title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Widespread boycotts of the newspaper throughout Merseyside followed immediately and continue to this day. Boycotts include both customers refusing to purchase it, and retailers refusing to stock it. The "Financial Times" reported in 2019 that Merseyside sales were estimated to drop from 55,000 per day to 12,000 per day, an 80% decrease. Chris Horrie estimated in 2014 that the tabloid's owners had lost £15million per month since the disaster, in 1989 prices. Sales also declined to a lesser degree in neighbouring parts of Cheshire and Lancashire. It was revealed in a documentary called "Alexei Sayle's Liverpool", aired in September 2008, that many Liverpudlians will not even take the newspaper for free, and those who do may simply burn or tear it up. Local people often refer to the newspaper as "The Scum", with campaigners believing it handicapped their fight for justice.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" was not the only newspaper to print similar stories about the alleged drunkenness and violence among Liverpool fans at the Hillsborough disaster. The "Daily Star" and "Daily Mail" were among the newspaper who printed claims that hooliganism was a major factor in the tragedy.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: However, other papers' stories were presented less prominently. Alex Hern of the "New Statesman" noted that the "Daily Express"s headline on the day of "The Truth" reported claims about fans as accusations by the police, rather than fact.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In April 1992, on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, "The Sun" printed an exclusive interview with Liverpool manager Graeme Souness as he celebrated Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final win over Portsmouth while recovering in hospital from heart surgery. Souness came under fire from Liverpool fans for conducting an interview with the newspaper, who made continued calls for him to be sacked. Liverpool's victory in the FA Cup final a month later did little to lessen the anger towards Souness, who was already under fire for Liverpool's inconsistent league form, although he did not resign from his position until January 1994.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 7 July 2004, in response to verbal attacks in Liverpool on Wayne Rooney, just before his transfer from Everton to Manchester United, who had sold his life story to "The Sun", the paper devoted a full-page editorial to an apology for the "awful error" of its Hillsborough coverage and argued that Rooney (who was only three years old at the time of Hillsborough) should not be punished for its "past sins". In January 2005, "The Sun" managing editor Graham Dudman admitting the Hillsborough coverage was "the worst mistake in our history", added: "What we did was a terrible mistake. It was a terrible, insensitive, horrible article, with a dreadful headline; but what we'd also say is: we have apologised for it, and the entire senior team here now is completely different from the team that put the paper out in 1989."


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In May 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie, "Sun" editor at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, returned to the paper as a columnist. Furthermore, on 11 January 2007, MacKenzie stated, while a panellist on BBC1's "Question Time", that the apology he made about the coverage was a hollow one, forced upon him by Rupert Murdoch. MacKenzie further claimed he was not sorry "for telling the truth" but he admitted that he did not know whether some Liverpool fans urinated on the police, or robbed victims.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 12 September 2012, following the publication of the official report into the disaster using previously withheld Government papers which officially exonerated the Liverpool fans present, MacKenzie issued the following statement:


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Trevor Hicks, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, rejected Mr MacKenzie's apology as "too little, too late", calling him "lowlife, clever lowlife, but lowlife".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Following the publication of the report "The Sun" apologised on its front page, under the headline "The Real Truth". With the newspaper's editor at the time, Dominic Mohan, adding underneath:


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The newspaper was banned by Everton F.C. in April 2017 after "The Sun" published a column by former editor Kelvin MacKenzie the day before the 28th anniversary of the disaster which included a passage about footballer Ross Barkley that was considered "appalling and indefensible" and included a racist epithet and insults against the people of Liverpool. Access to the club grounds and facilities for "Sun" reporters were blocked. The Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson described the article as "disgrace" and a "slur" on the city. MacKenzie was suspended as a contributor to the paper on the day of publication.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" remained loyal to Thatcher right up to her resignation in November 1990, despite the party's fall in popularity over the previous year following the introduction of the poll tax (officially known as the Community Charge). This change to the way local government is funded was vociferously supported by the newspaper, despite widespread opposition, (some from Conservative MPs), which is seen as having contributed to Thatcher's own downfall. The tax was quickly repealed by her successor John Major, whom "The Sun" initially supported enthusiastically, believing the former Chancellor of the Exchequer was a radical Thatcherite.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On the day of the general election of 9 April 1992, its front-page headline, encapsulating its antipathy towards the Labour leader Neil Kinnock, read: "If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights". Two days later, "The Sun" was so convinced its front page had swung a close election for the Conservatives it declared: "It's The Sun Wot Won It".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" led with a headline "Now we've all been screwed by the cabinet" with a reference to Black Wednesday on 17 September 1992, and the exposure a few months earlier of an extra-marital affair in which Cabinet Minister David Mellor was involved. A month later, on 14 October, it attacked Michael Heseltine for the mass coal mine closures.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Despite its initial opposition to the closures, until 1997, the newspaper repeatedly called for the implementation of further Thatcherite policies, such as Royal Mail privatisation, and social security cutbacks, with leaders such as "Peter Lilley is right, we can't carry on like this". The paper showed hostility to the European Union (EU) and approval of public spending cuts, tax cuts, and promotion of right-wing ministers to the cabinet, with leaders such as "More of the Redwood, not Deadwood".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" attacked Labour leader John Smith in February 1994, for saying that more British troops should be sent to Bosnia. "The Sun" comment was that "The only serious radicals in British politics these days are the likes of Redwood, Lilley and Portillo". It also gradually expressed its bitter disillusionment with John Major as Prime Minister, with headlines such as "What fools we were to back John Major".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Between 1994 and 1996, "The Sun" circulation peaked. Its highest average sale was in the week ending 16 July 1994, when the daily figure was 4,305,957. The highest ever one-day sale was on 18 November 1995 (4,889,118), although the cover price had been cut to 10p. The highest ever one-day sale at full price was on 30 March 1996 (4,783,359).


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 22 January 1997, "The Sun" accused the shadow chancellor Gordon Brown of stealing the Conservatives' ideas by declaring, "If all he is offering is Conservative financial restraint, why not vote for the real thing?" and called the planned windfall tax, which was later imposed by the Labour government, "wrongheaded". In February 1997 it told Sir Edward Heath MP to stand down for supporting a national minimum wage.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" switched support to the Labour party on 18 March 1997, six weeks before the General Election victory which saw the New Labour leader Tony Blair become Prime Minister with a large parliamentary majority, despite the paper having attacked Blair and New Labour up to a month earlier. Its front-page headline read THE SUN BACKS BLAIR and its front-page editorial made clear that while it still opposed some New Labour policies, such as the minimum wage and devolution, it believed Blair to be "the breath of fresh air this great country needs". John Major's Conservatives, it said, were "tired, divided and rudderless". Blair, who had radically altered his party's image and policies, noting the influence the paper could have over its readers' political thinking, had courted it (and Murdoch) for some time by granting exclusive interviews and writing columns.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In exchange for Rupert Murdoch's support, Blair agreed not to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism which John Major had withdrawn the country from in September 1992 after barely two years. Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson was "outed" by Matthew Parris (a former "Sun" columnist) on BBC TV's "Newsnight" in November 1998. Misjudging public response, "The Sun" editor David Yelland demanded to know in a front-page editorial whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia" of a "closed world of men with a mutual self-interest". Three days later the paper apologised in another editorial which said "The Sun" would never again reveal a person's sexuality unless it could be defended on the grounds of "overwhelming public interest".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In 2003, the paper was accused of racism by the government over its criticisms of what it perceived as the "open door" policy on immigration. The attacks came from the Prime Minister's press spokesman Alastair Campbell and the Home Secretary David Blunkett (later a "Sun" columnist). The paper rebutted the claim, believing that it was not racist to suggest that a "tide" of unchecked illegal immigrants was increasing the risk of terrorist attacks and infectious diseases. It did not help its argument by publishing a front-page story on 4 July 2003, under the headline "Swan Bake", which claimed that asylum seekers were slaughtering and eating swans. It later proved to have no basis in fact. Subsequently, "The Sun" published a follow-up, headlined "Now they're after our fish!". Following a Press Complaints Commission adjudication a "clarification" was eventually printed, on page 41. In 2005 "The Sun" published photographs of Prince Harry sporting a Nazi costume to a fancy dress party. The photographs caused outrage across the world and Clarence House was forced to issue a statement in response apologising for any offence or embarrassment caused.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Despite being a persistent critic of some of the government's policies, the paper supported Labour in both subsequent elections the party won. For the 2005 general election, "The Sun" backed Blair and Labour for a third consecutive election win and vowed to give him "one last chance" to fulfil his promises, despite berating him for several weaknesses including a failure to control immigration. However, it did speak of its hope that the Conservatives (led by Michael Howard) would one day be fit for a return to government. This election (Blair had declared it would be his last as prime minister) resulted in Labour's third successive win but with a much reduced majority.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: When Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) became editor in 2003, it was thought Page 3 might be dropped. Wade had tried to persuade David Yelland, her immediate predecessors in the job, to scrap the feature, but a model who shared her first name was used on her first day in the post.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 22 September 2003, the newspaper appeared to misjudge the public mood surrounding mental health, as well as its affection for former world heavyweight champion boxer Frank Bruno, who had been admitted to hospital, when the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" appeared on the front page of early editions. The adverse reaction, once the paper had hit the streets on the evening of 21 September, led to the headline being changed for the paper's second edition to the more sympathetic "Sad Bruno in Mental Home".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" has been openly antagonistic towards other European nations, particularly the French and Germans. During the 1980s and 1990s, the nationalities were routinely described in copy and headlines as "frogs", "krauts" or "hun". As the paper is opposed to the EU, it has referred to foreign leaders who it deemed hostile to the UK in unflattering terms. Former President Jacques Chirac of France, for instance, was branded "le Worm". An unflattering picture of German chancellor Angela Merkel, taken from the rear, bore the headline "I'm Big in the Bumdestag" (17 April 2006).


