title: Myanmar

text: Rohingya are not allowed to travel without official permission, are banned from owning land, and are required to sign a commitment to have no more than two children. As of July 2012, the Myanmar government does not include the Rohingya minority group—classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982—on the government's list of more than 130 ethnic races and, therefore, the government states that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.


title: Myanmar

text: In 2007 German professor Bassam Tibi suggested that the Rohingya conflict may be driven by an Islamist political agenda to impose religious laws, while non-religious causes have also been raised, such as a lingering resentment over the violence that occurred during the Japanese occupation of Burma in World War II—during this time period the British allied themselves with the Rohingya and fought against the puppet government of Burma (composed mostly of Bamar Japanese) that helped to establish the Tatmadaw military organisation that remains in power except for a 5-year lapse in 2016 - 2021.


title: Myanmar

text: Since the democratic transition began in 2011, there has been continuous violence as 280 people have been killed and 140,000 forced to flee from their homes in the Rakhine state in 2014. A UN envoy reported in March 2013 that unrest had re-emerged between Myanmar's Buddhist and Muslim communities, with violence spreading to towns that are located closer to Yangon.


title: Myanmar

text: According to the Crisis Group, since Myanmar transitioned to a new government in August 2011, the country's human rights record has been improving. Previously giving Myanmar its lowest rating of 7, the 2012 "Freedom in the World" report also notes improvement, giving Myanmar a 6 for improvements in civil liberties and political rights, the release of political prisoners, and a loosening of restrictions. In 2013, Myanmar improved yet again, receiving a score of 5 in civil liberties and 6 in political freedoms.


title: Myanmar

text: The government has assembled a National Human Rights Commission that consists of 15 members from various backgrounds. Several activists in exile, including Thee Lay Thee Anyeint members, have returned to Myanmar after President Thein Sein's invitation to expatriates to return home to work for national development. In an address to the United Nations Security Council on 22 September 2011, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin confirmed the government's intention to release prisoners in the near future.


title: Myanmar

text: The government has also relaxed reporting laws, but these remain highly restrictive. In September 2011, several banned websites, including YouTube, Democratic Voice of Burma and Voice of America, were unblocked. A 2011 report by the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations found that, while contact with the Myanmar government was constrained by donor restrictions, international humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) see opportunities for effective advocacy with government officials, especially at the local level. At the same time, international NGOs are mindful of the ethical quandary of how to work with the government without bolstering or appeasing it.


title: Myanmar

text: Following Thein Sein's first ever visit to the UK and a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, the Myanmar president declared that all of his nation's political prisoners will be released by the end of 2013, in addition to a statement of support for the well-being of the Rohingya Muslim community. In a speech at Chatham House, he revealed that "We [Myanmar government] are reviewing all cases. I guarantee to you that by the end of this year, there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.", in addition to expressing a desire to strengthen links between the UK and Myanmar's military forces.


title: Myanmar

text: In 2016, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of failing to protect Myanmar's Muslim minority. Since August 2017 Doctors Without Borders have treated 113 Rohingya refugee females for sexual assault with all but one describing military assailants.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar's economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world with a nominal GDP of US$76.09 billion in 2019 and an estimated purchasing power adjusted GDP of US$327.629 billion in 2017 according to the World Bank. Foreigners are able to legally lease but not own property. In December 2014, Myanmar set up its first stock exchange, the Yangon Stock Exchange.


title: Myanmar

text: The informal economy's share in Myanmar is one of the biggest in the world and is closely linked to corruption, smuggling and illegal trade activities. In addition, decades of civil war and unrest have contributed to Myanmar's current levels of poverty and lack of economic progress. Myanmar lacks adequate infrastructure. Goods travel primarily across the Thai border (where most illegal drugs are exported) and along the Irrawaddy River.


title: Myanmar

text: Both China and India have attempted to strengthen ties with the government for economic benefit in the early 2010s. Many Western nations, including the United States and Canada, and the European Union, historically imposed investment and trade sanctions on Myanmar. The United States and European Union eased most of their sanctions in 2012. From May 2012 to February 2013, the United States began to lift its economic sanctions on Myanmar "in response to the historic reforms that have been taking place in that country." Foreign investment comes primarily from China, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, India, and Thailand. The military has stakes in some major industrial corporations of the country (from oil production and consumer goods to transportation and tourism).


title: Myanmar

text: Under the British administration, the people of Burma were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, with Europeans at the top, Indians, Chinese, and Christianized minorities in the middle, and Buddhist Burmese at the bottom. Forcefully integrated into the world economy, Burma's economy grew by involving itself with extractive industries and cash crop agriculture. However, much of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of Europeans. The country became the world's largest exporter of rice, mainly to European markets, while other colonies like India suffered mass starvation. Being a follower of free market principles, the British opened up the country to large-scale immigration with Rangoon exceeding New York City as the greatest immigration port in the world in the 1920s. Historian Thant Myint-U states, "This was out of a total population of only 13 million; it was equivalent to the United Kingdom today taking 2 million people a year." By then, in most of Burma's largest cities, Rangoon, Akyab, Bassein and Moulmein, the Indian immigrants formed a majority of the population. The Burmese under British rule felt helpless, and reacted with a "racism that combined feelings of superiority and fear".


title: Myanmar

text: Crude oil production, an indigenous industry of Yenangyaung, was taken over by the British and put under Burmah Oil monopoly. British Burma began exporting crude oil in 1853. European firms produced 75% of the world's teak. The wealth was however, mainly concentrated in the hands of Europeans. In the 1930s, agricultural production fell dramatically as international rice prices declined and did not recover for several decades. During the Japanese invasion of Burma in World War II, the British followed a scorched earth policy. They destroyed major government buildings, oil wells and mines that developed for tungsten (Mawchi), tin, lead and silver to keep them from the Japanese. Myanmar was bombed extensively by the Allies.


title: Myanmar

text: After independence, the country was in ruins with its major infrastructure completely destroyed. With the loss of India, Burma lost relevance and obtained independence from the British. After a parliamentary government was formed in 1948, Prime Minister U Nu embarked upon a policy of nationalisation and the state was declared the owner of all of the land in Burma. The government tried to implement an eight-year plan partly financed by injecting money into the economy, but this caused inflation to rise. The 1962 coup d'état was followed by an economic scheme called the Burmese Way to Socialism, a plan to nationalise all industries, with the exception of agriculture. While the economy continued to grow at a slower rate, the country eschewed a Western-oriented development model, and by the 1980s, was left behind capitalist powerhouses like Singapore which were integrated with Western economies. Myanmar asked for admittance to a least developed country status in 1987 to receive debt relief.


title: Myanmar

text: The major agricultural product is rice, which covers about 60% of the country's total cultivated land area. Rice accounts for 97% of total food grain production by weight. Through collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute 52 modern rice varieties were released in the country between 1966 and 1997, helping increase national rice production to 14 million tons in 1987 and to 19 million tons in 1996. By 1988, modern varieties were planted on half of the country's ricelands, including 98 per cent of the irrigated areas. In 2008 rice production was estimated at 50 million tons.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar produces precious stones such as rubies, sapphires, pearls, and jade. Rubies are the biggest earner; 90% of the world's rubies come from the country, whose red stones are prized for their purity and hue. Thailand buys the majority of the country's gems. Myanmar's "Valley of Rubies", the mountainous Mogok area, north of Mandalay, is noted for its rare pigeon's blood rubies and blue sapphires.


title: Myanmar

text: Many U.S. and European jewellery companies, including Bulgari, Tiffany and Cartier, refuse to import these stones based on reports of deplorable working conditions in the mines. Human Rights Watch has encouraged a complete ban on the purchase of Burmese gems based on these reports and because nearly all profits go to the ruling junta, as the majority of mining activity in the country is government-run. The government of Myanmar controls the gem trade by direct ownership or by joint ventures with private owners of mines.


title: Myanmar

text: Rare-earth elements are also a significant export, as Myanmar supplies around 10% of the world's rare earths. Conflict in Kachin State has threatened the operations of its mines as of February 2021.


title: Myanmar

text: Other industries include agricultural goods, textiles, wood products, construction materials, gems, metals, oil and natural gas. Myanmar Engineering Society has identified at least 39 locations capable of geothermal power production and some of these hydrothermal reservoirs lie quite close to Yangon which is a significant underutilised resource for electrical production.


title: Myanmar

text: The government receives a significant percentage of the income of private-sector tourism services. The most popular available tourist destinations in Myanmar include big cities such as Yangon and Mandalay; religious sites in Mon State, Pindaya, Bago and Hpa-An; nature trails in Inle Lake, Kengtung, Putao, Pyin Oo Lwin; ancient cities such as Bagan and Mrauk-U; as well as beaches in Nabule, Ngapali, Ngwe-Saung, Mergui. Nevertheless, much of the country is off-limits to tourists, and interactions between foreigners and the people of Myanmar, particularly in the border regions, are subject to police scrutiny. They are not to discuss politics with foreigners, under penalty of imprisonment and, in 2001, the Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board issued an order for local officials to protect tourists and limit "unnecessary contact" between foreigners and ordinary Burmese people.


