title: Fallout (series)

text: The redesigned dialogue interface featured in "Fallout 4" received mixed reception by the community. Unsatisfied fans created mods for the game, providing subtitles and allowing the player to know what their character would say before choosing it as it was in previous games in the franchise such as in "Fallout 3" and "Fallout: New Vegas". Though even taking the mods into account, Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku still criticized the writing of the game in her review, describing it as "thin", "You never have particularly long or nuanced conversations with the other characters. I like to play a Charisma-focused character, and I was disappointed."


title: Fallout (series)

text: Upon release, "Fallout 76" became the lowest rated title in the series due to its mixed reception and criticisms from reviewers. It has been the subject of several controversies since its release. IGN gave the game a five out of ten rating, criticizing the game for its lackluster graphics, poor use of multiplayer, and bugs, "Fallout 76 fails to do any of it well enough to form an identity. Its multiplayer mindset robs its quests of all the moral decisionmaking that makes the series great, and all that’s left is a buggy mess of systemic designs that never seems to work (culminating) in an aggravating endgame that’s more busywork than satisfying heroics. Bethesda missed the mark with Fallout 76...because it seems it could never decide what it was aiming for." The magazine, PC Gamer, rated the game a six out of ten, praising it for its evocative and beautiful setting, large world, and combat but also criticizing the game for its bugs, poor UI, and repetitiveness, "the world retains a lot of what I love about Bethesda's previous RPGs with finely crafted environments, enjoyable weapons and crafting, and surprising little scraps of story to uncover and investigate. Like Valley Galleria, though, it doesn't take long to for the shine to fade, the once-fascinating areas to lose their wonder among the mobs of identical enemies I've killed there time and time again."


title: Fallout (series)

text: Interplay was threatened with bankruptcy and sold the full "Fallout" franchise to Bethesda, but kept the rights to the "Fallout" MMO through a back license in April 2007 and began work on the MMO later that year. Bethesda Softworks sued Interplay Entertainment for copyright infringement on September 8, 2009, regarding the "Fallout Online" license and selling of "Fallout Trilogy" and sought an injunction to stop development of "Fallout Online" and sales of "Fallout Trilogy". Key points that Bethesda were trying to argue is that Interplay did not have the right to sell "Fallout Trilogy" on the Internet via Steam, Good Old Games or other online services. Bethesda also said that "full scale" development on "Fallout Online" was not met and that the minimum financing of 30 million of "secured funding" was not met. Interplay launched a counter suit claiming that Bethesda's claims were meritless and that it did have the right to sell "Fallout" Trilogy via online stores via its contract with Bethesda. Interplay also claimed secure funding had been met and the game was in full scale development by the cut off date. Interplay argued to have the second contract that sold "Fallout" voided which would result in the first contract that licensed "Fallout" to come back into effect. This would mean that "Fallout" would revert to Interplay. Bethesda would be allowed to make "Fallout 5". Bethesda would have to pay 12% of royalties on "Fallout 3", "Fallout: New Vegas", "Fallout 4" and expansions plus interest on the money owed. On December 10, 2009, Bethesda lost the first injunction.


title: Fallout (series)

text: Bethesda shortly afterward tried a new tactic and fired its first lawyer, replacing him and filing a second injunction, claiming that Interplay had only back-licensed the name "Fallout" but no content. Interplay has countered showing that the contract states that they must make "Fallout Online" that has the look and feel of "Fallout" and that in the event Interplay fails to meet the requirements (30 million minimum secure funding and "full scale" development by X date) that Interplay can still release the MMO but they have to remove all "Fallout" content. The contract then goes on to list all "Fallout" content as locations, monsters, settings and lore. Bethesda has known that Interplay would use "Fallout" elements via internet emails shown in court documents and that the contract was not just for the name. The second injunction by Bethesda was denied on August 4, 2011, by the courts. Bethesda then appealed the denial of their second preliminary injunction. Bethesda then sued Masthead Studios and asked for a restraining order against the company. Bethesda was denied this restraining order before Masthead Studios could call a counter-suit. Bethesda lost its appeal of the second injunction.


title: Fallout (series)

text: Bethesda filed motion in limine against Interplay. Interplay filed a motion in limine against Bethesda the day after. The trial by jury which Bethesda requested on October 26, 2010, was changed to a trial by court because the APA contract stated that all legal matters would be resolved via a trial by court and not a trial by jury. The trial by court began on December 12. In 2012, in a press conference Bethesda revealed that in exchange for 2 million dollars, Interplay gave to them full rights for "Fallout Online". Interplay's rights to sell and merchandise "Fallout", "Fallout 2" and "Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel" expired on December 31, 2013.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Thibaut Nicolas Marc Courtois (born 11 May 1992) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Belgium national team. He is considered one of the best goalkeepers in world football.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois progressed through the youth system of Genk, and at age 18, he played a key role in the team's Belgian Pro League victory. In July 2011, he joined Chelsea for a reported £8 million, and was immediately loaned to Atlético Madrid. During his three seasons there, they won the Europa League in 2012, the Copa del Rey in 2013, and the La Liga title in 2014. He also won the Ricardo Zamora Trophy as the best goalkeeper in La Liga for his performances in his two latter seasons. Courtois returned to Chelsea in July 2014, and in his first season he helped them win the League Cup and the Premier League title. Two years later, he was awarded the Premier League Golden Glove as Chelsea again won the league. In 2018, Real Madrid signed Courtois for £35 million, becoming La Liga's most expensive goalkeeper, surpassing the record set by Jan Oblak. A second La Liga title and a third Zamora trophy would follow in 2020. In 2022 came his third La Liga title and first UEFA Champions League title.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois made his senior international debut in October 2011, becoming the youngest goalkeeper to represent Belgium. He has since earned over ninety caps and appeared at the FIFA World Cup in 2014, 2018 and 2022, and the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and 2020; he was awarded the Golden Glove in 2018 as the best goalkeeper of the tournament, with Belgium finishing third.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois was born in the city of Bree in Flanders, to a Walloon father and a Flemish mother. He began his career with local side Bilzen V.V., as a left back. Soon after, in 1999, he joined Racing Genk at the age of seven, and it was there that he was converted into a goalkeeper.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois progressed through the Genk youth system, where Koen Casteels was initially regarded as the primary goalkeeper, but during an injury crisis Courtois, aged 16 years and 341 days, made his first team debut on 17 April 2009 against Gent. After turning down a transfer to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim of the Bundesliga, Courtois was made first-choice goalkeeper for the 2010–11 season ahead of Casteels, when Laszlo Koteles' registration ran into issues.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: He was a key figure in Genk's title victory in the 2010–11 season in the Belgian Pro League. He received the Goalkeeper of the Year and Genk's Player of the Year award, only conceding 32 goals over the course of 40 league matches and keeping 14 clean sheets for Genk.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In July 2011 Courtois joined Premier League club Chelsea for a reported €9 million, signing a five-year deal.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois made his debut for Atlético in a 4–0 UEFA Europa League victory over Vitória de Guimarães on 25 August, and three days later kept a clean sheet on his La Liga debut, a goalless draw against Osasuna at the Vicente Calderón Stadium. Courtois became first-choice goalkeeper over Sergio Asenjo, keeping four clean sheets in his first six La Liga games. On 26 November 2011, Courtois received his first red card of his professional career after fouling Real Madrid's Karim Benzema for a penalty in the Madrid derby. Cristiano Ronaldo put the penalty past substitute goalkeeper Asenjo as Atlético lost 1–4. Atlético reached the 2012 UEFA Europa League Final, and Courtois kept a clean sheet as the club won 3–0 over fellow Spanish side Athletic Bilbao.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois' loan to Atlético was extended to cover the 2012–13 season. His first game of the loan extension was against parent club Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup final in Monaco, which ended in a 4–1 victory for Atlético Madrid. Later in the season Courtois set a new Atlético Madrid record of 820 minutes without conceding a goal at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, ended by being beaten in a 1–0 loss to Real Sociedad. Atlético reached the 2013 Copa del Rey Final, and Courtois was named man of the match in a 2–1 victory against Real, the first time that Atlético had beaten their city rivals in 14 years.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: When Atlético were drawn to play Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final, it was reported that a clause in Courtois' contract required Atlético to pay Chelsea €3 million per match if they selected him against his parent club, and that Atlético could not afford such a sum. UEFA made it clear that considerations of sporting integrity made such a clause "null, void and unenforceable", and confirmed that Atlético were free to select Courtois without making any such payment.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: By conceding the fewest goals in a substantial number of matches during the 2013–14 season, Courtois won the Ricardo Zamora Trophy and made an important contribution to Atletico's 2013–14 La Liga title, their first since 1996. He was nominated for the La Liga Award for the best goalkeeper in the league, alongside Willy Caballero of Málaga CF and Keylor Navas of Levante UD, which Navas eventually won. Atletico, however, lost the UEFA Champions League Final 1–4 a.e.t. against neighbours Real Madrid on 24 May in Lisbon.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In June 2014, Chelsea manager José Mourinho confirmed that Courtois would return to Chelsea for the upcoming season. He was assigned the number 13 kit number, last worn by Victor Moses. On 18 August, Mourinho announced that Courtois would start the Premier League opener against Burnley in place of Petr Čech. Although he conceded the first goal to Scott Arfield at Turf Moor, Chelsea won 3–1. Courtois kept his first Premier League clean sheet in his second game, making several crucial saves in a 2–0 home win over Leicester City.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 11 September 2014, Courtois signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea, keeping him at the club until 2019. Upon signing Courtois said: "It’s really nice to have signed this new contract for five years."


