title: Goldfinger (film)

text: "Goldfinger"s $3 million budget was recouped in two weeks, and it broke box office records in multiple countries around the world. The "Guinness Book of World Records" went on to list "Goldfinger" as the fastest grossing film of all time. Demand for the film was so high that the DeMille cinema in New York City had to stay open twenty-four hours a day. The film closed its original box office run with $23 million in the United States and $46 million worldwide. After reissues, the first being a double feature with "Dr. No" in 1966, "Goldfinger" grossed a total of $51,081,062 in the United States and $73,800,000 elsewhere, for a total worldwide gross of $124,900,000.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: The film distributor Park Circus re-released "Goldfinger" in the UK on 27 July 2007 at 150 multiplex cinemas, on digital prints. The re-release put the film twelfth at the weekly box office. "Goldfinger" would again receive a re-release in November 2020 in the wake of Connery's death.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: At the 1965 Academy Awards, Norman Wanstall won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, making "Goldfinger" the first Bond film to receive an Academy Award. John Barry was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture, and Ken Adam was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for Best British Art Direction (Colour), where he also won the award for Best British Art Direction (Black and White) for "Dr. Strangelove". The American Film Institute has honoured the film four times: ranking it No. 90 for best movie quote ("A martini. Shaken, not stirred"), No. 53 for best song ("Goldfinger"), No. 49 for best villain (Auric Goldfinger), and No. 71 for most thrilling film. In 2006, "Entertainment Weekly" and IGN both named "Goldfinger" as the best Bond film, while MSN named it as the second best, behind its predecessor. IGN and "EW" also named Pussy Galore as the second best Bond girl. In 2008, "Total Film" named "Goldfinger" as the best film in the series. "The Times" placed Goldfinger and Oddjob second and third on their list of the best Bond villains in 2008. They also named the Aston Martin DB5 as the best car in the films.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: The film was released in 1994 in the US and Europe on Video CD. It was first released on DVD in the US in 1997 by MGM Home Entertainment and in Europe in 2000. 2006 saw the release of the 'Ultimate Edition' DVD, whose video was sourced from a newly-scanned 4K master of the original film. In 2008, "Goldfinger" was made available on Blu-ray Disc.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: "Goldfinger"s script became a template for subsequent Bond films. It was the first of the series showing Bond relying heavily on technology, as well as the first to show a pre-credits sequence with only a tangential link to the main story—in this case allowing Bond to get to Miami after a mission. Also introduced for the first of many appearances is the briefing in Q-branch, allowing the viewer to see the gadgets in development. The subsequent films in the Bond series follow most of "Goldfinger"s basic structure, featuring a henchman with a particular characteristic, a Bond girl who is killed by the villain, big emphasis on the gadgets and a more tongue-in-cheek approach, though trying to balance action and comedy.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: "Goldfinger" has been described as perhaps "the most highly and consistently praised Bond picture of them all" and after "Goldfinger", Bond "became a true phenomenon." The success of the film led to the emergence of many other works in the espionage genre and parodies of James Bond, such as The Beatles film "Help!" in 1965 and a spoof of Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, "Casino Royale", in 1967. Indeed, it has been said that "Goldfinger" was the cause of the boom in espionage films in the 1960s, so much so that in "1966, moviegoers were offered no less than 22 examples of secret agent entertainment, including several blatant attempts to begin competing series, with James Coburn starring as Derek Flint in the film "Our Man Flint" and Dean Martin as "Matt Helm"".


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: Even within the Bond canon, "Goldfinger" is acknowledged; the 22nd Bond film, "Quantum of Solace", includes an homage to the gold body paint death scene by having a female character dead on a bed nude, covered in crude oil. Outside the Bond films, elements of "Goldfinger", such as Oddjob and his use of his hat as a weapon, Bond removing his drysuit to reveal a tuxedo underneath, and the laser scene have been homaged or spoofed in works such as "True Lies", "The Simpsons", and the "Austin Powers" series. The US television programme "MythBusters" explored many scenarios seen in the film, such as the explosive depressurisation in a plane at high altitudes, the death by full body painting, an ejector seat in a car and using a tuxedo under a drysuit.


title: Goldfinger (film)

text: The success of the film led to Ian Fleming's Bond novels receiving an increase of popularity and nearly 6 million books were sold in the United Kingdom in 1964, including 964,000 copies of "Goldfinger" alone. Between the years 1962 to 1967 a total of 22,792,000 Bond novels were sold.


title: Cafu

text: Marcos Evangelista de Morais (born 7 June 1970), known as Cafu (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Known for his pace and energetic attacking runs along the right flank, he is regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, one of the best defenders ever to play in Serie A, and as one of the greatest Brazilian and South American players of his generation. He is also the most-capped player for the Brazil national team with 142 appearances.


title: Cafu

text: At club level, Cafu won several domestic and international titles while playing in Brazil, Spain and Italy; he is best known for his spells at São Paulo, Roma and AC Milan, teams with which he made history, although he also played for Zaragoza, Juventude and Palmeiras throughout his career. In 1994, Cafu was crowned South American Footballer of the Year, and in 2004, was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. He was additionally named to the FIFPro World XI in 2005, and in 2020 was included in the Ballon d'Or Dream Team.


title: Cafu

text: Cafu represented his nation in four FIFA World Cups between 1994 and 2006, and is the only player in history to have appeared in three World Cup finals, both overall and consecutive, winning the 1994 and 2002 editions of the tournament, the latter as his team's captain where he lifted the World Cup trophy. With Brazil, he also took part in four editions of the Copa América, winning the title twice, in 1997 and 1999; he was also a member of the national side that won the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup.


title: Cafu

text: One of six children, Cafu was raised in the Jardim Irene favela of São Paulo. At the age of seven, he was able to attend a football academy and soon moved up to the junior sides of Nacional-SP, Portuguesa and Itaquaquecetuba. He also played futsal for two years.


title: Cafu

text: In the early 1980s, he was rejected from the youth squads of Corinthians, Palmeiras, Santos, Atlético Mineiro and Portuguesa, but it was not until 1988 that he made the youth squad of hometown club São Paulo, and subsequently won the "Copa São Paulo" youth tournament that year, but he did not play during the next season as São Paulo won the 1989 Campeonato Paulista.


title: Cafu

text: It was during this time, however, that São Paulo youth coach Telê Santana became Cafu's mentor. He suggested that Cafu move from wingback to midfield, a spot into which Cafu made the transition with ease despite never previously playing the position. He had soon anchored onto the first team, as São Paulo won back-to-back Copa Libertadores and World Championships in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, he was named the South American Footballer of the Year. Halfway through the 1994–95 season, Cafu joined Spanish side Real Zaragoza, winning the 1995 Cup Winners' Cup with them (though he had injury issues and did not play in the final). He then left Zaragoza to join Brazilian club Juventude.


title: Cafu

text: After a brief stint back in Brazil with Palmeiras in 1996, Cafu returned to Europe once again the next year, this time with Roma, and won the "Scudetto" in 2001, followed by the Supercoppa Italiana. It was during his tenure at Roma that Cafu earned the nickname "Il Pendolino" ("The Express Train" or "The Commuter"). Despite making the Coppa Italia final in 2003 with Roma, he moved to AC Milan, after turning down a move to Japan with Yokohama F. Marinos. With the "Rossoneri", he won his second career Scudetto in 2004, followed by his second Supercoppa Italiana, and he played in his first UEFA Champions League final in 2005. The following season, he made fewer appearances for Milan due to injury and difficulties in his personal life.


title: Cafu

text: Despite his success with Milan, he continued to hold fond memories of his Roma years, and it was for that reason that on 4 March 2007 – the day after Milan eliminated Celtic in the first knockout round of the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League – he candidly revealed in a UEFA.com chat that he did not want Milan to be drawn against the "Giallorossi" in the quarter-final round. He got his wish, as Milan were drawn against Bayern Munich. Milan's successful Champions League campaign saw Cafu finally pick up a long-awaited winners' medal, in a rematch of the 2005 final.


title: Cafu

text: Cafu signed a contract extension in May 2007 that would keep him with Milan until the end of the 2007–08 season, during which he won another UEFA Supercup, and his third world title at club level and now his first FIFA Club World Cup. On 16 May 2008, it was announced that Cafu and compatriot Serginho would be leaving Milan at the end of the season. In Cafu's last game of his Milan career, and of his professional career, he scored a goal in their 4–1 victory over Udinese. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani stated that the door would be open to him to return to work for the club.


title: Cafu

text: Cafu was accused along with several other Serie A players, including Roma teammate Fábio Júnior and Gustavo Bartelt, countryman and later Milan teammate Dida, of using a forged passport in their attempt to dodge regulations regarding the number of non-European players allowed on Italian club rosters. However, the charge was cleared by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) as Cafu's Italian passport was real and issued by Italian officials, but 13 others – including Dida – were banned. But Cafu faced another controversy that similar to Juan Sebastián Verón, accused that Cafu's wife, Regina used falsified documents to claim Italian nationality through Italian descent. Cafu acquired Italian nationality through marriage. In 2004, Cafu and Roma club president Franco Sensi went to court.


