title: Niall Ferguson

text: During the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Ferguson was initially critical of the idea of Britain leaving the EU despite his criticisms of the latter, warning that "the economic consequences will be dire" and endorsed a Remain vote. However, after backing the Remain campaign, Ferguson changed his stance and came out in support of Brexit, admitting that his support to stay in had been motivated in part on a personal level by not wanting the government of David Cameron (with whom he had a friendship) to collapse and in turn risk Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister. Ferguson elaborated that while Brexit would still have some economic consequences, the EU had been a "disaster" on its monetary, immigration, national security and radical Islam policies. He also added that "one has to recognise that the European elite's performances over the last decade entirely justified the revolt of provincial England."


title: Niall Ferguson

text: In 2020, Ferguson predicted that the EU is destined to become "moribund" and was at risk of collapse in the near future and that the single currency had only benefited Northern Europe and Germany in particular while causing economic havoc in Southern Europe. However, he also argued the "real disintegration of Europe" will happen over the EU's migration policies that have both exacerbated and failed to provide solutions to illegal immigration to the European continent from North Africa and the Middle East. Ferguson stated that high levels of illegal immigration from Muslim-majority nations would in turn further the rise of populist and eurosceptic movements committed to rolling back or leaving the European Union. Ferguson also predicted that in a decade's time, Britain would question why there had been fuss, outcry or debates over the manner of how to leave the EU over Brexit because "we'll have left something that was essentially disintegrating" and that "it would be a little bit like getting a divorce and then your ex drops dead, and you spent all that money on the divorce courts, if only you'd known how sick the ex was. The European Union is sick, and people don't really want to admit that, least of all in Brussels."


title: Niall Ferguson

text: When commenting on the ethnic diversity of the candidates for the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Ferguson disputed that racism or nostalgia for the British Empire had played a significant role in the vote for Brexit.


title: Niall Ferguson

text: Ferguson, drawing on his research of the 1881–1896 cholera pandemic and the Spanish flu, began predicting that the COVID-19 pandemic would have a severe impact on the world in January 2020. He later criticized both the British and U.S. federal government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as inadequate, calling them "both, in their different ways, intelligible only as colossal failures by governments to make adequate preparations for a disaster they always knew to be a likely contingency".


title: Niall Ferguson

text: However, he also dismissed the idea that right-wing populism had been responsible for failure of government responses to the pandemic, accusing liberal politicians such as Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès and U.S. President Joe Biden of making similar mistakes to U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He reflected in a 2021 podcast interview with Lex Fridman that many of the failures in the United States had been systemic rather than the personal fault of Donald Trump, and that Trump was unfairly blamed because of the Trump administration's messaging. He alleged that President Barack Obama's handling of the U.S. opioid epidemic had been similarly costly but more obscure. Ferguson also praised Operation Warp Speed, and claimed that part of the reason for the failure of the U.S. government to effectively respond to the pandemic was the absence of a similar program for COVID-19 testing.


title: Niall Ferguson

text: On 22 March 2022, Ferguson wrote: "I conclude that the U.S. intends to keep this war going. The administration will continue to supply the Ukrainians with anti-aircraft Stingers, antitank Javelins and explosive Switchblade drones. ... It helps explain, among other things, the lack of any diplomatic effort by the U.S. to secure a cease-fire. ... Prolonging the war runs the risk not just of leaving tens of thousands of Ukrainians dead and millions homeless, but also of handing Putin something that he can plausibly present at home as victory." He also criticized the political rally held in Moscow for justifying the invasion and described it as "fascistic".


title: Niall Ferguson

text: Ferguson married journalist Sue Douglas in 1994 after meeting her in 1987 when she was his editor at "The Sunday Times". They have three children: Felix, Freya, and Lachlan.


title: Niall Ferguson

text: In February 2010, Ferguson separated from Douglas and started dating Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ferguson and Douglas divorced in 2011. Ferguson married Hirsi Ali on 10 September 2011 and Hirsi Ali gave birth to their son Thomas in December 2011. In an interview in April 2011, Ferguson complained about the media coverage of his relationship with Ali, stating: "No, I never read their shitty coverage of people's private lives. I don't care about the sex lives of celebrities, so I was a little unprepared for having my private life all over the country. So yeah, I was naive, yeah."


title: Niall Ferguson

text: Ferguson dedicated his book "Civilization" to "Ayaan". In an interview with "The Guardian", Ferguson spoke about his love for Ali, whom, he writes in the preface, "understands better than anyone I know what Western civilisation really means – and what it still has to offer the world".


title: Niall Ferguson

text: Ferguson's self-confessed workaholism has placed strains on his personal relations in the past. Ferguson has commented that:


title: Niall Ferguson

text: [F]rom 2002, the combination of making TV programmes and teaching at Harvard took me away from my children too much. You don't get those years back. You have to ask yourself: "Was it a smart decision to do those things?" I think the success I have enjoyed since then has been bought at a significant price. In hindsight, there would have been a bunch of things that I would have said no to. In an interview, Ferguson described his relationship with the left: "No, they love being provoked by me! Honestly, it makes them feel so much better about their lives to think that I'm a reactionary; it's a substitute for thought. "Imperialist scumbag" and all that. Oh dear, we're back in a 1980s student union debate."


title: Niall Ferguson

text: Ferguson was the inspiration for Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys" (2004), particularly the character of Irwin, a history teacher who urges his pupils to find a counterintuitive angle, and goes on to become a television historian. Bennett's character "Irwin", writes David Smith of "The Observer", gives the impression that "an entire career can be built on the trick of contrariness".


