title: Breanna Stewart

text: In addition to regularly scheduled post-season tournaments, the success of her high school team led to invitations to prominent national tournaments. In 2010, the C-NS team traveled to Philadelphia, New Jersey and Disney World; in 2011, the team went to the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Arizona, considered the "premier showcase of all high school girls tournaments"; and in 2012, the Northstars played in a Basketball Hall of Fame Tournament in Springfield, Massachusetts.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: The Tournament of Champions is an annual event, since 1997, showcasing the best high school girls basketball teams. The 2011 event, held in Phoenix, Arizona, included 96 of the best basketball programs in the country. The C-NS team was assigned to the Smith Division, where they faced Bolingbrook High School, considered to be the number 1 team by USA Today. Despite being viewed as a 30-point underdog, Stewart helped her team to the first round upset, scoring 15 points in a 43–40 win.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In the quarter-final game, Stewart scored 29 points and had 19 rebounds to help the team beat the number 22 ranked team in the country, Dr. Phillips High School from Orlando, Florida. Although double-teamed, she scored ten points in a 12–0 run that gave C-NS a commanding 23-point lead early in the fourth quarter. That win secured a place in the semi-finals of the division. In the semi-final game, C-NS faced St. Mary's, the number 2 ranked team in the country. Stewart had 33 points and 16 rebounds, but it was not enough to overcome the scoring of the eventual champion of the tournament. Although the team lost that game, Stewart's overall performance earned her the most outstanding player of the tournament honors. Stewart was viewed as an offensive threat in the low post, high post and perimeter, and was effective as a defender because of her long wingspan.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart's Northstars team were invited to play in the annual Hoophall Classic; the event was held in Springfield, Massachusetts, and typically featured some of the best high school teams in the country. Their opponents were the local West Springfield team, not nationally ranked, but 8–0 at the time of the meeting. The result was not close, as C-NS beat West Springfield 60–20, with Stewart alone scoring more points than the opposition. Stewart ended the game with 22 points, 18 rebounds and seven blocks, despite leaving the game in the third period and not returning. Her performance earned her the Most Outstanding Player award for the event.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was selected to join the USA Basketball U16 team, at age 14, the youngest member of the team; all other team members were 15 or 16. Initially, her parents turned down the invitation to join the team, worried about the amount of time she would be missing school. However, Mike Flynn, director of a prominent Amateur Athletic Union team, persuaded her parents that the invitation was an honor, so they relented. At the time, she stood six feet, three inches, the same height as Kiah Stokes and Elizabeth Williams. Despite being the youngest, she earned the starting role for all five games, scoring just under ten points per games, tying Elizabeth Williams for the team lead in blocks. Stewart helped the team win the gold medal in the First FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women, held in Mexico City. The win secured an automatic bid to the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship, held in Rodez and Toulouse, France.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart continued with the USA team as it became the U17 team. The USA team won all eight games and the gold medal in the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. Stewart earned a starting role in all eight games. In the first game, against the host team from France, she led all scorers with 13 points. In the final preliminary game against Japan, she led all scorers with 30 points. In the tournament, she averaged 12.8 points per game, second only to Elizabeth Williams at 13.5 points per game. Stewart was the team leader with 18 blocks.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In 2011, Stewart was selected to be on the USA Basketball U19 team. The U18 team won the 2010 Americas Championship, thus earning an automatic bid to the U19 World Championship, held in Puerto Montt, Chile. The USA won their first five games, but then came up short, losing to Canada 64–52. They were still qualified for the medal round, and played against France in the quarter-final; the USA was down by 13 points early in the game, but took a lead with just over a minute to go in the game and won 70–64. The USA took an early lead in the semi-final against Brazil, and qualified for the gold medal game. The final was against Spain, which the USA won 69–46. Although she was one of the youngest players on the team, Stewart averaged 11.2 points per game to post the highest scoring average of the USA players. She was one of the five players named to the all tournament team; Ariel Massengale was the other USA player to earn all tournament honors.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: She competed for the United States at the 2011 Pan American Games. The USA Pan American team members were usually chosen from the college ranks, although many of the other countries use their national teams, which include professional players. Stewart was the only high school player chosen for the 2011 Pan American team, and only the second high school player in Pan American team history for the USA teams. The only other high school player on a Pan American team was Nancy Lieberman, who played on the 1975 team, almost 20 years before Stewart was born.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: The 2011 team finished seventh, the first time in history they did not earn a medal, but Stewart, almost three years younger than the next youngest player, was still a major contributor, scoring 15.4 points per game to lead the team in scoring. She also led the team in blocks and rebounds.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was named the 2011 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year. USA Basketball cited her performance on the U19 team and the Pan American team. She was the second youngest on the U19 team, yet led the team in points, rebounds and blocks, helping to lead her team to a gold medal at the international competition, and earning a position on the all-tournament team. She occupies several spots in the U19 record books. She was named to the Pan American team, only the second high school player from the US to receive such a bid. Despite playing with college age players, she earned a starting position for all games, and again led the team in points, rebounds and blocks. The previous year's winner of the award was Diana Taurasi.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was named to the USA Basketball U-18 team. She joined future UConn teammates Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck on the 12-player squad that competed in the 2012 FIBA Americas U-18 National Championship, held in August 2012, in Puerto Rico. Stewart was the youngest, and only high school player, on the 2011 USA Women's Pan American Games team, but was the player with the most international experience on the team. The team started by winning their first four games with margins of victory of 40 points or more. This set up the championship game against Brazil. The team from Brazil started strong, and held a double-digit lead early in the game. After scoring only seven points in the first quarter, the team scored 21 or more in the next three quarters and reclaimed the lead. The USA won 71–47 to claim the gold medal.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart, along with teammates Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck, were three of the twelve players selected to be on the team representing the US at the U19 World Championship for Women held in Klaipėda and Panevėžys, Lithuania, in July 2013.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year for the second time. Only five other players have won this award more than once, Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Miller, Dawn Staley and Diana Taurasi, and none have accomplished this at so young an age. Stewart helped the US to a 9–0 record in the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship, leading to a gold medal for the team and MVP honors for Stewart.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was one of 33 finalists for the U.S. Women's FIBA World Championship for Women Roster. She was the only collegiate player out of 32 WNBA women's basketball players to be selected by the USA Basketball Women's National Team Player Selection Committee to compete for the final roster to represent the US at the FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey during September and October 2014. Stewart made the final roster of 12 players, announced on September 23, 2014. Stewart won the gold medal with the team in 2014.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was a member of the USA Women's Pan American Team which participated in basketball at the 2015 Pan American Games held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 10 to 26, 2015. The USA won games against Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, before losing the gold-medal game to the host team Canada.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: USA Basketball named Stewart to the squad that played at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She won a gold medal with Team USA in 2016, in doing so joining Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Ruth Riley, Tamika Catchings and fellow UConn alums Kara Wolters, Swin Cash, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Maya Moore on the elite list of female basketball players to have won NCAA titles, WNBA Championships and Olympic gold medals.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: She again won gold at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo where she averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds per game and was named the Olympic Tournament's Most Valueble Player and to the FIBA's all-star five team.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was recruited by many schools, but after a campus visit to UConn in 2011, she told the coaching staff, "I would like to commit if you'd take me." Committing requires a formal letter of intent. Some players sign at a media event organized to cover the ceremony; Stewart signed her letter on the hood of her car, then gave it to her father at his office to fax to the school.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart started her freshman year in strong form, scoring at least 20 points in three of her first four games. She scored a total of 169 points in her first ten games, which broke Maya Moore record for most points in a player's first 10 career games. However, her output slowed, and her scoring average dropped below ten points for her last eighteen regular season games. In March, she started early morning session with Chris Daily, associate head coach, to concentrate on shooting and post moves. She came back strong in the Big East tournament, with a total of 51 points, matching the number scored by Diana Taurasi in her tournament debut. Her strong performance continued in the NCAA tournament. She did not play in the first round, due to a calf injury, but scored 105 points in the last five games, earning her the award of the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, the first freshman to win the award since 1987.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart continued her stellar play in her sophomore year; her coaches noticed that she was demanding the ball more often, something she occasionally did as a freshman, but usually only if she thought she was playing well. By the end of her sophomore year, she was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year in the league's first season after the split of the original Big East Conference, an honor she would go on to win the following two seasons. Additionally, she was named AP Player of the Year, only the third time in history a sophomore had claimed the honor. The other two sophomore recipients were fellow husky Maya Moore and Oklahoma's Courtney Paris. Stewart started and played in all 40 games of 2013–2014 season. She led the team at 19.4 points and 2.8 blocks per game, was second on the team with 8.1 rebounds per contest, and fourth on the squad at 49.7 percent shooting and her 291 field goals made was the third-highest single-season total in UConn annals. Her 324 boards marked the 12th-highest single-season total in school history, and her 110 rejections was the third-highest mark.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart earned American Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors for the second straight year in 2014–15, marking the fifth time a Husky was selected as the conference player of the year multiple times. She elevated nearly every aspect of her game during UConn's nine-game run through the postseason, averaging 18.1 points on 53.3 percent shooting to go along with 10.7 rebounds, and made 42.1 percent (8–19) of her attempts from beyond the 3-point arc during postseason action. She entered her senior year in 11th place on UConn's all-time scoring list with 1,960 career points, only 30 points behind Renee Montgomery's 10th-place total. She entered 2015–16 in fifth place on UConn's all-time blocked shots list with 288 career rejections and finished the season with 856 career rebounds, which is the 10th-highest total in UConn history.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In her final season at UConn, Stewart posted career highs in rebounds (8.7 rpg), assists (4.0 apg) and blocks (126) while shooting 57.9 percent from the floor, sweeping all possible individual honors: she won her third straight Naismith College Player of the Year award, Wade Trophy, Associated Press Women's College Basketball Player of the Year award, USBWA Women's National Player of the Year award; she was also voted American Athletic Player of the Year (third time) and a third straight unanimous First-Team All-American in WBCA, USBWA and AP polls. She was the first-ever unanimous pick for AP Player of the Year and the first-ever three-time AP Player of the Year. In leading UConn to another national championship, she was part of the first four-time national championship class in NCAA history and also became the first player to be named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player four times. In her college career Stewart won 151 games and lost 5, which included four straight national championships. She is the first NCAA basketball player ever to tally 400 assists and block 400 shots. She was one of only six Huskies, along with Tina Charles, Rebecca Lobo, Maya Moore, Stefanie Dolson and Jamelle Elliott, with at least 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. Stewart finished her career second on UConn's all-time scoring list at 2,676 career points, fourth with 1,179 career rebounds, and first in blocks (414).


