title: Li Peng

text: Li was born as Li Yuanpeng () at Family house in Shanghai French Concession, Now in 545 Yanan Road, Huangpu District in Shanghai, with ancestral roots in Chengdu, Sichuan. He was the son of Li Shuoxun, one of the earliest CCP revolutionaries, who was the political commissar of the Twentieth Division during the Nanchang uprising, and Zhao Juntao, also an early Communist operative. In 1931, Li's father, then working undercover in Hainan, was captured and executed by the Kuomintang. Li was believed to have met Deng Yingchao, wife of senior Communist leader Zhou Enlai, in Chengdu in 1939, who then took him to Chongqing to meet Zhou. Zhou was in the Communist base of Yan'an, and they did not meet until late 1940. In 1941, when Li was twelve, Zhou sent Li to Yan'an, where Li studied until 1945. As a seventeen-year-old, in 1945, Li joined the Chinese Communist Party.


title: Li Peng

text: In 1941, Li Peng began studying at the Yan'an Institute of Natural Science (a predecessor of the Beijing Institute of Technology). In July 1946, Li was sent to work in Zhangjiakou. According to his own recollection, in 1947, he journeyed through Shandong and North Korea, eventually ending up in Harbin where he began managing some work for a lard processing plant. In 1948, Li Peng was sent to study at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, majoring in hydroelectric engineering. A year later, in 1949, Zhou Enlai became Premier of the newly declared People's Republic of China. Li graduated in 1954. During his time in the Soviet Union, Li was the head of the Chinese Students Association in the Soviet Union.


title: Li Peng

text: When Li returned to China in 1955, the country was firmly under the control of the Communist Party. Li took part in technical, then management work in the power industry, beginning his career in Northeast China. At the outset of the Cultural Revolution, Li was sent to Beijing to head up the municipal power bureau. He played a leading role in the construction of the Tuhe Powerplant in Tangshan and the Gaojing Powerplant in Beijing. During his time at Gaojing, he worked three days and three nights supervising the construction of the site. On 4 October 1974, he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle home from work. In 1976, Li was dispatched to affected regions of the Tangshan earthquake as head of the power restoration efforts.


title: Li Peng

text: Li advanced politically after the ascent of Deng Xiaoping, and served as the Vice-Minister and Minister of Power between 1979 and 1983. In 1982–1983 Li served as the vice-minister of Water Conservancy and Power. Much of Li's rapid political promotion was due to the support of Party elder Chen Yun.


title: Li Peng

text: Li joined the Central Committee at the Twelfth National Congress in 1982. In 1985 he was named minister of the State Education Commission, and was elected to the Politburo and the Party Secretariat. In 1987 Li became a member of the powerful Standing Committee.


title: Li Peng

text: In November 1987, after Premier Zhao Ziyang was promoted to General Secretary, Li became acting Premier. He was formally elected Premier in March 1988. Within a year of this promotion, Li would play a major role in ending Zhao's career, after Zhao publicly supported demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. At the time of his promotion, Li seemed like an unusual choice for Premier because he did not seem to share Deng's enthusiasm for introducing market reforms. Li was raised to the position of Premier thanks partially to the departure of Hu Yaobang, who was forced to resign as General Secretary after the Party blamed him for a series of student-led protests in 1987.


title: Li Peng

text: Throughout the 1980s, political dissent and social problems, including inflation, urban migration, and school overcrowding, became great problems in China. Despite these acute challenges, Li shifted his focus away from the day-to-day concerns of energy, communications, and raw materials allocation, and took a more active role in the ongoing intra-party debate on the pace of market reforms. Politically, Li opposed the modern economic reforms pioneered by Zhao Ziyang throughout Zhao's years of public service. While students and intellectuals urged greater reforms, some party elders increasingly feared that the instability opened up by any significant reforms would threaten to undermine the authority of the Communist Party, which Li had spent his career attempting to strengthen.


title: Li Peng

text: After Zhao became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, his proposals in May 1988 to expand free enterprise led to popular complaints (which some suggest were politically inspired) about inflation fears. Public fears about the negative effects of market reforms gave conservatives (including Li Peng) the opening to call for greater centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western influences, especially opposing further expansion of Zhao's more free enterprise-oriented approach. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more heated through the winter of 1988–1989.


title: Li Peng

text: The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 began with the mass mourning over the death of former General secretary Hu Yaobang, widely perceived to have been purged for his support of political liberalization. On the eve of Hu's funeral, 100,000 people gathered at Tiananmen Square. Beijing students began the demonstrations to encourage continued economic reform and liberalization, and these demonstrations soon evolved into a mass movement for political reform. From Tiananmen Square, the protesters later expanded into the surrounding streets. Non-violent protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai and Wuhan. Rioting occurred in Xi'an and Changsha.


title: Li Peng

text: The Tiananmen protests were partially protests against the affluence of the children of high-ranking Communist Party officials, and the perception that second-generation officials had received their fortunes through exploiting their parents' influence. Li, whose family has often been at the center of corruption allegations within the Chinese power industry, was vulnerable to these charges.


title: Li Peng

text: An editorial published in the "People's Daily" on 26 April and bearing the name of Deng Xiaoping, denounced the demonstrations as "premeditated and organized turmoil with anti-Party and anti-socialist motives". This article had the effect of worsening the demonstrations by angering its leaders, who then made their demands more extreme. Zhao Ziyang later wrote in his autobiography that, although Deng had stated many of these sentiments in a private conversation with Li Peng shortly before the editorial was written, Li had these comments disseminated to Party members and published as the editorial without Deng's knowledge or consent.


title: Li Peng

text: Li strictly refused to negotiate with the Tiananmen protesters out of principle, and became one of the officials most objected to by protesters. One of the protest's key leaders, Wu'erkaixi, during a hunger strike, publicly scolded Li on National Television, saying he was ignoring the needs of the people. Some observers say that Wang's statements insulted Li personally, hardening his resolve to end the protest by violent means.


title: Li Peng

text: Among the other senior members of the central government, Li became the one who most strongly favored violence and known as the "Butcher of Beijing" for his role in the crackdown. After winning the support of most of his colleagues, apparently including Deng Xiaoping, Li officially declared martial law in Beijing on 20 May 1989 and the protests were crushed by the military on 3–4 June. Most estimates of the dead range from several hundred to several thousand people. Li later described the crackdown as a historic victory for Communism, and wrote that he feared the protests would be as potentially damaging to China as the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) had been.


title: Li Peng

text: Although the Tiananmen crackdown was an "international public relations disaster for China", it ensured that Li would have a long and productive career. He remained powerful, even though he had been one of the main targets of protesters, partially because the leadership believed that limiting Li's career would be the same as admitting that they had made mistakes by suppressing the 1989 protests. By keeping Li at the upper levels of the Party, China's leaders communicated to the world that the country remained stable and united.


title: Li Peng

text: In the immediate aftermath of the Tiananmen protests, Li took a leading role in a national austerity program, intended to slow economic growth and inflation and re-centralize the economy. Li worked to increase taxes on agriculture and export-industries, and increased salaries to less-efficient industries owned by the government. Li directed a tight monetary policy, implementing price controls on many commodities, supporting higher interest rates, and cutting off state loans to private and cooperative sectors in attempts to reduce inflation.


title: Li Peng

text: Li suffered a heart attack in 1993, and began to lose influence within the Party to vice-premier Zhu Rongji, a strong advocate for economic liberalization. In that year, when Li made his annual work report to the Politburo, he was forced to make over seventy changes to make the plans acceptable to Deng. Perhaps realizing that opposition to the market reforms would be poorly received by Deng and other Party elders, Li publicly supported Deng's economic reforms. Li was reappointed Premier in 1993, despite a large protest vote for Zhu. Zhu Rongji eventually succeeded Li when Li's second term expired, in 1998.


title: Li Peng

text: Li began two megaprojects when he was the Premier. He initiated the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on 14 December 1994, and later began preparations for the Shenzhou Manned Space Program. Both programs were subject to much controversy within China and abroad. The Shenzhou program was especially criticized due to its extraordinary cost (tens of billions of dollars). Many economists and humanitarians suggested that those billions in capital might be better invested in helping the Chinese population deal with economic hardships and improvement in the China's education, health services, and legal system.


title: Li Peng

text: Li remained premier until 1998, when he was constitutionally limited to two terms. After his second term expired, he became the chairman of the National People's Congress. Support for Li for the largely ceremonial position was low, as he only received less than 90% of the vote at the 1998 National People's Congress, where he was the only candidate. He spent much of his time monitoring what he considered his life's work to have been, the Three Gorges Dam. Li's interest in the Dam reflected his earlier career as a hydraulic engineer, and he spent much of his career while in office presiding over a vast and growing power industry. At this time Li Peng considered himself to be a builder and a modernizer.


