title: Leslie Howard

text: Howard was not only an accomplished actor on stage and screen, he appeared many times on radio as well. Howard began his career on radio in the early 1930s when he performed dramatic readings for "The Yardley Program." Not much is known about the programme because the recordings have been lost, but references to the show can be found in fan magazines of the time and the show is listed in "The New York Times" radio programme guide. Howard was also a guest performer on such shows as "The Rudy Vallee Show/Fleischmann's Yeast Hour", "Lux Radio Theatre", "The Silver Theatre", "The Magic Key of RCA", "Your Hit Parade" and "Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby".


title: Leslie Howard

text: In May, 1935, Leslie Howard and his daughter, Leslie Ruth Howard, aged 10, appeared on "The Rudy Vallee Show/Fleischmann's Yeast Hour" in "The Enchanted Forest" scene from James M. Barrie's "Dear Brutus." The show was so popular with audiences that for the first time in the show's history an encore was performed six weeks later on 27 June 1935. That show survives and can be heard on the Old Time Radio Library's website.


title: Leslie Howard

text: At the end of 1936 Howard began appearing as a guest on "Eddie Cantor's Texaco Town." It took six months and three appearances before he and Cantor finally delivered the punchline in the skit "Three Pairs of Rubbers." Howard's appearances were not limited to guest spots. Beginning in October 1935 and into the spring of 1936 Howard had his own show on CBS. It was a serial titled "The Amateur Gentleman". The show eventually became "Leslie Howard's Matinee" with each week bringing a new adapted play popular at the time to radio listeners. Howard also appeared in "Columbia Presents Shakespeare" as Benedick in the play "Much Ado About Nothing" with Rosalind Russell in the summer of 1937. Howard produced two shows for "Lux Radio Theatre: Lady for A Day", starring May Robson and Guy Kibbee, and "The Life of Emile Zola", starring Paul Muni and Josephine Hutchinson.


title: Leslie Howard

text: His last known radio appearance in the United States before returning to Britain to help with the war effort was the "Radio Tribute to the King and Queen" in which dozens of British stars performed skits while King King George VI and Queen Elizabeth listened with President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt from Hyde Park. Howard's appearances on the BBC's "Britain Speaks" were broadcast to the United States from 16 July 1940, after the onset of the Second World War, urging America to enter the war in support of Britain. By January 1941 Howard had completed 27 broadcasts of "Britain Speaks". Howard also appeared on a panel programme for the BBC called "The Brains Trust".


title: Leslie Howard

text: Unfortunately, most of Howard's radio broadcasts have been lost, but a few have survived for the enjoyment of audiences today.


title: Leslie Howard

text: The late Hongkongese singer and actor, Leslie Cheung(Chinese: 張國榮), adopted Leslie as his first name out of his admiration of Howard.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1966) is an American attorney who is the eighth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving since 2017. From 2003 to 2005, Wray served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division in George W. Bush's administration. From 2005 to 2016, he was a litigation partner with the law firm King & Spalding.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Christopher Asher Wray was born in New York City, New York. His father, Cecil A. Wray Jr., was a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Yale Law School, who worked as a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. His paternal grandfather, T. Cecil Wray, was the city manager of Brentwood, Tennessee from 1971 to 1973. His paternal great-grandfather, Taylor Malone, was also a Vanderbilt University graduate, and the co-founder and president of Malone & Hyde, "one of the South's largest wholesale grocery firms." His maternal grandfather, Samuel E. Gates, "helped shape the laws that govern national and international airline flights" as an official of the Bureau of Air Commerce.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Wray attended the private Buckley School in New York City and the private boarding school Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Wray then attended Yale University from which he graduated "cum laude" with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in philosophy in 1989, and earned his Juris Doctor in 1992 from Yale Law School. While at Yale Law, Wray was the Executive Editor of the "Yale Law Journal". After graduating from law school, Wray spent a year clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Wray joined the government in 1997 as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. In 2001, he moved to the Justice Department as associate deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On June 9, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Wray to be the 33rd Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Wray was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 11, 2003. Wray was Assistant Attorney General from 2003 to 2005, working under Deputy Attorney General James Comey. While heading the Criminal Division, Wray oversaw prominent fraud investigations, including Enron. In 2013, it was revealed that Wray was one of the senior Justice Dept officials who nearly resigned in 2004, alongside then FBI Director Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General James Comey, due to illegal surveillance techniques the Bush administration had put in place under the Terrorist Surveillance Program. In March 2005, Wray announced that he would resign from his post. His last day at the Justice Department was on May 17, 2005.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: In 2005, Wray received the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the Justice Department's highest award for public service and leadership.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Wray joined King & Spalding in 2005 as a litigation partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., and Atlanta offices. Wray represented several Fortune 100 companies and chaired the King & Spalding Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice Group. During his time at King & Spalding, Wray acted as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's personal attorney during the Bridgegate scandal. Wray's firm also represents Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, an issue which came under contention during the confirmation process for position of FBI Director.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Wray to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing James Comey, who was dismissed by Trump on May 9, 2017. Trump interviewed Wray for the vacant FBI Director job on May 30, 2017, according to then Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Wray's Senate confirmation hearing commenced on July 12, 2017. Among other testimony, when asked if he believed that the investigation into Russian 2016 election interference and possible links to Trump's campaign is a "witch hunt", he stated that he did not.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On July 20, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended to confirm Wray as the next Director of the FBI. Wray was officially confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support on August 1, 2017; the vote was 92–5. He was sworn in by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a private ceremony on August 2, 2017. Wray was formally sworn in on September 28, 2017, in a ceremony that was not attended by President Trump, marking the first time an FBI director has been sworn in without the President who nominated him present at the ceremony.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On February 13, 2018, in a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing focused on Chinese espionage in the United States, Senator Marco Rubio [R-FL] asked Wray about the risk posed from Chinese students in advanced science and mathematics programs. In response, Wray stated "nontraditional collectors" (which he elaborated to include professors, scientists, and students) are "exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have" and consequently he viewed the risk "as not just a whole of government threat but a whole of society threat". Representatives Judy Chu [D-CA], Ted Lieu [D-CA], and Grace Meng [D-NY] released statements criticizing Wray's response as "irresponsible generalizations" implying that all Chinese students and scholars were spies. A coalition of Asian American advocacy groups wrote an open letter to Wray asking for a dialogue "to discuss how well-intentioned public policies might nonetheless lead to troubling issues of potential bias, racial profiling, and wrongful prosecution". In a follow-up interview with NBC, Wray stood by his earlier remarks, elaborating that "To be clear, we do not open investigations based on race, or ethnicity, or national origin. But when we open investigations into economic espionage, time and time again, they keep leading back to China."


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On December 9, 2019, Wray was interviewed by ABC News following the release of the DoJ inspector general's report on the origins of the Russia investigation. In the interview, when asked about characterizations of the FBI and its agents as the "deep state", Wray responded: "I think that's the kind of label that's a disservice to the men and women who work at the FBI who I think tackle their jobs with professionalism, with rigor, with objectivity, with courage. So that's not a term I would ever use to describe our work force and I think it's an affront to them." He said he did not believe the Trump campaign was unfairly targeted by the FBI probe. He also denied that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential elections, stating "We have no information that indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election" and "as far as the [2020] election itself goes, we think Russia represents the most significant threat." This led Trump to criticize Wray the following day, claiming that Wray would "never be able to fix the FBI."


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: In January 2020, Senator Chris Murphy wrote to Wray, urging the FBI to "investigate the allegations" that Saudi Arabia "illegally compromised and stole personal data" from Jeff Bezos, the owner of "The Washington Post", as part of a possible effort to "influence, if not silence, the Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia".


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: In April 2020, President Trump considered ousting Wray and replacing him with William Evanina but when Attorney General William Barr threatened to resign, Trump backed down.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: In May 2020, Wray ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the FBI's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On June 4, 2020, Wray stated that "anarchists" like antifa are "exploiting" George Floyd protests "to pursue violent, extremist agendas". Wray later clarified that antifa is an ideology rather than any specific organization, clashing with Trump.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: In July 2020, Wray called People's Republic of China the "greatest long-term threat" to the United States. He said that "the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours. Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases currently under way across the country, almost half are related to China." Wray cited the Anthem medical data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 78 million people and the 2017 Equifax data breach that impacted more than 145 million Americans. Wray argued China was trying to become the world's only superpower, supplanting the United States.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On October 28, 2020, the FBI Agents Association released a letter addressed to both Trump and Joe Biden requesting Wray remain Director of the FBI for the 10-year term.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On December 2, 2020, a member of then-president-elect Biden's transition team announced that if Wray was not fired or removed from his position by President Trump, then he would remain as the Director of the FBI.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: On March 2, 2021, Wray gave testimony in Senate hearings about the extremism that led to the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol in which he condemned the attack on the U.S. Capitol and argued that it was a case of domestic terrorism.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: Wray married Helen Garrison Howell, a Yale classmate, in 1989. They have a son, Trip, and a daughter, Caroline, and live in Georgia.