title: Cafu

text: On 12 June 2006, less than 24 hours before Brazil were to begin their 2006 World Cup campaign against Croatia, Rome prosecutor Angelantonio Racanelli called for the imprisonment of Cafu, his wife and his agent for nine months following the resurfacing of a false-passport scandal. The very next day, however, Cafu, his wife and agent were acquitted of all charges.


title: Cafu

text: Cafu is the most-capped Brazilian men's player of all time with 142 appearances, including a record 20 World Cup games. He has won two World Cups in 1994 and 2002, as well as being the only player to participate in three World Cup final matches. Cafu also held the record of winning the most matches in World Cups with 15 (along with two games Brazil won on penalties), before being surpassed by Germany's Miroslav Klose in the 2014 World Cup.


title: Cafu

text: He earned his first cap in a friendly against Spain on 12 September 1990, and played sparingly for Brazil in the early 1990s, making the 1994 World Cup roster as a substitute. He appeared in the final against Italy, following an injury to Jorginho in the 22nd minute. After that, Cafu was soon a regular in the starting eleven as Brazil won the Copa América in 1997 and 1999, the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup, and reached the 1998 World Cup final.


title: Cafu

text: Brazil endured a rocky qualification for the 2002 tournament, during which Cafu came under heavy criticism from coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who stripped him of the team captaincy after he was sent off in a qualifier against Paraguay. Shortly after that, however, Luxemburgo was out of a job, and replacement Luiz Felipe Scolari made Emerson his new choice for captain. However, Emerson missed the cut after he dislocated his shoulder in training, which allowed Cafu to regain the armband. After Brazil defeated Germany 2–0 in the final match (Cafu's third consecutive World Cup final), he stood on the victory podium during the postmatch celebration and, as he raised the World Cup trophy, shouted to his wife, ""Regina, eu te amo!"" ("Regina, I love you!").


title: Cafu

text: Cafu and Brazil fell short of high expectations placed on the squad four years later in 2006, as Brazil meekly exited in the quarter-finals after a 1–0 defeat by France. Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was criticized for featuring fading veterans, most notably the 36-year-old Cafu and 33-year-old Roberto Carlos, in the starting XI in lieu of younger players. Cafu was one of only a few Brazil players who spoke to the press in the midst of a hailstorm of criticism from Brazilian fans and media alike following the team's return home. He nonetheless expressed interest in participating in the 2010 World Cup; however he did not, as he retired completely from football in 2008.


title: Cafu

text: Regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, one of the best footballers of his generation, and as one of Brazil's best ever players, Cafu was a dynamic, hard-working, offensive-minded, and energetic right-sided wing-back who is mostly remembered for his great pace, stamina, tactical intelligence, distribution, and technical skills, as well as his ability to make overlapping attacking runs down the right flank and provide accurate crosses to teammates in the area.


title: Cafu

text: In addition to his footballing ability, he was also known for his discipline, leadership and his characteristically cheerful demeanour. Although he usually played as an attacking right-back, he was also capable of playing as a centre back, due to his defensive skills, or in more advanced positions, and was often deployed as a right winger. During his time in Italy, he was given the nickname "Pendolino", after the country's express trains.


title: Cafu

text: Cafu is separated from his wife Regina Feliciano, who he married in 1987. The couple have three children together: two sons (Danilo and Wellington) and a daughter (Michelle). On 4 September 2019, Danilo suffered a heart attack whilst playing football at his family home, after complaining about feeling unwell. Danilo was taken to hospital, where he later died.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Sharmila Tagore (also known as Begum Ayesha Sultana; born 8 December 1944) is a retired Indian actress, primarily known for her work in Hindi and Bengali cinema, Tagore is the recipient of two National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award, and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Hindi cinema. In 2013, the Government of India, honoured her with Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour for her contributions to the Indian culture through performing arts.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Born into the prominent Tagore family, one of the leading families of Calcutta and a key influence during the Bengali Renaissance, Tagore made her acting debut at age 14 with Satyajit Ray's acclaimed Bengali drama "The World of Apu" (1959). She went on to collaborate with Ray on numerous other films, including; "Devi" (1960), "Nayak" (1966), "Aranyer Din Ratri" (1970), and "Seemabaddha" (1971); thus, establishing herself as one of the most prominent figures in Bengali cinema.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Tagore's career further expanded when she ventured into Hindi films, making her debut with Shakti Samanta's romantic drama "Kashmir Ki Kali" (1964). She went on to establish herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema with films like; "Waqt" (1965), "Anupama" (1966), "An Evening in Paris" (1967), "Aamne Saamne" (1967), "Satyakam" (1969), "Aradhana" (1969), "Safar" (1970), "Amar Prem" (1972), "Daag" (1973), "Avishkaar" (1974), "Mausam" (1975), "Chupke Chupke" (1975), and "Namkeen" (1982). This was followed by a decade of intermittent film appearances including; Mira Nair's "Mississippi Masala" (1991), Goutam Ghose's "Abar Aranye" (2002), and the Hindi films; "Aashik Awara" (1993), "Mann" (1999), "Viruddh" (2005), "" (2006), and finally retiring from acting with her final film appearance "Break Ke Baad" (2010).


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Apart from acting, Tagore has also served as the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification from October 2004 to March 2011. In December 2005, she was chosen as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She was married to cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi with whom she had three children—actors Saif, and Soha, and jewellery designer Saba.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Sharmila Tagore was born on 8 December 1944 in Cawnpore (now Kanpur), United Provinces to Gitindranath Tagore, a general manager in the British India Corporation, and his wife Ira Tagore (née Baruah). Tagore's father belonged to the aristocratic Bengali Hindu Tagore family, and were distantly related to the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, while her mother was of Assamese Hindu descent and hailed from the Barua family. Gitindranath was the grandson of the noted painter Gaganendranath Tagore, whose own father Gunendranath had been a first cousin of the laureate. In fact, Tagore is more closely related to Rabindranath Tagore through her mother: her maternal grandmother, Latika Barua (née Tagore), was the granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore's brother, Dwijendranath Tagore. Tagore's maternal grandfather (husband of Latika Barua née Tagore) was Jnanadabhiram Barua, an Assamese who was the first principal of Earl Law College in Guwahati (now known as Government Law College), himself the son of the noted social worker Gunabhiram Barua. As a member of the Tagore family, she is also a distant relative of the actress Devika Rani and the painter Abanindranath Tagore (brother of Gaganendranath Tagore).


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Tagore was the eldest of three children and had two younger sisters, the late Oindrila Kunda [Tinku Tagore] and Romila Sen [Chinky]. Oindrila was the first in the family to act in a film, and the only role she ever played was that of "Mini", the child character (but a central character) in Tapan Sinha's film Kabuliwala (1957). In adulthood, she became an international bridge player. Her other sister, Romila Sen, married to Nikhil Sen, a businessman who served as chief operating officer of Britannia Industries for several years, died as the founder and managing director of Unibic Foods in November 2019.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Tagore attended St. John's Diocesan Girls' Higher Secondary School and Loreto Convent, Asansol. She made her film debut when she was a 13-year-old schoolgirl, after which her studies lost priority. Within a short while, her attendance and performance at school suffered, she came to be regarded as a bad influence on her classmates, and was faced with a choice of either doing films or studying further. At that point, her father advised her to move ahead in life, commit herself to a film career and 'give it her all' in order to become successful.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Tagore began her career as an actress in Satyajit Ray's 1959 Bengali film, "Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)", as the ill-fated bride of the title character. In 1959, Ray cast her in "Devi", a film set in 1860 on Hindu orthodoxy and rational reforms. She considers it as her favourite film and performance.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: She later appeared in Shakti Samanta's "Kashmir Ki Kali" in 1964. Samanta cast her in many more films, including "An Evening in Paris" (1967), in which she became the first Indian actress to appear in a bikini, which established Tagore as a sex symbol in Hindi films. She also posed in a bikini for the glossy "Filmfare" magazine in 1966. But, when she was the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification 36 years later, she expressed concerns about the increased use of bikinis in Indian films.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Samanta later teamed up Tagore with Rajesh Khanna for movies such as "Aradhana" (1969) and "Amar Prem" (1972). Other directors paired them together in "Safar" (1970), "" (1973) and "Maalik" (1972). The Khanna-Tagore pair yielded 7 box office hits – "Aradhana", "Safar", "Amar Prem", "Chhoti Bahu", "Daag", "Raja Rani" and "Avishkaar". As per the review of the film "Raja Rani" made in 2014 by the "Hindu" newspaper, the film did well at the box office and taking into consideration, the inflation, as of 2014, the film would have grossed more than 1 billion. She had a successful pair with the legendary iconic Bengali actor Uttam Kumar. She starred in Gulzar's 1975 film, "Mausam" and won the National Film Award for Best Actress. She also played a supporting role in Mira Nair's 1991 film, "Mississippi Masala". She had a very successful pairing opposite Dharmendra, along with whom she starred in seven movies – "Devar" (1966), "Anupama" (1966), "Mere Hamdam Mere Dost" (1968), "Satyakam" (1969), "Yakeen" (1969), "Chupke Chupke" (1975), "Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka" (1975) and "Sunny" (1984). Her filmography also include "Faraar" (1975) and "Besharam" (1978) opposite Amitabh Bachchan; "Mausam" (1975) opposite Sanjeev Kumar; and Bengali film "Mangaldeep" (1991) opposite Naseeruddin Shah.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: Tagore converted to Islam, changed her name to Begum Ayesha Sultana and married Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, the titular Nawab of Pataudi and Bhopal, and former captain of the Indian cricket team, on 27 December 1968. They had three children: Saif Ali Khan (b. 1970), a Bollywood actor, Saba Ali Khan (b. 1976), a jewellery designer, and Soha Ali Khan (b. 1978), a Bollywood actress and TV personality. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi passed away at the age of 70, on 22 September 2011.


