title: Finnish language

text: The most important contributions to improving the status of Finnish were made by Elias Lönnrot. His impact on the development of modern vocabulary in Finnish was particularly significant. In addition to compiling the "Kalevala", he acted as an arbiter in disputes about the development of standard Finnish between the proponents of western and eastern dialects, ensuring that the western dialects preferred by Agricola retained their preeminent role, while many originally dialect words from Eastern Finland were introduced to the standard language, thus enriching it considerably. The first novel written in Finnish (and by a Finnish speaker) was "Seven Brothers" (), published by Aleksis Kivi in 1870.


title: Finnish language

text: The Finnish language has been changing in certain ways after World War II, as observed in the spreading of certain dialectal features, for example the spread of the Western dialectal variant for the written cluster "ts" ( : / [forest : forest's] instead of : ) and the Eastern disappearance of "d" ( 'I know' instead of ) and the simultaneous preference to abandon the more visible dialectal features. Some scientists have also reported the low front vowel [æ] (orthographic ⟨ä⟩) moving toward [ɑ] (orthographic ⟨a⟩), theorising that the Finnish speakers would start to pronounce even more distantly from the changing in order to preserve the system of vowel harmony.


title: Finnish language

text: The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For the most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish. Two examples are the voiced dental fricative found in the Rauma dialect, and the Eastern exessive case.


title: Finnish language

text: The classification of closely related dialects spoken outside Finland is a politically sensitive issue that has been controversial since Finland's independence in 1917. This concerns specifically the Karelian language in Russia and Meänkieli in Sweden, the speakers of which are often considered oppressed minorities. Karelian is different enough from standard Finnish to have its own orthography. Meänkieli is a northern dialect almost entirely intelligible to speakers of any other Finnish dialect, which achieved its status as an official minority language in Sweden for historical and political reasons, although Finnish is an official minority language in Sweden, too. In 1980, many texts, books and the Bible were translated into Meänkieli and it has been developing more into its own language.


title: Finnish language

text: The Southwest Finnish dialects () are spoken in Southwest Finland and Satakunta. Their typical feature is abbreviation of word-final vowels, and in many respects they resemble Estonian. The Tavastian dialects () are spoken in Tavastia. They are closest to the standard language, but feature some slight vowel changes, such as the opening of diphthong-final vowels ( → , → , → ), the change of d to l (mostly obsolete) or trilled r (widespread, nowadays disappearance of d is popular) and the personal pronouns ( (we: our), (you: your) and (they: their)). The South Ostrobothnian dialects () are spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia. Their most notable feature is the pronunciation of "d" as a tapped or even fully trilled . The Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects () are spoken in Central and Northern Ostrobothnia. The Lappish dialects () are spoken in Lapland. The dialects spoken in the western parts of Lapland are recognizable by retention of old "h" sounds in positions where they have disappeared from other dialects.


title: Finnish language

text: One form of speech related to Northern dialects, Meänkieli, which is spoken on the Swedish side of the border, is taught in some Swedish schools as a distinct standardized language. The speakers of Meänkieli became politically separated from the other Finns when Finland was annexed to Russia in 1809. The categorization of Meänkieli as a separate language is controversial among some Finns, who see no linguistic criteria, only political reasons, for treating Meänkieli differently from other dialects of Finnish.


title: Finnish language

text: The Kven language is spoken in Finnmark and Troms, in Norway. Its speakers are descendants of Finnish emigrants to the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kven is an official minority language in Norway.


title: Finnish language

text: The Eastern dialects consist of the widespread Savonian dialects () spoken in Savo and nearby areas, and the South-Eastern dialects now spoken only in Finnish South Karelia. The South Karelian dialects () were previously also spoken on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingria. The Karelian Isthmus was evacuated during World War II and refugees were resettled all over Finland. Most Ingrian Finns were deported to various interior areas of the Soviet Union.


title: Finnish language

text: Palatalization, a common feature of Uralic languages, had been lost in the Finnic branch, but it has been reacquired by most of these languages, including Eastern Finnish, but not Western Finnish. In Finnish orthography, this is denoted with a "j", e.g. "water", cf. standard .


title: Finnish language

text: The language spoken in those parts of Karelia that have not historically been under Swedish or Finnish rule is usually called the Karelian language, and it is considered to be more distant from standard Finnish than the Eastern dialects. Whether this language of Russian Karelia is a dialect of Finnish or a separate language is sometimes disputed.


title: Finnish language

text: The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story "Hellaassa" by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in "italics"):


title: Finnish language

text: Kun minä eilen illalla palasin "labbiksesta", tapasin "Aasiksen" kohdalla "Supiksen", ja niin me laskeusimme tänne "Espikselle", jossa oli mahoton hyvä "piikis". Mutta me mentiin "Studikselle" suoraan "Hudista" tapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimme "Kaisikseen".


title: Finnish language

text: There are two main registers of Finnish used throughout the country. One is the "standard language" (), and the other is the "spoken language" (). The standard language is used in formal situations like political speeches and newscasts. Its written form, the "book language" (), is used in nearly all written texts, not always excluding even the dialogue of common people in popular prose. The spoken language, on the other hand, is the main variety of Finnish used in popular TV and radio shows and at workplaces, and may be preferred to a dialect in personal communication.


title: Finnish language

text: Standard Finnish is prescribed by the Language Office of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and is the language used in official communication. The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish ( 1951–61), with 201,000 entries, was a prescriptive dictionary that defined official language. An additional volume for words of foreign origin (, 30,000 entries) was published in 1991. An updated dictionary, The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish () was published in an electronic form in 2004 and in print in 2006. A descriptive grammar (the Large grammar of Finnish, , 1,600 pages) was published in 2004. There is also an etymological dictionary, "Suomen sanojen alkuperä", published in 1992–2000, and a handbook of contemporary language ("Nykysuomen käsikirja"). Standard Finnish is used in official texts and is the form of language taught in schools. Its spoken form is used in political speech, newscasts, in courts, and in other formal situations. Nearly all publishing and printed works are in standard Finnish.


title: Finnish language

text: The colloquial language has mostly developed naturally from earlier forms of Finnish, and spread from the main cultural and political centres. The standard language, however, has always been a consciously constructed medium for literature. It preserves grammatical patterns that have mostly vanished from the colloquial varieties and, as its main application is writing, it features complex syntactic patterns that are not easy to handle when used in speech. The colloquial language develops significantly faster, and the grammatical and phonological changes also include the most common pronouns and suffixes, which amount to frequent but modest differences. Some sound changes have been left out of the formal language. For example, irregular verbs have developed in the spoken language as a result of the elision of sonorants in some verbs of the Type III class (with subsequent vowel assimilation), but only when the second syllable of the word is short. The result is that some forms in the spoken language are shortened, e.g. → ("I come"), while others remain identical to the standard language 'he comes', never *). However, the longer forms such as can be used in spoken language in other forms as well.


title: Finnish language

text: The literary language certainly still exerts a considerable influence upon the spoken word, because illiteracy is nonexistent and many Finns are avid readers. In fact, it is still not entirely uncommon to meet people who "talk book-ish" (); it may have connotations of pedantry, exaggeration, moderation, weaseling or sarcasm (somewhat like heavy use of Latinate words in English, or more old-fashioned or ‘pedantic’ constructions: compare the difference between saying "There's no children I'll leave it to" and "There are no children to whom I shall leave it"). More common is the intrusion of typically literary constructions into a colloquial discourse, as a kind of quote from written Finnish. It is quite common to hear book-like and polished speech on radio or TV, and the constant exposure to such language tends to lead to the adoption of such constructions even in everyday language.


title: Finnish language

text: A prominent example of the effect of the standard language is the development of the consonant gradation form /ts : ts/ as in , as this pattern was originally (1940) found natively only in the dialects of the southern Karelian isthmus and Ingria. It has been reinforced by the spelling "ts" for the dental fricative , used earlier in some western dialects. The spelling and the pronunciation this encourages however approximate the original pronunciation, still reflected in e.g. Karelian /čč : č/ (). In the spoken language, a fusion of Western /tt : tt/ () and Eastern /ht : t/ () has resulted: /tt : t/ (). It is notable that neither of these forms are identifiable as, or originate from, a specific dialect.


title: Finnish language

text: The orthography of informal language follows that of the formal. However, in signalling the former in writing, syncope and sandhi – especially internal – may occasionally amongst other characteristics be transcribed, e.g. . This never occurs in the standard variety.


title: Finnish language

text: Note that there are noticeable differences between dialects. Also note that here the formal language does not mean a language spoken in formal occasions but the standard language which exists practically only in written form.


title: Finnish language

text: The phoneme inventory of Finnish is moderately small, with a great number of vocalic segments and a restricted set of consonant types, both of which can be long or short.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish monophthongs show eight vowel qualities that contrast in duration, thus 16 vowel phonemes in total. Vowel allophony is quite restricted. Vowel phonemes are always contrastive in word-initial syllables; for non-initial syllable, see morphophonology below. Long and short vowels are shown below.


