title: Andrew Yang

text: News outlets described Yang as the most surprising candidate of the 2020 election cycle, going from a relative unknown to a major competitor in the race. Yang qualified for and participated in seven of the first eight Democratic debates. His supporters, informally known as the "Yang Gang", included several high-profile celebrities. Yang suspended his campaign on February 11, 2020, shortly after the New Hampshire primary. After his campaign ended, Yang joined CNN as a political commentator, announced the creation of the political nonprofit organization Humanity Forward, and ran in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Yang conceded the race shortly after the initial ranked choice votes were released, which placed him fourth.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On October 4, 2021, Andrew Yang announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, faulting what he characterized as a system stuck in increasing polarization and saying that he is "more comfortable trying to fix the system than being a part of it". Later in October 2021, Yang founded the Forward Party – a centrist political action committee and political party.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Andrew Yang was born on January 13, 1975, in Schenectady, New York. His parents emigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. in the 1960s and met in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. Yang is of Hoklo Taiwanese descent. His father graduated with a Ph.D. in physics and worked in the research labs of IBM and General Electric, generating over 50 patents in his career. His mother graduated with a master's degree in statistics before becoming a systems administrator at a university, and later an artist. Yang has an older brother, Lawrence, who is a psychology professor at New York University.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang grew up in Somers in Westchester County, New York. He has described being bullied and called racial slurs by classmates while attending public school, in part because he was one of the smaller children in his class after skipping a grade. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire. Yang was part of the 1992 U.S. national debate team, which competed at the world championships in London. After graduating from Exeter in 1992, he enrolled at Brown University, where he majored in economics and political science, graduating in 1996. He then attended Columbia Law School, earning a Juris Doctor in 1999.


title: Andrew Yang

text: After graduating from law school, Yang began his career as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City. Yang later described the job as "a pie-eating contest, and if you won, your prize was more pie". He left the law firm after five months, which he has called "the five worst months of my life".


title: Andrew Yang

text: In February 2000, Yang joined his office mate, Jonathan Philips, in launching Stargiving, a website for celebrity-affiliated philanthropic fundraising. The startup had some initial success, but folded in 2002 as the dot-com bubble burst. Yang became involved in other ventures, including a party-organizing business. From 2002 to 2005, he served as the vice president of a healthcare startup.


title: Andrew Yang

text: After working in the healthcare industry for four years, Yang left MMF Systems to join his friend Zeke Vanderhoek at a small test preparation company, Manhattan Prep. In 2006, Vanderhoek asked Yang to take over as CEO. While Yang was CEO, the company primarily provided GMAT test preparation. It expanded from five to 69 locations and was acquired by Kaplan, Inc. in December 2009. Yang resigned as the company's president in early 2012. Yang later said it was during his time at Manhattan Prep that he became a millionaire.


title: Andrew Yang

text: In September 2019 testimony before the New York City Commission on Gender Equity, former employee Kimberly Watkins testified that Yang had fired her because he felt that she would not work as hard after getting married. Yang has denied the allegations. In an appearance on "The View", Yang said, "I've had so many phenomenal women leaders that have elevated me and my organizations at every phase of my career, and if I was that kind of person I would never have had any success."


title: Andrew Yang

text: In November, a former employee of Yang's at Manhattan GMAT filed a lawsuit against him for allegedly paying her less than her male co-workers and subsequently firing her for asking for a raise. Yang and another female employee at the company disputed the anonymous woman's claim that she was in an equivalent position to the male co-workers she cited.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Following Kaplan's acquisition of Manhattan Prep in late 2009, Yang began to work on creating a new nonprofit fellowship program, Venture for America (VFA), which he founded in 2011. The organization was intended to find and train entrepreneurs to start businesses in economically stressed cities. VFA was launched with $200,000 and trained 40 graduates in 2012 and 69 in 2013. VFA added Columbus, Miami, San Antonio, and St. Louis in 2014, with a class of 106.


title: Andrew Yang

text: VFA quickly received national attention, including from the Obama administration. In 2011, Yang was recognized by "Champions of Change", a White House program that honored 500 people from every state for extraordinary work in their communities. In 2015, Yang was named a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.


title: Andrew Yang

text: VFA has also been criticized for falling far short of its 100,000 job goal. An ABC News investigation found that VFA's own tally counted only 365 jobs created as of 2020 and of those "The New York Times" has found only 150 remain. "Startup", a documentary film co-directed by Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser about six startups in Detroit launched through VFA, was released in 2016. Yang stepped down from his position as CEO of VFA in March 2017 but continued to advise startups aligned with his signature policy of universal basic income during his presidential campaign.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On August 10, 2022, Andrew Yang joined the advisory team at Legendary Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, to drive strategic value across the firm’s portfolio of consumer retail technology investments, alongside Fung Brothers Ventures.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On March 5, 2020, following the suspension of his presidential campaign, Yang announced that he was creating the nonprofit organization Humanity Forward Foundation, dedicated to promoting the ideas he campaigned on during his run, such as UBI, ranked voting, and data privacy. Yang also announced that the organization, together with The Spark of Hudson, forming HudsonUP, would give away $500,000 in UBI to the residents of Hudson, New York, to demonstrate UBI's benefits. After the Trump administration said it was considering a form of basic income in response to the pandemic, Yang announced that he had been in touch with the White House and had offered his team's services.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On March 20, CNN reported that Humanity Forward would soon spend $1million on $1,000 monthly payments to 500 low-income households in the Bronx during the crisis. Yang tweeted that the number of households was expected to double with additional funding. On August 3, Yang announced that his organization was partnering with The $1K Project, an online network that helps identify families in need, who will be awarded three months of $1,000 payments. One of the network's founders describes the program as "a bridge to reemployment or other kinds of support."


title: Andrew Yang

text: Humanity Forward stated that it was not supporting or endorsing any candidate after Yang announced his run for mayor of New York City.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On February 17, 2022, Yang announced the launch of a Web3 community whose membership token fees would be used to fund lobbying work on behalf of Web3, blockchain, and cryptocurrency interests on Capitol Hill. The announcement has been met with some criticism in part due to Yang's continued launches of organizations in addition to the skepticism around cryptocurrency ventures.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Media outlets have provided several estimates of Yang's net worth: $1 million according to "Forbes", between $834,000 and $2.4 million according to "The Wall Street Journal", and between $3 million and $4 million according to "Newsweek". Several sources have also estimated it being as low as $584,047


title: Andrew Yang

text: In 2011, Yang was named a "Champion of Change" by the Obama administration. In 2015, he was selected as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On November 6, 2017, Yang filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for President of the United States in 2020. The campaign began with a small initial staff working out of an apartment owned by Yang's mother. He ran on multiple slogans, including "Humanity First", "Make America Think Harder (MATH)", and "Not Left, Not Right, Forward." Initially considered a longshot, Yang's campaign gained significant momentum in February 2019 following an appearance on the popular podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience". He later appeared on other podcasts and shows, including "The Breakfast Club", "The Ben Shapiro Show", and "Real Time with Bill Maher". By March 2019, Yang had met the polling and fundraising thresholds to qualify for the first round of Democratic primary debates. In August 2019, he met the higher thresholds to qualify for the second round of Democratic debates. Later, he qualified for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Democratic debates but was unable to meet a polling threshold for the January 2020 debate. He did qualify for the February 2020 debate.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang's campaign focused largely on policy, in what "Reuters" described as a "technocratic approach." Yang regularly called Donald Trump a symptom of a wider problem in the economy, rather than the problem itself. According to "The New York Times," Yang was known for doing interviews with conservative news outlets, and "although [Yang] tweets often, he almost never tweets about Mr. Trump." This approach was exemplified by one of Yang's campaign slogans: "Not Left, Not Right, Forward."


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang's campaign was known for its heavy reliance on Internet-based campaigning. The campaign was also known for its popularity online, with "The New York Times" calling Yang "The Internet's Favorite Candidate." His campaign supporters, known informally as the Yang Gang, brought attention to his campaign on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms, through memes and viral campaigning. Several news outlets called Yang the most surprising candidate of the election cycle, going from relative obscurity to a national contender who outlasted several well-known politicians.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang was at least the third American of East Asian descent to run for President of the United States, after Hiram Fong and Patsy Mink. According to BBC, he was "one of the first and most recognizable East Asian-Americans in history to run for president." He has said that he hoped his "campaign can inspire Asian Americans to be engaged in [politics]."


