title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On August 4, 2022, Hankison and three other officers were federally charged with violating Taylor's civil rights, unlawful conspiracy, obstruction, and unconstitutional use of force. One of the four officers, Kelly Goodlett, later pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, marking the first convictions in the case.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The LMPD investigation's primary targets were Jamarcus Glover and Adrian Walker (not related to Kenneth Walker), who were suspected of selling controlled substances from a drug house approximately away. Glover said the police had pressured him to move out of his residence for unspecified reasons. Glover and Taylor had been in an on-off relationship that started in 2016 and lasted until February 2020, when Taylor committed to Kenneth Walker.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In December 2016, Fernandez Bowman was found dead in a car rented by Taylor and used by Glover. He had been shot eight times. Glover had used Taylor's address and phone number for various purposes, including bank statements.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In a variety of statements, Glover said that Taylor had no involvement in the drug operations, that as a favor she held money from the proceeds for him, and that she handled money for him for other purposes. In different recorded jailhouse conversations Glover said that Taylor had been handling his money and that she was holding $8,000 of it, that he had given Taylor money to pay phone bills, and that he had told his sister that another woman had been keeping the group's money.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In the recorded conversations and in an interview with "The Courier-Journal" of Louisville, Glover repeatedly said that Taylor was not involved in any drug operations and that police had "no business" looking for him at her residence, and denied that he had said in the recorded conversations that he kept money at her residence. Taylor was never a co-defendant in Glover's case.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: LMPD obtained a "no-knock" search warrant for Taylor's apartment at 3003 Springfield Drive in Louisville. The search warrant included Taylor's residence because it was suspected that Glover received packages containing drugs there, might have been "keeping narcotics and/or proceeds from the sale of narcotics" there, and because a car registered to Taylor had been seen parked in front of Glover's house several times. Specifically, the warrant alleges that in January 2020, Glover left Taylor's apartment with an unknown package, presumed to contain drugs, and took it to a known drug apartment soon afterward. The warrant states that this event was verified "through a U.S. Postal Inspector". In May 2020, the U.S. postal inspector in Louisville publicly announced that the collaboration with law enforcement had never actually occurred. The postal office said it was actually asked by a different agency to monitor packages going to Taylor's apartment, but after doing so, it concluded, "There's no packages of interest going there." This public revelation put the investigation and especially the warrant into question and resulted in an internal investigation.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The warrant was applied for by LMPD detective Joshua C. Jaynes among a total of five warrants approved the preceding day by Jefferson County Circuit Judge Mary Shaw "within 12 minutes", and which was stamped as filed with the court clerk's office on April 2. All five warrants contain similar language involving a justification for no-knock entry that concludes with "due to the nature of how these drug traffickers operate". Christopher Slobogin, director of Vanderbilt University's Criminal Justice Program, said that unless police had a reason to suspect that Taylor's residence had surveillance cameras "a no-knock warrant would be improper." Brian Gallini, a professor at the University of Arkansas, also expressed skepticism about the warrant, writing that if it was appropriate in this particular search, "then every routine drug transaction would justify grounds for no-knock". In September 2022, WHAS11 news reported that as part of Goodlett's plea deal, she stated that Jaynes sought the warrants from Shaw "because he believed she would not closely scrutinize the warrants".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: But Sergeant Timothy Salyer, supervisor of the Shively, Kentucky, police department's Special Investigations Unit, told LMPD internal investigators in May that due to "bad blood" between the United States Postal Inspection Service () and the LMPD, inquiries related to the drug trafficking investigation had been routed through the Shively . In his interview with internal investigators, Jaynes said that before the raid on Taylor's apartment Mattingly told him that the Shively PD had reported that the United States Postal Service had not delivered any suspicious packages to that address. Jaynes was reassigned from his duties with the LMPD in June.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: According to "The New York Times", before the execution of the no-knock warrant, orders were changed to "knock and announce".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, Louisville police dressed in plain clothes knocked on Taylor's door before forcing entry using a battering ram. There is dispute as to whether the officers announced themselves before forcing entry. Walker contends that Taylor asked, "Who is it?" several times after hearing a loud bang at the door. Hearing no answer, he then decided to call his mother instead of the police. After calling his mother he dialed 911 and armed himself. The police officers involved have testified that they announced themselves multiple times before using the battering ram to enter the apartment.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: "The New York Times" interviewed roughly a dozen neighbors and reported that only one of them, who was on the exterior staircase immediately above Taylor's apartment, heard the officers shout "Police!" once and knock at least three times, while the other interviewed neighbors heard no announcement, including one who was outside smoking a cigarette.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: According to a statement by Attorney General Cameron, an independent investigation concluded that the no-knock warrant was served as a knock-and-announce warrant, which was corroborated by one independent witness who was near Taylor's apartment. But on September 30, this witness's lawyer said that police announced themselves "only in passing" and implied that the witness was quoted out of context or that video was deceptively spliced. According to VICE News, the witness originally said "nobody identified themselves" when interviewed by police a week after the shooting. But when the police called him two months later, he said he heard, "This is the cops."


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Walker said that he and Taylor believed intruders were breaking into the apartment. He initially told police during his arrest that Taylor had opened fire, but later reversed his statement, saying that he had "let out one shot at the ground", which he described as a warning shot in self-defense. According to officials, the shot struck Mattingly in the leg. Mattingly said that Walker "wasn't shooting at the ground" and "was in a stretched out [position] with two hands, looking straight at me." Walker's legal team asserts that because forensic photography shows no blood in the part of the apartment where Mattingly said he was shot, because a court-sealed photograph of the single hollow-point bullet from Walker's firearm shows no blood, and because, based on consultations with pathologists, they believe that a hollow-point bullet would have done "considerably" more damage to Mattingly's thigh, the evidence suggests Mattingly was shot by police officers. A Kentucky State Police ballistics report is inconclusive, saying that "due to limited markings of comparative value", the bullet that hit Mattingly and exited his thigh was neither "identified nor eliminated as having been fired" from Walker's gun. But it was fired from a 9mm pistol like Walker's, whereas all officers were carrying 40-caliber guns.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Police then fired 32 rounds into the apartment during two "flurries" or waves of shots separated by one minute and eight seconds. Mattingly, the only officer who entered the residence, fired six shots. At the same time, Cosgrove fired 16 shots from the doorway area in a matter of seconds. Hankison fired 10 times from outside through a sliding glass door and bedroom window, both of which were covered by blinds or curtains. The officers' shots hit objects in the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, and both bedrooms.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Taylor was struck by five or six bullets in the hallway and pronounced dead at the scene. Cosgrove fired the shot that killed her. Walker was uninjured.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: According to police grand-jury testimony, the warrant was never executed and Taylor's apartment was not searched for drugs or money after the shooting. More than a month after the shooting, Glover was offered a plea deal if he would testify that Taylor was part of his drug dealing operations. Prosecutors said that that offer was in a draft of the deal but later removed. Glover rejected the deal.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On November 19, 2020, Glover's associate Adrian Walker was fatally shot. The Louisville police stated that they had no suspects in the killing.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: An autopsy was conducted on Taylor, and her cause of death was determined to be homicide. The death certificate also notes that she received five gunshot wounds to the body. The coroner denied "The Courier-Journal"s request for a copy of the autopsy. The newspaper was appealing to the attorney general's office as of July 17, 2020.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The police filed an incident report that claimed that Taylor had no injuries and that no forced entry occurred. The police department said that technical errors led to a nearly entirely blank malformed report.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: All three officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative reassignment pending the outcome of an investigation by the police department's internal Professional Integrity Unit. On May 20, 2020, the investigation's findings were given to Daniel Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky, to determine whether any officer should be criminally charged. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer also asked the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office to review the findings.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In early June, Fischer called for Officer Hankison to be removed from the Louisville Police Merit Board, which reviews appeals from police officers in departmental disciplinary matters. Hankison was one of five members of the board, which consists of three civilians and two police officers selected by the River City Fraternal Order of Police. On June 19, three months after Taylor's killing, Louisville Metro Police interim chief Robert Schroeder sent Hankison a letter notifying him that Schroeder had begun termination proceedings against him. The letter accused Hankison of violating departmental policies on the use of deadly force by "wantonly and blindly" firing into Taylor's apartment without determining whether any person presented "an immediate threat" or whether there were "any innocent persons present". The letter also cited past disciplinary action taken against Hankison by the department, including for reckless conduct. Hankison was formally fired four days later (June 23); he had ten days (until July 3) to appeal his termination to the Louisville Police Merit Board. That appeal was delayed until the termination of the criminal investigation.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On September 23, 2020, a state grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment for endangering a neighboring family of three when shots he fired penetrated their apartment. He faced up to five years in prison and a fine for each count. Bullets also entered the upstairs apartment of a black family but no charges were filed. An attorney for Taylor's family criticized this decision, stating: "Three counts for the shots into the apartment of the white neighbors, but no counts for the shots into the apartment of the Black neighbors upstairs above Breonna's". Neither Hankison nor the two other officers involved in the raid were indicted for Taylor's death.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The "Louisville Courier Journal" raised questions about whether the grand jury had been allowed to decide whether charges should be pressed against Mattingly and Cosgrove or whether prosecutors decided that the officers acted in self-defense without submitting the issue to the grand jury. Hankison's and Walker's attorneys requested the release of the grand jury transcript and related evidence. On September 28, a grand juror filed a court motion stating that Cameron had mischaracterized the grand-jury proceedings and was "using grand jurors as a shield to deflect accountability and responsibility" for charging decisions. A judge ordered the release of the grand jury proceedings' recording; Cameron's office and Hankison's attorney opposed the ruling. A day later, Cameron said that he did not recommend murder charges to the grand jury, but maintained that he presented "a thorough and complete case". While recordings of testimony and some other parts of the proceedings were released, the juror deliberations and prosecutor recommendations were not released and according to the state attorney general's office were never recorded.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On October 22, a second grand juror criticized Cameron, how the grand jury was operated, and how Cameron presented the grand jury's conclusion. The juror agreed with the first juror's statement, including that members of the grand jury wanted to consider other charges against the officers, including homicide charges. But "the panel was steered away from considering homicide charges and left in the dark about self-defense laws during deliberations." These statements contradict Cameron's claims that the grand jury "agreed" the officers who shot Taylor were justified in returning fire after Taylor's boyfriend shot at them. The first grand juror said the panel "didn't agree that certain actions were justified".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: One of the anonymous jurors said that the police it up. That's what the evidence that I saw [led me to conclude]. And I felt like there should have been lots more charges on them." On March 3, 2022, jurors acquitted Hankison on all three counts after deliberating for three hours.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The FBI began its own independent investigation, announced by its Louisville field office on May 21, 2020. After the state grand jury charges were announced, the FBI stated, "FBI Louisville continues its federal investigation into all aspects of the death of Breonna Taylor. This work will continue beyond the state charges announced today."


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On August 4, 2022 the Justice Department unsealed charges against three defendants with falsifying a search warrant affidavit and a fourth with two counts of deprivation of civil rights for shooting through Taylor's window and glass door. As detailed by the United States Department of Justice, the investigations resulted in two grand jury indictments and one felony information.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 14, 2020, photos were released to the public in "The Courier-Journal" by Sam Aguiar, an attorney representing Taylor's family. The photos show bullet damage in her apartment and the apartment next door.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The Louisville police claimed that none of the officers were wearing body cameras, as all three were plainclothes narcotics officers. On September 4, several news sources, including "The Courier-Journal", reported that photographs of police officers taken late that day showed that at least one wore a body camera. In the later photographs, one of the officers who fired his weapon, Myles Cosgrove, was wearing a mount for a body camera; another detective who was present wore a body camera, although it is not known whether it was active.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 20, 2020, the occupants of a neighboring apartment filed a lawsuit against Hankison, Cosgrove, and Mattingly. The occupants were a pregnant woman, her child and a man. The lawsuit alleged that the officers fired blindly into their apartment and nearly hit the man's head, shattered a sliding glass door, and hit objects in three rooms and a hallway.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Walker initially faced criminal charges of first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer. The LMPD officers said they announced themselves before entering the home and were immediately met with gunfire from Walker. According to their statement, Walker discharged his firearm first, injuring an officer. Walker's lawyer said Walker thought that someone was entering the residence illegally and that Walker acted only in self-defense. A 9-1-1 call later released to the public provided a recording of Walker telling the 911 operator, "somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Walker was later released from jail due to coronavirus concerns, which drew criticism from Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Steve Conrad.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Judge Olu Stevens released Walker from home incarceration on May 22. Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine then moved to dismiss all charges against Walker in late May, but that meant that the case could be presented to a grand jury again, once the results of the FBI's and the Kentucky Attorney General's Office's investigations had been reviewed. Wine wanted the charges dropped because the officers had never mentioned Taylor by name to the grand jury, or said that they shot her. Walker's close friends said that his job was to protect Taylor at any cost. On May 26, 2020, Judge Olu Stevens granted Wine's motion to drop all charges against Walker. Rob Eggert, an attorney representing Walker, released a statement saying, "he just wanted to resume his life." At the same time, his attorney said that he could be charged again later as more facts emerge. On June 16, Eggert filed a motion to permanently dismiss the indictment charging Walker with attempted murder and assault. The motion asked Stevens to grant Walker immunity because he was within his rights to defend himself and Taylor under Kentucky's stand-your-ground law. On March 8, 2021, Stevens dismissed the criminal charges against Walker with prejudice, meaning he cannot be recharged for the shooting. The judge denied the motion for immunity, saying it was "moot".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In September 2020, Walker filed a suit against the Louisville Metro Police Department, accusing it of misconduct and asserting he did not fire the bullet that injured Mattingly. His lawyer, Steve Romines, has raised claims that Walker fired only one bullet and that the recovered round had no blood on it, demonstrating that it had not hit anyone.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 15, Taylor's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court on behalf of the estate of Breonna Taylor, against the officers who were present as well as the city of Louisville. It states that Taylor and Walker were sleeping in the bedroom before the incident happened, and that the police officers were in unmarked vehicles. The lawsuit states that Taylor and Walker thought the apartment had been broken into by criminals and that "they were in significant, imminent danger." The lawsuit alleges that "the officers then entered Breonna's home without knocking and without announcing themselves as police officers. The Defendants then proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life."


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The lawsuit was resolved in mid-September 2020. The Louisville Metro Government (LMG) agreed to pay Taylor's estate $12 million, "one of the highest settlement amounts ever paid in America for the wrongful death of a Black woman by police", according to family attorney Benjamin Crump. The officers and the LMG admitted no liability nor wrongdoing and were absolved of any medical expenses related to Taylor's death; the settlement also prevents Taylor's family from suing the city. The city agreed to initiate a housing credits program for police officers to live in the Louisville Metro area, considered by some a fundamental community policing measure, to institute policing changes such as requiring more oversight by top commanders, and to make mandatory safeguards that were only "common practice" before the raid.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Mattingly was one of three officers who took part in the raid that killed Taylor, and the officer allegedly wounded by Walker. In October 2020, Mattingly's lawyer announced that he was filing a countersuit against Walker for his injury. He alleged that the gunshot wound caused severe damage and that Mattingly was "entitled to, and should, use the legal process to seek a remedy for the injury that Walker caused." The lawsuit details that Mattingly underwent five hours of surgery because the shot severed his femoral artery, and alleges battery, assault and emotional distress. The suit also claims that Walker's response to the officers raid via a no-knock warrant was "outrageous, intolerable and offends all accepted standards of decency or morality".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On August 4, 2022, the United States Department of Justice announced that it had indicted three police officers—Kelly Goodlett, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany—on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and civil rights violations for conspiring to mislead the judge who approved the search warrant on Kenneth Walker's house. Detective Brett Hankison, one of the officers who participated in the raid, was also charged with civil rights violations. On August 23, Goodlett pleaded guilty to the charges.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 21, Police Chief Steve Conrad announced his retirement after intense local and national criticism for the department's handling of the case, to be effective June 30. Conrad was fired on June 1 after the fatal shooting of black business owner David McAtee.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The LMPD announced in May that it would require all sworn officers to wear body cameras, and will change how it carries out search warrants. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer indefinitely suspended the use of no-knock warrants on May 29.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On January 5, 2021, the LMPD fired Cosgrove, who shot and killed Taylor, and Jaynes, who obtained the warrant for the raid.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On August 4, 2022, federal officials charged the four current and former police officers who participated in the raid of Taylor's apartment, accusing them of crimes including lying to obtain the warrant to search her home.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In June 2020, Democrats in Congress introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, a broad bill containing measures to combat misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in policing. The bill would prohibit the issuance of no-knock warrants in federal drug investigations and provide incentives to states to enact a similar prohibition.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In June, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, which would prohibit federal law enforcement from carrying out a warrant "until after the officer provides notice of his or her authority and purpose". It would also apply to state and local law enforcement that receive funding from the Justice Department.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On June 10, the Louisville city council voted unanimously to ban no-knock search warrants. Called "Breonna's Law", it requires all officers who serve warrants to wear body cameras, and to have them turned on from at least five minutes before the warrant is served until at least five minutes afterward.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: As the shooting occurred during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, at the beginning of an escalating nationwide wave of quarantines and lockdowns, for weeks after Taylor's death there was very little public reaction, little response from government officials, and the LMPD did not provide many details about the shooting or answers to questions about the case.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In September 2020, Mattingly sent a personal email to several hundred of his police colleagues wherein he blamed the city's mayor and police chief for failing "all of us in epic proportions for their own gain and to cover their asses", faulted senior staff and the FBI for being unwilling "to hold the line", and urged his colleagues, "Do what you need to do to go home your family." Mattingly gave an interview in October 2020 to ABC News and "The Louisville Courier Journal" in which he reiterated his accusations that city officials had not come to his and the other officers' defense in the incident's aftermath. In the interview he highlighted the tragedy of the shooting but claimed that it was unlike the murder of George Floyd, saying, "This is not us going, hunting somebody down. This is not kneeling on a neck. It's nothing like that. [...] She didn't deserve to die. She didn't do anything to deserve a death sentence." He admitted he "probably said some things" that he "probably shouldn't have said", but said he didn't regret sending the mass email.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Two years after Taylor's death, a book by Mattingly was released in which he said of Glover, "They had a tracker on his car, ping on his phone, they knew where he was", and that awareness of Glover's location changed the "no-knock warrant" for Taylor's home into a "knock warrant." He blamed Walker for Taylor's death, saying, "Any man that's worth his salt, if you really thought you were getting broken into, why would [you] take your girlfriend in the hall with you? Not only that, you leave her hanging, you dive out of the way and she's stuck. And then, after that, you tell police she's the one who shot the police. It just doesn't get any more cowardice [sic] than that to me." "Looking back, would I say, every drug warrant of that time, would I do it differently? I would've done it different knowing what I know now, but it doesn't mean it was wrong or something out of the ordinary because it happens all the time." "Obviously we didn't have that intel. We didn't know Kenneth Walker was there. We were never told her sister and the baby lived there... so there were some failures on that part of it that could've been better."


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: In January 2022, "The Courier-Journal" reported that Mary Shaw, who was reelected unopposed in 2016, was the only one of 17 incumbent Jefferson County Circuit Court judges to draw an election opponent. Shaw, garnering 35.1% of the votes cast, advanced to the November election, along with Tracy Evette Davis, with 35.0% of the votes. Davis, a private attorney who provided defense counsel for indicted Breonna Taylor protestors, was endorsed by Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor's mother. In November 2022, Shaw narrowly lost her reelection bid to Davis, and announced she was retiring after 16 years as a judge. Shaw told the "Courier-Journal," "I was disappointed by the results, but not surprised as there are so many false narratives surrounding the signing of the warrant which have circulated."


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 13, 2020, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear responded to reports about Taylor's death and said the public deserved to know everything about the March raid. He requested that Attorney General Cameron and local and federal prosecutors review the Louisville police's initial investigation "to ensure justice is done at a time when many are concerned that justice is not blind".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On May 14, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and LMPD Chief Steve Conrad announced they had asked the FBI and the United States Attorney to review the local findings of the Public Integrity Unit's investigation when it is completed.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: For weeks after Taylor's death, her family, members of the community, and protesters around the world requested that officers involved be dehired and criminally charged. Many, including Taylor's family and friends, protested outside Mayor Fisher's office.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Commentators such as Arwa Mahdawi and Brittney Cooper suggested Taylor's killing would likely not have received so much attention if not for the George Floyd protests, as black women are often neglected. Mahdawi related this to the #SayHerName campaign and Malcolm X's statement "The most disrespected person in America is the black woman" and called for further protest until justice for Taylor is secured.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: "Arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor" has become a common Internet meme. It has been criticized for trivializing the incident by being akin to the meme "Epstein didn't kill himself". In late July 2020, American record producer J. W. Lucas, who is white, made controversial statements on Twitter that seemed to justify the shooting of Taylor, which received extremely negative reactions, including from activist Tamika Mallory, with whom he later had a heated exchange on Instagram Live. Rapper Jack Harlow, whose single "Whats Poppin" Lucas produced, publicly denounced Lucas, saying that he did not know who Lucas was and was not aware of his involvement in the song.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The September 2020 edition of "O magazine" featured Taylor on the cover instead of the usual image of Oprah Winfrey as a way to honor "her life and the life of every other black woman whose life has been taken too soon". It was the first issue in the magazine's 20-year history that did not have Winfrey's image on its cover. Until Freedom and "O magazine" put up 26 billboards—one for every year of Taylor's life—around Louisville. Winfrey released a video five months after Taylor's death calling for the arrest of the officers involved.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Professional sports teams and individual athletes have honored Taylor and called for the end of racial injustice. Before the 2019–20 NBA season restarted, the Memphis Grizzlies wore shirts with Taylor's name and "#SayHerName" as they arrived at the arena. At the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton wore a T-shirt on the podium with the words "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor." The governing body, the FIA, considered investigating Hamilton for violating the protocols for political messaging, but decided no investigation was necessary.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: The September 2020 edition of "Vanity Fair" featured a painting of Taylor by Amy Sherald on the cover. The issue included an interview with Taylor's mother by author Ta-Nehisi Coates. In September 2020, George Clooney issued a statement in which he said that he was "ashamed" by the decision to charge Hankison with wanton endangerment rather than with Taylor's death.


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: On December 26, 2020, a ceramic bust of Taylor that was installed near City Hall in downtown Oakland, California, was smashed, apparently with a baseball bat. The statue stood on a pedestal bearing the words, "Say Her Name, Breonna Taylor".


title: Killing of Breonna Taylor

text: Shortly after Taylor's killing, a petition was started on the public benefit corporation website change.org asking for "Justice for Breonna Taylor." The petition quickly gathered enough signatures to become one of the site's top three most-signed petitions, among others such as those seeking justice for George Floyd and Elijah McClain.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat ("Fagopyrum esculentum"), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as "Fagopyrum tataricum", a domesticated food plant raised in Asia.


title: Buckwheat

text: Despite its name, buckwheat is not closely related to wheat. It is not a cereal, nor is it even a member of the grass family. Buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb, and is known as a pseudocereal because its seeds' culinary use is the same as cereals, owing to their high starch content.


title: Buckwheat

text: The name "buckwheat" or "beech wheat" comes from its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat. The word may be a translation of Middle Dutch "boecweite": "boec" (Modern Dutch "beuk"), "beech" (see PIE *"bhago"-) and "weite" (Mod. Dut. "tarwe", antiquated Dut. "weit"), wheat, or maybe a native formation on the same model as the Dutch word.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat is a herbaceous annual flowering plant growing to about 60 cm, with red stems and pink and white flowers resembling those of knotweeds. The leaves are arrow-shaped and the fruits are achenes about 5–7 mm with 3 prominent sharp angles.


title: Buckwheat

text: "Fagopyrum esculentum" is native to south-central China and Tibet, and has been introduced into suitable climates across Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.


title: Buckwheat

text: The wild ancestor of common buckwheat is "F. esculentum" ssp. "ancestrale". "F. homotropicum" is interfertile with "F. esculentum" and the wild forms have a common distribution, in Yunnan, a southwestern province of China. The wild ancestor of tartary buckwheat is "F. tataricum" ssp. "potanini".


title: Buckwheat

text: Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in inland Southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BCE, and from there spread to Central Asia and Tibet, and then to the Middle East and Europe. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China.


title: Buckwheat

text: The oldest remains found in China so far date to "circa" 2600 BCE, while buckwheat pollen found in Japan dates from as early as 4000 BCE. It is the world's highest-elevation domesticate, being cultivated in Yunnan on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau or on the plateau itself. Buckwheat was one of the earliest crops introduced by Europeans to North America. Dispersal around the globe was complete by 2006, when a variety developed in Canada was widely planted in China. In India, buckwheat flour is known as "kuttu ka atta" and has long been culturally associated with many festivals like, Shivratri, Navaratri and Janmashtami. On the day of these festivals, food items made only from buckwheat are consumed.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat is a short-season crop that grows well in low-fertility or acidic soils; too much fertilizer – especially nitrogen – reduces yields, and the soil must be well drained. In hot climates buckwheat can be grown only by sowing late in the season, so that it blooms in cooler weather. The presence of pollinators greatly increases yield. Nectar from flowering buckwheat produces a dark-colored honey.


title: Buckwheat

text: The buckwheat plant has a branching root system with a primary taproot that reaches deeply into moist soil. It grows tall. Buckwheat has triangular seeds and produces a flower that is usually white, although can also be pink or yellow. Buckwheat branches freely, as opposed to tillering or producing suckers, enabling more complete adaption to its environment than other cereal crops.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat is raised for grain where only a brief time is available for growth, either because the buckwheat is an early or a second crop in the season, or because the total growing season is limited. It establishes quickly, which suppresses summer weeds, and can be a reliable cover crop in summer to fit a small slot of warm season. Buckwheat has a growing period of only 10–12 weeks and it can be grown in high latitude or northern areas. Buckwheat is sometimes used as a "green manure", as a plant for erosion control, or as wildlife cover and feed.


title: Buckwheat

text: Historically, the Russian Empire was the world leader in buckwheat production. Growing areas in the Russian Empire were estimated at , followed by those of France at . In 1970, the Soviet Union grew an estimated of buckwheat. As of 2016, it remains a key crop.


title: Buckwheat

text: During the 18th and 19th centuries, buckwheat was common in the northeastern United States. Cultivation declined sharply by the mid-20th century because of the use of nitrogen fertilizer, to which maize and wheat respond strongly. Over were harvested in the United States in 1918. By 1954, that had declined to , and by 1964, the last year annual production statistics were gathered by USDA, only were grown.


title: Buckwheat

text: However, buckwheat cultivation in the US has increased because of an "explosion in popularity of so-called ancient grains" reported during the years 2009–2014. In 2020, world production was 1.8 million tonnes, led by Russia with 49% of the world total, followed by China with 28% and Ukraine with 5%.


title: Buckwheat

text: "F. esculentum" is often studied and used as a pollen and nectar source to increase natural predator numbers to control crop pests. Berndt et al. 2002 found that the results were not "entirely" promising in one vineyard in New Zealand but the same team - Berndt et al. 2006, four years later and studying a number of vineyards up and down New Zealand - did find a significant increase in 22 parasitoids, especially "Dolichogenidea tasmanica", as did Irvin et al. 1999 for "D. t." in Canterbury orchards. Gurr et al. 1998 showed that floral nectaries - and not shelter in or alternate hosts on "F. esculentum" - were responsible for this increase, and Stephens et al. 1998 for "Anacharis" spp. on "Micromus tasmaniae". Stephens et al. 1998 also first demonstrated a great increase of "A." spp. on "M. t." (which also commonly predates on "F. e."). Cullen et al. 2013 found that vineyards around Waipara had not continued planting buckwheat, suggesting a need for further technique development so that buckwheat will integrate well with real-world vineyard practice. English-Loeb et al. 2003 found that it "does" sustain greater numbers of "Anagrus" parasitoids on "Erythroneura" leafhoppers, and Balzan and Wäckers 2013 found the same for "Necremnus artynes" and Ferracini et al. 2012 for "Necremnus tutae" on "Tuta absoluta", and thereby act as pest controls in tomato, potato, and to a lesser degree other Solanaceous and non-Solanaceous horticulturals. Kalinova and Moudry 2003 found that further companion planting with other flowers "at the wrong time of year" may actually cause "F. esculentum" to be killed by frosts it would have otherwise survived, and Colley and Luna 2000 found that it may delay its flowering to not coincide with the natural enemy it was planted to feed. Foti et al. 2016 found significant short-chain carboxylic acid variation to be the most likely explanation for biocontrol performance variation between cultivars.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat contains diverse phytochemicals, including rutin, tannins, catechin-7-O-glucoside in groats, and fagopyrins, which are located mainly in the cotyledons of the buckwheat plant. It has almost no levels of inorganic arsenic.


title: Buckwheat

text: Salicylaldehyde (2-hydroxybenzaldehyde) was identified as a characteristic component of buckwheat aroma. 2,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxy-3(2H)-furanone, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, phenylacetaldehyde, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, (E)-2-nonenal, decanal and hexanal also contribute to its aroma. They all have odour activity value of more than 50, but the aroma of these substances in an isolated state does not resemble buckwheat.


title: Buckwheat

text: With a 100-gram serving of dry buckwheat providing of food energy, or cooked, buckwheat is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, four B vitamins and several dietary minerals, with content especially high (47 to 65% DV) in niacin, magnesium, manganese and phosphorus (table). Buckwheat is 72% carbohydrates, including 10% dietary fiber, 3% fat, 13% protein, and 10% water.


title: Buckwheat

text: As buckwheat contains no gluten, it may be eaten by people with gluten-related disorders, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity or dermatitis herpetiformis. Nevertheless, buckwheat products may have gluten contamination.


title: Buckwheat

text: Cases of severe allergic reactions to buckwheat and buckwheat-containing products have been reported. Buckwheat contains fluorescent phototoxic fagopyrins. Seeds, flour, and teas are generally safe when consumed in normal amounts, but fagopyrism can appear in people with diets based on high consumption of buckwheat sprouts, and particularly flowers or fagopyrin-rich buckwheat extracts. Symptoms of fagopyrism in humans may include skin inflammation in sunlight-exposed areas, cold sensitivity, and tingling or numbness in the hands.


title: Buckwheat

text: The fruit is an achene, similar to sunflower seed, with a single seed inside a hard outer hull. The starchy endosperm is white and makes up most or all of buckwheat flour. The seed coat is green or tan, which darkens buckwheat flour. The hull is dark brown or black, and some may be included in buckwheat flour as dark specks. The dark flour is known as "blé noir" (black wheat) in French, along with the name "sarrasin" (saracen). Similarly, in Italy, it is known as "grano saraceno" (saracen grain). The grain can be prepared by simple dehulling, milling into farina, to whole-grain flour or to white flour. The grain can be fractionated into starch, germ and hull for specialized uses.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat groats are commonly used in western Asia and eastern Europe. The porridge was common, and is often considered the definitive peasant dish. It is made from roasted groats that are cooked with broth to a texture similar to rice or bulgur. The dish was taken to America by Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish immigrants who called it "kasha", and they mixed it with pasta or used it as a filling for cabbage rolls (stuffed cabbage), knishes, and blintzes; buckwheat prepared in this fashion is thus most commonly called "kasha" in America. Groats were the most widely used form of buckwheat worldwide during the 20th century, eaten primarily in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, called "grechka" (Greek [grain]) in Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian languages.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat noodles have been eaten in Tibet and northern China for centuries, where the growing season is too short to raise wheat. A wooden press is used to press the dough into hot boiling water when making buckwheat noodles. Old presses found in Tibet and Shanxi share the same basic design features. The Japanese and Koreans may have learned the process of making buckwheat noodles from them.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat noodles play a major role in the cuisines of Japan ("soba") and Korea ("naengmyeon", "makguksu" and "memil guksu"). "Soba" noodles are the subject of deep cultural importance in Japan. The difficulty of making noodles from flour with no gluten has resulted in a traditional art developed around their manufacture by hand. A jelly called "memilmuk" in Korea is made from buckwheat starch.


title: Buckwheat

text: Noodles also appear in Italy, with "pasta di grano saraceno" in Apulia region of Southern Italy and "pizzoccheri" in the Valtellina region of Northern Italy.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat pancakes are eaten in several countries. They are known as buckwheat "blini" in Russia, "galettes bretonnes" in France, "ployes" in Acadia, "poffertjes" in the Netherlands, "boûketes" in the Wallonia region of Belgium, "kuttu ki puri" in India and "kachhyamba" in Nepal. Similar pancakes were a common food in American pioneer days. They are light and foamy. The buckwheat flour gives the pancakes an earthy, mildly mushroom-like taste.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat is a permitted sustenance during fasting in several traditions. In India, on Hindu fasting days (Navaratri, Ekadashi, Janmashtami, Maha Shivaratri, etc.), fasting people in northern states of India eat foods made of buckwheat flour. Eating cereals such as wheat or rice is prohibited during such fasting days. While strict Hindus do not even drink water during their fast, others give up cereals and salt and instead eat non-cereal foods such as buckwheat ("kuttu"). In the Russian Orthodox tradition, it is eaten on the St. Philip fast.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat honey is dark, strong and aromatic. Because it does not complement other honeys, it is normally produced as a monofloral honey.


title: Buckwheat

text: In recent years, buckwheat has been used as a substitute for other grains in gluten-free beer. Although it is not an actual cereal (being a pseudocereal), buckwheat can be used in the same way as barley to produce a malt that can form the basis of a mash that will brew a beer without gliadin or hordein (together gluten) and therefore can be suitable for coeliacs or others sensitive to certain glycoproteins.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat is a Japanese distilled beverage produced since the 16th Century. The taste is milder than barley shōchū.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat tea, known as "kuqiao-cha" (苦荞茶) in China, "memil-cha" () in Korea and "soba-cha" () in Japan, is a tea made from roasted buckwheat.


title: Buckwheat

text: Buckwheat hulls are used as filling for a variety of upholstered goods, including pillows and zafu. The hulls are durable and do not insulate or reflect heat as much as synthetic filling. They are sometimes marketed as an alternative natural filling to feathers for those with allergies. However, medical studies to measure the health effects of pillows manufactured with unprocessed and uncleaned hulls concluded that such buckwheat pillows do contain higher levels of a potential allergen that may trigger asthma in susceptible individuals than do new synthetic-filled pillows.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Tony Leung Chiu-wai (, born 27 June 1962) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. He is one of Asia's most successful and internationally recognized actors, and was named as "Small Tiger" among the Five Tiger Generals of TVB. He has won many international acting prizes, including the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor for his performance in Wong Kar-wai's film "In the Mood for Love". He was named by CNN as one of "Asia's 25 Greatest Actors of All Time."


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung is known for his collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai, with whom he has worked in seven films, including "Chungking Express" (1994), "Happy Together" (1997), "In the Mood for Love" (2000), "2046" (2004), and "The Grandmaster" (2013). He also appeared in three Venice Film Festival Golden Lion-winning films: "A City of Sadness" (1989), "Cyclo" (1995) and "Lust, Caution" (2007), directed by Ang Lee. Leung also stars in the Academy Award-nominated film "Hero" (2002), the cult classic "Hard Boiled" (1992), and box office hits "Infernal Affairs" (2002) and "Red Cliff" (2008). He later came to prominence in Hollywood with his role as Xu Wenwu in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021).


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung has a comprehensive set of awards that he has won in a career that began in the 1980s. For "In the Mood for Love", Leung earned the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He is also a seven-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards and three-time winner at the Golden Horse Film Awards, holding the record for most awards in the Best Actor category. The 2002 book "East Asian Film Stars" describes Leung as "undoubtedly one of the most successful and widely-acclaimed Hong Kong actors of his generation, with a broad and diverse filmography."


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung was born in Hong Kong to a family of Taishan, Guangdong ancestry. Leung's early childhood was punctuated with parents' quarrels and arguments about money. A mischievous boy in his early years, Leung's personality changed when his father, a chronic gambler, left the family when he was eight; he and his younger sister were brought up by their mother.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung was a slightly reticent, quiet child. He has said that his childhood experiences paved the way for his acting career, which allows him to openly express his feelings:You don't know what happened, just one day your pop disappears. And from that day on I try not to communicate with anyone. I'm so afraid to talk to my classmates, afraid that if someone says something about family I won't know what to do. So I became very isolated. So that's why I love acting, because I can express all my feelings the way I couldn't for so long.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: I'm a quiet person. And then when I went to TV it all came out; I cried and I wasn't ashamed. The audience thinks it's the character's feelings, but really it's my feelings, all coming out in a rush.Leung went to private school, but he quit at the age of 15 due to financial difficulties. He was a well-behaved teenager who was very close to his mother. During an interview on the making of "Hero", he says that he sees his mother as his definition of a hero for having brought up two children alone.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: After quitting his studies, Leung worked in a variety of jobs, first as a grocer's runner at his uncle's shop, then a home appliance salesman in a Hong Kong shopping centre. Around the age of 16 he met future actor and comedian Stephen Chow who influenced his decision to become an actor and remains a good friend.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: In 1982, he graduated from television channel TVB's acting class. Due to his boyish looks, TVB initially cast him as the host of a children's programme "430 Space Shuttle," but soon moved him to drama roles beginning with "Soldier of Fortune" (1982). He was quickly promoted to leading man status in highly successful primetime series including "The Duke of Mount Deer" (1984) and "New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre" (1986). Leung mostly enjoyed comedies during his television years; it was for these he became well known. In the 1980s, he was named as one of "TVB's Five Tigers" (their five up-and-coming male TV stars) along with Andy Lau, Felix Wong, Michael Miu and Kent Tong.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung starred in the extremely popular "Police Cadet" TV serial in 1984 (later named "Police Cadet 84" to distinguish it from its two subsequent sequels). The series had an average viewership rating of 50% per episode during its original run. Leung played an outgoing young man who decides to become a police officer; Maggie Cheung, who also started her career at the same time, played Leung's upstairs neighbour and love interest. Since then they have worked together on "The Yang's Saga" (1985), "Days of Being Wild" (1991), "The Eagle Shooting Heroes" (1993), "Ashes of Time" (1994), "In the Mood for Love" (2000), "Hero" (2002), and "2046" (2005). Interviewed by Wong Kar-wai, Leung said that he considered Cheung to be his alter ego. "Maggie is a truly formidable partner – one to waltz with. We do not spend a lot of time with each other, as we like to keep some mystery between us. Whenever I see her, I discover something new about her".


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: After 8 years with TVB, he left the network to focus on his film career with his final television drama being "Ode to Gallantry" in 1989.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung is considered by many to be the most acclaimed contemporary actor in greater China. He first garnered international attention in Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 film "A City of Sadness", which won the Venice Golden Lion. Before that he was already locally known for his TV shows and films in the mid 1980s in Hong Kong.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung's initial transition from television to film in the late 80s and early 90s is considered a low period in his career. He had won two HKFA Best Supporting Actor awards in quick succession but was struggling to establish himself as a leading man on the big screen. In 1992, when he was nominated for a third time in the Supporting Actor category for "Hard Boiled", Leung refused the nomination on the grounds that he had a leading role in the film. His protest was supported by director John Woo and co-star Chow Yun-fat. This later led the Hong Kong Film Awards to change its nomination rules to allow for multiple leading roles from the same film. Leung has also stated that prior to "Days of Being Wild" (1990), he had lost interest in acting and even considered quitting, but working with Wong Kar-wai and seeing his scene in the final film changed his mind. His career entered a new chapter when he won dual Best Actor awards at the Golden Horse Awards and Hong Kong Film Awards for "Chungking Express" (1994), becoming only the second actor to do so after Danny Lee in 1984. He later repeated the feat with "Infernal Affairs" in 2003. Beginning with "Chungking Express" and over the next thirteen years, Leung picked up a record of eight Best Actor wins at the two most prestigious Chinese language film awards, plus a Best Actor prize at Cannes.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung often collaborates with director Wong Kar-wai and has appeared in many of his films. His roles include the lonely policeman in "Chungking Express" (1994), a gay Chinese expatriate living in Argentina in "Happy Together" (1997), and a self-controlled victim of adultery in "In the Mood for Love" (2000) for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes. He reprised his role from "In the Mood for Love" as a new Chow Mo-wan in "2046" (2004) and trained in Wing Chun for five years to prepare for his role as Ip Man in Wong's "The Grandmaster." Wong's Jet Tone Film Production was also Leung's management agency for many years until 2018.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: In addition to his works with Wong, Leung has also starred in three Venice Golden Lion winning films: "A City of Sadness" (1989), "Cyclo" (1995) and "Lust, Caution" (2007), cementing his reputation internationally in the arthouse cinema world. In 2014, he was a member of the jury of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, and in 2017 Leung was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2022, he was crowned the Asian Filmmaker of the Year at the 27th Busan International Film Festival. Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt are admirers of his work, and Leung has been labeled by "The Times" as Asia's answer to Clark Gable due to their romantic leading roles. His place in Asian cinema has also been compared to Cary Grant, or a combination of several A-list Hollywood stars.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung is widely believed to be a method actor. He has stated in interviews that he often has trouble separating the characters from himself, beginning with his early TV roles. He usually takes long breaks after filming to recover from a psychologically taxing role, and remnants of the characters still remain within him years later. He has said that the voice of his wife Carina Lau can bring him back to reality.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung admits that he has a tendency to stay in his comfort zone and work with familiar teams and filmmakers. Over the course of his career, he has worked with Wong Kar-wai eight times (including "See You Tomorrow" (2016) which Wong wrote), three times with John Woo, three times with Derek Yee, and twice with Hou Hsiao-hsien. He has also worked with the creators of "Infernal Affairs" (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, Felix Chong) on three other films: "Confession of Pain" (2006), "The Silent War" (2012) and the upcoming "Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong". In recent years, Leung has become more adventurous and more willing to try new things; this includes collaborating with new directors and taking on his first Hollywood role.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: In an interview with "Senses of Cinema" in 2001, Leung said that he had no plans to make a Hollywood debut, but would consider it for the right project. He said, "I have many more choices on the character I can play (in Hong Kong). The role for Asian actors and actresses is very restrictive in Hollywood movies." Actors such as Chow Yun-fat and Jet Li had then made their own debuts in the 1990s. In 2005, he signed with an American agent with the intention to appear in a Hollywood film. Producer Kevin Feige announced at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con that Leung will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the villain in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," marking his Hollywood debut"." Leung's character Wenwu is a composite character of Fu Manchu and the Mandarin. The movie premiered on September 3, 2021 and his performance was universally praised.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung also had a successful Cantopop and Mandarin pop singing career in the 1990s, which he abandoned to focus on acting. He still occasionally sings for his films; the theme song of "Infernal Affairs" which he performed with Andy Lau is one of the Top 10 Song of 2003 and won the 22nd Hong Kong Film Awards' Best Original Film Song.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: During the promotion of the film "Hero", some commentators in Hong Kong alleged that Leung expressed the view that the Tiananmen Square demonstration crackdown was necessary to maintain stability. Leung made a single comment in response that he may have been misquoted and his statement taken out of context.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung speaks Cantonese, English and Mandarin. "Lust, Caution" (2007) is the first film where he used his own voice in a Mandarin-speaking role (his dialogue in "Hero" is dubbed) and "Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021) is his first English-speaking role, despite always being fluent in the language.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: In 2021, Leung and Andy Lau completed filming the crime drama film "Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong", inspired by the downfall of the Carrian Group in the 1980s"." This is the duo's first collaboration since "Infernal Affairs III" in 2003. Felix Chong, who had previously co-written the "Infernal Affairs" trilogy, is the writer and director. In 2022, Leung will appear in the World War II spy thriller "Anonymous", directed by Cheng Er and produced by Bona Film Group"."


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung publicly dated fellow TVB actress Margie Tsang in an on-again, off-again relationship from 1982-1988. In 1986 during one of their breakups, Leung briefly dated Kitty Lai, his co-star at the time in "New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre", before getting back together with Tsang. Leung and Tsang broke up permanently in 1988 and he has been in a relationship with Carina Lau since 1989.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung and Carina Lau are one of Hong Kong's biggest celebrity couples. They began their romantic relationship in 1989 after working together on a Hong Kong production of "Run For Your Wife" and dated for 19 years before marrying in Bhutan in 2008. They had known each other since "The Clones" in 1984, and also co-starred together in "Duke of Mount Deer" (1984), "Police Cadet" (1984, 1985, 1988), "The Yangs' Saga" (1985), "Days of Being Wild" (1991), "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father" (1993), "Ashes of Time" (1994), and "2046" (2005).


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: In 1990, during the filming of "Days of Being Wild", Lau was abducted for several hours. Leung dropped out of the film to spend more time with her. Wong Kar-wai said, "Originally, there were plans for "Days of Being Wild" I and II, and the sequence featuring Leung was meant to be the opening scene of the second movie. But two things happened, one of which was that "Days of Being Wild" didn't do well in Hong Kong, so the producers said, 'No Part 2.' The other reason was Lau's kidnapping."


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: On 21 July 2008, the couple got married in Bhutan in royal fashion. The wedding ceremony was directed by Wong Kar-wai and attended by numerous celebrities including Faye Wong, Li Yapeng, Bridgitte Lin, Cecilia Yip, Ti Lung and Chang Chen. It created a media frenzy in Hong Kong, with companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue the wedding party.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: According to "Ming Pao Daily News", Faye Wong and Li Yapeng had taken the couple to India in 2007 to visit the 17th Karmapa. The Karmapa's counsel helped them to resolve a crisis in their relationship, and he also suggested Bhutan as a wedding venue.


title: Tony Leung Chiu-wai

text: Leung is a Buddhist. He has donated to constructions of Buddhist institutions, performed his marriage in a Buddhist ceremony, attends Buddhist gatherings, and had been seen doing Buddhist palm greetings. He appeared pro bono in the Bhutanese Buddhist film "" (2016)"." In 2016, he was seen at a ceremony in India that was also attended by members of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which earned the consternation of Chinese officials.


title: The Black Keys

text: The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing their records, before they eventually emerged as one of the most popular garage rock artists during a second wave of the genre's revival in the 2000s. The band's raw blues rock sound draws heavily from Auerbach's blues influences, including Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, Howlin' Wolf, and Robert Johnson.


title: The Black Keys

text: Friends since childhood, Auerbach and Carney founded the group after dropping out of college. After signing with indie label Alive, they released their debut album, "The Big Come Up" (2002), which earned them a new deal with Fat Possum Records. Over the next decade, the Black Keys built an underground fanbase through extensive touring of small clubs, frequent album releases and music festival appearances, and broad licensing of their songs. Their third album, "Rubber Factory" (2004), received critical acclaim and boosted the band's profile, eventually leading to a record deal with major label Nonesuch Records in 2006. After self-producing and recording their first four records in makeshift studios, the duo completed "Attack & Release" (2008) in a professional studio and hired producer Danger Mouse, who subsequently became a frequent collaborator with the band.


title: The Black Keys

text: The group's commercial breakthrough came in 2010 with "Brothers", which along with its popular single "Tighten Up", won three Grammy Awards. Their 2011 follow-up "El Camino" received strong reviews and peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200 chart, leading to the first arena concert tour of the band's career, the El Camino Tour. The album and its hit single "Lonely Boy" won three Grammy Awards. In 2014, they released their eighth album, "Turn Blue", their first number-one record in the US, Canada, and Australia. After completing the Turn Blue Tour in 2015, the duo took a hiatus for several years to work on side projects and produce other artists. They returned in 2019 with their ninth album, "Let's Rock"; their tenth studio album "Delta Kream" was released in 2021 and consists of hill country blues covers.


title: The Black Keys

text: Guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney first met when they were eight or nine years old while living in the same neighborhood of Akron, Ohio a couple houses down from each other. Auerbach and Carney both come from musical backgrounds. Auerbach is the cousin of guitarist Robert Quine, a "veteran of New York's avant-rock scene." Carney is the nephew of saxophonist Ralph Carney, who performed on several Tom Waits albums. While attending Firestone High School, they became friends, though they were part of different crowds—Auerbach was captain of the high school soccer team, while Carney was a social outcast. Encouraged by their brothers, the duo began jamming together in 1996, as Auerbach was learning guitar at the time and Carney owned a four-track recorder and a drum set. After graduating, both briefly attended the University of Akron before dropping out.


title: The Black Keys

text: Auerbach attempted to make a living from performing at small bars in town, but realized he would not be able to book shows in other cities without a demo. To record one, he asked for help from Carney, who agreed to provide recording equipment and allow his basement to be used if Auerbach recruited the other musicians. However, none of Auerbach's backing band showed up on the recording date. Instead, Carney and Auerbach jammed, eventually leading to the duo forming a band in mid-2001. Together, they recorded a six-song demo consisting of "old blues rip-offs and words made up on the spot" with minimal equipment. After sending the demo to a dozen record labels, they accepted an offer in 2002 from a small indie label in Los Angeles named Alive, because it was "the only label that would sign [them] without having to see [them] first".


title: The Black Keys

text: According to an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", the group's name "the Black Keys" came from an acquaintance diagnosed with schizophrenia, Alfred McMoore. He would leave incoherent messages on their answering machines referring to their fathers as "black keys" such as "D flat" when he was upset with them. On March 20, 2002, the duo played their first live show at Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom and Tavern to an audience of approximately eight people. The band's debut album, "The Big Come Up", was recorded entirely in Carney's basement on an 8-track tape recorder in lo-fi and was released in May 2002, three months after they signed to Alive. The album, a mix of eight original tracks and five cover songs, forged a raw blues rock sound for the group; the covers included tracks originally by blues musicians Muddy Waters, Junior Kimbrough, and R. L. Burnside. Two tracks, covers of the traditional blues standard "Leavin' Trunk" and the Beatles' song "She Said, She Said", were released as a single on Isota Records. The track "I'll Be Your Man" would later be used as the theme song for the HBO series "Hung". In order to help fund a tour, Auerbach and Carney took jobs mowing lawns for a landlord. Despite modest sales for "The Big Come Up", it gained a cult following and attracted attention from critics, eventually landing the group a record deal with Fat Possum Records.


title: The Black Keys

text: Within days of signing to Fat Possum, the Black Keys completed their second album, "Thickfreakness". It was recorded in Carney's basement in a single 14-hour session in December 2002, an approach necessitated because the group spent its small advance payment from Fat Possum on rent. The group had recorded sessions with producer Jeff Saltzman in San Francisco but ultimately aborted them, as they were unhappy that the results sounded too much like "modern-rock radio". In March 2003, the group played at one of its first music festivals, South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, after driving for nearly 24 hours from Akron. Much as they did for the festival, Carney and Auerbach spent their early tour days driving themselves from show to show in a 1994 Chrysler van they nicknamed the "Gray Ghost".


title: The Black Keys

text: "Thickfreakness" was released on April 8, 2003, and received positive reviews from critics. The record spawned three singles: "Set You Free", "Hard Row", and a cover of Richard Berry's "Have Love, Will Travel". The other cover from the album was Junior Kimbrough's "Everywhere I Go". "Time" later named "Thickfreakness" the third-best album of 2003. That year, the duo received a lucrative offer of £200,000 to license one of their songs for use in an English mayonnaise advertisement. At the suggestion of their manager, they rejected the offer for fear of being perceived as "sell-outs" and alienating their fan base. The band toured extensively throughout 2003, playing its first dates outside of the United States and opening concerts for Sleater-Kinney, Beck, and Dashboard Confessional. However, exhaustion had set in by the end of the year, forcing the band to cancel European tour dates. In August, the group made its national television debut on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. As fellow garage band the White Stripes grew in popularity, the Black Keys drew comparisons to them—sometimes as a derivative act—since both groups had two-piece lineups, Midwest origins, bluesy sounds, and names with colors. In September, the Black Keys released a split-EP with the Six Parts Seven titled "The Six Parts Seven/The Black Keys EP", featuring one song by the Six Parts Seven and three songs by the Black Keys.


title: The Black Keys

text: The Black Keys released an EP titled "The Moan" on January 19, 2004, featuring "Have Love Will Travel", an alternate version of "Heavy Soul", and two covers. The group found itself struggling to sell records or gain airplay of their songs on the radio, and they were not making much money either; they had to absorb a $3,000 loss from a European tour. Frustrated with their lack of success, the band relented and decided to begin licensing their music, beginning with the song "Set You Free" in a Nissan automobile commercial. It was the first of an eventual 300-plus song placements in television shows, films, TV commercials, and video games. The group played several high-profile musical festivals in the first half of 2004, including Coachella and Bonnaroo.


title: The Black Keys

text: For their third album, "Rubber Factory", the band was forced to find a new recording location, as the building that housed their basement studio was sold by its landlord. They created a makeshift studio in a former tire-manufacturing factory in Akron, and recorded from January to May 2004. The album was released on September 7, 2004, and became the group's first record to chart on the US "Billboard" 200, reaching number 143. "Rubber Factory" received critical acclaim and was named one of the year's best albums by "Entertainment Weekly" and "The New Yorker". Two singles were released, "10 A.M. Automatic" and the double A-side "'Till I Get My Way/Girl Is on My Mind". Comedian David Cross directed the music video for "10 A.M. Automatic". The duo promoted the album with tours in North America, Europe, and Australia. In 2005, the band released their first live video album, "Live", recorded at The Metro Theatre in Sydney, Australia on March 18, 2005. In July, they played at the Lollapalooza music festival.


title: The Black Keys

text: On May 2, 2006, the Black Keys released "", a 6-track album of cover versions of songs by Junior Kimbrough. It was the band's final release with the independent label Fat Possum. Having fulfilled their two-album contract, the band signed with the major label Nonesuch Records. Later in May, the group released its second live album, "Live in Austin, TX"—also known as "Thickfreakness in Austin"—which was recorded in 2003. The group's music appeared in several television commercials over the course of the year; among the companies to license its music were Sony, Nissan, and Victoria's Secret, which used "The Desperate Man" in a lingerie commercial featuring Heidi Klum. Despite having the resources of a major record label available to them, the group elected to return to recording in Carney's basement for its fourth studio album, "Magic Potion". Released on September 12, 2006, the album was the group's first release on Nonesuch, as well as its first album to comprise all original songs. Three singles were issued: "You're the One", "Your Touch", and "Just Got to Be". In support of "Magic Potion", the band embarked on its largest tour to that point, performing in large theaters and 1,000-seat venues. The Black Keys recorded covers of "The Wicked Messenger" for the soundtrack of the film "I'm Not There" and "If You Ever Slip" for "The Hottest State" soundtrack.


title: The Black Keys

text: In 2007, producer Danger Mouse began working on a record for Ike Turner and asked the Black Keys to write a few songs for the project. The collaboration ultimately fell through, and Turner later died in December 2007. The duo decided to turn the material they had written into their fifth studio album, "Attack & Release", and they asked Danger Mouse to produce the record. The sessions saw the band transitioning away from their "homemade" ethos to record-making; not only was it the first time that the band completed an album in a professional studio, but it was also the first time they hired an outside producer to work on a record. Danger Mouse supplemented the band's sound with instrumental flourishes and more polished production values. Released on April 1, 2008, "Attack & Release" debuted at number 14 on the "Billboard" 200. Four singles were released: "Strange Times", "I Got Mine", "Oceans and Streams", and "Same Old Thing". "Strange Times" was featured in the video games "Grand Theft Auto IV" and "NASCAR 09". "I Got Mine" is used as the theme song for Canadian police drama TV series "The Bridge". The song was ranked number 23 on "Rolling Stone"s list of The 100 Best Singles of 2008.


title: The Black Keys

text: On October 17, 2008, the Black Keys was an opening act for fellow Akron-area band Devo at a special benefit concert at the Akron Civic Theatre for presidential candidate Barack Obama. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, also an Akron native and Firestone High School graduate, followed their set. In November, they toured through Europe together with Liam Finn. That month, the group released the concert video "Live at the Crystal Ballroom", which was filmed on April 4, 2008, at the group's show at Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon. The video was produced by Lance Bangs.


title: The Black Keys

text: Tensions grew within the band in 2009. Prior to Carney's divorce from his wife Denise Grollmus, Auerbach found it increasingly difficult to communicate with the drummer due to his antipathy for Grollmus. Auerbach said, "I really hated her from the start and didn't want anything to do with her." In February, Auerbach released his debut solo album, "Keep It Hid". Carney, who claimed Auerbach did not tell him about the side project, felt betrayed. Carney subsequently formed the indie band Drummer, with whom he played bass guitar. The group released its debut album "Feel Good Together" on September 29, 2009.


title: The Black Keys

text: The Black Keys reconciled later in the year. On June 6, 2009, they performed along with the Roots, TV on the Radio, Public Enemy, Antibalas, and other acts at the 2nd Annual Roots Picnic on the Festival Pier in Philadelphia. They also joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.


title: The Black Keys

text: "Blakroc", a collaborative album featuring the Black Keys and several hip hop artists, was released in 2009 on Black Friday. The project was supported and brought together by Damon Dash, who is a big fan of the band. The album features rappers Mos Def, Ludacris, RZA, Raekwon, Pharoahe Monch, Q-Tip, NOE, Jim Jones, Nicole Wray, M.O.P., and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. The album was recorded in Brooklyn, New York by co-producer, engineer and mixer Joel Hamilton at Studio G. Auerbach said on the official Blakroc site, "Pat and I have been preparing for this record since we were 16."


title: The Black Keys

text: The group's sixth studio album, "Brothers", was released on May 18, 2010. Recorded primarily at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, the album was produced by the Black Keys and Mark Neill, and was mixed by Tchad Blake. The song "Tighten Up", the only track from the album produced by Danger Mouse, preceded the album as the lead single. The song became their most successful single to that point, spending 10 weeks at number one on the Alternative Songs chart and becoming the group's first single on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 87. The song also reached gold certification status. The music video for "Tighten Up", directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, won the 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video. "Brothers" sold over 73,000 copies in the US in its first week and peaked at number three on the "Billboard" 200, their best performance on the chart to that point. In total, the record sold 1.5 million copies worldwide, including 870,000 copies in the US, and it was certified double-platinum in Canada, platinum in the US, and gold in the UK. The Black Keys were among several artist judges at the 9th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.


title: The Black Keys

text: The band continued to gain exposure through continued song licensing, so much so that they were Warner Bros. Records' most-licensed band of the year. "Rolling Stone" placed "Brothers" at number two on its list of the best albums of 2010 and "Everlasting Light" at number 11 on the list of the year's best songs. "Spin" named the Black Keys the "Artist of the Year" for 2010. On January 8, 2011, the band appeared as the musical guest on American television sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live". At the 53rd Grammy Awards, "Brothers" and its songs won awards in three of the five categories they were nominated in; the band received honors for Best Alternative Music Album (for "Brothers") and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (for "Tighten Up"), while Michael Carney, the band's creative director and Patrick's brother, won Best Recording Package for designing the album's artwork.


title: The Black Keys

text: The band's sudden success proved overwhelming, as they found themselves booking additional promotional commitments and facing demand for additional touring dates. In January 2011, the group canceled concerts in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, citing exhaustion, thus clearing out most of their touring schedule into April. Patrick Carney said, "We've been touring long enough to know when we're about to hit our breaking point." The desire to record another album soon after "Brothers" also led to the decision. Carney said, "We could have waited another year or so, and milked the "Brothers" album and kept touring, but we like bands, and our favourite bands growing up and even today, are bands that put out a lot of music and every album is different from the last."


title: The Black Keys

text: "Brothers" second single, "Howlin' for You", was a successful follow-up, achieving a gold certification in the US. The music video, directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, parodied action movie trailers and starred Tricia Helfer, Diora Baird, Sean Patrick Flanery, Christian Serratos, Corbin Bernsen, Todd Bridges, and Shaun White. It was nominated for the 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video. In 2014, the band donated the song rights to PETA for an animal adoption ad campaign.


title: The Black Keys

text: The Black Keys were nominated for three Billboard Music Awards: Top Alternative Artist, and Top Rock Album and Top Alternative Album for "Brothers". The group continued to make appearances at American music festivals throughout the year, playing at Bonnaroo, Kanrocksas, and Outside Lands.


title: The Black Keys

text: The group recorded their seventh studio album, "El Camino", from March to May 2011. Splitting time between touring and recording, the band spent 41 days at Easy Eye Sound Studio, which was opened in 2010 by Auerbach in the duo's new hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. For the album, Danger Mouse reprised his role as producer and also contributed as a co-writer on all 11 songs. After struggling to translate the slower songs from "Brothers" to a live setting, the band decided to write more uptempo tracks for "El Camino". The record draws from popular genres from the 1950s–1970s, including rock and roll, glam rock, rockabilly, surf rock, and soul. The band cited several retro acts as musical influences on the album, including the Clash, the Cramps, T. Rex, Ramones, the Beatles, the Sweet, the Cars, and Johnny Burnette.


title: The Black Keys

text: "Lonely Boy" was released in October as the album's lead single, accompanied by a popular one-shot music video of a man dancing and lip-syncing. The song became the group's best-charting single in several countries, reaching number 64 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, number 2 on the Australian Singles Chart, and number 33 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song was certified nine-times platinum in Canada, triple platinum in Australia, platinum in New Zealand, and gold in Denmark. The band returned to "Saturday Night Live" as a musical guest on December 3, 2011. "El Camino" was released three days later and received wide critical acclaim. In the US, it debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and sold 206,000 copies in its first week, the highest single-week sales and (to that point) charting position the group had achieved in the country. Many publications, such as "Rolling Stone" and "Time" ranked "El Camino" among the best albums of the year, despite its late release. The album was certified double-platinum in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand; platinum in the US, UK, and Ireland; and gold in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.


title: The Black Keys

text: In 2012, the group commenced the first headlining arena tour of its career, the El Camino Tour, playing dates in Europe and North America. After tickets went on sale, their show at Madison Square Garden sold out in 15 minutes. Just as it did on its previous tour, the group added bassist Gus Seyffert and keyboardist/guitarist John Wood as touring musicians in order to perform songs as close to their studio arrangements as possible. The album's second single, "Gold on the Ceiling", like its predecessor, went to number one on the Alternative Songs chart and was certified platinum in Australia and Canada. The group headlined several music festivals throughout the year, including Catalpa Music Festival, Coachella, Memphis in May (in 2013), Lollapalooza, and Osheaga. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, "El Camino" and "Lonely Boy" were nominated in five categories and were winners in three; the album won Best Rock Album, while "Lonely Boy" won Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song.


title: The Black Keys

text: For their eighth studio album, "Turn Blue", the band once again collaborated with Danger Mouse, who co-produced and co-wrote the album. It was recorded primarily at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, from July–August 2013, with additional recording at Key Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Nashville's Easy Eye Sound in early 2014. The album was announced in March 2014 via Mike Tyson's Twitter account, with a link to a cryptic teaser video on YouTube featuring a hypnotist, and was released on May 13, 2014. The record exhibits psychedelic rock and soul influences and features a more melancholy tone, largely in part due to Auerbach dealing with the divorce from his wife during the album sessions. The first single, "Fever" was released on March 24, while a second single, "Turn Blue", followed on April 14. The album debuted at number one in the US and Australia, the band's first record to top the album charts in either country; 164,000 copies were sold in the US in its first week. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, with "Fever" being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song as well as the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance. In May 2014, the Black Keys embarked on a world tour to support the album, with Cage the Elephant, Jake Bugg, and St. Vincent all separately opening for them. Several shows on the tour were cancelled after Carney broke and dislocated his shoulder in a swimming accident while vacationing in Saint Barthélemy in January 2015.


title: The Black Keys

text: After concluding their tour with a performance at Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in August 2015, the Black Keys began an extended hiatus. Shortly after they began their hiatus, the band were ranked No. 20 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. During the band's hiatus, Auerbach and Carney were involved in several musical projects on their own. Auerbach formed the Arcs in 2015, who released their debut album, "Yours, Dreamily," that September. He also released his second solo album, "Waiting on a Song", in 2017, and contributed to albums by artists such as the Pretenders, A$AP Rocky and Jake Bugg. Meanwhile, Carney worked as a producer on albums by Tobias Jesso, Jr. and Karen Elson, and he composed the theme song to the Netflix animated series "BoJack Horseman" with his late uncle Ralph Carney. In 2017, Carney served as a co-writer, producer, and drummer on "Hopeless Romantic", the first studio album by Michelle Branch in 14 years. After beginning a relationship while working on the album, the two were engaged in July 2017 and married in April 2019.


title: The Black Keys

text: On March 7, 2019, the Black Keys released the single "Lo/Hi", their first new music released in five years. A week later, the band announced a North American tour co-headlining with Modest Mouse and openers *repeat repeat. On April 25, the Black Keys released "Eagle Birds", the second single from their ninth album, "Let's Rock". "Lo/Hi" became the band's first single to reach number one on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart. On May 16, the band released "Let's Rock"s third single, "Go".


title: The Black Keys

text: On April 13, 2021, the Black Keys announced an album comprising 11 covers of hill country blues songs titled "Delta Kream", which was released on May 14, 2021. It is their second release of hill country blues covers following the "Chulahoma" EP in 2006. The announcement was made through the band's Lonely Boys and Girls fan club, through which they also premiered the album's opening track, a cover of John Lee Hooker's version of "Crawling Kingsnake".


title: The Black Keys

text: On March 10, 2022, the group released the song "Wild Child", their first original music since "Let's Rock", along with a music video. This coincided with the announcement of their eleventh album, "Dropout Boogie", which was released on May 13, 2022. A second single, "It Ain't Over", was released on April 27, 2022.


title: The Black Keys

text: The Black Keys have been described as blues rock, garage rock, punk blues, indie rock, lo-fi, and alternative rock. According to "Paste Magazine," "they’ve bounced from the blues to psychedelia to classic, good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, and so many of their most interesting tunes bring all those elements together.


title: The Black Keys

text: Note: At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards (2011), Michael Carney was nominated and won the award for Best Recording Package, for "Brothers". At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards (2013), Dan Auerbach was nominated and won the award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, for work including the band's "El Camino".


title: Irreligion

text: Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and antitheism. Social scientists tend to define irreligion as a purely naturalist worldview that excludes a belief in anything supernatural. The broadest and loosest definition, serving as an upper limit, is the lack of religious identification, though many non-identifiers express metaphysical and even religious beliefs. The narrowest and strictest is subscribing to positive atheism.


title: Irreligion

text: According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population does not identify with any religion. The population of the religiously unaffiliated, sometimes referred to as "nones", has grown significantly in recent years. Measurement of irreligiosity requires great cultural sensitivity, especially outside the West, where the concepts of "religion" or "the secular" are not always rooted in local culture.


title: Irreligion

text: The term "irreligion" is a combination of the noun "religion" and the "ir-" form of the prefix "in-", signifying "not" (similar to "irrelevant"). It was first attested in French as "irréligion" in 1527, then in English as "irreligion" in 1598. It was borrowed into Dutch as "irreligie" in the 17th century, though it is not certain from which language.


title: Irreligion

text: In 1993, the UN's human rights committee declared that article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief." The committee further stated that "the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views." Signatories to the convention are barred from "the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers" to recant their beliefs or convert.


title: Irreligion

text: Most democracies protect the freedom of religion, and it is largely implied in respective legal systems that those who do not believe or observe any religion are allowed freedom of thought.


title: Irreligion

text: A noted exception to ambiguity, explicitly allowing non-religion, is Article 36 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (as adopted in 1982), which states that "No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion." Article 46 of China's 1978 Constitution was even more explicit, stating that "Citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism."


title: Irreligion

text: Although 11 countries listed below have nonreligious majorities, it does not necessary correlate with non-identification. For example, 58% of the Swedish population identify with the Lutheran Church. Also, though Scandinavian countries have among the highest measures of nonreligiosity and even atheism in Europe, 47% of atheists who live in those countries are still formally members of the national churches.


title: Irreligion

text: Determining objective irreligion, as part of societal or individual levels of secularity and religiosity, requires cultural sensitivity from researchers. This is especially so outside the West, where the Western Christian concepts of "religious" and "secular" are not rooted in local civilization. Many East Asians identify as "without religion" ("wú zōngjiào" in Chinese, "mu shūkyō" in Japanese, "mu jong-gyo" in Korean), but "religion" in that context refers only to Buddhism or Christianity. Most of the people "without religion" practice Shinto and other folk religions. In the Muslim world, those who claim to be "not religious" mostly imply not strictly observing Islam, and in Israel, being "secular" means not strictly observing Orthodox Judaism. Vice versa, many American Jews share the worldviews of nonreligious people though affiliated with a Jewish denomination, and in Russia, growing identification with Eastern Orthodoxy is mainly motivated by cultural and nationalist considerations, without much concrete belief.


title: Irreligion

text: A Pew 2015 global projection study for religion and nonreligion, projects that between 2010 and 2050, there will be some initial increases of the unaffiliated followed by a decline by 2050 due to lower global fertility rates among this demographic. Sociologist Phil Zuckerman's global studies on atheism have indicated that global atheism may be in decline due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth rates in the world and religious countries having higher birth rates in general. Since religion and fertility are positively related and vice versa, non-religious identity is expected to decline as a proportion of the global population throughout the 21st century. By 2060, according to projections, the number of unaffiliated will increase by over 35 million, but the percentage will decrease to 13% because the total population will grow faster.


title: Irreligion

text: According to Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated. A 2012 Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association report on a poll from 57 countries reported that 59% of the world's population identified as religious person, 23% as not religious person, 13% as "convinced atheists", and also a 9% decrease in identification as "religious" when compared to the 2005 average from 39 countries. Their follow-up report, based on a poll in 2015, found that 63% of the globe identified as religious person, 22% as not religious person, and 11% as "convinced atheists". Their 2017 report found that 62% of the globe identified as religious person, 25% as not religious person, and 9% as "convinced atheists". However, researchers have advised caution with the WIN/Gallup International figures since other surveys which use the same wording, have conducted many waves for decades, and have a bigger sample size, such as World Values Survey; have consistently reached lower figures for the number of atheists worldwide. In 2020, the World Religion Database estimated that the countries with the highest percentage of atheists were North Korea and Sweden.


title: Irreligion

text: Being nonreligious is not necessarily equivalent to being an atheist or agnostic. Pew Research Center's global study from 2012 noted that many of the nonreligious actually have some religious beliefs. For example, they observed that "belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of Chinese unaffiliated adults, 30% of French unaffiliated adults and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults." Out of the global nonreligious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%).<ref name="Pew Global Unaffiliated 12/2012"></ref>


title: Irreligion

text: The term "nones" is sometimes used in the U.S. to refer to those who are unaffiliated with any organized religion. This use derives from surveys of religious affiliation, in which "None" (or "None of the above") is typically the last choice. Since this status refers to lack of organizational affiliation rather than lack of personal belief, it is a more specific concept than irreligion. A 2015 Gallup poll concluded that in the U.S. "nones" were the only "religious" group that was growing as a percentage of the population.


title: Irreligion

text: The in the table below reflects "religiously unaffiliated" which "include atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys".


title: Irreligion

text: The data on the table below only reflect the number of people who have an absence of belief in a deity only (atheists, agnostics). Does not include the broader number of people who do not identify with a religion such as deists, spiritual but not religious, pantheists, New Age spiritualism, etc.


title: Irreligion

text: According to political/social scientist Ronald F. Inglehart, "influential thinkers from Karl Marx to Max Weber to Émile Durkheim predicted that the spread of scientific knowledge would dispel religion throughout the world", but religion continued to prosper in most places during the 19th and 20th centuries. Inglehart and Pippa Norris argue faith is "more emotional than cognitive", and advance an alternative thesis termed "existential security." They postulate that rather than knowledge or ignorance of scientific learning, it is the weakness or vulnerability of a society that determines religiosity. They claim that increased poverty and chaos make religious values more important to a society, while wealth and security diminish its role. As need for religious support diminishes, there is less willingness to "accept its constraints, including keeping women in the kitchen and gay people in the closet".


title: Irreligion

text: Rates of people identifying as non-religious began rising in most societies as least as early as the turn of the 20th century. In 1968, sociologist Glenn M. Vernon wrote that US census respondents who identified as "no religion" were insufficiently defined because they were defined in terms of a negative. He contrasted the label with the term "independent" for political affiliation, which still includes people who participate in civic activities. He suggested this difficulty in definition was partially due to the dilemma of defining religious activity beyond membership, attendance, or other identification with a formal religious group. During the 1970s, social scientists still tended to describe irreligion from a perspective that considered religion as normative for humans. Irreligion was described in terms of hostility, reactivity, or indifference toward religion, and or as developing from radical theologies.