title: Seo Bok

text: Bryan Tan writing for Yahoo! News rated the film with two and half stars out of five. Praising the performance of Park Bo-gum, he wrote, "Seeing Park Bo Gum's compelling acting on the silver screen again really warmed the cockles of my heart." Tan concluded the review, "the over-the-top psychic CGI displays really got in the way of the bigger questions of how the first ever human clone should find his place in the world, without everyone trying to siphon his DNA for everlasting life."


title: Seo Bok

text: Jeanmarie Tan writing for "The New Paper" rated the film with three stars out of five. She opined that the film touched the question of philosophical and ethical about immortality superficially. Praising the performances of Park Bo-gum and Gong Yoo, she wrote that Park was effortless in switching countenance from childlike innocence to bestial rage. Concluding her write up Tan penned, "Watching Seobok, a superbeing with powers of telekinesis, go all Dark Phoenix on his enemies is right up there with any X-Men movie."


title: Derek Mears

text: Derek Mears (born April 29, 1972) is an American actor and stuntman. Often appearing in horror and science-fiction titles, he came to prominence for portraying Jason Voorhees in the 2009 reboot of "Friday the 13th". His film roles also include "The Hills Have Eyes 2" (2007), "Predators" (2010), "" (2011), "" (2013), and "" (2019). On television, he played the title character on the DC Universe series "Swamp Thing" (2019).


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears was born in Bakersfield, California. He performed improv comedy at ComedySportz in Bakersfield. He graduated from Highland High School in Bakersfield in 1990. Early on in life Mears had a severe case of the auto-immune disease alopecia, causing him to lose almost all his body hair.


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears has numerous credits both as a stuntman and as an actor. He had minor roles in "The Tick", "ER", "Alias", "Nash Bridges", "Men in Black II", "The Shield", "", "My Name Is Earl", "Mr. & Mrs Smith", "", Community"," and "The Hills Have Eyes 2". His stunt credits include the films "", "", "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "Blades of Glory", and TV series such as "Angel" and "Bones".


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears got his breakthrough lead role in the 2009 "Friday the 13th" film. He was recommended to the producers, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form of Platinum Dunes, by make-up and special effects guru Scott Stoddard, who created the new look for Mears' character, Jason Voorhees. Due to Mears' height at he is one of the tallest actors who have portrayed Jason, beside Ken Kirzinger, who stands at a similar height to Mears. He was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category for Best Villain for his portrayal of Voorhees, but lost to Heath Ledger as the Joker in "The Dark Knight".


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears did a lot of research on child development to flesh out the role of Camp Crystal Lake's notorious resident serial killer:


title: Derek Mears

text: He is contracted to return for either another "Friday the 13th" sequel or another film by Platinum Dunes. If Mears reprises his role as Jason, he will be only the second person to portray the character more than once, next to Kane Hodder. He portrayed a Predator in the 2010 science fiction horror film sequel "Predators".


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears appeared in "Ultraforce 2" on the "Superego" podcast. He also appeared in the American sitcom "Community" in the episode "Romantic Expressionism". He appeared as a zombie, credited as "Master-at-Arms", in "".


title: Derek Mears

text: Mears appeared with other horror actor Tyler Mane of Rob Zombie's "Halloween" in "Compound Fracture".


title: Derek Mears

text: On June 5, 2013, it was reported that Warner Bros. had relinquished their film rights to the "Friday the 13th" series to Paramount as part of a deal that allowed Warner Bros. to co-produce "Interstellar". One week later, Mears revealed that Paramount was working with Platinum Dunes to make a new installment "as fast as possible".


title: Derek Mears

text: In a series of adverts for the insurance company Direct Line shown in 2021, Mears portrayed the character RoboCop.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of film capsule reviews, "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide", published annually from 1969 to 2014.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin was born in New York City, the son of singer Jacqueline (née Gould; 1923–2012) and Aaron Isaac Maltin (1915–2002), a lawyer and immigration judge. Maltin was raised in a Jewish family in Teaneck, New Jersey. He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1968.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin began his writing career at age 15, writing for "Classic Images" and editing and publishing his own fanzine, "Film Fan Monthly", dedicated to films from the golden age of Hollywood. After earning a journalism degree at New York University, Maltin went on to publish articles in a variety of film journals, newspapers, and magazines, including "Variety" and "TV Guide". In the 1970s Maltin also reviewed recordings in the jazz magazine "Downbeat".


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin wrote "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide", a compendium of synopses and reviews that first appeared in September 1969 and was annually updated from October 1987 until September 2014, each edition having the following year's date. Its original title was "TV Movies", and some editions were "Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide". In 2005, coverage of many films released no later than 1960 was moved into a spin-off volume, "Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide", to allow the regular book to cover a larger number of more recent titles. He has also written several other works, including "", a study of cinematography, "The Whole Film Sourcebook", "Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia", "Our Gang: The Life and Times of the Little Rascals", and "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons".


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Starting on May 29, 1982, Maltin was the film reviewer on the syndicated television series "Entertainment Tonight" for 30 years. He praised the Tournee of Animation on the show at one point.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: He also appeared on the Starz cable network, and hosted his own syndicated radio program, "Leonard Maltin on Video", as well as the syndicated TV show "Hot Ticket" with Boston film critic Joyce Kulhawik (originally "E!" personality and game show host Todd Newton). Maltin also hosted a television show called "Secret's Out" on ReelzChannel network. He also spearheaded the creation of the "Walt Disney Treasures" collectible DVD line in 2001, and continued to provide creative input and host the various sets.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: During the 1980s and 1990s, Maltin served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute. In the mid-1990s, Maltin became the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and is on the advisory board of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. For nearly a decade, Maltin was also on the faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York City. As of 2018, Maltin teaches in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: In 1998, Maltin settled a libel suit brought by former child star Billy Gray, of "Father Knows Best" fame, whom Maltin identified in his review of the film "Dusty and Sweets McGee" as a real-life drug addict and dealer. The statement had appeared in print in Maltin's annual movie guide for nearly 25 years before Maltin publicly apologized for the error.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin left "Entertainment Tonight" in 2010. His final appearance on the show as a regular correspondent was on July 19, 2010. He also wrote the introduction for "The Complete Peanuts: 1983–1984". In 1990, he took a look at the MGM years of The Three Stooges in a film called "The Lost Stooges", available on a made-to-order DVD through the Warner Archive Collection. From 2014 to 2019, Maltin hosted the quarterly "Treasures From the Disney Vault" on Turner Classic Movies. The last scheduled "Treasures from the Disney Vault" aired on September 2, 2019. Beginning in 2016, Maltin has served as the Honorary Head Juror of the Coronado Island Film Festival. In 2020, the festival named their top award The Leonard Maltin Tribute Award.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: In 2019, Maltin along with his daughter Jessie Maltin created a film festival called MaltinFest at the Egyptian Theater that spanned three days. Special guests included Laura Dern and Alexander Payne. Since 2018, Maltin has served on the advisory board for Legion M.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: In 2022, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as part of the Member at Large branch.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin appeared in the "South Park" episode "Mecha-Streisand" where he, Sidney Poitier and Robert Smith fight the titular, Godzilla-like robot version of Barbra Streisand. Maltin also voiced himself in the "Freakazoid!" episode "Island of Dr. Mystico", in which he was abducted by the titular villain's orangutan minions.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin also appeared as himself in "", playing a film critic who blasts the first "Gremlins" film, but is attacked by the Gremlins. This scene echoed real life, as Maltin gave the first film a bad review, finding it mean-spirited, which affected his friendship with director Joe Dante. The scene was spoofed in the "Mad" magazine parody of "Gremlins 2", in which he protests being eaten as Roger Ebert gives a worse review of the film, only for the Gremlins to remark they are waiting until Thanksgiving to find Ebert, as "he will feed a family of 15!"


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin was one of the few people to appear as a "guest star" on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" during its original run; during a Season Nine episode, he joins Pearl Forrester in torturing Mike Nelson and the bots with the film "Gorgo". He was also mocked on the show for giving the film "Laserblast" a rating of 2.5 stars. After Mike and the Bots finish watching the movie, they express amazement at the rating while Mike reads off a list of well-known films that Maltin gave similar ratings to.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: In "The Simpsons" episode "A Star Is Burns", Marge says: "Did you know there are over 600 critics on TV and Leonard Maltin is the best looking of them all?" Lisa replies "Ewwww!" In the 1995 video release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, there was an interview with George Lucas conducted by Maltin before the start of the films. Maltin is listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for the world's shortest movie review; his two-star review of the 1948 musical "Isn't It Romantic?" consists of the word "No". In 1985, he delivered a three-word movie review on "Entertainment Tonight" for that year's horror film spoof, "Transylvania 6-5000". The review begins with a silent Maltin swaying to a recording of the Glenn Miller Orchestra playing "Pennsylvania 6-5000", the instrumental melody interrupted by the sound of a telephone ringing (part of the original recording), after which the band chants the title of the song. In his review, Maltin timed it so that his review began with the phone ringing: ""Transylvania 6-5000" ... stinks!"


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin also selected and hosted a compilation of National Film Board of Canada animated shorts, "Leonard Maltin's Animation Favorites from the National Film Board of Canada".