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a historic monument dedicated to deceased U.S. service members whose remains have not been identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States. The World War I "Unknown" is a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the Victoria Cross, and several other foreign nations' highest service awards. The U.S. Unknowns who were interred are also recipients of the Medal of Honor, presented by U.S. presidents who presided over their funerals. The monument has no officially designated name.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On March 4, 1921, the United States Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American serviceman from World War I in the plaza of the new Memorial Amphitheater. On November 11, 1921, the unknown soldier brought back from France was interred below a three-level marble tomb. The bottom two levels are six granite sections each and the top at least nine blocks with a rectangular opening in the center of each level through which the unknown remains were placed through the tomb and into the ground below. A stone slab, rather than marble, covers the rectangular opening.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Since 1921 the intent was to place a superstructure on top of the Tomb, but it was not until July 3, 1926, that Congress authorized the completion of the Tomb and the expenditure of $50,000 (with a completed cost of $48,000). A design competition was held and won by architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones. An appropriation from Congress for the work was secured and on December 21, 1929, a contract for completion of the Tomb itself was entered into. The Tomb would consist of seven pieces of marble in four levels (cap, die, base and sub-base) of which the die is the largest block with the sculpting on all four sides.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Quarrying the Yule marble (3.9 miles south of Marble, Colorado by the Vermont Marble Company) was a one-year process beginning in 1930. The cap was quarried on the first attempt but the base required three tries. The large middle block also required three tries. In late January 1931, the 56-ton middle block was lifted out of the quarry. The quarrying involved 75 men. When the block was separated from the mountain inside the quarry it weighed 124 tons. A wire saw was then brought into the quarry to cut the block down to 56 tons.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On February 3, 1931, the block reached the marble mill site (in the town of Marble) after a four-day trip from the quarry. There it was crated, then shipped to Vermont on February 8. The block was sawed to final size in West Rutland, Vermont, and fabricated by craftsmen in Proctor, Vermont, before it was shipped by train to Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. By September, all seven blocks were on the grounds of the Tomb site, at Arlington.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Assembly began in September 1931. An imperfection was found in the base, requiring three more quarryings. By the end of December 1931, the assembly was completed. Finishing work followed, with the carvings on the die block by the Piccirilli Brothers under the direction of sculptor Thomas Jones. (The brothers also carved the Lincoln statue for the Lincoln Memorial, among others). The Tomb was completed without formal ceremony on April 9, 1932.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Tomb was placed at the head of the grave of the World War I Unknown. West of this grave are the crypts of Unknowns from World War II (south) and Korea (north). Between the two lies a crypt that once contained an Unknown from Vietnam (middle). His remains were positively identified in 1998 through DNA testing as First Lieutenant Michael Blassie, United States Air Force, and were removed. Those three graves are marked with white marble slabs flush with the plaza.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Tomb has a flat-faced form and is relieved at the corners and along the sides by neo-classical pilasters set into the surface with objects and inscriptions carved into the sides. The 1931 symbolism of the objects on the north, south, and east sides changed over time.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On Memorial Day, 1921, four unknown servicemen were exhumed from four World War I American cemeteries in France, Aisne-Maine, Meuse-Argonne, Somme, and St. Mihiel. U.S. Army Sgt. Edward F. Younger, who was wounded in combat, highly decorated for valor and received the Distinguished Service Cross, selected the Unknown of World War I from four identical caskets at the city hall in Châlons-en-Champagne, France, on October 24, 1921. Younger selected the World War I Unknown by placing a spray of white roses on one of the caskets. He chose the second casket from the right. The chosen Unknown was transported to the United States aboard . Those remaining were interred in the Meuse Argonne Cemetery, France.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The World War I Unknown lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda from his arrival in the United States until Armistice Day 1921. On November 11, 1921, President Warren G. Harding officiated at the interment ceremonies at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. During the ceremony, the World War I Unknown was awarded the Victoria Cross by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty, on behalf of King George V of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom Victoria Cross was placed with the soldier. Other Allied nations also awarded the American Unknown Soldier with decorations, including the Legion of Honour, Médaille Militaire, and Croix de Guerre from France, the War Cross from Czechoslovakia, the Gold Medal for Bravery from Italy, the Virtuti Militari from Poland, and the Virtutea Militara from Romania.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Earlier, on October 17, 1921, the British Unknown Warrior had been conferred the U.S. Medal of Honor by General of the Armies John Pershing.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On August 3, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (a general during WWII) signed a bill to select and pay tribute to the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean War. The selection ceremonies and the interment of these Unknowns took place in 1958. The World War II Unknown was selected from remains exhumed from cemeteries in Europe, Africa, Hawaii, and the Philippines.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Two Unknowns from World War II, one from the European Theater and one from the Pacific Theater, were placed in identical caskets and taken aboard and placed on either side of the Korean unknown. Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class William R. Charette, then the U.S. Navy's only active-duty Medal of Honor recipient who was an enlisted man, selected the right-hand casket as the World War II Unknown. The casket of the remaining WWII unknown received a solemn burial at sea.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Korean unknown had been selected from four unknown Americans who died in the Korean War that were disinterred from the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. Army Master Sergeant Ned Lyle made the final selection. The unselected unknowns were re-interred there.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The caskets of the WWII & Korean unknowns arrived in Washington on May 28, 1958, where they lay in the Capitol Rotunda until the morning of May 30, when they were carried on caissons to Arlington National Cemetery. President Eisenhower awarded each the Medal of Honor, and the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean War were interred in the plaza beside their World War I comrade.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Vietnam Unknown service member was originally designated by Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allan Jay Kellogg, Jr., during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Each branch of the Armed Services took part in the transportation to honor the unknown. Marines from Marine Barracks Hawaii consisted of an Honor Guard of nine enlisted men and Lt. Denis Muller. The designated Vietnam Unknown was transported aboard , where the Marines stood guard over the casket during the voyage to Naval Air Station Alameda, California. At Travis, the debarkation ceremony turned the remains over to the USAF on May 24. The next day, the remains of the Unknown were flown from Travis Air Force Base, California, arriving at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Once there the remains were turned over to the US Army, where the remains were taken to Fort McNair for placement upon the horse-drawn wagon which later carried the Unknown to the Capitol Rotunda for display before interment. While on display for public viewing, all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces stood in honor, guarding the casket of the Unknown for two weeks.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Many Vietnam veterans and President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan visited the Vietnam Unknown in the U.S. Capitol. An Army caisson carried the Vietnam Unknown from the Capitol to the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 28, 1984.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: President Reagan presided over the funeral, and presented the Medal of Honor to the Vietnam Unknown, and also acted as next of kin by accepting the interment flag at the end of the ceremony. The interment flags of all Unknowns at the Tomb of the Unknowns are on view in the Memorial Display Room.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: In 1994, Ted Sampley, a POW/MIA activist, determined that the remains of the Vietnam Unknown were likely those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, who was shot down near An Lộc, Vietnam, in 1972. Sampley published an article in his newsletter and contacted Blassie's family, who attempted to pursue the case with the Air Force's casualty office without result. In January 1998, CBS News broadcast a report based on Sampley's investigation which brought political pressure to support the identification of the remains. The body was exhumed on May 14, 1998. Based on mitochondrial DNA testing, Department of Defense scientists confirmed the remains were those of Blassie. The identification was announced on June 30, 1998, and on July 10, Blassie's remains arrived home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri; he was reinterred at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on July 11.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The slab over the crypt that once held the remains of the Vietnam Unknown has since been replaced. The original inscription of "Vietnam" has been changed to "Honoring and Keeping Faith with America's Missing Servicemen 1958 - 1975" as a reminder of the commitment of the Armed Forces to the fullest possible accounting of missing service members. It was decided that the crypt would remain vacant.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The tomb guards are soldiers of the United States Army. The first military guards were troopers from the 3rd Cavalry, "Brave Rifles", who were posted nearby on Fort Myer. Since April 6, 1948, (known then as "Army Day"), when the regiment was reactivated, it has been guarded by soldiers from 3rd Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard". The Old Guard is also posted to Fort Myer, Virginia, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. It is considered one of the highest honors to serve as a Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Fewer than 20 percent of all volunteers are accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Guard Identification Badge is the third least-awarded qualification badge of the United States Army; as of July 4, 2020, they number 688, including 23 which have been revoked and 7 "administrative errors". It is preceded by the 15 Military Horseman Identification Badges and the 17 Astronaut Badges.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The soldier "walking the mat" does not wear rank insignia, so as not to outrank the Unknowns, whatever their ranks may have been. Non-commissioned officers (usually the Relief Commander and Assistant Relief Commanders), do wear insignia of their rank when changing the guard only. They have a separate uniform (without rank) that is worn when they actually guard the Unknowns or are "posted."


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The sentinels will confront people who cross the barriers at the tomb or whom they perceive to be disrespectful or excessively loud; requesting all in attendance to remain silent and standing prior to the beginning of a guard change.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On November 9–10, 2021, in honor of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier's centennial commemoration, members of the public were allowed to walk on the plaza and lay flowers for the first time since 1925. According to the Arlington National Cemetery's website, they "do not anticipate holding another event in our lifetimes in which the public will be able to approach the Tomb in this manner."


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: There have been several different types of weapons used by the tomb guards. The changes in weapons reflect the changes in the Army, including the M1903 Springfield rifle, M1 Garand and M14 rifles, and the M1911, M9 and M17 pistols. Tomb guards currently carry M14 rifles, which are affixed to ceremonial rifle stocks.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: After each turn, the guard executes a sharp "shoulder-arms" movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the guard stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Out of respect for the interred, the sentinels command silence at the tombs. If the guard walking the mat must vocally confront a disturbance from spectators, or a threat, the routine is interrupted and remains so until the disturbance is under control. The sentinel will exit the mat, place the weapon in port arms position, and confront the disturbance. Once under control, the sentinel then walks on the pavement to the other side of the mat, turns to shoulder arms, and resumes the routine from the point of interruption.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed—the 21-gun salute.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The mat is usually replaced twice per year: before Memorial Day and before Veterans Day. This is required because of the wear on the rubber mat by the special shoes worn by tomb guards. The sentinels have metal plates built into the soles and inner parts of their shoes to allow for a more rugged sole and to give the signature click of the heel during maneuvers. The sentinels wear sunglasses because of the bright reflection from the marble surrounding the Tomb and the Memorial Amphitheater.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: While Arlington National Cemetery is open, during the day in the summer months from April 1 to September 30, the guard is changed every half hour. During the winter months, from October 1 to March 31, the guard is changed every hour. After the cemetery closes to the public (7 p.m. to 8 a.m. April through September, and 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. October through March), the guard is changed every 2 hours. The ceremony can be witnessed by the public whenever Arlington National Cemetery is open.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The guard change is very symbolic but also conducted in accordance with Army regulations. The relief commander or assistant relief commander, along with the incoming guard, are both required for a guard change to take place. The relief commander orders the outgoing guard to "pass on your orders" to the incoming guard. The outgoing guard will say to the incoming guard, "Post and orders remain as directed." The incoming guard's response is always "Orders acknowledged." During changes when the public is witnessing the ceremony, the commander will inform the public that the ceremony is about to take place and that those in attendance should remain "silent and standing" throughout the entire event. In some occurrences, the public is also asked to refrain from taking flash pictures (mostly during inclement weather).