title: Li Peng

text: After retiring in 2003, Li retained some influence in the Politburo Standing Committee. Luo Gan, who presided over law enforcement and national security between 2002 and 2007, was considered Li's protégé. Following the retirement of Luo Gan after 17th Party Congress, Li's influence waned considerably. He was subject to frequent speculation over corruption issues that plague him and his family. In addition, perhaps more than any other leader, Li's public image had become inextricably associated with memory of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, and as a result he continued to be a widely despised figure among a substantial segment of the Chinese population well into the 21st century. He was generally unpopular in China, where he (had) "has long been a figure of scorn and suspicion".


title: Li Peng

text: Li spent much of the 1990s expanding and managing an energy monopoly, State Power Corporation of China. Because the company was staffed by Li's relatives, Li was accused of turning China's energy industry into a "family fiefdom". At its height, Li's power company controlled 72% of all energy-producing assets in China, and was ranked as the sixtieth-largest company in the world by "Fortune" magazine. After Li's departure from government, Li's energy monopoly was split into five smaller companies by the Chinese government.


title: Li Peng

text: In 2010, Li's autobiographical work, "The Critical Moment – Li Peng Diaries", was published by New Century Press. "The Critical Moment" covered Li's activities during the period of the Tiananmen Square protests, and was published on the protests' twenty-first anniversary. "The Critical Moment" was characterized by reviewers as largely an attempt to minimize Li's culpability during the most egregious stages of the crackdown; some also say he attempted to shift blame to Deng. He reappeared at the 19th Party Congress on 18 October 2017.


title: Li Peng

text: Li died on 22 July 2019 at the age of 90. He had been receiving medical treatment in a hospital in Beijing at the time of his death. His funeral was held on 29 July 2019.


title: Li Peng

text: Li Peng was married to Zhu Lin (), a deputy manager in "a large firm in the south of China". Li and Zhu had 3 children: Li's elder son, Li Xiaopeng; Li's daughter, Li Xiaolin; and, Li's younger son, Li Xiaoyong. Li Xiaoyong is married to Ye Xiaoyan, the daughter of Communist veteran Ye Ting's second son, Ye Zhengming.


title: Li Peng

text: Li's family benefited from Li's high position during the 1980s and 1990s. Two of Li's children, Li Xiaopeng and Li Xiaolin, inherited and ran two of China's electrical monopolies. State-run Chinese media have publicly questioned whether it is in China's long-term interest to preserve the "new class of monopoly state capitalists" that Li's family represents. Li Xiaopeng entered politics in Shanxi and became its governor in 2012 and then in 2016, he became Minister of Transport. Li Xiaolin served as chief executive of China Power International Development, before being transferred out in 2016 to a minor executive post at a different power company.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The 2019 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. It was played at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 29 May 2019. The match was contested between English sides Chelsea and Arsenal, who had beaten Eintracht Frankfurt and Valencia, respectively, in the semi-finals to set up a London derby in the final. It was the tenth tournament final to feature two teams from the same association, the second all-English final, and the first between teams from the same city.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: Chelsea won the final 4–1 for their second UEFA Europa League title. As winners, they earned the right to play against Liverpool, the winners of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League, in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. As Chelsea had already qualified for the Champions League group stage through their league performance, the group stage berth reserved for the Europa League winners was given to the third-placed team of the 2018–19 Ligue 1, Lyon, as the French Football Federation, which oversees Ligue 1, was the 5th-ranked association according to next season's access list.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: Starting from this season, the Europa League final was played in the same week as the Champions League final. In March 2018, UEFA announced that a fourth substitution would be allowed in extra time and that the number of substitutes had been increased from 7 to 12. The kick-off time was also changed from 20:45 CEST to 21:00 CEST. It was the first Europa League match ever to use the video assistant referee (VAR) system.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: "In the following table, finals until 2009 were in the UEFA Cup era, since 2010 were in the UEFA Europa League era."


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: This was the first European club competition final to be held in Azerbaijan. The stadium had also been chosen as one of the host venues of UEFA Euro 2020.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: For the first time ever, an open bidding process was launched on 9 December 2016 by UEFA to select the venues of the club competition finals (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Women's Champions League and UEFA Super Cup). Associations had until 27 January 2017 to express interest, and bid dossiers must be submitted by 6 June 2017.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: UEFA announced on 3 February 2017 that six associations expressed interest in hosting, and confirmed on 7 June 2017 that three associations submitted bids for the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final:


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The bid evaluation report was published by UEFA on 14 September 2017. The Baku Olympic Stadium was selected as the venue by the UEFA Executive Committee on 20 September 2017, while the Vodafone Park was successful in its bid to host the 2019 UEFA Super Cup.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: Chelsea were playing in their second Europa League final, having won 2–1 against Benfica in 2013. The match was their sixth overall European final, adding to two Cup Winners' Cup finals in 1971 (a 2–1 win over Real Madrid) and 1998 (a 1–0 win over Stuttgart), and two UEFA Champions League finals in 2008 (1–1, lost 6–5 on penalties to Manchester United) and 2012 (1–1, won 4–3 on penalties over Bayern Munich). In seventeen matches, Chelsea entered the match with a record of six wins, seven draws (two of which they lost on penalties), and four losses in European competitions against fellow English clubs. Most recently, they lost both legs against Manchester United in the quarter-finals of the 2010–11 Champions League.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: It was also Arsenal's second Europa League final, having lost on penalties to Galatasaray in 2000. Like Chelsea, it was the sixth time they appeared in the final of a UEFA competition. They most recently featured in the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final, losing 2–1 to Barcelona. They also reached the final of the Cup Winners' Cup three times: in 1980, when they suffered a 5–4 penalty shoot-out defeat to Valencia following a 0–0 draw; 1994, beating Parma 1–0; and returning in 1995, losing 2–1 at the hands of Real Zaragoza. Arsenal had previously won 4–3 on aggregate against Anderlecht in the 1970 final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a forerunner to the UEFA Cup/Europa League. Arsenal were winless in their six prior meetings against fellow English clubs, with a record of two draws and four losses. Most recently, they lost both legs against Manchester United in the semi-finals of the 2008–09 Champions League. The match was the fourth Europa League final for manager Unai Emery, who joined Arsenal at the start of the season as the replacement for Arsène Wenger. Emery has a perfect record in Europa League finals, winning three consecutive titles with Sevilla in 2014, 2015 and 2016. He now solely holds the record for the most UEFA Cup/Europa League final appearances, having previously been tied with the three finals of Giovanni Trapattoni (1977, 1991, and 1993) and Sven-Göran Eriksson (1982, 1983, and 1998). A win would have seen him surpass Trapattoni and become the outright most successful manager in the competition's history, with four titles.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The final was the 198th competitive meeting between London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal, with a record of 76 Arsenal wins, 63 Chelsea wins and 58 draws going into the match. The sides met twice during the 2018–19 Premier League season, with each winning at home: Chelsea by a score of 3–2 in the first match at Stamford Bridge, and Arsenal 2–0 in the second at Emirates Stadium. They faced each other once before in a European tie, meeting in the quarter-finals of the 2003–04 Champions League; the first match finished as a 1–1 draw, with Chelsea winning the second meeting 2–1 away and advancing to the semi-finals. Domestically, the sides have met in three cup finals, with Arsenal winning the 2002 and 2017 FA Cup finals, and Chelsea winning the 2007 Football League Cup Final.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The match was the second all-English UEFA Cup/Europa League final, after the inaugural final in 1972 between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. Overall, it was the tenth UEFA Cup/Europa League final to feature two teams from the same country, previously achieved four times by Italian teams (1990, 1991, 1995, and 1998), twice by Spanish teams (2007 and 2012), and once by German (1980) and Portuguese teams (2011), in addition to England in 1972. This was the first Europa League final to feature two teams from the same city (London), as well as the fourth in a UEFA club competition final after Madrid-based clubs Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, who met in the 2014 and 2016 finals of the Champions League, as well as in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup. As Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool also reached the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final, this was the first season to have multiple finals of major European club competitions featuring teams from a single nation.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The brand identity for the final was unveiled at the group stage draw on 31 August 2018, taking inspiration from several prominent buildings in Baku. The logo also incorporates Azerbaijan's nickname, the "Land of Fire", by adding a flame to the letter "A", and a common design in Azerbaijani rugs.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The ambassador for the final is former Netherlands international Pierre van Hooijdonk, who won the 2001–02 UEFA Cup with Feyenoord and finished as the top scorer, in which he scored two goals in the final win against Borussia Dortmund.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: With a stadium capacity of 64,000 for the final, a total amount of 37,500 tickets are available to fans and the general public, with the two finalist teams receiving 6,000 tickets each, and with the other tickets being available for sale to fans worldwide via "UEFA.com" from 7 to 21 March 2019 in four price categories: €140, €90, €50, and €30. The remaining tickets are allocated to the local organising committee, national associations, commercial partners, and broadcasters, and to serve the corporate hospitality programme.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The match had an official attendance of 51,370, making it the third-largest crowd for a Europa League final, but the stadium had large sections of empty seats. Football commentators also decried the lack of atmosphere due to the empty seats and lack of interest from local residents. A report in "The Times" claimed that local authorities had opened the turnstiles for ticketless fans during the first half to increase attendance and avoid embarrassment, without the authorisation of UEFA.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The handling of ticket pricing and travel logistics for English fans, including limited flights and visa requirements to enter Azerbaijan, was criticised by supporters groups representing fans of the two clubs. Heydar Aliyev International Airport, the main airport serving Baku, was described as "too small" to accommodate the expected demand of the Europa League final, and was cited as a reason for the small ticket allocation for travelling fans. Arsenal and Chelsea had failed to sell out their individual allocations by the deadline in late May and planned to return 6,000 unsold tickets to UEFA; several sponsors with their own allocations also followed suit, citing disinterest from their clients. In an official statement, Arsenal described UEFA's decision to host the match in Baku as "unacceptable and cannot be repeated".


