title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The emergence of the String of Pearls is indicative of China's growing geopolitical influence through concerted efforts to increase access to ports and airfields, expand and modernise military forces, and foster stronger diplomatic relationships with trading partners. The Chinese government insists that China's burgeoning naval strategy is entirely peaceful and is only for the protection of regional trade interests. Chinese Communist Party general secretaries Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping have both asserted that China will never seek hegemony in foreign relations. by "The Economist" also found the Chinese moves to be commercial in nature. Although it has been claimed that China's actions are creating a security dilemma between China and India in the Indian Ocean, that has been questioned by some analysts, who point to China's fundamental strategic vulnerabilities.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: In the theory, a "pearl" refers to a current or potential Chinese overseas military base, mega infrastructure project, economic corridor, port or other city or locale of Chinese geostrategic advantage in the region. These "pearls" are designated by U.S. and Indian strategists. The eponymous "string" of these pearls refers to the possibility of the Chinese Navy connecting these pearls via maritime routes. Chinese political researchers do not use the term "String of Pearls" to describe their own geopolitical and diplomatic strategy, instead called the term "malicious defamation" from the United States.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: In 2004, the U.S. consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton came up with the "string of pearls" hypothesis, which posits that China will try to expand its naval presence by building civilian maritime infrastructure along the Indian Ocean periphery. According to Pacific Forum researcher Virginia Marantidou, China held great anxiety toward its security environment in the Indian Ocean, due potential U.S. and Indian blockade at the Malacca Strait. This situation, coined ‘Malacca dilemma’ by Chinese researchers, posed significant challenges to the government elites in Beijing. David H. Shinn predicted in 2008 that China will need to expand their naval capacities in order to protect supply lines of vital resources from Africa and the Middle East to China. American, European, and Indian political strategists have used the term to designates China's point of influences in Indo-Pacific region.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: China's rapid economic development over the course of the last quarter century has been heavily dependent on foreign sources of energy, and it is likely that foreign sources of energy will prove even more critical to the continued growth of the Chinese economy. The sea lines of communication that link the Chinese mainland with ports throughout the Middle East and coasts of Africa have become a major source of conflict with respect to China's energy security.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: China is the world's largest oil consumer and the largest oil importer. Oil imported from the Gulf States and Africa comprises 70% of total Chinese oil imports, and remains China's most critical source of energy apart from domestic coal burning and nuclear power. To meet future demand, China has signed a number of long-term contracts to develop Iranian oil fields and to build a pipeline, refinery, and port in Sudan for oil export.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The oversea transport of oil from existing production areas will continue to remain the primary mode of energy importation for the foreseeable future. Efforts to secure new supply lines in Central Asia have proven difficult, with poor infrastructure, political instability, logistical challenges, and corruption hampering energy development there. Energy security also sits at the core of China's anti-piracy efforts, which figure into its larger maritime objectives. The expansion of Chinese naval patrols off the Coast of Somalia, and China's decision to join multi-nation defence patrols in 2010, indicate China's greater assertiveness in the policing of shipping corridors.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The critical sea lines of communication that connect China to Middle Eastern oil-producing states traverse the South China Sea, making it a key strategic region, and potential trouble spot, for the Chinese government. Chinese naval vessels heavily patrol South China Sea waters, and conflicting territorial claims in the region have periodically erupted in naval confrontations. Chinese efforts to control the South China Sea have therefore figured significantly in speculations about the wider ambitions of the Chinese central government in the construction of a power projection chain across Asia.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The central government's efforts to exercise greater control in the region began in earnest after the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of US forces from the Philippines in 1991. Although skirmishes with neighbouring powers, most notably with Vietnam during the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, have been a fixture of post-war Chinese foreign relations, the Chinese government began aggressively asserting its territorial claims in the region only within the last two decades. Interest in the region has historically extended to the rich fishing and mineral resources known to exist there. However, islets in the regions can also be used as air and sea bases for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities, as well as base points for Chinese ballistic missile submarines and potential aircraft carrier battle groups.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The Chinese naval base on Hainan Island is generally considered the first of the pearls or potential pearls. Recent construction of an underwater submarine base on Hainan, in addition to the sprawling facilities already located there, seems to further confirm the perceived importance of Hainan as a base of control for China's claims in the South China Sea. Woody Island, the largest of the Paracel Islands, hosts an upgraded Chinese airstrip and has also been identified as a pearl. Sansha, the prefecture-level city established on Woody Island, maintains a division-level garrison that also oversees Chinese claims in the Spratly Islands, extending a small but permanent military presence across Chinese claims in the South China Sea. A $20 billion Chinese proposal aimed at Thailand to fund the construction of a canal across the Kra Isthmus, which would allow ships to bypass the Strait of Malacca altogether, has also broached concerns of a Chinese-controlled corridor linking Chinese ports and facilities elsewhere in the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Chinese possessions in the Indian Ocean consist primarily of commercial ports owned and operated by Chinese firms, as well as resupply stations operating in agreement with the Chinese central government. The two largest projects consist of a Chinese-financed commercial shipping center in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and a Chinese-controlled deep-water port near the mouth of the Persian Gulf in Gwadar, Pakistan, which is also the crux of China's massive $62 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor project. Both sites have raised the concern of neighbouring powers, most significantly India, which fears the possibility of a string of Chinese bases situated just off its coast. Chinese investment in Hambantota, and Sri Lanka's dialogue partner status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), is seen by some Indian analysts as reflective of a wider encirclement strategy on the part of the Chinese (though India itself would join in 2017 as a full member). The port at Gwadar, which is connected to the Karakoram Highway linking Western China and the Arabian Sea, is of even greater concern to the Indian government, which views it as powerful evidence of Chinese and Pakistani collusion against Indian security and economic interests.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: For both Pakistan and China, the Gwadar port as part of the much-wide China Pakistan Economic Corridor offers a number of key benefits. For the Pakistani government, the Gwadar port is seen as having the potential of hedging against a potential Indian blockade of the port of Karachi, which currently handles 90% of Pakistani seaborne trade. For the Chinese central government, which has funded the majority of the $1.2 billion construction, Gwadar represents an important strategic foothold situated only 240 miles from the Strait of Hormuz. Chinese government officials have specifically identified the growing militarisation of Central Asia, as a chief motivation in the construction of the Gwadar project. In 2013, the state-owned China Overseas Port Holding Company was officially granted control of the port's operation, further consolidating Chinese influence over the Gwadar project.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Similar port construction projects are also underway in Burma and Bangladesh. The Chinese government has financed a container shipping facility in Chittagong, Bangladesh, which is widely identified as a pearl in the string. However, despite reports of Chittagong's potential military role for the Chinese, the Bangladeshi government has insisted that the port is of an entirely commercial nature and declared it off limits to military vessels. Furthermore, given Bangladesh's close economic ties to India, and agreements for the expansion of Indian investment in Bangladeshi infrastructure projects, Chittagong's military significance for the Chinese is exaggerated.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Strategists have also identified the Marao Atoll, in the Maldives, as a potential Chinese military base of operations. Reports in the Indian press have referred to Chinese plans to construct a submarine base in Marao since at least 1999. However, to date there exists no evidence that suggests a Chinese military presence of any kind in the Maldives. Indeed, it is argued that Marao cannot possibly support the type of complex infrastructure required for submarine operations. And given the nature of diplomatic and military co-operation between India and the Maldives, Chinese encroachment in the Maldives Archipelago is highly unlikely. Many analysts have suggested that Chinese Indian Ocean bases are purely commercial because they would be nearly indefensible in wartime. A large component of China's efforts to establish ports and bases in the Indian Ocean is the result of a need to formalise logistics support agreements for Chinese naval forces conducting anti-piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa. In this regard, Chinese naval strategy is consistent with the interests of India and its Western allies.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Chinese state-owned companies are also responsible for the construction of a railway link between Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and Port Sudan, the country's major port on the Red Sea. Although Sudanese oil makes up only a fraction of total Chinese imports, China has invested over $10 billion in infrastructure projects in the country to take advantage of its substantial oil reserves. Chinese operations in Port Sudan are substantial, but limited completely to the oil export. China has also agreed to finance and build a $10 billion port in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, which is expected to be completed in 2017 and handle 20 million shipping containers annually. The Chinese government has denied that their investment in the port of Bagamoyo is intended to create a military capability.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: China views its own actions in an entirely different light; namely, as their efforts to strengthen a new maritime Silk Road.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: China's growing economic investments have increased their concerns about the political stability of the countries they are investing in. International relations commentators have compared this to the United States investing in internal stability and security of countries where the US has large commercial interests.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: In 2007, the Indian Navy published the "Indian Maritime Doctrine", a document outlining prospective Indian naval strategies. It describes ambitions for an active Indian naval presence from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca. Furthermore, the doctrine makes explicit mention of the need to police international shipping lanes and control choke points of Indian Ocean trade in particular. In 2007, India opened its second overseas military listening post in northern Madagascar, with the aim of better overseeing shipping movements through the Mozambique Channel. The Indian government has, with the same intentions, hosted negotiations with Mauritania regarding the construction of an airstrip for Indian surveillance aircraft, as well as organised the construction of radar stations in the Maldives.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: In 2011, the Indian government further announced that it would fund a deep-water port in Sittwe, Burma; set to be functional by June 2013, with an additional highway connecting the port to India to be completed by 2014. The construction of the Sittwe port is often cited as evidence of a concerted strategy on the part of India to counterbalance growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Like China, India is heavily dependent on foreign oil producers for its energy needs. About 89% of India's oil arrives by ship, and the burning of oil provides for approximately 33% of India's energy needs. The protection of the major sea lines of communication is therefore recognised as an economic imperative. In this regard, India has historically focused heavily on anti-piracy and counter-terrorism efforts across the Indian Ocean. Most notable among these is Operation Island Watch, the 2010 effort to patrol India's western seaboard against Somali pirates.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: A number of these counter-terrorism and anti-piracy efforts have been conducted in co-ordination with American forces, though Indian officials have traditionally restricted joint military exercises to common interest initiatives, often those under UN sanction. Nevertheless, renewed US interest in countering the threat of Islamic terrorism in South Asia has pushed India and the United States towards more substantive military co-operation. For US military officials and strategists, this growing bilateral relationship is widely seen as an opportunity to counterbalance threats of Chinese regional hegemony. Efforts for bilateral co-operation against rising Chinese power are bolstered by popular fears that China's expanded presence in the Indian Ocean threatens India's economic and military security. Dean Cheng, a notable China expert at the Heritage Foundation, has strongly urged that the United States continue to partner with India to counter China's influence in the Indian Ocean.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Further, a strategy known as 'Necklace of Diamonds' to counter Chinese growing influence and its contentious territorial, diplomatic or commercial issues in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and with ASEAN nations. This strategy is especially to counter the string of pearls and New Silk route. India strengthens ties with Vietnam, Oman, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Singapore, Seychelles and all five Central Asian Republics to conduct joint army, airforce and naval exercises. Necklace of Diamonds includes the development of naval bases, air corridor, boasting multilateral trade. The String of Pearls is considered by some Indian commentators as a manifestation of China's salami slicing strategy.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The US Navy has unparalleled power projection capabilities and operational strength, and is the major naval force in the waters of South and Southeast Asia. However, the Chinese central government's explicit ambitions for the creation of a "new security concept", one that can challenge US dominance in the region, has precipitated a greater willingness on the part of the Chinese to challenge US influence in Asia. China's renewed assertiveness in the South China Sea is of particular concern to US officials, who see China's rise as a threat to the United States' role as a "provider of regional and global stability".


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The "Pivot to Asia" strategy of the Obama Administration is designed to engage China by consolidating and expanding diplomatic and economic relationships with existing regional partners, particularly in East Asia and Southeast Asia. This approach has emphasised multilateralism, as exemplified by increased US engagement with ASEAN and efforts for the formation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pan-Asian free trade deal. However, the US has also sought an expanded and more cooperative military presence in the region, evidenced by the 2006 Cope India exercise and others like it. Strong US relations with its key regional allies, including Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, have been reinforced by strengthened co-operation with countries threatened by Chinese control, such as the Philippines.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: Japanese apprehensions regarding the development of an interconnected system of Chinese military and commercial ports centers primarily on the protection of trading interests. 90% of Japan's imported oil flows to Japan through the sea lanes of the South China Sea, and any undue Chinese influence in the region is seen as a potential threat to Japanese economic security. Moreover, Japanese officials envision that, in the case of a more pervasive Chinese power projection capability in East Asia, territorial disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea and Philippine Sea might escalate to a point of outright military confrontation. In particular, the Senkaku, which is claimed by China but controlled by Japan, and Ryukyu island chains, are identified as key friction points between the two countries. Both island groups are located off of China's eastern seaboard and must be navigated by Chinese naval and commercial vessels sailing on their way to the wider Pacific Ocean. Furthermore, the proximity of both island groups to Taiwan offers them an attractive operational role for Chinese military planners looking to mitigate US naval superiority in any potential war over Taiwan.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: In 2010, in part because of increased diplomatic tension with China, Japan announced revised National Defence Program guidelines, which advocate enhanced surveillance and reconnaissance operations in the Ryukyu islands, as well as the increased support for submarine activities. At the US–Japan Security Consultative Committee on 21 June 2011, the Japanese and US governments issued a firm joint declaration announcing intentions for the maintenance of the strong US naval deterrent in the Taiwan Strait and the expansion of security ties with ASEAN, Australia, and India. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's has described this new China-wary foreign policy as having the potential to create an "arc of freedom" between Japan and its traditional allies the US and Australia, and India. This project is bolstered by the 2008 security co-operation agreement between Japan and India, which calls for greater maritime security co-ordination and diplomatic co-operation on regional issues.


title: String of Pearls (Indian Ocean)

text: The Australian government has repeatedly expressed concern about mounting tensions in East Asia and Southeast Asia, with the security of Australia's so-called "Northern approaches" seen by lawmakers and officials as essential to the security of seaborne trade and energy supply routes. As a reaction to China's growing influence, and as part of the United States' proclaimed "Pivot to Asia" strategy, the Australian government approved the stationing of US troops and aircraft in the northern Australian city of Darwin in late 2011.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: The Colt 9mm SMG, also known as the Colt Model 635 or Colt M635, is a 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun manufactured by Colt, based on the M16 rifle.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: The Colt 9mm SMG is a closed bolt, blowback operated SMG, rather than the conventional direct impingement gas operation of the standard 5.56×45mm M16 type rifle. As a closed bolt weapon, the Colt SMG is inherently more accurate than open bolt weapons such as the Israeli UZI.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: The overall aesthetics are identical to most M16 type rifles. Changes include a large plastic brass deflector protruding from the rear quarter of the ejection port, and a correspondingly shorter dust cover. Factory Colt 9mm SMGs are equipped with a 10.5 inch length barrel and have an M16 style upper receiver, which means they feature a fixed carry handle, no forward assist and A1 sights (with 50 and 100 meter settings). The magazine well of the receiver is modified with pinned-in blocks to allow the use of smaller 9 mm magazines. The magazines themselves are a copy of the UZI magazine, modified to fit the Colt and lock the bolt back after the last shot.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: Current Colt production models are the R0635 (RO635) which features a Safe/Semi/Full Auto selective fire trigger group and the R0639(RO639) which features a Safe/Semi/3-round Burst selective fire trigger group. Both are equipped with a 10.5 inch length barrel. The 633 was a modified compact version with a barrel, hydraulic buffer and simplified front sight post used by the DEA.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: The most common model is the 635, the latest version of which are simply marked SMG 9mm NATO. Until early 2010s, there are newer variants, R0991(RO991), R0992(RO992) and R6951 are introduced. The R0991 features Safe/Semi/Full Auto selective fire is constructed with Rail Integration System (RIS) picatinny rails on the flat-top receiver as well as around the barrel which allows the easy mounting of ancillary devices, has 10.5" barrel and equipped with a third generation composite buttstock; The R0992 has almost all the same features to the R0991, except the selective fire mode is Safe/Semi/3-round Burst only; The R6951 has almost all the same features of the R0991 and R0992, but doesn't have selective fire and has a 16.1" barrel instead of the 10.5" one.


title: Colt 9mm SMG

text: A suppressed variant known as the "DEA model" exists that uses an integral Knights Armament Company made suppressor covered with an M16A2 handguard.


title: Der Pass

text: Der Pass (English: "The Pass") or Pagan Peak is an Austrian-German television crime drama series which premiered on Sky Deutschland on 25 January 2019. It was inspired by season 1 of the Danish-Swedish series, "Broen | Bron" (English:"The Bridge"). "Der Pass" was co-created by and , both of whom also direct and write scripts. Criminal profiler advised on aspects of police procedures. The action is set largely in the Austria-Germany border area from Traunstein to Salzburg. In the first season of eight episodes, two detectives, German Ellie (Julia Jentsch) and Gedeon () from Austria, hunt a serial killer, Gregor (Franz Hartwig), who is using a Krampus mask as a disguise. The pilot episode, "Finsternis" (English: "Darkness"), had its world premiere on 21 September 2018 at the Tribeca TV Festival, ahead of the full series broadcast. Its Austrian debut was at the Urania Cinema, Vienna, on 15 January 2019, and its German premiere at Gloria-Palast, Munich, on the following day.


title: Der Pass

text: Season 2 of "Der Pass", also of eight episodes, commenced broadcasting on 21 January 2022. In this season, Ellie and Gedeon investigate when female corpses are found in the border area.


title: Der Pass

text: Gedeon and Ellie attend a corpse at the border. It is the first victim of a serial killer, Gregor, who wears Krampus masks. Gregor warns "The Red Season Is Coming." Gedeon alerts authorities of Gregor's imminent bombing of a shopping mall; a child is killed. Tech-savvy Gregor hacks into Ellie's computer to stay ahead of the investigation. A copycat suspect is killed by police and authorities close the case. A year later, Gedeon is unconvinced and persuades Ellie to search for another victim. Gregor has moved next door to Ellie. He poisons both her and himself before being arrested. Gedeon saves Ellie's life.


title: Der Pass

text: A year later, Ellie mentors junior detective, Yela (), who is joined by Gedeon, as a police advisor. They investigate another serial killer, Xandi (), who tortures female victims. Both Ellie and Gedeon are recovering from traumas. Xandi is protected by his older brother, Wolfgang (), the family's employee, Manni ( and investigating chief detective, Manuel (.


title: Der Pass

text: Co-creator acknowledged that "Der Pass" was inspired by the 2011 Danish-Swedish series, "Broen | Bron" (English:"The Bridge") and oboserved, "Apart from the premise of two countries working together and finding a body on the border, everything else is pretty much a completely new story." The creators researched serial killers, including their online interviews, in developing the character of Gregor Ansbach (Franz Hartwig). The process was assisted by criminal profiler, . Unusually for a crime drama the antagonist, Gregor is revealled early in the series and has a more visible presence. Another deliberate effort is the evolution of both protagonists, Gedeon starts as a jaded, cynical and corrupt officer who becomes dedicated to catching Gregor and protective of Ellie. Meanwhile, Ellie was a committed, enthusiastic and by-the-book officer who becomes a rule breaker, slightly burned-out and traumatised. Stennart described Ellie's character as difficult to write, "[one] who is truly good but also interesting,”


title: Der Pass

text: Filming of "Der Pass" occurred from November 2017 to April 2018 in both Austria and Germany, at Bad Gastein, Berchtesgaden, Graz, Söcking, Vienna, Grundlsee and Sportgastein. It was co-produced by the Austrian Epo-Film and the German Wiedemann & Berg Film Production, which was supported by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, the Fernsehfonds Austria, the film funding of the state of Salzburg, the "CINESTYRIA Filmcommission and Fonds" and the "Film Commission Graz". Additional crew members were and for film editing, on costume design, Heike Lange on set design, Herbert Verdino, Walter Fiklocki and Quirin Böhm for original sound, Nico Krebsfor on final sound design and mixing, and Tatjana Luckdorf and Evgenia Popova on make-up Design.


title: Der Pass

text: The second season filming began in January 2020, however, it was delayed by restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in April and continued intermittently to December 2020. For this season, Stennert described how, "It's so interesting to see how someone becomes a perpetrator in the first place. So this time we wanted to start following this guy before the first corpse." Broadcasting started on 21 January 2022 on Sky Deutschland and ZDF.


title: Der Pass

text: Ray Flook of "Bleeding Cool" reviewed the pilot episode of "Pagan Peak", which depicts "crime scenes with symbolically posed victims, reminiscent of pagan rituals." "Die Presse"s Anna-Marie Wallner observed the series title, "Der Pass", has multiple meanings, both the geographical location between Austria and Germany and the annual festival group of St Nicholas, Krampus and the Angel. Wallner praised the "courageous and rather unusual" storyline, where the villain is revealed to the audience in episode 3 while "tension nevertheless persists." "Der Spiegel"s Oliver Kaever felt, "It is about isolation, the power of the Internet and digital surveillance fantasies... [and] the enormously spreading grief here that man is a wolf to man. And the world is not a place that forgives."


title: Orphan drug

text: An orphan drug is a pharmaceutical agent developed to treat medical conditions which, because they are so rare, would not be profitable to produce without government assistance. The conditions are referred to as orphan diseases.


title: Orphan drug

text: The assignment of orphan status to a disease and to drugs developed to treat it is a matter of public policy in many countries and has yielded medical breakthroughs that might not otherwise have been achieved, due to the economics of drug research and development.


title: Orphan drug

text: In the U.S. and the EU, it is easier to gain marketing approval for an orphan drug. There may be other financial incentives, such as an extended period of exclusivity, during which the producer has sole rights to market the drug. All are intended to encourage development of drugs which would otherwise lack sufficient profit motive to attract corporate research budgets and personnel.


title: Orphan drug

text: According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an orphan drug is defined as one "intended for the treatment, prevention or diagnosis of a rare disease or condition, which is one that affects less than 200,000 persons in the US" (which equates to approximately 6 cases per 10,000 population) "or meets cost recovery provisions of the act." In the European Union (EU), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) defines a drug as "orphan" if it is intended for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of a life-threatening or chronically and seriously debilitating condition affecting not more than 5 in 10,000 EU people. EMA also qualifies a drug as orphan if – without incentives – it would be unlikely that marketing the drug in the EU would generate sufficient benefit for the affected people and for the drug manufacturer to justify the investment. As of 2017, there was no official integration of the orphan drug programs between the FDA and EMA.


title: Orphan drug

text: , there were 281 marketed orphan drugs and more than 400 orphan-designated drugs in clinical trials. More than 60% of orphan drugs were biologics. The U.S. dominated development of orphan drugs, with more than 300 trials, followed by Europe. Cancer treatment was the indication in more than 30% of orphan drug trials.


title: Orphan drug

text: According to Thomson Reuters in their 2012 publication "The Economic Power of Orphan Drugs", there has been increased investment in orphan drug research and development, partly due to the U.S. Orphan Drug Act of 1983 (ODA) and similar acts in other regions of the world driven by "high-profile philanthropic funding".


title: Orphan drug

text: According to "Drug Discovery Today", the years 2001 to 2011 were the "most productive period in the history of orphan drug development, in terms of average annual orphan drug designations and orphan drug approvals". For the same decade the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the orphan drugs was an "impressive 25.8%, compared to only 20.1% for a matched control group of non-orphan drugs". By 2012, the market for orphan drugs was worth US$637 million, compared with US$638 million for a control group of non-orphan drugs.


title: Orphan drug

text: According to a 2014 report, the orphan drug market has become increasingly lucrative for a number of reasons. The cost of clinical trials for orphan drugs is substantially lower than for other diseases because trial sizes are naturally much smaller than for more diseases with larger numbers of patients. Small clinical trials and minimal competition place orphan agents at an advantage in regulatory review.


title: Orphan drug

text: Tax incentives reduce the cost of development. On average the cost per patient for orphan drugs is "six times that of non-orphan drugs, a clear indication of their pricing power". The cost of per-person outlays are large and are expected to increase with wider use of public subsidies.


title: Orphan drug

text: The 2014 Orphan Drug report stated that the percentage of orphan drug sales as part of all prescription drug sales had been increasing at a rapid rate. The report projected a total of US$176 billion by 2020. Although orphan disease populations are the smallest, the cost of per-patient outlays among them are the largest and are expected to increase as more people with rare diseases become eligible for subsidies – in the U.S., for example, through the Affordable Care Act.


title: Orphan drug

text: Orphan drugs generally follow the same regulatory development path as any other pharmaceutical product, in which testing focuses on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, dosing, stability, safety and efficacy. However, some statistical burdens are lessened to maintain development momentum. For example, orphan drug regulations generally acknowledge the fact that it may not be possible to test 1,000 patients in a phase III clinical trial if fewer than that number are affected by the disease.


title: Orphan drug

text: A 2015 study of "34 key Canadian stakeholders, including drug regulators, funders, scientists, policy experts, pharmaceutical industry representatives, and patient advocates" investigated factors behind the pharmaceutical industry growing interest in "niche markets" such as orphan drugs.


title: Orphan drug

text: The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) of January 1983, passed in the United States, with lobbying from the National Organization for Rare Disorders and many other organizations, is meant to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for diseases that have a small market. Under the ODA drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic agents would qualify for orphan status if they were intended to treat a disease affecting fewer than 200,000 American citizens. Under the ODA orphan drug sponsors qualify for seven-year FDA-administered market Orphan Drug Exclusivity (ODE), "tax credits of up to 50% of R&D costs, R&D grants, waived FDA fees, protocol assistance and may get clinical trial tax incentives.


title: Orphan drug

text: In the U.S., orphan drug designation means that the sponsor qualifies for certain benefits, but it does not mean the drug is safe, effective or legal.


title: Orphan drug

text: In 2002, the Rare Diseases Act was signed into law. It amended the Public Health Service Act to establish the Office of Rare Diseases. It also increased funding for the development of treatments for people with rare diseases.


title: Orphan drug

text: In 2000, the European Union (EU) enacted similar legislation, Regulation(EC) No 141/2000, which refers to drugs developed to treat rare diseases to as "orphan medicinal products". The EU's definition of an orphan condition is broader than that of the US, in that it also covers some tropical diseases that are primarily found in developing nations. Orphan drug status granted by the European Commission gives marketing exclusivity in the EU for 10 years after approval. The EU's legislation is administered by the Committee on Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).


title: Orphan drug

text: In late 2007 the FDA and EMA agreed to use a common application process for both agencies to make it easier for manufacturers to apply for orphan drug status but, while continuing two separate approval processes.


title: Orphan drug

text: Legislation has been implemented by Japan, Singapore, and Australia that offers subsidies and other incentives to encourage the development of drugs that treat orphan diseases.


title: Orphan drug

text: Under the ODA and EU legislation, many orphan drugs have been developed, including drugs to treat glioma, multiple myeloma, cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, snake venom poisoning, and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.


title: Orphan drug

text: The Pharmaceutical Executive opines, that the "ODA is nearly universally acknowledged to be a success".


title: Orphan drug

text: Before the US Congress enacted the ODA in 1983, only 38 drugs were approved in the US specifically to treat orphan diseases. In the US, from January 1983 to June 2004, 249 orphan drugs received marketing authorization and 1,129 received different orphan drug designations, compared to fewer than ten such products in the decade prior to 1983. From 1983 until May 2010, the FDA approved 353 orphan drugs and granted orphan designations to 2,116 compounds. As of 2010, 200 of the roughly 7,000 officially designated orphan diseases have become treatable.


title: Orphan drug

text: Critics have questioned whether orphan drug legislation was the real cause of this increase, claiming that many of the new drugs were for disorders which were already being researched anyway, and would have had drugs developed regardless of the legislation, and whether the ODA has truly stimulated the production of non-profitable drugs; the act also has been criticised for allowing some pharmaceutical companies to make a large profit off drugs which have a small market but sell for a high price.


title: Orphan drug

text: While the European Medicines Agency grants orphan drugs market access in all member states, in practice, they only reach the market when a member state decides that its national health system will reimburse for the drug. For example, in 2008, 44 orphan drugs reached the market in the Netherlands, 35 in Belgium, and 28 in Sweden, while in 2007, 35 such drugs reached the market in France and 23 in Italy.


title: Orphan drug

text: Though not technically an orphan disease, research and development into the treatment for AIDS has been heavily linked to the Orphan Drug Act. In the beginning of the AIDS epidemic the lack of treatment for the disease was often accredited to a believed lack of commercial base for a medication linked to HIV infection. This encouraged the FDA to use the Orphan Drug Act to help bolster research in this field, and by 1995 13 of the 19 drugs approved by the FDA to treat AIDS had received orphan drug designation, with 10 receiving marketing rights. These are in addition to the 70 designated orphan drugs designed to treat other HIV related illnesses.


title: Orphan drug

text: In the 1980s, people with cystic fibrosis rarely lived beyond their early teens. Drugs like Pulmozyme and tobramycin, both developed with aid from the ODA, revolutionized treatment for cystic fibrosis patients by significantly improving their quality of life and extending their life expectancies. Now, cystic fibrosis patients often survive into their thirties and some into their fifties.


title: Orphan drug

text: The 1985 Nobel Prize for medicine went to two researchers for their work related to familial hypercholesterolemia, which causes large and rapid increases in cholesterol levels. Their research led to the development of statin drugs which are now commonly used to treat high cholesterol.


title: Orphan drug

text: Penicillamine was developed to treat Wilson's disease, a rare hereditary disease that can lead to a fatal accumulation of copper in the body. This drug was later found to be effective in treating arthritis. Bis-choline tetrathiomolybdate is currently under investigation as a therapy against Wilson's disease.


title: Orphan drug

text: In 2017, FDA granted RT001 orphan drug designation in the treatment of phospholipase 2G6-associated neurodegeneration (PLAN).


title: Orphan drug

text: The FDA granted Patisiran (Onpattro) orphan drug status and breakthrough therapy designation due to its novel mechanism involving RNA therapy to block the production of an abnormal form of transthyretin. Patisiran received full FDA approval in 2018 and its RNA lipid nanoparticle drug delivery system was later used in the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and Moderna RNA vaccines.


title: Orphan drug

text: The Center for Orphan Drug Research at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy helps small companies with insufficient in-house expertise and resources in drug synthesis, formulation, pharmacometrics, and bio-analysis.


title: Orphan drug

text: The Keck Graduate Institute Center for Rare Disease Therapies (CRDT) in Claremont, California, supports projects to revive potential orphan drugs whose development has stalled by identifying barriers to commercialization, such as problems with formulation and bio-processing.


title: Orphan drug

text: Numerous advocacy groups such as the National Organization for Rare Disorders, Global Genes Project, Children's Rare Disease Network, Abetalipoproteinemia Collaboration Foundation, Zellweger Baby Support Network, and the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance have been founded in order to advocate on behalf of patients with rare diseases with a particular emphasis on diseases that affect children.


title: Orphan drug

text: According to a 2015 report published by EvaluatePharma, the economics of orphan drugs mirrors the economics of the pharmaceutical market as a whole but has a few very large differences. The market for orphan drugs is by definition very small, but while the customer base is drastically smaller the cost of research and development is very much the same as for non orphan drugs. This, the producers have claimed, causes them to charge extremely high amounts for treatment, sometimes as high as $700,000 a year, as in the case of Spinraza (Biogen), FDA approved in December 2016 for spinal muscular atrophy, placing a large amount of stress on insurance companies and patients. An analysis of 12 orphan drugs that were approved in the US between 1990 and 2000 estimated a price reduction of on average 50% upon loss of marketing exclusivity, with a range of price reductions from 14% to 95%.


title: Orphan drug

text: Governments have implemented steps to reduce high research and development cost with subsidies and other forms of financial assistance. The largest assistance are tax breaks which can be as high as 50% of research and development costs. Orphan drug manufacturers are also able to take advantage of the small customer base to cut cost on clinical trials due to the small number of cases to have smaller trials which reduces cost. These smaller clinical trials also allow orphan drugs to move to market faster as the average time to receive FDA approval for an orphan drug is 10 months compared to 13 months for non-orphan drugs. This is especially true in the market for cancer drugs, as a 2011 study found that between 2004 and 2010 orphan drug trials were more likely to be smaller and less randomized than their non-orphan counterparts, but still had a higher FDA approval rate, with 15 orphan cancer drugs being approved, while only 12 non-orphan drugs were approved. This allows manufactures to get cost to the point that it is economically feasible to produce these treatments. The subsidies can total up to $30 million per fiscal year in the United States alone.


title: Orphan drug

text: By 2015, industry analysts and academic researchers agreed, that the sky-high price of orphan drugs, such as eculizumab, was not related to research, development and manufacturing costs. Their price is arbitrary and they have become more profitable than traditional medicines.


title: Orphan drug

text: By 2007 the use of economic evaluation methods regarding public-funding of orphan drugs, using estimates of the incremental cost-effectiveness, for example, became more established internationally. The QALY has often been used in cost-utility analysis to calculate the ratio of cost to QALYs saved for a particular health care intervention. By 2008 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England and Wales, for example, operated with a threshold range of £20,000–30,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY). By 2005 doubts were raised about the use of economic evaluations in orphan drugs. By 2008 most of the orphan drugs appraised had cost-effectiveness thresholds "well in excess of the 'accepted' level and would not be reimbursed according to conventional criteria". As early as 2005 McCabe et al. argued that rarity should not have a premium and orphan drugs should be treated like other pharmaceuticals in general. Drummond et al. argued that the social value of health technologies should also be included in the assessment along with the estimation of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio.


title: Orphan drug

text: The very large incentives given to pharmaceutical companies to produce orphan drugs have led to the impression that the financial support afforded to make these drugs possible is akin to abuse. Because drugs can be used to treat multiple conditions, companies can take drugs that were filed with their government agency as orphan drugs to receive financial assistance, and then market it to a wide population to increase their profit margin. For example AstraZeneca's cholesterol drug Crestor was filed as a treatment for the rare disease pediatric familial hypercholesterolemia. After the drug was approved for orphan drug designation, and AstraZeneca had received tax breaks and other advantages, AstraZeneca later applied and received FDA approval for the drug to be used to treat cholesterol in all diabetics.


title: Orphan drug

text: The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) can pay from £100,000 to £300,000 per QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Year) for treatments of "very rare conditions". This is compared to under £20,000 for non-orphan drugs.


title: Orphan drug

text: In 2015, NICE held consultations with "patient groups, the Department of Health, companies, learned societies, charities and researchers" regarding the appraisal of medicines and other technologies. There was a call for more research into new processes, including:


title: Credential stuffing

text: Credential stuffing is a type of cyberattack in which the attacker collects stolen account credentials, typically consisting of lists of usernames and/or email addresses and the corresponding passwords (often from a data breach), and then uses the credentials to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on other systems through large-scale automated login requests directed against a web application. Unlike credential cracking, credential stuffing attacks do not attempt to use brute force or guess any passwords – the attacker simply automates the logins for a large number (thousands to millions) of previously discovered credential pairs using standard web automation tools such as Selenium, cURL, PhantomJS or tools designed specifically for these types of attacks, such as Sentry MBA, SNIPR, STORM, Blackbullet and Openbullet.


title: Credential stuffing

text: Credential stuffing attacks are possible because many users reuse the same username/password combination across multiple sites, with one survey reporting that 81% of users have reused a password across two or more sites and 25% of users use the same passwords across a majority of their accounts. In 2017, the FTC issued an advisory suggesting specific actions companies needed to take against credential stuffing, such as insisting on secure passwords and guarding against attacks. According to former Google click fraud czar Shuman Ghosemajumder, credential stuffing attacks have up to a 2% login success rate, meaning that one million stolen credentials can take over 20,000 accounts. Wired Magazine described the best way to protect against credential stuffing is to use unique passwords on accounts, such as those generated automatically by a password manager, enable two-factor authentication, and to have companies detect and stop credential stuffing attacks.


title: Credential stuffing

text: Credential stuffing attacks are considered among the top threats for web and mobile applications as a result of the volume of credential spills. More than three billion credentials were spilled through online data breaches in 2016 alone.


title: Credential stuffing

text: The term was coined by Sumit Agarwal, co-founder of Shape Security, who was serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon at the time.


title: Credential stuffing

text: On 20 August 2018, U.K. health and beauty retailer Superdrug was targeted with an attempted blackmail, with hackers showing purported evidence that they had penetrated the company's site and downloaded 20,000 users' records. The evidence was most likely obtained from hacks and spillages and then used as the source for credential stuffing attacks to glean information to create the bogus evidence.


title: Credential stuffing

text: In October and November 2016, attackers gained access to a private GitHub repository used by Uber (Uber BV and Uber UK) developers, using employees' usernames and passwords that had been compromised in previous breaches. The hackers claimed to have hijacked 12 employees' user accounts using the credential-stuffing method, as email addresses and passwords had been reused on other platforms. Multi-factor authentication, though available, was not activated for the affected accounts. The hackers located credentials for the company's AWS datastore in the repository files, which they used to obtain access to the records of 32 million non-US users and 3.7 million non-US drivers, as well as other data contained in over 100 S3 buckets. The attackers alerted Uber, demanding payment of $100,000 to agree to delete the data. The company paid through a bug bounty program but did not disclose the incident to affected parties for more than a year. After the breach came to light, the company was fined £385,000 (reduced to £308,000) by the U.K. Information Commissioner's Office.


title: Credential stuffing

text: In 2019 Cybersecurity research firm Knight Lion Security claimed in a report that credential stuffing was favored attack method for GnosticPlayers.


title: Credential stuffing

text: Compromised credential checking is a technique enabling users to be notified when passwords are breached by websites, web browsers or password extensions.


title: Credential stuffing

text: In February 2018, British computer scientist Junade Ali created a communication protocol (using "k"-anonymity and cryptographic hashing) to anonymously verify whether a password was leaked without fully disclosing the searched password. This protocol was implemented as a public API and is now consumed by multiple websites and services, including password managers and browser extensions. This approach was later replicated by Google's Password Checkup feature. Ali worked with academics at Cornell University to develop new versions of the protocol known as Frequency Smoothing Bucketization (FSB) and Identifier-Based Bucketization (IDB). In March 2020, cryptographic padding was added to the protocol.


title: Trail mix

text: Trail mix or scroggin is a type of snack mix, typically a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes candy, developed as a food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is considered a great snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick energy boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit or granola, and sustained energy from fat in nuts.


title: Trail mix

text: The combination of nuts, raisins and chocolate as a trail snack dates at least to the 1910s, when outdoorsman Horace Kephart recommended it in his popular camping guide.


title: Trail mix

text: In New Zealand, trail mix is known as "scroggin" or "schmogle". In Australia, the term "scroggin" is used exclusively, although in more recent years, "trail mix" has been imported into the jargon from the USA. Some claim that the name stands for sultanas, carob, raisins, orange peel, grains, glucose, and nuts or alternatively sultanas, chocolate, raisins and other goody-goodies including nuts; but this may be a backronym.


title: Trail mix

text: The American word gorp, a term for trail mix often used by hikers in North America, is typically said to be an acronym for "good ol' raisins and peanuts", although the mix may contain M&M's and other nuts. The "Oxford English Dictionary" cites a 1913 reference to the verb "gorp", meaning "to eat greedily", so the "good ol' raisins and peanuts" explanation may be folk etymology or a backronym.


title: Trail mix

text: In Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and several other European countries, trail mix is called "student fodder", "student oats", or "student mix" in the local languages and usually does not include chocolate. In Iran, mixed nuts are called ""ajil"", eaten at festivals like Yaldā Night or just a social ""mehmooni"".


title: Trail mix

text: There are common trail mix varieties, which are commonly made at home, or can commonly be found pre-mixed in supermarkets by numerous producers.


title: Timestamp

text: A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolute notion of time, however. They can have any epoch, can be relative to any arbitrary time, such as the power-on time of a system, or to some arbitrary time in the past.


title: Timestamp

text: The term "timestamp" derives from rubber stamps used in offices to stamp the current date, and sometimes time, in ink on paper documents, to record when the document was received. Common examples of this type of timestamp are a postmark on a letter or the "in" and "out" times on a time card.


title: Timestamp

text: In modern times usage of the term has expanded to refer to digital date and time information attached to digital data. For example, computer files contain timestamps that tell when the file was last modified, and digital cameras add timestamps to the pictures they take, recording the date and time the picture was taken.


title: Timestamp

text: This data is usually presented in a consistent format, allowing for easy comparison of two different records and tracking progress over time; the practice of recording timestamps in a consistent manner along with the actual data is called timestamping.


title: Timestamp

text: Timestamps are typically used for logging events or in a sequence of events (SOE), in which case each event in the log or SOE is marked with a timestamp.


title: Timestamp

text: In particular, most modern operating systems support the POSIX stat (system call), so each file has three timestamps associated with it:


title: Timestamp

text: Some file archivers and some version control software, when they copy a file from some remote computer to the local computer, adjust the timestamps of the local file to show the date/time in the past when that file was created or modified on that remote computer, rather than the date/time when that file was copied to the local computer.


title: Timestamp

text: Timestamps are often found to be dirty in many cases. Without cleaning up inaccurate timestamps, time-related applications such as provenance analysis or pattern queries are not reliable. To evaluate the correctness of timestamps, temporal constraints can be applied, declaring distance limits between timestamps.


title: Timestamp

text: ISO 8601 standardizes the representation of dates and times. These standard representations are often used to construct timestamp values.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The Common Travel Area (CTA; , ) is an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. The British Overseas Territories are not included. Based on agreements that are not legally binding, the internal borders of the CTA are subject to minimal controls and can normally be traversed by British and Irish citizens with minimal identity documents (with certain exceptions). The maintenance of the CTA involves co-operation on immigration matters between the British and Irish authorities.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In 2014, the British and Irish governments began a trial system of mutual recognition of each other's visas for onward travel within the CTA. As of August 2022, it applies to Chinese and Indian nationals and is limited to certain visa types. Other nationalities and those holding non-qualifying visas are required to hold separate visas to visit both countries and may not avail of a transit visa exception if wishing to transit through the UK to the Republic of Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Since 1997, the Irish government has imposed systematic identity checks on air passengers coming from the UK and selective checks on sea passengers, and occasional checks on land crossings.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The Irish Free State officially seceded from the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in December 1922, at a time when systematic passport and immigration controls were becoming standard at international frontiers. Although the British had imposed entry controls in the pastnotably during the French Revolutionthe imposition of such controls in the 20th century dated from the Aliens Act 1905, before which there was a system of registration for arriving foreigners.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Before the creation of the Irish Free State, British immigration law applied in Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. With the imminent prospect of the secession of most of Ireland from the United Kingdom in 1922, the British Home Office was disinclined to impose passport and immigration controls between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, which would have meant patrolling a porous and meandering long land border. If, however, the pre-1922 situation were to be continued, the new Irish immigration authorities would have to continue to enforce British immigration policy after independence. The Department of Home Affairs in the newly established Irish Free State was found to be receptive to continuing with the "status quo" and an informal agreement to this effect was reached in February 1923: each side would enforce the other's immigration decisions and the Irish authorities would be provided with a copy of Britain's suspect-codex (or 'Black Book') of any "personae non gratae" in the United Kingdom.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The agreement was provided for in British law by deeming the Irish Free State, which was a dominion, to be part of the United Kingdom for the purposes of immigration law. It was fully implemented in 1925 when legislation passed in both states provided for the recognition of the other's landing conditions for foreigners. This may be considered to have been the high point of the CTAalthough it was not called that at the timeas it almost amounted to a common immigration area. A foreigner who had been admitted to one state could, unless his or her admission had been conditional upon not entering the other state, travel to the other with only minimal bureaucratic requirements. In December 1937, the Irish Free State was renamed in UK law "Eire".


title: Common Travel Area

text: The CTA was suspended on the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, and travel restrictions were introduced between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. This meant that travel restrictions even applied to people travelling within the UK if they were travelling from Northern Ireland to elsewhere in the UK.


title: Common Travel Area

text: After the war, the Irish re-instated their previous provisions allowing free movement, but the British declined to do so pending the agreement of a "similar immigration policy" in both states. Consequently, the British maintained immigration controls between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain until 1952, to the consternation of Northern Ireland's Unionist population. In April 1949, what had formerly been the Irish Free State left the Commonwealth of Nations to become the Republic of Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: No agreement on a similar immigration policy was publicised at the time, but a year after the Irish Minister for Justice referred to the lifting of immigration controls between the two islands as "a matter for the British themselves", the British began referring to the CTA in legislation for the first time. The content of the agreement is provided for in relevant immigration law.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The CTA has meant that the Republic of Ireland has been required to follow changes in British immigration policy. In 1962 the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 imposed immigration controls between the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. In Ireland the "Aliens Order 1962" replaced the state's previous provision exempting all British subjects from immigration control with one exempting only those born in the United Kingdom. The scope of the Irish provision was thus more restrictive than the British legislation as it excluded from immigration control only those British citizens born in the United Kingdom, and imposed immigration controls on those born outside the UK. The latter group would have included individuals who were British citizens by descent or by birth in a British colony. This discrepancy between Britain's and the Republic of Ireland's definition of a British citizen was not resolved until 1999.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In July 2008, the UK Border Agency (the predecessor of UK Visas and Immigration) published a consultation paper on the CTA that envisaged the imposition of immigration controls for non-CTA nationals, and new measures for identity checks of CTA nationals, as well as an advance passenger information system, on all air and sea crossings between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.


title: Common Travel Area

text: While passport controls were proposed to be applied to travellers between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, the nature of possible identity controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was not clear. This led to controversy because Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and a prominent Unionist described the proposed arrangements as "intolerable and preposterous". The nature of identity checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain was characterised by the British Government as follows:


title: Common Travel Area

text: As far as the land border is concerned, the proposal indicated that the border would be "lightly controlled" and a joint statement in 2008 by both governments confirmed that there are no plans for fixed controls on either side of the border.


title: Common Travel Area

text: On 1 April 2009, an amendment moved by Lord Glentoran in the House of Lords defeated the British Government's proposal and preserved the CTA. The relevant clause was re-introduced by Home Office minister Phil Woolas in the Public Bill Committee in June, but again removed in July after opposition pressure.


title: Common Travel Area

text: 2011 marked the first public agreement between the British and Irish governments concerning the maintenance of the CTA. Officially entitled the "Joint Statement Regarding Co-Operation on Measures to Secure the External Common Travel Area Border" it was signed in Dublin on 20 December 2011 by the UK's immigration minister, Damian Green, and the Republic of Ireland's Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter. The two ministers also signed an unpublished memorandum of understanding at the same time.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In common with its non-published predecessors the 2011 agreement is nonbinding, with its eighth clause stating that the agreement "is not intended to create legally binding obligations, nor to create or confer any right, privilege or benefit on any person or party, private or public".


title: Common Travel Area

text: The agreement commits the two governments to continue their co-operation through the CTA, to align their lists of visa-free countries, to develop "electronic border management system/s", to engage in data sharing to combat the "abuse" of the CTA, and to work toward a "fully-common short stay visit visa".


title: Common Travel Area

text: The UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum on 23 June 2016 (and ceased to be a member state on 31 January 2020). This withdrawal from the EU makes the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border on the island of Ireland an external border of the European Union. However, the Irish and British governments and the President of the European Council have stated that they do not wish for a hard border in Ireland, taking into account the historical and social "sensitivities" that permeate the island. In September 2016 the British Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, stated that the British Government would not seek a return to a "hard border" between the UK and Republic of Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In October 2016, the British and Irish governments considered in outline a plan entailing British immigration controls being applied at the Republic of Ireland's ports and airports after Brexit, so that Britain might control migration by EU citizens (other than Irish nationals) across the open border into the United Kingdom. This would avoid passport checks being required between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (i.e. the UK). However, this agreement was never finalised and was met by opposition from political parties in the Republic of Ireland. On 23 March 2017, it was confirmed that British immigration officials would not be allowed to use the Republic of Ireland's ports and airports.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In June 2017, the British Government's policy paper on the position of EU citizens in the UK stated a desire to "protect the Common Travel Area arrangements", stating that "Irish citizens residing in the UK will not need to apply for 'settled status' to protect their entitlements".


title: Common Travel Area

text: On 8 May 2019, Simon Coveney and British Cabinet Office minister David Lidington signed a memorandum of understanding in an effort to secure the rights of Irish and British citizens post-Brexit. The document was signed in London before a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, putting the rights of both states' citizens, already in place under the Common Travel Area, on a more secure footing.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Paragraph 17 of the memorandum of understanding states: "The foregoing record represents the common understanding of the Participants upon the matters referred to therein. It is not of itself intended to create legally binding obligations. The longstanding durability of the CTA has benefited from a degree of flexibility and the detail of the foregoing arrangements may continue to evolve".


title: Common Travel Area

text: The agreement, which is the culmination of over two years' work of both governments, means the rights of both countries' citizens are protected after Brexit while also ensuring that the Republic of Ireland will continue to meet its obligations under EU law. The agreement took effect on 31 January 2020 when the United Kingdom actually left the European Union.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The COVID-19 pandemic led to both the British and Irish governments implementing a series of measures restricting or imposing additional conditions for entry into each other's jurisdictions.


title: Common Travel Area

text: On 11 November 2020, the Immigration Act 1971 was amended by adding "An Irish citizen does not require leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom". The Act repeals free movement rights for other EU citizens from 1 January 2021, but makes exceptions for Irish citizens. Guidance from the government also states: "Irish citizens will continue to be able to enter and live in the UK as they do now".


title: Common Travel Area

text: Immigration checks are carried out by the Guernsey Border Agency and the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service on passengers arriving in the Channel Islands only from outside the CTA.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In 1997, the Republic of Ireland changed its immigration legislation to allow immigration officers to examine (i.e. request identity documents from) travellers arriving in the state by sea or air (from elsewhere in the CTA) and to refuse them permission to land if they are not entitled to enter. Although formally this applies only to people other than Irish and British citizens, both of the latter groups are effectively covered as they may be required to produce identity documents to prove that they are entitled to the CTA arrangements. Targeted controls are conducted along the land border in what are referred to as "intelligence driven operations". Air passengers arriving at Irish airports from elsewhere in the CTA are no longer channelled separately from those arriving from outside the CTA. Consequently all sea and air passengers must pass through Irish immigration checks administered by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). While British citizens are not required to be in possession of a valid travel document as a condition of entry, they may be required to satisfy immigration officials as to their nationality.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The nature of the Irish controls was described by an Irish High Court judge, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, in the following terms:


title: Common Travel Area

text: In 2012, a pilot project was set up to use civilian staff from the Immigration section of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) to work with GNIB staff at immigration control at Dublin Airport. INIS staff would be responsible for performing all "in-booth" duties (including examining arriving passengers), but would not take part in any matters related to restraint, detention or arrest.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British visa requirements published in July 2019 allow certain travellers to transit without visa "landside" (i.e. those who need or wish to pass through the British border and enter the UK). They must arrive and depart by air, have a confirmed onward flight that departs before 23:59 the following day, and hold the correct documents for their destination (e.g. a visa for that country if required).


title: Common Travel Area

text: Nationals of all countries need a visa to transit landside unless they hold a valid Irish biometric visa, endorsed BC or BC BIVS, and are travelling to the Republic of Ireland. Therefore, a holder of a biometric Irish visa does not require a separate British visa if transiting landside through the British border on their way to Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The Isle of Man Government reports that "on-entry Immigration Control is rarely undertaken in the Isle of Man as there are very few transport services entering the Isle of Man from outside the CTA." As of April 2018 the only regular commercial air service between the Isle of Man and an airport outside the Common Travel Area is Geneva in Switzerland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The Isle of Man is considered a part of the UK for customs purposes, and so there are no routine customs checks on travellers arriving from the UK.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The UK Border Force does not carry out routine immigration checks on travellers (regardless of nationality) arriving in the UK from another part of the CTA. However, as the Channel Islands has VAT-free status, the UK Border Force carries out selective customs checks on travellers arriving from there.


title: Common Travel Area

text: During The Troubles, Section 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1974 provided for temporary powers to examine persons travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provides for similar powers and remains in force.


title: Common Travel Area

text: According to the Home Office, with regard to the legal basis for identity screening and immigration checks at airports and sea ports, as carried out on passengers travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, "Immigration Enforcement officers may arrest without warrant anyone they have reasonable grounds to suspect has committed an immigration offence and/or may be liable for removal directions." Section 31.19.3 of the Enforcement Instructions and Guidance (part of the visas and immigration operational guidance), relating to the case law "Baljinder Singh v. Hammond", said "Any questioning must be consensual. The paragraph 2 power to examine does not include a power to compel someone to stop or to require someone to comply with that examination. Should a person seek to exercise their right not to answer questions and leave, there is no power to arrest that person purely on suspicion of committing an immigration offence."


title: Common Travel Area

text: As in most countries, airlines may require photo identification (e.g. a passport or a driving licence) for internal flights between destinations within the UK.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Because of the Northern Ireland Protocol as the result of Brexit, custom check will be conducted for movement from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In October 2014, the British and Irish governments signed a memorandum of understanding paving the way for mutually recognised visas allowing visitors to travel to Britain and Ireland on a single visa. Chinese and Indian nationals were the first and, as of 2018, the only nationalities to get the benefit of the scheme. It was proposed to conduct a review of the scheme in 2015 with a view to expand it to all other countries by the end of that year, but no such review took place, and the scheme has not been extended to other nationalities. The scheme exists in parallel to the Irish visa waiver programme which waives the visa requirement for the nationals of 17 countries if they hold valid British short-stay visas and enter the Republic of Ireland directly from the UK.


title: Common Travel Area

text: While the CTA has, for most of its history, involved an open or relatively open border, since the Second World War this has not meant that someone who legally entered one part of the CTA was automatically entitled to enter another part. Unlike the Schengen Agreement, the CTA currently provides no mechanism for the mutual recognition of leave to enter and remain, and the UK and the Republic of Ireland operate separate visa systems with distinct entry requirements. In general, a British visa will not allow entry to the Republic of Ireland nor vice versa.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man allow entry to holders of British visas (with some exceptions). Both the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey immigration authorities routinely check non-EEA nationals seeking to enter the UK to ensure they have valid British permissions.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In July 2011, the Republic of Ireland introduced a limited pilot visa waiver programme under which the normal requirement for certain nationalities to hold an Irish visa is waived for visitors to the UK who hold valid British visas.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British and Irish citizens enjoyed the right to live in each other's countries under European Union law, but even after Brexit the provisions that apply to them are generally more far reaching than those that apply to other European Economic Area nationals. , entry to the Common Travel Area by citizens of third countries is controlled by British or by Irish immigration officers according to the point of entry: arrangements after the UK leaves the post-Brexit transition period are yet to be determined.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Under Irish law, all British citizensincluding Manx people and Channel Islanders, who were not entitled to take advantage of the European Union's freedom of movement provisionsare exempt from immigration control and immune from deportation. They are entitled to live in the Republic of Ireland without any restrictions or conditions. They have, with limited exceptions, never been treated as foreigners under Irish law, having never been subject to the Aliens Act 1935 or to any orders made under that Act. British citizens can thus move to Ireland to live, work or retire and unlike other EU citizens, they are not required to demonstrate having sufficient resources or have private health insurance in order to retire. This is due to the fact that British citizens are also entitled to use Irish public services on the same basis as Irish citizens in the Republic of Ireland.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Under British law, Irish citizens are entitled to enter and live in the United Kingdom without any restrictions or conditions. They also have the right to vote, work, study and access welfare and healthcare services.


title: Common Travel Area

text: After most of Ireland declared itself a republic in that year, a consequent British law gave Irish citizens a similar status to Commonwealth citizens in the United Kingdom, notwithstanding that they had ceased to be such. Thus, much like British citizens in the Republic of Ireland, Irish citizens in the United Kingdom have never been treated as foreigners.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Irish citizens have, however, like Commonwealth citizens, been subject to immigration control in Britain since the enactment of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. Unlike Commonwealth citizens, Irish citizens have generally not been subject to entry control in the United Kingdom and, if they move to the UK, are considered to have 'settled status' (a status that goes beyond indefinite leave to remain). They may be subject to deportation from the UK upon the same basis as other European Economic Area nationals. In practice, however, this is extremely difficult and occurs only in exceptional circumstances.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In February 2007, the British Government announced that a specially lenient procedure would apply to the deportation of Irish citizens compared to the procedure for other European Economic Area nationals. As a result, Irish nationals are not routinely considered for deportation from the UK when they are released from prison. The Government's approach to the deportation of Irish citizens since 2007 is to only deport Irish citizens where recommended by a court in sentencing or in exceptional circumstances where that deportation is in the public interest.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Nationals of member states of the European Economic Area other than British and Irish nationals have the right to freely enter and reside in the Republic of Ireland under European Union law (and had the same right in the UK while the latter was a member of the EU). They are required to carry a valid travel document, a passport or a national identity card, for entering the CTA and for travelling between Ireland and the UK.


title: Common Travel Area

text: But a British project plans to reduce the right to travel in the common travel area for non-Irish EU citizens.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The citizens' rights are very similar to rights as if they were natural citizens of that country, the only real difference being that Irish citizens resident in Great Britain are not granted a British Passport and British citizens resident in Ireland are not granted an Irish Passport.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British or Irish citizens can work in either country, including on a self-employed basis, without needing any permission from the authorities.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In support of this, the British Government is committed to ensuring that, after the UK leaves the EU, appropriate and comprehensive provisions continue to be in place for the recognition of professional qualifications obtained in Ireland. The Irish Government has also committed to working to ensure the provision of arrangements with the UK to recognise professional qualifications.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British and Irish citizens have the right to access all levels of education in either state, on terms no less favourable than those available to the citizens of that state. Both Governments have committed to taking steps to ensure that this continues now that the UK has left the EU.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Both Governments have also committed to taking steps to ensure that British and Irish citizens pursuing further and higher education in the other state, will continue to have the right to qualify for student loans and support under applicable schemes and eligibility conditions.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British or Irish citizens residing or working in the other's state, working in both states or working across the border are subject to only one state's social security legislation at a time. They can access social security benefits and entitlements, including pensions, from whichever state they are subject to the social security legislation of, regardless of where they are living.


title: Common Travel Area

text: When working in the CTA, workers pay into the social security scheme of the state where the employer is 'based for tax purposes' (Multinational corporations may have such a base in each state). They are entitled, when in the other state, to the same social security rights, and are subject to the same obligations, as citizens of that state.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Workers also have the right to access social security benefits on the same basis as citizens of the state where they are employed. The British and Irish Governments have concluded a bilateral agreement to ensure that these rights will continue to be protected now that the UK has left the EU.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British and Irish citizens have the right to access healthcare in either state. When visiting they also have the right to access needs-arising health care during their stay. Both Governments have committed to taking steps to ensure that this will continue now that the UK has left the EU.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British or Irish citizens residing in the other state have the right to access social housing, including supported housing and homeless assistance, on the same basis as citizens of that state. Both Governments have committed to taking steps to ensure that this will continue now that the UK has left the EU.


title: Common Travel Area

text: British or Irish citizens living in the other state are entitled to register to vote with the relevant authorities for local and national parliamentary elections in that state on the same basis as citizens of that state. Upon reaching voting age, they are entitled to vote in those elections on the same basis as citizens of that state. Both Governments have committed to ensuring that these arrangements will continue now that the UK has left the EU.


title: Common Travel Area

text: In 1985, five member states of the then European Economic Community (EEC) signed the Schengen Agreement on the gradual phasing out of border controls between them. This treaty and the implementation convention of 1990 paved the way for the creation of the Schengen Area which was implemented in 1995, and by 1997 all European Union member states except the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland had signed the agreement. The Amsterdam Treaty, drafted that year, incorporated Schengen into EU law while giving the Republic of Ireland and the UK an opt-out permitting them to maintain systematic passport and immigration controls at their frontiers. The wording of the treaty makes the Republic of Ireland's opt-out from eliminating border controls conditional on the Common Travel Area being maintained. An important reason for the Schengen Agreement was to make daily cross-border commuting by workers easier as a part of free movement for workers. The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have a short land border, which is only to part of the UK, making this reason less important to them.


title: Common Travel Area

text: The British Government has always refused to lower its border controls as it believes that the island status of the CTA puts the UK in a better position to enforce immigration controls than mainland European countries with "extensive and permeable land borders". While not signing the Schengen Treaty, the Republic of Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining but has not done so in order to maintain the CTA and its open border with Northern Ireland, though in 1997 Ireland amended its Aliens Order to permit identity and immigration controls on arrivals from the United Kingdom.


title: Common Travel Area

text: Most transport operators permit passengers to travel within the Common Travel Area without a passport, although photo ID is required for Irish or British citizens travelling by air, and Ryanair requires all passengers to carry a passport or a national identity card. In 2014, a private member's bill was put before the Oireachtas (the Republic of Ireland's parliament) which proposed to prohibit transport operators from requiring the production of a passport for travel within the Common Travel Area, but it was not passed. The Irish Government in October 2015 started issuing passport cards, which are the same size as national identity cards of other EU countries and are accepted by all transport operators, but the issuing of a passport card requires the holder to already have a conventional passport book.


title: Fare basis code

text: A fare basis code (often just referred to as a fare basis) is an alphabetic or alpha-numeric code used by airlines to identify a fare type and allow airline staff and travel agents to find the rules applicable to that fare. Although airlines now set their own fare basis codes, there are some patterns that have evolved over the years and may still be in use.


title: Fare basis code

text: Airlines can create any number of booking or fare classes, to which different prices and booking conditions may apply. Fare classes are complicated and vary from airline to airline. The meaning of these codes is not often known by the passenger, but conveys information to airline staff, for example they may indicate that a ticket was fully paid, discounted, part of an excursion package, or purchased through a loyalty scheme.


title: Fare basis code

text: Fare codes start with a letter called a booking class (indicating travel class among other things) which almost always matches the letter code that the reservation is booked in. Other letters or numbers may follow. Typically a fare basis will be 3 to 7 characters long, but can be up to 8.


title: Fare basis code

text: The first character of the fare basis code is always a letter, and will almost always match the booking class. Booking codes are the identifiers used by the airline's revenue management department to control how many seats can be sold at a particular fare level. For example, a plane may have 25 economy seats still available and the airline may show it in a reservation system as codice_1 which indicates how many of each booking class can be reserved. Some codes cannot be sold by agents, and those seats may be reserved for international connections, loyalty programs, or airline staff relocation.


title: Fare basis code

text: Booking codes were defined by IATA, but airlines have deviated from the IATA standard and current booking codes are airline-specific. The same code may have different meanings for tickets issued by different airlines. Many airlines use nearly all letters of the alphabet to allow finer yield management. Nevertheless, certain booking codes have retained the same meaning across most airlines:


title: Fare basis code

text: There is an endless list of other codes on modern fares. These are not standardized in any way, and may often be for short-term use. The following are some examples:


title: Fare basis code

text: Each published fare basis code corresponds to a fare, which applies to travelling between two cities on a certain airline, with certain restrictions.


title: Fare basis code

text: which is published in legalese such that it can be validated automatically by global distribution systems.


title: Fare basis code

text: Fare construction refers to the application of fares which can cover the flights in the reservation, necessary to price the air ticket for issuance.


title: Fare basis code

text: It is commonly presented as a single line with standardized codes which can be used for travel agents to price the ticket in global distribution systems. For example, a fare construction may say:


title: Fare basis code

text: Fare construction is a complicated task because each fare comes with a lot of rules regarding the usage, however the rules are designed to be validatable by computers so the system can decide to accept or reject easily. Most commonly fare construction is done by a computer automatically, but it is not guaranteed that the lowest fares can be found. Due to the above reason, or in case when the automatically generated fare has some restrictions which the traveller does not want, manual fare construction can also be done, which means finding the suitable fares manually and applying the fares to an itinerary in order to buy a ticket.


title: Fare basis code

text: It is common for a multi-sector air ticket to have more than one fare basis, particularly if it is for carriage on more than one airline, or different classes of travel are involved. The issuing airline may often have an interline agreement to allow other airlines on the ticket. One disadvantage of this system is that if any change is made, the most restrictive fare rule, and/or the highest change fee, may apply to the entire ticket, not just the portion being changed.


title: Fare basis code

text: In a Global Distribution System, the fare basis will typically display as part of a fare display, and will not normally be shown in an availability display.


title: Fare basis code

text: Some modern booking systems allow availability searches using parameters such as time of day and lowest fare, and may negate the need for an agent to firstly study the fare basis rules.


title: Fare basis code

text: The fare basis is normally shown on the air ticket. On older paper tickets, it was highlighted on the relevant coupon for that flight. On modern e-tickets, it is often printed under the flight details.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: The first season of "Dexter" is an adaptation of Jeff Lindsay's first novel in a series of the same name, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter". Subsequent seasons have featured original storylines. This season aired from October 1, 2006 to December 17, 2006, and follows Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) investigation of "the Ice Truck Killer". Introduced in the first episode, "Dexter", this serial killer targets prostitutes and leaves their bodies severed and bloodless. At the same time, Dexter's adoptive sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), a vice squad officer, aspires to work in the homicide department, and Dexter's girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), wants their relationship to be more intimate. Christian Camargo appears as Rudy Cooper and is a recurring character until the end of the season.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: The season received critical acclaim, being praised as "bold, different and exciting, with a central character and performance that take your breath away" by the "Daily News". "The Wall Street Journal" saw "the grotesqueries of "Dexter"" as "not something that can easily be dismissed with the old 'you don't have to watch' line", and concluded that, "We do have to live among the viewers who will be desensitized, or aroused, by this show". The season holds an 81% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critical consensus reads, "Its dark but novel premise may be too grotesque for some, but Dexter is a compelling, elegantly crafted horror-drama."


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: The season received high ratings for Showtime; the pilot episode attracted more than a million viewers, giving the channel its highest ratings in nearly two years, while the finale "Born Free" drew an audience of 1.1 million viewers in the U.S. On average, the season was watched by two million viewers per episode during its original run when factoring in DVR viewers.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: Due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and encouraged by the show's critical success and high ratings on Showtime, CBS, a national terrestrial broadcast network, announced in December 2007 that it was considering airing an edited version of the first season of "Dexter" for free-to-air broadcast. It began to broadcast it on February 17, 2008, and thus, "Dexter" became the first program in 20 years to air on a broadcast network after being shown on a premium cable channel. During the show's rerun on the CBS network in 2008, the ratings were much higher, reaching 8.2 million viewers during its premiere in February, giving the network its best rating in the 10 p.m. time slot since December the previous year. During its 12-week run, it dropped to 7.1 million in early April, and to 6.6 million during the season's finale on May 6.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, is secretly a serial killer, arising from a traumatic incident connected to the death of his mother when he was three years old. His adoptive father, Detective Harry Morgan, saw these homicidal tendencies in Dexter as he grew up, and took him on hunting trips to sate his desires to kill. When Dexter admits to having desires to kill people, his adoptive father influences him to follow a "code": only kill murderers who have escaped prosecution of the law. Since Harry's death, Dexter has killed multiple people, all the while adhering to the code. As his father has taught him, he covers his tracks by taking the victim to a prepared room lined with plastic sheeting in order to easily dispose of the evidence at sea. He only keeps a blood sample of the victim on a glass slide, stored in a box hidden in his apartment. Neither his adoptive sister Debra Morgan nor those in the department know about his secret killings, although Sgt. James Doakes is suspicious of how interested Dexter is in reviewing crime scenes. To help appear normal, Dexter has started dating Rita Bennett, the mother of Astor and Cody, and whose husband Paul is in jail due to drug-related crimes. Because of her abusive previous relationship with Paul, Dexter finds Rita has little interest in sex, keeping their relationship ideal for his purposes. Paul is eventually let out of prison, and tries to get back together with Rita, despite the fact that Rita is planning to divorce him. Seeing Paul get abusive with Rita, Dexter frames Paul for possession of illegal drugs, sending him back to prison.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: A string of murders of prostitutes leads to the identification of a new serial killer called "the Ice Truck Killer", due to how the victims' bodies are well-preserved by being kept chilled before they are found. Dexter identifies patterns of the serial killer from his own habits, and lets Debra know, helping the department get a lead on the killer and leading to Debra's promotion to Homicide. Her investigation leads her to meet Rudy Cooper, a prosthetics expert, and they start a relationship. Meanwhile, Dexter discovers that the Ice Truck Killer has broken into his apartment and left taunting clues, leading Dexter to believe that the Killer is playing a game with him.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: After being notified that he was left a house by his just-deceased biological father, Joe Driscoll, Dexter realizes that his adoptive father was not entirely truthful, and leads him to memories of how his mother died. A gruesome, blood-filled murder scene causes Dexter to recall what had happened: criminals had placed him and his mother, Laura Moser, in a shipping container, killed Laura and dismembered her with a chainsaw. Dexter was locked up in the container in a pool of his mother's blood, to be rescued by Harry two days later. Harry had purposely altered the records to prevent Dexter from finding out.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: Through Debra, Rudy tries to get closer to Dexter. Dexter comes first to suspect that Joe was murdered, and later affirms that Rudy Cooper is the Ice Truck Killer. With his identity blown, Rudy kidnaps Debra and draws Dexter into a trap to rescue her. Rudy reveals to Dexter that he is his older brother, Brian Moser, also left in the shipping container when Laura was killed. However, unlike Dexter, he was sent off to live in a mental institution. Brian too has developed serial killer tendencies, but did not have the code that Harry instilled in Dexter, and so used the Ice Truck Killer approach to help Dexter recall his past. Brian suggests to Dexter that they kill Debra together, but Dexter refuses. Brian gets away after a fight, and Dexter rescues Debra.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: As police investigate, Doakes suspects Dexter of knowing more about the Ice Truck Killer than he is letting on. Brian attempts to capture Debra again, but falls into a trap laid by Dexter. Dexter apologizes to Brian before killing him, and leaves Brian's body to make it appear as suicide. The police rule the Ice Truck Killer case closed, though Doakes keeps close tabs on Dexter, still suspicious of his actions. Rita discovers evidence that Dexter may have set up Paul.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: The series pilot was developed by James Manos, Jr. based on Jeff Lindsay's novel. Manos served as an executive producer for the pilot along with John Goldwyn and Sara Colleton. The pilot was produced by Dennis Bishop. Steven Brown also served as a producer for the pilot episode. Chad Tomasoski worked as an associate producer. The pilot was directed by Michael Cuesta.


title: Dexter (season 1)

text: Manos, Goldwyn and Colleton returned as executive producers for the first season. Mid-season Clyde Phillips became a fourth executive producer. Daniel Cerone joined the crew as a co-executive producer and writer. Pilot director Michael Cuesta returned as a co-executive producer and regular director. Melissa Rosenberg also joined the crew as a consulting producer and writer. Timothy Schlattmann served as a story editor and writer. Lauren Gussis worked as a staff writer throughout the first season. Dennis Bishop returned to produce further episodes but left midseason and was replaced by Robert Lloyd Lewis


title: Cryptozoo

text: Cryptozoo is a 2021 American adult animated drama film written and directed by Dash Shaw. It features an ensemble cast as Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Angeliki Papoulia, Zoe Kazan, Peter Stormare, Grace Zabriskie, Louisa Krause and Thomas Jay Ryan. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 29, 2021 and was released by Magnolia Pictures in the United States on August 20, 2021.


title: Cryptozoo

text: Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown. Meanwhile, a pair of lovers mistakenly find their way into the Cryptozoo, leading to unpredictable consequences in 1960s San Francisco.