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On October 4, 2021, the first all-female changing of the guard took place to honor Sergeant of the Guard, Sgt. Chelsea Porterfield who was the first woman to hold that position.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: A civilian guard was first posted at the Tomb on November 17, 1925, to prevent, among other things, families from picnicking on the flat marble slab with views of the city. A military guard was first posted on March 25, 1926. The first 24-hour guard was posted on midnight, July 2, 1937. The Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since that time. Inclement weather, terrorist attacks, et cetera, have never caused the watch to cease.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Since 1948, the tomb guards, a special platoon within the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) work on a team rotation of 24 hours on, 24 hours off, for five days, taking the following four days off. A guard takes an average of six hours to prepare his uniform—heavy wool, regardless of the time of year—for the next day's work. In addition to preparing the uniform, guards also conduct physical training, tomb guard training, participate in field exercises, cut their hair before the next workday, and at times are involved in regimental functions as well. Tomb guards are required to memorize 35 pages of information about Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, including the locations of nearly 300 graves and who is buried in each one.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: A special Army decoration, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Guard Identification Badge, is authorized for wear after passing a detailed test of 100 questions (from a pool of more than 300), a uniform test with two gigs (errors) or fewer (measured to the 1/64"), and a test on the guard-changing sequence. After serving honorably for a period of nine months, and having passed the sequence of tests, a tomb guard is permanently awarded the Badge. Since the first award on February 7, 1958, fewer than 650 soldiers have completed training and been awarded this badge, including four women. A small number of tomb guard Identification Badges have also been retroactively awarded to soldiers who served as Guards before 1959. The Tomb Guard Identification Badge is the only badge awarded by the United States Army that can be revoked after a soldier has left the military. The Regimental Commander of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment has the authority to revoke a badge from any Guard (past or present) for any act that would bring discredit upon the Tomb of the Unknowns.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The badge was designed in 1956 and was first issued to members of the Honor Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns on February 7, 1958. The badge was first issued only as a temporary wear item, meaning the soldiers could only wear the badge during their tenure as members of the honor guard. Upon leaving the duty, the badge was returned and reissued to incoming soldiers. In 1963, a regulation was enacted that allowed the badge to be worn as a permanent part of the military uniform, even after the soldier's completion of duty at the Tomb of the Unknowns.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: In keeping with the dedication Tomb Guards have made, 2021 serves as a centennial commemoration for The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Throughout 2021, the cemetery held events leading up to the centennial ceremony on November 11, 2021. The public was able to experience and participate in the commemorative events in many ways, both at the cemetery and virtually.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Cracking and weathering are causing concerns for the long-term preservation of the Tomb Monument. A November 1963 report first recorded horizontal cracking of the monument's marble die block. Though this was the first time that the damage was documented, the report made it clear that the cracks had become visible some time before that date.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: In 1963–1964, there were two cracks—referred to as "primary" and "secondary"—extending approximately around the die block. By 1974, they had extended to . They grew another over the next 15 years. Inspection has determined that the cracks have increased horizontally since 1990. Analysis also indicates that the cracks are not surficial but extend partially through the block and will eventually extend all the way through.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The 1990 report documented deterioration of the marble's surface. As much as of the marble surface has been lost through weathering. The study projected that before 2010, the Tomb Monument will have been weathered enough to have a negative effect on the experience of the visitors and concludes the only solutions are to enclose or replace the monument.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: Several options have been considered to deal with the damage. Officials at Arlington National Cemetery determined that proper repair can return the Tomb Monument to an acceptable appearance. However, because the cracks will continue to lengthen and widen, continuous grouting, regrouting, touch-up, monitoring, and maintenance would be required. Therefore, a report commissioned by Arlington National Cemetery and published in June 2006 confirmed the Cemetery's conclusion that "replacement of the three pieces of the Tomb Monument is the preferred alternative". A final decision was scheduled to be made on September 30, 2007.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The National Trust for Historic Preservation objects to the plan to replace the authentic Tomb Monument. The Trust expressed concern that Arlington National Cemetery seeks to replace the existing monument with marble from the original quarry, which experts agree is likely to eventually crack.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: The Trust has observed that the Cemetery's own 1990 report recommended that the monument be repaired and that the Cemetery, in fact, commissioned Oehrlein Architects to repair the stone. In 2007, Mary Oehrlein informed Congressional staff members that: "The existing monument can easily be repaired, as was done 17 years ago, using conventional conservation methods to re-grout the cracks. Once repaired, the fault lines would be virtually invisible from the public viewing areas."


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: On September 26, 2007, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka announced that an amendment crafted together with Senator Jim Webb will be added to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 1585) that would require a report on the plans of the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to replace the monument at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The secretaries would be required to advise Congress on the current efforts to maintain and preserve the monument. Additionally, they would have to provide an assessment on the feasibility and advisability of repairing rather than replacing the Tomb Monument. Finally, if the secretaries choose replacement, they would have to report those plans and detail how they intend to dispose of the current monument. Once the report is provided, the secretaries are prevented from taking action to replace the monument for at least 180 days. The Akaka-Webb amendment was included in the bill by unanimous consent of the Senate. An amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization Bill authorized a review of the monument's condition. The bill also authorized repair, but not replacement, of the monument. Final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 (H.R. 4986) was signed by President Bush on January 28, 2008.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: In 2003 John Haines, a retired car dealer, offered to donate a large slab of marble to the Arlington National Cemetery to replace the existing marble. Haines paid $31,000 for the marble slab. The marble was not removed from the quarry, however, because imperfections were found and the block was rejected.


title: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arlington)

text: In June 2009 Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that the monument was to be repaired, not replaced. In 2010, the cracks were filled but the repairs lasted only a few months. As of June 2011, the cemetery was struggling to repair the cracks in the monument, one of which measured long, with another at . In September 2011, the cracks were filled again and on October 21, 2011, inspection by the Corps of Engineers and other experts pronounced the repairs a success.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 17, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those people who were killed was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. This church is one of the oldest black churches in the United States, and it has long been a center for organizing events which are related to civil rights.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The morning after the attack, police arrested Dylann Roof in Shelby, North Carolina; a 21-year-old white supremacist who had attended the Bible study before he committed the shooting. He was found to have targeted members of this church because of its history and status. Roof was found competent to stand trial in federal court.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: In December 2016, Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. On January 10, 2017, he was sentenced to death for those crimes. Roof was separately charged with nine counts of murder in the South Carolina state courts. In April 2017, Roof pleaded guilty to all nine state charges in order to avoid receiving a second death sentence, and as a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He will receive automatic appeals of his death sentence, but he may eventually be executed by the federal justice system.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Roof espoused racial hatred in both a website manifesto which he published before the shooting, and a journal which he wrote from jail afterward. On his website, Roof posted photos of emblems which are associated with white supremacy, including a photo of the Confederate battle flag. The shooting triggered debates about modern display of the flag and other commemorations of the Confederacy. Following these murders, the South Carolina General Assembly voted to remove the flag from State Capitol grounds.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At the time, this was one of the two deadliest mass shootings at an American place of worship, the other being a 1991 attack at a Buddhist temple in Waddell, Arizona. Fatalities from two shootings at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2017 and 2018, respectively, have since exceeded it.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Founded in 1816, the church has played an important role in the history of South Carolina, including the slavery era and Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and Black Lives Matter. It is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal Church in the South, often referred to as "Mother Emanuel". The AME Church was founded by Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1814 as the first independent black denomination. It is a historically black congregation, one of the oldest south of Baltimore.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: When one of the church's co-founders, Denmark Vesey, was suspected of plotting to launch a slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822, 35 people, including Vesey, were hanged and the church was burned down. Charleston citizens accepted the claim that a slave rebellion was expected to begin at the stroke of midnight on June 16, 1822, and it was expected to erupt the following day (the shooting in 2015 occurred on the 193rd anniversary of the thwarted uprising). As the rebuilt church was formally shuttered with other all-black congregations by the city in 1834, the congregation met in secret until 1865 when it was formally reorganized, and it acquired the name Emanuel ("God with us"). It was rebuilt based on a design which was drawn by Denmark Vesey's son. That structure was badly damaged in the 1886 Charleston earthquake. The current building dates from 1891.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The church's senior pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, had held rallies after the shooting of Walter Scott by a white police officer two months earlier, in nearby North Charleston. As a state senator, Pinckney pushed for legislation requiring police to wear body cameras.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Several commentators noted that a similarity existed between the massacre at Emanuel AME and the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of a politically active African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, where the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) killed four black girls and injured fourteen others, during the civil rights movement. This attack galvanized support for federal civil rights legislation.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Numerous scholars, journalists, activists and politicians have emphasized their belief that the attack should not be treated as an isolated event because in their view, it occurred within the broader context of racism against Black Americans and racism in the United States. In 1996, Congress had passed the Church Arson Prevention Act, which considers the damaging of religious property a federal crime because of its "racial or ethnic character", in response to a spate of 154 suspicious church burnings which had occurred since 1991. More recent arson attacks against black churches included a black church in Massachusetts that was burned down the day after the first inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At around 9:05 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, the Charleston Police Department began receiving calls of a shooting at Emanuel AME Church. Dylann S. Roof, a man described as white, with sandy-blond hair, around 21 years old and in height, wearing a gray sweatshirt and jeans, opened fire with a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun on a group of people inside the church at a Bible study attended by Pinckney. He had first attended the meeting as a participant that evening. Roof then fled the scene. He had been carrying eight magazines holding hollow-point bullets. The event was finished by about 9:11 p.m.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: During the hour preceding the attack, 13 people including the shooter participated in the Bible study. According to the accounts of people who talked to survivors, when Roof walked into the historic African-American church, he immediately asked for Pinckney and sat down next to him, initially listening to others during the study. He disagreed with some of the discussion of Scripture. After other participants began praying, he stood up, and aimed a gun he pulled from a fanny pack at 87-year-old Susie Jackson. Jackson's nephew, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, tried to talk him down and asked him why he was attacking churchgoers. The shooter said, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." When Roof said he intended to shoot them all, Sanders dove in front of Jackson and was shot first. Roof fired at the other victims, shouting racial epithets. He reportedly said, "Y'all want something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about." Roof reloaded his gun five times. Sanders' mother and his five-year-old niece, who also attended the study, survived the shooting by pretending to be dead on the floor.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Dot Scott, president of the local branch of the NAACP, said she had heard from victims' relatives that Roof spared one woman (Polly Sheppard), saying that she could tell other people what happened. He asked, "Did I shoot you?" She replied, "No." Then, he said, "Good, 'cause we need someone to survive, because I'm gonna shoot myself, and you'll be the only survivor." According to the son of one victim, who spoke to that survivor, Roof allegedly turned the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger, but discovered he was out of ammunition. He left the church, reportedly after making another "racially inflammatory statement" over the victims' bodies. The entire shooting lasted for approximately six minutes.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Several hours later, a bomb threat was called into the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Calhoun Street. This complicated the police investigation of the shooting, as they needed to evacuate the immediate area.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The mortally wounded victims, six women and three men, were all African-American members of the AME Church. Eight died at the scene; the ninth, Daniel Simmons, died at MUSC Medical Center. They were all killed by multiple gunshots fired at close range. Five people survived the shooting unharmed, including Felicia Sanders, mother of slain victim Tywanza Sanders, and her five-year-old granddaughter, as well as Polly Sheppard, a Bible study member. Pinckney's wife and youngest daughter were inside the building during the shooting, but were in the pastor's office with the door locked. There was also one other person injured in the event. Those killed were identified as:


