title: Tibor Rubin

text: Tibor "Ted" Rubin (June 18, 1929 – December 5, 2015) was a Hungarian-American Army Corporal. A Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the U.S. in 1948, he fought in the Korean War and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the war, as a combatant and a prisoner of war (POW).


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Rubin received the award from President George W. Bush on September 23, 2005, 55 years after the Korean war. Rubin was repeatedly nominated for various military decorations, but was overlooked because of antisemitism by a superior. Fellow soldiers who filed affidavits supporting Rubin's nomination for the Medal of Honor said that Rubin's sergeant "was an anti-Semite who gave Rubin dangerous assignments in hopes of getting him killed". In November, 2016, President Obama signed legislation renaming the Long Beach California VA Medical Center after Rubin.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Rubin was born on June 18, 1929, in Pásztó, a Hungarian town with a Jewish population of 120 families, one of six children (by three marriages) of shoemaker Ferenc Rubin.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: When Tibor was 13, Ferenc and Rosa Rubin (Tibor's stepmother) tried to send him to safety in neutral Switzerland, but he was caught and sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He was liberated by American combat troops when they arrived at Mauthausen on May 5, 1945. Both of his parents and a sister perished in the Holocaust.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Rubin entered the United States in 1948, settled in New York and worked first as a shoemaker. He then apprenticed as a butcher at Michael Bela Wilhelm's Hungarian butcher shop on Third Avenue in the Yorkville neighborhood for about a year.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: In 1949, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army. He failed the English language test, but tried again in 1950 and passed with some judicious help from two fellow test-takers.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: By July 1950, Private First Class Rubin found himself fighting in South Korea with I Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division. According to lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served with Rubin in South and North Korea, mostly self-described "country boys" from the South and Midwest, an antisemitic sergeant named Arthur Peyton consistently "volunteered" Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: During one mission, according to the testimonies of his comrades, Rubin secured a needed route of retreat for his rifle company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers. For this and other acts of bravery, Rubin was recommended four times for the Medal of Honor by two of his commanding officers. Both officers were killed in action shortly afterwards, but not before ordering Rubin's sergeant to begin the necessary paperwork recommending Rubin for the Medal of Honor. Some of Rubin's comrades were present and witnessed the order being issued, and all are convinced that Peyton deliberately ignored his orders. "I really believe, in my heart, that [the sergeant] would have jeopardized his own safety rather than assist in any way whatsoever in the awarding of the Medal of Honor to a person of Jewish descent", wrote Corporal Harold Speakman in a notarized affidavit.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Towards the end of October 1950, massive Chinese troop concentrations had crossed the border into North Korea and were attacking the unprepared American troops now trapped far inside North Korea. Most of Rubin's regiment had been killed or captured. Rubin, severely wounded, was captured and spent the next 30 months in a prisoner of war camp.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Faced with constant hunger, filth, and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. "No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself", wrote Leo A. Cormier Jr., a former sergeant and POW. The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, Rubin would sneak out of the prison camp to steal food from the Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught. "He shared the food evenly among the GIs," Cormier wrote. "He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine..., he did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition... he was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him". The survivors of the prison war camp credited Rubin with keeping them alive and saving at least 40 American soldiers.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Rubin refused his captors' repeated offers of repatriation to Hungary, by then behind the Iron Curtain.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: In 1993, a study was commissioned by the United States Army to investigate racial discrimination in the awarding of medals. In 2001, after considering the case of Leonard M. Kravitz, Congress directed the military to further review certain cases. The ensuing investigation showed that Rubin had been the subject of discrimination due to his religion and should have received the Medal of Honor.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: In 2005, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Rubin in a ceremony at the White House, for his actions in 1950 during the Korean War.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: After his military service, he worked in his brother's Long Beach liquor store. Rubin was a resident of Garden Grove, California.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: He regularly volunteered at the Long Beach Veterans Hospital; having earned an award for more than 20,000 hours of volunteer work. On May 10, 2017, the Medical Center was renamed in his honor as the "Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center".


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Rubin died December 5, 2015, at his home in Garden Grove. He was survived by his wife Yvonne and their two children, Frank and Rosie.


title: Tibor Rubin

text: Tibor Rubin is one of the Korean War heroes honored in the 2013 documentary "Finnigan's War", directed by Conor Timmis. Rubin recalls his Holocaust experience and Korean War POW experience. Rubin's interview is intercut with footage of President George W. Bush telling Rubin's life story during his 2005 Medal of Honor ceremony. Actor Mark Hamill narrates Rubin's Medal of Honor citation in the film. Filmmaker Conor Timmis was greatly impressed by Rubin's positive attitude and sense of humor despite all the suffering he endured during his life.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: "Thirty-Eight Snub" is the second episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series "Breaking Bad", and the 35th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on July 24, 2011. In the episode, Walter plots to kill Gus for fear of repercussions from him, while Jesse holds wild parties to try to forget his despair. Meanwhile, Skyler tries to purchase a car wash business, while Marie struggles to deal with Hank's growing depression problems.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Written by George Mastras and directed by Michelle MacLaren, "Thirty-Eight Snub" featured guest appearances by Emily Rios as Andrea, Jim Beaver as black market gun vendor Lawson, and the first appearance by Ray Campbell in the recurring role of Gus' henchman Tyrus Kitt. Due to filming commitments with the television series "Supernatural", Beaver had only a half-day to film his scene, which was set on a constructed set resembling a motel room. "Thirty-Eight Snub" included several unusual camera angles, including a shot from the point of view of a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, and an extremely high crane shot of Walter from 180 feet in the air.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Jesse's party scenes, which symbolized the character's internal guilt and fragile state of mind, included background songs by rapper Flavor Flav and the band Honey Claws. "Thirty-Eight Snub" received positive reviews, with some reviewers comparing it to the work of filmmakers Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino. It was seen by an estimated 1.97 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the second most-watched episode of "Breaking Bad" by the fourth season, although it marked a significant decline in viewership compared to the previous episode, season premiere "Box Cutter".


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Walter illegally purchases a .38-caliber snubnosed revolver, which he intends to use to kill Gus, because he believes Gus will kill him if he does not act first. Mike drinks coffee at a bar and discovers Victor's dried blood on his jacket sleeve. Jesse has purchased expensive electronics, including a sophisticated sound system, but remains miserable after having murdered Gale. In an attempt to get over Gale's death, Jesse has Badger and Skinny Pete arrange a multi-day party with dozens of people dancing, drinking, and doing drugs.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: While cooking meth at the lab, Walt waits for Gus to arrive so he can kill him. Instead, Victor's replacement Tyrus (Ray Campbell) arrives with Mike, and Mike informs Walt he will never see Gus in person again. That night, Walt drives to Gus' house, but before he can approach, he receives a call from Tyrus, who says simply, "Go home, Walter." The next day, Walt approaches Mike at the bar, and Mike says he observed Walter tailing him there. Mike reveals that in the lab, he could tell Walt was carrying the pistol. Walt suggests Mike and he are in the same danger because Gus could easily kill Mike the same way he killed Victor. Walt asks Mike to put him in a room with Gus so Walt can kill him. Mike punches Walt, knocks him to the floor, kicks him several times, then leaves the bar.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Skyler calls Walt to inquire about buying the car wash where he once worked, which they plan to use as a front business for Walt's drug money. Walt fails to act, so Skyler does her own detailed research about the business's expenses and revenues. She later approaches Bogdan about buying it, but he angrily rejects her and condemns Walt for insulting him when Walt quit working there.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Marie struggles with Hank's deepening depression as he continues his post-shooting physical therapy. The bedridden and bitter Hank constantly ignores or insults Marie and even after he celebrates a successful session with his physical therapist, he refuses to share the excitement with Marie.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: After three straight days of partying, Badger and Skinny Pete are exhausted and go home, as do all the other partiers at Jesse's house. Alone with his thoughts, a depressed Jesse breaks down while sitting less than an inch away from his sound system's speakers, which are turned to high volume.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: "Thirty-Eight Snub" was written by George Mastras and directed by Michelle MacLaren. Filmed in February 2011, the episode was edited by Kelley Dixon, one of a handful of editors who have regularly worked on the series. The direction in "Thirty-Eight Snub" included several camera angles from unusual viewpoints, including the perspective of Jesse's Roomba, boxes of pizza, a baby's vision and inside a car wash. The filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico was delayed by snow storms and record-low temperatures which resulted in a state of emergency being declared. The episode featured guest performances by Emily Rios as Jesse's ex-girlfriend Andrea and Marius Stan as Bogdan, the car wash owner who constantly mistreated Walter when he worked for Bogdan in the pilot episode of "Breaking Bad". Stan is not a professional actor but rather a physicist, and he was teaching at the University of Chicago when "Thirty-Eight Snub" was filmed. "Thirty-Eight Snub" also featured the first appearance by Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt, an employee of Gus who has replaced Victor, who was killed in the episode "Box Cutter". The original script referred to the character simply as "New Victor" until Mastras came up with the name Tyrus.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Jim Beaver made an appearance on "Thirty-Eight Snub" as Lawson, the gun vendor from the opening scene. Beaver previously starred in the HBO western drama series "Deadwood" along with "Breaking Bad" star Anna Gunn. He also previously appeared in "Field Trip", a sixth season episode of "The X-Files" which was written by "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan. While Gilligan believed Beaver to be a talented actor, he had never met him during the filming of either show. The CW Network television series "Supernatural", in which Beaver co-stars, was filming at the same time as "Thirty-Eight Snub", so Beaver flew into Albuquerque for the "Breaking Bad" shoot and had only half a day to film the scenes. Mastras said he particularly enjoyed that the character tries to convince Walter to buy a gun legally because, "I like the aspect that you've got this black market dealer who in an ironic way is the sound of morality here."