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang dropped out of the presidential race on February 11, 2020. On March 10, 2020, Yang endorsed Joe Biden.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On multiple occasions, news media disproportionally omitted Yang from election coverage or presented misleading data about his standing in polls. Incidents include cases of news outlets excluding Yang from lists of 2020 Democratic candidates. On August 29, 2019, a CNN infographic displaying the results of a poll included candidate Beto O'Rourke but not Yang, even though the poll showed Yang polling three times higher than O'Rourke. Yang supporters criticized media outlets for the disproportionately low coverage, including via Twitter hashtag #YangMediaBlackout.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang dropped out of the presidential race on February 11, 2020, after a disappointing result in the New Hampshire primary. He announced to his supporters, "while we did not win this election, we are just getting started." Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's counselor Howard Wolfson suggested that Yang "would make a very interesting candidate" for mayor of New York City; Yang said, "it's incredibly flattering to be thought of in that role... We haven't ruled anything out at this point. I will say I'm more attracted to executive roles than legislative ones because I think you can get more done." On March 3, Yang reiterated his interest in the mayoralty to "BuzzFeed News".


title: Andrew Yang

text: On February 19, Yang joined CNN as a political commentator. On March 10, the night of the Michigan Democratic primary, he endorsed Joe Biden. He said he understood Sanders supporters' frustration, but that beating Trump was the most important objective. After his campaign, Yang created a podcast, "Yang Speaks", where he discussed national and global issues with guest commentators. The podcast has since been folded into his newest brand, "Forward". The podcast continues to publish new episodes weekly.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On April 29, 2020, Yang announced that he was taking legal action against the New York State Board of Elections after the state election commission voted to cancel its presidential primary. The filing stated: "This unprecedented and unwarranted move infringes the rights of Plaintiffs and all New York State Democratic Party voters, of which there are estimated to be more than six million, as it fundamentally denies them the right to choose our next candidate for the office of President of the United States." In early May, the judge ruled in Yang's favor.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Initially left out of the list of confirmed speakers for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Yang expressed his dissatisfaction on Twitter stating that he "kind of expected to speak" at the event. Yang spoke at the DNC on August 20, as the third speaker of the night.


title: Andrew Yang

text: In September 2020, the Biden campaign hired Yang as a member of its small business advisory council. In November 2020, Yang announced that he and his wife were moving to Atlanta to assist Raphael Warnock's and Jon Ossoff's campaigns in the January 2021 Georgia Senate runoff elections.


title: Andrew Yang

text: In August 2020, Yang revealed to "The Carlos Watson Show" that he had been in contact with Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign about a potential role in the Biden cabinet focusing on the issue of technology in society. In Yang's book "Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy", he writes that he interviewed with Biden's transition team for the role of United States Secretary of Labor. He also suggested that he serve in a new role, Secretary of Technology and Innovation.


title: Andrew Yang

text: After the suspension of his presidential campaign in February 2020, Yang was considered a potential candidate in the 2021 New York City mayoral election to succeed the outgoing Bill de Blasio, with Yang himself expressing interest in seeking the office. Yang had reportedly told city leaders that he intended to run for mayor after polling obtained by the "New York Post" showed him leading the field, with 20% of New Yorkers saying they would support his candidacy. Yang filed paperwork to raise money for his mayoral campaign on December 23, 2020.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On January 8, 2021, "Politico" reported that Yang left New York City during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to stay at his second home in New Paltz, New York. In an interview with "The New York Times", he said, "Can you imagine trying to have two kids on virtual school in a two-bedroom apartment and then trying to do work yourself?" Critics saw his comments as tone-deaf, as many Americans had to balance work and family during COVID-19 lockdowns.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang formally announced his bid for mayor on January 13, 2021, on Twitter. He himself had not voted in a municipal election since 2001. Yang was endorsed by U.S. Representatives Grace Meng and Ritchie Torres, as well as a number of other New York state and city political figures. He emerged as a front-runner after entering the race, and maintained a steady lead in polls; starting in May 2021, Yang's lead shrank as Eric Adams emerged as another front-runner. After placing fourth in first-place votes on election night, June 22, Yang conceded that he could not win the race and ended his campaign.


title: Andrew Yang

text: In Yang's 2021 book "Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy", he announced his intention to found a new third party, the Forward Party. On October 4, 2021, Yang announced on his blog that he had changed his voter registration from Democrat to Independent, saying he was "confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing"; the next day he announced the formation of the Forward Party.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang said the group would start as a social movement and political action committee, and eventually petition the FEC for formal recognition as a political party. On July 27, 2022, the Forward Party announced a merger with the Serve America Movement and the Renew America Movement to form a new political party. The party is officially registered as a minor party in Nevada and legal party status in Maine and Texas.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang has been married to Evelyn Yang () since 2011; the couple have two sons. He has spoken about his older son Christopher, who is autistic, saying: "I'm very proud of my son and anyone who has someone on the spectrum in their family feels the exact same way."


title: Andrew Yang

text: The Yang family lives in a rental apartment in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, and also owns a home in New Paltz, New York, that they purchased in 2015. This became the family's primary residence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a focus of controversy during Yang's mayoral campaign. In 2019, Yang reported on his tax return that he rented out this home for 58 days to friends or on Airbnb.


title: Andrew Yang

text: Yang and his family attend the Reformed Church of New Paltz, which is near his home, and has identified Mark E. Mast as their pastor. He considers himself spiritual. Speaking about his faith at an interfaith town hall at Wartburg College, Yang said he "wouldn't be the first to say that [his] own journey is still in progress."


title: Andrew Yang

text: In 2020, Yang received the 2021 Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Public Service, awarded by the Vilcek Foundation.


title: Andrew Yang

text: On February 26, 2021, Yang stopped a physical attack on a journalist on the Staten Island Ferry by placing himself between the attacker and the journalist. The attacker recognized Yang and stopped the assault.


title: Cherry blossom

text: A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus "Prunus" or "Prunus" subg. "Cerasus". They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally refer to ornamental cherry trees, not to be confused with cherry trees that produce fruit for eating. It is considered the national flower of Japan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Wild species of the cherry tree is widely distributed mainly in the Northern hemisphere. In the mainstream classification in Europe and North America, cherry trees for ornamental purposes are classified into the genus "Prunus" which consists of about 400 species. In the mainstream classification in Japan, China, and Russia, on the other hand, ornamental cherry trees are classified into the genus "Cerasus", which consists of about 100 species separated from the genus "Prunus", and the genus "Cerasus" does not include "Prunus salicina", "Prunus persica (Peach)", "Prunus mume", "Prunus grayana", amongst others. In Europe and North America, however, there were not many wild cherry trees with many large flowers suitable for cherry blossom viewing. Many of them were different from the typical cherry tree shapes and flowers for cherry blossom viewing that people today imagine. In mainland China, there has been a culture of viewing plum blossoms since ancient times, and there were many wild species of cherry blossoms, but many of them had small flowers, and the distribution area of wild species of cherry blossoms, which bore large flowers suitable for hanami, was often limited to a small area away from people's living areas. On the other hand, in Japan, "Prunus speciosa" (Oshima cherry) and , which bloom large flowers suitable for cherry blossom viewing and tend to become large trees, were distributed in a fairly wide area of the country and close to people's living areas. Therefore, it is considered that the culture of viewing cherry blossoms and the production of cultivars have developed historically in Japan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Many of the cherry trees currently enjoyed for cherry blossom viewing are not wild species but cultivar. Because cherry trees have a mutable trait, many cultivars have been created for cherry blossom viewing, especially in Japan. Since the Heian period, the Japanese have produced many cultivars by selecting superior or mutant individuals that were born from natural crossings of wild cherry trees, or by crossing them artificially, and then breeding them by grafting and cutting. Oshima cherry, Yamazakura, "Prunus pendula" f."ascendens" (syn, "Prunus itosakura", Edo higan), and so on, which grow naturally in Japan, are easy to mutate, and especially Oshima cherry, which is an endemic species in Japan, tend to mutate into double-flowered, grow fast, have many large flowers, and have a strong fragrance; therefore, Oshima cherry has produced much sakura called Sato-zakura Group as a base of cultivars because of its favorable characteristics. The representative cultivars whose parent species is the Oshima cherry are Yoshino cherry and Kanzan; Yoshino cherries are actively planted in Asian countries, and Kanzan is actively planted in Western countries.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In Europe, from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Collingwood Ingram, an Englishman, collected and studied Japanese cherry blossoms, and created various ornamental cultivars, and the culture of cherry blossom viewing began to be spread. In the United States, cherry blossom viewing began to spread after Japan presented cherry blossoms as a token of friendship in 1912.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The botanical classification of cherry blossoms varies from period to period and from country to country. As of the 21st century, in the mainstream classification in Europe and North America, cherry trees for ornamental purposes are classified into the genus "Prunus" which consists of about 400 species. In the mainstream classification in Japan, China, and Russia, on the other hand, ornamental cherry trees are classified into the genus "Cerasus", which consists of about 100 species separated from the genus "Prunus", and the genus "Cerasus" does not include "Prunus salicina", "Prunus persica (Peach)", "Prunus mume", "Prunus grayana", etc. In Japan, the genus "Prunus" was the mainstream as in Europe and America until around 1992, but it was reclassified into the genus "Cerasus" to more accurately reflect the latest botanical situation of cherry blossoms. However, it is often classified into the genus "Prunus" for presentation in English-speaking countries. In general, cherry blossom () refers only to some of these about 100 species and the cultivars produced from them, and it does not refer to which are similar to sakura.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In addition, since cherry trees are relatively prone to mutation and have a variety of flowers and trees, there are many varieties, such as variety which is a sub-classification of species, hybrids between species, and cultivar. For this reason, many researchers have named different scientific names for a particular type of cherry tree in different periods, and there is confusion in the classification of cherry trees.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Many wild species and cultivars bloom from March to April in the Northern Hemisphere. Wild species, even if they are the same species, are genetically different from one tree to another, so even if they are planted in the same place, there is some variation in the time when they reach full bloom. On the other hand, because cultivars tend to be planted for cherry blossom viewing, which is a clone propagated by grafting or cutting, is genetically uniform, each tree of the same cultivar planted in the same place is in full bloom and scattered all at once. In addition, some wild species such as Edo higan and the cultivars developed from them are in full bloom before the leaves open, giving a showy impression to the people who enjoy them. Yoshino cherry became popular as a cherry tree for cherry-blossom viewing because, in addition to these characteristics of simultaneous flowering and the fact that the flowers are in full bloom before the leaves open, it bears a large number of flowers and grows quickly to become a big tree. Many cultivars of Sato-zakura group, which were born from complex interspecific hybrids based on Oshima cherry, are often used for ornamental purposes and generally reach full bloom a few days after to two weeks after Yoshino cherry reaches full bloom.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The flowering time of cherry trees is thought to be affected by global warming and the heat island effect of urbanization. According to the record of full bloom dates of in Kyoto, Japan, which was recorded for about 1200 years, the time of full bloom was relatively stable from 812 to 1800s, but after that, the time of full bloom rapidly became earlier and in 2021, the earliest full bloom date in 1200 years was recorded. The average peak day in the 1850s was around April 17, but in the 2020s it was April 5, during which time the average temperature rose by about 6 degrees (3.4 Celsius). According to the record of full bloom dates of Yoshino cherry in the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., around 1921 it was April 5, but around 2021 it was March 31. These records are consistent with the record of rapid increases in global mean temperature since the mid-1800s.