title: Christopher A. Wray

text: From January 2016 to July 2017, the month of his confirmation, Wray earned $9.2 million working as an attorney for the law firm King & Spalding, significantly more than his salary as FBI Director. According to a calculation from "The Wall Street Journal", Wray's net worth in 2017 was estimated to be $23 million to $42 million.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engined attack helicopter that was developed on behalf of, and primarily operated by, the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The twin Cobra family, itself part of the larger Huey family, includes the AH-1J SeaCobra, the AH-1T Improved SeaCobra, and the AH-1W SuperCobra.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The Super Cobra was derived from the single-engined AH-1 Cobra, which had been developed during the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army. The USMC had quickly taken an interest in the type, but sought a twin-engined arrangement for greater operational safety at sea, along with more capable armaments. While initially opposed by the Department of Defense, who were keen to promote commonality across the services, in May 1968, an order for an initial 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras was issued to Bell. The type entered service during the final months of the US's involvement in the Vietnam War, seeing limited action in the theatre as a result.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The USMC promptly sought greater payload capacity than that provided by the original Sea Cobra; thus the AH-1T, equipped with the dynamic systems of the Model 309 and a lengthened fuselage, was produced by Bell during the 1970s. In the following decade, in response to the denial of funding to procure the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the USMC opted to procure a more capable variant of the AH-1T; equipped with revised fire control systems compatible with new munitions, such as the AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile, the new model, designated AH-1W, commenced delivery in 1986. Seeking to further develop the type, Bell opted to develop the extensively redesigned and modernised Bell AH-1Z Viper during the 1990s and 2000s.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The Sea Cobra was involved in multiple major operations during the latter half of the twentieth century, such as during the United States invasion of Grenada in 1983. During the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s, Iranian Sea Cobras were intensely used, proving itself to be capable in both anti-armor and anti-aircraft warfare. Turkey, who operated numerous Cobras and Super Cobras, used the type on multiple occasions against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgents. On numerous occasions in the 1990s, USMC AH-1s were deployed during the Gulf War of the early 1990s, as well as for the United States invasion of Haiti in 1994, and the US intervention in the Yugoslav Wars in the late 1990s. In the twenty-first century, the type also saw action in the multi-decade War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During October 2020, the USMC withdrew the last of its AH-1Ws in favour of exclusively operating the AH-1Z.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the Lycoming T53 turboshaft engine of the prolific UH-1 "Huey" utility helicopter. By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Between 1967 and 1973, Bell manufactured 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army; these Cobras chalked up in excess of one million operational hours in the Vietnam theatre.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The U.S. Marine Corps became particularly interested in the AH-1G Cobra, but expressed its preference for a twin-engined configuration that would provide improved safety in over-water operations. Furthermore, the service also sought a more potent turret-mounted weapon. Initially, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra in the belief that commonality with the Army's AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine arrangement. However, the Marines won out; thus, during May 1968, Bell received a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras. The AH-1J was also equipped with a more powerful gun turret in the form of the three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon, which was based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon. As an interim measure, the U.S. Army transferred 38 AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the 1970s, the Marine Corps requested greater load carrying capability in high temperatures for the Cobra. Bell used systems from its Model 309 to develop a new model, the AH-1T, that was provisioned with a lengthened tailboom and fuselage as well as the upgraded transmission and engines from the Model 309. Bell designed the AH-1T to be more reliable and easier to maintain in the field. The version was given full TOW missile capability with targeting system and other sensors. An advanced version, known as the AH-1T+, that was equipped with more powerful T700-GE-700 engines and advanced avionics, was proposed to Iran in the late 1970s, but the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s resulted in the sale being canceled.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: In the early 1980s, the Marine Corps sought a new navalized helicopter; accordingly, it evaluated the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter over a two week period in September 1981, which included shipboard operation tests. Furthermore, various concepts were studied at this time. However, the service's require for funding to purchase the AH-64 was denied by Congress that same year. As an alternative option, the Marines procured a more powerful version of the AH-1T. Other changes included modified fire control systems to carry and fire AIM-9 Sidewinder and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The new version, which was funded by Congress, received the AH-1W designation. During March 1986, deliveries of the AH-1W SuperCobra commenced, eventually totaling 179 new-built helicopters along with the upgrading of 43 existing AH-1Ts.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the late 1990s, Bell was negotiating to acquire the Romanian state-managed helicopter manufacturer IAR Brașov with the intention of establishing an overseas production line for the AH-1W for multiple export customers. In May 1997, the company signed an agreement with the Romanian State Ownership Fund to buy the government's 70 percent stake in IAR Brașov. However, during November 1999, following protracted negotiations, Bell announced that it had abandoned its acquisition efforts, and thus the overseas production initiative, after the Romanian government had allegedly ceased responding to its proposals.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The AH-1T+ demonstrator and AH-1W prototype were later tested with a new experimental composite four-blade main rotor system. The new configuration offered better performance, reduced noise, and improved battle damage tolerance. Lacking a USMC contract, Bell developed this new design into the AH-1Z with its own funds. By 1996, the Marines were again prevented from ordering the AH-64. Developing a marine version of the Apache would have been expensive and it was likely that the Marine Corps would be its only customer. Instead, the service signed a contract for the upgrading of AH-1Ws into AH-1Zs.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The Bell AH-1Z Viper retained much of the AH-1W's design, but also features several major changes. The AH-1Z's two redesigned wing stubs are longer with each adding a wingtip station for a missile such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Each wing has two other stations for 70 mm (2.75 in) Hydra rocket pods, or AGM-114 Hellfire quad missile launcher. The Longbow radar can be mounted on a wingtip station. During October 2020, the last AH-1Ws were phased out of service with the Marine Corps in favour of the AH-1Z.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the closing months of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps embarked the AH-1J SeaCobra assigned to HMA-369 (now HMLA-369) aboard , , and later , for sea-based interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in North Vietnam in the vicinity of Hon La (Tiger) Island. These were termed Marine Hunter-Killer (MARHUK) Operations and lasted from June to December 1972. As such, the type participated in the final American combat operations in Vietnam. Several AH-1Js were present to cover the evacuation of the US Embassy in Saigon in April 1975.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During 1983, Marine Cobras took part in the invasion of Grenada. They were typically used to perform close air support and helicopter escort missions; a total of two AH-1Ts were shot down and three crew members killed. That same year, Marine AH-1s were also deployed off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon, amid the Lebanese civil war in support of the Multinational Peacekeeping Force. In this theatre, the AH-1s were typically armed with Sidewinder missiles and guns, which were intended to be used as an emergency air defense measure to counter the threat of light civil aircraft being piloted by suicide bombers.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the mid 1980s, the AH-1W variant entered service with the USMC. Between, 1986 to 1999, the service took delivery of 179 Super Cobras.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: In the late 1980s, in response to the Tanker War of the wider Iran–Iraq War, USMC Cobras were dispatched for Operation Earnest Will in the Persian Gulf to escort shipping and deter attacks upon them. It was during these missions that Cobras sank three Iranian patrol boats while losing a single AH-1T to Iranian anti-aircraft fire. USMC Cobras from flew "top cover" during an evacuation of U.S. and other foreign citizens from Liberia in 1990.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the Gulf War, 78 Marine SuperCobras were deployed, flying a total of 1,273 sorties in Iraq. While no combat losses were reportedly incurred, three AH-1s were lost to accidents either during and after the combat operations. The AH-1W units were credited with destroying 97 tanks, 104 armored personnel carriers and vehicles, and two anti-aircraft artillery sites during the 100-hour ground campaign.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: USMC Cobras were also used in various other operations throughout the 1990s. The type provided support for the U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia, Operation Restore Hope, during 1992–1993. They were also employed during the U.S. invasion of Haiti during 1994. USMC Cobras were used in U.S. military interventions in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s; specifically, two AH-1Ws assisted in the rescue of USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, after his F-16 was shot down by a SAM in June 1995.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the twenty-first century, USMC Cobras participated in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in the conflict in Iraq. While new replacement aircraft were considered as an alternative to major upgrades of the AH-1 fleet, Marine Corps studies showed that an upgrade was the most affordable, most supportable and most effective solution for the Marine Corps light attack helicopter mission.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the opening phase of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, SuperCobras were deployed on the front lines, often flying in hunter-killer teams with Bell UH-1 Iroquois utility helicopters and other coalition aircraft. Reportedly, 46 of the 58 USMC AH-1s deployed sustained battle damage, which was mostly from infantry-type weapons. AH-1Ws were involved in the rescue of Private First Class Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: In late August 2016, Marine AH-1W Cobras flying from started flying combat missions over Sirte, Libya against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Libya, providing close air support for friendly militias on the ground. In the later stages of the operation, AH-1Ws flew combat missions from the deck of after that ship replaced "Wasp" in October 2016.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: In October 2020, the U.S. Marine Corps retired the last of its AH-1Ws after 34 years of service, having replacing the type with the Bell AH-1Z Viper. By the time of their retirement, the model had collectively accumulated 933,614 flight hours.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: In 1971, Iran purchased 202 examples of an improved AH-1J, named "AH-1J International", from the United States. This model featured improvements such as the uprated P&WC T400-WV-402 engine and a strengthened drivetrain. Furthermore, recoil damping gear was fitted to the 20 mm M197 gun turret, while the gunner was provided with a stabilized sight along with a stabilized seat. Of the AH-1Js operated by the Imperial Iranian Army Aviation, 62 were capable of using the TOW missile.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: Iranian AH-1Js participated in the Iran–Iraq War—which saw the most intensive use of helicopters in any conventional war. Iranian AH-1Js (particularly the TOW-capable ones) were "exceptionally effective" in anti-armor warfare, inflicting heavy losses on Iraqi armored and vehicle formations. In operations over the barren terrain in Khuzestan and later in southern Iraq, beside the standard tactics, Iranian pilots developed special, effective tactics, often in the same manner as the Soviets did with their Mi-24s. Due to the post-Revolution weapons sanctions, Iranians had to make do with what was at hand: they equipped the AH-1Js with AGM-65 Maverick missiles and used them with some success in several operations.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: Starting from October 1980, the AH-1Js engaged in air-to-air combat with Iraqi Mil Mi-24 helicopters on several, separate occasions during the Iran–Iraq War. The results of these engagements are disputed. One document cited that Iranian AH-1Js took on Iraqi Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters. Sources report that the Iranian AH-1 pilots achieved a 10:1 kill ratio over the Iraqi helicopter pilots during these engagements (1:5). Additionally, one source states that ten Iranian AH-1Js were lost in the war, compared to six Iraqi Mi-24s lost. The skirmishes are described as fairly evenly matched in another source. The Mi-24 was faster and more powerful, but the AH-1J was more agile. There were even engagements between Iranian AH-1Js and Iraqi fixed-wing aircraft. The AH-1Js scored three confirmed kills against MiG-21s, claimed a Su-20, and shared in the destruction of a MiG-23—all using their 20 mm M197 cannon.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During early 1984, an Iranian AH-1J Sea Cobra was shot down by an Iraqi Pilatus PC-7 during Operation Kheibar (Iranian pilots Reza Moghadam and Mohammad Yazdi were rescued). About half of the AH-1Js were lost during the conflict to combat, accidents, and simple wear and tear. Ali Akbar Shiroodi and Ahmad Keshvari were two distinguished Iranian Cobra pilots during Iran-Iraq War and are considered wartime heroes in Iran. During 1988, two Soviet MiG-23s shot down a pair of Iranian AH-1Js that had strayed into western Afghan airspace.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: Into the twenty-first century, Iranian AH-1Js remain in service with the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Aviation and have undergone indigenous upgrade programs. By the 2020s, there was an increasing expectation that, amid a combination of factors such as accumulated fatigue, increasingly outdated capabilities, and a shortage of spare components, Iran will probably seek to replace its AH-1Js before too long, possibly with Russian-sourced Mi-24s.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During 1984, Taiwan announced its requirement for attack helicopters; it subsequently evaluated the MBB Bo 105 and MD 500 helicopters. The requirement resulted in an order for 42 AH-1W SuperCobras being placed during 1992. Deliveries of this batch ran from 1993 to 1997. During 1997, it was announced that an additional 21 AH-1Ws had been ordered. The Ministry of National Defense assigned the helicopters to the ROC Army Aviation Training Centre and a pair of Army Aviation attack helicopter brigades. During the 2010s, Taiwan began supplementing its SuperCobras with 30 newly-purchased AH-64Es. Into the 2020s, Taiwan continues to operate its SuperCobras; during January 2021, a NT$339.24 million (US$11.91 million) contract with the US was signed for the provision of technical support and spare parts the AH-1W fleet through to September 2027.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During the early 1990s, Turkey bought ten AH-1W SuperCobras; these were supplemented by 32 ex-US Army AH-1 Cobras. The sale was politically controversial in the United States; in April 1996, the purchase of ten additional AH-1Ws by Turkey was blocked by the Clinton administration. During late 2011, Turkey requested the purchase of three AH-1Ws from the USMC inventory.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: The AH-1s have been repeatedly used in combat against Kurdistan Workers' Party ("PKK") insurgents. On 13 May 2016, PKK militants shot down a Turkish Army AH-1W SuperCobra using a 9K38 Igla (SA-18 Grouse) MANPADS; in the published video, the missile severed the tail section from the rest of the helicopter, causing it to spin, fragment in midair and crash, killing the two pilots on board. The Turkish government initially stated that it had descended due to technical failure, though it later became clear that the helicopter had been shot down. Amid the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, Turkish Cobras were alleged to have fired upon several police vehicles.