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart was drafted first overall in the 2016 WNBA draft by the Seattle Storm. She would play alongside superstar veteran point guard Sue Bird. Stewart immediately made an impact in the league as she scored 23 points in her debut game against the Los Angeles Sparks. As the season progressed, Stewart continued to dominate offensively as she scored a career-high 38 points in a win against the Atlanta Dream, which is the second most points scored in a game in franchise history, behind Lauren Jackson's 47 points. Stewart averaged 18.3 points per game, 9.3 rebounds per game and 1.8 blocks per game by the end of the 2016 season. She swept the Rookie of the Month awards for the entire season leading up to her winning the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award by a landslide. Stewart also broke the WNBA record for most defensive rebounds in a season with 277 defensive rebounds (surpassing Lisa Leslie's record in 2004). Despite the record, Stewart didn't win the rebounding title, sharing the top spot with Tina Charles for most rebounds, who led the league in rebounds per game average. Her season performance helped lead the Storm back to the playoffs for the first time in 3 years with the number 7 seed in the league, but lost in the first round elimination game to the Atlanta Dream. Stewart won the 2016 ESPY Award for Best Female Athlete. The other nominees were Elena Delle Donne, Katie Ledecky, and Simone Biles. She also won Best Women's College Basketball Player at the 2016 ESPYs.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In 2017, Stewart continued to flourish after an impressive rookie season. She was voted into the 2017 WNBA All-Star Game, making it her first career all-star game appearance. On August 5, 2017, Stewart scored a season-high 32 points in an 87–80 overtime loss to the San Antonio Stars. Stewart would finish the season with a career-high of 19.9 points per game as the Storm finished with the number 8 seed in the league, but were once again a first-round exit as they were eliminated by the Phoenix Mercury.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In 2018, Stewart would elevate her play to a superstar level. She was voted into the 2018 WNBA All-Star Game for her second all-star game appearance. On August 6, 2018, Stewart scored a season-high 32 points in a 96–80 victory over the New York Liberty, making it her fourth 30-point game of the season. By the end of the season, Stewart was ranked second in the league in scoring, she averaged new career-highs in scoring, steals, field goal percentage and three-point percentage. Stewart would also win the MVP award. This helped the Storm to a 26–8 record with the number 1 seed in the league, receiving a double-bye to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Stewart started off the series strong with a 28-point performance along with a career-high 6 three-pointers in a 91–87 victory against the Phoenix Mercury in Game 1. The Storm would end up winning the series in five games, advancing to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2010. In the Finals, the Storm would defeat the Washington Mystics in a three-game sweep, winning their first championship in 8 years. Stewart averaged 25.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals during the series. Stewart won Finals MVP, becoming the sixth player in league history to win both league MVP and Finals MVP in the same year.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart missed the entire 2019 WNBA season after suffering an injury while playing for Russian club Dynamo Kursk in the 2019 EuroLeague Women final on April 14 that was later confirmed to be a torn Achilles. She returned to the U.S. the day after the injury and underwent surgery in Los Angeles later that week.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Because the WNBA currently lacks any kind of inactive list, the Storm suspended Stewart in order to free up a roster spot. Shortly thereafter, the league made her a paid ambassador for the 2019 season, making her the first active player to fill such a role. Stewart earned slightly more in that role than she would have as a player. In July 2020, Stewart returned to playing, rejoining her teammates at the IMG Academy for training. She won her second title with the Storm in 2020 and was named the 2020 WNBA Finals MVP. In 2020 "Sports Illustrated" named her one of its Sportspeople of the Year for her activism off the court. During the WNBA's 25th season in 2021, Stewart was named to The W25 as one of the top 25 players in league history.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: During her rookie season, Stewart signed with Shanghai Baoshan Dahua of the WCBA for the 2016–17 Chinese season. In 2017, Stewart re-signed with Shanghai Baoshan Dahua for the 2017–18 WCBA season.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In June 2018, Stewart signed with Dynamo Kursk of the Russian Premier League and was later named MVP of the EuroLeague Women regular season. In February 2020, Stewart signed with UMMC Ekaterinburg for the remainder of the 2019–20 European season. In November 2020, Stewart re-signed with UMMC Ekaterinburg for the 2020–21 European season.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: Stewart is married to former WNBA and current EuroLeague Spanish professional basketball player Marta Xargay, three times Eurobasket champion and silver medalist in both the Olympics and World Cup with the Spain national basketball team. The couple started dating while teammates at Dynamo Kursk. Stewart proposed in May 2021 and they were married on July 6, 2021 on the rooftop of Stewart's apartment building. On August 9, 2021, within 48 hours of Stewart earning an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, their daughter Ruby Mae Stewart-Xargay was born via surrogacy.


title: Breanna Stewart

text: In 2021, she signed multi-year endorsement with Puma. In September 2022 she released the first female signature shoes for the first time in over a decade, called Stewie 1 Quiet Fire.


title: Ball (association football)

text: A football (also known as football ball, soccer ball, or association football ball specifically in the United Kingdom) is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent standards are specified by FIFA and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of vulcanization by Charles Goodyear. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by Eigil Nielsen, and technological research continues to develop footballs with improved performance. The 32-panel ball design was soon joined by 24-panel balls as well as 42-panel balls, both of which improved on performance prior to 2007.


title: Ball (association football)

text: A black-and-white patterned spherical truncated icosahedron design, brought to prominence by the Adidas Telstar, has become a symbol of the sport. Many different designs of balls exist, varying both in appearance and physical characteristics.


title: Ball (association football)

text: In the year 1863, the first specifications for footballs were set by the Football Association. Previous to this, footballs were made out of inflated animal bladder, with later leather coverings to help footballs maintain their shapes. In 1872 the specifications were revised, and have been kept essentially unchanged by the International Football Association Board. Differences in footballs made since this rule came into effect have been with the material used to create them.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Footballs have dramatically changed over time. During medieval times balls were normally made from an outer shell of leather filled with cork shavings. Another method of creating a ball was using animal bladders to make it inflatable inside. However, these two styles of footballs were easy to puncture and were inadequate for kicking. It was not until the 19th century that footballs developed a more modern appearance.


title: Ball (association football)

text: In 1838, Charles Goodyear introduced vulcanized rubber, which dramatically improved football. Vulcanization is the treatment of rubber to give it certain qualities such as strength, elasticity, and resistance to solvents. Vulcanization of rubber also helps the football resist moderate heat and cold. Vulcanization helped create inflatable bladders that pressurize the outer panel arrangement of the football. Charles Goodyear's innovation increased the bounce ability of the ball and made it easier to kick. Most balls of this time had tanned leather with eighteen sections stitched together. These were arranged in six panels of three strips each.


title: Ball (association football)

text: During the 1900s, footballs were made out of leather with a lace of the same material (known as "tiento" in Spanish) used to stitch the panels. Although leather was perfect for bouncing and kicking the ball, when heading the football (hitting it with the player's head) it was usually painful. This problem was most probably due to water absorption of the leather from rain, which caused a considerable increase in weight, causing head or neck injury. By around 2017, this had also been associated with dementia in former players. Another problem of early footballs was that they deteriorated quickly, as the plastic used in manufacturing the basketballs varied in thickness and in quality.


title: Ball (association football)

text: The ball without the leather lace was developed and patented by Romano Polo, Antonio Tossolini and Juan Valbonesi in 1931 in Bell Ville, Córdoba Province, Argentina. This innovative ball (named "Superball") was adopted by the Argentine Football Association as the official ball for its competitions since 1932.


