title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: Critics have said the deal could force migrants determined to reach Europe to start using other and potentially more dangerous routes, such as the journey between North Africa and Italy. Human rights groups have strongly criticiszed the deal, with Amnesty International accusing the EU of turning "its back on a global refugee crisis". A Chatham House paper argued that the deal, by excessively accommodating Erdoğan's demands, is encouraging Turkey to extract "more unilateral concessions in the future." One of the main issues many human rights organszations have with the deal is Turkey fails to meet the standards for hosting refugees. Specifically, many refugees are unable to apply for asylum while in Turkey and while there, they have low-quality living standards. Moreover, in Turkey, refugees are limited to specific areas, which are often lacking in critical infrastructure such as hospitals.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: As of 2019, the deal has had mixed success. It has drastically cut the number of migrants entering European countries, dropping by over half within three years. This result is the most pronounced in European countries situated farther west. However, the portion of the deal that dictated asylum seekers who landed in Greece would be returned to Turkey has been difficult to implement. A small percentage of these people were returned, amounting to 2,130 people. The risk of violating both European and international law has made this key portion of the deal far less successful than it was intended to be.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: There is a long-standing dispute over Turkey's maritime boundaries with Greece and Cyprus and drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey does not recognise a legal continental shelf and exclusive economic zones around the Greek islands and Cyprus. Turkey is the only member state of the United Nations that does not recognise Cyprus, and is one of the few not signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Cyprus has signed and ratified.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: The EU Commissioner of Interior Affairs Cecilia Malmström indicated on 29 September 2011 that the visa requirement for Turkish citizens will eventually be discontinued. Visa liberalisation will be ushered in several phases. Initial changes were expected in the autumn of 2011, which would include the reduction of visa paperwork, more multi-entry visas, and extended stay periods. In June 2012, the EU authorised the beginning of negotiations with Turkey on visa exemptions for its citizens. Turkish EU Minister Egemen Bağış stated that he expected the process to take 3–4 years. The current visa policy of the EU is a cause of much concern for Turkish businessmen, politicians and Turks with family members in the EU. Egemen Bağış described the situation as: "Even non-candidate countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are currently negotiating for visa-free travel." In September 2012, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, during a meeting at the WKÖ, said: "We have had a Customs Union for 17 years, and half of our (Turkey's) external trade is with Europe. Our goods can move freely, but a visa is required for the owner of the goods. This is a violation of human rights."


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In December 2013, after signing a readmission agreement, the EU launched a visa liberalisation dialogue with Turkey including a "Roadmap towards the visa-free regime". After the November 2015 2015 G20 Antalya summit held in Antalya, Turkey, there was a new push forward in Turkey's EU accession negotiations, including a goal of lifting the visa requirement for Turkish citizens. The EU welcomed the Turkey's commitment to accelerate the fulfilment of the Visa Roadmap benchmarks set forth by participating EU member states. A joint action plan was drafted with the European Commission which developed a roadmap with certain benchmarks for the elimination of the visa requirement. The agreement called for abolishing visas for Turkish citizens within a year if certain conditions are satisfied.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: On 18 March 2016, EU reached a migration agreement with Turkey, aiming at discouraging refugees from entering the EU. Under this deal, Turkey agreed to take back migrants who enter Greece and send legal refugees to EU. In exchange, EU agreed to give Turkey six billion euros, and to allow visa-free travel for Turkish citizens by the end of June 2016 if Turkey meets 72 conditions. In March 2016, the EU assessed that Turkey at the time met 35 of the necessary 72 requirements for visa-free travel throughout Europe. In May 2016, this number had risen to 65 out of 72.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: On 19 April 2016, Jean-Claude Juncker said that Turkey must meet the remaining criteria to win visa-free access to the Schengen area. But Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu argued that Turkey would not support the EU-Turkey deal if EU did not weaken the visa conditions by June 2016. In May 2016, the European Commission said that Turkey had met most of the 72 criteria needed for a visa waiver, and it invited EU legislative institutions of the bloc to endorse the move for visa-free travel by Turkish citizens within the Schengen Area by 30 June 2016. The European Parliament would have to approve the visa waiver for it to enter into force and Turkey must fulfil the final five criteria. The five remaining benchmarks still to be met by Turkey include:


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: As of August 26, 2021, these conditions had yet to be fulfilled. On 25 June 2021, the EU approved plans to pay Turkey a further three billion euros to update this agreement. In August 2021, however, with President Erdoğan's Justice and Development party polling at historic lows, and with the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan triggering fears of a new wave of migration to Europe through Turkey, Erdoğan cast doubt on the viability of this arrangement.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: On March 11, 2017, there was a diplomatic crisis between the EU member Netherlands and Turkey. EU member Netherlands did not allow two Turkish ministers to enter its country. For example, the EU member Netherlands canceled the flight permit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, then did not allow Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, the former Turkish Minister of Family and Social Policies, to enter her country, and expelled her.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: The EU announced that it promised support and solidarity to the Netherlands, but did not promise support and solidarity to Turkey.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: On March 26, 2018, the European Union–Turkey Summit was held in Varna, Bulgaria. The EU term chairman, former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, former EU Council President Donald Tusk, former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also attended the summit.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: High Representative Federica Mogherini issued a declaration on behalf of the EU on 9 October 2019 stating that "In light of the Turkish military operation in north-east Syria, the EU reaffirms that a sustainable solution to the Syrian conflict cannot be achieved militarily."


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: Finland and Sweden, the two European Union countries that want to become NATO members, stopped arms sales to Turkey due to Turkey's military operation in Syria.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In 2016, Bundestag Parliamentary Oversight Panel members demanded an answer from the German government regarding the reports that Germans of Turkish origin are being pressured in Germany by informers and officers of Turkey's MIT spy agency. According to reports Turkey had 6,000 informants plus MIT officers in Germany who were putting pressure on "German Turks". Hans-Christian Ströbele stated that there was an "unbelievable" level of "secret activities" in Germany by Turkey's MIT agency. According to Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, not even the former communist East German Stasi secret police had managed to run such a large "army of agents" in the former West Germany: "Here, it's not just about intelligence gathering, but increasingly about intelligence service repression."


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In 2017, the Flemish interior minister, Liesbeth Homans, started the process of withdrawing recognition of the Turkish-sponsored and second largest mosque in the country, Fatih mosque in Beringen, accusing the mosque of spying in favor of Turkey.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In 2017, Austrian politician Peter Pilz released a report on the activities of Turkish agents operating through ATIB (Avusturya Türkiye İslam Birliği – Austria Turkey Islamic Foundation), the Diyanet's arm responsible for administering religious affairs across 63 mosques in the country, and other Turkish organisations. Pilz's website faced a DDoS attack by Turkish hacktivists and heavy security was provided when he presented the report publicly. Per the report, Turkey operates a clandestine network of 200 informants targeting opposition as well as Gülen supporters inside Austria.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In 1994, Mehmet Kaygisiz, a Kurdish man with links to the PKK (which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the EU), was shot dead at a café in Islington, London. His murder remained unsolved and at the time his murder was thought to be drug-related, but in 2016 new documents suggest that Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) ordered his murder.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: The European Union launched Operation Irini with the primary task of enforcing the United Nations arms embargo to Libya because of the Second Libyan Civil War. During this period there were several incidents between the Irini forces and the Turkish forces.


title: Turkey–European Union relations

text: In May 2022, Turkey opposed two EU member states, Finland and Sweden, joining NATO because according to Turkey, they host terrorist organisations which act against Turkey (including the PKK, KCK, PYD, YPG and Gulen movement). Turkey urged the countries to lift their arms embargo on Turkey, not to support the organizations, and to extradite members of the Gülen movement and PKK from the two member states. (However, the Gülen movement is not on the EU's list of terrorist organizations. and the PKK is on the EU's list of terrorist organizations).