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: The motel room that Cranston and Beaver appear in was a set constructed by "Breaking Bad" production designer Mark Freeborn and construction coordinator William Gilpin. Director Michelle MacLaren wanted a genuine "rundown motel feel", but believed it would be too difficult to film in an actual motel room because it would be too small for the cast and crew to fit inside. Instead, the set was designed so that several of the walls could be removed to make space for the cameras and crew. This allowed greater flexibility in shooting and camera angles, and the walls could be placed back into position if they were needed for the background of a shot. The first shot of the episode includes Walter speaking directly into the camera, and it quickly revealed he is speaking into a mirror in the motel room. MacLaren filmed the shot so it would be deliberately disorienting and unclear to the viewer where Walter was until the camera movement revealed the motel room. "New York" magazine writer Logan Hill interpreted Walter's speaking into the mirror as a symbol for self-reflection: "He stares at a mirror reflection of himself, studying his own image, wondering if the Walt other people see gives any hint of what he’s carrying inside."


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: The scene when Walter approaches Gus' house with plans to kill him ends with an extremely high crane shot of Walter standing alone in the middle of the street. MacLaren wanted that shot to be extremely effective because she believed it conveyed Walter's helplessness, insignificance and lack of experience. Although the normal crane used for such overhead shots in "Breaking Bad" was only 30 feet tall, MacLaren rented a 180-foot-tall crane specifically for that shot. Since the crew had only about four hours to shoot before losing the night-time hours, the crane shot was the first one they filmed. It was shot by camera operators Andrew Voegeli, with dolly grip David Jaxx Nagro and gaffer Steven Litecky. Later, for the scene when Walter meets with Mike at a bar, MacLaren backlit Walter as he entered so only his silhouette would be visible when he entered. When the shots of Mike punching Walter was originally filmed, the staging involved Mike standing up, then Walter standing up, then Mike suddenly punching him. Vince Gilligan edited the scene to have Mike simply punch Walter instead to make the action faster and more surprising. The scene was arranged by stunt coordinator Al Goto, and actors Bryan Cranston and Jonathan Banks performed the stunts themselves. Mike kicks Walter several times after he falls, and Goto placed a large sandbag against Cranston's torso for Banks to kick during those scenes.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: The party scenes at Jesse's house sought to illustrate Jesse's internal guilt and self-hatred for having murdered Gale Boetticher in the third season finale, "Full Measure". Gilligan said these scenes were written because he wanted to demonstrate that the actions of the characters in "Breaking Bad" have major consequences. The writing staff spent weeks discussing how Jesse would react to having killed Gale and went with the course of events in "Thirty-Eight Snub" in part because they felt it would be the most unexpected for the audience. Bryan Cranston praised these scenes, saying "I thought it was a great way to show a person going through a private hell. That everybody suffers, deals with their own personal loss in many different ways." The scenes were shot on a set in a sound stage built by production designer Mark Freeborn and construction coordinator William Gilpin. Although scenes in Jesse's house are occasionally filmed in an actual house, these particular scenes could not be shot there because the party was so messy. "Breaking Bad" music supervisor Thomas Golubic tried to select music appropriate for both the party and Jesse's state of mind, using variations of punk rock, hip hop and dubstep. During one scene when Jesse, Skinny Pete and Badger are snorting meth together, Badger leans down outside of the shot to take the drugs, then Skinny Pete pops back up in a match cut. The shot was conceived by MacLaren during filming.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Mastras had Jesse buy a Roomba because he believed it was appropriate for Jesse's frame of mind: "You don't need it, it's kind of inane. ... He's just trying to fill his world with noise and with these things." During the final shot of the episode, a steadicam shot filmed by Andrew Voegeli, Jesse turns his stereo system all the way up and leans directly against the pulsating speaker to try to shut out his pain. MacLaren wanted the speakers to pulse, but they could not actually play loud music without harming actor Aaron Paul. The special effects crew unsuccessfully tried several methods to make the speakers pulse, such as shaking them and pulling on strings, but they did not appear realistic. It was achieved after MacLaren visited a local stereo store and an employee provided her a bass tester which would run the stereo system with no noise, but cause the speakers to pulse as if music was playing. That employee was hired to come on the set and run the system, and the lights and pulsing were timed to match music which was later dubbed in.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Among the songs played by Jesse on his new sound system are "Money" by D/R Period, "Unga Bunga Bunga" by rapper Flavor Flav, "Raise Hell" by M.O.P and "Digital Animal" by Honey Claws. During a scene at Jesse's house, Badger and Skinny Pete debate which zombie video games are better, "Left 4 Dead", "Resident Evil 4" and "". The zombies in the latter game, which are also Nazis, are described by Badger as "the Talibans of the zombie world". The unusually large, uncut, pizza purchased for Jesse's party is a reference to the third season episode "Caballo sin Nombre", when Walter flung a pizza of the same type onto the roof of his house after an argument with Skyler.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: In its original American broadcast, "Thirty-Eight Snub" was seen by an estimated 1.97 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the second most-watched episode of "Breaking Bad" in series history. Nevertheless, it marked a significant drop in viewership compared to the previous week's episode, fourth season premiere "Box Cutter", which was seen by a series-high of 2.58 million household viewers. "Thirty-Eight Snub" received a 0.9 rating among viewers between ages 18 and 49, means 0.9 percent of viewers in that age bracket watched the episode.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: "Thirty-Eight Snub" received very positive reviews. "Entertainment Weekly" writer Melissa Maerz compared the direction in "Thirty-Eight Snub" to the film-making of Sergio Leone, particularly in its "extreme close-ups", "tense silences" and the "saloon fight" between Walter and Mike. "Time" magazine writer James Poniewozik said the filming techniques used in Jesse's party – "which starts off like a rap video then turns into some kind of distorted, jumpy tweak-vision" – effectively conveyed Jesse's frame of mind. He also liked the way the script conveyed Marie's "increasing isolation" in dealing with Hank. Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called the episode a "terrific, unsettling hour" and particularly complimented director Michelle MacLaren and cinematographer Michael Slovis, especially for shooting Jesse's party scenes "in a way that let you experience the chaos just as Jesse was trying to". Sepinwall strongly praised Aaron Paul, who he said "keeps finding new layers of Jesse, and new talents to show them with". "New York" magazine writer Logan Hill praised the film noir elements in the episode's photography, and said the opening scene, with Walter staring into the mirror asking, "So, how's it look?", refers to the season's ongoing theme of internal self-reflection and surveillance. "Los Angeles Times" writer Emily VanDerWerff said while the episode didn't advance the plot very far, it included a great deal of internal development among the characters, which she called "an interesting new dynamic for the show to explore". She also called Jesse's emotional breakdown at the end "easily the most chilling thing so far this season".


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: "Paste" magazine writer Brent Koepp called it "another incredible episode" and said the impending conflict between Walter and Gus "has the makings of one of television's finest showdowns". He also said the script made good use of the supporting characters, and that the growing distance between Hank and Marie was particularly well handled. Matt Seitz of "Salon.com" compared "Thirty-Eight Snub" to excellent third season episodes that had "very few scenes and sequences but luxuriated in them, allowing the characters (and the viewer) time to experience the tiny eddies and currents of the moment". He also called an overhead shot of Walter standing outside Gus' house alone "one of the best shots in the show's history". Tim Surette of TV.com especially praised the scene with Walter approaching Gus' house, writing: ""Breaking Bad" has always been good at creating an air of tension, but now it seems as though the series has mastered it. He also said Paul's acting during Jesse's emotional breakdown "ripped my heart out and shredded it to pieces". "The Hollywood Reporter" writer Tim Goodman said the photography and direction during Jesse's party scenes were masterful: "Here we are four seasons into "Breaking Bad" and I shouldn't still be amazed at the innovated visuals or perfectly honed sense of sound. These are masters at work, people." "Slate" writers Jessica Grose and June Thomas both enjoyed the episode, although they found Walter's character increasingly difficult to sympathize with. Both praised the scene when Mike attacked Walter, while Grose especially enjoyed Aaron Paul's performance and Skyler's subplot.


title: Thirty-Eight Snub

text: Matt Richenthal of TV Fanatic complimented the opening scene with the gun purchase, which he called "reminiscent of season one, when the show took the slow, fascinating steps that no other program would touch". He also complimented the episodes for taking the viewers "inside the minds" of Walter and Jesse. Craig McQuinn of "The Faster Times" enjoyed the slow pace of the episode and complimented the show's lack of predictability, claiming he had no idea how Walter's confrontation with Gus would end, "and that’s why I love this show". Michael Arbeiter of Hollywood.com compared the opening scene to the works of Quentin Tarantino, and called the bar Mike frequents "the most beautifully shot setting I've seen in TV lately". He also called the subplot between Marie and Hank a "surprisingly interesting story". Carl Williott of CNN complimented the shows' "clever pieces of misdirection" by having Walter purchase a gun but never getting to use it, and by showing Mike's conflicted emotions but having him side with Gus against Walter. However, Williott said the episode ultimately felt like a "placeholder" for bigger developments in the storyline. Not all reviews were entirely positive. CraveOnline writer Blair Marnell said Walter's near-assassination of Gus was "the highlight of the episode", but felt Jesse's story was "less compelling [and] extremely repetitive", and he found the subplot with Hank and Marie difficult to enjoy because Hank was so unsympathetic.


title: IG Group

text: IG Group is an online trading provider with 290,000 active traders, offering access to spread betting and CFD trading, which allow traders to bet on the direction of equities, bonds and currencies without owning the underlying assets. Established in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler, it has a market value of £2.9 billion and offers trading in 17,000 investment markets. IG is regulated by the FCA, the UK's financial authority body. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The company is based in London and employs 1,950 staff.


title: IG Group

text: The company was founded in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler as a spread betting business under the name "IG Index" (an abbreviation for "Investors Gold Index") which allowed people to trade gold prices as an index instead of buying the physical commodity. In July 2000, shares in the newly named "IG Group plc" were first listed on the London Stock Exchange.


title: IG Group

text: In July 2002, "IG Group" commenced trading in Australia after a change in the country's financial services legislation made it possible to offer contracts for difference to Australian residents. IG Group took the opportunity to acquire its founder's shares, and those of certain other long-standing shareholders, in a management buy-out (backed by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners) which valued the company at £143 million; "IG Group plc's" listing on the London Stock Exchange was subsequently cancelled on 7 November 2003.


title: IG Group

text: In May 2005, after two years of private ownership, "IG Group" and CVC Capital Partners re-floated the company on the main list of the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £393 million. In October 2008, IG Group acquired FXOnline Japan KK, a Japanese retail FX business.


title: IG Group

text: In 2007, it purchased HedgeStreet, a small US based company that developed an electronic marketplace that allows online retail investors to trade financial derivatives. It renamed this the "North American Derivatives Exchange" or (NADEX) and has been attempting to use this to develop a product that looks like its binary option "digital 100s" product but that meets the US financial regulations and can be offered to retail traders. In 2007, IG has also been labeled as a gambling company by some of authoritative media. The Telegraph's warning report stated that although such spread-betting companies as IG have been regulated by the UK financial regulator, "no amount of regulation will help you if you get your bets wrong, so in that respect there is no doubt it is risky, and you should make sure you know what you are doing before you get involved". In May 2010, it obtained permission from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to make various technical changes that move in that direction. Later in 2010, IG Index, IG Group's spread betting firm, was hit with a claim for €25 million by three former clients of defunct Scottish trading firm Echelon Wealth Management for unspecified losses.


title: IG Group

text: In June 2011, IG Markets shut down its traditional fixed-odds sports service extrabet, which had an emphasis on in-play betting. The fixed odds sport service was shut down to focus on financial wagers, after failing to find a buyer for the whole unit. In September 2014, the company started its own online stockbroking platform offering some 4,500 stocks.


title: IG Group

text: In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank announced that it would be discontinuing its minimum exchange rate policy. IG customers incurred losses of £18.4 million after it happened. They accused the company of breaching UK regulations by acting out of self-interest and alleged a failure by company to provide the best execution to everyone. In October 2015, after claims by many of the firm's clients, IG "accepted a ruling by the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service that it should compensate customers for money lost during a rapid appreciation of the Swiss franc in January".


title: IG Group

text: In September 2016, IG Group acquired DailyFX, a foreign exchange trading news and research portal, from FXCM for $40 million. Later, in December, Peter Hetheringon, the CEO of the company, criticised the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK after it announced new measures to overhaul the industry, publicly blaming the regulator for weakness in some aspects of implementation and its lack of understanding of what the proposed changes could bring.


title: IG Group

text: In December 2016, the FCA questioned whether binary bets "serve a genuine investment need" and defined them as more akin to gambling. Aside from most consumers losing money, the FCA's other concerns included the addictive nature of binary options betting, and inherent conflicts of interest. "Since 2012 there have been a reported 2,605 victims who lost a total of £59.4m on binary options scams – an average of nearly £23,000 each". In 2017, investors lost more than £87,000 a day on binary option scams alone.


title: IG Group

text: In January 2017, IG group announced their decision on withdrawal of the binary options betting product, admitting that the arrival of the regulator to the market would significantly worsen the company's state of affairs. The director of IG corporate affairs stated: "I think that product will come under regulatory pressure in the future. That does not influence our view – it's simply a fact." At the same time, analysts stated that the IG's binary option withdrawal has been more akin to provocation: "It was a pre-emptive measure to mitigate further regulation".


title: IG Group

text: In April 2017, IG Group launched IG Smart Portfolios – a suite of ETF investment portfolios created in partnership with BlackRock, marking the company's first move into online wealth management. In October 2018, IG Group appointed June Felix as CEO and, in February 2019, IG Group launched IG US to enter US market.


title: IG Group

text: Following his tenure as Chief Financial Officer, Tim Hawkins was appointed CEO in October 2006, retiring 9 years later in 2015. Following the departure of Tim Howkins, Peter Hetherington became CEO in October 2015, having started at the company as a graduate trainee in January 1994. He later stepped down in September 2018.


title: IG Group

text: In October 2018, IG Group appointed June Felix as CEO. Felix served as a non-executive director for three years before joining the board. As of October 2020, Felix also serves on the board at Relx PLC.


title: IG Group

text: IG acquired tastytrade in June 2021 for $1bn, a trading platform catering to individual investors. Privately owned tastytrade was co-founded in 2011 by Tom Sosnoff who also founded thinkorswim, a brokerage firm that was acquired by TD Ameritrade for $606million in 2009, and Dough, Inc. Subsidiary tastyworks was launched in January 2017 as a brokerage arm of tastytrade.


title: IG Group

text: In December 2021, IG brokered a deal for the sale of North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex) and a 39% stake in Small Exchange Inc to Foris DAX Markets Inc, which trades as Crypto.com, completing the $216 million sale in March 2022. Nadex is a U.S. derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission encompassing short term binary options.


title: IG Group

text: In September 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's central bank, released a list of 34 forex trading online platforms, in which IG Markets was listed as an illegal platform in India.


title: IG Group

text: In 2019, IG partnered with Teach First to train 16 teachers in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This partnership was extended to create a £2 million fund supporting children in disadvantaged areas, specifically affected by the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education system. IG Group launched its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy, Brighter Future, in 2020.


title: IG Group

text: IG's Brighter Future Fund launched in early 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on the education and development of young people irrespective of race, gender or socioeconomic background.


title: IG Group

text: In 2012, IG Group consolidated its business in the UK under one brand, IG. IG Group is now, therefore, the sole trading name of the operating companies:


title: IG Group

text: In 2021, FinanceFeeds and Financial Magnates reported that IG Group's system, supposedly accustomed to low volatility periods, faced frequent outages at the time of higher-than-usual trade volumes. Such crashes left clients unable to control the positions, leading to loss of funds. FinanceFeeds also mentioned that during the January 2021 outage, IG Group provided no customer support (up to not answering the phone calls) but immediately reacted to request for commentary to protect its public image and deny the issues raised by the clients.


title: IG Group

text: In February 2021, IG Group and 34 other brokers and hedge funds were targeted by an antitrust class action lawsuit for allegedly conspiring against non-professional investors when GameStop short squeeze took place. According to the plaintiff, the defendants hatched an uncompetitive scheme to limit the trading of certain securities after the failure of their highly speculative short-selling strategies, thus violating state antitrust laws.


title: Jelling stones

text: The Jelling stones () are massive carved runestones from the 10th century, found at the town of Jelling in Denmark. The older of the two Jelling stones was raised by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra. The larger of the two stones was raised by King Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth, in memory of his parents, celebrating his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and his conversion of the Danes to Christianity.


title: Jelling stones

text: The runic inscriptions on these stones are considered the best known in Denmark. In 1994, the stones, in addition to the burial mounds and small church nearby, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an unparalleled example of both pagan and Christian Nordic culture.


title: Jelling stones

text: The stones are strongly identified with the creation of Denmark as a nation state. Both inscriptions mention the name "Danmark" (in the form of accusative "tanmaurk" () on the large stone, and genitive "tanmarkar" (pronounced ) on the small stone).


title: Jelling stones

text: The larger stone explicitly mentions the conversion of Denmark from Norse paganism and the process of Christianization, alongside a depiction of the crucified Christ; it is therefore popularly dubbed "Denmark's baptismal certificate" ("Danmarks dåbsattest"), an expression coined by art historian Rudolf Broby-Johansen in the 1930s.


title: Jelling stones

text: After having been exposed to the elements for a thousand years, cracks are beginning to show. On 15 November 2008 experts from UNESCO examined the stones to determine their condition. Experts requested that the stones be moved to an indoor exhibition hall, or in some other way protected "in situ", to prevent further damage from the weather.


title: Jelling stones

text: In February 2011 the site was vandalized using green spray paint, with the word "GELWANE" written on both sides of the larger stone, and with identical graffiti sprayed on a nearby gravestone and on the church door. After much speculation about the possible meaning of the enigmatic word "gelwane", the vandal was eventually discovered to be a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome and the word itself was meaningless. As the paint had not fully hardened, experts were able to remove it.