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Dylann Storm Roof was named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the suspected killer after his father and uncle contacted police to positively identify him upon seeing security photos of him in the news. Roof was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and was living in largely African-American Eastover at the time of the attack. Roof had a prior police record consisting of two arrests, for trespassing and drug possession, both made in the months before the attack. According to then FBI Director James Comey, a police report detailing Roof's admission to a narcotics offense should have prevented him from purchasing the weapon used in the shooting. An administrative error within the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) excluded Roof's admission (though not the arrest itself) from appearing on his mandatory background check.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: His Facebook page included an image of Roof wearing a jacket decorated with two emblems popular among American white supremacists: the flag of the former Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) and the flag of apartheid-era South Africa. Roof reportedly told friends and neighbors he intended to kill people, including a plot to attack the College of Charleston, but his claims were not taken seriously. On June 20, bloggers discovered a website called "The Last Rhodesian" (www.lastrhodesian.com); it had been registered to a "Dylann Roof" on February 9, 2015. The website included what appeared to be an unsigned manifesto containing Roof's opinions of "Blacks", "Jews", "Hispanics" and "East Asians", as well a cache of photos, including an image of Roof posing with a handgun and a Confederate Battle Flag. In this manifesto, Roof says he became "racially aware" as a result of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, writing that when he learned about the incident, he read about it, concluding that George Zimmerman had been in the right. He did not understand the controversy about it. He said he searched for "black on White crime" on Google and found the website of the Council of Conservative Citizens, where he read "pages upon pages" of cases involving black people murdering white people. Roof wrote that he had "never been the same since that day".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: According to web server logs, Roof's website was last modified at 4:44 p.m. on June 17, the day of the shooting, when Roof noted, "[A]t the time of writing I am in a great hurry."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: An unidentified source said interrogations with Roof after his arrest determined he had been planning the attack for around six months. He had researched Emanuel AME Church, and targeted it because of its role in African-American history. A friend who briefly hid Roof's gun from him said, "I don't think the church was his primary target because he told us he was going for the school. But I think he couldn't get into the school because of the security ... so I think he just settled for the church."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Roof's cellphone and computer were seized and analyzed by the FBI. According to unnamed officials, he was in online communication with other white supremacists, who did not appear to have encouraged the massacre. The investigation was said to have widened to include other persons of interest.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Federal prosecutors said in August 2016 that Roof was "self-radicalized" online, instead of adopting his white supremacist ideology "through his personal associations or experiences with white supremacist groups or individuals or others".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The attack was treated as a hate crime by police. Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in to assist in the investigation and manhunt.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At 10:44 a.m., on the morning after the attack, Roof was captured in a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina, approximately from the shooting scene. A .45-caliber pistol was found in the car during the arrest. Police received a tip-off from a woman who recognized Roof and his car, a black Hyundai Elantra with South Carolina license plates and a three-flag "Confederate States of America" bumper decoration, on U.S. Route 74, recalling security camera images taken at the church and distributed to the media. She later recalled, "I got closer and saw that haircut. I was nervous. I had the worst feeling. Is that him or not him?" She called her employer, who contacted local police, and then tailed the suspect's car for until she was certain authorities were moving in for an arrest.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Roof waived his extradition rights and was flown to Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston on the evening of June 18. At the jail, his cell-block neighbor was Michael Slager, the former North Charleston police officer charged with murder after shooting Walter Scott following a traffic stop. According to unconfirmed reports, Roof confessed to committing the attack and said he wanted to start a race war. He reportedly told investigators he almost did not complete his plan because members of the church group had been so nice to him.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 19, Roof was charged with nine counts of murder and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He first appeared in Charleston County court via videoconference at a bond hearing later that day. At the hearing, shooting survivors and relatives of five of the victims spoke to Roof directly, saying that they were "praying for his soul" and forgave him.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The judge, Charleston County chief magistrate James "Skip" Gosnell, Jr., said at the bond hearing that, in addition to the dead victims and their families, "there are victims on this young man's side of the family ... Nobody would have ever thrown them into the whirlwind of events that they are being thrown into." The judge was reported to have been reprimanded in 2005 by the South Carolina Supreme Court for using a racial slur while on the bench in 2003. Gosnell set a $1 million bond for the weapons possession charge and no bail on the nine counts of murder.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Governor Nikki Haley called on prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Roof. In June 2016 she warned against divisive rhetoric, saying that it could lead to tragedies such as the massacre at the church, and referred to the rhetoric of 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On July 7, Roof was indicted on the nine murder charges and the weapons charge, as well three new charges of attempted murder, one for each person who survived the shooting. He also faced federal hate crime charges, including nine counts of using a firearm to commit murder and 24 civil rights violations (12 hate crime charges and 12 counts of violating a person's freedom of religion), with 18 of the charges carrying the federal death penalty.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On July 31, Roof pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, based on the advice of his lawyer David Bruck. Bruck earlier said Roof wanted to plead guilty, but he couldn't advise it without knowing the government's intentions.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On September 3, Ninth Circuit solicitor (i.e., district attorney) Scarlett Wilson announced that she intended to seek the death penalty against Roof in the state proceedings, based on more than two people being killed in the shooting and others' lives put at risk. On September 16, Roof said through his attorney that he was willing to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On October 1, the federal trial was pushed back to at least January 2016 to give prosecutors and Roof's attorneys more time to prepare. On December 1, the trial was postponed again to an unknown date. Both Roof and his friend, Joey Meek, (who was accused of misprision of felony and lying to investigators about Roof's plans), were to reappear in federal court on February 11, 2016, while their lawyers held a bar meeting with prosecutors to discuss their cases. On November 7, 2016, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel postponed jury selection until November 9, later postponing the process again until November 21. Gergel later postponed the jury selection to November 28. On November 28, a federal judge granted a motion by Roof to represent himself. On December 4, Roof made a handwritten request of Gergel, asking for his defense team for the guilt phase of his federal death penalty trial. On December 5, 2016, Gergel allowed Roof to hire back his lawyers for the guilt phase of his trial. On December 6, 2016, a federal judge denied a motion by Roof's defense team to delay Roof's trial.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The decision to seek the death penalty for Roof was a campaign topic in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, with Hillary Clinton supporting the Justice Department's decision and Bernie Sanders opposing it.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: In November 2016, Roof was declared competent to stand trial for the crimes. In January 2017, following a second competency evaluation, Roof was again deemed competent.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Roof's trial began on December 7, 2016; witnesses gave testimony describing the shooting in graphic detail. On December 15, 2016, Roof was found guilty of all 33 federal charges against him. For the sentencing phase of the federal trial, Roof dismissed his attorneys and insisted on representing himself. In a statement to the court at his sentencing hearing on January 4, 2017, Roof offered no apology or explanation, saying "There's nothing wrong with me psychologically." At the hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a two-page excerpt from a journal written by Roof from jail six weeks after his arrest, in which Roof composed a white supremacist manifesto, writing: "I would like to make it crystal clear, I do not regret what I did. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people I killed."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Roof was sentenced to death on January 10, 2017, and to life in prison without parole on April 10, 2017.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Heidi Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that seeks to identify American hate groups and confront their activities, said that the gunman's reported motive has frequently appeared on white supremacist websites. They say that "whites are being hugely victimized by blacks and no one is paying attention". Referring to Roof's comments about rape, Beirich said, "[Black men sexually assaulting white women] is probably the oldest racist trope we have in the U.S."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: According to Beirich, this trope is related to a myth of Southern culture, because in fact, African-American women had been much more frequently abused by white men. Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, associate professor at the University of Alabama, said that the myth of black rapists had dominated the imaginations of white, Southern men, who believed that "Sexual access to women is a trophy of power, white women embodied virtue and morality, they signified whiteness and white superiority, so sexual access to white women was possessing the ultimate privilege that white men held. It views women as trophies which are to be traded among men."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Jamelle Bouie wrote in "Slate", "Make any list of anti-black terrorism in the United States, and you'll also have a list of attacks justified by the specter of black rape." He cited the Tulsa race riot of 1921, the Rosewood massacre of 1923, and the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 as examples. Beirich said that early in the investigation, it was unclear if the suspect had any connection to hate groups. She noted that "for several years South Carolina has been the place with the highest density of hate groups."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, numerous people of different races and religions attended a ceremony commemorating the victims and they proclaimed that the attack would not divide the community. Another such ceremony occurred at the TD Arena in the College of Charleston. On June 21, four days after the shooting, Emanuel AME Church reopened for its Sunday worship service. The Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff Sr., Presiding Elder of Emanuel AME Church, delivered the sermon.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 25, 2015, at Emanuel AME Church, funerals were held for victims Ethel Lance and Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and they were attended by several political figures and civil rights leaders. Clementa Pinckney's funeral was held in the basketball arena of the College of Charleston on June 26, 2015, with President Barack Obama delivering the eulogy. Earlier, Pinckney's body lay in state in the South Carolina State House. This was followed by the funerals of Tywanza Sanders, Susie Jackson, and Cynthia Graham Hurd the next day. Hurd's family announced that they are establishing the Cynthia Graham Hurd Fund for Reading and Literacy organization in her memory; it is expected to give children easier access to books. By July 2, the last of the victims, Daniel Simmons, was buried.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Nine artists from across the United States created portraits of the victims as a tribute to them. The portraits were put on display at the Principle Gallery for one month, and afterwards, they were given to the victims' families. The artists who were involved in the memorial included Ricky Mujica, Mario Andres Robinson, Lauren Tilden, Paul McCormack, Gregory Mortenson, Catherine Prescott, Terry Strickland, Judy Takács, and Stephanie Deshpande.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Questions were raised about the security of black churches (as well as the security of churches in general) and their long-standing practice of welcoming anyone who is willing to pray (as most Christian churches are, regardless of the race of the majority of its parishioners). Roof, a stranger to churchgoers, was easily able to enter Emanuel AME Church with no questions asked. In the weeks after the shooting, AME Church leaders distributed a document titled "12 Considerations for Congregational Security", which recommended that they create security plans and teams for black churches, improve communications, develop relationships with local law enforcement, and secure and monitor all entrances to and exits from churches. Some churches considered hiring armed security guards and installing metal detectors, but conversations in support of these steps have currently not gained traction.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The FBI is investigating possible church arson after several black churches burned down in one week's time following the shooting. On July 3, "Time" reported that the investigation concluded that the fires were unrelated.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The FBI underwent a 30-day review to examine the lapses in the background-check system that allowed the suspected shooter to legally purchase the gun used in the shooting. According to James Comey, Roof had been arrested in March on a felony drug charge, which would have required an inquiry into the charge during the background check examination. However, he was actually arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge, which was incorrectly written as a felony at first due to a data entry error made by a jail clerk. The mistake was noticed by the jail two days after the arrest, but the change was not made.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The FBI agent conducting the background check examination then called the wrong agency while making the inquiry into the drug charge, due to having limited information on law enforcement agencies in Lexington County. This subsequently allowed Roof to make the purchase. However, despite the misdemeanor charge, he still should not have been able to purchase the gun under a law that barred anyone who is an "unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance" from owning firearms.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Several bills aiming to fix this loophole were proposed, and South Carolina legislation planned to discuss the loophole in 2016. On July 1, 2016, survivors of the shooting sued the FBI for inadvertently enabling Roof to purchase the gun which was used in the shooting.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On August 30, 2019, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the survivors and families of the deceased can sue the Federal government.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On September 17, one of the friends who briefly hid Roof's gun away from him was arrested, reportedly for lying to federal authorities during their investigation and failing to report a crime. The next day, he pleaded not guilty to one count of making false statements to federal investigators and one count of concealing knowledge about a crime. He faces a maximum of nine years in prison and a $500,000 fine. According to legal experts, prosecutors possibly intend to use the prospect of federal charges against him as leverage for testifying against Roof. He was to reappear in federal court alongside Roof on February 11, 2016. Joey Meek pleaded guilty in federal court April 29, 2016. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison in March 2017.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. denounced the attack and said, "Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained. We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said, "While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we'll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another. Please join us in lifting up the victims and their families with our love and prayers."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: President Barack Obama said in Charleston on June 18, "Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun... We as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries." At a Washington press conference later that day, he said, "Michelle and I know several members of Emanuel AME Church. We knew their pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who, along with eight others, gathered in prayer and fellowship and was murdered last night. And to say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families, and their community, doesn't say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 19, the United States Department of Justice fast-tracked a Crime Victim Assistance Formula Grant of $29 million to the South Carolina government. Some of the money will be allocated to the survivors.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: After Roof's appearance at his bond hearing, his family issued a statement, expressing their shock and grief at his actions. Following the funerals of several of the victims in the shooting, they issued a second statement, expressing their condolences to the victims' families and announcing the temporary postponement of comments out of respect for them. During the bond hearing, several family members of the victims told Roof that they forgave him.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The local community surrounding Charleston held prayer vigils and fundraisers. A mass unity rally was also held on the Arthur Ravenel Bridge on the evening of June 21. Organizers of the rally claimed there were up to 20,000 supporters in the rally. Tens of thousands of individuals crossed from the Mount Pleasant side of the bridge to the downtown Charleston side, carrying supportive signs and flags. Dozens of boats joined in the procession as well


