title: El-P

text: El-P has contributed productions and guest rhymes to albums by Aesop Rock, Evil Nine, DJ Krush, Murs, Cage, Mr. Lif, Prefuse 73, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Mike Ladd, The High and Mighty, Jedi Mind Tricks, Aceyalone, Atmosphere, Techno Animal, and Das Racist. He collaborated with Alec Empire on the first Handsome Boy Modeling School album and with Cage and Chino Moreno on the second. He was selected, along with DJ Shadow, to work on Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha's solo album (which never materialized). He has provided remixes for the likes of Beans (of Anti-Pop Consortium), Beck, Blackalicious, Head Automatica, Hot Hot Heat, Dizzee Rascal, Syd Matters, Nine Inch Nails, Push Button Objects, Rob Sonic, TV on the Radio, Lorde, and Yasushilde, among others. El-P also provided the soundtrack for the graffiti film "Bomb the System".


title: El-P

text: El-P was the principal composer for the 2005 film "Bomb the System"; he was one of the candidates to score a trailer for 2017's "Blade Runner 2049", but his score was "rejected or ignored". He created the score for the 2020 biopic "Capone".


title: El-P

text: El-P's rapping style is characterized by dense, aggressive, and verbose attacks that include heavy use of metaphors, sci-fi fantasy themes, pop culture references, and associative wordplay. His lyrics often feature themes found in the works of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, such as paranoia and questions about the nature of reality. Reviewing his 2002 album "Fantastic Damage", critic Steve Huey described El-P as "one of the most technically gifted MCs of his time, spitting out near-impossible phrases and rhythmic variations that simply leave the listener's head spinning".


title: El-P

text: El-P's 2004 album "High Water" was a radical departure, pitting his beats and production against a jazz band under the direction of pianist Matthew Shipp, a fan of El-P's music. In a 2003 interview with Shipp for "Bomb" magazine, El-P stated, "First and foremost, I wanted to [make a different album] because it scared the shit out of me. And when I get offered the chance to be involved with something that scares me, I usually do it, because I'm trying to learn, I'm trying to understand music as much as I can, to become a better musician in general and work in different capacities."


title: El-P

text: El-P began dating comedian and musician Emily Panic in 2010; they married in October 2018. She is twelve years his junior. Panic featured on Killer Mike’s 2012 album "R.A.P. Music", which El-P produced in its entirety.


title: Patrick Flueger

text: Patrick John Flueger (born December 10, 1983) is an American actor, known for a lead role as Shawn Farrell in the television series "The 4400". He currently appears in a main role on "Chicago P.D.", playing Adam Ruzek.


title: Patrick Flueger

text: Flueger was born in Red Wing, Minnesota, the eldest of three siblings. He attended Red Wing High School graduating in 2002. Flueger's first significant role was in the Disney film "The Princess Diaries". Next followed several television appearances, including "JAG", "", and "". He then landed the role of Shawn Farrell in the USA Network series "The 4400" (2004–07). While still working on "The 4400", Flueger got the role of Rusty in the film "The World's Fastest Indian", starring Anthony Hopkins. In "The World's Fastest Indian", Flueger starred alongside Antony Starr. Flueger was later cast as the American version of the character Starr played in Outrageous Fortune, retitled in the U.S. version as "Scoundrels", airing on ABC during the summer of 2010. He is slated to appear in several other movie roles, including Blowtorch Films' "You Are Here", "The Job" based on the Shem Bitterman play, and Chris Moore's "Kill Theory".


title: Patrick Flueger

text: In August 2013, Flueger joined the cast for the "Chicago Fire" spin-off "Chicago P.D." as rookie officer Ruzek. The show premiered January 8, 2014.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination.


title: Assemblies of God

text: As an international fellowship, the member denominations are entirely independent and autonomous, but they are united by shared beliefs and history. The Assemblies originated from the Azusa Street Revival of the early 20th century. This revival led to the founding, in 1914, of the Assemblies of God in the United States, the first Finished Work Pentecostal denomination. Through foreign missionary work and establishing relationships with other Pentecostal churches, the Assemblies of God expanded into a worldwide movement. It was not until 1988 that the world fellowship was formed. As a Pentecostal fellowship, the Assemblies of God believes in the Pentecostal distinctive of baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The Assemblies of God should not be confused with the Assemblies of God International Fellowship, the International Assemblies of God Fellowship, and the Independent Assemblies of God International, all of which are Pentecostal denominations.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The Assemblies of God has its roots in the Pentecostal Azusa Street Revival of the early 20th century. Established churches generally did not welcome the Pentecostal aspects of the revival, and participants in the new movement soon found themselves forced outside existing religious bodies. These people sought out their own places of worship and founded hundreds of distinctly Pentecostal congregations. By 1914 many ministers and laymen alike began to realize just how far-reaching the spread of the revival and of Pentecostalism had become. Concerned leaders felt the desire to protect and preserve the results of the revival by uniting through cooperative fellowship.


title: Assemblies of God

text: In April 1914, after separating from the black-founded Church of God in Christ over disagreements with governance and credentials, about 300 white preachers and laymen from 20 states and several foreign countries met for a general council in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United States. A remaining fellowship emerged from the meeting and was incorporated under the name General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of America.


title: Assemblies of God

text: In 1916, American pastor F. F. Bosworth, a founding member of the organization, criticized the Assemblies of God Statement of Fundamental Truths for its excessive stance on glossolalia as a mandatory "initial sign" of baptism of the Holy Spirit and left it in 1918. In revising the 1918 declaration, the statement of belief was qualified by leaders to be understood as the "initial physical sign" of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.


title: Assemblies of God

text: In time, self-governing and self-supporting general councils broke off from the original fellowship or formed independently in several nations throughout the world, originating either from indigenous Pentecostal movements or as a direct result of the indigenous missions strategy of the General Council. In 1919, Pentecostals in Canada united to form the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, which formally affiliated with the Assemblies of God USA the following year. The Assemblies of God in Great Britain formed in 1924 and would have an early influence on the Assemblies of God in Australia, now known as Australian Christian Churches. The Australian Assemblies of God formed in 1937 through a merger of the Pentecostal Church of Australia and the Assemblies of God Queensland. The Queensland AG had formed in 1929; though, it was never formally affiliated with the AG in America. The Assemblies of God of South Africa, founded in 1925, like the AG Queensland was also not initially aligned with the US fellowship.


title: Assemblies of God

text: Prior to 1967 the Assemblies of God, along with the majority of other Pentecostal denominations, officially opposed Christian participation in war and considered itself a peace church. The US Assemblies of God continues to give full doctrinal support to members who are led by religious conscience to pacifism.


title: Assemblies of God

text: In 1988, the various Assemblies of God national fellowships united to form the World Pentecostal Assemblies of God Fellowship at the initiative of Dr. J. Philip Hogan, then executive director of the Division of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies of God in the United States. The initial purpose was to coordinate evangelism, but soon developed into a more permanent organism of inter-relation.


title: Assemblies of God

text: Dr. Hogan was elected the first chairman of the Fellowship and served until 1992 when Rev. David Yonggi Cho was elected chairman. In 1993, the name of the Fellowship was changed to the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. In 2000, Thomas E. Trask was elected to succeed Cho. At the 2008 World Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, George O. Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in the United States, was elected chairman. At the 2011 World AG Congress in Chennai, India, D. Mohan, General Superintendent of the All India Assemblies of God, was elected vice chairman.


title: Assemblies of God

text: According to a denomination census in 2022, it has 367,398 churches and 53,700,000 members worldwide.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The doctrinal position of the Assemblies of God is framed in a classical Pentecostal and evangelical context. The AG is Trinitarian. It believes that the Bible is divinely inspired and the infallible authoritative rule of faith and conduct. Baptism by immersion is practiced as an ordinance which was instituted by Christ for those who have been saved. Baptism is understood as an outward sign of an inward change, the change from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ. As an ordinance, Communion is also practiced. The AG believes that the elements that are partaken are symbols which express the sharing of the divine nature of Jesus of Nazareth; a memorial of His suffering and death; and a prophecy of His second coming. The Assemblies of God also places a strong emphasis on the fulfillment of the Great Commission and it believes that this is the calling of the church.


title: Assemblies of God

text: As classical Pentecostals, the Assemblies of God believes that all Christians are entitled to and should seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The AG teaches that this experience is distinct from and subsequent to the experience of salvation. The baptism in the Holy Spirit empowers the believer for Christian life and service. The initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues "as the Spirit gives utterance" (Acts 2:4), It also believes in the present-day use of other spiritual gifts such as divine healing.


title: Assemblies of God

text: While the World AG Fellowship has a statement of faith which outlines the basic beliefs which unify the various branches of the movement, each national AG denomination formulates its own doctrinal statements. The Assemblies of God USA, for example, adheres to the Statement of Fundamental Truths.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The most prominent politician within the Assemblies of God is the ex-Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. He stated "the Bible is not a policy handbook, and I get very worried when people try to treat it like one". In late 2017, Morrison stated that he would become a stronger advocate for protections for religious freedom.


