title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In January 2019, the Group was criticized by the Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee for changes to its overdraft fees policy. Rachel Reeves MP said of the changes that "While [they] might be legal, they are not within the spirit of the FCA's recommendations [to scrap overdraft fees and replace them with a single interest rate] and that they would "increase the charges for the vast majority of customers".


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: A review conducted by Thames Valley Police indicated that fraud may have been committed at the Lloyds Business Support Unit based in Bristol. Lloyds Banking Group have denied this. There are more than two hundred alleged victims of the unit who have asked the police to investigated their claims.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee Myung-bak (; ; ; born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother, Lee Sang-deuk, is a South Korean politician. He is a Christian attending Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee is a graduate of Korea University and received an honorary degree from Paris Diderot University in 2011.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocation from the North, though he was supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea increased its visibility and influence in the global scene, resulting in the hosting of the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. However, significant controversy remains in Korea regarding high-profile government initiatives which have caused some factions to engage in civil opposition and protest against the incumbent government and President Lee's Saenuri Party (formerly the Grand National Party). The reformist faction within the Saenuri Party was at odds against Lee. He ended his five-year term on 24 February 2013, and was succeeded by Park Geun-hye.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 22 March 2018, Lee was arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and tax evasion alleged to have occurred during his presidency. Prosecutors accused Lee of receiving bribes totaling 11 billion won and channeling assets of 35 billion won to an illicit slush fund. Shortly before his arrest, Lee posted a handwritten statement on Facebook denying the charges. Lee's arrest occurred roughly a year after the arrest of former president Park Geun-Hye, who was arrested on charges stemming from the 2016 South Korean political scandal. Lee was convicted on 5 October 2018 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On 29 October 2020, the Korean Supreme Court upheld a 17-year sentence against Lee given to him by an appellate court.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee Myung-bak was born 19 December 1941, in Osaka, Japan. His parents had emigrated to Japan in 1929, nineteen years after the Japanese annexation of Korea. Lee's father, Lee Chung-u (이충우; 李忠雨), was employed as a farm labourer in rural Japan, and his mother, Chae Taewon (채태원; 蔡太元), was a housewife. He was the fifth of seven children.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In 1945, after the end of World War II, his family returned to his father's hometown of Pohang, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, which was then an American-occupied portion of the Korean Peninsula. Lee's sister, Lee Ki-sun, believed that they smuggled themselves into the country to avoid having the officials confiscate the property they acquired in Japan. However, their ship was wrecked off the coast of Tsushima island. They lost all their belongings and barely survived. Lee personally witnessed the deaths of his older sister and a younger brother, who were killed in the bombardment of Pohang, during the Korean War.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School in Pohang and received a scholarship. A year after graduation, Lee gained admission to Korea University. In 1964, during his third year in college, Lee was elected president of the student council. That year, Lee participated in student demonstrations against President Park Chung-hee's Seoul-Tokyo Talks, taking issue with Japanese restitution for the colonization of the Korean Peninsula. He was charged with plotting insurrection and was sentenced to five years' probation and three years' imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Korea. He served a little under three months of his sentence at the Seodaemun Prison in Seoul.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In his autobiography, Lee wrote that he was discharged from Korea's mandatory military service due to a diagnosis of acute bronchiectasis while at the Nonsan Training Facility.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In 1965, Lee started work at Hyundai Construction, the company which was awarded Korea's first-ever overseas construction project, a $5.2 million contract to build the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway in Thailand. Shortly after he was hired by the company, Lee was sent to Thailand to participate in the project, which was successfully completed in March 1968. Lee returned to Korea and was subsequently given charge of Hyundai's heavy machinery plant in Seoul.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: It was during his three decades with the Hyundai Group that Lee earned the nickname "Raging Bulldozer". On one occasion, he completely dismantled a malfunctioning bulldozer to study its mechanics and figure out how to repair it, only to run it over with another bulldozer that was often operated by Lee himself.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee became a company director at the age of 29, five years after he joined the company. He later became the CEO at age 35, becoming Korea's youngest CEO in history. In 1988, he was named chairman of Hyundai Construction at the age of 47.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: When he began work at Hyundai in 1965, the company had 90 employees; when he left as chairman 27 years later, it had more than 160,000. Soon after the successful completion of the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway by Hyundai Construction, Korea's construction industry began to focus its efforts on encouraging the creation of new markets in countries such as Vietnam and the Middle East. Following the decline of construction demands from Vietnam in the 1960s, Hyundai Construction turned its focus toward the Middle East. The company continued to be a major player in construction projects with the successful completion of international projects including the Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard, the Diplomatic Hotel in Bahrain, and the Jubail Industrial Harbor Projects in Saudi Arabia, also known as "the great history of the 20th century". At that time, the amount of orders received by the Korean construction company exceeded US$10 billion, which contributed to overcoming the national crisis resulting from the oil shock.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In 1992, Lee made the transition from business to politics. He joined the Democratic Liberal Party instead of the Unification National Party, founded by Chung Ju-yung. He was elected as a member of the 14th Korean National Assembly (for Proportional representation). Upon his election, he stated that he ran for the office because "after watching Mikhail Gorbachev change the world, I wanted to see if I could do the same." In 1995, he ran for the city of Seoul's mayoral election, but viciously lost to former prime minister Chung Won-sik during the primary of the Democratic Liberal Party.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In 1996, Lee was reelected as a member of the Korean National Assembly, representing Jongno-gu in Seoul. At the election, one of his opponents was future president Roh Moo-hyun, who was ranked third place.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: After he became a second-term lawmaker, his former secretary Kim Yoo-chan disclosed that Lee had spent excessively in his election campaign, often at the expense of taxpayers outside of his district. After receiving US$18,000 from Lee, Kim wrote a letter reversing his disclosure and fled to Tajikistan. Lee resigned in 1998 before being fined US$6.5 million for breaking election law and forcing Kim to flee. In the by-election held after his resignation, Roh Moo-hyun was elected as his successor.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In 2002, Lee ran for mayor of Seoul and won. As the Mayor of Seoul, Lee's most noteworthy projects included the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon stream, the creation of Seoul Forest, the opening of Seoul Forest Park, the construction of a grassy field in front of Seoul City Hall, and the addition of rapid transit buses to the city's transportation system. Lee worked to transform the area around Seoul City Hall from a concrete traffic circle to a lawn where people could gather. The 2002 FIFA World Cup showed how the area could be used as a homogeneous cultural space, which came to be known as Seoul Plaza. In May 2004, the tape was cut to open a newly built park in the area, a grassy field where Seoul residents could come to relax and take in cultural performances. A major accomplishment during his term as mayor of Seoul was the restoration of Cheonggyecheon, which now flows through the heart of Seoul and functions as a modern public recreation space for people of all ages.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 10 May 2007, Lee officially declared his intention to seek the nomination of the Grand National Party (GNP) as its presidential candidate. On 20 August 2007, he defeated Park Geun-hye in the GNP's primary to become the party's nominee for the 2007 Presidential election. During the primary, Lee was accused of profiting from illegal speculation on land owned in Dogok-dong, an expensive neighborhood in Seoul. However, in August 2007, the prosecutors said in the interim announcement, "We do suspect Lee's brother's claim over the land in Dogok-dong, but have failed to verify the real owner of the asset." On 28 September 2007, the prosecutory authority officially dropped the suspicion that the Dogok land was under a borrowed name, announcing, "We have done all necessary investigations, including tracing the proceeds from the sale of the land and call history, and now got to the bottom of this case." In December 2007, a few days before the presidential election, Lee announced that he would donate all of his assets to society.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee's stated goals were expressed in the "747 Plan" and included: 7% annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP), US$40,000 per capita, and transforming Korea into the world's seventh largest economy. An important part of his platform was the Grand Korean Waterway (한반도 대운하) project from Busan to Seoul, which he believed would lead to an economic revival. His political opponents criticized the project, saying it was unrealistic and too costly to be realized. Others were concerned about possible negative environmental impact.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Signaling a departure from his previous views on North Korea, Lee announced a plan to "engage" North Korea through investment. He promised to form a consultative body with the North to discuss furthering economic ties. The body would have subcommittees on the economy, education, finance, infrastructure and welfare, and a cooperation fund of $40 billion. He promised to seek a Korean Economic Community agreement to establish the legal and systemic framework for any projects emerging from the negotiations, and called for the formation of an aid office in North Korea as a way of decoupling humanitarian aid from nuclear talks.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: His foreign policy initiative was called MB Doctrine, which advocates "engaging" North Korea and strengthening the US-Korean alliance.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: During the 2007 presidential election, questions about his relationship with a company called BBK were raised. In 1999, Lee was alleged to have met an American and established the LKE Bank with him. However, this enterprise went bankrupt less than a year later. The corrupt Korean prosecutors manipulated BBK case so that Lee was found not to be guilty. However, in 2018 Lee was arrested for charges related to BBK. Although, the prosecutor claimed in 2007 that Lee had nothing to do with DAS, a corporation that funded BBK, in 2018 the same prosecution office found that DAS is owned and controlled by Lee.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In spite of the lowest voter turnout ever for a presidential election in South Korea, Lee won the presidential election in December 2007 with 48.7% of the vote which was considered a landslide.<ref name="BBC 07/12/19"></ref>


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: He finished with a nearly 2-to-1 margin over his nearest challenger, Chung Dong-young of the Grand Unified Democratic New Party. To date, it is the largest margin of victory since the resumption of direct presidential elections in 1987. He took the oath of office on 25 February 2008, vowing to revitalize the economy, strengthen relations with the United States and "deal with" North Korea. Specifically, Lee declared that he would pursue a campaign of "global diplomacy" and seek further cooperative exchanges with regional neighbors Japan, China, and Russia. He further pledged to strengthen South Korea–United States relations and implement a tougher policy with regard to North Korea, ideas that are promoted as the MB Doctrine.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee stated that he wanted to restore better relations with the United States through a greater emphasis on free market solutions.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Two months after his inauguration, Lee's approval ratings stood at 28%, and by June 2008 they had reached 17%. U.S. President George W. Bush and Lee also discussed the ratification of the South Korea–United States Free Trade Agreement or KORUS FTA, which faced opposition from legislators in both countries. While Lee's agreement during the summit to partially lift the ban on US beef imports was expected to remove the obstacles in approving the KORUS FTA in the US, many Koreans protested the resumption of U.S. beef imports.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: As protests escalated, the Korean government issued a statement warning that violent protesters would be punished, and measures would be taken to stop clashes between police and protesters. The protests continued for more than two months, and the original purpose of the candlelight vigils against U.S. beef imports was replaced by others, such as opposition to the privatization of public companies, education policy, and construction of the canal. The damages caused by protesters to the businesses around the demonstration and the social cost reached approximately 3,751,300,000,000 South Korean won.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: According to The Wall Street Journal, Lee's plan to privatize public companies was a modest but "perhaps important step" toward reform.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: As the government gained more stability, the approval rating of Lee's administration rose to 32.8%. Since the resumption of U.S. beef imports, more people are buying U.S. beef and now it has the second largest market share in Korea, after Australian beef.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee's approval ratings reflected public perception of Korea's economic situation in the wake of the global economic meltdown. Signs of a strengthening economy and a landmark $40 billion deal won by a Korean consortium to build nuclear power plants in the


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Former president Kim Young-sam expressed negative outlooks on Lee's role as the president and his influence between South Korea and Japan according to a WikiLeaks file. As of late 2011, Lee's administration had a series of corruption allegations surrounding certain high-ranking government employees.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Lee administration introduced a tailor-made educational system and established the National Scholarship Foundation, which offers services such as student loans and loan counseling. In addition, the government promoted an income contingency pay-later plan to help out those struggling to pay tuition fees.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Teachers were highly critical of these changes, arguing that Lee wanted to turn Korean education into a "free market," while ignoring the underfunding of education in regions outside the Seoul area. However, the government designated 82 well-performing high schools in rural areas as "public


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: boarding school" and granted funds amounting to 317 billion won in total, with 3.8 billion won each on average.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Lee government planned to use a pool of young Korean Americans for the promotion of after-school English education in public schools in rural areas, with the aim to improve the quality of education. Prior to assuming the presidency, Lee's transition team announced it would implement a nationwide English-immersion program to provide students with the language tools necessary to be successful in a highly globalized world. Under this program, all classes would have been taught in English by 2010. However, Lee abandoned the program after facing strong opposition from parents, teachers, and education specialists. He then attempted to implement a program where all English courses in middle and secondary schools would be taught in English only, which would require the government to educate many teachers in Korea and recruit university students studying abroad in English-speaking countries.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: "Mbnomics" is the term applied to Lee's macroeconomic policy. The term is a portmanteau derived by combining his initials (Myung-bak, Mb) and the term economics (-nomics) to form "Mbnomics". Kang Man-Soo, the Minister of Strategy and Finance, is credited with coining the term and the design of Mbnomics.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The centerpiece of Lee's economic revitalization was his "Korea 7·4·7" plan. The plan took its name from its goals: to bring 7% economic growth during his term, raise Korea's per capita income to US$40,000, and make Korea the world's seventh largest economy. As Lee put it, his government is mandated with creating a new Korea where "the people are affluent, society is warm and the state strong." To this end, he planned to follow a pragmatic, market-friendly strategy: smart market economy, empirical pragmatism, and democratic activism.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee wanted to move to low-carbon growth in coming decades. The government hoped to be a bridge between rich and poor countries in fighting global warming by setting itself goals for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to be achieved by 2020. In connection with the recent financial shock from the United States, President Lee emphasized the importance of solid cooperation between political and business circles. He proposed a tripartite meeting among the


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: finance ministers of South Korea, Japan, and China aimed at coordinating policies to cope with the credit crisis.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Around early 2011, Mbnomics gained a negative reputation due to tax reduction plans for the rich, the failure to privatize or merge national banks, and failure to provide affordable housing. The middle-aged and senior Korean population usually supported Lee Myung-bak. However, businesspeople in their 50s–60s in the construction and real estate sectors withdrew their support of Lee after the 2010 regional election and 2012 presidential election.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Oh Geon-ho (오건호), the head of the Public Policy Institute for People, criticized parts of Mbnomics as "over-financing big private companies" and "worsening the fiscal state of the country".


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 7 September 2011, the Blue House officially scrapped plans for a rich tax deduction, marking the foundational end of Mbnomics.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Grand Korean Waterway, officially known as the Pan Korea Grand Waterway, is a proposed long canal, traversing difficult mountainous terrain, connecting Seoul and Busan, two of South Korea's largest cities. The canal would run diagonally across the country, connecting the Han River, which flows through Seoul into the Yellow Sea, to the Nakdong River, which flows through Busan into the Korea Strait.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Few opponents of the project argue that, during the construction process, damage to the environment could be caused by the concrete facility. However, one study states that when environmentally friendly methods of construction (like "swamp-restoration") are adopted, there will be a net positive effect (such as improving the Han River). Buddhist groups have voiced fears that it would submerge nearby Buddhist relics, which would cause irreparable damage to a significant portion of Korea's cultural legacy. On the other hand, some say that once the Kyungboo Canal is developed, another 177 cultural assets could be discovered during excavations, which could be used for a tourist attraction. In particular, the development of the canal would increase the accessibility to cultural assets that are far to reach, and hence more efficient management of those assets would be possible.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: If successful, Lee maintained that his plan, which would include dredging and other measures to improve Korea's waterways, would decrease water pollution, and bring economic benefits to local communities. Speaking in 2005 about the project, Lee said, "Many journalists questioned me why I keep commenting on the building of the canal. However, it's a simple fact that many cities around the world were benefited by making the best use of their rivers and seas." At a special conference held on 19 June 2008, President Lee announced that he would drop the Grand Canal project if the public opposed the idea, and the premier confirmed this statement on 8 September 2008. Despite this assurance, many now accuse Lee of continuing the canal plan under the guise of "maintenance of the 4 great rivers (4대강 정비사업)."


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: President Lee Myung-bak laid out an agenda for National Strategy for Green Growth and the Five-Year Plan for Green Growth in 2008. In February 2009, President Lee established the Presidential Committee on Green Growth, which absorbed the sustainable development commission and two other committees on energy and climate change under direct authority of the President. The Five-Year Plan for Green Growth laid out a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 relative to a ‘business-as-usual’ baseline implying a 4 per cent cut from the 2005 level.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Four Major Rivers Restoration Project was a multi-purpose green growth project on the Han River (Korea), Nakdong River, Geum River and Yeongsan River in South Korea. The project was spearheaded by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and was declared complete on 21 October 2011. The restoration project's aims were to provide or improve water security, improve flood control, and restore ecosystem vitality. It was first announced as part of the "Green New Deal" policy launched in January 2009, and was later included in the government's five-year national plan in July 2009. The government estimated its full investment and funding totaled 22.2 trillion won (approximately US$17.3 billion).


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Although, former president Lee claimed that the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project was Eco-friendly, its results face severe criticism from environmental experts both inside and outside of the government. It is well described in the report in Hankyoreh, August 2013. The algae known to kill eco system of a river proliferated during summer season for many years and experts suspect it is because of weirs that slow or stop water flow. Furthermore, water quality near the Nakdong river deteriorated significantly after weirs were installed. The government already spent more than 3 trillion Korean won to keep the water potable as of August 2013.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee Myung-bak faced strong criticism over his choice of political appointees, many of whom were wealthy. The concern was that Lee's appointees would favor policies that protect the rich, while failing to address the needs of the underprivileged. Another criticism was that these appointees have mostly chosen from the nation's southeast region (Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do), which is known as a GNP stronghold.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: While the fact that the property owned by high officials, including ministers, increased on average, most of them were legally-obtained and inherited property. Those ministers involved in the allegation of illegal real-estate speculation were already replaced. Hence, the average property owned by the three replaced ministers were only 1.7 billion won. To set aside the alleged regional bias, Lee's first cabinet appointment procedure faithfully abided by the principles and rules by appointing four from Seoul and Yeongnam district, three from Honam, Gangwon, and Chungcheong province, and one from North Korea.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Moreover, Lee's administration increased the welfare budget by 9% to help the poorest maintain the living and middle class's stability, and pursued many more policies for the benefit of the public than the former government. His administration further claimed that the tax reforms undertaken, including the comprehensive property tax cut was not to benefit the wealthy and the haves, but to correct a wrongful tax according to the market principle. Lee also had to face corruption charges leveled at his administration. Three appointees resigned amid suspicions of corruption, and his top intelligence chief and anticorruption aide faced accusations that they received bribes from The Samsung Group. Both Samsung and Lee denied the charges. Those involved in the allegation of receiving bribes from Samsung group have been cleared of charges after special prosecutory investigation.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 7 July 2008, Lee named Ahn Byong-man, a presidential advisor for state future planning, as his new minister of education, science and technology. Jang Tae-pyoung, a former secretary general of the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption, became minister of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and Grand National Party lawmaker Jeon Jae-hee minister of health, welfare and family affairs. In addition, Lee gave Prime Minister Han Seung-soo another chance in the belief that no proper working conditions had been provided for the cabinet due to many pending issues since the inauguration of the new administration.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In mid-April 2008, Lee traveled to the United States for his first official overseas visit to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House and Camp David. Lee's more aggressive approach towards North Korea was described as a welcome change for Bush, who was often at odds with Roh Moo-hyun. For a decade, what some people criticized as the former government's controversial and endless handing out of massive aid to North Korea, in the name of the "National Coexistence, Independence," failed to effectuate change in the North. The former government neglected the discussion on the nuclear issue with the North during the summit twice, and struck a mass aid deal without any sort of social consensus and examination on the ways and means of the funding, which some say created an unnecessary burden to the Korean people.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The government's stance towards North Korea was not to violate the agreement made between the heads of the two Koreas, but to mull over the economic feasibility and realizable possibility through negotiation based on mutual trust and respect, and prioritizing going forward with the project.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: During a press conference, the two leaders expressed hope that North Korea would disclose the details of their nuclear weapons program, and pledged their commitment to resolve the issue through the multilateral six-party talks. Lee also gave assurances that both the U.S. and South Korea would use dialogue to end the crisis.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Multiple news outlets have remarked upon the apparently close friendship between Lee and U.S. President Barack Obama. Despite Lee's wavering support at home, Lee's leadership was lauded by Obama at the 2009 G-20 London summit, where Obama called South Korea "[one of America's] closest allies and greatest friends." Obama and Lee agreed on a need "for a stern, united response from the international community" in light of North Korea's efforts toward a threatened satellite launch. Lee accepted an invitation by Obama to visit the United States on 16 June 2009. President Obama hosted Lee for a day-long state visit and state dinner on 13 October 2011.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee also played a role in bringing about the normalization of South Korea's relations with Russia. Furthermore, Lee built relationships with foreign leaders, including former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed, former Chinese Communist Party general secretary Jiang Zemin and former Soviet Union Communist Party general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 18 April 2008, Lee's administration agreed on resumption of U.S. beef imports. Previously, Korea had banned U.S. beef after a cow infected with BSE that had originated from Canada was found in Washington state. Fears that US beef imports in South Korea, in relation to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, would cause Mad Cow disease infected beef to be imported to South Korea came to a boil in the summer of 2008.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Ten days after the deal was formally signed, MBC’s current affairs program "PD Diary" aired a multi-part episode entitled "U.S. beef, is it safe from mad cow disease?" It was reported by MBC that Koreans carry a gene making them more susceptible to mad cow disease than Americans. This claim has since been retracted by MBC. MBC further devoted 15 out of 25 other news slots to publicizing the issue showing images of downer cows from England and U.S., and reporting information such as claiming that variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) is easily transmittable through methods including blood transfusions, eating instant noodles containing beef products and using cosmetics made with cow-derived collagen.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: As public anger continued to snowball, citizens started public demonstrations. On many nights, the rallies turned into confrontations with the police. When candles had burned out and children had gone home with their parents, many protesters were often attacked by riot-control policemen.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In an interview, Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun said that the policy would be pursued "with the maximum prudence, as it will take time for the U.S. to grasp the situation in Korea and gather opinions inside the industry." The government's policy is to ban import of beef from older cattle "under any circumstances, either through renegotiations between governments or self-regulation by importers."


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Seoul Southern District Court ordered MBC to air a correction by the popular MBC current affairs program "PD Notebook," saying that the report was partially wrong and exaggerated the threat of mad cow disease. The public anger towards resuming the beef deal is now regaining its composure as many people began to buy U.S. beef. The market share of U.S. beef currently stands at approximately 28.8% following Australian beef (top seller), but for 10-days prior to Korea's thanksgiving day, it was ranked the first among its competitors.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 4 July 2011, during a mass rally in Pyongyang, Lee and his government were strongly criticized as traitors by spokesmen for the Korean People's Army and other elements of North Korean society. The Korean People's Army called for dealing "merciless deadly blows at the enemies till they are wiped out to the last man."


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: His direct and tough policy towards North Korea promoted a negative image of him throughout North Korea. Lee's name became a target practice in the North Korean military as shown through the Korean Central Television on 6 March 2012. In March 2010, Lee's presidency ended the Sunshine Policy, originally planned by Kim Dae-jung to improve relations with the North.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 5 May 2012, the Pyongyang Times newspaper published stories and pictures of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) workers threatening to "wipe out" the Lee clan. The workers were upset at Lee for "having defiled the DPRK's supreme dignity when all the fellow countrymen were celebrating the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il-sung."


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Towards the end of his term in office, Lee began to take actions that caused friction between South Korea and neighboring Japan. On 10 August 2012, Lee flew to the Liancourt Rocks, known as Dokdo or Tokto (독도, literally "solitary island") in Korean, or in Japanese. He was the first Korean president to do so. Japan temporarily withdrew its ambassador to South Korea Masatoshi Muto, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kōichirō Gemba summoned the South Korean ambassador to file a complaint and threatened to lodge a case with the International Court of Justice, (ICJ) which was rejected by South Korea. It could do so because both countries party to a dispute must agree to such ICJ cases. It was the first time for Japan to make such a move in 47 years, since Japan and South Korea officially re-established relations in 1965. Japan previously proposed bringing the issue to the ICJ in 1954 and 1964.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In a speech on 13 August 2012, Lee said that his actions were motivated by a desire to force Japan to settle the comfort women issue.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 14 August 2012, on the eve of Liberation Day, Lee said that the Emperor of Japan Akihito should not visit Korea unless he apologized to the victims of Japan's past colonialism. He made the statement while speaking at a meeting of education officials. There were no specific plans for such a visit to take place, and Lee had previously been supportive to such a visit. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba both described the statement as "regrettable". A government official speaking to the Asahi Simbun said: "It has made it impossible for a Japanese emperor to visit South Korea for the next 100 years".


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: In his Liberation Day speech on 15 August 2012, Lee demanded that Japan take "responsible measures" for the comfort women, blaming Japan for violating women's human rights.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: President Lee embraced an aggressive approach to foreign policy, driving initiatives such as "Green Korea" and "Global Korea". President Lee conducted frequent state visits to other countries and extended invitations to foreign counterparts to visit Korea from the time he took office. In 2009 alone, Lee visited 14 countries, including the U.S. and Thailand on 11 occasions and attended 38 summits.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: As a result of his efforts, the decision to hold the G-20 Summit in Seoul in November 2010 was passed unanimously at the 2009 Pittsburgh summit. In a historic first, South Korea became the first non-G8 country to take the chairmanship of the forum, and in Toronto, President Lee rallied support for his proposal on creating global financial safety nets and addressing development issues.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: At the G-20 Summit in Seoul, this led directly to the unanimous endorsement of the Seoul Development Consensus.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Under his administration, South Korea was admitted to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Representatives of the DAC member nations met at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretariat in


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Paris, France, in November 2009, and voted unanimously to admit South Korea as the 24th member. The DAC members provide more than 90 percent of the world's aid for impoverished developing nations, and South Korea is the only member nation that has gone from being an aid beneficiary to a donor.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: President Lee's diplomatic efforts led to an agreement between Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the UAE on the construction of a US$20 billion Korean standard nuclear power plant during his visit to the UAE at the end of 2009.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: President Lee also held bilateral summits with the leaders of the United States, Japan, and People's Republic of China to discuss North Korean affairs. In the wake of the ROKS Cheonan sinking, a joint declaration was issued by the G-8 leaders condemning the North. President Lee succeeded in bringing the Cheonan incident to the forefront in the Chair's Statement for the Asia-Europe Meeting in 2010 at Brussels, drawing member nation support for the South Korean government's stance on North Korea's nuclear issue and stability in Northeast Asia. In addition, President Lee urged Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto to put his words on 15 August, Korea's Liberation Day into action. Regular reunions of the families separated by the Korean War drew attention as an international issue after being included in the Chair's Statement.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Under the Lee administration, South Korea successfully concluded a free trade agreement with the European Union on 1 July 2011.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee was involved in a surveillance scandal that encouraged both Saenuri Party and the Democratic United Party to put pressure against him.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee Myung-bak was alleged to have been involved in an illegal company named BBK, which brought controversy to South Korea during the election season. BBK co-founders were investigated for large-scale embezzlement and stock price-fixing schemes. They had initially stated that Lee was not involved with the company, and Lee himself denied being associated with BBK. They attempted to implicate Lee in criminal involvement, which was not supported by evidence. He never admitted any wrongdoings, but the Korean press, controlled by Lee, made false report that he did. Lee was declared innocent of all charges by the Supreme Court of Korea. However, that was because the Korean prosecutors manipulated the case. In 2018, Lee was arrested and his involvement in BBK and DAS was confirmed by the same prosecutor's office.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: According to WikiLeaks, Yoo Chong-ha (유종하), the former co-chairman of Lee's presidential election campaign, requested then American ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, to delay the extraction of the main individual of the BBK embezzlement scandal to Korea to prevent spreading controversies related to Lee's involvement in the BBK embezzlement scandal during the election season.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee's acquisition of a house in Seocho-gu's Naegok-dong under his son's name caused a problem. One of the candidate lands that he sought was a green belt area, which could cause contradiction about his "eco-friendly" governance. This spurred many controversies. For instance, a female lobbyist-like civilian with the family name of Yoo was involved in this Naegok-dong deal with Lee's family members. She moved to the U.S. to avoid possible arrest.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee purchased the land under his son's name, which could potentially violate South Korean real estate laws. The prosecutors formally proposed to investigate President Lee's son, who was also involved in the contract.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Legal professor Lee Sang-don, voiced his opinion that President Lee's Naegok-dong property crisis could justify his impeachment.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The spokesperson of the Democratic Party, Lee Yong-seop (이용섭), said that the presidential family's current residence was evading tax by declaring parts of the building for "commercial" purposes.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: There were criticism of Lee's nepotism for his older brother, Lee Sang-deuk, whose personal aide was charged for taking $0.5 ~ $0.6 million from SLS Group. Lee Sang-deuk himself also served 14 months prison time for taking bribes from Solomon Supreme Prosecutors for extorting funds for the Four Major Rivers Project.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee was detained on 22 March 2018 on charges of receiving 11 billion Korean won (~US$10 million) worth of bribes and slush funds worth 35 billion Korean won (~US$33 million).


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: He is accused of taking bribes from Samsung of nearly $6 million in exchange for a presidential pardon for Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee who was in prison for tax evasion and stock fraud. It is alleged that this money was used to pay legal fees for DAS, a car-parts manufacturing firm owned by Lee's brother.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee is also accused of embezzling $700k of government money that was initially set aside for Seoul's intelligence agency.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 5 October 2018, Lee Myung-bak was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a 13 billion won ($11.5m; £8.8m) fine.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The corruption case badly tainted his status as the country's first leader with a business background who once symbolized the country's economic rise.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: Lee's conviction came six months after his successor and fellow conservative Park Geun-hye was convicted in a separate corruption scandal that triggered the country's biggest political turmoil in decades. Park is no longer serving a 25-year prison sentence. The back-to-back scandals badly wounded conservatives in South Korea and deepened a national divide.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: The Seoul Central District Court convicted Lee of embezzling 24.6 billion won ($21.7 million) from a company he owned; taking bribes from Samsung, one of his spy chiefs and a former lawmaker; causing a loss to state coffer; and committing other crimes. The court fined Lee 13 billion won ($11.5 million). It said Lee committed those crimes before and during his presidency, from 2008 to 2013.


title: Lee Myung-bak

text: On 29 October 2020, the Supreme Court upheld a 17-year sentence for Lee Myung-bak for bribery and embezzlement, the 13 billion won ($11.4 million) fine and the additional forfeiture of 5.78 billion won ($5 million).


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: Kannathil Muthamittal (also released internationally under the translated title A Peck on the Cheek) is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language musical war film produced and directed by Mani Ratnam. It was based on a short story, "Amuthavum Avanum" by Sujatha. The film stars R. Madhavan, Simran and P. S. Keerthana with Nandita Das, J. D. Chakravarthy, Prakash Raj and Pasupathy portraying other pivotal characters. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi K. Chandran handled the cinematography. Mani Ratnam presents the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, whose desire is to meet her biological mother in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was released on 14 February 2002.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The film premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, It also received a strong reception when screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2003.The film received high critical acclaim upon release and went on to win six National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards South, six Cinema Express Awards, seven Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and Best Film awards at six international film festivals.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: In Mankulam, a small Tamil village in Sri Lanka, M. D. Shyama marries Dileepan and becomes pregnant. Amidst the backdrop of the civil war, Dileepan fights against the government with other men in the village as part of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). While romancing in the forest, the couple hears Sri Lankan Army troops approaching. Dileepan makes Shyama flee while he remains in the forest. Afterwards, the villagers begin fleeing to India, but Shyama is reluctant to join as she still hopes her husband will come for her. Her relatives convince her to go for her unborn child's sake, and they board a rickety boat, journeying through rough waters. An older man says that he has seen Dileepan with bullet wounds in the forest. Shyama wants the boat to turn around but it is too late. After arriving in Rameswaram, Shyama gives birth to a baby girl during refugee processing. However, she leaves behind the baby in order to return to Sri Lanka, hoping that her husband is alive and wishing to continue in his footsteps.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: Nine years later in Madras, a young girl, Amudha lives a happy life with her father, the writer Thiruchelvan (better known by his pen name Indira), her mother, a newscaster and the "real" Indira, and her two younger brothers, Vinay and Akhil. Amudha is close to her father while being more distant from her mother. On Amudha's ninth birthday, Thiruchelvan reveals to Amudha that she was adopted and her younger brothers are their biological children. Amudha is very disturbed after hearing the news and begins distancing herself from everyone else. Indira's father criticizes their decision, but Thiruchelvan and Indira are certain they have done the right move. Amudha asks her parents about her adoption. Nine years earlier in Rameswaram, Thiruchelvan, then a budding writer, often travels to a refugee camp and writes stories inspired by the people there. During one visit, Thiruchelvan sees a newborn baby girl and writes a short story about her. Indira is his neighbour, and has always been interested in him. Thiruchelvan wants to adopt the girl, but is not allowed to as a single man. He marries Indira and adopts the baby girl, naming her "Amudha" at Indira's suggestion. A few years later, Indira gives birth to Vinay and Akhil.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: Still dissatisfied, Amudha requests to meet her biological mother despite Indira's insistence that she can't be found. Amudha secretly goes to Rameshwaram with her cousin and finds her records. Shocked at her stubbornness, her family rushes there. Thiruchelvan gives in and agrees to take Amudha to Sri Lanka to find her birth mother. Leaving the two boys under the care of Indira's father, the trio travel to Sri Lanka and meet Dr. Harold Wickramasinghe, a Sinhalese friend of Thiruchelvan who guides them. Amudha's increasingly rude and impatient behavior towards Indira strains their relationship. During their stay, they observe the difficulties and violence that the civil war has brought. While walking in the jungle, Thiruchelvan and Wickramasinghe are captured by a group of LTTE cadres. Thiruchelvan immediately recites Tamil poetry and is identified as Indira by Pasupathy, the group's leader. Thiruchelvan explains his motives of coming to the country, mentioning the only evidence that he has regarding Amudha's birth mother is that her name is Shyama. Pasupathy arranges a meeting and says he will bring Shyama to the designated spot. It turns out that Shyama is Pasupathy's sister and a fellow LTTE cadre living in hiding.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The next day, Wickramasinghe, Amudha, Indira, and Thiruchelvan wait in a park to meet Shyama, but a battle breaks out there as the Sri Lankan army tries to destroy a nearby LTTE base. During their escape, Indira gets shot in her arm. After escaping and getting medical treatment, Amudha apologizes to Indira for her behavior and requests they return to India. The next day, the family leaves for the airport but Indira unexpectedly asks them to revisit the park. Shyama arrives just in time; after an emotional reunion, Amudha gives Shyama a photo album and asks her a series of questions which she only partially answers. As the meeting comes to an end, Amudha begs Shyama to come to Madras with her but Shyama tearfully refuses, saying that she has work to do in Sri Lanka and they can only meet again when the country is at peace. Thiruchelvan, Amudha, and Indira hug each other as Shyama leaves, and a teary-eyed Amudha kisses her parents.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: Like other Mani Ratnam projects, the film began production with very little official publicity in early 2001 with the media covering the project as either "Manjal Kudai" (Yellow Umbrella) or "Kudaigal" (Umbrellas). The film was reported of a trilogy of films based on love and peace in the backdrop of war after "Roja" (1992), "Bombay" (1995) and "Dil Se" (1998). The film was originally conceived as a taut racy thriller that centres on a script based on a female leader of a guerilla group – with Mani Ratnam later choosing to base the film on human relationships with the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. R. Madhavan was signed up to play a leading role in the film, with the venture becoming his third straight Mani Ratnam project after "Alaipayuthey" and the Mani Ratnam production, "Dumm Dumm Dumm". For the role of Indira, Mani Ratnam considered casting Jyothika, Soundarya or relative newcomer Bhumika Chawla, before finalising Simran to portray the character. Madhavan and Simran thus shot for two films simultaneously together, as they had also been cast in K. Balachandar's "Paarthale Paravasam" as a married couple. Nandita Das was also hired for the film, making her debut in Tamil films, and in a later interview mentioned that the team shot for nearly thirteen hours a day. P. S. Keerthana, the second daughter of actors Parthiban and Seetha, was cast the child artiste in the film, while Prakash Raj was also hired to play a Sinhalese character. Mani Ratnam approached actor Vikram to make a special appearance as Keerthana's biological father in the film, but his refusal meant that J. D. Chakravarthy was later handed the role.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The title of the film was finally announced as "Kannathil Muthammittal" (If the cheek is kissed) in July 2001, after a famous phrase from a poem written by Subramanya Bharathi. The shoot began in Chennai with a ten-day schedule in the Besant Nagar area. Parts of the film shown to be Colombo in the film were shot in Puducherry. Further schedules were carried out in the forests of Kerala to depict the base of the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka. As most of the cast were non-native Tamil speakers, dubbing artistes were used with actresses Sukanya and Deepa Venkat lending their voices for Nandita Das and Simran respectively. Furthermore, Mounika lent her voice for Easwari Rao's character, while Thalaivasal Vijay spoke lines for Chakravarthy.


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The soundtrack featuring six songs was released on 12 January 2002 by the label Tips Music. This film marked the debut of playback singer Chinmayi into the film industry at the age of "15". The score and soundtrack fetched A. R. Rahman his fourth National Film Award for Best Music Direction. Lyricist Vairamuthu too won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics, for the song "Kannathil Muthamittal".


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The film opened to positive reviews from critics. Gauthaman Baskaran of "The Hindu Frontline" wrote the film is "certainly a must for those who still believe in meaningful cinema", while praising Mani Ratnam's "grip on the medium".


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: This is a list of awards and nominations received by the 2002 Indian Tamil-language film "Kannathil Muthamittal".


title: Kannathil Muthamittal

text: The film was highly appreciated upon its release and went on to win several awards and nominations at different award ceremonies the following year. It also had a highly acclaimed soundtrack which got A. R. Rahman his fourth National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the second consecutive time after Lagaan for both his songs and background score. The film holds a record of six "National Film Awards" wins which is the highest by any Tamil Film tied with "Aadukalam" and also being the highest for the year 2002. The film has won a total of 40 awards since its release.


title: Shayne Topp

text: Shayne Robert Topp (born September 14, 1991) is an American actor and comedian most known for his work on Smosh. He is also known for his roles as Shayne Zabo on Disney Channel's "So Random!," and as Matt Bradley in ABC's "The Goldbergs." He has been a member of Smosh since 2015, making his debut as the first referee of the Smosh Summer Games.


title: Shayne Topp

text: Shayne was born on September 14, 1991, in Florida, to Catherine Topp (née Person) and Robert Royal Topp, a fighter pilot. His grandfather, Wayne Topp, was also a fighter pilot.


title: Shayne Topp

text: As a military family, they moved a lot. Topp stated in the 55th episode of Smosh's podcast, SmoshCast, that, mostly, he was raised in Arizona, but also grew up in such states as Florida, Virginia, and California.


title: Shayne Topp

text: When Topp was 18 months old, he drowned in a swimming pool in his backyard and was clinically dead. According to him, his mother heard someone say his name when she ran to find him. He was revived on site.


title: Shayne Topp

text: Topp participated in an acting class with his friend (and fellow Smosh member) Noah Grossman, taught by the mother of Laura Marano.


title: Shayne Topp

text: Topp also has experience in theater performances, starring in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at Wonderworks Theatre Co. and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at Highland Lakes Theatre (in the title role). Additionally, he has appeared in commercials.


title: Shayne Topp

text: He went on to win the Jury Prize at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival for his performance in "Dear Lemon Lima". In 2012, he and his now fellow Smosh member Damien Haas acted in the Disney Channel show "So Random!". He was also nominated for "Exciting New Face (Male)" at the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards. Originally deciding to move away in 2015 due to a lack of work, he was convinced by fellow Smosh member Noah Grossman to audition for the cast of Smosh, for which he has remained a part of since 2015. Smosh’s parent company, Defy Media, went bankrupt in late 2018; however, Topp and the rest of the cast still continued to make videos, and in early 2019 it was announced that Smosh had been purchased by Mythical Entertainment.


title: Shayne Topp

text: Since 2017, Topp has played recurring character Matt Bradley, a best friend of main character Barry Goldberg (Troy Gentile) on ABC's "The Goldbergs".


title: Shayne Topp

text: In 2019, Topp graduated from Arizona State University's online campus with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a degree that he'd been pursuing since 2009. A surprise dedication and mock graduation ceremony was held by the Smosh crew and was uploaded to Smosh Pit in December 2019.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Elif Shafak (, ; born 25 October 1971) is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak writes in Turkish and English, and has published 19 works. She is best known for her novels, which include "The Bastard of Istanbul", "The Forty Rules of Love", "Three Daughters of Eve" and "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World". Her books have been translated into 55 languages and been nominated for several literary awards. Described by the "Financial Times" as "Turkey's leading female novelist", several of her works have been bestsellers in Turkey and internationally.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Her works have prominently featured the city of Istanbul, and dealt with themes of Eastern and Western culture, roles of women in society, and human rights issues. Certain politically challenging topics addressed in her novels, such as child abuse and the Armenian genocide, have led to legal action from authorities in Turkey that prompted her to emigrate to the United Kingdom.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak has a PhD in political science. An essayist and contributor to several media outlets, Shafak has advocated for women's rights, minority rights, and freedom of speech.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak was born in Strasbourg, France, to Nuri Bilgin, a philosopher, and Şafak Atayman, who later became a diplomat. After her parents separated, Shafak returned to Ankara, Turkey, where she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother. She says that growing up in a dysfunctional family was difficult, but that growing up in a non-patriarchal environment had a beneficial impact on her. Having grown up without her father, she met her half-brothers for the first time when she was in her mid-twenties.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak added her mother's first name, Turkish for "dawn", to her own when constructing her pen name at the age of eighteen. Shafak spent her teenage years in Madrid, Jordan and Germany.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak studied an undergraduate degree in international relations at Middle East Technical University, and earned a Master's studies in women's studies. She holds a Ph.D. in political science. She has taught at universities in Turkey. Later emigrating to the United States, she was a fellow at Mount Holyoke College, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, and was a tenured professor at the University of Arizona in Near Eastern studies.


title: Elif Shafak

text: In the UK, she held the Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, for the 2017–2018 academic year, where she is an honorary fellow.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak's 1999 novel "Mahrem" ("The Gaze") was awarded "Best Novel" by the Turkish Authors' Association in 2000.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Her next novel, "Bit Palas" ("The Flea Palace", 2002), was shortlisted for Independent Best Foreign Fiction in 2005.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Her second novel in English, "The Bastard of Istanbul", was long-listed for the Orange Prize. It addresses the Armenian genocide, which is denied by the Turkish government. Shafak was prosecuted in July 2006 on charges of "insulting Turkishness" (Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code) for discussing the genocide in the novel. Had she been convicted, she would have faced a maximum prison sentence of three years. "The Guardian" commented that "The Bastard of Istanbul" may be the first Turkish novel to address the genocide. She was acquitted of these charges in September 2006 at the prosecutor's request.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak's novel "The Forty Rules of Love" ("Aşk" in Turkish) became a bestseller in Turkey upon its release; it sold more than 200,000 copies by 2009, surpassing a previous record of 120,000 copies set by Orhan Pamuk's "The New Life". In France, it was awarded a Prix ALEF* – Mention Spéciale Littérature Etrangère. It was also nominated for the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In 2019, it was listed by the BBC as one of the 100 "most inspiring" novels and one of the "100 novels that shaped our world".


title: Elif Shafak

text: Her 2012 novel "Honour", which focuses on an honour killing, was nominated for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize and 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction, followed by "The Architect's Apprentice", a historical fiction novel about a fictional apprentice to Mimar Sinan, in 2014.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Her novel "Three Daughters of Eve" (2017), set in Istanbul and Oxford from the 1980s to the present day was chosen by London Mayor Sadiq Khan as his favorite book of the year. American writer Siri Hustvedt also praised the book.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Following Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Sjon, Shafak was selected as the 2017 writer for the Future Library project. Her work "The Last Taboo" is the third part of a collection of 100 literary works that will not be published until 2114.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak's 2019 novel "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World", revolving around the life of an Istanbul sex worker, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2019, Shafak was investigated by Turkish prosecutors for addressing child abuse and sexual violence in her fiction writing.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak's non-fiction essays in Turkish have been collected in four books: "Med-Cezir" (2005), "Firarperest" (2010), "Şemspare" (2012) and "Sanma ki Yalnızsın" (2017).


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak has written for "Time", "The Guardian", "La Repubblica", "The New Yorker", "The New York Times", "Der Spiegel" and "New Statesman".


title: Elif Shafak

text: Istanbul has been prominent in Shafak's writing. She depicts the city as a melting pot of different cultures and various contradictions. Shafak has remarked: "Istanbul makes one comprehend, perhaps not intellectually but intuitively, that East and West are ultimately imaginary concepts, and can thereby be de-imagined and re-imagined." In the same essay written for "Time" magazine Shafak says: "East and West is no water and oil. They do mix. And in a city like Istanbul they mix intensely, incessantly, amazingly." "The New York Times Book Review" said of Shafak, "she has a particular genius for depicting backstreet Istanbul, where the myriad cultures of the Ottoman Empire are still in tangled evidence on every family tree."


title: Elif Shafak

text: In a piece she wrote for the BBC, Shafak said, "Istanbul is like a huge, colourful Matrushka – you open it and find another doll inside. You open that, only to see a new doll nesting. It is a hall of mirrors where nothing is quite what it seems. One should be cautious when using categories to talk about Istanbul. If there is one thing the city doesn't like, it is clichés."


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak blends Eastern and Western ways of storytelling, and draws on oral and written culture. In "The Washington Post", Ron Charles says, "Shafak speaks in a multivalent voice that captures the roiling tides of diverse cultures." Mysticism and specifically Sufism has also been a theme in her work, particularly in "The Forty Rules of Love".


title: Elif Shafak

text: A feminist and advocate for gender equality, Shafak's writing has addressed numerous feminist issues and the role of women in society. Examples include motherhood and violence against women. In an interview with William Skidelsky for "The Guardian", she said: "In Turkey, men write and women read. I want to see this change."


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak's novels have explored human rights issues, particularly those in Turkey. She has said "What literature tries to do is to re-humanize people who have been dehumanized ... People whose voices we never hear. That's a big part of my work". Specific topics have included persecution of Yazidis, the Armenian genocide and the treatment of various minorities in Turkey.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak is an advocate for freedom of expression. While taking part in the Free Speech Debate, she commented, "I am more interested in showing the things we have in common as fellow human beings, sharing the same planet and ultimately, the same sorrows and joys rather than adding yet another brick in the imaginary walls erected between cultures/religions/ethnicities."


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak has been critical of the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describing his tenure as leading to increased authoritarianism in Turkey. She signed an open letter in protest against Turkey's Twitter ban in 2014, commenting: "the very core of democracy ... is lacking in today's Turkey".


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak has spoken and written about various global political trends. In the 2010s, she drew parallels between Turkish political history and political developments in Europe and the United States. Writing in "The New Yorker" in 2016, she said "Wave after wave of nationalism, isolationism, and tribalism have hit the shores of countries across Europe, and they have reached the United States. Jingoism and xenophobia are on the rise. It is an Age of Angst—and it is a short step from angst to anger and from anger to aggression."


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak signed an open letter in protest against Russian persecution of homosexuals and blasphemy laws before Sochi 2014.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak had lived in Istanbul, and in the United States before moving to the UK. Shafak has lived in London since 2013, but speaks of "carrying Istanbul in her soul". As of 2019, Shafak had been in self-imposed exile from Turkey due to fear of prosecution.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Shafak is married to the Turkish journalist Eyüp Can Sağlık, a former editor of the newspaper "Radikal", with whom she has a daughter and a son. In 2017, Shafak came out as bisexual.


title: Elif Shafak

text: Following the birth of her daughter in 2006, Shafak suffered from postnatal depression, a period she addressed in her memoir "Black Milk".


title: Malang Sarr

text: Malang Mamadou William Georges Sarr (born 23 January 1999) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defender for Ligue 1 club Monaco, on loan from Chelsea. He has also represented France at youth international level. An academy graduate of Nice, Sarr scored on his senior debut in 2016 and made over 100 appearances for the club.


title: Malang Sarr

text: Sarr joined local side OGC Nice at the age of six. He spent the next 12 years in the club's academy before making his Ligue 1 debut for the club on 14 August 2016 against Rennes, aged 17. He scored the winning goal for his team in the 60th minute, heading home from a Jean Michaël Seri free-kick. In doing so, he became the second youngest player to ever score on debut in Ligue 1, behind Nigerian international Bartholomew Ogbeche. After the match, Sarr dedicated his goal to the victims of the 2016 Nice terror attack. Prior to kick-off a minute's silence was observed in memory of the victims with both Nice and Rennes wearing unique commemorative shirts bearing the names of those who had died. On 7 November 2016, Sarr signed his first professional contract with Nice and by the end of the season had made over 30 appearances as the club ended the league campaign in third place.


title: Malang Sarr

text: In February 2018, Sarr was named by the CIES Football Observatory as the world's fifth-most promising footballer under the age of 20. Competing with Maxime Le Marchand and new loan signing Marlon, Sarr saw his game time slightly reduced but still managed to record 29 appearances across all competitions for the campaign.


title: Malang Sarr

text: On 10 August 2019, the opening day of the 2019–20 Ligue 1 campaign, Sarr made his 100th appearance for Nice across all competitions when he started in a 2–1 win over Amiens. His contract expired on 30 June 2020 and subsequently became a free agent.


title: Malang Sarr

text: On 6 October 2020, Sarr joined the Portuguese side Porto on loan for the rest of the 2020–21 season. On 21 October 2020, Sarr made his Porto debut during their UEFA Champions League group stage tie with Manchester City, featuring for 80 minutes before being replaced by Evanilson in the 3–1 away defeat. Sarr went onto score his only goal for the club in a Taça da Liga tie against Paços de Ferreira in December 2020, netting the opener in their 2–1 victory. Sarr went onto feature 19 times in all competitions for the Dragões before returning to Chelsea ahead of the 2021–22 campaign.


title: Malang Sarr

text: Following proposed loan moves to Germany, Italy and France reportedly collapsing, Sarr opted to stay at Chelsea and was subsequently given the number 31 jersey for the forthcoming 2021–22 campaign. On 22 September 2021, Sarr made his Chelsea debut during a 1–1 draw in the EFL Cup against Aston Villa, featuring for the full 90 minutes as the Blues progressed to the fourth round following a 4–3 penalty shootout victory. A month later, he made his Premier League debut against newly-promoted Brentford due to the unavailability of Antonio Rüdiger and Thiago Silva, playing the full 90 minutes and keeping a clean sheet during the 1–0 victory.


title: Malang Sarr

text: In January 2022, he started at left-back against Tottenham in the EFL Cup semi-final. It was the start of an extended run in the first-team for Sarr.


title: Malang Sarr

text: On 12 February 2022, Sarr was an extra-time substitute as Chelsea won the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup title, beating Palmeiras. He was also a substitute in the semi-final game against Al-Hilal.


title: Malang Sarr

text: Sarr has represented France at various youth levels and in September 2016, Sarr was named as the captain of the 20-man France U18 squad by manager Bernard Diomède for the 2016 Limoges Tournament. In 2018, he confirmed that he had been approached by the Senegalese Football Association to represent the nation but stated that he had hoped to achieve greater things with France.


title: Malang Sarr

text: Sarr was born in the neighbourhood of les Moulins in Nice. He is of Senegalese descent through his parents who immigrated to France prior to his birth.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: LANSA Flight 508 was a Lockheed L-188A Electra turboprop, registered OB-R-941, operated as a scheduled domestic passenger flight by Lineas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anonima (LANSA), which crashed in a thunderstorm en route from Lima to Pucallpa in Peru on 24 December 1971, killing 91 people — all six of its crew and 85 of its 86 passengers. It is the deadliest lightning strike disaster in history.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: The sole survivor was 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke, who while strapped to her seat fell into the Amazon rainforest. She survived the fall and was then able to walk through the jungle for eleven days until being rescued by local fishermen. The Electra was LANSA's last aircraft; the company lost its operating permit eleven days later.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: LANSA Flight 508 departed Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport just before noon on Christmas Eve on its way to Iquitos, Peru, with a scheduled stop at Pucallpa. The aircraft was flying at about above mean sea level when it encountered an area of thunderstorms and severe turbulence. Some evidence showed the crew decided to continue the flight despite the hazardous weather ahead, apparently because of pressure to meet the holiday schedule. Peruvian investigators cited "intentional flight into hazardous weather conditions" as a cause of the crash.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: Sole survivor Juliane Koepcke later discovered that OB-R-941 was "assembled entirely from spare parts of other planes".


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: The sole survivor was 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke. Despite a broken collarbone, a deep gash to her right arm, an eye injury, and concussion, she was able to trek through the dense Amazon jungle for 10 days and found shelter in a hut. Local fishermen found her and took her by canoe back to civilization.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: As many as 14 other passengers were also later found to have survived the initial crash, but died awaiting rescue.


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: The movie "Miracles Still Happen" (1974) is based on the story. Koepcke's story was also told in the documentary film "Wings of Hope" (1998) by director Werner Herzog. Koepcke's memoir "Als ich vom Himmel fiel" was published by the German publisher Piper Malik on March 10, 2011.(The English edition "When I Fell From the Sky", was published by Titletown Publishing in November 2011.)


title: LANSA Flight 508

text: The crash also features in the final season-one episode of the Discovery Channel documentary "Aircrash Confidential". The episode was first aired in 2011, and features an interview with Koepcke.


title: Fermi problem

text: In physics or engineering education, a Fermi problem, Fermi quiz, Fermi question, Fermi estimate, order-of-magnitude problem, order-of-magnitude estimate, or order estimation is an estimation problem designed to teach dimensional analysis or approximation of extreme scientific calculations, and such a problem is usually a back-of-the-envelope calculation. The estimation technique is named after physicist Enrico Fermi as he was known for his ability to make good approximate calculations with little or no actual data. Fermi problems typically involve making justified guesses about quantities and their variance or lower and upper bounds. In some cases, order-of-magnitude estimates can also be derived using dimensional analysis.


title: Fermi problem

text: An example is Enrico Fermi's estimate of the strength of the atomic bomb that detonated at the Trinity test, based on the distance traveled by pieces of paper he dropped from his hand during the blast. Fermi's estimate of 10 kilotons of TNT was well within an order of magnitude of the now-accepted value of 21 kilotons.


title: Fermi problem

text: Fermi questions are often extreme in nature, and cannot usually be solved using common mathematical or scientific information.


title: Fermi problem

text: Possibly the most famous Fermi Question is the Drake equation, which seeks to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. The basic question of why, if there were a significant number of such civilizations, ours has never encountered any others is called the Fermi paradox.


title: Fermi problem

text: Scientists often look for Fermi estimates of the answer to a problem before turning to more sophisticated methods to calculate a precise answer. This provides a useful check on the results. While the estimate is almost certainly incorrect, it is also a simple calculation that allows for easy error checking, and to find faulty assumptions if the figure produced is far beyond what we might reasonably expect. By contrast, precise calculations can be extremely complex but with the expectation that the answer they produce is correct. The far larger number of factors and operations involved can obscure a very significant error, either in mathematical process or in the assumptions the equation is based on, but the result may still be assumed to be right because it has been derived from a precise formula that is expected to yield good results. Without a reasonable frame of reference to work from it is seldom clear if a result is acceptably precise or is many degrees of magnitude (tens or hundreds of times) too big or too small. The Fermi estimation gives a quick, simple way to obtain this frame of reference for what might reasonably be expected to be the answer.


title: Fermi problem

text: As long as the initial assumptions in the estimate are reasonable quantities, the result obtained will give an answer within the same scale as the correct result, and if not gives a base for understanding why this is the case. For example, suppose you were asked to determine the number of piano tuners in Chicago.


title: Fermi problem

text: If your initial estimate told you there should be a hundred or so, but the precise answer tells you there are many thousands, then you know you need to find out why there is this divergence from the expected result. First looking for errors, then for factors the estimation didn't take account of – Does Chicago have a number of music schools or other places with a disproportionately high ratio of pianos to people? Whether close or very far from the observed results, the context the estimation provides gives useful information both about the process of calculation and the assumptions that have been used to look at problems.


title: Fermi problem

text: Fermi estimates are also useful in approaching problems where the optimal choice of calculation method depends on the expected size of the answer. For instance, a Fermi estimate might indicate whether the internal stresses of a structure are low enough that it can be accurately described by linear elasticity; or if the estimate already bears significant relationship in scale relative to some other value, for example, if a structure will be over-engineered to withstand loads several times greater than the estimate.


title: Fermi problem

text: Although Fermi calculations are often not accurate, as there may be many problems with their assumptions, this sort of analysis does tell us what to look for to get a better answer. For the above example, we might try to find a better estimate of the number of pianos tuned by a piano tuner in a typical day, or look up an accurate number for the population of Chicago. It also gives us a rough estimate that may be good enough for some purposes: if we want to start a store in Chicago that sells piano tuning equipment, and we calculate that we need 10,000 potential customers to stay in business, we can reasonably assume that the above estimate is far enough below 10,000 that we should consider a different business plan (and, with a little more work, we could compute a rough upper bound on the number of piano tuners by considering the most extreme "reasonable" values that could appear in each of our assumptions).


title: Fermi problem

text: Fermi estimates generally work because the estimations of the individual terms are often close to correct, and overestimates and underestimates help cancel each other out. That is, if there is no consistent bias, a Fermi calculation that involves the multiplication of several estimated factors (such as the number of piano tuners in Chicago) will probably be more accurate than might be first supposed.


title: Fermi problem

text: In detail, multiplying estimates corresponds to adding their logarithms; thus one obtains a sort of Wiener process or random walk on the logarithmic scale, which diffuses as formula_1 (in number of terms "n"). In discrete terms, the number of overestimates minus underestimates will have a binomial distribution. In continuous terms, if one makes a Fermi estimate of "n" steps, with standard deviation "σ" units on the log scale from the actual value, then the overall estimate will have standard deviation formula_2, since the standard deviation of a sum scales as formula_1 in the number of summands.


title: Fermi problem

text: For instance, if one makes a 9-step Fermi estimate, at each step overestimating or underestimating the correct number by a factor of 2 (or with a standard deviation 2), then after 9 steps the standard error will have grown by a logarithmic factor of formula_4, so 2 = 8. Thus one will expect to be within to 8 times the correct value – within an order of magnitude, and much less than the worst case of erring by a factor of 2 = 512 (about 2.71 orders of magnitude). If one has a shorter chain or estimates more accurately, the overall estimate will be correspondingly better.


title: Fermi problem

text: There are or have been a number of university-level courses devoted to estimation and the solution of Fermi problems. The materials for these courses are a good source for additional Fermi problem examples and material about solution strategies:


title: Children's television series

text: Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evening, allowing younger children to watch them after school. The purpose of these shows is mainly to entertain or educate. The children's series are in four categories: those aimed at infants and toddlers, those aimed at those aged 6 to 11 years old, those for adolescents and those aimed at all children.


title: Children's television series

text: Children's television is nearly as old as television itself. The BBC's "Children's Hour", broadcast in the UK in 1946, is generally credited with being the first TV programme specifically for children.


title: Children's television series

text: Television for children tended to originate from similar programs on radio; the BBC's "Children's Hour" was launched in 1922, and BBC School Radio began broadcasting in 1924. In the US in the early 1930s, adventure serials such as "Little Orphan Annie" began to emerge, becoming a staple of children's afternoon radio listening.


title: Children's television series

text: Early children's shows included "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" (1947), "Howdy Doody", and "Captain Kangaroo". Many of the earliest Westerns were targeted at a children's audience, stemming back to when children's radio serials often were set in a Western setting. "Ding Dong School", which aired from 1952 to 1965, was one of the first attempts to produce educational programming for very young children; its creator and host, Frances Horwich, would sit in front of the camera and simulate small talk with the viewing audience at home, demonstrating basic skills for the camera. "Winky Dink and You" took a more interactive approach, prompting its viewers to affix a clear vinyl screen to their television and draw pictures to match what was going on on-screen; safety concerns and widespread reports of children drawing directly on the television screen and causing damage led to that show's end in 1957. Later shows for very young children include "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company" and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". In the 1990s, more children's television series such as "Barney & Friends," "Blue's Clues," "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Bear in the Big Blue House," and "The Big Comfy Couch" were created.


title: Children's television series

text: In the United States, early children's television was often a marketing branch of a larger corporate product and it rarely contained any educational elements (for instance, "The Magic Clown", a popular early children's program, was primarily an advertisement for Bonomo's Turkish taffy product). In the early years of television, advertising to children posed a dilemma, as most children have no disposable income of their own, making them less than ideal candidates for advertising targets; as such, children's television was not a particularly high priority for the networks.


title: Children's television series

text: This practice continued, albeit in a much toned-down manner, through the 1980s in the United States, when the Federal Communications Commission prohibited tie-in advertising on broadcast television. These regulations do not apply to cable, which is out of the reach of the FCC's content regulations. Due to the success of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", the 1980s saw a dramatic rise in toyline-centered television programs, including animated series such as "", "M.A.S.K.", "My Little Pony", and "", a spinoff of "He-Man".


title: Children's television series

text: Later non-educational children's television programs included the science fiction programmes of Irwin Allen (most notably "Lost in Space"), the fantasy series of Sid and Marty Krofft, the extensive cartoon empire of Hanna-Barbera and the numerous sitcoms that aired as part of TGIF in the 1990s, many of these programs fit a broader description of family-friendly television, targeting a broad demographic that includes adults without excluding children.


title: Children's television series

text: Commercial-free children television was first introduced with "Sesame Street" on PBS in November 1969, it was produced by what is now known as Sesame Workshop (formerly CTW).


title: Children's television series

text: In the United States, Saturday mornings were generally scheduled with cartoon from the 1960s to 1980s as viewership with that programming would pull in 20 million watchers which dropped to 2 million in 2003. In 1992, teen comedies and a "Today" show weekend edition were first to displace the cartoon blocks on NBC. Starting in September 2002, the networks turned to their affiliated cable cartoon channels or outside programmers for their blocks. The other two Big Three television networks soon did the same. Infomercials replaced the cartoon on Fox in 2008.


title: Children's television series

text: The Saturday cartoons were less of a draw due to the various cable cartoon channels (Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network, etc.) being available all week starting in the 1990s. Recordable options became more prevalent in the 1990s with videocassette recorder and then its 21st-century replacements of DVDs, DVRs and streaming services. FCC rule changes in the 1990s regarding the E/I programming and limitation on kid-focus advertising made the cartoons less profitable. Another possible contributor is the rising divorce rate and the following children's visitation pushed more "quality time" with the kids instead of TV watching.


title: Children's television series

text: On September 27, 2014, the last traditional Saturday network morning cartoon block, "Vortexx", ended and was replaced the following week by the syndicated "One Magnificent Morning" on The CW.


title: Children's television series

text: Children's television series can target a wide variety of key demographics; the programming used to target these demographics varies by age and gender. Few television networks target infants and toddlers under two years of age, in part due to widespread opposition to the practice. Children's programming can be targeted toward persons 2 to 11 years of age; in practice, this is further divided into the "preschool" demographic (2 to 6 years old) and the older children or "preteen/tween" demographic (6 to 11 years old).


title: Children's television series

text: Preschool-oriented programming is generally more overtly educational. In a number of cases, such shows are produced in consultation with educators and child psychologists in an effort to teach age-appropriate lessons (the series "Sesame Street" pioneered this approach when it debuted in 1969). Adaptations of illustrated children's book series are one subgenre of shows targeted at younger children. A format that has increased in popularity since the 1990s (see, for example, "Blue's Clues", "Dora the Explorer", "Pocoyo", "Numberblocks", and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse") is the "pseudo-interactive" program, in which the action of the show stops and breaks the fourth wall to give a young viewer the opportunity to answer a question or dilemma put forth on the show, with the action continuing as if the viewer answered correctly.


title: Children's television series

text: Shows that target the demographic of persons 6 to 11 years old focus primarily on entertainment and can range from comedic cartoons (with an emphasis on slapstick) to action series. Most children's television series targeting this age range are animated (with a few exceptions, perhaps the best-known being the long-running "Power Rangers" franchise), and many often specifically target boys (especially in the case of action series), girls or sometimes both. Efforts to create educational programming for this demographic have had a mixed record of success; although such series made up the bulk of educational programming on broadcast television in the first decade of the 2000s, they also tend to have very low viewership. PBS had somewhat greater success with its now defunct educational programming block, PBS Kids GO!, that targets this demographic.


title: Children's television series

text: The teen demographic targets viewers 12 to 17 years of age. Live-action series that target this demographic are more dramatic and developed, including teen dramas and teen sitcoms. In some cases, they may contain more mature content that is usually not permissible on shows targeting younger viewers, and can include some profanity or suggestive dialogue. animation shows are also used to targeting this kind of demographic; cartoons that are aimed at teenagers generally feature more crude humor than those oriented toward younger children. Educational programming targeted at this demographic has historically been rare, other than on NASA TV's education block; this has somewhat changed with Litton Entertainment's entry into educational television in the early 2010s, as Litton's programs exploited a loophole in U.S. regulations that allows teen-oriented programs to be counted as educational but not be subject to restrictions on advertising for children's programs. However, some programming aimed at the demographic has had some tangential educational value in regards to social issues, such as the now-defunct TNBC block of sitcoms, which often tackled issues such as underage drinking or drug use.


title: Children's television series

text: In a study titled "Four-Year-Olds’ Beliefs About How Others Regard Males and Females," researcher May Ling Halim observed how television viewing and interactions of parents within a household may affect a child's perception on gender. She had about 250 four-year-olds interviewed and she asked them questions about their parents, the opposite gender, how much TV they watched and about their feelings on their own gender. The study used four-year-olds because at age four, children are able to make distinctions concerning gender and concerning how two people may view the same thing in different ways. The results of the study showed that for the most part, children were shielded from society's gender hierarchy. Each seemed to favor their own gender which is typical of little kids. Household hierarchy as well as exposure to TV increased children's awareness of the gender hierarchies that are present in the adult world. Halim also observed how society's higher valuing of males could affect how children approach pathways to academics and occupations later in their lives.


title: Children's television series

text: Whether the shows are from Nickelodeon or from the Disney Channel, there are many instances where boys and girls are cast in typical roles that are recognized widely by society and a large percentage of the world. While there are many studies that have been done exploring the topic of children's perceptions of gender through television, there are few pieces of concrete evidence that tell people that what children are watching is actually harmful to them.


title: Children's television series

text: For years, Broadcast Standards and Practices departments of networks, Parental Guidelines, and campaigns by social conservatives limited "efforts to make kids animation more inclusive." While some executives blame these as reasons their shows aren't as inclusive as they could be, those who work on shows say they felt pressure from networks and studios to "be less overt with LGBTQ characters or avoid depicting elements of LGBTQ culture altogether." One former executive of Disney, David Levine, said that "a lot of conservative opinion" drove what was depicted on Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and other alike channels. Some argued that cable television, which began to pick up in the 1990s, "opened the door for more representation" even though various levels of approvals remained.


title: Children's television series

text: Through the 2000s, GLAAD bemoaned the lack of LGBT representation. In 2014, when GLAAD continued to argue that "children's programming has been slow to reflect the diversity its audience is experiencing in its daily life." Two years later, they recorded the highest number of LGBTQ characters they ever recorded up to that point. In 2017, some said that LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were somewhat rare, despite the fact that GLAAD praised the number of characters in broadcast and primetime television.


title: Children's television series

text: From 2017 to 2019, Insider noted that there was a "more than 200% spike in queer and gender-minority characters in children's animated TV shows." In 2018 and 2019, GLAAD stated that Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, had increased LGBTQ representation in "daytime kids and family television." In May 2019, Ashley Fetters and Natalie Escobar argued, in "The Atlantic", that the episode of "Arthur" where two male characters got married "marks a poignant moment in children's TV history" since you can count on kids shows with gay characters, mentioning specifically "Adventure Time", "Steven Universe", "The Legend of Korra", "Gravity Falls", "Clarence", and "The Loud House". In December 2020, Amy Friedman, head of programming for Cartoon Network and HBO Max Kids & Family, stated that they are looking "at ourselves across the inclusion and equity spectrum" including LGBTQ+, to evaluate projects in production, development, and which have been greenlighted. In their January 2021 report, GLAAD praised LGBTQ representation in episodes of "DuckTales", "The Owl House" and "".


title: Children's television series

text: In October 2020, Rebecca Sugar, creator of "Steven Universe", said that she loved being able to place her experiences in a different context "through a nonbinary lens" when writing characters for the show. In June 2021, Sugar told NPR that one of her motivators for the show was making sure "nonbinary, gender-expansive kids...have a show." In March 2021, Sugar told "Vanity Fair" that she had been determined to make "queer couples and narratives" integral to the story in ways that are "impossible to censor," and had to fight internally for the representation. In June 2021, Taneka Stotts, a genderfluid writer for "Steven Universe Future" told Insider that Sugar "went out of the way to make sure that their show was [staffed] as inclusive as possible", hiring talented people notice on Tumblr and Twitter instead of industry regulars. Sugar explained that being at the forefront of LGBTQ representation meant that beyond what they were creating there was "very little queer content" and said she feared that her identity and content in the show could lead to its cancellation if she spoke about it openly, noting that support for the show was "often very qualified and hurtful".


title: Children's television series

text: Some, like journalist Abbey White, have argued that these shows are the "last battleground for LGBTQ representation," saying that if it can be in these shows, there is no excuse for it not being anywhere else in media, citing "Danger & Eggs", "Steven Universe", and "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" as examples. White further said that it is "exciting to see people queering their entire narratives in ways" that reach children and a "broader audience." They and Kalai White also noted that shows run by showrunners who are queer, non-binary, or trans are "largely responsible for the influx of nonbinary and trans characters in kids' animation," while facing challenges to adding more representation to their shows. Despite this, White stated that more than 90% of LGBTQ characters in kid's animated shows within Insider's database of characters in children's animated television shows "require either a cable, satellite, streaming, or internet subscription to view them on first airing."


title: Children's television series

text: Children's television is created for many markets, with notable successes like "Play School", "Noggin the Nog", "Thunderbirds", "Mr. Men" and "Thomas & Friends" originating from the UK, "Le Manege Enchantè" from France, "The Singing Ringing Tree" from Germany, and "Marine Boy" from Japan.


title: Children's television series

text: Canadian studio Nelvana is a particularly prolific producer of children's programming. Much of Nelvana's product is broadcast worldwide, especially in the US, where the similarities in dialect require without any dubbing or localization.


title: Children's television series

text: In the United States, there are three major commercial cable networks dedicated to children's television. All three also operate secondary services with specialized scopes drawing upon their respective libraries, such as a focus on specific demographics, or a focus upon classic programming that fall within their scope and demographics; all three have also extensively franchised their brands outside the United States.


title: Children's television series

text: Under current mandates, all broadcast television stations in the United States must show a minimum of three hours per week of educational children's programming, regardless of format. Until 2019, this rule also applied to digital subchannels; as a result, digital multicast networks whose formats should not fit children's programming, such as Live Well Network and TheCoolTV, were required to carry educational programs to fit the FCC mandates. (The rule for digital subchannels was repealed in July 2019; in practice, most still carry educational programs anyway.) In 2017, there was a programming block that aired on syndication called KidsClick; it was notable as a concerted effort to program children's shows on television without regard to their educational content, one of the first such efforts since the E/I rule took effect. The transition to digital television has allowed for the debut of whole subchannels that air children's programming 24/7; examples include BabyFirst, PBS Kids, Smile, and Universal Kids. The country's only directly nationally operated TV service for public consumption, NASA TV, also includes educational programs in its schedule for use in schools.


title: Children's television series

text: English-language children's specialty channels in Canada are primarily owned by Corus Entertainment and WildBrain. Corus operates YTV, Treehouse, and Teletoon, as well as localized versions of the Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Nickelodeon brands. WildBrain operates Family Channel, as well as the spin-off services Chrgd and Family Jr. it has been majority owned and operated by British Columbia's public broadcaster Knowledge Network.


title: Children's television series

text: In French, Corus operates Télétoon and La chaîne Disney, WildBrain operates Télémagino (a French version of Family Jr.), TVA Group operates the preschool-oriented Yoopa, and Bell Media runs the teen-oriented Vrak. Via its majority-owned subsidiary Telelatino, Corus also operates two children and family-oriented networks in Spanish and Italian, TeleNiños and Telebimbi respectively.


title: Children's television series

text: On broadcast television and satellite to cable undertakings, children's television content is relegated to the country's public and designated provincial educational broadcasters, including CBC Television and Ici Radio-Canada Télé, as well as City Saskatchewan, CTV Two Alberta (formerly Access), Knowledge Network, Télé-Québec, TFO, and TVOntario (TVOKids).


title: Children's television series

text: Aided by the cultural similarities between Canada and the US, along with film credits and subsidies available from the Canadian government, a large number of animated children's series have been made in Canada with the intention of exporting them to the United States. Such programs carry in their closing credits.