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois suffered a head injury in the first half of Chelsea's 2–0 home win over Arsenal on 5 October due to a collision with Alexis Sánchez; he was substituted and then taken to hospital. He was then treated for a minor cut to his ear and released from hospital that night.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: He won his first trophy with Chelsea on 1 March 2015, as they defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2–0 in the League Cup Final, with Čech instead playing in that match; Chelsea also finished the season as league champions.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois opened the season by playing in the 2015 FA Community Shield on 2 August, a 1–0 loss to Arsenal. Six days later, as the Premier League campaign opened with a home fixture against Swansea City, he was given a straight red card for conceding a penalty with a foul on Bafétimbi Gomis, who converted the penalty past replacement Asmir Begović for a 2–2 draw. On his return on 23 August, Courtois saved a penalty from James Morrison in a 3–2 win at West Bromwich Albion. Courtois suffered a leg injury in training on 11 September which required surgery and meant that he was expected to miss the next three months of competition.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 16 April, he was sent off at home to Manchester City for conceding a penalty with a foul on Fernandinho; Sergio Agüero converted it past Begović to seal a 3–0 win. He became the sixth Premier League goalkeeper to be sent off twice in the same season.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 17 August 2016, Courtois dismissed any transfer rumours and stated he would stay at Chelsea for many years to come. Ten days later in the 3–0 home victory over Burnley, Courtois kept the first clean sheet of the season and broke a run of thirteen home Premier League games without a clean sheet since November 2015. From 1 October to 20 November, Chelsea earned a run of six games without conceding a single goal; with Courtois playing in all six of them. From 11 to 26 December, Courtois kept four clean sheets, as Chelsea were at the top of table in time for Christmas.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In April 2017, Courtois was ruled out for the match against rivals Manchester United, as a result of suffering a reported ankle injury, which he sustained in training. Chelsea would go on to lose the match 0–2. On 12 May 2017, Courtois kept his third consecutive clean sheet in a 1–0 away win over West Bromwich Albion, in which Chelsea secured the title. Courtois also played for Chelsea in the FA Cup Final; which Chelsea lost 2–1 to Arsenal.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Following the 2017–18 season, Courtois mentioned he would want to live closer to his children, reigniting the rumours about a transfer to Real Madrid. After a strong performance at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where he won the Golden Glove for best goalkeeper, Courtois expressed his interest in moving on. Chelsea stated they would not let him go unless they were able to find a replacement for him. Courtois responded by not showing up for training after the summer break, trying to force his exit from Chelsea. On 8 August 2018, Real Madrid announced that they had signed Courtois on a six-year contract. A day later, Chelsea confirmed the transfer for a fee believed to be £35 million.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 12 January 2020, Real Madrid beat Atlético Madrid in a penalty shootout to win their eleventh Supercopa de España title. In the shootout, Saul saw his spot-kick hit the post before Thomas' effort was saved by Courtois, giving Ramos the chance to secure Real's 11th Spanish Super Cup triumph.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 5 July 2020, Courtois kept his 17th clean sheet of the 2019–20 La Liga season in a 1–0 away win over Athletic Bilbao, becoming the first Real Madrid goalkeeper to do so in a single season since Francisco Buyo in 1994–95. He was the undisputed starter during the league season, as Real Madrid won the 2019–20 La Liga, becoming the first player since Jose Luis Perez-Paya in 1954 to be crowned champion with both Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. He won the Zamora Trophy for the third time in his career, after conceding just 20 goals in 34 matches.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 16 August 2021, he signed a new four-year contract, running until 2026. On 6 February 2022, he reached his 100th win with Real Madrid in 161 appearances, in a 1–0 victory over Granada. Courtois won his second Spanish title with Real Madrid in the 2021–22 La Liga season.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 28 May 2022, Courtois was named man of the match in the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final, where he managed to make a total of nine saves, which helped Real Madrid to beat Liverpool 1–0. Courtois' nine saves are a record in the final since Opta began keeping records in 2003–04. His 59 saves during the campaign also set a new Champions League single-season record since Opta began keeping records.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois was first called up to the Belgium squad in October 2011 and made his debut the following month in a friendly 0–0 draw against France at the Stade de France, making him the youngest goalkeeper to play for the Belgian national team.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois played every minute during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, as Belgium qualified for its first major tournament since the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Throughout these qualifiers, he kept six clean sheets in ten matches.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 13 May 2014, Courtois was named in the squad to go to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. At the tournament, he played all five games of the Belgian team, starting with a 2–1 win against Algeria in Belo Horizonte. Courtois then managed to keep consecutive clean sheets in 1–0 wins against Russia and South Korea as the Red Devils reached the quarter-finals.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois played every minute during Belgium's first eight games of their UEFA Euro 2016 qualification campaign, helping seal qualification for the first time in 16 years. However, he missed their last two games due to injury.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois and his side made it to the quarter-final, where they lost to Wales despite taking an early lead. Afterwards, Courtois hinted that Belgium coach Marc Wilmots was at fault for the loss and also stated that the defeat was the "biggest disappointment" of his career.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Courtois was selected to Belgium's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was Belgium's first-choice goalkeeper throughout the tournament, and played a key role in Belgium's 2–1 win over Brazil in the quarter-final, which saw Belgium advance to the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time since 1986. He posted two clean sheets in the group stage (against Panama and England), allowed only one goal in Belgium's loss to eventual champion France in the semi-final, and posted another clean sheet against England in the 3rd place game. Courtois made 27 saves in seven World Cup games, more than any other goalkeeper. He was awarded the Golden Glove as best goalkeeper of the tournament.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In November 2022, he was named in the final squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. On 1 December, he played his 100th match for Belgium in a goalless draw against Croatia, becoming the first Belgian goalkeeper to achieve this feat.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Considered a highly promising prospect in his youth, Courtois subsequently established himself as one of the best players in the world in his position. Due to his wide range of skills, he has been described as a "complete goalkeeper", with few weaknesses. A consistent keeper, he possesses an excellent positional sense, good mentality, composure, strength of character, and an ability to communicate well with his defenders; he also excels in one on one situations, due to his ability to time his runs effectively when rushing out of goal to face opponents, and has even functioned as a sweeper-keeper on occasion. An excellent shot-stopper between the posts, he has also distinguished himself for his agility and quick reflexes, in spite of his size and imposing physique. During the 2016–17 season, he credited his goalkeeping coach with Chelsea under manager Antonio Conte, Gianluca Spinelli, for helping him to improve his overall game and goalkeeping technique, in particular his foot-work and diving, which enabled him to be more explosive and get to ground more quickly. Due to his height and reach, he excels in the air, and is also known for his command of his area, as well as his excellent technique, anticipation, handling, and confidence when coming off his line to claim crosses. Moreover, he is known for his ability to distribute the ball to his teammates with long throws.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Thibaut's older sister Valérie Courtois is a volleyball player who plays as a libero for Stade Français Paris Saint Cloud and Belgium. His parents were volleyball players, and he played the sport in his childhood but decided to focus on football when he was 12.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: On 26 May 2015, his Spanish girlfriend Marta Domínguez gave birth to their daughter, Adriana. The couple ended their relationship in April 2017 while Domínguez was pregnant with their son Nicolás, who was born a month later.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: He has been in a relationship with Israeli model Mishel Gerzig, since July 2021. They adopted a dog together a month later. In June 2022, they got engaged.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: Inspired by Courtois' pose from a particular save in January 2013, a Colombian fan created a new widespread social media meme called 'Thibauting' to pay homage to the Belgian goalkeeper. In November 2013, the word was included in a shortlist composed by leading Dutch dictionary "Van Dale" to be polled to determine the best new sports/amusement word of the year in Belgium, and ended second. The term is based on and pronounced the same way as "Tebowing", and is also similar to the worldwide 'planking' meme which was popular in 2011.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In 2021, Courtois participated in the 2021 F1 Virtual Grand Prix championship as an Alfa Romeo driver.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In February 2014, Courtois caused some stir in the national team, by saying of Simon Mignolet, his rival for the starting goalkeeper spot, "You have to know how to stay humble and respectful, and he should remember that." This was despite the fact that in previous interviews, Mignolet had only said that it was his ambition to keep working and try to regain his spot in the national team.


title: Thibaut Courtois

text: In April 2018, Wilmots, by then out of a job, accused Courtois and his father Thierry of leaking Belgium's line-ups before they should have been revealed to the public. He denied the allegations.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad (; , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. In 762 CE, Baghdad was chosen as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning".


