title: Callum Smith

text: On 6 July 2017, it was confirmed that Smith had joined the inaugural World Boxing Super Series, where the winner would receive a prize money and the Muhammad Ali Trophy. Due to being WBC's number 1 ranked contender at super-middleweight, the WBC had said Smith would fight for their Diamond belt in the quarter-finals. Others in the tournament included WBA champion George Groves, Jürgen Brähmer and undefeated contenders Erik Skoglund and Jamie Cox.


title: Callum Smith

text: At the draft Gala, which took place at the famous Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, Smith, who was second-seeded, chose to fight Swedish contender Erik Skoglund (26–0, 12 KOs). Smith explained why he chose Skoglund, saying he felt Skoglund was 'stylistically the best fight' for him. On 19 July, Smith confirmed the fight would take place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on 16 September 2017. It would also be the first fight of the series. Smith also admitted, on paper, Skoglund is the best boxer he would fight. Skoglund, who had previously fought in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany, said he had no issues with traveling to England, as he was looking to prove himself. Smith dropped Skoglund in the eleventh round en route to win the fight via UD in a hard-fought exciting contest. Smith and Skoglund both showed immense respect for each other throughout the buildup and after the fight. The three judges scored the fight 116–112, 117–110 and 117–111 in favour of Smith, who advanced to the next round tournament and claimed the vacant WBC Diamond belt.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 27 October 2017, 39 year old former world champion Jürgen Brähmer (49–3, 35 KOs) defeated American boxer Rob Brant to advance to the semi-finals against Smith, with the fight scheduled to take place in early 2018. A couple days later, Smith spoke out stating he would like the fight to take place in his home city of Liverpool, however would be open to fighting anywhere else. On 15 November, promoter Kalle Sauerland stated the fight could take place in Liverpool at the Echo Arena or Germany. Smith's trainer Joe Gallagher believed a fight in Germany would be unfair on Smith, due to Germany being known for its contentious decisions and home fighters receiving questionable wins. He later went on to state the fight should take place on neutral ground, mentioning Monte Carlo, Dublin and Amsterdam as potential locations. On 11 January 2018, the fight was finally announced to take place at the Arena Nürnberger in Nuremberg, Germany on 24 February. On 20 February, four days before the fight, German website boxen1.com reported that Brähmer had withdrawn from the tournament after failing to overcome an illness he had been fighting for a week. Comosa stated the event would still go ahead with a replacement to be announced. 34 year old Dutch kickboxer and boxer Nieky Holzken (13–0, 10 KOs), who was scheduled to fight on the undercard against Dmitry Chudinov, became the frontrunner to replace Brähmer. In a short statement, Brähmer stated he had a 'feverish infection' and apologised to his fans. Promoter Kalle Sauerland later confirmed that Holzken was the reserve fighter and would replace Brähmer and fight Smith.


title: Callum Smith

text: Smith booked himself a place in the final of the tournament after defeating Holzken via unanimous decision. The three judges scored the fight 118–110, 117–111 and 117–111 in favour of Smith. He used his jab from the opening bell and managed to control the distance throughout the fight, also managing to land his right hand successfully on many occasions. Holzken was the faster and frequently more aggressive fighter, however Smith was far more busier in each round. Each round was the same with Smith standing straight up, jabbing constantly and throwing right hands. In the post-fight, Smith stated, "He was tough but I landed a lot jabs and my hand hurts a little bit. He was awkward, novicey but I'm not engaging in a shoot-out. I'm the better boxer." George Groves faced off with Smith immediately after the interviews took place.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 13 February, it was announced that the final of the super-middleweight tournament would take place at the O2 Arena in London on 2 June 2018. The final was made up after George Groves (28–3, 20 KOs) defeated Chris Eubank Jr. on 17 February and Smith defeating Holzken on 24 February. On 26 February, Groves tweeted that he would be going into surgery. He wrote, "We will be applying to the @WBSuperSeries for a one-month extension and are hopeful of securing this." He hoped to return to the ring by July. On 9 May, Kalle Sauerland explained that Groves could potentially be replaced by Eubank Jr. in the final of the tournament against Smith, however there would be confirmation on the final in the next 10 days. Sauerland stated, "We're working at the moment on all the solutions and scenarios, where George [Groves] is fit and where he isn't. We’re hopeful [Groves will be fit], so we'll see. You can’t start the tournament and then have the final lingering into the next tournament. I'm sorry, that’s not going to happen. We can push a month, but we can’t push it back by three or four months. We have a substitute system. We said that from day one, and that's the situation. We want Groves in the final, but if that's not possible and he doesn't declare himself fit in the next 10 days, we have to find a solution." On 28 May, it was said that Groves would be declared fit with the fight to take place on 14 July. By 6 July, there was still no date set, however according to Kalle Sauerland, the bout was expected to take place in September and likely not in the UK, with some rumours hinting there was a strong interest from Las Vegas and Middle East. Smith's trainer Joe Gallagher confirmed contracts had been signed. On 27 July, Sauerland announced the fight would take place at a 10,000 capacity arena at the King Abdullah Sports City Complex in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 28 September 2018. It was revealed the prize money on offer for the final was £6.1 million, with the winner taking a larger percentage.


title: Callum Smith

text: After a tight match with the fighters level on the judges' scorecards, Smith defeated Groves via seventh-round KO. The size difference was noticeable as the fight was fought closely throughout the opening six rounds with back and forth action. Early in the fight, Groves established his jab whilst trying to avoid any power shots from Smith, whilst Smith was connecting with his right hand. Smith had more success in round three after a counter-right hand buckled Groves' legs. In round six, Smith backed Groves against the ropes and landed two strong jabs. He later landed a clean left hook which forced Groves to move back. Midway through round seven, Groves landed two body shots, however leaving himself open, Smith landed a left hook, which again shook Groves and forced him to retreat backwards. Groves was hurt at this point and Smith went after Groves against the ropes and landed numerous shots, including a hard body shot and an uppercut, ultimately sending Groves to the canvas. Groves managed to get to one knee, before referee Luis Pabon finished the ten-count, giving Smith the win. After the fight, Smith said, "It's been a long time coming, and there's times when you think, 'I've waited this long for chance. If I don't take it, when will another one come?'... I've said for a long time I'm a big believer in me own abilities. I know how good I am and I knew I'm good enough to become a world champion and become the best on the planet, and I believe I've done that." Groves made no excuses, claiming the shoulder was never an issue in the fight. He also ruled out retirement. Muhammad Ali's daughter presented Smith with the trophy. Smith claimed the WBA super-middleweight title along with the vacant "Ring" magazine title. Smith became the third super-middleweight after Joe Calzaghe and Andre Ward to win "The Ring" title. There were four official judges' scorecards. One judge had it even after six rounds at 57–57, two judges had Groves ahead 59–55 and 58–56 and one judge had Smith ahead 59–55.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 1 June 2019, on the Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr. undercard, Smith fought Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam, ranked No. 13 by the WBA at super middleweight. Smith dominated N'Dam from the start, dropping him once in the first round, once in the second round and a final third time in the third round. N'Dam gave it his all and even managed to beat the third count, but he didn't seem fit to continue and the referee waved off the fight.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 23 November 2019, Smith defended his WBA and "The Ring" super-middleweight titles for the second time against domestic rival John Ryder, who was ranked No. 1 by the WBA and No. 4 by the WBC. Smith emerged victorious via unanimous decision, with one judge scoring the bout 117–111 while the other two scored it 116–112. The result was viewed as controversial by spectators, with many believing Ryder had won.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 19 December 2020, Smith attempted the third defence of his WBA and "The Ring" super middleweight titles against Canelo Álvarez. The vacant WBC super middleweight title was also on the line. Smith was beat down by Álvarez over twelve rounds, suffering a detached left bicep injury, and never seemed to be able to affect Álvarez with his shots. The scorecards were 117–111 and 119–109 twice in favour of Álvarez.


title: Callum Smith

text: Following his first professional loss against Canelo Álvarez, Smith moved up in weight and made his debut in the light-heavyweight division against former WBA title challenger Lenin Castillo, on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk on 25 September 2021. Smith defeated Castillo via a brutal second-round knockout that resulted in the latter being stretchered out of the ring.


title: Callum Smith

text: On 20 August 2022, Smith fought Bauderlique in a WBC world title eliminator on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua II. Smith finished the fight with a left hook at 1:53 of the fourth round in Jeddah. With this victory, Smith earned his shot at unified light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev, who holds the IBF and WBO titles as well as the WBC belt.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Ye Maaya Chesave () is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Naga Chaitanya and Samantha in her debut. It was produced by Manjula Ghattamaneni under the banner Indira Productions with soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman. The film featured cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa, editing by Anthony Gonsalves, and dialogue by Umarji Anuradha.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: The film was simultaneously shot in Tamil as "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa" starring Simbu and Trisha, however, with a different cast. The film received positive reviews from critics and was successful at the box office. The film is considered one of the "25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade" by "Film Companion".