title: Cherry blossom

text: is the centuries-old practice of drinking under a blooming ( or ; or ) or tree. The custom is said to have started during the Nara period (710–794), when it was blossoms that people admired in the beginning, but by the Heian period (794–1185), cherry blossoms had come to attract more attention, and was synonymous with . From then on, in both and haiku, meant "cherry blossoms". The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the trees, people had lunch and drank in cheerful feasts.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Since a book written in the Heian period mentions , one of the cultivars with pendulous branches, it is considered that "Prunus itosakura" 'Pendula' (Sidare-zakura) is the oldest cultivar in Japan. In the Kamakura period, when the population increased in the southern Kanto region, the Oshima cherry, which originated in Izu Oshima Island, was brought to Honshu and cultivated there, and then brought to the capital, Kyoto. In the Muromachi period, the Sato-zakura Group which was born from complex interspecific hybrids based on Oshima cherry, began to appear.


title: Cherry blossom

text: "Prunus itosakura" (syn. "Prunus subhirtella", Edo higan), a wild species, grows slowly, but has the longest life span among cherry trees and is easy to grow into large trees. For this reason, there are many large and long-lived trees of this species in Japan, and their cherry trees are often regarded as sacred and have become a landmark that symbolizes Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, and local areas. For example, "" that is around 2,000 years old, "" that is around 1,500 years old, and "" that is around 1,000 years old are famous.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In the Edo period, various double-flowered cultivars were produced and planted on the banks of rivers, in Buddhist temples, in Shinto shrines, and in daimyo gardens in urban areas such as Edo, and the common people living in urban areas could enjoy them. Books from that period recorded more than 200 varieties of cherry blossoms and mentioned many varieties of cherry blossoms which are currently known, such as 'Kanzan'. However, the situation was limited to urban areas, and the main objects of hanami across the country were wild species such as and Oshima cherry, which were widely distributed in the country.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Since the Meiji period when Japan was modernized, Yoshino cherry has spread throughout Japan, and the object of hanami for Japanese people has changed to Yoshino cherry. On the other hand, various cultivars other than Yoshino cherry were cut down one after another due to the rapid modernization of cities, such as reclamation of waterways and demolition of daimyo gardens. The gardener Takagi Magoemon and the village mayor of Kohoku Village Shimizu Kengo worried about this situation and saved them from the danger of extinction by making a row of cherry trees composed of various cultivars on the Arakawa River bank. In Kyoto, Sano Toemon XIV, a gardener, collected various cultivars and propagated them. After World War II, these cultivars were inherited by the National Institute of Genetics, Tama Forest Science Garden, and the Flower Association of Japan, and from the 1960s onwards various cultivars were again used for hanami.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Every year the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the public track the as it moves northward up the archipelago with the approach of warmer weather via nightly forecasts following the weather segment of news programs. The blossoming begins in Okinawa in January, and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. It proceeds into areas at the higher altitudes and northward, arriving in Hokkaido a few weeks later. Japanese pay close attention to these forecasts and turn out in large numbers at parks, shrines, and temples with family and friends to hold flower-viewing parties. festivals celebrate the beauty of the cherry blossom and for many are a chance to relax and enjoy the beautiful view. The custom of dates back many centuries in Japan. The 8th century chronicle records festivals being held as early as the 3rd century AD.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Most Japanese schools and public buildings have cherry blossom trees outside of them. Since the fiscal and school year both begin in April, in many parts of Honshu, the first day of work or school coincides with the cherry blossom season. However, while most cherry blossom trees bloom in spring, there are also lesser known winter cherry blossoms ("fuyuzakura" in Japanese) that bloom between October and December. This allows for people to see both cherry blossoms and fall leaves in bloom at the same time.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The Japan Cherry Blossom Association developed a list of Japan's Top 100 Cherry Blossom Spots () with at least one location in every prefecture.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In Japan, cherry blossoms symbolize clouds due to their nature of blooming "", besides being an enduring metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life, an aspect of Japanese cultural tradition that is often associated with Shinto influence, and which is embodied in the concept of "mono no aware". The association of the cherry blossom with "mono no aware" dates back to 18th-century scholar Motoori Norinaga. The transience of the blossoms, the exquisite beauty, and volatility, has often been associated with mortality and graceful and readily acceptance of destiny and karma; for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect. There is at least one popular folk song, originally meant for the shakuhachi (bamboo flute), titled "Sakura", and several pop songs. The flower is also represented in all manner of consumer goods in Japan, including kimono, stationery, and dishware.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The "Sakurakai" or Cherry Blossom Society was the name chosen by young officers within the Imperial Japanese Army in September 1930 for their secret society established to reorganize the state along totalitarian militaristic lines, via a military coup d'état if necessary.


title: Cherry blossom

text: During World War II, the cherry blossom was used to motivate the Japanese people, to stoke nationalism and militarism among the populace. Even before the war, they were used in propaganda to inspire the "Japanese spirit", as in the "Song of Young Japan", exulting in "warriors" who were "ready like the myriad cherry blossoms to scatter". In 1932, Akiko Yosano's poetry urged Japanese soldiers to endure sufferings in China and compared the dead soldiers to cherry blossoms. Arguments that the plans for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, involving all Japanese ships, would expose Japan to danger if they failed, were countered with the plea that the Navy be permitted to "bloom as flowers of death". The last message of the forces on Peleliu was "Sakura, Sakura" — cherry blossoms. Japanese pilots would paint them on the sides of their planes before embarking on a suicide mission, or even take branches of the trees with them on their missions. A cherry blossom painted on the side of the bomber symbolized the intensity and ephemerality of life; in this way, the aesthetic association was altered such that falling cherry petals came to represent the sacrifice of youth in suicide missions to honor the emperor. The first kamikaze unit had a subunit called "Yamazakura" or wild cherry blossom. The government even encouraged the people to believe that the souls of downed warriors were reincarnated in the blossoms.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry blossoms are a prevalent symbol in Irezumi, the traditional art of Japanese tattoos. In tattoo art, cherry blossoms are often combined with other classic Japanese symbols like koi fish, dragons or tigers.


title: Cherry blossom

text: It was later used for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics mascot Someity. It is also a common 'season' that signals the start of spring in the "Animal Crossing" series of video games, where all of the game's leafy trees bloom with cherry blossoms.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Japan has a wide variety of cherry blossoms ("sakura"); well over 200 cultivars can be found there. According to another classification method, it is thought that there are more than 600 cultivars in Japan. According to the results of DNA analysis of 215 cultivars carried out by Japan's Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in 2014, many of the cultivars of cherry trees that have spread around the world are interspecific hybrids that were produced by crossing Oshima cherry and with various wild species. Among these cultivars, the Sato-zakura Group, and many cultivars have a large number of petals, and the representative cultivar is "Prunus serrulata" 'Kanzan'.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The most popular variety of cherry blossoms in Japan is the "Somei Yoshino (Yoshino cherry)". Its flowers are nearly pure white, tinged with the palest pink, especially near the stem. They bloom and usually fall within a week before the leaves come out. Therefore, the trees look nearly white from top to bottom. The variety takes its name from the village of Somei (now part of Toshima in Tokyo). It was developed in the mid to late-19th century at the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji period. The "Somei Yoshino" is so widely associated with cherry blossoms that "jidaigeki" and other works of fiction often depict the variety in the Edo period or earlier; such depictions are anachronisms.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry blossoms are basically classified by species and cultivars, but in Japan they are often classified by specific names based on the characteristics of the flowers and trees. Cherry trees with more petals than ordinary cherry trees with five petals are classified as "yae-zakura" (double-flowered sakura), and those with drooping branches are classified as "shidare-zakura", or weeping cherry. Most "yae-zakura" and "shidare-zakura" are cultivars. Famous cultivars of "shidare-zakura" are 'Shidare-zakura', 'Beni-shidare' and 'Yae-beni-shidare', all derived from the wild species "Prunus itosakura (syn, "Prunus subhirtella" or Edo higan)".