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Although "The Sun" was outspoken against the racism directed at Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on television reality show "Celebrity Big Brother" during 2007, the paper captioned a picture on its website, from a Bollywood-themed pop video by Hilary Duff, "Hilary PoppaDuff", a very similar insult to that directed at Shetty.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 7 January 2009, "The Sun" ran an exclusive front-page story claiming that participants in a discussion on Ummah.com, a British Muslim internet forum, had made a "hate hit list" of British Jews to be targeted by extremists over the Gaza War. It was claimed that "Those listed [on the forum] should treat it very seriously. Expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs." The UK magazine "Private Eye" claimed that Glen Jenvey, a man quoted by "The Sun" as a terrorism expert, who had been posting to the forum under the pseudonym "Abuislam", was the only forum member promoting a hate campaign while other members promoted peaceful advocacy, such as writing "polite letters". The story has since been removed from "The Sun" website following complaints to the UK's Press Complaints Commission.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 9 December 2010, "The Sun" published a front-page story claiming that terrorist group Al-Qaeda had threatened a terrorist attack on Granada Television in Manchester to disrupt the episode of the soap opera "Coronation Street" to be transmitted that evening. The paper cited unnamed sources, claiming "cops are throwing a ring of steel around tonight's live episode of "Coronation Street" over fears it has been targeted by Al-Qaeda." Later that morning, however, Greater Manchester Police categorically denied having "been made aware of any threat from Al-Qaeda or any other proscribed organisation." "The Sun" published a small correction on 28 December, admitting "that while cast and crew were subject to full body searches, there was no specific threat from Al-Qaeda as we reported." The apology had been negotiated by the Press Complaints Commission. For the day following the 2011 Norway attacks, "The Sun" produced an early edition blaming the massacre on al-Qaeda on its front page. Later the perpetrator was revealed to be Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right terrorist from Norway.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In January 2008, the Wapping presses printed "The Sun" for the last time and London printing was transferred to Waltham Cross in the Borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, where News International had built what is claimed to be the largest printing centre in Europe with 12 presses. The site also produces "The Times" and "Sunday Times", "Daily Telegraph" and "Sunday Telegraph", "Wall Street Journal Europe" (also a Murdoch newspaper), the "London Evening Standard", and local papers. Northern printing had earlier been switched to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside and the "Scottish Sun" to another new plant at Motherwell near Glasgow. The three print centres represent a £600 million investment by NI and allowed all the titles to be produced with every page in full colour from 2008. The Waltham Cross plant is capable of producing one million copies an hour of a 120-page tabloid newspaper.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In early 2011, the company vacated the Wapping complex, which in November 2011 was put on the market for a reputed £200 million. In May 2012, it was reported the Wapping site had been sold for £150 million to St George, part of Berkeley Group Holdings.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Politically, the paper's stance was less clear under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Blair in June 2007. Its editorials were critical of many of Brown's policies and often more supportive of those of Conservative leader David Cameron. Rupert Murdoch, head of "The Sun"s parent company News Corporation, speaking at a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, said that he acts as a "traditional proprietor". This means he exercises editorial control on major issues such as which political party to back in a general election or which policy to adopt on Europe.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: With "Broken Britain" controversies on issues like crime, immigration and public service failures in the news, on 30 September 2009, following Brown's speech at the Labour Party Conference, "The Sun", under the banner "Labour's Lost It", announced that it no longer supported the Labour Party: ""The Sun" believes – and prays – that the Conservative leadership can put the great back into Great Britain".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: That day at the Labour Party Conference, union leader Tony Woodley responded by ripping up a copy of that edition of "The Sun", remarking as he did so in reference to the newspaper's Hillsborough Disaster controversy: "In Liverpool we learnt a long time ago what to do". One attack on Gordon Brown backfired at around this time. After criticising him for misspelling a dead soldier's mother's name, "The Sun" was then forced to apologise for misspelling the same name on their website.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The "Scottish Sun" did not back either Labour or the Conservatives, with its editorial stating it was "yet to be convinced" by the Conservative opposition, and editor David Dinsmore asking in an interview "what is David Cameron going to do for Scotland?". Dinsmore also stated that the paper supported the Union, and was unlikely to back the Scottish National Party.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: During the campaign for the 2010 general election, "The Independent" ran ads declaring that "Rupert Murdoch won't decide this election – you will." In response James Murdoch and Rebekah Wade "appeared unannounced and uninvited on the editorial floor" of the "Independent", and had an energetic conversation with its editor Simon Kelner. Several days later the "Independent" reported "The Sun" failure to report its own YouGov poll result which said that "if people thought Mr Clegg's party had a significant chance of winning the election" the Liberal Democrats would win 49% of the vote, and with it a landslide majority.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On election day (6 May 2010), "The Sun" urged its readers to vote for David Cameron's "modern and positive" Conservatives to save Britain from "disaster" which the paper thought the country would face if the Labour government was re-elected. The election ended in the first hung parliament after an election for 36 years, with the Tories gaining the most seats and votes but being 20 seats short of an overall majority. They finally came to power on 11 May when Gordon Brown stepped down as prime minister, paving the way for David Cameron to become prime minister by forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 24 August 2012, "The Sun" sparked a controversy when it published photos of Prince Harry taken in a private situation with friends while on holiday in Las Vegas, USA. While other British newspapers had not published the photos in deference to the privacy of members of the Royal Family, editorial staff of "The Sun" claimed it was a move to test Britain's perception of freedom of the press. In the photos, which were published on the Internet worldwide, Prince Harry was naked.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Following the "News of the World" phone hacking affair that led to the closure of that paper on 10 July 2011, there was speculation that News International would launch a Sunday edition of "The Sun" to replace the "News of the World". The internet URLs "sunonsunday.co.uk", "thesunonsunday.co.uk" and "thesunonsunday.com" were registered on 5 July 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited. A similar URL "sunonsunday.com" is not affiliated, having been registered in Italy on 24 September 2007.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 18 July 2011, the LulzSec group hacked "The Sun" website, where they posted a fake news story of Rupert Murdoch's death before redirecting the website to their Twitter page. The group also targeted the website of "The Times".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: A reporter working for "The Sun" was arrested and taken to a south-west London police station on 4 November 2011. The man was the sixth person to be arrested in the UK under the News International related legal probe, Operation Elveden. In January 2012, two current and two former employees were arrested. As of 18 January 2013, 22 "Sun" journalists had been arrested, including their crime reporter Anthony France.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 28 January 2012, police arrested four current and former staff members of "The Sun", as part of a probe in which journalists paid police officers for information; a police officer was also arrested in the probe. The "Sun" staffers arrested were crime editor Mike Sullivan, head of news Chris Pharo, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, and former managing editor Graham Dudman, who since became a columnist and media writer. All five arrested were held on suspicion of corruption. Police also searched the offices of News International, the publishers of "The Sun", as part of a continuing investigation into the "News of the World" scandal.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 11 February 2012, five senior journalists at "The Sun" were arrested, including the deputy editor, as part of Operation Elveden (the investigation into payments to UK public servants).


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Coinciding with a visit to "The Sun" newsroom on 17 February 2012, Murdoch announced via an email that the arrested journalists, who had been suspended, would return to work as nothing had been proved against them. He also told staff in the email that "The Sun on Sunday" would be launched "very shortly"; it was launched on 26 February 2012.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 27 February 2012, the day after the debut of "The Sun on Sunday", Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson Inquiry that police were investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption. She said evidence suggested a "culture of illegal payments" at "The Sun" authorised at a senior level.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 12 and 13 June 2014, to tie in with the beginning of the 2014 World Cup football tournament, a free special issue of "The Sun" was distributed by the Royal Mail to 22 million homes in England. The promotion, which did not include a Page 3 topless model, was announced in mid-May and was believed to be the first such freesheet issued by a UK national newspaper.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The boycott in Merseyside following the newspaper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 meant that copies were not dispatched to areas with a Liverpool postcode. Royal Mail employees in Merseyside and surrounding areas were given special dispensation by their managers to allow them not to handle the publication "on a case by case basis".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The main party leaders, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, were all depicted holding a copy of the special issue in publicity material. Miliband's decision to pose with a copy of "The Sun" received a strong response. Organisations representing the relatives of Hillsborough victims described Miliband's action as an "absolute disgrace" and he faced criticism too from Liverpool Labour MPs and the city's Labour Mayor, Joe Anderson. A statement was issued on 13 June explaining that Miliband "was promoting England's bid to win the World Cup", although "he understands the anger that is felt towards the Sun over Hillsborough by many people in Merseyside and he is sorry to those who feel offended."


