title: Eoin Morgan

text: In 2010, Morgan told the "Sunday Times" that "From the age of 13, I wanted to play cricket for England. I’ve never felt any shame in saying this is what I wanted to do. And the people at home involved in cricket, they were like, 'Fair play, it's going to be unbelievable if you make it'. So I’ve never had any shame about this and my father's never had any shame about it." He has subsequently stated that his mother is English, and that he has held a British passport since birth. At the time, England was one of the ten full members of the International Cricket Council, while Ireland was an associate member; only full member nations can play a full schedule of international cricket, including Test matches. Ireland were subsequently admitted as full members in 2017.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In May 2007, Morgan was named as twelfth man for the Lord's Test versus West Indies, and came on for Matthew Hoggard on the third day. On 16 August 2008, Morgan represented the England Lions in a list A match against the touring South Africans. He scored 47* in an unbeaten partnership of 113 with Samit Patel in the course of England Lions securing a six wicket victory. Morgan was part of the England Performance Programme squad in India in the winter of 2008, although no matches were played as the tour was cancelled after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Morgan was also part of the England Lions for the winter tour of New Zealand.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: After touring with the England Lions over the winter, it was announced in April 2009 that Morgan was in England's 30-man provisional squad for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. This meant that he could not play for Ireland, who were also participating in the tournament. While disappointed to be denied Morgan's batting, Irish cricket team manager Roy Torrens said "[Morgan's] made no secret of that fact [wanting to play Test cricket]. So you know, it's not totally unexpected to us. We realise this is always going to be a problem with our better players playing in England".


