title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In his statement to the Senate Budget Committee, Mulvaney admitted that he had failed to pay $15,000 in payroll taxes from 2000 to 2004 for his triplets' nanny. Mulvaney said he did not pay the taxes because he viewed the woman as a babysitter rather than as a household employee. After filling out a questionnaire from the Trump transition team he realized the lapse and began paying back taxes and fees. Senate Democrats noted that Republicans had previously insisted that past Democratic nominees' failure to pay taxes for their household employees was disqualifying, including former Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle in 2009.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On February 16, 2017, the Senate confirmed Mulvaney, 51–49, with Senator John McCain of Arizona joining all 48 Democrats to vote against his nomination. Democrats opposed his nomination because of his past efforts to slash budgets, as well as his role in government shutdowns.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: During his tenure as OMB director, Mulvaney sought to influence Trump to cut Social Security and Medicare. When he introduced himself to Gary Cohn, who was then Trump's chief economic advisor, Mulvaney said, "Hi, I'm a right-wing nutjob." While Mulvaney was known for his professed support for fiscal conservatism as a congressman, under Mulvaney's tenure as OMB Director there was a dramatic expansion in the deficit as a result of both spending increases and tax cuts. The deficits were unusually high for a period of economic expansion.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In March 2017, Mulvaney said he believed that "the Obama administration was manipulating the numbers, in terms of the number of people in the workforce, to make the unemployment rate—that percentage rate—look smaller than it actually was," and that "[w]hat you should really look at is the number of jobs created." There is no evidence that jobs numbers under the Obama administration were manipulated. "FiveThirtyEight"s Ben Casselman noted that "manipulating the jobs figures... would mean not just messing with one number but rather interfering with an entire ecosystem of statistics [and] would require a conspiracy theory of massive proportions, involving hundreds if not thousands of people."


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In March 2017, Mulvaney said the Congressional Budget Office was not capable of assessing the American Health Care Act, stating that "[i]f the CBO was right about Obamacare to begin with, there'd be eight million more people on Obamacare today than there actually are." According to FactCheck.Org, "[t]he CBO actually nailed the overall impact of the law on the uninsured pretty closely... It's true (as Trump administration officials have repeatedly pointed out) that CBO greatly overestimated the number who would get government-subsidized coverage through the new insurance exchanges. But at the same time, CBO underestimated the number who would get coverage through expanding Medicaid. And whatever the failings of CBO's predictions, they were closer to the mark than those of the Obama administration and some other prominent forecasters." PolitiFact noted that "the initial CBO analysis of the Affordable Care Act did forecast that more people would participate in health care exchanges than actually did, but the CBO has revised those estimates. Moreover, independent analyses, as well as experts agree that the CBO offers some of the best estimates given the information available at the time."


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In May 2017, Mulvaney was critical of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) after it estimated the version of the American Health Care Act passed by the house in May 2017 would result in 23 million fewer people with health insurance. Mulvaney said the CBO's assessment was "absurd" and that "the days of relying on some nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to do that work for us has probably come and gone."


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: While promoting the Trump administration's budget proposal in March 2017, Mulvaney said that, as to taxpayers, the government was "not gonna ask you for your hard-earned money, anymore... unless we can guarantee to you that that money is actually being used in a proper function." For instance, Mulvaney justified cuts to block grants that go towards spending on Meals on Wheels because it was "just not showing any results". Others disagreed with Mulvaney's statement, citing research that has "found home-delivered meal programs to significantly improve diet quality, increase nutrient intakes, and reduce food insecurity and nutritional risk among participants. Other beneficial outcomes include increased socialization opportunities, improvement in dietary adherence, and higher quality of life."


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On May 22, 2017, Mulvaney presented Trump's $4.1 trillion 2018 United States federal budget. The budget included cuts to the United States Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the social safety net and increases in funding for defense spending and paid family leave. The "America First" budget included a 10.6% decrease in domestic program spending and a 10% increase in military spending, in addition to $1.6 billion for a border wall. The budget would remove $272 billion from welfare programs, including $272 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. The budget would also remove $800 billion from Medicaid, and $72 billion from Social Security disability benefits, while removing nothing from Social Security retirement or Medicare benefits. Mulvaney projected the budget will not add to the federal deficit because future tax cuts will lead to 3% GDP growth. He described the budget as "the first time in a long time that an administration has written a budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the taxes."


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In December 2017, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The United States Congress Joint Committee on Taxation forecasted that with dynamic scoring, the $1.5 trillion reduction in revenues will increase the federal deficit by $1 trillion. Regulatory implementation of the tax cuts have been delayed by a dispute between Mulvaney and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin regarding the involvement of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In February 2018, Mulvaney released the President's $4.4 trillion 2019 United States federal budget, which would add $984 billion to the federal deficit that year, and $7 trillion over the next 10 years. Later that month, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which allowed yearly federal deficits to reach $1 trillion. In March 2018, Congress ultimately passed the $1.3 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, which funded the government's operations until the end of the fiscal year in September.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On April 28, 2017, Walter Shaub, the Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued a data request to see the ethics waivers given to ex-lobbyists in the executive branch, which Mulvaney refused, writing a letter that seemed to question OGE's authority to collect ethics records. On May 22, Shaub sent Mulvaney, in addition to every federal ethics officer, every inspector general, and the six members of Congress responsible for government oversight, a 10-page response reasserting his legal authority to see the ethics waivers. On May 26, Mulvaney sent a second letter denying that his first letter had questioned OGE's authority, and providing the information requested. Thereafter, on May 30, the White House complied with Shaub's data call by posting its waivers online. On August 1, Senators Chuck Grassley, Dianne Feinstein, and Gary Peters sent a bipartisan letter to Mulvaney demanding that the White House continue releasing its waivers on a continuing basis. On September 21, OGE's acting Director, David Apol, issued a memorandum declaring that the White House would comply with this congressional request. On October 19, the White House released a second batch of waivers on its website.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In a press briefing on May 2, 2017, Mulvaney said a "good shutdown" of the federal government might be necessary in September. He defined such a situation as one "that fixes Washington, D.C. permanently". In the same conference call to reporters, Mulvaney defended a funding package which contained no funds for Trump's proposed border wall. The call became infamous after being plagued with technical problems and interruptions.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had encouraged the President to replace Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Richard Cordray. As a congressman, Mulvaney had been a strong critic of the CFPB, calling it a "sick, sad" joke, and co-sponsoring legislation for its elimination. Trump appointed Mulvaney to serve as acting director of the CFPB under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA), which allows for the president to appoint an interim replacement without Senate confirmation. However, a dispute arose over whether Mulvaney can be so-named under the FVRA or whether a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act controls, which would make the deputy director, Leandra English, acting director of the CFPB instead. This led to a court battle, "English v. Trump". On November 28, 2017, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied English's motion for a preliminary injunction and allowed Mulvaney to begin serving as CFPB Acting Director.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: According to an April 2019 review of Mulvaney's tenure as CFPB head by "The" "New York Times", Mulvaney had undermined the enforcement and regulatory powers of the bureau. What was "perhaps Washington's most feared financial regulator" had through "strategic neglect and bureaucratic self-sabotage" begun to work against the very interests it was created to defend. Mulvaney immediately stopped hiring at the CFPB, stopped collecting fines, suspended rulemaking, and ordered all active investigations reviewed. Mulvaney also sharply reduced agency personnel's access to bank data, arguing that it posed a security risk. On January 18, 2018, Mulvaney submitted a quarterly budget request for the CFPB to the Federal Reserve for $0.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In January 2018, Mulvaney canceled an investigation into a South Carolina payday lender who had previously donated to his congressional campaigns. He also dropped a lawsuit the CFPB was pursuing against an online lender the bureau had found was charging 950% interest. Mulvaney suspended a short-term payday loan regulation. In addition to payday lenders, Mulvaney also scaled back efforts to go after auto lenders and others accused of preying on vulnerable consumers. By April 2018, more than four months after taking charge of the CFPB, Mulvaney had not undertaken a single enforcement action against finance companies; the previous CFPB director, Richard Cordray, averaged two to four enforcement actions per month. Mulvaney accepted nearly $63,000 in donations by payday lenders while he was a congressman.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In April 2018, Mulvaney submitted the CFPB's annual report to Congress, in which he recommended the bureau's funding should be made to require congressional appropriations, that its future rulemaking should require legislative approval, and that he, the director, should be made removable without cause by the President.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: The Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade association representing the payday lending industry, praised Mulvaney's approach, calling it "relatively passive".