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Chained is a 2012 Canadian psychological horror film directed by Jennifer Lynch and based on a screenplay by Damian O'Donnell. Starring Vincent D'Onofrio as a serial killer and Eamon Farren as a young prisoner of the killer, it explores their relationship as the killer seeks to turn his captive into his protégé. Gina Philips, Conor Leslie, Jake Weber, and Julia Ormond appear in supporting roles.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: The film premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival and was released direct-to-video in the United States by Anchor Bay Entertainment. It received a polarized, although generally positive response, with some contention over its content and ending, while the performances were praised.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Sarah Fittler and her nine-year-old son take a taxi to return home from a cinema, but the driver Bob abducts and brings them to his house. As a result of the abuse his father inflicted on him and his brother, Bob has turned into a serial killer who rapes and murders young women. He kills Sarah and imprisons her son, whom he names Rabbit. When Rabbit tries to escape, Bob chains him to a wall.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Years later, the teenage Rabbit remains in Bob's home doing housework and burying the bodies of Bob's victims. While still holding Rabbit captive, Bob tries to become more of a father figure and has Rabbit teach himself human anatomy. To convince Rabbit that nobody else cares for him, Bob reveals that Rabbit's father Brad has remarried. He also releases Rabbit from his chains. However, in bringing Rabbit closer, Bob intends to turn Rabbit into a serial killer like him.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: To complete Rabbit's transformation into a serial killer, Bob asks him to pick a victim from a yearbook. Rabbit initially refuses, but when Bob forces him to select, he chooses a girl named Angie and Bob abducts her. Leaving Rabbit and Angie in a room, Bob warns Rabbit that he will kill her if Rabbit doesn't. Rabbit hesitates and starts to bond with Angie, but stabs her in the stomach when Bob barges in. He then drags her body into the room containing the corpses of past victims. Satisfied, Bob agrees to his request to hunt for another girl.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Bob brings Rabbit to the city with his cab and suggests several victims, but Rabbit declines them all. Along the drive, Bob discovers that Rabbit has written the word "help" on the side of the cab. Bob then realizes that Rabbit stabbed Angie in a non-lethal spot using his anatomy knowledge. He knocks Rabbit unconscious and enters the room where Angie is hiding to kill her. Angie manages to cut Bob's Achilles tendon while Rabbit awakens and comes to save her. In the following struggle, Rabbit kills Bob and buries him next to his victims.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: With Bob dead, Rabbit tracks down Brad, now living with his new wife Marie and Rabbit's half-brother Colin. Brad feigns delight about his survival until Rabbit, whose real name is Tim, confronts him with the fact that Brad had arranged the abduction of him and his mother. Through a letter he found, Tim discovered that Bob is Brad's brother. Brad, who had urged Sarah to take a taxi on the day of the kidnapping, wanted to get rid of his first wife and son. Brad responds to this revelation by physically assaulting Tim, and then Marie when she intervenes. Tim beats him to death. After Tim leaves at Marie's urging, Marie calls the police and says that a burglar killed her husband.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Tim returns to Bob's house and shuts the garage door. As the closing credits roll, the sounds of him entering the house, opening the fridge, cutting paper, walking back into the garage, entering the cab, and re-opening the garage door are heard.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Additionally, Troy Skog and Shannon Jardine portray Bob's parents and Alexander Doerksen plays Colin. Amy Matysio appears as Mary, one of Bob's victims. Director Jennifer Lynch has a cameo as a cooking show host on TV.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: The film was shot in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, over a period of 15 days. Lynch used the same crew as "Surveillance". The original concept came from a script by Damian O'Donnell. Although Lynch liked the script, she felt it was wrong for her, as she did not want to shoot a film in the style of torture porn. The producers explained that they wanted to see her take on the script, so she rewrote it to focus on the characters rather than gratuitous violence. Lynch said that by focusing on the story, she was able to "humanise and explain – though not justify – the devastating behaviour that is a serial killer."


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: D'Onofrio was drawn to the project by Lynch's involvement, as he had wanted to work with her on "Boxing Helena". Lynch had also wanted to work with D'Onofrio, but the role was not specifically written for him. Lynch was drawn to D'Onofrio, who was always her first choice, because the part required an actor that was capable of showing an injured inner child. Because D'Onofrio was willing to do this, Lynch praised his performance as brave. Farren and D'Onofrio worked well together on the set, which D'Onofrio credits for their on-screen chemistry. The actors used very little improvisation. For Bob, D'Onofrio said that he needed to find the character's moral compass, even though Bob is a serial killer. As a character actor, D'Onofrio said that he is drawn to fascinating characters, no matter how flawed. Farren was impressed with Lynch's cover letter for the script reader and got along very well with her when they spoke. On set, Farren and Lynch collaborated easily, and Farren said that she did not need to give much direction to him. Lynch recruited Bird, who played the young Rabbit, over Skype after the casting crew recommended him. Lynch said that his audition tape gave her chills.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: The film is a study of how monsters are made, and Lynch says that she wanted to "promote a dialogue about child abuse." Through Bob's back story, Lynch attempted to show how society had turned him into a monster through child abuse. With Rabbit, she wanted to explore the theme of "nature vs nurture". Farren described Rabbit as a stunted child, a nineteen-year-old man who stopped emotionally maturing at nine. Rabbit did not become what Lynch called "a full blown replica of Bob" because he has a loving childhood. This allowed Lynch to compare and contrast how the two men turned out. Lynch did not want to perpetuate the cycle of violence and make Rabbit into a killer, which she said would have been boring.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Lynch was contractually obligated to keep the film to a certain run time, so she had to abbreviate the plot twist. Although she recognizes that some people find it to be tacked on, she said that a director's cut would expand on it and make it more natural. The ending scene is meant to be hopeful, and Lynch says that she sees it as both realistic and happy.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: "Chained" had its world premiere at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal on 5 August 2012. Anchor Bay Entertainment released it direct-to-video on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on 2 October 2012. Although there was money budgeted for a director's cut, they had to use it in other areas. Lynch still wants to do a director's cut eventually.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: The film was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for "some explicit violence". Lynch appealed the rating, but it was upheld. She later edited the film to achieve an R rating. Kevin Carney of Anchor Bay said that films with comparable violence were rated R for arbitrary reasons, and Lynch said that her films were targeted with NC-17 ratings for their authenticity and intensity, which, according to her, "rewards a casual attitude toward violence." Lynch later said that NC-17 had failed, as audiences still associated it with the old X rating. The NC-17 scene that was cut, which depicts a more graphic version of Mary's (Amy Matysio) death, is included as a special feature.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Lynch stated that she would have preferred to release the film under its working title "Rabbit", but the studio would not comply.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: The film drew a polarized response from critics. Negatively comparing it to Jennifer Lynch's debut "Boxing Helena" in terms of misogyny, Dennis Harvey of "Variety" called it "a repugnant exercise in physical and psychological sadism" and "a redundant wallow in arted-up, torture-porn cruelty". Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" and Tim Robey of "The Daily Telegraph" both rated it one out of five, with Bradshaw calling it a "fantastically crass and fatuous serial-killer movie" and Robey calling it "a lurid disgrace". David Hughes of "Empire" rated it two out of five and described it as "plenty nasty but singularly lacking in clever new twists on a weary genre". Jamie S. Rich of DVD Talk rated it one and a half out of five, criticizing Vincent D'Onofrio's performance as "kind of comical" and the ending as "increasingly ridiculous", although he praised the sequence between Rabbit and Angie and Conor Leslie's performance.


title: Chained (2012 film)

text: Conversely, Matt Glasby of "Total Film" rated it three out of five and called it a "tense serial killer thriller", with the ending being his only main point of contention. Rod Lott of the "Oklahoma Gazette" praised the first half of the film as "absorbing and tense", and while finding the second half to be less-interesting, noted that "Lynch does not compromise in her direction, nor shy away from depicting depravity" throughout the entire film. Scott A. Gray of "Exclaim!" wrote that it is a "deeply disturbing, but deeply human look at the causation of cyclical violence". Simon Foster of the Special Broadcasting Service rated it three and a half out of five and called it a "bleak, claustrophobic and brutal serial killer drama". Scott Weinberg of "Fearnet" described the film as "a stark, unpredictable, and frequently ugly rumination on themes like free will and morality" and "deserves credit for trying to mine some relatively intelligent chills out of something different, topical, and primally disturbing". Lauren Taylor of Bloody Disgusting rated it four out of five and wrote, ""Chained" takes a typical tale of an abused child growing up to become a serial killer and makes it something that is Oscar worthy", with praise for D'Onofrio's performance. Serena Whitney of "Dread Central" rated it three and a half out of five and wrote, "Not since "American Psycho" have audiences experienced a clever dissection of the appalling misogyny displayed in the serial killer subgenre from a female perspective". Bill Gibron of "DVD Verdict" concluded that "Chained" "stumbles a bit yet still manages to crawl under your skin and creep you out".


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is a deep geological repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. It is near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in the municipality of Eurajoki, on the west coast of Finland. It is being constructed by Posiva, and is based on the KBS-3 method of nuclear waste burial developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB). The facility is expected to be operational in 2023.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: After the Finnish Nuclear Energy Act was amended in 1994 to specify that all nuclear waste produced in Finland must be disposed of in Finland, Olkiluoto was selected in 2000 as the site for a long-term underground storage facility for Finland's spent nuclear fuel. The facility, named "Onkalo" (meaning "small cave" or "cavity") is being built in the granite bedrock at the Olkiluoto site, about five kilometers from the power plants. The municipality of Eurajoki issued a building permit for the facility in August 2003 and excavation began in 2004.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: The site was selected after a long process, which started in 1983 with a screening of the whole Finnish territory. From 1993 until 2000, four prospective sites were examined: Romuvaara in Kuhmo, Kivetty in Äänekoski, Olkiluoto in Eurajoki and Hästholmen in Loviisa. Besides geological and environmental considerations, the opinions of local residents were also taken into account. Eurajoki and Loviisa were singled out for being the locations with the highest local support. The former also had more favorable geographic conditions, thus in 1999 Posiva proposed it to the Finnish government as the selected location. The municipality of Eurajoki confirmed its approval of the site, and the national government ratified the decision in May 2001.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: Posiva started construction of the site in 2004. The Finnish government issued the company a licence for constructing the final disposal facility on 12 November 2015. Posiva expects operations to begin in 2023.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: The facility was constructed by and will be operated by Posiva, a company owned by the two existing producers of nuclear power in Finland, Fortum and TVO. (Fennovoima, a company which was planning its first nuclear reactor, is not a stockholder of Posiva.)


