, with gruesome attacks against villagers who do not side with them, as well as the burning of farmland and vegetation. ISIS wants to show we are here, they burn all the weeds, Gen Barham, a Peshmerga commander, said at an Erbil hotel.

Reports of beheadings in the gap are true, he says. They did it like three times in one month. They went to the houses, they take them and take their heads off. They need to make themselves look strong. They dont act like humans, they are all brainwashed.

Last month, fighters entered a village, took 20 cows from a farmer and shot them all dead, he says.

Its gonna become something big, a lot bigger. This time is Damascus and Baghdad, not just Raqqa and Haleb [Aleppo]

Mohammed Khalid

Most of the militants in the Qara Chokh mountain range, the Hamrin mountain range and the area of Palkana south of Sulaymaniyah are Iraqi. But since the fall of ISISs last piece of territory earlier this year, the eastern Syrian hamlet of Baghouz, they have been joined by foreign fighters. The Peshmerga has monitored Russian-speaking Chechens, non-Iraqi Arabic speakers and Turkmen from Tel Afar.

These foreign fighters, unlike some who have appeared in the media, remain unrepentant. In an interview with The National at a prison facility near Sulaymaniyah, one captured ISIS foreign fighter says the group will rise again, and stronger, providing an insight into the hellbent mindset of the mountain militants.

I can assure you, in just a few months, not years, its going to regain its power. Its going to grow big. We all know whats coming next. Its a big war, says Mohammed Khalid, 28, an Arab Israeli ISIS member.

Its gonna become something big, a lot bigger. This time is Damascus and Baghdad, not just Raqqa and Haleb [Aleppo].

The main targets of this ragtag group of ISIS fighters are five-fold, according to Hisham Al Hashimi, an Iraqi researcher and security adviser to the Iraqi government on the militant group: assassinate specific targets including tribal leaders; attack security forces stationed near the Hamrin and Qara Chokh mountains; exhaust and deplete the economies of nearby cities; threaten energy towers and fuel networks; and obtain personal funds through extortion of villagers and farmers, and the sale of fuel.

Despite those threats posed by ISIS in these areas, the view in Baghdad is that the group is not yet strong enough to challenge for control of an Iraqi city, existing only in desert and mountain areas with a focus, for now, on reorganising.

[The goal for the group] is to fill the gaps in its new structure. Its currently distributing new roles, renewing allegiances, self financing and setting its priorities with the new leadership, Mr Al Hashimi says. Its retaliatory operations are very limited, and will not cause any existential danger in big cities.

The intelligence assessment in Baghdad, according to the Iraqi researcher, is that ISISs central command in Iraq is located south-west of Kirkuk in the Hamrin mountains and around the town of Hawija, the last major urban ISIS stronghold to be liberated in Iraq.

That new leadership is believed to be headed by Abdullah Qardash, a Turkman from Tel Afar, which ISIS controlled before its liberation in August 2017, Mr Talabany says.

The suited man who set up Iraqi Kurdistans first counterism-terror force with the help of the CIA to remove Iraqi Kurdistan of Ansar Al Islam, the Sunni militant group founded by former Al Qaeda members, says he remembers Qardash well.

Somebody is helping, some people in the security elements are helping them, maybe for money, for financial gain. They are finding ways to get their hands on food, weapons and ammunition

Lahur Talabany

The new ISIS leader became a senior member of Al Qaeda in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003 before he was caught and imprisoned. He would meet Al Baghdadi in Bucca prison, a facility Mr Talabany calls the school of terrorism, becoming one of the future ISIS leaders right-hand men.

The history we have with him, we know he was very brutal. He caused a lot of problems in Tal Afar and Mosul region. He had no mercy on the civilian population, he says.

His targets were mainly civilian and his preferred tactic of order was suicide vest or vehicle bomb, some carried out in the middle of markets.

I think this guy will go back to the old roots, he will try to put fear back into the people and the security forces, he says, predicting that he will look to capitalise on the coming winter months to launch attacks.

We will see them be more active operationally. They use the weather to their advantage. To hide from eyes."

Qardash is believed to be in hiding in Iraq and the focus of the regions intelligence services has now turned to him after the death of Al Baghdadi.

He is going to be our main focus now. As long as ISIS is around, we will try to go after their leadership, Mr Talabany says, noting the groups brutality towards the Yazidis when it overran Sinjar in 2014.

Military officials compare ISISs capabilities now to where they were before it took control of Mosul, with the potential to grow in strength again to the point that they were able to overrun that very city.