title: Bell AH-1 SuperCobra

text: During April 2022, all of the Turkish Army's remaining AH-1Ws were transferred to the Turkish Navy; they are the first type of attack helicopter to be operated by the service. Being already appropriately suited to maritime operations, the AH-1Ws are to be used onboard TCG Anadolu amphibious assault ship; as such, the type has been speculated to have displaced a planned navalised version of the indigenously-built TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK attack helicopter.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Liaoning (16; ) is a Chinese Type 001 aircraft carrier. The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force, she was originally classified as a training ship, intended to allow the Navy to experiment, train and gain familiarity with aircraft carrier operations. Following upgrades and additional training in late 2018, Chinese state media announced that the ship would shift to a combat role in 2019.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Originally laid down in 1985 for the Soviet Navy as the aircraft carrier Riga, she was launched on 4 December 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, construction was halted and the ship was put up for sale by Ukraine. The stripped hulk was purchased in 1998 and towed to the Dalian naval shipyard in northeast China.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The ship was rebuilt and commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) as "Liaoning" on 25 September 2012. Its Chinese ship class designation is Type 001. In November 2016, the political commissar of "Liaoning", Commodore Li Dongyou, stated that "Liaoning" was combat-ready.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The "Kuznetsov"-class ships were originally designated by the Soviet Navy as "" ("tyazholiy avianesushchiy kreyser", TAKR or TAVKR), meaning "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". In addition to aircraft, the ships were designed to carry P-700 Granit anti-ship cruise missiles that also form the main armament of the s. This multirole capability allowed the ships to avoid classification as aircraft carriers, thus allowing them to pass through the Turkish Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Under the Montreux Convention, aircraft carriers larger than 15,000 tons are not permitted to pass through the Straits, but there is no displacement limit on other types of capital ships from Black Sea powers.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In contrast, the People's Liberation Army Navy considers "Liaoning" to be an aircraft carrier. Since China is not located on the Black Sea and thus not considered a Black Sea power under the Montreux Convention, it does not need and cannot use the tonnage exemption for non-aircraft carrier capital ships. The ship was completed as an aircraft carrier, and cruise missiles were never installed. "Liaoning" is equipped only with air defense weapons and must use its aircraft for a surface attack.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The ship was laid down as "Riga" at Shipyard 444 (now Mykolaiv South) in Mykolaiv, Ukrainian SSR, on 6 December 1985. Design work was undertaken by the "Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau". Launched on 4 December 1988, the carrier was renamed "Varyag" in late 1990, after a previous similarly named cruiser launched in 1899. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the ship was only 68% complete. Construction was halted, and the ship was put up for sale. The name "Varyag" was then adopted by another cruiser launched in 1983.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Ukraine approached China, India, and Russia as potential buyers. China sent a high-level delegation in 1992, which reported that the ship was in good condition and recommended a purchase. However, the Chinese government declined to purchase the ship because of the international diplomatic situation at the time. Unable to find a buyer, Ukraine left the ship to deteriorate in the elements.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In 1998, the rusting hulk was sold at auction for $20 million to Agencia Turistica E Diversoes Chong Lot Limitada, a company from Macau. Chong Lot proposed to tow "Varyag" to Macau under pretenses of conversion into a $200 million floating hotel and casino; Western observers were suspicious of the deal since Chong Lot had no listed telephone number, was not located at its listed address, and was run by former officers in the Chinese Navy. Officials in Macau also denied Chong Lot's application to operate a casino. However, analysts noted that "Varyag" had deteriorated too much to be used as an operational warship and pointed out that the Chinese Navy was concentrating on submarines. The Soviet carriers and had also been sold to China as tourist attractions.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In January 2015, further details emerged in an interview with Hong Kong-based businessman Xu Zengping by the "South China Morning Post". Xu, a former military basketball player, reported that he had been commissioned by the PLAN to purchase the vessel on its behalf, with the floating hotel and casino as a cover story. He was warned that the Chinese Navy did not have the budget to buy the ship, and the Chinese government did not support the purchase. However, Xu was so impressed when touring the ship that he resolved to purchase it using his personal funds. The previous year, Xu had borrowed HK$230 million from a Hong Kong business friend, spending HK$6 million to create Chong Lot as a Macau shell corporation. He described a harrowing negotiation in Kyiv, lubricated by bribery and liquor, which helped to arrange victory at the auction. As a precaution, he shipped 40 tonnes of the carrier's blueprints to China overland in eight trucks.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The passage from Ukraine to China was even more troublesome than the purchase. In June 2000, "Varyag" was taken under tow. As the tugboat approached the Bosphorus, Turkey denied permission for the ship to pass through, citing the risk that a gust of wind would turn the ship widthwise and block the entire strait. "Varyag" spent the next 16 months being towed around the Black Sea, accruing towing charges of $8,500 a day as Chong Lot stopped paying its bills. The tugboat operator compared its fate to the Yellow Fleet that was stuck in the Suez Canal for eight years, and French thrillseekers even landed a helicopter on the ship. Meanwhile, Chinese officials negotiated with Turkey, offering trade and tourism concessions.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In August 2001, Turkey relented and agreed to allow the ship to pass. On 1 November 2001, the Bosphorus was cleared of all other traffic as "Varyag" was towed through. On 2 November, "Varyag" also passed through the Dardanelles without incident. On 4 November, "Varyag" was caught in a force 10 gale and broke adrift while passing the Greek island of Skyros. The ship was taken back under tow on 6 November, after one sailor died while attempting to attach the tow lines.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The Suez Canal does not permit passage of "dead" ships – those without an on-board power source – so the hulk was towed through the Strait of Gibraltar, around the Cape of Good Hope, and through the Straits of Malacca at an average speed of across the journey. The tugboat fleet called for supplies en route at Piraeus, Greece; Las Palmas, Canary Islands; Maputo, Mozambique; and Singapore. "Varyag" entered Chinese waters on 20 February 2002, and arrived on 3 March at the Dalian naval shipyard in northeast China. The costs included $25 million to the Ukrainian government for the hull, nearly $500,000 in transit fees, and $5 million for 20 months of towing fees.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Xu Zengping estimated in 2015 that his total out-of-pocket cost was at least US$120 million. He insisted that he had never been reimbursed by the Chinese government, and had spent the last 18 years repaying his debts, in part by selling properties such as his home. A source familiar with the acquisition explained that the naval official, Ji Shengde, who initiated the mission had been in prison because of smuggling.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Contrary to initial reports that the ship had no engines, Xu reported that all four original engines remained intact at the time of purchase, but had been shut down and preserved in grease seals. A refit restored them to working order in 2011.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: 701st Institute was tasked to redesign "Varyag" with Zhu Yingfu (朱英富) and Wu Xiaoguang (吴晓光) were assigned respectively as the general designer and deputy general designer. Wang Zhiguo (王治国) was assigned as the general system engineer, and Yang Lei (杨雷) was assigned the general supervisor. The workload of converting "Varyag" for operational use was equivalent to building ten new destroyers. "Varyag" was moved in June 2005 to a dry dock at Dalian (). Her hull was sandblasted, scaffolding erected, and the ship's island was painted in a red marine primer to treat metal corrosion.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: Observers have noted the installation of Type 348 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar (four arrays) and Sea Eagle radar. The air defence system consists of the Type 1130 CIWS and the HQ-10 missile system. The anti-ship missile tubes would not be used, freeing up internal space for hangar or storage use. Russia has explored similar modifications to her sister ship .