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad was the largest city in the world for much of the Abbasid era during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture, with a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million. Compared to its large population, it has a small area at just 673 square kilometers (260 sq mi).


title: Baghdad

text: The city has faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War, which began with the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and lasted until 2011, and the subsequent insurgency and renewed war that lasted until 2017, resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts. During this period, Baghdad had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. However, terrorist attacks are rare and have been declining since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017.


title: Baghdad

text: The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the eighth century, several villages had developed there, including a Sasanian hamlet called "Baghdad", the name which would come to be used for the Abbasid metropolis.


title: Baghdad

text: Arab authors, realizing the preIslamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Middle Persian. They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God". Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology, which views the word as a Persian compound of "bagh" () "god" and "dād" () "given". In Old Persian the first element can be traced to "boghu" and is related to Indo-Iranian "bhag" and Slavic "bog" "god." A similar term in Middle Persian is the name "Mithradāt" ("Mehrdad" in New Persian), known in English by its borrowed Hellenistic form "Mithridates", meaning "Given by Mithra" ("dāt" is the more archaic form of "dād", related to Sanskrit "dāt", Latin "dat" and English "donor"), ultimately borrowed from Persian "Mehrdad". There are a number of other locations whose names are compounds of the Middle Persian word "bagh", including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan, Baghshan in Iran itself, and Baghdati in Georgia, which likely share the same etymological Iranic origins.


title: Baghdad

text: A few authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name "Bagdadu" or "Hudadu" that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with a sign that can represent both "bag" and "hu"), and the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name of a place called "Baghdatha" (. Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations.


title: Baghdad

text: When the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name "City of Peace", which now refers to the Round city of Baghdad proper. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, "Baghdad" became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis.


title: Baghdad

text: After the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the guidance of the Barmakids. Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. The Muslim historian al-Tabari reported an ancient prediction by Christian monks that a lord named Miklas would one day build a spectacular city around the area of Baghdad. When Mansur heard the story, he became very joyful, for legend has it, he was called Miklas as a child. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward".


title: Baghdad

text: The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, and it had an abundance of water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which was quite uncommon during this time. The city of Baghdad quickly became so large that it had to be divided into three judicial districts: Madinat al-Mansur (the Round City), al-Sharqiyya (Karkh) and Askar al-Mahdi (on the West Bank).


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanians, which was located some to the southeast. Today, all that remains of Ctesiphon is the shrine town of Salman Pak, just to the south of Greater Baghdad which is where Salman the Persian is believed to have been buried. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia, the first capital of the Seleucid Empire, which had earlier replaced the city of Babylon.


title: Baghdad

text: According to the traveler Ibn Battuta, Baghdad was one of the largest cities, not including the damage it has received. The residents are mostly Hanbal. Baghdad is also home to the grave of Abu Hanifa where there is a cell and a mosque above it. The Sultan of Baghdad, Abu Said Bahadur Khan, was a Tatar king who embraced Islam.


title: Baghdad

text: In its early years, the city was known as a deliberate reminder of an expression in the Qur'an, when it refers to Paradise. It took four years to build (764–768). Mansur assembled engineers, surveyors, and art constructionists from around the world to come together and draw up plans for the city. Over 100,000 construction workers came to survey the plans; many were distributed salaries to start the building of the city. July was chosen as the starting time because two astrologers, Naubakht Ahvazi and Mashallah, believed that the city should be built under the sign of the lion, Leo. Leo is associated with fire and symbolizes productivity, pride, and expansion.


title: Baghdad

text: The bricks used to make the city were on all four sides. Abu Hanifah was the counter of the bricks and he developed a canal, which brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of the bricks. Marble was also used to make buildings throughout the city, and marble steps led down to the river's edge.


title: Baghdad

text: The basic framework of the city consists of two large semicircles about in diameter. The inner city connecting them was designed as a circle about in diameter, leading it to be known as the "Round City". The original design shows a single ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of the city walls, but the final construction added another ring inside the first. Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades. There was a large sanitation department, many fountains and public baths, and unlike contemporary European cities at the time, streets were frequently washed free of debris and trash. In fact, by the time of Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad had a few thousand hammams. These baths increased public hygiene and served as a way for the religious to perform ablutions as prescribed by Islam. Moreover, entry fees were usually so low that almost everyone could afford them. In the center of the city lay the mosque, as well as headquarters for guards. The purpose or use of the remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a direct reflection of the traditional Persian Sasanian urban design. The Sasanian city of Gur in Fars, built 500 years before Baghdad, is nearly identical in its general circular design, radiating avenues, and the government buildings and temples at the center of the city. This style of urban planning contrasted with Ancient Greek and Roman urban planning, in which cities are designed as squares or rectangles with streets intersecting each other at right angles.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad was a hectic city during the day and had many attractions at night. There were cabarets and taverns, halls for backgammon and chess, live plays, concerts, and acrobats. On street corners, storytellers engaged crowds with tales such as those later told in Arabian Nights.


title: Baghdad

text: The four surrounding walls of Baghdad were named Kufa, Basra, Khurasan, and Syria; named because their gates pointed in the directions of these destinations. The distance between these gates was a little less than . Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them. The wall itself was about 44 m thick at the base and about 12 m thick at the top. Also, the wall was 30 m high, which included merlons, a solid part of an embattled parapet usually pierced by embrasures. This wall was surrounded by another wall with a thickness of 50 m. The second wall had towers and rounded merlons, which surrounded the towers. This outer wall was protected by a solid glacis, which is made out of bricks and quicklime. Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat.


title: Baghdad

text: The Golden Gate Palace, the residence of the caliph and his family, was in the heart of Baghdad, in the central square. In the central part of the building, there was a green dome that was 39 m high. Surrounding the palace was an esplanade, a waterside building, in which only the caliph could come riding on horseback. In addition, the palace was near other mansions and officer's residences. Near the Gate of Syria, a building served as the home for the guards. It was made of brick and marble. The palace governor lived in the latter part of the building and the commander of the guards in the front. In 813, after the death of caliph Al-Amin, the palace was no longer used as the home for the caliph and his family.


title: Baghdad

text: The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Arabic script. The two designers who were hired by Al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht, a Zoroastrian who also determined that the date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah, a Jew from Khorasan, Iran.


title: Baghdad

text: Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce. The city flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of science, medicine, philosophy, and education, especially with the Abbasid translation movement began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and thrived under the seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun. "Baytul-Hikmah" or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known academies, and had the largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century. Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq, mathematician al-Khwarizmi, and philosopher Al-Kindi. Although Arabic was used as the international language of science, the scholarship involved not only Arabs, but also Persians, Syriacs, Nestorians, Jews, Arab Christians, and people from other ethnic and religious groups native to the region. These are considered among the fundamental elements that contributed to the flourishing of scholarship in the Medieval Islamic world. Baghdad was also a significant center of Islamic religious learning, with Al-Jahiz contributing to the formation of Mu'tazili theology, as well as Al-Tabari culminating in the scholarship on the Quranic exegesis. Baghdad is likely to have been the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation until the 930s, when it tied with Córdoba.


title: Baghdad

text: Several estimates suggest that the city contained over a million inhabitants at its peak. Many of the "One Thousand and One Nights" tales, widely known as the "Arabian Nights", are set in Baghdad during this period. It would surpass even Constantinople in prosperity and size.


