title: Channel 4

text: On 27 September 2022, the other 6 advertising regions of Channel 4 (South, Midlands, North, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Rep of Ireland) were made available in HD on Sky and Virgin Media. Prior to this, Channel 4 HD was only available in the London advertising region.


title: Channel 4

text: All 4 is a video on demand service from Channel 4, launched in November 2006 as 4oD. The service offers a variety of programmes recently shown on Channel 4, E4, More4 or from their archives, though some programmes and movies are not available due to rights issues.


title: Channel 4

text: Channel 4 originally licensed an ancillary teletext service to provide schedules, programme information and features. The original service was called 4-Tel, and was produced by Intelfax, a company set up especially for the purpose. It was carried in the 400s on Oracle. In 1993, with Oracle losing its franchise to Teletext Ltd, 4-Tel found a new home in the 300s, and had its name shown in the header row. Intelfax continued to produce the service and in 2002 it was renamed FourText.


title: Channel 4

text: In 2003, Channel 4 awarded Teletext Ltd a ten-year contract to run the channel's ancillary teletext service, named Teletext on 4. The service closed in 2008, and Teletext is no longer available on Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5.


title: PDF

text: Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF has its roots in "The Camelot Project" initiated by Adobe co-founder John Warnock in 1991.


title: PDF

text: PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008. The last edition as ISO 32000-2:2020 was published in December 2020.


title: PDF

text: PDF files may contain a variety of content besides flat text and graphics including logical structuring elements, interactive elements such as annotations and form-fields, layers, rich media (including video content), three-dimensional objects using U3D or PRC, and various other data formats. The PDF specification also provides for encryption and digital signatures, file attachments, and metadata to enable workflows requiring these features.


title: PDF

text: Adobe Systems made the PDF specification available free of charge in 1993. In the early years PDF was popular mainly in desktop publishing workflows, and competed with a variety of formats such as DjVu, Envoy, Common Ground Digital Paper, Farallon Replica and even Adobe's own PostScript format.


title: PDF

text: PDF was a proprietary format controlled by Adobe until it was released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008, at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts. In 2008, Adobe published a Public Patent License to ISO 32000-1 granting royalty-free rights for all patents owned by Adobe that are necessary to make, use, sell, and distribute PDF-compliant implementations.


title: PDF

text: PDF 1.7, the sixth edition of the PDF specification that became ISO 32000-1, includes some proprietary technologies defined only by Adobe, such as Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA) and JavaScript extension for Acrobat, which are referenced by ISO 32000-1 as normative and indispensable for the full implementation of the ISO 32000-1 specification. These proprietary technologies are not standardized and their specification is published only on Adobe's website. Many of them are also not supported by popular third-party implementations of PDF.


title: PDF

text: In December 2020, the second edition of PDF 2.0, ISO 32000-2:2020, was published, including clarifications, corrections and critical updates to normative references. ISO 32000-2 does not include any proprietary technologies as normative references.


title: PDF

text: A PDF file is often a combination of vector graphics, text, and bitmap graphics. The basic types of content in a PDF are:


title: PDF

text: In later PDF revisions, a PDF document can also support links (inside document or web page), forms, JavaScript (initially available as a plugin for Acrobat 3.0), or any other types of embedded contents that can be handled using plug-ins.


title: PDF

text: PostScript is a page description language run in an interpreter to generate an image, a process requiring many resources. It can handle graphics and standard features of programming languages such as codice_1 statements and codice_2 commands. PDF is largely based on PostScript but simplified to remove flow control features like these, while graphics commands equivalent to codice_3 remain.


title: PDF

text: Historically, the PostScript-like PDF code is generated from a source PostScript file. The graphics commands that are output by the PostScript code are collected and tokenized. Any files, graphics, or fonts to which the document refers also are collected. Then, everything is compressed to a single file. Therefore, the entire PostScript world (fonts, layout, measurements) remains intact.


title: PDF

text: PDF 1.6 and later supports interactive 3D documents embedded in a PDF file: 3D drawings can be embedded using U3D or PRC and various other data formats.


title: PDF

text: A PDF file is organized using ASCII characters, except for certain elements that may have binary content.


title: PDF

text: The file starts with a header containing a magic number (as a readable string) and the version of the format, for example codice_4. The format is a subset of a COS ("Carousel" Object Structure) format. A COS tree file consists primarily of "objects", of which there are nine types:


title: PDF

text: Furthermore, there may be comments, introduced with the percent sign (codice_12). Comments may contain 8-bit characters.


title: PDF

text: Objects may be either "direct" (embedded in another object) or "indirect". Indirect objects are numbered with an "object number" and a "generation number" and defined between the codice_13 and codice_14 keywords if residing in the document root. Beginning with PDF version 1.5, indirect objects (except other streams) may also be located in special streams known as "object streams" (marked codice_15). This technique enables non-stream objects to have standard stream filters applied to them, reduces the size of files that have large numbers of small indirect objects and is especially useful for "Tagged PDF". Object streams do not support specifying an object's "generation number" (other than 0).


title: PDF

text: An index table, also called the cross-reference table, is located near the end of the file and gives the byte offset of each indirect object from the start of the file. This design allows for efficient random access to the objects in the file, and also allows for small changes to be made without rewriting the entire file ("incremental update"). Before PDF version 1.5, the table would always be in a special ASCII format, be marked with the codice_16 keyword, and follow the main body composed of indirect objects. Version 1.5 introduced optional "cross-reference streams", which have the form of a standard stream object, possibly with filters applied. Such a stream may be used instead of the ASCII cross-reference table and contains the offsets and other information in binary format. The format is flexible in that it allows for integer width specification (using the codice_17 array), so that for example, a document not exceeding 64 KiB in size may dedicate only 2  bytes for object offsets.


title: PDF

text: If a cross-reference stream is not being used, the footer is preceded by the codice_21 keyword followed by a dictionary containing information that would otherwise be contained in the cross-reference stream object's dictionary:


title: PDF

text: Within each page, there are one or multiple content streams that describe the text, vector and images being drawn on the page. The content stream is stack-based, similar to PostScript.


title: PDF

text: There are two layouts to the PDF files: non-linearized (not "optimized") and linearized ("optimized"). Non-linearized PDF files can be smaller than their linear counterparts, though they are slower to access because portions of the data required to assemble pages of the document are scattered throughout the PDF file. Linearized PDF files (also called "optimized" or "web optimized" PDF files) are constructed in a manner that enables them to be read in a Web browser plugin without waiting for the entire file to download, since all objects required for the first page to display are optimally organized at the start of the file. PDF files may be optimized using Adobe Acrobat software or QPDF.


title: PDF

text: The basic design of how graphics are represented in PDF is very similar to that of PostScript, except for the use of transparency, which was added in PDF 1.4.


title: PDF

text: PDF graphics use a device-independent Cartesian coordinate system to describe the surface of a page. A PDF page description can use a matrix to scale, rotate, or skew graphical elements. A key concept in PDF is that of the "graphics state", which is a collection of graphical parameters that may be changed, saved, and restored by a "page description". PDF has (as of version 2.0) 25 graphics state properties, of which some of the most important are:


title: PDF

text: As in PostScript, vector graphics in PDF are constructed with "paths". Paths are usually composed of lines and cubic Bézier curves, but can also be constructed from the outlines of text. Unlike PostScript, PDF does not allow a single path to mix text outlines with lines and curves. Paths can be stroked, filled, fill then stroked, or used for clipping. Strokes and fills can use any color set in the graphics state, including "patterns". PDF supports several types of patterns. The simplest is the "tiling pattern" in which a piece of artwork is specified to be drawn repeatedly. This may be a "colored tiling pattern", with the colors specified in the pattern object, or an "uncolored tiling pattern", which defers color specification to the time the pattern is drawn. Beginning with PDF 1.3 there is also a "shading pattern", which draws continuously varying colors. There are seven types of shading patterns of which the simplest are the "axial shading" (Type 2) and "radial shading" (Type 3).


title: PDF

text: Raster images in PDF (called "Image XObjects") are represented by dictionaries with an associated stream. The dictionary describes the properties of the image, and the stream contains the image data. (Less commonly, small raster images may be embedded directly in a page description as an "inline image".) Images are typically "filtered" for compression purposes. Image filters supported in PDF include the following general-purpose filters:


title: PDF

text: Normally all image content in a PDF is embedded in the file. But PDF allows image data to be stored in external files by the use of "external streams" or "Alternate Images". Standardized subsets of PDF, including PDF/A and PDF/X, prohibit these features.


title: PDF

text: Text in PDF is represented by "text elements" in page content streams. A text element specifies that "characters" should be drawn at certain positions. The characters are specified using the "encoding" of a selected "font resource".


title: PDF

text: A font object in PDF is a description of a digital typeface. It may either describe the characteristics of a typeface, or it may include an embedded "font file". The latter case is called an "embedded font" while the former is called an "unembedded font". The font files that may be embedded are based on widely used standard digital font formats: Type 1 (and its compressed variant CFF), TrueType, and (beginning with PDF 1.6) OpenType. Additionally PDF supports the Type 3 variant in which the components of the font are described by PDF graphic operators.


title: PDF

text: These fonts are sometimes called the "base fourteen fonts". These fonts, or suitable substitute fonts with the same metrics, should be available in most PDF readers, but they are not "guaranteed" to be available in the reader, and may only display correctly if the system has them installed. Fonts may be substituted if they are not embedded in a PDF.