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: On 8 June 2011, General Chen Bingde made the first public acknowledgement of the ship's refit. On 27 July 2011, the Chinese Defence Ministry announced it was refitting the vessel for "scientific research, experiment and training".


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In 2018, "Asia Times" reported that Sun Bo, a general manager of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, had allegedly passed on technical details of "Liaoning" to the Central Intelligence Agency. Sun was a general manager at the Dalian shipyard where the ship's refurbishment was done.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The ship undertook her first sea trials from 10 August 2011 to 15 August 2011. On 29 November 2011 the carrier left port for her second set of trials. The carrier completed her eighth sea trial between 7 and 21 June 2012 and returned to Dalian. In July 2012, the ship set out for the longest trials thus far, 25 days. The carrier completed sea trials in early August 2012 and loaded Shenyang J-15 aircraft and KJ-88, YJ-83K and YJ-91 missiles in preparation for weapons systems trials.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: During sea trials, "Liaoning" experienced a steam burst in the engine compartment which forced the crew to evacuate some parts of the ship, and the ship lost power. The problem was ultimately resolved and power was restored, although the time duration of the problem has not been released by military officials.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: On 23 September 2012, the aircraft carrier was handed over to the PLAN, and was commissioned on 25 September 2012. At the commissioning ceremony, the carrier was officially named "Liaoning", in honour of the province in which she was retrofitted. On 26 December 2012, the "People's Daily" reported that it would take four to five years for "Liaoning" to reach full capacity. As it was a training ship until 2018, "Liaoning" was not assigned to any of China's operational fleets.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: According to geopolitical analysts, China could use "Liaoning" and its future carriers to intimidate other countries that have territorial claims in the South China Sea, as well as extending air control further south of the disputed region. In December 2016 the ship exercised in the Western Pacific, including passing through the Miyako Strait between the Japanese islands of Miyako-jima and Okinawa. On 18 April 2018, Liaoning took part in the navy's live-fire exercises in the South China Sea, involving 76 fighter jets and 48 warships and submarines. The drills came after a large military display presided over by Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping, and were condemned by Taiwan as "military intimidation".


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The Type 001 is built upon the unfinished hull of Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier "Varyag". Unlike Soviet Kuznetsov, the Chinese Type 001 ships are configured solely as aircraft carriers. The cruise missile launchers were never installed, and the launcher base was removed during the refit to incorporate a larger hangar bay. The air-defense system consists of FL-3000N surface-to-air-missiles and the Type 1130 CIWS.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In August 2014, the Chinese-language "Shanghai Morning Post" listed that CNS "Liaoning" would carry 36 aircraft: 24 Shenyang J-15 fighters, six Changhe Z-18F anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters, four Changhe Z-18J airborne early warning helicopters and two Harbin Z-9C rescue helicopters. The Chinese carrier aircraft inventory is similar to a balanced combat and support aircraft approach intended for Soviet aircraft carriers, which supported nuclear submarines, large surface combatants, and land-based strike bombers performing anti-access roles.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: The Soviet lineage has its limitations. The air wing lacks long-range radar and anti-submarine fixed-wing aircraft, needing support from shore-based aircraft such as Tupolev Tu-154 ASW and Shaanxi Y-8 AWACS aircraft. The U.S. Department of Defense noted that J-15s will have below normal range and armament when operating from the carrier, due to limits imposed by the ski-jump takeoff system. The lack of a carrier onboard delivery aircraft like the United States Navy (USN) Grumman C-2 Greyhound also limits logistics capabilities. "Liaoning" would need extensive land-based support to oppose a USN carrier strike group; however, it would be potent against the Vietnam People's Navy and the Philippine Navy. Deficiencies will likely be corrected with future aircraft carriers, which are expected to be larger with conventional takeoff decks and catapult launching for heavier fighters, plus fixed-wing radar and anti-submarine patrol aircraft.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: "Liaoning" is visible on satellite imagery regularly berthed at a large jetty at the Yuchi Naval Base (near Huangdao) in China's Shandong province since 2013; this is reported as its home port.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In August 2018, the "South China Morning Post" reported that "Liaoning" was berthed at Dalian undergoing its first refit since its commissioning in 2012. The radar above "Liaoning"s bridge and the air traffic control at the rear of the island superstructure were noted to have been removed, and scaffolding was also noted around the command center. The refit was completed in January 2019, spending about six months. The ship superstructure was modified with an improved design, and the flight deck was completely stripped and refurbished.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: On 4 November 2012, the People's Liberation Army's website () reported that Shenyang J-15s had performed carrier touch-and-go training. On 25 November 2012, China announced that J-15s had made five successful arrested landings on "Liaoning". In June 2013, a second round of flight tests began on board CNS "Liaoning", with personnel from the fleet air arm of the Brazilian Navy providing carrier training support to the People's Liberation Army Navy Air Force who operate the J-15s.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In August 2014, based on an article from Chinese state media, Western news outlets reported that two pilots had been killed testing jets slated to operate from CNS "Liaoning". Chinese military officials stated such reports were misleading, and clarified that deaths were in fact unrelated with tests on the carrier. The original Chinese article from Xinhua also did not link the deaths with the J-15 nor mention any loss of such aircraft.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: On 5 April 2021, the aircraft carrier "Liaoning", destroyers , , , frigate and supply ship were spotted between Okinawa and Miyako Island.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In December 2021, "Liaoning" carrier group was deployed to Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Western Pacific.


title: Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning

text: In May 2022, the "Liaoning" and its carrier strike group conducted drills in the East China Sea and they were sighted near Miyako Island by the JMSDF. Japanese analysts noted a very high operational tempo from the "Liaoning", suggesting China's growing confidence and maturity in aircraft carrier operations.


title: Aquiline nose

text: An aquiline nose (also called a Roman nose) is a human nose with a prominent bridge, giving it the appearance of being curved or slightly bent. The word "aquiline" comes from the Latin word "aquilinus" ("eagle-like"), an allusion to the curved beak of an eagle.


title: Aquiline nose

text: In racialist discourse, especially that of post-Enlightenment Western scientists and writers, a Roman nose has frequently been characterized as a marker of beauty and nobility, as in Plutarch's description of Mark Antony. The supposed science of physiognomy, popular during the Victorian era, made the "prominent" nose a marker of Aryanness: "the shape of the nose and the cheeks indicated, like the forehead's angle, the subject's social status and level of intelligence. A Roman nose was superior to a snub nose in its suggestion of firmness and power, and heavy jaws revealed a latent sensuality and coarseness".


title: Aquiline nose

text: The aquiline nose was deemed a distinctive feature of some Native American tribes, members of which often took their names after their own characteristic physical attributes (e.g. The Hook Nose). In the depiction of Native Americans, for instance, an aquiline nose is one of the standard traits of the "noble warrior" type. It is so important as a cultural marker, Renee Ann Cramer argued in "Cash, Color, and Colonialism" (2005), that tribes without such characteristics have found it difficult to receive "federal recognition" or "acknowledgement" from the US government, which is necessary to have a continuous government-to-government relationship with the United States.


title: Aquiline nose

text: Among South Asian ethnic groups, the aquiline nose type is most common among the peoples of Afghanistan, Dardistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, as well as a prominent feature in the Greco-Buddhist statuary of Gandhara (a region spanning the upper Indus and Kabul river valleys throughout northern Pakistan and Kashmir). The ethnographer George Campbell, in his "Ethnology of India", states that:The high nose, slightly aquiline, is a common type [among Kashmiri Brahmins]. Raise a little the brow of a Greek statue and give the nose a small turn at the bony point in front of the bridge, so as to break the straightness of the line, you have the model type of this part of India, to be found both in living men and in the statues of the Peshawar Valley.