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Promoted as "an unapologetic celebration of England", the special issue of "The Sun" ran to 24 pages.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 2 June 2013, "The Sun on Sunday" ran a front-page story on singer-songwriter Tulisa. The front page read: "Tulisa's cocaine deal shame"; this story was written by "The Sun On Sunday"s undercover reporter Mahzer Mahmood, who had previously worked for the "News of the World". It was claimed that Tulisa introduced three film producers (actually Mahmood and two other "Sun" journalists) to a drug dealer and set up an £800 deal. The subterfuge involved conning the singer into believing that she was being considered for a role in an £8 million Bollywood film.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: At her subsequent trial, the case against Tulisa collapsed at Southwark Crown Court in July 2014, with the judge commenting that there were "strong grounds" to believe that Mahmood had lied at a pre-trial hearing and tried to manipulate evidence against the co-defendant Tulisa. Tulisa was cleared of supplying Class A drugs. After these events, "The Sun" released a statement saying that the newspaper "takes the Judge's remarks very seriously. Mahmood has been suspended pending an immediate internal investigation."


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In October 2014, the trial of six senior staff and journalists at "The Sun" newspaper began. All six were charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office. They included "The Sun"s head of news Chris Pharo, who faced six charges, while ex-managing editor Graham Dudman and ex-"Sun" deputy news editor Ben O'Driscoll were accused of four charges each. Thames Valley district reporter Jamie Pyatt and picture editor John Edwards were charged with three counts each, while ex-reporter John Troup was accused of two counts. The trial related to illegal payments allegedly made to public officials, with prosecutors saying the men conspired to pay officials from 2002 to 2011, including police, prison officers and soldiers. They were accused of buying confidential information about the Royal Family, public figures and prison inmates. They all denied the charges.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 16 January 2015, Troup and Edwards were cleared by the jury of all charges against them. The jury also partially cleared O'Driscoll and Dudman but continued deliberating over other counts faced by them, as well as the charges against Pharo and Pyatt. On 21 January 2015, the jury told the court that it was unable to reach unanimous verdicts on any of the outstanding charges and was told by the judge, Richard Marks, that he would accept majority verdicts. Shortly afterwards, one of the jurors sent a note to the judge and was discharged. The judge told the remaining 11 jurors that their colleague had been "feeling unwell and feeling under a great deal of pressure and stress from the situation you are in", and that under the circumstances he was prepared to accept majority verdicts of "11 to zero or 10 to 1". On 22 January 2015, the jury was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on the outstanding charges. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that it would seek a retrial.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 6 February 2015, it was announced that Judge Richard Marks was to be replaced by Judge Charles Wide at the retrial. Two days earlier, Marks had emailed counsel for the defendants, telling them: "It has been decided (not by me but by my elders and betters) that I am not going to be doing the retrial". Reporting the decision in UK newspaper "The Guardian", Lisa O'Carroll wrote: "Wide is the only judge so far to have presided in a case which has seen a conviction of a journalist in relation to allegations of unlawful payments to public officials for stories. The journalist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is appealing the verdict". Defence counsel for the four journalists threatened to take the decision to judicial review, with the barrister representing Pharo, Nigel Rumfitt QC, saying: "The way this has come about gives rise to the impression that something has been going on behind the scenes which should not have been going on behind the scenes and which should have been dealt with transparently". He added that the defendants were "extremely concerned" and "entitled" to know why Marks was being replaced by Wide.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In a separate trial, "Sun" reporter Nick Parker was cleared on 9 December 2014 of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office but found guilty of handling a stolen mobile phone belonging to Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 22 May 2015, "Sun" reporter Anthony France was found guilty of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office between 2008 and 2011. France's trial followed the London Metropolitan Police's Operation Elveden, an ongoing investigation into alleged payments to police and officials in exchange for information. He had paid a total of more than £22,000 to PC Timothy Edwards, an anti-terrorism police officer based at Heathrow Airport. The police officer had already pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and given a two-year jail sentence in 2014, but the jury in France's trial was not informed of this. Following the passing of the guilty verdict, the officer leading Operation Elveden, Detective Chief Superintendent Gordon Briggs said France and Edwards had been in a "long-term, corrupt relationship".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The BBC reported that France was the first journalist to face trial and be convicted under Operation Elveden since the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had revised its guidance in April 2015 so that prosecutions would only be brought against journalists who had made payments to police officers over a period of time. As a result of the change in the CPS' policy, charges against several journalists who had made payments to other types of public officials – including civil servants, health workers and prison staff – had been dropped. In July 2015, "Private Eye" magazine reported that, at a costs hearing at the Old Bailey, "The Sun" parent company had refused to pay for the prosecution costs relating to France's trial, leading the presiding judge to express his "considerable disappointment" at this state of affairs. Judge Timothy Pontius said in court that France's illegal actions had been part of a "clearly recognised procedure at "The Sun"", adding that, "There can be no doubt that News International bears some measure of moral responsibility if not legal culpability for the acts of the defendant". The "Private Eye" report noted that despite this "The Sun" parent organisation was "considering disciplinary actions" against France whilst at the same time it was also preparing to bring a case to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal against the London Metropolitan Police Service for its actions relating to him and two other journalists.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" defended Page 3 for more than 40 years, with (then) editor Dominic Mohan telling the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, in February 2012, that "Page 3" was an "innocuous British Institution, regarded with affection and tolerance." To mark the feature's 40th anniversary, feminist author Germaine Greer wrote an article in "The Sun" on 18 November 2010 published under the headline: "If I ask my odd-job man what he gets out of page 3, he tells me simply, 'It cheers me up'".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In August 2013, "The Irish Sun" ended the practice of featuring topless models on Page 3. The main newspaper was reported to have followed in 2015 with the edition of 16 January supposedly the last to carry such photographs after a report in "The Times" made such an assertion. After substantial coverage in the media about an alleged change in editorial policy, Page 3 returned to its usual format on 22 January 2015. A few hours before the issue was published, the head of PR at the newspaper said the reputed end of Page 3 had been "speculation" only.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Apart from the edition of 22 January, the conventional Page 3 feature of a topless model has not returned, and has effectively ended.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 17 April 2015, "The Sun" columnist Katie Hopkins called migrants to Britain "cockroaches" and "feral humans" and said they were "spreading like the norovirus". Her remarks were condemned by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. In a statement released on 24 April 2015, High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein stated that Hopkins used "language very similar to that employed by Rwanda's "Kangura" newspaper and Radio Mille Collines during the run up to the 1994 genocide", and noted that both media organisations were subsequently convicted by an international tribunal of public incitement to commit genocide.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In August 2017, "The Sun" published a column by Trevor Kavanagh which questioned what actions British society should take to deal with "The Muslim Problem". Numerous sources suggested the column used language reminiscent of Nazi propaganda and Nazi phrases. A joint complaint was made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tell MAMA and Faith Matters. A statement by the groups said, "The printing of the phrase 'The Muslim Problem' particularly with the capitalisation and italics for emphasis in a national newspaper sets a dangerous precedent, and harks back to the use of the phrase 'The Jewish problem' in the last century, to which the Nazis responded with 'The Final Solution' the Holocaust". A cross-party group of over 100 MPs from the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens subsequently signed a letter to the editor of "The Sun" demanding action over the column. The letter stated the MPs "were truly outraged by the hate and bigotry" in Kavanagh's column. In comparison, in 2019, "The Sun" ran several stories in support of Christians. It covered the global persecution of Christians, sent a reporter to the Bruderhof for a day, and covered the story of a doctor who lost his job because of his refusal to accept the preferred gender of a patient.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 9 March 2016, "The Sun"s front page proclaimed that Queen Elizabeth II was backing Brexit, a common term for a British withdrawal from the European Union. It claimed that in 2011 at Windsor Castle, while having lunch with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the monarch criticised the union. Clegg denied that the Queen made such a statement, and a Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed that a complaint had been made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over a breach of guidelines relating to accuracy.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" officially endorsed the Leave campaign in the British referendum to remain in or leave the European Union on 23 June 2016, urging its readers to vote for the United Kingdom to leave the EU. The "BeLeave in Britain" front-page headline was only present on copies distributed in England and Wales; editions for Scotland, Northern Ireland (and the Republic of Ireland) led on other topics.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 4 April 2017, "The Sun" printed a headline "Up Yours, Senors" (cross-referring the 1990 headline "Up Yours, Delors" regarding the ECU). It was in relation to disputes over the sovereignty of Gibraltar following the EU referendum. The middle pages featured a poster with the message "Hands off our rock".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In June 2018, "The Sun" provoked controversy after it criticised the dress worn by a 17-year-old actress, Isobel Steele, to the British Soap Awards. The paper critiqued Steele for her decision to "cover up from head to toe" and told her to "flash a bit of flesh". The paper, and the journalist responsible for the piece, Tracey Lea Sayer, subsequently apologised. Sayer reported that when she wrote the article she was not aware of the age of Steele.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In September 2019, "The Sun" came under strong criticism for a headline story concerning the family of cricket player Ben Stokes. Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), stated he was "disgusted and appalled" by the newspaper's actions. The story prompted a statement from Stokes, calling the article the "lowest form of journalism" which dealt with "deeply personal and traumatic events" that affected his New Zealand-based family more than 30 years ago. "The Sun" defended its journalism; pointing out it had received the co-operation of a family member, it has commented that the events described were "a matter of public record" and "the subject of extensive front-page publicity in New Zealand at the time."


