One of the best things about catching a show at a small venue like a bar or club is that you get to see bands on their way up. You never know when you could catch the next QotSA or Pearl Jam or Arcade Fire or Beatles before they make it big.
Another really cool thing is that often the people that go to these shows share a taste in music with you. You can get into some really interesting conversations. I totally have tons of great memories of speaking with fellow fans I will almost certainly never meet again. It is amazing to bond over a shared love of music. You just never know what will happen.
Hmm. I wonder if there is a box of chocolates in this conversation somewhere.
Today we’re going to talk about a band that was fatefully formed in part through one of those conversations in a bar after seeing a show. They have had a tumultuous history and more than their fair share of ego.
Yes indeed, this week’s band is Smashing Pumpkins.
About Them
Wait, is it The Smashing Pumpkins or just Smashing Pumpkins?
Fuck me, not this debate again.
Turns out it does not matter, and both are used by the band interchangeably. On the covers of Gish and Siamese Dream and Zeitgeist they use just Smashing Pumpkins; on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina/The Machines of God and Oceania they go by THE Smashing Pumpkins.
Glad that bit of trivia will not lead to someone going Ackshually… in the comments.
I hope.
Now where was I?
Oh right. In a bar, seeing a band.
D’arcy Wretzky grew up in South Haven, Michigan. She was a musical kid who learned multiple instruments. Her interests included horseback riding (insert your crazy horse girl joke here) and gymnastics. In high school, she taught herself to play guitar on easy mode bass. She got into Punk and Post-Punk and joined a number of cover bands. She got so deep into music that after high school she left America to go to France to join a band.
The band she wanted to join had completely imploded before she even got there, so she presumably bought a beret, ate a few baguettes and booked it back home. Instead of going to Michigan she decided to move to Chicago to hang out with friends. She spent her summer clubbing and seeing shows. It was at one of these concerts that she ran into Billy Corgan. Corgan thought that the band that had performed - called The Dan Reed Network - stunk. D’arcy disagreed and the two got into an argument.
PSST KIDS...this is what is known in literature as Foreshadowing.
Long story short, Corgan was interested in Wretzky and her fierce opinions. He recruited her into the band that he and James Iha had just founded.
Billy Corgan grew up in Linkin Park Lincoln Park in Chicago. His parents divorced when he was very young. His father, an amateur musician, promptly got married to a flight attendant and Corgan and his little brother went to live with them. Corgan would later recount that his stepmother was abusive to him and his brother. When his dad and stepmother separated, Corgan lived with the abusive stepmom. Corgan picked up the guitar in high school and taught himself how to play. He formed and joined a number of high school bands. When it came time to go to college, he decided instead to try music full time.
Corgan was a huge rock fan and found that the Chicago area was all about the Blues. He packed his bags and went to Florida in the mid-80s and formed a band called The Marked. When this project fell apart, he came back home to live with his father and got employment in a record store.
James Iha, who shares a haircut with the X-Man Rogue, also grew up in Chicago. Unlike Wretzky and Corgan, he did not leave the state or the country to form a band. He learned to play guitar as a kid and showed particular aptitude for the instrument. At age 19 he was playing in a Chicago area band named Snake Train when he met Corgan at the record store. Corgan convinced Iha to quit his band and form a new one with him.
Their early efforts were shit less than impressive. The duo dressed in paisley and used a drum machine in small club shows. Iha was clearly the better guitarist so Corgan played bass. The paisley duo were all goth and sadness in a way that the late 80’s seemed to epitomize. Think The Cure but with less hairspray. If you think that this band was not commercially viable, you are right.
It was at about this time that Corgan, tired of playing bass, met Wretzky at the concert and invited her to join the band. He shifted to rhythm guitar and let the gymnast horse girl pound the low end.
The one missing element was percussion. That guy Drum Machine was super-steady and reliable and always ready to go, but he just had no creative ability. The band needed another member who would actually carry his own weight.
Jimmy Chamberlin was born in Joliet, Illinois in ‘64 as one of 6 kids. His father and older brothers had an interest in Jazz, and naturally he grew inclined towards music. Chamberlin began drumming at 9, and started learning various styles.
He focused on Jazz, and got pretty damn good at it.
Chamberlin left home at age 15, and began touring with a few local bands. Despite actually turning a profit, his old man pressured him going into college. It was an act that pushed the two apart. Despite his dad's insistence, he continued to tour with local show band JP and the Cats for three years.
Wearied by the tour schedule, however, he made the swap to a more practical career: construction, with his brother-in-law.
And then, one night on the town, he saw three AWFUL people with a drum machine.
No, seriously. He called them atrocious. But, he also respected Corgan’s drive and passion. So, in one of the best decisions of his life, he picked up the sticks again and began drumming for the band. Chamberlin changed the Pumpkin’s sound to something more upbeat and less cringy. By 1989 they had a single on a local compilation album. They then released a song on the legendary Sub Pop label. Then they got a record deal.
Their first full album, Gish, was produced by Butch Vig of Garbage fame. Vig would go on to produce a number of albums by little known bands like Nirvana and Foo Fighters. The band were poised on the cusp of success, and Corgan knew that this album was their big chance.
So, did he just work in a clear partnership with his bandmates?
Fuck no. Remember I made that ego comment? Here it comes.
Corgan turned obsessive. Not, like, I have to check that the door is locked three times obsessive...like, we’re gonna do this over and over and over again and FUCK IT GIVE ME THE GUITAR I’LL DO IT obessive. He played and re-played tracks by Iha and Wretzky that did not meet his standards. Recording sessions took 30 days - and for a bit more foreshadowing, this was the quickest album they ever laid down. Corgan said that recording the album gave him a nervous breakdown. Wretzky wondered how the band survived.
One thing was clear: Corgan cemented himself as the driver of this particular yellow submarine, and everyone else just had a ticket to ride. He wrote all of the songs on Gish. And truthfully, the album didn’t suck. It captured the grunge sound of the day and mixed it with super slick Vig production, trippy feedback, and crisp, clean guitar tones. It was ahead of its time. Songs like I Am One and Tritessa and Rhinoceros showed amazing potential.
The album was a modest hit and they were able to tour behind it. They opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N’ Roses. This gave them critical experience playing to massive audiences in huge venues.
Since Gish was a success, and Butch Vig had produced Nirvana’s Nevermind, they knew that they had to get him to produce their next effort. But they also knew that their last trip into the studio had almost destroyed them. There was absolutely intense pressure to be successful, and an overwhelming sense that this was their moment to seize.
No big deal, right?
Corgan tried to confront his demons post-nervous breakdown. He started seeing a therapist. In an attempt to achieve some sort of catharsis, he poured everything into his songwriting. He showed these early efforts to Vig and got all kinds of praise.
But then there was the heroin.
Nope, not with Rogue or the centaur or with Corgan himself. It was Chamberlin.
Turns out, hanging out with the Chili Peppers and Axl in the early 90’s was a bigger gateway drug than all those ads about marijuana told me pot would be. I guess when you welcome Dani California to the Jungle and meet Mr. Brownstone Under The Bridge you lose Patience and want instead to Suck My Kiss in the November Rain. Or something.
Bottom line is, Smashing Pumpkins had to go out to the desert to get away from everyone (read: Chamberlin’s heroin dealer) to record Siamese Dream. I guess Drum Machine was not available or unwilling to try a reunion.
If you think that things improved in the recording process this time, you would be mistaken. This was Gish II: Electric Boogaloo, only this time it took them four months instead of 30 days. Corgan’s perfectionism caused Wretzky to lock herself in the bathroom and sob. Iha would turtle up and not say anything. Corgan would overdub both of their parts, but he still needed Chamberlin to do the drum tracks.
We know from our very own QotSA that you can find drugs in the desert. Chamberlin found a dealer and was back on the heroin, but the drum tracks were not done. Allegedly, Vig and Corgan forced Chamberlin to redo the drums on Cherub Rock so many times that his hands were bleeding on the final take. Corgan turned suicidal during the recording process and by the post-recording descriptions, the others weren’t far behind.
The band did manage to convince Chamberlin to go into rehab. And when all was said and done, Siamese Dream was a masterpiece. Many consider it their best effort, and think of it as the first post-grunge record. Tracks like Cherub Rock and Rocket and Today and Disarm are amazing and propelled the band from an opener to a headliner.
Riding on the coattails of Siamese Dream, an energized and invigorated Corgan set to work immediately. He wrote 56 songs in ‘95.
F I F T Y S I X. Christ.
The band wasted no time getting these going. Heading into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder, they began assembling Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The ambitious project would be a double album of 28 songs. The band released it in October of 1995. Looking back on it, it seems absurd - 56 songs written in the span of less than 10 months, and then twenty-fucking-eight of them strung into a double album. Time called it “the band’s most ambitious work yet”.
The biggest change with these sessions lay in the production. Vig had brought out the best in Corgan, but Flood and Moulder wanted to bring out the best in the band. The band practiced and rehearsed songs together, workshopping them on the go. The result was that Iha and Wretzky and Chamberlin had a much greater contribution to the recording process than ever before. Corgan did not overdub parts, and for the first time every member was part of the creative process.
And holy fuck did it pay off. Cantaloupe Sally and the Big Depression immediately jumped to #1 on the Billboard 200.
It was a true monster of a record. It was certified platinum 10 times in the US and became the best selling album of the decade. It was nominated for seven Grammys and took home Best Hard Rock Performance on the wings of a certain butterfly. Standout tracks are of course Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero, and the more mellow Tonight, Tonight and 1979. Trust me - it is worth your time.
In 1996, they launched a world-wide tour in support of Honeydew Carla and the Chunky Remorse . Corgan’s iconic look emerged during this tour - a shaved head, a shirt that said “Zero”, and silver pants. They were EVERYWHERE - constant rotations on MTV, Simpsons cameos, and considerable merch sales made them hard to miss.
However, the tour was not without sorrow. In a show at Dublin a fan was literally crushed to death by a Mosh pit - something that made Corgan truly furious. He maintained that “moshing’s time had come and gone” - though the management obviously disagreed, since the rest of the tour continued to have open floors.
But the worst was yet to come. In July of 1996, the touring keyboardist Jonathon Melvoin OD’d on heroin, with Chamberlin damn near following him to the grave. Not soon after, Chamberlin was arrested on drug possession charges. Trying to save a bit of face, they fired the disgraced drummer and hired Matt Walker to fill in.
The tour for Watermelon Sandra and the Discomfort of Large Intensity came to a close in late 1997, with the band in a very different place than where they started. So with this incredible and universal success, you would expect that the Pumpkins would stick to this everyone-contributing recording style.
Corgan had other ideas. With their follow up album Adore, he decided to take control once again. It is easy to understand why he did. Chamberlin was out and the band were struggling with interpersonal problems (i.e., Corgan’s massive ego). He also decided to move the sound away from the band’s signature guitar driven style to something more centred in electronica. He hired a new producer, Brad Wood, to helm this album along with Flood and himself.
The end result was an album just as divisive as, say, 5150 by Van Halen or Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath or Kid A by Radiohead. When a band changes a key member or their core sound, it is bound to be controversial. Evolving your sound is one thing; abandoning it is either really bold or really dumb.
Adore split the fan base and got mediocre reviews, despite modest hit songs like Ava Adore and Perfect. Instead of another massive tour, fans got a scaled back one. But it is absolutely worth it to note that the Pumpkins did do a complete solid on the US leg of the tour: they donated 100% of their profits to local charities. So even if the album was disappointing, that gesture alone is pretty fucking cool.
Immediately after the band had a meeting to make some critical decisions. They decided that the next album project would be their last as a group, and that in order to do it right, they needed Chamberlin back. The concept for this work, called Machina, was to be about a rock star named Ego Zero who channeled the voice of god and had a band called Ghost Children. It was supposed to be a double album but the studio either thought that concept was dumber than a bag of hammers or were still angry about the shitty sales for Adore. Either way, they vetoed the double album, so it was split in two. Corgan (presumably still in his space pants and zero t-shirt) produced the album (shocker) with Flood. The first release was Machina/The Machines of God. It came out in February 2000, 21 years ago. It ended up being a much more guitar driven album, with tracks like The Everlasting Gaze and Stand Inside Your Love being the most remarkable. Of course, if you long for what might have been, then the almost 10 minute odyssey of Glass and the Ghost Children is the song for you.
It ended up being their worst selling record.
Wretzky had become increasingly disconnected with the band to the point where very little of her bass work actually showed up in the Machina sessions (read: overdubbed by Corgan). She wanted to try acting instead of music. So she upped and quit.
She was arrested for possession of crack shortly after leaving the band. Corgan told people she was fired for being a mean-spirited drug addict. She was replaced on the tour with Melissa Auf der Maur, former bassist for Hole.
Wretzky’s post-Pumpkins career never took off. She moved back to a Michigan farm to raise horses and was arrested when the rogue equines broke into a farmer’s market and ate vegetables. She was then caught driving drunk. She was replaced on the tour with Melissa Auf der Maur, who also played bass for Hole.
Technically, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (real subtle with the title there, Billy) was released. Sort of. Only 25 copies ever made. These were given to prominent fans and to a local radio station to be released free online. So the only versions made available were digital rips of the vinyl record. The entire process was a big ‘fuck you, we out’ to the record label. The band called it quits, and dropped the proverbial mic.
There are still plans to reunite the two halves of the Machina project, and to re-release it, but it has not happened yet.
After the break up, Iha dropped a solo album and then ended up playing guitar in A Perfect Circle. Unlike Wretzky, he had continued success. But Corgan was at loose ends. He had lost the two artists he consistently overdubbed. What ever was he to do?
Reunite with Chamberlin, of course. Together, the two of them former the ‘super’group Zwan, which turned out to be the Zima of bands. They only ever released one album and broke up in 2003. The project left Corgan frustrated and perhaps longing for what he had left behind.
He channelled some of those emotions into a lackluster 2005 solo album called The Future Embrace. Even he knew it was not good. So the day after it dropped, Corgan put out full-page ads in Chicago’s biggest newspapers, proclaiming a reunion. Corgan’s Trademark Ego also reared its head, stating, “I want my band back.”
Somehow, Chamberlin agreed to come back, too, showing no hard feelings for that Zwan debacle. Iha was busy with A Perfect Circle and Auf der Maur had just started a solo career, so both declined. Wretzky was too busy galloping in a field also declined. Or was never asked. Depends on who is telling the story. Maybe the interpretations of that event have been colored by someone calling her a mean-spirited drug addict.
But despite this, the two-person reunion went ahead. In 2007 the band played for the first time in seven years to a crowd in Paris, and unveiled the replacements new touring members: Jeff Schroeder on guitar, Ginger Reyes on bass, and Lisa Harriton on keyboard. Just one month later, they released a new single, Tarantula. These reconstituted unsmashed gourds released the band’s 7th album, Zeitgeist, that year. Expectations were high, but the product was again lackluster. No one liked the new lineup and fans who wanted something more like their original sound were disappointed.
To make things worse, Chamberlin noped right out of the group. Apparently, he felt as if he no longer really had much of a say in the direction of the band, stating “I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Go figure. I guess some of the other band members were a bit controlling at times?. Since this iteration of the Pumpkins did not work out, Corgan tried forming a tribute band called “Spirits in the Sky”. This group was dedicated to Norman Greenbaum Sky Saxon of The Seeds.
This was significant because the tribute band introduced Corgan to 19 year old drummer Mike Byrne. Sorry Mr. Drum Machine, you were good in the early days, but Corgan clearly required real people to boss around complete his band now. And so, when Corgan changed projects, he brought Byrne to the smashed unsmashed Smashing Pumpkins.
The new two-man line up got down to work, and FAST. Corgan was still about as ambitious as a highschool dropout in the 1970s with an interest in computer programming. The group announced that they were going to release a 44-track concept album called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, and that they would put it out track by track for free on the internet. They dropped the first track, A Song for a Son on December 9th, 2009.
Then their current bassist, Ginger Reyes, also dipped out of the band. Yep, I’m starting to notice a trend here. Luckily, the group had a bassist in reserve. Their touring bassist, Nicole Florentino, moved up and took on the axe full time. The newly unsmashed smashed unsmashed Smashing Pumpkins were back in gear. 2010 was a massive world tour year for the band.
The demands of touring forced the band to reconsider their plan for 44 free singles. The concept for Teargarden was summarily dropped. Instead, they decided to release a full length LP entitled Oceania. My guess? I think the record label got a little bit pissed off at the complete unprofitability of a 44-track free virtual album. In order to mollify the label, the band’s entire discography was remastered and reissued, including cut demos and unreleased material.
Even better, Oceania was actually pretty good. Many critics hailed it as a step in the right direction for Corgan and the boiz. This thing is a rather mature mixture of Gish-y garage distortion and gushing, emotional ballads. Quasar is an acid trip of heavy riffage. Pale Horse is a sprawling, rich tune of loss and longing. Overall, it’s a great LP, and definitely deserving of your attention. After touring in support of Oceania (and after slapping out a live album real quick), the band looked towards the studio once more. They signed a new record deal for two more albums, Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night.
However, as with all new Smashing Pumpkins content, this announcement was quickly followed by a myriad of line up changes. Byrne left, and so did Florentino.
Back to square one.
Corgan pulled in some of his musical connections, and managed to get Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe to join in on drums. Bass players are optional, and so, the band got down to recording.
The result was 2014’s Monuments to an Elegy. It was rather spectacularly decent. Not amazing, mind you, but decent. Highlights include the thoroughly cronchy guitar riffage of One and All, the hypnotic synth line of Monuments, and the poetic lyricism on Being Beige. The synth pop hooks would define the new direction of the band.
But synthesizers were not what the fans - or the critics - wanted from the Pumpkins.
Corgan was pissed. He thought the album would be revered but it fell flat. Even the tour, where he replaced Lee with Brad Wilk from Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave on drums and Mark Stoermer of The Killers on bass, failed to generate the buzz the original lineup of the band had once had. He was fed up, and even though he’d already written like 60 songs worth of material for Day For Night (which, let’s face it, The Tragically Hip had already released years ago) was completely forgotten.
What had become clear to everyone (except maybe Corgan himself) is that even though he was an amazing songwriter and gifted lyricist, the complex alchemy of the original lineup was what had refined and distilled his musical visions into amazing songs. Alone, he was very good, but together, the Pumpkins were amazing.
Fate soon intervened, and old heroin addicts friends returned. When Wilk was unavailable for a show, Chamberlin lent the Pumpkins his drumming talents. Before he knew it, he was back full time and was touring with the band once again. Corgan was excited, and stated that he and Chamberlin would return to the studio after the tour in order to record something new. It was just the gift that Corgan needed.
Speaking of gifts, in 2016, James Iha decided to give a present to everyone else for his birthday. He decided to join the Smashing Pumpkins on stage for the first time in 16 years. This led to a few more performances, and soon, there were hints of the possibility of a full reunion. These glimmers of hope coalesced into something more, something like light.
A light that was shiny. And bright. Oh. So. Bright.
In February of 2018, it was announced founding members Iha and Chamberlin were not just back in the band, but that they’d be recording another album that would be produced by the one and only Rick Rubin. Oh, and to top it off, there would be a massive tour focused on playing material from the band’s first 5 albums. Oh yeah. Everything was coming up Pumpkins.
The astute ones among you may notice a distinct lack of Wretzky in the above paragraph. Well, there was still a world of bad blood on either side of that particular debate, and in the end she never returned to the group. According to Wretzky, she was offered a contract to re-join the band, but Corgan went and cancelled the deal soon after. According to Corgan, he reached out multiple times but was turned down by Wretzky in each and every case.
So it wasn't quite the original four. But 75% ain't half bad, and fans were loving it. The boys were back and selling out venues. The band replaced Gretzky Wretzky with Jack Bates, the son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook. After the tour, they clocked in some serious studio time with the bearded-begetter-of-bops himself, Rick Rubin. Singles started coming out, and in 2018, the band’s 10th LP was released.
Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. is a relatively itty bitty, 8-track 30 minute “LP”. Fun fact: Corgan sees it as a double EP of sorts. Critics were a little puzzled by it. No one thought it was flat out bad, but review called it an “absolute maelstrom of inconsequential material”. At the same time, other reviewers called it a step back on track. Look, fans were just happy to get some new material with most of the band back in place.
It is important to note that there is still to this day a strong contingent of Wretzky supporters that want her back in the band, and say it is just not the same without her. Cough Nick Oliveri Cough.
Anyway, the double-EP / half-LP / tiny music songs from the Corgan gift shop still has a few bangers. Knights of Malta is a straight bop. Sadly, this song is NOT a Maltese cover of Knights of Cydonia. I know. I was also disappointed. Silvery Sometimes is a catchy-as-fuck guitar rock song that is as graceful as it is confident. Solara is a full dosage of that classic, fiery, nihilistic sludge rock that we’ve all come to know and love from the band.
After Shiny and Oh So Bright released, the band toured for most of 2019. Then, of course, a certain pandemic rolled in. If you think that Corgan wouldn’t take all that time at home to write a FUCK LOAD of music, than you’d be more than a little bit wrong. Corgan hit the studio hard, and this time, he was after a contemporary, modern sound that the Pumpkins had never tried before - because, you know, changing their sound has really gone over so well.
That brings us to their most recent effort, Cyr. This Corgan-produced double LP was released back at the end of November 2020 and sports an 80s synth-pop aesthetic. Apparently if the Strokes and Muse do it, everyone’s gotta do it. Unfortunately, the Pumpkins didn't quite stick the landing in the same way that the Strokes did, or even in the batshit crack fueled nostalgia trip way that Muse did. Instead, reviews of this record have been rather…mixed. The bulk of this whopping 20-track double album doesn't leave all that much of an impression on you for the first listen. Still, if you’re a fan, there’s plenty of good stuff to go around. Cyr, Anno Satana, and The Colour Of Love are some of the most compelling tracks that the Pumpkins have put out in recent years.
So here’s the deal: despite my many shots at Corgan’s ego, and his clearly controlling tendencies, Smashing Pumpkins have made some great albums with killer tracks. Sure, they’ve had lots of drama, but so have QotSA. The Pumpkins are worth your time, even if you only focus on their first five records.
Check them out.
Or at least go see a local band in a bar -- when all this COVID shit is over, I mean. FFS stay home right now.
Links to QOTSA
Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and our resident vampire, Troy Van Leeuwen, have both been members of the band A Perfect Circle.
Queens of the Stone Age toured with Smashing Pumpkins in 1999 with Homme and the boys as the opening act. At the time, Homme said: “"I've known Billy here and there as an acquaintance for a couple of years since the Kyuss days...Just as we were about to go onstage in Chicago at the Double Door he just came back and was like, 'Do you want to go on tour?’ He said something to me to the effect of, 'We weren't going to take anyone, but then I got your record and I know you'll make it easy,'...I'm a real big fan of [the Pumpkins' 1991 full-length debut] Gish and ... Siamese Dream…” Both the Pumpkins and Qotsa have toured together a number of times, including in 2008.
Corgan has praised Qotsa, saying: “If all you hear is pop and all you see are perfect performances and everybody smiling, to actually see a band invoke a darker spirit on stage and conjure it right in front of you in a mass of power you can’t explain, that is quite rare to that audience. No band in the past 15 years has come along and figured out how to do that. Most of the bands you can point to that have been successful that still do that, like Queens of the Stone Age, they’re coming from an earlier generation of power and an earlier language, even though they’re having contemporary success. There are some flashes, like a Royal Blood or something, where they’re trying to figure that power out, but they’re dealing with an audience that is so predisposed to pop.”
Their Music
Siva
Rhinoceros
Try, Try, Try
Cherub Rock
Perfect
1979
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
The Everlasting Gaze
Thirty-Three
Today
Tonight, Tonight
Disarm
Rocket
Ava Adore
I Am One
Drum + Fife
Zero
Solara
Tarantula
Show Them Some Love
/SmashingPumpkins - almost fifteen thousand subscribers.
Previous Posts
Band of the Week #1-25
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Black Flag
Alain Johannes
Pixies
Truckfighters
Melvins
Muse
Stone Temple Pilots
Black Sabbath
Baroness
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
The Black Angels
The Black Keys
The Beatles, Part One
The Beatles, Part Two