title: Ball (association football)

text: The deformation of the football when it is kicked or when the ball hits a surface is tested. Two styles of footballs have been tested by the Sports Technology Research Group of Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in Loughborough University; these two models are called the Basic FE model and the Developed FE model of the football. The basic model considered the ball as a spherical shell with isotropic material properties. The developed model also used isotropic material properties but included an additional stiffer stitching seam region.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Manufacturers are experimenting with microchips and even cameras embedded inside the ball. The microchip technology was considered for the goal-line technology. The ball used in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia had an embedded chip which did not provide any measurements, but provided 'user experience' via smartphone after connecting with the ball via NFC.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Companies such as Umbro, Mitre, Adidas, Nike, Select and Puma are releasing footballs made out of new materials which are intended to provide more accurate flight and more power to be transferred to the football.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Modern footballs are much more complex than past footballs. Most footballs consist of twelve regular pentagonal and twenty regular hexagonal panels positioned in a truncated icosahedron spherical geometry. Some premium-grade 32-panel balls use non-regular polygons to give a closer approximation to sphericality. The inside of the football is made up of a latex or butyl rubber bladder which enables the football to be pressurised. The ball's outside is made of leather, synthetic leather, polyurethane or PVC panels. The surface can be textured, weaved or embossed for greater control and touch. The panel pairs are either machine-stitched, hand-stitched or thermo-bonded (glued and bonded by heat) along the edge. To prevent water absorption balls may be specially coated, or the stitches bonded with glue. The size of a football is roughly in diameter for a regulation size 5 ball. Rules state that a size 5 ball must be in circumference. Averaging that to and then dividing by gives a diameter of about .


title: Ball (association football)

text: Regulation size and weight for a soccer ball is a circumference of and a weight of between . The ball is inflated to a pressure of at sea level. This is known as "Size 5". Smaller balls, sizes 1, 3 and 4 are also produced for younger players or as training tools.


title: Ball (association football)

text: There are different types of football balls depending on the match and turf including training footballs, match footballs, professional match footballs, beach footballs, street footballs, indoor footballs, turf balls, futsal footballs and mini/skills footballs.


title: Ball (association football)

text: Many companies throughout the world produce footballs. The earliest balls were made by local suppliers where the game was played. It is estimated that 55% of all footballs are made in Sialkot, Pakistan with other major producers being China and India.


title: Ball (association football)

text: As a response to the problems with the balls in the 1962 FIFA World Cup, Adidas created the Adidas Santiago – this led to Adidas winning the contract to supply the match balls for all official FIFA and UEFA matches, which they have held since the 1970s, and also for the Olympic Games. They also supply the ball for the UEFA Champions League which is called the Adidas Finale.


title: Ball (association football)

text: In early FIFA World Cups, match balls were mostly provided by the hosts from local suppliers. Records indicate a variety of models being used within individual tournaments and even, on some occasions, individual games. Over time, FIFA took more control over the choice of ball used. Since 1970 Adidas have supplied official match balls for every tournament.


title: Ball (association football)

text: The association football symbol () was introduced by computing standard Unicode. The symbol was representable in HTML as or . The addition of this symbol follows a 2008 proposal by Karl Pentzlin.


title: 2009 in film

text: The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films. Also in 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of that year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five (the first time since the 1943 awards).


title: 2009 in film

text: Film critic Philip French of "The Guardian" said that 2009 "began with the usual flurry of serious major movies given late December screenings in Los Angeles to qualify for the Oscars. They're now forgotten or vaguely regarded as semi-classics: "The Reader", "Che", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Frost/Nixon", "Revolutionary Road", "The Wrestler", "Gran Torino", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". It soon became apparent that horror movies would be the dominant genre once again, with vampires the pre-eminent sub-species, the most profitable inevitably being "", the latest in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga, the best the subtle Swedish "Let the Right One In" and the worst the British horror spoof "Lesbian Vampire Killers". Documentaries continued to flourish, introducing us to fascinating new worlds: Afghan TV talent shows ("Afghan Star"), Australian exploitation cinema ("Not Quite Hollywood"), haute couture ("The September Issue"). Animation thrived, the 3-D comeback threatened to become permanent rather than a gimmick, and the two were conjoined in a dozen 3-D animated features, the finest being Pixar's "Up". Remakes and sequels abounded, none of any merit. The same went for films based on comic strips and graphic novels. British cinema generally bubbled in the doldrums. The well-acted "Fish Tank" was overrated, as was the dull costume drama "The Young Victoria". The best films by native directors were fuelled by our obsession with soccer (Ken Loach's "Looking for Eric" and Tom Hooper's "The Damned United") or directed by foreigners (New Zealander Jane Campion's "Bright Star", and two films by Danes: Nicholas Winding Refn's "Bronson" and Lone Scherfig's "An Education"). The most original British film was Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's low-key, low-budget "Helen", a formally innovative look at provincial life. 2009 was a mostly undistinguished year for Hollywood, with indifferent films from Woody Allen ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), Michael Mann ("Public Enemies") and others, and deadly blockbusters such as "Angels & Demons" and "2012". The Coen brothers, however, were on form, examining their midwestern Jewish roots in "A Serious Man", and Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" was the best film yet about Iraq. From Europe we had several striking revisionist accounts of violent resistance to Nazi occupation in the second world war: "Flammen & Citronen" (Denmark), "" (Norway) and "The Army of Crime" (France). But they were drowned in the tsunami of Quentin Tarantino's lunatic second world war fantasy "Inglourious Basterds". The most likable European picture was the Italian "Mid-August Lunch", the directorial debut of 60-year-old Gianni Di Gregorio (screenwriter on "Gomorrah"), and the three most memorably argumentative and provocative were Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo", Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" and Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon". The performances I most enjoyed were impersonations: Meryl Streep's Julia Child ("Julie & Julia") and Christian McKay's Orson in "Me and Orson Welles"."