ISIS now, you can compare with 2012. They are organising themselves and their forces, says Sirwan Barzani, nephew of former president Masoud Barzani and Peshmerga commander-cum-billionaire businessman, in the back room of a plush Erbil restaurant.

They are a big threat. Maybe after they killed Baghdadi, like Al Qaeda maybe they will change the name, but its the same mentality, the same jihadis.

Kurdish officials, while stressing their appreciation of western assistance in the fight against ISIS, say that European help has dwindled since the groups territorial defeat, and say that support must be continued to prevent a revival.

If you ask me as a general on the hottest front line, of course I would say it is not enough. We need more and more, says Mr Barzani, the man responsible for protecting the Iraqi Kurdish capital.

But until Erbil and Baghdad come to an agreement on the disputed territory, ISIS fighters will remain largely out of sight, free to reorganise and operate.

We need to work closely and co-operate and to give no room for ISIS to re-emerge. Both sides recognise the need for this partnership to continue. Today it may be here, tomorrow it may be somewhere else, Falah Mustafa Bakir, senior adviser to President Nechirvan Barzani and former Kurdistan Regional Government foreign minister, said at the newly built, palatial presidential complex in Erbil.

One obstacle to that is the militant Shiite militiamen operating on the other side of the gap within the Iraqi security forces, feared in northern Iraqs Sunni-majority heartlands for their brutality and sectarian disposition. The Hashd Al Shaabi paramilitary force is accused of emboldening locals to turn to ISIS, killing and torturing Sunni men, bullying Sunni women, fleecing money from Sunni-owned companies, and stealing goods from mobile phones to furniture to sell on.

They come to places like this, they terrorise the people and the people get angry, the general says.

After the US-backed overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 emboldened Shiite forces in Iraq, Al Qaeda sprang to life in the country and this northern area has more experience of terrorism than any. When ISIS arrived there, Al Qaeda remnants defected to the group.

The presence of the Hashd Al Shaabi here threatens to prolong the fight against the militants, as do troubles in Baghdad. Mr Talabany also says elements in the Iraqi security forces are aiding the ISIS fighters, without specifying.

Somebody is helping, some people in the security elements are helping them, maybe for money, for financial gain. They are finding ways to get their hands on food, weapons and ammunition, he says.

Anti-government protests, ongoing for almost two months, are also of concern to officials in Erbil, who believe that trouble at the heart of the country will leave the Iraqi security forces weakened in the north.

If these demonstrations continue and spread through Iraq, I think there will be more opportunities for ISIS to strike security and small towns, maybe to cut off supply lines, says Mr Talabany. Everything is connected in this region, nothing is isolated.

Such developments have only added to the feeling in Iraqi Kurdistan that they could be left to fend off the threat of ISIS again, alone.

As the sun sets behind the Qara Chokh, that thought shifts Col Barzanjis tone from jovial to intense.

We are fighting for all the world here.

Updated: December 10, 2019 03:08 PM

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The 'new beginning' of ISIS: how the militant group is using Iraq's blind spot to rise again - The National

Update:

Reports have identified the deceased suspect involved in the shooting as Bradley Allen Cutchens, 23, of Ozark.

Original Report:

OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) Ozark Police responded to a home on Briar Hill Court close to 10 p.m. Thursday night.

A local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told WDHN the suspect did not live in on the street where that shooting took place. She said his mother was in distress and called the police department for help.

Even though that young man stayed on the street, his mama was asking for help when he said he was going to commit suicide, and he said if you call the police they wont be able to get in. Ill meet them before they get here and thats exactly what he did, She said.

After authorities arrived, she said thats when the gunshots started.

I couldnt move, I couldnt even hit the floor because it was just as shocking to me.

According to the resident, the incident left many in the area in shock.

I feel like I was in Iraq, and I ain`t never been, I feel like I got PTSD. It was so many officers and so much shooting it just didnt make sense.

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I felt like I was in Iraq, and I never been, Ozark resident speaks on shooting - WDHN - DothanFirst.com

When I look back at the decade, I think of one event that polarized the country across extreme political lines, bringing massive cultural implications and a profound sense of loss for those who ended up on the wrong side: the 2016 all-women reboot of the classic 80s comedy Ghostbusters. Ostensibly a modern vision of a beloved intellectual property (which is about the movie industrys only idea these days), the reboot, directed by Paul Feig and starring Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Leslie Jones was instead pilloried by adult virgins who decried the films focus on women, opposed to a rough n tumble group of male slobs just trying to have a good time without making any statements about feminism, or white supremacy, or abortion, or whatever.

Adding to the monumental nature of this, all the intransigent pushback happened before the movie even came out. Its trailer, released eight months before the Donald Trump was elected, collected 1.5 million downvotes and deeply telling YouTube comments such as Garbage movie that should not exist my wife, mother, sister, and daughter (three of which have not seen the originals) and Is this movie all about women and feminism only ? A clash might have easily emerged the put-upon progressive cultural property fighting against the regressive whims of a fascist-adjacent fanbase, as happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Captain Marvel, and several other movies for children except for one inconvenient fact: Ghostbusters wasnt actually very good, adhering to the beats of the original too faithfully while somehow forgetting to include any jokes. By the time it was released, the momentum was gone; it was enough of a financial bomb to scuttle plans for a sequel.

However, the sustained anger proved one thing: There was organic interest in seeing a Ghostbusters reboot done right. Earlier in 2019, it was announced that Jason Reitman would be directing and co-writing a new film in the franchise, which would elide the fact that the 2016 movie ever happened. From the beginning, Reitman was clear about his desire to avoid futzing with the formula. This is gonna be a love letter to Ghostbusters... I want to make a movie for my fellow Ghostbusters fans, he said in a February podcast.

On the surface, Reitman might seem like an unconventional choice: Hes an alternately sentimental (Juno) and bracingly cynical (Young Adult, Thank You for Smoking, Tully) filmmaker whose best work skilfully demonstrates how we can never return to our past, and how the optimism of the young quickly curdles into adult bitterness, and thus fuck it. But most importantly, he is the son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, and thus the right choice to steward an appropriately nostalgic movie, at least for all the angry adult babies. His movie is set up as a sequel to the 1984 original, with the grandchildren of original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis, who died in 2014) picking up his legacy to bust a new outcrop of ghosts. Original cast members, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Sigourney Weaver will also join, reprising their roles.

The emotional antecedents of the first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which was released Monday morning, arent from the first Ghostbusters, but one of its spiritual sequels: Stranger Things, the Netflix series that packaged cultural yearning for 80s into original content about what it was like to live in them. This is partly because the new movie repurposes footage, costuming, and set design from the original Ghostbusters; its also because floppy-haired Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard is one of the new movies child leads. But above all, the trailer endeavors to create reverence for a very irreverent film, in which Dan Aykroyd gets his dick sucked by a ghost, among countless other indelible gags. Paul Rudd plays Wolfhards teacher, whose role in the trailer is literally to tell us about how cool the Ghostbusters were. The tone might seem necessarily pretentious and blowhardy that is, unless, you wanted to appease one of the people irate about how unfaithful the 2016 reboot appeared to be.

The new Ghostbusters cant pay homage to the original in a vacuum; thanks to the blowback against the 2016 reboot, all its creative choices seem like explicit political decisions. Sick of lady Ghostbusters? Well, heres two white guys in lead roles. Sick of new stuff? Well, heres a bunch of the old. Declaring that your movie will be a love letter, as Reitman did, suggests that the previous movie was made with no heart or respect. Saying that you intend to hand the movie to the fans, as Reitman also has, is pandering.

Nonetheless, this is just how a lot of shit works these days. As weve seen with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Captain Marvel, and several other movies for the little humans in your life, a greater number of our political battles are fought online by cultural proxy. The clash of forward-thinking representative liberalism against retrograde, revanchist conservatism doesnt just happen at the polls, but at the box office, the Grammys, Comic Con, and high school newspapers. If this Ghostbusters fails financially, its not difficult to imagine the industry tugging the franchise back into the leftist future (perhaps a reboot thats half men, half women, and subtly pro-ghost), and if that movie fails then wed go back into the rightward past (all men, all adults, split between Biden and Trump, and explicitly pro-ghost genocide), and back and forth and back and forth until one side finally makes an un-critiqueable amount of money.

It feels metaphorically beneath us youre telling me I need to support or boycott fuckin Ghostbusters in order to declare myself politically? and yet unavoidably prevalent in modern culture. Back in 2016, even Trump weighed in on the ideological battle (Theyre making Ghostbusters with only women whats going on!?), during the campaign hed eventually win. I know where I stand, but I want to be clear: I wont be seeing the new Ghostbusters because it looks stupid, not politically stupid, just stupid-stupid. Its a franchise in which Dan Aykroyd got his dick sucked by a poltergeist. Its not that serious, and it doesnt need to be.

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'Ghostbusters' is the future of the culture wars - The Outline

As the 2010s come to a close, BoF reflects on how the past decade transformed the fashion industry and the culture at large. Explore our insightshere.

NEW YORK, United States In the mid-aughts, the Tyra Banks-created reality show Americas Next Top Model (ANTM) was arguably at the height of its cultural relevance in the United States. Viewers went crazy for Banks competition series, which pitted aspiring models against each other in the hopes of winning a contract meant to catapult them into the ranks of supermodel-dom.

