text: On 16 September 2001 the French press reported slightly higher than acceptable radioactivity levels aboard "Charles de Gaulle", thought to be caused by a faulty isolation element. It was later discovered that the radioactivity levels matched the design, but that the regulations concerning acceptable radioactivity levels had changed. While the United States was preparing its response to the September 11 attacks in the form of Operation Enduring Freedom, French media complained about the lack of deployable French military power. At the same time, the Defence Commission reported the maintenance of the Fleet to be substandard. In this context, "Charles de Gaulle", then under repairs, was again an object of criticism, with former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing describing it as a "half-aircraft-carrier" and requesting the launching of the second carrier vessel (named PA2) to guarantee an availability rate of 100%.


title: French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle

text: "Charles de Gaulle" first major overhaul began in September 2007. The highlight of this 15-month refit was the refueling of the nuclear power plant, a necessary step after six years in service, during which "Charles de Gaulle" sailed the equivalent of 12 times around the world, spent 900 days at sea, and performed 19,000 catapult launches. Several improvements were also made, including the installation of new propellers. These allow "Charles de Gaulle" to reach her design speed of , replacing the vintage propellers used as a stop-gap since 2001. Aircraft maintenance and weapons stores were also upgraded to allow the operation of new Rafale F3 fighters armed with ASMP-A nuclear missiles and SCALP EG cruise missiles, and satellite communications bandwidth will be increased tenfold. This refit increased displacement to 42500 tonnes and was completed in December 2008. After technical problems in March 2009, the carrier was back in Toulon for repairs. An intensive work-up period was planned to bring "Charles de Gaulle" and her air group back to operational status.


text: On 14 October 2010, a four-month cruise was cut down to a single day when the ship suffered an electrical fault in its propulsion system.


text: The aircraft carrier underwent an 18-month midlife upgrade and refit begun in February 2017 and returned to service in September 2018. The nuclear reactor was refueled, standard maintenance was completed, and the ship's combat system was modernized, to better communicate with allies and support the Rafale fighters employed by the carrier.


text: On 11 October 2001, the frigate , four AWACS aircraft and "Charles de Gaulle" were involved in a successful trial of the Link 16 high-bandwidth secure data network. The network allows real-time monitoring of the airspace from the South of England to the Mediterranean Sea. The collected data were also transmitted in real-time to the frigate through the older MIL-STD-6011 system.


text: On 21 November 2001, France decided to send "Charles de Gaulle" to the Indian Ocean in support of Operation Enduring Freedom against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Task Force 473, with 2,900 men under the command of Contre-Amiral François Cluzel, sailed on 1 December 2001. The task force was composed of "Charles de Gaulle", frigates , and , the nuclear attack submarine , the tanker and the .


text: Embarked air power comprised sixteen Super Étendards, one E-2C Hawkeye, two Rafale Ms and several helicopters. The Super Étendards carried out their first missions above Afghanistan on 19 December, executing reconnaissance and bombing missions, covering over 3,000 kilometres. Overall they carried out 140 missions, averaging 12 per day. Approximately 770 sorties were carried out from the carrier.


text: On 18 February 2002, a Helios observation satellite spotted abnormal activities near Gardez. The next day, after American Special Forces in the region confirmed these observations, "Charles de Gaulle" launched two reconnaissance Super Étendards. On 20 February 2002, British and US forces entered the valley and Operation Anaconda began in early March 2002.


text: In March 2002, Super Étendards and six land-based Mirage 2000 aircraft carried out airstrikes against targets claimed to be al Qaeda. A few targets suggested by U.S. forces were denied out of fear of hitting civilians. Nevertheless, French involvement was complimented on 11 March 2002 by US President George W. Bush, who mentioned "our good ally, France, has deployed nearly one-fourth of its navy to support Operation Enduring Freedom". At this point, the French air complement had been increased to 16 Super Étendards, 6 Mirage 2000 D, 5 Rafales, and two Hawkeye AWACS. From February 2002, the air wings of "Charles de Gaulle" and landed on each other's decks as a means of strengthening the ties between the allies.


text: On 2 May 2002, "Charles de Gaulle" arrived in Singapore for relief, and returned to Oman on 18 May 2002.


text: In June 2002 while "Charles de Gaulle" was in the Arabian Sea, armed Rafale fighters conducted combat air-patrols with the United States Navy off the coast of India and Pakistan, marking a significant point in the Rafale M's operational career and its integration with the carrier.


text: "Charles de Gaulle" participated in further actions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2005. She returned to Southwest Asia in May 2006 and shortly after supported coalition efforts over Afghanistan. The aircraft carrier regularly participates in the annual bilateral naval exercises between the Indian and French navies called 'Varuna'.


text: A French naval task group, designated Task Force 473, led by "Charles de Gaulle" departed Toulon on 30 October 2010 for a four-month deployment, code-named Operation Agapanthus 2010, to the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf. The task group also included the frigates and ; the nuclear attack submarine ; the replenishment oiler , 3,000 sailors, and an Embarked Aviation Group (EAG) consisting of 12 Super-Étendard attack aircraft, 10 Rafale multi-role fighters, and two E-2C Hawkeye 2000 AEW aircraft. The task group commander, Rear Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard, defined force's mission as follows:


text: On 28 November 2010, according to an Associated Press dispatch, the French Ministry of Defense announced that a French Rafale fighter jet crashed near "Charles de Gaulle", which was operating off the coast of Pakistan in the Arabian Sea in support of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The pilot parachuted to safety and was picked up by helicopter, and the cause of the crash was under investigation. In December 2010, during its deployment to the Persian Gulf, the British Type 22 frigate and the United States destroyer rotated from maritime security patrol to escort "Charles de Gaulle" in support of coalition military operations in Afghanistan. This represented an example of interoperability pursuant to the recently ratified Anglo-French defence cooperation treaty.


text: Between 7–14 January 2011, Task Force 473 participated in bilateral naval exercises, code-named Varuna 10, with the Indian Navy. Indian naval units participating in Varuna 10 included the aircraft carrier , the frigates and ; and the diesel-electric submarine . Varuna 10 was a two-phase naval exercise, with the harbor phase taking place between 7–11 January and the sea phase between 11 and 14 January in the Arabian Sea. Task Force 473 paid a port visit to Goa between 7–14 January 2011. The carrier "Charles de Gaulle" and the frigate "Forbin" also paid a goodwill visit to Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, on 30 January 2011, docking at its container terminal facilities.


text: Operation Agapanthus 2010 concluded on 21 February 2011. Task Force 473 completed more than 1,000 flying hours flown from "Charles de Gaulle" in support of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed in Afghanistan. Task Force 473 also participated in bilateral exercises with armed forces of India, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to test the interoperability of French military forces and share expertise with the regional partners.


text: On 20 March 2011, "Charles de Gaulle" was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 which called for a no-fly zone over Libya. Accompanying "Charles de Gaulle" were the frigates and and the fleet replenishment tanker "Meuse".


text: During Unified Protector, the air fleet had flown 1,350 sorties during the intervention in Libya. "Charles de Gaulle" was then withdrawn for maintenance at Toulon on 10 August.


text: Following this deployment, "Charles de Gaulle" underwent maintenance and upkeep during an at-sea underway period in December 2011.


text: On 2 February 2012, "Charles de Gaulle" was underway for three days of sea trials. Beginning on 5 February 2012, carrier qualifications began for the pilots of its air group. This included transitioning of pilots flying Super Étendard Modernisé (SEM) strike fighters to the new Rafale M fighters.


text: On 16 March 2012, "Charles de Gaulle" departed for a one-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. "Charles de Gaulle"s task force was under the overall command of Rear Admiral Philippe Coindreau, and it consisted of the frigates , , , and ; the replenishment tanker "Meuse"; and the nuclear-powered submarine "Émeraude". "Charles de Gaulle"s embarked air group consisted of 7 Rafale fighters, 7 Super Étendards Modernisés (SEM) strike fighters, and 2 E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. The highlight of the deployment for the task group was 2012 FANAL exercises that began on 5 April 2012 which also included land-based Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft. 2012 FANAL concluded on 12 April, and this was the first major exercise involving the French Navy's new Caïman helicopter.


text: In January 2015, "Charles de Gaulle" began being prepared for exercises in the Indian Ocean. In late February, the carrier and its battle group entered the Persian Gulf to participate in Opération Chammal against Islamic State militants in Iraq. France was the first country to join the American-led intervention and has 15 fighters, a patrol aircraft, and refueling aircraft based on land in neighboring countries. The addition of "Charles de Gaulle" added up to another 30 aircraft to France's commitment to operations. The carrier battle group arrived in the Persian Gulf on 15 February 2015 and began launching airstrikes on 22 February; this occurred seven weeks after the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks, as France vowed to be more responsive to jihadist terrorism. Sailing off the north coast of Bahrain, the carrier's 12 Rafale and 9 Super Étendard fighters could reach targets in half the time it would take French fighters based in the United Arab Emirates. "Charles de Gaulle" left the Persian Gulf in late-April 2015 after launching strike and surveillance missions against IS targets to participate in exercises with the Indian military; the carrier launched 10–15 sorties per day during its two-month deployment.