title: Assemblies of God

text: In Brazil, the local branch has had an increasing influence on politics throughout the early 21st century. The Christian fundamentalist party Patriota is in a parliamental coalition with the Bolsonaro government as well as the centre-right Partido Social Cristão, which is led by the two AoG pastors Everaldo Pereira and Marco Feliciano, who were accused in various cases of crime and sexual misconduct. Everaldo was arrested for his participation in a corruption scheme in the state-owned company of water treatment of the State of Rio de Janeiro, ; however, Feliciano proved his innocence and that he was a victim of a conspiracy planned by former PSC member Patricia Lelis, who was charged with false reporting and extortion before fleeing to the United States, where she was again charged and arrested for the same crime.


title: Assemblies of God

text: Another Brazilian politician and AoG member, Marina Silva, pursues ecologist ideas and supports the rights of the indigenous tribes of her country. Silva has been at times criticized by the church leadership for her leftist stance on many issues such as drug reform.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The World Fellowship unites Assemblies of God national councils from around the world together for cooperation. Each national council is fully self-governing and independent and involvement with the World Fellowship does not limit this independence. The work of the World Fellowship is carried out by the Executive Council. Executive Council members represent different regions of the world and serve three-year terms. Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America/Caribbean, and North America each have four representatives while Europe has three and the Middle East and Southern Asia each have one. They are elected by the General Assembly. Each World Fellowship member is entitled to send one or more delegates to the General Assembly with one vote. The General Assembly also elects the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary of the World Fellowship. The World Assemblies of God Relief Agency (WAGRA) directs its humanitarian work. At both the national and lower level, the Assemblies of God are generally structured around a form of presbyterian polity, combining the independence of the local church with oversight by district and national councils.


title: Assemblies of God

text: The Assemblies of God has missions programs that are designed to establish self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing national church bodies in every country. As of late 2006, the Assemblies of God World Missions Research Office reported constituencies in 212 countries and territories, with over 5,000 adherents added per day. As of 2005, the fellowship operated 859 Bible schools, 1,131 extension programs and 39 seminaries outside the United States.


title: Colonia (film)

text: Colonia (released in the UK as The Colony) is a 2015 historical thriller film directed by Florian Gallenberger, produced by Benjamin Herrmann, written by Torsten Wenzel and Gallenberger, and starring Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl, and Michael Nyqvist. The film is set against the backdrop of the 1973 Chilean military coup and the real "Colonia Dignidad", a notorious cult in the South of Chile, led by German lay preacher Paul Schäfer. "Colonia" is an international co-production of companies in the UK, Germany, Luxembourg, and France.


title: Colonia (film)

text: Principal photography began on 2 October 2014 in Luxembourg; filming also took place in Germany and Argentina. "Colonia" held its world premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations section. The film was released in Germany on 18 February 2016, in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016, and in France on 20 July 2016.


title: Colonia (film)

text: In 1973, Lena is a strong, independent and adventurous Lufthansa stewardess and is in relationship with Daniel, a West German journalist and activist living in Chile. Upon arrival in Santiago, she reunites with him and they spend their days in the capital peacefully.


title: Colonia (film)

text: One day, the two become entangled in a Chilean military coup at a time when supporters of deposed President Salvador Allende are getting rounded up by the military under General Augusto Pinochet. When Daniel is abducted by Pinochet's secret police DINA, Lena tries to find and save him. The pursuit leads her to "Colonia Dignidad", an isolated secret organization living in a sealed-off rural farmland and enclave near the Andes mountains. The organization presents itself as a charitable mission run by Paul Schäfer, a former "Wehrmacht" colonel and army medic who evaded capture and trial following World War II by disguising himself as a Lutheran pastor and lay minister, later fleeing to Chile to build the organization.


title: Colonia (film)

text: Lena joins the organization to rescue Daniel, only to learn it is a cult that combines Baptist-style tenets, punitive agrarian lifestyles, Nazism, and aggressive anti-Communism, from which no one has ever escaped. She witnesses Doro, a fellow member, get brutally beaten and humiliated at the men's section after it is revealed that she wanted to get married to another cult member. Lena skinny dips in a nearby pond in order to brought over to the men's section for the same punishments so that she can find Daniel. After a power outage, she later finds him; he has acted mentally disabled so he would be overlooked. When they reunite, the couple discover the organization is also an illegal operations center for DINA, who also use it as a political prison, trafficking ring, and torture venue for dissidents of Pinochet.


title: Colonia (film)

text: With the help of a pregnant nurse named Ursel, Lena and Daniel attempt to escape from Colonia Dignidad. During the escape, they are discovered and Ursel is killed but Lena and Daniel escape to the West German embassy. Staff from the embassy betray them but they exit the country by air, with incriminating photographic evidence against Colonia Dignidad.


title: Colonia (film)

text: On 29 September 2014, it was announced that Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl would star as a couple in the upcoming film which is based on a real historical background, directed by Florian Gallenberger who co-wrote the script with Torsten Wenzel. Benjamin Herrmann would be producing the film through Majestic Filmproduktion, and Nicolas Steil would co-produce through Iris Productions. Kolja Brandt would be director of photography, and Hansjörg Weißbrich would be the film editor. On 27 October, Michael Nyqvist joined the film to star as Paul Schäfer.


title: Colonia (film)

text: Principal photography began on 2 October 2014 in Luxembourg, where it was shot in Haut Martelange near to Rambrouch on the Luxembourg-Belgium border. Filming in Luxembourg lasted through the end of October, and then the production moved to Germany for further shooting in Munich and Berlin. It was also shot in Buenos Aires until early 2015.


title: Colonia (film)

text: "Colonia" premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2015. Shortly after, Screen Media Films acquired U.S distribution rights to the film. The film also screened at the Berlin International Film Festival on 12 February 2016. The film was released in Germany on 18 February 2016 by Majestic Filmverleih, in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2016 by Signature Entertainment. and in France on 20 July 2016 by Rezo Films. The film was released to a limited run in the United States and Canada on 15 April 2016.


title: Colonia (film)

text: "Colonia" grossed $15,709 in the United States and Canada and $3.6 million in other countries, giving a worldwide total of $3.62 million.


title: Colonia (film)

text: In Germany, "Colonia" grossed $608,337 in its opening weekend. After seven weeks, the film grossed a total of $1.9 million. In the United Kingdom, the film was released in three cinemas nationwide, as part of a distribution deal geared towards video-on-demand. The film grossed just $61 (£47) in its opening weekend.


title: Colonia (film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 26% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 4.23/10.


title: Jon Tester

text: Raymond Jon Tester (born August 21, 1956) is an American farmer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Montana, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, Tester is the dean of Montana's congressional delegation and the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Montana. He served in the Montana Senate from 1999 to 2007, and as its president for his last two years in the chamber.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester was first elected in 2006, defeating Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in one of the closest Senate races of that year. He narrowly won reelection in 2012 against U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, and in 2018 against Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester was born in Havre, Montana, one of three sons of Helen Marie (née Pearson) and David O. Tester. His father was of English descent and his mother was of Swedish ancestry. Tester grew up in Chouteau County, near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, on land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1912. At the age of 9, he lost the middle three fingers of his left hand in a meat-grinder accident. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Providence, then the College of Great Falls, with a B.A. in music.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester then worked for two years as a music teacher in the Big Sandy School District before returning to his family's farm and custom butcher shop. He and his wife continue to operate the farm; in the 1980s, they switched from conventional to organic farming. Tester spent five years as chairman of the Big Sandy School Board of Trustees and was also on the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Committee and the Chouteau County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) Committee.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester was first elected to represent the 45th district in the Montana Senate in 1998, after his neighbor, a Republican State Senator, decided not to run for reelection. Before running for State Senate, Tester served on the Big Sandy school board for a decade. He was elected the minority whip for the 2001 session. In 2002, he was reelected with 71% of the vote, and he became minority leader in 2003. In 2004 he moved to the 15th district as a "holdover" because of redistricting. In 2005, Tester was elected president of the Montana Senate, the chief presiding officer of the Montana Legislature's upper chamber.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester's election as Senate president marked a transition for Montana Democrats as they moved into the majority leadership of the Senate for the first time in more than a decade. Term limits prohibited Tester from running for State Senate for a third consecutive term. Tester cited a prescription drug benefit program, reinstatement of the "Made in Montana" promotion program, a law to encourage renewable energy development, and his involvement with a bill that led to an historic increase in public school funding as accomplishments while in office.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester announced his candidacy in May 2005 for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Senator Conrad Burns. Tester was the second Democrat to jump into the race, after state auditor John Morrison. While Tester was seen as having a greater following among his fellow legislators, his opponent, whose grandfather was governor of Nebraska, was able to raise significantly more money and had greater statewide name recognition.


title: Jon Tester

text: Morrison had collected $1.05 million as of the start of 2006, including $409,241 in the last three months of 2005, but "Morrison's advantages in fundraising and name identification [did] not translate into a lead in the polls," most of which showed the race as being exceedingly tight, some calling it a "deadlock" as of late May.


title: Jon Tester

text: In June 2006, Tester won the Democratic nomination by more than 25 percentage points in a six-way primary. Tester was described as having "gained momentum in closing weeks of the campaign through an extensive grass-roots effort."


title: Jon Tester

text: In the November 2006 election, Tester defeated Burns, receiving 198,302 votes (49%) to Burns's 195,455 (48%). Tester's victory was confirmed the day after the election.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester successfully ran for reelection to a second term against Republican U.S. Congressman Denny Rehberg.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester's race was seen as a pivotal one for both parties seeking the Senate majority. Tester split with Democrats on several key issues, such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but also voted with his party on issues such as health care reform and the Dodd–Frank financial services overhaul.


