title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island employs working dogs to chase the Canada geese off of the island. The working dogs provide a humane geese disbursement method for the super flocks of Canada geese that migrate through the New York Harbor. Before the dog program started in 2015, attempts to use R/C cars, strobe lights, and a special laser to chase the geese all failed. Chasing the geese from the island helps avoid the large amount of bird droppings they leave behind, as well as mitigates their aggressive nature. Keeping the super-flocks off the island helps protect both other bird species and park visitors, as Canada geese are known to be hostile during nesting season. The Working Dogs program began in January 2015 when Jim Reed, Director of Park and Public Space, adopted Max, a Border Collie who came from a failed career as a farm dog.


title: Governors Island

text: Activities on the island include free National Park Service tours of the National Monument, bike riding, picnicking, art installations, fairs, festivals, and concerts. The northern half contains Governors Island National Monument as well as the Governors Island Historic District. The southern half contains the 43-acre park constructed and operated by the Trust for Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: Various free activities are offered on Governors Island. The houses around Nolan Park and Colonels row host arts, culture and educational exhibits during typical public seasons. Downtown Boathouse has offered free kayaking classes at Pier 101. In addition, there are several NPS-operated walking tours and self-guided tours of Governors Island's historic landmarks. Other public programs and exhibits are available, including an adventure playground operated by called The Yard, as well as a compost site run by Earth Matter called the Compost Learning Center and a functioning urban farm, the Teaching Garden, run by GrowNYC.


title: Governors Island

text: Some activities require additional fees. QC NY, an Italian-based day spa spanning two buildings on the north side of the island, contains a courtyard with heated pools and lawn chairs overlooking Manhattan; it offers personal treatments in addition to its saunas. Collective Retreats, a glamorous camping or "glamping" retreat, allows its guests to use the island three hours before the island opens to the general public each day, and several tiers of accommodations and activities are provided at progressively higher prices. Though Collective Retreats can accommodate about 70 campers per night, there are no full-time residents on the island . For travel throughout the island, Blazing Saddles rents out bikes and pedicabs, and there are also three Citi Bike bike-sharing stations on the island.


title: Governors Island

text: Many events take place on Governors Island during a typical public season including outdoor films, food and art festivals, runs, concerts, and a pumpkin patch in October.


title: Governors Island

text: The Governors Island Art Fair, run by the art collective 4heads and now known as Portal: Governors Island Art Fair, has taken place annually on the island during weekends in September since 2007. Originally located in buildings on Colonel's Row, the event has also hosted artists in Castle Williams and Fort Jay. Many concerts have also taken place on the island. For instance, the Rite of Summer Festival, a series of free concerts, has been held on the island throughout the summer since 2011. The Jazz Age Lawn Party, a two-day-long Prohibition-era cosplay event, is also hosted on the island. In September 2019, the Longines Global Champions Tour, a globe-traveling equestrian jumping league, made its New York debut on Governors Island.


title: Governors Island

text: Past attractions have included a Dutch festival called Goverthing in 2009, as well as a French carnival in 2013 that contained 19th- and 20th-century rides. Several previous large concerts have also been held on Governors Island. These include the inaugural Governors Ball Music Festival in 2011, though it moved to Randalls Island for subsequent seasons.


title: Governors Island

text: , Governors Island is open year-round, operating from 7 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. seven days a week. Until 2015, Governors Island was publicly accessible only on summer weekends and was rarely open during nighttime except during concerts. From 2015 to 2020, the island was open seven days a week, but only from May through October.


title: Governors Island

text: The first public boat service to Governors Island was instituted in 1794, when John Hillyer was given a franchise to operate a rowboat line to the island, collecting a fare of three cents per person. The Army took over the franchise as passenger traffic grew, operating barges from South Ferry or the Battery in Manhattan. The first recorded port of departure at the Battery, located south of what is now Castle Clinton, opened in 1854. At that point, there were two barges that each had a maximum capacity of 12 people. Test runs of steamboat service started in 1844, and they supplanted the former open-barges by 1879. Many of the passengers were employees at the New York Armory on Governors Island. By 1879, an "ugly little tug" that charged 15-cent fares for travel to the island was replaced with a steamboat.


title: Governors Island

text: Around 1897, it was announced that the ferry service would be overhauled to accommodate the expanded Army presence on the island. Three new ferryboats with capacity of 823 passengers and 21 cars were added in 1925–1929. Two of these were replaced in 1956 with larger vessels that could hold 1,100 passengers and 32 cars.


title: Governors Island

text: Public ferry access from Manhattan started in 2005; at the time, the ferry was free on weekends. Starting in 2010, weekend ferry service commenced between Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 6 at Atlantic Avenue. In June 2011, NY Waterway started service to points along the East River. On May 1, 2017, that route became part of NYC Ferry's East River route. A new 400-person vessel named "Governors 1" as delivered in 2019 in anticipation of large crowds, supplementing the existing vessel "Lt. Samuel Coursen". The same year, NYC Ferry added a weekend-only shuttle from Pier 11/Wall Street to Governors Island, replacing the East River and South Brooklyn service to the island.


title: Governors Island

text: Governors Island has two ferry landings, Soissons Landing and Yankee Pier. Soissons Landing, located at the northern shore of the island, contains two slips. Ferries travel from here to Slip 7 at the Battery Maritime Building, located adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan's Financial District. The ride is about 7 minutes long. These ferries are operated by HMS Ferries for The Trust for Governors Island and operate daily when the island is open.


title: Governors Island

text: Ferries also operate to Yankee Pier on the southeastern side of the island, which is served by two ferry routes. One route is operated by HMS Ferries for The Trust on weekends and travels to Red Hook (though it traveled to Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park prior to 2020). The second route is the Governors Island route operated by NYC Ferry; during summer weekends, the route travels to Pier 11/Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District, where it meets the other six NYC Ferry routes. Starting in November 2021, NYC Ferry has run the South Brooklyn route from Yankee Pier during the winter and on summer weekdays. The South Brooklyn route travels to Red Hook; Piers 1 and 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park; Pier 11/Wall Street; and Corlears Hook in Manhattan.


title: Governors Island

text: Ferries operated by The Trust run half-hourly. , The Trust charges a round-trip fare of $4 per person; children, seniors, and certain groups of adults ride for free, and no fare is charged during weekend mornings. While the ferry to Manhattan runs seven days a week, the ferry to Brooklyn runs only on weekends. NYC Ferry services run half-hourly and charge $2.75 for a one-way trip, with one free transfer to another route.


title: Governors Island

text: The current cast-iron piers of Soissons Landing built in 1947 and commemorate the Battle of Soissons during World War I, during which over half of the 16th Regiment were killed. Building 148, a brick waiting room built in 1917, is located directly to the west.


title: Eric Carle

text: Eric Carle (June 25, 1929 – May 23, 2021) was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. His career as an illustrator and children's book author took off after he collaborated on "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?". He illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.


title: Eric Carle

text: In 2003, the American Library Association awarded Carle the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), a prize for writers or illustrators of children's books published in the U.S. who have made lasting contributions to the field. Carle was also a U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010.


title: Eric Carle

text: Carle was born on June 25, 1929, in Syracuse, New York, the son of Johanna (née Oelschlaeger) and Erich W. Carle, a civil servant. When he was six years old, his mother, homesick for Germany, led the family back to Stuttgart. He was educated there and graduated from the local art school, the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. His father was drafted into the German army at the beginning of World War II (1939) and taken prisoner by the Soviet forces when Germany capitulated in May 1945. He returned home in late 1947 weighing . Carle told "The Guardian" years later that his father was a broken man when he came back. He was a "sick man. Psychologically, physically devastated."


title: Eric Carle

text: Carle was sent to the small town of Schwenningen to escape the bombings of Stuttgart. When he was 15, the German government conscripted boys of that age to dig trenches on the Siegfried Line. He did not care to think about it deeply and said his wife thought he suffered from post-traumatic stress.


title: Eric Carle

text: Always homesick for the United States, he dreamed of returning home one day. He eventually made it to New York City in 1952 with only $40 in savings and landed a job as graphic designer in the promotion department of "The New York Times". He was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and stationed in Germany with the 2nd Armoured Division as a mail clerk. After discharge he returned to his old job with "The New York Times". Later he became the art director of an advertising agency.


title: Eric Carle

text: Educator and author Bill Martin Jr. noticed the illustration of a red lobster Carle had created for an advertisement and asked him to collaborate on a picture book.


title: Eric Carle

text: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" was published by Henry Holt & Co. in 1967 and became a best-seller. Thus began Carle's career as an illustrator, and soon he was writing and illustrating his own stories. His first books as both author and illustrator were " to the Zoo" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in 1969.


title: Eric Carle

text: His artwork was created as collage, using hand-painted papers, which he cut and layered to form bright and colourful images. Many of his books have an added dimension—die-cut pages, twinkling lights as in "The Very Lonely Firefly", even the lifelike sound of a cricket's song as in "The Very Quiet Cricket". The themes of his stories are usually drawn from nature and inspired by the walks his father would take him on across meadows and through woods.


title: Eric Carle

text: For over 30 years, Carle and his second wife, Barbara Morrison, lived in Northampton, Massachusetts. He also owned a home in Key Largo, Florida. Carle had a son and a daughter.


title: Eric Carle

text: With his second wife, he founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a museum devoted to the art of children's books in Amherst, adjacent to Hampshire College. According to the museum, it has had over 500,000 visitors, including more than 30,000 school children, since it opened its doors in 2002.


title: Eric Carle

text: Carle received numerous honorary degrees from colleges and universities including Williams College in 2016, Smith College in 2014, Appalachian State University in 2013 and Bates College in 2007.


title: Eric Carle

text: Google paid tribute to Carle and his book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by asking him to design the logo "Google doodle", introduced on its home page on March 20, 2009, celebrating the first day of spring.


title: Eric Carle

text: Carle won numerous awards for his work in children's literature, including the Japan Picture Book Award, the Regina Medal and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators. In 2003, he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now called the Children's Literature Legacy Award), from the professional children's librarians, which recognizes an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". The committee cited his "visual observations of the natural world" and his innovative designs: "Taking the medium of collage to a new level, Carle creates books using luminous colors and playful designs often incorporating an interactive dimension, tactile or auditory discoveries, die-cut pages, foldouts, and other innovative uses of page space."


title: Eric Carle

text: In a 2012 survey of "School Library Journal" readers, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" was voted the number two children's picture book behind Maurice Sendak’s "Where the Wild Things Are".


title: Eric Carle

text: In 2019, a jumping spider mimicking a caterpillar was named in Carle's honor, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", and to celebrate his 90th birthday.


title: Eric Carle

text: The Frist Art Museum exhibition "Eric Carle's Picture Books: Celebrating 50 Years of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"" was on display from October 18, 2019, through February 23, 2020. In November 2019, Carle sold his publishing rights to Penguin Random House.


title: Eric Carle

text: Carle died on May 23, 2021, at his summer studio in Northampton, Massachusetts, from kidney failure, at the age of 91. An official announcement was made by his family on May 26, 2021, via their website.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov (; ; 30 January 1938 – 2 September 2016) was the leader of Uzbekistan and its predecessor state, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, from 1989 until his death in 2016. He was the last First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1989 to 1991, when the party was reconstituted as the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDP); he led the PDP until 1996. He was the President of the Uzbek SSR from 24 March 1990 until he declared the independence of Uzbekistan on 1 September 1991.


title: Islam Karimov

text: He declared Uzbekistan an independent nation on 31 August 1991. He subsequently won a non-democratic presidential election on 29 December 1991, with 86% of the vote. Foreign observers and opposition party cited voting irregularities, alleging state-run propaganda and a falsified vote count. Karimov's first presidential term was extended to 2000 by way of a referendum, and he was re-elected in 2000, 2007 and 2015, each time receiving over 90% of the vote. He died from a stroke on 2 September 2016, after being president of the country for 25 years.


title: Islam Karimov

text: He ruled a repressive authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan where political opponents were assassinated, human rights were repressed, and dissent was prohibited but the capital punishment was repealed in 1998.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov was born in Samarkand to Uzbek parents who were civil servants. According to official data his father is Abdug'ani Karimov, an Uzbek, and his mother is Sanobar Karimova, a Tajik. But according to unofficial data his biological father was Bukharan Jewish. He was sent to an orphanage in 1941, brought back in 1942, and then returned to the orphanage in 1945. In 1955, he graduated from high school. In 1960, he graduated from the Central Asian Polytechnic Institute (now Tashkent State Technical University) with a degree in mechanical engineering. He began work as an engineer, eventually joining the Ministry of Water Resources of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1967, he earned a master's degree in economics from Tashkent State University of Economics.


title: Islam Karimov

text: From 1966 to 1986, he worked his way up the ranks in the Uzbek State Planning Committee, from chief specialist, to department head, to Minister of Finance of the Uzbek SSR, chairman of the State Planning Committee and deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Uzbek SSR.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In 1986, Karimov assumed the post of first secretary of the Kashkadarya Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Committee of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR. In 1989, he became first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR, after his predecessor Rafiq Nishonov failed to quell inter-ethnic clashes and instability in the Fergana Region. From 1990 to 1991, he served as a member of the Central Committee and Politburo. On 24 March 1990, he was elected the first President of the Republic by the Uzbek Supreme Soviet.


title: Islam Karimov

text: On 31 August 1991, 10 days after the attempted coup in Moscow, Karimov declared Uzbekistan to be an independent republic, the second of the Central Asian republics to do so (after neighboring Kyrgyzstan); 1 September was declared Uzbekistan's Independence Day. The Uzbek Communist Party (UCP) changed its name to the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDP). In the December 1991 presidential election, 86 percent of the public cast their votes for Karimov and 12.3 percent for his rival Muhammad Salih, chairman of the Erk (Freedom) Party.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Uzbekistan under the Karimov government was classified as a hard authoritarian state. The state's primary legitimacy claims are anti-Islamism and ethnic identity. Karimov's primary authoritarian measures that were implemented following the brief period of "thaw" and political tolerance include the thwarting of alternative political leaders from coalition building.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In 1995, a few months before Karimov's term was due to expire, his term was extended until 2000 through a referendum. Results showed 99.6 percent of voters favoured extending Karimov's term. The United States criticised the referendum for its "lack of public debate," and noted several instances where one person cast the votes of an entire family. Following the referendum, in 1996, restrictions on opposition were further tightened through the Law on Political Parties. This law ensured the right to meetings, publications and elections of opposition parties, but only to those who had registered with the Ministry of Justice. This policy allowed for government blockage of unapproved parties. Political parties based on ethnic, religious, military or subversive ideas were prohibited.


title: Islam Karimov

text: At the time, Karimov publicly stated that he considered the referendum to be a re-election to a second term, which under the Constitution would have required him to leave office in 2000. However, the legislature passed a resolution opposing the decision, leading Karimov to announce he would run for reelection in 2000. In the election held at 9 January, he was reelected with 91.9% of the vote. The United States said that this election "was neither free nor fair and offered Uzbekistan's voters no true choice". The sole opposition candidate, Abdulhafiz Jalalov, implicitly admitted that he entered the race only to make it seem democratic and publicly stated that he voted for Karimov. According to dissident writer Alisher Ilkhamov from the Open Society Foundations, 99.6% had elected to keep Karimov in office after his term had expired, but ballots had been created such that it was much easier for voters to cast a "yes" vote than a "no" vote. Unmarked ballots, as well as ballots of those who did not vote, were automatically counted as "yes" votes, while a full black mark, under the supervision of authorities, was necessary to count as a "no" vote.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov took fewer foreign visits, especially to the West, in comparison to his Kazakh counterpart. There were few foreign embassies in Tashkent as of 2016, with only 44 in all: 29 from countries not part of the former Soviet Union and seven from the West.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Under the Karimov government, a heavy regulation policy of NGOs led to the creation of paradoxically named GONGOs, or Government-Organised Non-Governmental Organisations. Trade unions became "an instrument of management rather than a means of interest group-based collective bargaining". The Karimov government required universities to serve a strictly pedagogical purpose and not as a branch of civil society; they had to provide students with skills for the workplace without an emphasis on the skill of critique of public issues.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov had originally cultivated Islamic symbols after independence in order to coopt religious opposition. In May 1999, as a response to the threat of Islamic radicalism, the Oliy Majlis revised the 'Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations' to impose new restrictions on religious groups. The construction of mosques, for example, required permission and specific documentation. An assassination attempt on Karimov in 1999 elicited even more repression of Islamic groups. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Uzbekistan was considered a strategic ally in the United States' "War on Terror" campaign because of a mutual opposition to the Taliban. Uzbekistan hosted an 800-strong U.S. troop presence at the Karshi-Khanabad base, also known as "K2", which supported U.S.-led efforts in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The move was criticized by Human Rights Watch which said the U.S. government subordinated the promotion of human rights to assistance in the War in Afghanistan. U.S.-Uzbek relations deteriorated in May 2005 when Karimov's government strongly encouraged the abandonment of the U.S. base in the face of U.S. government criticism of the government killings of protestors in Andijan. In July 2005 U.S. military forces left Karshi-Khanabad.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov mobilized against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb ut-Tahrir, two Islamist organizations which have been designated as terrorist by his government. The Uzbek government sentenced Tohir Yoʻldosh and Juma Namangani, leaders of the IMU, to death "in absentia". Namangani died in Afghanistan in 2001, and Tohir Yoʻldosh was killed in an air strike on 27 August 2009. From 1991 to 2004, the government imprisoned over 7,000 Uzbeks for "Islamist extremism", and silenced Imams like Muhammad Rajab, who advocated for more open democracy in the early 1990s. These fears of extremism arose out of discourse among the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) of a "Jihad against the Karimov regime". The government of Uzbekistan retains fears of "large-scale all-encompassing anti-state conspiracies" and "echoes of Basmachi" Among Karimov's anti-Islamist policies was the purge of Muslim leaders. Karimov led a crackdown on Adolat, a league of Muslim activists. Explicit fears of threats of Islamic extremism also led to a crackdown of displays of Islamic practice in public. The term "Wahhabis" became the umbrella term to refer to all strains of "extremist" Islam; it did not necessarily refer to the Islamic sect that originated in Saudi Arabia. Ordinary practicing Muslims have been targeted and jailed without trial, and frequent use of torture and occasional "disappearances" have been reported. In 2005 Karimov banned the Muslim call to prayer from being broadcast in the country; the ban was lifted in November 2017 by his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov sought another term in the December 2007 presidential election, despite arguments that he was ineligible because of the two-term limit on the presidency. On 6 November 2007, Karimov accepted the nomination of the Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party to run for a third term. On 19 November, the Central Election Commission announced the approval of Karimov's candidacy, a decision that Karimov's opponents condemned as illegal.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Following the election on 23 December 2007, preliminary official results showed Karimov winning with 88.1% of the vote, on a turnout rate that was placed at 90.6%. Observers from groups allied to the Karimov administration such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a positive assessment. However, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe criticized the election as lacking a "genuine choice", while others deemed the election, a "political charade", given that all three of Karimov's rivals began their campaign speeches by singing Karimov's praises.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov was reelected for a new term in the 2015 presidential election. He won 90.39% of votes from a voter turnout of 91.08%. This was his third term under Uzbekistan's current constitution. The election was widely criticized by the western media and observers as being rigged even though monitoring missions sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which include nations from the former USSR and China, deemed the election open and democratic.


title: Islam Karimov

text: His isolationism defined foreign policy. Karimov was courted by the big powers for geopolitical leverage and Uzbekistan's gas supplies, but he kept all at arms' length, suspicious of Russia's post-colonial aims and the US-led "democratization" agenda. In 1999, he criticised the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for paying too much attention to the protection of Human rights in Uzbekistan, rather than concentrating on the security issues facing Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). "As long as war continues in Afghanistan, the threat to peace, security and democratic reforms in the neighbouring states of Central Asia will remain, and the source of international terrorism and its expansion well beyond the region's boundaries will be preserved."


title: Islam Karimov

text: Western states repeatedly criticised the Karimov administration's record on human rights and press freedom. In particular, Craig Murray, the British Ambassador from 2002 to 2004, described widespread torture, kidnapping, murder, rape by the police, financial corruption, religious persecution, censorship and other human rights abuses. This included the case of Karimov's security forces executing prisoners Muzafar Avazov and Khuzniddin Alimov by boiling them alive in 2002. Murray became noted within the British government for memos disagreeing with official UK and US policy, which was at the time to back up Karimov as part of the global war on terror. Uzbekistan was used for extraordinary rendition and for the air base in Karshi-Khanabad. Murray wrote a memoir about his experiences; "Murder in Samarkand", retitled "Dirty Diplomacy" in the United States.


title: Islam Karimov

text: The United Nations found torture "institutionalized, systematic, and rampant" in Uzbekistan's judicial system. For several years, "Parade" magazine selected Karimov as one of the world's worst dictators, citing his tactics of torture, media censorship and fake elections.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov's Party apparatus gained effective control over the media during the immediate independence period. Because of a poor human rights and democratization record, the Karimov administration worked to improve its image by allowing broadcasts from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. A tarnished record had harmed the efforts to gain greater access to developmental aid and foreign investment.


title: Islam Karimov

text: According to the Uzbek Constitution freedom of expression in the media is nominally guaranteed; Article 67 explicitly states, "Censorship is not permitted." However, under the Karimov government, all media publications had to be "held accountable for the reliability" of the information released. This "accountability" actually introduces an opportunity for government censorship, as the definition of "accountability" was left to the Karimov and now is left to the successive Presidential administration's discretion. Article 29 states that all freedom of media expression is to be allowed with the exceptions of releasing state secrets and statements against the Constitution. The printed media of Uzbekistan has a high number of publications, but is dominated by three: "Khalq Sozi", its Russian edition "Narodnoye Slovo", and another Russian-language publication, "Pravda Vostoka". The state owns almost all media, and the State Control Inspecorate, located in Tashkent, secures tight editorial control. Topics deemed "sensitive" are not considered for publishing. A ban is in place that prevents publications that give space to "unregistered opinions". Arrests of journalists have been documented in Tashkent and Samarkand.


title: Islam Karimov

text: As a propaganda tool, the state strictly controls the tone and subject material of all published works. State censors give preference to works that provide a positive, uplifting ideology to its readers. Criticism that passes the censors is limited to low and mid-level officers. Although the Karimov regime during the 1990s assumed a greater tolerance for foreign media, the state has heavily limited foreign publications during the past decade. There has been a considerable reduction of Russian-sponsored broadcasting, and Western media has diminished in publication as well.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Banned publications under the Karimov administration included "Mustaqil Haftalik" and "Erk", the respective publications of the Birilik and Erk opposition parties. The Karimov government charged each publication on the grounds of being "disloyal to the current regime". In December 1995, Karimov was quoted in describing local journalists as "toothless". Karimov had essentially called for more criticism in printed material, but only "approved" criticism.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In May 2002, the Karimov administration lifted the pre-publication censorship, and fined the chief censor, Ervin Kamilov. The State Inspectorate for the Protection of State Secrets was disbanded. Two days later, the administration proceeded to reinstate further censorship measures. Among topics prohibited in Uzbekistan's publications are official corruption, opposition political parties and Islamic organizations. Radio Liberty lost its broadcast rights. Uzbekistan has one state-run internet server, UZPAK, that blocks prohibited websites.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In November 2014, Uzbek students published a letter on the opposition party website, Dunyo Uzbeklari (World of Uzbeks) to protest the use of students as unpaid labour to pick the nation's cotton harvest every year.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In 2015, Karimov came under widespread criticism when he was elected to a fourth term in office from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.


title: Islam Karimov

text: According to detailed accounts, on 13 May 2005, some 400 of the 500 protesters staging an anti-government demonstration were killed after being driven deliberately into a trap – authorities had blocked all the exits from Bobur Square with armoured personnel carriers, preventing people from dispersing home. Instead, they drove the crowd into a closed street, Chulpon Avenue, where snipers and police shot to kill. These scenes of deliberate killings prompted eyewitnesses to allege that troops not only shot to disperse the demonstration, but to summarily execute anyone who took part in it. Later, some tortured detainees recounted that police said they had received orders supposedly emanating from the president himself to shoot to kill.


title: Islam Karimov

text: According to Ikram Yakubov, a major in Uzbekistan's secret service who defected to Britain in 2007, the government had "propped up" the Islamist organization Akramia, which the Uzbek government blamed for fomenting the incident that led to the protests. He believes that the attacks were a pretext to repress dissenters. According to Yakubov, President Karimov personally ordered government troops to fire on the protestors.


title: Islam Karimov

text: In response to the military sanctions imposed by the US and Europe, Karimov expelled US forces from the Karshi-Khanabad Military Base.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov married his first wife, Natalya Petrovna Kuchmi, in 1964 and they had a son together, Petr, before divorcing.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov's wife, Tatyana Akbarovna Karimova, whom he married in 1967, is of Tajik and Russian origin. She is an economist. They had two daughters and five grandchildren.


title: Islam Karimov

text: His elder daughter Gulnara Karimova is an Uzbekistani diplomat, professor and businessperson. She is the founder and chairperson of The Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan Foundations Board of Trustees and a number of NGOs focused on cultural and social aspects of life in Uzbekistan. However, his first daughter is seen as less than altruistic and allegations that her "organizations" are mere front organizations for her vast business holdings and image propping propaganda are well documented.


title: Islam Karimov

text: It has been reported that since February 2014, Gulnara has been under house arrest. She has been under investigation on charges of corruption, but has said that the "charges against her are politically motivated".


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov's second daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, is known in Uzbekistan for her role in promoting education and sports, as well as championing the rights of children. She is the founder of major charity organizations in Uzbekistan: "You are not alone", Republican Social Children's Fund for helping orphans, and Republican Center for Social Adaptation of Children, mainly focusing on disabled children and those from vulnerable groups.


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov and his second wife Tatyana Akbarovna Karimova share five grandchildren: (Islam Karimova Jr., Iman Karimova, Mariam Tillyaeva, Umar Tillyaev, Safiya Tillyaeva).


title: Islam Karimov

text: Karimov's health problems has been a public conversation, but until 2016, Karimov's health was never discussed by government officials and any information was closely guarded. There were rumors in March 2013 that he had suffered a heart attack, which were denied.


title: Islam Karimov

text: At approximately 9 a.m. on 27 August 2016, an unconscious Karimov was taken to the Central Clinical Hospital, according to the official medical report by the government of Uzbekistan. He underwent a CT scan that revealed he had suffered a "massive subarachnoid hemorrhage" (stroke). He went into cardiac arrest but cardiac activity was restored after 20 minutes of resuscitation attempts. He was in an "atonic coma with inhibition of the functions of the brain stem" and put on a ventilator. His daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva reported that he was in stable condition at an intensive care ward.


title: Islam Karimov

text: According to the official medical report, numerous experts were consulted on Karimov's condition on 27 and 28 August, including Gilles Dreyfus, medical director of the Cardiothoracic Center of Monaco; Juha Hernesniemi, professor emeritus of neurosurgery at the University of Helsinki; Amir Samii, medical director of the International Neuroscience Institute in Hannover; Hugo Katus of University Hospital Heidelberg and Leo Bokeria, the head of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Moscow State Medical University.


title: Islam Karimov

text: On 29 August 2016, there were unconfirmed reports from the Ferghana News Agency, which represents the opposition, that he had died that day at 15:30 UZT. On 31 August, Karimova-Tillyaeva cited possible "recovery", thus implying that her father was still alive. On 1 September, the 25th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence, Karimov's speech was read on TV by a presenter. Karimova-Tillyaeva stated that public support was helping him recover and pleaded with the public not to speculate on his condition.


title: Islam Karimov

text: On the morning of 2 September, it was announced that Karimov was in a "critical condition" and his condition has deteriorated sharply. A few hours later Reuters reported the death of Karimov citing three diplomatic sources. Around 16:00 UZT the Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yıldırım expressed his condolences for the death of Karimov in a televised meeting becoming the first official to confirm the death. According to the government report, Karimov was in stable neurological condition in a coma, but progressively began to experience multiple organ failure. He suffered another cardiac arrest at 20:15 UZT on 2 September and attempts to resuscitate him failed, and he was pronounced dead at 20:55 UZT (15:55 UTC).


title: Islam Karimov

text: After the death of Karimov, the prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, was appointed the head of the committee organizing the funeral of the president. A large number of world leaders, including the Presidents of the United States, China, Russia, and India immediately expressed their condolences. Uzbekistan declared three days of mourning and Uzbek embassies opened the book of condolences. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Uzbek embassies to sign the book.


title: Islam Karimov

text: On 3 September, thousands of people lined the streets of Tashkent for Karimov's funeral procession, throwing flowers at the cortege, as he was taken to the airport to be flown to his native Samarkand, where he was buried. His funeral service was held at Registan Square, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The ceremony was attended by delegations of 17 foreign countries, including Emomali Rahmon, president of Tajikistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, president of Turkmenistan and Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan, as well as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Yıldırım Tuğrul Türkeş, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, among other various level state representatives from the People's Republic of China, Prime Minister of India, South Korea, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. The State Council of Cuba declared 5 September as an official mourning due to the death of the President of Uzbekistan.


title: Islam Karimov

text: On 6 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Samarkand to pay tribute to Karimov. Kneeling in front of the grave of the first President of Uzbekistan, the Russian leader laid a bouquet of red roses. In addition, Putin met with the relatives of the deceased and expressed condolences to them. On 12 September, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also visited Karimov's burial site. He laid a bouquet of red roses, prayed beside his grave, and met Karimov's wife. On 6 October, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a working visit to Uzbekistan. He laid roses to Karimov's grave, met his wife, and held talks with Interim President Mirziyoyev. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu laid a wreath at Karimov's grave on 20 October. Other high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan, India, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Under Secretary for Political Affairs of the United States Thomas Shannon also paid tribute to Karimov. On 1 November, a square in the Yakimanka district in the center of Moscow was named after Islam Karimov. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid tribute to Karimov in Samarkand on 12 November. President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the grave of Islam Karimov on 18 November, as a part of his official visit to Uzbekistan. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev paid tribute to Karimov on 24 December, during his working visit to Uzbekistan. On 7 March 2017, Presidents of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow opened the first monument of Islam Karimov in the Turkmen city of Türkmenabat. On 10 June, during his official visit to Uzbekistan, UN Secretary General António Guterres visited Karimov's grave.


title: Tony Walton

text: Anthony John Walton (24 October 1934 – 2 March 2022) was a British set and costume designer. He won three Tony Awards for his work on "Pippin" (1973), "House of Blue Leaves" (1986), and "Guys and Dolls" (1992). For his work in movies he won an Oscar, for "All That Jazz" (1979), and for his work in television he won an Emmy, for the 1985 TV version of "Death of a Salesman".


title: Tony Walton

text: In addition he received three more Academy Award nominations for his work in "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), and "The Wiz" (1978).


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on 24 October 1934. His father, Lancelot, was an orthopedic surgeon and his mother, Hilda, was a homemaker. He fell in love with the theatre as child when on a family trip to a pantomime. At the age of 12, he met Julie Andrews after he had watched her in a performance of Humpty Dumpty in the West End. She was 11 at the time. He found her number in the telephone book and asked for her address so he could send her some pictures. The two became good friends from this point.


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton attended Radley College in Oxford where he studied Greek and Latin. Here he put on some ambitious marionette shows, one of which was attended by the English artist John Piper. He came to find Walton at the end of the show, and told him he should go into stage design. Walton followed his advice and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He spent two years of mandatory military training with the Royal Air Force, as a trainee pilot in Ontario, Canada. After completing his National Service, he headed to New York to join Julie Andrews, who was making a name for herself on Broadway.


title: Tony Walton

text: He began his career in 1957 with the stage design for Noël Coward's off-Broadway production of "Conversation Piece". Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, he designed for the New York and London stage.


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton entered the motion pictures business through Walt Disney, after Disney met him back stage after a performance of "Camelot". Julie Andrews, who was now his fiancé, was already in line to play the part of Mary Poppins in the classic film. Disney offered to look at his portfolio and later ended up hiring Walton as a costume designer, set designer, and visual consultant for "Mary Poppins." He was not allowed to make any reference to the famous illustrations that Mary Shephard had done for the original book in 1934, as the rights to the story did not include this. The Sherman brothers, who were working on the songs for the movie, suggested that he transposed the era of the story from the 1930s to the Edwardian era, to ensure he avoided any accidental replications. He made the set realistic, paying attention to detail, as he was always annoyed by sets that didn't look real. He also alluded to Mary Poppins' "secret life", by making her clothes grey or black on the outside, but with brightly coloured linings and flashes of crimson. For this he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design (Color). Walton won his only Academy Award for his work (with others) as Art Director on Bob Fosse's musical film "All That Jazz".


title: Tony Walton

text: In 1983, Diana Ross, the star of the film "The Wiz", chose Walton to design the stage set for her 1983 Central Park concert, "For One & For All". Broadcast worldwide on the Showtime cable network, the concert special, over the course of two days, featured an on-site audience of over 1,200,000 on the park's Great Lawn.


title: Tony Walton

text: In 1989, the American Museum of the Moving Image showcased over 30 years of his work for films, television, and theatre in an exhibit entitled: "Tony Walton: Designing for Stage and Screen", including drawings, models and photographs from his early plays including the Regency-style "Conversation Piece" from 1957 and "his evocation of a London street" for the 1964 film "Mary Poppins".


title: Tony Walton

text: In December 2005, for their annual birthday celebration to 'The Master', The Noël Coward Society invited Walton as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 106th birthday of Sir Noël.


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton gave the Sherman Brothers the insight and inspiration for the "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" songs as is explained in the Sherman Brothers' joint autobiography, "Walt's Time":


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton married his childhood sweetheart Julie Andrews in 1959, and together they had a daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. Walton said that he fell in love with Andrews when they were children and he saw her playing the egg in a theatre production of "Humpty Dumpty". They divorced in 1968 but remained close friends.


title: Tony Walton

text: Walton married Gen LeRoy in 1991. Walton, Andrews and their daughter worked together professionally several times. He illustrated several children's books written by Andrews and their daughter. Walton died from complications of a stroke at his apartment in New York City on 2 March 2022, at the age of 87.


title: Rutherford model

text: The Rutherford model was devised by the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford to describe an atom. Rutherford directed the Geiger–Marsden experiment in 1909, which suggested, upon Rutherford's 1911 analysis, that J. J. Thomson's plum pudding model of the atom was incorrect. Rutherford's new model for the atom, based on the experimental results, contained new features of a relatively high central charge concentrated into a very small volume in comparison to the rest of the atom and with this central volume also containing the bulk of the atomic mass of the atom. This region would be known as the "nucleus" of the atom.


title: Rutherford model

text: Rutherford overturned Thomson's model in 1911 with his well-known gold foil experiment in which he demonstrated that the atom has a tiny and heavy nucleus. Rutherford designed an experiment to use the alpha particles emitted by a radioactive element as probes to the unseen world of atomic structure. If Thomson was correct, the beam would go straight through the gold foil. Most of the beams went through the foil, but a few were deflected.


title: Rutherford model

text: Rutherford presented his own physical model for subatomic structure, as an interpretation for the unexpected experimental results. In it, the atom is made up of a central charge (this is the modern atomic nucleus, though Rutherford did not use the term "nucleus" in his paper) surrounded by a cloud of (presumably) orbiting electrons. In this May 1911 paper, Rutherford only committed himself to a small central region of very high positive or negative charge in the atom.


title: Rutherford model

text: For concreteness, consider the passage of a high speed α particle through an atom having a positive central charge "N" "e", and surrounded by a compensating charge of "N" electrons.


title: Rutherford model

text: From purely energetic considerations of how far particles of known speed would be able to penetrate toward a central charge of 100 e, Rutherford was able to calculate that the radius of his gold central charge would need to be less (how much less could not be told) than 3.4 × 10 metres. This was in a gold atom known to be 10 metres or so in radius—a very surprising finding, as it implied a strong central charge less than 1/3000th of the diameter of the atom.


title: Rutherford model

text: The Rutherford model served to concentrate a great deal of the atom's charge and mass to a very small core, but didn't attribute any structure to the remaining electrons and remaining atomic mass. It did mention the atomic model of Hantaro Nagaoka, in which the electrons are arranged in one or more rings, with the specific metaphorical structure of the stable rings of Saturn. The plum pudding model of J. J. Thomson also had rings of orbiting electrons. Jean Baptiste Perrin claimed in his Nobel lecture that he was the first one to suggest the model in his paper dated 1901. But in actuality the Northern Irish physicist, Joseph Larmor, created the first solar system model of the atom in 1897.


title: Rutherford model

text: The Rutherford paper suggested that the central charge of an atom might be "proportional" to its atomic mass in hydrogen mass units u (roughly 1/2 of it, in Rutherford's model). For gold, this mass number is 197 (not then known to great accuracy) and was therefore modelled by Rutherford to be possibly 196 u. However, Rutherford did not attempt to make the direct connection of central charge to atomic number, since gold's "atomic number" (at "that" time merely its place number in the periodic table) was 79, and Rutherford had modelled the charge to be about +100 units (he had actually suggested 98 units of positive charge, to make half of 196). Thus, Rutherford did not formally suggest the two numbers (periodic table place, 79, and nuclear charge, 98 or 100) might be exactly the same.


title: Rutherford model

text: A month after Rutherford's paper appeared, the proposal regarding the exact identity of atomic number and nuclear charge "was" made by Antonius van den Broek, and later confirmed experimentally within two years, by Henry Moseley.


title: Rutherford model

text: After Rutherford's discovery, scientists started to realise that the atom is not ultimately a single particle, but is made up of far smaller subatomic particles. Subsequent research determined the exact atomic structure which led to Rutherford's gold foil experiment. Scientists eventually discovered that atoms have a positively charged nucleus (with an exact atomic number of charges) in the center, with a radius of about 1.2 × 10 meters × [atomic mass number]. Electrons were found to be even smaller.


title: Rutherford model

text: Later, scientists found the expected number of electrons (the same as the atomic number) in an atom by using X-rays. When an X-ray passes through an atom, some of it is scattered, while the rest passes through the atom. Since the X-ray loses its intensity primarily due to scattering at electrons, by noting the rate of decrease in X-ray intensity, the number of electrons contained in an atom can be accurately estimated.


title: Rutherford model

text: Rutherford's model deferred to the idea of many electrons in rings, per Nagaoka. However, once Niels Bohr modified this view into a picture of just a few planet-like electrons for light atoms, the Rutherford–Bohr model caught the imagination of the public. It has since continually been used as a symbol for atoms and even for "atomic" energy (even though this is more properly considered nuclear energy). Examples of its use over the past century include but are not limited to:


title: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

text: The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO, itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office, was responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide.


text: The head of the FCDO is the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, commonly abbreviated to "Foreign Secretary". This is regarded as one of the four most prestigious positions in the Cabinet – the Great Offices of State – alongside those of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary. James Cleverly was appointed Foreign Secretary on 6 September 2022.


text: The FCDO is managed day-to-day by a civil servant, the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, who also acts as the Head of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. Philip Barton took office as permanent under-secretary on 2 September 2020.


text: The expenditure, administration and policy of the FCDO are scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.


text: In addition to the above responsibilities, the FCDO is responsible for the British Overseas Territories, which had previously been administered from 1782 to 1801 by the Home Office, from 1801 to 1854 by the War and Colonial Office, from 1854 to 1966 by the Colonial Office, from 1966 to 1968 by the Commonwealth Office, from 1968 to 2020 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and since 2020 by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (this did not include "protectorates", which fell under the purview of the Foreign Office, or to British India, which had been administered by the East India Company until 1858, and thereafter by the India Office). This arrangement has been subject to criticism in the UK and in the overseas territories. For example, the chief minister of Anguilla, Victor Banks, said: "We are not foreign; neither are we members of the Commonwealth, so we should have a different interface with the UK that is based on mutual respect". There have been numerous suggestions on ways to improve the relationship between the overseas territories and the UK. Suggestions have included setting up a dedicated department to handle relations with the overseas territories, and the absorption of the OTD in the Cabinet Office, thus affording the overseas territories with better connections to the centre of government.


text: The Foreign Office was formed in March 1782 by combining the Southern and Northern Departments of the Secretary of State, each of which covered both foreign and domestic affairs in their parts of the Kingdom. The two departments' foreign affairs responsibilities became the Foreign Office, whilst their domestic affairs responsibilities were assigned to the Home Office. The Home Office is technically the senior.


text: During the 19th century, it was not infrequent for the Foreign Office to approach "The Times" newspaper and ask for continental intelligence, which was often superior to that conveyed by official sources. Examples of journalists who specialized in foreign affairs and were well connected to politicians included: Henry Southern, Valentine Chirol, Harold Nicolson, and Robert Bruce Lockhart.


text: During the First World War, the Arab Bureau was set up within the British Foreign Office as a section of the "Cairo Intelligence Department". During the early cold war an important department was the Information Research Department, set up to counter Soviet propaganda and infiltration. The Foreign Office hired its first woman diplomat, Monica Milne, in 1946.


text: The FCO was formed on 17 October 1968, from the merger of the short-lived Commonwealth Office and the Foreign Office. The Commonwealth Office had been created only in 1966, by the merger of the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office having been formed by the merger of the Dominions Office and the India Office in 1947—with the Dominions Office having been split from the Colonial Office in 1925.


text: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office held responsibility for international development issues between 1970 and 1974, and again between 1979 and 1997.


text: The National Archives website contains a Government timeline to show the departments responsible for Foreign Affairs from 1945.


text: From 1997, international development became the responsibility of the separate Department for International Development.


text: When David Miliband took over as Foreign Secretary in June 2007, he set in hand a review of the FCO's strategic priorities. One of the key messages of these discussions was the conclusion that the existing framework of ten international strategic priorities, dating from 2003, was no longer appropriate. Although the framework had been useful in helping the FCO plan its work and allocate its resources, there was agreement that it needed a new framework to drive its work forward.


text: In August 2005, a report by management consultant group Collinson Grant was made public by Andrew Mackinlay. The report severely criticised the FCO's management structure, noting:


text: The Foreign Office commissioned the report to highlight areas which would help it achieve its pledge to reduce spending by £87 million over three years. In response to the report being made public, the Foreign Office stated it had already implemented the report's recommendations.


text: In 2009, Gordon Brown created the position of Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) to the FCO. The first science adviser was David C. Clary.


text: On 25 April 2010, the department apologised after "The Sunday Telegraph" obtained a "foolish" document calling for the upcoming September visit of Pope Benedict XVI to be marked by the launch of "Benedict-branded" condoms, the opening of an abortion clinic and the blessing of a same-sex marriage.


text: In 2012, the Foreign Office was criticised by Gerald Steinberg of the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor, saying that the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development provided more than £500,000 in funding to Palestinian NGOs which he said "promote political attacks on Israel". In response, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said "we are very careful about who and what we fund. The objective of our funding is to support efforts to achieve a two-state solution. Funding a particular project for a limited period of time does not mean that we endorse every single action or public comment made by an NGO or by its employees."


text: In September 2012, the FCO and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding on diplomatic cooperation, which promotes the co-location of embassies, the joint provision of consular services, and common crisis response. The project has been criticised for further diminishing the UK's influence in Europe.


text: In 2011, the then Foreign Secretary, William Hague, announced the government's intention to open a number of new diplomatic posts in order to enhance the UK's overseas network. As such, eight new embassies and six new consulates were opened around the world.


text: On 16 June 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the merger of the FCO with the Department for International Development. This was following the decision in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle to give cross-departmental briefs to all junior ministers in the Department for International Development and the Foreign Office. The merger, which created the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, took place in September 2020 with a stated aim of ensuring that aid is spent "in line with the UK's priorities overseas". The merger was criticised by three former prime ministers – Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and David Cameron – with Cameron saying that it would mean "less respect for the UK overseas". The chief executive of Save the Children, Kevin Watkins, called it "reckless, irresponsible and a dereliction of UK leadership" that "threatens to reverse hard-won gains in child survival, nutrition and poverty".


text: In November 2021, it was reported that an employment tribunal had ruled that the FCDO had racially discriminated against Sonia Warner, a black senior civil servant, by treating her unfairly in a disciplinary process.


text: On 21 February 2022, UK Minister for Africa announced a new £74 million financial package to support women entrepreneurs across Nigeria, who own businesses and small and medium enterprises (SME’s).


text: In 2022, Maria Bamieh settled an employment claim against the Foreign Office for more than £400,000 shortly before her claim was due to be heard by an employment tribunal. She said that the Foreign Office failed to support her when she attempted to expose corruption at the EU’s rule of law mission (EULEX). The Foreign Office said : “We have agreed to settle this long-running case without any admission of liability and continue to strongly refute these allegations.”


text: Following a prior announcement by the then Foreign Secretary William Hague, the FCO opened the Diplomatic Academy in February 2015. The new centre, opened by the Duke of Cambridge, was established in order to create a cross-government centre of excellence for all civil servants working on international issues. The Diplomatic Academy serves to broaden the FCO's network and engaged in more collaborative work with academic and diplomatic partners.


text: The FCDO, through its core departmental budget, funds projects which are in line with its policy priorities outlined in its Single Departmental Plan. This funding includes both Official Development Assistance (ODA), and non-ODA funds. The funds are used for a wide range of projects and serve to support traditional diplomatic activities.


text: The FCDO plays a key role in delivering two, major UK government funds which work to support the government's National Security Strategy and Aid Strategy.


text: In 2021, the UK government cut its overseas aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of Gross National Income despite UK legislation against such a move. These cuts, amounting to GBP 4 billion, reduced funding for humanitarian intervention by 44% in places like Yemen and Syria. It also cut funding for the fight against polio, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Funding for girls education worldwide was also reduced by 25%.


text: The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) announced the first two investments made under its ‘Innovating for Climate Resilience fund’, which was launched at COP26 with support from the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and in partnership with the Adaptation Research Alliance and the Global Resilience Partnership.


text: In April 2006, a new executive agency was established, FCO Services (now FCDO Services), to provide corporate service functions. It moved to Trading Fund status in April 2008, so that it had the ability to provide services similar to those it already offers to the FCDO to other government departments and even to outside businesses.


text: It is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, and provides secure support services to the FCDO, other government departments and foreign governments and bodies with which the UK has close links.


text: Since 2011, FCDO Services has been developing the Government Secure Application Environment (GSAE) on a secure cloud computing platform to support UK government organisations. It also manages the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping (UK NACE) which helps protect UK assets from physical, electronic and cyber attack.


text: FCDO Services is a public sector organisation, it is not funded by the public and has to rely on the income it produces to meet its costs, by providing services on a commercial basis to customers both in the UK and throughout the world. Its accounting officer and chief executive is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs and to Parliament, for the organisation's performance and conduct.


text: The FCDO Global Response Office is based in an undisclosed location. It operates 24/7, every day of the year. It takes calls from British Nationals overseas, usually in emergency situations such as lost passports, hospitalisations, deaths and arrests.


text: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office occupies a building which originally provided premises for four separate government departments: the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the Home Office. Construction on the building began in 1861 and finished in 1868, on the plot of land bounded by Whitehall, King Charles Street, Horse Guards Road and Downing Street. The building was designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott. Its architecture is in the Italianate style; Scott had initially envisaged a Gothic design, but Lord Palmerston, then prime minister, insisted on a classical style. The English sculptors Henry Hugh Armstead and John Birnie Philip produced a number of allegorical figures ("Art", "Law", "Commerce", etc.) for the exterior.


text: In 1925 the Foreign Office played host to the signing of the Locarno Treaties, aimed at reducing tension in Europe. The ceremony took place in a suite of rooms that had been designed for banqueting, which subsequently became known as the Locarno Suite. During the Second World War, the Locarno Suite's fine furnishings were removed or covered up, and it became home to a Foreign Office code-breaking department.


text: Due to increasing numbers of staff, the offices became increasingly cramped and much of the fine Victorian interior was covered over—especially after the Second World War. In the 1960s, demolition was proposed, as part of major redevelopment plan for the area drawn up by the architect Leslie Martin. A subsequent public outcry prevented these proposals from ever being implemented. Instead, the Foreign Office became a Grade I listed building in 1970. In 1978, the Home Office moved to a new building, easing overcrowding.


text: With a new sense of the building's historical value, it underwent a 17-year, £100 million restoration process, completed in 1997. The Locarno Suite, used as offices and storage since the Second World War, was fully restored for use in international conferences. The building is now open to the public each year over Open House Weekend.


text: In 2014 refurbishment to accommodate all Foreign and Commonwealth Office employees into one building was started by Mace.


text: International relations are handled centrally from Whitehall on behalf of the whole of the United Kingdom and its dependencies. However, the devolved administrations also maintain an overseas presence in the European Union, the U.S. and China alongside British diplomatic missions. These offices aim to promote their own economies and ensure that devolved interests are taken into account in British foreign policy. Ministers from devolved administrations can attend international negotiations when agreed with the British Government e.g. EU fisheries negotiations. Similarly, ministers from the devolved administrations meet at approximately quarterly intervals through the Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe), chaired by the foreign secretary to "discuss matters bearing on devolved responsibilities that are under discussion within the European Union."


title: Trent Lott

text: Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lawyer, author, and politician. A former United States Senator from Mississippi, Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. He entered Congress as one of the first of a wave of Republicans winning seats in Southern states that had been solidly Democratic. Later in his career, he served twice as Senate Majority Leader, and also, alternately, Senate Minority Leader. In 2003, he stepped down from the position after controversy due to his praising of senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid.


title: Trent Lott

text: From 1968 to 1972, Lott was an administrative assistant to Representative William M. Colmer of Mississippi, who was also the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Upon Colmer's retirement, Lott won Colmer's former seat in the House of Representatives. In 1988, Lott ran successfully for the U.S. Senate to replace another retiree, John C. Stennis. After Republicans took the majority in the Senate, Lott became Senate Majority Whip in 1995 and then Senate Majority Leader in 1996, upon the resignation of presidential nominee Bob Dole of Kansas. Following GOP loses in the 2000 Senate races that resulted in a 50–50 split, Lott briefly became Senate Minority Leader, as Democrat Al Gore was still Vice President and President of the Senate at the beginning of the new term on January 3, 2001. 17 days later, Lott was restored as Senate Majority Leader after Republicans regained control of the chamber upon the inauguration of the new vice president, Dick Cheney on January 20. Lott was Senate Majority Leader until June 6, 2001, when Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords changed his party affiliation from Republican to Independent, and caucused with the Senate Democrats for the remainder of his term. Theresfter, Lott again served as Senate Minority Leader.


title: Trent Lott

text: Following Republican gains in the 2002 midterm elections, Lott was slated to again become Majority Leader when the next Senate session began in January 2003. However, on 20 December 2002, after significant controversy following comments he made regarding Strom Thurmond's presidential candidacy, Lott resigned as Senate Minority Leader.


title: Trent Lott

text: Though no longer in leadership, Lott remained in the Senate until resigning in 2007. Fellow Republican Roger Wicker won the 2008 special election to replace him. Lott became a lobbyist, co-founding the Breaux–Lott Leadership Group. The firm was later acquired by law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs. Lott serves as a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focuses on issues related to energy, national security, transportation and congressional reforms. Lott is also a co-chair of BPC's Energy Project. In June 2020 Lott was fired from the Washington law and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs while negotiating to join another firm. Days later on June 15, 2020, Lott joined Crossroads Strategies along with his longtime colleague John Breaux.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott was born in Grenada, Mississippi, and lived his early years in nearby Duck Hill, where his father, Chester Paul Lott, sharecropped a stretch of cotton field. Lott's mother, the former Iona Watson, was a schoolteacher. Lott's father was a philanderer with a drinking problem, and Lott frequently acted as a mediator when his mother threatened his father with divorce. When Lott was in the sixth grade, the family moved to Pascagoula, where Lott's father worked at a shipyard.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott attended college at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he obtained an undergraduate degree in public administration in 1963 and a Juris doctor degree in 1967. He served as a field representative for Ole Miss and was president of his fraternity, Sigma Nu. Lott was also an Ole Miss cheerleader, on the same team with future U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. At the time that Lott was president, the Sigma Nu fraternity house was raided by the troops from the 716th Battalion during the "Battle of Oxford". They discovered a sizeable weapon cache.


title: Trent Lott

text: Regarding his education, the "Congressional Record" from 1999 quotes Senator Lott declaring: "I am a product of public education from the first grade through the second, third, and fourth grades where I went to school at Duck Hill, Mississippi, and I had better teachers in the second, third, and fourth grades in Duck Hill, Mississippi, than I had the rest of my life." Lott married Patricia Thompson on December 27, 1964. The couple has two children: Chester Trent "Chet" Lott Jr., and Tyler Lott.


title: Trent Lott

text: While an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi, Lott participated in the effort at the 1964 national convention of the Sigma Nu fraternity to oppose a civil rights amendment proposed by the Dartmouth College and Duke University chapters to end mandatory racial exclusion by the fraternity. Lott sided with the segregationists who defeated the amendment. The Dartmouth chapter subsequently seceded from the fraternity, and Sigma Nu remained whites-only until later in the decade.


title: Trent Lott

text: He served as administrative assistant to House Rules Committee chairman William M. Colmer, also of Pascagoula, from 1968 to 1972.


title: Trent Lott

text: In 1972, Colmer, one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, announced his retirement after 40 years in Congress. He endorsed Lott as his successor in Mississippi's 5th District, located in the state's southern tip, even though Lott ran as a Republican. Lott won handily, in large part due to Richard Nixon's landslide victory in that year's presidential election. Nixon won the 5th district with an astonishing 87 percent of the vote; it was his strongest congressional district in the entire nation.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott and his future Senate colleague, Thad Cochran (also elected to Congress that year), were only the second and third Republicans elected to Congress from Mississippi since Reconstruction (Prentiss Walker was the first in 1964). Lott's strong showing in the polls landed him on the powerful House Judiciary Committee as a freshman, where he voted against all three articles of impeachment drawn up against Nixon during the committee's debate. After Nixon released the infamous "smoking gun" transcripts (which proved Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up), however, Lott announced that he would vote to impeach Nixon when the articles came up for debate before the full House (as did the other Republicans who voted against impeachment in committee).


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott became very popular in his district, even though almost none of its living residents had been represented by a Republican before. As evidence, in November 1974, Lott won a second term in a blowout. Cochran was also reelected in a rout; he and Lott were the first Republicans to win a second term in Congress from the state since Reconstruction. They were among the few bright spots in a year that saw many Republicans turned out of office due to anger over Watergate. Lott was re-elected six more times without much difficulty, and even ran unopposed in 1978. However, conservative Democrats continued to hold most of the region's seats in the state legislature, as well as most local offices, well into the 2000s.


title: Trent Lott

text: In 1980, he served as Ronald Reagan's Mississippi state chairman. He served as House Minority Whip (the second-ranking Republican in the House) from 1981 to 1989; he was the first Southern Republican to hold such a high leadership position.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott ran for the Senate in 1988, after 42-year incumbent John Stennis announced he would not run for another term. He defeated Democratic 4th District Congressman Wayne Dowdy by almost eight points. Lott won by running up a 70 percent margin in his congressional district, and was also helped by George H. W. Bush easily carrying the state in the presidential election. He never faced another contest nearly that close. He was re-elected in 1994, 2000, and 2006 with no substantive Democratic opposition. He gave some thought to retirement for much of 2005, however, after Hurricane Katrina, he announced on January 17, 2006 that he would run for a fourth term.


title: Trent Lott

text: In 1989, on the 25th anniversary of the murder of the civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, Lott and the rest of the Mississippi congressional delegation refused to vote for the non-binding resolution honoring the three men which nevertheless passed the Congress.


title: Trent Lott

text: He became Senate Majority Whip when the Republicans took control of the Senate in 1995. In June 1996, he ran for the post of Senate Majority Leader to succeed Republican Bob Dole, who had resigned from the Senate to concentrate on his presidential campaign. Lott faced his Mississippi colleague Thad Cochran, the then-Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. Cochran cast himself as an "institutionalist" and who would help to rebuild public trust in Congress through compromise over conflict. Lott promised a "more aggressive" style of leadership and courted the younger Senate conservatives. Lott won by 44 votes to 8. As majority leader, Lott had a major role in the Senate trial following the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. After the House narrowly voted to impeach Clinton, Lott proceeded with the Senate trial in early 1999, despite criticisms that Republicans were far short of the two-thirds majority required under the Constitution to convict Clinton and remove him from office.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott generally pursued a conservative position in politics and was a noted social conservative. For instance, in 1998, Lott caused some controversy in Congress when as a guest on the Armstrong Williams television show, he equated homosexuality with alcoholism, kleptomania and sex addiction. When Williams, a conservative talk show host, asked Lott whether homosexuality is a sin, Lott simply replied, "Yes, it is." Lott's stance against homosexuality was disconcerting to liberal Democratic Party elected officials and the Human Rights Campaign Fund, an advocacy group for gay rights.


title: Trent Lott

text: According to the Anti-Defamation League, Lott was a frequent speaker at the white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens. Although he denied knowing of the group's intentions, it was later revealed members of his family had CCC membership.


title: Trent Lott

text: After the 2000 elections produced a 50–50 partisan split in the Senate, Vice President Al Gore's tie-breaking vote gave the Democrats the majority from January 3 to 20, 2001, when George W. Bush took office and Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the majority once again. Later in 2001, he became Senate Minority Leader again after Vermont senator Jim Jeffords became an independent and caucused with the Democrats, allowing them to regain the majority. He was due to become majority leader again in early 2003 after Republican gains in the November 2002 elections.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott spoke on December 5, 2002, at the 100th birthday party of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a retiring Republican Senator who had switched parties from the Democrats decades earlier. Thurmond had run for President of the United States in 1948 on the Dixiecrat (or States' Rights Democratic) ticket. Lott said: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either."


title: Trent Lott

text: Thurmond had based his presidential campaign largely on an explicit States' Rights platform that challenged the Civil Rights Movement and later, the Civil Rights Act as illegally overturning the separation of powers under the United States Constitution and called for the preservation of racial segregation. "The Washington Post" reported that Lott had made similar comments about Thurmond's candidacy in a 1980 rally. Lott gave an interview with Black Entertainment Television explaining himself and repudiating Thurmond's former views.


title: Trent Lott

text: In the wake of controversy, Lott resigned as Senate Republican Leader on December 20, 2002, effective at the start of the next session, January 3, 2003. Bill Frist of Tennessee was later elected to the leadership position. In the book "Free Culture", Lawrence Lessig argues that Lott's resignation would not have occurred had it not been for the effect of Internet blogs. He says that though the story "disappear[ed] from the mainstream press within forty-eight hours", "bloggers kept researching the story" until, "finally, the story broke back into the mainstream press." "The New York Times", however, attributed his resignation to "ruthless maneuvering" by Karl Rove and George W. Bush to depose Lott, "a threat to the president’s agenda", and replace him with Frist, who had "long been the president's choice."


title: Trent Lott

text: After losing the Majority Leader post, Lott was less visible on the national scene, although he did break with some standard conservative positions. He battled with Bush over military base closures in his home state. He showed support for passenger rail initiatives, notably his 2006 bipartisan introduction, with Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, of legislation to provide 80 percent federal matching grants to intercity rail and guarantee adequate funding for Amtrak. On July 18, 2006, Lott voted with 19 Republican senators for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act to lift restrictions on federal funding for the research. On November 15, 2006, Lott regained a leadership position in the Senate, when he was named Minority Whip after defeating Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 25–24.


title: Trent Lott

text: Senator John E. Sununu (R) of New Hampshire said, after Lott's election as Senate Minority Whip, "He understands the rules. He's a strong negotiator." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) said he's "the smartest legislative politician I've ever met."


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott faced no Republican opposition in the race. State representative Erik R. Fleming placed first of four candidates in the June Democratic primary, but did not receive the 50 percent of the vote required to earn the party's nomination. Fleming and second-place finisher Bill Bowlin faced off in a runoff on June 27, and Fleming won with 65% of the vote. Fleming, however, was not regarded as a serious opponent, and Lott handily defeated him with 64% of the vote.


title: Trent Lott

text: On November 26, 2007, Lott announced that he would resign his Senate seat by the end of 2007. According to CNN, his resignation was at least partly due to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which forbade lawmakers from lobbying for two years after leaving office. Those who left by the end of 2007 were covered by the previous law, which he cosponsored and which required a wait of only one year. In an interview regarding his resignation, Lott said that the new law "didn't have a big role" in his decision to resign.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott's resignation became effective at 11:30 p.m. on December 18, 2007. On January 7, 2008, it was announced that Lott and former Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, a Democrat, opened their lobbying firm about a block from the White House.


title: Trent Lott

text: In December 2007, he co-founded the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a "strategic advice, consulting, and lobbying" firm together with former Louisiana Senator John Breaux. The firm was later acquired by law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs, now Squire Patton Boggs following the June 2014 merger with Squire Sanders. In September 2014, lobbyist filings revealed that Lott was contracted to advocate on behalf of Gazprombank, a Russian majority state-owned bank targeted with sanctions over the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. Lott was fired by Squire Patton Boggs in June 2020; no explanation was provided for his departure. Lott serves on the board of directors of Airbus North America.


title: Trent Lott

text: On October 10, 2008, Lott was named Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.


title: Trent Lott

text: On February 14, 2009, "The New York Times" reported the indictment of Judge Bobby DeLaughter for taking bribes from Richard Scruggs, Lott's brother-in-law. Scruggs represented Lott in litigation against State Farm Insurance company after the insurer refused to pay claims for the loss of his Mississippi home in Hurricane Katrina. According to "The New York Times," federal prosecutors have said that Lott was induced by Scruggs to offer DeLaughter a federal judgeship in order to gain the judge's favor. In 2012, Lott testified in federal court that he never told DeLaughter that he would be recommended for a federal judgeship.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott is a Freemason, and holds the Grand Cross in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.


title: Trent Lott

text: In 2018 Sacha Baron Cohen's television program "Who Is America?" premiered showing Lott supporting the "kinderguardians program" which supported training toddlers with firearms. Lott appeared not to know it was a hoax.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott's memoir, entitled "", was published in 2005. In the book, Lott spoke about the remark he made at the Strom Thurmond birthday party, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and his feelings of betrayal toward the Tennessee senator, claiming "If Frist had not announced exactly when he did, as the fire was about to burn out, I would still be majority leader of the Senate today." He also described former Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota as "trustworthy". He also revealed that President George W. Bush, then–Secretary of State Colin Powell, and other GOP leaders played a major role in ending his career as Senate Republican Leader.


title: Trent Lott

text: Lott has been quoted as being opposed to homosexuality, comparing it to other issues such as alcoholism.


title: Macramé

text: The primary knots of macramé are the square (or reef knot) and forms of "hitching": various combinations of half hitches. It was long crafted by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms, to cover anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships.


title: Macramé

text: Cavandoli macramé is one variety that is used to form geometric and free-form patterns like weaving. The Cavandoli style is done mainly in a single knot, the double half-hitch knot. Reverse half hitches are sometimes used to maintain balance when working left and right halves of a balanced piece.


title: Macramé

text: Leather or fabric belts are another accessory often created via macramé techniques. Most friendship bracelets exchanged among schoolchildren and teens are created using this method. Vendors at theme parks, malls, seasonal fairs and other public places may sell macramé jewelry or decoration as well.


title: Macramé

text: One of the earliest recorded uses of macramé-style knots as decoration appeared in the carvings of the Babylonians and Assyrians. Fringe-like plaiting and braiding adorned the costumes of the time and were captured in their stone statuary.


title: Macramé

text: Arab weavers knotted excess thread along the edges of hand-loomed fabrics such as towels, shawls, and veils into decorative fringes. The word "macramé" is derived from the Arabic "macramia" (), believed to mean "striped towel", "ornamental fringe" or "embroidered veil". Another school of thought indicates that it comes from Turkish "makrama", "napkin" or "towel". The decorative fringes also helped to keep flies off camels and horses in northern Africa.


title: Macramé

text: The Moorish conquest took the craft to Spain, then Italy, especially in the region of Liguria, then it spread through Europe. In England, it was introduced at the court of Mary II in the late 17th century. Queen Mary taught it to her ladies-in-waiting.


title: Macramé

text: Macramé was most popular in the Victorian era. It adorned most homes in items such as tablecloths, bedspreads and curtains. The popular "Sylvia's Book of Macramé Lace" (1882) showed how "to work rich trimmings for black and coloured costumes, both for home wear, garden parties, seaside ramblings, and balls—fairylike adornments for household and underlinens ...".


title: Macramé

text: It was a specialty in Genoa, and was popular in the 19th century. There, "Its roots were in a 16th-century technique of knotting lace known as "punto a groppo""


title: Macramé

text: Sailors made macramé objects while not busy at sea, and sold or bartered them when they landed. Nineteenth-century British and American sailors made hammocks, bell fringes, and belts from macramé. They called the process "square knotting" after the knot they used most often. Sailors also called macramé "McNamara's lace".


title: Macramé

text: Macramé's popularity faded, but resurged in the 1970s for making wall hangings, clothing accessories, small jean shorts, bedspreads, tablecloths, draperies, plant hangers and other furnishings. Macramé jewelry became popular in America. Using mainly square knots and granny knots, this jewelry often features handmade glass beads and natural elements such as bone and shell. Necklaces, anklets and bracelets have become popular forms of macramé jewelry. By the early 1980s, macramé again began to fall out of fashion, only to be revived by millennials.


title: Macramé

text: Materials used in macramé include cords made of cotton twine, linen, hemp, jute, leather or yarn. Cords are identified by construction, such as a 3-ply cord, made of three lengths of fibre twisted together. Jewelry is often made in combination of both the knots and various beads (of glass, wood, and so on), pendants or shells. Sometimes 'found' focal points are used for necklaces, such as rings or gemstones, either wire-wrapped to allow for securing or captured in a net-like array of intertwining overhand knots. A knotting board is often used to mount the cords for macramé work. Cords may be held in place using a C-clamp, straight pins, T-pins, U-pins, or upholstery pins.


title: Macramé

text: For larger decorative pieces, such as wall hangings or window coverings, a work of macramé might be started out on a wooden or metal dowel, allowing for a spread of dozens of cords that are easy to manipulate. For smaller projects, push-pin boards are available specifically for macramé, although a simple corkboard works adequately. Many craft stores offer beginners' kits, work boards, beads and materials ranging in price for the casual hobbyist or ambitious crafter.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Uttam Kumar (; born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), popularly known as the Mahanayak, was an Indian actor, producer, director, script writer, composer, and singer who predominantly worked in Bengali cinema. Kumar was one of the most successful actors in Bengali cinema history.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar's career spanned three decades, from the late 1940s until his death in 1980. He appeared in over 200 films. Some of his best known films are "Agni Pariksha", "Harano Sur", "Bicharak", "Saptapadi", "Jhinder Bandi", "Sesh Anka", "Deya Neya", "Lal Pathore", "Jatu Griha", "Thana Theke Aschi", "Chowringhee", "Nayak", "Antony Firingee", "Amanush", "Bagh Bondi Khela" and "Chiriyakhana" (1967).


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay was born on 3 September 1926 at a maternal home in Ahiritola in northern Calcutta. His father was Satkari Chattopadhyay and his mother was Chapla Devi. He was from a middle class family. He had two brothers, Barun Kumar and Tarun Kumar. His younger brother Tarun Kumar was also an actor. The nickname "Uttam" was given to him by his maternal grandmother.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar was admitted to Chakraberia High School and later entered South Suburban School (Main) where he passed matriculation. While in school, he led a theatre group called "Lunar Club". Kumar's first role was in Rabindranath Tagore's "Mukut". At the age of ten, he won a trophy for his role in the play. He joined Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration for his higher studies, but was unable to complete this education because of the financial difficulties his family was facing. Then he joined Kolkata Port Trust as a clerk, where he got paid 75 rupees per month.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: He learned singing from Nidanbandhu Banerjee. He learned Lathi Khela and practiced wrestling. He became a champion in swimming at Bhawanipur Swimming Association three years in a row. His family owned an amateur theatre group called Suhrid Samaj.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar entered the film industry in 1947, appearing as an extra in the Hindi film "Mayadore," which was never released. His first released film was the 1948 film "Drishtidan," directed by Nitin Bose and starring Asit Baran. The next year, he appeared as the hero in the film "Kamona", changing his name again to Uttam Chatterjee. Later he changed his name again to Arun Kumar. The 1951 film "Sahajatri" was the first in which he used the name Uttam Kumar, at the advice of Pahari Sanyal. Many of Kumar's early films were flops, and he was nicknamed "Flop Master General".


title: Uttam Kumar

text: In 1952, Kumar had a supporting role in "Basu Poribar", directed by Nirmal Dey, which was his first role to receive praise. The following year, he worked with the same studio and director in the film "Sharey Chuattor", which was his first time paired with Suchitra Sen. His first breakthrough role was in Agradoot's film "Agnipariksha" in 1954.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Satyajit Ray originally approached Kumar to appear in his film "Ghare Baire", which he wrote in 1956. Ray approached Kumar to appear as the role of Sandip, but Kumar refused, believing the role would be better for an established actor. Ray completed the film in 1984, after Kumar's death, casting Soumitra Chatterjee for the role.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar collaborated with Ray for the first time in 1966 on the film "Nayak". After seeing Kumar in "Nayak", actress Elizabeth Taylor was impressed with his performance and wanted to work and meet with him.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: In 1967, Kumar worked with Ray in Chiriyakhana. When the Government of India instituted National Film Awards, Kumar was the first actor to be honored with the National Award for Best Actor at the 15th National Film Awards in 1968 for his performances in "Chiriyakhana" and "Anthony Firingee".


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar produced six Bengali films and one Hindi film. The first films he produced, "Harano Sur" (1957) and "Saptapadi", were under the banner of Alochayas Production. Both films were directed by Ajoy Kar and received the National Film Award. In 1963, he changed the name of his production house to Uttam Kumar Films Private L.T.D. The first film produced under this banner was produced "Bhranti Bilash", which was followed by "Uttar Falguni", "Jatu griha", and "Grihadaha".


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Later, Kumar also directed the films "Sudhu Ekti Bochhor", "Bon Palashir Padaboli", and "Kalankini Kankabati" (released after his death).


title: Uttam Kumar

text: He composed music for the film "Kaal Tumi Aleya", in which Hemanta Mukherjee and Asha Bhosle sang. and also composed "Sabyasachi" (1977). He was also a playback singer in his own film "Nabajanma" (1956). Later he also made a recording singing Rabindra Sangeet. He first sang in the 1950 film "Maryada".


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar acted in theatre before debuting in the film industry. In 1953, he returned to theater, acting in a play called "Shyamali" under the Star Theater banner. "Shyamali" ran for over 480 nights. The director Ajoy Kar made a film based on the play with the same title, "Shyamali". In the 1970s, Kumar directed plays under the organization, Shilpi Sangshad. He directed three plays, "Charankabi Mukunda Das", "Sajahan" and "Charitraheen", but he did not act in these. Later, he acted in "Alibaba".


title: Uttam Kumar

text: In 1956 Raj Kapoor wanted to cast Kumar in the Bengali version of "Jagte Raho", but Kumar declined. In 1962, his friend, composer Hemant Kumar, offered him the lead role in a Hindi film titled Sharmili, directed by Biren Nag. Uttam Kumar was included in promotions for the film, but later cancelled for unknown reasons. Their relationship hit a low point after he rejected it. In 1964, Raj Kapoor approached him to appear in a film under his R.K Films banner, called Sangam, but Kumar rejected it, and the role went to Rajendra Kumar.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar's first Hindi film role was in "Chhoti Si Mulaqat" in 1967, directed by Alo Sarkar and produced by Kumar. The film was adapted from Kumar's earlier Bengali film, "Agni Pariksha". "Chhoti Si Mulaqat" was a failure as the material was considered outdated and lost much of the original film's subtlety. Sarkar's second film starring Kumar, "Bandi" (1978), was also a failure.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar's only success in Hindi was "Amanush". The film, directed by Shakti Samanta, was bilingual in both Bengali and Hindi. Kumar's appeared in another bilingual film directed by Samanta, "Anand Ashram", a remake of the 1941 film "Daktar", which starred Pankaj Mullick and Ahindra Choudhury.


title: Uttam Kumar

text: In the 1960s, a rivalry was started between Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee. In a 2014 interview, Chatterjee said, "I knew Uttamda ever since he was a Kolkata Port Trust employee before becoming a star. We had met at the theatre beforehand. Any talk about our rivalry is baseless as few know how caring he was. He once dragged me jogging to stay and look fit and trim as a hero at the crack of dawn. I woke up in the dawn hearing commotion in the lane outside and then he called me aloud. Waving to the crowd around the Austin we both got inside and drove away - to the lake area."


title: Uttam Kumar

text: Kumar and Suchitra Sen appeared together in many films. They first appeared as co-stars in "Share Chuattor". The film was successful, and was followed by "Agni Pariksha", "Shilpi", "Saptapadi", "Pathe Holo Deri", "Harano Sur", "Chaowa Paowa", "Bipasha", "Jiban Trishna", "Sagarika", "Trijama", "Indrani", "Sabar Upare", "Surjyo Toron", "Rajlakshmi O Sreekanto", "Ekti Raat", "Grihadaha", "Kamallata", "Har Mana Har", and "Alo Amar Alo". They had worked together in 30 films, of which 29 were box-office successes. In an interview Uttam Kumar once said about his chemistry between Suchitra Sen, "Roma saved my career, before Sharey Chuattor every heroine was older than me the so chemistry did not work properly, hence many of my films did not work flopped, then Roma came and I felt I got my heroine. If Roma never came I never would've been the Uttam Kumar."