title: Sharmila Tagore

text: From 1991 to 2004, Saif was married to actress Amrita Singh. They had two children, daughter Sara Ali Khan (b. 1995), an actress, and son Ibrahim Ali Khan (b. 2001). His second marriage was to actress Kareena Kapoor in 2012 with whom he has two sons, Taimur Ali Khan (b. 2016) and Jahangir Ali Khan (b. 2021). Soha married actor Kunal Khemu in 2015, and has a daughter Inaaya Naumi Khemmu (b. 2017).


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French "fusil", rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: A firing squad is normally composed of several soldiers, all of whom are usually instructed to fire simultaneously, thus preventing both disruption of the process by one member and identification of who fired the lethal shot. To avoid disfigurement due to multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper or cloth target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded as well as restrained. Media portrayals have frequently shown the condemned being offered a final cigarette as well. Executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such executions are carried out at first light or at sunrise. This gave rise to the phrase "shot at dawn".


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Execution by firing squad is a specific practice that is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by shot(s) to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot by the squad's officer with a pistol (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal. Before the introduction of firearms, bows or crossbows were often used—Saint Sebastian is usually depicted as executed by a squad of Roman auxiliary archers in around AD 288; King Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia, by some accounts, was tied to a tree and executed by Viking archers on 20 November 869 or 870.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The method is often the capital punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice, desertion, espionage, murder, mutiny, or treason.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: If the condemned prisoner is an ex-officer who is acknowledged to have shown bravery throughout their career, they may be afforded the privilege of giving the order to fire. An example of this is Marshal of France Michel Ney. As a means of insulting the condemned, however, past executions have had them shot in the back, denied blindfolds, or even tied to chairs. When Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Benito Mussolini, and several other former Fascists who voted to remove Mussolini from power were executed, they were tied to chairs facing away from their executioners. By some reports, Ciano managed to twist his chair around at the last second to face them.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Sometimes, one or more soldiers of the firing squad may be issued a rifle containing a blank cartridge. In such cases, soldiers of the firing squad are not told beforehand whether they are using live ammunition. This is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the firing squad members. It provides each member with a measure of plausible deniability that they, personally, did not fire a bullet at all. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as the "conscience round".


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In practice however, firing a live round produces significant recoil, while firing a blank does not. This is especially significant with bolt-action rifles. As a result, it is not realistic to assume that, after the fact, trained soldiers will be unaware of which they shot. This is reflected in first-hand reports such as Pte. W. A. Quinton’s, who served in the British Army during the First World War and served on a firing squad in October 1915. Per his account, he and 11 colleagues were relieved of any live ammunition and their own rifles, then issued replacement firearms for the task at hand. After a short speech by an officer, the squad fired a volley at the condemned man. Quinton stated that "I had the satisfaction of knowing that as soon as I fired, the absence of any recoil [indicated] that I had merely fired a blank cartridge".


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In more recent times, such as the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in Utah, USA, one rifleman may be given a "dummy" cartridge containing a wax bullet, which provides a more realistic recoil.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Manuel Dorrego, a prominent Argentine statesman and soldier who governed Buenos Aires in the 1820s, was executed by firing squad on 12 December 1828 after being defeated in battle by Juan Lavalle and later convicted of treason.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 12 October 1915 a British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad at the Tir national shooting range at Schaerbeek after being convicted of "conveying troops to the enemy" during the First World War.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 1 April 1916 a Belgian woman, Gabrielle Petit, was executed by a German firing squad at Schaerbeek after being convicted of spying for the British Secret Service during World War I.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, three captured German spies were tried and executed by a U.S. firing squad at Henri-Chapelle on 23 December 1944. Thirteen other Germans were also tried and shot at either Henri-Chapelle or Huy. These executed spies took part in Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny's Operation Greif, in which English-speaking German commandos operated behind U.S. lines, masquerading in U.S. uniforms and equipment.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 expressly prohibits the usage of capital punishment in peacetime, but authorizes the use of the death penalty for military crimes committed during wartime. War needs to be declared formally, in accordance with international law and article 84, item 19 of the Federal Constitution, with due authorization from the Brazilian Congress. The Brazilian Code of Military Penal Law, in its chapter dealing with wartime offences, specifies the crimes that are subject to the death penalty. The death penalty is never the only possible sentence for a crime, and the punishment must be imposed by the military courts system. Per the norms of the Brazilian Code of Military Penal Procedure, the death penalty is carried out by firing squad.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Although Brazil still permits the use of capital punishment during wartime, no convicts were actually executed during Brazil's last military conflict, the Second World War. The military personnel sentenced to death during World War II had their sentences reduced by the President of the Republic.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Following the military overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet initiated a series of war tribunal trials against leftist people around the country. During the first months after his coup, hundreds of people were killed by firing squads and summary executions.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Cuba, as part of its penal system, still utilizes death by firing squad, although the last recorded execution was in 2003. In January 1992 a Cuban exile convicted of "terrorism, sabotage and enemy propaganda" was executed by firing squad. The Council of the State noted that the punishment served as a deterrent and stated that the death penalty "fulfills a goal of overall prevention, especially when the idea is to stop such loathsome actions from being repeated, to deter others and so to prevent innocent human lives from being endangered in the future".