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: UEFA was also criticised for accepting Azerbaijan as the host of the Europa League final, due to its ongoing conflict with neighbouring Armenia. Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was playing for Arsenal, was given permission to play in the match, but the club raised their concerns about his safety while in the country. Mkhitaryan and Arsenal ultimately decided that he would not travel with the squad to the final match, while the club planned to meet with UEFA after the match to discuss the situation. Several fans from the United Kingdom of Armenian descent were initially denied their entry visas, but allowed into the country after intervention from UEFA. Amnesty International's UK branch criticised the choice of Azerbaijan on the basis of its human rights violations, calling the hosting of the final an "attempt to sportswash its image".


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The first UEFA Europa League Trophy Tour visited eight European cities, beginning on 5 March 2019 at the Geneva Motor Show, followed by Seville, Berlin, London, Milan, Moscow, and Paris, before concluding at the host city Baku on 16 May 2019.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: On 13 May 2019, UEFA named Italian Gianluca Rocchi as the referee for the final. Rocchi has been a FIFA referee since 2008, and was previously the fourth official in the 2010 and 2017 Europa League finals. He also officiated the 2017 UEFA Super Cup between Real Madrid and Manchester United. He was joined by five of his fellow countrymen, with Filippo Meli and Lorenzo Manganelli as assistant referees, Daniele Orsato as the fourth official, Massimiliano Irrati as the video assistant referee, and Marco Guida as one of the assistant VAR officials. The other assistant VAR for the final was Szymon Marciniak from Poland, with his compatriot Paweł Sokolnicki serving as the offside VAR official.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: English artist Jonas Blue performed at the opening ceremony preceding the final, and was supported by 150 local dancers.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: In a scoreless first half, Granit Xhaka had a shot for Arsenal that clipped the top of the bar and his teammate, Petr Čech, saved low to his left from Chelsea's Olivier Giroud. Giroud opened the scoring for Chelsea in the 49th minute with a low header to the left corner from 12 yards out after a cross from Emerson Palmieri on the left. Pedro made it 2–0 in the 60th minute when he steered a low shot into the right corner from 12 yards out after a low pass from Eden Hazard on the left. Five minutes later, Chelsea were awarded a penalty after a foul on Giroud by Ainsley Maitland-Niles, which Eden Hazard rolled into the left corner, sending Čech the wrong way. Arsenal pulled a goal back in the 69th minute with a powerful right-footed shot from substitute Alex Iwobi from outside the penalty area, but Chelsea made it 4–1 three minutes later with another goal from Hazard, a side-footed shot into the right corner from eight yards out after a pass from Giroud.


title: 2019 UEFA Europa League Final

text: The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, which was held on 15 March 2019 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.


title: CyberConnect2

text: CyberConnect2 was first formed on February 16, 1996 as CyberConnect in Fukuoka, Japan. On September 16, 2001, it was renamed CyberConnect2. On October 3, 2007, CyberConnect2 changed their logo and expanded their production beyond games, beginning with the formation of Sensible Art Innovation to create the ".hack//G.U. Trilogy", and LieN to compose the music.


title: CyberConnect2

text: CyberConnect2 opened a studio in Tokyo, Japan in 2010, and later opened their first international studio in Montreal, Canada in 2016. The Fukuoka location remains the parent company.


title: CyberConnect2

text: CyberConnect2 was tasked with developing the "Final Fantasy VII Remake", described in CyberConnect2's March 2015 "Famitsu" job advertisement as a photo-realistic role-playing game targeted at the international market built on the Unreal Engine 4 involving physically based rendering. In May 2017, it was announced that they had left the project due to unreasonable management from above, and Square Enix moved the remaining development of "Final Fantasy VII Remake" in-house.


title: CyberConnect2

text: As of 2015, CyberConnect2 is currently working on two projects for current generation consoles. The first is open world. The second involves virtual reality.


title: CyberConnect2

text: It was also stated during a live broadcast on NicoNico that CyberConnect2 will announce their "future vision" for the company, leading them through the next decade. This announcement will first appear in the February 1 issue of "Famitsu Magazine".


title: CyberConnect2

text: CyberConnect2 also produced two computer animated films for the ".hack" franchise. The first one, ".hack//G.U. Trilogy", is an adaptation of the ".hack//G.U." games and was released in December 2007. The second film is ".hack//The Movie", which was released on January 21, 2012.


title: Calico (company)

text: Calico Life Sciences LLC is an Alphabet subsidiary responsible for health research and development, life sciences and biotechnology. Originating on September 18, 2013 prior to the Google restructuring and headed by Bill Maris with the goal of combating aging and diseases of aging, it was incorporated into Alphabet with Google's other sister divisions in 2015.


title: Calico (company)

text: In Google's 2013 Founders Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity" and the company's name additionally as a play on "California Life Company."


title: Calico (company)

text: In September 2014, it was announced that Calico, in partnership with AbbVie, would be opening up an R&D facility focused on aging and age-related diseases, such as neurodegeneration and cancer. Initially, each company will invest $350 million, with an option for each to add an extra $500 million later on. In the same month, Calico announced a partnership with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and 2M Companies regarding drug development for neurodegenerative disorders.


title: Calico (company)

text: In 2015, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced a partnership with Calico to "advance research on age-related diseases and therapeutics", a further partnership also was announced with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Also in 2015, Calico announced a partnership with QB3 based on researching the biology of aging and identifying potential therapeutics for age-related diseases and one with AncestryDNA based on conducting research into the genetics of human lifespan.


title: Calico (company)

text: At the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, Calico lost two top scientists; in December 2017 Hal Barron, its head of R&D, left for GlaxoSmithKline, and in March 2018 Daphne Koller, who was leading their AI efforts, left to pursue a venture in applying machine learning techniques to drug design.


title: Calico (company)

text: Aubrey de Grey has criticized Calico in an interview in 2017, calling it a "massive disappointment". De Grey claimed that Calico is ignoring existing research on longevity, and instead focuses on understanding aging better. De Grey asserted that, among other people at the top, CSO David Botstein is responsible for this approach, being "a basic scientist through and through" who would therefore "never feel that we have enough knowledge".


title: Calico (company)

text: The company was criticized for its secrecy, contrary to Google's "open culture" politics, and ineffectiveness given its huge budget.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa , (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te Kanawa had three top 40 albums in Australia in the mid-1980s.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. Her final performance was in Ballarat, Australia, in October 2016, but she did not reveal her retirement until September 2017.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, New Zealand, to Māori butcher Tieki "Jack" Wawatai and to Mary Noeleen Rawstron, who was the daughter of Irish emigrants. Wawatai was already married to Apo, the daughter of the Rev. Poihipi Kohere. Poihipi Kohere was the brother of both the community leader Rēweti Kōhere and the soldier and farmer Henare Mokena Kohere. Mary Noeleen Rawstron's mother insisted the baby be given up for adoption. Te Kanawa was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, the owner of a successful trucking business, and his wife Nell.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: She was educated at St Mary's College, Auckland, and formally trained in operatic singing by Sister Mary Leo Niccol. Te Kanawa began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano but developed into a soprano. Her recording of the "Nuns' Chorus" from the Strauss operetta "Casanova" was the first gold record produced in New Zealand.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa met Desmond Park on a blind date in London in August 1967, and they married six weeks later at St Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland. They adopted two children, Antonia (born 1976) and Thomas (born 1979). The couple divorced in 1997. Te Kanawa never made an attempt to contact her biological parents, but her half-brother Jim Rawstron contacted her. Initially, she was unwilling to meet him, but agreed to do so in 1997. The episode ended bitterly, when a newspaper ran a story on their meeting; despite Rawstron denying contact with the newspaper, she has since reaffirmed her decision to have nothing to do with her birth family.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and entertainer at clubs in New Zealand, and regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines. In 1963, she was runner-up to Malvina Major in the Mobil Song Quest with her performance of "Vissi d'arte" from "Tosca", and in 1965 she won the same competition. As winner, she received a grant to study in London.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: She appeared and sang in the 1966 musical comedy film "Don't Let It Get You". In 1966, she won the Melbourne Sun-Aria contest, which Major had also won the previous year. Both singers had been taught by Sister Mary Leo.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 1966, without an audition, she enrolled at the London Opera Centre to study under Vera Rózsa and James Robertson, who reputedly said Te Kanawa lacked a singing technique when she arrived at the school but had a gift for captivating audiences. She first appeared on stage as the Second Lady in Mozart's "The Magic Flute", as well as in performances of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" in December 1968 at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. She also sang the title role in Donizetti's "Anna Bolena". In 1969, she sang Elena in Rossini's "La donna del lago" at the Camden Festival, and was also offered the role of the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro" after an audition of which the conductor, Colin Davis, said, "I couldn't believe my ears. I've taken thousands of auditions, but it was such a fantastically beautiful voice." Praise for her Idamante in Mozart's "Idomeneo" led to an offer of a three-year contract as junior principal at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where she made her debut as Xenia in "Boris Godunov" and a Flower Maiden in "Parsifal" in 1970. Under director John Copley, Te Kanawa was carefully groomed for the role of the Countess for a December 1971 opening.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Meanwhile, word of her success had reached John Crosby at the Santa Fe Opera, a summer opera festival in New Mexico then about to begin its 15th season. He cast her as the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro", which opened on 30 July 1971. The performance also featured Frederica von Stade in her debut as Cherubino. "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression."


