title: Irkut MC-21

text: The fourth flight-test aircraft was rolled out on 28 November 2019, and performed its first flight on 25 December 2019.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In December 2021, Irkut carried out the maiden flight of the first MC-21 to be manufactured with domestically produced composite wings.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: By October 2022, Irkut had fitted the first flight test aircraft with PD-14 engines and other domestically produced components, and flown a test sortie in the new configuration. The aircraft will participate in the certification programme, targeted to be complete by the end of 2022.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Aeroflot should lease 50 MC-21-300 from Aviakapital for 12 to 18 years and a monthly lease below $437,282 each. By 2018, they were to be delivered from the first quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2026, with EASA certification targeted for early 2021.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Powered by PW1400Gs or possibly PD-14s for the second half, Irkut guaranteed a less than fuel burn on a route with a tailwind.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: They were guaranteed to reach 2,100h and a dispatch reliability of 96% for the first year, rising to 2,900h and 97% in the second year then 3,750h and 98.5% in the third year.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In October 2018, fuselage panels for the first customer MC-21 were completed by United Aircraft Corporation subsidiary Aviastar.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In early 2019, the annual output was targeted from 20 initially to 72 airframes in 2025, towards 100 and possibly 120 later for a forecast of 850 deliveries.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In July 2021 it was reported that Aeroflot would launch the MC-21-300 with its regional subsidiary Rossiya Airlines in summer 2022.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In September 2021, Evgeny Ditrikh, CEO of GTLK (Public Transport Leasing Company of Russia), stated that the MC-21 project is in need of new government grants.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: By the end of December 2021, Russian type certification was granted for the MC-21-300 variant powered by PW1400G engines, before introduction with its launch operator Rossiya.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Additional testing is needed for high-altitude, strong crosswinds, and low and high temperatures operations.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In 2022, after international sanctions against Russia were imposed due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rosaviatsia announced that in a resulting change of plans Russia will only use a domestic engine. The original model – the MC-21-300 powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines – will not enter service, and instead production will have to wait for the MC-21-310, powered by the Russian Aviadvigatel PD-14, built by the United Engine Corporation. The MC-21-300 consists of between 40% and 50% imported parts, and Irkut will need to replace those that were to be supplied by the sanctioning countries. The need to use Russian avionics will delay first shipment to either late 2024 or 2025.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: As part of a plan announced in June 2022, aimed at bringing the proportion of domestically produced aircraft to 80% of the Russian fleet by the end of the decade, deliveries of the MC-21 are expected to start in 2024 and reach a delivery rate of 72 per year by 2029.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The design is based on the never-realized, twin-engine Yakovlev Yak-242 as a development of the three-engine Yakovlev Yak-42.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) subsidiary AeroComposit developed the vacuum infusion process to produce the wingbox and wing panels.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The vertical and horizontal fins and wingbox are also composite and the high aspect ratio wing is a supercritical airfoil.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The MC-21 design is more innovative than the C919: it is the only airliner with a carbon fibre wingbox made with resin infused dry fibre, cured in an oven out of autoclave. The initial design included ~33% composite materials, increasing to 40–45% with the composite wing.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: By January 2019, U.S. sanctions against Russia have interrupted the supply of foreign raw materials, on which the UAC relied to produce composite parts. The UAC started looking for either domestically produced or Chinese replacements, maintaining that the wing box and consoles would still consist of polymeric composites. By then, a metal wing was "no longer on the agenda" according to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). In March 2019, AeroComposit reported that it had produced the first fuselage centre section and wing box from domestic materials.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The fuselage of the MC-21 is mostly made of lightweight aluminium–lithium alloy, which accounts for 40% of the airframe's structural weight.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: It is wider than the A320/C919 and wider than the 737, for a aisle allowing passing others or a trolley.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Its MTOW is the same as the almost 5 m (16.5 ft.) shorter A320neo, and is lighter than the almost shorter 737-8, for similar two-class layouts of 162 to 165 while the 737-8 and A320neo have more range.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The thrust class Pratt & Whitney PW1000G was selected in December 2009. The design configuration now calls for the PW1400G-JM geared turbo fan engine to be installed on one version. Russia decided to have both an internal and external supplier for the engine and nacelle for greater flexibility in controlling rate and price.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: United Engine Corporation (UEC) planned to deliver five PD-14s for the MC-21 by the end of 2018, to start flight tests in 2019 for the MC-21 variant certification in 2021.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In August 2009, Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies, announced it will provide electric power generation and distribution equipment for $2.3 billion over 20 years of production.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Honeywell, Thales and Elbit Systems supply avionics with nine 12-inch multifunction displays, electronic flight bags, synthetic vision and enhanced vision systems.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Goodrich Corporation, also a subsidiary of United Technologies, along with Aviapribor was selected to provide the flight control system actuators.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Zodiac Aerospace, Eaton and Meggitt provide other components. Interior furnishings will come from Zodiac Aerospace, coordinated from C&D Zodiac in Huntington Beach, California. Innovations from Zodiac Aerospace in Carson, California, will be incorporated in the water and waste systems.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: There are two types of auxiliary power units (APU) designed with specifications suitable for MC-21: HGT750 from Honeywell Aerospace and TA18-200 developed by Aerosila.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Initially it was assumed that the share of domestic components for the MC-21 would be 38%, but due to sanctions in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the Russian government ordered a target figure of 98% by 2023, making it independent of imported components.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The cockpit and part of the aircraft's avionics were developed and supplied by the Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies and Rockwell Collins with the participation of personnel from the Russian company "Avionika".


title: Irkut MC-21

text: It is possible to use both imported APU and the Russian one developed and produced in NPP "Aerosila".


title: Irkut MC-21

text: For personnel training, the Scientific and Production Russian Company "Systems of Complex Simulators" developed and manufactured a number of simulators, including a number of flight simulators of different degrees of realism, emergency procedures simulator, firefighting simulator, service simulator, engineering simulator for technician training.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: In 2009, the MS-21-200 was designed around 150 passengers in single-class configuration, to be followed by a 181-seat -300 and 212-seat -400 with basic and extended-range models, plus a very-long-range MS-21-200LR


title: Irkut MC-21

text: Initially a 132-seats MC-21-100 variant was planned but then superseded by the Superjet 100 development.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The small variant with a capacity of 130- to 150-seat was proposed with commonality with the Sukhoi Superjet 130.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: UAC considers more developments for the MC-21 by 2035. These include: a -400 with engines for a MTOW, a -500, a -600 with engines, and a -700 with engines, as well as a MC-21X with a tons MTOW for a km range.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: The 250-passenger MC-21-400 single-aisle twinjet could be jointly produced in the United Arab Emirates.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: By the end of the 2013 MAKS Air Show there were 175 firm orders including 50 for Rostec subsidiary Aviakapital leased to Aeroflot and 35 more with PD-14 engines for governmental customers, 50 for Ilyushin Finance (10 leased to Red Wings Airlines and six to Transaero), 30 for VEB Leasing (10 leased to UTair Aviation and 6 to Transaero) and 10 for IrAero with an agreement for 20 others leased from Sberbank of Russia, for a potential 195 orders. Transaero bankrupted in 2015.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: At the 2019 MAKS Air Show, at Zhukovsky International Airport, Moscow, Bek Air signed a letter of intent for ten Irkut MC-21 aircraft, Yakutia Airlines likewise signed for five aircraft and an undisclosed customer for a further five aircraft. Delivery of the new aircraft was expected to be in the second half of 2021.


title: Irkut MC-21

text: On 18 January 2021, an MC-21-300 (prototype 73051) experienced a runway excursion at Zhukovsky Aerodrome and came to a stop in heavy snow during testing. There were no injuries to the crew.


title: The Following

text: The Following is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.


title: The Following

text: The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) trying to help recapture serial killer Joe Carroll, while Carroll's assembled cult captures Carroll's son from his ex-wife and sends Carroll's messages to the world. The second season introduces Hardy's niece, who provides help in finding Carroll after his faked death while also dealing with a new cult.


title: The Following

text: The series was broadcast on the commercial broadcast television network Fox. In its first two seasons, it starred Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy in leading roles, as well as Shawn Ashmore, Natalie Zea, and Valorie Curry. The first season, comprising 15 episodes, premiered on January 21, 2013, and concluded on April 29, 2013. On March 4, 2013, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on January 19, 2014, and concluded on April 28, 2014. The series' renewal for a third season was announced on March 7, 2014, and the season premiered on March 2, 2015. On May 8, 2015, Fox canceled "The Following" after three seasons. The final episode aired on May 18, 2015.


title: The Following

text: "The Following"s first season centers on former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and his attempts to recapture serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), following the latter's escape from prison. Hardy soon discovers that Carroll has surrounded himself with a group of like-minded individuals, whom he met while teaching and in prison, turning them into a cult of fanatical killers, making Emma Hill (Valorie Curry) his right-hand woman. When Carroll's son, Joey Matthews (Kyle Catlett), is abducted by his father's followers, Agents Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore), Debra Parker (Annie Parisse), and the rest of the FBI team discover that it is the first step in Carroll's wider plan to escape custody, humiliate Hardy, and be reunited with his ex-wife Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea).