title: Chicago P.D. (season 9)

text: The ninth season of "Chicago P.D.", an American police drama television series with executive producer Dick Wolf, and producers Derek Haas, Michael Brandt, and Rick Eid was ordered on February 27, 2020, by NBC. The season premiered on September 22, 2021.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: In a relatively near future, an innovative technology has emerged. On social networks, rumors are circulating about strange phenomena whose authenticity is unknown, referred to as "Hologram Ghosts". Hiro Amanokawa is a middle school freshman at Hazakura Academy, who by activating a mysterious device left behind by his father called the "Digivice -V-", has the effect of making unknown creatures that cannot be seen by ordinary people, the Digimon, visible to his eyes.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: Since the day he met Gammamon, a mischievous Digimon entrusted to him by his father, Hiro is caught up in various strange phenomena: A man with a sewn mouth steals time from human beings, a mummy wanders around every night and kidnaps humans... The hologram ghosts are all around us and take us for target. From now on, here is the story of this other side of the world that nobody is aware of. Alongside their friends Ruli Tsukiyono and Angoramon, and later Kiyoshirō Higashimitarai and Jellymon, Hiro and Gammamon dive into the mysterious world where these creatures live.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: "Digimon Ghost Game" was officially announced at Bandai's "DigiFes 2021" event on August 1, 2021 with a first teaser visual for the series, by Tenya Yabuno. The series is directed by Kimitoshi Chioka and Masato Mitsuka, with Masashi Sogo supervising series' scripts, Tenya Yabuno designing characters and Mariko Itō adapting those designs for animation, Kenji Watanabe designing the Digimon and Cho Shinozuka adapting those designs for animation.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: In the October issue of Shueisha's "V Jump" magazine on August 19, 2021, the presentation specifically stated that "Ghost Game" is going to be the franchise's first horror-themed entry. The creation of this series required putting thought into how to reinterpret the Digimon and the background lore that Bandai has created, for the horror context. New Digimon have been created specifically for this new series and old Digimon that can fit in and play an active role in this story, not only through their background but also in their aspect, would make an appearance. In this iteration, Digimon are seen as poltergeists from Japanese folklore ; the first promotional poster introduced them as "Hologram... ?" and "Ghost... ? ". The series is produced for an episodic format.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: The announcement was originally leaked on Chinese social media on July 28, 2021. On August 7, 2021, the teaser visual was updated on the official website with the only difference being, Kiyoshirō's left hand covered with bandages. On September 3, 2021, Shueisha's "Saikyo Jump" magazine announced "Digimon Dreamers", unrelated to the anime, with a first illustration from the monthly illustrated by Yabuno featuring Hiro, the main character of "Ghost Game", with goggles. The design of the protagonist wasn't finalized at the time of submission, and then changed to an original character in a new illustration revealed by the author via Twitter on September 4, 2021. On September 10, 2021, the official website revealed the cast, the airing date, as well as the main visual featuring the characters in their school uniforms, design by Mariko Itō.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: The first trailer for the series was shown during the 65th episode of "Digimon Adventure:". The series premiered on Fuji TV on October 3, 2021, set to start after "Adventure:" in the same timeslot. "Digimon Ghost Game" is broadcast on Fuji Television, and available for streaming on TVer, U-NEXT, Bandai Channel, Anime Hodai and Docomo Anime Store in Japan.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: "Digimon Ghost Game" is distributed simultaneously by Crunchyroll in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the MENA and CIS zones with English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, German and Russian (1–21) subtitles for premium members within the first week of release. Starting in spring 2022, new episodes are available by subscription only, the first twenty-one episodes remaining available to all users. The anime is also simulcast on VRV in the United States. In France, the anime is also available on Anime Digital Network and J-One.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: On March 6, 2022, Toei Animation announced a broadcast hiatus for the following Sunday due to the Nagoya Women's Marathon. On March 7, 2022, Toei Animation and Digimon Ghost Game's social network revealed that they had been affected by a computer hacking attack, the series produced by the studio faced postponements starting on March 20, 2022. In Japan, Fuji TV decided to rebroadcast the first episode of Digimon Ghost Game on March 20 and a selection of episodes the following weeks.


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: The composer of the Japanese version is Kow Otani. Wienners performs the opening theme "FACTION", with Aiiro Apollo performs the series' ending theme "Pedal".


title: Digimon Ghost Game

text: A new ending for the anime started airing from July 3, 2022. The song, "Monster Disco", written by Shikao Suga and arranged by Hyadain, started from episode 32.


title: IAC (company)

text: IAC Inc. is an American holding company that owns brands across 100 countries, mostly in media and Internet. The company is incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in New York City. Joey Levin, who previously led the company's search & applications segment, has served as chief executive officer since June 2015.


title: IAC (company)

text: IAC was established in 1986 as Silver King Broadcasting Company, as part of a plan to increase viewership of the Home Shopping Network (HSN) by purchasing local television stations. By 1988, Silver King had bought 11 stations for about $220 million. The company was later renamed as HSN Communications, Inc., and then Silver King Communications, Inc. In 1992, Silver King was spun off to HSN shareholders as a separately traded public company. In August 1995, Barry Diller acquired control of Silver King, in a deal backed by the company's largest shareholder, Liberty Media. Diller, who had led the creation of the Fox network, reportedly hoped to use Silver King's stations as the foundation for a new broadcast network.


title: IAC (company)

text: The company acquired several assets in the late 1990s. In December 1996, Silver King acquired an 80% stake in HSN for $1.3 billion in stock, and changed its own name to HSN, Inc. At the same time, the company acquired Savoy Pictures, a failed film studio that owned four Fox affiliate stations through SF Broadcasting, for $210 million in stock.


title: IAC (company)

text: HSN purchased a controlling stake in Ticketmaster Group in July 1997, and then acquired the rest of the company in June 1998. In February 1998, it acquired the television assets of Universal Studios (including USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, and Universal Television's domestic production and distribution arms) for $4.1 billion. The company's name was changed to USA Networks, Inc. at this point. Continuing its acquisition strategy, the company acquired the Hotel Reservations Network in May 1999 for $149 million.


title: IAC (company)

text: USA Networks merged the online division of Ticketmaster with city guide website CitySearch in September 1998, establishing a new company that went public as Ticketmaster Online–CitySearch (TMCS). USA then sold Ticketmaster proper to TMCS in 2001, retaining a 61 percent share in the combined company, which became known as simply Ticketmaster. USA brought Ticketmaster back under full ownership in 2003, purchasing all outstanding shares.


title: IAC (company)

text: In the early 2000s, USA Networks began divesting itself of its traditional television broadcasting and production units. In May 2001, Univision Communications acquired USA Broadcasting (a division of USA Networks including 13 local stations). The next year, Vivendi bought the rest of USA's broadcast entertainment businesses, including the USA Network and Sci-Fi Channel. This led to the creation of a new company named Vivendi Universal Entertainment, led by Diller. Throughout this transition, USA Networks continued to build up its online portfolio. In July 2001, the company entered the online travel business with its acquisition of Expedia, followed the next year by an acquisition of Interval International.


title: IAC (company)

text: Following the shift in focus to online assets, the company changed its name to USA Interactive (USAI) in May 2002; InterActiveCorp in June 2003; and finally to IAC/InterActiveCorp in July 2004.


title: IAC (company)

text: In August 2003, IAC acquired the online mortgage comparison site LendingTree, and in September, the company added discount travel website Hotwire.com to its growing list of acquisitions. In October, IAC agreed to buy French travel site Anyway.com from Transat A.T. for $62.7 million.


title: IAC (company)

text: In 2004 and 2005, IAC continued its growth through acquisition, adding assets including TripAdvisor, ServiceMagic, and Ask Jeeves. It also launched Gifts.com during this period. In August 2005, the company bundled together its travel-related sites and spun them off as a new public company, Expedia, Inc. Additional acquisitions in 2006 included Shoebuy.com, which the company later sold to Jet, and Connected Ventures including CollegeHumor and Vimeo.


title: IAC (company)

text: In May 2008, IAC and Ask.com acquired Lexico, the owner of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com. In August 2008, IAC spun off several of its businesses, including: Tree.com (formerly LendingTree), the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, and Interval International.


title: IAC (company)

text: In 2009, IAC acquired Urbanspoon and People Media, and launched the production company Notional. IAC would later sell Urbanspoon to Zomato in 2015.


title: IAC (company)

text: IAC's largest shareholder, Liberty Media, exited the company in 2010, following a protracted dispute over the 2008 spinoffs. Liberty traded its IAC stock for $220 million in cash, plus ownership of Evite and Gifts.com. On the same day, Diller stepped down as CEO, though he remained as chairman and Match.com CEO Greg Blatt was appointed to succeed him. That same year, IAC acquired dating site Singlesnet and fitness site DailyBurn.


title: IAC (company)

text: In January 2013, IAC acquired online tutoring firm Tutor.com. On August 3, 2013, IAC sold "Newsweek" to the "International Business Times" on undisclosed terms. On December 22, 2013, IAC fired their Director of Corporate Communications, Justine Sacco after an AIDS joke she posted to Twitter went viral, being re-tweeted and scorned around the world. The incident became a byword for the need for people to be cautious about what they post on social media.


title: IAC (company)

text: November 2015, IAC and Match Group announced the closing of Match Group's previously announced initial public offering.


title: IAC (company)

text: In May 2017, HomeAdvisor combined with Angie's List, forming the new publicly traded company ANGI Homeservices Inc. The company made its stock market debut in October 2017. In October 2018, the ANGI made its first acquisition of on-demand platform Handy.


title: IAC (company)

text: In July 2019, IAC made its largest investment ever in the world's largest peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, Turo. Later that year, IAC acquired Care.com. In December 2019, IAC and Match Group entered into an agreement providing for the full separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC.


title: IAC (company)

text: In January 2020, IAC withdrew its financial backing for CollegeHumor and its sister websites and sold the websites to Chief Creative Officer Sam Reich. As a result of the restructuring, more than 100 employees of CollegeHumor were laid off. In February, IAC completed its $500 million acquisition of Care.com.