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In April 2018, it was reported that Mulvaney had given some of his political appointees at the CFPB raises. Mulvaney hired at least eight appointees after he took over the agency and created positions for some the appointees which did not exist under Cordray's tenure at the CFPB.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In April 2018, Mulvaney said he would shut down public access to the CFPB's online database of consumer complaints where consumers could post complaints and the CFPB used to guide its investigations. Mulvaney said, "I don't see anything in here that says I have to run a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government." As the database was mandated by law, it could not be shut down, only closed to the public. A review of Mulvaney's campaign contributions as a congressman showed that eight of the 10 firms with the most complaints about them had contributed to Mulvaney's campaigns. Under Mulvaney's successor, Kathy Kraninger, the proposal to keep complaints secret from public access was reversed, though corporations would be allowed space to respond to complaints on the CFPB's website, and the implementation of various changes to the way the complaints and enforcement actions would be presented, could present the subjects of complaints in a more favorable light.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Under Mulvaney, at the same time publicly announced Bureau enforcement actions dropped to a quarter of their previous annual averages, consumer complaints rose substantially.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In April 2018, Mulvaney announced a $1 billion fine against Wells Fargo for fraudulent practices. The case against Wells Fargo started prior to Mulvaney's tenure, and there were reports that Mulvaney considered dropping the case. Amid this reporting, Trump warned that the bank would be fined.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In May 2018, "The New York Times" reported that Mulvaney worked two to three days a week at the CFPB, a few hours at a time.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In August 2018, it was reported that Mulvaney was considering rolling back oversight of military lenders. The Military Lending Act was devised to protect military service members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans and credit card gouging.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On December 14, 2018, Trump named Mulvaney as his acting White House chief of staff beginning in the new year. Prior to Trump's election, Mulvaney had characterized the future president as a "terrible human being," said he would be disqualified from office in an "ordinary universe," and described Trump's views on a wall on the US-Mexico border as "absurd and almost childish". On March 6, 2020, President Trump named Congressman Mark Meadows as Mulvaney's replacement.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Upon assuming office as chief of staff, Mulvaney appointed several individuals with views similar to his to White House positions, most notably Joe Grogan to lead the United States Domestic Policy Council.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In March 2019, Mulvaney said, "every single (health care) plan that this White House has ever put forward since Donald Trump was elected covered pre-existing conditions." The Associated Press described the claim as "misleading" and PolitiFact rated this assertion "mostly false", stating that all the health care proposals supported by the White House would have weakened protections for individuals with preexisting conditions, and led to gaps in health insurance coverage and higher premium rates.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On March 6, 2020, Trump tweeted that Republican North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows would succeed Mulvaney as White House Chief of Staff. Meadows began serving at the end of March, thus replacing Mulvaney.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Mulvaney wrote an op-ed in the "Wall Street Journal" three days after the November 2020 election day, saying "If He Loses, Trump Will Concede Gracefully: He'll fight hard to make sure the results are fair, and in the end he'll accept the result whatever it is." Trump did not do so after his loss in the 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Mulvaney was closely involved in the Trump–Ukraine scandal. In an October 17, 2019, press conference, Mulvaney said that military aid to Ukraine was in fact tied to President Trump's demand for an investigation into the 2016 election. Several hours later, in a statement released by the White House, Mulvaney sought to deny or reinterpret his earlier statements, stating "there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election".


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: On January 22, 2020, Mulvaney released a series of heavily redacted Office of Management and Budget (OMB) emails revealing details about how the OMB worked to carry out the freeze of aid for Ukraine.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In February 2020, Mulvaney alleged that claims of a deep state working against President Trump were "absolutely 100% true". Later that month, Mulvaney suggested that the media was exaggerating the dangers of COVID-19 in order to "bring down" President Trump.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Upon his resignation as chief of staff, Mulvaney was named special envoy for Northern Ireland, a role which had last been held by Gary Hart, but had gone unfilled since Trump's inauguration. His swearing-in was delayed due to the coronavirus epidemic, which also prevented him from making a planned trip to Northern Ireland as envoy in July 2020. Because of social distancing restrictions, he was sworn in via a FaceTime call on May 1, 2020.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, "The Wall Street Journal" published an op-ed by Mulvaney which argued that Trump would concede if he lost the election; after Joe Biden won the election and Trump did not concede, "Politico" named Mulvaney's prediction one of "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year".


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Mulvaney resigned his position as special envoy on the evening of January 6, 2021, following the U.S. Capitol protests in which a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. The next morning, Mulvaney told a CNBC reporter that his resignation had been principled: "We didn't sign up for what you saw last night. We signed up for making America great again, we signed up for lower taxes and less regulation." He added that Trump was "not the same as he was eight months ago." He suggested that other administration officials also planned to resign, while others planned to stay only to prevent Trump from filling their position with "someone worse" during his last two weeks in office.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In 2021, Mulvaney was mentioned as a possible replacement for Kay Coles James as President of The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: In March 2022, CBS News hired Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor. CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani said that the choice was part of a conscious effort to hire more Republican commentators: "Being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms". "The Washington Post" reported that the decision was controversial among network employees, due to Mulvaney's history within the Trump administration and its adversarial attitude towards the news media.


title: Mick Mulvaney

text: Mulvaney is a Roman Catholic. He married Pamela West, whom he met in line at a bookstore while he was a law student, in 1998. The couple have triplets (born in 2000), named Finn, James, and Caroline.


title: Wardruna

text: Wardruna is a Norwegian music group formed in 2003 by Einar Selvik along with Gaahl and Lindy Fay Hella. They are dedicated to creating musical renditions of Norse cultural and esoteric traditions, and make significant use of Nordic historical and traditional instruments including deer-hide frame drums, flutes, kraviklyra, tagelharpe, mouth harp, goat horn, and lur. Non-traditional instruments and other sources of sound like trees, rocks, water, and torches are also used.


title: Wardruna

text: The band have released five full-length albums, the first three based on Norse runes, the fourth based on the sayings of Odin from the Völuspá and other old Norse sources. The name Wardruna means "the guardian of secrets" or "she who whispers".


title: Wardruna

text: Wardruna formed in 2003. Selvik and Gaahl were both previously members of Gorgoroth, appearing together on the album "Twilight of the Idols" and the live DVD "Black Mass Krakow 2004". Selvik had also recorded with other projects including Det Hedenske Folk, Bak de Syv Fjell, Jotunspor, Sahg, Dead to this World, Skuggsjá, and Faun. Gaahl also recorded with Trelldom, Gaahlskagg, and God Seed.


title: Wardruna

text: The group's debut album, "Runaljod – Gap Var Ginnunga", was released on 19 January 2009 by Indie Recordings, followed by "Runaljod - Yggdrasil" on 15 March 2013.


title: Wardruna

text: In 2014, Selvik announced on the group's official Facebook page that they would take part in composing the score for season 2 of "Vikings" along with Trevor Morris. He later appeared as an actor on the show. In 2015, Gaahl left Wardruna on amicable terms.


title: Wardruna

text: Wardruna's third album, "Runaljod – Ragnarok", was released on 21 October 2016. Thanks in part to the success of "Vikings", the album debuted at No. 1 on "Billboard"'s World Albums chart.


title: Wardruna

text: In August 2017, Wardruna headlined the 20th alternative music, folk music, and experimental music festival Mėnuo Juodaragis in Dūburys Lake, Lithuania. In early 2018, they embarked on their first tour of North America.


title: Wardruna

text: In October 2019, Wardruna announced they had signed to major labels Sony Music/Columbia Records. The band released their fifth studio album in January 2021, named "Kvitravn", which means "white raven". This was followed by the live album "Kvitravn – First Flight of the White Raven" in early 2022.


title: Wardruna

text: Wardruna's tours for 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The band returned to touring in 2022, with European and North American shows as well as a performance at Midgardsblot.


title: Wardruna

text: Jonathan Selzer of "Metal Hammer" magazine described Wardruna's music as "a conjunction of the earthy, the organic and the ethereal" with "runic-based rites inhabiting a frequency that once heard have always seemed just adjacent to everyday consciousness". Hannah May Kilroy of "Kerrang!" magazine wrote that "Wardruna may be at odds with the modern world, but, perhaps, they are exactly what the modern world needs."


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Lady Davina Elizabeth Alice Benedikte Windsor (born 19 November 1977), known as Lady Davina Lewis between 2004 and 2018, is the elder daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. She is 34th in the line of succession to the British throne .


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Davina was born at St Mary's Hospital, London. She was baptised on 19 February 1978 at Barnwell Parish Church, and her godparents are Captain Mark Phillips, the Duke of Buccleuch, Elisabeth, Lady Camoys, Susan Wigley, Roger Wellesley Smith and Caroline, Baroness Rosenørn-Lehn. Lady Davina grew up in Kensington Palace. She was educated at Kensington Preparatory School in Notting Hill, followed by St George's School, Ascot. She is a graduate of the University of the West of England, with a degree in media studies.


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: On 31 July 2004, Davina married Gary Christie Lewis (born 1970), a New Zealander. Lewis is a carpenter who runs a property renovation business and is a surfing enthusiast. The couple had known each other for four years, having met on holiday in Bali, but they kept their relationship secret for several years. Lewis is the son of Larry Lewis, a Māori builder who was runner-up in the Golden Shears sheep-shearing competition in 1982. His uncle is the prominent Māori author Witi Ihimaera who wrote "The Whale Rider" which became a film of the same name.


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Lewis is also the first person of known Māori descent to marry a member of the royal family, or to marry the daughter of a British prince. As she is a legitimate descendant in the male line of George V and in line to the British throne, the Royal Marriages Act 1772 required that Royal Assent to the wedding be obtained in advance for the marriage to be legal and the descendants thereof to inherit rights of succession to the thrones of the Commonwealth realms, including that of New Zealand. On 20 July 2004, the Queen-in-Council formally declared her consent to the marriage. The wedding took place at the private chapel of Kensington Palace, Lady Davina's childhood home. Apart from the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the bride's siblings, no other members of the royal family were present at the wedding; only close friends and family were involved. The couple divorced in 2018.


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Davina and her former husband have a daughter, Senna Kowhai, who was born on 22 June 2010 and a son, Tane Mahuta, who was born 25 May 2012. Her son was named after the Tāne Mahuta, a giant kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. Lady Davina was also stepmother to Lewis's son from a previous relationship, Ari (born 1992).


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Until 26 March 2015, Tane was ahead of Senna in the line of succession to the British throne since sons had priority over daughters based on tradition and common law. When the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 took effect in all Commonwealth realms in 2015, Senna became the nearest relative of the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to be affected by the change in law, which advanced her proximity to the Crown by reversing her place in the order of succession with that of her younger brother. Senna and Tane became 28th and 29th in line respectively.


title: Lady Davina Windsor

text: Lady Davina does not carry out official functions but does attend family events including royal weddings. Lady Davina and Gary Lewis were invited to attend the Queen's reception for members of the New Zealand All Blacks at Buckingham Palace in 2005. She and her then husband also attended Prince William's wedding in 2011.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: Harmanpreet Kaur ( ; born 8 March 1989) is an Indian cricketer who serves as the captain of the India Women's National Cricket Team in


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: all formats . She plays as an all-rounder for the Indian women's cricket team; and was awarded the Arjuna Award for Cricket in the year 2017 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In November 2018, she became the first woman for India to score a century in a Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) match. In October 2019, during the series against South Africa, she became the first cricketer for India, male or female, to play in 100 international Twenty20 matches.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: Kaur was born on 8 March 1989 in Moga, Punjab, to Harmandar Singh Bhullar, a Volleyball and Basketball player and Satwinder Kaur. Her parents are baptised Sikhs. Her younger sister Hemjeet, is post-graduate in English and works as an assistant professor at Guru Nanak College in Moga. She took to cricket after joining the Gian Jyoti School Academy, away from her residence in Moga, where she trained under Kamaldeesh Singh Sodhi. Harman used to play with men in the formative days of her career. She moved to Mumbai in 2014 where she began working for the Indian Railways. Harmanpreet was inspired by Virender Sehwag.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: Her father, who now is a clerk at a judicial court, was once an aspiring cricketer. He was the first coach of Harman when she had begun playing the sport.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: She made her ODI debut at age of 20 against arch-rivals Pakistan women's in March 2009 in the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup played at Bradman Oval, Bowral. In the match, she bowled 4 overs conceding 10 runs and also caught Armaan Khan off Amita Sharma.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In June 2009, she made her Twenty20 International debut in the 2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20 against England women's at County Ground, Taunton where she scored 8 runs off 7 balls.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: Her ability to hit the ball a long way was seen when she played quick-fire innings of 33 against England women's in a T20I game played in Mumbai in 2010.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: She was named as Indian women's captain for the 2012 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup final, as captain Mithali Raj and vice-captain Jhulan Goswami were out because of injuries. She made her debut as captain against Pakistan women's as India defended 81 runs thus won Asia Cup.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In March 2013, she was named ODI captain of India women's when Bangladesh women's toured in India. In the series, Kaur scored her second ODI century in 2nd ODI. Kaur finished the series 195 runs at average of 97.50 with a century and a fifty along with 2 wickets.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In August 2014, she one of the eight debut that played against England women cricket team in a Test match at Sir Paul Getty's Ground, Wormsley in which she scored 9 and a duck in a match.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In November 2014, she took 9 wickets in a Test match South Africa women cricket team played at Gangothri Glades Cricket Ground, Mysore and helped India to win the match by an innings and 34 runs.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In January 2016, she helped India to win series in Australia as well as scored a 31-ball 46 runs in India's highest ever chase in T20 internationals. She continued her form in the 2016 ICC Women's World Twenty20 where she scored 89 runs and took seven wickets in four matches.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In June 2016, she became the first Indian cricketer to be signed by an overseas Twenty20 franchise. Sydney Thunder, the Women's Big Bash League champions, signed her for the 2016–17 season. On 20 July 2017 she scored 171*(115) against Australia in the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup semi-final in Derby. Kaur's 171* is currently the second-highest score by an Indian batter in women's one-day internationals, behind Deepti Sharma's 188 runs. Kaur also holds the record for the highest individual score for India in Women's cricket World Cup history. Kaur now holds the record for registering the highest ever individual score in a knockout stage of a Women's World Cup match (171*) surpassing the previous record of 107* by Karen Rolton. Kaur was part of the Indian team to reach the final of the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup where the team lost to England by nine runs. In July 2017, Harman became second India batter to feature in the top-10 of ICC Women's ODI Player Rankings after Mithali Raj.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In October 2018, she was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies. Ahead of the tournament, she was named as one of the players to watch. In the opening match of the tournament, against New Zealand, she became the first woman for India to score a century in WT20Is, when she made 103 runs from 51 balls. She was the leading run-scorer for India in the tournament, with 183 runs in five matches.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In November 2018, she was named in Sydney Thunder's squad for the 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season. In January 2020, she was named as the captain of India's squad for the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Australia. In 2021, she was drafted by Manchester Originals for the inaugural season of The Hundred. She played for them in 3 games, scoring 104 runs before withdrawing herself from the tournament due to injury.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In March 2021 against South Africa, she became fifth Indian woman cricketer to represent the country in 100 ODIs. In May 2021, she was named as the vice-captain of India's Test squad for their one-off match against the England women's cricket team. In September 2021, she was signed by Melbourne Renegades for 2021–22 Women's Big Bash League season.


title: Harmanpreet Kaur

text: In January 2022, she was named in India's team for the 2022 Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand. In July 2022, she was named as the captain of India's team for the cricket tournament at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (warfare or weapons), all of which are considered "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs), a term that contrasts with conventional weapons.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Chemical warfare is different from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to any explosive force. The offensive use of living organisms (such as anthrax) is considered biological warfare rather than chemical warfare; however, the use of nonliving toxic products produced by living organisms (e.g. toxins such as botulinum toxin, ricin, and saxitoxin) "is" considered chemical warfare under the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Under this convention, any toxic chemical, regardless of its origin, is considered a chemical weapon unless it is used for purposes that are not prohibited (an important legal definition known as the General Purpose Criterion).


title: Chemical warfare

text: About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as chemical warfare agents during the 20th century. The entire class known as Lethal Unitary Chemical Agents and Munitions have been scheduled for elimination by the CWC.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Under the convention, chemicals that are toxic enough to be used as chemical weapons, or that may be used to manufacture such chemicals, are divided into three groups according to their purpose and treatment:


title: Chemical warfare

text: Simple chemical weapons were used sporadically throughout antiquity and into the Industrial age. It was not until the 19th century that the modern conception of chemical warfare emerged, as various scientists and nations proposed the use of asphyxiating or poisonous gasses.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Multiple international treaties were passed banning chemical weapons based upon the alarm of nations and scientists. This however did not prevent the extensive use of chemical weapons in World War I. The development of chlorine gas, among others, was used by both sides to try to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Though largely ineffective over the long run, it decidedly changed the nature of the war. In many cases the gasses used did not kill, but instead horribly maimed, injured, or disfigured casualties. Some 1.3 million gas casualties were recorded, which may have included up to 260,000 civilian casualties.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The interwar years saw occasional use of chemical weapons, mainly to put down rebellions. In Nazi Germany, much research went into developing new chemical weapons, such as potent nerve agents. However, chemical weapons saw little battlefield use in World War II. Both sides were prepared to use such weapons, but the Allied powers never did, and the Axis used them only very sparingly. The reason for the lack of use by the Nazis, despite the considerable efforts that had gone into developing new varieties, might have been a lack of technical ability or fears that the Allies would retaliate with their own chemical weapons. Those fears were not unfounded: the Allies made comprehensive plans for defensive and retaliatory use of chemical weapons, and stockpiled large quantities. Japanese forces used them more widely, though only against their Asian enemies, as they also feared that using it on Western powers would result in retaliation. Chemical weapons were frequently used against Kuomintang and Chinese communist troops. However, the Nazis did extensively use poison gas against civilians in The Holocaust. Vast quantities of Zyklon B gas and carbon monoxide were used in the gas chambers of Nazi extermination camps, resulting in the overwhelming majority of some three million deaths. This remains the deadliest use of poison gas in history.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The post-war era has seen limited, though devastating, use of chemical weapons. During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed nearly 20,000,000 U.S. gallons (76,000 m) of various chemicals – the "rainbow herbicides" and defoliants – in Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia as part of Operation Ranch Hand, reaching its peak from 1967 to 1969. Some 100,000 Iranian troops were casualties of Iraqi chemical weapons during the Iran–Iraq War. Iraq used mustard gas and nerve agents against its own civilians in the 1988 Halabja chemical attack. The Cuban intervention in Angola saw limited use of organophosphates. The Syrian government has used sarin, chlorine, and mustard gas in the Syrian civil war generally against civilians. Terrorist groups have also used chemical weapons, notably in the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the Matsumoto incident. See also chemical terrorism.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Although crude chemical warfare has been employed in many parts of the world for thousands of years, "modern" chemical warfare began during World War I – see Chemical weapons in World War I.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Initially, only well-known commercially available chemicals and their variants were used. These included chlorine and phosgene gas. The methods used to disperse these agents during battle were relatively unrefined and inefficient. Even so, casualties could be heavy, due to the mainly static troop positions which were characteristic features of trench warfare.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Germany, the first side to employ chemical warfare on the battlefield, simply opened canisters of chlorine upwind of the opposing side and let the prevailing winds do the dissemination. Soon after, the French modified artillery munitions to contain phosgene – a much more effective method that became the principal means of delivery.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Since the development of modern chemical warfare in World War I, nations have pursued research and development on chemical weapons that falls into four major categories: new and more deadly agents; more efficient methods of delivering agents to the target (dissemination); more reliable means of defense against chemical weapons; and more sensitive and accurate means of detecting chemical agents.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The chemical used in warfare is called a "chemical warfare agent" ("CWA"). About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as chemical warfare agents during the 20th and 21st centuries. These agents may be in liquid, gas or solid form. Liquid agents that evaporate quickly are said to be "volatile" or have a "high vapor pressure". Many chemical agents are made volatile so they can be dispersed over a large region quickly.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The earliest target of chemical warfare agent research was not toxicity, but development of agents that can affect a target through the skin and clothing, rendering protective gas masks useless. In July 1917, the Germans employed sulfur mustard. Mustard agents easily penetrate leather and fabric to inflict painful burns on the skin.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Chemical warfare agents are divided into "lethal" and "incapacitating" categories. A substance is classified as incapacitating if less than 1/100 of the lethal dose causes incapacitation, e.g., through nausea or visual problems. The distinction between lethal and incapacitating substances is not fixed, but relies on a statistical average called the .


title: Chemical warfare

text: Chemical warfare agents can be classified according to their "persistency", a measure of the length of time that a chemical agent remains effective after dissemination. Chemical agents are classified as "persistent" or "nonpersistent".


title: Chemical warfare

text: Agents classified as "nonpersistent" lose effectiveness after only a few minutes or hours or even only a few seconds. Purely gaseous agents such as chlorine are nonpersistent, as are highly volatile agents such as sarin. Tactically, nonpersistent agents are very useful against targets that are to be taken over and controlled very quickly.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Apart from the agent used, the delivery mode is very important. To achieve a nonpersistent deployment, the agent is dispersed into very small droplets comparable with the mist produced by an aerosol can. In this form not only the gaseous part of the agent (around 50%) but also the fine aerosol can be inhaled or absorbed through pores in the skin.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Modern doctrine requires very high concentrations almost instantly in order to be effective (one breath should contain a lethal dose of the agent). To achieve this, the primary weapons used would be rocket artillery or bombs and large ballistic missiles with cluster warheads. The contamination in the target area is only low or not existent and after four hours sarin or similar agents are not detectable anymore.


title: Chemical warfare

text: By contrast, "persistent" agents tend to remain in the environment for as long as several weeks, complicating decontamination. Defense against persistent agents requires shielding for extended periods of time. Non-volatile liquid agents, such as blister agents and the oily VX nerve agent, do not easily evaporate into a gas, and therefore present primarily a contact hazard.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The droplet size used for persistent delivery goes up to 1 mm increasing the falling speed and therefore about 80% of the deployed agent reaches the ground, resulting in heavy contamination. Deployment of persistent agents is intended to constrain enemy operations by denying access to contaminated areas.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Possible targets include enemy flank positions (averting possible counterattacks), artillery regiments, command posts or supply lines. Because it is not necessary to deliver large quantities of the agent in a short period of time, a wide variety of weapons systems can be used.


title: Chemical warfare

text: A special form of persistent agents are thickened agents. These comprise a common agent mixed with thickeners to provide gelatinous, sticky agents. Primary targets for this kind of use include airfields, due to the increased persistency and difficulty of decontaminating affected areas.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Chemical weapons are agents that come in four categories: choking, blister, blood and nerve. The agents are organized into several categories according to the manner in which they affect the human body. The names and number of categories varies slightly from source to source, but in general, types of chemical warfare agents are as follows:


title: Chemical warfare

text: There are other chemicals used militarily that are not scheduled by the Chemical Weapons Convention, and thus are not controlled under the CWC treaties. These include:


title: Chemical warfare

text: Most chemical weapons are assigned a one- to three-letter "NATO weapon designation" in addition to, or in place of, a common name. Binary munitions, in which precursors for chemical warfare agents are automatically mixed in shell to produce the agent just prior to its use, are indicated by a "-2" following the agent's designation (for example, GB-2 and VX-2).


title: Chemical warfare

text: The most important factor in the effectiveness of chemical weapons is the efficiency of its delivery, or dissemination, to a target. The most common techniques include munitions (such as bombs, projectiles, warheads) that allow dissemination at a distance and spray tanks which disseminate from low-flying aircraft. Developments in the techniques of filling and storage of munitions have also been important.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Although there have been many advances in chemical weapon delivery since World War I, it is still difficult to achieve effective dispersion. The dissemination is highly dependent on atmospheric conditions because many chemical agents act in gaseous form. Thus, weather observations and forecasting are essential to optimize weapon delivery and reduce the risk of injuring friendly forces.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Dispersion is placing the chemical agent upon or adjacent to a target immediately before dissemination, so that the material is most efficiently used. Dispersion is the simplest technique of delivering an agent to its target. The most common techniques are munitions, bombs, projectiles, spray tanks and warheads.


title: Chemical warfare

text: World War I saw the earliest implementation of this technique. The actual first chemical ammunition was the French 26 mm cartouche suffocante rifle grenade, fired from a flare carbine. It contained 35g of the tear-producer ethyl bromoacetate, and was used in autumn 1914 – with little effect on the Germans.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The Germans contrarily tried to increase the effect of 10.5 cm shrapnel shells by adding an irritant – dianisidine chlorosulfonate. Its use went unnoticed by the British when it was used against them at Neuve Chapelle in October 1914. Hans Tappen, a chemist in the Heavy Artillery Department of the War Ministry, suggested to his brother, the Chief of the Operations Branch at German General Headquarters, the use of the tear-gases benzyl bromide or xylyl bromide.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Shells were tested successfully at the Wahn artillery range near Cologne on January 9, 1915, and an order was placed for 15 cm howitzer shells, designated 'T-shells' after Tappen. A shortage of shells limited the first use against the Russians at Bolimów on January 31, 1915; the liquid failed to vaporize in the cold weather, and again the experiment went unnoticed by the Allies.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The first effective use were when the German forces at the Second Battle of Ypres simply opened cylinders of chlorine and allowed the wind to carry the gas across enemy lines. While simple, this technique had numerous disadvantages. Moving large numbers of heavy gas cylinders to the front-line positions from where the gas would be released was a lengthy and difficult logistical task.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Stockpiles of cylinders had to be stored at the front line, posing a great risk if hit by artillery shells. Gas delivery depended greatly on wind speed and direction. If the wind was fickle, as at Loos, the gas could blow back, causing friendly casualties.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Gas clouds gave plenty of warning, allowing the enemy time to protect themselves, though many soldiers found the sight of a creeping gas cloud unnerving. This made the gas doubly effective, as, in addition to damaging the enemy physically, it also had a psychological effect on the intended victims.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Another disadvantage was that gas clouds had limited penetration, capable only of affecting the front-line trenches before dissipating. Although it produced limited results in World War I, this technique shows how simple chemical weapon dissemination "can" be.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Shortly after this "open canister" dissemination, French forces developed a technique for delivery of phosgene in a non-explosive artillery shell. This technique overcame many of the risks of dealing with gas in cylinders. First, gas shells were independent of the wind and increased the effective range of gas, making any target within reach of guns vulnerable. Second, gas shells could be delivered without warning, especially the clear, nearly odorless phosgenethere are numerous accounts of gas shells, landing with a "plop" rather than exploding, being initially dismissed as dud high explosive or shrapnel shells, giving the gas time to work before the soldiers were alerted and took precautions.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The major drawback of artillery delivery was the difficulty of achieving a killing concentration. Each shell had a small gas payload and an area would have to be subjected to saturation bombardment to produce a cloud to match cylinder delivery. A British solution to the problem was the Livens Projector. This was effectively a large-bore mortar, dug into the ground that used the gas cylinders themselves as projectiles – firing a 14 kg cylinder up to 1500 m. This combined the gas volume of cylinders with the range of artillery.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Over the years, there were some refinements in this technique. In the 1950s and early 1960s, chemical artillery rockets and cluster bombs contained a multitude of submunitions, so that a large number of small clouds of the chemical agent would form directly on the target.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Thermal dissemination is the use of explosives or pyrotechnics to deliver chemical agents. This technique, developed in the 1920s, was a major improvement over earlier dispersal techniques, in that it allowed significant quantities of an agent to be disseminated over a considerable distance. Thermal dissemination remains the principal method of disseminating chemical agents today.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Most thermal dissemination devices consist of a bomb or projectile shell that contains a chemical agent and a central "burster" charge; when the burster detonates, the agent is expelled laterally.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Thermal dissemination devices, though common, are not particularly efficient. First, a percentage of the agent is lost by incineration in the initial blast and by being forced onto the ground. Second, the sizes of the particles vary greatly because explosive dissemination produces a mixture of liquid droplets of variable and difficult to control sizes.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The efficacy of thermal detonation is greatly limited by the flammability of some agents. For flammable aerosols, the cloud is sometimes totally or partially ignited by the disseminating explosion in a phenomenon called "flashing". Explosively disseminated VX will ignite roughly one third of the time. Despite a great deal of study, flashing is still not fully understood, and a solution to the problem would be a major technological advance.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Despite the limitations of central bursters, most nations use this method in the early stages of chemical weapon development, in part because standard munitions can be adapted to carry the agents.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Aerodynamic dissemination is the non-explosive delivery of a chemical agent from an aircraft, allowing aerodynamic stress to disseminate the agent. This technique is the most recent major development in chemical agent dissemination, originating in the mid-1960s.


title: Chemical warfare

text: This technique eliminates many of the limitations of thermal dissemination by eliminating the flashing effect and theoretically allowing precise control of particle size. In actuality, the altitude of dissemination, wind direction and velocity, and the direction and velocity of the aircraft greatly influence particle size. There are other drawbacks as well; ideal deployment requires precise knowledge of aerodynamics and fluid dynamics, and because the agent must usually be dispersed within the boundary layer (less than above the ground), it puts pilots at risk.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Significant research is still being applied toward this technique. For example, by modifying the properties of the liquid, its breakup when subjected to aerodynamic stress can be controlled and an idealized particle distribution achieved, even at supersonic speed. Additionally, advances in fluid dynamics, computer modeling, and weather forecasting allow an ideal direction, speed, and altitude to be calculated, such that warfare agent of a predetermined particle size can predictably and reliably hit a target.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Ideal protection begins with nonproliferation treaties such as the Chemical Weapons Convention, and detecting, very early, the "signatures" of someone building a chemical weapons capability. These include a wide range of intelligence disciplines, such as economic analysis of exports of dual-use chemicals and equipment, human intelligence (HUMINT) such as diplomatic, refugee, and agent reports; photography from satellites, aircraft and drones (IMINT); examination of captured equipment (TECHINT); communications intercepts (COMINT); and detection of chemical manufacturing and chemical agents themselves (MASINT).


title: Chemical warfare

text: If all the preventive measures fail and there is a clear and present danger, then there is a need for detection of chemical attacks,


title: Chemical warfare

text: collective protection, and decontamination. Since industrial accidents can cause dangerous chemical releases (e.g., the Bhopal disaster), these activities are things that civilian, as well as military, organizations must be prepared to carry out. In civilian situations in developed countries, these are duties of HAZMAT organizations, which most commonly are part of fire departments.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Detection has been referred to above, as a technical MASINT discipline; specific military procedures, which are usually the model for civilian procedures, depend on the equipment, expertise, and personnel available. When chemical agents are detected, an alarm needs to sound, with specific warnings over emergency broadcasts and the like. There may be a warning to expect an attack.


title: Chemical warfare

text: If, for example, the captain of a US Navy ship believes there is a serious threat of chemical, biological, or radiological attack, the crew may be ordered to set Circle William, which means closing all openings to outside air, running breathing air through filters, and possibly starting a system that continually washes down the exterior surfaces. Civilian authorities dealing with an attack or a toxic chemical accident will invoke the Incident Command System, or local equivalent, to coordinate defensive measures.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Individual protection starts with a gas mask and, depending on the nature of the threat, through various levels of protective clothing up to a complete chemical-resistant suit with a self-contained air supply. The US military defines various levels of MOPP (mission-oriented protective posture) from mask to full chemical resistant suits; Hazmat suits are the civilian equivalent, but go farther to include a fully independent air supply, rather than the filters of a gas mask.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Collective protection allows continued functioning of groups of people in buildings or shelters, the latter which may be fixed, mobile, or improvised. With ordinary buildings, this may be as basic as plastic sheeting and tape, although if the protection needs to be continued for any appreciable length of time, there will need to be an air supply, typically an enhanced gas mask.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Decontamination varies with the particular chemical agent used. Some "nonpersistent" agents, including most pulmonary agents (chlorine, phosgene, and so on), blood gases, and nonpersistent nerve gases (e.g., GB), will dissipate from open areas, although powerful exhaust fans may be needed to clear out buildings where they have accumulated.


title: Chemical warfare

text: In some cases, it might be necessary to neutralize them chemically, as with ammonia as a neutralizer for hydrogen cyanide or chlorine. Riot control agents such as CS will dissipate in an open area, but things contaminated with CS powder need to be aired out, washed by people wearing protective gear, or safely discarded.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Mass decontamination is a less common requirement for people than equipment, since people may be immediately affected and treatment is the action required. It is a requirement when people have been contaminated with persistent agents. Treatment and decontamination may need to be simultaneous, with the medical personnel protecting themselves so they can function.


title: Chemical warfare

text: There may need to be immediate intervention to prevent death, such as injection of atropine for nerve agents. Decontamination is especially important for people contaminated with persistent agents; many of the fatalities after the explosion of a WWII US ammunition ship carrying sulfur mustard, in the harbor of Bari, Italy, after a German bombing on December 2, 1943, came when rescue workers, not knowing of the contamination, bundled cold, wet seamen in tight-fitting blankets.


title: Chemical warfare

text: For decontaminating equipment and buildings exposed to persistent agents, such as blister agents, VX or other agents made persistent by mixing with a thickener, special equipment and materials might be needed. Some type of neutralizing agent will be needed; e.g. in the form of a spraying device with neutralizing agents such as Chlorine, Fichlor, strong alkaline solutions or enzymes. In other cases, a specific chemical decontaminant will be required.


title: Chemical warfare

text: There are many instances of the use of chemical weapons in battles documented in Greek and Roman historical texts; the earliest example was the deliberate poisoning of Kirrha's water supply with hellebore in the First Sacred War, Greece, about 590 BC.


title: Chemical warfare

text: One of the earliest reactions to the use of chemical agents was from Rome. Struggling to defend themselves from the Roman legions, Germanic tribes poisoned the wells of their enemies, with Roman jurists having been recorded as declaring "armis bella non venenis geri", meaning "war is fought with weapons, not with poisons." Yet the Romans themselves resorted to poisoning wells of besieged cities in Anatolia in the 2nd century BCE.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Before 1915 the use of poisonous chemicals in battle was typically the result of local initiative, and not the result of an active government chemical weapons program. There are many reports of the isolated use of chemical agents in individual battles or sieges, but there was no true tradition of their use outside of incendiaries and smoke. Despite this tendency, there have been several attempts to initiate large-scale implementation of poison gas in several wars, but with the notable exception of World War I, the responsible authorities generally rejected the proposals for ethical reasons or fears of retaliation.


title: Chemical warfare

text: For example, in 1854 Lyon Playfair (later 1st Baron Playfair, GCB, PC, FRS (1818–1898), a British chemist, proposed using a cacodyl cyanide-filled artillery shell against enemy ships during the Crimean War. The British Ordnance Department rejected the proposal as "as bad a mode of warfare as poisoning the wells of the enemy."


title: Chemical warfare

text: Despite numerous efforts to reduce or eliminate them, some nations continue to research and/or stockpile chemical warfare agents. To the right is a summary of the nations that have either declared weapon stockpiles or are suspected of secretly stockpiling or possessing CW research programs. Notable examples include United States and Russia.


title: Chemical warfare

text: In 1997, future US Vice President Dick Cheney opposed the signing ratification of a treaty banning the use of chemical weapons, a recently unearthed letter shows. In a letter dated April 8, 1997, then Halliburton-CEO Cheney told Sen. Jesse Helms, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that it would be a mistake for America to join the convention. "Those nations most likely to comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention are not likely to ever constitute a military threat to the United States. The governments we should be concerned about are likely to cheat on the CWC, even if they do participate," reads the letter, published by the Federation of American Scientists.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The CWC was ratified by the Senate that same month. Since then, Albania, Libya, Russia, the United States, and India have declared over 71,000 metric tons of chemical weapon stockpiles, and destroyed about a third of them. Under the terms of the agreement, the United States and Russia agreed to eliminate the rest of their supplies of chemical weapons by 2012. Not having met its goal, the U.S. government estimates remaining stocks will be destroyed by 2017.


title: Chemical warfare

text: In June 1997, India declared that it had a stockpile of 1044 tons of sulphur mustard in its possession. India's declaration of its stockpile came after its entry into the Chemical Weapons Convention, that created the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and on January 14, 1993, India became one of the original signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention. By 2005, from among six nations that had declared their possession of chemical weapons, India was the only country to meet its deadline for chemical weapons destruction and for inspection of its facilities by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. By 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons and material stockpile and was granted an extension to complete a 100 percent destruction of its stocks by April 2009. On May 14, 2009, India informed the United Nations that it has completely destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, welcomed Iraq's decision to join the OPCW as a significant step to strengthening global and regional efforts to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons. The OPCW announced "The government of Iraq has deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary General of the United Nations and within 30 days, on 12 February 2009, will become the 186th State Party to the Convention". Iraq has also declared stockpiles of chemical weapons, and because of their recent accession is the only State Party exempted from the destruction time-line.


title: Chemical warfare

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) Japan stored chemical weapons on the territory of mainland China. The weapon stock mostly containing sulfur mustard-lewisite mixture. The weapons are classified as abandoned chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and from September 2010 Japan has started their destruction in Nanjing using mobile destruction facilities in order to do so.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Russia signed into the Chemical Weapons Convention on January 13, 1993, and ratified it on November 5, 1995. Declaring an arsenal of 39,967 tons of chemical weapons in 1997, by far the largest arsenal, consisting of blister agents: Lewisite, Sulfur mustard, Lewisite-mustard mix, and nerve agents: Sarin, Soman, and VX. Russia met its treaty obligations by destroying 1 percent of its chemical agents by the 2002 deadline set out by the Chemical Weapons Convention, but requested an extension on the deadlines of 2004 and 2007 due to technical, financial, and environmental challenges of chemical disposal. Since, Russia has received help from other countries such as Canada which donated C$100,000, plus a further C$100,000 already donated, to the Russian Chemical Weapons Destruction Program. This money will be used to complete work at Shchuch'ye and support the construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility at Kizner (Russia), where the destruction of nearly 5,700 tons of nerve agent, stored in approximately 2 million artillery shells and munitions, will be undertaken. Canadian funds are also being used for the operation of a Green Cross Public Outreach Office, to keep the civilian population informed on the progress made in chemical weapons destruction activities.


title: Chemical warfare

text: As of July 2011, Russia has destroyed 48 percent (18,241 tons) of its stockpile at destruction facilities located in Gorny (Saratov Oblast) and Kambarka (Udmurt Republic) – where operations have finished – and Schuch'ye (Kurgan Oblast), Maradykovsky (Kirov Oblast), Leonidovka (Penza Oblast) whilst installations are under construction in Pochep (Bryansk Oblast) and Kizner (Udmurt Republic). As August 2013, 76 percent (30,500 tons) were destroyed, and Russia leaves the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program, which partially funded chemical weapons destruction.


title: Chemical warfare

text: On November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon unilaterally renounced the offensive use of biological and toxic weapons, but the U.S. continued to maintain an offensive chemical weapons program.


title: Chemical warfare

text: From May 1964 to the early 1970s the U.S. participated in Operation CHASE, a United States Department of Defense program that aimed to dispose of chemical weapons by sinking ships laden with the weapons in the deep Atlantic. After the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, Operation Chase was scrapped and safer disposal methods for chemical weapons were researched, with the U.S. destroying several thousand tons of sulfur mustard by incineration at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, and nearly 4,200 tons of nerve agent by chemical neutralisation at Tooele Army Depot.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The U.S. began stockpile reductions in the 1980s with the removal of outdated munitions and destroying its entire stock of 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ or Agent 15) at the beginning of 1988. In June 1990 the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System began destruction of chemical agents stored on the Johnston Atoll in the Pacific, seven years before the Chemical Weapons Treaty came into effect. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan made an agreement with the Chancellor, Helmut Kohl to remove the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons from Germany. In 1990, as part of Operation Steel Box, two ships were loaded with over 100,000 shells containing Sarin and VX were taken from the U.S. Army weapons storage depots such as Miesau and then-classified FSTS (Forward Storage / Transportation Sites) and transported from Bremerhaven, Germany to Johnston Atoll in the Pacific, a 46-day nonstop journey.


title: Chemical warfare

text: In the 1980s, Congress, at the urging of the Reagan administration, Congress provided funding for the manufacture of binary chemical weapons (sarin artillery shells) from 1987 until 1990, but this was halted after the U.S. and the Soviet Union entered into a bilateral agreement in June 1990. In the 1990 agreement, the U.S. and Soviet Union agreed to begin destroying their chemical weapons stockpiles before 1993 and to reduce them to no more than 5,000 agent tons each by the end of 2002. The agreement also provided for exchanges of data and inspections of sites to verify destruction. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S.'s Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program helped eliminate some of the chemical, biological and nuclear stockpiles of the former Soviet Union.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in 1980 led to the development of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), a multilateral treaty that prohibited the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, and required the elimination of existing stockpiles. The treaty expressly prohibited state parties from making reservations (unilateral caveats). During the Reagan administration and the George H. W. Bush administration, the U.S. participated in the negotiations toward the CWC. The CWC was concluded on September 3, 1992, and opened for signature on January 13, 1993. The U.S. became one of 87 original state parties to the CWC. President Bill Clinton submitted it to the U.S. Senate for ratification on November 23, 1993. Ratification was blocked in the Senate for years, largely as a result of opposition from Senator Jesse Helms, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On April 24, 1997, the Senate gave its consent to ratification of the CWC by a 74–26 vote (satisfying the required two-thirds majority). The U.S. deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations on April 25, 1997, a few days before the CWC entered into force. The U.S. ratification allowed the U.S. to participate in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the organization based in The Hague that oversees implementation of the CWC.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Upon U.S. ratification of the CWC, the U.S. declared a total of 29,918 tons of chemical weapons, and committed to destroying all of the U.S.'s chemical weapons and bulk agent. The U.S. was one of eight states to declare a stockpile of chemical weapons and to commit to their safe elimination. The U.S. committed in the CWC to destroy its entire chemical arsenal within 10 years of the entry into force ("i.e.", by April 29, 2007), However, at a 2012 conference, the parties to the CWC parties agreed to extend the U.S. deadline to 2023. By 2012, stockpiles had been eliminated at seven of the U.S.'s nine chemical weapons depots and 89.75% of the 1997 stockpile was destroyed. The depots were the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility, Johnston Atoll, Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, Pine Bluff Chemical Disposal Facility, Tooele Chemical Disposal Facility, Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facility, and Deseret Chemical Depot. The U.S. closed each site after the completion of stockpile destruction. In 2019, the U.S. began to eliminate its chemical-weapon stockpile at the last of the nine U.S. chemical weapons storage facilities: the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. By May 2021, the U.S. destroyed all of its Category 2 and Category 3 chemical weapons and 96.52% of its Category 1 chemical weapons. The U.S. is scheduled to complete the elimination of all its chemical weapons by the September 2023 deadline.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The U.S. has maintained a "calculated ambiguity" policy that warns potential adversaries that a chemical or biological attack against the U.S. or its allies will prompt a "overwhelming and devastating" response. The policy deliberately leaves open the question of whether the U.S. would respond to a chemical attempt with nuclear retaliation. Commentators have noted that this policy gives policymakers more flexibility, at the possible cost of decreased strategic unpreparedness.


title: Chemical warfare

text: Although herbicidal warfare use chemical substances, its main purpose is to disrupt agricultural food production and/or to destroy plants which provide cover or concealment to the enemy.


title: Chemical warfare

text: The use of herbicides by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has left tangible, long-term impacts upon the Vietnamese people and U.S. veterans of the war. The government of Vietnam says that around 24% of the forests of Southern Vietnam were defoliated and up to four million people in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange. They state that as many as three million people have developed illness because of Agent Orange while the Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to one million people were disabled or have health problems associated with Agent Orange. The United States government has described these figures as unreliable.


title: Chemical warfare

text: During the war, the U.S. fought the North Vietnamese and their allies in Laos and Cambodia, dropping large quantities of Agent Orange in each of those countries. According on one estimate, the U.S. dropped of Agent Orange in Laos and in Cambodia. Because Laos and Cambodia were officially neutral during the Vietnam War, the U.S. attempted to keep secret its military involvement in these countries. The U.S. has stated that Agent Orange was not widely used and therefore hasn't offered assistance to affected Cambodians or Laotians, and limits benefits American veterans and CIA personnel who were stationed there.


title: Chemical warfare

text: During the Mau Mau Uprising in 1952, the poisonous latex of the African milk bush was used to kill cattle.


title: Audrey Hepburn on screen and stage

text: Audrey Hepburn (4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress who had an extensive career in film, television, and on the stage from 1948 to 1993. Considered by some to be one of the most beautiful women of all time, she was ranked as the third greatest screen legend in American cinema by the American Film Institute. Hepburn is also remembered as both a film and style icon. Her debut was as a flight stewardess in the 1948 Dutch film "Dutch in Seven Lessons". Hepburn then performed on the British stage as a chorus girl in the musicals "High Button Shoes" (1948), and "Sauce Tartare" (1949). Two years later she made her Broadway debut as the title character in the play "Gigi". Hepburn's Hollywood debut as a runaway princess in William Wyler's "Roman Holiday" (1953) opposite Gregory Peck made her a star. For her performance she received the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1954 she played a chauffeur's daughter caught in a love triangle in Billy Wilder's romantic comedy "Sabrina" opposite Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. In the same year Hepburn garnered the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for portraying the titular water nymph in the play "Ondine".


title: Audrey Hepburn on screen and stage

text: Her next role was as Natasha Rostova in the 1956 film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace". In 1957 Hepburn starred with Fred Astaire in the musical film "Funny Face", and with Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier in Billy Wilder's "Love in the Afternoon". Two years later she appeared in the romantic adventure film "Green Mansions", and played a nun in "The Nun's Story". In 1961, Hepburn played café society girl Holly Golightly in the romantic comedy "Breakfast at Tiffany's", and as a teacher accused of lesbianism in Wyler's drama "The Children's Hour" opposite Shirley MacLaine. Two years later she appeared opposite Cary Grant in the romantic mystery film "Charade". Hepburn followed this by starring in the romantic comedy "Paris When It Sizzles" opposite William Holden, and as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle in the musical film "My Fair Lady" (both in 1964). In 1967, she played a blind woman menaced by drug dealers in her own home in the suspense thriller "Wait Until Dark" which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Nine years later, Hepburn played Maid Marian opposite Sean Connery as Robin Hood in "Robin and Marian".


title: Audrey Hepburn on screen and stage

text: Her final film appearance was a cameo as an angel in Steven Spielberg's "Always" (1989). Hepburn's final screen role was as the host of the television documentary series "Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn" (1993) for which she posthumously received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming. In recognition of her career, Hepburn earned the Special Award from BAFTA, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Special Tony Award.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: Music is the eighth studio album by American singer Madonna, released on September 18, 2000, by Maverick and Warner Bros. Records. Following the success of her previous album "Ray of Light" (1998), she intended to embark on a tour. However, her record company encouraged her to return to the studio and record new music before going on the road. Her collaboration with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï resulted in a more experimental direction for the album, with additional production from William Orbit. "Music" incorporates many different genres into its overall dance-pop and electronica vibe, with influences from funk, house, rock, country and folk. The album was mostly recorded at Sarm West and East Studios in London, England. Elaborating a country theme for the album, Madonna reinvented her image as a cowgirl.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "Music" received critical acclaim from most critics, who praised Ahmadzaï's unique production. The album earned five Grammy Award nominations, ultimately winning one for Best Recording Package given to art director Kevin Reagan. In 2003, "Rolling Stone" ranked it at number 452 on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The record was also a commercial success, debuting at number one in over 23 countries across the world and selling four million copies in its first ten days of release. In the United States, "Music" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 with first week sales of 420,000 copies, making it her first album to top the chart in more than a decade since "Like a Prayer" (1989). It was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for three million units shipped in the United States and has sold over 11 million copies worldwide.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: The album was promoted with her concerts at Brixton Academy and Roseland Ballroom, as well as several television performances such as the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards and the 43rd Grammy Awards. It was also supported by the Drowned World Tour, which grossed over US$75 million, making it the highest-grossing tour by a solo act of 2001 (the fourth overall). Three singles were released from the album. The lead single, "Music", topped the record charts in 25 countries worldwide and became Madonna's 12th and most recent number-one hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It was followed with another Hot 100 top-five hit "Don't Tell Me" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl" which attained the top-ten position in several countries worldwide. "Impressive Instant" was released as a promotional single in the United States, peaking at number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. “Amazing” was also briefly released as a promotional single in Germany, Spain, Italy and Colombia before being withdrawn shortly afterwards.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: After the critical and commercial success of her album "Ray of Light" (1998), Madonna intended to embark on a new concert tour in 1999, but due to the delay of her film "The Next Best Thing", which she started filming in April 1999, the tour was cancelled. In June 1999, Madonna released a song recorded for the film "", called "Beautiful Stranger". It peaked number nineteen on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and received a Grammy at the 42nd Grammy Awards for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media". In March 2000, Madonna released a cover version of Don McLean's "American Pie" (1971) as part of the soundtrack of the film "The Next Best Thing". The song received mixed reviews, and was a success in European charts. Although not released commercially in the United States, it reached number 29 on the Hot 100 chart due to strong radio airplay.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: By 2000, she became pregnant with her son Rocco, from her relationship with director Guy Ritchie. Wanting to distract herself from the media frenzy surrounding this news, Madonna concentrated on the development of her eighth studio album, entitled "Music". Buoyed by the commercial success of her previous album, she was keen on getting back to the studio to record new music. Madonna was well disposed towards William Orbit, producer of "Ray of Light", but by 2000, his production and sound had become ubiquitous. Also, the music scene was being dominated by a younger generation of singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, prompting Madonna to look for a distinctive sound within this market. She was then introduced to French DJ and producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï. Madonna instantly liked his pitch-shifting, pulverizing rhythms and his utilization of acid bass in his songs. Ahmadzaï always preferred taking musical risks and hence he wanted the collaborations with Madonna to get out the best from the singer. Before the album was released, Madonna recorded a statement to her fans, stating about the album and Ahmadzaï:


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on... Hi, it's Madonna. You've probably been hearing about my new record, "Music", for a while. Well, I just wanted to make sure you knew that the single is gonna drop very soon. I worked on it with a French guy named Mirwais, and he is the shit. The album will be released worldwide on September 19, and I hope you like my music."


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: By September 1999, Madonna had begun working on a new album and had initially approached DJ Sasha to work with her. Together, they began writing new material with what Sasha described as a "progressive house feel." At the same time, Madonna began collaborating again with William Orbit, who commented that the material was "quite a little edgier than "Ray of Light"", elaborating that "It's almost like we started off with a lot of slow ballad songs and she's started to kind of chuck 'em out in favor of more edgy tracks. The album is getting more kind of fast, very European sounding, very English and French sounding, naturally, 'cause everybody working on it apart from her is English or French. Pretty exciting, actually. It's like a follow-up for Ray Of Light without stopping still. It's perfect". But after some recording sessions, she felt she needed a different sound for her project and scrapped most of the material.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: In October 1999, Madonna began working with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, who was introduced to Madonna by her manager Guy Oseary. In an interview with CNN, she stated, "Guy Oseary, my partner at Maverick [Records], was given a demo by a French artist called Mirwais. [He] slipped it to me and said, 'What do you think [of him] as an artist to sign at Maverick?' [...] I just said 'Oh my God, this is what I want.' I just flipped over it and said, 'Please find out if he wants to work with me.'" Ahmadzaï spoke little English, and Madonna commented: "The first couple of days we were recording, I wanted to rip my hair out. [...] It didn't seem like there was any way for us to communicate. His manager had to come in and translate everything at first."


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: She also commented about working with Ahmadzaï and the other producers of the album: "I love to work with the weirdos that no one knows about—the people who have raw talent and who are making music unlike anyone else out there. "Music" is the future of sound." Madonna had later proclaimed Ahmadzaï to be a musical "genius". In an interview with MTV's "Total Request Live", she said Ahmadzaï was "really influenced by 1970s funk and R&B" and said that the album was "more electronic than her last record, but it is edgier and a bit funkier". Talking about the inspiration behind "Music", Madonna said the album was "To join the coldness or the remoteness of living in the machine age in the world of high technology with warmth and compassion and a sense of humor. [...] "Music" is supposed to be a reflection of what's going on in society, and as far as I'm concerned, we've become too complacent." In an interview with "The Face", Madonna was questioned about her mood while developing the album. She commented,


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "To tell you the truth, I didn't know what the mood was. I feel like an animal that's, like, ready to be sprung from a cage. I've been living a pretty low-key domestic existence and I miss things. Like, I miss performing, and dancing, and being on the road, that kind of energy. So part of the record is about that. And then the other part is about love. So there's the frivolous side of my life and then there's the –hopefully– non-frivolous side of my life. I usually make a record that's one or the other, and I feel I did both on this one".


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "Slant Magazine"s Sal Cinquemani described the album as having a "more experimental direction". With "The Face" magazine, Madonna explained her inspirations behind the songs and the music of "Music". She said, "This record, more than any other records, covers all the areas of my life. I left off partying on "Ray of Light". But I'd just had a baby, so my mood was complete, like wonderment of life, and I was incredibly thoughtful and retrospective and intrigued by the mystical aspects of life." Madonna also summed it up as "Funky, electronic music blended with futuristic folk. Lots of jangly guitars and moody melancholic lines." "Music", the title track is the first featured on the record. Starting with Madonna's androgynous voice saying "Hey Mr. DJ, put a record on, I wanna dance with my baby". Above this lyric, Madonna's voice electronically manipulated asks "Do you like to boogie woogie?". According to Santiago Fouz-Hernández in his book "Madonna's Drowned Worlds: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations", "Music" is a 'disco anthem, and the beat commands [the people] to get up and dance'. He also said that the song is an expression to her public and it is one of Madonna's catchiest singles of her career. The second track "Impressive Instant" is a club-savvy stomper marked by futuristic keyboard lines and vocals that darken from distorted, and robotic passages. Madonna claimed that the song was the hardest to write. Madonna sings, "I like to singy, singy, singy, like a bird on a wingy, wingy, wingy", with childlike abandon amid a vibrant, celebratory swirl of electronic keyboard riffs and thumpy dance beats.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: The third track, "Runaway Lover", is a trance/house rave track. It is one of Madonna's collaborations with William Orbit for the album. The following track, "I Deserve It", is an acoustic-framed track that is anchored by a hip-hop inflected groove. Madonna said the track "has the strangest juxtaposition of this folky, simple song and this high-tech, ominous synth line." The song lends weight to rich, introspective lyrics, such as the chorus lines: "Many miles, many roads I have traveled, fallen down of the way/Many hearts, many years have unraveled, leading up to today." "Amazing", the fifth track, is a vibrant tempo-shifter that opens with a soft, music-box-like keyboard/string flourish. The song has been compared by Madonna to "Beautiful Stranger" (1999), saying the reason she fought with her record company to cancel the release as a single was because of the similarity. The sixth track, "Nobody's Perfect", includes ethereal vocals and a dreamy keyboard. The following track and second single, "Don't Tell Me", was written by Joe Henry, Madonna's brother-in-law. He performed and released the track, originally named "Stop", on his 2001 album "Scar". His wife Melanie sent a demo of the track to her sister, who liked it and recorded her version. It is framed by soft acoustic guitars and subtle keyboard lines. The eighth track and third single, "What It Feels Like for a Girl", comments on female role-playing in society. The following track, "Paradise (Not for Me)", has lyrics sung in French, and the lyric "I can't remember, when I was young, I can't explain if it was wrong" reflected an artistic palette, "encompassing diverse musical, textual and visual styles in its lyrics." Musically, it draws influence from Edith Piaf. The song was also included on Mirwais Ahmadzaï's album "Production". The tenth and final track on the album, "Gone", contrasts acoustic guitars with electronic elements. Soulful vocals give depth to such striking, cautionary lyrics as "Turn to stone, lose my faith, and I'll be gone."


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: For the album artwork, Madonna wears a blue sequin shirt, embellished jeans, red high heels and a blue cowboy hat. In it, she faces the camera, while in the background a car and a house are seen. In other pictures from the same shoot, Madonna is photographed lying on a bed of hay and wearing a fringed, rhinestone encrusted cowboy shirt, embellished jeans, gold mules and a pink cowboy hat and tiara. The country was a constant theme throughout the design, as the album's title, which was a logo that simulated a buckle, showing the silhouette of a cowboy while riding a horse and a yellow background; the bright colors give a sharp contrast compared to the photograph. Photo sessions were conducted by Jean Baptiste Mondino, who had worked previously with the singer on photoshoots and music videos. According to Fouz-Hernández, the artwork is "a complete celebration to the field" western United States. He also added that it was "distintcly "camp", and notably Madonna's "combination of Western clothing with expensive shoes and bright red high heels". He pointed out that there was "a clear evocation of Judy Garland – a major gay icon – in the artwork". The art direction and design for the album were done by Kevin Reagan.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: The pictures were shot in Los Angeles, California, in April 2000. In an interview with CNN's "Style with Elsa Klensch", Mondino said that he was the one who had the idea of the western themes for the album, and also stated: "[Madonna] wasn't sure at first, but I told her that if she didn't like it I won't charge her. But she loved the final result!". Madonna also decided to use her new country style during her public appearances for "Music"s promotion; including jeans, shirts and cowboy hats. On her next tour in 2001, Madonna included a segment based entirely on this ambient. Meanwhile, Fouz-Hernández explained that "in this appearance Madonna may be parodying and criticizing Country, which symbolizes among other things, the supremacy of the white man, the ambition of the European pioneers and the American Dream. However, we do not realize that while recognizing the importance that the country has in American popular culture, and joins a long list of artists who have done this previously. Despite this, the cowgirl image of Madonna has become one of her most recognized reinventions.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: On August 22, 2000, a month before the album's official release, all tracks from "Music" were leaked online through Napster. The album was finally released September 18, 2000 in the United Kingdom, by Maverick Records. It was released worldwide on September 19, 2000, under Maverick, and distributed by Warner Bros. Records. At the same time, it was released as a limited edition which contained a 24-page booklet about the album, a copper brooch with the album's logo and two stickers, wrapped in a linen cloth available in four different colors. The Japanese edition was published on September 15, 2000, and contained two bonus tracks, "American Pie" and "Cyber-raga". Additionally, the European version contained only "American Pie" as a bonus track. It was not added as a bonus track except in the United States and Canada. Madonna commented that "It was something a certain record company executive twisted my arm into doing", and said she regretted putting the song on the album. Also, users who downloaded the album using Apple's QuickTime application had exclusive access to two remixes of "Music". The edition released in Mexico contains as bonus tracks "Lo Que Siente La Mujer", a Spanish version of "What It Feels Like for a Girl" and a remix of the same song by the group Above & Beyond. For the Drowned World Tour, it was released as a special edition with a bonus CD with remixes and the video of "What It Feels Like for a Girl".


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: Madonna chatted with fans through her first live chat on AOL on the day of "Music"s release. In order to celebrate the album's release, Madonna had a release party at dance emporium Catch One in Los Angeles, California, on September 20, 2000. The £1.4 million party paid by the singer's record company Warner Bros. and "Us" magazine was attended by 600 select guests who received special invitations. The party invites were sent out in white leather boxes, lined with black fur. A gold necklace was inside with letters spelling out the album's title, and only those wearing the necklaces would be allowed into the club. More than a dozen strippers were in attendance to keep the party in the same theme as from the music video for "Music". She sported a five-carat diamond ring Ritchie gave her for her birthday, and a black T-shirt that read ""Snatch" Coming Soon" promoting Ritchie's film, while Ritchie promoted Madonna's album wearing a T-shirt with the word "Music" emblazoned on it. Among those who attended the party were Sheryl Crow, Gwen Stefani, Maverick Records' head Guy Oseary, and George Clinton, who arrived with Macy Gray in a horse-drawn carriage. Madonna's then-boyfriend Guy Ritchie was initially denied access into the VIP lounge by a security guard. He apparently got into a shoving match with a bodyguard who did not know who he was.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: Following the album's release and motherhood, Madonna appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on November 3, 2000, being the first time since her controversial appearance in 1994, and performed "Don't Tell Me". Madonna made a concert on November 5, 2000, at Roseland Ballroom in New York City. Accompanying musicians performing with Madonna were Mirwais Ahmadzaï on guitar and longtime backing singers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory. The costumes for the show and the set was designed by Dolce & Gabbana. Songs performed included "Impressive Instant", "Runaway Lover", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like for a Girl", and "Music". In the performance of New York, she wore a T-shirt with "Britney Spears" written on it. She then traveled to Europe to further promote the album. The singer performed "Don't Tell Me" on German game-show "Wetten, dass..?" on November 11, 2000. At the MTV Europe Music Awards 2000, Madonna performed "Music" on November 16, 2000, in Stockholm, Sweden. After being introduced by Ali G as "Maradona", she performed the song wearing a T-shirt with the name of Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue printed on it. She later performed "Don't Tell Me" and "Music" on British television program "Top of The Pops", in an appearance aired on November 17.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: On November 24, 2000, Madonna performed the latter songs live on French television program "Nulle Part Ailleurs". Madonna then played another concert on November 29, 2000, at Brixton Academy in London. It was shown via the internet to an estimated record-breaking 9 million viewers across the world. The setlist was the same from the Roseland Ballroom's concert, with the song "Holiday" being added to the setlist. The singer Richard Ashcroft and the Scottish band Texas opened the concert. Madonna then performed "Don't Tell Me" on "Carràmba! Che fortuna" in Italy, on December 2, 2000, hosted by Raffaella Carrà. On February 21, 2001, she performed "Music" at the 43rd Grammy Awards. For the performance, the stage had five giant video screens, which showed images from her career. Madonna entered onto the stage in a classic Cadillac driven by rapper Bow Wow. The singer emerged from the back seat of the car in a full-length fur coat and a hat, quickly removing the clothes to reveal a tight leather jacket and jeans. She removed her jacket to reveal a black tank top with the words "Material Girl" printed on it. Host Jon Stewart commented right after, talking about how he was getting older and commenting, "As I was watching Madonna writhing around on the hood of the car, all I could think was — that’s really gonna drive up her insurance premiums".


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: To promote "Music" and "Ray of Light", Madonna embarked on her fifth concert tour, the Drowned World Tour. It started in June 2001 and was Madonna's first tour in eight years since The Girlie Show World Tour (1993). The tour was to be started before the year 2000, but she had become pregnant with her son Rocco Ritchie, released "Music" that year, and married Guy Ritchie in December 2000. When Madonna finally decided to go on the tour, time was short and she had to prepare the show within three months. Jamie King was signed up as the creative director and the choreographer of the show. The tour was divided into five segments, namely punk, geisha, cowboy, Latin and ghetto. Each segment represented a phase of Madonna's career. Several changes were made to the final shows in Los Angeles after the September 11 attacks: Madonna wore an American flag kilt during the show's opening segment as a display of patriotism, the closing of "Mer Girl" (part II) was altered to remove the staged shooting of a character; Madonna instead put the gun down, hugged him and they left the stage together. The macabre cannibalism-themed "Funny Song" was removed. The tour received positive reviews. The tour was a commercial success, grossing a total of US$75 million, and it was the highest-grossing concert tour of a solo artist in 2001. The tour received the Major Tour of the Year and Most Creative Stage Production awards nominations at the 2001 Pollstar awards, but lost them to U2. The concert was broadcast live on HBO from The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan August 26, 2001. The "Drowned World Tour 2001" DVD was released in all regions on November 13, 2001.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "Music" was released as the lead single from the album on August 21, 2000, by Warner Bros. Records. "Music" has been praised by contemporary critics. Some compared it with Madonna's older songs, like "Into the Groove (1985) and "Holiday" (1983). "Music" achieved international success by topping the charts in 25 countries worldwide. It became Madonna's 12th number-one single on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, making Madonna the second artist to achieve number one hits in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s on the Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, "Music" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Music (Madonna album)

text: "Don't Tell Me" was released on November 21, 2000, as the second single from the album. It reached at number four and spent eight weeks in the top ten of the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song topped the music charts in the Canada, Italy and New Zealand and attained top-ten positions on the charts of many other European nations. In 2005, the song was placed at number 285 on "Blender" magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.