title: Jelling stones

text: The Heritage Agency of Denmark decided to keep the stones in their current location and selected a protective casing design from 157 projects submitted through a competition. The winner of the competition was Nobel Architects. The glass casing creates a climate system that keeps the stones at a fixed temperature and humidity and protects them from weathering. The design features rectangular glass casings strengthened by two solid bronze sides mounted on a supporting steel skeleton. The glass is coated with an anti-reflective material that gives the exhibit a greenish hue. Additionally, the bronze patina gives off a rusty, greenish colour, highlighting the runestones' gray and reddish tones and emphasising their monumental character and significance.


title: Jelling stones

text: King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.


title: Jelling stones

text: "Haraldr konungr bað gǫrva kumbl þausi aft Gorm faður sinn auk aft Þórví móður sína. Sá Haraldr es sér vann Danmǫrk alla auk Norveg auk dani gærði kristna."


title: Jelling stones

text: "Kong Harald bød gøre disse kumler efter Gorm, sin fader, og efter Thyre, sin moder, den Harald, som vandt sig hele Danmark og Norge og gjorde danerne kristne."


title: Jelling stones

text: The stone has a figure of the crucified Christ on one side and on another side a serpent wrapped around a lion. Christ is depicted as standing in the shape of a cross and entangled in what appear to be branches. This depiction of Christ has often been taken as indicating the parallels with the "hanging" of the Norse pagan god Odin, who in "Rúnatal" gives an account of being hanged from a tree and pierced by a spear.


title: Jelling stones

text: Another copy of this stone was placed in 1936 on the Domplein ('Dom Square') in Utrecht in the Netherlands, next to the Cathedral of Utrecht, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Utrecht University.


title: Jelling stones

text: In 1955, a plaster cast of this stone was made for a festival in London. It is now located in the grounds of the Danish Church in London, 4 St Katherines Precinct, Regents Park, London. The copy is painted in bright colours, like the original. Most of the original paint has flaked away from the original stone, but enough small specks of paint remained to enable the determination of what the colours looked like when they were freshly painted. A copy is also located in the National Museum of Denmark, and another copy, decorated by Rudolf Broby-Johansen in the 1930s, just outside the Jelling museum, which stands within sight of the Jelling mounds.


title: Jelling stones

text: A copy exists in Rouen, Normandy, France, near Saint-Ouen Abbey Church, offered by Denmark to the city of Rouen, on the occasion of the millennium of Normandy in 1911.


title: Jelling stones

text: A facsimile of the image of Christ on Harald's runestone appears on the inside front cover of Danish passports.


title: Jelling stones

text: The inscription on the older and smaller of the Jelling stones (Jelling I, Rundata DR 41) translates to "King Gormr made this monument in memory of Thyrvé, his wife, Denmark's adornment."


title: 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries

text: From March 12 to June 11, 1968, Democratic Party voters of several states elected delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey was selected as the nominee in the 1968 Democratic National Convention held from August 26 to August 29, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois.


text: These candidates participated in multiple state primaries or were included in multiple major national polls.


text: The following candidate did not place his name directly on the ballot for any state's presidential primary, but instead sought to influence selection from unelected delegates or sought the support of uncommitted delegates.


text: The following candidates ran only in their home state's primary or caucus for the purpose of controlling its delegate slate at the convention and did not appear to be considered national candidates by the media.


text: The following persons were listed in two or more major national polls or were the subject of media speculation surrounding their potential candidacy, but declined to actively seek the nomination.


text: US President Lyndon B. Johnson had served for two presidential terms, but the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify Johnson from running for another term because he had served only 14 months after John F. Kennedy's assassination before he was sworn in for his full term in January 1965. As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that Johnson would be a Democratic candidate and that he would have little trouble in winning the Democratic nomination.


text: Despite the growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam in both Congress and the public, no prominent Democratic politician was prepared to run against a sitting president of his own party. Antiwar activists of the new "Dump Johnson movement" initially approached US Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, an outspoken critic of Johnson's policies with a large base of support, for a candidacy, but he declined to run. They then appealed to US Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who was willing to challenge Johnson openly although prior to entering the race, McCarthy had hoped that Kennedy would run as well. Running as an antiwar candidate in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Trailing badly in national polls and with little chance to influence delegate selection absent primary wins, McCarthy decided to pour most of his resources into New Hampshire, the first state to hold a primary election. He was boosted by thousands of young college students who volunteered throughout the state, who shaved their beards and cut their hair to "Get Clean for Gene."


text: On March 12, McCarthy won 42% of the primary vote to Johnson's 49%, an extremely strong showing for such a challenger, which gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. In a surprise move on March 16, Kennedy renounced his earlier support for Johnson and proclaimed his own candidacy. McCarthy and his supporters viewed that as opportunism, which created a lasting enmity between the campaigns. To make matters worse, a poll in Wisconsin showed McCarthy beating Johnson badly, with the latter getting only 12% of the vote. McCarthy and Kennedy engaged in a series of state primaries. Despite Kennedy's high profile, McCarthy won most of the early primaries, including Kennedy's native state of Massachusetts and some primaries in which he and Kennedy were in direct competition. After his victory in the key battleground state of Oregon, it was assumed that McCarthy was the preferred choice among the young voters.


text: Johnson was now faced with two strong primary challenges. In declining health and facing bleak political forecasts in the upcoming primaries, Johnson concluded that he could not win the nomination without a major political and personal struggle. On March 31, 1968, at the end of a televised address regarding the War, he shocked the nation by announcing that he would not seek re-election. By withdrawing from the race, he could avoid the stigma of defeat and could keep control of the party machinery to support Hubert Humphrey, his loyal vice president. As the year developed, it also became clear that Johnson believed he could secure his place in the history books by ending the war before the election in November, which would give Humphrey the boost he would need to win.


text: With Johnson's withdrawal, the New Deal Coalition effectively dissolved into support for different candidates:


text: After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy on April 27. Kennedy was successful in four state primaries (Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and California) and McCarthy won six (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey, and Illinois); however, in primaries where they campaigned directly against one another, Kennedy won three primaries (Indiana, Nebraska, and California) and McCarthy won one (Oregon). Humphrey did not compete in the primaries, leaving favorite sons to collect favorable surrogates, notably United States Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, United States Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Governor Roger D. Branigin of Indiana.


text: Humphrey's campaign concentrated on winning the delegates in non-primary states, where party leaders controlled the delegate votes. Kennedy defeated Branigin and McCarthy in the Indiana primary, and then defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary. However, McCarthy upset Kennedy in the Oregon primary.


text: After Kennedy's defeat in Oregon, the California primary was seen as crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy. McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters. Kennedy and McCarthy engaged in a television debate a few days before the election that was generally considered a draw. On June 4, Kennedy defeated McCarthy in California, 46% to 42%, and also won the South Dakota primary held the same day. McCarthy, who defeated Kennedy in New Jersey that very same night, refused to withdraw from the presidential race and made it clear that he would contest Kennedy in the upcoming New York primary, where McCarthy had much support from antiwar activists in New York City.


text: After giving his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen service pantry in the early morning of June 5. A Palestinian immigrant with Jordanian citizenship, Sirhan Sirhan, was arrested. Kennedy died 26 hours later at Good Samaritan Hospital.


text: Only 14 states held primaries at this time (California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and West Virginia), in addition to Washington, D.C.


text: Robert Kennedy's death threw the Democratic Party into disarray. The loss of his campaign, which had relied on his popularity and charisma convincing non-primary delegates to support him at the convention, meant that the antiwar movement was effectively over, and that Humphrey would be the prohibitive favorite for the nomination. Some of Kennedy's support went to McCarthy, but many of Kennedy's delegates, remembering their bitter primary battles with McCarthy, rallied around the late-starting candidacy of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, a Kennedy supporter in the spring primaries.


text: When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young antiwar activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War. In a clash covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago Police officers brutally beating antiwar protesters. While the protesters chanted "the whole world is watching," the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites. In one of them, Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-armed tactics of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was seen on television angrily cursing Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, who had made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police in the riots.


text: In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. The convention then chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled the Humphrey campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. (White, pp. 377-378;)


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Jignesh Mevani (alternatively Mewani; born 11 December 1980) is an Indian lawyer activist and former journalist serving as the representative of the Vadgam constituency in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly since 2017. He is the convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM; State Dalit Rights Platform).


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Jignesh Mevani was born on 11 December 1980 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat to a family of Dalits from the village of Meu in Mehsana district. He grew up in a lower middle class family, his parents had become government clerks, and resided in the Dalit populated locality of Meghaninagar in Ahmedabad. His father worked at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and his mother at the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Mevani attended school at the Swastik Vidyalaya and then the Vishwa Vidyalay Madhaymik Shala in Ahmedabad district. He began his higher secondary education in the core stream of science, dropped out and completed his schooling after switching to humanities. He attained his graduation in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the HK Arts College, affiliated to the Gujarat University.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani states that in college, he was never seen as just a Dalit student. He was particularly impressed by Saumya Joshi who was an associate professor and dramatist at the college and by the faculty member Sanjay Bhave who introduced him to various historical and contemporary figures of social activism in Gujarat. He further states it was because of Joshi and Bhave that he came into contact with Gujarati civil society newsletters such as "Bhoomiputra", "Nirikshak" and "Naya Marg". In his student life, Mevani performed in parallel cinema and researched the works of the Gujarati language poet, Mareez. He was also influenced by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and the human rights activist Mukul Sinha during this period. Following his graduation, he enrolled at the Bhavan's College, Ahmedabad for a postgraduate diploma, in journalism and mass communication, which he received in 2004.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In 2004, Mevani shifted to Mumbai and became a journalist with the Gujarati language news magazine called "Abhiyaan." He worked at the magazine for three years before quitting journalism to become an activist. He also briefly worked for a Gujarati language daily newspaper during this period. In his testimony, he states that he "realised that idealism and realism are two different things" and came to the final decision to quit career as a journalist after watching the Gujarati documentary on farmers' suicides called "Khedu Mora Re''."


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani started his activism through trade unions, and returned to Gujarat in 2008. He worked with the RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala with whom he visited several places to study the causes and issues leading to farmers' suicides. Eventually, he joined the civil rights organisation run by Mukul Sinha, called Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM). In order to combat issues of discrimination against Dalits, he grew associations with activists such as Manjula Pradeep and Martin Macwan of the Navsarjan Trust and the Dalit Shakti Kendra. He also worked with the activist lawyer Girish Patel and the Gandhian activists Chunilal Vaidya for farmers' rights, land reform and the development of sustainable rural economies. Subsequently, he began leading an agitation for increasing the salaries of sanitation workers. Mevani states that he drew his last salary of ₹15,000 in August 2007 and relied on 10–15 friends to provide him with ₹1,000–1,500 for his monthly expenses in order to continue working as a full time activist.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In 2009, Mevani had led a JSM survey in the districts of Surendranagar and Ahmedabad to study the distribution of surplus government land to landless Dalits under provisions of the Gujarat Agriculture Land Ceiling Act. The findings of the survey revealed that the allotment of land had occurred only on paper and physical transfers of land had been denied. Over the course of the following years, he fought a long drawn out campaign over the allotment of land, in the process filing around 110 RTIs till 2015. Mevani was encouraged to pursue a degree in law in order to be better equipped to assist individuals in need for legal representation. He enrolled in the DT Law College of the Gujarat University while continuing his campaign over land issues during his studies. He graduated for a second time with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2013, and became a practising activist lawyer at the Gujarat High Court, representing landless Dalits in their cases. He also joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and became its Gujarat spokesperson.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In 2015, Mevani initiated a public interest litigation at the High Court for the allocation of 56,873 acres of surplus government land to landless labourers in Gujarat. Due to his activism over the years, he gathered a following and a support base among workers' groups and Dalits.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani rose to national prominence during the protests following the Una flogging incident. On 11 July 2016, seven Dalit youths were tortured in the town of Una, Gujarat on the pretext of cow protection and in the presence of the police. The assailants had filmed the incident and it was widely shared over social media. The incident culminated into a mass movement and large scale militancy among Dalits in the state. In midst of the protests, around 30 Dalit rights organisations had combined to form the "Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti" (abb. UDALS; Committee to fight against Una Dalit atrocities). The committee announced that a mass demonstration and assembly against caste based atrocities and discrimination was to be held in Ahmedabad on 30 July 2016. Mevani was one of the key organisers of the event, and was appointed as the convener of the committee.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The Dalit "mahasabha" (grand assembly) was held on 31 July 2016, after several refusal and delays in the grant of permission by the state administration. The government granted the venue of Archer Depot, a small water clogged ground to the organisers. It witnessed an assembly of around 20,000 people, consisting of ragpickers, scavengers, tanners, landless farm labourers, among others. The assembly which consisting mostly of young people also saw non-Dalits participants such as upper caste liberals, human rights activists, Muslims and other backward castes (OBCs). The gathering became one of the largest demonstrations for the cause of Dalits in the recent history of Gujarat. Mevani gave a speech during the assembly and was received with a wave of approval from the participants. The assembly invited a number of other speakers from a variety of backgrounds but due to the small size of the ground, many of people left early as they had to stand outside across the road.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The momentum garnered in the demonstration led the assembly to conclude with the decision to carry out a "swabhiman yatra" (dignity march) on foot, from Ahmedabad to Una, covering a distance of 380 km. The march was alternatively designated as the "Dalit Asmita Yatra" (Dalit Self Respect Journey), the "Azaadi Kooch" (Search for Freedom), or the #Chalo Una (Let's go to Una!) march. It began on 5 August and was led by Mevani along with a core group of 70 marchers, the numbers swelled up to thousands throughout the duration of the march as Dalits from across the state joined along various parts of it. The marchers also included activists from the Navsarjan Trust, the Jan Sangharsh Manch and the Communist Party of India.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: One of the primary message of the march was to encourage the Dalit community to leave their traditional caste based occupations and to demand for the distribution of 5 acres of land to every landless Dalit in the state. Mevani was instrumental in making the issue of land reform and the allocation of land to landless Dalits a major demand of the protest reasoning that if Dalits had the land, they would not have to engage in their traditional occupations such as skinning and disposing dead cows. His speeches drew massive crowds which was credited to his understanding of Dalit issues combined with oratorical skill. He coined the slogan ""Gaaye nu puchhdu taame rakho, aamne amaari jameen aapo"" (you keep the cow’s tail, give us our land) which came to be in widespread use throughout the protests. In the process, Mevani became a notional leader for the protests across the state since the incident.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On the route, the march received support from Scheduled Caste (SC) villages and no opposition or support from others. Activities such as meetings, distribution of radical literature, etc were confined to the SC villages. Large number of Dalits across the state took oaths to refrain from handling cow carcasses, including the tanners of 25 villages who took collective vows to stop performing their caste based occupation of disposing dead cows. The procession stopped for the night at various towns and villages through their ten day foot march; Dholka town on 5 August, Koth village on 6 August, Dhandhuka town on 7 August, Barvala village on 8 August, Botad town on 9 August, Gadhada town on 10 August, passing through Amreli and halting at Savarkundla on 11 August, and reaching the town of Rajula on the night of 12 August. From 13 August onwards, the eighth day of the march, as the group approached closer to Una, locals from non-SC villages and Hindu nationalists began attacking the procession with stones, blockading their route and harassing the participants.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The march eventually came to an end on 15 August (Independence Day) after covering 350 km and with a mass meeting in the small village of Mota Samdhiyala. Situated near the town of Una, the village was the residence and place of origin of the victims of the Una incident, and witnessed a gathering of around 15,000 Dalits from around the state in the mass meeting. The assembly also saw the attendance of the Republican Panthers among Dalits, as well as a significant number of Muslims and students from various educational institutions. Due to the attacks on the march, the organisers were fearful of an incident on the day and decided to invite only two speakers who were already in the media spotlight, Mevani himself and the student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. Mevani presented a charter of 10 demands of the UDALS which including justice for the victims of the Una atrocity, alternative livelihood options, legal frameworks for the protection of Dalits against similar atrocities and 5 acres of land for every landless Dalit household in the state, along with a 30 day ultimatum seeking a response from the government. Radhika Vemula, the mother of Rohith Vemula, was also present and concluded the event with a flag salutation.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In order to extend their agitation for land rights to a national scale, UDALS had launched the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM; State Dalit Rights Platform). Mevani along with several of his friends were the founders of the platform. During the course of the agitation, Mevani resigned from his membership with the Aam Aadmi Party stating that he intended to keep the protests "untainted by political affiliations". He was also involved in the efforts of UDALS to form an alliance with the large network of "Julahas" (weavers) composed primarily of Dalit converts to Islam, another targeted community in atrocities on the pretext of cow protection. The RDAM held an agitation in Rajkot on 31 August with the assistance of the Navsarjan Trust, raising calls to renew the agitations for the charter of demands through means such as "rail roko" (train obstruction) and "gheraos" (picketing) of government offices for the charter of demands.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani employed the threat of mass civil disobedience after the government's refusal to negotiate, the proposed "rail roko" agitation was planned to begin on 1 October, at the Maninagar railway station in Ahmedabad. In the meantime, Mevani began participated in events outside the state to raise support for the movement, bringing national media attention. The protests in Gujarat had been largely ignored by the corporate media. In midst of the protests, Mevani was arrested in the evening of 16 September at the Ahmedabad airport on his return from an event at New Delhi and put under detention for the duration of Narendra Modi's visit to Gujarat on his birthday. He was detained for a second time on 19 September during the staging of a protest outside the District Collector's office in Ahmedabad and again released on 20 September.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The protests continued over the month and the "rail roko" agitation was eventually called off on 1 October 2016, after the state government acceded to sitting on negotiations. The first meeting between the RDAM and the state government was held on 3 October. On 4 October, activists from the RDAM including Mevani were once again detained by the police before they could join a new wave of protests in Gandhinagar over a number of assaults on Dalits including the murder of one in Anand district in the last couple of days. The repeated use of preventive detention during the protests received criticism and were described as state repression and as a method of stifling the agitations.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The #Chalo Una march inspired a similar rally called Chalo Udupi in the state of Karnataka. Held in response to an assault on a Dalit family by a unit of the Bajrang Dal in the town of Chikmagalur, it began on 4 October at Freedom Park, Bangalore and ended on 9 October in the town of Udupi. Mevani attended the concluding event of the march and gave a speech accusing the government of caste based discrimination in land re-distribution and calling for a ban on "gau rakshak" groups and the practise of "pankti bheda" (caste based segregation) at the Udupi Sri Krishna Matha. The protests led by Mevani also inspired a similar protest from Banjaras in Rajasthan in response to another assault by members of the Bajrang Dal on the pretext of cow protection.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: As of December 2016, the negotiations between the RDAM and the government had led to the distribution of plots of land to around 200 Dalit families. In his testimony, Mevani states that while Dalits frequently face much worse brutalities, the incident at Una became a symbol of their grievances and created an unmatched outcry, adding that anger among Dalits was simmering for years, and giving the example of the policemen who had shot 3 unarmed Dalits in 2012 and were yet to be arrested.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On 6 January 2017, Mevani along with Kanhaiya Kumar joined the agitations of the Kachra Vahtuk Shramik Sangh () in Mumbai, Maharashtra. In 2015, the monthly minimum wage for municipal workers in the state was increased to ₹14,000 but sanitation was shifted to contractors who hired the workers and paid them wages of around ₹7,000–9,000. Drawing criticism at the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Mevani encouraged the workers to strike if they needed to, stating that the prime minister and Bollywood stars who had promoted themselves through the mission could clean the city themselves if the government continued to refuse basic pay for them.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On 9 January 2017, Mevani announced the beginning of an agitation during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. The reason provided by Mevani for the agitation was that the government was readily offering land to corporate giants and signing countless memorandums of understanding with them while refusing to budge on enacting physical transfers of land to landless farmers and Dalits. The protest was scheduled to be held at Adalaj, 10 km away from the venue of the summit but in the early morning of 10 January, Mevani was detained by the police and released later at night. Sagar Rabari, the farmers' rights activist and the general secretary of the Gujarat Khedut Samaj (), and Atul Patel, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader were also detained on the day for declaring their support for the agitation.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Following release, Mevani accompanied by a team of RDAM activists presented a statement at the district magistrate's office which outlined the reason for holding protests and their demands, which according to him was dismissed by the officials. The dismissal prompted the RDAM and Mevani to commence plans for disrupting the summit by reviving the idea of the "rail roko" agitation which had been cancelled earlier in October 2016 with the beginning of the negotiations. On 11 January, RDAM activists including Mevani attempted to halt the Rajdhani Express at the Ahmedabad Junction railway station. According to the security commissioner in charge of the Ahmedabad division, Western Railway zone, the protesters emerged out of nowhere, Mevani himself climbed on top of the engine of the train and a group of women began squatted on the tracks in front of the train.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested several protesters during the agitation and reportedly manhandled some of the women before the arrest. The women were released at midnight but the rest including Mevani and all the men were kept under arrest. The police booked cases against several of those who were arrested including Mevani and Lakshmiben Maheria, the women RDAM member who was at the forefront of the protest, under Indian Penal Code sections on "rioting", "hurting public servants", "criminal conspiracy", among others and under the Indian Railways Act section on "endangering lives". The Metropolitan Court gave Mevani and a number of others conditional bail on the evening of 12 January. The agitation in the middle of Ahmedabad was described to have led to an increase in the visibility of the cause of the protesters among the general public.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In March, the Bharatiya Janata Party had begun campaigning in the Adivasi belt for the upcoming election in Gujarat. In response, the RDAM formed a pact with the Adivasi Kisan Sangharsh Morcha () and Mevani announced that they would launch their own campaign as an expose on the government's failure to grant land to Adivasis under provisions of the Forests Rights Act 2006.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: To commemorate the protests of the earlier year and to reinforce the demand for land reforms in the state, Mevani organised a second "Azaadi Kooch" in July 2017. On the anniversary of the fogging incident, the RDAM conducted a event at the Ambedkar Hall, Ahmedabad. The auditorium saw a full attendance and featured participants from across the country including Kumar, the Manav Suraksha Kanoon committee member Anil Chamdia and the relatives of the victims of various lynching cases. The success of the programme prompted the announcement of the second "Azaadi Kooch." It was scheduled to begin in the town of Mehsana and conclude at the town of Dhanera, Banaskantha district. Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan (BDS), a grassroots rights organisation was instrumental in co-ordinated with the RDAM to organise the procession.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The march began on 12 July and marked by a "jan sabha" (people's assembly) of around 1,500 people at Somnath Chowk, Mehsana, located 75 km away from Ahmedabad. Mevani at the gathering, re-iterated the continued denial of physical possession of allotted land to the landless labourers and Dalit families in the state and their demands for it"." Activists from the Communist Party of India joined the group in solidarity and continued to accompany the procession throughout the march. The Patidar leader Reshma Patel and the lawyer activist Shamshad Pathan were invited to the gathering, who aimed to highlight that the struggle for the rights of Dalits, Patidars and Muslims could be brought under the same platform. It was also attended by activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union who had arrived from the state of Punjab to support their cause, and the members of the Jaipur Hangama Natak Dal and Budhan Theatre of Ahmedabad, who volunteered to perform at the gathering"."