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Comedian Doug Benson's podcast "Doug Loves Movies" features a segment called the Leonard Maltin Game, in which the guest must guess the name of a film based on a subset of the cast list in reverse order and a few intentionally vague clues from the capsule review of the film from "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide". Maltin appeared on the podcast in February 2010 and played the game himself. He appeared on the show again in August 2010. In November 2010, Benson and Maltin played the game on "Kevin Pollak's Chat Show". Maltin repeated his appearances on "Doug Loves Movies" in September 2011 with Jimmy Pardo and Samm Levine, in September 2012 with Chris Evans and Adam Scott and in November 2013 with Peter Segal, "Werner Herzog" and Clare Kramer.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Beginning in November 2014, Maltin has hosted the podcast "Maltin on Movies". It began on Paul Scheer's now-defunct Wolfpop network, with comedian and actor Baron Vaughn as a co-host. The two picked a topic generally based on what was currently in theaters and discussed three other movies within that topic: one that the two both liked, one that the two disliked and one they thought was a great lesser-known film, or "sleeper", within the category. Topics included biopics, breakthrough performances and sequels.


title: Leonard Maltin

text: Maltin lives in Los Angeles. He is married to researcher and producer Alice Tlusty, and has one daughter, Jessie, who works with him (his production company, JessieFilm, is named for her). In July 2018, Maltin announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease three and a half years prior.


title: 2019 MotoGP World Championship

text: The 2019 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 71st F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.


title: 2019 MotoGP World Championship

text: After fifteen rounds of the championship, Marc Márquez successfully defended his Rider's Championship in Thailand taking his sixth premier class title and fourth in a row, having already won nine races. He ultimately won 12 races, breaking the single-season points and podium records with 420 points and 18 podium finishes from 19 races. Andrea Dovizioso once again finished second for Ducati for the third consecutive season with two wins, and Maverick Viñales with Yamaha sealed third with two wins. Álex Rins and Danilo Petrucci were the other race winners, both riders achieving their first-ever race wins during the season. In spite of Márquez's sizeable championship margin, seven races, namely Qatar, Italy, Austria, Britain, San Marino, Thailand and Australia were decided with last-lap passes, the season having seen plenty of close racing.


title: 2019 MotoGP World Championship

text: The season saw the introduction of a new penalty called the "Long Lap" penalty for infractions such as exceeding track limits or engaging in reckless riding. At each circuit, a route is to be defined and marked at a safe point around the circuit (usually an asphalt run-off area outside of a turn). The penalised rider must ride through the defined area within 3 laps of being notified, thereby suffering a penalty equivalent typically to 2 or more seconds on that lap.


title: 2019 MotoGP World Championship

text: The teams' standings were based on results obtained by regular and substitute riders; wild-card entries were ineligible.


title: Tusk

text: Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with pigs and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. Tusks share common features such as extra-oral position, growth pattern, composition and structure, and lack of contribution to ingestion. Tusks are thought to have adapted to the extra-oral environments, like dry or aquatic or arctic. In most tusked species both the males and the females have tusks although the males' are larger. Most mammals with tusks have a pair of them growing out from either side of the mouth. Tusks are generally curved and have a smooth, continuous surface. The male narwhal's straight single helical tusk, which usually grows out from the left of the mouth, is an exception to the typical features of tusks described above. Continuous growth of tusks is enabled by formative tissues in the apical openings of the roots of the teeth. Prior to over hunting and proliferation of the ivory trade, elephant tusks weighing over were not uncommon, though it is rare today to see any over .


title: Tusk

text: Tusks have a variety of uses depending on the animal. Social displays of dominance, particularly among males, are common, as is their use in defense against attackers. Elephants use their tusks as digging and boring tools. Walruses use their tusks to grip and haul out on ice. It has been suggested that tusk's structure has evolved to be compatible with extra-oral environments.


title: Tusk

text: Tusks are used by humans to produce ivory, which is used in artifacts and jewellery, and formerly in other items such as piano keys. Consequently, many tusk-bearing species have been hunted commercially and several are endangered. The ivory trade has been severely restricted by the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).


title: Tusk

text: Tusked animals in human care may undergo tusk trimming or removal for health and safety concerns. Furthermore, surgical veterinary procedures to remove tusks have been explored to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.


title: Type species

text: In zoological nomenclature, a type species ("species typica") is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen(s). A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups and called a type genus.


title: Type species

text: In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no formal standing under the code of nomenclature, but are sometimes borrowed from zoological nomenclature. In botany, the type of a genus name is a specimen (or, rarely, an illustration) which is also the type of a species name. The species name that has that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name. Names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types.


title: Type species

text: Every named genus or subgenus in zoology, whether or not currently recognized as valid, is theoretically associated with a type species. In practice, however, there is a backlog of untypified names defined in older publications when it was not required to specify a type.


title: Type species

text: A type species is both a concept and a practical system that is used in the classification and nomenclature (naming) of animals. The "type species" represents the reference species and thus "definition" for a particular genus name. Whenever a taxon containing multiple species must be divided into more than one genus, the type species automatically assigns the name of the original taxon to one of the resulting new taxa, the one that includes the type species.


title: Type species

text: The term "type species" is regulated in zoological nomenclature by article 42.3 of the "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature", which defines a type species as the name-bearing type of the name of a genus or subgenus (a "genus-group name"). In the Glossary, type species is defined as


title: Type species

text: The type species permanently attaches a formal name (the generic name) to a genus by providing just one species within that genus to which the genus name is permanently linked (i.e. the genus must include that species if it is to bear the name). The species name in turn is fixed, in theory, to a type specimen.


title: Type species

text: For example, the type species for the land snail genus "Monacha" is "Helix cartusiana", the name under which the species was first described, known as "Monacha cartusiana" when placed in the genus "Monacha". That genus is currently placed within the family Hygromiidae. The type genus for that family is the genus "Hygromia".


title: Type species

text: The "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" states that the original name (binomen) of the type species should always be cited. It gives an example in Article 67.1. "Astacus marinus" was later designated as the type species of the genus "Homarus", thus giving it the name "Homarus marinus" . Even though, as a result of synonymy, this species was originally named as "Cancer gammarus", the type species of "Homarus" should always be cited under its original designation as a type species: "Astacus marinus" .


title: Type species

text: Although the "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants" does not contain the same explicit statement, examples make it clear that the original name is used, so that the "type species" of a genus name need not have a name within that genus. Thus in Article 10, Ex. 3, the type of the genus name "Elodes" is quoted as the type of the species name "Hypericum aegypticum", not as the type of the species name "Elodes aegyptica". ("Elodes" is not now considered distinct from "Hypericum".)


title: Mexican League

text: The Mexican League (, ) is a professional baseball league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.


title: Mexican League

text: The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five teams in each division advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the Serie del Rey, a best-of-seven championship series between the two division champions. The Mexican League has two affiliated minor leagues, the Liga Norte de México and Mexican Academy League.


title: Mexican League

text: Though founded in 1925, the league joined the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (Minor League Baseball) in 1955, when it was designated a Double-A league. Some member teams entered player development contracts with teams in the National League at that time. Triple-A classification was granted in 1967. As part of the 2021 reorganization of the minors, the Mexican League was not included as a Triple-A league, though it continues to operate independently.


title: Mexican League

text: From 1925 to the 1960s, the league consisted of about six teams each season. The league expanded to eight teams in the 1960s. In 1970, after the circuit had grown to 10 teams, the league was split geographically for the first time. In 1979, the Mexican Central League was absorbed into the expanded Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (Mexican Baseball League). The newly expanded league featured a 20-team circuit with four divisions. However, after a series of team bankruptcies, the Mexican League was reduced to 14 teams in two divisions.


title: Mexican League

text: Although there is a stable core of teams in the league, it is not unusual for clubs to relocate. Often, new incarnations of the teams come about through new owners. Teams also cease after unsatisfactory results or bankruptcy. Since its foundation in 1925, more than 90 teams have passed through the Mexican League, and the only organizations that have remained since their inception are the Sultanes de Monterrey (1939), Diablos Rojos del Mexico (1940), Tigres de Quintana Roo (1955), Saraperos de Saltillo (1970), and Piratas de Campeche (1980). The Acereros del Norte have played uninterrupted since 1982, the Olmecas de Tabasco since 1977, and the Leones de Yucatán since 1979.


title: Mexican League

text: Some sources claim that baseball reached Mexican soil because of the US military forces that participated in the US-Mexico War between 1846 and 1848. The last decades of the nineteenth century have been beneficial to the baseball boom, while American companies were investing in various sectors of the Mexican economy and their employees were broadcasting the game. The origin of baseball in Mexico City, the capital, dates back to 1887 with the birth of the "Mexican Club", which is undoubtedly the oldest team of the republic. Since the start of the 20th century, baseball has become one of the favorite sports of all of Mexico.


title: Mexican League

text: As early as 1925, Mexicans' interest in baseball was such that sports journalist Alejandro Aguilar Reyes and his friend baseball player Ernesto Carmona founded the Mexican League. They had to overcome many difficult obstacles, especially when, on May 26, the rival Mexican Association prepared a "coup" against them, but managed to rebuff it. In the period since, competing leagues have occasionally been formed, but have been absorbed by the LMB, the most famous being Central League in 1979.