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas told BBC Radio 5 Live that an unnamed journalist had revealed his HIV status to his parents before he had had the opportunity to do so himself. While Thomas declined to name the newspaper involved, he did say "everybody will know, especially of late", leading the "Press Gazette" to suggest that it could be "The Sun", on the basis of the Stokes coverage.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In December 2019, "The Sun's" political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, wrote an article for the paper titled "Hijacked Labour", alleging that "Jeremy Corbyn is at the centre of an extraordinary network of hard-left extremists pieced together by former British intelligence officers", a network ranging from Novara Media contributor Ash Sarkar to French philosopher Michel Foucault, who has been dead since 1984, that is alleged to be pulling Corbyn's strings. It was later found that the ultimate sources for this claim included the antisemitic, far-right websites "The" "Millennium Report" and "Aryan Unity". The allegations were described by author Daniel Trilling as "a far-right conspiracy theory". The left-wing magazine "Tribune" suggested that such articles might get journalists or those on the political left assaulted or even killed. Later on the same day the article was published, it was also deleted, without comment from the paper or Newton Dunn.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 9 October 2019, Coleen Rooney made a Twitter post saying that stories from her private Instagram account were being leaked to "The Sun". In order to determine who was selling the information, she restricted access to her Instagram stories and planted a number of fake stories; the only viewer of these posts was an account belonging to Rebekah Vardy. The fake stories were published in "The Sun". Rooney's tweet went viral and was dubbed "Wagatha Christie", a portmanteau of the term "WAG" and the mystery writer Agatha Christie.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: Vardy denied these claims and stated that her Instagram account had been hacked. As a result, Vardy sued Rooney for libel. Rooney asked Vardy to not take the case to court which she rejected. Therefore, it became Rooney's responsibility to prove Vardy was personally responsible for leaking stories to "The Sun", or convince the judge that publication of the allegation was in the public interest.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: It was alleged in court that Vardy was also "The Sun on Sunday" "Secret Wag" columnist, which is an anonymous gossip column about the private lives of the wives and girlfriends of famous UK footballers which often made disparaging comments about the subjects. Vardy denied this claim.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 29 July 2022 the judge in the case, Mrs Justice Steyn, dismissed Vardy's claim. She ruled that Rooney's accusation of Vardy leaking fake stories to the paper was "substantially true". However, Steyn said that "The Secret Wag" "is highly likely... [to have been] a journalistic construct rather than a person", saying that "the evidence connecting Ms Vardy to this column is thin". The case was a hugely popular story in the British media and while "The Sun" did cover it extensively, they failed to mention that they were the paper Vardy had leaked untrue stories to.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 14 February 2020, a day before Caroline Flack was found dead in her Stoke Newington flat, "The Sun" published an article about a "brutal" Valentine's Day card mocking Flack on its website. It is unclear when the article, which was replaced with a legal warning by Saturday evening amid concerns about how the media handled coverage of her arrest was taken down. Days after Flack's death, more than 200,000 people signed a petition calling for a Government inquiry into the British press and the hashtag #DontBuyTheSun began to trend on Twitter.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In June 2020, shortly after J.K. Rowling published a blog in which she described her first marriage as "violent", "The Sun" interviewed Jorge Arantes, Rowling's former husband, and published a front-page article entitled "I slapped JK and I'm not sorry". In response, a number of domestic abuse charities criticised the newspaper for its handling of the story. The press regulator Ipso reported that it had received more than 500 complaints about the article. The article was also criticized by British politicians with Opposition Labour MP Jess Phillips called the headline "awful," and Ed Davey, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, adding, "This reporting is unacceptable, glorifies domestic violence & disparages the millions of victims of domestic violence."


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In January 2021 "Private Eye" magazine, in Issue 1563, alleged that staff at the tabloid had held a Christmas party on the same date as the Downing Street Christmas party of 18 December 2020.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In December 2022, columnist Jeremy Clarkson was criticised for an edition of his weekly column in the publication in which he expressed his views on Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. This article was deemed misogynistic by critics as he stated: "I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level. At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her," a reference to a scene from the television series "Game of Thrones". Clarkson subsequently stated he was "horrified to have caused so much hurt" over his comments, which were also criticized by his own daughter Emily.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 19 December 2022, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) said it had received more than 12,000 complaints about the piece, close to the number of complaints they received across the whole of 2021, which was 14,355. "The Sun"s website published a statement in response to the criticism: "In light of Jeremy Clarkson's tweet he has asked us to take last week's column down." By the following day on 20 December 2022 IPSO said the number complaints had risen to 17,500 surpassing the total number of complaints the regulating body received in 2021. In light of the controversy, Edward Faulks, the chair of IPSO, declined a private dinner invitation by Rupert Murdoch. The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, whose name was also mentioned in the column, described Clarkson's comments as "deeply misogynist and just downright awful and horrible" and warned that "words have consequences". The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, responded to the controversy by emphasising that "language matters". In a letter to ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall, SNP MP John Nicolson called on the organisation to sack Clarkson from his job on the TV game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: On 20 December 2022 more than 60 cross-party MPs contacted the Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton, to demand an apology and called for “action [to be] taken” against Clarkson.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Sun" dominated the circulation figures for daily newspapers in the United Kingdom from the late 1970s, at times easily outpacing its nearest rivals, the "Daily Mirror" and the "Daily Mail". For a brief period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this lead was more than one million copies per day. In January 2000, circulation was approximately 3.5 million per day, whilst daily circulation for those rivals was around 2.3 million. Sustained decline due to digital disruption began in 2004, in line with print journalism as a whole, and it lost more than a million copies from its daily figures in the six-year period from 2012 to 2018. "The Sun"s long run at the top was finally broken in February 2018 when it was announced that the circulation of the free "Metro" newspaper had overtaken it for the first time. However it remains the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In February 2020, it was revealed that daily sales of "The Sun" had fallen 8% to 1.38 million in the year to July, but at the time the publication remained the UK's biggest-selling paid-for paper. "The Sun on Sunday" sold an average of 1.16 million copies a week, 111,000 fewer than the year before. News Group Newspapers reported that "The Sun" lost £68m in 2019 with sales falling as the company continued to deal with costs arising from the phone-hacking scandal.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In April 2020, News UK instructed Audit Bureau of Circulations that its circulation data should be kept private, and would only be shared with advertising agencies in confidence. In May 2020, "The Sun"s 42-year run as the top selling paper came to an end when eclipsed by the "Daily Mail".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: In the year ending June 2020, the newspaper posted a pre-tax £202m loss, a significant increase from £67.8m the previous year. The majority of the loss, 80%, was thought to be from payments in damages from phone hacking, although revenue from sales and advertising was being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of the newspaper was written down by £84m, in effect to zero, with the company believing that "The Sun" and "Sun on Sunday" will not return to growth.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: A Scottish edition of "The Sun" launched in 1987, known as "The Scottish Sun", recognising the distinctiveness of the Scottish media market. Based in Glasgow, it duplicates much of the content of the main edition but with alternative coverage of Scottish news and sport. The launch editor was Jack Irvine who had been recruited from the "Daily Record", its main rival in the Scottish tabloid market. By the mid-2000s "The Scottish Sun" had become the largest-selling newspaper in Scotland, overtaking the "Record".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: At first the Scottish edition followed the London edition in supporting the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher, but in 1992 it declared support for Scottish independence. It did not, however, support the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP). By the time of the 1997 UK general election both the Scottish and London editions were supportive of Labour, led by Tony Blair. This attitude continued throughout the Blair premiership (1997–2007). For instance, during the 2007 Scottish Parliament election the front page featured a hangman's noose in the shape of an SNP logo and stated "Vote SNP today and you put Scotland's head in the noose".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The "Scottish Sun" switched ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, declaring support for the SNP. It took a neutral stance on the referendum on Scottish independence, commenting: "What we cannot do is tell you how we think you should vote". At the 2015 UK general election, "The Scottish Sun" urged its readers to back the SNP. While in England and Wales, the paper saw a vote for the Conservatives as a means to "stop [the] SNP running the country", the edition north of the border said the SNP would "fight harder for Scotland's interests at Westminster".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The 2019 UK general election saw the paper take a neutral stance stating that it was not backing the party for the first time since 2011 and claiming that 'There is a very real threat of Jeremy Corbyn walking into No10 on Friday and plunging Britain back to the bust ideology of the 1970s — an era of power blackouts and economic misery. The hard-left nationalisation and high-tax agenda of the crackpots who have hijacked Labour is nightmarish... Ms Sturgeon's tawdry flirting with Mr Corbyn — for a shot at securing an "IndyRef2020" that polls show a clear majority of Scots oppose — means we cannot endorse the SNP in the General Election.' It again chose not to endorse the SNP at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, describing it as 'a party that will undoubtedly win most seats despite being dogged by sleaze, scandals, underachievement and failures for the past five years' and arguing that Scottish voters should 'use their choices wisely in the two-vote Holyrood system to keep the SNP in check as a minority government'.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: The Irish edition of the newspaper, based in Dublin, is known as the "Irish Sun", with a regional sub-edition for Northern Ireland where it is mastheaded as "The Sun", based in Belfast. The Republic of Ireland edition shares some content – namely glamour and showbiz – with the editions published in Great Britain, but has mainly Irish news and editorial content, as well as sport and advertising.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: It often views stories in a very different light to those being reported in the UK editions. Editions of the paper in Great Britain described the film "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006) as being "designed to drag the reputation of our nation through the mud" and "the most pro-IRA ever"; conversely, the Republic of Ireland edition praised the film and described it as giving "the Brits a tanning".