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: On 1 December 1971 at Covent Garden, Te Kanawa repeated her Santa Fe performance and created an international sensation as the Countess: "with 'Porgi amor' Kiri knocked the place flat." This was followed by performances as the Countess at the Opéra National de Lyon and San Francisco Opera in 1972. She first sang Desdemona in "Otello" in Glasgow in 1972, while her 1974 Metropolitan Opera début as Desdemona took place at short notice: she replaced an ill Teresa Stratas at the last minute. Te Kanawa sang at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1973, with further débuts in Paris and (1975), Sydney (1976), Milan (1978), Salzburg (1979), and Vienna (1980). In 1982, she gave her only stage performances as Tosca in Paris. In 1989, she added Elisabeth de Valois in "Don Carlos" to her repertory at Chicago, and, in 1990, the Countess in "Capriccio", sung first at San Francisco and with equal success at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and the Met in 1998.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In subsequent years, Te Kanawa performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, San Francisco Opera, Munich and Cologne, adding to her repertoire the Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Pamina, and Fiordiligi to Italian roles such as Mimi in Puccini's "La bohème". She played Donna Elvira in Joseph Losey's 1979 film adaptation of "Don Giovanni". She was seen and heard around the world in 1981 by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Handel's "Let the bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 1984, Leonard Bernstein decided to re-record the musical "West Side Story", conducting his own music for the first time. Generally known as the "operatic version", it starred Te Kanawa as Maria, José Carreras as Tony, Tatiana Troyanos as Anita, Kurt Ollmann as Riff, and Marilyn Horne as the offstage voice who sings "Somewhere". Te Kanawa was the first of the singers to join the project, saying, "I couldn't believe it...This was music I'd grown up with, music I'd always wanted to sing." The album won a Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1985, and the recording process was filmed as a documentary, "The Making of West Side Story".


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa has a particular affinity for the heroines of Richard Strauss. Her first appearance in the title role in "Arabella" was at the Houston Grand Opera in 1977, followed by the roles of the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" and the Countess in "Capriccio". Many performances were given under the baton of Georg Solti and it was with him that in 1981 she made a recording of "The Marriage of Figaro".


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 1991, she premiered the theme song "World in Union" at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, which reached No.4 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 1995, Te Kanawa performed the role of Maria Boccanegra in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, along with Plácido Domingo, conducted by James Levine.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In later parts of her career, her appearances onstage became infrequent, although she remained busy as a concert singer. She appeared in performances in Samuel Barber's "Vanessa" in Monte Carlo (televised in 2001), with the Washington National Opera (2002), and the Los Angeles Opera in November to December 2004. Te Kanawa has appeared as a "Pennington Great Performers" series artist with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra in 2004.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 2006, Te Kanawa sang "Happy Birthday" to Queen Elizabeth followed by "God Save The Queen" at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In April 2010, Te Kanawa sang the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" in two performances at the Cologne Opera. That same year, she played the spoken part of The Duchess of Krakenthorp in "La fille du régiment" at the Metropolitan Opera, and sang a tango. She repeated this role at the Met in a revival during the 2011–12 season, repeating it again in Vienna in 2013 and at Covent Garden in March 2014, a run that encompassed her 70th birthday. In the meantime, she performed at Haruhisa Handa's inaugural Tokyo Global Concert at Nakano-Zero Hall in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan, on 10 September 2013. In October 2013 she appeared in the role of Nellie Melba in the television series "Downton Abbey".


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: On 13 September 2017, Te Kanawa announced her retirement from performing. After retirement, she committed herself to nurture young artists, sitting as a judge in several singing competitions.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 2021, she moved back to New Zealand permanently after living in the United Kingdom for 55 years. She was part of the official New Zealand delegation to the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to music, in the 1973 Queen's Birthday Honours, and was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to opera, in the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours. She was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours. In the 1990 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, for services to the arts, particularly opera, and to the community.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: She was portrayed as Saint Cecilia on the stained glass window in St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, which was unveiled in October 2012.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to music. Her investiture was performed by the Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 20 December.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In November 2019, the ASB theatre in the Aotea Centre was renamed the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in acknowledgement of the work she has done on the world stage and to mark her 75th birthday. Te Kanawa unveiled a plaque with the change before a gala held in her honour.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa was selected as Artist of the Year by "Gramophone" magazine in 1982. On 10 June 2008 she received the Edison Classical Music Award during the Edison Classical Music Gala (formerly the Grand Gala du Disque) in the Ridderzaal in The Hague. In 2012, Te Kanawa was awarded a World Class New Zealand award in the Iconic New Zealander category.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 2006, Te Kanawa was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Dame Julie Andrews during the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Te Kanawa founded the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation with the vision "that talented young New Zealand singers and musicians with complete dedication to their art may receive judicious and thoughtful mentoring and support to assist them in realising their dreams."


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: The foundation manages a trust fund to provide financial and career scholarships to young New Zealand singers and musicians.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In January 2010, Te Kanawa and BBC Radio 2 launched an initiative to find a gifted opera singer of the future. The initiative was the BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize competition.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Following regional auditions of over 600 aspiring opera singers, 40 were invited to attend masterclasses in London with Te Kanawa, mezzo-soprano Anne Howells and conductor Robin Stapleton. From these classes 15 singers were selected for the semi-finals, which were broadcast on 5 consecutive weeks on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night. The semi-finalists were accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates, Richard Balcombe and Roderick Dunk and their performances were judged by Te Kanawa, Howells, Stapleton and director John Cox.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: Five singers reached the final, which was broadcast on Radio 2 on 3 September 2010. The winner, soprano Shuna Scott Sendall, performed with Te Kanawa and José Carreras at the BBC Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, London on 11 September 2010, and was given the opportunity to attend a three-week residential course at the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia in Italy.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In a 2003 interview with the Melbourne-based "Herald Sun", Te Kanawa criticised the high rate of welfare dependence among the Māori people, angering some of her compatriots.