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Karthik is a mechanical engineering graduate who wants to be a filmmaker. Karthik's family rents the ground floor of a two-story Alappuzha, Kerala house that belongs to a conservative Syrian Catholic that lives upstairs. Jessie, their daughter, is two years older than Karthik. She has a brother Jerry. When Karthik meets Jessie for the first time, he falls in love with her. Karthik expresses his love to Jessie, who is afraid of speaking to men around her strict father, and ends up angering Jessie. Later Jessie goes to Alappuzha, her grandparents' place. Karthik gets to know this from his sister and goes to Alappuzha, along with his friend Krishna, where he gets introduces to her family as his classmate. Then Karthik tells her that they can be good friends. After coming to know from her that she is going back to Hyderabad alone, he decides to turn the friendship in to love in the train journey. In the train he kisses her for which she slaps him and later the two meet several times afterwards and Jessie begins to admit that she likes Karthik but wants to refrain from any problems because she knows her father won't accept a Hindu marrying their daughter. Now, Jerry finds that they like each other and in the fight that follows we come to know that Karthik is a part-time boxer where he beats up Jerry and his friends. Her parents learn about their affair with this fight and arrange a marriage for her. But at the wedding, she refuses to marry the groom, Roy Thomas, displeasing everyone in her family. Karthik and Jessie continue to love each other without the knowledge of their parents. Suddenly, Jessie is forced by her father to marry and seeks Karthik's help, who was in Goa for a film shooting. Busy Karthik is unable to attend to her calls and messages; Jessie is unable to reach him. After a tense phone call from Jessie, Karthik goes back one night to check on her. An angry and hurt Jessie makes a final decision to break up with Karthik because of her father's strong disapproval of their love.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Later on, Karthik learns that Jessie got married and is settled abroad. Two years later, Karthik meets Nandini, who falls in love with him. She is rejected by Karthik who cites his previous affair with Jessie whom he can not get over. He then comes up with a script for his first film, which happens to be his own love story. He calls upon Silambarasan as the film's protagonist and Trisha as the female lead. The film is eventually titled "Jessie".


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: He sees Jessie three years later in the U.S. and thinks she is married. She reveals that she is not. She refused to marry anyone her parents set up because they rejected Karthik. Out of anger, her parents leave. They then get married at a Hindu temple and a church. The film ends at a theater where they watch "Jessie".


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Scenes were shot in the lakes of Alappuzha during April 2009 for a month, with the houseboats doubling up as caravans.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: In May, the team moved to USA to film the song sequences for "Ee Hrudayam" and "Kundanapu Bomma", choreographed by Flexy Stu. For the particular song sequences in the film, Menon wanted "churches, water and halls" and convinced the producers to finance a trip to USA, and in the process, the team became the first South Indian film to shoot in the country. Scenes were shot in places including Princeton University, Van Sant Covered Bridge, Jersey City and Hyatt Regency, as well as in lanes, alleys, one church and during the time of a village feast. The makers brought along a crew of twenty-six people to USA, with ten local workers also helping on the production. The shoot lasted ten days and cost approximately €90,000.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: In October 2009, the team flew to the United States to complete the final filming schedule. Scenes were shot throughout locations in Manhattan and New Jersey, with particular shots filmed at Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park and Times Square.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Academy Award winning composer A. R. Rahman composed the soundtrack and background score of the film. "Ye Maaya Chesave" / "Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya", marked the beginning of a collaboration between Rahman and Gautham Menon. The album consists of seven tracks, with Telugu lyrics penned by Anantha Sreeram. Rahman's compositions for the Tamil version were retained, without any change, in the Telugu version.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: Rahman won his first Filmfare Award in Telugu for this album. Rahman reused the same tunes for the Hindi remake of the film ("Ekk Deewana Tha"), also directed by Gautham Menon.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: After the announcement of Gautham Menon's Tamil project, "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa", Manjula Ghattamaneni (Producer of the movie) approached Gautham Menon to do a Telugu version of the same, with Naga Chaitanya in the lead. Gautham, who was initially hesitant to do another version, later agreed to Manjula's proposal and scheduled the shoots of many portions simultaneously.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: The film was made with a budget of 10 crore. It was made following much speculation that Gautham Menon was set to remake it with Manjula's brother, Mahesh Babu. Shooting continued through the latter part of 2009, with the film garnering significant media interest, with schedules in the United States, with Princeton University being used as a backdrop for song picturisation.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: The film was shot along with the Tamil version "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa" with a completely different cast and climax. This film is Menon's second Telugu venture, after the critically successful "Gharshana".


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: The lead pair Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu played guest roles in the Tamil version whereas Trisha and Silambarasan made a cameo in this version in the song "Aaromale". Telugu director Puri Jagannadh appears as himself in a guest role.


title: Ye Maaya Chesave

text: The scene where Jessie addresses Karthik as her brother is parodied in the film "Sudigadu" (2012). The title of the film inspired a similarly named film "Ye Mantram Vesave" (2018) starring Vijay Deverakonda.


title: Suits (season 3)

text: The third season of the American legal comedy-drama "Suits" was ordered on October 12, 2012. The third season originally aired on USA Network in the United States between July 16, 2013 and April 10, 2014. The season was produced by Hypnotic Films & Television and Universal Cable Productions, and the executive producers were Doug Liman, David Bartis and series creator Aaron Korsh. The season had six series regulars playing employees at the fictional Pearson Darby, later Pearson Darby Specter and Pearson Specter, law firm in Manhattan: Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Sarah Rafferty, and Gina Torres.


title: Suits (season 3)

text: The series revolves around corporate lawyer Harvey Specter and his associate attorney Mike Ross, the latter practicing without a law degree.


title: Suits (season 3)

text: Six actors received star billing in the show's first season. Each character works at the fictional Pearson Hardman law firm in Manhattan. Gabriel Macht plays corporate lawyer Harvey Specter, who is promoted to senior partner and is forced to hire an associate attorney. Patrick J. Adams plays college dropout Mike Ross, who wins the associate position with his eidetic memory and genuine desire to be a good lawyer. Rick Hoffman plays Louis Litt, Harvey's jealous rival and the direct supervisor of the firm's first-year associates. Meghan Markle plays Rachel Zane, a paralegal who aspires to be an attorney but her test anxiety prevents her from attending Harvard Law School. Sarah Rafferty plays Donna Paulsen, Harvey's long-time legal secretary, confidant, and the only one at the firm who knows Mike never attended law school. Gina Torres plays Jessica Pearson, the co-founder and managing partner of the firm.


title: Suits (season 3)

text: Michelle Fairley guest stars in multiple episodes as oil executive Dr. Ava Hessington, a high-profile client for the new Pearson Darby firm whose father has a past with Darby. Gary Cole reprises his Season 1 role as former Manhattan DA Cameron Dennis, now assigned as a special prosecutor in the Hessington case. Max Beesley is introduced as recurring character Stephen Huntley, Darby's right-hand man from the London office, who is considered the British Harvey. Swimmer Michael Phelps made a cameo appearance in the eleventh episode of the season. Stephen Macht, Gabriel Macht's father, guest stars as Professor Gerard in the season's twelfth episode.


title: Wind instrument

text: A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece, while yet others require the player to blow into a hole at an edge, which splits the air column and creates the sound.


title: Wind instrument

text: Almost all wind instruments use the last method, often in combination with one of the others, to extend their register.


title: Wind instrument

text: Woodwind instruments were originally made of wood, just as brass instruments were made of brass, but instruments are categorized based on how the sound is produced, not by the material used to construct them. For example Saxophones are typically made of brass, but are woodwind instruments because they produce sound with a vibrating reed. On the other hand, the didgeridoo, the wooden cornett (not to be confused with the cornet), and the serpent are all made of wood (or sometimes plastic), and the olifant is made from ivory, but all of them belong to the family of brass instruments because the vibration is initiated by the player's lips.


title: Wind instrument

text: In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, wind instruments are classed as aerophones.


title: Wind instrument

text: Sound production in all wind instruments depends on the entry of air into a flow-control valve attached to a resonant chamber (resonator). The resonator is typically a long cylindrical or conical tube, open at the far end. A pulse of high pressure from the valve will travel down the tube at the speed of sound. It will be reflected from the open end as a return pulse of low pressure. Under suitable conditions, the valve will reflect the pulse back, with increased energy, until a standing wave forms in the tube.


title: Wind instrument

text: Reed instruments such as the clarinet or oboe have a flexible reed or reeds at the mouthpiece, forming a pressure-controlled valve. An increase in pressure inside the chamber will decrease the pressure differential across the reed; the reed will open more, increasing the flow of air. The increased flow of air will increase the internal pressure further, so a pulse of high pressure arriving at the mouthpiece will reflect as a higher-pressure pulse back down the tube. Standing waves inside the tube will be odd multiples of a quarter-wavelength, with a pressure anti-node at the mouthpiece, and a pressure node at the open end. The reed vibrates at a rate determined by the resonator.


title: Wind instrument

text: For Lip Reed (brass) instruments, the players control the tension in their lips so that they vibrate under the influence of the air flowing through them. They adjust the vibration so that the lips are most closed, and the air flow is lowest, when a low-pressure pulse arrives at the mouthpiece, to reflect a low-pressure pulse back down the tube. Standing waves inside the tube will be odd multiples of a quarter-wavelength, with a pressure anti-node at the mouthpiece, and a pressure node at the open end.


title: Wind instrument

text: For Air Reed (flute and fipple-flute) instruments, the thin grazing air sheet (planar jet) flowing across an opening (mouth) in the pipe interacts with a sharp edge (labium) to generate sound. The jet is generated by the player, when blowing through a thin slit (flue). For recorders and flue organ pipes this slit is manufactured by the instrument maker and has a fixed geometry. In a transverse flute or a pan flute the slit is formed by the musicians between their lips.


title: Wind instrument

text: Due to acoustic oscillation of the pipe the air in the pipe is alternatively compressed and expanded. This results in an alternating flow of air into and out of the pipe through the pipe mouth. The interaction of this transversal acoustic flow with the planar air jet induces at the flue exit (origin of the jet) a localised perturbation of the velocity profile of the jet. This perturbation is strongly amplified by the intrinsic instability of the jet as the fluid travels towards the labium. This results into a global transversal motion of the jet at the labium.


title: Wind instrument

text: The amplification of perturbations of a jet by its intrinsic instability can be observed when looking at a plume of cigarette smoke. Any small amplitude motion of the hand holding the cigarette results into an oscillation of the plume increasing with distance upwards and eventually a chaotic motion (turbulence). The same jet oscillation can be triggered by gentle air flow in the room, which can be verified by waving with the other hand.


title: Wind instrument

text: The oscillation of the jet around the labium results into a fluctuating force of the airflow on the labium. Following the third law of Newton the labium exerts an opposite reaction force on the flow. One can demonstrate that this reaction force is the source of sound that drives the acoustic oscillation of the pipe.