title: Finnish language

text: The usual analysis is that Finnish has long and short vowels and consonants as distinct phonemes. However, long vowels may be analyzed as a vowel followed by a chroneme, or also, that sequences of identical vowels are pronounced as "diphthongs". The quality of long vowels mostly overlaps with the quality of short vowels, with the exception of u, which is centralized with respect to uu; long vowels do not morph into diphthongs. There are eighteen phonemic diphthongs; like vowels, diphthongs do not have significant allophony.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish has a consonant inventory of small to moderate size, where voicing is mostly not distinctive, and fricatives are scarce. Finnish has relatively few non-coronal consonants. Consonants are as follows, where consonants in parentheses are found either only in a few recent loans or are allophones of other phonemes.


title: Finnish language

text: Almost all consonants have phonemic short and long (geminated) forms, although length is only contrastive in consonants word-medially.


title: Finnish language

text: Consonant clusters are mostly absent in native Finnish words, except for a small set of two-consonant sequences in syllable codas, e.g. "rs" in . However, because of a number of recently adopted loanwords that have them, e.g. from Swedish , meaning "ostrich", clusters have been integrated to the modern language to different degrees.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish is somewhat divergent from other Uralic languages in two respects: it has lost most fricatives, as well as losing the distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants. Finnish has only two fricatives in native words, namely and . All other fricatives are recognized as foreign, of which Finnish speakers can usually reliably distinguish and . The alphabet includes "z", usually pronounced [ts]. While standard Finnish has lost palatalization, which is characteristic of Uralic languages, the Eastern dialects and the Karelian language have redeveloped or retained it. For example, the Karelian word , with a palatalized , is reflected by in Finnish and Savo dialect is in standard Finnish.


title: Finnish language

text: A feature of Finnic phonology is the development of labial and rounded vowels in non-initial syllables, as in the word . Proto-Uralic had only "a" and "i" and their vowel harmonic allophones in non-initial syllables; modern Finnish allows other vowels in non-initial syllables, although they are uncommon compared to "a", "ä" and "i".


title: Finnish language

text: Characteristic features of Finnish (common to some other Uralic languages) are vowel harmony and an agglutinative morphology; owing to the extensive use of the latter, words can be quite long.


title: Finnish language

text: The main stress is always on the first syllable, and is in average speech articulated by adding approximately 100 ms more length to the stressed vowel. Stress does not cause any measurable modifications in vowel quality (very much unlike English). However, stress is not strong and words appear evenly stressed. In some cases, stress is so weak that the highest points of volume, pitch and other indicators of "articulation intensity" are not on the first syllable, although native speakers recognize the first syllable as being stressed.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish has several morphophonological processes that require modification of the forms of words for daily speech. The most important processes are vowel harmony and consonant gradation.


title: Finnish language

text: Vowel harmony is a redundancy feature, which means that the feature [±back] is uniform within a word, and so it is necessary to interpret it only once for a given word. It is meaning-distinguishing in the initial syllable, and suffixes follow; so, if the listener hears [±back] in any part of the word, they can derive [±back] for the initial syllable. For example, from the stem ("product") one derives ("into his product"), where the final vowel becomes the back vowel "a" (rather than the front vowel "ä") because the initial syllable contains the back vowels "uo". This is especially notable because vowels "a" and "ä" are different, meaning-distinguishing phonemes, not interchangeable or allophonic. Finnish front vowels are not umlauts, though the graphemes ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ feature dieresis.


title: Finnish language

text: Consonant gradation is a partly nonproductive lenition process for P, T and K in inherited vocabulary, with the oblique stem "weakened" from the nominative stem, or vice versa. For example, "precise" has the oblique stem , as in "of the precise". There is also another gradation pattern, which is older, and causes simple elision of T and K in suffixes. However, it is very common since it is found in the partitive case marker: if V is a single vowel, V+ → Va, e.g. * → .


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish is a synthetic language that employs extensive agglutination of affixes to verbs, nouns, adjectives and numerals. However, Finnish is not generally considered polysynthetic, its morpheme-to-word ratio being somewhat lower than a prototypical polysynthetic language (e.g., Yup'ik).


title: Finnish language

text: The morphosyntactic alignment of Finnish is nominative–accusative, but there are two object cases: accusative and partitive. The contrast between accusative and partitive object cases is one of telicity, where the accusative case denotes actions completed as intended ( "I shot the/an elk (dead)"), and the partitive case denotes incomplete actions ( "I shot (at) the/an elk"). Often telicity is confused with perfectivity, but these are distinct notions. Finnish in fact has a periphrastic perfective aspect, which in addition to the two inflectional tenses (past and present), yield a Germanic-like system consisting of four tense-aspect combinations: simple present, simple past, perfect (present + perfective aspect) and pluperfect (past + perfective aspect). No morphological future tense is needed; context and the telicity contrast in object grammatical case serve to disambiguate present events from future events. For example, "I eat a fish (completely)" must denote a future event, since there is no way to completely eat a fish at the current moment (the moment the eating is complete, the simple past tense or the perfect must be used). By contrast, "I eat a fish (not yet complete)" denotes a present event by indicating ongoing action.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish has three grammatical persons; finite verbs agree with subject nouns in person and number by way of suffixes. Non-finite verb forms bear the infinitive suffix (often lenited to due to consonant gradation). There is a so-called "passive voice" (sometimes called impersonal or indefinite) which differs from a true passive in various respects. Transitivity is distinguished in the derivational morphology of verbs, e.g. "to solve something" vs. "to solve by itself". There are also several frequentative and momentane affixes which form new verbs derivationally.


title: Finnish language

text: Nouns may be suffixed with the markers for the aforementioned accusative case and partitive case, the genitive case, eight different locatives, and a few other oblique cases. The case affix must be added not only to the head noun, but also to its modifiers; e.g. , literally "big-in house-in". Possession is marked with possessive suffixes; these suffixes appear on nouns and pronouns alike (Finnish possessive pronouns are thus not suppletive like English "her").


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish has a smaller core vocabulary than, for example, English, and uses derivational suffixes to a greater extent. As an example, take the word "a book", from which one can form derivatives "a letter" (of the alphabet), "a piece of correspondence, a letter", "a library", "an author", "literature", "to write", "a writer", "a scribe, a clerk", "in written form", "to write down, register, record", "a font", and many others.


title: Finnish language

text: Here are some of the more common such suffixes. Which of each pair is used depends on the word being suffixed in accordance with the rules of vowel harmony.


title: Finnish language

text: Verbal derivational suffixes are extremely diverse; several frequentatives and momentanes differentiating causative, volitional-unpredictable and anticausative are found, often combined with each other, often denoting indirection. For example, "to jump", "to be jumping", "to be jumping wantonly", "to make someone jump once", "to make someone jump repeatedly" (or "to boss someone around"), "to make someone to cause a third person to jump repeatedly", "to, without aim, make someone jump repeatedly", "to jump suddenly" (in anticausative meaning), "to jump around repeatedly", "to be jumping repeatedly and wantonly". Caritives are also used in such examples as "without jumping" and "without jumping around". The diversity and compactness of both derivation and inflectional agglutination can be illustrated with "I wonder if I should sit down for a while after all" (from , "to sit, to be seated"):


title: Finnish language

text: Over the course of many centuries, the Finnish language has borrowed many words from a wide variety of languages, most from neighbouring Indo-European languages. Owing to the different grammatical, phonological and phonotactic structure of the Finnish language, loanwords from Indo-European have been assimilated.


title: Finnish language

text: While early borrowings, possibly even into Proto-Uralic, from very early Indo-European languages can be found, Finnic languages, including Finnish, have borrowed in particular from Baltic and Germanic languages, and to a lesser extent from Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages (all of which are subgroupings of Indo-European). Furthermore, a certain group of very basic and neutral words exists in Finnish and other Finnic languages that are absent from other Uralic languages, but without a recognizable etymology from any known language. These words are usually regarded as the last remnant of the Paleo-European language spoken in Fennoscandia before the arrival of the proto-Finnic language. Words included in this group are e.g. (hare), (black), (island), (swamp) and (cape (geography)).


title: Finnish language

text: Often quoted loan examples are "king" and "sovereign prince, high ranking nobleman" from Germanic "*kuningaz" and "*druhtinaz"—they display a remarkable tendency towards phonological conservation within the language. Another example is "mother" (from Germanic "*aiþį̄"), which is interesting because borrowing of close-kinship vocabulary is a rare phenomenon. The original Finnish and occurs only in restricted contexts. There are other close-kinship words that are loaned from Baltic and Germanic languages ( "bride", "dear", "whore"). Examples of the ancient Iranian loans are "hammer" from Avestan , and "slave" from "arya", "airya" "man" (the latter probably via similar circumstances as "slave" from Slav in many European languages).


title: Finnish language

text: More recently, Swedish has been a prolific source of borrowings, and also, the Swedish language acted as a proxy for European words, especially those relating to government. Present-day Finland was a part of Sweden from the 12th century and was ceded to Russia in 1809, becoming an autonomous Grand Duchy. Swedish was retained as the official language and language of the upper class even after this. When Finnish was accepted as an official language, it gained legal equal status with Swedish. During the period of autonomy, Russian did not gain much ground as a language of the people or the government. Nevertheless, quite a few words were subsequently acquired from Russian (especially in older Helsinki slang) but not to the same extent as with Swedish. In all these cases, borrowing has been partly a result of geographical proximity.