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "The Irish Sun", unlike its sister papers in Great Britain, did not have a designated website until late 2012. An unaffiliated news site with the name "Irish Sun" has been in operation since mid-2004.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: There is also an Irish edition of the "Sun on Sunday", the "Irish Sun on Sunday", which launched in February 2012.


title: The Sun (United Kingdom)

text: "Polski Sun" was a Polish-language version of the newspaper which ran for six issues in June 2008 during the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, on the days of and the days after Poland played matches. Each issue had a circulation of 50,000–75,000, in relation to the estimated 600,000 Poles in the United Kingdom at the time.


title: Phil Neville

text: Philip John Neville (born 21 January 1977) is an English football manager and former player, who is the head coach of MLS team Inter Miami CF. He is also the co-owner of Salford City, along with several of his former Manchester United teammates.


title: Phil Neville

text: After 10 years as a professional with Manchester United, during which time he won six Premier League titles, three FA Cups, three FA Charity Shields, the Intercontinental Cup, and the Champions League, he joined Everton in 2005, where he spent the final eight years of his playing career. Neville also played for England 59 times between 1996 and 2007, representing the nation at three European Championships. He could play in defence or midfield; due to this versatility, he operated in a number of different positions throughout his career, but was most often used as a full-back.


title: Phil Neville

text: After earning his UEFA B Coaching Licence, Neville began his coaching career in 2012, filling in for Stuart Pearce with the England under-21s. He then worked as a coach at Manchester United, and as assistant manager to his brother Gary at Valencia in La Liga. On 23 January 2018, Neville was appointed head coach of the England women's team. He led the "Lionesses" to fourth place at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.


title: Phil Neville

text: Born in Bury, Greater Manchester, Neville attended Elton High School, where he captained the football team for five years. Along with brother Gary, he joined the Manchester United Academy, signing associate schoolboy forms in September 1990. In the 1992–93 season, he played 23 times for the club's junior teams, including four times in the FA Youth Cup as the club attempted to defend the title Neville's brother had won the previous season; Neville appeared alongside his brother in the second leg of the 1993 Youth Cup final, but they were unable to overturn a 2–0 deficit from the first leg at Old Trafford, and Leeds won 4–1 on aggregate. In July 1993, Neville signed a trainee contract with the club, and in October that year he made his debut for the reserve team, coming on for Darren Ferguson in a 2–0 win over Everton in The Central League. He went on to make eight appearances for the reserves in the 1993–94 season, as well as a further 31 for the junior teams, culminating in him winning the Jimmy Murphy Player of the Year Award in May 1994, followed by his first professional contract in June.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville made his senior debut for Manchester United on 28 January 1995 in a 5–2 win at home to Wrexham in the fourth round of the 1994–95 FA Cup. His league debut came two weeks later, when he started against Manchester City in the Manchester derby at Maine Road. He made one more first-team appearance in 1994–95, coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 win at home to Sheffield Wednesday. The following week, he captained United in both legs of the Youth Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur; after a 2–1 loss at White Hart Lane and a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, the tie came down to penalties; Neville missed his kick, but two misses from Spurs meant United won the shoot-out 4–3 to claim their second Youth Cup title in four seasons.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville's graduation and eventual establishment in the first-team meant he became known as one of "Fergie's Fledglings". On 19 August 1995, in the first game of the following season, he was substituted at half-time in a 3–1 loss at Aston Villa; the match is remembered for pundit Alan Hansen's "You can't win anything with kids" comment on Manchester United, who went on to win the double. He did not play at left-back frequently due to the presence of Denis Irwin; for some time he played at right-back while his brother played in central defence, and in the 1996 FA Cup Final victory against Liverpool he played this position while Gary was an unused substitute.


title: Phil Neville

text: While at Manchester United, he was booked many times, such as in the 2002–03 season when he got far more cards than any other United player in history, despite only starting 35 competitive games. In September 2003, Neville received a warning from The Football Association regarding his future conduct for his behaviour after Manchester United's game against rival side Arsenal.


title: Phil Neville

text: While at Old Trafford, Neville helped United win six Premier League titles, three FA Cups and the UEFA Champions League.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 4 August 2005, Neville joined Everton on a five-year contract for a fee in excess of £3 million. He made his debut in a UEFA Champions League qualifier against Villarreal, coming face-to-face with his former Manchester United colleague Diego Forlán. The following weekend, Neville made his Premier League debut for the Toffees, against Manchester United; The match marked the first time Phil and brother Gary had played for opposing teams.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville's attitude, work rate and willingness to play anywhere saw him become one of manager David Moyes' favourites. On 8 August 2006, Neville was announced as vice-captain to David Weir, and – on Weir's departure to Rangers in January 2007 – he became the club captain. In the Manchester United–Everton match on 29 November 2006, Phil and his brother Gary became the first siblings to captain their respective clubs against each other in the Premier League.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville commented in the press about the first ever red cards of his long career (he never received any playing for Manchester United), claiming that he would perhaps not have been booked in a game against Fulham if he had been playing for United. However, he finished with more cards than any other Premier League player in 2005–06 (including another red soon after his first). Neville scored his first goal for Everton in a 3–0 Premier League victory against Newcastle United on 30 December 2006.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 30 March 2008, Neville was assaulted by a Liverpool fan as he took a throw-in during the 1–0 Merseyside derby Premier League defeat at Anfield. On 24 April, the fan, 48-year-old Michael Blackmore, was later banned from all matches in England and Wales for three years after admitting common assault.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 19 April 2009, Neville scored his penalty to help knock out his former club, Manchester United, in a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, he sent the keeper the wrong way, putting it low to the keeper's right. On 19 February 2011, Neville scored the winning penalty in the penalty shoot-out against Chelsea to knock them out of the FA Cup, after a 1–1 draw at Stamford Bridge. On 9 April 2011, Neville scored against Wolves, his 12th senior goal and his first in three years. On 21 September, Neville scored in the League Cup game against West Bromwich Albion, this time a clinical effort, which was the deciding goal in the game. The goal was judged to be the Everton's goal of the season at the club's end of season awards.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 9 April 2013, he announced that he would leave Everton at the end of the season when his contract ended. He subsequently announced his retirement from professional football.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville was regularly picked for England squads, making his debut against China on 23 May 1996. He played alongside his brother Gary in this match; they had appeared together in the 1996 FA Cup Final two weeks earlier and thus were the first pair of brothers to play together in an FA Cup-final winning side and for England in the same season since Hubert and Francis Heron in 1876, 120 years earlier.


title: Phil Neville

text: He was only briefly a regular first-choice player for the side, as a left-back in 2000 under Kevin Keegan's management. Under his successor Sven-Göran Eriksson, Ashley Cole was the preferred left back, followed by Wayne Bridge. Neville once briefly captained the side in a friendly match (a game in which England fielded four different captains). Despite having been in the England squad at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 European Championships, and having 59 England caps (23 as a substitute), Neville was never in an England World Cup squad.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville's England career included the honour of being the youngest member of Terry Venables' squad for Euro 96, though he never kicked a ball (his brother played in every match until the semi-finals). He was one of the players omitted at the last minute by Glenn Hoddle when he was selecting his final 22 for the 1998 World Cup, Hoddle's decision left Neville in tears, though media attention was almost entirely devoted to the exclusion of another player, Paul Gascoigne. Neville revealed in an interview that Gascoigne, not usually noted for his maturity, took the younger Neville brother under his wing and consoled him.


title: Phil Neville

text: Keegan played Neville at left-back in Euro 2000; Neville received criticism and a large proportion of blame for England's exit, when he committed a late foul on Viorel Moldovan, leading to a penalty for Romania, which Ionel Ganea scored to win the match.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neither of the Nevilles went to the 2002 World Cup – Phil was left out of the 23-man squad, while Gary was injured. Both were back in the squad for Euro 2004. The brothers played together for England for the first time in seven years in a friendly against Spain on 7 February 2007, which England lost 1–0. They hold the record number of England appearances by a pair of brothers (142) and the most starts in the same England team by two brothers (31).


title: Phil Neville

text: Phil Neville was not included in Sven-Göran Eriksson's squad for the 2006 World Cup as Eriksson wanted to give young players a chance. However, he was drafted into Eriksson's stand-by group of players after Nigel Reo-Coker withdrew through injury. Neville remained in the England squad with new England manager Steve McClaren and started at right-back in September 2006 against Andorra. He was not called up after 2007.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville was primarily known for his work-rate and versatility as a footballer, and was capable of playing in several defensive and midfield positions; he was usually deployed as either a full-back or wing-back, and was capable of playing on the left side, as well as the right, despite being naturally right-footed; he was even able to play as a central midfielder. Although he was not the most spectacular or offensive-minded defender, and was occasionally criticised by pundits for his lack of pace, as well as his limited passing abilitiy and skill on the ball, he was known to be a consistent player from a defensive standpoint, who also stood out for his leadership qualities. However, he also drew criticism in the media for his uncompromising nature and tendency to pick up cards. In 2010, Varun Mathure of "Bleacher Report" described him as one of the most underrated players in the Premier League.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville holds a UEFA Pro Licence. In February 2012, it was reported that Neville would help England's Under-21s coaching staff in the absence of Stuart Pearce in the Under-21 European Championship qualifier against Belgium. The Everton captain received a special dispensation to help Brian Eastick prepare the side for the game at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough as Pearce would be in charge of the senior team in the friendly against the Netherlands at Wembley. England defeated Belgium 4–0. Continuing his work with the England under-21 side, in March 2013 it was announced that Neville would join the coaching staff of the England under-21s for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.


title: Phil Neville

text: In February 2013, Neville was being considered for the England U20 managerial position for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup. In May 2013, Neville was interviewed by Bill Kenwright for the vacant manager's role at Everton, but the job went to Roberto Martínez. On 4 July 2013, Neville became first-team coach of Manchester United, where he would be reunited with manager David Moyes. It was announced on the same day Moyes named Ryan Giggs as player/coach.


title: Phil Neville

text: In 2014, it was announced that Neville, along with fellow Manchester United players Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Nicky Butt had agreed a deal to purchase Salford City ahead of the 2014–15 season. with plans to get the club to the Football League. The group announced they would take part in a special friendly, with Salford facing a Class of '92 team. On 22 September, the group agreed to sell a 50% stake in the club to billionaire Peter Lim. Neville and Scholes briefly took charge of Salford City in a 2–1 home win over Kendal Town, following the sacking of Phil Power.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville joined La Liga side Valencia, also owned by Lim, as a coach under manager Nuno Espírito Santo in July 2015. On 30 November, after the resignation of Nuno, Neville was named as assistant to interim coach Voro, before his brother took the managerial position two days later.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 23 January 2018, Neville was appointed head coach of the England women's national team, signing a contract that would run to the end of UEFA Women's Euro 2021.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville made his England managerial debut at the 2018 SheBelieves Cup, an annual invitational tournament held in the United States. On 1 March 2018, England won their opening game against France 4–1 before a 2–2 draw against Germany put the Lionesses in a position to win the competition with a victory in the final game against hosts United States. However, a 1–0 defeat saw them finish in second place. After an undefeated 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification campaign, England returned to the SheBelieves tournament in 2019, this time facing Brazil and Japan as well as hosts United States again. A 2–1 victory over Brazil in the opening game and a 2–2 draw with the United States meant England won the tournament for the first time by defeating Japan 3–0 in the third game, even with the United States still to play their final game against Brazil.


title: Phil Neville

text: England qualified for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France on 31 August 2018, with a 3–0 win over Wales.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville's England side finished first in Group D, with wins against Scotland, Argentina and Japan. After back-to-back 3–0 wins against Cameroon and Norway, England reached their second consecutive Women's World Cup semi-final and also secured Team GB one of the three qualifying places allocated to UEFA for the 2020 Summer Olympics. On 2 July 2019, England lost 2–1 to the United States in the semi-finals. Four days later, following a 2–1 defeat to Sweden in the third place play-off, England ended the World Cup in fourth place. He came under fire for his postgame comments, calling the bronze medal match a "nonsense game."


title: Phil Neville

text: On 30 June 2019, the FA announced that Neville would be appointed manager of Team GB Women for the 2020 Summer Olympics following England's successful de facto qualification performance at the 2019 World Cup.


title: Phil Neville

text: In the wake of the World Cup exit, England's form dropped as the Lionesses struggled in a series of friendlies to end the year including a 2–1 defeat by Germany at Wembley Stadium on 9 November 2019. The game set a new record attendance for an England women's match at 77,768. The poor run continued into 2020 as England failed to defend their title at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup in March. Losses to the United States and Spain made it seven defeats in 11 games, the team's worst stretch since 2003, mounting further pressure on Neville who admitted he was personally responsible for England's "unacceptable" form amid increased media scrutiny. On 22 April 2020, Neville announced he would be leaving his position as manager in July 2021 when his contract was due to expire. As Euro 2021, set to be hosted in England, was pushed back a year to 2022 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Neville would no longer lead the team at the tournament. Despite initially stating he would see out his contract, Neville stepped down as manager of England, and Team GB as a result, on 18 January 2021 amid speculation linking him to the vacant Inter Miami CF job.


title: Phil Neville

text: On 18 January 2021, Neville was appointed as the head coach of Inter Miami CF, a club owned by his former Manchester United teammate and current Salford City co-owner David Beckham. After 12 games, Inter Miami had won just two games and had the worst record in MLS.


title: Phil Neville

text: In Neville's second season as head coach, the club reached the MLS playoffs for the first time in their history. On 7 November 2022, it was confirmed the club had extended his contract as head coach.


title: Phil Neville

text: He regularly appears as a pundit on football radio commentaries, and has appeared as pundit on the BBC's "Match of the Day" programme. In November 2010, he became a top-trending Twitter term after a strong performance against Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale led to a tongue-in-cheek "Chuck Norris"-style internet phenomenon.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville was employed by BBC One as a commentator and pundit during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. His commentary of the England–Italy match on 14 June attracted 445 complaints for his "lack of emotion and 'monotone style'". He reflected on this in an online article by stating "I played it back the next day and it did not sound like it was me commentating. I was trying to be somebody I wasn't, and I knew I could do better than that".


title: Phil Neville

text: The BBC received further complaints for Neville's comments in January 2015, after Arsenal's Tomáš Rosický played a pass while looking in another direction; Neville said that if he were playing against a player doing that in training, he would deliberately injure that player. He admitted making an unacceptable comment, while the BBC stated that the tone of discussion was light-hearted enough to suggest Neville was not endorsing violence.


title: Phil Neville

text: After departing from Valencia in 2016 he joined Sky Sports as a pundit for their coverage of the Premier League along with his brother Gary, who rejoined.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville attended Elton High School with his siblings. While in school, he captained his school football team throughout the whole five years he was there. Neville was also a talented cricketer in his youth, and a contemporary of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff in Lancashire's Under-19 side, captaining England Under-15s. Neville holds the record for being the youngest player to play for Lancashire's second XI at age 15. Flintoff described Neville as a "cricketing genius" whose talents could have compared to Ricky Ponting or Sachin Tendulkar, if he had chosen a cricket career.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville is the younger brother of fellow former Manchester United defender Gary Neville, and the twin brother of former international and current England netball head coach Tracey Neville. His father, Neville Neville, was commercial director of Football League club Bury. His mother Jill used to play netball in the local leagues, and worked as General Manager and Club Secretary for Bury.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville is married to Julie (née Killilea); the couple have a son, Harvey, and a daughter, Isabella. Isabella has cerebral palsy, which has led to Neville becoming an ambassador of Bliss, the special care baby charity, and a patron of Royal Manchester Children's Hospital's New Children's Hospital Appeal. Harvey is currently a player with Fort Lauderdale CF, a third-tier side in the United States, and the Republic of Ireland national under-19 football team, being eligible despite being born in England as Neville's wife is of Irish descent.


title: Phil Neville

text: He made the property headlines in April 2008, when he struggled to sell his £4 million mansion in Lancashire. In May 2009, he accepted a £2.6 million cash offer for the house from local businessman Matthew Greensmith.


title: Phil Neville

text: Neville became vegetarian in 2014, after a challenge from his wife to try the diet for two weeks. He said in a PETA video that "I started to feel healthier, leaner. I started to feel great."


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Nicholas Charles Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and philanthropist. He has published twenty-three novels and two non-fiction books, some of which have been "New York Times" bestsellers, with over 115 million copies sold worldwide in more than 50 languages.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Eleven of his novels have been adapted to film, including "The Choice", "The Longest Ride", "The Best of Me", "Safe Haven" (on all of which he served as a producer), "The Lucky One", "Message in a Bottle", "A Walk to Remember", "Nights in Rodanthe", "Dear John", "The Last Song", and "The Notebook".


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Sparks lives in North Carolina, where he contributes to a variety of local and national charities. He also sets many of his novels in that area. In 2011, he launched the Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences for students of all ages.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Nicholas Sparks was born on December 31, 1965, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Patrick Michael Sparks, a future professor of business, and Jill Emma Marie Sparks (née Thoene), a homemaker and an optometrist's assistant. Nicholas was the middle of three children, with an older brother, Michael Earl "Micah" Sparks (born 1964), and a younger sister, Danielle "Dana" Sparks Lewis (1966–2000), who died at the age of 33 from a brain tumor. Sparks has said that she was the inspiration for the main character Jamie Sullivan in his novel "A Walk to Remember". Sparks was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, and is of German, Czech, English, and Irish ancestry. He and his ex-wife are Catholics and are raising their children in the Catholic faith.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: His father pursued graduate studies at University of Minnesota and University of Southern California, one reason for his family's frequent moves. By the time Sparks turned eight, he had lived in Watertown, Minnesota; Inglewood, California; Playa Del Rey, California and his mother's hometown of Grand Island, Nebraska for a year, during which his parents were separated. By 1974, his father had become a professor of business at California State University, Sacramento, and the family settled in Fair Oaks, California.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: The family remained there through Sparks' high school days, and in 1984, he graduated as the valedictorian of Bella Vista High School, where he learned to slam dunk. After being offered a full sports scholarship for track and field at the University of Notre Dame, Sparks accepted and enrolled, majoring in business finance. In 1988, while on spring break, he met his future wife, Cathy Cote of New Hampshire, and then concluded his early academic work by graduating from Notre Dame magna cum laude. Sparks and Cote were married on July 22, 1989, and they eventually settled in New Bern, North Carolina. Prior to those milestones, however, Sparks had begun writing in his early college years.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Sparks started writing at his mother's suggestion: '"Your problem is that you're bored. You need to find something to do..." Then she looked at me and said the words that would eventually change my life: "Write a book." Until that moment, I had never considered writing. Granted, I read all the time, but actually sitting down and coming up with a story on my own? ...I was nineteen years old and had become an accidental author.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: In 1985, while at home for the summer between his freshman and sophomore years at Notre Dame, Sparks penned his first, never published, novel, "The Passing". He wrote another in 1989, also unpublished, "The Royal Murders".


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: After college, Sparks both sought work with publishers and applied to law school, but was rejected in both attempts. He spent the next three years in various occupations, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and starting his own manufacturing business.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: In 1990, Sparks co-wrote a book with Billy Mills entitled "Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding", a nonfiction book about the influence of Lakota spiritual beliefs and practices. The book was published by Feather Publishing, Random House, and Hay House, and sold some 50,000 copies in its first year after release.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: In 1994, while working in pharmaceutical sales, Sparks began a novel in his spare time, "The Notebook". In 1995, he was discovered by literary agent Theresa Park, who picked "The Notebook" out of her agency's slush pile, fell in love with it, and offered to represent him. In October 1995, Park secured a $1 million advance for "The Notebook" from Time Warner Book Group. Published in October 1996, the novel made "The New York Times" best-seller list in its first week of release and eventually spent fifty-six weeks there.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Including "The Notebook", fifteen of Sparks's novels have been No. 1 New York Times Best Sellers, and all of his books have been both New York Times and international bestsellers. Eleven of his novels have been adapted as films: "Message in a Bottle" (1999), "A Walk to Remember" (2002), "The Notebook" (2004), "Nights in Rodanthe" (2008), " Dear John" (2010), "The Last Song" (2010), "The Lucky One" (2012), "Safe Haven" (2013), "The Best of Me" (2014), "The Longest Ride" (2015), and "The Choice" (2016). He has also sold the screenplay adaptations of "True Believer" and "At First Sight". In September 2020, Sparks published his twenty-first novel "The Return".


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Sparks and his then-wife Cathy lived together in New Bern, North Carolina, with their three sons and twin daughters until 2014. On January 6, 2015, Sparks announced that he and Cathy had amicably separated. They subsequently divorced. Sparks still resides in New Bern.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Sparks donated nearly $900,000 for a new, all-weather tartan track to New Bern High School along with his time to help coach the New Bern High School track team and a local club track team as a volunteer head coach.


title: Nicholas Sparks

text: Sparks contributes to other local and national charities, including the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame by funding scholarships, internships, and annual fellowships. The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, launched by Sparks in 2012, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences for students of all ages was launched in 2011. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of the Sparks family, more than $15 million have been distributed to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. In 2008, "Entertainment Weekly" reported that Sparks and his then-wife had donated "close to $10 million" to start a private school, The Epiphany School of Global Studies.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz (born January 10, 1993), known professionally as Rauw Alejandro, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter. Referred to as the "King of Modern Reggaeton", he belongs to "the new generation" of Puerto Rican urban musicians. His debut studio album, "Afrodisíaco", was released in November 2020. His second studio album, "Vice Versa", released in June 2021, featured the lead single "Todo de Ti". He has won two Latin Grammy Awards from twelve nominations.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz was born on January 10, 1993, in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was raised in Canóvanas and Carolina. His father, guitarist Raúl Ocasio, and his mother, backing vocalist María Nelly Ruiz, introduced him to some of his musical influences like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Chris Brown. For many years, Alejandro and his father lived in the mainland United States, mainly Miami and New York City, where he got inspiration from the R&B and dancehall genres. Alejandro and fellow Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA are childhood friends; they both went to the same school and had classes together. As a child, Alejandro competed in school talent shows because he has a passion for dancing. After graduating high school, he enrolled at University of Puerto Rico. From the age of six until he was twenty, he played soccer, but later quit because he "could not perform as he expected to" and suffered an injury at age 20. He moved to Orlando, Florida to attempt to get scouted to play in the Premier Development League (PDL), but eventually was unsuccessful.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: After quitting soccer, he was left in a light depression, so to improve his mood he decided to switch to a musical career and began to publish songs through SoundCloud in 2014. In November 2016, he released his debut mixtape titled "Punto de Equilibrio". In January 2017, he signed a music deal with Duars Entertainment. In 2018, he was chosen by Sony Music Latin to be part of "Los Próximos", a musical project in which the label sought to enlist new musical talents. The musical project helped him gain fame, and as a result other notable artists noticed him and he was featured in multiple collaborations like Kevin Roldán and Khea's "Pa' Tu Casa", and "Luz Apaga" by Ozuna, Lunay and Lyanno that year. In December 2017, he released his first single as a lead artist, titled "Toda" with Alex Rose. It peaked at the 29th spot on the "Billboard" Hot Latin Songs charts in November 2018. A remix of "Toda" featuring Cazzu, Lenny Tavárez, and Lyanno was released in May 2018. The song proved successful, with the music video having over 1 billion views on YouTube as of November 2020. In January 2019, he released his single "Que le dé" with Nicky Jam. In December 2019, his song "Fantasias" with Farruko peaked at the number 12 spot on the US Latin chart, which is also the highest position his songs have reached on the chart, along with "Tattoo". Both songs stayed for 20 weeks on the chart, the highest duration for one of Alejandro's songs to date and won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Fusion/Performance in 2021.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: Alejandro's debut album, "Afrodisíaco", was released on November 13, 2020. It was preceded by the release of the songs and music videos, "Enchule", the "Elegí" remix, and "Reloj", with Anuel AA.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: On May 20, 2021, he released "Todo de Ti", which peaked at the number 2 spot on Spotify's Top Songs Global chart. On June 25, 2021, he released his album,"Vice Versa," through Sony Music Latin. "Afrodisíaco" earned him a nomination for Best Música Urbana Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: Rauw Alejandro's music style includes Latin R&B, reggaeton, rhythmic pop, and ballads. "Billboard" commented that it has helped "set him apart from a growing class of pop-leaning reggaetoneros". He was influenced early on by Presley and Jackson, and later by Ricky Martin, Daddy Yankee, and Chris Brown. He also cites Ciara as a musical inspiration.


title: Rauw Alejandro

text: Alejandro is the recipient of numerous awards. This includes a Latin Grammy Award, a Latin American Music Award, and an MTV Millennial Award. He has also been nominated for a Grammy Award.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian (, ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kosovo. It is a recognized minority language in Croatia, North Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.


title: Serbian language

text: Standard Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian (more specifically on the dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina), which is also the basis of standard Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin varieties and therefore the Declaration on the Common Language of Croats, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Montenegrins was issued in 2017. The other dialect spoken by Serbs is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia, which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian is practically the only European standard language whose speakers are fully functionally digraphic, using both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić, who created it based on phonemic principles. The Latin alphabet used for Serbian () was designed by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in the 1830s based on the Czech system with a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin orthographies, resulting in a parallel system.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian is a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian, a Slavic language (Indo-European), of the South Slavic subgroup. Other standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian are Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin. "An examination of all the major 'levels' of language shows that BCS is clearly a single language with a single grammatical system." It has lower intelligibility with the Eastern South Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian, than with Slovene (Slovene is part of the Western South Slavic subgroup, but there are still significant differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to the standardized forms of Serbo-Croatian, although it is closer to the Kajkavian and Chakavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian).


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian was the official language of Montenegro until October 2007 when the new Constitution of Montenegro replaced the Constitution of 1992. Amid opposition from pro-Serbian parties, Montenegrin was made the sole official language of the country, and Serbian was given the status of a language in official use along with Bosnian, Albanian, and Croatian.


title: Serbian language

text: In the 2011 Montenegrin census, 42.88% declared Serbian to be their native language, while Montenegrin was declared by 36.97% of the population.


title: Serbian language

text: Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic (, ) and Latin script (, ). Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or the other. In general, the alphabets are used interchangeably; except in the legal sphere, where Cyrillic is required, there is no context where one alphabet or another predominates.


title: Serbian language

text: Although Serbian language authorities have recognized the official status of both scripts in contemporary Standard Serbian for more than half of a century now, due to historical reasons, the Cyrillic script was made the official script of Serbia's administration by the 2006 Constitution.


title: Serbian language

text: The Latin script continues to be used in official contexts, although the government has indicated its desire to phase out this practice due to national sentiment. The Ministry of Culture believes that Cyrillic is the "identity script" of the Serbian nation.


title: Serbian language

text: However, the law does not regulate scripts in standard language, or standard language itself by any means, leaving the choice of script as a matter of personal preference and to the free will in all aspects of life (publishing, media, trade and commerce, etc.), except in government paperwork production and in official written communication with state officials, which have to be in Cyrillic.


title: Serbian language

text: To most Serbians, the Latin script tends to imply a cosmopolitan or neutral attitude, while Cyrillic appeals to a more traditional or vintage sensibility.


title: Serbian language

text: In media, the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia, predominantly uses the Cyrillic script whereas the privately run broadcasters, like RTV Pink, predominantly use the Latin script. Newspapers can be found in both scripts.


title: Serbian language

text: In the public sphere, with logos, outdoor signage and retail packaging, the Latin script predominates, although both scripts are commonly seen. The Serbian government has encouraged increasing the use of Cyrillic in these contexts. Larger signs, especially those put up by the government, will often feature both alphabets; if the sign has English on it, then usually only Cyrillic is used for the Serbian text.


title: Serbian language

text: A survey from 2014 showed that 47% of the Serbian population favors the Latin alphabet whereas 36% favors the Cyrillic one.


title: Serbian language

text: Latin script has become more and more popular in Serbia, as it is easier to input on phones and computers.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian is a highly inflected language, with grammatical morphology for nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well as verbs.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian nouns are classified into three declensional types, denoted largely by their nominative case endings as "-a" type, "-i" and "-e" type. Into each of these declensional types may fall nouns of any of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun may be inflected to represent the noun's grammatical case, of which Serbian has seven:


title: Serbian language

text: Pronouns, when used, are inflected along the same case and number morphology as nouns. Serbian is a pro-drop language, meaning that pronouns may be omitted from a sentence when their meaning is easily inferred from the text. In cases where pronouns may be dropped, they may also be used to add emphasis. For example:


title: Serbian language

text: Adjectives in Serbian may be placed before or after the noun they modify, but must agree in number, gender and case with the modified noun.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian verbs are conjugated in four past forms—perfect, aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect—of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but the majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic), one future tense (also known as the first future tense, as opposed to the second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense. These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses: the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses) and the second conditional (without use in the spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian has active and passive voice.


title: Serbian language

text: As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive, two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past).


title: Serbian language

text: Most Serbian words are of native Slavic lexical stock, tracing back to the Proto-Slavic language. There are many loanwords from different languages, reflecting cultural interaction throughout history. Notable loanwords were borrowed from Greek, Latin, Italian, Turkish, Hungarian, English, Russian, German, Czech and French.


title: Serbian language

text: Serbian literature emerged in the Middle Ages, and included such works as "Miroslavljevo jevanđelje" (Miroslav's Gospel) in 1186 and "Dušanov zakonik" (Dušan's Code) in 1349. Little secular medieval literature has been preserved, but what there is shows that it was in accord with its time; for example, the "Serbian Alexandride", a book about Alexander the Great, and a translation of "Tristan and Iseult" into Serbian. Although not belonging to the literature proper, the corpus of Serbian literacy in the 14th and 15th centuries contains numerous legal, commercial and administrative texts with marked presence of Serbian vernacular juxtaposed on the matrix of Serbian Church Slavonic.


title: Serbian language

text: By the beginning of the 14th century the Serbo-Croatian language, which was so rigorously proscribed by earlier local laws, becomes the dominant language of the Republic of Ragusa. However, despite her wealthy citizens speaking the Serbo-Croatian dialect of Dubrovnik in their family circles, they sent their children to Florentine schools to become perfectly fluent in Italian. Since the beginning of the 13th century, the entire official correspondence of Dubrovnik with states in the hinterland was conducted in Serbian.


title: Serbian language

text: In the mid-15th century, Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and for the next 400 years there was no opportunity for the creation of secular written literature. However, some of the greatest literary works in Serbian come from this time, in the form of oral literature, the most notable form being epic poetry. The epic poems were mainly written down in the 19th century, and preserved in oral tradition up to the 1950s, a few centuries or even a millennium longer than by most other "epic folks". Goethe and Jacob Grimm learned Serbian in order to read Serbian epic poetry in the original. By the end of the 18th century, the written literature had become estranged from the spoken language. In the second half of the 18th century, the new language appeared, called Slavonic-Serbian. This artificial idiom superseded the works of poets and historians like Gavrilo Stefanović Venclović, who wrote in essentially modern Serbian in the 1720s. These vernacular compositions have remained cloistered from the general public and received due attention only with the advent of modern literary historians and writers like Milorad Pavić. In the early 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić promoted the spoken language of the people as a literary norm.


title: Serbian language

text: Vuk Karadžić's "Srpski rječnik", first published in 1818, is the earliest dictionary of modern literary Serbian. The "Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika" (I–XXIII), published by the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1880 to 1976, is the only general historical dictionary of Serbo-Croatian. Its first editor was Đuro Daničić, followed by Pero Budmani and the famous Vukovian Tomislav Maretić. The sources of this dictionary are, especially in the first volumes, mainly Štokavian. There are older, pre-standard dictionaries, such as the 1791 German–Serbian dictionary.


title: Serbian language

text: The standard and the only completed etymological dictionary of Serbian is the "Skok", written by the Croatian linguist Petar Skok: "Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika" ("Etymological Dictionary of Croatian or Serbian"). I-IV. Zagreb 1971–1974.


title: Serbian language

text: There is also a new monumental "Etimološki rečnik srpskog jezika" (Etymological Dictionary of Serbian). So far, two volumes have been published: I (with words on A-), and II (Ba-Bd).


title: Serbian language

text: There are specialized etymological dictionaries for German, Italian, Croatian, Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, English and other loanwords (cf. chapter "word origin").


title: Serbian language

text: Сва људска бића рађају се слободна и једнака у достојанству и правима. Она су обдарена разумом и свешћу и треба једни према другима да поступају у духу братства.


title: Serbian language

text: "Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i svešću i treba jedni prema drugima da postupaju u duhu bratstva."


title: Serbian language

text: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


title: Boxing Day

text: Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It originated in Great Britain and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously formed part of the British Empire. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place on 28 December if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday. Boxing Day is also concurrent with the Catholic holiday Saint Stephen's Day.


title: Boxing Day

text: In parts of Europe, such as several regions of Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, and Ireland, 26 December is Saint Stephen's Day, which is considered the second day of Christmas.


title: Boxing Day

text: The European tradition of giving money and other gifts to those in need, or in service positions, has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown; it may reference the alms box placed in the narthex of Christian churches to collect donations for the poor. The tradition may come from a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era wherein alms boxes placed in churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which, in the Western Christian Churches, falls on the same day as Boxing Day, the second day of Christmastide. On this day, it is customary in some localities for the alms boxes to be opened and distributed to the poor.


title: Boxing Day

text: The "Oxford English Dictionary" gives the earliest attestations from Britain in the 1830s, defining it as "the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas box".


title: Boxing Day

text: A present or gratuity given at Christmas: in Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas.