title: Jane Elliott

text: The Riceville school system granted Elliott unpaid leave to conduct workshops and training that were based on her exercise to organizations outside of her school system. However, the increasing demands to be away from the classroom eventually caused problems with her public school teaching career. Elliott left teaching in the mid-1980s to devote herself full-time to diversity training, redeveloping her classroom exercise for the corporate world. This was promoted positively as a way to promote teamwork, profits, and a "winning together" atmosphere. For this corporate exercise, Elliott divides a multiracial group based on the color of their eyes and then subjects the blue-eyed individuals to a withering regime of humiliation and contempt. In only a few hours, Elliott's treatment makes the blue-eyed workers become distracted and despondent, stumbling over the simplest commands.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Companies found the idea of offering such training attractive, not only because in the 1970s and 1980s there were increasing numbers of people of color in their organizations, but also because of U.S. court rulings and federal policies to promote multiculturalism brought about by pressure from civil rights groups during the same two decades.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Many companies at that time came to see diversity training as a way to ward off negative legal action and publicity. Elliott said, "If you can't think of any other reason for getting rid of racism, think of it as a real money saver." Elliott-inspired diversity training has been used outside the United States. When the "Race Relations Amendment Act 2000" passed in the United Kingdom, it listed 100 diversity training firms in the Diversity Directory. According to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 70% of those firms have diversity policies in which diversity training plays a major role. Many of these courses follow Elliott's model in regards to understanding the issues presented.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Dean Weaver, who was superintendent of Riceville schools from 1972 to 1979, thought Elliott was an outstanding teacher who did things differently and made other teachers envious of her success. Ex-principal Steve Harnack commented she was excellent at teaching academics and suggested she would have had fewer problems with the community if she had involved parents. Elliott's former colleague Ruth Setka, the one who had maintained a relationship with Elliott, also had enough. Commenting on Riceville's attitude on Elliott, Setka said:


title: Jane Elliott

text: "I think third grade was too young for what she did. Junior high, maybe. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. And what she did caused an uproar. Everyone's tired of her. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. That's not true. Let's just move on."


title: Jane Elliott

text: Academic research into Elliott's exercise shows moderate results in reducing long-term prejudice but is inconclusive on the question of whether the possible psychological harm outweighs the potential benefits. Two professors of education in England, Ivor Goodson and Pat Sikes, argue what Elliott did was unethical, calling the exercise psychologically and emotionally damaging. They also stated ethical concerns pertaining to the fact the children were not told of the purpose of the exercise beforehand.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Measured results of the diversity training for adults are moderate. The outcomes of a 1990 research study by the Utah State University were virtually all the subjects reported the experience was meaningful for them. However, the statistical evidence supporting the effectiveness of the activity for prejudice reduction was moderate; and virtually all the participants, as well as the simulation facilitator, reported stress from the simulation.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Another program evaluation in 2003, conducted by Tracie Stewart at the University of Georgia, showed white college students had significantly more positive attitudes toward Asian-American and Latino individuals, but only marginally more positive attitudes toward African-American individuals. In some courses, participants can feel frustrated about "their inability to change" and instead begin to feel anger against the very groups to which they are supposed to be more sensitive. It can also lead to anxiety because people become hyper-sensitive about being offensive or being offended. There are not very good measures of effects on long-term outcomes of these training initiatives.


title: Jane Elliott

text: In a 2003 study, Murdoch University included the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in their list of "both successful and unsuccessful" strategies to reduce racism, as opposed to, among others, more successful strategies like dialogues about race, and the debunking of false myths.


title: Jane Elliott

text: Elliott was married to Darald Elliott (1934–2013) from 1955 until his death, and has four children. They maintained residences in Osage, Iowa and Sun City, California. On May 24, 2019, Jane Elliott was awarded the honorary degree "Doctor of Humane Letters" by CSU Bakersfield.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Russian war crimes since 1991 are the violations of the law of war, including the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Geneva Conventions, consisting of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide, which the official armed and paramilitary forces of the Russian Federation have been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This accusation also extends to the aiding and abetting of crimes which have been committed by quasi-states or puppet states which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These war crimes have included murder, torture, terrorism, deportation or forced transfer, abduction, looting, unlawful confinement, unlawful airstrikes or attacks against civilian objects, and rape.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have recorded Russian war crimes in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine and Syria. Médecins Sans Frontières also documented war crimes in Chechnya. In 2017 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported that Russia used cluster and incendiary weapons in Syria, constituting the war crime of indiscriminate attacks in a civilian populated area. On April 13, 2022, OSCE published a report finding Russia guilty of war crimes in the Mariupol hospital airstrike, while its targeted killings and enforced disappearance or abductions of civilians, including journalists and local officials, could tentatively also be crimes against humanity.


title: Russian war crimes

text: By 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued 115 verdicts (including the virdict in the "Baysayeva v. Russia" case) finding the Russian government guilty of enforced disappearances, murder, torture, and for failing to properly investigate these crimes in Chechnya. In 2021, the ECHR also separately found Russia guilty of murder, torture, looting and destruction of homes in Georgia, as well as preventing the return of 20,000 displaced Georgians to their territory.


title: Russian war crimes

text: As a consequence of its involvement in the war in Ukraine, wide-scale international sanctions have been imposed against Russian officials in 2014, and again in 2022, by numerous countries. Russia withdrew its membership from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2016 when the ICC began investigating Russia's annexation of Crimea for possible violations of international law. On April 7, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/3 suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council membership due to war crimes in Ukraine.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared its independence. Russian officials refused to recognize Chechnya's declaration of independence, sparking tensions. These tensions ultimately escalated into a full-scale war when 25,000 Russian soldiers crossed into Chechnya on 11 December 1994. The war ended with "de facto" Chechen independence and a Russian troop withdrawal in 1996. However, tensions between Russia and Chechnya still existed and they continued to escalate until the second war broke out in 1999, and Russia waged counterinsurgency until 2009. It was concluded when Russia took full control of Chechnya and installed a pro-Russian government. Numerous war crimes were committed, most of them were committed by the Russian armed forces. Some scholars has estimated that the brutality of the Russian attacks on such a small ethnic group amounts to a crime of genocide.


title: Russian war crimes

text: During the two wars, the Chechens were dehumanized and Russian propaganda depicted them as "blacks", "bandits", "terrorists", "cockroaches" and "bedbugs". The Russian armed forces perpetrated numerous war crimes.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Throughout the span of the first Chechen war, Human Rights organizations accused Russian forces of starting a brutal war with total disregard for international humanitarian law, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary civilian casualties among the Chechen population. The main strategy in the Russian war effort was to use heavy artillery and air strikes, leading to numerous indiscriminate attacks on civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, the campaign was "unparalleled in the area since World War II for its scope and destructiveness, followed by months of indiscriminate and targeted fire against civilians".


title: Russian war crimes

text: Some of the crimes included the following: the use of prohibited cluster bombs in the 1995 Shali cluster bomb attack, which targeted a market, a gas station and a hospital. The April 1995 Samashki massacre, in which it is estimated that up to 300 civilians died during the attack. Russian forces conducted an operation of zachistka, house-by-house searches throughout the entire village. Federal soldiers deliberately and arbitrarily attacked civilians and civilian dwellings in Samashki by shooting residents and burning houses with flame-throwers. They wantonly opened fire or threw grenades into basements where residents, mostly women, elderly persons and children, had been hiding. Russian troops intentionally burned many bodies, either by throwing the bodies into burning houses or by setting them on fire.


title: Russian war crimes

text: During the First Battle of Grozny, Russian air raids and artillery bombardments were described as the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since the destruction of Dresden. The Russian historian and general Dmitri Volkogonov said the Russian military's bombardment of Grozny killed around 35,000 civilians, including 5,000 children. This has led to Western and Chechen sources calling the Russian strategy deliberate terror bombing on parts of Russia. The bloodbath of Grozny shocked Russia and the outside world, causing severe criticism of the war. International monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) described the scenes as nothing short of an "unimaginable catastrophe", while former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called the war a "disgraceful, bloody adventure" and German chancellor Helmut Kohl called it "sheer madness".


title: Russian war crimes

text: In a report which it published on 26 March 1996, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) accused Russian troops of firing on civilians and killing them at checkpoints and it also accused Russian troops of summarily executing captured Chechen men, both civilians and fighters. Two cases involved Russian soldiers murdering humanitarian aid workers who tried to save a civilian from execution on a street in Grozny. Russian Ministry of Interior forces officers fired into a group of soldiers who refused to kill the civilian population.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The Second Chechen War, which began in 1999, was even more brutal than the previous war. According to human rights activists, Russian troops systematically committed the following crimes in Chechnya: the destruction of cities and villages, not justified by military necessity; shelling and bombardment of unprotected settlements; summary extrajudicial executions and killings of civilians; torture, ill-treatment and infringement of human dignity; serious bodily harm intentionally inflicted on persons not directly participating in hostilities; deliberate strikes against the civilian population, civilian and medical vehicles; illegal detentions of the civilian population; enforced disappearances; looting and destruction of civilian and public property; extortion; taking hostages for ransom; corpse trade. There were also rapes, which, along with women, were also subjected to men.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Some of the crimes committed towards the civilian population included the following: 1999 Elistanzhi cluster bomb attack against civilians, leaving mostly women and children dead. The Grozny ballistic missile attack, in which ten hypersonic missiles fell without warning and targeted the city's only maternity hospital, post office, mosque, and a crowded market Most of the casualties occured at the central market, and the attack is estimated to have killed over 100 instantly and injuring up to 400 others. The Russian Air Force perpetrated repeated rocket attacks on a large convoy of refugees trying to enter Ingushetia through a supposed "safe exit" during the Baku–Rostov highway bombing. This was repeated in December 1999 when Russian soldiers opened fire on a refugee convoy marked with white flags.


title: Russian war crimes

text: During the Alkhan-Yurt massacre where Russian soldiers went on a murdering spree throughout the village and summarily executing, raping, torturing, looting, burning and killing anyone in their way. Nearly all the killings were committed by Russian soldiers who were looting."" Civilian attempts to stop the madness were often met with death. There has been no serious attempt conducted by the Russian authorities to bring to justice those accountable for the crimes committed at Alkhan-Yurt. Credible testimony suggests that Russian leadership in the region had knowledge of what was happening and simply chose to ignore it. Russian military leadership dismissed the incident as "fairy tales", claiming that the bodies were planted and the slaughter fabricated in order to damage the reputation of Russian troops. Russian general Vladimir Shamanov dismissed accountability for the abuses in the village saying ""Don't you dare touch the soldiers and officers of the Russian army. They are doing a sacred thing today-they are defending Russia. And don't you dare sully the Russian soldier with your dirty hands!"


title: Russian war crimes

text: In what is regarded as one of gravest war crimes in the war, Russian federal forces went on a village-sweep (zachistka), that involved summary executions of dozens of people, murder, looting, arson and rape of Chechens (including committing other crimes) in what is known as the Novye Aldi massacre. Russian troops had cluster-bombed the village a day prior before entering the village, telling local residents to come out from their cellars for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian soldiers shot their victims in cold blood,with automatic fire at close range. Victims ranged from a one-year-old babies to an 82 year old woman. Victims were asked for money or jewelry by Russian soldiers, which served as a pretext for their execution if the amount was insufficient. Federal soldiers removed gold teeth from their victims and looted their corpses. Killings were accompanied by arson in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other civilian killings. There were several cases of rape. In one incident, Russian soldiers gang raped several women before strangling them to death. Pillage on a massive scale took place in the village, with Russian soldiers stripping the houses of civilians in broad daylight. Any attempt to make the Russian authorities take responsibilities for the massacre resulted in indignant denial. Human Rights Watch described the Russian authorities' response as "typical". A spokesperson from the Russian Ministry of Defence declared that ""these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof . . . [and] should be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya."" An eye-witness also said that investigators from the Federal Security Service told her the massacre was probably committed by Chechen fighters "disguised as federal troops".


title: Russian war crimes

text: During the Staropromyslovsky massacre between January 1999 and December 2000, Russian soldiers went on an apparent spree, rounding up civilians and summarily executing them. The crimes included widespread looting and arson. Victims included the entire nine-member family of the Zubayevs, which had reportedly been shot dead in the street by a heavy submachine gun (most likely from and armored vehicle). In one incident, Russian soldiers fired at civilians hiding in a cellar. According to a survivor of the incident, upon having yelled out to the soldiers, "Please don't shoot us, we are local civilians," the soldiers ordered them to come out of the cellar with their hands up. After coming out of the cellar, the Russian soldiers ordered them back down, after which they threw down several hand grenades at the civilians. The survivors were then again ordered back out of the cellar, after which the Russian soldiers shot the survivors with machine gun fire at close range. The massacre went unpunished and unacknowledged by the Russian authorities.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The 1999–2000 siege and bombardments of Grozny caused tens of thousands of civilians to perish. The Russian army issued an ultimatum during the siege urging Chechens to leave the city or be destroyed without mercy. Around 300 people were killed while trying to escape in October 1999 and subsequently buried in a mass grave. The Russian president Putin vowed that the military would not stop bombing Grozny until Russian troops quote 'fulfilled their task to the end.' In 2003, the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth. The bombing of Grozny included banned Buratino thermobaric and fuel-air bombs, igniting the air of civilians hiding in basements. There were also reports of the use of chemical weapons, banned according to Geneva law.


title: Russian war crimes

text: International humanitarian workers are reported to have been killed by Russian soldiers during the war in Chechnya. On 17 December 1996, six delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were killed in an attack by masked gunmen at the ICRC hospital in Novye Atagi, near Grozny. In 2010, Russian special forces officer, Major Aleksi Potyomkin, claimed that the murders were perpetrated by FSB agents. A 2004 report identified Russian soldiers using rape as means of torture against the Chechens. Out of 428 villages in Chechnya, 380 were bombed in the conflicts, leaving a 70% destruction of households behind.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Human Rights Watch additionally recorded between 3,000 and 5,000 forced disappearances in Chechnya between 1999 and 2005, and classified it as a crime against humanity.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The German-based NGO Society for Threatened Peoples accused the Russian authorities of genocide in its 2005 report on Chechnya.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Following a 7 August 2008 escalation between the break-away region of South Ossetia and Georgia, the Russian forces crossed the international border on 8 August and attacked Georgian soldiers in support of South Ossetia. Russian soldiers also crossed into the other break-away region of Abkhazia, even though no fighting was recorded there. The war ended on 12 August with a ceasefire brokered by international diplomats. The Russian government recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries, though some scholars described that the two regions actually became Russian protectorates.


title: Russian war crimes

text: HRW reported that no proof of intentional attacks on non-combatants by Georgian troops had been discovered.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Russia deliberately attacked fleeing civilians in South Ossetia and the Gori district of Georgia. Russian warplanes bombed civilian population centres in Georgia proper and villages of ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia. Armed militias engaged in plundering, burning and kidnappings. Attacks by militias compelled Georgian civilians to run away.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The use of cluster bombs by the Russians caused fatalities among civilians. Amnesty International accused Russia of deliberately bombarding and attacking civilian areas and infrastructure, which is a war crime. Russia denied using cluster bombs. 228 Georgian civilians perished in the conflict.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Additionally, the Russian military did nothing to prevent the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia in the area under its control.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the pro-Russian Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled to Russia, and the new Ukrainian government adopted a pro-European perspective. Russia responded with the annexation of Crimea, which was declared illegal by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 68/262, while pro-Russian separatists declared the unrecognized quasi-state Novorossiya, intending a secession from Ukraine, and an insurgency which eventually led to the war in Donbass, the eastern parts of Ukraine. While Russia denied its involvement in the war in Donbass, numerous pieces of evidence pointed to its support of the pro-Russian separatists. Amnesty International accused Russia of "fuelling separatist crimes" and it called upon "all parties, including Russia, to stop their violations of the laws of war".


title: Russian war crimes

text: Human Rights Watch stated that pro-Russian insurgents "failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid deploying in civilian areas" and in one case "actually moved closer to populated areas as a response to government shelling". HRW called on all sides to stop using the "notoriously imprecise" Grad rockets.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Another report by Human Rights Watch said that the insurgents had been "running amok...taking, beating and torturing hostages, as well as wantonly threatening and beating people who are pro-Kiev". It also said that the insurgents had destroyed medical equipment, threatened medical staff, and occupied hospitals. A member of Human Rights Watch witnessed the exhumation of a "mass grave" in Sloviansk that was uncovered after insurgents retreated from the city.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Insurgents with bayonet-equipped automatic rifles in the city of Donetsk paraded captured Ukrainian soldiers through the streets on 24 August, the Independence Day of Ukraine. During the parade, Russian nationalistic songs were played from loudspeakers, and members of the crowd jeered at the prisoners with epithets like "fascist". Street cleaning machines followed the protesters, "cleansing" the ground they were paraded on. Human Rights Watch said that this was in clear violation of the common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The article forbids "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment". They further said that the parade "may be considered a war crime".


title: Russian war crimes

text: A map of human rights violations committed by the separatists, called the "Map of Death", was published by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in October 2014. The reported violations included detention camps and mass graves. Subsequently, on 15 October, the SBU opened a case on "crimes against humanity" perpetrated by insurgent forces.


title: Russian war crimes

text: A mid-October report by Amnesty International documented cases of summary executions by pro-Russian forces. A report by Human Rights Watch documented use of cluster munitions by anti-government forces.


title: Russian war crimes

text: In October 2014, Aleksey Mozgovoy organised a "people's court" in Alchevsk that issued a death sentence by a show of hands to a man accused of rape.


title: Russian war crimes

text: At a press conference in Kyiv on 15 December 2015, UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights Ivan Šimonović stated that the majority of human rights violations committed during the conflict were carried out by the separatists.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Amnesty International reported that it had found "new evidence" of summary killings of Ukrainian soldiers on 9 April 2015. Having reviewed video footage, it determined that at least four Ukrainian soldiers had been shot dead "execution style". AI deputy director for Europe and Central Asia Denis Krivosheev said that "the new evidence of these summary killings confirms what we have suspected for a long time". AI also said that a recording released by the "Kyiv Post" of a man, allegedly separatist leader Arseny Pavlov, claiming to have killed fifteen Ukrainian prisoners of war was a "chilling confession", and that it highlighted "the urgent need for an independent investigation into this and all other allegations of abuses". Russia's actions in Ukraine have been described as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity (Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot down).