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The march was disrupted within hours following its beginning. According to Mevani, a motorcycle attempted to run over him at Fatehpur village, unidentified individuals followed Pathan's vehicle and a group of men came to the procession searching for Kumar. The incidents were reported to the police who according to Pathan advised them to keep marching and not to stop. But as the procession passed through the village of Nani Dau, the police detained the conveners of the RDAM, Mevani and Kaushik Parmar, along with 200 participants of the procession at the village. The activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, the performers who had volunteered as well as Kumar and Patel were also detained while on their way back to Ahmedabad from Mehsana. The detainees were released after three hours and with a case of "unlawful gathering" lodged against 14 individuals, the core team of organisers, including Mevani"."


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On the same day, the police denied permission for the procession to conduct rallies in the towns of Unjha and Siddhpur, the next two destinations of the march. In response, Mevani asserted that the march should be conducted under any circumstances. It was expected to reach Unjha at 8 p.m. but arrived there late at night due to the detentions. The procession held a public meeting in the town at midnight and was joined by a large number of its residents in spite of the delay. Mevani gave a speech at the meeting where he stated that the government was sparing no effort to disrupt the march and that "[t]he momentum of the movement may have been slowed down, but the spirit has certainly not dampened."


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The march reached Siddhpur on 13 July where it received a surge of Dalits, Muslims and members of the nomadic tribe of Chharas. Police personnel and attaches from state and central intelligence agencies began accompanying them by the time the march entered Banaskantha district. Dalpat Bhatia of the BDS helped them secure permission to march through the villages of Banaskantha and it continued without further disruption. It passed through the village of Sagrosana, near Palanpur on 14 July where it was received with felicitation, in particular from Dalit women. The RDAM had directly intervened in the village where a Dalit woman named Madhuben was attempting to gain possession of her land which she had been allotted in 2006. One of the committee members of the RDAM, Lakshmiben Maheria was a Dalit woman from the village. From the beginning the march was led by a large contingent of Dalit women, who gave speeches, sang songs and coined slogans on multiple occasion. One of the key issues the movement brought up was to campaign against the traditional custom of "ghoonghat" (face veil).


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: It reached the town of Deesa on 15 July, and eventually reached Dhanera on 18 July. One of the objectives of the "Azaadi Kooch" had been conclude the march by securing land of 12 acres which was allotted to four Dalit families in the village of Lavara near Dhanera. On 17 July, while they had stopped at the village of Soneth, they were informed by the police personnel that Dileep Rana, the district magistrate (DM) of Banaskantha had taken up the issue and would ensure the physical possession of land. The march held a gathering at Dhanera which witnessed a participation of around 2,500–5,000 people cordoned by around 200 police personnel. During the gathering, the Dalits from Lavara reached the rally and informed them that their land was illegally occupied by a group of Rajputs who had threatened them including their "sarpanch" (village head). On receiving the news, Mevani announced that they would sit on a "dharna" (sit in protest) outside the Dhanera police station. The police agreed to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the encorachers, but prevented the procession to enter the village itself.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In the end, Bhatia from the BDS, accompanying members of the Communist Party and four members of the core team of the RDAM, namely Mevani, Dixit Parmar, Kaushik Parmar and Rakesh Maheria, visited the location accompanied by the police in order to oversee the transfer of the land. Activist in the BDS were assigned to maintain communications with the Dalit families to ensure that the land remained in their possession. The march lasted for 7 days and concluded with the transfer of land which occurred after a period of 50 years since they were first allotted to the four families. DM Rana later gave a statement that no case was registered against the encroachers since it was agricultural land and they were using it for that purpose. According to "The Citizen" news website, the march received a media blackout from most of the mainstream media.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On 30 November 2017, it was announced that Mevani would contest in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly election as an independent candidate at Vadgam constituency. The constituency was reserved for Scheduled Castes and had a large population of Dalits. The announcement came at the last day for filing of nominations, and campaign lacked both funding and a concrete organisation. Mevani's campaign operated out of a motel situated in a small village on the Ahmedabad–Palanpur highway. The farmers' rights activist Sagar Rabari, volunteered to help the campaign in devising its election strategy. Local activists such as Dalpat Bhatia with a team of 1,000 people from the Banaskantha Dalit Sangathan and Ishaqbhai Maderia from the Jan Sangharsh Manch volunteered to campaign for him. Maderia was elected as sarpanch of Bhangal village, an year earlier in the "panchayat" (local body) elections and Mevani adopted the election symbol of sewing machine which Maderia had used in his election.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani had appealed to other parties to not field candidates in the constituency stating that his fight was primarily against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Indian National Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party withdrew their candidates, and both the parties announced their support for Mevani. This turned it into primarily a bipolar contest between Mevani and Vijay Chakravarthi, the candidate of the BJP. Ashwin Parmar, the son of a former Congress legislator decided to rebel and contest from the constituency as an independent, causing apprehensions that he could draw in some of the votes that would have otherwise went to Mevani. Among other candidates were one from a local party called Jan Chetna, one from the Bahujan Samaj Party and six other independent candidates. According to Bhatia, the Banasakantha Dalit Sangathan was able to sway around 20,000 voters among Dalits towards voting for Mevani instead of Parmar.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Four separate groups emerged to campaign for him; his associates from Ahmedabad, human rights activists and volunteers from Delhi, local communities and organisations in Vadgam and the Congress party workers. His candidacy was endorsed by the Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the Thakor community activist Alpesh Thakor who had joined the Congress. According to one of Mevani's friends, the Congress party workers stopped working for their campaign after Ashwin Parmar's candidancy despite their party leadership's position. On 5 December, his procession was attacked during campaigning in Tarakwad village although no one was injured. Kaushik Parmar, an associate of Mevani at the RDAM states that the incident caused a surge in supporters volunteering for his campaign. His team arranged a crowdfunding initiative for the campaign which ultimately raised ₹20,50,000. The writer and activist Arundhati Roy donated ₹3,00,000 to the campaign. According to Roy, Mevani represented "a kind of breakthrough in Indian politics, a solidarity that rises from the bottom upwards".


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In contrast to Mevani's campaign, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had a well organised electoral machinery, the "Hindustan Times" in a later report compared it to a David vs Goliath situation. The BJP campaign created a perception among upper castes that the Dalit leader Mevani would conduct witch-hunts against them. According to Sagar Rabri, the community of Chaudharys were concerned that they would be targeted with cases under the Atrocities Act because Dalits worked in their farms and factories. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, the party president Amit Shah, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath themselves arrived to campaign against him in the constituency. During the campaign, the BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra accused Mevani of having "terror links" in response to which he threatened to initiate a defamation suit against the party.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Before the announcement of the results, Mevani had predicted that he would either lose or win with a small margin of around 5,000 votes. Mevani won the election with a margin of over 18,000 votes. Chakravarthi secured 75,801 votes polling at 40.32% while Mevani secured 95,397 votes polling at 50.79%.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, Jignesh Mevani won the election with a margin of over 5,000 votes. Manilal Vaghela secured 89,837 votes polling at 45.51% while Mevani secured 94,765 votes polling at 48%.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: On 6 October 2018, Mevani attended a panel discussion of Dalit leaders, activists and academics at Jaipur, Rajasthan.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In February 2019, the president and the vice-president of the HK Arts College were forced to cancel an event where they had invited Mevani (an alumnus of the college) and resigned thereafter under pressure from Bharatiya Janata Party affiliated students union leaders.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In December 2019, Mevani opposed the Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Bill on the justification that it would adversely effect the tribals in the area, stating that they were displaced from 70 villages when the government forcefully snatched their lands for the construction of the statue. The Bill created a governance authority empowered to take punitive action against engaging in activities which would harm the "tourism potential" of the site, including begging, hawking and unauthorised development. Mevani was suspended for 3 days on grounds of indiscipline after alleging that the Treasury benches followed the "Manusmriti" and not the Constitution, according to him the bill violated the provisions of the Schedule 5 of the Constitution of India.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In March 2021, Mevani was suspended for a day on grounds of indiscipline from the Gujarat Legislative Assembly by the speaker Rajendra Trivedi. He was demanding the arrest of a police officer and had questioned the Home Minister, Pradipsinh Jadeja on whether he was related to the officer who was allegedly present at an incident where a Dalit RTI activist was beaten to death by a group of upper caste men.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: In April 2021, Mevani raised the issue of postponement of offline secondary and higher secondary boards examination in Gujarat, stating that Central Board of Secondary Education has cancelled its offline examinations but the education department is continuing it and risking the lives of students.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani was arrested by the Assam Police on 20 April 2022 after he made a tweet criticising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with charges under the Indian Penal Code sections for criminal conspiracy, hurting religious sentiment and threat to peace. The BJP leader who filed the complaint stated that it was done to send a message to people that they need to be careful about making negative posts against the Prime Minister. Mevani stated that the arrest came as a surprise to him but he was not afraid and would continue to fight for the rights of the deprived, adding that the arrest has only gone to highlight the real situation of the country and the motives of the government. He was arrested at midnight from his residence in Gujarat and transported to Kokrajhar district, Assam, where his anticipatory bail was initially rejected by the district court which stating that the hearing for it will be held on a later date.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: The arrest received condemnation and was described as an attack on freedom of speech and intimidation of dissidents through the misuse of law and order machinery under the Modi administration in India. Human rights activist such as Akhil Gogoi, Kavita Krishnan, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and opposition politicians including Debabrata Saikia, Gaurav Gogoi and Rahul Gandhi extended their support to him. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot stated that the arrest was an attack on democratic norms and an example of the dictatorial attitude of the Modi administration and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The President of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, K. T. Rama Rao reiterated the statement in Mevani's tweet, that Modi was following Nathuram Godse's ideology and dared the government to arrest him as well. Activists and opposition parties including the Indian National Congress organised a protest outside the Kokrajhar police station where Mevani was being held with plans to move the case to the Guwahati High Court if necessary, while several other activists and supporters of Mevani announced their intention to escalate the protests to Delhi. After a 3 day police custody, he was moved to judicial custody by the district court with the date for the hearing scheduled for 25 April.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: He was released on 25 April after the hearing with the court stating that it did not find any reasonable grounds for keeping him detained, but he was re-arrested immediately after his release and moved to a police station in Barpeta district, Assam. The arrest was made with new charges of obscenity and assault based on a complaint that he had used slang words and pushed a police officer when he was being transported to Kokrajhar. Mevani's lawyer stated the new charges were a later fabrication as there was no mention of this allegation during the 3 day custody or in the court hearing arguments. Kirit Rathod, the convener of a rights organisation filed a petition and stated that his fundamental rights were being violated as he was not provided a copy of his FIR and was not allowed to meet his lawyer, leading to the chief secretaries of Gujarat and Assam being sent notices to present the facts of the case to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Spontaneous protests against the arrest emerged in several places in Gujarat, occurring at two levels, with one composed of the Indian Nation Congress with Kanhaiya Kumar leading it and the other composed of ordinary Dalits, civil society organisations and other supporters of Mevani. Mevani's supporters have also stated that Gujarat Police has been threatening and harassing Mevani's family and associates since his arrest.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani was released on 30 April after a hearing at the district court stating that one would have to rewrite the entire criminal jurisprudence to the able to accept the case and that "converting our hard-earned democracy into a police state is simply unthinkable". During the court's testimony, the officer contradicted the FIR and did not state that Mevani had used his hands to apply any physical force on the officer or uttered any obscene words, rather that he had spoken words in his language which were allegedly abuses that the officer did not understand. The court reprimanded the police stating that they had manufactured a false case and misused the process to keep him detained for a longer period. The court also sent a request to the Guwahati High Court to take up a petition for police reforms to mandate officers to wear body cameras and install CCTVs in police vehicles, raising concerns that Assam was becoming a police state, citing frequent instances of police brutality and other excesses in the state.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani was elected from Vadgam constituency again in 2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election as an INC candidate defeating his nearest rival and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manilal Vaghela.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani is the convener of the "Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch" (State Dalit Rights Platform), who identifies himself as a social liberal and Ambedkarite. He subscribes to the school of thought in Ambedkarism, propounded by Anand Teltumbde, according to which social transformation is not achievable by solely focusing on caste as it leads to repeated division within the movement and that it needs to forge a class unity among all marginalised groups. According to Mevani, there is a material foundation to caste beyond that of just being a sociocultural phenomenon, and that "for the annihilation of caste, struggle against caste and class both go hand in hand".


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Described as a part of a new emergent left wing in India, Mevani has formed direct associations with individuals such as Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, Gauri Lankesh, Kanhaiya Kumar, Shehla Rashid and Umar Khalid, among others. On being called a communist, he states that he is yet to attain the same understanding that communists have to be considered one.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani is a proponent of land reform in India. One of his long standing demands, has been that of allotment and distribution of 5 acres of land to landless farming families. His interest in the question of land is considered to be unique in contemporary Dalit politics. Mevani states that "one can not preach self respect to empty stomachs" and that land reform is a vital tool which can bring about important structural changes for the annihilation of caste.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani is a vocal supporter of labour rights, including the dismantlation of contract employment. He has also advocated for the sanitation workers to be made permanent and offered benefits akin to other government jobs.


title: Jignesh Mevani

text: Mevani is an advocate for unity between anti-fascist groups, and endorses the formation of a joint platform between all anti-Sangh Parivar and progressive groups. Identifying the Hindutva movement – consisting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, its Sangh Parivar affiliates and the Bharatiya Janata Party – as a movement for fascism in India, he states that it intends to reorient the state into a casteist and fascist system on the lines of the "Manusmriti" and the teachings of Hindutva ideologues like M. S. Golwalkar. He has taken the stance that he intends to oppose them wherever they are as they threaten the Constitution of India.


title: Aadi (2002 film)

text: Aadi is a 2002 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by debutant V. V. Vinayak. The film stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Keerthi Chawla. The film was a huge commercial success and was remade in Tamil as "Jai" and in Bengali as "Surya". The film won four Nandi Awards and was released in 118 centres and ran for 100 days in 96 centres.


title: Aadi (2002 film)

text: The story is set against the backdrop of Rayalaseema. The film opens with Veera Reddy returning from the US after a long gap with his wife and eight-year-old son, Aadi Kesava Reddy. Veera Reddy's deceased father was a well-known factionist in that area and owned a property of . While leaving for the US, Veera Reddy gave the responsibility of managing this land to Nagi Reddy. Now back in India, Veera Reddy realizes that Nagi Reddy is misusing his power. He wants to donate all his land to the 2000 families staying in that village. When Nagi Reddy learns of this charity giveaway, he attacks Veera Reddy, killing him and his wife. Veeranna (Chalapati Rao), a trusted lieutenant of Veera Reddy, takes the child Aadi and escapes to Hyderabad. After the murders, Veera Reddy's trusted people are sentenced to fourteen years in prison.


title: Aadi (2002 film)

text: Then the film titles roll, ending with the caption '12 years later'. The grown up Aadi is studying in college. He falls in love with Nandu and vice versa. Veeranna has raised Aadi in Hyderabad as a fun-loving boy, but he is also a hot-tempered young man. Later on, it is revealed that Nandu is Nagi Reddy's daughter. Completing her studies, Nandu returns to her hometown at her father's place. After a hiatus of 14 years, Aadi reenters the Rayalaseema along with other trusted members of his father, who are released from jail. Aadi wants to take revenge on Nagi Reddy and get back all the land so that he can distribute it to the villagers. The rest of the film deals with how Aadi achieves his objective.


title: Aadi (2002 film)

text: When Vinayak was assisting director Sagar for the film "Padutha Theeyaga", producer Bellamkonda Suresh used to observe him. He promised him that he would give Vinayak an opportunity to prove himself. After "Paaduthaa Theeyagaa", he was not doing much as an assistant and thus started working on his own scripts. When Suresh offered to make a film with him, he was thrilled and narrated the story to NTR. NTR liked the subject. It was a love story. But Kodali Nani didn't like it. After a couple of days, he narrated another story that was instantly liked and taken to the sets, and that was the story of "Aadi". They went to Mumbai to search for a heroine. They considered Aarti Agarwal, but she had just signed on the dotted line for "Nuvvu Naaku Nacchaav". They also considered Ayesha Takia, but their cameraman felt that she wasn't the right choice for NTR. Seeing the Fair & Lovely ad, Vinayak felt Trisha would be an ideal choice, but his sister didn't like her. They dropped that idea, too, with a primary belief that if ladies didn't like much, then it will just not work out. While in Mumbai still, they also met Sada also there, but she'd have been so lean beside NTR, they thought, and we dropped her too. During all this, the shooting was already in progress! Thus, we had to find just someone. That's how it all happened.


title: Aadi (2002 film)

text: "Aadi" by collected 19 crore share revenue from its theatrical run (with a budget of 2 crores). It became the second highest grossing Telugu movie at that time, second only to Narasimha Naidu Aadi ran for 50 days in 121 centers and 100 days in a record 96 direct centers.


title: Dharani (director)

text: Dharani (born V. C. Ramani) is an Indian former film director, who primarily directed Tamil and Telugu action films. He is best known for directing super hit Tamil action films "Dhill", "Dhool" and "Ghilli".


title: Dharani (director)

text: He first directed the film "Ethirum Pudhirum", loosely based on forest brigand Veerappan and his younger brother's death, starring Mammootty. Political controversies ensured its delayed release in 1999. It received critical acclaim and was awarded second place in the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film. The film's producer T. Ajay kumar made Dharani the director of his next production, starring Vikram, "Dhill". The film was a box-office success and his next film "Dhool", produced by A. M. Rathnam in 2003, again with Vikram along with Jyothika and Reemma Sen, was a box office success. He worked with A. M. Rathnam again for the film "Ghilli" starring Vijay and Trisha, that was a blockbuster movie and a comeback movie in Vijay's career. It was followed by Telugu film "Bangaram", featuring Pawan Kalyan in the lead. In 2008, he directed "Kuruvi", rejoining the lead cast of "Ghilli". Unlike the previous success in "Ghilli", "Kuruvi" was an average hit at the box office and was panned by critics. In 2011, he remade the 2010 Hindi film "Dabangg" in Tamil as "Osthe", with Silambarasan in the lead role, which was again a critical and was declared an average hit.


title: Dharani (director)

text: Dharani announced that he would make a Telugu film titled "Merupu" with Ram Charan Teja and Kajal Aggarwal, and the film had an official launch in late April 2010. The film progressed slowly throughout 2010 and was later shelved by 2011. .


title: Black-ish (season 8)

text: The eighth and final season of the American sitcom "Black-ish" premiered on January 4, 2022, on ABC, for the 2021–22 television season and concluded on April 19, 2022.


title: Black-ish (season 8)

text: "Black-ish" centers around the African-American Johnson family, led by Andre "Dre" Johnson, who struggles with finding his cultural identity while raising his kids in a white neighborhood with his wife, Bow. The series stars Anthony Anderson as Dre, alongside Tracee Ellis Ross, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin, Peter Mackenzie, Deon Cole, Jeff Meacham, Katlyn Nichol, and Jenifer Lewis.


title: Black-ish (season 8)

text: On May 14, 2021, it was announced that ABC had renewed "Black-ish" for an eighth and final season. Production on the series had concluded by December 2021.


title: Black-ish (season 8)

text: On October 28, 2021, it was announced that Michelle Obama would guest-star in an episode of the season as herself. Obama's appearance was later revealed to be in the season premiere, "That's What Friends Are For".


title: Black-ish (season 8)

text: When ABC announced their fall schedule for 2022, it was revealed that the series would be held for mid-season. On November 1, 2021, it was announced that would premiere on January 4, 2022. The season airs after first seasons of "Judge Steve Harvey" and "Abbott Elementary", and lead into first season of "Queens". A retro-style promo for the season was aired during the third installment of "Live in Front of a Studio Audience", on December 7, 2021. The promotional poster for the season was released in November 2021.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the subsidiary of the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerate; Yomiuri TV forms part of Yomiuri's main television broadcasting arm alongside Kantō region flagship Nippon TV, which owns a 15.89% share in the company. Founded as on February 13, 1958, and renamed Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation on August 1, the station started broadcasting on August 28 as the first TV station to be affiliated with Nippon Television Network Corporation. Its studios are located in the Osaka Business Park district of Osaka.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: Nippon TV applied for TV broadcasting licenses in Osaka and Nagoya after it began broadcasting in 1953, but the Ministry of Post declined the application on the grounds that "Nippon TV is a Tokyo channel, and applying for licenses in other regions is an act of crossing the boundary." At the time, Osaka had only one privately owned television station, Osaka TV Broadcasting (later merged with Asahi Broadcasting). However, because the majority of its programming mostly came from KRT (now TBS), Nippon Television and its parent company, Yomiuri Shimbun Group, began to try to establish their own television station in Osaka. Yomiuri Shimbun filed for a broadcasting license as Shin-Osaka TV in November 1956. In addition to Yomiuri Shimbun, eight other newspapers, including those from Asahi, Mainichi, Sankei, Kobe, and Kyoto, applied for TV broadcasting licenses in the Kansai region at the time, and only two licenses were issued, indicating that rivalry was fierce.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: To ease the overheated competition, the Ministry of Post decided to grant an additional broadcasting license in the Osaka area, and on October 22, 1957, the new Osaka TV station was granted a broadcasting license. On August 1, 1958, Shin-Osaka TV changed its name to Yomiuri TV.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: At 9:00 a.m. on August 28, 1958, Yomiuri TV was launched as the second privately owned television station in Osaka. Since Yomiuri TV is licensed as a quasi-educational station, they are required to dedicate 20%-30% of its airtime to educational programming, which resulted in being the only broadcaster at that time to air educational programs the most. At that time, Yomiuri TV produced "The Tales of Genji" which received positive reviews. Yomiuri TV started broadcasting color TV programming in September 1960, making it the first TV station in the Kansai region to do so. In April 1968, 30% of daytime and 45% of evening programs were broadcast in color. When Yomiuri TV renewed its broadcast license in 1965, the license category was changed from quasi-educational to general programming, which meant that a greater percentage of entertainment programming could be broadcast. In Spring of 1970, 100% of Yomiuri TV's programming were broadcast in color.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: Yomiuri TV's ratings gradually rose after the 1970s, and by the third week of November 1973, Yomiuri TV's daily average rating had reached 10%, and its prime time rating had reached 18.2%, making it the top-rated station in Osaka, including NHK.


title: Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

text: The station broadcasts on digital channel 14 in most regions. The channel ceased analog broadcasting on July 24, 2011.


title: I'm with You (Avril Lavigne song)

text: "I'm with You" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne from her debut studio album "Let Go" (2002). It was released to radio as the third single from the album on November 18, 2002, by Arista Records. The song was written by Lavigne and the production team the Matrix, which consists of Lauren Christy, Scott Spock, and Graham Edwards. Production on the song was helmed solely by the Matrix. According to Lavigne, the song was inspired by feelings of loneliness she experienced over being single.


title: I'm with You (Avril Lavigne song)

text: The song reached number four on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and reached the top 10 in nine other countries, including Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand, peaking within the top five in these regions. In the US, the song topped two "Billboard" listings: the Adult Top 40 and the Mainstream Top 40. "I'm with You" received radio and television airplay in Australia, but it was not officially released there. The track was nominated for several awards following its release, winning two ASCAP Awards, a BMI Pop Music Award, and a SOCAN Award. It was the second Lavigne song to be nominated for a Grammy in the categories Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.