title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In May, David Blunkett announced that if in government again, the Labour Party would appoint an 'Independent Director of School Standards' with the power to monitor academies: "In April 2014, the alleged Operation Trojan Horse in Birmingham demonstrated the difficulties that have arisen from this 'absence of transparency.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, Jim Fitzpatrick, warned of a 'Trojan Horse'-style Islamist plot to infiltrate councils in London. He said that "the Trojan Horse in east London was a political one rather than an educational one" and spoke of racial politics taking hold. He noted that in Tower Hamlets, a borough in which 32 per cent of the population is Bangladeshi, the Tower Hamlets First Party, of which the Mayor was a member, had 18 councillors who were all Bangladeshi, and 17 of them were men.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Salma Yaqoob, a former Birmingham City Councillor and prominent Muslim spokesperson, began a group named "Hands Off Birmingham Schools" in the aftermath of the inspections, saying that they were influenced by "a climate of political and media hysteria".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In June 2014, there was a highly public argument between the Home Office and Department for Education ministers about the responsibility for the alleged extremism. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, intervened, requiring that Secretary for Education Michael Gove apologise to the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism head Charles Farr for briefings critical of him appearing in "The Times", and Home Secretary Theresa May to sack a close adviser, Fiona Cunningham, known to be in a relationship with Farr, who was found by a Downing Street inquiry to have been the source of a negative briefing against Gove.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The National Union of Teachers (NUT) demanded a full review of academies after the letter was revealed, expressing that political and religious groups had exploited the status at thousands of schools to indoctrinate children. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has also expressed concerns about the scope of the problem in other major cities, whilst advising that there was no "cause for panic". The general secretary of the headteachers' union, Russell Hobby, said the union has found "concerted efforts" by hardliners to infiltrate Birmingham schools, and that it was working with 30 of its members in 12 schools and had "serious concerns" about some of them.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Sir Albert Bore, the leader of Birmingham City Council, called the original Trojan Horse letter "defamatory" and "hugely difficult to investigate" and offered protection to the whistleblower if they would come forward to help in the investigation. He later said that the Council accepted the Ofsted findings that schools in the city were failing pupils. The council's Chief Executive, Mark Rogers, said that there was no plot, but that "new communities" had raised "legitimate questions and challenges" to the "liberal education system".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In July 2014, after the reports had been published, Bore apologised and admitted that the council had ignored Operation Trojan Horse due to "fear of being accused of racism".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: David Hughes, a trustee at Park View School, claimed that Ofsted's investigation of the school was biased, and dubbed the inspection a "witch hunt". Tahir Alam, a governor at Park View School since 1997, and former chair of the education committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the accusations had been "motivated by anti-Muslim, anti-Islam sentiment". The Muslim Council of Britain also described the investigation as a 'witch hunt'. Waseem Yaqub, former Head of Governors at Al-Hijrah school, called it "a McCarthy-style witch-hunt" and that the letter was used by councillors "to turn on [Muslims] and use Muslims as scapegoats".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Helena Rosewell, a music teacher at Park View for 15 years, stated that her "blood [was] boiling" when investigations started at the school. However, she admitted that senior staff had warned her not to let pupils dance to pop or Bollywood music. Assistant principal Lee Donaghy, a self-declared agnostic, said that the school was achieving more by "accommodating" Muslim practices, but called it "pernicious" the idea "that people running the school are trying to force more religion on these kids than the parents want".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: On reaction to Gove's call for British values in schools, the Muslim Council of Britain expressed fear that it would effectively bar conservative Muslims from becoming school trustees or governors.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Governors resigned from Saltley School in protest after the Ofsted findings were released, stating that they doubted the inspectors' impartiality.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Tahir Alam, chair of governors at Park View and labelled by some newspapers as the "ringleader" of Operation Trojan Horse, resigned alongside all of his board of trustees on 15 July. He denied all allegations against him.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Andrew Gilligan of "The Daily Telegraph" wrote extensively on the episode. He criticised the approaches to the story by the BBC and "The Guardian", which he claimed were unduly biased in favour of the schools. Pieces in "The Guardian" included criticism of the academy system, and demands that all state schools be made secular. The latter piece concluded that in the present system, the schools investigated could have registered themselves as faith schools and been allowed to teach Islamic values with permission from the state. "The Guardian" also analysed Michael Gove's book on combatting Islamist terror, "Celsius 7/7", pointing out that a chapter is titled "The Trojan Horse". The Guardian also revealed that West Midlands Police was investigating whether the alleged plot was a hoax concocted to support one of the schools named in the plot, Adderley primary school, in an industrial dispute.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In July 2014, Channel 4's investigative programme "Dispatches" aired an episode titled "No Clapping in Class" on the issue of faith schools. It interviewed Mohammed Zabar, a Muslim parent who wrote to the Prime Minister in December 2013 about the lack of cultural balance in the curriculum at his daughter's school, Oldknow. A member of staff at Park View also alleged that the school had handed out worksheets stating that wives can not refuse to have sex with their husbands, a claim that the school denied. The show also found evidence of unregistered Haredi Jewish schools in London, which an ex-pupil claimed were not teaching a balanced curriculum.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: A play about the Trojan Horse affair and the injustices at its heart by LUNG Theatre (Helen Monks, co-writer; Matt Woodhead, co-writer and director) won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2018 and began a national tour in October 2019.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In January 2022, a new podcast by "The New York Times", "The Trojan Horse Affair", cast many doubts on the multiple investigations and the version of events that emerged. Across eight episodes, journalists Brian Reed and Hamza Syed sought to discover the author of the anonymous letter that triggered the scandal. Adderley primary school is at the centre of the podcast's investigations.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: An undercover reporter working for the "Daily Mirror" posed as a wealthy businessman and potential client of the training firm Exquisitus, a firm owned by Shahid Akmal, the chairman of governors at Nansen Primary School. The reporter recorded a series of meetings with him which the "Mirror" alleged exposed Akmal as a "sexist, racist bigot".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Akmal was recorded saying that "white women have the least amount of morals" and since women were "emotionally weaker" than men, their role was to look after children and the home. Akmal criticised female politicians, saying: "She has to sacrifice her family, she has to sacrifice her children, she has to sacrifice her husband, all in the name of equality." He claimed that girls should be taught cooking and sewing while boys should be taught trades.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: He claimed that white children were lazy. He said that the "colonial blood" within white people was "very difficult to get rid of that very quickly", as British people "still think they rule half the world".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Akmal said that jailing gay people and adulterers was a "moral position to hold" and that they should be exiled from the community. He said "man-made" British laws were "very confusing", unlike those "given by God", which were fair.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The headteacher of Oldknow Academy, Bhupinder Kondal, handed in her notice in January 2014. Ms. Kondal alleged she had been the victim of undue and unlawful pressure to resign her position by both parents and governors. The previous trustees of the academy having been replaced, she withdrew her resignation and returned to her post on 19 August 2014. Speaking after withdrawing her resignation, Ms. Kondal said: "The pressures outlined in the Trojan Horse letter are very real and it mustn't be allowed to happen again." Shabina Bano, chair of the Oldknow Academy Parents' Association, said parents would welcome Ms. Kondal back because they wanted


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Ms. Bano had previously been highly critical of the terms of the inspections of the school, claiming that "[My children] never knew words like radicalisation, but have now been exposed to them." Bhupinder Kondal left the school again shortly after.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In 2017, the academic scholars Therese O'Toole and John Holmwood, who served as an expert witness in the professional misconduct cases, described the Trojan Horse affair as a "false narrative" spread by a hostile British press which led to "a serious miscarriage of justice" against the teachers, drawing comparisons to the Hillsborough affair.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: In May 2015, the National Association of Head Teachers' annual conference heard that the problems associated with Operation Trojan Horse persisted, and there were claims that teachers had received death threats for attempting to dissuade students away from homophobia. Responding to those claims, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that there was no place for extremism in education, and there was still more work to be done to eradicate it. "This is a reminder that this is a serious issue and something that is not going to be solved overnight. We have taken action to remove and continue to take action to remove people from being in schools who don't follow British values."


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The first opportunity for teachers to challenge the claims came when hearings against them for professional misconduct brought by the NCTL were begun in September 2015 over a year after the story about the affair first broke.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Case hearings in July and August 2015 took place to establish the nature of the charges to be put and evidence to be submitted (in the case of the senior teachers at PVET, the evidence file expanded from around 1,000 pages to 6,000 pages between the two meetings). No charges of extremism were put forward, only charges associated with 'undue religious influence'. This was "after" the government had cited the Trojan Horse affair as justification for its new plans to counter extremism.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The hearings were expected to be concluded quickly, but continued through until May 2017. The rush to set up the hearings in July and August 2015 (prior to the Conservative Party conference in September) provided little time for the preparation of the case for the defence prior to the start of the hearings in contrast to the long-drawn-out nature of the proceedings once they had started.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Arrangements for the hearings were deeply unsatisfactory, with four separate cases brought against different groups of teachers associated with PVET and one other school, Oldknow Academy (which it transpired had a Memorandum of Understanding with PVET, signed at the behest of the Department for Education). Three cases against junior teachers were heard separately from that against the senior leadership team at PVET. The drawn out nature of the cases meant that there were no journalists present to report the detailed rebuttal of claims indicated above, for example of banning Christmas celebrations, or teacher handouts promoting the obligations on wives to consent to sex with their husbands.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The hearings dramatically came back into media attention in October 2016 after one of the hearings that had concluded with guilty verdicts against two teachers went to the High Court on appeal. The findings were quashed on grounds of serious procedural irregularities. Mr Justice Phillips declared that evidence for the defence presented in the hearing against the senior leadership team should have been made available to the defendants in the other case.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: A further comment by Mr Justice Phillips is noteworthy. At paragraph 37 of his judgement, he writes that


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The charge of failure to disclose documents from the main hearing against senior teachers in other hearings, however, indicated a possibility of a similar failure on the part of NCTL to fulfil its obligations of disclosure in the hearing against senior leaders. The Panel had been ready to announce its decision in the case on 23 December 2016, but an urgent application for disclosure, relating, in part, to transcripts associated with the Clarke Report, was made by defence lawyers on 24 November 2016. Media reporting expressed alarm that the transcripts were those of 'whistleblowers' who had provided statements under terms of confidentiality.


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: However, what was at issue also included other documents outside the Clarke Report that had potentially been relevant to the case. Altogether the documents that were deemed to be relevant amounted to about 1600 pages. As set out in the Panel Report, this included evidence an inspector from the EFA Report who had acted as adviser to the Clarke Report about the circumstances of the EFA inspections where the Panel proposed that "no doubt it would be argued that this further undermined her credibility and the reliability of her evidence" (see paragraphs 124/125 of the Panel's justification of discontinuing). There was evidence from officials at the Department for Education responsible for managing the incorporation of schools into PVET, as well as initiating a memorandum of agreement between PVET and Oldknow (paragraph 123). It also included evidence from then secretary to Birmingham SACRE, given to the Clarke inquiry but not reported by him, which "conflicts with the evidence of NCTL witnesses who had been saying that it was wrong for collective worship to be solely about Islam when a school had a determination but [the secretary] who had been with SACRE for 9 years, said it was acceptable" (paragraph 125).


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: Initially, the failure to disclose the transcripts was explained as a "departmental misunderstanding", albeit one, according to the Panel, where, "even on that basis such failure was simply unacceptable". However, it transpired that, just before the Panel was due to rule on 3 May 2017 on an application by the defence lawyers to discontinue, the NCTL presented a note from their solicitors. This stated that, on 14 October 2014, they had received "25 of the Clarke transcripts to include transcripts of 10 interviewees who went on to be witnesses for the NCTL in these proceedings. This pre-dated by approximately months the date on which the witness statements were signed and finalised". This led the Panel to conclude that the matter had not been a misunderstanding, but that the transcripts were "deliberately withheld from disclosure". In consequence, the Panel judged that the matter was "an abuse of the process which is of such seriousness that it offends the Panel's sense of justice and propriety. What has happened has brought the integrity of the process into disrepute".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The case against the senior leaders was discontinued, as were the remaining two cases in July 2017. Unlike the teachers, the lawyers involved in serious impropriety were not subject to professional misconduct charges despite the cost of the hearings. Teachers lost their livelihoods and a community had its reputation besmirched, yet their defence was neither fully heard nor reported. Government officials and policy advisers, as well as journalists previously involved in the case, rushed to announce that the cases had collapsed on a 'technicality'. For example, the co-head of the security and extremism unit at Policy Exchange (the conservative think tank that had advised Michael Gove's schools programme), Hannah Stuart, and its head of education, John David Blake, proposed that, "non-disclosure of anonymous witness statements from the Clarke inquiry was described as an 'abuse of process', and that is deeply unfortunate, but this falls short of an exoneration. The decision to discontinue disciplinary proceedings was based on procedural grounds – not on a shortage of evidence". No mention was made of the fact that allegations of extremism had not been any part of the charges against teachers. Jaimie Martin, former special adviser at the Department for Education, wrote that "it is important to note as [the teachers] were not tried for the charges, they were therefore not cleared of them", and that "people who downplay the seriousness of Trojan Horse, claiming those involved exhibited 'mainstream' Islamic views, are guilty not only of stunning naivety, but of a dangerous error".


title: Trojan Horse scandal

text: The academic scholar John Holmwood, who served as an expert witness in the professional misconduct case brought against the senior teachers at Park View Educational Trust, wrote a book with scholar Therese O'Toole about the Trojan Horse affair, "Countering Extremism in British Schools? The Truth about the Birmingham Trojan Horse Affair" (2017). They described the Trojan Horse affair as a "false narrative" spread by a hostile British press which led to "a serious miscarriage of justice" against the teachers, drawing comparisons to the Hillsborough affair.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: Taxi is a 1998 French action comedy film starring Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal and Marion Cotillard, written by Luc Besson and directed by Gérard Pirès. It is the first installment in the "Taxi" film series. It has four sequels, "Taxi 2", "Taxi 3", "Taxi 4" and "Taxi 5" and one English-language remake, "Taxi" (2004). It also provided the premise for the 2014 American television show, "Taxi Brooklyn".


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: In Spain, the film was released with the title Taxi Express, in order to distinguish it from other films with the same name.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: Daniel Morales (Samy Naceri) is a highly talented driver living in Marseille, France, who has little regard for traffic laws and the police, and is in a loving relationship with his girlfriend Lilly (Marion Cotillard). He leaves his job as a delivery man at local pizza parlor "Pizza Joe" to become a taxi driver, driving his white custom 1997 Peugeot 406, which is equipped with various racing modifications that are mechanically concealed.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: Young, bumbling police inspector Émilien Coutant-Kerbalec (Frédéric Diefenthal) lives with his widowed mother, and has just failed his 8th driver's test. No one takes him seriously at work, including police sergeant Petra (Emma Sjöberg), towards whom he harbors an unrequited crush. Commissioner Gibert (Bernard Farcy) soon briefs the officers on a new case: a German gang that has successfully committed a series of high profile robberies throughout Europe, and has now arrived in Marseille. The gang is known for their efficiency, skilled driving, and their use of red Mercedes-Benz 500E cars as escape vehicles. Anticipating the gang's next move, Gibert places police officers around the targeted bank. After the robbers enter the bank, Émilien accidentally causes a multi-vehicle collision and a gun fight with the French Minister's escort convoy, allowing the Germans to escape.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: The next day, Émilien decides to take a taxi to work and rides with Daniel. Not knowing his fare's occupation, Daniel shows off his car and breaks several traffic laws. Émilien detains Daniel, but then asks for his help with catching the German gang in exchange for returning Daniel's license - desperate for respect and Petra's attention. Looking at photos of the getaway cars, Daniel concludes that the tires come from a garage owned by Kruger, the only German mechanic in town. Daniel reluctantly joins Émilien at a stakeout of the garage, where they spot the German robbers. The next morning, Émilien tries to interrogate Kruger, who opens fire at the duo and escapes.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: The police locate the gang's next target and manage to shoot a tracking device onto one of the cars. However, the gang stops at a secluded garage and repaints the cars silver, inadvertently sabotaging the tracking device and allowing them to escape again. Émilien then learns that he had left the stove on at his flat and burned it down, forcing him and his mother to stay at Daniel's place. Eager to get rid of Émilien, Daniel correctly deduces the gang's repaint strategy, and through a friend he tracks the robbers to a race track. Daniel provokes the gang into a race and wins, later inspring Émilien to approach Petra romantically. The duo then become friends, and devise a plan to finally catch the gang red-handed.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: The next day, having duplicated the control keys to twenty traffic lights throughout the city, Émilien provides Daniel with a closed radio line. Daniel recruits his old co-workers from Pizza Joe, to whom Émilien distributes the keys and walkie-talkies. After the gang drives away from another robbery, Daniel follows them and successfully taunts the Germans into another race. As the delivery men use the traffic lights to clear a path for the cars, the cars drive onto the freeway. Daniel then speeds towards a bridge that is under construction, and slams on the brake; the gang's cars jump over the gap and lands on the other side, only to discover that they are trapped on an incomplete bridge section.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: After the gang is arrested, Daniel and Émilien are given medals by the police commissioner, and Émilien begins dating Petra. The film ends with Daniel competing at the French Grand Prix in a Formula 3000, sponsored by (to Daniel's dismay) the Marseille Police.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: Luc Besson came up with the idea for the movie in 1996, but he was too busy with "The Fifth Element" to direct it at the time, so he decided to simply produce it. He presented his idea to his usual production company Gaumont, but Gaumont had no trust in the project and turned Besson down. Besson went to two old friends, Michèle and Laurent Pétin, who headed the small production company ARP. They came to an agreement on a 50/50 split and Besson began searching for a director. He knew Gérard Pirès from a long ago, but Pirès hadn't directed a film in 15 years. He had however, been directing commercials and especially ones for Peugeot, making him a good fit in the end. For budgetary reasons the location was chosen as Marseille and the actors relative unknowns at the time. Better known actors were approached but they turned the project down. The young unknown actors were explained to financiers such as Canal+ as being easier to identify with for young audience and also being a bet on the future. The main music theme is based on Misirlou, a popular song of Eastern Mediterranean origin.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: In terms of box office admissions, the "Taxi" series is one of the most successful French franchises ever. The first film was the fourth most successful film in France for the year with 6.4 million admissions and a gross of $39.3 million. It had 2.2 million admissions abroad. The film also had very good TV ratings with 12 millions viewers on TF1.


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: Almar Haflidason, reviewing the film for BBC, gave it three stars out of five, describing that there was "fun to be had from this film when it's in motion, but the script is a real blow out." In a research article for the journal French Cultural Studies, Ipek A. Celik Rappas from Koç University describes how the Taxi series "reflects the move in Luc Besson’s career from director to producer of big-budget films, and reveals how his relationship with post-industrial spaces changes as his film locations turn into film-related investments."


title: Taxi (1998 film)

text: An American remake, also titled "Taxi", starring Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon and Gisele Bündchen, was released in October 2004, and was panned by critics. A remake of the original film as a summer series, known as "Taxi Brooklyn", aired in August 2014 on NBC. The Bollywood film "Dhoom" (2004) also draws heavily on the plot of "Taxi".


title: 2021 All-Pro Team

text: The 2021 All-Pro teams were named by the Associated Press (AP), Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA), and "Sporting News" (SN) for performance in the 2021 NFL season. Any player selected to the first-team of any of the teams can be described as an "All-Pro." The AP team, with first-team and second-team selections, was chosen by a national panel of fifty NFL writers and broadcasters. "The Sporting News" All-NFL team was voted on by NFL players and executives. The PFWA team is selected by its more than 300 national members who are accredited media members covering the NFL.


title: 2021 All-Pro Team

text: Five players were unanimous selections via the AP ballot, including RB Jonathan Taylor (Indianapolis), WRs Davante Adams (Green Bay) and Cooper Kupp (Los Angeles Rams), EDGE T. J. Watt (Pittsburgh), and IDL Aaron Donald (Los Angeles Rams).


title: 2021 All-Pro Team

text: PFWA and SN do not separate the tackles and guards into more specific positions as the AP does. Additionally, PWFA and SN formally select defensive ends as opposed to edge rushers, while PFWA selects outside linebackers separately from middle linebackers.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Prudence Anne Villiers Farrow Bruns (born January 20, 1948) is an American author, meditation teacher, and film producer. She is the daughter of film director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan and younger sister of actress Mia Farrow. Farrow is the subject of the Beatles song "Dear Prudence," which references her time studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh with the Beatles in early 1968.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Farrow was raised as a Catholic and attended convent schools. She learned the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM) in 1966 at UCLA, and the next year became interested in yoga, opening a yoga institute at a former church in Boston. In 1968 Farrow, along with her sister Mia and brother Johnny, traveled with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from New York to India, and then to the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh for a Transcendental Meditation teacher training course.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: The Beatles arrived shortly thereafter. Farrow was dedicated to practicing the TM technique so she could become a TM teacher. She said: "I would always rush straight back to my room after lectures and meals so I could meditate. John, George and Paul would all want to sit around jamming and having a good time and I'd be flying into my room. They were all serious about what they were doing, but they just weren't as fanatical as me". She "turned into a near recluse" and "rarely came out" of her cottage. Lennon was asked to "contact her and make sure she came out more often to socialize" and he wrote the song "Dear Prudence". According to Lennon, "She'd been locked in for three weeks and was trying to reach God quicker than anyone else".


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Farrow taught TM for several decades after her teacher training course in India. Among those she mentored was comedian Andy Kaufman. She returned to India for further instruction from the Maharishi in 1986 and has taught Transcendental Meditation in Florida since 1970.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Later in her life, Farrow earned a BA, an MA, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Asian studies. Her doctoral dissertation was on pulse diagnosis, titled "Nadivijnana, the Crest-Jewel of Ayurveda: A Translation of Six Central Texts and an Examination of the Sources, Influences and Development of Indian Pulse-Diagnosis". Farrow became an elementary school teacher and according to her résumé she has held teaching positions or presented at conferences held at the University of California at Berkeley, Rutgers University and the University of Wisconsin.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Farrow has worked in the theater and film industry as a production assistant on "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984) and the art department coordinator for "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985). She also "conceived and co-produced" the film "Widows' Peak" (1994), which featured her sister, Mia, in a part originally written for their mother, Maureen O'Sullivan. In 1999, she was one of four producers involved in staging "Up From the Ground" at the Westbeth Theatre in New York City.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Farrow became a magazine writer in the 2000s. Using her married name, Prudence Bruns, she has authored articles on Asian studies, world religions, ayurveda, and healthy living. In 2012, Farrow established the non-profit Dear Prudence Foundation to raise funds for a documentary film of the 2013 Kumbh Mela festival which is held in India every twelve years.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: Farrow married teacher Albert Morrill Bruns in December 1969. They have three children and four grandchildren.


title: Prudence Farrow

text: In late 1981, Robert Durst was nearing the end of an alleged three-year affair with Farrow while he was married to Kathie McCormack. According to the "New York Post", a few months before McCormack's disappearance in January 1982, Farrow called her and asked that she give Durst up, as friends said she wanted him all to herself. After Durst was acquitted of murdering Morris Black in 2003, Farrow contacted law-enforcement authorities with concerns for her safety, as she said Durst was angry with her for terminating their relationship three days before McCormack disappeared.


title: James Patterson bibliography

text: James Patterson has written or co-written many "Bookshots" or novellas, and has co-written books with many authors. The list below separates the works into four main categories: fiction written for adults, for young adults and for children, and non-fiction.


title: Jackson Yee

text: Jackson Yee (, Chinese name Yi Yangqianxi, born on 28 November 2000) is a Chinese actor, dancer and singer. After a talent manager discovered him at a children's talent competition, where he performed a hip-hop dance, and signed to TF Entertainment, Yee became the youngest member of the Chinese boy band TFBoys in 2013.


title: Jackson Yee

text: Yee is also a solo artist and singer. His single in 2017, "Li Sao (The Lament)" was named "Mandarin Song of the Year" by Billboard Radio China. Yee also has starring roles in "The Longest Day in Chang'an" (2019) and "Forward" (2019). He received critical acclaim for his performance in "Better Days" (2019) and his 2020 film "A Little Red Flower" was a further success. He also won the Best New Performer Award in the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards for his first lead film role, Bei in "Better Days".


title: Jackson Yee

text: Yee ranked 8th on "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 list in 2019, and 1st in 2020 and 2021. According to Chinese media reports, he is currently one of the most commercially valuable stars in China.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In 2009, Yee became a member of former Chinese idol group Fashion Youngsters. He left the group in 2011.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In March 2012, Yee participated in Hunan TV's reality talent show "Up Young" and entered the top 100. Despite being eliminated, he attracted the attention of TF Entertainment and was invited to audition with the company. Prior to debuting with TFBoys, Yee released his first solo single "Dream Skyscraper". He also acted in several short films and appeared in "Voice of China" contestant, Chang Hohsuan's music video for his self-composed single, "Father".


title: Jackson Yee

text: Yee officially debuted as a member of TFBoys in 2013. In 2015, he voiced the main character for the Chinese dub of the animated movie "The Little Prince".


title: Jackson Yee

text: In July 2016, he starred in the xianxia television series, "Noble Aspirations", playing a fox demon. In November, he released his second solo single "You Say". The single was produced by music producer Lee Wei Song and written by Leehom Wang. The same month, he joined the cast of the variety show "Let Go of My Baby".


title: Jackson Yee

text: In January 2017, Yee joined the voice cast of the animated movie "", playing the character of a mysterious man. Yee starred as the young version of the male protagonist in historical drama "Song of Phoenix". He also released his own rendition of Li Sao for the soundtrack of the drama.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In September 2017, it was announced that Yee has set up his own independent studio for his solo activities. In November, Yee released his first English language single, titled "Nothing to Lose", produced by Harvey Mason Jr. while Yee participated in the lyrics writing. Five days later, he released another single titled "Unpredictable", produced by David Gamson and with lyrics written by Dave Gibson. Both songs ranked number two and one respectively on the FreshAsia Music Chart.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In 2018, Yee was confirmed to join the dance-oriented variety show "Street Dance of China" as a captain. Yee was invited to attend the 60th Grammy Award Ceremony on 28 January 2018, held in New York as the Music Ambassador of Radio 101, a China Music Vision guest. He was also the youngest Chinese musician ever to be officially invited to the ceremony. The same month, Yee was named as one of the top 10 influential charity stars by Sina. Later in the year, it was announced that he will star in the fantasy animated film "". This year, he was accepted into Beijing's prestigious Central Academy of Drama after placing first and achieving the highest score for both his college entrance examination and live audition.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In 2019, Yee made his debut in major silver screen productions in the youth romance film "Better Days", based on the Chinese novel, "In his youth, in her beauty," where the role won him the Best New Performer Award in the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards. The same year, he starred in the historical mystery drama "The Longest Day in Chang'an". On 22 December 2019, he held his first solo concert, "Su Er" in Shanghai, China"."


title: Jackson Yee

text: In 2020, Yee starred in period action drama "Forward Forever". In November 2020, he released "Backseat Theater", a cover album. He recreated his imaginary "backseat concert" based on his numerous journey of going back and forth between North 2nd Ring Road and Changping when he was small. His second film "A Little Red Flower" was in the theaters on 31 December 2020.


title: Jackson Yee

text: Yee's first war film,"The Battle at Lake Changjin", was in the cinemas on 30 September 2021. He was featured in the short film, "A Date with Snow and Ice", that promotes Beijing Winter Olympic Torch Relay with Eileen Gu.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In June 2017, Yee was chosen as one of the WHO China Tobacco Control Champion by the World Health Organization.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In September 2017, Yee called for preserving and protecting the historic sites, and to stop uncivilized actions on cultural relics and monuments. He was named ambassador of the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation's Great Wall Charity Campaign Guardian of the Great Wall.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In November 2017, Yee was invited by the World Health Organization to Geneva as one of the four youth leaders from China, to give a speech a calling for the elimination of AIDS discrimination. Shortly after, he was awarded the title of WHO China Special Envoy For Health. As the special envoy for WHO in China, he naturally put an emphasis on healthy living, and also mentioned his support for the "Children's Companion Program", a project that aims to help children in rural provinces whose parents have moved away to work in major cities. The same month, he collaborated with 16 other celebrities on the song "Embracing You", which serves as the theme song for 30th World AIDS Day.


title: Jackson Yee

text: On his birthday concert held on 28 November 2017, Yee announced the establishment of the Jackson Yee Fund. Its first phase will help raise 1.5 million yuan ($227,000) to support a charity program for the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to help more than 12,000 rural, "left-behind" children, whose parents have moved to urban areas to earn a living with temporary jobs.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In 2019, Yee represented China at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum. Joined by nearly 1,000 other youth advocates in New York on 8 and 9 April, he met with government ministers and officials to advance the role of young people in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the phrase "Yi qi lai ba"!, Yee launched a new collaboration with WHO China encouraging young people to join together to choose active, healthy lifestyles.


title: Jackson Yee

text: On 9 November 2019, Yee was announced as the China Forest Fire Management Charity Ambassador to promote the awareness of forest fires - prevent forest fires and protect our green homes.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In July 2021, Yee donated 1 million to Red Cross Society of China Zhengzhou Branch plus another 1 million to Han Hong Love Charity Foundation to relieve the damages done in 2021 Henan floods.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In August 2019, Yee ended his contracts with Givenchy after the brand produced a T-shirt listing Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as separate countries.


title: Jackson Yee

text: In March 2021, Yee distanced himself with Adidas after the brand announced its decision to not use cotton sourced from the Xinjiang region where there were alleged human rights issues.


title: Jackson Yee

text: On 28 July 2021, Yee was announced as the Nescafé brand ambassador as they shared the same attitude of "dare to think and act".


title: Jackson Yee

text: On 5 April 2021, Armani beauty has announced Yee as its new global makeup and skincare ambassador where he has been the ambassador for Giorgio Armani makeup for China since January 2020 and an Emporio Armani global ambassador since August 2020. “Jackson Yee really has a voice in China,” Véronique Gautier, global president of Armani Beauty, told WWD. She said he also resonates with young people and his human engagement echoes that of Giorgio Armani. On 19 January 2022, Armani beauty announced Yee as Giorgio Armani's Global Beauty Ambassador, adding fragrance to his existing roles on makeup and skincare.


title: Jackson Yee

text: On 16 April 2021, Yee was promoted to Tiffany & Co.’s global ambassador as his endorsement of the brand at a regional level in China since his appointment June 2020 has "generated impressive levels of social media fan growth and consumer engagement that well exceeded our expectations,” said CEO Alessandro Bogliolo.


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: Supriya Pilgaonkar (née Sabnis) is an Indian actress who has worked in several Marathi and Hindi films and television series. She is married to actor Sachin Pilgaonkar and made her debut as Chameli in his superhit film "Navri Mile Navryala". She is the winner of "Nach Baliye 1".


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: Pilgaonkar was born as Supriya Sabnis in a Maharashtrian family in Mumbai, India. She met her husband, Sachin Pilgaonkar while shooting for a Marathi movie "Navri Mile Navryala", which he was directing. They got married in 1985, when she was 18 and have a daughter, Shriya Pilgaonkar.


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: Pilgaonkar has acted in a handful of television serials; the most popular of them are "Tu Tu Main Main", Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi, "Sasural Genda Phool", "Radhaa Ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhayengi" and "Kadvee Khattee Meethi". "Tu Tu Main Main" was a comic look at the differences and affection between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, in which she played the daughter-in-law. In its sequel, "Kadvee Khattee Meethi", she got a new role to play — as a mother-in-law. In 2011, she participated in the comedy show, "Comedy Ka Maha Muqabala".


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: She has a known contribution in Marathi films as well. The movies in which she has acted with her husband Sachin Pilgaonkar, like "Navri Mile Navryala", "Majha Pati Karodpati", "Ashi Hi Banwa Banvi", "Aaytya Gharat Gharoba", were major successes.


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: Pilgaonkar has also acted in a handful of movies such as "Awara Paagal Deewana", "Aetbaar", "Deewane Huye Paagal" and "Barsaat".


title: Supriya Pilgaonkar

text: Pilgaonkar and Sachin appeared together on the dance show, "Nach Baliye" and emerged as the winners of season 1.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Darkest Dungeon is a roguelite role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows and OS X in January 2016, which followed a year-long early access development period. Later that year, it was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Linux, with a port for iOS being released in 2017, and ports for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One being released by 2018.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: "Darkest Dungeon" has the player manage a roster of heroes to explore dungeons below a gothic mansion the player has inherited. Played out in a mix of real-time movement and turn-based combat, a core feature of "Darkest Dungeon" is the stress level of each hero that increases with further exploration and combat; a character sustaining a high-stress level may gain afflictions that will hamper, or possibly enhance, their performance as an explorer. The Stress Symbol or Iron Crown, a crescent with five inward-facing spikes, is also in the game's logo.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The game received positive reviews from critics, garnering several award nominations, and went on to sell over two million copies. A sequel, "Darkest Dungeon II", was announced in February 2019 and a board game adaptation is also in development.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: "Darkest Dungeon" is a role-playing game in which the player manages a roster of heroes and adventurers to explore these dungeons and fight the creatures within. Prior to entering a dungeon, the player can use facilities in the game's "hub-town" near the mansion to manage a roster of heroes and inventory. Each hero belongs to one of fifteen character classes, and has their own statistics and skills that can be upgraded over time. If a hero dies while exploring a dungeon, that hero is lost for good.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Once the player has completed preparations, they select four of their heroes to go explore a procedurally-generated dungeon. Combat encounters play out in a turn-based manner. A core element of "Darkest Dungeon" is its Affliction system, which indicates heroes' stress levels or resolves. A number of factors impact Affliction while in a dungeon, such as adventuring without food or light sources, witnessing the death or wounding of a fellow party member in battle, or from blights cast on them by enemies. Unchecked stress levels will gradually interfere with the behavior of the character, such as being frightened and unable to fight directly. Allowing a hero to reach an extremely high stress level can cause them to have a heart attack, bringing them to the brink of death if not immediately tended to. Stress can be lowered while in a dungeon through camping offered at specific locations, or other restorative items, as well as when back in the nearby town.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: "The Crimson Court" downloadable content (DLC) was released on June 19, 2017 for PC and August 22, 2017 for PlayStation 4, introducing a Courtyard environment, a new playable class, a faction with new enemies, five new boss encounters, as well as new trinkets and Hamlet upgrade buildings. Also of note is that a hero can be turned into a vampire via the Crimson Curse, a new status effect introduced in the DLC.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The next DLC, "The Colour of Madness", was released on June 19, 2018. Narratively, it has a meteor crash near the village that causes some of the villagers to turn into zombie-like creatures. This leads to new dungeons, monsters, and other aspects of gameplay. This also adds a new mode, a horde mode, where the player's party must survive as many encounters as they can against these new creatures.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: A new DLC pack, "The Butcher's Circus", was released in May 2020. The expansion added a new area and includes a player versus player mode that allows players to assemble a team of four adventurers to challenge another player's in an arena-type combat game.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: At the outset of "Darkest Dungeon", the player learns that they have inherited an estate from an Ancestor who, while seeking to fulfill his ambiguous ambitions by excavating the dungeons and catacombs beneath his manor, has unearthed some terrible monstrosity and released a number of horrific and evil creatures and corruptions onto the world. Now as the owner of the estate and the surrounding lands, the player must recruit a roster of adventurers and mount expeditions to cleanse the estate of its vile inhabitants.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: As the player ventures into the manor, the dungeons below it and the surrounding lands, they find their Ancestor’s memoirs telling of the terrible deeds he had done in pursuit of knowledge and power, as well as personal desire. Eventually, the player is able to enter the Darkest Dungeon itself, the source of the land's corruption, taking steps to reveal its ultimate form. Within the deepest chamber, the player encounters the disembodied spirit of their Ancestor, who now remains as "an Avatar of the Crawling Chaos." After defeating the Ancestor's apparition, the party battles the Heart of Darkness - which the Ancestor reveals to be the heart of the planet itself. The party manages to defeat its physical form at great cost, but the Ancestor's spirit reveals to the player that this has only delayed its inevitable awakening and, by extension, the end of the world. The Ancestor claims that this is merely part of an endless cycle in the player's lineage and that the player will eventually meet the same fate as he, and their descendants onward. The Ancestor then accentuates this cycle by repeating his first words from the start of the game: "Ruin has come to our family."


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Director Chris Bourassa and lead designer Tyler Sigman had become friends while working at Backbone Entertainment, and had talked about the idea of building a game together, but their commitments to other studios left them unable to do so. During 2012 and early 2013, they had brainstormed a number of ideas for potential games to develop. In April 2013, they found they had the time to work on this project, and decided it was a "now or never" moment, forming British Columbia-based Red Hook Studios to develop the game. By 2015, their team included six people in addition to three more supporting their sound, music, and narration for the game.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The main gameplay of "Darkest Dungeon" started out as a tile-based game that had the player control a group of characters as they moved about in a dungeon, eventually transitioning into a combat mode when they had encounters. The two recognized that players would get bored of looking at icons of the characters' heads all the time via the top-down icons, which would not allow players to come to bond with the characters. This led to the concept of presenting characters from the side view in combat, making the player feel they were at the same level as the characters, alleviating some of these issues. This gave Bourassa, the principal artist on the game, an opportunity to show off more of his work. However, this would have left them the need to transition from top-down to side-view and create more art assets. They worked around this by using the same side-view not only for combat but for dungeon exploration, creating the basic gameplay of "Darkest Dungeon".


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The side-view mechanic then led into the idea of the characters being in ranks, allowing for certain attacks, abilities, or defenses if they were in the right rank; characters in the front could have powerful melee attacks but take more damage, while characters in the back would be more protected but limited to weaker ranged attacks. This was an idea inspired by "The Bard's Tale", but they were able to expand upon it to create interesting situations, such as having characters pulled out of rank by an enemy attack. This in turn led to a new attribute for how likely a character could be moved out of position, creating strategies for the player as to handle a mix-up in the ranks during combat, as well as applying the same principles of rank to the enemy forces and making situations for the player to figure out how to take advantage of a weak rank arrangement. Furthering from these concepts, they crafted the character classes to have various strengths and weaknesses based on their rank positioning, created further strategic elements for the player to explore.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: One core idea of the game was its Affliction system, in which the dungeon-crawling characters would gain stress and eventually afflictions as they explored. Bourassa and Sigman noted that while they are fans of classic role-playing games such as "The Bard's Tale", "Eye of the Beholder", and "Ultima Underworld", most of these games lacked the human element to the characters. They give an example of a character being down to their last hit point in battle and the player simply making decisions to win, the character reacting regardless of their low health. They instead wanted to "toy with player agency", giving moments where the player is reminded they do not have full control of the actions of the adventurers in the party. They also sought to alter how most loot systems in role-playing games work so that the player was not always focused on finding the best gear for the characters but instead working to support their characters. Bourassa and Sigman were aware that these facets may turn players away from the game due to the difficulty and inability to have full control, but continued to stay true to their vision of the game.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The Affliction system was inspired by psychologically traumatized heroes, both through historical events as well as works of fiction such as Hudson from "Aliens" and the soldiers from "Band of Brothers" who are transformed by the horrors of combat; Sigman pointed to the seventh episode of "Band of Brothers" where a soldier watches his friends die from a shell explosion, stares transfixed at the event, and then becomes unable to fight any more, as the feeling they wanted to capture. Though they were also inspired by Lovecraftian horror, they did not want to use the concept of "insanity" that is common in that genre, and instead focused more on the nature of stress and how it affected the human psyche. Because of the importance of the Affliction system to "Darkest Dungeon", the developers spent significant time to make sure that the impact of stress and afflictions were emphasized dramatically in the game's presentation, using special graphics and sound cues to signal the onset of an affliction. They also created a "bark system", dialog stated by a character reflecting their current stress, affliction, and other attributes as another means to humanize the characters and remind the player that they do not have full control of the characters. Alongside the Affliction system, they developed the town facilities that are used to cure afflictions and reduce stress, using concepts they borrowed from tabletop games. They also included Virtues, positive afflictions that can result from high stress situations, and a means of tracking the afflictions of a given character over time, so that in future stress situations the character will often become encumbered by the same affliction, developing a behavioral pattern that the player may be able to use to their benefit.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: A disembodied narrator, voiced by Wayne June, was also included to comment in a sardonic manner throughout the game, furthering the atmosphere they wanted. Bourassa had listened to June's readings of various H.P. Lovecraft works prior to developing the game, which partially inspired "Darkest Dungeon". When the two were preparing the game's first teaser trailing, they felt they needed a narrator and approached June for his work. Once the trailer was completed, they recognized that June's voice as narrator was a necessary element for the game. Art assets were created by Bourassa; in addition to the Lovecraftian nature, he wanted to give the game the look of woodcut and illuminated manuscripts, and took inspiration from artists such as Albrecht Dürer and eastern European painters. He further modernized the look by using ideas from comic book artists including Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, Chris Bachalo, and Viktor Kalvachev. The game uses a homebrewed, lightweight cross-platform game engine developed by programmer Kelvin McDowell.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Bourassa and Sigman used their personal savings to fund the creation of Red Hook Studios, and sought to gain a grant from the Canada Media Fund, but were rejected. Having originally anticipated an eighteen-month development period, they sought a way to fund the extended development period. They launched a Kickstarter campaign in April 2014 for funding; prior to starting the Kickstarter, they made sure they had prepared enough of a media interest, including a trailer for the game released in October 2013, to attract attention at the onset of the campaign. Due to the early marketing, the funding goal of $75,000 was reached within the first two days of the campaign, and completed with over $313,000 of funding from over 10,000 backers.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: "Darkest Dungeon" was first released in Steam's early access program on January 30, 2015. They used feedback from the Early Access period, particularly through those that streamed their playthrough of the game, to help with playtesting and adjust the balance of the game, while also finding that their approach to gameplay and presentation was validated by positive reception from these streamers. Sigman noted that developing in Early Access was comparable to "working while naked in a transparent cube suspended above Times Square", but felt their transparency with players made the final product much better. Bourassa and Sigman noted that they had had some issues with user feedback during Early Access, specifically after they added two gameplay elements around July 2015: the addition of corpses which affected combat positioning issues, and the possibility of a stressed character suffering a heart attack and dying immediately. Some Early Access players were dissatisfied with these changes, feeling it put the player at far too much disadvantage to an already difficult game, and complained to the studio. Bourassa and Sigman had debated what to do with these two features and eventually opted to make them optional elements to the gameplay. Though this change was generally met with approval, a number of these players remained bitter about the game throughout the rest of its development, and attempted to have the studio's and the game's reputation derided by Jim Sterling, who has frequently been critical of Steam and Early Access titles; Sterling instead found the game to be enjoyable even with this change. Bourassa and Sigman recognized they could have done a better job in the social media to placate the complaints early on, but still felt they chose the right path with retaining these features and sticking to their vision instead of trying to meet all expectations from Early Access players.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Though Red Hook anticipated releasing the game in October 2015, a personal loss affected one of the team members, and the game was subsequently released on January 19, 2016 for personal computers. A cross-buy version for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita were originally planned for release in the second quarter of 2016, but was pushed back to Q3 2016 to improve playability with the Sony controllers as well as to prepare these versions to align with new features to be introduced in the personal computer versions prior to this release. This version was released on September 27, 2016.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The game's first major update in May 2016 following its full release, "Everything Burns", which among bug fixes and other small improvements, adds in Town Events, whereupon return to the town the player may encounter a random reward, such as an extra recruit to join their party or the temporary closure of one of the town facilities. Following on the previous issues with Early Access updates, some of these features can be eliminated or their frequency reduced in the game's options menu.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The game's first downloadable content, "The Crimson Court", was released on June 19, 2017 on personal computers with the PlayStation 4 version to come later. The new content added a new hero class, a new dungeon type, new enemies and bosses, and other similar content to the game. Integration with Steam Workshop was added in an April 2017 update. Red Hook plans to develop additional downloadable content, to develop for other platforms, specifically highlight touch-based devices as they found their interface is already well-suited to this input mode.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: A version for iPad was released on August 24, 2017. This version allows players to transfer save files from the personal computer editions to use with the iPad version. A version for the Nintendo Switch was released on January 18, 2018 via Nintendo eShop, alongside availability of "The Crimson Court" and "The Shieldbreaker" DLC. An Xbox One version released on February 28, 2018; it will initially be released as "Darkest Dungeon: Crimson Edition" which will include the "Crimson Court" content at a discount; after two months, that version will be replaced with the base game with additional DLC, including "Crimson Court", that can be purchased, as well as an "Ancestral Edition" that includes all DLC.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: In 2018, publisher Merge Games released a retail version of the game for both the PlayStation 4 and Switch, subtitled as "Ancestral Edition". Another DLC, "The Color of Madness", was released for the PC versions of the game on June 19, 2018. A free DLC expansion, "Butcher's Circus", which adds a player versus player mode, was released on May 28, 2020.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: The game received generally positive reviews on its full release in 2016, holding a score of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic. "The Escapist" awarded it a score of 4 out of 5, saying "Darkest Dungeon will kill your party, drive you insane, and leave you a gibbering mess at the Sanitarium. Yet it's so compelling and rewarding at the same time, you won't be able to resist diving back in for one more quest." "IGN" awarded it 9.1 out of 10, saying "Darkest Dungeon is a punishing and awesome game of tactics, management, and pushing your luck to the breaking point." "PC Gamer" awarded it 88%, saying "A wonderfully executed, brilliantly stressful reinvention of party-based dungeon-crawling, Darkest Dungeon is great fun, even when it’s cruel." GameSpot awarded it a score of 9 out of 10, saying "Darkest Dungeon plays the long game. It builds you up for a grand bout that will test everything you've learned, as well as your ability to plan several in-game weeks out."


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Red Hook Studios reported that a week after the game's 2016 release, over 650,000 copies of "Darkest Dungeon" had been sold, including those from Kickstarter backers and Early Access purchases. In November 2016, about a month after the release of the PlayStation versions, Red Hook announced the game had sold more than one million copies across all platforms. By December 2017, all versions combined had worldwide sales of 2 million copies.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: "Darkest Dungeon" was nominated for three 2016 Independent Games Festival awards: the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and for Excellence in Visual Art and Audio. It was nominated for the Most Fulfulling Community-Funded Game for the 2017 SXSW Gaming Awards. At the 2017 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards the game won the award for "Game, Original Role Playing", whereas it was nominated for "Performance in a Drama, Supporting" for Wayne June as the narrator. At the same NAVGTR Awards the following year, "The Crimson Court" DLC was nominated for "Game, Franchise Role Playing" and "Performance in a Drama, Supporting" for June.


title: Darkest Dungeon

text: Red Hook announced "Darkest Dungeon 2" in February 2019. The sequel was released in early access on October 26, 2021 for Windows.


title: Vimal (actor)

text: Vimal (born 30 August 1981) is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil films. Following credited appearances and a supporting role in the critically acclaimed movie "Kanchivaram", he played the lead role in Pandiraj's critically acclaimed "Pasanga" (2009). Subsequently, he played lead roles in several low-budget productions. He established himself as a successful upcoming actor with "Kalavani" (2010), after that he has claimed his name with these movies "Vaagai Sooda Vaa" (2011), "Kalakalappu" (2012), "Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga" (2013), "Manjapai" (2014) and "Mannar Vagaiyara" (2018).


title: Vimal (actor)

text: Vimal was born in Pannankombu, a village near Manapparai, Tiruchirappalli district, Tamil Nadu, and later moved to Chennai. He discontinued his studies and began learning dancing and joined the Koothu-P-Pattarai, a theatre group in Chennai.


title: Vimal (actor)

text: Vimal got married in a manner portrayed by him in "Kalavani"' In 'Kalavani', its protagonist Vimal would marry the girl of his choice despite opposition from her parents. And in real life too, the actor did the same thing by entering wedlock with his girlfriend, who happens to be his relative's daughter. Vemal and Akshaya aka Priyadarsini, a medical college student in Chennai, were in love with each other. However, her parents allegedly opposed the affair, saying they were not interested in their daughter marrying an actor. Following this, Akshaya left for Kumbakonam, where Vimal was shooting for a film "Eththan". From there, they went to a Murugan temple and tied the knot. Says Vimal, "We have no other option since Akshaya's parents were looking for a doctor groom for her".


title: Vimal (actor)

text: In 2001, he started a career as an aspiring model actor. While being a part of Koothu-P-Pattarai, Vimal was appearing in uncredited roles in several high-profile Tamil films, including "Ghilli" (2004), "Kuruvi" (2008) and "Pandhayam" (2008), starring noted lead actors Vijay and Nithin Sathya. He made cameo role in the critically acclaimed movie "Kanchivaram" (2008).


title: Vimal (actor)

text: He played his first leading role in "Pasanga" (2009), directed by Pandiraj, in which he played Meenakshisundaram, an insurance agent. The film won critical acclaim, while his performance was well received. He next appeared in A. Sarkunam's comedy entertainer "Kalavani" (2010) with Oviya in the female lead which went on to become a sleeper hit. In 2011, he acted in three films, Cloud Nine Movie's "Thoonga Nagaram", "Eththan" and "Vaagai Sooda Vaa", which saw him collaborating with A. Sarkunam again. "Vaagai Sooda Vaa" was a period piece set in the 1960s, with Vimal playing a village teacher named Veluthambi. His other 2012 film, was "Mattuthavani" which was long-delayed and was a flop at the box office. He was then seen in UTV's comedy film "Kalakalappu" under Sundar C's direction that features an ensemble cast. His next release was "Ishtam", a remake of Telugu hit "Yemaindhi Ee Vela", in which he played an urban character for the first time.


title: Vimal (actor)

text: In 2013, he acted five movies as "Sillunu Oru Sandhippu", a simple love story, "Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga" co-starring with Sivakarthikeyan directed by Pandiraj. The film was a good opening and was a hit at the box office. "Moondru Per Moondru Kadal" with actors Arjun Sarja and Cheran directed by Vasanth. Ezhil's direction "Desingu Raja" was released on 23 August."Jannal Oram" co-starring with R. Parthiepan and Vidharth. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audience. Vimal is currently working on more than half-a-dozen projects. He has play in "Pulivaal" (2014), a comedy thriller with actor Prasanna, remake of Malayalam film. He has completed "Manjapai" (2014) and Padmamagan's "Netru Indru" (2014).


title: Vimal (actor)

text: In 2015, he released an action film, "Kaaval", followed by two comedy drama movies, "Anjala" (2016) and "Mapla Singam" (2016).


title: Vimal (actor)

text: In 2018, Boopathy Pandian's "Mannar Vagaiyara". The film is produced by Vimal for the first time. It was running successful and was declared a super hit. In December, an adult comedy film, "Evanukku Engeyo Matcham Irukku". It was a poor review from critics and audiences. His next two films were romantic comedies including "Kalavani 2" (2019), a sequel to "Kalavani" and "Kanni Raasi" (2020).


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: The Freedom Movement (, GS) is a social liberal and green liberal political party. It was founded on 26 January 2022, as the successor of the Party of Green actions (Z.DEJ). At the January congress, Robert Golob was elected as the party's first president and the party received its new identity and name.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: In its first parliamentary election, the party placed first, obtaining 41 of the 90 seats in the National Assembly, which is a record for a single party in the history of independent Slovenia. Chairman Robert Golob subsequently became Prime Minister of Slovenia heading the 15th Government in a coalition with the Social Democrats and The Left. Shortly after the elections, the Party of Alenka Bratušek and List of Marjan Šarec merged into the party.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: Originally known as the Green Actions Party (, Z.DEJ), its founding congress took place on 8 May 2021. It was founded by Jure Leben, and its establishment was announced in January of the same year on the Studio City show.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: Jure Leben was elected the first chairman and Gregor Erbežnik became the vice-chairman. The leadership elected 119 delegates. In January 2022, the party was taken over by Robert Golob, who also changed the name to Freedom Movement.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the Freedom Movement placed first with 34.5% of the vote and won 41 of the 90 seats in the National Assembly, defeating the Slovenian Democratic Party and its three-term prime minister Janez Janša. The Social Democrats, another centre-left party, announced that they would join a government led by Golob, in addition to The Left, giving him a majority in the legislature and making him Prime Minister of Slovenia, an office he assumed on 25 May 2022. In June 2022, the List of Marjan Šarec and Party of Alenka Bratušek voted in favor of merging into the party, which was approved by the Freedom Movement on 27 June. The official merger was scheduled for the first half of July.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: The Freedom Movement is a social liberal, green liberal, progressive and Pro-European party with a centre-left orientation. The party seeks a balance between industrial progress and environmental preservation through environmental measures. As social measures, the party points out publicly available health care and the increase in the number of employees, the reform of the education system and the digitalisation of schools. According to former party chairman Leben, Slovenia should be able to rank among the 20 globally most competitive countries in the World Economic Forum criteria.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: In his introductory speech, Jure Leben also mentioned the closure of "companies that blatantly pollute the environment" Kemis, Eternit, Termite, Ekosistem, the regulation of drinking water in Anhovo, the closure of the Velenje lignite mine (the only one in the country still operating), ban on hydraulic fracturing, the protection of forests and the declaration of an ecological crisis. The party would also introduce a tax on sweetened beverages and non-recycled plastics, while promoting sustainable forms of transport, decentralization and the decarbonisation of Slovenia.


title: Freedom Movement (Slovenia)

text: In Croatia, the news portal Index commented that Robert Golob embodies the values of the late Prime Minister and President Janez Drnovšek.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworth (officially Woolworths Group PLC) was a listed British company that owned the High Street retail chain Woolworths. It also owned other companies such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK, and book and resource distributor Bertram Books.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The Woolworths store chain was the main enterprise of the group. Originally a division of the American F. W. Woolworth Company until its sale in the early 1980s, it had more than 800 stores in the UK prior to closure. Woolworths sold many goods and had its own Ladybird children's clothing range, WorthIt! value range and Chad Valley toys. They were also well known for selling Candyking pick 'n' mix sweets. It was sometimes referred to as Woolies by the UK media, the general public, and occasionally in its own television adverts. The British company also owned and ran F. W. Woolworth Ireland until 1984 and Woolworths (Cyprus) until 2003.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 26 November 2008, trading of shares in Woolworths Group was suspended, and its Woolworths and Entertainment UK subsidiaries entered administration. Deloitte closed all 807 Woolworths stores between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009, resulting in 27,000 job losses. Woolworths Group plc entered administration on 27 January 2009, and it was officially dissolved on 13 October 2015. The collapse of Woolworths was a symbol of the credit crunch and financial turmoil in the United Kingdom at the end of 2008.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In February 2009, Shop Direct Group (now The Very Group) purchased the Woolworths trademark and internet address, which continued as a retail website until its closure in June 2015. In 2017, after former director Tony Page expressed a wish to buy the Woolworths name from Shop Direct, there was talk of Woolworths returning to British high streets.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The British branch of the F. W. Woolworth Company, which had been founded in Pennsylvania, F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool, England on 5 November 1909. Frank Woolworth had ancestry in Woolley, Cambridgeshire— Frank claimed he had traced his ancestry through the Founding Fathers of the district to a small "farm in middle England". When Frank eventually travelled to England in 1890, he docked in Liverpool and travelled by train to Stoke-on-Trent for the purchase of china and glassware for Woolworth's ranges, but also noted his love of England in his diary and his aspirations for bringing the Woolworth name to England:


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: During the buying trip, Woolworth met a young clerk, William Lawrence Stephenson, who was recommended to him by John Wanamaker. Wanamaker had established a large chain of department stores across the United States and was one of Woolworth's heroes. Stephenson was invited to London to meet Woolworth again, and was offered the job as director of the new company, which he accepted.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: After the idea for the creation of British stores, Frank Woolworth had offered invitations to store managers in the United States to open up stores in the UK and had only received offers to take positions at the time of his illness in March 1909 from Fred Woolworth of the Sixth Avenue and Samuel Balfour of the 14th Street stores in New York City. After these initial offers, Byron Miller, a superintendent in a Boston store, also offered his assistance and set sail with the other volunteers on the steam boat "Kaiserin Auguste Victoria" on 29 May 1909 for England from Hoboken.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Frank Woolworth expected other members of staff to admire the volunteers in establishing FW Woolworth & Co in Britain. However, Carson C. Peck, vice president and general manager of the company, had reservations with enlisting staff members to travel to Britain, questioning whether Woolworth had indeed created the new business adventure following a dream, or due to his dissatisfaction with the current condition of the American branch.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Peck also asked those who were willing to volunteer to reconsider their decision, claiming that those who had volunteered were unaware of the uncertainty and risks involved and that some were only tentatively willing to engage in Woolworth's new endeavour: His concerns mainly entered on the fact that the majority of the managers who followed the decision did so out of loyalty to Woolworth, and that moving such a valuable resource already established in the United States to what was a financially unproven "Little Infant" in the UK would have a detrimental effect upon the "Bread and Butter" of the Company.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Despite reservations such as Peck's, the decision to launch stores in the United Kingdom went ahead as previously planned by Woolworth. He considered several locations for the first stores, together with future possible sites. The chosen location for the first store was 25 - 25A Church Street and 8 Williamson Street Liverpool (the street addresses of the different entrances). It opened on 5 November 1909 with a performance by a full orchestra, circus acts and fireworks.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: As a means of adherence to American trading tradition, only viewing of items was allowed on the first day of the shop's opening. This included guests being given complementary tea while being entertained by a traditional brass band in the refreshment room. The event was reported positively by the local newspaper, "the Liverpool Courier", which praised the decor of the stores along with the value and range of items on sale.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Despite local press praise, British national newspaper the "Daily Mail" likened Frank Woolworth to Phineas Taylor Barnum and claimed that the store location had been decided as part of a contingency plan in the event of failure so as to facilitate escape from any financial liability. Despite these reservations, the store proved to be a success; large queues outside and low priced 3d. and 6d. ("threepenny and sixpenny") items leading to it being almost stripped bare of goods before the end of the first day of trading and being attributed to mass purchased mass-produced foreign and local goods.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: At the onset of the First World War, F.W. Woolworth & Co. had 40 stores in Great Britain and Ireland located in most major cities - from which a total of 57 staff including store managers had enlisted; the majority of whom did not return after the end of the war in 1918. Despite American staff again offering their services to the Woolworths branches in Britain, remaining staff increased their efforts to cope with the lack of staff members throughout the war with several staff members being promoted to managerial positions.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Stores in the United States, which were then stocking ranges also present in British stores were dependent upon European manufacturers which had adopted newer production methods than their American counterparts.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: After the First World War, the company continued to expand with the opening of further branches. By 1923 there were 130 branches, and William Lawrence Stephenson (1880–1963) became managing director. He implemented a strategy of major expansion, with the company buying or building freehold properties. Many of the stores had distinctive faience tiled art deco frontages. The expansion was funded entirely out of earnings and without any borrowing or further capitalisation. The 400th branch, at Southport, Lancashire, opened on 12 July 1930, and the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1931. The US parent company reduced its holding in the company to 51.7% at that time. In 1934, the 600th store was opened, in Wallington in Surrey.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Expansion was effectively suspended between 1940 and 1950, owing to the Second World War and post-war restrictions, but then resumed. The 800th branch, at Wilton Road, Victoria, London, opened in September 1953. On 22 May 1958, the 1000th branch (known as "Portslade" to distinguish it from the existing Hove branch) opened in Boundary Road, Hove. The peak of 1,141 branches was reached in the late 1960s. From then until the US parent sold out in 1982, a number of branches were closed and sold, and at the time that ownership shifted to the UK, there were about 1,000 branches.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworths tried the large out-of-town store or hypermarket format in the 1960s with the Woolco stores. While some of these stores were closed, the majority were sold to the Dee Corporation in the early 1980s and re-opened as Gateway hypermarkets, later being taken over by Asda.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: One of Woolworths' flagship stores, on Briggate in Leeds, suffered a major fire in 1969. The store, which opened in 1913, was spread over four floors and sustained extensive damage, requiring a total refit. The store was not open to the public at the time and the building was evacuated, avoiding fatalities, although some staff suffered minor injuries. It took several hours for the fire to be fully extinguished.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In 1982, the British Woolworths was acquired by Paternoster Stores Ltd, the forerunner of Kingfisher plc. Woolworths Group plc was formed by the demerger of Kingfisher's general merchandise business, and began trading as a listed company on the London Stock Exchange on 28 August 2003, using the symbol WLW.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In October 1984, the Woolworths stores in the Republic of Ireland were closed. In August 1996, market research was undertaken by Woolworths investigating opportunities to re-enter the Republic of Ireland market. About 32 potential locations were identified that could support a Woolworths store. However, the project did not proceed beyond the market research phase.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: During the 1980s, management rationalised merchandise lines into clearly defined categories: entertainment, home, children (toys and clothing) and confectionery. Many Woolworths branches were downsized during this time. Older branches in major cities were sometimes almost as large as the major department stores nearby. In 1987, for example, Woolworths left its five-floor branch on Briggate in Leeds (now occupied by House of Fraser), which it had occupied since 1913, and kept only its smaller single-level branch in the Merrion Centre. This was in an area of the city centre which had less pedestrian traffic, of shoppers who were generally on a lower budget.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworths did have several smaller outlets during the 1990s which sold music and confectionery. Smaller outlets with a similar format were also tried at the Sheffield Meadowhall Shopping Centre, but closed in 2003; the Manchester Music and Video store was superseded by a larger MVC store, owned by Woolworths Group.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In the late 1990s, the management extended the Woolworths brand into other retail formats and alternative channels to accelerate growth by taking advantage of changing retail trends. Some larger-format stores were opened under the Big W brand, similar to Wal-Mart in the US. Although it was successful at the beginning, the format failed to catch on; the original plan had relied upon leveraging the involvement of other Kingfisher group retailers, but following the de-merger this was no longer possible. Following a period of losses, Woolworths confirmed in 2004 it would abandon the Big W concept. The group sold seven of the 21 Big W stores in 2005 to Tesco and Asda. The gross internal floor area of the remaining sites was reduced to an optimum trading size of around 40,000 to . Following this, they were rebranded as Woolworths Out of Town stores.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The newly independent Woolworths faced severe competitive and financial pressures. The market for physical copies of music, one of Woolworths' main money spinners, shrank in the early 21st century; specialist music chains such as Our Price collapsed. The major supermarket chains expanded into many of Woolworths' product areas, and the fast-expanding Wilkinson challenged it directly on the high street.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworths did not generally follow the trend started in the 1980s of opening stores at out-of-town relocations. One of its few out-of-town stores opened at Dudley's Merry Hill Shopping Centre in 1989, but this closed within a few years due to disappointing trade.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In an attempt to raise the group's corporate profile under the chairmanship of Gerald Corbett, Woolworths sponsored a show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2004. Designed by a group of graduate students from Pickard School of Garden Design, the contemporary-formal style garden was awarded a silver medal.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In the middle of 2006 the business launched an in-store collection service for items ordered on their website or in-store, to complement the already established in-store ordering system. In late September 2006, the Big Red Book was launched, to compete directly with the Argos catalogue.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworths launched the "WorthIt!" brand as a value range in 2007. The first advertising campaign for the brand aired on 15 June 2007 and introduced the characters of Wooly the sheep and Worth the sheepdog. Further advertising campaigns featured celebrities such as Rolf Harris, Jackie Chan and Kelly Osbourne. The brand covered a wide variety of products including confectionery, electricals, alcohol, jewellery, perfumes and clothing.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Woolworths had a strongly unionised workforce, with shop stewards such as Paul Thompson of Unite (formerly the Transport and General Workers' Union) particularly active in the north of the UK.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In July 2008, the board rejected a bid from Iceland founder Malcolm Walker to buy Woolworths' 819 stores for £50m. Walker's bid did not include Entertainment UK or the stake in 2 Entertain, and also avoided taking on Woolworths' debt and pension liabilities.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 12 August 2008, Woolworths Group announced the appointment of Steve Johnson, former chief executive officer of Focus DIY, to the post of chief executive. He replaced Trevor Bish-Jones, who had left in June. Woolworths scrapped its interim dividend in September 2008, after it announced a pre-tax loss of £99.7m for the six months to 2 August. At the same time, Johnson outlined a possible turnaround plan to sell 120 stores, axe a quarter of its products, reduce web operations and cut jobs.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: At that time, the retailer's largest shareholder was Iranian property developer Ardeshir Naghshineh, with a 10.2% stake. A consortium led by Icelandic investor Baugur, called Unity owned a 10% stake in Woolworths. In October 2008 Sir Alan Sugar, founder of electronics firm Amstrad, increased his stake in Woolworths to around 4%. Theo Paphitis, owner of stationery retailer Ryman, also stated his interest in the company.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: From September 2008, the world entered into a severe financial crisis with reducing availability of credit and reduced consumer spending.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 19 November 2008, "The Times" reported that the Woolworths' retail business was a target for restructuring specialist Hilco UK, who would buy the retail arm for a nominal £1; this was confirmed the same day. The deal would have left Woolworths Group with its profitable distribution and publishing businesses and a reduced debt load. Ardeshir Naghshineh criticised the plan, recommending instead that the company sell some of the stores to raise more funds.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The group's banks, GMAC and Burdale, rejected the deal and recalled their loans, forcing the group to place the retail business and Entertainment UK into administration. On 26 November 2008, the trading of shares in Woolworths PLC was suspended, and Neville Kahn, Dan Butters and Nick Dargan of Deloitte were appointed joint administrators. When the company entered administration it had a debt of £385 million. The administrators announced that they were aiming to keep the company as a going concern over the crucial Christmas period, although analysts feared that any heavy discounting would create a domino effect and drag down other high street retailers. Deloitte later announced they had received "substantial interest" in Woolworths.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: When news of Woolworths' entry into administration was widely publicised, National Lottery operator Camelot immediately suspended Woolworths from selling their lottery tickets and scratch cards, as well as preventing claimants from redeeming prizes at the stores.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 5 December 2008, Woolworths recorded their greatest single day takings of £27 million, and axed 450 head office and support staff jobs. A "closing-down sale" started on 11 December.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 17 December 2008, administrators announced that all 807 Woolworths stores would close by 5 January 2009 (later changed to 6 January), with 27,000 job losses. Deloitte's Neville Kahn also said that it was unclear how much of Woolworths' debt would be paid. In the last few days of trading discounts of up to 90% were offered, and a number of stores sold all of their stock, many selling all of their fixtures and fittings too.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The stores were closed in phases, and the final two closing days were moved back a day to try to sell more of the remaining stock and to ease logistics of closing.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The former chief executive of Kingfisher, Woolworths' former parent company, and Ardeshir Naghshineh, a major shareholder of Woolworths, criticised the closures.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 19 January 2009, the owner, Woolworths Group, announced its intention to also enter administration, as it could no longer pay its debts. The application was heard by the High Court on 27 January, and Woolworths Group PLC entered administration.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The trade unions complained of the collective redundancies and they started various legal actions before the UK tribunals based on the absence of proper consultation of the employee representatives. The UK Court of Appeal referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union which partially disagreed with the unions by an important decision of 30 April 2015.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In October 2020, an unverified Twitter account named @UKWoolworths announced that Woolworths UK was planning to relaunch. The announcement was reported by dozens of mainstream British websites, including MailOnline and the "Daily Mirror". Within hours the Very Group, the owner of the Woolworths brand, confirmed that the account was a hoax. The stunt was perpetrated by a teenage student, Luke Castle, who claimed to have run it as an experiment "testing the brand loyalty of the British public".


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The administrators announced on 10 December 2008, that they were having difficulty selling the company as a going concern, and as a result some stores might close before the end of the month. Talks were still progressing to sell individual stores and leases to a number of retailers, said to include the supermarket chains Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, The Co-operative Group and Poundland.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In December 2008, Woolworths executive Tony Page and former UBS banker Gareth Thomas were trying to raise around £30,000,000 to relaunch the brand after closure with a chain of 125 stores. However, a deal could not be met in time. The government was also asked in a final attempt to make the deal but without success.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown noted that the government had considered saving Woolworths, but they concluded that it was a "financially unviable" business.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The supermarket chain Iceland bought 51 of the stores on 9 January 2009 for an undisclosed sum. Baugur, one of the major shareholders of Woolworths, partly owns Iceland, and Baugur UK itself entered administration in February. A further five former stores in Wales were bought by The Original Factory Shop in April 2009. Across the UK stores were sporadically replaced by other retailers such as Next, Boyes, Boots, Primark, TK Maxx, Home Bargains, and W H Smith.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In August 2010, the BBC reported that over 300 (i.e., approximately 40%) of former Woolworths stores remained empty, and that the largest group now using former Woolworths stores were discount retailers - such as Poundland. By January 2012, it was reported that there were still 105 empty former Woolworths stores, and a further 68 had been demolished.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: According to press reports on 17 February 2011, Tony Page and Gareth Thomas were planning to open a chain of shops adopting the Woolworths format, but under a different name. A store opened under the Alworths name on 5 November 2009 in Didcot, on the site of a former Woolworths store, without the involvement of Page or Thomas. By January 2011, 18 stores had been opened, although in April the company also entered administration and closed.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The Woolworths store in Dorchester, Dorset was reopened as an independent business named "Wellworths" by the store manager Claire Robertson. The store was officially opened by BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans on 11 March 2011. It was later renamed "Wellchester".


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Wellchester ceased trading in August 2014, after Robertson left to set up her own retail consultancy business.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The Woolworths brand and domain was bought by Shop Direct Group, owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, on 2 February 2009. The company announced it would relaunch Woolworths as an online retail store. The website was launched on 26 June 2009. It was entirely independent of the former Woolworths Group. It has been closed since June 2015. On 13 October 2015, the company finally dissolved and the website went defunct.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: In April 2017, multiple news sources reported that Woolworths may possibly be re-opening, nearly nine years since it closed, after former director Tony Page confirmed interest in acquiring the Woolworths name from Shop Direct.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Many branches of Woolworths suffered severe bomb damage and even destruction during the Luftwaffe attacks in the early part of the Second World War. However it was towards the end of the war that the largest civilian loss of life due to direct enemy fire in Britain during the conflict occurred when, at lunchtime on 25 November 1944, a German V-2 rocket fell on a packed Woolworths store in New Cross Road, killing 168 people (including 15 children), injuring 122 others and razing the building to the ground. The neighbouring London Co-operative Society store was also demolished in the attack.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The store was especially busy as news of a delivery of hard-to-obtain saucepans generated huge crowds, many of whom were queueing outside the store at the time of the rocket's impact.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Planning and economic restrictions after the war meant Woolworths did not build a replacement store on the site until 1960; this closed in 1984. It was reported that some employees there felt the building was haunted.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Lewisham Council and Woolworths erected a plaque on the site commemorating those who died that day. There is now an Iceland store on the site.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: During the period from 1971 to 1981 a series of fires occurred in Woolworths premises which brought into sharp focus the company's complacent attitude towards fire safety, a policy which culminated in a number of fatalities.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 6 May 1971, a fire broke out at the main distribution depot at Rochdale, Lancashire. The site was split into three sections, along with an administration block that housed the company’s new mainframe computer system and all stock and accounting records. The fire soon spread owing to the failure of the sprinkler system; this led to administration staff frantically dis-assembling the computer and passing parts of it, along with stock cards and other records, out of windows onto waiting lorries.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: Over 100 fire fighters attended the blaze and they managed to save two-thirds of the building with no loss of life. The resultant insurance payout of £3m was the highest of its kind in the north-west of England at that time.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: On 2 October 1973, a fire broke out in the stockroom of the store at 40-50 High Street, Colchester. The blaze soon spread to the rest of the store and the building was totally destroyed. Although all customers and staff were evacuated, subsequent findings blamed a lack of a sprinkler system (which was not, and still is not, a legal requirement) and poor procedures in place for staff to deal with fires and evacuations.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: A fire erupted just after 1pm on 8 May 1979 at the Manchester store opposite Piccadilly Gardens, said at the time to be the largest Woolworths in Europe, with six floors plus two basement levels. The fire, which started in the second floor furnishing department, killed 10 shoppers and one member of staff; of whom three were found just six feet away from an exit with another three bodies nearby. Of the 12 calls made to the fire service that day, none came from the store itself. It is believed that the fire was started by a damaged electrical cable, which had furniture stacked in front of it. An inquiry showed that, although the store's fire precautions met all legal requirements, the spread of the fire and the high number of casualties were in part due to the absence of measures such as a fire sprinkler system to stop the spread of the fire from the furniture department, and the use of polyurethane foam in the furnishings, a material which is highly inflammable and highly toxic, but cheap and, at that time, legal in furniture. This finding would have consequences for later safety legislation.


title: Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)

text: The second floor was gutted by the fire, while the third floor suffered severe smoke damage; the ground, first and second floors all received extensive water damage when the fire was extinguished. Due to the loss of life and devastation to the Manchester store, the Fire Research Station conducted a number of tests to develop sprinkler systems that could handle a similar large department store fire. However, there is still no legal requirement for United Kingdom retailers to have a sprinkler system in place, with many preferring to focus on evacuation procedures rather than fire containment. The catastrophe also resulted in modifications to the Fire Precautions Act and was among the factors that led to the ban on the use of polyurethane foam in home furnishings (a long-time concern of the fire service) forcing furniture manufacturers to develop new fabrics and materials for sofas and other items.