title: 2009 in film

text: "Avatar" surpassed "Titanic" as the highest-grossing film of all time on January 25, 2010. "Avatar" then became the first film to earn more than $2 billion at the box office on January 31, 2010. "Avatar" was surpassed by "" as the highest-grossing film of all time on July 21, 2019. Due to a re-release, "Avatar" retook the title from "Endgame" on March 13, 2021.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The Lover () is a 1992 romantic drama film produced by Claude Berri and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Based on the semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name by Marguerite Duras, the film details the illicit affair between a teenage French girl and a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 French Indochina. The protagonist is portrayed by actress Jane March and her lover is portrayed by actor Tony Leung Ka-fai. The film also features Jeanne Moreau as a narrator.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Development began in 1989, with principal photography commencing in 1991. The film made its theatrical debut on 22 January 1992 in France, on 19 June in the United Kingdom, and in the United States on 30 October of the same year. The film was nominated for the 1992 Academy Award for Best Cinematography and won the Motion Picture Sound Editors' 1993 Golden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing — Foreign Feature". It was nominated for seven César Awards in France, winning the Award for Best Original Music. The film was a box office success in France and received generally positive reviews in Europe, while reviews from American critics were more mixed.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The primary characters are known only as The Young Girl and The Chinese Man. The events take place in Vietnam. The daughter of a bitter, fearful, poverty-stricken French family, living in a rural area, she wears an old linen dress and a fedora, and paints her lips bright red when out of her mother's sight. Her weak-willed, widowed mother is a schoolteacher to local children. There is a violent, opium-smoking older brother, and a timid younger brother. The girl is a loner but an excellent student, who dreams of being a writer.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The girl meets the Chinese Man when crossing the river on the ferry to return to the city after a school holiday. He is the son of a businessman whose fortune was made in real estate, and has recently returned from Paris after finishing his business studies. He has the look but lacks the self-assurance of the playboy he fancies himself to be, and he is mesmerized the first time he sees her standing by the rail on a crowded ferry crossing the Mekong River. After some awkward conversation, she accepts a lift to Saigon in his chauffeur-driven limousine. In voice-over at the beginning of the film she says she is 15, but she tells him she is 17; he is 32. During the drive he tremulously takes her hand; at the end, his hand is in her lap. The following day, he waits for her outside her boarding school and takes her to the room in the Chinese quarter that he uses for entertaining mistresses.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: They realize that "a future together is unthinkable" because she is scheduled to return to Paris soon, and he is to make an arranged marriage with a Chinese heiress. Aware of the limited time they have together, they fall into a relationship in which they shed all responsibilities that come with commitment. Every day after school, the girl goes to his room.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The girl's family discovers the affair, and though at first furious, they condone it because the man is wealthy and can pay off some of their debts. Despite this added tension, the affair continues passionately. The man even goes so far as to beg his father for permission to be with her instead of entering into his arranged marriage, but his father would rather see him dead than with a white girl. Though devastated, the man marries his arranged bride, and the girl boards a ship days later to return to France.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Decades later, she has become a successful writer. In the final scene, she tells us that the Chinese Man is visiting France and has telephoned her. He tells her that he has never stopped loving her, and never will.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Director Jean-Jacques Annaud initially collaborated with Marguerite Duras on the adaptation of her book, but creative differences between the pair led to Annaud working with writer Gérard Brach instead. Annaud and Brach changed the age of "The Girl" from 15 to 17 before deciding they would have her state in the beginning she is 15 while lying to her lover that she is 17, but tried to maintain the original structure and literary tone of the original novel. As with the Duras novel, none of the characters use names and are referred to in the credits as "The Girl" and "The Man". To find the actress who would play the girl, Annaud advertised in multiple cities in the United States and the United Kingdom and visited drama schools. However, it was Annaud's wife who came upon a photograph of Jane March, a 16-year-old British model, in a teen fashion magazine and brought her to his attention.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: When filming began 14 January 1991, March was two months away from turning 18. Annaud chose to shoot the film in English instead of French in order to secure international distribution and to accommodate for the actress.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Annaud first flew to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam in 1989 to view the original novel's setting, but was greatly disappointed at the state of the country. In an interview with the "Los Angeles Times", he stated that the "best colonial hotel" offered "rats as big as this running through the corridors, spiders everywhere, and no air conditioning, of course. When we tried to use the sink, three drops of brown water—I presume from the Red River—came out of the faucet."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: He initially decided against filming in the country and began scouting locations in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines—all countries that have been used as settings to represent Vietnam in other Western films. A year later, he returned to his original choice, feeling no other country could truly represent the "tired museum". According to Annaud and MGM Studios, it was the first Western film to be shot in the country since the reunification of the country in 1975.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The government welcomed the crew, providing them with a governmental helicopter for use during filming. However, the filmmakers were required to clear all production storyboards with officials before they could be filmed, and an official remained on set at all times. All of the film's sexual scenes had to be shot in Paris as officials forbade them to be filmed on location. It took 135 days to complete filming, and due to the importation costs of shooting in Vietnam, the film cost $30 million to produce.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: After its completion, the film was first screened in Saigon where it was well received by the "morally minded" guests. "The Lover" debuted theatrically in France on 22 January 1992. Its first English release came in the United Kingdom 19 June 1992. The film was licensed for release in the United States by MGM Studios, but for its theatrical debut, it first had to get past opposition by the Motion Picture Association of America. The organization gave the original film an MPAA rating of NC-17. MGM appealed after cutting 12 minutes of the film. Coupled with pleas from Annaud, MGM, and a sex educator who argued that the cut version was no more illicit than the 1992 sexual thriller "Basic Instinct", the film's rating was changed to R. The film was released in American theaters on 30 October 1992.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Jane March was forced to deny rumours from British tabloids that she and Tony Leung Ka-fai did not simulate their sex scenes. Jean-Jacques Annaud had falsely implied the sex was real to boost publicity for the film, saying "Whether it is simulated or experienced is of little importance to me," leading the tabloids to trumpet the rumour on their front pages for days. The publicity became so difficult for March and her family that she had a nervous breakdown and fled to the Seychelles to escape scrutiny. Annaud later admitted the sex was not real, saying "I myself am flattered people believed [the sex]. But after a while it became embarrassing. I stopped doing press in England. It was a no-win situation."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The film was a box office success in France, taking in 626,891 admissions its opening weekend and playing in a total of 229 theaters. In total the film received 3,156,124 admissions in France, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 1992. In the United States, "The Lover" grossed $4,899,194 in box office receipts during a limited release to 103 theaters.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: An uncut version of the film was released to Region 1 DVD on 11 December 2001 with audio tracks in English and French and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: "The Lover" was released on Blu-ray in Germany in 2011 under the title "Der Liebhaber". It is not region locked and comes with subtitle and audio tracks available in German and English. It received a FSK ab 12 freigegeben rating.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Lover" holds a 28% approval rating based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" praised the film, calling it "something of a triumph" and a "tough, clear-eyed, utterly unsentimental" film that was "produced lavishly but with such discipline that the exotic locale never gets in the way of the minutely detailed drama at the center." He also complimented the performances of Tony Leung and Jane March, noting she is "wonderful" and a "nymphet beauty" in her film debut. The staff of "Variety" praised Leung's performance as well, writing that he "is excellent as the shiftless scion whose love for the girl makes him emotionally naked and vulnerable." David Ansen of "Newsweek" wrote: ""The Lover"'s rarefied sensibility takes getting used to; once its spell is cast, you won't want to blink."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" compared the film to "Emmanuelle" or the "Playboy" and "Penthouse" erotic videos, "in which beautiful actors and elegant photography provide a soft-core sensuality. As an entry in that genre, "The Lover" is more than capable, and the movie is likely to have a long life on video as the sort of sexy entertainment that arouses but does not embarrass." He continued, "Is "The Lover" any good as a serious film? Not really. Annaud and his collaborators have got all of the physical details just right, but there is a failure of the imagination here; we do not sense the presence of real people behind the attractive facades of the two main actors."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Desson Thomson of the "Washington Post" observed, "Director Jean-Jacques Annaud and adapter Gerard Brach provide more than a few effective moments...But the story is dramatically not that interesting. After establishing the affair and its immediate problems, "Lover" never quite rises to the occasion. Scratch away the steamy, evocative surface, remove Jeanne Moreau's veteran-voiced narration, and you have only art-film banalities."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a grade of C, calling it "one more movie that titillates us with the prospect of taking sex seriously and then dampens our interest by taking it too seriously. Why do so many filmmakers insist on staging erotic encounters as if they were some sort of hushed religious ritual? The answer, of course, is that they're trying to dignify sex. But sex isn't dignified — it's messy and playful and abandoned. In "The Lover", director Jean-Jacques Annaud gives us the sweating and writhing without the spontaneity and surprise."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: In the United Kingdom, Channel 4 noted "the nameless characters bring to mind "Last Tango"'s search for identity through passion, and there's a shade of "Ai No Corrida"'s intensity. But there is none of the substance that made those two films such landmarks of their genre, and while March and Leung are an attractive pair, the glossy look and aloof direction of the film leaves you cold."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: The critic for "Time Out London" thought its "sombre quality dignifies an otherwise shoddily directed movie" that is "basically a melancholic piece about the remembrance of times, places and passions lost." The critic felt the role of the Young Girl was "altogether too complex for the inexperienced March to do more than simply embody."


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: Marguerite Duras distanced herself from the finished film and said she wrote another version of the book in response to Annaud's adaptation.


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: and won the 1993 Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing — Foreign Feature".


title: The Lover (1992 film)

text: At the 1993 César Awards in France, it was nominated for seven awards, winning in the category of Best Original Music for Gabriel Yared's score.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: Coda is the first compilation album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. The album is a collection of unused tracks from various sessions during Led Zeppelin's twelve-year career. It was released on 19 November 1982, almost two years after the group had officially disbanded following the death of drummer John Bonham. The word "coda", meaning a passage that ends a musical piece following the main body, was therefore chosen as the title.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The fifth Swan Song Records album for the band, "Coda" was released to honour contractual commitments to Atlantic Records and also to cover tax demands on previous monies earned. It cleared away nearly all of the leftover tracks from the various studio sessions of the 1960s and 1970s. The album was a collection of eight tracks spanning the length of Zeppelin's twelve-year history. Atlantic counted the release as a studio album, as Swan Song had owed the label a final studio album from the band. According to Martin Popoff, "there's conjecture that Jimmy [Page] called 'We're Gonna Groove' a studio track and 'I Can't Quit You Baby' a rehearsal track because Swan Song owed Atlantic one more studio album specifically."


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: Guitarist Jimmy Page explained that part of the reasoning for the album's release related to the popularity of unofficial Led Zeppelin recordings which continued to be circulated by fans: ""Coda" was released, basically, because there was so much bootleg stuff out. We thought, "Well, if there's that much interest, then we may as well put the rest of our studio stuff out". As John Paul Jones recalled: "They were good tracks. A lot of it was recorded around the time punk was really happening... basically there wasn't a lot of Zeppelin tracks that didn't go out. We used everything."


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "We're Gonna Groove" opens the album and came from a January 1970 concert at the Royal Albert Hall, with the guitar parts overdubbed and the original guitar part removed—this can be heard in the original Royal Albert Hall show on 9 January 1970. The original album notes incorrectly said that it was recorded at Morgan Studios in June 1969. This song was used to open a number of concerts on their early 1970 tours and was originally intended to be recorded for inclusion in "Led Zeppelin II".


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "Poor Tom" is from sessions for "Led Zeppelin III", having been recorded at Olympic Studios in June 1970.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "Walter's Walk" is a leftover from the sessions for "Houses of the Holy" (which took place in April and May 1972).


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "I Can't Quit You Baby" is taken from the same concert as "We're Gonna Groove" but was listed as a rehearsal in the original liner notes. The recording was edited to remove the overall "live" feel: the crowd noise as well as the beginning and ending of the song were deleted. Crowd tracks were muted on the multi-track mixdown on this recording as with "We're Gonna Groove".


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: Side two contains three outtakes from the band's previous album "In Through the Out Door", plus a Bonham drum solo.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The uptempo "Ozone Baby" and the rock'n'roll styled "Darlene" were recorded at that album's sessions at Polar Studios, Stockholm in November 1978.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "Bonzo's Montreux" was recorded at Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland in September 1976. It was designed as a Bonham drum showcase, which Page treated with various electronic effects, including a harmonizer.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: "Wearing and Tearing" was recorded at Polar in November 1978. It was written as a reaction to punk, and to show that Led Zeppelin could compete with the new bands. It was planned to be released as a promotional single to the audience at the 1979 Knebworth Festival, headlined by Led Zeppelin, but this was cancelled at the last minute. It was first performed live at the 1990 Silver Clef Awards Festival at Knebworth in 1990 by Plant's band with Page guesting.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The 1993 compact disc edition has four additional tracks from the box sets, "Led Zeppelin Boxed Set" (1990) and "Led Zeppelin Boxed Set 2" (1993), the previously unreleased "Travelling Riverside Blues", "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" and the "Immigrant Song" b-side "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" from the former and the previously unreleased "Baby Come On Home" from the latter.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The album cover was designed by Hipgnosis, the fifth album cover the design group designed for Led Zeppelin. It was also the last album cover Hipgnosis designed before disbanding in 1983. The main four letters CODA are from an alphabet typeface design called "Neon" designed by Bernard Allum in 1978.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: Reviewing for "Rolling Stone" in 1983, Kurt Loder hailed "Coda" as "a resounding farewell" and a "marvel of compression, deftly tracing the Zeppelin decade with eight powerful, previously unreleased tracks, and no unnecessary elaboration". Robert Christgau wrote in his "Consumer Guide" column for "The Village Voice":


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: According to Julian Marszalek of "The Quietus", however, ""Coda" has always been regarded as the band's weakest release. Made up of eight tracks that spanned Led Zeppelin's lifetime, it refused to flow as an album. Devoid of a coherent narrative, it felt tossed together to make up for contractual obligations." In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said while it did not include all of the band's notable non-album recordings, it offered "a good snapshot of much of what made Led Zeppelin a great band" and featured mostly "hard-charging rock & roll", including "Ozone Baby", "Darlene", and "Wearing and Tearing": "rockers that alternately cut loose, groove, and menace".


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: A remastered version of "Coda", along with "Presence" and "In Through the Out Door," was reissued on 31 July 2015. The reissue comes in six formats: a standard CD edition, a deluxe three-CD edition, a standard LP version, a deluxe three-LP version, a super deluxe three-CD plus three-LP version with a hardback book, and as high resolution 24-bit/96k digital downloads. The deluxe and super deluxe editions feature bonus material containing alternative takes and previously unreleased songs, "If It Keeps On Raining", "Sugar Mama", "Four Hands", "St. Tristan's Sword", and "Desire". The reissue was released with an altered colour version of the original album's artwork as its bonus disc's cover.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The reissue was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on 8 reviews. In "Rolling Stone", David Fricke said it is "the unlikely closing triumph in Page's series of deluxe Zeppelin reissues: a dynamic pocket history in rarities, across three discs with 15 bonus tracks, of his band's epic-blues achievement". "Pitchfork" journalist Mark Richardson was less impressed by the bonus disc, believing "there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the 'Bombay Orchestra' tracks".


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: All tracks produced by Jimmy Page, except for "Travelling Riverside Blues", produced by John Walters, and "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" produced by Jeff Griffin.


title: Coda (Led Zeppelin album)

text: The CD edition of the album incorrectly lists the running time of "Bring It On Home" (Rough Mix) as 4:19, which is actually the exact time of the finished version listed on "Led Zeppelin II".


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The Moscow–Washington hotline (formally known in the United States as the Washington–Moscow Direct Communications Link; ) is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Union). This hotline was established in 1963 and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin (historically, with Soviet Communist Party leadership across the square from the Kremlin itself). Although in popular culture it is known as the "red telephone", the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used. The first implementation used Teletype equipment, and shifted to fax machines in 1986. Since 2008, the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by a secure form of email.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: Several people came up with the idea for a hotline. They included Harvard professor Thomas Schelling, who had worked on nuclear war policy for the Defense Department previously. Schelling credited the pop fiction novel "Red Alert" (the basis of the film "Dr. Strangelove") with making governments more aware of the benefit of direct communication between the superpowers. In addition, "Parade" editor Jess Gorkin personally badgered 1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and buttonholed the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a U.S. visit to adopt the idea. During this period Gerard C. Smith, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, proposed direct communication links between Moscow and Washington. Objections from others in the State Department, the U.S. military, and the Kremlin delayed introduction.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis made the hotline a priority. During the standoff, official diplomatic messages typically took six hours to deliver; unofficial channels, such as via television network correspondents, had to be used too as they were quicker. The experience of the crisis convinced both sides of the need for better communications.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: During the crisis, the United States took nearly twelve hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000-word-initial settlement message – a dangerously long time. By the time Washington had drafted a reply, a tougher message from Moscow had been received, demanding that U.S. missiles be removed from Turkey. White House advisers thought faster communications could have averted the crisis, and resolved it quickly. The two countries signed the Hot Line Agreement on June 20, 1963 – the first time they formally took action to cut the risk of starting a nuclear war unintentionally.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The "hotline", as it would come to be known, was established after the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line" on June 20, 1963, in Geneva, Switzerland, by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] criticized the hotline in its 1964 national platform; it said the Kennedy administration had "sought accommodations with Communism without adequate safeguards and compensating gains for freedom. It has alienated proven allies by opening a 'hot line' first with a sworn enemy rather than with a proven friend, and in general pursued a risky path such as began at [[Munich Agreement|Munich]] a quarter century ago."


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The Moscow–Washington hotline was intended for text only; speech might be misinterpreted. Leaders wrote in their native language and messages were translated at the receiving end.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The first generation of the hotline used two full-time [[Duplex (telecommunications)|duplex]] [[telegraph]] circuits. The primary circuit was routed from [[Washington, D.C.]] via [[London]], [[Copenhagen]], [[Stockholm]] and [[Helsinki]] to [[Moscow]]. [[TAT-1]], the first submarine [[transatlantic telephone cable]] carried messages from Washington to London. A secondary radio line for back-up and service messages linked Washington and Moscow via [[Tangier]]. This network was originally built by [[Harris Corporation]].


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In July 1963 the United States sent four sets of teleprinters with the [[Latin alphabet]] to Moscow for the terminal there. A month later the Soviet equipment, four sets of [[East Germany|East German]] [[teleprinter]]s with the [[Cyrillic alphabet]] made by [[Siemens]], arrived in Washington. The hotline started operations on August 30, 1963.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: A Norwegian-built device called Electronic Teleprinter Cryptographic Regenerative Repeater Mixer II (ETCRRM II) encrypted the teletype messages using a shared [[one-time pad]]. Each country delivered keying tapes used to encode its messages via its embassy abroad. An advantage of the one-time pad was that neither country had to reveal more sensitive encryption methods to the other.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In September 1971, Moscow and Washington decided to upgrade the system. The countries also agreed for the first time when the line should be used. Specifically, they agreed to notify each other immediately in the event of an accidental, unauthorized or unexplained incident involving a nuclear weapon that could increase the risk of nuclear war. Two new satellite communication lines supplemented the terrestrial circuits using two U.S. [[Intelsat]] satellites, and two Soviet [[Molniya (satellite)|Molniya II]] satellites. This arrangement lasted from 1971 to 1978; it made the radio link via Tangier redundant.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In May 1983, President [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] proposed to upgrade the hotline by the addition of high-speed [[fax|facsimile]] capability. The Soviet Union and the United States agreed formally to do this on July 17, 1984.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: According to the agreement, upgrades were to take place through use of [[Intelsat]] satellites and modems, facsimile machines, and computers. The facsimile terminals were operational by 1986. The teletype circuits were cut in 1988 after several years of testing and use proved the fax links to be reliable. The Soviets transferred the hotline link to the newer, geostationary [[Gorizont]]-class satellites of the [[Stationar]] system.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In 1988, the US side of the hotline system was located at the [[National Military Command Center]] in the Pentagon. Each MOLINK (Moscow Link) team worked an eight-hour shift: a [[non-commissioned officer]] looked after the equipment, and a [[commissioned officer]] who was fluent in Russian and well-briefed on world affairs was translator. The hotline was tested hourly. U.S. test messages included excerpts of [[William Shakespeare]], [[Mark Twain]], [[encyclopedia]]s, and a [[first-aid manual]]; Soviet tests included passages from the works of [[Anton Chekhov]]. MOLINK staffers took special care not to include innuendo or literary imagery that could be misinterpreted, such as passages from "[[Winnie the Pooh]]", given that a bear is considered [[Russian Bear|the national symbol of Russia]]. The Soviets also asked, during the [[Carter administration]], that Washington not send routine communications through the hotline.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: Upon receipt of the message at the NMCC, the message was translated into English, and both the original Russian and the translated English texts are transmitted to the [[White House Situation Room]]. However, if the message were to indicate "an imminent disaster, such as an accidental nuclear strike", the MOLINK team would telephone the gist of the message to the Situation Room [[duty officer]] who would brief the president before a formal translation was complete.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In 2007, the Moscow–Washington hotline was upgraded; a dedicated [[computer network]] links Moscow and Washington. The new system started operations on January 1, 2008. It continues to use the two satellite links but a [[Optical fiber|fiber optic]] cable replaced the old back-up cable. Commercial software is used for both chat and email: chat to coordinate operations, and email for actual messages. Transmission is nearly instantaneous.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The first message transmitted over the hotline was on August 30, 1963. Washington sent Moscow the text: "[[The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog|THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG'S]] BACK 1234567890". The message was sent in all capital letters, since the equipment did not support lowercase.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The primary link was accidentally cut several times, for example near [[Copenhagen]] by a Danish bulldozer operator, and by a [[Finland|Finnish]] farmer who ploughed it up once. Regular testing of both the primary and backup links took place daily. During the even hours, the US sent test messages to the Soviet Union. In the odd hours, the Soviet Union sent test messages to the US.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: On October 31, 2016, the Moscow–Washington hotline was used to reinforce Barack Obama's September warning that the U.S. would consider any interference on [[2016 United States elections|Election Day]] a grave matter.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: Another hotline for record communications between Washington and Moscow is part of the American [[Nuclear Risk Reduction Center]] and the Russian [[National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center]], which was initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1988. This was done in the aftermath of the [[Chernobyl Disaster]].