None of the contestants on ANTM became bonafide supermodels, but that didnt stop the show from running for 24 seasons in the US, plus spinoffs around the world.

Looking back, much of what transpired on ANTM was problematic, to use 2019 parlance. In one 2005 episode, Banks, who also hosted the show, asked each hopeful to pose for a Got Milk advertisement, styled in hair and makeup representing ethnicities different from their own. The models faces were painted to look Native American, black, Korean and even eskimo the term the show used for the indigenous people of the Arctic.

At the time, a few blogs scolded the show a Slate columnist asked whether Banks was racist but the episode was hardly a topic of widespread public debate (the term "cultural appropriation" didn't catch on until around 2015, according to Google Trends search data). It would have been another story had it aired a decade later. Who can imagine the social media of the 2010s keeping quiet about blackface in a Got Milk ad?

It was in the 2010s that the culture wars really came to the internet, and the fashion industry has often found itself at the centre of the conflict. But in the past 10 years, the ways in which culture more specifically race, identity and politics informs fashion, and the ways consumers engage with fashion, has evolved.

The ways in which culture more specifically race, identity and politics informs fashion [...] has evolved.

Brands are being held directly accountable for their actions to a degree that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

Social media, of course, is the leading driver of this transformation. A new generation of consumers, more socially conscious than ever before, are now able to broadcast their reactions to everything from an advertising campaign to store window displays instantly via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Before the conversation moved online, the average consumer only interacted with fashion via glossy print magazines or when products actually reached stores. Neither ad-dependent publishers nor retailers had much incentive to play up controversies.

For example, John Gallianos 1997 couture show for Christian Dior, which pilfered from Native American culture, was panned by fashion critics for its showmanship over wearability, but not for cultural insensitivity. The same cant be said for Victorias Secret's Native American headdresses worn in its 2012 runway show, Givenchys Chola Victorian collection from 2015, or Marc Jacobs cyberpunk dreadlocks worn on the runway by white models in 2016.

These collections may not have always been criticised by the press The Washington Posts Robin Givhan called the uproar over Jacobs dreadlocks ridiculous but they got enough of the public talking that actions were often taken. (Jacobs, for instance, issued an apology for lack of sensitivity over the issue after initially dismissing the controversy.) This year, Dior faced racism accusations after the brand debuted an advertising campaign for its Sauvage fragrance featuring a Native American dancer. The campaign was quickly dropped, though the fragrance is expected to be a top seller in the UK this holiday season.

It was only toward the end of the decade that online uproar began to actually affect the bottom line (and clearly, not in every case). For years, Victorias Secrets sales continued to climb, despite growing complaints over the way its bras and underwear were marketed. Dolce & Gabbanas business kept growing, even as its founders repeatedly made controversial comments.

That began changing in 2016, when a series of high-profile fashion brands came out with products that customers deemed to look like blackface, including the Moncler Malfi jacket in 2016, Pradamalia keychain in 2018, and this year, Katy Perry backless loafers and the now-infamous Gucci blackface sweater.

After the string of blackface-related incidents, "it was just like, things need to change now and in a drastic way," said Connie Wang, a senior features writer at Refinery29 and host of the publishers popular Style Out There YouTube series, which focuses on how style and culture intersect in different communities. That doesnt fly anymore.

Because it was... blackface specifically, I think it was just like, things need to change now and in a drastic way.

Gucci suffered tangibly for its transgressions. Parent company Kering noted in July that the companys star brand saw its first quarterly drop in North American sales since 2016, while Tribe Dynamics, an influencer marketing platform, noted that Guccis social media engagement fell so much as to knock it from its top spot compared to other luxury brands following the debacle.

The culture wars would come for lingerie behemoth Victorias Secret, too. Years of cultural faux pas and corporate insistence on an outdated beauty ideal alienated customers. Sales have dropped, and the brand cancelled its annual fashion show amid plummeting ratings.

But identity politics played only one part. Fashion and apparel brands, which once aspired to remain above the fray on issues that divided their customers, were forced to pick sides in the Trump era, which widened the gap between conservatives and liberals. The Grab Your Wallet campaign its moniker inspired by Trumps own rhetoric regarding sexual assault encourages consumers, by way of internet campaigning and hashtags, to boycott brands that do business with the American president or whose executives have donated to his campaign.

Among the apparel brands on the do-not-buy list: L.L. Bean, New Balance and the 70-plus labels operating under the umbrella of French luxury conglomerate LVMH. The recent meeting between CEO Bernard Arnault and Trump in Texas for the opening of a new Louis Vuitton handbag factory set off the campaigns alarm bells, prompting the house's womenswear designer, Nicolas Ghesquire to speak out.

