title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: Clouseau wins the "Légion d'honneur". Leaving the ceremony, Dreyfus' suit gets caught in Clouseau's car door, causing Dreyfus to be dragged down the street as an oblivious Clouseau drives away. While visiting Dreyfus in the hospital, Clouseau accidentally releases the brake on Dreyfus' bed, which rolls through the hospital and throws the irate chief inspector into the Seine as he screams Clouseau's name.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: Chris Tucker and Mike Myers were considered for the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. A collaboration between Steve Martin and producer Robert Simonds, who had worked together on "Cheaper by the Dozen", "The Pink Panther" had a production budget of US$80million. Filming began on May 10, 2004.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: The film was originally supposed to seek an August 5, 2005 release date, but was then pushed back to February 10, 2006, after Sony expressed dissatisfaction with the film's raunchy tone. It was heavily edited and key scenes were re-shot in an effort to create a more family-friendly feature. "With the recent acquisition of MGM, we wanted to give our marketing department the time and opportunity to launch this very important franchise," Sony Pictures Releasing president Rory Bruer said. "We've seen the movie, and we really love this film. It's a franchise we believe in and are really excited about, and Steve Martin is great as Clouseau."


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Pink Panther" has an approval rating of 21% based on 143 reviews and an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Though Steve Martin is game, the particulars of the Inspector Clouseau character elude him in this middling update." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: The film was nominated for two Razzies in 2006, one in the category "Worst Remake or Rip-off", and one in the category "Worst Supporting Actress" for Kristin Chenoweth. At the 2006 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received four nominations: "Worst Actor" (Martin), "Worst Song" (Check on It), and "Worst Fake Accent (Male)" (both Martin and Kline).


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: The film grossed $164.1million against a budget of $80million. "The Pink Panther" is the highest-grossing film in the "Pink Panther" franchise.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: "The Pink Panther" opened at No.1 in the United States, grossing $20.2million from 3,477 theaters, and took in an additional $20.9million over the four day Presidents Day weekend the following weekend. The film closed in theatres on April 16, having grossed $82.2million in its ten weeks of release. Overseas, the film took $76.6million. United States screenings made up 51.8% of box office takings, with international viewings responsible for 48.2%. In the United Kingdom, the film was released on March 17, 2006, and topped the country's box office that weekend.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: "The Pink Panther" was released for home viewing on June 13, 2006, and sold 693,588 DVD copies, worth $9,391,182. To date the film has sold 1,579,116 copies—$23,216,770 of consumer spending.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: David Newman was originally chosen to compose the score for the film, but was quickly replaced by Christophe Beck. He is credited with the film score which was released as the soundtrack album "The Pink Panther" about one month following the release of the film. R&B singer, Beyoncé, who co-stars as Xania, performed two songs for the film, "A Woman Like Me" and hit, "Check on It". The latter serves as the film's theme song aside from the Pink Panther theme by Henry Mancini.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: Numerous other songs were used in small parts, but only Beck's original score was included on the soundtrack album.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: The sequel to this film, titled "The Pink Panther 2", was released on February 6, 2009. It again features Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, Emily Mortimer as Nicole Durant, and Jean Reno as Gendarme Ponton, but was notable because Dreyfus was played by John Cleese instead of Kevin Kline. Beyoncé did not return for the sequel either.


title: The Pink Panther (2006 film)

text: The film features Clouseau and a "Dream Team" of the world's best detectives formed to catch the international mastermind thief El Tornado, who has stolen several valuable treasures, including the Shroud of Turin, the Pope's Ring and the Pink Panther diamond. The film received worse reviews than its predecessor and was also not as commercially successful, grossing only $75,946,615 at the box office.


title: Volvo S60

text: The first generation (2000–2009) was launched in autumn of 2000 in order to replace the S70 and was based on the P2 platform. It had a similar designed estate version called Volvo V70 and a high performance engine and sports-oriented suspension version called S60 R. Styling cues were taken from the ECC concept car and the S80.


title: Volvo S60

text: The second generation (2010–2018) was released in 2010 for the 2011 model year and has its own estate version, known as the Volvo V60.


title: Volvo S60

text: The third generation joined the Volvo line-up in 2018 for the 2019 model year. It is built on a shortened version of the Scalable Product Architecture platform, in America's first Volvo factory in Ridgeville, South Carolina. The US became the sole global source of the S60 sedan after production in China was phased out in early 2019.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 was built on Volvo's P2 platform, which was shared with other Volvo models like the S80, V70, XC70 and finally the XC90.


title: Volvo S60

text: The Volvo S60 was released in 2000 (2001 model year) being the company's new generation sports sedan. The S60 is aimed to mainly compete in Europe with the BMW 3 Series (E46), the Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W203) and the Alfa Romeo 156. Unlike its rivals, the Volvo S60 continued production for 9 years with multiple facelifts. When it was introduced the appearance was unlike the squared vehicles offered in previous years, and continued the new design tradition introduced by the larger S80, utilizing a cab forward approach and was more organic appearing with a pronounced shelf along the beltline that ran the length of the vehicle, achieving a drag coefficient. Volvo continued its safety tradition, offering front and rear integrated crumple zones, driver and front passenger dual threshold airbags with a collapsible three-stage steering column, Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) supplemented with air bags for driver and front passenger, along with a side curtain airbag for front and rear passengers, anti-submarine seats, five padded head restraints with Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), and automatic seat belt pretensioners while front belts also have height adjustment.


title: Volvo S60

text: In 2004 PremAir™ was introduced as a standard feature to the exterior radiator surface which converts up to 75 percent of ground level ozone in the radiator cooling air into oxygen, while the Interior Air Quality System cleans the air inside, detects for pollutants and automatically recirculates in comparison to the air outside. The upholstery was available in taupe, light sand or graphite with indigo inserts and the leathers were tanned using natural plant materials. The S60 sheet metal content can be recycled, along with other metals that achieved an 85 overall percentage. Dual zone climate control and heated front seats along with a three position drivers memory setting were optional, and anti-smash and grab laminated side windows were available. Two , three and one aluminum alloy wheel choices were available.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 came standard with Volvo's own radio unit, the HU-613, the HU-803 and was later upgraded to the HU-650 and an optional extra HU-850 unit. The HU-850 unit features a 225 or 335-watt power output (depending on optional external amplifier) with three presets: 2CH, 3CH and Dolby Digital Pro Logic II Surround Sound. The Four-C chassis from the S60 R became an option on some S60s.


title: Volvo S60

text: In 2004 the T5 engine was reengineered from 2.3 to 2.4 liters, installing continuously variable valve timing and achieving an increase of , while the 2.5 liter engine was given a Ultra-low-emission vehicle (ULEV) certification, and a modified turbo in the D5 model also increased the maximum claimed power from 163 PS to 185 PS, while electronic brakeforce distribution was installed for emergency braking situations. The Haldex-sourced computer controlled AWD system, which was standard equipment in the S60R, was optionally available mated to the 2.5 liter engine. Three transmissions were offered, the Geartronic automatic which offered five speeds that adapts to driving style or the "Auto-Stick" offers a manual mode that offered the ability to select gears by moving the gearstick forward or back. The second automatic five speed transmission was available without the manual mode feature. A more traditional manual five speed transmission was the third selection offered.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 was refreshed in 2005. The exterior was updated with body-colored side moldings and bumpers with chrome linings, as well as new headlamps replacing the original with black housing, with optional HID headlights. The interior received some updates as well, with new seats, trim, and an updated center console. The S60 went through a final facelift in 2008 with full body-colored bumper and door inserts and larger emblem in the front and larger spaced out "V-O-L-V-O" letters in the rear. The interior featured a new pattern upholstery which differs from its original pattern.


title: Volvo S60

text: Police specification models came about through Volvo's extensive work alongside the users of the vehicles and Police Fleet Management departments. As a result, the Police specification vehicles have a striking difference from original showroom model that sometimes the Volvo S60 is used as police cars.


title: Volvo S60

text: Firstly the suspension was up-rated to deal with the demands of Police work; this included fitting the front suspension of the D5 model variant (as the suspension was designed to deal with the heavier diesel engine). Nivomat self-levelling suspension was also fitted to the rear to ensure correct geometry of the vehicle, regardless of the weight carried. On early models, the clutch was also replaced with the stronger D5 unit.


title: Volvo S60

text: A larger specification battery and 110A alternator was also fitted to run all the extra equipment, along with a dedicated Police fuse box in the boot. Extra wiring looms are also fitted specially for the Police radios and other equipment, including CCTV cameras. Additional electrical noise suppression has been added so as not to interfere with the sensitive electronics the police use.


title: Volvo S60

text: The speedometers in the vehicles are calibrated from the factory and do not require recalibration unless the wheel and overall rolling diameters are changed.


title: Volvo S60

text: During 2001–2004 the 2.3 litre T5 engine was used and in 2005-2009 the 2.4 litre T5 engine was used. Also beyond common speculation and myths, the engines are not chipped or modified specially for police use: they are complete factory spec but in 'exceptional cases' the speed limiter () may have been removed.


title: Volvo S60

text: First introduced in 2004, Volvo's S60 R used a Haldex computer controlled all-wheel-drive system mated to a / inline-5 which sends 95 percent of the torque to the front wheels under normal driving conditions and can send up to 70 percent to the rear wheels as necessary. The 2004–2005 models came with a 6-speed manual transmission, or an available 5-speed automatic which allowed only torque in 1st and 2nd gears. The 2006–2007 models came with a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic transmission (which was no longer torque-restricted).


title: Volvo S60

text: Other aspects which set the R apart from standard S60s were the large Brembo front and rear four-piston brakes, 18-inch 5-spoke "Pegasus" wheels (available as an upgrade to the standard 17-inch wheels of the same design), blue faced "R" gauges, standard HID headlights, as well as the Four-C suspension system.


title: Volvo S60

text: Semi-active suspension with Four-C (a short name for "Continuously Controlled Chassis Concept") allows the user to select from three modes: Comfort, Sport, and Advanced. "Comfort" attempts to soften the car over bumps, while "Advanced" firms the suspension considerably and gives more aggressive throttle response - a setting Volvo implies is for use on the race track. This is accomplished through a drive by wire throttle, allowing the same pedal travel to result in different performance when the appropriate mode is selected, electronically controlled shock absorbers that can adjust themselves 500 times a second, and a complex series of sensors throughout the body of the vehicle. Volvo collaborated with high-tech system developer Ohlins Racing AB and shock absorber manufacturer Monroe for the self-adjusting shock absorbers.


title: Volvo S60

text: The R had three themed interior color options with upholstery in soft leather supplied by Bridge of Weir, and they were Nordkapp (dark blue) or Gobi (light tan). A third choice was offered as a natural leather option, Atacama (dark orange), available for an additional charge. The natural leather choice was sumptuous with a baseball glove thickness and feel.


title: Volvo S60

text: The small trunk lid spoiler that was standard on the S60 R created a 20% increased downforce at the rear wheels at high speeds compared to the standard S60s. The S60 Rs have a 0.29 Drag coefficient, compared to the standard S60's 0.28, due to the larger lower front bumper spoiler to support the secondary intercooler.


title: Volvo S60

text: Another Volvo factory option for only the S60 R was a body kit which included front bumper splitters, side skirts and a rear valance, color matched to the body. The body kit was only available with certain body colors and in certain markets.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 R continued the tradition of "R" cars for Volvo beginning in 1995 with the introduction of the 850 T-5 R.


title: Volvo S60

text: The second generation S60 began production in Ghent, Belgium on May 17, 2010, with an expected annual production of 90,000 vehicles. Official photos were released in November 2009, and the car was publicly unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2010. It debuted as a 2011 model in North America. The second generation S60 also arrived with the 5th generation Haldex AWD system. More differences in the second generation S60 include the new large Volvo iron symbol, parallel to the grille LED day running lamps and larger spaced letters in the brand name on rear.


title: Volvo S60

text: The engine range of the S60 and V60 comprises four petrol engines and three diesels. The engines available are the T3, T4, T5 and T6 petrol engines and D3, D5 and 1.6D DRIVe diesel engines, the latter of which has Stop Start Technology to increase the efficiency of the engine. The 2.4-litre D5 plug-in hybrid version, fitted with a five-cylinder diesel engine and a 50 kW electric motor, was scheduled for sale in Europe by November 2012.


title: Volvo S60

text: The Volvo S60 and V60 come with Volvo's City Safety system as standard, which is the same system fitted to its sister the XC60. This system stops the car in the event of impending collision in 'City Traffic' below . Also, a new safety feature named "Pedestrian Detection" (available on both the V60 and S60) detects people in front of the car and automatically applies the brakes if the driver does not react in time. The new sedan shows off Volvo's completely new design language already seen in the Volvo XC60 concept. It rides on the same platform as the XC60. The goal of this new design was to target younger demographics.


title: Volvo S60

text: In 2013, the T5 engine was revamped before the launch of the Drive-E arrival. Among the tweaks to the T5 power plant is a boost in engine compression to 9.5:1 from 9.0, engine torque peaks at 4200 rpm and engine management changes provide faster gear changes and upshifts when the 6-speed automatic gearbox is in the sport mode. Output remains the same over 2012 at and of torque, although there is a provision for overboost from the turbo which bumps the torque number to . The changes in compression ratio helps the S60 T5 deliver extra in the city and combined cycle. Front-drive versions are rated at city/ highway for a combined of , while the AWD model is less across the board. Volvo also says the T5 AWD is good for a sprint of 6.6 seconds, while the front-drive version is 0.2 seconds quicker.


title: Volvo S60

text: Changes include all-new exterior panels from the A-pillars forward including a new hood, front fenders and fascia; a wider grille with a larger Ironmark is flanked by new headlights while a larger, wider lower front intake gains bright accents and horizontally mounted LED daytime running lights; new integrated exhaust pipes at rear, a new Adaptive Digital TFT Display instrument cluster for select models (R-Design versions include unique blue instrument dials), new paddle shifters on T6 AWD and R-Design models (optional on T5), Advanced Quick Shift (AQS) option on all T6 engines and activated when the transmission is set to sport mode or when using paddle shifters, IntelliSafe with Pedestrian Detection and Cyclist Detection with full auto brake and Cross Traffic Alert became part of the Technology Package, a new radar-based Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) to monitor and alert the driver to rapidly approaching vehicles behind the car while still informing the driver about vehicles in the blind spots on both sides of the car, Cross Traffic Alert with radar sensors at the rear end of the car to alert the driver to crossing traffic from the sides when reversing out of a parking space.


title: Volvo S60

text: North America models went on sale as 2014 model year vehicles in late 2013. Early models include S60 T5 (base, Premier, Premier Plus, Platinum), T6 (AWD, Premier Plus, Platinum, R-Design AWD, RD Platinum).


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60L, also marketed as S60 Inscription, is the top-of-the-line, long wheelbase model of the S60. It has been lengthened by compared to the standard model to give additional legroom for rear passengers. It is also manufactured in Chengdu, China, and is the first consumer automobile manufactured in China to be sold in the United States. The S60L commenced production in October 2014.


title: Volvo S60

text: The Volvo S60L PPHEV (Petrol Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) concept car was unveiled at the 2014 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition. Volvo Cars announced that the S60L PPHEV will be manufactured at the Chengdu plant and is scheduled to be launched in China in the first half of 2015.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60L PPHEV shares the same electric-drive technology as the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid, but instead of the diesel engine of the V60, the S60L PPHEV has a 2-liter, four-cylinder gasoline turbocharged engine from Volvo Cars’ new Drive-E engine family. The electric motor is powered by an 11.2 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that delivers an all-electric range of up to . The petrol-powered engine produces and 350 N·m (258 lb-ft) of torque. The driver can select via three buttons among three driving modes: Pure, Hybrid or Power. In the default hybrid mode, the emissions are about 50 g/km, corresponding to a fuel consumption of . By selecting Pure mode, the car runs in all-electric mode, and the Power mode combines the capabilities of the engine and motor to deliver , 550 N·m (405 lb-ft) of torque and 0–100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration in 5.5 seconds.


title: Volvo S60

text: Volvo unveiled the production model, the S60L T6 Twin Engine PHEV, at the 2015 Shanghai Motor Show. Sales of the S60L T6 PHEV, limited to the Chinese market, began on 22 April 2015. The production model has an all-electric range of .


title: Volvo S60

text: A new limited production model known as the S60 Cross Country saw a limited American release in the autumn of 2015 (as it was for the 2015 model year in Europe), with each dealership only getting one car. This variant is similar to the Volvo V60 Cross Country, as it is a raised sedan variant of the S60. Limited to about 500 units from 2016 to 2017.


title: Volvo S60

text: The Volvo S60 Polestar performance concept is a version of the Volvo S60 T6 AWD with a Volvo T6 inline six (B6304T4) engine rated at at 6500 rpm and of torque at 5500 rpm. It features a modified cylinder head and combustion chambers, modified inlet manifold and air intake, special manufactured connecting rods, Garrett 3171 turbocharger, Ferrita 3.5" stainless steel exhaust system, reinforced M66C (close ratio) manual 6-speed gear box, Haldex E-LSD in rear, Haldex Gen4 XWD, 265/30R19 tires, 9.5×19-inch Polestar Rims, chassis lowered by , Öhlins 3-way shock absorbers, reinforced anti-roll bars in the front and rear, increased track width by in the front and 40 mm (1.6 in) in the rear, Polestar-tuned EHPAS steering, stabilising X-members (front and rear), modified control-arms with uniballs in the front and rear, reinforced bushings in sub-frame and control-arms, modified engine mounts, 380 mm ventilated front brake discs with Polestar-Brembo 6 piston calipers, ventilated discs rear brake discs with Polestar-Volvo calipers, brake cooling air intakes from front, lowered front splitter and larger rear spoiler to reduce high speed lift, carbon fibre diffuser, body widened in the front and rear, Polestar designed seats with increased support, Alcantara on all functional areas (steering wheel, gear knob, and seats) to ensure maximum grip and a lowered centre console for optimised gear-lever ergonomics.


