2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Attack, Victims
Dalia Lemkus, 26, a resident of Tekoa, was seriously wounded but attempts to resuscitate her failed and she was pronounced dead at the scene. She had recently finished her university degree in occupational therapy. Lemkus had been a victim of violence before.


2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Attack, Victims
In a February 2006 attack that The Jewish Press described as "eerily similar", Lemkus was stabbed while waiting at a hitchhiking station at the Gush Etzion Junction. She had continued taking rides at the official hitching posts which are built in areas where public transit is scarce, regarding it as an act of defiance against terrorism. She had been known to say, “You think I’m going to let them beat me?" She was buried in Tekoa.


2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Attack, Victims
A man in his mid-20s was stabbed in the stomach, suffering light-to-moderate wounds, and was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem. A second man in his 50s was lightly wounded, suffering from stab wounds to the jaw, and was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, also in Jerusalem.


2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Attack, Perpetrator
The assailant, resident of Hebron, is a member of Islamic Jihad. He was jailed in Israel from 2000-2005 after he was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at an IDF patrol.


2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Political context
According to CNN, the attack comes "amid a new round of infighting between Palestinian factions". Daniel Nisman told The Wall Street Journal the attacks were not centrally coordinated, but, rather, inspired by weeks of social media propaganda by Palestinian groups praising recent individuals who attacked Israelis and calling on Palestinians to replicate those attacks. According to Nisman, these are often copycat attacks, replicating recent incidents, but "They're not ordered. They spontaneous."


2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, Impact
Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately convened the security cabinet, ordering some troops to switch from training maneuvers to active duty protecting roads from rioters and terrorists.


2014 Alé–Cipollini season
The 2014 women's road cycling season was the fourth for the  Alé Cipollini cycling team, which began as the Mcipollini-Giordana in 2011.


2014 Amapá gubernatorial election
The Amapá gubernatorial election was held on 5 October 2014 to elect the next Governor of the state of Amapá. Since no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, a second-round runoff election was held on 26 October. Governor Camilo Capiberibe ran for a second term and was forced into a runoff with former Governor Waldez Góes.


2014 Amazonas gubernatorial election
The Amazonas gubernatorial election will be held on 5 October 2014 to elect the next Governor of the state of Roraima. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a second-round runoff election will be held on 26 October. Governor José Melo is running for his first full term after assuming the Governorship in April 2014.


2014 Amber Valley Borough Council election
The 2014 Amber Valley Borough Council election took place on 22 May 2014 to elect members of Amber Valley Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.


2014 America East Conference Baseball Tournament
The 2014 America East Conference Baseball Tournament was held from May 21–23. The top four regular season finishers of the league's six teams met in the double-elimination tournament held at Edward A. LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts, the home park of UMass Lowell. Binghamton won their third tournament championship, and second consecutive, to claim the America East Conference's automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.


2014 America East Conference Baseball Tournament, Seeding and format
The top four finishers from the regular season will be seeded one through four based on conference winning percentage only. The teams will play a double-elimination tournament. UMass Lowell, despite hosting the event, is not eligible to participate as it transitions from Division II. With one weekend left in the regular season, Stony Brook, Hartford, Maine, and Binghamton clinched berths in the Tournament.


2014 America East Conference Baseball Tournament, All-Tournament Team, Most Outstanding Player
Shaun McGraw was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player. McGraw was an infielder for Binghamton, who collected four hits in the championship game..


2014 America East Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2014 America East Men's Basketball Tournament began on March 8 and concluded with the championship game on March 15. The quarterfinals and semifinals were played on March 8 and 9 at SEFCU Arena in Albany, New York, while the 2014 championship game was held on March 15 at the home of the highest remaining seed. The winner earned an automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament.


2014 America East Men's Lacrosse Tournament
The 2014 America East Men's Lacrosse Tournament was the 15th edition of the America East Conference Men's Lacrosse Tournament and took place from May 1 to May 3 that year at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York. The winner of the tournament received the America East Conference's automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship. Four teams from the America East conference will compete in the single elimination tournament. The seeds were based upon the teams' regular season conference record.


2014 America East Men's Lacrosse Tournament, Standings
Only the top four teams in the America East conference advanced to the America East Conference Tournament.


2014 America East Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2014 America East Women's Basketball Tournament began on March 7 and concluded with the championship game on March 10 at SEFCU Arena in Albany, NY. The winner earned an automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament was held at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida from May 21 through May 25. The event, held at the end of the conference regular season, determined the champion of the American Athletic Conference for the 2014 season. Houston won the round-robin tournament and received the conference's automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament, Format and seeding
The top eight finishers from the regular season were seeded one through eight. The tournament used a round-robin format, with the field divided into two groups. The winners of each group, Louisville and Houston, faced off in a single championship game. With nine teams in the league, the last-place regular season finisher, Cincinnati, was not in the field.


2014 American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament, All-Tournament Team, Most Outstanding Player
Josh Vidales was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player. Vidales was a second baseman for Houston.


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament was the first conference tournament of the American Athletic Conference (The American). It was the first conference tournament held since the split of the original Big East Conference. While The American is the legal successor to the old Big East, the rights to conference tournament in Madison Square Garden were retained by the new Big East, so the 2014 tournament was numbered as the new conference's first edition.


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
The tournament was held March 12–15 in the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee and decided a champion of the 2013–14 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season (like most NCAA conferences, The American recognizes both regular-season and tournament champions; Cincinnati and Louisville shared the regular-season title). The teams in the conference competed in a ten-team single-elimination tournament for an automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
In the 2013–14 season, The American consisted of 10 members involved in the rearrangement of conferences between the 2013 and 2014 seasons. (Cincinnati, Connecticut, and South Florida) had been full members of the original Big East. One (Temple) had been a football-only Big East member before entering into full membership in The American. The remaining four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) had previously been members of Conference USA.


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, Seeds
All teams in the American qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded based on conference record and then a tie breaker system was used. Teams seeded 7–10 had to play in the opening round and teams seeded 1–6 received a bye to the second round. Louisville and Cincinnati finished with identical 15-3 records and shared the regular season title. Since the Cardinals and Bearcats had split their meetings during the regular season, a coin toss was held to determine the #1 seed in the tournament, which was won by Cincinnati.


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, Schedule
All tournament games are nationally televised on an ESPN network:


2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament was the 2nd edition of the American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament decided the American Athletic Conference champion and guaranteed representative into the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. First round matchups were held at campus sites on Saturday, November 8, while the semifinals were played at Morrone Stadium on the campus of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut.


2014 American Athletic Conference Softball Tournament
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Softball tournament was held at the Cougar Softball Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas from May 8 through May 11, 2014. The tournament determined the champion of the American Athletic Conference for the 2014 NCAA Division I softball season. Louisville won the tournament and earned the American Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Softball Tournament, Format and seeding
The conference's 8 teams were seeded based on conference winning percentage based on the round-robin regular season. They then played a single elimination tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Softball Tournament, All-Tournament Team, Most Outstanding Player
Katie Keller was named Most Outstanding Player. Keller was 5 for 5 with three home runs, including a grand slam, in the tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament was the first annual conference tournament of the American Athletic Conference, one of the two leagues that resulted from the 2013 split of the original Big East Conference. The tournament was held March 7–10, 2014 in the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and decided the champion of the 2013–14 American Athletic Conference women's basketball season. The 10 conference members competed in a single-elimination tournament for an automatic bid to the 2014 NCAA Tournament.


2014 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament
The American Athletic Conference originally consisted of the members of the "old" Big East which played Division I FBS football, plus several new members which also sponsored FBS programs.


2014 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, Seeds
All the teams in the American Athletic Conference qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded based on conference record, with a tiebreaker system used as needed. Teams seeded 7 through 10 had to play in the opening round, and teams seeded 1 through 6 received a bye to the second round.


2014 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, Schedule
All tournament games were nationally televised on an ESPN network:


2014 American Athletic Conference football season
The 2014 American Athletic Conference football season was the 24th NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision football season of the American Athletic Conference (The American). The season was the second since the breakup of the former Big East Conference, which lasted in its original form from its creation in 1979 until 2013.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season
The 2014 season was the first with the new College Football Playoff in place. From 1998 to 2013, FBS postseason football was governed by the Bowl Championship Series. With the move to the new format, The American is no longer an Automatic Qualifying conference (AQ), and is considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5) with Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference. Whereas under the previous system the champion of The American was guaranteed an automatic berth to a BCS bowl game, now only the highest-ranked member of the "Group of Five" is guaranteed to receive a bid to one of the six major bowls.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season
The American consisted of 11 members: Cincinnati, East Carolina,  Houston, Memphis, SMU, South Florida, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, and UConn. The regular season and conference play began on August 28, when Temple visited Vanderbilt, and Tulane visited Tulsa.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Previous season
The UCF Knights were the 2013 American Champions, finishing 8–0 in conference and 12–1 overall. The Knights earned the conference's final BCS automatic bid before college football moved to a playoff system. UCF upset No. 6 Baylor 52–42 in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl, and finished the year ranked in the Top–10.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Previous season
In other bowl games, Cincinnati lost to North Carolina 39–17 in the Belk Bowl. In their final years as members of The American, Louisville defeated  Miami 36–9 in the Russell Athletic Bowl, and Rutgers lost to Notre Dame 29–16 in the Pinstripe Bowl.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Preseason, Preseason Poll
The 2013 American Athletic Conference Preseason Poll was announced at the 2014 American Athletic Conference Media Day in Newport, Rhode Island on July 29, 2014.