title: Russian war crimes

text: In 2019, the Ukrainian government considered 7% of Ukraine's territory to be under occupation. The United Nations General Assembly resolution A/73/L.47, adopted on December 17, 2018, mostly concurred and designated Crimea as under "temporary occupation".


title: Russian war crimes

text: On February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded and attacked Ukraine from the north, south and east, which was interpreted as a form of extreme Russian irredentism. HRW and Amnesty International accused Russia of using imprecise cluster munitions in civilian areas, including near hospitals and schools, which constitute unlawful attacks with weapons that indiscriminately kill and maim. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Russia's military action as a violation of international law. Amnesty International labeled it an act of aggression that is a crime under international law. Numerous war crimes were recorded, including murder, torture, abductions, deportation, looting, rape against Ukrainian women, terrorism, attacks on civilians, unlawful airstrikes or attacks against civilian objects, unlawful confinement, threats of violence, and inhumane treatment of POWs.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Among the targets of Russian airstrikes was Ukraine's capital Kyiv, a city of some 3 million people. Kindergartens and orphanages were also shelled. Russian forces were accused of a campaign of terror against Ukrainians. On March 3, 2022, Russian forces were reportedly looting across Kherson. During the Siege of Mariupol, the city was destroyed by shelling and cut off from electricity, food and water. A 6-year old girl was reported to have died from dehydration under the ruins of her home in Mariupol on March 8. During the assault on Irpin, the Russian forces indiscriminately fired at refugees trying to flee across a collapsed bridge. A family of four was killed by a mortar strike.


title: Russian war crimes

text: During the Battle of Kharkiv, the city was destroyed by Russian shelling, including a boarding school for blind people. Out of a population of 1.8 million, only 500,000 people remained in Kharkiv by March 7. On February 28, 2022, a Russian cluster bomb attack killed 9 civilians and wounded 37 more in Kharkiv. On 3 March, 47 civilians were killed in Chernihiv, most of whom were standing in line at a food store, waiting for bread, when a Russian air strike with eight unguided aerial bombs hit them. In the Mariupol hospital airstrike, three people were killed, including a young girl; whereas hundreds died in the Mariupol theatre airstrike, used as an air raid shelter. Following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the E-40 highway around the Kyiv area, BBC News discovered 13 dead bodies left lying on the road, only two wearing Ukrainian military uniforms. The evidence points to Russian soldiers killing these fleeing civilians.


title: Russian war crimes

text: After the Russian forces left the area of Bucha after a month of occupation, on April 1–3 photos and videos emerged showing hundreds of killed people lying on the streets or in mass graves. The event triggered an international response as it was widely covered by journalists as the Bucha massacre.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Thousands of civilians were killed by Russia's indiscriminate shelling and missiles strikes against civilian areas: in Borordianka, Kramatorsk, Vinnytsia, Chasiv Yar, Serhiivka, and others. A Ukrainian official said that Russia is using mobile crematoriums to dispose of bodies in Mariupol in an attempt to cover up evidence of war crimes and hide the number of people that have died. On 7 May 2022, the Bilohorivka school bombing killed dozens of people sheltering in the basement. Odessa was bombed continuously for months. On 15 June 2022, OHCHR expressed concerns over reports that Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia, where they were being sent for rushed adoption, stating that these "do not appear to include steps for family reunification or respect the best interests of the child". UNICEF similarly declared that "adoptions should never occur during or immediately after emergencies".


title: Russian war crimes

text: Russian filtration camps were set-up to detain, interrogate and torture Ukrainians suspected to have connections with Ukrainian government. On 14 July 2022, OSCE released a report finding that Russia was guilty of murder, rape, abduction and deportations of Ukrainian civilians, including the transfer of 2,000 children from orphanages and institutions to Russia, even though many have relatives in Ukraine, which qualifies as a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population, and is a crime against humanity.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Several scholars declared that Russia was committing genocide in Ukraine. This assertion was corroborated by a report by New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights which inferred that Russia breached two articles of the 1948 Genocide Convention.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 14 September, Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass grave with 440 corpses in Izium after the Russian forces withrdrew from the area. The events were described as the Izium massacre. Since October-November, Russian forces used missiles and drones to systematically attack Ukraine's electrical grids, leaving millions of civilians without heating, electricity, water, or other basic utilities during winter. These attacks on critical civilian infrastructure were deemed as illegal and as war crimes.


title: Russian war crimes

text: By March 30, the UN reported that 4 million refugees fled Ukraine, that 50 hospitals in the country were targeted, and that Russia used the banned cluster munition in at least 24 instances. Russia's attack against Ukraine forced 14 million people to flee their homes, of which 7.8 million fled the country, sparking the largest refugee crisis of the 21st century. On April 22, the UN recorded at least 2,343 killed civilians, of which 92.3% were attributable to the Russian armed forces. By November, the UN recorded 6,755 killed civilians.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 30 September 2015, Russian military intervened directly in the Syrian Civil War on the side of the pro-Russian government of Bashar al-Assad. According to Amnesty International, in late February 2016 Russian warplanes deliberately targeted civilians and rescue workers during their bombing campaign. The human rights group has documented attacks on schools, hospitals and civilian homes. Amnesty International also said that "Russia is guilty of some the most egregious war crimes" it had seen in decades. The director of Amnesty's crisis response program, Tirana Hassan, said that after bombing civilian targets, the Russian warplanes "loop around" for a second attack to target the humanitarian workers and civilians who are trying to help those have been injured in the first sortie.


title: Russian war crimes

text: In February 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported extensive use of cluster munitions by Syria and Russia, in violation of United Nations resolution 2139 of 22 February 2014, which demanded that all parties end "indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas". HRW said that "Russian or Syrian forces were responsible for the attacks" and that the munitions were "manufactured in the former Soviet Union or Russia" and that some were of a type that had "not been documented as used in Syria" prior to Russia's involvement in the war, which they claimed, suggested that "either Russian aircraft dropped them or Russian authorities recently provided the Syrian government with more cluster munitions, or both". HRW also noted that while neither Russia nor Syria are parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention, the use of such munitions contradicts statements issued by the Syrian government that they would refrain from using them. Russian indiscriminate bombings against civilians, using banned cluster bombs or firebombing, were often deemed as a violation of international law, mostly during the battle of Aleppo<ref name="Syria/Russia: Incendiary Weapons Burn in Aleppo"></ref> and siege of Eastern Ghouta. Several parallels were drawn between the 2016 destructions in Aleppo with those from Grozny in 2000, described by some as indicating a joint policy of "take no prisoners". Between May and July 2019, heavy Russian bombardments killed 544 civilians in the assault on Idlib. On 22 July 2019, the Ma'arrat al-Numan market bombing killed 43 civilians. On 16 August 2019, Russian fighter jets perpetrated an airstrike on Hass refugee camp, killing 20 civilians.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 6 March 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council published a public report confirming that the Atarib market bombing was perpetrated by the Russian military. A Russian fixed-wing aircraft using unguided weapons, including blast weapons, were used against this location. The report concluded that using such heavy weapons on densely populated civilian areas may amount to a war crime. On 2 February 2017, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report on the battle of Aleppo, confirming that Russia used cluster and incendiary weapons. It concluded that their use on densely populated area in eastern Aleppo "amounts to the use of an inherently indiscriminate weapon, constituting the war crime of indiscriminate attacks in a civilian populated area".


title: Russian war crimes

text: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that Russian air strikes and artillery shells have killed 18,000 people, including nearly 8,000 civilians, in Syria by 1 October 2018.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 27 October 2021, the UN experts of the Human Rights Council warned that Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group "violently harassed and intimidated civilians, including peacekeepers, journalists, aid workers and minorities in the Central African Republic". It called on the government of the Central African Republic to sever all ties with the Wagner Group.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Examples of crimes believed to have been committed by Wagner Group members in the Central African Republic include the Aïgbado massacre, killing of 12 unarmed men near Bossangoa on July 21, 2021, and beating and holding suspected rebels in inhuman conditions in an open hole at a national army base in Alindao between June and August 2021.


title: Russian war crimes

text: In April 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Russian mercenaries, believed to be members of the Wagner Group, had committed atrocities against hundreds of civilians in Mali, alongside members of the Malian Armed Forces. According to the NGO, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, as many as 456 civilians died in nine incidents involving Malian forces and Wagner fighters, between January and mid-April 2022. The largest single atrocity was committed by Russian and Malian forces in the town of Moura, where around 300 civilian men were killed on the 23 March 2022.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The Russian government denied accountability in its local courts. While thousands of investigations were undertaken, only one person was convicted for crimes against the Chechens in the Chechen wars—Yuri Budanov, convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping and murder of Elza Kungaeva and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003—which led Amnesty International to conclude that there is "no accountability" and that a Russian "lack of prosecution has resulted in a climate of impunity".