title: Volvo S60

text: The 2013 Volvo S60 Polestar is a limited (50 units) version of the Volvo S60 T6 AWD for the Australian market. It is based on the S60 Polestar performance concept and features an inline 6 engine rated at and of torque. It includes a new BorgWarner turbo, new intercooler, a stainless full-flow exhaust system with tail pipes, Polestar Öhlins 2-way adjustable shock absorbers, upgraded springs (60N/mm front, 65N/mm rear. (80% stiffer than stock)), upgraded stabilizers in the front and rear, upgraded rear tie blades, upgraded top mount in the front and rear, upgraded toe link arms in the rear, strut brace with carbon fibre reinforcement, Michelin Pilot Super Sport 235/40R19 tires, 8x19-inch ET51 bespoke Polestar rims, Polestar-tuned AWF21 six-speed automatic gearbox with a launch control system, a Polestar-tuned Haldex 4WD system, modified transmission software for faster shifts and launch control, modified AWD software for more rear torque, front 336x29 mm ventilated brake discs with Jurid 958 performance brake pads, rear 302x22 mm ventilated brake discs with HP2000 Brembo performance brake pads, new Polestar front splitter corners, new Polestar rear spoiler, new Polestar diffuser, Polestar door trims, Polestar badging on the front grille, boot and engine cover, Polestar shift knob, Polestar limited edition plate on the door sills and steering wheel and black outside mirror covers. Delivery began in June 2013.


title: Volvo S60

text: The 2014 S60 Polestar was offered in Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. Based on the S60 Polestar Concept car and the Australian S60 Polestar, it includes a Polestar Öhlins shock absorber system Polestar 8×20-inch ET53 bespoke rims with 245/35R20 tyres, a new twin-scroll BorgWarner turbo with new intercooler, stainless full-flow exhaust system with tail pipes, AWF21 automatic gearbox with paddle shift system, Polestar transmission calibration for faster gearshifts, launch control and curve-hold functionality; Polestar Haldex calibration for more rear torque dynamic distribution, Polestar calibrated stability control system, front ventilated and floating brake discs with Polestar/Brembo 6 piston brake calipers, rear ventilated brake disc. Delivery was set to begin in June 2014 to the local markets.


title: Volvo S60

text: The 2015 S60 Polestar's 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder produces and of torque, an additional and more torque compared to the same engine in the S60 R-Design. This is developed by way of massaged engine management software, a stainless exhaust with pipes, new twin-scroll BorgWarner turbochargers and new intercooler. Polestar also did work to the transmission with new calibration for quicker gearshifts and launch control capabilities. The Haldex four-wheel-drive system also has Polestar tuning for more rear torque distribution, and the stability control system has been massaged. The chassis is firmer with a suspension that features Öhlins shock absorbers with 80 percent stiffer springs sitting on 20-inch wheels that would normally come wrapped with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires from the factory. Brakes get a nice upgrade with front discs (replacing ones on the R-Design) with six-piston Brembo calipers and -inch rear discs. Visual changes include new front and rear splitters, rear spoiler and diffuser. Inside there's a thick-rimmed steering wheel and upgraded seats with suede inserts, suede door inserts and blue accent stitching throughout. According to Volvo, it has a time of 4.7 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of , up from .


title: Volvo S60

text: Other than the Polestar model, T6 Momentum model and the T6 R-Design all other S60 models can be purchased or leased in the traditional way. Polestar models will be offered solely through its Care by Volvo monthly subscription plan. The 2019 model went on sale in October 2018.


title: Volvo S60

text: Production began in September 2018 in Ridgeville, South Carolina. The third generation of the Volvo S60 is the first Volvo manufactured in the United States. A 2.3-million square-foot plant builds over 60,000 vehicles per year for both American and export markets. Capacity can go up to 100,000 vehicles per year if demand calls for it. The facility is Volvo's seventh, joining two European, three Chinese, and one Malaysian location. As of 2022, the plant employs nearly 1,500 people.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 is available in Core, Plus, Ultimate, and Polestar trim levels depending on the sales market.


title: Volvo S60

text: The S60 comes with two engine options: the T5, which features a turbocharged mild hybrid 2.0-liter four-cylinder sending to the front wheels (or all four wheels in some markets as an option) and the T8, a performance-oriented plug-in hybrid which combines a turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder and an electric motor at the rear, sending a combined to all four wheels. The T8 produces and with a 11.6-kWh battery pack, it gets a range of on the electric model. In 2022.5, the T8 hybrid engine was updated by removing its supercharger, which with its electrical engine, produces max 455 hp combined and 523 lb-ft torque. Battery pack was also increased to 18.8-kWh battery pack which improves the range to 41 mi.


title: Volvo S60

text: Standard gear on all S60s includes an improved City Safety collision avoidance system based on Volvo's Vision 2020. The system can now help the driver do an evasive maneuver and can detect and mitigate oncoming vehicles at intersections. An optional Pilot Assist system is equipped into the model.


title: Volvo S60

text: On 14 and 15 October 2000, the first-generation S60 T5 broke 18 British land speed records (including the highest average speed over a 24-hour period) for a Production Car class D (2000-3000cc) at at the Millbrook Proving Ground, in Bedfordshire, UK. A joint project by Volvo and Prodrive and covered by ITV's "Driven" and "Car magazine".


title: Volvo S60

text: The car was standard except for safety modifications such as a roll cage, exterior cut out switch, a modified fuel tank and additional head support to allow the drivers (BTCC drivers Anthony Reid, Rickard Rydell, John Cleland and Alain Menu as well as various "Car" journalists and ITV's Mike Brewer) to rest their neck during the 2-hour gaps between pit stops. Each pitstop included a driver change, refuel and tyre changes due to the extreme stresses being placed on the front outside tyre.


title: Volvo S60

text: Volvo regularly entered the S60 in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, where it finished 2nd in the drivers' championship twice and won the manufacturers' title once. The S60 continued to be raced after the formation of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, a merger of the Swedish and Danish touring car championships. Thed Björk won three consecutive titles from 2013 to 2015, and Rikard Göransson won the championship in 2016, driving an S60 prepared by Polestar Racing.


title: Volvo S60

text: From 2002 to 2007 there was an S60 one-make racing series as a support series to the Swedish Touring Car Championship known as the S60 Challenge Cup, using 26 factory-modified S60s.


title: Volvo S60

text: An S60 was driven by Robert Dahlgren in the Swedish round of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship.


title: Volvo S60

text: In 2016 the S60 made its return to the WTCC with Fredrik Ekblom and Thed Björk driving for Polestar Cyan Racing. Their 2017 lineup consists of Thed Björk, Nestor Girolami and Nick Catsburg.


title: Volvo S60

text: The first generation S60 made its competitive debut in 2006, racing in the Speed World Challenge GT class. The second-generation model was introduced for the 2009 season. In 2010, its programme was expanded to include the SCAA Pro Racing World Challenge, where it won both the drivers' championship, for factory driver Randy Pobst, his fourth, and manufacturers' championships in the GT class. The programme was expanded again in 2011 to include the Pirelli World Challenge.


title: Volvo S60

text: Volvo competed in the V8 Supercars Championship with two rear wheel drive V8 B8444S powered S60s between 2014 and 2016 with Garry Rogers Motorsport highlighted by a debut 2nd place at the Adelaide 500, a last second overtake to steal a race win at the Phillip Island Circuit, and third for Scott McLaughlin in the 2016 series driver standings.


title: Van Wilder

text: National Lampoon's Van Wilder (released internationally as Van Wilder: Party Liaison and Party Animals) is a 2002 American comedy film directed by Walt Becker and written by Brent Goldberg and David T. Wagner.


title: Van Wilder

text: The film stars Ryan Reynolds as the title character alongside Tara Reid, Kal Penn, and Tim Matheson. The film follows the misadventures of its lead character, Van Wilder, a seventh-year senior who has made it his life goal to help undergrads at Coolidge College succeed in the future.


title: Van Wilder

text: After an article is written about his legacy by fellow student, Gwen Pearson, played by Reid, Van Wilder's party lifestyle is brought to light. This attracts the attention of Van's father, played by Matheson, who cuts off his tuition. Van Wilder gets stuck in the middle of a love triangle between Gwen and her mean-spirited boyfriend, Richard "Dick" Bagg while struggling to graduate. Van tries various schemes to earn enough money to pay his tuition and graduate, with help from Gwen and the rest of the student body, except a couple of sinister enemies who attempt to sabotage his efforts.


title: Van Wilder

text: The film grossed $21,305,259 in the domestic box office; $16,970,224 in the international box office; and $38,275,483 worldwide overall.


title: Van Wilder

text: A sequel, "", was released on December 1, 2006. A prequel, "", was released straight-to-DVD on July 14, 2009.


title: Van Wilder

text: Vance "Van" Wilder is a confident and sardonic seventh-year senior at Coolidge College who spends his days driving around campus in his customized golf cart, posing nude for figure drawing classes, and organizing soirees and fundraisers for his peers. Upon learning that his son is still in school, his father severs financial support. Van seeks a payment extension from the registrar, Deloris Haver. After having sex with her, Deloris hands him the paperwork for an extension, which Van realizes he only needed to ask for in the first place.


title: Van Wilder

text: After a couple of attempts to get money fast, Van is approached by the Lambda Omega Omega fraternity, offering to pay him a thousand dollars to throw them a blowout party to boost their popularity. Gwen Pearson, a reporter for the school paper, writes a story crediting Van as the host of the party. Van, who normally refuses to do interviews for the paper, realizes the article can be the "cash cow" he needs to stay in school and agrees to sit down with Gwen for a follow-up piece.


title: Van Wilder

text: Gwen's boyfriend, Richard "Dick" Bagg, is a pre-medical student and the president of his fraternity Delta Iota Kappa, as well as of the student government. As he learns of Gwen's work with Van, suspecting a growing bond between them, he moves to sabotage their prospective romance. Van and Richard exchange escalating pranks.


