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Ekrima Sa'id Sabri

Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri (عكرمة سعيد صبري; born 1939) is a religious leader and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine from October 1994 to July 2006. He was appointed by Yasser Arafat.

Mahmoud Abbas removed Sabri as mufti in July 2006, reportedly for his growing popularity and open expression of racially charged, one-sided political views. Abbas appointed Muhammad Ahmad Hussein in July 2006 as Sabri's successor.

Israel has arrested Sabri several times, latest in March 2021.

Controversy
In a 1999 interview regarding the political situation on the Temple Mount, Sabri stated, "If the Jews want peace, they will stay away from Al Aqsa. This is a decree from God. The Haram al-Sharif belongs to the Muslim. But we know the Jew is planning on destroying the Haram. The Jew will get the Christian to do his work for him. This is the way of the Jews. This is the way Satan manifests himself. The majority of the Jews want to destroy the mosque. They are preparing this as we speak."

In a 2000 interview with the Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Sabri responded to a question about the Holocaust by stating, "Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairy tale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity. It is not my fault if Hitler hated Jews, indeed they were hated a little everywhere. Instead, it is necessary to denounce the unjust occupation endured by my people. Tomorrow I will ask John Paul II... to support our cause."

On 20 February 2005, Sabri appeared on Saudi Arabian Al Majd TV to comment on the assassination of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister. Sabri stated, "Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."

title: Ekrima Sa'id Sabri


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Egyptian Wafd Party

The New Wafd Party (حزب الوفد الجديد), officially the Egyptian Wafd Party and also known as the Al-Wafd Party, is a nationalist liberal party in Egypt.

It is the extension of one of the oldest and historically most active political parties in Egypt, Wafd Party, which was dismantled after the 1952 Revolution. The New Wafd was established in 1978, but banned only months later. It was revived after President Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981.

In Egypt's legislative and presidential elections in November and December 2005, the party won 6 out of 454 seats in the People's Assembly, and its presidential candidate Numan Gumaa received 2.9 per cent of the total votes cast for president.

Following the 2011 revolution the party joined the National Democratic Alliance for Egypt electoral bloc, which was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

No member of the party was a candidate for the 2012 election.

As the date neared for fielding candidate lists, Wafd left the alliance and competed in the elections independently. In the subsequent parliamentary elections, the party came third with 9.2% of the vote, and was the most successful non-Islamist party.

Wafd Party is now headquartered in Dokki, Giza Province in Egypt.

Esteemed lawyer Bahaa El-Din Abou Shaka is the current party chairman after winning the Wafd's internal elections in 2018, replacing pharmaceutical tycoon El-Sayyed El-Badawi, who had served the maximum of two consecutive terms.

Ideology and goals
The New Wafd has tried to place itself at the ideological center between the main historic traditions in Egypt of Arab socialism and private capitalism. It has been critical of the government's encouragement of foreign private investment, advocating a more balanced approach to the relationship between private and public sectors.

The party presses for introducing political, economic, and social reforms, promoting democracy, ensuring basic freedoms and human rights, and maintaining national unity.

The party also calls for abolishing the emergency law, solving the unemployment and housing problems, upgrading the health services and developing the education system.

Controversy
In an interview with The Washington Times in July 2011, former Wafd Party vice-chairman Ahmed Ezz el-Arab dismissed The Holocaust as a "lie" (while accepting that the Nazis killed "hundreds of thousands" of Jews, but not 6 million), and the Diary of Anne Frank as a "forgery". Moreover, he claimed that the September 11 attacks were in reality perpetrated by Mossad, the CIA and America's "military–industrial complex", and that Osama bin Laden was an "American agent".

Prominent party figures

 * Fuad Serageddin Pasha – the party's first chairman
 * Bahaa El-Din Abu Shoka – member of parliament, senator; current chairman of the party, and chairman of the legislative committee in parliament and leader of the party's current parliamentary bloc
 * Khaled Kandil – current vice chairman of the party, senator
 * Numan Gumaa – former chairman and 2005 presidential candidate
 * Monir Fakhri Abdel Nour – long-time serving Coptic parliament member, politician and former party vice chairman
 * Muhammed Elwan – one of the founders and long-serving chairman's assistant
 * Essam Shiha – member of the supreme committee of the party
 * Ahmed Gamal El Segini – member of parliament, current chairman of the committee of local governance
 * Hilmi Murad – one of the founding vice presidents

After 1973
After the end of 6 October War with Israel, and the Camp David treaty, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat started to accept the return of the multi-party system to the political life in Egypt, after Egypt had been under one-party rule for over 25 years, therefore, Sadat established the Egyptian Arab Socialist Party, where he became its president. In 1976 the Liberal Party was established, which represented the Liberal wing, followed by the Unionist Party, which represented the left wing. Later on Sadat established the National Democratic party. After then there were plans to revive the Wafd Party, led by the efforts of young ambitious Egyptian political figures and Fouad Serag el Deen Pasha.

Early years and establishment
In January 1978 Fouad Serageddin requested to allow New Wafd Party to engage into the Egyptian political life freely, which was met by disagreement from the Egyptian authorities and the President. The Egyptian authorities started to spread false news about the corruption of the party, and that New Wafd Party seeks the return of the pre-1952 revolution status. However, New Wafd party was accepted to be established on 4 February 1978, by the Egyptian Partys' Committee. Even though New Wafd party was accepted and could stand legally, the party froze its membership with its own discretion to avoid clashes with the Egyptian President and Authorities, which inevitably took place, which included the detainment of Fouad Serag el Deen, the party's chairman at then, by a decision of the president in September 1981, which included many Egyptian political figures and some founders of New Wafd Party.

After the assassination of Anwar el Saddat, after which, Hosni Mubarak became president, change in Egyptian political life was needed, as such Hosni Mubarak decided to free all those detained by Anwar Sadat's decisions. Consequently, New Wafd party took the chance its chance for revival, and decided to unfreeze it status, which was rejected by the Egyptian Lawsuits authority, however, New Wafd party challenged such decision and the party was back to political life in 1984.

1984 elections
In 1984 Wafd formed an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of parliamentary elections, but the results were disappointing as it won only 15% of the vote.

2005–2006 turmoil
Early in December 2005 the party appeared to be in crisis following the parliamentary elections, when party chairman Numan Gumaa dismissed prominent party leader and vice chairman Monir Fakhri Abdel Nour following the poor performance the party showed during the elections.

Abdel Nour was also the leader of the opposition bloc in the outgoing parliament before losing his seat in the first stage of elections. Abdel Nour told the media before his dismissal, that the only way the party could improve would be by "changing its leadership". He also continued that there was much support within the party for such a change.

After a poor showing in the 2005 Egyptian Presidential elections, the Wafd Party split into two camps, with one group demanding that Numan Gumaa leave his post as chairman. That demand became even more pronounced after the party also did poorly in the parliamentary elections.

Later in December 2005 the party's higher political board reverted Gumaa's decisions on firing Abdel Nour as well as other members. The higher board also elections for its membership and amended its internal by-laws and rules, especially those that give the party's chairman vast authorities in an aim to trim the chairman's political powers, all of which Gumaa has agreed to support.

On 18 January 2006 the supreme committee for the party ousted its chairman Numan Gomaa from the party and from the presidency of the board of al-Wafd newspaper. The committee attributed its decision to Gomaa's tyrannical behaviour and abuse of authority.

It also appointed his deputy Mahmoud Abaza as an interim chairman for a period of 60 days after which the General Assembly of the party would be invited for an emergency meeting to choose a new chairman.

However, Gomaa contended that this decision contradicted to the party's statute and that he was the legitimate chairman who can be dismissed only by a decision of the party's General Assembly. He responded by filing a complaint to Egypt's Prosecutor General who ruled that Gomaa should be allowed access to party's headquarters. Abaza filed an urgent lawsuit asking that the Prosecutor General's ruling be overturned.

The party's newspaper Al-Wafd was suspended for thirteen days from 27 January until 8 February 2006 after Gomaa asked Al-Ahram publishing house to stop printing the paper and fired its editor and some journalists, complaining of their allegiance to Abaza's group.

On 10 February 2006, the party's General Assembly agreed to dismiss Gomaa from the Wafd presidency and appointed Mustafa El-Tawil (a member of al-Wafd supreme committee) as an interim president till the next elections in July 2006. Gomaa argued the decision was due to an earlier ruling by Giza's court of first instance to stop the General Assembly meeting.

On 1 April 2006, Gumaa and his supporters occupied the party's headquarters to reclaim control and opened fire on supporters of the rival faction who responded by throwing stones. Twenty three people were injured and fire broke out in the building but was brought under control. Egyptian authorities arrested Gumaa and some of his supporters.

2010 party elections
In May 2010, the party's deputy chairman Fouad Badrawi, grandson of Wafd's late leader Fouad Serageddin announced that he was withdrawing his name from the nominations for party presidency to allow El-Sayyid el-Badawi, a member of the party's supreme authority and the party's former secretary-general, to run instead in the party elections scheduled by the end of the month. In a rare occurrence in Egyptian partisan life, the elections were conducted in a transparent, peaceful manner and characterized by integrity. At its end, it was announced that El-Badawi would be the new party chairman, with the outgoing president standing beside him.

Since his election, El-Badawi has met with many prominent figures in Egyptian life, ranging from politicians, current members of parliament, Muslim and Coptic religious figures and even actors, actresses and football players.

To many observers, Wafd merged as a much stronger party after this election, which would be counted that would once again attract liberals who were losing grip in the current political map to Islamists and other extremists.

Role after 2011 revolution
After the 2011 Egyptian revolution forced President Hosni Mubarak to announce that he would step down in the coming elections, the government invited opposition parties to participate in dialogue. The party's secretary-general accepted on condition that protesters would not be attacked.

Representatives of the Al-Wafd Party joined anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square and vowed not to have a dialogue with government officials until Mubarak relinquished his office.

Parliamentary election, 2011–12
Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, on 13 June 2011 the Wafd Party announced its alliance (the National Democratic Alliance for Egypt) with the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, to present a joint list of candidates for the 2011 parliamentary election. Executive members of Wafd have criticized the cooperation of the secular party with the Islamists. As the date neared for fielding candidate lists, the Wafd decided to participate in the elections independently, and left the Democratic Alliance for Egypt.

In the subsequent parliamentary election, the New Wafd Party won 9.2% of the vote, and 38 seats in the 508-seat parliament. It was the third-most successful party, after the Islamist Freedom & Justice Party with 213 seats, and the more conservative Islamist Al-Nour Party with 107 seats. It had a slim lead over the other main secularist grouping, the Egyptian Bloc.

Elections
The Wafd Party successfully contested the 2015 parliamentary elections, winning 36 seats, making it the third largest party in parliament. At the time it was led by El-Sayyid el-Badawi, and ran as part of the "For the Love of Egypt" electoral alliance.

Policies
The Wafd Party has largely supported the Egyptian Government since the formation of the current parliament. It has strongly backed the economic reform programme embarked on by President Sisi, believing it to be the key to Egypt's successful economic recovery from the 2011 and 2013 revolutions.

In the international arena, the Wafd Party has strongly supported efforts to strengthen ties with other Arab countries, and especially form links with the African continent, in order to regain Egypt's leading and influential position in the African and Arab World, as a strong regional power. Being Egypt's oldest party, and having been set up 100 years ago, the party enjoys a powerful reputation among neighbouring countries, and often sends foreign delegations abroad to campaign for Egypt's interests.

Abou Shaka leadership
In early 2018 Bahaa El-Din Abou Shaka won the internal party elections, becoming Chairman of the Wafd Party. He took on a far more active than that of his predecessor, with the aim of rounding up all liberal parties in Egypt in order to form an alliance that would act as an opposition bloc to the government, and the now parliamentary majority party Future of the Nation.

He is currently leading efforts to establish, for the first time in Egyptian history, a council representing all major political parties in Egypt, no matter what their policies, that would hold regular meetings with the Egyptian President to discuss matters of national interest, and open dialogue into major current affairs with the executive branch.

Abdel-Sanad Yamama is the party's candidate in the 2023 Egyptian presidential election.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Egyptian Wafd Party


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Mobile data terminal

A mobile data terminal (MDT) or mobile digital computer (MDC) is a computerized device used in emergency services, public transport, taxicabs, package delivery, roadside assistance, and logistics, among other fields, to communicate with a central dispatcher. They are also used to display mapping and information relevant to the tasks and actions performed by the vehicle such as CAD drawings, diagrams and safety information.

Mobile data terminals feature a screen on which to view information and a keyboard or keypad for entering information, and may be connected to various peripheral devices. Standard peripherals include two-way radios and taximeters, both of which predate computer-aided dispatching. MDTs may be simple display and keypad units, intended to be connected to a separate black-box or AVL (see below) computer. While MDTs were originally thin clients, most have been replaced with fully functional PC hardware, known as MDCs (Mobile Digital Computers). While the MDC term is more correct, MDT is still widely used. Other common terms include MVC (Motor Vehicle Computer) and names of manufacturers such as iMobile or KDT.

History
During the late 1960s, a surge in crime in the United States spurred the police community to modernize tactics. This led to a push for the adoption of computers by police departments, which would turn out to be a slow process. Some police officials attributed this to a few specific factors including, "the complexities of the new technology, the cautious, conservative nature of many police officers, and citizens' 'fear of Big Brother'. Lack of funds for computer training and equipment maintenance also played a part."

The earliest MDTs began showing up in police cars in the early 1970s. In 1973, the Cleveland Police Department introduced the specialized AMC Ambassador Impact task force police car equipped with a Kustom electronics MDT, capable of checking for license numbers or owner information, stolen vehicles, verifying wanted persons, and exchange private messages between vehicles. These would be the first police computers to be used in the State of Ohio.

Motorola would become a major provider of MDTs by the late 1970s. One of these earliest models was the D-1118, which would be succeeded by the MDT-9100 in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, police departments began to increasingly use computers for more advanced activities, as opposed to routine patrol tasks that accounted for the typical modicum of usage. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, there was a considerable uptake in adoption between 1990 and 1993, with one half of departments using computers compared to two thirds by 1993. Police departments with computers staffed approximately 95 percent of local officers by 1993.

These early police computers, including those developed by Motorola, became notorious for security issues due to the relatively basic data protocol used. Despite Motorola's marketed appearance of secure communications, it was soon discovered that this conspicuous “special code” for bit interleaving and data stream obfuscation was nothing more than simple ASCII. This approach taken by Motorola would have been considered security by obscurity. In the 1990s, hackers deciphered the properties of the protocol and PC programs soon began appearing on the market allowing the general public to monitor police communications - an issue that lasted well into the 2000s.

Technology
In the earlier days of computer-aided dispatching (CAD), many MDT's were custom devices, used with specialized point to point radios, particularly in applications such as police dispatching. While applications like taxi and package delivery often still use custom designed terminals, the majority of CAD systems have switched to ruggedized laptops and Wide-Area Wireless IP communications, utilizing the Internet or private IP networks connected to and over it.

For industrial applications such as commercial trucking, GIS, agriculture, mobile asset management, and other industries, custom electronic hardware is still preferred. Custom terminals use I/O interfaces that connect directly to industry-specific equipment. They are usually environmentally hardened packages with power supply protection and robust memory file systems that greatly improve reliability and task efficiency. MDT solutions that are based on ruggedized consumer products or consumer available software will typically not have the life cycle duration expected in industrial applications, over 5 years.

Typical features

 * 9 VDC to 36 VDC input power.
 * May be tablet convertible.
 * Serial ports to connect to a satellite or terrestrial radio transceiver.
 * Digital I/O to monitor external events.
 * Removable medial or I/O port of retrieving data or upgrading software.
 * Wide operating temperature of 14 F to 140 F or greater.
 * Water and dust resistance rated.
 * Drop tested and rated.
 * Sealed against dust and liquid.
 * Connections to industry specific equipment, such as J1708 data bus for commercial truck applications.
 * Display technology specific to viewing conditions for the intended industry (LCD, TFT LCD, Vacuum fluorescent display, CSTN).
 * Integrated uninterruptible power supply, which will ride through electrical brown-outs typical in vehicle installations.
 * 802.11 transceiver (depending on target application), possibly with external antenna connection.
 * Cellular transceiver providing an Internet connection.

A related device classification, specific to the transportation industry, is called automatic vehicle location (AVL). Mobile data terminals are often used in conjunction with a "black box" that contains a GPS receiver, cell phone transceiver, other radio devices, or interfaces to industry-specific equipment. AVL devices may be simple stand-alone modems or may include operating systems with application space for the system integrator.

Use in vehicle
MDTs are most commonly associated with in-vehicle use. This requires the MDT to be anchored to the vehicle for driver safety, device security, and user ergonomics. Mounts are designed for attaching MDTs to mobile workspaces into, most notably: automobiles, forklifts, boats, and planes. MDTs generally require specific installation protocols to be followed for proper ergonomics, power and communications functionality. MDT installation companies such as PCN Strategies, USAT Corp. and TouchStar Technologies UK, specialize in designing the mount design, assembling the proper parts, and installing them in a safe and consistent manner away from airbags, vehicle HVAC controls, and driver controls. Frequent installations will include a WAN modem, power conditioning equipment, and a WAN, WLAN, and GPS antenna mounted external to the vehicle.

Use in UK ambulance services
The mobile data terminal (MDT) allows for routing, receiving and display of data between control room and operational vehicles allowing ambulance crews to respond quickly and appropriately to calls. This allows for up to date CAD information to be dispatched instantly to the receiving ambulance saving valuable time in receiving critical information about the incident. Its mapping software allows for accurate location of the incident to be transmitted directly to the ambulance as well as plotting the quickest route to the scene. This software also allows for the control room to track all operational vehicles to identify which available ambulance is closest to the scene of an incident allowing for the closest appropriate resource to be dispatched. Other benefits of the MDT are:

 * Booking on system to identify which staff member is currently on the vehicle.
 * Status updates, allowing the crew to inform the control room of their current status on an incident via a touchscreen menu rather than informing them over the radio.
 * 2-way text conversation with the control room to decrease unnecessary radio demand.
 * Request additional payment for soiled uniform when clothing is contaminated.
 * Further options can be added such as the ability to download apps so crews can watch entertainment or order food delivery when on standby.

title: Mobile data terminal


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Balance of Terror

"Balance of Terror" is the fourteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Paul Schneider and directed by Vincent McEveety, it first aired on December 15, 1966.

In the episode, the USS Enterprise battles a Romulan ship after investigating an unidentified assailant that has methodically destroyed Federation outposts bordering the Neutral Zone.

"Balance of Terror" introduces the cloaking device and the Romulans. Mark Lenard plays the Romulan commander; he later portrayed Spock's father Sarek in the majority of his later Star Trek appearances, as well as a Klingon captain in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The episode's events are explored within an alternate future in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) episode "A Quality of Mercy".

Plot
The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, is investigating a loss of communications with a line of Earth outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone, formed under the terms of the peace treaty that ended the Earth–Romulan War a century earlier. Because there were no visual communications at that time, the two races have never seen each other.

While Kirk officiates at the wedding of Lieutenant Tomlinson and Ensign Martine, Outpost 4 comes under attack. The Enterprise races to Outpost 4's aid and contacts the base commander, Hansen, who reveals he is the only survivor of an attack by an unknown enemy. As they speak, the enemy ship reappears, fires, and disappears.

Though sheltered under a mile of iron on an asteroid, the outpost is destroyed, and Hansen killed.

The ship's sensors locate the attacker, which remains invisible. Kirk surmises that the attacker is equipped with a cloaking device. A coded message from the intruder provides a view through one of its internal cameras, revealing humanoids with an appearance like Vulcans. Lieutenant Stiles, the navigator, son of a service family that lost several members in the Earth–Romulan War, begins to question the loyalty of the Enterprise first officer, Mr. Spock.

During a discussion of the Romulan ship's capabilities, Stiles suggests the Enterprise attack before it can reach the Neutral Zone. Spock agrees; he reasons that if the Romulans are in fact an offshoot of the Vulcan species and have retained the martial philosophy of the Vulcans' ancient past, they would surely take advantage of any perceived weakness.

A cat-and-mouse game ensues. The Enterprise is faster and more maneuverable, while the Romulan ship has a cloaking device and immensely destructive plasma torpedoes. However, the range of these torpedoes is limited, and firing one requires so much power that the ship must decloak first.

After several attacks, the Romulans, almost beaten, plant a nuclear weapon amidst jettisoned debris. When Spock detects a "metal-cased object", Kirk orders a point-blank phaser shot that detonates the device. The Enterprise is shaken by the blast and many of the phaser crew are incapacitated, requiring Stiles to fill in. Kirk orders operations to work at minimal power to exaggerate the apparent damage and lure the Romulans in for a kill shot. Although the Romulan commander suspects Kirk's trap, Decius, a politically well-connected member of the command crew, pressures him to attack. When the Romulan ship decloaks to launch a torpedo, Kirk tries to spring his trap, but a coolant leak in the phaser control room incapacitates Stiles and Tomlinson. Spock, whom Stiles had insulted as being unneeded in the phaser control room, returns to rescue Stiles and fires the phasers, mortally wounding the Romulan ship.

Kirk hails the Romulans and at last communicates directly with his opponent, offering to beam aboard survivors. The Romulan commander tells Kirk that he regrets having met him in combat, that "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend." He declines Kirk's offer to take off his crew, telling the Captain that it is not the Romulan way to be taken prisoner. The Commander then triggers his ship's self-destruct system.

Enterprise only fatality is Lt. Tomlinson. Kirk goes to the chapel to offer comfort to a grieving Ensign Martine.

Production
The Star Trek Compendium stated the episode was essentially a science fiction version of the submarine film The Enemy Below, depicting a cat-and-mouse game between the Enterprise as the American destroyer against a Romulan vessel as the U-boat. Director Vincent McEveety had seen the 1957 film The Enemy Below but only noticed the similarities between its plot and this episode later. He admitted "Obviously, it's the same story."

The soundtrack cue "In the Chapel", played during the opening scene of the wedding ceremony, is an instrumental medley of the 19th century English song "Long, Long Ago" by Thomas Haynes Bayly and the "Bridal Chorus" by Richard Wagner.

The term photon torpedo was only invented for a later episode "Arena", but the same effect was used in this one although still called phaser.

On September 16, 2006, "Balance of Terror" became the first digitally remastered Star Trek episode, featuring enhanced and new visual effects, computer generated (CGI) spaceships, and high-definition format.

All core Star Trek regular background players appear in this episode: Eddie Paskey (Lt. Lesley and William Shatner stand-in), Frank da Vinci (Lt. Brent and Leonard Nimoy stand-in), William Blackburn (Lt. Hadley and De Forest Kelley stand-in), Ron Veto (Harrison), John Arndt (Fields) and Jeanne Malone (Enterprise yeoman and stand-in for Grace Lee Whitney).

Reception
The episode is frequently praised by critics and regularly appears on lists of the best episodes of Star Trek. In 2016, The Washington Post ranked "Balance of Terror" the third-best episode of the entire Star Trek franchise, noting that it investigates the connection between wars and race, that it shows both sides of a conflict in deep space. A 2017 article in The Washington Post which ranked the seven captains of Star Trek included a special mention of the captain of the Romulan vessel, calling him "The greatest alien captain". In 2016, Business Insider ranked "Balance of Terror" the best episode of The Original Series. In 2016, SyFy ranked guest star Mark Lenard (the Romulan captain), as the eighth-best guest star on The Original Series. In 2016, Empire ranked this the 43rd-best in a top 50 ranking of the 700 plus Star Trek television episodes. Critic Ed Gross praised the episode for exploring the theme of bigotry, and as "a piece of television that manages to conjure genuine suspense as one commander attempts to outmaneuvre the other".

Legacy
Guest star Mark Lenard, who portrayed the Romulan commander, returned in the episode "Journey to Babel" where he played Sarek, Spock's father. Lenard has the distinction of having played a Romulan, a Klingon and a Vulcan over the course of the series, the only actor to have done so.

Bryan Fuller called the episode a "favorite" and a "touchstone" which influenced the creation of the story arc in Star Trek: Discovery.

The events of the episode are revisited in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "A Quality of Mercy", where Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) sees an alternative future wherein he was not disabled and has retained captaincy of the USS Enterprise. The differences between Pike and Kirk are highlighted; while Pike's preference for peace and mutual respect eventually gain the admiration of the Romulan commander, the peaceful attempt to negotiate with the Romulans, who see the gesture as an act of weakness and determine that the Federation is likewise weak, caused restarting open war with the Romulans, and it is ultimately alternate-future Kirk's brashness, cunning and luck that barely saved the alternative Enterprise; his quality is implied to be what prevented open war with Romulans in the original timeline.

Non-canonical works
Comic book publisher IDW Publishing released a prequel, Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Romulans and a sequel, Star Trek Romulans: The Hollow Crown. They are not part of the official Star Trek canon.

title: Balance of Terror


text:
Relaxed Muscle

Relaxed Muscle are an English electro duo formed in 2002 by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and All Seeing I's Jason Buckle.

In early 2003, Relaxed Muscle began playing gigs. Cocker and Buckle maintained anonymity by assuming the alter-egos 'Darren Spooner' and 'Wayne Marsden' respectively. Billing themselves as "the sound of young Doncaster", Darren claimed to have met Wayne "planting flowers" while doing community service for burglary. Their fictional criminality fitted the project well, with their songs about sex, gambling and domestic violence complementing the depraved character of Relaxed Muscle.

While on-stage as Darren Spooner, Cocker took to karate-chopping balsa wood and breaking sugar glass bottles on other band members.

However, soon Cocker and Buckle's cover was blown while playing a gig in London, despite wearing full eye make-up and skeleton suits. Even with their identities revealed, the band continued playing gigs, capitalising on their electronic sound to play the likes of Trash club on 20 October 2003.

Relaxed Muscle seemed to fade away after their album release in 2003. Pulp remained on a hiatus. However, Cocker and Buckle worked on the soundtrack for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was released in November 2005 and have since worked together on Cocker's solo album Jarvis (2006).

From 5–8 April 2012, Relaxed Muscle appeared as part of a special event titled 'Who's Zoo?' created by British choreographer Michael Clark. The event featured music accompanied by dancers – both professionals and untrained volunteers – plus, special lighting and projections. The New York Times reviewed the first night and reported that Relaxed Muscle played four of the show's six songs with "The Heavy", "Let It Ride", "Beastmaster" and an encore of "B-Real" from their album A Heavy Nite With....

Albums

 * A Heavy Nite With... (2003) - No. 13 UK Indie Albums Chart

Singles/EPs

 * Heavy EP (2003) - No. 135 UK Singles Chart
 * "The Heavy"
 * "Rod of Iron"
 * "Branded!"
 * Billy Jack/Sexualized (2003)
 * "Billy Jack"
 * "Sexualized"
 * "Year of the Dog"

title: Relaxed Muscle


text:
Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Mary Fitzgerald (17 December 1916 – 28 April 2000) was a Booker Prize-winning novelist, poet, essayist and biographer from Lincoln, England. In 2008 The Times listed her among "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". The Observer in 2012 placed her final novel, The Blue Flower, among "the ten best historical novels". A.S. Byatt called her, "Jane Austen’s nearest heir for precision and invention."

Biography
Penelope Fitzgerald was born Penelope Mary Knox on 17 December 1916 at the Old Bishop's Palace, Lincoln, the daughter of Edmund Knox, later editor of Punch, and Christina, née Hicks, daughter of Edward Hicks, Bishop of Lincoln, and one of the first women students at Oxford. She was a niece of the theologian and crime writer Ronald Knox, the cryptographer Dillwyn Knox, the Bible scholar Wilfred Knox, and the novelist and biographer Winifred Peck. Fitzgerald later wrote: "When I was young I took my father and my three uncles for granted, and it never occurred to me that everyone else wasn't like them. Later on, I found that this was a mistake, but I've never quite managed to adapt myself to it. I suppose they were unusual, but I still think that they were right, and insofar as the world disagrees with them, I disagree with the world."

She was educated at Wycombe Abbey, an independent girls' boarding school, and Somerville College, Oxford University, where she graduated in 1938 with a congratulatory First, being named a "Woman of the Year" in Isis, the student newspaper. She worked for the BBC in the Second World War. In 1942 she married Desmond Fitzgerald, whom she had met in 1940 at Oxford. He had been studying for the bar and enlisted as a soldier in the Irish Guards. Six months later, Desmond's regiment was sent to North Africa. He won the Military Cross in the Western Desert Campaign in Libya, but returned to civilian life an alcoholic.

In the early 1950s the couple lived in Hampstead, London, where she had grown up. They co-edited a magazine called World Review, in which J. D. Salinger's "For Esmé with Love and Squalor" was first published in the UK, as were writings of Bernard Malamud, Norman Mailer, and Alberto Moravia. Fitzgerald also contributed, writing about literature, music and sculpture. Soon afterwards Desmond was disbarred from the legal profession for "forging signatures on cheques that he cashed at the pub." This led to a life of poverty for the Fitzgeralds. At times they were even homeless, living for four months in a homeless centre and for eleven years in public housing. To provide for her family in the 1960s, Fitzgerald taught at a drama school, Italia Conti Academy, and at Queen's Gate School, where her pupils included Camilla Shand (later Queen Camilla). She also taught "at a posh crammer", where her pupils included Anna Wintour, Edward St Aubyn, and Helena Bonham Carter. Indeed, she continued to teach until she was 70 years old. For a while she worked in a bookshop in Southwold, Suffolk, and in another period lived in Battersea on a houseboat that sank twice – the second time for good, destroying many of her books and family papers.

The couple had three children: a son, Valpy, and two daughters, Tina and Maria. Penelope Fitzgerald died on 28 April 2000.

Legacy
Fitzgerald's archive was acquired by the British Library in June 2017. It consists of 170 files of correspondence and papers relating to her literary works, and of correspondence and other items belonging to family members, including her father, E. V. Knox, and papers of Fitzgerald's Literary Estate. Many of her literary papers, including research notes, manuscript drafts letters, and photographs are held in the Harry Ransom Center.

Literary career
Fitzgerald launched her literary career in 1975 at the age of 58, with "scholarly, accessible biographies" of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones and two years later of The Knox Brothers, her father and uncles, although she never mentions herself by name. Later in 1977 she published her first novel, The Golden Child, a comic murder mystery with a museum setting inspired by the Tutankhamun mania of the 1970s, written to amuse her terminally ill husband, who died in 1976.

Over the next five years she published four novels, each tied to her own experiences. The Bookshop (1978), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, concerns a struggling store in a fictional East Anglian town. Set in 1959, it includes as a pivotal event the shop's decision to stock Lolita. A 2017 film adaptation, also entitled The Bookshop, stars Emily Mortimer as Florence Green. It was written and directed by Isabel Coixet. Fitzgerald won the 1979 Booker Prize with Offshore, a novel set among houseboat residents in Battersea in 1961. Human Voices (1980) fictionalises wartime life at the BBC, while At Freddie's (1982) depicts life at a drama school.

In 1999 Fitzgerald was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature".

Historical novels
Fitzgerald said after At Freddie's that she "had finished writing about the things in my own life, which I wanted to write about." Instead she wrote a biography of the poet Charlotte Mew and began a series of novels with a variety of historical settings. The first was Innocence (1986), a romance between the daughter of an impoverished aristocrat and a doctor from a southern Communist family set in 1950s Florence, Italy. The Italian Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci appears as a minor character.

The Beginning of Spring (1988) takes place in Moscow in 1913. It examines the world just before the Russian Revolution through the family and work troubles of a British businessman born and raised in Russia. The Gate of Angels (1990), about a young Cambridge physicist who falls in love with a nursing trainee after a bicycle accident, is set in 1912, when physics was about to enter its own revolutionary period.

Fitzgerald's final novel, The Blue Flower (1995), centres on the 18th-century German poet and philosopher Novalis and his love for what is portrayed as an ordinary child. Other historical figures such as the poet Goethe and the philosopher Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Schlegel, feature in the story. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award 1997 and has been called her masterpiece. In 1999 it was adapted and dramatised for BBC Radio by Peter Wolf.

A collection of Fitzgerald's short stories, The Means of Escape, and a volume of her essays, reviews and commentaries, A House of Air, were published posthumously. In 2013 the first full biography of Fitzgerald, Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee, appeared, and was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Biographies

 * Edward Burne-Jones (1975)
 * The Knox Brothers (1977)
 * Charlotte Mew and Her Friends: With a Selection of Her Poems (1984)

Novels

 * The Golden Child (1977)
 * The Bookshop (1978)
 * Offshore (1979)
 * Human Voices (1980)
 * At Freddie's (1982)
 * Innocence (1986)
 * The Beginning of Spring (1988)
 * The Gate of Angels (1990)
 * The Blue Flower (UK 1995, U.S. 1997)

Short story collections

 * The Means of Escape (2000)
 * Paperback edition (2001) has 2 additional stories

Essays and reviews

 * A House of Air: Selected Writings (U.S. title The Afterlife) edited by Terence Dooley with Mandy Kirkby and Chris Carduff, with an introduction by Hermione Lee (2003)

Letters

 * So I Have Thought of You. The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald edited by Terence Dooley, with a preface by A. S. Byatt (2008)

title: Penelope Fitzgerald


text:
Pasqual Maragall

Pasqual Maragall Mira (born 13 January 1941) is a Spanish retired politician and former President of Generalitat de Catalunya. He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona, from 1982 to 1997, and helped run the city's successful Olympic bid.

Early life and education
He was born in Barcelona in 1941 as the third of eight siblings. His grandfather was the Catalan poet Joan Maragall. In 1965, he married Diana Garrigosa, and he has two daughters and a son. He was an active member of the Workers' Front of Catalonia and joined the left-wing anti-Franco movement Popular Liberation Front. He studied law and economics at the University of Barcelona between 1957 and 1964.

In 1965, after his studies, he joined the Specialist Office of Barcelona City Council as an economist, work he combined with giving classes in economic theory at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, acting as assistant to the professor, Josep M. Bricall. He also cooperated with the Studies Service of the Banco Urquijo, run by Ramon Trias Fargas.

Between 1971 and 1973, he lived in New York City, where he gained a master of arts in economics from the New School University.

Beginnings in politics
In 1973, he came back to Barcelona and returned to the Barcelona City Council and to the UAB, where he gave classes on urban economics and international economics as a temporary assistant lecturer. One year earlier, he supported Convergència Socialista de Catalunya, one of the founding groups of the PSC. In 1978, at the Economics Faculty of the UAB, he presented his doctoral thesis The prices of urban land, The case of Barcelona (1948–1978). In 1978, he was a researcher and guest professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This university would later appoint him doctor honoris causa.

First elections
He joined the PSC electoral list in the first democratic municipal election for Barcelona City Council in 1979 and this party won the most votes at the ballot box. His friend Narcís Serra became Mayor while he became tinent d'alcalde (Deputy Mayor) for Administrative Reform, and later for Taxation. On 1 December 1982 he succeeded Narcís Serra as Mayor of Barcelona, since Serra was appointed minister of Defence by the new Socialist government of Felipe González.

In 1986, Barcelona was chosen to host the 1992 Summer Olympics Accordingly, the city's mayor – Pasqual Maragall – presided over the organising committee (COOB'92). The Olympics provided the city with sorely needed infrastructure. Another Maragall initiative, the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures, exhibited the same "top-down" approach. It is widely recognised, however, that the '92 Games helped Barcelona to redefine itself as one of the great cities of Europe.

From 1991 to 1997, he was President of the Council of Municipalities and Regions of Europe. He was also Vice-President of the International Union of Local Authorities and President of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union from 1996 to 1998.

Recent years
In 1997, Pasqual Maragall resigned as Barcelona's mayor and returned to university lecturing in Rome and New York City. Two years later he came back to active politics and was elected as the PSC-CpC candidate for the presidency of the Generalitat in the 1999 election.

In 2000, he was elected President of the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE), and was a member of the Catalan Parliament from 1988 to 1995. From 1999 to 2003, he presided over the PSC-CpC parliamentary group.

On 16 December 2003, Maragall was elected President of the Generalitat by the Catalan Parliament after cliff-hanger negotiations with the ERC and ICV parties. He finally took office on 20 December. While generally popular as Mayor of Barcelona, Maragall's career as President of the coalition government was marked by a series of crises. A particularly severe one involved Chief Councilor Carod's "secret" trip to France to unofficially negotiate with ETA. Others include the stormy negotiations over a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia in which Maragall and the PSC hovered between a nationalist stance and giving in to the central government pressure; the collapse of an entire city block in Barcelona's Carmel district following poorly planned and executed tunnelling work; and a scheme – supported by Maragall's government – to build a tunnel for the AVE high-speed train under the shaky foundations of Barcelona's 19th-century city centre. In October 2005 Maragall met with objections regarding his plans for reshuffling the cabinet without consulting either his coalition partners or his party. The President's brother, Ernest Maragall, was tipped for a ministerial post in the reshuffle. Ernest, who held the post of Executive Secretary, was seen by critics as an apparatchik, and whipped up a storm of protest in June 2005 when he opposed plans to make Catalonia's future anti-fraud department independent of the government. Pasqual Maragall's pledges to fight corruption and nepotism in public administration were one of the key planks in his 2003 campaign.

On 21 June 2006, Maragall announced that he would not be standing for reelection (see 2006 Catalan Parliament election). He offered his support to new President José Montilla amongst controversy over Montilla's non-Catalan heritage, stating that it did not make Catalonia "less Catalan", and later commented that "our new homeland is Europe". He later stated "our new path is the Mediterranean". On 19 October 2007, it was announced that he would not pay his PSOE membership fee anymore, ending three decades of activity within the party. The following day, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he was creating the Pasqual Maragall Foundation to fight against the illness.

In 2007 he founded the Catalunya Europa Foundation, which develops work inspired by the thought and political work of Maragall, including the active involvement of Catalan society in a more united Europe, the global role of cities as spaces for social transformation, and lasting dialogue between Catalonia, Spain and Europe.

In 2017 a collection of essays edited by Jaume Claret, Pasqual Maragall: Pensament i acció, was published by RBA Libros. Academics and colleagues of the politician discuss the essential points of his career: the city and the region, his vision of Catalonia's place in Spain and in the world, government policies and the 1992 Olympic Games, among others.

In 2020, a documentary film directed by Josep M. Mañé and Francesca Català, Maragall i la Lluna, was released. The documentary starts with the experience of Lluna, a girl who was eight years old when, in 1993, the then-mayor of Barcelona moved into her home to better understand the reality of the Roquetes neighborhood. Twenty-five years later, Lluna begins a search that starts with the memory of those days and leads her to discover Maragall through family members, acquaintances and politicians.

title: Pasqual Maragall


text:
Katzenelnbogen

Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small town in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde ("collective municipality") Aar-Einrich.

History
Katzenelnbogen originated as a castle built on a promontory over the river Lahn around 1095. The lords of the castle became important local magnates, acquiring during the centuries some key and highly lucrative customs rights on the Rhine. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen also built Burg Neukatzenelnbogen and Burg Rheinfels on the Rhine.

The male line of the German family died out in 1479, while the Austrian lineage continued, and the county became disputed between Hesse and Nassau. In 1557, the former finally won, but when Hesse was split due to the testament of Philipp the Magnanimous, Katzenelnbogen was split as well, between Hesse-Darmstadt and the small new secondary principality of Hesse-Rheinfels.

When the latter line expired in 1583, its property went to Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), which added the inherited part of Katzenelnbogen to its side-line principality of Hesse-Rotenburg. After the Congress of Vienna, this part of Katzenelnbogen was given to Nassau in exchange for property that had been taken away from it; after the War of 1866, with all Nassau, it became part of Prussia.

In 1945, Hesse-Darmstadt was united with most of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, which included the former Hesse-Kassel along with Nassau and the formerly Free City of Frankfurt, to form the federal state of Hesse. Thus, Hesse now includes the larger part of former county of Katzenelnbogen.

A smaller part of Nassau, including the old castle and village bearing the name of Katzenelnbogen, ended up as part of Rhineland-Palatinate (part of the Rhein-Lahn and Westerwaldkreis districts). William III of England a Prince of Orange had the title Katzenelnbogen in his reign from 1689-1702 and today one of the titles of the King of the Netherlands (the House of Orange-Nassau) is that of Count of Katzenelnbogen.

Etymology
In German, the name Katzenelnbogen literally translates to "cat's elbow", which is arguably a later mondegreen. Historians have speculated that the name derives from Cattimelibocus, a combination of two words: the ancient Germanic tribal name of the Chatti and Melibokus, a generic Roman name for "mountains". The theory is based on the name Μηλίβοκον (Mēlíbokon), used by Ptolemy specifically for a mountain range farther east: the Harz, the Thuringian Forest or both. Melibokon, in a Latinised form, would then be Melibocus or Melibokus. The fact that the name, in any recognisable form, first appears in medieval documents also suggests that it has no older Roman origin.

History of wine
In the history of wine, Katzenelnbogen is famous for the first documentation of Riesling grapes in the world: this was in 1435, when the storage inventory of Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a member of the Holy Roman high nobility, lists the purchase of vines of "Rieslingen".

title: Katzenelnbogen