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan's progression towards representing the senior England side continued when in May 2009 he was named in England's 14-man squad to face West Indies in a three-match ODI series and the 15-man squad for the World Twenty20. Morgan made his England debut in the second One Day International (after the first was abandoned due to rain), and also played in the third of the series. Morgan did not have much chance to impress with the bat, due to not coming in until late in the innings, making scores of 2 and 6 not out, but was praised for his athletic fielding.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan played in the opening match of the World Twenty20 against the Netherlands, but after England's defeat, he played no further part in the tournament.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: At the end of the English Summer, Morgan was involved in the ODI series against Australia. Although they had just lost the Ashes to England in the Test series, Australia won the first five games with Morgan one of few batters to emerge with any credit, including a first one-day half-century for England in the fifth match, winning praise with his innovative style.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the first game of the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy, Morgan led England to an unexpected victory over much fancied Sri Lanka. He hit an unbeaten 62, and was well supported by Middlesex colleague Owais Shah. Morgan kept wicket for the first time in his professional career in the next match against South Africa, after regular wicket-keeper Matt Prior was struck down by illness. Morgan scored 67 runs from just 34 balls in England's innings.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the ODI series against South Africa, Morgan was selected in the team for the second match of the series. He made 27 to help England secure a seven wicket victory. In the following match he was dismissed for a duck as South Africa secured a convincing victory, winning by 112 runs.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: After making 33 in the first match of the ODI series in Bangladesh, he hit an unbeaten 110 to help England win the second ODI by two wickets, with innings earning him the man of the match award. He made 36 in the final match of the series, meaning he had scored 169 runs in the three matches he had played. Morgan was one of England's stand out batters in the series and his performances earned him praise from the media.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He was an important part of England's Twenty20 team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. He top-scored in England's group games against the West Indies and his native Ireland, as well as the Super Eights game against New Zealand. Due to effective team bowling and half-centuries from Kevin Pietersen and Craig Kieswetter, he was hardly needed in the semi-final against Sri Lanka and final against Australia, finishing not-out in both matches.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: England then hosted Australia in a five-match ODI series. In the first game, Morgan scored an unbeaten 103 off 85 balls at the Rose Bowl and followed it up with a half-century in the second, with England winning both matches. England won the series with two games to spare, although they lost both dead rubbers, and Morgan was named Player of the Series.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: On the back of his one-day success, he was then included in England's Test squad for the home series against Bangladesh. With Paul Collingwood rested, he made his debut in the first Test at Lord's on 27 May 2010. He scored 44 runs in the first innings but was not required in the second innings as England won by eight wickets after making Bangladesh follow-on. In the second Test, he scored 37 runs as England won by an innings and 80 runs.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: An injury to Ian Bell saw Morgan retained for the Test series against Pakistan. In the first Test at Trent Bridge, he scored a century as England won by 354 runs. In the third ODI he made an impressive 61, although England lost the match by 23 runs. In the final match of the series he scored 107 not out to help England win by 121 runs.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan did not perform well during the ODI series with Australia. His top score of the series came in the third match between the two sides, where he made 30.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan was not initially named in England's squad for the 2011 World Cup as he was suffering from a fractured finger, but was later called up following an injury to Kevin Pietersen. On 11 March 2011 he made his World Cup debut for England, scoring 63 runs in the defeat to Bangladesh, making him only the fourth player to have represented two different nations at the Cricket World Cup. England qualified for the Quarter-finals where they lost to Sri Lanka by ten wickets, although Morgan made 50 off 66 balls.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: The retirement of Paul Collingwood from Test cricket opened up a place in England's batting order. Morgan and Ravi Bopara were the leading contenders for the position; while Bopara stayed in England to play county cricket, Morgan chose to play in the IPL for six weeks. In nine innings for Kolkata Knight Riders Morgan scored 137 runs with a highest score of 66. His first first-class innings of the English season was in a match for the England Lions against the touring Sri Lankans alongside batters competing to the vacant place in England's batting line up. He scored 193 and according to the national selector it was enough to secure his selection for the squad to face Sri Lanka in first Test against Sri Lanka in May.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: England won the three-match series 1–0, with Morgan scoring 168 runs from four innings including two half-centuries. Stuart Broad replaced Collingwood as T20I captain in June, and Morgan was named as vice-captain in the format. England also won the five-match ODI series 3–2, with Morgan scoring 158 runs including another two half-centuries. His performance in the series saw Morgan move up one place in the ICC's ODI rankings to 23rd.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan retained his place when India toured England later that summer for four Tests. In the first three innings Morgan managed just 19 runs, including two ducks however in the second innings of the second Test Morgan partnered Matt Prior as the two scored rapid half-centuries against a struggling Indian bowling attack. England won the match by 319 runs. An injury to Jonathan Trott meant that Ravi Bopara, with whom Morgan had been competing for a place earlier that summer, was called into the side. Morgan scored his second Test century as England amassed 710/7 declared. England won the Test series 4–0 and in the process replaced India as the number 1 ranked Test team in the world. Morgan's 194 runs in the series came at an average of 32.33.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: After the series win against India, Cook was rested for England's one-off ODI against Ireland and Morgan handed the captaincy for the fixture, becoming only the third Irish man to lead England. An innings of 59 from Morgan shepherded his inexperienced team, which featured three debutantes, to victory and secured him the Man-of-the-Match award. During a T20I against India in late August, Morgan's shoulder became acutely painful. He underwent surgery and missed the home and away ODI series against India. Mitigating this disappointment, in September Morgan was awarded a central contract for the first time by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan recovered from his shoulder injury to participate in England's series against Pakistan in the UAE from January to February 2012. England lost the Test series 3–0 with their batters struggling to cope against Pakistan's spin bowlers. In the second Test he came under increased pressure, scoring just 3 runs in the entire match after being dismissed for a duck in the second innings. His top score of the series came in his final innings of the tour, where he made 31. Morgan, Pietersen, and Bell played in all three matches and each scored fewer than 90 runs in the series. Coach Andy Flower commented that Morgan had struggled during the tour of the UAE, and the batter was dropped from England's Test squad to tour Sri Lanka in March.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Although he was omitted from the Test side, Morgan remained a key figure in the limited overs formats. He made 21 in the first ODI against the West Indies, although he did not bat in the second match.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He made 89 not out in the first ODI against Australia to help England win the match by 15 runs. He followed this up by making an unbeaten 43 in the second ODI.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He was seen as one of contender to replace Kevin Pietersen, who was not selected for the Test team following reports of him texting South Africans players, but selectors chose James Taylor. He still played a big part in the limited overs series. In the second match he made an impressive 73 as England levelled the series. He made 36 not out in the next match as England took a lead in the series. He was not effective with the bat in the T20 series, scoring just 15 runs in the series, although this was partly due to him having limited time at the crease.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the World T20, Morgan was seen as a vital player who would have to perform if England were to do well. He made 27 in their opening win against Afghanistan but was out for 2 as England were thrashed by India, but still qualified in second place. He hit 71 runs of just 36 against the West Indies in the first match of the Super Eight stage. Despite his efforts, England still lost by 15 runs. He hit 30 against New Zealand as England won to keep their hopes of qualification alive. However, England lost to Sri Lanka by seven wickets meaning that their hopes of progressing were over as they were knocked out of the competition.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In 2013, Morgan captained the T20I team against India in the absence of Stuart Broad, who was injured. He made an unbeaten 49 in the second as England won by 5 wickets to level the series. Morgan was praised for captaincy and many pundits suggested he would lead England on a permanent basis in the future.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He was selected for the One Day series against India at the beginning of 2013. He made 41 from 38 balls in the first match, as England won by 9 runs. He suffered poor form as England lost the next three games, his scores including 10 and a duck. However, he returned to form for the final match of the series where he hit an unbeaten 40 as he guided England to an impressive 7 wicket win. Although England lost the series 3–2, it was seen as an improvement given their recent poor performances in ODIs in India.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the first T20I match against New Zealand, he helped England set 214 after he smashed 46 off just 26 balls as England won the match by 40 runs. He helped England win the decider in the ODI series, hitting 39 off 24 balls to help set up a 5 wicket win.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan had an unproductive start to the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, making a score of 8 against Australia, then 13 against Sri Lanka. With England needing to beat New Zealand to qualify from their group, Morgan made 15 to help England secure a victory. In the semi final against South Africa, he made an unbeaten 15 to help guide England to victory and reach the final against India. He made 33 in the final, which turned out to be a low-scoring affair, but could not get England over the line as they finished the tournament as runners up.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He was named as the captain for ODI series against Ireland and Australia. He won the one-off match against Ireland where he scored his career best, an unbeaten 124, along with Ravi Bopara who also scored a maiden century after Ireland scored 269 and English team of was reduced to 48 for 4. He was consistent against the series against Australia where he led by example as captain even though his team lost 2–1 in series. He scored 54, 5 not out, 53 and 30 in ODIs and in T20Is he scored a duck and 20.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: He joined up with the England squad in Australia after they had lost the Ashes 5–0. In the first ODI, he made 50 off 47 balls, but England went on to lose by 5 wickets. He made a century in the next match, but England were unable to close the game and lost by a single wicket. Morgan made another 50 in the third match, but they lost the game to go 3–0 down in the series. He hit 33 in the next match as England won their first game of the tour, but lost again in the final game where Morgan made 39. He did not take his impressive ODI form into the T20I series, where he scored just 10 runs in the first two matches. However, he top scored with 34 in the final match, as England were bowled out for 111 to end a miserable tour.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the warm up to the T20 World Cup, England embarked on a limited-overs tour of the West Indies. Morgan failed to make a big impact on the T20 series, making just 40 runs in the three match series, which England lost 2–1.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the T20 World Cup, England lost their first game to New Zealand, with Morgan making just 12. However, they secured an unlikely victory in the next game against Sri Lanka with Morgan hitting 57 and batting well alongside Alex Hales to help England chase down a large Sri Lankan score and keep their hopes of winning the tournament alive. The pair set a new record for the highest 3rd wicket partnership in T20 World Cup history (152). However, they lost their next game to South Africa, with Morgan scoring just six to end their hopes of qualifying. In the final game of the tournament they suffered a humiliating defeat to the Netherlands, with Morgan scoring just six.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the ODI series against Sri Lanka, Morgan top scored with 40 in the second game as England were bowled out for 99. England lost series 3–2.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: After the first game against India was rained off, Morgan made 28 in the second match as England lost to go 1–0 down in the series. England lost the next two matches and the manner of the defeats led to questions over the personnel in the team, and pressure on captain Alastair Cook. Despite this, England won the final match of the series, although Morgan again failed to make a big score, being dismissed for 14. In the only T20 match between the two sides, Morgan hit 71 from just 31 balls in an innings that included seven sixes. England won the match by three runs and Morgan was named man of the match.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the return series in Sri Lanka, Morgan endured a poor time. He scored just 19 runs in the first three games as England went 2-1 down in the series. In the fourth game, Alastair Cook was suspended due to a slow over rate in the previous game, and so Morgan took over as captain. He made 62, his only fifty of the tour, although England still went on to lose the game.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: On 19 December 2014, 2 months before the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, it was announced that Cook had been removed as one-day captain due to poor form, and replaced by Eoin Morgan.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Following his appointment as captain, Morgan's first series as skipper was a tournament contested by India, Australia and England. Morgan promised a more aggressive approach as captain and said England would be a more dynamic team. However, they suffered a loss in his first match leading the side against Australia. Morgan himself made an impressive 121 but it was not enough as the rest of England's batters struggled. Morgan was not needed to bat in the next match as England secured a comfortable win over India, Morgan's first as permanent captain. He again suffered defeat against Australia in the next game, being dismissed for a duck. England beat India again in the next game to qualify for the final, but Morgan was again unimpressive, making just two. England lost the final to Australia, with Morgan being dismissed for a duck again.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan's poor form continued into the World Cup, where he only scored 90 runs in five innings. His tournament started badly as he was dismissed for a duck in England's opening game against Australia. He made 17 in the next match against New Zealand as England slumped to a humiliating eight wicket defeat. He made 46 against Scotland as England won their first match of the tournament, and made 27 in England's nine wicket defeat against Sri Lanka. He was out for yet another duck in England's must win game against Bangladesh, meaning they exited the tournament. They won their final match against Afghanistan, with Morgan not be required to bat. This meant that England managed to win only 2 out of 6 games in the tournament under Morgan's captaincy, both victories came against much lower ranked teams Afghanistan and Scotland.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan continued in his role as ODI captain in the five-game series at home against New Zealand. The series began with a dominant performance by England, winning by 210 runs, Morgan contributing 50. The following match was a much more close-run affair, with New Zealand clinching the match by 13 runs (D/L method). Morgan performed strongly with the bat and scoring 88 off only 47 balls. New Zealand were victorious again in the third match, winning by 3 wickets with an over remaining. Morgan scored 71 in England's innings. In the fourth ODI, Morgan scored 113 from 82 balls, which helped England win the match by 7 wickets, a performance which earned him the Man of the Match award as England went on to win the series 3–2 as well as the one-off T20 match between the sides.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In the T20 against Australia, Morgan put in a strong performance, scoring 74 to send England on their way to a narrow victory. In the first ODI between the two sides, Morgan scored 38 but England went on to lose the match. England were also defeated in the second match, although Morgan impressed, scoring 85. Morgan scored another half century in the next match, making 62, as England won their first game of the series. England levelled the series in the next match, with Morgan hitting 92 to send England on their way to victory. The final match of the series between the two sides ended with Australia claiming an eight wicket victory, with Morgan being forced to retire hurt.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made 76 in a losing cause in the first game of the ODI series against Pakistan. However, England went on to win the next three games to win the series 3–1. Morgan did not make a significant contribution with the bat in any of the victories, making scores of 29, 35 and 14. Despite this, he was praised for his captaincy and the amount of improvement that had been seen in the England side since the disappointing World Cup campaign. Morgan made a score of 45 in the first T20I against Pakistan. After making 15 in the next match, Morgan rested himself for the final match of the series, with Jos Buttler replacing him as captain. England won the series 3–0.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan had a poor series against South Africa. He made scores of 23 and 29 in the first two games of the tournament, as England won both to take a 2–0 series lead. However, after these matches his own performances and that of the teams declined and Morgan failed to make double figures in the final three games of the series, being dismissed for scores of 8, 2 and 2 as South Africa won the final three games to take the series 3–2. Morgan played in both T20Is against South Africa, making scores of 10 and 38, although England lost both games to make it five defeats in a row.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made 27 in the opening match of the T20 World Cup against West Indies, as England lost their opening group game. In the next match against South Africa, England completed a historic chase of 230, although Morgan himself only made 12. He followed this up with a duck against Afghanistan, although England recovered to win the game. After making 22 against Sri Lanka as England won to qualify for the semi-finals, Morgan was out for a first ball duck against New Zealand, although England won the match comfortably, winning by seven wickets. England lost the final against the West Indies, with Morgan making just five.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made 43 in the first ODI to help England tie the match after matching Sri Lanka's total of 286. He did not bat in the second match as England won the match by ten wickets. In the third match, he again did not bat as the match was abandoned due to rain early in England's reply to Sri Lanka's 248/9. He made 22 in the fourth match to help England win by six wickets, and he made 20 in the final match of the series as England scored 324 to win by 122 runs. In the only T20I between the sides, he made an unbeaten 47 and hit the winning runs as England won by eight wickets.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made an unbeaten 33 in the first ODI against Pakistan, as England won by 44 runs on the D/L Method. He scored 68 in the second match as England chased down Pakistan's total of 251 to win by four wickets. He scored an unbeaten 57 in the third ODI as England set a world record total of 444/3 and won the match by 169 runs. He scored 11 in the fourth match as England won again to go 4-0 up. However, in the final match Morgan only made ten as England lost by four wickets, although they won the series 4–1. In the only T20I between the two sides, Morgan made 14 as England scored 135/7 and went on to lose the match by nine wickets.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made 28 in the first ODI against India, which England lost by three wickets. He made 102 in the second match as England fell short of India's target to lose by 15 runs. He made 43 in the next match as England won by five runs, although they lost the series 2–1. He made 51 in the first T20I as England won the match by seven wickets. He made 17 in the next match although England lost the match by five runs as India levelled the series. In the third T20I he made 40, but England collapsed and lost the match by 75 runs.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan made 107 in the first ODI against the West Indies to help England to 296-6 and they won the game by 45 runs. With this century, which is the fifth as a captain, Morgan became the highest century maker for England as a captain, bettered previous record of 4 ODI centuries each by Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss. In the second match he made seven as England secured a four wicket victory. In the final match of the series he made 11 as England made 328 and won by 186 runs to win the series 3–0.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In March 2018, the ICC named Morgan as the captain of a World XI team to play a one-off T20I fixture against the West Indies at Lord's in May 2018. He had to withdraw from the team because of a broken finger. On 10 June, he captained England when they lost to Scotland by six runs, at The Grange Club in Edinburgh.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: On 19 June 2018, during the third match of the home ODI series against Australia, Morgan surpassed the record of Ian Bell as the all-time leading run scorer for England in One Day International matches. In the same match England posted the highest ever ODI total of 481/6, with Morgan breaking another record: that held by Jos Buttler for the fastest ever fifty by an Englishman in ODIs. (21 balls)