Nike unafraid to take sides in the political culture war has so far benefited from its marketing campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the professional football player who kneeled during the National Anthem in protest over police brutality and other racial and social causes, much to the chagrin of President Donald Trump and many of his followers. Though Nike shares initially dipped after the boycott erupted, the advertisement led to a flurry of product sell-outs. Today, shares trade at a record high, and the brand is rumoured to be close to releasing a sneaker with Kaepernick.

From Nike to Gucci, if the culture wars have achieved one thing in fashion, it is that they have humanised brands.

Brands have waded into other hot-button issues. Gucci donated $500,000 to the 2018 March For Our Lives protest against gun violence, and Proenza Schouler sells T-shirts featuring an anti-gun graphic, donating proceeds to the Everytown gun safety organisation. Climate change is at the political forefront for brands like Collina Strada and Stella McCartney. Retailers like Gap Inc. and Target double down on their support for LGBTQIA+ citizens with policies that encourage shoppers to use whichever fitting rooms and restrooms correspond with their gender identity.

From Nike to Gucci, if the culture wars have achieved one thing in fashion, it is that they have humanised brands. But with the rise of watchdog-style call-out culture a la Diet Prada, some, like Wang, are sceptical that its possible for these conversations to be more nuanced and less polarising. The rise of "inclusivity marketing" can also read false and inauthentic if not executed with sensitivity.

However, others, like Hazel Clark, a professor of fashion studies at Parsons and author of "The fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity, and Globalisation," are more hopeful for the next decade of fashion discourse.

Brands are representing lifestyles, and lifestyles have values, thats whats being called into question when brands make mistakes, she said. Recognising and acknowledging those instances for privileged people around the world will certainly determine how we evolve as cultural beings.

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When the Culture Wars Came to Fashion | Intelligence, BoF Professional | BoF - The Business of Fashion

Our societys culture wars have a new addition: the battle between Americas livestock producers and supporters on one side, and the meatless meat industry and its fans on the other. The stage is set for intense competition in the American marketplace.

U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, a Sand Hills rancher, has laid down a marker with her congressional proposal to designate formal definitions of beef and beef products, to underscore that artificial meat-like creations arent actual meat. That legislative struggle is part of a nationwide fight over food labeling, including at the Nebraska Legislature.

However the labeling fights finish up, the overall reality is that our culture is evolving. Many Americans are showing growing interest in artificial meat. Burger Kings Impossible Whopper is the best-known response to that market demand. At the same time, millions of Americans remain fervent fans of traditional beef and other meats. This split in food preferences appears set to remain a major cultural divide for the foreseeable future and is likely to grow even deeper.

A live-and-let-live attitude on this question seems the best course for consumers, with Americans respecting each others differing views. Individuals need to have sovereignty, after all, about their personal food choices.

Meanwhile, the competition between the traditional industry and the faux-meat sector seems likely to increase. Nebraska long dubbed the Beef State is home to an impressively robust beef sector, with a total economic impact estimated at $12.1 billion. In Iowa, the figure is $6.8 billion.

A recent agricultural report noted that Nebraskas 3rd Congressional District is home to more than 15,000 cattle operations with annual sales of $8.4 billion more than for any other House district except one in western Kansas. Many Nebraska ranching operations have roots that go back to the 1800s.

Northwest Iowa home to the states 4th Congressional District also scored high for cattle numbers. It ranks No. 6 among U.S. House districts, with more than 7,000 beef operations.

The Nebraska Cattlemen Foundation recently held its annual convention and trade show in Kearney. The event provided an occasion to appreciate notable examples of dedication, scientific know-how and stewardship. The foundation saluted:

Dr. Travis Mulliniks, a Nebraska expert in beef cattle nutrition and physiology, for his research promoting ecological stewardship, grazing animal efficiency and economic sustainability. Mulliniks is assistant professor in range cow production systems from the West Central Research and Extension Center in North Platte.

Dr. Jim MacDonald, for excellence in beef sector research and student instruction. MacDonald is professor of animal science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. MacDonald teaches classes in animal nutrition, management and systems analysis.

Homer and Darla Buell, owners of the Shovel Dot Ranch, founded in 1882, for their longstanding leadership in the beef industry at the local, national and international levels.

Nebraskas beef sector can indeed be proud of its quality, even as Americans disagree increasingly on their preferences when it comes to meat.

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Editorial: Competition is on the rise between meat and faux-meat - Omaha World-Herald