title: Bernard Butler

text: In August 2013, Butler played two shows at The Slaughtered Lamb in London, UK, accompanying Ben Watt on electric guitar, resulting in a touring and recording collaboration spanning 2 albums and several years of live shows across the globe.


title: Bernard Butler

text: In October 2013, new group Trans released the "red" EP, the first in a series of EPs for Rough Trade Records. Featuring tracks grown out of improvisational sessions that date back over a year, with Jackie McKeown, Paul Borchers and Igor Volk, the recordings were made at Studio 355. All sessions were improvised, recorded in their entirety and later edited with very few overdubs.


title: Bernard Butler

text: In May 2014, Butler organised two special McAlmont & Butler performances to raise funds for The Bobath Centre's work with children with cerebral palsy. The London shows at the Union Chapel and Islington Assembly Hall sold out, and the duo were accompanied by a full band that consisted of members of The Magic Numbers, Mako Sakamoto on drums and Sean Read on keyboards.


title: Bernard Butler

text: In 2017, Butler produced the self-titled debut album of the New York band QTY. In November 2019, Pet Shop Boys released their second single "Burning The Heather" from their forthcoming album "Hotspot", featuring acoustic guitar played by Bernard Butler. Acclaimed folk artist Sam Lee collaborated with Butler in 2019 resulting in his widely acclaimed "Old Wow" album and selected live shows which followed. Butler joined Lee's curated Earth Day live stream in May 2020 improvising remotely along to a live stream of nightingales singing in the Sussex forest. This was followed by the release of tracks from the forthcoming sophomore album from Roxanne De Bastion.


title: Bernard Butler

text: In 2020 writer Pete Paphides' label Needle Mythology finally released the open collaboration with Catherine Anne Davies. The album "In Memory of My Feelings" compiled 10 songs drawn from the writing sessions begun in 2009 which Butler then pieced together and completed. Artwork was created in collaboration with acclaimed artist Eva Vermandel.


title: Bernard Butler

text: During 2021, Butler has been working with Bobby Bluebell (from number one chart toppers The Bluebells) on a new Altered Images album with 1980s band members Clare Grogan and Stephen Lironi. According to Grogan, who announced the release in December 2021, the album would be released in August 2022, on Cooking Vinyl Records, with the name "Mascara Streakz".


title: Bernard Butler

text: On 15 April 2022, Butler and Irish actress Jessie Buckley released "The Eagle & The Dove", the lead single from their collaborative album. "For All Our Days That Tear the Heart" was released on 17 June 2022.


title: Bernard Butler

text: Butler created the soundtrack to the 1997 film "The James Gang" and played on the soundtrack of "Velvet Goldmine", and in 2020 created the score to a BBC "Horizon" episode on Pluto.


title: Bernard Butler

text: On 13 April 2014, Butler participated in the London Marathon to raise funds for children with cerebral palsy, described by Butler as one of the "worst starts in life". Butler explains:


title: Bernard Butler

text: The problem is it’s getting harder for families to get funding for therapy and children aren’t getting the specialist support they need. So I’m raising money for the charity’s treatment fund to make sure that children get seen as early as possible when it will have the greatest impact.


title: Bernard Butler

text: Butler is a resident lecturer at London's BIMM Institute teaching a degree course in Songwriting, a practice he has used live in collaborative events with the Musicians Union. He is Patron of the Bert Jansch Foundation, encouraging fund distribution and collaborative work with artists and business to continue the work of the late guitarist.