title: Jon Tester

text: When announcing his candidacy, Rehberg called Tester a "yes man" for President Obama, saying that he sided with the administration in 97% of his votes. Rehberg cited Tester's support for the healthcare legislation and the 2009 stimulus, both of which Rehberg opposed. Tester said that he stood by his votes on both, saying that the healthcare legislation contained "a lot of good stuff". The "Los Angeles Times" noted that Tester diverged from his party on matters such as gun rights and illegal immigration.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester successfully ran for a third term against Republican Montana State Auditor Matt Rosendale, eventually winning a high-turnout election by over 15,000 votes and crossing the 50 percent threshold in vote totals for the first time in three Senate elections. President Donald Trump made a particular effort to unseat Tester, traveling to Montana four times over the preceding months; despite some increase in Republican turnout in the state, Tester secured victory with increased turnout in Democratic-leaning areas of the state, strong support from Native Americans and women, increased support among independent voters, and 67 percent of the youth vote.


title: Jon Tester

text: During a 2006 Billings press conference, the Tester campaign released a statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledging to give Tester a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee "as soon as possible," regardless of whether Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans. On January 13, 2009, during Tester's second session of Congress, he was given a seat on the Appropriations Committee. In 2013, Tester became chairman of the Banking Committee's Securities, Insurance, and Investment Subcommittee.


title: Jon Tester

text: In September 2013, he announced opposition to the appointment of Larry Summers as chairman of the Federal Reserve; lacking a committee majority, Summers then withdrew his name from consideration.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester was on Capitol Hill for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. He was in his office in the Hart Senate Office Building when the Capitol was breached. Along with his staff, Tester was evacuated to an undisclosed location for safety. He called the storming a “despicable and dangerous attack on our democracy” and "a coup by domestic terrorists", and blamed Trump for instigating it. He also said that impeachment of Trump was unlikely in such a short period of time before Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20. He called fellow Montana senator Steve Daines an "enabler" of the attack, as Daines supported Trump's unproven voter fraud claims.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester is considered a moderate or centrist Democrat. A "New York Times" profile of Tester after his 2006 election described him as "truly your grandfather's Democrat—a pro-gun, anti-big-business prairie pragmatist whose life is defined by the treeless patch of hard Montana dirt that has been in the family since 1916." In 2012, "USA Today" noted that Tester had sometimes "split with Democrats—most recently in his support of construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast—but he has voted with Obama on the most critical issues of his presidency: the stimulus, the health care legislation and the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul." "FiveThirtyEight", which tracks votes in Congress, found that Tester voted with Trump's position about 31% of the time as of April 2020. "CQ Roll Call" reported that Tester voted with Trump's position approximately half of the time in 2017 and 2018.


title: Jon Tester

text: According to GovTrack, he is the Senate's fourth most conservative Democrat, to the right of most of his Democratic colleagues as well as two Republicans. In 2012, he was given a 90% rating by Americans for Democratic Action and 86% by the League of Conservation Voters. The American Conservative Union gave him an 11% lifetime conservative rating in 2020. The nonpartisan "National Journal" rated his votes overall as 55% liberal and 45% conservative, with scores of 51% on "Liberal on Economic Policy" and 48% on "Conservative on Economic Policy."


title: Jon Tester

text: On December 18, 2010, Tester voted in favor of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. While he opposed same-sex marriage during both his 2006 and 2012 campaigns, Tester announced his support for it in March 2013, citing concerns about federal government overreach. After the "Obergefell v. Hodges" ruling mandating that all U.S. states recognize gay marriage, Tester praised the ruling as protecting "the rights and freedoms of every married couple." In 2022, Tester voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act.


title: Jon Tester

text: On "Meet the Press" in 2006, he asserted that "there's no more middle class" because of Bush administration policies.


title: Jon Tester

text: In 2011, Tester was one of two Democratic senators to filibuster the American Jobs Act. It was reported that he wasn't concerned about the surtax on some families to pay for the plan, but was unsure that the new spending would actually create jobs. "I've got more of a concern about a state aid package...and how the money is going to be spent and whether it's really going to create jobs," he explained.


title: Jon Tester

text: In January 2018, Tester was the only Democratic senator from a Republican-leaning state to oppose a stopgap funding measure to end a three-day government shutdown and reopen the federal government.


title: Jon Tester

text: In 2018, Tester became one of the Democrats in the Senate to support the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, a bill that partially repealed Dodd-Frank and relaxed key banking regulations. As one of at least 11 other Democrats, he argued that the bill would "right-size post-crisis rules imposed on small and regional lenders and help make it easier for them to provide credit". Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren vehemently opposed the legislation. Tester became the first Democrat endorsed by Friends of Traditional Banking, a political action committee that had previously endorsed Republicans.


title: Jon Tester

text: On March 5, 2021, Tester voted against Bernie Sanders' amendment to include a $15/hour minimum wage in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.


title: Jon Tester

text: In December 2010, Tester voted against the DREAM Act, which would have created a pathway to citizenship for the foreign-born children of illegal immigrants. He has said, "Illegal immigration is a critical problem facing our country, but amnesty is not the solution. I do not support legislation that provides a path for citizenship for anyone in this country illegally."


title: Jon Tester

text: In 2017, he criticized President Trump for saying that he would cancel DACA in six months. "I don't support what the president did," Tester said. "I think it's ill-informed, I think it rips families apart, and it's not what this country stands for." Asked if he would now commit to voting for the DREAM Act, he said, "I support comprehensive immigration reform."


title: Jon Tester

text: In January 2018, Tester and three other Democratic senators co-sponsored the Border and Port Security Act, legislation to mandate that U.S. Customs and Border Protection "hire, train and assign at least 500 officers per year until the number of needed positions the model identifies is filled" and require the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection to determine potential equipment and infrastructure improvements for ports of entry.


title: Jon Tester

text: On February 4, 2021, Tester voted in favor of preventing any legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants access to COVID-19 pandemic financial support.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, voting for it in December 2009. He voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.


title: Jon Tester

text: In 2017, he said that Democrats should consider a single-payer health care system. In July that year, Tester said that health care needed reform but that the latest GOP attempt at reform was a "train wreck" that would "strip health care away from millions of Americans." He said that Democrats should "work to fix what's wrong with the current health care system in a bipartisan way. And that means going through committee process, not doing it in a dark room with a select few, but going through the committee process and getting good ideas from everybody." Reminded that some Democrats "believe that compromise on this issue is not only unprincipled but unnecessary," Tester said the issue was "too important...not to try to help remedy the problems."


title: Jon Tester

text: In August 2019 Tester was one of 19 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar requesting data from the Trump administration in order to help states and Congress understand the potential consequences of the Texas v. United States Affordable Care Act lawsuit, writing that an overhaul of the present health care system would form "an enormous hole in the pocketbooks of the people we serve as well as wreck state budgets".


title: Jon Tester

text: In October 2019 Tester was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence (CHIME) Act, which was set to expire the following month. The senators warned that if the funding for the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) was allowed to expire, it "would cause an estimated 2,400 site closures, 47,000 lost jobs, and threaten the health care of approximately 9 million Americans."


title: Jon Tester

text: In April 2019, Tester was one of 41 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that President Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development." The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester refused to support Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch, writing, "Judge Gorsuch is a smart man but that doesn't make him right for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court." He explained that he could not "support a nominee who refuses to answer important questions". He said he feared that under Gorsuch "dark money [would] continue to drown out the voices and votes of citizens, the Court [would] stand between women and their doctors, and the government [would] reach into the private lives of law-abiding Americans." He criticized Gorsuch's rulings in "Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby", in which Gorsuch "ruled that a corporation can have religious beliefs just like people," and in "Riddle v. Hickenlooper", which showed that "Gorsuch believes campaign contributions deserve First Amendment protections." He feared that Gorsuch "would threaten our access to a doctor and endanger the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens" and charged that while Gorsuch "is good on the Second Amendment, his views on the Fourth Amendment — guaranteeing the right to privacy — should be concerning to everyone." Tester also voted against Trump's nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Tester voted to confirm Joe Biden's nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester opposed the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" ruling. The ruling allowed corporations and unions to donate unlimited amounts of money to third-party political groups. He proposed a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision, and argued that the ruling had a bad impact on American democracy.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester promoted the use of carbon-capture and sequestration technology to cleanly exploit Montana's coal reserves.


title: Jon Tester

text: In May 2011 a "Newsweek" reporter who traveled with Tester in Montana said that the "desire to wrest control of wolves from D.C. ... was the only topic that came up everywhere he went: hotels, coffee shops, art auctions. 'What do you think about wolves?' a sixth grader asked during an assembly in Miles City. 'I think we should start hunting them again!' Tester said. The kids let out their loudest cheer of the afternoon."