title: PDF

text: Within text strings, characters are shown using "character codes" (integers) that map to glyphs in the current font using an "encoding". There are several predefined encodings, including "WinAnsi", "MacRoman", and many encodings for East Asian languages and a font can have its own built-in encoding. (Although the WinAnsi and MacRoman encodings are derived from the historical properties of the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, fonts using these encodings work equally well on any platform.) PDF can specify a predefined encoding to use, the font's built-in encoding or provide a lookup table of differences to a predefined or built-in encoding (not recommended with TrueType fonts). The encoding mechanisms in PDF were designed for Type 1 fonts, and the rules for applying them to TrueType fonts are complex.


title: PDF

text: For large fonts or fonts with non-standard glyphs, the special encodings "Identity-H" (for horizontal writing) and "Identity-V" (for vertical) are used. With such fonts, it is necessary to provide a "ToUnicode" table if semantic information about the characters is to be preserved.


title: PDF

text: The original imaging model of PDF was, like PostScript's, "opaque": each object drawn on the page completely replaced anything previously marked in the same location. In PDF 1.4 the imaging model was extended to allow transparency. When transparency is used, new objects interact with previously marked objects to produce blending effects. The addition of transparency to PDF was done by means of new extensions that were designed to be ignored in products written to PDF 1.3 and earlier specifications. As a result, files that use a small amount of transparency might view acceptably by older viewers, but files making extensive use of transparency could be viewed incorrectly by an older viewer.


title: PDF

text: The transparency extensions are based on the key concepts of "transparency groups", "blending modes", "shape", and "alpha". The model is closely aligned with the features of Adobe Illustrator version 9. The blend modes were based on those used by Adobe Photoshop at the time. When the PDF 1.4 specification was published, the formulas for calculating blend modes were kept secret by Adobe. They have since been published.


title: PDF

text: The concept of a transparency group in PDF specification is independent of existing notions of "group" or "layer" in applications such as Adobe Illustrator. Those groupings reflect logical relationships among objects that are meaningful when editing those objects, but they are not part of the imaging model.


title: PDF

text: A "tagged" PDF (see clause 14.8 in ISO 32000) includes document structure and semantics information to enable reliable text extraction and accessibility. Technically speaking, tagged PDF is a stylized use of the format that builds on the logical structure framework introduced in PDF 1.3. Tagged PDF defines a set of standard structure types and attributes that allow page content (text, graphics, and images) to be extracted and reused for other purposes.


title: PDF

text: Tagged PDF is not required in situations where a PDF file is intended only for print. Since the feature is optional, and since the rules for Tagged PDF were relatively vague in ISO 32000-1, support for tagged PDF amongst consuming devices, including assistive technology (AT), is uneven as of 2021. ISO 32000-2, however, includes an improved discussion of tagged PDF which is anticipated to facilitate further adoption.


title: PDF

text: An ISO-standardized subset of PDF specifically targeted at accessibility, PDF/UA, was first published in 2012.


title: PDF

text: With the introduction of PDF version, 1.5 (2003) came the concept of Layers. Layers, or as they are more formally known Optional Content Groups (OCGs), refer to sections of content in a PDF document that can be selectively viewed or hidden by document authors or viewers. This capability is useful in CAD drawings, layered artwork, maps, multi-language documents, etc.


title: PDF

text: Basically, it consists of an Optional Content Properties Dictionary added to the document root. This dictionary contains an array of Optional Content Groups (OCGs), each describing a set of information and each of which may be individually displayed or suppressed, plus a set of Optional Content Configuration Dictionaries, which give the status (Displayed or Suppressed) of the given OCGs.


title: PDF

text: A PDF file may be encrypted, for security, in which case a password is needed to view or edit the contents. PDF 2.0 defines 256-bit AES encryption as standard for PDF 2.0 files. The PDF Reference also defines ways that third parties can define their own encryption systems for PDF.


title: PDF

text: PDF files may be digitally signed, to provide secure authentication; complete details on implementing digital signatures in PDF is provided in ISO 32000-2.


title: PDF

text: PDF files may also contain embedded DRM restrictions that provide further controls that limit copying, editing or printing. These restrictions depend on the reader software to obey them, so the security they provide is limited.


title: PDF

text: The standard security provided by PDF consists of two different methods and two different passwords: a "user password", which encrypts the file and prevents opening, and an "owner password", which specifies operations that should be restricted even when the document is decrypted, which can include modifying, printing, or copying text and graphics out of the document, or adding or modifying text notes and AcroForm fields. The user password encrypts the file, while the owner password does not, instead relying on client software to respect these restrictions. An owner password can easily be removed by software, including some free online services. Thus, the use restrictions that a document author places on a PDF document are not secure, and cannot be assured once the file is distributed; this warning is displayed when applying such restrictions using Adobe Acrobat software to create or edit PDF files.


title: PDF

text: Even without removing the password, most freeware or open source PDF readers ignore the permission "protections" and allow the user to print or make copy of excerpts of the text as if the document were not limited by password protection.


title: PDF

text: Beginning with PDF 1.5, Usage rights (UR) signatures are used to enable additional interactive features that are not available by default in a particular PDF viewer application. The signature is used to validate that the permissions have been granted by a bona fide granting authority. For example, it can be used to allow a user:


title: PDF

text: For example, Adobe Systems grants permissions to enable additional features in Adobe Reader, using public-key cryptography. Adobe Reader verifies that the signature uses a certificate from an Adobe-authorized certificate authority. Any PDF application can use this same mechanism for its own purposes.


title: PDF

text: Under specific circumstances including non-patched systems of the receiver, the information the receiver of a digital signed document sees can be manipulated by the sender after the document has been signed by the signer.


title: PDF

text: PAdES ("PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures") is a set of restrictions and extensions to PDF and ISO 32000-1 making it suitable for advanced electronic signatures. This is published by ETSI as TS 102 778.


title: PDF

text: PDF files can have file attachments which processors may access and open or save to a local filesystem.


title: PDF

text: PDF files can contain two types of metadata. The first is the Document Information Dictionary, a set of key/value fields such as author, title, subject, creation and update dates. This is optional and is referenced from codice_24 key in the trailer of the file. A small set of fields is defined and can be extended with additional text values if required. This method is deprecated in PDF 2.0.


title: PDF

text: In PDF 1.4, support was added for Metadata Streams, using the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) to add XML standards-based extensible metadata as used in other file formats. PDF 2.0 allows metadata to be attached to any object in the document, such as information about embedded illustrations, fonts, images as well as the whole document (attaching to the document catalog), using an extensible schema.


title: PDF

text: PDF documents can also contain display settings, including the page display layout and zoom level in a Viewer Preferences object. Adobe Reader uses these settings to override the user's default settings when opening the document. The free Adobe Reader cannot remove these settings.


title: PDF

text: PDF files can be created specifically to be accessible for people with disabilities. PDF file formats in use can include tags, text equivalents, captions, audio descriptions, and more. Some software can automatically produce tagged PDFs, but this feature is not always enabled by default. Leading screen readers, including JAWS, Window-Eyes, Hal, and Kurzweil 1000 and 3000 can read tagged PDF. Moreover, tagged PDFs can be re-flowed and magnified for readers with visual impairments. Adding tags to older PDFs and those that are generated from scanned documents can present some challenges.


title: PDF

text: One of the significant challenges with PDF accessibility is that PDF documents have three distinct views, which, depending on the document's creation, can be inconsistent with each other. The three views are (i) the physical view, (ii) the tags view, and (iii) the content view. The physical view is displayed and printed (what most people consider a PDF document). The tags view is what screen readers and other assistive technologies use to deliver high-quality navigation and reading experience to users with disabilities. The content view is based on the physical order of objects within the PDF's content stream and may be displayed by software that does not fully support the tags' view, such as the Reflow feature in Adobe's Reader.


title: PDF

text: PDF/UA, the International Standard for accessible PDF based on ISO 32000-1 was first published as ISO 14289–1 in 2012 and establishes normative language for accessible PDF technology.


title: PDF

text: "Rich Media PDF" is a PDF file including interactive content that can be embedded or linked within the file. It can contain images, audio, video content or buttons. For example, if the interactive PDF is a digital catalog for an E-commerce business, products can be listed on the PDF pages, can be added images, links to the website and buttons to order directly from there.


title: PDF

text: "Interactive Forms" is a mechanism to add forms to the PDF file format. PDF currently supports two different methods for integrating data and PDF forms. Both formats today coexist in the PDF specification:


title: PDF

text: AcroForms were introduced in the PDF 1.2 format. AcroForms permit using objects ("e.g." text boxes, Radio buttons, "etc.") and some code ("e.g." JavaScript). Alongside the standard PDF action types, interactive forms (AcroForms) support submitting, resetting, and importing data. The "submit" action transmits the names and values of selected interactive form fields to a specified uniform resource locator (URL). Interactive form field names and values may be submitted in any of the following formats, (depending on the settings of the action's ExportFormat, SubmitPDF, and XFDF flags):


title: PDF

text: The entire document can be submitted rather than individual fields and values, as was defined in PDF 1.4.


title: PDF

text: AcroForms can keep form field values in external stand-alone files containing key-value pairs. The external files may use Forms Data Format (FDF) and XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) files. The usage rights (UR) signatures define rights for import form data files in FDF, XFDF and text (CSV/TSV) formats, and export form data files in FDF and XFDF formats.


title: PDF

text: In PDF 1.5, Adobe Systems introduced a proprietary format for forms; Adobe XML Forms Architecture (XFA). Adobe XFA Forms are not compatible with ISO 32000's AcroForms feature, and most PDF processors do not handle XFA content. The XFA specification is referenced from ISO 32000-1/PDF 1.7 as an external proprietary specification, and was entirely deprecated from PDF with ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0).


title: PDF

text: Anyone may create applications that can read and write PDF files without having to pay royalties to Adobe Systems; Adobe holds patents to PDF, but licenses them for royalty-free use in developing software complying with its PDF specification.


title: PDF

text: In November 2019, researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and Hackmanit GmbH published attacks on digitally signed PDFs . They showed how to change the visible content in a signed PDF without invalidating the signature in 21 of 22 desktop PDF viewers and 6 of 8 online validation services by abusing implementation flaws.


title: PDF

text: At the same conference, they additionally showed how to exfiltrate the plaintext of encrypted content in PDFs. In 2021, they showed new so-called "shadow attacks" on PDFs that abuse the flexibility of features provided in the specification. An overview of security issues in PDFs regarding denial of service, information disclosure, data manipulation, and Arbitrary code execution attacks was presented by Jens Müller.


title: PDF

text: PDF attachments carrying viruses were first discovered in 2001. The virus, named "OUTLOOK.PDFWorm" or "Peachy", uses Microsoft Outlook to send itself as an attached Adobe PDF file. It was activated with Adobe Acrobat, but not with Acrobat Reader.


title: PDF

text: From time to time, new vulnerabilities are discovered in various versions of Adobe Reader, prompting the company to issue security fixes. Other PDF readers are also susceptible. One aggravating factor is that a PDF reader can be configured to start automatically if a web page has an embedded PDF file, providing a vector for attack. If a malicious web page contains an infected PDF file that takes advantage of a vulnerability in the PDF reader, the system may be compromised even if the browser is secure. Some of these vulnerabilities are a result of the PDF standard allowing PDF documents to be scripted with JavaScript. Disabling JavaScript execution in the PDF reader can help mitigate such future exploits, although it does not protect against exploits in other parts of the PDF viewing software. Security experts say that JavaScript is not essential for a PDF reader and that the security benefit that comes from disabling JavaScript outweighs any compatibility issues caused. One way of avoiding PDF file exploits is to have a local or web service convert files to another format before viewing.


title: PDF

text: On March 30, 2010 security researcher Didier Stevens reported an Adobe Reader and Foxit Reader exploit that runs a malicious executable if the user allows it to launch when asked.


title: PDF

text: PDF viewers are generally provided free of charge, and many versions are available from a variety of sources.


title: PDF

text: There are many software options for creating PDFs, including the PDF printing capabilities built into macOS, iOS, and most Linux distributions, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office 2007 (if updated to SP2) and later, WordPerfect 9, Scribus, numerous PDF print drivers for Microsoft Windows, the pdfTeX typesetting system, the DocBook PDF tools, applications developed around Ghostscript and Adobe Acrobat itself as well as Adobe InDesign, Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop. Google's online office suite Google Docs allows for uploading and saving to PDF. Some web apps offer free PDF editing and annotation tools.


title: PDF

text: The Free Software Foundation once thought of as one of their high priority projects to be "developing a free, high-quality and fully functional set of libraries and programs that implement the PDF file format and associated technologies to the ISO 32000 standard." In 2011, however, the GNU PDF project was removed from the list of "high priority projects" due to the maturation of the Poppler library, which has enjoyed wider use in applications such as Evince with the GNOME desktop environment. Poppler is based on Xpdf code base. There are also commercial development libraries available as listed in List of PDF software.


title: PDF

text: The Apache PDFBox project of the Apache Software Foundation is an open source Java library for working with PDF documents. PDFBox is licensed under the Apache License.


title: PDF

text: Raster image processors (RIPs) are used to convert PDF files into a raster format suitable for imaging onto paper and other media in printers, digital production presses and prepress in a process known as rasterisation. RIPs capable of processing PDF directly include the Adobe PDF Print Engine from Adobe Systems and Jaws and the Harlequin RIP from Global Graphics.


title: PDF

text: In 1993, the Jaws raster image processor from Global Graphics became the first shipping prepress RIP that interpreted PDF natively without conversion to another format. The company released an upgrade to their Harlequin RIP with the same capability in 1997.


title: PDF

text: Agfa-Gevaert introduced and shipped Apogee, the first prepress workflow system based on PDF, in 1997.


title: PDF

text: Many commercial offset printers have accepted the submission of press-ready PDF files as a print source, specifically the PDF/X-1a subset and variations of the same. The submission of press-ready PDF files is a replacement for the problematic need for receiving collected native working files.


title: PDF

text: In 2006, PDF was widely accepted as the standard print job format at the Open Source Development Labs Printing Summit. It is supported as a print job format by the Common Unix Printing System and desktop application projects such as GNOME, KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice and OpenOffice have switched to emit print jobs in PDF.


title: PDF

text: Some desktop printers also support direct PDF printing, which can interpret PDF data without external help.


title: PDF

text: PDF was selected as the "native" metafile format for Mac OS X, replacing the PICT format of the earlier classic Mac OS. The imaging model of the Quartz graphics layer is based on the model common to Display PostScript and PDF, leading to the nickname "Display PDF". The Preview application can display PDF files, as can version 2.0 and later of the Safari web browser. System-level support for PDF allows Mac OS X applications to create PDF documents automatically, provided they support the OS-standard printing architecture. The files are then exported in PDF 1.3 format according to the file header. When taking a screenshot under Mac OS X versions 10.0 through 10.3, the image was also captured as a PDF; later versions save screen captures as a PNG file, though this behavior can be set back to PDF if desired.


title: PDF

text: Adobe Acrobat is one example of proprietary software that allows the user to annotate, highlight, and add notes to already created PDF files. One UNIX application available as free software (under the GNU General Public License) is PDFedit. The freeware Foxit Reader, available for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux, allows annotating documents. Tracker Software's PDF-XChange Viewer allows annotations and markups without restrictions in its freeware alternative. Apple's macOS's integrated PDF viewer, Preview, does also enable annotations as does the open-source software Skim, with the latter supporting interaction with LaTeX, SyncTeX, and PDFSync and integration with BibDesk reference management software. Freeware Qiqqa can create an annotation report that summarizes all the annotations and notes one has made across their library of PDFs. The Text Verification Tool exports differences in documents as annotations and markups.


title: PDF

text: There are also web annotation systems that support annotation in pdf and other documents formats. In cases where PDFs are expected to have all of the functionality of paper documents, ink annotation is required.


title: PDF

text: The Open XML Paper Specification is a competing format used both as a page description language and as the native print spooler format for Microsoft Windows since Windows Vista.


title: PDF

text: Mixed Object: Document Content Architecture is a competing format. MO:DCA-P is a part of Advanced Function Presentation.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Mesut Özil (, ; born 15 October 1988) is a German professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir. Özil is known for his technical skills, creativity, passing skills, and vision. He can also play as a wide midfielder.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Born and raised in Gelsenkirchen, Özil began his senior club career playing for hometown club Schalke 04, before signing with Werder Bremen in 2008, aged 19. After winning the DFB-Pokal in his first season, his individual performances led to a move to Real Madrid in 2010. There, he helped the club win a La Liga title, and ranked first in league assists for three straight seasons. In 2013, Özil was the subject of a then-club record association football transfer when he signed for Arsenal in a transfer worth up to £42.5 million (€50 million), becoming the most expensive German player ever at the time. In England, he won three FA Cups and helped end Arsenal's nine-year trophy drought, while recording the second most assists ever (19) in a Premier League season. In 2021, Özil joined Fenerbahçe on a free transfer; after his contract with the club was terminated in 2022, he signed with İstanbul Başakşehir.


title: Mesut Özil

text: A German international, Özil holds the record for the most German Player of the Year awards (5). He made his senior debut for the Germany national team in 2009 at age 20, and appeared in five major tournaments. He was the top assist provider at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012, where he helped Germany twice reach the semi-final. Özil helped Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but retired from international competition in 2018, alleging discrimination and disrespect by the German Football Association (DFB) and the German media.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was born on 15 October 1988 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, as a son of Turkish immigrants. His grandfather moved as a "Gastarbeiter" from Zonguldak, Turkey to Germany. He played, at youth level, for various clubs in Gelsenkirchen during 1995~2000, before a five-year stint for Rot-Weiss Essen.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In 2005, Özil moved to the youth system of Schalke 04. He was deployed a midfielder and wore 17 as his squad number, after starting as a playmaker and central attacking midfielder in the place of the suspended Lincoln in DFL-Ligapokal matches against Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. Upon making the first team at Schalke, he was described as "the next big thing". However, soon after declining an offer from Schalke 04, claiming that a yearly salary of €1.5 million would not be enough, he eventually fell out with club management and moved on to Werder Bremen in January 2008. This led to Mirko Slomka, the then-Schalke manager, claiming that Özil would not play another match for Schalke.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 31 January 2008, Özil moved to Werder Bremen for a reported fee of , signing a contract with the German club until 30 June 2011. Other than Werder Bremen, Hannover 96 and VfB Stuttgart were reportedly interested as well in binding Özil to their respective clubs, however did not want to pay such a high transfer fee. After transferring to Werder Bremen, Özil got the jersey number 11. On 26 April 2008 (30th match day) Özil scored the go-ahead goal in the 33rd minute against Karlsruher SC, to put his team up 2–1. This was Özil's first Bundesliga goal. He played in twelve games throughout the second half of the season, six times playing in the starting formation, becoming second with Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga at the end of the 2007–08 season.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Although Bremen failed to get going in their 2008–09 Bundesliga season, eventually finishing a disappointing tenth, Özil managed to make a significant impact in most games and came away with a respectable three goals and 15 assists that highlighted his attacking credentials. He helped lead the North German club to the 2009 DFB-Pokal with the winning goal in a 1–0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in Berlin. He also excelled in Europe where he led Werder Bremen to the final of the last ever UEFA Cup, losing out to Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In the 2009–10 season, Özil became the key playmaker of Werder Bremen, stepping into the shoes of Brazilian Diego who had left for Juventus, was named the best player of the first leg of the 2009 Bundesliga season. On 1 May 2010, the 33rd match day, Özil played his 100th Bundesliga game, scoring the 1–0 lead in a 2–0 win against his former club Schalke. Özil went on and led Werder Bremen to become third in the league and again to the DFB-Pokal final, however this time it was lost against Bayern Munich by 0–4. In his second season, Bremen finished a respectable third, with Özil contributing 9 goals and 17 assists in 31 league fixture appearances. During the 2009–10 season, Özil was also declared as the "best player of the first half of the season".


title: Mesut Özil

text: Due to his performances in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Özil ensured his place among Europe's top young talents. He was sought by teams like Barcelona, Arsenal and Real Madrid. English striker Wayne Rooney was one of the many admirers Özil had garnered with his performances in the World Cup, and had even asked Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to sign the German playmaker. There were reports claiming that a deal was struck for a transfer to Barcelona, but Werder Bremen denied the reports and on 17 August 2010, the team announced that they had reached an agreement with Real Madrid for Özil's transfer. The transfer fee is believed to have been in the region of €15 million. Upon signing, Özil said, "When the offer came in to join Real Madrid, there is no decision to make. Let's be honest – you don't refuse this club. I was in no rush to leave Werder Bremen, but this is one club you say yes to. They are an institution, a club with a fantastic history, stadium and squad full of world-class players. The prospect of performing at the Bernabéu is so awesome you jump straight in."


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil made his debut on 22 August in a friendly match against Hércules, which Real Madrid won 3–1. His jersey numbers were changed often before the season started. He was given the number 26 in the pre-season and 19 for his debut. But following the transfer of Rafael van der Vaart to Tottenham Hotspur, he was given the vacant 23.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was brought in to back up teammate Kaká, but due to his surgery, Özil obtained a starting role. He then made his La Liga debut for Real Madrid as a substitute for Ángel Di María in the 62nd minute against Mallorca, which Real Madrid drew 0–0.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He made his season debut in the Champions League on 15 September. He got his first assist with Real Madrid in the 74th minute against Ajax after he crossed for a Gonzalo Higuaín goal.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He walked off the pitch as a second-half substitute to standing ovations in his first two games as a starter at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. His first goal came in a league match against Deportivo de La Coruña on 3 October 2010, in a 6–1 victory. Özil's first Champions League goal with Real came in the 14th minute against Milan on 19 October 2010. On 22 December, he made his debut in the Copa del Rey, scoring once in an 8–0 victory over Levante.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He finished the season with 25 assists, the highest for any player in any major European competition that season. Özil's performances for Real Madrid during his first season were praised by media, fans and players.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil began wearing the number 10 shirt for Real Madrid in 2011–12, signalling manager José Mourinho's intent to use the German international as his main playmaker. On 14 August 2011, Özil scored his first goal against Barcelona in "El Clásico" in the first leg of the 2011 Supercopa de España. On 17 August 2011, he was sent off in the last minute of the second leg of the 2011 Supercopa after an altercation with Barça forward David Villa. Özil expressed his desire to end his football days at the club in an interview with German magazine "kicker", saying, "I'd like to end my career at Real Madrid. I know it will be difficult because I have many more years ahead of me and many younger and good players will also be out there, but I want to be part of that future. I know what I'm capable of, and I'm convinced, I'll stay at Real Madrid many years."


title: Mesut Özil

text: He finished atop the La Liga assists chart, with 17 assists. On 2 May 2012, he helped Real Madrid to clinch a record 32nd La Liga title as he assisted Real's first goal and scored the second goal against Bilbao, which Real Madrid later won by 3–0. Eleven days later, Özil scored two goals in the final game of the regular season against Mallorca, once again consolidating his excellent performance with the club. The win made Real the first club in the Spanish top flight to ever reach 100 points in a single season. His fine form with Real Madrid and German national team saw him earn nomination for UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, in which he finished tenth, being the youngest player to feature in the Top 10.


title: Mesut Özil

text: With arrival of Luka Modrić before the start of the season, some in the media claimed Özil was unhappy at Real Madrid, but he later rejected such talk and claimed he was happy at the club and looking forward to competing for his place. After the start of the season, he added the Supercopa de España title to his honours. In league play, he provided an important assist to Cristiano Ronaldo who equalised in a 2–2 draw against Barcelona at Camp Nou. On 6 November, Özil scored a crucial 89th-minute free-kick to rescue a draw for Real Madrid and secure a point against Borussia Dortmund. He continued his fine form in the league as he scored another brace against Real Valladolid to rescue Real Madrid in a 3–2 win. He then went on to finish the season with 29 assists, although Real Madrid did not win any silverware except for the Supercopa de España, Özil's performance was praised. At the end of the season, Özil had 26 assists, more than any other player in the leagues.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 2 September 2013, Özil agreed to join English side Arsenal. Both the fee paid for Özil as well as the contract duration were undisclosed, but they are believed to be around £42.5 million (€50 million) for a five-year deal. The transfer makes him the most expensive German football player of all time. Özil was assigned the number 11 shirt and the centre-attacking midfield role by the team.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Contract leaks in January 2016, however, have revealed that the record fee was actually broken down to £37.4 million (€44 million) with a further £5.1 million (€6 million) split evenly over six years from July 2014, subject to Champions League qualification. A buy-back option also allows Real Madrid a 48-hour first option on Özil should Arsenal agree a sale for the playmaker to another Spanish club.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil said of the transfer, "At the weekend, I was certain I would stay at Real Madrid but afterwards I realised I did not have the faith from the coach or the bosses. I am a player who needs this faith and that is what I have felt from Arsenal, which is why I have joined." In Özil's first press conference, he said: "I would have come here for free, that wouldn't have been a problem." Özil additionally stated that Arsène Wenger played an important role in his decision: "When I spoke to Arsène Wenger on the phone, he was full of respect, and as a player, I need that." Several Real Madrid players were dissatisfied with Özil leaving the club, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who said, "He was the player who best knew my moves in front of goal ... I'm angry about Özil leaving."


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil made his debut for Arsenal in their league game away to Sunderland on 14 September 2013. He assisted Olivier Giroud's goal in the 11th minute of the match as they went on to win 3–1. Three days after that, he made his Champions League debut for Arsenal against Marseille. Just over three weeks after making his debut for Arsenal, he made his home debut against Stoke City in a 3–1 victory. He was involved in all three goals, with two assists and a free kick which was saved but fell into Aaron Ramsey's path. He scored his first goal for Arsenal, a brilliantly controlled finish from a Ramsey cross, in a 2–0 win against Napoli in the Champions League. On 19 October, he scored his first two Premier League goals during the 4–1 home win against Norwich City. Özil played in all six of Arsenal's games in November. The German playmaker provided the cross for Jack Wilshere's second goal against Marseille and gave further assists for Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini in the 3–0 win over Cardiff City. Özil missed the chance to score his fourth Arsenal goal when he saw his penalty in the win over Marseille saved by Steve Mandanda.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In October, Özil was again short-listed for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award, along with former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. Özil was also featured on the UEFA Team of the Year. Özil began December with two goals in as many games against Hull City and Everton. A minor shoulder injury forced him out of the final game of December in a win against Newcastle United. After the 6–3 defeat at Manchester City in which he made another assist, Özil was involved in an altercation with teammate Per Mertesacker, who was angry with Özil's failure to thank the travelling supporters, an omission for which he subsequently apologised via Facebook.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil started four of Arsenal's six games in January. The playmaker missed Arsenal's victory over Cardiff City on New Year's Day with a shoulder injury before returning to make a late appearance from the bench against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. The 25-year-old produced a slide-rule pass for Lukas Podolski to score his first goal against Coventry City and provided the ball for Santi Cazorla's goal against Southampton at the end of the month to take his assist tally to 10.


title: Mesut Özil

text: February was a difficult month for Özil, as he struggled to reach the heights he showed in his first few months at the club. The German playmaker pulled off a brilliant piece of skill to win a penalty against Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockout phase, but his spot-kick was saved by Manuel Neuer. Speaking before the draw with Manchester United, Arsène Wenger spoke about Özil, saying, "He has done well, he is adapting as well to the Premier League – we have seen it before [that it takes time]. I wouldn't like to put too much pressure on him because he has been a top-class player until now. He didn't have the best of games [at Liverpool] (a 5–1 loss, where Özil was the centre of attention due to a bad performance) but that can happen. He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League and for me he is an exceptional player."


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 8 March, Özil scored his first goal of 2014 in a 4–1 FA Cup quarter-final win over Everton. Özil was showing signs of old form and started in Arsenal's second leg Champions League last 16 clash with Bayern Munich. He was substituted at half-time, and the reasoning behind it was that Özil had suffered a hamstring injury and will face a month out, missing key fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester City.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 20 April, Özil made an instant impact with a lively display against Hull when he returned to the Arsenal team in a 3–0 win. He then returned to goalscoring form with Arsenal's second in their 3–0 win over Newcastle United, and then assisted Olivier Giroud's header. Manager Wenger praised Özil's impact upon his return, saying, "Mesut Özil is very important for the team. He's been missed while he's been injured. We've missed some very important players in an important period of the season. We're really pleased to have people like him back in the team and performing at the top level because that's what we need."


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil played all three of Arsenal's remaining fixtures during the last month of his debut season in England. The German playmaker came off at half-time in extra-time of Arsenal's 2014 FA Cup Final victory over Hull at Wembley Stadium. Speaking before the FA Cup final, Per Mertesacker praised his compatriot's impact on the side during his first season in England. "You could see from the start that he is one of the best players in Europe", said Mertesacker. "His contributions and assists are vital for any club so we are happy to have him back." Özil completed his maiden season at Arsenal with 13 assists and seven goals in all competitions spanning a course of 40 games.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil returned to club training in the middle of August after participating in Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup win in Brazil. On 23 August, Özil made his first appearance of the season in a 2–2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park. On 27 August, he played a part in Alexis Sánchez's winning goal in the second leg of the Champions League qualification play-off against Beşiktaş, playing a one-two with Jack Wilshere in the build-up to the goal. On 20 September, Özil opened the scoring and assisted Danny Welbeck in a 3–0 victory against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Özil featured in the three following games and started in Arsenal's Champions League group stage victory against Galatasaray, providing an assist for Alexis Sánchez in a 4–1 win. On 8 October, the DFB declared that Özil would be sidelined for between 10 and 12 weeks with a left knee injury obtained during a 2–0 defeat at Chelsea three days prior to the international break. The prognosis would rule him out of the remainder of Arsenal's Champions League group matches, as well as four international fixtures.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 11 January 2015, Özil made his first appearance in three months as a 73rd-minute substitute in a 3–0 win against Stoke City. He scored on his return to the starting line-up in Arsenal's 3–2 win at Brighton & Hove Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup on 25 January, latching onto a pass from Tomáš Rosický before scoring Arsenal's second goal. In his first Premier League start of the year, Özil scored once and provided an assist for Olivier Giroud as Arsenal beat Aston Villa 5–0 at home on 1 February. The following week, Özil scored the opening goal in the Gunners' 2–1 North London derby defeat to Tottenham at White Hart Lane. He continued his good form by creating both goals in a 2–1 victory over Leicester City on 10 February. He also grabbed a pair of assists two weeks later, in a 2–0 victory against Everton. On 4 April, he scored the second goal for his team in a 4–1 win over Liverpool, which would be his final goal of the season. After a 3–1 win over Hull, manager Arsène Wenger praised him by saying, "Overall his influence was very strong."


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil followed up this goal with two assists for Alexis Sánchez in a 2–1 win against Reading in the 2014–15 FA Cup semi-final on 18 April. Özil started in the 2015 FA Cup Final as Arsenal beat Aston Villa in a commanding 4–0 victory on 30 May, concluding his second season at Arsenal with 5 goals and 9 assists, in 33 appearances across all competitions, and back-to-back FA Cups.


title: Mesut Özil

text: After scoring during a pre-season game against Lyon, Özil received praise from his manager, with Wenger calling for him to have his best season yet in Arsenal colours. On 2 August 2015, Özil started for Arsenal in the 2015 FA Community Shield, where the Gunners beat league champions Chelsea 1–0 at Wembley Stadium. A week later, he made his first appearance of the Premier League season in Arsenal's 2–0 opening day defeat to West Ham United.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil scored his first goal of the 2015–16 season in a 3–0 home victory over Manchester United on 4 October. He had earlier assisted Alexis Sánchez to give the Gunners the lead in the sixth minute of the match. Özil was named man of the match in a 3–0 win at Watford's Vicarage Road on 17 October, supplying assists for Sánchez and Olivier Giroud. On 20 October, Özil scored his first Champions League goal of the season in Arsenal's 2–0 group stage home win over Bayern Munich.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He set a new Premier League record being the first player to assist in six consecutive matches when setting up Kieran Gibbs' for 1–1 in the derby versus Tottenham on 8 November 2015. He then extended that run to seven straight games with an assist against West Bromwich Albion, before scoring his second Champions League goal of the season in a three-goal victory at home to Dinamo Zagreb. He then scored for the second game in a row when he clipped in the opener in a 1–1 draw at Norwich. Özil continued his run of good form by providing four assists in the next three games, against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Sunderland, helping his team win all three matches. On 28 December 2015, Özil assisted the first goal and scored the second in a 2–0 win against AFC Bournemouth, creating nine scoring chances in total – the most in a single Premier League game by any player during the season.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 24 January 2016, Özil played his 100th game for the Gunners in a 1–0 home defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League. The next Premier League game against Southampton at home on 2 February saw Özil creating 10 chances – beating the previous record, 9 created and held by him during the season. This proved in vain, however, as the match ended 0–0 with the Gunners slumping into fourth as they failed to score in three consecutive Premier League games. He then ended the Gunners' barren goal-scoring run in the Premier League with the opener against Bournemouth in a 2–0 away win on 7 February. Özil delivered his 17th assist in the Premier League from a free kick for Danny Welbeck to head in the winner deep into stoppage time as Arsenal came from behind to beat league leaders Leicester City 2–1 on 14 February.


title: Mesut Özil

text: After a 2–0 home defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League, Özil scored and assisted in a 3–2 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United as the Gunners lost further ground in the title race. Özil started in the 2–1 Watford in the FA Cup, where he set up Danny Welbeck for Arsenal's consolation goal with a backheel assist, and three days later in a 3–1 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League as Arsenal crashed out in successive cup competitions in March.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil assisted Olivier Giroud's second goal in Arsenal's last Premier League match of the season against Aston Villa in a 4–0 home victory as the Gunners finished second ahead of fierce rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. That was Özil's 19th assist of the season in the league, a record only beaten by Thierry Henry with 20 in 2002–03 in Premier League history. Özil ended his third season at Arsenal with 8 goals and 20 assists in all club competitions, which won him the Arsenal Player of the Season award.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil missed Arsenal's opening day defeat to Liverpool, after his excursions at UEFA Euro 2016 meant he was not match-fit. However, he started his first game of the new season for his club in a 1–3 away win at Watford on 28 August, in which he scored his first goal of the campaign, heading in an Alexis Sánchez cross to score Arsenal's third of the afternoon. His second arrived just under a month later, netting a controlled volley in a 3–0 home win against Chelsea. On 15 October, Özil again scored a volley at home, as he recorded the decider in a tense 3–2 win against Swansea. Four days later, in a Champions League home game against Ludogorets Razgrad, Özil assisted Theo Walcott's goal, and scored his first professional career hat-trick, which was concluded after again volleying as Arsenal went on to win 6–0. On 29 October, he registered his first league assist of the season, after Giroud latched onto a corner to score the club's third in a 1–4 win against Sunderland. For his performances, he was awarded the club's Player of the Month award for the month of October.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil began November by recording his third assist, which came in the North London derby, and was given after his free kick was turned into the net by opposing defender Kevin Wimmer. Özil would then record Arsenal's Goal of the Season on 19 October, as he scored a remarkable solo winner in a nervy 2–3 away win against Ludogorets, which capped a resilient comeback after Arsenal were down by two goals in the opening 15 minutes. He scored the opener in a 1–5 away win against West Ham United on 3 December, and assisted the fourth goal. He repeated his set-up exploits three days later in a Champions League win against Basel, feeding Iwobi from the left for the fourth. He then scored a header in a win against Stoke City a week later, before rounding out the year, Özil assisted the only goal in a home victory against West Brom on 26 December. He registered his first assist of 2017 after placing his corner directly in the path of teammate Mustafi, who headed past Tom Heaton in a 2–1 win against Burnley. Despite an impressive first half to the campaign, Özil would then struggle with muscular problems, and was absent for a number of Arsenal's games.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He returned to fitness to star in a 2–2 draw against Manchester City on 2 April, where he assisted the equaliser. He would also break his breaking a four-month cold goalless spell after placing a controlled finish in a 3–0 win against West Ham United three days later, while he also assisted the second. He then scored another volley just under two weeks later, in a win against Middlesbrough. He then recorded his ninth assist on 10 May, where he set up Sánchez's opener. In the last three league gameweeks, he scored his final goal of the season against Stoke City, while his final two assists arrived in the following two weeks, against both Sunderland and Everton. Despite the club missing out on the league and Champions League qualification, Özil concluded his fourth season at the club with 12 goals and 13 assists in 44 appearances across all competitions, and featured heavily as he won the 2017 FA Cup.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil entered the 2017–18 season in the final year of his contract, and struggled initially, featuring sparsely with knee inflammation. He recorded a goal and an assist in a 5–2 victory over Everton on 22 October, and recorded another assist a week later, against Swansea City. His performance in the North London Derby on 18 November was heavily praised, after creating the first goal. He then scored and assisted twice in a 5–0 victory over Huddersfield to close out November, and scored in back-to-back weeks to close out December, first in a victory against West Ham, and then a scintillating scooped finish in a 3–3 draw against Liverpool.


title: Mesut Özil

text: After entering January with six months remaining on his contract, which would allow him to engage in pre-contract negotiations with any club, Özil assisted in a win over Crystal Palace, and also assisted in a loss in the reverse fixture against Swansea City on 30 January. A day later, he re-signed with the club on a three-year extension, keeping him contracted until 2021. It was also reported his salary more than doubled to £350,000 per week, making him the highest-paid player in Arsenal's history.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 15 February, Özil scored in the first knockout round of the Europa League, netting calmly against Östersund. He then gained a brace of assists in the next round, against Milan. On 11 March, he recorded his 50th Premier League assist in a 3–0 win over Watford. In doing so, he became the fastest player to reach 50 assists in the competition, in his 141st appearance, breaking the record previously held by Eric Cantona. He continued his exploits in the Europa League by recording a hat-trick of assists in a victory against CSKA Moscow on 5 April. Persistent injuries limited his involvement in the club's final games of the season, however, Özil ended his fifth season at Arsenal with 5 goals and 13 assists in 35 appearances, and featured heavily in the club's later run and appearance in the 2018 EFL Cup Final.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Following the departure of Jack Wilshere, Özil returned to wearing the number 10, for the 2018–19 season. He was also named one of Arsenal's vice-captains. Özil scored his first goal of the season in Arsenal's 2–1 away win over Newcastle on 15 September, and netted again a week later in a 4–2 victory in the UEFA Europa League over Vorskla Poltava. He scored his third goal of the season in a victory over Watford on 28 September. On 22 October, he captained Arsenal for the first time in a 3–1 comeback win over Leicester City. Özil was involved in all three goals, scoring the first, and adding two assists in a man-of-the-match performance.


title: Mesut Özil

text: His involvement in the first-team began to falter due to a mix of injuries and a dip in form, but he returned to assist the only goal in a victory in the Europa League against Qarabag on 12 December. Özil was also publicly left out of the first team squad on a few occasions, leading to speculation he could depart Arsenal in the January transfer window. However, no move materialised, and his form continued to suffer, with rumours also circulating of Özil having a fractured relationship with head coach Unai Emery, who publicly questioned the player's motivation. He returned to goalscoring form in a 5–1 home victory against Bournemouth, where he also registered an assist, on 27 February, while his last statistical contribution came in the form of a goal in a loss against Crystal Palace in April. As a result, he registered one of his worst statistical campaigns as an Arsenal player, netting six goals and providing four assists.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Despite this, Özil featured in the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final, where, after Arsenal's defeat, Özil reportedly vocalised his frustration with Emery in front of his teammates, and continued to be linked with a move away from north London.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was given additional time off to start the 2019–20 season, after being the victim of an attempted robbery. He made his season debut on 15 September, in a 2–2 draw against Watford. He was controversially left out of the following Premier League games against Aston Villa and Manchester United, and registered his second appearance of the season in an EFL Cup tie against Nottingham Forest, where he again failed to complete 90 minutes. Özil made his third appearance of the season in an EFL Cup tie defeat against Liverpool in October. He registered his first assist against Liverpool in the same competition at the end of October, and subsequently returning to the league starting lineup for November; he registered his first league assist in a 2–1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in December.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil only completed 90 minutes once more in the league for the remainder of the campaign, scoring his first goal of the season in a 4–0 victory over Newcastle United on 16 February 2020. He registered his second league assist against West Ham United on 7 March, but did not feature for the club again following the resumption of competitive football after its suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Özil registered his worst statistical season, as well making the lowest number of appearances in a campaign since the 2007–08 season. It was also reported Özil refused a voluntary 12.5% paycut amid the pandemic, doing so as the club "[lacked] information and [left] many questions unanswered" over their use of these wages.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was left out of the match-day squads for the first matches of the 2020–21 season and was not included in the club's squad for the Europa League group stage. It was also later confirmed that Özil was omitted from Arsenal's 25-man Premier League squad, leaving him eligible only to play for Arsenal's U-23 squad. Özil released a statement on Twitter in which he said that he was "deeply disappointed" but will "continue fighting for [his] chance". Some had suggested Özil's omission from the squad was related to his criticism of the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China, from which Arsenal publicly distanced themselves.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 27 January 2021, Özil moved to Turkish club Fenerbahçe. He joined as a free agent after his contract with Arsenal was terminated six months prematurely, with the player reportedly forgoing part of the £7 million (€7.9 million) owed to him by Arsenal. Although financial terms were undisclosed, Özil signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with Fenerbahçe worth a reported £4.5 million (€5 million) a season, and received a £2.6 million (€3 million) signing-on bonus.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil said he was "very excited" to be joining the club and would "wear the shirt with pride". Fenerbahçe had wanted to sign Özil for years, and chairman Ali Koç also commended the deal, noting they were unable to sign the player in 2019 due to financial concerns. Özil had stated a desire to represent Fenerbahçe, the team he supported as a child during his career, as well as play in Major League Soccer (MLS), with Özil also engaging in negotiations with D.C. United prior to signing for Fenerbahçe.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In his first season, Özil was assigned the number 67 jersey, in reference to the license plate of his ancestral town, Zonguldak, as his recognizable number 10, as well as his previous number 11, were occupied by Mbwana Samatta and Diego Perotti, respectively. On 2 February, he made his Süper Lig debut for Fenerbahçe as a substitute for Mame Thiam in the 77th minute against Hatayspor, which Fenerbahçe won 2–1. Özil missed eight games in his first season, from 4 March until 29 April, after rupturing ankle ligaments and contracting COVID-19. He recorded his first assist for the club on 11 May in a 2–1 loss against Sivasspor, as Fenerbahçe eventually finished third.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In his second season, Özil was assigned the number 10 jersey, his recognizable number. On 15 August, he scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 away victory against Adana Demirspor, also captaining the team for the first time. On 16 September, he scored his first European goal for Fenerbahçe in a UEFA Europa League game against Eintracht Frankfurt. On 21 November, he scored an equaliser in the 31st minute, sprinting from the halfway line to the penalty area, against Galatasaray in the Intercontinental Derby, which Fenerbahçe won 2–1 at Nef Stadium.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 24 March 2022, Fenerbahçe announced that he was excluded from squad, along with his teammate Ozan Tufan. Özil completed his second season at Fenerbahçe with 9 goals and 2 assists in 26 games in all competitions. On 13 July, his contract with Fenerbahçe was mutually terminated.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 14 July 2022, Özil signed a one-year contract with an option for an additional year with İstanbul Başakşehir.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Eligible to play for either Germany or Turkey, after long consideration, Özil chose to play for his country of birth, Germany. In September 2006, he was called up for the Germany under-17 team. He was a member of the German under-21 team from 2007. On 29 June 2009, Özil was selected the man of the match in a 4–0 win over England during the U-21 European Championship final.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He made his debut for the senior side during a friendly match against Norway on 11 February 2009. He scored his first goal for the senior team in his third appearance, another friendly, against South Africa on 5 September in Leverkusen at the BayArena.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was selected for Germany's squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, starting in all of the team's matches. He provided an assist for Cacau's goal to the 4–0 final score against Australia in Germany's first group game. He scored a left-footed half-volley from the edge of the penalty area against Ghana in the final group game, ensuring Germany progressed to the second round as group winners.


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 27 June 2010, Özil played in Germany's win over England in the last 16 match, setting up the fourth goal with a cross to Thomas Müller as Germany triumphed 4–1. During the quarter-final match against Argentina, he assisted the second goal for Miroslav Klose with a cross to ensure the 4–0 final score for the Germans. FIFA announced that he was among the ten tournament players nominated for the Golden Ball.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was one of the leading forces in Germany's qualification for UEFA Euro 2012, scoring five times during the campaign as Germany won all ten of its games to top their group. Özil also confirmed his reputation as a decisive passer, as he provided seven assists, more than any European international during Euro 2012 qualification. When asked about his country's chances at Euro 2012, Özil simply replied, "We have the potential to beat anyone and we have what it takes to win the title."


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 29 February 2012, Özil was recognised as Germany's best international of the year for 2011 prior to kick-off at a friendly against France in Bremen. Özil's Germany were drawn with the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal into Group B at Euro 2012, widely touted as the "Group of Death".


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil registered two assists, created nine chances, and claimed the Man of the Match award in Germany's 4–2 quarter-final win over Greece. He then scored Germany's only goal (a penalty) in their 2–1 loss to Italy in the semi-finals. His performance at Euro 2012 earned him two Carlsberg Man of the Match Awards. He finished the tournament as the joint-highest assist provider (3) and was named in the Team of the Tournament.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Following an injury to Marco Reus in a warm-up game, Özil was moved from his customary number 10 role into the left-winger position for the majority of the tournament. He started all seven of Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup games, and helped Germany make history by becoming the first European team to win the World Cup in South America. Özil scored the decisive goal in the 119th minute of Germany's 2–1 round of 16 victory over Algeria, a match widely praised as one of the most entertaining of the tournament. Özil then provided an assist for Sami Khedira in Germany's 7–1 semi-final win over Brazil. The goal Özil assisted, with a clever pass, made the score 5–0 to Germany after just 29 minutes. The shocking nature of the 5-goal flurry generated worldwide astonishment.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In the final, Özil played 120 minutes before being replaced by Arsenal teammate Per Mertesacker. Germany were crowned World Champions with a 1–0 win. After the trophy was presented to the Germany team, UEFA President Michel Platini asked Özil for his match shirt as a souvenir, and Özil obliged. He concluded the tournament as the leader in passes completed in the final-third (171), was ranked joint-second in chances created (17), behind only Lionel Messi (23), and ranked second overall in possessions won in the final-third (6).


title: Mesut Özil

text: On 12 June 2016, Özil completed the full 90 minutes of Germany's opening Euro 2016 match against Ukraine which Germany won 2–0. He assisted Bastian Schweinsteiger's goal in the 92nd minute. On 21 June 2016, Özil completed 99% of his passes, created six chances and claimed the Man of the Match award in Germany's win over Northern Ireland. Five days later, Özil started in Germany's 3–0 round of 16 win over Slovakia. In the 13th minute of the match, he had a penalty effort saved by goalkeeper Matúš Kozáčik. On 2 July 2016, Özil scored the leading goal against Italy in the quarter-finals to give Germany a 1–0 advantage, before Italy later equalised through Leonardo Bonucci's penalty. Germany, however, emerged as the victorious side after winning the penalty shoot-out 6–5, despite Özil failing to convert his penalty kick after hitting the goal post.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil was selected by manager Joachim Löw in Germany's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Despite the national team heavily under-performing as defending champions by being eliminated in the group stages, Özil featured in two of the country's three games, and averaged more chances created per 90 minutes (5.5) than any other player in the competition.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In May 2018, Özil, alongside fellow German international İlkay Gündoğan, both of Turkish descent, met with and posed for photographs with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the lead up to the Turkish general election. The photograph was interpreted as a form of political support for Erdoğan and his policies, and caused tensions in Germany, and even prompted accusations that the players lacked loyalty to the nation. The German Football Association (DFB) publicly distanced themselves from public criticism, opting to end the debate, and focus on the upcoming World Cup campaign, in which both Özil and Gündoğan participated.


title: Mesut Özil

text: After the nation's World Cup campaign, losing out at the group stage, Özil posted a series of messages on social media on 22 July, in order to clarify the photograph and address the criticisms he had faced. In a lengthy post, he described the photograph as simply "respecting the highest office of my family's country", while also adding his conversations with Erdoğan revolved solely around their mutual interest in football. Özil also commented on several media outlets that were using the photograph, where he asserted that the media outlets have selectively criticised him for his Turkish background, noting the relative lack of uproar from the media after Lothar Matthäus met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He later detailed his core issue with the national team stemmed from his interactions with Reinhard Grindel, the DFB president, accusing him of displaying both racism and disrespect on multiple occasions, while also noting similar incidents with other high-profile German nationals, namely Bernd Holzhauer and Werner Steer. He then retired from the team as a form of protest against members within the Federation in which he perceived had "racially discriminative backgrounds". Following the announcement of his retirement, Özil drew support and criticism from the public, former players, and managers; former teammate Per Mertesacker notably came out in support.


title: Mesut Özil

text: A quick, agile, creative and technical player, with good dribbling skills, Özil is a versatile midfielder, who excels in an advanced playmaking role, as a winger on either flank, or as an attacking midfielder through the centre of the pitch. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he was also deployed in a new role which was later described as a false 10 or central winger, due to his tendency to drift from the centre into a wide position when in possession of the ball; he has also been deployed in a more advanced role, where he usually functions as a second striker, as he often drops into deeper positions, from which he can link the midfield with the attack and initiate passing moves. He has even played as a centre-forward on occasion, seemingly operating as a lone striker, but actually operating false 9 role. An elegant left-footed player, his main attributes are his vision, his control, movement (both on and off the ball), positional sense, finesse, passing range, and accurate crossing ability, as well as his delivery from set-pieces, which allow him to get into good attacking positions, create chances, and provide many assists for his teammates, or even score goals himself.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Due to his creative ability and offensive prowess as a playmaker, Özil has been called "assist-king" in the media. As of January 2016, Özil had the best ratio of assists per game in the history of the Premier League. Germany under-21 manager Horst Hrubesch once said, "We in Germany are prone to rave about foreign players. We praise Wayne Rooney to the heavens, likewise Ronaldo or Messi. But we have our own Messi. Our Messi is Özil." In the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier against Belgium, he scored a goal which has been described as a "work of art". Germany coach Joachim Löw hails Özil for his "genius moments" and his performance without the ball.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Former Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso described Özil as "the kind of player you don't find these days", adding, "He understands the game, sees things, combines and thrives between the lines, unlocking teams." José Mourinho, who coached Özil for a time at Real Madrid said, "Özil is unique. There is no copy of him – not even a bad copy." Assistant coach of the Germany national team Hansi Flick said, "We are proud to have him in our team. When he has the ball, you can feel the excitement and astonishment among the fans." Former Netherlands and Milan forward Ruud Gullit described Özil as a "technically perfect" player who has "total control of the ball" and a "great imagination". Former Germany teammate Phillip Lahm said of Özil "His vision is probably the best I have ever seen... He is a dream for strikers.", while Mario Gómez called Özil "probably the most brilliant footballer we have or ever had". Despite his reputation as an offensive playmaker, Özil has also drawn criticism at times for his lack of physicality and his low defensive work-rate off the ball. Despite his success, he has also been accused by some in the sport, including Glenn Hoddle, Raymond Domenech and Jonathan Smith, of going missing in important or physical games.


title: Mesut Özil

text: His nicknames have included ""der Rabe"" (the Raven, or in Spanish, ""El Cuervo"") – playing on his smart and opportunistic style of play, and at Werder Bremen ""der neue Diego"" (the new Diego), in reference to Brazilian Diego, whose playmaker role he inherited, "German Messi" and "German Zidane". At Real Madrid, he was supposedly called "Nemo", due to his physical appearance – in reference to the clownfish from the animated film "Finding Nemo".


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil is a third-generation Turkish-German, who, in reference to his game, concludes, "My technique and feeling for the ball is the Turkish side to my game. The discipline, attitude and always-give-your-all is the German part." The first language Özil learned was Turkish, and he attended a preschool populated with students of Turkish immigrants. He later attended school at Gesamtschule Berger Feld in Gelsenkirchen. Özil states his ancestors are ethnic Turks from Devrek. However, there are sources that claim Özil's ancestors are ethnic Kurds.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil is a practising Muslim. He recites from the Quran before his matches. Talking to the Berlin-based daily "Der Tagesspiegel", Özil said, "I always do that before I go out [on the pitch]. I pray and my teammates know that they cannot talk to me during this brief period." He observes fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan, but he has admitted that: "Because of my job I cannot follow Ramadan properly. I do it only the few days I can, only when I have a free day. But other than that it's impossible, because you have to drink and eat a lot to stay at peak fitness." In May 2016, he performed "Umrah" pilgrimage to Mecca. During a Europa League match in 2018 against Atlético Madrid, an Atlético fan threw a piece of bread at Özil while he was preparing to take a corner. Özil picked up the bread, kissed it, and brought it to his forehead to express gratitude towards the food given to him, a central tenet in Islam. His gesture was later widely applauded throughout the stadium.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In 2010, Özil was awarded the Bambi for being a prime example of successful integration within German society.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil started dating singer Mandy Capristo in 2013. The relationship ended in 2014, following reports of Özil being involved with another woman. In 2015, Özil and Capristo appeared together at the Bambi awards ceremony in Berlin. An Instagram photo uploaded by Özil used the hashtag #OziStoIsBack, suggesting that the couple is back together. However, they broke up in 2017 and Özil began dating former Miss Turkey, Amine Gülşe. They married in 2019, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was a witness during the ceremony. In March 2020, the couple confirmed the birth of their first child, a daughter named Eda. Their second daughter, named Ela, was born in September 2022.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In July 2019, Özil and Arsenal teammate Sead Kolašinac were the victims of an attempted carjacking by a pair of armed masked men. A Metropolitan Police spokesman later said Özil and Kolašinac managed to get away unharmed and travelled to a nearby restaurant in Golders Green, where they were "spoken to by officers". Footage also circulated on social media which appeared to show Kolašinac chasing off the carjackers. Arsenal commented they reviewed security measures with their players with help from independent experts and the police, which resulted in the pair not being included in Arsenal's Premier League season opener against Newcastle United on 11 August. Later the same day, two men were arrested and charged with a public order offence after becoming involved in an altercation with security staff outside Özil's home. Police noted this incident was unrelated to the car-jacking attempt.


title: Mesut Özil

text: As part of the BigShoe project, Özil donated his 2014 World Cup winnings, an estimated £240,000, to pay for 23 sick Brazilian children to have medical surgery as a "personal thank you for the hospitality of the people of Brazil."


title: Mesut Özil

text: In May 2016, international media covered Özil's visit to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to around 80,000 people displaced as a result of the Syrian civil war. Özil toured the camp as well as playing with children, signing autographs and handing out football shirts. After getting married in June 2019, Özil paid for 1,000 children to have surgery in celebration.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In 2017, he worked with the charity My Shining Star to make a child cancer patient's dreams come true. He invited the child, Charlie, to be a guest at his private box and in the player's lounge during a game with Sunderland at Emirates Stadium. In 2020, after Arsenal made longterm mascot Jerry Quy redundant, Özil offered to reimburse Arsenal for his salary if they rehired Quy, doing so due to their close friendship.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In Ramadan 2021, Özil sent food packages to 41 provinces in Turkey to people in need, in collaboration with the Turkish Red Crescent.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In December 2019, Özil went online to publish a poem denouncing the treatment of Uyghurs in China. It was written over a backdrop of the East Turkestan flag and in it, he also criticised Muslim countries for not speaking out about the Xinjiang internment camps. Arsenal later released a statement distancing itself from the comments. State broadcasters China Central Television and PP Sports responded two days later by removing the match between Arsenal and Manchester City from their schedules, while his likeness was removed from Chinese internet providers and version of "eFootball PES 2020". The Chinese Football Association said Özil's comments were "unacceptable". Some have suggested Özil's eventual omission from the Arsenal squad was related to such criticism. China's government later stated Özil was "blinded and misled", and invited him to visit Xinjiang.


title: Mesut Özil

text: In October 2020, he voiced his support for Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, quoting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the Azerbaijani–Turkish relations. During his presentation as a Fenerbahçe player, he posed with the Azerbaijani flag.


title: Mesut Özil

text: He announced his support for Palestine in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, also wearing a "Free Palestine" T-shirt along with other Fenerbahçe footballers. In October 2021, Özil teamed with the Football Association (FA) and Football for Peace to launch a development center, located at the University of Bradford, to tackle the disparity of British Asians in association football. Quoting his own multiethnic background, Özil stated a desire to "give [British Asians] an opportunity to be successful on and off the pitch".


title: Mesut Özil

text: In 2013, Özil signed a sponsorship deal with German sportswear and equipment supplier Adidas. He has appeared in commercials for Adidas Predator boots with other star players such as Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale, Thomas Müller and James Rodríguez. One of those adverts, entitled "Create Your Own Game", was released in August 2015, in which Özil featured alongside those players. In 2013, Özil launched his own logo.


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil's "M" goal celebration – which is in tribute to his young niece Mira – is included in EA Sports' "FIFA 17".


title: Mesut Özil

text: Özil has built a varied business portfolio over the years. He is the boss of his own M10 streetwear firm and esports team. Additionally he has his own chain of coffee shops, a sports clinic and he jointly runs a successful Unity Health supplements laboratory with former Arsenal teammate Mathieu Flamini. He also owns shares in Mexican football club Necaxa as part of an ownership deal which includes other shareholders like actress Eva Longoria and model Kate Upton.


title: Binance

text: Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands.


title: Binance

text: Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software. Binance was initially based in China, but later moved its headquarters out of China shortly before the Chinese government imposed regulations on cryptocurrency trading.


title: Binance

text: In 2021, Binance was put under investigation by both the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority ordered Binance to stop all regulated activity in the United Kingdom in June 2021.


title: Binance

text: CEO Changpeng Zhao had previously founded Fusion Systems in 2005 in Shanghai; the company built high-frequency trading systems for stockbrokers. In 2013, he joined Blockchain.info as the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet's team. He also worked at OKCoin as CTO for less than a year, a platform for spot trading between fiat and digital assets.


title: Binance

text: The company was founded in 2017 in China but moved its servers and headquarters out of China and into Japan in advance of the Chinese government ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017.


title: Binance

text: In January 2018 it was the largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion, a title it had retained as late as April 2021, despite competition from Coinbase, among others.


title: Binance

text: In March 2018, Binance announced its intentions to open an office in Malta after stricter regulations in Japan and China. In April 2018, Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Bermuda. Months later, a similar memorandum was signed with the Malta Stock Exchange to develop a platform for trading security tokens. In 2019, company announced Binance Jersey, an independent entity from its parent Binance.com exchange, with the aim to expand its European influence. Jersey based exchange offers fiat-to-cryptocurrency pairs, including the Euro and the British pound.


title: Binance

text: In April 2018, Binance launched the Binance Charity Foundation. The charity's goal is to support the advancement of blockchain-enabled philanthropy with a focus on third-world countries.


title: Binance

text: In July 2018, Binance acquired Trust Wallet, a decentralized cryptocurrency wallet for an undisclosed sum. Hovever, Binance, confirmed that the compensation is a mixture of cash, Binance stock, and a portion of its BNB token.


title: Binance

text: In August 2018, Binance along with three other big exchanges raised $32 million for a stablecoin project. The idea of stable coins is to provide a cryptocurrency without the notorious volatility of Bitcoin and other popular digital assets.


title: Binance

text: In January 2019, Binance announced that it had partnered with Israel-based payment processor Simplex to enable cryptocurrency purchases with debit and credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard. The purchases are subject to Simplex's local bank policies and are limited to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple's XRP.


title: Binance

text: On 7 May 2019, Binance revealed that it had been the victim of a "large scale security breach" in which hackers had stolen 7,000 Bitcoin worth around U.S.$40 million at the time. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the hackers "used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks" and structured their transaction "in a way that passed our existing security checks." Binance halted further withdrawals and deposits but allowed trading to continue. The site pledged to reimburse customers through its "Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)". Withdrawals resumed by 19 May.


title: Binance

text: In September 2019, the exchange began offering perpetual futures contracts, allowing leverage as high as 125 times the value of the contracts. In November 2019, Binance announced it was acquiring Indian bitcoin exchange WazirX, which became disputed in August 2022 when Binance founder Zhao claimed the deal was never signed.


title: Binance

text: On 21 February 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a public statement responding to media reports referring to Binance as a 'Malta-based' cryptocurrency company. The statement noted that Binance "is not authorized by the MFSA to operate in the cryptocurrency sphere and is therefore not subject to regulatory oversight by the MFSA." The MFSA added that it was "assessing if Binance has any activities in Malta which may not fall within the realm of regulatory oversight."


title: Binance

text: In March 2020, Binance acquired CoinMarketCap. Although the price of the acquisition was not disclosed, it’s reported to be up to $400 million. CoinMarketCap was founded in 2013 and is one of the largest cryptocurrency online tracking tools.


title: Binance

text: On 28 October 2020, "Forbes" staff released leaked documents showing that Binance and Changpeng Zhao created an elaborate corporate structure designed to intentionally deceive United States regulators and secretly profit from cryptocurrency investors located in the country. Binance officially blocks access from IP addresses located in the United States, but "potential customers would be taught how to evade geographic restrictions", "Forbes" claimed.


title: Binance

text: In May 2021 it was reported that Binance was under investigation by both the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Department of Justice on allegations of money laundering and tax offenses.


title: Binance

text: In March 2022, amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao, refused to ban users from Russia, citing "financial freedom". Binance later softened the tone of their opposition but not their policy, and also pointed to their donation of $10 million for humanitarian needs in Ukraine.


title: Binance

text: In April 2022, Reuters reported that, in 2021, Binance shared information with Rosfinmonitoring about funds raised by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's network.


title: Binance

text: On 27 May 2022, Binance announced the registration of its legal entity in Italy, and has plans of opening offices and expanding the local team in the area. CEO Changpeng Zhao also shared information regarding Binance's registration with France's market regulator. The company is also seeking registration in more European countries, such as Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal and Austria.


title: Binance

text: On 13 June 2022 Binance announced that users would, for an unspecified period of time, be unable to withdraw their funds held in Bitcoin, as the value of cryptocurrencies suffered serious declines. Two hours after that announcement, Bitcoin withdrawals were allowed to resume.


title: Binance

text: Binance has a strong brand presence in Africa. Binance sponsored the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021. It is also taking crypto education to many countries on the continent.


title: Binance

text: Binance invested US$500 million towards the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk that completed in October 2022. Following the investment, the company announced the creation of a team to work on how blockchain and cryptocurrencies could be helpful to Twitter.


title: Binance

text: On 8 November 2022, Binance offered to buy rival cryptocurrency exchange FTX's non-US operations (FTX.com) to help cover the latter's liquidity crunch. Binance backed out of the deal the next day citing concerns about FTX's business practices and investigations by US financial regulators.


title: Binance

text: On November 30, 2022, Binance purchased Sakura Exchange. The acquisition allowed Binance to re-enter the Japanese Crypto market.


title: Binance

text: The company has launched two cryptocurrencies which it developed itself: Binance Coin (BNB), and BinanceUSD (BUSD). BNB launched July 2017, which started as an Ethereum token and later moved to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), launched September 2020. BSC later merged with the older Binance Chain and was rebranded into BNB chain. BNB Chain operates using "Proof of Staked Authority", a combination of proof of stake and proof of authority. It has 21 approved validators. As of 2021, Binance Coin was the cryptocurrency with the third highest market capitalization. Binance allows its users to pay fees on its exchange with BNB.


title: Binance

text: There have been multiple criticisms of Binance Smart Chain concerning its level of centralisation, which had led to several exploits on the network.


title: Binance

text: BUSD, or BinanceUSD is a US Dollar pegged stablecoin issued by Binance. According to Binance it is backed 1:1 by a reserve of US Dollars and was founded by them in partnership with Paxos who is the issuer of the token. Paxos holds the reserves only partially in cash deposited in their US bank accounts with the other part held in U.S. Treasuries. BUSD is natively issued on the Ethereum blockchain by Paxos. Binance creates Binance-Peg BUSD by locking the natively ERC-20 BUSD in a smart contract on the Ethereum Blockchain and issuing Binance-Peg BUSD equivalent to the amount held in reserve in the smart contract. Binance-Peg BUSD is native to BNB chain.


title: Binance

text: BUSD is a widely used stablecoin being the 3rd largest stablecoin by market capitalisation following USDT and USDC.


title: Binance

text: In 2019, Binance was banned in the United States on regulatory grounds. In response, Binance and other investors opened Binance.US, a separate exchange designed to comply with all applicable US federal laws, which nonetheless is banned in six states: Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, New York, Texas, and Vermont. In May 2021, Bloomberg News reported that Binance was under investigation by the United States Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service for money-laundering and tax evasion. In June 2022, the US Securities and Exchange commission launched an enquiry into Binance to determine if the company's 2017 ICO of BNB tokens amounted to an illegal sale of a security.


title: Binance

text: In June 2021, Binance was ordered by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority to stop all regulated activity in the United Kingdom. In January 2021, the FCA began requiring firms dealing with cryptocurrency to register in order to comply with anti-money laundering rules.


title: Binance

text: On June 25, 2021, Japan's Financial Services Agency warned Binance that it was not registered to do business in Japan. This was the second notice Binance received from the FSA. Previously, a similar warning was issued on March 23, 2018.


title: Binance

text: In July 2021, Italy's Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa ordered Binance to be blocked from operating. In May 2022, Binance gained regulatory approval in Italy, allowing the company to provide digital asset services in the country.


title: Binance

text: In May 2022, Binance gained regulatory approval in France, allowing the company to provide digital asset services in the country. France is the first European country to give Binance regulatory approval.


title: Binance

text: In April 2021, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany warned that the company risked fines for not releasing an investor prospectus for the stock tokens it has issued.


title: Binance

text: Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission filed a criminal complaint against Binance on July 2, 2021, "for commission of offence under the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Business B.E. 2561 (2018)". Additionally, Thailand's SEC cited Binance for operating without a license, a violation of Section 26 of the Digital Asset Businesses Emergency Decree.


title: Binance

text: On March 17, 2022, Binance has confirmed in an undertaking to the Ontario Securities Commission that it would stop opening new accounts and halting trading in existing accounts for users in Ontario.