title: Finnish language

text: Especially words dealing with administrative or modern culture came to Finnish from Swedish, sometimes reflecting the oldest Swedish form of the word ( – , "law";  – , "province";  – , "bishop";  – , "potato"), and many more survive as informal synonyms in spoken or dialectal Finnish (e.g. , from Swedish , "girl", usually in Finnish).


title: Finnish language

text: Some Slavic loanwords are old or very old, thus hard to recognize as such, and concern everyday concepts, e.g. "bean", "border" and "priest". Notably, a few religious words such as ("Bible") are borrowed from Old East Slavic, which indicates language contact preceding the Swedish era. This is mainly believed to be result of trade with Novgorod from the 9th century on and Russian Orthodox missions in the east in the 13th century.


title: Finnish language

text: Most recently, and with increasing impact, English has been the source of new loanwords in Finnish. Unlike previous geographical borrowing, the influence of English is largely cultural and reaches Finland by many routes, including international business, music, film and TV (foreign films and programmes, excluding ones intended for a very young audience, are shown subtitled), literature, and the Web – the latter is now probably the most important source of all non-face-to-face exposure to English.


title: Finnish language

text: The importance of English as the language of global commerce has led many non-English companies, including Finland's Nokia, to adopt English as their official operating language. Recently, it has been observed that English borrowings are also ousting previous borrowings, for example the switch from "to date" (from Swedish, ) to from English "to go for a date". Calques from English are also found, e.g. (hard disk), and so are grammatical calques, for example, the replacement of the impersonal () with the English-style generic you, e. g. "you cannot", instead of the proper impersonal "one cannot" or impersonal third-person singular "one cannot". This construct, however, is limited to colloquial language, as it is against the standard grammar.


title: Finnish language

text: However, this does not mean that Finnish is threatened by English. Borrowing is normal language evolution, and neologisms are coined actively not only by the government, but also by the media. Moreover, Finnish and English have a considerably different grammar, phonology and phonotactics, discouraging direct borrowing. English loan words in Finnish slang include for example "PlayStation", "hot dog", and "headache", "headshot" or "headbutt". Often these loanwords are distinctly identified as slang or jargon, rarely being used in a negative mood or in formal language. Since English and Finnish grammar, pronunciation and phonetics differ considerably, most loan words are inevitably sooner or later calqued – translated into native Finnish – retaining the semantic meaning.


title: Finnish language

text: Neologisms are actively generated by the Language Planning Office and the media. They are widely adopted. One would actually give an old-fashioned or rustic impression using forms such as (computer) or (calculator) when the neologism is widely adopted.


title: Finnish language

text: The most commonly used Finnish word in English is , which has also been loaned to many other languages.


title: Finnish language

text: Finnish is written with the Latin alphabet including the distinct characters "ä" and "ö", and also several characters ("b, c, f, q, w, x, z, å, š" and "ž") reserved for words of non-Finnish origin. The Finnish orthography follows the phoneme principle: each phoneme (meaningful sound) of the language corresponds to exactly one grapheme (independent letter), and each grapheme represents almost exactly one phoneme. This enables an easy spelling and facilitates reading and writing acquisition. The rule of thumb for Finnish orthography is "write as you read, read as you write". However, morphemes retain their spelling despite sandhi.


title: Finnish language

text: When the appropriate characters are not available, the graphemes "ä" and "ö" are usually converted to "a" and "o", respectively. This is common in e-mail addresses and other electronic media where there may be no support for characters outside the basic ASCII character set. Writing them as "ae" and "oe", following German usage, is rarer and usually considered incorrect, but formally used in passports and equivalent situations. Both conversion rules have minimal pairs which would no longer be distinguished from each other.


title: Finnish language

text: The sounds "š" and "ž" are not a part of the Finnish language itself and have been introduced by the Finnish national languages body for more phonologically accurate transcription of loanwords (such as , "Czech Republic") and foreign names. For technical reasons or convenience, the graphemes "sh" and "zh" are often used in quickly or less carefully written texts instead of "š" and "ž". This is a deviation from the phonetic principle, and as such is liable to cause confusion, but the damage is minimal as the transcribed words are foreign in any case. Finnish does not use the sounds "z", "š" or "ž", but for the sake of exactitude, they can be included in spelling. (The recommendation cites the Russian opera as an example.) Many speakers pronounce all of them "s", or distinguish only between "s" and "š", because Finnish has no voiced sibilants.


title: Finnish language

text: Excerpt from Väinö Linna's (The Unknown Soldier); these words were also inscribed in the 20 mark note.


title: Finnish language

text: Professor J. R. R. Tolkien, although better known as an author, had a keen interest in languages from a young age, and became a professional philologist, becoming Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University. He described his first encounter with Finnish was:


title: Finnish language

text: Aspects of Finnish, particularly its sound, were a strong influence on Quenya, one of the languages constructed by Tolkien spoken by the Elves. Within his fantasy writings set in the world of Middle-earth, Quenya is a highly revered language and is to his world as Latin is to modern Europe; he often referred to it as "elf-Latin". However, Quenya lacks consonant gradation and vowel harmony – two remarkable aspects of Finnish grammar.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (; ; born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle arms from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the nicknames the "Merchant of Death" and "Sanctions Buster" after British minister Peter Hain read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In a US sting operation Bout was arrested in 2008 in Thailand on terrorism charges by the Royal Thai Police in cooperation with American authorities and Interpol. The United States Ambassador to Thailand Eric G. John requested his extradition to the United States, which was eventually mandated by the Thai High Court in 2010. Bout was accused of intending to sell arms to a United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informer pretending to represent the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for use against American forces in Colombia, but Bout denied the charges and predicted an acquittal.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2011 Bout was convicted by a jury at a federal court in Manhattan, of conspiracy to kill American citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization; he was sentenced to the minimum 25 years' imprisonment because the crime was due to the sting operation. From 2012 until 2022, Bout was held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, before being released in a prisoner exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner. Bout had served over 14 years in prison before his release in December 2022.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout's origins are unclear. United Nations documents and Bout himself both state his birthplace as Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union (now the capital of Tajikistan), and that his date of birth is most likely 13 January 1967, although several other dates are possible. He has an older brother named Sergei Bout.


title: Viktor Bout

text: An ethnic Ukrainian (according to South African intelligence and the British Foreign Affairs Select Committee), Bout became a Russian citizen following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. According to the UN Security Council Committee on Liberia, Bout holds at least four passports.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout served in the Soviet Armed Forces. There is no definite information on his military career except that he graduated from the Soviet Military Institute of Foreign Languages. Bout's training allowed him to become a polyglot and master five foreign languages: Portuguese, English, French, Arabic, and Farsi (Persian). He is reported to be fluent in Esperanto, which he learned at age 12 in the early 1980s as a member of the Dushanbe Esperanto club. Bout's personal website stated that he served in the Soviet Army as a translator, holding the rank of lieutenant.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout is thought to have been discharged from the Soviet Army upon its dissolution in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, whereupon he started an air freight business. Other sources state he was a major in the GRU, an officer in the Soviet Air Forces, that he graduated from a Soviet military intelligence training program, or an operative of the KGB.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout was involved with a Soviet military operation in Angola in the late 1980s assisting the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan Civil War. He has stated that he was in Angola only for a few weeks. During this time in Africa he went on to learn the Xhosa and Zulu languages.


title: Viktor Bout

text: It is believed that Bout as a former member of the Soviet military was perfectly positioned to purchase surplus Soviet-era military equipment, including three Antonov An-12 aircraft, in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Bout's personal website, he would go on to found an air freight business, Air Cess, in Liberia in 1995. Air Cess is the only company connected to Bout that has ever officially recognized him as the head. He operated four Antonov An-8 planes in Angola as it was the only country to allow the An-8 to be used in civilian freight at the time. Reportedly, Bout's companies legally provided air freight services to the French government, the United Nations, and the United States, including transporting flowers, frozen chicken, UN peacekeepers, French soldiers, and African heads of state. Around this time, Bout earned the nickname of "Sanctions Buster" due to his implication in facilitating the violation of United Nations arms embargoes in the western African countries of Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout acknowledges traveling to Afghanistan on numerous occasions during the 1990s, but has denied dealing with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Beginning in 1994, Bout made shipments for the pre-Taliban government of Afghanistan, which later became the Northern Alliance, and knew one of its commanders, Ahmad Shah Massoud. The Central Intelligence Agency described Bout-owned planes as transporters of small arms and ammunition into Afghanistan. In 1995, Bout was involved in negotiations to free Russian hostages during the 1995 Airstan incident.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2000, a United Nations report stated, "Bulgarian arms manufacturing companies had exported large quantities of different types of weapons between 1996 and 1998 on the basis of (forged) end-user certificates from Togo", and that "with only one exception, the company Air Cess, owned by Victor Bout, was the main transporter of these weapons from Burgas airport in Bulgaria". This was the first time Bout was formally mentioned in connection with arms trafficking. The weapons may have been destined for use in the Angolan Civil War by UNITA, the opposing faction of the MPLA which Bout had aided during his military service.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Another suspected arms dealer, Imad Kebir, is said to have employed Bout's aircraft during the mid-1990s to transport weapons to Africa from Eastern European states. The cargo supposedly had end-user certificates from Zaire, but the true end-user was UNITA in neighboring Angola. From 1993, UNITA was covered under Resolution 864, a United Nations Security Council embargo prohibiting the importation of arms to Angola.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In Liberia, Bout was suspected of supplying Charles Taylor with arms for use in the First Liberian Civil War, with eyewitnesses claiming that the two met personally.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 1993, Bout began collaborating with Richard Chichakli. In 1995 the Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates hired Chichakli to be the commercial manager of its new free-trade zone. Bout began using the UAE's free trade zone, and Chichakli was, at one time, called Bout's "financial manager" by the United States.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Supposedly, Bout had been involved with arms dealings during the Yugoslav Wars, especially with the Bosnian government forces during its uprising against the Milošević government in Yugoslavia. Hasan Čengić, who was the former Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is allegedly one of his former contacts. They came into contact with each other as they both stayed in Tehran during the 1980s and 1990s. The "Slobodna Bosna" newspaper claims that Čengić was a business partner of Bout since then, when 200,000 AK-47 rifles went missing in transit from Bosnia to Iraq in May 2006. One of Bout's airlines was the carrier.


title: Viktor Bout

text: After the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan, Bout appeared in Moscow and stated that his aircraft made regular flights to Afghanistan, but continued to deny any contact with al-Qaeda or the Taliban—instead supplying the rebel Northern Alliance. Soon after the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is said to have moved gold and cash out of Afghanistan. In July 2003, "The New York Times" interviewed Bout, who stated that "I woke up after Sept. 11 and found I was second only to Osama."


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2004, Bout and Chichakli allegedly set up Samar Airlines in Tajikistan to conduct money laundering activities and protect assets from authorities, according to an indictment by the U.S. Justice Department in 2010. Bout is suspected of supplying weapons to numerous armed groups in Africa in the 2000s, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Second Congo War. He may have employed some 300 people and operated 40 to 60 aircraft.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout's network allegedly delivered surface-to-air missiles to Kenya to be used to attack an Israeli airliner during takeoff in 2002.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout was reportedly seen meeting with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon during the run-up to the 2006 Lebanon War, while some sources claim he was actually in Russia when the meeting took place.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Records found in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's former intelligence headquarters in Tripoli, shortly after the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in 2011, indicated that in late September 2003, British intelligence officials told then-Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa that Bout had a "considerable commercial presence in Libya" and aimed to expand his interests there.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2007, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that the U.S. government and its contractors paid Bout-controlled firms roughly $60 million to fly supplies into Iraq in support of American forces, describing Bout as a "linchpin" for American supply lines in Iraq.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout's strategy of constantly moving locations, owning numerous companies, and frequently re-registering aircraft made it hard for authorities to make a case against him. He has never been charged for the alleged African arms deals to which he owes his notoriety. During Bout's reported operations, he is believed to have lived in various countries, including Belgium, Lebanon, Rwanda, Russia, South Africa, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2000, Bout was charged in the Central African Republic with forging documents and was convicted "in absentia", but the charges were later dropped.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Belgian authorities requested that Interpol issue a notice for Bout on charges of money laundering. In 2002 an Interpol red notice on Bout was issued. Bout's website states that because he failed to appear in court a Belgian warrant (not the Interpol notice) for his arrest was issued but later cancelled. The site has a document in Dutch to support the claim that the Belgian case against him was dismissed due to his lack of a fixed residence, and because the case could not be prosecuted in a timely fashion.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout's U.S. assets were among those frozen in July 2004 under , which describes him as a "businessman, dealer and transporter of weapons and minerals" and cites his close association with Charles Taylor.


title: Viktor Bout

text: At the beginning of 2008, a US DEA paid informer, claiming to represent the Colombian rebel group FARC, supposedly independently of the CIA, negotiated with Bout for the supply of 100 9K38 Igla surface-to-air missiles and armour-piercing rocket launchers to be parachuted in by Bout to agreed landing spots in Colombia. The imposters invited Bout to Thailand to meet their leader.


title: Viktor Bout

text: He was charged with terrorism offences that included conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation, conspiracy to kill US nationals, and conspiracy to kill United States officers or employees. The US military was attacking the Colombian rebel group as part of Plan Colombia. None of the alleged crimes were committed in the US.


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 6 March 2008, Bout was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, by the Royal Thai Police based on an Interpol red notice requested by the United States based on conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.


title: Viktor Bout

text: After months of delay, the Criminal Court in Bangkok began an extradition hearing for Bout on 22 September 2008. In February 2009, members of the United States Congress signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing their wish that the Bout extradition "remain a top priority".


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 11 August 2009, the Bangkok Criminal Court ruled in his favor, denying the United States' request for extradition and citing the political, not criminal, nature of the case. The United States appealed that ruling. On 20 August 2010, a higher court in Thailand ruled that Bout could be extradited to the United States.


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 16 November 2010, Bout was extradited from Thailand to the United States amid protests by the Russian government, who deemed it illegal.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Russia called the Thai court decision in 2010 politically motivated. Russia's Foreign Ministry took steps to prevent Bout being extradited to the U.S. Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Bout was innocent.


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 18 November 2010, shortly after Bout's extradition to the United States, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's aide Sergei Prikhodko said that Russia had "nothing to hide" in Bout's criminal case stating, "it is in our interest that the investigation ... be brought to completion, and [Bout] should answer all the questions the American justice system has."


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 18 January 2013, Russian government officials announced that "judges, investigators, justice ministry officials and special services agents who were involved in Russian citizens Viktor Bout's and Konstantin Yaroshenko's legal prosecution and sentencing to long terms of imprisonment" would be added to a list of U.S. officials who will be denied Russian entry visas in response to the U.S. Magnitsky Act, under which certain Russian officials are ineligible to enter the U.S.


title: Viktor Bout

text: It is thought that Bout was of help to Russia's intelligence agencies, and he is alleged to have connections to ranking Russian officials, including former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin. The language institute Bout attended has been linked to the GRU. Bout allegedly served alongside the GRU-affiliated Sechin in Mozambique in the 1980s, although both men deny this allegation. According to a 2002 United Nations report, Bout's father-in-law Zuiguin "at one point held a high position in the KGB, perhaps even as high as a deputy chairman".


title: Viktor Bout

text: The day after his Bangkok arrest, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Bout with conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill American officers or employees, and conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile. Additional charges against him were filed in February 2010. These included illegal purchase of aircraft, wire fraud, and money laundering.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout was convicted by a jury at a federal court in Manhattan on November 2, 2011. On April 5, 2012, Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the minimum sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist group. US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the minimum sentence was appropriate because "there was no evidence that Bout would have committed the crimes for which he was convicted had it not been for the sting operation".


title: Viktor Bout

text: Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement denouncing Bout's sentence as "a political order". During the trial, Bout's lawyers implied that he was a political prisoner. Bout's wife Alla said shortly afterwards that the judge conducted the trial in a proper way. Bout claimed that if the same standards were applied to everyone, all American gun shop owners "who are sending arms and ending up killing Americans" would be in prison.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In June 2013, a co-conspirator of Bout's, U.S-Syrian citizen Richard Ammar Chichakli, was extradited to New York on charges that he conspired to buy aircraft in violation of economic sanctions.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In September 2013, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld Bout's conviction, after rejecting his contention that he had been the victim of a vindictive prosecution and that there was no legitimate law enforcement reason to prosecute him.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2014, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's law firm represented Bout, seeking a new trial to overturn his conviction. , Bout had been scheduled for release in August 2029.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In June 2020, a Reuters article highlighted that following the charging of U.S. Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan, Moscow was exploring the possibility of a prisoner swap exchanging Whelan for Bout and a pilot named Konstantin Yaroshenko. Yaroshenko was released in exchange for U.S. Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed in April 2022.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In May 2022, a "Forbes" article claimed the Biden administration had offered Bout in exchange for the release of Women's National Basketball Association player Brittney Griner. Griner had been detained by customs officers in Sheremetyevo International Airport for being in possession of drugs illegal in Russia, for which she faced 5–10 years in prison. In July 2022, the proposal got further support from President Joe Biden. On 27 July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States had made a "substantial offer" to Russia to release Griner and Paul Whelan, another American who had been convicted of spy activities in Russia, but declined to say what the United States was offering. On the same day, CNN reported that the U.S. had offered to exchange Bout for both Griner and Whelan.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout was released back to Russia on 8 December 2022. Once confirmation came on that the prisoner exchange excluded Whelan, Biden said, "While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we have not given up; we will not give up."


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 9 December 2022, Viktor Bout gave an interview to Maria Butina for RT, where he stated that he did not think he was important for Russian politics. On 10 December, Bout supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said that he would volunteer if given the opportunity and skills.


title: Viktor Bout

text: On 12 December 2022, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) leader Leonid Slutsky announced that Bout had joined the LDPR.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Since 1992, he has been married to Alla Vladimirovna Bout (nee Protasova; born in 1970 in Leningrad). Alla is an artist, designer, fashion designer, was the owner of clothing stores in the UAE, Germany, South Africa and Russia. Viktor Bout met his future wife in the late 1980s in Mozambique, where he worked as a translator from Portuguese in the Soviet military mission. This was Alla's second marriage. His daughter was born in 1994 in the UAE. Elder brother and former partner Sergey Anatolyevich Bout continues to conduct an aviation business in United Arab Emirates (Sharjah) and Bulgaria.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Viktor Bout is a vegetarian. He claims that he is not a follower of any religion, but considers Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Ilyin to be his spiritual leaders and "shares the views" of Jesus Christ, Buddha, Zarathustra and Krishna.


title: Viktor Bout

text: Bout speaks many languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Tajik, Farsi, Dari, Zulu, Xhosa and Esperanto, most of which he learned while in prison.


title: Viktor Bout

text: The third chapter "Merchant of Death" of the 2005 book "The Washing Machine" by Nick Kochan is written about Bout.


title: Viktor Bout

text: The 2005 film "Lord of War" is purportedly based on allegations about Bout's personal history and black-market activities.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In 2007, Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book about Bout: "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible".


title: Viktor Bout

text: A documentary about Bout, "The Notorious Mr. Bout", from Market Road Films and directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin, received its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Viktor Bout

text: The 2015 TV series "Manhunt: Kill or Capture", episode 10, entitled "The Merchant of Death", details the rise and fall of Viktor Bout.


title: Viktor Bout

text: In the US documentary series "Damian Lewis: Spy Wars" released in 2019 by A&E Networks, episode 7 titled "The Merchant of Death" portrays the story of Viktor Bout, the sting operation, capture, extradition, and sentencing.


title: Vince Gill

text: Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist and a duet partner.


title: Vince Gill

text: He has recorded more than 20 studio albums, charted over 40 singles on the U.S. "Billboard" charts as Hot Country Songs, and has sold more than 26 million albums. He has been honored by the Country Music Association with 18 CMA Awards, including two Entertainer of the Year awards and five Male Vocalist Awards. As of 2022, Gill has also earned 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other male country music artist. In 2007 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2016, Gill was inducted into the Guitar Center Rock Walk by Joe Walsh of the Eagles. In 2017, he and Deacon Frey were hired by the Eagles in place of the late Glenn Frey.


title: Vince Gill

text: His father, J. Stanley Gill, was a lawyer and administrative law judge who played in a country music band part-time and encouraged Gill to pursue a music career. His father encouraged him to learn to play banjo and guitar, which he did along with bass, mandolin, Dobro and fiddle.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill attended high school at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School. While there he played on the golf team and performed bluegrass in the band Mountain Smoke, which built a strong local following. After graduating from high school in 1975, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to join the band Bluegrass Alliance. Afterwards he spent a brief amount of time in Ricky Skaggs's Boone Creek band before moving to Los Angeles to join Sundance, a bluegrass group fronted by fiddler Byron Berline.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill debuted on the national scene with the country rock band Pure Prairie League in 1979, appearing on that band's album "Can't Hold Back". He is the lead singer on their song "Let Me Love You Tonight". Mark Knopfler once invited him to join Dire Straits, but he declined the offer (although he sang backup on the Dire Straits' album "On Every Street").


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill left Pure Prairie League in 1981 to join Cherry Bombs, the stage band that backed Rodney Crowell. There he worked with Tony Brown and Emory Gordy Jr., both of whom would later produce many of his albums. He recorded a bluegrass album, "Here Today", with David Grisman and friends before signing a solo deal with RCA with whom he achieved some success including the singles, "Victim of Life's Circumstance" (U.S. Country Top 40) and Country Top Ten with "If It Weren't for Him", "Oklahoma Borderline" and "Cinderella". However his albums achieved only moderate sales and in 1989, Gill left RCA to sign with MCA Records. Here, reunited with Tony Brown as producer, he sold over a million copies of his label debut, 1989's "When I Call Your Name", of which several songs, including the title track, made the U.S. Country charts' Top Ten / Top Twenty. This was followed by the similarly successful albums, "Pocket Full of Gold" (1991) and "I Still Believe in You", of which the title track went to U.S. Country No. 1.


title: Vince Gill

text: Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s Gill continued to release highly successful albums, capitalizing on the virtuoso quality of his electric and acoustic guitar playing, his pure, high and soulful tenor voice, and the excellent quality of his songwriting. According to his biography on AllMusic, Gill has won more CMA Awards than any performer in history, and as of 2018 has also won 21 Grammy Awards, which represents the most ever by a country artist.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since August 10, 1991. He celebrated his 25th Opry anniversary with a tribute show on August 13, 2016.


title: Vince Gill

text: In July 2011, Gill appeared as a guest on NPR's news quiz show "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me". Also in 2011, he appeared on the second of two bluegrass tribute albums for the British rock band the Moody Blues: "Moody Bluegrass TWO... Much Love (2011)." In May 2011, Carrie Underwood was one of the seven women to be honored by the Academy of Country Music at the "Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country" special. At the ceremony, Gill introduced Underwood and presented her with the special award. He sang one of her hits, "Jesus, Take The Wheel", and joined Underwood on a rendition performance of "How Great Thou Art". The video of the performance went viral within two days.


title: Vince Gill

text: In February 2012, Gill announced, "For the first time in 30 years, I don't have a record deal. Don't know that I want one."


title: Vince Gill

text: In March 2012, he performed at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for its opening night. He was recruited for the show at the 11th hour when singer LeAnn Rimes canceled the day before the opening. Gill drove up from Nashville that night with only his guitar and played to repeated standing ovations from a standing-room only house.


title: Vince Gill

text: In April 2012, it was confirmed that Gill had been working with Bonnie Tyler on her upcoming album, performing a duet with her entitled "What You Need from Me".


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill was featured in a song by Kelly Clarkson titled "Don't Rush", which appears on Clarkson's "Greatest Hits – Chapter One".


title: Vince Gill

text: In 2014, Gill received the Country Music Awards Irving Waugh Award of Excellence. Gill was only the sixth recipient since the inception of the award in 1983..


title: Vince Gill

text: In 2016, Gill was selected as one of 30 artists to perform on "Forever Country", which celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill joined the Eagles, alongside Deacon Frey, following the death of Glenn Frey. Gill serves as co-lead guitarist, in addition to providing rhythm guitars, singing background, and sharing occasional lead vocals with Deacon in place of Glenn Frey's role. He initially started touring with the band in 2017, and continues to serve as a member of the band.


title: Vince Gill

text: In 1968, Gill's older half-brother, Bob Coen, was involved in a severe car crash. Bob was 22 years old at the time, while Gill was 11. The accident left Bob in a coma for three months with irreversible brain damage. He subsequently struggled in life and would lose contact with his family and friends. He died in 1993. Gill wrote the song "It Won't Be the Same This Year" for his brother. He dedicated his 1993 Christmas album "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and his first televised Christmas special that year to Coen.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill met country music singer Janis Oliver of Sweethearts of the Rodeo in Los Angeles when they were both starting out in music. The two married in 1980. Their daughter Jenny was born in 1982. In 1983 the couple moved to Nashville. Gill worked as a session guitarist, sang back-up, and continued to write songs while his wife's career took off. Occasionally Gill would mix sound for his wife's band. The two divorced in 1997.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill met Christian music artist Amy Grant in 1993 when he asked her to perform in his first televised Christmas special. Grant and then husband Gary Chapman began divorce mediation in 1998, with Grant moving out of the home and filing for divorce in early 1999. The divorce was finalized in June 1999. Gill and Grant began to see each other publicly a few months later. In March 2000 they were married. Together they have one daughter, Corrina.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill has played golf since early childhood. A scratch golfer, he has organized and participated in many charity events centered around golf and was inducted into the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame in 2005. In 1993 Gill founded the Vinny Pro-Celebrity Golf Invitational, which serves as the primary beneficiary for the Tennessee Golf Foundation. In 2003 the PGA awarded him the PGA Distinguished Service Award for his work in charity and in promoting junior golf. Gill was honored with the 2022 Old Tom Morris Award by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, for his lifetime commitment to the game of golf and help molding the welfare of the game.


title: Vince Gill

text: Gill is a member of the board of directors of the Nashville Predators Foundation charity organization, affiliated with the Nashville Predators National Hockey League team.


title: Presidential system

text: A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separation of powers. This head of government is in most cases also the head of state. In a presidential system, the head of government is directly or indirectly elected by a group of citizens and is not responsible to the legislature, and the legislature cannot dismiss the president except in extraordinary cases. A presidential system contrasts with a parliamentary system, where the head of government comes to power by gaining the confidence of an elected legislature.


title: Presidential system

text: Not all presidential systems use the title of "president". Likewise, the title is sometimes used by other systems. It originated from a time when such a person personally presided over the governing body, as with the President of the Continental Congress in the early United States, prior to the executive function being split into a separate branch of government. It may also be used by presidents in semi-presidential systems. Heads of state of parliamentary republics, largely ceremonial in most cases, are called presidents. Dictators or leaders of one-party states, whether popularly elected or not, are also often called presidents.


title: Presidential system

text: The presidential system is the dominant form of government in the mainland Americas, with 18 of its 22 sovereign states being presidential republics, the exceptions being Canada, Belize, Guyana and Suriname. It is also prevalent in Central and southern West Africa and in Central Asia. By contrast, there are very few presidential republics in Europe, with Belarus, Cyprus, and Turkey being the only examples.


title: Presidential system

text: The presidential system has its roots in the governance of the British colonies of the 17th century in what is now the United States. The Pilgrims, permitted to govern themselves in Plymouth Colony, established a system that utilized an independent executive branch. Each year, a governor was chosen by the colonial legislature, as well as several assistants, analogous to modern day cabinets. Additional executive officials such as constables and messengers were then appointed. At the same time, the British Isles underwent a brief period of republicanism as The Protectorate, during which the Lord Protector served as an executive leader similar to a president.


title: Presidential system

text: The first true presidential system was developed during the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787. Drawing inspiration from the previous colonial governments, from English Common Law, and from philosophers such as John Locke and Montesquieu, the delegates developed what is now known as the presidential system. Most notably, James Wilson advocated for a unitary executive figure that would become the role of the president. The United States became the first presidential republic when the Constitution of the United States came into force in 1789, and George Washington became the first president under a presidential system.


title: Presidential system

text: During the 1810s and 1820s, Spanish colonies in the Americas sought independence, and several new Spanish-speaking governments emerged in Latin America. These countries modeled their constitutions after that of the United States, and the presidential system became the dominant political system in the Americas. Following several decades of monarchy, Brazil also adopted the presidential system in 1889. Latin American presidential systems have experienced varying levels of stability, with many experiencing periods of dictatorial rule.


title: Presidential system

text: Following the pattern of other Spanish colonies, the Philippines established the first presidential system in Asia in 1898, but it fell under American control due to the Spanish–American War. The presidential system was restored after the United States granted the Philippines independence in 1946.


title: Presidential system

text: The end of World War II established presidential systems in two countries. After the United States ended the Japanese occupation of Korea, it assisted South Korea in the formation of a presidential government. However, the early years of the South Korean presidency were marked by dictatorial control. At the same time, Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945. While it nominally used a presidential system, it was in effect a dictatorship where the president controlled all branches of government. A true presidential system was established in 1998.


title: Presidential system

text: Decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s brought with it significant expansion of the presidential system. During this time, several new presidential republics were formed in Africa. Cyprus, the Maldives, and South Vietnam also adopted the presidential system following decolonization. Pakistan and Bangladesh did so as well, but they changed their governmental systems shortly afterward.


title: Presidential system

text: Several more countries adopted the presidential system in the final decades of the 20th century. A modified version of the presidential system was implemented in Iran following constitutional reform in 1989 in which the Supreme Leader serves as the head of state and is the absolute power in this country. In 1981, Palau achieved independence and adopted a presidential system. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, the presidential system was adopted by the new states that were created, though most of them adopted other governmental systems over the following decades. Belarus nominally maintains a presidential system, but critics allege that it has been transformed into a dictatorship. The countries of Central Asia are also described as using the presidential system.


title: Presidential system

text: The presidential system continues to be adopted in the 21st century. Following its independence in 2011, South Sudan adopted a presidential system. In 2018, Turkey abolished its parliamentary system in favor of a presidential system, which was criticized as an attempt by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to consolidate power.


title: Presidential system

text: There are several characteristics that are unique to presidential systems or prominent in countries that use presidential systems. The defining aspect of presidential systems is the separation of powers that divides the executive and the legislature. Advocates of presidential systems cite the democratic nature of presidential elections, the advantages of separation of powers, the efficiency of a unitary executive, and the stability provided by fixed-terms. Opponents of presidential systems cite the potential for gridlock, the difficulty of changing leadership, and concerns that a unitary executive can give way to a dictatorship.


title: Presidential system

text: The presidential system is defined by the separation of the executive branch from other aspects of government. The head of government is elected to work alongside, but not as a part of, the legislature. There are several types of powers that are traditionally delegated to the president. Under a presidential system, the president may have the power to challenge legislation through a veto, the power to pardon crimes, authority over foreign policy, authority to command the military as the Commander-in-chief, and authority over advisors and employees of the executive branch.


title: Presidential system

text: Separation of powers is sometimes held up as an advantage, in that each branch may scrutinize the actions of the other. This is in contrast with a parliamentary system, where legislature that also serves as the executive won't scrutinize its own actions. Writing about the Watergate scandal, former British MP Woodrow Wyatt said "don't think a Watergate couldn't happen here, you just wouldn't hear about it." The extent of this effect is debated. Some commentators argue that the effect is mitigated when the president's party is in power, while others note that party discipline is not as strictly enforced in presidential systems.


title: Presidential system

text: Another stated benefit of the separation of powers is the ability of the legislature to enforce limits on the powers of the executive. In a parliamentary system, if important legislation proposed by the incumbent prime minister and his cabinet is "voted down" by a majority of the members of parliament then it is considered a vote of no confidence. Given the severe consequences of a no confidence vote, the executive has wide latitude to act without restraint and exercise control over the legislature. The presidential system has no such mechanism, and the legislature has little incentive to appease the president beyond saving face.


title: Presidential system

text: When an action is within the scope of a president's power, a presidential system can respond more rapidly to emerging situations than parliamentary ones. A prime minister, when taking action, needs to retain the support of the legislature, but a president is often less constrained. In "Why England Slept", future U.S. president John F. Kennedy argued that British prime ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain were constrained by the need to maintain the confidence of the Commons.


title: Presidential system

text: Conversely, a presidential system can produce gridlock when the president and the legislature are in opposition. This is rarely a problem in a parliamentary system, as the prime minister is always a member of the party in power. This gridlock is common occurrence, as the electorate often expects more rapid results than are possible from new policies and switches to a different party at the next election. Critics such as Juan Linz, argue that in such cases of gridlock, presidential systems don't offer voters the kind of accountability seen in parliamentary systems, and that this inherent political instability can cause democracies to fail, as seen in such cases as Brazil and Allende's Chile.


title: Presidential system

text: It is easy for either the president or the legislature to escape blame by shifting it to the other. Describing the United States, former Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon said "the president blames Congress, the Congress blames the president, and the public remains confused and disgusted with government in Washington". Years before becoming president, Woodrow Wilson famously wrote "how is the schoolmaster, the nation, to know which boy needs the whipping?" Walter Bagehot said of the American system, "the executive is crippled by not getting the law it needs, and the legislature is spoiled by having to act without responsibility: the executive becomes unfit for its name, since it cannot execute what it decides on; the legislature is demoralized by liberty, by taking decisions of others [and not itself] will suffer the effects".


title: Presidential system

text: However, this gridlock is also sometimes touted as a benefit. Divided government, where the presidency and the legislature are controlled by different parties, is said to restrain the excesses of both the coalition and opposition, and guarantee cross-partisan input into legislation. In the United States, Republican Congressman Bill Frenzel wrote in 1995:


title: Presidential system

text: In a presidential system, the president is elected independently of the legislature. This may done directly through a popular vote or indirectly such as through the electoral college used in the United States. This aspect of presidential systems is sometimes touted as more democratic, as it provides a broader mandate for the president. Once elected, a president typically remains in office until the conclusion of a term.


title: Presidential system

text: Presidential systems are typically understood as having a head of government elected by citizens to serve one or more fixed-terms. Fixed-terms are praised for providing a level of stability that other systems lack. Although most parliamentary governments go long periods of time without a no confidence vote, Italy, Israel, and the French Fourth Republic have all experienced difficulties maintaining stability. When parliamentary systems have multiple parties, and governments are forced to rely on coalitions, as they often do in nations that use a system of proportional representation, extremist parties can theoretically use the threat of leaving a coalition to further their agendas.


title: Presidential system

text: Proponents of the presidential system also argue that stability extends to the cabinets chosen under the system. In most parliamentary systems, cabinets must be drawn from within the legislative branch. Under the presidential system, cabinet members can be selected from a much larger pool of potential candidates. This allows presidents the ability to select cabinet members based as much or more on their ability and competency to lead a particular department as on their loyalty to the president, as opposed to parliamentary cabinets, which might be filled by legislators chosen for no better reason than their perceived loyalty to the prime minister. Supporters of the presidential system note that parliamentary systems are prone to disruptive "cabinet shuffles" where legislators are moved between portfolios, whereas in presidential system cabinets (such as the United States Cabinet), cabinet shuffles are unusual.


title: Presidential system

text: Some political scientists dispute this concept of stability, arguing that presidential systems have difficulty sustaining democratic practices and that they have slipped into authoritarianism in many of the countries in which they have been implemented. According to political scientist Fred Riggs, presidential systems have fallen into authoritarianism in nearly every country they've been attempted. The list of the world's 22 older democracies includes only two countries (Costa Rica and the United States) with presidential systems. Yale political scientist Juan Linz argues that:


title: Presidential system

text: Fixed-terms in a presidential system may also be considered a check on the powers of the executive, contrasting parliamentary systems, which may allow the prime minister to call elections whenever they see fit or orchestrate their own vote of no confidence to trigger an election when they cannot get a legislative item passed. The presidential model is said to discourage this sort of opportunism, and instead forces the executive to operate within the confines of a term they cannot alter to suit their own needs.


title: Presidential system

text: Unlike in parliamentary systems, the legislature does not have the power to recall a president under the presidential system. However, presidential systems may have methods to remove presidents under extraordinary circumstances, such as a president committing a crime or becoming incapacitated. In some countries, presidents are subject to term limits.


title: Presidential system

text: The inability to remove a president early is also the subject of criticism. Even if a president is "proved to be inefficient, even if he becomes unpopular, even if his policy is unacceptable to the majority of his countrymen, he and his methods must be endured until the moment comes for a new election".


title: Presidential system

text: The consistency of a presidency may be seen as beneficial during times of crisis. When in a time of crisis, countries may be better off being led by a president with a fixed term than rotating premierships. Some critics, however, argue that the presidential system is weaker because it does not allow a transfer of power in the event of an emergency. Walter Bagehot argues that the ideal ruler in times of calm is different from the ideal ruler in times of crisis, criticizing the presidential system for having no mechanism to make such a change.


title: Presidential system

text: In many cases, the president is elected as both the head of government and the head of state. This is in contrast to some parliamentary governments where the head of state separate from the head of government and plays a largely symbolic role.


title: Presidential system

text: The president's status is sometimes the subject of criticism. Dana D. Nelson criticizes the office of the President of the United States as essentially undemocratic and characterizes "presidentialism" as worship of the president by citizens, which she believes undermines civic participation. British-Irish philosopher and MP Edmund Burke stated that an official should be elected based on "his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience", and therefore should reflect on the arguments for and against certain policies and then do what he believes is best for his constituents and country as a whole, even if it means short-term backlash. Thus defenders of presidential systems hold that sometimes what is wisest may not always be the most popular decision and vice versa.


title: Presidential system

text: The separation of the executive and the legislative is the key difference between a presidential system and a parliamentary system. The presidential system elects a head of government independently of the legislature, while in contrast, the head of government in a parliamentary system answers directly to the legislature. Presidential systems necessarily operate under the principle of separation of powers, while parliamentary systems do not. Heads of government under the presidential system don't depend on the approval of the legislature as they do in a parliamentary system (with the exception of mechanisms such as impeachment).


title: Presidential system

text: The presidential system and the parliamentary system can also be blended into a semi-presidential system. Under such a system, executive power is shared by an elected head of state (a president) and a legislature-appointed head of government (a prime minister or premier). The amount of power each figure holds may vary, and a semi-presidential system may lean closer to one system over the other. The president typically retains authority over foreign policy in a semi-presidential system. A pure presidential system may also have mechanisms that resemble those of a parliamentary system as part of checks and balances. The legislature may have oversight of some of the president's decisions through advice and consent, and mechanisms such as impeachment may allow the legislature to remove the president under drastic circumstances.


title: Presidential system

text: Subnational governments, usually states, may be structured as presidential systems. All of the state governments in the United States use the presidential system, even though this is not constitutionally required. On a local level, many cities use council-manager government, which is equivalent to a parliamentary system, although the post of a city manager is normally a non-political position. Some countries without a presidential system at the national level use a form of this system at a subnational or local level. One example is Japan, where the national government uses the parliamentary system.


title: Presidential system

text: Presidentialism metrics allow a quantitative analysis of presidentialism for individual countries. One presidentialism metric is the presidentialism index in V-Dem Dataset.


title: Presidential system

text: The following countries have presidential systems where a post of prime minister (official title may vary) exists alongside that of the president. The president is still both the head of state and government and the prime minister's roles are mostly to assist the president. Belarus, Gabon and Kazakhstan, where the prime minister is effectively the head of government and the president the head of state, are exceptions. In the case of the United Arab Emirates, the president functions as an ruler of seven absolute monarchies.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Brandon Richard Flowers (born June 21, 1981) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and philanthropist, best known as the lead singer, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas-based rock band the Killers.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: In addition to his work with the Killers, Flowers has released two solo albums, "Flamingo" (2010) and "The Desired Effect" (2015). He has reached number one on the UK Albums Chart nine times, and on the "Billboard" 200 once (top ten, eight times), including work by the Killers.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Brandon Richard Flowers, the youngest of six children, was born on June 21, 1981, in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada, to Jean Yvonne (née Barlow; 1945–2010) and Terry Austin Flowers. He has an older brother and four older sisters. His family lived in Henderson until Flowers was eight, when they moved to Payson, Utah for two years before moving to Nephi, Utah, when he was in the sixth grade. Flowers lived in Nephi until his junior year at Juab High School, when in 1997, at 16, he moved back to Las Vegas to live with his aunt. He graduated from Chaparral High School in 1999. Flowers said that growing up in Las Vegas as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) helped prepare him for the world of rock and roll: "Really, being a Mormon in Las Vegas prepared me for the lion's den. It is sin city. The things that go on, the lights, it's the ultimate rock and roll stage. Without Las Vegas, I would be a wreck."


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers responded to an ad that Dave Keuning had placed in the "Las Vegas Weekly" in late 2001, whereupon they became the Killers. After several short-lived bassists and drummers, Flowers and Keuning were joined by bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, and the line-up became official in August 2002. Between 2003 and 2017, they released five consecutive chart-topping studio albums and have sold over 22 million records worldwide. The Killers are among those artists who have spent more than 1,000 weeks on the UK music charts during their career. Flowers wrote the lyrics to the single "All These Things That I've Done" and its popular refrain "I Got Soul, But I'm Not A Soldier" that numbered among the "100 Greatest Songs of All Time" by "The Daily Telegraph" and earned one of the band's seven Grammy nominations. He is also the author of the lyrics of single "Mr. Brightside," which holds the record for most weeks spent on the UK Singles Chart (5 years or 260 weeks and counting). Their second album "Sam's Town", paid homage to Flowers' hometown and family, and earned the band their first BRIT Awards (Best International Album and Group), and included the chart-topping single "When You Were Young". Before releasing their first "Billboard" 200 No.1 album "Wonderful Wonderful" (2017) and chart topping single "The Man," the band took a one-year hiatus during which Flowers released his second and most favorably reviewed solo album to that date.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: On July 4, 2010, the Killers headlined the "Salute to the Military" USO Concert at the White House. They performed "God Bless America" and favorites from their catalogue. On June 22, 2013, the Killers headlined the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium, their biggest solo show to date.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers debuted his solo act at the Shimmer Showroom in Las Vegas on August 15, 2010. "SPIN" later named it one of "The 15 Best Shows of the Summer" before listing the Flamingo Road Tour as one of "The 25 Best Fall Tours"/"Must-See Fall Tours".


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers' debut solo album, "Flamingo", was released worldwide and charted in the top ten albums in ten countries including the UK where it charted at number one. The album drew heavy influence from Flowers' hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, and earned Flowers a Q Award nomination for Best Male Artist (2010). The first single from "Flamingo", "Crossfire", was released on June 21. It became Flowers' first top ten single in the UK as a solo artist and was certified silver by the BPI. The video for "Crossfire" featured actress Charlize Theron and was nominated for Best Video at the NME Awards. "Flamingo" was Flowers' fourth consecutive studio album to reach no. 1 on the UK charts, including work by the Killers, who subsequently earned another two consecutive UK No. 1's.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: After some of the band members wanted "to take a break from touring and the rat race," Flowers decided to keep it going and record a second solo album. "The Desired Effect" was released on May 15, 2015. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, making it Flowers' second consecutive solo number one album. Flowers stated that the album was "definitely going to be different" from his last album, and he referred to producer Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, HAIM, Taylor Swift) as his "co-captain". The album featured performances by notable artists including Bruce Hornsby, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), Joey Waronker (Beck), Carlos Alomar (David Bowie), and Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp). "The Desired Effect" is Flowers' highest yet ranked album on Metacritic and honored as the Album of the Year (2015) by "The San Francisco Examiner". Reviews positively described the album as Flowers' finest work since "Hot Fuss". The album was preceded by positively reviewed singles "Can't Deny My Love", "Still Want You", "Lonely Town", and "I Can Change". Multiple tracks from the album were listed on Best Songs of 2015 So Far lists by publications including SPIN, NPR, and Mashable. Halfway through 2015, "USA Today" listed the album as one of the top five best albums of 2015 so far.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: The Desired Effect Tour included performances in Europe and North America; it ran through October 1, 2015. MTV rated Flowers' tour stop at London's Brixton Academy five stars. Flowers performed for President Barack Obama in 2015 at the National Clean Energy Summit. Flowers also performed at the Royal Variety Performance (2015) at Royal Albert Hall for members of the British Royal Family.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers was one of two favorite artists asked to perform "Be Still" and "Home Means Nevada" at the funeral of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on January 8, 2022.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: In addition to his work with the Killers, Flowers has collaborated with Alex Cameron, Avicii, New Order, and Robbie Williams.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers married Tana Mundkowsky in 2005 and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Park City, Utah. He wrote the song "Some Kind of Love" for his wife while she suffered from some kind of PTSD. He and his wife have three sons, born in 2007, 2009, and 2011. Their sons attended their first Killers concert in July 2017, at London's Hyde Park. His parents met as teenagers, and he wrote the song "A Dustland Fairytale" as a tribute to their marriage and lifelong romance. His grandmother was from Lithuania, and his cousin is Craig Barlow, an inductee to the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: He is a member of the LDS Church. In 2012, he discussed his religion on Scandinavian television show "Skavlan". He and his family are featured in a promotional video on the church's website.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: His portrait was painted by British artist Joe Simpson for his "Musician Portraits" series that was exhibited at the Royal Albert Hall in 2012.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: From 2006 to 2016, the Killers released annual Christmas-themed singles and videos in aid of the charity Product Red, supporting The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The singles later formed the charity compilation album "Don't Waste Your Wishes" (2016). Sir Elton John listed Flowers as one of his top five heroes while editing "The Independent"'s World Aids Day special edition. The Killers have also contributed songs for cover albums with proceeds going to charities supporting natural disaster relief ("Rhythms del Mundo Classics") and famine-stricken areas ("AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered"). The Killers co-organized a benefit concert in December 2017 for those affected by the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, raising more than $700,000.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers has listed Bruce Springsteen, Oingo Boingo, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, the Cars, and Depeche Mode as musical influences.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: Flowers is regarded as a prominent frontman of the new wave revival in the 2000s. As a solo artist Flowers first exhibited elements of heartland rock as well as new-wave-style alternative rock. On his second album, Flowers exhibited greater pop tendencies, prompting "Rolling Stone" to dub "The Desired Effect", "the best straight-up pop album made by a rock star in recent memory." Flowers is a tenor.


title: Brandon Flowers

text: U2's lead singer Bono praised Flowers' voice to "The Globe and Mail" in 2015, saying "We need him on the radio ... His voice!"


title: Brandon Flowers

text: The Killers have been nominated for seven GRAMMY Awards, eight BRIT Awards, and two World Music Awards.


title: Lori Greiner

text: Lori Greiner is an American television personality and entrepreneur. She is an investor on the reality ABC TV series "Shark Tank". Greiner has hundreds of inventions and holds 120 patents. She became known as the "Queen of QVC" as a result of her show, "Clever & Unique Creations", that premiered on the network in 2000. Greiner is the president and founder of For Your Ease Only, Inc.


title: Lori Greiner

text: Greiner grew up in the Near North Side, Chicago. She majored in communications at Loyola University Chicago and worked for "The Chicago Tribune" while in college. She was an aspiring playwright and sold jewelry on the side. She is married to Dan Greiner.


title: Lori Greiner

text: Greiner is the president and founder of For Your Ease Only, which launched in 1996. The same year, she created and patented a plastic earring organizer; J.C. Penney picked up the product before the holiday season, allowing her to pay off her $300,000 loan in 18 months. In addition to jewelry storage, she has patented consumer products in categories such as cosmetic organization, travel, electronics, and household items. Greiner has invented hundreds of products and holds 120 patents.


title: Lori Greiner

text: After her success with J.C. Penney, Greiner expanded her company, with her products appearing on Home Shopping Network and in the retail store Bed, Bath and Beyond. In 2000, she began hosting a show on QVC, "Clever & Unique Creations by Lori Greiner". Her many appearances on the network led to her nickname, "The Queen of QVC".


title: Lori Greiner

text: In 2012, Greiner joined the U.S. TV series "Shark Tank". In 2014, her investment in Scrub Daddy, a company that produces a texture-changing household sponge, was regarded as one of the biggest successes in "Shark Tank" history. Greiner's other early "Shark Tank" investments include Bantam Bagels (which was fully acquired by T. Marzetti Company in 2018), Squatty Potty, ReadeRest, Paint Brush Cover, Hold Your Haunches, Drop Stop, FiberFix, Simply Fit Board, Sleep Styler, and Screenmend.


title: Lori Greiner

text: Greiner's book, "Invent it, Sell it, Bank it! – Make Your Million Dollar Idea into a Reality", was published in March 2014.


title: Toy Story 3

text: Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the "Toy Story" series and the sequel to "Toy Story 2" (1999). It was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor of the first two films and the co-director of "Toy Story 2", produced by Darla K. Anderson, and written by Michael Arndt, while Unkrich wrote the story along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, respectively, director and co-writer of the first two films. In "Toy Story 3", Andy Davis, now 17 years old, is going to college. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toys are accidentally donated to Sunnyside Daycare, a daycare center, by Andy's mother, and the toys must decide where their loyalties lie. The film's ensemble voice cast, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and R. Lee Ermey (in his final voice role as Sarge before his death on April 15, 2018), reprise their roles from previous films. Jim Varney, who voiced Slinky Dog in the first two films, died on February 10, 2000, 10 years before the release of the third film, so the role of Slinky was passed down to Blake Clark. The returning cast is joined by Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt, and Jeff Garlin who voice the new characters introduced in this film.


title: Toy Story 3

text: In 2004, following disagreements between Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs, Disney planned to make "Toy Story 3" at the new studio Circle 7 Animation unit, with the tentative theatrical release date in early 2008. The script was developed in multiple versions; however, after Disney bought Pixar in early 2006, the Circle 7 version of the film was cancelled as the result of Circle 7's closure. The production was then transferred to Pixar, where a new script was developed. Randy Newman returned to composed the film's musical score.


title: Toy Story 3

text: The film premiered at the Taormina Film Fest in Italy on June 12, 2010, and was released in the United States on June 18. "Toy Story 3" was the first film to be released theatrically with Dolby Surround 7.1 sound. Like its predecessors, "Toy Story 3" received critical acclaim upon release, with critics praising the vocal performances, screenplay, emotional depth, animation, and Newman's musical score.


title: Toy Story 3

text: It became the second Pixar film (after "Up") and third animated film overall (after "Beauty and the Beast" and "Up"), as well as the third film produced by Walt Disney Pictures to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The film received four more Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, winning the latter two. "Toy Story 3" earned $1.067 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2010, and the fourth highest-grossing film of all time during its theatrical run. It is also the first animated film to reach $1 billion at the box-office, and was the highest-grossing animated film of all time until the release of "Frozen" in 2013 and was Pixar's highest-grossing film until the release of "Incredibles 2" in 2018. With a budget of $200 million, "Toy Story 3" is one of the most expensive films of all time. A sequel, "Toy Story 4", was released in 2019.


title: Toy Story 3

text: Andy, now 17 years old, is preparing to leave for college. He has not played with his toys for years, and only Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Slinky, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, the Aliens, and three toy soldiers remain. As the despondent toys reflect on their future, the soldiers parachute out the window and leave. Andy intends to take Woody to college, and puts the other toys into a trash bag, to be placed in the attic; however, Andy's mother mistakenly puts the bag outside with the true garbage. The toys narrowly escape from the garbage truck, and, believing Andy deliberately threw them away, get into a donation box in Andy's mother's car with Molly's old Barbie doll. Woody follows in an attempt to bring them back, but is unable to convince the others of Andy's real intentions, and goes along when Andy's mother takes the box of donations to Sunnyside Daycare.


title: Toy Story 3

text: At Sunnyside, Andy's toys are welcomed by the other toys, led by Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear ("Lotso"). The toys (except for Woody) are delighted to learn that Sunnyside never runs out of children, and Barbie is enamored with a Ken doll. Woody attempts to return home, but is instead found by a child from Sunnyside named Bonnie, who brings him home and plays with him and her other toys. Bonnie's toys are shocked that Woody escaped from Sunnyside. Chuckles, a toy clown, explains that he, Lotso, and Big Baby were owned by a girl named Daisy, but were lost during a family trip. When they made it home, Lotso found out that he had been replaced. Disregarding Chuckles' protests, the embittered Lotso lied to Big Baby that Daisy had replaced all of them. They rode a truck to Sunnyside, where Lotso took over, turning it into a toy prison. Chuckles was eventually broken and later found by Bonnie.


title: Toy Story 3

text: After the Sunnyside toddlers play roughly with Andy's toys, Buzz asks Lotso to move the toys to the older children's room. Lotso allows Buzz to go, but when he insists that Andy's toys go as well, Lotso switches Buzz to his original Demo mode factory settings, causing him to believe himself to be an actual space ranger under Lotso's command. Meanwhile, Mrs. Potato Head, through an eye she lost in Andy's room, sees Andy searching for his toys. They realize that Woody told the truth about Andy's intentions and try to escape, but Lotso's gang, now assisted by the brainwashed Buzz, imprison them.


title: Toy Story 3

text: Woody returns to Sunnyside, where a Chatter Telephone tells him that there is now no way out, except through the trash chute. Later that night, the toys make their escape plan. After successfully incapacitating Lotso's night watchman, they attempt to restore Buzz's memory, but Rex accidentally resets Buzz to Spanish mode. Spanish Buzz, still believing himself to be an actual space ranger, immediately allies himself with Woody and falls in love with Jessie. The toys reach a dumpster, but are cornered by Lotso and his gang. Woody reveals Lotso's deception to Big Baby, who angrily throws Lotso into the dumpster. As a garbage truck approaches, the toys try to leave, but Lotso pulls Woody into the dumpster. The rest of Andy's toys jump after him as the truck arrives, and all fall inside.


title: Toy Story 3

text: Buzz returns to normal after a television falls onto him inside the truck. The truck takes the toys to a landfill, where they are swept onto a conveyor belt leading to an incinerator. The Aliens spot an industrial claw, but are swept away while running toward it. After narrowly avoiding a shredder and rescuing Lotso, Woody and Buzz help Lotso reach an emergency stop button, only for Lotso to abandon them. The toys fall into the incinerator and resign themselves to their apparent fate, but the Aliens rescue them with the industrial claw. Lotso is later found by a garbage truck driver, who fastens him to his truck's radiator grille as a decoration. Woody and his friends ride another garbage truck back to Andy's house.