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Awards and honors, Conference awards
The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the American Athletic Conference football coaches at the end of the season


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Awards and honors, Conference awards
WR – Breshad Perriman, UCF WR – Justin Hardy, East CarolinaOT –  Eric Lefeld^, Cincinnati OT – Al Bond, MemphisOG – Parker Ehinger, Cincinnati OG – Rowdy Harper, Houston C – Taylor Hudson, East Carolina TE – Alan Cross, Memphis QB – Shane Carden, East Carolina RB – William Stanback, UCFRB – Marlon Mack, USF K – Jake Elliott, Memphis RS – Deion Sanders Jr., SMU


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Awards and honors, Conference awards
DL – Terrell Hartsfield, Cincinnati DL – Terry Williams, East Carolina DL – Joey Mbu, Houston DL – Martin Ifedi, Memphis LB – Terrance Plummer, UCF LB – Jeff Luc, Cincinnati LB – Tank Jakes, Memphis LB – Tyler Matakevich, Temple CB – Jacoby Glenn, UCF CB – Bobby McCain, Memphis S – Clayton Geathers, UCF S – Adrian McDonald, Houston P – Mattias Ciabatti, USF


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Awards and honors, Conference awards
WR – Deontay Greenberry, Houston WR – Keevan Lucas, Tulsa OT – Torrian Wilson, UCF OT – Ike Harris, East Carolina OG – J.T. Boyd, East Carolina C – Kyle Friend, Temple TE – Bryce Williams, East Carolina QB – Paxton Lynch, Memphis RB – Kenneth Farrow, Houston RB – Brandon Hayes, Memphis K – Andrew Gantz, Cincinnati RS – Keiwone Malone, Memphis


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Awards and honors, Conference awards
DL – Jaryl Mamea, UCF DL – Thomas Niles, UCF DL – Matt Ioaniddis, Temple DL – Praise Martin-Oguike, Temple DL – Derrick Alexander, Tulsa LB – Zeek Bigger, East Carolina LB – Brandon Williams, East Carolina LB – Efrem Oliphant, Houston CB – William Jackson, Houston CB – Lorenzo Doss, Tulane CB – Brandon Alexander, UCF S – Sam Scofield, Tulane P – Spencer Smith, Memphis


2014 American Athletic Conference football season, Home game attendance
Cincinnati will be playing all its 2014 Paul Brown Stadium due to ongoing renovations to Nippert Stadium, capacity: 65,535. Games highlighted in green were sell-outs.


2014 American Indoor Football season
The 2014 American Indoor Football season was the ninth season of American Indoor Football (AIF). The Baltimore Mariners defeated the Cape Fear Heroes 45-44 to claim their second ever AIF title.


2014 American League Championship Series
The 2014 American League Championship Series was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the Baltimore Orioles against the Kansas City Royals for the American League pennant and the right to play in the 2014 World Series. The Royals won the series four games to zero. The series was the 45th in league history with TBS airing all games in the United States. Even as the Royals swept the series, each game was decided by two runs or fewer.


2014 American League Championship Series
To reach the 2014 ALCS, the Orioles  (East Division champions, 96–66) defeated the Tigers  (Central Division champions, 90–72) in the ALDS, 3 games to 0. The Royals (Wild Card, 89–73) defeated the Oakland Athletics in the AL Wild Card Game and then defeated the Angels (West Division champions, 98–64) in the ALDS, 3 games to 0.


2014 American League Championship Series
It was the first-ever postseason meeting between the two teams. It was the first ALCS since 2005 not to feature the Yankees, Red Sox, or Tigers.


2014 American League Championship Series
The Royals would go on to lose to the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
The Royals drew first blood in a back-and-forth opener that featured high offensive output from both teams. After hitting just three home runs in the regular season, Alcides Escobar hit a one-out homer to left to give the Royals a 1–0 lead. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Alex Gordon hit a broken bat, looping fly ball that dropped just fair inside the right-field line to plate all three runners. Suddenly, it was 4–0 Kansas City.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
Baltimore got a run back in the bottom of the inning on Adam Jones' RBI-single, but it could have been more had it not been for a great diving catch by Gordon in the left-center field gap, robbing Steven Pearce of a hit. In the bottom of the fifth, after the Royals added a run in the top of the frame, the Orioles finally got to James Shields. Nelson Cruz added to his postseason legacy with an RBI-double and Ryan Flaherty delivered a two-run single to make it a one-run game, 5–4.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
In the sixth, after a walk to Jonathan Schoop and a flare single to right by Nick Markakis, Alejandro De Aza hit a high chopper past the pitcher's mound that shortstop Escobar had no play on; Schoop scored to tie the game. Jones hit what appeared to be a double play ball, but Mike Moustaskas' relay throw short-hopped first baseman Eric Hosmer and the inning continued to bring up Cruz. He could not deliver the big hit this time as he rolled into an inning-ending double play.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
The game turned to the bullpens, generally decided to be a strength for both teams, but in the top of the ninth, Orioles' reliever Zach Britton struggled to find the strike zone, walking the first three batters; at one point, Britton missed with 12 straight pitches. Britton then got out of the jam by getting Hosmer on a force play at home, before Darren O'Day was brought in to pitch, getting Billy Butler to hit into a double play to keep the game tied heading to the bottom of the ninth.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
Wade Davis finished a strong outing by striking out the heart of the Orioles' lineup in the bottom of the ninth, and Game 1 was headed to extra innings. Alex Gordon's postseason breakout was complete when his tenth inning fly landed over the top of the high right-field wall to give Kansas City a 6–5 lead, but they weren't done yet. Salvador Pérez reached on a walk, then Moustakas launched his third home run of the playoffs, giving the Royals a three-run lead.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 1
Royals' closer Greg Holland got the first two outs in the bottom of the tenth, but then gave up a single to Flaherty. Pinch-hitter Jimmy Paredes reached on a walk, then Delmon Young delivered a pinch-hit single to make it a two-run game. Holland would then get Markakis to ground out to second, ending the game.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
The Royals struck first in Game 2 off of Bud Norris when with one out in the first when Nori Aoki singled, Lorenzo Cain doubled, and Eric Hosmer singled to score both runners. In the bottom of the second, Yordano Ventura walked three batters to load the bases for the Orioles before Caleb Joseph's sacrifice fly cut the Royals' lead to 2-1. They get the run back in the third when Cain singled with two outs, moved to third on Hosmer's single and scored on Billy Butler's double.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
In the bottom of the inning, Alejandro De Aza doubled before Adam Jones's two-run home run tied the game. In the fourth, Mike Moustakas's home run put the Royals back in front 4-3. The Orioles tied it in the fifth when De Aza singled, moved to third on Jones's single, and scored on Nelson Cruz's groundout.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
The Kansas City defense continued their postseason run of highlight reel plays in the 6th when Adam Jones led off the inning with what appeared to be (at least) a double to the right-center field gap. However, Cain made diving catch to retire Jones. Statcast calculated that Cain covered 82 feet (25 m) in 3.65 seconds, reaching a top speed of 21.2 miles per hour (34.1 km/h) on the play. In the 7th, Cain (now playing in right field) would make another great catch, with the bases loaded, down the right field line to rob J. J. Hardy of at least 2 RBI.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 2
The game stayed tied until the top of the ninth when Omar Infante hit a leadoff single off of Darren O'Day. Terrance Gore came in to pinch-run for Infante and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt after Zach Britton relieved O'Day, and the speedy runner scored easily on Alcides Escobar's double. After Jarrod Dyson reached on an error, Lorenzo Cain's single made it 6-4 Royals. Greg Holland threw a scoreless bottom of the ninth for his second save of the series.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
The Orioles struck first in Game 3 on back-to-back doubles in the second by Steve Pearce and J. J. Hardy off of Jeremy Guthrie, but that would be the only time they led in the series as four relievers threw four perfect innings. The Royals loaded the bases in the fourth on two singles and a walk off of Wei-Yin Chen before Alex Gordon's groundout tied the game. In the sixth, Nori Aoki hit a leadoff single off of Chen, moved to third on Eric Hosmer's single one out later, and scored on Billy Butler's sacrifice fly. The Royals' 2-1 lead held, with Jason Frasor pitching a perfect 6th, Kelvin Herrera a perfect 7th, Wade Davis a perfect 8th, and Greg Holland a perfect 9th for the save, putting them one win away from the World Series.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 3
The Royals continued their postseason streak of highlight reel defensive plays, this time highlighted by Mike Moustakas. In the 4th he dove and snagged a hard liner from Steve Pearce for an out, but that play seemed routine compared to his play in the 6th. Adam Jones popped a ball up in foul territory past 3rd base. Moustakas gave chase and caught the ball while falling over the railing and into the fan dugout, where the loyal Royals fans caught him to prevent him from landing on his head.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
In Game 4, the Royals took a 2-0 lead in the first off of Miguel Gonzalez when Alcides Escobar hit a leadoff singled and moved to second on Nori Aoki's hit-by-pitch. Lorenzo Cain's sacrifice bunt (the eventual ALCS MVP's first ever sacrifice bunt) moved both runners a base before Eric Hosmer grounded to first. Baseman Steve Pearce threw the ball to catcher Caleb Joseph, but the ball got away, allowing Escobar and Aoki to score.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
Though Gonzalez and the Orioles bullpen shut out the Royals for the rest of the game, Jason Vargas and the Kansas City bullpen limited Baltimore to only Ryan Flaherty's home run in the third and four hits. The Royals extended their postseason win streak to 11 games, dating back to Game 5 of the 1985 World Series.


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
This win gave Kansas City its first American League Pennant since 1985 (and third overall, the most of any AL expansion franchise), and for the first time in Major League history, a team won all eight of their first postseason games (the previous record was seven, held by the 2007 Colorado Rockies and the 1976 Cincinnati Reds).


2014 American League Championship Series, Game summaries, Game 4
The Kansas City 8-game postseason winning streak wouldn't be complete without a defensive gem, this time provided by multi-time gold-glove left-fielder Alex Gordon. In the 5th, J. J. Hardy looked to have an extra-base hit deep to left-center field, but Gordon, running full speed, leaped and caught the ball, while crashing into the wall for the out.


2014 American League Championship Series, Aftermath
The Royals lost the World Series in seven games to the Giants, as they ran into a buzz saw in Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner won twice in the series and held a lead in game seven with a five inning save on 2-days rest. Their disappointment would be short lived as the Royals finished off the job the following season, beating the Mets in the World Series in five games. It was their first World Series victory since 1985.


2014 American League Championship Series, Aftermath
There would be a bit of bad blood between the two teams in 2015 and 2016, with Yordano Ventura and Manny Machado at the center of it. In a game on September 12, 2015, Ventura hit Machado and Chris Davis with pitches which ultimately just led to words between exchanged between the two teams. Tensions exploded in the fifth inning of a June 7, 2016 game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles after Ventura hit Manny Machado again with a pitch in the back. This time it led to Machado rushing the mound and getting a few punches in on Ventura before his Royals teammates intervened. Both players were ejected and MLB suspended Ventura for 9 games, while Machado received a 4 game suspension.


2014 American League Championship Series, Aftermath
The Orioles could not build off their AL Championship Series appearance, as it represented a peak for the franchise under the Buck Showalter-era. They finished with a .500 record in 2015, as they lost the wild card game to Toronto on a walk-off home run by Edwin Encarnación in 2016, and in they finished with a losing record for the first time since 2011 in 2017. Headed into the 2018 season, the Orioles were uncertain whether they were still a contender, in spite of having finished last in the AL East the previous season.


2014 American League Championship Series, Aftermath
On-field results quickly demonstrated that contention was out of the question, as they were instead threatening the franchise record for most losses in a season. With the trading deadline approaching, the front office decided to clean house. In the span of a few days, they traded veteran SS Manny Machado, their lone All-Star, 2B Jonathan Schoop and pitchers Brad Brach, Zach Britton, Kevin Gausman and Darren O'Day, netting a total of 17 players in return with only IF Jonathan Villar having any significant major league experience.


2014 American League Championship Series, Aftermath
They also attempted to trade CF Adam Jones, but he vetoed a deal as was his right as a 10-5 player, i.e. one who had ten years of major league experience, including the past five with the same team. The only veterans which the Orioles retained were those who were basically unmovable because of bad contracts, such as underperforming 1B Chris Davis. The Orioles did end up setting a new franchise record for losses in 2018, finishing at 47-115, a whopping 61 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox. To date, the Orioles have not had a winning record since 2016.


2014 American League Division Series
The 2014 American League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2014 American League Championship Series. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Baltimore Orioles, and Detroit Tigers (divisional winners, seeded 1–3 based on regular season record) as well as the Wild Card game winning Kansas City Royals played in the two series. TBS carried all the games.


2014 American League Division Series
This was the first postseason played under the current divisional alignment, going back to 1995, in which neither the Boston Red Sox nor the New York Yankees competed in an ALDS. It was also the Royals' first appearance in the current version of the ALDS, as their last previous postseason appearance had come in 1985, prior to its conception (although the team had played in one of the 1981 ALDS necessitated by that year's player strike and the resulting split season). It was also the Orioles' first ALDS win since 1997.


2014 American League Division Series
Both the Angels and the Royals, and the Tigers and the Orioles, met for the first time in the postseason.


2014 American League Division Series
The Royals went on to defeat the Orioles in the ALCS, then lost the 2014 World Series to the National League champion San Francisco Giants.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 1
Mike Moustakas, who is a native of Los Angeles, hit a 374-foot (114 m) home run deep into right field in the 11th inning to give the Royals a 3–2 victory in Game 1. Closer Greg Holland, who arrived during the 4th inning following a trip to North Carolina for the birth of his son, pitched a perfect bottom half of the 11th to seal the Royals victory. Alcides Escobar had an RBI double in the third inning, allowing Moustakas to score, and Omar Infante's sacrifice fly allowed Alex Gordon to score in the fifth. The Angels' only scores were home runs from Chris Iannetta in the third and David Freese in the fifth.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 1
This game also started a string of postseason games in which the Royals defense would make a number of highlight reel defensive plays. Outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Nori Aoki each had a pair of great catches, which slowed down the Angels' high powered offense.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 2
Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer and Salvador Pérez recorded an RBI infield single in the 11th inning, as the Royals won Game 2, 4–1. Kansas City scored first on Alex Gordon's RBI single in the second, but the Angels tied the game in the sixth with Albert Pujols' RBI single.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 2
Kansas City again came up with a timely defensive gem. In the bottom of the 8th with no outs and pinch runner Collin Cowgill at second base, Jarrod Dyson caught a fly ball to left-center field off of Chris Iannetta, and then threw picture perfect strike to Mike Moustakas at third to double-up Cowgill, who tried to advance on the play.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 3
The Angels' took their only lead of this series with a one out home run by Mike Trout in the top of the first off of James Shields, but C. J. Wilson gave up a triple in the bottom half to Alex Gordon and was immediately knocked out of the game. Eric Hosmer would add his second home run of this series, a two-run home run in the third off of Hector Santiago, to make it 5–1 Royals.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 3
The Angels cut it to 5–2 in the fourth on Albert Pujols's home run, but in the bottom of the inning, Mike Morin allowed a one-out home run to Mike Moustakas, then two singles to put runners on first and third before Lorenzo Cain's sacrifice fly made it 7–2 Royals. They made it 8–2 in the sixth off of Kevin Jepsen on Nori Aoki's RBI single that scored Omar Infante from second. The Angels scored the last run of the series in the eighth off of Wade Davis on Josh Hamilton's groundout with runners on second and third as the Royals completed a three-game sweep to punch their ticket to the 2014 ALCS.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Game 3
The defense again showed up for Kansas City. The highlights of the game included back-to-back diving catches in the 5th inning by Lorenzo Cain with runners on base.


2014 American League Division Series, Los Angeles vs. Kansas City, Composite line score
2014 ALDS (3–0): Kansas City Royals over Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 1
Nelson Cruz's two-run home run in the bottom of the first started the scoring for the Orioles. The Tigers tied the score in the top of the second on back-to-back home runs by Victor Martinez and J. D. Martinez, but Baltimore pulled ahead on an RBI single by Nick Markakis in the bottom half. The score remained unchanged until Baltimore scored in the seventh on a home run from J. J. Hardy to make the score 4–2.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 1
In the top of the eighth, Ian Kinsler singled off of Darren O'Day, but was doubled off of first on a line drive by Torii Hunter. The play proved to be critical as the next batter, Miguel Cabrera, homered. In the bottom half, after a one out double by Alejandro De Aza, Joba Chamberlain relieved starter Max Scherzer and a crucial error by Andrew Romine allowed De Aza to score and Adam Jones to reach base. Jones stole second, then scored on Nelson Cruz's single.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 1
Joakim Soria relieved Chamberlain and a single and intentional walk loaded the bases before Ryan Flaherty's single and Nick Hundley's groundout scored a run each, then Jonathan Schoop's double scored two more. Phil Coke relieved Soria and threw a wild pitch that moved Schoop to third, then walked Nick Markakis before De Aza, in his second at-bat of the inning, doubled to score both men. Baltimore scored a team postseason record and LDS record eight runs in the inning. This record would be tied the next day in the Cardinals/Dodgers NLDS series. With the game out of reach, Tommy Hunter came on and pitched out of a bases loaded jam to seal the game.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 2
Nick Markakis' two-run home run off Tiger starter Justin Verlander in the third put the Orioles on the board. But in the top of the fourth, Torii Hunter singled, Cabrera doubled him to third, Victor Martinez singled to score Hunter, J. D. Martinez homered to put Detroit on top 4–2 and Nick Castellanos homered to push the lead to three runs before the first out was recorded. After the next two outs were recorded, Rajai Davis singled and chased Baltimore starter Wei-Yin Chen in the process.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 2
Kevin Gausman came on and got the final out of the inning without further damage to keep the score 5–2. A two out RBI single by J. J. Hardy cut the score to 5–3 but Verlander escaped without another run crossing the plate. The score stayed at 5–3 until the top of the eighth when Victor Martinez doubled home Hunter to push the lead back to three runs. But for the second straight day Baltimore would fight back against the Tiger bullpen in the bottom of the eighth.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 2
Joba Chamberlain came on and got De Aza to ground out, but Adam Jones was hit by a pitch, Nelson Cruz singled Jones to second, and Steve Pearce singled in Jones to make it a 6–4 game. Joakim Soria came on in relief of Chamberlain and walked Hardy to load the bases for former Tiger Delmon Young. Young unloaded the bases with a go-ahead three-run double to put the Orioles back on top 7–6. Zach Britton came on and pitched a perfect ninth to send Baltimore to Detroit up two games to none.


2014 American League Division Series, Baltimore vs. Detroit, Game 3
Adam Jones' single and Nelson Cruz's two-run home run that just stayed fair down the right field line off of David Price in the sixth broke a scoreless tie and the backs of the Tigers as Baltimore completed a three-game sweep. The Tigers got back-to-back leadoff doubles from Victor Martinez and J. D. Martinez in the ninth to pull within a run. After Bryan Holaday struck out, an intentional walk to Nick Castellanos put the winning run on base. Britton got Hernan Perez to ground into the game-ending, series-ending double play, sending the Orioles to their first ALCS appearance in 17 years. With the loss, the Tigers lost their first ever ALDS. In their previous four appearances they advanced to the ALCS every time.


2014 American League Wild Card Game
The 2014 American League Wild Card Game was a play-in game during Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2014 postseason played between the American League's (AL) two wild card teams, the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals. It was held at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 30, 2014. The Royals won by a score of 9–8 in 12 innings, and advanced to play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 2014 American League Division Series. The game was televised by TBS and broadcast on ESPN Radio.


2014 American League Wild Card Game
The game tied the then record for the longest (by innings) "winner-take-all" game in postseason history, shared with Game 7 of the 1924 World Series. This record was subsequently broken by the 2018 National League Wild Card Game.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Background
Since 2012, two wild card spots are available in each league for the two teams with the best record that do not win their respective division. For the 2014 American League, the two spots were given to the Kansas City Royals and the Oakland Athletics. This was the second postseason meeting between the Athletics and Royals, having first met in the 1981 ALDS (Athletics won the series 3–0).


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Background, Kansas City Royals
Despite preseason predictions that were generally bleak, the Royals won 89 games in the regular season, which represented the team's most wins since the 1989 season. Despite falling as far as seven games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers well into the season, the Royals went on a hot streak during the latter half of the regular season, giving them a playoff berth as a wild card team. The 2014 American League Wild Card game represented the Royals' first postseason appearance since 1985.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Background, Oakland Athletics
In contrast to the Royals, who had a better second half of the season, the Athletics had one of the best records in Major League Baseball early in the season, but slumped towards the end of the season. The Athletics also made several major trades to gain players like Jason Hammel and Jon Lester to bolster the team. Despite the late struggles, Oakland still won 88 games and secured a wild card spot, making 2014 the third straight season the team had made the playoffs.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
The one-game playoff was touted as a duel between the Royals' James Shields and the Athletics' Jon Lester, but neither starting pitcher would earn a decision in the game. Oakland's Brandon Moss homered early off of Shields with Coco Crisp on base, giving the Athletics a 2–0 advantage; Kansas City halved the lead in the bottom of the first when Billy Butler singled to score Nori Aoki. Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer had RBI hits for the Royals in the third inning, vaulting Kansas City to a 3–2 lead.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
In this third inning, Oakland catcher Geovany Soto left the game with a thumb injury sustained in a play at the plate. Soto had started the game because he would be more adept at controlling the running game of the Royals. This would come back to haunt the Athletics later in the game. The fourth and fifth innings were scoreless, but a big sixth inning gave Oakland a large lead. Sam Fuld singled to lead off the inning, and Shields was relieved by Yordano Ventura after walking Josh Donaldson. Ventura's first batter, Moss, belted a three-run home run to give the Athletics a 5–3 lead. After Ventura was relieved by Kelvin Herrera, Derek Norris and Crisp singled in two additional runs.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Both Oakland and Kansas City batted fruitlessly in the seventh inning, and Royals relief pitcher Wade Davis recorded three straight outs in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, with Kansas City six outs away from having their season ended, the Royals manufactured a productive inning of their own. Alcides Escobar singled, and then stole second base with Nori Aoki at the plate. Lorenzo Cain singled, scoring Escobar. Cain stole second base himself with Eric Hosmer batting; Hosmer was then walked, at which point starting pitcher Jon Lester was relieved by Luke Gregerson.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Nerves seemed to get the better of Gregerson, who allowed Billy Butler to single and score Cain, and then allowed Hosmer to score from third base on a wild pitch. After walking Alex Gordon, Gregerson struck out the next two batters to preserve the Athletics' lead, but the Royals had narrowed the score to 7–6.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Closer Greg Holland took the mound for Kansas City and was somewhat shaky, walking three batters, but mustered the three required outs without major damage, and Kansas City took their one-run deficit to the bottom of the ninth.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Oakland's closer, Sean Doolittle, pitched in relief of Gregerson. Pinch-hitter Josh Willingham hit a bloop single and was replaced by pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson. Dyson moved to second base on a successful bunt from Alcides Escobar, and then stole third with Aoki at bat. Aoki hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field for the second out of the inning, but Dyson was able to jog home, tying the game at 7–7 and completing the Royals' four-run comeback. Cain lined out to end the inning for Kansas City.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Brandon Finnegan, who only three months earlier had pitched for TCU in the College World Series, began a strong inning of work in the tenth, replacing Greg Holland and recording three outs in quick succession. The Royals advanced Eric Hosmer to third base with two outs in the bottom of the tenth, but Salvador Pérez grounded out, putting a Royals victory on hold.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Finnegan again pitched well in the top of the 11th, allowing only one hit and striking out Brandon Moss, who had already hit two home runs. Kansas City's offense produced in the bottom of the 11th a situation identical to that of the tenth; the winning run stood 90 feet (27 m) away with two outs, but Jayson Nix struck out to end the inning. Finnegan began the 12th inning by walking Josh Reddick, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jed Lowrie. Finnegan was then relieved by Jason Frasor.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo of Oakland took a wild pitch from Frasor, allowing Reddick to go to third base. Callaspo then hit a line drive to left field, scoring Reddick. The new pitcher Frasor quickly stopped the bleeding by retiring Derek Norris and Nick Punto, but the Athletics had retaken the lead, 8–7.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Lorenzo Cain failed to get the bottom of the 12th off to a promising start for Kansas City when he grounded out. The Oakland Athletics were two outs away from advancing to the ALDS. However, Hosmer nursed a lengthy at-bat into a deep hit off the left field wall that was poorly fielded, allowing him to reach third base. Christian Colon then managed an infield single to tie the game again, scoring Hosmer. Oakland pitcher Dan Otero was replaced by Fernando Abad, who threw to only one batter, Gordon, who popped out. Abad was then relieved by Jason Hammel.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Game results, Line score
Christian Colon, still on first base, stole second (the seventh steal of the game for the Royals) with Pérez at the plate, after a pitchout was dropped by Derek Norris. Pérez (who was 0-for-5 at this point) then singled down the line to left field, the ball narrowly missing the outstretched glove of Josh Donaldson. Colon scored, ending the marathon game with a Royals victory and a ticket to the ALDS against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Aftermath
Kansas City would run the table on their way to the AL pennant, sweeping Los Angeles in three games of a five-game series and the Baltimore Orioles in four games of a seven-game series before losing in seven games to the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 World Series. This victory would be the first of four extra-inning victories for the Royals in the 2014 Postseason.


2014 American League Wild Card Game, Aftermath
Many Royals fans consider it the most iconic in their franchise's history because of the incredible four-run comeback by Kansas City. Making it sweeter for certain Royals fans was their bitter feelings towards the Athletics, who had played in Kansas City from 1955 to 1967 before owner Charles O. Finley moved the franchise to Oakland. It was also the Royals' first playoff game in 29 years.


2014 American Samoan constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in American Samoa on 4 November 2014. The proposed amendment to the constitution would have allowed the Fono to override vetoes by the Governor.


2014 American Samoan constitutional referendum, Background
The proposal amendment to the constitution would have allowed the Fono to override vetoes issued by the Governor by a two-thirds majority vote in cases where the Governor rejected legislation that had been passed twice by the Fono. It was approved by the Senate on 18 February 2014, and was supported by Governor Lolo Letalu Matalasi Moliga. As it involved amending the constitution, the proposal would have also needed approval from the United States Congress.


2014 American Samoan general election
General elections were held in American Samoa on 4 November 2014, alongside a constitutional referendum. Voters elected members of the Fono and the American Samoan delegate to the United States Congress.


2014 American Society of Cinematographers Awards
The 29th American Society of Cinematographers Awards were held on February 15, 2015, at the Hollywood & Highland Ray Dolby Ballroom, honoring the best cinematographers of film and television in 2014.


2014 American Society of Cinematographers Awards
The film nominees were announced on January 7, 2015. Roger Deakins received a record thirteenth nomination for Unbroken. Óscar Faura and Robert Yeoman are first-time nominees, while veterans Emmanuel Lubezki and Dick Pope also received nominations.


2014 American Society of Cinematographers Awards, Winners and nominees, Film, Spotlight Award
The Spotlight Award nominees were announced on January 16, 2014. The award "recognize[s] outstanding cinematography in features and documentaries that are typically screened at film festivals, in limited theatrical release, or outside the United States".


2014 American Society of Cinematographers Awards, Winners and nominees, Television
The previous "One-Hour" and "Half-Hour" categories have been merged into one:


2014 American Ultimate Disc League season
The 2014 American Ultimate Disc League season was the third season for the league. Each team played a 14-game schedule. The San Jose Spiders won the AUDL Championship III over the Toronto Rush in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Spiders enjoyed the most successful season of all teams, finishing with a 16-1 record. Their only loss came to the San Francisco FlameThrowers in Week 6.


2014 American Ultimate Disc League season, Regular Season Standings, Western Division
T indicates top seed in the playoffs. P indicates a team advanced to the playoffs. PD indicates point difference.


2014 American immigration crisis
The 2014 American immigration crisis was a surge in unaccompanied children and women from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) seeking  entrance to the United States in 2014. According to U.S. law, an unaccompanied alien child refers to a person under 18 years of age, who has no lawful immigration status in the U.S., and who does not have a legal guardian to provide physical custody and care.


2014 American immigration crisis
Between 2013 and 2014, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border increased nearly 80%, from 38,759 in fiscal year 2013 to 68,541 in fiscal year 2014.


2014 American immigration crisis
This influx in unaccompanied minor children has been attributed to a number of factors including the high rates of gang-related violent crime in the Northern Triangle; the promulgation of false "permiso" rumors by smugglers; a growing awareness of H.R.7311 (110th), a 2008 law that granted substantial protections from removal to unaccompanied children from countries that do not share a border with the US; and a recovering US economy and labor market following the Great Recession. Many of the children had no parent/legal guardian available to provide care or physical custody and quickly overwhelmed local border patrols.


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
From 1980 onwards, the number of immigrants from Central America arriving to the United States has grown substantially. However, most of the people fleeing Central America are those whose countries are plagued by corruption, poverty, and murder. The three countries from Central America with the highest numbers of migrants are Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Other immigrants from different countries in Central America have seen a moderate decrease from 2010 to 2013. For example, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Belize have not had as many immigrants as the other three leading countries in the time frame.


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
The three leading countries are the bulk immigrants coming to the United States. Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala make up 85 percent of those who arrive to the United States since the 1980s. "In fiscal year (FY) 2016 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intercepted nearly 46,900 unaccompanied children and more than 70,400 family units from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border."


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
During the Cold War, the United States backed violent anti-Communist forces throughout Latin America. Academics claim that the violence and high murder rates in many of these countries is the direct legacy of the US intervention on behalf of these anti-Communist forces stretching back into the 1950s with the Guatemalan coup d'état, which has shaped the contemporary refugee crisis.


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
In 2014, the reason this crisis was internationally covered by media outlets, was due to the fact that most of the immigrants were children. Most of these children cross through the Guatemala-Mexico border. Most of these children also ride on a train called "La Bestia" because it can transport many people at once without charge. Immigrants from all over Central America rely on this train to take them north, hopeful to see the Mexican-American border. However, La Bestia has drawn international attention.


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
This train and its routes are the epicenter of mass extortion, mutilation, murder, robberies, rape, kidnapping, and sexual assault of Central American immigrants. Immigrants do not report these crimes in fear of being deported back to their native countries. If these immigrant children managed to survive La Bestia and the cartels in Mexico, they now need to find "coyotes" to smuggle them across the highly guarded Mexican-American border.


2014 American immigration crisis, Background
Most women and children from Central America simply crossed the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to the United States Border Patrol, relying on the belief, partly well founded, that United States immigration and refugee law made special provision for children. The large number of migrants entitled to hearings, counsel, and placement overwhelmed U.S. immigration courts and other government facilities.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
The 2014 uptick in immigration was largely due to a surge in arrivals of Unaccompanied Minor Children (UAC's), predominately from the Northern Triangle of Central America. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border increased nearly 80%, from 38,759 in fiscal year 2013 to 68,541 in fiscal year 2014.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
This influx in unaccompanied minor children has been attributed to a number of factors including the high rates of gang-related violent crime in the Northern Triangle; the promulgation of false "permiso" rumors by smugglers; the growing awareness of H.R.7311 (110th), a 2008 law that granted substantial protections from removal to unaccompanied children from countries that do not share a border with the US; and a recovering US economy and labor market following the Great Recession.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
In a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees study of approximately 400 unaccompanied children from Mexico and Central America, 58 percent of UAC's reported being motivated by safety concerns back home, a nearly 450% increase over the 13 percent of Mexican children that reported similar motivations in a 2006 study. Beginning in the early 2000s, the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador experienced an increase in violent crime that would continue for the next decade.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
Although the homicide rates in all three countries had been on the decline since 2011, the murder rates El Salvador and Honduras remained among the highest in the world. In early 2014, El Salvador experienced another uptick in violence after a gang truce between MS-13 and Barrio 18 began to collapse.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
Many of the unaccompanied children reported being under the false impression that the Obama Administration was granting permits ("permisos") to children with family members in the US, as long as they arrived by June of 2014. It was later determined that these rumors, along with similar rumors about permisos for women who arrived with children, were being promulgated by human smugglers. While the rumors were false, there were in fact a number of policies in place that offered protection from removal to unaccompanied children from Central America.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a 2008 law intended to protect victims of human trafficking, prevented the immediate deportation of unaccompanied children from Central America. In addition to requiring that the government provide each child with legal representation and hold hearings on their case, the law also requires that children be released to family members or cared for by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the "least restrictive" accommodations possible while their case winds through the courts.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
The large backlog of cases meant many children would wait several years before receiving their first hearing, and many more before their cases were fully adjudicated, during which they would be allowed to remain in the United States. The understanding that they would be allowed to remain in the US indefinitely prompted more children to follow. It has also been suggested that some of the new arrivals incorrectly believed that they would be allowed to apply for DACA, a 2012 policy that offers protection from deportation for certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
For women, as crime increased in the last decade, sexual assault and rape have become a prevalent issue in the Northern Triangle as well. In 2014, 40 percent of the people fleeing were women compared to a low 27 percent in recent times. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women showed that in July 2014,  the violent death of women in Honduras shot up at an alarming rate of 263.4 from 2005 to 2013, fueling the migration of women. In 2013, 95 percent of the cases for these women go unsolved and women leaving Honduras also face the same risks on their journey.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
Organized crime and drug-related violence in these countries have also increased danger for the people living in these areas. Since the 1980s, Colombian smugglers have used Central America, specifically, Honduras as a corridor to the United States. Children in schools are forced to smuggle drugs as drug traffickers infiltrate schools. Drug trafficking has taken over these countries as waves of gangsters were deported from the United States in the 90s. Gangs like MS-13 have grown in size and power. Young children are the most vulnerable as gangsters will offer the choice of working for them or leaving.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
The presence of Mexican cartels has been a feature of illegal drug trade in Guatemala where law enforcement presence is sparse and there is plenty of open land where planes smuggling cocaine can easily land. In the Northern Triangle(Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador), studies have shown that 19 out of 20 murders will not result in prosecution.


2014 American immigration crisis, Causes
In addition to violence and crime, food shortages and malnutrition continue to plague the region. It is estimated that half of Guatemalan children are chronically malnourished, resulting in stunted growth and eventually death. While these countries have some of the greatest potential for economic growth, inequality and general incompetency by the government has left these issues either under served or unaddressed completely.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
On July 9, 2014, a hearing on the crisis was held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Craig Fugate, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified, "We are talking about large numbers of children, without their parents, who have arrived at our border—hungry, thirsty, exhausted, scared and vulnerable". Senator Dianne Feinstein compared the crisis to the American refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany aboard the MS St. Louis. The President's request for additional funds was met in both houses of Congress by proposals to modify or eliminate the rights granted by the 2008 reauthorization of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
As most unaccompanied children from Central America do not attempt to avoid capture but turn themselves into the Border Patrol after entering the United States, they usually cross the Rio Grande into Texas. The large number of children overwhelmed facilities in Texas in summer 2014 and some of the women and children were transferred to INS facilities in California. In most instances this occurred without incident, but in Murrieta, California, on July 1, 2014, buses carrying immigrants to a Border Patrol facility were blocked by flag-waving protesters. On July 15, 2014, in Oracle, Arizona, pro and con demonstrators faced off regarding possible use of a local facility to house immigrant children. The location of the shelters being used is confidential, but a local law enforcement officer had informed the community of the planned use of the facility.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
The U.S. Department of Justice reported in June 2014 that it will provide around 100 lawyers and paralegals for the rising number of children coming to the United States without parents or relatives. Under this program, the federal government will issue $2 million in grants to compensate lawyers and paralegals representing unaccompanied children. Attorney General Eric Holder stated, "We're taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society". The Obama administration estimated roughly 60,000 unaccompanied children would come across the border to the United States in 2014.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
On July 18, 2014, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick offered one of two locations to the federal government as temporary shelters for up to 1,000 children. One was Camp Edwards, in Bourne on Cape Cod; the other was Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. Governor Patrick explained, "Before a facility opens here, the Commonwealth will sign an MOU with the federal government to ensure that a municipality hosting the facility has input on the circumstances of being a host location."


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
On July 23, 2014, Senator Barbara Mikulski introduced the bill Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2014 (S. 2648; 113th Congress), a bill that would appropriate supplemental funds for FY2014 to specified federal agencies and programs to respond to the increased apprehensions of unaccompanied children and minors along the southwestern border, fight wildfires, and support Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The bill would provide $2.7 billion in supplemental funding. On July 28, 2014, President Barack Obama released a statement of administration policy in support of the bill, urging "Congress to act swiftly to pass the bill to allow a timely and effective response to these pressing needs."


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
On July 29, 2014, Rep. Hal Rogers introduced the bill "Making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014 (H.R. 5230; 113th Congress)" (also known as the "Secure the Southwest Border Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2014" and the "Secure the Southwest Border Act of 2014") into the United States House of Representatives. H.R. 5230 would provide supplemental FY2014 appropriations to several federal agencies for expenses related to the rise in unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by an alien minor at the southwest border.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
The bill would also change the procedures for screening and processing unaccompanied alien children who arrive at the border from certain countries. H.R. 5230 would provide $659 million in supplemental funding. On July 30, 2014, President Barack Obama released a statement of administration policy stating that "his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill" if it were presented to him for his signature. The House was scheduled to vote on the bill on July 31, 2014, but the Republican leadership canceled the vote because it did not have enough votes to pass H.R. 5230 at that time.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
The Department of Health and Human Services had opened three temporary shelters for children at military bases in Texas, Oklahoma, and California, but the sites were closed in August 2014 as the flow of migrant children declined and the capacity of permanent centers to house children was expanded. However, the new centers, such as the one in Artesia, New Mexico, may not offer facilities compatible with due process. After a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU about conditions at Artesia conditions there showed marked improvement.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
In January 2014 the Department of Homeland Security sought a contractor to manage and transport approximately 65,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) "ages infant to 17 years of age". The Department of Health and Human Services stated in its "Budget in Brief" that the expected annual number of arriving UAC had increased from 6,560 to an estimated 60,000 for fiscal year 2014, and the Government anticipated awarding a five-year contract to deal with them.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
In October 2014, immigrant rights groups filed Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") litigation to compel the release of documents regarding the use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained at the family detention center in Artesia, New Mexico. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
The provisions of H.R. 7311, William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, signed into law by George W. Bush give substantial rights and protection to unaccompanied children from countries which do not have a common border with the United States. This made expeditious deportation of the large number of children from Central America difficult and expensive, prompting a call by President Barack Obama for an emergency appropriation of nearly $4 billion and resulted in discussions on how to interpret or revise the 2008 law in order to expedite handling large numbers of unaccompanied children.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the government
In November 2017, the Trump administration ended the Central American Minors Program which allowed eligible minors from the Northern Triangle to apply for the refugee resettlement or parole in the United States, thereby limiting the flow of Central Americans to the United States.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America
While the U.S. had numerous domestic policies for dealing with the massive rise in immigration, on July 8, 2014 President Obama also requested funding for "the repatriation and reintegration of migrants to countries in Central America and to address the root causes of migration from these countries." This announcement was the start of a long term U.S. plan to address three "areas of action": security, governance, and prosperity. Congress has so far granted $1.4 billion contingent on these Central American countries meeting security, corruption, and human rights requirements to receive assistance.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America
When funding was first appropriated for these countries, funding was split fairly evenly between addressing economic and civil concerns and "rule of law" concerns regarding police and judicial institutions. So far none of these countries have met all of the legislative requirements to receive all of the funding allotted to them.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America
In a statement made on the inauguration of Jimmy Morales as the President of Guatemala, the Obama administration addressed certain criteria that the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala) would be expected to uphold in order to receive assistance from the United States. These criteria were: Combat corruption and strengthen public institutions, improve civilian jurisdiction and counter activities of criminal organizations, protect human rights, support programs to promote equitable growth, implement effective civil society consultations, and increase government revenues. These criteria have reflected long-standing obstacles for prosperity in these countries, particularly those relating to equality, human rights, and collecting government revenues needed to fund police.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America
While funding for these efforts has been fairly consistent the past two years, the FY2018 budget proposed by President Trump would cut aid to these countries by roughly 30%. It is hard to know what the full implications of this cut to funding would be, but experts have claimed that it would most likely result in backsliding of any progress made in the governance of these countries.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, Detention centers
One cause of the influx of immigrants with children was word of mouth in Central America that families with children were not detained due to lack of facilities. Detention centers with facilities for families with children were built in Artesia, New Mexico, a temporary site that closed in December 2014; one in Dilley, Texas, that is managed by Corrections Corporation of America and located across 50 acres with a capacity of 2,400 migrants; Karnes City, Texas, with a capacity of 530 people; and a small facility in Berks County, Pennsylvania.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, Detention centers
The facility in Dilley includes barrack-style housing, a school, a medical clinic, and other facilities. However, migrants in the detention centers were refused bond in order to deter other migrants. In February 2015, a federal court, in a case under appeal, forbade use of deterrence of others as a consideration in refusing bond. Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security issued new regulations easing requirements for bonding out reducing the average stay in the facility to 22 days, and some detainees who have been detained 6 months or longer have been released. Johnson believes maintaining some capacity to detain families is necessary to maintain deterrence.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the public
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus called for humane measures with respect to families and children fleeing violence in Central America and continued efforts to refine administrative policy with respect to the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the public
A 2014 Mother Jones article suggested that many of the unaccompanied children were attempting to escape abusive situations. Analysis of Border Patrol statistics by the Director of the Regional Security Policy Program at the Washington Office on Latin America shows a correlation between gang-related killing of children in Central America, particularly San Pedro Sula in Honduras, and the surge in migration.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the public
According to the Immigrant Rights' Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR),(usually called the immigration courts), within the United States Department of Justice each have statutory responsibilities with respect to unaccompanied children from Central America.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From the public
The ACLU believes the stipulated settlement in Flores v. Meese, which is a United States District Court for the Central District of California decision which sets out a nationwide policy concerning federal detention of any minor, also applies.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From migrants' home countries
While acknowledging suggestions that immigration reform may have helped prompt the influx of child migrants, the Obama administration has also focused attention on measures to be taken by the migrants' home countries to try to stop the flow. In July 2014, President Obama met with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to seek their cooperation in reducing migration of children and expediting returns. In the summer of 2014, Mexico took actions to keep migrants from using freight trains ("La Bestia") to travel through Mexico.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From migrants' home countries
As of February, 2015, the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the U.S. border, 12,509, during the previous 5 months had dropped while the number deported by Mexico to their home countries, 3,819, had risen by 56% year on year from the same period in fiscal year 2014. Conditions in Honduras had improved with a drop of about 20% in the homicide rate from 2012 to 2014.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From migrants
Since the placement of restrictions on illegal immigration through policies pursued by the Trump administration, the movement of people from Central America to the United States has shifted to Mexico. The role of Mexico as a transit country between the Northern Triangle and the United States has transformed since the 2016 Presidential election with more people applying for asylum in Mexico than in the U.S.


2014 American immigration crisis, Response, From migrants
According to a Reuters report, "Mexican asylum data and testimony from migrants in Tenosique suggest that although fewer Central Americans are trying to enter the United States, plenty are still fleeing their poor, violent home countries, with many deciding to stay longer in Mexico, which has traditionally been a transit country."


2014 American immigration crisis, Aftermath
After the 2014 immigration crisis in America, the influx of immigrants from Central America to the United States continued but in lower proportions. Over the early 2010s America and Mexico presented consistent pushback to all immigrants from Central America. America and Mexico both also showed no immediate immigration policy changes even with the crisis. The United States and Mexico have militarized borders and dissuaded immigrants from making the journey as of 2014.


2014 American immigration crisis, Aftermath
However Central American families and children keep on coming to borders seeking asylum. In the aftermath, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) detainment of Central American people in the Mexican-American borders increased over 100 percent from late 2015 to early 2016 compared the year before. Also, United States government ordered for the deportation in 7,700 in 2014 to 2015 without court-hearings. However, there are 62,000 children still awaiting legal proceedings after 2014. In most cases, 94 percent of these children do not have attorneys to represent them in court. However, people from the Northern Triangle continue to immigrate despite the militarization of the CBP, increase in deportations, and the dangerous journey because their homes remain unsafe.


2014 American immigration crisis, Aftermath, Settlement in the United States
During the 2011-2015 period, most migrants from Central America settled in California, followed by Texas and Florida. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, "In the 2011-15 period, the top four counties with Central American immigrants were Los Angeles County in California, Harris County in Texas, Miami-Dade County in Florida, and Prince George's County in Maryland", which comprise approximately 30% percent of the total Central American immigrant population in the United States for this period.


2014 American immigration crisis, Aftermath, Settlement in the United States
According to U.S. Census data from 2010, out of the top 10 cities where Guatemalan Americans reside in the United States, three cities fall in California: Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, and Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario. Salvadoran Americans in the United States were in the highest concentrations in Los Angeles, Houston and New York in 2010, with 7 out of the top 25 cities with Salvadoran Americans falling in California. In 2011, Honduran Americans in the United States were populated in the highest proportions in Florida, Texas, and New York.


2014 American immigration crisis, Aftermath, Settlement in the United States
After arriving in the United States, these migrants fall into the legal category of undocumented aliens, which puts them at the risk of deportation. Deportation to their home country poses further problems for Central Americans, as the NCTA countries are not prepared to deal with their return due to inadequacies in the physical and political infrastructure.


2014 American immigration crisis, Resources
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) provides free legal aid to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings across the U.S. KIND was founded in October 2008 by Angelina Jolie in a collaboration with the Microsoft Corporation and 25 leading U.S. law firms.


2014 American immigration crisis, Resources
In addition to smaller organizations focused on assisting Central Americans in the United States, broader international organizations such as UNICEF, International Rescue Committee, Amnesty International also provide advocacy and support for Central Americans migrating to the U.S.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Scamming of relatives
On July 23, 2013, The New York Times reported that con artists had fraudulently obtained confidential information about child immigrants held at military bases in Oklahoma and Texas and had been contacting the children's parents asking for money to facilitate release of the children and reunification with their family. No money is actually required. The matter was reported to be under investigation by the FBI.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
In July 2015, a federal indictment revealed a forced-labor ring operating on an egg farm near Marion, Ohio, in which teenagers from Guatemala were being lured with promises of education and then forced to work 12-hour days, six or seven days a week. The teens lived in squalid trailers, were denied their paychecks and threatened with death if they sought help.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
At least half a dozen of the teenagers found working on the farm had been in the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with the processing, treatment, and placement of unaccompanied migrant children pending the resolution of immigration proceedings. Government officials placed the teens with human traffickers who posed as relatives and friends. Concerns that the Ohio case was indicative of larger, systemic problems led to a Senate inquiry into how human traffickers successfully exploited the federal resettlement processes.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
The results of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' probe were released on January 26, 2016. Led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the committee found that preventable mistakes were made in the Ohio case. HHS officials failed to run background checks on the sponsors and any secondary caregivers in the households, site visits to the sponsors' homes were not conducted, and in one instance a sponsor was permitted to prevent a child-welfare case worker from visiting with one of the victims.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
System-wide, the Senate inquiry found similar, serious gaps including weak processes for verifying relationships between children and sponsors, failure to perform background checks, lack of home visits and home studies, and the placement of children without meeting sponsors in person. Other key deficiencies in HHS policies and procedures were an inability to detect when a sponsor is seeking custody of multiple unrelated children and allowing sponsors to deny HHS from providing post-release services to children and barring contact between HHS care providers and the children.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
Ultimately, the inquiry concluded that the policies for placing unaccompanied minors exposed them to a risk of trafficking and other abuse at the hands of government-approved sponsors. The Subcommittee identified more than 10 other cases of post-placement trafficking beyond the Ohio case and 15 additional cases with "serious trafficking indicators." It is unclear how many other unaccompanied minors, placed by HHS, have been victims of trafficking or other abuses. HHS maintains no standardized mechanism of tracking trafficking or abuse cases. However, the findings of the Senate investigation echoed results of an independent investigation by the Associated Press (AP) in which the AP found more than two dozen children who had been placed with sponsors and subjected to sexual abuse, starvation, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
On January 25, 2016, the AP reported that in response to surges in the number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the U.S. in the past three years, government officials weakened safety standards related to the transfer of children from government shelters into sponsors' homes and the vetting of sponsors. Specifically, the government stopped fingerprinting most adults seeking to claim the children. In April 2014, the Office of Refugee Resettlement also stopped requiring original copies of birth certificates to prove the identity of most sponsors and later it decided not to complete forms that request sponsors' personal and identifying information before sending many of the children to sponsors' homes.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Trafficking and abuse of migrant children resettled by federal officials
Although the number of unaccompanied youth arriving from Central America declined significantly in 2015, with a 49% drop in the first 8 months of the year when compared to that same period in 2014, the number of young migrants is again on the rise. HHS officials stated that they are strengthening their policies and procedures for placing children and have signed a contract to open more shelters; however, they remain under pressure from the Senate Subcommittee and advocates to both account for documented failings and address their causes.


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Refugees vs. immigrants terminology
In the discussion on the influx of Central Americans into the United States the terms "refugee" and "immigrant" have been used interchangeably or synonymously to represent Central Americans entering the country, despite the different legal ramifications of the two terms. The difference in the usage of these terms comes from the different perspectives on the factors motivating movement to the United States, with "push" factors being associated with the terminology of "refugee" and "pull" factors being associated with the terminology of "immigrant". According to Karen Musalo and Eunice Lee,


2014 American immigration crisis, Other issues, Refugees vs. immigrants terminology
For those adopting the "push" factor outlook, the crisis is humanitarian one, reflecting human rights violations and deprivations in the region, and the protection needs of refugees (UNHCR 2015b; UNHCR 2014; Musalo et al. 2015) While acknowledging that reasons for migration may be mixed, this view recognizes the seriousness of regional refugee protection needs. For those focusing on "pull" factors, the crisis has its roots in border enforcement policies that were perceived as lax by potential migrants, and that thereby acted as an inducement to migration (Harding 2014; Navarette, Jr. 2014)


2014 American raid in Libya
The 2014 American raid in Libya refers to the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala by U.S. troops and law enforcement agents during a late night raid in Libya. The raid was carried out on a coastal villa and seized Khattala before bringing him aboard a U.S. warship to be brought to the United States for legal proceedings.


2014 American raid in Libya, Background
Ahmed Abu Khattala, a former prisoner under the Gaddafi regime and Ansar al-Sharia senior commander, was charged in a sealed indictment in August 2013 for his role in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. In 2013, Abu Anas al-Libi, a Libyan militant wanted for his role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings was seized in Tripoli by U.S. troops.


2014 American raid in Libya, Raid
On the night of 14–15 June 2014, Abu Khattala was lured by an informant to an isolated coastal villa in Libya where he was seized by Delta Force operators and FBI agents. According to court records, Abu Khattala was armed with a handgun, violently resisted capture, and was wounded during the capture, requiring medical treatment. He was handcuffed, blindfolded, gagged, and earmuffed before being transported to the USS New York which transported him to Washington, D.C..


2014 American raid in Libya, Aftermath
Abu Khattala was convicted on four terrorism-related charges in November 2017.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria
The 2014 rescue mission in Syria was an American led effort to locate and rescue hostages being held by ISIS forces. Plans to rescue the hostages were accelerated after the execution of journalist James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Kayla Mueller by ISIS militants. A total of 14 hostages were held hostage by the IS at an undisclosed location. Though no soldiers were killed, the mission failed to locate and rescue the hostages.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, History
All three of the beheading victims were American citizens. Foley was working as a freelancer for GlobalPost and other media outlets like Agence France-Presse during the Syrian Civil War when he was captured by ISIS militants in 2012. Sotloff was an American-Israeli journalist who was working as a reporter in Syria before his capture. Mueller was a part of Doctors Without Borders and was captured by ISIS after leaving a hospital in the region. ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a militant group, established in 2006, that is based and operates in Syria and Iraq, although they are primarily headquartered in Syria. The organization receives funding from oil production and smuggling, taxes, ransoms from kidnappings, selling stolen artifacts, extortion and controlling crops.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, History
Foley, Sotloff, and Mueller were kidnapped at varying times and held hostage by ISIS until their deaths. Hostages from other countries were also captured and held for ransom. The United States government does not negotiate with terrorist and refuses to pay ransom to these organizations. However, there are other countries that do not abide by the same policy and paid the ransom for their citizens held captive by ISIS forces. The surviving hostages were instrumental in assisting the United States with locating and targeting the potential hostage house.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, History
The US sent the FBI to make contact with former European hostages who were released when their home country paid the ransom. During the FBI's interview with the released hostages (whose names have not been disclosed for security reasons), they were able to compile information about the hostage house and where to locate the hostages within the home.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Mission planning
One of the original hostages' ransom was paid by the British government and this individual was released from ISIS. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to locate and contact this individual for questioning in regards to where the remaining hostages were located – geographical location and who could be located inside the hostage house – and other information that would assist officials in conducting the mission. Statements from the unidentified source along with other intelligence gatherings were then taken to the Pentagon to discuss the specific details of the rescue mission. Officials were aware that the possibility of successfully rescuing all of the hostages without a single American fatality would be slim but the risk was too big not to act. The covert mission was approved and operation planning soon ensued.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Operation
Once the FBI finished their initial data collection abroad, it was submitted to the Department of Defense for analysis. More information was further compiled as the investigative team raced to assess the location of the home, any persons who may be guarding the home, and any other factors that needed to be assessed. Although there was a fear that the remaining hostages had been moved, ultimately the planning for the covert mission began as the risk of not attempting the rescue mission was too great.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Operation
In early July, U.S. air strikes were conducted against an ISIS military base camp known as the "Osama bin Laden Camp" while modified Black Hawk helicopters left from an FOB in Jordan and traveled towards the suspected hostage house. As the special operations team landed near the home they instantly encountered and killed multiple ISIS members. After landing on the ground, the soldiers blocked the main road towards Raqqa and ambushed the suspected hostage-house in a prison. The special operations team searched the home under the protection of drones circling above, and with ‘warplanes’ on standby. The raid is said to have involved dozens of special operations forces from all US military services, including the 160th special operations aviation regiment.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Operation
The special operations team was unable to locate and rescue any hostages. The special operations team conducted house-to-house searches in Uqayrishah. At this time, IS forces from Raqqa began to arrive and a three-hour firefight ensued. During the fighting, militants also directed RPG fire at a U.S. aircraft; a bullet grazed the leg of the pilot.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Operation
Later, it was reported the hostages had been relocated 24 hours before the attempted rescue. It remained unclear whether the operation failed due to incorrect intelligence or if IS forces had been alerted in advance of the mission.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Operation
During the home search, the special forces were able to acquire cellphones, hair, half-eaten meals and, blankets for forensic evidence. After searching the home and gathering forensic evidence the operations team returned to the undisclosed base.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Aftermath
John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary during the Syrian Rescue Mission, issued this statement in regard to the failed mission, “the operation involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIS.” However, the mission was unsuccessful because the targets were not at the target location. No American forces were killed during the operation, however during the immediate storming of the suspected location, one ISIS fighter fired at a Black Hawk helicopter, striking the pilot in the leg.


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Aftermath
A Department of Defense (DOD) official commented on the failure of this mission that, "we're not sure why they were moved... By the time we got there, it was too late... a matter of hours, perhaps a day or two." Since the American hostages were moved from their initial location. Defense officials were openly frustrated with the transparency of the administration regarding information of this mission. The National Security Council spokeswoman expressed that they had, "never intended to disclose this operation." This issue is extremely concerning and was taken into consideration when President Obama reiterated to the Member States at the Security Council that, "foreign fighters were likely to return to their home countries to carry out attacks."


2014 American rescue mission in Syria, Political aftermath
The failure of the operation resulted in backlash from both sides of the political aisle. During an interview, President Obama commented, “We will do everything we can, short of providing an incentive for future Americans to be caught." Although the policy remains to not negotiate with terrorist organizations, the administration admitted that communication with families could have been improved. In response to this, the administration requested a review of the operation by the National Counterterrorism Center. Nonetheless, families of the victims still criticized the non-negotiating and raised the concern of the timeline for the rescue operation. Despite the concerns, senior officials remarked on the complexity of the operation and deemed the logistical planning of the operation one of the fastest moving approval processes.


2014 Americas Rugby Championship
The 2014 Americas Rugby Championship season was the fifth season of the Americas Rugby Championship. It took place between 11 and 19 October 2014 in Langford, British Columbia. The tournament featured the same teams as in the 2013 version: Argentina Jaguars, Canada Selects, USA Selects, and Uruguay. The Argentina Jaguars won the tournament for a fifth straight time, once again going undefeated in three matches.


2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger
The 2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the 27th edition of the tournament which was part of the 2014 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey between 8 and 14 September 2014.


2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger, Singles main draw entrants, Other Entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:


2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger – Doubles
Jamie Delgado and Jordan Kerr were the defending champions. Delgado chose not to compete this year, while Kerr partnered Fabrice Martin but they lost in the final to Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray, 4–6, 6–2, [8–10].


2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger – Singles
Mikhail Kukushkin was the current champion, but chose not to compete this year.


2014 Amex-Istanbul Challenger – Singles
Adrian Mannarino won the title when Tatsuma Ito retired in the final.


2014 Amputee Football World Cup
The 2014 Amputee Football World Cup, aka 2014 Amputee Soccer World Cup, was the 14th edition of the biannual international competition of amputee football national men's teams. It was organized by the World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF), and was held in Culiacán, Mexico between November 30–December 8, 2014. The previous event took place in Russia in 2012.


2014 Amputee Football World Cup
Russia won the title for the seventh time, defeating Angola in the final. Turkey became bronze medalist before Poland.


2014 Amputee Football World Cup, Participating nations
Following 23 nations, including Uzbekistan as the defending world champion, competed in six groups while two nations Georgia did not show,  Iran withdrew and Ghana arrived late. The first three ranking teams in each group qualified for the knockout stage of 16 while the last ranking teams, four in total, played "Copa Culiacan" to determine the places 17-20.


2014 Amstel Gold Race
The 2014 Amstel Gold Race was the 49th running of the Amstel Gold Race, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 20 April 2014 over a distance of 251 kilometres (156.0 miles) and it was the eleventh race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season. It was won for the third time by Belgium's Philippe Gilbert, ahead of countryman Jelle Vanendert and Australia's Simon Gerrans.


2014 Amstel Gold Race, Teams
As the Amstel Gold Race was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Six other squads were given wildcard places, thus completing the 24-team peloton.


2014 Amsterdam drug deaths
On 25 November 2014 two British tourists aged 20 and 21 died in a hotel room in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, after snorting white heroin that was sold as cocaine by a street dealer. The bodies were found less than a month after another British tourist died in similar circumstances. At least 17 other people have had medical treatment after taking the white heroin. Health authorities in Amsterdam are warning of the dangerous drugs being sold. Large signs were set up at popular tourist locations in the city. An award of €15,000 is offered for tips about the dealer of the drugs. On 20 January 2015 the last warning signs were removed from the city as there had been no further incidents.


2014 Amsterdam drug deaths
In the night of 25 February 2015, three Danish tourists became unwell after using white heroin, but left the hospital later. The police spread video material of the alleged seller. The warning signs returned in the streets in Amsterdam and flyers and posters were deployed at crucial places in the city. People could also test their drugs at 30 sites in the city.


2014 Amsterdam drug deaths
The man who sold the drugs in February 2015 was Flip S. from Amsterdam. In court there was not enough evidence that he was also the dealer of the drugs causing the other incidents. There was no evidence he sold the drugs to harm people. In February 2016, he was sentenced to one year in prison for dealing drugs and not taking proper precautions like testing his drugs beforehand.