title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood's voice roles include Mumble in the "Happy Feet" film franchise (2006-2011), the title protagonist in "9" (2009), Spyro the Dragon in the "Legend of Spyro" video game trilogy (2006–2008), Beck on Disney XD's "" (2012–2013), and Wirt in the Cartoon Network miniseries "Over the Garden Wall" (2014). He also played Ryan Newman on the FX dark comedy series "Wilfred" (2011–2014), for which he received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actor, and Todd Brotzman in the BBC America series "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" (2016–2017).


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood founded the record label Simian Records in 2005, which was dissolved in 2015. He founded the film production company SpectreVision in 2010.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on January 28, 1981, the second of three children born to Debbie ("née" Krause) and Warren Wood, who operated a delicatessen together. He is of English, Danish, Irish, and German ancestry, and was raised Catholic. He has an older brother named Zachariah and a younger sister named Hannah. At age seven, he began modeling and taking piano lessons in his hometown. In elementary school, he appeared in "The Sound of Music" and played the title character in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". He also served as a choirboy in a production of "See How They Run". His parents sold their delicatessen in 1989 and the family, without his father, moved to Los Angeles in order for Wood to pursue an acting career. His parents divorced when he was 15.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood modeled and appeared in local commercials. He got his first break in the music video for Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl," directed by David Fincher. This was followed by a pivotal role in the made-for-TV film, "Child in the Night," and a minor role in "Back to the Future Part II". Nine-year-old Wood auditioned for a role in "Kindergarten Cop", but was told by director Ivan Reitman that his performance was not believable, which Wood later said was "a harsh thing to say to a nine-year-old." Playing Aidan Quinn's son in "Avalon" garnered professional attention for Wood; the film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for four Academy Awards. A small part in Richard Gere's "Internal Affairs" was followed by the role of a boy who brings estranged couple Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson back together in "Paradise" (1991). In 1992, Wood co-starred with Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis in "Forever Young", and with Joseph Mazzello in "Radio Flyer".


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 1993, Wood played the title character in Disney's adaptation of Mark Twain's novel, "The Adventures of Huck Finn", and co-starred with Macaulay Culkin in the psychological thriller "The Good Son". The following year, he starred in "The War", alongside Kevin Costner. Roger Ebert's review of the film praised Wood highly, stating that Wood "has emerged, I believe, as the most talented actor, in his age group, in Hollywood history."


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood's title role–opposite Bruce Willis–in the Robert Reiner film "North" (1994) was followed by a Super Bowl commercial for Lay's "Wavy" potato chips (with Dan Quayle). In 1995, Wood appeared in the music video for The Cranberries' "Ridiculous Thoughts," played the lead role in "Flipper", and co-starred in Ang Lee's critically acclaimed "The Ice Storm". In 1997, Wood played Jack "The Artful Dodger" Dawkins in a made-for-TV adaptation of "Oliver Twist", alongside Richard Dreyfuss. The following year, he had a leading role in the sci-fi disaster film "Deep Impact," and a starring role in "The Faculty", directed by Robert Rodriguez. In 1999, Wood played a suburban white teenager who affects hip-hop lingo in James Toback's "Black and White", and a junior hitman in "Chain of Fools".


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood played Frodo Baggins in the 2001 "", the first instalment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's multi-volume novel; he was the first actor to be cast. This gave Wood top billing, alongside a cast that included Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Miranda Otto, Sean Bean, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and John Rhys-Davies.


title: Elijah Wood

text: The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, in a process taking more than one year for principal photography alone, with pick-up shots annually for the next four years.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Before the cast left the country, Jackson gave Wood two gifts: one of the One Ring props used on the set and Sting, Frodo's sword. He was also given a pair of prosthetic "hobbit feet" of the type worn during filming.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2002, Wood lent his voice to the DTV release of "The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina". Later that year, the second part of Peter Jackson's trilogy was released, titled "", in which Wood had a reduced role from the first movie.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2003, Wood starred in the DTV film "All I Want" and also cameoed as 'The Guy' in "". The concluding chapter of the "Rings" trilogy, "" was released that December.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood's first role following his "Lord of the Rings" success was in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), in which he played Patrick, an unscrupulous lab technician who pursues Kate Winslet. The film received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2005. He next played the serial killer Kevin in Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book series, "Sin City" (2005). On May 12, 2005, Wood hosted "MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed" for the launch of the Xbox 360 games console.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In "Everything Is Illuminated" (2005), Wood starred as a young Jewish-American man on a quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II. It was based on the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer. In "Green Street" (also 2005), he played an American college student who joins a violent British football firm. Both had limited release but were critically acclaimed.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood shot a small part in "Paris, je t'aime" (2006), which consists of 18 five-minute sections, each directed by a different director. Wood's section, called "Quartier de la Madeleine", was directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film played at the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In George Miller's animated musical "Happy Feet" (2006), Wood provided the voice of Mumble, a penguin who can tap dance, but not sing. "Happy Feet" grossed over $380 million worldwide, and received both the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film. Wood reprised his role for the film's sequel, "Happy Feet Two" (2011).


title: Elijah Wood

text: Also in 2006, he was part of the ensemble cast of Emilio Estevez's drama "Bobby", a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968, shooting of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In the film, Wood marries Lindsay Lohan's character in order to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War. "Bobby" screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Wood, along with his co-stars, received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Later that year, Wood hosted the television special "Saving a Species: The Great Penguin Rescue" for Discovery Kids; he received a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming. That same year, it was announced that Wood was set to star in "The Passenger", a biographical film about singer Iggy Pop. However, the project failed to come to fruition after years in development.


title: Elijah Wood

text: On January 4, 2007, Wood joined Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg in a live telecast to announce the nominees for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Later that year, he starred in "Day Zero", a drama about conscription in the United States, which had its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In "The Oxford Murders" (2008), a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Guillermo Martínez, Wood played a graduate student who investigates a series of bizarre, mathematically based murders in Oxford. The following year, he voiced the lead in the animated feature film "9", which was produced by Tim Burton.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood's first starring television role came in the FX series, "Wilfred," where he played Ryan Newman. The pilot was shot in the summer of 2010, and the series lasted four seasons, with the final episode airing in the U.S. on August 13, 2014. For his role, Wood received a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2011.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In January 2011, it was confirmed that Wood had signed on to reprise the role of Frodo Baggins in "", the first film of the "Hobbit" trilogy, directed again by Peter Jackson. The film was released the following year and grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Also in 2011, Wood featured in the Beastie Boys' music video for "Make Some Noise," along with Seth Rogen and Danny McBride. He then starred in the Flying Lotus music video "Tiny Tortures," where he played a recent amputee coming to grips with his new situation. The psychedelic video was described as "menacing and magical."


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2012, Wood had a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Celeste and Jesse Forever", and starred in the horror film "Maniac", for which he received the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actor.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2013, Wood played the leading role in the Hitchcockian suspense thriller "Grand Piano". Next he provided the voice of main character Wirt in Cartoon Network's animated miniseries "Over the Garden Wall". The series collected three Primetime Emmy Awards in 2015, including Outstanding Animated Program. This was followed by prominent roles in films "The Last Witch Hunter" (2015), opposite Vin Diesel; "The Trust" (2016), opposite Nicolas Cage; and "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" (2017), opposite Melanie Lynskey. The latter film was awarded the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in January 2017.


title: Elijah Wood

text: From 2016 to 2017, Wood co-starred with Samuel Barnett as Todd Brotzman in the BBC America series "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". It was announced in December 2017 that the show had not been renewed for a third season.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Elijah Wood appears in The Cranberries' music video for "Ridiculous Thoughts" and in Danko Jones' three-piece series: "Full of Regret," "Had Enough," and "I Think Bad Thoughts." He also appears in the Beastie Boys music video "Make Some Noise."


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2005, Wood started his own record label called Simian Records. On September 19, 2006, Wood announced that Simian had signed The Apples in Stereo as their first band, with their new album "New Magnetic Wonder" released in February 2007. In addition, he also directed the music video for "Energy."


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood has also provided voiceovers for video games, including the voice of Spyro the Dragon in the "Legend of Spyro" game trilogy, as well as reprising Mumble in the game version of "Happy Feet".


title: Elijah Wood

text: On April 11, 2008, Wood was the guest host of Channel 4's "Friday Night Project". On April 25, 2009, Wood was honored with the Midnight Award by the San Francisco International Film Festival as an American actor who "has made outstanding contributions to independent and Hollywood cinema, and who brings striking intelligence, exemplary talent and extraordinary depth of character to his roles."


title: Elijah Wood

text: In addition to producing and acting, Wood has become a well-known disc jockey. Together with his friend Zach Cowie, they formed Wooden Wisdom and have toured around the world. They have spun at events such as the Bushmills Live 2012 festival at the Old Bushmills Distillery, the opening of the Brickell City Centre and at the pre-Emmy party at The London West Hollywood hotel.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood signed up to co-produce and also star in the film "Black Wings Has My Angel", based on the noir novel of the same name, with Anthony Moody and Rob Malkani of Indalo Productions. Wood, alongside Tom Hiddleston and Anna Paquin, was set start shooting in late 2012, but the production of the movie was delayed.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In 2010, Wood, together with Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller, founded The Woodshed, a production company that promotes horror films. In 2013, the company was re-branded as SpectreVision.


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood voiced Shay, one of two main characters in the adventure game "Broken Age", for which he received the 2014 "Performance in a Comedy, Lead" award from National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR).


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood together with Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, and Karl Urban, plus writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson on May 31, 2020, joined Josh Gad's YouTube series "Reunited Apart" which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities. Wood also provided the voice of Nick Johnsmith / Gristol Malik in "Psychonauts 2".


title: Elijah Wood

text: Wood has a tattoo of the number nine written in the Sindarin language, which uses the Tengwar script, and in the English language (rather than Quenya as is widely believed) below his waist on the right side. It refers to his character as one of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship" got the same tattoo, with the exception of John Rhys-Davies, whose stunt double got the tattoo instead.


title: Elijah Wood

text: In May 2006, Wood was ranked at No. 7 on "Autograph Collector Magazine" list of the "10 Best Hollywood Autograph Signers."


title: Elijah Wood

text: On April 23, 2010, in a charitable gesture, Wood visited the Chilean town of Curepto, one of the hardest hit by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 27, 2010. He made personal visits to many of the victims and was accompanied by the First Lady of Chile, Cecilia Morel.


title: Juno Temple

text: Juno Temple (born 21 July 1989) is a British actress. She has appeared in the films "Notes on a Scandal" (2006), "Atonement" (2007), "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008), "The Three Musketeers" (2011), "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), "Magic Magic" (2013), "Maleficent" (2014), "Black Mass" (2015), "Unsane" (2018), and "" (2019). Temple also has starred in the television series "Vinyl" (2016), "Dirty John" (2018–2019), "Ted Lasso" (2020–present), "Little Birds" (2020), and "The Offer" (2022).


title: Juno Temple

text: Temple received the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2013. She was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards for her role as Keeley Jones in "Ted Lasso", in addition to being nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Satellite Award for her role as Bettye McCartt in "The Offer".


title: Juno Temple

text: Juno Temple was born in the Hammersmith area of London on 21 July 1989, the daughter of film producer Amanda Pirie and film director Julien Temple. She has two younger brothers, Leo and Felix. Her aunt Nina Temple was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain. She grew up in Taunton, Somerset, where she attended Enmore Primary School, Bedales School, and King's College.


title: Juno Temple

text: Temple began her career as a child actress in the 1997 film "Vigo: Passion for Life", a film about Jean Vigo. Her father directed her in the role of Emma Southey in the 2000 film, "Pandaemonium".


title: Juno Temple

text: Early in her career, she won critical praise for several supporting roles. One reviewer said that she played her part in "Notes on a Scandal" (2006) with "petulance and angst", while her performance as Lola Quincey in "Atonement" (2007) was called "impressive". She auditioned to play Luna Lovegood in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007), though the role ultimately went to Evanna Lynch. In 2009, Temple played Eema in the comedy "Year One" alongside Jack Black and Michael Cera, Anna in Jaco Van Dormael's "Mr. Nobody", and Di Radfield in the film adaptation of Sheila Kohler's novel, "Cracks". Some of her other film credits at the time include Celia in "St Trinian's" (2007) and "" (2009), Jennifer "Drippy" Logan in "Wild Child" (2008), and Jane Parker in "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008).


title: Juno Temple

text: In 2010, she starred in Abe Sylvia's "Dirty Girl", which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival; and appeared in a sketch for FunnyOrDie called "Cycop", which featured the protagonist from the indie film "The Mother of Invention" (2009) in a poorly made film of his creation. She also had a major role in the film "Kaboom" (2010), which won the first Queer Palm award. In 2011, Temple appeared in Paul W. S. Anderson's 3D film adaptation of "The Three Musketeers", as Anne of Austria, the Queen Consort of France. That same year she played Dottie in "Killer Joe", a role Temple received after sending an unsolicited audition tape to the movie's casting director. She also starred in Elgin Jamess 2011 film "Little Birds". James offered her the choice of playing either of the two female leads and she chose to portray Lily, citing that she connected with the character more and "wanted to set her free". Temple and James worked on "Little Birds" together for two years, and continued to collaborate afterwards, referring to each other as "best friends" and "family" in interviews. James has said he made "Little Birds" to honor the strong women in his life, including Temple. That same year, she was named a Brit to Watch by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.


title: Juno Temple

text: In 2012, she appeared in "The Dark Knight Rises", as a "street-smart Gotham girl", and portrayed Diane in the lesbian werewolf tale "Jack & Diane". In February 2013, Temple won the EE Rising Star BAFTA Award, voted for by the public.


title: Juno Temple

text: Temple had a supporting role as Deborah Hussey in the 2015 true-crime film "Black Mass", which starred Johnny Depp; and played Jamie Vine, an A&R assistant for the fictional American Century record company, in the 2016 HBO series "Vinyl". In August 2020, Temple began a recurring role as Keeley, a former girlfriend of one of the team players and the unofficial team publicist, on the Apple TV+ series "Ted Lasso".


title: Juno Temple

text: Temple has also appeared in the music videos for Kid Harpoon's "Milkmaid" and Plushgun's "Just Impolite".


title: Juno Temple

text: In 2018-19, Temple played a focal role as the protagonist's daughter in the Bravo series "Dirty John," which was later acquired by Netflix. In 2020 she won the Best Actress award at the Prague Independent Film Festival for her role in the film "Lost Transmissions". In 2022, she appeared in the Paramount+ miniseries "The Offer", depicting the production of "The Godfather".


title: Juno Temple

text: From 2013 to 2016, Temple was in a relationship with American actor Michael Angarano, with whom she lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. She previously lived in Soho, London.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Charlie Ross Heaton (born 6 February 1994) is an English actor and musician. He is known for starring as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series "Stranger Things" (2016–present) and for his roles in feature films like "As You Are" (2016), "Marrowbone" (2017), "The New Mutants" (2020), "No Future" (2021), and "The Souvenir Part II" (2021). Prior to his acting career, Heaton played in a number of London-based bands.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Heaton was born on 6 February 1994 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He was raised by his mother on a council estate in Bridlington, a small coastal town in Yorkshire.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Heaton moved to London at age 16. He played in a number of bands before joining the noise-rock band Comanechi as the drummer. During his tenure, the band released an album in 2013 and toured for a year and a half. Heaton then joined London-based psychedelic band Half Loon.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Heaton has no formal acting training, first considering an acting career while working for extras and commercial agencies to supplement his income as a musician and bartender.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: 2015 proved to be a pivotal year for Heaton; he had guest roles on a string of British television dramas and was cast in three major projects, including "Stranger Things". He first appeared in the ITV crime drama series "DCI Banks" and "Vera" and then guest-starred in BBC One's medical drama series "Casualty". In his first feature film role, he appeared in the 2016 thriller film "Shut In", co-starring Naomi Watts and Oliver Platt, and directed by Farren Blackburn. The film was produced in early 2015, prior to being cast in "Stranger Things," but was released following the show's premiere. Concurrently, he filmed the coming-of-age film "As You Are" in late 2015. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Heaton's breakthrough role was as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix supernatural drama series "Stranger Things". The first season premiered in July 2016 to critical acclaim; the most recent season, its fourth, was released in 2022.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: In 2017, Heaton had a main role in the psychological horror film "Marrowbone". In May of that year, Heaton was cast to star as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie / Cannonball in the film "The New Mutants" based on the Marvel Comics comic book of the same name. Filmed in 2017, the film was released in 2020. In August 2018, the BBC announced that Heaton would be playing Joseph Merrick, commonly known as the "Elephant Man", in a new two-part drama. The casting drew criticism from a disability charity group, the group's head saying that not using a disabled actor was a missed opportunity. Ultimately, it was not produced.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: In 2021, he starred opposite Catherine Keener in the independent film "No Future" and was part of the cast of the critically-acclaimed drama "The Souvenir Part II".


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Heaton has a child with Akiko Matsuura, a former bandmate. Since 2016, he has been in a relationship with "Stranger Things" co-star Natalia Dyer, who plays his character’s girlfriend Nancy Wheeler in the series.


title: Charlie Heaton

text: In October 2017, Heaton was detained at LAX Airport in Los Angeles for possession of small amounts of cocaine. He was not charged with a crime and was instead sent back to London. He was later allowed to return to the US to shoot the third season of "Stranger Things".


title: Charlie Heaton

text: Since first moving to London, Heaton became a keen football fan and an avid supporter of Arsenal F.C.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery, as well as offering related services, including financing, leasing and fleet management. In 2016, it was the world's largest automaker by sales, and keeping this title in 2017, 2018 and 2019, selling 10.9 million vehicles. It has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades. It ranked seventh in the 2020 "Fortune" Global 500 list of the world's largest companies.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: The Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen brands; motorcycles under the Ducati name; light commercial vehicles under the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand; and heavy commercial vehicles via the marques of listed subsidiary Traton (RIO, Navistar, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus). It is divided into two primary divisions—the Automotive Division and the Financial Services Division—and as of 2008, it had about 342 subsidiary companies. Volkswagen also has two major joint ventures in China, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen. The company has operations in roughly 150 countries, and it has 100 production facilities across 27 countries.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen was founded in Berlin in 1937 and incorporated in Wolfsburg to manufacture the car that would become known as the Beetle. The company's production grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965, it acquired Auto Union, which subsequently produced the first postwar Audi models. Volkswagen launched a new generation of front-wheel drive vehicles in the 1970s, including the Passat, Polo and Golf; the last became its bestseller. Volkswagen acquired a controlling stake in SEAT in 1986, making it the first non-German marque of the company, and acquired control of Škoda in 1994, of Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti in 1998, Scania in 2008 and of Ducati, MAN and Porsche in 2012. The company's operations in China have grown rapidly in the past decade, with the country becoming its largest market.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft is a public company and has a primary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where it is a constituent of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, and a secondary listings on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and SIX Swiss Exchange. It has been traded in the United States via American depositary receipts since 1988, currently on the OTC Marketplace. Volkswagen delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2013. The government of Lower Saxony holds 12.7% of the company's shares, granting it, by law, 20% of the voting rights.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen (meaning 'People's car' in German) was founded in Berlin as the "Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH" ('Limited Liability Company for the preparation of the German People's Car', abbreviated to "Gezuvor") by the National Socialist "Deutsche Arbeitsfront" (German Labour Front) and incorporated on 28 May 1937. The purpose of the company was to manufacture the Volkswagen car, originally referred to as the Porsche Type 60, then the Volkswagen Type 1, and commonly called the Volkswagen Beetle. This vehicle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche's consulting firm, and the company was backed by the support of Adolf Hitler. On 16 September 1938, Gezuvor was renamed "Volkswagenwerk GmbH" ('Volkswagen Factory GmbH').


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Shortly after the factory near Fallersleben was completed, World War II started, and the plant primarily manufactured the military Kübelwagen (Porsche Type 82) and the related amphibious Schwimmwagen (Type 166), both of which were derived from the Volkswagen. Only a small number of Type 60 Volkswagens were made during this time. The Fallersleben plant also manufactured the V-1 flying bomb, making the plant a major bombing target for the Allied forces.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: After the war in Europe, in June 1945, Major Ivan Hirst of the British Army Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) took control of the bomb-shattered factory for use in repairing British Army vehicles, pending the expected disposal of the plant tooling and equipment as war reparations. However, no British car manufacturer was interested. A British report on the car said that "the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car … it is quite unattractive to the average buyer … To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise." In 1948, the Ford Motor Company of USA was offered Volkswagen, but Ernest Breech, a Ford executive vice president said he did not think either the plant or the car was "worth a damn." Breech later said that he would have considered merging Ford of Germany and Volkswagen, but after the war, ownership of the company was in such dispute that nobody could possibly hope to be able to take it over. As part of the Industrial plans for Germany, large parts of German industry, including Volkswagen, were to be dismantled. Total German car production was set at a maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers. The company survived by producing cars for the British Army, and in 1948 the British Government handed the company back over to the German state, and it was managed by former Opel chief Heinrich Nordhoff.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Production of the Type 60 Volkswagen (re-designated Type 1) started slowly after the war due to the need to rebuild the plant and because of the lack of raw materials, but production grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. The company began introducing new models based on the Type 1, all with the same basic air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-drive platform. These included the Volkswagen Type 2 in 1950, the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia in 1955, the Volkswagen Type 3 in 1961, the Volkswagen Type 4 in 1968, and the Volkswagen Type 181 in 1969.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 1960, upon the flotation of part of the German federal government's stake in the company on the German stock market, its name became "Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft" (usually abbreviated to "Volkswagenwerk AG").


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 1 January 1965, Volkswagenwerk acquired Auto Union GmbH from its parent company Daimler-Benz. The new subsidiary went on to produce the first post-war Audi models, the Audi F103 series, shortly afterwards.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Another German manufacturer, NSU Motorenwerke AG, was merged into Auto Union on 26 August 1969, creating a new company, Audi NSU Auto Union AG (later renamed AUDI AG in 1985).


title: Volkswagen Group

text: From the late 1970s to 1992, the acronym V.A.G. was used by Volkswagen AG as a brand for group-wide activities, such as distribution and leasing. Contrary to popular belief, "V.A.G." had no official meaning, and was never the formal name of the Volkswagen Group.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 30 September 1982, Volkswagenwerk made its first step expanding outside Germany by signing a co-operation agreement with the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT, S.A.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: To reflect the company's increasing global diversification from its headquarters and main plant (the "Volkswagenwerk" in Wolfsburg), on 4 July 1985, the company name was changed again—to "Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft" (Volkswagen AG).


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 18 June 1986, Volkswagen AG acquired a 51% controlling stake in SEAT, making it the first non-German subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. On 23 December the same year, it became the Spanish company's major shareholder by increasing its share up to 75%.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 1990—after purchasing its entire equity—Volkswagen AG took over the full ownership of SEAT, making the company a wholly owned subsidiary, and on 28 March 1991, another step to the expansion of the group's activities was made through the signing of a joint-venture partnership agreement with Škoda automobilová a.s. of Czechoslovakia, accompanied with the acquisition of a 30% stake in the Czech car manufacturer on 16 April 1991. On 19 December 1994, the group began the acquisition of Škoda Auto by raising its share to 60.3%. Later, on 11 December 1995, it became the Czech company's largest and controlling shareholder by increasing its share up to 70%.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Three prestige automotive marques were added to the Volkswagen portfolio in 1998: Bentley, Lamborghini, and Bugatti.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 30 May 2000, after having gradually raised its equity share, Volkswagen AG took over the full ownership of Škoda Auto, making the company a wholly owned subsidiary.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: From 2002 up to 2007, the Volkswagen Group's automotive division was restructured so that two major Brand Groups with different profile would be formed, the "Audi Brand Group" focused on more sporty values – consisted of Audi, SEAT and Lamborghini – and the "Volkswagen Brand Group" on the field of classic values – consisted of Volkswagen, Skoda, Bentley and Bugatti – with each Brand Group's product vehicles and performance being respectively under the higher responsibility of Audi and Volkswagen brands.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen Group revealed on 24 October 2009 that it had made an offer to acquire long-time partner and German niche automotive manufacturer Wilhelm Karmann GmbH out of bankruptcy protection. In November 2009, the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG approved the acquisition of assets of Karmann, and planned to restart vehicle production at their Osnabrück plant in 2012.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In December 2009, Volkswagen AG bought a 49.9% stake in Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (more commonly known as Porsche AG) in a first step towards an 'integrated automotive group' with Porsche. The merger of Volkswagen AG and Porsche SE was scheduled to take place during the course of 2011. On 8 September 2011, it was announced that the planned merger "cannot be implemented within the time frame provided for in the Comprehensive Agreement". As reasons, unquantifiable legal risks, including a criminal probe into the holding's former management team were given. Both parties "remain committed to the goal of creating an integrated automotive group with Porsche and are convinced that this will take place". On 4 July 2012 Volkswagen group announced they would wrap up the remaining half of Porsche shares for 4.46 billion euros (US$5.58 billion) on 1 August 2012 to avoid taxes of as much as 1.5 billion euros, which would have to be paid if the wrap up happened after 31 July 2014. Volkswagen AG purchased the remaining stake in Porsche AG equaling 100% of the shares in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH, effectively becoming its parent company as of 1 August 2012.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen AG completed the purchase of 19.9% of Suzuki Motor Corporation's issued shares on 15 January 2010. Suzuki invested part of the amount received from Volkswagen into 1.49% percent of Volkswagen. In 2011, Suzuki filed a lawsuit at an arbitration court in London requesting that Volkswagen return the 19.9% stake.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 25 May 2010, it was announced that Volkswagen Group, through it subsidiary Lamborghini Holding S.p.A., had acquired a 90.1% stake in the Italian automotive design house Italdesign Giugiaro.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In less than three months, the transaction had been completed making the Italian firm a member of the Volkswagen Group. Since 2013 the Volkswagen Group has held a 89.7% stake in Traton.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 2015 research showed a security flaw in the keyless ignition of Volkswagen and other carmakers' vehicles. Volkswagen spent two years trying to keep the research from the public domain.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 3 August 2015, Nokia announced that it had reached a deal to sell its Here digital maps division to a consortium of three German automakers—BMW, Daimler AG, and Volkswagen Group, for €2.8 billion. This was seen as an indication that the automakers were interested in automated cars.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen held a 19.9% non-controlling shareholding in Suzuki between 2009 and 2015. An international arbitration court ordered Volkswagen to sell the stake back to Suzuki. On 17 September 2015, Suzuki paid $3.8bn to complete the stock buy-back just hours prior to a major scandal about emissions violations engulfing Volkswagen. Suzuki had wished to buy Fiat diesel engines.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Bugatti left the Volkswagen Group in November 2021, when the company became part of Bugatti Rimac, a joint venture between Rimac Automobili and Porsche AG.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 18 September 2015, the US EPA announced that Volkswagen had installed a "defeat device" software code in the diesel models sold in the US from 2009 to 2015. The code was intended to detect when an emissions test was being conducted, and altered emissions controls for better compliance. Off the test stand, the controls were relaxed, and emissions jumped 35 to 40 times regulatory levels according to investigators at West Virginia University and the California Air Resources Board. About 482,000 vehicles are under the recall order, a potential $18 billion ($37,500 per violation) in fines are pending, and news accounts speculate a criminal indictment for the deception is certain. The VW Group CEO, Martin Winterkorn, said he was "deeply sorry" and ordered an external investigation. The software code was only revealed when the EPA refused to certify VW's 2016 models for sale in the US unless the corporation provided full disclosure. On Sunday, 20 September 2015, VW Group announced it was halting the sale of its four-cylinder diesel models in the US. The US EPA press release on its Notice of Violation, and the California Air Resources Board letter dated 18 September 2015 contain significant chronological detail of the agencies interaction with VW on the issue.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 22 September 2015, VW AG admitted that 11 million cars worldwide had been fitted with software intended to deceive emissions testing. The company issued a profit warning, saying it had set aside $7 billion to fix the fraud. On 23 September 2015, Martin Winterkorn announced his resignation from the CEO position after a crisis meeting of the company board. On 25 September 2015 Matthias Müller was named CEO. Müller was the head of the Porsche marque within the VW corporate umbrella.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 21 April 2017, a U.S. federal judge ordered Volkswagen "to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine for rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests". The "unprecedented" plea deal formalized a punishment that Volkswagen AG agreed to earlier in 2017. In addition, the plea deal includes a $1.5 billion settlement for various environmental, customs and financial violations.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Overall, Volkswagen will pay more than $30 billion in penalties and lawsuit settlements related to the scandal.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 2016, Volkswagen Group announced a corporate "Strategy 2025" that focuses on electrification of its portfolio. The VW Group developed the Volkswagen Group MEB platform chassis that will be utilized in a range of various cars and light utility vehicles across several VW Group marques due to its flexibility and floor-mounted battery.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: As of May 2018, the VW Group has committed $48 billion in car battery supplies and plans to outfit 16 factories to build electric cars by the end of 2022. According to VW Group CEO Dr. Herbert Diess, the company will offer 25 electric models and 20 plug-in hybrids by 2020.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen Group came under pressure for cooperating with the Chinese government in the region of Xinjiang. In that same region, western-funded NGOs accused the Chinese government of having committed human rights abuses against the Uighur minority group, which included mass surveillance, incarceration, and forced labor. After these accusations emerged, Volkswagen responded, "We do not assume any of our employees are forced laborers." "Süddeutsche Zeitung" claimed that Volkswagen was operating a plant in Xinjiang at a loss in order to curry favor with the Chinese government to set up more lucrative plants in other parts of China, which Volkswagen denied, saying that the decision to set up the plant in 2012 was purely based on economics. Volkswagen is still operating a plant in the region as of 2020.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 2021, Volkswagen Group released their "New Auto" strategy. The strategy was based on transitioning to electric cars, and building a shared platform, battery systems, software and mobility solutions to use across all their brands. This involves creating the Scalable Systems Platform, as well as developing software under a new subsidiary called "CARIAD". Volkswagen Group aims by 2024 to transition to selling mostly electric cars. It aims to have six battery factories in Europe by 2030.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: For the fiscal year 2018, Volkswagen reported earnings of €13.920 billion, with an annual revenue of €235.849 billion, an increase of 2.2% over the previous fiscal cycle. Volkswagen's shares traded at over €148 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US$73.8 billion in November 2018.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Rooted in Europe, the Volkswagen Group operates in 153 countries. Volkswagen Passenger Cars is the Group's original marque, and the other major subsidiaries include passenger car marques such as Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, and Škoda. Volkswagen AG also has operations in commercial vehicles, owning Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, along with controlling stakes in truck, bus and diesel engine manufacturers Scania AB and MAN SE.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: The Group also owns five defunct marques which are managed through the companies Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH, both of which are 100% owned by AUDI AG:


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Under the Volkswagen Law, no shareholder in Volkswagen AG could exercise more than 20 percent of the firm's voting rights, regardless of their level of stock holding. This law was supposed to protect Volkswagen Group from takeovers. In October 2005, Porsche acquired an 18.53 percent stake in the business, and in July 2006, Porsche increased that ownership to more than 25 percent. Analysts disagreed as to whether the investment was a good fit for Porsche's strategy.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 26 March 2007, after the European Union moved against the Volkswagen law, Porsche took its holding to 30.9 percent, triggering a takeover bid under German law. Porsche formally announced in a press statement that it did not intend to take over Volkswagen Group, setting its offer price at the lowest possible legal value, but intended the move to avoid a competitor taking a large stake, or to stop hedge funds dismantling Volkswagen Group, which is Porsche's most important partner.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: On 16 September 2008, Porsche announced that the company had increased its stake in Volkswagen AG to 35 percent. By October 2008, Porsche held 42.6 percent of Volkswagen AG's ordinary shares, and held stock options on another 31.5 percent. thus, effectively holding over 74 percent; 42.6 percent actual shares, and the rest as convertible options. Volkswagen AG briefly became the world's most valuable company, as the stock price rose to over €1,000 per share as short sellers tried to cover their positions. The substantial investment in Volkswagen left Porsche with huge financial burden with its debts accumulating up to 13 billion euros by 2009. Porsche would get emergency infusion of about a billion dollars from Volkswagen. In July 2012, Volkswagen completed takeover of Porsche ending the 4 year saga and formed an integrated automotive group with Porsche. Porsche AG would become the 10th brand of Volkswagen. The holding company Porsche SE was left with 31 percent of the subscribed capital of Volkswagen AG, and 50.7 percent of the voting rights in the company.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen AG shares are primarily traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and are listed under the 'VOW' and 'VOW3' stock ticker symbols. First listed in August 1961, the shares were issued at a price of DM 350 per DM 100 share, Volkswagen AG shares are now separated into two different types or classes: 'ordinary shares' and 'preference shares'. The ordinary shares are now traded under the WKN 766400 and ISIN DE0007664005 listings, and the preference shares under the WKN 766403 and ISIN DE0007664039 listings.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen AG shares are also listed and traded on other major domestic and worldwide stock exchanges. In Germany's domestic exchanges, since 1961 these include those in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart. International exchanges include those in Basel (listed in 1967), Geneva (1967), Zürich (1967), Luxembourg (1979), London (1988), and New York (1988).


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Since the start of trading in 1961, Volkswagen AG shares have been subjected to two stock splits – the first was on 17 March 1969 when they were split at a ratio of 2:1, from a DM 100 share to a DM 50 share. The second split occurred on 6 July 1998, the DM 50 share being converted into a share of no overall nominal value, at a ratio of 1:10.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: In 2018, Volkswagen Group's largest single country market was China with 4.20 million units delivered, followed by Germany with 1.12 million units. Divided by regions, Asia-Pacific was the second-largest market of the Volkswagen Group with 4.50 million units in 2013, followed by Western Europe with 4.14 million, and North America with 943,000 units delivered in 2018.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: The European ranking of automakers is compiled monthly by the European Auto Manufacturers' Association ACEA. Volkswagen has held the top spot in Europe uninterrupted for more than two decades.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: The company was again the top global automaker in 2018, for the fifth consecutive year, selling 10.083 million vehicles in the year 2018, just 7,000 more than the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: With 120,000 employees in Germany and 600,000 globally, it is one of the most well organized labour represented companies in the world. The role that Works Councils and the trade union IG Metall play is unique even within Germany. VW workers have some of the strongest collective agreements. With the exception of the United States, all of its major locations are represented in the Global Works Council and local trade union bodies. VW has a strong tradition and practice of social partnership and co-determination rights globally.


title: Volkswagen Group

text: Volkswagen is heavily involved in sports sponsorship, with investments having included the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics, as well as the David Beckham Academy. Volkswagen AG wholly owns the Bundesliga football side VfL Wolfsburg; the company is also the shirt sponsor of Major League Soccer club D.C. United, League of Ireland Premier Division Sligo Rovers and top level of the Mexican football league system Liga MX team Puebla F.C.


title: Mali

text: Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The population of Mali is /1e6 round 1 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert. The country's southern part is in the Sudanian savanna, where the majority of inhabitants live, and both the Niger and Senegal rivers pass through. The country's economy centres on agriculture and mining. One of Mali's most prominent natural resources is gold, and the country is the third largest producer of gold on the African continent. It also exports salt.


title: Mali

text: Present-day Mali was once part of three extremely powerful and wealthy West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire (for which Ghana is named), the Mali Empire (for which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest country in Africa, covering an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of the continent. Mali was also one of the wealthiest countries on earth, and its emperor at its zenith, Mansa Musa, is believed to be possibly the wealthiest individual in history. Besides being an economic powerhouse, medieval Mali was a centre of Islam, culture and knowledge, with Timbuktu becoming a renowned place of learning with its university, one of the oldest in the world still active. The expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the empire in 1468, followed by a Moroccan army which defeated the Songhai in 1591. The Moroccan colonists established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1631 became virtually independent of Morocco. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state.


title: Mali

text: In January 2012, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of a territory in the north, and in April declared the secession of a new state, Azawad. The conflict was complicated by a military coup that took place in March and later fighting between Tuareg and other rebel factions. In response to territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013. A month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second-round run-off held on 11 August, and legislative elections were held on 24 November and 15 December 2013.


title: Mali

text: The name "Mali" is taken from the name of the Mali Empire. The name means "the place where the king lives" and carries a connotation of strength.


title: Mali

text: Guinean writer Djibril Niane suggests in "Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali" (1965) that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was called Mali. One Mandinka tradition tells that the legendary first emperor Sundiata Keita changed himself into a hippopotamus upon his death in the Sankarani River and that it's possible to find villages in the area of this river, termed "old Mali", which have Mali for a name. A study of Malian proverbs noted that in old Mali, there is a village called Malikoma, which means "New Mali", and that "Mali" could have formerly been the name of a city.


title: Mali

text: Another theory suggests that "Mali" is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment shifts to and the terminal vowel denasalizes and raises, leading "Manden" to shift to .


title: Mali

text: Rock paintings and carvings indicate that northern Mali has been inhabited since prehistoric times when the Sahara was fertile grassland. Farming took place by 5000 BC and iron was used around 500 BC.


title: Mali

text: The rock art in the Sahara suggests that northern Mali has been inhabited since 10,000 BC, when the Sahara was fertile and rich in wildlife. Early ceramics have been discovered at the central Malian site of Ounjougou dating to about 9,400 BC, and are believed to represent an instance of the independent invention of pottery in the region.


title: Mali

text: In the first millennium BC, early cities and towns were created by Mande peoples related to the Soninke people, along the middle Niger River in central Mali, including Dia which began from around 900 BC, and reached its peak around 600 BC, and Djenne-Djenno, which lasted from around 300 BC to 900 AD. By the sixth century AD, the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt and slaves had begun, facilitating the rise of West Africa's great empires.


title: Mali

text: There are a few references to Mali in early Islamic literature. Among these are references to "Pene" and "Malal" in the work of al-Bakri in 1068, the story of the conversion of an early ruler, known to Ibn Khaldun (by 1397) as Barmandana, and a few geographical details in the work of al-Idrisi.


title: Mali

text: Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, other precious commodities, and slaves majorly during the reign of Mansa Musa from c. 1312 – c. 1337. These Sahelian kingdoms had neither rigid geopolitical boundaries nor rigid ethnic identities. The earliest of these empires was the Ghana Empire, which was dominated by the Soninke, a Mande-speaking people. The empire expanded throughout West Africa from the eighth century until 1078, when it was conquered by the Almoravids.


title: Mali

text: The Battle of Kirina in 1235, culminated in a victory for the Mandinka under the command of the exiled prince Sundiata Keita, which led to the downfall of the Sosso Empire.


title: Mali

text: The Mali Empire later formed on the upper Niger River, and reached the height of power in the 14th century. Under the Mali Empire, the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu were centers of both trade and Islamic learning. The empire later declined as a result of internal intrigue, ultimately being supplanted by the Songhai Empire. The Songhai people originated in current northwestern Nigeria. The Songhai had long been a major power in West Africa subject to the Mali Empire's rule.


title: Mali

text: In the late 14th century, the Songhai gradually gained independence from the Mali Empire and expanded, ultimately subsuming the entire eastern portion of the Mali Empire. The Songhai Empire's eventual collapse was largely the result of a Moroccan invasion in 1591, under the command of Judar Pasha. The fall of the Songhai Empire marked the end of the region's role as a trading crossroads. Following the establishment of sea routes by the European powers, the trans-Saharan trade routes lost significance. At that time, the Mali Empire's abundance in wealth expanded its commercial assets of salt and gold.


title: Mali

text: One of the worst famines in the region's recorded history occurred in the 18th century. According to John Iliffe, "The worst crises were in the 1680s, when famine extended from the Senegambian coast to the Upper Nile and 'many sold themselves for slaves, only to get a sustenance', and especially in 1738–1756, when West Africa's greatest recorded subsistence crisis, due to drought and locusts, reportedly killed half the population of Timbuktu."


title: Mali

text: Mali fell under the control of France during the late 19th century. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control as a part of French Sudan. On 24 November 1958, French Sudan (which changed its name to the Sudanese Republic) became an autonomous republic within the French Community. In January 1959, Mali and Senegal united to become the Mali Federation. The Mali Federation gained independence from France on 20 June 1960.


title: Mali

text: Senegal withdrew from the federation in August 1960, which allowed the Sudanese Republic to become the independent Republic of Mali on 22 September 1960, and that date is now the country's Independence Day. Modibo Keïta was elected the first president. Keïta quickly established a one-party state, adopted an independent African and socialist orientation with close ties to the East, and implemented extensive nationalization of economic resources. In 1960, the population of Mali was reported to be about 4.1 million.


title: Mali

text: On 19 November 1968, following progressive economic decline, the Keïta regime was overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by Moussa Traoré, a day which is now commemorated as Liberation Day. The subsequent military-led regime, with Traoré as president, attempted to reform the economy. His efforts were frustrated by political turmoil and a devastating drought between 1968 and 1974, in which famine killed thousands of people. The Traoré regime faced student unrest beginning in the late 1970s and three coup attempts. The Traoré regime repressed all dissenters until the late 1980s.


title: Mali

text: The government continued to attempt economic reforms, and the populace became increasingly dissatisfied. In response to growing demands for multi-party democracy, the Traoré regime allowed some limited political liberalization. They refused to usher in a full-fledged democratic system. In 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, and was complicated by the turbulent rise of ethnic violence in the north following the return of many Tuaregs to Mali.


title: Mali

text: Anti-government protests in 1991 led to a coup, a transitional government, and a new constitution. Opposition to the corrupt and dictatorial regime of General Moussa Traoré grew during the 1980s. During this time strict programs, imposed to satisfy demands of the International Monetary Fund, brought increased hardship upon the country's population, while elites close to the government supposedly lived in growing wealth. Peaceful student protests in January 1991 were brutally suppressed, with mass arrests and torture of leaders and participants. Scattered acts of rioting and vandalism of public buildings followed, but most actions by the dissidents remained nonviolent.


title: Mali

text: From 22 March through 26 March 1991, mass pro-democracy rallies and a nationwide strike was held in both urban and rural communities, which became known as "les évenements" ("the events") or the March Revolution. In Bamako, in response to mass demonstrations organized by university students and later joined by trade unionists and others, soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on the nonviolent demonstrators. Riots broke out briefly following the shootings. Barricades as well as roadblocks were erected and Traoré declared a state of emergency and imposed a nightly curfew. Despite an estimated loss of 300 lives over the course of four days, nonviolent protesters continued to return to Bamako each day demanding the resignation of the dictatorial president and the implementation of democratic policies.


title: Mali

text: 26 March 1991 is the day that marks the clash between military soldiers and peaceful demonstrating students which climaxed in the massacre of dozens under the orders of then President Moussa Traoré. He and three associates were later tried and convicted and received the death sentence for their part in the decision-making of that day. Nowadays, the day is a national holiday in order to remember the tragic events and the people who were killed. The coup is remembered as Mali's March Revolution of 1991.


title: Mali

text: By 26 March, the growing refusal of soldiers to fire into the largely nonviolent protesting crowds turned into a full-scale tumult, and resulted in thousands of soldiers putting down their arms and joining the pro-democracy movement. That afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré announced on the radio that he had arrested the dictatorial president, Moussa Traoré. As a consequence, opposition parties were legalized and a national congress of civil and political groups met to draft a new democratic constitution to be approved by a national referendum.


title: Mali

text: In 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democratic, multi-party presidential election, before being re-elected for a second term in 1997, which was the last allowed under the constitution. Amadou Toumani Touré, a retired general who had been the leader of the military aspect of the 1991 democratic uprising, was elected in 2002. During this democratic period Mali was regarded as one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa.


title: Mali

text: Slavery persists in Mali today with as many as 200,000 people held in direct servitude to a master. In the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, ex-slaves were a vulnerable population with reports of some slaves being recaptured by their former masters.


title: Mali

text: In January 2012 a Tuareg rebellion began in Northern Mali, led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). In March, military officer Amadou Sanogo seized power in a coup d'état, citing Touré's failures in quelling the rebellion, and leading to sanctions and an embargo by the Economic Community of West African States. The MNLA quickly took control of the north, declaring independence as Azawad. However, Islamist groups including Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who had helped the MNLA defeat the government, turned on the Tuareg and took control of the North with the goal of implementing sharia in Mali.


title: Mali

text: On 30 January, the coordinated advance of the French and Malian troops claimed to have retaken the last remaining Islamist stronghold of Kidal, which was also the last of three northern provincial capitals. On 2 February, the French President, François Hollande, joined Mali's interim President, Dioncounda Traoré, in a public appearance in recently recaptured Timbuktu.


title: Mali

text: In August 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected as the new President of Mali after his rival admitted defeat in the second round of the election.


title: Mali

text: In the central Mali province of Mopti, conflict has escalated since 2015 between agricultural communities like the Dogon and the Bambara, and the pastoral Fula (or Fulani) people. Historically, the two sides have fought over access to land and water, factors which have been exacerbated by climate change as the Fula move into new areas. The Dogon and the Bambara communities have formed militias, or "self-defense groups", to fight the Fula. They accuse the Fula of working with armed Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. While some Fula have joined Islamist groups, Human Rights Watch reports that the links have been "exaggerated and instrumentalized by different actors for opportunistic ends".


title: Mali

text: Added a top Mali military commander:“I’ve discussed the growing violence with my commanders and with village chiefs from all sides. Yes, sure, there are jihadists in this zone, but the real problem is banditry, animal theft, score settling – people are enriching themselves using the fight against terrorists as a cover.”The conflict has seen the creation and growth of Dogon and Bambara militias. The government of Mali is suspected of supporting some of these groups under the guise of they being proxies in the war against Islamists in the Northern Mali conflict. The government denies this. One such militia is the Dogon group Dan Na Ambassagou, created in 2016.


title: Mali

text: Presidential elections were held in Mali on 29 July 2018. In July 2018, the Constitutional Court approved the nomination of a total of 24 candidates in the election. As no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff was held on 12 August 2018 between the top two candidates, incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of the Rally for Mali and Soumaïla Cissé of the Union for the Republic and Democracy. Keïta was subsequently re-elected with 67% of the vote.


title: Mali

text: In September 2018, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue negotiated a unilateral ceasefire with Dan Na Ambassagou "in the context of the conflict which opposes the group to other community armed groups in central Mali". However, the group has been blamed for the 24 March 2019 massacre of 160 Fula villagers. The group denied the attack, but afterwards Malian President Keita ordered the group to disband.


title: Mali

text: The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, warned of a growing ethnicization of the conflict.


title: Mali

text: The United Nations reported that the number of children killed in the conflict in the first six months of 2019 was twice as many for the entire year of 2018. Many of the children have been killed in intercommunal attacks attributed to ethnic militias, with the majority of attacks occurring around Mopti. It is reported that around 900 schools have closed down and that armed militias are recruiting children.


title: Mali

text: During the first week of October 2019, two jihadist attacks in the towns of Boulikessi and Mondoro killed more than 25 Mali soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso. President Keïta declared that "no military coup will prevail in Mali", continuing by saying that he doesn't think it "is on the agenda at all and cannot worry us".


title: Mali

text: Popular unrest began on 5 June 2020 following irregularities in the March and April parliamentary elections, including outrage against the kidnapping of opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé. Between 11 and 23 deaths followed protests that took place from 10 to 13 June. In July, President Keïta dissolved the constitutional court.


title: Mali

text: Members of the military led by Colonel Assimi Goïta and Colonel-Major Ismaël Wagué in Kati, Koulikoro Region, began a mutiny on 18 August 2020. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé were arrested, and shortly after midnight Keïta announced his resignation, saying he did not want to see any bloodshed. Wagué announced the formation of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) and promised elections in the future. A curfew was begun and the streets of Bamako were quiet.


title: Mali

text: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the coup and demanded the reinstallation of President Keïta.


title: Mali

text: On 12 September 2020, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) agreed to an 18-month political transition to civilian rule. Shortly after, Bah N'daw was named interim president by a group of 17 electors, with Goïta being appointed vice president. The government was inaugurated on 25 September 2020.


title: Mali

text: On 18 January 2021, the transitional government announced that the CNSP had been disbanded, almost four months after had been promised under the initial agreement.


title: Mali

text: Tensions have been high between the civilian transitional government and the military since the handover of power in September 2020.


title: Mali

text: On 24 May, tensions came to a head after a cabinet reshuffle, where two leaders of the 2020 military coup – Sadio Camara and Modibo Kone – were replaced by N'daw's administration. Later that day, journalists reported that three key civilian leaders – President N'daw, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane and Defence Minister Souleymane Doucouré, were being detained in a military base in Kati, outside Bamako. On 7 June 2021, Mali's military commander Assimi Goita was sworn into office as the new interim president.


title: Mali

text: On 10 January, Mali announced to close its borders and recalled several ambassadors with ECOWAS in response to imposed sanctions on the country for deferring elections for four years. On 4 February, France's ambassador was expelled. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Malian troops and suspected Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group executed around 300 civilian men in central Mali in March 2022. France had withdrawn French troops from Mali in February 2022. On May 2, the military government announced breaking its defence accords concluded in 2013 with France, constituting an additional step in the deterioration of Malian-French relations. This latest announcement has been criticized by French authorities and considered as "illegitimate". A UN panel reported that in the first three months of 2022, 543 civilians were killed and 269 wounded, warning the 2015 peace agreement between the government and pro-independence groups was threatened by a potential risk of confrontation for the first time in five years. The report also noted a sharp increase in the number of people needing humanitarian assistance over the previous year.


title: Mali

text: Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa, located southwest of Algeria. It lies between latitudes 10° and 25°N, and longitudes 13°W and 5°E. Mali borders Algeria to the north-northeast, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso to the south-east, Ivory Coast to the south, Guinea to the south-west, and Senegal to the west and Mauritania to the north-west.


title: Mali

text: At , Mali is the world's 24th-largest country and is comparable in size to South Africa or Angola. Most of the country lies in the southern Sahara Desert, which produces an extremely hot, dust-laden Sudanian savanna zone. Mali is mostly flat, rising to rolling northern plains covered by sand. The Adrar des Ifoghas massif lies in the northeast.


title: Mali

text: Mali lies in the torrid zone and is among the hottest countries in the world. The thermal equator, which matches the hottest spots year-round on the planet based on the mean daily annual temperature, crosses the country. Most of Mali receives negligible rainfall and droughts are very frequent. Late April to early October is the rainy season in the southernmost area. During this time, flooding of the Niger River is common, creating the Inner Niger Delta. The vast northern desert part of Mali has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh") with long, extremely hot summers and scarce rainfall which decreases northwards. The central area has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification "BSh") with very high temperatures year-round, a long, intense dry season and a brief, irregular rainy season. The southern areas have a tropical wet and dry climate. (Köppen climate classification "Aw") In review, Mali's climate is tropical, with March to May being the hot, dry season. June to October is rainy, humid and mild. November to February is the cool, dry season.


title: Mali

text: Mali has considerable natural resources, with gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone being most widely exploited. Mali is estimated to have in excess of 17,400 tonnes of uranium (measured + indicated + inferred). In 2012, a further uranium mineralized north zone was identified. Mali faces numerous environmental challenges, including desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, and inadequate supplies of potable water.


title: Mali

text: Five terrestrial ecoregions lie within Mali's borders: Sahelian Acacia savanna, West Sudanian savanna, Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna, South Saharan steppe and woodlands, and West Saharan montane xeric woodlands. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.16/10, ranking it 51st globally out of 172 countries.


title: Mali

text: Since 2016, Mali has been divided into ten regions and the District of Bamako. Each region has a governor. The implementation of the two newest regions, Taoudénit (formerly part of Tombouctou Region) and Ménaka (formerly Ménaka Cercle in Gao Region), has been ongoing since January 2016; a governor and transitional council has been appointed for both regions. The ten regions in turn are subdivided into 56 "cercle"s and 703 "communes".


title: Mali

text: In March 2012, the Malian government lost control over Tombouctou, Gao and Kidal Regions and the north-eastern portion of Mopti Region. On 6 April 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declared their secession from Mali as Azawad, an act that neither Mali nor the international community recognised. The government later regained control over these areas.


title: Mali

text: Until the military coup of 22 March 2012 and a second military coup in December 2012, Mali was a constitutional democracy governed by the Constitution of 12 January 1992, which was amended in 1999. The constitution provides for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The system of government can be described as "semi-presidential". Executive power is vested in a president, who is elected to a five-year term by universal suffrage and is limited to two terms.


title: Mali

text: The president serves as a chief of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. A prime minister appointed by the president serves as head of government and in turn appoints the Council of Ministers. The unicameral National Assembly is Mali's sole legislative body, consisting of deputies elected to five-year terms. Following the 2007 elections, the Alliance for Democracy and Progress held 113 of 160 seats in the assembly. The assembly holds two regular sessions each year, during which it debates and votes on legislation that has been submitted by a member or by the government.


title: Mali

text: Mali's constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the executive continues to exercise influence over the judiciary by virtue of power to appoint judges and oversee both judicial functions and law enforcement. Mali's highest courts are the Supreme Court, which has both judicial and administrative powers, and a separate Constitutional Court that provides judicial review of legislative acts and serves as an election arbiter. Various lower courts exist, though village chiefs and elders resolve most local disputes in rural areas.


title: Mali

text: Mali's foreign policy orientation has become increasingly pragmatic and pro-Western over time. Since the institution of a democratic form of government in 2002, Mali's relations with the West in general and with the United States in particular have improved significantly. Mali has a longstanding yet ambivalent relationship with France, a former colonial ruler. Mali was active in regional organizations such as the African Union until its suspension over the 2012 Malian coup d'état.


title: Mali

text: Working to control and resolve regional conflicts, such as in Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, is one of Mali's major foreign policy goals. Mali feels threatened by the potential for the spillover of conflicts in neighboring states, and relations with those neighbors are often uneasy. General insecurity along borders in the north, including cross-border banditry and terrorism, remain troubling issues in regional relations.


title: Mali

text: In early 2019, Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on a United Nations base in Mali that killed 10 peacekeepers from Chad. 25 people were reported to have been injured in the attack. Al Qaeda's stated reason for the attack was Chad's re-establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. The base was attacked in Anguelhok, a village located in an especially unstable region of the country.


title: Mali

text: Mali's military forces consist of an army, which includes land forces and air force, as well as the paramilitary Gendarmerie and Republican Guard, all of which are under the control of Mali's Ministry of Defense and Veterans, headed by a civilian.


title: Mali

text: The Central Bank of West African States handles the financial affairs of Mali and additional members of the Economic Community of West African States. Mali is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. The average worker's annual salary is approximately US$1,500.


title: Mali

text: Mali underwent economic reform, beginning in 1988 by signing agreements with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. During 1988 to 1996, Mali's government largely reformed public enterprises. Since the agreement, sixteen enterprises were privatized, 12 partially privatized, and 20 liquidated. In 2005, the Malian government conceded a railroad company to the Savage Corporation. Two major companies, Societé de Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA) and the Cotton Ginning Company (CMDT), were expected to be privatized in 2008.


title: Mali

text: Between 1992 and 1995, Mali implemented an economic adjustment programme that resulted in economic growth and a reduction in financial imbalances. The programme increased social and economic conditions, and led to Mali joining the World Trade Organization on 31 May 1995.


title: Mali

text: Mali is also a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). The gross domestic product (GDP) has risen since. In 2002, the GDP amounted to US$3.4 billion, and increased to US$5.8 billion in 2005, which amounts to an approximately 17.6% annual growth rate.


title: Mali

text: Mali is a part of the "Franc Zone" ("Zone Franc"), which means that it uses the CFA franc. Mali is connected with the French government by agreement since 1962 (creation of BCEAO). Today all seven countries of BCEAO (including Mali) are connected to French Central Bank.


title: Mali

text: Mali's key industry is agriculture. Cotton is the country's largest crop export and is exported west throughout Senegal and Ivory Coast. During 2002, 620,000 tons of cotton were produced in Mali but cotton prices declined significantly in 2003. In addition to cotton, Mali produces rice, millet, corn, vegetables, tobacco, and tree crops. Gold, livestock and agriculture amount to 80% of Mali's exports.


title: Mali

text: Eighty percent of Malian workers are employed in agriculture. 15% of Malian workers are employed in the service sector. Seasonal variations lead to regular temporary unemployment of agricultural workers.


title: Mali

text: In 1991, with the assistance of the International Development Association, Mali relaxed the enforcement of mining codes which led to renewed foreign interest and investment in the mining industry. Gold is mined in the southern region and Mali has the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and Ghana).


title: Mali

text: The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Ivory Coast crises. Other natural resources include kaolin, salt, phosphate, and limestone.


title: Mali

text: Electricity and water are maintained by the Energie du Mali, or EDM, and textiles are generated by Industry Textile du Mali, or ITEMA. Mali has made efficient use of hydroelectricity, consisting of over half of Mali's electrical power. In 2002, 700 GWh of hydroelectric power were produced in Mali.


title: Mali

text: Energie du Mali is an electric company that provides electricity to Mali citizens. Only 55% of the population in cities have access to EDM.


title: Mali

text: In Mali, there is a railway that connects to bordering countries. There are also approximately 29 airports of which 8 have paved runways. Urban areas are known for their large quantity of green and white taxicabs. A significant sum of the population is dependent on public transportation.


title: Mali

text: In , Mali's population was an estimated /1e6 round 1 million. The population is predominantly rural (68% in 2002), and 5%–10% of Malians are nomadic. More than 90% of the population lives in the southern part of the country, especially in Bamako, which has over 2 million residents.


title: Mali

text: In 2007, about 48% of Malians were younger than 12 years old, 49% were 15–64 years old, and 3% were 65 and older. The median age was 15.9 years. The birth rate in 2014 is 45.53 births per 1,000, and the total fertility rate (in 2012) was 6.4 children per woman. The death rate in 2007 was 16.5 deaths per 1,000. Life expectancy at birth was 53.06 years total (51.43 for males and 54.73 for females). Mali has one of the world's highest rates of infant mortality, with 106 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007.


title: Mali

text: Collectively, the Bambara, Soninké, Khassonké, and Malinké (also called Mandinka), all part of the broader Mandé group, constitute 50% of Mali's population. Other significant groups are the Fula (; ) (17%), Voltaic (12%), Songhai (6%), and Tuareg and Moor (10%). In Mali as well as Niger, the Moors are also known as Azawagh Arabs, named after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. They speak mainly Hassaniya Arabic which is one of the regional varieties of Arabic.


title: Mali

text: In the far north, there is a division between Berber-descended Tuareg nomad populations and the darker-skinned Bella or Tamasheq people, due to the historical spread of slavery in the region.


title: Mali

text: An estimated 800,000 people in Mali are descended from slaves. Slavery in Mali has persisted for centuries.


title: Mali

text: The Arabic population kept slaves well into the 20th century, until slavery was suppressed by French authorities around the mid-20th century. There still persist certain hereditary servitude relationships, and according to some estimates, even today approximately 200,000 Malians are still enslaved.


title: Mali

text: Mixed European/African descendants of Muslims of Spanish, as well some French, Irish, Italian and Portuguese origins live in Mali, they are known as the Arma people (1% of the nation's population).


title: Mali

text: Although Mali has enjoyed a reasonably good inter-ethnic relationships based on the long history of coexistence, some hereditary servitude and bondage relationship exist, as well as ethnic tension between settled Songhai and nomadic Tuaregs of the north. Due to a backlash against the northern population after independence, Mali is now in a situation where both groups complain about discrimination on the part of the other group. This conflict also plays a role in the continuing Northern Mali conflict where there is a tension between both Tuaregs and the Malian government, and the Tuaregs and radical Islamists who are trying to establish sharia law.


title: Mali

text: While the country's official language is French, the "lingua franca" in Mali is Bambara, which about 80 percent of the population can communicate in. Due to deteriorating relations between the Malian military junta and the French government, the Mali government announced making Bambara the official language in January 2022, although this proposal has not yet been official. Over 40 other African languages are spoken by the various ethnic groups of Mali.


title: Mali

text: According to the 2009 census, the languages spoken in Mali were Bambara by 51.5%, Fula by 8.3%, Dogon by 6.6% Soninké by 5.7%, Songhai by 5.3%, Mandinka by 5.2%, Minianka by 3.8%, Tamasheq by 3.2%, Sénoufo by 2%, Bobo by 1.9%, Tieyaxo Bozo by 1.6%, Kassonké by 1.1%, Maure by 1%, Dafing by 0.4%, Samogo by 0.4%, Arabic (Hassaniya) by 0.3%, other Malian languages by 0.5%, other African languages by 0.2%, Foreign languages by 0.2%, and 0.7% didn't declare their language.


title: Mali

text: Islam was introduced to West Africa in the 11th century and remains the predominant religion in much of the region. An estimated 90% of Malians are Muslim (mostly Sunni), approximately 5% are Christian (about two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Protestant) and the remaining 5% adhere to traditional African religions such as the Dogon religion. Atheism and agnosticism are believed to be rare among Malians, most of whom practice their religion daily.


title: Mali

text: The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.


title: Mali

text: Islam as historically practiced in Mali has been malleable and adapted to local conditions; relations between Muslims and practitioners of minority religious faiths have generally been amicable.


title: Mali

text: After the 2012 imposition of sharia rule in northern parts of the country, however, Mali came to be listed high (number 7) in the Christian persecution index published by Open Doors, which described the persecution in the north as severe.


title: Mali

text: Public education in Mali is in principle provided free of charge and is compulsory for nine years between the ages of seven and sixteen. The system encompasses six years of primary education beginning at age 7, followed by six years of secondary education. Mali's actual primary school enrollment rate is low, in large part because families are unable to cover the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, and other fees required to attend.


title: Mali

text: In 2017, the primary school enrollment rate was 61% (65% of males and 58% of females). In the late 1990s, the secondary school enrollment rate was 15% (20% of males and 10% of females). The education system is plagued by a lack of schools in rural areas, as well as shortages of teachers and materials.


title: Mali

text: Estimates of literacy rates in Mali range from 27–30 to 46.4%, with literacy rates significantly lower among women than men. The University of Bamako, which includes four constituent universities, is the largest university in the country and enrolls approximately 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students.


title: Mali

text: Mali faces numerous health challenges related to poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 53.06 years in 2012. In 2000, 62–65% of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69% to sanitation services of some kind. In 2001, the general government expenditures on health totaled about US$4 per capita at an average exchange rate.


title: Mali

text: Efforts have been made to improve nutrition, and reduce associated health problems, by encouraging women to make nutritious versions of local recipes. For example, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Aga Khan Foundation, trained women's groups to make "equinut", a healthy and nutritional version of the traditional recipe "di-dèguè" (comprising peanut paste, honey and millet or rice flour). The aim was to boost nutrition and livelihoods by producing a product that women could make and sell, and which would be accepted by the local community because of its local heritage.


title: Mali

text: Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, and medicines are in short supply. Malaria and other arthropod-borne diseases are prevalent in Mali, as are a number of infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. Mali's population also suffers from a high rate of child malnutrition and a low rate of immunization. An estimated 1.9% of the adult and children population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS that year, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 85%–91% of Mali's girls and women have had female genital mutilation (2006 and 2001 data).


title: Mali

text: In 2017, Mali ranked 157th out of 160 countries in the gender inequality index as reported by the United Nations Development Programme. The Malian Constitution states that it protects women's rights, however many laws exist that discriminate against women. Provisions in the laws limit women's decision-making power after marriage, in which the husband becomes superior to his wife. Women are blamed for not maintaining the appearance of their husbands and are also blamed for the actions of their children if they misbehave, which encourages the cultural attitude that women are inferior to men. The lack of participation of women in politics is due to the idea that politics is associated with men and that women should avoid this sector. Education is also an area in which boys dominate, since it is a better investment for the parents. As traditional values and practices have contributed to gender inequality in Mali, conflict and lawlessness have also influenced the growing gap in gender through gender-based violence. The unstable government of Mali has led to organizations like USAID attempting to improve the lives of the people, mainly women and girls' rights in order to re-engage the development of the country.


title: Mali

text: Religion, the patriarchal norms, and gender-based violence are major negative factors shaping the life of women in Mali. Patriarchal norms cause major gender inequalities and lead to male domination within the household. Girls learn household activities like chores, cooking, childcare, etc. at a young age and are expected to take the main responsibility of household chores throughout their life. This hampers women's ability to enter the formal workforce and leads to a lack of education of girls. Gender-based violence in Mali happens both on a national and a family level. At the national level, in 2012 the conflict in the Northern part of the country increased cases of kidnappings and rapes. The conflict also reduced women's access to resources, economy, and opportunities. At the household level, Malian women face gender-based violence through domestic violence, forced marriages, and marital rape. The Demographic Health Survey for Mali in 2013 stated that 76% of women and 54% of men believed physical harm towards women was acceptable if the women burnt food, argued back, went out without notifying her husband, or refused sexual relations with her husband.


title: Mali

text: The lack of education has increased gender inequality in Mali because not many women are working outside the household are even participating in the Public Administration sector. After adjusting the entrance requirements and access to education, girls still have lower enrollment rates and less access to formal education. Drop-out rates for girls are 15% higher than that of boys because they have a higher responsibility at home and most parents refuse to allow all their children to go to school, so boys tend to become educated. Similarly, technical and vocational education has a lower numbers of girls participating and are inadequately distributed in the country because the training centers are focused in the urban cities. Finally, higher education for girls consist of short programs because early marriages prevent most girls from pursuing a longer term education program like those in science. Although women do not have the same access of education, in recent decades women have been entering and representing in decision-making positions in the Public Administration sector. Out of 147 members of Parliament, 15 were women in 2010. Recent decades show that women are slowly joining important decision-making positions which is changing the attitude and status of women in Mali, which has led to the promotion of women's right in the political sphere.


title: Mali

text: Legislation at the international and national levels have been implemented over the decades to help promote women's rights in Mali. At the international, Mali signed the Beijing Platform for Action which suggest that women should participate in decision-making and the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which is the foundation to women's rights promotion. At the national level, Mali's Constitution has the Decree No. 092-073P-CTSP that claims equality to all Malian citizens and discrimination is prohibited, which has not been followed. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme under the Malian Government seek to improve the well-being of the citizens, and changes to governance and gender in the country. The Ministry for Advancement of Women, Children and the Family was created specifically for women and children so that their basics rights and needs get met under the law. Although there exists legislation and policy for gender equality the institutionalization of the National Gender Policy of Mali is necessary to support the importance of women's rights. Strengthening and the support of girls' and women's access to education and training is recommended to improve gender equality in Mali. The involvement of international organizations like USAID assist Mali financially to enhance their development through the efforts of the improvement of women's rights.


title: Mali

text: The varied everyday culture of Malians reflects the country's ethnic and geographic diversity. Most Malians wear flowing, colorful robes called boubous that are typical of West Africa. Malians frequently participate in traditional festivals, dances, and ceremonies.


title: Mali

text: Malian musical traditions are derived from the griots, who are known as "Keepers of Memories". Malian music is diverse and has several different genres. Some famous Malian influences in music are kora virtuoso musician Toumani Diabaté, the ngoni with Bassekou Kouyate the virtuoso of the electric jeli ngoni, the late roots and blues guitarist Ali Farka Touré, the Tuareg band Tinariwen, Khaira Arby, and several Afro-pop artists such as Salif Keita, the duo Amadou et Mariam, Oumou Sangare, Fatoumata Diawara, Rokia Traore, and Habib Koité. Dance also plays a large role in Malian culture. Dance parties are common events among friends, and traditional mask dances are performed at ceremonial events.


title: Mali

text: Though Mali's literature is less famous than its music, Mali has always been one of Africa's liveliest intellectual centers. Mali's literary tradition is passed mainly by word of mouth, with "jalis" reciting or singing histories and stories known by heart. Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Mali's best-known historian, spent much of his life writing these oral traditions down for the world to remember.


title: Mali

text: The best-known novel by a Malian writer is Yambo Ouologuem's "Le devoir de violence", which won the 1968 Prix Renaudot but whose legacy was marred by accusations of plagiarism. Other well-known Malian writers include Baba Traoré, Modibo Sounkalo Keita, Massa Makan Diabaté, Moussa Konaté, and Fily Dabo Sissoko.


title: Mali

text: The most popular sport in Mali is association football, which became more prominent after Mali hosted the 2002 African Cup of Nations. Most towns and cities have regular games; the most popular teams nationally are Djoliba AC, Stade Malien, and Real Bamako, all based in the capital. Informal games are often played by youths using a bundle of rags as a ball.


title: Mali

text: Basketball is another major sport; the Mali women's national basketball team, led by Hamchetou Maiga, competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Traditional wrestling ("la lutte") is also somewhat common, though popularity has declined in recent years. The game wari, a mancala variant, is a common pastime.


title: Mali

text: Mali featured a men's national team in beach volleyball that competed at the 2018–2020 CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup.


title: Mali

text: Rice and millet are the staples of Malian cuisine, which is heavily based on cereal grains. Grains are generally prepared with sauces made from edible leaves, such as spinach or baobab, with tomato peanut sauce, and may be accompanied by pieces of grilled meat (typically chicken, mutton, beef, or goat). Malian cuisine varies regionally. Other popular dishes include fufu, jollof rice, and maafe.


title: Mali

text: In Mali, there are several newspapers such as "Les Echos", "L'Essor", "Info Matin", "Nouvel Horizon", and "". Telecommunications in Mali include 869,600 mobile phones, 45,000 televisions and 414,985 Internet users.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: Alex (Malcolm McDowell), the central character, is a charismatic, antisocial delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), committing rape, theft, and ultra-violence. He leads a small gang of thugs, Pete (Michael Tarn), Georgie (James Marcus), and Dim (Warren Clarke), whom he calls his "droogs" (from the Russian word друг, which is "friend", "buddy"). The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via an experimental psychological conditioning technique (the "Ludovico Technique") promoted by the Minister of the Interior (Anthony Sharp). Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured adolescent slang composed of Slavic languages (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: The film premiered in New York City on 19 December 1971 and was released in the United Kingdom on 13 January 1972. The film was met with polarised reviews from critics and was controversial due to its depictions of graphic violence. After it was cited as having inspired copycat acts of violence, the film was withdrawn from British cinemas at Kubrick's behest, and it was also banned in several other countries. In the years following, the film underwent a critical re-evaluation and gained a cult following. It received several awards and nominations, including four nominations at the 44th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: In a futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge is the leader of a gang of "droogs": Georgie, Dim and Pete. One night, after getting intoxicated on drug-laden "milk-plus", they engage in an evening of "ultra-violence", which includes a fight with a rival gang. They drive to the country home of writer Frank Alexander and trick his wife into letting them inside. They beat Alexander to the point of crippling him, and Alex violently rapes Alexander's wife while singing "Singin' in the Rain". The next day, while truant from school, Alex is approached by his probation officer, PR Deltoid, who is aware of Alex's activities and cautions him.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: Alex's droogs express discontent with petty crime and want more equality and high-yield thefts, but Alex asserts his authority by attacking them. Later, Alex invades the home of a wealthy "cat-lady" and bludgeons her with a phallic sculpture while his droogs remain outside. On hearing sirens, Alex tries to flee but Dim smashes a bottle in his face, stunning Alex and leaving him to be arrested. Deltoid brings word that the woman has died of her injuries, and Alex is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.


title: A Clockwork Orange (film)

text: Two years into the sentence, Alex eagerly takes up an offer to be a test subject for the Minister of the Interior's new Ludovico technique, an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals within two weeks. Alex is strapped to a chair, his eyes are clamped open and he is injected with drugs. He is then forced to watch films of sex and violence, some of which are accompanied by the music of his favourite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Alex becomes nauseated by the films and, fearing the technique will make him sick upon hearing Beethoven, begs for an end to the treatment.