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester tried to revive a bill that was meant to be a compromise between the conservationists and the timber industry. The bill would put 700,000 acres of wilderness aside for "light-on-the-land logging projects" with the intention of creating jobs in the flagging industry. It was noted that Tester was not "winning admirers on his side", with some liberal environmentalists saying that gives lumber mills control of the national forests.


title: Jon Tester

text: In April 2019, Tester was one of 12 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to top senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advocating that the Energy Department be granted maximum funding for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), arguing that American job growth could be stimulated by investment in capturing carbon emissions and expressing disagreement with President Trump's 2020 budget request to combine the two federal programs that do carbon capture research.


title: Jon Tester

text: In September 2019, Tester was one of eight senators to sign a bipartisan letter to congressional leadership requesting full and lasting funding of the Land and Water Conservation Act in order to aid national parks and public lands, benefit the $887 billion American outdoor recreation economy, and "ensure much-needed investment in our public lands and continuity for the state, tribal, and non-federal partners who depend on them."


title: Jon Tester

text: In February 2021, Tester was one of seven Democratic U.S. Senators to join Republicans in blocking a ban of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester supports efforts to loosen restrictions on gun exports, stating such an action would help U.S. gun manufacturers expand their business and would create more jobs.


title: Jon Tester

text: In 2016, Tester voted against a Democrat-sponsored proposal that would have required background checks for purchases at gun shows and for purchases of guns online nationwide. He argued that the bill would "have blocked family members and neighbors from buying and selling guns to one another without a background check." Tester voted for a second Democrat-sponsored proposal to ban gun sales to individuals on the terrorist watch list. Both proposals failed.


title: Jon Tester

text: Tester opposes the PATRIOT Act, believing it violates Montanans' right to privacy and the Fourth Amendment. During his first Senate election, in a September 24, 2006 debate in Butte, when Conrad Burns criticized Tester for wanting to weaken the PATRIOT Act, he replied: "I don't want to weaken the PATRIOT Act, I want to repeal it!" Tester opposed the confirmations of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Mike Pompeo as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Neil Gorsuch as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for supporting the PATRIOT Act's bulk data collection provisions. On September 28, 2018, Tester announced that he would vote against confirming Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice, citing among other reasons "concerns that Judge Kavanaugh defended the PATRIOT Act instead of Montanans' privacy", as Kavanaugh had helped the Bush Administration craft a program of mass domestic surveillance and ruled in favor of increased government surveillance under the PATRIOT Act in Klayman v. Obama. On April 4, 2017, Tester criticized Congress for passing a bill allowing internet service providers to collect and sell personal data and web browsing history to private companies.


title: Jon Tester

text: On May 20, 2015, Tester was one of seven Senate Democrats to join Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in his 10-hour filibuster against reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act.


title: Jon Tester

text: In May 2018, Tester said that he would not support Gina Haspel's nomination to become CIA Director. The first Democrat from a red state to express opposition to her, he cited her role in Bush administration interrogation and detention programs, and said he was "not a fan of waterboarding."


title: Jon Tester

text: As ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Tester raised concerns about the nomination of Ronny Jackson to head the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. There were allegations against Jackson that he dispensed medications in a medically unethical fashion, was drunk on an overseas trip and drunkenly banged on the hotel door of a female colleague. Jackson denied the allegations but withdrew his nomination. In response, Trump called for Tester's resignation and said that the allegations against Jackson were false. According to "CNN", four sources familiar with the allegation that Jackson drunkenly banged on the door of a female colleague confirmed it. The Secret Service said it could not verify any of the allegations. Johnny Isakson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, defended Tester, saying he had no problem with Tester's handling of Jackson's nomination.


title: Jon Tester

text: During Tester's senior year in college, he married Sharla Bitz. Like Tester, she comes from an agricultural family and grew up in north-central Montana. They have three children: daughters Christine, born in 1980, and Melodee and son Shon, both born in 1985.


title: Jon Tester

text: Before his election to the Senate, Tester had never lived more than two hours away from his north-central Montana farm. In addition to his Montana farm, Tester owns a home in Washington, D.C.


title: Jon Tester

text: A January 2012 profile of Tester focused on the fact that he butchers and brings his own meat with him to Washington. He said "Taking meat with us is just something that we do ... We like our own meat."


title: BTS singles discography

text: South Korean boy band BTS have released 42 singles as lead artist—three of which are soundtrack appearances, nine singles as a featured artist, two promotional singles, and over 100 other non-single songs. In Japan, according to Oricon and the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), several of the band's singles are among the most-streamed songs of all time in the country and have set various other streaming and certification records that no other artist or group act in the history of either organization has. In the United States, per "Billboard", they have sold over 3.1 million tracks (72.3% of K-pop digital track sales) as of 2021, and hold the record for the most number-one singles in the 2020s decade, with six.


title: BTS singles discography

text: BTS debuted in South Korea on June 12, 2013, with the single "No More Dream", which peaked at number 124 on the Gaon Digital Chart and sold 50,000 copies. To support their first extended play, "O!RUL8,2?", the band released "N.O", which met with minor commercial success domestically. They released four singles in 2014, "Boy in Luv", "Just One Day", "Danger" and "War of Hormone", all of which entered the Digital Chart. "Boy in Luv performed the best of the five and reached the top 50 of the chart—it sold over 200,000 copies by year's end.


title: BTS singles discography

text: "I Need U", released in April 2015, reached the top five of the Gaon Digital Chart, and peaked at number three on "Billboard"s World Digital Songs chart in the United States. BTS released two more singles in 2015, "Dope" and "Run"—the latter reached the top ten in South Korea. The band's fourth Japanese single, "For You", was released on June 17, 2015, and became its first number one hit in Japan, topping both the Oricon Singles Chart and "Billboard Japan"s Hot 100. The Japanese version of "I Need U" arrived in December 2015 and debuted at number one on the Singles Chart. A follow-up Japanese single, "Run", was released on March 15, 2016.


title: BTS singles discography

text: BTS scored their first number-one hit with "Blood Sweat & Tears" in late 2016, selling more than 1.5 million copies in South Korea and reaching number one on the US World Digital Songs chart. The single's Japanese version followed in May 2017 and became their first to be certified Platinum by the RIAJ. The group released three other singles that year: "Spring Day", "Not Today", and "DNA". All three reached the top ten in South Korea and achieved first place on the World Digital Songs chart. "DNA" peaked at 67 on the US Hot 100. A remix of "MIC Drop" by American DJ Steve Aoki and rapper Desiigner was released in November 2017, reaching the top 40 of the Hot 100 and becoming the first song by a Korean boy group to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, in February 2018. The track was later certified platinum. A Japanese version of the single, including "DNA" and "Crystal Snow", was released in December 2017 and sold over 500,000 physical copies within a month, becoming the only record by a foreign artist to be certified Double Platinum by the RIAJ in 2017.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: The Cotton Club is a 1984 American crime drama film co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based on James Haskins' 1977 book of the same name. The story centers on the Cotton Club, a Harlem jazz club in the 1930s. The film stars Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane and Lonette McKee, with Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Gwen Verdon, Fred Gwynne and Laurence Fishburne in supporting roles.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: The film was noted for its over-budget production costs, and took a total of five years to make. Despite being a disappointment at the box-office, the film received generally positive reviews and was nominated for several awards, including Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Picture (Drama) and Oscars for Best Art Direction (Richard Sylbert, George Gaines) and Best Film Editing.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: A musician named Dixie Dwyer begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with Vera Cicero, the girlfriend of Jewish-American organized crime kingpin Dutch Schultz.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: A dancer from Dixie's neighborhood, Sandman Williams, is hired with his brother by The Cotton Club, a jazz club where most of the performers are black and the customers are white. Owney Madden, the boss of the Hell's Kitchen Irish mob, owns the club and runs it with his right-hand man, Frenchy DeMange.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Dixie becomes a Hollywood film star, thanks to the help of Madden and the mob but angering Schultz. He also continues to see Schultz's gun moll, Vera Cicero, whose new nightclub has been financed by the jealous gangster.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: In the meantime, Dixie's ambitious younger brother Vincent becomes an enforcer for Schultz's crew and eventually a public enemy, holding Frenchy as a hostage.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Sandman alienates his brother Clay at The Cotton Club by agreeing to perform a solo number there. While the club's management interferes with Sandman's romantic interest in Lila, a singer, its cruel treatment of the performers leads to an intervention by Harlem criminal 'Bumpy' Rhodes on their behalf.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Dutch Schultz is violently dealt with by Madden's men while Dixie and Sandman perform on The Cotton Club's stage.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Inspired to make "The Cotton Club" by a picture-book history of the nightclub by James Haskins, Robert Evans was the film's original producer. Evans hoped the film would bring public attention to African-American history in a similar way that "Gone with the Wind" did for the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. On December 12, 1980, it was announced that Evans and Paramount Pictures would serve as co-producers of the film while Robert Altman would direct and Mario Puzo would write. However, Evans and Altman's film "Popeye" premiering that day became a box-office flop. Although Evans secured $12 million worth of financing from Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, Paramount Pictures withdrew from the film in 1981. Evans worked to secure sole ownership of the film negative to recoup his losses from recent poor stock-market investments and a cocaine trafficking arrest. However, this action alienated potential investors who would be unable to profit from television and home video distribution rights. The production was finally delayed when Evans reached a plea bargain to produce an advertising campaign of anti-drug public service announcements in exchange for an expungement of his record.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: In 1984 Evans, who intended to direct the film himself after Altman departed, hired William Kennedy and Francis Ford Coppola to re-write Mario Puzo's story and screenplay. Evans eventually decided that he did not want to direct the film and asked Coppola at the last minute. Evans and Coppola had an adversarial relationship from the production of the "Godfather" films but Coppola accepted the jobs as screenwriter and then director because he needed the money – he was deeply in debt from making "One from the Heart" with his own money and his studio Zoetrope Studios went bankrupt. Richard Sylbert said that he told Evans not to hire Coppola because "he resents being in the commercial, narrative, Hollywood movie business". Coppola said that he had letters from Sylbert asking him to work on the film because Evans was crazy. Coppola also said that "Evans set the tone for the level of extravagance long before I got there".


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: By the time Evans decided not to direct and brought in Coppola, at least $13 million had already been committed. Las Vegas casino owners Edward and Fred Doumani put $30 million into the film in exchange for a fifty-percent ownership stake in the film. Evans received further loans by mortgaging his mansion in Beverley Hills and stock in Gulf + Western as collateral. Other financial backers included Arab arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, and vaudeville promoter Roy Radin, who was murdered in May 1983. The killers later alleged that they had been hired by Evans and Radin's girlfriend Karen Greenberger, a drug dealer who felt she was cut out of profits from the film. In the 1989 ""Cotton Club" Trial" Evans invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: According to William Kennedy in an interview with "Vanity Fair", the budget of the film was $47 million. However, Coppola told the head of Gaumont Film Company, Europe's largest distribution and production company, that he thought the film might cost $65 million.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Evans cast Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, and Harrison Ford to portray Dixie Dwyer before Gere was hired. Richard Pryor was considered for the role of Sandman Williams. Robert Evans wanted to cast his friend Alain Delon in a two-scene role as Lucky Luciano but this did not occur. The role of Luciano was instead portrayed by Joe Dallesandro, starting the dramatic film career for the former Warhol Superstar.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Author Mario Puzo was the original screenwriter and was eventually replaced by William Kennedy, who wrote a rehearsal script in eight days which the cast used for three weeks prior to shooting. According to actor Gregory Hines, a three-hour film was shot during rehearsals. From July 15 to August 22, 1983, twelve scripts were produced, including five during one 48-hour non-stop weekend. Kennedy estimates that between 30 and 40 scripts were turned out. Production began on August 22, 1983, at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. Over 600 people built sets, created costumes and arranged music at a reported $250,000 a day. During the production many crew members were abruptly fired. Within several weeks the film was already over budget, allowing Evans to deduct from the $4 million salary of Coppola, who had not yet been fully paid because the script was still being rewritten and thus incomplete. Coppola reacted by walking off set and refusing to continue directing the film until he was fully paid.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: As costs on the film continued to rise, the Doumani brothers convinced Orion Pictures to advance costs for the film on the condition that Evans step down as producer and hired mobster Joseph Cusamano to intimidate Evans into giving up his share of the partnership. Evans initially agreed but stopped them by filing a restraining order against them after learning Sayyah was not involved in the deal. On June 7, 1984, Sayyah filed a lawsuit against the Doumani brothers, their lawyer David Hurwitz, Evans and Orion Pictures for fraud and breach of contract. Sayyah invested $5 million and said that he had little chance of recouping his money because the budget escalated from $25 to $58 million. He accused the Doumanis of forcing out Evans and said that an Orion loan to the film of $15 million unnecessarily increased the budget. Evans, in turn, sued Edward Doumani to keep from acting as general partner on the film. The court ruled in favor of Evans but also gave Coppola's close associate Barrie M. Osborne full control over post-production, essentially barring Evans from the completion of the film. Sayyah and the Doumani brothers would also be uncredited as producers.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: The soundtrack for the film was written by John Barry. It released on December 14, 1984, via Geffen Records. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band in 1986.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: The film appeared on videotape and videodisc in April 1985. It was the first to use the Macrovision copy protection system, on VHS and Betamax only.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: In 2015, Coppola found an old Betamax video copy of his original cut that ran 25 minutes longer. When originally editing the picture, he acquiesced to distributors who wanted a shorter film with a different structure. Between 2015 and 2017, Coppola spent over $500,000 of his own money to restore the film to the original cut. This version, titled "The Cotton Club: Encore" and running 139 minutes, debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017. Lionsgate (owner of the Zoetrope Corporation backlog, and working in association with original studio Orion Pictures) released that version theatrically, and on DVD and Blu-ray in the fall of 2019.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: The Film Stage gave "The Cotton Club: Encore" a rating of A−, while "Rolling Stone" described the result of this version as 'eye-opening'.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: "The Cotton Club" was released on December 14, 1984, in the United States and Canada on 808 screens and grossed $2.9 million on its opening weekend, fifth place behind "Beverly Hills Cop", "Dune", "City Heat" and "2010". Evans took the blame for hiring Coppola while Coppola responded that if he had not been hired, the film would have never been made. Evans said that Coppola made the budget escalate dramatically by rejecting the script, hiring his own crew, and falling behind schedule. The film was a commercial failure, grossing just under $26 million against a $58 million budget. After the film's release stock traders began selling Orion Pictures shares with the expectation that the studio would suffer financially.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 77% rating based on 30 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Energetic and brimming with memorable performers, "The Cotton Club" entertains with its visual and musical pizazz even as its plot only garners polite applause." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 68% based on reviews from 14 critics.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film 4 out of 4. The film appeared on both Siskel and Ebert's best of 1984.


title: The Cotton Club (film)

text: Conversely, Diane Lane was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress category (also for her work in "Streets of Fire"), ultimately losing to Lynn-Holly Johnson for "Where the Boys Are '84".


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Evelyn Francis McHale (September 20, 1923 – May 1, 1947) was an American bookkeeper who died by suicide by jumping from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. A photograph taken four minutes after her death by photography student Robert Wiles subsequently gained iconic status, being referred to as "the most beautiful suicide".


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Evelyn McHale was born in Berkeley, California, one of nine children born to Helen and Vincent McHale. Her father was a bank examiner who relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1930. Her mother suffered from undiagnosed and untreated depression. This led to a challenging marriage and ultimately a divorce. Vincent gained custody of all children and moved to Tuckahoe, New York.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: After graduating from high school, McHale joined the Women's Army Corps and was stationed in Jefferson City, Missouri. She later moved to Baldwin, New York, and was employed as a bookkeeper at the Kitab Engraving Company on Pearl Street. She met her fiance Barry Rhodes, a college student discharged from the United States Army Air Force.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: On April 30, 1947, McHale took a train from New York to Easton, Pennsylvania, to visit Rhodes. The next day, after leaving Rhodes's residence, she returned to New York City and went to the Empire State Building where she jumped from the 86th-floor observatory, landing on top of a parked car. A security guard was reportedly standing approximately from her just before she jumped.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Rhodes did not notice any indication of suicidal thoughts before McHale left. Detective Frank Murray found her suicide note in a black pocketbook next to her neatly folded cloth coat over the observation deck wall. The note read:


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Her body was identified by her sister, Helen Brenner. In accordance with her wishes, McHale was cremated with no memorial, service, or grave.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Barry Rhodes became an engineer before moving south. He died unmarried in Melbourne, Florida, on October 9, 2007.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: The photo of her body, taken by Robert Wiles, was published in "Life" magazine. It has been compared to the photograph by Malcolm Browne of the self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, who burned himself alive at a busy Saigon road intersection in 1963; both are widely regarded as being among the most iconic suicide photographs. Ben Cosgrove of "Time" praised the photo as "technically rich, visually compelling and ... downright beautiful", describing her body as "resting, or napping, rather than ... dead" and appearing as if she is "daydreaming of her beau".


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Her picture was also used on the cover of Saccharine Trust's album "Surviving You, Always", released in 1984 by SST Records.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: David Bowie's 1993 video for the single "Jump They Say" and Radiohead's 1995 music video for the single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" both include a recreation of the image, with Bowie and Thom Yorke respectively splayed atop a smashed car.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: The cover of the 1995 album "Gilt" by the Tucson band Machines of Loving Grace uses a color photo that recreates the original image, while that of the 2009 Pearl Jam album "Backspacer" features an artist rendition of the iconic photograph in the bottom right corner.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: On the cover of the 2019 album "Better Out Than In" by the St. Paul, MN band Skittish, singer and songwriter Jeff Noller poses in a stylized recreation of the infamous picture.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: The photograph is referenced in the movie "Stranger Than Fiction" by the character Karen Eiffel. The photograph is also referenced in the song "Shatter Me with Hope" by HIM from their album "", with the lyrics "Turn to page 43, and you'll know how I feel," being in direct reference to the photograph as shown in LIFE Magazine's May 12, 1947 issue.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: Parenthetical Girls' 2013 release "Privilege (Abridged)" opens with the track "Evelyn McHale". Reference was also made to the shot at the start of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" music video, released in 2015.


title: Evelyn McHale

text: In the videoclip "Let you down", the main character, Sasha, kills herself jumping through a window and lands on a car. In the final scene, Maine watches Sasha's dead body and she looks very similar to Evelyn McHale.


title: Shock troops

text: Shock troops or assault troops are formations created to lead an attack. They are often better trained and equipped than other infantry, and expected to take heavy casualties even in successful operations.


title: Shock troops

text: "Shock troop" is a calque, a loose translation of the German word Stoßtrupp. Assault troops are typically organized for mobility with the intention that they will penetrate enemy defenses and attack into the enemy's vulnerable rear areas. Any specialized, elite unit formed to fight an engagement via overwhelming assault (usually) would be considered shock troops, as opposed to "special forces" or commando-style units (intended mostly for covert operations). Both types of units could fight behind enemy lines, by surprise if required, however.