title: Baghdad

text: Among the notable features of Baghdad during this period were its exceptional libraries. Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature, the Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character. Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. The earliest was that of the famous Al-Ma'mun, who was caliph from 813 to 833. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy. Unfortunately, this second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society. The last two were examples of "madrasa" or theological college libraries. The Nezamiyeh was founded by the Persian Nizam al-Mulk, who was vizier of two early Seljuk sultans. It continued to operate even after the coming of the Mongols in 1258. The Mustansiriyah "madrasa", which owned an exceedingly rich library, was founded by Al-Mustansir, the second last Abbasid caliph, who died in 1242. This would prove to be the last great library built by the caliphs of Baghdad.


title: Baghdad

text: By the 10th century, the city's population was between 1.2 million and 2 million. Baghdad's early meteoric growth eventually slowed due to troubles within the Caliphate, including relocations of the capital to Samarra (during 808–819 and 836–892), the loss of the western and easternmost provinces, and periods of political domination by the Iranian Buwayhids (945–1055) and Seljuk Turks (1055–1135).


title: Baghdad

text: The Seljuks were a clan of the Oghuz Turks from Central Asia that converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. In 1040, they destroyed the Ghaznavids, taking over their land and in 1055, Tughril Beg, the leader of the Seljuks, took over Baghdad. The Seljuks expelled the Buyid dynasty of Shiites that had ruled for some time and took over power and control of Baghdad. They ruled as Sultans in the name of the Abbasid caliphs (they saw themselves as being part of the Abbasid regime). Tughril Beg saw himself as the protector of the Abbasid Caliphs.


title: Baghdad

text: In 1058, Baghdad was captured by the Fatimids under the Turkish general Abu'l-Ḥārith Arslān al-Basasiri, an adherent of the Ismailis along with the 'Uqaylid Quraysh. Not long before the arrival of the Saljuqs in Baghdad, al-Basasiri petitioned to the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir to support him in conquering Baghdad on the Ismaili Imam's behalf. It has recently come to light that the famed Fatimid "da'i", al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, had a direct role in supporting al-Basasiri and helped the general to succeed in taking Mawṣil, Wāsit and Kufa. Soon after, by December 1058, a Shi'i "adhān" (call to prayer) was implemented in Baghdad and a "khutbah" (sermon) was delivered in the name of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph. Despite his Shi'i inclinations, Al-Basasiri received support from Sunnis and Shi'is alike, for whom opposition to the Saljuq power was a common factor.


title: Baghdad

text: On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, a grandson of Chingiz Khan (Genghis Khan), during the siege of Baghdad. Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim, and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. During this time, in Baghdad, Christians and Shia were tolerated, while Sunnis were treated as enemies. The sack of Baghdad put an end to the Abbasid Caliphate. It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age and served a blow from which Islamic civilization never fully recovered.


title: Baghdad

text: At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate, a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In August 1393, Baghdad was occupied by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane"), by marching there in only eight days from Shiraz. Sultan Ahmad Jalayir fled to Syria, where the Mamluk Sultan Barquq protected him and killed Timur's envoys. Timur left the Sarbadar prince Khwaja Mas'ud to govern Baghdad, but he was driven out when Ahmad Jalayir returned.


title: Baghdad

text: In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by Timur. When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads. Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by the Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties.


title: Baghdad

text: In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Empire. Under the Ottomans, Baghdad continued into a period of decline, partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids, which did not accept the Sunni control of the city. Between 1623 and 1638, it returned to Iranian rule before falling back into Ottoman hands. Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague and cholera, and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out.


title: Baghdad

text: For a time, Baghdad had been the largest city in the Middle East. The city saw relative revival in the latter part of the 18th century, under a Mamluk government. Direct Ottoman rule was reimposed by Ali Rıza Pasha in 1831. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha. The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad and southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917, when they were captured by the British during World War I. In 1920, Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia, with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration. After receiving independence in 1932, the city became capital of the Kingdom of Iraq.


title: Baghdad

text: During this period, the substantial Jewish community (probably exceeding 100,000 people) comprised between a quarter and a third of the city's population. On 1 April 1941, members of the "Golden Square" and Rashid Ali staged a coup in Baghdad. Rashid Ali installed a pro-German and pro-Italian government to replace the pro-British government of Regent Abdul Ilah. On 31 May, after the resulting Anglo-Iraqi War and after Rashid Ali and his government had fled, the Mayor of Baghdad surrendered to British and Commonwealth forces. On June 1–2, during the ensuing power vacuum, Jewish residents were attacked following rumors they had aided the British. In what became known as the Farhud, over 180 Jews were killed, 1,000 injured and hundreds of Jewish properties were ransacked. Between 300 and 400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in the attempt to quell the violence.


title: Baghdad

text: The city's population grew from an estimated 145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. On 14 July 1958, members of the Iraqi Army, under Abd al-Karim Qasim, staged a coup to topple the Kingdom of Iraq. King Faisal II, former Prime Minister Nuri as-Said, former Regent Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, members of the royal family, and others were brutally killed during the coup. Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through the streets of Baghdad.


title: Baghdad

text: During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum, Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of the city (1967, 1973) were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice. However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Saddam Hussein's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts. In 1991 and 2003, the Gulf War and the US invasion of Iraq caused significant damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure as the US-led coalition forces launched massive aerial assaults in the city in the two wars. Also in 2003, a minor riot in the city (which took place on 21 July) caused some disturbance in the population. The historic "Assyrian Quarter" of the city, Dora, which boasted a population of 150,000 Assyrians in 2003, made up over 3% of the capital's Assyrian population then. The community has been subject to kidnappings, death threats, vandalism, and house burnings by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. As of the end of 2014, only 1,500 Assyrians remained in Dora. The Iraq War took place from 2003 to 2011, but an Islamist insurgency lasted until 2013. It was followed by another war from 2013 to 2017 and a low-level insurgency from 2017, which included suicide bombings in January 2018 and January 2021. Priceless collection of artifacts in the National Museum of Iraq was looted by the Iraqi citizens during the 2003 US-led invasion. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed.


title: Baghdad

text: Most Iraqi reconstruction efforts have been devoted to the restoration and repair of badly damaged urban infrastructure. More visible efforts at reconstruction through private development, like architect and urban designer Hisham N. Ashkouri's Baghdad Renaissance Plan and the Sindbad Hotel Complex and Conference Center have also been made. A plan was proposed by a Government agency to rebuild a tourist island in 2008. Investors were sought to develop a "romantic island" on the River Tigris that was once a popular honeymoon spot for newlyweds. The project would include a six-star hotel, spa, an 18-hole golf course and a country club. In addition, the go-ahead has been given to build numerous architecturally unique skyscrapers along the Tigris that would develop the city's financial center in Kadhehemiah. In late 2009, a construction plan was proposed to rebuild the heart of Baghdad, but the plan was never realized because corruption was involved in it.The Baghdad Eye ferris wheel, proposed in August 2008,<ref name="msnbc.msn.com/id/26425911"></ref> was installed at the Al-Zawraa Park in March 2011. In May 2010, a new large scale residential and commercial project called Baghdad Gate was announced.


title: Baghdad

text: In August 2010, Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, was appointed to design a new headquarters for the Central Bank in Baghdad. Initial talks about the project were held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 14 August 2010, in the presence of the Central Bank Governor Sinan Al Shabibi. On 2 February 2012, Zaha Hadid joined Sinan Al Shabibi at a ceremony in London to sign the agreement between the Central Bank of Iraq and Zaha Hadid Architects for the design stages of the new CBI Headquarters building. The construction was postponed in 2015 due to economical problems, but started again in 2019.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad has a hot desert climate (Köppen "BWh"), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters. In the summer, from June through August, the average maximum temperature is as high as and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half a dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded . Even at night, temperatures in summer are seldom below . Baghdad's record highest temperature of was reached on 28 July 2020. The humidity is typically under 50% in summer due to Baghdad's distance from the marshy southern Iraq and the coasts of Persian Gulf, and dust storms from the deserts to the west are a normal occurrence during the summer.


title: Baghdad

text: Winter temperatures are typical of hot desert climates. From December through February, Baghdad has maximum temperatures averaging , though highs above are not unheard of. Lows below freezing occur a couple of times per year on average.


title: Baghdad

text: Annual rainfall, almost entirely confined to the period from November through March, averages approximately , but has been as high as and as low as . On 11 January 2008, light snow fell across Baghdad for the first time in 100 years. Snowfall was again reported on 11 February 2020, with accumulations across the city.


title: Baghdad

text: The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called "Risafa" and the Western half known as "Karkh". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of quaternary alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river.


title: Baghdad

text: Administratively, Baghdad Governorate is divided into districts which are further divided into sub-districts. Municipally, the governorate is divided into 9 municipalities, which have responsibility for local issues. Regional services, however, are coordinated and carried out by a mayor who oversees the municipalities. The governorate council is responsible for the governorate-wide policy. These official subdivisions of the city served as administrative centers for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function. Beginning in April 2003, the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these. The process initially focused on the election of neighborhood councils in the official neighborhoods, elected by neighborhood caucuses. The CPA convened a series of meetings in each neighborhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread the word and bring friends, relatives and neighbors to subsequent meetings. Each neighborhood process ultimately ended with a final meeting where candidates for the new neighborhood councils identified themselves and asked their neighbors to vote for them. Once all 88 (later increased to 89) neighborhood councils were in place, each neighborhood council elected representatives from among their members to serve on one of the city's nine district councils. The number of neighborhood representatives on a district council is based upon the neighborhood's population. The next step was to have each of the nine district councils elect representatives from their membership to serve on the 37 member Baghdad City Council. This three tier system of local government connected the people of Baghdad to the central government through their representatives from the neighborhood, through the district, and up to the city council. The same process was used to provide representative councils for the other communities in Baghdad Province outside of the city itself. There, local councils were elected from 20 neighborhoods (Nahia) and these councils elected representatives from their members to serve on six district councils (Qada). As within the city, the district councils then elected representatives from among their members to serve on the 35 member Baghdad Regional Council. The first step in the establishment of the system of local government for Baghdad Province was the election of the Baghdad Provincial Council. As before, the representatives to the Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils in numbers proportional to the population of the districts they represent. The 41 member Provincial Council took office in February 2004 and served until national elections held in January 2005, when a new Provincial Council was elected. This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome; however, Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people. At the lowest level, the neighborhood councils, each council represents an average of 75,000 people. The nine District Advisory Councils (DAC) are as follows:


title: Baghdad

text: The nine districts are subdivided into 89 smaller neighborhoods which may make up sectors of any of the districts above. The following is a "selection" (rather than a complete list) of these neighborhoods:


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad's population was estimated at 7.22 million in 2015. The city historically had a predominantly Sunni population, but by the early 21st century around 52% of the city's population were Iraqi Shi'ites. At the beginning of the 21st century, some 1.5 million people migrated to Baghdad. Sunni Muslims make up 29–34% of Iraq's population and they are still a majority in west and north Iraq. As early as 2003, about 20 percent of the population of the city was the result of mixed marriages between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Following the civil war between the Sunni and Shia militia groups during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the population of Sunnis significantly decreased as they were pushed out of many neighborhoods. The War in Iraq following the Islamic State’s invasion in 2014 caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi internally displaced people to flee to the city. The city has Shia, Sunni, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs, Armenians and mixed neighborhoods. The city was also home to a large Jewish community and regularly visited by Sikh pilgrims.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups with an Arab majority, as well as Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Yazidis, Shabakis, Armenians and Mandaeans. The majority of the citizens are Muslims with minorities of Christians, Yezidis and Mandeans also present. There are many religious centers distributed around the city including mosques, churches and Mashkhannas cultic huts.


title: Baghdad

text: Masjid Al-Kadhimain is a shrine that is located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shi'ite Imams, Musa al-Kadhim and Muhammad at-Taqi respectively, upon whom the title of "Kādhimayn" ("Two who swallow their anger") was bestowed. Many Shi'ites travel to the mosque from far away places to commemorate those imams.


title: Baghdad

text: In the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad, was the house of Baháʼu'lláh, (Prophet Founder of the Baha'i Faith) also known as the "Most Great House" (Bayt-i-Azam) and the "House of God," where Baháʼu'lláh mostly resided from 1853 to 1863. It is considered a holy place and a place of pilgrimage by Baha'i's according to their "Most Holy Book". On the 23rd of June 2013, the house was destroyed under unclear circumstances.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad accounts for 22.2% of Iraq's population and 40% of the country's gross domestic product (PPP).


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad was once one of the main destinations in the country and the region with a wealth of cultural attractions. Tourism has diminished since the Iraq-Iran war and later during the US invasion, but in recent years Baghdad has become a main tourist destination although it is still facing challenges.


title: Baghdad

text: There are numerous historic, scientific and artistic museums in Baghdad which include, Iraq Museum, Baghdadi Museum, Natural History Museum and several others.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad is known for its famous Mutanabbi street which is well established for bookselling and has often been referred to as the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community. The annual International Book Fair in Baghdad is well known to the international publishing world as a promising publishing event in the region after years of instability.


title: Baghdad

text: Iraqi Airways, the national airline of Iraq, has its headquarters on the grounds of Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad.


title: Baghdad

text: The House of Wisdom was a major academy and public center in Baghdad. The Mustansiriya Madrasah was established in 1227 by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustansir. The name was changed to Al-Mustansiriya University in 1963. The University of Baghdad is the largest university in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab world. Prior to the Gulf War, multiple international schools operated in Baghdad, including:


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad has always played a significant role in the broader Arab cultural sphere, contributing several significant writers, musicians and visual artists. Famous Arab poets and singers such as Nizar Qabbani, Umm Kulthum, Fairuz, Salah Al-Hamdani, Ilham al-Madfai and others have performed for the city. The dialect of Arabic spoken in Baghdad today differs from that of other large urban centers in Iraq, having features more characteristic of nomadic Arabic dialects (Versteegh, "The Arabic Language"). It is possible that this was caused by the repopulating of the city with rural residents after the multiple sackings of the late Middle Ages. For poetry written about Baghdad, see Reuven Snir (ed.), "Baghdad: The City in Verse" (Harvard, 2013). Baghdad joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a City of Literature in December 2015.


title: Baghdad

text: Some of the important cultural institutions in the city include the National Theater, which was looted during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but efforts are underway to restore the theater. The live theater industry received a boost during the 1990s, when UN sanctions limited the import of foreign films. As many as 30 movie theaters were reported to have been converted to live stages, producing a wide range of comedies and dramatic productions. Institutions offering cultural education in Baghdad include The Music and Ballet School of Baghdad and the Institute of Fine Arts Baghdad. The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra is a government funded symphony orchestra in Baghdad. The INSO plays primarily classical European music, as well as original compositions based on Iraqi and Arab instruments and music. Baghdad is also home to a number of museums which housed artifacts and relics of ancient civilization; many of these were stolen, and the museums looted, during the widespread chaos immediately after United States forces entered the city.


title: Baghdad

text: During US occupation of Iraq, AFN Iraq ("Freedom Radio") broadcast news and entertainment within Baghdad, among other locations. There is also a private radio station called "Dijlah" (named after the Arabic word for the Tigris River) that was created in 2004 as Iraq's first independent talk radio station. Radio Dijlah offices, in the Jamia neighborhood of Baghdad, have been attacked on several occasions.


title: Baghdad

text: Baghdad is home to some of the most successful football (soccer) teams in Iraq, the biggest being Al-Shorta (Police), Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya (Air Force), Al-Zawraa, and Al-Talaba (Students). The largest stadium in Baghdad is Al-Shaab Stadium, which was opened in 1966. In recent years, the capital has seen the building of several football stadiums which are meant be opened in near future. The city has also had a strong tradition of horse racing ever since World War I, known to Baghdadis simply as 'Races'. There are reports of pressures by the Islamists to stop this tradition due to the associated gambling.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities. ERP systems can be local based or cloud-based. Cloud-based applications have grown in recent years due to information being readily available from any location with Internet access. Traditional on-premise ERP systems are now considered legacy technology.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP provides an integrated and continuously updated view of core business processes using common databases maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make up the system share data across various departments (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, etc.) that provide the data. ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions and manages connections to outside stakeholders.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: According to Gartner, the global ERP market size is estimated at $35 billion in 2021. Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises, smaller enterprises increasingly use ERP systems.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The ERP system integrates varied organizational systems and facilitates error-free transactions and production, thereby enhancing the organization's efficiency. However, developing an ERP system differs from traditional system development.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, typically using a database as an information repository.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The Gartner Group first used the acronym ERP in the 1990s to include the capabilities of material requirements planning (MRP), and the later manufacturing resource planning (MRP II), as well as computer-integrated manufacturing. Without replacing these terms, ERP came to represent a larger whole that reflected the evolution of application integration beyond manufacturing.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Not all ERP packages are developed from a manufacturing core; ERP vendors variously began assembling their packages with finance-and-accounting, maintenance, and human-resource components. By the mid-1990s ERP systems addressed all core enterprise functions. Governments and non–profit organizations also began to use ERP systems. An "ERP system selection methodology" is a formal process for selecting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Existing methodologies include: Kuiper’s funnel method, Dobrin’s three-dimensional (3D) web-based decision support tool, and the Clarkston Potomac methodology.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems experienced rapid growth in the 1990s. Because of the year 2000 problem many companies took the opportunity to replace their old systems with ERP.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems initially focused on automating back office functions that did not directly affect customers and the public. Front office functions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), dealt directly with customers, or e-business systems such as e-commerce and e-government—or supplier relationship management (SRM) became integrated later, when the internet simplified communicating with external parties.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: "ERP II" was coined in 2000 in an article by Gartner Publications entitled "ERP Is Dead—Long Live ERP II". It describes web–based software that provides real–time access to ERP systems to employees and partners (such as suppliers and customers). The ERP II role expands traditional ERP resource optimization and transaction processing. Rather than just manage buying, selling, etc.—ERP II leverages information in the resources under its management to help the enterprise collaborate with other enterprises.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP II is more flexible than the first generation ERP. Rather than confine ERP system capabilities within the organization, it goes beyond the corporate walls to interact with other systems. Enterprise application suite is an alternate name for such systems. ERP II systems are typically used to enable collaborative initiatives such as supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) among business partner organizations through the use of various electronic business technologies. The large proportion of companies are pursuing a strong managerial targets in ERP system instead of acquire a ERP company.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Developers now make more effort to integrate mobile devices with the ERP system. ERP vendors are extending ERP to these devices, along with other business applications, so that businesses don’t have to rely on third-party applications. As an example, the e-commerce platform Shopify was able to make ERP tools from Microsoft and Oracle available on its app in October 2021.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Technical stakes of modern ERP concern integration—hardware, applications, networking, supply chains. ERP now covers more functions and roles—including decision making, stakeholders' relationships, standardization, transparency, globalization, etc.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: An ERP system covers the following common functional areas. In many ERP systems, these are called and grouped together as ERP modules:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Government resource planning (GRP) is the equivalent of an ERP for the public sector and an integrated office automation system for government bodies. The software structure, modularization, core algorithms and main interfaces do not differ from other ERPs, and ERP software suppliers manage to adapt their systems to government agencies.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Both system implementations, in private and public organizations, are adopted to improve productivity and overall business performance in organizations, but comparisons (private vs. public) of implementations shows that the main factors influencing ERP implementation success in the public sector are cultural.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Most ERP systems incorporate best practices. This means the software reflects the vendor's interpretation of the most effective way to perform each business process. Systems vary in how conveniently the customer can modify these practices.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Use of best practices eases compliance with requirements such as IFRS, Sarbanes-Oxley, or Basel II. They can also help comply with de facto industry standards, such as electronic funds transfer. This is because the procedure can be readily codified within the ERP software and replicated with confidence across multiple businesses that share that business requirement.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems connect to real–time data and transaction data in a variety of ways. These systems are typically configured by systems integrators, who bring unique knowledge on process, equipment, and vendor solutions.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Direct integration—ERP systems have connectivity (communications to plant floor equipment) as part of their product offering. This requires that the vendors offer specific support for the plant floor equipment their customers operate.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Database integration—ERP systems connect to plant floor data sources through staging tables in a database. Plant floor systems deposit the necessary information into the database. The ERP system reads the information in the table. The benefit of staging is that ERP vendors do not need to master the complexities of equipment integration. Connectivity becomes the responsibility of the systems integrator.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Enterprise appliance transaction modules (EATM)—These devices communicate directly with plant floor equipment and with the ERP system via methods supported by the ERP system. EATM can employ a staging table, web services, or system–specific program interfaces (APIs). An EATM offers the benefit of being an off–the–shelf solution.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Custom–integration solutions—Many system integrators offer custom solutions. These systems tend to have the highest level of initial integration cost, and can have a higher long term maintenance and reliability costs. Long term costs can be minimized through careful system testing and thorough documentation. Custom–integrated solutions typically run on workstation or server-class computers.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP's scope usually implies significant changes to staff work processes and practices. Generally, three types of services are available to help implement such changes: consulting, customization, and support. Implementation time depends on business size, number of modules, customization, the scope of process changes, and the readiness of the customer to take ownership for the project. Modular ERP systems can be implemented in stages. The typical project for a large enterprise takes about 14 months and requires around 150 consultants. Small projects can require months; multinational and other large implementations can take years. Customization can substantially increase implementation times.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Besides that, information processing influences various business functions e.g. some large corporations like Walmart use a just in time inventory system. This reduces inventory storage and increases delivery efficiency, and requires up-to-date data. Before 2014, Walmart used a system called Inforem developed by IBM to manage replenishment.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Implementing ERP typically requires changes in existing business processes. Poor understanding of needed process changes prior to starting implementation is a main reason for project failure. The difficulties could be related to the system, business process, infrastructure, training, or lack of motivation.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: It is therefore crucial that organizations thoroughly analyze processes before they deploy an ERP software. Analysis can identify opportunities for process modernization. It also enables an assessment of the alignment of current processes with those provided by the ERP system. Research indicates that risk of business process mismatch is decreased by:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP implementation is considerably more difficult (and politically charged) in decentralized organizations, because they often have different processes, business rules, data semantics, authorization hierarchies, and decision centers. This may require migrating some business units before others, delaying implementation to work through the necessary changes for each unit, possibly reducing integration (e.g., linking via master data management) or customizing the system to meet specific needs.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: A potential disadvantage is that adopting "standard" processes can lead to a loss of competitive advantage. While this has happened, losses in one area are often offset by gains in other areas, increasing overall competitive advantage.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Configuring an ERP system is largely a matter of balancing the way the organization wants the system to work with the way it was designed to work. ERP systems typically include many settings that modify system operations. For example, an organization can select the type of inventory accounting—FIFO or LIFO—to use; whether to recognize revenue by geographical unit, product line, or distribution channel; and whether to pay for shipping costs on customer returns.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Two-tier ERP software and hardware lets companies run the equivalent of two ERP systems at once: one at the corporate level and one at the division or subsidiary level. For example, a manufacturing company could use an ERP system to manage across the organization using independent global or regional distribution, production or sales centers, and service providers to support the main company's customers. Each independent center (or) subsidiary may have its own business operations cycles, workflows, and business processes.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Given the realities of globalization, enterprises continuously evaluate how to optimize their regional, divisional, and product or manufacturing strategies to support strategic goals and reduce time-to-market while increasing profitability and delivering value. With two-tier ERP, the regional distribution, production, or sales centers and service providers continue operating under their own business model—separate from the main company, using their own ERP systems. Since these smaller companies' processes and workflows are not tied to main company's processes and workflows, they can respond to local business requirements in multiple locations.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems are theoretically based on industry best practices, and their makers intend that organizations deploy them "as is". ERP vendors do offer customers configuration options that let organizations incorporate their own business rules, but gaps in features often remain even after configuration is complete.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP customers have several options to reconcile feature gaps, each with their own pros/cons. Technical solutions include rewriting part of the delivered software, writing a homegrown module to work within the ERP system, or interfacing to an external system. These three options constitute varying degrees of system customization—with the first being the most invasive and costly to maintain. Alternatively, there are non-technical options such as changing business practices or organizational policies to better match the delivered ERP feature set. Key differences between customization and configuration include:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: ERP systems can be extended with third–party software, often via vendor-supplied interfaces. Extensions offer features such as:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Data migration is the process of moving, copying, and restructuring data from an existing system to the ERP system. Migration is critical to implementation success and requires significant planning. Unfortunately, since migration is one of the final activities before the production phase, it often receives insufficient attention. The following steps can structure migration planning:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Often, data migration is incomplete because some of the data in the existing system is either incompatible or not needed in the new system. As such, the existing system may need to be kept as an archived database to refer back to once the new ERP system is in place.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The most fundamental advantage of ERP is that the integration of a myriad of business processes saves time and expense. Management can make decisions faster and with fewer errors. Data becomes visible across the organization. Tasks that benefit from this integration include:


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Critical success factors are limited number of areas in which results, if satisfactory, will ensure the organization’s successful competitive performance. The CSF method has helped organizations specify their own critical information needs. Achieving satisfactory results in the key areas of critical success factors can ensure competitive advantage leading to improved organizational performance and overcome the challenges faced by organizations. Critical success factors theoretical foundation was improved upon, verified, and validated by several researchers, which underscored the importance of CSFs and its application to ERP project implementations.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The application of critical success factors can prevent organizations from making costly mistakes, and the effective usage of CSFs can ensure project success and reduce failures during project implementations. Some of the important critical success factors related to ERP projects are: Know your data, longer and more integrated testing, utilization of the right people, longer stabilization period (hyper-care), clear communication, early buy-in from business, have a Lean Agile program, less customization, ERP projects must be business-driven and not IT-driven.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: Research published in 2011 based on a survey of 225 manufacturers, retailers and distributors found "high" rates of interest and adoption of ERP systems and that very few businesses were "completely untouched" by the concept of an ERP system. 27% of the companies survey had a fully operational system, 12% were at that time rolling out a system and 26% had an existing ERP system which they were extending or upgrading.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The term "postmodern ERP" was coined by Gartner in 2013, when it first appeared in the paper series "Predicts 2014". According to Gartner's definition of the postmodern ERP strategy, legacy, monolithic and highly customized ERP suites, in which all parts are heavily reliant on each other, should sooner or later be replaced by a mixture of both cloud-based and on-premises applications, which are more loosely coupled and can be easily exchanged if needed.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The basic idea is that there should still be a core ERP solution that would cover most important business functions, while other functions will be covered by specialist software solutions that merely extend the core ERP. This concept is similar to the so-called best-of-breed approach to software execution, but it shouldn't be confused with it. While in both cases, applications that make up the whole are relatively loosely connected and quite easily interchangeable, in the case of the latter there is no ERP solution whatsoever. Instead, every business function is covered by a separate software solution.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: There is, however, no golden rule as to what business functions should be part of the core ERP, and what should be covered by supplementary solutions. According to Gartner, every company must define their own postmodern ERP strategy, based on company's internal and external needs, operations and processes. For example, a company may define that the core ERP solution should cover those business processes that must stay behind the firewall, and therefore, choose to leave their core ERP on-premises. At the same time, another company may decide to host the core ERP solution in the cloud and move only a few ERP modules as supplementary solutions to on-premises.


title: Enterprise resource planning

text: The main benefits that companies will gain from implementing postmodern ERP strategy are speed and flexibility when reacting to unexpected changes in business processes or on the organizational level. With the majority of applications having a relatively loose connection, it is fairly easy to replace or upgrade them whenever necessary. In addition to that, following the examples above, companies can select and combine cloud-based and on-premises solutions that are most suited for their ERP needs. The downside of postmodern ERP is that it will most likely lead to an increased number of software vendors that companies will have to manage, as well as pose additional integration challenges for the central IT.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Lawrence "Larry" Gerard Nassar (born August 16, 1963) is an American former physician and convicted child rapist. For 18 years, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team. He used his employment as the team's doctor to exploit, deceive, and sexually assault hundreds of children and young women.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar's sexual abuse of young girls and women and the subsequent cover-up led to the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal that began in 2015, alleging that Nassar repeatedly sexually assaulted at least 265 young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment. His victims included numerous Olympic and United States women's national gymnastics team gymnasts. He is a central figure in the 2020 film "Athlete A", a documentary about the scandal.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on December 7, 2017, after pleading guilty to child pornography and tampering with evidence charges on July 11, 2017. On January 24, 2018, Nassar was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty in Ingham County to seven counts of rape of minors. On February 5, 2018, he was sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty to an additional three counts of rape in Eaton County.


title: Larry Nassar

text: On the orders of the judge in charge of the federal case, his state prison sentences are to run consecutively with his federal sentence, ensuring a de facto sentence of life imprisonment without parole. Nassar will be transferred to a Michigan state prison when he is released from federal custody; his two state sentences will be served concurrently.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar was born on Robson Street near 6 mile and Greenfield in Detroit, Michigan, to a family of Lebanese background. He began working as a student athletic trainer for the women's gymnastics team at North Farmington High School at age 15 in 1978 on the recommendation of his older brother Mike, who was an athletic trainer at the school. Nassar graduated from North Farmington High School in 1981. He studied kinesiology at the University of Michigan, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1985. During this time, he worked for the university's football and track & field teams.


title: Larry Nassar

text: He was married to his wife, Stefanie, from 1996 to 2017, and the couple had three children together. The couple separated after he was arrested on suspicion of sex crimes, and his wife was granted a divorce in July 2017, gaining full custody of their three children. Nassar lived in Holt, Michigan, at the time of his December 2016 arrest.


title: Larry Nassar

text: In 1993, Nassar graduated as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency training in family practice at St. Lawrence Hospital before completing a fellowship in sports medicine in 1997.


title: Larry Nassar

text: He began working as an assistant professor at MSU's Department of Family and Community Medicine in the College of Human Medicine in 1997, where he earned $100,000 a year (). Nassar is listed as a co-author on at least six research papers on the treatment of gymnastics injuries.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar began working as an athletic trainer for the USA Gymnastics national team in 1986. In 1988, Nassar began working with John Geddert at Twistars, a gymnastics training club. He began working as a team doctor at Holt High School in 1996. He served as the national medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics from 1996 until 2014.


title: Larry Nassar

text: While some gymnasts have said they complained in the 1990s about Nassar's behavior, it was not until 2015 that USA Gymnastics took action against him. The organization cut ties with him "after learning of athlete concerns." In September 2016, "The Indianapolis Star" reported that Rachael Denhollander and another former gymnast had accused Nassar of sexual abuse. He was fired by Michigan State on September 20 after having been reassigned from clinical and teaching duties a month earlier.


title: Larry Nassar

text: In February 2017, three former gymnasts, Jeanette Antolin, Jessica Howard, and Jamie Dantzscher, gave an interview for in which they said that Nassar had sexually abused them. They also alleged that the "emotionally abusive environment" at the national team training camps run by Béla and Márta Károlyi, at the Karolyi Ranch near Huntsville, Texas, gave Nassar an opportunity to take advantage of the gymnasts and made them afraid to speak up about the abuse. Rachael Denhollander, one of the first women to publicly accuse Nassar, said in court in May 2017 that Nassar had sexually abused her on five doctor's visits in 2000 when she was 15 years old.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney, using the #MeToo hashtag on Twitter, said that Nassar had repeatedly molested her from 2008, when she was 13 years old, until she retired from the sport in 2016. Maroney subsequently filed a lawsuit against Nassar, Michigan State University, the United States Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics. The lawsuit accused USA Gymnastics of covering up the sexual abuse by requiring her to sign a non-disclosure agreement in her $1.25 million settlement. Maroney's attorney John Manly called Nassar a "pedophile doctor".


title: Larry Nassar

text: During a "60 Minutes" interview, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman said that Nassar had also sexually abused her. Raisman said that Nassar molested her when she was 15 years old. Gabby Douglas sent a tweet saying that "dressing in a provocative/sexual way incites the wrong crowd." She was criticized for it by fellow Olympic teammate Simone Biles and others, who interpreted the tweet as criticism of Raisman and "victim-shaming". Douglas apologized for the tweet, and said she was also a victim of Nassar's abuse.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Former national team member Maggie Nichols also said that Nassar abused her. Nassar connected with her on Facebook and complimented her appearance on numerous occasions. Nichols stated, "I was only 15 and I just thought he was trying to be nice to me. Now I believe this was part of the grooming process". According to court filings and interviews, Nichols and her coach, Sarah Jantzi, reported Nassar to USA Gymnastics officials on June 17, 2015, after the coach overheard Nichols and another gymnast talking about Nassar's behavior. Biles came forward shortly after with accounts that she, too, had been sexually abused by Nassar. Jordyn Wieber made an impact statement at Nassar's court sentencing in which she also accused Nassar of sexually abusing her during her time at USA Gymnastics and talked of its effects.


title: Larry Nassar

text: During pre-trial hearings, victim impact statements during sentencing, and later interviews, several victims described Nassar's "modus operandi": After having gained the trust and friendship of a girl, he would insert his ungloved finger into her vagina during physical therapy, describing this as normal "pressure point" therapy for pain relief. On some of these occasions a parent was in the room, unaware of what happened.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Four elite American gymnasts, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman, testified before the U.S. Senate on September 15, 2021, regarding the mishandling by FBI agents of abuse allegations brought against Nassar and how the agents made false statements regarding their reports and misinformation about the botched investigation.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Maroney testified that she was met with silence by an FBI agent after telling the agent of Nassar's "... molestations in extreme detail." She further stated that the FBI falsified her statement, said the agents involved should be indicted, and criticized Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco for not appearing at the hearing. Raisman testified that the FBI made her feel that the "abuse didn't count" but she felt it "was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter." After the testimony by the gymnasts, FBI director Wray testified, speaking to the gymnasts that he was "deeply and profoundly sorry that so many people let you down over and over again."


title: Larry Nassar

text: According to a report issued in July 2021 by the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, at least 70 more athletes were subjected to abuse between the time of reports to the FBI and the arrest of Nassar by state authorities, while Nassar's victims stated that the number abused in that period was 120.


title: Larry Nassar

text: In April 2022, 13 survivors of Larry Nassar filed a lawsuit against the FBI for negligence and other alleged investigatory failures in the Nassar case.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar was indicted on November 22, 2016, on several state charges of "sexual assault of a child" from 1998 to 2005. The crimes allegedly began when the victim was six years old. He was charged with 22 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with minors: fifteen in Ingham County and seven in neighboring Eaton County. The allegations asserted that Nassar had molested seven girls under the guise that he was providing legitimate medical treatment, both at his home and at a clinic on the MSU campus. Bail was set at $1 million, and Nassar was released from jail the same day after posting bond. He was arraigned on December 8, 2016, when he pleaded not guilty to all charges. He remained free on bail until his December 16 arrest on federal charges.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar was arrested on December 16, 2016, after the FBI found more than 37,000 images of child pornography and a video of Nassar allegedly molesting underage girls. He was denied bail and ordered to remain in federal prison. On April 6, 2017, his medical license was revoked for three years. Nassar pleaded guilty on July 11 to receiving child pornography in 2004, possession of pornographic images of children dating from 2004 to 2016, and tampering with evidence by destroying and concealing the images. Judge Janet T. Neff sentenced Nassar to 60 years in federal prison (3 consecutive terms of 20 years, 1 each for the 3 federal counts he pleaded guilty to in July 2017) on December 7, 2017. Upon his release from federal custody, he will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.


title: Larry Nassar

text: On November 22, 2017, Nassar pleaded guilty in Ingham County Circuit Court to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with minors under the age of sixteen. He admitted to molesting seven girls, three of whom were under the age of thirteen. He pleaded guilty to an additional three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Eaton County on November 29. As of January 18, 2018, 135 women had accused Nassar of sexual assault while he worked for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. During the following week, the number rose to 150. In a lawsuit that was filed in April 2017, a woman claimed that Nassar had sexually assaulted her while he was in medical school in 1992.


title: Larry Nassar

text: On January 24, 2018, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of Ingham County sentenced Nassar to a minimum of 40 to a maximum of 175 years in prison for the sexual assault of minors. Upon release, Nassar would have to register as a Michigan sex offender for the rest of his life. That part of the sentence was purely symbolic, as Nassar’s sentence guarantees he will die in prison. Aquilina allowed Nassar's accusers to present extended victim impact statements and dismissed objections raised to this ruling by Nassar. During the sentencing, the judge informed Nassar that he had missed numerous chances to receive treatment for his sexual urges, as Nassar had been aware of these urges himself from a young age. She also said that there were likely dozens of additional victims who had not come forward, and made it clear that Nassar will never be free again.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar was practicing without a Texas medical license while he worked at the Karolyi Ranch in Huntsville. According to McKayla Maroney, this was where Nassar molested young women for more than 15 years. Practicing medicine without a license in Texas is a third-degree felony, although it is rarely prosecuted. On January 31, 2018, a Michigan judge said that there were "over 265 identified victims and an infinite number of victims" of sexual misconduct.


title: Larry Nassar

text: On February 5, 2018, Judge Janice Cunningham of Eaton County sentenced Nassar to a minimum 40 to a maximum of 125 years in prison for the three counts of criminal sexual assault to which he had pleaded November 29, 2017. Nassar apologized for his years of abuse, saying that the strong effects that his victims' statements had on him "pales in comparison" to the suffering he inflicted on them. Despite this, Cunningham stated that Nassar was still in "denial" about the "devastating impact" of his crimes. The Eaton County sentence will run concurrently with the Ingham County sentence. Nassar's state sentences will begin upon completion of his federal child pornography sentence. Neff ordered any sentences imposed at the state level to run consecutively with the federal sentence.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar spent time in the Eaton County jail and the federal detention center at FCI Milan near Milan, Michigan. In February 2018, he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Tucson, Arizona. According to his lawyers, Nassar was assaulted almost as soon as he was placed in the general population at USP Tucson, and an investigation determined that Nassar could not be safely held at Tucson. In August 2018, "The Detroit News" reported that Nassar was transferred to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Later that year, in August, Nassar was moved to the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Florida, and is currently serving his time there.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar's earliest potential release from federal prison is January 30, 2068 (assuming good time credit for "exemplary behavior", absent which he will not be released until December 7, 2077 at the latest). However, his federal sentence far exceeds human life expectancy, and his earliest possible release will be when he is 104 years old. Although unlikely, if Nassar is still alive when he becomes eligible for release from Federal Prison, upon his release he would be immediately transferred to a Michigan state prison to serve out his concurrent state sentences. He would then have to serve a minimum of 40 years in state prison before being eligible for parole. Nassar’s earliest possible release date from state prison is January 30, 2108, when he will be 144 years old. At his age, he will either die in federal or state Prison. Despite this, per Judge Aquilina, he will have to register as a sex offender in Michigan for the rest of his life upon his hypothetical release from state prison.


title: Larry Nassar

text: More than 150 federal and state lawsuits have since been filed against Nassar, Michigan State University, the US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics, and the Twistars Gymnastics Club. The entire 18 member board of USA Gymnastics, including Steve Penny, tendered their resignations. Michigan State University (MSU) President Lou Anna Simon and MSU Director of Athletics Mark Hollis have both resigned, and other MSU officials are also under scrutiny.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Nassar's crimes committed at MSU and USA Gymnastics have drawn comparisons to coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse crimes at Penn State University. In both of these cases, institutional authorities "turned the other way" or tried to hide the activities of a child molester instead of immediately contacting law enforcement.


title: Larry Nassar

text: Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette promised a full investigation into how Nassar was able to abuse young women for decades while working at the state's university. MSU agreed to pay $500 million to 332 alleged victims of Nassar, settling lawsuits filed by the victims. This was the largest amount of money in history settled by a university for a sexual abuse case. On Christmas Eve 2019, Schuette's successor, Dana Nessel, announced that she was suspending the investigation.


title: Larry Nassar

text: More than 140 victims of Nassar's abuse appeared on stage together at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, on July 18, 2018, to receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2018 ESPY Awards ceremony. Gymnasts Sara Klein and Aly Raisman and softball player Tiffany Thomas Lopez accepted the award on everyone's behalf and served as spokeswomen. Klein identified herself as Nassar's first victim 30 years before. They acknowledged lead detective Andrea Munford of the Michigan State Police, former assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis, and Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of the 30th circuit court in Ingham County, Michigan for their work. Aquilina also attended the ceremony, and singer MILCK performed her song “Quiet”, written from her own experience of sexual abuse.


title: Larry Nassar

text: In late July 2018, it was reported that Nassar was seeking a new sentencing hearing due to concerns of perceived bias by Judge Aquilina, but his request was denied by Eaton County Judge Janice Cunningham.


title: Larry Nassar

text: In 2019, HBO released a documentary about Nassar's serial sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups by the various institutions he worked with, titled "". The 2020 Netflix documentary "Athlete A" is also based on Nassar's scandal and crimes. Later that year, Nassar's request for a sentencing hearing for the Ingham County charges, in addition to the accusations of Judge Aquilina being biased, were rejected by the Michigan Court of Appeals.


title: The West Wing

text: The West Wing is an American serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where the Oval Office and offices of presidential senior personnel are located, during the fictitious Democratic administration of President Josiah Bartlet.


title: The West Wing

text: "The West Wing" was produced by Warner Bros. Television and featured an ensemble cast, including Martin Sheen, John Spencer, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney, Dulé Hill, and Stockard Channing. For the first four seasons, there were three executive producers: Sorkin (lead writer of the first four seasons), Thomas Schlamme (primary director), and John Wells. After Sorkin left the series, Wells assumed the role of head writer, with later executive producers being directors Alex Graves and Christopher Misiano (seasons 6–7), and writers Lawrence O'Donnell and Peter Noah (season 7).


title: The West Wing

text: "The West Wing" has been ranked among the best television shows of all time in publications such as "Time", "TV Guide", "Empire", "Rolling Stone", and the "New York Daily News". The Writers Guild of America ranked it no. 10 in its "101 Best-Written TV Series" list. It has received praise from critics, political science professors, and former White House staffers and has been the subject of critical analysis. "The West Wing" received a multitude of accolades, including two Peabody Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, which it won four consecutive times from 2000 to 2003. The show's ratings waned in later years following the departure of series creator Sorkin after the fourth season (Sorkin wrote or co-wrote 85 of the first 88 episodes), yet it remained popular among high-income viewers, a key demographic for the show and its advertisers, with around 16 million viewers.