title: Active site

text: Competitive inhibitors are inhibitors that only target free enzyme molecules. They compete with substrates for free enzyme acceptor and can be overcome by increasing the substrate concentration. They have two mechanisms. Competitive inhibitors usually have structural similarities to the substrates and or ES complex. As a result, they can fit into the active site and trigger favourable interactions to fill in the space and block substrates from entry. They can also induce transient conformational changes in the active site so substrates cannot fit perfectly with it. After a short period of time, competitive inhibitors will drop off and leave the enzyme intact.


title: Active site

text: Inhibitors are classified as non-competitive inhibitors when they bind both free enzyme and ES complex. Since they do not compete with substrates for the active site, they cannot be overcome by simply increasing the substrate concentration. They usually bind to a different site on the enzyme and alter the 3-dimensional structure of the active site to block substrates from entry or leaving the enzyme.


title: Active site

text: Irreversible inhibitors are similar to competitive inhibitors as they both bind to the active site. However, irreversible inhibitors form irreversible covalent bonds with the amino acid residues in the active site and never leave. Therefore, the active site is occupied and the substrate cannot enter. Occasionally the inhibitor will leave but the catalytic site is permanently altered in shape. These inhibitors usually contain electrophilic groups like halogen substitutes and epoxides. As time goes by more and more enzymes are bound by irreversible inhibitors and cannot function anymore.


title: Active site

text: HIV protease inhibitors are used to treat patients having AIDS virus by preventing its DNA replication. HIV protease is used by the virus to cleave Gag-Pol polyprotein into 3 smaller proteins that are responsible for virion assembly, package and maturation. This enzyme targets the specific phenylalanine-proline cleave site within the target protein. If HIV protease is switched off the virion particle will lose function and cannot infect patients. Since it is essential in viral replication and is absent in healthy human, it is an ideal target for drug development.


title: Active site

text: HIV protease belongs to aspartic protease family and has a similar mechanism. Firstly the aspartate residue activates a water molecule and turns it into a nucleophile. Then it attacks the carbonyl group within the peptide bond (NH-CO) to form a tetrahedral intermediate. The nitrogen atom within the intermediate receives a proton, forming an amide group and subsequent rearrangement leads to the break down of the bond between it and the intermediate and forms two products.


title: Active site

text: Inhibitors usually contain a nonhydrolyzable hydroxyethylene or hydroxyethylamine groups that mimic the tetrahedral intermediate. Since they share a similar structure and electrostatic arrangement to the transition state of substrates they can still fit into the active site but cannot be broken down, so hydrolysis cannot occur.


title: Active site

text: Strychnine is a neurotoxin that causes death by affecting nerves that control muscular contraction and cause respiration difficulty. The impulse is transmitted between the synapse through a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. It is released into the synapse between nerve cells and binds to receptors in the postsynaptic cell. Then an action potential is generated and transmitted through the postsynaptic cell to start a new cycle.


title: Active site

text: Glycine can inhibit the activity of neurotransmitter receptors, thus a larger amount of acetylcholinesterase is required to trigger an action potential. This makes sure that the generation of nerve impulses is tightly controlled. However, this control is broken down when strychnine is added. It inhibits glycine receptors(a chloride channel) and a much lower level of neurotransmitter concentration can trigger an action potential. Nerves now constantly transmit signals and cause excessive muscular contraction, leading to asphyxiation and death.


title: Active site

text: Diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DIFP) is an irreversible inhibitor that blocks the action of serine protease. When it binds to the enzyme a nucleophilic substitution reaction occurs and releases one hydrogen fluoride molecule. The OH group in the active site acts as a nucleophile to attack the phosphorus in DIFP and form a tetrahedral intermediate and release a proton. Then the P-F bond is broken, one electron is transferred to the F atom and it leaves the intermediate as F anion. It combines with a proton in solution to form one HF molecule. A covalent bond formed between the active site and DIFP, so the serine side chain is no longer available to the substrate.


title: Active site

text: Identification of active sites is crucial in the process of drug discovery. The 3-D structure of the enzyme is analysed to identify active site residues and design drugs which can fit into them. Proteolytic enzymes are targets for some drugs, such as protease inhibitors, which include drugs against AIDS and hypertension. These protease inhibitors bind to an enzyme's active site and block interaction with natural substrates. An important factor in drug design is the strength of binding between the active site and an enzyme inhibitor. If the enzyme found in bacteria is significantly different from the human enzyme then an inhibitor can be designed against that particular bacterium without harming the human enzyme. If one kind of enzyme is only present in one kind of organism, its inhibitor can be used to specifically wipe them out.


title: Active site

text: Active sites can be mapped to aid the design of new drugs such as enzyme inhibitors. This involves the description of the size of an active site and the number and properties of sub-sites, such as details of the binding interaction. Modern database technology called CPASS (Comparison of Protein Active Site Structures) however allows the comparison of active sites in more detail and the finding of structural similarity using software.


title: Active site

text: An allosteric site is a site on an enzyme, unrelated to its active site, which can bind an effector molecule. This interaction is another mechanism of enzyme regulation. Allosteric modification usually happens in proteins with more than one subunit. Allosteric interactions are often present in metabolic pathways and are beneficial in that they allow one step of a reaction to regulate another step. They allow an enzyme to have a range of molecular interactions, other than the highly specific active site.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, audio dramas, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese films and television programs.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In Japan, and actresses have devoted fan clubs due to a crossover with the idol industry, and some fans may watch a show merely to hear a particular voice actor. Many voice actors have concurrent singing careers and have also crossed over to live-action media.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: There are around 130 voice acting schools in Japan. Broadcast companies and talent agencies often have their own troupes of vocal actors. Magazines focusing specifically on voice acting are published in Japan, with "Voice Animage" being the longest running.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: The term character voice (abbreviated CV) has been commonly used since the 1980s by such Japanese anime magazines as "" and "Newtype" to describe a voice actor associated with a particular anime or game character.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: A provides voice-overs for characters and narration for various types of media, including anime, video games, audio dramas, live-action stunt and puppet shows, and commercials. A voice actor also provides dubbing for non-Japanese television programs and films. The initial term for voice actors in Japan was , but was later shortened to a compound word to make the word . While several voice actors opposed the term, believing it devalued their roles as actors, only after voice acting became more prominent did the word become more widespread.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: Voice acting has existed in Japan since the advent of radio. It was only in the 1970s that the term seiyū entered popular usage because of the anime "Space Battleship Yamato". According to a newspaper interview with a voice talent manager, "Since the Yamato boom, the word 'seiyū' has become instantly recognised; before that, actors and actresses who introduced themselves as seiyū were often asked, 'You mean you work for Seiyu supermarket?'"


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: The earliest Japanese animation would predate the introduction of audio in film by at least a decade. Much like their live-action contemporaries during this period, screenings would have musical accompaniment and oftentimes include a "benshi" (narrator). The benshi would fulfill a role similar to ones in the Japanese puppet theater and magic lantern shows, where the narration would fill in dialogue and other story elements. With the introduction of sound in film, voices were often pulled from the available staff. For example, in "Benkei tai Ushiwaka" animator Kenzō Masaoka cast himself and his wife as the titular Benkei and Ushiwaka, respectively.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In 1925, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company (predecessor to the NHK, Japan's public broadcasting system) started radio broadcasts. In that same year, twelve students who were specialising in voice-only performances became the first voice actors in Japan when a performance of a radio drama was broadcast. They referred to themselves as "seiyū", but in those days the term was used by newspapers to refer to the profession.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In 1941, NHK opened a training program to the public to prepare actors to specialise in radio dramas. This was called the . Then in 1942, the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe debuted its first performance. This was the second time that the term "seiyū" was used to refer to voice actors.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: There are several theories as to how the term "seiyū" was coined. One theory is that Oyhashi Tokusaburo, a reporter for the Yomiuri Newspaper, coined the term. Another theory is that Tatsu Ooka, an entertainment programming managing producer for the NHK, came up with it.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: At first, voice actors, like those at the Tokyo Radio Drama Troupe and similar companies specialised in radio dramas; with the advent of television, the term took on the additional meaning of one who does dubbing for animation. Television broadcasting aside, when radio was the leading mass medium, actors who played in radio dramas were not without their fans; for example, actors in the Nagoya Radio Drama troupe who played the lead love interest roles often received many fan letters.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: Starting in the 1950s, a rise in the popularity of radio dramas as well as foreign television and film created many new opportunities for voice actors. After the , the "Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK)" began public broadcasting. Among these new broadcasts were several radio dramas, such as the 1952 drama "", which would receive several adaptations on film, television, and stage due to its popularity.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: Actors that were famous for their roles in dubbing and radio were used for their star power to voice similar characters in several anime productions. For example, Yasuo Yamada, who was famous for his Japanese dub of Clint Eastwood, was chosen to voice Arsène Lupin III for the "Lupin III series."


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In 1961, during the early days of commercial television broadcasting, the Five-Company Agreement (Gosha Agreement) caused the supply of Japanese movies that were available to Japanese television stations to dry up. As a result, in the 1960s many foreign dramas and other foreign programming was imported and dubbed into Japanese language for television broadcast.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: At first, the NHK subtitled most foreign shows; however, shows dubbed in the Japanese language soon became the standard. At the centre of the first voice acting boom were actors like Nachi Nozawa, who dubbed the same foreign actors, in Nozawa's case Alain Delon, Robert Redford, and Giuliano Gemma. Because of problems with pay guarantees arising from the Gosha Agreement, cinema actors were prevented from dubbing foreign movies for television. Television actors were also prevented from dubbing because of a similar agreement. This caused studios to turn to actors from the radio age and actors from the "Shingeki" style of acting. Around this time dubbing of foreign animation was done by Rakugo story tellers, Asakusa comedians, and the like, and voice actors were called "dubbing talents" if they specialised in dubbing, while those giving voice to a character went under the name of ""ateshi"". It is during this golden age for dubbing that the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society was founded. Later, Haikyo voice acting managers left and opened their own management agencies. Voice actors in Japan also voiced anime.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: The first dubbed show broadcast in Japan was an episode of the American cartoon "Superman", on October 9, 1955, on KRT (today TBS), and the first non-animated dubbed show broadcast was "Cowboy G-Men", again by KRT, in 1956. Both were dubbed live; the first show to be broadcast with pre-recorded dubbing was on April 8, 1956.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: During the late 1970s, Akio Nojima, Kazuyuki Sogabe, Akira Kamiya, Tōru Furuya and Toshio Furukawa were the first to unite into a band, , and perform live. Many other voice actors released their own albums. At around 1979 the first anime magazines began to be published. The then editor-in-chief of Animage, Hideo Ogata, was the first to publish editorials on the ongoing transformation of voice actors into idols. Following his lead, the other magazines created "seiyū corners" with information and gossip about voice actors; this was one of the main causes of young anime fans yearning to become voice actors. This period also saw a gradual split of anime voice actors from their roots in theater. With the rise of voice actor specific training centers and audio-only productions, voice actors could start their careers working full time without any association to a broadcasting theater company. The term "seiyu" emerged to describe these voice actors who focused solely on voicing for anime productions. This boom lasted until the first half of the 1980s.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In 1989, the voice actors of the five main stars of the animated television show "Ronin Warriors" (Nozomu Sasaki, Takeshi Kusao, Hiroshi Takemura, Tomohiro Nishimura and Daiki Nakamura) formed an all-male singing group called "NG5". The group was featured as the subject of a special documentary program on MBS.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: During this period, voice acting production companies also began to provide specialised courses at on-site training schools specifically for training in animation dubbing.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: The 1960s and 1970s booms were centered on media, such as the TV. In the 1990s, a new boom centred on more personal ways of communication, such as radio shows, Original Video Animation, television quizzes, public events and the Internet, gave way to the publication of the first dedicated voice acting magazines, and Voice Animage. Voice actors acquired many new fans thanks to the radio, and their CD sale figures increased. Concerts began to be held in the bigger halls. While the second boom also saw the voice actors become DJs, this time the recording houses backed the voice actor radio shows as sponsors, and large sums of money began to circulate. Megumi Hayashibara, Hekiru Shiina and Mariko Kouda are the first examples of this new trend. Recording companies and voice acting schools began to devise new ways to raise young voice actors.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: When voice acting was introduced in television games, the same voice actors would perform in a series of events related to the television game world, making appearances and participating in radio programs based on the television games to attract the fanbase.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: In the second half of the 1990s, the boom in the animation world led to the increase of anime shown in the Tokyo area. With the Internet, gathering information on their favourite voice actors became easy for fans, and voice actors began to appear in Internet-based radio shows.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: From to , the world's first digital satellite radio broadcaster, St.GIGA, transmitted episodic video games with voice acted overdubs in a separate and continually streaming vocal track (a technique called SoundLink), to be played in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom video game console with its Satellaview peripheral. "BS Zelda no Densetsu" was identified by Nintendo as the world's first integrated radio-game.


title: Voice acting in Japan

text: During the mid-to-late 2000s, voice acting talents began crossing over with the Japanese idol industry. Prominent examples include Aya Hirano, Koharu Kusumi, and Nana Mizuki, all of whom were established actors or singers in mainstream entertainment before entering voice acting. While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another. The term "2.5D", which picked up frequent usage in the mid-2010s, was used to describe voice actors who would portray their characters in real life, such as television or stage plays. Over the mid-to-late 2010s, multimedia projects where the voice actors would appear as their characters in real-life became popular, such as "The Idolmaster" and "Love Live!" The magazine "Seiyū Grand Prix" noted that over 1,500 voice actors were active in 2021, compared to 370 voice actors (145 men and 225 women) in 2001.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: The Indian National Kabaddi Team represents India in international men's kabaddi competitions. The team is by far the most successful national kabaddi side of any country, winning gold medals at the Asian Games in 1990 (the first year the sport was contested), 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014, as well as winning all three Kabaddi World Cup events to date. Maninder Singh (kabaddi) is the current captain of the team (declared so in 2022) after Deepak Niwas Hooda (former captain) was suffering from bad form in PKL 9.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: Kabaddi was contested at the Asian Games as a competitive (non-exhibition) sport for the first time in 1990. India beat Bangladesh in the gold medal match for both the 1990 Asian Games and 1994 Asian Games. India lost to Pakistan in the 1993 South Asian Games gold medal match. In the 1998 Asian Games held in Bangkok, the team beat arch rivals Pakistan for the gold medal.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: India won the inaugural Kabaddi World Cup in 2004, beating Iran by a 55–27 margin. They repeated the feat three years later, beating the Iranians 29–19.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: When the Kabaddi World Cup resumed again in 2016 after a nine-year hiatus, India beat Iran for the third final in a row by 38–29.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: In 2017, India won the Asian Kabaddi Championship led by raider Ajay Thakur by defeating Pakistan in the final by 36–22.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: At the 2018 Asian Games, India lost to South Korea 23–24 in the group stages – this was the Indian team's first ever loss in their history at the Asian Games. Despite the loss, India qualified for the semi-finals, but lost 27–18 to Iran, who went on to win the gold.


title: India national kabaddi team

text: India won the gold at the 2019 South Asian Games led by Deepak Niwas Hooda, beating Sri Lanka in the final by 51–18 with raider Naveen Kumar Goyat bagging a Super 10.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Bobby Lee Bonds (March 15, 1946 – August 23, 2003) was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball from to , primarily with the San Francisco Giants. Noted for his outstanding combination of power hitting and speed, he was the first player to have more than two seasons of 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, doing so a record five times (the record was matched only by his son Barry), and was the first to accomplish the feat in both major leagues; he became the second player to hit 300 career home runs and steal 300 bases, joining Willie Mays. Together with Barry, he is part of baseball's most accomplished father-son combination, holding the record for combined home runs, RBIs, and stolen bases. A prolific leadoff hitter, he also set major league records for most times leading off a game with a home run in a career (35) and a season (11, in ); both records have since been broken.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Born in Riverside, California, Bonds played varsity high school baseball at Riverside Polytechnic High School and signed with the Giants in . His sister, Rosie, was a 1964 Olympic hurdler. His brother, Robert, won two gold medals in the hurdles at the high school track and field state finals in 1960, and was an NFL Draft pick in 1965. In 1964, he was a High School All-American in track & field, while also being named Southern California High School Athlete of the Year. Playing in the Giants' minor league system, he was Most Valuable Player of the class-A Western Carolinas League.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: He hit a grand slam in his third at bat in his first major league game, June 25, 1968, becoming just the second player, and the first in MLB's modern era, to hit a grand slam in his debut game. The first was Bill Duggleby in 1898. Bonds was named to the 1968 Topps All-Star Rookie Team.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Bonds was remarkable during his era for his combination of power and speed, but also for his propensity to strike out. In his first full season in , he set a major league record with 187 strikeouts, while also leading the NL in runs. He broke his own strikeout record a year later with 189. That record lasted until , when Adam Dunn broke it by striking out 195 times. This mark now belongs to Mark Reynolds with 223 in 2009. Bonds' 1970 total currently ranks tenth on the all-time single-season strikeout list. When Bonds retired, he ranked third in career strikeouts with 1,757, behind Willie Stargell's 1,912 and Reggie Jackson's 1,810. Bobby Bonds hit 39 home runs and had 43 stolen bases in 1973 — the highest level of home runs and stolen bases (39+ of each) until José Canseco of the Oakland Athletics in 1988. Barry and Bobby had 1,094 combined home runs through 2007 — a record for a father-son combination. He was a three-time Gold Glove Award winner (1971, 1973–74), and a three-time All-Star (1971, 1973 and 1975, winning the All-Star MVP award in 1973).


title: Bobby Bonds

text: In 1970, he stole a career-high 48 bases, the highest total by a Giant since Frankie Frisch in 1921. Bonds was second in the NL in runs (134), third in triples (10) and stolen bases (48), and fourth in doubles (36) and total bases (334). He also set a major league record with 189 strikeouts, which stood for 34 years until it was broken in 2004 by Adam Dunn.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: In 1971, he finished fourth in the NL in runs batted in and second in runs, leading the Giants with a .288 average as they won the National League West title, earning their first postseason berth since the 1962 World Series. A bruised rib cage limited his play in the 1971 NLCS, his only postseason appearance; he was a late-inning replacement for rookie Dave Kingman in Game 1, and did not play in Game 2 before starting the final two games, batting 2-for-8 in the series. That season, he placed fourth in the NL MVP award voting. In 1972, Bonds scored 118 runs, which was second in the NL (the third straight season he was second in runs scored) and his 26 home runs was ninth in the circuit while his 44 stolen bases was 4th in the league. In 1973, he placed third in the MVP voting after hitting a career-high 39 home runs, 11 of them to start a game, and leading the league in runs a second time. Bonds was named the NL Player of the Year by "The Sporting News" in 1973 and was also named an outfielder on "TSN"'s American League All-Star Team in 1977.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: In 1975, Bonds broke Eddie Yost's career record of 28 leadoff home runs. His eventual record of 35 stood until Rickey Henderson broke it in 1989, and his NL record of 30 was broken by Craig Biggio in 2003. His single-season mark of 11 was broken by Brady Anderson in 1996. His 32 home runs was fourth in the AL and his 30 stolen bases were eighth in the league. He was voted honorable mention on AP's ALl-MLB team.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: After being traded to the New York Yankees for Bobby Murcer after the 1974 season, Bonds became one of the sport's most-traveled figures, playing for seven more teams over seven seasons, with more than one season for only the California Angels (1976–77). With the Angels needing right-handed power hitters, he was acquired from the Yankees for Mickey Rivers and Ed Figueroa on December 11, 1975. In 1977, he tied the Angels club record for home runs in a season (37).


title: Bobby Bonds

text: He was acquired along with Richard Dotson and Thad Bosley by the Chicago White Sox from the Angels for Brian Downing, Chris Knapp and Dave Frost on December 5, 1977. The transaction was part of Bill Veeck and Roland Hemond's rent-a-player strategy in which they attempted to get one productive campaign from a star player who was expected to become a free agent at season's end. It had worked the previous year when Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble helped to keep the White Sox in contention into September, but it failed when the team opened 1978 with Bonds as its right fielder and a 9–20 start. He was sent to the Texas Rangers for Claudell Washington and Rusty Torres on May 16, 1978.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Bonds, along with Len Barker, was dealt from the Rangers to the Cleveland Indians for Jim Kern and Larvell Blanks on October 3, 1978. His trade to the St. Louis Cardinals for John Denny and Jerry Mumphrey on December 7, 1979, was the sixth in just over five years. After his contract was purchased by the Chicago Cubs from the Rangers on June 4, 1981, he had played with eight different MLB teams in eight years. This prompted a line in the lyrics to Terry Cashman's 1981 hit song "Talkin' Baseball", in which the line in part reads "And Bobby Bonds can play for everyone."


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Bonds' 461 career stolen bases ranked 12th in major league history upon his retirement. He was hitting instructor for the Indians from 1984 to 1987, and rejoined the Giants as a coach in 1993 when his son Barry signed with the team as a free agent. As a player, coach, scout and front-office employee, he was with the Giants franchise for 23 seasons. Barry Bonds is the only other player in major league history to hit 300 home runs and steal 400 bases, and also the only other player to have five 30–30 seasons.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Eleven times Bonds was in his league's top 10 in stolen bases, with eight of those season in the top six. Seven times he was among the league top ten home run hitters and nine time he was among the top ten in runs scored, leading the NL in 1971 and 1973. He was in the top ten in total bases eight times, leading the NL in 1973. He had as of 2018 the fifth-highest career power–speed number, behind his son Barry, Rickey Henderson, Willie Mays, and Alex Rodriguez, at 386.0.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: On May 3, 1963, he married Patricia Howard. They had three sons: Barry went on to become one of the greatest major league players of all time; Rick; and Bobby Jr. who played eleven years of pro ball but never made it to the major leagues.


title: Bobby Bonds

text: Bonds died of complications from lung cancer and a brain tumor at age 57 in San Carlos, California. He is interred at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, California.


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold is an American rock band, from Jacksonville, Florida, formed in 1986 by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Scooter Ward, drummer Sam McCandless, bassist Jeremy Marshall and lead guitarist Matt Loughran. The band has gone through numerous lineup changes during its existence, with Ward being the band’s only constant member.


title: Cold (band)

text: After signing to Flip Records/A&M Records, Cold released their debut album "Cold" (1998), which sold poorly due to the closure of A&M shortly after its release, resulting in the band moving to Geffen Records. Cold found mainstream success with "13 Ways to Bleed on Stage" (2000) and its follow-up "Year of the Spider" (2003), which saw the band incorporate influences of post-grunge and alternative rock into their sound; both albums were certified Gold by the RIAA, with the latter reaching number three on the "Billboard" 200 chart and producing the band's only single to chart on the "Billboard" Hot 100, "Stupid Girl". However, Cold would soon part ways with Geffen in March 2004 over disputes surrounding the promotion of "Year of the Spider", and went through a succession of lineup changes throughout the rest of the year"."


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold signed with Lava Records in July 2004, who released their fourth album, "A Different Kind of Pain" (2005); the album's more sombre, downbeat tone alienated fans and subsequently failed to repeat the success of the band's prior albums. After a period of uncertainty, Cold announced their disbandment In November 2006. In July 2008, it was announced that the original line-up would reunite for a tour in early 2009, which later spiralled into a fully fledged reunion. The band have since released two more studio albums; "Superfiction" in 2011, and their most recent album, "The Things We Can't Stop", in 2019.


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold, who at the time were called Grundig, formed in 1986 with the line-up of Scooter Ward (vocals, rhythm guitar), Sam McCandless (drums), Jeremy Marshall (bass) and Matt Loughran (lead guitar) at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. In 1992, the band released an 8-song EP called "Into Everything" Initially based in Jacksonville, they moved to Atlanta hoping to get a break in the industry. During this time, Matt Loughran left the band and was replaced by Sean Lay, who also left the group. Kelly Hayes then joined, and they all later returned to Florida. Three and a half years later in 1995, Grundig broke up and Ward moved back to Jacksonville, where he, McCandless, Kelly Hayes, and Pat Lally formed the band Diablo. Diablo would only last about 3 months. At the end of that three-month period, Grundig reformed under the name Cold in 1996.


title: Cold (band)

text: Following Cold's progress in the Jacksonville scene was local Fred Durst. Impressed by what he had heard, he invited Ward to record two acoustic tracks, "Check Please" and "Ugly." The two demos were passed on to producer Ross Robinson, who was also impressed by what he had heard, leading the recently renamed Cold to record their debut album titled "Cold" in 1997.


title: Cold (band)

text: In 1997, Cold was signed to Flip Records, with distribution through the major label A&M Records. "Cold" was released in 1998, and received positive reviews from critics. However, shortly after its release, A&M folded due to the Universal Music Group–PolyGram merger, resulting in the album's promotion being suddenly cut, which hurt the album's sales greatly; Flip Records' founder, Jordan Schur, described the album as being "a car shut off in midgear", and thus only managed to sell just below 40,000 copies in the US. However, thanks to Schur, Cold avoided being dropped by UMG during the merger, and soon after Flip transferred the band's contract over to Geffen Records, where Schur had just been named president of, in 1999.


title: Cold (band)

text: That same year, the band released the "Oddity EP". Its cover photo, taken by the wife of McCandless, depicts their pet tarantula named Wednesday, crawling on the face of her doll. The band sought a signature element that fans could remember them by, and Wednesday served as the inspiration; McCandless gave a particularly favorable image of a spider to a friend and tattoo artist who transformed it into what would become Cold's official logo. The drummer would later note, "Our music kind of creeps along like a spider."


title: Cold (band)

text: Geffen financed their second album titled "13 Ways to Bleed on Stage", which was released on September 12, 2000. In 1999 before recording the album, the group recruited local guitarist Terry Balsamo, who briefly played for Limp Bizkit. With the new guitar addition Ward was now able to focus more on singing and interacting with the crowd. "13 Ways to Bleed on Stage" proved to be Cold's breakthrough album with successful singles in "End of the World" and "No One" frequently played on hard rock radio, with "No One" hitting No. 17 on Mainstream Rock Tracks and No. 13 on Modern Rock Tracks, and the music video being put in heavy rotation on MTV2. The album included guest singer Aaron Lewis from Staind on the songs "Send in the Clowns" and "Bleed" and singer Sierra Swan from Dollshead on "No One" and "Witch". The song "Just Got Wicked" was also a surprise hit, being featured in the soundtrack to the game Jet Grind Radio and hitting No. 25 on Mainstream Rock tracks, which aided in the band's popularity.


title: Cold (band)

text: In April 2002, the band released "Gone Away, "a surprisingly moody ballad. The song first appeared on the "WWF Tough Enough" album and had a successful music video.


title: Cold (band)

text: With the success of "13 Ways to Bleed on Stage", Geffen financed their third major album titled "Year of the Spider", which was released on May 13, 2003 (It was slated to release in October 2002, but was pushed back). The album has been to date the band's most commercially successful album, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Album charts, with over 101,000 copies of the album sold in its first week of release.[] The album's first single, "Stupid Girl," has been the only Cold single to crack the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at No. 87. Following the release of the album's second single "Suffocate" to radio stations, plans were set-forth for a video to accompany the song. However, a music video was not made due to Geffen not giving approval. The stalemate with the label led to frustrations within the band, and in January 2004 Terry Balsamo departed, replacing Ben Moody in Evanescence. Balsamo was later replaced by ex-Darwin's Waiting Room guitarist Eddie Randini, the following month.


title: Cold (band)

text: In April 2004, guitarist Kelly Hayes quit the band as well. A week later, Hayes officially confirmed his position as the guitarist in the Jacksonville hard rock outfit Allele, a move that had been in the works from the time Terry Balsamo left the band. The band made efforts to release another single, "Wasted Years" from "Year of the Spider". However, Geffen continued to not support the album any further.


title: Cold (band)

text: Subsequently, in March 2004, Cold parted ways with Geffen. Around this time, Cold recorded the soundtrack for the video game "" featuring the songs "With My Mind", "Came All the Way" a b-side from Year of the Spider, "Just Got Wicked (Chris Vrenna Remix)", and "Go Away (Chris Vrenna Eye Socket Remix)" and embarked on a short tour with Sevendust in support of "With My Mind", the single released from the CD. They also performed at E3 to promote the game; however, the song was never released on any of their albums.


title: Cold (band)

text: In May 2004, it was reported that Cold was considering signing with Lava Records, a division of Atlantic Records, with the band officially signing to the label that July. By September 2004, the band had added former member Matt Loughran and set about recording a new album. The album was to be produced by Elvis Baskette and slated to be released in December 2004. However, Cold suffered another blow with Eddie Rendini leaving the band on November 14, 2004. The new album was scheduled to be released in spring of 2005. Before releasing the album, Cold went back in the studio to record several more tracks. The album was originally to be titled "And a Sad Song Lives On" but was later changed to "The Calm that Killed the Storm", and the release date was moved to September 13, 2005.


title: Cold (band)

text: In June 2005, the band's official website noted yet another change to the new album's title, changing it to "A Different Kind of Pain". "Happens All the Time" was the first single and video released. Just prior to shooting the video, the band added Las Vegas guitarist Mike Booth to the band. He would appear in the video and tour with them for a few months, being replaced later that fall by Florida-native Zac Gilbert. The album debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard Albums charts with more than 36,000 copies sold. "A Different Kind of Pain" was the beginning of a significant departure from the more radio-friendly alternative metal sound that was featured in the prior two albums. The title track was released as the second single, but Atlantic did not fund another video. The majority of "A Different Kind of Pain" was written in Ward's sister's bedroom while she had a long battle with cancer, and is said to have been the root of the subject matter on the album. Other subjects include the end of his relationship to his fiancée/mother of his daughter, and the physical abuse of a 14-year-old girl by her own father, and also had an alcoholic mother (a theme echoed from each of the three previous albums). The album has sold over 160,000 copies in the US.


title: Cold (band)

text: On November 17, 2006, a MySpace post announced that Cold had decided to disband permanently. Ward announced that he and McCandless had started a side-project called The Witch, later known as When November Falls and now known as The Killer and the Star. Shortly after forming, McCandless left the project.


title: Cold (band)

text: On July 25, 2008, a blog written by Ward on The Killer and the Star's MySpace confirmed both a b-sides/rarities release and a new Cold album featuring the original line-up, due Fall 2009.


title: Cold (band)

text: In January 2009 Cold officially announced the first dates of its reunion tour on the band's MySpace page. When the page was originally updated, the lineup consisted of Scooter Ward, Sam McCandless, Jeremy Marshall, Kelly Hayes and Terry Balsamo. Hayes was replaced by Joe Bennett, who parted ways with Cold in July 2009 and has been replaced by former Cold guitarist Zac Gilbert. Terry Balsamo was briefly replaced by Michael Harris of Idiot Pilot, who also played bass in The Killer and the Star. After the first tour in the spring, the band went out on the road again later that summer.


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold confirmed on their site that the album had a release in mid-July 2011. Although initially dubbed the "final album," Ward has said on "Alternative Addiction" that Cold will continue to record and tour after the 5th album comes out. The first official single from "Superfiction" was "Wicked World".


title: Cold (band)

text: "Superfiction" was released on July 18, 2011 through Eleven Seven and debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard 200 with 11,317 copies sold. The band had mentioned while touring that they would be including a live version of their song "Snowblind" as a hidden track on the new album, though many fans who have purchased the album noticed that there was no hidden track at all. "Snowblind" was released 8 years later, as a track on their sixth album, The Things That We Can't Stop. The second single from the album, "American Dream", was released on January 1, 2012. The music video for it was released through Eleven Seven official YouTube channel two weeks later.


title: Cold (band)

text: In November 2012, Scooter Ward revealed via Facebook that Cold was going to record an acoustic album of fan favorites from the first four albums, b-sides, rarities and four new songs in 2013. In April 2013, Ward reported that in addition to the acoustic record a double live album was set to be recorded in May 2013 in Jacksonville. Since then there was no news about the acoustic album with the recording of the live album being pushed back. On February 7, 2014, Cold started an Indiegogo campaign for the recording of the double live album and DVD, initially titled "Live in Orlando" and later renamed to "COLD:LIVE". The campaign ended with 167% of the goal raised. On February 28, Cold played their first gig in almost three years in Central Florida Fair with Saliva. On April 28, 2014, the show date & location for the Live DVD were announced - July 12, Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The band also performed a gig as Grundig on July 11, 2014 and re-recorded the 6-track live set (originally recorded at Furies in 1996) with intentions to release the record digitally. On July 12, 2014, the band played and recorded a live concert at University of North Florida Theater of 27 songs in total, including special piano/acoustic performances of "Black Sunday", "Bleed", "Cure My Tragedy" and "Rain Song" and special guest appearances such as Damien Starkey of Burn Season/Puddle of Mudd who performed "Suffocate" with the band onstage and drummer Ethan York who played on "Just Got Wicked". On November 11, 2014, the band announced via Facebook that Jeremy Marshall left Cold to pursue another band called Fall to June and was replaced by Lindsay Manfredi. On January 30, 2015, former band member Eddie Rendini died. After much delay, "COLD:LIVE", directed and edited by the band's guitarist Drew Molleur, was independently released by the band on January 27, 2016 on DVD, Blu-Ray and a double CD via their official site.


title: Cold (band)

text: On March 13, 2015, it was announced that Cold signed the deal with Napalm Records to release a new album and play a worldwide tour in 2016. According to a post on Cold's Facebook page on July 8, 2016, Terry Balsamo has returned to the band, and that they would begin recording their next album in August 2016.


title: Cold (band)

text: On January 1, 2017, Nick Coyle (former singer of Lifer, myDownfall and The Drama Club) announced that he joined Cold as their new guitar player. It was later confirmed by the band.


title: Cold (band)

text: On January 14, 2018, vocalist Scooter Ward posted an update through the band's Facebook post that the new album has undergone the final stages of production and they will announce the album title, artwork and release date by next month. He also announced new members Ethan York and Jonny Nova for their new lineup. Terry Balsamo and Sam McCandless would not be a part of the new album or tour to pursue other commitments. Sam was working on his new project The Cocky Bitches, along with his comic book ventures.


title: Cold (band)

text: On June 27, 2019, Cold announced that "The Things We Can't Stop", their first album in eight years, would be released on September 13, 2019. The band later started their "Broken Human Tour" to promote the album. During the tour, McCandless returned to the band taking over York's position and later re-joined the band full-time. The band also released music videos for "Without You" on September 18, 2019, followed by "Run" on December 19, 2019 and "Quiet Now" on April 1, 2020. The band later announced "A Different Kind of Tour" concerts in 2020 but was postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band would return to touring a year later, beginning in the fall of 2021. McCandless did not participate in the tour as he focused on his other ventures. Tony Kruszka would later join as their drummer in September 2021.


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold will tour the U.S. from March to May 2023 by celebrating the 20th anniversary of their third album "Year of the Spider". The band has also been working on new material for their seventh studio album.


title: Cold (band)

text: Cold has been described as alternative rock, hard rock, nu metal, alternative metal and post-grunge. Their musical influences include The Cure, Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath, Tool, Radiohead, Korn and Deftones.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia is a British Ministry of Defence facility leased to the United States Navy, located on the atoll Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Camp Thunder Cove is part of the facility, and is operated by the United States Armed Forces and British Armed Forces.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia provides Base Operating Services to tenant commands located on the island. The command's mission is "To provide logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf AORs in support of national policy objectives."


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: In 1971, the local population of Diego Garcia, the Chagossians, was forcibly removed from the island to make way for the base.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: The Navy tasked the Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalions 1, 40, 62, 71, 133 and Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 with the construction of the base. On 23 January 1971 the first men of NMCB 40 arrived on site to begin what became an extended project. Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, was established as the senior United States Navy command on the island on 1 October 1977. At the time the NAVCOMMSTA was the primary tenant, but as new major facilities were completed, most notably the expanded anchorage and mooring area and the extended airfield, other tenants were commissioned.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: In 1980, the United States Navy established the Near-Term Prepositioned Force of 16 ships. Then NTPF became the Afloat Prepositioning Force (AFP) and eventually Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Two (MPSRON 2) consisting of 20 deep-water pre-positioned logistics ships anchored in the lagoon.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: In 1981, the naval air facility was commissioned. It was decommissioned in 1987 and its responsibilities returned to the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: In 1982, construction activities were transferred from the Seabees to a consortium of civilian contractors, Raymond International, and Brown and Root and Molem, a joint venture. Raymond had deep-draft wharf and waterfront skills, Brown and Root had concrete and infrastructure skills, and Molem was an English firm known for taking on challenging projects. The majority of the projects were completed by 1988.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: On 26 March 1982, Barbara Shuping and five other women were assigned to the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. Prior to this assignment, no women had lived on the island since those on the plantation in 1971.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: In 1985; the new port facilities were completed and the USS "Saratoga" (CV-60) was the first aircraft carrier to tie up.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: The Strategic Air Command began deploying Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers and aerial refueling aircraft to the newly completed airfield facilities in 1987.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, three ships of COMPSRON 2 sortied, delivering a Marine Expeditionary Brigade to Saudi Arabia for participation in the Gulf War. Other COMPSRON 2 ships offloaded the ammunition and fuel on Diego Garcia that were required for the American bomber fleet that deployed to the airfield. Subsequently, B-52G bombers flew more than 200 17-hour bombing missions over 44 days and dropped more than of bombs on the Iraqi Armed Forces in Iraq and Kuwait. One of the B-52s crashed from mechanical failures just north of the island with the loss of three of its six-man crew.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Beginning on 7 October 2001, the United States again commenced military operations from Diego Garcia using B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The base played an important role in the invasion of Afghanistan until the U.S.-led coalition could establish forward bases in the country because many countries closer to Afghanistan such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia refused to allow United States air bases in their territory to be used for combat operations. On 12 December 2001, a B-1 bomber was lost to mechanical failures just after takeoff from the island, but the crew survived and was rescued by the USS Russell (DDG-59). Four B-2 Shelter System Extra Large Deployable Aircraft Hangar Systems were erected at Diego Garcia to support the bombers' operations. Combat operations resumed in the spring of 2003, with MPSRON 2 sortieing to the Persian Gulf for the Iraq War, and bombing operations began again, this time against Iraq. Bomber operations ceased from Diego Garcia on 15 August 2006.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Diego Garcia, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: KBR runs base operations support services at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. Serco Inc., of Herndon, Virginia, operates and maintains the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS), which tracks deep-space satellites.


title: Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia

text: Supplementary work at the facility includes Poole Fire Protection of Olathe, Kansas, testing and inspecting fire protection systems (June 2020 – June 2025); Jacobs/B&M JV architect-engineer services, specifically design, engineering, specification writing, cost estimating (July 2020 – July 2025); and InSynergy Engineering Inc. utility system studies (September 2020 – September 2025).


title: Tskhinvali

text: Tskhinvali ( ) or Tskhinval (, ; , ) is the capital of the disputed "de facto" independent Republic of South Ossetia, internationally considered part of Shida Kartli, Georgia (except by the Russian Federation and four other UN member states), and previously the capital of the erstwhile Soviet Georgian South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast. It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.


title: Tskhinvali

text: The name of Tskhinvali is derived from the Old Georgian "Krtskhinvali" (), from earlier "Krtskhilvani" (), literally meaning "the land of hornbeams", which is the historical name of the city. See ცხინვალი for more.


title: Tskhinvali

text: From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri (, ), which was compilation of Joseph Stalin's surname with Ossetian word "Ir" which means Ossetia. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval (leaving off the final "i", which is a nominative case ending in Georgian); the other Ossetian name of the city is Chreba () which is only spread as a colloquial word.


title: Tskhinvali

text: The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.


title: Tskhinvali

text: Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in Kartli (central Georgia) though a later account credits the 3rd century AD Georgian king Aspacures II of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress. By the early 18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town" populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to the Russian Empire along with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a trade route which linked North Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed Georgian Jewish, Georgian, Armenian and Ossetian population. In 1917, it had 600 houses with 38.4% Georgian Jews, 34.4% Georgians, 17.7% Armenians and 8.8% Ossetians.


title: Tskhinvali

text: The town saw clashes between Georgian People's Guard and pro-Bolshevik Ossetian peasants during the 1918–20 period, when Georgia gained brief independence from Russia. Soviet rule was established by the invading Red Army in March 1921, and a year later, in 1922, Tskhinvali was made a capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. Subsequently, the town became largely Ossetian due to intense urbanisation and Soviet Korenizatsiya ("nativization") policy which induced an inflow of the Ossetians from the nearby rural areas into Tskhinvali. It was essentially an industrial centre, with lumber mills and manufacturing plants, and had also several cultural and educational institutions such as a venerated Pedagogical Institute (currently Tskhinvali State University) and a drama theatre. According to the last Soviet census (in 1989), Tskhinvali had a population of 42,934, and according to the census of Republic of South Ossetia in 2015, the population was 30,432 people.


title: Tskhinvali

text: During the acute phase of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, Tskhinvali was a scene of ethnic tensions and ensuing armed confrontation between Georgian and Ossetian forces. The 1992 Sochi ceasefire accord left Tskhinvali in the hands of Ossetians.


title: Tskhinvali

text: A considerable part of the population of South Ossetia (at least, 30,000 out of 70,000) fled into North Ossetia–Alania prior or immediately after the start of the 2008 war. However, many civilians were killed during the shelling and the following Battle of Tskhinvali (162 civilian deaths were documented by the Russian team of investigators and 365 – by the South Ossetian authorities). The town was heavily damaged during the battle. Andrey Illarionov visited the town in October 2008, and reported that Jewish Quarter indeed was in ruins, though he observed that the ruins were overgrown with shrubs and trees, which indicates that the destruction took place during the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War. However, Mark Ames, who was covering the last war for The Nation, stated that Tskhinvali's main residential district, nicknamed Shanghai because of its population density (it's where most of the city's high-rise apartment blocks are located), and the old Jewish Quarter, were completely destroyed.


title: Tskhinvali

text: Located in the Caucasus, at above sea level, Tskhinvali has a humid continental climate (Köppen: "Dfb"), with an average annual precipitation of . Summers are mild and winters are cold, with snowfalls.


title: Tskhinvali

text: Currently, Tskhinvali functions as the capital of South Ossetia. Before the 2008 war it had a population of approximately 30,000. The town remained significantly impoverished in the absence of a permanent political settlement between the two sides in the past two decades.


title: Tskhinvali

text: The city contains several monuments of medieval Georgian architecture, with the Kavti Church of St. George being the oldest one dating back to the 8th–10th centuries.


title: Tskhinvali

text: On August 21, 2008, a world-known Russian conductor and director of the Mariinsky Theatre, of Ossetian origin, Valery Gergiev conducted a concert near the ruined building of South Ossetian parliament in memory of the victims of the war in South Ossetia.


title: Tskhinvali

text: There was a railway service before 1991 at the Tskhinvali Railway station connecting the city with Gori.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; ' Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Northamptonshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2017, Leader of the House of Commons from 2017 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2019 to 2020. Leadsom has twice run to become Leader of the Conservative Party, in 2016 and 2019.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1963. After graduating with a degree in political science at the University of Warwick, she began a career in finance including working as Institutional Banking Director at Barclays, and later as Senior Investment Officer and Head of Corporate Governance at Invesco Perpetual. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. She served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, taking on additional responsibility for financial services from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of State for Energy from 2015 to 2016.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was a prominent member of the Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum on EU membership, and gained standing in referendum TV debates. On David Cameron's resignation, Leadsom became one of five candidates in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election. In the second round of voting by MPs, she came second to Theresa May. May appointed Leadsom as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom served in the May government as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2017. Following the 2017 general election, Leadsom was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. On 22 May 2019, she resigned in protest at May's Brexit strategy. Two days later, May announced her resignation as party leader, taking effect on 7 June. Leadsom stood as a candidate to succeed May as leader of the Conservative Party in June 2019 but was eliminated in the first round of voting, finishing 8th out of 10 candidates with 11 votes. Upon the appointment of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Leadsom was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She left the Cabinet in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle and remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was born on 13 May 1963 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the daughter of Richard and Judy Salmon ("née" Kitchin). She attended Tonbridge Girls' Grammar School, then read Political Science at the University of Warwick.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: After graduation, Leadsom began a career in the financial sector as a debt trader for Barclays de Zoete Wedd, then the investment bank division of Barclays Bank. For Barclays itself, she served as Deputy Director in the Financial Institutions team from 1993; this involved the maintenance of contractual relationships with other banks. In this role, she said she was given a "ringside seat" in the collapse of Barings Bank. Leadsom clashed with the head of Barclays Investments who tried to persuade her to return to full-time work soon after a pregnancy, and she left the company in 1997.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: From 1997 to 1999, Leadsom served as Managing Director of De Putron Fund Management (DPFM). In 1998 she was promoted to board director for marketing.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was Head of Corporate Governance and a Senior Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual from 1999 to 2009. Her role was to work (sometimes part-time) on "special projects", mostly for the Chief Investment Officer, which included negotiating pay terms for senior fund managers. Towards the end of her time, she advised on a number of governance issues, but she had no-one reporting to her in either role. Leadsom has never claimed to have personally been a fund manager, and Bob Yerbury, former Chief Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual and Leadsom's former manager, dismissed the controversy about how she described her time there and described her as "totally honest".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: She contested the safe Labour seat of Knowsley South constituency in the 2005 general election unsuccessfully and finished in third place, adding just under 1% to the previous vote. She was subsequently placed on the Conservative A-List and later chosen to represent the newly created seat of South Northamptonshire.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was selected to stand as the parliamentary candidate in the newly-created South Northamptonshire constituency in June 2006. In 2009, ConservativeHome said that she was "defending a notional Conservative majority of 11,356." At the 2010 general election in May, Leadsom was elected with a majority of more than 20,000. On entering the House of Commons she was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee. She made her maiden speech on 22 June 2010 during the budget debate, when she spoke of restoring health to the financial sector, drawing from personal experience in financial regulation, particularly with Barings Bank.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom campaigned for EU reform. In September 2011, she co-founded the Fresh Start Project with Conservative MPs Chris Heaton-Harris and George Eustice to "research and build support for realistic and far-reaching proposals for reforming the EU". On 25 October 2011, Leadsom was one of 81 Conservative MPs to defy the party whip and vote in favour of holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union. This led to a sharp ruction with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, at the time, which she denies. In May 2012 she advocated for the removal of the minimum wage, maternity leave, unfair dismissal legislation and pensions from British workers.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In July 2012, during the Libor scandal, she was widely reported on for her contribution to the Treasury Select Committee's questioning of Bob Diamond. At a subsequent hearing she questioned Paul Tucker, who stated that the previous government had not conspired with the Bank to fix rates. In a BBC interview, Leadsom stated that the suggestion "has now been completely squashed by Paul Tucker", and that on that specific point, George Osborne might want to apologise to Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls for "suggesting he was implicated in rate fixing", although she also pointed out that Balls "still [had] a huge amount to answer for in relation to the scandal and his time in office". Mike Smithson suggested this could be a reason for Osborne to overlook her for a promotion in the 2012 cabinet reshuffle, despite the fact that "in terms of talent she must be right at the top of the list of 2010 newbies who should be promoted."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was one of five MPs to abstain from the Government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by voting in both lobbies. Leadsom had earlier said she found the wording of the legislation "unacceptable", and that voting no reflected the views of "so many" of her constituents, who felt that the bill was "deeply wrong", but ultimately chose to abstain, saying, "I find myself genuinely torn...I cannot vote against a measure that would mean so much to the minority of homosexual couples for whom marriage is the ultimate recognition for their genuine feelings for each other. Yet nor can I vote for a measure that risks centuries of faith-based belief in marriage." During her Conservative Party leadership campaign in 2016, she stated she would have preferred a situation in which there were two types of services. Following the vote, Leadsom stated, "I would like to make clear that I fully support the lifelong commitment that is made between any loving couple and that I believe the legal basis of a same sex marriage should be no different to that of a heterosexual couple."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In October 2013, Leadsom was appointed by David Cameron to the Number 10 Policy Unit, with responsibility for part of the public services brief.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 9 April 2014 Leadsom was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury following Maria Miller's resignation from the Cabinet. She was also given the additional responsibility of City Minister, an unofficial post which had previously been held concurrently with the position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was instrumental in introducing the UK Government's first Islamic bonds, the Sukuk. This was the first Islamic bond listed outside the Islamic world. Leadsom stated "the strong demand for the Sukuk not only delivers good value for money for the taxpayer, but also cements Britain's position as the western hub of Islamic finance and is a part of our long term economic plan to make Britain the undisputed centre of the global financial system."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: According to the "Financial Times", her period as City Minister was seen by departmental officials as "a disaster", "the worst minister we ever had. … She found it difficult to understand issues or take decisions. She was monomaniacal, seeing the EU as the source of every problem. She alienated officials by continually complaining about poor drafting."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In about 1997, she formed the company Bandal with her husband, and bought property in Oxford and Surrey. The company was financed by loans from the Jersey arm of Kleinwort Benson, a private bank. It was learned in 2014 that Leadsom had transferred her shares to a trust fund for her children. A spokesman for Leadsom said: "This is a normal corporate situation and all tax that is due is being paid. None of the loans for the properties are based offshore".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: There was further criticism in 2014 when "The Independent" revealed that she had received a series of donations totalling £70,000 to pay for printing and research costs for the FSP over the course of three years. The company is owned by her brother in law, whose family is based in the British Virgin Islands . Leadsom's husband Ben is a director of the firm which made the donations, which were used to pay the salaries of staff in Leadsom's Westminster office after her election as MP; the firm has also made donations of £816,000 to the Conservative party. Because the firm making the donations, Gloucester Research (later becoming GR Software and Research), was based in London, the donations conformed to the rule banning political donations from abroad. The Labour MP Tom Watson said: “These very large donations might be within the rules, but it certainly isn’t right that a Treasury minister has been taking money in this way. Most reasonable people will see this as completely unreasonable”.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was re-elected as MP for South Northamptonshire on 7 May 2015 with 36,607 votes, compared to her nearest rival Lucy Mills (Labour), with 10,191 votes. On 11 May 2015, Leadsom, who had previously opposed wind farms and European renewable energy targets, was moved from Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to be appointed Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, reporting to Amber Rudd who was promoted to Secretary of State at the same department.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In 2015 Leadsom announced the end of taxpayer funded subsidies for onshore wind farms, stating "we now have enough onshore wind in the pipeline to be sufficient to meet our renewable electricity aims". This was a year earlier than was originally planned and was in line with the Conservative Party Manifesto.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom took a prominent role in the campaign to leave the EU in June 2016. She argued that the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, had destabilised financial markets and jeopardised the Bank's independence by warning of short-term negative effects on the economy caused by leaving the EU.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In a televised debate on the referendum, Leadsom appeared on the "Leave" panel, along with Gisela Stuart and Boris Johnson. She disputed claims that the UK should pursue single market membership, saying that 80% of the world's economy, and most EU free-trade deals, are not within the single market. She also said that the UK economy is too large to need the single market, but is hindered by the slowness of EU trade procedures.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Immediately following the referendum vote on 23 June 2016 for Britain to leave the EU, David Cameron announced that he would resign as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister by October. Leadsom was one of the early favourites to become the next Prime Minister, and was also linked with a possible role as Chancellor. On 30 June 2016 she announced her candidacy to become leader of the Conservative Party. Leadsom said she would trigger immediately upon becoming Prime Minister, and conduct swift negotiations with the European Union.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In the first round of voting on 5 July 2016, Theresa May received support from 165 MPs, while Leadsom came second with 66 votes. In the second ballot, Leadsom came second with 84 votes. Michael Gove was eliminated with 46 votes. Theresa May received 199 votes. On 11 July 2016, Leadsom announced she would be withdrawing her leadership bid, leaving Theresa May as the successor to David Cameron.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In a BBC interview on 7 July 2016, Leadsom spoke of her disappointment about plotting in the leadership race, including alleged attempts by opponents to block her from the final ballot. She dismissed as "ridiculous" accusations that her biography was misleading, saying that her "incredibly varied" CV is "all absolutely true".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom promised to "banish the pessimists" and to provide prosperity for the UK if elected, and stated that she was committed to fair trade. She also stated that she would review the Hunting Act with a focus on animal welfare if elected, and was asked about her concerns over the legislation passed to introduce same sex marriage. Prior to 2017 election Leadsom advised Theresa May not to repeat her promise to allow parliamentary time to discuss repealing the hunting ban, but was overruled. She also criticised her rival Theresa May's plan to use the status of EU nationals living in the UK as "bargaining chips", promising that if she was elected they could stay.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 6 July 2016 "The Times" and other news media published articles which said that Leadsom had overstated her private sector experience and responsibilities. They said that despite references her supporters had made to her managing "billions of pounds in funds" and her impressive-sounding job titles, she had held financial services regulator approval for only a brief three-month period in 10 years at Invesco Perpetual, and quoted former colleagues who said that she had exaggerated her level of involvement and her management responsibilities. Bob Yerbury, former Chief Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual and Leadsom's former manager, dismissed the controversy about how she described her time there and described her as "totally honest".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Penny Mordaunt, a Leadsom supporter, described the reports as "a concerted effort to rubbish a stellar career". Leadsom then issued an amended CV, which "The Guardian" said listed both deputy financial institutions director, and financial institutions director roles at Barclays. Leadsom defended her CV in a BBC interview, saying claims of it being exaggerated were "ridiculous". "I have not changed my CV," she said. "I was always very clear; I was senior investment officer working very closely with the chief investment officer. I have been very clear; I'm not a funds manager. I was, in Barclays and BZW, managing huge teams of people and large budgets and responsible for the trading relationships. To be very careful not to mislead, Barclays is a very big player in the large corporate and institutional banking world, and so the trading relationships are enormous – billions and billions and billions of pounds. So, when I was there as the financial institutions director [sic] responsible for UK banking relationship, the responsibility was for billions of pounds of trading lines and facilities to those companies … I've never said I was a fund manager and I've never been a fund manager", she said. According to FSA records she was authorised to manage money for only three months.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom's comments in an interview with "The Times" were interpreted as hinting that her being a mother meant that she was a better choice for Prime Minister than May, who has not been able to have children for health reasons, because it meant that she had "a very real stake" in the future. She said that she "did not want this to be 'Andrea has children, Theresa hasn't' because I think that would be really horrible". After "The Times" published the story, with the headline "Being a mother gives me an edge on May", Leadsom said that she was "disgusted" by the article, which was the "exact opposite of what I said". "The Times" later released a partial transcript of the comments, and when Leadsom supporter Penny Mordaunt said that it was trying to "smear" Leadsom, "The Times" released an audio recording. Her comments were widely criticised with fellow Conservative MPs including Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry suggesting the remarks showed she lacked the judgement to be Prime Minister and calling upon her to withdraw. Alan Duncan described her remarks as "vile". Tim Loughton, Leadsom's campaign manager for the leadership contest, said that the establishment were ganging up on her.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: She promised to publish her tax returns when she made it to the final ballot of the leadership election. Three days later she published "one year of tax information after rival Theresa May released four years' worth of tax returns". Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research UK, a tax campaign group, said "This isn't her tax return, it's a tax computation...It's a summary of numerical information but not an explanation of where it came from or what tax is due. It excludes all the information that might be of interest, so she has not published her tax return.”


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Former conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith alleged that the intensity and nature of the sniping at Leadsom revealed ulterior motives, unconnected to her fitness for the post, saying to journalist Robert Peston that they indicated "a kind of real 'black-ops' operation to denigrate her reputation", writing later it constituted a "concerted and brutal attempt to destroy her character". Allison Pearson in "The Sunday Telegraph" wrote, "I have no doubt whatsoever that Leadsom became the target of a brutal and sustained character assassination." The next day she wrote, "Andrea Leadsom has nothing to be ashamed of: her conscience is clear. Those who sought to destroy her should examine theirs, if they can find it." Norman Tebbit described the efforts to remove her candidature as an intense smear campaign, saying that he suspected they may have arisen from her opposition to gay marriage as much as her Euroscepticism.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 11 July 2016 Leadsom withdrew from the Conservative leadership election, stating that she did not have enough support for her cause, with only a quarter of the votes from the parliamentary party. The previous day "The Sunday Times" had reported a rumour that up to 20 Tory MPs would quit the party if Leadsom won the leadership contest; this was later supported by reports in other news media but "denied by MPs" according to "The Guardian".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In her statement Leadsom said: "the interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported prime minister. I am therefore withdrawing from the leadership election, and I wish Mrs May the very greatest success." Her campaign manager, MP Tim Loughton spoke about an "onslaught of often very personal attacks from colleagues and journalists" as well as "underhand tactics against decent people". Leadsom had been under pressure from the news media, with reports criticising her exaggeration of business and management experience and her suggestion that motherhood strengthened her candidacy for Prime Minister. Leadsom charged "The Times" with "gutter journalism" in response to the article about the motherhood issue. "The Times" subsequently released the audio tapes of the interview to confirm Leadsom's statement. Although she subsequently apologised "for any hurt I have caused" to Theresa May, she also related that she had felt "under attack, under enormous pressure … It has been shattering."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In her resignation statement she thanked the 84 MPs who had supported her, conceding that "this is less than 25% of the parliamentary party and ... I do not believe this is sufficient support to win a strong and stable government should I win the leadership election". After her appointment as a Cabinet minister, other comments that Leadsom had made during the leadership race came to light and also led to criticism. During the 6 July 2016 interview with "The Times", she had stated that men were more likely to be paedophiles than women and hence, were not suitable to be hired for jobs in daycare. Several MPs in opposition parties called for May to dismiss Leadsom from the Cabinet but the prime minister declined to do so.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 14 July 2016, following Theresa May's election as Leader of the Conservative Party, and the formation of the first May ministry, Leadsom was appointed to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In April 2017, following the announcement of the general election in June, Leadsom was instructed to delay a report of illegally high levels of diesel pollution affecting over half the population until after the election. Constitutional experts Dr Jo Murkens and Colin Talbot agreed it was a health issue and therefore not affected by the election and the government was instructed to appear in the high court to explain the delay.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On the anniversary of the Brexit vote, Leadsom was invited to discuss progress on "Newsnight" and claimed that the government had made "a good start". While being interviewed by Emily Maitlis, Leadsom suggested broadcasters should be "a little more patriotic". Tim Farron described her remarks as "a sinister threat to the free media", a comment echoed by Hugo Rifkind in "The Times", whilst "Peston on Sunday" mockingly displayed his patriotism by decorating the studio with Union Jacks.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 11 June 2017, Leadsom was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. In this capacity, in July 2017, while attempting to eulogise Jane Austen, who was about to feature on the new £10 note scheduled to go into circulation in September, Leadsom told the House of Commons: "I would just add one other great lady to that lovely list, who I am delighted to join in celebrating, and that's that of Jane Austen, who will feature on the new £10 note, which I think is one of our greatest living authors." Amid laughs from both benches, she corrected herself, adding: "Greatest ever authors, and I think it's fantastic that at last we are starting to recognise – well I think many of us probably wish she were still living – but I absolutely share the sentiment."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 19 July 2018, Leadsom proposed, as an amendment to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy, that the identity of any MP under investigation by the commissioner for standards should be kept confidential. This was in part in light of sexual misconduct allegations of previous years including those made by Carl Beech (Operation Midland) and from the 2017 Westminster sexual misconduct allegations. Leadsom claimed that this move was "not about rolling back transparency" but rather "to put confidentiality at the heart of the process for the sake of the complainant". Objections were made by MPs but the motion was carried 79 votes to 22; a low turnout to vote at Chamber.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 14 January 2019, Leadsom was criticised in the House of Commons by the Speaker of the House, John Bercow for the failure of the government to advance the cause of proxy voting for expectant mothers. The issue came to a head due to the imminent caesarean section delivery by Tulip Siddiq at the time of the rescheduled meaningful vote on 15 January 2019.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 31 January 2019, Leadsom said the House of Commons' February recess from 15 to 24 February would be cancelled to free up time to pass the necessary Brexit-related legislation. Earlier in the day, her cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt raised the possibility of Brexit being delayed with a technical extension to Article 50. "The Times" reported that senior Government ministers feared that it was already too late to meet the Brexit deadline of 29 March, and that Conservative MPs had been told that a one-line whip was expected to be imposed on votes in the Commons during the week of 18–22 February.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 8 May 2019, Leadsom stated she was "seriously considering" a bid for the party leadership. Leadsom resigned as Leader of the House of Commons on 22 May, the eve of the European elections, as a result of Theresa May's most recent Brexit proposals, including the offer of votes in the House of Commons on a customs union and a second referendum.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom officially announced her candidacy for the party leadership on 25 May 2019, the same day that Matt Hancock and Dominic Raab also announced they were running. She was proposed and seconded by fellow MPs Chris Heaton-Harris and Heather Wheeler. Leadsom was eliminated from the contest in the first ballot, on 13 June 2019, and came overall in eighth place out of ten candidates.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 24 July 2019, following Boris Johnson's election as Leader of the Conservative Party, and the formation of the first Johnson ministry, Leadsom was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 19 October, she said she was subject to "frightening abuse" from anti-Brexit demonstrators whilst leaving the Palace of Westminster. Jacob Rees-Mogg and Michael Gove were also targeted as they left following a House of Commons sitting. Leadsom was given a police escort through crowds gathered for a People's Vote rally, who were protesting for a further public vote on Brexit.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In May 2020 the environmental law charity ClientEarth unsuccessfully sued the UK Government after Leadsom approved proposals for the expansion of the gas-fired Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. According to the charity, the power station could produce 75% of the UK’s energy sector emissions when fully operational and would become the largest gas-fired power station in Europe.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 13 February 2020, Leadsom was removed as Business Secretary by Boris Johnson in the first cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: On 3 November 2021, Leadsom tabled an amendment drawn up by herself to scrap the suspension of Owen Paterson for 30 days due to a breach of Commons advocacy rules regarding lobbying as part of his second jobs. Prime Minister Boris Johnson then ordered a three-line whip of his MPs to ensure the motion was passed 250 votes to 232. The next day this decision was "u-turned" by the government over a backlash.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In July 2022, Leadsom announced support for Penny Mordaunt in the Conservative Party leadership election and served as Mordaunt's campaign manager. After Mordaunt was eliminated, she endorsed Liz Truss. Following Truss's resignation as prime minister on 20 October, she once again supported Mordaunt for leader as a "unifying candidate".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom said in 2016 that she was "absolutely pro-choice" on abortion, but was "keeping an eye on scientific progress which makes foetuses viable earlier". She is concerned about child development, and founded a charity which helps vulnerable mothers to bond with their babies. When seeking the Premiership she said she "absolutely would rule out giving Nigel Farage [of UKIP] a job".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: She said that if she became Prime Minister she would reform the ban on fox hunting to ensure greater protections for animal welfare. Prior to the 2017 election, Leadsom advised Theresa May not to repeat her promise to allow parliamentary time to discuss repealing the hunting ban, but was overruled.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Before becoming Minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Leadsom had opposed wind farms and EU renewable energy targets. After her appointment she said "When I first came to this job one of my two questions was: 'Is climate change real?' and the other was 'Is hydraulic fracturing ["fracking"] safe?' And on both of those questions I am now completely persuaded."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: As Minister, Leadsom launched the consultation to ban microbeads. Leadsom was personally opposed to microbeads, stating "Most people would be dismayed to know the face scrub or toothpaste they use was causing irreversible damage to the environment, with billions of indigestible plastic pieces poisoning sea creatures. Adding plastic to products like face washes and body scrubs is wholly unnecessary when harmless alternatives can be used."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In her role as head of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Leadsom stated she was "personally deeply committed to the importance of ensuring clean air".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Prior to the 2017 election Leadsom advised Theresa May not to repeat her promise to allow parliamentary time to discuss repealing the hunting ban, but was overruled.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: In April 2013 at the Hansard Society's annual parliamentary affairs lecture, Leadsom warned against the UK leaving the European Union, stating that "I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving."


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: However, in 2016 Leadsom campaigned for leave in the UK referendum on European Union membership. "The Mail on Sunday" reproduced her earlier comments in its issue of 3 July 2016. After her comments were read out by Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning BBC programme, she explained to Marr how she reached her more recent position: "It has been a journey. When I came into Parliament, like most people in the country I'd grown up as part of the EU and it's absolutely part of our DNA and I came into Parliament, set up something called the Fresh Start Project, which took hundreds and hundreds of hours of evidence about how the EU impacts on the UK – on everything from immigration to fisheries and so on... During that process I travelled all across Europe with lots of parliamentary colleagues – up to 100 Conservative colleagues supporting this work – to try and get a really decent, fundamental reform of the EU." A spokesman for Leadsom said that the recording was "taken completely out of context" because she had opened the lecture by saying that the EU needed major reforms in order for it to be "sustainable". She added that the democratic consent for the EU in Britain was "wafer thin".


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom was a founder of the Northamptonshire Parent Infant Partnership, a charity providing therapeutic support to help parents bond with their babies who have insecure attachment, and also founded PIPUK, the national charity for Parent Infant Partnerships which set up branches in four further counties since its inception. NORPIP was originally set up with funding from the Ana Leaf Foundation, of which Leadsom's sister Hayley, wife of Peter de Putron, is a trustee.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: She married business manager Ben Leadsom in 1993, and has two sons and one daughter. Following the birth of her first child, she suffered from postnatal depression for several months.


title: Andrea Leadsom

text: Leadsom states that Christianity has a central role in her life. She told Tim Ross of "The Daily Telegraph": "I am a very committed Christian. I think my values and everything I do is driven by that." She participates in "various Bible studies groups" with other parliamentarians and prays "all the time". She has discussed her Christian faith openly in a video hosted on the website of the all party parliamentary group Christians in Parliament.


title: Amobarbital

text: Amobarbital (formerly known as amylobarbitone or sodium amytal as the soluble sodium salt) is a drug that is a barbiturate derivative. It has sedative-hypnotic properties. It is a white crystalline powder with no odor and a slightly bitter taste. It was first synthesized in Germany in 1923. It is considered a short to intermediate acting barbiturate. If amobarbital is taken for extended periods of time, physiological and psychological dependence can develop. Amobarbital withdrawal mimics delirium tremens and may be life-threatening. Amobarbital was manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company in the US under the brand name Amytal in bright blue bullet shaped capsules (known as Pulvules) or pink tablets (known as Diskets) containing 50, 100, or 200 milligrams of the drug. The drug was also manufactured generically. Amobarbital was widely misused, known as "Blue Heavens" on the street. Amytal, as well as Tuinal, a combination drug containing equal quantities of secobarbital and amobarbital, were both manufactured by Eli Lilly until the late-1990s. However, as the popularity of benzodiazepines increased, prescriptions for these medications became increasingly rare beginning in the mid to late-1980s.


title: Amobarbital

text: In an "in vitro" study in fat thalamic slices amobarbital worked by activating GABA receptors, which decreased input resistance, depressed burst and tonic firing, especially in ventrobasal and intralaminar neurons, while at the same time increasing burst duration and mean conductance at individual chloride channels; this increased both the amplitude and decay time of postsynaptic currents.


title: Amobarbital

text: Amobarbital has been used in a study to inhibit mitochondrial electron transport in the rat heart in an attempt to preserve mitochondrial function following reperfusion.


title: Amobarbital

text: A 1988 study found that amobarbital increases benzodiazepine receptor binding "in vivo" with less potency than secobarbital and pentobarbital (in descending order), but greater than phenobarbital and barbital (in descending order). (Secobarbital > pentobarbital > "amobarbital" > phenobarbital > barbital)


title: Amobarbital

text: Amobarbital undergoes both hydroxylation to form 3'-hydroxyamobarbital, and N-glucosidation to form 1-(beta-D-glucopyranosyl)-amobarbital.


title: Amobarbital

text: When given slowly by an intravenous route, sodium amobarbital has a reputation for acting as a so-called truth serum. Under the influence, a person will divulge information that under normal circumstances they would block. This was most likely due to loss of inhibition. As such, the drug was first employed clinically by Dr. William Bleckwenn at the University of Wisconsin to circumvent inhibitions in psychiatric patients. The use of amobarbital as a truth serum has lost credibility due to the discovery that a subject can be coerced into having a "false memory" of the event.


title: Amobarbital

text: The drug may be used intravenously to interview patients with catatonic mutism, sometimes combined with caffeine to prevent sleep.


title: Amobarbital

text: It was used by the United States armed forces during World War II in an attempt to treat shell shock and return soldiers to the front-line duties. This use has since been discontinued as the powerful sedation, cognitive impairment, and dis-coordination induced by the drug greatly reduced soldiers' usefulness in the field. Amobarbital was once manufactured in the US by Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Amytal in capsule form. It was discontinued in the early 80s largely replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amobarbital was also widely abused, known on the streets as "blue heavens" because of their blue capsule.


title: Amobarbital

text: Some side effects of overdose include confusion (severe); decrease in or loss of reflexes; drowsiness (severe); fever; irritability (continuing); low body temperature; poor judgment; shortness of breath or slow or troubled breathing; slow heartbeat; slurred speech; staggering; trouble in sleeping; unusual movements of the eyes; weakness (severe). Severe overdose may result in death without intervention.


title: Amobarbital

text: Amobarbital (5-ethyl-5-isoamylbarbituric acid), like all barbiturates, is synthesized by reacting malonic acid derivatives with urea derivatives. In particular, in order to make amobarbital, α-ethyl-α-isoamylmalonic ester is reacted with urea (in the presence of sodium ethoxide).


title: Amobarbital

text: It has been used to convict alleged murderers such as Andres English-Howard, who strangled his girlfriend to death but claimed innocence. He was surreptitiously administered the drug by his lawyer, and under the influence of it he revealed why he strangled her and under what circumstances.


title: Amobarbital

text: On the night of August 28, 1951, the housekeeper of actor Robert Walker found him to be in an emotional state. She called Walker's psychiatrist who arrived and administered amobarbital for sedation. Walker was allegedly drinking prior to his emotional outburst, and it is believed the combination of amobarbital and alcohol resulted in a severe reaction. As a result, he passed out and stopped breathing, and all efforts to resuscitate him failed. Walker died at 32 years old.


title: Amobarbital

text: The British actor and comedian Tony Hancock took his own life in Australia in 1968 using the drug in combination with alcohol.


title: Amobarbital

text: Eli Lilly manufactured amobarbital under the brand name Amytal, it was discontinued in the 1980s replaced largely by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Amytal was also widely abused. Street names for amobarbital include "blues", "blue angels", "blue birds", "blue devils", and "blue heavens" due to their blue capsule.


title: Amobarbital

text: In Len Deighton's 1967 novel "An Expensive Place to Die", a combination of amytal and LSD is used to make the unnamed protagonist respond to questioning about his activities.


title: Amobarbital

text: In Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow", sodium amytal is used by a military intelligence unit as some kind of truth serum to extract Tyrone Slothrop's (the novel's protagonist) ideas on racism of white Americans against Afro-Americans during the 1930s in his home state of Massachusetts (Chapter 1).


title: Amobarbital

text: In 2001, the "" episode "Repression" (), a therapist (Shirley Knight) treats her patient with "sodium amytal". The character Dr. (B.D. Wong) claims that the drug leaves a patient so susceptible to suggestion, that the therapist is able to implant false memories in the patient.


title: Amobarbital

text: In 2022, in Diophantine Pseudonym, Episode 06 of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol (TV series)", sodium amytal is used by the CIA as a truth serum.


title: Impact X Division Championship

text: The Impact X Division Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by Impact Wrestling. It debuted on June 19, 2002, at the taping of then-TNA's second weekly pay-per-view (PPV) event. The current champion is Trey Miguel, who is in his second reign.


title: Impact X Division Championship

text: Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won as a result of a predetermined match. There have been 101 reigns among 50 wrestlers.


title: Impact X Division Championship

text: The TNA X Division was established on June 19, 2002 at Total Nonstop Action's first weekly PPV event with a Six Man Tag Team match resulting in Jimmy Yang, Jorge Estrada, and Sonny Siaki—collectively known as The Flying Elvises—defeating A.J. Styles, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki. Later that day at the taping of the next weekly PPV event, TNA introduced the X Division Championship—then known as the X Championship—to showcase the division more prominently. The division is described as wrestling reinvented, as it takes traditional wrestling and mixes it with the fast-paced, high–risk style of wrestling incorporated in cruiserweight divisions and lucha libre. The division was until 2011 promoted under the motto ""It is not about weight limits, it is about no limits"" by commentator Mike Tenay. On the August 11, 2011, edition of TNA's primary television program, "Impact Wrestling", TNA authority figure Eric Bischoff announced that from that point onwards the X Division would have a weight limit of . Following Hulk Hogan becoming the new on-screen General Manager in March 2012, the weight limit was ignored on June 10, 2012, at Slammiversary when the Samoa Joe was allowed to challenge for the belt. In October 2012, the weight limit was officially repealed when Rob Van Dam challenged for, and eventually won, the title at Bound for Glory. In March 2013, the X Division was given a new set of rules, which meant all matches were wrestled in Triple Threat format, and a new weight limit of 230 lbs. This proved to be extremely unpopular with fans, and the rules and weight limit were repealed once again in August of that year.


title: Impact X Division Championship

text: The Total Nonstop Action X Division has multiple styles of match types used to showcase the talent within the division and to defend the TNA X Division Championship in more marketable matches. Three of the matches used in TNA are the Ultimate X match, The Steel Asylum, and the Xscape match.