title: Chicago Police Department

text: "The Guardian" reported in February 2015 that the Chicago Police Department "operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site." "The Guardian" added that the facility, the Homan Square Police Warehouse at 1011 S. Homan Ave in Chicago (), "has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units." "The Guardian" said that interviews with local attorneys and one protester "describe operations that deny access to basic constitutional rights ... The secretive warehouse ... trains its focus on Americans, most often poor, black and brown ... Witnesses, suspects or other Chicagoans who end up inside do not appear to have a public, searchable record entered into a database indicating where they are, as happens when someone is booked at a precinct. Lawyers and relatives insist there is no way of finding their whereabouts. Those lawyers who have attempted to gain access to Homan Square are most often turned away, even as their clients remain in custody inside."


title: Chicago Police Department

text: After "The Guardian" published the story, the Chicago Police provided a statement saying, without specifics, that there is nothing improper taking place at what it called the "sensitive" location, home to undercover units. The statement said "CPD [Chicago Police Department] abides by all laws, rules and guidelines pertaining to any interviews of suspects or witnesses, at Homan Square or any other CPD facility. If lawyers have a client detained at Homan Square, just like any other facility, they are allowed to speak to and visit them." "The Guardian" said several attorneys and one Homan Square arrestee have denied this. The CPD statement continued by saying "There are always records of anyone who is arrested by CPD, and this is not any different at Homan Square." "The Guardian" said the Chicago Police statement did not address how long after an arrest or detention those records are generated or their availability to the public, and that a department spokesperson did not respond to a detailed request for clarification.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: In October 2015, "The Guardian" reported a number of statistics they were able to uncover about the operation of the Homan Square site. They said that between August 2004 and June 2015, more than 7,000 people had been detained there (more than 6,000 of whom were black, a rate more than twice that of the city's population). Only 68 of those were given access to an attorney, there were no known instances in which the public was notified about a detention while the person was being held there, and those held there were not given access to telephones. Despite police directives to rapidly complete the booking process for detainees, there was no booking facility at the site and no such records had been generated there, and some detainees had been kept there for days. The statistics included only people who were eventually charged with a crime, as the police did not release information about those held there without being charged, saying it would be too difficult to provide that information. David Gaeger, an attorney who had represented clients taken to the facility, said "Try finding a phone number for Homan to see if anyone's there. You can't, ever. If you're laboring under the assumption that your client's at Homan, there really isn't much you can do as a lawyer. You're shut out. It's guarded like a military installation." and "That place was and is scary. There's nothing about it that resembles a police station."


title: Chicago Police Department

text: On October 20, 2014, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was fatally shot by Officer Jason Van Dyke. The murder sparked protests and calls for the mayor to resign. A video was released which revealed McDonald walking down a street, carrying a knife. McDonald was walking parallel to the two police cars when he was shot 16 times. A criminal complaint filed in Cook County Circuit Court revealed that Van Dyke was the only officer to shoot, and the complaint also said that McDonald was on PCP at the time of his death. Protestors were frustrated that the video took 13 months to be released. A freelance journalist sued to have the footage released as it was a public record, and a judge found in the reporter's favor and the video became public in November 2015.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Van Dyke was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of official misconduct. He remained on desk duty after the shooting. Van Dyke had a history of complaints in his career but was cleared in a majority of the cases. He pleaded not guilty on December 29, 2015, to the charges against him. After his arraignment, his attorney, Daniel Herbert, said that he would be looking for evidence to clear his client's name. On October 5, 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, but was found not guilty of official misconduct. On January 18, 2019, Van Dyke was sentenced to 6.75 years in prison for the second-degree murder conviction alone.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Due to errors or acting on bad or faulty tips without double-checking information, Chicago police have raided many wrong addresses with no-knock warrants. This has adversely affected goodwill towards officers in the community and cost the city a lot of money in legal settlements. While new search warrant policies have been implemented by the CPD, including mandatory pre-checks and additional supervisors, one victim said she still believes the police department has a long way to go, and is "traumatizing Black Chicagoans in the process".


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Since 1853, the Chicago Police Department has lost 552 officers in the line of duty. By custom, the department retires the stars of fallen officers and mounts them in a display case at Police Headquarters.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: The Chicago Police Department does community policing through the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy program. It was established in 1992 and implemented in 1993 by then-Chicago Police Superintendent Matt L. Rodriguez. The program entails increasing police presence in individual communities with a force of neighborhood-based beat officers. Beat Community Meetings are held regularly for community members and police officials to discuss potential problems and strategies.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Under CAPS, 9-10 beat officers are assigned to each of Chicago's 279 police beats. The officers patrol the same beat for over a year, allowing them to get to know community members, residents, and business owners and to become familiar with community attitudes and trends. The system also allows for those same community members to get to know their respective officers and learn to be comfortable in approaching them for help when needed.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Strategic Subject List (SSL) is an implementation of a computer algorithm developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology. SSL calculates the propensity of individuals committing or being targeted by gun violence. The fourth iteration now in use, has become a helpful indicator of murders, according to Eddie Johnson, recent former Superintendent of Police. The system looks at an individual's past criminal activities and specifically excludes biasing variables like race, gender, ethnicity and location according to Illinois Institute of Technology professor Miles Wernick. The algorithm assigns scores to individuals based on criminal records as well as any known gang affiliations and other variables.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: As of 2016, the CPD created a list 1,400 of "strategic subjects" that has proven to be accurate and helpful to the department. In 2016, over 70 percent of the people shot have been on the list, and 80 percent of the shooters. According to the CPD, 117 of the 140 people arrested during a citywide gang raid performed in 2016 were on the list. The list is used by social workers and community leaders.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Chicago police officers are required to buy their own duty equipment (except Taser x2 and Motorola radio Motorola phone). All field officers must also be qualified to carry a Taser. Some officers choose to carry a backup weapon as well, which must meet certain specifications and requires annual qualification.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Officers who were hired on or before 1 December 1991 may keep their older double-action/single-action pistols, as well as their 4" barrel Smith & Wesson, Ruger or Colt revolvers in .38 Special or .357 Magnum. Recruits hired on or after 28 August 2015 must choose from Springfield Armory, Smith & Wesson, or Glock striker-fired 9mm pistols. Officers hired before 19 May 2008 may continue to use the Double Action Only (DAO) Beretta, Ruger, SIG Sauer, and S&W pistols for duty use.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: It was reported in June 2018 that the agency would allow the authorization of the SIG Sauer P320 as another service pistol to be chosen by officers to carry. Shortly after the P320 appeared on the authorized firearms list.


title: Chicago Police Department

text: Patrol vehicles contain long gun racks. Remington 870 12-gauge shotguns are available in the event that additional firepower is needed. Officers must complete five days of training to carry an AR-15 type rifle and have the option to purchase their own or use a department-provided one.


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: Anne-Marie Johnson (born July 18, 1960) is an American actress and impressionist. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Nadine Hudson–Thomas in "What's Happening Now!!" (1985–1988), and Althea Tibbs in "In the Heat of the Night" (1988–1993). Johnson is known as a cast member of the FOX sketch comedy television series "In Living Color" (1993–1994) during its final season, and has had recurring or regular roles in "Melrose Place", "JAG", "Girlfriends" and "The InBetween".


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: Anne-Marie Johnson was born in Los Angeles, California. For high school, she attended John Marshall High School, graduating in 1978. Johnson graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in Acting and Theater.


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: Johnson's first US television appearance was as a contestant on the game show "Card Sharks" that originally aired on June 5, 1979, where her name was listed as Anne Johnson. She appeared on the game show "Child's Play" under her full name as well as a pilot episode for the game show "Body Language" as Anne Marie Johnson, where she described herself as a "struggling actress". Johnson began her career appearing in episodes of the Australian dramas "Homicide" and "Matlock Police" in the 1970s. In 1984, she played the role of Aileen Lewis on the short-lived NBC comedy series "Double Trouble", and at the same time had a recurring role on the NBC police drama "Hill Street Blues".


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: She played Raj's wife Nadine Hudson Thomas in the syndicated sitcom "What's Happening Now!!" from 1985 to 1988. In 1988, Johnson began starring as Althea Tibbs in the NBC/CBS police drama series "In the Heat of the Night", playing the role through 1993. While appearing on "In the Heat of the Night," Johnson recorded the song "Little Drummer Boy" for the 1991 cast Christmas CD "Christmas Time's A Comin". Providing vocals behind her were country gospel group The Marksmen Quartet. The song was produced by co-stars Randall Franks and Alan Autry. She also appeared in a number of movies including "Robot Jox" (1989), which featured her only career nude scene, "The Five Heartbeats" (1991), "True Identity" (1991), and "Strictly Business" (1991). On television, she played a leading role in the 1989 film "Dream Date" and starred as Carrie Jones/Carolyn Dimes in the 1990 miniseries "Lucky Chances".


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: After leaving "In the Heat of the Night", Johnson joined the cast of the Fox sketch comedy series "In Living Color" in its last season (1993–1994). She portrayed Alycia Barnett in the Fox prime-time soap opera "Melrose Place" from 1995 to 1996. From 1997 to 2002, she had a recurring role on the CBS series "JAG" as Representative Bobbi Latham. She also has made guest appearances on other TV series, including That's So Raven "Living Single"; "Murder, She Wrote"; "Leverage"; "Ally McBeal"; "Girlfriends"; "The Parkers"; "Dharma & Greg"; ""; "NCIS"; "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" and "Grey's Anatomy".


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: In 2019, she had a regular role in the short-lived NBC drama "The InBetween" and in 2020 had a recurring roles in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama "Cherish the Day" and ABC legal thriller "How to Get Away with Murder".


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: Johnson was elected first national vice president of the Screen Actors Guild in 2008. She ran for president of the actors' union in 2009 on the Membership First ticket, but she lost to eventual winner Ken Howard.


title: Anne-Marie Johnson

text: Johnson has been married once and has no children. Since January 1, 1996, she has been married to Martin Grey.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: Elsa Einstein (18 January 1876 – 20 December 1936) was the second wife and cousin of Albert Einstein. Their mothers were sisters, thus making them maternal first cousins. Further, their fathers were first cousins, making the couple paternal second cousins too. Elsa had the surname of Einstein at birth, lost it when she took the name of her first husband Max Löwenthal, and regained it in 1919 when she married her cousin Albert.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: Elsa, the daughter of Rudolf Einstein and Fanny Einstein (née Koch), was born in Hechingen on 18 January 1876. She had two sisters: Paula (c. 1878–c. 1955) and Hermine (1872–1942). Rudolf was a textile manufacturer in Hechingen. During the regular visits with the family in Munich, she often played with her cousin Albert. In her Swabian dialect, she called him "Albertle". The two parted ways in 1894, when Albert left Germany to follow his family to Milan.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: In 1896, Elsa married textile trader Max Löwenthal (1864–1914), from Berlin, with whom she had three children: daughters Ilse (1897–1934) and Margot (1899–1986), and a son who was born in 1903, but died shortly after birth. They lived together in Hechingen. In 1902, Max Löwenthal took a job in Berlin. His family stayed in Hechingen. She divorced Max on 11 May 1908, and moved with her two daughters to an apartment above her parents on Haberlandstrasse 5, in Berlin. She and her daughters reverted to her maiden name, Einstein, after her 1908 divorce.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: She began a relationship with her cousin Albert Einstein in April 1912, while Albert was still married to his first wife, the physicist and mathematician Mileva Marić. Einstein separated from Mileva in July 1914. He sent her with the two sons back to Zürich. Their dedicated divorce was final on 10 February 1919. Elsa married him three and a half months later, on 2 June 1919.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: With stepdaughters Ilse and Margot, the Einsteins formed a close-knit family. Although Albert and Elsa did not have any children of their own, Albert raised Ilse and Margot as his own. They lived in the Berlin area, also having since 1929 a summer house in Caputh in nearby Potsdam. Ilse also served as Einstein's secretary for a brief period.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: Elsa spent most of her marriage with Albert acting as his gatekeeper, protecting him from unwelcome visitors and charlatans. She also was the driving force behind building their summer house.


title: Elsa Einstein

text: In 1933, Albert and Elsa Einstein immigrated to Princeton, New Jersey, US. In autumn 1935, they moved to a house at 112 Mercer Street, bought that August, but shortly afterwards Elsa developed a swollen eye and was diagnosed with heart and kidney problems. When Elsa was diagnosed, Einstein decided to spend much of his time in his studies. It was stated in Walter Isaacson's book, "", that he believed "strenuous intellectual work and looking at God's nature are the reconciling, fortifying yet relentlessly strict angels that shall lead me through all of life's troubles". Thus did Einstein try to escape from his troubles by focusing on work that would distract him from Elsa's dying. Elsa died after a painful illness on 20 December 1936, in the house on Mercer Street.


title: The Millionaire Detective Balance: Unlimited

text: It premiered on April 9, 2020, on Fuji TV's Noitamina anime programming block, but postponed programming after the second episode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series restarted its broadcasting from July 16 to September 24, 2020.


text: Daisuke Kambe, a detective with extreme personal wealth, is assigned to the Modern Crime Prevention Headquarters. Officers who have caused problems for the Metropolitan Police Department are sent to this place. Daisuke is partnered with Haru Katou, who is repulsed by Daisuke's bribery. Challenging mysteries unfold in front of the two detectives, who must work together to solve them.


text: On January 20, 2020, Noitamina announced that a new anime television series directed by Tomohiko Itō was in production. The series is animated by CloverWorks, with Taku Kishimoto handing series composition, Keigo Sasaki designing the characters, and Yugo Kanno composing the series' music. The opening theme titled "Navigator" is performed by SixTones while Okamoto's performs the series' ending theme song "Welcome My Friend". The series premiered its first two episodes on April 9, 2020 and April 16, 2020 respectively, but had to delay later episodes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series restarted its broadcasting on July 16, 2020, and ended on September 24, 2020.


text: Aniplex of America licensed the series, and streamed the series internationally outside Asia on FunimationNow, AnimeLab, and Wakanim. In Southeast Asia and South Asia, the series is licensed by Medialink and released on Ani-One YouTube channel, and iQIYI in Southeast Asia.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Fiat Punto is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by the Italian manufacturer Fiat from 1993 to 2018, spanning over three generations. The third generation of the car was marketed between 2005 and 2009 as the Grande Punto, and between 2009 and 2012 as the Punto Evo, when the single-word Punto name was reintroduced. , nearly nine million units had been sold globally.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Production of the first generation Punto was 3.429 million units, second generation 2.96 million units, and third generation 2.67 million units.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Internally codenamed "Project 176", the Punto was announced in September 1993, as a replacement for the aging Fiat Uno, and launched at the end of 1993 or the beginning of 1994, depending on the market. The Fiat Punto was voted European Car of the Year for 1995, defeating rival Volkswagen Polo by only 78 points.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Punto was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and originated as a 1990 design proposal for Renault's project X57, which would become the Renault Clio. When Giugiaro's proposal was not chosen, he took the design to Fiat, who accepted it. The Punto was available as a three-door or five-door hatchback, a two-door cabriolet and a three-door panel van. As the majority of the new Fiat group models, the suspension was all independent, composed of MacPherson struts at the front and trailing arms at the rear.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Entry level in the Punto range were the 1.1 and 1.2 L petrol engines and the 1.7 diesel engine. The 1.2 engine's actual capacity is 1242 cc, available in three versions. The first, was fitted in the Punto ELX 75 and produced at 6000 rpm while the second, fitted to Punto ELX 85 produced at 6000 rpm.


title: Fiat Punto

text: A Sporting model was also available with a 1.6 8v updated 128 SOHC engine, producing , later replaced in 1997 by the 1.2 16v FIRE engine used in the 85 ELX, and a power drop to .


title: Fiat Punto

text: The top of the range model was the 1.4 GT, using an evolution of the turbocharged 128 SOHC engine originally found in the Fiat Uno Turbo Mk II, capable of running over and reaching in 7.9 seconds, and came fitted with a five speed manual gearbox.


title: Fiat Punto

text: During the years, the GT was made in three different "series" with power (1993–1995), (1995–1997) and (1997–1999).


title: Fiat Punto

text: A cabriolet (convertible) version was also available; built by Bertone (rather than at the main Fiat factory), it featured an electric-powered fully retracting roof and was one of the cheapest open-top cars in the world at the time. In Europe, the car was also made with a manual roof.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Available in both ELX and SX trim, initially powered by the 1.6 Mpi unit (replaced in 1995 by the 1.2 litre 16v unit FIRE). Approximately 55,000 cars were built between April 1994 and June 1999, although the last cars were registered in 2000.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Particular versions of the first generation Punto were the Punto 6Speed, a 1.1 FIRE Punto 55 with a six-speed gearbox, the Punto Selecta with a CVT type automatic gearbox, and the Punto ED (Economical Drive), a 1.1 Punto whose five-speed gearbox was designed for high fuel efficiency.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The second generation Punto codenamed "Project 188", was launched in September 1999 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The styling was all-new while retaining the original Punto's distinctive shape and design, while the chassis and interior were completely overhauled, with a new torsion beam rear suspension.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The new Punto also became the first Fiat in decades to carry the original round Fiat badge to celebrate Fiat's centenary.


title: Fiat Punto

text: At the launch event of the hatchback, the Fiat Wish concept car was also presented, which was hardtop convertible version of the Fiat Punto, very similar in styling with the Peugeot 206 CC. The model was conceived by Pininfarina to celebrate the centenary of Fiat.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The 1.1 and 1.4 engines were discontinued due to emissions issues and the entry level models had only a 1.2 petrol unit, with either 8 or 16 valves, giving and respectively, or a 1.9L diesel, with common rail injection and turbocharger or naturally aspired with mechanical injection.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Two sporty versions were offered. The 1.2 16 valve Sporting model with a six-speed manual, and the 1.8 HGT which could reach almost . The 1.2 16V model also has a Speedgear CVT equipped variant (with a sequential manual shift mode consisting of six gears, seven for the Sporting model).


title: Fiat Punto

text: The 1.8 HGT accelerates from 0 to 60 in 8.0 seconds. It was considered a big improvement in handling over the Punto GT. The HGT was also available (in limited numbers) as an "HGT Abarth" which added deeper bumpers, rear spoiler, side skirts, new alloy wheels, and interior trim. The HGT Abarth had no technical improvements over the regular HGT.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The second generation Punto has also adopted the Dualdrive electric power steering and came with two operation modes, using an electric motor, rather than a hydraulic pump driven by the engine.


title: Fiat Punto

text: This resulted in reduced fuel consumption and less environmental impact. It has a fuel economy of , urban and , extra urban for the 1.9 diesel. The 1.8 petrol does , urban and , extra urban.


title: Fiat Punto

text: At the beginning of 2003, Fiat celebrated the rollout of the 5,000,000th production Punto. During the same year, the second generation facelift brought further revisions to the platform, including extensive changes to the exterior styling and engines, partly due to changes in pedestrian safety regulations.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The round Fiat badge, found only on the bonnet of second-generation models, was introduced on the tailgate of the second generation facelift. On 1 June 2005, Fiat produced the 6,000,000th Punto at the Melfi plant.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Engine changes included a new 1.4 L 16v engine, alongside the staple 1.2 and 1.2 L 16v variants, and the introduction of two HGT versions, the 1.9 L MultiJet diesel engine and the 1.8 L 16v petrol engine, which could reach almost continued over from the pre-facelift version. There was an introduction also of the 1.3 L common rail diesel MultiJet engine.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Despite the launch of the slightly larger Grande Punto at the end of 2005, the second generation Punto remained in production, marketed as the Punto Classic, and has been sold in many emerging markets in addition to the newer versions. It was launched for the first time in Chile in 2007. It ended production in Italy in November 2010.


title: Fiat Punto

text: In October 2005, Serbian automotive manufacturer Zastava reached an agreement with Fiat to assemble this version under licence in Kragujevac, Serbia, with the model name Zastava 10. After acquiring a majority stake in Zastava in the autumn of 2008, Fiat continued production of this vehicle under the Fiat Punto Classic name from March 2009.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Production was stopped in middle of 2011, and restarted in 2013, albeit very briefly. It has been available with the 1.2 litre petrol engine and later, also with the 1.3 litre diesel engine, the version of 2013 featured a newer, more modern engine.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Punto was initially released in four different trim levels: "S", "SX", "ELX" and "HLX", that were later renamed to "Actual", "Active", "Dynamic" and "Emotion". Three special versions of the three door hatchback were also available: "Sporting", "HGT" and "Abarth". The 'Sporting' had a six speed manual gearbox as standard.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The top-level included such features as ABS, front and side airbags, window bags, remote central locking, front power windows, electrical power steering, air conditioning, a trip computer with four functions, CD player, CD changer, alloy rims and fog lamps. Options such as navigation and burglar alarm were also offered.


title: Fiat Punto

text: After the facelift, it also received EBD, ESP with ASR and hill holder, climate control with double zone heating, heated seats, MP3 player and subwoofer (HGT only), rear parking sensors and cruise control as an option. A revised instrument panel with a larger display could now show the instant consumption too.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Four petrol engines with multi-point injection system were available, as well as one indirect injection diesel and three common rail turbocharged diesel engines with intercooler (JTD and MultiJet). The 1.8 16v and the 1.9 MultiJet engines were available only with the three-door version in the HGT trim level.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Grande Punto, codenamed "Project 199", was unveiled at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show and went on sale later on that year. Again styled by Giugiaro, the car is based on the Fiat Small platform developed in joint venture with Opel-General Motors.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The third generation Fiat to bear the name Punto, codenamed "Project 199", the Grande Punto was unveiled at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show and went on sale later that year. Styled by Giugiaro, the car is based on the GM Fiat Small platform.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Whilst the model shares some of its name with the previous Punto, a large number of its components are new, including a new chassis and body shell.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The engines are the Fiat 1.2 8v Fire (65 PS), a new 1.4 8v Fire (77 PS) and the 1.4 16v StarJet (95 PS). Four MultiJet diesel engines are also available: two 1.3 16v units ( and , the latter with a variable geometry turbocharger) and two 1.9 with and , all of them with diesel particulate filter. The 1.9 diesel was replaced with the new 1.6 MultiJet starting the end of 2008.


title: Fiat Punto

text: All the engines are Euro IV compliant. In 2007, a new 1.4 16v T-Jet turbocharged petrol engine, , became available. At the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, Fiat introduced an Abarth version by Abarth & C S.p.A. It was branded as an Abarth rather than Fiat.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The car's nose, headlights and front grill look reminiscent of the Maserati Coupé (both were designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign).


title: Fiat Punto

text: In Australia, Fiat introduced the Grande Punto in July 2006, sold only as the Punto; it was the first Fiat to be sold in Australia since 1989. In 2009, the Punto was discontinued in Australia, due to slow sales. The car was reintroduced in 2013 after Fiat began factory distribution in Australia, the car was repriced at a much lower price, that was more in keeping with its rivals. In September 2015, the Punto was once again pulled from the Australian market due to slow sales.


title: Fiat Punto

text: It was launched in Mexico in November 2006. The Grande Punto is placed above the Fiat Palio in the Mexican Fiat car lineup. Initially it was sold with the 1.4 16v StarJet engine with six speed manual gearbox in five door Dynamic and three door Sport trims. In December 2007, the 1.4 16v T-Jet variant was launched.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Italian made Grande Punto was launched in Chile and the Dominican Republic in petrol and diesel versions. The Grande Punto also went on sale in South Africa in 2006, replacing the previous generation.


title: Fiat Punto

text: In the rest of South America, the Brazilian built Grande Punto (called only Punto) was launched in August 2007. Codenamed "Project 310", it is produced in the factory of Betim, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The chassis is an adaptation of the Fiat Palio, a lower cost compact. Levels of safety were not maintained (airbags and ABS are optional on lower trim levels, and the highest one has only two airbags as standard), but the ride comfort is said to be the same.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The five door version was the only one available in the Brazilian line, and there were no plans for a two-door version (in Brazil, two door vehicles are only accepted for cheaper cars). The engines available at launch were the 1.4 Fire 8v and the 1.8 Ecotec-Family 1 X18XE engine that comes from GM-Fiat/Powertrain, and later the 1.4 Fire 16v TurboJet, also available for the Linea.


title: Fiat Punto

text: For the model of 2011, there were added the new E.TorQ engines 1.6 16v and 1.8 16v. Produced by Fiat Powertrain Technologies, they were based on the discontinued Tritec engines. All non Turbo petrol models produced in Brazil are flex-fuel.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Grande Punto was launched in India during the Delhi Auto Expo in January 2008, with sales starting in June 2009. The Punto for the Indian market was manufactured by the Fiat / Tata Motors joint venture Fiat India Automobiles Ltd (FIAL) in a new plant in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra and based on the same 310 project of the Brazilian Punto.


title: Fiat Punto

text: A related sedan car, the Fiat Linea, was launched in the beginning of 2007 to replace the ageing Fiat Marea. It is built on an extended version of the Grande Punto's chassis, with a total length of , making it part of the superior small family car segment.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Grande Punto was awarded with five stars in the Euro NCAP crash test for passenger protection, and three stars certification for pedestrian safety. The most powerful engines have electronic stability program and anti slip regulation fitted as standard, and it is an optional extra on some of the lower powered engines.


title: Fiat Punto

text: However, in a later test in December 2017, the car was retested with a zero star rating by Euro NCAP, receiving 51% for adult occupants, 43% for child occupant, 52% for pedestrian and 0% for safety assist. One of the given reasons for this is the fact that the third generation Punto was launched in 2005, making the car a twelve year old model, whose safety standards were never actually updated.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The first car from the newly created (2007) Fiat owned Abarth & C. S.p.A., the Abarth Grande Punto differs significantly from its donor car.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Initially the Abarth Grande Punto was released with a 150 PS (155 PS when using 97 RON fuel) 1.4 turbo engine, but from 2008, there was available an Essesse kit, which could be installed at official Abarth service centres rather than in the factory. Amongst various refinements included uprated brakes and suspension, the Essesse kit provided an uprated power output of .


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Punto Evo, a facelift version of the Grande Punto, was presented in September 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It received a new front end, in addition to revised rear lights, and a new interior. It has two new engines, a 1.3 L second generation Multijet diesel and a 1.4 L petrol engine with the MultiAir technology. It also features a new navigation system integrated to the Blue&Me system called Blue&Me–TomTom.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Abarth Punto Evo was shown at 2010 Geneva Motor Show. It has a MultiAir Turbo inline-four engine. The top speed is and acceleration from 0 to takes 7.5 seconds.


title: Fiat Punto

text: A new Esseesse version was released in 2011, which was an optional upgrade that improved performance, with a 0– time of 7.3 seconds. The Abarth Punto Evo was discontinued in 2015, after slow sales.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Fiat introduced the 2012 Punto in September 2011 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, as a facelifted version of the Punto Evo that reintroduced the Punto nomenclature (without "Grande" or "Evo"). The facelift was consisted of slighter tweaks than changing from Grande Punto to Punto Evo, keeping the revised rear lights and interior of the 2009 Punto Evo, but not on the base 'Pop' trim level which reverted to the older Grande Punto interior.


title: Fiat Punto

text: In October 2014, "Top Gear Magazine" placed the Punto Pop 1.2 liter 8v 69 on its list of "The Worst Cars You Can Buy Right Now", describing the car as "An outclassed elderly supermini that kicks out 126 g/km yet takes 14.4 secs to wheeze to 62 mph, and it costs more than £10k."


title: Fiat Punto

text: From 2015 (when the production of three door version was cancelled) only five door version was available in Europe.


title: Fiat Punto

text: In June 2016, Fiat introduced the new "Techno Pack" with the 5” touchscreen infotainment system and cruise control. Production of the Punto ended on 7 August 2018, with no direct successor being announced. However, it continued to sell in India for an additional two more months before production ended in October of that year. The last Punto assembled in Melfi was a red five door model.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Production of the Punto finally ended in August 2018, with no direct successor being announced. However, it continued to be sold in India until production also ended there in October of that year.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Fiat India gave the Punto Evo an extensive and exclusive facelift in August 2014. The facelift consisted of large, swept back headlamps, a new grille and chrome inserts, whilst the rear of the car received LED taillamps from its European twin, and the dashboard from the European car. This car also sports an SUV like ground clearance of 185mm for diesel and 195mm for petrol to suit Indian roads. In August 2015, Fiat launched in India the Abarth brand, imported from Poland the Abarth 595 Competizione and the locally produced Abarth Punto, based on the 310-Punto five door.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Indian Abarth Punto come with a 1.4 Turbojet engine with and new sport kit for exterior and interior including revised Abarth badge and retuned chassis. Transmission is a five speed manual.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Fiat India launched a crossover version of the Punto Evo called Avventura in India on 21 October 2014, at a base price of INR 5.99 Lakh. The Avventura was aimed at the market inhabited by the likes of Toyota Etios Cross, Volkswagen CrossPolo and Ford EcoSport.


title: Fiat Punto

text: Production in India ended in November 2018, together with the Abarth and Adventure versions. As a result, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles decided to withdraw the Fiat brand from the Indian market, leaving space to the brand of Jeep.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Punto Van is a compact van designed for the commercial market. It features a petrol 1.2 8v engine, a petrol/CNG 1.2 8v engine, and a diesel 1.3 MultiJet 16v engine.


title: Fiat Punto

text: The Punto has always been popular with amateur racing drivers due to its low cost and the wide availability of spare parts. Numerous competition and homologated versions of the Punto have been produced, such as the Punto Rally, the S1600, and the Punto Abarth.


title: Fiat Punto

text: A new rally car based on the third generation Punto, the Super 2000 Punto Abarth, was unveiled in 2005. It is four-wheel drive and powered by a 2.0 L 16 valve engine capable of producing . Also, a turbodiesel front wheel drive rally car has been produced, the Fiat Grande Punto R3D.


title: Fiat Punto

text: A motorsport version of the car can be found in several liveries in the video games "Colin McRae Rally 04", "", "Sega Rally Revo" and "Gran Turismo 6".


The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: "Commission électrotechnique internationale") is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology". IEC standards cover a vast range of technologies from power generation, transmission and distribution to home appliances and office equipment, semiconductors, fibre optics, batteries, solar energy, nanotechnology and marine energy as well as many others. The IEC also manages four global conformity assessment systems that certify whether equipment, system or components conform to its international standards.


title: International Electrotechnical Commission

text: All electrotechnologies are covered by IEC Standards, including energy production and distribution, electronics, magnetics and electromagnetics, electroacoustics, multimedia, telecommunication and medical technology, as well as associated general disciplines such as terminology and symbols, electromagnetic compatibility, measurement and performance, dependability, design and development, safety and the environment.


text: The first International Electrical Congress took place in 1881 at the International Exposition of Electricity, held in Paris. At that time the International System of Electrical and Magnetic Units was agreed to.


text: The International Electrotechnical Commission held its inaugural meeting on 26 June 1906, following discussions among the British Institution of Electrical Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and others, which began at the 1900 Paris International Electrical Congress, with British engineer R. E. B. Crompton playing a key role. In 1906, Lord Kelvin was elected as the first President of the International Electrotechnical Commission.


text: The IEC was instrumental in developing and distributing standards for units of measurement, particularly the gauss, hertz, and weber. It was also first to promote the Giorgi System of standards, later developed into the SI, or "Système International d'unités" (in English, the International System of Units).


text: In 1938, it published a multilingual international vocabulary to unify terminology relating to electrical, electronic and related technologies. This effort continues, and the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary is published online as the "Electropedia".


text: The CISPR ("Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques") – in English, the International Special Committee on Radio Interference – is one of the groups founded by the IEC.


text: Currently, 88 countries are IEC members while another 84 participate in the Affiliate Country Programme, which is not a form of membership but is designed to help industrializing countries get involved with the IEC. Originally located in London, the IEC moved to its current headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in 1948.


text: It has regional centres in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya), Asia (Singapore), Oceania (Sydney, Australia), Latin America (São Paulo, Brazil) and North America (Worcester, Massachusetts, United States).


text: The work is done by some 10,000 electrical and electronics experts from industry, government, academia, test labs and others with an interest in the subject.


text: The IEC cooperates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). In addition, it works with several major standards development organizations, including the IEEE with which it signed a cooperation agreement in 2002, which was amended in 2008 to include joint development work.


text: IEC standards that are not jointly developed with ISO have numbers in the range 60000–79999 and their titles take a form such as "IEC 60417: Graphical symbols for use on equipment". Following the Dresden Agreement with CENELEC the numbers of older IEC standards were converted in 1997 by adding 60000, for example IEC 27 became IEC 60027. Standards of the 60000 series are also found preceded by EN to indicate that the IEC standard is also adopted by CENELEC as a European standard; for example IEC 60034 is also available as EN 60034.


text: Standards developed jointly with ISO, such as ISO/IEC 26300 ("Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0"), ISO/IEC 27001 ("Information technology, Security techniques, Information security management systems, Requirements"), and ISO/IEC 17000 series, carry the acronym of both organizations. The use of the ISO/IEC prefix covers publications from ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 – "Information Technology", as well as conformity assessment standards developed by ISO CASCO (Committee on conformity assessment) and IEC CAB (Conformity Assessment Board). Other standards developed in cooperation between IEC and ISO are assigned numbers in the 80000 series, such as IEC 82045–1.


text: IEC standards are also being adopted by other certifying bodies such as BSI (United Kingdom), CSA (Canada), UL & ANSI/INCITS (United States), SABS (South Africa), Standards Australia, SPC/GB (China) and DIN (Germany). IEC standards adopted by other certifying bodies may have some noted differences from the original IEC standard.


text: The IEC is made up of members, called national committees, and each NC represents its nation's electrotechnical interests in the IEC. This includes manufacturers, providers, distributors and vendors, consumers and users, all levels of governmental agencies, professional societies and trade associations as well as standards developers from national standards bodies. National committees are constituted in different ways. Some NCs are public sector only, some are a combination of public and private sector, and some are private sector only. About 90% of those who prepare IEC standards work in industry. IEC Member countries include:


text: In 2001 and in response to calls from the WTO to open itself to more developing nations, the IEC launched the Affiliate Country Programme to encourage developing nations to become involved in the commission's work or to use its International Standards. Countries signing a pledge to participate in the work and to encourage the use of IEC Standards in national standards and regulations are granted access to a limited number of technical committee documents for the purposes of commenting. In addition, they can select a limited number of IEC Standards for their national standards' library. Countries participating in the Affiliate Country Programme are:


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis, is the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, escaped from a laboratory. Most scientists believe the virus spilled into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history. Available evidence suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was originally harbored by bats, and spread to humans multiple times from infected wild animals at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan in December 2019.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 existed in any laboratory prior to the pandemic. An original animal reservoir has not yet been confirmed, though several candidate species have been identified. Central to the idea of a Chinese leak is the misconception that it is distinctively suspicious that an outbreak should happen to occur in a city with a virology institute (the Wuhan Institute of Virology) nearby; most large Chinese cities have similar institutes. The idea of a leak there also gained support due to suspicions about the secrecy of the Chinese government's response and has been informed by racist undercurrents. Scientists from WIV had previously collected SARS-related coronaviruses from bats; allegations that they also performed undisclosed risky work on such viruses is central to some versions of the idea. Another version of the idea posits an American laboratory origin. Some versions, particularly those alleging genome engineering, are based on misinformation or misrepresentations of scientific evidence.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The idea that the virus was released from a laboratory (accidentally or deliberately) appeared early in the pandemic. The theory gained popularity in the United States through promotion by conservative figures including president Donald Trump and other Republicans in the spring of 2020, fomenting tensions between the U.S. and China. At the time, politicians and media outlets widely dismissed it as a conspiracy theory. The accidental lab leak idea had a resurgence in 2021. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report which deemed the possibility "extremely unlikely". Director-General Tedros said the report's conclusions were not definitive and data had been withheld. In June 2021, the WHO announced plans for laboratory audits, which China rejected.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In October 2021, the U.S. Intelligence Community released a report assessing that the Chinese government had no foreknowledge of the outbreak and the virus was likely not engineered. The report did not conclusively favor any origin scenario. Of eight assembled teams, one (the FBI) leaned towards a lab leak (with moderate confidence), four others and the National Intelligence Council leaned towards zoonosis (with low confidence), and three were inconclusive. In May 2021, British intelligence agencies said a Chinese lab leak was "feasible". A July 2021 Politico-Harvard poll found 52 percent of Americans believe COVID-19 leaked from a lab (including 59 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats), compared to 28 percent that believe COVID-19 resulted from human contact with an infected animal.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Most scientists have remained skeptical of the idea, citing a lack of supporting evidence, while a minority regard both a lab leak and natural origin as equally valid. Some scientists agree a lab leak origin should be examined as part of ongoing investigations, though they have expressed concerns about politicization. In July 2022, two papers published in the journal "Science" described new epidemiological and genetic evidence that the pandemic likely began at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market and did not come from a laboratory. The new evidence led a co-author of the papers, Edward C. Holmes, to declare that "The siren has definitely sounded on the lab leak theory."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Most new infectious diseases begin with a spillover event from animals, and furthermore, they spill over spontaneously (either by contact with wildlife animals, which are the majority of cases, or with farmed animals). For example, the emergence of Nipah virus in Perak, Malaysia and the 2002 outbreak of SARS-CoV-1 in Guangdong province, China, were natural zoonosis traced back to wildlife origin. COVID-19 is considered by scientists to be "of probable animal origin". It has been classified as a zoonotic disease (naturally transmissible from animals to humans). Some scientists dispute this classification, since a natural reservoir has not been confirmed. The original source of viral transmission to humans remains unclear, as does whether the virus became pathogenic (capable of causing disease) before or after a spillover event.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Bats, a large reservoir of betacoronaviruses, are considered the most likely natural reservoir of SARS‑CoV‑2. Differences between bat coronaviruses and SARS‑CoV‑2 suggest that humans may have been infected via an intermediate host. Research into the natural reservoir of the virus that caused the 2002 SARS outbreak has resulted in the discovery of many SARS-like coronaviruses circulating in bats, most found in horseshoe bats. Analysis of related viruses indicates that samples taken from "Rhinolophus sinicus" show a resemblance of 80% to SARS‑CoV‑2. Analysis also indicates that a virus collected from "Rhinolophus affinis" in a cave in Yunnan province, designated RaTG13, has a 96% resemblance to SARS‑CoV‑2. The RaTG13 virus genome was the closest known sequence to SARS-CoV-2 until the discovery of BANAL-52 in horseshoe bats in Laos, but it is not its direct ancestor. Other closely-related sequences were also identified in samples from local bat populations in Yunnan province. One such virus, RpYN06, shares 97% identity with SARS-CoV-2 in one large part of its genome, but 94% identity overall. Such "chunks" of very highly identical nucleic acids are often implicated as evidence of a common ancestor.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: An ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 likely acquired "generalist" binding to several different species through adaptive evolution in bats and an intermediate host species. Estimates based on genomic sequences and contact tracing have placed the origin point of SARS-CoV-2 in humans as between mid-October and mid-November 2019. Some scientists (such as Fauci above and CIRAD's Roger Frutos) have suggested slow, undetected circulation in a smaller number of humans before a threshold event (such as replication in a larger number of hosts in a larger city like Wuhan) could explain an undetected adaption period.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The first known human infections from SARS‑CoV‑2 were discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Because many of the early infectees were workers at the Huanan Seafood Market, it was originally suggested that the virus might have originated from wild animals sold in the market, including civet cats, racoon dogs, bats, or pangolins. Subsequent environmental analyses demonstrated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the market, with highest prevalence in areas of the market where animals known to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection were held. Early human cases clustered around the market, and included infections from two separate SARS-CoV-2 lineages. These two lineages demonstrated that the virus was actively infecting a population of animals in the market, and that sustained contact between those animals and humans had allowed for multiple viral transmissions into humans. All early cases of COVID-19 were later shown to be localized to the market and its immediate vicinity.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: While other wild animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection are known to have been sold at Huanan, no bats or pangolins were sold at the market.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control are located within miles of the original focal point of the pandemic, Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and this has been used to argue in support of the lab leak theory. However, another explanation for this is a tendency to build virology labs in proximity to potential outbreak areas. Proponents of the lab leak theory typically omit to mention that most large Chinese cities have coronavirus research laboratories.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had been conducting research on SARS-like bat coronaviruses since 2005, and was involved in 2015 experiments that some experts (such as Richard Ebright) have characterized as gain-of-function. Others (including Ralph Baric) have disputed the characterization, pointing out that the experiments in question (involving chimeric viruses) were not conducted at the WIV, but at UNC Chapel Hill, whose institutional biosafety committee assessed the experiments as not "gain-of-function". Baric did acknowledge the risks involved in such studies, writing, "Scientific review panels may deem similar studies building chimeric viruses based on circulating strains too risky to pursue ... The potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: As early as 2017, some scientists expressed concerns about the risk of pathogens escaping from the WIV. This, along with the fact that the lab is in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic's early outbreak took place, and the fact that the research at WIV was being conducted under the less stringent biosafety levels (BSL) 2 and 3, has led to speculation that SARS-CoV-2 could have escaped from the Wuhan lab. Richard Ebright said one reason that lower-containment BSL-2 laboratories are sometimes used is the cost and inconvenience of high-containment facilities. Australian virologist Danielle Anderson, who was the last foreign scientist to visit the WIV before the pandemic, said the lab "worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab". She also said it had "strict safety protocols". The Huanan Seafood Market may have only served as a jumping off point for a virus that was already circulating in Wuhan, facilitating rapid expansion of the outbreak.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Laboratory leak incidents have occurred in the past. A Soviet research facility in 1979 leaked anthrax and at least 68 people died. The 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak in the UK was caused by a leaky pipe at a high-security laboratory. The SARS virus escaped at least once, and probably twice, from a high-level biocontainment laboratory in China.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Benign exposures to pathogens (which do not result in an infection) are probably under-reported, given the negative consequences of such events on the regulation of a host institution and low risk for widespread epidemics. Some scientists, such as epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch and bacteriologist Richard Ebright, have asserted that the risk of laboratory-acquired infection (especially with modified pathogens) is greater than widely believed.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: No epidemic has ever been caused by the leak of a novel virus. The only incident of a lab-acquired infection leading to an epidemic is the 1977 Russian flu. It was caused by a strain of H1N1 that had circulated naturally until the 1950s.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Previous novel disease outbreaks, such as AIDS, H1N1, SARS, and the Ebola virus have been the subject of conspiracy theories and allegations that the causative agent was created in or escaped from a laboratory. Each of these is now understood to have a natural origin.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: There is no evidence that any laboratory had samples of SARS-CoV-2, or a plausible ancestor virus, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Various sources have theorized that SARS-CoV-2 could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or another laboratory in Wuhan, such as the Wuhan Center For Disease Control & Prevention. The theories vary on whether this was an intentional act or an accident. Theories also vary on whether the virus was modified by human activity prior to being released.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, lab leak theories became less rooted in science, adopting instead the trappings of conspiracy theories; by 2022 most lab leak proponents were promoting a narrative with conspiracist components, and such narratives were often underpinned by racism; David Gorski refers to "the blatant anti-Chinese racism and xenophobia behind lab leak".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Some have theorized the virus arose in humans from an accidental infection of laboratory workers by contact with a sample extracted from a wild animal or by direct contact with a captive animal or its respiratory droplets or feces. According to a number of scientists, including Ian Lipkin, the Wuhan Institute of Virology performed work on chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses using inadequate safety procedures.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Former CDC director Robert R. Redfield said in March 2021 that in his opinion the most likely cause of the virus was a laboratory escape, which "doesn't imply any intentionality", and that as a virologist, he did not believe it made "biological sense" for the virus to be so "efficient in human to human transmission" from the early outbreak. The fact that scientists have not been successful in finding an intermediate host that picked up the virus from bats and passed it to humans is seen by some as evidence that supports a lab leak, according to "The Guardian". CNN aired a response from Anthony Fauci saying that the virus could have adapted itself for "efficient spread" among humans in two ways, either "in the lab", or via the more likely possibility of "below the radar" community spread going unnoticed for several weeks or months before it was first recognized clinically. University of Utah virologist Stephen Goldstein has criticized the scientific basis of Redfield's comments, saying that SARS-CoV-2's spike protein is very effective at jumping between hosts, so this ability to transmit efficiently among humans is not particularly unusual. Goldstein noted "If a human virus can transmit among mink, there's no basis to assume a bat virus can't transmit among humans. Us humans may think we're very special – but to a virus we are just another mammalian host."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The WHO-convened Global Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2, written by a joint team of Chinese and international scientists and published in March 2021, assessed introduction through a laboratory incident to be "extremely unlikely" and not supported by any available evidence, although the report stated that this possibility could not be wholly ruled out without further evidence. The report stated that human spillover via an intermediate animal host was the most likely explanation, with direct spillover from bats next most likely. Introduction through the food supply chain and the Huanan Seafood Market was considered less likely.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: A small group of researchers said that they would not trust the report's conclusions because it was overseen by the Chinese government, and some observers felt the WHO's statement was premature. Other scientists found the report convincing, and said there was no evidence of a laboratory origin for the virus.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom stated that the team had experienced difficulty accessing raw data on early COVID-19 cases and that the least likely hypothesis, a lab leak, required additional investigation because "further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions". The leader of the WHO investigatory team, Peter Ben Embarek, stated that although the team had been under political pressure from both inside and outside China, he had not felt pressed to remove anything from the final report. He later said that he supported further investigation into the lab leak idea because of the way the Chinese government had "tried to suppress all research in this area". In August 2021 he said "An employee of the lab gets infected while working in a bat cave collecting samples. Such a scenario, while being a lab leak, would also fit our first hypothesis of direct transmission of the virus from bat to human."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The United States, European Union, and 13 other countries criticized the WHO-convened study, calling for transparency from China and access to the raw data and original samples. Chinese officials described these criticisms as "an attempt to politicise the study". Scientists involved in the WHO report, including Liang Wannian, John Watson, and Peter Daszak, objected to the criticism, and said that the report was an example of the collaboration and dialogue required to successfully continue investigations into the matter.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: On 15 July 2021, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the COVID-19 lab leak theory had been prematurely discarded by the WHO, following his earlier statements that a potential leak requires "further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts". He proposed a second phase of WHO investigation, which he said should take a closer look at the lab leak idea, and asked China to be "transparent" and release relevant data. Later on 17 July, Tedros called for "audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions" in the area of the initial COVID-19 cases. China refused saying it showed "disrespect" and "arrogance towards science". The United States criticised China's position on the follow-up origin probe as "irresponsible" and "dangerous".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In June 2022, the WHO's Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) published a preliminary report urged a deeper investigation into the possibility of a laboratory leak. The SAGO chair said in a press conference that "the strongest evidence is still around a zoonotic transmission". The AP described the report as a "sharp reversal" of the WHO's previous assessment, and Science.org described reactions from academics as mixed.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Proponents of the lab leak theory, including Alina Chan and members of DRASTIC, a collection of internet activists supporting the lab leak idea, have raised concerns over a respiratory outbreak that happened in the spring of 2012 near an abandoned copper mine in China, which Shi Zhengli's group investigated. Shi's group collected a sample of viral RNA and named it RaBtCoV/4991. Later, Shi's group published a paper about a virus named RaTG13 in "Nature" in February 2020. Via sequence comparisons, it became clear that RaBtCoV/4991 and RaTG13 were likely the same virus. Shi has said that the renaming was done to reflect the origin location and year of the virus.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Some proponents, including Nicholas Wade and pseudonymous DRASTIC member TheSeeker268, have argued that the renaming was an attempt to obscure the origins of the virus and hide how it could be related to a laboratory origin of the related SARS-CoV-2 virus. Scientists have said that RaTG-13 is too distantly related to be connected to the pandemic's origins, and could not be altered in a laboratory to create SARS-CoV-2. "The New Yorker" has described this series of events as an "odd" omission, and reported clarifications made thereafter by Shi's group and the WIV. "Nature" later published an addendum to the 2020 RaTG13 paper addressing any possible link to the mine, in which Shi says that the virus was collected there, but that it was very likely not the cause of the miners' illnesses. Laboratory tests conducted on the workers' serum were negative, and "no antibodies to a SARS-like coronavirus had been found."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: One idea used to support a laboratory origin invokes previous gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. The exact meaning of "gain of function" is disputed among experts. According to emailed statements by Shi Zhengli, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, her lab has not conducted any unpublished gain-of-function experiments on coronaviruses, and all WIV staff and students tested negative for the virus in the early days of the pandemic.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Some claims of bioengineering focus on the presence of two sequential cytosine-guanine-guanine (CGG) codons in the virus' RNA, more precisely in the crucial furin cleavage site. The CGG codon is one of several codons that translates into an arginine amino acid, and it is the least common arginine codon in human pathogenic betacoronaviruses. Partially, this lack of CGG codons in human pathogenic coronaviruses is due to natural selection: B-cells in the human body recognize areas on virus genomes where C and G are next to each other (so-called CpG islands). The CGG codon makes up 5% of the arginine codons in the SARS-CoV-1 genome, and it makes up 3% of the arginine codons in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Proponents of an engineered virus, including journalist Nicholas Wade, claim that two such uncommon codons in a row are evidence for a laboratory experiment; because of the low chance of a CGG codon pair occurring in nature, and in contrast, the common usage of CGG codons for arginine in genetic engineering work. This has been disputed by scientists, who note that the CGG codon is also present (and even more frequent) in other coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV, and that a codon being rare does not mean it cannot be present. In addition, the presence of the furin cleavage site, which is responsible for a significant increase in transmissibility, largely outweighs the disadvantageous immune responses from B-cells triggered by the genetic sequences which code for it.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Another source of speculation is the mere presence of the furin cleavage site. It is absent in the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 (but present in other betacoronaviruses e.g. BtHpCoV-ZJ13). Scientists consider that this diversity of cleavage sites is likely the result of recombination, and is further unsurprising since the genetic lineage of these viruses has not been adequately explored, sampled, or sequenced. A common occurrence amongst other coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, and appearing in near-identical fashion in HKU9-1, the site is preceded by short palindromic sequences suggestive of natural recombination caused by simple evolutionary mechanisms. Additionally, the suboptimal configuration and poor targeting of the cleavage site when compared with known examples (such as HCoV-OC43 or HCoV-HKU1), along with the complex and onerous molecular biology work this would have required, is inconsistent with what would be expected from an engineered virus.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Project DEFUSE was a rejected DARPA grant application, that proposed to sample bat coronaviruses from various locations in China. The rejected proposal document was leaked to the press by DRASTIC in September 2021. To evaluate whether bat coronaviruses might spillover into the human population, the grantees proposed to create chimeric coronaviruses which were mutated in different locations, before evaluating their ability to infect human cells in the laboratory. One proposed alteration was to modify bat coronaviruses to insert a cleavage site for the Furin protease at the S1/S2 junction of the spike (S) viral protein. Another part of the grant aimed to create noninfectious protein-based vaccines containing just the spike protein of dangerous coronaviruses. These vaccines would then be administered to bats in caves in southern China to help prevent future outbreaks in humans. There is no evidence that any of the proposed experiments were ever carried out. Co-investigators on the rejected proposal included the EcoHealth Alliance's Peter Daszak, Ralph Baric from UNC, Linfa Wang from Duke–NUS Medical School in Singapore, and Shi Zhengli from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The situation reignited a debate over gain-of-function research, although the intense political rhetoric surrounding the issue has threatened to sideline serious inquiry over policy in this domain. Researchers have said the politicization of the debate is making the process more difficult, and that words are often twisted to become "fodder for conspiracy theories." The idea of an experiment conducted in 2015 on SARS-like coronaviruses being the source of the pandemic was reported in British tabloids early in the pandemic. Virologist Angela Rasmussen writes that this is unlikely, due to the intense scrutiny and government oversight gain-of-function research is subject to, and that it is improbable that research on hard-to-obtain coronaviruses could occur under the radar.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul alleged that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, accusing researchers including epidemiologist Ralph Baric of creating "super-viruses". Both Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins denied that the US government supported such research. Baric likewise rejected Paul's allegations, saying his lab's research into cross-species transmission of bat coronaviruses did not qualify as gain-of-function. While a 2017 study of chimeric bat coronaviruses at the WIV listed NIH as a sponsor, NIH funding was only related to sample collection. A "Washington Post" fact-checker commented that "EcoHealth funding was not related to the experiments, but the collection of samples", and that "statements about Baric's research appear overblown". In October 2021, a spokesman for the NIH acknowledged that the EcoHealth Alliance had provided new data demonstrating that in a mouse experiment, a coronavirus had caused more weight loss than expected. This was described as an unexpected consequence of the research, and not its intended outcome or a component of the original funding proposal. Importantly, the NIH spokesman said this finding was provided in a late progress report, and was not available before prior statements about experiments at the WIV.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: An August 2021 report made by the minority staff of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee working for its Republican Party members alleged that SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a result of gain-of-function research made on the RaTG13 virus, collected in a cave in Yunnan province in 2012, which was afterwards accidentally released some time before 12 September 2019, when the database of the Wuhan Institute of Virology went offline. The report also estimated that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating in Wuhan as early as late August 2019. That same month, an intelligence probe on the origins of COVID-19 requested by President Biden assessed that the Chinese government did not have foreknowledge of the outbreak. Overall, the probe did not render conclusive results on the origins. Of eight assembled teams, one (the Federal Bureau of Investigation) leaned towards a lab leak theory, four others (and the National Intelligence Council) were inclined to uphold a zoonotic origin, and three were unable to reach a conclusion. British intelligence agencies believe it is "feasible" that the virus began with a leak from a Chinese laboratory.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The earliest known recorded mention of any type of lab leak theory appeared in the form of a tweet published on 5 January 2020, from a Hong Kong user named @GarboHK, alleging that the Chinese government had invented the virus as a bioweapon. Similar ideas were later formalized in a preprint posted on BioRxiv on 31 January 2020, by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, claiming to find similarities between the new coronavirus' genome and that of HIV. The paper was quickly retracted due to irregularities in the researchers' "technical approach and...interpretation of the results". This claim was notably promoted by Luc Montagnier, a controversial French virologist and Nobel laureate, who contended that SARS-CoV-2 might have been created during research on a HIV/AIDS vaccine. Bioinformatics analyses show that the common sequences are short, that their similarity is insufficient to support the hypothesis of common origin, and that the identified sequences were independent insertions which occurred at varied points during the evolution of coronaviruses.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Further claims were promulgated by several anti-vaccine activists, such as Judy Mikovits and James Lyons-Weiler, who claimed that SARS-CoV-2 was created in a laboratory, with Mikovits going further and stating that the virus was both deliberately engineered and deliberately released. Weiler's analysis, where he argued that a long sequence in the middle of the spike protein of the virus was not found in other coronaviruses and was evidence for laboratory recombination, was dismissed by scientists, who found that the sequence in question was also found in many other coronaviruses, suggesting that it was "widely spread" in nature.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Chinese researcher Li-Meng Yan was an early proponent of deliberate genetic engineering, releasing widely criticised preprint papers in favor of the theory in the spring of 2020. After she released her preprints, political operatives (including Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui) arranged for Yan to flee to the United States in the summer of 2020 to engage in a speaking tour on right-wing media outlets, as a method of distracting from the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to scientific reviewers from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Yan's paper offered "contradictory and inaccurate information that does not support their argument," while reviewers from MIT Press's "" criticised her preprints as not demonstrating "sufficient scientific evidence to support [their] claims."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In February 2022, a study published in the "Frontiers in Virology" journal said that Moderna had patented a 19 nucleotide genetic sequence uniquely matching a part of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein three years prior to the pandemic, arguing it was evidence that the virus was manufactured as part of a lab leak conspiracy. The study has been widely derided for its misunderstanding of statistical likelihood, particularly as the 19 nucleotide sequence is not unique to SARS-CoV-2, and is also found in organisms like bacteria and birds. Craig Wilen, an immunobiology professor of the Yale School of Medicine, likened the study to "complete garbage" and a "conspiracy theory" rather than legitimate research.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In September 2022, a panel assembled by "The Lancet" published a wide-ranging report on the pandemic, including commentary on the virus origin overseen by the group's chairman Jeffrey Sachs. This suggested that the virus may have originated from an American laboratory, a notion long-promoted by Sachs, including on the podcast of conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Reacting to this, virologist Angela Rasmussen commented that this may have been "one of The Lancet's most shameful moments regarding its role as a steward and leader in communicating crucial findings about science and medicine". Virologist David Robertson said the suggestion of US laboratory involvement was "wild speculation" and that "it's really disappointing to see such a potentially influential report contributing to further misinformation on such an important topic".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Historian of science Naomi Oreskes says that she does not know of any credible scientists who support the view that the virus was released deliberately, while the version proposing the virus may have escaped accidentally is more plausible.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In June 2022, the WHO released a report advocating for more investigation into the lab leak theory. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian called the lab leak theory "a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes, which has nothing to do with science".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In July 2022 two articles appeared in the journal "Science" elucidating the zoonotic origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Virologist Edward C. Holmes, a co-author, commented that the as a result of the publications "The siren has definitely sounded on the lab leak theory" and that in support of the lab leak theory "There's no emails. There's no evidence in any of the science. There's absolutely nothing".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The first media reports suggesting a SARS-CoV-2 lab leak appeared in the "Daily Mail" and "The Washington Times" in late January 2020. In a 31 January 2020 interview with "Science Magazine", Professor Richard Ebright said there was a possibility that SARS-CoV-2 entered humans through a laboratory accident in Wuhan, and that all data on the genome sequence and properties of the virus were "consistent with entry into the human population as either a natural accident or a laboratory accident". A 5 February report from "Caixin" described these rumors as originating from two sources: a preprint paper by an Indian scholar posted to bioRxiv that was later withdrawn, and a "BBC China" report.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: The origin of COVID-19 became a source of friction in China–United States relations. The lab leak theory was promulgated in early 2020 by United States politicians and media, particularly US president Donald Trump, other prominent Republicans, and conservative media (such as Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson, and former "Breitbart News" publisher and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon). Trump had also referred to the virus as "kung flu", and the administration also expressed the intention to sanction China. In April 2020, Trump claimed to have evidence for the theory, but refused to produce it when requested. At that time, the media did not distinguish between the accidental lab leak of a natural virus and bio-weapon origin conspiracy theories. In online discussions, various theories – including the lab leak theory – were combined to form larger, baseless conspiracy plots. In May 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Anthony Fauci of having "funded the creation of COVID" through gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Citing an essay by science writer Nicholas Wade, Carlson alleged that Fauci had directed research to make bat viruses more infectious to humans. Facebook enacted a policy to remove discussion of the lab leak theory as misinformation; it lifted the ban a year later, in May 2021.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: A "BBC China" report stated that on 14 February, Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed for biosafety to be incorporated into law; the following day, new measures were introduced to "strengthen the management of laboratories", especially those working with viruses. In April 2020, "The Guardian" reported that China had taken steps to tightly regulate domestic research into the source of the outbreak in an attempt to control the narrative surrounding its origins and encourage speculation that the virus started outside the country. In May 2020, Chinese state media carried statements by scientists countering claims that the seafood market and Institute of Virology were possible origin sites, including comments by George Gao, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In the United States, anti-China misinformation spread on social media, including baseless bio-weapon claims, fueled aggressive rhetoric towards people of Asian ancestry, and the bullying of scientists. Some scientists were worried their words would be misconstrued and used to support racist rhetoric. In a letter published in "Science", a number of scientists, including Ralph S. Baric, argued that the accidental laboratory leak hypothesis had not been sufficiently investigated and remained possible, calling for greater clarity and additional data. Their letter was criticized by some virologists and public health experts, who said that a "hostile" and "divisive" focus on the WIV was unsupported by evidence, was impeding inquiries into legitimate concerns about China's pandemic response and transparency by combining them with speculative and meritless argument, and would cause Chinese scientists and authorities to share less rather than more data.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Some members of the Chinese government have promoted a counter-conspiracy theory claiming that SARS‑CoV‑2 originated in the U.S. military installation at Fort Detrick. This theory has little support. Chinese demands to investigate U.S. laboratories are thought to be a distracting technique to push focus away from Wuhan.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: According to Paul Thacker (writing for the "British Medical Journal"), some scientists and reporters said that "objective consideration of COVID-19's origins went awry early in the pandemic, as researchers who were funded to study viruses with pandemic potential launched a campaign labelling the lab leak hypothesis as a 'conspiracy theory.'" In February 2020, a letter was published in "The Lancet" authored by 27 scientists and spearheaded by Peter Daszak which described some alternate origin ideas as "conspiracy theories". Filippa Lentzos said some scientists "closed ranks" as a result, fearing for their careers and grants. The letter was criticized by Jamie Metzl for "scientific propaganda and thuggery", and by Katherine Eban as having had a "chilling effect" on scientific research and the scientific community by implying that scientists who "bring up the lab-leak theory ... are doing the work of conspiracy theorists".


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Early in 2020, scientists including Jeremy Farrar, Kristian G. Andersen, and Robert F. Garry, among others, sent emails to Anthony Fauci with questions regarding the lab leak theory, and suspicions that some evidence supported it. NIH director Francis Collins was concerned at the time that discussion of the possibility could damage "international harmony". After the discovery of similar viruses in nature, more research into the genome, and the availability of more genomic sequences from the early days of the pandemic, these scientists publicly stated they supported the zoonotic theory as the most likely explanation.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: Some journalists and scientists said they dismissed or avoided discussing the lab leak theory during the first year of the pandemic as a result of perceived polarization resulting from Donald Trump's embrace of the theory. The chair of the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology, Arturo Casadevall, said that, he (like many others) previously underestimated the lab leak hypothesis "mainly because the emphasis then [early in the pandemic] was on the idea of a deliberately engineered virus". However, by May 2021 it was a "long-simmering concern" in scientific circles, and that he perceived "greater openness" to it.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In early 2021, the hypothesis returned to popular debate due to renewed media discussion. The renewed interest was prompted by two events. First, an article published in May by "The Wall Street Journal" reported that lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with COVID-19-like symptoms in November 2019. The report was based on off-the-record briefings with intelligence officials. The cases would precede official reports from the Chinese government stating the first known cases were in December 2019, although unpublished government data suggested the earliest cases were detected in mid-November. "The Guardian" stated that the "WSJ" article did little to confirm, in terms of good, quality evidence, the possibility of a lab leak; a declassified report from the National Intelligence Council likewise said that the fact the researchers were hospitalized was unrelated to the origins of the outbreak. Second, it was shown that Peter Daszak, the key organiser of the February 2020 statement in "The Lancet", did not disclose connections to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. An addendum was later published by "The Lancet", in which Daszak listed his previous cooperation with Chinese researchers.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: After the publication of the WHO-convened report, politicians, talk show hosts, journalists, and some scientists advanced claims that SARS-CoV-2 may have come from the WIV. DRASTIC also contributed to its promotion, particularly via Twitter. In July 2021, a Harvard–"Politico" survey indicated that 52 percent of Americans believed that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak, while 28 percent believed that COVID-19 originated from an infected animal in nature.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: After May 2021, some media organizations softened previous language that described the laboratory leak theory as "debunked" or a "conspiracy theory". However, the prevailing scientific view remained that while an accidental leak was possible, it was highly unlikely.


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In October 2022, Republican members of a United States Senate committee issued an "interim report" in which they said a lab leak origin for SARS-CoV-2 was more likely than a natural origin. The interim report mostly relies on existing public evidence and cited problems with the Chinese government's "lack of transparency". Bacteriologist and lab leak theory proponent Richard Ebright noted that the report offered little, if any, new evidence. Evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey commented that the document seemed to be either "a cynical effort to try to win Republican votes" in the imminent midterm elections, or "a bunch of staffers with no ability to understand the science who stumbled across a bunch of misinformation and disinformation-filled tweets." Virologist Angela Rasmussen described the report as "an embarrassingly bad use of taxpayer money and resources."


title: COVID-19 lab leak theory

text: In a joint "ProPublica" and "Vanity Fair" article, journalists Katherine Eban and Jeff Kao opined that dispatches between Chinese diplomats "point to a catastrophe in the making: political pressure to excel, inadequate resources to safeguard risky work, and an effort to skirt blame once a crisis hit."


title: 2015 World Series

text: The 2015 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2015 season. The 111th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion New York Mets and the American League (AL) champion Kansas City Royals. The series was played between October 27 and November 1, with the Royals winning the series 4games to 1, clinching the team's second World Series and first since the 1985 series. It was the first time since 2010 that the Series extended into November.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Royals had home field advantage for the series because of the AL's 6–3 victory in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. It was the 13th World Series in which home field advantage was awarded to the league that won the All-Star Game, a practice that was discontinued after the 2016 season. The series was played in a 2-3-2 format: the Royals hosted Games 1and 2, and would have hosted Games 6and 7 had they been needed. The Mets hosted Games 3, 4, and5.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Royals became the first team since the Oakland Athletics in the 1989 World Series to win the World Series after losing in the previous year. It was also the first World Series played between two expansion teams. Salvador Pérez was named the World Series Most Valuable Player.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Mets made their fifth appearance in the World Series after sweeping the Cubs 4–0 in the 2015 National League Championship Series (NLCS). They had split their four previous appearances, winning the 1969 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles and the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, while losing the 1973 World Series against the Oakland Athletics and the 2000 World Series against the New York Yankees, their cross-town rivals.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Mets qualified for the postseason by winning the National League (NL) East, their sixth division title. The third-seeded Mets faced the #2 seed Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2015 NL Division Series, winning in five games. In the 2015 NLCS, Daniel Murphy led the team by hitting home runs in each game of the four-game sweep of the fifth-seeded Chicago Cubs. By winning the NLCS, the Mets ensured they have the most World Series appearances by an expansion franchise with five. In addition, the Mets have made World Series appearances in all but one of their six decades of existence, not appearing in any that were played during the 1990s. This was the first World Series appearance for Mets' manager Terry Collins.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Royals made their second consecutive appearance in the World Series, both under Ned Yost, and fourth overall. They won the 1985 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, and lost their two other appearances, the 1980 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies and the 2014 World Series against the San Francisco Giants. The Royals qualified for the postseason by winning the American League (AL) Central, their seventh division title and their first since winning the AL West in 1985. The top-seeded Royals faced the #5 seed Houston Astros in the 2015 American League Division Series, winning in five games. They followed that up in the 2015 American League Championship Series, beating the second-seeded Toronto Blue Jays in six games.


title: 2015 World Series

text: By winning the ALCS, the Royals became the first team to play in consecutive World Series since the Texas Rangers played in the 2010 World Series and 2011 World Series.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The series began on October 27. The American League won the 2015 All-Star Game, therefore the Royals had home field advantage for the series.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Mets and the Royals hadn't played each other since 2013. Though the Mets boasted four starting pitchers who could throw over —Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz—the Royals had the best team batting average against pitches over that speed during the 2015 season. And while the Mets' starting pitchers had the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the MLB, the Royals' roster of strong contact hitters led baseball in contact rate. The Royals also had a superior defensive team, finishing second in the majors in Defensive Runs Saved, while the Mets finished 21st. The Royals bullpen, anchored by Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera, also provided a strength. While the Mets hitters performed better against left-handed pitchers than right-handed pitchers, the Royals four starting pitchers, Johnny Cueto, Edinson Vólquez, Yordano Ventura, and Chris Young, and primary relievers, Davis, Herrera, Ryan Madson, and Luke Hochevar, are right-handed. This was also the first time the World Series was played by teams which both had entered the league as expansion teams. The Mets joined the National League in 1962, and the Royals joined the American League in 1969.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by George Brett. Matt Harvey started Game1 for the Mets, while Edinson Vólquez started for the Royals. Vólquez's father had died earlier in the day. He was not aware of his father's death until after he left the game.


title: 2015 World Series

text: On the first pitch thrown by Harvey, Alcides Escobar hit an inside-the-park home run, the first in a World Series game since Mule Haas in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, and the first hit by a leadoff batter since Patsy Dougherty did it in Game 2 of the 1903 World Series. In the fourth inning, Murphy recorded the Mets' first hit, and later scored their first run on a hit by Travis d'Arnaud. Curtis Granderson hit a home run in the fifth inning to give the Mets a 2–1 lead. The Mets took a 3–1 lead in the top of the sixth when Michael Conforto drove in Yoenis Céspedes with a sacrifice fly. Mike Moustakas then saved a run with a diving stop and throw out to first to end the top of the sixth. Eric Hosmer reduced the lead to 3–2 with a sacrifice fly, and set a new Royals' postseason run batted in (RBI) record in the process. A single by Moustakas tied the game at three, but in the top of the eighth, Wilmer Flores reached on an fielding error by Hosmer, allowing Juan Lagares to score the go-ahead run and give the Mets a 4–3 lead. In the bottom of the ninth with the Mets two outs away from taking Game 1, Alex Gordon tied the game for the Royals with a home run to deep center field, as Jeurys Familia blew his first save in six postseason opportunities and his first since July 30. With the home run, Gordon became the first player since Scott Brosius in the 2001 World Series, and just the fifth player in history, to tie a World Series game on a home run in the ninth inning.


title: 2015 World Series

text: In the bottom of the 11th inning, Granderson robbed the speedy Jarrod Dyson of a multi-base hit with a running, leaping catch that prevented what probably would have been a lead-off triple. The Mets went on to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the 14th, Escobar reached first on a throwing error by David Wright, and Bartolo Colón gave up a base hit to Ben Zobrist, allowing Escobar to reach third. Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly to Granderson in right field to drive in the winning run. This was the first time in World Series history that the same player scored both the first run of the game on the first pitch, and the last run of the game on the final pitch. The game ended at 12:18a.m. CDT, lasting five hours and nine minutes. The game tied the record for the longest game by innings in World Series history, shared with Game2 in the 1916 World Series and Game3 in the 2005 World Series. However, the record has since been surpassed by Game3 of the 2018 World Series, which was 18 innings long. The loss made Colón the oldest player ever to lose a World Series game.


title: 2015 World Series

text: In Game 2, Jacob deGrom started for the Mets, and Johnny Cueto started for the Royals. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Medal of Honor recipients Don Ballard, Charles Hagemeister, and Roger Donlon. Cueto walked Curtis Granderson to lead off the fourth and Daniel Murphy one out later. Yoenis Céspedes's hit into a forceout at second before Lucas Duda's RBI single put the Mets up 1–0. Duda produced the Mets' only other hit in the game in the second and Cueto retired them in order through the ninth.


title: 2015 World Series

text: In the fifth inning, deGrom allowed a leadoff walk to Alex Gordon and subsequent single to Alex Rios before Alcides Escobar's RBI single tied the game. Ben Zobrist's groundout moved the runners up and after Lorenzo Cain lined out to center, Eric Hosmer's two-run single put the Royals up 3–1. Kendrys Morales's single moved Hosmer to third and Mike Moustakas's single made it 4-1 Royals.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The Royals blew the game open in the eighth off of Jon Niese, who allowed a leadoff single to Moustakas, subsequent single to Salvador Pérez, and RBI double to Gordon. Addison Reed relieved Niese and allowed a sacrifice fly to Paulo Orlando and RBI triple to Escobar to make it 7-1 Kansas City.


title: 2015 World Series

text: Cueto walked Murphy with two outs in the ninth before getting Cespedes to fly out to right to finish the complete game, becoming the first AL pitcher to accomplish this feat in the World Series since Jack Morris in Game7 of the 1991 World Series, as the Royals defeated the Mets and took a two games to zero lead in the series. Cueto became the first AL pitcher since Jim Lonborg in the 1967 World Series to throw a World Series complete game while allowing two hits or fewer.


title: 2015 World Series

text: The series shifted to Citi Field, the home stadium of the Mets, for Game3. Yordano Ventura started for the Royals and Noah Syndergaard started for the Mets. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Mike Piazza to catcher Kevin Plawecki while Billy Joel sang the national anthem. With no designated hitter (DH) in NL parks, the Mets started Michael Conforto, their DH for Game2, in the outfield instead of Juan Lagares, and the Royals did not start Kendrys Morales, their regular DH.


title: 2015 World Series

text: Zobrist scored for the Royals in the first inning on a force play. In the bottom of the first inning, Wright hit a two-run homer that also scored Granderson. For the Royals, Alex Ríos drove Salvador Pérez home in the second inning, and scored on a passed ball by d'Arnaud, giving the Royals a 3–2 lead. After a Syndergaard single, Granderson hit a two-run home run just over the right field wall in the third inning, and the Mets took a 4–3 lead. The Mets added a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Conforto, and four more in the sixth inning, including an RBI single by Juan Uribe, in his first at bat since September 20. The Royals made a few uncharacteristic mistakes in this game, the first coming in the fourth inning when pitcher Yordano Ventura forgot to cover the base on a ground ball to the first baseman, and the second in the sixth inning when Royals pitcher Franklin Morales triple-clutched Granderson's ground ball, allowing all runners to be safe, which led to a 2-run single by Wright.


title: 2015 World Series

text: In the fifth inning, Royals player Raúl A. Mondesí made his Major League Baseball debut, pinch hitting for Danny Duffy. Mondesí became the first player ever to make his MLB debut in the World Series.