title: IAC (company)

text: In July 2020, IAC and Match Group announced the successful completion of the separation of Match Group from the remaining businesses of IAC. As a result of the separation, Match Group's dual class voting structure was eliminated and the interest in Match Group formerly held by IAC is now held directly by IAC's shareholders. As of the separation, "new" IAC trades under the symbol "IAC" and "new" Match Group under the symbol "MTCH."


title: IAC (company)

text: In May 2021, IAC completed the spin-off of Vimeo, the 11th company to be spun-off from IAC. Vimeo trades on Nasdaq under the symbol "VMEO".


title: IAC (company)

text: In October 2021, IAC announced the acquisition of Meredith Corporation's National Media Group for $2.7 billion. The deal closed December 1, 2021, and the acquired Meredith assets merged with IAC subsidiary Dotdash, forming a new entity called Dotdash Meredith.


title: IAC (company)

text: In August 2022, IAC officially changed its legal entity (IAC/InterActiveCorp) to reflect what it's actually called: IAC Inc. In October, IAC agreed to sell its workforce-as-a-service platform Bluecrew to EmployBridge with IAC remaining a minority shareholder in Bluecrew's business.


title: IAC (company)

text: IAC's businesses are categorized into distinct segments for the purposes of financial reporting. Those segments are labelled by the company as Angi Inc., Dotdash Meredith, Search, and Emerging and Other. Each business listed may have multiple brands connected to it.


title: IAC (company)

text: On May 1, 2017, IAC announced it had entered into a definitive agreement with Angie's List to combine HomeAdvisor, a digital marketplace for maintenance and repair services, and Angie's List into a new publicly traded company named ANGI Homeservices Inc. In March 2021, the company changed its name to Angi.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: The next New Zealand general election to determine the composition of the 54th Parliament of New Zealand will be held no later than 13 January 2024, after the currently elected 53rd Parliament is dissolved or expires.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Voters will elect 120 members to the unicameral New Zealand House of Representatives under the mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, a proportional representation system in which 72 members will be elected from single-member electorates and 48 members from closed party lists.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: At the 2020 election, the centre-left Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, won an outright majority in the House, resulting in the first time under MMP that a party has been able to form a government without needing a coalition. Nonetheless, Labour formed a co-operation agreement with the Green Party. The main opponent to the Labour government is the centre-right National Party, led by Christopher Luxon, along with ACT New Zealand and the Māori Party.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: The 2020 election resulted in a majority for the Labour Party, winning 65 seats, allowing them to continue the Sixth Labour Government unrestricted in the 53rd Parliament. Their coalition partner from the 52nd Parliament, New Zealand First, did not receive enough votes to pass the five percent threshold or win in an electorate, kicking them out of Parliament. Confidence and supply partner the Green Party received 10 seats, up two, becoming the first minor party ever to increase their share of the vote following a term in government. In the opposition, the National Party lost 23 seats, giving them a total of 33, and ACT New Zealand went from one seat to ten. The Māori Party won a Māori electorate and gained an additional list seat after losing representation in the 2017 general election.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: New Zealand uses a mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system to elect the House of Representatives. Each voter gets two votes, one for a political party (the party vote) and one for a local candidate (the electorate vote). Political parties that meet the threshold (5% of the party vote or one electorate seat) receive seats in the House in proportion to the percentage of the party vote they receive. 72 of the 120 seats are filled by the MPs elected from the electorates, with the winner in each electorate determined by the first-past-the-post method (i.e. most votes wins). The remaining 48 seats are filled by candidates from each party's closed party list. If a party wins more electorates than seats it is entitled to under the party vote, an overhang results; in this case, the House will add extra seats to cover the overhang.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: The political party or party bloc with the majority of the seats in the House forms the Government. Since the introduction of MMP in 1996, no party had won enough votes to win an outright majority of seats, until the landslide 2020 Labour victory, which gave them 65 seats. When no party has commanded a majority, parties have had to negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government or a minority government. Some 2022 polls indicate that the Māori Party could be kingmaker in 2023, being prepared to give a majority to either Labour or National. The Māori Party may not be prepared to be in a coalition with both ACT and National after comments by David Seymour of ACT objecting to "co-governance" with Māori.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: With 120, or 121 seats with an overhang of one seat, a party or coalition, such as a minority government with a confidence and supply agreement, requires 61 seats for a majority in Parliament. With two extra overhang seats in Parliament 62 seats would be required, but this has only happened once; in 2008. The Maori Party had two overhang seats in 2008, and one in 2005 and 2011. While other parties have returned to Parliament with less than 5% of the party vote by winning an electorate seat (eg ACT in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017), this did not result in overhang seats.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Electorate boundaries for the election will be the same as at the 2020 election, with 65 general electorates (49 in the North Island and 16 in the South Island), and 7 Māori electorates. Boundaries are due to be redrawn in 2024, after the 2023 census.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Unless an early election is called or the election date is set to circumvent holding a by-election, a general election is held every three years. The previous election was held on 17 October 2020.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: The governor-general must issue writs for an election within seven days of the expiration or dissolution of the current parliament. Under section 17 of the Constitution Act 1986, parliament expires three years "from the day fixed for the return of the writs issued for the last preceding general election of members of the House of Representatives, and no longer." The writs for the 2020 election were returned on 20 November 2020; as a result, the 53rd Parliament must dissolve no later than 20 November 2023. Writs must be issued within seven days, so the last day for issuance of the writs is 27 November 2023. Writs must be returned within 60 days of their issuance (save for any judicial recount, death of a candidate, or emergency adjournment), which would be 26 January 2024. Because polling day must be on a Saturday, and ten days is required for the counting of special votes, the last possible date for the next election to be held is 13 January 2024.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: However, it is expected that the next election will be held in late 2023. Since the 2014 election, the trend has been to hold the election on the second-last Saturday in September (the 2020 election was originally planned for this date but was delayed four weeks due a COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland). If this trend were to continue, the election will be held on Saturday 23 September 2023.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: In August 2022, the Electoral Commission began recruitment of electorate managers for the 2023 general election and indicated that the roles would conclude on 3 November 2023.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Political parties registered with the Electoral Commission can contest the general election as a party. To register, parties must have at least 500 financial members, an auditor, and an appropriate party name. A registered party may submit a party list to contest the party vote, and can have a party campaign expenses limit in addition to limits on individual candidates' campaigns. Unregistered parties and independents can contest the electorate vote only.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Since the 2020 election, four parties have been deregistered: Mana on 5 May 2021, Advance New Zealand on 19 August 2021, Sustainable NZ on 15 December 2021, and New Zealand TEA Party on 21 September 2022.