title: The Following

text: The second season centers on a new cult, led by Lily Gray (Connie Nielsen) and her twin sons Mark and Luke Gray (both played by Sam Underwood), as they begin to make public statements to lure Carroll out of hiding while the rest of the world believes him to be dead. Weston is re-recruited by Special Agent Mendez (Valerie Cruz) and the FBI in order to find the new cult, while Hardy and his niece Max Hardy (Jessica Stroup) have their own plans to track them down and find Carroll, if he is in fact alive.


title: The Following

text: The third season follows Hardy's life after Carroll's arrest and shows Hardy in a better place. He is close to his niece and has a girlfriend. Weston follows a different path and chooses to hunt down Mark Gray. Carroll is on death row, waiting to be executed, but plays an important role in the season. Another serial killer proves to be just as dangerous and capable as Joe Carroll.


title: The Following

text: Bob and Harvey Weinstein approached Kevin Williamson in early 1999 to pursue a full script for a third installment of the "Scream" franchise, "Scream 3". However, following his successes with the "Scream" series and other projects such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer", Williamson had become involved in multiple projects. These included the development of the short-lived TV series "Wasteland" and directing his self-penned film "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" (1999), which Williamson had written prior to "Scream" and which had languished in development hell since. Unable to develop a full script for the production, Williamson instead wrote a 20- to 30-page draft outline for the film that involved the return of Ghostface to the fictional town of Woodsboro where the "Stab" series, a fictional series of films within a film that exist within the "Scream" universe and are based on the events of "Scream", would be filmed. The Weinsteins hired "Arlington Road" scribe Ehren Kruger to replace Williamson and helm writing duties, developing a script based on Williamson's notes.


title: The Following

text: The environment for "Scream 3"s development had become more complicated than with previous films. There was an increased scrutiny on the effects of violence in media and the effect it could have on the public in the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre which occurred shortly before production began on the film. In addition, since the release of the original "Scream" films, various acts of violence had taken place which had gained notoriety and media attention when they were linked to, or blamed on, the films. Eager to avoid further criticism or connection to such incidents, Williamson's notes were largely discarded as the studio insisted that the script should focus on the comedic elements of the series while significantly reducing the violence.


title: The Following

text: In a 2013 interview, Williamson detailed his original script, which would have seen the killers be a "Stab" fan club of Woodsboro kids working on the orders of a still-alive Stu Macher from prison. All the members of the club would have been involved in the killings and the final twist "of the movie was when Sidney walked into the house after Ghostface had killed everyone ... and they all rose up. None of them were actually dead and they'd planned the whole thing." Williamson then adapted his original script as a television pitch, "The Following", removing all references to the "Scream" franchise. Williamson pitched "The Following" to Fox rather than another company because it was "home of his all-time favorite show, "24". Comparing Hardy to Jack Bauer, he described the character as someone who "will die saving the moment" and "[carries] the weight of every victim on his shoulders".


title: The Following

text: Williamson knew he wanted to produce a show that would be gory and knew it would be controversial. When Fox Broadcasting chief operating officer Joe Earley was asked about the subject material, he answered that the network felt pressured to draw in a large audience to equal the broad scope and intensity of the narrative.


title: The Following

text: To slip gory scenes past the Standards and Practices department at Fox Broadcasting, Williamson explained, "There are tricks... Okay, in the same episode there's an actor cutting someone in the jugular, and you're harping on the sex scene? So I sent a little email to [Fox Entertainment chairman] Kevin Reilly, and within 15 minutes the broadcast-and-standards people were like, 'It's okay'".


title: The Following

text: Williamson wanted to cast "a tough guy with a boyish side" as Ryan Hardy and told his agent that he had someone like Kevin Bacon in mind for the role. When his agent suggested Bacon himself, Williamson discovered that Bacon had spent the past four years trying to find a television program he would like to do. Bacon described his attraction to the role as stemming from the way it centered on a life-or-death situation. Jeananne Goossen was cast in the role of FBI agent Jennifer Mason in the pilot, but the role was reworked and in subsequent episodes her character was written out and replaced by Special Agent Debra Parker, played by Annie Parisse.


title: The Following

text: The lighthouse scenes in the first season's finale were filmed at the Fire Island Lighthouse in Fire Island, New York.


title: The Following

text: Including other digital sources, the premiere episode was watched by a total of 20.34million viewers.


title: The Following

text: "The Following"s first season was given 62/100 on Metacritic based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.


title: The Following

text: "USA Today"s Robert Bianco rated the show highly, calling it "one of the most violent, and certainly the most frightening, series ever made by a commercial broadcast network," adding "some plot twists seem implausible at best, others are overdone or gratuitous. But some implausibility comes with the horror/suspense genre, and there's no question [Kevin] Williamson has mastered it — just as there's no question that the match of wills between the wounded [Kevin] Bacon and malevolent [James] Purefoy is exceedingly well played."


title: The Following

text: Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" stated: "The weakest part of "The Following" is the idea that Carroll was a college professor who held his classes spellbound with lectures about Thoreau, Emerson, and, most crucially, Edgar Allan Poe." He added: "The drama's strongest elements override this flaw. Both Bacon and Purefoy are so intensely earnest, "The Following" quickly supersedes its patent "Silence of the Lambs" setup. The moments that focus on Carroll's criminal cult give the series its real power, and the modern-day variations on Charlie Manson's kill-crazy crew are genuinely spooky."


title: The Following

text: The "Wall Street Journal's" Nancy Dewolf Smith considers the series "both better and worse than those movies where a procession of young people get killed so reliably and gorily that the audience laughs after it screams," adding, "There is some suspense here, even if it is mainly because the violence when it comes is so swift and sickening. But the show still feels slack. Is it a case of a serial-killer cliché too far?"


title: The Following

text: Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post" called the series "a trite, gratuitously violent exercise in still more stylishly imagined American horror stories." He added, "It is filled with melodramatic sleuthing that you've seen over and over."


title: The Following

text: Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times" said the series was "hard to turn off and even harder to watch" and that "precisely because it is so bleak and relentlessly scary, "The Following" offers a more salutary depiction of violence than do series that use humor to mitigate horror — and thereby trivialize it."


title: The Following

text: The series is broadcast in Canada through the CTV television system. For season three, the show will be broadcast on Canada's sibling specialty service Bravo. Internationally, it also airs on Nine Network in Australia, TF1 in France, Warner Channel in Latin America, SABC 3 in South Africa, Jack City in the Philippines, Canal+ & TVN7 in Poland, FOX in Portugal, and Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, and around 2015 will start to air in Colombia on Caracol Television.


title: Robert Gates

text: Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American intelligence analyst and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by president George W. Bush and was retained for service by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gates served for 26 years in the CIA and the National Security Council, and was Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that studied the lessons of the Iraq War.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was nominated by Republican president George W. Bush as Secretary of Defense two years after the 2004 election, replacing Donald Rumsfeld. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. In a 2007 profile written by former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Time" named Gates one of the year's most influential people. In 2008, Gates was named one of America's Best Leaders by "U.S. News & World Report". He continued to serve as Secretary of Defense in President Barack Obama's administration. He retired in 2011. "He'll be remembered for making us aware of the danger of over-reliance on military intervention as an instrument of American foreign policy," said former senator David L. Boren. Gates was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Obama during his retirement ceremony.


title: Robert Gates

text: Since leaving the Obama Administration, Gates was elected president of the Boy Scouts of America, served as Chancellor of the College of William & Mary, and served as a member on several corporate boards.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was born in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Isabel V. (née Goss) and Melville A. "Mel" Gates. Gates attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award from the BSA as an adult. He graduated from Wichita High School East in 1961. Gates is also a Vigil Honor member within the Order of the Arrow, BSA's National Honor Society. He was selected as the 2017 BSA National Alumnus of the Year.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates then received a scholarship to attend the College of William & Mary, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. in history. At William & Mary, Gates was an active member and president of the Alpha Phi Omega (national service fraternity) chapter and the Young Republicans; he was also the business manager for the "William and Mary Review", a literary and art magazine. At his William & Mary graduation ceremony, Gates received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award naming him the graduate who "has made the greatest contribution to his fellow man".


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates then received an M.A. in history from Indiana University Bloomington in 1966. He completed his Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history at Georgetown University in 1974. The title of his Georgetown doctoral dissertation is "Soviet Sinology: An Untapped Source for Kremlin Views and Disputes Relating to Contemporary Events in China" and is available from University Microfilms International as document number 7421652. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from William & Mary (1998), the University of Oklahoma (2011), Georgetown University (2014) and an honorary doctorate award from Kansas State University (2012).


title: Robert Gates

text: He married his wife Rebecca "Becky" Gates (formerly Wilkie) on January 7, 1967, and they have two children.


title: Robert Gates

text: While at Indiana University, Gates was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and joined in 1966. On January 4, 1967, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force after attending Officer Training School under CIA sponsorship. From 1967 to 1969, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command as an intelligence officer, which included a year at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where he delivered intelligence briefings to Intercontinental Ballistic Missile crews. After fulfilling his military obligation, he rejoined the CIA as an intelligence analyst.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates left the CIA in 1974 to serve on the staff of the National Security Council. He returned to the CIA in late 1979, serving briefly as the director of the Strategic Evaluation Center, Office of Strategic Research. He was named the Director of the DCI/DDCI Executive Staff in 1981, Deputy Director for Intelligence in 1982, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from April 18, 1986, to March 20, 1989.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from March until August 1989, and was Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser from August 1989 until November 1991.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was nominated to become the Director of Central Intelligence (head of the CIA) in early 1987. He withdrew his name after it became clear the Senate would reject the nomination due to controversy about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was nominated, for the second time, for the position of Director of Central Intelligence by President George H. W. Bush on May 14, 1991, confirmed by the Senate on November 5, and sworn in on November 6.


title: Robert Gates

text: During a Senate committee hearing on his nomination, former division chief Melvin Goodman testified that the agency was the most corrupt and slanted during the tenure of William Casey with Gates serving as deputy. According to Goodman, Gates was part of an agency leadership that proliferated false information and ignored 'reality'. National Intelligence Council chairman Harold P. Ford testified that during his tenure, Gates had transgressed professional boundaries.


title: Robert Gates

text: Deputy directors during his tenure were Richard J. Kerr (from November 6, 1991, until March 2, 1992) and Adm. William O. Studeman (from April 9, 1992, through the remainder of Gates' tenure). He served until 1993.


title: Robert Gates

text: Because of his senior status in the CIA, Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran–Contra Affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. In 1984, as deputy director of CIA, Gates advocated that the U.S. initiate a bombing campaign against Nicaragua and that the U.S. do everything in its power short of direct military invasion of the country to remove the Sandinista government.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was an early subject of Independent Counsel's investigation, but the investigation of Gates intensified in the spring of 1991 as part of a larger inquiry into the Iran–Contra activities of CIA officials. This investigation received an additional impetus in May 1991, when President George H. W. Bush nominated Gates to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). The chairman and vice chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) requested, in a letter to the Independent Counsel on May 15, 1991, any information that would "significantly bear on the fitness" of Gates for the CIA post.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates consistently testified that he first heard on October 1, 1986, from Charles E. Allen, the national intelligence officer who was closest to the Iran initiative, that proceeds from the Iran arms sales may have been diverted to support the Contras. Other evidence proves, however, that Gates received a report on the diversion during the summer of 1986 from DDI Richard Kerr. The issue was whether the Independent Counsel could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gates was deliberately not telling the truth when he later claimed not to have remembered any reference to the diversion before meeting with Allen in October.


title: Robert Gates

text: Grand jury secrecy rules hampered Independent Counsel's response. Nevertheless, in order to answer questions about Gates' prior testimony, Independent Counsel accelerated his investigation of Gates in the summer of 1991. This investigation was substantially completed by September 3, 1991, at which time Independent Counsel determined that Gates' Iran–Contra activities and testimony did not warrant prosecution.


title: Robert Gates

text: Independent Counsel made this decision subject to developments that could have warranted reopening his inquiry, including testimony by Clair E. George, the CIA's former deputy director for operations. At the time Independent Counsel reached this decision, the possibility remained that George could have provided information warranting reconsideration of Gates' status in the investigation. George refused to cooperate with Independent Counsel and was indicted on September 19, 1991. George subpoenaed Gates to testify as a defense witness at George's first trial in the summer of 1994, but Gates was never called.


title: Robert Gates

text: The final report of the Independent Counsel for Iran–Contra Scandal, issued on August 4, 1993, said that Gates "was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities. The evidence developed by Independent Counsel did not warrant indictment ..."


title: Robert Gates

text: After retiring from the CIA in 1993, Gates worked as an academic and lecturer. He evaluated student theses for the International Studies Program of the University of Washington. He lectured at Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Indiana, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, and the College of William & Mary. Gates served as a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Oklahoma International Programs Center and a trustee of the endowment fund for the College of William & Mary, his alma mater, which in 1998 conferred upon him honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In 1996, Gates' autobiography, "From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War", was published. Gates has also written numerous articles on government and foreign policy and has been a frequent contributor to the op-ed page of "The New York Times".


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was the interim Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University from 1999 to 2001. On August 1, 2002, he became the 22nd president of Texas A&M. As the university president, Gates made progress in four key areas of the university's "Vision 2020" plan, a plan to become one of the top 10 public universities by 2020. The four key areas include improving student diversity, increasing the size of the faculty, building new academic facilities, and enriching the undergraduate and graduate education experience. During his tenure, Gates encouraged the addition of 440 new faculty positions and a $300 million campus construction program, and saw increases in minority enrollment. On February 2, 2007, Gates was conferred the title of president emeritus by unanimous vote of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. Gates and his wife Becky received honorary doctoral degrees from Texas A&M on August 10, 2007.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates left the presidency of Texas A&M University on December 16, 2006, and was sworn in two days later as Secretary of Defense. He returned on April 21, 2009, as the speaker for the annual Aggie Muster ceremony. He is one of only 6 speakers not to be a graduate of Texas A&M University since Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke in 1946. In his affiliation with A&M, Gates has served on the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates has been a member of the board of trustees of Fidelity Investments, and on the board of directors of NACCO Industries, Inc., Brinker International, Inc., Parker Drilling Company, Science Applications International Corporation, and VoteHere, a technology company which sought to provide cryptography and computer software security for the electronic election industry. Following his nomination, a White House spokeswoman said that Gates planned to sell all the stock he owns in individual companies and sever all ties with them if confirmed by the Senate.


title: Robert Gates

text: In January 2004, Gates co-chaired a Council on Foreign Relations task force on U.S. relations towards Iran. Among the task force's primary recommendation was to directly engage Iran on a diplomatic level regarding Iranian nuclear technology. Key points included a negotiated position that would allow Iran to develop its nuclear program in exchange for a commitment from Iran to use the program only for peaceful means.


title: Robert Gates

text: At the time of his nomination by President George W. Bush to the position of Secretary of Defense, Gates was also a member of the Iraq Study Group, also called the Baker Commission, which was expected to issue its report in November 2006, following the mid-term election on November 7. He was replaced by former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.


title: Robert Gates

text: In February 2005, Gates wrote in a message posted on his school's website that "there seems to be a growing number of rumors in the media and around campus that I am leaving Texas A&M to become the new director of national intelligence in Washington, D.C." The message said that "To put the rumors to rest, I was indeed asked to take the position, wrestled with perhaps the most difficult—and close—decision of my life, and last week declined the position."


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates committed to remain as president of Texas A&M University and President George W. Bush offered the position of United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to John Negroponte, who accepted.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates said in a 2005 discussion with the university's Academy for Future International Leaders that he had tentatively decided to accept the DNI position out of a sense of duty and had written an email that would be sent to students during the press conference to announce his decision, explaining that he was leaving to serve the U.S. once again. Gates, however, took the weekend to consider what his final decision should be, and ultimately decided that he was unwilling to return to Washington, D.C., in any capacity, simply because he "had nothing to look forward to in D.C. and plenty to look forward to at A&M".


title: Robert Gates

text: On November 8, 2006, after the 2006 midterm election, President George W. Bush announced his intent to nominate Gates to succeed the resigning Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate Armed Services Committee on December 5, 2006. During his confirmation hearing on December 5, 2006, Gates replied to a question that, in his opinion, the United States was neither winning nor losing the war in Iraq. The next day, Gates was confirmed by the full Senate by a margin of 95–2, with Republican Senators Rick Santorum and Jim Bunning casting the two dissenting votes and senators Elizabeth Dole, Evan Bayh, and Joe Biden not voting. On December 18, 2006, Gates was sworn in as Secretary of Defense by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten at a private White House ceremony and then by Vice President Dick Cheney at the Pentagon.


title: Robert Gates

text: Under the Bush administration, Gates directed the war in Iraq's troop surge, a marked change in tactics from his predecessor. With violence on the decline in Iraq, in 2008, Gates also began the troop withdrawal of Iraq, a policy continued into the Obama administration.


title: Robert Gates

text: Several months after his appointment, "The Washington Post" published a series of articles beginning February 18, 2007 that brought to the spotlight the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal. As a result of the fallout from the incident, Gates announced the removal of Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey, and later, he approved the removal of Army Surgeon General Kevin C. Kiley.


title: Robert Gates

text: On June 8, 2007, Gates announced that he would not recommend the renomination of Peter Pace, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, due to anticipated difficulties with the confirmation process. Instead, Gates recommended Mike Mullen, the Chief of Naval Operations at the time, to fill the position. Gates stated: "I am no stranger to contentious confirmations, and I do not shrink from them. However, I have decided that at this moment in our history, the nation, our men and women in uniform, and General Pace himself would not be well-served by a divisive ordeal in selecting the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Gates referred to Pace as a friend and praised his service as a Marine.


title: Robert Gates

text: On June 5, 2008, in response to the findings on Air Force misshipments of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons components, Gates announced the resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley. Gates would later write that the USAF was "one of my biggest headaches" during his time in the office.


title: Robert Gates

text: On December 1, 2008, President-elect Obama announced that Robert Gates would remain in his position as Secretary of Defense during his administration, reportedly for at least the first year of Obama's presidency. Gates was the fourteenth Cabinet member in history to serve under two presidents of different parties, and the first to do so as Secretary of Defense. One of the first priorities under President Barack Obama's administration for Gates was a review of U.S. policy and strategy in Afghanistan. Gates, sixth in the presidential line of succession, was selected as designated survivor during Obama's inauguration. On March 1, 2009, he told David Gregory on "Meet the Press" that he would not commit to how long he would serve as Secretary of Defense but implied that he would not serve the entire first term.


title: Robert Gates

text: While Gates continued the troop withdrawals in Iraq, which already had begun in the Bush administration, he also implemented a rapid, limited surge of troops in Afghanistan in 2009. Robert Gates removed General David D. McKiernan from command in Afghanistan on May 6, 2009 and replaced him with General Stanley A. McChrystal. The "Washington Post" called it "a rare decision to remove a wartime commander". The "Washington Post" described the replacement as one of several replacements of generals who represented the "traditional Army" with generals "who have pressed for the use of counter-insurgency tactics".


title: Robert Gates

text: In December 2009, Gates visited Afghanistan following President Barack Obama's announcement of the deployment of 30,000 additional personnel against the Taliban insurgency, a policy that did not ultimately stem the Taliban's later return to power in 2021.


title: Robert Gates

text: "Time" magazine notes that Gates and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have "forged a formidable partnership", speaking frequently, "comparing notes before they go to the White House", meeting with each other weekly and having lunch once a month at either the Pentagon or the State Department.


title: Robert Gates

text: In a March 2010 speech to a NATO conference in Washington, Secretary Gates said that "The demilitarization of Europe—where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it—has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st".


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates announced in February 2010 that the department would lift its ban on women serving on submarines. Gates also prepared the armed forces for the repeal of the don't ask, don't tell policy. Since the repeal in 2010, homosexuals are able to serve in the military openly. In service of that goal, he announced in late March 2010 the approval of new regulations that would make it more difficult to kick gays out of the military. Gates called the guideline changes, which went into effect immediately, a matter of "common sense and common decency" that would be "an important improvement" allowing the Pentagon to apply current law in "a fairer and more appropriate" manner. The Pentagon's legal counsel, Jeh Johnson, said the new regulations are by no means a moratorium on the current law and stressed that cases would move forward under the new standards.


title: Robert Gates

text: In August 2010, speaking to "Foreign Policy" magazine Secretary Gates said that he would remain as Secretary of Defense until 2011 and then retire. "I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012," he said. "This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year."


title: Robert Gates

text: In March 2011, Gates directed the role of the United States armed forces in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. While aboard a military aircraft on March 20, 2011, Gates told the press that "military forces are just one way to bring stability to Libya".


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates was photographed in the White House Situation Room photograph taken on May 1, 2011, by Pete Souza during the raid that killed Al-Qaeda terrorist organization leader Osama Bin Laden.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates officially retired as Secretary of Defense on July 1, 2011, and was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Obama during his retirement ceremony.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates' tenure with the Obama administration included a huge shift in military spending. In April 2009, Gates proposed a large shift in budget priorities in the U.S. Department of Defense 2010 budget. The budget cuts included many programs geared toward conventional warfare, such as the end of new orders of the F-22 Raptor, and further development of Future Combat Systems manned vehicles. However, these cuts were counterbalanced by increases in funding for programs like the special forces. Gates called this the "nation's first truly 21st century defense budget". In late April 2010, he suggested the Navy cease funding development of a new multibillion-dollar ballistic missile submarine program on the grounds of cost and relevancy. He suggested the hundreds of billions of dollars would be better spent on a new generation of vessels tailored to the threats and tactics more likely to be faced, noting, "Mark my words, the Navy and Marine Corps must be willing to re-examine and question basic assumptions in light of evolving technologies, new threats and budget realities." In a speech made on May 8, 2010, Gates stated that he would make politically unpopular cuts to the Pentagon bureaucracy in his future budgets.


title: Robert Gates

text: It was announced in August 2010 that Gates was trying to find $100 billion in Defense savings through to 2015, in order to instill a "culture of savings and restraint" in the military. Secretary Gates said that "It is important that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, where tough economic times or the winding down of a military campaign leads to steep and unwise reductions in defense". Gates said "As a matter of principle and political reality, the Department of Defense cannot expect America's elected representatives to approve budget increases each year unless we are doing a good job, indeed everything possible, to make every dollar count". These cuts included the closing of the Joint Forces Command, the redundancy of fifty general and admirals, and the removal of 150 senior civilian positions.


title: Robert Gates

text: On January 16, 2008, Gates was quoted in the "Los Angeles Times" as saying NATO forces in southern Afghanistan do not know how to properly combat a guerrilla insurgency and that could be contributing to rising violence in the country. The Netherlands and United Kingdom protested.


title: Robert Gates

text: In a June 10, 2011 speech in Brussels, before NATO, Gates again stated that other NATO members must do more as the United States tackles its budget deficit. He said bluntly that


title: Robert Gates

text: In the past, I've worried openly about NATO turning into a two-tiered alliance: Between members who specialize in "soft" humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and talking tasks, and those conducting the "hard" combat missions. Between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership—be they security guarantees or headquarters billets—but don't want to share the risks and the costs. This is no longer a hypothetical worry. We are there today. And it is unacceptable. The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress—and in the American body politic writ large—to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense. Nations apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets. Indeed, if current trends in the decline of European defense capabilities are not halted and reversed, future U.S. political leaders—those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me—may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates is a Principal, along with Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley and Anja Manuel, in RiceHadleyGates LLC, a strategic consulting firm.


title: Robert Gates

text: On September 6, 2011, it was announced that Gates had accepted the position of chancellor at the College of William & Mary, succeeding Sandra Day O'Connor. He took the office of the chancellor on February 3, 2012.


title: Robert Gates

text: On May 2, 2012, Starbucks Corporation announced that Gates had been elected to the Starbucks board of directors. He will serve on the board's nominating and corporate governance committee.


title: Robert Gates

text: On October 30, 2013, the Boy Scouts of America announced that Gates had been elected to the National executive board. While on this board, he will serve as the national president-elect. In May 2014, he began a two-year-long term as the BSA national president. Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. serves under Gates as the president-elect. Gates has succeeded Wayne Perry as the national president. On May 21, 2015, Gates stated that the "status quo [ban on gay adult leaders] in [the BSA] movement's membership standards cannot be sustained" and that he would no longer seek to revoke the charters of scout units that accept gay adult leaders.


title: Robert Gates

text: In his memoir, "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War", Gates alternately criticized and praised Obama's military leadership, writing, "I never doubted [his] support for the troops, only his support for their mission [in Afghanistan]", and "I was very proud to work for a president who had made one of the most courageous decisions I had ever witnessed in the White House [by authorizing the raid against Osama bin Laden]."


title: Robert Gates

text: In the wake of the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Gates wrote an op-ed piece on Vladimir Putin, Russian expansionism, the nascent sanctions regime, the US military budget, and the need for bold leadership.


title: Robert Gates

text: Gates, along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Republican former foreign policy officials, recommended to incoming president Donald Trump that Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson be considered for the Trump Administration as Secretary of State.


title: Robert Gates

text: In September 2018, Gates was re-appointed to serve a second seven-year term as chancellor at the College of William & Mary.


title: Robert Gates

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates participated as a member of the National Advisory Council for the COVID Collaborative.


title: Robert Gates

text: As deputy director and director of America's leading intelligence agency for many years, Gates and his CIA staff have been faulted for failing to accurately gauge the decline and disintegration of the Soviet Union. More particularly, Gates has been criticized for allegedly concocting evidence to show that the Soviet Union was stronger than it actually was. George Shultz said that, while Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989, he felt the CIA under Gates was trying to "manipulate" him, that the agency was "a big powerful machine not under good control. I distrust what comes out of it." Shultz personally convinced Reagan that the U.S. should soften her stance towards the USSR after Gorbachev came to power in 1985; Shultz told Gates at the time that his CIA was "usually wrong" about the Soviet Union, having dismissed Gorbachev's policies as "just another Soviet attempt to deceive us." In 1991, Stansfield Turner, former Director of Central Intelligence, described the "enormity of this failure to forecast the magnitude of the Soviet crisis. ... I never heard a suggestion from the CIA ... that numerous Soviets recognized a growing systemic economic problem." Turner said this failure was a consequence of deliberate distortion by those in the upper echelon of the CIA who were helping to sell the Reagan administration's defense buildup, a view backed by former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman at Gates' 1991 confirmation hearings: "[William] Casey seized on every opportunity to exaggerate the Soviet threat ... [while] Gates' role in this activity was to corrupt the process and the ethics of intelligence." Reviewing the third installment of Gates' memoirs in 2016, Goodman said, "In my 24 years at the CIA, there was never the kind of toxic atmosphere that existed when Gates served as deputy director for intelligence, deputy director of CIA, and finally director of CIA." Also, according to "Newsweek", Gates, as deputy director of CIA, allegedly vouched for the comprehensiveness of a CIA study presented to the Senate and President Reagan alleging that the Soviet Union played a role in the 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II. A CIA internal review later denounced the report as being skewed, but that Gates did not try to influence the report's conclusions.


title: Robert Gates

text: Shortly after his retirement from his tenure as Defense Secretary in summer 2011, during a meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee, Gates highlighted many of the measures taken by the U.S. to advance Israel's security during the Obama Administration, including providing access to state of the art weaponry, assisting with the development of missile-defense systems, and sharing high-level intelligence, before expressing his view that the U.S. has received nothing in return from the Israeli government with regards to the peace process. According to senior U.S. administration sources, other officials present offered no rebuttal to Gates' analysis. This was not the first time Gates publicly expressed frustration with the Netanyahu government, with which he had worked hard to provide wide-scale and deep military cooperation. The Likud party of Israel responded to Gates' description of Benjamin Netanyahu as a danger to Israel's future by claiming that most Israelis support the prime minister.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (; ; 13 May 1221 – 14 November 1263) served as Prince of Novgorod (1236–40, 1241–56 and 1258–1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1236–52) and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252–63) during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Commonly regarded as a key figure of medieval Rus', Alexander was a grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military victories over German and Swedish invaders. He preserved separate statehood and Orthodoxy, agreeing to pay tribute to the powerful Golden Horde. Metropolite Macarius canonized Alexander Nevsky as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: From "Tales of the Life and Courage of the Pious and Great Prince Alexander" found in the "Second Pskovian Chronicle", circa 1260–1280, comes one of the first known references to the Great Prince:


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Born in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Alexander was the second son of Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and Feodosia Igorevna of Ryazan. His maternal grandfather was Igor Glebovich, the second son of Gleb Rostislavich, Prince of Ryazan (d. 1178). His maternal grandmother was Agrafena of Kiev, daughter of Rostislav I of Kiev. Alexander seemed to have no chance of claiming the throne of Vladimir. In 1236, however, the Novgorodians summoned him to become knyaz (prince) and military leader of Novgorod, to defend their northwest lands from Swedish and German invaders.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: According to the Novgorod Chronicle written in the 14th century, more than a century after the events it records, the Swedish army landed at the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva, when Alexander and his small army suddenly attacked the Swedes on 15 July 1240 and defeated them. The Battle of the Neva saved Novgorod from a full-scale invasion from the West. Because of this battle, 19-year-old Alexander gained the sobriquet "Nevsky" (which means "of Neva"). This victory, coming just three years after the disastrous Mongol invasion of the Rus' lands of the North West, strengthened Alexander's political influence, but at the same time it worsened his relations with the boyars. He would soon have to leave Novgorod because of this conflict.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: After crusading Catholic Germans and Estonians under the Livonian Order invaded Pskov, the Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander. In the spring of 1241, he returned from exile, gathered an army, and drove out the invaders. Alexander and his men faced the Livonian heavy cavalry led by the bishop of Dorpat (Hermann, brother of Albert of Buxhoeveden). The Rus's force met the enemy on the ice of Lake Peipus and defeated the German knights and the Estonian infantry during the Battle of the Ice on 5 April 1242.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Alexander's victory marked a significant event in the history of Russia: foot soldiers of Novgorod had surrounded and defeated an army of knights, mounted on horseback and clad in thick armour.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: After the Livonian invasion, Nevsky continued to strengthen Russia's Northwest. He sent his envoys to Norway and, as a result, they signed a first peace treaty between Russia and Norway in 1251. Alexander led his army to Finland and successfully routed the Swedes, who had made another attempt to block the Baltic Sea from the Russians in 1256.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Nevsky proved to be a cautious and far-sighted politician. He dismissed the Roman Curia's attempts to cause war between Russia and the Golden Horde, because he understood the uselessness of such war with the Tatars at a time when they were still a powerful force. Historians seem to be unsure about Alexander's behavior when it came to his relations with Mongols. He may have thought that Catholicism presented a more tangible threat to Russian national identity than paying a tribute to the Khan, who had little interest in Slav religion and culture. It is also argued that he intentionally kept the North Slav principalities and city states as vassals to the Mongols in order to preserve his own status and counted on the befriended Horde in case someone challenged his authority (he forced the citizens of Novgorod to pay tribute). Alexander tried to strengthen his authority at the expense of the boyars and at the same time suppress any anti-Mongol uprisings in the country (Novgorod Uprising of 1259). The Orthodox Church also emphasizes tolerating present civil authority (see ), which in this case would include accepting Mongol vassalage as divine judgement.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: According to one interpretation, Alexander's intentions were to protect scattered principalities of what would become Muscovy from repeated invasions by the Mongol army. He is known to have gone to the Horde himself and achieved success in exempting Russians from fighting beside the Tatar army in its wars with other peoples.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Some historians see Alexander's choice of subordination to the Golden Horde and refusal of cooperation with western countries and church as an important reaffirmation of East Slavs' Orthodox orientation (begun under Duke Vladimir of Kiev and his mother Olga).


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Upon the conquest of the Principality of Vladimir by the Mongols in 1238, its reigning Prince, Yuri II Vsevolodovich, was killed in the Battle of the Sit River; his younger brother, Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, requested from, and received from, the Mongol khan installation as the new Prince. As Prince, he assigned the duchy of Novgorod to his son Alexander. However, while traveling in 1245 to the Mongol capital Karakorum in Central Asia, Yaroslav died. When in 1248 Alexander and his older brother Andrey II Yaroslavich also traveled to Karakorum to attend upon the Great Khan, Andrei returned with the award of the Grand Principality of Vladimir and Alexander the nominal lordship of Kiev. Once Möngke became the new Great Khan in 1251, all the Russian princes were obliged to travel to Sarai on the Volga, the capital of the Golden Horde, to be affirmed in their duchies, but Andrei refused to go. Thanks to his friendship with Sartaq Khan, the subsequent invasion by the Mongol Golden Horde saw Andrei exiled to Sweden and Alexander installed as the Grand Prince of Vladimir (i.e., the supreme Russian ruler) in 1252. Alexander faithfully supported Mongol rule within his domains. In 1259 he led an army to the city of Novgorod and forced it to pay tribute it had previously refused to the Golden Horde. Returning in 1263 from one of his frequent visits to the Horde, Alexander died in the town of Gorodets-on-the-Volga on his way back from Sarai. Prior to his death, he took monastic vows and was given the religious name of Alexis.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Though he died in Gorodets, Alexander was laid to rest in the city of Vladimir, in the Great Abbey at The Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: According to the Novgorod First Chronicle, Alexander married first a daughter of Bryacheslav Vasilkovich, Prince of Polatsk and Vitebsk, in 1239. Her name is not given in the chronicle. Genealogies name her as Paraskeviya or Alexandra (possibly birth and marital names respectively). They had five children:


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: When Alexander foresaw his impending death he took most strict Orthodox Christian monastic vows, called Great Schema. According to Orthodox tradition to give a person a new name after becoming a monk he took the name Alexey. He was buried in Nativity Monastery in Vladimir. Alexander was canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Macarius in 1547. In 1724 Peter The Great ordered the transfer of his relics to a monastery especially built for this, Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Nevsky was buried in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin monastery in Vladimir. Veneration began almost immediately after a miracle at his burial, when he reportedly extended his hand for the prayer of absolution. The remains of the prince were uncovered in response to a vision, before the Battle of Kulikovo in the year 1380, and found to be incorrupt. The relics were then placed in a shrine in the church. He was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. A new wooden reliquary was made in Moscow in 1695 and the relics placed in it in 1697. By order of Peter the Great the relics were then removed from Vladimir on 11 August 1723 and transported to Shlisselburg, arriving there on 20 September. There they were kept until 1724, when they were brought to Saint Petersburg and installed in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra on 30 August. In 1753 a for the relics, made with 90 pounds of silver, was donated by Empress Elizabeth of Russia. With the completion of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1790, the shrine and relics were transferred there at its consecration on 30 August, one of the saint's feast days.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: In May 1922, during the general confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property, the shrine was opened. The elaborate silver shrine was transferred to the Hermitage Museum, where it remains. The relics were put into storage at the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, before being returned to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in 1989. His principal feast day is 23 November. A second feast day was instituted on 30 August in commemoration of the placing of his relics in the Annunciation Church. He is also commemorated in common with other saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl on 23 May.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Some of Alexander's policies on the Western border were continued by his grandson-in-law, Daumantas of Pskov, who was also beatified in the 16th century.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: In the late 13th century, a chronicle was compiled called the "Life of Alexander Nevsky" (Житие Александра Невского), in which he is depicted as an ideal prince-soldier and defender of Russia.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: On 21 May 1725, the empress Catherine I introduced the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky as one of the highest decorations in the land. During the Great Patriotic War, on 29 July 1942, the Soviet authorities introduced an Order of Alexander Nevsky to revive the memory of Alexander's struggle with the Germans. There was also an earlier Bulgarian Order dedicated to Saint Alexander which was founded on 25 December 1881, which ceased to exist when the People's Republic was declared on 16 September 1946.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: In 1938, Sergei Eisenstein made one of his most acclaimed films, "Alexander Nevsky", about Alexander's victory over the Teutonic Knights. The soundtrack for the film was written by Sergei Prokofiev, who also reworked the score into a concert cantata. Today the film is renowned for its extraordinary battle on ice sequence, which has served as inspiration for countless other films. In the picture, Nevsky used a number of Russian proverbs, tying Nevsky firmly to Russian tradition. The famous proverbial phrase (paraphrasing Matthew 26:52), "Whoever will come to us with a sword, from a sword will perish," is a phrase that is often attributed to Alexander Nevsky, though it was not in fact said by him; it comes from Eisenstein's film, where it was said by actor Nikolai Cherkasov.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: Alexander Nevsky's fame has spread beyond the borders of Russia, and numerous cathedrals and churches are dedicated to him, including the Patriarchal Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Cathedral church in Tallinn, Estonia; the Cathedral church in Łódź, Poland; the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Ungheni, Moldova.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: On 24 September 2008, Alexander Nevsky was declared the main hero of Russia's history by popular vote, as reported by the "Kommersant" newspaper.


title: Alexander Nevsky

text: During the 2021 Moscow Victory Day Parade, a small historical segment of the parade featured Russian soldiers dressed in historical M1945 Red Army uniforms carrying out the soviet combat banners which received the Order of Alexander Nevsky during the war. This segment coincided with the 800th anniversary since the birth of Alexander Nevsky in 1221 AD.


title: Ali Daei

text: Ali Daei ( ; born 21 March 1969) is an Iranian football manager and former player. A striker, he was the captain of the Iranian national team between 2000 and 2006 and played in the German Bundesliga for Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin. He is regarded as one of the greatest Asian footballers of all time.


title: Ali Daei

text: A tall forward, Daei was a prolific goalscorer and was known for his heading accuracy and ability in the air. He was the world's top international goalscorer with 109 goals, until his record was broken by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021. During his playing career, Daei was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2001. Following his retirement, Daei served as a member of the FIFA Football Committee between 2007 and 2013. In 2014, he was inducted into the Asian Football Hall of Fame.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei was born in Ardabil, Imperial Iran to an Iranian Azerbaijani family. Daei graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Materials Engineering (Metallurgical) with a BSc. degree. He began his playing career at 19 with hometown club Esteghlal Ardabil. His next club was Taxirani F.C. in Tehran, where he played for one season, before joining another Tehran-based club, Bank Tejarat. His tenure with Bank Tejarat lasted four years, scoring 49 goals in 75 games for the club.


title: Ali Daei

text: After his success with Bank Tejarat FC, in 1994 Daei joined one of Tehran's leading clubs, Persepolis. He went on to score 23 goals in 38 games for the club from 1994 to 1996. Following his impressive performance in the Asian Cup in 1996, he moved to Al Sadd for the 1996–1997 season, before joining Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld in 1997 alongside fellow Iranian national teammate Karim Bagheri.


title: Ali Daei

text: Yet at Bayern he found himself low in the pecking order. This coupled with the Iranian national team's scheduling, Daei had found very little time for playing. Daei was unhappy with his position in the club and decided to make a move to Hertha BSC before the end of his three-year contract, when Bayern won the championship title in the 1999 Bundesliga.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei became the first Asian player ever to feature in a UEFA Champions League match. He scored his first and second goal in the UEFA Champions League on 21 September 1999 in a group stage match against Chelsea, won by Hertha 2–1. He also scored in a 1–1 draw against A.C. Milan at the San Siro. At Hertha he was a hugely important player, since he was only one of the squad's many successful players, who were to fulfill Hertha's Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League dreams.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei was playing in numerous continental friendlies against world class opposition, yet was still unable to maintain a stable position in his club's starting line-up. In 2001, he was not among the top scorers in the Asian Qualifying round and he did not manage to take the team into the World Cup as captain for the first time. He joined the UAE league at 34 years of age, signing a contract with Al-Shabab as a free agent. In 2003, Daei quit the UAE team and joined his team in Tehran, Pirouzi FC. Daei moved from Persepolis to Saba Battery on a free transfer for a modest contract of around $300,000.


title: Ali Daei

text: He spent two years at Saba Battery, scoring 23 goals, winning the Hazfi Cup and participating in the Asian Champions League. After World Cup 2006 and the arrival of Saba Battery's new manager, Farhad Kazemi, it was announced that he was no longer needed on the team and his contract would not be renewed. Despite rumours of retirement, he signed for another industry-linked club from Tehran, Saipa, on 1 August 2006.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 6 March 2007, Ali Daei was fined $2000 and suspended for four games by the Iranian Football Federation after the incidents in a league game where he delivered a head-butt to the face of Sheys Rezaei.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 28 May 2007, after Saipa won the 2006–07 Persian Gulf Cup in a match vs Mes Kerman, Daei announced his retirement from playing club football and that he would concentrate on his coaching career.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei was named the world's top scorer in official international competitions by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), having scored 20 goals in competitive matches for Iran in 1996, including his famous four-goal haul against South Korea in Asian Cup 1996. By the end of the 1996 Asian Cup, he had scored 29 goals in 38 appearances for Iran. In the 1998 World Cup qualifying campaign, he was again on top of the charts, scoring nine goals in 17 matches for Iran, reaching at that time, 38 goals in 52 appearances for his country.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei joined the exclusive circle of players with a century of caps. In a 28 November 2003 Asian Cup qualifier in Tehran against Lebanon, he scored his 85th international goal, elevating him past the Hungarian Ferenc Puskás to top the all-time list of scorers in international matches. On 17 November 2004, he scored four goals against Laos in a World Cup qualifier, giving him 102 goals and making him the first male player to score 100 goals in international play. He has 149 caps for Iran and, as of 13 September 2019, is ranked 28th among the world's most capped players list.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei was called up to join "Team Melli" on 6 June 1993 in an ECO Cup tournament held in Tehran, where he made his debut for Iran against Pakistan. He continued his national team appearances and was named the top scorer of the final Asian round of 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifications with 4 goals in 5 matches.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 17 November 2004, Daei became the first male footballer with 100 international goals when he scored four times against Laos in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier.


title: Ali Daei

text: Despite criticism, Daei played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup; the criticisms, however, were directed more at his fitness and the inability of younger players to play a part in the World Cup. From Iranian media calling for his retirement, Ali Daei has always defended his position in "Team Melli" and has rejected that he was too old to play for the team.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei ended his international career with 109 goals, an all-time record which stood until September 2021 when it was surpassed by Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo. "I am honoured that this remarkable achievement will belong to Ronaldo," Daei wrote on Instagram.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei captained Islamic Azad University football team in 2007 World Interuniversity Games, scoring a hat-trick in the final match against University of Osijek and winning the gold medal.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 8 October 2006, upon sudden leave of Saipa's German coach Werner Lorant, he was appointed as the interim manager of Saipa. He was later officially announced as the full-time manager. On 28 May, Saipa became the Persian Gulf Cup champions in Daei's first season at the helm. Going into his second season as manager, Daei relinquished his playing duties for the defending champions and found himself on the sidelines full-time. The results of Saipa's 2007–2008 campaign were not nearly as successful as his team finished 11th in the 18 team Iran Pro League table. However, Daei did lead Saipa to an Asian Champions League quarterfinal birth before leaving to take over as the full-time manager of the Iranian national football team.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 2 March 2008, IRIFF officially appointed Ali Daei as Team Melli's new head coach. Despite admitting that his appointment as manager of the Iranian national team was a "surprise", Daei refused to leave his current coaching job at Saipa F.C., therefore taking on dual managerial careers until after Saipa had entered the Asian Champion League quarterfinals, after which Daei left Saipa by mutual consent. While Daei guided Iran to a respectable 16–6–3 mark, his third loss on 28 March 2009 to a Saudi Arabian team that was down 1–0 to Iran in Tehran proved to be the final straw.


title: Ali Daei

text: During his tenure as the National Team coach, the Iranian team managed the weakest World Cup Qualification results in its history with only one win out of 5 WCQ games. After the loss in the 2010 World Cup Qualifier, Daei was fired as head coach after the match. While introducing many new players such as Gholamreza Rezaei, and Ehsan Hajsafi, Daei's squad was often in flux as to who would be invited to a fixture. As well, many critics pointed towards the failures of Daei's team to score and an unsolved weakness in the central defense as causes for his downfall.


title: Ali Daei

text: In 2009, Daei turned down a job offer as manager of Rah Ahan. It was widely believed that Daei could be next in-line for the coaching position of Persepolis but the club chose Zlatko Kranjčar. On 28 December 2009, Daei was chosen as a coach of Persepolis. At the end of the 2009–10 Season, Persepolis finished fourth in the league but they became Hazfi Cup champions. In the Hazfi Cup final, Persepolis defeated Azadegan League side Gostaresh Foolad Tabriz 4–1 on aggregate to qualify for the 2011 AFC Champions League. In the 2010–11 season, Persepolis finished fourth in the league and was eliminated in the group stage of the 2011 AFC Champions League but at the end of the season Persepolis won the 2010–11 Hazfi Cup after defeating rivals Sepahan, Foolad and Malavan. Daei had many people against him while at Persepolis, including the chairman Habib Kashani and after a contention with Kashani, he stated that "I won't work with Kashani Anymore".


title: Ali Daei

text: On 20 June 2011, Technical committee of Perspolis re-appointed Daei as Persepolis's head coach but he resigned on 21 June. The technical committee chose Hamid Estili as Daei's successor on that day. During his time at Persepolis, Daei brought up many youngsters such as Hamidreza Ali Asgari and Saman Aghazamani and other players such as Hadi Norouzi and Maziar Zare were chosen for Team Melli thanks to Daei. Despite the fact that many challenges and difficulties such as the leaders of fans and the clubs' Chairman Kashani were in Daei's way, Persepolis was crowned Hazfi Cup Champions for two successive years and the fans themselves always loved and cheered Daei, but at the same time they did not cheer for any player. Under the management of Daei, Persepolis won back to back trophies for the first time in 13 seasons.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 14 July 2011, Daei signed a one-year contract as head coach of Rah Ahan. In his first match as head coach of Rah Ahan, he made a 2–2 draw with Zob Ahan. In his first season as Rah Ahan's head coach, he led the club to the 11th position.


title: Ali Daei

text: During the 2012–13 season, Ali Daei used many young players such as Mojtaba Shiri and Omid Alishah, and Rah Ahan finished the season in the 8th place which was the clubs' best finish in the league since 1937. Thanks to Daei's popularity, more people started to watch Rah Ahan's matches, and for the second straight year, Daei was able to beat his former club Persepolis.


title: Ali Daei

text: Despite many rumors that Daei will leave Rah Ahan for other clubs such as Persepolis or Tractor, he decided to stay with the club "to build a team that can qualify for the AFC Champions League." However, his contract was terminated on 20 May 2013, making ways for him to become head coach of Persepolis.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 20 May 2013, he signed a three-year contract to become head coach of Persepolis after a long negotiation. It was the second time that he signed with Persepolis, he returned to his former side after two seasons. He officially began his work with Persepolis on 1 June 2013. His first match came against Tractor, which Persepolis won 1–0 with the goal coming from Mehdi Seyed Salehi. At the end of his first year at Persepolis, his side finished runners-up, two points less than champions Foolad.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 1 July 2015, Daei became head coach of Saba Qom, signing a two-year contract. In two seasons with Saba he finished ninth and seventh in the Persian Gulf Pro League. He left Saba a few weeks before the start of the 2016–17 season due to uncertainty in the Saba's ownership situation.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei became manager of Naft Tehran on 5 July 2016 with signing a two-year contract, replacing Alireza Mansourian. He led Naft to the Hazfi Cup title but left the club at the end of the season.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei became manager of Saipa on 14 May 2017, a club that he started his coaching career in 2006 and led them to the league title in 2007. He led the club for two seasons and was sacked at the end of 2018–19 season.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei was one of the Personnel involved for the 2022 FIFA World Cup draw held in Qatar on 1 April 2022.


title: Ali Daei

text: Iranian journalist Camelia Entekhabifard wrote in her memoirs that she was marrying Daei in 1997, but the couple separated.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei owns his own football jersey manufacturing company called Daei Sport's Wears & Equipments, making sportswear for Iran sporting clubs in various fields and league clubs worldwide. His company also made jerseys for the national team. He has made very significant charitable donations and has made appearances in charity football matches worldwide (featuring in the World vs. Bosnia match with Roberto Baggio and others). He also appeared in a UNICEF commercial with David Beckham and Madeleine Albright, and has regularly been seen working with the organisation.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei featured on 18 July 2007 in "90 Minutes for Mandela", a match between the Africa XI and the Rest of World XI to celebrate the birthday of Nelson Mandela. Daei played approximately 10 minutes in the match which ended 3–3.


title: Ali Daei

text: Daei is a follower of Shia islam. While he played for Bayern Munich, he refused to hold a glass of beer for an Erdinger advertisement because alcoholic beverages are forbidden in his religion.


title: Ali Daei

text: On 17 March 2012, Daei's car overturned as he was driving back to Tehran from Isfahan with his brother. Just prior to the accident, his team, Rah Ahan, had been beaten by Sepahan. Daei was then transferred to a hospital near Kashan. Rah Ahan's Media Officer, Hossein Ghadousi stated that "Daei is in a stable condition with regards to his vital signs and is not currently in any acute danger as a result of the accident". He was transferred to Laleh hospital in Tehran the following day.


title: Ali Daei

text: A statement from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said: "The AFC wishes Iranian legend Ali Daei, who was involved in a car accident on Saturday, a speedy and full recovery. We stand ready to assist Daei, who is a true icon of Asian football. Our thoughts and prayers are with him." Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, said on his personal Twitter page that he was shocked to hear Daei was injured. He also sent his best wishes for his recovery.


title: Ali Daei

text: In November 2020, Daei was attacked by two thieves while they were trying to steal his gold necklace in Tehran.


title: Ali Daei

text: In April 2008, Daei announced that he had begun writing an autobiography, due to be released in March 2010, and that despite reflecting on "bitter and sweet memories" he stated he would "keep some of his secrets in his heart forever". The book has not yet been released.


title: DeBarge

text: DeBarge was an American musical recording group composed of several members of the DeBarge family. In addition to various solo projects completed by members of the family, DeBarge was active between 1979 and 1989. The group originally consisted of El, Mark, Randy, and Bunny. James joined the group a year later for their second album. Bobby and Chico joined in 1987 and 1988 respectively, replacing Bunny and El.


title: DeBarge

text: DeBarge released six studio albums, four of them with Motown subsidiary Gordy Records. These albums included "The DeBarges" (1981), "All This Love" (1982), "In a Special Way" (1983), and "Rhythm of the Night" (1985). The latter became the group's best-selling album and contained the single "Rhythm of the Night", which hit No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it their highest charting single in America. In the mid-1980s, El and Bunny each went solo and DeBarge was subsequently released from its contract.


title: DeBarge

text: The remaining members signed with Stripe Horse Records, an independent label, in 1987, which released their final studio album, "Bad Boys". The group continued to perform for an additional two years, with Chico DeBarge joining the group in 1988. Two members of the group, Bobby and Chico, were arrested for drug trafficking in 1989. Legal issues and personal problems, compounded with the changing musical tastes of the public, led to the group's dispersion in 1989, 10 years after its inception.


title: DeBarge

text: The DeBarge family are the children of Etterlene DeBarge (née Abney), a Black American gospel singer born in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1935 and Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. (1932–2009), an American soldier of French and English descent born in Cicero, Illinois. They married when Etterlene was 17, a year after the death of her father James Abney, a church choir leader and peanut retailer. They separated in the mid-1970s and divorced in 1974. Etterlene remembers Robert DeBarge, Sr. as physically and emotionally abusive to her and the children, and said he used her youth, the absence of her father, and continuous pregnancy to control her. DeBarge, Sr. has been characterized as "domineering and physically abusive to his wife," and some of the DeBarge children have accused him of having sexually abused them. Bunny Debarge, the eldest, recalls being sexually abused by him between the ages of seven to 13.


title: DeBarge

text: The group, named for their shared surname, hailed from the East Side of Detroit, where the siblings were born and raised; they later relocated to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Members included sister Etterlene (or "Bunny") and brothers Mark (or "Marty"), William (or "Randy"), Eldra (or "El"), and James (younger siblings Jonathan [or "Chico"], Darell, and Carol "Peaches" DeBarge are also singers though not with the group).


title: DeBarge

text: The siblings who became DeBarge started performing in various groups together in the Detroit, Michigan area in the mid 1970s. In 1979, brothers Randy, Mark, and El were part of the SMASH band, which was a release on Source Records/MCA in the USA/Canada before it was released as Pall Mall Groove HOT ICE in Germany by Polydor. Bernd Lichters, who rented a home in Cerritos, CA, bought them instruments, and they were mentored by members of the Motown group Switch, including their elder brothers Tommy and Bobby and co-founding member and family friend Gregory Williams. Bunny DeBarge had joined her younger brothers in 1979 as well, and they formed as The DeBarges in 1980. That year, because of Bobby's success with Switch, younger brother El was able to perform live on the piano and sing for Motown CEO and founder Berry Gordy, who was impressed by the group and agreed to sign them that year. For a year the group worked alongside members of Switch, helping to add background vocals, instrumentation, arranging, and musical and lyrical composition to the band's works, most prominently in "I Call Your Name", "My Friend in the Sky", and "Love Over and Over Again".


title: DeBarge

text: By 1981, Bobby and Tommy had left Switch and returned the favor to their siblings working with them on their debut album, which was released that year with Bobby, Bunny, and El as main producers. The only single, the Bobby-led ballad "What's Your Name", failed to chart.


title: DeBarge

text: In 1982, they added their brother James and cousin Cameron to the lineup and worked on their second album, "All This Love", produced by El and Iris Gordy. The album launched them into R&B stardom with the recordings "I Like It" and "All This Love". Both songs also became crossover pop hits with "All This Love" later going to number one on Billboard's adult contemporary chart. In 1983, the group made an impression after appearing on "Motown 25", where they performed alongside High Inergy. Later in 1983, the group issued their third album, "In a Special Way", which spawned two further hit singles, "Time Will Reveal" and "Love Me in a Special Way". Like "All This Love" before it, the album reached gold status in the United States.


title: DeBarge

text: Following that album's success, DeBarge were handpicked by Luther Vandross to open for him on his "Busy Body Tour" to support his album of the same name. Also in 1984, James DeBarge made headlines when he secretly eloped with Janet Jackson of the famed Jackson family, but their marriage was quickly annulled the following year.


title: DeBarge

text: When the tour ended in late 1984, the group recorded the Diane Warren composition, "Rhythm of the Night", for the soundtrack to the Motown-produced film, Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" from 1985. The song was released in early 1985 and became a hit single, eventually reaching the top five in several countries, mainly in the US and UK, becoming the band's biggest-selling and their best-known hit.


title: DeBarge

text: Sensing that El DeBarge was emerging as the "star" of the group, Motown had El working on the group's next album primarily by himself, with the label failing to call on the other siblings' help. It's hinted Motown was fearful of the other members' growing dependencies to drug addiction, only trusting El as he seemed to be the most reliable.


title: DeBarge

text: The "Rhythm of the Night" album became the band's best-selling work, going platinum and featuring further hits such as "Who's Holding Donna Now" and "You Wear It Well". Following the end of its successful promotion, however, both El and Bunny DeBarge departed from the group after Motown offered them lucrative solo deals. Without the powerful harmonies of the brother and sister duo, the rest of the DeBarges were not considered commercial enough to keep going, and they were dropped from the Motown label in 1986.


title: DeBarge

text: In 1987, Bobby joined the group, and failing to find deals with major labels, the group (still known as DeBarge) signed with the independent label Striped Horse Records, later releasing what turned out to be their final studio album, "Bad Boys". Since Striped Horse had financial problems promoting the album and without the help of Motown, and although two singles were released – "Dance All Night", which peaked at number 33, and the ballad "I Got You Babe", which only reached number 73 – the album itself failed to chart.


title: DeBarge

text: DeBarge continued their career into 1988, even bringing along younger brother Chico (who had a successful hit "Talk to Me") with them as their opening act. The brothers made a guest appearance on the television show "Punky Brewster" in 1988.


title: DeBarge

text: Later in 1988 Bobby and Chico were arrested for drug trafficking in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were eventually convicted of the charges and sentenced to two different prisons to serve their sentences. The arrests and subsequent convictions brought an end to the group as a musical entity and it was disbanded in 1989.


title: DeBarge

text: By the time of its disbanding, the group DeBarge had released nine top 40 R&B singles, five top 40 pop singles, two Pop top 10 hits, five top 10 R&B singles, two number-one R&B singles, one number-one single on the dance chart, and three number-one hits on the adult contemporary chart.


title: DeBarge

text: Despite the group's highly publicized drug addictions and several members serving jail time for drug offenses, the siblings have continued to perform together occasionally.


title: DeBarge

text: In 1991, Randy and James contributed to a gospel album featuring their mother Etterlene and younger siblings Darryl (Young DeBarge) and Carol (Peaches DeBarge), billed as "the DeBarge Family."


title: DeBarge

text: Several members of the family made several solo albums during the 1990s and 2000s, but never reached the fame and popularity of their original group.


title: DeBarge

text: The DeBarges' story of their rise and fall was documented in late 2008 as the debut episode of the TV One show, "Unsung".


title: DeBarge

text: In 2010 El, after a six-year sabbatical of releasing solo albums, and following a period of drug addiction and several arrests, released the well-received Grammy-nominated album, "Second Chance" and went on tour in support of R&B singer Mary J. Blige in 2011, but relapsed and went back to drug rehab to address his continuing issues.


title: DeBarge

text: In 2011, James, Randy and Bunny appeared on Dr. Drew's "Lifechangers" to discuss their troubles with drug addiction, later agreeing to attend a rehabilitation facility. While Randy and James left the facility on a follow-up episode, Bunny still attended and told Dr. Drew of her recovery, even performing a gospel song on the show.


title: DeBarge

text: Drug abuse has also brought various tragedies and setbacks over the years: Bobby DeBarge died at a hospice in Grand Rapids after contracting AIDS, following years of heroin addiction; Tommy DeBarge, who also suffered from drug addiction, was on kidney dialysis but sometimes performed with surviving members of Switch and with his family up to his death in 2021; Randy DeBarge and Mark DeBarge are said to have "incurable diseases," according to their mother. James DeBarge was sentenced to prison for drug offenses.


title: Thank U, Next

text: Thank U, Next is the fifth studio album by American singer Ariana Grande, released on February 8, 2019, by Republic Records. It was released six months after her fourth studio album "Sweetener" (2018), conceived in the midst of Grande's personal struggles, including the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller and the end of her engagement to Pete Davidson.


title: Thank U, Next

text: Grande began working on the album in October 2018, enlisting writers and producers such as Tommy Brown, Max Martin, Ilya Salmanzadeh and Pop Wansel. With "Thank U, Next", Grande distanced herself from the traditional promotion cycle that she employed for her previous album releases. Musically, the album is predominantly pop. It was described as Grande's most personal record up to that point, with its lyrical content reflecting on personal flaws, grief and denial, as well as independence and self-empowerment.


title: Thank U, Next

text: The album was preceded by two singles, the title track and "7 Rings", both of which debuted atop the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, becoming Grande's first two number-one songs in the United States. "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" became the third single on the day of the album's release, peaking at number two on the Hot 100. All of the album's 12 tracks entered the Hot 100, with the singles occupying the top three spots, making Grande the first soloist to achieve this feat. The album topped the charts in various countries, and broke many streaming records upon release, including the records for the largest weekly streams for a pop album and a female album in the United States. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and landed at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 Year-End chart of 2019. Globally, it was the eighth best-selling album of 2019, and fourth best-selling album by a female artist.


title: Thank U, Next

text: Upon its release, "Thank U, Next" received critical acclaim, with praise on its cohesiveness, the production and Grande's vulnerability throughout the record. Named by several publications as the best album of 2019, it was included in numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists. In support of both "Sweetener" and "Thank U, Next", Grande embarked on the Sweetener World Tour, beginning on March 18, 2019. The concert tour was commercially successful, grossing over $146 million from 97 shows. "Thank U, Next" and its songs received nominations for four Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, a Billboard Music Award and a Juno Award.


title: Thank U, Next

text: In August 2018, singer Ariana Grande's "Sweetener" was released to critical acclaim, her best received album to that point. Grande began contemplating her follow-up as she prepared touring. Republic Records sought to bolster "Sweetener" global rollout by releasing "Breathin" as the third single, but the label abruptly postponed their promotional endeavors when Grande's old friend and ex-boyfriend, rapper Mac Miller, died from an accidental drug overdose in early September. Grande then took a brief hiatus from the media to record new material. By the following month, the still reticent singer expressed renewed interest in touring, one supporting both "Sweetener" and her forthcoming project, and she soon announced the initial leg of her Sweetener World Tour. At the same time, Grande ended her five-month engagement with comedian Pete Davidson.


title: Thank U, Next

text: "Thank U, Next" recording commenced less than two months after the release of "Sweetener". The producers conducted most of their recordings at Jungle City Studios in New York City and scheduled additional sessions in New York's Right Track Studios, MXM, Conway Recording Studios and the Record Plant in metropolitan Los Angeles, Wolf Cousins Studios in Stockholm, and Entirety Studios in London.


title: Thank U, Next

text: The fallout of Miller's death influenced Grande's choice of collaborators. She assembled "Thank U, Next" production team from producers and songwriters with shared rapport to better cope with the trauma. Longtime collaborators Max Martin, Ilya Salmanzadeh, and Tommy Brown composed most of the tracks and shared responsibilities with Charles Anderson, Social House's Michael Foster, among others, in the formation of the music.


title: Thank U, Next

text: The development of "Thank U, Next" was unusually swift, but productive. Grande and her team wrote about nine songs in merely a week, and they completed most of the recording after another two weeks. Grande's team kept champagne in the studio, notably Veuve Clicquot, as later referenced in her collaboration with songwriter Victoria Monét, "Monopoly". Monét contributed to six songs, including "Ghostin", the first and simultaneously longest song to develop. Grande found creating "Ghostin" difficult and initially requested the song's exclusion from the final track listing.


title: Thank U, Next

text: "Thank U, Next" is a pop, R&B and trap record with many influences of hip hop on its beats and productions. It explores a diversity of other music genres, including dancehall, soul, pop-rap and many urban influences. Rob Sheffield from "Rolling Stone" stated that the album is about a woman taking her mood "out for a drive until she pedal-to-the-metals it right off a cliff." In an interview with Zach Sang she said: "We walked to the studio everyday, and just made music and it turned everything around in my life. It sounds very corny but it was like, the most beautiful."


title: Thank U, Next

text: The album begins with the song "Imagine", an R&B ballad with a trap-inspired rhythm. The song features multiple whistle notes, and its lyrics speak about Grande's denial of failed relationships, specifically her relationship with Mac Miller. The next track "Needy" is a mid-tempo minimalistic song with a metronome-like synth in the foreground. Its lyrics are about Grande's insecurities in relationships. "NASA," named after the U.S. space agency of the same name, is a "bouncy-R&B tune" with "thumping bass and trap drums". The track features a spoken introduction by Shangela, an American drag queen. She says, "One small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind", a variation on Neil Armstrong's quote, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The fourth track is "Bloodline." It is a reggae-pop song with R&B influences that contains brassy horns and a pounding bass. It has been compared to Grande's 2016 single "Side to Side" and "Greedy" from her third studio album, "Dangerous Woman". The song features a sound bite from Marjorie Grande, Grande's grandmother, in which she is talking about a hearing aid. "The Guardian" wrote that the song "posits the idea that maybe it's best to just see how things go relationship-wise and getting engaged after a few months isn't essential", believing that this song is about Pete Davidson.


title: Thank U, Next

text: The fifth track off the album is "Fake Smile", a hip hop soul-inspired track with a trap groove. Lyrically, the song is about the attack on her concert in Manchester and the death of ex-boyfriend Mac Miller, and the emotional toll that these events inflicted upon her. "Bad Idea" is an EDM and trap number, beginning with an 80's rock-ballad intro that garnered comparison to David Guetta's 2012 hit single "Titanium" featuring Sia. With an orchestra throughout the bridge and outro, its lyrics are about Grande's desire to numb her pain. The seventh track "Make Up" is Grande's most sexually explicit song on the album, featuring many double entendres. It is a trap record with wonky pop and bubblegum influences and it contains a "rap-influenced bridge". "Ghostin", the eighth track, is an emotional synth-and-strings ballad. Lyrically, it discusses Grande's last two relationships, stating that "she should ghost the guy that still makes her cry and wants to stop hurting the person she is with now while he is being patient with her," being Miller and Davidson. Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote the song with Grande, told "Rolling Stone" of working on the track: "[When we were writing] 'Ghostin,' we were in New York... The song speaks for itself in terms of what it's about. We were with her for a week in New York witnessing that, witnessing her feelings on that." According to Grande, she "begged" her manager, Scooter Braun, to remove the track from the album, but he convinced her to keep it.