title: Mexican League

text: During the so-called "first stage of the Mexican League" the league attracted several well renowned players from Cuba and the Negro leagues. Cuban ballplayers Martín Di higo, Lázaro Salazar, Brujo Rossell, Agustín Bejerano all played in Mexico at some point. The era was mostly dominated by the teams in the central areas of the country, in and around Mexico City. The first champions were Regimiento 74, a team from Puebla. After that for a solid decade the Championship was only won by teams from the capital city, with Agrario de Mexico and Tigres de Comintra dominating with two titles each. In the late 30s, when the first wave of Cuban players arrived, teams from the Gulf coast started dominating the league; they were more attractive to Cuban players given their proximity to their home island, with the Cafeteros de Cordoba and the Rojos del Águila de Veracruz winning titles.


title: Mexican League

text: Because of the late foundation of the league, there never was a "dead-ball" era, which helped enhance the sport's popularity quickly. This along with the fact that it was only played on weekends, which allowed for easy following on a game-to-game basis, helped the sport grow.


title: Mexican League

text: In 1946, twenty-two Major Leaguers, including eight members of the New York Giants, moved to the Mexican League.


title: Mexican League

text: These moves were motivated by businessman Jorge Pasquel investing more money to raise the profile of the Mexican League and offering contracts which were in some cases higher than American Major League contracts. These moves were also motivated by the anticipation of increased competition from former Major Leaguers who had been serving in World War II and were now returning home.


title: Mexican League

text: The U.S. Supreme Court case "Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs" held that the baseball leagues and their commissioner are not violating antitrust laws (specifically the Sherman Antitrust Act) when they ban, trade, or otherwise change the playing eligibility of players.


title: Mexican League

text: The ruling went untested until the Mexican League was formed. Players who went to play in the Mexican League were blacklisted from Major League Baseball. One such player, Danny Gardella, was blacklisted because MLB claimed he had violated the reserve clause. On the other hand, Gardella's side claimed he had been fired by Giants player-manager Mel Ott during 1946 spring training because of frequent arguments, primarily about his salary.


title: Mexican League

text: During 1948, Gardella brought a claim against Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler, the National League and American League, as well as their presidents (Ford Frick and Will Harridge, respectively). Gardella charged that they were engaged in interstate commerce because the defendants had made contracts with radio broadcasting and television companies that sent narratives or moving pictures of the games across state lines. MLB then settled with Gardella and offered all Mexican League jumpers amnesty, protecting the ambiguity of the antitrust protection.


title: Mexican League

text: In 1949, Gardella won a major appeal against baseball's reserve clause in the federal courts. This successful appeal is recognized as the first major early step towards baseball free agency.


title: Mexican League

text: For most of its existence, the league consisted of six to eight teams. During its first few decades most of the league's teams played around Mexico City and the Gulf Coast. The southernmost team being Veracruz, while the northernmost team being Tampico. Most of Mexico City's teams disappeared in the late '30s, and were replaced by teams all around the country. It wasn't until the 1940s, that the League first reached the northern part of the country with the introduction of the Sultanes de Monterrey. Teams in Nuevo Laredo and Torreon soon followed. The west coast first had a team in 1949 with the emergence of the Charros de Jalisco. It still was a difficult region to gain popularity given the presence of the Mexican Pacific League, an important winter league in the northwest of the country.


title: Mexican League

text: The emergence of teams in the north was key in expanding the league's popularity. The north followed baseball closely, because of various aspects that all helped its teams thrive and has been the home of the most consistent teams in the league, with the Saraperos, Sultanes and Acereros not having stopped play in over 40 years. For the Sultanes it even resulted in a Minor League partnership with the Dodgers, and played a major role in the league achieving AAA status with the Minor Leagues. This achievement should be attributed mainly to Anuar Canavati, who is considered one of the greatest Mexican baseball executives along Peralta and Harp. His relationship with MiLB was key in the growth of Mexican baseball.


title: Mexican League

text: Southern Mexico has also been a bastion of baseball, with both the Tabasco and Campeche teams enjoying consistent attendance due to the sport's popularity. The league first expanded southward with the introduction of the Olmecas de Tabasco in 1975, which was followed by the Piratas de Campeche in 1980, and the Leones de Yucatán in 1979, after a couple of previous unsuccessful attempts. Although the Yucatán Peninsula teams have consistently existed for 40 years, they have enjoyed little successes in comparison with their northern peers, although these southern teams have won seven titles.


title: Mexican League

text: In 1979, the Mexican Central League was absorbed into the expanded LMB. The newly expanded league featured a 20-team circuit with four divisions. However, after a series of team bankruptcies, the Mexican League was reduced to 14 teams in two divisions.


title: Mexican League

text: For the 1970 season teams were divided into geographic zones to lower travel costs, however it was not until three years later that the league introduced a playoff system for the first time. In 1973 the first of what is now called the Serie del Rey was held. The members of each zone have changed frequently as teams have come and gone (particularly for those teams in a central location), but each zone has maintained a core of the northernmost and southernmost teams. In 1974 the League introduced the designated hitter rule.


title: Mexican League

text: The league has found the stability it lacked in the 90s, and has managed to sustain 16 teams for almost two decades, although some teams have relocated, and attendance has been inconsistent, though has rebounded in the latter part of the 2010s with the opening of new ballparks and greater stability. This led to unanimous approval for expansion to 18 clubs.


title: Mexican League

text: Despite having cancelled the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in December 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the addition of two expansion teams to the league: El Águila de Veracruz and the Mariachis de Guadalajara. The league officially approved the additions on 26 January 2021.


title: Mexican League

text: In contrast to the Major Leagues in which teams commonly wear a white uniform at home, and a grey one for away games, with team-color jerseys only worn as alternates, Mexican League teams use a colored option as their regular road jersey, a practice started in the 1970s to attract larger crowds and make teams more recognizable.


title: Mexican League

text: The current LMB regular season, consisting of 120 games per team, typically begins in late March or early April. Each team's schedule is typically organized into three-game series. Postponed games or continuations of suspended games can result in an ad hoc one-game or five-game series. A team's series are organized into homestands and road trips that group multiple series together. Teams generally play games five to six days per week, commonly having Monday or Sunday as an off day. Frequently, games are scheduled at night. Sunday games are generally played during the afternoon. In addition, teams will play day games frequently on Opening Day, holidays, and getaway days. Each team plays either six or nine games against each opponent.


title: Mexican League

text: In mid-to-late July, just after the midway point of the season, the LMB All-Star Game is held during a four-day break from the regular-season schedule. The All-Star Game features a team of players from the North Zone, led by the manager of the previous North Serie del Rey team, and a team of players from the South Zone, similarly managed, in an exhibition game. It has been held consistently since 1942 and from that year up until 1971 a team of foreign players battled it out against a team of Mexicans.


title: Mexican League

text: The first all-star game took place on August 29, 1939, in the since-demolished Delta Park of Mexico City, in a game between the selections of "Ernesto Carmona" and "Manuel Oliveros". The game ended in 11 innings, 1–0 in favor of the Oliveros team after a walk-off home run.


title: Mexican League

text: When the regular season ends at the end of August, between eight and ten teams enter the postseason playoffs. The top four finishers in each zone automatically qualify, however if the fifth place team in a zone finishes three or fewer games back of the fourth place team, that fifth-place team qualifies as a wild card and plays the fourth place team in a single game playoff. That is followed by three additional rounds:


title: Mexican League

text: Within each zone the first seed (the team with the best record) will face the fourth seed on the First Playoff, while the second and third seeds face each other. Since 2017, home-field advantage in the Serie del Rey is determined by regular-season records of the two zone champions, replacing a system used previously where the champion of the zone that won the All-Star Game would receive home-field advantage.


title: Mexican League

text: Similar to MLB, the Mexican League has had issues with doping by several players. Between 2012 and 2016, 45 players tested positive at the Mexican League's Prevention and Control of Substances program, all of whom were suspended according to the organized baseball anti-doping rule, headed by the Major Leagues. Even so, the league has been accused of "softening" its anti-doping policy to create a safe space for foreign ballplayers to continue their careers there.


title: Mexican League

text: Allegedly, the league allows players to pay a fine equivalent to US$5,000, without suspension to make the positive test "disappear". This has caused controversy among the fans and media who have called for the firing of league president Javier Salinas. As recently as August 2019, a player has tested positive, and a press release informing the media of said situation has been handed out, while protecting the player's name.


title: Mexican League

text: Sky Sports, AYM sports, and TVC Deportes broadcast games from the LMB. Sky Sports is also the official broadcaster of home games for Diablos Rojos del México and Sultanes del Monterrey, making it the channel that has the greatest coverage of the league. Other teams have local broadcasting agreements.


title: Mexican League

text: La Liga Mexicana de Béisbol has an agreement with Cadena RASA, through which the radio network has the exclusive national radio broadcast rights, including the All-Star Game and the Serie del Rey, as well as any other baseball event of national relevance that is presented. Gustavo Torrero, a well-known baseball commentator on radio and television, provides play-by-play for these broadcasts alongside Javier Figueroa and occasional guest commentators. In addition to this, all teams have their games broadcast on local radio.


title: Mexican League

text: Since 2014, LMB has had an agreement with AYM Sports to stream some games on the Internet through web page LMB.TV.