title: Cherry blossom

text: The color of cherry blossoms in general has a gradation between white and red, but there are cultivars with unusual colors such as yellow and green. The representative cultivars are and developed in the Edo period of Japan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In 2007, Riken produced a new cultivar named 'Nishina zao' by irradiating cherry trees with a heavy-ion beam for the first time in the world. This cultivar is produced from the with green petals, and is characterized by its pale yellow-green-white flowers when it blooms and pale yellow-pink flowers when they fall. Riken produced 'Nishina otome', 'Nishina haruka', and 'Nishina komachi' in the same way.


title: Cherry blossom

text: All wild varieties of cherry blossom trees produce small, unpalatable fruit or edible cherries. Edible cherries generally come from cultivars of the related species "Prunus avium" and "Prunus cerasus". However, in some cultivars, the pistil changes like a leaf and loses its fertility, and for example, and , which originated from Oshima cherry, can only be propagated by artificial methods such as grafting and cutting.


title: Cherry blossom

text: During World War II, a prisoner of war (POW) camp near the town of Cowra in New South Wales, Australia, was the site of one of the largest prison escapes of the war, on 5 August 1944. During the Cowra breakout and subsequent rounding up of POWs, four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese soldiers died and 108 prisoners were wounded. The Japanese War Cemetery holding the dead from the Breakout was tended after the war by members of the Cowra RSL and ceded to Japan in 1963. In 1971 the Cowra Tourism Development decided to celebrate this link to Japan and proposed a Japanese garden for the town. The Japanese government agreed to support this development as a sign of thanks for the respectful treatment of their war dead; the development also received funding from the Australian government and private entities.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The garden was designed by Ken Nakajima (1914–2000), a world-renowned designer of Japanese gardens at the time. The first stage was opened in 1979, and the second stage in 1986. The gardens were designed in the style of the Edo period and are a "kaiyū-shiki" or strolling garden. They are designed to show all of the landscape types of Japan. At five hectares (12 acres), the Cowra Japanese Garden is the largest Japanese garden in the Southern Hemisphere. An annual cherry blossom festival during September is now a major event in Cowra's tourism calendar.


title: Cherry blossom

text: With the Japanese diaspora to Brazil, many immigrants brought seedlings of cherry trees. In São Paulo State, home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan, it is common to find them in Japan-related facilities and in some homes, usually of the cultivars "Prunus serrulata" 'Yukiwari' and "Prunus serrulata" var. "lannesiana" 'Himalaya'. Some cities, such as Garça and Campos do Jordão, have annual festivals to celebrate the blooming of the trees and Japanese culture. In the Parana State (in southern Brazil), many cities received many of these immigrants, who planted the trees, as in Apucarana, Maringá, Cascavel and especially in the capital city of Curitiba.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In the capital city of Paraná, the first seedlings were brought by Japanese immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, but large quantities of them were only planted from the 1990s, with the opening of the Botanical Garden of Curitiba. Nowadays, the seedlings are produced locally and used in afforestation of streets and squares – as in the Japanese Square, where there are more than 30 cherry trees around the square which were sent by the Japanese Empire to Curitiba.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Vancouver, British Columbia, is famous for its thousands of cherry trees (estimated 50,000) lining many streets and in many parks, including Queen Elizabeth Park and Stanley Park. Vancouver holds the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival every year. With multiple varieties and a temperate climate, they begin to bloom in February yearly and peak in April. In 2022, this intra-community arts and culture outdoor Festival will run from April 1st to 23rd, 2022.


title: Cherry blossom

text: High Park in Toronto, Ontario, features many Somei-Yoshino cherry trees (the earliest species to bloom and much loved by the Japanese for their fluffy white flowers) that were given to Toronto by Japan in 1959. Through the Sakura Project, the Japanese Consulate donated a further 34 cherry trees to High Park in 2001, plus cherry trees to various other locations like Exhibition Place, McMaster University, York University (near Calumet College and on Ottawa Road near McLaughlin College) and the University of Toronto's main (next to Robarts Library) and Scarborough campuses. Niagara Falls has many near the falls themselves. Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington and Hamilton was the recipient of several Somei-Yoshino cherry trees that were donated by the Consulate-General of Japan in Toronto as part of the Sakura Project. The trees are located in the Arboretum and the Rock Garden and were planted to celebrate the continual strengthening of friendship between Japan and Canada. Peak bloom time at Royal Botanical Gardens is normally around the last week of April or the first week of May.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry trees naturally grow in the middle northern or southern part of China, they are known as yinghua () in Chinese.


title: Cherry blossom

text: However, some of the most famous cherry blossom parks in China reflect Japan's brief occupation of parts of China during the first half of the 20th century or the donation from Japan thereafter or prior: a notable example is Qinglong Temple - Xi’an. Cherry Blossom orchards were brought in by the Japanese monk Kukai in 806CE as a gift to commemorate his time as a student at the temple.


title: Cherry blossom

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War, twenty-eight cherry blossom trees were planted in Wuhan University by the Japanese troops. After the war ended it was decided that the trees would be preserved despite their historical implications. In 1972, as the China-Japan relations normalized, about 800 cherry blossom trees were donated to Wuhan University. Other donations would add to the numbers in the following years. Currently, Wuhan University has about one thousand cherry blossom trees of different kinds. 80% of these cherry trees are direct descendants of cherry trees planted by the Japanese. In 2020, when cherry blossom viewing became impossible due to the spread of COVID-19, the state of cherry blossoms at Wuhan University was released on the Web and viewed a total of 750 million times.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry blossoms are also used for friendship between China and Japan. In 1973, the following year of the Japan–China Joint Communiqué, Japan sent cherry trees to China as a symbol of friendship, and they were planted in the Yuyuantan Park in Beijing. After that, the cherry trees were proliferated and planted, and the park became famous for cherry blossoms.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In 1997, the Japanese Michinoku Bank and arborer Kazio Saito planned to open a cherry blossom park in Wuhan City for the sake of the friendship between the two countries, and from the same year the Japanese city of Hirosaki, home to the Hirosaki Park famous for its cherry blossoms, began to advise Wuhan City on the planting and cultivation of cherry trees, and in 2016 Wuhan City and Hirosaki City signed a friendship agreement. East Lake Cherry Blossom Park opened in 2001, and 2.5 million people came to see the blossoms in 2018. There are sixty kinds of cherry trees, including Yoshino cherry and weeping cherry.


title: Cherry blossom

text: International cherry blossoms Week in Wuxi began in the 1980s, when Keishiro Sakamoto and Kiyomi Hasegawa, Japanese citizens, planted 1,500 cherry trees in the China-Japan Friendship Cherry Blossom Forest. As of 2019, the Friendship Cherry Blossom Forest has become a cherry blossom viewing spot that attracts 500,000 cherry blossom viewers every year. As of 2019, there are 100 kinds of cherry trees in this forest.


title: Cherry blossom

text: At the beginning of the 21st century, the popularity of cherry blossoms in China rapidly increased due to an increase in the number of visitors to Japan and the spread of SNS, and many cherry blossom viewers have visited many cherry blossom parks opened throughout China. According to statistics from 2019, the number of cherry blossoms-related tourists reached 340 million and the amount spent exceeded 60 billion yuan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Parc de Sceaux, located in a suburb of Paris, has two orchards of cherry trees, one for white cherry blossoms ("Prunus avium") and one for pink cherry blossoms ("Prunus serrulata"), the latter with about 150 trees that attract many visitors when they bloom in early April.


title: Cherry blossom

text: The cherry blossom is a major tourist attraction in Germany's Altes Land orchard region. The largest Hanami in Germany, in Hamburg, with Japanese-style fireworks, organized by the German-Japanese society, draws tens of thousands of spectators every spring. Starting in 2015, Hamburg will be allowed to bestow the title of "Cherry Blossom Queen" by the Japan Cherry Blossom Association, one of only three cities worldwide to receive this privilege. The first Cherry Blossom Queen of Hamburg will be crowned by the Cherry Blossom Queen of Japan on 23 May.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In 1990, along prior sections of the Berlin Wall, Japan donated cherry blossoms to express appreciation for German reunification. The gift was supported by donations from the Japanese people allowing for over 9,000 trees to be planted. The first trees were planted in November of that year near the Glienicke Bridge.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In India, the cherry blossom is an attraction as well, most notably in Himalayan states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim & northern districts of West Bengal namely Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, along with Nagaland, northern part of Manipur and the tropical highlands of Garo Hills and Khasi Hills in Meghalaya where "Prunus cerasoides" is native to. These states are notable for Prunus cerasoides trees called wild cherry blossom trees covering Himalayan foothills which blooms during the autumn months. They can also be seen in various British-era botanical gardens especially in Nilgiri Hills in the Western Ghats in southern India. It blooms during the months of October and November in northern and northeastern India, while they bloom towards the end of August and into September in the southern India.