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In 2012, it was announced that a proposal was being negotiated with Moscow to add [[Cyberwarfare|cyber warfare]] to the topics to be discussed on the hotline.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: At the beginning of the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|Russian invasion of Ukraine]], the United States and Russia created a deconfliction line to prevent miscalculations or escalation. In November 2022, an anonymous U.S. official told [[Reuters]] that the line had only been used once in the war. The official said that the line was used to communicate concerns about Russian military operations near Ukrainian infrastructure, but did not elaborate. The official said it was not used when [[2022 missile explosion in Poland|a missile hit Poland]].


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In numerous books, movies, video games, etc., the hotline between Washington and Moscow is represented by a red phone, although the real hotline has never been a telephone line.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: A hotline telephone was depicted in the film "[[Fail Safe (1964 film)|Fail-Safe]]" as the "Red 1 / Ultimate 1 Touch phone", and also in Stanley Kubrick's film "[[Dr. Strangelove]]", both from 1964 and both loosely based on [[Peter George (author)|Peter George]]'s Cold War thriller novel "[[Red Alert (novel)|Red Alert]]" from 1958.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: A more realistic depiction of the Hotline was [[Tom Clancy]]'s novel "[[The Sum of All Fears]]" from 1991 and [[The Sum of All Fears (film)|its 2002 film adaptation]], in which a text-based computer communications system was depicted, resembling the actual Hotline equipment from the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: In the 1990 [[HBO]] film "[[By Dawn's Early Light]]", the [[White House Situation Room]] equipment that receives the (translated) hotline message, apparently relayed by the Pentagon-[[National Military Command Center|NMCC]] MOLINK team, is depicted as a teleprinter (and not as a fax machine, the technology already in use at the NMCC itself by that year).


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: A telephone is used in the intro cinematic of the video game "[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2]]". The call is placed by the US president to the [[Kremlin]] in the wake of a global Soviet invasion.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The "red phone" was the centerpiece of [[television commercial]]s used in the [[Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1984|1984 Democratic primary]] and [[1984 United States presidential election|1984 presidential election]] and the [[Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008|2008 Democratic primary elections]]. In 1984, an advertisement made by [[Bob Beckel]] and [[Roy Spence]] on behalf of candidate [[Walter Mondale]] suggested that "The most awesome, powerful responsibility in the world lies in the hand that picks up this phone." The advertisement was intended to raise questions about candidate [[Gary Hart]]'s readiness for the presidency.


title: Moscow–Washington hotline

text: The red phone was also featured prominently in an advertisement from that year targeting President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s [[Strategic Defense Initiative]]. In the second ad, the ringing phone goes unanswered while the narrator says, "there will be no time to wake a president – computers will take control." Roy Spence revived the "red phone" idea in 2008 in an advertisement for candidate [[Hillary Clinton]].


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask (Roman Sionis) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, the character debuted in "Batman" #386 (August 1985). He is commonly depicted as a brutal and ruthless crime lord in Gotham City who has a fixation with masks and derives sadistic pleasure from the act of torture. Black Mask is one of the most enduring enemies of the superhero Batman and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: The character has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including the cartoon show "The Batman", the animated film "", and the "" video game series. Black Mask made his live-action debut in the 2014 television series "Gotham", as Richard Sionis, portrayed by Todd Stashwick; this version of the character was later integrated into comics in the 2016 relaunch "DC Rebirth" as The Mask, depicted as the Black Mask's father. Black Mask also appears in the 2020 DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film "Birds of Prey", portrayed by Ewan McGregor, and the second season of the Arrowverse series "Batwoman", portrayed by Peter Outerbridge.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask's origin story was established in his first appearance. Roman Sionis was born to wealthy and utterly self-absorbed parents, who cared more about their social status in Gotham City than their own son. Moments after Roman's birth, the doctor carelessly dropped him on his head, and his parents covered up the entire incident so that their high society friends would not find out. Years later, he was attacked by a rabid raccoon at the Sionis family country estate, and his parents forbade him to mention the incident to anyone. Despite their dislike for fellow socialites Thomas and Martha Wayne, Roman's parents continued to associate with them to maintain their social standing, and forced Roman to befriend their son, Bruce. His parents' hypocrisy had a deep impact on Roman, and he grew to resent them and the "masks" that they wore in public.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: After graduating from high school, Roman was given a high-ranking position in his father's company, Janus Cosmetics. There, he met and fell in love with working-class model Circe, though his parents did not approve of the relationship and forced him to break it off. Enraged, Roman burned down his family mansion, killing both of his parents and inheriting their fortune and business. Roman lacked his father's business acumen and eventually ruined Janus Cosmetics by funding a failed line of face-paint make-up. Desperate, Roman had the staff chemists create a product that was rushed to the market without proper testing, disfiguring several hundred women. Circe, now Roman's fiancée, then broke up with him in front of his entire staff.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Bruce Wayne, now the head of Wayne Enterprises, offered to bail Janus Cosmetics out on the condition that Roman gave up control and allowed Wayne to appoint his own board of directors. Humiliated and furious, Roman broke into the cemetery where his parents were buried. Before he could unlock the Sionis crypt, a lightning bolt struck him, blasting the door open and hurling Roman head-first into a nearby stone. Roman took the incident as an omen of his "rebirth" and entered the crypt, smashing his father's ebony casket with the stone and using its shattered pieces to carve an ebony mask, resembling a scowling face, starting a new life as the crime lord Black Mask.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Within a month, Black Mask had assembled a group of dozens of criminals called the False Face Society, using the Sionis crypt as their base of operations. Each member of the False Face Society wore a distinctive mask, and the gang's crime spree spread rapidly throughout Gotham, eventually attracting the attentions of the police and Bruce Wayne, now operating as the vigilante Batman. To settle old scores, Black Mask murdered three Wayne Foundation executives and kidnapped Circe, forcing her to don a mask laced with Janus Cosmetics' toxic makeup, sparing her life but permanently disfiguring her face. Black Mask then threatened Circe into rejoining him, giving her a "mannequin" mask intentionally designed to mock her former life.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Batman eventually managed to deduce Black Mask's identity and correctly predicted that Bruce Wayne would be Sionis' next target. To set a trap for Black Mask, Bruce held a masquerade ball at Wayne Manor, and Sionis infiltrated the ball and lured Bruce to the mansion's conservatory to kill him. Bruce disarmed Sionis, forcing the latter to retreat to his hideout with Robin (Jason Todd) secretly following him. While Batman and Robin fought his underlings at the graveyard, Black Mask escaped through a false bottom installed in his father's coffin and headed to his family estate. Black Mask then entered his old bedroom and set fire to the old toys inside, intending to burn the mansion to the ground to symbolically kill his old identity as Sionis. Before Black Mask could escape, Batman flung a Batarang-attached cable around the crime lord's knees, causing him to fall face-first on the burning floor just as the bedroom's rafters began to collapse. The rafters pinned Black Mask's face into the pile of burning toys, and although Batman and Robin were able to tow him out of the fire, Sionis' mask had been burned onto his face. Black Mask was subsequently sent to Arkham Asylum, where he remained behind bars until the international terrorist Ra's al Ghul freed all of its inmates. Black Mask was not amongst the criminals who followed the Joker in searching for the one behind the breakout and thus never took part in the "war" against Batman's allies and loved ones. As this tale was the last "canonical" one to take place on Earth-One, it can be assumed that Black Mask remained at large.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Following "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Jeremiah Arkham frees all of Arkham Asylum's inmates, including Black Mask, to attack Batman during the events of "". Sionis then returns to crime after an unspecified breakout, evidently retaining most of his Pre-"Crisis" history. He soon begins the False Face Society anew, rising through the ranks of Gotham City's underworld while furthering his vendetta against Bruce Wayne. To stop the False Face Society, Batman poses as a new recruit to their ranks, christened "Skullface" by Black Mask himself. Black Mask later kidnaps Lucius Fox, who had a hand in Bruce Wayne's bailout of Janus Cosmetics. Although Batman is eventually able to save Fox, Black Mask manages to evade capture. Black Mask remains at large throughout the events of "" and "Zero Hour", and resurfaces shortly thereafter to kill rival mobster "Dirty Dan" Doyle in an ambush shootout.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask is later approached by the Black Spider, who wishes to join the False Face Society. Black Mask demands the young man to "make his bones" first by crashing a masquerade ball being held at Wayne Manor. Batman later learns that the Black Spider is a double agent working for mobster "Turk" Ottoman, and tracks him down to an abandoned theater where he prevents him from shooting Black Mask, who subsequently escapes during the chaos. Black Mask reappears as a crime lord in "The Cult" storyline, having given up his vendetta against Bruce Wayne. He controls a large portion of Gotham's criminal underworld until the city is destroyed by an earthquake in the "No Man's Land" story arc.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask later becomes the leader of a cult, whose trademark is ritual scarring, foregoing his mask and disfiguring his face to resemble a blackened human skull until Batman and the Huntress dissolve it by defeating and imprisoning Black Mask in Blackgate Penitentiary, though the crime lord escapes before the city is made a part of the country again.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In "Catwoman" vol. 3 #16, Black Mask begins a drug trafficking ring and decides to move his organization into Gotham's East End. Catwoman soon begins interfering with Black Mask's plans, stealing money from him and giving it to the poor. Black Mask retaliates by forcing Sylvia Sinclair to reveal Catwoman's secret identity to him. After destroying Catwoman's youth center, Black Mask kidnaps her sister and brother-in-law, the latter of whom he tortures to death with power tools, before forcing the former to eat pieces of her husband's corpse, including his eyeballs. Catwoman arrives to find her brother-in-law dead, her sister insane, and her friend Holly Robinson on the verge of being tortured. Enraged, Catwoman engages Black Mask at his penthouse, where the crime lord falls from the top of the building.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In Act Two of "", the Spoiler seeks out Orpheus, hoping to get Batman control of all of Gotham's crime lords. However, Black Mask murders Orpheus by slitting his throat and proceeds to torture the Spoiler to obtain information about the rest of her plan. Black Mask then assumes Orpheus' identity using face putty and padding, fooling even Batman and Onyx. As Orpheus, he goes on a mission to kill any member or associate of the Batman Family. As Black Mask returns to continue torturing the Spoiler for entertainment, he finds that she has escaped and subsequently tracks her down. Although she escapes his clutches once again, the Spoiler supposedly dies due to the injuries inflicted on her and the willful negligence of Leslie Thompkins.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask later infiltrates Oracle's Clocktower in an attempt to expose her to the mob, and Batman attacks him in a blind rage. Fearful that Black Mask will kill Batman, Oracle activates a self-destruct device in the tower to get Batman to save her. Black Mask then becomes the overlord of Gotham's underworld, gathering enough financial resources to purchase an Amazo android and a large supply of kryptonite. Allied with reporter Arturo Rodriguez, Black Mask begins a campaign to discredit Batman; while Rodriguez slams Batman in the press, Black Mask commits a series of murders disguised as the Dark Knight. The real Batman eventually exposes Rodriguez and captures Black Mask, but the crime lord kills the escorting officer transporting him to jail and escapes again.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Later, a series of attacks by the Red Hood (revealed later as being Batman's presumed deceased protégé Jason Todd) causes Black Mask to lose power and money to this new rival. The assassin Deathstroke later approaches Black Mask, offering him a place within the Society. Eager to strengthen his increasingly tenuous grip on the underworld, the crime lord accepts. However, the Red Hood is even able to elude the Society's members; eventually he completely dismantles Black Mask's control over the city's organized crime. Black Mask then continues to threaten the most important people in Catwoman's life, prompting her to retaliate by shooting Black Mask's jaw with her gun, killing him. After the shooting, Selina Kyle passes the mantle of Catwoman to her friend Holly, who is soon arrested for Sionis' murder. During the "Gotham Underground" storyline, dozens of would-be crime bosses attempt to fill in the vacancy created by Black Mask's death.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In "Blackest Night", Black Mask is resurrected as a Black Lantern and attempts to show Catwoman why "shooting him in the head was a bad idea". In an attempt to scare Catwoman, Black Mask goes after her sister once more. He demonstrates the ability to fly and reorganize the structures of buildings. Poison Ivy manages to stop Black Mask by trapping him inside a mutated pitcher plant, its digestive juices dissolving his body as fast as his ring could regenerate it.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In "The New 52" reboot (launched in 2011), Roman Sionis is re-established as Black Mask, and his history with the False Face Society remains somewhat intact. This version of the character has split personality disorder, with Roman Sionis being one personality and Black Mask being the other, and the technology in his mask grants him the ability to control "the weak minded". Roman Sionis is first seen in Arkham Asylum's infirmary being treated by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham during the Night of the Owls; Sionis attempted a hunger strike to try to regain his mask. When the Talons attack the Asylum, Dr. Arkham gives Sionis his mask back to telepathically influence the inmates into attacking the Talons and keep anyone from following Arkham to his safe room. Black Mask then attempts to use his abilities on Batman, but fails and is forced to escape the asylum. Black Mask later resurfaces to re-assemble the False Face Society, coming into conflict with the Mad Hatter while doing so (who considers Black Mask an enemy due to their similar mind control abilities). Batman intervenes and puts an end to their battle and Sionis is sent back to Arkham Asylum. During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Black Mask appears as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains when the Crime Syndicate arrive from their Earth. Black Mask and his False Face Society crash the Rogues' battle against Mr. Freeze and Clayface to claim the bounty on the Rogues.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In the "DC Rebirth" reboot, Roman Sionis remains one of Gotham's most powerful crime lords. This version of the character dons a black metallic mask and is allied with the Penguin and the Great White Shark in an alliance known as "the Blacks and Whites". Together, they hire the KGBeast to kill Batman. In the "Watchmen" sequel "Doomsday Clock", Black Mask is among the villains that attend an underground meeting held by the Riddler to talk about the Superman Theory. In "Teen Titans Rebirth", Damian Wayne keeps Black Mask locked up in his secret prison after learning about his involvement in the destruction of the Arab restaurant Tarbooshes.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask is a criminal mastermind and tactical analyst with vast wealth and resources at his disposal, making him one of the most powerful crime bosses in Gotham City's criminal underbelly. He utilizes his various connections to eliminate opposition and consolidates power using fear and intimidation; he is renowned for his brutally sadistic physical and psychological torture techniques, which he uses either to extract information or simply to torment his enemies for entertainment. Black Mask is an expert marksman with firearms, particularly with his signature twin automatic pistols, although he is proficient with melee weapons such as swords as well. He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and has displayed impressive levels of stamina and endurance; his high tolerance for pain has allowed him to hold his own against accomplished fighters such as Batman and Catwoman. Black Mask is also an accomplished businessman, impersonator, actor, and escape artist.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Per the events of "The New 52", Roman Sionis' ebony black mask possesses hypnosis-like mind controlling abilities that extend through the material of the masks that his henchmen wear, rendering them directly under his control. Black Mask has also killed his victims by applying toxin-filled masks to their faces, poisoning them and leaving their faces hideously shriveled and blackened. His mask also allows him to assume the form of other people, from Ted Kord to Superman, though without assuming their powers.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In the "" storyline, a second criminal using the Black Mask alias emerges. His identity is eventually revealed to be Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, who took up Roman Sionis' mantle after suffering a psychotic breakdown from exposure to a variety of mind-altering chemicals from various Batman villains.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In DC's line-wide revision of its superhero comics, "DC Rebirth", a story presents Black Mask's father Richard Sionis as the precursor to the Black Mask alias, where he was just called "the Mask" and was the founder of the False Face Society. When Richard was in the hospital and dying of old age, Roman sneaked into the hospital disguised as a nurse and poisoned his father in order to gain complete control over the False Face Society; he leaves his father's signature mask on his corpse. This story retconned the information that Charles Sionis was his father. Richard Sionis / The Mask was first introduced in the FOX television drama "Gotham", portrayed by Todd Stashwick and depicted as an adaptation of Black Mask.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In the "Elseworlds" storyline "", Black Mask arrogantly dismisses Two-Face's warnings about the now-vampiric Batman, believing himself untouchable until Batman attacks the False Face Society in their warehouse base while in the form of a monstrous bat. The vampiric Dark Knight tears through Black Mask's minions, even tearing a man's head off with his mouth, and is later shown leaving the Society's severed heads outside Blackgate Penitentiary.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask appears in "Batman: Gotham Adventures", the accompanying comic book series to "The New Batman Adventures" animated series, set within the DC Animated Universe.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: During "The Batman Adventures" comic book series, Roman Sionis is depicted as a businessman who turned his company into a corporate juggernaut, until Wayne Enterprises results in the loss of his industry. An associate of Red Hood approaches Roman, convincing him to become the Black Mask and lead the False Face Society, though he is ultimately apprehended by Batman.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In "The Batman Strikes!" comics, Black Mask extorts Bruce Wayne into making a deal with him and attempts to take complete control of Gotham's criminal underworld by ridding it of its other villains.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Black Mask appears in issues #35–37 (storyline "Evidence Notice") of "", the prequel tie-in comic book to the video game "Batman: Arkham City".


title: Black Mask (character)

text: In "", Black Mask is seen fighting against the Justice League during Harley Quinn's riot, and later appears in Year Five, where he gathers with six other criminals. When Damian Wayne intervenes in their meeting, the villains knock him into unconsciousness until Dick Grayson saves him.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Roman Sionis / Black Mask appears in the "" video game franchise, voiced by Nolan North (in "Arkham City") and Brian Bloom (in subsequent appearances). This version is known for using body doubles in dangerous situations.


title: Black Mask (character)

text: Professional wrestler Andrade El Idolo wears attire based on Black Mask as his entrance gear for All Elite Wrestling, which he debuted in AEW Road Rager.


title: Rulon Jeffs

text: Rulon Timpson Jeffs (December 6, 1909 – September 8, 2002), known to followers as Uncle Rulon, was an American polygamist and religious leader who served as the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), a Mormon fundamentalist organization based in Colorado City, Arizona, United States from 1986 until his death in 2002. He was the father of later FLDS Church leader and convicted felon Warren Jeffs.


title: Rulon Jeffs

text: Rulon Jeffs was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 6, 1909, the son of first generation Mormon fundamentalist David William Ward Jeffs, the son of William Yemm Jeffs of Brierley Hill, England; and David Jeffs' plural wife, Nettie Lenora Timpson. The elder Jeffs lived his polygamous lifestyle in secret, and Rulon spent the first ten years of his life under the pseudonym Rulon Jennings. Jeffs was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and served in the British mission from June 1930 to August 1932.


title: Rulon Jeffs

text: Jeffs' father did not introduce him to the teachings of Mormon fundamentalism until September 25, 1938, at the elder Jeffs' birthday dinner, where he presented his son with a copy of Joseph W. Musser's "Truth" magazine. Jeffs embraced the fundamentalist message after meeting Musser and John Y. Barlow. In 1940, he secretly took a plural wife, for which his first wife, Zola Brown, daughter of LDS Church apostle Hugh B. Brown; and great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, divorced him.


title: Rulon Jeffs

text: In the spring of 1945, Jeffs, who had been working in northern Idaho since 1943, returned to Salt Lake City, where he was ordained a high priest apostle by Barlow on April 19. Jeffs was a protege of both Barlow and later Priesthood Council senior Leroy S. Johnson, who compared their relationship to that of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. Jeffs assumed the leadership of the group after Johnson's death in 1986.


title: Rulon Jeffs

text: It was reported that at the time of Jeffs's death at age 92 that he had had 65 wives and 65 children; other sources indicate that he may have been survived by 60 wives and "about 60 children," including 33 sons. According to author Jon Krakauer, who chronicles the FLDS Church and the Jeffs family in "Under the Banner of Heaven", several of Jeffs's wives were underage: as young as 14 at the time they were married to him. Shortly after his death, one of Jeffs's sons, Warren Jeffs, asserted his own leadership of the FLDS Church and subsequently married all but two of his father's widows, solidifying his political position in the community.


title: Intuit Dome

text: Intuit Dome is an indoor arena under construction in Inglewood, California. Located south of SoFi Stadium, it will be the future home of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), moving from Crypto.com Arena.


title: Intuit Dome

text: After the Clippers were required to acquire another Inglewood venue, The Forum (the Lakers' former home arena), to settle a legal dispute with The Madison Square Garden Company that sought to block its construction, a groundbreaking ceremony for the new arena was held on September 17, 2021, with construction expected to be completed in 2024.


title: Intuit Dome

text: In 2017, the city of Inglewood approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Los Angeles Clippers to build a new, basketball-specific arena for the team, which would be located across from the then-under construction SoFi Stadium. The Clippers had not had their own arena since they left the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena), which they share with the Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL's Kings.


title: Intuit Dome

text: Throughout the team's history, it never had any tangible ownership interest in any of its home arenas, especially during the team's ownership by Donald Sterling. The Clippers instead rented its previous venues in Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium as the Braves, where it held low priority beneath the Sabres and Canisius college basketball, then San Diego's Sports Arena when they became the Clippers, followed by the L.A. Sports Arena.


title: Intuit Dome

text: Its current deal with Crypto.com Arena, which besides allowing for a different Clipper court, requires a 'neutralization' process before and after each game to cover up Laker achievements, banners and sponsorships, along with its own court lighting pattern, and in tightly-scheduled weekends with both the Kings and/or musical concerts in addition to the Lakers, often requires that process to occur with only three to four hours' notice (along with cleanup of the seating bowl from the previous event) to do so. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer saw the construction of a dedicated arena for the team as being a high priority.


title: Intuit Dome

text: Various lawsuits were filed to prevent the construction of the arena. Uplift Inglewood filed a lawsuit alleging that the agreement between the Clippers and Inglewood violated the state Surplus Land Act, which requires that proposals for affordable housing, recreation, and school projects be given preference when a city intends to sell its public land. Mayor James T. Butts Jr. defended their claim, arguing that the proposed site was already deemed to be unsuitable as a residential area due to its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport.


title: Intuit Dome

text: The Madison Square Garden Company—owner of The Forum, a nearby arena in Inglewood that formerly served as the Lakers' home arena—were accused of using litigation to block the new arena, fearing that it would unduly compete with The Forum's live events business. MSG paid the legal fees of Inglewood Residents Against Takings and Evictions (IRATE), another group that filed lawsuits opposing the arena. In December 2018, the Clippers (via its subsidiary Murphy's Bowl, LLC) filed a countersuit against MSG over the matter.


title: Intuit Dome

text: In March 2019, leaked emails revealed that Irving Azoff attempted to lure the Los Angeles Lakers back to The Forum after their lease of Staples Center was up. Despite nothing coming of the proposal, Azoff's proposal to re-purpose The Forum was seen as a way of preventing the LA Clippers from building their own arena in Inglewood and ensuring that the Madison Square Garden Company got an unfair advantage over rival AEG, which is a Lakers minority owner. In November 2019, a judge ruled against Uplift Inglewood's lawsuit. In December 2019, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the new arena, after evaluating the arena's environmental impact.


title: Intuit Dome

text: In March 2020, in a move to settle the litigation with MSG, Ballmer announced that he would acquire The Forum for $400 million in an all-cash deal. The sale was completed in May, with all existing employees retained under the new ownership. The acquisition of The Forum was considered to be the last major hurdle blocking the construction of the new arena.


title: Intuit Dome

text: A groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 17, 2021. Ballmer described a goal for the new arena to be a "basketball palazzo". A 23-year naming rights deal was announced with financial software company Intuit, naming the arena Intuit Dome. The arena is expected to be completed in 2024.


title: Intuit Dome

text: On July 25, 2019, the Clippers released renderings of the proposed arena. The 18,000-seat arena will be designed by AECOM. It will include a practice facility, sports medicine clinic, team offices, retail space and a large outdoor plaza with basketball courts that will be open to the public.


title: Intuit Dome

text: The practice facility will be , the team offices and the sports medicine clinic . An additional are set aside for retail and for the outdoor plaza.


title: Richard Lawson (actor)

text: Richard Lee Lawson (born March 7, 1947) is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is perhaps best known for his roles in genre films; he portrayed Ryan in the 1982 film "Poltergeist", and Dr. Ben Taylor in the 1983 NBC miniseries "V".


title: Richard Lawson (actor)

text: Born Rickey Lee Lawson in Loma Linda, California, Lawson was drafted into the United States Army and became a medic. He served 21 months in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and was wounded in action. After completing his military duty, he embarked on an acting career. His first feature film role (uncredited) was that of a gay man targeted for murder in the classic 1971 movie "Dirty Harry". In 1973, he played Willis in "Scream Blacula Scream". His other well known roles include the 1979 movie "The Main Event", and the 1984 drama "Streets of Fire", where he played Officer Ed Price. Lawson's first ongoing starring role in a television series was in Australian drama "Hotel Story" in 1977, however, that series was cancelled before the first episode aired. He later starred in the 1980s series "Chicago Story"; he took the ongoing role of Nick Kimball on the prime time soap opera "Dynasty" from 1986 to 1987, appeared in "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" as Detective Nathaniel Hawthorne from 1989 to 1991, and was in the day time soap opera "All My Children" as Lucas Barnes from 1992 to 1994. Lawson has made many guest appearances on television, including roles on "Kojak", "Get Christie Love!", "Sister, Sister", "Soul Food", "The Bernie Mac Show", "The Division" and "Strong Medicine".


title: Richard Lawson (actor)

text: Lawson was married to his first wife, actress Denise Gordy, from New Year's Eve 1978 until 1989. They have one daughter, actress Bianca Lawson, born in 1979. Lawson also has a son named Ricky, born in 1992. On March 22, 1992, Lawson survived the USAir Flight 405 plane crash, after take-off from LaGuardia Airport, in Queens, New York City. During the summer of 2013, he began dating Tina Knowles, fashion designer and mother of singers Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. Lawson and Knowles had known each other for over 30 years, as she was the best friend of his late sister. As a result, Lawson stated that he had "always admired her from afar and up close too." The couple married on April 12, 2015.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Cédric Ricardo Alves Soares (born 31 August 1991), known simply as Cédric (), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right back for club Arsenal and the Portugal national team.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Cédric's career started with Sporting CP, going on to appear in 93 competitive games over the course of four Primeira Liga seasons and scoring two goals. He signed for Southampton in 2015.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Having earned 72 caps across all youth levels, Cédric made his senior debut for Portugal in 2014. He appeared for the country at the 2018 World Cup and Euro 2016, winning the latter tournament.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Born in Singen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to Portuguese parents, Cédric returned to Portugal at the age of two. He joined Sporting CP's youth system in 1998, aged seven.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Cédric made his Primeira Liga debut with the first team on 8 May 2011, starting in a 0–1 home loss against Vitória de Setúbal. For 2011–12 he, alongside teammate Adrien Silva, was loaned to fellow top division club Académica, where he played regularly and won that season's Taça de Portugal, playing the full 90 minutes in the 1–0 triumph against Sporting.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Subsequently, Cédric returned to the Lisbon side, being first-choice in the following years under several managers. He scored his first goal in the Portuguese top division on 15 December 2012, netting with his left foot from 30 metres in a 1–1 draw away to Nacional.


title: Cédric Soares

text: In the domestic cup final on 31 May 2015, against Braga, Cédric was sent off in the 14th minute after conceding a penalty with a foul on Djavan, but Sporting eventually won in a shootout.


title: Cédric Soares

text: On 18 June 2015, Cédric was announced as the second summer signing for Southampton on a four-year contract, with the English club paying up to €6.5 million (£4.7 million) for his services. He made his debut on 30 July, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3–0 home win over Vitesse for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Ten days later he first appeared in the Premier League, assisting the opening goal for Graziano Pellè in a 2–2 draw away to Newcastle United before being substituted for Cuco Martina at half time.


title: Cédric Soares

text: Cédric scored his first goal for Southampton on 18 March 2018, in a 2–0 victory away to Wigan Athletic in the sixth round of the FA Cup, the first match under new manager Mark Hughes.