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: Once in operation, the disposal process will involve placing twelve fuel assemblies into a boron steel canister and enclosing it in a copper capsule. Each capsule will then be placed in its own hole in the repository and overpacked with bentonite clay. The estimated cost of this project is about €818 million, which includes construction, encapsulation, and operating costs. The State Nuclear Waste Management Fund has approximately €1.4 billion from charges for generated electricity.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: The Onkalo repository is expected to be large enough to accept for around one hundred years. At this point, the final encapsulation and burial will take place, and the access tunnel will be backfilled and sealed.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: In 2012, a research group at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, published research that suggests that the copper capsules are not as corrosion-proof as the companies planning the repositories claim (see KBS-3). These claims were later refuted when SKB undertook follow-up studies, which indicated that the alleged corrosion process does not exist, and that the initial experiments were not correctly executed and/or the wrong conclusions were drawn. In 2019, another study concluded that radiation effects should not significantly damage the canisters after 100,000 years.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: Danish director Michael Madsen has co-written and directed a feature-length documentary "Into Eternity" (2010) where the initial phase of the excavation is featured and experts interviewed. The director's special emphasis is on the semantic difficulties in meaningfully marking the depository as dangerous for people in the distant future.


title: Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository

text: American anthropologist Vincent Ialenti has written a book "Deep Time Reckoning" (MIT Press, 2020) that explores how Onkalo repository "safety case" experts envisioned distant future ecosystems and reflected on the limits of human knowledge. His book is based on 32-months of in-person fieldwork in Finland.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The Battle of Bir Hakeim () took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert south and west of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942). The 1st Free French Brigade under Marie-Pierre Kœnig defended the position from against Axis forces of "Panzerarmee Afrika" commanded by Erwin Rommel. The captured Tobruk ten days later.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The delay imposed on the Axis offensive by the defence of Bir Hakeim influenced the cancellation of Operation Herkules, the Axis invasion of Malta. Rommel invaded Egypt, slowed by British delaying actions until the First Battle of El Alamein in July, where the Axis advance was stopped. Both sides used the battle for propaganda, Winston Churchill declared the Free French to be the "Fighting French". Friedrich von Mellenthin wrote,


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: At the beginning of 1942, after its defeat in western Cyrenaica during Unternehmen Theseus, the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie faced the Axis troops in Libya roughly west of the port of Tobruk, along a line running from the coast at Gazala, southwards for about . Both sides accumulated supplies for an offensive to forestall their opponent and General Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief of Middle East Command, hoped for the Eighth Army to be ready by May. British code-breakers tracked the dispatch of convoys to Libya as the British offensive on Axis shipping to North Africa was neutralised by Axis bombing of Malta and forecast that the Axis would attack first.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: As the Eighth Army was not ready to take the offensive, Ritchie planned to fight a defensive battle on the Gazala line. Auchinleck's appreciation of the situation to Ritchie in mid-May anticipated either a frontal attack in the centre of the Gazala line followed by an advance on Tobruk or a flanking move to the south, looping around the Gazala line towards Tobruk. Auchinleck saw the former as more likely (with a feint on the flank to draw away the Eighth Army tanks) while Ritchie favoured the latter. Auchinleck suggested that British armour be concentrated near El Adem, where it would be well placed to meet either threat.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: Since Operation Crusader in late 1941, the Eighth Army had received American built M3 Grant medium tanks with a in a turret and a in a hull sponson, which could penetrate the armour of the opposing and "J" and the "Panzer IV" tank models at . The frontal armour of the Grant was thick enough to withstand the 50 mm Pak 38 anti-tank gun at and the short-barrelled 50 mm KwK 38 gun of the III at . The first 112 of the new British 6-pounder (57 mm) anti-tank guns had arrived and been allotted to the motor brigades of the armoured divisions.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: At the meeting of Axis leaders at Berchtesgaden on 1 May, it was agreed that Rommel should attack at the end of the month to capture Tobruk. The Panzer Army Africa (/) was to pause at the Egyptian border, while the Axis captured Malta in Operation Herkules and then Rommel was to invade Egypt. The had finished converting to the up-armoured and had , known as Mark III Specials, with long-barrelled 5 cm KwK 39 guns. Four (Mark IV Specials) with long-barrelled 7.5 cm KwK 40 guns had also arrived. (German military intelligence) had broken some British military codes and in late 1941 penetrated Black, the code used by Bonner Fellers, a US military attaché in Egypt. The British divulged much tactical information to Fellers, who unwittingly reported it to the Axis as well as the US government.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: Air attacks by the and on Malta reduced its offensive capacity and supply convoys from Italy reached the Axis forces in Africa with fewer losses. Until May, Axis monthly deliveries to Libya averaged , less than a smaller Axis force received from June–October 1941 but sufficient for an offensive. The advance to Gazala succeeded because the port of Benghazi was open, reducing the transport distance for about of the supplies of the to . The capture of Malta would not alter the constraints of port capacity and distance; protecting convoys and the use of a large port close to the front would still be necessary.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The rest of the Italian XX Motorised Corps, the 101st Motorized Division "Trieste", would open a gap in the minefield north of Bir Hakeim, near the Sidi Muftah box, to create a supply route to the panzers. Rommel anticipated that having dealt with the British tanks, he would have captured El Adem, Ed Duda and Sidi Rezegh by nightfall and later the Knightsbridge defensive box, about north-east of Bir Hakeim. The Axis tanks would be in a position next day to thrust westwards against the Eighth Army defensive boxes between Gazala and Alem Hamza, meeting the eastwards attack by the Italian X and XXI corps. By late May, the Axis forces comprised and


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: Between Gazala and Timimi (just west of Tobruk), the Eighth Army was able to concentrate its forces sufficiently to turn and fight. By 4 February, the Axis advance had been halted and the front line had been stabilised, from Gazala on the coast west of Tobruk, to the old Ottoman fortress of Bir Hakeim, to the south. The Gazala line was a series of defensive boxes accommodating a brigade each, laid out across the desert behind minefields and wire, watched by regular patrols between the boxes. The Free French were in the south at the Bir Hakeim box, south of the 150th Infantry Brigade box, which was south of the 69th Infantry Brigade box. The line was not evenly manned, with a greater number of troops covering the coast road, leaving the south less protected but deep minefields had been laid in front of the boxes.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The longer line made an attack around the southern flank harder to supply. Behind the Gazala line were the Commonwealth Keep, Acroma, Knightsbridge and El Adem boxes, sited to block tracks and junctions. The box at Retma was finished just before the Axis offensive but work on the Point 171 and Bir el Gubi boxes did not begin until 25 May. By late May, the 1st South African Division was dug in nearest the coast, with the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division to the south and 1st Free French Brigade furthest left at Bir Hakeim. The British 1st and 7th Armoured divisions waited behind the main line as a mobile counter-attack force, the 2nd South African Division garrisoned Tobruk and 5th Indian Infantry Division was in reserve. The British had and


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The fortress at Bir Hakeim (Old Man's Well) had been built by the Ottomans and later used as a station by the Italian (camel corps) to control movement at the crossroads of two Bedouin paths. The wells had long been dry and had been abandoned but Indian troops re-occupied the site to build a strongpoint surrounded by The fortification was a rough pentagon pointing north, about wide. On 14 February, the 150th Infantry Brigade was relieved at the box by the 1st Free French Brigade ( Marie Pierre Kœnig), part of XXX Corps (Lieutenant-General Willoughby Norrie). With a fighting strength of 3,000 men and a rear echelon of about 600 men based to the east behind the line, the brigade comprised the 13th "Demi-Brigade" of the Foreign Legion (13e DBLE), an established unit and the backbone of the Free French, with the 2nd Colonial Demi-Brigade, a scratch combination of two battalions of new volunteers.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The 13e DBLE had been formed to fight in Finland but was used in the Norwegian campaign, being the first unit to the join the Free French in England. It was a veteran of the fighting in Italian Eritrea and French Syria against Vichy; the half-brigade was reinforced by and two officers of the defeated 6th Foreign Infantry Regiment (6e REI), which now formed a third battalion. By mid-May the perimeter and central areas were honeycombed with foxholes, gun emplacements and underground bunkers, deep camouflaged hides for vehicles and supply dumps. The interior of the fort was divided into zones, each the responsibility of a unit, with Kœnig's headquarters near the centre, at the crossroads. The V-shaped anti-tank and anti-personnel minefields were patrolled by the 3rd Foreign Legion Battalion (Lamaze), manning sixty-three Bren Gun Carriers divided into three squadrons. The patrols moved along lanes in the minefields, paying particular attention to the area north to the Sidi Muftah box at Got el Ualeb, held by the 150th Brigade.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: At on 26 May, the Italian X and XXI Corps began a frontal attack on the central Gazala line. A few elements of the and the Italian XX Motorised Corps participated and during the day the bulk of the moved north, to give the impression that it was the main attack. After dark, the armoured formations turned south in a sweeping move around the southern end of the Gazala line. Early on 27 May, the main force of , the , XX Motorised Corps and the 90th Light Division, went round the southern end of the Gazala line, using the British minefields to protect the Axis flank and rear. The "Ariete" Division was held up for about an hour by the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade (7th Armoured Division), dug in about south-east of Bir Hakeim.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The 15th Panzer Division engaged the 4th Armoured Brigade, which had come south to support the 3rd Indian and 7th Motorised brigades. The Germans were surprised by the range and power of the on the new M3 Grants but by late morning, the 4th Armoured Brigade had withdrawn toward El Adem and Axis armoured units had advanced more than north. Their advance was stopped around noon by the 1st Armoured Division, in mutually costly fighting. On the right, the 90th Light Division forced the 7th Motorised Brigade out of Retma eastwards on Bir el Gubi. Advancing toward El Adem at mid-morning, armoured cars of the 90th Light Division overran and scattered the advanced HQ of the 7th Armoured Division (Major-General Frank Messervy), near Bir Beuid. Messervy was captured and removed his insignia, persuading the Germans that he was a batman; he escaped with several other men to rejoin the division. The 90th Light Division reached the El Adem area by mid-morning and captured several supply bases. The following day, the 4th Armoured Brigade moved on El Adem and forced the 90th Light Division to retire to the south-west.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The 15th and 21st Panzer divisions, the rest of the 90th Light Division and the "Ariete" Division began their large encircling move south of Bir Hakeim as planned. The 3rd Indian Motor Brigade was surprised at on 27 May and overrun at Point 171, south-east of Bir Hakeim, by the 132nd Tank Infantry Regiment of the "Ariete" Division and some German tanks, losing about and most of its equipment. The 7th Motor Brigade was then attacked at Retma and forced back to Bir el Gubi. The 4th Armoured Brigade advanced in support and collided with the 15th Panzer Division; the 8th Hussars were destroyed and the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3rd RTR) lost many tanks. The British inflicted considerable losses in return but then retired to El Adem.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: After over-running the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, the VIII, IX, and X Medium Tank battalions of the 132nd Tank Infantry Regiment moved to the north-east of Bir Hakeim and the IX Battalion (Colonel Prestisimone) with sixty tanks, changed direction towards the fort. The IX Battalion arrived before the Bir Hakeim minefield and barbed wire at charged and lost and a self-propelled gun. Ten tanks got through the minefield and were knocked out by guns, causing casualties. The remnants of the IX Battalion retired to the main body of the "Ariete" Division, which moved north towards Bir el Harmat around noon, following Rommel's original plan.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: On 28 May, the Desert Air Force (DAF) made a maximum effort to attack Axis columns around El Adem and Bir Hakeim but in the poor visibility, bombed Bir Hakeim and its surroundings, misled by the Italian tank wrecks around the position and Kœnig sent a detachment to destroy the wrecks to avoid any more mistakes. A French column was sent to make contact with the 150th Infantry Brigade, stationed further to the north. After a few hours, Italian artillery forced them to retire but the French column destroyed seven half-tracks. On 29 May, the detachment of Gabriel de Sairigné destroyed three German tanks, British air attacks intercepted two raids by Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers and fighter-bombers attacked Axis supply lines south and east of Bir Hakeim. On 30 May, from the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, captured by the Axis and then released in the desert, reached the fort and added to the already there, making the water shortage worse. The detachment of Lamaze, at the request of the 7th Armoured Division, sealed off the breach opened the day before by the Axis tanks in the minefields. Led by Colonel Dimitri Amilakhvari, the legionnaires were ambushed but managed to retreat with the help of the Bren carriers of the 9th Company ().


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: On 31 May, during a two-day sandstorm, fifty supply trucks of the 101st Transport Company ( Dulau), reached Bir Hakeim with water and took the Indians, prisoners and seriously wounded back to the British lines. A raid by the detachments , and , led by Amilakhvari, destroyed five tanks and an armoured vehicle repair workshop. The had been forced to retreat westwards, to an area north of Bir Hakeim, which became known as the Cauldron, having attacked the 150th Infantry Brigade box since 28 May. During the day, the DAF lost sixteen aircraft (fifteen fighters and a bomber), combat with Axis fighters and one to flak, the worst daily loss of the battle; the lost nine aircraft. On the west side of the Cauldron, the 150th Infantry Brigade was overrun late on 1 June despite British relief attempts. The Axis troops that had been trapped gained a supply route through the Eighth Army minefields north of Bir Hakeim and next morning the encirclement of the fort was resumed by the 90th Light Division, "Trieste" Division and three armoured reconnaissance regiments from the 17th Infantry Division "Pavia". At German troops approached from the south and Italian forces advanced from the north. Two Italian officers presented themselves at to the 2nd Foreign Legion Battalion lines, asking for the capitulation of the fort, which Kœnig refused.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: From on 2 June, both sides exchanged artillery fire but the French field guns were out-ranged by German medium artillery and the fort was bombed by German and Italian aircraft. dive bombers raided Bir Hakeim more than twenty times but the French positions were so well built as to be almost invulnerable. The British were unable to reinforce the French, who repulsed the "Ariete" Division attack but on 2 June, the DAF had an easily observed bomb line around the fort and concentrated on the area with fighter patrols and fighter-bomber attacks. The sight of scores of burning vehicles helped to maintain the morale of the defenders, who harassed Axis communications around the fort, as did the 7th Motor Brigade and the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade which were in the vicinity. On 4 June, DAF fighters and fighter-bombers disrupted Stuka attacks and bombed Axis vehicles, blowing up an ammunition wagon in view of the French but losing seven aircraft. Kœnig signalled Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham. "" which brought the reply "".


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: From 5 to 6 June, the DAF flew fewer sorties at Bir Hakeim, concentrating on the Knightsbridge Box and around on 6 June, the 90th Light Division attacked with the support of pioneers to try to clear a passage through the minefield. The pioneers got within of the fort, having breached the outer minefield and during the night they managed to clear several passages into the inner perimeter. German infantry gained a foothold but the French troops in foxholes, dug outs and blockhouses, maintained a great volume of small-arms fire, which forced the Germans under cover. Operation Aberdeen, an attempt to destroy Axis forces in the Cauldron, which had begun on the night of was a disastrous failure. Ritchie considered withdrawing the French from the fort to release the 7th Motor Brigade but decided to keep possession and on 7 June, four DAF raids were made against the Germans in the minefields. That night, a last convoy approached the fort and Bellec got through the German lines, in thick fog to guide the convoy in. The Germans used the fog to prepare a final assault; tanks, 88 mm guns and Colonel Hecker's pioneers formed up in front of the fort.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: On the morning of 8 June, after the defeat of Operation Aberdeen, Rommel released part of the 15th Panzer Division and Group Hecker for the siege. Rommel commanded an attack from the north, approaching as close as possible in thick fog, with artillery firing directly against the fortifications. The made constant attacks, including a raid by "Stukas", three ten Messerschmitt Me 110 twin-engined fighters escorted by Just before the attack began, aiming at a low rise which would overlook the French defences. The Chadian and Congolese defenders held on despite many casualties and in the afternoon, another sixty bombed the perimeter and an attack was made all round the northern defences. An ammunition dump was blown up and the perimeter forced back. Kœnig reported that the garrison was exhausted, had suffered many casualties and was down to its reserve supplies; he asked for more air support and a relief operation. The DAF made another maximum effort, flew a record and during the night, Hawker Hurricane fighters and Douglas Boston bombers dropped supplies to the garrison. The DAF lost eight fighters (three to Italian Macchi C.202s) and two bombers; the lost two aircraft and the one.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: On the morning of 9 June, twenty forty escorted by fifty Me 110 and Bf 109 fighters, attacked Bir Hakeim. The Germans waited for the rest of the 15th Panzer Division to arrive as German artillery and aircraft bombarded the fort. Then a two-pronged attack struck the perimeter. Italian infantry fought alongside , the German and native infantry of (Special Commando 288) from the 90th Light Division, elements of the reconnaissance and infantry units of 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions and a company of 11 tanks. The objective was Point 186, the top of a gentle rise in the ground which acted as a fire-control position for the garrison. A few skirmishes occurred between the 66th Infantry Regiment of the "Trieste" Division and the men commanded by Lieutenant Bourgoin, whose unit was down only to hand grenades. The made a determined defence but was forced back, despite reinforcements of the 22nd North African Company.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: In the afternoon, to the south near the old fort, Ernst-Günther Baade led two battalions of Rifle Regiment 115 into the assault and in a costly advance, they established themselves within of the fort by nightfall. At as bombed the north face of the fort, the German infantry and the 15th Panzer Division attacked behind an artillery barrage. The attackers breached the 9th Company lines and the central position of Aspirant Morvan but the situation was restored with a Bren Carrier counter-attack. Many DAF aircraft were unserviceable and the effort for the day was much reduced but two Hurricanes dropped medical supplies; diversions attempted by columns from the 7th Motor Brigade and the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade were too small to have much effect. In the afternoon Messervy, the commander of the 7th Armoured Division, signalled that a break-out might be necessary and Kœnig asked for DAF protection, for an evacuation at that night. The request was made at too short notice and the garrison had to wait until the night of 10 June for a rendezvous to be arranged by the British to the south.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: During 10 June, the French hung on and suffered many casualties; with only two hundred and rounds left, another attack on the northern sector against the Oubangui-Chari and 3rd Foreign Legion Battalion lines was contained by a counter-attack by the Messmer and Lamaze units, supported by Bren Gun Carriers and the last mortar rounds. In the afternoon, the biggest air attack of the siege, a raid by a hundred dropped of bombs. The last rounds of ammunition were issued and bodies searched for spare cartridges; Rommel predicted that Bir Hakeim would fall the next day but resisted pressure to attack with tanks, fearing that many would be lost in the minefields.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: As darkness fell, sappers began to clear mines from the western face of the fortress, heavy equipment was prepared for demolition and two companies were detailed to stay behind to disguise the retirement. A rendezvous was arranged with the 7th Motor Brigade, which ran a convoy of lorries and ambulances to a point south of the fort. Mine clearance by the sappers took longer than expected and they were only able to clear a narrow passage, rather than a corridor. Vehicles went astray and the ambulances and walking-wounded left the perimeter late at Kœnig put the fort under the command of Amilakhvari, the Foreign Legion commander and left the fort at the head of the column in his Ford, driven by Susan Travers, an Englishwoman, the only female member of French Foreign Legion (and one of several women, mostly British, present at the siege).


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: A flare rose and the Axis troops nearby opened fire. The HQ column guide got lost and was blown up three times by mines. When Kœnig caught up with the main column, it was blocked by troops of the 90th Light Division and he ordered a rush, regardless of the mines; Lamaze, Charles Bricogne and Lieutenant Dewey were killed in the . The reception was organised by Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) which drove lorries and guided extra field ambulances, with inexperienced rear-area crews, escorted by the 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) and the 2nd Rifle Brigade on either side. The ambulances became separated in the dark but were found and guided to the rendezvous. The commander of the 3rd Battalion was captured but most of the brigade managed to break out, reach Bir el Gubi, then withdraw to Gasr-el-Arid by on 11 June. About of the original escaped, including during the day British patrols picked up stragglers.


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: The Free French occupation of Bir Hakeim had lengthened the Axis supply route around the south end of the Gazala line, caused them losses and gave the British more time to recover in the wake of their defeat at the Cauldron. From the DAF had flown about and lost over the fort, against about sorties in which and five Italian aircraft were shot down; the 7th Motor Brigade ran four supply convoys into Bir Hakeim from 31 May to 7 June. Free French morale was raised by its performance in the battle; a victory had been badly needed to show the Allies that the army of the French was a serious force, which could contribute to the war against Germany. The term Free French was replaced by "Fighting French", because the battle had shown the world that a revival after the defeat in 1940 was under way; De Gaulle used it to undermine co-operation with the Vichy regime. In 1960, the British official historian Ian Playfair wrote


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: and Auchinleck said on 12 June 1942, "The United Nations need to be filled with admiration and gratitude in respect of these French troops and their brave General Kœnig". After the war, Friedrich von Mellenthin wrote, "Some British officers have insinuated that French morale gave way but in the whole course of the desert war, we never encountered a more heroic and well-sustained defence".


title: Battle of Bir Hakeim

text: Buell in 2002 and Ford in 2008 wrote of dead, and taken prisoner, with the loss of and fifty vehicles. The British lost shot down by aircraft and Axis losses were or wounded, destroyed and shot down. The lost eight in air fighting. In 2004, Douglas Porch recorded that the Axis took at Bir Hakeim, only ten per cent of whom were French; Hitler had ordered that captured German political refugees were to be killed, an order which Rommel ignored.


title: Godaan

text: Godaan () is a famous Hindi novel by Munshi Premchand. It was first published in 1936 and is considered one of the greatest Hindi novels of modern Indian literature. Themed around the socio-economic deprivation as well as the exploitation of the village poor, the novel was the last complete novel of Premchand. It has been translated into English in 1957 by Jai Ratan and Purushottama Lal as The Gift of a Cow. A 1968 translation by Gordon C. Roadarmel is now considered "a classic in itself".


title: Godaan

text: "Godaan" was made into a Hindi film in 1963, starring Raaj Kumar, Kamini Kaushal, Mehmood and Shashikala. In 2004, "Godaan" was part of the 27-episode TV series, "Tehreer... Munshi Premchand Ki", based on the writing of Premchand, starring Pankaj Kapur and Surekha Sikri, directed by Gulzar and produced by Doordarshan.


title: Godaan

text: The story revolves around many characters representing the various sections of Indian community. The peasant and rural society is represented by the family of Hori Mahato and his family includes his wife Dhania, daughters Rupa and Sona, son Gobar, daughter-in-law Jhunia. The story begins with Hori wanting to have a cow as other millions of poor peasants. He purchased, on debt of Rs. 80, a cow from Bhola, a cowherd. Hori tried to cheat his brothers for 10 rupees. This in turn led to a fight between his wife and his younger brother, Heera's wife. Jealous of Hori, his younger brother Heera poisoned the cow and ran away because of the fear of police action. When the police came inquiring the death of the cow, Hori took a loan and paid the bribe to the police and was able to clear off his younger brother's name. Jhunia, the daughter of Bhola, was a widow and eloped with Gobar after she got pregnant by him. Because of the fear of the action from villagers Gobar also ran away to the town. Hori and Dhania were unable to throw a girl carrying their son's child and gave her protection and accepted her as their daughter-in-law. The village panchayat fines Hori as his wife tackles the personal attack of the Pandit on them for sheltering Jhunia. Hori again is compelled to take a loan and pay the penalty.


title: Godaan

text: Hori is in huge debt from local money lenders and eventually married off his daughter Rupa for mere 200 rupees to save his ancestral land from being auctioned because of his inability to pay land tax. But his determination to pay those 200 rupees and to have a cow to provide milk to his grand son, leads to Hori's death because of excessive work. When he is about to die, his wife Dhania took out all the money she had (1.25 rupees) and made Hori pay the priest on behalf of "godaan" (cow donation). This eventually fulfils the traditional dream of Hori but still his desire to pay back the 200 rupees to his son-in-law and to have a cow to feed the milk to his grandson remain unfulfilled.


title: Godaan

text: Hori is shown as a typical poor peasant who is the victim of circumstances and possess all the deficiencies of common man but despite all this, he stands by his honesty, duties and judgement when time requires. He is shown dead partially satisfied and partially unsatisfied towards the end of the story. In a way, Hori stays true to his beliefs hence making the ending bittersweet.


title: Godaan

text: The urban society is represented by Malati Devi (doctor), Mr. Mehta (lecturer and philosopher), Mr. Khanna (banker), Rai Sahib (zamindar), Mr Tankha (broker), Mr. Mirza (social worker) and Pandit Omkarnath (publisher).


title: Godaan

text: The narrative represents the average Indian farmer's existence under colonial rule, with the protagonist facing cultural and feudal exploitation. It shows how the life of these characters takes shape.


title: Godaan

text: The act of donating a cow in charity, or "godaan" or "gau daan", is considered to be an important Hindu ritual, as it helps in absolving one of sin, and incurring divine blessings. It is also essential. The word "dharma" has been used 34 times in the novel in different context and by different characters. The word connotes as religion, moral principles and values, conscience and duty. It has a different meaning to each character.


title: The District

text: The District is an American crime drama and police procedural television series which aired on CBS from October 7, 2000, to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s police department.


title: The District

text: Former Newark, New Jersey Police Commissioner and New York Transit police officer Jack Mannion is hired as the chief of the bureaucracy-laden Washington, D.C. police force. Together with his detectives and allies he must fight crime as well as internal corruption and the powers of Congress in order to reorganize and renovate the force.


title: The District

text: "The District" was inspired by the real-life experience of former New York City Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Maple. Along with Police Commissioner William Bratton, he had reorganized the NYPD, and one of the achievements was the CompStat program (comparative statistics), which has its own major role in the TV series. After the success in New York, the CompStat program has been adapted by other cities. However Jack Maple himself chose to publish his experiences—along with Chris Mitchell he wrote a book ("The Crime Fighter", 2000), and along with Terry George he prepared a TV series concept. His impact on the storyline after season 1 was limited; he died of colon cancer on August 4, 2001.


title: The District

text: Note: Throughout "The District's" entire run it was aired in a Saturday night timeslot and also it was the last U.S. scripted series to air on its Saturday night schedule until "Ransom" debuted in 2017.


title: The District

text: It ran for a time on USA Network as well as on The Biography Channel after cancellation. On February 7, 2020 it joined the day shift in the Friday slot on Heroes & Icons. Without explanation as of Feb. 20, 2020 the program was pulled and Fridays reverted to NUMB3RS.


title: The District

text: As of mid-2020 it is back on the Heroes and Icons TV schedule weekdays from 1AM to 3AM Eastern Standard Time.


title: Mary Ford

text: Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers; July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios", which were number one hits on the "Billboard" charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.


title: Mary Ford

text: Mary Ford was born Iris Colleen Summers in El Monte, California, the second daughter of Marshall McKinley Summers (born February 13, 1896, in Ridgway, Illinois; died August 5, 1981, in Los Angeles), a Nazarene minister, who later became a painting contractor, and his wife, Dorothy May White Summers. Mary Ford was the sister of Byron Fletcher Summers, Esther E. Williams, Carol Jean Corona, Bruce Summers, Eva Wootten, and Bob Summers. Ford came from a musical family. Her parents left Missouri, travelling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across the United States. They eventually settled in southern California, where they were heard over KPPC-AM, Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians. Bruce was a jazz organist; Bob was a film composer.


title: Mary Ford

text: While still a junior high school student, Colleen Summers and Mildred L. "Milly" Watson (later Millie Pace) (born February 26, 1922, in Los Angeles; died August 2, 1976, in Orange County, California), a local girl, performed together in churches in Pasadena, California, and later made gospel recordings with Milly's older brother, Marvin, for which she wrote some songs. In 1939 Summers and Milly won a Pasadena talent contest judged by "several Hollywood notables, including a very young Judy Garland". Hoping to have a musical career, Summers and Milly Watson lost interest in school, played truant frequently and eventually quit school, only to find employment as a cinema attendant.


title: Mary Ford

text: By 1943, Colleen Summers, with Vivian Earles and June Widener, the sister of western swing guitarist-vocalist Jimmie Widener, formed the Sunshine Girls, a western trio who sang backup to Jimmy Wakely and his trio. They were regulars on "The Hollywood Barn Dance", a successful weekly CBS Radio program broadcast on Saturday nights, and hosted by Foy Willing and emceed by Cliffie Stone.


title: Mary Ford

text: In 1944, the Sunshine Girls trio appeared with Wakely in the PRC film "I'm from Arkansas", in which they sang "You Are My Sunshine" and "Whistlin' (Walkin') Down the Lane With You" with Wakely.


title: Mary Ford

text: In 1945, when Eddie Dean introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, she was a popular western vocalist on KXLA's "Dinner Bell Round-Up Time". The two began performing together in 1946. After Summers left the Sunshine Girls to work with Paul and his trio, she was replaced initially by Marilyn Myers Tuttle. After Tuttle left, Summers' older sister, Eva, sang with Earles and Widener as the Three Rays on the "Jimmy Wakely Show" on CBS.


title: Mary Ford

text: Colleen Summers appeared on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch CBS radio program as a cast member and featured vocalist from July through early November 1946.


title: Mary Ford

text: In 1946–48, Summers was a regular actor in the drama portion of "The All-Star Western Theatre", a radio program hosted by Foy Willing and his Riders of the Purple Sage.


title: Mary Ford

text: By 1947, Summers became romantically involved with Les Paul, whose first marriage to Virginia M. Webb was failing, as it could no longer endure the stresses and strains of his show-business career. In January 1948, while traveling on Route 66 through Oklahoma, the couple's car driven by Summers skidded off the road and plummeted 20 feet into a frozen creek bed. After the accident, Summers identified herself to authorities as Iris Watson. Among Paul's many injuries, his right elbow was shattered, and it would be eighteen months before he could play guitar again. After Paul's wife Virginia took their two sons to Chicago, Summers moved in with Paul in his house on Curson Avenue, where she took care of him as he recuperated from the effects of the car accident.


title: Mary Ford

text: By the summer of 1949, Summers was performing under the stage name of Mary Ford. To avoid confusing her established western music audience, initially Paul named his musical partner "Mary Lou", but later selected the stage name "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his.


title: Mary Ford

text: That same year, Les Paul divorced his wife and wed Mary Ford on December 29 in a "small private ceremony without much fanfare" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The couple had three children: a baby born on November 26, 1954, who died four days later; Mary Colleen Paul, whom they fostered from 1958; and Robert Ralph "Bobby" Paul (born in 1959).


title: Mary Ford

text: Shortly after their wedding, Paul and Ford began making radio programs together for NBC, including "Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home", a fifteen-minute program that was pre-recorded and broadcast every Friday night.


title: Mary Ford

text: Ford and Paul were music superstars during the first half of the 1950s, putting out 28 hits for Capitol Records between 1950 and 1957, including "Tiger Rag", "Vaya con Dios" (11 weeks at No. 1), "Mockin' Bird Hill" (top 10), "How High the Moon" (nine weeks at No. 1), "Bye Bye Blues," and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself, giving the vocals a novel sound. Paul and Ford did all their recording at home or on the road and submitted the masters to Capitol, with Paul dictating to the record company what songs were destined to become hits. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone (see proximity effect). It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.


title: Mary Ford

text: After extensive touring and recording, the couple decided to leave Hollywood and moved to New York City to make the crossover from radio to television. They took a cramped apartment in Paul's former New York neighborhood, where they conceived and recorded their arrangement of "How High The Moon", a hard-swinging multi-layered arrangement containing twelve overdubs using the guitar and Ford's voice. While Capitol was reluctant to release this song, after they had scored several more hits with Capitol, including, 'Tennessee Waltz" and "Mockin' Bird Hill", "How High The Moon" was released in March 1951. Within a month, "How High The Moon" and "Mockin' Bird Hill" captured "Your Hit Parade"'s number one and number two spots, respectively.


title: Mary Ford

text: During 1951, Ford and Paul earned $500,000, and had recorded more top ten hits for the year than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters combined. They also tied Patti Page for top selling recording artist, having sold more than six million records since January 1951.


title: Mary Ford

text: Paul bought a Cadillac to use on their expanding road tours with plenty of space for all their electronic gear. They also purchased a woodland retreat in Mahwah, New Jersey, in the Ramapo Mountains, and their mansion included a recording studio and an echo chamber carved out of a neighboring mountain. In September 1952, after cutting "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", Ford and Paul sailed for London to appear at the Palladium Theatre, where they debuted before Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family. In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg in his recording of "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Capitol, F 2279).


title: Mary Ford

text: In 1953, the couple recorded "Vaya con Dios" (Capitol 2486), the biggest-selling song of their career. It was released in June 1953, entered the "Billboard" charts on June 13, 1953, reached number one on August 8, and remained there for a total of nine weeks. The song lasted thirty-one weeks on the chart, and also reached number one on the "Cash Box" chart.


title: Mary Ford

text: Following the success of "Vaya con Dios", in 1953 the couple hosted "The Les Paul and Mary Ford Show", their own daily television program broadcast from their Mahwah home. The show, which was five minutes long and sponsored by Listerine, ran from 1953 to 1960 on NBC television and in syndication. In early 1955, the rise in popularity of rock and roll music eventually threatened the popularity of many performers, including Paul and Ford. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, and in 1956, the couple performed at the Eisenhower White House.


title: Mary Ford

text: In July 1958, Paul and Ford left Capitol and signed with the Columbia label, but the move failed to restore their declining career, and Ford began increasingly suffering from alcoholism. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's "Five Star Jubilee".


title: Mary Ford

text: In November 1963, Ford released her first solo single, an English-language version of "Dominique", for Calendar Records.


title: Mary Ford

text: In about 1965, Ford married Donald Hatfield, whom she had known since high school, and they settled in Monrovia, California. Foy Willing and his wife attended the wedding reception.


title: Mary Ford

text: Ford and her sisters were used as vocalists on Foy Willing's album "The New Sound of American Folk", which was recorded at their brother Bobby Summers' Sound House Recorders in El Monte, California, and released on the Jubilee label.


title: Mary Ford

text: Bassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers:


title: Mary Ford

text: In Downey, California, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen "Suzee" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up:


title: Mary Ford

text: Ford and Paul were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood. In 1978, they were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.


title: Mary Ford

text: Ford succumbed to complications of alcohol abuse in 1977. After eight weeks in a diabetic coma, she died in Arcadia, California, at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California. Although her year of birth has been variously reported as either 1924, 1925, or 1928, the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone, along with "Vaya con Dios" ("Go with God"), the name of one of her most popular songs.


title: Mary Ford

text: Interviews and performance footage of the couple are featured in the musical documentary "Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90", directed by John Paulson ("Johnny Mathis Live", "An Evening with Chita Rivera"). Distributed by Koch Entertainment, the film premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by its television premiere, July 11, 2007, on PBS as part of its "American Masters" series.


title: Tobias Beer

text: Born in Cambridge, he studied at Oxford University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. While at Oxford University, he won a blue in rugby union, scoring 11 points in their 1999 16–13 victory over Cambridge University in The Varsity Match.


title: Tobias Beer

text: He has worked predominantly in the theatre, and his credits include: "Great Expectations", "Merry Wives of Windsor" (with Judi Dench, Simon Callow and Alistair McGowan), "Twelfth Night" and "The Comedy of Errors" (all for the Royal Shakespeare Company); "The Changeling" for Cheek by Jowl, directed by Declan Donnellan; "Cymbeline", "Twelfth Night", "Macbeth" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park In 2015 he returned to the RSC in "Death of a Salesman".


title: Tobias Beer

text: In 2019 he co-created, wrote and executive produced the television drama "The Deceived" for Channel 5, Virgin Media Ireland and Netflix.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: Five Live is an EP released in 1993, featuring five (in some countries, where it is considered to be a reduced-length long-playing album, six) tracks, performed by George Michael, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield. "Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (both also available on video) were recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held on 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: All proceeds from the sale of the EP benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Sales of the record were very strong throughout Europe, where it debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and several European countries, either considered as a single, or charting on album charts as an extended play or an LP. Chart success in the U.S. was far less spectacular, but the EP still peaked at number 46 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: A shortened version of "Killer" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", a live medley performed by Michael at Wembley Arena, was released as a further independent single, in some territories only. The singer also shot a music video for it, but did not personally appear in full face (it was during the time Michael refused to exploit his outward look, which he thought would distract the audience from the music, his main concern). The video was directed by Marcus Nispel.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: While "These Are the Days of Our Lives" is played by the remaining members of Queen, the vocal is a duet between George Michael and Lisa Stansfield.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: The sixth track - only featured on some versions of the release - is represented by a short performance by Queen, entitled "Dear Friends", originally sung by Freddie Mercury. Recorded in 1974 and originally appearing on the band's "Sheer Heart Attack" album, this constitutes the one studio recording on the record. It was not included in the UK vinyl of the EP.


title: Five Live (George Michael and Queen EP)

text: Usually, countries where the six-track work is distributed consider it to be a short LP, whereas those where the five-track (hence its title) work is available generally tend to see it as an EP or even (if "Killer"/"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" was not marketed independently in those same territories) as a particularly long or content-rich single.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The Mitsubishi H-60 series is twin-turboshaft engine helicopter based on the Sikorsky S-70 helicopter family for use by the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). The SH-60J/K/L are anti-submarine patrol versions for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). The UH-60J is a search and rescue version for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and JMSDF. The UH-60JA is a utility version for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF).


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The JMSDF chose S-70B as the successor of to the Mitsubishi HSS-2B Sea King (a licence-built version of the Sikorsky Sea King). When the SH-X (later SH-60J) project started, it was immediately after HSS-2B was put into service, so initially it was planned to integrate a mission system of HSS-2B with a bare aircraft of SH-60B, but finally a system newly developed by the TRDI was adopted. It is similar to LAMPS Mk.III in that helicopter is equipped with a computer and connected to the mothership's combat direction system via a datalink, but it also has a dipping sonar as well as SH-60F. The Defense Agency ordered two XSH-60Js from Sikorsky for $27 million. Their first flights were on 31 August and in October 1987. The Defense Agency designated the model SH-60J. They were fitted with Japanese avionics systems and tested by the JMSDF.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The SH-60J is built in Japan under license from Sikorsky. It began deliveries in August 1991 and entered service thereafter. Based on a concept of the JMSDF, HQS-103 Dipping Sonar, HPS-104 active electronically scanned array Search Radar, and HLR-108 ESM System equipment of the avionics of SH-60B be different. The engine is the GE/IHI T700-IHI-701C turboshaft, which Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries produced under license from General Electric. It is a hybrid of the SH-60B and SH-60F, except for avionics. The crew includes a pilot, copilot and sensor operator. The copilot can concentrate on the role of tactical coordinator with the help of the Automatic Flight Management System and Inertial Navigation system. Over 100 SH-60Js have been produced by 2007.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The SH-60K is an upgraded version of the SH-60J. The SH-60K anti-submarine helicopter which strengthened performance and versatility for the JMSDF. Mitsubishi began development in 1997. The SH-60K has formerly known as SH-60Kai. The Director General of the Defense Agency admitted adoption in March 2005.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: Mitsubishi developed new main rotor blade, Ship Landing Assist System, new avionics system, and other systems. Two prototypes SH-60Ks were built by modifying SH-60Js. These prototypes were completed and delivered by June 2002. The SH-60K's cabin was expanded in length by 30 cm (11.8 in) and in height by 15 cm (5.91 in) compared to the SH-60J. The larger cabin allows for the new avionics system. Those and the airframe changes are compensated by the exchange of the T700-IHI-401C2 engine. The first production SH-60K was delivered to JMSDF on 10 August 2005.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: In December 2022, the Japanese government decided to reduce the number of SH-60Ks deployed for maritime patrols and replace some SH-60Ks with Sea Guardian unmanned aerial vehicles. The Japanese government plans to increase its defense budget from 1.24% of GDP in fiscal 2021 to around 2.0% within 10 years, a decision made as part of efforts to use the budget efficiently.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: A further upgrade version of SH-60K has planned and in development. It will be equipped with a multi-static sonar system and a new adaptive control millimetric wave ultra-high-speed communication system (Click System) as well as improved engine transmission performance. The first flight of the prototype, XSH-60L, was carried out on May 11, 2021.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: In 1988, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force choose the UH-60L to replace its KV-107 and Sikorsky S-62 helicopters. The first aircraft was built by Sikorsky, with the company designation S-70A-12, and two more were assembled by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi is producing the remaining UH-60Js under license. The Japan Marine Self-Defense Force also chose Search and rescue, and utility helicopters to replace the S-61A in 1989.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The UH-60J is powered by T700 engines license-built by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries in Japan. It features external fuel tanks, an external rescue winch, a Japan-built radar, a FLIR turret in the nose and bubble side windows for observers. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force machines were fitted with T700-IHI-701A engines, while Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force machines were fitted with marinized T700-IHI-401C engines. Fuel tanks can be attached to pylons on stub wings. The UH-60Js began deliveries in 1991 and entered service in 1992. A total of 40 UH-60Js were in service in 2010. The JASDF ordered 40 newer UH-60Js in December 2010 to begin replacing older UH-60Js.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: Mitsubishi and Sikorsky have teamed in support of the Self Defense Force's mission requirements. The UH-60J+ incorporates various upgrades for the modern SAR mission. By 2006 Defense budget of Japan, UH-60Js begin addition of Refueling probe in 2009. These UH-60Js completed training with the United States Air Force and widened their activity in SAR mission.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ordered a utility variant of the UH-60L designated UH-60JA in 1995. The JGSDF began receiving the UH-60JA in 1997. It features improved avionics, including FLIR, Color weather radar, GPS receiver, a Night Vision Goggle compatible cockpit and wire cutter. The JGSDF plans to acquire 70.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: The JGSDF plan was to replace its UH-1H helicopters which had become obsolete. Due to budgetary constraints it was decided to replace the rotary wing fleet with a high-low combination of UH-60JA and UH-1J (an updated UH-1H) with the UH-60JA being the high and the UH-1J the low. By 2004 the budgetary constraints have driven the JGSDF to seriously consider eliminating either the UH-60JA or the UH-1J from the fleet, and purchasing just one type of airframe for the utility mission.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: On 26 August 2017, a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60J crashed in the Sea of Japan off Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. The helicopter was conducting takeoff and landing drills and had taken off from the destroyer Setogiri. It was based at the JMSDF's Ominato base in Mutsu in Aomori. One crew member was rescued, the other three were missing. The JMSDF attributed the crash to human error. The wreckage was later discovered at a depth of around 2,600 meters. The wreck was salvaged in October and two bodies were found, that of the pilot and co-pilot. One crew member remains missing.


title: Mitsubishi H-60

text: On 17 October 2017, UH-60J 58-4596 of the Air Rescue Wing Hamamatsu Detachment crashed into the sea off Shizuoka Prefecture while conducting night rescue drills. Some wreckage was found but the four crew members were not located. Major searches continued with SDF assets with other parts recovered. A private salvage company started work from 2 November and located part of the fuselage. In November, parts of the aircraft were recovered including the Flight Data Recorder (black box) from a location approximately 31 kilometers south of Hamamatsu Air Base. On 29 November the body of one of the crew members was discovered in the wreckage.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a 2011 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms, and co-starring Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon. The film premiered on September 14, 2011, at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and then saw a limited release in the United States and Canada on March 16, 2012, after having been pushed back from the original date of March 2. The film received praise for its humor, but grossed only $4.7 million worldwide against a $7.5 million budget.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Jeff (Segel) is a 30-year-old unemployed stoner living in his mother Sharon's (Sarandon) basement in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He looks for his destiny in seemingly random occurrences. Finding inspiration in the film "Signs" reinforces his belief in this.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: One day, he answers the telephone; the wrong number is for somebody called "Kevin", and Jeff contemplates its meaning, deciding it is a sign. Getting a call from his irritated mother asking him to buy wood glue to fix a door shutter or find a new place to live, Jeff boards a bus. There, he sees a kid wearing a sports jersey bearing the name Kevin. He follows him (Ross) to a basketball court, where he joins a pick-up game, and they bond. Jeff agrees to smoke weed with Kevin, but is tricked, beaten, and mugged.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Coming upon a Hooters restaurant, Jeff comes across his older brother Pat (Helms), a successful yuppie struggling with his marriage. Pat's wife Linda (Greer) is spotted across the street with another man. Jeff and Pat spend several hours following them, first to a restaurant and later to a hotel, with Pat's new Porsche being ticketed, crashed, and eventually towed away at various points on the journey. The brothers also visit their father's gravesite and fight over their conflicting life philosophies.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Seeing a truck reading "Kevin Kandy", Jeff runs off to hitch a ride, ending up at the same hotel where Pat has found Linda in a room with another man. Jeff offers to break down the door. The man is her co-worker, Steve (Zissis). Linda quickly ushers Steve out and then confronts Pat about his role in their problems. Frustrated, she leaves, saying she is going to live with her mother. Jeff and Pat reconcile; Jeff explains how he is struggling to find his destiny, while Pat admits he wants him and Linda to fall in love again. Jeff encourages him to tell her, and they hail a taxi to pursue her.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Interspersed within the main story is the story of Sharon, who is at work, frustrated with her unfulfilled life, and dissatisfied with her sons. The doldrum is interrupted when a paper airplane with a drawing of a flower lands in her cubicle, followed by an anonymous co-worker claiming in an instant message to be a secret admirer. Sharon spends the day trying to deduce their identity. Confiding her frustrations to colleague and friend Carol (Chong), she reveals that she has not dated since her husband's death.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Carol encourages her to warm up to the attention she is receiving. Sharon is surprised and confused when the admirer turns out to be Carol herself, and though neither believe themselves to be attracted to their own gender, Carol appeals to Sharon's desire to become close with someone who truly understands her. At that moment, a fire alarm goes off and ceiling sprinklers activate; this is an enlightening moment for Sharon who sets off with Carol on an impulsive trip to New Orleans.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Jeff, Pat, Linda, Sharon, and Carol converge on a bridge, getting stuck in standstill traffic. Pat exits the taxi and runs through the cars to tell Linda how he feels, passing Carol's car; Sharon sees and runs after him, followed by Carol. As Jeff muses to the cab driver about how seeking his destiny is not very exciting, he sees a helicopter flying overhead. He jumps out of the taxi and also runs through the cars, passing Pat, who was sharing his feelings with Linda when Sharon and Carol arrive.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Jeff continues running, seeing the cause of the traffic is an accident in which a car plummeted over the side of the bridge. He dives into the water, rescuing two children and their father; when Jeff then fails to resurface Pat dives in and rescues him. The group reconciles after the ordeal, we see Sharon celebrating her birthday and Pat and Linda appear to be faring better in their marriage. Jeff sees a news report about his heroics, and learns that the father of the kids he rescued was also named Kevin; now with a sense of purpose, he grabs some wood glue and fixes the shutter.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" grossed $4,269,426 in North America and $435,331 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $4,704,757.


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 77% based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 6.77/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sweet, funny, and flawed, "Jeff, Who Lives at Home" finds the Duplass brothers moving into the mainstream with their signature quirky charm intact". On Metacritic, the film has a normalized score of 60 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Jeff, Who Lives at Home

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars out of four and described it as: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" also gave the film three stars out of four and described it as "funny, touching, and vital", praising the Duplass brothers by saying that "their films hit you where you live."


title: Whisper (app)

text: Whisper is a proprietary Android mobile app (formerly available on iOS) available without charge. It is a form of anonymous social media, allowing users to post and share photo and video messages anonymously, although this claim has been challenged with privacy concerns over Whisper's handling of user data. The postings, called "whispers", consist of text superimposed over an image, and the background imagery is either automatically retrieved from Whisper's own search engine or uploaded by the user. The app, launched in March 2012, is the main product of the media company WhisperText LLC, which was co-founded by CEO Michael Heyward, the son of the entertainment executive Andy Heyward, and Brad Brooks, who is the CEO of mobile messaging service TigerText. Since 2015, the service has sought to become more of a brand advertising platform, with promotional partnerships with Netflix, NBCUniversal, Disney, HBO, and MTV. According to "TechCrunch", as of March 2017, Whisper has a total of 17 billion monthly pageviews on its mobile and desktop websites, social channels and publisher network, with 250 million monthly users across 187 countries. It is owned by MediaLab. In October 2022, Whisper was removed from the Apple App Store, but continues to be available in the Google Play Store.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In April 2015, Whisper reached 10 million monthly active users. Stories about the app have appeared in "Forbes", "USA Today", "The Washington Post", and "Huffington Post", and Heyward was featured on "Forbes' " "Top 30 under 30 in Technology" list in January 2014. In early November 2013, Whisper was reported to have reached 2.5 billion monthly page views and nearly 3 billion page views in December 2013. Whisper has 10 billion monthly page views as of Spring 2015. In December 2015, it was reported that Whisper had reached 20 million active users, double the number of users it had six months earlier. In April 2016, it was reported that Whisper had reached over 30 million monthly active users. In terms of demographics, "The New York Times" named Whisper in September 2015 as a social media platform of choice for Generation Z in an article about Internet habits among Generation Z and Millennials. As of June 2017, 75% of Whisper's usership was between the ages of 18 and 34, and predominantly female, as reported by "Fast Company" magazine, which also added that: "According to CrowdTangle data, Whisper's Facebook page was the top-performing media fan page for interactions on the social network with approximately 200 million interactions in fiscal year 2016. If these metrics are correct, Whisper outperformed "CNN", "Vice", and "BuzzFeed" on Facebook for interactions."


title: Whisper (app)

text: "CBS New York" describes Whisper as "the place to go these days to vent, come clean, or peer into other people's secrets," and that the goal is that of "turning confessions into content."


title: Whisper (app)

text: The app purports to promote online anonymity, and the developer claims this will prevent and combat cyberbullying. In October 2015, Whisper announced a partnership with the Ad Council on the "I Am A Witness" anti-bullying campaign, along with other tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, and in March 2016, Whisper announced a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League's "Best Practices for Responding to Online Hate". The service's anonymity is claimed to have fostered a support network where concern and care among users has developed: according to "Mashable", "The team regularly hears from users that the network's community has helped them stop self-harming behaviors." Another premise behind the service was to counter the "best possible self" ego-driven self-aggrandizing "vanity" posting done on Facebook, and as an antidote to the phenomenon of "oversharing" and "too much information" that young users engage in online. "Business Insider", "Forbes", and "The Daily Dot" have called it "the anti-Facebook," and "Forbes Tech" drew a contrast in stating that, "Whisper, even more than Snapchat, is the anti-Facebook." The digital-news website "SMU SMC" summed up all these points together: "In addition to preventing cyber bullies, Whisper gives users the opportunity to confess to things that could potentially ruin marriages, friendships or result in loss of job, without suffering consequences. You can over share without any repercussions." As described by "Adweek", "This is a new type of social sharing, the kind that won't come back to haunt you."


title: Whisper (app)

text: Whisper has also been used as a platform for citizen journalism. In June 2014, amid widespread violence and unrest in Iraq and the Iraqi government's blocking of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, many Iraqis downloaded and used Whisper as a means of acting as real-time reporters, posting news and updates hours before the mainstream media, as well as sharing political views and personal thoughts and feelings. It is also used to create text-based memes that appeal to Generation Z Internet users. According to the analytics firm SensorTower, app downloads rose during 2021 as a large number of social media users, mostly on Instagram, started using Whisper to create meme images. In "The New York Times" article "Text Memes Are Taking Over Instagram", Taylor Lorenz wrote: "Confessional, overly personal messages paired with seemingly unrelated images allowed for an extra layer of humor and irony."


title: Whisper (app)

text: Development of the system was outsourced to Inaka, a web and mobile app development consultancy based in Seattle, Washington and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The original system back end used the Riak NoSQL database, but after performance problems with Riak the system was converted to use MySQL and Apache Cassandra. Since 2013, Whisper has brought its technology team in-house. Whisper now has 25 engineers in Venice, CA.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In March 2016, "Fast Company" reported that Whisper had recently begun to use deep learning to build a content moderation tool, internally dubbed the Arbiter. The article stated that the Arbiter runs on a PC with 128GB of RAM and four Nvidia GeForce Titan X graphics cards, each of which has a graphics processing unit with 3072 computing cores and 12GB of RAM. Those GPUs enable it to perform artificial intelligence and use neural network technology to assess incoming whispers. The article noted that because Whisper's Arbiter has knowledge to "reflect both the real things that millions of Whisper users have said and how moderators handled them, its understanding of language can be remarkably subtle." According to the "Los Angeles Times", Whisper is also using AI technology to "create" content. That system, the "Times" reports, "allows Whisper to gather related posts about issues at work, school or in relationships. Then, it organizes them, adds context and even writes a headline... With the AI's help, Whisper hopes to produce more content than humans alone could — which in turn could mean more readership and ad revenue."


title: Whisper (app)

text: In March 2017, "TechCrunch" reported that Whisper launched a tool for publishers called "Perspectives," which is a video widget that publishers, primarily news websites, can embed within articles to feature Whisper content. The videos consist of a series of Whispers set against relevant video clips and instrumental background music. The selection of Whispers to include in a Perspectives video story is done by an in-house proprietary AI program called "Eliot." According to "TechCrunch", "Eliot takes structured and unstructured data that is scanned on a company's website and identifies key topics, places and people associated with the story... The AI engine then generates a contextually relevant story or video."


title: Whisper (app)

text: The company, WhisperText LLC, is led by CEO Michael Heyward, is based in the Venice tech hub of Los Angeles, California, now known as "Silicon Beach," and the company has offices in New York City as well.


title: Whisper (app)

text: WhisperText LLC received its first round of venture-capital funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners for $3 million in April 2013, and then a second round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Trinity Capital, Krum Capital, and Lightspeed for $21 million in September 2013. PitchBook, an independent private equity and venture capital research firm, forecasted in November 2013 that Whisper is one of the likeliest social platform IPOs, with a pre-money valuation of $85 million. According to Om Malik, Founder and Senior Writer of "GigaOM", Whisper was already, as of July 2013, valued at $100 million. In May 2014, Whisper confirmed that it raised an additional $36 million in venture funding from Shasta Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures. Whisper has raised $61 million in total venture capital funding.


title: Whisper (app)

text: Whisper has two parts to its advertising business: direct sales for advertising clients, and programmatic ads that show up on a user's phone when they use the Whisper app. Whisper has experimented with advertising by working with Fox Studios, MTV, Universal, Hulu and FX on customized branded campaigns. In September 2015, "Adweek" revealed that Coca-Cola was using Whisper to market its #makeithappy anti-cyberbullying campaign to Whisper's users. In late 2015, Whisper embarked on an advertising partnership with Disney and Pixar, starting with the promotion of the 3D animated movie "The Good Dinosaur". In February 2016, "Mashable" and "Teen Vogue" announced that Whisper had partnered with Giphy to allow GIFs in the chat section of its platform. In April 2016, the app launched "Whisper Polls", whereby brands can question potential consumers, the users, about various types of opinions, preferences, and interests. The app was also planning to start interacting directly with users through a "cards" feature, prompting users to post about specific topics. On April 13, 2016, Whisper was featured in a discussion on "The Howard Stern Show", where Howard and co-host Robin talked about confessions from men who were victims of domestic violence at the hands of their own wives.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In February 2016, Whisper also announced the launch of the Spanish-language version of its app on both iOS and Android devices, with an initial launch in Mexico, and in March, Whisper partnered with the It Gets Better Project in Mexico "(Todo Mejora México)" on a campaign to empower LGBTQ voices in Mexico.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In June 2016, Whisper announced that they would be introducing video ads, and started on July 3 with a partnership with Universal Studios' to promote the movie "The Secret Life of Pets". Whisper said that it would share the most popular posts on its Facebook page, which reportedly reached more than 200 million people.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In June 2016, Whisper also added a "Groups" function, which allows users to curate Whispers under different topics, and to connect with other users who have shared interests.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In February 2017, Whisper announced its partnership with HBO to promote the TV series "Big Little Lies", and also embarked on promotional partnerships with Dove soap and Universal Music Group.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In May 2017, MTV partnered with Whisper to promote the "2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards". That same month, the Tronc media company, which publishes the "Los Angeles Times" and "Chicago Tribune", began using Whisper's content widget on its websites.


title: Whisper (app)

text: The Whisper app has been criticized for requiring access to smartphone features such as the camera and the user's contact list, which is disclosed when the app is downloaded on the Android platform.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In May 2015, a 15-year-old girl from Bolton, Massachusetts was charged with making a threat on Whisper towards a school, referencing the Columbine shootings; she was tracked down using Whisper and GPS.


title: Whisper (app)

text: In July 2018, a 31-year-old man from Toronto, Ontario, Canada allegedly met a 15-year-old girl using Whisper and was charged with luring a child, two counts of sexual assault and other charges, including possession of child pornography.


title: Whisper (app)

text: The company's privacy policy reveals that it will turn over information in the case of requests from law enforcement in order to comply with applicable laws for enforceable government requests such as a subpoena. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's attorney Hanni Fakhoury commented in early 2014 that while Whisper may have no legal choice in the matter, "it's the doublespeak that's problematic." Fakhoury elaborated that: "You have to be very careful about selling a program as a secure way to secretly communicate, and then reserve the right to turn over that information whenever necessary."


title: Whisper (app)

text: Whisper disputed nearly all the Guardian allegations and made a point-by-point response to the Guardian. After reading Whisper's response, Twitter's former security head Moxie Marlinspike commented on "Hacker News" that Whisper "should never have claimed to provide anonymity if it had to track users to make the app function". He pointed out that there are many "hard problems" that need to be solved before a service can claim to provide truly unlinkable anonymity, and that "there are projects like Tor that are approaching these types of problems seriously, but apps like Whisper or Secret end up poisoning the well and confusing users". According to Marlinspike, Whisper was claiming that they "could not" track their users, when instead they were "squarely in the ["would not"] category".