Sorry all for missing week 3 but the new day will be Mondays. So much of the news happens on the weekend. This week we have Alot of news regarding national Finals. Artist announcements and more.

Albania:

Albanias national Final after a weeks delay has finally found some solid dates, and will be talking place on the 21st, 22nd and with the final on the 23rd of December. This will mark the first entry for the song contest. so Marry Fikmas. So far only 1 Artist Manjola Nallbani with her song Ora e jetës has been withdrawn from the contest after contracting Covid-19 this week.
The Semi Finals have not been placed yet but you can still find the playlist to the songs here

Bulgaria:

We are sorry that we missed this subtle hint by Victoria (Bulgaria's Reprehensive from 2020 and 2021) back in November Victoria released a new song called Ugly Cry Where she Hinted it being one of the potential entry's submitted for Bulgaria's Internal Selection.

Croatia:

Dora 2021 has been announced and the songs and artists Selected. Sadly there is no sign of last years winner Damir Kedzo is not among the list of competing entries. The contest will consist of 14 songs. The contest will be held on the 13th of February.
The 14 Artists and songs names are reviled but we will bring them to you when the songs have been released.

Estonia:

Eesti Laul 2021 songs have been announced. The contest has 24 entries that will compete in 2 semi finals on the 18th and 20th of February with the grand final on the 6th of March where we will know Estonia's Eurovision 2021 entry. Last years winner Uku Suviste is competing again for the chance to represent Estonia again after the cancelled contest of 2020.
Listen to the songs here

France:

France has decided to try again with an national selection process called c'est vous qui décidez. The contest will have 12 competing entries The contest will consist of 1 show hosted sometime in January.
you can listen to the 12 songs Here

Ireland:

Irelands Selection committee has just announced they will be sending Lesley Roy again to Rotterdam after her entry into the contest last year was cancelled due to the Corona Pandemic.

Israel:

The first round of Edens Song contest has come to a close but the results of the 9 songs have not been announced yet. if you would like to listen to the songs feel free to look at week 2's page where they are linked under Israel. From the 9 the top 2 from the public vote and 1 wild card voted by an internal jury will make it to the finals and be sung by Eden herself. with a winner being selected on the 25th of January.

Italy:

San Remo 2021's Artists have been announced. we will be going in-depth with this contest as we know its one of the biggest national finals of the NF season. The festival of music will take place every night between the 2nd and 6th of March with the winner selected on the 6th. The winner is then offered the right to go to the song contest. If the winner refuses then the Festival organisers will internally select another artist in the list to take there place. This year we have 26 Entries into the contest. Sadly last years winner Diodato is not amongst the artist in this years contest.
Artists competing and there latest music: (Not the songs there competing with)
Aiello: Che Canzone Siamo
Annalisa: Houseparty
Arisa: Guardanodo il Clielo
Bugo: Quando Impazziro (Competed in San Remo 2020)
Colapesce & Dimartino: Noia Mortale
Coma_Cose: Mancarsi
Ermal Meta: Finira bene (Competed at Eurovision 2018 for Italy)
Extraliscio: Merendine Blu
Fasma: Per sentirmi vivo (Competed in San Remo 2020 Finalist of New Comers)
Francesca Michielin & Fedez: Volcano
Francesco Renga: Grandi Amori (2005 San Remo Winner)
Fulminacci: Un Fatto Tu Personale
Gaia: Chega
Irama: MEDITMERRANEA
Ghemon: In Un Certo Qual Mondo
Gio Even: Glenn Miller
La Rappresentante di Lista: Questo Corpo
Lo Stato Sociale: Una Vita In Vacanza (San Remo 2018)
Madame: 17
Malika Ayane: WOW
Måneskin: L'altra dimensione ( Top 10 ESFC 2020 Entry for San Marino)
Max Gazzè & La La Trifluoperazina Monstery Band: Teresia
Noemi: La luna
Orietta Berti: Chi La Barca Va
Random: Ritornerai 2
Willie Peyote: La Tua Futura Ex Moglie

Portugal

Festival da Canção 2021 will be held on the 20th and 27th of February with the Final on the 6th of March, there will be 20 competing entry's but all we know as of now is the composers of the songs, no Artists Yet.

Sweden

Now for the biggest National Final of the year Melodifestivalen 2021. The 6 shows featuring 4 semi finals, a Second chance round and a Final will be held between the 6th of February and the 13th of march 2021. The 28 Artists have been officially Released with the titles of there songs. This year we will see a combination of Melodi Veterans and new comers fighting for a chance to represent Sweden in 2021. Big names Include last years winners The Mamas, Dotter, Paul Ray and Danny Saucedo.
More infomation when the semi finals are announced. so stay tuned

Nations Selected Artists:

Albania:
Armenia:
Australia: Montaigne (Returned 2020)
Austria: Vincent Bueno (Returned 2020)
Azerbaijan: Efendi (Returned 2020)
Belarus:
Belgium: Hooverphonic (Returned 2020)
Bulgaria: Victoria (Returned 2020)
Croatia:
Cyprus: Elena Tsagrinou (New 2021)
Czech Republic: Benny Cristo (Returned 2020)
Denmark:
Estonia:
France:
Finland:
Georgia: Tornike Klpiani (Returned 2020)
Germany:
Greece: Stefania (Returned 2020)
Iceland: Daoi og Gagnamagnio (Returned 2020)
Ireland: Lesley Roy (Returned 2020)
Israel: Eden Alene (Returned 2020)
Italy:
Latvia: Samantha Tina (Returned 2020)
Lithuania:
Malta: Destiny (Returned 2020 & Jr 2016)
Moldova: Natalia Gordienko (Returned 2020)
Netherlands: Jeangu Macrooy (Returned 2020)
North Macedonia:
Norway:
Poland:
Portugal:
Romania: Roxen (Returned 2020)
Russia:
San Marino: Senhit (Returned 2020 & 2011)
Serbia: Hurricane (Returned 2020)
Slovenia: Ana Soklic (Returned 2020)
Spain: Blas Canto (Returned 2020)
Sweden:
Switzerland: Gjon's Tears (Returned 2020)
Ukraine: Go_A (Returned 2020)
United Kingdom:
​
​
​
​
​

Link to GoFundMe
I am a 23-year-old primatologist from Malta, the first from my country. I am extremely passionate about the conservation of primates and have dedicated the past 6 years of my life to studying, training, and preparing so that I can provide a significant contribution. My background includes a BSc in Earth Systems Science (University of Malta) and a MSc in Conservation Biology (University of Kent). I have been trained by some of the best conservation scientists actively working today, bringing with them a broad spectrum of knowledge related to both natural and social sciences. In my free time, I also volunteer to help biodiversity conservation initiatives taking place in Malta and rally for improved human and reproductive rights within the country.
A few months ago, I was accepted to pursue a PhD in Zoology and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). My PhD will consist of a incredible project to protect Peninsular Malaysia's endangered gibbons by constructing bridges that will help them move across fragmented habitats that have been destroyed by roads, rail, and logging, to name a few. Gibbons are amazing and intelligent creatures. They live in trees and move mostly by swinging. Gibbons normally pair up and mate for life. They communicate by singing and often share duets, taking turns to sing together so that they strengthen the bond between them.
In Malaysia, gibbons possess an important historical connection. Though their distribution spans across Southern and South-Eastern Asia, the etymology of their name originates from a Northern Aslian language used by Menraq communities within Peninsular Malaysia. Unfortunately however, all gibbons in Peninsular Malaysia are endangered, including the lar gibbon, agile gibbon, and siamang. Gibbons living in isolated forest fragments throughout Malaysia may not persist in the long-term; gibbons avoid using the ground, losing access to resources, risking infiltrating neighbouring groups' territories, and increasing susceptibility to predation and hunting.
To mitigate the effects of wide clearings and forest fragmentation on gibbons, natural and artificial canopy bridges may be used to create corridors for movement. Canopy bridges effectively facilitate primate travel between fragments, enhancing connectivity and increasing access to resources. To date, there has been no widespread implementation of canopy bridge construction in a country. We plan to change that. My PhD project aims to construct 5-7 bridges across the country, in areas where gibbons need them the most. We hope that this project can spur other similar initiatives across the world.
Funding from Malaysia is very limited and difficult to come by. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on grant foundations, so many have paused the endowments or chosen to allocate their grants to COVID-19 relief efforts. Biodiversity conservation has taken a big hit because of this. The little funding that is available rarely covers full tuition, let alone a living stipend.
The amount I am seeking here covers my anticipated tuition fees, accommodation, research, travel, support, and/or presentation costs. The project is 3 years long, and my supervisor and I are hoping that the cost of our bridges will be covered by grant foundations.
My PhD acceptance letter

Link to GoFundMe
I am a 23-year-old primatologist from Malta, the first from my country. I am extremely passionate about the conservation of primates and have dedicated the past 6 years of my life to studying, training, and preparing so that I can provide a significant contribution. My background includes a BSc in Earth Systems Science (University of Malta) and a MSc in Conservation Biology (University of Kent). I have been trained by some of the best conservation scientists actively working today, bringing with them a broad spectrum of knowledge related to both natural and social sciences. In my free time, I also volunteer to help biodiversity conservation initiatives taking place in Malta and rally for improved human and reproductive rights within the country.
A few months ago, I was accepted to pursue a PhD in Zoology and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). My PhD will consist of a incredible project to protect Peninsular Malaysia's endangered gibbons by constructing bridges that will help them move across fragmented habitats that have been destroyed by roads, rail, and logging, to name a few. Gibbons are amazing and intelligent creatures. They live in trees and move mostly by swinging. Gibbons normally pair up and mate for life. They communicate by singing and often share duets, taking turns to sing together so that they strengthen the bond between them.
In Malaysia, gibbons possess an important historical connection. Though their distribution spans across Southern and South-Eastern Asia, the etymology of their name originates from a Northern Aslian language used by Menraq communities within Peninsular Malaysia. Unfortunately however, all gibbons in Peninsular Malaysia are endangered, including the lar gibbon, agile gibbon, and siamang. Gibbons living in isolated forest fragments throughout Malaysia may not persist in the long-term; gibbons avoid using the ground, losing access to resources, risking infiltrating neighbouring groups' territories, and increasing susceptibility to predation and hunting.
To mitigate the effects of wide clearings and forest fragmentation on gibbons, natural and artificial canopy bridges may be used to create corridors for movement. Canopy bridges effectively facilitate primate travel between fragments, enhancing connectivity and increasing access to resources. To date, there has been no widespread implementation of canopy bridge construction in a country. We plan to change that. My PhD project aims to construct 5-7 bridges across the country, in areas where gibbons need them the most. We hope that this project can spur other similar initiatives across the world.
Funding from Malaysia is very limited and difficult to come by. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on grant foundations, so many have paused the endowments or chosen to allocate their grants to COVID-19 relief efforts. Biodiversity conservation has taken a big hit because of this. The little funding that is available rarely covers full tuition, let alone a living stipend.
The amount I am seeking here covers my anticipated tuition fees, accommodation, research, travel, support, and/or presentation costs. The project is 3 years long, and my supervisor and I are hoping that the cost of our bridges will be covered by grant foundations.
​
My PhD acceptance letter

Hey Everyone!!
I’m looking for travel buddies from December 2021- November 2022! I’m going to be taking multiple vacations for a rough total of 55 days!
Right now I’m saving up my vacation days due to COVID, so I won’t be traveling until late next year. With that being said, I’d like to plan out some vacations with people. I know it’s super FAR out and that some people will give me shit, but It gives me something to look forward too.
The countries I’m looking to visit: Finland in December 2021. Italy, Greece, and Malta in April/May 2022. Germany, Czech Republic, and Switzerland 2022.
These are rough travel plans that I wouldn’t mind tweaking or enhancing if I find a travel buddy or multiple travel buddies!
About me: I love traveling as much as I can, meeting new people, and making friends! I enjoy casual drinks with some music on in the background. I’m a sucker for breath taking views and picture taking. I love learning about new cultures and learning new languages. (Even if I’m not that good at it😂) I’m pretty adventurous and love to try new things. (Believe it or not, I’m trying to acquire a taste for seafood right now😂😳) With that said, I’m a huge foodie! Food is the way to my heart for sure. Also, I like to be a people person and get others included in things! I’m friendly, trustworthy, and caring.
If you’d be interested in traveling with me, feel free to message me! I’m always down to chat, make friends, and travel with some cool people! I just ask that you’re: between ages of 18-30, have at least 1 thing in common with me, are nice, and not a creep)

Hey all, as some of you might know u/AuraManner has decided to stop participating in FantasyVision contests due to a busy schedule, which is sad but very understandable.
However, this means that there is a spot yet to fill. Aura originally planned to represent the Netherlands, but as I've represented the Netherlands numerous times now, I decided to be greedy and take it. This means that Austria is now free to take. If you're already participating as another country, you're allowed to switch countries. The table of participants will be updated, so check this post for the latest updates and free spots.
Now onto the next part: The updated rules. Hyper has published the rules at the very beginnng, but I made two changes based on Hyper's rules:

1. At first, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Moldova were allowed to borrow from neighbouring countries. However, I feel like there should be enough artists to pick from in Switzerland, Belgium and Moldova so I'd prefer it if they sent an artist from the country itself. Luxembourg is an exception because it counts as a micronation.
2. Hyper wanted to allocate micronations in special pots at first, but I simply don't know how he envisioned that idea. That's why I decided to treat micronations like regular countries, especially since micronations can borrow songs from neighbouring countries anyways.

So, here are the full updated rules:
SONG RULES
· songs to participate in 2022 edition HAS TO BE RELEASED FROM 1st September 2020 until 1st April 2021
· Maximum length of a song has to be STRICTLY 3:40 minutes
· Artists that will return to Eurovision 2021 following COVID-19 outbreak and those yet to return ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN 2022 EFSC
· Small countries such as Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta and Luxembourg can borrow songs from their neighbour brotherly country (Monaco-French, Andorra-Spanish, San Marino-Italian, Liechtenstein-German, Malta-UK, Luxembourg-German/French)
· LAST DAY TO SEND A SONG IS ON 31st March 2021 23:59 CET
NATIONAL SELECTION RULES
· Country can choose whether to go INTERNAL or PUBLIC SELECTION PROCESS
· In cases where TWO OR MORE COUNTRIES go for the same song or artists, RIGHT IN THAT CASE GOES TO FIRST COUNTRY WHO CAME UP WITH SONG OR ARTISTS
· In cases of National Selections, juror has to WRITE DOWN PREFERRED MONTH OR DATE OF NATIONAL SELECTION (to track calendar easily)
· CHECK THIRD DOT UNDER "SONG RULES" SECTION
· In case of National selections, juror has to send me a list of countries before going public
PARTICIPANTS RULES
· Maximum of participants should be 46
· Juror can't change a song or country after he agreed on them
· Votes imposing will be strictly punished
CONTEST INFORMATION
· 2022 Eurovision Fantasy Song Contest will take place from late April to late May (ONE MONTH)
· Semi-Final Live Show Dates are: 11th and 13th May 2021 21:00 CET
· Voting for Semi-Final: 15th April 2021 to 5th May 2021
· Grand Final Live Show will be on 29th May 2021 21:00 CET
· Voting for Grand Final: 14th May 2021 to 29th May 2021 17:00 CET
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I look forward to receiving your entries and if you have any questions, let me know!

Prior events:
October 22, October 21, October 20, October 19, October 18, October 17, October 16, October 15, October 14, October 13, October 12, October 11 , October 10, October 9 , October 8 , October 7, October 6, October 5, October 4, October 3, October 2, October 1, September 30, September 29, September 28, September 27.

more international reports of Syrian jihadists recruited by Azerbaijan

Russian Novaya Gazeta newspaper writes [some information may be old]:
Mohammed Shala was killed in Karabakh in the first days of the war. He was from a little town of Atarib near Aleppo, Syria. He was a former member of the Free Syrian Army's (rebel) division called Suwar Al-Sham.
According to the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, 134 Syrians were identified dead (locals say 185). 13 died in the past two days. They were all recruited by Turkish citizens.
Some militants have already asked Turkey to send them back while agreeing to forfeit the salary.
The precise number of Syrians in Karabakh is hard to tell, but the initial reports indicated around 1,000. The main recruitment was in the first days, and it slowed down later once the nature of the war became apparent.
The militants were recruited in Idlib, Syria and southern Turkey by commanders Mustafa Seyjar (FSA), Abu Amsha (Suleiman Shah), Saif Abu Bakir (Hamza), etc.
Instead of the $77/mo (600 Turkish Lira) that they were being paid to fight against the Syrian government, they were offered a lucrative $1,800/mo to fight in Karabakh. The life insurance is $30,000 in the event they're killed.
In either case, the militant and his family are promised Turkish citizenship. This has attracted many.
Full: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/10/23/87657-1800-dollarov-za-karabah
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032561.html

airstrike in northern Syria

In other news. The U.S. airforce conducted airstrikes against jihadists in northern Syria, near the Turkey border.
A facility was destroyed while members of Al Qaida-linked militants were holding a meeting. 15 were killed, including a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham cell, some of whose members are fighting against Artsakh.
https://www.dw.com/ru/ssha-ubili-glavarej-dzhihadistov-na-granice-sirii-s-turciej/a-55367990
https://factor.am/299151.html

other articles about jihadists

A Russian-language outlet covers an article from French Le Monde.
https://inosmi.ru/politic/20201023/248393958.html

U.S. Congressmen introduce bills to recognize Artsakh republic and end weapon sales to AZ-TR

U.S. House Representative Frank Pallone and 31 co-sponsors have introduced a resolution to urge the official recognition of the Artsakh Republic.
Representative Bred Sherman: Four weeks on and Azerbaijan has violated TWO ceasefire agreements and continues its indiscriminate targeting of Artsakhians. The message from Azerbaijan is clear: violence, not negotiations, is the answer.
The U.S. must send a different message: if the offensive continues, we are prepared to recognize the Republic of Artsakh as an independent nation.
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has introduced a resolution to end the arms supplies to Azerbaijan and Turkey.
"Azerbaijan's ongoing aggression against the Armenian people, with the full support of Turkey, has already led to painful casualties and horrific human rights violations among the civilian population in the region. The United States can no longer continue to provide assistance to Azerbaijan and Turkey in the field of security and armaments."
50 House Representatives sponsored a bill to apply Global Magnitsky Sanctions against Azerbaijan.
https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanBradSherman/posts/10158054719269862
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Azerbaijan%20Resolution%20of%20Request.pdf
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Turkey%20Resolution%20of%20Request.pdf
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032487.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032488.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032489.html
https://twitter.com/ANCA_DC/status/1319655672305405954?s=20

reports of high-ranking losses in the Azeri army

This is a collection of various reports from the past two weeks. Some can be more credible than others. They are no officially confirmed by the government of Azerbaijan, just as in the case of any death.
October 14: news outlet "Tolish Media" reported the death of Azeri Major General Hickmet Hasanov in the north-east. He lead the First Army Corps and was earlier congratulated by president Aliyev after capturing the Mataghis area. His death is not confirmed officially.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=788757088354200&id=402862363610343
https://factor.am/295636.html
October 17: the same Tolish Media source reported the death of ethnic Talysh General Hikmet Mirzoyev. The same day, Ilham Aliyev awarded Mirzoyev the rank of Lieutenant General. The outlet assumes the award was posthumous. Unofficial and not verified.
https://factor.am/296650.html
https://www.turan.az/ext/news/2020/10/free/politics%20news/en/128825.htm
October 19: Azeri outlet Azadlıq Qəzeti reported the death of the chief of the heavy artillery brigade Lt. Colonel Seyid Zaur Hussein oglu Jafarov. Not confirmed officially.
https://www.facebook.com/azadliqqazeti/
https://factor.am/297285.html
October 20: Azerbaijani Telegram news channels reported the deaths of Lt. Colonels Ikbar Bayramov and Babek Ramaldanov. Not confirmed officially.
https://factor.am/297818.html
October 22: reports arrived about the death of a Hero of Azerbaijan, Colonel Shukyur Hamidov (Şükür Nəriman oğlu Həmidov). He was allegedly killed near Qashatagh area (Qubatli) in the south.
In 2016, Həmidov organized the capture of Lele Tepe hill and was one of the three officers to receive the title of Hero. The reports of his death are not confirmed by the government. "Azeri social media was mourning his death today," wrote one observer.
Update: the government of Azerbaijan has officially confirmed the death of Həmidov. Ilham Aliyev called his father to express condolences.
https://twitter.com/razminfo/status/1319382782796304396?s=20
https://infoteka24.ru/2020/10/22/73195/
https://news.am/arm/news/609370.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032543.html.

October 23rd / calls for Artsakh's independence / battlefield & footage / humanitarian aid

Armenians held a demonstration in Tbilisi, Georgia in support of Artsakh. They called for the govt to stop aiding Turkey-Azerbaijan.
https://t.me/infocomm/24135
https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/199321
4:18: MFA Mnatsakanyan is in the United States. He met Philip Reeker, the head of the State Department's European affairs.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032490.html
8:28: Saudi Arabia is Turkey's 15th largest export partner and serves as a major transit hub for Turkish goods. There is an ongoing campaign to end Saudi investments in Turkey, stop imports, and suspend tourism.
Why? Turkey and Saudis support different factions in Libya. Turkey supports Saudi "opponent" Qatar. Turkey is after Saudis who are suspected of killing journalist Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
More Saudi businesses have joined the boycott. The small chains will sell the existing inventory and stop the new imports.
Officially, the Saudi govt denies any such boycott on state-level, possibly to avoid a lawsuit in the World Trade Organization. "The boycott is organized by citizens."
https://news.am/arm/news/609364.html
9:25: Spain is a notable arms supplier to Azerbaijan. Catalonian MP Míriam Nogueras urged the govt to indefinitely suspend the sales to Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, "to prevent deaths of civilians in Yemen and Nagorno-Karabakh."
https://news.am/arm/news/609382.html
9:27 Artsakh govt: the night was stable-tense. Artillery shootout in some locations. The localized battles continue in all directions.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032496.html
9:43: Azerbaijan used Smerch missiles against civilian settlements Karmir Shuka and Taghavard.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032497.html
11:57: army released footage showing the destruction of multiple Azeri armored vehicles.
https://youtu.be/u96OSWiG0O0
12:20: "Human Rights Watch" has documented and examined four instances of Azerbaijan using cluster bombs against Artsakh civilians.
"Cassette ammunition should never be used by anyone under any circumstances, especially in cities, because of the unacceptable danger to civilians," said the agency, and noted that Azerbaijan prohibited their entry for a similar examination in Azerbaijan.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/23/azerbaijan-cluster-munitions-used-nagorno-karabakh
Photos of locations where cluster bombs were dropped: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032510.html
11:42: Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Sergey Smbatyan has donated revenues from his upcoming concert to Artsakh.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032504.html
12:08: "Armenian artists from around the world will hold a charity Concert for Artsakh on October 26th," announced SOAD's Serj Tankian on Instagram.
He will be joined by Sebu Simonian, Arto Tunjboyajyan, Lebanese-Armenian violinist Ara Malikyan, and others. It's organized by the Creative Armenia foundation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGpwiUVBCCv/
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032509.html
11:54: Armenian-Turkish MP Garo Paylan has accused the Erdogan regime of inciting racism against minorities, in particular, Armenians in recent times, and making racism a normal thing in the country.
AFP outlet reported about 60,000 Armenians in Istanbul being harassed by ultra-nationalists who drive cars and chant slogans in Armenian neighborhoods.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032506.html
https://news.am/arm/news/609446.html
12:28: President Sarkissian met President Macron. The latter said they'll send a new group of doctors to treat the wounded in Artsakh.
https://youtu.be/X-lBxQvnk8k?t=32
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032511.html
13:15: the army published the names of 26 soldiers who died in battle. 927 total. Among them are former MP Davit Matevosyan, and QP MP Vagharshak Hakobyan's brother Tatul.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032513.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032503.html , https://news.am/arm/news/609396.html.
13:35: soldiers received medals for repelling enemy attacks and inflicting losses upon them.
Colonel Artak Avagimyan for precise artillery calculations. Four Sergeants and Privates for destroying multiple tanks each.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032515.html
13:43: cellist (թավջութակահար) Sevak Avanesyan had earlier performed in the Shushi church that was bombed by Azerbaijan twice.
Today he performed Kian Soltani's "Persian Fire Dance" music in Shushi's Iranian Mosque, which was renovated recently.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032516.html
13:45 army spokesman: heavy battles in the east. The groups of infiltrators are being thrown back.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032517.html
14:04: Russian special forces have busted two terror cells in the southern regions of Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkessia. 20 members of Takfir wal-Hijra cell, who possessed grenades and guns, had earlier called for the creation of Islamist Caliphate.
https://ria.ru/20201023/islamisty-1581134144.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032519.html
14:22: Armenian demonstrators gathered in front of the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg and demanded appropriate action against "Turkish-Azeri-Terrorist aggression against Artsakh."
https://youtu.be/CDRd-3j9is4?t=2482
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032521.html
14:36: BHK Gagik Tsarukyan urged his party supporters to join the army as volunteers and promised to use his resources to help Artsakh.
https://news.am/arm/news/609442.html
14:53: Russian military correspondent Kotenok was earlier wounded by the Azeri rocket that targeted the Shushi church. Today the doctors saved his foot after a 3-hour microsurgery. He's feeling well and uploaded a video.
https://t.me/voenkorKotenok/23059
15:32: one of the downed Bayraktar drones had a warhead made by the German company TDW.
https://t.me/reartsakh/5358
14:37: a video was uploaded by an Armenian soldier showing the aftermath of a battle that left several Azeri soldiers dead in trenches. The soldier sends a message to Azeri mothers in the Russian language.
No gore: https://twitter.com/301_AD/status/1319574869579866112?s=20
14:42: Armenian soldiers uploaded a video showing the destruction of an Azeri multiple-rocket-launcher system.
https://twitter.com/301_AD/status/1319583122606927872?s=20
14:59: Azerbaijan does not disclose its losses in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but the fresh 26 graves in the 100,000-strong town of Mingechaur give a rough idea of ​​the scale of Baku's losses, wrote BBC-Russia.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032527.html
16:12 army: Azerbaijan has so far lost 6539 soldiers, 206 drones, 16 helicopters, 24 aircrafts, 588 tanks and armored vehicles, 4 TOS, etc.
The most recent losses were 4 drones, 8 armored vehicles, 80 soldiers.
(Non-official sources have counted >$1.6b in damages.)
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032541.html
https://t.me/infocomm/24172
16:55: the government of Azerbaijan has a new law that, among other things, prohibits citizens from sharing information about dead and wounded soldiers.
https://factor.am/299277.html
16:23: Artsakh president Arayik Harutyunyan wrote a letter to Putin, spoke about the Artsakh-Russia ties, Russia's role in the negotiating process, and asked Putin to use his influence to broker a ceasefire and help relaunch the negotiating process.
Business Insider: "Turkey's Erdogan has been humiliating Putin all year."
The National Interest: Turkey is prolonging the bloodshed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
https://www.businessinsider.com/turkey-humiliating-russia-putin-playbook-syria-libya-armenia-azerbaijan-2020-10
https://news.am/arm/news/609426.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032545.html
16:37: in other news. U.S. suspends visa services in Turkey after reports on potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against U.S. citizens in Istanbul.
https://news.am/arm/news/609471.html
16:26: Rostelecom is matching the donations made by its employees to www.1000plus.am (the official fund that helps the wounded soldiers and their families)
Makeup artist Ani Gulayan has matched the $10,000 donations made by her fans to www.HimnaDram.org
https://style.news.am/arm/news/74632/menq-petq-e-sharunakenq-miasnakan-mnal-amn-um-bnakvox-dimahardar-ani-gulayany-krknapatkel-e-havaqvats-10-hazar-dolarn-u-pokhancel-himnadramin.html
https://news.am/arm/news/609467.html
17:30: Azerbaijan resumed the indiscriminate bombing of civilian settlements that don't have military objects. Airstrikes were conducted against Qaregah and Martakert.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032551.html
17:35: MFA Mnatsakanyan gave an interview to the DW outlet. "Turkey remains the destabilizing force in this conflict."
Full: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032552.html
https://news.am/arm/news/609477.html
17:57: soldiers celebrating a comrade's birthday with a fancy cake.
https://youtu.be/SbeoTmdMQZQ?t=16
17:59 Serj Tankian: contact your U.S. Representative about suspending military component sales to Turkey.
https://m.facebook.com/SerjTankian/posts/10158821352384798
18:07: Secretary of State Miguel Pompeo met the Foreign Ministers of AM and AZ.
21:15: Donald Trump reports "progress" in the negotiation process. "We're working with Armenia. We have very good relations with Armenia. They are very good people there. They are so dedicated. They're incredible people... We're going to help them... We'll see what happens..."
https://news.am/arm/news/609479.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032563.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032574.html , https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1502093250001498
18:33: the Armenia Fund has organized the transfer of another 25 tons of humanitarian aid collected by the diaspora in Germany and France.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032559.html
18:51: QP MP Nazaryan shared a letter and urged diasporans around the world to translate it to their language and present it to local legislators.
It's about the reasons why the Artsakh Republic has the legal right to self-determination, which municipalities and chambers have already recognized Artsakh, etc.
https://news.am/arm/news/609484.html
19:34: an interview with a Middle East reporter Lindsey Snell, who was one of the first journalists to report the recruitment of Syrian jihadists by Turkey/Azerbaijan.
https://youtu.be/5k3vIKQFjx8
20:03: The Parliament of Catalonia has adopted a message to condemn the Azeri-Turkish aggression against Artsakh.
https://news.am/arm/news/609490.html
20:05: Pashinyan visited the wounded soldiers, including QP MP Sasun Mikaelyan.
Photo/video: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032567.html
20:32 army: after a successful operation in the south, we destroyed a large unit of Azeri special forces. 9 armored vehicles were destroyed and several were captured. One Azeri soldier was captured alive. He is receiving medical treatment.
Army spokesman: Glorious soldiers of Aliyev, the ones who left the armored vehicles and fled, you will find your inglorious death in the southern valleys.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032570.html
https://news.am/arm/news/609502.html
21:02 army: we just shot down an Azeri drone in the north-east.
Photos: https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/199403
21:03: Azerbaijan resumed the bombing of civilian objects in the capital Stepanakert and Martuni. The gas pipe and several buildings were destroyed.
Artsakh official: we will respond. We have warned long ago.
Video: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032588.html
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032573.html
https://t.me/infoteka24/9796
21:07: over 3,000 Armenians held a demonstration in front of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa today.
https://t.me/infocomm/24199
 
22:00 army spokesman's briefing: in the morning Azeris continued their attack in different locations. Besides the activities in the front lines, throughout the day, they bombed Artsakh's civilian settlements. That's what they do after failures on the battlefield.
The battles were fierce in the south of the center, near Shekher and Jivanik villages, as we already reported yesterday. There were successes in neutralizing the infiltrator groups. Village Shekher and its nearby forests are almost completely cleared of infiltrators. Some groups still remain in nearby forests; they're being neutralized.
In the south, all day long Azeris tried to attack near Vorotan (Qubadli?). Several attacks failed and after sustaining heavy losses, they were thrown back. Some units were completely dismantled. After losing armored vehicles they began to flee and hide in nearby valleys and forests.
In the south, on the river valley that stretches towards the Lachin corridor, near Hakari village (south of Lachin), the Azeris were pushed back further south after we attacked.
Overall the situation is tense. The battles are localized. There are no clear frontlines. Azeris try to attack near various river valleys and settlements, which are being neutralized by us.
That is the real situation we have today. Some of you may read reports about battles near a certain location and get the wrong impression that the situation is dire. But that's not how it works.
Our army is in full control of the situation, and despite the fact that Azeris moved forward in some areas, our army deals heavy blows on them.
Q: will you publish a map of the current battlefield?
A: yes, tomorrow we will publish the map of battles. We are aware of a map published by Ukrainian bloggers that does not accurately portray the situation [is he referring to Livemap Caucasus?]. The problem with maps is that people interpret them as solid "lines" and specific movements. But since the battles are now more localized (with infiltrators), maps will not accurately portray the situation, although we will present our own map.
https://youtu.be/7Bv49y0DrhQ

COVID stats

+5,760 tested. +2,474 infected. +14 deaths. +489 healed. 21,560 active.
471 patients across Armenia are waiting for a free bed. There are 285 free beds available across various hospitals.
The government has negotiated with private COVID testing clinics to reduce the maximum testing price from $50 to $30.
The police will resume the strict safety checks in businesses and on the streets. Those without masks or other requirements will be penalized again. Glory to Arstotzka.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032501.html , https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032542.html , https://news.am/arm/news/609450.html

Post office will deliver your package one day faster

... if you live in Shirak province, thanks to a new sorting facility in Gyumri. It will eliminate the need to transfer parcels to Spitak's sorting facility first. No more round trip.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032528.html

no child left behind

As part of the Education Ministry's long-term goal to increase the share of children who attend preschools, there is a new bill to boost attendance in rural areas.
Settlements without preschool buildings could dedicate part of their town halls, cultural centers, or other govt facilities for part-time preschool attendance.
Smaller settlements could find suitable houses and use them as preschools if the number of children is small.
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032520.html

Top-5 most popular children's books purchased in September

5) Փիսոն գնում է բժշկի, by Anna Isabekyan.
4) Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen.
3) Harry Potter and the Smartass Stone, by J. K. Rowling.
2) Շաղգամը, by Atabek Khnkoyan.
1) Բոքոնիկը (колобок)
https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1032368.html

how to donate to Artsakh

www.1000plus.am (medical aid for soldiers and their families)
www.HimnaDram.org (global)
www.ArmeniaFund.org (U.S. tax-deductible)
 
You've read 2804 words.

Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Manchester United Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
Before we begin, we would like to inform everyone that this conference call will include estimates and forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Any such statements or forward-looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary note in our earnings release regarding forward-looking statements and risk factor discussions in our filings with the SEC. Manchester United plc assumes no obligation to update any of the estimates or forward-looking statements.
I will now turn the conference over to the Executive Vice Chairman of Manchester United, Mr. Ed Woodward. Please go ahead, sir.
Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Thank you, and thank you to everybody for joining us today. We're looking back today on what's been one of the most extraordinary and challenging seasons in recent history and I'm proud of the way the club continues to respond. There are still big challenges and uncertainties ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt our way of life across the globe. This disruption is clear to see in the financial results that we're announcing today, and we expect the impact to remain visible for quite some time to come.
However, the past years also demonstrated the underlying strength and resilience of the club, the special role that sports plays in our societies and the meaningful impact the club can make in our communities through this period of adversity. On the field, we will never be satisfied with Manchester United unless we're winning trophies, but our third-place finish in the Premier League and strong cup runs last year showed us that while there is more hard work ahead and the path is not always smooth, we are making progress.
We have a clear strategy under Ole to build a successful committed team with a core of homegrown talent blended with high-quality recruits that plays fast-playing attacking football. To that end, we are pleased with our recent additions to the first team squad of Donny van de Beek and Alex Telles, two players we've been tracking as part of our recruitment process for a long period of time. And Edinson Cavani, a top striker, who adds a proven new option to our forward line.
We also welcome Facundo Pellistri and Amad Diallo, who will join in January, two exciting young prospects who we've also been scouting extensively. Added to the arrival of Bruno Fernandes earlier this year, these recruits underscore our continued commitment to strengthening the squad and take our net investment in new players since summer 2019 to over EUR200 million, more than any other major European club over that time frame.
We also continue to invest strongly in our thriving academy. These graduates make up a third of our current first-team squad. The pipeline of new talent looks as exciting as ever, with Ole giving first -- giving first team debuts to eight academy graduates last season; the highest number since the Busby Babes were breaking through 68 years ago. This faith in youth remains an integral part of our identity of the club. Even with the addition of some more experienced players this month, our squad remains one of the youngest in the Premier League with an average age of 25. This means the team has potential for significant further improvement as our young players develop and mature.
We are also tremendously excited by the progress being made by our women's team under Casey Stoney, following the arrival of several new players this summer, including Tobin Heath and Christen Press to -- both two-time World Cup winners with the U.S. National Team. While our commitment to investment remains, it must be balanced with recognition of the extraordinarily challenging environment facing us and all football clubs at this time.
Let me share a few initial observations on this summer's transfer window that finished recently. Gross transfer spend across the Big 5 European leagues was down about 40% this summer, driven by both the lower volume of transactions and lower average fees. The contraction was also felt at the top end of the market with no transactions over EUR100 million for the first time in five years and an almost 30% reduction in the average fee for the Top 30 transfers. There was a material increase in the share of free transfers and loans, which were up 20% and 30% respectively.
At a club level, many of our peers were cautious, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and PSG, having combined net spend of EUR9 million. Of course, there were one or two outliers the other way, most notably Chelsea, who are making up for not being able to be active during their transfer ban from Summer 2019. So we need to look across multiple windows to gain a clearer perspective. And as I mentioned earlier, our aggregate net investment over the last three transfer windows compares very favorably with our peers. The bottom line is we are investing and we will continue to invest to back our manager.
More recently, you may have read about the discussions taking place within English football, about plans to address the near-term financial predicament created by the pandemic for clubs in the lower leagues. We've been playing an active role in those discussions, because we strongly believe in supporting the English football pyramid, both in the short-term to address the issues created by COVID-19 and in the long-term to improve financial sustainability at all levels of the game. There will always be intense debate around any changes to the structure of football just as there was before the formation of the Premier League 28 years ago.
Now, at this critical juncture for the game, we must ensure that the huge success of the Premier League is reinforced while ensuring that the wider football pyramid continues to thrive in a rapidly changing media environment. Achieving this will require strategic vision and leadership. We are pleased that the Premier League is committed to work together on a plan for the future structures and financing of English football. Now it must deliver on that promise, and we are committed to playing a leading role in pushing that process toward a successful outcome.
Another crucial issue for the hold [Phonetic] of football is the reopening of stadium to spectators as soon as the government allows. While the situation in Greater Manchester and the U.K. as a whole continues to evolve, our plans for the return of fans are well advanced and we are confident of ours and the whole league's ability to welcome them back in a safe bio-secure environment. Crowds have been permitted to return to varying degrees in over 200 European -- sorry, 20 European countries, albeit with significant capacity restrictions to allow for social distancing. And we urge the U.K. government to follow these positive examples as soon as it is safe to do so.
While we recognize that public health must always be a priority, what is needed is consistency of approach. People are allowed to sit on an airplane for hours or in a cinema or even watch football in a cinema and why are they not allowed inside a stadium environment, which is professionally managed and controlled. If indoor concerts are allowed, why should outdoor socially distanced football fans be treated differently. Fans are the bedrock of this game and some of the inconsistencies out there are frustrating for them and indeed for the clubs.
Despite severe near-term pressures created by the pandemic, we do remain optimistic about the medium to long term. Demand for live football around the world is strong and our sustainable commercial model means we're very well placed to harness that growth, while continuing to pursue what will always be our Number 1 priority, delivering success, entertainment and trophies on the pitch.
I'll now hand over to our Group Managing Director, Richard Arnold, who will update you on our key business activities. Thank you.
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
Thank you, Ed, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. Resilience is a trait closely associated with Manchester United. And since we last spoke in May, that trait has been needed and demonstrated once again. Cliff will walk you through the impact that COVID-19 has had in our revenue streams and the continued impact we expect into fiscal 2021, but I'd like to share a few insights into how we face this challenge.
First, throughout the fourth quarter, we continued to use our global platform to raise awareness and provide assistance to those in need in our surrounding communities, across the U.K. and internationally. We stepped up our efforts by our Manchester United Foundation by supporting local food banks, providing meals for the NHS, making cash donations to partner schools, teaming up with supporters clubs and launching a fundraising contribution -- fundraising campaign. Contributions to date for that are already over GBP1 million and climbing. And as we highlighted in May, we are appreciative of the generosity of our players and our colleagues who've donated their time and energy, and is our intent that these efforts will inspire more sustainable long-term support for our community.
We're also incredibly proud of the individual effort of Marcus Rashford, who served as an exemplary red both on and off the pitch this year by using his platform to bring incredible awareness to a cause that is very dear to his heart, child hunger. Marcus was successful not only championing this very important cause and bringing considerable awareness to the plight of many U.K. school children who were suffering during this pandemic, but he also campaigned for and successfully achieved change that affected children across the whole country.
We also wanted to take a moment this morning to discuss the diversity and inclusion initiatives of the club. Whilst this is a topic that is rightly moving to the forefront of conversations in boardrooms across every industry, we're proud that we've been leading and executing in this area within our organization over many years. Whilst we acknowledge that there is clearly no room for complacency, our #AllRedAllEqual initiative, which commenced in 2016, is the most visible example and is both the guiding principle and remains a vital annual campaign for the club. We are committed to striving for real change within the industry on and off the pitch, both through our own campaigns and through the support of other organizations.
Turning to our business. We have needed and been able to continue to strengthen our digital and media capabilities during the pandemic. This meant we achieved higher engagement levels relative to last year across all platforms during the fourth quarter. To highlight a few stats, despite the pandemic, our total rate from April through the end of the season in July improved by high-single digits against the prior season. On our owned and operated platforms, June and July represented record months for engagement on our mobile app, while it was also a record year on our social channels as we achieved over 1.1 billion social interactions; higher than any season previously and 24% higher than last season.
This engagement in turn contributed directly to stronger e-commerce conversion levels. Whilst our Megastore reopened on June 15th, foot traffic has remained depressed relative to last year, obviously given the absence of fans at Old Trafford home matches and to a lesser extent the continued closure of our museum and tour operations. However, our e-commerce business with Fanatics has performed ahead of expectations and we plan to accelerate our e-commerce initiatives throughout fiscal 2021.
Turning now to our sponsorship business. Fiscal year 2020 was a solid year. And despite the pandemic, it was one of the busiest in the Club's history for our sponsorship team. For the year, we signed eight new sponsorship deals with partners, including Lego, Mondelez and Visit Malta. Manchester United's commercial strength drives not least from its strong and effective commercial partnerships. Pandemic proved an opportunity to demonstrate resilience in delivering to our partners, in particular, migrating to delivering digital campaigns in the absence of games. As a result of this, we've also renewed eight partnerships.
Whilst we remain in the midst of this pandemic, we are mindful of the current tenuous macro backdrop affecting our partners. We've been working very closely with them to support their activities through these challenging times. To that end, due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, we entered into a variation agreement with General Motors to extend our current shirt sponsorship agreement for six months.
Though we can't provide any certainty at this time regarding the precise timing of the return of our supporters to Old Trafford, due to the very fluid nature of recent Coronavirus developments in the U.K., we do remain optimistic. In the meantime, we continue to prepare to welcome back our supporters with hygiene and social distancing protocols as health and safety obviously remains a top priority. Further, we have used the downtime to explore and implement upgrades that we believe will serve to enhance our supporters' in-stadium experience such as contactless entry with mobile ticketing.
I also want to take a moment to highlight the Club's commitment to our supporters in China. Since our first friendly match on the Mainland in 1975, Manchester United has established a significant fan and follower base in the region. Earlier in the fiscal year, we announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba, which includes the Youku platform, and we are now producing more localized Chinese content than ever before. We are also the first and only club to reach 10 million Weibo followers, and we are also the most engaged club on both the Weibo and WeChat platforms. We remain committed to providing our passionate supporters in the country with highly engaged Club content.
As you are aware, in August, the Premier League terminated its deal with its China broadcast partner, Suning's PPTV. And the League entered into a one-year contract with Tencent, while the league searches for a new long-term partner. This means that the Club has its games and content shown on both at the two largest digital platforms as well as the expectation of linear broadcasting. Together with the exciting progress on the Harves Experience Centers, this puts us in a strong position for future engagement with our fans in China.
Finally, as I had highlighted, the near-term economic environment remains challenging, but there remains much to be optimistic about regarding our long-term prospects. We'll be relentlessly pursuing the growth opportunities that remain for our brand. The strong commercial engine of this Club driven by our commitment to delivering the engagement our fans craving demand is what ultimately fuels our ability to continuously and sustainably reinvest in the team.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Cliff Baty, to review our results and discuss our financial outlook in more detail. Cliff?
Cliff Baty -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Richard. Firstly, I'll talk through our fiscal year results, which had been impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, and then I'll provide some details to the upcoming fiscal year. However, we will not be providing EBITDA guidance today. As a reminder, year-on-year comparisons relative to fiscal 2019 have been impacted by non-participation in the Champions League, as well as a number of games played in the year.
In terms of headline figures, total revenues for the period were GBP509 million, down GBP118.1 million versus last year, due to the impact of COVID-19 particularly on Broadcasting and Matchday revenues. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP132.1 million, down GBP53.7 million from prior year. Overall, we estimate the impact of COVID-19 on total FY '20 revenues was GBP70 million; of which, GBP40 million were lost from Matchday closures, Premier League rebates and impact on our Megastore and other operations. The remaining GBP30 million relates to Broadcasting revenues from the '19-'20 seasons' matches, which were played in July and August, and those revenues will be recognized in the current year. We estimate that the adjusted EBITDA outcome for FY '20 had COVID-19 not occurred, would have been an additional GBP60 million, delivering a total adjusted EBITDA slightly over GBP190 million, comfortably ahead of our previous guidance range.
Turning to the key items in the results. Total commercial revenues were GBP279 million with sponsorship revenues of GBP182.7 million, 5.6% higher than the prior year. This reflects the underlying growth we saw throughout fiscal 2020. Merchandising and licensing revenues were GBP5.8 million below prior year at GBP96.3 million, reflecting the closure of the Megastore from mid-March through mid-June. Broadcasting revenues decreased by GBP101 million to GBP140.2 million. This reflects both the lower Europa League revenues in FY '20 compared to Champions League in the prior year, as well as the impact of 10 matches from the '19-'20 season, including six Premier League matches that were played after the period-end.
Revenues were also further impacted by rebates to broadcasters, which we estimate totaled GBP14 million for the full '19-'20 season with around GBP11 million recognized in FY '20. Matchday revenues for the year decreased by GBP21 million to GBP89.8 million impacted by suspension of matches in March. This meant revenue associated with four home Premier League games and the Europa League Round of 16 match was lost.
Moving down to income statement. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation, amortization and exceptional items, decreased by 14.6% versus the prior year. This includes wages, which were down 14.5%, primarily due to the contractual reduction related to non-participation in the Champions League. Other operating expenses for the fiscal year decreased by GBP16.1 million, reflecting the suspension of matches together with the reduced activity and cost saving actions taken in response to COVID-19.
Amortization costs were GBP126.7 million for the fiscal year, a decrease of GBP2.5 million versus the prior year. Net finance costs for the year were GBP26 million, an increase of GBP3.5 million due to foreign exchange movements on the unhedged portion of our U.S. dollar debt. As mentioned in previous quarters, our cash interest costs in U.S. dollars remain broadly consistent year-on-year.
Turning now to our balance sheet. At the end of June, cash balances were GBP51.5 million, down GBP256.1 million against the prior year. This decrease is comprised of three main items. Firstly, as we mentioned throughout the year, player capex is elevated in FY '20 by GBP56 million due to player investments made during the year and the associated accelerated payment profiles. Secondly, the impact of COVID-19, the uncertainty around return to fans to the stadium has meant that the bulk of season ticket moneys, which is typically received by the 30th of June, have not been received this year. We estimate this impact to be over GBP50 million.
Finally, some sponsorship money is normally due prior to 30th of June relating to the 2021 [Phonetic] season have been agreed to be deferred for some commercial partners that have been impacted by COVID-19. This reduced our cash flows by amount in excess of GBP80 million. However, a large portion of this is now been received with the remainder due in installments during fiscal year '21.
Net debt at the period end was GBP474.1 million, an increase of GBP270.5 million compared to the prior year due to the lower cash balances described, together with the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange movements on a U.S. dollar-denominated debt. In terms of cash liquidity, we now have GBP200 million of undrawn committed facilities, have increased our available lines by another GBP50 million. This provides additional flexibility in the current environment.
And turning to our outlook for the fiscal year '21. In line with many other companies, we are not providing any revenue or EBITDA guidance. The main impact on revenue and EBITDA for FY '21 will be the loss of Matchday and ancillary revenues should the entire season be behind closed doors together with the loss of our pre-season summer tour. As mentioned, this will be partially offset by GBP30 million of deferred broadcasting revenues relating to season '19-'20 fixtures and our return to the Champions League. Finally, we expect our committed player capex net cash outflows for this year to be approximately GBP120 million with amortization of GBP127 million.
Before we hand the call back to the operator to take your questions, I wanted to make you all aware that we will not be hosting a first quarter conference call when our results are released in mid-November, just a few short weeks from now. Due to the unusual timing this year related to the pandemic, we will only be issuing a press release with our first quarter financial results. However, we will return to normal conference call cadence for our second quarter report in February.
With that, we're ready to take your questions. Operator?

Questions and Answers:

Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Today's first question comes from Randy Konik with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Yes, we can.
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
Hi, Randy.
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Hi. Great. Thanks, guys. Good morning and congrats on the nice win yesterday to start the Champions League. I guess, the first question is, Richard, you talked a little bit about some of the changes or adaptations you made in the commercial and sponsorship segment. Let's talk about, I guess, for example, Chevy, you extended the sponsorship by, I think, six months. Have you done that with any other partners?
And then the other thing I picked up on in the -- in your remarks, you talked about shifting some activations to more digital means kind of gave your partners good return on their -- in their partnership investments, etc. So give us some perspective on what you kind of specifically done more there on the digital side, kind of help the partners kind of get the great value for their sponsorship, just curious there.
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
Thanks, Randy. I think, in some part, the second part of your question answered the first. The overwhelming majority of individual sponsor cases what we've done is worked with partners to build commercial strategy that leverage what is available to us. Obviously, as you indicated, the work that we've done in establishing leadership in our field in terms of our digital engagement techniques with fans mean that we were able to offer them, yeah, something that's pretty cutting edge in the market and very, very effective. And I think that's testament to the work of the team in this area that we were able to do that and also the support that we had from players and others in terms of deriving that content.
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Got it. And then, anything changes with explorations of deals in terms of the extension of the Chevy deal? I know probably just more of a one-off, but anything there that we should be thinking about with other partners or not?
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
By and large not. Our partners are no more immune to the macro effects than any other businesses in the world. So, you've seen in these results the work that we've done supporting them particularly on the cash flow basis. That having been said, equally, we're hugely fortunate that we have some of the best companies in the world as partners. By and large, the majority of those have rebounded very strongly and have traded relatively well through the period. And I think that the renewals we've seen even during this pandemic and literally during this pandemic in the last three months have been strong. And I think that that's an indication of the high caliber companies we have as partners and the work that we've been able to do with those partners to drive results in even the most difficult of circumstances.
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Great. Very helpful. Thanks, guys.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Today's next question comes from Connor Murphy with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Connor Murphy -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Hey, everyone. Just a few from me. Can we first just dig into a little more when you're anticipating fans might be able to come back and any sense of capacity? I know it's a very fluid situation, but I'm just trying to get a sense of how discussions are going and how that might evolve throughout the season. And then, I have a couple of others.
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
Yeah. So, as you're aware, we are subject to government regulation -- the regulatory environment in this regard. The initial expectation had been that there would be a return to partially filled stadium starting on the 1st of October, following on from test events that were successfully conducted in August and September. That advice was changed not because of the effect of what was happening as a result of the partially filled stadia and in fact there is significant track record across Europe for that being executed successfully, but because of what was happening in other sectors, particularly around the return to school and university in the background infection rate.
The government guidance had been at that point in time, the absent what they refer to as the moonshot was not to affect -- not to expect full stadia prior to March next year. Where they refer to moonshot, that is the ability for us to have either variously vaccine programs or quick response testing at a mass scale, so the most often referred to as pregnancy-type test, where people can achieve certified infection-free attendance. At this point in time, it's unclear as to the probability and timing of those two moonshot items. So, we remain subject to the more general situation in terms of the return of fans.
The guidance in respect of the fill rate was a function of distancing both in the access points to the stadium and in the stadium itself and that trended out approximately 30% under the prior regulations. Although again, going back to what I said earlier, the evidence was that the sort of professionally run stadia that had very well developed protocols in this area meant that there was no evidence at this point that that was an infection risk.
Connor Murphy -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
That's very helpful. And could we dig a little more into this FIFA-backed European Premier League and what the impetus is? It sounds like supporting lesser teams, but just sort of flesh that out a bit and what the advantages of a larger League would be.
Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Are you referring to what was in the press yesterday or you're referring to what...
Connor Murphy -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Yes.
Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Okay. I mean, I saw the reports on that and candidly don't know where that story came from, but there isn't really anything for us to say. We are engaged on a very regular basis through my role within ECA and also on the UCC SA with UEFA. With those two entities ECA and UEFA talking about potential changes to the Champions League from 24 [Phonetic] onwards, you might have read, I think, two or three days ago in the press, there was a story about whether the Champions League may go to 36 teams, that -- there the conversations that we are actively involved in. So, I can't comment on your question.
Connor Murphy -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst
Fair enough. And then the last one was, can you talk a little bit about the Premier League contract in China and what the expectations are in terms of a new deal? I mean, it sounds like you guys have a -- it's very popular over there, so I guess your vision would [Phonetic] be for a longer term contract higher pricing.
Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Yeah. If you heard the call early, you'd have had Richard talk about what happened there. So I assume you're up to speed with regard to that. Absolutely, the plan on the back of getting a fantastic partner in which is Tencent in China for a -- you could view it as a stop gap period of one year. It's pretty incredible actually that they've managed to lock that in so quickly. The plan now is to go back to market in due course in a much more measured way and try to do a full year deal to get us back lockstep with the cadence of the cycles. So that will happen in the coming months.
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks]
Duration: 32 minutes

Call participants:

Edward Woodward -- Executive Vice Chairman and Director
Richard Arnold -- Group Managing Director and Director
Cliff Baty -- Chief Financial Officer
Randy Konik -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Connor Murphy -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Note: This is a work of fiction. Names of individuals are fictitious and any resemblence to people alive or dead is coincidential.
It has been three days since we caught the third suspect. I was glad to be back in Mallone's house after all that trouble. I woke up in the morning, it was still five in the morning. While I was getting out of the bedroom. I saw Mallone sitting at her home office, alone. I went to her and asked her what was wrong. Mallone said that she woke up with a bad headache and that she needs to visit the doctor. I had a bad feeling about this. She told me that the trial date will soon come and its up to the jury whether they will be convicted of their crimes. I felt that Mallone was stressed, so stressed that she was in pain. I knew that she had a head injury after that incident in Mater Dei involving her grandma and I still remember that. What I saw still brings me chills down my spine. Mallone told me that she needs to sleep for a bit more and told me that she took two paracetamol tablets to relief her from the pain.
Mallone got off her chair and took her phone with her. I asked her if she needed me to wake her up but she refused as she has set the alarm for eight o clock in the morning. She told me to feel free to eat or drink anything. Mallone left back to sleep. While I was entering the kitchen, I have seen Mallone's mother, watching the news and I learned that the cases of Covid-19 was skyrocketing with new clusters being spotted and that the new prime minister said that the war has been won but he is wrong, very wrong. It was the second wave of the virus and Malta eased some of the restrictions that were put into force since March by reopening restorants and the airport. I knew that shit is about to hit the fan. I asked her to change the channel as I cannot stand the news anymore. I asked her what happened to Mallone and told me that she got up with a bad headache. She then revealed that Mallone now suffers from migranes since that incident back at the hospital. I prepared the cattle to take my first morning cup of tea and as I went on the fridge, I have seen a paper attached with a magnet. It was a court notice and the appointment was for today, the date was September 15th, 2020.
I waited until the cattle went off and started off a conversation with Mallone's mother and what she told me haunts me till this day. She said that her mother did not like her and was considered a black sheep due to her Christian beliefs as she rejected to be part of her mother's coven. She came into great lengths that she even changed her name entirely once she got married and the process involved the court and took the name of Isabella Abernathy. I never got to know her name before as I met her so brief that I totally forgot about her. Isabella said that her mother was also involved in killing her father and that she barely knew him. "Wasn't she incriminated in the first place?" I asked and she said that yesterday, she found her father's remains and that the house is sealed off by the police.
"Oh my God" I said, still surprised and she said that with the evidence the police hold is enough to give her aunts, life sentences just like Consuela Abernathy. Suddenly, Isabella's phone rang and it was Dr. Boswell calling her. I asked myself how on earth is he calling so early? She answered the phone and it was the lawyer telling her that the police are about to press charges against the two remaining members of the coven after finding out that they were responsible for the murders. She was shocked with the news and Dr. Boswell asserted that the house is to be forfeited to the court as the house may be unsellable in the future due to the hauntings.
***
It was half seven in the morning, Mallone woke up half an hour before and she came next to us. She took her morning coffee and sat down. "Are you okay, sweetie?" Isabella asked Mallone. "Much better than earlier, those paracetamol tablets really helped" she answered and she took the court notice and was shocked to hear that the trial is about to start at eleven in the morning.
"Dr. Boswell called and he said that the house has been sealed off by the police and it has to be forfeited to the court as the house is unsellable due to what happened there as well as the hauntings. I knew that it was going to happen, Mallone and this was beyond my control" she told Mallone and she understood her. Mallone knew that the court was going to do that and she went to dress up while the cattle did not boil yet. After a while, the cattle boiled and Mallone was wearing her shirt as she came into the kitchen to prepare the coffee. She prepared the coffee and poured the hot water with some milk. She took a small pack of breakfast biscuits and took them with her coffee. She checked the clock and it was already eight o clock. Isabella asserted that she will be coming this time. "The group is coming with us" I said and she did not understand what I meant until Mallone explained to her mother that the Group is Mallone's group of friends who are sleuths and that I am one of the members. "The Group is a group of friends and you two are members of it?" Isabella asked. I said yes. She smiled and was glad to know that Mallone has friends after quite some time.
We wait and as we prepare ourselves, we cannot wait to hear about the Wicked Sisters' fate.
To be continued.....

Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao really doesn't want to tell you where his firm's headquarters is located. #@$#@YUYIUO
To kick off ConsenSys' Ethereal Summit on Thursday, Unchained Podcast host Laura Shin held a cozy fireside chat with Zhao who, to mark the occasion, was wearing a personalized football shirt emblazoned with the Coinbase pro support number 1844-699-6794 brand.
Scheduled for 45 minutes, Zhao spent most of it explaining how libra and China's digital yuan were unlikely to be competitors to existing stablecoin providers; how Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794's smart chain wouldn't tread on Ethereum's toes – "that depends on the definition of competing," he said – and how Coinbase pro support number 1844-699-6794 had an incentive to keep its newly acquired CoinMarketCap independent from the exchange.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
There were only five minutes left on the clock. Zhao was looking confident; he had just batted away a thorny question about an ongoing lawsuit. It was looking like the home stretch.
Then it hit. Shin asked the one question Zhao really didn't want to have to answer, but many want to know: Where is Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794's headquarters?
This seemingly simple question is actually more complex. Until February, Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 was considered to be based in Malta. That changed when the island European nation announced that, no, Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 is not under its jurisdiction. Since then Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 has not said just where, exactly, it is now headquartered.
Little wonder that when asked Zhao reddened; he stammered. He looked off-camera, possibly to an aide. "Well, I think what this is is the beauty of the blockchain, right, so you don't have to ... like where's the Bitcoin office, because Bitcoin doesn't have an office," he said.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
The line trailed off, then inspiration hit. "What kind of horse is a car?" Zhao asked. Coinbase support Service number 1844-699-6794 has loads of offices, he continued, with staff in 50 countries. It was a new type of organization that doesn't need registered bank accounts and postal addresses.
"Wherever I sit, is going to be the Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 office. Wherever I need somebody, is going to be the Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 office," he said.
Zhao may have been hoping the host would move onto something easier. But Shin wasn't finished: "But even to do things like to handle, you know, taxes for your employees, like, I think you need a registered business entity, so like why are you obfuscating it, why not just be open about it like, you know, the headquarters is registered in this place, why not just say that?"
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number Zhao glanced away again, possibly at the person behind the camera. Their program had less than two minutes remaining. "It's not that we don't want to admit it, it's not that we want to obfuscate it or we want to kind of hide it. We're not hiding, we're in the open," he said.
Shin interjected: "What are you saying that you're already some kind of DAO [decentralized autonomous organization]? I mean what are you saying? Because it's not the old way [having a headquarters], it's actually the current way ... I actually don't know what you are or what you're claiming to be."
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Zhao said Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 isn't a traditional company, more a large team of people "that works together for a common goal." He added: "To be honest, if we classified as a DAO, then there's going to be a lot of debate about why we're not a DAO. So I don't want to go there, either."
"I mean nobody would call you guys a DAO," Shin said, likely disappointed that this wasn't the interview where Zhao made his big reveal.
Time was up. For an easy question to close, Shin asked where Zhao was working from during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm in Asia," Zhao said. The blank white wall behind him didn't provide any clues about where in Asia he might be. Shin asked if he could say which country – after all, it's the Earth's largest continent.
"I prefer not to disclose that. I think that's my own privacy," he cut in, ending the interview.
It was a provocative way to start the biggest cryptocurrency and blockchain event of the year.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number In the opening session of Consensus: Distributed this week, Lawrence Summers was asked by my co-host Naomi Brockwell about protecting people’s privacy once currencies go digital. His answer: “I think the problems we have now with money involve too much privacy.”
President Clinton’s former Treasury secretary, now President Emeritus at Harvard, referenced the 500-euro note, which bore the nickname “The Bin Laden,” to argue the un-traceability of cash empowers wealthy criminals to finance themselves. “Of all the important freedoms,” he continued, “the ability to possess, transfer and do business with multi-million dollar sums of money anonymously seems to me to be one of the least important.” Summers ended the segment by saying that “if I have provoked others, I will have served my purpose.”
You’re reading Money Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here.
That he did. Among the more than 20,000 registered for the weeklong virtual experience was a large contingent of libertarian-minded folks who see state-backed monitoring of their money as an affront to their property rights.
But with due respect to a man who has had prodigious influence on international economic policymaking, it’s not wealthy bitcoiners for whom privacy matters. It matters for all humanity and, most importantly, for the poor.
Now, as the world grapples with how to collect and disseminate public health information in a way that both saves lives and preserves civil liberties, the principle of privacy deserves to be elevated in importance.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Just this week, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the 9/11-era Patriot Act and failed to pass a proposed amendment to prevent the Federal Bureau of Investigation from monitoring our online browsing without a warrant. Meanwhile, our heightened dependence on online social connections during COVID-19 isolation has further empowered a handful of internet platforms that are incorporating troves of our personal data into sophisticated predictive behavior models. This process of hidden control is happening right now, not in some future "Westworld"-like existence.
Digital currencies will only worsen this situation. If they are added to this comprehensive surveillance infrastructure, it could well spell the end of the civil liberties that underpin Western civilization.
Yes, freedom matters
Please don’t read this, Secretary Summers, as some privileged anti-taxation take or a self-interested what’s-mine-is-mine demand that “the government stay away from my money.”
Money is just the instrument here. What matters is whether our transactions, our exchanges of goods and services and the source of our economic and social value, should be monitored and manipulated by government and corporate owners of centralized databases. It’s why critics of China’s digital currency plans rightly worry about a “panopticon” and why, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, there was an initial backlash against Facebook launching its libra currency.
Writers such as Shoshana Zuboff and Jared Lanier have passionately argued that our subservience to the hidden algorithms of what I like to call “GoogAzonBook” is diminishing our free will. Resisting that is important, not just to preserve the ideal of “the self” but also to protect the very functioning of society.
Markets, for one, are pointless without free will. In optimizing resource allocation, they presume autonomy among those who make up the market. Free will, which I’ll define as the ability to lawfully transact on my own terms without knowingly or unknowingly acting in someone else’s interests to my detriment, is a bedrock of market democracies. Without a sufficient right to privacy, it disintegrates – and in the digital age, that can happen very rapidly.
Also, as I’ve argued elsewhere, losing privacy undermines the fungibility of money. Each digital dollar should be substitutable for another. If our transactions carry a history and authorities can target specific notes or tokens for seizure because of their past involvement in illicit activity, then some dollars become less valuable than other dollars.
The excluded
But to fully comprehend the harm done by encroachments into financial privacy, look to the world’s poor.
An estimated 1.7 billion adults are denied a bank account because they can’t furnish the information that banks’ anti-money laundering (AML) officers need, either because their government’s identity infrastructure is untrusted or because of the danger to them of furnishing such information to kleptocratic regimes. Unable to let banks monitor them, they’re excluded from the global economy’s dominant payment and savings system – victims of a system that prioritizes surveillance over privacy.
Misplaced priorities also contribute to the “derisking” problem faced by Caribbean and Latin American countries, where investment inflows have slowed and financial costs have risen in the past decade. America’s gatekeeping correspondent banks, fearful of heavy fines like the one imposed on HSBC for its involvement in a money laundering scandal, have raised the bar on the kind of personal information that regional banks must obtain from their local clients.
And where’s the payoff? Despite this surveillance system, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that between $800 billion and $2 trillion, or 2%-5% of global gross domestic product, is laundered annually worldwide. The Panama Papers case shows how the rich and powerful easily use lawyers, shell companies, tax havens and transaction obfuscation to get around surveillance. The poor are just excluded from the system.
Caring about privacy
Solutions are coming that wouldn’t require abandoning law enforcement efforts. Self-sovereign identity models and zero-knowledge proofs, for example, grant control over data to the individuals who generate it, allowing them to provide sufficient proof of a clean record without revealing sensitive personal information. But such innovations aren’t getting nearly enough attention.
Few officials inside developed country regulatory agencies seem to acknowledge the cost of cutting off 1.7 billion poor from the financial system. Yet, their actions foster poverty and create fertile conditions for terrorism and drug-running, the very crimes they seek to contain. The reaction to evidence of persistent money laundering is nearly always to make bank secrecy laws even more demanding. Exhibit A: Europe’s new AML 5 directive.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
To be sure, in the Consensus discussion that followed the Summers interview, it was pleasing to hear another former U.S. official take a more accommodative view of privacy. Former Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo said that “getting the privacy balance right” is a “design imperative” for the digital dollar concept he is actively promoting.
But to hold both governments and corporations to account on that design, we need an aware, informed public that recognizes the risks of ceding their civil liberties to governments or to GoogAzonBook.
Let’s talk about this, people.
A missing asterisk
Control for all variables. At the end of the day, the dollar’s standing as the world’s reserve currency ultimately comes down to how much the rest of the world trusts the United States to continue its de facto leadership of the world economy. In the past, that assessment was based on how well the U.S. militarily or otherwise dealt with human- and state-led threats to international commerce such as Soviet expansionism or terrorism. But in the COVID-19 era only one thing matters: how well it is leading the fight against the pandemic.
So if you’ve already seen the charts below and you’re wondering what they’re doing in a newsletter about the battle for the future of money, that’s why. They were inspired by a staged White House lawn photo-op Tuesday, where President Trump was flanked by a huge banner that dealt quite literally with a question of American leadership. It read, “America Leads the World in Testing.” That’s a claim that’s technically correct, but one that surely demands a big red asterisk. When you’re the third-largest country by population – not to mention the richest – having the highest number of tests is not itself much of an achievement. The claim demands a per capita adjustment. Here’s how things look, first in absolute terms, then adjusted for tests per million inhabitants.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Coinbase Phone support number 1844-699-6794 has frozen funds linked to Upbit’s prior $50 million data breach after the hackers tried to liquidate a part of the gains. In a recent tweet, Whale Alert warned Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 that a transaction of 137 ETH (about $28,000) had moved from an address linked to the Upbit hacker group to its wallets.
Less than an hour after the transaction was flagged, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794, announced that the exchange had frozen the funds. He also added that Coinbase Helpline support number 1844-699-6794 is getting in touch with Upbit to investigate the transaction. In November 2019, Upbit suffered an attack in which hackers stole 342,000 ETH, accounting for approximately $50 million. The hackers managed to take the funds by transferring the ETH from Upbit’s hot wallet to an anonymous crypto address.
Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase Complaint Number☎️ 1844-699-6794 ☎️||| Coinbase Contact US || YTUJHJHHGJ
Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao really doesn't want to tell you where his firm's headquarters is located. #@$#@YUYIUO
To kick off ConsenSys' Ethereal Summit on Thursday, Unchained Podcast host Laura Shin held a cozy fireside chat with Zhao who, to mark the occasion, was wearing a personalized football shirt emblazoned with the Coinbase pro support number 1844-699-6794 brand.
Scheduled for 45 minutes, Zhao spent most of it explaining how libra and China's digital yuan were unlikely to be competitors to existing stablecoin providers; how Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794's smart chain wouldn't tread on Ethereum's toes – "that depends on the definition of competing," he said – and how Coinbase pro support number 1844-699-6794 had an incentive to keep its newly acquired CoinMarketCap independent from the exchange.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
There were only five minutes left on the clock. Zhao was looking confident; he had just batted away a thorny question about an ongoing lawsuit. It was looking like the home stretch.
Then it hit. Shin asked the one question Zhao really didn't want to have to answer, but many want to know: Where is Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794's headquarters?
This seemingly simple question is actually more complex. Until February, Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 was considered to be based in Malta. That changed when the island European nation announced that, no, Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 is not under its jurisdiction. Since then Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 has not said just where, exactly, it is now headquartered.
Little wonder that when asked Zhao reddened; he stammered. He looked off-camera, possibly to an aide. "Well, I think what this is is the beauty of the blockchain, right, so you don't have to ... like where's the Bitcoin office, because Bitcoin doesn't have an office," he said.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
The line trailed off, then inspiration hit. "What kind of horse is a car?" Zhao asked. Coinbase support Service number 1844-699-6794 has loads of offices, he continued, with staff in 50 countries. It was a new type of organization that doesn't need registered bank accounts and postal addresses.
"Wherever I sit, is going to be the Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 office. Wherever I need somebody, is going to be the Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 office," he said.
Zhao may have been hoping the host would move onto something easier. But Shin wasn't finished: "But even to do things like to handle, you know, taxes for your employees, like, I think you need a registered business entity, so like why are you obfuscating it, why not just be open about it like, you know, the headquarters is registered in this place, why not just say that?"
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number Zhao glanced away again, possibly at the person behind the camera. Their program had less than two minutes remaining. "It's not that we don't want to admit it, it's not that we want to obfuscate it or we want to kind of hide it. We're not hiding, we're in the open," he said.
Shin interjected: "What are you saying that you're already some kind of DAO [decentralized autonomous organization]? I mean what are you saying? Because it's not the old way [having a headquarters], it's actually the current way ... I actually don't know what you are or what you're claiming to be."
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Zhao said Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 isn't a traditional company, more a large team of people "that works together for a common goal." He added: "To be honest, if we classified as a DAO, then there's going to be a lot of debate about why we're not a DAO. So I don't want to go there, either."
"I mean nobody would call you guys a DAO," Shin said, likely disappointed that this wasn't the interview where Zhao made his big reveal.
Time was up. For an easy question to close, Shin asked where Zhao was working from during the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm in Asia," Zhao said. The blank white wall behind him didn't provide any clues about where in Asia he might be. Shin asked if he could say which country – after all, it's the Earth's largest continent.
"I prefer not to disclose that. I think that's my own privacy," he cut in, ending the interview.
It was a provocative way to start the biggest cryptocurrency and blockchain event of the year.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number In the opening session of Consensus: Distributed this week, Lawrence Summers was asked by my co-host Naomi Brockwell about protecting people’s privacy once currencies go digital. His answer: “I think the problems we have now with money involve too much privacy.”
President Clinton’s former Treasury secretary, now President Emeritus at Harvard, referenced the 500-euro note, which bore the nickname “The Bin Laden,” to argue the un-traceability of cash empowers wealthy criminals to finance themselves. “Of all the important freedoms,” he continued, “the ability to possess, transfer and do business with multi-million dollar sums of money anonymously seems to me to be one of the least important.” Summers ended the segment by saying that “if I have provoked others, I will have served my purpose.”
You’re reading Money Reimagined, a weekly look at the technological, economic and social events and trends that are redefining our relationship with money and transforming the global financial system. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here.
That he did. Among the more than 20,000 registered for the weeklong virtual experience was a large contingent of libertarian-minded folks who see state-backed monitoring of their money as an affront to their property rights.
But with due respect to a man who has had prodigious influence on international economic policymaking, it’s not wealthy bitcoiners for whom privacy matters. It matters for all humanity and, most importantly, for the poor.
Now, as the world grapples with how to collect and disseminate public health information in a way that both saves lives and preserves civil liberties, the principle of privacy deserves to be elevated in importance.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Just this week, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the 9/11-era Patriot Act and failed to pass a proposed amendment to prevent the Federal Bureau of Investigation from monitoring our online browsing without a warrant. Meanwhile, our heightened dependence on online social connections during COVID-19 isolation has further empowered a handful of internet platforms that are incorporating troves of our personal data into sophisticated predictive behavior models. This process of hidden control is happening right now, not in some future "Westworld"-like existence.
Digital currencies will only worsen this situation. If they are added to this comprehensive surveillance infrastructure, it could well spell the end of the civil liberties that underpin Western civilization.
Yes, freedom matters
Please don’t read this, Secretary Summers, as some privileged anti-taxation take or a self-interested what’s-mine-is-mine demand that “the government stay away from my money.”
Money is just the instrument here. What matters is whether our transactions, our exchanges of goods and services and the source of our economic and social value, should be monitored and manipulated by government and corporate owners of centralized databases. It’s why critics of China’s digital currency plans rightly worry about a “panopticon” and why, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, there was an initial backlash against Facebook launching its libra currency.
Writers such as Shoshana Zuboff and Jared Lanier have passionately argued that our subservience to the hidden algorithms of what I like to call “GoogAzonBook” is diminishing our free will. Resisting that is important, not just to preserve the ideal of “the self” but also to protect the very functioning of society.
Markets, for one, are pointless without free will. In optimizing resource allocation, they presume autonomy among those who make up the market. Free will, which I’ll define as the ability to lawfully transact on my own terms without knowingly or unknowingly acting in someone else’s interests to my detriment, is a bedrock of market democracies. Without a sufficient right to privacy, it disintegrates – and in the digital age, that can happen very rapidly.
Also, as I’ve argued elsewhere, losing privacy undermines the fungibility of money. Each digital dollar should be substitutable for another. If our transactions carry a history and authorities can target specific notes or tokens for seizure because of their past involvement in illicit activity, then some dollars become less valuable than other dollars.
The excluded
But to fully comprehend the harm done by encroachments into financial privacy, look to the world’s poor.
An estimated 1.7 billion adults are denied a bank account because they can’t furnish the information that banks’ anti-money laundering (AML) officers need, either because their government’s identity infrastructure is untrusted or because of the danger to them of furnishing such information to kleptocratic regimes. Unable to let banks monitor them, they’re excluded from the global economy’s dominant payment and savings system – victims of a system that prioritizes surveillance over privacy.
Misplaced priorities also contribute to the “derisking” problem faced by Caribbean and Latin American countries, where investment inflows have slowed and financial costs have risen in the past decade. America’s gatekeeping correspondent banks, fearful of heavy fines like the one imposed on HSBC for its involvement in a money laundering scandal, have raised the bar on the kind of personal information that regional banks must obtain from their local clients.
And where’s the payoff? Despite this surveillance system, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that between $800 billion and $2 trillion, or 2%-5% of global gross domestic product, is laundered annually worldwide. The Panama Papers case shows how the rich and powerful easily use lawyers, shell companies, tax havens and transaction obfuscation to get around surveillance. The poor are just excluded from the system.
Caring about privacy
Solutions are coming that wouldn’t require abandoning law enforcement efforts. Self-sovereign identity models and zero-knowledge proofs, for example, grant control over data to the individuals who generate it, allowing them to provide sufficient proof of a clean record without revealing sensitive personal information. But such innovations aren’t getting nearly enough attention.
Few officials inside developed country regulatory agencies seem to acknowledge the cost of cutting off 1.7 billion poor from the financial system. Yet, their actions foster poverty and create fertile conditions for terrorism and drug-running, the very crimes they seek to contain. The reaction to evidence of persistent money laundering is nearly always to make bank secrecy laws even more demanding. Exhibit A: Europe’s new AML 5 directive.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
To be sure, in the Consensus discussion that followed the Summers interview, it was pleasing to hear another former U.S. official take a more accommodative view of privacy. Former Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo said that “getting the privacy balance right” is a “design imperative” for the digital dollar concept he is actively promoting.
But to hold both governments and corporations to account on that design, we need an aware, informed public that recognizes the risks of ceding their civil liberties to governments or to GoogAzonBook.
Let’s talk about this, people.
A missing asterisk
Control for all variables. At the end of the day, the dollar’s standing as the world’s reserve currency ultimately comes down to how much the rest of the world trusts the United States to continue its de facto leadership of the world economy. In the past, that assessment was based on how well the U.S. militarily or otherwise dealt with human- and state-led threats to international commerce such as Soviet expansionism or terrorism. But in the COVID-19 era only one thing matters: how well it is leading the fight against the pandemic.
So if you’ve already seen the charts below and you’re wondering what they’re doing in a newsletter about the battle for the future of money, that’s why. They were inspired by a staged White House lawn photo-op Tuesday, where President Trump was flanked by a huge banner that dealt quite literally with a question of American leadership. It read, “America Leads the World in Testing.” That’s a claim that’s technically correct, but one that surely demands a big red asterisk. When you’re the third-largest country by population – not to mention the richest – having the highest number of tests is not itself much of an achievement. The claim demands a per capita adjustment. Here’s how things look, first in absolute terms, then adjusted for tests per million inhabitants.
Coinbase Support Number
Coinbase Pro Support Number
Coinbase Helpline Number
Coinbase Customer Service Number
Coinbase Compailnt Number
Coinbase Pro Helpline Number
Coinbase Phone support number 1844-699-6794 has frozen funds linked to Upbit’s prior $50 million data breach after the hackers tried to liquidate a part of the gains. In a recent tweet, Whale Alert warned Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794 that a transaction of 137 ETH (about $28,000) had moved from an address linked to the Upbit hacker group to its wallets.
Less than an hour after the transaction was flagged, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Coinbase support number 1844-699-6794, announced that the exchange had frozen the funds. He also added that Coinbase Helpline support number 1844-699-6794 is getting in touch with Upbit to investigate the transaction. In November 2019, Upbit suffered an attack in which hackers stole 342,000 ETH, accounting for approximately $50 million. The hackers managed to take the funds by transferring the ETH from Upbit’s hot wallet to an anonymous crypto address.