title: Population decline

text: Less frequently, short-term population declines are caused by genocide or mass execution. For example, it has been estimated that the Armenian genocide caused 1.5 million deaths, the Jewish Holocaust about 6 million, and, in the 1970s, the population of Cambodia declined because of wide-scale executions by the Khmer Rouge.


title: Population decline

text: In modern times, the AIDS pandemic and the on-going COVID-19 pandemic have caused short-term drops in fertility and significant excess mortality in a number of countries.


title: Population decline

text: Some population declines result from indeterminate causes, for example, the Bronze Age Collapse, which has been described as the worst disaster in ancient history.


title: Population decline

text: In spite of these short-term population shocks, world population has continued to grow. From around 10,000 BC to the beginning of the Early Modern Period (generally 1500 – 1800), world population grew very slowly, around 0.04% per year.  During that period, population growth was governed by conditions now labeled the “Malthusian Trap”.


title: Population decline

text: After 1700, driven by increases in human productivity due to the Industrial Revolution, particularly the increase in agricultural productivity, population growth accelerated to around 0.6% per year, a rate that was over ten times the rate of population growth of the previous 12,000 years. This rapid increase in global population caused Malthus and others to raise the first concerns about overpopulation.


title: Population decline

text: After World War I birth rates in the United States and many European countries fell below replacement level. This prompted concern about population decline. The recovery of the birth rate in most western countries around 1940 that produced the “baby boom”, with annual growth rates in the 1.0 – 1.5% range, and which peaked in 1968 at 2.1% per year, temporarily dispelled prior concerns about population decline, and the world was once again fearful of overpopulation.


title: Population decline

text: But after 1968 the global population growth rate started a long decline, and in the period 2015–2020 it is estimated to be about 1.1%, half of its peak in 1968. Although still growing, global population is predicted to level out around the end of the 21st century, and some sources predict the start of a decline before then.  The principal cause of this phenomenon is the abrupt decline in the global total fertility rate, from 5.0 in 1960 to 2.3 in 2020. The decline in the total fertility rate has occurred in every region of the world and has brought renewed concern from some for population decline.


title: Population decline

text: The era of rapid global population increase, and concomitant concern about a population explosion, has been short compared with the span of human history. It began roughly at the beginning of the industrial revolution and appears to be now drawing to a close in the Western world.


title: Population decline

text: Predictions of the "net" economic (and other) effects from a slow and continuous population decline (e.g. due to low fertility rates) are mainly theoretical since such a phenomenon is a relatively new and unprecedented one. The results of many of these studies show that the estimated impact of population growth on economic growth is generally small and can be positive, negative, or nonexistent. A recent meta-study found no relationship between population growth and economic growth.


title: Population decline

text: The effects of a declining population can be positive. The single best gauge of economic success is the growth of GDP per person, not total GDP. GDP per person (also known as GDP per capita or per capita GDP) is a rough proxy for average living standards. A country can both increase its average living standard and grow total GDP even though its population growth is low or even negative. The economies of both Japan and Germany went into recovery around the time their populations began to decline (2003–2006). In other words, both the total and per capita GDP in both countries grew more rapidly after 2005 than before. Russia's economy also began to grow rapidly from 1999 onward, even though its population had been shrinking since 1992–93. Many Eastern European countries have been experiencing similar effects to Russia. Such renewed growth calls into question the conventional wisdom that economic growth requires population growth, or that economic growth is impossible during a population decline.


title: Population decline

text: More recently (2009–2017) Japan has experienced a higher growth of GDP per capita than the United States, even though its population declined over that period. In the United States, the relationship between population growth and growth of GDP per capita has been found to be empirically insignificant. All of this is further proof that individual prosperity can grow during periods of population decline.


title: Population decline

text: Attempting to better understand the economic impact of these pluses and minuses, Lee et al. analyzed data from 40 countries. They found that typically fertility well above replacement and population growth would be most beneficial for government budgets. Fertility near replacement and population stability, however, would be most beneficial for standards of living when the analysis includes the effects of age structure on families as well as governments. Fertility moderately below replacement and population decline would maximize per capita consumption when the cost of providing capital for a growing labor force is taken into account.


title: Population decline

text: A focus on productivity growth that leads to an increase in both per capita GDP and total GDP can bring other benefits to:


title: Population decline

text: Another approach to possible positive effects of population decline is to consider Earth's carrying capacity. The human carrying capacity of the Earth has been estimated to be 500 million, 1 billion or up to 12 billion. According to these studies, the human carrying capacity has already been exceeded or would be exceeded by the year 2100, therefore a global population decline would counteract the negative effects of human overpopulation.


title: Population decline

text: The effects of a declining population can also be negative. As a country's population declines, GDP growth may grow even more slowly or may even decline.  If the decline in total population is not matched by an equal or greater increase in productivity (GDP/capita), and if that condition continues from one calendar quarter to the next, it follows that a country would experience a decline in GDP, known as an economic recession.  If these conditions become permanent, the country could find itself in a permanent recession.


title: Population decline

text: All these negative effects could be summarized under the heading of “Underpopulation”.  Underpopulation is usually defined as a state in which a country's population has declined too much to support its current economic system.


title: Population decline

text: Population decline can cause internal population pressures that then lead to secondary effects such as ethnic conflict, forced refugee flows, and hyper-nationalism. This is particularly true in regions where different ethnic or racial groups have different growth rates. An example of this is white nationalism. White nationalists seek to ensure the survival of the white race, and the cultures of historically white nations. Many white nationalists believe that white people should therefore maintain a demographic majority and that mass immigration of non-whites and low birth rates among whites are threatening the white race. Low fertility rates that cause long-term population decline can also lead to population ageing, an imbalance in the population age structure. Population ageing in Europe due to low fertility rates has given rise to concerns about its impact on social cohesion.


title: Population decline

text: A smaller national population can also have geo-strategic effects, but the correlation between population and power is a tenuous one. Technology and resources often play more significant roles. Since World War II, the "static" theory saw a population's absolute size as being one of the components of a country's national power. More recently, the "human capital" theory has emerged. This view holds that the quality and skill level of a labor force and the technology and resources available to it are more important than simply a nation's population size. While there were in the past advantages to high fertility rates, that "demographic dividend" has now largely disappeared.


title: Population decline

text: The table below shows the countries that have been affected by population decline between 2010 and 2020. The term "population" used here is based on the "de facto" definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship, except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of the country of origin. This means that population growth in this table includes net changes from immigration and emigration. For a table of natural population changes, see list of countries by natural increase.


title: Population decline

text: Though Japan's natural increase turned negative as early as 2005, the 2010 census result figure was slightly higher, at just above 128 million, than the 2005 census. Factors implicated in the puzzling figures were more Japanese returnees than expected as well as changes in the methodology of data collection. However, the official count put the population as of October 1, 2015, at 127.1 million, down by 947,000 or 0.7% from the previous quinquennial census. The gender ratio is increasingly skewed; some 106 women per 100 men live in Japan. In 2019, Japan's population fell by a record-breaking 276,000; if immigration is excluded from the figures, the drop would have been 487,000. Given the population boom of the 1950s and 1960s, the total population is still 52% above 1950 levels.


title: Population decline

text: South Korea's total fertility rate has been consistently lower than that of Japan, breaking below 1 in 2018, and fell to 0.81 in 2021. As a result, its population fell in 2020 for the first time in the country's history.


title: Population decline

text: Taiwan recorded more deaths than births in first quarter of 2021, despite recording virtually no COVID-19 deaths, likely to continue as a long-term demographic trend.


title: Population decline

text: Population in the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe is rapidly shrinking due to low birth rates, very high death rates (linked to alcoholism and high rates of infectious diseases such as AIDS and TB), as well as high emigration rates. In Russia and the former communist bloc, birth rates fell abruptly after the fall of the Soviet Union, and death rates generally rose sharply. In addition, in the 25 years after 1989, some 20 million people from Eastern Europe are estimated to have migrated to Western Europe or the United States.


title: Population decline

text: Armenia's population peaked at 3,604,000 in 1991 and declined to 3,010,600 in the January 2015 state statistical estimate. This represents a 19.7% decrease in total population since the peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: Belarus's population peaked at 10,151,806 in 1989 Census, and declined to 9,480,868 as of 2015 as estimated by the state statistical service. This represents a 7.1% decline since the peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: In the last Soviet census of 1989, it had a population of 1,565,662, which was close to its peak population. The state statistics reported an estimate of 1,314,370 for 2016. This represents a 19.2% decline since the peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: In the last Soviet census of 1989, it had a population of 5,400,841, which was close to its peak population. The state statistics reported an estimate of 4,010,000 for 2014 Census, which includes estimated numbers for quasi-independent Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This represents a 25.7% decline since the peak census figure, but nevertheless somewhat higher than the 1950 population.


title: Population decline

text: When Latvia split from the Soviet Union, it had a population of 2,666,567, which was very close to its peak population. The latest census recorded a population of 2,067,887 in 2011, while the state statistics reported an estimate of 1,986,086 for 2015. This represents a 25.5% decline since the peak census figure, only one of two nations worldwide falling below 1950 levels. The decline is caused by both a negative natural population growth (more deaths than births) and a negative net migration rate.


title: Population decline

text: When Lithuania split from the Soviet Union, it had a population of 3.7 million, which was close to its peak population. The latest census recorded a population of 3.05 million in 2011, down from 3.4 million in 2001, further falling to 2,988,000 on September 1, 2012.