title: Shock troops

text: Although the term "shock troops" became popular in the 20th century, the concept is not new, and Western European armies in past centuries called them the forlorn hope. Presently, the term is rarely used, as the strategic concepts behind it have become standard contemporary military thinking.


title: Shock troops

text: The Companion cavalry of Alexander the Great are described as being the first example of shock cavalry being used in Europe.


title: Shock troops

text: The Shorn Ones were the most prestigious warrior society in the Aztec Empire, serving as its shock troops.


title: Shock troops

text: In late-medieval Europe, the German "Landsknecht" and Swiss mercenaries used large "Zweihänder" swords to break into pike formations. Polish Winged Hussars, elite heavy cavalry used by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, have also been described as shock troops. The Ottoman Army used Deli as shock troops as well.


title: Shock troops

text: Grenadiers originated as specialized assault soldiers for siege operations. First established with a distinct role in the mid- to late-17th century, grenadier units would throw grenades and storm breaches, while leading the forefront of a breakthrough. Even after abandoning the use of the original black-powder grenade, armies retained the grenadier companies and regiments as specialist assault troops.


title: Shock troops

text: During the Paraguayan War (1864–1870), in which Paraguay fought against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, the Paraguayans deployed shock troops (composed of a mixture of dismounted cavalry and fit men who could row and swim) armed with sabres, cutlasses, knives, bayonets, pistols, and hand grenades. They attacked small fortified positions and boarded Brazilian river steamers.


title: Shock troops

text: During the First World War, many combatants faced the deadlock of trench warfare. On the Western Front in 1915, the Germans formed a specialized unit called the Rohr Battalion to develop assault tactics. During the Brusilov Offensive of 1916, the Russian general Aleksei Brusilov developed and implemented the idea of shock troops to attack weak points along the Austrian lines to effect a breakthrough, which the main Russian Army could then exploit. The Russian Army had also formed hunter commando units in 1886, and used them in World War I to protect against ambushes, to perform reconnaissance and for low-intensity fights in no-man's-land.


title: Shock troops

text: The von Hutier tactics (infiltration tactics) called for special infantry assault units to be detached from the main lines and sent to infiltrate enemy lines, supported by shorter and sharper (than usual for WWI) artillery fire missions targeting both the enemy front and rear, bypassing and avoiding what enemy strong points they could, and engaging to their best advantage when and where they were forced to, leaving decisive engagement against bypassed units to following heavier infantry. The primary goal of these detached units was to infiltrate the enemy's lines and break their cohesion as much as possible. These formations became known as "Stoßtruppen", or shock troops, and the tactics they pioneered were the basis of post-WWI infantry tactics, such as the development of fire teams.


title: Shock troops

text: Notwithstanding the postwar status of the Storm Troopers in German service, the same sort of tactical doctrine was widely espoused in British and French service in late 1917 and 1918, with variable results. The British Army standard training manual for platoon tactics, SS 143, was used from February 1917 onwards and contained much of what was standard for German shock troops. According to Ward, the Australian and Canadian divisions deployed amongst British forces in France quickly came to be regarded as the best shock troops in the Allied ranks due to their ferocity in battle, and were employed accordingly. US forces were trained in tactics by surviving French cadre from "chasseur" units, and were trained to use French Chauchat light machine guns and rifle grenades.


title: Shock troops

text: During the Second World War, the Red Army of the Soviet Union deployed five shock armies ( – singular: ) between 1941 and 1945. Many of the units, which spearheaded the Soviet offensives on the Eastern Front from the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943) to the Battle of Berlin (1945), were shock armies. Shock armies had high proportions of infantry, engineers, and field artillery, but with less emphasis on operational mobility and sustainability. Soviet shock armies were characterized by a higher allocation of army-level artillery units to break German defense positions by weight of fire, and often had heavy tank regiments or heavy self-propelled gun regiments to add additional direct fire-support. Once a shock army had made a breach in an enemy tactical position, more mobile units such as tank and mechanized corps would insert themselves through the shock army's positions with the mission of penetrating deep into the enemy rear area. By the end of the war, though, Soviet guards armies typically enjoyed superior artillery support to that of the shock armies.


title: Shock troops

text: Shock armies were instrumental in the execution of deep operation (also known as Soviet deep battle – , "glubokaya operatsiya"). The central composition of the deep operation was the shock army, each acting either in cooperation with each other or independently as part of a strategic front operation. Several shock armies would be subordinated to a strategic front.


title: Shock troops

text: Well-known shock armies include the 2nd Shock Army, which spearheaded several offensives in the Leningrad area, and the 3rd Shock Army, which played a key role in the Battle of Berlin.


title: Shock troops

text: A Soviet "ad hoc" combat group was a mixed-arms unit of about 80 men in assault groups of six to eight men, closely supported by field artillery. These tactical units were able to apply the tactics of house-to-house fighting that the Soviets had been forced to develop and refine at each "Festungsstadt" (fortress city) they had encountered from Stalingrad to Berlin.


title: Shock troops

text: The Yugoslav Partisans also established "shock" units during World War II, commencing in February 1942. These initially formed as company- and battalion-sized units, and later grew into brigades.


title: Shock troops

text: In or amongst the German armed forces, large armies such as the Waffen-SS received training with the best gear and weapons, primarily used to hit weak points. The Waffen-SS also served as a heavy unit. Used to smash well-armed and -equipped armies on the Eastern Front, the Waffen-SS lost its efficacy after Kursk (1943), but nevertheless later fought in many theaters and played a role in the Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945).


title: Shock troops

text: After 1943 (particularly during and after the invasion of Italy), specialist British units, such as the Commandos and certain detachments of the Special Air Service were used as shock troops against well dug in or elite German forces. Again, both forces would be used in similar roles after the Allies crossed the Rhine, serving as a vanguard for British forces.


title: Shock troops

text: The demands of infantry fighting in the Second World War erased much of the romance of shock troops, particularly when any well-trained infantry was capable of the same tactics, especially in a formal assault on a well-defended objective. The Soviets retained the term shock (although the term can also be translated as strike) as a designation for armies involved in assaulting the enemy's operational depth as part of Soviet deep battle doctrine.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Kierin Magenta Kirby (aka Lady Miss Kier) is an American singer, songwriter, DJ, designer, fashion icon, and activist.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: During her career, Lady Miss Kier has been the vocalist for the band Deee-Lite, a disc jockey, and solo songwriter. She supports causes such as LGBTQ rights, women's rights, human rights, the environmental movement, the anti-war movement and the get out the vote movement.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Kirby was born in Youngstown, Ohio. As a child, she lived in Pittsburgh, Virginia Beach, and Washington, D.C. At the age of 17, she moved to New York City to study fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology but she was disillusioned by the teachers and dropped out immediately. When she dropped out, she started to design and make her own eccentric disco-inspired clothes that she then sold to people she met at nightclubs.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 1982, Kirby met Ukrainian-born Dmitry Brill ("Supa DJ Dmitry") and designed, made, and sold him silver platform boots and a glitter blue spacesuit, for his band, Shazork. In 1986, she began experimenting with singing and writing music with Brill to form the band Deee-Lite.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Shortly after their first show in 1986, Brill was introduced to Towa Tei, a Japan-raised Korean DJ. Several years later, Kirby and Brill invited him to join their band. Combining Kirby's vocal and writing talents with Brill's sampling skills and Tei's techno mixing, the three formed the band Deee-Lite. They had performances every month, with Kier designing new costumes for each one. She continued to make a living as a waitress and go-go dancer until the band signed a seven-album deal with Elektra Records.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Deee-Lite's sound was a mix of house music, techno and electronic dance music. Deee-Lite shot to stardom in 1990 with the release of their first album "World Clique" and the hit "Groove Is in the Heart". At the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, Deee-Lite was nominated for several awards, including Video of the Year, Best Dance Video, Best New Artist, Best Breakthrough Video, and Best Editing in a Video.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Kirby was very involved in the band's output: writing, producing, and performing the bulk of the band's songs. Known as much for their outrageous personae and costumes as for their music, the three took on larger-than-life alter-egos: Super DJ Dmitri, Jungle DJ Towa Tei, and Lady Miss Kier. Kirby is credited with designing and creating the look of the band, as well as much of the artwork accompanying the band's albums and marketing material. Her initial look relied on revamped and exaggerated retro style 1960s fashion. Her signature look was a zip-up catsuit, platform shoes and flipped hair-do.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 1992, the band released their second album, "Infinity Within", a politically charged work. Their third album "Dewdrops in the Garden" was released in 1994. Neither of the two follow-up albums matched the commercial success of the debut album. The second and third albums were hampered by difficulties with the label, which refused to promote, support touring, or fund contractual videos.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: The band functionally broke up during the writing of their third album in 1993, but Kirby and Brill decided to finish the project and tour together to promote the album before going their separate ways.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 1995, after quitting the band, Lady Miss Kier moved to London where she began touring as a disc jockey and learning the technical end of production, recording, and engineering. In the late 1990s, she collaborated on the albums of Bootsy Collins, I Kamanchi and A Guy Called Gerald. In 2002, she contributed an exclusive solo track called "I'm Not Staying at Home" to the compilation "Straight Up & Dirty". Since going solo, she has featured and co-written with artists such as Full Cycle, George Clinton, Walter "Junie" Morrison, A Guy Called Gerald, Apollo Heights, and several P-Funk luminaries. Outside of the studio, she showcased her live performances with new material for various music, film, and art festivals, as well as headlining several Gay pride events worldwide. In 2012, she began performing a Deee-Lite tribute for various occasions, including the 2013 Paris Fashion Week for Kenzo as well as a tribute to New York City disc jockey Mark Kamins at Santos Party House.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: As a disc jockey, she has spun internationally at thousands of clubs and major music festivals including Coachella Festival (2007), Berlin's Berghain (2010) and Sydney Mardi Gras (2012), as well as radio programs such as East Village Radio and Sirius XM.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 2005, motivated by the invasion of Iraq, she began internationally performing live new unreleased music, including the DFA release covering George Clinton's anti–war song "Bullet Proof".


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: She has headlined numerous festivals and gay pride events as well as opened for James Brown's last tour at the Good Vibrations festival in Australia.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Her music has been used in several films, including "Dumb and Dumber" (1994), "Wigstock" (1995), "Party Girl" (1995), "Lost & Found" (1999), "Can't Hardly Wait" (1999), "Down To You" (2000), "Charlie's Angels" (2000), "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (2007), "License to Wed" (2007), "The Heat" (2013), "House of Versace" (2013), "" (2013), "The War Room" (2015), and "Cruel Summer" (2021), and numerous TV series including "Britain's Got More Talent", "The Voice", "RuPaul's Drag Race", "American Crime Story", "Coronation Street", "Transparent", "Misfits", "Hello Ladies", "New Girl", "How I Met Your Mother", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Private Practice", "Dancing with the Stars", "Bill Nye the Science Guy", and "Beavis and Butt-Head".


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 2018, the Netflix series "Big Mouth" released a Planned Parenthood and Deee-lite themed episode—relatedly, Lady Miss Kier has been a longtime abortion rights advocate and safe sex was a theme in Deee-lite's music. In 1995, Lady Kier was featured in "", which included live footage of her performing and a song on the soundtrack. In 2001 she was included in "Summer Love: The Rave-umentary". In 2005, Lady Miss Kier was the featured artist on the podcast "Ron-Kat-Delic Show". Her words also were shared through a number of published books, including "Verbal Abuse – No 3" by Chi Chi Valenti, "Creative Time: The Book: 33 Years of Public Art in New York" by Anne Pasternak, "Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling" by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola and "All Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music" by Vladimir Bogdanov.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Lady Miss Kier has spoken at Princeton University's "Youth Music and Youth Culture", Cooper Union's multimedia presentation "Hiccup" in 1993, Apple's 1995 "Future Arts Panel" with Peter Gabriel and Electronic Frontier Foundation founder, John Perry Barlow, George Washington University's Law School Summit Future of Music Coalition in 2007 and New York University's "NYU Panel Nelson Sullivan: Vlogging in the 80s" in 2013. In 2013 she was featured in an exhibit entitled "NYC 1993", which was presented through New York City's New Museum. Beyond the installation, her voice recording was played via pay phones throughout the New York area. In 2013, Lady Miss Kier was the featured voiceover artist in The Jazz Foundation of America's animated promo for the event "A Great Night in Harlem".


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: In 2003, Kirby sued video game company Sega, claiming that the character of "Ulala" in its Dreamcast game "Space Channel 5" was an unauthorized use of her likeness. Kirby claimed that Sega offered to pay her to license her name, image and songs for the game, though she rejected its offer. Kirby alleged that the video game maker later used her resemblance anyway (including the name Ulala – referencing Kirby's signature phrase "Ooh la la" in her recorded and live performances), at which point she initiated the lawsuit. During the lawsuit, Sega was able to show that the game was released in Japan the year before Kier stated that she was contacted by Sega about using her likeness, and that the developers had never heard of either Kier or her music. The case lasted until 2006, when the judge ruled in favor of Sega and Kier lost her appeal. She was obliged to pay Sega's legal fees of $608,000 (reduced from $763,000 on request).


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: Lady Kier is a social, environmental, and human rights activist. She is also a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights and is a straight ally. As such, she has been invited to be a host, performer, master of ceremonies, and disc jockey at pride parades.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: She is in favor of abortion rights and is a women's rights advocate, was featured in TV informercial promoting pro-abortion rights political action "The Most Exciting Women in Music" alongside Corina, Juliet Cuming, Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), MC Lyte, Kate Pierson (The B-52's), Crystal Waters, Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club) in 1991.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: She is a supporter of the environmentalist movement. The 1992 Deee-Lite album "Infinity Within" was the first CD released using eco-pak packaging, cutting the amount of plastic used by half. On that album, she called attention to the issue of ozone depletion with her song "I Had a Dream I Was Falling Through a Hole in the Ozone Layer". "Vogue" Magazine has highlighted her "interest in supporting environmental causes".


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: She supports the anti-war movement and in 2010, she released a version of the P-Funk track "Bullet Proof" with Ray Mang; she had performed it before in 2005, during her world tour.


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: She supports the get out the vote movement. Her music video for the song "Vote Baby Vote", which she wrote "to get people interested in voting so they could vote George Bush out", was featured for MTV's "Rock The Vote" campaign in 1992 and was highlighted by "Rolling Stone" as one of the top "ten major moments in rock the vote history".


title: Lady Miss Kier

text: During the 2016 United States presidential election, she voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein but was an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders. She hosted an art exhibit at Hole Gallery in New York City and a fundraiser called "Bernin' Up NYC" to rally Sanders supporters.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The Taiwan independence movement is a political movement which advocates the formal declaration of an independent and sovereign Taiwanese state, as opposed to Chinese unification or the status quo in Cross-Strait relations.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Currently, Taiwan's political status is ambiguous. China currently claims it is a province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), whereas the current Tsai Ing-wen administration of Taiwan maintains that Taiwan is already an independent country as the Republic of China (ROC) and thus does not have to push for any sort of formal independence. As such, the ROC consisting of Taiwan and other islands under its control already conducts official diplomatic relations with and is recognized by 13 member states of the United Nations and the Holy See.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The use of "independence" for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Taiwanese state or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China and is already independent (as reflected in the concept of One Country on Each Side). Some supporters advocate the exclusion of Kinmen and Matsu, which are controlled by Taiwan but are located off the coast of mainland China.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Taiwan independence is supported by the Pan-Green Coalition in Taiwan but opposed by the Pan-Blue Coalition, which seeks to retain the somewhat ambiguous status quo of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the so-called "1992 Consensus" or gradually "reunify" with mainland China at some point.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The governments of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) oppose Taiwanese independence since they believe that Taiwan and mainland China comprise two portions of a single country's territory. For the ROC, such a move would be considered a violation of its constitution. Both governments have formulated a "One-China Policy", whereby foreign countries may only conduct official diplomatic relations with either the PRC or the ROC, on the condition that they sever official diplomatic relations with and formal recognition of the other. The ROC's One-China policy was softened following democratization in the 1990s.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: At the conclusion of the First Sino-Japanese War on 17 April 1895, Taiwan was ceded by the Chinese Qing Empire to the Empire of Japan via the Treaty of Shimonoseki. A number of prominent officials in Taiwan who opposed the treaty declared independence and formed the Republic of Formosa, which was dissolved when Japanese troops overran the capital Tainan on 21 October 1895. At the conclusion of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Taiwan was placed under the control of the Republic of China (ROC) on behalf of the WWII Allies. The ROC, then the generally recognized government of both China and Taiwan, declared Taiwan to have been "restored" to China; this is argued to have been an illegal act.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: In 1949–1950, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) drove the ROC government out of China and into Taiwan (plus some minor Chinese islands), during the events of the Chinese Civil War. At the time, no treaty had yet been signed to officially transfer Taiwan to China. The ROC selected Taipei as the provisional capital (of China) and declared "martial law" in 1949. The supposedly democratic institutions of the ROC were "temporarily" suspended.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: With democracy suspended in ROC-controlled Taiwan, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) of the ROC, in reality, developed Taiwan into a dictatorship. The period of martial law that existed in Taiwan from 1949 until 1987 resulted in the unlawful convictions and occasional executions of thousands of Taiwanese and Chinese democracy activists and other dissidents. This period has become colloquially known as the "White Terror".


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: After 1987 Lieyu massacre, the Kuomintang released its hold on power and ended martial law in Taiwan. This was due not only to pressure from democracy/independence activists within Taiwan but also pressure from the United States due to its citizen Henry Liu having been assassinated by criminal triad members secretly trained and dispatched by the Republic of China Military Intelligence Bureau. From hereafter, independence-oriented parties were now able to gain control of Taiwan.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Democratic activism within Taiwan gave birth to a range of independence-oriented political parties. Most notable out of these is the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has been democratically elected into power three times. The governing body of Taiwan still continues to identify as the "Republic of China", but many institutions have been occupied and occasionally changed by the DPP, which has led to a theory that "the ROC is Taiwan".


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: It is a point of contention as to whether Taiwan has already achieved "de facto" independence under the Constitution of the Republic of China amended in 2005. The PRC and the Kuomintang continue to argue that "the Chinese Civil War hasn't yet ended". These two political camps have developed a "1992 Consensus" in order to cement Taiwan's status as a province of "China". In retaliation, the DPP has been trying to develop a "Taiwan Consensus".