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The World Methodist Council, an association of worldwide churches in the Methodist tradition, of which the AME Church is a part, said it "urges prayer and support for the victims' families and those members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church who have been so gravely affected by this crime motivated by hate." The President and Vice-President of the British Methodist Conference, also a member of the World Methodist Council, sent a letter of solidarity to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, saying, "The hearts of the members of the Methodist Church of Great Britain go out to the families and friends of those killed; to the Church; and to the wider communities in Charleston."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, also a member of the World Methodist Council and in full communion with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, called on its members "to support the victims of this and all acts of violence, to work to end racism and hatred, to seek peace with justice, and to live the prayer that our Lord gave us, that God's 'kingdom come, [and] will be done, on earth as it is in heaven'".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, also a member of the World Methodist Council and in full communion with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, shared its support with the presiding bishop, stating, "let us join with the AMEs in prayer for the healing of the families touched by this tragedy – the families of the victims and the family of the perpetrator".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said, "We offer our prayers for healing to the wounded and traumatized, and solidarity and accompaniment to our sisters and brothers in the African Methodist Episcopal Church". Archbishop Joseph Edward Kurtz, the president of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made similar remarks.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On August 8, 2019, the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a resolution to recognize the Emanuel 9 as martyrs on their liturgical calendar and declare June 17 as "a day of repentance in the ELCA for the


title: Charleston church shooting

text: martyrdom of the Emanuel 9." At the time of the shooting, Dylann Roof was a member of an ELCA congregation. The Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the Rev. Daniel Simmons were both alumni of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, a seminary of the ELCA.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Various national Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, Union for Reform Judaism, Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League, and Orthodox Union issued statements deploring the attack and expressing deep grief and horror. The Rabbinical Assembly, in its own statement, quoted Leviticus, saying, "'Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.' Hateful, violent acts such as this have no place in our society, in a country known for its diversity and blending of various cultures."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Many national Muslim organizations and individual imams, such as Council on American–Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and Islamic Circle of North America issued statements condemning the attack and offering sympathy for the victims. In a joint statement, CAIR and Muslim leaders in Baltimore quoted the Quran, saying, "The Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, says: 'He who takes one life, it is as if he has slain all of mankind. And he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved all of mankind.'"


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Muslim and Jewish religious organizations have raised several hundred thousand dollars to help rebuild black churches that were burned down in the weeks after the shooting.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At least eighteen candidates and prospective candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential election expressed reactions through various media and addresses. According to NPR, Democratic and Republican candidates found different ways to address the incident, with Democrats seeing race and gun control as central issues, while Republicans pointing to mental illness and referring to it as tragic but random act. Most Republican candidates eventually acknowledged that race was a motivating factor for the shooting. According to "The Christian Science Monitor", the shooting became a precarious subject for Republican presidential contenders, in particular in regard of the racial motivations behind it, as South Carolina holds primaries and the state's political importance have resulted in some candidates "skirting around the clear racial motivations behind the attack".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The night following the attack, Jon Stewart delivered a monologue on "The Daily Show" discussing the tragic nature of the news, condemning the attacks as well as the media's response to it. Stewart argued that in response to Islamic terrorism, politicians declare they will do "whatever we can" to make America safe, even justifying torture, but respond to this mass shooting with "what are you gonna do, crazy is as crazy does".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The Council of Conservative Citizens, whose website Roof cited as a source for his radicalization, issued a statement on its website "unequivocally condemn[ing]" the attack, but that Roof has some "legitimate grievances" against black people. An additional statement from the group's president, Earl Holt III, disavowed responsibility for the crime and said the group's website "accurately and honestly report[s] black-on-white violent crime".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: In an online forum, Charles Cotton, a lawyer in Houston and a national board member of the National Rifle Association, placed blame for the shooting on Pinckney for not allowing the churchgoers to hold concealed carry weapons inside the church. In 2011, Pinckney had voted against legislation that would allow concealed handguns to be carried into public places. Cotton also criticized the effectiveness of gun-free zones, stating, "If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free zones." Cotton's comment has since been deleted from the online forum.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Following the shooting, Rhodesians Worldwide, an online magazine catering to the Rhodesian expatriate community, issued a brief statement condemning Roof's actions in response to his use of the Rhodesian flag. It said 80% of the Rhodesian Security Forces were black and that the Rhodesian Bush War was a struggle against communism rather than a racial conflict.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Jerry Richardson, the owner of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, donated $100,000 to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund set up by Mayor Riley, specifically calling for $10,000 to each of the families of the nine victims to cover their funeral expenses, and the remaining $10,000 to be delivered to the Emanuel AME Church itself.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Artist Carrie Mae Weems has created a theater piece in response to the murders, called "Grace Notes".


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Civil rights advocates said that the Charleston attack did more than fit the dictionary definition of terrorism because it also reflected the history of attempts to terrorize African-Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: According to the State of Tennessee, a 2017 church shooting that killed a woman and wounded seven others was retaliation for the Charleston shooting. The perpetrator, who is black, reportedly said that he wanted to "kill 10 white people" and referenced Roof and the Pan-African flag in a note he left in his car.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 18, 2015, the day after the shooting, many flags, including those at the South Carolina State House, were flown at half-staff. The Confederate battle flag flying over the South Carolina Confederate Monument near the state house was not lowered, as South Carolina law prohibited alteration of the flag without the consent of two-thirds of the state legislature. Additionally, the flagpole lacked a pulley system, meaning the flag could not be flown at half-staff, only removed.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Calls to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, as well as debates over the context of its symbolic nature, were renewed after the attack by several prominent figures, including President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush. On June 20, 2015, several thousand people gathered in front of the South Carolina State House in protest. An online petition at MoveOn.org encouraging the flag's removal had received over 370,000 signatures by that time.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: At a statehouse press conference on June 22, Governor Nikki Haley, flanked by elected officials of both parties, including U.S. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, and former Republican Governor Mark Sanford, called for the flag to be removed by the state legislature, saying that while the flag was "an integral part of our past, it does not represent the future" of South Carolina. Eulogizing the Rev. Clementa Pinckney on June 26, 2015, before 5,000 congregants at the College of Charleston, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the shooting had catalyzed a broad movement, backed by Republicans and Democrats, to remove the flag from official public display. "Blinded by hatred, [the gunman] failed to comprehend what Reverend Pinckney so well understood: the power of God's grace," Obama said. "By taking down that flag we express God's grace. But I don't think God wants us to stop there."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On July 6, 2015, the South Carolina Senate voted to remove the Confederate flag from display outside the South Carolina State House. Following 13 hours of debate, the vote in the House to remove it was passed by a two-thirds majority (94–20) on July 9. Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill on July 9. On July 10, the Confederate flag was taken down for the last time; it will be stored until it can later be shown in a museum.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 23, 2015, retailers Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Sears Holding Corporation (which owns Sears and Kmart), and eBay all announced plans to stop selling merchandise with the Confederate flag. Similarly, Warner Bros. announced they were halting production of "General Lee" car toys, which prominently feature a Confederate flag on the roof. Many major flag manufacturers also decided to stop profiting from the flag.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The city of New Orleans has announced plans to remove four memorials related to the Confederacy. Two of them, the Battle of Liberty Place Monument and the Jefferson Davis Monument, have been removed as of May 11, 2017.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: In reaction to the controversy regarding the Confederate flag's modern display, institutions across the U.S. have considered removing the names of historic Confederate figures from schools, colleges, and streets. Campaigns to change the names were started in several cities.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: In a national survey which was conducted in 2015, 57% of Americans opined that the Confederate flag represented Southern pride rather than racism. A previous poll which was conducted in 2000 had a nearly identical result of 59%. However, poll results which were only collected from citizens who were living in the South yielded different results: 75% of whites described the flag as a symbol of pride, while 75% of blacks said that the flag represented racism.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Earl Holt, the leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, whose website Roof credited for shaping his views in his manifesto, gave more than $74,000 to Republican candidates and committees in recent years, including campaign donations to 2016 presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and Rand Paul, who have all condemned Roof's racially based motives. Following the shooting, and after a journalist contacted the campaigns with details about the donor's background, a spokesman for the Ted Cruz campaign said that he would return an $8,500 donation to Holt; the campaign later said that it would donate $11,000 to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, to assist the victims' families. The Rand Paul campaign said Holt's $2,250 donation would be given to the Fund, and Rick Santorum said his $1,500 donation from Holt would be donated to the same charity. Twelve other Republican office-holders also announced they would be returning or donating Holt's contributions.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: While some media professionals, politicians and law enforcement officials referred to the attack as an act of domestic terrorism, others did not. This renewed a debate about the terminology which people should use whenever they describe the shooting and other attacks.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 18, professor and terrorism expert Brian Phillips offered his definition of terrorism by saying, the shooting was "clearly a terrorist act". He based this conclusion on a racist political motivation that "seems likely" and his "intimidation of a wider audience" criterion was met when "...the shooter reportedly left one person alive to spread the message". An article by CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and David Sterman on June 19 says, "By any reasonable standard, this is terrorism, which is generally defined as an act of violence against civilians by individuals or organizations for political purposes. ... [D]eadly acts of terrorism by virulent racists and anti-government extremists have been more common in the United States than deadly acts of jihadist terrorism since 9/11."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Some publications and their analyses of the event said that these naming discrepancies reflect either forms of denial or outright racism. The journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote that


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Speaking at a press conference in Baltimore on June 19, FBI Director James Comey said, while his agency was investigating the shooting as a "hate crime", he did not consider it an "act of terrorism", citing the lack of political motivation for the suspect's actions. He said, "Terrorism is act of violence done or threatened in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry, so it's more of a political act, and again, based on what I know, I don't see this as a political act. Doesn't make it any less horrific, but terrorism has a definition under federal law."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: Heidi Beirich, who leads the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), pointed to the discovery of a website attributed to Roof, which featured a manifesto and sixty photos as an example of why federal agents "don't have themselves together on this issue". The website began circulating on the Internet on June 20. Beirich said, "The way they found the website was that someone ran a domain tool reverse search on this guy's name... It wasn't rocket science, but where were the feds?"