title: Next New Zealand general election

text: Several polling firms have conducted opinion polls during the term of the 53rd New Zealand Parliament (2020–present) for the next general election. The regular polls are the quarterly polls produced by Television New Zealand ("1 News") conducted by Kantar Public (formerly known as Colmar Brunton) and Discovery New Zealand ("Newshub") conducted by Reid Research, along with monthly polls by Roy Morgan Research, and by Curia (Taxpayers' Union). The sample size, margin of error and confidence interval of each poll varies by organisation and date.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Viktor Robertovich Tsoi (; ; 21 June 1962 – 15 August 1990) was a Soviet singer and songwriter who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and musically influential bands in the history of Russian-language music.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Born and raised in Leningrad (now known as Saint Petersburg), Tsoi started writing songs as a teenager. Throughout his career, Tsoi contributed a plethora of musical and artistic works, including ten albums. After Kino appeared and performed in the 1987 Soviet film "Assa", the band's popularity surged, triggering a period referred to as "Kinomania", and leading to Tsoi's leading role in the 1988 art film "The Needle". In 1990, after their high-profile concert at the Luzhniki Stadium, Tsoi briefly relocated to Latvia with bandmate Yuri Kasparyan to work on the band's next album. Two months after the concert, Tsoi died in a car collision.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: He is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of Russian/Soviet rock and is credited with popularizing the genre throughout the Soviet Union. He retains a devoted following in many ex-Soviet countries, such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, where he is known as one of the most influential and popular people in the history of Russian music.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was born on 21 June 1962, in a maternity hospital on Kuznetsovskaya Street in Leningrad. He was the only child of Valentina Vasilyevna Tsoi (), a Russian schoolteacher, and Robert Maximovich Tsoi, a Soviet Korean engineer from Kzyl-Orda, Kazakhstan, where his Korean parents had been exiled after Stalin's 1937 deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union. The family's Korean ancestry can be traced back to Songjin, Hamgyong, Korea (present-day Kimchaek, North Korea), where Viktor's great-grandfather Choi Yong-nam was born in 1893.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Tsoi grew up in the vicinity of the Moskovsky Victory Park. The family lived in the notable "general's house" at the corner of Moskovsky Avenue and Basseynaya Street (the building is now an architectural monument). For some time Tsoi studied at a nearby school in Frunze Street, where his mother worked.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: From 1974 until 1977, Tsoi attended a secondary art school, where he was a member of the band Palata No. 6 (, English: "Ward No. 6"). From 1977, he attended the Serov Art School, until he was expelled in 1979 for poor performance. Afterwards, he attended SGPTU-61, a secondary city vocational school, where he studied to become a wood carver. In his youth, he was a fan of Mikhail Boyarsky and Vladimir Vysotsky, and later Bruce Lee, after whom he started modelling his image. He was fond of martial arts and often sparred "in Chinese" with bandmate Yuri Kasparyan.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Tsoi began writing songs at the age of 17. In the 1970s and the 1980s, rock music was an underground movement limited mostly to Leningrad; Moscow pop stars, endorsed by the Soviet state, ruled the charts and received the most exposure from the media. However, rock music was not popular with the government, and rock bands received little to no funding and were given little exposure by the media. The Leningrad Rock Club was one of the few public places where rock bands were allowed to perform.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tsoi was a close friend of Alexei Rybin. Rybin, a member of the hard rock band Piligrimy (), and Tsoi, who played bass guitar in the group Palata # 6 (), met at the house of Andrei "Svin" Panov, in whose apartment people and musicians often gathered, and also where his own punk band Avtomaticheskie udovletvoriteli rehearsed. By this time, Tsoi had begun to perform the songs he wrote at parties.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Tsoi and Rybin, as members of Автоматические удовлетворители (Avtomaticheskie udovletvoriteli), went to Moscow and performed punk-rock metal at Artemy Troitsky's underground concerts. During a similar performance in Leningrad on the occasion of Andrei Tropillo's anniversary, Tsoi and Rybin first met Boris Grebenshchikov. Later, after a solo concert by Grebenshchikov, they met up and Tsoi played two of his songs to him. Grebenshchikov, who had already been a relatively established musician in the Leningrad underground scene, was very impressed by Tsoi's talent and helped him start up his own band.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: At the Leningrad Rock Club, Tsoi played as a solo artist supported by members of the band Aquarium. Tsoi's lyrics and music impressed the crowd. In the summer of 1981, Tsoi, Rybin, and Oleg Valinsky formed the band Garin i giperboloydy (). The name was a homage to the classic Russian novel "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" by Aleksey Tolstoy. In autumn of the same year, the band was admitted to membership of the Leningrad Rock Club. Not long after, Valinsky was conscripted into the army, leaving only Tsoi and Rybin, who renamed the band to Kino. Kino began recording its debut album in the spring of 1982.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Kino began recording its debut album, "45", in the spring of 1982 at Andrei Tropillo's studio. Members of Aquarium also took part in the recording, with Boris Grebenshchikov directing the album. By the summer, the album was completely finished. Its duration was 45 minutes, after which the album was named "45". The album got some distribution and Kino performed in many apartment concerts in Moscow and Leningrad.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: On 19 February 1983, a joint concert with Kino and Aquarium took place. After the concert, Yuri Kasparyan was invited to join the band as a guitarist. In the spring, Rybin left Kino due to disagreements with Tsoi. Tsoi and Kasparyan spent the summer on joint rehearsals. As a result, Kino recorded the album "46", which was initially thought of as a demo for "Nachalnik Kamchatki" (). "46" was widely distributed and was considered to be a full-fledged album. In the fall of 1983, Tsoi went to a psychiatric hospital in Pryazhka, where he spent a month and a half. As a result, Tsoi was not conscripted into the army. After being discharged from the psychiatric hospital, he wrote the song "Trankvilizator" ().


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: ""Peremen!/"My zhdyom peremen" ("Changes!"/"We are waiting for changes")", first performed by Tsoi in the summer of 1986, quickly became an important political song, an embodiment of the spirit of the Perestroika. It remains a powerful political song, prominently used during 2020–2021 Belarusian protests.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: 1987 was a breakthrough year for Kino. The release of their 6th album "Gruppa Krovi" () triggered what was then called "Kinomania". The open political climate under glasnost allowed Tsoi to make "Gruppa Krovi", his most political album, yet it also allowed him to record a sound of music that no one before him had been able to play. Most of the tracks on the album were directed at the youth of the Soviet Union, telling them to take control and make changes within the nation; some of the songs addressed the social problems crippling the nation. The sound and lyrics of the album made Tsoi a hero among Soviet youth and Kino the most popular rock band ever. In the diverse Soviet republics, fans translated his originally Russian lyrics into their native languages as well.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Over the next few years, Tsoi appeared in several successful movies and also travelled to the United States to promote his films at film festivals. Several more albums were released, their themes were once again mostly political, further fueling the band's popularity. Even though Tsoi was a huge star, he still lived a relatively ordinary life. He kept his old job in the boiler room of an apartment building, called Kamchatka, which is currently a museum/club dedicated to the singer. The fact that he worked at a boiler plant surprised many people. Tsoi said that he enjoyed the work and he also needed the money to support the band, as they still received no government support and their albums were copied and passed around the nation via "magnitizdat" free of charge. This made Tsoi even more popular among the people because it showed that he was down to earth and they could relate to him. He also went on tour in 1988–1989 to Italy, France, and Denmark. Kino's finest hour came in 1990 with a concert at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium; 62,000 fans filled the stands to celebrate the triumph of the USSR's most successful rock group. It also was one of the four times the Luzhniki Olympic Fire was ever lit.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: In 1987, the band Kino, along with other Russian rock bands, appeared as themselves in "Assa" (), a film by Sergei Solovyov. However, the film as a whole has nothing to do with rock music, and Kino simply appears as a cameo in the end.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: In 1988, Viktor Tsoi starred as the protagonist in "The Needle" (), directed by Rashid Nugmanov and written by Aleksandr Baranov and Bakhyt Kilibayev. The plot is centered around the character Moro, who returns to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to collect money owed to him. While waiting out an unexpected delay, he visits his former girlfriend Dina and discovers she has become a morphine addict. He decides to help her quit and fight the local drug mafia responsible for her condition. But Moro finds a deadly opponent in "the doctor," the mafia kingpin who is exploiting Dina. Tsoi was nominated for an award for his role in the film.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: The film's soundtrack, including original music by Tsoi's band Kino, contributes to the overall feeling of the movie, in addition to the film's use of post-modern twists and surreal scenes.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: On 15 August 1990, in Latvia, Tsoi was driving on the Sloka – Talsi highway, near Tukums and Riga. At 12:28 p.m., Tsoi died in a car collision. The investigation concluded that Tsoi had fallen asleep while driving, possibly due to fatigue; he had not consumed alcohol for at least 48 hours before his death. At the time he fell asleep Tsoi was driving at a speed of at least 130 km/h, causing his dark blue Moskvitch-2141 to turn into the oncoming lane and collide with an Ikarus 250 bus. Tsoi was pronounced dead at the scene. The bus driver was not injured. Tsoi's car was completely destroyed to the point that one of its tires was never found.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: The death of Viktor Tsoi was a shock to many fans, some even having committed suicide. On 17 August, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", one of the main Soviet newspapers, had the following to say about Tsoi and his meaning to the youth of the nation:


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: On 19 August, he was buried in a closed casket at the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery in Leningrad. Thousands of people came to the funeral.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Kasparyan left for Leningrad prior to the collision, with a tape containing the only recording of Tsoi's vocals for the band's next album. The remaining members of Kino finished and released the "Black Album" in December. It later became the band's most popular creation.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Viktor lived with his wife, Marianna Tsoi, and his son Alexander (born 1985). Tsoi lived a poor life, with Marianna saying that they could not even afford a proper wedding dress. The apartment building boiler room he worked at was nicknamed "Kamchatka", and is now the site of a museum and rock club dedicated to Tsoi. He previously also worked in Kyiv, Ukraine, however after the authorities found out he was working illegally, he was sent to Moscow.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: During the filming of "Assa", Tsoi met Natalia Razlogova, the director's assistant. Tsoi later fell in love with Razlogova and separated from Marianna. However, they did not divorce, for the sake of their son.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Portraits of Viktor Tsoi are displayed today in many places around Russia, from graffiti on the fences of Saint Petersburg to an entire wall dedicated to Viktor Tsoi in a bylane of the famous Arbat Street in Moscow, where fans still gather to remember their hero. Other Tsoi Walls can also be found in Minsk, Belarus and in some regions of Kazakhstan. In 2000 some of the nation's top rock bands came together and released their interpretations of Kino's best songs as a tribute to Viktor Tsoi on what would have been his 38th birthday.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: In 2012, on what would have been Tsoi's 50th birthday, the remaining members of Kino gathered to record the song "Ataman" (), with his vocals that were recovered from his car crash but never used because of its poor quality. The drummer Georgiy Guryanov died shortly after, making "Ataman" the last song recorded by Kino and its members.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: On 15 August 2020, the 30th anniversary of Tsoi's death was marked. In memory of Tsoi, the Palace Bridge in St. Petersburg was lifted to his songs. Fans across the country commemorated his death, especially in his home city of St. Petersburg where a number of events and concerts were organised, as well as at the Tsoi Wall in Moscow. The day before, a 4-meter-tall monument dedicated to Tsoi was erected in St. Petersburg in his memory.


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: The South Korean rock band YB covered the song "Gruppa krovi" (; ) on their 1999 album "Korean Rock Remade" ().


title: Viktor Tsoi

text: Viktor An, a South Korean-born Russian short track speed skater, chose his Russian name "Viktor" in honour of Tsoi.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Released on December 1, it is the third installment in "Xenoblade Chronicles" and the seventh main entry in the "Xeno" series. Plans for the game began shortly before the launch of "Xenoblade Chronicles X" in 2014. Key developers from previous games returned, including franchise creator Tetsuya Takahashi, and directors Koh Kojima and Genki Yokota. The team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the original "Xenoblade Chronicles". The game was announced in 2017 with a worldwide release date planned for the same year. As with "Xenoblade Chronicles", the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: In gameplay, "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" is similar to previous entries, but with an added summoning mechanic. It features a different setting and characters than the first "Xenoblade Chronicles", and it marks the series' return to being story-driven, unlike the previous installment "Xenoblade Chronicles X", which was focused on gameplay and open world exploration. "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" takes place in Alrest, a world covered in a sea of clouds. Humans live on top of and inside large living creatures known as Titans. Some people known as Drivers can summon powerful beings known as Blades from crystals. After he is hired for a salvaging mission, a young salvager named Rex comes into contact with a legendary Blade named Pyra, indirectly becoming her Driver, and promises to take her to a fabled paradise called Elysium. Throughout their journey, Rex and his party are pursued by Torna, an organization set to take the power of Pyra for their own means.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The game received generally positive reviews, with praise directed at its story, combat, music, environments, and amount of content. At over 2 million copies sold as of December 2020, it is the best-selling title in the "Xeno" series, and Monolith Soft's most commercially successful game. Downloadable content was released throughout 2018, and a story-focused expansion was released in September of that year. This side story, "", is set 500 years before the main game and features new gameplay mechanics. A sequel, "Xenoblade Chronicles 3", released in July 2022.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" is an action role-playing game, the third title in the "Xenoblade" series. Similar to previous games, the player controls a main character out of a party of three. The game employs an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that often affects in-game events, including quests, enemy strength, and item availability. Unlike the two previous titles which consisted of a cohesive open world through which player could journey uninterrupted, the game takes place on several lands, between whom the player travels via a fast travel option.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: Different from prior titles, characters in the party also control additional beings known as Blades. Each character can only have three Blades active at a time, which determines the character's class, between offensive attacker, healer or defensive tanks. The game's Blades and skills are based on eight elements: fire, water, wind, ice, electric, earth, light and dark. There are a total of 40 distinctly unique "rare" Blades to collect throughout the base game with an additional 11 being obtainable either through downloadable content or New Game Plus in later patches. Most of the game's Blades are not a part of the main story, and can be assigned to any Driver; among those is KOS-MOS from the "Xeno" sub-series "Xenosaga".


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" has an action-based battle system, where the player manually moves the current lead character in real-time, and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Each character has skills called "Arts", that can be used to inflict status effects. Both party members and enemies have a finite amount of health points, and attacks deplete this value. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but the game is lost if the player's character loses all their HP and has no means of being revived. Health may be restored by the player by using healing Arts in battle, or the player may let characters' HP regenerate automatically outside of battle. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which allows the characters to grow stronger by leveling up and learning new Arts. Using Arts repeatedly allows use of special moves. Doing these special moves in the correct order creates a Blade combo, which does large amounts of damage and seals a form of damage against the enemy.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: A "Party Gauge" slowly fills as party members successfully land hits on the enemy players, and filling the gauge allows the player to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. Using a full Party Gauge allows the player to use all of the Blades to do a Chain Attack, which does extra damage as it destroys previously created seals. The three-tiered gauge gradually depletes outside of battle, and one tier is needed to either revive characters or alert a teammate to a vision. When all three tiers are full, the party can execute a chain attack. All party members have an "aggro ring" around them as well; the more actions a character performs, the larger it grows. Larger aggro rings lead enemies to focus their efforts on that respective character, leading to a strategic aspect of luring and diverting attention of enemies.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The game is set in the fictional land of Alrest, a sea topped with clouds, called the "Cloud Sea", inhabited by massive creatures known as Titans on which humanity lives. Legends claim humanity once lived atop the "World Tree", a massive tree in the center of Alrest in a paradise called Elysium with their creator, the Architect, but they were exiled for unknown reasons and given the Titans to live on. Blades are powerful beings summoned from "Core Crystals" who channel power into their weapons through a force called ether. Their masters are called Drivers; when a Driver dies, their Blade reverts to a Core Crystal and loses their memory. After some time, another Driver can awaken them so long as the crystal is intact. Due to the close spiritual bond between Driver and Blade, the personality of the former influences that of the latter. Two nations, Mor Ardain and Uraya are on the brink of war throughout the story.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The main character is Rex (voice in Japanese by Hiro Shimono and English by Al Weaver), who is the driver of the Aegis, a powerful and legendary Blade. The Aegis has two personalities, Pyra and Mythra (Japanese: Shino Shimoji; English: Skye Bennett), who share conscience, but different abilities. As an orphan, Rex grew up in Fonsett village in the Leftherian Archipelago, a place on several Titans that are close together, which are connected by bridges and other structures. Rex became very accustomed to the Cloud Sea and would salvage parts found beneath. He is very close with Azurda, a Titan whom Rex calls "Gramps", where Rex lives a portion of his life upon. A group of Drivers called Torna set out to destroy the Aegis, leading Rex and party to flee and find a way to the World Tree, a legendary paradise. Other important characters include: Malos, another Aegis and main antagonist; Jin, a Blade from Torna who aids Malos; Nia, a rebel from Torna, and her Blade Dromarch; Tora, a Nopon specialising in artificial Blades, and his Blade Poppi; Mòrag, a feared Driver from Mor Ardain, and her blade Brighid; and Zeke, the prince of the hermit country of Tantal, and his Blade Pandoria.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The downloadable content "" adds a new story, set 500 years prior. This focuses on Lora and her Blade Jin and allies in their battles against Malos in Torna, a country not accessible in the main game.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: Rex, an orphaned salvager who collects treasure from below the Cloud Sea for money, is hired by Argentum Trade Guild Chairman Bana to aid the Drivers Jin, Malos, and Nia, part of a group named Torna, in the salvage of an ancient ship. In the ship, they find Pyra, a legendary Blade known as the Aegis. When Rex reaches out to touch Pyra's sword, Jin fatally stabs him. Rex awakens on a field with Pyra, who reveals they are in a memory of her old home Elysium. She asks him to bring her to Elysium and in exchange gives him half of her Core Crystal to revive him. With help from his Titan companion Azurda and Nia, who has defected from Torna, Rex escapes to the Titan Gormott, but Azurda is wounded and reverts to his larval stage. Soon after, they arrive in Gormott's capital Torigoth and are joined by the Nopon Driver Tora and his artificial Blade Poppi. The group try to get to Elysium, but are stopped by the artifice Ophion and swallowed by the Titan Uraya.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: After the group battles the mercenary Driver Vandham while escaping Uraya's stomach, he joins the party and Rex begins to look to him as a mentor. The group later learns that Jin and Malos are the leaders of Torna, a terrorist group named after a Titan destroyed in the Aegis War 494 years ago. Led by Jin, an embittered veteran Blade of the Aegis War, and Malos, later revealed as the other Aegis, they seek to destroy humanity by unleashing the artifice Aion on Elysium. During a battle with Malos and fellow Torna member Akhos, Vandham is killed and Pyra unveils her true form Mythra. They have shared memory and consider themselves sisters, switching back and forth as needed.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The group's search for a way past Ophion leads them to join forces with Mòrag, special inquisitor of Mor Ardain and elder sister of the Ardainian Emperor, Niall; and Zeke, prince of Tantal. In Tantal, the group battles Jin, who forces Pyra to surrender. While Azurda leads the group to the third Aegis sword to save Pyra, Malos siphons Pyra's power to regain his full strength. After the group finds the third sword, phantoms of Pyra's former Driver nearly kill Rex, but he is deemed worthy of the third sword. The group confronts Jin and Malos at the Cliffs of Morytha, during which Rex unlocks Pyra and Mythra's true form Pneuma. Rex, now matched with Jin's power, forces Malos to summon Ophion, who knocks the group into Morytha, the devastated land beneath Cloud Sea.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: In Morytha, the group is forced to work with a weakened Jin. Malos' Driver, Amalthus attacks by controlling various Titans. The group severs his connection to the Titans, only for him to kill all Torna members except Malos and Jin, with Jin defeating Amalthus as he dies. The group arrives in Elysium and meet the Architect, a scientist named Klaus who explains that he had discovered a device that sends objects into different dimensions, the use of which split his body in two and destroyed the old world.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: Sensing that his other half is about to die, which will result in his own death, Klaus sends the group to stop Malos, who was corrupted by Amalthus's malice and has obtained Aion. After Malos's defeat and death, Klaus dies, but not before granting Rex and the party a "final gift". Klaus's death causes Elysium to begin crumbling. Pneuma helps the group escape, but sacrifices herself to detonate the World Tree, preventing its debris from destroying Alrest. The group barely survives when Azurda, thanks to Pneuma, returns to his adult form and flies everyone down to Alrest. On returning to Alrest, the Cloud Sea fades to reveal a rejuvenated world, the Titans merging to form a new landmass. Afterwards, Pyra and Mythra are revived in separate bodies and reunite with Rex.


title: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

text: The game was developed for the Nintendo Switch by Monolith Soft and is the third entry in their "Xenoblade Chronicles" series, following the original "Xenoblade Chronicles" and "Xenoblade Chronicles X". Plans for the game began in July 2014, during the latter half of development of "Xenoblade Chronicles X". While the original "Xenoblade Chronicles" followed the typical structure of a general story-driven JRPG, "Xenoblade Chronicles X" received far less emphasis on story, and was organized in more of a mission-based structure, focused primarily on exploring the game's massive open world. The development team were unhappy upon hearing the fanbase complain about the changes, and started work on another story-driven title. Because the gameplay was more of a continuation of the first game, they decided to title it "Xenoblade Chronicles 2". "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" took shorter to develop than previous games, although development was difficult in the beginning due to a lack of finalization of the Switch's technical specifications. The architecture of "Xenoblade Chronicles X" was used for "Xenoblade Chronicles 2" to speed up development. Another motivating factor was the agreement made by the team with Nintendo specifically to deliver the game early on in the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle.