title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Inspired by American bomber pilots in the Second World War, Vettel has made it a tradition to name his cars. He said: "It's important to have a close relationship with a car. Like a ship, a car should be named after a girl as it's sexy". The car he drove for his first full season in 2008, the Toro Rosso STR3, was named Julie, followed by Kate and Kate's Dirty Sister (2009), Luscious Liz and Randy Mandy (2010), Kinky Kylie (2011), Abbey (2012) and Hungry Heidi (2013). Vettel's car for , the Red Bull RB10, was baptised Suzie. Vettel continued this tradition with Ferrari and christened his 2015 Ferrari SF15-T Eva, followed by Margherita (2016) Gina (2017), Loria (2018), Lina (2019), and Lucilla (2020). In 2021, he named his Aston Martin AMR21 car after Honey Ryder, a character from the James Bond film, "Dr. No".


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Vettel's unexpected win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix led the media to dub him the "Baby Schumi". He was not just dubbed this for his nationality but also because of his driving style, his concentration and the hands-on role he plays behind the scenes with his team of engineers. Vettel played down the comparison stating he wanted to be the "New Vettel".


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Nevertheless, the similarities were marked. Like Schumacher, Vettel grew up in a small town with an everyday background—Schumacher's father is a bricklayer and Vettel's is a carpenter. Both had their first taste of racing at the Kerpen karting track near Cologne, not far from the Nürburgring. Vettel began driving in his garden lapping the garden many times before he could legally take to the roads, and said his passion for cars was nurtured by watching Schumacher compete.


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: After winning his first championship in 2010, and being hailed as the "Next Schumacher", Vettel stated he did not want to aim for Schumacher's record after learning how hard it was to get one championship under his belt, though he would like to win more. In 2011, Pirelli director Paul Hembery was impressed when Vettel was the only driver to take the time to visit the factory and talk to the tyre manufacturer to gain a better insight. "The only other driver that asks us a lot of questions is Michael Schumacher. It is like seeing the master and the protégé at work."


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: After Schumacher was severely injured in a skiing accident in late 2013, Vettel was on hand to collect the Millennium-Bambi Award for Schumacher's life achievements on his behalf in 2014. In 2014, Vettel cited Schumacher as one of his inspirations in becoming a Scuderia Ferrari driver: "When I was a kid, Michael Schumacher in the red car was my greatest idol and now it's an incredible honour to finally get the chance to drive a Ferrari."


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Vettel has demonstrated an interest in the environment and other social justice issues. Following the 2021 British Grand Prix, he helped remove litter from the stands, and he also worked with children in Austria to build a hotel for bees. Furthermore, Vettel has been critical of how F1 races are scheduled, stating that races that are geographically proximate to each other should be held on consecutive weekends to reduce emissions from travelling. He also held an all-women karting event during the weekend of the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and wore the pride flag at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix despite being reprimanded. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vettel expressed an intent to boycott the September's Russian Grand Prix had the race gone ahead as planned.


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: In May 2022, he appeared on the BBC One political topical debate programme "Question Time" to discuss a variety of issues including climate change, energy dependency, and Brexit. The following month, Vettel appeared on the cover of "Attitude", voicing support for an LGBTQ driver competing in Formula One. In June 2022, while participating in the Canadian Grand Prix, Vettel denounced Canada's mining of the Alberta oil sands by wearing a T-shirt and helmet patch calling it "Canada's climate crime". Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called it "over-the-top hypocrisy" because Vettel's team, Aston Martin, is sponsored by petroleum company Saudi Aramco, which he said has "one of the worst climate-emissions records in the world". Vettel agreed with the "hypocritical" label but said those personal attacks risk missing what he called the "bigger picture" of the climate crisis.


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Vettel was named Rookie of the Year at the 2008 Autosport Awards. In 2009, Vettel was awarded the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy, for his achievements in the 2008 season. He was also awarded the 2009 British Racing Drivers' Club Johnny Wakefield Trophy for "setting the fastest race lap of the season on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit". In 2010, Vettel was voted German Sportspersonality of the Year and won the "Autosport" International Racing Driver Award, which he also won in the following three years. In January 2012, Vettel was honoured with the Grands Prix de l'Academie des Sports, and in February, he was further honoured with the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, in recognition of his world titles and his "exemplary character". Vettel was voted Formula One driver of the year in 2009, 2011 and 2013 by the team principals, initiated by the "Autosport" magazine. He additionally won the DHL Fastest Lap Award in 2009, 2012 and 2013. He was named European Sportsperson of the Year by the International Sports Press Association in 2010, and by the Polish Press Agency in 2012 and 2013. Furthermore, Vettel was named the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year in 2013. He was named Sportsman of the Year at the 2014 Laureus World Sports Awards. In 2015, he received the Confartigianato Motori Award for Driver of the Year. After retiring from Formula One in 2022, Vettel received the "Autosport" Gregor Grant Award for his "achievement in motorsport".


title: Sebastian Vettel

text: Red Bull Racing sponsor Infiniti released a Sebastian Vettel edition of the Infiniti FX SUV for 2012. It featured increased engine power, revised bodywork and lower suspension than the standard model.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain". The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: The 2021 CPI, published in January 2022, currently ranks 180 countries "on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)" based on the situation between 1 May 2020 and 30 April 2021. Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, and Sweden are perceived as the least corrupt nations in the world, ranking consistently high among international financial transparency, while the most apparently corrupt are Syria, Somalia (both scoring 13), and South Sudan (11).


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: The 2012 CPI takes into account 16 different surveys and assessments from 12 different institutions. The 13 surveys/assessments are either business people opinion surveys or performance assessments from a group of analysts. Early CPIs used public opinion surveys. The institutions are:


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Countries need to be evaluated by at least three sources to appear in the CPI. The CPI measures perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: A study published in 2002 found a "very strong significant correlation" between the Corruption Perceptions Index and two other proxies for corruption: black market activity and an overabundance of regulation.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: All three metrics also had a highly significant correlation with real gross domestic product per capita (RGDP/Cap); the Corruption Perceptions Index correlation with RGDP/Cap was the strongest, explaining over three quarters of the variance. (Note that a lower rating on this scale reflects greater corruption, so that countries with higher RGDPs generally had less corruption.)


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Alex Cobham of the Center for Global Development reported in 2013 that "many of the staff and chapters" at Transparency International, the publisher of the Corruption Perceptions Index, "protest internally" over concerns about the index. The original creator of the index, Johann Graf Lambsdorff, withdrew from work on the index in 2009, stating "In 1995 I invented the Corruption Perceptions Index and have orchestrated it ever since, putting TI on the spotlight of international attention. In August 2009 I have informed Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of TI, that I am no longer available for doing the Corruption Perceptions Index."


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Research papers published in 2007 and 2008 examined the economic consequences of corruption perception, as defined by the CPI. The researchers found a correlation between a higher CPI and higher long-term economic growth, as well as an increase in GDP growth of 1.7% for every unit increase in a country's CPI score. Also shown was a power-law dependence linking higher CPI score to higher rates of foreign investment in a country.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: The 20 top countries or regions that were ranked as having the lowest perceived levels of corruption were (note scale of 10 to 1):


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: The 20 top countries or regions that were ranked as having the lowest perceived levels of corruption were (note scale of 10 down to 1):


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Media outlets frequently use the raw numbers as a yardstick for government performance, without clarifying what the numbers mean. The local Transparency International chapter in Bangladesh disowned the index results after a change in methodology caused the country's scores to increase; media reported it as an "improvement".


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: In a 2013 article in "Foreign Policy", Alex Cobham suggested that CPI should be dropped for the good of Transparency International. It argues that the CPI embeds a powerful and misleading elite bias in popular perceptions of corruption, potentially contributing to a vicious cycle and at the same time incentivizing inappropriate policy responses. Cobham writes, "the index corrupts perceptions to the extent that it's hard to see a justification for its continuing publication."


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Recent econometric analyses that have exploited the existence of natural experiments on the level of corruption and compared the CPI with other subjective indicators have found that, while not perfect, the CPI is argued to be broadly consistent with one-dimensional measures of corruption.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: In the United States, many lawyers advise international businesses to consult the CPI when attempting to measure the risk of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations in different nations. This practice has been criticized by the "Minnesota Journal of International Law", which wrote that since the CPI may be subject to perceptual biases it therefore should not be considered by lawyers to be a measure of actual national corruption risk.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Transparency International also publishes the Global Corruption Barometer, which ranks countries by corruption levels using direct surveys instead of perceived expert opinions, which has been under criticism for substantial bias from the powerful elite.


title: Corruption Perceptions Index

text: Transparency International has warned that a country with a clean CPI score may still be linked to corruption internationally. For example, while Sweden had the 3rd best CPI score in 2015, one of its state-owned companies, TeliaSonera, was facing allegations of bribery in Uzbekistan.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (; ; born 15 July 1949) is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai. He is the third son of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, former vice president of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. Mohammed succeeded his brother Maktoum as vice president and ruler following the latter's death in 2006.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: A billionaire, Mohammed generates most of his income from real estate and is described as "one of the world's most prominent real estate developers". Land which is owned by him is managed as an asset of the state. There is a blurred line between the assets of the government of Dubai and those of the ruling Al Maktoum family. He oversaw the growth of Dubai into a global city, as well as the launch of a number of government-owned enterprises including Emirates Airline, DP World, and the Jumeirah Group. Some of these are held by Dubai Holding. Mohammed has overseen the development of certain projects in Dubai including the creation of a technology park, a free economic zone, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, the Dubai International Finance Centre, the Palm Islands and the Burj Al Arab hotel. He also drove the construction of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed is the absolute ruler of Dubai and the prime minister of the UAE, a position appointed by the president. The government is autocratic, as there are no democratic institutions, and internal dissent is prohibited. It is characterized by scholars as authoritarian.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On 5 March 2020, a British court ruled that on the balance of probabilities, Mohammed had abducted two of his daughters, Shamsa and Latifa, and had threatened his former wife, the Jordanian princess Haya bint Hussein. Allegedly, Shamsa and Latifa were forcibly medicated while held in Dubai under Sheikh Mohammed's orders since 2000 and 2018, respectively. On 16 February 2021, BBC's "Panorama" broadcast a documentary featuring Sheikha Latifa's video messages that she made secretly under enforced detention in Dubai on the orders of Sheikh Mohammed.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed is an equestrian and is the founder of the Maktoum family-owned Godolphin stable and the owner of Darley, a thoroughbred breeding operation, operational in six countries. In 2012, he rode the horse "Madji Du Pont" 160 km to take the FEI World Endurance Championship.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed is the third of four sons of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai. The Al Maktoum family is Dubai's ruling family and descendants of the House of Al-Falasi, of which Sheikh Mohammed is the tribal leader. His mother was Sheikha Latifa bint Hamdan Al Nahyan, daughter of former ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan. Mohammed's early life was not grand. He grew up in a house without any electricity during his early years and the family sometimes had to sleep together in one room with a fan. A hundred people or more lived in his house, including guards and slaves.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: From the age of four, Mohammed was privately tutored in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 1955, he began his formal education at Al Ahmedia School. At the age of 10, he moved to Al Shaab School, and two years later, went to Dubai Secondary School. In 1966, with his cousin Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, he attended the Bell Educational Trust's English Language School in the United Kingdom. He subsequently studied at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, passing out with the sword of honour as the top Commonwealth student. He also travelled to Italy to train as a pilot.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On Mohammed's return from military training to Dubai, his father appointed him as the head of the Dubai Police Force and the Dubai Defence Force (which later became a part of the Union Defence Force) when he was only 20 years old.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: As a young man, in January 1968, Mohammed was present when his father Rashid and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan first met in the desert between Dubai and Abu Dhabi at "Argoub El Sedira" to agree to the formation of a union of emirates following British notification of intent to withdraw from the Trucial States. When the new nation of the United Arab Emirates was founded on 2 December 1971, he became its first minister of defence at the age of 22.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: A period of uncertainty and instability followed the Union of the United Arab Emirates, including skirmishes between tribes over property, straddling new borders. On 24 January 1972, the exiled former ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, Saqr bin Sultan Al Qasimi, led an insurrectionist coup against the ruler, Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi. Following a spirited firefight between the Union Defence Force and Saqr's forces – mostly Egyptian mercenaries who had entered the UAE through Ras Al Khaimah – Sheikh Mohammed accepted Saqr's surrender. Sheikh Khalid had been killed in the action, leading to the accession of his brother Sultan as ruler of Sharjah. Mohammed delivered Saqr to Sheikh Zayed, who put him under house arrest in Al Ain.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 1973, Sheikh Mohammed was involved in protracted negotiations with the hijackers of JAL 404, led by Japanese Red Army member Osamu Maruouka, which landed in Dubai after being hijacked as it departed Schiphol Airport. Although unsuccessful in obtaining the release of the hostages (they were finally freed, and the 747 blown up, in Libya), he was more successful in a later negotiation with the three hijackers of KLM 861, who released the balance of their hostages and handed over the plane in return for safe passage. In 1977, Mohammed oversaw the integration of Dubai's military forces with those of the other emirates.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On 3 January 1995, Sheikh Mohammed's elder brother Maktoum signed two decrees appointing him and his brother Hamdan as Crown Prince of Dubai. Mohammed, at the time of being appointed crown prince, also served as minister of defence, a position he held since 9 December 1971, following his time as chief of the Dubai Police Force.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed created the Dubai Shopping Festival in late 1995, an annual event that has become a significant contributor to the economy of the UAE.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2001, Sheikh Mohammed ordered the arrest of Obaid Saqr bin-Busit, the head of Dubai Customs and the chairman of the World Customs Association.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: After roughly a decade of de facto rule, Mohammed became the ruler of Dubai on 4 January 2006, upon the death of his brother Maktoum. The following day, the Federal National Council selected him as the new vice president of the UAE. On 11 February, the Council approved President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan's nomination of Sheikh Mohammed for Prime Minister.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed is the absolute monarch of Dubai. The government is described as autocratic, as there are no democratic institutions, and internal dissent is prohibited. Mohammed is Prime Minister of the UAE, which scholars characterize as authoritarian. According to human rights organizations, there are systematic human rights violations, including the torture and forced disappearance of government critics. There is a blurred line between the assets of the state of Dubai and those of the Al Maktoum ruling family.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed issued a law in 2006 to form the Dubai Establishment for Women Development, renamed by law in 2009 as the Dubai Women's Establishment. He also formed the UAE Gender Balance Council in 2015.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On 19 October 2020, Mohammed led the UAE Council of Ministers meeting that ratified a peace agreement with Israel, normalizing diplomatic relationships between the countries. The council, again headed by Sheikh Mohammed, approved the decision to found an Emirati embassy in Tel Aviv in January, and Mohammed swore in the first Emirati ambassador to Israel, Mahmoud Al Khajah, a month later.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed founded the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in 2015, which announced it would be launching a spacecraft to Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere; He stated that the planet was chosen for its "epic challenge," saying it would benefit the Emirati economy. He announced that the mission would be called Hope after a public vote, as the name would "send a message of optimism to millions of young Arabs," since "Arab civilisation once played a great role in contributing to human knowledge, and [would] play that role again."


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed announced that the Hope mission had succeeded at orbit insertion on 9 February 2021, and shared the first picture the probe had captured days later. Hope became the first Arab mission to space, as well as the first of three missions in July 2020—the others from the US and China—to arrive at Mars.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2020, Mohammed announced a second mission, this one to the moon. The Emirates Lunar Mission will use a rover reportedly built entirely in the UAE, and is scheduled for 2022.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed has overseen the creation and growth of a number of businesses and economic assets of Dubai, with a number held by two companies under his ownership, Dubai World and Dubai Holding. According to the laws of Dubai, the ruling family owns all undeveloped land in Dubai, which has allowed the family to prosper from real estate development. During Mohammed's rule, Dubai has seen enormous population growth, causing a real estate boom in Dubai. The boom was in part facilitated by Mohammed's 2002 decree that foreigners would be allowed to purchase property in Dubai.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed established Dubai World by decree, leading to the company's launch on 2 July 2006, as a holding company consolidating a number of assets including logistics company, DP World, property developer Nakheel Properties, and investment company Istithmar World. With more than 50,000 employees in over 100 cities around the globe, the group has real estate, logistics and other business investments in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The company is owned by the government of Dubai.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed's personal corporate portfolio is the Dubai Holding Group, which is involved in a variety of investments. Dubai Holding benefits from its association with the ruling family of Dubai, and is given free land by the Dubai government.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Through the 1970s, as well as his role as head of Dubai Defence Force and UAE minister of defence, Mohammed oversaw Dubai's energy resources and was in charge of Dubai Civil Aviation. It was in this latter role, in March 1985, that he founded Emirates Airline, tasking then-head of DNATA, Maurice Flanagan, with launching a new airline to be called Emirates after a dispute with Gulf Air over Dubai's 'Open Skies' policy. The launch budget of the airline was $10 million (the amount Flanagan said he needed to launch an airline) and its inaugural flight took place on 25 October 1985. Mohammed appointed his uncle Ahmed bin Saeed as chairman of the new company. A further $75 million in facilities and materials was provided, but Emirates has always maintained that it has received no further subsidies throughout the company's meteoric growth to become one of the world's leading airlines.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 1989, Mohammed inaugurated the first Dubai Airshow. In 2013, the exhibition had grown to over 1,000 exhibiting companies, and was the venue for Emirates' placement of the largest aeroplane order in history, with $99 billion combined orders with Airbus for its A380 and Boeing for its 777X.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: The Burj Al Arab was inaugurated in December 1999. The hotel, constructed from a design by WS Atkins in response to a brief from Mohammed to create "a truly iconic" building, styles itself as "the world's most luxurious hotel". It was constructed on an island offshore from the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the first property managed by Jumeirah, the hotel management company launched by Mohammed in 1997 and headed by ex-Trust House Forte executive Gerald Lawless. While work began on both hotels at the same time, the island to house the Burj Al Arab required three years to build before construction began above ground. Jumeirah's international expansion, driven after it became part of Dubai Holding in 2004, encompasses 22 hotels in ten countries.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On 29 October 1999, Mohammed announced Dubai Internet City, a technology hub and free trade zone. Offering companies long leases, full ownership, and fast access to government services, DIC grew from its first tenants in October 2000, to a current zone employing about 15,000 people. In November 2000, it was joined by Dubai Media City, a content and media production-free zone, which is co-located with DIC. The launch of DIC came with assurances from Mohammed regarding media freedoms. In 2007, he issued a decree banning the imprisonment of journalists following an incident in which local journalists were accused of libel and sentenced to jail terms.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: The Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives is a charitable foundation which consolidates the work of some 33 charitable foundations, entities and initiatives which, together, implement more than 1,400 development programs, contributing to the support of more than 130 million people in 116 countries in collaboration with over 280 strategic partners, including governmental institutions, private sector companies, as well as regional and international organizations.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: The Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government (previously the Dubai School of Government) is an academic and research institution in the area of public policy and administration.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2005, Mohammed made an offer to pay to separate conjoined twins in India, but the offer was declined for fears the surgery was too risky.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In June 2017, two new initiatives were added to the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, within the "Empowering Communities" sector, namely the International Institute for Tolerance and the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Tolerance. In this respect, Sheikh Mohammed issued Law No. (9) of 2017 on the Establishment of the International Institute for Tolerance and Decree No. (23) of 2017 on the Formation of a Board of Trustees and Decree No. (28) of 2017 on the Appointment of a Managing Director for the International Institute for Tolerance. In this respect, Law No. (9) of 2017 includes the launch of the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Tolerance, administered in accordance with the provisions and statute of said Law. Hence, the establishment of the International Institute for Tolerance aims at instilling a spirit of tolerance across the community, building a cohesive society, strengthening the UAE's standing and position as a model of tolerance, as well as renouncing extremism and all forms of discrimination among people on the basis of religion, sex, race, color or language, in addition to honoring all entities and institutions contributing to the promotion of tolerance and open, interfaith dialogue.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed is a major figure in international thoroughbred horse racing and breeding. He owns Darley Stud, the biggest horse breeding operation in the world with farms in the United States, Ireland, England, and Australia. In 1985 he bought the Irish thoroughbred Park Appeal for an undisclosed sum at the end of her second season. She went on to produce at least nine winners from twelve foals and is the ancestor of many successful horses.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed had raced horses as a child (he would share his breakfast with his horse on the way to school) but he attended his first formal race at Newmarket in 1967, with his brother Hamdan, watching Royal Palace win the 2,000 guineas. Becoming an owner in his own right, ten years later he won his first race with Hatta at Brighton. And five years after that, he and Hamdan had three studs and 100 horses under training.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In late 1981, Mohammed purchased Gainsborough Stud at Woolton Hill, near Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom. He owns Ballysheehan Stud in County Tipperary, Ireland; as well as Gainsborough Farm Inc. in Versailles, Kentucky, United States. His racing operations include the ownership of Darley Stables and he is the leading partner in his family's Godolphin Stables. Mohammed hosts the Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: By 1992, Mohammed had started 'wintering' his horses in Dubai, frequently against the advice of trainers and pundits in the UK. The results were a string of high-profile wins, and by 1994 he founded Godolphin. In 1995, his hands-on approach to racing resulted in a major split with leading trainer Henry Cecil after a disagreement over racing a horse Mohammed insisted was injured. Cecil took the argument public and Mohammed removed all his horses from Cecil's stable.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Godolphin's first win, Balanchine taking the Oaks at Epsom Downs, England, in 1994, was to mark the beginning of a winning streak with horses such as Lammtarra, Daylami, Fantastic Light, Street Cry, Sulamani, Dubawi, and Ramonti among them. Dubai Millennium, said to be Mohammed's favourite, won nine of his ten starts before succumbing to injury followed by grass sickness in 2001.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 1996, the Dubai World Cup was inaugurated as the world's richest horserace, drawing the legendary American dirt track horse Cigar to race in Dubai. Today, held at the Meydan Racecourse, the race meeting carries a prize of $27 million.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In the UK, Mohammed's horses have won Group One races including several of the British Classic Races. His horses have also won the Irish Derby Stakes, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and, the 2006 Preakness Stakes with Bernardini in the US. In 2008, he bought the Woodlands Stud empire for more than $460 million.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Both his thoroughbreds and endurance horses have failed drug tests – although his trainers (including Mahmood Al Zarooni) have accepted the blame. His endurance racing stable has also been involved in other scandals, including both fatal injuries, and ringers. In 2015, the FEI suspended the United Arab Emirates following a series of scandals.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In the 15th Asian Games in 2006, Mohammed's son Rashid took the individual gold in endurance riding. His sons Rashid, Ahmed, Majid, and Hamdan took the team gold in endurance riding, his niece Latifa took a bronze in show jumping, and his daughter Maitha led the UAE team in taekwondo. In 2013 when the UAE National football team won the Gulf Cup, Mohammed gave the team 50 million dirhams ($13.7 million). His wife awarded the team a further 25 million dirhams ($6.8 million), while the pair's grandsons contributed 12 million dirhams ($3.3 million).


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Godolphin's Cross Counter, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy and trained by Charlie Appleby won the 2018 Melbourne Cup.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 1998, Mohammed set up the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU), a not-for-profit organisation that aims to raise awareness and demystify the local culture, customs, and religion of the United Arab Emirates. Operating under the motto "Open Doors. Open Minds", SMCCU aims to improve cross-cultural understanding and communication between UAE locals and guests visiting or residing in the UAE.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: An initiative by Mohammed in 2015 saw Dubai's Metro stations turned into art galleries in the period leading up to Art Dubai 2015.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: The sheikh established the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Patrons of the Arts Awards in March 2009 to honour individuals and organisations who have contributed towards arts development in Dubai. The award allows artists and projects to benefit from the private sector's support under four categories: Distinguished Patrons of the Arts (AED 15 million), Patrons of the Arts (AED 2–5 million), Supporters of the Arts (AED 500,000), and Friends of the Arts (AED 50,000–500,000). The award aims to grant financial or in kind support to the visual and performing arts, literature, and film sectors, which contribute to enriching the artistic and cultural scene in Dubai.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: An early 2000s British police investigation of allegations, made by a former riding instructor, about the attempted escape of Mohammed's daughter Latifa from her family estate in England and the subsequent kidnapping on a street in Cambridge of Latifa's sister Shamsa in 2001, was inconclusive.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: On 11 March 2018, a video was released of Sheikha Latifa after her failed attempt to flee the UAE and subsequent disappearance, in which she claimed she was fleeing from her family, made allegations of abuse, and said her father was responsible for a number of murders, including the murder of his deceased older brother's wife. The escape attempt was the focus of a documentary by Australian broadcaster Nine News as well as BBC "Newsnight" investigation.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In December 2018, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, after meeting Sheikha Latifa in the presence of other family members, said that the princess was now in the loving care of her family. Her statement was criticised by human rights groups, who said that Robinson would not have been able to tell in the meeting whether Latifa truly had psychological issues. A spokeswoman for ″The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice″ confirmed that Robinson was approached by Mohammed's wife Princess Haya bint Hussein, an old friend of Robinson's, and was requested to go to Dubai by Princess Haya and that Haya paid the fare, less than two weeks after the BBC ran a documentary detailing Sheikha Latifa's failed escape attempt in March. Robinson admits she was "horribly tricked" when photographs of the private lunch were made public and that both she and Haya had been told of details of Latifa's bipolar disorder, a condition which she does not have. Latifa's cousin Marcus Essabri reported that Latifa's photos with Mary Robinson seems to show Latifa medicated while held in Dubai under her father's orders. She has not been seen in public since.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In February 2021 video footage obtained by the BBC shows Sheikha Latifa saying she has been "a hostage" for over a year "with no access to medical help" in "solitary confinement" without access to medical or legal help in a "villa jail" with windows and doors barred shut, and guarded by police. The governments of Dubai and the UAE have not responded to requests for comment from the BBC. Despite her family's insistence that she has been enjoying time with them at home the past two years, Sheikha Latifa says in the series of videos released by her advocates that she is "a hostage" and fears for her life. "Every day, I'm worried about my safety in my life. I don't really know if I'm going to survive this situation." "The police threaten me that they would take me outside and shoot me if I didn't cooperate with them," she said. "They also threatened me that I would be in prison my whole life and I'll never see the sun again."


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2021, investigative reporting into the Pegasus spyware found that Latifa's name was added to a list of names that were potential targets of the spyware just days before she was seized by Sheikh Mohammed's commandos on a yacht in an attempt to flee.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In June 2019 it was reported that one of Sheikh Mohammed's wives, Princess Haya bint Hussein, had fled Dubai and was in Germany seeking political asylum along with her children, a son and a daughter. Media reports also asserted that Haya had taken £31 million with her. The cause of the departure was unknown. A subsequent poem written by Sheikh Mohammed posted on Instagram alluded to betrayal. Haya filed for the sole custody of their two children, and a forced marriage protection order (FMPO), a non-molestation order, and non-repatriation to Dubai at the High Court of Justice in London in July 2019.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In December 2019 a UK family court ruled that on the balance of probabilities, Sheikh Mohammed had orchestrated the abductions of his daughters Latifa and Shamsa and that he continued to maintain a regime whereby both were deprived of their liberty. Also on the balance of probabilities, the court concluded that Mohammed had subjected Princess Haya to a campaign of "intimidation" and "taunted" her after her adulterous affair with a bodyguard. The findings were published in March 2020.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In October 2021, the High Court ruled that agents of Sheikh Mohammed used the Israeli Pegasus spyware to hack the phones of Princess Haya, her solicitors, a personal assistant and two members of her security team in the summer of 2020. The court ruled that the agents acted "with the express or implied authority" of the sheikh; he denied knowledge of the hacking. The judgment referred to the hacking as "serial breaches of (UK) domestic criminal law", "in violation of fundamental common law and ECHR rights", "interference with the process of this court and the mother's access to justice" and "abuse of power" by a head of state.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In December 2021, Haya was granted full custody of her children, and alimony and support in the amount of US$720 million. In 2022, the court mandated no direct contact between Mohammed and the children, and no input by him into decision-making about the children's lives.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2006, a UNICEF-sponsored program with the UAE government resulted in the repatriation of hundreds of children formerly enslaved as camel jockeys, and provided them with social services and compensation upon return to their home countries of Pakistan, Sudan, Mauritania, and Bangladesh. The UAE government set aside US$2.7 million in initial funding in 2005 with an additional $9 million for the second phase, and to enforce compliance, adopted a law officially banning the practice with penalties of jail time and a $27,200 fine. UNICEF endorsed the UAE's efforts and expressed the hopes that "the UAE's programme will serve as a model to other countries in the region, as a means of ending all forms of exploitation of children".


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In September 2006, Mohammed was accused of encouraging the abduction and enslavement of thousands of boys for use as jockeys in camel races. A class-action suit was filed against him in the US state of Florida. In 2006, American lawyers representing the UAE raised a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that none of the involved parties resided in the US, arguing that the UN program best served the interests of the children. In July 2007, judge Cecilia Altonaga accepted the motion and dismissed the suit.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In April 2013, Mohammed's Godolphin stables trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was disqualified for eight years from thoroughbred horse racing by the British Horseracing Authority for administering steroids to eleven racehorses. Mohammed stated that he was "appalled and angered" by the case and announced that the stable would be locked down while drug tests were carried out on all horses under Al Zarooni's care. In May, Mohammed, as prime minister of the UAE, issued a decree outlawing and criminalizing the use of anabolic steroids on horses in the UAE.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In October 2013, Mohammed faced another scandal in the venue of horseracing, with reports of potentially toxic and dangerous steroids, anaesthetics, and anti-inflammatory drugs being shipped into UAE, mislabeled as "horse tack". "The Telegraph" commented that a "PR campaign is already underway, with Sheikh Mohammed again cast as a victim of employee malpractice".


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In October 2021, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that over 330 prominent politicians and public officials across the world had ties with offshore companies. Amongst them were 35 current and former world leaders. The leaked 11.9 million files revealed that Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also used offshore companies to manage and expand his wealth. In order to carry out his dealings, he secretly registered three companies in the tax havens of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Bahamas. Registered by an Emirati firm, Axiom Limited, the three companies were Tandem Investco Limited and Tandem DirectorCo Limited in BVI and Allied International Investments Limited in the Bahamas. Partly owned by the Dubai Holding, in which Sheikh Mohammed owns major shares, Axiom Limited used the three companies to “expand its core business”.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed's ex-wife was Princess Haya bint Hussein, daughter of former King Hussein of Jordan and half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan. In 2022, the High Court of England and Wales ruled and mandated that Mohammed must not have direct contact with his children by Haya, or input into decision-making about them, because of his coercive and abusive behaviour which "had emotionally and psychologically harmed their children". On 19 September 2022, he attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, London.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In 2021, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project estimated that Sheikh Mohammed owned assets worth $14 billion.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed owns the yacht "Dubai", built by the German company Blohm + Voss and designed by English designer Andrew Winch, who owns Winch Design. The yacht is long, and was the world's third largest yacht as of 2014, with the capacity for up to 115 people including crew. Another personal yacht of the Sheikh is the "Alloya", built by Sanlorenzo in 2013.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Mohammed owns real estate in the United Kingdom worth more than 100 million British pounds, as well as properties in Rome through a company registered in Luxembourg. According to a 2021 analysis by "The Guardian" and Transparency International, Sheikh Mohammed is one of the largest landowners in the UK, owning more than 100,000 acres. The exact number of properties is not known, as most of the properties connected to him are owned through offshore companies in the tax havens of Guernsey and Jersey. Asked about these holdings, Sheikh Mohammed's lawyer rejected that the properties were bought through offshore companies or that the holdings were intended to avoid UK taxes.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: In the 2021 Pandora Papers leaks, it was revealed that Sheikh Mohammed was a shareholder in three additional companies registered in jurisdictions allowing secrecy.


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed is married to Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum (m. 1979, First Lady of Dubai). They have 12 children:


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed was married to Princess Haya bint Hussein (marriage 10 April 2004, divorce 7 February 2019), they have two children:


title: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

text: Sheikh Mohammed was married to Sheikha Randa bint Mohammed Al-Banna (marriage 1972, divorced). They have one daughter:


title: The Wire

text: The Wire is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. "The Wire" premiered on June 2, 2002, and ended on March 9, 2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons. The idea for the show started out as a police drama loosely based on the experiences of his writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public school teacher.


title: The Wire

text: Set and produced in Baltimore, Maryland, "The Wire" introduces a different institution of the city and its relationship to law enforcement in each season, while retaining characters and advancing storylines from previous seasons. The five subjects are, in chronological order: the illegal drug trade, the port system, the city government and bureaucracy, education and schools, and the print news medium. Simon chose to set the show in Baltimore because of his familiarity with the city.


title: The Wire

text: The large cast consists mainly of actors who are little known for their other roles, as well as numerous real-life Baltimore and Maryland figures in guest and recurring roles. Simon has said that despite its framing as a crime drama, the show is "really about the American city, and about how we live together. It's about how institutions have an effect on individuals. Whether one is a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge or a lawyer, all are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution to which they are committed."


title: The Wire

text: "The Wire" is lauded for its literary themes, its uncommonly accurate exploration of society and politics, and its realistic portrayal of urban life. During its original run, the series received only average ratings and never won any major television awards, but is now often cited as one of the greatest television series of all time.


title: The Wire

text: Simon has stated that he originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of his writing partner Ed Burns, a former homicide detective and public school teacher who had worked with Simon on projects including "The Corner" (2000). Burns, when working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology, had often been frustrated by the bureaucracy of the Baltimore Police Department; Simon saw similarities with his own ordeals as a police reporter for "The Baltimore Sun".


title: The Wire

text: Simon chose to set the show in Baltimore because of his familiarity with the city. During his time as a writer and producer for the NBC program "", based on his book "" (1991), also set in Baltimore, Simon had come into conflict with NBC network executives who were displeased by the show's pessimism. Simon wanted to avoid a repeat of these conflicts and chose to take "The Wire" to HBO, because of their working relationship from the miniseries "The Corner". HBO was initially doubtful about including a police drama in its lineup but agreed to produce the pilot episode. Simon approached the mayor of Baltimore, telling him that he wanted to give a bleak portrayal of certain aspects of the city; Simon was welcomed to work there again. He hoped the show would change the opinions of some viewers but said that it was unlikely to affect the issues it portrays.


title: The Wire

text: The casting of the show has been praised for avoiding big-name stars and using character actors who appear natural in their roles. The looks of the cast as a whole have been described as defying TV expectations by presenting a true range of humanity on screen. Many of the cast are black, consistent with the demographics of Baltimore.


title: The Wire

text: Wendell Pierce, who plays Detective Bunk Moreland, was the first actor to be cast. Dominic West, who won the ostensible lead role of Detective Jimmy McNulty, sent in a tape he recorded the night before the audition's deadline of his playing out a scene by himself. Lance Reddick received the role of Cedric Daniels after auditioning for the roles of Bunk and heroin addict Bubbles. Michael K. Williams got the part of Omar Little after only a single audition. Williams himself recommended Felicia Pearson for the role of Snoop after meeting her at a local Baltimore bar, shortly after she had served prison time for a second degree murder conviction.


title: The Wire

text: Several prominent real-life Baltimore figures, including former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.; Rev. Frank M. Reid III; radio personality Marc Steiner; former police chief, and radio personality Ed Norris; "Baltimore Sun" reporter and editor David Ettlin; Howard County Executive Ken Ulman; and former mayor Kurt Schmoke have appeared in minor roles despite not being professional actors.


title: The Wire

text: "Little Melvin" Williams, a Baltimore drug lord arrested in the 1980s by an investigation that Burns had been part of, had a recurring role as a deacon beginning in the third season. Jay Landsman, a longtime police officer who inspired the character of the same name, played Lieutenant Dennis Mello. Baltimore police commander Gary D'Addario served as the series' technical advisor for the first two seasons and had a recurring role as prosecutor Gary DiPasquale. Simon shadowed D'Addario's shift when researching his book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" and both D'Addario and Landsman are subjects of the book.


title: The Wire

text: More than a dozen cast members previously appeared on HBO's first hour-long drama "Oz". J. D. Williams, Seth Gilliam, Lance Reddick, and Reg E. Cathey were featured in very prominent roles in "Oz", while a number of other notable stars of "The Wire", including Wood Harris, Frankie Faison, John Doman, Clarke Peters, Domenick Lombardozzi, Michael Hyatt, Michael Potts, and Method Man appeared in at least one episode of "Oz". Cast members Erik Dellums, Peter Gerety, Clark Johnson, Clayton LeBouef, Toni Lewis and Callie Thorne also appeared on "", the earlier and award-winning network television series also based on Simon's book; Lewis appeared on "Oz" as well. A number of cast members, as well as crew members, also appeared in the preceding HBO miniseries "The Corner" including Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Lance Reddick, Corey Parker Robinson, Robert F. Chew, Delaney Williams, and Benay Berger.


title: The Wire

text: Alongside Simon, the show's creator, head writer, showrunner, and executive producer, much of the creative team behind "The Wire" were alumni of "" and Primetime Emmy Award-winning miniseries "The Corner". "The Corner" veteran, Robert F. Colesberry, was executive producer for the first two seasons and directed the season 2 finale before dying from complications from heart surgery in 2004. He is credited by the rest of the creative team as having a large creative role as a producer, and Simon credits him for achieving the show's realistic visual feel. He also had a small recurring role as Detective Ray Cole. Colesberry's wife Karen L. Thorson joined him on the production staff. A third producer on "The Corner", Nina Kostroff Noble also stayed with the production staff for "The Wire" rounding out the initial four-person team. Following Colesberry's death, she became the show's second executive producer alongside Simon.


title: The Wire

text: Stories for the show were often co-written by Burns, who also became a producer in the show's fourth season. Other writers include three acclaimed crime fiction writers from outside of Baltimore: George Pelecanos from Washington, Richard Price from the Bronx and Dennis Lehane from Boston. Reviewers drew comparisons between Price's works (particularly "Clockers") and "The Wire" even before he joined. In addition to writing, Pelecanos served as a producer for the third season. Pelecanos has commented that he was attracted to the project because of the opportunity to work with Simon.


title: The Wire

text: Staff writer Rafael Alvarez penned several episodes' scripts, as well as the series guidebook "The Wire: Truth Be Told." Alvarez is a colleague of Simon's from "The Baltimore Sun" and a Baltimore native with working experience in the port area. Another city native and independent filmmaker, Joy Lusco, also wrote for the show in each of its first three seasons. "Baltimore Sun" writer and political journalist William F. Zorzi joined the writing staff in the third season and brought a wealth of experience to the show's examination of Baltimore politics.


title: The Wire

text: Playwright and television writer/producer Eric Overmyer joined the crew of "The Wire" in the show's fourth season as a consulting producer and writer. He had also previously worked on "Homicide". Overmyer was brought into the full-time production staff to replace Pelecanos who scaled back his involvement to concentrate on his next book and worked on the fourth season solely as a writer. Primetime Emmy Award winner, "Homicide" and "The Corner", writer and college friend of Simon, David Mills also joined the writing staff in the fourth season.


title: The Wire

text: Directors include "Homicide" alumnus Clark Johnson, who directed several acclaimed episodes of "The Shield", and Tim Van Patten, a Primetime Emmy Award winner who has worked on every season of "The Sopranos". The directing has been praised for its uncomplicated and subtle style. Following the death of Colesberry, director Joe Chappelle joined the production staff as a co-executive producer and continued to regularly direct episodes.


title: The Wire

text: Each episode begins with a cold open that seldom contains a dramatic juncture. The screen then fades or cuts to black while the intro music fades in. The show's opening title sequence then plays; a series of shots, mainly close-ups, concerning the show's subject matter that changes from season to season, separated by fast cutting (a technique rarely used in the show itself). The opening credits are superimposed on the sequence, and consist only of actors' names without identifying which actors play which roles. In addition, actors' faces are rarely seen in the title sequence.


title: The Wire

text: At the end of the sequence, a quotation (epigraph) is shown on-screen that is spoken by a character during the episode. The three exceptions were the first season finale which uses the phrase "All in the game", attributed to "Traditional West Baltimore", a phrase used frequently throughout all five seasons including that episode; the fourth season finale which uses the words "If animal trapped call 410-844-6286" written on boarded up vacant homes attributed to "Baltimore, traditional" and the series finale, which started with a quote from H. L. Mencken that is shown on a wall at "The Baltimore Sun" in one scene, neither quote being spoken by a character. Progressive story arcs often unfold in different locations at the same time. Episodes rarely end with a cliffhanger, and close with a fade or cut to black with the closing music fading in.


title: The Wire

text: When broadcast on HBO and on some international networks, the episodes are preceded by a recap of events that have a bearing upon the upcoming narrative, using clips from previous episodes.


title: The Wire

text: Rather than overlaying songs on the soundtrack, or employing a score, "The Wire" primarily uses pieces of music that emanate from a source within the scene, such as a jukebox or car radio. This kind of music is known as "diegetic" or source cue. This practice is rarely breached, notably for the end-of-season montages and occasionally with a brief overlap of the closing theme and the final shot.


title: The Wire

text: The opening theme is "Way Down in the Hole," a gospel-and-blues-inspired song, written by Tom Waits for his 1987 album "Franks Wild Years". Each season uses a different recording and a different opening sequence, with the theme being performed by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Waits, The Neville Brothers, DoMaJe and Steve Earle. The season four version of "Way Down in the Hole" was arranged and recorded for the show and is performed by five Baltimore teenagers: Ivan Ashford, Markel Steele, Cameron Brown, Tariq Al-Sabir and Avery Bargasse. Earle, who performed the fifth season version, is also a member of the cast, playing the recovering drug addict Walon. The closing theme is "The Fall," composed by Blake Leyh, who is also the music supervisor of the show.


title: The Wire

text: During season finales, a song is played before the closing scene in a montage showing the lives of the protagonists in the aftermath of the narrative. The first season montage is played over "Step by Step" by Jesse Winchester, the second "I Feel Alright" by Steve Earle, the third "Fast Train" written by Van Morrison and performed by Solomon Burke, the fourth "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" written by Dr. John and performed by Paul Weller and the fifth uses an extended version of "Way Down In The Hole" by the Blind Boys of Alabama, the same version of the song used as the opening theme for the first season.


title: The Wire

text: While the songs reflect the mood of the sequence, their lyrics are usually only loosely tied to the visual shots. In the commentary track to episode 37, "Mission Accomplished", executive producer David Simon said: "I hate it when somebody purposely tries to have the lyrics match the visual. It brutalizes the visual in a way to have the lyrics dead on point. ... Yet at the same time it can't be totally off point. It has to glance at what you're trying to say."


title: The Wire

text: Two soundtrack albums, called "" and "Beyond Hamsterdam", were released on January 8, 2008, on Nonesuch Records. The former features music from all five seasons of the series and the latter includes local Baltimore artists exclusively.


title: The Wire

text: The writers strove to create a realistic vision of an American city based on their own experiences. Simon, originally a reporter for "The Baltimore Sun", spent a year researching a Homicide Police Department for his book "", where he met Burns. Burns served in the Baltimore Police Department for 20 years and later became a teacher in an inner-city school. The two of them spent a year researching the drug culture and poverty in Baltimore for their book "". Their combined experiences were used in many storylines of "The Wire".


title: The Wire

text: Central to the show's aim for realism was the creation of truthful characters. Simon has stated that most of them are composites of real-life Baltimore figures. For instance, Donnie Andrews served as the main inspiration of Omar Little. Martin O'Malley served as "one of the inspirations" for Tommy Carcetti. The show often cast non-professional actors in minor roles, distinguishing itself from other television series by showing the "faces and voices of the real city" it depicts. The writing also uses contemporary slang to enhance the immersive viewing experience.


title: The Wire

text: In distinguishing the police characters from other television detectives, Simon makes the point that even the best police of "The Wire" are motivated not by a desire to protect and serve, but by the intellectual vanity of believing they are smarter than the criminals they are chasing. While many of the police do exhibit altruistic qualities, many officers portrayed on the show are incompetent, brutal, self-aggrandizing, or hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. The criminals are not always motivated by profit or a desire to harm others; many are trapped in their existence and all have human qualities. Even so, "The Wire" does not minimize or gloss over the horrific effects of their actions.


title: The Wire

text: The show is realistic in depicting the processes of both police work and criminal activity. There have even been reports of real-life criminals watching the show to learn how to counter police investigation techniques. The fifth season portrayed a working newsroom at "The Baltimore Sun" and was described by Brian Lowry of "Variety" magazine in 2007 as the most realistic portrayal of the media in film and television.


title: The Wire

text: In a December 2006 "Washington Post" article, local black students said that the show had "hit a nerve" with the black community and that they themselves knew real-life counterparts of many of the characters. The article expressed great sadness at the toll drugs and violence are taking on the black community.


title: The Wire

text: Many important events occur off-camera and there is no artificial exposition in the form of voice-over or flashbacks, with the exceptions of two flashbacks – one at the end of the pilot episode that replays a moment from earlier in the same episode and one at the end of the fourth season finale that shows a short clip of a character tutoring his younger brother earlier in the season. Thus, the viewer needs to follow every conversation closely to understand the ongoing story arc and the relevance of each character to it. "Salon" has described the show as novelistic in structure, with a greater depth of writing and plotting than other crime shows.


title: The Wire

text: Each season of "The Wire" consists of 10 to 13 episodes that form several multi-layered narratives. Simon chose this structure with an eye towards long story arcs that draw in viewers, resulting in a more satisfying payoff. He uses the metaphor of a visual novel in several interviews, describing each episode as a chapter, and has also commented that this allows a fuller exploration of the show's themes in time not spent on plot development.


title: The Wire

text: Simon described the second season as "a meditation on the death of work and the betrayal of the American working class ... it is a deliberate argument that unencumbered capitalism is not a substitute for social policy; that on its own, without a social compact, raw capitalism is destined to serve the few at the expense of the many." He added that season 3 "reflects on the nature of reform and reformers, and whether there is any possibility that political processes, long calcified, can mitigate against the forces currently arrayed against individuals." The third season is also an allegory that draws explicit parallels between the Iraq War and drug prohibition, which in Simon's view has failed in its aims and has become a war against America's underclass. This is portrayed by Major Colvin, imparting to Carver his view that policing has been allowed to become a war and thus will never succeed in its aims.


title: The Wire

text: Writer Ed Burns, who worked as a public school teacher after retiring from the Baltimore police force shortly before going to work with Simon, has called education the theme of the fourth season. Rather than focusing solely on the school system, the fourth season looks at schools as a porous part of the community that are affected by problems outside of their boundaries. Burns states that education comes from many sources other than schools and that children can be educated by other means, including contact with the drug dealers they work for. Burns and Simon see the theme as an opportunity to explore how individuals end up like the show's criminal characters, and to dramatize the notion that hard work is not always justly rewarded.


title: The Wire

text: Simon has identified the organizations featured in the show—the Baltimore Police Department, City Hall, the Baltimore public school system, the Barksdale drug trafficking operation, "The Baltimore Sun", and the stevedores' union—as comparable institutions. All are dysfunctional in some way, and the characters are typically betrayed by the institutions that they accept in their lives. There is also a sentiment echoed by a detective in Narcotics—"Shit rolls downhill"—which describes how superiors, especially in the higher tiers of the Police Department in the series, will attempt to use subordinates as scapegoats for any major scandals. Simon described the show as "cynical about institutions" while taking a humanistic approach toward its characters.


title: The Wire

text: A central theme developed throughout the show is the struggle between individual desires and subordination to the group's goals.


title: The Wire

text: Central to the structure and plot of the show is the use of electronic surveillance and wiretap technologies by the police—hence the title "The Wire." "Salon" described the title as a metaphor for the viewer's experience: the wiretaps provide the police with access to a secret world, just as the show does for the viewer. Simon has discussed the use of camera shots of surveillance equipment, or shots that appear to be taken from the equipment itself, to emphasize the volume of surveillance in modern life and the characters' need to sift through this information.


title: The Wire

text: "The Wire" employs a broad ensemble cast, supplemented by many recurring guest stars who populate the institutions featured in the show. The majority of the cast is black, which accurately reflects the demographics of Baltimore.


title: The Wire

text: The show's creators are also willing to kill off major characters, so that viewers cannot assume that a given character will survive simply because of a starring role or popularity among fans. In response to a question on why a certain character had to die, David Simon said,


title: The Wire

text: We are not selling hope, or audience gratification, or cheap victories with this show. "The Wire" is making an argument about what institutions—bureaucracies, criminal enterprises, the cultures of addiction, raw capitalism even—do to individuals. It is not designed purely as an entertainment. It is, I'm afraid, a somewhat angry show.


title: The Wire

text: The major characters of the first season were divided between those on the side of the law and those involved in drug-related crime. The investigating detail was launched by the actions of Detective Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), whose insubordinate tendencies and personal problems played counterpoint to his ability as a criminal investigator. The detail was led by Lieutenant Cedric Daniels (Lance Reddick) who faced challenges balancing his career aspirations with his desire to produce a good case. Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn) was a capable lead detective who faced jealousy from colleagues and worry about the dangers of her job from her domestic partner. Her investigative work was greatly helped by her confidential informant, a drug addict known as Bubbles (Andre Royo).


title: The Wire

text: Like Greggs, partners Thomas "Herc" Hauk (Domenick Lombardozzi) and Ellis Carver (Seth Gilliam) were reassigned to the detail from the narcotics unit. The duo's initially violent nature was eventually subdued as they proved useful in grunt work, and sometimes served as comic relief for the viewer. Rounding out the temporary unit were detectives Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) and Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost). Freamon, seen as a quiet "house cat", soon proved to be one of the unit's most methodical and experienced investigators, with a knack for noticing important details and a deep knowledge of public records and paper trails. Prez faced sanction early on and was forced into office duty, but this setback quickly became a boon as he demonstrated natural skill at deciphering the communication codes used by the Barksdale organization.


title: The Wire

text: These investigators were overseen by two commanding officers more concerned with politics and their own careers than the case, Deputy Commissioner Ervin Burrell (Frankie Faison) and Major William Rawls (John Doman). Assistant state's attorney Rhonda Pearlman (Deirdre Lovejoy) acted as the legal liaison between the detail and the courthouse and also had a sexual relationship with McNulty. In the homicide division, Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce) was a gifted, dry-witted, hard-drinking detective partnered with McNulty under Sergeant Jay Landsman (Delaney Williams), the sarcastic, sharp-tongued squad supervisor. Peter Gerety had a recurring role as Judge Phelan, the official who started the case moving.


title: The Wire

text: On the other side of the investigation was Avon Barksdale's drug empire. The driven, ruthless Barksdale (Wood Harris) was aided by business-minded Stringer Bell (Idris Elba). Avon's nephew D'Angelo Barksdale (Larry Gilliard Jr.) ran some of his uncle's territory, but also possessed a guilty conscience, while loyal Wee-Bey Brice (Hassan Johnson) was responsible for multiple homicides carried out on Avon's orders. Working under D'Angelo were Poot (Tray Chaney), Bodie (J. D. Williams), and Wallace (Michael B. Jordan), all street-level drug dealers. Wallace was an intelligent but naive youth trapped in the drug trade, and Poot a randy young man happy to follow rather than lead. Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), a renowned Baltimore stick-up man robbing drug dealers for a living, was a frequent thorn in the side of the Barksdale clan.


title: The Wire

text: The second season introduced a new group of characters working in the Port of Baltimore area, including Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos (Paul Ben-Victor), Beadie Russell (Amy Ryan), and Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer). Vondas was the underboss of a global smuggling operation, Russell an inexperienced port authority officer and single mother thrown in at the deep end of a multiple homicide investigation, and Frank Sobotka a union leader who turned to crime to raise funds to save his union. Also joining the show in season 2 were Nick Sobotka (Pablo Schreiber), Frank's nephew; Ziggy Sobotka (James Ransone), Frank's troubled son; and "The Greek" (Bill Raymond), Vondas' mysterious boss. As the second season ended, the focus shifted away from the ports, leaving the new characters behind.


title: The Wire

text: The third season saw several previously recurring characters assuming larger starring roles, including Detective Leander Sydnor (Corey Parker Robinson), Bodie (J.D. Williams), Omar (Michael K. Williams), Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), and Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin (Robert Wisdom). Colvin commanded the Western district where the Barksdale organization operated, and nearing retirement, he came up with a radical new method of dealing with the drug problem. Proposition Joe, the East Side's cautious drug kingpin, became more cooperative with the Barksdale Organization. Sydnor, a rising young star in the Police Department in season 1, returned to the cast as part of the major crimes unit. Bodie had been seen gradually rising in the Barksdale organization since the first episode; he was born to their trade and showed a fierce aptitude for it. Omar had a vendetta against the Barksdale organization and gave them all of his lethal attention.


title: The Wire

text: New additions in the third season included Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), an ambitious city councilman; Mayor Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman), the incumbent whom Carcetti planned to unseat; Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), leader of an upstart gang seeking to challenge Avon's dominance; and Dennis "Cutty" Wise (Chad Coleman), a newly released convict uncertain of his future.


title: The Wire

text: In the fourth season, four young actors joined the cast: Jermaine Crawford as Duquan "Dukie" Weems; Maestro Harrell as Randy Wagstaff; Julito McCullum as Namond Brice; and Tristan Wilds as Michael Lee. The characters are friends from a west Baltimore middle school. Another newcomer was Norman Wilson (Reg E. Cathey), Carcetti's deputy campaign manager.


title: The Wire

text: The fifth season saw several actors join the starring cast. Gbenga Akinnagbe returns as the previously recurring Chris Partlow, chief enforcer of the now dominant Stanfield Organization. Neal Huff reprises his role as Mayoral chief of staff Michael Steintorf, having previously appeared as a guest star at the end of the fourth season. Two other actors also joined the starring cast, having previously portrayed their corrupt characters as guest stars—Michael Kostroff as defense attorney Maurice Levy and Isiah Whitlock Jr. as State Senator Clay Davis. Crew member Clark Johnson appeared in front of the camera for the first time in the series to play Augustus Haynes, the principled editor of the city desk of "The Baltimore Sun". He is joined in the newsroom by two other new stars; Michelle Paress and Tom McCarthy play young reporters Alma Gutierrez and Scott Templeton.


title: The Wire

text: The first season introduces two major groups of characters: the Baltimore Police Department and a drug dealing organization run by the Barksdale family. The season follows the police investigation of the latter over its 13 episodes.


title: The Wire

text: The investigation is triggered when, following the acquittal of D'Angelo Barksdale for murder after a key witness changes her story, Detective Jimmy McNulty meets privately with Judge Daniel Phelan. McNulty tells Phelan that the witness has probably been intimidated by members of a drug trafficking empire run by D'Angelo's uncle, Avon Barksdale, having recognized several faces at the trial, most notably Avon's second-in-command, Stringer Bell. He also tells Phelan that no one is investigating Barksdale's criminal activity, which includes a significant portion of the city's drug trade and several unsolved homicides.


title: The Wire

text: Phelan reacts to McNulty's report by complaining to senior Police Department figures, embarrassing them into creating a detail dedicated to investigating Barksdale. However, owing to the department's dysfunction, the investigation is intended as a façade to appease the judge. An intradepartmental struggle between the more motivated officers on the detail and their superiors spans the whole season, with interference by the higher-ups often threatening to ruin the investigation. The detail's commander, Cedric Daniels, acts as mediator between the two opposing groups of police.


title: The Wire

text: Meanwhile, the organized and cautious Barksdale gang is explored through characters at various levels within it. The organization is continually antagonized by a stick-up crew led by Omar Little, and the feud leads to several deaths. Throughout, D'Angelo struggles with his conscience over his life of crime and the people it affects.


title: The Wire

text: The police have little success with street-level arrests or with securing informants beyond Bubbles, a well known West Side drug addict. Eventually the investigation takes the direction of electronic surveillance, with wiretaps and pager clones to infiltrate the security measures taken by the Barksdale organization. This leads the investigation to areas the commanding officers had hoped to avoid, including political contributions.


title: The Wire

text: When an associate of Avon Barksdale is arrested by State Police and offers to cooperate, the commanding officers order the detail to undertake a sting operation to wrap up the case. Detective Kima Greggs is seriously hurt in the operation, triggering an overzealous response from the rest of the department. This causes the detail's targets to suspect that they are under investigation.


title: The Wire

text: Wallace is murdered by his childhood friends Bodie and Poot, on orders from Stringer Bell, after leaving his "secure" placement with relatives and returning to Baltimore. D'Angelo Barksdale is eventually arrested transporting a kilo of uncut heroin, and learning of Wallace's murder, is ready to turn in his uncle and Stringer. However, D'Angelo's mother convinces him to rescind the deal and take the charges for his family. The detail manages to arrest Avon on a minor charge and gets one of his soldiers, Wee-Bey, to confess to most of the murders, some of which he did not commit. Stringer escapes prosecution and is left running the Barksdale empire. For the officers, the consequences of antagonizing their superiors are severe, with Daniels passed over for promotion and McNulty assigned out of homicide and into the marine unit.


title: The Wire

text: The second season, along with its ongoing examination of the drug problem and its effect on the urban poor, examines the plight of the blue-collar urban working class as exemplified by dockworkers in the city port, as some of them get caught up in smuggling drugs and other contraband inside the shipping containers that pass through their port. In a season-long subplot, the Barksdale organization continues its drug trafficking despite Avon's imprisonment, with Stringer Bell assuming greater power.


title: The Wire

text: McNulty harbors a grudge against his former commanders for reassigning him to the marine unit. When thirteen unidentified young women are found dead in a container at the docks, McNulty successfully makes a spiteful effort to place the murders within the jurisdiction of his former commander. Meanwhile, police Major Stan Valchek gets into a feud with Polish-American Frank Sobotka, a leader of the International Brotherhood of Stevedores, a fictional dockers' union, over competing donations to their old neighborhood church. Valchek demands a detail to investigate Sobotka. A detail is assigned, but staffed with "humps".


title: The Wire

text: Valcheck threatens Burrell with a disruption of Burrell's confirmation hearings and insists on Daniels. Cedric Daniels is interviewed, having been praised by Prez, Major Valchek's son-in-law, and also because of his work on the Barksdale case. He is eventually selected to lead the detail assigned just to investigate Sobotka; when the investigation is concluded Daniels is assured he will move up to head a special case unit with personnel of his choosing.


title: The Wire

text: Life for the blue-collar men of the port is increasingly hard and work is scarce. As union leader, Sobotka has taken it on himself to reinvigorate the port by lobbying politicians to support much-needed infrastructure improvement initiatives. Lacking the funds needed for this kind of influence, Sobotka has become involved with a smuggling ring. Around him, his son and nephew also turn to crime, as they have few other opportunities to earn money.


title: The Wire

text: It becomes clear to the Sobotka detail that the dead girls are related to their investigation, as they were in a container that was supposed to be smuggled through the port. They again use wiretaps to infiltrate the crime ring and slowly work their way up the chain towards The Greek, the mysterious man in charge. But Valchek, upset that their focus has moved beyond Sobotka, gets the FBI involved. The Greek has a mole inside the FBI and starts severing his ties to Baltimore when he learns about the investigation.


title: The Wire

text: After a dispute over stolen goods turns violent, Sobotka's wayward son Ziggy is charged with the murder of one of the Greek's underlings. Sobotka himself is arrested for smuggling; he agrees to work with the detail to help his son, finally seeing his actions as a mistake. The Greek learns about this through his mole inside the FBI and has Sobotka killed. The investigation ends with the fourteen homicides solved but the perpetrator already dead. Several drug dealers and mid-level smuggling figures tied to the Greek are arrested, but he and his second-in-command escape uncharged and unidentified. The Major is pleased that Sobotka was arrested; the case is seen as a success by the commanding officers, but is viewed as a failure by the detail.


title: The Wire

text: Across town, the Barksdale organization continues its business under Stringer while Avon and D'Angelo Barksdale serve prison time. D'Angelo decides to cut ties to his family after his uncle organizes the deaths of several inmates and blames it on a corrupt guard to shave time from his sentence. Eventually Stringer covertly orders D'Angelo killed, with the murder staged to look like a suicide. Avon is unaware of Stringer's duplicity and mourns the loss of his nephew.


title: The Wire

text: Stringer also struggles, having been cut off by Avon's drug suppliers in New York and left with increasingly poor-quality product. He again goes behind Avon's back, giving up half of Avon's most prized territory to a rival named Proposition Joe in exchange for a share of his supply, which is revealed to be coming from the Greek. Avon, unaware of the arrangement, assumes that Joe and other dealers are moving into his territory simply because the Barksdale organization has too few enforcers. He uses his New York connections to hire a feared assassin named Brother Mouzone.


title: The Wire

text: Stringer deals with this by tricking his old adversary Omar into believing that Mouzone was responsible for the vicious killing of his partner in their feud in season one. Seeking revenge, Omar shoots Mouzone but, realizing Stringer has lied to him, calls 9-1-1. Mouzone recovers and leaves Baltimore, and Stringer (now with Avon's consent) is able to continue his arrangement with Proposition Joe.


title: The Wire

text: In the third season, the focus returns to the street and the Barksdale organization. The scope is expanded to include the city's political scene. A new subplot is introduced to explore the potential positive effects of "de facto" "legalizing" the illegal drug trade, and incidentally prostitution, within the limited boundaries of a few uninhabited city blocks—referred to as "Hamsterdam". The posited benefits, as in Amsterdam and other European cities, are reduced street crime city-wide and increased outreach of health and social services to vulnerable people. These are continuations of stories hinted at earlier.


title: The Wire

text: The demolition of the residential towers that had served as the Barksdale organization's prime territory pushes their dealers back out onto the streets of Baltimore. Stringer Bell continues his reform of the organization by cooperating with other drug lords, sharing with one another territory, product and profits. Stringer's proposal is met with a curt refusal from Marlo Stanfield, leader of a new, growing crew.


title: The Wire

text: Against Stringer's advice, Avon decides to take Marlo's territory by force and the two gangs become embroiled in a bitter turf war with multiple deaths. Omar Little continues to rob the Barksdale organization wherever possible. Working with his new boyfriend Dante and two women, he is once more a serious problem. The violence related to the drug trade makes it an obvious choice of investigation for Cedric Daniels' permanently established Major Crimes Unit.


title: The Wire

text: Councilman Tommy Carcetti begins to prepare himself for a mayoral race. He manipulates a colleague into running against the mayor to split the black vote, secures a capable campaign manager and starts making headlines for himself.


title: The Wire

text: Approaching the end of his career, Major Howard "Bunny" Colvin of Baltimore's Western District wants to effect some real change in the troubled neighborhoods for which he has long been responsible. Without the knowledge of central command, Colvin sets up areas where police would monitor, but not punish, the drug trade. The police crack down severely on violence in these areas and also on drug trafficking elsewhere in the city.


title: The Wire

text: For many weeks, Colvin's experiment works and crime is reduced in his district. Colvin' superiors, the media and city politicians eventually find out about the arrangement and the "Hamsterdam" experiment ends. With top brass outraged, Colvin is forced to cease his actions, accept a demotion and retire from the Police Department on a lower-grade pension. Tommy Carcetti uses the scandal to make a grandstanding speech at a weekly Baltimore city council meeting.


title: The Wire

text: In another strand, Dennis "Cutty" Wise, once a drug dealer's enforcer, is released from a fourteen-year prison term with a street contact from Avon. Cutty initially wishes to go straight partly to reignite his relationship with a former girlfriend. He tries to work as a manual laborer, but struggles to adapt to life as a free man. He then flirts with his former life, going to work for Avon. Finding he no longer has the heart for murder, he quits the Barksdale crew. Later, he uses funding from Avon to purchase new equipment for his nascent boxing gym.


title: The Wire

text: The Major Crimes Unit learns that Stringer has been buying real estate and developing it to fulfill his dream of being a successful legitimate businessman. Believing that the bloody turf war with Marlo is poised to destroy everything the Barksdale crew had worked for, Stringer gives Major Colvin information on Avon's weapons stash. Brother Mouzone returns to Baltimore and tracks down Omar to join forces. Mouzone tells Avon that his shooting must be avenged. Avon, remembering how Stringer disregarded his order which resulted in Stringer's attempt to have Brother Mouzone killed, furious over D'Angelo's murder to which Stringer had confessed, and fearing Mouzone's ability to harm his reputation outside of Baltimore, informs Mouzone of Stringer's upcoming visit to his construction site. Mouzone and Omar corner him and shoot him to death.


title: The Wire

text: Colvin tells McNulty about Avon's hideout and armed with the information gleaned from selling the Barksdale crew pre-wiretapped disposable cell phones, the detail stages a raid, arresting Avon and most of his underlings. Barksdale's criminal empire lies in ruins and Marlo's young crew simply moves into their territory. The drug trade in West Baltimore continues.


title: The Wire

text: The fourth season concentrates on the school system and the mayoral race. It takes a closer look at Marlo Stanfield's drug gang, which has grown to control most of western Baltimore's trafficking, and Dukie, Randy, Michael, and Namondfour boys from West Baltimoreas they enter the eighth grade. Prez has begun a new career as a mathematics teacher at the same school. The cold-blooded Marlo has come to dominate the streets of the west side, using murder and intimidation to make up for his weak-quality drugs and lack of business acumen. His enforcers Chris Partlow and Snoop conceal their numerous victims in abandoned and boarded-up row houses where the bodies will not be readily discovered. The disappearances of so many known criminals come to mystify both the major crimes unit investigating Marlo and the homicide unit assigned to solve the presumed murders. Marlo coerces Bodie into working under him.


title: The Wire

text: McNulty is a patrolman and lives with Beadie Russell. He politely refuses offers from Daniels who is now a major and commanding the Western District. Detectives Kima Greggs and Lester Freamon, as part of the major crimes unit, investigate Avon Barksdale's political donations and serve several key figures with subpoenas. Their work is shut down by Commissioner Ervin Burrell at Mayor Clarence Royce's request, and after being placed under stricter supervision within their unit, both Greggs and Freamon request and receive transfer to the homicide division.


title: The Wire

text: Meanwhile, the city's mayoral primary race enters its closing weeks. Royce initially has a seemingly insurmountable lead over challengers Tommy Carcetti and Tony Gray, with a big war chest and major endorsements. Royce's lead begins to fray, as his own political machinations turn against him and Carcetti starts to highlight the city's crime problem. Carcetti is propelled to victory in the primary election.


title: The Wire

text: Howard "Bunny" Colvin joins a research group attempting to study potential future criminals in the middle school population. Dennis "Cutty" Wise continues to work with boys in his boxing gym, and accepts a job at the school rounding up truants. Prez has a few successes with his students, but some of them start to slip away. Disruptive Namond is removed from class and placed in the research group, where he gradually develops affection and respect for Colvin. Randy, in a moment of desperation, reveals knowledge of a murder to the assistant principal, leading to his being interrogated by police. When Bubbles takes Sherrod, a homeless teenager, under his wing, he fails in his attempts to encourage the boy to return to school.


title: The Wire

text: Proposition Joe tries to engineer conflict between Omar Little and Marlo to convince Marlo to join the co-op. Omar robs Marlo who, in turn, frames Omar for a murder and organizes attempts to have him murdered in jail but Omar manages to beat the charge with the help of Bunk. Omar is told that Marlo set him up, so takes revenge on him by robbing the entire shipment of the co-op. Marlo is furious with Joe for allowing the shipment to be stolen. Marlo demands satisfaction, and as a result, Joe sets up a meeting between him and Spiros Vondas, who assuages Marlo's concerns. Having gotten a lead on Joe's connection to the Greeks, Marlo begins investigating them to learn more about their role in bringing narcotics into Baltimore.


title: The Wire

text: Freamon discovers the bodies Chris and Snoop had hidden. Bodie offers McNulty testimony against Marlo and his crew, but is shot dead on his corner by O-Dog, a member of Marlo's crew. Sherrod dies after snorting a poisoned vial of heroin that, unbeknownst to him, Bubbles had prepared for their tormentor. Bubbles turns himself in to the police and tries to hang himself, but he survives and is taken to a detox facility. Michael has now joined the ranks of Marlo's killers and runs one of his corners, with Dukie leaving high school to work there. Randy's house is firebombed by school bullies for his cooperation with the police, leaving his caring foster mother hospitalized and sending him back to a group home. Namond is taken in by Colvin, who recognized the good in him. The major crimes unit from earlier seasons is largely reunited, and they resume their investigation of Marlo Stanfield.


title: The Wire

text: The fifth season focuses on the media and media consumption. The show features a fictional depiction of the newspaper "The Baltimore Sun", and in fact elements of the plot are ripped-from-the-headlines events (such as the Jayson Blair "New York Times" scandal) and people at the "Sun". The season, according to David Simon, deals with "what stories get told and what don't and why it is that things stay the same." Issues such as the quest for profit, the decrease in the number of reporters, and the end of aspiration for news quality would all be addressed, alongside the theme of homelessness. John Carroll of "The Baltimore Sun" was the model for the "craven, prize hungry" editor of the fictional newspaper.


title: The Wire

text: Fifteen months after the fourth season concludes, Mayor Carcetti's cuts in the police budget to redress the education deficit force the Marlo Stanfield investigation to shut down. Cedric Daniels secures a detail to focus on the prosecution of Senator Davis for corruption. Detective McNulty returns to the Homicide unit and decides to divert resources back to the Police Department by faking evidence to make it appear that a serial killer is murdering homeless men.


title: The Wire

text: "The Baltimore Sun" also faces budget cuts and the newsroom struggles to adequately cover the city, omitting many important stories. Commissioner Burrell continues to falsify crime statistics and is fired by Carcetti, who positions Daniels to replace him.


title: The Wire

text: Marlo Stanfield lures his enemy Omar Little out of retirement by having Omar's mentor Butchie murdered. Proposition Joe teaches Stanfield how to launder money and evade investigation. Once Joe is no longer useful to him, Stanfield has Joe killed with the help of Joe's nephew Cheese Wagstaff and usurps his position with the Greeks and the New Day Co-Op. Michael Lee continues working as a Stanfield enforcer, providing a home for his friend Dukie and younger brother Bug.


title: The Wire

text: Omar returns to Baltimore seeking revenge, targeting Stanfield's organization, stealing and destroying money and drugs and killing Stanfield enforcers in an attempt to force Stanfield into the open. However, he is eventually shot and killed by Kenard, a young Stanfield dealer.


title: The Wire

text: "Baltimore Sun" reporter Scott Templeton claims to have been contacted by McNulty's fake serial killer. City Editor Gus Haynes becomes suspicious, but his superiors are enamored of Templeton. McNulty backs up Templeton's claim in order to further legitimize his fabricated serial killer. The story gains momentum and Carcetti spins the resulting attention on homelessness into a key issue in his imminent campaign for Governor and restores funding to the Police Department.


title: The Wire

text: Bubbles is recovering from his drug addiction while living in his sister's basement. He is befriended by "Sun" reporter Mike Fletcher, who eventually writes a profile of Bubbles.


title: The Wire

text: Bunk is disgusted with McNulty's serial killer scheme and tries to have Lester Freamon reason with McNulty. Instead, Freamon helps McNulty perpetuate the lie and uses resources earmarked for the case to fund an illegal wiretap on Stanfield. Bunk resumes working the vacant house murders, leading to a murder warrant against Partlow for killing Michael's stepfather.


title: The Wire

text: Freamon and Leander Sydnor gather enough evidence to arrest Stanfield and most of his top lieutenants, seizing a large quantity of drugs. Stanfield suspects that Michael is an informant, and orders him killed. Michael realizes he is being set up and kills Snoop instead. A wanted man, he leaves Bug with an aunt and begins a career as a stick-up man. With his support system gone, Dukie lives with drug addicts.


title: The Wire

text: McNulty tells Kima Greggs about his fabrications to prevent her wasting time on the case. Greggs tells Daniels, who, along with Rhonda Pearlman, takes this news to Carcetti, who orders a cover-up because of the issue's importance to his campaign.


title: The Wire

text: Davis is acquitted, but Freamon uses the threat of federal prosecution to blackmail him for information. Davis reveals Maurice Levy has a mole in the courthouse from whom he illegally purchases copies of sealed indictments. Herc tells Levy that the Stanfield case was probably based on an illegal wiretap, something which would jeopardize the entire case. After Levy reveals this to Pearlman, she uses Levy's espionage to blackmail him into agreeing to a plea bargain for his defendants. Levy ensures Stanfield's release on the condition that he permanently retires, while his subordinates will have to accept long sentences. Stanfield sells the connection to The Greeks back to the Co-Op and plans to become a businessman, although he appears unable or unwilling to stay off the corner.


title: The Wire

text: As the cover-up begins, a copy-cat killing occurs, but McNulty quickly identifies and arrests the culprit. Pearlman tells McNulty and Freamon that they can no longer be allowed to do investigative work and warns of criminal charges if the scandal becomes public. They opt to retire. Haynes attempts to expose Templeton but the managing editors ignore the fabrications and demote anyone critical of their star reporter. Carcetti pressures Daniels to falsify crime statistics to aid his campaign. Daniels refuses and then quietly resigns rather than have his FBI file leaked.


title: The Wire

text: In a final montage, McNulty gazes over the city; Freamon enjoys retirement; Templeton wins a Pulitzer; Carcetti becomes Governor; Haynes is sidelined to the copy desk and replaced by Fletcher; Campbell appoints Valchek as commissioner; Carcetti appoints Rawls as Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Dukie continues to use heroin; Pearlman becomes a judge and Daniels a defense attorney; Bubbles is allowed upstairs where he enjoys a family dinner; Chris serves his life sentence alongside Wee-Bey; the drug trade continues; and the people of Baltimore go on with their lives.


title: The Wire

text: During the fifth season, HBO produced three shorts depicting moments in the history of characters in "The Wire". The three prequels depict the first meeting between McNulty and Bunk; Proposition Joe as a slick business kid; and young Omar. The shorts are available on the complete series DVD set.


title: The Wire

text: All seasons of "The Wire" have received positive reviews from major television critics, with seasons two through five in particular receiving near universal acclaim, with several naming it the best contemporary show and one of the best drama series of all time. The first season received mainly positive reviews from critics, some even calling it superior to HBO's better-known "flagship" drama series such as "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under". On the review aggregator Metacritic, the first season scored 79 out of 100 based on 22 reviews. One reviewer pointed to the retread of some themes from HBO and David Simon's earlier works, but still found it valuable viewing and particularly resonant because it parallels the war on terror through the chronicling of the war on drugs. Another review postulated that the series might suffer because of its reliance on profanity and slowly drawn-out plot, but was largely positive about the show's characters and intrigue.


title: The Wire

text: Despite the critical acclaim, "The Wire" received poor Nielsen ratings, which Simon attributed to the complexity of the plot; a poor time slot; heavy use of esoteric slang, particularly among the gangster characters; and a predominantly black cast. Critics felt the show was testing the attention span of its audience and that it was mistimed in the wake of the launch of the successful crime drama "The Shield" on FX. However, anticipation for a release of the first season on DVD was high at "Entertainment Weekly".