title: Feminist theory

text: Blasingame argued that in reality dichotomies are inaccurate to the representation of individuals because nothing is truly black or white, straight or gay. Her main argument is that biphobia is the central message of two roots; internalized heterosexism and racism. Internalized heterosexism is described in the monosexual paradigm in which the binary states that you are either straight or gay and nothing in between. Gays and lesbians accept this internalized heterosexism by morphing into the monosexial paradigm and favoring single attraction and opposing attraction for both sexes. Blasingame described this favoritism as an act of horizontal hostility, where oppressed groups fight amongst themselves. Racism is described in the monosexual paradigm as a dichotomy where individuals are either black or white, again nothing in between. The issue of racism comes into fruition in regards to the bisexuals coming out process, where risks of coming out vary on a basis of anticipated community reaction and also in regards to the norms among bisexual leadership, where class status and race factor predominately over sexual orientation.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist political theory is a recently emerging field in political science focusing on gender and feminist themes within the state, institutions and policies. It questions the "modern political theory, dominated by universalistic liberalist thought, which claims indifference to gender or other identity differences and has therefore taken its time to open up to such concerns".


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist perspectives entered international relations in the late 1980s, at about the same time as the end of the Cold War. This time was not a coincidence because the last forty years the conflict between US and USSR had been the dominant agenda of international politics. After the Cold War, there was continuing relative peace between the main powers. Soon, many new issues appeared on international relation's agenda. More attention was also paid to social movements. Indeed, in those times feminist approaches also used to depict the world politics. Feminists started to emphasize that while women have always been players in international system, their participation has frequently been associated with non-governmental settings such as social movements. However, they could also participate in inter-state decision making process as men did. Until more recently, the role of women in international politics has been confined to being the wives of diplomats, nannies who go abroad to find work and support their family, or sex workers trafficked across international boundaries. Women's contributions has not been seen in the areas where hard power plays significant role such as military. Nowadays, women are gaining momentum in the sphere of international relations in areas of government, diplomacy, academia, etc.. Despite barriers to more senior roles, women currently hold 11.1 percent of the seats in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and 10.8 percent in the House. In the U.S. Department of State, women make up 29 percent of the chiefs of mission, and 29 percent of senior foreign positions at USAID. In contrast, women are profoundly impacted by decisions the statepersons make.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist economics broadly refers to a developing branch of economics that applies feminist insights and critiques to economics. Research under this heading is often interdisciplinary, critical, or heterodox. It encompasses debates about the relationship between feminism and economics on many levels: from applying mainstream economic methods to under-researched "women's" areas, to questioning how mainstream economics values the reproductive sector, to deeply philosophical critiques of economic epistemology and methodology.


title: Feminist theory

text: One prominent issue that feminist economists investigate is how the gross domestic product (GDP) does not adequately measure unpaid labor predominantly performed by women, such as housework, childcare, and eldercare. Feminist economists have also challenged and exposed the rhetorical approach of mainstream economics. They have made critiques of many basic assumptions of mainstream economics, including the "Homo economicus" model. In the "Houseworker's Handbook" Betsy Warrior presents a cogent argument that the reproduction and domestic labor of women form the foundation of economic survival; although, unremunerated and not included in the GDP. According to Warrior:Economics, as it's presented today, lacks any basis in reality as it leaves out the very foundation of economic life. That foundation is built on women's labor; first her reproductive labor which produces every new laborer (and the first commodity, which is mother's milk and which nurtures every new "consumer/laborer"); secondly, women's labor composed of cleaning, cooking, negotiating social stability and nurturing, which prepares for market and maintains each laborer. This constitutes women's continuing industry enabling laborers to occupy every position in the work force. Without this fundamental labor and commodity there would be no economic activity.Warrior also notes that the unacknowledged income of men from illegal activities like arms, drugs and human trafficking, political graft, religious emoluments and various other undisclosed activities provide a rich revenue stream to men, which further invalidates GDP figures. Even in underground economies where women predominate numerically, like trafficking in humans, prostitution and domestic servitude, only a tiny fraction of the pimp's revenue filters down to the women and children he deploys. Usually the amount spent on them is merely for the maintenance of their lives and, in the case of those prostituted, some money may be spent on clothing and such accouterments as will make them more salable to the pimp's clients. For instance, focusing on just the U.S., according to a government sponsored report by the Urban Institute in 2014, "A street prostitute in Dallas may make as little as $5 per sex act. But pimps can take in $33,000 a week in Atlanta, where the sex business brings in an estimated $290 million per year."


title: Feminist theory

text: Proponents of this theory have been instrumental in creating alternative models, such as the capability approach and incorporating gender into the analysis of economic data to affect policy. Marilyn Power suggests that feminist economic methodology can be broken down into five categories.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist legal theory is based on the feminist view that law's treatment of women in relation to men has not been equal or fair. The goals of feminist legal theory, as defined by leading theorist Claire Dalton, consist of understanding and exploring the female experience, figuring out if law and institutions oppose females, and figuring out what changes can be committed to. This is to be accomplished through studying the connections between the law and gender as well as applying feminist analysis to concrete areas of law.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist legal theory stems from the inadequacy of the current structure to account for discrimination women face, especially discrimination based on multiple, intersecting identities. Kimberlé Crenshaw's work is central to feminist legal theory, particularly her article "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics". "DeGraffenreid v General Motors" is an example of such a case. In this instance, the court ruled the plaintiffs, five Black women including Emma DeGraffenreid, who were employees of General Motors, were not eligible to file a complaint on the grounds they, as black women, were not "a special class to be protected from discrimination". The ruling in "DeGraffenreid" against the plaintiff revealed the courts inability to understand intersectionality's role in discrimination. "Moore v Hughes Helicopters, Inc." is another ruling, which serves to reify the persistent discrediting of intersectionality as a factor in discrimination. In the case of "Moore", the plaintiff brought forth statistical evidence revealing a disparity in promotions to upper-level and supervisory jobs between men and women and, to a lesser extent, between Black and white men. Ultimately, the court denied the plaintiff the ability to represent all Blacks and all females. The decision dwindled the pool of statistical information the plaintiff could pull from and limited the evidence only to that of Black women, which is a ruling in direct contradiction to "DeGraffenreid". Further, because the plaintiff originally claimed discrimination as a Black female rather than, more generally, as a female the court stated it had concerns whether the plaintiff could "adequately represent white female employees". "Payne v Travenol" serves as yet another example of the courts inconsistency when dealing with issues revolving around intersections of race and sex. The plaintiffs in "Payne", two Black females, filed suit against Travenol on behalf of both Black men and women on the grounds the pharmaceutical plant practiced racial discrimination. The court ruled the plaintiffs could not adequately represent Black males; however, they did allow the admittance of statistical evidence, which was inclusive of all Black employees. Despite the more favorable outcome after it was found there was extensive racial discrimination, the courts decided the benefits of the ruling – back pay and constructive seniority – would not be extended to Black males employed by the company. "Moore" contends Black women cannot adequately represent white women on issues of sex discrimination, "Payne" suggests Black women cannot adequately represent Black men on issues of race discrimination, and "DeGraffenreid" argues Black women are not a special class to be protected. The rulings, when connected, display a deep-rooted problem in regards to addressing discrimination within the legal system. These cases, although they are outdated are used by feminists as evidence of their ideas and principles.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist communication theory has evolved over time and branches out in many directions. Early theories focused on the way that gender influenced communication and many argued that language was "man made". This view of communication promoted a "deficiency model" asserting that characteristics of speech associated with women were negative and that men "set the standard for competent interpersonal communication", which influences the type of language used by men and women. These early theories also suggested that ethnicity, cultural and economic backgrounds also needed to be addressed. They looked at how gender intersects with other identity constructs, such as class, race, and sexuality. Feminist theorists, especially those considered to be liberal feminists, began looking at issues of equality in education and employment. Other theorists addressed political oratory and public discourse. The recovery project brought to light many women orators who had been "erased or ignored as significant contributors". Feminist communication theorists also addressed how women were represented in the media and how the media "communicated ideology about women, gender, and feminism".


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist communication theory also encompasses access to the public sphere, whose voices are heard in that sphere, and the ways in which the field of communication studies has limited what is regarded as essential to public discourse. The recognition of a full history of women orators overlooked and disregarded by the field has effectively become an undertaking of recovery, as it establishes and honors the existence of women in history and lauds the communication by these historically significant contributors. This recovery effort, begun by Andrea Lunsford, Professor of English and Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University and followed by other feminist communication theorists also names women such as Aspasia, Diotima, and Christine de Pisan, who were likely influential in rhetorical and communication traditions in classical and medieval times, but who have been negated as serious contributors to the traditions.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist communication theorists are also concerned with a recovery effort in attempting to explain the methods used by those with power to prohibit women like Maria W. Stewart, Sarah Moore Grimké, and Angelina Grimké, and more recently, Ella Baker and Anita Hill, from achieving a voice in political discourse and consequently being driven from the public sphere. Theorists in this vein are also interested in the unique and significant techniques of communication employed by these women and others like them to surmount some of the oppression they experienced.


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist theorist also evaluate communication expectations for students and women in the work place, in particular how the performance of feminine versus masculine styles of communicating are constructed. Judith Butler, who coined the term "gender performativity" further suggests that, "theories of communication must explain the ways individuals negotiate, resist, and transcend their identities in a highly gendered society". This focus also includes the ways women are constrained or "disciplined" in the discipline of communication in itself, in terms of biases in research styles and the "silencing" of feminist scholarship and theory.


title: Feminist theory

text: Who is responsible for deciding what is considered important public discourse is also put into question by feminist theorists in communication scholarship. This lens of feminist communication theory is labeled as revalorist theory which honors the historical perspective of women in communication in an attempt to recover voices that have been historically neglected. There have been many attempts to explain the lack of representative voices in the public sphere for women including, the notion that, "the public sphere is built on essentialist principles that prevent women from being seen as legitimate communicators in that sphere", and theories of subalternity", which, "under extreme conditions of oppression...prevent those in positions of power from even hearing their communicative attempts".


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist theory can be applied to the field of public relations. The feminist scholar Linda Hon examined the major obstacles that women in the field experienced. Some common barriers included male dominance and gender stereotypes. Hon shifted the feminist theory of PR from "women's assimilation into patriarchal systems " to "genuine commitment to social restructuring". Similarly to the studies Hon conducted, Elizabeth Lance Toth studied Feminist Values in Public Relations. Toth concluded that there is a clear link between feminist gender and feminist value. These values include honesty, sensitivity, perceptiveness, fairness, and commitment.


title: Feminist theory

text: Technical writers have concluded that visual language can convey facts and ideas clearer than almost any other means of communication. According to the feminist theory, "gender may be a factor in how human beings represent reality."


title: Feminist theory

text: Men and women will construct different types of structures about the self, and, consequently, their thought processes may diverge in content and form. This division depends on the self-concept, which is an "important regulator of thoughts, feelings and actions" that "governs one's perception of reality".


title: Feminist theory

text: With that being said, the self-concept has a significant effect on how men and women represent reality in different ways.


title: Feminist theory

text: Recently, "technical communicators' terms such as 'visual rhetoric,' 'visual language,' and 'document design' indicate a new awareness of the importance of visual design".


title: Feminist theory

text: Deborah S. Bosley explores this new concept of the "feminist theory of design" by conducting a study on a collection of undergraduate males and females who were asked to illustrate a visual, on paper, given to them in a text. Based on this study, she creates a "feminist theory of design" and connects it to technical communicators.


title: Feminist theory

text: In the results of the study, males used more angular illustrations, such as squares, rectangles and arrows, which are interpreted as a "direction" moving away from or a moving toward, thus suggesting more aggressive positions than rounded shapes, showing masculinity.


title: Feminist theory

text: Females, on the other hand, used more curved visuals, such as circles, rounded containers and bending pipes. Bosley takes into account that feminist theory offers insight into the relationship between females and circles or rounded objects. According to Bosley, studies of women and leadership indicate a preference for nonhierarchical work patterns (preferring a communication "web" rather than a communication "ladder"). Bosley explains that circles and other rounded shapes, which women chose to draw, are nonhierarchical and often used to represent inclusive, communal relationships, confirming her results that women's visual designs do have an effect on their means of communications.


title: Feminist theory

text: Based on these conclusions, this "feminist theory of design" can go on to say that gender does play a role in how humans represent reality.


title: Feminist theory

text: Black feminist criminology theory is a concept created by Hillary Potter in the 1990s and a bridge that integrates Feminist theory with criminology. It is based on the integration of Black feminist theory and critical race theory.


title: Feminist theory

text: For years, Black women were historically overlooked and disregarded in the study of crime and criminology; however, with a new focus on Black feminism that sparked in the 1980s, Black feminists began to contextualize their unique experiences and examine why the general status of Black women in the criminal justice system was lacking in female specific approaches. Potter explains that because Black women usually have "limited access to adequate education and employment as consequences of racism, sexism, and classism", they are often disadvantaged. This disadvantage materializes into "poor responses by social service professionals and crime-processing agents to Black women's interpersonal victimization". Most crime studies focused on White males/females and Black males. Any results or conclusions targeted to Black males were usually assumed to be the same situation for Black females. This was very problematic since Black males and Black females differ in what they experience. For instance, economic deprivation, status equality between the sexes, distinctive socialization patterns, racism, and sexism should all be taken into account between Black males and Black females. The two will experience all of these factors differently; therefore, it was crucial to resolve this dilemma.


title: Feminist theory

text: Black feminist criminology is the solution to this problem. It takes four factors into account: One, it observes the social structural oppression of Black women. Two, it recognizes the Black community and its culture. Three, it looks at Black intimate and familial relations. And four, it looks at the Black woman as an individual. These four factors will help distinguish Black women from Black males into an accurate branch of learning in the criminal justice system.


title: Feminist theory

text: It has been said that Black feminist criminology is still in its "infancy stage"; therefore, there is little discussion or studies that disprove it as an effective feminist perspective. In addition to its age, Black feminist criminology has not actively accounted for the role of religion and spirituality in Black women's "experience with abuse".


title: Feminist theory

text: Feminist science and technology studies (STS) refers to the transdisciplinary field of research on the ways gender and other markers of identity intersect with technology, science, and culture. The practice emerged from feminist critique on the masculine-coded uses of technology in the fields of natural, medical, and technical sciences, and its entanglement in gender and identity. A large part of feminist technoscience theory explains science and technologies to be linked and should be held accountable for the social and cultural developments resulting from both fields.


title: Feminist theory

text: In the 1970s, the impacts of post-World War II technological development led many women to organise against issues from the toxic pollution of neighbourhoods to nuclear weapons testing on indigenous lands. This grassroots activism emerging across every continent was both intersectional and cross-cultural in its struggle to protect the conditions for reproduction of Life on Earth. Known as ecofeminism, the political relevance of this movement continues to expand. Classic statements in its literature include Carolyn Merchant, USA, "The Death of Nature"; Maria Mies, Germany, "Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale"; Vandana Shiva, India, "Staying Alive: Women Ecology and Development"; Ariel Salleh, Australia, "Ecofeminism as Politics: nature, Marx, and the postmodern". Ecofeminism involves a profound critique of Eurocentric epistemology, science, economics, and culture. It is increasingly prominent as a feminist response to the contemporary breakdown of the planetary ecosystem.


title: Joy Crookes

text: Joy Elizabeth Akther Crookes (born 9 October 1998) is a British singer-songwriter. She incorporates details about relationships, self-reliance, her culture, her South London roots, and her identity in her music. Crookes has released three extended plays since 2017 and was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards. Her debut studio album, "Skin", was released in October 2021 to wide critical acclaim and reached the top five in the UK.


title: Joy Crookes

text: Joy Elizabeth Akther Crookes was born in the Lambeth district of South London on 9 October 1998 to a Bangladeshi mother from Dhaka and an Irish father from Dublin. She grew up in Elephant and Castle where she spent eight years at a Catholic state primary school. Crookes attended the fee-paying Portland Place School in central London for secondary education. Crookes gained interest in singing after attending a jazz and blues workshop and, by the age of 13, had started publishing covers of Laura Marling and reggae to YouTube. Whilst a teenager Crookes taught herself how to play guitar, piano and bass, before writing her own music. When she was 14, her parents separated and she moved with her mother to Ladbroke Grove. In April 2013, Crookes uploaded a cover of "Hit the Road Jack" by Ray Charles to YouTube at the age of 14. The video gained the attention of over 600,000 viewers, notably including her current manager a few months later.


title: Joy Crookes

text: At the age of 17, Crookes released her debut single "New Manhattan" in February 2016, as well as "Sinatra" in August 2016, and "Bad Feeling" in June 2017. "New Manhattan" is a love song that was named after the area in Brussels. "M Magazine" wrote about Crookes at the start of her career, stating, "[She] may not be out of school yet, but what she lacks in experience she certainly makes up for in sonic dexterity." When describing the aesthetic in Crookes' debut music video for "Sinatra", Pip Williams from "Line of Best Fit" wrote, "much like [her] sound, [the video] blurs the classic with the contemporary, blanketing the listener in nostalgia whilst teasing them with hints of something brand new."


title: Joy Crookes

text: Crookes released her debut EP, "Influence", with Speakerbox and Insanity Records in July 2017. The five-track EP lasts less than 20 minutes and features "Sinatra", "Bad Feeling", "New Manhattan", "Mother May I Sleep With Danger?" and "Power". Crookes performed "Mother May I Sleep With Danger?" along with her guitar player Charles J Monneraud on the global music platform, COLORS, in December 2017. As of November 2019, the video gained over eight million views on YouTube. She told "BBC" that she wrote the song by herself on New Year's Day of 2017 and began playing the song on tour, stating "When you tour a song you get to know it – you stay over at its house, you meet its mum, you get to know the sibling it doesn't like. So by the time we did Colors, it was a walk in the park. The video really changed everything. For about six months after that, everywhere I went people would say, 'Are you Joy from Colors?'"


title: Joy Crookes

text: Crookes released the single "Don't Let Me Down" with an accompanying music video in November 2018, before releasing her second EP, "Reminiscence", in January 2019. Clare O'Shea from "The Line of Best Fit" described the EP as "a collection of five distinct tracks melding pop, R&B and soul." The EP features "Man's World", "Lover Don't", "Don't Let Me Down", "For a Minute" as well as the song "Two Nights", which was added to the BBC Radio 1 playlist in February 2019. Crookes made her first appearance in Vogue in March 2019, before releasing the singles "Since I Left You": "a hauntingly stripped back break-up song," as well as "London Mine" in April 2019. "The song celebrates the invisible people and how London belongs to no one but everyone," Crookes told "The Line of Best Fit" about "London Mine". "It's a celebration of immigrants who make up this country."


title: Joy Crookes

text: Crookes performed on the Introducing Stage at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2019, before releasing her third EP, "Perception" in June 2019. The five-track EP features "Hurts", "No Hands", "London Mine", "Since I Left You", and "Darkest Hour". Crookes made her first Glastonbury Festival appearance in June 2019. In September 2019, Crookes self-produced released "Yah / Element" a medley of "Yah" and "Element" by Kendrick Lamar, before announcing her sold-out headlining tour of Europe for October 2019. She released the single "Early" with Irish hip-hop artist Jafaris in early October, which later went on to reach No. 1 on the UK Asian chart. Crookes made her debut television appearance when she performed "Early" with Jafaris on Later... with Jools Holland in November 2019. Crookes made an appearance on the Irish music TV series Other Voices in November 2019. Crookes was shortlisted for Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards. She was placed fourth in Sound of 2020, an annual BBC poll of 170 music critics who predict breakthrough acts for the coming year. Crookes was praised her for her "South London stories filled with wit and romance".


title: Joy Crookes

text: In April 2020, Crookes released her first single of 2020, "Anyone But Me", which debuted atop the UK Asian Top 40. The song is about her battles with mental health and how she feels that "there's another person living in [her] head." In September 2020, Crookes released a cover version of The Wannadies' 1994 single "You & Me Song", which was featured in an O2 TV advertisement, consequently entering both the UK Singles Downloads and the UK Singles Sales charts. Crookes released the single "Feet Don't Fail Me Now" in June 2021, which became her third single to top the UK Asian Top 40 and is featured on the EASports video game FIFA 22 It served as the lead single from her debut album, "Skin", which she revealed alongside the release of its title track in August 2021. Its third single, "When You Were Mine", was released later that month and became her fourth single to top the UK Asian Top 40. "Trouble" was released as the fourth single a few days before the release of "Skin" on 15 October 2021.


title: Joy Crookes

text: On the album, Crookes incorporates samples on songs like "19th Floor" and "Kingdom". In an interview with Sound of Boston, Crookes explains the origins of both samples, and why she chose to include them: "The opening of 19th Floor is my grandma saying goodbye to me as she usually does when I leave her flat on the 19th floor of her block in south London. The voice call in Kingdom is my dad talking about the importance of punk music. I included these to contextualize my life at the time and where those songs were born from. I am a super family-orientated person and it felt like an important part of my narrative to include them on the album."


title: Joy Crookes

text: Crookes had the name of her Irish grandfather, Frankie Crookes, tattooed on her arm before he died in 2018.


title: Joy Crookes

text: Crookes has cited Black Uhuru, Marvin Gaye, The Pogues, Sinéad O'Connor, Kendrick Lamar, Gregory Isaacs, and Kate Nash as some of the names incorporated with her first experiences with music. She told BBC about the music she was exposed to whilst driving with her father to her Irish dancing lessons, "My dad wanted to give me a real education. From Nick Cave to King Tubby to all this Pakistani music. He'd say, 'This is from your ends of the world, you should hear this.'"


title: International recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic

text: The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) are two Russian civilian-military administrative regimes in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Russia claims to have annexed them, although it only occupies part of their claimed territories , and treats them as its federal subjects. Before October 2022, they claimed independence from Ukraine, although the international community continues to consider them part of Ukraine's sovereign territory.


text: The DPR and LPR were proclaimed by Russian-supported separatists in 2014 during the War in Donbas. The militants running the republics held secession referendums, on 11 May 2014. The results of the referendums were not officially accepted by any government except Russia. The Ukrainian government regarded the pro-Russian separatists as terrorists.


text: The DPR and the LPR attempted to enter into a union in 2014, namely "Novorossiya", although the project was abandoned by 2015. In 2014, South Ossetia—itself a breakaway entity in Georgia—recognized the independence of both entities.


text: They were recognized as sovereign states by Russia on 21 February 2022, followed by Abkhazia—another breakaway entity in Georgia—four days later. The DPR and LPR were later recognized by two other member states of the United Nations: Syria on 29 June 2022, and North Korea on 13 July 2022.


text: In November 2014, representatives of Novorossiya sent a request of diplomatic recognition to several Latin American states, including Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. None of the states answered the request.


text: In May 2015, the confederation of Novorossiya was shut down due to its "incompatibility with the Normandy Format plan of peace settlement", promoting for DPR and LPR becoming autonomous regions within the Ukrainian borders.


text: On 15 February 2022, the Russian State Duma voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in Ukraine as independent states. The bill was proposed by the Communist Party.


text: On 21 February 2022, the State Duma of Russia passed a bill to officially recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in Eastern Ukraine as independent states. The bill was approved by President Vladimir Putin. On the same day, Putin signed decrees recognizing the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, and also signed agreements on friendship, cooperation, and assistance with the republics.


text: On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, part of which including troops in the two territories. While, this recognition just fully followed by Abkhazia on 25 February 2022, with President Decree that signed by Aslan Bzhania to support Russia stance in recognize Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic.


text: A February poll released by the independent Levada Center found that 45% of Russians backed Russia's recognition of the separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.


text: State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev voted in favor of the recognition of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk but later denounced the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, stating After limited success during a seven-month military campaign, Vladimir Putin recognized the military occupations of parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts as independent states, and signed treaties of accession to the Russian Federation with the Russian-appointed heads of all four partially occupied regions of Ukraine, despite not having full control of their territories.


text: One UN member state has recognized the Russian annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine:


title: Shamima Begum

text: Shamima Begum (born 25 August 1999) is a British born woman, who left the UK in 2015 aged 15. She obtained entry to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In February 2019, Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, acting for the Government of the United Kingdom revoked her British citizenship. He later stated that she would never be allowed to return to the UK.


title: Shamima Begum

text: In July 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order fairly to contest the Home Secretary’s decision by instructing lawyers properly. This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom which, on 26 February 2021, ruled unanimously against her, reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal and preventing her return.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Begum was born in England to immigrant parents of Bangladeshi origin and citizenship. She was raised as a Muslim in the Bethnal Green area of Tower Hamlets, East London, where she received her secondary education at the Bethnal Green Academy. Together with her friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, she left the UK in February 2015, at age 15. They travelled via Turkey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Shortly after her departure, Begum's sister expressed hope that she and her school friends had travelled to ISIL territory only to bring back their friend Sharmeena Begum (no relation), who had travelled there in 2014.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Education secretary Nicky Morgan said in February 2015 that everyone hoped and prayed for the safe return of the three girls to the UK.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Ten days after arriving in Syria, Begum married Dutch-born Yago Riedijk, a convert to Islam who had arrived in Syria in October 2014. This marriage may not be recognised under Dutch law since she was underage at that time. She gave birth to three children, all of whom died young; her youngest child was born in a refugee camp in February 2019 and, by March 2019, had died of a lung infection.


title: Shamima Begum

text: "The Daily Telegraph" reported that Begum was an "enforcer" in ISIL's "morality police", and tried to recruit other young women to join the jihadist group. She was allowed to carry a Kalashnikov rifle and earned a reputation as a strict enforcer of ISIL's laws, such as dress codes for women. An anti-ISIL activist told "The Independent" that there are separate allegations of "Begum [stitching] suicide bombers into explosive vests so they could not be removed without detonating".


title: Shamima Begum

text: Published in August 2022, Richard Kerbaj's book "The Secret History of the Five Eyes" claimed that Mohammed Al Rasheed, who helped her travel to Syria, was passing information to Canadian intelligence, which was known to Metropolitan Police. This link was not acknowledged by British or Canadian authorities. The Canadian intelligence was using Rasheed for information on the Islamic State, allowing him to help people to travel to Syria to work for the Islamic State. Kerbaj said that he interviewed many Canadian intelligence officers, which confirmed the timeline of events.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 13 February 2019, "The Times" war correspondent Anthony Loyd found Begum at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Northern Syria. She wanted to return to the UK to raise her child, but did not regret her decision to join ISIL. She said she had been unfazed by seeing the head of a beheaded man as he was "an enemy of Islam", but believes that ISIL did not deserve victory because of their corruption and oppression. When asked if she would be extracted from Syria, Security Minister Ben Wallace said, "I'm not putting at risk British people's lives to go and look for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state." Three days after Loyd found her, Begum gave birth to a boy.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Begum was interviewed by BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville on 18 February. During the interview, Begum asked for forgiveness and claimed that she still supports "some British values". She said she was inspired to join ISIL by videos of fighters beheading hostages and also of "the good life" under the group. However, Sommerville noted that she continues to espouse the ISIL ideology and to try to justify its atrocities. When asked about the Manchester Arena bombing, she claimed it was wrong to kill innocent people, but that ISIL considered it justified as retaliation for the coalition bombing of ISIL-held areas. When questioned about rape, enslavement and murder of Yazidi women, she claimed, "Shia do the same in Iraq".


title: Shamima Begum

text: The following day, UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced that he had made an order depriving Begum of British citizenship. Under international law the UK government could not deprive her of British citizenship if such deprivation would leave her stateless. However, the UK government contended that Begum was a dual national, also holding citizenship of Bangladesh, and was not therefore made stateless by the decision. The Government of Bangladesh stated that Begum did not currently hold Bangladeshi citizenship and, without it, would not be allowed to enter Bangladesh.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Under British law, Begum had the right to appeal against the Home Office's decision to revoke her UK citizenship. Javid's decision was criticised by Begum's immediate family members, but her brother-in-law Muhammad Rahman urged the public to support the government decision. He said: "The information they have is to the best of their ability and the British people should support it." Begum said that she might consider applying for Dutch citizenship.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 24 February, her father Ahmed Ali said, "If she at least admitted she made a mistake then I would feel sorry for her and other people would feel sorry for her, but she does not accept her wrong." Begum reacted by stating that she regretted speaking to the media and said the UK is making an example out of her.


title: Shamima Begum

text: Begum's lawyer claimed on 1 March that Begum and her son were moved from a Syrian refugee camp and relocated to another after threats against her were made.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 3 March, Yago Riedijk, her husband, a member of ISIL, was interviewed by the BBC in a Kurdish detention centre in Syria. He said that he wished to return to the Netherlands with Begum. The Dutch government stated that they were not going to repatriate him.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 8 March, it was reported that Syrian Democratic Forces had said that Begum's son Jarrah, whose imminent birth had apparently motivated her desire to return to the UK, had died in hospital the previous day. The cause of death was medically certified as pneumonia. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith criticised the UK government's decision to block Begum's return to the UK.


title: Shamima Begum

text: A government spokesman said that, "The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family". Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt reiterated the position stated by Ben Wallace concerning risks to operatives who might be sent to recover her. He said "Shamima knew when she made the decision to join Daesh, she was going into a country where there was no embassy, there was no consular assistance, and I'm afraid those decisions, awful though it is, they do have consequences". He said that the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development were trying to rescue ISIL brides and that the decisions to deprive individuals of UK citizenship were based on evidence.


title: Shamima Begum

text: It was reported in August 2022 that Begum’s lawyer claims the British authorities knew that Begum was helped to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State by a Canadian intelligence agent, as claimed by Richard Kerbaj in his book "The Secret History of the Five Eyes", a factor that had not been brought to the attention of the Supreme Court. Tasnime Akunjee, lawyer for the Begum family, said he had obtained a hearing in November 2022 to challenge the removal of Begum's citizenship on the basis that as Home Secretary Sajid Javid had failed to consider that she was a victim of human trafficking.


title: Shamima Begum

text: The main difficulty surrounding Begum's pursuit of citizenship in order to return to the United Kingdom is the contrasting interpretations and perspectives around making her stateless (without citizenship in any country). Making citizens stateless is unlawful under the British Nationality Act 1981, section 40 and is also contrary to the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, of which the UK is a signatory. Begum was born a British citizen under United Kingdom law as her father (despite having already left the UK) had indefinite leave to remain and so had the "settled in the United Kingdom" status that the British Nationality Act 1981 describes as being a satisfactory prerequisite to allow Begum to be born a British citizen. However, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission found that as a matter of Bangladeshi nationality law Begum also holds Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents, under section 5 of the Citizenship Act, 1951.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 15 April 2019, it was reported that Begum had been granted Legal Aid to fight the revocation of her British citizenship. Hunt described the Legal Aid Agency's decision as "very uncomfortable", but said that the UK is "a country that believes that people with limited means should have access to the resources of the state if they want to challenge the decisions the state has made about them".


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 3 May, Bangladeshi foreign minister Abdul Momen repeated their position on Begum but further added that if she entered Bangladesh she would face the death penalty due to the nation's "zero tolerance policy" towards terrorism.


title: Shamima Begum

text: In August 2019, the Metropolitan Police requested media organisations that had interviewed Begum—the BBC, ITN, Sky News and "The Times"—to surrender any unpublished material they may hold about Begum. They seek disclosure under the Terrorism Act 2000 in order to prepare potential prosecution.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 16 July 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum could return to the UK to contest the government's decision to rescind her British citizenship. It was unclear how she would return to the UK to plead her case, as the British government had previously stated that it would never let her return.


title: Shamima Begum

text: On 26 February 2021, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in "Begum v Home Secretary" decided in favour of the Home Secretary on all grounds.


title: VirtualBox

text: Oracle VM VirtualBox (formerly Sun VirtualBox, Sun xVM VirtualBox and Innotek VirtualBox) is a type-2 hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation.


title: VirtualBox

text: VirtualBox was originally created by Innotek GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.


title: VirtualBox

text: VirtualBox may be installed on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris. There are also ports to FreeBSD and Genode. It supports the creation and management of guest virtual machines running Windows, Linux, BSD, OS/2, Solaris, Haiku, and OSx86, as well as limited virtualization of guests on Apple hardware. For some guest operating systems, a "Guest Additions" package of device drivers and system applications is available, which typically improves performance, especially that of graphics, and allows changing the resolution of the guest OS automatically when the window of the virtual machine on the host OS is resized.


title: VirtualBox

text: Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License and, optionally, the CDDL for most files of the source distribution, VirtualBox is free and open-source software, though the Extension Pack is proprietary software. The License to VirtualBox was relicensed to GPLv3 with linking exceptions to the CDDL and other gpl incompatible licenses.


title: VirtualBox

text: VirtualBox was first offered by "InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH" from Weinstadt, Germany, under a proprietary software license, making one version of the product available at no cost for personal or evaluation use, subject to the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). In January 2007, based on counsel by LiSoG, Innotek GmbH released VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) as free and open-source software, subject to the requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2.


title: VirtualBox

text: Innotek GmbH also contributed to the development of OS/2 and Linux support in virtualization and OS/2 ports of products from Connectix which were later acquired by Microsoft. Specifically, Innotek developed the "additions" code in both Windows Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server, which enables various host–guest OS interactions like shared clipboards or dynamic viewport resizing.


title: VirtualBox

text: Following the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation in January 2010, the product was re-branded as "Oracle VM VirtualBox".


title: VirtualBox

text: In December 2019, VirtualBox started supporting only hardware-assisted virtualization, dropping support for Software-based one.


title: VirtualBox

text: The core package is, since version 4 in December 2010, free software under GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). The separate "VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox extension pack" providing support for USB 2.0 and 3.0 devices, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), disk encryption, NVMe and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) boot is under a proprietary license, called "Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL)", which permits use of the software for personal use, educational use, or evaluation, free of charge. Since VirtualBox version 5.1.30 Oracle defines personal use as the installation of the software on a single host computer for non-commercial purposes. Unlike some software using a proprietary license, the "VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox extension pack" is not source-available since it includes closed-source components, which does not make the source code publicly available.


title: VirtualBox

text: Prior to version 4, there were two different packages of the VirtualBox software. The full package was offered gratis under the PUEL, with licenses for other commercial deployment purchasable from Oracle. A second package called the "VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE)" was released under GPLv2. This removed the same proprietary components not available under GPLv2.


title: VirtualBox

text: Building the BIOS for VirtualBox requires the use of the Open Watcom compiler, for which the Sybase Open Watcom Public License is approved as "Open Source" by the Open Source Initiative but not as "free" by the Free Software Foundation or under the Debian Free Software Guidelines.


title: VirtualBox

text: Although VirtualBox has experimental support for macOS guests, the end user license agreement of macOS does not permit the operating system to run on non-Apple hardware, and this is enforced within the operating system by calls to the Apple System Management Controller (SMC) in all Apple machines, which verifies the authenticity of the hardware.


title: VirtualBox

text: Users of VirtualBox can load multiple guest OSes under a single host operating-system (host OS). Each guest can be started, paused and stopped independently within its own virtual machine (VM). The user can independently configure each VM and run it under a choice of software-based virtualization or hardware assisted virtualization if the underlying host hardware supports this. The host OS and guest OSs and applications can communicate with each other through a number of mechanisms including a common clipboard and a virtualized network facility. Guest VMs can also directly communicate with each other if configured to do so.


title: VirtualBox

text: VirtualBox supports both Intel's VT-x and AMD's AMD-V hardware-assisted virtualization. Making use of these facilities, VirtualBox can run each guest VM in its own separate address-space; the guest OS ring 0 code runs on the host at ring 0 in VMX non-root mode rather than in ring 1.


title: VirtualBox

text: Starting with version 6.1, VirtualBox only supports this method. Until then, VirtualBox specifically supported some guests (including 64-bit guests, SMP guests and certain proprietary OSs) only on hosts with hardware-assisted virtualization.


title: VirtualBox

text: VirtualBox emulates hard disks in three formats: the native "VDI" (Virtual Disk Image), the VMDK of VMware and the VHD of Microsoft Windows. It thus supports disks created by other hypervisor software. VirtualBox can also connect to iSCSI targets and to raw partitions on the host, using either as virtual hard disks. VirtualBox emulates IDE (PIIX4 and ICH6 controllers), SCSI, SATA (ICH8M controller) and SAS controllers to which hard drives can be attached.


title: VirtualBox

text: Both ISO images and physical devices connected to the host can be mounted as CD or DVD drives. VirtualBox supports running operating systems from live CDs and DVDs.


title: VirtualBox

text: By default, VirtualBox provides graphics support through a custom virtual graphics-card that is VBE or UEFI GOP compatible. The Guest Additions for Windows, Linux, Solaris, OpenSolaris, or OS/2 guests include a special video-driver that increases video performance and includes additional features, such as automatically adjusting the guest resolution when resizing the VM window


title: VirtualBox

text: The emulated network cards allow most guest OSs to run without the need to find and install drivers for networking hardware as they are shipped as part of the guest OS. A special paravirtualized network adapter is also available, which improves network performance by eliminating the need to match a specific hardware interface, but requires special driver support in the guest. (Many distributions of Linux ship with this driver included.) By default, VirtualBox uses NAT through which Internet software for end-users such as Firefox or ssh can operate. Bridged networking via a host network adapter or virtual networks between guests can also be configured. Up to 36 network adapters can be attached simultaneously, but only four are configurable through the graphical interface.


title: VirtualBox

text: For a sound card, VirtualBox virtualizes Intel HD Audio, Intel ICH AC'97 and SoundBlaster 16 devices.


title: VirtualBox

text: A USB 1.1 controller is emulated so that any USB devices attached to the host can be seen in the guest. The proprietary extension pack adds a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 controllers and, if VirtualBox acts as an RDP server, it can also use USB devices on the remote RDP client as if they were connected to the host, although only if the client supports this VirtualBox-specific extension (Oracle provides clients for Solaris, Linux and Sun Ray thin clients that can do this, and have promised support for other platforms in future versions).


title: VirtualBox

text: In the absence of hardware-assisted virtualization, versions 6.0 and earlier of VirtualBox could adopt a standard software-based virtualization approach. This mode supports 32-bit guest OSs which run in rings 0 and 3 of the Intel ring architecture.


title: VirtualBox

text: In both cases, VirtualBox uses CSAM and PATM to inspect and patch the offending instructions whenever a fault occurs. VirtualBox also contains a dynamic recompiler, based on QEMU to recompile any real mode or protected mode code entirely (e.g. BIOS code, a DOS guest, or any operating system startup).


title: VirtualBox

text: While VirtualBox itself is free to use and is distributed under an open source license the VirtualBox Extension Pack is licensed under the VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL). Personal use is free but commercial users need to purchase a license. Oracle routinely checks log files for downloads of the VirtualBox Extension Pack from nonresidential IP addresses and contacts unlicensed users to enforce compliance.


title: VirtualBox

text: While Guest Additions are installed within each suitable guest virtual machine, the Extension Pack is installed on the host running VirtualBox.


title: VirtualBox

text: A commercial port of VirtualBox OSE with built-in support for Direct X 12.1 / Vulkan 3D API inside virtual machines has been released by the main contributor of the FreeRDP project, called Thincast Workstation.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Boletus edulis (English: cep, penny bun, porcino or porcini) is a basidiomycete fungus, and the type species of the genus "Boletus". Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North America, it does not occur naturally in the Southern Hemisphere, although it has been introduced to southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. Several closely related European mushrooms formerly thought to be varieties or forms of "B. edulis" have been shown using molecular phylogenetic analysis to be distinct species, and others previously classed as separate species are conspecific with this species. The western North American species commonly known as the California king bolete ("Boletus edulis" var. "grandedulis") is a large, darker-coloured variant first formally identified in 2007.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The fungus grows in deciduous and coniferous forests and tree plantations, forming symbiotic ectomycorrhizal associations with living trees by enveloping the tree's underground roots with sheaths of fungal tissue. The fungus produces spore-bearing fruit bodies above ground in summer and autumn. The fruit body has a large brown cap which on occasion can reach , rarely in diameter and in weight. Like other boletes, it has tubes extending downward from the underside of the cap, rather than gills; spores escape at maturity through the tube openings, or pores. The pore surface of the "B. edulis" fruit body is whitish when young, but ages to a greenish-yellow. The stout stipe, or stem, is white or yellowish in colour, up to , rarely tall and thick, and partially covered with a raised network pattern, or reticulations.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Prized as an ingredient in various culinary dishes, "B. edulis" is an edible mushroom held in high regard in many cuisines, and is commonly prepared and eaten in soups, pasta, or risotto. The mushroom is low in fat and digestible carbohydrates, and high in protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Although it is sold commercially, it is very difficult to cultivate. Available fresh in autumn throughout Europe and Russia, it is most often dried, packaged, and distributed worldwide. It keeps its flavour after drying, and it is then reconstituted and used in cooking. "B. edulis" is one of the few fungi sold pickled.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" was first described in 1782 by the French botanist Pierre Bulliard and still bears its original name. The starting date of fungal taxonomy had been set as January 1, 1821, to coincide with the date of the works of the 'father of mycology', Swedish naturalist Elias Magnus Fries, which meant the name required sanction by Fries (indicated in the name by a colon) to be considered valid, as Bulliard's work preceded this date. It was thus written "Boletus edulis" Bull.:Fr. A 1987 revision of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature set the starting date at May 1, 1753, the date of publication of Linnaeus' work, the "Species Plantarum". Hence, the name no longer requires the ratification of Fries' authority. Early alternate names include "Boletus solidus" by English naturalist James Sowerby in 1809, and Gray's "Leccinum edule". Gray's transfer of the species to "Leccinum" was later determined to be inconsistent with the rules of botanical nomenclature, and he apparently was unfamiliar with the earlier works of Fries when he published his arrangement of bolete species.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is the type species of the genus "Boletus". In Rolf Singer's classification of the Agaricales mushrooms, it is also the type species of section "Boletus", a grouping of about 30 related boletes united by several characteristics: a mild-tasting, white flesh that does not change colour when exposed to air; a smooth to distinctly raised, netted pattern over at least the uppermost portion of the stem; a yellow-brown or olive-brown spore print; white tubes that later become yellowish then greenish, which initially appear to be stuffed with cotton; and cystidia that are not strongly coloured. Molecular analysis published in 1997 established that the bolete mushrooms are all derived from a common ancestor, and established the Boletales as an order separate from the Agaricales.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The generic name is derived from the Latin term "bōlētus" "mushroom", which was borrowed in turn from the Ancient Greek βωλίτης, "terrestrial fungus". Ultimately, this last word derives from "bōlos"/βῶλος "lump", "clod", and, metaphorically, "mushroom". The βωλίτης of Galen, like the "boletus" of Latin writers like Martial, Seneca and Petronius, is often identified as the much prized "Amanita caesarea". The specific epithet "edulis" in Latin means "eatable" or "edible".


title: Boletus edulis

text: Common names for "B. edulis" vary by region. The standard Italian name, "porcino" (pl. "porcini"), means "porcine;" "fungo porcino", in Italian, echoes the term "suilli", literally "hog mushrooms", a term used by the Ancient Romans and still in use in southern Italian terms for this species. The derivation has been ascribed to the resemblance of young fruit bodies to piglets, or to the fondness pigs have for eating them. It is also known as "king bolete". The English "penny bun" refers to its rounded brownish shape. The German name "Steinpilz" (stone mushroom) refers to the species' firm flesh. In Austria, it is called "Herrenpilz", the "noble mushroom", while in Mexico, the Spanish name is "panza", meaning "belly". Another Spanish name, "rodellon", means "small round boulder", while the Dutch name "eekhoorntjesbrood" means "squirrel's bread". Russian names are "belyy grib" (; "white mushroom" as opposed to less valuable "black mushrooms") and "borovik" (; from "bor"—"pine forest").


title: Boletus edulis

text: The vernacular name "cep" is derived from the Catalan "cep" or its French name "cèpe", although the latter is a generic term applying to several related species. In France, it is more fully "cèpe de Bordeaux", derived from the Gascon "cep" "trunk" for its fat stalk, ultimately from the Latin "cippus" "stake". "Ceppatello", "ceppatello buono", "ceppatello bianco", "giallo leonato", "ghezzo", and "moreccio" are names from Italian dialects, and "ciurenys" or "surenys" is another term in Catalan. The French-born King Charles XIV John popularised "B. edulis" in Sweden after 1818, and is honoured in the local vernacular name "Karljohanssvamp", as well as the Danish name "Karl Johan svamp". The monarch cultivated the fungus about his residence, Rosersberg Palace. The Finnish name is "herkkutatti", "herkku" from "herkullinen", which means delicious, and "tatti", describing the type of mushroom.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The cap of this mushroom is broad at maturity. Slightly sticky to touch, it is convex in shape when young and flattens with age. The colour is generally reddish-brown fading to white in areas near the margin, and continues to darken as it matures. The stipe, or stem, is in height, and up to thick—rather large in comparison to the cap; it is club-shaped, or bulges out in the middle. It is finely reticulate on the upper portion, but smooth or irregularly ridged on the lower part. The under surface of the cap is made of thin tubes, the site of spore production; they are deep, and whitish in colour when young, but mature to a greenish-yellow. The angular pores, which do not stain when bruised, are small—roughly 2 to 3 pores per millimetre. In youth, the pores are white and appear as if stuffed with cotton (which are actually mycelia); as they age, they change colour to yellow and later to brown. The spore print is olive brown. The flesh of the fruit body is white, thick and firm when young, but becomes somewhat spongy with age. When bruised or cut, it either does not change colour, or turns a very light brown or light red. Fully mature specimens can weigh about ; a huge specimen collected on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, in 1995 bore a cap of , with a stipe in height and wide, and weighed . A similarly sized specimen found in Poland in 2013 made international news.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is considered one of the safest wild mushrooms to pick for the table, as few poisonous species closely resemble it, and those that do may be easily distinguished by careful examination. The most similar poisonous mushroom may be the devil's bolete ("Rubroboletus satanas"), which has a similar shape, but has a red stem and stains blue on bruising. It is often confused with the very bitter and unpalatable "Tylopilus felleus", but can be distinguished by the reticulation on the stalk; in porcini, it is a whitish, net-like pattern on a brownish stalk, whereas it is a dark pattern on white in the latter. Porcini have whitish pores while the other has pink. If in doubt, tasting a tiny bit of flesh will yield a bitter taste. It can also resemble the "bolete-like" "Gyroporus castaneus", which is generally smaller, and has a browner stem. "Boletus huronensis," an uncommon mushroom of northeastern North America, is another recognized look-alike known to cause severe gastrointestinal disorders.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The spores are elliptical to spindle-shaped, with dimensions of 12–17 by 5–7 µm. The basidia, the spore-bearing cells, are produced in a layer lining the tubes, and arrange themselves so their ends are facing the center of the tube; this layer of cells is known technically as a hymenium. The basidia are thin-walled, mostly attached to four spores, and measure 25–30 by 8–10 µm. Another cell type present in the hymenium is the cystidia, larger sterile cells that protrude beyond the basidia into the lumen of the hymenium, and act as air traps, regulating humidity. "B. edulis" has pleurocystidia (cystidia located on the face of a pore) that are thin-walled, roughly spindle-shaped to ventricose, and measure 30–45 by 7–10 µm; the "stuffed" feature of the hymenium is caused by cheilocystidia—cells found on the edges of the pores. The hyphae of "B. edulis" do not have clamp connections.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Several similar brownish-coloured species are sometimes considered subspecies or forms of this mushroom. In Europe, in addition to "B. edulis" (or "cèpe de Bordeaux"), the most popular are:


title: Boletus edulis

text: Molecular phylogenetic analyses have proven these three are all distinctive and separate species; other taxa formerly believed to be unique species or subspecies, such as "B. betulicola", "B. chippewaensis", "B. persoonii", "B. quercicola" and "B. venturii", are now known to be part of a "B. edulis" species complex with a wide morphological, ecological and geographic range, and that the genetic variability in this complex is low. Similar molecular technology has been developed to rapidly and accurately identify "B. edulis" and other commercially important fungi.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Three divergent lineages found in Yunnan province in China that are commonly marketed and sold as "B. edulis" (and are actually more closely related to "B. aereus") were described in 2013 as "B. bainiugan", "B. meiweiniuganjun" and "B. shiyong". The classification has since been updated and expanded. All lineages are still members of "Boletus" sect. "Boletus", the sensu sticto "porcini clade" of the genus.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Western North America has several species closely related to "B. edulis". The white king bolete ("Boletus barrowsii"), found in parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California (and possibly elsewhere), is named after its discoverer Chuck Barrows. It is lighter in colour than "B. edulis", having a cream-coloured cap with pink tones; often mycorrhizal with Ponderosa pine, it tends to grow in areas where there is less rainfall. Some find its flavour as good as if not better than "B. edulis". The California king bolete ("Boletus edulis var. grandedulis") can reach massive proportions, and is distinguished from "B. edulis" by a mature pore surface that is brown to slightly reddish. The cap colour appears to be affected by the amount of light received during its development, and may range from white in young specimens grown under thick canopy, to dark-brown, red-brown or yellow brown in those specimens receiving more light. The queen bolete ("Boletus regineus"), formerly considered a variety of "B. aereus", is also a choice edible. It is generally smaller than "B. edulis", and unlike that species, is typically found in mixed forests. The spring king bolete ("Boletus rex-veris"), formerly considered a variety of "B. edulis" or "B. pinophilus", is found throughout western North America. In contrast to "B. edulis", "B. rex-veris" tends to fruit in clusters, and, as its common name suggests, appears in the spring. "B. fibrillosus" is edible but considered inferior in taste.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The fruit bodies of "Boletus edulis" can grow singly or in small clusters of two or three specimens. The mushroom's habitat consists of areas dominated by pine ("Pinus" spp.), spruce ("Picea" spp.), hemlock ("Tsuga" spp.) and fir ("Abies" spp.) trees, although other hosts include chestnut, chinquapin, beech, "Keteleeria" spp., "Lithocarpus" spp., and oak. In California, porcini have been collected in a variety of forests, such as coastal forests, dry interior oak forests and savannas and interior high-elevation montane mixed forests, to an altitude of . In northwestern Spain, they are common in scrublands dominated by the rock rose species "Cistus ladanifer" and "Halimium lasianthum". In the Midi region of south-west France, they are especially favoured and locally called "cèpe de Bordeaux" after the town from which they are traded to the north and abroad.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" has a cosmopolitan distribution, concentrated in cool-temperate to subtropical regions. It is common in Europe—from northern Scandinavia, south to the extremities of Greece and Italy—and North America, where its southern range extends as far south as Mexico. It is well known from the Borgotaro area of Parma, Italy, and has PGI status there. The European distribution extends north to Scandinavia and south to southern Italy and Morocco. In China, the mushroom can be found from the northeastern Heilongjiang to the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau and Tibet. It has been recorded growing under "Pinus" and "Tsuga" in Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal, as well as in the Indian forests of Arunachal Pradesh. In West Asia, the species has been reported from the northwest forests of Iran.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Some steps have been made towards cultivating "Boletus edulis", including mycorrhization of rockrose shrubs enhanced by helper bacteria.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" grows in some areas where it is not believed to be indigenous. It is often found underneath oak and silver birch in Hagley Park in central Christchurch, New Zealand, where it is likely to have been introduced, probably on the roots of container-grown beech, birch, and oak in the mid-19th century—around the time exotic trees began to be planted in the Christchurch area. Similarly, it has been collected in Adelaide Hills region of Australia in association with three species of introduced trees. It has been growing plentifully in association with pine forests in the southern KwaZulu-Natal Midlands in South Africa for more than 50 years and is believed to have been introduced with the import of pine trees. It also grows in pine plantations in neighboring Zimbabwe.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Italian folklore holds that porcini sprout up at the time of the new moon; research studies have tried to investigate more scientifically the factors that influence the production of fruit bodies. Although fruit bodies may appear any time from summer to autumn (June to November in the UK), their growth is known to be triggered by rainfall during warm periods of weather followed by frequent autumn rain with a drop in soil temperature. Above average rainfall may result in the rapid appearance of large numbers of boletes, in what is known in some circles as a "bolete year". A 2004 field study indicated that fruit body production is enhanced by an open and sunny wood habitat, corroborating an earlier observation made in a Zimbabwean study; removal of the litter layer on the forest floor appeared to have a negative effect on fruit body production, but previous studies reported contradictory results. A Lithuanian study conducted in 2001 concluded that the maximal daily growth rate of the cap (about 21 mm or 0.8 in) occurred when the relative air humidity was the greatest, and the fruit bodies ceased growing when the air humidity dropped below 40%. Factors most likely to inhibit the appearance of fruit bodies included prolonged drought, inadequate air and soil humidity, sudden decreases of night air temperatures, and the appearance of the first frost. Plots facing north tend to produce more mushrooms compared to equivalent plots facing south.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is mycorrhizal—it is in a mutualistic relationship with the roots of plants (hosts), in which the fungus exchanges nitrogen and other nutrients extracted from the environment for fixed carbon from the host. Other benefits for the plant are evident: in the case of the Chinese chestnut, the formation of mycorrhizae with "B. edulis" increases the ability of plant seedlings to resist water stress, and increases leaf succulence, leaf area, and water-holding ability. The fungus forms a sheath of tissue around terminal, nutrient-absorbing root tips, often inducing a high degree of branching in the tips of the host, and penetrating into the root tissue, forming, to some mycologists, the defining feature of ectomycorrhizal relationships, a hartig net. The ectomycorrhizal fungi are then able to exchange nutrients with the plant, effectively expanding the root system of the host plant to the furthest reaches of the symbiont fungi. Compatible hosts may belong to multiple families of vascular plants that are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere; according to one 1995 estimate, there are at least 30 host plant species distributed over more than 15 genera. Examples of mycorrhizal associates include Chinese red pine, Mexican weeping pine, Scots pine, Norway spruce, Coast Douglas-fir, mountain pine, and Virginia pine. The fungus has also been shown to associate with gum rockrose, a pioneer early stage shrub that is adapted for growth in degraded areas, such as burned forests. These and other rockrose species are ecologically important as fungal reservoirs, maintaining an inoculum of mycorrhizal fungi for trees that appear later in the forest regrowth cycle.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The mushroom has been noted to often co-occur with "Amanita muscaria" or "A. rubescens", although it is unclear whether this is due to a biological association between the species, or because of similarities in growing season, habitat, and ecological requirements. An association has also been reported between "B. edulis" and "Amanita excelsa" on "Pinus radiata" ectomycorrhizae in New Zealand, suggesting that other fungi may influence the life cycle of porcini. A 2007 field study revealed little correlation between the abundance of fruit bodies and presence of its mycelia below ground, even when soil samples were taken from directly beneath the mushroom; the study concluded that the triggers leading to formation of mycorrhizae and production of the fruit bodies were more complex.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is known to be able to tolerate and even thrive on soil that is contaminated with toxic heavy metals, such as soil that might be found near metal smelters. The mushroom's resistance to heavy-metal toxicity is conferred by a biochemical called a phytochelatin—an oligopeptide whose production is induced after exposure to metal. Phytochelatins are chelating agents, capable of forming multiple bonds with the metal; in this state, the metal cannot normally react with other elements or ions and is stored in a detoxified form in the mushroom tissue.


title: Boletus edulis

text: The fruit bodies of "B. edulis" can be infected by the parasitic mould-like fungus "Hypomyces chrysospermus", known as the bolete eater, which manifests itself as a white, yellow, or reddish-brown cottony layer over the surface of the mushroom. Some reported cases of stomach ache following consumption of dried porcini have been attributed to the presence of this mould on the fruit bodies. The mushroom is also used as a food source by several species of mushroom flies, as well as other insects and their larvae. An unidentified species of virus was reported to have infected specimens found in the Netherlands and in Italy; fruit bodies affected by the virus had relatively thick stems and small or no caps, leading to the name "little-cap disease".


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is a food source for animals such as the banana slug "(Ariolimax columbianus)", the long-haired grass mouse, the red squirrel, and, as noted in one isolated report, the fox sparrow.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis", as the species epithet "edulis" (Latin: 'edible') directly implies, is an edible mushroom. Italian chef and restaurateur Antonio Carluccio has described it as representing "the wild mushroom "par excellence"", and hails it as the most rewarding of all fungi in the kitchen for its taste and versatility. Considered a choice edible, particularly in France, Germany, Poland and Italy, it was widely written about by the Roman writers Pliny the Elder and Martial, although ranked below the esteemed "Amanita caesarea". When served "suilli" instead of "boleti", the disgruntled Martial wrote:


title: Boletus edulis

text: The flavour has been described as nutty and slightly meaty, with a smooth, creamy texture, and a distinctive aroma reminiscent of sourdough. Young, small porcini are most appreciated by gourmets, as the large ones often harbour maggots (insect larvae), and become slimy, soft and less tasty with age. Fruit bodies are collected by holding the stipe near the base and twisting gently. Cutting the stipe with a knife may risk the part left behind rotting and the mycelium being destroyed. Peeling and washing are not recommended. The fruit bodies are highly perishable, due largely to the high water content (around 90%), the high level of enzyme activity, and the presence of a flora of microorganisms. Caution should be exercised when collecting specimens from potentially polluted or contaminated sites, as several studies have shown that the fruit bodies can bioaccumulate toxic heavy metals like mercury, cadmium, caesium and polonium. Bioaccumulated metals or radioactive fission decay products are like chemical signatures: chemical and radiochemical analysis can be used to identify the origin of imported specimens, and for long-term radioecological monitoring of polluted areas.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Porcini are sold fresh in markets in summer and autumn in Europe and Russia, and dried or canned at other times of the year, and distributed worldwide to countries where they are not otherwise found. They are eaten and enjoyed raw, sautéed with butter, ground into pasta, in soups, and in many other dishes. In France, they are used in recipes such as "cèpes à la Bordelaise", "cèpe frits" and "cèpe aux tomates". Porcini risotto is a traditional Italian autumn dish. Porcini are a feature of many cuisines, including Provençal, and Viennese. They are used in soups and consumed blanched in salads in Thailand. Porcini can also be frozen—either raw or first cooked in butter. The colour, aroma, and taste of frozen porcini deteriorate noticeably if frozen longer than four months. Blanching or soaking and blanching as a processing step before freezing can extend the freezer life up to 12 months. They are also one of the few mushroom species pickled and sold commercially.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" is well suited to drying—its flavour intensifies, it is easily reconstituted, and its resulting texture is pleasant. Reconstitution is done by soaking in hot, but not boiling, water for about twenty minutes; the water used is infused with the mushroom aroma and it too can be used in subsequent cooking. Dried porcini have more protein than most other commonly consumed vegetables apart from soybeans. Some of this content is indigestible, though digestibility is improved with cooking.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Like other boletes, porcini can be dried by being strung separately on twine and hung close to the ceiling of a kitchen. Alternatively, the mushrooms can be dried by cleaning with a brush (washing is not recommended), and then placing them in a wicker basket or bamboo steamer on top of a boiler or hot water tank. Another method is drying in an oven at for two to three hours, then increasing the temperature to until crisp or brittle. Once dry, they are kept in an airtight jar. Importantly for commercial production, porcini retain their flavour after industrial preparation in a pressure cooker or after canning or bottling, and are thus useful for manufacturers of soups or stews. The addition of a few pieces of dried porcino can significantly add to flavour, and they are a major ingredient of the pasta sauce known as "carrettiera" (carter's sauce). The drying process is known to induce the formation of various volatile substances that contribute to the mushroom's aroma. Chemical analysis has shown that the odour of the dried mushroom is a complex mixture of 53 volatile compounds.


title: Boletus edulis

text: A 1998 estimate suggests the total annual worldwide consumption of "Boletus edulis" and closely related species ("B. aereus", "B. pinophilus", and "B. reticulatus") to be between 20,000 and 100,000 tons. Approximately 2,700 tonnes (3,000 tons) were sold in France, Italy and Germany in 1988, according to official figures. The true amount consumed far exceeds this, as it does not account for informal sales or consumption by collectors. They are widely exported and sold in dried form, reaching countries where they do not occur naturally, such as Australia and New Zealand. The autonomous community of Castile and León in Spain produces 7,700 tonnes (8,500 tons) annually. In autumn, the price of porcini in the Northern Hemisphere typically ranges between $20 and $80 per kilogram, although in New York in 1997 the scarcity of fruit bodies elevated the wholesale price to more than $200 per kilogram.


title: Boletus edulis

text: In the vicinity of Borgotaro in the Province of Parma of northern Italy, the four species "Boletus edulis", "B. aereus", "B. aestivalis" and "B. pinophilus" have been recognised for their superior taste and officially termed "Fungo di Borgotaro". Here these mushrooms have been collected for centuries and exported commercially. Owing to the globalization of the mushroom trade most of the porcini commercially available in Italy or exported by Italy no longer originate there. Porcini and other mushrooms are imported into Italy from various locations, especially China and eastern European countries; these are then often re-exported under the "Italian porcini" label.


title: Boletus edulis

text: In Italy the disconnect with local production has had an adverse effect on quality; for example in the 1990s some of the dried porcino mushrooms exported to Italy from China contained species of genus "Tylopilus", which are rather similar in appearance and when dried are difficult for both mushroom labourers and mycologists alike to distinguish from "Boletus". "Tylopilus" species typically have a very bitter taste, which is imparted to the flavour of the porcini with which they are mixed.


title: Boletus edulis

text: After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the economic and political barriers that followed, central and eastern European countries with local mushroom harvesting traditions, such as Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, developed into exporters of porcini, concentrating primarily on the Italian market. Exported porcini and other wild fungi are also destined for France, Germany and other western European markets, where demand for them exists, but collection on a commercial scale does not. Picking "B. edulis" has become an annual seasonal income earner and pastime in countries like Bulgaria, especially for many Roma communities and the unemployed. A lack of control has led to heavy exploitation of the mushroom resource.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Like many other strictly mycorrhizal fungi, "B. edulis" has eluded cultivation attempts for years. The results of some studies suggest that unknown components of the soil microflora might be required for "B. edulis" to establish a mycorrhizal relationship with the host plant. Successful attempts at cultivating "B. edulis" have been made by Spanish scientists by mycorrhization of "Cistus" species, with "Pseudomonas fluorescens" bacteria helping the mycorrhiza.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" mushrooms are 9% carbohydrates, 3% fat, and 7% protein (table). Fresh mushrooms consist of over 80% moisture, although reported values tend to differ somewhat as moisture content can be affected by environmental temperature and relative humidity during growth and storage. The carbohydrate component contains the monosaccharides glucose, mannitol and α,α-trehalose, the polysaccharide glycogen, and the water-insoluble structural polysaccharide chitin, which accounts for up to 80–90% of dry matter in mushroom cell walls. Chitin, hemicellulose, and pectin-like carbohydrates—all indigestible by humans—contribute to high proportion of insoluble fibre in "B. edulis".


title: Boletus edulis

text: The total lipid, or crude fat, content makes up 3% of the dry matter of the mushroom. The proportion of fatty acids (expressed as a % of total fatty acids) are: palmitic acid, 10%; stearic acid, 3%; oleic acid, 36%; and linoleic acid, 42%.


title: Boletus edulis

text: A comparative study of the amino acid composition of eleven Portuguese wild edible mushroom species showed "Boletus edulis" to have the highest total amino acid content.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "B. edulis" mushrooms are rich in the dietary minerals, sodium, iron, calcium, and magnesium, with amounts varying according to the mushroom component and to soil composition in the geographic region of China where they were sampled. They also have high content of B vitamins and tocopherols. "B. edulis" contains appreciable amounts of selenium, a trace mineral, although the bioavailability of mushroom-derived selenium is low.


title: Boletus edulis

text: "Boletus edulis" fruit bodies contain diverse phytochemicals, including 500 mg of ergosterol per 100 g of dried mushroom, and ergothioneine. The fruit bodies contain numerous polyphenols, especially a high content of rosmarinic acid, and organic acids (such as oxalic, citric, malic, succinic and fumaric acids), and alkaloids.


title: Boletus edulis

text: Aroma compounds giving "B. edulis" mushrooms their characteristic fragrance include some 100 components, such as esters and fatty acids. In a study of aroma compounds, 1-octen-3-one was the most prevalent chemical detected in raw mushrooms, with pyrazines having increased aroma effect and elevated content after drying.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: WrestleMania XXVII (also written as WrestleMania 27) was the 27th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on April 3, 2011, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Georgia and the second to be held in Southeastern United States, following WrestleMania XXIV. It was also the final WrestleMania held during the first brand extension, which ended in August, but was reinstated in July 2016. This was also the company's final event to be promoted under the full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, as immediately following this event, the company strictly began to refer to itself by the WWE abbreviation. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson served as the host of the event.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The event's card consisted of eight matches, including three main matches. The final match of the event was the main match from Raw, where The Miz defeated John Cena to retain the WWE Championship thanks to help from The Rock, setting up the main event of WrestleMania XXVIII between Rock and Cena. SmackDown's main match saw Edge defeat Alberto Del Rio to retain the World Heavyweight Championship—this would be Edge's final match until 2020. In the other marquee match, The Undertaker defeated Triple H in a No Holds Barred match to extend his undefeated WrestleMania streak to 19–0. This is the first and so far only WrestleMania in which no championships changed hands.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Tickets for the event commenced sale to the public on November 13, 2010. According to WWE's second-quarter earnings report, WrestleMania XXVII generated 1,059,000 PPV buys, up roughly 30% domestically and 15% internationally from the previous year. The event grossed US$6.6 million in revenue with 71,617 in attendance, making it the third highest grossing event in WWE behind WrestleMania 25 and the next year's event WrestleMania XXVIII. It generated $62.1 million in economic impact for Atlanta, a $17 million increase from the previous WrestleMania event, and also generated approximately $7.8 million in local, state and county taxes.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: WrestleMania is considered World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985. It has become the longest-running professional wrestling event in history and is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. It was the first of WWE's original four pay-per-views, which includes Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". WrestleMania XXVII was scheduled to be held on April 3, 2011, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In September 2009, it was reported that the city of Atlanta was seeking to host WrestleMania XXVII at the Georgia Dome. Atlanta's main rival bid came from the city of Miami, Florida, which proposed to host the event at Sun Life Stadium along with "WrestleMania Axxess" at the Miami Beach Convention Center and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the American Airlines Arena. Miami would eventually become the host for WrestleMania XXVIII. Atlanta was formally announced as the site at a press conference on February 1, 2010. According to WWE's senior vice president of special events, John Saboor, Atlanta was ultimately chosen for, among other reasons, "their track record of success with large events, rich in its tradition with the WWE, and great infrastructure." The event marked the first time WrestleMania was held in the state of Georgia.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Along with WrestleMania XXVII, a series of events grouped as "WrestleMania Week" was held in the week preceding the event including WrestleMania's annual "WrestleMania Axxess" fan convention, the 2011 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, the fourth annual "WrestleMania Art" exhibition and auction, and a Celebrity Pro-Am Golf tournament. "WrestleMania Axxess" was held at the Georgia World Congress Center, while the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony took place at the Philips Arena. It was the first pay-per-view event under WWE's promotional rights deal with Kmart. Under the deal, Kmart will be the official sponsor for all of WWE's live events in the United States for the rest of 2011. As another part of the promotion for the event, "WWE Magazine" released a "Guide to WrestleMania XXVII" app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, offering information about the upcoming event as well as trivia from past events.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: "Written in the Stars" by Tinie Tempah was the theme song for the event. "Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)" by Shinedown served as the secondary theme song, while R&B singer Keri Hilson performed "America the Beautiful" at the start of the show. Celebrities and former wrestlers that appeared in WrestleMania XXVII segments include Snoop Dogg, Pee Wee Herman, Gene Okerlund, Mae Young, and Roddy Piper.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The professional wrestling matches at WrestleMania XXVII featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows "Raw" and "SmackDown" with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: The predominant rivalry for the Raw brand involved Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, John Cena and the reigning WWE Champion, The Miz. On the February 14 episode of "Raw", The Rock was announced as host for WrestleMania XXVII. In his first appearance in a WWE ring in seven years, The Rock publicly mocked both Miz and Cena. At the following week's Elimination Chamber event, Cena won the Raw brand's annual Elimination Chamber match to earn himself a WWE Championship opportunity against Miz. One night later on "Raw", both Cena and Miz derided The Rock's previous comments, with Cena producing a rap questioning The Rock's true commitment to WWE over his acting career. Via satellite, Rock responded to Cena's rap on the February 28 edition of "Raw", citing that he started a movie career to help open the door for other wrestlers to go to Hollywood, including Miz and Cena himself. On the March 28 episode of Raw, Rock and Cena confronted each other face to face before WrestleMania, until Miz came out. Miz and his protégé, Alex Riley, attacked The Rock, who managed to fight back both men. After the assault, Cena performed an Attitude Adjustment on Rock to end the show.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Starting from the January 31 episode of "Raw", mysterious vignettes began promoting the return of a mysterious wrestler on "2.21.11". On the February 21 edition of "Raw", The Undertaker was revealed as the mysterious figure, who made his return after a four-month absence. However, Undertaker's return was interrupted by a returning Triple H. The two men stared each other down and both peered at the WrestleMania sign, teasing a possible challenge at WrestleMania XXVII. The match was confirmed four days later on WWE's official website. This match marks the second time the two would face each other at a WrestleMania, the first being WrestleMania X-Seven ten years earlier. Before their WrestleMania match, both men had a face to face encounter on the March 28 episode of "Raw", only to be interrupted by Shawn Michaels, who criticized Triple H for believing that he could defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, something that Michaels wasn't able to do at the previous years' event. After The Undertaker stated that Michaels was history, Michaels attempted to perform a Superkick on him, but The Undertaker retaliated with a Chokeslam that was stopped by Triple H, who then asked Michaels why he is going to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Michaels, however, left the ring, unable to give Triple H an answer, believing that Triple H couldn't defeat The Undertaker at the event.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Since 1993, the winner of the annual Royal Rumble match at the January event of the same name has won the opportunity to fight for a world championship at WrestleMania. Alberto Del Rio won the match in 2011 and challenged Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship. This led to a series of assaults from Del Rio to Edge in the following weeks. However, Edge was joined by the returning Christian, who aided Edge from Del Rio and his bodyguard Brodus Clay, and proceeded to be in Edge's corner at WrestleMania.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: In December 2010, "Raw" color commentator Jerry Lawler began a feud with fellow announcer Michael Cole when the anonymous Raw General Manager gave Lawler a WWE Championship match in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match against defending champion The Miz. As Lawler started to climb the ladder to retrieve the belt, Cole interfered and prevented Lawler from winning the match. On the February 21 edition of "Raw", Cole mocked Lawler for losing his rematch against The Miz at Elimination Chamber as well as his dreams of having a WrestleMania match, going as far as even mentioning Lawler's mother who died weeks earlier. Lawler responded by challenging Cole to a match at WrestleMania, which Cole denied before running through the crowd. A week later, Cole accepted Lawler's challenge under two conditions – that his trainer Jack Swagger would be in his corner, and that he could choose a special guest referee – which Lawler accepted. The following week, Cole revealed John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) as the special guest referee. However, Steve Austin, who made his return that night, interfered in the contract signing by delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to JBL and signing the contract himself, thereby becoming the special guest referee of their match. Cole continued to insult Lawler on the following weeks, even bringing Lawler's son Brian Christopher, who insulted Lawler, and calling him a bad father, before slapping him in the face and leaving. After that, Jim Ross, Lawler's best friend, confronted Cole and called him a "rat bastard", for which Swagger attacked Ross, and later Lawler, who attempted to save Ross.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Another plot building up towards WrestleMania involved CM Punk and Randy Orton. At the beginning of the year, Punk became the leader of The New Nexus. At the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Punk cost Orton his WWE Championship match against defending champion The Miz. The following night on "Raw", Orton retaliated by assaulting Punk's fellow New Nexus members Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris, resulting in Harris being punted in the head. On the February 7 episode of "Raw", Punk revealed that his actions were his revenge on Orton for punting him in the head at Unforgiven in September 2008, where Punk was unable to defend his World Heavyweight Championship due to Orton's attack and subsequently forced to vacate his title. On February 28, the anonymous Raw general manager scheduled a match between Punk and Orton at WrestleMania. In addition, the General Manager announced that Orton would face one of the members of the New Nexus throughout the following weeks. If Orton lost, his opponents would be allowed to be in Punk's corner at WrestleMania; if he won, his opponent would be banned from attending the event. Orton won all of his matches, so Michael McGillicutty, David Otunga, and Mason Ryan were all banned from ringside at the event. After each victory, Orton would punt each member in the head in order to send a message to Punk. On the March 21 episode of "Raw", Punk distracted Orton during his "WrestleMania Rewind" match with Rey Mysterio and used Orton's wife as bait to lure him to the parking lot, where he attacked Orton's knee with a wrench. The following week, on the "Raw" before WrestleMania, both men brawled with each other, which ended after Punk performed a "Go To Sleep" on Orton after taking advantage of his injured knee.


title: WrestleMania XXVII

text: Another feud heading into WrestleMania was between Rey Mysterio and Cody Rhodes. On the January 21 edition of "SmackDown", Mysterio and Rhodes had a match in which Mysterio broke the nose of Rhodes with the 619. Rhodes, who underwent facial reconstruction surgery, later accused Mysterio of forcing him to miss the Royal Rumble match and the Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship, as well as ruining his 'dashing' gimmick. On the March 4 edition of "SmackDown", Cody's father, Dusty Rhodes, came out to talk to Mysterio and asked Rhodes to apologize for his accusation, but it turned out to be a setup to allow Rhodes to attack and unmask Mysterio. The next week Rhodes challenged Mysterio to a match at WrestleMania, which was accepted by Mysterio. The following week, Rhodes attacked Mysterio again, during Mysterio's match against Drew McIntyre. However, Mysterio retailed the following week, attacking Rhodes, until Rhodes escaped the ring.