title: Myanmar

text: The most common way for travellers to enter the country is by air. According to the website "Lonely Planet", getting into Myanmar is problematic: "No bus or train service connects Myanmar with another country, nor can you travel by car or motorcycle across the border – you must walk across." They further state that "It is not possible for foreigners to go to/from Myanmar by sea or river." There are a few border crossings that allow the passage of private vehicles, such as the border between Ruili (China) to Mu-se, the border between Htee Kee (Myanmar) and Phu Nam Ron (Thailand)—the most direct border between Dawei and Kanchanaburi, and the border between Myawaddy and Mae Sot, Thailand. At least one tourist company has successfully run commercial overland routes through these borders since 2013.


title: Myanmar

text: Flights are available from most countries, though direct flights are limited to mainly Thai and other ASEAN airlines. According to "Eleven" magazine, "In the past, there were only 15 international airlines and increasing numbers of airlines have begun launching direct flights from Japan, Qatar, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany and Singapore." Expansions were expected in September 2013 but are mainly Thai and other Asian-based airlines.


title: Myanmar

text: The provisional results of the 2014 Myanmar Census show that the total population is 51,419,420. This figure includes an estimated 1,206,353 persons in parts of northern Rakhine State, Kachin State and Kayin State who were not counted. People who were out of the country at the time of the census are not included in these figures. There are over 600,000 registered migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand, and millions more work illegally. Burmese citizens account for 80% of all migrant workers in Thailand. The national population density is , among the lowest in Southeast Asia.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar's fertility rate is 2.23, which is slightly above replacement level and is low compared to Southeast Asian countries of similar economic standing, such as Cambodia (3.18) and Laos (4.41). There has been a significant decline in fertility in the 2000s, from a rate of 4.7 children per woman in 1983, down to 2.4 in 2001, despite the absence of any national population policy. The fertility rate is much lower in urban areas.


title: Myanmar

text: The relatively rapid decline in fertility is attributed to several factors, including extreme delays in marriage (almost unparalleled among developing countries in the region), the prevalence of illegal abortions, and the high proportion of single, unmarried women of reproductive age, with 25.9% of women aged 30–34 and 33.1% of men and women aged 25–34 being single.


title: Myanmar

text: These patterns stem from economic dynamics, including high income inequality, which results in residents of reproductive age opting for delay of marriage and family-building in favour of attempting to find employment and establish some form of wealth; the average age of marriage in Myanmar is 27.5 for men, 26.4 for women.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar is ethnically diverse. The government recognises 135 distinct ethnic groups. There are at least 108 different ethnolinguistic groups in Myanmar, consisting mainly of distinct Tibeto-Burman peoples, but with sizeable populations of Tai–Kadai, Hmong–Mien, and Austroasiatic (Mon–Khmer) peoples.


title: Myanmar

text: The Bamar form an estimated 68% of the population. 10% of the population are Shan. The Kayin make up 7% of the population. The Rakhine people constitute 4% of the population. Overseas Chinese form approximately 3% of the population. Myanmar's ethnic minority groups prefer the term "ethnic nationality" over "ethnic minority" as the term "minority" furthers their sense of insecurity in the face of what is often described as "Burmanisation"—the proliferation and domination of the dominant Bamar culture over minority cultures.


title: Myanmar

text: Mon, who form 2% of the population, are ethno-linguistically related to the Khmer. Overseas Indians are 2%. The remainder are Kachin, Chin, Rohingya, Anglo-Indians, Gurkha, Nepali and other ethnic minorities. Included in this group are the Anglo-Burmese. Once forming a large and influential community, the Anglo-Burmese left the country in steady streams from 1958 onwards, principally to Australia and the United Kingdom. It is estimated that 52,000 Anglo-Burmese remain in Myanmar. , 110,000 Burmese refugees were living in refugee camps in Thailand.


title: Myanmar

text: Refugee camps exist along Indian, Bangladeshi and Thai borders while several thousand are in Malaysia. Conservative estimates state that there are over 295,800 minority refugees from Myanmar, with the majority being Rohingya, Karen, and Karenni are principally located along the Thai-Myanmar border. There are nine permanent refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, most of which were established in the mid-1980s. The refugee camps are under the care of the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC). Since 2006, over 55,000 Burmese refugees have been resettled in the United States.


title: Myanmar

text: The persecution of Burmese Indians, Burmese Chinese and other ethnic groups after the military coup headed by General Ne Win in 1962 led to the expulsion or emigration of 300,000 people. They migrated to escape racial discrimination and the wholesale nationalisation of private enterprise that took place in 1964. The Anglo-Burmese at this time either fled the country or changed their names and blended in with the broader Burmese society.


title: Myanmar

text: Many Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar. Many refugees headed to neighbouring Bangladesh, including 200,000 in 1978 as a result of the King Dragon operation in Arakan. 250,000 more left in 1991.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar is home to four major language families: Sino-Tibetan, Tai–Kadai, Austro-Asiatic, and Indo-European. Sino-Tibetan languages are most widely spoken. They include Burmese, Karen, Kachin, Chin, and Chinese (mainly Hokkien). The primary Tai–Kadai language is Shan. Mon, Palaung, and Wa are the major Austroasiatic languages spoken in Myanmar. The two major Indo-European languages are Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, and English. More than a hundred languages are spoken in total. Since many of them are known only within small tribes around the country, they may have been lost (many if not all) after a few generations.


title: Myanmar

text: Burmese, the mother tongue of the Bamar and official language of Myanmar, is related to Tibetan and Chinese. It is written in a script consisting of circular and semi-circular letters, which were adapted from the Mon script, which in turn was developed from a southern Indian script in the 5th century. The earliest known inscriptions in the Burmese script date from the 11th century. It is also used to write Pali, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism, as well as several ethnic minority languages, including Shan, several Karen dialects, and Kayah (Karenni), with the addition of specialised characters and diacritics for each language.


title: Myanmar

text: The Burmese language incorporates widespread usage of honorifics and is age-oriented. Burmese society has traditionally stressed the importance of education. In villages, secular schooling often takes place in monasteries. Secondary and tertiary education take place at government schools.


title: Myanmar

text: Many religions are practised in Myanmar. Religious edifices and orders have been in existence for many years. The Christian and Muslim populations do, however, face religious persecution and it is hard, if not impossible, for non-Buddhists to join the army or get government jobs, the main route to success in the country. Such persecution and targeting of civilians is particularly notable in eastern Myanmar, where over 3,000 villages have been destroyed in the past ten years. More than 200,000 Muslims have fled to Bangladesh by 2007 to escape persecution.


title: Myanmar

text: A large majority of the population practices Buddhism; estimates range from 80% to 89%. According to 2014 Myanmar Census, 87.9% of the population identifies as Buddhists. Theravāda Buddhism is the most widespread. There are some 500,000 Buddhist monks and 75,000 nuns in this country of 54 million. Other religions are practised largely without obstruction, with the notable exception of some religious minorities such as the Rohingya people, who have continued to have their citizenship status denied and treated as illegal immigrants instead, and Christians in Chin State.


title: Myanmar

text: According to 2014 census, 6.2% of the population identifies as Christian; 4.3% as Muslim; 0.8% as followers of tribal religions; 0.5% as Hindus; 0.2% as followers of other religions; and 0.1% follow no religion. According to the 2010 estimates of the Pew Research Center, 7% of the population is Christian; 4% is Muslim; 1% follows traditional animistic beliefs; and 2% follow other religions, including Mahayana Buddhism, Hinduism, and East Asian religions. Jehovah's Witnesses have been present since 1914 and have about 80 congregations around the country and a branch office in Yangon publishing in 16 languages. A tiny Jewish community in Yangon had a synagogue but no resident rabbi.


title: Myanmar

text: Although Hinduism is practised by 0.5% of the population, it was a major religion in Myanmar's past. Several strains of Hinduism existed alongside both Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism in the Mon and Pyu period in the first millennium, and down to the Pagan period (9th to 13th centuries) when "Saivite and Vaishana elements enjoyed greater elite influence than they would later do." Burmese folk religion is practised by many Bamars alongside Buddhism.


title: Myanmar

text: The general state of health care in Myanmar is poor. The government spends anywhere from 0.5% to 3% of the country's GDP on health care, consistently ranking among the lowest in the world. Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals lack many of the basic facilities and equipment. The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births for Myanmar is 240. This is compared with 219.3 in 2008 and 662 in 1990. The under 5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births is 73 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's mortality is 47. According to the report named "Preventable Fate", published by Doctors without Borders, 25,000 Burmese AIDS patients died in 2007, deaths that could largely have been prevented by antiretroviral therapy drugs and proper treatment.