text: On 5 November 2015, France announced "Charles de Gaulle" would return to the area to conduct operations and the ship departed from its base in Toulon, southern France, on 18 November. Although originally planned to redeploy to the Persian Gulf, the carrier and its strike group was re-routed to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian coastline, much closer to targets within Syria. Sources claim "Charles de Gaulle" has a larger than normal air wing of 26 fighters consisting of 18 Rafales and 8 Super Étendards; the carrier has approximately 31–34 aircraft total (the official limit is 40 aircraft). The carrier began operations on 23 November 2015, 10 days after the ISIL terrorist attacks in Paris. On 7 December 2015, Rear Admiral René-Jean Crignola of the French Maritime Force, embarked in "Charles de Gaulle", took command of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command's Task Force 50, leading coalition naval strike operations. He was the first non-American to do so. In June 2016, the United States Navy awarded the crew of the "Charles de Gaulle" a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its accomplishments.


text: In late September 2016, "Charles de Gaulle" was deployed from Toulon to the Syrian coast for the Battle of Mosul. Its squadron of 24 Rafale M aircraft supported the international coalition against ISIL through airstrikes and reconnaissance missions.


text: In 2020, while continuing Opération Chammal in the Eastern Mediterranean, "Charles de Gaulle" was joined by the US Navy . They joined forces on Operation Inherent Resolve, an international coalition against the Daesh. Throughout the mission, the carrier strike group was joined by allied navy vessels from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal. The cooperation illustrated common operational efficiency in the Mediterranean. During the operation, the "Charles de Gaulle" carrier group, its 2,000-member crew, a and a Hellenic Navy frigate docked at the Port of Limassol for a five-day port call. The President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and ambassador Isabelle Dumont addressed the aircraft crew in the presence of Captain Guillaume Pinget.


text: The aircraft carrier led the carrier strike group Task Force 473 on a five-month long operation that began in March 2019, through the Mediterranean Sea. Aircraft from "Charles de Gaulle" participated in the last major combat against the Islamic State in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani and then sailed for the Indian Ocean. Arriving in Singapore on 28 May, the aircraft carrier participated in a bilateral exercise with the Singapore Armed Forces.


text: In April 2020, 40 crew members began to show symptoms of COVID-19, requiring "Charles de Gaulle" to return to her home port Toulon arsenal earlier than planned, as reported on 8 April by the Ministry of Armed Forces.


text: After 66 tests were conducted, the ministry announced on 10 April that 50 tests had returned positive. Three sailors were evacuated by helicopter to .


text: On 19 April, "The New York Times" reported that 1,081 crew members in the carrier's naval group had tested positive, nearly all of which were on board "Charles de Gaulle". The figure equated to nearly 60 percent of the carrier's total complement.


text: On 11 May 2020, Florence Parly reported to the National Assembly the conclusions of two investigations into the outbreak on board the carrier, stating that the virus had first arrived before a stopover made in Brest, and that although the command and medical team aboard the carrier had "excessive confidence" in their ability to deal with the virus, the investigations did not consider them at fault.


text: Parly further explained that the introduction of the virus on board the carrier happened sometime between when it left Limassol, Cyprus, on 26 February 2020, and when it arrived at Brest on 13 March 2020. During this time, personnel had been brought on board via air from either Cyprus, Sicily, the Balearic Islands, Spain, or Portugal. The spread of the virus, however, was exacerbated by the stopover at Brest. Social distancing and other measures were taken after the stopover, but they weighed heavily on crew morale, so after enforcing the strict measures for a fortnight, they were relaxed, and a concert on board was authorized for 30 March 2020.


text: Parly also noted that all soldiers aboard "Charles de Gaulle" have since recovered from the disease except for one sailor, who was still hospitalized after leaving the ICU.


text: Later analysis by physicians at the Military Instruction Hospital Sainte Anne in Toulon found that 60% of "Charles de Gaulle"s 1,706 crewmembers were antibody-positive by the end of quarantine.


text: "Charles de Gaulle" led the carrier strike group (CSG), as part of the “Clemenceau 21” mission, which set sail on 21 February 2021. The CSG is deployed for several months to the Mediterranean Sea, then to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf and is set to return to Toulon in June.


text: From 18 November to 2 December 2021, the "Charles de Gaulle" took part in Exercise POLARIS 21 in the western Mediterranean sea.


text: "Charles de Gaulle" set sail on 1 February leading the French Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to the Mediterranean as part of Clemenceau 22 from February to April 2022. This CSG consist of 1 Air defence Destroyer, "Forbin" (D620), 1 Air Defence Frigate, "Alsace" (D656), 1 Anti-Submarine Frigate, "Normandie" (D651), 1 "Rubis"-class SSN and 1 "Durance"-class replenishment oiler, "Marne" (A630). The CSG will be joined by other 3 other allies' ships and 1 submarine.


text: The carrier air group () operates three squadrons (11F, 12F, 17F) of fifteen Rafale M aircraft each, and one squadron (4f) of three E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. These are the:


text: Typically two Rafale squadrons are expected to rotate in the "Charles de Gaulle" carrier air group, and a pair of E-2Cs would supplement them. In peacetime, the number of aircraft on board may be lower: 30/40 Rafale M, 2 E-2C Hawkeye and 2/4 AS365 Dauphin helicopters. Although 30 Rafales, divided into two squadrons, are expected to be on board, usually some aircraft remain in France for upgrade or training. US Navy F-18 Hornets and C-2 Greyhounds regularly conduct qualification traps and launches from "Charles de Gaulle". In June 2011, two US Navy C-2A(R) Greyhounds were assigned to the French Navy to conduct operational carrier on-board delivery (COD) missions for "Charles de Gaulle" during the NATO intervention in Libya.


text: In 2019, "Charles de Gaulle" operated 35 aircraft during exercises, its record: two Dauphin helicopters, thirty Rafale M, two E-2C Hawkeye and one NH90 NFH Caiman. In the event of war, the carrier is expected to operate close to its full complement of 40 aircraft. The air group took part in combat operations in Afghanistan, Syria and Libya.


text: The French Navy aimed to be a two-carrier navy, mainly to ensure that at least one ship is operational at all times even when the other is under repair. This scheme requires another aircraft carrier to be built; however, "Charles de Gaulle" is the only aircraft carrier currently serving.


text: Cost considerations have made equipment standardization a necessity. In this context, there is a possibility of collaboration with Britain for future aircraft carriers. Thales UK (with BMT) made the design for the suitable for construction for France as the French aircraft carrier PA2. Steps were taken by both countries to make such a scenario possible: the new carrier had to be conventionally propelled to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy. France favoured nuclear propulsion, and a study was conducted to see if it was more cost-efficient than gas turbines. However, the 2013 French Defence White Paper cancelled the plan for a second carrier.


text: Following completion of the midlife upgrade, in October 2018 the French armed forces minister announced an 18-month study to determine the requirements for a future carrier. In December 2020, President Macron announced that construction of the New Generation Aircraft Carrier would begin in around 2025 with sea trials to start in about 2036. The carrier is planned to have a displacement of around 75,000 tons and to carry about 32 next-generation fighters, two to three E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes and a yet-to-be-determined number of unmanned carrier air vehicles.


title: Megafauna

text: In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας "megas" "large" and New Latin "fauna" "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common thresholds used are weight over (i.e., having a mass comparable to or larger than a human) or over a tonne, (i.e., having a mass comparable to or larger than an ox). The first of these include many species not popularly thought of as overly large, and being the only few large animals left in a given range/area, such as white-tailed deer, Thomson's gazelle, and red kangaroo.


title: Megafauna

text: In practice, the most common usage encountered in academic and popular writing describes land mammals roughly larger than a human that are not (solely) domesticated. The term is especially associated with the Pleistocene megafauna – the land animals often larger than their extant counterparts that are considered archetypical of the last ice age, such as mammoths, the majority of which in northern Eurasia, the Americas and Australia became extinct within the last forty thousand years. Among living animals, the term megafauna is most commonly used for the largest extant terrestrial mammals, which includes (but is not limited to) elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and large bovines. Of these five categories of large herbivores, only bovines are presently found outside of Africa and southern Asia, but all the others were formerly more wide-ranging, with their ranges and populations continually shrinking and decreasing over time. Wild equines are another example of megafauna, but their current ranges are largely restricted to the old world, specifically Africa and Asia. Megafaunal species may be categorized according to their dietary type: megaherbivores (e.g., elephants), megacarnivores (e.g., lions), and, more rarely, megaomnivores (e.g., bears). The megafauna is also categorized by the class of animals that it belongs to, which are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates.


title: Megafauna

text: Other common uses are for giant aquatic species, especially whales, as well as any of the larger wild or domesticated land animals such as larger antelope, deer, horse and cattle, as well as dinosaurs and other extinct giant reptilians.


title: Megafauna

text: The term megafauna is very rarely used to describe invertebrates, though it has occasionally been used for some species of invertebrates such as coconut crabs and Japanese spider crabs, as well as extinct invertebrates that were much larger than all similar invertebrate species alive today, for example the dragonflies of the Carboniferous period.


title: Megafauna

text: Megafauna animals – in the sense of the largest mammals and birds – are generally "K"-strategists, with high longevity, slow population growth rates, low mortality rates, and (at least for the largest) few or no natural predators capable of killing adults. These characteristics, although not exclusive to such megafauna, make them vulnerable to human overexploitation, in part because of their slow population recovery rates.


title: Megafauna

text: One observation that has been made about the evolution of larger body size is that rapid rates of increase that are often seen over relatively short time intervals are not sustainable over much longer time periods. In an examination of mammal body mass changes over time, the maximum increase possible in a given time interval was found to scale with the interval length raised to the 0.25 power. This is thought to reflect the emergence, during a trend of increasing maximum body size, of a series of anatomical, physiological, environmental, genetic and other constraints that must be overcome by evolutionary innovations before further size increases are possible. A strikingly faster rate of change was found for large decreases in body mass, such as may be associated with the phenomenon of insular dwarfism. When normalized to generation length, the maximum rate of body mass decrease was found to be over 30 times greater than the maximum rate of body mass increase for a ten-fold change.


title: Megafauna

text: Subsequent to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that eliminated the non-avian dinosaurs about Ma (million years) ago, terrestrial mammals underwent a nearly exponential increase in body size as they diversified to occupy the ecological niches left vacant. Starting from just a few kg before the event, maximum size had reached ~50 kg a few million years later, and ~750 kg by the end of the Paleocene. This trend of increasing body mass appears to level off about 40 Ma ago (in the late Eocene), suggesting that physiological or ecological constraints had been reached, after an increase in body mass of over three orders of magnitude. However, when considered from the standpoint of rate of size increase per generation, the exponential increase is found to have continued until the appearance of "Indricotherium" 30 Ma ago. (Since generation time scales with "body mass", increasing generation times with increasing size cause the log mass vs. time plot to curve downward from a linear fit.)


title: Megafauna

text: Megaherbivores eventually attained a body mass of over 10,000 kg. The largest of these, indricotheres and proboscids, have been hindgut fermenters, which are believed to have an advantage over foregut fermenters in terms of being able to accelerate gastrointestinal transit in order to accommodate very large food intakes. A similar trend emerges when rates of increase of maximum body mass per generation for different mammalian clades are compared (using rates averaged over macroevolutionary time scales). Among terrestrial mammals, the fastest rates of increase of "body mass" vs. time (in Ma) occurred in perissodactyls (a slope of 2.1), followed by rodents (1.2) and proboscids (1.1), all of which are hindgut fermenters. The rate of increase for artiodactyls (0.74) was about a third that of perissodactyls. The rate for carnivorans (0.65) was slightly lower yet, while primates, perhaps constrained by their arboreal habits, had the lowest rate (0.39) among the mammalian groups studied.


title: Megafauna

text: Terrestrial mammalian carnivores from several eutherian groups (the artiodactyl "Andrewsarchus" – formerly considered a mesonychid, the oxyaenid "Sarkastodon", and the carnivorans "Amphicyon" and "Arctodus") all reached a maximum size of about 1000 kg (the carnivoran "Arctotherium" and the hyaenodontid "Simbakubwa" may have been somewhat larger). The largest known metatherian carnivore, "Proborhyaena gigantea", apparently reached 600 kg, also close to this limit. A similar theoretical maximum size for mammalian carnivores has been predicted based on the metabolic rate of mammals, the energetic cost of obtaining prey, and the maximum estimated rate coefficient of prey intake. It has also been suggested that maximum size for mammalian carnivores is constrained by the stress the humerus can withstand at top running speed.


title: Megafauna

text: Analysis of the variation of maximum body size over the last 40 Ma suggests that decreasing temperature and increasing continental land area are associated with increasing maximum body size. The former correlation would be consistent with Bergmann's rule, and might be related to the thermoregulatory advantage of large body mass in cool climates, better ability of larger organisms to cope with seasonality in food supply, or other factors; the latter correlation could be explained in terms of range and resource limitations. However, the two parameters are interrelated (due to sea level drops accompanying increased glaciation), making the driver of the trends in maximum size more difficult to identify.


title: Megafauna

text: Since tetrapods (first reptiles, later mammals) returned to the sea in the Late Permian, they have dominated the top end of the marine body size range, due to the more efficient intake of oxygen possible using lungs. The ancestors of cetaceans are believed to have been the semiaquatic pakicetids, no larger than dogs, of about 53 million years (Ma) ago. By 40 Ma ago, cetaceans had attained a length of 20 m or more in "Basilosaurus", an elongated, serpentine whale that differed from modern whales in many respects and was not ancestral to them. Following this, the evolution of large body size in cetaceans appears to have come to a temporary halt, and then to have backtracked, although the available fossil records are limited. However, in the period from 31 Ma ago (in the Oligocene) to the present, cetaceans underwent a significantly more rapid sustained increase in body mass (a rate of increase in "body mass" of a factor of 3.2 per million years) than achieved by any group of terrestrial mammals. This trend led to the largest animal of all time, the modern blue whale. Several reasons for the more rapid evolution of large body size in cetaceans are possible. Fewer biomechanical constraints on increases in body size may be associated with suspension in water as opposed to standing against the force of gravity, and with swimming movements as opposed to terrestrial locomotion. Also, the greater heat capacity and thermal conductivity of water compared to air may increase the thermoregulatory advantage of large body size in marine endotherms, although diminishing returns apply.


title: Megafauna

text: Among toothed whales, maximum body size appears to be limited by food availability. Larger size, as in sperm and beaked whales, facilitates deeper diving to access relatively easily-caught, large cephalopod prey in a less competitive environment. Compared to odontocetes, the efficiency of baleen whales' filter feeding scales more favorably with increasing size when planktonic food is dense, making larger size more advantageous. The lunge feeding technique of rorquals appears to be more energy efficient than the ram feeding of balaenid whales; the latter technique is used with less dense and patchy plankton. The cooling trend in Earth's recent history may have generated more localities of high plankton abundance via wind-driven upwellings, facilitating the evolution of gigantic whales.


title: Megafauna

text: Cetaceans are not the only marine mammals to reach tremendous sizes. The largest carnivorans of all time are marine pinnipeds, the largest of which is the southern elephant seal, which can reach more than 6 meters in length and weigh up to . Other large pinnipeds include the northern elephant seal at , walrus at , and Steller sea lion at . The sirenians are another group of marine mammals which adapted to fully aquatic life around the same time as the cetaceans did. Sirenians are closely related to elephants. The largest sirenian was the Steller's sea cow, which reached up to 10 meters in length and weighed , and was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. The semi-aquatic hippopotamus, which is the terrestrial mammal most closely related to cetaceans, can reach .


title: Megafauna

text: Because of the small initial size of all mammals following the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, nonmammalian vertebrates had a roughly ten-million-year-long window of opportunity (during the Paleocene) for evolution of gigantism without much competition. During this interval, apex predator niches were often occupied by reptiles, such as terrestrial crocodilians (e.g. "Pristichampsus"), large snakes (e.g. "Titanoboa") or varanid lizards, or by flightless birds (e.g. "Paleopsilopterus" in South America). This is also the period when megafaunal flightless herbivorous gastornithid birds evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, while flightless paleognaths evolved to large size on Gondwanan land masses and Europe. Gastornithids and at least one lineage of flightless paleognath birds originated in Europe, both lineages dominating niches for large herbivores while mammals remained below 45 kg (in contrast with other landmasses like North America and Asia, which saw the earlier evolution of larger mammals) and were the largest European tetrapods in the Paleocene.


title: Megafauna

text: Flightless paleognaths, termed ratites, have traditionally been viewed as representing a lineage separate from that of their small flighted relatives, the Neotropic tinamous. However, recent genetic studies have found that tinamous nest well within the ratite tree, and are the sister group of the extinct moa of New Zealand. Similarly, the small kiwi of New Zealand have been found to be the sister group of the extinct elephant birds of Madagascar. These findings indicate that flightlessness and gigantism arose independently multiple times among ratites via parallel evolution.


title: Megafauna

text: Predatory megafaunal flightless birds were often able to compete with mammals in the early Cenozoic. Later in the Cenozoic, however, they were displaced by advanced carnivorans and died out. In North America, the bathornithids "Paracrax" and "Bathornis" were apex predators but became extinct by the Early Miocene. In South America, the related phorusrhacids shared the dominant predatory niches with metatherian sparassodonts during most of the Cenozoic but declined and ultimately went extinct after eutherian predators arrived from North America (as part of the Great American Interchange) during the Pliocene. In contrast, large herbivorous flightless ratites have survived to the present.


title: Megafauna

text: However, none of the flightless birds of the Cenozoic, including the predatory "Brontornis", possibly omnivorous "Dromornis stirtoni" or herbivorous "Vorombe", ever grew to masses much above 500 kg, and thus never attained the size of the largest mammalian carnivores, let alone that of the largest mammalian herbivores. It has been suggested that the increasing thickness of avian eggshells in proportion to egg mass with increasing egg size places an upper limit on the size of birds. The largest species of "Dromornis", "D. stirtoni", may have gone extinct after it attained the maximum avian body mass and was then outcompeted by marsupial diprotodonts that evolved to sizes several times larger.


title: Megafauna

text: Giant tortoises were important components of late Cenozoic megafaunas, being present in every nonpolar continent until the arrival of homininans. The largest known terrestrial tortoise was "Megalochelys atlas", an animal that probably weighed about 1,000 kg.


title: Megafauna

text: Some earlier aquatic Testudines, e.g. the marine "Archelon" of the Cretaceous and freshwater "Stupendemys" of the Miocene, were considerably larger, weighing more than 2,000  kg.


title: Megafauna

text: The Holocene extinction (see also Quaternary extinction event), occurred at the end of the last ice age glacial period (a.k.a. the Würm glaciation) when many giant ice age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, went extinct in the Americas and northern Eurasia. An analysis of the extinction event in North America found it to be unique among Cenozoic extinction pulses in its selectivity for large animals. Various theories have attributed the wave of extinctions to human hunting, climate change, disease, extraterrestrial impact, or other causes. However, this extinction near the end of the Pleistocene was just one of a series of megafaunal extinction pulses that have occurred during the last 50,000 years over much of the Earth's surface, with Africa and southern Asia (where the local megafauna had a chance to evolve alongside modern humans) being comparatively less affected. The latter areas did suffer a gradual attrition of megafauna, particularly of the slower-moving species (a class of vulnerable megafauna epitomized by giant tortoises), over the last several million years.


title: Megafauna

text: Outside the mainland of Afro-Eurasia, these megafaunal extinctions followed a highly distinctive landmass-by-landmass pattern that closely parallels the spread of humans into previously uninhabited regions of the world, and which shows no overall correlation with climatic history (which can be visualized with plots over recent geological time periods of climate markers such as or ). Australia and nearby islands (e.g., Flores) were struck first around 46,000 years ago, followed by Tasmania about 41,000 years ago (after formation of a land bridge to Australia about 43,000 years ago). The role of humans in the extinction of Australia and New Guinea's megafauna has been disputed, with multiple studies showing a decline in the number of species prior to the peopling of the continent and the absence of any evidence of human predation. The impact of climate change has instead been cited for their decline. Stepwise Japan apparently about 30,000 years ago, North America 13,000 years ago, South America about 500 years later, Cyprus 10,000 years ago, the Antilles 6,000 years ago, New Caledonia and nearby islands 3,000 years ago, Madagascar 2,000 years ago, New Zealand 700 years ago, the Mascarenes 400 years ago, and the Commander Islands 250 years ago. Nearly all of the world's isolated islands could furnish similar examples of extinctions occurring shortly after the arrival of humans, though most of these islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, never had terrestrial megafauna, so their extinct fauna were smaller.


title: Megafauna

text: An analysis of the timing of Holarctic megafaunal extinctions and extirpations over the last 56,000 years has revealed a tendency for such events to cluster within interstadials, periods of abrupt warming, but only when humans were also present. Humans may have impeded processes of migration and recolonization that would otherwise have allowed the megafaunal species to adapt to the climate shift. In at least some areas, interstadials were periods of expanding human populations.


title: Megafauna

text: An analysis of "Sporormiella" fungal spores (which derive mainly from the dung of megaherbivores) in swamp sediment cores spanning the last 130,000 years from Lynch's Crater in Queensland, Australia, showed that the megafauna of that region virtually disappeared about 41,000 years ago, at a time when climate changes were minimal; the change was accompanied by an increase in charcoal, and was followed by a transition from rainforest to fire-tolerant sclerophyll vegetation. The high-resolution chronology of the changes supports the hypothesis that human hunting alone eliminated the megafauna, and that the subsequent change in flora was most likely a consequence of the elimination of browsers and an increase in fire. The increase in fire lagged the disappearance of megafauna by about a century, and most likely resulted from accumulation of fuel once browsing stopped. Over the next several centuries grass increased; sclerophyll vegetation increased with a lag of another century, and a sclerophyll forest developed after about another thousand years. During two periods of climate change about 120,000 and 75,000 years ago, sclerophyll vegetation had also increased at the site in response to a shift to cooler, drier conditions; neither of these episodes had a significant impact on megafaunal abundance. Similar conclusions regarding the culpability of human hunters in the disappearance of Pleistocene megafauna were derived from high-resolution chronologies obtained via an analysis of a large collection of eggshell fragments of the flightless Australian bird "Genyornis newtoni", from analysis of "Sporormiella" fungal spores from a lake in eastern North America and from study of deposits of Shasta ground sloth dung left in over half a dozen caves in the American southwest.


title: Megafauna

text: Continuing human hunting and environmental disturbance has led to additional megafaunal extinctions in the recent past, and has created a serious danger of further extinctions in the near future (see examples below). Direct killing by humans, primarily for meat, is the most significant factor in contemporary megafaunal decline.


title: Megafauna

text: A number of other mass extinctions occurred earlier in Earth's geologic history, in which some or all of the megafauna of the time also died out. Famously, in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event the non-avian dinosaurs and most other giant reptilians were eliminated. However, the earlier mass extinctions were more global and not so selective for megafauna; i.e., many species of other types, including plants, marine invertebrates and plankton, went extinct as well. Thus, the earlier events must have been caused by more generalized types of disturbances to the biosphere.


title: Megafauna

text: Megafauna play a significant role in the lateral transport of mineral nutrients in an ecosystem, tending to translocate them from areas of high to those of lower abundance. They do so by their movement between the time they consume the nutrient and the time they release it through elimination (or, to a much lesser extent, through decomposition after death). In South America's Amazon Basin, it is estimated that such lateral diffusion was reduced over 98% following the megafaunal extinctions that occurred roughly 12,500 years ago. Given that phosphorus availability is thought to limit productivity in much of the region, the decrease in its transport from the western part of the basin and from floodplains (both of which derive their supply from the uplift of the Andes) to other areas is thought to have significantly impacted the region's ecology, and the effects may not yet have reached their limits. In the sea, cetaceans and pinnipeds that feed at depth are thought to translocate nitrogen from deep to shallow water, enhancing ocean productivity, and counteracting the activity of zooplankton, which tend to do the opposite.


title: Megafauna

text: Large populations of megaherbivores have the potential to contribute greatly to the atmospheric concentration of methane, which is an important greenhouse gas. Modern ruminant herbivores produce methane as a byproduct of foregut fermentation in digestion, and release it through belching or flatulence. Today, around 20% of annual methane emissions come from livestock methane release. In the Mesozoic, it has been estimated that sauropods could have emitted 520 million tons of methane to the atmosphere annually, contributing to the warmer climate of the time (up to 10 °C warmer than at present). This large emission follows from the enormous estimated biomass of sauropods, and because methane production of individual herbivores is believed to be almost proportional to their mass.


title: Megafauna

text: Recent studies have indicated that the extinction of megafaunal herbivores may have caused a reduction in atmospheric methane. This hypothesis is relatively new. One study examined the methane emissions from the bison that occupied the Great Plains of North America before contact with European settlers. The study estimated that the removal of the bison caused a decrease of as much as 2.2 million tons per year. Another study examined the change in the methane concentration in the atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch after the extinction of megafauna in the Americas. After early humans migrated to the Americas about 13,000 BP, their hunting and other associated ecological impacts led to the extinction of many megafaunal species there. Calculations suggest that this extinction decreased methane production by about 9.6 million tons per year. This suggests that the absence of megafaunal methane emissions may have contributed to the abrupt climatic cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas. The decrease in atmospheric methane that occurred at that time, as recorded in ice cores, was 2-4 times more rapid than any other decrease in the last half million years, suggesting that an unusual mechanism was at work.


title: Megafauna

text: The following are some notable examples of animals often considered as megafauna (in the sense of the "large animal" definition). This list is not intended to be exhaustive:


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: Lucien Leon Laviscount (born 9 June 1992) is a British actor. He first came to prominence in 2007 after appearing in teen drama "Grange Hill". He later appeared in several television series, including ITV's "Coronation Street" (2009) and BBC One's "Waterloo Road" (2010–11). In 2011, he competed in the eighth series of "Celebrity Big Brother".


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: In 2015, Laviscount played a regular character, Earl Grey, in the first season of the horror comedy "Scream Queens" on FOX. In 2017–18, he starred on Sony Crackle’s crime comedy-drama "Snatch". Laviscount also starred as Alexander Cabot in The CW series "Katy Keene".


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: Laviscount reached a worldwide audience in 2021 as recurring cast as Alfie in season 2 of the Netflix series "Emily in Paris".


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: Laviscount was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and grew up in Read, Ribble Valley in Lancashire. He was born to Eugene Laviscount, a body builder of Antiguan descent and Sonia Laviscount who is of English descent. He attended Ribblesdale High School in Clitheroe, where he was awarded 10 GCSEs, and was also a member of Carol Godby's theatre workshop in Bury. He has two brothers, Louis and Jules.


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: At the age of ten, Laviscount appeared in an advertising campaign for Marks & Spencer. He secured roles in programmes such as "Clocking Off" and "Johnny and the Bomb" before becoming a series regular in BBC One series "Grange Hill". Laviscount was then cast as religious swimmer Ben Richardson in "Coronation Street". In 2010, Laviscount took part in a charity football match alongside Jack McMullen, Lyndon Ogbourne and other actors in aid of Sport Relief.


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: On 18 August 2011, Laviscount became a housemate in Channel 5's "Celebrity Big Brother 2011". He lasted until the final week, finishing fifth. He was dubbed 'Mumbles' by his fellow housemates. In 2011, he also appeared as Jonah Kirby, a school pupil, in the TV show "Waterloo Road". Laviscount signed with SK Records in 2012, and released his debut single, "Dance With You", featuring American rapper MANN.


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: On 22 February 2014, it was announced that Laviscount would be playing the lead role of Ennis Ross in "", a spin-of to the US CW show "Supernatural". He appeared in the backdoor pilot episode but the show did not get picked up. In 2015, Laviscount played a series regular role, Earl Grey, in FOX's US horror comedy series "Scream Queens". In 2020 Laviscount appeared as Alexander Cabot in The CW series "Katy Keene".


title: Lucien Laviscount

text: In 2021, Laviscount appeared in the recurring role of Alfie in season two of the Netflix series "Emily in Paris".


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave band The Go-Go's. She has also had a successful solo career.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping popularize new wave music with hits such as "We Got the Beat", "Our Lips Are Sealed", and "Vacation". As a solo artist, Wiedlin had her biggest hit with the song "Rush Hour", which peaked at number 9 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. As an actress, she had roles as the singing telegram girl in "Clue" (1985) and as Joan of Arc in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989).


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: As a member of The Go-Go's, Wiedlin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin was born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Her father, Robert Arthur Wiedlin Sr., an oral surgeon of German and Swiss ancestry, was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Betty Jane (née Herro), was of Lebanese heritage, from Oconomowoc, where many immigrants from Lebanon settled. Wiedlin's parents met while students at Marquette University. She grew up in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is one of five children, with a sister and three brothers, growing up in a Catholic family. When she was six, her father took a job with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at a VA hospital in Los Angeles, and the family followed.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin has said, "I remember my childhood as extremely idyllic." She has also mentioned her adolescence with angst and hope by saying, "I was a depressed teenager. I thought life was completely pointless when I was in high school, but just a few short years later I was having the adventure of a lifetime in a successful rock band!" She attended William Howard Taft High School in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1976.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: According to Wiedlin, she was present "pretty much from the beginning" of the Los Angeles punk scene. While attending college in the Los Angeles area for fashion design, she worked at a fashion-design house where she created song lyrics by scribbling ideas on clothing patterns. Under the moniker Jane Drano, she would later design punk-style clothing that she sold at Granny Takes a Trip, a store on Sunset Boulevard. She became part of the scene that spawned bands such as X, the Germs and the Weirdos.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle formed the Go-Go's as a punk band in 1978, with Margot Olaverra on bass and Elissa Bello on drums.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In 1981, Wiedlin and Terry Hall of Fun Boy Three and the Specials co-wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed". The song peaked on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart at No. 20, where it remained until 1982.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: After a series of reunions during the 1990s, Wiedlin, Carlisle, Caffey, Schock and Valentine reunited in 2000 to record "God Bless the Go-Go's", their first studio album in 17 years. The album's title and concept came from Wiedlin.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In 2010, the Go-Go's announced their "Happily Ever After" farewell tour. Although scheduled to begin in July, the tour was canceled because of ACL tears that Wiedlin had suffered in both knees after falling during a nighttime hike.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: The Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020. However, in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin has released four solo albums: "Jane Wiedlin" in 1985, "Fur" in 1988, "Tangled" in 1990 and "Kissproof World" in 2000. From 1995 to 1998, she was also a member of the band FroSTed, which released one album, "Cold", in 1996. In 2017, Wiedlin teamed up with the American-born Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Pietro Straccia to form a new psychedelic/pop/harmony and guitar-driven duo called Elettrodomestico.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin's early acting credits include a brief appearance as an officer seen on a Starfleet Command video screen in "" (1986), an ill-fated singing telegram girl in "Clue" (1985), the White Fairy in Golan-Globus's "Sleeping Beauty" (1987) and as Joan of Arc in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989). Of her 1980s acting career, she has stated, "It turned out to be much harder than it looks, and as much as I enjoyed those experiences, I don't think I'm very good at it."


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In 2001, she had a regular role in MTV's "Spyder Games", portraying the "ex-rock chick who runs the local coffee house" where the characters hang out.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In 2005, she appeared as herself on the fourth season of VH1's "The Surreal Life", in which she talked about her interest in BDSM.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: She portrayed the role of Ursula in Steve Balderson's 2005 surrealist crime drama film "Firecracker", which Roger Ebert listed among the year's best films. She worked twice more with director Balderson, in "Stuck!" (2009), a homage to film noir women in prison dramas.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: She has also provided voices for characters in television and film animation, such as Bruce Wayne's girlfriend in an episode of "The New Batman Adventures", Gwen on "Mission Hill," and Dusk of the Hex Girls, a recurring character in the "Scooby-Doo" franchise.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In 2000 Wiedlin and fellow Go-Go, Charlotte Caffey, co-wrote Keith Urban's first #1 song, "But for the Grace of God." Wiedlin contributed quotations to "Girls Against Girls" by author Bonnie Burton. Wiedlin was a contributing writer to the Los Angeles punk rock books "Under The Big Black Sun" (2016) and "More Fun In The New World" (2019) by John Doe and Tom DeSavia.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In April 2009, Wiedlin was photographed as Bettie Page by Austin Young for the "Heaven Bound" art show. A number of her songs were to be featured in the 2018 debut of the Broadway musical "Head Over Heels", with a story suggested by Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" set to the songs of the Go-Go's and Belinda Carlisle.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: A long-time animal rights activist, Wiedlin has worked with PETA since as far back as 1989 when she performed as part of a "Rock Against Fur" concert in New York City and is a friend of PETA executive Dan Mathews.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: Wiedlin has discussed her struggles with depression and mental health, and how it affected her at several stages of her life, including a suicide attempt in high school, and the effects fame (and a lack of healthy coping mechanisms) had on her wellbeing.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: During Wiedlin's time in the Los Angeles punk scene, her first real boyfriend was Terry Bag (Terry Graham) of the punk band, The Bags and later The Gun Club. She later had what she called a "short but dramatic romance" with Terry Hall of the Specials during a 1980 British tour. Hall later sent her some lyrics prompted by their relationship, inspiring Wiedlin to write "Our Lips Are Sealed", a song on which Hall has co-writer credit. In the 2020 documentary "The Go-Go's", bandmate Gina Schock stated that she and Wiedlin were "girlfriends" for a time until Wiedlin broke up with her. Wiedlin also had a brief relationship with Russell Mael of the band Sparks.


title: Jane Wiedlin

text: In addition to acting and singing, Wiedlin is an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, a mail-order religious organization that offers anyone semi-immediate, no-cost ordination as a ULC minister. Wiedlin identifies herself as "Reverend Sister Go-Go", primarily officiating at weddings.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: Molly-Mae Hague (born 26 May 1999) is an English social media influencer who was a runner-up in the fifth series of reality dating show "Love Island". She has been the creative director of PrettyLittleThing since 2021.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: Hague was born in Stevenage and grew up in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Her parents were both police officers. She has one sister. She attended The Priory School, Hitchin. As a teenager, Hague participated in beauty pageants, being crowned Miss Teen Hertfordshire in 2015 and World Teen Supermodel UK in 2016, going on to be awarded first runner-up at the international competition.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: In 2019, Hague entered the fifth series of "Love Island" on Day 4. She coupled up with Tommy Fury and the pair made it to the final, finishing in second place. She also appeared on a spin-off starring Fury and Curtis Pritchard called "The Boxer & The Ballroom Dancer" and made an appearance in an episode of "Tyson Fury: Gypsy King". She later revealed the reason for going on the show was to "enhance her career". Hague's Instagram following reportedly grew from 160,000 to almost three million during her time in the "Love Island" villa.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: After leaving "Love Island," Hague reportedly signed a £500,000 deal with PrettyLittleThing and in August 2021 was hired as the firm's "creative director" after previously serving as a brand ambassador. Hague has also launched a self tanning range and had sponsorship deals with Starbucks.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: In March 2021, she was reprimanded for running an £8,000 online prize draw on Instagram that failed to follow the advertising regulations for such competitions. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled she had been unable to provide evidence the winners had been randomly and fairly picked.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: On 13 December 2021, Hague appeared as a guest on Steven Bartlett's "The Diary of a CEO" podcast which was uploaded to YouTube. In the interview, she made comments on poverty and wealth inequality, which were the source of controversy, being accused of being "tone deaf" and dubbed "Thatcherite" comments. Hague suggested that those less fortunate than herself in their upbringing only had themselves to blame for their lack of financial stability, stating that "we all have the same 24 hours in a day". These remarks sparked outrage nation-wide and led to calls for her resignation as PrettyLittleThing's creative director.


title: Molly-Mae Hague

text: Hague is in a relationship with professional boxer Tommy Fury, whom she met on "Love Island". They live together in Cheshire. In September 2022, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Russell Marion Nelson Sr. (born September 9, 1924) is an American religious leader and retired surgeon who is the 17th and current president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Nelson was a member of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for nearly 34 years, and was the quorum president from 2015 to 2018. As church president, Nelson is recognized by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Nelson attended the University of Utah for his undergraduate and medical school education. He then did his medical residency and earned a PhD at the University of Minnesota, where he was a member of the research team developing the heart-lung machine that in 1951 supported the first ever human open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass. After further surgical training and a two-year stint in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War, Nelson returned to Salt Lake City and accepted a professorship at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He spent the next 29 years working in the field of cardiothoracic surgery. Nelson became a noted heart surgeon and served as president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Utah Medical Association.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson served in a variety of lay LDS Church leadership positions during his surgical career, beginning locally in Salt Lake City and then as the LDS Church's Sunday School General President from 1971 to 1979. In 1984, Nelson and the American jurist Dallin H. Oaks were selected to fill two vacancies in the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. LDS apostles serve full-time for life, and so Nelson retired from all of his prior professional positions.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Russell M. Nelson was born on September 9, 1924, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Floss Edna ("née" Anderson; 1893–1983) and Marion Clavar Nelson (1897–1990). He had two sisters, Marjory E. (1920–2016) and Enid (1926–2019), and a brother, Robert H. (1931–2014). Nelson's father was a reporter for the "Deseret News" and later became general manager of Gillham Advertising, Utah's earliest advertising agency. His parents were not active in the Latter-day Saint faith while he was a youth, but they did send him to Sunday School, and he was baptized a member of the LDS Church at age 16.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson studied at LDS Business College in his mid-teens (concurrently with high school enrollment) and worked as an assistant secretary at a bank. He graduated from high school at age 16 and enrolled at the University of Utah, graduating in 1945 with a Bachelor of Arts and Phi Beta Kappa membership. While at the University of Utah, he was a member of the Beta Epsilon chapter of Sigma Chi and Owl and Key. Nelson then attended the University of Utah School of Medicine, graduating with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1947 ranked first in his class. Nelson began his first year of medical school while still an undergraduate, and completed the four-year MD program in only three years.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: After medical school, Nelson went to the University of Minnesota for his medical residency. While at Minnesota, he was a member of surgeon Clarence Dennis's pioneering research team developing the heart-lung machine that in April 1951 supported the first human open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass. Nelson received a PhD from Minnesota in 1954 for his research contributions.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson served a two-year term of duty in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War, and was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. While on duty, he was assigned to a research group formed by the commandant of the graduate school at Walter Reed, Col. William S. Stone and led by Dr. Fiorindo A. Simeone, a professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who had been a clinical investigator in the Mediterranean Theater during World War II. This team was focused on ways to improve the treatment of wounded and was sent to all five MASH units active in Korea along with two major evacuation hospitals, several field station hospitals, a prisoner of war camp and larger evacuation hospitals in Japan, Hawaii, and the mainland United States in order to implement such improvements. At one point, the team came close enough to the front that they received fire from enemy artillery positions, which missed them. After 20 months in service, he left active duty at the rank of captain. Following his military service, he did a year of work and surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 1955, Nelson returned to Salt Lake City and accepted a faculty position at the University of Utah School of Medicine. There he built his own heart-lung bypass machine and employed it to support the first open-heart surgery in the United States west of the Mississippi River. That operation was performed at the Salt Lake General Hospital (SLGH, now University of Utah Hospital) on an adult with an atrial septal defect. Nelson was also the director of the University of Utah thoracic surgery residency program.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In March 1956, he performed the first successful pediatric cardiac operation at the SLGH, a total repair of tetralogy of Fallot in a four-year-old girl. He was at the forefront of surgeons focusing attention on coronary artery disease, and contributed to the advance of valvular surgery as well. In 1960, he performed one of the first-ever repairs of tricuspid valve regurgitation. His patient was a Latter-day Saint stake patriarch. He also provided the first surgical intervention for tricuspid regurgitation, a disorder that allows blood to flow backward into the right upper heart chamber. In an indication of his surgical skill, a 1968 case series of his aortic valve replacements demonstrated an exceptionally low peri-operative mortality. Later, he performed the same operation on future LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball, replacing his damaged aortic valve. In 1985, Nelson along with his colleague, Conrad B. Jenson, performed a quadruple bypass surgery on the Chinese opera performer (1925–1989).


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson first operated out of the University of Utah's medical school. He later had a practice at the Salt Lake Clinic with admission privileges at LDS Hospital. In 1964, he set up his own private practice with him as the lead and Conrad Jenson as an associate. In 1966, Nelson became head of the thoracic residency program that combined resources from the University of Utah Medical School, LDS Hospital, Primary Children's Hospital and the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 1965, the University of Chicago offered Nelson the position as head of their department of thoracic surgery. Dallin H. Oaks, then a law professor at Chicago and a fellow Latter-day Saint, actively worked to recruit Nelson. However, after consulting with David O. McKay, Nelson turned down the offer.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson became involved with the administrative aspects of medicine and was elected president of the Utah State Medical Association. He was chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at LDS Hospital.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 1981, Nelson held appointments as a visiting professor of surgery at the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico City and the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. In May 1982 he was a visiting professor at the Hospital de Clinicas in Montevideo, Uruguay.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson was honored nationally by being elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery for the year 1975. He was also a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Nelson traveled extensively as a medical doctor and addressed conferences in many parts of Latin America and Africa, as well as in India and China. He performed a total of nearly 7,000 operations before his call to be an apostle.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 2015, the University of Utah, along with the American College of Cardiology, created the Russell M. Nelson MD, PhD Visiting Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In addition to his medical work, Nelson served frequently as a leader in the LDS Church. In Minnesota, he served as what was then known as Sunday School Superintendent in his local congregation. In Washington DC, he was a counselor in the bishopric of the ward Ezra Taft Benson, then an apostle, regularly attended while serving as Secretary of Agriculture to Dwight D. Eisenhower. In Massachusetts, Nelson was the secretary for the adult Aaronic priesthood organization in his Boston-area branch.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: After returning to Salt Lake City, he was called as priest quorum advisor in the Garden Park Ward, working with over 50 boys ages 16 to 18. He next served as member of the Bonneville Stake YMMIA superintendency (a position roughly equivalent to a modern counselor in the stake young men's presidency) and then as a counselor in the bishopric of the Garden Park Ward. He was set apart as a counselor in the bishopric by Joseph Fielding Smith, whose son-in-law was the bishop. Nelson served in that bishopric for over five years at a time when the ward had over 1,000 members. He then moved to the Yale Second Ward, still in the Bonneville Stake, and was called as a member of the stake high council. He later served as a stake president in Salt Lake City from 1964 to 1971, with fellow future apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin serving as his second counselor. From 1955 to 1965, Nelson served as a missionary on Temple Square every Thursday afternoon for about two hours giving tours to visitors. The call to serve in this position had been extended to Nelson by Richard L. Evans, an apostle and the lead figure over publicity efforts on Temple Square.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson also served for eight years as the church's Sunday School General President. During his tenure the Sunday School developed a unified 8-year-cycle of covering the LDS Church's scriptures in its curriculum. There was also a shift from having members of the Sunday School general board do all the training for new teachers to providing materials which developed into the book "Teaching: No Greater Call". The hymn practice time in Sunday School was also renamed to worship through music.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson later served for four and a half years as a regional representative. For approximately half of this time, he was assigned to oversee the fourteen stakes at BYU, while he worked with the stakes in Kearns, Utah, for the rest of his tenure.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson was called as an apostle by church president Spencer W. Kimball, to whom he had served as a personal physician for many years. Nelson was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 7, 1984, during the church's general conference. He was ordained an apostle on April 12, 1984, by Gordon B. Hinckley. At the same conference, Dallin H. Oaks was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Nelson and Oaks filled the vacancies in the Quorum created by the deaths of LeGrand Richards and Mark E. Petersen. Early in his service as an apostle, Nelson was an adviser to the church's Young Women organization and was supportive of the developing of the Young Women values and Personal Progress program.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 1991, Nelson served as the negotiator for the LDS Church with the Internal Revenue Service over whether contributions to support missionaries serving would be tax deductible. In 1992, it was identified he was on the Strengthening Church Members Committee, alongside fellow apostle James E. Faust. In 1993, he was the church's lead delegate to the Parliament on World Religions. For a time he was also the church's representative to a US State Department committee on international religious freedom.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson's assignments as an apostle have included supervisory responsibility for the LDS Church in Africa. In 2009, he, along with his wife and others, were attacked while in Mozambique. He also made several other visits to that continent, including one to Kenya in 2011.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: From 2007 to 2015, Nelson was as a member of the Church Boards of Trustees/Education, the governing body of the Church Educational System, and the chairman of its executive committee. He was succeeded as chairman of the executive committee by Oaks.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Following the death of Boyd K. Packer on July 3, 2015, Nelson became the most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve and the quorum's president. Nelson was set apart as the quorum president on July 15, 2015, by Thomas S. Monson.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson made his first international trip as quorum president to Central America from August 20–31, 2015. The following month, Nelson dedicated the renovated Aaronic Priesthood Restoration Site in Pennsylvania, where LDS Church members believe the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods were restored.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 2016, as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Nelson declared that the church's governing council had received a revelation from God forbidding minor children of same-sex couples from being baptized without First Presidency approval. "It was our privilege as apostles to sustain what had been revealed to President Monson," Nelson said. Citing "continuing revelation", this policy was adjusted in 2019, such that First Presidency approval was not needed for the children to be baptized.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: After Monson's call to the First Presidency in 1985, Nelson was assigned as the apostle to oversee the work of the church in Eastern Europe. In this assignment, he worked closely with Dennis B. Neuenschwander and Hans B. Ringger. Nelson was involved in the first meetings between LDS Church leaders and government officials of Bulgaria, Romania, and the Soviet Union, and worked to continue LDS expansion and recognition efforts in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In August 2010, Nelson journeyed to the dedication of the Kiev Ukraine Temple. Afterwards, in September, he traveled to church meetings in several European countries. He pronounced blessings upon Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo while visiting each of those countries; these serve as addendums to Monson's 1985 dedication of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson's only son, Russell M. Nelson Jr., served as an LDS missionary in Russia. In 2011, Nelson Sr. returned to Russia to organize the first church stake in that country, headquartered in Moscow.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In August 2003, Nelson became the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve to visit Kazakhstan. While there, Nelson visited government officials, was interviewed by Yuzhnaya Stalitsa television, and dedicated that country for the preaching of the gospel.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: When he was Sunday School General President, Nelson attended a meeting where Kimball urged those present to learn Chinese. Nelson took up this challenge and developed elementary proficiency in Mandarin. He developed ties with the medical community in China and made several trips there to train surgeons. In 1985, Nelson was the first person ever to be made an honorary professor of Shandong Medical College. In 1995, Nelson went to Beijing, along with Neal A. Maxwell and other LDS Church leaders, on an official invitation of Li Lanqing, the Vice Premier of China.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: With the death of Monson on January 2, 2018, Nelson became the anticipated successor to the church's presidency. Nelson signed 1,150 mission calls as the presiding apostle. After being ordained and set apart as church president on January 14, 2018, Nelson was introduced to church members and the media two days later, along with Oaks as his First Counselor and Henry B. Eyring as Second Counselor. Nelson chose not to retain Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who had served as Monson's Second Counselor, in the new First Presidency. This marked the first time since 1985 that a new church president had not retained a previously-serving counselor.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: On April 14, 2022, Nelson surpassed Gordon B. Hinckley to become the oldest president in the history of the church. On August 8, 2022, Nelson became the church's oldest apostle ever, surpassing David B. Haight.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Since becoming church president, Nelson has visited members of the LDS Church in various areas of the world. Up through August 2019, he had visited sixteen countries, addressing thousands of members of the faith.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: The first trip, called a global ministry tour by the church, occurred in April 2018, when Nelson along with his wife, and Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife, met with Latter-day Saints in London, England; Jerusalem; Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; Bengaluru, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Hong Kong; and Laie, Hawaii.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In June 2018, Nelson traveled to Alberta, Canada, where his second wife was born and raised, and gave three devotional addresses in three consecutive evenings.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In September 2018, Nelson visited the Dominican Republic, where he gave an entire talk in Spanish, which was believed to be the first time a church president had given an extended talk in a formal setting in a language other than English. On the same trip, he visited Puerto Rico.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: On February 10, 2019, Nelson spoke to church members in Arizona at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. In addition to the large crowd in attendance, the devotional was broadcast across the state.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: On March 9, 2019, Nelson met with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The event marked the first time in history that a pope and an LDS Church president met face-to-face. The meeting took place the day before the church's Rome Italy Temple was dedicated.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: The first few months of Nelson's leadership of the LDS Church saw many significant changes to church policy, although many had at least been heavily discussed before he became church president, and some were continuations of policies instituted by his predecessors. Nelson began his presidency two days after his ordination with a short broadcast to church members in January 2018 before then holding a press conference. This broadcast ahead of the press conference was unprecedented and provided the new leaders an opportunity to briefly address the entire church immediately.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In March 2018, the First Presidency issued a letter on preventing and responding to abuse. This letter reiterated existing policies, but also explicitly stated that no one should ever be counseled against reporting abuse to legal authorities. The guidance also had a clear emphasis on using counseling to assist in healing from abuse. It also provided more clear policies mandating all interviews with women and youth be done with another person in the general area, and made it clear that youth and women could have a parent or other adult present for an interview. It also adjusted previous policies forbidding adult males to teach classes of children or youth alone to apply to all adults.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: During the church's April general conference, Nelson appointed Asian-American Gerrit W. Gong and Brazilian Ulisses Soares to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, both of whom had been serving in the Presidency of the Seventy.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson also introduced major changes in church organization during the April general conference. First, the high priests groups at the ward level were dissolved, making all Melchizedek priesthood holders in wards and branches part of the elders quorum. A stake's high priest quorum now consists of current members of stake presidencies, high councils, bishoprics and functioning patriarchs. Next, Nelson ended home teaching and visiting teaching, replacing the programs with a focus on ministering, and shifting both the focus and methods of tracking them. As part of this change, young women ages 14–18 may be assigned as ministering sisters, similar to the-long standing policies of young men ages 14–18 serving as home teachers.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: June 2018 began with a First Presidency-sponsored celebration of the 40th anniversary of the revelation extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy members without regard to race, in which Nelson gave concluding remarks. A few days before this, Nelson and his counselors met with the national leaders of the NAACP. That same weekend Nelson gave a devotional to LDS youth in which he urged them to more fully commit to the church. He encouraged them to collectively choose a period of seven days in which to abstain from the use of social media. On June 18, the First Presidency created committees assigned to form a unified hymnbook and children's songbook for the worldwide church membership, with each language edition having the same hymns (and other songs) in the same order, and that these committees would be taking submissions and collecting surveys until July 2019. It is anticipated that the process of creating the new unified hymnbook and children's songbook will take several years.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In August 2018, Nelson issued a statement urging the use of the church's full name. At the church's general conference in October 2018, he reiterated his position, declaring, "It is a correction" and "It is the command of the Lord." Nelson told members that the use of nicknames such as "Mormon" or "LDS" was "a major victory for Satan."


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In the October 2018 general conference, Nelson adjusted the balance between a home-centered, church-supported form of worship. This was highlighted by shortening the length of Sunday church meetings to 2-hours from the previous 3-hours. At the end of the month, Nelson toured five South American countries, during which he met with Peru's president, Martín Vizcarra, gave a major address in Peru in Spanish, and dedicated the Concepción Chile Temple.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In December 2018, the church's First Presidency changed the process of youth class progression and priesthood ordination. Beginning in 2019, youth began moving between classes and priesthood quorums at the beginning of the year in which they turn 12, 14, or 16, rather than when their birthday occurs during the year.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In April 2019, the church's First Presidency published a revelation reversing a controversial November 2015 policy classifying same-sex marriage couples as apostates, and barring children of same-sex marriages from baby blessings, and from baptism until age 18. Nelson had previously characterized the 2015 policy as direction from God, stating "Each of us during that sacred moment felt a spiritual confirmation. ... It was our privilege as apostles to sustain what had been revealed to President Monson." Shortly after the change, Nelson said in a press release that the reversal was, "revelation upon revelation."


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: On April 5, 2020, Nelson issued a new proclamation, "". The proclamation coincided with the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith's First Vision and is the sixth proclamation issued by the church in its history.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Nelson's tenure as church president has been defined by an increased focus on worship within LDS temples. As of April 2022, Nelson has announced a total of 100 new temples to be built in several countries around the world. His travels have been punctuated by several temple dedications, most notably the Rome Italy Temple in March 2019, which was attended by all current members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In 2018, Nelson announced 19 new temples, seven in April and 12 in October, among which were the first in India, Nicaragua, Russia, and Cambodia. During his April 2018 visit to India, Nelson explained to church members that the Lord had instructed him to announce the temple the night before general conference, though he had not originally planned to do so. With the temple in Nicaragua, Nelson fulfilled an apostolic promise he had made to church members there six years earlier.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In October 2018, Nelson concluded a 10-day trip to South America by dedicating the Concepcion Chile Temple. Following the December 2018 dedication of the Barranquilla Colombia Temple by Dallin H. Oaks, Nelson presided over the three-day dedicatory services for the Rome Italy Temple from March 10–12, 2019. Nelson took all the church's apostles with him to Rome for that dedication. This was the first time all ordained apostles of the church had been gathered in one location outside the United States. While in Rome, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles took the first apostolic group photo in two decades.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In April 2020, Nelson announced plans to build a temple in Shanghai, China. Days later, the Shanghai Municipal Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau responded saying it "knew nothing about the American Mormon Church . . . building a so-called 'temple' in Shanghai." The Bureau added that the church's plans were "wishful thinking, not based in reality."


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: While a student at the University of Utah, Nelson met and began dating fellow Utah student Dantzel White (1926–2005). They dated for three years, then married on August 31, 1945, in the Salt Lake Temple. Together they had ten children: nine daughtersMarsha, Wendy (1951–2019), Gloria, Brenda, Sylvia, Emily (1958–1995), Laurie, Rosalie, and Marjorieand a son, Russell Jr. (b. 1972). Dantzel White was a native of Perry, Utah, and first met Nelson when they were the co-leads in a musical produced at the University of Utah. During the 1950s, Dantzel was a member of the Tabernacle Choir.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: Dantzel Nelson died unexpectedly at their home in Salt Lake City on February 12, 2005, at age 78. The following year, Nelson married Wendy L. Watson (b. 1950) in the Salt Lake Temple. Watson, originally from Raymond, Alberta, was a professor of marriage and family therapy at BYU prior to her retirement in 2006. Her marriage to Nelson is her first.


title: Russell M. Nelson

text: In June 2018, the University of Utah endowed a chair in cardiothoracic surgery named after Nelson and his first wife, Dantzel.


title: The Two Popes

text: The Two Popes is a 2019 biographical drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Anthony McCarten, adapted from McCarten's play "The Pope" which premiered at Royal & Derngate Theatre in 2019. Predominantly set in the Vatican City in the aftermath of the Vatican leaks scandal, the film follows Pope Benedict XVI, played by Anthony Hopkins, as he attempts to convince Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce, to reconsider his decision to resign as an archbishop as he confides his own intentions to abdicate the papacy.


title: The Two Popes

text: The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2019. It began a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 27, 2019, and in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2019, and started digital streaming on December 20, 2019, by Netflix. The performances of Pryce and Hopkins, as well as McCarten's screenplay, received high praise from critics, and all three men received nominations for their work at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards.


title: The Two Popes

text: In April 2005, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is called to the Vatican after the death of Pope John Paul II to elect a new pope. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a prominent German prelate, is elected Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Bergoglio receives the second-highest vote count. Seven years later, the Catholic Church is embroiled in the Vatican leaks scandal, and Benedict's tenure has been tainted by public accusations regarding his role in the coverup.


title: The Two Popes

text: Cardinal Bergoglio has submitted his resignation as archbishop, but the Vatican has not responded. As he prepares to go to Rome and personally deliver his resignation, he is summoned to the Vatican. Bergoglio and Benedict meet at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence. The two debate the roles of God and the Church. Benedict recounts what led him to the priesthood and talks about his interests. The two watch Benedict's favorite TV show, "Inspector Rex", which further delays their discussion about Bergoglio's resignation.


title: The Two Popes

text: Bergoglio recounts his early life and path into the church. He ended his marital engagement and joined the Jesuits. He was met by Father Franz Jalics and Father Orlando Yorio, who become his spiritual friends. Benedict rejects Bergoglio's resignation, saying the world would perceive it as a vote of no confidence in his leadership and weaken the Catholic Church. Benedict and Bergoglio put aside their differences and chat informally, gradually warming to each other.


title: The Two Popes

text: The next day, the two go to the Vatican by helicopter. Benedict continues to avoid discussing Bergoglio's resignation. Benedict meets with Cardinal Bergoglio in the Room of Tears within the Sistine Chapel, where he confides his intention to resign the papacy. Shocked, Bergoglio objects and argues for church tradition and continuity. Benedict says his opinions regarding tradition are different now and believes change is essential. Benedict says Bergoglio could be his successor, but Bergoglio rejects the idea, citing the perception that he had collaborated with the Argentine military dictatorship, and his failure to protect his friends and confront the junta may have damaged his reputation. Following the "Dirty War", Bergoglio was removed as head of the Argentinian Society of Jesus and exiled to serve as an ordinary parish priest to the poor for the next ten years.


title: The Two Popes

text: Over time, Father Jalics reconciled with Bergoglio, but Bergoglio regrets never reconciling with Father Yorio. Memories of his actions and inaction during the dictatorship continually haunt him. Benedict comforts Bergoglio, reminding him that the freedom to choose to help is often stifled; he gives Bergoglio absolution. Then Benedict confesses he was aware of Father Maciel's long-term sexual misconduct and regrets staying silent, implying that this is the reason why he wants to resign: Benedict no longer hears God's words and affirms his wish to abdicate. Bergoglio comforts Benedict and offers him absolution as well. The two emerge from the room, surprising tourists. Benedict goes outside to greet the masses and take selfies with them. Bergoglio departs for Argentina.


title: The Two Popes

text: One year later, Pope Benedict XVI delivers his resignation to the world. Bergoglio is elected as his successor in the 2013 papal conclave and becomes Pope Francis. The two popes watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final between their national home teams, Germany and Argentina, together.


title: The Two Popes

text: On September 6, 2017, Netflix announced that it would produce the film, directed by Fernando Meirelles and written by Anthony McCarten. Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins would play Cardinal Bergoglio and Pope Benedict XVI, respectively. Filming was set to begin that November in Argentina. The film began production in Rome in April 2018.


title: The Two Popes

text: Filming locations included a refugee camp in Rome, a full-size reproduction of the Sistine Chapel interior created at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, an area outside Castel Gandolfo (the pope's summer palace), various locations in Rome as stand-ins for scenes at the Vatican, and poor areas of Buenos Aires. The St. Peter's Square plaza was recreated using computer-generated imagery. Some scenes were shot in Royal Palace of Caserta and in villa Farnese in Caprarola, near Rome. The poster image is the hunting lodge of villa Farnese.


title: The Two Popes

text: Much of the coverage of the film in the news media has centered on the reconstructed Sistine Chapel, built in a studio during an eight-week period. To create a realistic look for the artwork, the producers hired a company that produced a "stick-on tattoo" of the walls and ceiling. "The ink from the tattoo is absorbed into the plaster so [...] we got all the texture and the vibrancy", said production designer Mark Tildesley. The interior set is actually an inch or two larger than the real Chapel interior in the Vatican.


title: The Two Popes

text: The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2019. It also was screened at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9. Netflix gave the film a theatrical limited release in the United States beginning November 27, 2019, and in the United Kingdom beginning November 29, 2019. It then started streaming it on its service on December 20, 2019.


title: The Two Popes

text: Although Netflix does not publicly disclose the theatrical box office of its films, "IndieWire" estimated "The Two Popes" grossed around $32,000 from four theaters in its opening weekend (and a total $48,000 over its five-day Thanksgiving opening weekend). The site wrote that "the drama is starting more modestly than other recent Netflix titles. Attendance at the two high-end Landmark theaters in New York and Los Angeles has been modest. Neither small-scale auditorium sold out." The film then made an estimated $50,000 from 19 theaters in its second weekend, and $200,000 from 150 in its third. In its fourth week, upon being released digitally onto Netflix, the film made $90,000 from 44 theaters.


title: The Two Popes

text: According to "Variety", "The Two Popes" was "an unexpected hit" at its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, receiving praise for its humor and the two lead actors' performances. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 229 reviews, with an average of . The site's critics consensus reads, "Led by outstanding performances from its well-matched leads, "The Two Popes" draws absorbing drama from a pivotal moment in modern organized religion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."


title: The Two Popes

text: Although much of the content is based on historic events, including speeches and philosophical debates that were published, most other aspects were fictionalized: "What you always do is you speculate", McCarten said in an interview with "TheWrap". "Hopefully that speculation is based in facts and the truth, and hopefully it's inspired", he added.


title: The Two Popes

text: In its coverage of the film, "Time" pointed out that the two popes' relationship has not been as smooth as in the fictionalized version. In April 2019, Pope Benedict released a 6,000-word letter blaming the clergy sex abuse scandal on factors including the "dangerously liberal theological ideas" within the Church. While the letter did not criticize Francis' papacy, its content was described by "The New York Times" as "the most significant undercutting yet of the authority of Pope Francis". "The Guardian" also discussed a letter that Benedict had written, complimentary of Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who was an outspoken critic of Pope Francis, and added that a 2020 book partly authored by Benedict "was intervening to halt Pope Francis relaxing celibacy rules".


title: The Two Popes

text: There remains a scene in the film which has sparked some debate among Catholic publications which includes an imagined confession from Pope Benedict to Bergoglio (Francis), where he mentions Marcial Maciel before the audio fades out and the audience sees but do not hear his confession. J. Peter Nixon, in the publication "U.S. Catholic", decried "the film's implication that it was Benedict who allowed Father Marcial Maciel Degollado to remain leader of the Legionaries of Christ despite mounting evidence that he was a sexual predator. It was during the papacy of Pope John Paul II, however, that efforts to investigate Maciel were repeatedly frustrated. It was Benedict who ultimately removed him." However, publications including "National Catholic Reporter" and "Slate Magazine" have disagreed, with "Slate" writing: "For years, Joseph Ratzinger also refused to act against Maciel. As the prefect responsible for enforcing church doctrine, he chose to handle the church's sexual abuse through secrecy rather than transparency. For almost a quarter-century, Ratzinger failed to push for the detachment of Marcial Maciel from the position of privilege he enjoyed for so long. He finally did so in 2006, when, as Pope, he found the courage to remove Maciel from the priesthood and send him to Mexico to supposedly focus on a 'discreet life of penance and prayer'. If Maciel followed Benedict's spiritual marching orders, it certainly did not lead to atonement. He never admitted any wrongdoing, much less showed remorse. He died in 2008 without ever asking for forgiveness."


title: The Two Popes

text: Bishop Robert Barron criticized the film for its characterization of Benedict in an article on the Word on Fire website titled "The One Pope."


title: HP Inc.

text: HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing solutions.


title: HP Inc.

text: It was formed on November 1, 2015, renamed from the personal computer and printer divisions of the original Hewlett-Packard Company, with that company's enterprise product and business services divisions becoming Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The split was structured so that Hewlett-Packard changed its name to HP Inc. and spun off Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a new publicly traded company. HP Inc. retains Hewlett-Packard's pre-2015 stock price history and its former stock ticker symbol, HPQ, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise trades under its own symbol, HPE.


title: HP Inc.

text: HP is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the S&P 500 Index. It is the world's 2nd largest personal computer vendor by unit sales as of January 2021, after Lenovo. In the 2018 "Fortune" 500 list, HP is ranked 58th largest United States corporation by total revenue.


title: HP Inc.

text: HP Inc. was formerly known as Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who both graduated with degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company started off in the HP Garage in Palo Alto, California. On November 1, 2015, Hewlett-Packard was renamed to HP Inc. and the company enterprise business was spun off and renamed to Hewlett Packard Enterprise.


title: HP Inc.

text: In May 2016, HP introduced a new PC gaming sub-brand known as Omen (reusing trademarks associated with VoodooPC), including gaming laptops and desktops (with the latter offering options such as CPU water cooling and Nvidia's GTX 1080 graphics, and promoted as VR-ready), and other accessories (such as monitors) designed to cater to the market.


title: HP Inc.

text: In February 2021, HP announced its acquisition of Kingston's gaming division HyperX for $425 million. The deal only includes computer peripherals branded as HyperX, not memory or storage.


title: HP Inc.

text: In February 2022, HP announced it had acquired the Edinburgh-based packaging development company, Choose Packaging, in an effort to strengthen its capabilities in the sustainable packaging vertical.


title: HP Inc.

text: In March 2022, HP announced the acquisition of the California-headquartered communications software and hardware provider Poly Inc. in an all-cash transaction. HP said the cash amount agreed was $40 per share, which implied a total enterprise value of $3.3bn, inclusive Poly’s net debts.


title: HP Inc.

text: On November 5, 2019, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that print and digital document company Xerox was contemplating acquiring HP. The company unanimously rejected two unsolicited offers, including a cash-and-stock offer at $22 per-share. HP stated that there was "uncertainty regarding Xerox’s ability to raise the cash portion of the proposed consideration" (especially given that Xerox is a smaller company in terms of market cap than HP), and noted the company's aggressiveness. On November 26, 2019, Xerox issued a public letter defending allegations by HP that its offer was "uncertain" and "highly conditional", and declared its intent to "engage directly with HP shareholders to solicit their support in urging the HP Board to do the right thing and pursue this compelling opportunity."


title: HP Inc.

text: Xerox stated in January 2020 that it would propose the replacement of HP's board of directors during its next shareholder meeting in April 2020. In a statement to "TechCrunch", HP disclosed a belief that Xerox's bid was being "driven by" activist shareholder Carl Icahn. Xerox raised its bid to $24 per-share in February 2020.


title: HP Inc.

text: On February 21, 2020, HP instituted a shareholder rights plan to fend off Xerox's pursuit of a hostile takeover. Four days later, HP announced that, if shareholders rejected the Xerox purchase, it planned on offering $16 billion in capital return between fiscal 2020 and 2022, including $8 billion in additional share buybacks and raising its "target long-term return of capital to 100% of free cash flow generation". HP criticized Xerox's bid as a "flawed value exchange" based on "overstated synergies". On March 5, 2020, HP rejected an offer at $24 per-share.