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On June 24, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson left the possibility of terrorism charges open, saying, "Any eventual federal charges will be determined by the facts at the conclusion of the investigation, and are not influenced by how the investigation is initially opened." Ultimately, it is up to Department of Justice prosecutors to decide what federal charges to bring. A spokesperson for Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Department of Justice was investigating the shooting as both "a hate crime and as an act of domestic terrorism."


title: Charleston church shooting

text: The infamy of Roof and the shooting has inspired imitators to plot similar attacks. Benjamin Thomas Samuel McDowell was arrested for unlawful firearm possession; he had been planning to shoot up the Temple Emanu-El synagogue in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, while Elizabeth Lecron and Vincent Armstrong were arrested for plotting to use explosives to commit "upscale mass murder" in Toledo, Ohio, having previously corresponded with Roof himself.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: A violent neo-Nazi subculture which glorifies Roof and other far-right mass murderers has also emerged, and it is known as the "Bowl Gang" or the "Bowl Patrol", referring to Roof's distinctive bowl haircut.


title: Charleston church shooting

text: On October 29, 2021, the Justice Department agreed to pay $88 million to the families of the victims and the wounded. The settlement comes about after relatives of the victims sued the FBI because it had a faulty background check system, which allowed Roof to purchase the gun that he used in the shooting. The relatives of the deceased will receive $6m and $7.5m while five other people who sustained injuries will each receive $5 million.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine Talmage Astor ("née" Force; later Dick and Fiermonte; June 19, 1893 – March 27, 1940) was an American socialite and a survivor of the . She was the second wife and widow of businessman John Jacob Astor IV.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine Talmage Force was born on June 19, 1893, in Brooklyn, New York, the younger daughter of William Hurlbut Force (1852–1917) and the former Katherine Arvilla Talmage (1863–1930). Madeleine's elder sister Katherine Emmons Force was a real estate businesswoman and socialite. Through her father, she had French ancestry and was a great-niece of builder Ephraim S. Force (1822 – March 12, 1914). Her mother had Dutch ancestry.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: William Force was a member of a well-established business family. He owned the successful shipping firm William H. Force and Co., and his father had been prosperous in the manufacturing industry. In 1889, Force married Katherine Talmage, the granddaughter of former Brooklyn mayor Thomas Talmage. The Forces were part of Brooklyn high society, while William Force was a member of numerous prestigious clubs in the city. He also owned an art collection. Like the Astor family, the Forces were members of the Episcopal Church. Madeleine's maternal grandfather was New York State Assemblyman Tunis V. P. Talmage and her great-grandfather, Thomas G. Talmage, was Mayor of Brooklyn. She is also distantly related to Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, who served directly under George Washington in the American War of Independence.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine was educated at Miss Ely's School and then for four years at Miss Spence's School, on West 48th Street in Manhattan. According to one report, she was "counted an especially brilliant pupil" at this school. She and her sister were also taken abroad by their mother and toured Europe several times. When she was introduced to New York social life, she was immediately adopted by the Junior League, a clique of debutantes. She appeared in several New York society plays and attracted quite a following. She was known to be a very competent horsewoman and enjoyed yachting. One report said she was bright and good with drawing-room conversation.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: She met Colonel John Jacob "Jack" Astor IV, the only son of businessman William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and socialite Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn. During their courtship, he took her on automobile drives and yacht trips, and they were often followed by the press. They became engaged in August 1911 and were married on September 9, 1911. There was a considerable amount of opposition to his marriage not only because of their age difference (29 years apart, with Madeline being 18, and John at 47) but because of his recent divorce (November 1909) from his previous wife. After several Episcopal priests refused to celebrate the nuptials, the couple were eventually married by a Congregationalist minister in Beechwood, his Newport mansion. His son William Vincent Astor served as best man.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: After their marriage, they had an extended honeymoon. They visited several places locally first, then in January 1912, they sailed from New York on the "Titanic"'s sister ship, the "Olympic", and enjoyed a long Egyptian tour. While returning from this part of their honeymoon, they booked their passage on the "Titanic".


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine Astor, then five months pregnant, boarded the "Titanic" as a first-class passenger in Cherbourg, France, with her husband; her husband's valet, Victor Robbins; her maid, Rosalie Bidois; and her nurse, Caroline Endres. They also took Kitty, Astor's pet Airedale, and occupied one of the parlour suites. On the night of April 14, 1912, Colonel Astor reported to his wife that the ship had hit an iceberg. He reassured her that the damage did not appear serious, though he helped her strap on her life jacket. Whilst they were waiting on the boat-deck, Mrs. Astor lent Leah Aks, a third-class passenger, her fur shawl to keep her son, Filly, warm. At one point, the Astors retired to the gymnasium and sat on the mechanical horses in their life jackets. Colonel Astor found another life jacket which he reportedly cut with a pen knife to show Madeleine what it was made of. When it was time to board a lifeboat, Madeleine Astor, her maid, and her nurse had to crawl through the first-class promenade window into the tilting lifeboat 4 (which had been lowered down to A deck to take on more passengers). Astor had helped his wife to climb through the window and asked if he could accompany her as she was 'in a delicate condition'. The request was denied by Second Officer Charles Lightoller. An account of Madeleine's boarding of the lifeboat was given by Archibald Gracie IV to the US Senate Titanic inquiry. Gracie was a fellow passenger and recalled the events regarding Madeleine Astor in the following terms.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: The only incident I remember in particular at this point is when Mrs Astor was put in the boat. She was lifted up through the window, and her husband helped her on the other side, and when she got in, her husband was on one side of this window and I was on the other side, at the next window. I heard Mr Astor ask the second officer whether he would not be allowed to go aboard this boat to protect his wife. He said, 'No, sir, no man is allowed on this boat or any of the boats until the ladies are off.' Mr Astor then said, 'Well, tell me what is the number of this boat so I may find her afterwards,' or words to that effect. The answer came back, 'No. 4.'


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Astor and his valet died in the sinking; the former's body was recovered on April 22. He was found to be carrying about $2,500 in cash, brought with him from his cabin. His young widow and the other survivors were rescued by the RMS "Carpathia" around 03:30.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine Astor gave an account of what she recalled almost immediately after her arrival home through her spokesman Nicholas Biddle, who was a trustee of the Astor estate. The account given by her spokesman is:


title: Madeleine Astor

text: After Astor returned home from her ordeal, she was kept in strict retirement. Her first social function was not until the end of May, when she held a luncheon at her mansion on Fifth Avenue for Arthur Rostron, the captain of the "Carpathia", and Dr. Frank McGee, the ship's surgeon. She held this event with Marian Thayer, also a survivor of the "Titanic". Both wished to thank these men for their assistance when they were aboard the "Carpathia".


title: Madeleine Astor

text: In his will, John Jacob Astor IV left his wife an outright sum of $100,000, the income from a trust fund of $5 million, and the use of the house on Fifth Avenue. Both of the latter provisions she would lose if she remarried. A fund of $3 million was set aside for his unborn child John Jacob "Jakey" Astor VI, which he would control when he became of age. On August 14, 1912, Astor gave birth to Jakey at her Fifth Avenue mansion. For the next four years, she raised him as part of the Astor family. She did not seem to appear very often in society until the end of 1913, when according to the press, they published her first photograph since the "Titanic" disaster.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: After this, she appeared more often in public and her activities were frequently reported in the press. In 1915 she remodeled her house on Fifth Avenue and this was made a feature article in the "New York Sun". Many articles about her eldest son were also published.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Four years after Colonel Astor's death, Madeleine Astor married her childhood friend, banker William Karl Dick (May 28, 1888 – September 5, 1953), on June 22, 1916, in Bar Harbor, Maine, and honeymooned in California. He was a vice president of the Manufacturers Trust Company of New York and a part owner and director of the "Brooklyn Times". As stated in Colonel Astor's will, she lost her stipend from his trust fund. They had two sons:


title: Madeleine Astor

text: They divorced on July 21, 1933, in Reno, Nevada. Four months later, on November 27, 1933, Astor married Italian actor/boxer Enzo Fiermonte in a civil ceremony in New York City. They honeymooned in Palm Beach, Florida. They eventually moved there. They had no children together and divorced on June 11, 1938, in West Palm Beach, Florida.


title: Madeleine Astor

text: Madeleine Fiermonte died of a heart ailment at her mansion in Palm Beach on March 27, 1940, at the age of 46. She was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City, in a mausoleum with her mother.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole, sold under the brand name Nizoral among others, is an antiandrogen and antifungal medication used to treat a number of fungal infections. Applied to the skin it is used for fungal skin infections such as tinea, cutaneous candidiasis, pityriasis versicolor, dandruff, and seborrheic dermatitis. Taken by mouth it is a less preferred option and only recommended for severe infections when other agents cannot be used. Other uses include treatment of excessive male-patterned hair growth in women and Cushing's syndrome.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Common side effects when applied to the skin include redness. Common side effects when taken by mouth include nausea, headache, and liver problems. Liver problems may result in death or the need for a liver transplantation. Other severe side effects when taken by mouth include QT prolongation, adrenocortical insufficiency, and anaphylaxis. It is an imidazole and works by hindering the production of ergosterol required for the fungal cell membrane, thereby slowing growth.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole was patented in 1977 by Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen, and came into medical use in 1981. It is available as a generic medication and formulations that are applied to the skin are over the counter in the United Kingdom. In 2020, it was the 170th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 3million prescriptions. The formulation that is taken by mouth was withdrawn in the European Union and in Australia in 2013, and in China in 2015. In addition, its use was restricted in the United States and Canada in 2013.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Topically administered ketoconazole is usually prescribed for fungal infections of the skin and mucous membranes, such as athlete's foot, ringworm, candidiasis (yeast infection or thrush), jock itch, and tinea versicolor. Topical ketoconazole is also used as a treatment for dandruff (seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp) and for seborrheic dermatitis on other areas of the body, perhaps acting in these conditions by suppressing levels of the fungus "Malassezia furfur" on the skin.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole has activity against many kinds of fungi that may cause human disease, such as "Candida", "Histoplasma", "Coccidioides", and "Blastomyces" (although it is not active against "Aspergillus"), chromomycosis and paracoccidioidomycosis. First made in 1977, ketoconazole was the first orally-active azole antifungal medication. However, ketoconazole has largely been replaced as a first-line systemic antifungal medication by other azole antifungal agents, such as itraconazole, because of ketoconazole's greater toxicity, poorer absorption, and more limited spectrum of activity.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole is used orally in dosages of 200 to 400 mg per day in the treatment of superficial and deep fungal infections.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole shampoo in conjunction with an oral 5α-reductase inhibitor such as finasteride or dutasteride has been used off label to treat androgenic alopecia. It was speculated that antifungal properties of ketoconazole reduce scalp microflora and consequently may reduce follicular inflammation that contributes to alopecia.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Limited clinical studies suggest ketoconazole shampoo used either alone or in combination with other treatments may be useful in reducing hair loss in some cases.


title: Ketoconazole

text: The side effects of ketoconazole are sometimes harnessed in the treatment of non-fungal conditions. While ketoconazole blocks the synthesis of the sterol ergosterol in fungi, in humans, at high dosages (>800 mg/day), it potently inhibits the activity of several enzymes necessary for the conversion of cholesterol to steroid hormones such as testosterone and cortisol. Specifically, ketoconazole has been shown to inhibit cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme, which converts cholesterol to pregnenolone, 17α-hydroxylase and 17,20-lyase, which convert pregnenolone into androgens, and 11β-hydoxylase, which converts 11-deoxycortisol to cortisol. All of these enzymes are mitochondrial cytochrome p450 enzymes. Based on these antiandrogen and antiglucocorticoid effects, ketoconazole has been used with some success as a second-line treatment for certain forms of advanced prostate cancer and for the suppression of glucocorticoid synthesis in the treatment of Cushing's syndrome. However, in the treatment of prostate cancer, concomitant glucocorticoid administration is needed to prevent adrenal insufficiency. Ketoconazole has additionally been used, in lower dosages, to treat hirsutism and, in combination with a GnRH analogue, male-limited precocious puberty. In any case, the risk of hepatotoxicity with ketoconazole limits its use in all of these indications, especially in those that are benign such as hirsutism.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole has been used to prevent the testosterone flare at the initiation of GnRH agonist therapy in men with prostate cancer.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Oral ketoconazole has various contraindications, such as concomitant use with certain other drugs due to known drug interactions. Other contraindications of oral ketoconazole include liver disease, adrenal insufficiency, and known hypersensitivity to oral ketoconazole.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, constipation, abdominal pain, upper abdominal pain, dry mouth, dysgeusia, dyspepsia, flatulence, tongue discoloration may occur.


title: Ketoconazole

text: The drug may cause adrenal insufficiency so the level of the adrenocortical hormones should be monitored while taking it. Oral ketoconazole at a dosage range of 400 to 2,000 mg/day has been found to result in a rate of gynecomastia of 21%.


title: Ketoconazole

text: In July 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning that taking ketoconazole by mouth can cause severe liver injuries and adrenal gland problems: adrenal insufficiency and worsening of other related to the gland conditions. It recommends oral tablets should not be a first-line treatment for any fungal infection. It should be used for the treatment of certain fungal infections, known as endemic mycoses, only when alternative antifungal therapies are not available or tolerated. As contraindication it should not be used in people with acute or chronic liver disease.


title: Ketoconazole

text: The topical formulations have not been associated with liver damage, adrenal problems, or drug interactions. These formulations include creams, shampoos, foams, and gels applied to the skin, unlike the ketoconazole tablets, which are taken by mouth.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole is categorized as pregnancy category C in the US. Research in animals has shown it to cause teratogenesis when administered in high doses. A subsequent trial in Europe failed to show a risk to infants of mothers receiving ketoconazole.


title: Ketoconazole

text: In the event of an overdose of oral ketoconazole, treatment should be supportive and based on symptoms. Activated charcoal may be administered within the first hour following overdose of oral ketoconazole.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ritonavir is known for increasing activity of the ketoconazole so it is recommended to reduce dosage.


title: Ketoconazole

text: There is also a list of drugs which significantly decrease systemic exposure to the ketoconazole and drugs whose systemic exposure is increased by the ketoconazole.


title: Ketoconazole

text: As an antifungal, ketoconazole is structurally similar to imidazole, and interferes with the fungal synthesis of ergosterol, a constituent of fungal cell membranes, as well as certain enzymes. As with all azole antifungal agents, ketoconazole works principally by inhibiting the enzyme cytochrome P450 14α-demethylase (CYP51A1). This enzyme participates in the sterol biosynthesis pathway that leads from lanosterol to ergosterol. Lower doses of fluconazole and itraconazole are required to kill fungi compared to ketoconazole, as they have been found to have a greater affinity for fungal cell membranes.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Resistance to ketoconazole has been observed in a number of clinical fungal isolates, including "Candida albicans". Experimentally, resistance usually arises as a result of mutations in the sterol biosynthesis pathway. Defects in the sterol 5-6 desaturase enzyme reduce the toxic effects of azole inhibition of the 14-alpha demethylation step. Multidrug-resistance (MDR) genes can also play a role in reducing cellular levels of the drug. As azole antifungals all act at the same point in the sterol pathway, resistant isolates are normally cross-resistant to all members of the azole family.


title: Ketoconazole

text: As an antiandrogen, ketoconazole operates through at least two mechanisms of action. First, and most notably, high oral doses of ketoconazole (e.g. 40 mg three times per day) block both testicular and adrenal androgen biosynthesis, leading to a reduction in circulating testosterone levels. It produces this effect through inhibition of 17α-hydroxylase and 17,20-lyase, which are involved in the synthesis and degradation of steroids, including the precursors of testosterone. Due to its efficacy at reducing systemic androgen levels, ketoconazole has been used with some success as a treatment for androgen-dependent prostate cancer. Second, ketoconazole is an androgen receptor antagonist, competing with androgens such as testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) for binding to the androgen receptor. This effect is thought to be quite weak however, even with high oral doses of ketoconazole.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole, along with miconazole, has been found to act as an antagonist of the glucocorticoid receptor.


title: Ketoconazole

text: Ketoconazole is a racemic mixture consisting of "cis"-(2"S",4"R")-(−) and "cis"-(2"R",4"S")-(+) enantiomers. The "cis"-(2"S",4"R") isomer was more potent in inhibiting progesterone 17α,20-lyase than its enantiomer (IC values of 0.05 and 2.38 "μ"M, respectively) and in inhibiting 11β-hydroxylase (IC values of 0.152 and 0.608 "μ"M, respectively). Both isomers were relatively weak inhibitors of human placental aromatase.