title: Kiri Te Kanawa

text: In 2007, the event-management company Leading Edge sued Te Kanawa for breach of contract after she cancelled a concert with Australian singer John Farnham. She cancelled after learning that his fans sometimes threw their underwear on stage, which he would then proudly display. The court found that no contract had been made by the two parties, so Te Kanawa was not liable for damages, but Mittane, the company that employs and manages her, was ordered to reimburse Leading Edge A$130,000 for expenditures already incurred.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Reuven "Ruvi" Rivlin ( ; born 9 September 1939) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who served as the tenth president of Israel between 2014 and 2021. He is a member of the Likud party. Rivlin was Minister of Communications from 2001 to 2003, and subsequently served as Speaker of the Knesset from 2003 to 2006 and 2009 to 2013. On 10 June 2014, he was elected President of Israel. His term ended on 7 July 2021.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin argues for a Greater Israel that would embrace all people and give the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza full Israeli citizenship. He is also a strong supporter of minority rights, particularly for Arab Israelis. He supports the one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Reuven Rivlin was born in Jerusalem during the Mandate era to the Rivlin family, which has lived in Jerusalem since 1809. He is a descendant of students of the Vilna Gaon. His parents were Rachel "Ray" Rivlin and Yosef Yoel Rivlin. Yosef created the first Hebrew edition of the Quran and was a candidate for president of Israel in 1957 before withdrawing in favor of the incumbent Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin attended Gymnasia Rehavia high school, and served in the Intelligence Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. During the Six-Day War, he fought with the Jerusalem Brigade and accompanied the Paratroopers Brigade as an intelligence officer. After military service, he studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Before entering politics, Rivlin served as legal advisor of the Beitar Jerusalem Sports Association, manager of the Beitar football team, and chairman of the association; member of the Jerusalem City Council; member of the El Al Board; Chairman of the Israel Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene; a board member of the Khan Theater, and board member of the Israel Museum.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: He was first elected to the 12th Knesset in 1988, and served as Likud chairman from 1988 to 1993. He lost his seat in the 1992 elections, but returned to the Knesset following the 1996 elections. Re-elected in 1999, he was appointed Minister of Communications in March 2001, serving until February 2003, when he was elected Knesset Speaker following the 2003 elections. During his term as Speaker, he was criticized for breaking the tradition of political neutrality of the post; he was one of Ariel Sharon's harshest critics regarding the disengagement plan, and had a public confrontation with Aharon Barak, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, concerning the court's authority to declare legislation illegal.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin was re-elected in 2006 and 2009. He ran in the 2007 election for President as the Likud candidate. He withdrew after the first round of voting when it became clear that Kadima MK Shimon Peres had sufficiently broad support to inevitably win in a run-off.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: For his first official visit as Knesset Speaker, he chose the Arab-Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm, just south of the Galilee. He was accompanied by MKs Uri Orbach (The Jewish Home) and Afu Agbariyah (Hadash), a resident of the city.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Since 1999, Rivlin has employed Rivka Ravitz, a Haredi woman, first as his bureau chief and campaign advisor, and, upon his election to President, as his chief of staff. Ravitz is credited with managing Rivlin's successful campaigns for Knesset Speaker and President of Israel, and often accompanies him on his local appearances, as well as visits to foreign heads of state.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin was elected as the 10th President of Israel on 10 June 2014, receiving the support of 63 MKs in a runoff vote against MK Meir Sheetrit. In his bid to become President, he won support from both Arab legislators who appreciated his courtesy, and from right-wingers like Naftali Bennett and Danny Danon, who joined him in a desire to make the West Bank a part of Israel proper.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin was sworn in on 24 July 2014, succeeding Shimon Peres. Upon his election as President, he immediately ceased being a member of the Knesset.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: On 25 March 2015, Rivlin, in his role as President, officially chartered incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the assignment of forming a new government following elections the previous week. In his remarks during the ceremony, Rivlin noted that the first priority of the new government should be to mend the frayed relationship Israel's government has with the United States, and he expressed his disapproval of Netanyahu's election day exhortation that Arab voters were being bused to polling booths by NGOs and were voting "in droves". "One who is afraid of votes in a ballot box will eventually see stones thrown in the streets", said Rivlin.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Other critical issues he recommended the new government address included establishing greater stability to avoid early elections and "healing the wounds, mending the painful rifts, which have gaped open in the past years, and widened further in the course of this recent election".


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In July 2015, following Rivlin's condemnation of the firebombing of a Palestinian home by suspected Jewish extremists that resulted in the death of a Palestinian toddler, Rivlin received death threats. Rivlin labelled those who committed the violence as "terrorists", lamenting that his own people had "chosen the path of terror", and that Israel was lax in confronting Jewish religious terrorism and Jewish extremists.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: On 6 April 2019, following inconclusive elections, Rivlin gave Netanyahu, the head of the larger bloc, the first opportunity to pull together a coalition. When Netanyahu was unable to do so, the Knesset was dissolved, and a new election were called for September of the same year. the September election was inconclusive, and on 25 September 2019, Rivlin gave Netanyahu the opportunity to form a government, as he was again the head of the larger bloc. Netanyahu was again unable to form a coalition. as a result, Rivlin gave the opportunity to Benny Gantz. On 21 November 2019, Rivlin gave formal notice to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein that Gantz's mandate to form a government had drawn to a close and the mandate to create a governing coalition would now lie with the Knesset, where any MK would have 21 days to garner a Knesset Majority to form a government. This was the first time in Israel's history that the Knesset had been tasked with doing so, and its subsequent failure to do so led to a third election being scheduled for March 2020.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: The 2020 election was inconclusive, leading Rivlin to give Gantz the mandate a second time on 16 March 2020. Gantz was unable to form a government, but reached a deal with Netanyahu to form a unity government. with the two rotating the position of Prime Minister after 18 months. as a result, Rivlin gave Netanyahu the mandate on 9 May, leading to the formation of a new government. the government collapsed in December 2020 following a failed budgetary vote, leading to new elections in March 2021. the election was inconclusive, and Rivlin gave Netanyahu the mandate to form a government on 6 April 2021. Netanyahu failed to form a government, and Rivlin handed the mandate to Yair Lapid on 5 May. Lapid entered negotiations with Naftali Bennett, Mansour Abbas, and other politicians to form a new government, where Lapid and Bennett would rotate the position of Prime Minister. On 2 June, an hour before his mandate was set to expire, Lapid informed Rivlin that he could form a new government. that day, Isaac Herzog was elected to succeed Rivlin as President. the new government was formed and sworn in on 13 June. Rivlin's term ended on 7 July with Herzog's inauguration.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Although considered a nationalist and hawkish on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Rivlin is a supporter of minority rights, particularly those of the Arab-Israelis. As speaker of the Knesset, Rivlin made his first official visit to the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, often portrayed as a locus of anti-state and pro-Palestine sentiment and agitation.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In June 2010, Rivlin ignored calls to remove Balad MK Haneen Zoabi for joining the Gaza flotilla. Rivlin's actions in defending the parliamentary rights of Zoabi were criticized by some, but others praised his courage in defending Israeli democracy. The same year, a group of rabbis on government payroll called on Jewish Israelis to not rent apartments to non-Jews. Rivlin protested this declaration, saying, "In my opinion, their statement shames the Jewish people. If such a thing were said in relation to Jews anywhere on the globe, a hue and cry would be raised in Israel on the need to stand up against anti-Semitism."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: When asked about conditions for African refugees in Israel Rivlin stated, "As a democrat and a Jew, I have a hard time with concentration camps, where people are warehoused." In 2013, Rivlin slammed Beitar fans who chanted anti-Arab slogans when two Arab players were added to the team. Rivlin told a gathering of academics: "Israeli society is sick, and it is our duty to treat this disease."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In November 2014, Rivlin cancelled a scheduled performance of Amir Benayoun after the singer released an anti-Arab song. In 2016, Rivlin forbid Balad MK Jamal Zahalka to enter the presidential residence ("Beit HaNassi"), after Zahalka and other MKs of Balad met with the families of Palestinians who were killed while attacking Israeli civilians.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In 2000, Rivlin supported legislation that would make it illegal for women to wear prayer shawls. The law was not passed, but Rivlin's position on the issue led to estrangement with his American-Israeli feminist cousin, Lilly Rivlin. In 2008, the Knesset choir sang the "Hatikva" at a welcoming ceremony without the female members of the choir. Rivlin admitted that as Knesset speaker, he was careful not to invite women to sing so as not to create a conflict with Orthodox Jews.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin has voiced support for a version of a one-state solution, and remains a staunch supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank. In 2010, he said that he "would rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution".


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: According to Rivlin, Israel's fight is not with the Palestinian people or Islam, but against murderous terrorism. He pointed out that Palestinians could not be expected to accept a two-state solution where "one state is an invincible superpower, and the other is sub-autonomous", while declaring that, "West Bank settlements are as Israeli as Tel Aviv". He told Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, "Israel is working and trying to bring an end to the tragedy with the Palestinians. We must respect the idea (of a Palestinian state) because they're here, and they must recognize the idea that the Jewish nation has returned to its homeland. These are difficult challenges when there is no trust between nations."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Although not Orthodox himself, Rivlin has been critical of non-Orthodox movements in Judaism. In 1989, Rivlin referred to Reform Jews as "idol worshippers", and refused to call Reform Jewish rabbis by their title. Prior to becoming President, he opposed granting equal status to Reform or Conservative Judaism. In 2014, Rivlin said that if non-Orthodox conversion standards were adopted, Jewish status would be based on "a civic definition rather than a religious definition", echoing a Knesset speech he gave in 2006 when he declared: "I have no doubt, and my positions are known, that the status of Judaism according to halachah (Jewish law) is what has kept us going for 3,800 years."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In November 2014, however, Rivlin welcomed at his residence over 50 Reform leaders on the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and told them, "We are one family and the connection between all Jews, all over the world, is very important to the State of Israel." In 2015, he did not allow a Conservative rabbi to officiate at a bar mitzvah service at his residence for disabled children who attended a program run by the Conservative movement, but later hosted representatives of the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish communities for a joint study session at the President's Residence.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: Rivlin once campaigned for Israel to recognize the Armenian genocide. In 2012, he said, "It is our moral duty to remember and remind of the tragedy that befell the Armenian people, who lost more than a million of its sons during the First World War, and we must not make this a political issue. I am aware of the sensitivity of this issue. But let us be clear: This is not an accusation of Turkey today or of the current Turkish government." As president, he has been less vocal on this issue. Concerned about the negative reaction of Turkey if the president signed the petition, unnamed officials of the Foreign Ministry welcomed what they called Rivlin's "statesmanship".


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: In February 2018, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that "there were Jewish perpetrators" of the Holocaust, "not only German perpetrators." President Rivlin condemned his words: "Saying that our people collaborate with the Nazis is a new low...today, more than ever, we must work to educate the world, even some of the leaders, about that dark time."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: President Rivlin took part in the March of the Living in Poland on 12 April 2018. In the meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, he said: "There is no doubt that there were many Poles who fought the Nazi regime, but we cannot deny that Poland and Poles had a hand in the extermination."


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: He was married to Nechama Rivlin from 1971 until her death in 2019, and has four children. Rivlin has been a vegetarian since the late 1960s. Rivlin has been a supporter of the Beitar Jerusalem football club since the age of seven, when he attended his first game. He is fluent in Arabic.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: According to the "Jerusalem Post" Rivlin gave a speech in 2017 that criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, saying he had witnessed a "continued effort to weaken the gatekeepers of Israeli democracy" and speaking also about the role of the judiciary in Israeli democracy:


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: There is an abyss between the responsible and courageous attempt to define, after years, the relations between the legislative and judicial branches, to draw borders for judicial criticism, ask questions about appointments, aim for a more varied and representative group of judges – and the attempt to terrorize the [Supreme] Court, weaken it as an institution and invite the public to undermine its authority and rulings.


title: Reuven Rivlin

text: A few days after the speech graffiti in Bnei Brak appeared calling Rivlin a "Nazi apostate from Judaism". Police were called to investigate the incident.


title: The Crystals

text: The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", "Uptown", "He's Sure the Boy I Love", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me"– featured three successive female lead singers and were all produced by Phil Spector. The latter three songs were originally ranked #263, #114, and #493, respectively, on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. However, two songs were dropped from the magazine's 2010 update, leaving only "He's a Rebel" at number 267. In the 2021 update, "Da Doo Ron Ron" was added back to the list at #366.


title: The Crystals

text: In 1961, Barbara Alston (December 29, 1943, Baltimore, Maryland – February 16, 2018, Charlotte, North Carolina), Mary Thomas, Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew (born 1945), Myrna Giraud and Patricia "Patsy" Wright formed the Crystals with the help of Benny Wells, Alston's uncle. Soon, the quintet signed with Phil Spector's label Philles Records.


title: The Crystals

text: Their first hit, the gospel-influenced "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in November 1961. Originally the B-side to "Oh Yeah, Maybe Baby" (featuring Wright on lead), the stirring pop ballad was co-written by Spector and Leroy Bates and featured Barbara Alston on vocals. The recording was made late on the evening of the high school prom at the William H. Maxwell Career and Technical High School, the school attended by Barbara, Mary, and Myrna; they were still wearing their prom dresses, as they had come to the studio straight from the event. The single reached number 20 in January 1962, marking an auspicious debut for Spector's Philles label.


title: The Crystals

text: Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "Uptown" gave the girls their second radio hit. Having an ethnic flavor with flamenco guitar and castanets, the more uptempo "Uptown" featured Alston once again emoting convincingly over a boy, though this time with class issues woven into the story. After the success of "Uptown", a pregnant Giraud was replaced by Dolores "LaLa" Brooks.


title: The Crystals

text: The controversial subject matter of the next single, 1962's "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and sung by Alston), resulted in limited airplay with the track only "bubbling under" the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at #123. Barbara Alston later disowned the track, stating it was "absolutely, positively, the one record that none of us liked".


title: The Crystals

text: Soon after "He Hit Me" flopped, Phil Spector began recording singer Darlene Love and her backing group the Blossoms. The Crystals were not able to travel from New York to Los Angeles fast enough to suit the LA-based Spector, who wanted to quickly record writer Gene Pitney's "He's a Rebel" before Vikki Carr could release her version on Liberty Records. As Love and the Blossoms were also based in L.A., Spector recorded and released their version under the Crystals' banner. It was not the first time Spector would promise the Blossoms a single and release it under the Crystals name.


title: The Crystals

text: The song had originally been offered to The Shirelles, who turned it down because of the anti-establishment lyrics. It marked a shift in girl group thematic material, where the singer loves a "bad boy", a theme that would be amplified by later groups (especially The Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack").


title: The Crystals

text: "He's a Rebel" was the Crystals' only US #1 hit and also made the UK top 20. Their follow-up single, "He's Sure the Boy I Love", was also recorded by Love and the Blossoms. It reached #11 on the "Billboard" chart and features a spoken intro by Love.


title: The Crystals

text: "He's a Rebel" shut Pitney's own "Only Love Can Break a Heart" out of the top spot on 3 November 1962. Pitney never reached the Hot 100's summit.


title: The Crystals

text: Though it is unclear as to the level of their participation in "(Let's Dance) The Screw", the 'real' Crystals definitely began recording again under their own name in 1963. However, Thomas had departed to get married, only to join another mildly successful group, The Butterflys, along with another original Crystal, Myrna Giraud. This reduced the group to a quartet. Alston, known for her shyness and stage fright, was never comfortable with being out front, stepped down from the lead spot giving it to Dolores "LaLa" Brooks. According to Brooks, she had been doing Alston's leads in their live shows for a while.


title: The Crystals

text: After "(Let's Dance) The Screw", the group's next release was the classic "Da Doo Ron Ron". The song was a top 10 hit in both the US and the UK, as was the follow-up single "Then He Kissed Me", with lead vocals also sung by Brooks. LaLa also flew out to L.A to record tracks for the seasonal album, "A Christmas Gift for You".


title: The Crystals

text: At the start of 1964, the Crystals flew to the UK for their first European live shows. "Then He Kissed Me" soared to #2 in the UK, and the Crystals also headlined the TV programs "Ready Steady Go!", and "Tonight at the London Palladium".


title: The Crystals

text: Despite the steady flow of hit singles, tensions between Spector and the Crystals mounted. Already unhappy with having been replaced by Love and the Blossoms on two singles, the Crystals were even more upset when Spector began focusing much of his time on his other girl group the Ronettes. Not only did the Ronettes become Philles Records' priority act, the Ronettes actually replaced the Crystals on four album tracks on the 1963 compilation LP "The Crystals Sing the Greatest Hits". As well, there were disputes about royalties, with the Crystals feeling that Spector was withholding royalty money that was owed to them.


title: The Crystals

text: Two failed Crystals singles followed before the band left Spector's Philles Records for United Artists Records in 1964. "Little Boy", which reached #92, was a Wall of Sound production that was layered multiple times, which meant that the vocals were hard to distinguish from the music. "All Grown Up", their final Philles single (of which two versions exist), only reached #98.


title: The Crystals

text: 1964 also saw the departure of Wright, who was replaced by Frances Collins (aka Fatima Johnson), a dancer whom they had met while touring and mother of the rapper Prodigy; toward the end of that year Alston departed leaving the group a trio. As a trio, they recorded two singles for United Artists, "My Place" and "You Can't Tie a Good Girl Down". One more single was released by Barbara, Dee Dee and Mary on the tiny Michelle Records in 1967 ("Ring-a-Ting-a-Ling") and they disbanded in 1967 (see 1967 in music). They reunited in 1971 (see 1971 in music) and performed into at least 2018. Kenniebrew is the only original Crystal who remained active throughout their touring from the seventies to then, performing with Patricia Pritchett-Lewis, a member since 2005, and Melissa "MelSoulTree" Grant (aka Mel-Soul-Tree), a member since 2002. That trio of Crystals self released a CD project in 2010 entitled "Live in Asia", recorded in Singapore.


title: The Crystals

text: After living in Europe for two decades, La La Brooks returned to the US in 2001 and as of 2022 performs under her own name across the world, and as The Crystals in the UK and Canada, where she holds the trademark rights to the name.


title: The Crystals

text: "Then He Kissed Me" was the opening song to which Elisabeth Shue danced around her bedroom in "Adventures in Babysitting" (1987); it was the song in which Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco enter the Copacabana on their first real date in the movie "Goodfellas" (1990); it was featured during the episode 'Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play' on "The Simpsons" (2006); it was also featured in the episode 'Stand By Meg' on "Family Guy" (2018). It was also covered by Asobi Seksu and used on their live album. "Da Doo Ron Ron" was played during a scene in a dance club in the 1979 film Quadrophenia, and by Russel/Harold Ramis to train ESL students in the 1981 comedy "Stripes", "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)" was used in the episode 'Mystery Date' on "Mad Men" (2012).


title: The Crystals

text: Crystal was the name of one of the girl group-inspired street urchin characters in the musical "Little Shop of Horrors", along with Chiffon and Ronnette. Amy Winehouse cited "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" as an influence when writing her album "Back to Black". The American singer Lana Del Rey used the same phrase in the song "Ultraviolence" in the album of the same name.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Giorgio Vasari (, , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work "The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects", considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing, and the basis for biographies of several Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Vasari designed the "Tomb of Michelangelo" in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence that was completed in 1578. Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto's new manner of painting as a "rinascita" (rebirth), author Jules Michelet in his "Histoire de France" (1835) suggested adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term "Renaissance" (rebirth, in French) to distinguish the cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and still is in use today.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Vasari was born prematurely on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia, a skillful painter of stained glass. Sent to Florence at the age of sixteen by Cardinal Silvio Passerini, he joined the circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo, where his humanist education was encouraged. He was befriended by Michelangelo, whose painting style would influence his own. He died on 27 June 1574 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, aged 62.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterward. In 1547, he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni. He was employed consistently by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples (for example on the Vasari Sacristy), Arezzo, and other places. Many of his paintings still exist, the most important being on the wall and ceiling of the Sala di Cosimo I in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he and his assistants were at work from 1555. Vasari also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In Rome, he painted frescos in the "Sala Regia". Included among his better-known pupils or followers are Sebastiano Flori, Bartolomeo Carducci, Mirabello Cavalori (Salincorno), Stefano Veltroni (of Monte San Savino), and Alessandro Fortori (of Arezzo).


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: His last major commission was vast "The Last Judgement" fresco on the ceiling of the cupola of the Florence Cathedral that he began in 1572 with the assistance of the Bolognese painter Lorenzo Sabatini. Unfinished at the time of Vasari's death it was completed by Federico Zuccari.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: His loggia of the Palazzo degli Uffizi by the Arno opens up the vista at the far end of its long narrow courtyard. It is a unique piece of urban planning that functions as a public piazza, and which, if considered as a short street, is unique as a Renaissance street with a unified architectural treatment. The view of the Loggia from the Arno reveals that, with the Vasari Corridor, it is one of very few structures lining the river that are open to the river and appear to embrace the riverside environment.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. The enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio, and winds around the exterior of several buildings. It was once the home of the Mercado de Vecchio.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: He renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. At both, he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of "The Adoration of the Magi" that was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and completed in February 1567. It was restored recently, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually, it will be returned to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo (Province of Alessandria, Piedmont).


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In 1562, Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of High Renaissance architecture.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammannati at Pope Julius III's Villa Giulia.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Often called "the first art historian", Vasari invented the genre of the encyclopedia of artistic biographies with his "Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori" ("Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects"), first published in 1550 and dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. He was the first to use the term "Rinascita" (rebirth in Italian) in print – although an awareness of an ongoing "rebirth" in the arts had been in the air since the time of Alberti. Vasari's term, applied to the change in artistic styles with the work of Giotto, eventually would become the French term "Renaissance" (rebirth) for the era that followed. Vasari was responsible for the modern use of the term Gothic art, as well, although he only used the word "Goth" in association with the German style that preceded the rebirth, which he identified as "barbaric".


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: The "Lives" also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was partly rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural).


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, the invention of engraving. Venetian art in particular (along with arts from other parts of Europe), is ignored systematically in the first edition. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including Titian), it did so without achieving a neutral point of view.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Many inaccuracies exist within his "Lives". For example, Vasari writes that Andrea del Castagno killed Domenico Veneziano, which is incorrect; Andrea died several years before Domenico. In another example, Vasari's biography of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, whom he calls "Il Soddoma", published only in the second edition of the "Lives" (1568) after Bazzi's death, condemns the artist as being immoral, bestial, and vain. Vasari dismisses Bazzi's work as lazy and offensive, despite the artist's having been named a "Cavaliere di Cristo" by Pope Leo X and having received important commissions for the Villa Farnese and other sites.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes have the ring of truth, while others are inventions or generic fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that supposedly, the older master repeatedly tried to brush away, a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles. He did not research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and naturally, his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation and those of the immediate past generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the "Lives", and adds further details about him and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: According to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term "competition" (or "concorrenza" in Italian) in its economic sense. He used it repeatedly, and stressed the concept in his introduction to the life of Pietro Perugino, in explaining the reasons for Florentine artistic preeminence. In Vasari's view, Florentine artists excelled because they were hungry, and they were hungry because their fierce competition amongst themselves for commissions kept them so. Competition, he said, is "one of the nourishments that maintain them".


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: Vasari enjoyed high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. He married Niccolosa Bacci, a member of one of the richest and most prominent families of Arezzo. He was made Knight of the Golden Spur by the Pope. He was elected to the municipal council of his native town and finally, rose to the supreme office of gonfaloniere.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: He built a fine house in Arezzo in 1547 and decorated its walls and vaults with paintings. It is now a museum in his honour named the Casa Vasari, whilst his residence in Florence is also preserved.


title: Giorgio Vasari

text: In 1563, he helped found the Florentine "Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno", with the Grand Duke and Michelangelo as "capi" of the institution. Thirty-six artists were chosen as members.


title: Emily Meade

text: Emily Meade (born January 10, 1989) is an American film and television actress. She has appeared in films such as "Twelve" (2010), "My Soul to Take" (2010), "Gimme Shelter" (2013), "That Awkward Moment" (2014), "Money Monster" (2016), and "Nerve" (2016), and the television series "Boardwalk Empire", "", "The Leftovers" and "Broad City". She also portrayed a future version of the character Ella Blake in the third season finale of "Fringe", and had a leading role in the HBO series "The Deuce" (2017–2019).


title: Emily Meade

text: In 1997, at the age of seven, she sang "Up, over, through and under" ("Sottosopra") at the Italian song contest "Zecchino d'Oro". The song won the "Zecchino d'Argento" prize for the best non-Italian song.


title: Emily Meade

text: She then starred in "My Soul to Take", directed by Wes Craven. Co-stars included Max Thieriot and Nick Lashaway. She starred in the 2010 release, "Twelve" as a teenage drug addict. Meade appeared in the independent drama, "Bluebird", in 2013. She had a supporting role in the first season of the HBO drama, "The Leftovers". In 2016, she portrayed Sydney in the film "Nerve" starring Dave Franco and Emma Roberts. She received considerable critical acclaim for her portrayal of prostitute and porn star Lori Madison in HBO's "The Deuce", creator David Simon describing her performance as "one of the best I ever got on a show".


title: Emily Meade

text: After the 2017 Weinstein scandal and the Me Too movement highlighted the often routine nature of sexual harassment and misconduct in the industry, Meade was one of the first performers to demand professional safeguards for their well-being on set, leading to the presence of an intimacy coordinator on film and television series. Noting the power-structure in a production, performers (particularly young, inexperienced ones) might otherwise not feel able to speak up if directors, staff members or other actors disregarded their consent or previous agreements regarding intimate scenes.


title: Chernobylite

text: Chernobylite is a technogenic compound, a crystalline zirconium silicate with a high (up to 10%) content of uranium as a solid solution.


title: Chernobylite

text: It was discovered in the corium produced in the Chernobyl disaster, a lava-like glassy material formed in the nuclear meltdown of reactor core 4.


title: Chernobylite

text: Chernobylite is highly radioactive due to its high uranium content and contamination by fission products.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Joseph Kendrick Cunningham (born May 26, 1982) is an American politician, lawyer and former engineer who served as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 2019 to 2021. The district includes much of South Carolina's share of the Atlantic Coast, from Charleston to Hilton Head Island.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: A member of the Democratic Party, Cunningham narrowly defeated Republican state representative Katie Arrington in the 2018 general election. He lost his 2020 re-election bid in another close race to Republican state representative Nancy Mace after one term in Congress.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: He was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 South Carolina gubernatorial election and faced incumbent Republican governor Henry McMaster in November but was defeated.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, and grew up in Kuttawa, Kentucky. He graduated from Lyon County High School in 2000. Cunningham attended the College of Charleston for two years before transferring to Florida Atlantic University in 2002, where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in ocean engineering in 2005.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham became an ocean engineer with a consulting company in Naples, Florida, and was laid off after about five years. He spent some time learning Spanish in South America, enrolled in law school at Northern Kentucky University's Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 2011, and graduated in 2014. He then worked as a construction attorney for Charleston firm Lyles & Lyles and co-owned the Soul Yoga + Wellness yoga studio with his wife before campaigning for political office.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: In July 2017, Cunningham announced his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in . Cunningham won the nomination, defeating nonprofit consultant Toby Smith, receiving 71.5% of the vote.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham expected to face Republican incumbent Mark Sanford. However, Sanford was defeated in the Republican primary by state Representative Katie Arrington. Cunningham defeated Arrington with 50.7% of the vote, marking the first time since 1986 that South Carolina Democrats have flipped a U.S. House seat. His victory was widely considered a major upset.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: While Arrington carried four of the district's five counties, Cunningham prevailed by winning Charleston County by almost 17,000 votes–more than four times the overall margin of 4,000 votes. Cunningham is the first Democrat to represent the Charleston-based district since 1981. He was also the first white Democrat to win a House seat in the Deep South since John Barrow won reelection in 2012.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: In 2020, Cunningham narrowly lost his seat to Republican state Representative Nancy Mace. Once a solidly Republican district, the 1st district has become competitive in recent elections due to the realignment of Charleston's suburban population to the Democratic Party. However, increased turnout in the heavily conservative Beaufort area undermined this trend, allowing Mace to overcome Cunningham's margin in Charleston County.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: In his first vote as a U.S. Representative, Cunningham declined to back Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House. Cunningham instead voted for Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois. Cunningham was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrats who present themselves as moderate to conservative.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: On March 8, 2019, while National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assistant administrator for fisheries Chris Oliver was testifying at a Natural Resources Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing on the effects of seismic testing on right whales, Cunningham blasted an air horn to demonstrate how disruptive commercial air guns were to whales. Cunningham argued that the sound of commercial air guns was up to 16,000 times louder than an air horn.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham stopped short of endorsing an impeachment inquiry against President Trump after the Ukraine allegations emerged, stating that a partisan rush to impeach the President would be bad for the country, but that if the allegations against Trump were true, they "represent a clear threat to the Constitution, our national security and the democratic process". On October 31, 2019, however, Cunningham voted in favor of a resolution to lay out rules to proceed with an impeachment inquiry of President Trump. On December 16, Cunningham announced that he would support both articles of impeachment pending in the House of Representatives, saying "At the end of day, this is simply about the rule of law, whether we're a country with laws or not and what type of precedent we want to set for future presidents." On December 18, 2019, Cunningham voted for both articles of impeachment against Trump.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: In his farewell speech to the House of Representatives in December 2020, Cunningham toasted a can of beer to "the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation", saying that "for the betterment of this country, we have to come together, we have to sit down and listen to each other, and maybe even have a beer." GovTrack reports that during his two years in the U.S. House, Cunningham joined bipartisan bills the second most often and had the fifth least left-leaning voting record compared to other house Democrats. Nancy Mace, Cunningham's Republican opponent in his 2020 reelection campaign, alleged that Cunningham voted with Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi 90% of the time.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham is the Democratic nominee for South Carolina governor, winning the June 14 primary with 57% of the vote. Cunningham was defeated by incumbent Republican governor Henry McMaster in the November election, reviving 41% of the popular vote.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham supports the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Cunningham accepts the scientific consensus on climate change. He also opposes offshore drilling, which garnered him the endorsement of coastal mayors and is attributed for his upset victory, and sponsored bills to ban offshore drilling while serving in Congress. He does not support defunding the police.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: Cunningham lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his son Boone. Cunningham is an Eagle Scout. His father, Bill Cunningham, is a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice and author of historical fiction.


title: Joe Cunningham (American politician)

text: On March 20, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunningham announced that he had tested positive for the virus. In 2021, Cunningham announced his separation from his wife Amanda.


title: Latin music

text: Latin music (Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese music genres, as well as music that is sung in either Spanish and/or Portuguese.


title: Latin music

text: Because the majority of Latino immigrants living in New York City in the 1950s were of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent, "Latin music" had been stereotyped as music simply originating from the Spanish Caribbean. The popularization of bossa nova and Herb Alpert's Mexican-influenced sounds in the 1960s did little to change the perceived image of Latin music. Since then, the music industry classifies all music sung in Spanish or Portuguese as Latin music, including musics from Spain and Portugal.


title: Latin music

text: Following protests from Latinos in New York, a category for Latin music was created by National Recording Academy (NARAS) for the Grammy Awards titled Best Latin Recording in 1975. Enrique Fernandez wrote in "Billboard" that the lone category for Latin music meant that all Latin music genres had to compete with each other despite the distinct sounds of the genre. He also noted that the accolade was usually given to performers of tropical music. Eight years later, the organization debuted three new categories for Latin music: Best Latin Pop Performance, Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance, and Best Tropical Latin Performance. Latin pop is a catch-all for any pop music sung in Spanish, while Mexican/Mexican-American (also to referred to as Regional Mexican) is defined as any musical style originating from Mexico or influences by its immigrants in the United States including Tejano, and tropical music is any music from the Spanish Caribbean.


title: Latin music

text: In 1997, NARAS established the Latin Recording Academy (LARAS) in an effort to expand its operations in both Latin America and Spain. In September 2000, LARAS launched the Latin Grammy Awards, a separate award ceremony from the Grammy Awards. Its organizers stated that the Latin music universe was too large to fit within the Grammys. Michael Greene, former head of NARAS, said that the process of creating the Latin Grammy Awards was complicated due to the diverse Latin musical styles, noting that the only thing they had in common was language. As a result, the Latin Grammy Awards are presented to records performed in Spanish or Portuguese, while the organization focuses on music from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.


title: Latin music

text: Since the late 1990s, the United States has seen increasing growth in its population of "Latinos", a term popularized since the 1960s due to confusing the wrong term "Spanish" with the more proper but less popular term "Hispanic". The music industry in the United States began to refer to any kind of music featuring Spanish vocals as "Latin music". Under this definition, Spanish sung in any genre is categorized as "Latin". In turn, this has led to artists from Spain being labelled as "Latin" because they sing in the same language.


title: Latin music

text: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and "Billboard" magazine use this definition of Latin music to track sales of Spanish-language records in the United States. "Billboard" however considers an artist to be "Latin" if they perform in Spanish or Portuguese. The RIAA initiated the "Los Premios de Oro y Platino" ("The Gold and Platinum Awards" in Spanish) in 2000 to certify sales of Latin music albums and singles under a different threshold than its standard certifications. "Billboard" divides its Latin music charts into three subcategories: Latin pop, Regional Mexican, and tropical. A fourth subcategory was added in the mid 2000s to address the rise of Latin urban music genres such as Latin hip hop and reggaeton.


title: Latin music

text: The term "Latin music" originated from the United States due to the growing influence of Latino Americans in the American music market, including pioneers Xavier Cugat (1940s) and Tito Puente (1950s) and accelerating in later decades. As one author explained the rising popularity from the 1940s: "Latin America, the one part of the world not engulfed in World War II, became a favorite topic for songs and films for Americans who wanted momentarily to forget about the conflagration." Wartime propaganda for America's "Good Neighbor Policy" further enhanced the cultural impact. Pérez Prado composed such famous pieces as "Mambo No. 5" and "Mambo No. 8". At the height of the mambo movement in 1955, Pérez hit number one on the American charts with a cha-cha-chá version of "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White". El manisero, known in English as The Peanut Vendor, is a Cuban son-pregón composed by Moisés Simons. Together with "Guantanamera", it is arguably the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician. "The Peanut Vendor" has been recorded more than 160 times, sold over a million copies of sheet music, and was the first million-selling 78 rpm single of Cuban music.


title: Latin music

text: The Brazilian bossa nova became widespread in Latin America and later became an international trend, led especially by Antônio Carlos Jobim. Rock en español became popular with the younger generation of Latinos in Latin America, for example the Argentine band Almendra. Mexican-American Latin rock guitarist Carlos Santana began decades of popularity. By the late 60s, the boogaloo boom was coming, and boogaloo musicians such as Pérez Prado, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente released boogaloo singles and albums. Most of the other groups were young musicians such as Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers and Joe Bataan.


title: Latin music

text: Early examples of boogaloo were 1966 music by Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz. The biggest boogaloo hit of the '60s was "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba Sextet in 1966. Hits by other groups included Johnny Colón's "Boogaloo Blues", Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That"(1967).


title: Latin music

text: Salsa music became the dominant genre of tropical music in the 1970s. Fania Records was credited for popularizing salsa music, with acts such as Rubén Blades, Héctor Lavoe, and Celia Cruz expanding the audience. In the late 1970s, an influx of balladeers from Spain such as Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, and Raphael established their presence on the music charts both in Latin America and the US Latin market. In 1972, OTI Festival was established by the Organización de Telecomunicaciones de Iberoamérica as a songwriting contest to interconnect the Ibero-American countries (Latin America, Spain, and Portugal). Ramiro Burr of "Billboard" remarked that the contest was considered to be the "largest and most prestigious songwriting festival in the Latin music world".


title: Latin music

text: In the 1980s, the Latin ballad continued to be the main form of Latin pop music, with Juan Gabriel, José José, Julio Iglesias, Roberto Carlos, and José Luis Rodríguez dominating the charts. Salsa music lost some traction, and its rhythm slowed with more emphasis on romantic lyrics. This became known as the salsa romantica era.