title: Mexican League

text: Additionally, the LMB signed an agreement with Facebook to exclusively broadcast 132 regular-season games and eight playoff games (four for each championship) during its 2018 season through Facebook Live. These streams would be free and would be available from March 22 of that year on the Facebook page of the LMB.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes is a Canadian video game developer founded in 1993 by James Schmalz. They are best known for creating "Warframe", a free-to-play cooperative online action game, and co-creating Epic Games' "Unreal" series of games. Digital Extremes is headquartered in London, Ontario. In 2014, 61% of the company was sold to Chinese holding company Multi Dynamic, now Leyou, for $73 million. President James Schmalz and two partners retained 39% of Digital Extremes, and will continue to manage it. On May 22, 2016 Leyou exercised a call option and now owns 97% of Digital Extremes for a total consideration of $138.2 million US.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Founder James Schmalz created "Epic Pinball", published by then shareware publisher, Epic MegaGames. Bolstered from the success of "Epic Pinball" and the rising technology movement in the mid-'90s toward realistic 3D graphics, Schmalz founded Digital Extremes in 1993 and the company began co-development with Epic on what would become Epic's "Unreal" franchise.


title: Digital Extremes

text: "Unreal" is a first-person shooter, released in 1998, and was followed up with "Unreal Tournament" in 1999, which received numerous industry awards. Subsequent sequels in the "Unreal" franchise include "Unreal Championship", "Unreal Tournament 2003", and "Unreal Tournament 2004". The "Unreal" series has sold more than 15 million units worldwide across a multitude of game platforms including PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, Xbox, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac and PC.


title: Digital Extremes

text: According to Scott Miller, the cofounder of the video game company 3D Realms, Digital Extremes was willing to take over development of their much-delayed game "Duke Nukem Forever" in 2004. However, the proposal was rejected by others at 3D Realms, which Miller described as a "fatal suicide shot" for the project.


title: Digital Extremes

text: After years of working in the same universe with "Unreal", Digital Extremes broadened its library and technology with development of its original intellectual property, "Dark Sector". A third-person shooter released in 2008 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, "Dark Sector" used Digital Extremes' proprietary game engine, the Evolution Engine.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes worked with 2K to develop the comic-book franchise video game sequel, "The Darkness II", which met with positive reviews. Digital Extremes developed the PlayStation 3 version of "BioShock", as well as developed the multiplayer component of the sequel, "BioShock 2", while simultaneously developing the multiplayer portion of THQ's first-person shooter "Homefront".


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes developed the game for the 2013 "Star Trek Into Darkness" film, working with Bandai Namco and Paramount to develop "Star Trek", which was very poorly received.


title: Digital Extremes

text: On October 14, 2014, Sumpo Food Holdings Ltd. acquired a majority share of Digital Extremes, with Perfect World Co. acquiring minority shares. Sumpo was rebranded as Leyou in 2015, and by June 2016, had purchased the remaining shares in Digital Extremes.


title: Digital Extremes

text: In 2016, it was revealed that Digital Extremes' game "Warframe" had been hacked, exposing the email addresses of more than 700,000 players.


title: Digital Extremes

text: On October 6, 2017, Digital Extremes announced it would open a development studio in Toronto, Canada, set to begin operations the following month.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Leyou was acquired by Tencent on December 23, 2020, which included Digital Extremes. The developer stated this would not change how they operate as they remained independent of Tencent, though through Tencent they would be able to provide better support for the Chinese version of the "Warframe" client.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes started development of "Warframe", a free-to-play title, in 2000. Digital Extremes launched "Warframe" on PC in March 2013, PlayStation 4 in November 2013, and on Xbox One in September 2014. At TennoCon 2018, Digital Extremes announced it would bring "Warframe" to Nintendo Switch. The company released Warframe on Nintendo Switch on November 20, 2018. Digital Extremes continues to refresh this games-as-a-service title on a regular basis with updates including "Plains of Eidolon" (October 2017), "The Sacrifice" (June 2018), "Fortuna" (November 2018), the Nightwave series (February 2019), "The Jovian Concord" (May 2019), "Empyrean" (Christmas 2019), "Heart of Deimos" (August 2020), "The New War" (December 2021), and the upcoming "Duviri Paradox".


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes worked with developer n-Space to develop the fantasy role-playing video game, "Sword Coast Legends", set within the "Dungeons & Dragons" franchise.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes worked with Madison, Wisconsin-based developer Human Head Studios to publish "Survived By", a free-to-play bullet-hell MMO with crafting and role-playing elements. "Survived By" was shut down as of April 19, 2019.


title: Digital Extremes

text: During TennoCon 2022, Digital Extremes announced "Soulframe", an upcoming fantasy MMORPG. It also announced that it would be publishing a massively multiplayer online game from Airship Syndicate.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Evolution is Digital Extremes' proprietary game engine. The engine made its debut with "Dark Sector"; and was again utilized in "The Darkness II". 2013's "Star Trek" featured use of the Evolution engine; and the engine is currently in use on the free-to-play online title "Warframe", released on PC in 2013.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Since the launch of "Warframe," its expansion and popularity has grown, resulting in multiple industry awards. In late 2017, "Warframe" won the Steam Labor of Love award, an award nominated by Steam's internal team, but voted on by players. The award is described by Steam as: "This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the first unveiling of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years." "Warframe" was nominated in The 2017 and 2018 Game Awards as one of the Best Ongoing Games, losing to "Overwatch" and "Fortnite", respectively.


title: Digital Extremes

text: In early 2018, "Warframe" won the People's Voice Webby Award for Best Action Game, and ProMax's Best Marketing Campaign of the Year Award. In March 2018, Noclip, published the video documentary on the making of "Warframe". The two-part feature tells the story of how "Warframe" succeeded as an independently developed and published game that changed the course of Digital Extremes.


title: Digital Extremes

text: Digital Extremes' employment environment has been recognized as one of Canada's Top Employers for 2010, 2011, 2012 and through to 2018. Additionally, the company has been recognized as one of Canada's top employers for Young People. In 2010 and 2011, the Financial Post named Digital Extremes one of the 10 best companies to work for in Canada.


title: Digital Extremes

text: On the provincial level, Digital Extremes received the Ontario Small Business Award in 2010. Digital Extremes was also presented with the Large Business of the Year award in 2011 from the London Chamber of Commerce. Digital Extremes was also awarded the Excellence in Human Resources award from The London Chamber of Commerce in early 2012.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Chasing Mavericks is a 2012 American biographical drama film about the life of American surfer Jay Moriarity (portrayed by Jonny Weston). It was directed by Curtis Hanson and Michael Apted, and stars Gerard Butler, Elisabeth Shue, Abigail Spencer, and Leven Rambin.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Filming took place in October 2011. While Hanson began production, Apted was brought in to finish the final 15 days of shooting and post due to Hanson's failing health. It was the final film directed by Hanson before his death in 2016, and the second to last film directed by Apted before his death in 2021.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: "Chasing Mavericks" was released in the United States on October 26, 2012, received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $7 million against its $20 million budget.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: In 1987, an 8-year-old boy in Santa Cruz, California named Jay Moriarity is saved from drowning by his next door neighbor, surfer Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler). This ignites his passion for the sport.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: One morning, Jay (Jonny Weston), now 15, sees Frosty leaving early and hitches a ride on his van. He sees Frosty and three of his friends riding a gigantic swell known as Mavericks which, with El Niño coming in, will be at its height in three months' time.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Reluctantly, Frosty agrees to teach Jay how to surf Mavericks, but insists that he learn about the "foundation pillars of surfing". This involves learning to paddle board 36 miles across Monterey Bay (from Santa Cruz to Monterey), treading water for 40 minutes and being able to hold his breath for four minutes.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: While training, Frosty encourages Jay to write essays to focus on the task. His first essay is about Kim (Leven Rambin), his crush, whose dog he saved when he was 8, which caused him to nearly drown. Jay gets closer to Kim as he trains, partially encouraged by Frosty's wife, Brenda (Abigail Spencer). A few weeks before the biggest swell of the season hits Mavericks, Brenda has a stroke and dies.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: A few days later, distraught from Brenda's death, Frosty paddles out into the bay. Jay follows him, and using the knowledge from his training, he gets Frosty back to shore. Frosty realizes that Jay is ready to ride Mavericks. Frosty takes Jay to Mavericks at Half Moon Bay and watches with his three friends as Jay treads water against the tide. The group agrees that Jay is ready to ride with them.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: On Jay's 16th birthday on June 15, 1994, his mother (Elisabeth Shue) gives him a radio to listen to weather broadcasts and track the swell. Frosty gives him a custom-made "big wave gun" (a long surfboard especially designed for riding big waves). Kim reveals her feelings and they share a kiss.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Frosty had wanted to keep Mavericks a secret, but Jay's notebook that he had been using for preparation ends up in the hands of his rival Sonny (Taylor Handley). When Jay and Frosty go to Half Moon Bay, there is a large crowd and boats taking surfers out.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Many of the newcomers wipe out before getting to surf Mavericks. Jay wipes out at first, but then retrieves his board and successfully rides Mavericks. A title card reveals that he married Kim and died at age 22 while free-diving in the Maldives. The film ends with Frosty, Kim, and an assemblage of others holding a surfers' memorial service for Jay.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: The film went into production in October 2011 around Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, California. On December 19, Gerard Butler was hospitalized briefly after being injured during a surfing stunt. Gerard Butler was mentored by big-wave surfer Grant Washburn. Michael Apted received director credit alongside Curtis Hanson after he took over as director during the last 15 days of principal photography, while Hanson recovered from complications arising from recent heart surgery.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: "Chasing Mavericks" grossed $6 million in the United States, and $1.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $7.9 million.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: The film was released on October 26, 2012 in 2,002 theaters, grossing $2.3 million in its opening weekend and finishing 13th at the box office; Box Office Mojo called the figure "dreadful." It was the 11th-worst debut for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters. It made $1.2 million in its second weekend then lost 1,571 theaters and grossed $448,648 in its third.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 32% based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's consensus states: "It's sweet, gentle, and affably modest, but "Chasing Mavericks" is ultimately pulled under by an unconvincing script and a puzzling lack of energy." On Metacritic it has a score of 45 out 100 based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: Roger Ebert praised the film, saying that ""Chasing Mavericks" is made with more care and intelligence than many another film starting with its template might have been. It's better than most movies targeted at teens. And the cinematography of the big Mavericks scene by Oliver Euclid and Bill Pope is so frightening that you sort of understand why Frosty stays on the shore, watching Jay with binoculars."


title: Chasing Mavericks

text: In October 2012, Frosty Hesson published "Making Mavericks" with Zola Books. The book is a memoir filled with Hesson's life-affirming lessons and described his experience mentoring Jay Moriarity.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First is a far-right, British fascist political party formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP). The group was founded by Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner. The organisation's leader is former BNP councillor Paul Golding. Jayda Fransen formerly served as deputy leader.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First campaigns primarily against multiculturalism and what it sees as the Islamisation of the United Kingdom, and advocates the preservation of traditional British culture. It attracted attention by taking direct action such as its "Christian patrols" and "invasions" of British mosques. It has been noted for its online activism.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First registered with the Electoral Commission on 10 January 2014; and, in February 2017, it was statutorily deregistered as a political party by the Electoral Commission, after it failed to renew its registration in time. It re-registered in September 2021. Britain First unsuccessfully contested elections to the House of Commons, the European Parliament and the mayoralty of London.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First was founded by Jim Dowson, who ran a call centre in Dundonald, East Belfast, for the BNP. Dowson's links with the BNP as a fundraiser ended acrimoniously in October 2010 when he was accused of groping a female activist. A former Calvinist minister, Dowson is a Scottish Christian fundamentalist. Based in Ballygowan, Northern Ireland, he also led an anti-abortion campaign, the UK Life League. He is linked to Ulster loyalist groups in Northern Ireland.


title: Britain First

text: Other former officials from the BNP joined Dowson in the formation of Britain First. Its current leader, Paul Golding, had been a district councillor in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 2009–2011 representing the BNP, as well as the BNP's Communications Officer. Britain First was launched through the "British Resistance" website in May 2011. Others involved in Britain First's launch included the former South East regional organiser of the BNP, Andy McBride, and Kevin Edwards, a former BNP councillor and organiser in Wales.


title: Britain First

text: The party's structure is similar to that of Ulster loyalist groups in Northern Ireland, insofar as the group has a political wing backed up by a paramilitary action force (named "Britain First Defence Force"). The action force's members assume titles such as "provost marshal", and a document written by Jim Dowson said that "I have lived in the worst trouble spots of Belfast; I have had high powered machine gun fire rip bricks from my house and have been injured by grenade attack. Sometimes we had to defend our homes from the traditional enemy, other times from the forces of the state, the police and army."


title: Britain First

text: Britain First announced in 2014 its intention to launch in America, as "America First" (not to be confused with America First Party or President Donald Trump's 2018 United States federal budget, America First), but it failed to materialise.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First owes much of its influence to the rise of social media and the hesitation of companies to regulate speech within their platforms. When Facebook was initially pressed on the matter of allowing Britain First on its platform, it simply stated, "Facebook is used by parties and supporters of many political persuasions to campaign for issues they feel passionately about."


title: Britain First

text: In November 2015, Britain First claimed that its Facebook page had over a million "likes", more than any other British political party or the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. At the end of November, Facebook briefly closed the Britain First page for breaching its community guidelines. The group also had to remove two photos published without permission. It later called Facebook "fascist". By October 2017, it had 2 million Facebook followers.


title: Britain First

text: Despite the initial unwillingness to regulate Britain First and similar movements, public pressure continued to mount. In December 2017, Twitter suspended the accounts of Britain First and its leaders Golding and Fransen, after revising its rules on hate speech. When asked, Twitter declined to comment, citing privacy and security reasons. In March 2018, Britain First was banned from Facebook, which said it broke community guidelines and was designed to incite racial hatred. In its official statement on the matter, Facebook stated that this was due to "repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups". This was received very positively among many across the political spectrum. In a statement, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, "Britain First is a vile and hate-fuelled group whose sole purpose is to sow division. Their sick intentions to incite hatred within our society via social media are reprehensible, and Facebook’s decision to remove their content is welcome."


title: Britain First

text: In January 2019, after a period in prison for religiously aggravated harassment, Jayda Fransen stepped down from her position as deputy leader and left the party completely.


title: Britain First

text: In November 2011, Britain First announced the registration of a political party, the "National People's Party", with Golding named as leader, Edwards as nominating officer and McBride as treasurer. However, the Electoral Commission register shows Britain First listed itself from November 2011 as a political party, with the same roles for the three officers, and no current or past listing for a National People's Party, so it is not clear whether the National People's Party has a separate existence. The Britain First website carries a constitution for the Party stating, among other things, that "The campaign group Britain First will ... be entitled to put forward a representative to sit on the Standing Committee", a six-person group "tasked with the direction of the Party and running all its affairs".


title: Britain First

text: The principal figures in Britain First, Dowson and Golding, launched a new political party in Northern Ireland in April 2013. Dowson was registered with the Electoral Commission as the Protestant Coalition's leader, and Golding as its treasurer. However, Dowson stated at the launch that the Coalition had no one leader.


title: Britain First

text: Golding had flown into Belfast in December 2012 to help co-ordinate protests over the decision by Belfast City Council to limit the flying of the Union flag over Belfast City Hall. Dowson had been prominent in the protests, and at the time of the launch, was awaiting trial for public order offences, as was another of the Coalition's founders, Willie Frazer.


title: Britain First

text: The website and logo of the Protestant Coalition closely resembled those of Britain First, although neither site explicitly mentioned an organisational link.


title: Britain First

text: In July 2014, founder Jim Dowson left Britain First. The "Daily Mirror" and "The Independent" wrote that Dowson left because of the party's "mosque invasions", which he considered to be "provocative and counterproductive", as well as "unacceptable and unchristian" and "just as bad" as Anjem Choudary. Paul Golding reacted to this by saying that Britain First was, "as far as right-wing organisations go, relatively scandal-free".


title: Britain First

text: Britain First itself denied the "Mirror" story, calling it "chief communist newspaper and lover of all things anti-British". The party claimed to have published a farewell letter from Dowson, in which he cited fatigue and the safety of his family as his reasons to leave.


title: Britain First

text: In July 2017, it was reported by "BBC News" that a string of Britain First videos designed to attract a Polish audience had appeared online, including a video from Jacek Miedlar, a Polish far-right former priest, an interview with a Polish media outlet that has over half a million views, and videos by Polish Britain First supporters encouraging others to support the party.


title: Britain First

text: On 23 June 2017, Marek Zakrocki, a 48-year-old Polish-born Britain First supporter, shouted, "White power" and gave a Nazi salute as he used a white van in an attempt to run over Kamal Ahmed, a curry house owner. The van mounted the pavement twice before making contact with Ahmed and the windows of the curry house were also smashed. Hours earlier, Zakrocki had told the police, "I'm going to kill a Muslim. I'm doing it for Britain." Copies of Britain First newspapers and flyers were found in Zackrocki's home and he also said he had donated money to the organisation.


title: Britain First

text: In September 2019, Britain First's former deputy leader Jayda Fransen declared that she was "actually delighted at Boris's work so far" and called for an alliance between the Conservative Party and the Brexit Party in the next general election.


title: Britain First

text: Following Johnson's victory in the 2019 United Kingdom general election, Britain First sent an email to supporters calling on them to join the Conservative Party in order "to make Boris Johnson's leadership more secure", stating that its chief of staff had campaigned for the Conservatives at the last election, and expressing a desire to play an equivalent role to that of Momentum within the Labour Party. Subsequently, Britain First's leader, Paul Golding, announced that he had joined the Conservative Party, hailing Johnson's remarks on the burqa as evidence that Johnson is a "populist nationalist under the surface". However, the party said that his application had not been approved.


title: Britain First

text: On 28 December 2019, Britain First claimed that 5,000 of its members had joined the Conservatives in order to "support Boris Johnson’s stance on radical Islam". Its spokeswoman, Ashlea Simon, stated that the organisation's followers "appreciate Priti Patel's and Boris Johnson's hardline approach" to terrorism.


title: Britain First

text: In 2014, the party registered the phrase "Remember Lee Rigby" for use in the 2014 European elections. The chair of the Electoral Commission later issued an apology "for the offence that has been caused" by accepting the registration. When questioned by Andrew Neil on the BBC's "Daily Politics" about the offence caused to Rigby's mother, Paul Golding said, "We apologise to the mother of Lee Rigby, but it was a major act of terrorism, it was a big public event. He was a serving soldier."


title: Britain First

text: Britain First stood candidates for the 2014 European elections in Wales and Scotland. It encouraged English supporters, in the absence of a Britain First candidate, to instead vote for the English Democrats or the UK Independence Party (UKIP), while warning against voting for the BNP. The party came 8th of 11 in Wales, with 6,633 votes (0.9%), and 7th of 9 in Scotland with 13,639 votes (1.02%, more than the BNP).


title: Britain First

text: Britain First stood its first parliamentary candidate for the Rochester and Strood by-election on 20 November 2014, nominating its Deputy Leader, Jayda Fransen. The party had been active in nearby Gillingham in opposition to a planned mosque.


title: Britain First

text: Royal Mail refused to deliver a leaflet for the party because it believed it to be illegal. The company said it could refuse to carry election mail if it considered the contents threatening or abusive.


title: Britain First

text: UKIP won the by-election. Britain First finished 9th of 13 candidates, with 56 votes (0.14%), finishing below the Monster Raving Loony Party (with 151 votes, 0.38%) and above the Patriotic Socialist Party (with 33 votes, 0.08%). At the count, the "BBC News" reporter Nick Robinson was criticised on Twitter for taking a selfie with Fransen, stating that he did not know who she was and that he would check before appearing in any future photographs.


title: Britain First

text: On 27 September 2015, Paul Golding announced that he would stand as a candidate in the 2016 London mayoral election. He received 31,372 or 1.2% of the vote, coming eighth of twelve candidates. During the victory speech of Labour's Sadiq Khan, he turned his back.


title: Britain First

text: In February 2017, Britain First was statutorily deregistered as a political party by the Electoral Commission, after it failed to renew its registration in time.


title: Britain First

text: The group was fined £44,000 in July 2019 by the Electoral Commission for a number of offences including undeclared donations and a failure to provide proper accounts.


title: Britain First

text: On 27 September 2021, Britain First's application to be registered as a political party was approved by the Electoral Commission. Golding then announced that the party intended to stand candidates for election in the near future.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First fielded three candidates in the local election on 5 May 2022. Its best result was for Ashlea Simon, chairwoman and treasurer of the party, who came second in the Walkden North ward of Salford City Council with 508 votes and 21.6% vote share. In the


title: Britain First

text: Brynna and Llanharan ward of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, BF finished last with 191 votes and 3.6% vote share. In the Eltham Page ward of Greenwich London Borough Council, its candidate came 6th out of 7 with 255 votes and 6.4% vote share.


title: Britain First

text: Ashlea Simon, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2022 Salford City Council election, was the Britain First candidate in the 2022 Wakefield by-election. She finished 8th of 15 candidates, with 311 votes (1.1%).


title: Britain First

text: In May 2013, following the murder of Lee Rigby, Britain First released a video threatening to place Islamist cleric Anjem Choudary, who was accused of radicalising Rigby's killers, under citizen's arrest if the Metropolitan Police would not arrest him.


title: Britain First

text: On 5 January 2015, a district judge at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court found Paul Golding guilty of harassing the sister-in-law of a man allegedly linked to the 7 July bombings, having mistakenly turned up at her house instead of his. District Judge David Woollard fined Golding £325 and a further £100 for wearing a political uniform.


title: Britain First

text: In February 2014, Britain First conducted what it called "Christian patrols" in an area of Tower Hamlets, East London, to counter continuing Muslim Patrols which had first come to media attention in 2013. Around a dozen or so Britain First activists recorded themselves holding a banner proclaiming "We Are The British Resistance" and emptying cans of beer outside a mosque to "bait" Islamic extremists operating in the area. A video uploaded onto social media showing the event gained national media attention in the UK, and the patrol was condemned by Muslim and Christian leaders in the area.


title: Britain First

text: In May 2014, members of Britain First invaded ten Bradford mosques, as well as ones in Glasgow, Luton and East London. During the mosque invasions—some of which they filmed—uniformed members of Britain First presented worshippers with army-issue Bibles and with leaflets on grooming gangs: they confronted elders about alleged "Muslim grooming gangs" in the area; and they proselytised Christianity, telling one person to "reject the false prophet Muhammad and read the Bible". In Bradford they also went to the re-election campaign office of a Muslim city councillor, demanding action on grooming gangs and telling him that he "had been warned". In response, the Member of Parliament for Bradford West George Galloway said, "This is a grave and national issue. We demand full police action and protection of Mosques and worshippers." The police said that they were investigating.


title: Britain First

text: In July 2014, Britain First entered the Crayford Mosque in South London, demanding that its segregated entrances be removed, with Golding saying, "When you respect women we'll respect your mosques." A volunteer of the local Muslim association called Britain First "filthy people creating trouble in our society". Two addresses were raided during the police investigation of this action, which led Britain First to protest at Bexleyheath Police Station. They sought to gain publicity by claiming that Golding was arrested for this protest, although the Metropolitan Police said that they had spoken with him and no arrests had been made. Golding was jailed for eight weeks in December 2016 for breaking a court order banning him from entering mosques or encouraging others to do so.


title: Britain First

text: In August 2014, after a report which revealed that over 1,400 children had been sexually abused in Rotherham, mainly by Pakistani men, Britain First protested inside the headquarters of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council with a banner saying "Justice for victims of Muslim grooming".


title: Britain First

text: In May 2014, Britain First announced that it would be deploying "hundreds of ex-British Forces" alongside "several armoured ex-army Land Rovers" to protect the UKIP leader Nigel Farage after he had been opposed on the street by supporters of Scottish independence. Whilst acknowledging that UKIP and Britain First were "rival" right-wing organisations, it stated that the two parties remain "patriots together" and as such it was willing to "put our men and our resources at UKIP's disposal".


title: Britain First

text: In March 2015, a group of anti-UKIP protesters went to a pub where Farage and his family were dining and allegedly scared his children into running away. Later that month Britain First went to that group's meeting in London "to give these traitors their comeuppance". No injuries were reported, but a 48-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault.


title: Britain First

text: UKIP rejects associations with Britain First, stating, "On the fringes of our politics are nutters and we don't want them anywhere near us".


title: Britain First

text: In 2015, Britain First offered "solidarity patrols" in areas of London with high Jewish populations, while blaming anti-Semitism on Islam. The Community Security Trust, an organisation against anti-Semitism, has warned Jews not to become involved with Britain First, and has likened this policy to similar ones by the English Defence League and the BNP, saying that all of these groups were opposing Muslims more than supporting Jews.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First visited the French port of Calais in the middle of 2015, during a period of attempted migration to the United Kingdom via the town. Afterwards, the party was approached by the documentary maker Ross Kemp to feature in a documentary film about the contemporary rise in nationalism. The party rejected Kemp's offer, calling him a "leftwing actor"; a producer responded by saying that Kemp listens to all opinions. At the same time, the organisation were recorded for a BBC Three documentary titled "We Want Our Country Back".


title: Britain First

text: In August 2020, Britain First posted a video of members entering a hotel in Bromsgrove used for housing asylum seekers. They knocked on doors and attempted to question residents. Police were also called to a number of other incidents across the country. On 29 August a man was arrested and charged with assault after a group had entered a hotel in Coventry and a staff member was assaulted.


title: Britain First

text: The organisation has been described as fascist by "The New Yorker", Politics.co.uk, "GQ", "The Independent", and others. The group's website has disputed this, listing fascism as one of several "alien and destructive political or religious doctrines" it opposes. OpenDemocracy has said that Britain First is not fascist, since it does not oppose democratic politics and does not have a direct connection to older fascist groups, but that they are xenophobes and Islamophobes. It has been classified as part of the counter-jihad movement, although other parts of the counter-jihad movement consider it "fringe" or "too far right".


title: Britain First

text: Britain First's founding principles stated that its aim is to protect "British and Christian morality", it is "committed to preserving our cultural heritage" and "We oppose the increasing colonisation of our homeland through uncontrolled, mass immigration. Britain First is committed to maintaining and strengthening Christianity as the foundation of our society and culture" and that "Genuine British citizens will be put first in housing, jobs, education, welfare and health". The party self-styles itself as "loyalist".


title: Britain First

text: Paul Golding disputes interpretations that Jesus was pacifistic or liberal, justifying his belief by citing Jesus' apparent violence against the money lenders and his statement that he came to bring a sword rather than peace. Every major Christian denomination in the UK has denounced Britain First, along with Christian denominations across the UK condemning the group as blasphemous to Christian teachings.


title: Britain First

text: It also campaigns against Islamism, immigration and abortion. Britain First states that it is not opposed to individual Muslims, but is against the doctrine and religion of Islam itself, which they describe as "barbaric". It said in 2015 that Muslims are the only community not integrating, and that "Jews don't cause any problems".


title: Britain First

text: Its claimed objective is "to save this country and our people from the EU, politically correct, multicultural insanity that is now engulfing us". The group opposes the European Union, saying it is a socialist threat to individual national identities. Britain First states that it has thousands of members who belong to ethnic minorities, and the group rejects the term racism as the "[invention of] a communist mass murderer to silence European opposition to 'multi-culturalism.


title: Britain First

text: A number of sources have criticised Britain First on various grounds. Some sources have noted the openly militaristic and violent nature of the group, particularly in recruiting and training ex-soldiers, and unlawfully wearing political uniforms. Members of the group, including its founder Jim Dowson, have stated their desire for a religious war in the UK.


title: Britain First

text: A 2014 report on the links between Britain First and terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland said that behind populist Facebook posts "lies a small but dangerous group of religious fundamentalists intent on starting a 'Holy war'".


title: Britain First

text: In 2016, after the group held "Christian patrols" in a primarily Muslim area of Luton, all major Christian denominations and organisations in the UK rejected Britain First and its ideology. The group was accused of "hi-jacking the name of Jesus Christ to justify hatred and spread fear". That same year, a petition to the Home Office was launched urging a ban on the group.


title: Britain First

text: Britain First has also attracted derision and condemnation for social media posts. These included a post which falsely labelled Afghanistan's first female police officer, who was murdered by the Taliban, as a terrorist, and posts falsely linking the burqa and terrorism. In March 2015 an American veteran stated his intention to sue for libel after the group shared a 'photoshopped' image of him. In the original image, the veteran was holding a sign reading "Boycott bigotry"; in the version shared by Britain First the sign reads, "Boycott bigotry and kill all non-Muslims". Britain First also received criticism for posing for a photograph with naval cadets in Nottingham, and then adding a caption falsely claiming that their activists were protecting the children.


title: Britain First

text: In addition to this, Britain First publishes media falsely labelling Muslims, who happened to be protesting against Islamophobia and bigotry, celebrating cricket results, or not even there, as "extremists".


title: Britain First

text: Furthermore, Britain First's Facebook page has attracted the attention of news outlets because of its misleading and inciteful content relating to Muslims. According to "The Guardian", "[T]hey included one comparing Muslim immigrants to animals, another labeling the group's leaders "Islamophobic and proud", and videos created to incite hateful comments against Muslims."


title: Britain First

text: In August 2014, the Cabinet Office wrote to Britain First requesting that they remove an image of the British crown from their merchandise. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had previously requested that the crown be removed from Britain First's online accounts. In response, Golding called the ASA a "toothless quango with no power which no one takes any notice of" and responded that the group's solicitors had deemed the crown distinct enough to be used without breaching regulations. The ASA published a ruling on 4 March 2015 upholding complaints about Britain First's use of the crown symbol, and about their selling merchandise falsely implying that it was British-made.


title: Britain First

text: In May 2017, Golding and Fransen were charged with religiously aggravated harassment over verbal attacks and leaflets they


title: Britain First

text: distributed in Thanet and Canterbury. They pleaded not guilty at a hearing on 17 October 2017; a "Persecuted Patriots Rally" organised on 4 November to show support attracted more opponents than supporters. At Folkestone Magistrates' Court on 7 March 2018, Fransen was found guilty on three counts and Golding on one. They were jailed for 36 weeks and 18 weeks respectively.


title: Britain First

text: In November 2017, the President of the United States, Donald Trump caused controversy by re-tweeting three anti-Muslim videos shared by Jayda Fransen. The re-tweets were responded to by Fransen and Paul Golding with the statement "God Bless you Trump! God Bless America!". Britain First boasted of a surge in support after Trump retweeted its videos.


title: Britain First

text: The three Islamophobic videos tweeted by Fransen were inflammatory and unverified: Britain First has a history of sharing misleading videos. One video falsely claimed to show a Muslim migrant beating up a boy on crutches. A video ("Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!") was filmed during the Syrian Civil War in 2013 and showed a man, who is believed to be an Al-Nusra supporter, destroying a statue of Mary and stating, "No-one but Allah will be worshipped in the land of the Levant." The third video ("Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!") contained footage from Alexandria, Egypt, during a period of violent unrest following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état.


title: Britain First

text: Trump's retweeting was condemned by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP Chuka Umunna, Labour MP David Lammy, Labour MP Yvette Cooper, Brendan Cox, the husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, journalist Piers Morgan, Unite Against Fascism and the Council on American–Islamic Relations. The incident resulted in calls for Trump to be banned from the UK; Jo Cox's successor in Parliament, Tracy Brabin, said he would not be welcome. A spokesman for the Prime Minister, Theresa May, condemned Trump's retweeting and added that Britain First spread "hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions". Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also condemned Trump's retweets, writing on social media that, "Britain First seeks to divide communities and intimidate minorities, especially our Muslim friends and neighbours. Britain First does not share our values of tolerance and solidarity. God calls us as Christians to love our neighbour and seek the flourishing of all in our communities, societies and nations. I join the urgent call of faith groups and others for President Trump not just to remove these tweets, but to make clear his opposition to racism and hatred in all forms."


title: Britain First

text: Three weeks later, on 18 December, Twitter suspended the accounts of Golding, Fransen and Britain First. They later joined and ask all their followers to go to the Gab social networking service created as an alternative to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.


title: Britain First

text: During a January 2018 interview with Piers Morgan for "Good Morning Britain", Trump said he was not familiar with Britain First when he retweeted them, saying, "If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you’d like me to do that."


title: Britain First

text: Britain First's 2017 conference in Bedfordshire, held at the beginning of December, was booked under a different name. The venue said it would not have taken the booking from Britain First if it had known who was behind it "as the values of our organisation conflicts with theirs in totality"; the booking fee was donated to charity. One of the invited speakers at the conference was Jolene Bunting, an independent unionist city councillor in Belfast. Bunting had previously organised an anti-terrorist rally in front of Belfast City Hall in August 2017, with invited speakers including Golding and Fransen. Fransen was subsequently arrested in London in November 2017 by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, charged with using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour" at the rally, and ordered to appear at Belfast Magistrates' Court on 14 December 2017. On that day, both she and Golding were re-arrested in Belfast. A small "Free speech for Jayda" demonstration took place outside the courts.


title: Britain First

text: On 19 June 2017, a van was driven into pedestrians in Finsbury Park, London, near Finsbury Park Mosque, injuring at least eight people. On 23 January 2018, it was alleged that the perpetrator of the Finsbury Park attack, Darren Osborne, had had contact with far-right groups including Britain First. After the London Bridge attack on 3 June, he made several searches on Google for Britain First leader Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen, as well as Tommy Robinson, one of the EDL's founders. He also received a direct Twitter message from Fransen.


title: Britain First

text: In March 2018, Facebook removed the accounts of Golding, Fransen and Britain First, on the grounds that they had repeatedly violated its community standards. Facebook said that the group had "repeatedly posted content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups, which disqualifies the pages from our services". Part of Facebook's community guidelines includes a ban on homophobic and transphobic hate speech, of which Britain First's page was accused of having "lashed out at LGBT equality, attacking [a] reality dating show for featuring a lesbian couple last year and repeatedly lashing out at transgender rights" in an article by PinkNews in March 2018. At the time, more than two million people had "liked" the group's Facebook page. The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, both welcomed the move. The group was also banned from setting up an official Facebook page in the future. Matthew Collins, head of research for the anti-fascist group Hope not Hate, suggested in "The Guardian" that the ban, combined with the imprisonment of the party's leaders, has the potential to lead to the collapse of Britain First, which has depended heavily on online activism.


title: Britain First

text: In July 2018, the documentary programme "Dispatches" reported that prior to being taken down, Britain First's Facebook page had been one of several far-right pages specially protected by Facebook. According to a moderator, the page was protected because its popularity provided Facebook with a lot of advertising revenue. Britain First's page had broken Facebook's rules more than the number of times that would normally lead to the page being banned from the site. Facebook disputed that it shielded pages based on popularity.


title: Britain First

text: On 16 June 2016, Jo Cox MP was fatally shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, by a man who eyewitnesses said shouted "Britain first" as he carried out the attack. One witness told "BBC News" that he was uncertain whether the suspect was shouting "Britain first" or "put Britain first". Another man said that he did not hear the words at all. The party issued a statement denying any involvement or encouragement in the attack and suggested that the phrase "could have been a slogan rather than a reference to our party". The group's leader, Paul Golding, condemned the attack, saying, "We hope that this person who carried it out is strung up by the neck on the nearest lamp post. That's the way we view justice."


title: Britain First

text: Following this, the far-right organisation National Action (which lauded Cox's murderer) became the first far-right group to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016. In November, several months after Cox's murder, the Labour MP Louise Haigh said that the House of Commons should open a debate on the issue of Britain First's proscription, saying to "The Independent" that "the threat and violence of the extremist political right is of serious concern", adding that "we need a full and frank debate in this country about how such hate-filled, violent extreme right organisations are threatening and undermining the values we hold dear". Following this debate, Haigh received a number of death threats, saying that on one day "an individual went through every one of my YouTube videos and said he would not rest until I was murdered. If that is not evidence that Britain First should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, I am not sure what is".


title: Britain First

text: In July 2019, the Electoral Commission announced that Britain First had been fined £44,200 following an investigation that identified a series of offences against electoral registration regulations, including failing to keep accurate financial records of transactions in 2016, failing to file any quarterly donation reports in 2016 (with £200,000 of undeclared donations), not having its 2016 accounts professionally audited and failing to provide information sought by the commission.


title: Christian state

text: A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church (also called an established church), which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government.


title: Christian state

text: Historically, the nations of Aksum, Armenia, Ethiopia, Makuria, Holy Roman Empire, as well as the Roman Empire and its continuation, the Byzantine Empire declared themselves as Christian states.


title: Christian state

text: Today, several nations officially identify themselves as Christian states or have state churches. These countries include Argentina, Armenia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Denmark (incl. Greenland), England, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Samoa, Serbia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vatican City, and Zambia. A Christian state stands in contrast to a secular state, an atheist state, or another religious state, such as a Jewish state, or an Islamic state.


title: Christian state

text: By 200 AD, the Arameans established the first church in the world. The Armenian Orthodox church puts its founding at 301, with the conversion of Tiridates and declaration of Christianity as the official state religion, although the date is disputed. In 380, three Roman emperors issued the Edict of Thessalonica ("Cunctos populos"), making the Roman Empire a Christian state, and establishing Nicene Christianity, in the form of its State Church, as its official religion.


title: Christian state

text: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, the Eastern Roman Empire under the emperor Justinian (reigned 527–565), became the world's predominant Christian state, based on Roman law, Greek culture, and the Greek language." In this Christian state, in which nearly all of its subjects upheld faith in Jesus, an "enormous amount of artistic talent was poured into the construction of churches, church ceremonies, and church decoration". John Binns describes this era, writing that:


title: Christian state

text: As a Christian state, Armenia "embraced Christianity as the religion of the King, the nobles, and the people". In 326, according to official tradition of the Georgian Orthodox Church, following the conversion of Mirian and Nana, the country of Georgia became a Christian state, the Emperor Constantine the Great sending clerics for baptising people. In the 4th century, in the Kingdom of Aksum, after Ezana's conversion to the faith, this empire also became a Christian state.


title: Christian state

text: In the Middle Ages, efforts were made in order to establish a Pan-Christianity state by uniting the countries within Christendom. Christian nationalism played a role in this era in which Christians felt the impulse to also recover those territories in which Christianity historically flourished, such as the Holy Land and North Africa.


title: Christian state

text: The First Great Awakening, American Revolution, and Second Great Awakening caused two rounds of disestablishment among the states of the new United States, from 1776 to 1833.


title: Christian state

text: Article 2 of the Constitution of Argentina explicitly states that "the Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith" and Article 14 guarantees freedom of religion. Although it enforces neither an official nor a state faith, it gives Catholic Christianity a preferential status. Before its 1994 amendment, the Constitution stated that the President of the Republic must be a Roman Catholic.


title: Christian state

text: In Armenia Christianity is the state religion and the Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church. Armenia is the earliest Christian state.


title: Christian state

text: The constitution of Costa Rica states that "The Catholic and Apostolic Religion is the religion of the State". As such, Catholic Christian holy days are recognized by the government and "public schools provide religious education", although parents are able to opt-out their children if they choose to do so.


title: Christian state

text: As early as the 11th century AD, "Denmark was considered to be a Christian state", with the Church of Denmark, a member of the Lutheran World Federation, being the state church. Prof. Wasif Shadid, of Leiden University, writes that:


title: Christian state

text: 82.1% of the population of Denmark are members of the Lutheran Church of Denmark, which is "officially headed by the queen of Denmark". Furthermore, clergy "in the Church of Denmark are civil servants employed by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs" and the "economic base of the Church of Denmark is state-collected church taxes combined with a direct state subsidiary (12%), which symbolically covers the expenses of the Church of Denmark to run the civil registration and the burial system for all citizens."


title: Christian state

text: Barbara Yorke writes that the "Carolingian Renaissance heightened appreciation within England of the role of king and church in a Christian state." As such,


title: Christian state

text: Christian religious education is taught to children in primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom. English schools have a legal requirement for a daily act of collective worship "of a broadly Christian character" that is widely flouted.


title: Christian state

text: Georgia is one of the oldest Christian states. Article 8 of Georgian Constitution and the Concordat of 2002 grants the Georgian Orthodox Church special privileges, which include legal immunity to the Patriarch of Georgia. The Orthodox Church is the most trusted institution in the country and its head, Patriarch Ilia II, the most trusted person.


title: Christian state

text: Greece is a Christian state, with the Greek Orthodox Church playing "a dominant role in the life of the country".


title: Christian state

text: Being an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark, the Church of Denmark is the established church of Greenland through the Constitution of Denmark:


title: Christian state

text: This applies to all of the Kingdom of Denmark, except for the Faroe Islands, as the Church of the Faroe Islands became independent in 2007.


title: Christian state

text: The preamble to the Hungarian Constitution of 2011 describes Hungary as "part of Christian Europe" and acknowledges "the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood", while Article VII provides that "the State shall cooperate with the Churches for community goals". However, the constitution also guarantees freedom of religion and separation of church and state.


title: Christian state

text: All public schools have mandatory education in Christianity, although an exemption may be considered by the Minister of Education.


title: Christian state

text: Liechtenstein's constitution designates the Catholic Church as being the state Church of that country. In public schools, per article 16 of the Constitution of Liechtenstein, religious education is given by Church authorities.


title: Christian state

text: Section Two of the Constitution of Malta specifies the state's religion as being the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion. It holds that the "authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty to teach which principles are right and which are wrong" and that "religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith shall be provided in all State schools as part of compulsory education".


title: Christian state

text: Article 9 of the Constitution of Monaco describes " [the catholic, apostolic and Roman religion]" as the religion of the state.


title: Christian state

text: Cole Durham and Tore Sam Lindholm, writing in 2013, stated that "For a period of one thousand years Norway has been a kingdom with a Christian "state church"" and that a decree went out in 1739 ordering that "Elementary schooling for all Norwegian children became mandatory, so that all Norwegians should be able to read the Bible and the Lutheran Catechism firsthand." The modern Constitution of Norway stipulates that "The Church of Norway, an Evangelical-Lutheran church, will remain the Established Church of Norway and will as such be supported by the State." As such, the "Norwegian constitution decrees that Lutheranism is the official religion of the State and that the King is the supreme temporal head of the Church." The administration of the Church "is shared between the Ministry for Church, Education and Research centrally and municipal authorities locally", and the Church of Norway "depends on state and local taxes". The Church of Norway is responsible for the "maintenance of church buildings and cemeteries". In the mid-20th century, the vast majority of Norwegians participated in the Lutheran Church. According to a 1957 description, "[o]ver 90 percent of the population are married by state church clergymen, have their children baptized and confirmed, and finally are buried with a church service." However, current membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway is much lower, standing at 65% of the population in 2021.


title: Christian state

text: Samoa became a Christian state in 2017. Article 1 of the Samoan Constitution states that “Samoa is a Christian nation founded of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.


title: Christian state

text: Serbia as a territory became a Christian state during the time of Constantine the Great in Christianization of Eastern Roman Empire, according to the research and discoveries of artifacts left by the Illyrians, Triballi and other kindred tribes. More research has since been made that perhaps prove the existence of Serbs living in the Balkans during Roman times in Ilyria. In the centuries that followed from the fourth- to the 12th-century, when Catholic Church was in a battleground between Serbia due the Eastern Orthodox Church, Serbia prevailed as Orthodox Christian state under his jurisdiction through Saint Sava.


title: Christian state

text: Serbia as modern state, defines in his constitution as a secular state with guaranteed religious freedom. However, orthodox Christians with 6,079,396 comprise 84.5% of country's population. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country, adherents of which are overwhelmingly Serbs. And the church directly or indirectly has both cultural influence on the decisions and positions of the state.


title: Christian state

text: Tonga became a Christian state under George Tupou I in the 19th century, with the Free Wesleyan Church, a member of the World Methodist Council, being established as the country's state Church. Under the rule of George Tupou I, there was established a "rigorous constitutional clause regulating observation of the Sabbath".


title: Christian state

text: The Church of Tuvalu, a Calvinist church in the Congregationalist tradition, is the state church of Tuvalu and was established as such in 1991. The Constitution of Tuvalu identifies Tuvalu as "an independent State based on Christian principles".


title: Christian state

text: Vatican City is a Christian state, in which the "Pope is "ex officio" simultaneously leader of the Catholic Church as well as Head of State and Head of the Government of the State of the Vatican City; he also possesses () absolute authority over the legislative, executive and judicial branches."


title: Christian state

text: After "Zambia declared itself a Christian nation in 1991", "the nation's vice president urged citizens to 'have a Christian orientation in all fields, at all levels'."


title: Christian state

text: A number of countries have a national church which is not established (as the official religion of the nation), but is nonetheless recognised under civil law as being the country's acknowledged religious denomination. Whilst these are not Christian states, the official Christian national church is likely to have certain residual state functions in relation to state occasions and ceremonial. Examples include Scotland (Church of Scotland) and Sweden (Church of Sweden). A national church typically has a monopoly on official state recognition, although unusually Finland has two national churches (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Finnish Orthodox Church), both recognised under civil law as joint official churches of the nation.


title: Truly Madly Deeply

text: "Truly Madly Deeply" is a song by Australian pop duo Savage Garden, released in March 1997 as the third single from their self-titled debut album (1997) by Roadshow and Warner Music. It won the 1997 ARIA Music Award for both Single of the Year and Highest Selling Single, and was nominated for Song of the Year. Written by bandmates Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, the song is a reworking of a song called "Magical Kisses" that the pair wrote together during the recording of their debut album.


title: Truly Madly Deeply

text: The song reached 1 in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Two music videos were filmed for the track: one for its original Australian release and another for the international market shot in Paris. In November 2019, the song was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's selection of recordings. The songs added to the list provide a snapshot of Australian life and have "cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance".


title: Truly Madly Deeply

text: Having got their breakthrough with the single "I Want You", Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones were sent to Sydney for eight months to record material for a debut album. For Hayes, it was his first time in life being away from his family and his native Brisbane. The longing for his family and his then-wife pushed him towards writing a song that would express those feelings. "Truly Madly Deeply" is written in the key of C major.


title: Truly Madly Deeply

text: The chorus of "Truly Madly Deeply" was discussed until the last moment. Jones had doubts over the chorus they had come up with, which he felt did not fit with the rest of the song or Savage Garden's other material. During his evening meal he came up with the new chorus of "I want to stand with you on a mountain, I want to bathe with you in the sea, I want to lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me."