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the months following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, soldiers of the Batista government and political opponents to the revolution were executed by firing squad.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The death penalty was widely used during and after the Finnish Civil War (January–May 1918); some 9,700 Finns and an unknown number of Russian volunteers on Red side were executed during the war or in its aftermath. Most executions were carried out by firing squads after the sentences were given by illegal or semi-legal courts martial. Only some 250 persons were sentenced to death in courts acting on legal authority.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During World War II some 500 persons were executed, half of them condemned spies. The usual causes for death penalty for Finnish citizens were treason and high treason (and to a lesser extent cowardice and disobedience, applicable for military personnel). Almost all cases of capital punishment were tried by court-martial. Usually the executions were carried out by the regimental military police platoon, or by the local military police in the case of spies. One Finn, Toivo Koljonen, was executed for a civilian crime (six murders). Most executions occurred in 1941 and during the Soviet Summer Offensive in 1944. The last death sentences were given in 1945 for murder, but later commuted to life imprisonment.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The death penalty was abolished by Finnish law in 1949 for crimes committed during peacetime, and in 1972 for all crimes. Finland is party to the Optional protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, forbidding the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Pte. Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be convicted of desertion and executed by firing squad in September 1914 at Tournan-en-Brie during World War I. In October 1916 Pte. Harry Farr was shot for cowardice at Carnoy, which was later suspected to be acoustic shock. Highgate and Farr, along with 304 other British and Imperial troops who were executed for similar offenses, were listed at the Shot at Dawn Memorial which was erected to honor them.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 15 October 1917 Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad at Château de Vincennes castle in the town of Vincennes after being convicted of spying for Germany during World War I.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During World War II, on 24 September 1944, Josef Wende and Stephan Kortas, two Poles drafted into the German army, crossed the Moselle Rivers behind U.S. lines in civilian clothes to observe Allied strength and were to rejoin their own army on the same day. However, they were discovered by the Americans and arrested. On 18 October 1944 they were found guilty of espionage by a U.S. military commission and sentenced to death. On 11 November 1944 they were shot in the garden of a farmhouse at Toul. The footage of Wende's execution as well as Kortas's is shown in these links.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 31 January 1945, U.S. Army Pvt. Edward "Eddie" Slovik was executed by firing squad for desertion near the village of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines. He was the first American soldier executed for such offense since the American Civil War.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 15 October 1945 Pierre Laval, the puppet leader of Nazi-occupied Vichy France, was executed for treason at Fresnes Prison in Paris.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 11 March 1963 Jean Bastien-Thiry was the last person to be executed by firing squad for a failed attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Execution by firing squad is the capital punishment method used in Indonesia. The following persons were executed (reported by BBC World Service) by firing squad on 29 April 2015 following convictions for drug offences: two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the Ghanaian Martin Anderson, the Indonesian Zainal Abidin bin Mgs Mahmud Badarudin, three Nigerians: Raheem Agbaje Salami, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Okwudili Oyatanze, as well as Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In 2006 Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were executed. Nigerian drug smugglers Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthoni Nwaolisa were executed in June 2008 in Nusakambangan Island. Five months later three men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombing—Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron—were executed on the same spot in Nusakambangan. In January 2013 56-year-old British woman Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to execution by firing squad for importing a large amount of cocaine; she lost her appeal against her sentence in April 2013. On 18 January 2015, under the new leadership of Joko Widodo, six people sentenced to death for producing and smuggling drugs into Indonesia were executed at Nusa Kambangan Penitentiary shortly after midnight.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Following the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, 15 of the 16 leaders who were executed were shot by British military authorities under martial law. The executions have often been cited as a reason for how the Rising managed to galvanise public support in Ireland after the failed rebellion.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a split in the government and the Dail led to a Civil War during which the Free State Government sanctioned the executions by firing squad of 81 persons. Included in those numbers were some prominent prisoners who were executed without trial as reprisals.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Italy had used the firing squad as its only form of death penalty, both for civilians and military, since the unification of the country in 1861. The death penalty was abolished completely by both Italian Houses of Parliament in 1889 but revived under the Italian dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in 1926. Mussolini was himself shot in the last days of World War Two.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On 1 December 1945 Anton Dostler, the first German general to be tried for war crimes, was executed by a U.S. firing squad in Aversa after being found guilty by a U.S. military tribunal of ordering the killing of 15 U.S. prisoners of war in Italy during World War II.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The last execution took place on 4 March 1947, as Francesco La Barbera, Giovanni Puleo and Giovanni D'Ignoti, sentenced to death on multiple accounts of robbery and murder, faced the firing squad at the range of Basse di Stura, near Turin. Soon after the Constitution of the newly proclaimed Republic prohibited the death penalty except for some crimes, like high treason, during wartime; no one was sentenced to death after 1947. In 2007 the Constitution was amended to ban the death penalty altogether.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Firing squads were used during the periods of French and British control in Malta. Ringleaders of rebellions were often shot dead by firing squad during the French period, with perhaps the most notable examples being Dun Mikiel Xerri and other patriots in 1799.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The British also used the practice briefly, and for the last time in 1813, when two men were shot separately outside the courthouse after being convicted of failing to report their infection of plague to the authorities.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the Mexican Independence War, several Independentist generals (such as Miguel Hidalgo and José María Morelos) were executed by Spanish firing squads. Also, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and two of his generals were executed in the Cerro de las Campanas after the Juaristas took control of Mexico in 1867. Manet immortalized the execution in a now-famous painting, "The Execution of Emperor Maximilian"; he painted at least three versions.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Firing-squad execution was the most common way to carry out a death sentence in Mexico, especially during the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero War. An example of that is in the attempted execution of Wenseslao Moguel, who survived being shot ten times—once at point-blank range—because he fought under Pancho Villa. After these events, the death sentence was imposed for fewer types of crimes in Article 22 of the Mexican Constitution; however, in 1917 capital punishment was abolished completely.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the Nazi occupation in World War II some 3,000 persons were executed by German firing squads. The victims were sometimes sentenced by a military court; in other cases they were hostages or arbitrary pedestrians who were executed publicly to intimidate the population. After the attack on high-ranking German officer Hanns Albin Rauter, about 300 people were executed publicly as reprisal against resistance movements. Rauter himself was executed near Scheveningen on 12 January 1949, following his conviction for war crimes. Anton Mussert, a Dutch Nazi leader, was sentenced to death by firing squad and executed in the dunes near The Hague on 7 May 1946.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: While under Allied guard in Amsterdam, and five days after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two German Navy deserters were shot by a firing squad composed of other German prisoners kept in the Canadian-run prisoner-of-war camp. The men were lined up against the wall of an air raid shelter near an abandoned Ford Motor Company assembly plant in the presence of Canadian military.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Nigeria executes criminals who committed armed robberies—such as Ishola Oyenusi, Lawrence Anini and Osisikankwu—as well as military officers convicted of plotting coups against the government, such as Buka Suka Dimka and Maj. Gideon Orkar, by firing squad.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Vidkun Quisling, the leader of the collaborationist Nasjonal Samling Party and president of Norway during the German occupation in World War II, was sentenced to death for treason and executed by firing squad on 24 October 1945 at the Akershus Fortress.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Jose Rizal was executed by firing squad on the morning of 30 December 1896, in what is now Rizal Park, where his remains have since been placed.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the Marcos administration, drug trafficking was punishable by firing-squad execution, as was done to Lim Seng. Execution by firing squad was later replaced by the electric chair, then lethal injection. On 24 June 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo abolished capital punishment through the enactment of Republic Act No. 9346. Existing death row inmates, who numbered in the thousands, were eventually given life sentences or reclusion perpetua instead.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed by firing squad alongside his wife while singing the Communist Internationale following a show trial, bringing an end to the Romanian Revolution, on Christmas Day, 1989.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In Imperial Russia, firing squads were used in the army for executions during combat on the orders of military tribunals.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In the Soviet Union, from the very earliest days, the bullet to the back of the head, in front of a ready-dug burial trench was by far the most common practice. It became especially widely used during the Great Purge.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by beheading; however, at times other methods have been used. Al-Beshi, a Saudi executioner, has said that he has conducted some executions by shooting. Mishaal bint Fahd bin Mohammed Al Saud, a Saudi princess, was also executed in the same way.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock were executed by a British firing squad in the South African Republic on 27 February 1902 for war crimes during the Second Boer War.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The standard method of execution in the United Kingdom was hanging. Execution by firing squad was limited to times of war, armed insurrection and in the military, although it is now outlawed in all circumstances, along with all other forms of capital punishment.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The Tower of London was used during both World Wars for executions. During World War I, eleven captured German spies were shot between 1914 and 1916: nine on the Tower's rifle range and two in the Tower Ditch, all of whom were buried in East London Cemetery, in Plaistow, London. On 15 August 1941, the last execution at the Tower was that of German Cpl. Josef Jakobs, shot for espionage during World War II.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: The United States Army took over Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset in 1942, renaming it Disciplinary Training Center No.1 and housing troops convicted of offences across Europe. There were eighteen executions at the prison, two of them by firing squad for murder: Pvt. Alexander Miranda on 30 May 1944 and Pvt. Benjamin Pygate on 28 November 1944. Locals complained about the noise, as the executions took place in the prison yard at 1:00am.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Since the 1960s, there has been some controversy concerning the 346 British and Imperial troops—including 25 Canadians, 22 Irish and 5 New Zealanders—shot for desertion, murder, cowardice and other offences during World War I, some of whom are now thought to have been suffering from combat stress reaction or post-traumatic stress disorder ("shell-shock", as it was then known). This led to organisations such as the Shot at Dawn Campaign being set up in later years to try to uncover just why these soldiers were executed. The Shot at Dawn Memorial was erected at Staffordshire to honour these soldiers. In August 2006 it was announced that 306 of these soldiers would receive posthumous pardons.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the American War of Independence, General George Washington approved a sentence of death by firing squad, but the prisoner was later pardoned.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: During the American Civil War, 433 of the 573 men executed were shot dead by a firing squad: 186 of the 267 executed by the Union Army, and 247 of the 306 executed by the Confederate Army.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: In 1913, Andriza Mircovich became the first and only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting. After the warden of Nevada State Prison could not find five men to form a firing squad, a shooting machine was built to carry out Mircovich's execution.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: John W. Deering allowed an electrocardiogram recording of the effect of gunshot wounds on his heart during his 1938 execution by firing squad, and afterwards his body was donated to the University of Utah School of Medicine, at his request.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Since 1960 there have been four executions by firing squad, all in Utah: The 1960 execution of James W. Rodgers, Gary Gilmore's execution in 1977, and John Albert Taylor in 1996, who chose a firing squad for his execution, according to "The New York Times", "to make a statement that Utah was sanctioning murder". However, a 2010 article for the British newspaper "The Times" quotes Taylor justifying his choice because he did not want to "flop around like a dying fish" during a lethal injection. Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in 2010, having said he preferred this method of execution because of his "Mormon heritage". Gardner also felt that lawmakers were trying to eliminate the firing squad, in opposition to popular opinion in Utah, because of concern over the state's image in the 2002 Winter Olympics.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Execution by firing squad was banned in Utah in 2004, but as the ban was not retroactive, three inmates on Utah's death row have the firing squad set as their method of execution. Idaho banned execution by firing squad in 2009, temporarily leaving Oklahoma as the only state utilizing this method of execution (and only as a secondary method).


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Reluctance by drug companies to see their drugs used to kill people has led to a shortage of the commonly used lethal injection drugs. In March 2015, Utah enacted legislation allowing for execution by firing squad if the drugs they use are unavailable. Several other states are also exploring a return to the firing squad. Thus, after waning in both use and popularity in recent decades, as of 2022, firing squad executions appear to be at least anecdotally regaining popularity as an alternative to lethal injection.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued in "Arthur v. Dunn" (2017): "In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless. [...] And historically, the firing squad has yielded significantly fewer botched executions."


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On January 30, 2019, South Carolina's Senate voted 26–13 in favor of a revived proposal to bring back the electric chair and add firing squads to its execution options. On May 14, 2021, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed a bill into law which brought back the electric chair as the default method of execution (in the event lethal injection was unavailable) and added the firing squad to the list of execution options. South Carolina has not performed executions in over a decade, and its lethal injection drugs expired in 2013. Pharmaceutical companies have since refused to sell drugs for lethal injection.


title: Execution by firing squad

text: On April 7, 2022, the South Carolina Supreme Court scheduled the execution of Richard Bernard Moore for April 29, 2022. On April 15, 2022, Moore chose to be executed by firing squad instead of the electric chair, however, his execution was later stayed by the South Carolina Supreme Court.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway on "" and Red on "Orange Is the New Black". She first came to attention in the role of Mary Ryan on the daytime soap opera "Ryan's Hope". Mulgrew is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Award, a Saturn Award, and an Obie Award, and has also received Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She is an active member of the Alzheimer's Association National Advisory Council and the voice of Cleveland's MetroHealth System. In 2021, Mulgrew reprised her role as Janeway in the animated series "".


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew was born in 1955 in Dubuque, Iowa, to Thomas James "T.J." Mulgrew Jr., a contractor, and Joan Virginia Mulgrew (née Kiernan), an artist and painter. She was the second of eight children. She attended Wahlert High School in Dubuque. Mulgrew was born with a full set of teeth.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: At age 17, Mulgrew was accepted at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York, conjoined with New York University in New York City. Mulgrew left NYU after one year. During this time, to earn money while in New York, Mulgrew worked as a waitress.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew's early career included portraying Mary Ryan for two years on the ABC soap "Ryan's Hope" (1975). She became a fan favorite and remained associated with the show long after its cancellation. Mulgrew remained friends with former co-star Ilene Kristen and presented a special "Soap Opera Digest" Award to "Ryan's Hope" creator Claire Labine in 1995. While in "Ryan's Hope", she also played the role of Emily Webb in the American Shakespeare Theater production of "Our Town" in Stratford, Connecticut. Mulgrew played ambitious country singer Garnet McGee in a November 1978 episode of "Dallas". In 1979-80, she played Kate Columbo in "Mrs. Columbo", a spin-off of the detective series "Columbo", created specifically for her, which lasted 13 episodes.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 1981, Mulgrew co-starred with Richard Burton and Nicholas Clay in the Arthurian love triangle "Lovespell" as Irish princess Isolt, who casts a spell on Mark, King of Cornwall, and his surrogate son, Tristan. During that same year, she co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in the six-hour miniseries about Irish immigrants in 19th century America called "Manions of America". In 1985, she appeared in "" in the role of Major Fleming. In 1986, she appeared in a run of "Cheers" episodes as Janet Eldridge. In 1987, she appeared in "Throw Momma from the Train" as Margaret, Billy Crystal's character's ex-wife.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 1992, Kate appeared on "Murphy Brown" as Hillary Wheaton, a Toronto-based anchorwoman brought in to replace Murphy Brown during her maternity leave, but who turned out to have the same problem with alcoholism as Brown had previously dealt with at the beginning of the series.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Also in 1992, she played a guest-starring role as a soap-opera star who kills her bodyguard/lover and tries to cover it up, on "Murder, She Wrote", episode number 170, titled "Ever After". Around the same time, she guest-starred in three episodes of "" as the terrorist Red Claw.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 1994, Mulgrew received a call to take the part of Captain Kathryn Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager". She had auditioned for the role (originally named "Elizabeth Janeway") when producers announced casting. She initially submitted a video-taped audition, which she made in New York City in August 1994. Unhappy with this audition, she auditioned in person a few weeks later. That day, film actress Geneviève Bujold was selected to play Janeway (suggesting "Nicole" as the character's new first name), but she left the role after two days of filming, realizing that the amount of work required for an episodic television show was too demanding for her. Mulgrew was offered the role, which she accepted, later suggesting "Kathryn" as the character's final first name.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew made history in the "Star Trek" franchise when she became the first female captain as a series regular in a leading role. "Voyager" was the first show broadcast on the new UPN channel, the only series renewed after the channel's first programming season, and its only show to run for seven seasons. Mulgrew won the Saturn Award for "Best TV Actress" in 1998 for her performances as Janeway.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew voiced the character of Janeway for various "Star Trek" video games: "Star Trek: Captain's Chair", a virtual-reality tour of various Starfleet vessels for home computers; the "" series; "", which featured all of the captains up to that point (2006); and "Star Trek Online".


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: I'm proud of it. It was difficult; it was hard work. I'm proud of the work because I think I made some minor difference in women in science. I grew to really love "Star Trek: Voyager", and out of a cast of nine, I've made three great friends, I managed to raise two children. I think, "It's good. I used myself well."


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: The best thing was simply the privilege and the challenge of being able to take a shot at the first female captain, transcending stereotypes that I was very familiar with. I was able to do that in front of millions of viewers. That was a remarkable experience—and it continues to resonate. The downside of that is also that it continues to resonate, and threatens to eclipse all else in one's long career if one does not up the ante and stay at it, in a way that may not ordinarily be necessary. I have to work at changing and constantly reinventing myself in a way that probably would not have happened had "Star Trek" not come along. I knew that going in, and I think that all of the perks attached to this journey have been really inexpressively great. So the negatives are small.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: During "Voyager", Mulgrew also played the role of Titania in the animated series "Gargoyles" (along with fellow "Star Trek" actors Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes) and Victoria Riddler in "Riddler's Moon", a made-for-TV movie.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: After "Voyager" and her subsequent "Star Trek" appearances finished, Mulgrew has continued to appear at various "Star Trek" conventions and events around the world.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: When "Voyager" came to an end after seven full seasons, Mulgrew returned to theater, and in 2003 starred in a one-woman play called "Tea at Five", a monologue reminiscence based on Katharine Hepburn's memoir "Me: Stories of My Life". "Tea at Five" was a critical success and Mulgrew received two awards, one from Carbonell (Best Actress) and the other from Broadway.com (Audience Award for Favorite Solo Performance). Mulgrew kept active in doing voice-over work for video games, most notably voicing the mysterious Flemeth in the "Dragon Age" video game series, a role she described as "delicious".


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew returned to television in 2006, guest-starring in an episode of "". Mulgrew performed in "The Exonerated" at the Riverside Studios in London, England.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In early 2007, she appeared in the NBC television series "The Black Donnellys" as Helen Donnelly, which lasted for one season. She also performed the lead role in an off-Broadway production called "Our Leading Lady" written by Charles Busch in which she earned a nomination from the Drama League for her performance. Also in that year, Mulgrew played Clytemnestra in New York for Charles L. Mee's "Iphigenia 2.0". She won the Obie Award for outstanding performance.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In June 2008, Mulgrew appeared in "Equus" on Broadway, playing Hesther Saloman, a public official who is empathetic toward the play's central character. The play opened on September 5, 2008, for a limited 22-week engagement through February 8, 2009. Also in 2008, Mulgrew filmed the 30-minute courtroom drama "The Response", which is based on actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay tribunals. It was researched and fully vetted in conjunction with the University of Maryland School of Law and was shot in three days. Mulgrew portrays Colonel Sims and the other cast members, the crew, and she agreed to defer their salaries to cover the production costs. The film has been screened at a number of sites and is available on DVD.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 2009, Mulgrew appeared in the NBC medical series "Mercy", playing the recurring role of Jeannie Flanagan (the mother of the show's lead, Veronica). Released in 2010, the film "The Best and Brightest", a comedy based in the world of New York City's elite private kindergartens, featured Mulgrew as the Player's wife.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Also in 2010, she starred as Cleopatra in William Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" at Hartford Stage.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 2011, Mulgrew appeared in the feature-length documentary "The Captains". The film, written and directed by William Shatner, follows Shatner as he interviews each of the actors who succeeded him playing a lead-role Starfleet captain within the "Star Trek" franchise. During that same year, on another science-fiction series, she began a recurring guest-starring role on the third season of the series "Warehouse 13", as the mother of one of the main characters.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: From July 2011 to December 2013, Mulgrew appeared as a main cast member on Adult Swim's "" as Kove, the leader of the titular terrorism-fighting unit and ex-wife of series lead Paul Scheer's character.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: In 2014, Mulgrew narrated a documentary film, "The Principle", that aims to promote the discredited idea of the geocentric model. Mulgrew said that she was misinformed as to the purpose of the documentary, going on to say "I am not a geocentrist, nor am I in any way a proponent of geocentrism... I do not subscribe to anything Robert Sungenis has written regarding science and history, and had I known of his involvement, would most certainly have avoided this documentary."


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew starred as inmate Galina "Red" Reznikov in the Netflix original series "Orange Is the New Black", the role for which she was nominated for her first Primetime Emmy Award in 2014. The popular character was re-signed for seasons two through seven. On working in the series, she was reunited with her "Mercy" co-star Taylor Schilling.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew became pregnant while acting in the lead role of Mary Ryan on "Ryan's Hope". "I was single, alone, and flooded with terror. But I knew I would have that baby", Mulgrew said. She placed her daughter for adoption three days after giving birth in 1977, then in later years, searched for her. "The first man who wanted to explore this with me", said Mulgrew, "was Tim Hagan, who later became my husband". In 1998, Mulgrew received a call from the daughter she had placed for adoption. Her name is Danielle, and she had started searching for Mulgrew a year earlier. In her 2015 memoir "Born with Teeth" (which refers to Mulgrew having been born with a full set of neonatal teeth), Mulgrew tells of her reunion with her daughter in 2001. In 2019 Mulgrew released a second memoir titled "How to Forget".


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew married Robert Egan in 1982. They have two children. The couple separated in 1993. Their divorce became final in 1995.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew married Tim Hagan, a former Ohio gubernatorial candidate and a former commissioner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in April 1999. In an interview on April 15, 2015, Mulgrew stated that she and Hagan were divorced in 2014.


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew is Catholic and an opponent of abortion and capital punishment. She received an award from Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion feminist group and is quoted as saying, "Execution as punishment is barbaric and unnecessary", "Life is sacred to me on all levels", and "Abortion does not compute with my philosophy." Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization", Mulgrew released a statement saying that while "for myself, abortion was not an alternative... Choice is the fundamental right of every human being, especially women and people who are able to give birth".


title: Kate Mulgrew

text: Mulgrew is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Alzheimer's Association. Her mother, Joan Mulgrew, died on July 27, 2006 after a long battle with the disease.


title: Third eye

text: The third eye (also called the mind's eye or inner eye) is a mystical invisible eye, usually depicted as located on the forehead, which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. In Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna (or brow) chakra. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, the third eye is said to be located around the middle of the forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows, representing the enlightenment one achieves through meditation.


title: Third eye

text: The third eye refers to the gate that leads to the inner realms and spaces of higher consciousness. In spirituality, the third eye often symbolizes a state of enlightenment. The third eye is often associated with religious visions, clairvoyance, the ability to observe chakras and auras, precognition, and out-of-body experiences. People who are said to have the capacity to use their third eyes are sometimes known as "seers".


title: Third eye

text: In Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna (or brow) chakra, said to be located around the middle of the forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows. Hindus place a "tilaka" between the eyebrows as a representation of the third eye, which is also seen on expressions of Shiva. He is referred to as "Tryambaka Deva", or the three-eyed lord, where his third eye symbolizes the power of knowledge, and the detection of evil. His eye is depicted by three horizontal lines in the middle of his forehead.


title: Third eye

text: In Buddhism, the third eye is said to be located around the middle of the forehead, slightly above the junction of the eyebrows, Buddhists regard the third eye as the "eye of consciousness", representing the vantage point from which enlightenment beyond one's physical sight is achieved, and use an urna to the same effect as Hindus. The third eye, or the “Eye of Wisdom”, is discerned on the deity Buddha.


title: Third eye

text: In Taoism, third eye training involves focusing attention on the point between the eyebrows with the eyes closed, and while the body is in various qigong postures. The goal of this training is to allow students to tune into the correct "vibration" of the universe and gain a solid foundation on which to reach a more advanced meditative state. Taoism teaches that the third eye, also called the mind's eye, is situated between the two physical eyes, and expands up to the middle of the forehead when opened. Taoism asserts that the third eye is one of the main energy centers of the body located at the sixth Chakra, forming a part of the main meridian, the line separating left and right hemispheres of the body.


title: Third eye

text: Adherents of theosophist H. P. Blavatsky have suggested that the third eye is in fact the partially dormant pineal gland, which resides between the two hemispheres of the brain. Reptiles and amphibians sense light via a third parietal eye—a structure associated with the pineal gland—which serves to regulate their circadian rhythms, and for navigation, as it can sense the polarization of light. She states that certain functions of the mind is associated with the pineal gland and the acervulus cerebri was absent in children below the age of six. C. W. Leadbeater thought that by extending an "etheric tube" from the third eye, it is possible to develop microscopic and telescopic vision. It has been asserted by Stephen Phillips that the third eye's microscopic vision is capable of observing objects as small as quarks. According to this belief, humans had in far ancient times an actual third eye in the back of the head with a physical and spiritual function. Over time, as humans evolved, this eye atrophied and sunk into what today is known as the pineal gland. Rick Strassman has hypothesized that the pineal gland, which maintains light sensitivity, is responsible for the production and release of DMT (dimethyltryptamine), an entheogen which he believes could be excreted in large quantities at the moments of birth and death.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies, and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, were poisoned in the city of Salisbury, England. According to UK sources and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), they were poisoned by means of a Novichok nerve agent. Both Sergei and Yulia Skripal spent several weeks in hospital in critical condition, before being discharged. A police officer, Nick Bailey, was also taken into intensive care after attending the incident, and was later discharged.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The British government accused Russia of attempted murder and announced a series of punitive measures against Russia, including the expulsion of diplomats. The UK's official assessment of the incident was supported by 28 other countries which responded similarly. Altogether, an unprecedented 153 Russian diplomats were expelled by the end of March 2018. Russia denied the accusations, expelled foreign diplomats in retaliation for the expulsion of its own diplomats, and accused Britain of the poisoning.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 30 June 2018, a similar poisoning of two British nationals in Amesbury, north of Salisbury, involved the same nerve agent. Charlie Rowley found a perfume bottle, later discovered to contain the agent, in a litter bin somewhere in Salisbury and gave it to Dawn Sturgess who sprayed it on her wrist. Sturgess fell ill within 15 minutes and died on 8 July, but Rowley, who also came into contact with the poison, survived. British police believe this incident was not a targeted attack, but a result of the way the nerve agent was disposed of after the poisoning in Salisbury. A public inquiry was launched into the circumstances of Sturgess's death.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 5 September 2018, British authorities identified two Russian nationals, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, as suspected of the Skripals' poisoning, and alleged that they were active officers in Russian military intelligence. Later, investigative website Bellingcat stated that it had positively identified Ruslan Boshirov as being the highly decorated GRU Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, that Alexander Petrov was Alexander Mishkin, also of the GRU, and that a third GRU officer present in the UK at the time was identified as Denis Vyacheslavovich Sergeev, believed to hold the rank of major general in the GRU. The pattern of his communications while in the UK indicates that he liaised with superior officers in Moscow. The attempted assassination was allegedly organised by a secret Unit 29155 of the Russian GRU under command of Major General Andrei V. Averyanov. The unit is allegedly responsible for destabilising European countries and organised the Montenegrin coup attempt.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 27 November 2019, the OPCW added Novichok, the Soviet-era nerve agent used in the attack, to its list of banned substances.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: At 09:03 the following morning, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust declared a major incident in response to concerns raised by medical staff; shortly afterwards this became a multi-agency incident named Operation Fairline.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Health authorities checked 21 members of the emergency services and the public for possible symptoms; two police officers were treated for minor symptoms, said to be itchy eyes and wheezing, while one, Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who had been sent to Skripal's house, was in a serious condition. On 22 March, Bailey was discharged from the hospital. In a statement he said "normal life for me will probably never be the same" and thanked the hospital staff.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 26 March, Skripal and his daughter were reported to still be critically ill. On 29 March it was announced that Yulia's condition was improving and she was no longer in a critical condition. After three weeks in a critical condition, Yulia regained consciousness and was able to speak. Sergei was also in a critical condition until he regained consciousness one month after the attack. On 5 April, doctors said that Sergei was no longer in critical condition and was responding well to treatment. On 9 April, Yulia was discharged from hospital and taken to a secure location. On 18 May, Sergei Skripal was discharged from the hospital too. On 23 May, a handwritten letter and a video statement by Yulia were released to the Reuters news agency for the first time after the poisoning. She stated that she was lucky to be alive after the poisoning and thanked the staff of the Salisbury hospital. She described her treatment as slow, heavy and extremely painful and mentioned a scar on her neck, apparently from a tracheotomy. She expressed hope that someday she would return to Russia. She thanked the Russian embassy for its offer of assistance but said she and her father were "not ready to take it".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 5 April, British authorities said that inside Skripal's house, which had been sealed by the police, two guinea pigs were found dead by vets, when they were allowed in, along with a cat in a distressed state, which had to be put down.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 22 November the first interview with DS Bailey was released, in which he reported that he had been poisoned, despite the fact that he inspected the Skripals' house wearing a forensic suit. In addition to the poisoning, Bailey and his family had lost their home and all their possessions, because of contamination. Investigators said that the perfume bottle containing Novichok nerve agent, which was later found in a bin, had contained enough of the nerve agent to potentially kill thousands of people.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: In early 2019, building contractors built a scaffolding "sealed frame" over the house and the garage of Skripal's home. A military team then dismantled and removed the roofs on both buildings over the course of two weeks. Cleaning and decontamination was followed by rebuilding over a period of four months. On 22 February 2019, Government officials announced that the last of the 12 sites that had been undergoing an intense and hazardous clean-up – Skripal's house – had been judged safe.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: In May 2019, Sergei Skripal made a phone call and left a voice message to his niece Viktoria living in Russia. This was the first time after the poisoning that his voice had been heard by the public.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: In August 2019 it was confirmed that a second police officer had been poisoned while investigating, but only in trace amounts.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The first public response to the poisoning came on 6 March. It was agreed under the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network that the Counter Terrorism Command based within the Metropolitan Police would take over the investigation from Wiltshire Police. Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, appealed for witnesses to the incident following a COBR meeting chaired by Home Secretary Amber Rudd.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Samples of the nerve agent used in the attack tested positive at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down for a "very rare" nerve agent, according to the UK Home Secretary.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: 180 military experts in chemical warfare defence and decontamination, as well as 18 vehicles, were deployed on 9 March to assist the Metropolitan Police to remove vehicles and objects from the scene and look for any further traces of the nerve agent. The personnel were drawn mostly from the Army, including instructors from the Defence CBRN Centre and the 29 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Group, as well as from the Royal Marines and Royal Air Force. The vehicles included TPz Fuchs operated by Falcon Squadron from the Royal Tank Regiment. On 11 March, the UK government advised those present at either The Mill pub or the Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury on 4 and 5 March to wash or wipe their possessions, emphasising that the risk to the general public was low.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Several days later, on 12 March, Prime Minister Theresa May said the agent had been identified as one of the Novichok family of agents, believed to have been developed in the 1980s by the Soviet Union. According to the Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, the British authorities identified the agent as A-234, derived from an earlier version known as A-232.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: By 14 March, the investigation was focused on Skripal's home and car, a bench where the two fell unconscious, a restaurant in which they dined and a pub where they had drinks. A recovery vehicle was removed by the military from Gillingham in Dorset on 14 March, in connection with the poisoning.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Subsequently, there was speculation within the British media that the nerve agent had been planted in one of the personal items in Yulia Skripal's suitcase before she left Moscow for London, and in US media that it had been planted in their car.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said on 20 March that it will take "another two to three weeks to finalise the analysis" of samples taken from the poisoning of Skripal. On 22 March, the Court of Protection gave permission for new blood samples to be obtained from Yulia and Sergei Skripal for use by the OPCW. By 28 March, the police investigation concluded that the Skripals were poisoned at Sergei's home, with the highest concentration being found on the handle of his front door. On 12 April the OPCW confirmed the UK's analysis of the type of nerve agent and reported it was of a "high purity", stating that the "name and structure of the identified toxic chemical are contained in the full classified report of the Secretariat, available to States Parties".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: A declassified letter from the UK's national security adviser, Sir Mark Sedwill, to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, stated Russian military intelligence hacked Yulia Skripal's email account since at least 2013 and tested methods for delivering nerve agents including on door handles.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The Department for Environment confirmed the nerve agent was delivered "in a liquid form". They said eight sites require decontamination, which will take several months to complete and cost millions of pounds. The BBC reported experts said the nerve agent does not evaporate or disappear over time. Intense cleaning with caustic chemicals is required to get rid of it. The Skripals' survival was possibly due to the weather – there had been heavy fog and high humidity, and according to its inventor and other scientists, moisture weakens the potency of this type of toxin.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 22 April 2018, it was reported that British counter-terror police had identified a suspect in the poisoning: a former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer (reportedly a 54-year-old former FSB captain) who acted under several code names including "Gordon" and "Mihails Savickis". According to detectives, he led a team of six Russian assassins who organised the chemical weapons attack. Sedwill reported on 1 May 2018 however that UK intelligence and police agencies had failed to identify the individual or individuals who carried out the attack.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 3 May 2018, the head of the OPCW, Ahmet Üzümcü, informed the "New York Times" that he had been told that about 50–100 grams of the nerve agent was thought to have been used in the attack, which indicated it was likely created for use as a weapon and was enough to kill a large number of people. The next day however the OPCW made a correcting statement that the "quantity should probably be characterised in milligrams", though "the OPCW would not be able to estimate or determine the amount of the nerve agent that was used".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 19 July the Press Association reported that police believed they had identified "several Russians" as the suspected perpetrators of the attack. They had been identified through CCTV, cross-checked with border entry data.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 6 August 2018, it was reported that the British government was "poised to submit an extradition request to Moscow for two Russians suspected of carrying out the Salisbury nerve agent attack". The Metropolitan Police used two super recognisers to identify the suspects after trawling through up to 5,000 hours of CCTV footage from Salisbury and numerous airports across the country.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: British Prime Minister Theresa May announced in the Commons the same day that British intelligence services had identified the two suspects as officers in the G. U. Intelligence Service (formerly known as GRU) and the assassination attempt was not a rogue operation and was "almost certainly" approved at a senior level of the Russian government. May also said Britain would push for the EU to agree new sanctions against Russia.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 5 September 2018, the Russian news site Fontanka reported that the numbers on leaked passport files for Petrov and Boshirov are only three digits apart, and fall in a range that includes the passport files for a Russian military official expelled from Poland for spying. It is not known how the passport files were obtained, but Andrew Roth, the Moscow correspondent for "The Guardian", commented that "If the reporting is confirmed, it would be a major blunder by the intelligence agency, allowing any country to check passport data for Russians requesting visas or entering the country against a list of nearly 40 passport files of suspected GRU officers." On 14 September 2018, the online platforms Bellingcat and "The Insider Russia" observed that in Petrov's leaked passport files, there is no record of a residential address or any identification papers prior to 2009, suggesting that the name is an alias created that year; the analysis also noted that Petrov's dossier is stamped "Do not provide any information" and has the handwritten annotation "S.S.," a common abbreviation in Russian for "top secret". On 15 September 2018, the Russian opposition newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reported finding in Petrov's passport files a cryptic number that seems to be a telephone number associated with the Russian Defence Ministry, most likely the Military Intelligence Directorate.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: As part of the announcement Scotland Yard and the Counter Terrorism Command released a detailed track of the individuals' 48 hours in the UK. This covered their arrival from Moscow at Gatwick Airport, a trip to Salisbury by train the day before the attack, stated by police to be for reconnaissance, a trip to Salisbury by train on the day of the attack, and return to Moscow via Heathrow Airport. The two spent both nights at the City Stay Hotel, next to Bow Church DLR station in Bow, East London. Novichok was found in their hotel room after police sealed it off on 4 May 2018. Neil Basu, National Lead for Counter Terrorism Policing said that tests were carried out on their hotel room and it was "deemed safe".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 26 September 2018, the real identity of the suspect named by police as Ruslan Boshirov was revealed as Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga by "The Daily Telegraph", citing reporting by itself and Bellingcat, with Petrov having a more junior rank in the GRU. The 39-year-old was made a Hero of the Russian Federation by decree of the President in 2014. Two European security sources confirmed that the details were accurate. The BBC commented: "The BBC understands there is no dispute over the identification." The Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson wrote: "The true identity of one of the Salisbury suspects has been revealed to be a Russian Colonel. I want to thank all the people who are working so tirelessly on this case." However, that statement was subsequently deleted from Twitter.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 8 October 2018, the real identity of the suspect named by police as Alexander Petrov was revealed as Alexander Mishkin.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 22 November 2018, more CCTV footage, with the two suspects walking in Salisbury, was published by the police.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 19 December 2018, Mishkin (a.k.a. Petrov) and Chepiga (a.k.a. Boshirov) were added to the sanctions list of the United States Treasury Department, along with other 13 members of the GRU agency.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 6 January 2019, the "Telegraph" reported that the British authorities had established all the essential details of the assassination attempt, including the chain of command that leads up to Vladimir Putin. In February, a third GRU officer present in the UK at the time Denis Sergeev was identified. In September 2021, the BBC reported that Crown Prosecution Service had authorised charges against the three men but that formal charges could not be laid unless the men were arrested. The charges authorised against the three men are conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm and use and possession of a chemical weapon.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Within days of the attack, political pressure began to mount on Theresa May's government to take action against the perpetrators, and most senior politicians appeared to believe that the Russian government was behind the attack. The situation was additionally sensitive for Russia as Russian president Vladimir Putin was facing his fourth presidential election in mid-March, and Russia was to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup football competition in June. When giving a response to an urgent question from Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, who suggested that Moscow was conducting "a form of soft war against the West", Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on 6 March said the government would "respond appropriately and robustly" if the Russian state was found to have been involved in the poisoning. UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said on 8 March 2018 that the use of a nerve agent on UK soil was a "brazen and reckless act" of attempted murder "in the most cruel and public way".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: May also said that the UK government requested that Russia explain which of these two possibilities it was by the end of 13 March 2018. She also said: "[T]he extra-judicial killing of terrorists and dissidents outside Russia were given legal sanction by the Russian Parliament in 2006. And of course Russia used radiological substances in its barbaric assault on Mr Litvinenko."  She said that the UK government would "consider in detail the response from the Russian State" and in the event that there was no credible response, the government would "conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian State against the United Kingdom" and measures would follow. British media billed the statement as "Theresa May's ultimatum to Putin".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 13 March 2018, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd ordered an inquiry by the police and security services into alleged Russian state involvement in 14 previous suspicious deaths of Russian exiles and businessmen in the UK.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: May unveiled a series of measures on 14 March 2018 in retaliation for the poisoning attack, after the Russian government refused to meet the UK's request for an account of the incident. One of the chief measures was the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats which she presented as "actions to dismantle the Russian espionage network in the UK", as these diplomats had been identified by the UK as "undeclared intelligence agents". The BBC reported other responses, including:


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: May said that some measures which the government planned could "not be shared publicly for reasons of national security". Jeremy Corbyn cast doubt in his parliamentary response to May's statement concerning blaming the attack on Russia prior to the results of an independent investigation, which provoked criticism from some MPs, including members of his own party. A few days later, Corbyn was satisfied that the evidence pointed to Russia. He supported the expulsion but argued that a crackdown on money laundering by UK financial firms on behalf of Russian oligarchs would be a more effective measure against "the Putin regime" than the Tory government's plans. Corbyn pointed to the pre-Iraq War judgements about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction as reason to be suspicious.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The United Nations Security Council called an urgent meeting on 14 March 2018 on the initiative of the UK to discuss the Salisbury incident. According to the Russian mission's press secretary, the draft press statement introduced by Russia at the United Nations Security Council meeting was blocked by the UK. The UK and the US blamed Russia for the incident during the meeting, with the UK accusing Russia of breaking its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Separately, the White House fully supported the UK in attributing the attack to Russia, as well as the punitive measures taken against Russia. The White House also accused Russia of undermining the security of countries worldwide.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The UK, and subsequently NATO, requested Russia provide "full and complete disclosure" of the Novichok programme to the OPCW. On 14 March 2018, the government stated it would supply a sample of the substance used to the OPCW once UK legal obligations from the criminal investigation permitted.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Boris Johnson said on 16 March that it was "overwhelmingly likely" that the poisoning had been ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin, which marked the first time the British government accused Putin of personally ordering the poisoning. According to the UK Foreign Office, the UK attributed the attack to Russia based on Porton Down's determination that the chemical was Novichok, additional intelligence, and a lack of alternative explanations from Russia. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory announced that it was "completely confident" that the agent used was Novichok, but they still did not know the "precise source" of the agent.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The UK had held an intelligence briefing with its allies in which it stated that the Novichok chemical used in the Salisbury poisoning was produced at a chemical facility in the town of Shikhany, Saratov Oblast, Russia.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 6 March 2018 Andrey Lugovoy, deputy of Russia's State Duma and alleged killer of Alexander Litvinenko, in his interview with the Echo of Moscow said: "Something constantly happens to Russian citizens who either run away from Russian justice, or for some reason choose for themselves a way of life they call a change of their Motherland. So the more Britain accepts on its territory every good-for-nothing, every scum from all over the world, the more problems they will have."


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on 9 March rejected Britain's claim of Russia's involvement in Skripal's poisoning and accused the United Kingdom of spreading "propaganda". Lavrov said that Russia was "ready to cooperate" and demanded access to the samples of the nerve-agent which was used to poison Skripal. The request was rejected by the British government.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Following Theresa May's 12 March statement in Parliament – in which she gave President Putin's administration until midnight of the following day to explain how a former spy was poisoned in Salisbury, otherwise she would conclude it was an "unlawful use of force" by the Russian state against the UK, Lavrov, talking to the Russian press on 13 March, said that the procedure stipulated by the Chemical Weapons Convention should be followed whereunder Russia was entitled to have access to the substance in question and 10 days to respond.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 17 March, Russia announced that it was expelling 23 British diplomats and ordered the closure of the UK's consulate in St Petersburg and the British Council office in Moscow, stopping all British Council activities in Russia.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Russia has officially declared the poisoning to be a fabrication and a "grotesque provocation rudely staged by the British and U.S. intelligence agencies" to undermine the country.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The Russian government and embassy of Russia in the United Kingdom repeatedly requested access to the Skripals, and sought to offer consular assistance. These requests and offers were denied or declined.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 5 September 2018 Putin's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Russia had not received any official request from Britain for assistance in identifying the two suspected Russian GRU military intelligence officers that Scotland Yard believes carried out the Skripal attack. The same day, the Foreign Ministry of Russia asserted that UK ambassador in Moscow, Laurie Bristow, had said that London would not provide Russia with the suspects' fingerprints, passport numbers, visa numbers, or any extra data.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 12 September 2018, Putin, while answering questions at the plenary meeting of the 4th Eastern Economic Forum in Russia's Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok said that the identities of both men London suspected of involvement in the Skripal case were known to the Russian authorities and that both were civilians, who had done nothing criminal. He also said he would like the men to come forward to tell their story. In a 13 September 2018 interview on the state-funded television channel RT, the accused claimed to be sports nutritionists who had gone to Salisbury merely to see the sights and look for nutrition products, saying that they took a second day-trip to Salisbury because slush had dampened their first one.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 26 September, the same day one of the suspects was identified as the Colonel of GRU, Lavrov urged the British authorities to cooperate in the investigation of the case, said Britain had given no proof of Russia's guilt and suggested that Britain had something to hide.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 25 September, the FSB began searching for Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) officers who had provided journalists with foreign passport and flight information about the suspects.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: For a few days following the poisoning, the story was discussed by web sites, radio stations and newspapers, but Russian state-run main national TV channels largely ignored the incident.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Eventually, on 7 March, anchor Kirill Kleimyonov of the state television station Channel One Russia's current affairs programme "Vremya" mentioned the incident by attributing the allegation to Boris Johnson. After speaking of Johnson disparagingly, Kleimyonov said that being "a traitor to the motherland" was one of the most hazardous professions and warned: "Don't choose England as a next country to live in. Whatever the reasons, whether you're a professional traitor to the motherland or you just hate your country in your spare time, I repeat, no matter, don't move to England. Something is not right there. Maybe it's the climate, but in recent years there have been too many strange incidents with a grave outcome. People get hanged, poisoned, they die in helicopter crashes and fall out of windows in industrial quantities." Kleimyonov's commentary was accompanied by a report highlighting previous suspicious Russia-related deaths in the UK, namely those of financier Alexander Perepilichny, businessman Boris Berezovsky, ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko and radiation expert Matthew Puncher. Puncher discovered that Litvinenko was poisoned by polonium; he died in 2006, five months after a trip to Russia.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Dmitry Kiselyov, pro-Kremlin TV presenter, said on 11 March that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, who was "completely wrung out and of little interest" as a source, was only advantageous to the British to "nourish their Russophobia" and organise the boycott of the FIFA World Cup scheduled for June 2018. Kiselyov referred to London as a "pernicious place for Russian exiles".


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: The prominent Russian television hosts' warnings to Russians living in the UK were echoed by a similar direct warning from a senior member of the Russian Federation Council, , who said: "It's going to be very unsafe for you."


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: An interview with two men claiming to be the suspects named by the UK was aired on RT on 13 September 2018 with RT editor Margarita Simonyan. They said they were ordinary tourists who had wished to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and the "famous ... 123-metre spire" of Salisbury Cathedral. They also said that they "maybe approached Skripal's house, but we didn't know where it was located," and denied using Novichok, which they had allegedly transported in a fake perfume bottle, saying, "Is it silly for decent lads to have women's perfume? The customs are checking everything, they would have questions as to why men have women's perfume in their luggage." Although Simonyan avoided most questions about the two men's backgrounds, she hinted that they might be gay by asking, "All footage features you two together ... What do you have in common that you spend so much time together?" "The New York Times" interpreted the hint by noting that "The possibility that Mr. Petrov and Mr. Boshirov could be gay would, for a Russian audience, immediately rule out the possibility that they serve as military intelligence officers."


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 22 August 2022, the editor-in-chief of Kremlin-backed RT network, Margarita Simonyan appeared to suggest that Russia was involved in the 2018 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal, “I am sure we can find professionals willing to admire the famous spires in the vicinity of Tallinn” being seen as a reference to agents claiming they were sightseeing in Salisbury.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: On 3 April 2018 Gary Aitkenhead, the chief executive of the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down responsible for testing the substance involved in the case, said they had established the agent was Novichok or from that family but had been unable to verify the "precise source" of the nerve agent and that they had "provided the scientific info to Government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions you have come to". Aitkenhead refused to comment on whether the laboratory had developed or maintains stocks of Novichok. He also dismissed speculations the substance could have come from Porton Down: "There is no way anything like that could have come from us or left the four walls of our facility." Aitkenhead stated the creation of the nerve agent was "probably only within the capabilities of a state actor", and that there was no known antidote.


title: Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

text: Vil Mirzayanov, a former Soviet Union scientist who worked at the research institute that developed the Novichok class of nerve agents and lives in the United States, believes that hundreds of people could have been affected by residual contamination in Salisbury. He said that Sergei and Yulia Skripal, if poisoned with Novichok, would be left with debilitating health issues for the rest of their lives. He also criticised the response of Public Health England, saying that washing personal belongings was insufficient to remove traces of the chemical.