title: The Waterboys

text: Scott, who briefly studied literature and philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, has made heavy use of English literature in his music. The Waterboys have recorded poems set to music by writers including William Butler Yeats ("The Stolen Child" and "Love and Death"), George MacDonald ("Room to Roam"), and Robert Burns ("Ever to Be Near Ye"). A member of the Academy of American Poets writes that "The Waterboys' gift lies in locating Burns and Yeats within a poetic tradition of song, revelry, and celebration, re-invigorating their verses with the energy of contemporary music". So close is the identification of the Waterboys with their literary influences that the writer also remarks that "W.B.", the initials to which Yeats' first and middle names are often shortened, could also stand for "Waterboys". The Waterboys returned to W.B. Yeats in March 2010. Having arranged 20 of his poems to music, the band performed them as "An Appointment With Mr Yeats" for five nights at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (which Yeats co-founded in 1904). The liner notes from the CD edition of "Room to Roam" acknowledge author C.S. Lewis as an influence, and the title of the song "Further Up, Further In" is taken from a line in his novel "The Last Battle".


title: The Waterboys

text: Scott has also a number of poetic tropes in lyrics, including anthropomorphism (e.g. "Islandman"), metaphor (e.g. "A Church Not Made with Hands", "The Whole of the Moon"), and metonymy (e.g. "Old England"). The latter song quotes from both Yeats and James Joyce. While the lyrics of the band have explored a large number of themes, symbolic references to water are especially prominent. Water is often referenced in their songs (e.g. "This Is the Sea", "Strange Boat", "Fisherman's Blues"). The Waterboys' logo, first seen on the album cover of "The Waterboys", symbolises waves.


title: The Waterboys

text: The Waterboys' lyrics show influences from different spiritual traditions. The first is the romantic Neopaganism and esotericism of authors such as Yeats and Dion Fortune, which can be observed in the repeated references to the ancient Greek deity Pan in both "The Pan Within" and "The Return of Pan". Pan was also featured on the album art for "Room to Roam". "Medicine Bow", a song from the recording sessions for "This Is the Sea", refers to Native American spirituality in its use of the word "medicine" to mean spiritual power. Scott's interest in Native American issues is also demonstrated in his preliminary recordings for the group's debut album, which included the songs "Death Song of the Sioux Parts One & Two" and "Bury My Heart". "Bury My Heart" is a reference to Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". a history of Native Americans in the western United States. Scott took the traditional Sioux song "The Earth Only Endures" from "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", and set it to new music; the arrangement appears on "The Secret Life of the Waterboys". Christian imagery can be seen in the songs "December" from "The Waterboys", "The Christ in You" on "Universal Hall", and indirectly in the influence of C. S. Lewis in a number of other songs, but Scott writes that his lyrics are not influenced by Christianity.


title: The Waterboys

text: Scott has also said, "I've always been interested in spirituality, and I've never joined any religion. And it really turns me off when people from one religion say theirs is the only way. And I believe all religions are just different ways to spirituality. And if you call that universality, well, then I'm all for it." Despite Scott's pluralist perspective, the Waterboys have been labelled as "Christian rock" by some reviewers and heathens by some Christians.


title: The Waterboys

text: Over seventy musicians have performed live as a Waterboy. Some have spent only a short time with the band, contributing to a single tour or album, while others have been long-term members with significant contributions. Scott has been the band's lead vocalist, motivating force, and principal songwriter throughout the group's history, but a number of other musicians are closely identified with the band.


title: The Waterboys

text: Anthony Thistlethwaite was an original member of the band, and remained a member until 1991 when the band broke up, although he also joined a few recording sessions for "A Rock in the Weary Land". After Scott and Wickham, Thistlethwaite has more songwriting credits than any other Waterboy. His saxophone (regularly featured in solos) was one half of the early group's distinctive brass section, while his mandolin playing came to the forefront during the group's Irish folk phase; but he has also played guitar, keyboards and a number of other instruments for the band. He pressed to return The Waterboys to a rock music sound after "Room to Roam", but did not appear on "Dream Harder", the result of that decision. He is now a member of The Saw Doctors, and has also released three solo albums.


title: The Waterboys

text: Original member Kevin Wilkinson was the band's drummer from 1983 to 1984, and continued to play in some studio sessions afterwards. His later appeared on "A Rock in the Weary Land". He led the rhythm section of the group during its "Big Music" phase, sometimes without the assistance of any bass guitar. Scott describes Wilkinson's drumming as "bright and angular, an unusual sound".


title: The Waterboys

text: Karl Wallinger joined the group in 1983, shortly after its formation. He left the group two years later, but in that relatively short period made important contributions to both "A Pagan Place" and "This Is the Sea". He co-wrote "Don't Bang the Drum", the environmentalism anthem on the latter album. His keyboards and synthesiser work expanded the group's sound, and he also did some studio work for demo sessions. Wallinger's World Party project was heavily influenced by his work with The Waterboys.


title: The Waterboys

text: Roddy Lorimer's participation began in 1983, contributing his trumpet playing "on and off" until 1990. He and Thistlethwaite took turns leading the brass section of the band, and Lorimer was also a featured soloist, most famously on "The Whole of the Moon" and "Don't Bang the Drum". He further contributed backing vocals to the song. His trumpet style is a combination of his classical training with an experimental approach encouraged by Scott. Lorimer returned for some studio work in 2006.


title: The Waterboys

text: Steve Wickham transformed the group when he joined in 1985; his interest in folk music directly resulted in the band's change of direction. His initial involvement with The Waterboys ended in 1990 when Scott and Thistlethwaite wanted to return to rock and roll, but Wickham rejoined the group again in 2000, and, as of 2007, continues to perform with the band. Described by Scott as "the world's greatest rock fiddle player", he has written more songs for the band than anyone other than Scott, including the group's handful of instrumental recordings.


title: The Waterboys

text: Richard Naiff first recorded with the band in 1999, and joined permanently in 2000. As of 2007, he was a core member, along with Scott and Wickham. He is a classically trained pianist and flautist, and plays keyboards for The Waterboys. Ian McNabb described him as Scott's "find of the century" and reviewers have described him as "phenomenally talented". Naiff officially left The Waterboys in February 2009 to spend more time with his family.


title: The Waterboys

text: Other notable past members have included Ian McNabb, leader of Icicle Works; Sharon Shannon, who became Ireland's all-time best-selling traditional musician; the experimental musician Thighpaulsandra, producer Guy Chambers, Patti Smith drummers Jay Dee Daugherty and Carlos Hercules, bassists Steve Walters and Mark Smith who was the band's bassist when he died on 3 November 2009.


title: The Waterboys

text: The Waterboys line-up as of 2010 appeared at the world premiere of "An Appointment With Mr Yeats" at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. They expanded into a 9-piece band in the autumn of 2017 for their tour of the UK, Ireland and Europe.


