title: Berlin Conference

text: By the early 1880s, many factors including diplomatic successes, greater European local knowledge, and the demand for resources such as gold, timber, and rubber, triggered dramatically increased European involvement in the continent of Africa. Stanley's charting of the Congo River Basin (1874–1877) removed the last from European maps of the continent, delineating the areas of British, Portuguese, French and Belgian control. These European nations raced to annex territory that might be claimed by rivals.


title: Berlin Conference

text: France moved to take over Tunisia, one of the last of the Barbary states, using a claim of another piracy incident. French claims by Pierre de Brazza were quickly acted on by the French military, which took control of what is now the Republic of the Congo in 1881 and Guinea in 1884. Italy became part of the Triple Alliance, an event that upset Bismarck's carefully laid plans and led Germany to join the European invasion of Africa.


title: Berlin Conference

text: In 1882, realizing the geopolitical extent of Portuguese control on the coasts, but seeing penetration by France eastward across Central Africa toward Ethiopia, the Nile, and the Suez Canal, Britain saw its vital trade route through Egypt to India threatened. Under the pretext of the collapsed Egyptian financing and a subsequent mutiny in which hundreds of British subjects were murdered or injured, Britain intervened in the nominally Ottoman Egypt, which it controlled for decades.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The European race for colonialism made Germany start launching expeditions of its own, which frightened both British and French statesmen. Hoping to quickly soothe the brewing conflict, Belgian King Leopold II convinced France and Germany that common trade in Africa was in the best interests of all three countries. Under support from the British and the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany, called on representatives of 13 nations in Europe as well as the United States to take part in the Berlin Conference in 1884 to work out a joint policy on the African continent.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The conference was opened on 15 November 1884, and continued until it closed on 26 February 1885. The number of plenipotentiaries varied per nation, but these 14 countries sent representatives to attend the Berlin Conference and sign the subsequent Berlin Act:


title: Berlin Conference

text: Uniquely, the United States reserved the right to decline or to accept the conclusions of the conference.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to "spheres of influence" is contained in the Berlin Act.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The principle of effective occupation stated that powers could acquire rights over colonial lands only if they possessed them or had "effective occupation": if they had treaties with local leaders, flew their flag there and established an administration in the territory to govern it with a police force to keep order. The colonial power could also make use of the colony economically. That principle became important not only as a basis for the European powers to acquire territorial sovereignty in Africa but also for determining the limits of their respective overseas possessions, as effective occupation served in some instances as a criterion for settling disputes over the boundaries between colonies. However, as the Berlin Act was limited in its scope to the lands that fronted on the African coast, European powers in numerous instances later claimed rights over lands in the interior without demonstrating the requirement of effective occupation, as articulated in Article 35 of the Final Act.


title: Berlin Conference

text: At the Berlin Conference, the scope of the Principle of Effective Occupation was heavily contested between Germany and France. The Germans, who were new to the continent, essentially believed that as far as the extension of power in Africa was concerned, no colonial power should have any legal right to a territory unless the state exercised strong and effective political control and, if so, only for a limited period of time, essentially an occupational force only. However, Britain's view was that Germany was a latecomer to the continent and was assumptively unlikely to gain any new possessions, apart from territories that were already occupied, which were swiftly proving to be more valuable than those occupied by Britain. That logic caused it to be generally assumed by Britain and France that Germany had an interest in embarrassing the other European powers on the continent and forcing them to give up their possessions if they could not muster a strong political presence. On the other side, Britain had large territorial holdings there and wanted to keep them while it minimised its responsibilities and administrative costs. In the end, the British view prevailed.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The disinclination to rule what the Europeans had conquered is apparent throughout the protocols of the Berlin Conference but especially in the Principle of Effective Occupation. In line with Germany and Britain's opposing views, the powers finally agreed that it could be established by a European power establishing some kind of base on the coast from which it was free to expand into the interior. The Europeans did not believe that the rules of occupation demanded European hegemony on the ground. The Belgians originally wanted to include that "effective occupation" required provisions that "cause peace to be administered", but Britain and France were the powers that had that amendment struck out of the final document.


title: Berlin Conference

text: That principle, along with others that were written at the conference, allowed the Europeans to conquer Africa but to do as little as possible to administer or control it. The principle did not apply so much to the hinterlands of Africa at the time of the conference. This gave rise to "hinterland theory", which basically gave any colonial power with coastal territory the right to claim political influence over an indefinite amount of inland territory. Since Africa was irregularly shaped, that theory caused problems and was later rejected.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The conference provided an opportunity to channel latent European hostilities towards one another outward; provide new areas for helping the European powers expand in the face of rising American, Russian and Japanese interests; and form constructive dialogue to limit future hostilities. In Africa, colonialism was introduced across nearly all the continent. When African independence was regained after World War II, it was in the form of fragmented states.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The Scramble for Africa sped up after the Conference since even within areas designated as their sphere of influence, the European powers had to take effective possession by the principle of effectivity. In central Africa in particular, expeditions were dispatched to coerce traditional rulers into signing treaties, using force if necessary, such as was the case for Msiri, King of Katanga, in 1891. Bedouin- and Berber-ruled states in the Sahara and the Sahel were overrun by the French in several wars by the beginning of World War I. The British moved up from South Africa and down from Egypt and conquered states such as the Mahdist State and the Sultanate of Zanzibar and, having already defeated the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in 1879, moved on to subdue and dismantle the independent Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State.


title: Berlin Conference

text: Within a few years, Africa was at least nominally divided up south of the Sahara. By 1895, the only independent states were:


title: Berlin Conference

text: The following states lost their independence to the British Empire roughly a decade after (see below for more information):


title: Berlin Conference

text: By 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control. Most of the Sahara was French, but after the quelling of the Mahdi rebellion and the ending of the Fashoda crisis, the Sudan remained firmly under joint British–Egyptian rulership, with Egypt being under British occupation before becoming a British protectorate in 1914.


title: Berlin Conference

text: The Boer republics were conquered by the British in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902. Libya was conquered by Italy in 1911, and Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish in 1912.


title: Berlin Conference

text: One of the chief stated justifications "was a desire to stamp out slavery once and for all". Before his death in 1873, Christian missionary, David Livingstone, called for a "worldwide" crusade to defeat the Arab-controlled slave trade in East Africa. The way to do it was to "liberate Africa" by introduction of "commerce, Christianity" and civilization.


title: Berlin Conference

text: Crowe, Craven and Katzenellenbogen are authors who have attempted to soften the language and therefore the intent of the conference. They warn against an overemphasis of its role in the colonial partitioning of Africa, extensively justifying it by ignoring the motivations and outcomes of the conference by only drawing attention to bilateral agreements concluded before and after the conference, regardless of whether they were finalized and followed in practice. For example, Craven has questioned the legal and economic impact of the conference.


title: Berlin Conference

text: However, the countries that ultimately participated in the Final Act ignored requirements set forth within it to establish their satellite governments, rights to the land and trade in the benefit of their national, domestic economies.


title: Berlin Conference

text: Historians have long marked the Berlin Conference as the formalisation of the Scramble for Africa but recently, scholars have questioned the legal and economic impact of the conference.


title: Berlin Conference

text: Some have argued the conference central to imperialism. African American historian W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in 1948 that alongside the Atlantic slave trade in Africans a great world movement of modern times is "the partitioning of Africa after the Franco-Prussian War which, with the Berlin Conference of 1884, brought colonial imperialism to flower" and that "[t]he primary reality of imperialism in Africa today is economic," going on to expound on the extraction of wealth from the continent.


title: Berlin Conference

text: Other historians focus on the legal implications in international law and argue that the conference was only one of many (mostly bilateral) agreements between prospective colonists, which took place after the conference.


title: Chop suey

text: Chop suey () is a dish in American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, consisting of meat (usually chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or fish) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. It is typically served with rice but can become the Chinese-American form of chow mein with the substitution of stir-fried noodles for rice.


title: Chop suey

text: Chop suey has become a prominent part of American Chinese cuisine, Filipino cuisine, Canadian Chinese cuisine, German Chinese cuisine, Indian Chinese cuisine, and Polynesian cuisine. In Chinese Indonesian cuisine/Dutch Chinese indonesian cuisine it is known as "cap cai" (tjap tjoi) (雜菜, "mixed vegetables") and mainly consists of vegetables.


title: Chop suey

text: Chop suey is widely believed to have been invented in the U.S. by Chinese Americans, but the anthropologist E. N. Anderson, a scholar of Chinese food, traces the dish to "tsap seui" (杂碎, "miscellaneous leftovers"), common in Taishan (Toisan), a county in Guangdong province, the home of many early Chinese immigrants to the United States. Hong Kong doctor Li Shu-fan likewise reported that he knew it in Toisan in the 1890s.


title: Chop suey

text: The long list of conflicting stories about the origin of chop suey is, in the words of food historian Alan Davidson, "a prime example of culinary mythology" and typical of popular foods.


title: Chop suey

text: One account claims that it was invented by Chinese American cooks working on the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. Another tale is that it was created during Qing Dynasty premier Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896 by his chef, who tried to create a meal suitable for both Chinese and American palates. Another story is that Li wandered to a local Chinese restaurant after the hotel kitchen had closed, where the chef, embarrassed that he had nothing ready to offer, came up with the new dish using scraps of leftovers. Yet recent research by the scholar Renqui Yu led him to conclude that "no evidence can be found in available historical records to support the story that Li Hung Chang ate chop suey in the United States." Li brought three Chinese chefs with him, and would not have needed to eat in local restaurants or invent new dishes in any case. Yu speculates that shrewd Chinese American restaurant owners took advantage of the publicity surrounding his visit to promote chop suey as Li's favorite.


title: Chop suey

text: Another myth is that, in the 1860s, a Chinese restaurant cook in San Francisco was forced to serve something to drunken miners after hours, when he had no fresh food. To avoid a beating, the cook threw leftover meat and vegetables into a wok and served it to the miners, who loved it and asked what dish it was—he replied "chopped sui". There is no good evidence for any of these stories.


title: Chop suey

text: Chop suey appears in an 1884 article in the "Brooklyn Eagle", by Wong Chin Foo, "Chinese Cooking", which he says "may justly be so-called the 'national dish of China'." An 1888 description states it was a "staple dish for the Chinese gourmand is chow chop svey , a mixture of chickens' livers and gizzards, fungi, bamboo buds, pigs' tripe, and bean sprouts stewed with spices." An 1896 newspaper report states: "Chow chop suey is a sort of stew made of chicken's livers and gizzards, calves' tripe, bean sprouts, celery and 'meu', which is a sort of Chinese first cousin to macaroni". An article in The Illustrated American on Chinese cuisine in 1897, reproduces a menu from Ma Hung Low's restaurant on Mott Street in New York's Chinatown quarter which includes the dish "Beef Chop Suey with Bean Sprouts, Water Chestnuts and Boiled Rice." The dish itself, referred to as "the standard Chinese dish of chop suey," is described as "a stew of beef, chicken, or pork, with bean sprouts, mushrooms, water-lily roots, sprouted grain and unknown flavorings." In 1898, it is described as "A Hash of Pork, with Celery, Onions, Bean Sprouts, etc."


title: Chop suey

text: During his travels in the United States, Liang Qichao, a Guangdong (Canton) native, wrote in 1903 that there existed in the United States a food item called "chop suey" which was popularly served by Chinese restaurateurs, but which local Chinese people do not eat, because the cooking technique is "really awful".


title: Chop suey

text: In earlier periods of Chinese history, "chop suey" or "chap sui" in Cantonese, and "za sui", in Mandarin, has the different meaning of cooked animal offal or entrails. For example, in the classic novel "Journey to the West" (circa 1590), Sun Wukong tells a lion-monster in chapter 75: "When I passed through Guangzhou, I bought a pot for cooking "za sui" – so I'll savour your liver, entrails, and lungs." The term "za sui" (杂碎) is found in newer Chinese-English dictionaries with both meanings listed: cooked entrails, and "chop suey" in the Western sense.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American black comedy romantic teen film directed by Jamie Babbit from a screenplay by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, RuPaul, and Melanie Lynskey. The film, which has developed a cult following, is noted for its satirical style and is generally considered to be one of the best LGBT films ever made.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Seventeen-year-old Megan Bloomfield is a happy high school senior who loves cheerleading and is dating Jared, a football player. She does not enjoy kissing Jared and prefers looking at her fellow cheerleaders. This, combined with Megan's interest in vegetarianism and Melissa Etheridge, lead her family and friends to suspect that she is a lesbian. With the help of ex-gay Mike, they surprise her with an intervention. Megan is then sent to True Directions, a conversion therapy camp which uses a five-step program to convert its campers to heterosexuality. Over the course of the program, Megan becomes friends with another girl at the camp, Graham. Though more comfortable in her sexuality than Megan, Graham was forced to attend the camp at the risk of being disowned by her family.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: At True Directions, Megan meets the founder and strict disciplinarian Mary Brown; according to the film's backstory, Mary started True Directions after her husband left her for another man. Mary Brown's "heterosexual" son Rock is seen throughout the film to be in fact overtly homosexual, and makes multiple sexual overtures towards Mike and the male campers. Megan meets a group of fellow young people trying to "cure" themselves of their homosexuality. After being prompted by the others, Megan agrees that she is a lesbian. This fact is at odds with her traditional religious upbringing and distresses her, so she puts every effort into becoming heterosexual. Early on in her stay, Megan discovers two boys, Dolph and Clayton, making out. She panics and screams. On their discovery by Mike, Dolph is made to leave and Clayton is punished with isolation, literally being sent to the doghouse.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The camp's kids are encouraged to rebel against Mary by two of her former students, ex-ex-gays Larry and Lloyd, who take the campers to a local gay bar where Graham and Megan's relationship develops into a romance. When Mary discovers the trip, she makes them all picket Larry and Lloyd's house. Megan and Graham sneak away one night and begin to fall in love. When Mary finds out, Megan, now at ease with her sexuality, is unrepentant and made to leave. Disowned by her family and homeless, she goes to stay with Larry and Lloyd. Graham, afraid to defy her father, remains at the camp. Megan and Dolph, who is now also living with Larry and Lloyd, plan to win back Graham and Clayton.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Megan and Dolph infiltrate the graduation ceremony, where Dolph coaxes Clayton away. Megan entreats Graham to join them as well, but Graham declines. Megan then performs a cheer for Graham, declaring her love and winning her over. They drive off with Dolph and Clayton. The final scene shows Megan's parents attending a PFLAG meeting to come to terms with their daughter's homosexuality.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: "But I'm a Cheerleader" was Babbit's first feature film. She had previously directed two short films, "Frog Crossing" (1996) and "Sleeping Beauties" (1999). Babbit and producer Andrea Sperling secured financing from Michael Burns, vice president of Prudential Insurance, after showing him the script at Sundance festival. Their one-sentence pitch was "Two high-school girls fall in love at a reparative therapy camp." Burns gave an initial budget of US$500,000 which was increased to US$1 million when the film went into production.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Babbit, whose mother runs a halfway house called New Directions for young people with drug and alcohol problems, had wanted to make a comedy about rehabilitation and the 12-step program. After reading an article about a man who had returned from a reparative therapy camp hating himself, she decided to combine the two ideas. With girlfriend Sperling, she came up with the idea for a feature film about a cheerleader who attends reparative therapy. They wanted the main character to be a cheerleader because it is ... "the pinnacle of the American dream, and the American dream of femininity." She wanted the film to represent the lesbian experience from the femme perspective contrasting with several films of the time that represented the butch perspective ("Go Fish" and "The Watermelon Woman"). She also wanted to satirize both the religious right and the gay community. Not feeling qualified to write the script herself, Babbit brought in screenwriter and recent graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts Brian Wayne Peterson. Peterson had experience with reparative therapy while working at a prison clinic for sex offenders. He has said that he wanted to make a film that would not only entertain people, but also make people get angry and talk about the issues it raised.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Babbit recruited Clea DuVall who had starred in her short film "Sleeping Beauties", to play the role of Graham Eaton. She was able to meet a lot of the cast through DuVall, including Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey. Lyonne first saw the script in the back of DuVall's car and contacted her agent about it. She had seen and enjoyed Babbit's short "Sleeping Beauties" and was eager to work with her. She was not the first choice for the role of Megan. Another actress had wanted to play the part but eventually turned it down due to her religious belief and not wanting her family to see her on the poster. Rosario Dawson was also considered for Megan but her executive producer persuaded her that Dawson, who is Hispanic, would not be right for the All-American character.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: A conscious effort was made to cast people of color in supporting roles to combat what she described as "racism at every level of making movies." From the beginning she intended the characters of Mike (played by RuPaul), Dolph (Dante Basco) and Andre (Douglas Spain) to be African American, Asian and Hispanic. She initially considered Arsenio Hall for the character of Mike but Hall was uncomfortable playing a gay role. As Mike, RuPaul made a rare appearance out of drag.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Babbit says that her influences for the look and feel of the film included John Waters, David LaChapelle, "Edward Scissorhands" and Barbie. She wanted the production and costume design to reflect the themes of the story.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The progression from the ordinary world of Megan's home life where the dominant colors are muted oranges and browns, to the contrived world of True Directions with intense blues and pinks, is intended to represent the artificiality of heteronormativity.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The germaphobic character of Mary Brown represents AIDS paranoia and her clean, ordered world is filled with plastic flowers, fake sky and PVC outfits. The external shots of the colorful house complete with bright pink agricultural fencing were filmed in Palmdale, California.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: "But I'm a Cheerleader" contains themes of sexuality, gender roles and social conformity. Chris Holmlund in "Contemporary American Independent Film" notes this feature of the film and calls the costumes "gender-tuned." Ted Gideonse in "Out" magazine wrote "the costumes and colors of the film show how false the goals of True Directions are".


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: When originally submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America rating board, "But I'm a Cheerleader" received an NC-17 rating. In order to get a commercially viable R rating, Babbit removed a two-second shot of Graham's hand sweeping Megan's clothed body, a camera pan of Megan's body when she is masturbating, and a comment that Megan "ate Graham out".


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Babbit was interviewed by Kirby Dick for his 2006 documentary film "This Film Is Not Yet Rated". The film suggests that films with homosexual content are treated more stringently than those with only heterosexual content, and that scenes of female sexuality draw harsher criticism from the board than those of male sexuality. Babbit stated that she felt discriminated against for making a gay film. The film was rated as M (for mature audiences 15 and older) in Australia and in New Zealand, 14A in Canada, 12 in Germany and 15 in the United Kingdom.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The film premiered on September 12, 1999, at the Toronto International Film Festival and was screened in January 2000 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was shown at other international film festivals including the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It first appeared in US theaters on July 7, 2000, distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The film was first released to home video by Universal Studios on October 3, 2000, and by Lions Gate on July 22, 2002. It was released on Region 2 DVD on June 2, 2003, by Prism Leisure.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, the director's cut of "But I'm a Cheerleader" was released on December 8, 2020, via video on demand and on Blu-Ray on June 1, 2021.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: "But I'm a Cheerleader" grossed $2,595,216 worldwide. In its opening weekend, showing at four theaters, it earned $60,410 which was 2.7% of its total gross. According to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at 174 for all films released in the US in 2000 and 74 for R-rated films released that year. The film was a hit with festival audiences and received standing ovations at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It has been described as a favorite with gay audiences and on the art house circuit.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Initial mainstream critical response to "But I'm a Cheerleader" was mostly negative. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 42% from 89 reviews. On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews." "The New York Times" praised Lyonne and DuVall for their performances. "The Los Angeles Times" described the movie as having "jaunty, superficial humor" that "tends more to confirm homosexual stereotypes for easy laughter than to skewer the horror of [conversion therapy]". "Variety" described it as a "shallow, only mildly entertaining satire".


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Reviews from gay media were positive, and the film has undergone a critical reassessment over time, being analyzed in recent times as a deliberately satirical and campy take on the subject matter. Feminist website Autostraddle declared the film to be number one in a list of the "100 best lesbian movies of all time" in 2015 "AfterEllen.com" named it "one of the five best lesbian movies ever made"; the site had considered the movie's story "predictable" and characters "stereotypical" in its initial 2006 review. "Curve" called the film an "incredible comedy" that had "redefined lesbian film."


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The film won the Audience Award and the Graine de Cinéphage Award at the 2000 Créteil International Women's Film Festival.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: It was nominated by the Political Film Society of America for the PFS Award in the categories of Human Rights and Exposé the same year.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: Pat Irwin composed the score for "But I'm a Cheerleader" with additional music by Megan Cavallari. The soundtrack has never been released on CD.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: The music video for the 2021 song "Silk Chiffon" by musical group Muna with Phoebe Bridgers pays homage to "But I'm a Cheerleader" and features much of the film's iconography, Guitarist Naomi McPherson said they wanted "a song for kids to have their first gay kiss to."


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: In 2005 the New York Musical Theatre Festival featured a musical stage adaptation of "But I'm a Cheerleader" written by lyricist Bill Augustin and composer Andrew Abrams. With 18 original songs, it was directed by Daniel Goldstein and starred Chandra Lee Schwartz as Megan. It played during September 2005 at New York's Theatre at St. Clement's. The musical was also performed as part of MT Fest UK from 18 to 20 February 2019 at The Other Palace, London with a cast featuring Bronté Barbé as Megan, Carrie Hope Fletcher as Graham, Jamie Muscato as Jared, Matt Henry as Mike, Ben Forster as Larry, Stephen Hogan as Lloyd and Luke Bayer as Clayton.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: A production of the musical will premiere at the Turbine Theatre in London, beginning previews 18 February and with an opening night of 23 February, running until 16 April 2022. It will be directed by Tania Azevedo, choreographed by Alexzandra Sarmiento with lighting by Martha Godfrey, and produced by Paul Taylor-Mills and Bill Kenwright, in association with Adam Bialow, by special arrangement with Lionsgate..


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: But I’m a Cheerleader: The Musical Will Return to London's Turbine Theatre. Following a London premiere earlier this year, But I'm a Cheerleader: The Musical will return to The Turbine Theatre next month. The run will begin October 7 and continue through November 27 with a Gala Night scheduled for October 11. The musical features a book and lyrics penned by Bill Augustin, music by Andrew Abrams, and direction by Tania Azevedo. Jamie Babbit conceived and directed the original film, which featured a screenplay by Brian Wayne Peterson. But I'm a Cheerleader: The Musical is presented by Paul Taylor-Mills and Bill Kenwright in association with Adam Bialow, and by special arrangement with Lionsgate.


title: But I'm a Cheerleader

text: In April 2018, Babbit announced on Twitter that a "But I'm a Cheerleader" television series was in development with Starz.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun Performing Arts (, "divine rhythm arts troupe") is a United States-based non-profit performing arts and entertainment company that tours internationally, producing dance performances and symphony concerts. It is operated by the Falun Gong new religious movement. Shen Yun is composed of seven performing arts companies, with a total of approximately 480 performers. Shen Yun has performed in front of millions and has toured more than 130 cities across Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by Chinese expatriate adherents of Falun Gong, and is based at Falun Gong's Dragon Springs compound in Deerpark, New York, northwest of New York City, near where the new religious group's leader and founder, Li Hongzhi, and many of his followers also reside. Falun Gong adherents pay to rent the performance venue, promote the show, and sell tickets, with the profit going to Shen Yun. The finances of Shen Yun and Falun Gong appear to be linked, with technically separate corporations sharing funds, executives and the same mission. Li Hongzhi describes the Shen Yun performance as a means of "saving" audiences.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun performances have received criticism for promoting sectarian doctrines and negative views toward evolution, atheism, and homosexuality. The group is promoted by "The Epoch Times," a media outlet affiliated with Falun Gong. In 2019, an NBC News assessment concluded that "The Epoch Media Group, along with Shen Yun[...] make up the outreach effort of Falun Gong". The Chinese government bars Shen Yun from performing in China as it considers Falun Gong to be an "anti-society cult" and has attempted to cancel its performances abroad by pressuring theaters and governments.


title: Shen Yun

text: In 2006, a group of expatriate Chinese Falun Gong practitioners living in North America founded Shen Yun in New York. The stated purpose of the company was to revive Chinese culture and traditions from the time before the Chinese Revolution.


title: Shen Yun

text: In 2007, the company conducted its first tour with 90 dancers, musicians, soloists, and production staff. Early shows were titled "Chinese Spectacular", "Holiday Wonders", "Chinese New Year Splendor", and "Divine Performing Arts", but now the company performs exclusively under the name "Shen Yun". By 2009, Shen Yun had developed three full companies and orchestras that tour the world simultaneously. By the end of the 2010 season, approximately one million people had seen the troupe perform.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun, the media organization "The Epoch Times", and a variety of other organizations operate as extensions of the new religious movement Falun Gong. According to 2020 report by "Los Angeles Magazine":


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun operates out of Falun Gong's headquarters in the Dragon Springs compound in Deerpark, New York, where it has large rehearsal spaces. Dragon Springs is registered as a religious property under the church name Dragon Springs Buddhist. The exact financial and structural connections between Falun Gong, Shen Yun, and "The Epoch Times" remain unclear. According to NBC News:


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun promotes itself as "a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was: a study in grace, wisdom, and virtues distilled from five millennia of Chinese civilization". The company is described in promotions as reviving Chinese culture following a period of assault and destruction under the Chinese Communist Party. Shen Yun is heavily promoted in major cities with commercials, billboards, and brochures displayed in the streets and in businesses, as well as in television and radio profiles. According to Jia Tolentino, "The ads have to be both ubiquitous and devoid of content so that they can convince more than a million people to pay good money to watch what is, essentially, religious-political propaganda—or, more generously, an extremely elaborate commercial for Falun Dafa’s spiritual teachings and its plight vis-à-vis the Chinese Communist regime."


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun performances are often produced or sponsored by regional Falun Dafa associations, members of Falun Gong, which in China is considered to be a cult and is banned by the government. Some audience members have objected to the show's promotion strategy, which does not note the religious- and political-themed content of the performance.


title: Shen Yun

text: Large-scale group dance is at the center of Shen Yun productions. Each touring company consists of about 40 male and female dancers, who mainly perform classical Chinese dances, making extensive use of acrobatic and tumbling techniques, forms and postures.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun's repertoire draws on stories from Chinese history and legends, such as the legend of Mulan, "Journey to the West" and "Outlaws of the Marsh". It also depicts "the story of Falun Gong today". During the 2010 production, at least two of the 16 scenes depicted "persecution and murder of Falun Gong practitioners" in contemporary China, including the beating of a young mother to death, and the jailing of a Falun Gong protester. In addition to classical Han Chinese dance, Shen Yun also includes elements of Yi, Miao, Tibetan and Mongolian dance.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun performs three core elements of classical Chinese dance: bearing (emotion, cultural and ethnic flavor), form (expressive movements and postures), and technical skill (physical techniques of jumping, flipping, and leaping). Shen Yun choreographer Vina Lee has stated that some of the distinct Chinese bearing () has been "lost in the process" since the cultural changes of the Communist revolution.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun dances are accompanied by Chinese instruments: the , and a variety of Chinese percussion instruments. A full Western orchestra leads the melodies. There are solo performances featuring Chinese instruments such as the in between dances. Interspersed between dance sequences, other than the performances, are operatic singers performing songs which sometimes invoke spiritual or religious themes, including references to the Falun Gong faith. A performance in 2007, for instance, included a reference to the Chakravartin, a figure in Buddhism who turns the wheel of Dharma.


title: Shen Yun

text: The music for Shen Yun was composed by Jing Xian and Junyi Tan. Three of Shen Yun's performers—flutist Ningfang Chen, erhuist Mei Xuan and tenor Guan Guimin—were recipients of the Chinese Ministry of Culture's "National First Class Performer" awards. Prior to joining Shen Yun, Guan Guimin was well known in China for his work on soundtracks for more than 50 movies and television shows. Other notable performers include soloist Xiaochun Qi.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun's dancers perform wearing intricate costumes, often accompanied by a variety of props. Some costumes are intended to imitate the dress of various ethnicities, while others depict ancient Chinese court dancers, soldiers, or characters from classic stories. Props include colorful handkerchiefs, drums, fans, chopsticks, or silk scarves.


title: Shen Yun

text: Each Shen Yun piece is set against a digitally projected backdrop, usually depicting landscapes such as Mongolian grasslands, imperial courts, ancient villages, temples, or mountains. Some backdrops contain moving elements, such as digital versions of the dancers, that integrate with the performance.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun's seven companies tour for six months each year, performing in over 130 cities in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. Notable venues include the David H. Koch Theater at New York's Lincoln Center in Manhattan; the London Coliseum in London, England; the Palais des congrès de Paris; and the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. By the conclusion of Shen Yun's 2010 performance, an estimated one million people had seen the performance worldwide.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun does not perform in China and the Chinese government has attempted to cancel Shen Yun performances elsewhere through political pressure exerted by its foreign embassies and consulates. Chinese diplomats have also sent letters to elected officials in the West exhorting them not to attend or otherwise support the performance, which they describe as "propaganda" intended to "smear China's image." Members of the Communist Party's top political consultative body have also expressed concern that China's state-funded arts troupes have been less popular internationally than Shen Yun. Shen Yun representatives say the Chinese government's opposition to the show stems from its depictions of modern-day political oppression in China, and that it includes expressions of traditional Chinese cultural history that the Communist government has tried to suppress.


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun was scheduled to perform in Hong Kong in January 2010, but the performance was cancelled after the government of Hong Kong refused entry visas to Shen Yun's production crew. Attempts to shut down the show have also been reported by theatres and local governments in various countries including Ecuador, Ireland, Germany and Sweden.


title: Shen Yun

text: In October 2012, Shen Yun's symphony orchestra made its debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. The performance featured conductors Milen Nachev, Keng-Wei Kuo, and Antonia Joy Wilson, and the program included both classical works such as Beethoven's Egmont Overture and Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in C Major, as well as original compositions that fuse Chinese and Western instruments.


title: Shen Yun

text: In 2013, the symphony orchestra toured seven American cities. In addition to Carnegie Hall, it performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.


title: Shen Yun

text: The 2018 and 2019 performances included lyrics and digital displays disparaging atheism and belief in evolution as "deadly ideas" and "born of the Red Spectre", and is a common complaint of attendees of the performance. Reviewers characterized this content as "anti-evolution", "religious sermon", and "cult propaganda." Many viewers and reviewers complain that such elements are misrepresented by the advertising of a show that in the end "feels more like propaganda than straightforwardly presented cultural heritage." Alix Martichoux from the "Houston Chronicle" wrote, "For many disgruntled Shen Yun attendees, it's not necessarily that the show itself is bad – though to be fair, some complain it is. Most of the negative reviews were people upset they were blindsided by the political content." Walter Whittemore wrote in "The Ledger":


title: Shen Yun

text: , disparagement of atheism and evolution was still present in the show. Misrepresentation of content in advertising was also a common complaint by viewers, and Falun Gong-affiliated political propaganda has been noted as a prominent element. An outstanding case is described by Jia Tolentino from "The New Yorker":


title: Shen Yun

text: David Robertson, minister of St. Peter's Free Church in Dundee, wrote that he enjoyed the show despite it being "filled with cult messages." He continued:


title: Shen Yun

text: Shen Yun said that the Chinese government has attempted to stop the group from performing abroad by sending letters or e-mails to theaters in multiple countries, including Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden. According to Shen Yun, the Chinese government also attempted to cancel Shen Yun's performance in Hong Kong by rejecting the entry visas of six members.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American neo-noir mystery drama film directed by Norman Jewison. It is based on John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name and tells the story of Virgil Tibbs, a Black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. It stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, and was produced by Walter Mirisch. The screenplay was written by Stirling Silliphant.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: At the 40th Academy Awards the film was nominated for seven Oscars, winning five including Best Picture and Best Actor for Steiger. The quote "They call me "Mister Tibbs!" was listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes", a list of top film quotes. The film also appears on AFI's "100 Years...100 Movies", a list of the 100 greatest movies in American cinema. In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Wealthy industrialist Phillip Colbert moves to Sparta, Mississippi, to build a factory. Late one night, police officer Sam Wood discovers Colbert's murdered body lying in the street. Wood finds Virgil Tibbs, a Black man with a fat wallet, at the train station and arrests him. Police chief Gillespie accuses him of murder and robbery but soon learns Tibbs is a top homicide detective from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tibbs wants to leave town on the next train, but his boss suggests he stay in Sparta to help with the murder investigation. Though Gillespie, like many of Sparta's white residents, is racist, he and Tibbs reluctantly agree to work together.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: A doctor estimates that Colbert had been dead for less than an hour when his body was found. Tibbs examines the body and concludes the murder happened earlier than the doctor thought, the killer was right-handed, and the victim had been killed elsewhere and moved to where Wood found his body.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Gillespie arrests another suspect, Harvey Oberst, who protests his innocence. The police plan to beat him to extract a confession, but Tibbs reveals Oberst is left-handed and has witnesses to confirm his alibi. Frustrated by the ineptitude of the local police but impressed by Tibbs, Colbert's widow threatens to halt construction of the factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation, so the town's leading citizens are forced to comply with her demand.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs initially suspects the murderer is plantation owner Endicott, a genteel racist and one of the town's most powerful citizens, who publicly opposed Colbert's new factory. When Tibbs interrogates him, Endicott slaps him in the face. Tibbs slaps him back, so Endicott sends a gang of thugs after him. Gillespie rescues him and tells him to leave town to save himself, but Tibbs is convinced he can solve the case.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs asks Wood to re-trace his patrol car route during the night of the murder; Gillespie joins them. After questioning why Wood partially detours from his patrol route, Tibbs finds that Wood enjoys passing by the house of 16-year-old Delores Purdy, with its bright lights and unobscured windows, to watch her undress. Gillespie discovers that Wood made a sizable deposit to his bank account the day after the murder. He arrests Wood, despite Tibbs's protests that he is not the murderer. Tibbs tells Gillespie that the murder was committed at the site of the planned factory, which clears Wood because he could not have driven both his and Colbert's cars back into town. Also, while being interrogated Wood provides a credible account of where the money for his large deposit could have come from.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Delores' brother Mr. Purdy, a hostile local, brings her to the police station and files statutory rape charges against Wood for getting her pregnant. When Tibbs insists on being present during Delores' questioning, Purdy is offended that a Black man is present during her interrogation and soon afterwards gathers a mob to attack Tibbs.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs pressures illegal abortionist Mama Caleba to reveal that she is about to provide an abortion for Delores. When she arrives and sees Tibbs, Delores runs away. Tibbs follows her and confronts her armed boyfriend, Ralph, a cook at a local roadside diner. Purdy's mob also arrives and holds Tibbs at gunpoint.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs tells Purdy to check Delores' purse for the money Ralph gave her for an abortion, which he got from killing and robbing Colbert. Purdy realizes Tibbs is right when he examines the purse. After Purdy confronts him for getting his sister pregnant, Ralph shoots Purdy dead. Tibbs grabs Ralph's gun as Gillespie arrives on the scene. Ralph is arrested and confesses to the killing of Colbert. After hitchhiking a ride with Colbert and asking him for a job, Ralph attacked him at the construction site of the new factory, intending only to knock Colbert unconscious and rob him, but instead accidentally killing him.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs arrives at the train to meet his train to go to Philadelphia, as Gillespie, having carried his suitcase, shakes Tibbs hand he bids Tibbs farewell. In the final interaction between Gillespie and Tibbs, as Tibbs ascends the stairs onto the train, for one last time Gillespie calls out to Tibbs and sincerely tells Tibbs to "take care of yourself." Next, after a moment of hesitation Tibbs turns around to face Gillespie and offers Gillespie a warm smile in reply. Gillespie then smiles back at Tibbs as Tibbs boards the train and as the train pulls away from the station finally bound for Philadelphia. Clearly a new mutual respect and friendship has now been found between the two.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Although the film was set in Sparta, Mississippi, most of the movie was filmed in Sparta, Illinois, where many of the film's landmarks can still be seen.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Jewison, Poitier, and Steiger worked together and got along well during the filming, but Jewison had problems with the Southern authorities, and Poitier had reservations about coming south of the Mason–Dixon line for filming. Despite their reservations, Jewison decided to shoot part of the film in Dyersburg and Union City, Tennessee anyway, while the rest was filmed in Sparta, Chester (Harvey Oberst chase scene), and Freeburg (Compton's diner), Illinois.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The scene of Tibbs slapping Endicott is not present in the novel. According to Poitier, the scene was almost not in the movie. In the textbook "Civil Rights and Race Relations in the USA", Poitier states: "I said, 'I'll tell you what, I'll make this movie for you if you give me your absolute guarantee when he slaps me I slap him right back and you guarantee that it will play in every version of this movie. I try not to do things that are against nature." Mark Harris, in his book, "Pictures at a Revolution", states that copies of the original draft of the screenplay clearly depict the scene as filmed, which has been confirmed by both Jewison and Silliphant. Nevertheless, Poitier is correct that Tibbs' slapping of Endicott was not originally envisioned. After Endicott's slap, Silliphant's initial step-outline reads: "Tibbs has all he can do to restrain himself. The butler drops his head, starts to pray. 'For him, Uncle Tom', Tibbs says furiously, 'not for me! Tibbs' counter slap first appears in Silliphant's revised step-outline.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Tibbs urging the butler to pray for Endicott was part of Silliphant's adaptation of "In the Heat of the Night" as a subversive Christian allegory, featuring Tibbs as the messianic outsider who confronts the racist establishment of Sparta.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The film is also important for being the first major Hollywood film in color that was lit with proper consideration for a Black person. Haskell Wexler recognized that standard strong lighting used in filming tended to produce too much glare on dark complexions and rendered the features indistinct. Accordingly, Wexler adjusted the lighting to feature Poitier with better photographic results.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones, and the soundtrack album was released on the United Artists label in 1967. The title song performed by Ray Charles, composed by Quincy Jones, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman was released as a single by ABC Records and reached #33 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and #21 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: AllMusic's Steven McDonald said the soundtrack had "a tone of righteous fury woven throughout" and that "the intent behind "In the Heat of the Night" was to get a Southern, blues-inflected atmosphere to support the angry, anti-racist approach of the picture ... although the cues from "In the Heat of the Night" show their age". The Vinyl Factory said "this soundtrack to a film about racism in the South has a cool, decidedly Southern-fried sound with funk-bottomed bluesy touches, like on the strutting 'Cotton Curtain', the down 'n' dirty 'Whipping Boy' or the fat 'n' sassy 'Chief's Drive to Mayor'".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: In contrast to films like "The Chase" and "Hurry Sundown", which offered confused visions of the South, "In the Heat of the Night" depicted a tough, edgy vision of a Southern town that seemed to hate outsiders more than itself, a theme reflecting the uncertain mood of the time, just as the civil rights movement attempted to take hold. Canadian director Jewison wanted to tell an anti-racist story of a white man and a Black man working together in spite of difficulties. Jewison said that this film proved a conviction he had held for a long time: "It's you against the world. It's like going to war. Everybody is trying to tell you something different and they are always putting obstacles in your way."


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: A particularly famous line in the film comes immediately after Gillespie mocks the name "Virgil": Gillespie: "That's a funny name for a nigger boy that comes from Philadelphia! What do they call you up there?"<br> (An annoyed) Tibbs: "They call me Mister Tibbs!" This reply was later listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes", a list of top film quotes, and was also the title of the movie's sequel.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Another important scene that surprised audiences at the time occurs when Tibbs is slapped by Endicott. Tibbs responds by immediately slapping him back. In a San Francisco pre-screening, Jewison was concerned when the young audience was laughing at the film as if it were a comedy. The audience's stunned reaction to the slapping scene convinced Jewison that the film was effective as drama. That scene helped make the film so popular for audiences, finally seeing the top Black film actor physically strike back against bigotry, that the film earned the nickname, "Superspade Versus the Rednecks". During the film's initial run, Steiger and Poitier occasionally went to the Capitol Theatre in New York to amuse themselves seeing how many Black and white audience members there were, which could be immediately ascertained by listening to the former cheering Tibbs's retaliatory slap and the latter whispering "Oh!" in astonishment.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" praised Jewison for crafting "a film that has the look and sound of actuality and the pounding pulse of truth." He further praised Steiger and Poitier for "each giving physical authority and personal depth" to their performances. Richard Schickel of "Life" magazine wrote that "almost everything in this movie is good—the sharply drawn minor characters, the careful plotting, the wonderful rightness of each scene's setting, mood and dialogue. Most admirable of all is the way everyone avoids oversimplifications." John Mahoney of "The Hollywood Reporter" deemed the film to be "a gripping and suspenseful murder mystery that effects a feeling of greater importance by its veneer of social significance and the illusion of depth in its use of racial color."


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: "Time" magazine applauded the film's theme of racial unity that was "immeasurably helped by performances from Steiger and Poitier that break brilliantly with black-white stereotype." Roger Ebert gave "In the Heat of the Night" a positive review, praising Steiger's performance although he noted "the story itself was slightly too pat". He would later place it at number ten on his top ten list of 1967 films. Arthur D. Murphy of "Variety" felt that the excellent Poitier and outstanding Steiger performances overcame noteworthy flaws, including an uneven script. Penelope Gilliatt of "The New Yorker" thought it had "a spurious air of concern about the afflictions of the real America at the moment" and that it is "essentially a primitive rah-rah story about an underdog's triumph over a bully".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. Its consensus states, "Tense, funny, and thought-provoking all at once, and lifted by strong performances from Sydney Poitier and Rod Steiger, director Norman Jewison's look at murder and racism in small-town America continues to resonate today." Metacritic assigned a score of 75 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The film opened at the Capitol Theatre and at the 86th Street East theatre in New York City on Wednesday, August 2, 1967, grossing $108,107 in its first five days. It opened in Miami Beach, Florida and in Toronto on Friday, August 4 and grossed $20,974 for the weekend which, together with the New York grosses, combined to give a weekend gross of $95,806. It was released soon after race riots in Newark, Milwaukee, and Detroit. By January 1971, the film had earned $11 million in box office rentals from the United States and Canada.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: In 2003, "In the Heat of the Night" was selected by "The New York Times" as one of the "1000 Best Movies Ever Made".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The Academy Film Archive preserved "In the Heat of the Night" in 1997. In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: "In the Heat of the Night" was first released on DVD in 2001. The only extras in that release were the theatrical trailer, and audio commentary with Norman Jewison, Haskell Wexler, Rod Steiger and Lee Grant.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: MGM released the film on Blu-ray on January 14, 2014 through 20th Century Fox. The release ports over all the extras from the 2001 and 40th Anniversary DVDs.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Another DVD and Blu-ray were released by The Criterion Collection on January 29, 2019. The release contained new and previously released extras.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: Kino Lorber released "In the Heat of the Night" as a two-disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray set on April 19, 2022. The main disc includes the UHD SDR version of the film plus two audio commentaries including the 2001 commentary and a brand new commentary featuring historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson, and Robert Mirisch. The special features Blu-ray contained the sequels "They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" and "The Organization" in addition to the 40th Anniversary extras, and theatrical trailers for all three films.


title: In the Heat of the Night (film)

text: The film was followed by two sequels with Poitier, "They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" (1970) and "The Organization" (1971). Both films still did fairly well at the box office though to less critical acclaim. It was also the basis of a 1988 television series adaptation of the same name.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: Red Dawn is a 2012 American action war film directed by Dan Bradley and written by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore. It is a remake of the 1984 film of the same name. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film centers on a group of young people who defend their hometown from a North Korean invasion.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced its intention to remake "Red Dawn" in May 2008 and subsequently hired Bradley and Ellsworth. The principal characters were cast the following year and the film went into production in September 2009 in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Originally scheduled to be released on November 24, 2010, the film was shelved because of MGM's financial troubles. While in post-production, the invading army and antagonists were changed from Chinese to North Korean in order to maintain access to the Chinese box office, though the film was still not released in China.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: Because of MGM's bankruptcy, the distribution rights were sold to FilmDistrict in September 2011 and the film was released in the United States on November 21, 2012, to mostly negative reviews. The film is also a box-office failure, grossing $50.9 million against its $65 million budget.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: An introductory montage shows the fallout of an economic crisis in the European Union and a weakened NATO alliance, amid collaborative dealings between a progressively militant North Korea, now led by the young Kim Jong Un, and ultranationalist-dominated Russia. The increased deployment of U.S. troops abroad leaves the mainland vulnerable, and American infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to the threat of a cyberattack.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: U.S. Marine Jed Eckert is home on leave in Spokane, Washington. He reunites with his father, Spokane Police Sergeant Tom Eckert, and his brother, football player Matt Eckert, as well as his childhood friend Toni Walsh and her cousin Erica Martin, Matt's girlfriend. Matt's football team, the Wolverines, suffers a defeat against another team. After the game, they go to a bar but an unexpected blackout leads to them going home.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: The following morning, Jed and Matt are shocked to see swarms of invading North Korean paratroopers and transport aircraft. Their father tells them to flee to their cabin in the woods while he helps the townspeople. They are joined there by Matt's friends Robert Kitner, Daryl Jenkins, Danny Jackson, siblings Julie and Greg Goodyear, a stranger named Pete, and later by Toni; Erica is captured by the North Koreans. Tensions build as the teens try to decide whether to surrender to the invaders or resist, with Pete ending up betraying their position. North Korean soldiers, under the command of Captain Cho, bring Sergeant Eckert and Daryl's father, the mayor, out to convince the group to surrender; while the mayor persuades the boys to give up, Cho executes Sergeant Eckert after he refuses to cooperate and actively encourages them to resist.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: Later, Jed announces that he intends to fight and the others agree to join him, calling themselves the Wolverines after their school mascot. After acquiring weapons, establishing a base in an abandoned mine, and being trained by Jed, the Wolverines begin a series of guerrilla attacks against soldiers and collaborators, including Pete who gets killed in a bomb explosion.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: As Matt manages to free Erica from her imprisonment, he jeopardizes the mission resulting in Greg's death, leading to tension between him and Jed. The North Koreans retaliate by bombarding the surrounding woods to destroy the Wolverines' base, killing Danny and Julie, with the remaining survivors fleeing deeper into the woods.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: The Wolverines eventually encounter Marine Sergeant Major Andrew Tanner and two other Marines, Corporal Smith, and Sergeant Hodges. They reveal that the Russian-backed North Korean invasion used an EMP weapon that crippled the U.S. electrical grid and military, followed by landings along the east and west coasts (Camp Pendleton is hinted by the Marines as having been destroyed in the invasion, as most likely the rest of coastal Southern California), with American counterattacks eventually halting their advances, leaving an area stretching from Michigan to Montana and Alabama to Arizona as "Free America", using the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Appalachians in the east as geographic buffers, as pockets of patriotic guerrillas in the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in Florida continue to fight. They also reveal that Captain Cho's suitcase contains an EMP-resistant radiotelephone, that if captured would enable the U.S. command to listen in on enemy communication, and gain a tactical advantage in a counter-offensive. The Wolverines assist Tanner, Smith, and Hodges in infiltrating the local police station, the North Koreans' center of operations. They succeed in stealing the suitcase with Jed avenging his father's death by killing Cho, though Hodges is killed in the firefight.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: After they successfully escape with the suitcase, the Wolverines and Marines regroup in a safe house. However, they are ambushed by Russian Spetsnaz and Jed is killed in the firefight. Matt and the rest of the group escape with the suitcase. Robert realizes that, during the escape from the police station, Daryl was tagged with a subcutaneous tracking device that the Russians used to find them. After some thought, Daryl accepts the fact that he cannot go on with them and decides to stay behind while the rest continue on to the Marines' extraction point.


title: Red Dawn (2012 film)

text: Tanner and Smith depart in a UH-1 with the suitcase. The remaining Wolverines decide to stay behind and continue to fight, recruiting more members and raiding prisoner camps, with Matt now leading the effort to continue opposing the occupation. The flag of Free America is carried by patriots in a daring raid on a North Korean concentration camp in the final shot of the film.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann and largest in terms of Irish members of the European Parliament. The party has a membership of 25,000 in 2021. Leo Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny as party leader on 2 June 2017 and as Taoiseach on 14 June; Kenny had been leader since 2002, and Taoiseach since 2011.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael was founded on 8 September 1933 following the merger of its parent party Cumann na nGaedheal, the National Centre Party and the Army Comrades Association. Its origins lie in the struggle for Irish independence and the pro-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War, with the party claiming the legacy of Michael Collins. In its early years, the party was commonly known as "Fine Gael – The United Ireland Party", abbreviated "UIP", and its official title in its constitution remains Fine Gael (United Ireland).


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael is generally considered to be more of a proponent of market liberalism than its traditional rival, Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael describes itself as a "party of the progressive centre" which it defines as acting "in a way that is right for Ireland, regardless of dogma or ideology". It lists its core values as "equality of opportunity, free enterprise and reward, security, integrity and hope." In international politics, the party is highly supportive of the European Union, along with generally supporting strengthened relations with the United Kingdom and opposition to physical force Irish republicanism. The party's autonomous youth wing, Young Fine Gael (YFG), was formed in 1977.


title: Fine Gael

text: Having governed in coalition with the Labour Party between 2011 and 2016, and in a minority government along with Independent TDs from 2016 to 2020, Fine Gael currently forms part of a historic coalition government with its traditional rival, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party, with Leo Varadkar serving as Taoiseach since December 2022.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael was created in 1933 following the merger of 3 political organisations; Cumann na nGaedhael led by W. T. Cosgrave, the National Centre Party led by Frank MacDermot and James Dillon, and the National Guard (better known as the Blueshirts), led by Eoin O'Duffy. Cumann na nGaedhael, born out of the pro-Anglo-Irish Treaty side in the Irish Civil War, had been the party of government from the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 until the 1932 general election, when it was forced out by the newly emergent Fianna Fáil. The National Centre Party was a newly created party that had done well at the '32 election representing the interests of Irish farmers. The National Guard were not a political party, but a militant group made up of former pro-treaty soldiers first known as the Army Comrades Association. Following the disruption of Cumann na nGaedhael meetings by members of the Irish Republican Army, the ACA had begun providing security at their events. This led to the leadership of the ACA being taken over by a number of CnaG TDs including Thomas F. O'Higgins. In early 1933 Eoin O'Duffy took over the ACA, renamed them the National Guard and began instilling on the organisation elements of European Fascism. However, by August 1933 the Fianna Fáil government had banned the National Guard fearing a planned parade in Dublin could be an attempt to emulate the March on Rome.


title: Fine Gael

text: It was following this, in September 1933, that the three groups combined forces and merged to form Fine Gael. The National Guard (referred informally by this point as "the Blueshirts") were to serve as the young wing of the new party as "The League of Youth". In order to not appear as a simple continuation of Cumann na nGaedhael, Eoin O'Duffy was made leader of the new party. However, following poor results at the 1934 Irish local elections and increasingly rabid rhetoric, O'Duffy resigned from the leadership after the party attempted to control what he could say in public and was replaced by WT Cosgrave, with James Dillon made deputy leader. O'Duffy attempted to regain control of the Blueshirts, but was rebuffed by the majority of the members who choose to stay with Fine Gael. Under the stewardship of Cosgrave and Dillon, the party returned to the more traditional conservatism espoused by Cumann na nGaedhael, with the moribund League of Youth disbanded by 1936.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael remained out of government and at a low ebb for a prolonged period until the aftermath of the 1948 general election, which saw the party form a grand coalition with several other parties in order to oust Fianna Fáil and place Fine Gael member John A. Costello as Taoiseach. The coalition was short-lived but revived again between 1954 and 1957. However, following this stint Fine Gael were once again sent into the political wilderness. The party went through a period of soul-searching during the 1960s, in which a new generation of Fine Gael politicians led by Declan Costello sought to revitalise Fine Gael with new ideas. In what has later been hailed as a landmark moment in Fine Gael history, Costello proposed moving the party to the left in a social democratic direction with a document entitled "Towards a Just Society". The document was adopted as the basis for the party's manifesto for the 1965 Irish general election; however, when the party failed to make headway at the polls the momentum behind the Just Society document wilted and faded.


title: Fine Gael

text: It was not until leader Liam Cosgrave secured an election pact with the Labour Party that Fine Gael returned to power in 1973. This period also saw Fine Gael becoming increasingly liberal in ethos, particularly under the leadership of Garret FitzGerald who took the reins of the party in 1977; It was during this time that Fine Gael campaigned in a number of referendums: the party supported Irish entry into the European Economic Community, supported dropping the voting age from 21 to 18, and supported a proposal to remove the "special position" of the Roman Catholic Church from the constitution. It was successful in all three of these campaigns. The party also began a liberal approach to the introduction of contraceptives (Birth control) to Ireland, although an attempt by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to legalise contraceptives in 1974 stumbled after six members of Fine Gael, most prominently then Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, voted against their own bill.


title: Fine Gael

text: The arrangement between Fine Gael and Labour proved pleasing to both parties and their election pacts remained throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the 1980s, seeing the pair enter government a number of times together. In 1985, Fine Gael/Labour voted to vastly liberalise access to contraceptives. That same year FitzGerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with Margaret Thatcher, paving the way to devolved government in Northern Ireland. In 1986 the party campaigned for a Yes in that year's referendum on legalising divorce, but the No side won by a margin of 0.5%.


title: Fine Gael

text: The 1980s had proven fruitful electorally for Fine Gael, but the 1990s and early 2000s saw this momentum decline quickly. One of the first signs of this was the party's poor result in the 1990 Irish presidential election, in which their candidate Austin Currie only secured 17% of the initial vote. Although the party was able to form the government between 1994 and 1997 thanks to coalition partners the Labour Party and the Democratic Left, as well as legalise divorce in 1995 after a successful referendum, the party's share of TDs fell from 54 in 1997 to only 31 in the 2002 general election, its second-worst result ever at that point. It was at this point Enda Kenny took over leadership of the party and began the process of rebuilding it. At the 2007 general election Kenny was able to bring Fine Gael back to its 1997 levels with 51 TDs.


title: Fine Gael

text: The collapse of the Celtic Tiger resulted in the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, which threw Ireland not only into economic turmoil but also political upheaval. The 2011 Irish general election saw the governing Fianna Fáil collapse at the polls, while Fine Gael and the Labour Party returned with their best results ever. For the first time in its history, Fine Gael became the largest party in Dáil Eireann. Once more Fine Gael and Labour paired up to form a government, their tenure marked by the difficulty of trying to guide Ireland towards economic recovery. In 2013, a number of Fine Gael parliamentary party members, including Lucinda Creighton, were expelled from the party for defing the party whip on anti-abortion grounds to oppose the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. These members subsequently formed a political party called Renua.


title: Fine Gael

text: In 2015, the Fine Gael/Labour government held a referendum on the legislation of gay marriage in Ireland. The government campaigned for a yes vote and were successful. Following the 2016 general election, Fine Gael retained control of the government as a minority government, made possible by a confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fáíl, who agreed to abstain in confidence votes. Enda Kenny resigned as party leader in 2017, and following a leadership contest, Leo Varadkar became his successor as well as Taoiseach. In doing so, Varadkar became one of the first openly LGBT heads of government in the world. In 2018 the Fine Gael government held a referendum on the Eighth Amendment, the provision in the Irish constitution which forbid abortion. The party campaigned to repeal the amendment and were successful.


title: Fine Gael

text: After the 2020 general election, for the first time in history, Fine Gael entered into a coalition government with its traditional rival Fianna Fáil, as well as the Green Party, with Leo Varadkar serving as Tánaiste for the first half of the government's five year term, then becoming Taoiseach in December 2022.


title: Fine Gael

text: As a political party of the centre-right, Fine Gael has been described as liberal-conservative, Christian-democratic, liberal, conservative, and pro-European, with an ideological base combining elements of cultural conservatism and economic liberalism.


title: Fine Gael

text: Although Ireland's political spectrum was traditionally divided along Civil War lines, rather than the traditional European left–right spectrum, Fine Gael is described generally as a centre-right party, with a focus on "fiscal rectitude". As the descendant of the pro-Treaty factions in the Irish Civil War, Fine Gael takes inspiration from Michael Collins and claims his legacy. He remains a symbol for the party, and the anniversary of his death is commemorated each year in August.


title: Fine Gael

text: Although Fine Gael was historically a Catholic party, it became the de facto home for Irish Protestants. Its membership base had a higher proportion of Protestants than that of Fianna Fáil or Labour. The party promoted a strong Catholic image and depicted itself as a defender of Catholicism against Atheistic Communism, of which it accused the two aforementioned parties of being sympathetic to.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael adopted the "Just Society" policy statement in the 1960s, based on principles of social justice and equality. It was created by the emerging social democratic wing of the party, led by Declan Costello. The ideas expressed in the policy statement had a significant influence on the party in the years to come.


title: Fine Gael

text: While Fine Gael was traditionally socially conservative for most of the twentieth century due to the conservative Christian ethos of Irish society during this time, its members are variously influenced by social liberalism, social democracy and Christian democracy on issues of social policy. Under Garret FitzGerald, the party's more socially liberal, or pluralist, wing gained prominence. Proposals to allow divorce were put to referendum by two Fine Gael–led governments, in 1986 under FitzGerald, and in 1995 under John Bruton, passing very narrowly on this second attempt. Its modern supporters have shown a preference for postmaterialist values.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael supported civil unions for same-sex couples from 2003, voting for the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Bill 2010, and the party approved a motion at its 2012 Ardfheis to prioritise the consideration of same-sex marriage in the upcoming constitutional convention. In 2013 party leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny declared his support for same-sex marriage. The Fine Gael-led government held a referendum on the subject on 22 May 2015. The referendum passed, with the electorate voting to extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples, with 62.1% in favour and 37.9% opposed.


title: Fine Gael

text: In 2015, months before the marriage equality referendum, Leo Varadkar became the first Irish government minister to come out as gay. In May 2019, former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh, was elected as a Fine Gael MEP for the Midlands-Northwest constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election, running alongside Mairéad McGuinness MEP. Walsh was Fine Gael's first openly lesbian candidate.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael has an LGBT+ section, Fine Gael LGBT, and in 2017, Leo Varadkar became the first Taoiseach to march in Dublin's Pride Parade.


title: Fine Gael

text: In 1983, having initially supported the proposal, Fine Gael came out in opposition to the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution that was being submitted in a referendum in 1983, which sought to introduce a constitutional prohibition on abortion. Under then leader and Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald it campaigned for a 'No' vote, arguing, on the advice of the Attorney General Peter Sutherland, that the wording, which had been drafted under the previous government, when analysed was ambiguous and open to many interpretations. This referendum resulted in the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution, giving the unborn child a qualified equal right to life to that of the mother. Its stance conflicted with that of the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign (PLAC) and Catholic bishops, and Fianna Fáil, the largest party in the State at the time, but then in opposition.


title: Fine Gael

text: The party also campaigned against the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution in 2002, which proposed to remove suicide as a grounds for granting a termination of a pregnancy. Suicide had been ruled as a ground, under the 8th amendment, in the X Case judgement of the Irish Supreme Court. The amendment was rejected by Irish voters.


title: Fine Gael

text: In 2013 it proposed, and supported, the enactment of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which implemented in statute law the "X case" ruling of the Irish Supreme Court, granting access to a termination of a pregnancy where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, not the health, of the mother, including a threat of suicide. Five TDs & two Senators, including Minister of State Lucinda Creighton, lost the Fine Gael party whip for voting against the legislation. Creighton later left Fine Gael to found Renua. The Act was criticised by various anti-abortion groups and Catholic bishops, but supported by a majority of the electorate in opinion polls, with many indicating they wished to see a more liberal law on abortion.


title: Fine Gael

text: Enda Kenny's Fine Gael–led minority government took office after the 2016 election with a programme which promised a randomly selected Citizens' Assembly to report on possible changes to the Eighth Amendment, which would be considered by an Oireachtas committee, to whose report the government would respond officially in debates in both houses of the Oireachtas. Fine Gael Oireachtas members were promised a free vote on the issue. Leo Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny as Taoiseach on 14 June 2017 and promised to hold a referendum on abortion in 2018. Several Fine Gael TDs, notably Health Minister Simon Harris and Kate O'Connell, were prominent supporters of the pro-choice side before and during the referendum. While the party was divided, the majority of Fine Gael TDs and Senators, as well as most members, were in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment. A referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment was held on 25 May 2018 and was passed by 66.4% of voters.


title: Fine Gael

text: The party has traditionally held a strong stance against the decriminalisation of drugs. In 2007, Fine Gael's leader at the time Enda Kenny called for drug and alcohol testing to be performed in schools, saying cocaine usage at schools was "rampant" in some areas.


title: Fine Gael

text: At the party's 2014 Ard Fheis, a proposed motion to support the legalisation of cannabis was voted down by the membership.


title: Fine Gael

text: In 2016, the Fine Gael health minister James Reilly said that they would not be changing their policy on the legalisation of cannabis, due to "serious concerns about the health impacts" of cannabis.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael has, since its inception, portrayed itself as a party of fiscal rectitude and minimal government interference in economics, advocating pro-enterprise policies. In that they followed the line of the previous pro-Treaty government that believed in minimal state intervention, low taxes and social expenditures. Newly elected politicians for the party in the Dáil have strongly advocated liberal economic policies. Lucinda Creighton (who has since left the party) and Leo Varadkar in particular have been seen as strong advocates of a neoliberal approach to Ireland's economic woes and unemployment problems. Varadkar in particular has been a strong proponent of small, indigenous business, advocating that smaller firms should benefit from the government's recapitalisation program. Its former finance spokesman Richard Bruton's proposals have been seen as approaching problems from a pro-enterprise point of view. Its fairer budget website in 2011 suggested that its solutions are "tough but fair". Other solutions conform generally to conservative governments' policies throughout Europe, focusing on cutting numbers in the public sector, while maintaining investment in infrastructure.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael's proposals have sometimes been criticised mostly by smaller political groupings in Ireland, and by some of the trade unions, who have raised the idea that the party's solutions are more conscious of business interests than the interests of the worker. The SIPTU trade union has stated its opposition to the Taoiseach Enda Kenny's assertion, in response to Ireland's economic crisis, that the national wage agreement should be suspended. Kenny's comments had support however and the party attributes its significant rise in polls in 2008 to this.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael's Simon Coveney launched what the party termed a radical re-organisation of the Irish semi-state company sector. Styled the New Economy and Recovery Authority (or NewERA), Coveney said that it is an economic stimulus plan that will "reshape the Irish economy for the challenges of the 21st century". Requiring an €18.2 billion investment in Energy, Communications and Water infrastructure over a four-year period, it was promoted as a way to enhance energy security and digital reputation of Ireland. A very broad ranging document, it proposed the combined management of a portfolio of semi-state assets, and the sale of all other, non-essential services. The release of equity through the sale of the various state resources, including electricity generation services belonging to the ESB, Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis, in combination with use of money in the National Pensions Reserve Fund, was Fine Gael's proposed funding source for its national stimulus package.


title: Fine Gael

text: The plan was seen at being the basis of a Fine Gael program for government. Seen as being the longer term contribution to Fine Gael's economic plan, it has been publicised in combination with a more short term policy proposal from Leo Varadkar. This document, termed ""Hope for a Lost Generation"", promises to bring 30,000 young Irish people off the Live Register in a year by combining a National Internship Program, a Second Chance Education Scheme, an Apprenticeship Guarantee and Community Work Program, as well as instituting a German style, Workshare program.


title: Fine Gael

text: The debate which has been monitored by the "Irish Times" in its Renewing the Republic opinion pieces, has largely centred on the make up of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament. Fine Gael's Phil Hogan TD, a former European Commissioner, has published the party's proposals for political and constitutional reform. In a policy document entitled "New Politics", Hogan suggested creating a country with "a smaller, more dynamic and more responsive political system," reducing the size of the Dáil by 20, changing the way the Dáil works, and in a controversial move, abolishing the Irish senate, Seanad Éireann.


title: Fine Gael

text: Aiming to carry out the parties proposals through a series of constitutional referendums, the proposals were echoed by then Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, when he proposed his own constitutional "crusade" at his 2010 party conference, shortly after.


title: Fine Gael

text: The Irish health system, being administered centrally by the Health Service Executive, is seen to be poor by comparison to other countries in Europe, ranking outside expected levels at 25th according to the Euro Health Consumer Index 2006.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael has long wanted Ireland to break with the system of private health insurance, public medical cards and what it calls the two tiers of the health system and has launched a campaign to see the system reformed. Speaking in favour of the campaign, Fine Gael then health spokesman James Reilly stated "Over the last 10 years the health service has become a shambles. We regularly have over 350 people on trolleys in A&E, waiting lists that go on for months, outpatient waiting lists that go on for years and cancelled operations across the country..."


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael launched its FairCare campaign and website in April 2009, which stated that the health service would be reformed away from a costly ineffective endeavour, into a publicly regulated system where compulsory universal health insurance would replace the existing provisions.


title: Fine Gael

text: This strategy was criticised by Fianna Fáil's then-Minister for Children, Barry Andrews. The spokesperson for family law and children, Alan Shatter TD, robustly defended its proposals as the only means of reducing public expenditure, and providing a service in Ireland more akin to the Canadian, German, Dutch and Austrian health systems.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael's current healthcare policy revolves around the implementation of Sláintecare, a cross-party plan for the reform of the Irish health system. Sláintecare is focused on introducing "a universal single-tiered health service, which guarantees access based on need, not income… through Universal Health Insurance".


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael is among the most pro-European integration parties in Ireland, having supported the European Constitution, the Lisbon Treaty, and advocating participation in European common defence. The party have been supportive of NATO. In 1998, party leader John Bruton called on Ireland to join the NATO-led Partnership for Peace. The party's youth wing, Young Fine Gael, passed a motion in 2016 calling on the government to apply for membership of NATO.


title: Fine Gael

text: Under Enda Kenny, the party called on the state to end Irish neutrality and to sign up for a European defence structure, with Kenny claiming that "the truth is, Ireland is not neutral. We are merely unaligned." Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fine Gael called for an increase in defence spending, with Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney suggesting Ireland needed a "fundamental rethink" of its security approach and proposing an increase of €500 million a year on defence spending.


title: Fine Gael

text: Since Brexit, Fine Gael has taken a strong pro-European stance, stating that Ireland's place is "at the heart of Europe". In government, the party has launched the "Global Ireland" plan to develop alliances with other small countries across Europe and the world.


title: Fine Gael

text: Fine Gael is a founding member of the European People's Party (EPP), the largest European political party comprising liberal conservative and Christian democratic national-level parties from across Europe. Fine Gael's MEPs sit with the EPP Group in the European Parliament, and Fine Gael parliamentarians also sit with the EPP Groups in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Committee of the Regions. Young Fine Gael is a member of the Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP).


title: Fine Gael

text: It is inferred from the party's relationship with its European counterparts via membership of the European People's Party that Fine Gael belongs on the centre-right. The party conforms generally with European political parties that identify themselves as being Christian democratic.


title: Fine Gael

text: The Moriarty Tribunal has sat since 1997 and has investigated the granting of a mobile phone license to Esat Telecom by Michael Lowry when he was Fine Gael Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in the Rainbow Coalition of the mid-1990s. Lowry resigned from the Cabinet after it was revealed at the Moriarty Tribunal that businessman Ben Dunne had paid for an IR£395,000 extension to Lowry's County Tipperary home. Lowry, now an independent TD, supported the Fianna Fáil–Green Party government in Dáil Éireann until March 2011.


title: Fine Gael

text: It was also revealed in December 1996 that Fine Gael had received some £180,000 from Ben Dunne in the period 1987 to 1993. This was composed of £100,000 in 1993, £50,000 in 1992 and £30,000 in 1989. In addition, Michael Noonan received £3,000 in 1992 towards his election campaign, Ivan Yates received £5,000, Michael Lowry received £5,000 and Sean Barrett received £1,000 in the earlier 1987 election. John Bruton said he had received £1,000 from Dunne in 1982 towards his election campaign, and Dunne had also given £15,000 to the Labour Party during the 1990 Presidential election campaign.


title: Fine Gael

text: Following revelations at the Moriarty Tribunal on 16 February 1999, in relation to Charles Haughey and his relationship with AIB, former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald confirmed that AIB and Ansbacher wrote off debts of almost £200,000 that he owed in 1993, when he was in financial difficulties because of the collapse of the aircraft leasing company, GPA, in which he was a shareholder. The write-off occurred after Fitzgerald left politics. Fitzgerald also said he believed his then Fine Gael colleague, Peter Sutherland, who was chairman of AIB at the time, was unaware of the situation.


title: Fine Gael

text: The current leader of the Fine Gael party is Leo Varadkar, who, as well as being Ireland's youngest ever Taoiseach is the country's first openly gay leader. The position of deputy leader has been held since 2017 by Simon Coveney TD, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence.


title: Fine Gael

text: In the 2009 local elections held on 5 June 2009, Fine Gael won 556 seats, surpassing Fianna Fáil which won 407 seats, and making Fine Gael the largest party of local government nationally. They gained 88 seats from their 2004 result.


title: Fine Gael

text: In the 2009 European Parliament election held on the same day as the local elections, which saw a reduction in the number seats from 13 to 12 for Ireland, the party won four seats, retaining the largest number of seats of an Irish party in the European Parliament. This was a loss of one seat from its 2004 result.


title: Fine Gael

text: In the 2011 general election, Fine Gael gained 25 seats bringing them to a total of 76. The party ran candidates in all 43 constituencies and had candidates elected in every constituency except Dublin North-West. Fine Gael won 19 seats in Seanad Éireann following the 2011 election, a gain of four from the previous election in 2007.


title: Fine Gael

text: While Fine Gael was responsible for the initial nomination of the uncontested, first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, a Fine Gael candidate has never won an election to the office of president. The Fine Gael presidential candidate, Gay Mitchell, finished fourth in the 2011 presidential election, with 6.4% of the vote. In 2004, Fine Gael supported the re-election of President Mary McAleese. Similarly, it supported the re-election of Michael D. Higgins in the 2018 presidential election.


title: Fine Gael

text: In the 2016 general election the outgoing government consisting of Fine Gael and its partner the Labour Party was defeated. The previous government had the largest majority in the history of the state with a combined 113 seats out of the 166-seat Dáil Éireann. The aftermath of the general election resulted in months of negotiations for an agreement of government. A deal was reached with the main opposition and traditional rival Fianna Fáil to facilitate a minority Fine Gael-led government. Fine Gael governed Ireland alone with eight Independent members of the Dáil until 2020, when the party emerged as the third party following the general election. After governing for several months in a caretaker capacity, Fine Gael agreed to serve in a historic coalition government along with its traditional rival, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party, with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin serving as Taoiseach and Leo Varadkar serving as Tánaiste. Under the agreed Programme for Government, the role of Taoiseach will rotate to Leo Varadkar in 2022.


title: Fine Gael

text: Young Fine Gael (YFG) is the autonomous youth movement of Fine Gael. It was founded in 1976 by the then leader Garret FitzGerald. It caters for young people under 35 with an interest in Fine Gael and politics, in cities, towns and third level colleges throughout Ireland. YFG is led by its national executive consisting of ten members elected on a regional basis, and on a national panel.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: Franklin Delano Floyd (born June 17, 1943) is an American murderer, rapist and death row inmate. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, as well as the kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes, who he claimed was his son, from his elementary school in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Floyd is also considered a person of interest in the 1990 hit-and-run death of his second wife Sharon Marshall, mother of Michael Anthony Hughes. It was later discovered that before becoming his wife, Sharon had been raised by Floyd from an early age as his daughter and was kidnapped by Floyd as a child.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: Marshall's true identity remained a mystery until 2014 when she was positively identified as Suzanne Marie Sevakis, the daughter of a woman to whom Floyd was briefly married. He disappeared with Sevakis, her two sisters, and infant brother Phillip (also known as "Stevie") while her mother was serving a 30-day jail sentence in 1975. Sevakis' brother remained missing until 2019 when a man came forward believing he was Phillip; DNA tests confirmed his identity in 2020.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: Franklin Delano Floyd was born in Barnesville, Georgia, the youngest of five children born to Thomas and Della Floyd. Shortly after Floyd's first birthday in 1944, his father, a cotton mill worker and alcoholic, died from kidney and liver failure at 32. His mother, a widow at age 29, struggled to make a living independently, so she and her children lived in a small apartment with her parents.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: Over the next year, caring for the large family became too difficult for Floyd's grandparents, and by 1946 they asked Della and her children to leave. Floyd and his siblings were put into the care of Georgia Baptist Children's Home in Hapeville at the advice of Lamar County Children Services. There, Floyd was allegedly bullied by other children for being "feminine" and later reported to have been sodomized with a broomstick when he was six years old. In his own words, he states that he was digitally penetrated in his anus by other boys in the home. He was also subjected to harsh punishments by the staff; as a teenager, his hand was dipped into hot water after being caught masturbating. Floyd often got in trouble for fighting and stealing. In 1959, having been there two years after his youngest sister left, Floyd ran away and broke into a nearby house to steal food. The Children's Home informed his sister Dorothy, now married and living in North Carolina with two children, that criminal charges would not be pursued if she took custody of her brother.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: After being kicked out of his sister's home, Floyd traveled to Indianapolis to search for his mother, Della, only to learn that she had become a prostitute. Floyd had Della help him forge legal documents allowing him to go to California to enlist in the U.S. Army. However, the Army discharged Floyd six months into his service after discovering that he was underage and that his papers were falsified. After being unable to find his mother again, Floyd traveled across the country as a drifter. Della died on July 2, 1968, and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.


title: Franklin Delano Floyd

text: On February 19, 1960, at age sixteen, Floyd broke into a Sears department store in Inglewood, California to steal a gun. Police quickly responded to a burglar alarm, resulting in a shootout in which Floyd was shot in the stomach. He survived following emergency surgery. After recovering, he was sent to a youth institution for a year. In 1961, he was arrested for violating his parole by going on a fishing trip in Canada with a friend.