title: Bernard Butler

text: Butler won the Producer's Award at the 2009 BRIT Awards, Producer of the Year at the 2008 Music Managers Forum Awards, was nominated for Best Producer at the 2009 Music Week Awards, and received a Grammy Award for work on Duffy's "Rockferry" which won the Best Album award for 2009.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya in the Chechen Republic, a part of the Russian Federation, have included forced disappearances—secret abductions, imprisonment, torture—and extrajudicial killing by authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation, primarily gay men. At least 2 of the 100 people, whom authorities detained on suspicion of being gay or bisexual, have reportedly died after being held in what human rights groups and eyewitnesses have called concentration camps.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Allegations were initially reported on 1 April 2017 in "Novaya Gazeta", a Russian-language opposition newspaper, which reported that since February 2017 over 100 men had allegedly been detained and tortured and at least three had died in extrajudicial killings. The paper, citing its sources in the Chechen special services, called the wave of detentions a "prophylactic sweep". The journalist who first reported on the subject went into hiding. There have been calls for reprisals against journalists who report on the situation.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: As news spread of Chechen authorities' actions, which have been described as part of a systematic anti-LGBT purge, Russian and international activists scrambled to evacuate survivors of the camps and other vulnerable Chechens but were met with difficulty obtaining visas to conduct them safely beyond Russia.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The reports of the persecution were met with a variety of reactions worldwide. The Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov denied not only the occurrence of any persecution but also the existence of gay men in Chechnya, adding that such people would be killed by their own families. Officials in Moscow were skeptical, although in late May the Russian government reportedly agreed to send an investigative team to Chechnya. Numerous national leaders and other public figures in the West condemned Chechnya's actions, and protests were held in Russia and elsewhere. A report released in December 2018 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed claims that persecution of LGBT persons had taken place and was ignored by authorities. In a 2021 Council of Europe report into anti-LGBTI hate crimes, rapporteur Foura ben Chikha described the "state-sponsored attacks carried out against LGBTI people in Chechnya in 2017" as "the single most egregious example of violence against LGBTI people in Europe that has occurred in decades".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: On 11 January 2019, it was reported that another 'gay purge' had begun in the country in December 2018, with several gay men and women being detained. The Russian LGBT Network believes that around 40 people were detained and two killed.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The status of LGBT rights in the Chechen Republic has long been a source of concern among human rights organizations (including Amnesty International) and it has also been described as being "especially bleak" within the Russian Federation as a whole. It was also singled out for criticism by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International before the 2017 crackdown. Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim, ultra-conservative society in which homophobia is widespread and homosexuality is taboo, and where having a gay relative is seen as a "stain on the entire extended family".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The federal Russian LGBT laws apply in Chechnya, which is a part of the Russian Federation. However, in Chechnya, as in other regions of southern Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin "has empowered local leaders to enforce their interpretation of traditional values, partly in an effort to co-opt religious extremism, which has largely been driven underground".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Although homosexuality was legalized in Russia in 1993, in 1996 Chechnya's separatist president Aslan Maskhadov adopted sharia law in his Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and article 148 of the Chechen penal code made all "sodomy" punishable by caning after the first two offenses and punishable by execution after the third offense. Chechnya returned to direct Russian rule in 2000, formally complying with its federal laws and human right statutes. De facto, it retains some autonomy, and the current Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, "has brought Islam to the fore of Chechnya's daily life, and gay people who reveal their sexuality are often discriminated against and shunned by their families".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The detentions began in February 2017 after a Chechen man who had allegedly committed a drug-related offense was stopped by police and arresting officers discovered contact information for other gay men on his phone.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: A second wave of detentions began after the LGBT rights organization Gayrussia.ru applied for permits to hold gay pride parades in four cities within Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region, although not within Chechnya itself. The application in this district was denied by the Kabardino-Balkar authorities. An anti-gay demonstration followed, along with posts on social media calling for gay people to be murdered by various methods.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Gayrussia.ru organizer Nikolay Alexeyev dismissed suggestions that attempts to organize pride parades in the region had sparked the violence against gay Chechens as speculative and unfounded. The organization had not focused on the Muslim districts in particular, and it had applied for permits for gay pride parades in 90 municipal governments all across Russia in an attempt to collect the inevitable denials, which would be used in a case about freedom of assembly and gay rights before the European Court of Human Rights.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Human Rights Watch reported in 2017 that "it is difficult to overstate just how vulnerable LGBT people are in Chechnya, where homophobia is intense and rampant. LGBT people are in danger not only of persecution by the authorities but also of falling victim to 'honour killings' by their own relatives for tarnishing family honor." Kadyrov has encouraged extrajudicial killings by family members as an alternative to law enforcement – in some cases, gay men in prison have been released early specifically to enable their murder by relatives.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The Chechen police and military have conducted entrapment schemes, in which a victim is lured on a date, beaten and humiliated. A recording is produced, and blackmail money is solicited in return for silence. Law enforcement agencies in Chechnya already keep lists of "suspects". According to a source from Radio Liberty, raids on gay people began in December 2016, subsided briefly, and resumed on a large scale in February 2017. The first gay men who were detained via entrapment were tortured in attempts to reveal the names of their acquaintances.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: All of the correspondence in their phones was checked, adding to the "suspect" list. This resulted in the number of victims growing exponentially. According to "Novaya Gazeta", at the end of February, the police detained and checked the phone of a person who was in a state of intoxication. The phone had "pictures and videos with explicit content" and "dozens of contacts of local homosexuals". The detainee was sent to a "secret prison". Subsequently, a "wave of persecution" began in Chechnya as an attempt to purge the country of those who are homosexual or are perceived to be homosexual. Chechen police are reportedly pressuring parents in the region to kill their children who they suspect of being homosexual. To facilitate this, police have reportedly been releasing detainees into the custody of their families and outing them.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: According to independent media and human rights groups, gay men are sent to clandestine camps in Chechnya, which one eyewitness described to "Novaya Gazeta" as a "closed prison, the existence of which no one officially knows". Around 100 men have been imprisoned and at least three people have already died. Some of the guards in these allegedly unofficial jails are accused of releasing the prisoners to their relatives if their relatives promise to kill them (at least one man was reported by a witness as having died after returning to his family). One location of a secret prison is allegedly in the southern city of Argun. Another prison is located in Tsotsin-Yurt, south of the Chechen capital Grozny.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: According to escapees interviewed in the Russian newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" and the British-owned "The Guardian", 30 to 40 people are detained in one room (two to three metres big), and often kept for months on end without trial. Witnesses report they are also beaten (with polypropylene pipes below the waist), and tortured with electricity. In addition to physical torture, individuals report being mocked, humiliated and insulted, as well as being forced to clean the prison and spat in the face. In some cases the process of torture ends in the death of the person being tortured.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In May 2017, it was reported that the building in Argun had been buried under demolition rubble and that prisoners had been moved to a new, unknown location. Investigators say that prisoners are likely to have been moved to a Special Police Force training base in Terek, about 60 in Argun, but they have been denied entry, because 'training is taking place'.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: On 15 March 2017, a gay man by the name of Maxim Lapunov was detained by police in Grozny in a sting, and subsequently brought to the police station, where he was allegedly beaten, tortured and raped, and held hostage for 12 days. Lapunov became the only person to put a face to the official complaints against Chechen authorities in 2017.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: A North Caucasus court subsequently ruled against opening a criminal investigation into the case. Justice minister Alexander Konovalov said preliminary investigations found no evidence of arrests and torture.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In May 2019, Lapunov filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), saying Russia had failed to protect him as he was arrested and beaten up by police in the Chechen capital Grozny in 2017, and claiming his case was not properly investigated by Russian authorities.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: While on a visit to Grozny for his sister's wedding in August 2017, Moscow-based Chechen singer Zelim Bakaev disappeared, never to be seen again. He was reportedly arrested by security forces, according to eyewitnesses in local media reports, and his cell phone deactivated on the day of his disappearance. The singer's mother made a public appeal to Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov but Chechen authorities have refused to open an investigation into Bakaev's disappearance.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Dzhambulat Umarov, Chechnya's minister for national policy, external relations, press, and information, was quoted in RBC as saying, "The guy is not a Wahhabi, not a terrorist, he isn't involved in any cases. No structures took him, for a hundred years no-one will need him", adding that Bakaev would "reappear soon".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya beginning in early 2017 is "particularly well documented." Human Rights Watch has confirmed that authorities have "rounded up dozens of men on suspicion of being gay and that they are currently torturing and humiliating the victims. Some of the men have forcibly disappeared. At least three men have died since this brutal campaign began." An investigation by Radio Liberty in April 2017 reported that prisoners are being released to their families if their families promise to murder them.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: A lengthy analysis published on 26 May by Human Rights Watch reported the presence of leading government officials at the camps while detainees were being tortured. The report, which includes graphic descriptions of the ordeals faced by several survivors of the camps, suggested that several victims of the camps were still being detained at the time of its publication.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In June, a journalist with VICE News visited a now-abandoned detention center in Argun believed to be the site of one of the camps, and interviewed the local minister of internal affairs, who also acts as prison warden. The warden denied that abuse had taken place, and said, "My officers would not even want to touch such people, if they exist, let alone beating or torturing them". Shown footage of the detention center, a man who described being electrocuted by his captors identified it as the site where he was held, and also identified the warden as one of his tormentors.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In December 2018, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) special rapporteur found that there was "overwhelming evidence that there have been grave violations of the rights of LGBTI persons in the Chechen Republic." The OSCE found that there were several waves of persecution or "purges" of LGBT: the first from December 2016 to February 2017; the second wave from March to May 2017, and a subsequent third, "which largely stopped because of the international outcry." The OSCE report found that there were "still new cases as recent as September and October 2018." The OSCE report found that the persecutions followed a consistent pattern. Persons suspected of being homosexual would be arrested (at homes, workplaces, or while traveling) by police and military officers, particular black-clad SOBR members. Those arrested would be taken to a police station and then later a detention facility, sometimes an "unofficial prison"; Argun was a common location. Those arrested would be humiliated, tortured, and interrogated to force a confession "that they were gay and to give names of other gays"; torture methods included being beaten with various items such as sticks, tubes, and cables, and sometimes electric shocks. Prisoners were often forced to work, sometimes by cleaning cars or floors. Medical treatment, food, and water was withheld from the prisoners. Prisoners were "mistreated and tortured on a daily basis mostly for about two weeks or until they made and signed a confession or reported others or expressed their willingness to cooperate." Some were reportedly killed; others were ransomed; some were told to commit suicide; others were handed over to their relatives, who were told to kill them, and "In many cases victims have been forced to marry in order to save the family honor."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Experts at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement in 2019, indicating the worsening situation of LGBT people in Chechnya: "Abuse inflicted on victims has allegedly become more cruel and violent compared with reports from 2017. It is no longer only gay men in Chechnya who are being targeted but women also." Reportedly, more than 40 people have been arrested since December 2018. People who tried to flee the republic were prevented from doing so by the authorities.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: After a lull, the Russian LGBT Network announced in July 2017 that it was again receiving reports of authorities persecuting gay Chechens. The group voiced doubt that the Russian government was conducting an actual investigation, despite earlier claims to the contrary from the Kremlin.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Chechen and Russian authorities have denied that the purges and persecutions occurred. Chechen government authorities denied that purges occurred. Alvi Karimov, a spokesperson for Ramzan Kadyrov, claimed that gay people "just don't exist in the republic" and that "If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn't need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning," an apparent reference to so-called "honor killing." Karimov later claimed that reports of persecutions of LGBT people were part of an "economic, political, psychological and informational attack directed against Russia" waged by Americans and Europeans, and asserted that "There is not a single case of arrest on these grounds in Chechnya." In a July 2017 television interview, Kadyrov denied the existence of any gays in Chechnya, saying "We don't have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them." Kadyrov called the men who stated they had been tortured "devils" and "subhuman." In January 2019, following reports of a new wave of anti-gay purges beginning December 2018, Dzhambulat Umarov, the Chechen Minister of National Policy, claimed that gay people's "sick imagination" was to blame for purge reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin, through his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, endorsed Chechen leaders' denials of anti-gay persecution, and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov claimed the reports were not "based on fact."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Sources have said that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wanted the LGBT community to be eliminated by 26 May 2017.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The Russian LGBT Network, an inter-regional LGBT rights organization based in Saint Petersburg, is attempting to assist those who are threatened and evacuate them from Chechnya. In May 2019, the association reported that seven people broke into the apartment of one of its volunteers in Saint Petersburg, where they threatened the activist and other staff with physical violence and murder, saying "We will take you to the police office and will break all your bones." The assailants interrogated the activists about the whereabouts of a young Chechen woman who had escaped from the region and Russian LGBT Network emergency programme coordinator David Isteev, saying "to tell David Isteev that they were going to find and kill him." Three of the assailants were identified as Chechens and four implied they were police officers from Chechnya's capital Grozny, but refused to provide identification documents.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In May 2017, five activists were arrested in Moscow while en route to the prosecutor general's office to deliver a petition calling for an unbiased investigation. According to the Russian LGBT Network, the petition bore more than two million signatures of people in various countries. The arrests followed an incident at a May Day parade in St. Petersburg in which riot police reportedly detained 17 protesters who sought to bring attention to the anti-gay violence in Chechnya.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In January 2019, Igor Kochetkov, a leading Russian LGBT Network activist, filed a complaint with the Investigative Department of Russia's Interior Ministry, naming 14 people that authorities unlawfully detained and tortured in Chechnya's capital, Grozny. He also reported the name of one man who police allegedly killed in January. After the complaint, however, Ali Baskhanov, the leader of a pro-government group in Chechnya, uploaded a YouTube video threatening Kochetkov, calling him a "son of the devil," and warned that if he came to Chechnya it would be his "final stop", according to Human Rights Watch. Kochetkov says authorities did not take his complaints of the threat seriously. He is now planning to sue the Investigative Department. Human Rights Watch urged to Russia to protect the activist and said that "The threats against Igor Kochetkov are very serious and deserve a prompt reaction by the Russian authorities. Given the danger LGBT people have been facing in Chechnya, the Interior Ministry's lack of response is dangerous and unacceptable."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In late May 2017, following weeks of international pressure, the Kremlin authorized its human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova, to conduct an investigation, Investigators were sent to Chechnya. but Chechen officials attempted to sabotage the team's investigation. In 2020, the Russian newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reported that Chechen authorities had deliberately attempted to deceive Moskalkova; in September 2017 meetings in Chechnya, Moskalkova met with two men "identified to her as being among those who had reportedly been killed in the raids, [...] in what appeared to be an effort by local authorities to undermine the reports about the raids"; the men were in fact the siblings of two men who were victims of extrajudicial killings.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Human rights groups and foreign governments have called upon Russia and Chechnya to put an end to the torture and killings of gays.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In April 2017, a panel of five experts that advises the United Nations Human Rights Council called on Chechnya to "put an end to the persecution of people perceived to be gay or bisexual in the Chechen Republic who are living in a climate of fear fueled by homophobic speeches by local authorities"; the same month, the director of the human rights office at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that Moscow must "urgently investigate the alleged disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment" of gay men in Chechnya.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In January 2019, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed its concern with reports of additional arrests following an anti-purge in the Russian republic, and called on Russia to take action to halt the detention and abuse of gay and bisexual people in Chechnya. The UN experts are Elina Steinerte, Agnes Callamard, David Kaye, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, Nils Melzer, Dubravka Šimonovic, and Ivana Radačić.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In March 2019, a number of countries, at the 40th Session of the Human Rights Council, issued a joint statement calling for "a swift, thorough and impartial investigation into the alleged persecution" and accountability for those responsible. Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay all supported the joint statement; however, the United States under the Trump administration refused to sign on to the statement.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In April 2017 Amnesty International called for a prompt investigation and intervention, and more than 130,000 people signed a petition started by the organization in opposition to alleged human rights violations. The same month, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned the persecution of gay men in Chechnya and called on Chechen and Russian authorities to investigate the matter and "ensure the safety of LGBT populations within the Russian Federation".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Three France-based human rights organizations filed a complaint in May 2017 with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Chechen government officials of genocide. and Chechen President Kadyrov as the "logistician" of the concentration camps. Putin announced in 2016 that Russia, which signed but never ratified the treaty creating the ICC, would end its relationship with the treaty in November 2017.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Many celebrities and LGBT activists such as Troye Sivan, Ellen DeGeneres, Matt Bomer, Mark Ruffalo, and Billy Eichner have voiced their strong condemnation of persecution of LGBT persons in Chechnya.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In February 2021, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Russian LGBT Network filed a 97-page charge sheet against five Chechen officials connected with Kadyrov, including his deputy prime minister Abuzayed Vismuradov, police chief Ayub Katayev, and the chair of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov. If accepted by German authorities, the five named officials would be charged with crimes against humanity.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: Hundreds of people have attended demonstrations outside Russian diplomatic missions, protesting the anti-gay persecutions in Chechnya. Demonstrations took place in April 2017, outside the Embassy of Russia in London; and in January 2019, outside New York City's Russian Consulate, in solidarity with gay and lesbian people facing a "second wave" of persecution in Chechnya. On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a protest attended by around a hundred people was held on 27 January 2019, outside the Embassy of Russia in London. In May 2019, on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, LGBT activists laid a giant rainbow flag on the steps of the Russian embassy in London, handing in a 65,000-signature petition calling on the Russian authorities to investigate the purge.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The camps became an issue in the 2017 French presidential election, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Benoît Hamon and Emmanuel Macron condemning Chechnya for them, while François Fillon and Marine Le Pen remained silent. In a meeting with Putin in 2017, French President Macron pressed the Russian leader on the plight of LGBT Chechens and promised constant vigilance on the issue. According to Macron, Putin reported having taken steps to ascertain "the complete truth on the activities of local authorities".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In 2017, British MEPs urged Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to meet with the Russian ambassador. Johnson condemned the Chechen government's persecution of gay men as "outrageous" and "abhorrent."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In 2019, Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan said: "The persecution of LGBT people in Chechnya is utterly appalling. ...The Russian authorities must protect their people from these human rights abuses, and conduct a credible investigation into these reports immediately. There should be no climate of impunity for those who commit these abuses. We and the international community have repeatedly called for the Russian Government to conduct an investigation and hold those responsible for human rights abuses in Chechnya to account, including through the 2018 OSCE Moscow Mechanism."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In April 2017, the Government of Canada called the "persecution of LGBTQ2 people in Chechnya reprehensible", calling upon Russia to investigate and ensure the safety of those at risk.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In April 2017, the United States Department of State expressed concern about "numerous credible reports indicating the detentions and deaths of LGBTI individuals" in Chechnya. The same month, fifty members of Congress signed a letter urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in Russia in April, to publicly question the validity of the reports and to pressure the Russian government to investigate and put a stop to the arrests. Also in April 2017, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, "We continue to be disturbed by reports of kidnapping, torture, and murder of people in Chechnya based on their sexual orientation and those persecuted by association. If true, this violation of human rights cannot be ignored – Chechen authorities must immediately investigate these allegations, hold anyone involved accountable, and take steps to prevent future abuses." Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton condemned the developments and called on the administration of President Donald Trump to do the same.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In June 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 351, which condemned the atrocities against LGBT people in Chechnya and called upon the Russian government to condemn the violence.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: According to a National Security Council spokesperson, the topic of anti-gay persecution did not arise at a May 2017 meeting between Trump and Putin's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. A White House spokesperson said that she was "not 100 percent sure" whether Trump had been briefed on the issue. Testifying before a House of Representatives committee in June 2017, Tillerson reported that he had not discussed the matter during a meeting with Lavrov and did not know if Trump had raised it with Putin.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In December 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions under the Magnitsky Act on Kadyrov and another Chechen official, Ayub Katayev, citing "gross violations of internationally recognized human rights"; the sanctions freeze assets and restrict the individuals' ability to travel in the U.S. A spokesman for Putin called the sanctions "illegal" and indicated that Moscow would enact similar restrictions on U.S. officials in response. In May 2019, the U.S. government imposed new financial sanctions on Chechen officials linked to the roundups of gay men in Chechnya, including Abuzayed Vismuradov, the commander of the "Terek Special Rapid Response Team" unit.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In 2018, the United States Department of State released the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of 2017. The report on Russia detailed multiple human rights abuses against LGBTI people in Chechnya over the preceding year, including extrajudicial killings of LGBTI persons in Chechnya; the kidnapping, detention, and torture of men accused of being gay in Chechnya as part of a purge conducted by Chechen security forces; repeated threats of violence by Chechen officials against journalists reporting on human rights violations; and a failure of Chechen and Russian authorities to adequately redress human rights violations.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In January 2019, the U.S. Department of State called on Russia to urgently investigate the reports of the purges, with Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino stating: "We are deeply disturbed by credible reports out of Chechnya about renewed attacks against individuals perceived to be members of the LGBTI community. Civil society groups report that at least 40 individuals have been illegally detained since December, including two who reportedly died in custody after being tortured. We call on Russia to live up to its international obligations and commitments and its own constitution, and launch an immediate investigation into these human rights abuses."