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The polity that exercises real control over Taiwan is a collection of political parties that variously refer to their country as either "Taiwan (Republic of China)" or "China (Republic of China)". There is no real consensus within the country over the fundamental status of the country itself, with the country being divided between two main factions known as the "Pan-Blue Coalition" and the "Pan-Green Coalition". The Pan-Blue Coalition, led by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party or KMT), believes that their country (including Taiwan) is China and does not acknowledge the legitimacy of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which they view to be an occupation of the rest of China by rebel forces; they refer to Taiwan, the place where they actually live, as "Taiwan, free area of the Republic of China". On the other hand, the Pan-Green Coalition, currently led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), believes that their country is limited to the geographical definition of Taiwan (including Taiwan's satellite islands and the Penghu Islands), as well as perhaps some minor outlying islands, and does not actively claim sovereignty over mainland China.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Furthermore, the territorial dispute over Taiwan is connected to various other territorial disputes in East Asia, especially the Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands dispute and the various South China Sea Islands disputes. For the former, this is because both the PRC and the Pan-Blue Coalition believe that the Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands are part of the geographical definition of Taiwan, although they are currently under the control of Japan and have been under Japanese rule since the late 19th century; hence, the Chinese claim to the Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands is simply an extension of the Chinese claim to Taiwan. Meanwhile, regarding the latter, Taiwan/ROC maintains control over a few islands of the South China Sea, and the Pan-Blue Coalition further claims sovereignty over all of the other islands of the South China Sea. Finally, another crucial detail of the territorial dispute over Taiwan is the fact that Taiwan/ROC maintains control over a few other non-Taiwanese islands assigned to China; the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu, which are under Taiwan/ROC control, are geographically defined as being parts of Fujian Province, China (within Taiwan/ROC, they are governed as parts of the Pan-Blue Coalition's own definition of Fujian Province, China).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Taiwan independence is supported by the Pan-Green Coalition in Taiwan, led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but opposed by the Pan-Blue Coalition, led by the Kuomintang (KMT). The former coalition aims to eventually achieve full sovereign independence for Taiwan. Whereas, the latter coalition aims to improve relations with the Beijing government (PRC) — which it refers to as "mainland China" — and eventually "reunify" at some point.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Both parties have long been forced to precariously dance around the so-called "status quo" of Taiwan's political status. The DPP is unable to immediately declare independence due to pressure from the PRC and the KMT, whereas the KMT and PRC are unable to immediately achieve Chinese unification due to pressure from the DPP and its unofficial allies (including political factions within the United States (US), Japan, and the European Union (EU)).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki and 1951 Treaty of San Francisco are often cited as the main bases for Taiwan independence in international law, if such things as "self-determination" and the Montevideo Convention (on the Rights and Duties of States) are to be disregarded. These two treaties are not recognized by the Beijing government and the Pan-Blue Coalition of Taiwan.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Whereas the PRC usually dismisses self-determination and the Montevideo Convention as conspiracies against Chinese sovereignty, the two aforementioned treaties have strong legal bases in international law and have been recognized by numerous countries across the globe. Notably, the Treaty of San Francisco forms the primary basis of modern Japan's independence (from the WWII Allies), and largely dictates Japan's modern geopolitics.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The premise of citing these two treaties is that: a) Japan gained sovereignty over Taiwan in 1895, b) Japan lost sovereignty over Taiwan in 1951–1952, and c) Japan never indicated the "successor state" on Taiwan thereafter. Therefore, according to certain activists, this means that Taiwan is only controlled by the Republic of China on behalf of the WWII Allies, and does not constitute a part of the ROC's sovereign territory.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The Beijing government disregards these two treaties, claiming that: a) the Treaty of Shimonoseki has been nullified and b) the Treaty of San Francisco was illegal. Furthermore, the Potsdam Declaration and Cairo Communique are often cited as indisputable bases for Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The PRC is also adamant on emphasizing the fact that the United Nations (UN) refers to Taiwan as "Taiwan, Province of China". However, this point is dubious given that it has a huge amount of influence over the UN as one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council. However, most countries do not recognize Taiwan, and only 13 have diplomatic relations with it.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: People's Republic of China authorities also accuse the US, Japan, and the EU of interfering in "Chinese internal affairs", claiming that the United States is responsible for separating Taiwan from China, and is responsible for manufacturing "artificial" pro-independence sentiments within Taiwan. Most governments, including the U.S. government, claim to adhere to a so-called "One-China Policy", which is based on the Chinese "One-China Principle".


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Most "developed" and "Western" countries consider Taiwan to be a self-governing state in reality. However, since recognizing the existence of an "independent Taiwan/ROC" provides some form of grounds for officially recognising Taiwan independence, China (PRC) usually rejects the main premise of the Montevideo Convention, which is that "there are certain realities that determine statehood" (irrespective of international recognition).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Within the Pan-Green Coalition of Taiwan, there are two main factions. The faction that is currently in power aims to attain official international recognition for the reality of "Two Chinas", where the PRC and the ROC can coexist; later, the ROC can gradually "transform" itself into a Taiwanese state whilst avoiding a major conflict with the PRC. Whereas, the other faction aims to directly achieve Taiwan independence through a more abrupt and complete overthrowal of ROC institutions within Taiwan, which the faction views to be illegitimate.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: The use of ""independence"" for Taiwan can be ambiguous. If some supporters articulate that they agree to the independence of Taiwan, they may either be referring to the notion of formally creating an independent Taiwanese state, or to the notion that Taiwan has become synonymous with the current Republic of China from Resolution on Taiwan's Future and that ROC-Taiwan is already independent (as reflected in the evolving concept from Four Noes and One Without to One Country on Each Side); both of these ideas run counter to the claims of China (PRC).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: When the government of the Republic of China (under the Kuomintang) was forced to retreat to Formosa and the Pescadores (Taiwan and Penghu) in 1949, several Chinese (i.e. not Japanese) islands still remained under Kuomintang control. Because the Chinese Communist Party never gained control of the Kinmen, Wuqiu, and Matsu Islands, they are now governed by the Republic of China on Taiwan as Kinmen County (Kinmen and Wuqiu) and Lienchiang County (Matsu) within a streamlined Fujian Province. The islands are often referred to collectively as Quemoy and Matsu or as "Golden Horse".


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Historically, Kinmen County ("Quemoy") and Lienchiang County ("Matsu") served as important defensive strongholds for the Kuomintang during the 1950–1970s, symbolizing the frontline of Kuomintang resistance against the Communist rebellion. They represented the last Kuomintang presence in "mainland China". The islands received immense coverage from Western (especially United States) media during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954–1955 and the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958. They were very significant in the context of the Cold War, a period from 1946 until 1991 of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union (and its allies) and the United States (and its allies).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Ever since the transition into multi-party politics (i.e. "Democratization") during the 1990s, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties have now essentially developed into two electorates that can be contested through democratic elections. Currently the two electorates are "strongholds" for the Kuomintang due mainly to popular opinion within the electorates, rather than brute control (as in the past). The two electorates have recently developed close relations with the mainland, which lies only around 2–9 km west from the islands, whereas Taiwan lies around 166–189 km east from the islands.


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Reportedly, the local government of Kinmen County supports stronger business and cultural ties with mainland China, similarly to the Kuomintang, and views itself as an important (representative) or (focal point) for improving Cross-Strait relations (that is, in the favour of Chinese unification). In January 2001, direct travel between Kinmen County (and Lienchiang County) and mainland China re-opened under the "mini Three Links". As of 2015, Kinmen has plans to become a "special economic zone" in which free trade and free investment would be allowed between it and the neighbouring mainland SEZ of Xiamen. This might be accomplished in part by building a huge bridge connecting Kinmen to Xiamen, via the island of Lesser Kinmen (Lieyu); already, a bridge is being constructed between Greater Kinmen and Lesser Kinmen. Additionally, Kinmen has plans to become a "university island". In 2010, "National Kinmen Institute of Technology" was upgraded to "National Quemoy University". Kinmen County plans to establish several branches of mainland Chinese universities in Kinmen, and has bargained with the central Taiwanese (ROC) government so that universities in Kinmen don't have to be bounded by the same quotas as other Taiwanese universities in terms of admitting mainland Chinese students. In 2018, the local government of Kinmen County unveiled a new undersea pipeline linking Kinmen to mainland China, through which drinking-water can be imported. This business deal caused controversy in Taiwan and resulted in a "stand-off" between Kinmen County and the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan (ROC).


title: Taiwan independence movement

text: Within Taiwan, one camp believes that Kinmen County (Quemoy) and Lienchiang County (Matsu) should be abandoned from a potential independent and sovereign Taiwanese state. This view aligns with the aforementioned treaties and acts that do not define Kinmen and Matsu as being part of Taiwan. This same camp also believes that the PRC has only "allowed" the ROC to continue controlling Kinmen and Matsu in order to "tether" Taiwan to mainland China. The fact that the PRC propagandizes Kinmen and Matsu is evidence that this is true to at least a certain degree. In a hypothetical scenario where Kinmen and Matsu are abandoned by the Taiwanese state, they would likely be "ceded" to the People's Republic of China via a peace treaty, officially ending the Chinese Civil War.