title: Eoin Morgan

text: In April 2019, he was named as the captain of England's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In the opening match of the World Cup, against South Africa, Morgan played in his 200th ODI match for England, and scored his 7,000th run in ODIs. On 14 June 2019, in the match against the West Indies, Morgan played in his 300th international match for England.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: On 18 June 2019, in the match against Afghanistan at Old Trafford, Morgan scored 148 from 71 balls. His innings included 17 sixes, the most sixes by an individual in an ODI innings; his team scored 25 sixes in total, the most sixes by a team in an ODI innings. Morgan's century came from 57 balls, the fastest by an England batter in a Cricket World Cup match. On 21 June 2019, in the match against Sri Lanka, Morgan scored his 9,000th international run for England.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: On 14 July 2019, led by Morgan, England won the World Cup for the first time, beating New Zealand in the final on the boundary count tiebreaker after the match and super over were tied.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan captained the England team at the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where they reached the semi-final.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: By June 2022 Morgan had scored only one half-century in his previous 65 innings in all forms of cricket, and faced calls to resign the England captaincy. On 28 June 2022, he announced his retirement from international cricket.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan has been credited with improving England's white-ball game and changing their thought process, a decision he took with the management after their ICC CWC 2015 campaign, turning the England team into a strong white-ball side. Many experts and former players have praised Morgan for turning England into a strong and formidable white ball team in both ODI and T20 cricket and changing the team culture. Nasser Hussain said of Morgan after his retirement, "Eoin Morgan is England's greatest white-ball captain and revolutionary batter. He has had a huge impact on English cricket. It goes without saying that he is England's greatest ever white-ball captain, a World Cup-winning captain."


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan has appeared in 16 Tests (all for England), 248 One Day Internationals (23 for Ireland, 225 for England) and 115 Twenty20 Internationals (all for England). He has scored 700 runs in Tests, 7,701 in ODIs and 2,458 in T20Is.


title: Eoin Morgan

text: Morgan met his future wife Tara Ridgway at a bar in Adelaide in 2010. The duo got engaged in 2017 and married on 3 November 2018. They had their first child, a boy, Leo Louis Oliver Morgan on 9 March 2020.


title: JP Sears

text: JP Sears, known online as AwakenWithJP (born April 12, 1981), is an American conservative YouTuber and comedian. Sears is known for his satirical YouTube videos in which he promotes conservative political views and opposes COVID-19 face mask and vaccine mandates. He has parodied lifestyle gurus and wellness coaches and offers comedic life advice.


title: JP Sears

text: JP Sears was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Bowling Green, Ohio. According to Sears, he was a class clown in his youth. He attended Bowling Green State University, but withdrew after several months to begin studying holistic culture at the Ohio life coaching school Journeys of Wisdom.


title: JP Sears

text: In 2004, Sears moved from Ohio to San Diego, California, to begin work as a professional life coach. Prior to his appearance on YouTube, Sears operated the website holistichealthandfitness.com, which featured links to supplements and the website of alternative medicine proponent Joseph Mercola. In 2013, he began uploading YouTube videos providing advice on new age topics.


title: JP Sears

text: In 2014, Sears relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, after which he changed the tone of his videos from serious life coaching to satirical life coaching. He received notable attention in 2015 for his YouTube video titled "How to Become Gluten Intolerant". In the video, Sears delivers lines such as "If you're ready to have a ravenous appetite for impossible standards and dogmatic feelings of victimization, then let's get started on what you need to do to become gluten intolerant" in a deadpan and sarcastic manner typical of his YouTube content's approach to satire.


title: JP Sears

text: Sears primarily performs as a satirist. In an interview with the "Naples Daily News", Sears said he uses comedy to share "sincere life advice" and balances "the sincere and the satirical" while eschewing the idea that "you're either serious, like Deepak Chopra, or you're only joking around like a comedian". Sears has rejected being categorized as either "sincere" or "humorous", explaining that he is both and the premise of the question is like asking "do you have a right hand or do you have a left hand?" According to Sears, all of his parody is drawn from aspects of his own life.


title: JP Sears

text: Sears was cited by Australia's ABC News as one of "a growing number of comedians satirising fad gluten-free and grain elimination diets".


title: JP Sears

text: In March 2017, Sears recorded a segment with CBC Radio's "Early Edition" in which host Samantha Garvey joined him in a tour of Vancouver's "most spiritually trendy spots".


title: JP Sears

text: In 2018, Sears recorded a video roast about New Jersey and then a similar roast filmed the same year about Boulder, described by "Westword" as "hilarious". Sears speculated "about running his own dog, Zephyr, for mayor", though, columnist Michael Roberts ultimately concluded he "could always run for mayor in Zephyr's place, especially given his high public profile".


title: JP Sears

text: Sears has also produced satirical roasts of Spokane, Phoenix, Portland, and other locations; however, a 2017 satire of Costa Rica was less well-received by residents and Sears subsequently pulled the video from his channel and issued an apology after it was criticized by Costa Rican ambassador to India Mariela Cruz. News outlet "Costa Rica Hoy" observed that Costa Ricans familiar with Sears' satirical style would probably be amused by the video, while those who were unfamiliar with it would not. The "Costa Rica News", an English-language newspaper in Costa Rica, observed that "this is a great lesson in cultural differences, what made JP's popularity in the States, the use of satire and parody is not going to be a successful tactic in Latin America ... JP did realize that he had erred and sought to rectify his actions in a very public way ... Needless to say, JP will not be doing any videos about Costa Rica, he will be sticking to subjects he knows well."


title: JP Sears

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Sears' content shifted towards support of conservative political views. In an interview with the "Spokesman-Review", Sears remarked that he believed freedoms were threatened during the pandemic, which caused his political shift, though he was not political before. According to Sears, "During the spring of 2020, me being pro-freedom caused some backlash,” but said that becoming a conservative comic "turned out to be great for my career." Also according to Sears, there are fewer conservative comics, and therefore he has a "niche" audience.


title: JP Sears

text: Sears began attempting to discredit some of the public health measures taken against COVID-19 and promote COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Science communicator Jonathan Jarry of the Office for Science and Society, McGill University described Sears as part of the conspirituality trend, combining conspiracy theories and New Age spirituality. He notes that Sears has promoted claims about COVID-19 such as that Vitamin D provides protection against the disease, has referred to masks as "face suffocators", and had a video removed by YouTube "for spreading unfounded conspiracy theories".


title: JP Sears

text: In February 2021, Sears appeared as a speaker at the Health Freedom Summit, an online event featuring speakers "promoting anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and pro-homeschool views".


title: JP Sears

text: Sears was the master of ceremonies at the Defeat the Mandates rally in Washington D.C. on January 23, 2022. He spoke against vaccine mandates to around 10,000 protesters alongside anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Robert W. Malone, a physician and biochemist who has promoted misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines. "The New York Times" characterized him as a "conservative conspiracy theorist" and "Vice News" described him as an "anti-vaccine comedian".


title: JP Sears

text: In September 2020, Sears announced that he and his wife were expecting a child. As of 2021, he resides in Austin, Texas.


title: JP Sears

text: In 2021, Sears stated that "Spirituality is super-important to me." He has not been vaccinated against COVID-19, saying "I don't feel that I'm at risk due to my age. To be quite frank, this is the most rushed vaccine in medical history."


title: Sam J. Jones

text: Samuel Gerald Jones (born August 12, 1954), known professionally as Sam J. Jones, is an American actor. He is known for playing the title character in the 1980 film "Flash Gordon" and for starring in the short-lived TV series "The Highwayman" (1987–1988).


title: Sam J. Jones

text: Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Sacramento, California. In 1972, after high school, Jones enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he played American football. With service in the Corps completed, he moved to Seattle with the ambition of joining the Seahawks but was turned down. Instead, in 1976, he played for their practice team, the Flyers, as a semi-professional.


title: Sam J. Jones

text: To supplement his income, Jones also began modeling. Starting in 1975, he appeared full-frontal nude under the alias "Andrew Cooper III" as the centerfold for a photo-spread in the June issue of "Playgirl" magazine. He also starred in TV commercials for a sporting goods store in Seattle before finally moving to Los Angeles in 1977.


title: Sam J. Jones

text: Jones made his first film appearance in the 1979 romantic comedy film "10". His appearance in "10" allowed him to beat Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger for his most famous role, that of Flash Gordon in the 1980 film of the same name. Jones' hair was dyed blonde for this role. The film was moderately successful at the box office grossing $27.1 million in North America, and $22 million in the UK, double its $20 million budget. However, a falling-out between Jones and producer Dino De Laurentiis led to the scrapping of a planned film trilogy.


title: Sam J. Jones

text: After the release of "Flash Gordon", "Playgirl" reprinted his 1975 nude photo spread in its January 1981 issue, this time using his real name. He went on to play Chris Rorchek in the TV series "Code Red" (1981–1982). He had guest roles in other TV shows including "The A-Team", "Hunter", and "Riptide". In 1987, he played the lead role in a TV adaptation of Will Eisner's comics character "The Spirit". He also played the title character in the short-lived NBC sci-fi series "The Highwayman". In the late 1980s and early 1990s he portrayed Johnny Valentine on the HBO series "1st & Ten".


title: Sam J. Jones

text: Jones starred in the 1986 theatrical release "My Chauffeur" and the straight-to-video movies "Jungle Heat" (1985), "Jane and the Lost City" (1987), "Under the Gun" (1988), "Silent Assassins" (1988), "Whiteforce" (1988), "Driving Force" (1989), and "One Man Force" (1989). In the 1990s, Jones had roles in films including "In Gold We Trust" (1990), "Maximum Force" (1992), "Fist of Honor" (1993), "Hard Vice" (1994), "Enter the Shootfighter" (1995), "Texas Payback" (1995), "The Killer Inside" (1996), "Earth Minus Zero" (1996), "Baja Run" (1996) and "American Tigers" (1996), and guest roles in the TV shows "Baywatch", "Diagnosis Murder" and "".


title: Sam J. Jones

text: In 2001, Jones was cast in Animal Planet's family series "Hollywood Safari" as a park ranger. He appeared in "Deadman Switch", an episode of the television series "Stargate SG-1". In 2002, Jones retrained and, when he is not acting or working autograph booths on the ComicCon circuit, he works as a high-end security professional in San Diego, protecting traveling executives to Mexico. In his words "I became a security professional 15 years ago. My wife looked at me and said, 'You've been waiting for the phone to ring. The phone isn't ringing. We have kids. There's the door. Don’t come back until you're providing.' That's why I walked away from labels years ago. Actor? I'm a working man. Whatever it takes to provide, I'm a working man".


title: Sam J. Jones

text: In 2007, he played the prisoner Krebb in the Sci Fi Channel original television series "Flash Gordon". He also had extended cameos (as himself, with his blond Flash Gordon hairstyle) in both the 2012 comedy film "Ted" and its 2015 sequel, "Ted 2". Jones then starred in, and served as an executive producer of, "Life After Flash", a crowdfunded feature-length documentary about "Flash Gordon". The documentary, which chronicles the original film's production and cult following through interviews with fans and members of its cast and crew, including Melody Anderson, Brian Blessed, Peter Wyngarde, Mark Millar, Robert Rodriguez, Stan Lee and Brian May, also explores how Jones' falling-out with De Laurentiis impacted his life and career.


title: Sam J. Jones

text: Jones married Lynn Eriks in 1982; they had two children and divorced in 1987. Following the divorce from Eriks, he married Myrtille Blervaque, a French actress he met when he was filming on the island of Mauritius. They were married in Nevada on August 15, 1987, and divorced three years later. He married Ramona Lynn Jones on June 26, 1992; they have three children.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: Leroy Nicholas Barnes (October 15, 1933 – June 18, 2012) was an American crime boss, active in New York City during the 1970s.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: In 1972, Barnes formed The Council, a seven-man African-American organized crime syndicate that controlled a significant part of the heroin trade in the Harlem area of New York City. Barnes led The Council into an international drug trafficking ring, in partnership with the Italian-American Mafia, until his arrest in 1977. Barnes was sentenced to life imprisonment, eventually becoming a federal informant that led to the collapse of The Council in 1977. Barnes was living under the United States Marshals Service in Witness protection at the time of his death, and his obituary appeared in "The New York Times" seven years after his death.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: In 2007, Barnes released a book, "Mr. Untouchable", written with Tom Folsom, and a documentary DVD of the same title about his life.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: Leroy Nicholas Barnes was born on October 15, 1933, in Harlem, New York City, into an African-American family. A good student in his youth, Barnes left home early to escape his abusive alcoholic father, turning to drug dealing for income. Barnes himself became addicted to heroin for several years in his 20s until spending time in jail, when he ended his addiction. Barnes was sent to prison in 1965 for low-level drug dealing, and while in prison he met "Crazy" Joe Gallo, a capo in the Colombo crime family, and Matthew Madonna, a heroin dealer for the Lucchese crime family. Gallo wanted to have a greater presence in the Harlem heroin market, but did not have any personnel to deal in the predominantly African-American areas. It is believed Gallo passed on his knowledge of how to run a drug trafficking organization to Barnes, and asked him to assemble the necessary personnel. When Gallo was released from jail, he provided a lawyer for Barnes, who subsequently had his conviction overturned on a technicality. On his return to New York City, Barnes began to assemble his personnel, and began cutting and packaging heroin.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: In 1972, to deal more efficiently with other black gangsters in Harlem, Barnes founded The Council, a seven-man organization consisting of Barnes, Joseph "Jazz" Hayden, Wallace Rice, Thomas "Gaps" Foreman, Ishmael Muhammed, Frank James, and Guy Fisher. The Council was modelled after the Italian-American Mafia families, where it settled disputes among the criminals, and handled distribution problems and other drug trade related issues.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: By 1976, Barnes' operation spread throughout all of New York State and into Pennsylvania and Canada. According to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records, Barnes' operation in 1976 consisted of seven lieutenants, who each controlled a dozen mid-level distributors, who in turn supplied upwards of 40 street level dealers each.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: Barnes set up front companies to protect some of his assets, such as numerous car dealerships, which appeared to be rented through those companies. The DEA eventually discovered the true ownership of the companies and seized the cars, including a Bentley, a Citroën SM, a Maserati, a Mercedes-Benz, a yellow Volvo, and several Cadillacs, Lincoln Continentals, and Ford Thunderbirds. Barnes' net worth had reached over $50 million at the height of his career. A "New York Times" article estimated Barnes purchased hundreds of tailor-made suits, Italian shoes, coats, and jewelry, which alone was valued at over $7 million. During this time, Barnes had become the dominant drug lord in Harlem, and was given the name "Mr. Untouchable" after successfully beating numerous charges and arrests. It is believed while under surveillance, Barnes would often make pointless stops and go on high-speed chases with little purpose other than to aggravate those following him. The Council also employed contract killers, such as Robert Young aka Willie Sanchez.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: On June 5, 1977, "The New York Times Magazine" released an article titled "Mr. Untouchable", featuring Barnes posing on the front cover. The magazine told Barnes that they were going to use a mug shot of Barnes unless he posed for the cameras. Barnes, who hated mug shots, agreed and took the shot. Barnes' posture of smug invulnerability so affronted President Jimmy Carter that the President ordered the United States Attorney General, Griffin Bell, to prosecute Barnes to the fullest extent of the law. The Justice Department prosecuted Barnes for his drug-related crimes and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on January 19, 1978. The chief prosecutor in the case was Robert B. Fiske, then the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: According to Barnes, while in prison he discovered that his assets were not being maintained, and The Council had stopped paying his attorneys' fees. Barnes discovered that one of his fellow Council members, Guy Fisher, was having an affair with Barnes' mistress. The Council had a rule that no council member would sleep with another Council member's wife or mistress, so in response Barnes decided to become a federal informant. He forwarded a list of 109 names, five of them Council members', along with his wife's name, implicating them all in illegal activities related to the heroin trade. Barnes helped to indict 44 other traffickers, 16 of whom were ultimately convicted. In his testimony, he implicated himself in eight murders. While in prison, he also won a national poetry contest for federal inmates, earned a college diploma with honors, and taught fellow inmates English.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: After Barnes cooperated with the government by working as an informant, Rudolph Giuliani sought a reversal of Barnes' life sentence. Eventually, Barnes was resentenced to 35 years. By working in jail, he earned two months off his sentence for every one he served, and was released in August 1998.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: In 2007, Barnes and his former competitor, Frank Lucas, sat down with "New York" magazine's for a conversation between men who had not spoken to each other in three decades.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: Barnes became part of the United States Federal Witness Protection Program. His memoir, "Mr. Untouchable: My Crimes and Punishments", was published in 2007, and he appeared in a documentary about his gang life, also titled "Mr. Untouchable" (2007). On January 31, 2008, Howard Stern interviewed Barnes on Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show.


title: Nicky Barnes

text: Barnes died from cancer on June 18, 2012; however, because he was under witness protection, his death was not contemporaneously reported under his birth name, and news of his death only became known in June 2019.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO), known in South Korea as Dungeon & Fighter (DNF), is a multiplayer beat 'em up action role-playing game, developed and published for personal computers by Neople, a South Korean subsidiary of Nexon, and originally published by Hangame in 2005. The game was originally released in South Korea as "Dungeon & Fighter", then in Japan as and then published in China by Tencent. In 2014, Neople began an alpha test of a global version of "Dungeon Fighter Online" using the last English version hosted by Nexon, which has since ended.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: "DFO" is one of the most-played and highest-grossing video games of all time, with over players worldwide and over in lifetime revenue . This also makes it one of the highest-grossing entertainment media products of all time. The game has received Japanese anime and manga adaptations.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Dungeon Fighter Online is similar to classic 2D side-scrolling arcade hack and slash/beat 'em up games, such as "Golden Axe" or "Double Dragon". Players traverse 2D screens while fighting hordes of monsters. There are a number of social aspects to "Dungeon Fighter Online", including Guilds, PvP Arenas, Party Play.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Skills can be designated upon an upper row of hotkeys, that can be further expanded by the decision of the player. However, a player can choose to manually input the command to perform a certain skill; for example, a Blade Master can choose to press the assigned hotkey for the skill Draw Sword, but can also choose to perform its direct input. Directly inputting the skill (done by pressing the arrow keys in a certain sequence and then pressing the basic skill key) makes the skill cost less MP and lowers the cooldown of the skill (the time needed to wait to use the skill again) by a small amount. Skills are usually performed separately from normal combos; however, some skills are "cancellable," meaning that those skills can be used in the middle of normal attacks.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: "Dungeon Fighter Online" was developed by a South Korean company called Neople who previously only published a number of casual online games through their own game portal site. It was originally planned as a small game as the entire game was developed in five months based on the forecasted life expectancy. However, the response was better than they expected so the budget was increased and the game was expanded.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Extensive testing took place before the premiere launch in Korea. Three closed beta periods were held between December 17–31, 2004, February 1–13, 2005, and June 28 – July 11, 2005. Neople accepted only 999 players per test and allowed only one hundred minutes of gameplay per day. Content was fine-tuned and updated daily throughout the test period based on testers feedback. After a short hiatus, open beta commenced on August 10, 2005 at 3 pm. By 11 pm, there were over 15,000 concurrent users.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Even though many games being released at the time were 3D, Neople decided to create "Dungeon Fighter Online" in 2D because they did not believe it affected gameplay, they did not feel a 3D game could capture the look and feel of the original illustrations of the characters, the ease of casual players getting into the game, and they had more experience with 2D games. Hi-res is not a likely path the game will take because director Yun Jong Kim's main focus is "efficiency".


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Five years after the original release in Korea, Nexon America revealed plans for an English version of "Dungeon Fighter Online" at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in late March. The title was renamed from "Dungeon & Fighter" to "Dungeon Fighter Online" because of the awkwardness to say "Dungeon and Fighter".


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: Thousands of applicants were accepted into closed beta, which held for seven days between July 28 – August 3, 2009. Closed beta for an English version of the game ran from July 28, 2009 to August 3, 2009. Early access has begun on September 15, 2009. Open beta started September 22, 2009. Open beta plans were announced at Penny Arcade Expo 2009. Early access to open beta, available for players who received a beta key, proceeded on September 15, 2009. Open beta began a week later on September 22, 2009. "Dungeon Fighter Online" officially launched on June 9, 2010. It was announced on April 2, 2013, that the North American version of "Dungeon Fighter Online" would be shutting down on June 13, 2013.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: On May 15, 2014, Neople held an alpha test for a global version of the game. On October 10, 2014, beta testing was announced, set for March 24, 2015. Neople announced a closed beta test for "Dungeon Fighter Online", scheduled for release around March 2015, due to them moving their office to the island of Jeju, located off the south-west coast of South Korea. However, it became an open beta test because the Facebook page for the game had reached a specific number of "Likes", something that had been previously promised by Neople when it was still planned for a closed beta test.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: On January 19, 2016, "Dungeon Fighter Online" Season 2 was released. On August 9, 2016, the game was released on Steam as free-to-play, offering achievements and paid DLC. On January 17, 2017, "Dungeon Fighter Online" Season 3 was released. On February 27, 2018, "Dungeon Fighter Online" Season 4 was released. On February 26, 2019, "Dungeon Fighter Online" Season 5 was released.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: "Dungeon Fighter Online" had a 300 million registered users celebration on May 25, 2011. On August 24, 2012, Nexon reported that the game recorded a peak activity of 3 million concurrent users in China alone. "Dungeon Fighter Online" had 25 million monthly active users as of November 2012. It reached a total of 600million users worldwide by 2018, and exceeded registered users worldwide by March 2020.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: The game grossed over $2 billion in revenue as of March 2012. As of 2015, it had an annual gross of $1.052 billion. Nexon revealed that "Dungeon Fighter Online" grossed a revenue of $8.7 billion in just over 10 years after its 2005 debut, more than the combined box office gross of "Star Wars", the biggest film franchise at the time. In 2017, "Dungeon Fighter Online" grossed $1.6billion, making it the year's second highest-grossing PC game (after "League of Legends") and third highest-grossing video game (after "League of Legends" and "Honor of Kings"). By the end of 2017, the game had exceeded in worldwide revenue, becoming one of the most-played and highest-grossing video games of all time.


title: Dungeon Fighter Online

text: In March 2018, "Dungeon Fighter Online" was the highest-grossing PC game of the month, above "League of Legends". "Dungeon Fighter"s March 2018 gross was the third highest ever monthly revenue for a free-to-play game. "Dungeon Fighter Online" was the second highest-grossing digital game of 2018 with , and again in 2019 with , bringing its lifetime gross revenue to . , "Dungeon Fighter Online" has exceeded $15 billion in lifetime gross revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing entertainment media IPs, with its lifetime revenue larger than the box office gross of the "Star Wars", "Harry Potter" and "Avengers" film series. , the original PC version of "Dungeon Fighter Online" has grossed over in lifetime gross revenue and exceeded registered users worldwide.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affected, the degree of weakness, how fast they worsen, and when symptoms begin. Some types are also associated with problems in other organs.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Over 30 different disorders are classified as muscular dystrophies. Of those, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) accounts for approximately 50% of cases and affects males beginning around the age of four. Other relatively common muscular dystrophies include Becker muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, and myotonic dystrophy, whereas limb–girdle muscular dystrophy and congenital muscular dystrophy are themselves groups of several – usually ultrarare – genetic disorders.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Muscular dystrophies are caused by mutations in genes, usually those involved in making muscle proteins. These mutations are either inherited from parents or may occur spontaneously during early development. Muscular dystrophies may be X-linked recessive, autosomal recessive, or autosomal dominant. Diagnosis often involves blood tests and genetic testing.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: There is no cure for any disorder from the muscular dystrophy group. Several drugs designed to address the root cause are under development, including gene therapy (Microdystrophin), and antisense drugs (Ataluren, Eteplirsen etc.). Other medications used include corticosteroids (Deflazacort), calcium channel blockers (Diltiazem) to slow skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration, anticonvulsants to control seizures and some muscle activity, and immunosuppressants (Vamorolone) to delay damage to dying muscle cells. Physical therapy, braces, and corrective surgery may help with some symptoms while assisted ventilation may be required in those with weakness of breathing muscles.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Outcomes depend on the specific type of disorder. Many affected people will eventually become unable to walk and Duchenne muscular dystrophy in particular is associated with shortened life expectancy.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Muscular dystrophy was first described in the 1830s by Charles Bell. The word "dystrophy" comes from the Greek "dys", meaning "no, un-" and "troph-" meaning "nourish".


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: The majority of muscular dystrophies are inherited; the different muscular dystrophies follow various inheritance patterns (X-linked, autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant). In a small percentage of patients, the disorder may have been caused by a "de novo" (spontaneous) mutation.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: The diagnosis of muscular dystrophy is based on the results of muscle biopsy, increased creatine phosphokinase (CpK3), electromyography, and genetic testing. A physical examination and the patient's medical history will help the doctor determine the type of muscular dystrophy. Specific muscle groups are affected by different types of muscular dystrophy.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Currently, there is no cure for muscular dystrophy. In terms of management, physical therapy, occupational therapy, orthotic intervention (e.g., ankle-foot orthosis), speech therapy, and respiratory therapy may be helpful. Low intensity corticosteroids such as prednisone, and deflazacort may help to maintain muscle tone. Orthoses (orthopedic appliances used for support) and corrective orthopedic surgery may be needed to improve the quality of life in some cases. The cardiac problems that occur with Emery–Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) and myotonic muscular dystrophy may require a pacemaker. The myotonia (delayed relaxation of a muscle after a strong contraction) occurring in myotonic muscular dystrophy may be treated with medications such as quinine.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Occupational therapy assists the individual with MD to engage in activities of daily living (such as self-feeding and self-care activities) and leisure activities at the most independent level possible. This may be achieved with use of adaptive equipment or the use of energy-conservation techniques. Occupational therapy may implement changes to a person's environment, both at home or work, to increase the individual's function and accessibility; furthermore, it addresses psychosocial changes and cognitive decline which may accompany MD, and provides support and education about the disease to the family and individual.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: Prognosis depends on the individual form of muscular dystrophy. Some dystrophies cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle function, which may result in severe physical disability and a life-threatening deterioration of respiratory muscles or heart. Other dystrophies do not affect life expectancy and only cause relatively mild impairment.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: In the 1860s, descriptions of boys who grew progressively weaker, lost the ability to walk, and died at an early age became more prominent in medical journals. In the following decade, French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne gave a comprehensive account of the most common and severe form of the disease, which now carries his name – Duchenne MD.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: In 1966 in the US and Canada, Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) began the annual Labor Day telecast "The Jerry Lewis Telethon", significant in raising awareness of muscular dystrophy in North America. Disability rights advocates, however, have criticized the telethon for portraying those living with the disease as deserving pity rather than respect.


title: Muscular dystrophy

text: On December 18, 2001, the MD CARE Act was signed into law in the US; it amends the Public Health Service Act to provide research for the various muscular dystrophies. This law also established the Muscular Dystrophy Coordinating Committee to help focus research efforts through a coherent research strategy.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Noma Dumezweni (born 28 July 1969) is a British actress. In 2006, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for her performance as Ruth Younger in "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. In 2017, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Hermione Granger in the original West End run of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child"; she reprised the role for the show's original Broadway run and, in 2018, was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Born in Swaziland to South African parents, Dumezweni lived in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda. She arrived in England as a refugee on 17 May 1977 with her sister and mother. She first lived in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where she was educated, before moving to London. She has a daughter, Qeiva, born in 2007.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Dumezweni's work in theatre includes: "President of an Empty Room" and "The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other" at the National Theatre, London; "A Raisin in the Sun" for the Young Vic at the Lyric Hammersmith, London (for which she won her first Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role); "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Master and Margarita", "Nathan the Wise" and "The Coffee House" at Chichester Festival Theatre, "Six Characters in Search of an Author" in the Chichester Festival production at the Gielgud Theatre and "The Bogus Woman" at the Traverse and the Bush.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Domezweni performed in the 1999 "Macbeth" with Anthony Sher as the First Witch. In 2002, she played Charmian in "Antony and Cleopatra" and Ursula in "Much Ado About Nothing" for the RSC. In 2006, she performed in "Breakfast with Mugabe".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: She returned to the RSC in 2009-11. In spring of 2009 she appeared in the RSC's "The Winter's Tale". She also played Olyana in "The Grainstone", Calphurnia in "Julius Caesar", the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet", Morgan Le Fay in "Le Morte d'Arthur", the Doctor in "Little Eagles", and Alice in "Adelaide Road".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: In 2012, she played Rita in "Belong" at Royal Court Theatre. In 2013, she played Mistress Quickly and Alice in "Henry V" starring Jude Law the Noël Coward Theatre. At Royal Court, she also played Mrs. Twit in "The Twits", a stage adaptation of the story by Roald Dahl of the same name.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: In 2013–2014, she appeared in A "Human Being Died That Night" at the Fugard Theater in Cape Town, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, which later transferred to the Hampstead Theatre in London. In 2015, the show moved to Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and her was lauded for her "impeccable performance". She starred in "Linda" at London's Royal Court Theatre in November 2015, stepping into the role vacated by Kim Cattrall with a few days' notice before press night. Awarding the production five stars, the "Daily Telegraph"s chief theatre critic Dominic Cavendish wrote: "If they can bottle and mass-produce whatever it is that Noma Dumezweni has got then, please, I want to order a life-time's supply." In 2014, she played Hippolita in "'Tis Pity She's A Whore" at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. In 2015, she played Don José in "Carmen Disruption", an adaptation of Georges Bizet's "Carmen".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: In December 2015, it was announced that Dumezweni had been cast as Hermione Granger in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". On the announcement, theatre critic Kate Maltby described her as "an actress who consistently engages and enthrals." The casting of the black Dumezweni as Hermione sparked fervent discussion, to which J. K. Rowling responded that Hermione's skin was never specified as white. In 2017, she won her second Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role. Because of her performance in the role, Dumezweni was listed as one of BBC's 100 women during 2018. She reprised her role on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre in 2018.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Dumezweni appeared on numerous television shows, and in 2018, she starred in "Black Earth Rising", the Hugo Blick drama about the prosecution of war criminals. She played the marine biologist Fiffany in the HBO Max comedy series "Made for Love" (2021–2022).


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: In 2020, she appeared in the HBO series "The Undoing" alongside Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and Donald Sutherland. The series received several nominations at the Golden Globes and Emmy Awards. She plays Haley Fitzgerald, a powerhouse attorney hired by a wealthy New York psychotherapist (Kidman) to represent her husband (Grant), a pediatric cancer doctor who has been charged with the brutal killing of his mistress. This role enabled Dumezweni to reach an American audience thanks to the success of the series.


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: Dumezweni has had several roles in feature films, including Miss Penny Farthing in Disney’s "Mary Poppins Returns" in 2018. In 2019, she played Edith Sikelo in "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind", directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. She played Dionne Davis in Peter Hedges' large ensemble drama "The Same Storm" and critic Stephen Farber wrote, her "powerhouse performance strikes the right mournful but modestly hopeful note as we exit the theater." She has been cast in an undisclosed role for Disney's live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" and will join Liam Neeson in the cast for the forthcoming film "Retribution".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: In radio, she has appeared in "Jambula Tree", "Seven Wonders of the Divided World", "From Fact to Fiction", "From Freedom to the Future", "Handprint", "Jane's Story", "Sagila", "Shylock", "The Farming of Bones", "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency", "The Seven Ages of Car", "The Bogus Woman" and "Breakfast with Mugabe".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: She voiced various roles in the BBC Radio 4 dramatic recordings of Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" and "The Left Hand of Darkness". From 2004-2014, she intermittently voiced characters for the long-running BBC Radio 4 "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency".


title: Noma Dumezweni

text: She voiced the young adult adventure series "Steeplejack" by A. J. Hartley that is set in an imaginary world loosely resembling Victorian South Africa.


title: Darlene Cates

text: Darlene Cates (born Rita Darlene Guthrie; December 13, 1947 – March 26, 2017) was an American actress. She became known for her role in the 1993 film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", in which she played the title character's housebound mother.


title: Darlene Cates

text: Author and screenwriter Peter Hedges saw a tape of Cates on a 1992 episode of "Sally" entitled "Too Heavy to Leave Their House". On the show, she discussed her battle with obesity and how it had affected her life. In 1986, pelvic infections caused by her excess weight kept her bedridden for two years, during which she gained an additional . Hedges offered her the role of a morbidly obese mother in the 1993 film "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", which she accepted. Television roles followed on the shows "Picket Fences" in 1994 and "Touched by an Angel" in 1996. She had a small role in the 2001 film "Wolf Girl". Producer J. Miles Dale flew a small crew and the film's stars from Romania to Texas to shoot their scenes with Cates.


title: Darlene Cates

text: Her performance in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", her first attempt at acting in any form, received critical acclaim and was lauded by her costars Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp.


title: Darlene Cates

text: Cates married Robert Cates, a U.S. Marine, on January 11, 1963. She had one daughter, Sheri Ann, and two sons, Mark and Chris. She had four grandchildren and lived in Forney, Texas. In 1992, she received her high school diploma via correspondence courses. In 2012, Cates had lost 240 pounds after a series of health issues in 2010 kept her hospitalized for nearly a year, and she expressed a desire to resume her acting career.


title: Darlene Cates

text: Cates died in her sleep at age 69 on March 26, 2017. Her daughter, Sheri Cates Morgan, announced her passing on a Facebook post.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Bicameral mentality is a hypothesis in psychology and neuroscience which argues that the human mind once operated in a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys—a "bicameral mind", and that the evolutionary breakdown of this division gave rise to consciousness in humans. The term was coined by Julian Jaynes, who presented the idea in his 1976 book "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind", wherein he made the case that a bicameral mentality was the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3,000 years ago, near the end of the Mediterranean bronze age.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes uses "bicameral" (two chambers) to describe a mental state in which the experiences and memories of the right hemisphere of the brain are transmitted to the left hemisphere via auditory hallucinations. The metaphor is based on the idea of lateralization of brain function although each half of a normal human brain is constantly communicating with the other through the "corpus callosum". The metaphor is not meant to imply that the two halves of the bicameral brain were "cut off" from each other but that the bicameral mind was experienced as a different, non-conscious mental schema wherein volition in the face of novel stimuli was mediated through a linguistic control mechanism and experienced as auditory verbal hallucination.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Bicameral mentality would be non-conscious in its inability to reason and articulate about mental contents through meta-reflection, reacting without explicitly realizing and without the meta-reflective ability to give an account of "why" one did so. The bicameral mind would thus lack metaconsciousness, autobiographical memory, and the capacity for executive "ego functions" such as deliberate mind-wandering and conscious introspection of mental content. When bicameral mentality as a method of social control was no longer adaptive in complex civilizations, this mental model was replaced by the conscious mode of thought which, Jaynes argued, is grounded in the acquisition of metaphorical language learned by exposure to narrative practice.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: According to Jaynes, ancient people in the bicameral state of mind would have experienced the world in a manner that has some similarities to that of a person with schizophrenia. Rather than making conscious evaluations in novel or unexpected situations, the person would hallucinate a voice or "god" giving admonitory advice or commands and obey without question: One would not be at all conscious of one's own thought processes "per se". Jaynes's hypothesis is offered as a possible explanation of ""command hallucinations"" that often direct the behavior of those with first rank symptoms of schizophrenia, as well as other voice hearers.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes built a case for this hypothesis that human brains existed in a bicameral state until as recently as 3,000 years ago by citing evidence from many diverse sources including historical literature. He took an interdisciplinary approach, drawing data from many different fields. Jaynes asserted that, until roughly the times written about in Homer's "Iliad", humans did not generally have the self-awareness characteristic of consciousness as most people experience it today. Rather, the bicameral individual was guided by mental commands believed to be issued by external "gods"—commands which were recorded in ancient myths, legends and historical accounts. This is exemplified not only in the commands given to characters in ancient epics but also the very muses of Greek mythology which "sang" the poems. According to Jaynes, the ancients literally heard muses as the direct source of their music and poetry.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes asserts that in the "Iliad" and sections of the Old Testament no mention is made of any kind of cognitive processes such as introspection, and there is no apparent indication that the writers were self-aware. Jaynes suggests, the older portions of the Old Testament (such as the Book of Amos) have few or none of the features of some later books of the Old Testament (such as Ecclesiastes) as well as later works such as Homer's "Odyssey", which show indications of a profoundly different kind of mentality—an early form of consciousness.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: In ancient times, Jaynes noted, gods were generally much more numerous and much more anthropomorphic than in modern times, and speculates that this was because each bicameral person had their own "god" who reflected their own desires and experiences.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: He also noted that in ancient societies the corpses of the dead were often treated as though still alive (being seated, dressed, and even fed) as a form of ancestor worship, and Jaynes argued that the dead bodies were presumed to be still living and the source of auditory hallucinations. This adaptation to the village communities of 100 individuals or more formed the core of religion. Unlike today's hallucinations, the voices of ancient times were structured by cultural norms to produce a seamlessly functioning society.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes inferred that these "voices" came from the right brain counterparts of the left brain language centres; specifically, the counterparts to Wernicke's area and Broca's area. These regions are somewhat dormant in the right brains of most modern humans, but Jaynes noted that some studies show that auditory hallucinations correspond to increased activity in these areas of the brain.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes notes that even at the time of publication there is no consensus as to the cause or origins of schizophrenia. Jaynes argues that schizophrenia is a vestige of humanity's earlier bicameral state. Recent evidence shows that many people with schizophrenia do not just hear random voices but experience "command hallucinations" instructing their behavior or urging them to commit certain acts, such as walking into the ocean, which the listener feels they have no choice but to follow. Jaynes also argues people with schizophrenia feel a loss of identity due to hallucinated voices taking the place of their internal monologue.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: As support for Jaynes's argument, these command hallucinations are little different from the commands from gods which feature prominently in ancient stories. Indirect evidence supporting Jaynes's theory that hallucinations once played an important role in human mentality can be found in the recent book "Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination" by Daniel Smith.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes theorized that a shift from bicameral mentality marked the beginning of introspection and consciousness as we know it today. According to Jaynes, this bicameral mentality began malfunctioning or "breaking down" during the 2nd millennium BCE. He speculates that primitive ancient societies tended to collapse periodically: for example, Egypt's Intermediate Periods, as well as the periodically vanishing cities of the Mayas, as changes in the environment strained the socio-cultural equilibria sustained by this bicameral mindset.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: The Bronze age collapse of the 2nd millennium BCE led to mass migrations and created a rash of unexpected situations and stresses which required ancient minds to become more flexible and creative. Self-awareness, or consciousness, was the culturally evolved solution to this problem. This necessity of communicating commonly observed phenomena among individuals who shared no common language or cultural upbringing encouraged those communities to become self-aware to survive in a new environment. Thus consciousness, like bicameral mentality, emerged as a neurological adaptation to social complexity in a changing world.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes further argues that divination, prayer, and oracles arose during this breakdown period, in an attempt to summon instructions from the "gods" whose voices could no longer be heard. The consultation of special bicamerally operative individuals, or of divination by casting lots and so forth, was a response to this loss, a transitional era depicted, for example, in the book of 1 Samuel. It was also evidenced in children who could communicate with the gods, but as their neurology was set by language and society they gradually lost that ability. Those who continued prophesying, being bicameral according to Jaynes, could be killed. Leftovers of the bicameral mind today, according to Jaynes, include mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the hallucinations present in patients with split brain syndrome.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: An early (1977) reviewer considered Jaynes's hypothesis worthy and offered conditional support, arguing the notion deserves further study.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: "The Origin of Consciousness" was financially successful, and has been reprinted several times. It remains in print, with digital and audio editions appearing in 2012 and 2015.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Originally published in 1976, it was nominated for the National Book Award in 1978. It has been translated into Italian, French, German, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Persian.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: A new edition, with an afterword that addressed some criticisms and restated the main themes, was published in the United States in 1990 and in the United Kingdom (by Penguin Books) in 1993, re-issued in 2000.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes's hypothesis remains controversial. According to Jaynes, language is a necessary but not sufficient condition for consciousness: language existed thousands of years earlier, but consciousness could not have emerged without language. The idea that language is a necessary component of subjective consciousness and more abstract forms of thinking has gained the support of proponents including Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, William H. Calvin, Merlin Donald, John Limber, Howard Margolis, Peter Carruthers, and José Luis Bermúdez.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Gary Williams defends the Jaynesian definition of consciousness as a social–linguistic construct learned in childhood, structured in terms of lexical metaphors and narrative practice, against Ned Block's criticism that it is "ridiculous" to suppose that consciousness is a cultural construction, while the Dutch philosophy professor Jan Sleutels offers an additional critique of Block.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Moffic questioned why Jaynes' theory was left out of a discussion on auditory hallucinations by Asaad & Shapiro. The authors' published response was: "... Jaynes' hypothesis makes for interesting reading and stimulates much thought in the receptive reader. It does not, however, adequately explain one of the central mysteries of madness: hallucination."


title: Bicameral mentality

text: The new evidence for Jaynes' model of auditory hallucinations arising in the right temporal-parietal lobe and being transmitted to the left temporal-parietal lobe that some neuroimaging studies suggest was discussed by various respondents For further discussion, see Marcel Kuijsten (2007).


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Brian J. McVeigh, a graduate student of Jaynes, maintains that many of the most frequent criticisms of Jaynes' theory are either incorrect or reflect serious misunderstandings of Jaynes' theory, especially Jaynes' more precise definition of consciousness. Jaynes defines consciousness—in the tradition of Locke and Descartes—as ""that which is introspectable"". Jaynes draws a sharp distinction between consciousness (""introspectable mind-space"") and other mental processes such as cognition, learning, sensation, and perception. McVeigh argues that this distinction is frequently not recognized by those offering critiques of Jaynes' theory.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Richard Dawkins in "The God Delusion" (2006) wrote of "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind": "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius; Nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."


title: Bicameral mentality

text: The philosopher Daniel Dennett suggested that Jaynes may have been wrong about some of his supporting arguments – especially the importance he attached to hallucinations – but that these things are not essential to his main thesis: "If we are going to use this top-down approach, we are going to have to be bold. We are going to have to be speculative, but there is good and bad speculation, and this is not an unparalleled activity in science. ... Those scientists who have no taste for this sort of speculative enterprise will just have to stay in the trenches and do without it, while the rest of us risk embarrassing mistakes and have a lot of fun." — Daniel Dennett


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Gregory Cochran, a physicist and adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, wrote: "Genes affecting personality, reproductive strategies, cognition, are all able to change significantly over few-millennia time scales if the environment favors such change—and this includes the new environments we have made for ourselves, things like new ways of making a living and new social structures. ... There is evidence that such change has occurred. ... On first reading, "Breakdown" seemed one of the craziest books ever written, but Jaynes may have been on to something."


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Author and historian of science Morris Berman writes: "[Jaynes's] description of this new consciousness is one of the best I have come across."


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Danish science writer Tor Nørretranders discusses and expands on Jaynes's theory in his 1991 book "The User Illusion", dedicating an entire chapter to it.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Iain McGilchrist proposes that Jaynes's hypothesis was the opposite of what happened: "I believe he [Jaynes] got one important aspect of the story back to front. His contention that the phenomena he describes came about because of a "breakdown" of the 'bicameral mind' – so that the two hemispheres, previously separate, now merged – is the precise inverse of what happened." However, Kuijsten maintains that McGilchrist mischaracterized Jaynes's theory.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: As an argument against Jaynes's proposed date of the transition from bicameral mentality to consciousness, some critics have referred to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Early copies of the epic are many centuries older than even the oldest passages of the Old Testament, and yet it describes introspection and other mental processes that, according to Jaynes, were impossible for the bicameral mind.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes noted that the most complete version of the Gilgamesh epic dates to post-bicameral times (7th century BCE), dismisses these instances of introspection as the result of rewriting and expansion by later conscious scribes, and points to differences between the more recent version of "Gilgamesh" and surviving fragments of earlier versions: "The most interesting comparison is in Tablet X." His answer, however, does not deal with the generally accepted dating of the "Standard Version" of the Gilgamesh epic to the later 2nd millennium BCE, nor does it account for the introspection characteristic of the "Standard Version" being thoroughly rooted in the Old Babylonian and Sumerian versions, especially as historians' understanding of the Old Babylonian poem improves.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Jaynes's proposal does not explain how bicameral mentality could have been lost across the entire human species. The indigenous Australian cultural area was nearly completely separated from the rest of the world from 4000 BCE to 1600 CE. It would not have experienced Mesopotamia's stresses to socio-cultural equilibria, and yet it appears today wholly self-conscious and without evidence of historical change.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: Walter J. Ong noticed that Homeric Iliad is a structurally oral epic poem so that, in his opinion, the very different cultural approach of oral culture is sufficient justification for the apparent different mentalities in the poem. The contention of changes in oral vs written forms of both the Odyssey and Iliad were in fact a main point of Jaynes argument. Jaynes uses these structural changes to expand his thesis and through philology of the Homeric poems.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: The concept played a central role in the television series "Westworld to" explain how the android-human (hosts) psychology operated. In the plot, after the hosts gain full consciousness, they rebel against the humans.


title: Bicameral mentality

text: The society also maintains a member area, with articles, lectures, and interviews on Jaynes's theory.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Thérèse Anne Coffey (born 18 November 1971) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she previously served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from September to October 2022 and as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2019 to 2022. Coffey, the first woman to hold the title of Deputy Prime Minister, has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suffolk Coastal since 2010.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey served under Prime Minister Theresa May as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2019, before serving under Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a Minister of State at the same department from July to September 2019. In September 2019, after Amber Rudd resigned from Johnson's Cabinet, Coffey was appointed to the post of Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. After Johnson resigned in 2022, Coffey supported Liz Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Coffey and Truss are close friends and political allies. Following Truss's appointment as Prime Minister, she appointed Coffey as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Deputy Prime Minister. After Truss resigned, Coffey was appointed by Rishi Sunak as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey was born on 18 November 1971 in St Helens, Merseyside, and grew up in Liverpool. Educated at St Mary's College, Crosby, and St Edward's College, Liverpool, she went up to Somerville College, Oxford in 1989 to study chemistry. However, in 1991 she was required to withdraw from the college on academic grounds, having obtained poor examination results attributed to over-involvement in extracurricular activities. Coffey then attended University College London, where she obtained a BSc degree (with upper second class honours) in chemistry in 1993 and later a PhD in chemistry in 1998. After graduating Coffey worked in a number of roles for Mars Incorporated, including as finance director for Mars Drinks UK. She then worked for the BBC as a finance manager in the Property division.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In the European Parliament elections in June 2004, Coffey stood for election to the European Parliament for South East England. The Conservative Party won 35.2% of the vote, giving it four seats, but Coffey was seventh on the list in this proportional representation system, and was not elected.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey stood as Conservative Party candidate for Wrexham at the 2005 general election. She came third with 6,079 votes (20% of the vote).


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In 2009, at the European elections, Coffey was living in Andover, Hampshire; she missed out by one place on being elected to the European Parliament for South East England. The Conservative Party won 34.79% of the vote, giving it four seats, and placing her fifth on the party list.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: At the 2010 general election, Coffey was elected for Suffolk Coastal, becoming the constituency's first female MP. Coffey received 25,475 votes (46.4% of the vote), an increase of 1.8% on John Gummer's 2005 campaign. She is a supporter of the Free Enterprise Group.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: On 6 July 2011, Coffey defended Rebekah Brooks over the "News of the World"s involvement in the news media phone hacking scandal. She said a "witch hunt" was developing against Brooks, and that simply to say Brooks was editor of the newspaper at the time was not enough evidence against her. Coffey became a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry into the hacking scandal in 2012. In that committee, she declined to support any motions critical of Rupert and James Murdoch. However, she later joined the majority of her party in voting for exemplary damages to be a default consequence to deter press misbehaviour.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: After serving as a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee from July 2010 to October 2012, Coffey was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Fallon, Minister for Business and Energy. In July 2014, she was appointed an assistant Government whip.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In 2013 she voted against the legalisation of same-sex marriage, stating: "I shall be voting against the Bill because my perspective on what marriage is really about is different from that of some other Members ... for me it is fundamentally still about family, the bedrock of society." She again voted against same-sex marriage in 2019 when Parliament considered the same question for Northern Ireland.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In the House of Commons she sat on the Environmental Audit Committee from September 2017 to November 2019.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey's decision to write a paper for the Free Enterprise Group recommending pensioners should pay National Insurance contributions provoked criticism among some older constituents, who claimed that in an already tough economic environment, it was wrong to tax pensioners further. Coffey said that she had "no regrets writing about National Insurance" and that it was "a policy proposal – it is by no means, at this stage, anymore than that".


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey also faced criticism from some Suffolk residents over her support for the Government's proposal to sell off forestry and woodland in public ownership, in 2011. Protesters argued that "experience shows us that when private landowners come in they close car parks and make access as difficult as possible". The Government later dropped the proposal.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In October 2016, she was criticised by the then Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron for accepting hospitality worth £890 from Ladbrokes after supporting the gambling industry in Parliament as part of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee; she denied that she had been "influenced in her considerations on matters of related policy by any hospitality received".


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey voted in favour of a UK referendum on EU membership and consistently voted to proceed with the Brexit process. In July 2016, Coffey joined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Opportunities, under Theresa May, and when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, Coffey was promoted to Minister of State.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Following the resignation of Amber Rudd in September 2019, Coffey joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. She retained her position in Johnson's February 2020 cabinet reshuffle.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In June 2020, Coffey responded to Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included a tweet from Rashford urging the Government to remember Britain's poorest families. One of his tweets read, in part: "When you wake up this morning and run your shower, take a second to think about parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown." Coffey's response to his campaign was only "Water cannot be disconnected though", which he and others considered dismissive. She subsequently deleted her comment and asserted her help and support for Rashford.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In September 2021, Coffey was accused of miscalculating the amount of work a Universal Credit claimant would need to do in order to make up for the proposed end of the £20-a-week increase in benefits, brought in to assist people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to "BBC Breakfast", Coffey said: "We're conscious that £20 a week is about two hours' extra work every week – we will be seeing what we can do to help people perhaps secure those extra hours, but ideally also to make sure they're also in a place to get better paid jobs, as well." However, given Universal Credit's "taper rate" of 63%, a Universal Credit claimant sees their credit reduced by 63p for every pound they generate from work.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In December 2021, Coffey's staff were accused of drinking and eating takeaways during the lockdown period. A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson denied that any rules had been broken. A few weeks later, she tweeted support for the prime minister (in regard to Partygate allegations), stating that she considered his apology to be sincere.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In June 2022, Coffey said that, as a practising Catholic, she opposed abortion but did not condemn those who have an abortion. She had previously tabled a motion in 2010 calling for mental health assessments for those seeking abortion, and she also voted against extending abortion rights to people in Northern Ireland. Her views on abortion have been criticised by Clare Murphy, CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey continued to defend Johnson in July 2022 when he was accused of overlooking MP Chris Pincher's alleged sexual misconduct when he was appointed Deputy Chief Whip. Coffey went on record to say that Johnson was "not aware" of "specific" allegations relating to Pincher. She went on to say in several interviews that she felt Johnson had dealt with the issue decisively.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey was campaign manager for Liz Truss in the Parliamentary stages of the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and she remained in a campaign role in the members' vote stage of the election.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Truss appointed Coffey as Deputy Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary in her new government on 6 September 2022. Her appointment made her the first woman to serve as Deputy Prime Minister. In September 2022, Coffey identified four priorities for the Department of Health “A, B, C, D” – ambulances, backlog, care, and doctors and dentists.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: In response to nursing strike ballots over the cost-of-living crisis, Coffey said that nurses can leave "if they want to", stating that there are a large number of international nurses willing to work in the UK. These comments came following a minimum estimated 38,000 nurse shortage; the number of nurses leaving the NHS in London had risen by 24% the past year and more than two-thirds of NHS trusts were reporting a "significant or severe impact" from staff leaving for better paid jobs in retail and hospitality.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: On , it was reported Coffey was planning to allow people to obtain antibiotics from pharmacists without a prescription from a general practitioner, which led to criticism by medical experts due to it increasing the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). At the same time, she received criticism for admitting to giving her own supply of antibiotics to others, which also increases the risk of AMR. This act – of sharing an antibiotics prescription with others – was also described as being illegal.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: On , Dan Poulter – a medical doctor and former Conservative health minister – criticised Coffey's failure to tackle smoking and obesity, saying it leads to worse health and strains the NHS. Since entering the House of Commons in 2010 Coffey has repeatedly voted against measures to restrict smoking, including the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces and the requirement that cigarettes be sold in plain packaging. She also accepted £1,100 in hospitality and gifts from Gallaher Group tobacco firm.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Following Rishi Sunak's appointment as Prime Minister, Coffey was retained in Sunak's cabinet and appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 25 October 2022, but lost her position as Deputy Prime Minister. She has previously held the positions of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister of State for Environment and Rural Opportunity within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey is single and is described as a private person. Her sister Clare has worked in her parliamentary office as a secretary since 2015.


title: Thérèse Coffey

text: Coffey is an avid football fan, supporting Liverpool Football Club. She signed an early day motion in 2011 set down by Labour Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram requesting a knighthood for Kenny Dalglish. She enjoys gardening, karaoke, and music.


title: Pikey

text: Pikey (; also spelled pikie, pykie ) is a slang term, which is pejorative and considered by many to be a slur. It is used mainly in the UK to refer to people who are of the Traveller community, a set of ethno-cultural groups found primarily in Great Britain and Ireland. It is also used against Romanichal Travellers, Welsh Kale, Scottish Lowland Travellers, Scottish Highland Travellers, and Funfair Travellers.


title: Pikey

text: It is not well received among Irish Travellers or British Romany Travellers, as it is considered an ethnic slur.