title: Myanmar

text: HIV/AIDS, recognised as a disease of concern by the Burmese Ministry of Health, is most prevalent among sex workers and intravenous drug users. In 2005, the estimated adult HIV prevalence rate in Myanmar was 1.3% (200,000–570,000 people), according to UNAIDS, and early indicators of any progress against the HIV epidemic are inconsistent. However, the National AIDS Programme Myanmar found that 32% of sex workers and 43% of intravenous drug users in Myanmar have HIV.


title: Myanmar

text: According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, Myanmar's official literacy rate as of 2000 was 90%. Historically, Myanmar has had high literacy rates. The educational system of Myanmar is operated by the government agency, the Ministry of Education. The education system is based on the United Kingdom's system after nearly a century of British and Christian presences in Myanmar. Nearly all schools are government-operated, but there has been an increase in privately funded English language schools in the early 21st century. Schooling is compulsory until the end of elementary school, approximately about 9 years old, while the compulsory schooling age is 15 or 16 at international level.


title: Myanmar

text: There are 101 universities, 12 institutes, 9 degree colleges and 24 colleges in Myanmar, a total of 146 higher education institutions. There are 10 technical training schools, 23 nursing training schools, 1 sport academy and 20 midwifery schools. There are four international schools acknowledged by WASC and College Board—The International School Yangon, Myanmar International School, Yangon International School, and International School of Myanmar in Yangon. Myanmar was ranked 127th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.Italy was ranked 29th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 30th in 2019


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar had a murder rate of 15.2 per 100,000 population with a total of 8,044 murders in 2012. Factors influencing Myanmar's high murder rate include communal violence and armed conflict. Myanmar is one of the world's most corrupt nations. The 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index ranked the country at number 171, out of 176 countries in total. Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of opium after Afghanistan, producing some 25% of the world's opium, and forms part of the Golden Triangle. The opium industry was a monopoly during colonial times and has since been illegally operated by corrupt officials in the Burmese military and rebel fighters, primarily as the basis for heroin manufacture. Myanmar is the largest producer of methamphetamines in the world, with the majority of "Ya ba" found in Thailand produced in Myanmar, particularly in the Golden Triangle and northeastern Shan State, which borders Thailand, Laos and China. Burmese-produced "ya ba" is typically trafficked to Thailand via Laos, before being transported through the northeastern Thai region of Isan.


title: Myanmar

text: A diverse range of indigenous cultures exist in Myanmar, with majority culture primarily Buddhist and Bamar. Bamar culture has been influenced by the cultures of neighbouring countries, manifested in its language, cuisine, music, dance and theatre. The arts, particularly literature, have historically been influenced by the local form of Theravada Buddhism. Considered the national epic of Myanmar, the "Yama Zatdaw", an adaptation of India's "Ramayana", has been influenced greatly by Thai, Mon, and Indian versions of the play. Buddhism is practised along with nat worship, which involves elaborate rituals to propitiate one from a pantheon of 37 nats.


title: Myanmar

text: In a traditional village, the monastery is the centre of cultural life. Monks are venerated and supported by the lay people. A novitiation ceremony called shinbyu is the most important coming of age events for a boy, during which he enters the monastery for a short time. All male children in Buddhist families are encouraged to be a novice (beginner for Buddhism) before the age of twenty and to be a monk after the age of twenty. Girls have ear-piercing ceremonies () at the same time. Burmese culture is most evident in villages where local festivals are held throughout the year, the most important being the pagoda festival. Many villages have a guardian nat, and superstition and taboos are commonplace.


title: Myanmar

text: British colonial rule introduced Western elements of culture to Myanmar. Myanmar's education system is modelled after that of the United Kingdom. Colonial architectural influences are most evident in major cities such as Yangon. Many ethnic minorities, particularly the Karen in the southeast and the Kachin and Chin who populate the north and northeast, practice Christianity. According to "The World Factbook", the Burman population is 68% and the ethnic groups constitute 32%. In contrast, the exiled leaders and organisations claim the country is 40% ethnic.


title: Myanmar

text: Burmese cuisine is characterised by extensive use of fish products such as fish sauce, ngapi (fermented seafood) and dried prawn. Mohinga is the traditional breakfast dish and is Myanmar's national dish. Seafood is a common ingredient in coastal cities, while meat and poultry are more commonly used in landlocked cities like Mandalay. Freshwater fish and shrimp have been incorporated into inland cooking as a primary source of protein and are used in a variety of ways, fresh, salted whole or filleted, salted and dried, made into a salty paste, or fermented sour and pressed. Burmese cuisine also includes a variety of salads ("a thoke"), centred on one major ingredient, ranging from starches like rice, wheat and rice noodles, glass noodles and vermicelli, to potato, ginger, tomato, kaffir lime, long bean, and lahpet (pickled tea leaves).


title: Myanmar

text: The Lethwei, Bando, Banshay, and Pongyi thaing martial arts and chinlone are traditional sports in Myanmar. Football is played all over the country, even in villages, and its national team is ruled by the Myanmar Football Federation. The 2013 Southeast Asian Games took place in Naypyidaw, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung Beach in December representing the third occasion that the event has been staged in Myanmar. Myanmar previously hosted the games in 1961 and 1969.


title: Myanmar

text: Burmese traditional art concepts are popular and respected by the Burmese people and people from abroad. Burmese contemporary art has developed quite rapidly on its own terms. Artists born after the 1980s have had greater chances of art practice outside the country.


title: Myanmar

text: One of the first to study western art was Ba Nyan. Together with Ngwe Gaing and a handful of other artists, they were the pioneers of western painting style. Later on most young children learned the concepts from them. Some well known contemporary artists are Lun Gywe, Aung Kyaw Htet, MPP Yei Myint, Myint Swe, Min Wai Aung, Aung Myint, Kin Maung Yin, Po Po and Zaw Zaw Aung.


title: Myanmar

text: Because of Myanmar's political climate, there are not many media companies in relation to the country's population. Some are privately owned. All programming must meet with the approval of the censorship board. The Burmese government announced on 20 August 2012 that it would stop censoring media before publication. Following the announcement, newspapers and other outlets no longer required approved by state censors; however, journalists in the country can still face consequences for what they write and say. In April 2013, international media reports were published to relay the enactment of the media liberalisation reforms that we announced in August 2012. For the first time in numerous decades, the publication of privately owned newspapers commenced in the country.


title: Myanmar

text: Internet use is estimated to be relatively low compared to other countries. Myanmar's internet used to be subject to censorship, and authorities viewed e-mails and posts on Internet blogs until 2012 when the government removed media censorship. During the strict censorship days, activity at internet cafes was regulated, and one blogger named Zarganar was sentenced to prison for publishing a video of destruction caused by Cyclone Nargis in 2008; Zarganar was released in October 2011.


title: Myanmar

text: In regards to communications infrastructure, Myanmar is the last ranked Asian country in the World Economic Forum's Networked Readiness Index (NRI) – an indicator for determining the development level of a country's information and communication technologies. With 139 countries reported on, Myanmar ranked number 133 overall in the 2016 NRI ranking.


title: Myanmar

text: Myanmar's first film was a documentary of the funeral of Tun Shein—a leading politician of the 1910s, who campaigned for Burmese independence in London. The first Burmese silent film "Myitta Ne Thuya" ("Love and Liquor") in 1920 which proved a major success, despite its poor quality due to a fixed camera position and inadequate film accessories. During the 1920s and 1930s, many Burmese-owned film companies made and produced several films. The first Burmese sound film was produced in 1932 in Bombay, India with the title Ngwe Pay Lo Ma Ya (Money Can't Buy It). After World War II, Burmese cinema continued to address political themes. Many of the films produced in the early Cold War era had a strong propaganda element to them.


title: Myanmar

text: In the era that followed the political events of 1988, the film industry has been increasingly controlled by the government. Film stars who had been involved in the political activities were banned from appearing in films. The government issues strict rules on censorship and largely determines who produces films, as well as who gets academy awards.


title: Myanmar

text: Over the years, the movie industry has also shifted to producing many lower-budget direct-to-video films. Most of the movies produced nowadays are comedies. In 2008, only 12 films worthy of being considered for an Academy Award were made, although at least 800 VCDs were produced. Myanmar is the primary subject of a 2007 graphic novel titled "Chroniques Birmanes" by Québécois author and animator, Guy Delisle. The graphic novel was translated into English under the title "Burma Chronicles" in 2008. In 2009, a documentary about Burmese videojournalists called "Burma VJ" was released. This film was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2010 Academy Awards. "The Lady" had its world premiere on 12 September 2011 at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of Representatives since 1987. The district, numbered as the 5th district from 1987 to 1993 and the 8th from 1993 to 2013, includes most of the city of San Francisco. A member of the Democratic Party, Pelosi is the first woman elected Speaker and the first woman to lead a major political party in either chamber of Congress.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi was born and raised in Baltimore, the daughter of mayor and congressman Thomas D'Alesandro. She graduated from Trinity College, Washington in 1962 and married businessman Paul Pelosi the next year; the two had met while both were students. They moved to New York City before settling down in San Francisco with their children. Focused on raising her family, Pelosi stepped into politics as a volunteer for the Democratic Party. She was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election and is now in her 18th term; she is the dean of California's congressional delegation. Pelosi steadily rose through the ranks of the House Democratic Caucus to be elected House minority whip in 2002 and elevated to House minority leader a year later, becoming the first woman to hold each of those positions in either chamber of Congress. Under her leadership, Democrats gained a majority in the House for the first time in 12 years during the 2006 midterm elections; thereafter, Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House, becoming the first woman to hold that office.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During her first speakership, Pelosi was a major opponent of the Iraq War as well as the Bush administration's attempts to partially privatize Social Security. She participated in the passage of the Obama administration's landmark bills, including the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the 2010 Tax Relief Act. Pelosi lost the speakership after the Republican Party retook the majority in the 2010 midterm elections, but she retained her role as leader of the House Democrats and became House minority leader for the second time.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: After the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats regained control of the House, and Pelosi was again elected Speaker, becoming the first former speaker to reclaim the gavel since Sam Rayburn in 1955. During her second speakership, the House twice impeached President Donald Trump, first in December 2019 and again in January 2021; the Senate acquitted Trump both times. She participated in the passage of the Biden administration's landmark bills, including the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans regained control of the House, thus ending her second speakership. She announced her retirement as the leader of the House Democratic Caucus shortly thereafter, but said she would remain a member of the House. On November 29, 2022, the House Democratic Caucus appointed Pelosi Speaker Emerita of the United States House of Representatives.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Nancy Pelosi was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to an Italian-American family. She was the only daughter and the youngest of seven children of Annunciata M. "Nancy" D'Alesandro (née Lombardi) and Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Her mother was born in Fornelli, Isernia, Molise, in Southern Italy, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1912; her father traced his Italian ancestry to Genoa, Venice and Abruzzo. When Pelosi was born, her father was a Democratic congressman from Maryland. He became Baltimore mayor seven years later. Pelosi's mother was also active in politics, organizing Democratic women and teaching her daughter political skills. Pelosi's brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also a Democrat, was elected Baltimore City Council president and later served as mayor from 1967 to 1971.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi helped her father at his campaign events, and she attended President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in January 1961.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 1958, Pelosi graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. In 1962, she graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Pelosi interned for Senator Daniel Brewster (D-Maryland) in the 1960s alongside future House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: After moving to San Francisco, Pelosi became friends with 5th district congressman Phillip Burton and began working her way up in Democratic politics. In 1976, she was elected as a Democratic National Committee member from California, a position she would hold until 1996. She was elected as party chair for Northern California in 1977, and four years later was selected to head the California Democratic Party, which she led until 1983. Subsequently, Pelosi served as the San Francisco Democratic National Convention Host Committee chairwoman in 1984, and then as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee finance chair from 1985 to 1986.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Phillip Burton died in 1983 and his wife, Sala Burton, won a special election to fill the remainder of her husband's congressional term. She was subsequently reelected to two more terms in her own right. Burton became ill with cancer in late 1986 and decided not to run for reelection in 1988. She picked Pelosi as her designated successor, guaranteeing her the support of the Burtons' contacts. Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won the special election to succeed her, defeating Democratic San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt on April 7, 1987, and defeating Republican Harriet Ross in a June 2 runoff. Pelosi took office a week later.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Democrats have held Pelosi's seat since 1949 and Republicans, who make up only 13% of registered voters in the district, have not made a serious bid for the seat since the early 1960s. Pelosi was reelected in 1988 and has been reelected another 16 times with no substantive opposition, winning with an average of 80% of the vote. She has not participated in candidates' debates since her 1987 race against Harriet Ross.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: For the 2000 and 2002 election cycles, compared to other members of Congress, she contributed the most money to other congressional campaigns.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In the House, she served on the Appropriations and Intelligence Committees and was the ranking member on the on the latter committee until her election as House minority leader.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In March 1988, Pelosi voted in favor of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President Ronald Reagan's veto).


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2001, Pelosi was elected the House minority whip, second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. She was the first woman in U.S. history to hold that post.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2002, after Gephardt resigned as House minority leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election, Pelosi was elected to replace him, becoming the first woman to lead a major party in either chamber of Congress.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In the 2006 elections, the Democrats took control of the House, picking up 30 seats. The change in control meant as House Minority Leader, Pelosi was widely expected to become Speaker of the House in the next Congress. On November 16, 2006, the Democratic caucus unanimously chose Pelosi as the Democratic candidate for Speaker.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supported her longtime friend, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for the position of House majority leader, the second-ranking post in the House Democratic caucus. His competitor was House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who had been Pelosi's second-in-command since 2003. Hoyer was elected as House majority leader over Murtha by a margin of 149–86 within the caucus.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On January 4, 2007, Pelosi defeated Republican John Boehner of Ohio, 233 votes to 202, in the election for Speaker of the House.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the incoming chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, nominated Pelosi, and her longtime friend John Dingell of Michigan swore her in, as the dean of the House of Representatives traditionally does.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: With her election, Pelosi became the first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the speakership. She was also the second Speaker from a state west of the Rocky Mountains. The first was Washington's Tom Foley, the last Democrat to hold the post before Pelosi.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During her speech, she discussed the historical importance of being the first female to hold the position of Speaker:


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: She also said Iraq was the major issue facing the 110th Congress while incorporating some Democratic Party beliefs:


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: As Speaker, Pelosi was still the leader of the House Democrats; the Speaker is considered to be the leader of their House caucus. However, by tradition, she did not normally participate in debate and almost never voted on the floor, though she had every right to do so as a full House member. She was also not a member of any House committees, also keeping with Speaker tradition.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During and after her first tenure as Speaker, Pelosi was perceived and/or characterized as a contentious political figure. Republican candidates frequently associated their Democratic opponents with her. At times, centrists, progressive candidates and incumbent Democrats all expressed opposition to her continued tenure.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Shortly after being reelected in 2004, President George W. Bush claimed a mandate for an ambitious second-term agenda and proposed reforming Social Security by allowing workers to redirect a portion of their Social Security withholding into stock and bond investments. Pelosi strongly opposed the plan, saying there was no crisis, and as minority leader she imposed intense party discipline on her caucus, leading them to near-unanimous opposition to the proposal, which was defeated.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In the wake of Bush's 2004 reelection, several leading House Democrats believed they should pursue impeachment proceedings against him, asserting that he had misled Congress about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and violated Americans' civil liberties by authorizing warrantless wiretaps.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In May 2006, with an eye on the upcoming midterm elections—which offered the possibility of Democrats taking back control of the House for the first time since 1994—Pelosi told colleagues that, while the Democrats would conduct vigorous oversight of Bush administration policy, an impeachment investigation was "off the table". A week earlier, she had told "The Washington Post" that, although Democrats would not set out to impeach Bush, "you never know where" investigations might lead.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: After becoming Speaker in January 2007, Pelosi held firm against impeachment, notwithstanding strong support for it among her constituents. In the November 2008 election, she withstood a challenge for her seat by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who ran as an independent primarily because of Pelosi's refusal to pursue impeachment.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Before the midterm elections, Pelosi announced that if Democrats gained a House majority, they would push through most of their agenda during the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: The "first hundred hours" was a play on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's promise for quick action to combat the Great Depression during his "first hundred days" in office. Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House in 1995, had a similar 100-day agenda to implement his Contract with America.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On January 5, 2007, reacting to suggestions from Bush's confidants that he would increase troop levels in Iraq (which he announced in a speech a few days later), Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid condemned the plan. They sent Bush a letter reading:


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has been credited for spearheading Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, when it seemed doomed to defeat. After Republican Scott Brown won Democrat Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat in the January 2010 Massachusetts special election, costing Democrats their filibuster-proof majority, Obama agreed with his then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's idea to do smaller initiatives that could pass easily. But Pelosi dismissed Obama's compunction, mocking his scaled-back ideas as "kiddie care." After convincing him that this would be their only shot at health care reform because of the large Democratic majorities in Congress, she rallied her caucus as she began an "unbelievable marathon" of a two-month session to craft the bill, which passed the House 219–212. In Obama's remarks before signing the bill into law, he credited Pelosi as "one of the best Speakers the House of Representatives has ever had."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Though Pelosi was reelected by a comfortable margin in the 2010 elections, the Democrats lost 63 seats and control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. After this setback, Pelosi sought to continue leading the House Democratic Caucus as minority leader, the office she held before becoming Speaker. Disparate intraparty opposition failed to pass a motion to delay the leadership vote, although she faced a challenge from conservative Democratic representative Heath Shuler from North Carolina. Shuler lost to Pelosi 150–43 in the caucus vote on November 17, 2010. On the opening day of the 112th Congress, Pelosi was elected minority leader.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In November 2011, "60 Minutes" alleged that Pelosi and several other members of Congress had used information they gleaned from closed sessions to make money on the stock market. The program cited her purchases of Visa Inc. stock while a bill that would limit credit card fees was in the House. Pelosi denied the allegations and called the report "a right-wing smear". When the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (or STOCK Act) was introduced the next year, she voted for it and lauded its passing. Of representatives Louise Slaughter and Tim Walz, who drafted the bill, Pelosi said they "shined a light on a gaping hole in our ethics laws and helped close it once and for all".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In August 2016, Pelosi said that her personal contact information had been posted online following a cyberattack against top Democratic campaign committees and she had received "obscene and sick calls, voice mails and text messages". She warned members of Congress to avoid letting children or family members answer phone calls or read text messages.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Prompted by colleagues after the 2016 presidential election, Tim Ryan of Ohio initiated a bid to replace Pelosi as House minority leader on November 17, 2016. After Pelosi agreed to give more leadership opportunities to junior members, she defeated Ryan by a vote of 134–63 on November 30.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2017, after Democrats lost four consecutive special elections in the House of Representatives, Pelosi's leadership was again called into question. In June 2017, Representative Kathleen Rice of New York and a small group of other House Democrats, including Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond, held a closed-door meeting to discuss potential new Democratic leadership. Other House Democrats, including Ryan, Seth Moulton, and Filemon Vela, publicly called for new House leadership. In an interview, Rice said, "If you were talking about a company that was posting losing numbers, if you were talking about any sports team that was losing time and time again, changes would be made, right? The CEO out. The coach would be out and there would be a new strategy put in place." In a press conference, Pelosi defended her leadership, saying, "I respect any opinion that my members have but my decision about how long I stay is not up to them." When asked specifically why she should stay on as House minority leader after numerous Democratic seats were lost, she responded, "Well, I'm a master legislator. I am a strategic, politically astute leader. My leadership is recognized by many around the country, and that is why I'm able to attract the support that I do."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In November 2017, after Pelosi called for John Conyers's resignation over allegations of harassment, she convened the first in a series of planned meetings on strategies to address reforming workplace policies in the wake of national attention to sexual harassment. She said Congress had "a moral duty to the brave women and men coming forward to seize this moment and demonstrate real, effective leadership to foster a climate of respect and dignity in the workplace".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In February 2018, Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan about the proposed public release of a memo prepared by Republican staff at the direction of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. The memo attacked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Pelosi said the FBI and the Department of Justice had warned Nunes and Ryan that the memo was inaccurate and that its release could threaten national security by disclosing federal surveillance methods. She added that Republicans were engaged in a "cover-up campaign" to protect Trump: "House Republicans' pattern of obstruction and cover-up to hide the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal represents a threat to our intelligence and our national security. The GOP has led a partisan effort to distort intelligence and discredit the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities." She charged Nunes with "deliberately dishonest actions" and called for his immediate removal from his position.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In February 2018, Pelosi broke the record for longest House speech using the "magic minute" custom when she spent more than eight hours recounting stories from DREAMers—people brought to the United States as minors by undocumented immigrants—to object to a budget deal that would raise spending caps without addressing the future of DACA recipients, who were at risk of deportation by the Trump administration.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In May 2018, after the White House invited two Republicans and no Democrats to a Department of Justice briefing on an FBI informant who had made contact with the Trump campaign, Pelosi and Schumer sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI director Wray calling for "a bipartisan Gang of Eight briefing that involves congressional leadership from both chambers".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In August 2018, Pelosi called for Duncan D. Hunter's resignation after his indictment on charges of misusing at least $250,000 in campaign funds, saying the charges were "evidence of the rampant culture of corruption among Republicans in Washington today".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In the 2018 elections, the Democrats regained a majority in the House. On November 28, House Democrats nominated Pelosi to once again serve as Speaker. She was reelected to the speakership at the start of the 116th Congress on January 3, 2019. Pelosi "clinched the speakership after weeks of whittling down opposition from some fellow Democrats seeking a new generation of leadership. The deal to win over holdouts put an expiration date on her tenure: she promised not to stay more than four years in the job". 220 House Democrats voted for Pelosi as Speaker and 15 for someone else or no one.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On February 4, 2020, at the conclusion of Trump's State of the Union address, Pelosi tore up her official copy of it. Her stated reason for doing so was "because it was a courteous thing to do considering the alternatives. It was a such a dirty speech." Trump and other Republicans criticized her for this.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In December 2021, Pelosi announced her candidacy for reelection to the House in 2022. In 2018 and 2020, she agreed not to stay on as Speaker beyond January 2023, but since then she avoided questions about her future. Speculation that she would either step down from the House or from leadership grew following the attack on her husband, Paul. On November 17, 2022, Pelosi announced she would not seek another term in leadership.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: At the start of the 116th Congress, Pelosi opposed Trump's attempts to use the 2018–2019 federal government shutdown (which she called a "hostage-taking" of civil servants) as leverage to build a substantial wall on the American border. She declined to allow Trump to give the State of the Union Address in the House of Representatives chamber while the shutdown was ongoing. After several polls showed Trump's popularity sharply falling due to the shutdown, on January 25, 2019, Trump signed a stopgap bill to reopen the government without any concessions regarding a border wall for three weeks to allow negotiations on an appropriations bill. But he reiterated his demand for the border wall funding and said he would shut the government down again or declare a national emergency and use military funding to build the wall if Congress did not appropriate the funds by February 15.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On February 15, Trump declared a national emergency in order to bypass Congress, after being unsatisfied with a bipartisan bill that had passed the House and Senate the day before.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On September 29, 2019, Pelosi announced the launch of an impeachment inquiry against Trump. On December 5, 2019, after the inquiry had taken place, Pelosi authorized the Judiciary Committee to begin drafting articles of impeachment. After hearings were held, two articles of impeachment were announced on December 10. The House of Representatives approved both articles on December 18, thereby formally impeaching Trump. On the eve of Trump's trial before the U.S. Senate, "The Washington Post" political writer Paul Kane called Pelosi the most powerful House Speaker in at least 25 years, noting that some historians were comparing her influence to that of former Speaker Sam Rayburn.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: The day after the January 6, 2021, storming of the United States Capitol, Pelosi demanded that Trump either resign or be removed from office through the clauses of section four the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, threatening impeachment if this did not happen. On January 10, she issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence, that if he did not invoke the 25th amendment, she would proceed with legislation to impeach Trump. On January 13, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump a second time.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi aided with the passage of the CARES Act. She attracted controversy when footage emerged in early September 2020 of her visiting a hair salon in San Francisco. This was contrary to regulations enforced at that time preventing service indoors. Criticized for hypocrisy by Trump and the owners of the salon, Pelosi described the situation as "clearly a setup". Her stylist and other Democrats defended her.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, but left in 2003 after being elected House minority leader.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2001, she voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act, but voted against reauthorization of certain provisions in 2005. She voted against a Constitutional amendment banning flag-burning.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In June 2018, Pelosi visited a federal facility used to detain migrant children separated from their parents and subsequently called for the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. In July, Pelosi characterized the compromise immigration bill by the Republicans as a "deal with the devil" and said she had not had conversations with House Speaker Ryan about a legislative solution to the separation of families at the southern border.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In April 2021, after southern border crossings peaked, House Republicans criticized Pelosi for saying that immigration under the Biden administration was "on a good path". U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that nearly 19,000 unaccompanied minors arrived in March.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has long supported LGBT rights. In 1996, she voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, and in 2004 and 2006, she voted against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the United States Constitution to define marriage federally as being between one man and one woman, thereby overriding states' individual rights to legalize same-sex marriage. When the Supreme Court of California overturned the state's ban on marriage between same-sex couples in 2008, Pelosi released a statement welcoming the "historic decision". She also indirectly voiced her opposition to California Proposition 8, a successful 2008 state ballot initiative which defined marriage in California as a union between one man and one woman.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2012, Pelosi said her position on LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage grows from and reflects her Catholic faith; it also places her at odds with Catholic doctrine, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. She said: "My religion compels me—and I love it for it—to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider [the ban on gay marriage] a form of discrimination. I think it's unconstitutional on top of that."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supports the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2019, she spoke in Congress in favor of the bill and called for ending discrimination against LGBT people. Pelosi also opposes Trump's transgender military ban.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supports reform in marijuana laws, although NORML's deputy director Paul Armentano said she and other members of Congress had not done anything to change the laws. She also supports use of medical marijuana.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: As Speaker of the House, Pelosi quietly moved the statue of Robert E. Lee from the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol to the Capitol crypt. In Lee's place, she had a statue of Rosa Parks erected. In August 2017, Pelosi said she supported the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials from the Capitol Building.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2002, while Pelosi was the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, she was briefed on the ongoing use of "enhanced interrogation techniques", including waterboarding, authorized for a captured terrorist, Abu Zubaydah. After the briefing, Pelosi said she "was assured by lawyers with the CIA and the Department of Justice that the methods were legal". Two unnamed former Bush administration officials say the briefing was detailed and graphic, and at the time she did not raise substantial objections. One unnamed U.S. official present during the early briefings said, "In fairness, the environment was different then because we were closer to September 11 and people were still in a panic. But there was no objecting, no hand-wringing. The attitude was, 'We don't care what you do to those guys as long as you get the information you need to protect the American people.'"


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: These techniques later became controversial, and in 2007 Pelosi's office said she had protested their use at the time, and she concurred with objections raised by Democratic colleague Jane Harman in a letter to the CIA in early 2003. Subsequently, several leading Democratic lawmakers in the House signed a letter on June 26, 2009, alleging CIA Director Leon Panetta had asserted that the CIA misled Congress for a "number of years" spanning back to 2001, casting clouds on the controversy. The letter, lawmakers and the CIA all providing no details, and the circumstances surrounding the allegations, make it hard to assess the claims and counterclaims of both sides.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Officials in Congress say her ability to challenge the practices may have been hampered by strict rules of secrecy that prohibited her from taking notes or consulting legal experts or members of her own staffs. In an April 2009 press conference, Pelosi said: "In that or any other briefing... we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel—the Office of Legislative Counsel opinions that they could be used, but not that they would. And they further [...] the point was that if and when they would be used, they would brief Congress at that time."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi voted against the 1995 Balanced Budget Proposed Constitutional Amendment, which passed the House by a 300–132 vote, but fell two votes short of the 2/3 supermajority required in the Senate (with 65 senators voting in favor).


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: As Speaker of the House, she spearheaded the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 as part of the 100-Hour Plan. The act raises the minimum wage in the United States and the territories of the Northern Marianas Islands and American Samoa. American Samoa was initially absent from the act, but it was included as part of HR 2206. One Republican congressman who voted against the initial bill accused Pelosi of unethically benefiting Del Monte Foods (headquartered in her district) by excluding the territory, where Del Monte's StarKist Tuna brand is a major employer. Pelosi co-sponsored legislation that omitted American Samoa from a raise in the minimum wage as early as 1999, before Del Monte's acquisition of StarKist Tuna in 2002.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi opposed the welfare reform President Bush proposed as well as reforms proposed and passed under President Clinton. She also opposed the tax reform signed by Trump in December 2017, calling it "probably one of the worst bills in the history of the United States of America... It robs from the future [and] it rewards the rich... and corporations at the expense of tens of millions of working middle-class families in our country." She said "this is Armageddon" and argued that the tax bill increased the debt in a way that would adversely impact social insurance spending. In January 2018, shortly after the tax bill passed, a reporter asked Pelosi to respond to statements by companies crediting the tax cuts with allowing them to raise wages and give bonuses. She said that, given the benefits corporations received from the tax bill, the benefits workers got were "crumbs". Most companies that awarded bonuses gave out payments of hundreds of dollars, while some gave bonuses significantly over $1,000.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In November 2018, Pelosi said she had spoken with Trump about infrastructure development. Though he "really didn't come through with it in his first two years in office" while it was a topic during his campaign, the subject had not been a partisan matter in Congress. She mentioned potential bipartisan legislative initiatives that would "create good paying jobs and will also generate other economic growth in their regions". On May 1, 2019, Pelosi and Schumer met with Trump about infrastructure funding. In late May, a meeting to discuss an impending $2trillion infrastructure plan was cut short when Trump abruptly left after only a few minutes.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In August 2018, after Trump signed an emergency declaration for federal aid in combating the Carr Fire in Northern California, Pelosi called the move "an important first step" but requested that Trump accede to California Governor Jerry Brown's request for further aid to other hard-hit areas in California. She called on the Trump administration to take "real, urgent action to combat the threat of the climate crisis, which is making the wildfire season longer, more expensive and more destructive".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 1999, Pelosi voted against displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings, including schools. She voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, which instituted testing to track students' progress and authorized an increase in overall education spending.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2019, Pelosi said climate change was "the existential threat of our time" and called for action to curb it. She has supported the development of new technologies to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and remediate the adverse environmental effects of burning fossil fuels. Pelosi has widely supported conservation programs and energy research appropriations. She has also voted to remove an amendment that would allow for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has blocked efforts to revive offshore oil drilling in protected areas, reasoning that offshore drilling could lead to an increase in dependence on fossil fuels.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi was instrumental in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. She was a key figure in convincing Obama to continue pushing for health-care reform after the election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown in a January special election—a defeat seen as potentially fatal to Democratic reform efforts. After delivering 219 votes in the House for Obama's health-care package, Pelosi was both praised and heckled as she made her way to Capitol Hill.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has voted to increase Medicare and Medicaid benefits. She does not endorse Senator Bernie Sanders's bill for single-payer healthcare.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On March 10, 2017, Pelosi said Democrats would continue battling Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but would also be willing to form a compromise measure if Republicans reached out for support. She indicated her support for the Republican plan to expand Health Savings Accounts and said the question of Republicans' accepting an expansion of Medicaid was important. In September, Pelosi sent a letter to Democrats praising Senator John McCain for announcing his opposition to the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and called on lawmakers and advocacy groups alike to pressure Republicans in the health-care discussion. She said Democrats would be unified in putting "a stake in the heart of this monstrous bill".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In July 2018, during a speech at Independence First, Pelosi said Democrats' goal "has always been to expand coverage and to do so in a way that improves benefits... and we have to address the affordability issue that is so undermined by the Republicans." In November 2018, after Democrats gained a majority in the House in the midterm elections, she said, "I'm staying as Speaker to protect the Affordable Care Act. That's my main issue, because I think that's, again, about the health and financial health of the America's families, and if Hillary had won, I could go home." She added that Republicans had misrepresented their earlier position of opposition to covering people with preexisting conditions during the election cycle and called on them to join Democrats in "removing all doubt that the preexisting medical condition is the law—the benefit—is the law of the land".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 and earlier attempts at similar bans, and voted against the criminalization of certain situations where a minor is transported across state lines for an abortion (HR 748, passed).


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: She has voted in favor of lifting the ban on privately funded abortions at overseas U.S. military facilities (HA 209, rejected); in favor of an amendment that would repeal a provision forbidding servicewomen and dependents from getting an abortion in overseas military hospitals (HA 722, rejected); and in favor of stripping the prohibition of funding for organizations working overseas that use their own funds to provide abortion services, or engage in advocacy related to abortion services (HA 997, rejected). She also voted in favor of the 1998 Abortion Funding Amendment, which would have allowed the use of district funds to promote abortion-related activities, but would have prohibited the use of federal funds.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2008, she was rebuked by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., for being "incorrect" in comments she made to Tom Brokaw on "Meet the Press" concerning Church teaching on the subjects of abortion of when a human life begins. The archbishop's statement quoted Pelosi as saying the church has not been able to define when life begins. During the interview she said, "over the history of the church, this [what constitutes the moment of conception] is an issue of controversy." In February 2009, Pelosi met with her bishop, Archbishop George Hugh Niederauer of San Francisco, and with Pope Benedict XVI regarding the controversy.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi opposed the 2022 overturning of "Roe v. Wade", calling it "cruel", "outrageous" and "heart-wrenching".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In a January 25, 2009, interview with George Stephanopoulos for ABC News, Pelosi said that one of the reasons she supported family planning services was that they would "reduce costs to states and to the federal government."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi stands in favor of increased background checks for potential gun owners, as well as the banning of assault weapons. In February 2013, she called for the "Boldest possible move" on gun control, similar to a stance made just weeks earlier by former Representative, mass shooting victim, and fellow gun control advocate Gabby Giffords. In 2012, she was given a 0% rating by Gun Owners of America and a 7% rating from the National Rifle Association for her stances on gun control.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In February 2018, following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Pelosi said Republicans' "cowering" to the gun lobby was "an assault on our whole country" and that the victims were "paying the price for our inaction". She requested House Speaker Ryan and Republicans take action via consideration of legislation expanding background checks or authorizing researchers to use federal dollars to examine public health as it relates to gun violence. Pelosi also advocated for the creation of a special committee on gun violence and said Republicans had previously created committees to investigate Planned Parenthood and the 2012 Benghazi attack.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In November 2018, after the Thousand Oaks shooting, Pelosi released a statement saying Americans "deserve real action to end the daily epidemic of gun violence that is stealing the lives of our children on campuses, in places of worship and on our streets" and pledged that gun control would be a priority for House Democrats in the 116th United States Congress.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: With regard to Representative Charles Rangel's (D-NY) plan to introduce legislation that would reinstate the draft, Pelosi said she did not support it.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In March 2009, the "New York Post" wrote that the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch had obtained emails sent by Pelosi's staff requesting the United States Air Force (USAF) to provide specific aircraft—a Boeing 757—for Pelosi to use for taxpayer-funded travel. Pelosi responded that the policy was initiated by President Bush due to post-9/11 security concerns (Pelosi was third in line for presidential succession), and was initially provided for the previous Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Sergeant at Arms requested—for security reasons—that the plane provided be capable of non-stop flight, requiring a larger aircraft. The Pentagon said "no one has rendered judgment" that Pelosi's use of aircraft "is excessive".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During Trump administration, Pelosi voted in line with the president's stated position 17.6% of the time.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During a news conference on June 9, 2017, after a reporter asked her about tweets by President Donald Trump lambasting former FBI director James Comey following Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pelosi said no one at the White House seemed courageous enough to tell Trump his tweets were beneath the dignity of the presidency and that she was worried about his fitness for office. In November, when asked about Democrats beginning the impeachment process against Trump in the event they won a majority of seats in the 2018 elections, Pelosi said it would not be one of their legislative priorities but that the option could be considered if credible evidence appeared during the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In January 2018, Pelosi referred to Trump's 2018 State of the Union Address as a performance without serious policy ideas the parties could collaborate on. She questioned Trump's refusal to implement Russian sanctions after more than 500 members of Congress voted to approve them. In February, after Trump blocked the release of a Democratic memo by the Intelligence Committee, Pelosi said the act was "a stunningly brazen attempt to cover up the truth about the Trump-Russia scandal from the American people" and "part of a dangerous and desperate pattern of cover-up on the part of the president who has shown he had something to hide." In March, Pelosi said she was "more concerned about the president's policies which undermine the financial security of America's working families" than the Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal. Pelosi did note the scandal as having highlighted a double standard of Republicans on issues of family values and expectations of presidential behavior, saying the party would be very involved if the event was happening to a Democrat. In April, following Scooter Libby being pardoned by Trump, Pelosi released a statement saying the pardon "sends a troubling signal to the president's allies that obstructing justice will be rewarded and that the idea of those who lie under oath being granted a pardon "poses a threat to the integrity of the special counsel investigation, and to our democracy". On August 15, after Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Pelosi said the move was "a stunning abuse of power [and] a pathetic attempt to silence critics", and an attempt by Trump to distract attention from other issues of his administration. Pelosi and Charles E. Schumer met with Trump and Pence in December 2018 to discuss changes to be made when the new Democratic representatives takes office in 2019. In January 2019 she supported President Trump in his decision to back the leader of the opposition Juan Guaidó during Venezuelan protests and constitutional crisis.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: The Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives in the November 2018 elections, and Pelosi took office as Speaker. Multiple House committees launched investigations into various actions by Trump and some of his cabinet members and requested or subpoenaed documents and information from the White House and the administration. In April 2019, Trump vowed to defy "all" subpoenas from the House and to refuse to allow current or former administration officials to testify before House committees.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi initially resisted efforts by some fellow House Democrats to pursue Trump's impeachment, but in September 2019, following revelations of the Trump–Ukraine scandal, announced the beginning of a formal House impeachment inquiry, saying "The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution" and that Trump "must be held accountable—no one is above the law." Privately, Pelosi expressed concern that focusing on impeachment would imperil the Democrats' House majority; she preferred to focus on other legislation.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In May 2019, the White House intervened to halt former White House Counsel Don McGahn from complying with a subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee, instructing the committee to redirect its records requests to the White House. Pelosi, who had previously urged "Democrats to focus on fact-finding rather than the prospect of any impeachment", described Trump's interference regarding McGahn's records as an obstruction of justice, saying that "Trump is goading us to impeach him." Later that month, as the Trump administration continued to ignore subpoenas, refuse to release documents, and encourage or order current and former officials not to testify in Congress, Pelosi declared: "we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up." Later that day, after learning of Pelosi's comments, Trump walked away from a scheduled White House meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, in which a $2trillion infrastructure plan was supposed to be discussed. Trump told Pelosi and Schumer he could not work with them until they stopped investigating him. Later in the day, Pelosi accused Trump of "obstructing justice" and again said he "is engaged in a cover-up". On June 5, 2019, during a meeting with senior Democrats about whether the House should launch impeachment proceeding against Trump, Pelosi said, "I don't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison." According to multiple sources, rather than impeachment, she wanted to see Trump lose to a Democrat in the 2020 election, following which he could be prosecuted. Eventually, under pressure from an alliance of left-wing Representatives led by Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler, Pelosi backed an impeachement inquiry.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: The House impeachment inquiry focused on efforts by Trump and Trump administration officials to pressure the government of Ukraine to smear former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival of Trump's, while withholding $400million in U.S. military aid, and a White House visit, from Ukraine; the inquiry also examined Trump's request in a July 2019 phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to "do us a favor" and investigate Biden. On December 18, 2019, the House voted nearly along party lines to impeach Trump for abuse of power (230–197) and obstruction of Congress (229–198), making him the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. Pelosi said, when opening debate on the articles of impeachment, "If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice." Pelosi initially did not transmit the articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate for trial, seeking to negotiate an agreement with Senate Majority Mitch McConnell for the Senate to hear witness testimony and other additional evidence as part of a bid for a "full and fair" trial. McConnell rejected these efforts, and the House transmitted the articles to the Senate on January 15, 2020, with Pelosi naming seven Democratic Representatives, led by Representative Adam Schiff, as the House managers to argue the impeachment case against Trump in the Senate. As expected, the Senate ultimately acquitted Trump in a nearly-party line vote in which every Democrat voted for conviction and all but one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, voting for acquittal. Ahead of the Senate vote Pelosi said that, irrespective of the outcome, the president "has been impeached forever", that the impeachment process had successfully "pulled back a veil of behavior totally unacceptable to our founders, and that the public will see this with a clearer eye, an unblurred eye." Following the Senate vote, Pelosi criticized Trump and Senate Republicans, saying their actions had "normalized lawlessness and rejected the system of checks and balances".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Following the Senate vote, Trump claimed vindication and criticized Democrats, the FBI, and Pelosi. In a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump referred to Pelosi as "a horrible person", and questioned her religious faith; Pelosi said these remarks were "particularly without class". Before Trump's February 4, 2020 State of the Union Address, the day before the Senate impeachment vote, Trump and Pelosi exchanged mutual snubs. Trump refused to shake Pelosi's outstretched hand, and Pelosi tore up her copy of Trump's speech. Her stated reason for doing so was "because it was a courteous thing to do considering the alternatives. It was a such a dirty speech." Pelosi also said Trump's speech "had no contact with reality whatsoever" and suggested the president appeared "a little sedated" during the address. Pelosi's action was criticized by Trump and others.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Days after the Senate impeachment vote, Trump fired two officials who had testified against him during the impeachment inquiry: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official. Pelosi called the firing of Vindman a "shameful" and "clear and brazen act of retaliation that showcases the President's fear of the truth", saying that "History will remember Lieutenant Colonel Vindman as an American hero."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On October 8, 2020, Pelosi announced that legislation was being introduced in the House of Representatives to advance the creation of a commission to allow the use of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to intervene and remove Trump from executive duties.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Pelosi has opposed expanding trade relationships with China until it improves its human rights record. As part of a Congressional delegation she unfurled a banner in the square in 1991, provoking a confrontation with Chinese police. Pelosi advocated for Chinese political prisoners and dissidents to be able to come to the United States. In 1999, ahead of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to the US for talks over World Trade Organization admission for China, Pelosi called on President Clinton and Vice President Gore to ask Zhu to recognize the 1989 protests as a pro-democracy effort.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2008, after a meeting with the Dalai Lama and officials in the Tibetan government-in-exile, Pelosi criticized the People's Republic of China for its handling of the unrest in Tibet; addressing a crowd of thousands of Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, Pelosi called on "freedom-loving people" worldwide to denounce China for its human rights abuses in Tibet. The same year, Pelosi commended the European Parliament for its "bold decision" to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Chinese dissident and human rights activist Hu Jia, and called upon the Chinese government "to immediately and unconditionally release Hu Jia from prison and to respect the fundamental freedoms of all the people in China."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi criticized the imprisonment of Hong Kong democracy activists in August 2017 for their roles in a protest at the Civic Square in front of the Central Government Complex in Hong Kong. She called the ruling an injustice that should "shock the conscience of the world".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Before the Trump administration took concrete measures against China in late March 2018, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders pressed Trump to focus more on China and impose real punishments, such as fulfilling his own campaign commitments to name China a currency manipulator and stop China from pressuring U.S. tech companies into giving up intellectual property rights. Pelosi urged Trump to take a strong stand against unfair market barriers in China.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In September 2019, Pelosi met with Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong on Capitol Hill; Chinese media responded by accusing Pelosi of "backing and encouraging radical activists".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On the eve of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Pelosi advised American athletes competing: "I would say to our athletes, 'You're there to compete. Do not risk incurring the anger of the Chinese government, because they are ruthless'".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On August 2, 2022, Pelosi became the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. President Joe Biden discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from traveling to Taiwan, and the White House later affirmed her right to visit the nation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 25 Senate Republicans backed Pelosi's decision to visit, issuing a joint statement that also supported the trip. Her trip triggered a new round of hostilities in the already tense relationship between the U.S. and China. During and after her visit, China undertook a series of retaliatory measures against Taiwan and the United States. Pelosi said her visit was a sign of the U.S. Congress's commitment to Taiwan. She called Taiwan one of the "freest societies in the world" during her visit.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi publicly scolded Colombian president Álvaro Uribe during Uribe's May 2007 state visit to America. Pelosi met with Uribe and later released a statement that she and other members of Congress had "expressed growing concerns about the serious allegations" of links between paramilitary groups and Colombian government officials. Pelosi also came out against the Colombian free-trade agreement.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2008, Pelosi said: "For years, I have opposed the embargo on Cuba. I don't think it's been successful, and I think we have to remove the travel bans and have more exchanges—people to people exchanges with Cuba." In 2015, Pelosi supported President Obama's Cuban Thaw, a rapprochement between the U.S. and Castro's regime in Cuba, and visited Havana for meetings with high-level officials.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In an interview on February 15, 2007, Pelosi said that Bush consistently said he supports a diplomatic resolution to differences with Iran "and I take him at his word". At the same time, she said, "I do believe that Congress should assert itself, though, and make it very clear that there is no previous authority for the president, any president, to go into Iran". On January 12, 2007, Congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolina introduced a resolution requiring that—absent a national emergency created by an attack, or a demonstrably imminent attack, by Iran upon the United States or its armed forces—the president must consult with Congress and receive specific authorization prior to initiating any use of military force against Iran. This resolution was removed from a military spending bill for the war in Iraq by Pelosi on March 13, 2007.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In July 2015, Pelosi said she was convinced Obama would have enough votes to secure the Iran nuclear deal, crediting the president with having made a "very strong and forceful presentation of his case supporting the nuclear agreement with Iran" and called the deal "a diplomatic masterpiece".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2016, Pelosi argued against two bills that if enacted would block Iran's access to the dollar and impose sanctions for its ballistic missile program: "Regardless of whether you supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we all agree that Iran must not possess a nuclear weapon. At this time, the JCPOA is the best way to achieve this critical goal."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In May 2018, after Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, Pelosi said the decision was an abdication of American leadership and "particularly senseless, disturbing & dangerous".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In 2002, Pelosi opposed the Iraq Resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to use military force against Iraq, which passed the House on a 296–133 vote. Pelosi said that "unilateral use of force without first exhausting every diplomatic remedy and other remedies and making a case to the American people will be harmful to our war on terrorism." In explaining her opposition to the resolution, Pelosi said CIA Director George Tenet had told Congress the likelihood of Saddam Hussein's launching an attack on the U.S. using weapons of mass destruction was low, saying: "This is about the Constitution It is about this Congress asserting its right to declare war when we are fully aware what the challenges are to us. It is about respecting the United Nations and a multilateral approach, which is safer for our troops."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Although Pelosi voted against the Iraq War, anti-war activists in San Francisco protested against her voting to continue funding the war. UC Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain said Pelosi had to balance the demands of her anti-war constituency against the moderate views of Democrats in tight races around the country in her role as minority leader. Pelosi has never faced a serious challenger to her left in her district.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has reaffirmed that "America and Israel share an unbreakable bond: in peace and war; and in prosperity and in hardship". She has emphasized that "a strong relationship between the United States and Israel has long been supported by both Democrats and Republicans. America's commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel is unwavering... [h]owever, the war in Iraq has made both America and Israel less safe." Pelosi's voting record shows consistent support for Israel. Pelosi voted in favor of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which urged the federal government to relocate the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Before the 2006 elections in the Palestinian Authority, she voted for a Congressional initiative that disapproved of participation in the elections by Hamas and other organizations the legislation defined as terrorist. She agrees with the current U.S. stance in support of land-for-peace. She has applauded Israeli "hopeful signs" of offering land while criticizing Palestinian "threats" of not demonstrating peace in turn. Pelosi has said, "If the Palestinians agree to coordinate with Israel on the evacuation, establish the rule of law, and demonstrate a capacity to govern, the world may be convinced that finally there is a real partner for peace".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: During the 2006 Lebanon War, Pelosi voted in favor of Resolution 921: "...seizure of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah terrorists was an unprovoked attack and Israel has the right, and indeed the obligation, to respond." She argues that organizations and political bodies in the Mideast like Hamas and Hezbollah "have a greater interest in maintaining a state of hostility with Israel than in improving the lives of the people they claim to represent". Pelosi asserts that civilians on both sides of the border "have been put at risk by the aggression of Hamas and Hezbollah" in part for their use of "civilians as shields by concealing weapons in civilian areas".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In September 2008, Pelosi hosted a reception in Washington with Israeli Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik, along with 20 members of Congress, where they toasted the "strong friendship" between Israel and the United States. During the ceremony, Pelosi held up replica dog tags of the three Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah and Hamas in 2006 and said she keeps them as a "symbol of the sacrifices made, sacrifices far too great by the people of the state of Israel".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supported Israel in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. In March 2018 Pelosi said, "There is no greater political accomplishment in the 20th Century than the establishment of the State of Israel." Pelosi condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for posting controversial tweets related to Jews and Israel. In March 2019, she said, "Israel and America are connected now and forever. We will never allow anyone to make Israel a wedge issue."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In January 2017, Pelosi voted against a House resolution that would condemn the UN Security Council Resolution 2334. This UN Security Council Resolution called Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank a "flagrant violation" of international law and a major obstacle to peace. She condemned the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi has voiced heavy criticism over Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. She said Israeli annexation would undermine U.S. national security interests. Pelosi said that Democrats are taking "a great pride" in Barack Obama’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that Israel signed with the Obama administration in 2016, for a guarantee of $38billion in defense assistance over a decade.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Nancy Pelosi is one of the few members of Congress to have traveled to North Korea. She has expressed concern about the danger of nuclear proliferation from the North Korean regime, and the ongoing problems of hunger and oppression imposed by that country's leadership.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In August 2017, following Trump's warning that North Korea "will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" in the event of further threats to the United States, Pelosi said the comments were "recklessly belligerent and demonstrate a grave lack of appreciation for the severity of the North Korean nuclear situation. His saber-rattling and provocative, impulsive rhetoric erode our credibility."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In November 2017, after the Pentagon sent a letter to lawmakers stating a ground invasion was the only way to destroy all North Korea's nuclear weapons without concern for having missed any, Pelosi said she was concerned about Pyongyang's selling nuclear technology to third parties and called for the United States to "exhaust every other remedy".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In June 2018, after Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Pelosi said in a statement, "In his haste to reach an agreement, President Trump elevated North Korea to the level of the United States while preserving the regime's status quo."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In December 2017, Pelosi wrote a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan advocating for the continued House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election on the grounds that Americans deserved "a comprehensive and fair investigation into Russia's attack" and "America's democracy and national security" being at stake. Pelosi cited the need for Congress to "fully investigate Russia's assault on our election systems to prevent future foreign attacks".