title: The Waterboys

text: Scott has stated that "We've had more members I believe than any other band in rock history" and believes that the nearest challengers are Santana and The Fall.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Olubowale Victor Akintimehin (born September 21, 1984), better known by his stage name Wale ( ), is an American rapper. He first gained recognition in 2006, when his song "Dig Dug (Shake It)" became popular in his hometown, leading Wale to became locally recognized as he continued recording music for the regional audience. Wale met English DJ-producer Mark Ronson in 2006 and joined his label, Allido Records in 2007. While signed to that label, Wale released several mixtapes and appeared in national media including MTV and various Black American-focused magazines. A song called "Ridin' in That Black Joint" was featured in the popular video game "Saints Row 2"s soundtrack in 2008.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In 2008, a three-label bidding war resulted in Wale signing with Interscope Records for $1.3 million, and his debut album "Attention Deficit" was released in 2009 with the singles "Chillin" (featuring Lady Gaga), "Pretty Girls" (featuring Gucci Mane), and "World Tour" (featuring Jazmine Sullivan). The album, although under-shipped, was met with positive reception from critics. In early 2011, Wale signed with Florida rapper Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group, where members of the label released a compilation album, "Self Made Vol. 1" on May 23, 2011. His second studio album, "Ambition" was released November 1, 2011, with mixed reviews. His third studio album, "The Gifted", was released on June 25, 2013, to mainly positive reviews; it debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200. His second "Billboard" number one album "The Album About Nothing" was released on March 31, 2015.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In 2018, Wale released three EPs titled "It's Complicated", "Self-Promotion" and "Free Lunch". In 2019, Wale released his sixth studio album "Wow... That's Crazy", with the album's lead single "On Chill" (featuring Jeremih) was released on July 12, 2019. The song was met with positive reviews and spent 23 weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 22. In 2021, Wale followed up his 2012 mixtape "Folarin" with his seventh studio album "Folarin II". In 2022, Wale appeared in the film "Ambulance" directed by Michael Bay.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Olubowale Victor Akintimehin was born on September 21, 1984, in Northwest, Washington, D.C. His parents were both from the Yoruba ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria, and both of them came from Austria to the United States in 1979. Wale's family first lived in Northwest, Washington, D.C., and then moved to Montgomery County, Maryland, when Wale was 10. In 2002, he graduated from the Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, and moved to Largo in Prince George's County. Wale attended Robert Morris University and Virginia State University on football scholarships, then transferred to Bowie State University. However, he dropped out due to academic reasons. Wale's love of the game of football and the team then known as Washington Redskins has led to a longstanding rumor that Wale had a tattoo of tight end Chris Cooley. He's also the cousin of actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, who is best known as for playing Chris Partlow on HBO's "The Wire". Wale's first recorded track, called "Rhyme of the Century", became his first song to ever be played on the local radio. In 2006, he was featured in the "Unsigned Hype" column of ""The Source" magazine", and later signed to a local label, Studio 43. The track, called "Dig Dug (Shake It)" became popular in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and was a tribute to Ronald "Dig Dug" Dixon, who was a percussion player for the go-go band Northeast Groovers. The song became the most requested song by a local artist in Washington D.C. radio history and Wale was the first local artist to get some BDS spins since DJ Kool in the early 1990s. The song was included in Wale's first mixtape, "Paint a Picture".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In July 2006, Wale found representation in Daniel Weisman, a former club DJ and promoter who had no previous experience in management. Weisman had been tipped off about the rapper by a friend in Washington, D.C. and connected with him through Myspace. In September 2006, after dropping another go-go influenced single, called "Breakdown" (sampled from Huck-A-Bucks "Sexy Girl") has been getting a mention on "The Washington Post", Wale released his first non-go-go original single, called "Uptown Roamers". On September 14, 2006, "Uptown Roamers" debuted on XM Radio Channel 66, where it's been played twice in one day. Both "Breakdown" and "Uptown Roamers" were on Wale's second mixtape, "Hate Is the New Love". The song, "Breakdown" was featured on the video game Madden NFL 2009.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale won the award for "D. C. Metro Breakthrough Artist of the Year" at WKYS's Go-Go Awards in November 2006. On December 15, "The Fader" magazine associate editor Nick "Catchdubs" Barat visited Wale for an interview and photo shoot, which appeared in the March 2007 issue of "The Fader". Manager Weisman told HitQuarters that the Fader feature, given the magazine's music/culture/fashion orientation, laid an important foundation for Wale to position himself as a "cool, smart, up-and-coming hip-hop artist who might actually be Drake".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In January 2007, Wale released a new single to radio called "Good Girls" produced by Gerard Thomas and Demario Bridges for TeamMusicGroup (LeTroy Davis). Wale later appeared on Mark Ronson's remix of Lily Allen's "Smile" and was a headliner on Ronson's UK tour that year promoting Ronson's second album "Version". In June 2007, Wale signed to a production deal with Ronson's Allido Records.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In May 2010, Wale abruptly canceled a scheduled performance at DC Black Pride, an annual black gay pride event. In an email to the event's organizer, Wale's manager claimed he was unaware it was a gay event when he agreed to perform. However, on May 28, 2010, it was announced he would perform alongside the headliner for free.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale released his third mixtape, "100 Miles & Running", on July 11, 2007, as a free download on his Myspace page. This mixtape includes features from Mark Ronson, Daniel Merriweather, Amy Winehouse, and Lily Allen. It was released on the same day as his performance at the Highline Ballroom, in Manhattan. The Highline show was to promote the US release of Mark Ronson's album and included performances by Mark Ronson, Wale, Saigon, and Daniel Merriweather. Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Maroon 5, Clive Davis, Eve and Danny Masterson were all in attendance. There, Wale was interviewed by MTV News correspondent J. D. Tuminski for his first national TV feature on August 16, 2007. With Ronson, Wale performed "W. A. L. E. D. A. N. C. E. ", a remix of Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." from Wale's "100 Miles" mixtape, at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. "The Washington Post" profiled Wale on the front page of the Sunday Style section in the October 21, 2007, edition. Wale was featured on the cover of the 150th issue of "URB" along with French electro group Justice.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In March 2008, Wale signed a joint venture deal with Mark Ronson's Allido Records and Interscope, joining Rhymefest and Daniel Merriweather as Allido artists. Epic Records, Atlantic Records, and Def Jam all competed to sign Wale. On May 30, Wale released his fourth mixtape"The Mixtape About Nothing", heavily produced by Best Kept Secret. Wale said that the television show "Seinfeld" inspired "The Mixtape About Nothing": "the TV show's 'honest dialogue' mirrors his lyrical style, which frequently references pop culture and politics while avoiding gangster-rap bluster".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: After signing with Interscope, Wale began recording tracks for his major label debut: in a 2008 interview with "Express", a newspaper published by the Washington Post Company, Wale announced that he was recording a song with Chrisette Michele called "Shades", which discusses inter-black racism. Wale also appeared on Interscope label mate DJ Greg Street's single "Dope Boys" which samples Hip Hop classic T.R.O.Y. alongside Lupe Fiasco and Kardinal Offishall. Rapper Young Chris of rap duo Young Gunz also began plans for a collaboration mixtape with Wale.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On June 19, 2009, Wale released his fifth mixtape, "Back to the Feature", on which eleven of the tracks were produced by 9th Wonder, with contributions also coming from Mark Ronson and others. The album's title, a play off the name of the movie "Back to the Future", referred to the fact that a lengthy list of rappers joined Wale on the songs, including K'naan, Tamere Guess, Talib Kweli, Joell Ortiz, Beanie Sigel, Curren$y, J. Cole and Bun B. The mixtape received positive reviews from "Vibe" magazine and website Pitchfork Media, but Colin McGowan of "Cokemachineglow" commented that it represented neither "a step forward or back [for the artist] so much as shouting-in-place. "


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale did a guest performance on "Change", a song by the Australian singer-songwriter Daniel Merriweather. It was written by Merriweather and Andrew Wyatt and produced by Mark Ronson. It was released on January 30, 2009, in the United States and Canada, and February 2, 2009, in the UK (where the song peaked at no.8). The song is included on Merriweather's album "Love & War".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On September 13, Wale, alongside the DC-based musicians of UCB (Uncalled 4 Band)- The Board Administration artists, served as the official house band for the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Released on November 10, 2009, Wale's debut album, "Attention Deficit", had primarily positive reception. Metacritic, which assigns a standardized score out of 100, rated the album 77 based on 21 reviews. It debuted at the number 21 spot on the "Billboard" 200 and sold 28,000 copies in its first week. Interscope claimed that the LP was undershipped and that was the reason for the low sales numbers. Daniel Weisman, Wale's manager, claimed that Interscope didn't ship enough copies of the album. The first single off "Attention Deficit" was "Chillin", featuring Lady Gaga, followed by "Pretty Girls" featuring Gucci Mane and Weensey and "World Tour" featuring Jazmine Sullivan. Other guest artists on the album included Pharrell; Bun B; Chrisette Michele; K'Naan; Marsha Ambrosius; J. Cole; and Melanie Fiona.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In March 2010, Rapper Wale announced he and K'Naan would kick off a short co-headlining tour across the east coast of the US, beginning at the end of March in New York City. According to Wale, he is in the studio with Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame, Roscoe Dash, Sean Garrett, and Drumma Boy.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On August 3, 2010, Wale released his sixth mixtape, "More About Nothing" hosted by DJ Omega a follow-up to his critically acclaimed "The Mixtape About Nothing" under The Board Administration – an independent label co-founded with Marketing Executive Le'Greg O. Harrison. "More About Nothing" took the internet by storm resulting in 100,000 plus downloads in 90 minutes. "More About Nothing" creatively integrates sitcom material with rhyme and wordplay to present Wale's frustrations on his plight to reach mainstream acceptance and success. Features include Wiz Khalifa, Waka Flocka, Daniel Merriweather, UCB, Board Administration Artists' Tiara Thomas, Black Cobain, Fat Trel, and NBA Player and DC Native Kevin Durant.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In the last half of 2010, inspired by Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Fridays project, Wale re-released a track from one of his previous mixtapes for free-download on his own website every Thursday, calling this enterprise ""Throwback Thursday"". Guests on those tracks included Bun B, Pusha T, John Mayer, Lil Wayne and K'Naan.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On February 5, 2011, during Super Bowl XLV festivities he announced his signing to artist Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group. He states that he will still continue to be able to put out the music that he believes in, with the support of Rick Ross. Since 2009, Wale has been signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation for management along with other artists such as J. Cole, Mark Ronson, Melanie Fiona and Rihanna. On May 6, 2011, Wale shared plans with MTV Networks regarding the potential release of two albums in 2011. Later the same month, he confirmed pre-production efforts for "Ambition", his second album, slated for a fall 2011 release under Maybach and Warner Music Groups. Production for "Ambition" took place at ZAC Recording in Atlanta, Georgia with The Board Administration Producer Tone P. Anticipation for "Ambition" was incited through the release and heavy viral promotion of mixtape, "The Eleven One Eleven Theory" done under Wale's label, The Board Administration. "The Eleven One Eleven Theory" debuted August 17, 2011, on "Life and Times" in honor of Wale's Twitter milestone of reaching one million followers and was purposefully made with the intent to build widespread anticipation for the November 1, 2011, scheduled release date of "Ambition". This marketing strategy was the brainchild of The Board Administration CEO Le'Greg O. Harrison and was executed through savvy social media integration, resulting in the first shut down of renowned file sharing site Hulkshare in the first 4 seconds of posting the link. Wale is the first mainstream artist to officially crash Hulkshare.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On September 7, 2011, Wale announced plans for a 32-city domestic tour titled The "Ambition" Tour, which initiated October 2, 2011, in Minneapolis Minnesota and has dates through December 2011.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: The Board Administration Artist Black Cobain is the official opening act for each date and is followed by a rotation of various artists in select markets which include: Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Pusha T, J. Cole, Big Sean, Miguel, and more. The tour was booked by NUE Agency.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On September 28, 2011, Wale revealed that "Ambition" was complete and released the single "Lotus Flower Bomb", featuring Miguel on Twitter. On September 29, 2011, Funk Master Flex debuted Wale's song "Tats on my Arms", featuring Rick Ross. The next day, Wale released the album cover for "Ambition". On October 14, 2011, Wale released the single "Focused", featuring Kid Cudi. The official "Ambition" track listing includes 15 songs. The Board Administration launched a robust social media campaign integrating never-seen-before social media strategy and savvy to virally promote "Ambition". The promotional campaign included a five-part "making of" documentary, a Twitter campaign centered on a hashtag blitz–aptly named #Ambition, daily new music and video releases from Wale, and promotional materials for purchase through Warner Music Group and Maybach Music Group such as "Ambition" wristbands and graphic tees. These efforts were also supported by televised "making of" episodes through networks such as MTV that hosted "Sucker Free Road to Release". The never-seen-before element of Wale's "Ambition" promo blitz included a partnership formed between the current most popular file sharing site Hulkshare and The Board Administration. Greater than 3 million people frequent Hulkshare daily, and through this collaboration could view banner ads on practically every Hulkshare download page flanked with Wale's profile and a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the album released.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On October 27, 2011, Wale unveiled an "Ambition" snippet sampler on YouTube for people to preview the album. Later the same day, a private "Ambition" media listening event, held at the Gansevoort Hotel of Chelsea New York, was attended by music executives, bloggers, various artists, and hip hop heads.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On November 2, 2011, Myspace and Hot 97 presented a complimentary Wale and friends midnight "Ambition" release show at The Highline Ballroom in New York City. The event was hosted by Miss Info and featured special guest DJ Funkmaster Flex.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: The album debuted number two on the "Billboard" 200, selling 162,600 copies in its first week. The album initially received mixed reviews, including a negative one in Wale's local "Washington City Paper". However, the album currently holds a 69/100 score on Metacritic, signifying "generally favorable reviews. "


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On November 25, 2011, shortly after the release of "Ambition", Wale announced on Twitter that he has already begun working on his third album. In an interview with UpVenue in January 2012, Wale confirmed the third album and the focus will be about his growth as a person. He was featured on Maybach Music Group's second studio album Self Made II. Wale released the mixtape "Folarin" on December 24, 2012, which is hosted by DJ Clark Kent. He released a trailer for "Folarin" on December 6, 2012. He has also started working on his third studio album which is to be released in 2013. The mixtape features guest spots Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Scarface, Nipsey Hussle, French Montana, Tiara Thomas, Lightshow, and Trinidad James among others. Production comes from Hit-Boy, Jake One, Cardo, Diplo, Beat Billionaire and Rico Love among others.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: When speaking of his third studio album Wale would say, "it's going to have one sound, very, very soulful", and said that the first single, "Bad", "is a pretty good indication of the direction I'm going for this project." The album is set to release on June 25, 2013, and with his fourth album is coming a couple months after that. Wale announced he was collaborating with Jerry Seinfeld on his fourth studio album to be titled "The Album About Nothing". He later said he was also collaborating with producer No I.D. on the album. He also said he would release a collaboration mixtape with Meek Mill during 2013.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In December 2012, Wale had announced he was planning on releasing a Go-go album: "I wanna do the album for me. This is the second time I'm announcing it, but I'm doing a Go-Go album after my album. And when I say Go-Go I don't mean like cheesy Go-Go. It's gonna be sequenced. It's gonna be me probably rapping only 40-percent on the album, but getting the sound out."


title: Wale (rapper)

text: To build hype for "The Gifted", Wale released "Sight of the Sun", a remix of the Fun. song of the same name. This was similar to the songs "Bittersweet" and "Fly Away", which he released prior to "Attention: Deficit".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On September 9, 2014, Wale released the first single from the album "The Album About Nothing" titled "The Body" featuring American singer Jeremih. On November 17, 2014, Wale announced a 31-date US tour entitled the Simply Nothing Tour. The tour is in support of his upcoming 2015 album, The Album About Nothing. On December 24, 2014, Wale released the mixtape Festivus heavily themed by the Seinfeld holiday. Features on the mixtape included Chance The Rapper, A$AP Ferg, and Pusha T, among others.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: On March 31, 2015, Wale released his fourth studio album "The Album About Nothing", which featured Jerry Seinfeld, J. Cole, Usher, and SZA among others. It became his second No. 1 album in the United States. It was revealed that Wale would next serve as the Executive Producer for Maybach Music Group's next collaborative album "Self Made 4".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale also recorded the original music theme for the popular ESPN sports talk show First Take, which features journalists/panelists Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and moderator/host Molly Qerim. The two-hour show, which airs twice daily at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on ESPN, features Wale's theme at the beginning of the show.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale's fifth studio album, "Shine" was released on April 28, 2017, selling 28,000 units in its first week.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: After parting ways with Atlantic Records in February, Wale released a surprise four-track EP titled "It's Complicated" on March 13, 2018. Two months later, he release a second EP titled "Self Promotion" on May 8, 2018. The four-track EP had a single guest feature in R&B singer, Jacquees. On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Wale had been signed to Warner Records. Then on September 14, 2018, he released a third EP titled "Free Lunch", with guest appearances from long time friend and collaborator, J. Cole and Eric Bellinger. On December 20 and 21, 2018 Wale released two tracks, "Winter Wars" and "Poledancer". Wale's sixth album, "Wow... That's Crazy" was released on October 11, 2019. It included the single, "On Chill".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: In an interview with "Flavorwire", Wale said that he incorporates elements of go-go in his music. Cyril Cordor of AllMusic described go-go as "a more raw, percussion-driven offshoot of disco" that originated in the Washington, D. C. area. Wale's early singles that were played primarily in his local metropolitan area heavily sampled 1990s go-go records. Reviewing "Attention Deficit", David Jeffries of allmusic remarked that Wale had a "post-Kanye, post-Lil Wayne, alternative-meets-hardcore style" and commented that Wale's single "Chillin'", which featured Lady Gaga, "crafts an instant floor-filler out of a sample from the 1969 hit 'Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye'".


title: Wale (rapper)

text: An avid professional wrestling fan, Wale has made several wrestling references on his songs. Wale hosts the annual WaleMania during WrestleMania weekend. He has also made several appearances on WWE television, where he hosted a rap battle between The New Day and The Usos on the 4 July episode of "Smackdown Live" in 2017, and was the guest commentator during Noam Dar and TJP's match on "205 Live" in 2018. On October 2, 2019, Wale escorted former NXT Tag Team champions The Street Profits to the ring for their title shot versus champions Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly. At WrestleMania 37, Wale escorted former Intercontinental Champion Big E to the ring versus champion Apollo Crews. Wale also performs Big E's new theme song as a singles competitor.


title: Wale (rapper)

text: Wale teamed up with Philadelphia retailer Ruvilla, and ASICS for a product called "Bottle Rocket" Asics Gel Lyte III in 2015. In 2016, he teamed with ASICS again with a product that features gold and shades of black and blue.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer", and many of his compositions remain popular today. He has been identified as "the most famous songwriter of the nineteenth century" and may be the most recognizable American composer in other countries. Most of his handwritten music manuscripts are lost, but editions issued by publishers of his day feature in various collections.


title: Stephen Foster

text: There are many biographies of Foster, but details differ widely. Among other issues, Foster wrote very little biographical information himself, and his brother Morrison Foster may have destroyed much information that he judged to reflect negatively upon the family.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster was born on July 4, 1826. His parents, William Barclay Foster and Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster, were of Ulster Scots and English descent. He had three older sisters and six older brothers. He attended private academies in Allegheny, Athens, and Towanda, Pennsylvania, and received an education in English grammar, diction, the classics, penmanship, Latin, Greek, and mathematics. The family lived in a northern city but they did not support the abolition of slavery.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster taught himself to play the clarinet, guitar, flute, and piano. He did not have formal instruction in composition but he was helped by Henry Kleber (1816–1897), a German-born music dealer in Pittsburgh. They studied the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn. In 1839, his brother William was serving his apprenticeship as an engineer at Towanda and thought that Stephen would benefit from being under his supervision. The site of the Camptown Races is from Athens and from Towanda. His education included a brief period at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, now part of Washington & Jefferson College. His tuition was paid, but he had little spending money. He left Canonsburg to visit Pittsburgh with another student and did not return.


title: Stephen Foster

text: He then returned to Pennsylvania and wrote most of his best-known songs: "Camptown Races" (1850), "Nelly Bly" (1850), "Ring de Banjo" (1851), "Old Folks at Home" (known also as "Swanee River", 1851), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1853), "Old Dog Tray" (1853), and "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" (1854), written for his wife Jane Denny McDowell.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Many of Foster's songs were used in blackface minstrel show entertainment popular at the time. He sought to "build up taste...among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order". However, Foster’s output of minstrel songs declined after the early 1850s, as he turned primarily to parlor music. Many of his songs had Southern themes, yet Foster never lived in the South and visited it only once, during his 1852 honeymoon. Available archival evidence does not suggest that Foster was an abolitionist.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster's last four years were spent in New York City. There is little information on this period of his life, although family correspondence has been preserved.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster became sick with a fever in January 1864. Weakened, he fell in his hotel in the Bowery, cutting his neck. His writing partner George Cooper found him still alive but lying in a pool of blood. Foster died in Bellevue Hospital three days later at the age of 37. Other biographers describe different accounts of his death.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Historian JoAnne O'Connell speculates in her biography, "The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster", that Foster may have killed himself, a common occurrence during the Civil War.


title: Stephen Foster

text: As O'Connell and musicologist Ken Emerson have noted, several of the songs Foster wrote during the last years of his life foreshadow his death, such as "The Little Ballad Girl" and "Kiss Me Dear Mother Ere I Die." Emerson says in his 2010 "Stephen Foster and Co." that Foster's injuries may have been "accidental or self-inflicted."


title: Stephen Foster

text: When Foster died, his leather wallet contained a scrap of paper that simply said, "Dear friends and gentle hearts", along with 37 cents (one for each year of his life) in Civil War scrip and three pennies. The note is said to have inspired Bob Hilliard's lyric for "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" (1949). Foster was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. After his death, Morrison Foster became his "literary executor". As such, he answered requests for copies of manuscripts, autographs, and biographical information.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster grew up in a section of the city where many European immigrants had settled and were accustomed to hearing the music of the Italian, Scots-Irish, and German residents. He composed his first song when he was 14 and entitled it the "Tioga Waltz". The first song that he had published was "Open thy Lattice Love" (1844). He wrote songs in support of drinking, such as "My Wife Is a Most Knowing Woman", "Mr. and Mrs. Brown", and "When the Bowl Goes Round", while also composing temperance songs such as "Comrades Fill No Glass for Me" or "The Wife".


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster also authored many church hymns, although the inclusion of his hymns in hymnals ended by 1910. Some of the hymns are "Seek and ye shall find", "All around is bright and fair, While we work for Jesus", and "Blame not those who weep and sigh". Several rare Civil War-era hymns by Foster were performed by The Old Stoughton Musical Society Chorus, including "The Pure, The Bright, The Beautiful", "Over The River", "Give Us This Day", and "What Shall The Harvest Be?" He arranged many works by Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Strauss and Schubert for flute and guitar.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster usually sent his handwritten scores directly to his publishers. The publishers kept the sheet music manuscripts and did not give them to libraries nor return them to his heirs. Some of his original, hand-written scores were bought and put into private collections and the Library of Congress.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster's songs, lyrics, and melodies have often been altered by publishers and performers. Ray Charles released a version of "Old Folks at Home" that was titled "Swanee River Rock (Talkin’ ’Bout That River)," which became his first pop hit in November 1957.


title: Stephen Foster

text: "My Old Kentucky Home" is the official state song of Kentucky, adopted by the General Assembly on March 19, 1928. "Old Folks at Home" became the official state song of Florida, designated in 1935. The use of offensive terms in the song's lyrics led "Old Folks at Home" to be modified with approval from the Stephen Foster Memorial. The modified song was kept as the official state song, while "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" was added as the state anthem.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Foster is honored on the University of Pittsburgh campus with the Stephen Foster Memorial, a landmark building that houses the Stephen Foster Memorial Museum, the Center for American Music, as well as two theaters: the Charity Randall Theatre and Henry Heymann Theatre, both performance spaces for Pitt's Department of Theater Arts. It is the largest repository for original Stephen Foster compositions, recordings, and other memorabilia his songs have inspired worldwide.


title: Stephen Foster

text: Two state parks are named in Foster's honor: the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida and Stephen C. Foster State Park in Georgia. Both parks are on the Suwannee River. Stephen Foster Lake at Mount Pisgah State Park in Pennsylvania.


title: Stephen Foster

text: One state park is named in honor of Foster's songs, My Old Kentucky Home, a historic mansion formerly named Federal Hill, located in Bardstown, Kentucky where Stephen is said to have been an occasional visitor according to his brother, Morrison Foster. The park dedicated a bronze statue in honor of Stephen's work.


title: Stephen Foster

text: The Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh) Historical Society, together with the Allegheny Cemetery Historical Association, hosts the annual Stephen Foster Music and Heritage Festival (Doo Dah Days!). Held the first weekend of July, Doo Dah Days! celebrates the life and music of one of the most influential songwriters in America's history. His home in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, still remains on Penn Avenue nearby the Stephen Foster Community Center.


title: Stephen Foster

text: A 1900 statue of Foster by Giuseppe Moretti was located in Schenley Plaza, in Pittsburgh, from 1940 until 2018. On the unanimous recommendation of the Pittsburgh Art Commission, the statue was removed on April 26, 2018. Its new home has not yet been determined. It has a long reputation as the most controversial public art in Pittsburgh "for its depiction of an African-American banjo player at the feet of the seated composer. Critics say the statue glorifies white appropriation of black culture and depicts the vacantly smiling musician in a way that is at best condescending and at worst racist." A city-appointed Task Force on Women in Public Art called for the statue to be replaced with one honoring an African American woman with ties to the Pittsburgh community. The Task Force held a series of community forums in Pittsburgh to collect public feedback on the statue replacement and circulated an online form which allowed the public to vote for one of seven previously selected candidates or write in an alternate suggestion. However, the Task Force on Women in Public Art and the Pittsburgh Art Commission have not reached an agreement as to who will be commemorated or if the statue will stay in the Schenley Plaza location.


title: Stephen Foster

text: A number of musicologists have written about the racism in Foster's lyrics. Some authors of music instruction books have replaced songs by Foster with other songs in newer editions due to increased awareness of these concerns.


title: 2Cellos

text: 2CELLOS (stylized 2CΞLLOS) are a Croatian cellist duo, consisting of classically trained cellists Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser. Signed to Sony Masterworks since 2011, they released six albums. They played instrumental arrangements of well-known pop and rock songs, as well as classical and film music. The duo performed internationally and were featured on several American television series including "Glee" and "The Bachelor" (Sean and Catherine's Wedding).


title: 2Cellos

text: Hauser is from Pula, Croatia, and Šulić is from Maribor, Slovenia (to a Croatian father and Slovenian mother). They met at a master class in Pula while still in their teens. They were both educated at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. Later on, Šulić studied in Vienna and they both studied in the UK (Šulić at London's Royal Academy of Music and Hauser at Trinity College of Music, now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music in London and then at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester).


title: 2Cellos

text: The duo rose to fame in 2011 after their cover of "Smooth Criminal" became a hit on YouTube, receiving over three million views in the first two weeks and almost 43 million views as of April 2021. The creation of the music video was assisted by one of Hauser's acquaintances in Croatia, a director, in creating a video to "Smooth Criminal." The video features Šulić and Hauser facing off alone in a large ballroom littered with chairs, playing Jackson's tune. Before they became partners, the two cellists were sometimes considered rivals, competing against each other in music competitions.


title: 2Cellos

text: 2CELLOS signed to record with Sony Masterworks, and finished recording their first album in May 2011, which carried the Menart Records label in Croatia. Released on 19 July 2011, their debut "eponymous album", includes covers of songs by U2, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Sting, Coldplay, Nirvana, Muse, and Kings of Leon. The album also features a cello version of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature." The duo said that they chose songs that could be arranged as covers playable on just two cellos. In anticipation of the release, 2CELLOS released their second single "Welcome to the Jungle," a cover of the Guns N' Roses song of the same name.


title: 2Cellos

text: Elton John asked the duo to appear with him on his 2011 summer tour, which began in Cardiff, Wales on 8 June. John, who personally called Šulić, said that he had watched the "Smooth Criminal" video and wanted 2CELLOS to participate in his thirty-city tour. The two had previously performed on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" of 25 April 2011. 2CELLOS also performed at the 2011 iTunes Festival in London. They went on to perform internationally with Elton John and his band for five years, including hundreds of performances at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. They appear in The Million Dollar Piano movie filmed at the Colosseum in 2012 and on the 2013 album, The Diving Board.


title: 2Cellos

text: The duo performed an arrangement of "Smooth Criminal" in the third season of the television show "Glee". The episode in which they appeared, titled "Michael", aired on 31 January 2012, and was the first time that the series highlighted instrumental musicians. The scene featuring "Smooth Criminal" was set up similarly to 2CELLOS' original music video for the song. On 4 June 2012 2CELLOS performed with Elton John at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. On 12 June 2012, 2CELLOS performed in front of a full Arena Zagreb audience. The concert was filmed for DVD: Live at Arena Zagreb.


title: 2Cellos

text: Although the two usually record covers of rock songs, Šulić and Hauser said they still play with orchestras and will not abandon playing classical music. The cellists said they would someday like to go on tour with both a classical and a contemporary orchestra, a hope that was fulfilled in part during their tour for the album, "Score". Their second studio album, entitled "In2ition", came out early in 2013, and featured new twists on a diverse range of classic tracks with a few surprise vocal and instrumental duet partners including Elton John, Lang Lang, Naya Rivera, Steve Vai, Sky Ferreira and Zucchero. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin.


title: 2Cellos

text: Other tracks include covers of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" featuring Vai, Coldplay's "Clocks" featuring Lang Lang, Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" featuring Rivera, an Italian version of "The Book of Love" by The Magnetic Fields entitled "Il Libro Dell'Amore" featuring Zucchero, Karl Jenkins' "Benedictus", and "Oh Well" featuring Sir Elton.


title: 2Cellos

text: In July 2013, they filmed a commercial for the Japanese mobile phone company Docomo. Their album "In2ition" debuted on the Japanese Albums Chart, in August 2013 at number 1. Since then, they have done commercials for the US National Football League Thursday Night Football , for 1906 Reerva Especial and they have done several print campaigns for the Italian designer, s.Oliver.


title: 2Cellos

text: As a part of their world tour with Elton John, including concerts in North America, Europe and Asia, 2CELLOS performed at Madison Square Garden two days in a row, in December 2013. In March 2014, they had a solo Japanese tour.


title: 2Cellos

text: In 2015, 2CELLOS released their third album, "Celloverse", which they also co-produced. The album contains a diverse array of renditions including AC/DC's "Thunderstruck", Avicii's "Wake Me Up", Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us", Hans Zimmerʼs "Mombasa" (from "Inception"), and an original work titled "Celloverse", among numerous other covers.


title: 2Cellos

text: 2CELLOS has used YouTube to reach out to their audience, posting videos of notable live performances, including Arena Zagreb (2012), Arena Pula (2013), EXIT Festival (2014), and their fifth anniversary concert at Arena di Verona (2016) in Italy. In February 2014, the duo published their rendition of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" to YouTube. The video depicts the duo playing before a Baroque audience, which soon finds out that the song is anything but classical. The video went viral at the beginning of March, gathering 10 million views in the first two weeks. As of March 2021, the video has garnered over 200 million views.


title: 2Cellos

text: As Šulić told "The Sydney Morning Herald", "we love AC/DC as much as Bach." Hauser added, "both (AC/DC and Bach) are simple and convincing in what they do."


title: 2Cellos

text: In 2017, Šulić and Hauser released their fourth album "Score", recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra which included a wide array of television and film music. To mark the album's release, 2CELLOS released their official YouTube video for Game of Thrones Medley, which garnered over 1 million views in two days.


title: 2Cellos

text: On 26 May 2018, 2CELLOS performed the UEFA Champions League Anthem ahead of the 2018 UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Liverpool. That same year, they released their fifth album "Let There be Cello."


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine of Braganza (; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She was the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, who became the first king from the House of Braganza in 1640 after overthrowing the 60–year rule of the Spanish Habsburgs over Portugal and restoring the Portuguese throne which had first been created in 1143. Catherine served as regent of Portugal during the absence of her brother Peter II in 1701 and during 1704–1705, after her return to her homeland as a widow.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Owing to her devotion to the Roman Catholic faith in which she had been raised, Catherine was unpopular in England. She was a special object of attack by the inventors of the Popish Plot. In 1678 the murder of Edmund Berry Godfrey was ascribed to her servants, and Titus Oates accused her of an intention to poison the king. These charges, the absurdity of which was soon shown by cross-examination, nevertheless placed the queen for some time in great danger. On 28 November 1678, Oates accused the Queen of high treason, and the House of Commons of England passed an order for the removal of her and of all Roman Catholics from the Palace of Whitehall. Several further depositions were made against her, and in June 1679 it was decided that she should stand trial, which threat however was lifted by the king's intervention, for which she later showed him much gratitude.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine produced no heirs for the king, having suffered three miscarriages. Her husband kept many mistresses, most notably Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, whom Catherine was forced to accept as one of her Ladies of the Bedchamber. By his mistresses, Charles fathered many children, which he acknowledged.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine was born at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa as the second surviving daughter of John, 8th Duke of Braganza, and his wife, Luisa de Guzmán. Following the Portuguese Restoration War, her father was acclaimed King John IV of Portugal on 1 December 1640. With her father's new position as one of Europe's most important monarchs, Portugal then possessing a widespread colonial empire, Catherine became a prime choice for a wife for European royalty, and she was proposed as a bride for John of Austria, the duc de Beaufort, Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England. The consideration for the final choice was due to her being seen as a useful conduit for contracting an alliance between Portugal and England after the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659, in which Portugal was arguably abandoned by France. Despite her country's ongoing struggle with Spain, Catherine enjoyed a happy, contented childhood in her beloved Lisbon.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Commonly regarded as the power behind the throne, Queen Luisa was also a devoted mother who took an active interest in her children's upbringing and personally supervised her daughter's education. Catherine is believed to have spent most of her youth in a convent close by the royal palace where she remained under the watchful eye of her protective mother. It appears to have been a very sheltered upbringing, with one contemporary remarking that Catherine, "was bred hugely retired" and "hath hardly been ten times out of the palace in her life". Catherine's older sister Joana, Princess of Beira, died in 1653, leaving Catherine as the eldest surviving child of her parents. Her husband was chosen by Luisa, who acted as regent of her country following her husband's death in 1656.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Negotiations for the marriage began during the reign of King Charles I and were renewed immediately after the Restoration. On 23 June 1661, in spite of Spanish opposition, the marriage contract was signed. England secured Tangier (in North Africa) and the Seven Islands of Bombay (in India), trading privileges in Brazil and the Portuguese East Indies, religious and commercial freedom for English residents in Portugal, and two million Portuguese crowns (about £300,000). In return, Portugal obtained English military and naval support (which would prove to be decisive) in her fight against Spain and liberty of worship for Catherine. She arrived at Portsmouth on the evening of 13–14 May 1662, but was not visited there by Charles until 20 May. The following day the couple were married at Portsmouth in two ceremonies – a Catholic one conducted in secret, followed by a public Anglican service.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: On 30 September 1662, the married couple entered London as part of a large procession, which included the Portuguese delegation and many members of the court. There were also minstrels and musicians, among them ten playing shawms and twelve playing Portuguese bagpipes, those being the new Queen's favourite instruments. The procession continued over a large bridge, especially designed and built for the occasion, which led into the palace where Henrietta Maria, the Queen Mother, waited along with the English court and nobility. This was followed by feasting and firework displays.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine possessed several good qualities, but had been brought up in a convent, secluded from the world, and was scarcely a wife Charles would have chosen for himself. Her mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, was pleased with her, and wrote that she is "the best creature in the world, from whom I have so much affection, I have the joy to see the King love her extremely. She is a Saint!" In reality, her marriage was plagued by infidelities on Charles's side.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Little is known of Catherine's own thoughts on the match. While her mother plotted to secure an alliance with England and thus support Portugal's fight for independence, and her future husband celebrated his restoration by dallying with his mistresses, Catherine's time had been spent in the sombre seclusion of her convent home, with little opportunity for fun or frivolity. Even outside the convent, her actions were governed by the strict etiquette of the royal court of Portugal. By all accounts, Catherine grew into a quiet, even-tempered young woman.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine became pregnant and miscarried at least three times, and during a severe illness in 1663, she imagined, for a time, that she had given birth. Charles comforted her by telling her she had indeed given birth to two sons and a daughter. Her position was a difficult one, and though Charles continued to have children by his many mistresses, he insisted she be treated with respect, and sided with her against his mistresses when he felt she was not receiving the respect she was due. After her three miscarriages, it seemed to be more and more unlikely that the queen would bear an heir. Royal advisors urged the monarch to seek a divorce, hoping that the new wife would be Protestant and fertile – but Charles refused. This eventually led to her being made a target by courtiers. Throughout his reign, Charles firmly dismissed the idea of divorcing Catherine, and she remained faithful to Charles throughout their marriage.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine was not a particularly popular choice of queen since she was a Roman Catholic. Her religion prevented her from being crowned, as Roman Catholics were forbidden to take part in Anglican services. She initially faced hardships due to the language barrier, the king's infidelities and the political conflicts between Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Over time, her quiet decorum, loyalty and genuine affection for Charles changed the public's perception of her.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Although her difficulties with the English language persisted, as time went on, the once rigidly formal Portuguese Infanta mellowed and began to enjoy some of the more innocent pleasures of the court. She loved to play cards and shocked devout Protestants by playing on Sundays. She enjoyed dancing and took great delight in organising masques. She had a great love for the countryside and picnics; fishing and archery were also favourite pastimes. In a far cry from her convent days, the newly liberated Catherine displayed a fondness for the recent trend of court ladies wearing men's clothing, which we are told, "showed off her pretty, neat legs and ankles"; and she was even reported to have considered leading the way in wearing shorter dresses, which would show off her feet. In 1670, on a trip to Audley End with her ladies-in-waiting, the once chronically shy Catherine attended a country fair disguised as a village maiden, but was soon discovered and, due to the large crowds, forced to make a hasty retreat. And when in 1664 her favourite painter, Jacob Huysmans, a Flemish Catholic, painted her as St Catherine, it promptly set a trend among court ladies.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: She did not involve herself in English politics, instead she kept up an active interest in her native country. Anxious to re-establish good relations with the pope and perhaps gain recognition for Portuguese independence, she sent Richard Bellings, later her principal secretary, to Rome with letters for the pope and several cardinals. In 1669 she involved herself in the last-ditch effort to relieve Candia in Crete, which was under siege by the Turks and whose cause Rome was promoting, although she failed to persuade her husband to take any action. In 1670, as a sign of her rising favour with the pontiff, she requested and was granted devotional objects. The same year, Charles II ordered the building of a Royal yacht HMY "Saudadoes" for her, used for pleasure trips on the Thames and to maintain communications with the Queen's homeland of Portugal, making the journey twice.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine fainted when Charles's official mistress, Barbara Palmer was presented to her. Charles insisted on making Palmer Catherine's Lady of the Bedchamber. After this incident, Catherine withdrew from spending time with the king, declaring she would return to Portugal rather than openly accept the arrangement with Palmer. Clarendon failed to convince her to change her mind. Charles then dismissed nearly all the members of Catherine's Portuguese retinue, after which she stopped actively resisting, which pleased the king, however she participated very little in court life and activities.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Though known to keep her faith a private matter, her religion and proximity to the king made her the target of anti-Catholic sentiment. Catherine occupied herself with her faith. Her piety was widely known and was a characteristic in his wife that the King greatly admired; in his letters to his sister, Catherine's devoutness is described almost with awe. Her household contained between four and six priests, and in 1665, Catherine decided to build a religious house east of St James's to be occupied by thirteen Portuguese Franciscans of the order of St Peter of Alcantara. It was completed by 1667 and would become known as The Friary.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: In 1675 the stress of a possible revival of the divorce project indirectly led to another illness, which Catherine's physicians claimed and her husband cannot fail to have noted, was "due as much to mental as physical causes". In the same year, all Irish and English Catholic priests were ordered to leave the country, which left Catherine dependent upon foreign priests. As increasingly harsher measures were put in place against Catholics, Catherine appointed her close friend and adviser, the devoutly Catholic Francisco de Mello, former Portuguese Ambassador to England, as her Lord Chamberlain. It was an unusual and controversial move but "wishing to please Catherine and perhaps demonstrate the futility of moves for divorce, the King granted his permission. De Mello was dismissed the following year for ordering the printing of a Catholic book, leaving the beleaguered Catherine even more isolated at court". One consolation was that Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, who replaced Barbara Palmer as reigning mistress, always treated the Queen with proper deference; the Queen in return showed her gratitude by using her own influence to protect Louise during the Popish Plot.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: The Test Act of 1673 had driven all Catholics out of public office, and anti-Catholic feelings intensified in the years to come. Although she was not active in religious politics, in 1675 Catherine was criticised for supposedly supporting the idea of appointing a bishop to England who, it was hoped, would resolve the internal disputes of Catholics. Critics also noted the fact that, despite orders to the contrary, English Catholics attended her private chapel.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: As the highest-ranking Catholic in the country, Catherine was an obvious target for Protestant extremists, and it was hardly surprising that the Popish Plot of 1678 would directly threaten her position. However, Catherine was completely secure in her husband's favour ("she could never do anything wicked, and it would be a horrible thing to abandon her" he told Gilbert Burnet), and the House of Lords, most of whom knew her and liked her, refused by an overwhelming majority to impeach her. Relations between the royal couple became notably warmer: Catherine wrote of Charles's "wonderful kindness" to her and it was noted that his visits to her quarters became longer and more frequent.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: During Charles's final illness in 1685, she showed anxiety about his reconciliation with the Roman Catholic faith, and she exhibited great grief at his death. When he lay dying in 1685, he asked for Catherine, but she sent a message asking that her presence be excused and "to beg his pardon if she had offended him all his life." He answered, "Alas poor woman! she asks for my pardon? I beg hers with all my heart; take her back that answer." Later in the same year, she unsuccessfully interceded with James II for the life of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles's illegitimate son and leader of the Monmouth Rebellion – even though Monmouth in rebellion had called upon the support represented by the staunch Protestants opposed to the Catholic Church.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine remained in England, living at Somerset House, through the reign of James and his deposition in the Glorious Revolution by William III and Mary II. She remained in England partly because of a protracted lawsuit against her former Lord Chamberlain, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, over money that she claimed as part of her allowance and that he claimed was part of the perquisite of his office. Catherine's fondness for money is one of the more unexpected features of her character: her brother-in-law James, who was himself notably avaricious, remarked that she always drove a hard bargain.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Initially on good terms with William and Mary, her position deteriorated as the practice of her religion led to misunderstandings and increasing isolation. A bill was introduced to Parliament to limit the number of Catherine's Catholic servants, and she was warned not to agitate against the government.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: She finally returned to Portugal in March 1692. According to Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, in her widowhood she secretly married his relation Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham, despite the earl being a lifelong Protestant.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: In 1703, she supported the Methuen Treaty between Portugal and England. She acted as regent for her brother, Peter II, in 1701 and 1704–05. She died at the Bemposta Palace in Lisbon on 31 December 1705 and was buried at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora Lisbon.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine is often credited with the introduction of tea drinking to Britain, although Samuel Pepys makes reference to drinking tea for the first time in his diary entry for 25 September 1660, prior to Catherine's emigration to England and marriage to Charles. It is more likely that she popularised the drink, which was unusual in Britain at the time. Beyond tea, her arrival brought and promulgated goods such as cane, lacquer, cottons, and porcelain.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Queens, a borough of New York City, was supposedly named after Catherine of Braganza since she was queen when Queens County was established in 1683. Queens' naming is consistent with those of Kings County (the borough of Brooklyn, originally named after her husband, King Charles II) and Richmond County (the borough of Staten Island, named after his illegitimate son, the 1st Duke of Richmond). However, there is no historical evidence that Queens County was named in her honour, neither is there a document from the time proclaiming it so. Some written histories of Queens skip over the monarch entirely and make no mention of her.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: After the tri-centennial of the establishment of Queens County in 1983, the Portuguese-American "Friends of Queen Catherine" society began raising money to erect a 35-foot statue of Queen Catherine on the East River waterfront in Long Island City. Audrey Flack was hired by the society to serve as the sculptor of the proposed statue, and the project received support from several notable public figures in New York City, including Claire Shulman and Donald Trump. However, the project was well into development when opposition to the statue arose from multiple parties; historians objected to the statue on the grounds that there was no evidence that Queens was actually named after her, and thought that the location of the proposed statue was misplaced. Meanwhile, the African-American Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church opposed plans for the statue after allegations that Queen Catherine and the House of Braganza had profited from the slave trade emerged, while Irish-Americans in Queens were upset that the proposed statue would eclipse the Calvary Cemetery, which had been established for the Irish immigrant community in the United States. As a result of this public opposition, Shulman was forced to withdraw her support, and the statue was never erected. A quarter-scale model survives at the site of Expo '98 in Lisbon, Portugal, facing west across the Atlantic.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Novelists, notably Margaret Campbell Barnes in "With All My Heart", Jean Plaidy in her Charles II trilogy and Susanna Gregory in her "Thomas Chaloner" mystery novels, usually portray the Queen in a sympathetic light. So did Alison Macleod in her 1976 biography of the queen, "The Portingale" and Isabel Stilwell in her 2008 historical novel "Catherine of Braganza – The courage of a Portuguese Infanta who became Queen of England".


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: Catherine's marriage had an important result for the later history of India and of the British Empire, though the Queen personally had little to do with it: soon after acquiring the Seven Islands of Bombay as part of her dowry, Charles II rented them to the East India Company which moved its Presidency there – resulting in Bombay/Mumbai eventually growing to become one of the main cities of India.


title: Catherine of Braganza

text: The royal arms of the British monarch are impaled with the royal arms of her father. For supporters, she used the crowned lion of England on the dexter side, and on the sinister, the wyvern Vert of Portugal.


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Philippine drug war, known as the War on Drugs, is the intensified anti-drug campaign of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who served office from June 30, 2016 to June 30, 2022. The campaign reduced drug proliferation in the country, but has been marred by extrajudicial killings allegedly perpetrated by the police and unknown assailants.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Prior to his presidency, Duterte cautioned that the Philippines was at risk of becoming a narco-state and vowed the fight against illegal drugs will be relentless. He has urged the public to kill drug addicts. The anti-narcotics campaign has been condemned by media organizations and human rights groups, which reported staged crime scenes where police allegedly execute unarmed drug suspects, planting guns and drugs as evidence. Philippine authorities have denied misconduct by police.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Duterte has since admitted to underestimating the illegal drug problem when he promised to rid the country of illegal drugs within six months of his presidency, citing the difficulty in border control against illegal drugs due to the country's long coastline and lamented that government officials and law enforcers themselves were involved in the drug trade.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In 2022, Duterte urged his successor, Bongbong Marcos, who won the 2022 Philippine presidential election, to continue the war on drugs in "his own way" to protect the youth. Marcos declared his intention to continue the anti-narcotics campaign, focusing more on prevention and rehabilitation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Owing to its geographical location, international drug syndicates use the Philippines as a transit hub for the illegal drug trade. Some local drug syndicates and gangs are also involved in narcotics, utilizing drug mules to transport small amounts of illegal drugs to other countries. In the 90s, the Philippines became a temporary theatre of the U.S.-led War on Drugs; at one point the Drug Enforcement Administration even conducted their own operations in the country. The new millennium saw a boom in the illegal drug industry. In 2010 alone, a U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy report estimated the illegal drug trade in the Philippines at $6.4 to $8.4 billion annually.


title: Philippine drug war

text: This perceived growth of illegal drugs in the Philippines led to the nomination of Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 presidential election, owing to his time as mayor in Davao City which was allegedly the 9th "safest city in the world" according to the non-peer reviewed crowd-sourced rating site Numbeo, which has been criticized for inaccuracy, disinformation and being prone to manipulation. In reality, the highest number of violent incidents in the Philippines occurred in the Davao Region, with Davao City alone making up 45% of the cases in its region.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Duterte would win the 2016 Philippine presidential election promising to kill tens of thousands of criminals, with a platform urging people to kill drug addicts. Duterte has benefited from reports in the national media that he made Davao into one of the world's safest cities, which he cites as justification for his drug policy, although national police data shows that the city has the highest murder rate and the second highest rape rate in the Philippines.


title: Philippine drug war

text: As Mayor of Davao City, Duterte was criticized by such groups as Human Rights Watch for the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of street children, petty criminals and drug users carried out by the Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group with which he was allegedly involved. Duterte has alternately confirmed and denied his involvement in the alleged Davao Death Squad killings. Cases of extrajudicial killings have long since been a problem in the Philippines even before the Duterte administration. In a research report for The Asia Foundation conducted by Atty. Al A. Parreno on the grim tradition of police executions, there were a total of 305 incidents of extrajudicial killings with 390 victims from 2001 to 2010, with only a total of 161 cases or 56% of the incidents have been filed with the prosecutor. Atty. Parreno also concluded that the number of cases could be higher.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Philippine anti-narcotic officials have admitted that Duterte uses flawed and exaggerated data to support his claim that the Philippines is becoming a "narco-state". The Philippines has a low prevalence rate of drug users compared to the global average, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In his inaugural State of the Nation Address, Duterte claimed that data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency shows that there were 3 million drug addicts two to three years ago, which he said may have increased to 3.7 million. However, according to the Philippine Dangerous Drugs Board, the government drug policy-making body, 1.8 million Filipinos used illegal drugs (mostly cannabis) in 2015, the latest official survey published, a third of whom had used illegal drugs only once in the past 13 months.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Estimates of the death toll vary. Officially, 6,229 drug personalities have been killed as of March 2022. News organizations and human rights groups claim the death toll is over 12,000. The victims included 54 children in the first year. Opposition senators claimed in 2018 that over 20,000 have been killed. In February 2018, the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced a "preliminary examination" into killings linked to the Philippine drug war since at least July 1, 2016.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Based on data from the PNP and PDEA from June 2016 to July 2019, 134,583 anti-drug operations were conducted, 193,086 people were arrested, and 5,526 suspects died during police operations. worth of drugs were seized. 421,275 people surrendered under the PNP's Recovery and Wellness Program (219,979 PNP-initiated, 201,296 community center-supported), and 499 Reformation Centers established. On the law enforcement side, 86 personnel were killed during the drug war with 226 wounded since 2018. According to General Oscar Albayalde and the PNP, since 2019, 50 of these casualties killed and 144 others who were injured were police.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In speeches made after his inauguration on June 30 of 2016, Duterte urged citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He said he would order police to adopt a shoot-to-kill policy, and would offer them a bounty for dead suspects. In a speech to military leadership on July 1, Duterte told Communist rebels to "use your kangaroo courts to kill them to speed up the solution to our problem". On July 2, the Communist Party of the Philippines stated that it "reiterates its standing order for the NPA to carry out operations to disarm and arrest the chieftains of the biggest drug syndicates, as well as other criminal syndicates involved in human rights violations and destruction of the environment" after its political wing Bagong Alyansang Makabayan accepted Cabinet posts in the new government. On July 3, the Philippine National Police announced they had killed 30 alleged drug dealers since Duterte was sworn in as president on June 30. They later stated they had killed 103 suspects between May 10 and July 7. On July 9, a spokesperson of the president told critics to show proof that there have been human rights violations in the drug war. Later that day, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front announced it was open to collaborate with police in the drug war. On August 3, Duterte said that the Sinaloa cartel and the Chinese triad are involved in the Philippine drug trade. On August 7, Duterte named more than 150 drug suspects including local politicians, police, judges, and military. On August 8, the United States expressed concerns over the extrajudicial killings.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A presidential spokesperson said that Duterte welcomed a proposed Congressional investigation into extrajudicial killings to be chaired by Senator Leila de Lima, his chief critic in the government. On August 17, Duterte announced that de Lima had been having an affair with a married man, her driver, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan. Duterte claimed that Dayan was her collector for drug money, who had also himself been using drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In a news conference on August 21, Duterte announced that he had in his possession wiretaps and ATM records which confirmed his allegations. He stated: "What is really crucial here is that because of her [romantic] relationship with her driver which I termed 'immoral' because the driver has a family and wife, that connection gave rise to the corruption of what was happening inside the national penitentiary." Dismissing fears for Dayan's safety, he added, "As the President, I got this information … as a privilege. But I am not required to prove it in court. That is somebody else's business. My job is to protect public interest. She's lying through her teeth." He explained that he had acquired the new evidence from an unnamed foreign country.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On August 18, United Nations human rights experts called on the Philippines to halt extrajudicial killings. Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, stated that Duterte had given a "license to kill" to his citizens by encouraging them to kill. In response, Duterte threatened to withdraw from the UN and form a separate group with African nations and China. Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella later clarified that the Philippines was not leaving the UN. As the official death toll reached 1,800, a Congressional investigation of the killings chaired by de Lima was opened.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Then Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the government is open to subjecting the Philippines to a probe through regular domestic channels, as long as they are competent and unbiased rapporteur on the anti-drug campaign.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On August 23, Chito Gascon, head of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, told the Senate committee that the International Criminal Court may have jurisdiction over the mass killings. On August 25, Duterte released a "drug matrix" supposedly linking government officials, including de Lima, with the New Bilibid Prison drug trafficking scandal. De Lima stated that the "drug matrix" was like something drawn by a 12-year-old child. She added, "I will not dignify any further this so-called 'drug matrix' which, any ordinary lawyer knows too well, properly belongs in the garbage can." On August 29, Duterte called on de Lima to resign and "hang herself".


title: Philippine drug war

text: Following the September 2 bombing in Davao City that killed 14 people in the city's central business district, on September 3, 2016, Duterte declared a "state of lawlessness", and on the following day signed a declaration of a "state of national emergency on account of lawless violence in Mindanao". The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police were ordered to "suppress all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao" and to "prevent lawless violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere". Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said that the declaration "does not specify the imposition of curfews", and would remain in force indefinitely. He explained: "The recent incidents, the escape of terrorists from prisons, the beheadings, then eventually what happened in Davao. That was the basis." The state of emergency has been seen as an attempt by Duterte to "enhance his already strong hold on power, and give him carte blanche to impose further measures" in the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: At the 2016 ASEAN Summit, US President Barack Obama cancelled scheduled meetings with Duterte to discuss extrajudicial killings after Duterte referred to Obama as a "son of a whore."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On September 19, 2016, the Senate voted 16–4 to remove de Lima from her position heading the Senate committee, in a motion brought by senator and boxer Manny Pacquiao. Duterte's allies in the Senate argued that de Lima had damaged the country's reputation by allowing the testimony of Edgar Matobato. She was replaced by Senator Richard Gordon, a supporter of Duterte. Matobato had testified that while working for the Davao Death Squad he had killed more than 50 people. He said that he had witnessed Duterte killing a government agent, and he had heard Duterte giving orders to carry out executions, including ordering the bombing of mosques as retaliation for an attack on a cathedral.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Duterte told reporters that he wanted "a little extension of maybe another six months" in the drug war, as there were so many drug offenders and criminals that he "cannot kill them all". On the following day, a convicted bank robber and two former prison officials testified that they had paid bribes to de Lima. She denies the allegations. In a speech on September 20, Duterte promised to protect police in the drug war and urged them to kill drug suspects regardless if they draw a gun or not when conducting police operation.


title: Philippine drug war

text: At the beginning of October, a senior police officer told "The Guardian" that 10 "special ops" official police death squads had been operating, each consisting of 15 police officers. The officer said that he had personally been involved in killing 87 suspects, and described how the corpses had their heads wrapped in masking tape with a cardboard placard labelling them as a drug offender so that the killing would not be investigated, or they were dumped at the roadside ("salvage" victims). The chairman of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights, Chito Gascon, was quoted in the report: "I am not surprised, I have heard of this." The PNP declined to comment. The report stated: "although the "Guardian" can verify the policeman's rank and his service history, there is no independent, official confirmation for the allegations of state complicity and police coordination in mass murder."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 28, Datu Saudi Ampatuan Mayor Samsudin Dimaukom and nine others, including his five bodyguards, were killed during an anti-illegal drug operation in Makilala, North Cotabato. According to police, the group were heavily armed and opened fire on police, who found sachets of methamphetamine at the scene. No police were injured. Dimaukom was among the drug list named by Duterte on August 7; he had immediately surrendered, and then returned to Datu Saudi Ampatuan.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On November 1, it was reported that the US State Department had halted the sale of 26,000 assault rifles to the PNP after opposition from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to concerns about human rights violations. A police spokesman said they had not been informed. PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa suggested China as a possible alternative supplier. On November 7, Duterte reacted to the US decision to halt the sale by announcing that he was "ordering its cancellation".


title: Philippine drug war

text: In the early morning of November 5, Mayor of Albuera, Rolando Espinosa Sr., who had been detained at Baybay City Sub-Provincial Jail for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, was killed in what was described as a shootout inside his jail cell with personnel from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). According to the CIDG, Espinosa opened fire on police agents who were executing a search warrant for "illegal firearms." A hard drive of CCTV footage which may have recorded the shooting of Espinosa is missing, a provincial official said. Espinosa had turned himself in to PNP after being named in Duterte's drug list in August. He was briefly released but then re-arrested for alleged drug possession. The president of the National Union of People's Lawyers, Edre Olalia, told local broadcaster TV5 that the police version of events was "too contrived". He pointed out that a search warrant is not required to search a jail cell. "Such acts make a mockery of the law, taunt impunity and insult ordinary common sense." Espinosa was the second public official to be killed in the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Following the incident, on the same day, Senator Panfilo Lacson sought to resume the investigation of extrajudicial killings after it was suspended on October 3 by the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On November 28, Duterte appeared to threaten that human rights workers would be targeted: "The human rights [defenders] say I kill. If I say: 'Okay, I'll stop'. They [drug users] will multiply. When harvest time comes, there will be more of them who will die. Then I will include you among them because you let them multiply." Amnesty International Philippines stated that Duterte was "inciting hate towards anyone who expresses dissent on his war against drugs." The National Alliance against Killings Philippines criticized Duterte's comment believing that human rights is a part of dealing the illegal drug issue and that his threats constitutes to "a declaration of an open season on human rights defenders".


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 5 Reuters reported that 97% of drug suspects shot by police died, far more than in other countries with drug-related violence. They also stated that police reports of killings are "remarkably similar", involving a "buy-bust" operation in which the suspect panics and shoots at the officers, who return fire, killing the suspect, and report finding a packet of white powder and a .38 caliber revolver, often with the serial number removed. "The figures pose a powerful challenge to the official narrative that the Philippines police are only killing drug suspects in self-defense. These statistics and other evidence amassed by Reuters point in the other direction: that police are pro-actively gunning down suspects."


title: Philippine drug war

text: On December 8, the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights issued a report stating that there was sufficient evidence to prove the existence of a Davao Death Squad, and there is no proof of an imposed state-sponsored policy to commit killings "to eradicate illegal drugs in the country". Eleven senators signed the report, while senators Leila de Lima, JV Ejercito, Antonio Trillanes and Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto did not sign the report or did not subscribe to its findings.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On early morning of September 28, 2016, a riot erupted inside Building 14 at New Bilibid Prison. Initial reports from acting Bureau of Corrections director Rolando Asuncion said that one inmate witnessed three other convicts, namely Peter Co, Tony Co and Vicente Sy, using "methamphetamine" moments before the riot started. The inmate then alerted former police officer Clarence Dongail, who entered the cell and told them to stop. However, upon returning to the common area to watch TV, Tony Co attacked Dongail, triggering the riot. Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, in his media interview, said that high-profile convict Tony Co was killed after being stabbed. Convict and alleged drug lord Jaybee Sebastian—who was also involved in the riot, Peter Co and Sy were seriously wounded and taken to the hospital, however, Sebastian is in now stable condition while Peter Co is in critical condition. Dongail suffered minimal injuries.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Senator Leila de Lima claimed that the Malacañang Palace was behind the Bilibid riot incident in order to persuade the inmates to testify against her for alleged drug operations inside the prison. Later in a press conference, de Lima angrily condemned the incident and challenged Duterte to arrest her.


title: Philippine drug war

text: Following criticism of the police over the kidnapping and killing of Jee Ick-Joo, a South Korean businessman, Duterte ordered the police to suspend drug-related operations while ordering the military and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to continue drug operations. Human Rights Watch criticized the South Korean government in May 2018 for continuing to supply materials to the Philippine authorities after the death of Jee Ick-Joo.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On January 4, 2017, a Sputnik gang member by the name of Randy Lizardo shot and killed policeman PO1 Enrico Domingo in Tondo. Domingo, together with other PNP officers, were conducting a buy-bust operation inside Lizardo's home. As the lawmen burst inside, the gang surprised them out of the curtains with handguns. Domingo was hit in the head and died instantly, while another, PO2 Harley Gacera, was wounded in the shoulder. Lizardo and the gang managed to get away, but he would later be captured as he tried to flee the city nine days later. The death of Domingo became one of the most covered case of a police casualty during the drug war.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In March 2017, Duterte issued an executive order creating the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD), composed of 21 government entities, headed by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), tasked to lead the fight against illegal drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On January 31, 2017, Amnesty International published a report of their investigation of 59 drug-related killings in 20 cities and towns, ""If you are poor you are killed": Extrajudicial Executions in the Philippines' "War on Drugs"", which "details how the police have systematically targeted mostly poor and defenceless people across the country while planting 'evidence', recruiting paid killers, stealing from the people they kill and fabricating official incident reports." They stated: "Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the deliberate, widespread and systematic killings of alleged drug offenders, which appear to be planned and organized by the authorities, may constitute crimes against humanity under international law."


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Palace said that the report was wrong, and there were no such illegal killings. "As for the spate of killings, there is no such thing as state-sponsored since the police has been following the strict protocols in arresting these drug-related criminals. Secretary Salvador Panelo said that the true cause of the killings are the “members of the drug syndicates are killing each other to prevent their competitors from informing the authorities which may lead to their arrest. As for those who were killed by the police, the same were made on the basis of self-defense when they employed unlawful means to resist arrest posing threat to the lives of the police officers."


title: Philippine drug war

text: The President also criticized the double standard narrative on the killings involved in the anti-illegal drug campaign. "When you bomb a village you intend to kill the militants, but you kill in the process the children there. Why do you say it is collateral damage to the West and to us it is murder?" President Duterte said months after he sat in office.


title: Philippine drug war

text: A police officer with the rank of Senior Police Officer 1, a ten-year veteran of a Metro Manila anti-illegal drugs unit, told AI that police are paid 8,000 pesos (US$161) to 15,000 pesos (US$302) per "encounter" (the term used for extrajudicial executions disguised as legitimate operations); there is no payment for making arrests. He said that some police also receive a payment from the funeral home they send the corpses to. Hitmen hired by police are paid 5,000 pesos (US$100) for each drug user killed and 10,000 to 15,000 pesos (US$200–300) for each "drug pusher" killed, according to two hitmen interviewed by AI.


title: Philippine drug war

text: AI spoke to many witnesses who complained of the dehumanizing treatment of their family members. Crisis Response Director Tirana Hassan stated: "The way dead bodies are treated shows how cheaply human life is regarded by the Philippines police. Covered in blood, they are casually dragged in front of horrified relatives, their heads grazing the ground before being dumped out in the open. The people killed are overwhelmingly drawn from the poorest sections of society and include children, one of them as young as eight years old."


title: Philippine drug war

text: The report makes a series of recommendations to Duterte and government officials and departments. If certain key steps are not swiftly taken, it recommends that the International Criminal Court "initiate a preliminary examination into unlawful killings in the Philippines’s violent anti-drug campaign and related crimes under the Rome Statute, including the involvement of government officials, irrespective of rank and status."


title: Philippine drug war

text: The Guardian and Reuters stated that the report added to evidence they had published previously about police extrajudicial executions. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella responded to the report, saying that Senate committee investigations proved that there had been no state-sponsored extrajudicial killings. In an interview on February 4, Duterte told a reporter that Amnesty International was "so naive and so stupid", and "a creation of [George] Soros". He asked, "Is that the only thing you [de Lima] can produce? The report of Amnesty?"


title: Philippine drug war

text: De Lima was jailed on February 24, awaiting trial on charges related to allegations made by Duterte in August 2016. A court date has not been set.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On February 20, Arturo Lascañas, a retired police officer, told reporters at a press conference outside the senate building that as a leader of the Davao Death Squad he had carried out extrajudicial killings on the orders of Duterte. He said death squad members were paid 20,000 to 100,000 pesos ($400 to $2,000) per hit, depending on the importance of the target. He gave details of various killings he had carried out on Duterte's orders, including the previously unsolved murder of a radio show host critical of Duterte, and confessed to his involvement with Matobato in the bombing of a mosque on Duterte's orders. On the following day the senate voted in a private session to reopen the investigation, reportedly by a margin of ten votes to eight, with five abstentions.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On March 6, Lascanas gave evidence at the Senate committee, testifying that he had killed approximately 200 criminal suspects, media figures and political opponents on Duterte's orders.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In June 2017 Reuters reported that "Police were sending corpses to hospitals to destroy evidence at crime scenes and hide the fact that they were executing drug suspects." Doctors stated that corpses loaded onto trucks were being dumped at hospitals, sometimes after rigor mortis had already set in, with clearly unsurvivable wounds, having been shot in the chest and head at close range. Reuters examined data from two Manila police districts, and found that the proportion of suspects sent to hospitals, where they are pronounced dead on arrival (DOA), increased from 13% in July 2016 to 85% in January 2017; "The totals grew along with international and domestic condemnation of Duterte's campaign."


title: Philippine drug war

text: Then-PNP Chief Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa dismissed the Reuters report, saying police were trying to save the victims’ lives even when encountering violent resistance. He added that police should not be disparaged for trying to save victims and the removal of bodies from a crime scene did not mean a proper investigation could not be carried out.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On July 30, Reynaldo Parojinog, the mayor of Ozamiz City, was killed along with 14 others, including his wife Susan, in a dawn raid at around 2:30 am on his home in San Roque Lawis. According to police, they were on a search warrant when Parojinog's bodyguards opened fire on them and police officers responded by shooting at them. According to police provincial chief Jaysen De Guzman, authorities recovered grenades, ammunition and illegal drugs in the raid.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On August 16, over 32 people were killed in multiple "one-time, big-time" antidrug operations in Bulacan within one day. In Manila, 25 people, including 11 suspected robbers, were also killed in consecutive anti-criminality operations. The multiple deaths in the large-scale antidrug operations received condemnation from human rights groups and the majority of the Senate.


title: Philippine drug war

text: As a result of involvement in the deaths of teenagers like Kian delos Santos, and Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman, and robbing of a drug suspect in an antidrug raid, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Oscar Albayalde ordered the firing and retraining of all members of the Caloocan City Police, with the exception of its newly appointed chief and its deputy.


title: Philippine drug war

text: On October 12, 2017, Duterte announced the transfer of anti-drug operations to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), ending the involvement of the Philippine National Police (PNP). The announcement followed the publication of an opinion poll on October 8, showing a drop in presidential approval from 66% to 48%. In a televised speech, Duterte scoffed and mocked the "bleeding hearts" who sympathized with those killed in the drug war, pointedly at the European Union, whom he accused of interfering with Philippine sovereignty.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In a speech before ASEAN representatives, Rodrigo Duterte refuted all extrajudicial killings related to the War on Drugs by stating that these stories only serve as a political agenda in order to demonize him. He stated that he has only used his mouth to tell drug users that they will be killed. He stated that "..."shabu" (crystal meth) users have shrunken brains, which is why they have become violent and aggressive, leading to their deaths." Duterte further added that all the drug pushers and their henchmen always carry their guns with them and killing them is justifiable so that they would not endanger the lives of his men. Duterte appointed a human rights lawyer, Harry Roque, a Kabayan partylist representative, as his spokesperson. Roque stated that he will change public perception by reducing the impact of the statements by which Duterte advocates extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs.


title: Philippine drug war

text: In a speech on March 26, 2018, Duterte said that human rights groups "have become unwitting tools of drug lords." Human Rights Watch denied the allegation, calling it "shockingly dangerous and shameful."