title: Wind instrument

text: A quantitative demonstration of the nature of this type of sound source has been provided by Alan Powell when studying a planar jet interacting with a sharp edge in the absence of pipe (so called edgetone). The sound radiated from the edgetone can be predicted from a measurement of the unsteady force induced by the jet flow on the sharp edge (labium). The sound production by the reaction of the wall to an unsteady force of the flow around an object is also producing the aeolian sound of a cylinder placed normal to an air-flow (singing wire phenomenon). In all these cases (flute, edgetone, aeolian tone...) the sound production does not involve a vibration of the wall. Hence the material in which the flute is made is not relevant for the principle of the sound production. There is no essential difference between a golden or a silver flute.


title: Wind instrument

text: The sound production in a flute can be described by a lumped element model in which the pipe acts as an acoustic swing (mass-spring system, resonator) that preferentially oscillates at a natural frequency determined by the length of the tube. The instability of the jet acts as an amplifier transferring energy from the steady jet flow at the flue exit to the oscillating flow around the labium. The pipe forms with the jet a feedback loop. These two elements are coupled at the flue exit and at the labium. At the flue exit the transversal acoustic flow of the pipe perturbs the jet. At the labium the jet oscillation results in a generation of acoustic waves, which maintain the pipe oscillation.


title: Wind instrument

text: The acoustic flow in the pipe can for a steady oscillation be described in terms of standing waves. These waves have a pressure node at the mouth opening and another pressure node at the opposite open pipe termination. Standing waves inside such an open-open tube will be multiples of a half-wavelength.


title: Wind instrument

text: In practice, however, obtaining a range of musically useful tones from a wind instrument depends to a great extent on careful instrument design and playing technique.


title: Wind instrument

text: The frequency of the vibrational modes depends on the speed of sound in air, which varies with air density. A change in temperature, and only to a much smaller degree also a change in humidity, influences the air density and thus the speed of sound, and therefore affects the tuning of wind instruments. The effect of thermal expansion of a wind instrument, even of a brass instrument, is negligible compared to the thermal effect on the air.


title: Wind instrument

text: The bell of a wind instrument is the round, flared opening opposite the mouthpiece. It is found on clarinets, saxophones, oboes, horns, trumpets and many other kinds of instruments. On brass instruments, the acoustical coupling from the bore to the outside air occurs at the bell for all notes, and the shape of the bell optimizes this coupling. It also plays a major role in transforming the resonances of the instrument. On woodwinds, most notes vent at the uppermost open tone holes; only the lowest notes of each register vent fully or partly at the bell, and the bell's function in this case is to improve the consistency in tone between these notes and the others.


title: Wind instrument

text: Playing some wind instruments, in particular those involving high breath pressure resistance, produce increases in intraocular pressure, which has been linked to glaucoma as a potential health risk. One 2011 study focused on brass and woodwind instruments observed "temporary and sometimes dramatic elevations and fluctuations in IOP". Another study found that the magnitude of increase in intraocular pressure correlates with the intraoral resistance associated with the instrument and linked intermittent elevation of intraocular pressure from playing high-resistance wind instruments to incidence of visual field loss. The range of intraoral pressure involved in various classes of ethnic wind instruments, such as Native American flutes, has been shown to be generally lower than Western classical wind instruments.


title: Wind instrument

text: Wind Instrument Summary CDs are: "Microsoft Musical Instruments" ( now out of production but sometimes available on Amazon ), and "Tuneful Tubes?" ( http://sites.google.com/site/tunefultubes )


title: Flex Wheeler

text: Kenneth "Flex" Wheeler (born August 23, 1965) is an American retired IFBB professional bodybuilder. He won the Arnold Classic a then-record four times and was once described by Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of the greatest bodybuilders he had ever seen. Ronnie Coleman has stated that Wheeler was the best bodybuilder he competed against.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: Wheeler was born and raised in Fresno, California. He grew up in poverty. As a child, Wheeler experienced child abuse and suicidal tendencies. He struggled in school due to dyslexia, but excelled in sports. Wheeler began training in martial arts, and started bodybuilding as a teenager after discovering weight training. He is on record as regarding himself as a "martial artist first, a bodybuilder second." Wheeler has remarkable flexibility, including being able to do a complete split, which led to his nickname.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: After a short career as a police officer, Wheeler focused full-time on becoming a professional bodybuilder. He competed for the first time in 1983, but it was not until 1989 that he secured a first-place trophy at the NPC Mr. California Championships. He placed second at the 1993 Mr. Olympia, narrowly missing a win (something he was to repeat in 1998 and 1999). He is a 5-time Ironman Pro winner, 4-time Arnold Classic winner, and has won the France Grand Prix, South Beach Pro Invitational, Night of Champions, and Hungarian Grand Prix.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: While Wheeler had the reputation of being arrogant and overconfident, he attributed this to a need to compensate for his introversion and insecurity as a child and young man. In 1994, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident that could have left him with lifelong paralysis. Falling back into depression again, he started training from scratch, returning with remarkable speed to bodybuilding's top tier. In 1999, Wheeler discovered that he had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a form of kidney disease. Despite press speculation as to the cause of the failure, Wheeler pointed out that the condition is hereditary, although drug use probably accelerated its onset. Wheeler announced his retirement from competitive bodybuilding in 2000, but continued to compete until 2003.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: Flex made a comeback at the 2017 Mr. Olympia, competing in the Classic Physique division, and finished at 15th place.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: After retirement, Wheeler focused again on martial arts, his favorite being Kenp-Kwon-Do, a variant of Kenpo, Tae Kwon Do, and Aikido. In 2003, he received a kidney transplant; he then went on to participate in a demonstration fight at the 2005 Arnold Classic. In 2007, Flex was interviewed by freelance journalist Rod Labbe for Ironman Magazine's "Legends of Bodybuilding" series. Entitled "Yesterday and Today," it covers his extensive career and reveals how people can conquer adversity and triumph against incredible odds. Wheeler served in an executive position as the Director of Media and Public Relations for the sports nutrition company All American EFX, based out of Bakersfield, California. He also managed their sponsored athletes and can be seen in advertisements for the company.


title: Flex Wheeler

text: In October 2019, Flex underwent amputation of his right leg below the knee due to circulatory vascular system problems. Wheeler said the decision to amputate was "due to escalating circulation difficulties in my right leg that had become life threatening."


title: Flex Wheeler

text: Some medical professionals assert that what led to the need for Wheeler's lower leg amputation was an accumulation of pre-existing medical conditions involving the Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis he acquired hereditarily, leg injuries he received in his martial arts training, his car crash in 1994, and his kidney transplant in 2003, which together long-term resulted in the circulation issues.


title: Farfetch

text: Farfetch is a British-Portuguese online luxury fashion retail platform that sells products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world. The company was founded in 2007 by the Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves with its headquarters in London and main branches in Lisbon and Porto. There are many offices worldwide in Guimarães, Braga, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Dubai, New Delhi and Moscow.


title: Farfetch

text: The e-commerce company operates local-language websites and mobile apps for international markets in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Korean, Italian and Russian. Farfetch has offices in 14 cities and employs over 4,500 staff.


title: Farfetch

text: Farfetch announced its acquisition of London boutique retailer Browns in May 2015. This boutique is run independently from Farfetch by CEO Holli Rogers who joined the business in July 2015. Rogers was the former fashion director of online retailer Net-A-Porter.


title: Farfetch

text: Farfetch developed the proprietary business units Farfetch Black & White and Store of the Future in 2015.


title: Farfetch

text: In June 2017, it was announced that JD.com Inc. had bought a stake in Farfetch for $397 million; the Chinese e-commerce company’s largest overseas investment.


title: Farfetch

text: In October 2021, Farfetch launched its in-house fashion brand, "There Was One". In April 2022, Farfetch announced the acquisition of Wannaby Inc.


title: Farfetch

text: In September 2018, Farfetch (FTCH.N) listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), pricing shares above the estimated targeted range leading to a valuation of over $5.8 billion. The IPO raised $885 million for the company after the issue of 33.6 million new shares. Early investors in Farfetch including Vitrurian Partners and Advent Venture Partners, sold up to 10.6 million shares. It was reported that Neves will net $1.2 billion from the IPO.


title: Farfetch

text: On 24 September 2018, animal rights activist organization PETA announced that they had purchased shares that would allow them to attend annual shareholder meetings and stop the company from selling fur products.


title: Farfetch

text: Farfetch achieves approximately 10 million site visits per month and ships to customers in almost 190 countries. As of September 2014, "annual sales of merchandise through the Farfetch site…surpassed £167 million."


title: Farfetch

text: In December 2018, Farfetch acquired online sneaker platform, Stadium Goods, for $250 million. In February 2019, Farfetch agreed to merge its Chinese business with JD.com.


title: Farfetch

text: In August 2019, Farfetch acquired New Guards Group, the parent organisation of Off-White designer label for US$675million. Immediately following the purchase, Farfetch's shares plunged by over 40 percent .


title: Farfetch

text: In November 2020, Farfetch entered into a joint partnership with Richemont and Alibaba. Alibaba and Richemont jointly invest $600 million in Farfetch, taking a combined 25% stake in Farfetch’s Chinese ventures.


title: Farfetch

text: In January 2022 Farfetch was reported to acquire Los Angeles based retailer Violet Grey for an undisclosed amount.


title: VK (company)

text: VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet.


title: VK (company)

text: VK operates an e-mail service, an Internet portal Mail.ru, and popular Russian social networking platforms VK, Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir. Additionally, VK manages various e-commerce, transport and communication platforms. It also offers business-oriented products, including a corporate email and communication system.


title: VK (company)

text: In 2014, VK's sites reached approximately 86% of Russian Internet users on a monthly basis and the company was in the top 5 of the largest Internet companies based on the number of total pages viewed.


title: VK (company)

text: In October 2021, Mail.ru Group was renamed VK Company Limited, after its most popular product, VKontakte.


title: VK (company)

text: The business was originally owned by Port.ru, a company founded in 1998 by Eugene Goland, Michael Zaitsev and Alexey Krivenkov as a spin-off from DataArt. It received an initial investment of US$1 million from the well-known investor (and fencing champion) James Melcher.


title: VK (company)

text: The Mail.ru business expanded rapidly to reach the No. 1 market position in Russia by 2000. Attempts to fund the company's expansion in 2000–2001 were thwarted by the collapse of the technology bubble and Mail.ru had to seek merger partners.


title: VK (company)

text: In 2001, Yuri Milner, at the time managing NetBridge (the owner of several internet brands), persuaded the entrepreneur Igor Linshits to back a merger of the Mail.ru business with NetBridge. Igor Linshits subsequently took an active role in the development of the Mail.ru business. In connection with the merger, Milner became Mail.ru CEO.


title: VK (company)

text: The company began to operate as Mail.ru on 16 October 2001. Before that time its brand name was owned by Port.ru. It is headed by Dmitry Grishin.


title: VK (company)

text: In 2003 Milner resigned from Mail.ru and subsequently set up another internet venture, Digital Sky Technologies (DST). In 2006 Igor Linshits sold his stake in Mail.ru to Tiger Fund and Milner's DST for more than $100 million. In September 2010, DST changed its name to Mail.ru Group. Dmitry Grishin became one of the Mail.ru Group co-founders.


title: VK (company)

text: In February 2010, Mail.ru announced the 100% acquisition of the video game developer Astrum Nival from its former owners. From that point, Astrum Nival acts under the name of Mail.ru. On September 29, 2011, the studio was renamed to Allods Team. The studio is known for developing "Allods Online" and "Skyforge".


title: VK (company)

text: In October 2010, Mail.ru Group announced plans for an IPO via the London stock-market listing of a subsidiary – also called Mail.ru – worth more than $5bn. The IPO offered a stake of about 17% of the subsidiary. The subsidiary included about a quarter of the group's shareholding in Facebook, stakes in Russia's two biggest social networking sites and Mail.ru. The company hired Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital to run the listing. After the public offering, the global operations of Mail.ru Group continued as the privately held company DST Global. Major shareholders at the time included Alisher Usmanov, Mail.ru Group's corporate sibling Tencent Holdings, Tencent's largest shareholder Prosus, and Tiger Management.


title: VK (company)

text: In March 2012, Yuri Milner stepped down from the role of Chairman of Mail.ru and from the board of directors. Dmitry Grishin was elected to the board of directors and appointed as chairman of the Board while retaining his CEO position. There were no other changes to management or to the Board. On May 11, 2022, Dmitry Grishin stepped down as chairman of the board of directors and non-executive director of the company


title: VK (company)

text: In November 2012, it was reported that Mail.ru would discontinue using Google search services. Full migration to the use of Mail.ru's own engine occurred in the summer of 2013.


title: VK (company)

text: In late 2012, Mail.ru Group's plans for buying two-letter domain My.com became known. This was interpreted as an intention of dominating world markets and of the upcoming re-branding of services under this name. At the end of 2012, Mail.ru Group bought the Ukrainian email service mail.ua and the registration of email addresses using this domain started on 23 April 2013.


title: VK (company)

text: On 3 October 2016, Mail.ru announced that they had acquired 100% of the game developer Pixonic's shares.


title: VK (company)

text: In January 2018, Mail.ru acquired ESForce, a holding company that owns a number of different esports businesses, including both Virtus.pro and SK Gaming, for US$150 million.


title: VK (company)

text: In September 2018, Alibaba announced buying a 10% stake in Mail.ru, which would have a value of $484 million based on Mail.ru's market capitalization on 10 September 2018.


title: VK (company)

text: In July 2019, Tencent-backed iDreamSky Technology Holdings and Mail.ru Group announced an alliance in the gaming sector in China and Europe. In December 2019, Mail.ru Group formed a partnership with Sberbank to develop the food and transportation service O2O.


title: VK (company)

text: In 2020, the state Russian Direct Investment Fund, China's Tencent, Naspers, and others bought $600 million of GDRs and bonds from Mail.ru. The funds were raised for the development of O2O and AliExpress Russia.


title: VK (company)

text: In October 2021, Sberbank of Russia and "Mail.ru Group" invested 6,1 billion roubles each O2O food and transportation service, the total of their investments in equal shares now touching about 43 billion roubles in 2021. On the whole, shares of both investors didn't change from 45,01% each.


title: VK (company)

text: In November 2021, Sberbank of Russia signed binding papers for selling its 36% of shares of "MF Tekhnologii" (controlling entity of VK company) to Gazprombank for 12,8 billion of roubles by the end of the year 2021.


title: VK (company)

text: In December 2021, Sogaz Group bought all USM's (owned by Alisher Usmanov and his partners) indirect stake in "MF Tekhnologii" (controlling 57,3% of VK company).


title: VK (company)

text: On September 26, 2022, the VKontakte social networking app was removed from Apple's App Store, along with VK's Mail.ru, Mail.ru Cloud, VK Music, and VK Clips.


title: VK (company)

text: VK Group offers a variety of online communication products and entertainment services for Russian speakers all over the world, such as:


title: VK (company)

text: On 15 May 2017, The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to impose a ban on Mail.ru and its popular social networking services including VKontakte and Odnoklassniki as part of Ukraine's continued sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and involvement in the War in Donbas. The move was widely criticised as censorship, and Reporters Without Borders condemned the ban, calling it a "disproportionate measure that seriously undermines the Ukrainian people's right to information and freedom of expression." Mail.ru itself estimated (in August 2017) that the ban had cost them around 1.5% of total revenues in 2017.


title: VK (company)

text: On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Russian state organizations with ties to Vladimir Putin pursued between 2009 and 2011 large investments in Facebook and Twitter via an intermediary—Russian-American billionaire and entrepreneur Yuri Milner, founder of Mail.ru and DST Global, who had befriended Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and was a business associate of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law.


title: Nate Parker

text: Nate Parker (born November 18, 1979) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in "Beyond the Lights", "Red Tails", "The Secret Life of Bees", "The Great Debaters", "Arbitrage", "Non-Stop", "Felon", and "Pride". Parker's directorial debut feature film, "The Birth of a Nation", in which he also starred, made history at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival when Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired the distribution rights for $17.5 million, breaking the record for the most paid for a Sundance Film Festival production, surpassing "Little Miss Sunshine", which had been acquired by Searchlight for $10 million ten years earlier. The film was ultimately unsuccessful in wide release and acclaim, after rape allegations against Parker resurfaced.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to Carolyn Whitfield, a 17-year-old single mother. Although Parker's mother did not marry his biological father, Parker had a relationship with his father until his father died from cancer when Parker was 11. Parker's mother's first husband gave Parker his surname. After a divorce, Parker's mother then married her second husband, Walter Whitford, who was in the United States Air Force and was stationed in Bath, Maine. Parker has four younger sisters.


title: Nate Parker

text: At the age of 14, after problems at home with his stepfather, Parker moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia to live with his maternal uncle, Jay Combs. Combs, a former wrestler, encouraged Parker to join the wrestling team at Princess Anne High School. He then attended Churchland High School and continued on their wrestling team, before moving to Great Bridge High School before attending Penn State University on a wrestling scholarship in 1999.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker placed third in the Virginia High School League state wrestling championships as a junior while attending Churchland High School. Parker's mother moved to the Great Bridge High School district so Parker could participate in its powerhouse wrestling program. He was a member of the 1997–98 state champion Great Bridge wrestling team and was a state champion wrestler who placed third in the High School National Wrestling Championships, while becoming a high school All-American.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker earned a full scholarship to wrestle at Penn State University. At Penn State, Parker was nationally ranked as a freshman.


title: Nate Parker

text: After transferring to the University of Oklahoma, Parker continued to be ranked as a redshirt junior wrestler. In 2002, Parker placed fifth at the National Collegiate Athletic Association wrestling championships and became an All-American at Oklahoma. Following his fifth-place finish, he was ranked second nationally as a redshirt senior.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker, who was working as a computer programmer, was discovered by Los Angeles talent manager Jon Simmons while attending an event in Dallas with a model friend. Simmons had Parker audition and put himself on tape, and then encouraged Parker to move to Los Angeles where he gradually found work as an actor.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2006, Parker played the male lead in "Rome & Jewel", a hip-hop take on "Romeo and Juliet" that got mothballed and re-released in 2008. Parker's title character, who is supposed to be the modern day Romeo, was a Compton youth with both tenderness and toughness. Despite a troubled script, Parker's rap performance earned comparisons to Will Smith from Nathan Lee of "The New York Times". In 2007, he had a small role in "Pride", about an African American swim team.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2007, Parker played the role of Henry Lowe in the Denzel Washington-directed film "The Great Debaters". The character was based on the real-life debater Henry Heights, from Wiley College. Parker attended a debate boot camp to make his performance more authentic. He portrayed a multifaceted character. Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" described Parker's portrayal as having depicted a "handsome, clean-cut youth with a lurking bad-boy streak", while John Clark of the "New York Daily News" described the role as that of a "silver-tongued orator and ladies' man". Other reviewers also noted the nuances of the character. Parker also performed on the soundtrack. Parker and co-stars Forest Whitaker and Denzel Washington were all nominated for the 2008 NAACP Image Awards in the best supporting actor category, which Denzel Washington won. Parker would develop a continuing relationship with Wiley College.


title: Nate Parker

text: in 2008, Parker performed in a pair of low-budget movies: "Felon" and "Tunnel Rats". Despite these early light roles, Parker's onscreen charisma and general je ne sais quoi showed, earning Parker comparisons to Paul Newman. In "Felon", Parker played a rookie guard dealing with inner turmoil. Parker appeared as Private Jim Lidford in Tunnel Rats, a 2008 German-Canadian war suspense film which was based on the factual duties of tunnel rat soldiers during the Vietnam War. The film stars Michael Paré, Brandon Fobbs and Wilson Bethel, and was written and directed by Uwe Boll.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2008's "The Secret Life of Bees," Parker played the good-hearted love interest of Alicia Keys' character. Parker's character has to deal with the challenges of spurned love. The movie was written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and based on the book of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd.


title: Nate Parker

text: In the 2010 film "Blood Done Sign My Name", which was based on a true story of small-town racial turmoil set against a backdrop of belated segregation in 1970, Parker plays a 22-year-old Benjamin Chavis. Parker's Chavis was a teacher who had been born into an affluent African-American family and would later become the Executive Director of the N.A.A.C.P. A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" described Parker as "diffident" and his portrayal as "thoughtful, morally serious". Steven Rea of the "Philadelphia Inquirer" notes that events in the film move Parker with both "resolve and rage": Roger Ebert described Parker's Chavis as "energized and angered" in one of the two main storylines of the film that started with Chavis leading an economic boycott after an adverse court verdict. Parker's character was "peripheral" according to The "New York Post" Kyle Smith and upstaged according to Scott and Ebert. However, Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" noted that Parker's portrayal infused dimension into Chavis, whose cousin's death was the subject of the film. Phillips noted that the role showed that with the right choices Parker had the potential to be a big star in the future.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2012, Parker appeared as a World War II squadron commander in "Red Tails", a film portraying Tuskegee Airmen. Parker's character drinks to cope with the stress of the fighter pilot lifestyle. Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" praised then-unknown actors Parker and David Oyelowo. In the movie, Parker plays Marty "Easy" Julian who commanded the escorts for the World War II bombers in the face of Nazi fighter planes. While Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" noted that Parker shined in his role, Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" felt Oyelowo stood out. Although the story is a fictionalization, Bilge Ebiri of "New York" and Holden note that the relationship between the two is the story's central one. Holden compared Parker's presence to that of Denzel Washington's. In "Arbitrage", Parker's talents were underutilized as the son of a chauffeur who gets caught in a murder coverup, according to David Denby of "The New Yorker". Nonetheless, Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" notes that Parker's portrayal of the Harlem native is the only sympathetic character of the film. Travers notes the role provides Richard Gere's elitist character with his only interactions with a diverse character in the film. Parker's third and final film of 2012 was Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer". Parker played a gang member named Box, whose role was not central to the film progression according to Phillips, although convincingly menacing according to Smith.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2013, he had a supporting role in "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" that Richard Brody of "The New Yorker" described as being a bar owner who is among an "enticing array of characters". The role was minor according to Scott.


title: Nate Parker

text: In a 2014 interview with BET during publicity for the film "Beyond the Lights" that included Parker and director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Parker stated that in order to "preserve the black man" he would not be willing to act in certain character roles. The video was later taken down and is no longer available. In 2014, Parker also stated he would not take roles, such as gay characters, that he considered to be "emasculating".


title: Nate Parker

text: Kate Taylor of "The Globe and Mail" described Parker's performance as a novelist with writer's block in the 2014 film "About Alex" as one of the more real performances in the film despite the "wrote" feel to the emotional developments. Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club also found the crises and conflicts that Parker's character was involved in to be petty. Parker's independent short film #AmeriCan was nominated in the Outstanding Independent Short category at the Black Reel Awards of 2015 and won.


title: Nate Parker

text: That same year, Parker reunited with Prince-Blythewood, playing the male lead in her film "Beyond the Lights". He was nominated for a 2015 Black Reel Award for Best Actor and an Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. In Parker's role as a police officer moonlighting as a bodyguard, his onscreen chemistry with co-star Gugu Mbatha-Raw was praised by Dana Stevens of "Slate". Stevens noted Parker was destined for more substantive performances. The story was hailed as a well-written believable romance with depth by many critics such as Travers and Ebiri, earning an 82% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Nate Parker

text: In the airplane terrorism mystery film "Non-Stop", Parker plays a computer programmer. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" notes that Parker's talents are well-employed in his supporting role. In "Every Secret Thing", Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" found Parker and his detective partner Elizabeth Banks to have been overwhelmed in their roles. Travers also found the detectivework to be uncompelling. Frank Scheck of "The Hollywood Reporter" found Parker's performance to have had its moments.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker played the role of Slim in the 2015 survival film, "Eden". The film was directed by Shyam Madiraju, co-produced by Parker, Jaume Collet-Serra and Shyam Madiraju, and stars Ethan Peck, Jessica Lowndes, Diego Boneta, James Remar and Sung Kang.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2012, Parker directed a short film called "#AmeriCAN," which featured La La Anthony and is a thought piece about growing up as a young black person in a racially divided America.


title: Nate Parker

text: For over seven years, Parker worked on making a film based on the life of Nat Turner. In 2014, he announced that he had funding and was working on assembling his team, and that the film would be called "The Birth of a Nation", in an ironic reappropriation of the infamously racist 1915 film of the same name. In addition to writing and directing, Parker cast himself as Turner. Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer and Gabrielle Union were also cast in key roles.


title: Nate Parker

text: "Birth of a Nation" attracted increased scrutiny due to rumored Oscar nominations, and because the film itself depicts a brutal rape, the 1999 rape allegations against Parker received significant press coverage. Fox Searchlight Pictures, the studio releasing the film, went into damage control mode. Gabrielle Union, a rape victim and one of the main stars of "The Birth of a Nation", wrote in the "Los Angeles Times", "As important and ground-breaking as this film is, I cannot take these allegations lightly." Parker chose to deflect questions about his past legal problems while doing press for "The Birth of a Nation" at the Toronto Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, Parker and his handlers chose to cut press interviews short when questions came up about his involvement with the alleged rape and its impact on the marketing of the film.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker curated and produced "" along with Atlantic Records Film & Television President and CEO, Craig Kallman which is the companion album for the movie “Birth of a Nation” released in 2016. The album was inspired by the protagonist of the film as a platform for lyrical content and featured prominent music artists, including Lecrae, Meek Mill, The Game, Ne-Yo, Nas, Gucci Mane, Wale, Pusha T, and Vic mensa.


title: Nate Parker

text: The sister of Parker's alleged victim said the invention of a rape scene and Parker playing the avenging hero caused her and her family immense pain. To try to defuse the public backlash, Bron Studios hired The Glover Park Group and Don McPherson to give Parker media training and public relations advice. In an October 2016 "60 Minutes" interview, Parker maintained that he was innocent of the crime and that he did not feel guilty about it, but conceded that, from the perspective of a 36-year-old man, he had done something morally wrong.


title: Nate Parker

text: In evaluating the impact of the public's reaction to Parker's alleged 1999 rape of a fellow Penn State student, a film producer told "The Hollywood Reporter", about Parker's directing career, "His inability to act like he cared that people invested a whole lot of money in him — sorry. You go into the 'life is too short' category." Noting that the first half of the "New York Times" review of "The Birth of a Nation" is taken up with the controversy, this person adds, "No matter what Nate Parker makes, ... this will always be the first paragraph." Other industry insiders note that, "unlike [Mel] Gibson — or Roman Polanski or Woody Allen, both accused of sexual assault (Polanski pled guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse) — Parker is just beginning his directing career and has not built up an acclaimed body of work that might encourage some to say they are willing to separate the artist from the art."


title: Nate Parker

text: In 2019, Parker wrote, directed, and starred in the film American Skin, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2019. Following its release, American Skin has received $4 million over a fortnight and finished in the top 10 on FandangoNow, Google Play, and Spectrum's PVOD rental charts. Becoming one of the highest grossing titles for its distributor, Vertical Entertainment on PVOD. The Venice Film Festival’s Sconfini Section awarded the prize of "Best Film" to American Skin on September 7, 2019, the first film addressing the racial injustice theme to have won in the category.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker's next film is Solitary, an American drama film written, directed, and produced by Nate Parker and stars David Oyelowo, Barry Pepper and Jimmie Fails.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker directed 10 episodes of Baselines a web series about a family based in Los Angeles intent on protecting their son, Jamiel Chambers, and his basketball dreams from the dangers of inner-city American life.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker sponsors scholarships for youth between the ages of 17 and 25 at East Texas Wiley College through the 100 Men of Excellence Initiative. Wiley has announced it will host a new film school named The Nate Parker School of Film and Drama.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker has been a supporter of Boys & Girls Clubs of America as well as a program called Peace4Kids, which is a program for foster youths and underprivileged youth in South Los Angeles, California where kids are involved in daily activities that stimulate and nurture creativity and intellect. Parker has coached a wrestling team of 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds at Rosemead High School and has assisted in coaching wrestling at Rio Hondo College. Inspired by his experience with "The Great Debaters," Parker began working with a Brooklyn initiative called Leadership and Literacy through Debate.


title: Nate Parker

text: The Nate Parker Foundation was founded in 2015 and is based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2016, the foundation established the Nate Parker Summer Film Institute at Wiley College which was held yearly to use film as a medium of social transformation with 31 students who are either from Africa or of African descent. The foundation received the first grant to make the HBCU Storytellers Project by the Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Healing and Reconciliation Fund in 2017. The grant covered four short documentaries which address racial issues and stereotypes. The first film series funded by the grant, "Just Mercy", has received four NAACP Image awards, Outstanding Ensemble Cast, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Outstanding Motion Picture. In 2018, the foundation has received funding from the Ford Foundation and private stakeholders.


title: Nate Parker

text: In 1999, while a sophomore at Penn State University, Parker and his roommate and wrestling teammate, Jean McGianni Celestin, were accused of raping a female fellow student. The accuser stated that Parker and Celestin raped her while she was intoxicated and unconscious, and that she was unsure of how many people had been involved. She also stated that the two harassed her after she pressed charges, and that they hired a private investigator who showed her picture around campus, revealing her identity, which Parker and Celestin denied. Parker and Celestin were charged with rape soon after the incident. Celestin was found to be guilty while Parker was acquitted. Celestin, who shares a story credit on "The Birth of a Nation", was convicted of sexual assault and received a six-month to one-year prison sentence in 2001, later raised to two to four years per state sentencing guidelines. His conviction was later overturned on appeal.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker's accuser later filed a complaint against the university for failing to protect her from harassment, which was settled with Penn State for $17,500. In 2012, the accuser died from suicide.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker was initially suspended from Penn State's wrestling team, before being reinstated in 2000 while facing trial. Within weeks a female student worker accused him of exposing himself to her. The student did not go to the police and Penn State dropped the matter. After the trial, Parker transferred to and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2002, where he was on the wrestling team and received a degree in management science and information systems.


title: Nate Parker

text: In August 2007, Parker married Sarah DiSanto, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, whom he met while they were attending Penn State. They were married in Erie's Frontier Park. The couple have three daughters in addition to two more daughters Parker had from previous relationships.


title: Nate Parker

text: Parker has said that he considers himself a Christian, and that he grew up in the church. According to a DNA analysis, some of Parker's ancestry is from the Tikar people of modern-day Cameroon.


title: Nate Parker

text: Nate Parker is the author of the book Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement in which he writes about the resistance against oppression. The first half of his book is about Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in the 19th century, and the other half explores the historical context of his rebellion and how it is relevant to modern events and discourse. The book was later adapted into a motion picture, "The Birth of a Nation", which was also the directorial debut of Nate Parker.


title: Don Cherry

text: Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five seasons after concluding a successful playing career in the American Hockey League, leading the team to four division titles and two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals.


title: Don Cherry

text: From 1986 to 2019, Cherry co-hosted "Coach's Corner"—a segment aired during CBC's Saturday-night NHL broadcast "Hockey Night in Canada", with Ron MacLean. Nicknamed Grapes, he is known for his outspoken manner and opinions, and his flamboyant dress. By the 2018–19 NHL season, Cherry and MacLean had hosted "Coach's Corner" for 33 seasons. From 1984 to 2019, Cherry hosted "Grapevine", a short-form radio segment with fellow sportscaster Brian Williams. He created and starred in the direct-to-video series "Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'em Hockey" from 1989 to 2018.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2004, Cherry was voted by viewers as the seventh-greatest Canadian of all-time in the CBC miniseries "The Greatest Canadian". In March 2010, his life was dramatized in a two-part CBC movie, "", based on a script written by his son, Timothy Cherry. In March 2012, CBC aired a sequel, "".


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry has expressed controversial political views, having faced criticism for remarks regarding Canada's lack of support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, his support for then-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and denying climate change. In November 2019, Cherry was fired by Sportsnet from "Hockey Night in Canada" for commenting that Canadian immigrants benefit from the sacrifices of veterans but do not wear Remembrance Day poppies.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry was born in Kingston, Ontario to Delmar (Del) and Maude Cherry. His paternal grandfather, Sub/Cst. John T. (Jack) Cherry, was an original member of the North-West Mounted Police (now Royal Canadian Mounted Police), and a Great Lakes ship captain. His maternal grandfather, Richard Palamountain, was a British orphan of Cornish parentage who emigrated to Canada as one of the Home Children. The name Palamountain is a corruption of the Cornish language "pol-mun-tyr" meaning "pool by the mineral land". Palamountain was also a veteran of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Cherry's father Del was an amateur athlete and worked as an electrician with the Canadian Steamship Lines. On the March 15, 2008 edition of Coach's Corner, Cherry wore the green and gold colours of County Kerry, Ireland. In his segment following the game, he claimed ancestry from that region. Cherry's younger brother, Dick Cherry played hockey at various levels, including two seasons in the National Hockey League with the Philadelphia Flyers.


title: Don Cherry

text: In his first year with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, he met his future wife Rosemarie (Rose) Cherry "née" Madelyn Martini (born 1935 in Hershey, Pennsylvania). Rose was hugely influential in Don's life—because of Don's minor-league hockey lifestyle, they moved 53 times; they rarely had decent housing or furnishings, and Don was often away playing during major events, such as the birth of their daughter and first child, Cindy Cherry. Six years after Cindy's birth, Rose gave birth to son Tim Cherry. When Tim needed a kidney transplant at age 13, Cindy donated one of hers. The two currently live across the street from each other, around the corner from their father, in Mississauga.


title: Don Cherry

text: Rose died of liver cancer on June 1, 1997 and in honour of her perseverance, Don created Rose Cherry's Home for Kids. Her name has motivated Cherry to always wear a rose on his lapel. Cherry contributed in developing Rose Cherry's Home for Kids which has since been renamed to The Darling Home for Kids, in Milton, Ontario. The Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, is located on "Rose Cherry Place", a street named for his late wife.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry played junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. Cherry won the Memorial Cup while playing defence in Barrie in 1953. He dropped out of high school, and in 1954 he signed with the American Hockey League's (AHL) Hershey Bears.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry had a long playing career in professional minor hockey, and in 1955 played his only NHL game when the Boston Bruins called him up during the playoffs. According to Cherry, a baseball injury suffered in the off season kept him from making the NHL, despite his almost 20 years playing in the minor leagues. He retired as a player in 1970, but came out of retirement two years later to play 19 final games with the Rochester Americans. Cherry won the Calder Cup championship (AHL) four times—1960 with the Springfield Indians, and 1965, 1966, 1968 with Rochester. He also won the Lester Patrick Cup, the Western Hockey League Championship, with the Vancouver Canucks in 1969.


title: Don Cherry

text: After the end of the 1968–69 season, his playing career was essentially over. Cherry struggled for a time as a Cadillac salesman and a construction worker. He worked as a house painter earning $2 per hour.


title: Don Cherry

text: In the middle of the 1971–72 season, Cherry became the coach of the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans and won "Coach of the Year". The following year, the title of General Manager was added. In his third season behind the bench, Cherry was voted the AHL's "Coach of the Year".


title: Don Cherry

text: After his three-year stint in Rochester, he was promoted to the NHL as head coach of the Boston Bruins for the 1974–75 season. The Bruins were coming off a successful run of two Stanley Cups and three first-place finishes, but after Cherry's first season as coach the team would see the exit of superstars Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry quickly developed a reputation for being an eccentric, flamboyant coach who strongly encouraged physical play among his players. According to Cherry, he molded the Bruins' playing style after that of his dog, Blue, a feisty bull terrier. While the team had been known for Orr and Esposito who were highly skilled scorers, the 1975–76 Bruins started the season in brief slump in part due to Orr's knee injury that saw him play only ten games, plus Orr would become a free agent at the end of the season. Cherry remade the team with enforcers and grinders which became known as the "lunch-pail gang" (or "lunch pail A.C.") and "the Big Bad Bruins", with Esposito and Carol Vadnais being traded to the New York Rangers for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle, as Esposito disagreed with Cherry's coaching including having a disinclination to backcheck. This approach of "balance over brilliance" rejuvenated the Bruins, in particular the careers of Park and Ratelle, as they continued to be one of the NHL's best teams during the latter half of the 1970s, capturing the Adams division title four straight seasons from 1975–76 through 1978–79, with Cherry winning the Jack Adams Award (NHL coach of the year) for the 1975 season. In the 1977–78 season, Cherry coached the Bruins team to an NHL record of 11 players with 20 goals or more on a single team.


title: Don Cherry

text: The Bruins were able to defeat the rough Philadelphia Flyers twice in the playoffs under Cherry's tenure. The Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals twice, both times losing to their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in both 1977 and 1978. The late 1970s Canadiens were one of the most dominant teams in the NHL, with three of their eight regular losses in the 1976–77 season coming at the hands of the Bruins. In the 1979 semi-final playoff series against the Canadiens, Cherry's Bruins pushed the series to the limit but they were undone by a late penalty in the seventh game. Up by a goal with less than three minutes left in the seventh game, the Bruins were called for having too many men on the ice, which he blamed on himself, saying later that "The guy couldn't have heard me yell. I grabbed two other guys trying to go over the boards. That would have made eight on the ice." The Canadiens' Guy Lafleur scored the tying goal on the subsequent power play, and ultimately the Canadiens won the game in overtime. Montreal went on to defeat the New York Rangers for their fourth straight Cup title. Cherry, who had an uneasy relationship with Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden, was fired by the Bruins afterward.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry went on to coach the Colorado Rockies in the 1979-80 season. Under his tenure, the Rockies adopted the motto "Come to the fights and watch a Rockies game break out!" and the slogan could be seen on billboards all over Denver throughout the season.


title: Don Cherry

text: However, as he later admitted, his outspokenness and feuding with Rockies general manager Ray Miron did not endear Cherry to management. While Cherry did much to motivate the players, goaltending was still the team's weakness as Miron refused to replace Hardy Åström, whom Cherry dubbed "The Swedish Sieve". Cherry recalled one game where his players had taken ten shots on goal without scoring, but Åström then conceded a goal from the opponent's first shot and so was yanked from net.


title: Don Cherry

text: In a late-season game in Chicago, the Blackhawks scored the game-winning goal while Mike McEwen, a favourite of the Rockies owners, was on the ice. When McEwen returned to the bench, Cherry grabbed him by the jersey and shook him. McEwen left the team for several days and did not return until after meeting with Miron and the club owners. Cherry's belief, stated later, was that the owners had promised McEwen that Cherry would be fired after the season.


title: Don Cherry

text: The Rockies finished with a league-worst 19-48-13 record, also the worst single-season mark of Cherry's coaching career. He was fired six weeks after the season ended.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry agreed to become the new head coach of the Saskatoon Blues, Bill Hunter's proposed relocation of the St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. However, the NHL's Board of Governors rejected the move on May 18, 1983, and the Blues eventually remained in St. Louis.


title: Don Cherry

text: Internationally, Cherry was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 1976 Canada Cup and was head coach for Canada's team at the 1981 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry was the part-owner and the former coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga IceDogs. As owner and general manager, he gained notoriety by refusing to take part in the CHL import draft, and by only playing North American-born players. The IceDogs' first three seasons were difficult ones with the team winning a total of 16 games combined. Cherry took over coaching duties in the fourth season. During Cherry's one season as head coach of the IceDogs, the team managed 11 victories (only a slight improvement) and failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Cherry drew some criticism for his sudden decision to allow European-born players onto the IceDogs line-up during the one season he coached the team.


title: Don Cherry

text: After the Colorado Rockies failed to qualify for the 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs, Cherry was hired as a studio analyst for CBC's playoff coverage that spring, working alongside host Dave Hodge. CBC hired him full-time in 1981 as a colour commentator, but he didn't last long in that role due to his tendency to openly cheer for one of the teams playing, especially the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs. Instead, "Coach's Corner" was created, a segment that appeared in the first intermission on "Hockey Night in Canada", with Dave Hodge. In 1986, Hodge was replaced by Ron MacLean. For several years he also hosted his own half-hour interview show, "Don Cherry's Grapevine", which began on Hamilton's CHCH-TV in the 1980s before moving to TSN. His loud, outspoken nature became notorious, and his shows are described as "game analysis, cultural commentary and playful parrying with host Ron MacLean." Cherry also hosted a syndicated weekly television show called "Don Cherry's This Week in Hockey" during the 1987–88 NHL season. It featured highlights from the previous week's NHL games. The highlight of each show was when Cherry awarded a Black and Decker cordless drill to the player who levied the "hit of the week" (called the "Drill of the Week" in order to tie into the cordless drill giveaway).


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry's commentary was usually peppered with catchphrases like "All you kids out there...," unrestrained affection for his favourite players (including Steve Yzerman and Kingston native Doug Gilmour, whom Cherry affectionately referred to as "Dougie" and once kissed on-air in a famous TV gag), and overall political incorrectness. Another trademark was his bull terrier "Blue", originally a gift from the Bruins players.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry tended to frequently focus on a few pieces of advice that he felt strongly about. Virtually every week on Coach's Corner he spent time exhorting the evils of attempting to block a shot using one's hockey stick (arguing that it often causes deflections while impeding the goalie's view of the puck). Two other perennial favourites were the dangers of touch icing (a rule he blamed for the premature end to Pat Peake's career) and the extremely sensitive rules about crease violation during the early 2000s (since relaxed). He was also critical of the two-minute penalty for firing the puck into the crowd from the defensive zone, introduced since the start of the 2005–06 NHL season.


title: Don Cherry

text: He also praised hockey players who show great toughness. Examples of this included when, in the 1999 playoffs, a Phoenix Coyotes winger crawled off the ice after enduring a bone-shattering slap shot from St. Louis Blues defenceman Al MacInnis so that another could take his place. Usually at the end of the NHL season, his send-off words in recent years were about NHL prospects entering the NHL draft. His position was that unless a player is guaranteed to be selected in the first or second rounds, he should not physically attend the draft, reasoning that some players could be disappointed if they are drafted later than expected, or worse, not at all.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry returned to the news in May 2004 amid rumours that CBC would terminate his contract for "Hockey Night in Canada". However, he re-signed with the network in July.


title: Don Cherry

text: Branching out from his "Hockey Night in Canada" duties, Cherry began to release a series of videos called "Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'em Hockey" in 1989. The 15th-anniversary video was released in 2003, with a 'Best Of' released in 2005. For the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, NBC decided to feature Cherry in its intermission coverage, a rare appearance on American television. He was partnered with Bill Clement and Brett Hull and it did not conflict with his usual role on CBC as he appeared on NBC during the second intermission.


title: Don Cherry

text: In May 2008, ESPN announced that Cherry was joining Barry Melrose as a commentator for the remainder of the 2008 NHL Playoffs. He provided pre-game analysis for the conference finals, pre- and post-game analysis for the Stanley Cup finals, and appeared on ESPNews and ESPN Radio. ESPN also announced that he would donate his fees to the Humane Society.


title: Don Cherry

text: From 1984 to 2019, Cherry co-hosted "Don Cherry's Grapeline" with Brian Williams, first on CFRB radio in Toronto and its sister stations, moving in 1994 to The FAN 590 and the Sportsnet Radio network. At its peak, the show was carried on over 100 stations across Canada and on several stations in the United States.


title: Don Cherry

text: One of his trademarks was the colourful jackets, shirts, and ties he wore during the "Coach's Corner" segment of "Hockey Night in Canada".


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry was criticized for comments targeting specific ethnicities, such as French Canadians and Europeans, and this led to Cherry's broadcasts being put on a seven-second delay by the CBC, in 2004.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry is a strong advocate of a tough "Canadian" type of hockey which emphasizes physical play and a code of conduct among the players. He believes that fighting is an integral part of the game as it enforces respect between teams and players, as well as being popular with some members of the public.


title: Don Cherry

text: He has long been a champion of hardworking "journeyman" players, whom he identifies with from his own time spent playing in the minor leagues. Cherry's favourite player of all time is Bobby Orr who he says is the greatest player of all time. Other favourites include Doug Gilmour, Vincent Lecavalier, and Cam Neely. Cherry has criticized many players for what he considers dishonourable conduct, but perhaps none more than Ulf Samuelsson and Matt Cooke, whom he considered to be exceptionally dirty players responsible for many severe injuries.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry has strongly criticized the direction taken by the National Hockey League in recent years, reducing fighting in favour of speed and skill. Specific rules that he criticizes include touch-up icing and the instigator rule.


title: Don Cherry

text: He also frequently criticized players for elaborate celebrations after goals. In 2003, Cherry made headlines by criticizing then heavily publicized junior prospect Sidney Crosby for being a "hot dog" because of the way Crosby slid around on his knees after scoring. He also disapproved of a tricky behind-the-net goal the young star pulled off when a game was already out of reach for the team he scored on. He commented on the controversy caused by Alexander Ovechkin's celebration after he scored his 50th goal in 2009.


title: Don Cherry

text: In January 2004, on the subject of visors, Cherry claimed on "Coach's Corner" that visor users have less respect for player safety and attempted to illustrate his claim by saying : "Most of the guys that wear them are Europeans and French guys". This statement triggered an investigation by the federal Official Languages Commissioner, and protests by French-Canadians. CBC consequently imposed a seven-second delay on "Hockey Night in Canada". Later on, a study was published that proved Cherry to be half-right: while 50% of Europeans and 40% of French-Canadians wore visors, compared to 22% of North Americans born outside of Quebec, players who wear visors committed proportionately fewer high-sticking penalties than players who do not. Cherry returned to the "Coach's Corner" for the 2005–06 NHL season without the seven-second delay.


title: Don Cherry

text: Along similar lines, in 2019 he criticized the Carolina Hurricanes for their on-ice victory celebrations, calling them a "bunch of jerks." The Hurricanes adopted "Bunch of Jerks" as a battle cry, even going as far as projecting it on the ice at PNC Arena before and after games.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry is a staunch supporter of women's hockey, and sledge hockey. In 1997, the Canadian women's national ice hockey team paid tribute to the late Rose Cherry. Canadian Hockey chairman Bob MacKinnon thanked Cherry stating "The growing popularity of the women's game in our country owes a great deal to Don and Rose Cherry... Don has been a strong supporter of the female game since the early 1980s and continues to speak out in favour of women's hockey. It's a pleasure for me, as chairman of Canadian Hockey, to be a part of this tribute to Rose Cherry, who was a keen supporter of female hockey herself."


title: Don Cherry

text: Over his career on television, Cherry generated significant controversy about both hockey and politics.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 1989, he referred to Finnish-born Winnipeg Jets assistant coach Alpo Suhonen as "some kind of dog food", triggering the threat of a lawsuit from Jets owner Barry Shenkarow.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2003, Cherry made comments on his CBC segment in support of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. On March 22, 2003, Cherry criticized Montreal fans for booing the American national anthem before a game earlier in the week. The conversation then turned to the war when Ron MacLean said "everybody wants to know what you think". Cherry berated MacLean about being neutral on the war and strongly criticized the Canadian government for failing to support the U.S. in the war. Cherry appeared on the American radio program "The Jim Rome Show" the following week, stating, "You have to realize the CBC is government owned [...] You have to say the government was against [the invasion of Iraq] and I'm for it and I'm on a government program. I really thought this could be the end."


title: Don Cherry

text: After appearing in the House of Commons of Canada on November 7, 2006, he formally stated his support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whom he called "a grinder and a mucker" by saying "I give a thumbs up to Stephen Harper for sure. He supports the troops and I support the troops."


title: Don Cherry

text: On December 7, 2010, Cherry attended an inaugural meeting of Toronto City Council, where he placed the chain of office around incoming Mayor Rob Ford's neck. Cherry was asked to say a few remarks and he opened by stating "I'm wearing pink for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything, I thought I’d get it in." He then went on to state that he had "been ripped to shreds by the left-wing pinko newspapers out there" and ended saying "And that's why I say he's gonna be the greatest mayor this city has ever, ever seen, as far as I'm concerned! And put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks." Left-leaning councillors were critical of Cherry's speech, and the following day some of them wore pink clothing in protest, including Joe Mihevc and Ana Bailão, who wore pink scarves while Janet Davis wore a pink suit jacket. Mihevc said, "We all love Don Cherry and his comments and forcefulness in hockey games, but this is council. It’s a political arena where we make it a habit to reach out, talk to others and achieve consensus. To have that kind of, frankly, belligerence and pushing people aside, to start out this way I think is really unfortunate." Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong defended Cherry though he stated that it was "A little over the top" and that "You take it for what it is and you shrug it off and move forward." Cherry defended his comments by stating "Well, what can I tell you? Don’t invite me. You don't invite a pit bull. If you want a pit bull, you get a pit bull." Later that month, Cherry was a guest of Rob Ford on a trip to visit Canadian troops in Afghanistan conducted by the Government of Canada, where he attended and spoke at a Christmas dinner event.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2018, Cherry faced backlash after denying the existence of climate change and referred to people who acknowledge climate change as "cuckaloos." Environment Minister Catherine McKenna responded by saying, "For hockey you can turn to "Coach's Corner" if you want, for climate change, Canadians turn to scientists." Cherry has expressed similar views in the past such as during a 2008 "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcast when he called environmental activist David Suzuki a "left-wing kook."


title: Don Cherry

text: On November 9, 2019, during "Coach's Corner", Cherry made remarks implying that Canadian immigrants benefit from the sacrifices of veterans and do not wear remembrance poppies. He said, "You people that come here... you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that... These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price." The distributor of those poppies in Canada, The Royal Canadian Legion, officially denounced those statements saying, "Mr. Cherry’s personal opinion was hurtful, divisive and in no way condoned by the Legion." Sportsnet apologized for the remarks, stating that his comments were discriminatory and offensive, and that they "do not represent our values and what we stand for as a network." His co-host, Ron MacLean, also apologized via Twitter, expressing regret for his actions and for allowing Cherry to make the comments. The NHL subsequently released a statement on Cherry's comments saying "the comments made last night were offensive and contrary to the values we believe in." Cherry later told the "Toronto Sun" that he would not apologize for his comments, stating, "I have had my say."


title: Don Cherry

text: On November 10th, MacLean appeared on air for the first time following the incident and opened "Rogers Hometown Hockey's" broadcast with an apology: "Don Cherry made remarks which were hurtful, discriminatory, which were flat out wrong. We at Sportsnet have apologized. It certainly doesn't stand for what Sportsnet or Rogers represents. We know diversity is the strength of the country. We see it in travels with our show ("Hometown Hockey") and with "Hockey Night in Canada". I owe you an apology, too: that's the big thing I want to emphasize. I sat there, did not catch it, did not respond."


title: Don Cherry

text: The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) stated that its internal systems had been overloaded by a high number of complaints. Two days later, on November 11, Sportsnet president Bart Yabsley announced that Cherry had been fired: "Following further discussions with Don Cherry after Saturday night's broadcast, it has been decided it is the right time for him to immediately step down." Speaking to the "Toronto Sun", Cherry commented, "I know what I said and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honour our fallen soldiers... I would have liked to continue doing "Coach's Corner". The problem is if I have to watch everything I say, it isn't "Coach's Corner"." He later said that if he had to do it again, he would have said "everybody".


title: Don Cherry

text: On November 16, 2019, MacLean addressed and reflected on the incident during "Hockey Night in Canada", the first without Cherry, also announcing the end of "Coach's Corner".


title: Don Cherry

text: Former Boston Bruins defenceman Bobby Orr defended Cherry, calling his firing "disgraceful". Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri said "People maybe took it out of context a little bit. I know Grapes is a great person and am sad to see him go."


title: Don Cherry

text: On November 14, 2005, Cherry was granted honorary membership of the Police Association of Ontario. Once an aspiring police officer, Cherry has been a longtime supporter of the police services. In his own words, "This is the best thing I've ever had." In June 2007, Cherry was made a Dominion Command Honorary Life Member of the Royal Canadian Legion in recognition of "his longstanding and unswerving support of... Canadians in uniform". In February 2008, Cherry was awarded the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service for 'unwavering support to men and women of the Canadian Forces, honouring fallen soldiers on his CBC broadcast during "Coach's Corner", a segment of "Hockey Night in Canada".


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2004, Cherry ranked at number 7 on the CBC's miniseries "The Greatest Canadian". Cherry remarked that he was "a good Canadian", but not the greatest Canadian, and that he was personally rooting for fellow Kingston resident, John A. Macdonald.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2016, Cherry, along with his "Coach's Corner" co-host Ron MacLean, received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 1992, Cherry lent his voice to the charity song "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Techno" for Canadian techno group BKS.


title: Don Cherry

text: As part of his fame, Cherry has also branched out into some acting roles. He was cast as Jake Nelson in the television series "Power Play". Nelson was the coach of the Philadelphia team playing against the Hamilton Steelheads in the playoffs during the first season. Also, he and Ron MacLean provided voices for themselves in the animated television series "Zeroman", which starred Leslie Nielsen. He also appeared on an episode of "Goosebumps" called "Don't Go to Sleep!" where he plays a hockey coach. His voice was also used in Disney's animated feature "The Wild", as a penguin curling broadcaster. He also appeared alongside the Trailer Park Boys in The Tragically Hip's video "The Darkest One". His voice was also used in the "Mickey Mouse" episode "Bad Ear Day", as an ice hockey game announcer.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 2008, he also appeared on an episode of "Holmes on Homes", the widely popular home improvement show. While not appearing scripted, Cherry apparently lived in the neighbourhood and he is shown speaking with Mike Holmes about the construction business and the ongoing project at his brother-in-law's house.


title: Don Cherry

text: In 1985, the first of a chain of franchised sports bars/restaurants bearing Cherry's name was opened in Hamilton. Cherry started as a partner in the operation and has more recently licensed his name to the chain without holding a significant ownership stake in the company. "Don Cherry's Sports Grill" has locations in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry, who is an advocate of options for pet owners to keep their pets healthy, has also partnered with companion animal organization Pethealth Inc. to offer Canadians the hockey-inspired CherryBlue Pet Insurance program. Cherry is pictured on cherryblue.ca with his popular bull terrier Blue, for whom the program is named.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry created the Don Cherry Pet Rescue Foundation and donates all profits from his Simply Pets snacks line to animal charities. During the 42nd Canadian Parliament, Cherry, typically a supporter of the Conservatives made a video supporting Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith's ultimately unsuccessful private member's bill that sought to toughen animal cruelty laws.


title: Don Cherry

text: Cherry has lent his considerable persona to several charitable causes, most significantly, organ donation awareness.


title: Macky Sall

text: Macky Sall (, , ; born 11 December 1961) is a Senegalese politician who has been President of Senegal since April 2012. He was re-elected President in the first round voting in February 2019. Under President Abdoulaye Wade, Sall was Prime Minister of Senegal from July 2004 to June 2007 and President of the National Assembly from June 2007 to November 2008. He was the Mayor of Fatick from 2002 to 2008 and held that post again from 2009 to 2012. Sall was a long-time member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). After coming into conflict with Wade, he was removed from his post as President of the National Assembly in November 2008; he consequently founded his own party named the Alliance for the Republic (APR) and joined the opposition. Placing second in the first round of the 2012 presidential election, he won the backing of other opposition candidates and prevailed over Wade in the second round of voting, held on 25 March 2012. He is the first president born after Senegalese independence from France.


title: Macky Sall

text: Sall was one of five children born to Amadou Abdoul Sall, who was a state worker and then a caretaker and Coumba Thimbo, a peanut seller. He was raised in Fatick and Futa Tooro, as well as Mboro from age 2–5.


title: Macky Sall

text: Sall's father was a member of the Socialist Party of Senegal (PS), but, at the high school in Kaolack, Sall associated with the Maoists at the encouragement of his brother-in-law. During his studies at the University of Dakar he was involved in the Marxist-Leninist movement, And-Jëf, led by Landing Savané. He soon left And-Jëf, since he did not share the ideas of the movement or Savané's use a boycott strategy against the PS in the 1983 election, in which Sall voted for the liberal Abdoulaye Wade, as he did again in 1988.


title: Macky Sall

text: Sall was trained as a geological engineer at the Institute of Earth Sciences (IST) of the University of Dakar and then at the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP)'s National College of Petrol and Engines (ENSPM) in Paris. He is a member of multiple national and international associations of geologists and geological engineers.


title: Macky Sall

text: He met his wife Mariéme Faye Sall in 1992 when she was a high school student in the city of Diourbel.


title: Macky Sall

text: He became Secretary-General of the PDS Regional Convention in Fatick in 1998 and served as the PDS National Secretary in charge of Mines and Industry. He was actively involved in the "Sopi" campaign which brought Wade to power in the 2000 Senegalese presidential election.


title: Macky Sall

text: He was Special Advisor for Energy and Mines to President Abdoulaye Wade from 6 April 2000 to 12 May 2003, as well as Director-General of the Petroleum Company of Senegal ("Société des Pétroles du Sénégal", PETROSEN) from 13 December 2000 to 5 July 2001. He became Minister of Mines, Energy and Hydraulics on 12 May 2001, replacing Abdoulaye Bathily who had been appointed Vice-President of the National Assembly. Sall was promoted to the rank of Minister of State, while retaining his portfolio, on 6 November 2002. He additionally became the Mayor of Fatick on 1 June 2002.


title: Macky Sall

text: On 27 August 2003, Sall was moved from his position as Minister of State for Mines, Energy and Hydraulics to that of Minister of State for the Interior and Local Communities, while also becoming Government Spokesman.


title: Macky Sall

text: On 21 July 2004, Macky Sall was appointed Prime Minister by President Wade, after Wade dismissed his predecessor, Idrissa Seck. On 25 July 2004, Sall became Vice-President of the PDS Steering Committee. Although Sall was little known at the time of his appointment, he made a strong impression in his maiden address on general policy.


title: Macky Sall

text: Sall served as the director of Wade's re-election campaign for the February 2007 presidential election, in which Wade was victorious, obtaining a majority in the first round. After Wade was sworn in, Sall submitted his resignation on 10 April and was immediately reappointed, with the government unchanged. Sall remained Prime Minister until 19 June 2007, making him the longest-serving of Wade's prime ministers. During his tenure he set in motion several presidential policies which had been neglected by his predecessor, including the Corniche de Dakar motorway and the construction of the Blaise Diagne International Airport.