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: In February 2018, after the release of a Republican report alleging surveillance abuses by the Justice Department, Pelosi accused Trump of siding with Russian president Vladimir Putin at the expense of preserving intelligence sources and methods. In July, Pelosi asserted that Trump was afraid to mention the 12 indictments against people connected to the intelligence community in Russia during his meeting with Putin and questioned what intelligence the Russians had on Trump to cause his behavior. She said Putin would not be welcomed by Congress even if he visited Washington as a result of his actions: "Putin's ongoing attacks on our elections and on Western democracies and his illegal actions in Crimea and the rest of Ukraine deserve the fierce, unanimous condemnation of the international community, not a VIP ticket to our nation's capital." She called for House Speaker Ryan to "make clear that there is not — and never will be — an invitation for a thug like Putin to address the United States Congress."


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: On multiple occasions, Pelosi said of Trump, "With him, all roads lead to Putin," including with regard to the Trump-Ukraine scandal, a lack of action against the alleged Russian bounty program, and Trump's incitement of the storming of the Capitol.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supports the Syria Accountability Act and Iran Freedom and Support Act. In a speech at the AIPAC 2005 annual conference, Pelosi said that "for too long, leaders from both parties haven't done enough" to put pressure on Russia and China who are providing Iran with technological information on nuclear issues and missiles. "If evidence of participation by other nations in Iran's nuclear program is discovered, I will insist that the Administration use, rather than ignore, the evidence in determining how the U.S. deals with that nation or nations on other issues." In April 2007, Pelosi visited Syria, where she met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa and President Bashar Al-Assad, despite President Bush efforts to isolate Syria, because of militants crossing from Syria into Iraq, and supporting Hezbollah and Hamas. During her visit, she conveyed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert message for peace, and toured in Al-Hamidiyah Souq, and the Umayyad Mosque.


title: Nancy Pelosi

text: Pelosi supported the NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011. She also favored arming Syria's rebel fighters.