title: Population decline

text: Ukraine census in 1989 resulted in 51,452,034 people. Ukraine's own estimates show a peak of 52,244,000 people in 1993; however, this number has plummeted to 45,439,822 as of December 1, 2013. Having lost Crimean territory to Russia in early 2014 and subsequently experienced war, the population dropped to 42,981,850 as of August 2014. This represents a 19.7% decrease in total population since the peak figure, but 16.8% above the 1950 population even without Crimea. Its absolute total decline (9,263,000) since its peak population is the highest of all nations; this includes loss of territory and heavy net emigration. Eastern Ukraine may yet lose many Russian-speaking citizens due to new Russian citizenship law. An editorial projects significant gender and age imbalance in the population in Ukraine as a substantial problem if most refugees, as in other cases, do not return over time. Approximately 3.8 million more people have left the country during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and several thousand have died in the conflict.


title: Population decline

text: Hungary's population peaked in 1980, at 10,709,000, and has continued its decline to under 10 million as of August 2010. This represents a decline of 7.1% since its peak; however, compared to neighbors situated to the East, Hungary peaked almost a decade earlier yet the rate has been far more modest, averaging −0.23% a year over the period.


title: Population decline

text: Albania's population in 1989 recorded 3,182,417 people, the largest for any census. Since then, its population declined to an estimated 2,893,005 in January 2015. The decline has since accelerated with a 1.3% drop in population reported in 2021 leaving a total population of 2.79 million. This represents a decrease of 12% in total population since the peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: Bosnia and Herzegovina's population peaked at 4,377,033 in the 1991 Census, shortly before the Yugoslav wars that produced tens of thousands of civilian victims and refugees. The latest census of 2016 reported a population of 3,511,372. This represents a 19.8% decline since the peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: Bulgaria's population declined from a peak of 9,009,018 in 1989 and since 2001, has lost yet another 600,000 people, according to 2011 census preliminary figures to no more than 7.3 million, further down to 7,245,000. This represents a 24.3% decrease in total population since the peak, and a −0.82% annual rate in the last 10 years.


title: Population decline

text: The Bulgarian population has fallen by more than 844,000 people, or 11.5 percent, in the last decade, the National Institute of Statistics in Sofia said during a presentation of the results so far of the 2021 census, the first since 2011.


title: Population decline

text: The country currently employs just over 6.5 million people, compared to 7.3 million in the previous workforce.


title: Population decline

text: Croatia's population declined from 4,784,265 in 1991 to 4,456,096 (by old statistical method) of which 4,284,889 are permanent residents (by new statistical method), in 2011, a decline of 8% (11.5% by the new definition of permanent residency in 2011 census). The main reasons for the decline since 1991 are: low birth rates, emigration and war in Croatia. From 2001 and 2011 main reason for the drop in population is due to a difference in definition of permanent residency used in censuses till 2001 (censuses of 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001) and the one used in 2011. By 2021 population dropped to 3,888,529, a 9,25% decrease from 2011 numbers.


title: Population decline

text: Greece's population declined by about half a million people between its 2021 and 2011 census. The main drivers are increased emigration rates and lower birth rates following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.


title: Population decline

text: Romania's 1991 census showed 23,185,084 people, and the October 2011 census recorded 20,121,641 people, while the state statistical estimate for 2014 is 19,947,311. This represents a decrease of 16.2% since the historical peak in 1991.


title: Population decline

text: Serbia recorded a peak census population of 7,576,837 in 1991 in the Yugoslav era, falling to 7,186,862 in the 2011 census. That represents a decline of 5.1% since its peak census figure.


title: Population decline

text: The decline in Russia's total population is among the largest in numbers, but not in percentage. After having peaked at 148,689,000 in 1991, the population then decreased, falling to 142,737,196 by 2008. This represents a 4.0% decrease in total population since the peak census figure. However, since then the Russian population has risen to 146,870,000 in 2018. This recent trend can be attributed to a lower death rate, higher birth rate, the annexation of Crimea and continued immigration, mostly from Ukraine and Armenia. It is some 40% above the 1950 population. Russia has become increasingly reliant on immigration to maintain its population; 2021 had the highest net immigration since 1994, despite which there was a small overall decline from 146.1 million to 145.4 million in 2021, the largest decline in over a decade. The natural death rate in January 2020, 2021, and 2022 have each been nearly double the natural birth rate.


title: Population decline

text: Spanish population fell by over 100 thousand in 2020, likely to continue as a long-term demographic trend.


title: Population decline

text: Italian population fell by a record amount in 2020, likely to continue as a long-term demographic trend.


title: Population decline

text: Between 2011 and 2021, Portugal's population declined from 10.56 to 10.34 million people. The fertility rate has been consistently below 2 since the early 1980s, and the gap is increasingly being made up with Brazilian immigrants.


title: Population decline

text: Syria's population has declined due to the ongoing civil war in Syria. Many Syrians have emigrated to other Middle eastern countries. The civil war makes an accurate count of the Syrian population difficult, but the UN estimates that it peaked in 2010 at 21.4 million and dropped to 17.5 million in 2020, a decline of 18%.


title: Population decline

text: In Germany a continuously low birth rate has been offset by waves of immigration. From 2002 to 2011 the population declined by 2 million, the most since the Cold War. The 2011 national census recorded a population of 80.2 million people, following which official estimates showed an increase of 3 million over the next decade. The official estimate for 2020 was a slight decrease from 2019. Third-party estimates show a slight increase, instead.


title: Population decline

text: In the current area of the Republic of Ireland, the population has fluctuated dramatically. The population of Ireland was 8 million in 1841, but it dropped due to the Irish famine and later emigration. The population of the Republic of Ireland hit a bottom at 2.8 million in the 1961 census, but it then rose and in 2011 it was 4.58 million. As of 2020 it is estimated to be just under 5 million according to the country's Central Statistics Office.


title: Population decline

text: In spite of a growing population at a national level, some formerly large American municipalities have dramatically shrunk after the Second World War, and in particular during the 1950s–1970s, due to suburbanization, urban decay, race riots, high crime rates, deindustrialization and emigration from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. For instance, Detroit's population peaked at almost 2 million in 1953, then declined to less than 700,000 by 2020. Other cities whose populations have dramatically shrunk since the 1950s include Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Flint, Gary, New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Youngstown and Wilmington (Delaware). In addition, the depopulation of the Great Plains, caused by a very high rate of rural flight from isolated agricultural counties, has been going on since the 1930s.


title: Population decline

text: In addition, starting from the 1950s, the United States has witnessed the phenomenon of the white flight or white exodus, the large-scale migration of people of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. The term has more recently been applied to other migrations by whites, from older, inner suburbs to rural areas, as well as from the U.S. Northeast and Midwest to the warmer climate in the Southeast and Southwest. Migration of middle-class white populations was observed during the Civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s out of cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Oakland, although racial segregation of public schools had ended there long before the Supreme Court of the United States' decision "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954. In the 1970s, attempts to achieve effective desegregation (or "integration") by means of forced busing in some areas led to more families' moving out of former areas. More recently, as of 2018, California had the largest ethnic/racial minority population in the United States; Non-Hispanic whites decreased from about 76.3 – 78% of the state's population in 1970 to 36.6%% in 2018 and 39.3% of the total population was Hispanic-Latino (of any race).


title: Population decline

text: A combination of long-term trends, housing affordability, and falling birthrates and rising death rates from the COVID-19 pandemic have caused as many as 16 US states to start declining in population.


title: Population decline

text: The term 'Empty diagonal' is used for French departments that have low or declining populations. Due to continued emigration, many departments in France are seeing declines in population, including: Aisne, Allier, Ardennes, Cantal, Charente, Cher, Corrèze, Creuse, Dordogne, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Haute-Marne, Haute-Saône, Haute-Vienne, Indre, Jura, Loir-et-Cher, Lot-et-Garonne, Lozère, Manche, Marne, Mayenne, Meuse, Moselle, Nièvre, Orne, Paris, Sarthe, Somme, Territoire de Belfort, Vosges and Yonne. For more information, see the List of French departments by population.


title: Population decline

text: The term 'white flight' has also been used for large-scale post-colonial emigration of whites from Africa, or parts of that continent, driven by levels of violent crime and anti-colonial state policies. In recent decades, there has been a steady and proportional decline in South Africa's white community, due to higher birth rates among other South African ethnic groups, as well as a high rate of emigration. In 1977, there were 4.3 million White South Africans, constituting 16.4% of the population at the time. An estimated 800,000 emigrated between 1995 and 2016, citing crime and a lack of employment opportunities.


title: Population decline

text: The Parsis of India have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world (0.8 children per woman in 2017); this coupled with emigration has resulted in population decline at least since the 1940s. Their population has more than halved from the peak.


title: Population decline

text: A country with a declining population will struggle to fund public services such as health care, old age benefits, defense, education, water and sewage infrastructure, etc. In order to maintain some level of economic growth and continue to improve its citizens’ quality of life, national efforts to confront declining populations will tend to focus on the threat of a declining GDP.  Because a country's GDP is dependent on the size and productivity of its workforce, a country confronted with a declining population, will focus on increasing the size and productivity of that workforce.


title: Population decline

text: A country's workforce is that segment of its working age population that is employed.  Working age population is generally defined as those people aged 15–64.


title: Population decline

text: Natalism is a set of government policies and cultural changes that promote parenthood and encourage women to bear more children. These generally fall into three broad categories:


title: Population decline

text: For example, Sweden built up an extensive welfare state from the 1930s and onward, partly as a consequence of the debate following Crisis in the Population Question, published in 1934. Today, (2017) Sweden has extensive parental leave that allows parents to share 16 months paid leave per child, the cost divided between both employer and State.