title: Cherry blossom

text: "Prunus cerasoides", called wild Himalayan cherry, Indian wild cherry, and sour cherry, is known in Hindi as "padam", "pajja", or "padmakashtha". Among Hindus in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it is considered sacred and associated with Vishnu and Shiva. During Maha Shivaratri, the leaves are used to make a wreath with wild citrus fruits and hung at the prayer altar. In addition, the leaves are also used as incense. Unlike its cousin species in Japan and Korea, which flower in spring, "Prunus cerasoides" cherry trees flower during autumn.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry blossom festivals in India are held during October–November when "Prunus cerasoides" blooms. Shillong is notable for its cherry blossom festival during autumn.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry trees have been used in Korea for a long time. It has been used in making bows and woodblocks (Palman Daejanggyeong). According to tradition, monks used wood from silver magnolias, white birches, and cherry trees from the Southern coast of the peninsula. The origins of cherry blossoms in South Korea is contentious. The Japanese planted Yoshino cherry trees at Seoul's Changgyeonggung Palace and the viewing of cherry blossoms was introduced to Korea during Japanese rule. The festivals continued even after the Japanese surrendered at the end of WWII but have been controversial, and many cherry trees were cut down to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese surrender because they were seen as symbols of the occupation. Yet Koreans continued to plant Yoshino cherry trees and festivals began attracting a wide range of tourists. Many Korean media assert that the Yoshino cherry is the same species as a Korean indigenous, endangered species called King cherry, whose mass production is still being studied.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In 2007, a study conducted on the comparison of King cherry and Yoshino cherry concluded that these trees were categorized as distinct species. In 2016, a study on DNA analyses suggested the independent origin between King cherry and yoshino cherry from each other. In 2016, a new scientific name "Cerasus" × "nudiflora" was given to King cherry to distinguish it from Yoshino cherry ("Prunus" × "yedoensis"). In Korea most of the places for cherry blossom festivals, including Yeouido and Jinhae, are still planted with Yoshino cherry trees.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry blossoms are part of the attraction of the temperate regions of the country. The town Pyin Oo Lwin, known as "The Land of Cherries", is famous for its cherry blossoms during the spring. Some cherry trees, genetically modified to be able to survive in the tropical weather, were also planted in Yangon, the commercial capital, as a part of the friendship program with Japan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In the year 2000, the Japan Women's Club (JWC) donated 400 cherry blossom trees to the city of Amstelveen. The trees have been planted in the cherry blossom park in the Amsterdamse Bos. A special detail is that every tree has a name — 200 trees have female Japanese names, and 200 trees have female Dutch names.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Hagley Park is the largest urban open space in Christchurch, New Zealand and has many cherry blossom trees of several varieties.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Typically found in mountainous areas, cherry blossoms are a popular attraction in Taiwan, with numerous specially tailored viewing tours. Among the most easily accessible and thus most popular locations for viewing them are Yangmingshan, in Taipei, and Wuling Farm, in Taichung.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In 2005, Japanese cherry trees were presented by Japan to the Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanical Garden in Istanbul, Turkey. Each tree represents one sailor of the frigate "Ertugrul" which was a famous frigate of the Ottoman Turkish navy. On the way back from a goodwill visit to Japan in 1890 she ran into a typhoon and sank with a loss of 587 Ottoman Turkish sailors. That loss is remembered on every anniversary. The Japanese cherry trees represent the memory of those who died and provide remembrance.


title: Cherry blossom

text: From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Collingwood Ingram collected and studied Japanese cherry blossoms and created various cultivars such as Okame and Kursar. Ingram had , a cultivar that had disappeared in Japan in the early 20th century, return to Japan.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Cherry trees are widely cultivated in public and private gardens throughout the UK, where the climate is well suited to them. Batsford Arboretum in Gloucestershire (England), holds the national collection of Japanese village cherries, Sato-zakura Group. Keele University in Staffordshire (England), has one of the UK's largest collections of flowering cherries, with more than 150 varieties. The Royal Horticultural Society has given its prestigious Award of Garden Merit to many flowering cherry species and cultivars.


title: Cherry blossom

text: In March 2020, in the first national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, the National Trust initiated the #BlossomWatch campaign, inspired by cherry blossom festivals in Japan. The campaign encouraged people to share images of the first signs of Spring, in particular blossom, on lockdown walks. The campaign was repeated in 2021 and 2022.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Japan gave 3,020 cherry blossom trees as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the growing friendship between the two countries, replacing an earlier gift of 2,000 trees that had to be destroyed due to disease in 1910. These trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and lined the shore of the Tidal Basin and the roadway in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The first two original trees were planted by the first lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the bank of the Tidal Basin. The gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965. In Washington, D.C. the cherry blossom trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival) when they reach full bloom in early spring. Just outside of Washington, the suburb of Kenwood in Bethesda, Maryland, has roughly 1,200 trees that are popular with locals and tourists.


title: Cherry blossom

text: New Jersey's Branch Brook Park, which is maintained by Essex County, is the oldest county park in the United States and is home to the largest collection of cherry blossom trees in one US location, with about 5,000.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Balboa Park in San Diego has 1,000 cherry blossom trees that blossom in mid- to late March. In Los Angeles, over 2,000 trees are located at Lake Balboa in Van Nuys. These trees were donated by a Japanese benefactor and were planted in 1992.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Philadelphia is home to over 2,000 flowering Japanese cherry trees, half of which were a gift from the Japanese government in 1926 in honor of the 150th anniversary of American independence, with the other half planted by the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia between 1998 and 2007. Philadelphia's cherry blossoms are located within Fairmount Park, and the annual Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia celebrates the blooming trees. The University of Washington in Seattle also has cherry blossoms in its quad.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Other US cities have an annual cherry blossom festival (or "sakura matsuri"), including the International Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Georgia, which features over 300,000 cherry trees. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City also has a large, well-attended festival. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the site of the peace conference that produced the Treaty of Portsmouth, for which the original Washington, D.C. cherry trees were given in thanks. Several cherry trees planted on the bank of the tidal pond next to Portsmouth City Hall were the gift of Portsmouth's Japanese sister city of Nichinan—the hometown of Marquis Komura Jutarō, Japan's representative at the conference. Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, has 200 somei yoshino trees, a gift from its sister institution, Japan's Chubu University.


title: Cherry blossom

text: Since the leaves contain coumarin, which is toxic in large doses, it is not recommended to eat them in great quantities. Likewise, the seeds should not be eaten.


title: Dharma

text: Dharma (; , ; ) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for "dharma" in European languages, it is commonly translated as "righteousness", "merit" or "religious and moral duties" governing individual conduct.


title: Dharma

text: In Hinduism, dharma is one of the four components of the "Puruṣārtha", the aims of life, and signifies behaviours that are considered to be in accord with "Ṛta", the order that makes life and universe possible. It includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and "right way of living". It had a transtemporal validity.


title: Dharma

text: In Buddhism, dharma means "cosmic law and order", as expressed by the teachings of the Buddha. In Buddhist philosophy, "dhamma/dharma" is also the term for "phenomena".


title: Dharma

text: Dharma in Jainism refers to the teachings of "Tirthankara" ("Jina") and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings.


title: Dharma

text: In Sikhism, dharma means the path of righteousness and proper religious practice and one's own moral duties toward God.


title: Dharma

text: The concept of dharma was already in use in the historical Vedic religion, and its meaning and conceptual scope has evolved over several millennia. The ancient Tamil moral text "Tirukkuṟaḷ", despite being a collection of aphoristic teachings on dharma ("aram"), artha ("porul"), and kama ("inpam"), is completely and exclusively based on "aṟam", the Tamil term for dharma. As with the other components of the "Puruṣārtha", the concept of dharma is pan-Indian. The antonym of dharma is "adharma".


title: Dharma

text: The word "dharma" has roots in the Sanskrit "dhr-", which means "to hold" or "to support", and is related to Latin "firmus" (firm, stable). From this, it takes the meaning of "what is established or firm", and hence "law". It is derived from an older Vedic Sanskrit "n"-stem "dharman-", with a literal meaning of "bearer, supporter", in a religious sense conceived as an aspect of Rta.


title: Dharma

text: In the Rigveda, the word appears as an "n"-stem, "", with a range of meanings encompassing "something established or firm" (in the literal sense of prods or poles). Figuratively, it means "sustainer" and "supporter" (of deities). It is semantically similar to the Greek "themis" ("fixed decree, statute, law").


title: Dharma

text: In Classical Sanskrit, and in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Atharvaveda, the stem is thematic: "" (Devanagari: धर्म). In Prakrit and Pali, it is rendered "dhamma". In some contemporary Indian languages and dialects it alternatively occurs as "dharm".


title: Dharma

text: In the 3rd century BCE the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka translated "dharma" into Greek and Aramaic he used the Greek word "eusebeia" (εὐσέβεια, piety, spiritual maturity, or godliness) in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription and the Kandahar Greek Edicts. In the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription he used the Aramaic word (""; truth, rectitude).


title: Dharma

text: Dharma is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. It has multiple meanings in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. It is difficult to provide a single concise definition for "dharma", as the word has a long and varied history and straddles a complex set of meanings and interpretations. There is no equivalent single-word synonym for "dharma" in western languages.


title: Dharma

text: There have been numerous, conflicting attempts to translate ancient Sanskrit literature with the word "dharma" into German, English and French. The concept, claims Paul Horsch, has caused exceptional difficulties for modern commentators and translators. For example, while Grassmann's translation of Rig-Veda identifies seven different meanings of dharma, Karl Friedrich Geldner in his translation of the Rig-Veda employs 20 different translations for dharma, including meanings such as "law", "order", "duty", "custom", "quality", and "model", among others. However, the word "dharma" has become a widely accepted loanword in English, and is included in all modern unabridged English dictionaries.


title: Dharma

text: The root of the word "dharma" is "dhr̥", which means "to support, hold, or bear". It is the thing that regulates the course of change by not participating in change, but that principle which remains constant. Monier-Williams, the widely cited resource for definitions and explanation of Sanskrit words and concepts of Hinduism, offers numerous definitions of the word "dharma", such as that which is established or firm, steadfast decree, statute, law, practice, custom, duty, right, justice, virtue, morality, ethics, religion, religious merit, good works, nature, character, quality, property. Yet, each of these definitions is incomplete, while the combination of these translations does not convey the total sense of the word. In common parlance, "dharma" means "right way of living" and "path of rightness".


title: Dharma

text: The meaning of the word "dharma" depends on the context, and its meaning has evolved as ideas of Hinduism have developed through history. In the earliest texts and ancient myths of Hinduism, "dharma" meant cosmic law, the rules that created the universe from chaos, as well as rituals; in later Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and the Epics, the meaning became refined, richer, and more complex, and the word was applied to diverse contexts.


title: Dharma

text: In certain contexts, "dharma" designates human behaviours considered necessary for order of things in the universe, principles that prevent chaos, behaviours and action necessary to all life in nature, society, family as well as at the individual level. "Dharma" encompasses ideas such as duty, rights, character, vocation, religion, customs and all behaviour considered appropriate, correct or morally upright.


title: Dharma

text: The antonym of "dharma" is "adharma" (Sanskrit: अधर्म), meaning that which is "not dharma". As with "dharma", the word "adharma" includes and implies many ideas; in common parlance, adharma means that which is against nature, immoral, unethical, wrong or unlawful.


title: Dharma

text: In Buddhism, "dharma" incorporates the teachings and doctrines of the founder of Buddhism, the Buddha.


title: Dharma

text: According to Pandurang Vaman Kane, author of the authoritative book "History of Dharmaśāstra", the word "dharma" appears at least fifty-six times in the hymns of the Rigveda, as an adjective or noun. According to Paul Horsch, the word "dharma" has its origin in the myths of Vedic Hinduism. The hymns of the Rig Veda claim Brahman created the universe from chaos, they hold (dhar-) the earth and sun and stars apart, they support (dhar-) the sky away and distinct from earth, and they stabilise (dhar-) the quaking mountains and plains.


title: Dharma

text: The gods, mainly Indra, then deliver and hold order from disorder, harmony from chaos, stability from instability – actions recited in the Veda with the root of word dharma. In hymns composed after the mythological verses, the word dharma takes expanded meaning as a cosmic principle and appears in verses independent of gods. It evolves into a concept, claims Paul Horsch, that has a dynamic functional sense in Atharvaveda for example, where it becomes the cosmic law that links cause and effect through a subject. Dharma, in these ancient texts, also takes a ritual meaning. The ritual is connected to the cosmic, and "dharmani" is equated to ceremonial devotion to the principles that gods used to create order from disorder, the world from chaos.


title: Dharma

text: Past the ritual and cosmic sense of dharma that link the current world to mythical universe, the concept extends to ethical-social sense that links human beings to each other and to other life forms. It is here that dharma as a concept of law emerges in Hinduism.


title: Dharma

text: Dharma and related words are found in the oldest Vedic literature of Hinduism, in later Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, and the Epics; the word dharma also plays a central role in the literature of other Indian religions founded later, such as Buddhism and Jainism. According to Brereton, "Dharman" occurs 63 times in Rig-veda; in addition, words related to Dharman also appear in Rig-veda, for example once as dharmakrt, 6 times as "satyadharman", and once as "dharmavant", 4 times as "dharman" and twice as "dhariman".


title: Dharma

text: Indo-European parallels for "dharma" are known, but the only Iranian equivalent is Old Persian "darmān" "remedy", the meaning of which is rather removed from Indo-Aryan "dhárman", suggesting that the word "dharma" did not have a major role in the Indo-Iranian period, and was principally developed more recently under the Vedic tradition.


title: Dharma

text: However, it is thought that the "Daena" of Zoroastrianism, also meaning the "eternal Law" or "religion", is related to Sanskrit "dharma".


title: Dharma

text: Ideas in parts overlapping to "Dharma" are found in other ancient cultures: such as Chinese Tao, Egyptian Maat, Sumerian Me.


title: Dharma

text: For practising Buddhists, references to "dharma" ("dhamma" in Pali) particularly as "the dharma", generally means the teachings of the Buddha, commonly known throughout the East as Buddhadharma. It includes especially the discourses on the fundamental principles (such as the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path), as opposed to the parables and to the poems.


title: Dharma

text: The status of dharma is regarded variably by different Buddhist traditions. Some regard it as an ultimate truth, or as the fount of all things which lie beyond the "three realms" (Sanskrit: "tridhatu") and the "wheel of becoming" (Sanskrit: "bhavachakra"). Others, who regard the Buddha as simply an enlightened human being, see the dharma as the essence of the "84,000 different aspects of the teaching" (Tibetan: "chos-sgo brgyad-khri bzhi strong") that the Buddha gave to various types of people, based upon their individual propensities and capabilities.


title: Dharma

text: Dharma refers not only to the sayings of the Buddha, but also to the later traditions of interpretation and addition that the various schools of Buddhism have developed to help explain and to expand upon the Buddha's teachings. For others still, they see the dharma as referring to the "truth", or the ultimate reality of "the way that things really are" (Tibetan: "Chö").


title: Dharma

text: The dharma is one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism in which practitioners of Buddhism seek refuge, or that upon which one relies for his or her lasting happiness. The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha, meaning the mind's perfection of enlightenment, the dharma, meaning the teachings and the methods of the Buddha, and the Sangha, meaning the community of practitioners who provide one another guidance and support.


title: Dharma

text: Dharma is employed in Chan Buddhism in a specific context in relation to transmission of authentic doctrine, understanding and bodhi; recognised in dharma transmission.


title: Dharma

text: In Theravada Buddhism obtaining ultimate realisation of the dhamma is achieved in three phases; learning, practising and realising.


title: Dharma

text: The word "dharma" in Jainism is found in all its key texts. It has a contextual meaning and refers to a number of ideas. In the broadest sense, it means the teachings of the Jinas, or teachings of any competing spiritual school, a supreme path, socio-religious duty, and that which is the highest (holy).


title: Dharma

text: The "Tattvartha Sutra", a major Jain text, mentions () with referring to ten righteous virtues: forbearance, modesty, straightforwardness, purity, truthfulness, self-restraint, austerity, renunciation, non-attachment, and celibacy. , author of the Jain text, writes:


title: Dharma

text: The term () also has a specific ontological and soteriological meaning in Jainism, as a part of its theory of six (substance or a reality). In the Jain tradition, existence consists of (soul, ) and (non-soul, ), the latter consisting of five categories: inert non-sentient atomic matter (), space (), time (), principle of motion (), and principle of rest (). The use of the term to mean motion and to refer to an ontological sub-category is peculiar to Jainism, and not found in the metaphysics of Buddhism and various schools of Hinduism.


title: Dharma

text: For Sikhs, the word "dharam" () means the path of righteousness and proper religious practice. Guru Granth Sahib connotes dharma as duty and moral values. The 3HO movement in Western culture, which has incorporated certain Sikh beliefs, defines Sikh Dharma broadly as all that constitutes religion, moral duty and way of life.


title: Dharma

text: Several works of the Sangam and post-Sangam period, many of which are of Hindu or Jain origin, emphasizes on dharma. Most of these texts are based on "aṟam", the Tamil term for dharma. The ancient Tamil moral text of the "Tirukkuṟaḷ" or "Kural", a text probably of Jain or Hindu origin, despite being a collection of aphoristic teachings on dharma ("aram"), artha ("porul"), and kama ("inpam"), is completely and exclusively based on "aṟam". The Naladiyar, a Jain text of the post-Sangam period, follows a similar pattern as that of the Kural in emphasizing "aṟam" or dharma.


title: Dharma

text: The importance of "dharma" to Indian civilization is illustrated by India's decision in 1947 to include the Ashoka Chakra, a depiction of the "dharmachakra" (the "wheel of dharma"), as the central motif on its flag.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 22 May 2017, an Islamist extremist suicide bomber detonated a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Twenty-three people were killed, including the attacker, and 1,017 were injured, many of them children. Several hundred more suffered psychological trauma. The bomber was Salman Ramadan Abedi, a 22-year-old local man of Libyan ancestry. After initial suspicions of a terrorist network, police later said they believed Abedi had largely acted alone, but that others had been aware of his plans. The Islamic State claimed responsibility shortly after the attack. In March 2020, the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, was found guilty of 22 counts of murder and attempting to murder 1,017 others, and was sentenced to life in prison.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The incident was the deadliest terrorist attack and the first suicide bombing in the United Kingdom since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 22 May 2017 at 22:15 a member of the public reported Abedi, wearing black clothes and a large rucksack to Showsec security. A guard observed Abedi but said that he did not intervene in case his concerns about Abedi were wrong and out of fear of being considered a racist. The security guard tried to use his radio to alert the security control room but was unable to get through. No police officers were available for members of public to approach as they had had ignored briefings to stagger their breaks during the concert and had ignored instructions to be in place at the City Room entrance of the arena 30 minutes prior to the end of the concert. Two British Transport Police officers who were supposed to be in place at the arena had gone on a 10 mile round trip to buy kebabs and were not present in the 31 minutes prior to the explosion.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: About five minutes later at 22:31 BST (), the suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device, packed with nuts and bolts to act as shrapnel, in the foyer area of the Manchester Arena. The attack took place after a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande that was part of her Dangerous Woman Tour. 14,200 people attended the concert. Many exiting concert-goers and waiting parents were in the foyer at the time of the explosion. According to evidence presented at the coroner's inquest, the bomb was strong enough to kill people up to away.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Greater Manchester Police declared the incident a terrorist attack and a suicide bombing. It was the deadliest attack in the United Kingdom since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: About three hours after the bombing, police conducted a controlled explosion on a suspicious item of clothing in Cathedral Gardens. This was later confirmed to have been abandoned clothing and not dangerous.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Residents and taxi companies in Manchester offered free transport or accommodation via Twitter to those left stranded at the concert. Parents were separated from their children attending the concert in the aftermath of the explosion. A nearby hotel served as a shelter for people displaced by the bombing, with officials directing separated parents and children there. Manchester's Sikh temples (gurdwaras) along with local homeowners, hotels and venues offered shelter to survivors of the attack.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Manchester Victoria railway station, which is partly underneath the arena, was evacuated and closed, and services were cancelled. The explosion caused structural damage to the station, which remained closed until the damage had been assessed and repaired, resulting in disruption to train and tram services. The station reopened to traffic eight days later, following the completion of police investigation work and repairs to the fabric of the building.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: After a COBRA meeting with Greater Manchester's Chief Constable, Ian Hopkins, on 23 May, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the UK's terror threat level was raised to "critical", its highest level. The threat level remained critical until 27 May, when it was reduced to its previous level of severe. In the aftermath of the attack Operation Temperer was activated for the first time, allowing up to 5,000 soldiers to reinforce armed police in protecting parts of the country. Tours of the Houses of Parliament and the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace were cancelled on 24 May, and troops were deployed to guard government buildings in London.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 23 May, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, via the Nashir Telegram channel, said the attack was carried out by "a soldier of the Khilafah". The message called the attack "an endeavor to terrorise the mushrikin, and in response to their transgressions against the lands of the Muslims." Abedi's sister said that he was motivated by revenge for Muslim children killed by American airstrikes in Syria.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The Arena remained closed until September 2017, with scheduled concerts either cancelled or moved to other venues. It reopened on 9 September, with a benefit concert featuring Noel Gallagher and other acts associated with North West England.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: May announced an extra £13 million reimbursement from central government to Manchester's public services for most of the costs incurred by the attack in January 2018. Later that month, Chris Parker, a homeless man who stole from victims of the attack whilst assisting them, was jailed for 4 years and three months.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The explosion killed the attacker and 22 concert-goers and parents who were in the entrance waiting to pick up their children following the show; 119 people were initially reported as injured. This number was revised by police to 250 on 22 June, with the addition of severe psychological trauma and minor injuries. In May 2018, the number of injured was revised to 800. During the public inquiry into the bombing, it was updated in December 2020 to 1,017 people sustaining injuries. A study published in September 2019 said that 239 of the injuries were physical. The dead included ten people aged under 20; the youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl and the oldest was a 51-year-old woman. Of the 22 victims, twenty were Britons and two were British-based Polish nationals.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: North West Ambulance Service reported that 60 of its ambulances attended the scene, carried 59 people to local hospitals, and treated walking wounded on site. Of those hospitalised, 12 were children under the age of 16. In total, 112 people were hospitalised for their injuries, and 27 were treated for injuries that did not require hospitalisation. Out of this total of 139, 79 were children.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The first doctor thought to have been on scene was an off-duty consultant anaesthetist, Michael Daley. In recognition of his bravery for the role he played in the immediate medical response to the incident, Daley's name was entered into the British Medical Association Book of Valour in June 2017.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The bomber, Salman Ramadan Abedi, was a 22-year-old British Muslim of Libyan ancestry. He was born in Manchester to a Salafi family of Libyan-born refugees who had settled in south Manchester after fleeing to the UK to escape the government of Muammar Gaddafi. He had two brothers and a sister. He grew up in Whalley Range and lived in Fallowfield. Neighbours described the Abedis as a very traditional and "super religious" family, who attended Didsbury Mosque. Abedi attended Wellacre Technology College, Burnage Academy for Boys and The Manchester College. A former tutor remarked that Abedi was "a very slow, uneducated and passive person". He was among a group of students at his high school who accused a teacher of Islamophobia for asking them what they thought of suicide bombers. He also reportedly said to his friends that being a suicide bomber "was OK" and fellow college students raised concerns about his behaviour.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Abedi's father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a Salafi jihadist organisation proscribed by the United Nations, and father and son fought for the group in Libya in 2011 as part of the movement to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. Abedi's parents, both born in Tripoli, remained in Libya in 2011, while 17-year-old Abedi returned to live in the United Kingdom. He took a gap year in 2014, when he returned with his brother Hashem to Libya to live with his parents. Abedi was injured in Ajdabiya that year while fighting for an Islamist group. The brothers were rescued from Tripoli by the Royal Navy survey ship in August 2014 as part of a group of 110 British citizens as the Libyan civil war erupted, taken to Malta and flown back to the UK. According to a retired European intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, Abedi met with members of the ISIS Battar brigade in Sabratha, Libya and continued to be in contact with the group upon his return to the UK. An imam at Didsbury mosque recalled that Abedi looked at him "with hate" after he preached against ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia in 2015.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Abedi's sister said her brother was motivated by the injustice of Muslim children dying in bombings stemming from the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War. A family friend of the Abedi's also remarked that Salman had vowed revenge at the funeral of Abdul Wahab Hafidah, who was run over and stabbed to death by a Manchester gang in 2016 and was a friend of Salman and his younger brother Hashem. Hashem later co-ordinated the Manchester bombing with his brother.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: According to an acquaintance in the UK, Abedi was "outgoing" and consumed alcohol, while another said that Abedi was a "regular kid who went out and drank" until about 2016. Abedi was also known to have used cannabis. He enrolled at the University of Salford in September 2014, where he studied business administration, before dropping out to work in a bakery. Manchester police believe Abedi used student loans to finance the plot, including travel overseas to learn bomb-making. "The Guardian" reported that despite dropping out from further education, he was still receiving student loan funding in April 2017. Abedi returned to Manchester on 18 May after a trip to Libya and bought bomb-making material, apparently constructing the acetone peroxide-based bomb by himself. It is known that many members of the IS Battar brigade trained people in bomb-making in Libya.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: He was known to British security services and police but was not regarded as a high risk, having been linked to petty crime but never flagged up for radical views. A community worker told the BBC he had called a hotline five years before the bombing to warn police about Abedi's views and members of Britain's Libyan diaspora said they had "warned authorities for years" about Manchester's Islamist radicalisation. Abedi was allegedly reported to authorities for his extremism by five community leaders and family members and had been banned from a mosque; the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, however, said Abedi was not known to the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 29 May 2017, MI5 launched an internal inquiry into its handling of the warnings it had received about Abedi and a second, "more in depth" inquiry, into how it missed the danger. On 22 November 2018, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament published a report which said that MI5 had acted "too slowly" in its dealings with Abedi. The committee's report noted "What we can say is that there were a number of a failings in the handling of Salman Abedi's case. While it is impossible to say whether these would have prevented the devastating attack on 22 May, we have concluded that as a result of the failings, potential opportunities to prevent it were missed."


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The property in Fallowfield where Abedi lived was raided on 23 May. Armed police breached the house with a controlled explosion and searched it. Abedi's 23-year-old brother was arrested in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in south Manchester in relation to the attack. Police carried out raids in two other areas of south Manchester and another address in the Whalley Range area. Three other men were arrested, and police initially spoke of a network supporting the bomber; they later announced that Abedi had sourced all the bomb components himself, and that they now believed he had largely acted alone. On 6 July, police said that they believed others had been aware of Abedi's plans.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: According to German police sources, Abedi transited through Düsseldorf Airport on his way home to Manchester from Istanbul four days before the bombing. French interior minister Gérard Collomb said in an interview with BFM TV that Abedi may have been to Syria, and had "proven" links with IS. Abedi's younger brother and father were arrested by Libyan security forces on 23 and 24 May respectively. The brother was suspected of planning an attack in Libya, and was said to be in regular touch with Salman, and aware of the plan to bomb the Manchester Arena, but not the date. According to a Libyan official, the brothers spoke on the phone about 15 minutes before the attack was carried out. On 1 November 2017, the UK requested Libya to extradite the bomber's younger brother, Hashem Abedi to return to the UK to face trial for complicity in the murder of the 22 people killed in the explosion.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Photographs of the remains of the IED published by "The New York Times" indicated that it had comprised an explosive charge inside a lightweight metal container which was carried within a black vest or a blue Karrimor backpack. Most of the fatalities occurred in a ring around the bomber. His torso was propelled by the blast through the doors to the arena, possibly indicating that the explosive charge was held in the backpack and blew him forward on detonation. A small device thought to have possibly been a hand-held detonator was also found. US Congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, indicated that the bomb contained the explosive TATP, which has been used in previous bombings. According to Manchester police, the explosive device used by Abedi was the design of a skilled bomb-maker and had a back-up means of detonation. Police also said Salman Abedi "bought most of the Manchester bomb components himself" and that he was alone during much of the time before carrying out the Manchester bombing.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 28 May, police released images showing Abedi on the night of the bombing, taken from CCTV footage. Further images showed Abedi walking around Manchester with a blue suitcase.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: According to US intelligence sources, Abedi was identified by the bank card that he had with him and the identification was confirmed using facial recognition technology.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: A total of 22 people were arrested in connection with the attack, but had all been released without charge by 11 June following the police's conclusion that Abedi was likely to have acted alone, even though others may have been aware of his plans.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: A public inquiry into the attack was launched in September 2020. The first of three reports to be produced was a 200-page report published on 17 June 2021. It found that "there were a number of missed opportunities to alter the course of what happened that night" and that "more should have been done" by police and private security guards to prevent the bombing.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Within hours of the attack, Abedi's name and other information given confidentially to security services in the United States and France were leaked to the news media, leading to condemnation from Home Secretary Amber Rudd. Following the publication of crime scene photographs of the backpack bomb used in the attack in the 24 May edition of "The New York Times", UK counterterrorism police chiefs said the release of the material was detrimental to the investigation.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 25 May, Greater Manchester Police said it had stopped sharing information on the attack with the US intelligence services. Theresa May said she would make clear to President Trump that "intelligence that has been shared must be made secure." Trump described the leaks to the news media as "deeply troubling", and pledged to carry out a full investigation. British officials blamed the leaks on "the breakdown of normal discipline at the White House and in the US security services". "New York Times" editor Dean Baquet declined to apologise for publishing the backpack bomb photographs, saying "We live in different press worlds" and that the material was not classified at the highest level.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 26 May, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States government accepted responsibility for the leaks.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: According to a secret recording unveiled by the BBC, Mostafa Graf, the imam of the Didsbury Mosque where Salman Abedi and his family were regulars, made a call for armed jihad 10 days before Abedi bought his concert ticket.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Following these revelations, the Manchester Police opened an investigation into the mosque and its imam, who also fought with a Libyan Islamist militia. Mostafa Graf is a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, an organisation founded by the Muslim Brotherhood and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Al-Qaradawi is known for having claimed, "Suicide bombings are a duty".


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Haras Rafiq, head of the Quilliam think tank, told "The Guardian" that the Muslim Brotherhood runs the Didsbury Mosque.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The Didsbury Mosque is controlled by The Islamic Centre (Manchester), an English association headed by Dr. Haytham al-Khaffaf, who is also a director of the Human Relief Foundation, a Muslim Brotherhood organisation blacklisted for terrorism by Israel. Between 2015 and 2016, al-Khaffaf's Human Relief Foundation received over £1.5 million from the Qatar Charity, which is also subject to US counterterrorism surveillance.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 17 July 2019, Salman Abedi's brother Hashem was charged with murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion. He had been arrested in Libya and extradited to the UK. His trial began on 5 February 2020. On 17 March, Hashem Abedi was found guilty on 22 charges of murder, on the grounds that he had helped his brother to source the materials used in the bombing and had assisted with the manufacture of the explosives which were used in the attack. On 20 August, Hashem Abedi was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years. The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, said that sentencing rules prevented him from imposing a whole life order as Abedi had been 20 years old at the time of the offence. The minimum age for a whole life order is 21 years old. Abedi's 55-year minimum term is the longest minimum term ever imposed by a British court.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: In October 2021, it was reported that Salman Abedi's older brother Ismail had left the UK. He had been summonsed by Sir John Saunders to testify before the public inquiry into the bombing. Saunders had refused Ismail Abedi's request for immunity from prosecution while testifying.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: In February 2022, it was reported that security services were "struggling to cope" during the period leading up to the bombing. One MI5 officer told the inquiry that he had warned superiors that something might "get through" due to large numbers of documents needing processing. Intelligence that MI5 had before the attack and which might have led to Salman Abedi being placed under investigation was not passed to counter-terrorism police.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Theresa May condemned the bombing, and in a later statement following the 2017 London Bridge attack, she said these attacks, along with the 2017 Westminster attack, were "bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism" and said this extremism was "a perversion of Islam". Queen Elizabeth II expressed her sympathy to the families of the victims. Campaigning for the upcoming general election was suspended by all political parties for two days after the attack. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, called the attack "evil" and announced a vigil in Albert Square the following evening, which thousands attended. The Muslim Council of Britain also condemned the attack.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Police reported a 500% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the Greater Manchester area in the month following the attack. The Commission for Countering Extremism was created in the aftermath of the bombing.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: According to a 2021 study in the "American Political Science Review", the British public did not rally around Theresa May after the Manchester Arena bombing: "Instead, evaluations of May decrease, with sharp declines among those holding negative views about women. We further show May's party loses votes in areas closer to the attack."


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 19 October 2021 it was reported that Salman Abedi's elder brother Ismail had left the country, despite being summonsed to provide evidence to the public enquiry.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Condolences were expressed by the leaders and governments of dozens of countries, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Pope Francis, and secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Yousef Al-Othaimeen.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: Ariana Grande posted on Twitter: "broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words." The tweet briefly became the most-liked tweet in history. Grande suspended her tour and flew back to her mother's home in Florida.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 9 July 2017, a performance to benefit the Manchester bombing victims was held in New York City's The Cutting Room, called "Break Free: United for Manchester", with Broadway theatre and television performers covering Grande's songs.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 4 June, Ariana Grande hosted a benefit concert in Manchester, entitled "One Love Manchester" at Old Trafford Cricket Ground that was broadcast live on television, radio and social media. At the concert, Grande performed along with several other high-profile artists. Free tickets were offered to those who had attended the show on 22 May. The benefit concert and associated Red Cross fund raised £10 million for victims of the attack by early June and £17 million by August. "New York"s Vulture section ranked the event as the No. 1 concert of 2017.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: On 27 March 2018, a report by Bob Kerslake was published. The Kerslake report was "an independent review into the preparedness for, and emergency response to, the Manchester Arena attack on 22nd May 2017." In the report, Kerslake "largely praised" the Greater Manchester Police and British Transport Police, and noted that it was "fortuitous" that the North West Ambulance Service was unaware of the declaration of Operation Plato, a protocol under which all responders should have withdrawn from the arena in case of an active killer on the premises. However, it found that the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service was "brought to a point of paralysis" as their response was delayed for two hours due to poor communication between the firefighters' liaison officer and the police force.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The report was critical of Vodafone for the "catastrophic failure" of an emergency helpline hosted on a platform provided by Content Guru, saying that delays in getting information caused "significant stress and upset" to families. It also expressed criticism of some news media, saying, "To have experienced such intrusive and overbearing behaviour at a time of such enormous vulnerability seemed to us to be completely and utterly unacceptable", but noting that, "We recognise that this was some, but by no means all of the media and that the media also have a positive and important role to play."


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The victims of the bombing will be commemorated by "The Glade of Light", a garden memorial located in Manchester city centre near Manchester Cathedral. The memorial opened to the public in January 2022 and an official opening event has been planned for later in the year.


title: Manchester Arena bombing

text: The memorial was vandalised on 9 February 2022, causing £10,000 of damage. A 24-year-old man admitted to the offence and was given a two-year community order on 22 June 2022.


title: Francis I of France

text: Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a son.


title: Francis I of France

text: A prodigious patron of the arts, he promoted the emergent French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the "Mona Lisa" with him, which Francis had acquired. Francis' reign saw important cultural changes with the growth of central power in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, and the beginning of French exploration of the New World. Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire.


title: Francis I of France

text: For his role in the development and promotion of the French language, he became known as "le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres" (the 'Father and Restorer of Letters'). He was also known as "François au Grand Nez" ('Francis of the Large Nose'), the "Grand Colas", and the "Roi-Chevalier" (the 'Knight-King').


title: Francis I of France

text: In keeping with his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. The succession of his great rival Emperor Charles V to the Habsburg Netherlands and the throne of Spain, followed by his election as Holy Roman Emperor, led to France being geographically encircled by the Habsburg monarchy. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, Francis sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.


title: Francis I of France

text: Francis of Orléans was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, a part of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Today the town lies in the department of Charente.


title: Francis I of France

text: Francis was the only son of Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy, and a great-great-grandson of King Charles V of France. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his father's cousin the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, who himself had no male heir. The Salic Law prevented women from inheriting the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old Francis (who was already Count of Angoulême after the death of his own father two years earlier) became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois.


title: Francis I of France

text: In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered for his daughter Claude and Francis to be married immediately, but only through an assembly of nobles were the two engaged. Claude was heir presumptive to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Anne's death, the marriage took place on 18 May 1514. On 1 January 1515, Louis died, and Francis inherited the throne. He was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort.