title: Critical Role

text: As of January 2016, each episode of the show has been watched for more than a million minutes on Twitch, totalling over 37 million minutes watched for the whole series. Additionally, the Critical Role YouTube channel, which was only started in 2018, has over 500 million views as of September 2022. By the time the 100th episode was launched, the channel had amassed over 68 million views overall, reaching over 224 million views as of December 2020. the first episode of campaign one has been watched 15 million times on YouTube. In October 2021, "Business Insider" reported that the official Twitch channel had 828,000 followers and 13,530 active subscribers while the official YouTube channel had 1.4 million subscribers; the Twitch channel has over 1 million followers as of September 2022. "Variety" reported "historically, C.R.'s Twitch channel has attracted 60,000–75,000 live viewers for each episode. Factoring in on-demand plays on Twitch and YouTube, the total per-episode audience has ranged from 1.2 million to 1.5 million, according to Willingham. The Critical Role audience has grown significantly on Twitch and YouTube year over year. With 1.1 million followers on Twitch, Critical Role is one of many successful enterprises: Twitch's 50 most popular streamers have 4 million followers or more.


title: Critical Role

text: In a January 2016 article, "Polygon" described "Critical Role" as a "thoroughly modern" show with a business model that is still developing.


title: Critical Role

text: The show has caught the attention of the publishers of "Dungeons & Dragons", Wizards of the Coast, who discussed it at length on two occasions on their official D&D podcast, along with cast members Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Liam O'Brien, Laura Bailey and former member Orion Acaba. In an interview with the online gaming magazine "Polygon", lead D&D designer Mike Mearls commented about the show: "It was really cool, as a guy who works on "Dungeons & Dragons", to open up my Twitch app on my iPad and see "Dungeons & Dragons" in the first row."


title: Critical Role

text: Viewer responses to the show have been overwhelmingly positive, with many fans, nicknamed "Critters", creating content such as fanart, fan fiction, character-inspired music, and fan-created merchandise for the show. Fans also send in many gifts for the cast and crew, resulting in occasional "Critmas" episodes during which the gifts are opened and distributed.


title: Critical Role

text: The cast of "Critical Role" are active participants on sci-fi/comics convention circuits, and have appeared for panels and signings at San Diego and New York Comic Cons. For the 2015 New York con, "critical rolls" were available from one of the food vendors.


title: Critical Role

text: Andy Wilson, for "Bleeding Cool", highlighted "Critical Role" as "the best show [he has] watched all year" in 2020. He wrote, "I've said repeatedly that "Critical Role" is the future of television, and specifically praising their response to COVID that continued their show in a safe way where no one has gotten sick. Let me pause there for a moment: no one has gotten sick. They have been smart and responsible and safe. [...] But even more important is what they did this year. They are, weekly, one of the most-watched streams on Twitch. [...] They gave fans something to look forward to every week– an incredible feat given the endless monotony and despair of socially distant quarantine life."


title: Critical Role

text: Chris King, in his review of "Exandria Unlimited" for "Polygon", commented that "despite Critical Role's commercial success, criticisms of the show have been mounting over the years — first, that the cast wasn't diverse enough and, second, that there was really no easy way in to understanding this world without starting all the way back at the beginning". King felt the show didn't succeed as an entry for new fans (between the show's hook and the length of each episode), however, ""Exandria Unlimited" is still a big step in the right direction. [...] Some fans of the series have become wedded to the idea that Mercer's way is the only way to play, but Iyengar's work here goes a long way toward proving that Critical Role doesn't always need Mercer at the head of the table to succeed". King wrote, ""Exandria Unlimited" has been able to retain what makes Critical Role so beloved by so many fans, while bringing new voices to the table. [...] It's not an adventure for the uninitiated, but instead an interstitial adventure filled with pre-existing lore and in-jokes to old campaigns, and no clear starting point for new fans to connect with. But it's still a lot of fun".


title: Critical Role

text: Named for "Critical Role's" Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer, the "mercer-effect" is the belief that all TTRPG/DnD players expect an experience with the same narrative, immersive, and gameplay qualities as "Critical Role". Mercer has responded numerous times to people asking how to "beat" this effect and critics who cite "Critical Role" for creating unattainable standards in the hobby. In a message to the community, he writes, "Every [game] table is different, and should be! If they just want to 'copy' what we do, that's not very creative nor what makes the game magic at the table."


title: Critical Role

text: Orion Acaba left "Critical Role" in 2015. Emily Friedman, in the book "Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age: Essays on Transmedia Storytelling, Tabletop RPGs and Fandom" (2021), highlighted that "while the public statements by all were civil and warm, fan speculation was so rampant that the "Critical Role" Reddit page [...] has an entire FAQ section on what can and cannot be discussed in relation to Acaba and his character Tiberius Stormwind [...].


title: Critical Role

text: Acaba attempted to run an independent spinoff series focused on the character's home country of Draconia, but the show only saw a handful of episodes before it ended. Acaba courted fan appeals to bring back his character (and thus himself), none successful. As of this writing, almost all episodes of the spinoff have been purged from YouTube [...]. The show's audience base expanded significantly in the months after Acaba's departure [...]. As a result, different viewers have a different experience of 'how long' Tiberius was a part of Critical Role". Shelly Jones, in an essay in the book "Watch Us Roll" (2021), also highlighted the fan response (including the Reddit FAQ) to Acaba's departure and the cast's "external strife associated" with his departure (such as "disgruntled and deleted Tweets" and an "uncomfortable AskMeAnything [AMA] on Reddit"). Jones also commented that "Critical Role"s fandom has learned a "behavior of erasure in the guise of maintaining a positive attitude" from the show itself. The FAQ of "The Legend of Vox Machina" Kickstarter states that Tiberius would not appear in the show; Jones wrote, "while there are many possible reasons for this exclusion, the result is the same: the ultimate distortion of the narrative of "Critical Role"". Cori McCreery, for "WWAC", highlighted Tiberius' exit in the second volume of the prequel comic. She wrote, "Part of the beauty of adaptations is that you can change things that no longer fit the story you want to tell. The "Critical Role" team had a falling out with the actor who played Tiberius, and the character wound up leaving the game pretty early on into the stream, and leaving a bit of a conundrum for adaptations like this and the upcoming cartoon. [...] So while I don't know if they're writing the character out in the comics earlier than he left the game, I do know that they do not plan to use him in the animated series, despite his being present for some of the adventures there. I'd be perfectly fine if this adaptation took a page from the medium it's part of and provides everyone with a retcon of the group's past".


title: Critical Role

text: In 2019, a "Critical Role" one-shot was sponsored by Wendy's to promote the "Feast of Legends" RPG system developed by the company. However, following a strong negative fan response to the sponsor, the Critical Role team chose to take down the VOD, and announced via Twitter that they had donated their sponsorship profits from the one-shot to the Farm Worker Justice organization. In 2021, the book "The Routledge Handbook of Remix Studies and Digital Humanities" highlighted the "Feast of Legends" one-shot. It states, "neither the game itself nor quality of the Critical Role performance was really at issue [...]. Accepting financial support from Wendy's was read among some fans as a tacit acceptance of political positions held by Wendy's. [...] To bring "Critical Role" into contact with Wendy's was not just bringing professional voice actors into Freshtovia; a whole array of political issues were brought into the mix at the same time. The "Critical Role" staff scrubbed nearly all evidence of the video from their official feeds and records. The community was significantly jarred by the mashup, not of D&D and fast food, but escapism and politics". Jones commented that decision to remove the "Feast of Legends" episode was "presumably" made by the show's "development team for purposes of branding and controlling the criticism circulating about the failed experiment". Jones also highlighted that the fan-created wiki followed the show's example and that by scrubbing the episode from their wiki, these fans "are erasing any evidence of negativity in an effort to protect their fan object".


title: Critical Role

text: "Critical Role"'s commercial success has led to many other related products, including a prequel , art books, a , two campaign setting books ("" and "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount"), and an animated series. Hobby and toy stores sell miniatures and other collectibles related to "Critical Role".


title: Critical Role

text: On October 16, 2015, the Extra Life fundraiser episode raised over $20,000 for the Children's Miracle Network during the broadcast. This charity episode included a reappearance of the Critical Rejects, as well as three members of the "Critical Role" cast: Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, and Orion Acaba.


title: Critical Role

text: During the show, viewers are invited to donate money to 826LA, which is later provided in a lump sum to the charity. Donation amounts and messages appear live on the stream, and on earlier episodes, a list of donors was read at the end of each session. During Geek & Sundry's 2015 Extra Life fundraiser, a special interactive episode was broadcast. This episode alone brought in over $20,000 for the Children's Miracle Network, and the event as a whole raised over $76,000. In late November 2015, Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel held a special Doctors Without Borders fundraiser, with nearly half of the $10,000 goal being raised during the four-hour "Critical Role" broadcast. In December 2015, the cast released an article on Geek & Sundry, "Critter's Guide to Critmas", in response to the flood of gifts they were receiving from fans, asking them to instead donate to a variety of charities, with a different cast member sponsoring each charity.


title: Critical Role

text: In Spring 2018, the show held a charity drive for 826LA which resulted in community members donating over $50,000, with a matching amount given by one generous community member. The drive resulted in some prizes being unlocked for the community, such as discount codes for D&D Beyond and Wyrmwood Gaming, a second "Fireside Chat" with Mercer, and a second Honey Heist run by Ray.


title: Critical Role

text: Critical Role Productions launched a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Critical Role Foundation, in September 2020 with the mission statement: "To leave the world better than we found it." "CBR" reported that "Critical Role Foundation will partner with other organizations in the nonprofit sector that share the same values as "Critical Role" and its community, in addition to raising emergency relief funds to be put toward immediate humanitarian aid as needed. Its inaugural partnership will be with First Nations Development Institute, which seeks to strengthen Native American economies and communities. CRF aims to raise $50,000 for First Nations, which will fund the Native Youth & Culture Fund for two initiatives over the course of one year."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Kyrsten Lea Sinema (; born July 12, 1976) is an American politician and former social worker serving as the senior United States senator from Arizona since January 2019. Formerly a member of the Democratic Party, Sinema became an independent in December 2022. She served three terms as a state representative for the 15th legislative district from 2005 to 2011, one term as the state senator for the 15th legislative district from 2011 to 2012, and three terms as the United States representative for the from 2013 to 2019.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party and rose to prominence for her progressive advocacy, supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposing the war on terror. She left the Green Party to join the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004 and was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2012. After her election, she joined the New Democrat Coalition, the Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, amassing one of the most conservative voting records in the Democratic caucus.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema won the 2018 Senate election to replace the retiring Jeff Flake, defeating Republican nominee Martha McSally. She is the first openly bisexual and the second openly LGBT woman (after Tammy Baldwin) to be elected to the House of Representatives and to the Senate, in 2012 and 2018, respectively. She also was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema is considered a centrist and a key swing vote in the Senate, which is split 50–50 between Democrats and Republicans in the 117th U.S. Congress. She is one of three independents in the Senate, the others being Bernie Sanders and Angus King, both of whom caucus with the Democrats. Sinema will not attend Democratic caucus meetings, but will continue to hold her Democratic committee assignments.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 12, 1976, to Marilyn (Wiley) and Dan Sinema. Sinema has an older brother and younger sister. Her father was an attorney. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother, who had custody of the children, remarried. With her siblings, mother, and stepfather, Sinema moved to DeFuniak Springs, Florida, a small town in the Panhandle.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: When her stepfather lost his job and the bank foreclosed on their home, the family lived for three years in an abandoned gas station. Sinema has said that for two years they had no toilet or electricity while living there. She later recalled, "My stepdad built a bunkbed for me and my sister. We separated our bunkbed from the kitchen with one of those big chalkboards on rollers. I knew that was weird. A chalkboard shouldn't be a wall. A kitchen should have running water."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to journalist Jonathan Martin in "The New York Times", Sinema has given "contradictory answers about her early life", and her mother and stepfather have filed court documents saying they had made monthly payments for gas, electricity, and phone bills, even though Sinema had said they had been "without running water or electricity". Asked whether she had embellished details from her childhood, Sinema said, "I've shared what I remember from my childhood. I know what I lived through."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). She graduated as valedictorian from Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs at age 16 and earned her B.A. from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1995 at age 18. She left the LDS Church after graduating from BYU. Sinema returned to Arizona in 1995.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: While employed as a social worker, Sinema completed a Master of Social Work degree at Arizona State University in 1999. In 2004, she earned a J.D. degree from Arizona State University College of Law and started working as a criminal defense lawyer. In 2012, she earned a Ph.D. in justice studies, also from Arizona State. In 2018, she completed an online M.B.A. from the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2003, Sinema became an adjunct professor teaching master's-level policy and grant-writing classes at Arizona State University School of Social Work and an adjunct business law professor at Arizona Summit Law School, formerly known as Phoenix School of Law. Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party before joining the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004, and called herself a "Prada socialist".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2000, Sinema worked on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign. In 2001 and 2002, she ran for local elected offices as an independent and lost. In 2002, "The Arizona Republic" published a letter from Sinema criticizing capitalism. She wrote: "Until the average American realizes that capitalism damages her livelihood while augmenting the livelihoods of the wealthy, the Almighty Dollar will continue to rule." She opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization during this time. In 2003, she protested Joe Lieberman's unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid, telling the "Hartford Courant": "He's a shame to Democrats. I don't even know why he's running. He seems to want to get Republicans voting for him – what kind of strategy is that?"


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: While in the Green Party, Sinema was its local spokesperson, working to repeal the death penalty and organizing antiwar protests. She had organized 15 antiwar rallies by the time the Iraq War began. She also opposed the war in Afghanistan. During a February 15, 2003, protest in Patriots Square Park in Phoenix, a group led by Sinema distributed flyers portraying a U.S. service member as a skeleton "inflicting 'U.S. terror' in Iraq and the Middle East".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In a 2003 opinion piece, Sinema wrote that Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were "the real Saddam and Osama lovers". When asked on a local radio show whether she would oppose someone joining the Taliban and fighting on its behalf, Sinema responded: "Fine ... I don't care if you want to do that, go ahead."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2002, Sinema first ran for the Arizona House of Representatives as an independent affiliated with the Arizona Green Party. She finished in last place in a five-candidate field, receiving 8 percent of the vote.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema joined the Democratic Party in 2004. That year, Sinema and David Lujan won the two seats for Arizona's 15th district, with 37 percent of the vote for Sinema and 34 percent for Lujan over incumbent representative Wally Straughn. Sinema was subsequently reelected three times with over 30 percent of the vote. In 2008, Sinema completed the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government program for senior executives in state and local government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow. In 2009 and 2010, Sinema was an assistant Minority Leader for the Democratic Caucus of the Arizona House of Representatives.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2010, Sinema was elected to the Arizona Senate, defeating Republican Bob Thomas, 63 to 37 percent.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to "Elle", "her first public comment as an elected official came in 2005, after a Republican colleague's speech insulted LGBT people. 'We're simply people like everyone else who want and deserve respect', she passionately declared. Later, when reporters asked about her use of the first person, Sinema replied, 'Duh, I'm bisexual. In 2012, when running for U.S. House, Sinema said she did not remember that coming out and declined to discuss the significance of being the first openly bisexual member of the House.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2006, Sinema told a radio host that she was "the most liberal member of the Arizona State Legislature". Also in 2006, she sponsored a bill urging the adoption of the DREAM Act, and co-chaired Arizona Together, the statewide campaign that defeated Proposition 107, which would have banned the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2008, a similar referendum, Proposition 102, passed.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2006, Sinema was asked about "new feminism", and responded: "These women who act like staying at home, leeching off their husbands or boyfriends, and just cashing the checks is some sort of feminism because they're choosing to live that life. That's bullshit. I mean, what the fuck are we really talking about here?" After facing criticism, Sinema apologized and said the interview format was intended to be a "lighthearted spoof", adding: "I was raised by a stay-at-home mom. So she did a pretty good job with me."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema campaigned against Proposition 107, a referendum to ban the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2008, she led the campaign against Proposition 102, another referendum that would have banned the recognition of same-sex marriage in Arizona. Proposition 102 was approved with 56% of the vote in the general election on November 4, 2008. Sinema chaired a coalition called Protect Arizona's Freedom, which defeated Ward Connerly's goal to place an initiative on the state ballot that would eliminate racial-preference programs.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In June 2009, Sinema was one of 32 state legislators appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House Health Reform Task Force, which helped shape the Affordable Care Act. "Thanks in part to her hard work in improving the bill", she was invited to attend the Obamacare bill signing at the White House in March 2010.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2010, Sinema sponsored a bill to give in-state tuition to veterans; it was held in committee and did not receive a vote. Also in 2010, Sinema was named one of "Time" magazine's "40 Under 40". The Center for Inquiry gave Sinema its Award for the Advancement of Science and Reason in Public Policy in 2011.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema refused to support the successful effort to recall Republican Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, saying she "love[d] him" and thought he should "run for Congress".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In June 2011, Sinema said she was considering running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012. She lived in the same Phoenix neighborhood as incumbent Democratic congressman Ed Pastor, but was adamant that she would not challenge another Democrat in a primary. On January 3, 2012, Sinema announced her bid for Congress, in the 9th congressional district. The district had previously been the 5th, represented by freshman Republican David Schweikert; it contained 60 percent of the old 5th's territory. Schweikert had been drawn into the 6th district—the old 3rd district—and sought reelection there.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Although Sinema was not required to resign her State Senate seat under Arizona's resign-to-run laws (since she was in the final year of her term), she did so on the same day that she announced her candidacy. On August 28, 2012, Sinema won the three-way Democratic primary with nearly 42 percent of the vote. Her opponents, state Senator David Schapira and former Arizona Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny, a former speechwriter in the Clinton administration, each finished with less than 30 percent of the vote.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In the general election, Sinema ran against Republican nominee Vernon Parker, the former mayor of Paradise Valley. She was endorsed by "The Arizona Republic". The campaign was described as a "nasty", "bitterly fought race that featured millions of dollars in attack ads". Parker ran campaign ads that accused Sinema of being an "anti-American hippie" who practiced "Pagan rituals". The Republican-aligned outside group American Future Fund spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on attack ads against Sinema. When her religious views were raised as an issue, her campaign said that she simply believes in a secular approach to government.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: The November 6 election was initially too close to call, because Arizona election authorities failed to count more than 25 percent of the votes on election day. Sinema held a narrow lead over Parker, while provisional and absentee ballots were still being counted. On November 12, when it was apparent that Sinema's lead was too large for Parker to overcome, the Associated Press called the race for Sinema.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Once all ballots were counted, Sinema won by 4 percentage points, over 10,000 votes. Libertarian Powell Gammill finished third with 7 percent of the votes.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema is the first openly bisexual person and second openly LGBT woman (after Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin) elected to the United States Congress.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema ran for reelection in 2014 and was unopposed in the Democratic primary, which took place on August 26, 2014. She faced Republican Wendy Rogers in the general election.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to "Roll Call", Sinema considered herself bipartisan. It was drawn as a "fair-fight" district, and President Barack Obama won the district by four points in 2012. In September 2014, she was endorsed for reelection by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, becoming one of five Democrats to be endorsed by the Chamber in the 2014 congressional election cycle. She was reelected with approximately 55 percent of the vote, beating Rogers by 13 points.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Unopposed in her primary, Sinema won the general election with 61 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Republican nominee Dave Giles, received 39 percent.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Following her election to Congress, Sinema shifted toward the political center, joining the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and amassing a "reliably moderate-Democratic" voting record. Sinema worked for the adoption of the DREAM Act, hiring DREAM Act advocate Erika Andiola as a district outreach staffer.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2015, Sinema was one of four Democrats to vote to give the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau an advisory role to banks, businesses, and credit unions.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2017, Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive nonprofit, found Sinema had voted for 12 of the 19 bills it felt "served the interests or wishes of Wall Street and the financial industry at the expense of the public interest" that year.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On September 28, 2017, Sinema officially announced her candidacy for the Class I United States Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Jeff Flake, who declined to seek reelection the next month.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In March 2018, Sinema donated to charity $33,800 in campaign contributions she had received from Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor who came under scrutiny after a homeless escort died of a drug overdose at his California home in 2017. She had previously donated to charity $53,400 in campaign contributions from people with ties to Backpage, a website that was seized by the United States Department of Justice after it was accused of knowingly accepting ads for sex with underage girls.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Federal Election Commission filings released in April 2018 showed Sinema had raised over $8.2 million, more than the three leading Republican primary contenders combined.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: During the 2018 campaign, Sinema refused to debate her competitor in the Democratic primary, Deedra Abboud, an attorney and community activist. Sinema won the August Democratic primary for the Senate seat. Her Republican opponent in the general election was fellow Arizona U.S. Representative and eventual Senate colleague Martha McSally. Sinema received the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: While Abboud said she would vote against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Sinema "said she wanted to delve deeper into Kavanaugh's writings and interview him personally before deciding". She said she was "running on the issues people care about most, including offering quality, affordable health care and promoting economic opportunity".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In the summer of 2018, Sinema said she would vote against Chuck Schumer for Minority Leader if elected to the U.S. Senate. "The Democratic leadership has failed Democrats across the country," she said. "I am unafraid to say what I believe about what I think our party needs to do and I think our party needs to grow and change."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Journalist Jonathan Martin wrote in "The New York Times" in September 2018 that Sinema was running "one of the most moderate-sounding and cautious Senate campaigns this year, keeping the media at arms-length and avoiding controversial issues", and said her campaign was generally reluctant to bring up President Donald Trump. According to Martin, both Republicans and Democrats said that Sinema had "few major legislative accomplishments to her record" and was running "on a political image that she has shaped and reshaped over the years. And nothing is more central to it now than her childhood homelessness."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On November 12, many news sources called the U.S. Senate race for Sinema, and the Republican nominee, Martha McSally, conceded. Sinema was sworn in with the 116th United States Congress on January 3, 2019.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema is the first woman to represent Arizona in the United States Senate. She is also the first Democrat elected to represent Arizona in the chamber since Dennis DeConcini, who held her current seat from 1977 to 1995.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Senate on January 3, 2019. During the oath of office ceremony, led by Vice President Mike Pence, she decided to be sworn in not on the traditional Bible, but on copies of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Arizona. She is the senior U.S. senator from Arizona; the junior U.S. senator for Arizona is Democrat Mark Kelly. Kelly defeated Sinema's 2018 general election opponent, Martha McSally, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated upon the resignation of Jon Kyl, who had been appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated upon the death of John McCain.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sinema was noted for her use of colorful wigs. Her spokeswoman explained that Sinema wore them to emphasize the importance of social distancing: by wearing wigs, she did not need to go to a hair salon.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema urged Senate colleagues to vote in favor of the proposed January 6 commission to further investigate the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. In a joint statement with Senator Joe Manchin, she said, "we implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6th." Sinema was one of two Senate Democrats who did not vote on it, the other being Senator Patty Murray of Washington. Murray and Sinema both cited a "personal family matter" for their absence.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In October 2021, five of the veterans Sinema had selected for her advisory council as liaisons to the Arizona service member community resigned. Their resignation letter accused her of "answering to big donors rather than your own people" and criticized her opposition to key Democratic party issues, such as abolishing the filibuster and aspects of Biden's Build Back Better Plan.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In December 2022, Sinema announced that she had left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent. She will continue to caucus with the Democratic Party for committee assignments.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema has been described as a moderate to conservative Democrat, being generally socially liberal but fiscally moderate-to-conservative. According to the "National Journal"s 2013 vote ratings, her votes place her near the center of their liberal–conservative scale. The "National Journal" gave her a composite ideology score of 57% liberal and 43% conservative.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to the Bipartisan Index created by the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy, Sinema was the sixth most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the first session of the 115th United States Congress. She has cited U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, as a role model. She was one of the most conservative House Democrats during her tenure.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2015 and 2016, Sinema did not vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the U.S. House. In 2015, she voted with the majority of her party 73% of the time. The conservative group Americans for Prosperity gives Sinema a lifetime 27% rating, and the conservative Goldwater Institute gave her a 35% in 2010 when she was a state legislator; the progressive Americans for Democratic Action gave her a 60% liberal quotient. In 2017, she voted in line with President Donald Trump's position approximately half the time.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to "FiveThirtyEight", as of January 2021, Sinema voted in line with Trump's position on legislation about 50% of the time. As a result, the Arizona Democratic Party suggested censuring her. But after delaying the vote and watering down the resolution from a censure to an advisement, it was ultimately tabled. According to "FiveThirtyEight", as of July 2022, Sinema has voted with President Biden's position on legislative issues 94% of the time. On January 22, 2022, the Arizona Democratic Party executive board voted to censure Sinema for voting with Senate Republicans to maintain the filibuster, preventing passage of a voting rights bill. In December 2022, she registered as an Independent; she said that she would not caucus with the Republicans and that she reached an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to retain her committee assignments through the Democratic caucus, though she will not attend caucus meetings.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In the House of Representatives, Sinema was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition and the Problem Solvers Caucus.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: When asked about "Roe v. Wade" in 2018, Sinema said the ruling should not be overturned and that she supports a woman's right to choose an abortion. In 2020, she had a lifetime 100% rating from the pro-choice organization Planned Parenthood, and a 0% rating from the anti-abortion organization Campaign for Working Families. She was endorsed by EMILY's List, an abortion-rights-focused political action committee, until 2022, when she voted with Republicans against changing the filibuster to allow passage of the Freedom to Vote and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. That vote also cost her the support of the abortion-rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America. After "Roe v. Wade" was overturned in June 2022, Sinema said the decision "endangers the health and well-being of women in Arizona and across America."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: While working as a spokesperson for the Arizona Green Party, Sinema worked to repeal the death penalty. In her 2009 book, "Unite and Conquer", she explained her stance on capital punishment, writing that she opposed it "because I think no civilized society should use it as a punishment", though "since we have the death penalty in Arizona, I want to ensure that it's being implemented as fairly and judiciously as possible".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to "The Arizona Republic", while serving in the Arizona State Legislature, she introduced more bills regarding the death penalty than bills regarding military or veterans' families. In 2007, she introduced HB 2278, which would require the Arizona Supreme Court to "strike" any prior death sentence and "enter in its place a sentence of natural life", as in life without parole.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema has served as an Advisory Board Member of the Arizona Death Penalty Forum. She was also a presenter at their 2010 Spring Conference, which was co-sponsored by Amnesty International and the ACLU of Arizona.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2013, Sinema co-sponsored Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney's letter, which opposed Saudi Arabia for "the use of torture and capital punishment against the LGBTQ community".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2017, Sinema and 47 other House Democrats voted with the majority of House Republicans on H.R. 115, Thin Blue Line Act of 2017, which was opposed by the ACLU. The bill would "expand the list of statutory aggravating factors in death penalty determinations" to include the killing or targeting of a law enforcement officer, first responder, or firefighter.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On February 5, 2019, Sinema voted for a bill that would make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions, authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, and reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015. On March 13, 2019, she voted to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema has voted for federal stimulus spending. She has said: "Raising taxes is more economically sound than cutting vital social services."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2015, Sinema was one of just seven House Democrats to vote in favor of a Republican-backed bill to repeal the estate tax, which affects about 0.2% of Americans in the U.S. each year (estates of $5.43 million or more for individuals, or $10.86 million or more for couples). That same year, she voted to change the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's leadership from a single director to a bipartisan commission.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2016, with Republican congressman John Katko of New York, Sinema cosponsored the Working Parents Flexibility Act (H.R. 4699). This legislation would establish a tax-free "parental savings account" in which employers and parents could invest savings tax-free, with unused funds eligible to be "rolled into qualifying retirement, college savings or ABLE accounts for people with disabilities without tax penalties". In September 2018, she voted "to make individual tax cuts passed by the GOP [in 2017] permanent". She was one of three Democrats to break with her party and vote for the tax cuts being made permanent.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On July 30, 2019, Sinema and Senator Bill Cassidy released a proposal under which new parents would be authorized to advance their child tax credit benefits in order to receive a $5,000 cash benefit upon either birth or adoption of a child. The parents' child tax credit would then be reduced by $500 for each year of the following decade.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2022, several provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 were changed after negotiations with Sinema: a provision narrowing the carried interest loophole was dropped, a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks was added, and manufacturing exceptions were added to the corporate minimum tax.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On February 12, 2021, Sinema became the second Democratic senator after Joe Manchin to announce her opposition to including a $15/hour minimum wage as part of a COVID-19 relief bill. On March 5, 2021, Sinema voted against an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. She did so by flashing a thumbs-down, and some commentators compared her demeanor to that of former Arizona senator John McCain, who had voted with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture in 2017; others compared her to former French queen Marie Antoinette, to whom the phrase "let them eat cake" is attributed. Sinema's office responded that any commentary on her clothes and demeanor was sexist. Her vote was at odds with that of fellow Democrat Mark Kelly, the junior Arizona senator, who supports a $15/hour minimum wage.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In February 2019, Sinema was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to their employees' student loans.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2019, Sinema was one of four Democratic-caucusing senators to join all Republicans in voting against the Green New Deal, a stimulus program that aims to address climate change and economic inequality, while most other Democrats voted "present". In April 2019, Sinema was one of three Democrats who voted with Republicans to confirm David Bernhardt, a former oil executive, as Secretary of the Interior Department.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On February 12, 2019, Sinema voted along with the whole Senate for the Natural Resources Management Act, which provides for the management of the natural resources of the United States.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema supports the use of military force to stop genocide, such as in Sudan, Somalia and Rwanda. She wrote a doctoral dissertation on the 1994 Rwandan genocide that Lexington Books published in 2015 under the title "".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema was opposed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and helped organize anti-war protests while a law student at Arizona State University. Sinema was involved in organizing a Phoenix-area group called the Arizona Alliance for Peaceful Justice (AAPJ). According to Josh Lederman of "The Hill", "The group's mission statement at the time called military action 'an inappropriate response to terrorism' and advocated for using the legal system—not violence—to bring Osama bin Laden and others to justice."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: As an antiwar activist in the years after 9/11, Sinema "led a group that distributed flyers depicting an American soldier as a skeleton inflicting 'U.S. terror' in Iraq and the Middle East." The flyers "promoted a February 2003 rally organized by Local to Global Justice, an anti-war group Sinema co-founded". Sinema was described in news reports as an organizer and sponsor of the rally and was listed as the point of contact for the event. One flyer referred to "Bush and his fascist, imperialist war", saying, "Government is slavery", and describing laws as "cobwebs for the rich and chains of steel for the poor". CNN said that such positions were "a contrast from the more moderate profile she has developed since her 2012 election to Congress".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2005 and 2006, she co-hosted an Air America radio show with 9/11 truther Jeff Farias. In 2006, Sinema said she opposed "war in all its forms", and wrote: "As one of the core organizers against the war from day one (September 12, 2001), I have always and will always continue to oppose war in all its forms."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: After joining Congress in 2012, she said her views on military force had "evolved", and that "you should never take military intervention off the table. When you do so, you give an out to a rogue nation or rogue actors." Lederman reported that "she said she favors aggressive diplomacy, crippling sanctions to combat proliferation, and swift, multilateral intervention as a last resort". Since joining Congress, she has voted against the Iran Nuclear Deal and supported Trump's missile attack on Syria.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema favors gun control measures such as requiring background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows, and requiring a license for gun possession. In 2016 the National Rifle Association (NRA), which opposes gun regulations, gave Sinema a 29% rating. In 2018, the NRA gave Sinema a 33% score, and the Gun Owners of America gave her a 17% rating.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, but has called for reforms to the law. In a 2012 congressional campaign debate, she said the health care law was not perfect, and that in Congress she would work to amend it to make it work effectively. Sinema voted to delay the imposition of fines on those who did not purchase insurance in 2014. She also voted to repeal the Medical Device Tax and for the Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Speaking about healthcare policy, Sinema said, "I used to say that I wanted universal health-care coverage in Arizona, which went over like a ton of bricks. Turns out, Arizonans hear the word 'universal' and think 'socialism'—or 'pinko commie'. But when I say that I want all Arizonans to have access to affordable, quality health care, Arizonans agree wholeheartedly. Same basic idea, different language."


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2021, Sinema opposed prescription drug pricing reform proposals in House and Senate versions of a Democrat-crafted spending bill. On October 8, 2021, "Jacobin" reported:


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Early last month, a corporate front group called Center Forward purchased $600,000 worth of television and radio ads promoting Sinema in Arizona. The ads touted her "independence" and characterized her as "a bipartisan leader" in the mold of the late senator John McCain. As we reported, Center Forward has been heavily bankrolled by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the powerful Washington drug lobby. Two Center Forward board members lobby for PhRMA, as well as drugmakers Amgen, Bayer, Gilead Sciences, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi. A few days after the ad campaign started, Sinema informed the White House she opposed the party’s drug pricing plan.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin met with President Biden the same day to discuss their concerns with the bills. Observers have noted that Sinema is one of the largest beneficiaries of pharmaceutical political action committee money in Congress, and has been described as a "Pharma Favorite". KHN reported: "For the 2019-20 election cycle through March, political action committees run by employees of drug companies and their trade groups gave her $98,500 in campaign funds, Kaiser Health News’ Pharma Cash to Congress database shows. That stands out in a Congress in which a third of the members got no pharma cash for the period and half of those who did got $10,000 or less." Sinema's haul was "twice that of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans in November, and approached that of fellow Democrat Steny Hoyer, the powerful House majority leader from Maryland." Senator Bernie Sanders indirectly called her out, saying: "Take a hard look at those people who are opposed to strong legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs, and take a look at their campaign-finance reports. See where they get their money, how many of them get their money from the pharmaceutical industry, and the executives there. And I think there will be a direct correlation." On October 18, 2021, "Politico" reported:


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia raked in cash last quarter from a bevy of corporations, executives and lobbyists working to pare back the Democratic reconciliation package that Sinema and Manchin have also been vocal opponents of, according to their latest campaign finance filings... Sinema, who has emerged as the leading Democratic opponent in the Senate to her party’s drug pricing proposal, received more than $27,000 from PACs of pharmaceutical companies, including Astellas, Sunovion, Takeda, Horizon, Eli Lilly, Abbvie, Alexion and Lundbeck.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: According to a profile in "The Advocate", "Sinema has her sights set on advancing LGBT rights." She has a history of policy advocacy regarding LGBT rights and issues. In 2006, Sinema was among the leading opponents of a proposed amendment to the Arizona state constitution which would have banned same-sex marriages and civil unions. The proposal failed in Arizona, the first time that a state rejected a ban on same-sex marriage, but a second proposed amendment banning only same-sex marriage passed in 2008 with Sinema in opposition again. She supports same-sex marriage, domestic partnership recognition, and adding gender identity to anti-discrimination laws.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In December 2022, Sinema was a lead cosponsor and negotiator on the Respect for Marriage Act, which passed the Senate, 61–36.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema co-sponsored the Southwest Border Security Threat Assessment Act (H.R. 4482), a bill that calls for border threat analysis of terrorism, smuggling, and human trafficking every five years.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema was one of 24 House Democrats to vote in favor of Kate's Law, a bill that would expand maximum sentences for foreigners who attempt to reenter the country, legally or illegally, after having been deported, denied entry or removed, and for foreign felons who attempt to reenter the country.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema voted for the SAFE Act, which expanded the refugee screening process to require signatures from the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of National Intelligence for each refugee entering the country.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema opposed Arizona SB 1070. She has argued that mass deportation of undocumented immigrants is not an option and supported the DREAM Act. Her 2012 campaign website stated that "we need to create a tough but fair path to citizenship for undocumented workers that requires them to get right with the law by paying back taxes, paying a fine and learning English as a condition of gaining citizenship." In July 2018, she broke with her party by voting with Republicans against abolishing ICE.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a PAC that seeks to limit both legal and illegal immigration, gave Sinema a 33% rating in 2018, and UnidosUS, which supports a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, gave Sinema a score of 88% in 2014.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On February 4, 2021, Sinema voted against providing COVID-19 pandemic financial support to undocumented immigrants.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In June 2013, Sinema became one of 29 original cosponsors of the bipartisan LIBERT-E (Limiting Internet and Blanket Electronic Review of Telecommunications and Email) Act, along with Representative Justin Amash. The legislation would limit the National Security Agency (NSA) to only collecting electronic information from subjects of an investigation.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In July 2013, Sinema joined a bipartisan majority and voted against an amendment to a defense appropriations bill (offered by Amash) to prohibit the NSA from monitoring and recording details of U.S. citizens' telecommunications without a warrant.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Earlier in her career, Sinema expressed enthusiasm about evading the Senate filibuster through the reconciliation process, saying that Republicans at times "never had 60 votes and they managed to do a lot of bad things done during that time" and "the reconciliation process is still quite available and we will use it for good rather than for evil". She also implied that conservative Democrat Joe Lieberman was barely a Democrat, as his vote according to her could not be counted on for Democratic health policy, saying, "some might argue we never had 60, because one of those votes was Joseph Lieberman, but that's whatever—yeah, and Nelson too, but really Lieberman". She concluded, "So now there's none of this false pressure to get to 60... the Democrats can stop kowtowing to Joe Lieberman and instead seek other avenues".


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On January 25, 2021, a spokesperson for Sinema told "The Washington Post" that she is "against eliminating the filibuster" and "not open to changing her mind" on the issue.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2016, Sinema was one of five House Democrats to vote for a Republican-backed bill barring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from regulating broadband rates. Her vote broke from her party; other Democrats were strongly opposed to the measure, and President Obama said he would veto it if it passed.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: In 2019, Sinema was the sole Senate Democrat not to co-sponsor the Save the Internet Act, which would restore Obama-era regulations preventing ISPs from throttling consumers' website traffic. She worked with Senate Republican Roger Wicker to develop their own net neutrality bill.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema is bisexual. She has also been reported to be the only non-theist member of Congress, although she has rejected the label.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema has completed numerous marathons. In 2019, she completed a marathon in 3:28:17, which was fast enough for her (female) age group to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Two weeks before her Boston-qualifying race, she ran a three-mile race in 20:42, setting a record for women in Congress. In 2020, she set a personal record of 3:21:45 and later in 2021, she broke her right foot while running a marathon, requiring her to use a hands-free crutch.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: On November 17, 2013, Sinema completed an Ironman Triathlon in a little over 15 hours. She was the second active member of Congress, after Senator Jeff Merkley, to finish a long-distance triathlon, and the first to complete an Ironman-branded race. She completed the 2015 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.


title: Kyrsten Sinema

text: Sinema's great-great-grandfather Lieuwe Jacobs Sinnema (1863–1943) immigrated at a young age with his father Jacob Jans Sinnema (1830–1903) to the United States in 1867 from the village of Bitgum, in the Dutch province of Friesland. They came to Sioux City, Iowa, and later her great-great-grandfather settled in Twin Falls, Idaho, where her great-grandfather Jacob Sinema (1892–1963) and grandfather Gerald Sinema (1929–1991) were brought up. Her grandfather relocated to Phoenix, where her father, Dan Sinema, was born in 1949.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 fantasy romantic drama film directed and produced by George Miller. Written by Miller and Augusta Gore, it is based on the short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye" by A. S. Byatt and stars Idris Elba as a djinn who is unleashed from a bottle by a professor (Tilda Swinton) and tells her stories from his thousands of years-long existence. The film is dedicated to Miller's mother Angela, as well as Rena Mitchell, relative of producer Doug Mitchell.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2022. It was released theatrically in the United States on August 26, 2022, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (via United Artists Releasing), and in Australia on September 1, 2022, by Roadshow Entertainment. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its visuals and performances, but was a box-office bomb, grossing $19 million for a budget of $60 million.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: Alithea Binnie is a British scholar who occasionally suffers from bizarre hallucinations of demonic beings. During a trip to Istanbul, Alithea purchases an antique bottle, and accidentally unleashes a Djinn that was trapped within it. The Djinn offers to grant Alithea three wishes, so long as each one is truly her heart's desire, but Alithea argues that wishing is a mistake, accusing the Djinn of being a trickster. In response to her accusation, the Djinn proceeds to tell her three tales of his past and how he ended up trapped in the bottle.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The Djinn tells the story of the Queen of Sheba, his cousin and lover, being wooed by King Solomon, who imprisons the Djinn in a bottle and throws the bottle out the window where it is cast into the Red Sea by a gull, so he can keep Sheba for himself. The Djinn's second story centers on Gülten, a young concubine in the palace of Suleiman the Magnificent. After finding the Djinn's bottle, Gülten wishes for Suleiman's son, Mustafa, to fall in love with her and subsequently wishes to bear his child. Hürrem Sultan, a favored concubine of Suleiman, schemes to have her son on the throne, so she seeds Suleiman's mind with the idea that Mustafa will conduct a coup against him and that he is too weak to lead the kingdom. The Djinn tries to warn Gülten, but being naive and ignorant of the corrupt politics within the ruling class, she ignores him. This results in Mustafa's murder, causing Gülten to leave behind the Djinn's hidden bottle and flee. Despite the Djinn's attempts to pursue and save her, the pregnant Gülten is also killed on Suleiman's orders before she can make her final wish.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The Djinn wanders the palace for over 100 years, invisible due to the concealment of the bottle. Meanwhile, the bottle is almost found by young princes Murad IV and Ibrahim, but they are unable to successfully uncover the bottle because of their mother Kösem Sultan. Years later, Murad IV goes into war, where he becomes a vicious and ruthless ruler, later dying from alcoholism. Ibrahim develops a fetish for voluptuous concubines and becomes the new sultan. His favorite among them, Sugar Lump, accidentally retrieves the bottle, whereupon the Djinn appears to her and desperately begs her to make a wish. Sugar Lump thinks him to be a trickster and wishes for the Djinn to return to his bottle and for the bottle to be cast into the sea.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: In the Djinn's final story, he tells of Zefir, the young wife of a Turkish merchant, who is gifted the bottle after it is recovered in the mid-19th century. Zefir wishes first for knowledge, which the Djinn grants in the form of literature, and later to perceive the world as djinns do. Despite the Djinn's growing affection for Zefir and the fact she is now pregnant with his child, she grows increasingly crowded by his presence and her newfound knowledge. The Djinn offers to reside in his bottle whenever she wishes, but as he begins his return to the bottle, Zefir wishes to forget she ever met the Djinn, leaving him imprisoned and unknown once again. The Djinn's final story moves Alithea to the point where she wishes for Djinn and herself to fall in love, resulting in them having sex.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: Afterwards, the Djinn and Alithea decide to travel back to London together. At the airport Alithea has placed the Djinn inside a salt shaker bottle and placed the bottle without the top in one pocket and the top in her other pocket which sets off the sensors when she goes through airport security. An airport security officer investigates the salt shaker by placing a pencil inside and then places the top on the bottle, which he sends through the X-ray machine despite Alithea’s pleas.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: One day, Alithea discovers that the Djinn is gradually becoming weaker due to the effects that the city's cell tower and satellite transmissions have when interacting with his supernatural physiology. She uses her second wish to get the severely ill Djinn to speak again, apologizes for using her wish to deny them the chance to fall in love naturally, and uses her third and final wish to set the Djinn free, so he is able to return to "The Realm of Djinn".


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: Though expecting never to see him again, the now-healthy Djinn visits Alithea three years later and periodically returns throughout her lifetime.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: It was announced in October 2018 that George Miller had set his next directorial effort, described as "epic in scope" and expected to begin filming in 2019. Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton were announced as cast members the same month. The film is based on A. S. Byatt's short story "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye."


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: In a July 2019 interview, Miller said that pre-production would begin in late 2019, and that filming would begin on March 2, 2020, between Australia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and began in November 2020 in Australia.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: In May 2020, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (via United Artists Releasing) acquired the film's North American distribution rights, with Metropolitan Filmexport and Sunac Culture handling distribution in France and China respectively. Roadshow Entertainment handled the Australian distribution, while Entertainment Film Distributors handled distribution in the United Kingdom.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2022, where it received a six-minute standing ovation. An activist protesting sexual violence perpetrated by Russian soldiers in Ukraine appeared at the premiere and stripped nude while screaming before being removed by Cannes security. The film's first trailer was also released that day.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The film's scheduled release date of August 31, 2022, in the United States, was moved up to August 26. It was released in Australia on September 1, 2022.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: The film was released for VOD on November 1, 2022, followed by a Blu-ray, DVD and 4K UHD release on November 15, 2022.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: "Three Thousand Years of Longing" grossed $8.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $19.4 million.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: In the United States and Canada, it was released alongside "The Invitation" and "Breaking". It made $1.4 million on its first day and went on to debut with $2.9 million from 2,436 theaters on its opening weekend. "Variety" called it "a terrible result for a movie that's playing in thousands of theaters across the country", and noted that it would be one of the biggest box office bombs of 2022, with industry experts blaming lack of marketing and the wide-release strategy. "TheWrap", while acknowledging its box office underperformance, noted the film could still turn a profit for MGM after it went to streaming, as the company spent only $6 million on domestic distribution rights. In its second weekend, the film made $1.5 million (and a total of $1.9 million over the four-day Labor Day frame), dropping 47.1% and finishing 13th.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 245 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Although its story isn't as impressive as its visual marvels, it's hard not to admire "Three Thousand Years of Longing"s sheer ambition." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Three Thousand Years of Longing

text: Peter Debruge of "Variety" said: "These days, audiences are so savvy about the tricks at a filmmaker's disposal that the movie's greatest achievement is that it seizes our imagination (or perhaps that's our attention deficit disorder being so brusquely manhandled) and holds it for the better part of two hours, defying us to anticipate what comes next."


title: Pug

text: The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (fawn) or black, and a compact, square body with well developed and thick muscles all over the body.


title: Pug

text: Pugs were brought from China to Europe in the sixteenth century and were popularized in Western Europe by the House of Orange of the Netherlands, and the House of Stuart. In the United Kingdom, in the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria developed a passion for pugs which she passed on to other members of the Royal Family.


title: Pug

text: Pugs are known for being sociable and gentle companion dogs. The American Kennel Club describes the breed's personality as "even-tempered and charming". Pugs remain popular into the twenty-first century, with some famous celebrity owners.


title: Pug

text: While the pugs that are depicted in eighteenth century prints tend to be long and lean, modern breed preferences are for a square cobby body, a compact form, a deep chest, and well-developed muscle. Their smooth and glossy coats can be fawn, apricot fawn, silver fawn, or black. The markings are clearly defined and there is a trace of a black line extending from the occiput to the tail. The tail normally curls tightly over the hip.


title: Pug

text: Pugs have two distinct shapes for their ears, "rose" and "button". "Rose" ears are smaller than the standard style of "button" ears, and are folded with the front edge against the side of the head. Breeding preference goes to "button" style ears.


title: Pug

text: Pugs' legs are strong, straight, of moderate length and are set well under. Their shoulders are moderately laid back. Their ankles are strong, their feet are small, their toes are well split-up, and their nails are black. The lower teeth normally protrude further than their upper, resulting in an under-bite.


title: Pug

text: This breed is often described by the Latin phrase "multum in parvo", or "much in little" or "a lot of dog in a small space", alluding to the pug's remarkable and charming personality, despite its small size. Pugs are strong-willed but rarely aggressive, and are suitable for families with children. The majority of the breed is very fond of children and sturdy enough to properly play with them. Depending on their owner's mood, they can be quiet and docile but also vivacious and teasing. Pugs tend to be intuitive and sensitive to the moods of their owners and are usually eager to please them. Pugs are playful and thrive on human companionship. They also tend to have a snoozy nature and spend a lot of time napping. Pugs are often called "shadows" because they follow their owners around and like to stay close to the action, craving attention and affection from their owners.


title: Pug

text: Pug pregnancies last an average of 63 days. The average sized litter for pugs is 4 to 6 puppies, though this can vary from 1 to 9 and still be considered normal. Due to the relative size of neonatal skulls to the birth canal, pugs are highly predisposed to cesarean births.


title: Pug

text: Pugs were brought from China to Europe in the sixteenth century. Similar dogs were popular in the Imperial court during the Song Dynasty.


title: Pug

text: In ancient times, pugs were bred to be companions for ruling families in China. The pet pugs were highly valued by Chinese Emperors, and the royal dogs were kept in luxury and guarded by soldiers. Pugs later spread to other parts of Asia. In Tibet, Buddhist monks kept pugs as pets in their monasteries. The breed has retained its affectionate devotion to its owners since ancient times.


title: Pug

text: Pugs were popular at European courts, and reportedly became the official dog of the House of Orange in 1572 after a pug named Pompey saved the life of the Prince of Orange by alerting him to the approach of assassins.


title: Pug

text: A pug travelled with William III and Mary II when they left the Netherlands to accept the throne of England in 1688. During this period, the pug may have been bred with the old type King Charles spaniel, giving the modern King Charles Spaniel its pug-like characteristics.


title: Pug

text: The breed eventually became popular in other European countries as well. Pugs were painted by Goya in Spain, and in Italy they rode up front on private carriages, dressed in jackets and pantaloons that matched those of the coachman. They were used by the military to track animals and people, and were also employed as guard dogs.


title: Pug

text: The English painter William Hogarth was the devoted owner of a series of pugs. His 1745 self-portrait, which is now in London's Tate Gallery, includes his pug, Trump. The pug was also well known in Italy. In 1789, author Hester Piozzi wrote in her journal, "The little Pug dog or Dutch mastiff has quitted London for Padua, I perceive. Every carriage I meet here has a Pug in it."


title: Pug

text: The popularity of the pug continued to spread in France during the eighteenth century. Before her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte, Joséphine had her pug Fortune carry concealed messages to her family while she was confined at Les Carmes prison, it having alone been given visiting rights.


title: Pug

text: In nineteenth-century England, the breed flourished under the patronage of Queen Victoria. Her many pugs, which she bred herself, included Olga, Pedro, Minka, Fatima and Venus. Her involvement with dogs in general helped to establish the Kennel Club, which was formed in 1873. Queen Victoria favored apricot and fawn colors. Her passion for pugs was passed on to many other members of the Royal family, including her grandson King George V and his son King Edward VIII. Many responded to the breed's image of anti-functionalism and diminutive size during this period.


title: Pug

text: In paintings and engravings of the 18th and 19th centuries, pugs usually appear with longer legs and noses than today, and sometimes with cropped ears. The modern pug's appearance probably changed after 1860 when a new wave of pugs were imported directly from China. These pugs had shorter legs and the modern-style pug nose. The British aristocrat Lady Brassey is credited with making black pugs fashionable after she brought some back from China in 1886. Ear cropping was made illegal in 1895.


title: Pug

text: Pugs arrived in the United States during the nineteenth century and were soon making their way into the family home and the show ring. The American Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1885. The Pug Dog Club of America was founded in 1931 and was recognized by the American Kennel Club that same year. In 1981, the pug "Dhandys Favorite Woodchuck" won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in the United States, the only pug to have won there since the show began in 1877.


title: Pug

text: The breeding of pugs led to shorter muzzles and shorter legs over time, with the dogs susceptible to health issues. Hogarth's painting from the 18th century depicts the originally longer muzzle, as well as the picture in a 1927 edition of Brehms Tierleben. Since 2006 there has been a trend in some countries to breed "retro pugs".


title: Pug

text: The World Champion, or Best in Show at the 2004 World Dog Show held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was a pug named "Double D Cinoblu's Masterpiece".


title: Pug

text: Since pugs lack longer snouts and prominent skeletal brow ridges, they are susceptible to eye injuries such as proptosis, scratched corneas, and painful entropion. They also have compact breathing passageways, leaving many prone to breathing difficulties or unable to efficiently regulate their temperature through evaporation from the tongue by panting. A pug's normal body temperature is between and . If this temperature rises to , oxygen demand is greatly increased and immediate cooling is required. If body temperature reaches , organ failure can occur. Their breathing problems can be worsened by the stresses of travelling in air cargo, which may involve high temperatures. Following the deaths of pugs and other brachycephalic breeds, several airlines either banned their transport in cargo or enacted seasonal restrictions.


title: Pug

text: Pugs that live a mostly sedentary life can be prone to obesity, though this is avoidable with regular exercise and a healthy diet. Obesity should be considered a health priority in pugs because of the high prevalence, associated health problems and reversible nature of the disorder. The median life span of pugs is 11 years, which is in line with other breeds of the same size.


title: Pug

text: Pugs are prone to brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome (BAOS) which causes respiratory distress in short-snouted breeds. Pugs have elongated palates. When excited, they are prone to "reverse sneezing" which causes them to quickly (and seemingly laboriously) gasp and snort. The veterinary name for this is pharyngeal gag reflex and it is caused by fluid or debris getting caught under the palate and irritating the throat or limiting breathing. Reverse sneezing episodes are usually not harmful, and massaging the dog's throat or covering its nose in order to make it breathe through its mouth can often shorten a sneezing fit.


title: Pug

text: Some pugs are also born with stenotic nares (pinched nostrils) which can inhibit their breathing. In serious cases, it makes breathing even more difficult and puts added pressure on the larynx. In some cases, the dog could pass out from blocked airways. If this happens, one should inquire with their veterinarian whether or not surgery is needed to open the nostrils.


title: Pug

text: Protruding eyes and eye prolapse is a common problem among pugs and other brachycephalic breeds and can be caused by a trauma to the head or neck. While the eye can usually be pushed back into its socket by the owner or by a vet, veterinary attention is usually advisable. If the prolapse happens on a regular basis, the pug might require surgery.


title: Pug

text: Pugs have many wrinkles in their faces, so owners will often clean inside the creases to avoid irritation and infection. If this is not done, the dog may develop a condition known as skin fold dermatitis.


title: Pug

text: An abnormal formation of the hip socket, known as hip dysplasia, affected nearly 64% of pugs in a 2010 survey performed by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals; the breed was ranked the second worst-affected by this condition out of 157 breeds tested.


title: Pug

text: Pugs are one of several breeds that are more susceptible than other dogs to demodectic mange, also known as "demodex". This condition is caused when parasitic mites, that are often present in a dog's skin without causing symptoms, are allowed to do damage because their host has a weakened immune system. It is a problem for many young pugs, although not usually a major one, and is easily treatable, but some are especially susceptible and present with a systemic form of the condition. This vulnerability is thought to be genetic and breeders will avoid producing puppies from adults who have this condition.


title: Pug

text: In 2008, an investigative documentary carried out by the BBC found significant inbreeding between pedigree dogs, with a study by Imperial College, London, showing that the 10,000 pugs in the UK were so inbred that their gene pool was the equivalent of only 50 individuals.


title: Pug

text: Pugs can suffer from necrotizing meningoencephalitis (NME), also known as pug dog encephalitis (PDE), an inflammation of the brain and meninges. NME also occurs in other small dogs, such as the Yorkshire Terrier, Maltese, and Chihuahua. There is no known cure for NME, which is believed to be an inherited disease. Dogs usually die or have to be euthanaised within a few months of onset, which, in those susceptible to this condition, is mostly between six months and three years of age.


title: Pug

text: This breed, along with other brachycephalic dogs (e.g., boxers, bulldogs), are also prone to hemivertebrae. The curled tail of a British bulldog is an example of a hemivertebrae, but when it occurs not in the coccygeal vertebrae but in other areas of the spine, it can cause paralysis. The condition occurs when two parts of a spinal vertebra do not fuse properly while a young pug is still growing, resulting in an irregularly shaped spinal cavity which can put pressure on the spinal cord.


title: Pug

text: The breed became iconic in India, as it was featured as the mascot in a series of Vodafone (formerly Hutchison Essar) advertising commercials directed by Prakash Varma. The pug that was predominantly featured in the commercials was Cheeka. The advertisement campaign was followed by a rise in the popularity of pugs in India, and the sale of pugs more than doubled within months, with prices for pugs rising considerably. A few other adverts also appeared in the following months, inspired by the idea of a dog following a boy.


title: Pug

text: In Jane Austen's 1814 novel, "Mansfield Park", Lady Bertram, the hero's mother, owned a pet pug and was "thinking more of her pug than her children".


title: Pug

text: The 1989 film "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" features a pug named Otis, known as "Poosky" in its original 1986 Japanese version "The Adventures of Chatran".


title: Pug

text: The "Men in Black" film series features Frank, a fictional talking pug portrayed by animal actor Mushu.


title: Money laundering

text: Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is usually a key operation of organized crime.


title: Money laundering

text: In US law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. In UK law the common law definition is wider. The act is defined as "taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that that property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property".


title: Money laundering

text: In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to mean "any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act", which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting. In the UK, it does not even need to involve money, but any economic good. Courts involve money laundering committed by private individuals, drug dealers, businesses, corrupt officials, members of criminal organizations such as the Mafia, and even states.


title: Money laundering

text: As financial crime has become more complex, and financial intelligence has become more recognized in combating international crime and terrorism, money laundering has become more prominent in political, economic, and legal debate. Money laundering is ipso facto illegal; the acts generating the money almost always are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered).


title: Money laundering

text: Laws against money laundering were created to use against organized crime during the period of Prohibition in the United States during the 1930s. Organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition and a large source of new funds that were obtained from illegal sales of alcohol. The successful prosecution of Al Capone on tax evasion brought in a new emphasis by the state and law enforcement agencies to track and confiscate money, but existing laws against tax evasion could not be used once gangsters started paying their taxes.


title: Money laundering

text: In the 1980s, the war on drugs led governments again to turn to money laundering rules in an attempt to track and seize the proceeds of drug crimes in order to catch the organizers and individuals running drug empires. It also had the benefit, from a law enforcement point of view, of turning rules of evidence "upside down". Law enforcers normally have to prove an individual is guilty to seize their property, but with money laundering laws money can be confiscated and it is up to the individual to prove that the source of funds is legitimate to get the money back. This makes it much easier for law enforcement agencies and provides for much lower burdens of proof. However, this process has been abused by some law enforcement agencies to take and keep money without strong evidence of related criminal activity, to be used to supplement their own budgets.


title: Money laundering

text: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which led to the Patriot Act in the U.S. and similar legislation worldwide, led to a new emphasis on money laundering laws to combat terrorism financing. The Group of Seven (G7) nations used the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to put pressure on governments around the world to increase surveillance and monitoring of financial transactions and share this information between countries. Starting in 2002, governments around the world upgraded money laundering laws and surveillance and monitoring systems of financial transactions. Anti-money laundering regulations have become a much larger burden for financial institutions and enforcement has stepped up significantly.


title: Money laundering

text: During 2011–2015 a number of major banks faced ever-increasing fines for breaches of money laundering regulations. This included HSBC, which was fined $1.9 billion in December 2012, and BNP Paribas, which was fined $8.9 billion in July 2014 by the U.S. government. Many countries introduced or strengthened border controls on the amount of cash that can be carried and introduced central transaction reporting systems where all financial institutions have to report all financial transactions electronically. For example, in 2006, Australia set up the AUSTRAC system and required the reporting of all financial transactions.


title: Money laundering

text: Money laundering is the conversion or transfer of property; the concealment or disguising of the nature of the proceeds; the acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing that these are derived from criminal acts; the participating in or assisting the movement of funds to make the proceeds appear legitimate.


title: Money laundering

text: Money obtained from certain crimes, such as extortion, insider trading, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned" to appear to have been derived from legal activities, so that banks and other financial institutions will deal with it without suspicion. Money can be laundered by many methods that vary in complexity and sophistication.


title: Money laundering

text: Money laundering typically involves three steps: The first involves introducing cash into the financial system by some means ("placement"); the second involves carrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source of the cash ("layering"); and finally, acquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds ("integration"). Some of these steps may be omitted, depending upon the circumstances. For example, non-cash proceeds that are already in the financial system would not need to be placed.


title: Money laundering

text: Money laundering can take several forms, although most methodologies can be categorized into one of a few types. These include "bank methods, smurfing [also known as structuring], currency exchanges, and double-invoicing".


title: Money laundering

text: In theory, electronic money should provide as easy a method of transferring value without revealing identity as untracked banknotes, especially wire transfers involving anonymity-protecting numbered bank accounts. In practice, however, the record-keeping capabilities of Internet service providers and other network resource maintainers tend to frustrate that intention. While some cryptocurrencies under recent development have aimed to provide for more possibilities of transaction anonymity for various reasons, the degree to which they succeed—and, in consequence, the degree to which they offer benefits for money laundering efforts—is controversial. Solutions such as ZCash and Monero are examples of cryptocurrencies that provide unlinkable anonymity via proofs and/or obfuscation of information (ring signatures). Such currencies could find use in online illicit services.


title: Money laundering

text: In 2013, Jean-Loup Richet, a research fellow at ESSEC ISIS, surveyed new techniques that cybercriminals were using in a report written for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. A common approach was to use a digital currency exchanger service which converted dollars into a digital currency called Liberty Reserve, and could be sent and received anonymously. The receiver could convert the Liberty Reserve currency back into cash for a small fee. In May 2013, the US authorities shut down Liberty Reserve charging its founder and various others with money laundering.


title: Money laundering

text: Another increasingly common way of laundering money is to use online gaming. In a growing number of online games, such as "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft," it is possible to convert money into virtual goods, services, or virtual cash that can later be converted back into money.


title: Money laundering

text: To avoid the usage of decentralized digital money such as Bitcoin for the profit of crime and corruption, Australia is planning to strengthen the nation's anti-money laundering laws.


title: Money laundering

text: The characteristics of Bitcoin—it is completely deterministic, protocol based and can be difficult to censor—make it possible to circumvent national laws using services like Tor to obfuscate transaction origins. Bitcoin relies completely on cryptography, not on a central entity running under a KYC framework. There are several cases in which criminals have cashed out a significant amount of Bitcoin after ransomware attacks, drug dealings, cyber fraud and gunrunning. However, many digital currency exchanges are now operating KYC programs under threat of regulation from the jurisdictions they operate in.


title: Money laundering

text: Reverse money laundering is a process that disguises a legitimate source of funds that are to be used for illegal purposes. It is usually perpetrated for the purpose of financing terrorism but can be also used by criminal organizations that have invested in legal businesses and would like to withdraw legitimate funds from official circulation. Unaccounted cash received via disguising financial transactions is not included in official financial reporting and could be used to evade taxes, hand in bribes and pay "under-the-table" salaries. For example, in an affidavit filed on 24 March 2014 in United States District Court, Northern California, San Francisco Division, FBI special agent Emmanuel V. Pascau alleged that several people associated with the Chee Kung Tong organization, and California State Senator Leland Yee, engaged in reverse money laundering activities.


title: Money laundering

text: The problem of such fraudulent encashment practices ("obnalichka" in Russian) has become acute in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) reported that the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan have encountered a substantial shrinkage of tax base and shifting money supply balance in favor of cash. These processes have complicated planning and management of the economy and contributed to the growth of the shadow economy.


title: Money laundering

text: Many regulatory and governmental authorities issue estimates each year for the amount of money laundered, either worldwide or within their national economy. In 1996, a spokesperson for the IMF estimated that 2–5% of the worldwide global economy involved laundered money. The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an intergovernmental body set up to combat money laundering, stated, "Due to the illegal nature of the transactions, precise statistics are not available and it is therefore impossible to produce a definitive estimate of the amount of money that is globally laundered every year. The FATF therefore does not publish any figures in this regard." Academic commentators have likewise been unable to estimate the volume of money with any degree of assurance. Various estimates of the scale of global money laundering are sometimes repeated often enough to make some people regard them as factual—but no researcher has overcome the inherent difficulty of measuring an actively concealed practice.


title: Money laundering

text: Regardless of the difficulty in measurement, the amount of money laundered each year is in the billions of US dollars and poses a significant policy concern for governments. As a result, governments and international bodies have undertaken efforts to deter, prevent, and apprehend money launderers. Financial institutions have likewise undertaken efforts to prevent and detect transactions involving dirty money, both as a result of government requirements and to avoid the reputational risk involved. Issues relating to money laundering have existed as long as there have been large scale criminal enterprises. Modern anti-money laundering laws have developed along with the modern War on Drugs. In more recent times anti-money laundering legislation is seen as adjunct to the financial crime of terrorist financing in that both crimes usually involve the transmission of funds through the financial system (although money laundering relates to where the money has come "from", and terrorist financing relating to where the money is going "to").


title: Money laundering

text: Transaction laundering is a massive and growing problem. Finextra estimated that transaction laundering accounted for over $200 billion in the US in 2017 alone, with over $6 billion of these sales involving illicit goods or services, sold by nearly 335,000 unregistered merchants.


title: Money laundering

text: Anti-money laundering (AML) is a term mainly used in the financial and legal industries to describe the legal controls that require financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent, detect, and report money laundering activities. Anti-money laundering guidelines came into prominence globally as a result of the formation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the promulgation of an international framework of anti-money laundering standards. These standards began to have more relevance in 2000 and 2001, after FATF began a process to publicly identify countries that were deficient in their anti-money laundering laws and international cooperation, a process colloquially known as "name and shame".


title: Money laundering

text: An effective AML program requires a jurisdiction to criminalise money laundering, giving the relevant regulators and police the powers and tools to investigate; be able to share information with other countries as appropriate; and require financial institutions to identify their customers, establish risk-based controls, keep records, and report suspicious activities.


title: Money laundering

text: Strict background checks are necessary to combat as many money launderers escape by investing through complex ownership and company structures. Banks can do that but proper surveillance is required on the government side to reduce this.


title: Money laundering

text: Over recent years, the rise in anti-money laundering mechanisms has been attributed to the use of big data and artificial intelligence. Traditional anti-money laundering systems are falling behind against evolving threats and new technologies are helping AML compliance officers to deal with: poor implementation, expanding regulation, administrative complexity, false positives.


title: Money laundering

text: The elements of the crime of money laundering are set forth in the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It is defined as knowingly engaging in a financial transaction with the proceeds of a crime for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property from governments.


title: Money laundering

text: While banks operating in the same country generally have to follow the same anti-money laundering laws and regulations, financial institutions all structure their anti-money laundering efforts slightly differently. Today, most financial institutions globally, and many non-financial institutions, are required to identify and report transactions of a suspicious nature to the financial intelligence unit in the respective country. For example, a bank must verify a customer's identity and, if necessary, monitor transactions for suspicious activity. This process comes under "know your customer" measures, which means knowing the identity of the customer and understanding the kinds of transactions in which the customer is likely to engage. By knowing one's customers, financial institutions can often identify unusual or suspicious behaviour, termed anomalies, which may be an indication of money laundering.


title: Money laundering

text: Bank employees, such as tellers and customer account representatives, are trained in anti-money laundering and are instructed to report activities that they deem suspicious. Additionally, anti-money laundering software filters customer data, classifies it according to level of suspicion, and inspects it for anomalies. Such anomalies include any sudden and substantial increase in funds, a large withdrawal, or moving money to a bank secrecy jurisdiction. Smaller transactions that meet certain criteria may also be flagged as suspicious. For example, structuring can lead to flagged transactions. The software also flags names on government "blacklists" and transactions that involve countries hostile to the host nation. Once the software has mined data and flagged suspect transactions, it alerts bank management, who must then determine whether to file a report with the government.


title: Money laundering

text: The financial services industry has become more vocal about the rising costs of anti-money laundering regulation and the limited benefits that they claim it brings. One commentator wrote that "[w]ithout facts, [anti-money laundering] legislation has been driven on rhetoric, driving by ill-guided activism responding to the need to be "seen to be doing something" rather than by an objective understanding of its effects on predicate crime. The social panic approach is justified by the language used—we talk of the battle against terrorism or the war on drugs". "The Economist" magazine has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of such regulation, particularly with reference to countering terrorist financing, referring to it as a "costly failure", although it concedes that other efforts (like reducing identity and credit card fraud) may still be effective at combating money laundering.


title: Money laundering

text: There is no precise measurement of the costs of regulation balanced against the harms associated with money laundering, and given the evaluation problems involved in assessing such an issue, it is unlikely that the effectiveness of terror finance and money laundering laws could be determined with any degree of accuracy. "The Economist" estimated the annual costs of anti-money laundering efforts in Europe and North America at US$5 billion in 2003, an increase from US$700 million in 2000. Government-linked economists have noted the significant negative effects of money laundering on economic development, including undermining domestic capital formation, depressing growth, and diverting capital away from development. Because of the intrinsic uncertainties of the amount of money laundered, changes in the amount of money laundered, and the cost of anti-money laundering systems, it is almost impossible to tell which anti-money laundering systems work and which are more or less cost effective.


title: Money laundering

text: Besides economic costs to implement anti-money-laundering laws, improper attention to data protection practices may entail disproportionate costs to individual privacy rights. In June 2011, the data-protection advisory committee to the European Union issued a report on data protection issues related to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, which identified numerous transgressions against the established legal framework on privacy and data protection. The report made recommendations on how to address money laundering and terrorist financing in ways that safeguard personal privacy rights and data protection laws. In the United States, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed concern that money laundering rules require banks to report on their own customers, essentially conscripting private businesses "into agents of the surveillance state".


title: Money laundering

text: Many countries are obligated by various international instruments and standards, such as the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the 2000 Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption, and the recommendations of the 1989 Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) to enact and enforce money laundering laws in an effort to stop narcotics trafficking, international organized crime, and corruption. Mexico, which has faced a significant increase in violent crime, established anti-money laundering controls in 2013 to curb the underlying crime issue.