title: Population decline

text: Other examples include Romania's natalist policy during the 1967–90 period and Poland's 500+ program.


title: Population decline

text: Encouraging those women in the working age population who are not working to find jobs would increase the size of the workforce. Female participation in the workforce currently (2018) lags men's in all but three countries worldwide. Among developed countries the workforce participation gap between men and women can be especially wide. For example, currently (2018), in South Korea 59% of women work compared with 79% of men.


title: Population decline

text: However, even assuming that more women would want to join the workforce, increasing their participation would give these countries only a short-term increase in their workforce, because at some point a participation ceiling is reached, further increases are not possible, and the impact on GDP growth ceases.


title: Population decline

text: In the United States the labor force participation of men has been falling since the late 1960s. The labor force participation rate is the ratio between the size of the workforce and the size of the working age population. In 1969 the labor force participation rate of men in their prime years of 25–54 was 96% and in 2015 was under 89%.


title: Population decline

text: Raising the retirement age has the effect of increasing the working age population, but raising the retirement age requires other policy and cultural changes if it is to have any impact on the size of the workforce:


title: Population decline

text: One study estimated that increasing retirement age by 2–3 years per decade between 2010 and 2050 would offset declining working age populations faced by "old" countries such as Germany and Japan.


title: Population decline

text: A country can increase the size of its workforce by importing more migrants into their working age population. Even if the indigenous workforce is declining, qualified immigrants can reduce or even reverse this decline. However, this policy can only work if the immigrants can join the workforce and if the indigenous population accepts them.


title: Population decline

text: For example, starting in 2019 Japan, a country with declining workforce, will allow five-year visas for 250,000 un-skilled guest workers. Under the new measure, between 260,000 and 345,000 five-year visas will be made available for workers in 14 sectors suffering severe labor shortages, including caregiving, construction, agriculture and shipbuilding.


title: Population decline

text: The table above shows that long-term persistent emigration, often caused by what is called "Brain Drain", is often one of the major causes of a county's population decline. However, research has also found that emigration can have net positive effects on sending countries, so this would argue against any attempts to reduce it.


title: Population decline

text: Development economists would call increasing the size of the workforce "extensive growth". They would call increasing the productivity of that workforce "intensive growth". In this case, GDP growth is driven by increased output per worker, and by extension, increased GDP/capita.


title: Population decline

text: In the context of a stable or declining population, increasing workforce productivity is better than mostly short-term efforts to increase the size of the workforce. Economic theory predicts that in the long term most growth will be attributable to intensive growth, that is, new technology and new and better ways of doing things plus the addition of capital and education to spread them to the workforce.


title: Population decline

text: Increasing workforce productivity through intensive growth can only succeed if workers who become unemployed through the introduction of new technology can be retrained so that they can keep their skills current and not be left behind. Otherwise the result is technological unemployment. Funding for worker retraining could come from a robot tax, although the idea is controversial.


title: Population decline

text: A long-term population decline is typically caused by sub-replacement fertility, coupled with a net immigration rate that fails to compensate for the excess of deaths over births. A long-term decline is accompanied by population aging and creates an increase in the ratio of retirees to workers and children. When a sub-replacement fertility rate remains constant, population decline accelerates over the long term.


title: Population decline

text: Because of the global decline in the fertility rate, projections of future global population show a marked slowing of population growth and the possibility of long-term decline.


title: Population decline

text: The table below summarizes the United Nations' projections of future population growth. Any such long-term projections are necessarily highly speculative. The UN divides the world into six regions. Under their projections, during the period 2045–2050 Europe's population will be in decline and all other regions will experience significant reductions in growth; furthermore, by the end of the 21st century (the period 2095–2100) three of these regions will be showing population decline and global population growth will be zero.


title: Population decline

text: The table shows that the UN predicts long-term decline of population growth rates in every region; however, short-term baby booms and healthcare improvements, among other factors, can cause reversals of trends. Population declines in Russia (1995–2010), Germany (1975–1985), and Ireland (1850–1960) have seen long-term reversals. The UK, having seen almost zero growth during the period 1975–1985, is now (2015–2020) growing at 0.6% per year.


title: Croque monsieur

text: A croque monsieur () is a hot sandwich made with ham and cheese. The name comes from the French words "croque" ("crunch") and "monsieur" ("mister").


title: Croque monsieur

text: The dish originated in French cafés and bars as a quick snack. In the early 1900s, bistro owner Michel Lunarca popularized the croque-monsieur.


title: Croque monsieur

text: A "croque monsieur" is traditionally made with baked or boiled ham and sliced cheese between slices of "pain de mie", topped with grated cheese and slightly salted and peppered, and then baked in an oven or fried in a frying pan. The bread may optionally be browned by grilling after being dipped in beaten egg. Traditionally, Gruyère is used, but sometimes Comté or Emmental cheese as well. Some brasseries also add béchamel sauce.


title: Croque monsieur

text: A croque monsieur served with a poached or lightly fried egg on top is known as a "croque madame" (or, in parts of Normandy, as a "croque-à-cheval"). According to the "Petit Robert" dictionary, the name dates to around 1960. The name "croque-mademoiselle" is associated with its lighter, vegetarian version: made of the same bread, but with ordinary melting cheese, accompanied with chives, cucumber and lettuce.


title: Croque monsieur

text: In the United Kingdom, a ham-and-cheese hot snack is called a "toastie", and toastie makers are available to buy. In the United States, the Monte Cristo, a ham-and-cheese sandwich, often dipped in egg and fried, is popular diner fare, and a 'grilled cheese sandwich' is a classic sandwich that has been enjoyed at home and in cafeteria-style restaurants since the Great Depression.


title: Croque monsieur

text: Variants of the sandwich with substitutions or additional ingredients are given names modelled on the original "croque-monsieur", for example:


title: Carob

text: The carob ( ; Ceratonia siliqua) is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and landscapes. The carob tree is native to the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. Portugal is the largest producer of carob, followed by Italy and Morocco.


title: Carob

text: In the Mediterranean Basin, extended to the southern Atlantic coast of Portugal (i.e. the Algarve region) and the Atlantic northwestern Moroccan coast, carob pods were often used as animal feed and in times of famine, as "the last source of [human] food in hard times". The ripe, dried, and sometimes toasted pod is often ground into carob powder, which was sometimes used as an ersatz cocoa powder, especially in the 1970s natural food movement. The powder and chips can be used as a chocolate alternative in most recipes.


title: Carob

text: The carob tree grows up to tall. The crown is broad and semispherical, supported by a thick trunk with rough brown bark and sturdy branches. Its leaves are long, alternate, pinnate, and may or may not have a terminal leaflet. It is frost-tolerant to roughly .


title: Carob

text: Most carob trees are dioecious and some are hermaphroditic, so strictly male trees do not produce fruit. When the trees blossom in autumn, the flowers are small and numerous, spirally arranged along the inflorescence axis in catkin-like racemes borne on spurs from old wood and even on the trunk (cauliflory); they are pollinated by both wind and insects. The male flowers smell like human semen, an odor that is caused in part by amines.


title: Carob

text: The fruit is a legume (also known commonly, but less accurately, as a "pod"), that is elongated, compressed, straight, or curved, and thickened at the sutures. The pods take a full year to develop and ripen. When the sweet, ripe pods eventually fall to the ground, they are eaten by various mammals, such as swine, thereby dispersing the hard inner seed in the excrement.


title: Carob

text: The seeds of the carob tree contain leucodelphinidin, a colourless flavanol precursor related to leucoanthocyanidins.


title: Carob

text: The word "carob" comes from Middle French ' (modern French ), which borrowed it from Arabic ("kharrūb", "locust bean pod"), which ultimately borrowed it perhaps from Akkadian language ' or Aramaic "kharubha", or related to Hebrew "kharuv". "Ceratonia siliqua", the scientific name of the carob tree, derives from the Greek "kerátiοn" κεράτιον "fruit of the carob" (from "keras" κέρας "horn"), and Latin "siliqua" "pod, carob".


title: Carob

text: In English, it is also known as "St. John's bread" and "locust tree" (not to be confused with African locust bean). The latter designation also applies to several other trees from the same family.


title: Carob

text: The "carat", a unit of mass for gemstones, and a measurement of purity for gold, takes its name from the Greek word for a carob seed, "keration", via the Arabic word, "qīrāṭ".


title: Carob

text: Although cultivated extensively, carob can still be found growing wild in eastern Mediterranean regions, and has become naturalized in the west.


title: Carob

text: The tree is typical in the southern Portuguese region of the Algarve, where the tree is called "alfarrobeira", and the fruit "alfarroba." It is also seen in southern and eastern Spain (), mainly in the regions of Andalusia, Murcia and Valencia (); Malta (), on the Italian islands of Sicily () and Sardinia (), in Southern Croatia (), in eastern Bulgaria (), and in Southern Greece, Cyprus, as well as on many Greek islands such as Crete and Samos. In Israel, the Hebrew name is חרוב ( "charuv"). The common Greek name is ( ), or ( , meaning "wooden horn"). In Turkey, it is known as "goat's horn" ().


title: Carob

text: The various trees known as "algarrobo" in Latin America ("Albizia saman" in Cuba, "Prosopis pallida" in Peru, and four species of "Prosopis" in Argentina and Paraguay) belong to a different subfamily of the Fabaceae: Mimosoideae. Early Spanish settlers named them "algarrobo" after the carob tree because they also produce pods with sweet pulp.


title: Carob

text: The carob genus, "Ceratonia", belongs to the legume family, Fabaceae, and is believed to be an archaic remnant of a part of this family now generally considered extinct. It grows well in warm temperate and subtropical areas, and tolerates hot and humid coastal areas. As a xerophyte (drought-resistant species), carob is well adapted to the conditions of the Mediterranean region with just of rainfall per year.


title: Carob

text: Carob trees can survive long periods of drought, but to grow fruit, they need of rainfall per year. They prefer well-drained, sandy loams and are intolerant of waterlogging, but the deep root systems can adapt to a wide variety of soil conditions and are fairly salt-tolerant (up to 3% in soil). After being irrigated with saline water in the summer, carob trees could possibly recover during winter rainfalls. In some experiments, young carob trees were capable of basic physiological functions under high salt conditions (40 mmol NaCl/L).


title: Carob

text: Not all legume species can develop a symbiotic relationship with rhizobia to make use of atmospheric nitrogen. It remains unclear if carob trees have this ability: Some findings suggest that it is not able to form root nodules with rhizobia, while in another more recent study, trees have been identified with nodules containing bacteria believed to be from the genus "Rhizobium". However, a study measuring the N-signal (isotopic signature) in the tissue of the carob tree did not support the theory that carob trees naturally use atmospheric nitrogen.


title: Carob

text: The vegetative propagation of carob is naturally restricted due to its low adventitious rooting potential. Therefore, grafting and air-layering may prove to be more effective methods of asexual propagation. Seeds are commonly used as the propagation medium. The sowing occurs in pot nurseries in early spring and the cooling- and drying-sensitive seedlings are then transplanted to the field in the next year after the last frost. Carob trees enter slowly into production phase. Where in areas with favorable growing conditions, the cropping starts 3–4 years after budding, with the nonbearing period requiring up to 8 years in regions with marginal soils. Full bearing of the trees occurs mostly at a tree-age of 20–25 years when the yield stabilizes. The orchards are traditionally planted in low densities of 25–45 trees per hectare. Hermaphrodite plants or male trees, which produce fewer or no pods, respectively, are usually planted in lower densities in the orchards as pollenizers.


title: Carob

text: Intercropping with other tree species is widely spread. Not much cultivation management is required. Only light pruning and occasional tilling to reduce weeds is necessary. Nitrogen-fertilizing of the plants has been shown to have positive impacts on yield performance. Although it is native to moderately dry climates, two or three summers irrigation greatly aid the development, hasten the fruiting, and increase the yield of a carob tree.


title: Carob

text: The most labour-intensive part of carob cultivation is harvesting, which is often done by knocking the fruit down with a long stick and gathering them together with the help of laid-out nets. This is a delicate task because the trees are flowering at the same time and care has to be taken not to damage the flowers and the next year's crop. The literature recommends research to get the fruit to ripen more uniformly or also for cultivars which can be mechanically harvested (by shaking).


title: Carob

text: After harvest, carob pods have a moisture content of 10–20% and should be dried down to a moisture content of 8% so the pods do not rot. Further processing separates the kernels (seeds) from the pulp. This process is called kibbling and results in seeds and pieces of carob pods (kibbles). Processing of the pulp includes grinding for animal feed production or roasting and milling for human food industry. The seeds have to be peeled which happens with acid or through roasting. Then the endosperm and the embryo are separated for different uses.


title: Carob

text: Few pests are known to cause severe damage in carob orchards, so they have traditionally not been treated with pesticides. Some generalist pests such as the larvae of the leopard moth ("Zeuzera pyrina" L.), the dried fruit moth ("Cadra calidella"), small rodents such as rats ("Rattus spp.") and gophers ("Pitymys spp.") can cause damage occasionally in some regions. Only some cultivars are severely susceptible to mildew disease ("Oidium ceratoniae" C.). One pest directly associated with carob is the larva of the carob moth ("Myelois ceratoniae" Z.), which can cause extensive postharvest damage.


title: Carob

text: "Cadra calidella" attack carob crops before harvest and infest products in stores. This moth, prevalent in Cyprus, will often infest the country's carob stores. Research has been conducted to understand the physiology of the moth, in order to gain insight on how to monitor moth reproduction and lower their survival rates, such as through temperature control, pheromone traps, or parasitoid traps.


title: Carob

text: Most of the roughly 50 known cultivars are of unknown origin and only regionally distributed. The cultivars show high genetic and therefore morphological and agronomical variation. No conventional breeding by controlled crossing has been reported, but selection from orchards or wild populations has been done. Domesticated carobs ("C. s." var. "edulis") can be distinguished from their wild relatives ("C. s." var. "silvestris") by some fruit-yielding traits such as building of greater beans, more pulp, and higher sugar contents. Also, genetic adaptation of some varieties to the climatic requirements of their growing regions has occurred. Though a partially successful breaking of the dioecy happened, the yield of hermaphroditic trees still cannot compete with that of female plants, as their pod-bearing properties are worse. Future breeding would be focused on processing-quality aspects, as well as on properties for better mechanization of harvest or better-yielding hermaphroditic plants. The use of modern breeding techniques is restricted due to low polymorphism for molecular markers.


title: Carob

text: In 2017, world production of carob was 136,540 tonnes, led by Spain 40%, Portugal follows, with 30% of the world total. Italy, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus was the next major producer (see table).


title: Carob

text: Carob products consumed by humans come from the dried, sometimes roasted, pod, which has two main parts: the pulp accounts for 90% and the seeds 10% by weight. Carob pulp is sold either as flour or "chunks". The flour of the carob embryo (seed) can also be used for human and animal nutrition, but the seed is often separated before making "carob powder" (see section on "locust bean gum" below).


title: Carob

text: Carob pods are mildly sweet on their own (being roughly 1/3 to 1/2 sugar by dry weight), so they are used in powdered, chip or syrup form as an ingredient in cakes and cookies, sometimes as a substitute for chocolate in recipes because of the color, texture, and taste of carob. In Malta, a traditional sweet called "karamelli tal-harrub" and eaten during the Christian holidays of Lent and Good Friday is made from carob pods. Dried carob fruit is traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of "Tu Bishvat".


title: Carob

text: The production of locust bean gum (LBG), a thickening agent used in the food industry, is the most important economic use of carob seeds (and now of the carob tree as a whole). Locust bean gum is used as a thickening agent and stabilizer to replace fat in low-calorie products, or as a substitute for gluten. To make of LBG, of carob seeds are needed, which must come from roughly of carob pod fruit.


title: Carob

text: Locust bean gum is produced from the endosperm, which accounts for 42–46% of the carob seed, and is rich in galactomannans (88% of endosperm dry mass). Galactomannans are hydrophilic and swell in water. If galactomannans are mixed with other gelling substances, such as carrageenan, they can be used to effectively thicken the liquid part of food. This is used extensively in canned food for animals in order to get the "jellied" texture.


title: Carob

text: While chocolate contains the chemical compound theobromine in levels that are toxic to some mammals, carob contains none, and it also has no caffeine, so it is sometimes used to make chocolate-like treats for dogs. Carob pod meal is also used as an energy-rich feed for livestock, particularly for ruminants, though its high tannin content may limit this use.


title: Carob

text: Historically, carob pods were mainly used for animal fodder in the Maltese Islands, apart from times of famine or war, when they formed part of the diet of many Maltese people. On the Iberian Peninsula, carob pods were historically fed to donkeys.


title: Carob

text: The pulp of a carob pod is about 48–56% sugars and 18% cellulose and hemicellulose. Some differences in sugar (sucrose) content are seen between wild and cultivated carob trees: ~531 g/kg dry weight in cultivated varieties and ~437 g/kg in wild varieties. Fructose and glucose levels do not differ between cultivated and wild carob. The embryo (20-25% of seed weight) is rich in proteins (50%). The testa, or seed coat (30–33% of seed weight), contains cellulose, lignins, and tannins.


title: Carob

text: Carob pods are about 1/3 to 1/2 sugar by weight, and this sugar can be extracted into a syrup. In Malta, a carob syrup ("ġulepp tal-ħarrub") is made out of the pods. Carob syrup is also used in Crete, and Cyprus exports it.


title: Carob

text: In Palestine, crushed pods are heated to caramelize its sugar, then water added and boiled for some time. The result is a cold beverage, also called "kharrub", which is sold by juice shops and street vendors, especially in summer.


title: Carob

text: In Lebanon the browned pods are boiled until a black liquid is produced. The pods are then removed and the liquid is reduced until a thick, black molasse is obtained. The molasse is called "debs el kharrub" (literally: molasse of the carob), but people generally shorten it to "debs". The molasse has a sweet, chocolate-like flavor. It is commonly mixed with tahini (typically 75% kharrub molasses and 25% tahini). The resulting mixture is called "debs bi tahini" and is eaten raw or with bread. The molasse is also used in certain cakes. The region of Iqlim al-Kharrub, which translates to the "region of the carob", produces a significant amount of carob.


title: Carob

text: Carob is used for compote, liqueur, and syrup in Turkey, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and Sicily. In Libya, carob syrup (called "rub") is used as a complement to "asida" (made from wheat flour). The so-called "carob syrup" made in Peru is actually from the fruit of the "Prosopis nigra" tree. Because of its strong taste, carob syrup is sometimes flavored with orange or chocolate. In Yemen, carob tree is playing a role in controlling diabetes mellitus according to Yemeni folk medicine, and diabetics consume carob pods as a juice to lower their blood sugar levels.


title: Carob

text: The carob tree is widely cultivated in the horticultural nursery industry as an ornamental plant for Mediterranean climates and other temperate regions around the world, being especially popular in California and Hawaii. The plant develops a sculpted trunk and the form of an ornamental tree after being "limbed up" as it matures, otherwise it is used as a dense and large screening hedge. The plant is very drought tolerant as long as one does not care about the size of the fruit harvest, so can be used in xeriscape landscape design for gardens, parks, and public municipal and commercial landscapes.


title: Carob

text: In some areas of Greece, viz. Crete, carob wood is often used as a firewood. As it makes such excellent fuel, it is sometimes even preferred over oak or olive wood.


title: Carob

text: Because the much fluted stem usually shows heart rot, carob wood is rarely used for construction timber. However, it is sometimes sought for ornamental work--particularly for furniture design, as the natural shape of the trunk is well-suited to the task. Additionally, the extremely wavy grain of the wood gives carob wood exceptional resistance to splitting; thus, sections of Carob bole are suitable for chopping blocks for splitting wood.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Charlie Hebdo (; meaning "Charlie Weekly") is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular, and within the tradition of left-wing radicalism, publishing articles about the far-right (especially the French nationalist National Front party), religion (Catholicism, Islam and Judaism), politics and culture.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The magazine has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Muhammad. In the second of these attacks, 12 people were killed, including publishing director Charb and several other prominent cartoonists.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: "Charlie Hebdo" first appeared in 1970 after the monthly "Hara-Kiri" magazine was banned for mocking the death of former French president Charles de Gaulle. In 1981, publication ceased, but the magazine was resurrected in 1992. The magazine is published every Wednesday, with special editions issued on an unscheduled basis.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Gérard Biard is the current editor-in-chief of "Charlie Hebdo". The previous editors were François Cavanna (1970–1981) and Philippe Val (1952–2009).


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 1960, Georges "Professeur Choron" Bernier and François Cavanna launched a monthly magazine entitled "Hara-Kiri". Choron acted as the director of publication and Cavanna as its editor. Eventually Cavanna gathered together a team which included Roland Topor, Fred, Jean-Marc Reiser, Georges Wolinski, Gébé, and Cabu. After an early reader's letter accused them of being "dumb and nasty" ("bête et méchant"), the phrase became an official slogan for the magazine and made it into everyday language in France.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: "Hara-Kiri" was briefly banned in 1961, and again for six months in 1966. A few contributors did not return along with the newspaper, such as Gébé, Cabu, Topor, and Fred. New members of the team included , , and Willem.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 1969, the "Hara-Kiri" team decided to produce a weekly publication – on top of the existing monthly magazine – which would focus more on current affairs. This was launched in February as "Hara-Kiri Hebdo" and renamed "L'Hebdo Hara-Kiri" in May of the same year. ("Hebdo" is short for "hebdomadaire" – "weekly")


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In November 1970, the former French president Charles de Gaulle died in his home village of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, eight days after a disaster in a nightclub, the Club Cinq-Sept fire, which had caused the death of 146 people. The magazine released a cover spoofing the popular press's coverage of this disaster, headlined "Tragic Ball at Colombey, one dead." As a result, the weekly was banned.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In order to sidestep the ban, the editorial team decided to change its title, and used "Charlie Hebdo". The new name was derived from a monthly comics magazine called "Charlie" (later renamed "Charlie Mensuel", meaning "Charlie Monthly"), which had been started by Bernier and Delfeil de Ton in 1969. The monthly "Charlie" took its name from the lead character of one of the comics it originally published, "Peanuts" Charlie Brown. Using that title for the new weekly magazine was also an inside joke about Charles de Gaulle. The first issue did feature a "Peanuts" strip, as the editors were fans of the series.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 1991, Gébé, Cabu, and others were reunited to work for "La Grosse Bertha", a new weekly magazine resembling "Charlie Hebdo", created in reaction to the First Gulf War and edited by singer and comedian Philippe Val. However, the following year, Val clashed with the publisher, who wanted apolitical humour, and was fired. Gébé and Cabu walked out with him and decided to launch their own paper again. The three called upon Cavanna, Delfeil de Ton, and Wolinski, requesting their help and input. After much searching for a new name, the obvious idea of resurrecting "Charlie Hebdo" was agreed on. The new magazine was owned by Val, Gébé, Cabu, and singer Renaud. Val was editor; Gébé was publication director.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The publication of the new "Charlie Hebdo" began in July 1992 amidst much publicity. The first issue under the new publication sold 100,000 copies. Choron, who had fallen out with his former colleagues, tried to restart a weekly "Hara-Kiri", but its publication was short-lived. Choron died in January 2005.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 26 April 1996, François Cavanna, Charb and Philippe Val filed 173,704 signatures, obtained in eight months, with the aim of banning the political party Front National, since it would have contravened the articles 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 2000, journalist Mona Chollet was sacked after she had protested against a Philippe Val article which called Palestinians "non-civilised". In 2004, following the death of Gébé, Val succeeded him as director of publication, while still holding his position as editor.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 2008, controversy broke over a column by veteran cartoonist Siné which led to accusations of antisemitism and Siné's sacking by Val. Siné successfully sued the newspaper for unfair dismissal and "Charlie Hebdo" was ordered to pay him €90,000 in damages. Siné launched a rival paper called ' which later became '. In 2009, Philippe Val resigned after being appointed director of France Inter, a public radio station to which he has contributed since the early 1990s. His functions were split between two cartoonists, Charb and Riss. Val gave away his shares in 2011.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Controversy arose over the publication's edition of 9 February 2006. Under the title ""Mahomet débordé par les intégristes"" ("Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists"), the front page showed a cartoon of a weeping Muhammad saying ""C'est dur d'être aimé par des cons"" ("it's hard being loved by jerks"). The newspaper reprinted the twelve cartoons of the "Jyllands-Posten" Muhammad cartoons controversy and added some of their own. Compared to a regular circulation of 100,000 sold copies, this edition enjoyed great commercial success. 160,000 copies were sold and another 150,000 were in print later that day.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In response, French President Jacques Chirac condemned "overt provocations" which could inflame passions. "Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided", Chirac said. The Grand Mosque of Paris, the Muslim World League and the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) sued, claiming the cartoon edition included racist cartoons. A later edition contained a statement by a group of twelve writers warning against Islamism.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The suit by the Grand Mosque and the UOIF reached the courts in February 2007. Publisher Philippe Val contended "It is racist to imagine that they can't understand a joke," but Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for the Grand Mosque, explained the suit: "Two of those caricatures make a link between Muslims and Muslim terrorists. That has a name and it's called racism."


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Future president Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to be read in court expressing his support for the ancient French tradition of satire. François Bayrou and future president François Hollande also expressed their support for freedom of expression. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) criticised the expression of these sentiments, claiming that they were politicising a court case.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 22 March 2007, executive editor Val was acquitted by the court. The court followed the state attorney's reasoning that two of the three cartoons were not an attack on Islam, but on Muslim terrorists, and that the third cartoon with Muhammad with a bomb in his turban should be seen in the context of the magazine in question, which attacked religious fundamentalism.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In November 2011, the newspaper's office in the 20th arrondissement was fire-bombed and its website hacked. The attacks were presumed to be linked to its decision to rename the edition of 3 November 2011 "Charia Hebdo", with Muhammad listed as the "editor-in-chief". The cover, featuring a cartoon of Muhammad saying: "100 lashes of the whip if you don't die laughing" by Luz (Rénald Luzier), had circulated on social media for a couple of days.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The "Charia Hebdo" issue had been a response to recent news of the post-election introduction of sharia law in Libya and the victory of the Islamist party in Tunisia. It especially focuses on oppression of women under sharia, taking aim at domestic violence, mandatory veiling, burquas, restrictions on freedom, forced marriage, and stoning of those accused of adultery. It also targeted oppression of gays and dissenters, and practices such as stoning, flogging, hand/foot/tongue amputations, polygamy, forced marriage, and early indoctrination of children. "Guest editor" Muhammad is portrayed as a good-humoured voice of reason, decrying the recent elections and calling for a separation between politics and religion, while stating that Islam is compatible with humour. The magazine responded to the bombing by distributing some four times the usual number of copies.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Charb was quoted by Associated Press stating that the attack might have been carried out by "stupid people who don't know what Islam is" and that they are "idiots who betray their own religion". Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, said his organisation deplores "the very mocking tone of the paper toward Islam and its prophet but reaffirms with force its total opposition to all acts and all forms of violence." François Fillon, the prime minister, and Claude Guéant, the interior minister, voiced support for "Charlie Hebdo", as did feminist writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who criticised calls for self-censorship.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In September 2012, the newspaper published a series of satirical cartoons of Muhammad. One cartoon depicted Muhammad as a nude man on all fours with a star covering his anus. Another shows Muhammad bending over naked and begging to be admired. Given that this issue came days after a series of attacks on US embassies in the Middle East, purportedly in response to the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims", the French government decided to increase security at certain French embassies, as well as to close the French embassies, consulates, cultural centres, and international schools in about 20 Muslim countries. In addition, riot police surrounded the offices of the magazine to protect it against possible attacks.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticised the magazine's decision, saying, "In France, there is a principle of freedom of expression, which should not be undermined. In the present context, given this absurd video that has been aired, strong emotions have been awakened in many Muslim countries. Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour oil on the fire?" The US White House said "a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Muhammad, and obviously, we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this." When speaking before the United Nations later in the month, President Obama remarked more broadly that "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied." However, the newspaper's editor defended publication of the cartoons, saying, "We do caricatures of everyone, and above all every week, and when we do it with the Prophet, it's called provocation."


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 7 January 2015, two Islamist gunmen forced their way into the Paris headquarters of "Charlie Hebdo" and opened fire, killing twelve: staff cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski, economist Bernard Maris, editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, guest Michel Renaud, maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau and police officers Brinsolaro and Merabet, and wounding eleven, four of them seriously.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: During the attack, the gunmen shouted ""Allahu akbar"" ("God is great" in Arabic) and also "the Prophet is avenged". President François Hollande described it as a "terrorist attack of the most extreme barbarity". The two gunmen were identified as Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi, French Muslim brothers of Algerian descent.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The day after the attack, the remaining staff of "Charlie Hebdo" announced that publication would continue, with the following week's edition of the newspaper to be published according to the usual schedule with a print run of one million copies, up significantly from its usual 60,000. On 13 January 2015, the news came on BBC that the first issue after the massacre would come out in three million copies. On Wednesday itself it was announced that with a huge demand in France, the print run would be raised from three to five million copies. The newspaper announced the revenue from the issue would go towards the families of the victims.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The French government granted nearly €1 million to support the magazine. The Digital Innovation Press Fund (French: "Fonds Google–AIPG pour l'Innovation Numérique de la presse"), partially funded by Google, donated €250,000, matching a donation by the French Press and Pluralism Fund. The Guardian Media Group pledged a donation of £100,000.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: After the attacks, the phrase "", French for "I am Charlie", was adopted by supporters of Charlie Hebdo. Many journalists embraced the expression as a rallying cry for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The slogan was first used on Twitter and spread to the Internet at large. The Twitter account and the original "Je suis Charlie" picture bearing the phrase in white "Charlie Hebdo" style font on black background were created by French journalist and artist Joachim Roncin just after the massacre.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The website of "Charlie Hebdo" went offline shortly after the shooting, and when it returned it bore the legend "Je Suis Charlie" on a black background. The statement was used as the hashtag #jesuischarlie on Twitter, as computer-printed or hand-made placards and stickers, and displayed on mobile phones at vigils, and on many websites, particularly media sites. While other symbols were used, notably holding pens in the air, the phrase "Not Afraid", and tweeting certain images, ""Je Suis Charlie"" became more widespread.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: A series of rallies took place in cities across France on 10–11 January 2015 to honour the victims of the "Charlie Hebdo" shooting, and also to voice support for freedom of speech.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Luz, one of the survivors of the attack, welcomed the show of support for the magazine, but criticized the use of symbols contrary to its values. He noted: "People sang "La Marseillaise". We're speaking about the memory of Charb, Tignous, Cabu, Honoré, Wolinski: they would all have abhorred that kind of attitude." Willem, another surviving cartoonist, declared support of free expression would be "naturally a good thing", but rejected that of far-right figures such as Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen: "We vomit on those who suddenly declared that they were our friends".


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Unrest in Niger following the publication of the post-attack issue of "Charlie Hebdo" resulted in ten deaths, dozens injured, and at least nine churches burned. "The Guardian" reported seven churches burned in Niamey alone. Churches were also reported to be on fire in eastern Maradi and Goure. Violent demonstrations also were prevalent in Zinder, where some burned French flags. There were violent demonstrations in Karachi in Pakistan, where Asif Hassan, a photographer working for the Agence France-Presse, was seriously injured by a shot to the chest. In Algiers and Jordan, protesters clashed with police, while peaceful demonstrations were held in Khartoum, Sudan, Russia, Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov declared a regional holiday and denounced "people without spiritual and moral values" in front of an audience estimated to range between 600,000 and a million people in a demonstration in Grozny.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: One week after the murders, Donald Trump mocked "Charlie Hebdo", saying the magazine reminded him of another "nasty and dishonest" satirical publication and that the magazine was on the verge of financial collapse.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: A British NGO, the Islamic Human Rights Commission, gave their 2015 international 'Islamophobe of the Year' award to "Charlie Hebdo", whereas another British organisation, the National Secular Society, awarded the "Charlie Hebdo" staff with Secularist of the Year 2015 "for their courageous response to the terror attack". The magazine said it would donate the associated £5,000 prize money to the fund that supports the families of the murdered cartoonists.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Daniel Schneidermann argues that the 2015 attack raised the profile of the paper internationally with non-Francophone audiences, meaning that only parts of the paper are selectively translated into English, making it easy to misrepresent the editorial stance of the publication and the purpose of provocative work.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In February 2015 "Charlie Hebdo" was accused of attacking freedom of press when its lawyer Richard Malka tried to prevent the publication of the magazine "Charpie Hebdo", a pastiche of "Charlie Hebdo" (In this context, "charpie" may translate to "shredded").


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In October 2015 Nadine Morano was depicted as a baby with Down syndrome in the arms of General de Gaulle after making remarks supporting the National Front. This was criticized as a reference to de Gaulle's daughter, Anne, and as disparaging to people with disabilities. A response from a reader, a mother with a Down syndrome daughter, commented "The stupidity is racism, it's intolerance, it's Morano. The stupidity isn't trisomy [Down's syndrome]" ("la bêtise, c'est le racisme, c'est l'intolérance, c'est Morano. La bêtise, ce n'est pas la trisomie")


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: The 14 September 2015 edition's cover cartoon by Coco depicted a migrant being maltreated by a man who proclaims "welcome to refugees" – in order to parody European claims about compassion. Riss wrote an editorial on the European migrant crisis, arguing that it was hypocritical for Hungarian politicians to declare themselves compassionate because of their Christian beliefs, but at the same time reject migrants from Syria. Riss parodied anti-immigrant attitudes by featuring a cartoon with a caricature of Jesus walking on water next to a drowning Muslim boy, with the caption "this is how we know Europe is Christian". The cartoons were widely seen as gallows humour in France, but prompted another wave of controversy abroad. That issue also included a caricature of the dead body of Syrian Kurdish refugee child Alan Kurdi next to a McDonald's sign with the caption, "So close to the goal." In response to criticism, cartoonist Corinne Rey said that she was criticising the consumerist society that was being sold to migrants like a dream. After the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany, a January 2016 edition included a cartoon by Riss about Kurdi, reflecting fickle sentiment towards refugees by including a caption questioning whether the boy would have grown up to be an "ass groper in Germany".


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Following the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 in October 2015, which killed 224 civilians, mostly Russian women and children, and was seen by UK and US authorities as a probable terrorist bombing, "Charlie Hebdo" published cartoons which were perceived in Russia as mocking the victims of the tragedy. One of the cartoons showed a victim's blue-eyed skull and a burned-out plane on the ground, with the caption: "The dangers of Russian low cost" flights. The other showed pieces of the plane falling on an Islamic State (ISIS) fighter with the caption: "Russia's air force intensifies its bombing." A spokesman for Vladimir Putin called the artwork "sacrilege", and members of the State Duma called for the magazine to be banned as extremist literature and demanded an apology from France.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In March 2016, one year after the attack, the weekly featured a caricature of Yahweh with a Kalashnikov rifle. The Vatican and Jewish groups said they were offended, and the Associated Press censored images of the cover.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In the same month, "Charlie Hebdo" published a front page following the 2016 Brussels bombings, parodying the Belgian singer Stromae's song Papaoutai, in which Stromae asks "Papa où t'es?" (Where are you dad?) and dismembered body parts reply "here". The cover upset the Belgian public and it particularly upset Stromae's family, because his father was murdered in the Rwandan genocide.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 2 September 2016, following the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake, which caused 294 deaths, the French magazine published a cartoon in which the earthquake victims are depicted as pasta dishes, under the title "Séisme à l'italienne". In response to the reaction of Italians unleashed on social networks, the cartoonist Coco pointed out with another cartoon on the official Facebook page of the magazine, "Italians ... it's not "Charlie Hebdo" who builds your houses, it's the Mafia!" The French ambassador in Rome, in a statement, pointed out that the French Government's position on the Italian earthquake is not that expressed by "Charlie Hebdo".


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 29 December 2016, Russia accused "Charlie Hebdo" of 'mocking' the Black Sea plane crash after publishing 'inhuman' cartoons about the disaster. In one reference to the crash, which claimed 92 lives, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble choir, the French magazine depicted a jet hurtling downwards along with words translated as: 'Bad news ... Putin wasn't on board'. Russian defence spokesman called cartoons 'a poorly-created abomination'. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said: "If such, I dare say, 'artistry' is the real manifestation of 'Western values', then those who hold and support them are doomed".


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 1 September 2020, "Charlie Hebdo" announced that it will republish caricatures depicting Muhammad that sparked violent protests, ahead of a trial of suspected perpetrators of the mass shooting in January 2015 scheduled the following day. Instagram suspended two accounts belonging to two of Charlie Hebdo's employees for several hours after they had published the caricatures of Muhammad. The accounts were reinstated after Instagram found they had been targeted by a reporting campaign by those who wished to censor the caricatures.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned "Charlie Hebdo" after he found out that he was mocked in a front-page caricature. In the said cartoon, Erdogan was portrayed wearing his underwear, drinking alcohol, and lifting the skirt of a woman dressed in a hijab to reveal her buttocks. Accompanying it was a caption that read, "Erdogan: He's very funny in private." This came as tensions between Erdoğan and French president Emmanuel Macron rise over Macron's anti-Islamic comments, which were responded to by France recalling its ambassador to Ankara, as well as protests against France and calls for a boycott of French goods in several Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, where Erdoğan himself called for such a boycott. The tensions were, in turn, caused by the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in France after he showed caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, which were published by "Charlie Hebdo", to his students as part of a lesson on free speech.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: While he admitted to have not yet seen the cartoon, Erdoğan called the images "despicable", "insulting", and "disgusting", and accused "Charlie Hebdo" of "cultural racism" and sowing "the seeds of hatred and animosity". The Turkish government was also reported to take legal and diplomatic action. The state-run Anadolu Agency stated that the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office had already launched an investigation into the directors of "Charlie Hebdo". On the other hand, Macron promised to defend the right to freedom of expression and freedom of publication. Leaders of other Muslim-majority countries, such as Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan also criticised Macron and called for action against Islamophobia. On the contrary, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and other European leaders, such as Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod, defended Macron.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 25 September 2020, weeks after the Muhammad caricature republications, two people were critically injured by an assailant during a stabbing attack outside the magazine's former headquarters. The building is now used by a television production company, and the two wounded victims were workers of the company. The perpetrator fled the scene but was arrested nearby. Six other people were arrested in connection to the attack.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: A day later, the perpetrator was identified as Zaheer Hassan Mehmood, a 25-year-old allegedly from Pakistan, who claimed to have arrived as an unaccompanied minor refugee in France in 2018. He confessed to his actions and said he had acted in vengeance for the Muhammad caricature republications. He also reported that "he didn't know that the headquarters moved to another location".


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Interior minister of France Gérald Darmanin called the attack "fundamentally an act of Islamist terrorism". Prime minister of France Jean Castex said "the enemies of the republic will not win" and pledged to escalate the fight against terrorism. Emmanuel Macron faced backlash when he defended the caricatures. Many Muslims called for French products to be boycotted in their countries, while European leaders supported his remarks. Supermarkets in Kuwait and Qatar boycotted French goods.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 13 March 2021, "Charlie Hebdo" featured a controversial cartoon titled "Why I Left Buckingham Palace" on its front page. The illustration depicted Queen Elizabeth II kneeling on the neck of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, whose head was next to a quote bubble that read, "Because I couldn't breathe." It was published following Oprah Winfrey's interview of the Duchess and her partner, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in which the couple accused the royal family of making racist hassles. The cartoon drew backlash from many social media users, as it satirically paralleled the incidents within the royal family with the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In 2007 the Grand Mosque of Paris began criminal proceedings against the chief-editor of "Charlie Hebdo", Philipe Val, under France's hate speech laws for publicly abusing a group on the ground of their religion. The lawsuit was limited to three specific cartoons, including one depicting Muhammad carrying a bomb in his turban. In March 2007 a Paris court acquitted Val, finding that it was fundamentalists, rather than Muslims, who were being ridiculed in the cartoons.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 2 July 2008, a column by the cartoonist Siné (Maurice Sinet) appeared in "Charlie Hebdo" citing a rumour that Jean Sarkozy, son of Nicolas Sarkozy, had announced his intention to convert to Judaism before marrying his fiancée, Jewish heiress Jessica Sebaoun-Darty. Siné added, "he'll go far, this lad!" This led to complaints of antisemitism. The magazine's editor, Philippe Val, ordered Siné to write a letter of apology or face termination. The cartoonist said he would rather "cut his own balls off," and was promptly fired. Both sides subsequently filed lawsuits, and in December 2010, Siné won a €40,000 court judgment against his former publisher for wrongful termination.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In October 2016, the town council and municipality of Italian the town Amatrice –which was hit by an earthquake with hundreds dead– filed a lawsuit against "Charlie Hebdo" for "aggravated defamation", following publication of a series of cartoons titled 'Earthquake Italian style'. It depicted victims of the earthquake as Italian dishes and their blood as sauce. The trial of this case opened on 9 October 2020 at the Paris court.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: In October 2020, prosecutors in the judicial system of Turkey began legal investigations into a criminal complaint filed by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose lawyers argued that the cartoon depicting their client should be considered "libel" and was "not covered by freedom of expression". In Turkey, insulting the president is punishable by four years in prison.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: "Charlie Hebdo" had struggled financially since its establishment until 2015. As the magazine was facing a loss of €100,000 by the end of 2014, it sought donations from readers to no avail. The international attention to the magazine following the 2015 attack revived the publication, bringing some €4 million in donations from individuals, corporations and institutions, as well as a revenue of €15 million from subscriptions and newsstands between January and October 2015. According to figures confirmed by the magazine, it gained more than €60 million in 2015, which declined to €19.4 million in 2016. As of 2018 it spent €1–1.5 million annually for security services, according to Riss.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: Since 2016, cartoonist Riss has been the publishing director of the magazine, and he owns 70% of the shares. The remaining 30% is owned by Éric Portheault. Following some controversies over the paper's future following the 2015 attack, Charb's 40% stake in "Charlie Hebdo" was purchased from his parents by Riss and Eric Portheault, who were as of July 2015 sole shareholders in the paper. "Charlie Hebdo" switched to a new legal press publisher status which requires 70% of profits to be reinvested. As of March 2011, "Charlie Hebdo" was owned by Charb (600 shares), Riss (599 shares), finance director Éric Portheault (299 shares), and Cabu and Bernard Maris with one share each.


title: Charlie Hebdo

text: On 5 May 2015, "Charlie Hebdo" was awarded the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award at the PEN American Center Literary Gala in New York City. Granting the prize to "Charlie Hebdo" sparked vast controversy among writers and 175 prominent authors boycotted the event due to "cultural intolerance" of the magazine.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: WWE SmackDown, also known as Friday Night SmackDown or simply SmackDown, is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes simulcasts the program with Spanish-language commentary. The show features characters from the SmackDown brand, to which WWE employees are assigned to work and perform. The show as of is currently considered to be one of two flagship shows, along with "Monday Night Raw".


title: WWE SmackDown

text: "SmackDown!" debuted in the United States on UPN on April 29, 1999 and was formerly broadcast on Thursday nights. The show moved to Friday nights on September 9, 2005, and began airing on The CW in September 2006, after the merger of UPN and the WB. The show later moved to MyNetworkTV in October 2008. On October 1, 2010, "SmackDown" moved to cable network Syfy, and eventually returned to Thursdays on January 15, 2015. The show then moved to the sibling USA Network on January 7, 2016, and later that year, beginning on July 19, 2016, "SmackDown" began broadcasting live on Tuesday nights. "SmackDown"s move to Fox on October 4, 2019 marked the show's return to Friday nights and over-the-air broadcast television (as well as the second time "SmackDown" has aired on a Fox-owned network).


title: WWE SmackDown

text: "SmackDown" has been broadcast from 163 arenas, 148 cities and towns, six countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan in 2005, Italy in 2007, and Mexico in 2011. Prior to switching to its current live format, taped episodes premiered a few hours earlier in Ireland and the United Kingdom than in the United States (and a day earlier in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the Philippines) due to time differences. For international broadcast listings, see below. The show celebrated its 15th anniversary on October 10, 2014, and the 1000th episode on October 16, 2018.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: The WWE Network ceased operations in the United States on April 4, 2021, with all content moved to Peacock which now has all episodes of "SmackDown". Recent episodes are still available for on-demand viewing 30 days after the original air date.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: "WWF SmackDown!" was set up to compete against World Championship Wrestling (WCW)'s Thursday night show, "Thunder". "SmackDown!" first appeared on April 29, 1999 using the "Raw" set as a single television special on UPN. On August 26, 1999, SmackDown! officially debuted on UPN. Like "Thunder", "SmackDown!" was recorded on Tuesdays and then broadcast on Thursdays. The new WWF show was so popular that WCW moved "Thunder" to Wednesdays so that it would not compete directly. Throughout the show's early existence, The Rock routinely called "SmackDown!" "his show", in reference to the fact that the name was derived from one of his catchphrases, "Layeth the Smack down". In March 2002, WWF implemented the "brand extension", under which Raw and SmackDown! would have separate rosters of performers that are exclusive to their respective programs and events, and be positioned in-universe as competing "brands" (in a manner reminiscent of athletic conferences).


title: WWE SmackDown

text: In the 2004–05 season, "SmackDown!" had an average viewership of 5.1 million viewers, making it UPN's second-highest-rated series behind "America's Next Top Model". With the cancellation of "", "SmackDown!" moved into its former timeslot on Friday nights for the 2005–06 season, beginning September 9, 2005. WWE subsequently announced that the show would be renamed "Friday Night SmackDown!" to emphasize the new scheduling.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: In January 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that UPN and The WB would merge to form a new network known as The CW that fall. As part of the announcement, The CW announced that it would renew "Friday Night SmackDown!" for two more seasons as part of its launch schedule—which drew from the strongest programs of its two predecessors. On September 22, 2006, "Friday Night SmackDown!" aired its first episode on The CW.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: The CW declined to renew "SmackDown", resulting in the series being picked up in October 2008 by MyNetworkTV, a second new network that had been formed by Fox Entertainment Group to take on former UPN and WB affiliates who were not selected to join The CW. Retaining its previous Friday-night time slot, the season premiere of "SmackDown" on MyNetworkTV was the highest-rated program in the fledgling network's history, with 3.2 million viewers. On March 20, 2009, "SmackDown" celebrated its 500th episode.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: On October 1, 2010, as part of a new broadcast deal with NBC Universal, "SmackDown" moved to Syfy, retaining its Friday night timeslot. Prior to this premiere of "SmackDown", Michael Cole hosted a "pre-game" show. The move saw Syfy paying close to $30 million for the show as opposed to the $20 million paid by its former network MyNetworkTV.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: During the August 29, 2011 episode of "Raw", WWE dissolved the brand extension, thus allowing performers to appear on "Raw" and "SmackDown" at any given time without restriction. The October 14, 2011, episode made "SmackDown" the second-longest-running weekly episodic television series of American television history (behind "Raw", which surpassed that mark on August 1, 2005). On January 18, 2013, "SmackDown" celebrated its 700th episode.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: On October 10, 2014, "SmackDown" celebrated its 15-year anniversary. To help celebrate the 15th anniversary, Stephanie McMahon came out first, then Laurinaitis and Long, respectively, the latter of which kept one-upping each other for the main event of the night until McMahon decided to keep the 15-man tag team match that Long suggested, on the condition Laurinaitis and Long be the captains of each team like at WrestleMania XXVIII. Long's team won the match. On December 16, 2014, "SmackDown" aired a live 800th episode special on Syfy's sister channel USA Network, "SuperSmackDown Live!", featuring a main event between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: In January 2015, "SmackDown" returned to a Thursday time slot. The return to Thursday nights was expected to help attract a younger audience to Syfy, as well as more premium advertising dollars from marketers, who tend to spend more to promote their products, especially film releases, on the night as consumers head into the weekend. The last "SmackDown" airing on a Friday night had 2.43 million viewers with a 0.7 share. On January 7, 2016, "SmackDown" moved to USA Network, remaining on Thursday nights. With the move, all top three WWE programs—"Raw", "SmackDown" and "Tough Enough"—would air on the same network for the first time ever.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: On May 25, 2016, as part of the re-implementation of the brand extension and split between "Raw" and "SmackDown", it was announced that "SmackDown" would move to Tuesday nights and be broadcast live. On the July 11, 2016 episode of "Raw", Vince McMahon named Shane McMahon the commissioner of SmackDown. Then next week on "Raw", Daniel Bryan was revealed as the new SmackDown General Manager. On July 22, 2016, General Manager Daniel Bryan revealed the new SmackDown logo on his official Twitter page, renaming the show SmackDown Live. On April 10, 2018, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon announced that Daniel Bryan was back as a full-time WWE wrestler and named Paige the new General Manager.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: On June 26, 2018, Fox announced a five-year agreement to air "SmackDown", in a deal worth $205 million per year. "SmackDown" would debut on October 4, 2019, with its first episode being the 20th Anniversary special. The episode also marked the return of "SmackDown" to Friday nights and the return of WWE programming to Fox for the first time since the network aired the November 14, 1992 episode of "Saturday Night's Main Event". The agreement came as WWE's previous broadcast deal with USA Network to air both "SmackDown" and "WWE Raw" was set to expire, and as Fox has increasingly emphasized live sports programming and non-scripted entertainment in the wake of its then-upcoming sale of its in-house studios to Disney. Fox had hoped to acquire "Raw" for the Fox network and "SmackDown" for FS1. However, amid a competitive bidding situation, NBCUniversal focused its efforts on renewing "Raw", freeing up Fox to pursue "SmackDown". In particular, Fox promised a larger amount of promotion for "SmackDown" during its sports programming, as well as a WWE-oriented studio show ("WWE Backstage") on FS1.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Fox began an advertising campaign by Wieden+Kennedy for the move, "We're All Superstars", to coincide with the beginning of football season, revealing a new logo and the reinstatement of the "Friday Night SmackDown" title.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: From March 13, 2020, all WWE touring shows were cancelled indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with "SmackDown", "Raw", and pay-per-views being broadcast from a studio in the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida with no audience beginning that night. The ensuing episode also featured Triple H as a guest commentator, and an encore presentation of the Elimination Chamber match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship from the titular pay-per-view the previous Sunday. On August 17, WWE announced that "SmackDown", "Raw", and pay-per-views would move out of the Performance Center to the "WWE ThunderDome" at Orlando's Amway Center, beginning with "SmackDown" on August 21. The program continued to be broadcast behind closed doors, but with a virtual audience and enhanced arena production. WWE returned to hosting touring shows for "SmackDown" and "Raw" in June 2021.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Since the move to Fox, "SmackDown" has occasionally been pre-empted to FS1 due to conflicts with other Fox Sports programming airing in primetime, particularly the Major League Baseball postseason. In one instance in October 2019 due to the World Series, an hour-long version of the episode aired on Fox the following Sunday afternoon.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: WWE taped "SmackDown" on Tuesday evenings to air on Thursday evenings on UPN the same week. However, "SmackDown" had aired occasional live specials on Tuesday nights (which are then replayed in its usual Thursday night timeslot). The show began broadcasting in HD beginning with the January 25, 2008 episode of "SmackDown", where a new set (which became universal for all WWE weekly programming) debuted. Following the first broadcast in HD, the exclamation mark used since the show's inception disappeared from all references pertaining to "SmackDown", including the official logo, which resembles the 2001–2008 logo, but with a darker blue scheme.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: The early set included an oval-shaped TitanTron entrance and stage (dubbed the "Ovaltron") which made it stand out from the "Raw Is War" set with its rectangular Titantrons. Later productions gained the ability to move the Ovaltron either to the left or to the right of the stage. In August 2001, as part of celebrating "SmackDown!"s second anniversary, the show received a new logo and set, which consisted of a fist centered above the entrance with the WWF/E scratch logo above it, and many glass panes along the sides strongly resembling shattered glass with two TitanTrons on each side. From September 23, 2004 to October 3, 2008, the theme song for "SmackDown!" was "Rise Up" by Drowning Pool, with variations, making it the longest tenured theme song used in the program.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Whenever "SmackDown" shares the arena with Raw during the 2005-2007 period in a form of a supershow, the "SmackDown" stage utilizes all or some components of the same set from "Raw".


title: WWE SmackDown

text: From November 2, 2012 until April 18, 2014, "SmackDown" began using "Born 2 Run" by 7Lions as its theme song, with "This Life" by CFO$ and Cody B. Ware serving as the secondary theme, then a swap was made, as "Born 2 Run" was used as a secondary theme, when "This Life" is used as "SmackDown's" main theme. Prior to November 2, 2012, "SmackDown" opened with "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day while "Hangman" by Rev Theory served as the secondary theme song. Upon "SmackDown"s debut on Syfy in 2010, it replaced the previous theme song "Let it Roll" by Divide the Day.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: As of August 3, 2012, the show has used the modified WWE HD universal set, which debuted at "Raw 1000" on July 23. From September 21, 2012 until October 26, 2012, October 4, 2013 until November 1, 2013, October 3 and 31, 2014 and October 2 and 30, 2015, WWE worked in conjunction with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to raise awareness for breast cancer by adorning the "SmackDown" set with pink ribbons and a special pink middle-rope in the ring. "SmackDown"s ring ropes were usually blue from 1999 to 2012 (although they were black for a period between 2001 and 2002). They remained blue until December 2012 when they were permanently changed to white, with all WWE programming now using white ring ropes. On August 22, 2014, "SmackDown" switched to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation, with a down-scaled version of the native HD feed on a 4:3 SD feed. Like "Raw" (which also switched to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation four days earlier on August 18), the new WWE logo is seen on the ring's turnbuckle covers and also, on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. On August 29, 2014, the Syfy network logo moved to the lower left-hand corner of the screen.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Although the graphics were re-positioned, "SmackDown" continued to use a variation of the graphics package that had been in use since its first HD broadcast in January 2008, until the show moved to Thursday nights on January 15, 2015, when an all-new graphics package (now optimized for the 16:9 format) and intro video were introduced along with a revised "SmackDown" logo. On March 26, 2015, WWE added a small LED board to the left side of the ring on "SmackDown", similar to "Raw". On the September 14, 2015 season premiere of "Raw", the middle rope was colored gold. Throughout the month of October 2015, the WWE broadcast table, entrance ramp, and ring skirts were co-branded with Susan G. Komen for the cure of breast cancer. Also, the middle ring rope was pink to promote the fight against breast cancer. Following the brand split in 2016, the ropes return to its original blue color as well as debuting a new set. The post brand extension set was almost identical to the set from 2009 to 2013 and caused some negative feedback among online fans for re-using an old stage design. A month after the new set debut, a more distinctive and elaborate stage was created for SmackDown. The stage used was a new design with multiple LED side panels on each side with a titan-tron in a semi circle in the center. The new set also introduced LED floor panels on the entrance ramp. Feedback was more positive for this set design.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: With the shift to Fox, both "Raw" and "SmackDown" introduced new sets during their "premiere week", and it was also stated that WWE would reinstate the use of pyrotechnics on both shows (after briefly suspending their use in 2017 due to budget concerns), and that both shows would now be staffed by separate writing teams. The new set featured a large TitanTron screen, with semi-arches partially resembling the original "SmackDown" stage.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all WWE programs suspended touring shows from mid-March 2020 through mid-July 2021. All "SmackDown" broadcasts were filmed behind closed doors with no in-person spectators, initially from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, before returning to an arena setting with a closed set known as the "ThunderDome"—which featured a larger-scale production more in line with its touring shows, but with a virtual audience displayed on a grandstand constructed from video boards.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: With the return to live shows in July 2021, a new universal stage was adopted by both "SmackDown" and "Raw", with a high-resolution LED screen, and increasing use of augmented reality graphics for the television production.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: On July 10, 2007, Merriam-Webster included the word "smackdown" in "Webster's Dictionary." Merriam Webster defined a "smackdown" as:


title: WWE SmackDown

text: The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the word "smackdown" in English back at least as far as 1990, but notes that a professional wrestling television show "popularized" the term.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired editions that have different themes. These include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, and episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Various on-air personalities appear on the show, including the wrestlers (both men and women), ring announcers, commentators, and on-screen authority figures. "SmackDown" also has had various recurring on-air segments hosted by members of the roster.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: Although "SmackDown" has been the second-largest show in the WWE, the company's use of the term went beyond its namesake program. During the 2000 U.S. election campaign, the WWE launched the "SmackDown! Your Vote" program.


title: WWE SmackDown

text: The name was also used when WWE released its 2015 film "" and WWE Network's show "Kitchen SmackDown!".