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the topic in a meeting with Putin in May 2017, urging him to exert his influence to "ensure that minorities' rights are protected".


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In April 2017, Lilianne Ploumen, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, has called for a statement of condemnation from the 33 members (Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay) of the Equal Rights Coalition. In May 2017, in a joint letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the foreign ministers of five European countries (Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden) declared their concern over the situation.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The Russian LGBT Network, based in St. Petersburg, has worked to evacuate from Chechnya those who are threatened. By June 2017, the Russian LGBT Network reported that 42 men had been evacuated to other parts of Russia, where they were safe from the immediate threat of detention, but risked being tracked down.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: In May 2017, Russian activists reported that survivors of Chechnya's anti-gay persecution were having difficulty finding countries willing to issue them visas. By mid-May 2017, nine survivors of the persecution had reportedly been granted visas—two by Lithuania, the others by countries that Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius termed "allies" but declined to identify. Linkevičius urged other nations of the European Union to accept more of the refugees. As of June 2017, Germany and Lithuania had granted visas for entry to the countries based on 'humanitarian' grounds. In August 2017, the Dutch government changed policy to allow LGBT persons from Chechnya to gain almost automatic "asylum-seeker" status and entry to the Netherlands.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: By 2019, the Russian LGBT Network had assisted more than 140 Chechen gay people in emigrating to European nations and Canada; none were resettled in the United States. The Toronto, Canada-based nonprofit Rainbow Railroad has worked with the Russian LGBT Network to establish safe routes out of the region and assist at-risk men in escaping. In mid-2017, the Canadian government had quietly granted asylum to 22 gay men and lesbians, in coordination with Rainbow Railroad. In December 2018, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland ordered an airlift that brought 57 LGBT Chechen refugees to Canada.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The United States government offered only limited help to LGBT Chechens facing persecution. The "Washington Post" reported in September 2017 that "only a small number of LGBT Chechens who have found refuge in the United States in recent years"—far fewer than the number who wish to emigrate. In May 2017, the Russia LGBT Network reported having unproductive talks with American embassy officials, in which they were told there was "no political will" to issue U.S. visas to the refugees. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT rights group, has called upon the U.S. to accept Chechen LGBT aslyum-seekers and refugees, noting that "activists state that the U.S. has yet to accept a single Chechen refugee and some Russian advocates have been told that U.S. visas are out of reach for LGBTQ Chechens." One Chechen transgender woman fled Russia in April 2016 after being harassed and assaulted; she traveled to Mexico and crossed the border into the United States, where a U.S. federal judge granted her asylum in August 2017 due to the dangerous situation for LGBT persons in Russia. In May 2019, one gay Chechen man had applied for asylum in the U.S., where he had fled in November 2018 after being attacked in Moscow.


title: Anti-gay purges in Chechnya

text: The 2020 documentary "Welcome to Chechnya" by investigative reporter and filmmaker David France followed the work of activists rescuing survivors of torture in the anti-gay pogroms and features footage that was shot in secret, using hidden cameras, cell phones, GoPros, and handycams. To protect the identities of asylum seekers, deepfake technology was used to replace the faces and voices of subjects with face and voice doubles in a way that allowed viewers to see real faces displaying real emotions. One of the activists briefly discussed the expansion of persecution (on a smaller scale) to neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan. The documentary had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, and was released on June 30, 2020, by HBO Films.


title: Rosales

text: Rosales () is an order of flowering plants. It is sister to a clade consisting of Fagales and Cucurbitales. It contains about 7,700 species, distributed into about 260 genera. Rosales comprise nine families, the type family being the rose family, Rosaceae. The largest of these families are Rosaceae (90/2500) and Urticaceae (54/2600). The order Rosales is divided into three clades that have never been assigned a taxonomic rank. The basal clade consists of the family Rosaceae; another clade consists of four families, including Rhamnaceae; and the third clade consists of the four urticalean families.


title: Rosales

text: The order Rosales is strongly supported as monophyletic in phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences, such as those carried out by members of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In their APG III system of plant classification, they defined Rosales as consisting of the nine families listed in the box on the right. The relationships of these families were uncertain until 2011, when they were resolved in a molecular phylogenetic study based on two nuclear genes and ten chloroplast genes.


title: Rosales

text: Well-known members of Rosales include: roses, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, apples and pears, plums, peaches and apricots, almonds, rowan and hawthorn, jujube, elms, banyans, figs, mulberries, breadfruit, nettles, hops, and cannabis.


title: Rosales

text: In the classification system of Dahlgren the Rosales were in the superorder Rosiflorae (also called Rosanae). In the obsolete Cronquist system, the order Rosales was many times polyphyletic. It consisted of the family Rosaceae and 23 other families that are now placed in various other orders. These families and their placement in the APG III system are:


title: Rosales

text: Different plants that fall under the order Rosales grow in many different parts of the world. They can be found in the mountains, the tropics and the arctic. Even though you can find a member of the order Rosales nearly anywhere, the specific families grow in different specific geographical locations. Wind-pollination is the way that the majority of the families that fall under the order Rosales (including Moraceae, Ulmaceae, and Urticaceae etc.) pollinate.


title: Rosales

text: Within the order Rosales is the family Rosaceae, which includes numerous species that are cultivated for their fruit, making this one of the most economically important families of plants. Fruit produced by members of this family include apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, almonds, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. The leaves of the mulberry provide food for the silkworms used in commercial silk production. Many ornamental species of plant are also in the family Rosaceae, including the rose after which the family and order were named. The rose, considered a symbol of love in many cultures, is featured prominently in poetry and literature. Modern garden varieties of roses such as hybrid teas, floribunda, and grandifora, originated from complex hybrids of several separate wild species native to different regions of Eurasia.


title: Rosales

text: The wood from the black cherry ("Prunus serotina") and sweet cherry ("P. avium") is used to make high quality furniture due to its color and ability to be bent. The Cannabis plant has been highly prized for millennia for its hemp, which has numerous uses. Other varieties of "Cannabis" are grown as a drug.


title: Rosales

text: Plants in the order Rosales were used in the traditional medicines of many cultures. Medical cannabis has been recognized for its pharmaceutical use. The latex of some species of fig trees contains the enzyme ficin, which is effective in killing roundworms that infect the intestinal tracts of animals.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Béla Károlyi (; born September 13, 1942) is an ethnic Hungarian Romanian-American gymnastics coach. Early in his coaching career he developed the Romanian centralised training system for gymnastics. One of his earliest protégés was Nadia Comăneci, the first Olympic Games gymnast to be awarded a perfect score. Living under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Károlyi frequently clashed with Romanian officials. He and his wife defected to the United States in 1981.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Since their arrival in the United States, Béla and his wife Márta Károlyi have been credited with transforming the coaching of gymnastics in the US and bringing major international success. They have both been head coach of the United States women's national gymnastics team, as well as national team coordinator for United States gymnastics at the Olympic Games. They have also been severely criticized for their coaching style, which many gymnasts have called abusive. They have said they had no clue that Larry Nassar, the national gymnastics team doctor who was convicted of sexual assault of minors, was assaulting young female gymnasts in their care at their Karolyi Ranch training facility in Texas. The Karolyis and their ranch are central figures in 2020 film, "Athlete A" - a documentary about the scandal.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi has coached many notable national, European, World and Olympic gymnasts, including Nadia Comăneci, Ecaterina Szabo, Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Teodora Ungureanu, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, Phoebe Mills, and Kerri Strug. In total, Károlyi has coached nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists, and six U.S. national champions. Béla Károlyi was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997. Béla and Márta Károlyi as a coaching team were inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi was born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania). Skilled as an athlete, he became a national junior boxing champion and a member of the Romanian hammer throwing team. He enrolled at the Romania College of Physical Education, studying and practicing gymnastics after having had trouble with a mandatory skills test in the sport.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: In his senior year at the college, Károlyi coached the women's gymnastics team, whose star was Márta Erőss. They later started a relationship and married in 1963. They moved to a small town in the coal-mining region where Béla had grown up, where they started a gymnastics class in the elementary school. Later they were invited by the government to create a national school for gymnastics.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Romania's famed centralized training program has its roots in the 1950s; Károlyi helped develop the program further in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He worked as a coach at the boarding school in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (now named Oneşti), training young girls specially chosen for their athletic potential. One of the first students at the school was six-year-old Nadia Comăneci, who lived near the town and commuted from home.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi debuted as an international coach in 1974. He had to persuade the Romanian gymnastics federation to have Comăneci and his other athletes named to the 1975 European Championships and the 1976 Olympic team, because the federation favored athletes from the competing Dinamo club in Bucharest. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he was head coach of the Romanian squad, and most of the members of the team were Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej athletes. The team took the silver medal, and Comăneci was one of the outstanding performers of the Games, scoring the first-ever perfect 10 in Olympic competition. Altogether, the Romanians won seven medals in Montreal: three gold, two silver, and two bronze.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: After Comăneci's astounding success in Montreal, Károlyi's importance as a coach was recognized. He was named head coach of the Romanian team at the 1980 Olympics. However, he came under fire from Romanian officials because of his score protests at several international meets, including the 1980 Olympics.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: After the Olympics, Károlyi again clashed with Romanian Federation officials, and tension escalated. During a 1981 gymnastics tour, Romanian team choreographer Géza Pozsár and the Károlyis defected and sought political asylum in the United States, temporarily leaving their seven-year-old daughter Andrea with relatives in Romania. They settled in Texas.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: In 1981, a group of businessmen invited Károlyi to join a gymnastics business venture. He decided to invest in the business, and the Károlyis relocated to Houston. The gym ran into financial problems, and Károlyi ended up buying it.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi's status as "Nadia's coach" quickly attracted gymnasts to his club. Three years after his defection, he attended the 1984 Olympics as the individual coach of Mary Lou Retton, who won all-around champion, and Julianne McNamara, who won the gold medal for uneven bars. Olympic rules at that time did not permit a gymnast's personal coach to be present on the competition floor. Only the national coach Don Peters and his assistant were allowed on the floor. Károlyi obtained a maintenance man's pass so he could be near Retton and McNamara during the competition. ABC television network commented on this controversy during its broadcasts and often showed Mary Lou Retton and Julianne McNamara running over to the stands to speak to Károlyi. During the 1984 Olympics, Károlyi did not have an official position with the delegation. He slept in his car, and ignored Peters' instructions by holding supplementary workouts for his gymnasts. Károlyi's clout in the United States increased after the victories of his students in 1984, but so did resentment against him. After Retton's success in 1984, Károlyi purchased the Karolyi Ranch. He was paid by McDonald's to have their golden arch logo as part of his sleeve design. His new gym, run from the ranch, attracted many of the country's top gymnasts.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Following the 1984 Olympics, USGF decided to replace Peters with Greg Marsden as Olympic coach. Marsden was a college coach with no private students and no financial interest in promoting one gymnast at the expense of another. Marsden said that he "thought some of the concerns the other coaches had about Károlyi were legitimate," and selected Donna Cozzo as assistant national coach. Károlyi was furious and had to be dissuaded from boycotting the 1987 Pan American Games. Károlyi did not attend the meet, complaining that he was not allowed to coach although he was "providing fifty percent of the team". Károlyi's star gymnast Kristie Phillips competed in the meet, finishing second behind Sabrina Mar, who trained with former Olympic coach Don Peters at SCATS gym.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: The United States did not do well in the 1987 World Championships, finishing 6th. Marsden resigned from his position as national team coach in November 1987.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: After Marsden resigned, Károlyi lobbied to be appointed as national coach, but he was opposed by the other coaches. Don Peters was restored to the position in January 1988. Peters chose Béla's wife Márta Károlyi to serve as assistant national coach. Károlyi told USGF that he would not attend the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, unless he was the team coach.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: At the 1988 Olympic Trials in August, Károlyi's gymnasts earned 5 of the top 8 spots. These five gymnasts were Phoebe Mills, Brandy Johnson, Chelle Stack, and the two team alternates Rhonda Faehn and Kristie Phillips. Phillips, who had left Károlyi's gym and trained with Peters for a short time following her disappointing performance at the 1987 World Championships, said that Peters workouts were "not half as intense (as Károlyi's)". Phillips told reporters it would hurt the national team if they had to leave Károlyi's gym and train with Peters at SCATS. USGF executive director Mike Jacki said, "The women's coaches are all private businessmen. ... The more kids you put on the team, the better it is for your business."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Peters resigned as national coach after the trials. Following Peters' resignation, the USGF decided against having a national team coach. They decided to allow personal coaches to accompany the gymnasts to the competition. The U.S. Olympic team finished fourth in Seoul. East German gymnastic official Ellen Berger raised a valid objection, since a U.S. team member had violated one of the obscure competition rules. After the springboard had been used at the start of another gymnast's uneven bars routine, the U.S. alternate, Rhonda Faehn, had pulled it away, but had stayed on the podium to watch, instead of stepping off again immediately, as required by the rule. Had Faehn stepped off the podium, the US team would have won the bronze medal. Because of this small points deduction, the East German team overtook the American team and won the bronze medal. An incensed Karolyi said the rule was invoked in order to "keep the scores down" because the East German team was "fighting desperately to keep their place". The obscure rule cited more that no assistance can be given during a performance. It did not specifically mention athletes on the podium. A jury dominated by Soviet Bloc officials voted to maintain the deduction. Despite the fact that the U.S. team had indeed committed an infraction, he said that application of the scoring penalty was "dirty cheating". A photograph of Karolyi embracing and consoling the disappointed American girls appeared in most U.S. newspapers the following day.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: After the 1988 Olympics, Károlyi's sphere of influence continued to grow, as did the number of elite gymnasts training in his gym. At one meet in 1990, a journalist dubbed six top Károlyi gymnasts the "Karolyi six-pack." Although the members of the six-pack would change, the name stuck and increased Károlyi's prominence in the sport.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: At the 1991 World Championships, four of the six athletes on the U.S. women's team—Kim Zmeskal, Betty Okino, Hilary Grivich, and Kerri Strug—were trained by Károlyi; the other two, Shannon Miller and Michelle Campi, were trained by ex-Károlyi club coaches. The situation was almost repeated at the 1992 Olympics, where Károlyi was head coach and five members of the seven-gymnast squad (six competitors and one alternate) were either trained by him or one of his protégés.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi primarily served as a personal coach for Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug at the 1996 Olympics, but he still managed to draw the spotlight. His motivational speech to Strug after she injured her ankle on her first vault ("Shake it off! You can do it!") was broadcast on television and was widely viewed. After Strug's successful final vault, Károlyi carried her to the podium to accept her gold medal. The moment was photographed and widely publicized.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi retired from coaching after the 1996 Olympics. He and Márta still have a ranch and gymnastics camp in New Waverly, Texas. In 1997, Károlyi was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Following the success of the U.S. team, dubbed the "Magnificent Seven," at the 1996 Olympics, USA Gymnastics experienced a lull. A new requirement that competitors be at least 16 years old in the calendar year of the competition (up from the previous 15) kept some top gymnasts out of the World Championships in 1997. While American gymnasts did win medals in international competitions such as the Goodwill Games and the Pacific Alliance Championships, they were largely unsuccessful in most major meets. In both 1997 and 1999, the American team left the World Championships without a single medal.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: After the 1999 World Championships, USA Gymnastics tried to revamp its program by hiring Károlyi as national team coordinator. Károlyi required that all national team members attend frequent, grueling camps at his ranch north of Houston. Some observers believed that selection procedures for international meets became more arbitrary. Coaches resented what they felt was Károlyi's intrusion onto their domain, and athletes were under a considerable amount of stress. The tension had escalated to the point where gymnasts were openly speaking out against Károlyi. At the 2000 Olympics, the U.S. originally placed fourth, but the Chinese team had an underage athlete, so the U.S. team was awarded the bronze.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: In 2001, Marta Károlyi was selected for the national team coordinator position. While she retained some aspects of her husband's program, such as the training camp system, she reduced the frequency of the camps. Her different approach met with more acceptance by both coaches and gymnasts. Between 2001 and 2007, American women won a combined total of 34 medals in World Championship and Olympic competition. Between 2001 and 2016, they won five World Championships team titles (2003, 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2015) and two Olympic team titles (2012, 2016). Additionally, the team won four consecutive Olympic all-arounds (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016), Eight World Championships all-arounds (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017), and eighteen individual event World Championships titles.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Márta Károlyi remained the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics until 2016. During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Béla Károlyi appeared as a guest commentator for NBC News. He claimed that the Chinese women's gymnastics team was cheating by using athletes who did not meet the minimum age requirement. He and his wife said, "They are using half-people. One of the biggest frustrations is, what arrogance. These people think we are stupid."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi said that he disagreed with the age limit, and called for the International Olympic Committee to abolish it. He said that if a gymnast was good enough to earn a spot at the Olympics or World Championships, he or she deserves to go. He praised the Chinese for their competitiveness and skills during the competitions, and said that he objected to the possibility that they were being used by their government. "They do good gymnastics and are a good service for the sport," he said. "They have the ultimate effective training program. That’s why I am more upset that they are cheating. They don’t need cheating. They would be just as good with a lineup of eligible athletes."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Several of Károlyi's athletes from the "six-pack" era have criticized his training methods. Some of his former athletes, including Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, and Erica Stokes, have stated publicly that Károlyi was verbally and psychologically abusive during workouts. Károlyi's constant critical remarks about weight and body type were said to drive some gymnasts to develop eating disorders and low self-esteem. Some gymnasts, such as Phillips, Moceanu, and 1988 Olympian Chelle Stack, have also said they were compelled to continue training and competing even when coping with serious injuries such as broken bones. In one interview, Moceanu, who was one of Károlyi's final protégés, said: "I'm sure Béla saw injuries, but if you were injured, Béla didn't want to see it. ... You had to deal with it. I was intimidated. He looked down on me. He was six-feet something, and I was four-foot nothing."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Károlyi was also said to strictly monitor his gymnasts' food intake: Moceanu, for instance, stated that at meets away from home, gymnasts were limited to consuming as few as 900 Calories a day. Even Károlyi's supporters have admitted that at certain competitions, his gymnasts ate so sparingly that members of the men's gymnastics team smuggled food to them in their hotel rooms.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: However, many of Károlyi's most prominent gymnasts have vehemently defended him against these allegations. Nadia Comăneci, in her 2004 memoir "Letters to a Young Gymnast", remarked that she literally trusted Károlyi with her life. She also stated that in Romania, the gymnasts at Károlyi's school consumed well-balanced diets and, in fact, ate better than most other civilians in the country at the time. Olympic medalists and Károlyi gymnasts Mary Lou Retton, Phoebe Mills and Kim Zmeskal, among others, have also praised Károlyi and his training regimen.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: A number of former Károlyi gymnasts, both supporters and detractors, have acknowledged that some of the allegations about Károlyi were true, but have also claimed that the ends—medals—justified the means. In Joan Ryan's 1995 "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes", 1992 Olympian Betty Okino said: "What Béla did worked. He motivated me by getting me mad." Some have claimed that Károlyi stopped treating gymnasts harshly when parents directly requested that he do so. In a column she wrote rebutting many of the claims of "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes", Okino wrote: "Károlyi structured his training in a way that built your physical and mental strength to such a remarkable level that even he couldn't tear you down. Béla wanted to know that when push came to shove, his athletes could handle any situation thrown at them."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: In an interview in the edition of December 8, 2007 of the Romanian newspaper "Evenimentul Zilei", Adrian Goreac, the coach of the Romanian national gymnastics team from 1981 to 1990, after Károlyi left, spoke of Károlyi's "dictatorial regime" during his time coaching the Romanian gymnastics team.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: In November 2008, Emilia Eberle, a Romanian national team member during the Károlyi coaching era, gave an interview to KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, claiming that while she was on the national team, both Béla and Márta Károlyi regularly beat her and her teammates for mistakes they made in practice or competition. "In one word, I can say it was brutal", she told KCRA. Other Romanian team members, including Ecaterina Szabo and Rodica Dunca, as well as Géza Pozsár, the team choreographer who defected with the Károlyis, have made similar charges of physical abuse. When asked in 2008 to comment on the allegations, Béla said: "I ignore it. I'm not even commenting. These people are really trash."


title: Béla Károlyi

text: While Károlyi has not been personally implicated in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal that was reported beginning in 2016, gymnasts said that many instances of sexual abuse perpetrated by former team doctor Larry Nassar occurred at the Karolyi Ranch. Nassar reportedly groomed athletes for abuse and gained their trust in part by covertly providing them with food in defiance of Károlyi's strict dietary guidelines. Some gymnasts also said that the strict discipline and conditions at the ranch made them feel inhibited from reporting Nassar's abuses. As a result of the scandal, in July 2017 USA Gymnastics cancelled its plans to buy Karolyi Ranch. In January 2018 USA Gymnastics announced they were cutting ties with Karolyi Ranch altogether.


title: Béla Károlyi

text: Béla Károlyi was in the episode "At the Edge of the Worlds", in the ABC Family show "Make It or Break It". He portrayed Coach Sasha Belov's father.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Hope van Dyne (née Pym) is a fictional character portrayed by Evangeline Lilly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film franchise, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Hope Pym. Portrayed as the daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, she was a senior board member of her father's company, Pym Technologies, and later inherits the superhero identity of Wasp from her mother, using a suit containing shrinking technology to shrink to the size of an insect and also fly with insect-themed wings.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: She first appeared in the 2015 film "Ant-Man" and later appeared in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" (2018) and "" (2019). She will reprise her role in the upcoming superhero film "" (2023). Lilly also appears in the Disney+ animated series "What If...?" (2021) as an alternate version of the character.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: She is noted for being the first superheroine to be a titular character in an MCU film, preceding Captain Marvel and Black Widow.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Joss Whedon, the writer and director of "The Avengers", originally intended to have the Wasp appear in the film due to potential scheduling conflicts preventing Scarlett Johansson from appearing in the film as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow. Whedon wanted Zooey Deschanel to play the role of Wasp.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Evangeline Lilly was originally cast as the character in 2014, when Edgar Wright was slated to direct "Ant-Man". When Wright left the film later in the year and was replaced by Peyton Reed, Lilly was reluctant to take the role until she read the revised script and got a chance to meet with Reed. Reed also offered contributions to the revised script, as did Lilly, who worked with Scott Lang-actor and co-screenwriter Paul Rudd, and contributed ideas to help flesh out her character, which received a fuller arc and more action sequences as a result. One of the important things for Reed when joining the film was emphasizing both Hope and Janet van Dyne more, given the Wasp being "a crucial part" of the Ant-Man comics.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In October 2015, after the release of "Ant-Man", Marvel Studios announced a sequel, titled "Ant-Man and the Wasp", with a scheduled release date of July 6, 2018, with Lilly confirmed to reprise the role. On including the Wasp in the film's title (the first MCU film to have a female character in the title), Reed called it "organic" for both characters, and noted the Wasp's final line in "Ant-Man"—'It's about damn time'—as "very much about her specific character and arc in that movie, but it is absolutely about a larger thing. It's about damn time: We’re going to have a fully realized, very complicated hero in the next movie who happens to be a woman." Reed would also push to ensure the Wasp received equal publicity and merchandise for the film. Danielle Costa was responsible for visual effects stunts of the character.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In 2016, Kevin Feige revealed that Lilly appearing as Wasp was in an original draft of the film "" (2016) after receiving the Wasp costume at the end of "Ant-Man", but her scenes were cut because "there were so many characters in "Civil War" that we didn't want to do her a disservice". Reed himself noted that "Scott almost did call Hope" but "the Russo brothers, along with their screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, felt that there was too much story riding on the backs of too many characters to do justice to Wasp".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In late 2016, two new Avengers films were announced to arrive in 2018 and 2019. Lilly confirmed that Hope van Dyne would appear in the second Avengers film (eventually titled "") saying that her character would not appear in the 2018 instalment ("") in order to preserve her reveal as the Wasp in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" which was set for release the same year. Lilly also reprised her role in the inspired media attraction of the MCU, in Hong Kong Disneyland. Lily will also reprise her role as titular superhero once again being featured alongside Scott Lang in the upcoming superhero film, "" which is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 17, 2023.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Van Dyne is introduced in "Ant-Man" as the daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne and a senior board member of Pym Technologies who helps Darren Cross take over the company. Throughout the film, character progression brings Hope closer to becoming a hero. Lilly described her character as "capable, strong, and kick-ass", but said that being raised by two superheroes resulted in Hope being "a pretty screwed up human being... and the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name." She added that Van Dyne's "arc in the movie is trying to find a relationship" with Pym. Originally cast by Wright, Lilly was reluctant to take the role after he left the project until she read the revised script and got a chance to meet with Reed. Feige said that Van Dyne was the more obvious choice to take up the mantle of Ant-Man, being "infinitely more capable of actually being a superhero" than Lang, and that the reason she does not is because of Pym's experience with losing her mother, rather than sexism, which Feige felt would not be a problem for Pym in modern times. Lilly signed a multi-film contract with Marvel.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In "Ant-Man and the Wasp", Van Dyne is handed down a similar suit and the Wasp mantle from her mother. The writers were excited to properly introduce the character as the Wasp, showing her "power set, how she fights, and what are the injustices that matter to her". Lilly felt the character has "incredible satisfaction" in becoming the Wasp, "something that she has been waiting for her whole life, which is essentially an affirmation from her father". Her relationship with Lang is more complicated than in the first film, and includes anger towards his actions during "". Lilly felt it was important that Hope "be an extremely empathetic and compassionate person" and "to always push for feminine qualities to be apparent when she is dealing with situations". In her fight sequences, Lilly wanted to move away from the more masculine Muay Thai and mixed martial arts style of fighting she learned for the first film, noting that Hope moves differently than a man, so her fights should have "elegance, grace and femininity" with "a signature style" young girls could enjoy and emulate. Lilly worked with the writers to help ensure Hope was able to "represent a modern woman" without becoming the stereotype of a motherly figure. Madeleine McGraw portrays a young Hope van Dyne.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In 2021, Lilly voiced an alternate version of van Dyne in "What If...?". On her role in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania", Lilly noted that she was "really excited to have a chance to show a side of [van Dyne] where she would make mistakes, she would be fragile, and she wouldn't always have the right answer".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: The superhero character, Wasp, who Hope was teased to take over the mantle of in the original "Ant-Man", and then later starred as in "Ant-Man and the Wasp", debuted in American Comic Books in the anthology series, "Tales to Astonish" #44 (plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by H.E. Huntley, and drawn by Jack Kirby, June 1963) as Janet van Dyne, Henry "Hank" Pym's partner, becoming the Wasp to avenge the death of her father, scientist Vernon van Dyne. She co-starred in "Tales to Astonish" from issue #44 to issue #69 (1963–65), and was a founding member of the Avengers, appearing in the first issue and giving the team its name. Janet's role (alongside Hank Pym), is depicted as more of a supporting character within the MCU films who have used the superhero alias in the past, additionally she was depicted as the mother of Hope and the original Wasp within the MCU films. Instead Hope van Dyne is more loosely connected on the concept of Hope Pym, a similar (but more obscure) character who is also the daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne. She was portrayed as a supervillain who called herself the Red Queen from the MC2 lineup as published by Marvel Comics. Despite the same original name and same parents, they are very different from each other. Hope Pym was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, and first appeared in "A-Next" #7 (April 1999).


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Another inspired character that originally appeared in the mainstream Marvel Universe canon (Earth-616) and later in other continuities and Marvel media during the start of the All-New, All-Different Marvel launch starting in 2015 in the comic book issue of "Free Comic Book Day 2016 Civil War II" (July 2016) is a character called Nadia van Dyne (who was created after van Dyne). She is the daughter of Hank Pym but with a different mother than of van Dyne. She also becomes the Wasp within the comics. Her name "Nadia" is a Russian language translated name of "Hope".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: As a child, Hope van Dyne is estranged from her father Hank Pym after he hides the circumstances of the disappearance of her mother Janet van Dyne and his subsequent cold and distant behavior towards her. She adopts her mother's maiden name and, as a board member of her father's company Pym Technologies, she was the deciding vote in casting out Pym as CEO.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In 2015, however, she seeks his help to stop new CEO Darren Cross from replicating Pym's Ant-Man shrinking technology with the Yellowjacket suit, which he plans to mass-produce as military hardware. Pym recruits convicted thief Scott Lang to become the new Ant-Man to steal the Yellowjacket from Cross. Hope is against using Lang, believing herself to be the superior choice. However, she reluctantly helps train Lang to fully harness the Ant-Man suit's abilities. Hope reconciles with her father after he reveals that her mother shrank herself and became trapped in the subatomic Quantum Realm during a mission with S.H.I.E.L.D. as the Wasp. After successfully aiding Lang in thwarting Cross' plans, Pym reveals to Hope a new Wasp prototype suit and offers it to her.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In 2018, Van Dyne and Pym are now in hiding due to Lang's actions against the Sokovia Accords in 2016, and has cut ties with him. However, they seek his help after they discover a way to bring back Janet from the Quantum Realm, with Lang having seen dreams of van Dyne's childhood experiences with her mother Janet. Van Dyne and Lang team up as Ant-Man and the Wasp, and rekindle their relationship as they fight to keep their quantum technology away from other rival parties, such as black market dealer Sonny Burch, as well as Ava Starr / Ghost and Bill Foster, who want to use it to cure Starr of her fatal molecular instability.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: After Pym successfully brings Janet back from the Quantum realm, they, along with Hope and Lang plan to harvest quantum energy to cure Starr's condition. However, van Dyne and her parents disintegrate after the initiation of the Blip, leaving Lang trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years. In 2023, van Dyne is restored to life and is brought to join the final battle against an alternate Thanos by Doctor Strange. After Thanos's defeat, she, alongside her restored parents and Lang, attends Tony Stark's funeral and spends time with Lang and his daughter, Cassie, back home.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Several alternate versions of Van Dyne appear in the animated series "What If...?", with Lilly reprising her role.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In an alternate universe, Van Dyne was recruited as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent by Nick Fury, but was killed during a mission in Odessa, Ukraine. Her death drives her father to get revenge on Fury by disrupting his recruitment mission for the Avengers Initiative.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In an alternate 2018, Van Dyne is one of the sole survivors of Earth following a quantum zombie virus outbreak caused by her mother's return from the Quantum Realm. After leaving their base in New York City and en-route to Camp Lehigh, Van Dyne also becomes infected and sacrifices herself to allow the others to escape.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Since her inception within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she has appeared in various other Marvel Comics based media as the Wasp. She has appeared in animated series that derived from Marvel Animation including "Ant-Man", voiced by Melissa Rauch, "Avengers Assemble", voiced by Kari Wahlgren, and "Marvel Super Hero Adventures", voiced by Marlie Collins.


title: Hope van Dyne

text: She also appears in a few crossover Marvel video games titles using the Wasp alias created by Marvel Games: "Marvel Puzzle Quest", "Lego Marvel Avengers", "Lego Marvel Superheroes 2", "Marvel Contest of Champions", "", "Marvel Avengers Academy" and "Marvel Strike Force".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: For her role in the first "Ant-Man" film "AV Club" writer Sam Barsanti noted that, "Hope is much more well-suited [...] to be a superhero than Paul Rudd's Scott Lang" but she didn't "get to do nearly as much stuff". Contrarily, for "Ant-Man and the Wasp", Stephanie Zacharek, writing for "Time", felt that "the focus on Lilly as a better hero than Rudd was just checking off boxes in the name of gender equality". Amon Warmann of "Yahoo! News" praised Lilly's voice role as van Dyne in the fifth episode of "What If...?", "What If... Zombies?!", feeling that she "gave the episode's strongest performance" and that "Hope's final act of going giant size for the first time in the MCU was beautifully played".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: Van Dyne's role in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" was often received with higher praise than compared to the first film with Insider writer Kirsten Acuna noting that, "Wasp is even more enjoyable to watch on screen". She added that "not only can she build great tech, but she's also an expert at hand-to-hand combat" and that her and Lang "are pretty great to see working side by side". "Vox" writer Alex Abad-Santos agreed saying that in the sequel, "Lilly's Hope Van Dyne was the smarter, tougher, better-trained character" and that "the movie fully acknowledges that Hope is the more adept superhero by letting her lead the way in these sequences".


title: Hope van Dyne

text: In 2018, after appearing in "Ant-Man and the Wasp", van Dyne became the first superheroine to be a titular character in an Marvel Cinematic Universe film, preceding Carol Danvers in "Captain Marvel" and Natasha Romanoff in "Black Widow". Amelia Rayne Kim of Screen Rant acknowledged van Dyne, noting that van Dyne becoming the Wasp "not only made sense for the narrative but it prevented her from being simply a supporting character or a love interest". Kim added that her titular introduction "broke down another barrier to the women of this universe achieving equal footing with its men".


title: Leah Pipes

text: Leah Pipes (born August 12, 1988) is an American actress. She starred in the television series "Life Is Wild", the slasher film "Sorority Row" and the CW's "The Originals".


title: Leah Pipes

text: She broke into screen acting in 2001 on the supernatural-drama series show "Angel". She was a regular on the TV series "Lost at Home" and appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Pixel Perfect" as Samantha Jacobs. She starred in the movie "Fingerprints" in 2006 (released in 2008). She has also appeared on TV shows such as "Crossing Jordan" and "Drake & Josh". She also appeared on "Clubhouse" as Jessie.


title: Leah Pipes

text: She starred in the soccer film "Her Best Move". She appeared in "Odd Girl Out" and other small budget films. In 2006 Pipes starred as the teenage foster child Kelly in an episode of Fox's TV series Bones.


title: Leah Pipes

text: She also had a recurring role in "" as Jody. She plays Beth in the ABC series "The Deep End", which premiered on 21 January 2010.


title: Leah Pipes

text: She played one of the leads in her first major film, 2009's "Sorority Row". For which she received critical acclaim, and was either seen as the "highlight" or the best part of the film.


title: Leah Pipes

text: In 2010, she played Miranda for one episode of "". She also played Alexis for one episode of "The Defenders". In 2012, she began filming alongside Mischa Barton and Ryan Eggold in the Mark Edwin Robinson's supernatural romance thriller, "Into the Dark".


title: Leah Pipes

text: She starred with E.J. Bonilla in the film romance "Musical Chairs", about a couple who participates in wheelchair ballroom dancing. It was released theatrically on March 23, 2012. Pipes starred in "The Originals" as Camille O'Connell. She also starred in "Charmed" as Fiona a witch whose magic equals with the powers of the charmed ones.


title: Leah Pipes

text: In January 2014, Pipes announced her engagement to actor and musician A.J. Trauth, after almost three years of dating. They married on December 6, 2014 in Santa Barbara, California. Pipes filed for divorce in May 2019.


title: Strange quark

text: The strange quark or s quark (from its symbol, s) is the third lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle. Strange quarks are found in subatomic particles called hadrons. Examples of hadrons containing strange quarks include kaons (), strange D mesons (), Sigma baryons (), and other strange particles.


title: Strange quark

text: According to the IUPAP, the symbol s is the official name, while "strange" is to be considered only as a mnemonic. The name sideways has also been used because the s quark has an I value of 0 while the u ("up") and d ("down") quarks have values of + and − respectively.


title: Strange quark

text: Along with the charm quark, it is part of the second generation of matter. It has an electric charge of − "e" and a bare mass of . Like all quarks, the strange quark is an elementary fermion with spin , and experiences all four fundamental interactions: gravitation, electromagnetism, weak interactions, and strong interactions. The antiparticle of the strange quark is the strange antiquark (sometimes called "antistrange quark" or simply "antistrange"), which differs from it only in that some of its properties have equal magnitude but opposite sign.


title: Strange quark

text: The first strange particle (a particle containing a strange quark) was discovered in 1947 (kaons), but the existence of the strange quark itself (and that of the up and down quarks) was only postulated in 1964 by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig to explain the "eightfold way" classification scheme of hadrons. The first evidence for the existence of quarks came in 1968, in deep inelastic scattering experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. These experiments confirmed the existence of up and down quarks, and by extension, strange quarks, as they were required to explain the "eightfold way".


title: Strange quark

text: In the beginnings of particle physics (first half of the 20th century), hadrons such as protons, neutrons and pions were thought to be elementary particles. However, new hadrons were discovered and the "particle zoo" grew from a few particles in the early 1930s and 1940s to several dozens of them in the 1950s. Some particles were much longer lived than others; most particles decayed through the strong interaction and had lifetimes of around 10 seconds. When they decayed through the weak interactions, they had lifetimes of around 10 seconds. While studying these decays, Murray Gell-Mann (in 1953) and Kazuhiko Nishijima (in 1955) developed the concept of "strangeness" (which Nishijima called "eta-charge", after the eta meson ()) to explain the "strangeness" of the longer-lived particles. The Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula is the result of these efforts to understand strange decays.


title: Strange quark

text: Despite their work, the relationships between each particle and the physical basis behind the strangeness property remained unclear. In 1961, Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman independently proposed a hadron classification scheme called the eightfold way, also known as SU(3) flavor symmetry. This ordered hadrons into isospin multiplets. The physical basis behind both isospin and strangeness was only explained in 1964, when Gell-Mann and George Zweig independently proposed the quark model, which at that time consisted only of the up, down, and strange quarks. Up and down quarks were the carriers of isospin, while the strange quark carried strangeness. While the quark model explained the "eightfold way", no direct evidence of the existence of quarks was found until 1968 at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Deep inelastic scattering experiments indicated that protons had substructure, and that protons made of three more-fundamental particles explained the data (thus confirming the quark model).


title: Strange quark

text: At first people were reluctant to identify the three-bodies as quarks, instead preferring Richard Feynman's parton description, but over time the quark theory became accepted (see "November Revolution").


title: The Colbert Report

text: The Colbert Report ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focused on a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake. The character, described by Colbert as a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot", is a caricature of televised political pundits. Furthermore, the show satirized conservative personality-driven political talk programs, particularly Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor". "The Colbert Report" is a spin-off of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show", where Colbert was a correspondent from 1997 to 2005.


title: The Colbert Report

text: The program, created by Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Ben Karlin, lampooned current events and American political happenings. The show's structure consisted of an introductory monologue and a guest interview, in which the Colbert character attempts to deconstruct his opponent's argument. The show was taped in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, and the program's set is "hyper-American", epitomizing the character's ego. The show was taped and broadcast Monday through Thursday, with weeks taken off at multiple points in a given year for breaks.


title: The Colbert Report

text: "The Colbert Report" saw immediate critical and ratings successes, leading to various awards, including multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards. The show's cultural influence often extended beyond the show's traditional viewing audience, including Colbert running for U.S. President twice, co-hosting a rally at the National Mall, presenting a controversial performance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and establishing a real Super PAC that raised over a million dollars. The show also inspired various forms of multimedia, including music and multiple best-selling books.


title: The Colbert Report

text: "The Colbert Report", hosted by a fictional anchorman character named Stephen Colbert, played by his real-life namesake, satirized conservative personality-driven political pundit programs like "the O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity" on FOX News. The character first made appearances on the short-lived sketch comedy series "The Dana Carvey Show" in 1996, described as "a self-important, trench-coated reporter who does on-location stories in a way that suggests his own presence is the real scoop." His skits included “Waiters Who Are Nauseated by Food,” “Germans Who Say Nice Things” and “Skinheads From Maine.”


title: The Colbert Report

text: Colbert joined Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" in 1997, a year following its launch, then hosted by Craig Kilborn. When Jon Stewart became the program's host in 1999, "The Daily Show" developed a markedly different style, bringing a sharper political focus to the humor than the show previously exhibited. Colbert recalled that Stewart specifically asked him to have a political viewpoint, and to allow his passion for issues to carry through into his comedy.


title: The Colbert Report

text: Colbert became a fixture on "The Daily Show", occasionally hosting in Stewart's absence. In 2003, the program began running advertisements for a fictional program titled "The Colbert Réport", starring Colbert as a parody of cable news pundits. When fellow "Daily Show" star Steve Carell left the show to pursue a film and television career, Comedy Central worked to keep Colbert at the network. Colbert pitched "The Colbert Report" to the channel in 2004. Stewart pushed Comedy Central to pick up the show, and Colbert was given an eight-week tryout. Following the show's immediate success, the show "quickly became a fixture in the late-night lineup." At its peak, the show averaged 1.5 million viewers each evening.


title: The Colbert Report

text: The intensity of the fictional Colbert anchorman character was gradually toned down over the course of the show's run, as the host believed he would eventually need to move beyond it. He began to regard it as an act of discipline to perform as the character, later remarking, "to model behavior, you have to consume that behavior on a regular basis. It became very hard to watch punditry of any kind, of whatever political stripe." With his contract set to end in December 2014, he had already decided to leave the show when he was contacted by CBS to replace David Letterman as the host of its "Late Show" franchise. The show's ending was announced concurrently with Colbert's jump to CBS in April 2014. The last episode of "the Report" aired on December 18, 2014. The show was replaced on Comedy Central's late-night lineup by "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore", another spinoff of "The Daily Show".


title: The Colbert Report

text: The character first made appearances on the short-lived sketch comedy series "The Dana Carvey Show" in 1996, described as "a self-important, trench-coated reporter who does on-location stories in a way that suggests his own presence is the real scoop."


title: The Colbert Report

text: When "The Daily Show" ran short on time, a short piece starring Colbert, advertising a fictional program titled "The Colbert Réport", was added into the program. In these sketches, Colbert began to amplify his character to parody news pundits. Colbert anchored many sketches in his persona, including "Even Stepvhen", in which he debated current issues with fellow correspondent Steve Carell, often devolving into petty name-calling and insults. Colbert and Carell were viewed as potential breakout stars by staff, and when Carell left the series in 2004 to start a US version of "The Office", Comedy Central made attempts to keep Colbert at the network. Stewart and Karlin were already looking to expand the "Daily Show" franchise and their production company, Busboy. The duo supposedly came up with the idea for "The Colbert Report" after watching coverage of the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Bill O'Reilly. Colbert met with network president Doug Herzog the day following the 2004 Emmy Awards to first discuss the concept. The one-line pitch Colbert, Karlin and Stewart developed was "Our version of "the O'Reilly Factor" with Stephen Colbert." Herzog committed to an eight-week tryout period without a pilot.


title: The Colbert Report

text: By the time of the 2004 election, the character was fully developed. In creating the character, which is designed to be repellant but entertaining, Colbert conferred with Stewart and Karlin. In expressing his hope that his character not be "an asshole," Stewart remarked, "You're not an asshole. You're an idiot. There's a difference." Head writer Allison Silverman reiterated this trait in a later interview, commenting, "There is an essential innocence to his character." Colbert initially felt the character might not be sustainable in a longer format. Despite this, "The Colbert Report" was designed as an extension of the satiric goals of "The Daily Show", combining it with general silliness and character-driven humor. To make sure there was no overlap in subject matter with "The Daily Show", Karlin made trips between the studios during the show's early days to supervise scripts. For the first several years of the program, Colbert made an appearance at the end of each "Daily Show" in split-screen, having a short discussion with Stewart preceding his show.


title: The Colbert Report

text: The show's writing was grounded in improv, employing a "yes to everything" mentality. Much of the humor derived from extended improv games with the show's studio and at-home audience, like Colbert's poll to name a bridge in Hungary after himself. Many of the writers had improv training and at one point put together "improv evenings" at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre once a month. "The Report's" writing staff was predominantly male and white; Colbert acknowledged this lack of diversity, but contended that he hired writers based solely on the quality of their material and had never looked at the names on writing packets submitted for employment. Subjects considered too dark were not even considered for comedic material; for example, the show would poke fun at press coverage of a tragedy, rather than the tragedy itself. Issues discussed on the show were later reported on actual newscasts, in turn allowing the show to comment on its own impact, creating an echo chamber of sorts. This led Colbert to describe his show, "at its purest expression, [as] a pebble that we throw into the puddle of the news, and then we report on our own ripples."


title: The Colbert Report

text: Ideas for each show were considered in the morning pitch meeting, which could range from "harrowing" to smooth. Described as having "demanding standards", Colbert is quoted as remarking, "Let's make it perfect and then cut it." Although dozens of ideas were either chosen for the show or deleted, other ideas, saved for a later date, were often forgotten because of the pace of news. Ideas with considerable potential were put in the "hopper" to be developed and rewritten, while more fully formed ideas were placed in the "pantry." Good jokes would still be sacrificed if they did not fit the character's specific point of view, which was deemed the inverse of what "any logical person" feels. At least one writer has described the job as "all-consuming", leaving no time for outside activities. Colbert himself eventually became withdrawn from morning meetings as the show continued on and he mulled a decision to leave.


title: The Colbert Report

text: Usually by 11 a.m., a rough outline for the show was completed and writers sent off in pairs to create scripts that would be polished throughout the day. First, writers would scan news articles for ideas and partner together in pairs, with one "keeping track of possible jokes." During an appearance at the New York Comedy Festival in 2013, some writers admitted to procrastinating until the last hour before rehearsal to complete their sections; Colbert confirmed that, in the program's early days, segments such as "The Word" were scripted entirely during the rewrite before rehearsal. Both writers read their dialogue aloud to see whether they thought the Colbert character would say it. As writers were working on their respective scripts, the show's production and graphics team compiled music, footage, and props needed for the show. To collect video clips, the show cross-referenced transcripts of hours and hours of archived TiVo recordings of news programs. In 2011, the show switched to Snapstream software, which streamlined the TV clip search and compilation process, allowing for searching closed captioning for select words. In addition, a group of staff coders and independent contractors developed Scripto software to collaborate on scripts in real time.


title: The Colbert Report

text: By 1 p.m., the show held a second production meeting to go over scripts and determine which pieces to edit. Scripts were "hopefully" completed around 4 p.m., and a rehearsal with the entire staff would begin at 5:30 p.m. or occasionally earlier. Afterward, final changes were made to the script. The final rewrite would take place in a "small, red, poorly ventilated room" until 6:45 p.m. Before interviewing his guests, Colbert met with them in the green room and acknowledged that he was playing a character, noting that the persona is "willfully ignorant of what you know and care about" and urging the guest to "honestly disabuse me of what you see as my ignorance." Emily Lazar, a producer for the interview segments, advised guests to talk with Colbert as though he were a "harmless drunk at the next bar stool." Guests would typically take their seats around 7 p.m., when a warm-up comedian (perhaps Jared Logan or Paul Mercurio) delivered jokes. Colbert, out of character, held a brief question and answer session with the audience prior to taping. Taping lasted as long as three hours but usually ended around 9 p.m., at which point the show was edited and sent to Comedy Central for broadcast. As the show was being edited, the staff met one last time to work through details for the next show.


title: The Colbert Report

text: "The Colbert Report" was taped and broadcast four nights a week, Monday–Thursday. The show's taping studio, at 513 W. 54th Street in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, was used for "The Daily Show" until July 2005, and has a capacity of 150. NEP Studio 54 on 54th Street is owned by NEP Broadcasting which is New York City's largest production facility and also owns "The Daily Show" set at NEP Studio 52 two blocks south on 52nd Street. Aside from the set, the show's production offices have been described as "loft-like" and "all overhead pipes and exposed brick." Following the show's conclusion, the building was used for "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore".


title: The Colbert Report

text: The set for "The Colbert Report" was called "The Eagle's Nest" and reflects and facilitates Colbert's self-aggrandizing style. It was designed by Jim Fenhagen, and was intended to both capture the character's ego and be "hyper-American." Elements incorporated into the set included architectural lines converged to Colbert's desk, and radial beams coming out from behind his chair. Colbert's main influence for the set was Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", with the Colbert character as Jesus Christ. In the set, "virtually every inch emblazoned with Colbert's name or the initial C"; his name, initials and the name of the show appear on the desk's plasma screen, on the rafters above the desk, and the desk itself is shaped like a giant "C". The background includes faux artifacts from the character's backstory, which are seldom seen by viewers. "I kept saying, 'People might not really notice this.' But when you're working with a comedy team, they really get into it. They couldn't help themselves," said Fenhagen. These references included the United States Constitution, a miniature Ten Commandments, and a CliffsNotes guide to American government.