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 29 March 2005 Sergey Lapin was sentenced to 11 years for torture of Chechen student Zelimkhan Murdalov in police custody, who disappeared since. In December 2007, Lt Yevgeny Khudyakov and Lt Sergei Arakcheyev were sentenced to 17 and 15 years for killing three Chechen construction workers near a Grozny checkpoint in January 2003.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 24 May 2018, after extensive comparative research, the Dutch investigation concluded that the Buk that shot down the 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade in Kursk. In a statement by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs of 5 July 2017, it was announced that several countries will prosecute any suspects identified in the downing of flight MH17 in the Netherlands and under Dutch law. A future treaty between the Netherlands and Ukraine will make it possible for the Netherlands to prosecute in the cases of all 298 victims, regardless of their nationality. This treaty was signed on 7 July 2017. On 19 June 2019, Dutch prosecutors charged four people over the deaths in the MH17 crash: three Russians—Igor Strelkov, a former FSB employee; Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov; former GRU operatives—and one Ukrainian—Leonid Kharchenko—associated with the Donetsk People's Republic. On 17 November 2022, a Dutch court found Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko guilty and sentenced them "in absentia" to a life in prison.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 29 August 2003, a Dutch court ("Rechtbank's Gravenhage") found that the Samashki massacre of 250 Chechen civilians was a crime against humanity. On 9 November 2021, Ukraine authorities arrested Denis Kulikovsky, a senior warden of the Izoliatsiia detention center in Donetsk People's Republic, where prisoners were tortured.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On March 15, 2022, the United States Senate passed a resolution unanimously declaring Russia's leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal.


title: Russian war crimes

text: In 2022, National parliaments, including those of Poland, Ukraine, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Republic of Ireland, declared that a genocide was taking place in Ukraine.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On May 13, 2022, Kyiv authorities started their first war crimes trial involving the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin was indicted for killing an unarmed civilian in the Sumy Oblast. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. On May 31, a Kyiv court sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11 1/2 years each for firing artillery at two villages in the Kharkiv Oblast. On 29 September 2022 Russian Lieutenant Serhiy Steiner was sentenced "in absentia" to 9 years in prison by a Ukrainian court for looting and destruction of civilian property in the village of Lukyanivka.


title: Russian war crimes

text: The Russian government tried to effectively block or prevent any kind of international prosecution of its role in suspected war crimes by an international court, using its seat at the Security Council to veto resolutions which called for an investigation and bringing accountability of the downing the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Donetsk Oblast and for crimes being committed in Syria. It denied that a chemical attack had taken place in Douma on 7 April 2018, but this was nonetheless confirmed in a report by the UN-backed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On April 7, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/3 suspended Russia from the UN Human Rights Council due to war crimes in Ukraine.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 23 November 2022, the European Parliament designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, declaring that its widespread military attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violate international law and endanger Ukrainian civilians in winter.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Due to impunity for Russian soldiers in Russia, hundreds of victims of abuse have filed applications with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). By 2009, the ECHR issued 115 verdicts (including in Baysayeva v. Russia case) finding the Russian government guilty of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, and for failing to properly investigate these crimes in Chechnya.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On 21 January 2021, the ECHR also separately found Russia guilty of murder, torture, looting and destruction of homes in Georgia, as well as preventing the return of 20,000 displaced Georgians to their territory.


title: Russian war crimes

text: When the International Criminal Court (ICC) started to investigate Russia's annexation of Crimea for possible violations of international law, Russia withdrew its membership on 16 November 2016. Nonetheless, in its preliminary 2017 report, the ICC found that "the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol would amount to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation" as well that it "factually amounts to an ongoing state of occupation". It further found that there is credible evidence that at least 10 people have disappeared and are believed to have been killed on Crimea for opposing the change of its status. In January 2016, the ICC also opened an investigation into possible war crimes perpetrated during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On February 28, 2022, the ICC prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan announced that he will launch an investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine.


title: Russian war crimes

text: Ukraine brought a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Russia. On 16 March 2022, a ruling was reached, and the ICJ ordered Russia to "immediately suspend the military operations" in Ukraine.


title: Russian war crimes

text: On March 4, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 32 in favour versus 2 against and 13 absentions to create the International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, an independent international committee of three human rights experts with a mandate to investigate violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law in the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Seven minutes in heaven

text: Seven minutes in heaven (or seven minutes in the closet) is a kissing party game mostly played at teenage parties. The game may also be played with a different duration.


title: Seven minutes in heaven

text: Two people are selected to go into a closet or other dark enclosed space and do whatever they like for seven minutes. It is common for the participants to kiss or make out, but they may instead choose to talk, engage in sexual activity, or simply do nothing at all and wait for the time to expire.


title: Seven minutes in heaven

text: The participants can be selected by various methods, such as spinning a bottle, drawing lots, or votes.


title: Seven minutes in heaven

text: The game has been played or referenced in movies such as "Seven Minutes in Heaven" (1985), "Teen Wolf" (1985), "13 Going on 30" (2004), "Good Luck Chuck" (2007), and "Easy A" (2010). TV or web series to feature the game include the "Boy Meets World" episode "Fear Strikes Out" (1994), the "Family Guy" episode "And the Wiener Is..." (2001), the "King of the Hill" episode "Get Your Freak Off" (2002), the "Bernie Mac Show" episode "The Talk" (2004), the "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" episode "You Gotta Have Class" (2008), the web series "7 Minutes in Heaven with Mike O'Brien" (2011), season 5 episode 8 of The Big Bang Theory "The Isolation Permutation" (2011-2012), season 7 episode 18 of "Modern Family" "The Party" (2015–16), the "Daredevil" episode "Seven Minutes in Heaven" (2016), the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" episode "Halloween IV" (2016), the "Everything Sucks!" episode "Romeo & Juliet in Space" (2018), the "Uncle" series 2 episode "Seven Minutes in Heaven" (2015) (set in Halloween), the "Adventure Time" episode "Slumber Party Panic" (2010) and the "Little Fires Everywhere" episode "Picture Perfect" (2020). In the horror-comedy "", the male and female leads play "2 Minutes in Heaven" with three other teenagers, the host claiming two minutes is "more realistic."


title: Seven minutes in heaven

text: Musical references to the game include the Fall Out Boy song "7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)" (2005) and in the Britney Spears song "Slumber Party" (2016).


title: Joanne Kelly

text: Joanne M. Kelly is a Canadian actress, known for her appearances in films such as "Going the Distance", and in the TV series "Warehouse 13" as the character Myka Bering, a Secret Service agent.


title: Joanne Kelly

text: Joanne Kelly was born in Bay d'Espoir, Newfoundland. She moved to Nova Scotia at the age of 17, where she entered Acadia University, studying drama and English.


title: Joanne Kelly

text: Kelly's first major role was in the 2002 film drama, "The Bay of Love and Sorrows," which followed smaller roles in the 2003 made-for-television movie, "Mafia Doctor" (starring Paul Sorvino and Olympia Dukakis), and in the film "Crime Spree" (starring Gérard Depardieu and Harvey Keitel). She played alongside actor Paul Gross in "Slings and Arrows" and Gordon Pinsent in "Heyday." She appeared on the TV series "Jeremiah" from J. Michael Straczynski, as the character Libby (on Showtime, from 2003 to 2004). She also played the role of Sara Collins in Fox's 2006 series "Vanished", and as the vampire Bianca in SciFi's "The Dresden Files". She also appeared in the 2004 film "Going the Distance".


title: Joanne Kelly

text: From 2009 until 2014, she played the role of Secret Service agent Myka Bering on the Syfy series "Warehouse 13".


title: Joanne Kelly

text: She also stars in the 2014 independent film "Runoff", written and directed by Kimberly Levin, for which her performance received critical acclaim.


title: Joanne Kelly

text: Kelly was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2006 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for "Playing House".


title: Havoc (musician)

text: Kejuan Waliek Muchita (born May 21, 1974), better known by his stage name Havoc, is an American rapper and record producer. He was one half of the hip hop duo Mobb Deep with Prodigy.


title: Havoc (musician)

text: Havoc was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Queensbridge Houses. He graduated from the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, New York in 1992, where he met Prodigy. He is one half of the iconic hip hop duo Mobb Deep, and in addition to producing nearly the entire Mobb Deep catalogue, has also produced songs for MCs such as The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Nas, Raekwon, 50 Cent, 112, Method Man, Mariah Carey, Puff Daddy, LL Cool J, Rohff, Big Noyd, Lil Kim, Capone-N-Noreaga, Foxy Brown, Onyx, and his partner Prodigy on his solo work. In 2005, Mobb Deep recorded for fellow Queens rapper 50 Cent's record label G-Unit Records and left the label in 2009, in a mutually agreed-to release.


title: Havoc (musician)

text: Havoc is renowned as one of the most iconic figures in New York hip hop. Popular music magazine "Complex" ranked Havoc among the top hip hop producers of 1995 after "The Infamous". Beattips.com ranked him as the 24th most influential beatmaker of all time citing his dual abilities of rapping and producing. Following "The Infamous", he tweaked his skills and transitioned to a more atmospheric production style that incorporated samples from classical music, most notably visible on the 1996 album "Hell on Earth". As a rapper, he is known for his hardcore lyricism and consistent flow. He also contributed background vocals and a verse on Black Moon's debut album "Enta da Stage" in 1993.


title: Havoc (musician)

text: In July 2009, Havoc was featured alongside in J Dilla's music video for "24K Rap" off of the "Jay Stay Paid" album, the video was directed by Derek Pike. In 2010, Havoc produced a beat for Eminem that resulted in a song called "Untitled" which is a hidden track on Eminem's album "Recovery" and contributed to the iTunes bonus track to Raekwon's album Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang & Bad Meets Evil's EP. He revealed that he plans to record a new Mobb Deep album with Nas. His third studio album "13" was released on May 7, 2013.


title: Havoc (musician)

text: Havoc worked with Kavinsky on his 2013 album OutRun. He wrote the lyrics and sang the vocals for "Suburbia", the sixth track on the album. In 2016, Havoc produced "Real Friends" and "Famous", two tracks on Kanye West's album "The Life of Pablo".


title: Havoc (musician)

text: His original productions have been featured in numerous commercially successful films, well known television series and popular video games, and he is a character in .


title: Havoc (musician)

text: Havoc produced the New York Yankees official 2020 anthem, "Squad Up", that features verses from both Havoc and Method Man.


title: Havoc (musician)

text: In July 2012, Havoc wrote a series of derogatory comments about Prodigy on Twitter, after Prodigy denied engaging in homosexual relationships in prison. At first, Havoc claimed that his Twitter account was hacked. However, he later confirmed that he wrote the tweets and expressed his frustrations with Prodigy in an interview with AllHipHop. He stated that Mobb Deep was on an "indefinite hiatus" until the duo worked out their differences. Havoc later released a diss track aimed at Prodigy, which was titled "Separated (Real from the Fake)". Prodigy did not respond to Havoc's song and even stated publicly that Mobb Deep would eventually reconcile. In March 2013, the duo announced that they had reconciled and were going on tour.


title: Jo Cox

text: Helen Joanne Cox ( Leadbeater; 22 June 1974 – 16 June 2016) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from May 2015 until her murder in June 2016. She was a member of the Labour Party.


title: Jo Cox

text: Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, Cox studied Social and Political Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Working first as a political assistant, she joined the international humanitarian charity Oxfam in 2001, where she became head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB in 2005. She was selected to contest the Batley and Spen parliamentary seat after the incumbent, Mike Wood, decided not to stand in 2015. She held the seat for Labour with an increased majority. Cox became a campaigner on issues relating to the Syrian civil war, and founded and chaired the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria.


title: Jo Cox

text: On 16 June 2016, Cox died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in the street in the village of Birstall, where she had been due to hold a constituency surgery. Thomas Mair, who held far-right views, was found guilty of her murder in November and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.


title: Jo Cox

text: In July 2021, Cox's sister, Kim Leadbeater, was elected as the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, following a by-election.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox was born Helen Joanne Leadbeater on 22 June 1974 in Batley, West Yorkshire, England, to Jean, a school secretary, and Gordon Leadbeater, a toothpaste and hairspray factory worker.


title: Jo Cox

text: Raised in Heckmondwike, she was educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School, a state grammar school, where she was head girl. During summers, she worked packing toothpaste. Cox studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, initially studying Archaeology and Anthropology before switching to Social and Political Science, graduating in 1995. She later studied at the London School of Economics.


title: Jo Cox

text: Following her graduation from Pembroke College, Cox worked as an adviser to Labour MP Joan Walley from 1995 to 1997. She then became head of Key Campaigns at Britain in Europe (1998–99), a pro-European pressure group, before moving to Brussels to spend two years as an assistant to Glenys Kinnock, wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who was then a Member of the European Parliament.


title: Jo Cox

text: From 2001 to 2009, Cox worked for the aid groups Oxfam and Oxfam International, first in Brussels as the leader of the group's trade reform campaign, then as head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB in 2005, and head of Oxfam International's humanitarian campaigns in New York City in 2007. While there, she helped to publish "For a Safer Tomorrow", a book authored by Ed Cairns which examines the changing nature of the world's humanitarian policies. Her work for Oxfam, in which she met disadvantaged groups in Darfur and Afghanistan, influenced her political thinking.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox's charity work led to a role advising Sarah Brown, wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was spearheading a campaign to prevent deaths in pregnancy and childbirth. From 2009 to 2011, Cox was director of the Maternal Mortality Campaign, which was supported by Brown and her husband. The following year, Cox worked for Save the Children (where she was a strategy consultant), the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and as director of strategy at the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. In 2013, she founded UK Women, a research institute aimed at meeting the needs of women in the UK, where she was also the CEO. Between 2014 and 2015, Cox worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox was the national chair of the Labour Women's Network from 2010 to 2014, and a strategic adviser to the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery charity, in 2014. She was also on the board of Burma Campaign UK, a human rights NGO.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox was nominated by the Labour Party to contest the Batley and Spen seat being vacated by Mike Wood at the 2015 general election. She was selected as its candidate from an all-women shortlist. The Batley and Spen seat was a Conservative marginal between 1983 and 1997 but was considered to be a safe seat for Labour, and Cox won the seat with 43.2% of the vote, increasing Labour's majority to 6,051. Cox made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2015, using it to celebrate her constituency's ethnic diversity, while highlighting the economic challenges facing the community and urging the government to rethink its approach to economic regeneration. She was one of 36 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015, but said she had done so to get him on the list and encourage a broad debate. In the election she voted for Liz Kendall, and announced after the local elections on 6 May 2016 that she and fellow MP Neil Coyle regretted nominating Corbyn.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox campaigned for a solution to the Syrian Civil War. In October 2015, she co-authored an article in "The Observer" with Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, arguing that British military forces could help achieve an ethical solution to the conflict, including the creation of civilian safe havens in Syria. During that month, Cox launched the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria, becoming its chair. In the Commons vote in December to approve UK military intervention against ISIL in Syria, Cox abstained because she believed in a more comprehensive strategy that would also include combatting President Bashar al-Assad and his "indiscriminate barrel bombs". She wrote: "By refusing to tackle Assad's brutality, we may actively alienate more of the Sunni population, driving them towards Isis. So I have decided to abstain. Because I am not against airstrikes per se, but I cannot actively support them unless they are part of a plan. Because I believe in action to address Isis, but do not believe it will work in isolation."


title: Jo Cox

text: Andrew Grice of "The Independent" felt that she "argued forcefully that the UK Government should be doing more both to help the victims and use its influence abroad to bring an end to the Syrian conflict." In February 2016, Cox wrote to the Nobel Committee praising the work of the Syrian Civil Defense, a civilian voluntary emergency rescue organisation known as the White Helmets, and nominating them for the Nobel Peace Prize, stating: "In the most dangerous place on earth these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need regardless of religion or politics." The nomination was accepted by the committee, and garnered the support of twenty of her fellow MPs and several celebrities, including George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Chris Martin and Michael Palin. The nomination was supported by members of Canada's New Democratic Party, who urged Stéphane Dion, the country's Foreign Affairs Minister, to give his backing on behalf of Canada.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox, a supporter of the Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East, called for the lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip. She opposed efforts by the government to curtail the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and said: "I believe that this is a gross attack on democratic freedoms. Not only is it right to boycott unethical companies but it is our right to do so." Cox was working with Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat on a report to be published following the release of the Chilcot Report into the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After her death, Tugendhat wrote in "The Times": "Our starting point was that while Britain must learn the painful lessons of Iraq, we must not let the pendulum swing towards knee-jerk isolationism, ideological pacifism and doctrinal anti-interventionism." With the charity Tell MAMA she worked on "The Geography of Anti-Muslim Hatred", investigating cases of Islamophobia; the report was dedicated to her at its launch on 29 June 2016. Two parliamentary questions concerning the Yemeni conflict, tabled by Cox to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 14 June, were answered by Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Tobias Ellwood after her death. On 1 July, "The Guardian" reported that each answer was accompanied by a government note stating: "This question was tabled before the sad death of the honourable lady but the subject remains important and the government's response ought to be placed on the public record."


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox was a Remainer in the campaign leading to the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. Following her death, the EU referendum campaign was suspended for the day by both sides as a mark of respect. The BBC cancelled editions of "Question Time" and "This Week", two political discussion programmes scheduled to air that evening focussing on issues relating to the referendum.


title: Jo Cox

text: Cox was married to Brendan Cox from June 2009 until her death in June 2016. He was an adviser on international development to Gordon Brown during Brown's premiership, whom she met while she was working for Oxfam. They had two children. The Cox family divided their time between their constituency home and a houseboat, a converted Dutch barge, on the Thames, moored near Tower Bridge in London. A secular humanist and trade unionist, Cox was a supporter of the British Humanist Association and a member of both GMB and Unison.


title: Jo Cox

text: At 12:53 pm BST on Thursday, 16 June 2016, Cox was fatally shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, where she was about to hold a constituency surgery at 1:00 pm. According to eyewitnesses, she was shot three times—once near the head—and stabbed multiple times. A 77-year-old local man, Bernard Kenny, was stabbed in the stomach while trying to fend off her attacker. Initial reports indicated that the attacker, Thomas Mair, a 52-year-old Batley and Spen constituent and a white supremacist who was obsessed with Nazis and apartheid-era South Africa and with links to the US-based neo-Nazi group National Alliance, shouted "Britain first" as he attacked.


title: Jo Cox

text: The far-right Britain First party issued a statement denying any involvement or encouragement in the attack and suggested that the phrase "could have been a slogan rather than a reference to our party." Later at Mair's trial, a witness stated that he shouted: "This is for Britain. Britain will always come first."


title: Jo Cox

text: Four hours after the incident, West Yorkshire Police announced that Cox had died of her injuries shortly after being admitted to Leeds General Infirmary. She was the first sitting MP to be killed since Ian Gow (Conservative), who was killed by a Provisional IRA car bomb in July 1990, and the first MP to be seriously assaulted since Stephen Timms, who was stabbed by Roshonara Choudhry in an attempted murder in May 2010. A memorial service was held at St Peter's Church in Birstall the following day.


title: Jo Cox

text: Mair was arrested shortly after the attack. In a statement issued the day after the attack, West Yorkshire Police said that Cox was the victim of a "targeted attack" and the suspect's links to far-right extremism were a "priority line of inquiry" in the search for a motive. Mair was also examined by a psychiatrist who concluded that Mair was responsible for his actions and that poor mental health was not the consequent factor for his attacks. On 18 June, Mair was charged with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon. He appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court later that day, and at the Old Bailey on 20 June.


title: Jo Cox

text: On 23 November 2016, Mair was found guilty of all charges – the murder of Cox, stabbing Bernard Kenny (a charge of grievous bodily harm with intent), possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon, namely the dagger. The trial judge imposed on Mair (then 53) a life sentence with a whole-life tariff — not to be released from prison, except at the discretion of the Home Secretary. As confirmed by the Crown Prosecution Service, Mair’s conviction for a crime amounting to a terrorism offence also means he is officially considered a terrorist by the United Kingdom.


title: Jo Cox

text: The murder attracted worldwide attention with tributes and memorials for Cox being made with condemnation of Mair. A personal friend, Canadian MP Nathan Cullen, paid tribute to Cox in the House of Commons of Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the then US Secretary of State John Kerry and former US Representative Gabby Giffords, who was wounded in an assassination attempt in 2011, were among international politicians who sent messages of condemnation and sympathy in the aftermath of her killing. Cox's husband issued a statement urging people to "fight against the hatred that killed her."


title: Jo Cox

text: Among those who paid tribute to Cox were Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who described her as someone who was "dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights", while Prime Minister David Cameron said she was "a star for her constituents, a star in parliament, and right across the house." US President Barack Obama telephoned Cox's husband to offer his condolences, noting that "the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others." Parliament was recalled on 20 June 2016 for fellow MPs to pay tribute to Cox.


title: Jo Cox

text: The day after Cox died, 17 June 2016, her husband set up a GoFundMe page named "Jo Cox's Fund" in aid of three charities which he described as "closest to her heart": the Royal Voluntary Service, Hope not Hate, and the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defence group. £700,000 had been raised by 19 June 2016, with the amount exceeding £1 million by the following day. On 20 June, Oxfam announced it would release "Stand As One – Live at Glastonbury 2016", an album of live performances from the festival in memory of Cox and that proceeds from the album, released on 11 July, will go towards the charity's work with refugees. The festival opened with a tribute to Cox. On the evening of 23 June, while ballots were being counted in the EU membership referendum, polling officials in the Yorkshire and Humber region observed a minute's silence.


title: Jo Cox

text: West Yorkshire coroner Martin Fleming opened an inquest into Cox's death at Bradford Coroner's Court on 24 June. It was adjourned following a six-minute hearing and her body released to allow her family to make funeral arrangements. The funeral, "a very small and private family affair", was held in her constituency on 15 July, with many thousands of people paying their respects as the cortege passed.


title: Jo Cox

text: A by-election in Batley and Spen was held on 20 October 2016. Labour candidate Tracy Brabin, an actress whose credits include a role in "Coronation Street" in the mid 1990s, won the by-election with 86 percent of the vote. The Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, and UKIP did not contest the election as a mark of respect. Far-right candidate and former British National Party member Jack Buckby caused widespread condemnation by standing in the by-election, with Cox's former Labour colleague MP Jack Dromey describing Liberty GB's bid as "obscene, outrageous and contemptible."


title: Jo Cox

text: One year after her murder, three individuals who came to her aid were honoured in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours. Bernard Kenny, a passerby who tried to stop Mair during the attack and was himself stabbed in the stomach, was awarded the George Medal, which is given to civilians who exhibit great bravery. PC Craig Nicholls and PC Jonathan Wright of the West Yorkshire Police, who apprehended and arrested her attacker after he had fled the scene, were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.


title: Jo Cox

text: In December 2016, a group of politicians came together to record a cover of the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in honour of Cox. Politicians from the Labour Party, the Conservatives, and the SNP joined with members of the Parliament Choir, the Royal Opera House Thurrock Community Chorus, KT Tunstall, Steve Harley, Ricky Wilson, David Gray and other musicians. All profits from sales of the song went to the Jo Cox Foundation. The single raised over £35,000 for the Jo Cox Foundation and was in the iTunes top 10 after its release but was placed 136 in the Christmas chart.


title: Jo Cox

text: In May 2017, a memorial, designed by Cox's children, was unveiled in the House of Commons. The unveiling took place at the first "Great Get Together" event that the Jo Cox Foundation held and was in the form of a family day at Parliament. In June 2017, Cox's husband Brendan published "Jo Cox: More In Common", a book that talks about the impact of his wife's death on their family. Also in June 2017, and to mark the first anniversary of Cox's death, her family and friends urged people to take part in a weekend of events to celebrate her life and held under the banner of "The Great Get Together"; events included picnics, street parties and concerts.


title: Jo Cox

text: A street, formerly the after Pierre-Étienne Flandin, in Avallon, a town in the Yonne "" of France, was renamed the in May 2017. In Brussels, a square beside the Ancienne Belgique concert hall was renamed the / in September 2018.


title: Jo Cox

text: A work of contemporary dance theatre inspired by Cox's political and social beliefs, entitled "More in Common", was created by Youth Music Theatre UK in August 2017 and presented at the Square Chapel, Halifax.


title: Jo Cox

text: Her alma mater, Pembroke College, announced a Jo Cox Studentship in Refugee and Migration Studies, which was first awarded in 2017 after extensive fundraising by members of the college.


title: Jo Cox

text: Following the approval by the European Parliament on the Withdrawal Agreement on 29 January 2020, European Parliament President David Sassoli ended his address by referencing Jo Cox's quote "More in Common".


title: Jo Cox

text: Out of respect for Cox, the 2016 Batley and Spen by-election had seen parties with parliamentary representation not stand against Labour candidate Tracy Brabin who was elected with an 85.8% majority. In May 2021, Brabin was elected as Mayor of West Yorkshire and, consequently, resigned as MP. On 2 July 2021, Jo Cox's sister Kim Leadbeater, who declared that she had not previously been a political person but 'cared deeply' about where she had been born and grew up, was elected in the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election.


title: Jo Cox

text: On 24 June 2017, a coat of arms, designed with the input of Cox's children, was unveiled by her family at the House of Commons, where MPs killed in office are honoured with heraldic shields. The elements of the arms included four roses, to symbolise the members of Cox's family (two white roses, for Yorkshire, and two red, for Labour); and the tinctures green, purple, and white, which were the colours of the British suffragette movement. The motto, "More in Common", is displayed below the shield, and comes from her maiden speech made in Parliament, in which she said: "We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us."


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referred to as a surface-mount device (SMD). In industry, this approach has largely replaced the through-hole technology construction method of fitting components, in large part because SMT allows for increased manufacturing automation which reduces cost and improves quality. It also allows for more components to fit on a given area of substrate. Both technologies can be used on the same board, with the through-hole technology often used for components not suitable for surface mounting such as large transformers and heat-sinked power semiconductors.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: An SMT component is usually smaller than its through-hole counterpart because it has either smaller leads or no leads at all. It may have short pins or leads of various styles, flat contacts, a matrix of solder balls (BGAs), or terminations on the body of the component.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Surface-mount technology was developed in the 1960s. By 1986 surface mounted components accounted for 10% of the market at most, but was rapidly gaining popularity. By the late 1990s, the great majority of high-tech electronic printed circuit assemblies were dominated by surface mount devices. Much of the pioneering work in this technology was done by IBM. The design approach first demonstrated by IBM in 1960 in a small-scale computer was later applied in the Launch Vehicle Digital Computer used in the Instrument Unit that guided all Saturn IB and Saturn V vehicles. Components were mechanically redesigned to have small metal tabs or end caps that could be directly soldered to the surface of the PCB. Components became much smaller and component placement on both sides of a board became far more common with surface mounting than through-hole mounting, allowing much higher circuit densities and smaller circuit boards and, in turn, machines or subassemblies containing the boards.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Often the surface tension of the solder is enough to hold the parts to the board; in rare cases parts on the bottom or "second" side of the board may be secured with a dot of adhesive to keep components from dropping off inside reflow ovens if the part is above the limit of 30g per square inch of pad area. Adhesive is sometimes used to hold SMT components on the bottom side of a board if a wave soldering process is used to solder both SMT and through-hole components simultaneously. Alternatively, SMT and through-hole components can be soldered on the same side of a board without adhesive if the SMT parts are first reflow-soldered, then a selective solder mask is used to prevent the solder holding those parts in place from reflowing and the parts floating away during wave soldering. Surface mounting lends itself well to a high degree of automation, reducing labor cost and greatly increasing production rates.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Conversely, SMT does not lend itself well to manual or low-automation fabrication, which is more economical and faster for one-off prototyping and small-scale production, and this is one reason why many through-hole components are still manufactured. Some SMDs can be soldered with a temperature-controlled manual soldering iron, but unfortunately, those that are very small or have too fine a lead pitch are impossible to manually solder without expensive hot-air solder reflow equipment. SMDs can be one-quarter to one-tenth the size and weight, and one-half to one-quarter the cost of equivalent through-hole parts, but on the other hand, the costs of a certain SMT part and of an equivalent through-hole part may be quite similar, though rarely is the SMT part more expensive.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Different terms describe the components, technique, and machines used in manufacturing. These terms are listed in the following table:


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Where components are to be placed, the printed circuit board normally has flat, usually tin-lead, silver, or gold plated copper pads without holes, called "solder pads". Solder paste, a sticky mixture of flux and tiny solder particles, is first applied to all the solder pads with a stainless steel or nickel stencil using a screen printing process. It can also be applied by a jet-printing mechanism, similar to an inkjet printer. After pasting, the boards proceed to the pick-and-place machines, where they are placed on a conveyor belt. The components to be placed on the boards are usually delivered to the production line in either paper/plastic tapes wound on reels or plastic tubes. Some large integrated circuits are delivered in static-free trays. Numerical control pick-and-place machines remove the parts from the tapes, tubes or trays and place them on the PCB.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: The boards are then conveyed into the reflow soldering oven. They first enter a pre-heat zone, where the temperature of the board and all the components is gradually, uniformly raised to prevent thermal shock. The boards then enter a zone where the temperature is high enough to melt the solder particles in the solder paste, bonding the component leads to the pads on the circuit board. The surface tension of the molten solder helps keep the components in place, and if the solder pad geometries are correctly designed, surface tension automatically aligns the components on their pads.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: There are a number of "techniques" for reflowing solder. One is to use infrared lamps; this is called infrared reflow. Another is to use a hot gas convection. Another technology which is becoming popular again is special fluorocarbon liquids with high boiling points which use a method called vapor phase reflow. Due to environmental concerns, this method was falling out of favor until lead-free legislation was introduced which requires tighter controls on soldering. At the end of 2008, convection soldering was the most popular reflow technology using either standard air or nitrogen gas. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. With infrared reflow, the board designer must lay the board out so that short components don't fall into the shadows of tall components. Component location is less restricted if the designer knows that vapor phase reflow or convection soldering will be used in production. Following reflow soldering, certain irregular or heat-sensitive components may be installed and soldered by hand, or in large-scale automation, by focused infrared beam (FIB) or localized convection equipment.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: If the circuit board is double-sided then this printing, placement, reflow process may be repeated using either solder paste or glue to hold the components in place. If a wave soldering process is used, then the parts must be glued to the board prior to processing to prevent them from floating off when the solder paste holding them in place is melted.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: After soldering, the boards may be washed to remove flux residues and any stray solder balls that could short out closely spaced component leads. Rosin flux is removed with fluorocarbon solvents, high flash point hydrocarbon solvents, or low flash solvents e.g. limonene (derived from orange peels) which require extra rinsing or drying cycles. Water-soluble fluxes are removed with deionized water and detergent, followed by an air blast to quickly remove residual water. However, most electronic assemblies are made using a "No-Clean" process where the flux residues are designed to be left on the circuit board, since they are considered harmless. This saves the cost of cleaning, speeds up the manufacturing process, and reduces waste. However, it is generally suggested to wash the assembly, even when a "No-Clean" process is used, when the application uses very high frequency clock signals (in excess of 1 GHz). Another reason to remove no-clean residues is to improve adhesion of conformal coatings and underfill materials. Regardless of cleaning or not those PCBs, current industry trend suggests to carefully review a PCB assembly process where "No-Clean" is applied, since flux residues trapped under components and RF shields may affect surface insulation resistance (SIR), especially on high component density boards.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Certain manufacturing standards, such as those written by the IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries require cleaning regardless of the solder flux type used to ensure a thoroughly clean board. Proper cleaning removes all traces of solder flux, as well as dirt and other contaminants that may be invisible to the naked eye. No-Clean or other soldering processes may leave "white residues" that, according to IPC, are acceptable "provided that these residues have been qualified and documented as benign". However, while shops conforming to IPC standard are expected to adhere to the Association's rules on board condition, not all manufacturing facilities apply IPC standard, nor are they required to do so. Additionally, in some applications, such as low-end electronics, such stringent manufacturing methods are excessive both in expense and time required.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Finally, the boards are visually inspected for missing or misaligned components and solder bridging. If needed, they are sent to a rework station where a human operator repairs any errors. They are then usually sent to the testing stations (in-circuit testing and/or functional testing) to verify that they operate correctly.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Automated optical inspection (AOI) systems are commonly used in PCB manufacturing. This technology has proven highly efficient for process improvements and quality achievements.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Defective surface-mount components can be repaired by using soldering irons (for some connections), or using a non-contact rework system. In most cases a rework system is the better choice because SMD work with a soldering iron requires considerable skill and is not always feasible.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Reworking usually corrects some type of error, either human- or machine-generated, and includes the following steps:


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Sometimes hundreds or thousands of the same part need to be repaired. Such errors, if due to assembly, are often caught during the process. However, a whole new level of rework arises when component failure is discovered too late, and perhaps unnoticed until the end user of the device being manufactured experiences it. Rework can also be used if products of sufficient value to justify it require revision or re-engineering, perhaps to change a single firmware-based component. Reworking in large volume requires an operation designed for that purpose.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: There are essentially two non-contact soldering/desoldering methods: infrared soldering and soldering with hot gas.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: With infrared soldering, the energy for heating up the solder joint is transmitted by long-, medium- or short-wave infrared electromagnetic radiation.


title: Surface-mount technology

text: During hot gas soldering, the energy for heating up the solder joint is transmitted by a hot gas. This can be air or inert gas (nitrogen).


title: Surface-mount technology

text: Surface-mount components are usually smaller than their counterparts with leads, and are designed to be handled by machines rather than by humans. The electronics industry has standardized package shapes and sizes (the leading standardisation body is JEDEC).


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Mary Lou and George Wallace Sr. Wallace was educated at Lynwood Park Elementary School and Lynwood Park High School. His mother died when he was sixteen, prompting him to move to Ohio where he found a job with Firestone Tire. As part of the company's tuition reimbursement program, Wallace enrolled in the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio. He studied transportation, marketing and advertising.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Upon graduating college, Wallace moved to New York City to pursue his childhood dream of being a comedian. Initially, success in comedy proved elusive and Wallace worked as a salesman for an advertising agency to pay the bills.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace's break came when one of his clients opened a comedy club. The club owner was amused by Wallace's natural humor and friendly demeanor and offered him the chance to perform stand-up comedy. In 1977, Wallace walked on stage for the first time, wearing a preacher's robe and calling himself The Right Reverend Dr. George Wallace. His routine was completely improvised. He stayed in New York City for several years, perfecting his craft and living with friend and fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: In 1978, Wallace moved to the West Coast, where he quickly became recognized as a talented young comedian. After one of his performances, producers from "The Redd Foxx Show" asked him to write for the popular series. However, after only one year of writing, Wallace returned to the stage. He became a regular at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, California, which also featured artists including Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Roseanne Barr, Jay Leno and Robin Williams. Wallace also took his comedy show on the road, opening for George Benson, Diana Ross, Donna Summer and Smokey Robinson, among others.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace was named the Best Male Standup Comedian during the 1995 American Comedy Awards. He has explained that his routines are inspired by everyday moments of life. His social commentary proved popular with radio audiences as well. Wallace was a regular on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show" before joining Isaac Hayes on a popular radio program on the former WRKS radio station in New York City. He also starred in his own HBO special and has appeared on many television shows, including "The Tonight Show", "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman".


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: On May 3, 2006, Wallace performed his most famous stand-up bit, which was a diatribe against the young generation's obsession with allowances with the oft-cited catchphrase of "Get Your Mess Right." While Wallace often jokes about the flippancy of modern youth culture (often citing the "dumb dumbs on their smart phones") this one joke in particular resonated with his audience, and he repeats it at every show.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: In December 2007, Wallace suffered an onstage injury when he fell during a private-party performance at the Bellagio resort hotel and casino in Las Vegas. He sued the Bellagio, claiming negligence after tripping over loose wires on stage. In April 2014, a Las Vegas jury found in favor of Wallace and awarded him US $1.3 million.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: After winning his case against the Bellagio, Wallace announced that he would end his 10-year run as a Las Vegas headliner to pursue other projects. "There are so many things to do. It's time to get into something new."


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace has had political ambitions. In 2006, he considered running for mayor of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Wallace stated that as mayor, he would update the Las Vegas Strip, with an easy-to-use monorail, close the strip to vehicles, and expand the road system behind the Strip hotels.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace's nephew, Steve Wallace, played professional football with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs.


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace has had supporting roles in a number of films, including "3 Strikes" and the Coen Brothers film "The Ladykillers" (2004, as Sheriff Wyner). Wallace also appeared in "Batman Forever" (1995) as the Mayor of Gotham City. Other film credits include "A Rage in Harlem" (1991), "The Wash" (2001), "Punchline" (1988), "Things Are Tough All Over" (1982), "Postcards from the Edge" (1990), and "Mr. Deeds" (2002).


title: George Wallace (American comedian)

text: Wallace made a brief appearance in the sitcom "Scrubs" episode "My Words of Wisdom" (2007), and in the sitcom "Seinfeld" episode "The Checks", where he played the doctor that was distracted by the song "Witchy Woman". He also appeared in the introduction scene to the home video release of "Jerry Seinfeld: I'm Telling You for the Last Time - Live on Broadway" (1999) as a fictionalized version of himself. He portrayed a man in a retirement home in "The Last Laugh" (2019) and starred as the Mayor in "Hubie Halloween" (2020).


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: Daniel O'Connor (born December 12, 1968), better known as Danny Boy or Danny Boy O'Connor, is an American rapper, art director, and the executive director of The Outsiders House Museum. O'Connor spent his childhood in New York, before moving to Los Angeles in the 1980s. In the 1990s, O'Connor co-founded the rap group House of Pain, with fellow rapper Erik Schrody (Everlast) and DJ Leor Diamant (DJ Lethal). Based on their cultural heritage they fashioned themselves as rowdy Irish-American hooligans. O'Connor played the role of art director, designing logos, branding, hype man, and co-rapper. In 1992, with the singles "Jump Around" and "Shamrocks and Shenanigans", their self-titled debut album, also known as "Fine Malt Lyrics", went platinum.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: They followed it up with "Same as It Ever Was" (1994), which went gold, and "Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again" (1996), before they all went their separate ways. O'Connor took part in several music projects, and continued doing designs as freelance work. In 2006, O'Connor founded the rap group La Coka Nostra where he was joined by George Carroll (Slaine), William Braunstein (Ill Bill), as well as Diamant and Schrody (only for the first album). Together they have three releases: "A Brand You Can Trust" (2009), "Masters of the Dark Arts" (2012) and "To Thine Own Self Be True" (2016).


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 2016, O'Connor, who is a lifelong fan of S. E. Hinton's book "The Outsiders" and its film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola, bought the house used in the film located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He turned it into a museum named The Outsiders House Museum, that contains much of the book and film memorabilia. For his effort preserving a cultural landmark he received a key to the city.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: O'Connor was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on December 12, 1968. His father was incarcerated when he was two months old and his mother moved to Los Angeles when he was six. At the age of seventeen O'Connor's father who became a homeless alcoholic was murdered by someone who poured gasoline on him to set him on fire. Also at that age he was in a gang involved in petty crimes, and was on probation.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 1990, O'Connor got together with fellow rapper Erik Schrody (Everlast) who had just released a rap album called "Forever Everlasting" (1990), that didn't have much success. O'Connor knew Schrody when he went to William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California (1984–1986), and various hip hop event they attended in their teens. Both of Irish descent, they decided to make a hip hop group with this identity. While hanging out at O'Connor's home, Schrody noticed a cassette with the title "House of Pain", which was a demo of a Punk group O'Connor tried to put together. Schrody really liked the name and felt they should re-use as their name. Schrody brought in his former DJ Leor Diamant (DJ Lethal), who actually of Latvian descent, and House of pain was created. While in House of Pain, O'Connor acted as the hype man, second emcee, art director and the graphic artist of the group. After they recorded a demo, for which O'Connor designed the cover, that created a bidding war among labels. The label they chose was Tommy Boy Records, who credits O'Connor's art work to have initially caught their attention.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 1992, they released their debut album "House of Pain", subtitled "Fine Malt Lyrics." Their first single "Jump Around" was a major hit. In the United States, it peaked at number 3 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, while reaching number 5 on the Hot Rap Songs, 13 on Rhythmic Top 40, 1 on Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, number 17 on the "Billboard" Dance Club Songs, and is certified platinum. O'Connor expressed regrets for not doing any writing on Jump Around, for the later royalties it could have provided him. Their second single "Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom Shalock Lock Boom)", it peaked at 65 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, 75 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, 14 on the Dance Club Songs, and 74 on Radio Songs. The album peaked at 14 on the "Billboard" 200, 14 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top Current Albums, 16 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, 14 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top Album Sales, and is certified platinum. "Rolling Stone" gave three point five stars, good plus, and noted "with a groovy swagger, this collection of hard-core hip-hop tracks offers many moments of technicolor snap and crackle, and also titled House of Pain". "Q magazine" wrote that it is a good album three stars and said "...their music is of the dense, hard-hitting school of hip hop...the group have absorbed black rap's musical lessons and create a satisfying platform for their above average deliveries..." "The Source" said it was a good plus, gave it three point five stars and concluded that it is "...a very solid and at times exceptional album...imagine if "Licensed to Ill" wasn't an upper middle class Jewish thing but rather a working class Irish thang...the atmosphere is like that of a cross between a frat party and a bar room brawl... "NME" gave it a six calling it good and noting "...contains some creative and accomplished rap music..." Rob Theakston of "AllMusic" gave it four stars.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 1993, O'Connor with his group mates were among the rap artists who had cameo roles in Ted Demme's film "Who's the Man?". For this project they provided a theme song by the same name, which was also used as a single for the soundtrack and their subsequent album. It rose to number 97 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, 77 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and 10 on the US "Billboard" Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 1994, they released "Same as It Ever Was". The album peaked at 12 equally on the "Billboard" 200, the U.S. "Billboard" Top Current Albums, the U.S. "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, the U.S. "Billboard" Top Album Sales, and is certified gold. "AllMusic" gave it four out five stars. Matt Carlson of "The Michigan Daily" found the album quite good and noted "the music is laid back with some heavy driving forces underlying and strengthening it". J.D. Constantine of "The Baltimore Sun" did not like album and found it monotonous and unimaginative. Roger Catlin of the "Hartford Courant" said that while finding the continuity monotonous it's "hard and compelling" as well as a "strong outing". Andrew Love of "The Ocala Star-Banner" gave it four stars saying "this is a band that has definitely progressed over the course of one album". Music critic Robert Christgau, who did not like their previous and subsequent album, gave it an A- and described it as "the hardest hip hop of the year".


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 1996, they released "Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again". The album peaked at 47 on the "Billboard" 200, 47 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top Current Albums, 31 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and 47 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top Album Sales. At the release party, Schrody decided to breakup the group. Dave Ferman of the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" gave it one star and a half, calling it a "woeful mess". Steve Juon of "RapReviews" gave it a seven out of ten. "AllMusic" music gave it two point five stars out of five. Sputnikmusic wrote that "the trio’s most rounded, consistent & memorable LP is grossly under-appreciated."


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: Also in 1996, O'Connor was announced to be part of the cast of Soleil Moon Frye directorial debut. The film was released in 1998 as "Wild Horses".


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: After House of Pain disbanded, O'Connor said he struggled with drug abuse, a problem he developed when he became famous, and spent all the money he made from the group's success. He said he sobered up briefly in 2000 joining the twelve-step program but relapsed after a having a drink, and rejoined the program in 2005, and stayed sober ever since.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: Never the less, O'Connor continued being involved in musical projects and did freelance work such as logo designing, streetwear, and sneakers.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 2001, O'Connor's next group XSupermodels (XSM) only saw a promotional release for their album "Artificial Intelligence". That year, he was the featured rapper in Powerman 5000's remake of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood hit song "Relax", on the "Zoolander" soundtrack.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In late 2004, the creation of the rap supergroup La Coka Nostra started when O'Connor was mentoring young artists. He took notice of two up and comers which included George Carroll (Slaine) and brought them to meet his former DJ from House of Pain, Leor Diamant. They decided to make a group and asked O'Connor to become a member as a hype man and art director. After accepting, O'Connor felt that there was a void and asked experienced rapper William Braunstein (Ill Bill) to join. The group's name came about, when O'Connor teased Carroll and Braunstein with that nickname, after they both had a night out. The group started releasing music on MySpace, and went viral. Eventually, former House of Pain colleague Erik Schrody, showed interest to join. By 2006, the group consisted of O'Connor, Carroll, Diamant, Braunstein, and Schrody (who left some time after the first album was released).


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 2005, the documentary film "Just for Kicks" about the sneaker phenomena and history in hip-hop, had its world premiere. O'Connor was among the producers. It won "Best Documentary", and "Best Overall Film" at the USVI Film festival. It was part of the official selection at Tribeca Film Festival, Sheffield Documentary Festival, Amsterdam Documentary Festival, Bangkok International Film Festival, Res Fest, New York Latino Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, NYC Urban World Festival, Leipzig Documentary Festival, and US Virgin Islands Film Festivals.


title: Danny Boy (rapper)

text: In 2009, La Coka Nostra released "A Brand You Can Trust" was released on July 14, 2009, on Suburban Noize Records. It sold over 500,000 units. "AllMusic" gave four out of five stars. Andrew Kameka of "HipHopDX" wrote that "the album is a mostly solid effort and exactly what someone would expect from a supergroup of like-minded members known for high-energy music". Adam Kennedy of the "BBC" while praising some the moments of the album said "it’s a tantalising parting taste of potential capabilities, yet until they improve a customer satisfaction hit rate that barely troubles one in three tunes here". Steve Juon of "RapReviews" gave it a seven out of ten. Thomas Quinlan of "Exclaim!" said "La Coka Nostra are an interesting collection of collaborators that live up to the hype".