title: Van Wilder

text: Gwen learns that Van stopped attending classes years ago, 18 units short of graduation. Angry that she dug into such personal details, Van disassociates himself from Gwen, taking a contemplative look at his life.


title: Van Wilder

text: Richard arranges to sabotage Van's latest party with Jeannie, a member of a sister sorority, by smuggling underaged children in and getting them drunk, then calling campus police to the scene. Van is arrested for providing alcohol to minors and faces expulsion from Coolidge. He prepares to leave the college until his friend Taj inspires him to fight the charges.


title: Van Wilder

text: Van throws himself at the mercy of the court, asking that rather than expelling him, they force him to graduate; he offers to complete his remaining units before the semester ends, earning a degree in leisure studies. The academic board votes 3–2 in favor of Van's reinstatement, Professor McDougal's was the decisive vote for reinstatement, surprisingly. Van begins studying for the finals, which will be held in six days.


title: Van Wilder

text: Outside the court, Jeannie reveals Richard's plot to Gwen, as well as his infidelity. Angered by this, Gwen pretends to forgive Richard then spikes his protein shake with a powerful laxative just before his entrance exam to Northwestern Medical School. While taking the exam, Richard begins to have uncontrollable flatulence and hurries down the line with his exam. Richard then is intercepted by his future alumni intended to interview him for his entrance. Unable to hold it in any longer, Richard strips off his pants and proceeds to defecate violently in a wastebasket in front of the medical doctors, much to their horror.


title: Van Wilder

text: Van uses the entire exam period for his last final with his least favorite professor, Prof. McDougal, who later delivers the news to Van that he passed. McDougal explains he had been so hard on him all those years because he believed Van was not living up to his potential, not because Van had also hooked up with McDougal's daughter freshmen year. Gwen finishes her article on Van for the graduation issue revealing his many contributions to the students and staff of Coolidge in the last seven years, his superhuman accomplishment of doing a semester's worth of studying in just six days, and Richard's plot to have Van expelled; Richard is seen reading Gwen's article, his medical school dreams are ruined and his reputation is destroyed.


title: Van Wilder

text: The university celebrates Van's graduation with a wild party held in his honor. His father, having read Gwen's article, admits he was wrong and expresses his pride in Van's success. Gwen arrives, lovingly reunites with Van.


title: Van Wilder

text: The soundtrack album was released on March 26, 2002. It omits the song "Hello" by Sugarbomb, "Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Stuck in America" by Sugarcult. Other artists with songs omitted from the soundtrack included Atomic Kitten, Michelle Branch, Sprung Monkey, Bird 3, Spymob, Mint Royale, and Tahiti 80.


title: Van Wilder

text: "Van Wilder" opened with $7,302,913, ranking number 6 in the domestic box office. It grossed $21,305,259 domestically with $16,970,224 internationally for a worldwide total of $38,275,483. Based on a $5 million budget, the film was a box office success.


title: Van Wilder

text: The film received negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 18% based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 3.45/10. The website's critical consensus describes the film as being "A derivative gross-out comedy that's short on laughs." On Metacritic, the film has a 26 out of 100 score based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A to F.


title: Van Wilder

text: "Van Wilder" was released via VHS and DVD by Artisan Entertainment on August 20, 2002. The DVD was presented in rated and unrated editions, both editions containing a cropped full-frame transfer, and a widescreen version in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The two-disc set also contained deleted scenes, outtakes, three Burly Bear TV specials, a Comedy Central: Reel Comedy TV special, "Bouncing Off the Walls" music video performed by Sugarcult, trailers, and other promotional material like television ads and poster art.


title: Van Wilder

text: On November 28, 2006, in a way of promoting the sequel to "Van Wilder", "", Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a 2-disc special edition DVD with new bonus features including a "Drunken Idiot Kommentary" (featuring National Lampoon editors Steven Brykman and Mason Brown), behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast and crew.


title: Van Wilder

text: The film was also released on Blu-ray on August 21, 2007, which had almost the same features as the 2-disc special edition DVD. Also included (and exclusive to the Blu-ray edition) is the "Blu-Book Exam", an interactive game that focuses on "Van Wilder" trivia questions, plus a series of "Blu-line" options including a pop-up film-progression menu that allows you to set bookmarks and skip around the feature film. The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on August 14, 2018.


title: Van Wilder

text: A sequel, entitled "The Rise of Taj", followed this, centering on the character of Taj Mahal Badalandabad. The film was released theatrically in 2006 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and produced by Bauer Martinez.


title: Van Wilder

text: A direct-to-DVD prequel to this film was also released in 2009 by Paramount Pictures under its Paramount Famous Productions label, entitled "Freshman Year"; the film follows Van as he deals with his freshman year of college.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym Stormont, is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly is a unicameral, democratically elected body comprising 90 members known as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Members are elected under the single transferable vote form of proportional representation (STV-PR) In turn, the Assembly selects most of the ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive using the principle of power-sharing under the D'Hondt method to ensure that Northern Ireland's largest voting blocs, British unionists and Irish nationalists, both participate in governing the region. The Assembly's standing orders allow for certain contentious motions to require a cross-community vote; in addition to requiring the support of an overall majority of members, such votes must also be supported by a majority within both blocs in order to pass.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly is one of two "mutually inter-dependent" institutions created under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the other being the North/South Ministerial Council with the Republic of Ireland. The Agreement aimed to end Northern Ireland's violent 30-year Troubles. The first Assembly election was held in June 1998.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: From June 1921 until March 1972, the devolved legislature for Northern Ireland was the Parliament of Northern Ireland, established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and meeting from 1932 at Stormont, outside Belfast. The Parliament always had an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) majority and always elected a UUP administration; it was suspended by the UK Government on 30 March 1972 and formally abolished in 1973 under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Northern Ireland was subsequently administered by direct rule until 1999, with a brief exception in 1974. Attempts began to restore on a new basis that would see power shared between nationalists and unionists. To this end a new legislature, the Northern Ireland Assembly, was established in 1973 with a power-sharing Executive taking office in January 1974. However, this body was brought down by the Ulster Workers' Council strike in May 1974. Political discussions continued against the continued backdrop of the Troubles. In 1982, another Northern Ireland Assembly was established, initially as a body to scrutinise the actions of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the Secretary of State, the UK Government minister with responsibility for Northern Ireland. It was not supported by Irish nationalists and was officially dissolved in 1986.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Northern Ireland (Elections) Act 1998 formally established the Assembly in law under the name New Northern Ireland Assembly, in accordance with the Good Friday (or Belfast) Agreement. The first election of members of the New Northern Ireland Assembly was on 25 June 1998 and it first met on 1 July 1998. However, it only existed in "shadow" form until 2 December 1999 when full powers were devolved to the Assembly. Since then the Assembly has operated with several interruptions and has been suspended on five occasions:


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Attempts to secure its operation on a permanent basis were initially frustrated by disagreements between the two main unionist parties (the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party) and Sinn Féin. Unionist representatives refused to participate in the Good Friday Agreement's institutions alongside Sinn Féin until they were assured that the IRA had discontinued its activities, decommissioned its weapons, and disbanded.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly's suspension from October 2002 to May 2007 occurred when unionist parties withdrew from the Northern Ireland Executive after Sinn Féin's offices at Stormont were raided by police, who were investigating allegations of intelligence gathering on behalf of the IRA by members of the party's support staff. The Assembly, already suspended, was dissolved on 28 April 2003 as scheduled, but the elections due the following month were postponed by the UK Government and were not held until November that year.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Although the Assembly remained suspended from 2002 until 2007, the members elected at the 2003 Assembly election were called together on 15 May 2006 under the Northern Ireland Act 2006 to meet in an Assembly to be technically known as "the Assembly established under the Northern Ireland Act 2006" for the purpose of electing a First Minister and deputy First Minister and choosing the members of an Executive before 25 November 2006 as a preliminary to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Multi-party talks in October 2006 resulted in the St Andrews Agreement, wherein Sinn Féin committed to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the mechanism for nominating First and deputy First Ministers was changed. In May 2006, Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP, had refused Sinn Féin's nomination to be First Minister alongside Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, as deputy First Minister; after the St Andrews Agreement, these positions were now chosen by larger parties only, while the holders of other positions were elected by sitting MLAs. Eileen Bell was appointed by the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, to be the interim Speaker of the Assembly, with Francie Molloy and Jim Wells acting as Deputy Speakers. The Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 repealed the Northern Ireland Act 2006 and disbanded "the Assembly".


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The St Andrews Agreement Act provided for a "Transitional Assembly established under the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006" – to continue to contribute to preparations for the restoration of devolved government. A person who was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly was also a member of the Transitional Assembly, with the same Speaker and Deputy Speaker as elected for "the Assembly". The Transitional Assembly first met on 24 November 2006 but proceedings were suspended due to a bomb threat by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone. It was dissolved on 30 January 2007 when the election campaign for the next Northern Ireland Assembly started.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Subsequently, a new election to the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly was held on 7 March 2007. The DUP and Sinn Féin consolidated their positions as the two largest parties in the election and agreed to enter government together. Peter Hain signed a restoration order on 25 March 2007 allowing for the restoration of devolution at midnight on the following day. An administration was eventually established on 10 May with Ian Paisley as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: This third Assembly was the first legislature in Northern Ireland to complete a full term since the Northern Ireland Parliament which convened between 1965 and 1969 and saw powers in relation to policing and justice transferred from Westminster on 12 April 2010. Peter Robinson succeeded Ian Paisley as First Minister and DUP leader in 2008.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: A five-year term came into effect with the fourth Assembly elected in 2011. nd Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister. The subsequent period was dominated by issues of culture and dealing with the past which culminated in the Fresh Start Agreement in 2014. The first Official Opposition in the Assembly was formed by the UUP in the closing months of the fourth term. Following the election of the fifth Assembly in 2016, the DUP and Sinn Féin formed the fourth Executive, with Arlene Foster as First Minister and Martin McGuinness continuing deputy First Minister.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: In the wake of the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal, McGuinness resigned from his post in January 2017, bringing an end to almost a decade of unbroken devolution. Sinn Féin withdrew from the Assembly, and a fresh election was held on 2 March 2017. Negotiations mediated by then Secretary of State James Brokenshire missed the three-week deadline provided in law for the formation of an Executive. The passing of an extended legal deadline of 29 June left decisions on funding allocations in the hands of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and a budget for the ongoing 2017–18 financial year was passed by the UK Parliament. Over time, further legislation was passed for Northern Ireland at Westminster, repeatedly extending the deadline for Executive formation although no direct rule ministers were appointed during this suspension. In 2019, the UK Parliament enacted one such Bill to legalise same-sex marriage and liberalise abortion, in line with Great Britain (the rest of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Talks eventually succeeded under a third Secretary of State Julian Smith. The sixth Assembly resumed on 11 January 2020, shortly before the UK's exit from the European Union.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: In February 2021, DUP MLAs threatened to bring down the Assembly and force an early election in protest at Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, which put a border in the Irish Sea.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: On 3 February 2022, First Minister Paul Givan (of the DUP) resigned. Due to the power-sharing arrangements this also caused the deputy First Minister to lose her position.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Elections were held for a seventh assembly in May 2022. Sinn Féin emerged as the largest party, followed by the Democratic Unionist Party. The newly elected assembly met for the first time on 13 May 2022 and again on 30 May. However, at both these meetings, the DUP refused to assent to the election of a Speaker as part of a protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol, which meant that the assembly could not continue other business, including the appointment of a new Executive. The incumbent Speaker and incumbent ministers would continue in office in caretaker roles.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: After the deadline set by Westminster for restoring devolved government was missed, the Northern Ireland secretary must schedule the election in the next 12 weeks. However, the secretary has indicated that they will extend the deadline for the formation of the executive by six weeks, with an option for a further six week extension, so that any Northern Ireland Assembly election that would occur due to a failure to form an executive would happen at some point in 2023.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly has both legislative powers and responsibility for electing the Northern Ireland Executive. The First and deputy First Ministers were initially elected on a cross-community vote, although this was changed in 2006 and they are now appointed as leaders of the largest parties of the largest and second largest Assembly 'block' (understood to mean 'Unionist', 'Nationalist' and 'Other'). The Minister of Justice is appointed by cross-community agreement. The seven other ministerial positions are distributed among willing parties roughly proportionate to their share of seats in the Assembly by the D'Hondt method, with ministers chosen by the nominating officers of each party.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not explicitly given in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Rather they include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster. Powers reserved by Westminster are divided into "excepted matters", which it retains indefinitely, and "reserved matters", which may be transferred to the competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly at a future date. A list of transferred, reserved and excepted matters is given below.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: While the Assembly was in suspension, its legislative powers were exercised by the UK Government, which governs through procedures at Westminster. Laws that would have normally been within the competence of the Assembly were passed by the UK Parliament in the form of Orders-in-Council rather than Acts of the Assembly.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly as with other subordinate legislatures are subject to judicial review. A law can be struck down if it is found to:


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: A transferred matter is defined as "any matter which is not an excepted or reserved matter". There is therefore no full listing of transferred matters but they have been grouped into the responsibilities of the Northern Ireland Executive ministers:


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly has the power to call for witnesses and documents, if the relevant responsibility has been transferred to its remit. Proceedings are covered by privilege in defamation law.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly's composition is laid down in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. It initially had 108 members (MLAs) elected from 18 six-member constituencies on the basis of universal adult suffrage and the single transferable vote.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Under the Assembly Members (Reduction of Numbers) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 the number of MLAs per constituency was reduced from 6 to 5, leaving a total of 90 seats. This took effect at the March 2017 election. The constituencies used are the same as those used for elections to the United Kingdom Parliament at Westminster.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides that, unless the Assembly is dissolved early, elections should occur once every four years on the first Thursday in May. The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 was passed to bring the Northern Ireland Assembly into line with the other devolved legislatures and to extend each Assembly term to five years instead of four. The second election to the Assembly was delayed by the UK government until 26 November 2003. The Assembly is dissolved shortly before the holding of elections on a day chosen by the Secretary of State. After each election the Assembly must meet within eight days. The Assembly can vote to dissolve itself early by a two-thirds majority of the total number of its members. It is also automatically dissolved if it is unable to elect a First Minister and deputy First Minister (effectively joint first ministers, the only distinction being in the titles) within six weeks of its first meeting or of those positions becoming vacant. There have been six elections to the Assembly since 1998.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Each MLA is free to designate themselves as "nationalist", "unionist", or "other", as they see fit, the only requirement being that no member may change their designation more than once during an Assembly session. The system has been criticised by some, in particular the cross-community Alliance Party, as entrenching sectarian divisions. Alliance supports ending the official designation of identity requirement and the taking of important votes on the basis of an ordinary super-majority, as does the largest unionist party, the DUP.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Which parties can appoint ministers to the Northern Ireland Executive is determined by a combination of mandatory coalition, the D'Hondt method and cross-community support, depending on the role, as explained above. Coalitions of between three and five parties have governed over the Assembly's history. The Executive of the Sixth Assembly was formed on 11 January 2020.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Unlike the United Kingdom Parliament and the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament), the Assembly had no provision for an official opposition to hold governing parties to account until legislation was passed in 2016. A party may now form or join an Assembly Opposition, granting it additional speaking, scrutiny and funding rights, if it was entitled to Ministerial roles under the D'Hondt method and declined them, or if it wins 8% or more of the seats. This opportunity was qualified for and taken by the UUP and SDLP following the 2016 election. Even within the Executive, however, the parties (which have collectively held large majorities in the Assembly) have frequently voted against each other due to political and/or policy differences.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The course of the Assembly saw a marked shift in party allegiance among voters. At the 2003 election, the DUP and Sinn Féin displaced the more moderate UUP and SDLP as the largest parties in the unionist and nationalist blocks. The parties only agreed to share power after four years of negotiations and a new election.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The DUP, Sinn Féin, SDLP and UUP have remained the largest parties in the Assembly and so far the only ones entitled to ministerial roles in the Executive under the D'Hondt method. However, there has been growing support for parties designated "Other". The centrist Alliance party secured the roles of Speaker from 1998 to 2007 and Minister of Justice from 2010 to 2016 (and again from 11 January 2020) thanks to cross-community support, and has seen an increase in its seat wins from 6 to 8. While the NI Women's Coalition disbanded in 2003, two leftist parties, the Green Party in Northern Ireland and People Before Profit, won their first seats, in 2007 and 2016, respectively.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: A rapidly shifting landscape of smaller unionist parties has also been a feature of the Assembly. In 1999 the UK Unionist Party lost four of its five MLAs, disagreeing over a protest against Sinn Féin. The four formed the NI Unionist Party, which again suffered a split and won no seats in the 2003 election. That election also saw the electoral demise of a loose trio of independently elected unionists who had united as the United Unionist Coalition. Minor unionist parties flourished again after the 2011 election, which saw the disappearance of the PUP from the Assembly and the election of the TUV, a splinter group from the DUP opposed to the St Andrews Agreement. In 2012, a suspended UUP member became UKIP's first MLA, and in 2013, two UUP MLAs resigned to form the progressive NI21, which later split. Of these only the TUV survived the 2016 and 2017 elections.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Disagreements within the Executive precipitated the resignation of the UUP in 2015, and following the 2016 election they and the SDLP formed the first Assembly Opposition. The row also saw Alliance relinquish its Justice role, joining the Greens, PBPA and TUV in unofficial opposition. Independent unionist Claire Sugden gained the cross-community support needed to take over the Ministry of Justice.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: An Executive was formed on 11 January 2020 following the 2017 election results, which saw the unionist block lose its Assembly majority for the first time. The usual four largest parties had won enough seats to win ministerial roles under D'Hondt (the DUP three, Sinn Féin two and the SDLP and UUP one each provided neither of them choose to enter opposition). With the reduction in the number of Assembly seats, the 8% threshold now amounts to eight rather than nine seats, qualifying Alliance to enter official opposition if they choose which they did not. The Greens retained their two seats and the TUV and Claire Sugden their single seats, while People Before Profit now held only one seat.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Vacancies between Assembly elections are filled by co-option. A by-election is still available as an option if the nominated person cannot take his or her seat but none have been held.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The possibility of by-elections or co-options was established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998. In 2001, the Northern Ireland Office introduced a system of substitutes as the preferred option. Under a further change made in 2009, a political party leader directly nominates a new MLA if his or her party won that seat at the previous election. Independent MLAs can continue to use substitutes.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: When Sinn Féin MLA Michael Ferguson died in September 2006, no substitutes were available. Sinn Féin was allowed to use his vote in the Assembly (despite his death) and no by-election was held. His seat remained vacant until the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament), uses the same single transferable vote system for elections as the Assembly but does allow by-elections to fill vacancies. This method is also used for the seats chosen by election in the upper house, Seanad Éireann.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly is chaired by the Speaker and three Deputy Speakers, of whom one is appointed Principal Deputy Speaker. Lord Alderdice served as the first Speaker of the Assembly from July 1998, but retired in March 2004 to serve as a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission that supervised paramilitary ceasefires. The position is currently held by the Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey. In the Assembly, the Speaker and ten other members constitute a quorum.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly Commission is the body corporate of the Assembly with all that that entails. It looks after the pay and pensions of members directly and through tax-payer funded appointees, and the interests of political parties. The very first bill of the Assembly was to do with members' pensions and was taken through with minimum ado by a member of the commission.


title: Northern Ireland Assembly

text: The Assembly has 9 statutory committees, each of which is charged with scrutinising the activities of a single ministerial department. It also has 6 permanent standing committees and can establish temporary ad hoc committees. The chairmen and deputy chairmen of the committees are chosen by party nominating officers under the d'Hondt system procedure, used to appoint most ministers. Ordinary committee members are not appointed under this procedure but the Standing Orders require that the share of members of each party on a committee should be roughly proportionate to its share of seats in the Assembly. Committees of the Assembly take decisions by a simple majority vote. The following are the current statutory and standing committees of the Assembly:


title: Life peer

text: In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer are entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable", although they cannot inherit the peerage itself.


title: Life peer

text: The Crown, as "fount of honour", creates peerages of two types, being hereditary or for life. In the early days of the peerage, the Sovereign had the right to summon individuals to one Parliament without being bound to summon them again. Over time, it was established that once summoned, a peer would have to be summoned for the remainder of their life, and later, that the peer's heirs and successors would also be summoned, thereby firmly entrenching the hereditary principle.


title: Life peer

text: Nevertheless, life peerages lingered. From the reign of James I to that of George II (between 1603 and 1760), 18 life peerages were created for women. Women, however, were excluded from sitting in the House of Lords, so it was unclear whether or not a life peerage would entitle a man to do the same. For over four centuries—if one excludes those who sat in Cromwell's House of Lords (or Other House) during the Interregnum—no man had claimed a seat in the Lords by virtue of a life peerage. In 1856, it was thought necessary to add a peer learned in law to the House of Lords (which was the final court of appeal), without allowing the peer's heirs to sit in the House and swell its numbers. Sir James Parke, a Baron (judge) of the Exchequer, was created Baron Wensleydale for life, but the House of Lords concluded that the peerage did not entitle him to sit in the House of Lords. Lord Wensleydale was therefore appointed a hereditary peer. (In the event, he had no sons, so his peerage did not pass to an heir.) "(See also Wensleydale Peerage Case (1856).)"


title: Life peer

text: The Government introduced a bill to authorise the creation of two life peerages carrying seats in the House of Lords for judges who had held office for at least five years. The House of Lords passed it, but the bill was lost in the House of Commons. In 1869, a more comprehensive life peerages bill was brought forward by the Earl Russell. At any one time, 28 life peerages could be in existence; no more than four were to be created in any one year. Life peers were to be chosen from senior judges, civil servants, senior officers of the British Army or Royal Navy, members of the House of Commons who had served for at least ten years, scientists, writers, artists, peers of Scotland, and peers of Ireland. (Peers of Scotland and Ireland did not all have seats in the House of Lords, instead electing a number of representative peers.) The bill was rejected by the House of Lords at its third reading.


title: Life peer

text: Finally, the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1887 allowed senior judges to sit in the House of Lords as life peers, known as "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary". Those appointees who were not already members of the House of Lords were created life peers by the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 (for their titles, see the list of law life peerages). Initially it was intended that peers created in this way would only sit in the House of Lords while serving their term as judges, but in 1887 (on the retirement of Lord Blackburn) the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1887 provided that former judges would retain their seats for life. This ended with the creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009.


title: Life peer

text: The Life Peerages Act sanctions the regular granting of life peerages, but the power to appoint Lords of Appeal in Ordinary under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act was not derogated. The Act placed no limits on the number of peerages that the Sovereign may award, as was done by the Appellate Jurisdiction Act. A peer created under the Life Peerages Act has the right to sit in the House of Lords, provided that they are at least 21 years of age, are not suffering punishment upon conviction for treason, and are a citizen of the United Kingdom, or of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and are a resident in the UK for tax purposes.


title: Life peer

text: Life baronies under the Life Peerages Act are created by the Sovereign but, in practice, are only granted when proposed by the Prime Minister.


title: Life peer

text: Life peers created under the Life Peerages Act do not, unless they also hold ministerial positions, receive salaries. They are, however, entitled to an allowance of £300 for travel and accommodation for each day on which the peer "signs in" to the House, though the peer does not have to take part in the business of the House.


title: Life peer

text: From time to time, lists of "working peers" are published. They do not form a formal class, but represent the various political parties and are expected to regularly attend the House of Lords. Most new appointments of life peers fall into this category.


title: Life peer

text: Normally, the Prime Minister chooses only peers from their own party, but permits the leaders of opposition parties to recommend peers from their parties. The Prime Minister may determine the number of peers each party may propose; they may also choose to amend these recommendations, but by convention does not do so.


title: Life peer

text: Peers may be created on a "non-partisan basis". Formerly, nominations on merit alone were made by the Prime Minister, but this function was partially transferred to a new, non-statutory House of Lords Appointments Commission in 2000. Individuals recommended for the peerage by the Commission go on to become what have been described by some in the British media as "people's peers". The Commission also scrutinises party recommendations for working peerages to ensure propriety. The Prime Minister may determine the number of peers the Commission may propose, and also may amend the recommendations. Again, by convention, no amendment is made to the recommendations of the Commission.


title: Life peer

text: Individuals may be created peers in various honours lists as rewards for achievement; these peers are not expected to attend the House of Lords regularly, but are at liberty to do so if they please. The New Year Honours List, the King's Birthday Honours List (to mark the Sovereign's official birthday, the second Saturday in June), the Dissolution Honours List (to mark the dissolution of Parliament) and the Resignation Honours List (to mark the end of a Prime Minister's tenure) are all used to announce life peerage creations.


title: Life peer

text: Creations may be made for individuals on retirement from important public offices, such as Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Commons or Archbishop of Canterbury or York.


title: Life peer

text: Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who had renounced his hereditary title of the 14th Earl of Home on becoming Prime Minister, was the first former occupant of the office to receive a life barony. Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher all took life peerages following their retirement from the House of Commons. Edward Heath and John Major chose not to become peers. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May have yet to receive a peerage.


title: Life peer

text: Harold Macmillan declined a peerage on leaving office, but over 20 years after retiring he accepted a second offer of the customary hereditary earldom for retiring Prime Ministers, as Earl of Stockton (1984); this was the last earldom to be offered outside the Royal Family. While David Lloyd George also waited a similar period for his earldom, most offers have been made and accepted shortly after retirement such as the Earls of Oxford and Asquith, Baldwin, Attlee and Avon.


title: Life peer

text: Many Cabinet members, including Chancellors of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretaries, Home Secretaries and Defence Secretaries, retiring since 1958 have generally been created life peers. William Whitelaw was created a hereditary viscount on the recommendation of Margaret Thatcher. Viscount Whitelaw died without male issue.


title: Life peer

text: Life peerages have generally been granted to Speakers of the House of Commons upon retirement since 1971, who sit as crossbenchers. (Previously, retiring Speakers had by custom received a hereditary peerage between 1780 and 1970, usually a viscountcy.) George Thomas was the only Speaker after 1971 who still received a hereditary peerage instead of a life peerage, being created Viscount Tonypandy, but he died without male issue.


title: Life peer

text: The convention was broken in 2020 when retiring Speaker John Bercow was not granted a life peerage, the first denial of a peerage to a former Speaker in over 200 years. At the time, Bercow was under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards regarding allegations of bullying, with the government claiming that Bercow would fail a "propriety test" conducted for all nominees. Unusually, Bercow was nominated for a peerage by then-Leader of the Opposition and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.


title: Life peer

text: The Prime Minister continues to recommend a small number of former public office-holders for peerages. This generally includes Chiefs of Defence Staff, Secretaries of the Cabinet, and Heads of the Diplomatic Service. Every Archbishop of Canterbury who has retired since 1958 has been created a life peer, as have most recent Archbishops of York on retirement. A small number of other bishops—such as David Sheppard of Liverpool and Richard Harries of Oxford—were ennobled on retiring. The Lord Chamberlain is traditionally a member of the House of Lords and so is ennobled on appointment (if not already a peer), while most retiring Private Secretaries to the Queen and Governors of the Bank of England have also become peers.


title: Life peer

text: High judicial officers have sometimes been created life peers upon taking office. All Lord Chief Justices of England and Wales have, since 1958, been created life peers under the Life Peerages Act, with the exception of Lord Woolf, who was already a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary before becoming Lord Chief Justice. Similarly, Lord Reed was created a life peer in 2019 when he was appointed President of the Supreme Court, all of his predecessors in that role having already been created life peers as former Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.


title: Life peer

text: Life peerages may in certain cases be awarded to hereditary peers. After the House of Lords Act 1999 passed, several hereditary peers of the first creation, who had not inherited their titles but would still be excluded from the House of Lords by the Act, were created life peers: Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington; Frederick James Erroll, 1st Baron Erroll of Hale; Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford and 1st Baron Pakenham; and Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon. None of the peers of the first creation who were members of the Royal Family was granted a life peerage, as they had all declined. Life peerages were also granted to former Leaders of the House of Lords, including John Julian Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead; Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington; Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury (better known as Viscount Cranborne and Lord Cecil of Essendon, having attended the Lords by virtue of a writ of acceleration); George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe; Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd; and David Hennessy, 3rd Baron Windlesham.


title: Life peer

text: As part of the celebrations to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Life Peerages Act, Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn was voted by the members of the House of Lords at the time as the outstanding life peer since the creation of the life peerage.


title: Life peer

text: there are 654 life peers eligible to vote in the House of Lords. This includes 212 Conservative, 164 Labour, 80 Liberal Democrat and 150 crossbench peers. There are also 10 others representing 4 other parties, 34 non-affiliated, 3 peers labelling themselves as "Independent" but close to a party, and the Lord Speaker. In addition, there are about 70 life peers who have retired from the House of Lords since 2010, as well as several who are otherwise ineligible to vote or removed for non-attendance.


title: Life peer

text: The Appellate Jurisdiction Act originally provided for the appointment of two Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who would continue to serve while holding judicial office, though in 1887, they were permitted to continue to sit in the House of Lords for life, under the style and dignity of baron. The number of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary was increased from time to time – to three in 1882, to four in 1891, to six in 1913, to seven in 1919, to nine in 1947, to 11 in 1968 and to 12 in 1994. These provisions were repealed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 which created the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. That Act also provided that holders of judicial offices, including Justice of the Supreme Court, who are for that reason disqualified from the House of Commons or the Northern Ireland Assembly, are now also disqualified from taking up their seats in the House of Lords if they are peers (as the former Law Lords all were).


title: Life peer

text: The rate of creation of life peerages under the Life Peerages Act has been fluctuating, with a high rate being most common right after a new party is elected to government. Consequently, David Cameron and Tony Blair have created life peerages at high rates, at 40.5 and 35.7 peerages per year respectively.


title: Life peer

text: Conservative Prime Ministers have created on average 21 life peers per year in office, Labour Prime Ministers an average of 27 per year. In absolute terms, the Conservatives (in 40 years) have created slightly more (853 out of 1504, as of June 2022) life peerages than Labour (651 in 24 years); in addition, the vast majority (61) of the 68 non-royal "hereditary" peerages created since 1958 were created under Conservative Prime Ministers (especially Macmillan). Only three non-royal hereditary peerages have been created since 1965 (all under Thatcher), and none since 1984.


title: Life peer

text: In 1999, there were 172 Conservative and 160 Labour life peers in the House of Lords, and by 4 January 2010, there were 141 Conservative and 207 Labour life peers in the House of Lords. The hereditary element of the House of Lords, however, was much less balanced. In 1999, for example, immediately before most hereditary peers were removed by the House of Lords Act, there were 350 Conservative hereditary peers, compared with 19 Labour peers and 23 Liberal Democrat peers.


title: Life peer

text: The Peerage Act 1963 allows the holder of an hereditary peerage to disclaim their title for life. There is no such provision for life peers. The Coalition Government's draft proposal for Lords reform in 2011 "provides that a person who holds a life peerage may at any time disclaim that peerage by writing to the Lord Chancellor. The person [and their spouse and children] will be divested of all rights and interests attaching to [that] peerage." This proposal did not become law. In 2014 under the House of Lords Reform Act it became possible for peers to resign from the House of Lords (without disclaiming the peerage).


title: Life peer

text: Most life peers take a title based on their surname, either alone (e.g. Baron Hattersley) or in combination with a placename (known as a territorial designation) to differentiate them from others of the same surname (e.g. Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws). Surnames need not be used at all if desired. Ian Paisley, for example, opted for the title "Lord Bannside", and John Gummer chose the title "Lord Deben". There are also occasions when someone's surname is not appropriate as a title, such as Michael Lord (now "Lord Framlingham") and Michael Bishop (now "Lord Glendonbrook").


title: Life peer

text: The formal style for a life peer is as follows (John Smith and Mary Smith refer to any name; London to any territorial designation):


title: Life peer

text: Life peers are often mistakenly called 'Lord' or 'Lady' before their names (e.g. "Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber") following their ennoblement, but this is incorrect since the correct form should be one of those shown above. Only the daughters of earls, marquesses and dukes, and the younger sons of marquesses and dukes are properly referred to by the courtesy title of Lord or Lady Firstname Lastname, e.g. "Lord Louis Mountbatten", who was referred to as such as the younger son of The Marquess of Milford Haven before his enoblement as the Viscount (later Earl) Mountbatten of Burma.


title: John Bolton

text: John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United States National Security Advisor from 2018 to 2019.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton served as a United States Assistant Attorney General for President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989. He served in the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1989 to 1993, and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs from 2001 to 2005. He was an advocate of the Iraq War as a Director of the Project for the New American Century, which favored going to war with Iraq.


title: John Bolton

text: He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006, as a recess appointee by President George W. Bush. He stepped down at the end of his recess appointment in December 2006 because he was unlikely to win confirmation from the Senate, of which the Democratic Party had gained control at the time. Bolton later served as the National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019. He repeatedly called for the termination of the Iran nuclear deal, from which the U.S. withdrew in May 2018. He wrote a best-selling book about his tenure in the Trump administration, "The Room Where It Happened", published in June 2020.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton is widely considered a foreign policy hawk and is an advocate for military action and regime change by the US in Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen, and North Korea. A member of the Republican Party, his political views have been described as American nationalist, conservative, and neoconservative, although Bolton rejects the last term. He is a former senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Fox News Channel commentator. He was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton was born on November 20, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Virginia Clara "Ginny" (née Godfrey), a housewife, and Edward Jackson "Jack" Bolton, a Baltimore City fireman. He grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Yale Heights, and won a scholarship to the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, graduating in 1966. He also ran the school's Students For Goldwater campaign in 1964.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton attended Yale University, earning a B.A. and graduating "summa cum laude" in 1970. He was a member of the Yale Political Union. He attended Yale Law School from 1971 to 1974, where he shared classes with his friend Clarence Thomas, earning a J.D. in 1974.


title: John Bolton

text: In 1972, Bolton was a summer intern for Vice President Spiro Agnew. He was hired for the position by David Keene.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton was a supporter of the Vietnam War, but avoided combat through a student deferment followed by enlistment in the Maryland Air National Guard. During the 1969 Vietnam War draft lottery, Bolton drew number 185. (Draft numbers were assigned by birth date. Numbers 1 to 195 were eventually called up.) As a result of the Johnson and Nixon administrations' decisions to rely largely on the draft rather than on the reserve forces, joining a Guard or Reserve unit became a way to reduce the chances of service in Vietnam. Before graduating from Yale in 1970, Bolton enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard rather than waiting to find out if his draft number would be called. He attended Active Duty for Training (ADT) at Fort Polk, Louisiana, from July to November 1970. After serving in the National Guard for four years, he served in the United States Army Reserve until the end of his enlistment two years later.


title: John Bolton

text: He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book: "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost." In a 2007 interview, Bolton explained his comment in the reunion book saying his decision to avoid service in Vietnam was because "by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from." In his 2007 book, "Surrender Is Not an Option", Bolton described his perception of the war as a "futile struggle", and that "dying for your country was one thing, but dying to gain territory that antiwar forces in Congress would simply return to the enemy seemed ludicrous to me. Looking back, I am not terribly proud of this calculation..."


title: John Bolton

text: From 1974 to 1981, Bolton was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling; he returned to the firm again from 1983 to 1985. Bolton was also a partner in the law firm of Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus, from 1993 to 1999. He was of counsel in the Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis from 2008 until his appointment as National Security Advisor in 2018. In September 2015, Freedom Capital Investment Management appointed Bolton as a senior advisor.


title: John Bolton

text: During the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, his governmental roles were within the State Department, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He was a protégé of conservative North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms.


title: John Bolton

text: His Justice Department position as an assistant attorney general required him to advance Reagan administration positions, including opposition to financial reparations to Japanese-Americans held in World War II-era internment camps; the insistence on Reagan's executive privilege during William Rehnquist's chief justice confirmation hearings, when Congress asked for memos written by Rehnquist as a Nixon Justice Department official; shepherding the judicial nomination process for Antonin Scalia; and the framing of a bill to control illegal immigration as an essential drug war measure. He was also involved in the Iran–Contra affair.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton worked as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, sworn into this position on May 11, 2001. In this role, a key area of his responsibility was the prevention of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton negotiated so-called "Article 98" agreements with countries to prohibit them from turning Americans over to the International Criminal Court, which is not recognized by the U.S. Bolton said the decision to pull out of the ICC was the "happiest moment" of his political career to date.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton was instrumental in derailing a 2001 biological weapons conference in Geneva convened to endorse a UN proposal to enforce the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. He argued that the plan would have jeopardized U.S. national security by allowing spot inspections of suspected U.S. weapons sites.


title: John Bolton

text: In May 2002, Bolton gave a speech entitled "Beyond the Axis of Evil" in response to President Bush's State of the Union Address (where Bush characterized Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as part of an "Axis of Evil"). Bolton added three more nations to be grouped with the aforementioned rogue states: Cuba, Libya, and Syria. Bolton said they were all "state sponsors of terrorism that are pursuing or who have the potential to pursue weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or have the capability to do so in violation of their treaty obligations." During his time as Under Secretary of State, Bolton "sought to block, and often succeeded in sabotaging" the negotiations that Secretary of State Colin Powell had conducted with North Korea.


title: John Bolton

text: Also in 2002, Bolton is said to have flown to Europe to demand the resignation of Brazilian José Bustani, head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and to have orchestrated his removal at a special session of the organization. Bustani was deemed to be an obstacle in creating the case for the invasion of Iraq. The United Nations' highest administrative tribunal later condemned the action as an "unacceptable violation" of principles protecting international civil servants. Bustani had been unanimously re-elected for a four-year term—with strong U.S. support—in May 2000, and in 2001 was praised for his leadership by Colin Powell. According to Bustani, John Bolton demanded that he step down in 24 hours, adding, "We know where your children are."


title: John Bolton

text: He also pushed for reduced funding for the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program to halt the proliferation of nuclear materials. At the same time, he was involved in the implementation of the Proliferation Security Initiative, working with a number of countries to intercept the trafficking in weapons of mass destruction and in materials for use in building nuclear weapons.


title: John Bolton

text: According to an article in "The New Republic", Bolton was highly successful in pushing his agenda, but his bluntness made him many enemies. "Iran's Foreign Ministry has called Bolton 'rude' and 'undiplomatic'." In response to critics, Bolton says his record "demonstrates clear support for effective multilateral diplomacy." Bush administration officials have stated that his past statements would allow him to negotiate from a powerful position. "It's like the Palestinians' having to negotiate with <nowiki>[</nowiki>Israeli Prime Minister<nowiki>]</nowiki> Ariel Sharon. If you have a deal, you know you have a deal," an anonymous official told CNN. He also "won widespread praise for his work establishing the Proliferation Security Initiative, a voluntary agreement supported (at the time) by 60 countries".


title: John Bolton

text: In July 2022, during an interview with CNN reporter Jake Tapper, denying that President Donald Trump's involvement in the


title: John Bolton

text: January 6 United States Capitol attack amounted to an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government, Bolton admitted to his personal involvement in planning unspecified "coups d'état" in foreign countries.


title: John Bolton

text: According to Reuters, "it is highly unusual for U.S. officials to openly acknowledge their role in stoking unrest in foreign countries."


title: John Bolton

text: In 2002, Bolton delivered a speech at the Heritage Foundation where he accused Cuba of having a secret biological weapons program, and of collaborating with Libya and Iran. Bolton asserted, "The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states." Bolton made the remarks a week before former President Jimmy Carter was scheduled to meet Fidel Castro in Cuba, becoming the first U.S. president since the Cuban Revolution to visit Cuba in an effort to build bridges between the two countries.


title: John Bolton

text: The State Department's chief bioweapons analyst refused to approve the accusation made in the speech, telling Bolton that the State Department did not have evidence to substantiate Bolton's accusation. Subsequently, Bolton berated the analyst, unsuccessfully sought to fire him, began to exclude the analyst's supervisor from meetings, and tried to transfer the analyst to a different office. Bolton was also alleged to have sought to punish other intelligence officers who refused to endorse his claims about Cuba. Paul Pillar described Bolton's attempts to get the intelligence community to endorse his views as among the most egregious recent instances of "arm-twisting" the intelligence community, while Columbia University international relations scholar Richard K. Betts described the reports about Bolton's pressure as "most blatant top-down pressure on intelligence" in the Bush administration. Bolton claims the issue was procedural rather than related to the content of his speech and that the officers, who did not work under him, behaved unprofessionally.


title: John Bolton

text: In April 2004, Bolton again accused Cuba of being a "terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States." Experts at the time disputed the veracity of Bolton's claims, saying the evidence in support of the claim was weak. In September 2004 and in the wake of the failure to locate WMDs in Iraq, the Bush administration backed off claims that Cuba had an active biological weapons program.


title: John Bolton

text: Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman alleged that Bolton played a role in encouraging the inclusion of the statement that British Intelligence had determined Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address. These statements were claimed by critics of the President to be partly based on documents found to be forged. Waxman's allegations could not be confirmed, as they were based on classified documents.


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton stated in June 2004 congressional testimony that Iran was lying about enriched uranium contamination: "Another unmistakable indicator of Iran's intentions is the pattern of repeatedly lying to ... the IAEA ... when evidence of uranium enriched to 36 percent was found, it attributed this to contamination from imported centrifuge parts." However, later isotope analysis supported Iran's explanation of foreign contamination for most of the observed enriched uranium. At their August 2005 meeting the IAEA's Board of Governors concluded: "Based on the information currently available to the Agency, the results of that analysis tend, on balance, to support Iran's statement about the foreign origin of most of the observed HEU [highly enriched uranium] contamination."


title: John Bolton

text: Bolton has often been accused of attempting to pressure the intelligence community to endorse his views. According to former coworkers, Bolton withheld information that ran counter to his goals from Secretary of State Colin Powell on multiple occasions, and from Powell's successor Condoleezza Rice on at least one occasion.


title: John Bolton

text: On March 7, 2005, Bolton was nominated to the post of United States Ambassador to the United Nations by President George W. Bush. As a result of a Democratic filibuster, he was recess-appointed to the post on August 1, 2005. Bolton's nomination received strong support from Republicans but faced heavy opposition from Democrats due initially to concerns about his strongly expressed views on the United Nations.


title: John Bolton

text: Holding a 10–8 majority in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (tasked with vetting ambassadorial nominees), the Republican leadership hoped to send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate with a positive recommendation. Concern among some Republicans on the committee, however, prompted the leadership to avoid losing such a motion and instead to send the nomination forward with no recommendation. In the full Senate, Republican support for the nomination remained uncertain, with the most vocal Republican critic, Ohio Senator George V. Voinovich, circulating a letter urging his Republican colleagues to oppose the nomination. Democrats insisted that a vote on the nomination was premature, given the resistance of the White House to share classified documents related to Bolton's alleged actions. The Republican leadership moved on two occasions to end debate, but because a supermajority of 60 votes is needed to end debate, the leadership was unable to muster the required votes with only a 55–44 majority in the body. An earlier agreement between moderates in both parties to prevent filibustering of nominees was interpreted by the Democrats to relate only to judicial nominees, not ambassadorships, although the leader of the effort, Sen. John McCain, said the spirit of the agreement was to include all nominees.


title: John Bolton

text: On November 9, 2006, Bush, only days after losing both houses to a Democratic majority, sent the nomination for Bolton to continue as representative for the United States at the UN. He said: "I believe that the leaders of both political parties must try to work through our differences. And I believe we will be able to work through differences. I reassured the House and Senate leaders that I intend to work with the new Congress in a bipartisan way to address issues confronting this country."


title: John Bolton

text: On April 11, 2005, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reviewed Bolton's qualifications. Bolton said he and his colleagues "view the U.N. as an important component of our diplomacy" and will work to solve its problems and enhance its strengths, echoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's words from a month earlier.


title: John Bolton

text: On the first day of the hearings, Republican committee chairman Richard Lugar criticized Bolton for ignoring the "policy consequences" of his statements, saying diplomatic speech "should never be undertaken simply to score international debating points to appeal to segments of the U.S. public opinion or to validate a personal point of view." The committee's top Democrat, Joe Biden, compared sending Bolton to the UN to sending a "bull into a china shop," and expressed "grave concern" about Bolton's "diplomatic temperament" and his record: "In my judgment, your judgment about how to deal with the emerging threats have not been particularly useful," Biden said. Republican Senator George Allen said Bolton had the "experience," "knowledge," "background," "and the right principles to come into the United Nations at this time," calling him "the absolute perfect person for the job." Democratic Senator Russ Feingold asked Bolton about what he would have done had the Rwandan genocide occurred while he was ambassador to the United Nations, and criticized his answer—which focused on logistics—as "amazingly passive."


title: John Bolton

text: On the second day, April 12, 2005, the Senate panel focused on allegations discussed above that Bolton pressured intelligence analysts. Calling Bolton a "serial abuser", former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. said, "I've never seen anybody quite like Secretary Bolton... I don't have a second, third or fourth in terms of the way that he abuses his power and authority with little people." Ford contradicted Bolton's earlier testimony, saying: "I had been asked for the first time to fire an intelligence analyst for what he had said and done." Ford also characterized Bolton as a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy", implying that he was always ready to please whoever had authority over him, while having very little regard for people working under him.


title: John Bolton

text: Lugar, who criticized Bolton at his April 11 hearing, said the "paramount issue" was supporting Bush's nominee. He conceded that "bluntness... may be required", even though it is not "very good diplomacy". Chafee, the key member for Bolton's approval, said "the bar is very high" for rejecting the president's nominees, suggesting that Bolton would make it to the Senate.


title: John Bolton

text: On April 19, Democrats, with support from Voinovich, forced Lugar to delay the committee vote on Bolton's nomination until May. The debate concerning his nomination raged in the Senate prior to the Memorial Day recess. Two other Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, Chafee and Chuck Hagel, also expressed serious concerns about the Bolton nomination. Asked on April 20 if he was now less inclined to support the nomination, Chafee said, "That would be accurate." He elaborated that Bolton's prospects were "hard to predict" but said he expected that "the administration is really going to put some pressure on Senator Voinovich. Then it comes to the rest of us [who] have had some reservations."