title: Gerrymandering

text: Gerrymandering used to be prominent in Canadian politics, but is no longer prominent, after independent electoral boundary redistribution commissions were established in all provinces. Early in Canadian history, both the federal and provincial levels used gerrymandering to try to maximize partisan power. When Alberta and Saskatchewan were admitted to Confederation in 1905, their original district boundaries were set forth in the respective Alberta and Saskatchewan Acts. Federal Liberal cabinet members devised the boundaries to ensure the election of provincial Liberal governments. British Columbia used a combination of single-member and dual-member constituencies to solidify the power of the centre-right British Columbia Social Credit Party until 1991.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Since responsibility for drawing federal and provincial electoral boundaries was handed over to independent agencies, the problem has largely been eliminated at those levels of government. Manitoba was the first province to authorize a non-partisan group to define constituency boundaries in the 1950s. In 1964, the federal government delegated the drawing of boundaries for federal electoral districts to the non-partisan agency Elections Canada which answers to Parliament rather than the government of the day.


title: Gerrymandering

text: As a result, gerrymandering is not generally a major issue in Canada except at the civic level. Although city wards are recommended by independent agencies, city councils occasionally overrule them. That is much more likely if the city is not homogenous and different neighborhoods have sharply different opinions about city policy direction.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In 2006, a controversy arose in Prince Edward Island over the provincial government's decision to throw out an electoral map drawn by an independent commission. Instead, they created two new maps. The government adopted the second of them, which was designed by the caucus of the governing Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island. Opposition parties and the media attacked Premier Pat Binns for what they saw as gerrymandering of districts. Among other things, the government adopted a map that ensured that every current Member of the Legislative Assembly from the premier's party had a district to run in for re-election, but in the original map, several had been redistricted. However, in the 2007 provincial election only seven of 20 incumbent Members of the Legislative Assembly were re-elected (seven did not run for re-election), and the government was defeated.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The military government which ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990 was ousted in a national plebiscite in October 1988. Opponents of General Augusto Pinochet voted NO to remove him from power and to trigger democratic elections, while supporters (mostly from the right-wing) voted YES to keep him in office for another eight years.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Five months prior to the plebiscite, the regime published a law regulating future elections and referendums, but the configuration of electoral districts and the manner in which National Congress seats would be awarded were only added to the law seven months after the referendum.


title: Gerrymandering

text: For the Chamber of Deputies (lower house), 60 districts were drawn by grouping (mostly) neighboring communes (the smallest administrative subdivision in the country) within the same region (the largest). It was established that two deputies would be elected per district, with the most voted coalition needing to outpoll its closest rival by a margin of more than 2-to-1 to take both seats. The results of the 1988 plebiscite show that neither the "NO" side nor the "YES" side outpolled the other by said margin in any of the newly established districts. They also showed that the vote/seat ratio was lower in districts which supported the "YES" side and higher in those where the "NO" was strongest. In spite of this, at the 1989 parliamentary election, the center-left opposition was able to capture both seats (the so-called "doblaje") in twelve out of 60 districts, winning control of 60% of the Chamber.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Senate constituencies were created by grouping all lower-chamber districts in a region, or by dividing a region into two constituencies of contiguous lower-chamber districts. The 1980 Constitution allocated a number of seats to appointed senators, making it harder for one side to change the Constitution by itself. The opposition won 22 senate seats in the 1989 election, taking both seats in three out of 19 constituencies, controlling 58% of the elected Senate, but only 47% of the full Senate. The unelected senators were eliminated in the 2005 constitutional reforms, but the electoral map has remained largely untouched (two new regions were created in 2007, one of which altered the composition of two senatorial constituencies; the first election to be affected by this minor change took place in 2013).


title: Gerrymandering

text: During the process of declaration and recognition of independence of Croatia the administrative divisions of the country was reorganized into 20 newly established counties and the city of Zagreb. All of the counties had Croat ethnic majority and were in part established as an gerrymandering effort to delegitimize Republic of Serbian Krajina secession as well as any regionalist requests in the historic provinces of Istria and Dalmatia while at the same time strengthening dominant-party's control over the Chamber of Counties. Following the end of the Croatian War of Independence and during the UNTAES administration in Eastern Slavonia Serb political leader Vojislav Stanimirović accused Croatian authorities of intentional division of the Serb community in the region into Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem County with an aim to dilute their political initiatives.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Croatian Parliament electoral districts were also described as a form of gerrymandering preventing genuine political competition with each district selecting the same number of MPs while districts' population varied over the legally permitted ±5 percent. In 2010 Constitutional Court of Croatia stated in a report that population discrepancies among electoral districts is higher than ±5 percent and that districts' borders should be redrawn to address the concern. 2021 Croatian census indicated even further differences in population with the difference in needed number of votes in the smallest (Electoral district IV) and the largest (Electoral district VII) district for a single parliamentary mandate being 10,5 thousands votes. In October 2022 President of the Constitutional Court of Croatia Miroslav Šeparović warned that this situation may jeopardise constitutionality of the following elections in Croatia.


title: Gerrymandering

text: France is one of the few countries to let legislatures redraw the map with no check. In practice, the Parliament of France sets up an executive commission. Districts called "arrondissements" were used in the Third Republic and under the Fifth Republic they are called "circonscriptions". During the Third Republic, some reforms of arrondissements, which were also used for administrative purposes, were largely suspected to have been arranged to favor the kingmaker in the National Assembly, the Radical Party.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The dissolution of Seine and Seine-et-Oise départements by de Gaulle was seen as a case of Gerrymandering to counter communist influence around Paris.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In the modern regime, there were three designs: in 1958 (regime change), 1987 (by Charles Pasqua) and 2010 (by Alain Marleix), three times by conservative governments. Pasqua's drawing was known to have been particularly good at gerrymandering, resulting in 80% of the seats with 58% of the vote in 1993, and forcing Socialists in the 1997 snap election to enact multiple pacts with smaller parties in order to win again, this time as a coalition. In 2010, the Sarkozy government created 12 districts for expats.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The Constitutional council was called twice by the opposition to decide about gerrymandering, but it never considered partisan disproportions. However, it forced the Marleix committee to respect an 80–120% population ratio, ending a tradition dating back to the Revolution in which "départements", however small in population, would send at least two MPs.


title: Gerrymandering

text: When the electoral districts in Germany were redrawn in 2000, the ruling center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) was accused of gerrymandering to marginalize the left-wing Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The SPD combined traditional PDS strongholds in the former East Berlin with new districts made up of more populous areas of the former West Berlin, where the PDS had very limited following.


title: Gerrymandering

text: After having won four seats in Berlin in the 1998 national election, the PDS was able to retain only two seats altogether in the 2002 elections. Under German electoral law, a political party has to win either more than five percent of the votes or at least three directly elected seats, to qualify for top-up seats under the Additional Member System. The PDS vote fell below five percent thus they failed to qualify for top-up seats and were confined to just two members of the Bundestag, the German federal parliament (elected representatives are always allowed to hold their seats as individuals). Had they won a third constituency, the PDS would have gained at least 25 additional seats, which would have been enough to hold the balance of power in the Bundestag.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In the election of 2005, The Left (successor of the PDS) gained 8.7% of the votes and thus qualified for top-up seats.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The number of Bundestag seats of parties which previously got over 5% of the votes cannot be affected very much by gerrymandering, because seats are awarded to these parties on a proportional basis. However, when a party wins so many districts in any one of the 16 federal states that those seats alone count for more than its proportional share of the vote in that same state does the districting have some influence on larger parties—those extra seats, called "Überhangmandate", remain. In the Bundestag election of 2009, Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU gained 24 such extra seats, while no other party gained any; this skewed the result so much that the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany issued two rulings declaring the existing election laws invalid and requiring the Bundestag to pass a new law limiting such extra seats to no more than 15. In 2013, Germany's Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of Überhangmandate, which from then on have to be added in proportion to the second vote of each party thereby making it impossible that one party can have more seats than earned by the proportionate votes in the election.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Gerrymandering has been rather common in Greek history since organized parties with national ballots only appeared after the 1926 Constitution. The only case before that was the creation of the Piraeus electoral district in 1906, in order to give the Theotokis party a safe district.


title: Gerrymandering

text: A notable case of gerrymandering in Greece was in the 1956 legislative election. While in previous elections the districts were based on the prefecture level (νομός), for 1956 the country was split in districts of varying sizes, some being the size of prefectures, some the size of sub-prefectures (επαρχία) and others somewhere in between. In small districts the winning party would take all seats, in intermediate size, it would take most and there was proportional representation in the largest districts. The districts were created in such a way that small districts were those that traditionally voted for the right while large districts were those that voted against the right.


title: Gerrymandering

text: This system has become known as the three-phase (τριφασικό) system or the baklava system (because, as baklava is split into full pieces and corner pieces, the country was also split into disproportionate pieces). The opposition, being composed of the center and the left, formed a coalition with the sole intent of changing the electoral law and then calling new elections. Even though the centrist and leftist opposition won the popular vote (1,620,007 votes against 1,594,992), the right-wing ERE won the majority of seats (165 to 135) and was to lead the country for the next two years.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In Hong Kong, functional constituencies are demarcated by the government and defined in statutes, making them prone to gerrymandering. The functional constituency for the information technology sector was particular criticized for gerrymandering and voteplanting.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In 2011, Fidesz politician János Lázár has proposed a redesign to Hungarian voting districts; considering the territorial results of previous elections, this redesign would favor right-wing politics according to the opposition. Since then, the law has been passed by the Fidesz-majority National Assembly. By the political think tanks and media close to the opposition, it took twice as many votes to gain a seat in some election districts as in some others. However, their findings are controversial. Gerrymandering was shown for 2018 election results.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Until the 1980s Dáil boundaries in Ireland were drawn not by an independent commission but by government ministers. Successive arrangements by governments of all political characters have been attacked as gerrymandering. Ireland uses the single transferable vote, and as well as the actual boundaries drawn, the main tool of gerrymandering has been the number of seats per constituency used, with three-seat constituencies normally benefiting the strongest parties in an area, whereas four-seat constituencies normally help smaller parties.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In 1947 the rapid rise of new party Clann na Poblachta threatened the position of the governing party Fianna Fáil. The government of Éamon de Valera introduced the Electoral (Amendment) Act 1947, which increased the size of the Dáil from 138 to 147 and increased the number of three-seat constituencies from fifteen to twenty-two. The result was described by the journalist and historian Tim Pat Coogan as "a blatant attempt at gerrymander which no Six County Unionist could have bettered." The following February the 1948 general election was held and Clann na Poblachta secured ten seats instead of the nineteen they would have received proportional to their vote.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In the mid-1970s, the Minister for Local Government, James Tully, attempted to arrange the constituencies to ensure that the governing Fine Gael–Labour Party National Coalition would win a parliamentary majority. The Electoral (Amendment) Act 1974 was planned as a major reversal of previous gerrymandering by Fianna Fáil (then in opposition). Tully ensured that there were as many as possible three-seat constituencies where the governing parties were strong, in the expectation that the governing parties would each win a seat in many constituencies, relegating Fianna Fáil to one out of three.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In areas where the governing parties were weak, four-seat constituencies were used so that the governing parties had a strong chance of still winning two. The election results created substantial change, as there was a larger than expected collapse in the vote. Fianna Fáil won a landslide victory in the 1977 Irish general election, two out of three seats in many cases, relegating the National Coalition parties to fight for the last seat. Consequently, the term "Tullymandering" was used to describe the phenomenon of a failed attempt at gerrymandering.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Gerrymandering in India was claimed, contributing to BJP party winning 55% of all seats with only 37% of all votes in India's lower house.


title: Gerrymandering

text: A hypothesis of gerrymandering was theorized by constituencies drawn by the electoral act of 2017, so-called Rosatellum.


title: Gerrymandering

text: From the years 1981 until 2005, Kuwait was divided into 25 electoral districts in order to over-represent the government's supporters (the 'tribes'). In July 2005, a new law for electoral reforms was approved which prevented electoral gerrymandering by cutting the number of electoral districts from 25 to 5.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The government of Kuwait found that 5 electoral districts resulted in a powerful parliament with the majority representing the opposition. A new law was crafted by the government of Kuwait and signed by the Amir to gerrymander the districts to 10 allowing the government's supporters to regain the majority.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The practice of gerrymandering has been around in the country since its independence in 1957. The ruling coalition at that time, "Barisan Nasional" (BN; English: "National Front"), has been accused of controlling the election commission by revising the boundaries of constituencies. For example, during the 13th General Election in 2013, Barisan Nasional won 60% of the seats in the Malaysian Parliament despite only receiving 47% of the popular vote. Malapportionment has also been used at least since 1974, when it was observed that in one state alone (Perak), the parliamentary constituency with the most voters had more than ten times as many voters as the one with the fewest voters. These practices finally failed BN in the 14th General Election on 9 May 2018, when the opposing "Pakatan Harapan" (PH; English: "Alliance of Hope") won despite perceived efforts of gerrymandering and malapportionment from the incumbent.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The Labour Party that won in 1981, even though the Nationalist Party got the most votes, did so because of its gerrymandering. A 1987 constitutional amendment prevented that situation from reoccurring.


title: Gerrymandering

text: After the restoration of democracy in 1990, Nepali politics has well exercised the practice of gerrymandering with the view to take advantage in the election. It was often practiced by Nepali Congress, which remained in power in most of the time. Learning from this, the reshaping of constituency was done for constituent assembly and the opposition now wins elections.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In 2015, the government rewrote the Constitution of Nepal, which included a rewriting of electoral boundaries. Parties in the southern region of Terai believe the new boundaries discriminated against marginalized groups, like the Madhesis, Tharus, and Janajatis, and that the boundaries "packed" the groups. Protesting occurred in Terai and other areas in southern Nepal, raising concern from across the country.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Congressional districts in the Philippines were originally based on an ordinance from the 1987 Constitution, which was created by the Constitutional Commission, which was ultimately based on legislative districts as they were drawn in 1907. The same constitution gave Congress of the Philippines the power to legislate new districts, either through a national redistricting bill or piecemeal redistricting per province or city. Congress has never passed a national redistricting bill since the approval of the 1987 constitution, while it has incrementally created 34 new districts, out of the 200 originally created in 1987.


title: Gerrymandering

text: This allows Congress to create new districts once a place reaches 250,000 inhabitants, the minimum required for its creation. With this, local dynasties, through congressmen, can exert influence in the district-making process by creating bills carving new districts from old ones. In time, as the population of the Philippines increases, these districts, or groups of it, will be the basis of carving new provinces out of existing ones.


title: Gerrymandering

text: An example was in Camarines Sur, where two districts were divided into three districts which allegedly favors the Andaya and the Arroyo families; it caused Rolando Andaya and Dato Arroyo, who would have otherwise run against each other, run in separate districts, with one district allegedly not even surpassing the 250,000-population minimum. The Supreme Court later ruled that the 250,000 population minimum does not apply to an additional district in a province. The resulting splits would later be the cause of another gerrymander, where the province would be split into a new province called Nueva Camarines; the bill was defeated in the Senate in 2013.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In recent decades, critics have accused the ruling People's Action Party (PAP) of unfair electoral practices to maintain significant majorities in the Parliament of Singapore. Among the complaints are that the government uses gerrymandering. The Elections Department was established as part of the executive branch under the Prime Minister of Singapore, rather than as an independent body. Critics have accused it of giving the ruling party the power to decide polling districts and polling sites through electoral engineering, based on poll results in previous elections.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Members of opposition parties claim that the Group Representation Constituency system is "synonymous to gerrymandering", pointing out examples of Cheng San GRC and Eunos GRC which were dissolved by the Elections Department with voters redistributed to other constituencies after opposition parties gained ground in elections.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The landmark 1948 general election was influenced by provisions of the Constitution granting rural areas more constituencies in Parliament than urban areas. Thus the white-supremacist National Party won a plurality against the more moderate United Party despite receiving fewer votes and implemented apartheid.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Until the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, Spain used both single-member and multi-member constituencies in general elections. Multi-member constituencies were only used in some big cities. Some gerrymandering examples included the districts of Vilademuls or Torroella de Montgrí in Catalonia. These districts were created in order to prevent the Federal Democratic Republican Party to win a seat in Figueres or La Bisbal and to secure a seat to the dynastic parties. Since 1931, the constituency boundaries match the province boundaries.


title: Gerrymandering

text: After the Francoist dictatorship, during the transition to democracy, these fixed provincial constituencies were reestablished in Section 68.2 of the current 1978 Spanish Constitution, so gerrymandering is impossible in general elections. There are not "winner-takes-all" elections in Spain except for the tiny territories of Ceuta and Melilla (which only have one representative each); everywhere else the number of representatives assigned to a constituency is proportional to its population and calculated according to a national law, so tampering with under- or over-representation is difficult too.


title: Gerrymandering

text: European, some regional and municipal elections are held under single, at-large multi-member constituencies with proportional representation and gerrymandering is not possible either.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Sri Lanka's new Local Government elections process has been the talking point of gerrymandering since its inception. Even though that talk was more about the ward-level, it is also seen in some local council areas too.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In the most recent election of 2010, there were numerous examples of gerrymandering throughout the entire country of Sudan. A report from the Rift Valley Institute uncovered violations of Sudan's electoral law, where constituencies were created that were well below and above the required limit. According to Sudan's National Elections Act of 2008, no constituency can have a population that is 15% greater or less than the average constituency size. The Rift Valley Report uncovered a number of constituencies that are in violation of this rule. Examples include constituencies in Jonglei, Warrap, South Darfur, and several other states.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Turkey has used gerrymandering in the city of Istanbul in the 2009 municipal elections. Just before the election Istanbul was divided into new districts. Large low income neighborhoods were bundled with the rich neighborhoods to win the municipal elections.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Prior to the establishment of Home Rule in Northern Ireland, the UK government had installed the single transferable vote (STV) system in Ireland to secure fair elections in terms of proportional representation in its Parliaments. After two elections under that system, in 1929 Stormont changed the electoral system to be the same as the rest of the United Kingdom: a single-member first past the post system. The only exception was for the election of four Stormont MPs to represent the Queen's University of Belfast. Some scholars believe that the boundaries were gerrymandered to under-represent Nationalists. Other geographers and historians, for instance Professor John H. Whyte, disagree. They have argued that the electoral boundaries for the Parliament of Northern Ireland were not gerrymandered to a greater level than that produced by any single-winner election system, and that the actual number of Nationalist MPs barely changed under the revised system (it went from 12 to 11 and later went back up to 12). Most observers have acknowledged that the change to a single-winner system was a key factor, however, in stifling the growth of smaller political parties, such as the Northern Ireland Labour Party and Independent Unionists. In the 1967 election, Unionists won 35.5% of the votes and received 60% of the seats, while Nationalists got 27.4% of the votes but received 40% of the seats. This meant that both the Unionist and Nationalist parties were over-represented, while the Northern Ireland Labour Party and Independents (amounting to more than 35% of the votes cast) were severely under-represented.


title: Gerrymandering

text: After Westminster reintroduced direct rule in 1973, it restored the single transferable vote (STV) for elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the following year, using the same definitions of constituencies as for the Westminster Parliament. Currently, in Northern Ireland, all elections use STV except those for positions in the Westminster Parliament, which follow the pattern in the rest of the United Kingdom by using "first past the post."


title: Gerrymandering

text: Gerrymandering (Irish: "Claonroinnt") in local elections was introduced in 1923 by the Leech Commission. This was a one-man commission: Sir John Leech, K.C. was appointed by Dawson Bates, Northern Ireland's Minister of Home Affairs, to redraw Northern Ireland's local government electoral boundaries. Leech was also chairman of the Advisory Committee who recommended the release or continued detention of the persons that the Northern Irish government was interning without trial at that time. Leech's changes (gerrymandered electoral boundaries, abolishing proportional representation), together with a resultant boycott by the Irish Nationalist community, resulted in Unionists gaining control of Londonderry County Borough Council, Fermanagh and Tyrone County Councils, and retaking eight rural district councils. These county councils, and most of the district councils, remained under Unionist control despite the majority of their population being Catholic until the U.K. government imposed Direct Rule in 1972.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Leech's new electoral boundaries for the 1924 Londonderry County Borough Council election reduced the number of wards from four to three, only one of which had a Nationalist majority. This resulted in election of a Unionist council in every election, until the County Borough Council's replacement in 1969 by the unelected Londonderry Development Commission, in a city where Nationalists had a large majority and had won previous elections.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Some critics and supporters spoke at the time of "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People". This passed also into local government, where supporters of the elected majorities were given jobs and appointments. Stephen Gwynn noted as early as 1911 that since the introduction of the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898:


title: Gerrymandering

text: In Armagh there are 68,000 Protestants, 56,000 Catholics. The County Council has twenty-two Protestants and eight Catholics. In Tyrone, Catholics are a majority of the population, 82,000 against 68,000; but the electoral districts have been so arranged that Unionists return sixteen as against thirteen Nationalists (one a Protestant). This Council gives to the Unionists two to one majority on its Committees, and out of fifty-two officials employs only five Catholics. In Antrim, which has the largest Protestant majority (196,000 to 40,000), twenty-six Unionists and three Catholics are returned. Sixty officers out of sixty-five are good Unionists and Protestants.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Initially Leech drew the boundaries, but from the 1920s to the 1940s the province-wide government redrew them to reinforce the gerrymander.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The number of electors in a United Kingdom constituency can vary considerably, with the smallest constituency as of 2017 (Scotland's Na h-Eileanan an Iar (21,769 constituents) and Orkney and Shetland (34,552)) having fewer than a fifth of the electors of the largest (England's North West Cambridgeshire (93,223) and Isle of Wight (110,697)). This variation has resulted from:


title: Gerrymandering

text: Under the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Coalition government planned to review and redraw the parliamentary constituency boundaries for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The review and redistricting was to be carried out by the four UK boundary commissions to produce a reduction from 650 to 600 seats, and more uniform sizes, such that a constituency was to have no fewer than 70,583 and no more than 80,473 electors. The process was intended to address historic malapportionment and be complete by 2015. Preliminary reports suggesting the areas set to lose the fewest seats historically tended to vote Conservative, while other less populous and deindustrialized regions, such as Wales, which would lose a larger proportion of its seats, tending to have more Labour and Liberal Democrat voters, partially correcting the existing malapportionment. In January 2013, an opposition (Labour) motion to suspend the review until after the next general election was tabled in the House of Lords and a vote called in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The motion was passed with the help of the Liberal Democrats, going back on an election pledge. , a new review is in progress and a draft of the new boundaries has been published.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The United States, among the first countries with an elected representative government, was the source of the term "gerrymander" as stated above.


title: Gerrymandering

text: The practice of gerrymandering the borders of new states continued past the American Civil War and into the late 19th century. The Republican Party used its control of Congress to secure the admission of more states in territories friendly to their party—the admission of Dakota Territory as two states instead of one being a notable example. By the rules for representation in the Electoral College, each new state carried at least three electoral votes regardless of its population.


title: Gerrymandering

text: All redistricting in the United States has been contentious because it has been controlled by political parties vying for power. As a consequence of the decennial census required by the United States Constitution, districts for members of the House of Representatives typically need to be redrawn whenever the number of members in a state changes. In many states, state legislatures redraw boundaries for state legislative districts at the same time.


title: Gerrymandering

text: State legislatures have used gerrymandering along racial lines both to decrease and increase minority representation in state governments and congressional delegations. In Ohio, a conversation between Republican officials was recorded that demonstrated that redistricting was being done to aid their political candidates. Furthermore, the discussions assessed the race of voters as a factor in redistricting, on the premise that African-Americans tend to back Democratic Party candidates. Republicans removed approximately 13,000 African-American voters from the district of Jim Raussen, a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, in an apparent attempt to tip the scales in what was once a competitive district for Democratic candidates.


title: Gerrymandering

text: With the Civil Rights Movement and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, federal enforcement and protections of suffrage for all citizens were enacted. Gerrymandering for the purpose of reducing the political influence of a racial or ethnic minority group was prohibited. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, some states created "majority-minority" districts to enhance minority voting strength. This practice, also called "affirmative gerrymandering", was supposed to redress historic discrimination and ensure that ethnic minorities would gain some seats and representation in government. In some states, bipartisan gerrymandering is the norm. State legislators from both parties sometimes agree to draw congressional district boundaries in a way that ensures the re-election of most or all incumbent representatives from both parties.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Rather than allowing more political influence, some states have shifted redistricting authority from politicians and given it to non-partisan redistricting commissions. The states of Washington, Arizona, and California have created standing committees for redistricting following the 2010 census. It has been argued however that in California's case, gerrymandering still continued despite this change. Rhode Island and New Jersey have developed "ad hoc" committees, but developed the past two decennial reapportionments tied to new census data. Florida's amendments 5 and 6, meanwhile, established rules for the creation of districts but did not mandate an independent commission.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Michigan voters in 2018 approved a proposal to create an independent commission to draw new congressional maps following the 2020 United States Census, thereby removing the responsibility from the state legislature. Additionally, Ohio voters in 2018 modified their existing redistricting statutes to have a commission draw new maps. However, the ability of the state legislature to draw congressional maps remained, and this proposes the risk of gerrymandering. Other states that have implemented commissions in the 2018 midterm cycle include Colorado.


title: Gerrymandering

text: International election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, who were invited to observe and report on the 2004 national elections, expressed criticism of the U.S. congressional redistricting process and made a recommendation that the procedures be reviewed to ensure genuine competitiveness of Congressional election contests.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In 2015, an analyst reported that the two major parties differ in the way they redraw districts. The Democrats construct coalition districts of liberals and minorities together with conservatives which results in Democratic-leaning districts. The Republicans tend to place liberals all together in a district, conservatives in others, creating clear partisan districts.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In June 2019, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Lamone v. Benisek" and "Rucho v. Common Cause" that federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear challenges over partisan gerrymandering.


title: Gerrymandering

text: Prior to the 26 September 2010 legislative elections, gerrymandering took place via an addendum to the electoral law by the National Assembly of Venezuela. In the subsequent election, Hugo Chávez's political party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela drew 48% of the votes overall, while the opposition parties (the Democratic Unity Roundtable and the Fatherland for All parties) collectively drew 52% of the votes. However, due to the re-allocation of electoral legislative districts prior to the election, Chávez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela was awarded over 60% of the spots in the National Assembly (98 deputies), while 67 deputies were elected for the two opposition parties combined.


title: Gerrymandering

text: In a play on words, the use of race-conscious procedures in jury selection has been termed "jurymandering".


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (28 December 1932 – 6 July 2002), popularly known as Dhirubhai Ambani, was an Indian business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries. Ambani took Reliance public in 1977 and was worth US$2.9 billion in 2002 upon his death. In 2016, he was honoured posthumously with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour for his contributions to trade and industry.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Dhirubhai Ambani was one of the sons of Hirachand Gordhanbhai Ambani, a village school teacher belonging to the Modh vaniya (Baniya) community and Jamnaben Ambani and was born in Chorwad, Malia Taluka, Junagadh district, Gujarat on 28 December 1932. He did his studies from Bahadur Khanji school.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Ambani returned to India and started "Majin" in partnership with Champaklal Damani, his second cousin, who lived with him in Yemen. Majin was to import polyester yarn and export spices to Yemen.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: The first office of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at the Narsinatha Street in Masjid Bunder. It was a room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially, they had two assistants to help them with their business.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: During this period, Ambani and his family stayed in a two-bedroom apartment at the Jai Hind Estate in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai. In 1965, Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Ambani started on his own. It is believed that both had different temperaments and different takes on how to conduct business. While Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Ambani was a known risk-taker and believed in building inventories to increase profit. In 1966 he formed Reliance Commercial Corporation which later became Reliance Industries on 8 May 1973.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: He launched the brand Vimal during this time which sold polyester materials for saris, shawls, suits, and dresses.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Extensive marketing of the brand in the interiors of India made it a household name. Franchise retail outlets were started and they sold the "Only Vimal" brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a technical team from the World Bank visited the 'Reliance Textiles' Manufacturing unit.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: In 1988, Reliance Industries came up against a rights issue regarding partly convertible debentures. It was rumoured that the company was making all efforts to ensure that their stock prices did not slide an inch. Sensing an opportunity, The Bear Cartel, a group of stock brokers from Calcutta, started to short sell the shares of Reliance. To counter this, a group of stock brokers until recently referred to as "Friends of Reliance" started to buy the short sold shares of Reliance Industries on the Bombay Stock Exchange.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: The Bear Cartel was acting on the belief that the Bulls would be short of cash to complete the transactions and would be ready for settlement under the "Badla" trading system operative in the Bombay Stock Exchange. The bulls kept buying and a price of 152 per share was maintained until the day of settlement. On the day of settlement, the Bear Cartel was taken aback when the Bulls demanded a physical delivery of shares. To complete the transaction, much money was provided to the stock brokers who had bought shares of Reliance, by Dhirubhai Ambani. In the case of non-settlement, the Bulls demanded an "Unbadla", or penalty sum, of 35 per share. With this, the demand increased and the shares of Reliance shot above 180 in minutes. The settlement caused an enormous uproar in the market.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: To find a solution to this situation, the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed for three business days. Authorities from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) intervened in the matter and brought down the "Unbadla" rate to 2 with a stipulation that the Bear Cartel had to deliver the shares within the next few days. The Bear Cartel bought shares of Reliance from the market at higher price levels and it was also learnt that Dhirubhai Ambani himself supplied those shares to the Bear Cartel and earned a healthy profit out of The Bear Cartel's adventure.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: After this incident, many questions were raised by his detractors and the press. Not many people were able to understand how a yarn trader until a few years ago was able to get in such a huge amount of cash flow during a crisis period. The answer to this was provided by the then finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee in the Parliament. He informed the house that a Non-Resident Indian had invested up to 220 million in Reliance during 1982–83. These investments were routed through many companies like Crocodile, Lota and Fiasco. These companies were primarily registered in Isle of Man. All the promoters or owners of these companies had a common surname Shah. An investigation by the Reserve Bank of India in the incident did not find any unethical or illegal acts or transactions committed by Reliance or its promoters.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Ambani was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on 24 June 2002 after he suffered a major stroke. It was his second stroke, the first had occurred in February 1986 and had paralyzed his right hand. He was in a coma for more than a week and a number of doctors were consulted. He died on 6 July 2002.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: Following his first stroke in 1986, Ambani handed over control of Reliance to his sons, Mukesh and Anil. In November 2004, Mukesh in an interview admitted to having differences with Anil over ownership issues. He also said that the differences "are in the private domain".


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani, the group was split into Reliance Industries Limited headed by Mukesh, and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group headed by Anil. So finally Mukesh Ambani was elected as the CEO and Anil Ambani was elected as the chairperson.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: As of 2017, the company has more than 250,000 employees. In 2012, Reliance Industries was one of the two Indian companies to be ranked among the top 100 in the Fortune 500 list of the world's largest companies by revenue.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: In 1988 an unauthorized biography of Dhirubhai Ambani, by Hamish McDonald with the title "The Polyester Prince", outlined all his political and business conquests. The book was not published in India because the Ambanis threatened legal action; an updated version went on sale under the title "Ambani and Sons" in 2010, and there has been no action against the publisher so far.


title: Dhirubhai Ambani

text: A Hindi film said to be inspired by the life of Dhirubhai Ambani was released on 12 January 2007. "Guru", directed by filmmaker Mani Ratnam, cinematography by Rajiv Menon and music by A.R. Rahman shows the struggle of a man striving to make his mark in the Indian business world with a fictional Shakti Group of Industries.


title: F

text: F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is "ef" (pronounced ), and the plural is "efs".


title: F

text: The origin of 'F' is the Semitic letter "waw" that represented a sound like or . Graphically it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club. It may have been based on a comparable Egyptian hieroglyph such as (transliterated as ḥ(dj)): T3


title: F

text: The Phoenician form of the letter was adopted into Greek as a vowel, "upsilon" (which resembled its descendant 'Y' but was also the ancestor of the Roman letters 'U', 'V', and 'W'); and, with another form, as a consonant, "digamma", which indicated the pronunciation , as in Phoenician. Latin 'F,' despite being pronounced differently, is ultimately descended from digamma and closely resembles it in form.


title: F

text: After sound changes eliminated from spoken Greek, "digamma" was used only as a numeral. However, the Greek alphabet also gave rise to other alphabets, and some of these retained letters descended from digamma. In the Etruscan alphabet, 'F' probably represented , as in Greek, and the Etruscans formed the digraph 'FH' to represent . (At the time these letters were borrowed, there was no Greek letter that represented /f/: the Greek letter phi 'Φ' then represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive , although in Modern Greek it has come to represent .) When the Romans adopted the alphabet, they used 'V' (from Greek "upsilon") not only for the vowel , but also for the corresponding semivowel , leaving 'F' available for . And so out of the various "vav" variants in the Mediterranean world, the letter F entered the Roman alphabet attached to a sound which the Greeks did not have. The Roman alphabet forms the basis of the alphabet used today for English and many other languages.


title: F

text: The lowercase 'f' is not related to the visually similar long s, 'ſ' (or medial s). The use of the "long s" largely died out by the beginning of the 19th century, mostly to prevent confusion with 'f' when using a short mid-bar.


title: F

text: In the English writing system is used to represent the sound , the voiceless labiodental fricative. It is often doubled at the end of words. Exceptionally, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative in the common word "of". F is the eleventh least frequently used letter in the English language (after G, Y, P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, and Z), with a frequency of about 2.23% in words.


title: F

text: A bold italic letter is used in musical notation as a dynamic indicator for "loud or strong". It stands for the Italian word "forte".


title: F

text: In countries such as the United States, the letter "F" is defined as a failure in terms of academic evaluation. Other countries that use this system include Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and the Netherlands.


title: F

text: In the hexadecimal number system, the letter "F" or "f" is used to represent the hexadecimal digit fifteen (equivalent to 15).


title: F

text: The letter F has become an Internet meme, where it is used to pay respects. This use is derived from the 2014 video game "", where in a quick-time event protagonist Jack Mitchell must pay his respects to his friend Will Irons who fell in combat in a previous mission, represented by the player pressing F when playing the PC version. People on the Internet use the letter F usually in a genuine way to express respects, sadness or condolences towards other Internet personalities, Internet memes or other players on certain events, such as death, misfortune or the end of a phenomenon, company, game, series, etc.


title: F

text: In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, F is a number that corresponds to the number 15 in decimal (base 10) counting.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of people who live near the Mediterranean Sea. When initially formulated in the 1960s, it drew on the cuisines of Greece, Italy, France and Spain. In decades since, it has also incorporated other Mediterranean cuisines, such as those in Turkey, the Balkans, Lebanon, Syria, North Africa and Portugal.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of unprocessed cereals, legumes, olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, and moderate consumption of fish, dairy products (mostly cheese and yogurt), and meat products. Olive oil has been studied as a potential health factor for reducing all-cause mortality and the risk of chronic diseases.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality in observational studies. There is evidence that the Mediterranean diet lowers the risk of heart disease and early death. The American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association recommend the Mediterranean diet as a healthy dietary pattern that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes, respectively. The Mediterranean diet may help with weight loss in obese people. The Mediterranean diet is one of three healthy diets recommended in the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, along with the DASH diet and vegetarian diet. The Mediterranean and DASH diets are two of the main sources for the MIND diet recommendations.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The Mediterranean diet as a nutritional recommendation is different from the cultural practices that UNESCO listed in 2010 under the heading "Mediterranean diet" on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: "a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food", not as a particular set of foods. (See Mediterranean cuisine.) Its sponsors include Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: A 2017 review found evidence that practice of a Mediterranean diet could lead to a decreased risk of cardiovascular diseases, overall cancer incidence, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and early death. A 2018 review showed that practice of the Mediterranean diet may improve overall health status, such as reduced risk of non-communicable diseases, reduced total costs of living, and reduced costs for national healthcare. A 2016 review found similar weight loss as other diets. A 2019 Cochrane review found that there is still uncertainty regarding the effects of Mediterranean‐style diet advice on cardiovascular disease occurrence and risk factors in people both with and without cardiovascular disease already.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The US 2015–2020 national guidelines devised a "Healthy Mediterranean-Style Eating Pattern", assessed against and mirroring the Mediterranean diet patterns and its positive health outcomes. It was designed from the "Healthy U.S.-Style Eating Pattern", but it contains more fruits and seafood, and less dairy. In the 2020s, research on the Mediterranean diet indicates that a Mediterranean diet may contribute to health.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The Mediterranean diet is included among dietary patterns that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. A 2013 Cochrane review found limited evidence that a Mediterranean diet favorably affects cardiovascular risk factors. A 2013 meta-analysis compared Mediterranean, vegan, vegetarian, low-glycemic index, low-carbohydrate, high-fiber, and high-protein diets with control diets. The research concluded that Mediterranean, low-carbohydrate, low-glycemic index, and high-protein diets are effective in improving markers of risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, while there was limited evidence for an effect of vegetarian diets on glycemic control and lipid levels unrelated to weight loss. However, more cautious reviews arose in early 2016, raising concerns about the quality of previous systematic reviews examining the impact of a Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular risk factors. These reviews insisted upon the need for further standardized research, stating that the evidence for possible prevention of cardiovascular disease by the diet was "limited and highly variable". Reviews in 2016-17 reached similar conclusions about the ability of a Mediterranean diet to improve cardiovascular risk factors, such as lowering the risk for hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The Mediterranean diet is low in saturated fat with high amounts of monounsaturated fat and dietary fiber. One possible factor is the potential health effects of olive oil in the Mediterranean diet. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fats, most notably oleic acid, which is under clinical research for its potential health benefits. The European Food Safety Authority Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies approved health claims on olive oil, for protection by its polyphenols against oxidation of blood lipids and for the contribution to the maintenance of normal blood LDL-cholesterol levels by replacing saturated fats in the diet with oleic acid (Commission Regulation (EU) 432/2012 of 16 May 2012). A 2014 meta-analysis concluded that an elevated consumption of olive oil is associated with reduced risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events and stroke, while monounsaturated fatty acids of mixed animal and plant origin showed no significant effects. The American Heart Association discussed the Mediterranean diet as a healthy dietary pattern that may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: In 2014, two meta-analyses found that the Mediterranean diet was associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, findings similar to those of a 2017 review. The American Diabetes Association and a 2019 review indicated that the Mediterranean diet is a healthy dietary pattern that may reduce the risk of diabetes.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: A meta-analysis in 2008 found that strictly following the Mediterranean diet was correlated with a decreased risk of dying from cancer by 6%. Another 2014 review found that adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a decreased risk of death from cancer. A 2017 review found a decreased rate of cancer, though evidence was weak. An updated review in 2021 found that the Mediterranean diet is associated with a 13% lower risk of cancer mortality in the general population.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: A 2019 review found that the Mediterranean diet may help obese people lower the quantity and improve the nutritional quality of food intake, with an overall effect of possibly losing body weight.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: A 2016 systematic review found a relation between greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet and better cognitive performance; it is unclear if the relationship is causal.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: According to a 2013 systematic review, greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is correlated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and slower cognitive decline. Another 2013 systematic review reached similar conclusions, and also found a negative association with the risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's, but acknowledged that only a small number of studies had been done on the topic.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: There is a correlation between adherence to the Mediterranean diet and a lower risk of depression. Studies on which these correlations are made are observational and do not prove cause and effect.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: As the Mediterranean diet usually includes products containing gluten like pasta and bread, increasing use of the diet may have contributed to the growing rate of gluten-related disorders.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: There are variations of the "Mediterranean diets" in different countries and among the individual populations of the Mediterranean basin, due to ethnic, cultural, economic and religious diversities. The "Mediterranean diet" as defined by dietitians generally includes the following components, which are not typical of diets in the Mediterranean Basin:


title: Mediterranean diet

text: These proportions are sometimes represented in the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. In a diet with roughly this composition, the fat content accounts for 25% to 35% of the total intake of calories, while the amount of saturated fat is, at most, 8% of the calorie content.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: In contrast to the dietary recommendation, olive oil is not the staple fat in much of the Mediterranean basin: in northern and central Italy, lard and butter are commonly used in cooking, and olive oil is reserved for dressing salads and cooked vegetables; in both North Africa and the Middle East, sheep's tail fat and rendered butter ("samna") are traditional staple fats.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: Consuming a Mediterranean diet or plant-based diet may contribute to improving environmental and agricultural sustainability, possibly due to lower use of dairy products, ruminant meat, and processed foods. The environmental impact and amount of energy needed to feed livestock exceeds its nutritional value. In a 2014 lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers found that a Mediterranean-like diet may reduce food production emissions below those of an omnivorous diet for 2050, with a per capita reduction of 30%.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The concept of a Mediterranean diet was developed to reflect "food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and southern Italy in the early 1960s". Although it was first publicized in 1975 by the American biologist Ancel Keys and chemist Margaret Keys (a husband and wife team), the Mediterranean diet failed to gain widespread recognition until the 1990s. Objective data showing that the Mediterranean diet is healthy originated from results of epidemiological studies in Calabria, Naples and Madrid, confirmed later by the Seven Countries Study first published in 1970, and a book-length report in 1980.


title: Mediterranean diet

text: The most commonly understood version of the Mediterranean diet was presented, among others, by Walter Willett and colleagues of Harvard University's School of Public Health since the mid-1990s. The Mediterranean diet is based on a paradox: although the people living in Mediterranean countries tend to consume relatively high amounts of fat, they have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than in countries like the United States where similar levels of fat consumption are found. A parallel phenomenon is known as the French paradox. By 2011, the Mediterranean diet was included by some authors as a fad diet promoted for losing weight. As of 2018, the value of the traditional Mediterranean diet was questioned due to homogenization of dietary choices and food products in the global economy, yet clinical research activity remained high, with favorable outcomes reported for various disease conditions, such as metabolic syndrome.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: The Courier is a 2020 historical spy film directed by Dominic Cooke. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, and is based on the true story of a British businessman who was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service to be a message conduit with a Russian spy source Oleg Penkovsky (played by Merab Ninidze) in the 1960s. Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright also star.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: "The Courier" had its world premiere under its original title "Ironbark" at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on 19 March 2021, and the United Kingdom on 13 August 2021. The film received generally favourable reviews from critics.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Oleg Penkovsky, a high ranking Soviet official and GRU intelligence officer with access to top secret nuclear information, is disillusioned with Khrushchev's leadership in light of the growing threat of a nuclear war with the United States. He reaches out to the CIA and offers to provide information that could help de-escalate the situation. The CIA and MI6 decide that it would be better not to use an officer and instead have an ordinary businessman act as an intermediary.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: They approach salesman Greville Wynne to go to Moscow under the pretense of exploring commercial opportunities. Wynne establishes seemingly normal business relations with Penkovsky and the latter makes arrangements with western intelligence agencies to feed them information. He asks that they continue to use Wynne as their regular courier, reasoning that he will be under the Soviets' radar. Initially opposed to the task, Wynne eventually agrees, partly after CIA officer Emily Donovan emphasizes that his efforts could help prevent a nuclear war and also after Penkovsky visits him at his home and tells him that he is betting his life on Wynne's success.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Wynne uses his business travels to Moscow to regularly carry messages and packages provided by Penkovsky to the CIA. However, this takes a toll on his personal life, where he starts behaving agitatedly, leading his wife to think that he may be having an affair.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Penkovsky learns that the Soviets want to turn Cuba into a nuclear threat to the United States, and relays this information, along with photographs and military plans to the CIA, who eventually verify this using their own intelligence. The Americans are able to use this early lead to their advantage during the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, the Soviets, using their own double agents, realize they have an information vulnerability. In Moscow, Wynne realizes that his hotel room had been searched, but leaves the country before he has a chance to warn Penkovsky.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Worried about Penkovsky's fate should he be left behind, Wynne volunteers against the advice of MI6 to go back to Moscow to help arrange Penkovsky's defection. However, the Soviets, having previously poisoned Penkovsky and searched his belongings while he was in the hospital, foil the plan and arrest both men.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Wynne is sent to prison where he endures harsh conditions which results in his health significantly deteriorating. He adamantly maintains his innocence, claiming that he knew Penkovsky only as a business client, and did not know what was in the packages he had delivered. Several months later, he is allowed a visit from his wife, who tells him that the Soviets have removed their missiles from Cuba, boosting his morale. He also gets to meet Penkovsky in prison while being interrogated, and tells him that his sacrifice was worth it and the two men emotionally clutch hands.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: In April 1964, Wynne is released in exchange for the Soviet spy Konon Molody and returns to London. It is also revealed that Penkovsky was tried and executed for treason, and buried in an unmarked grave, but with his family being allowed to live in Moscow. The U.S. and Soviets also establish a communications hotline between their leaders to prevent future nuclear disasters.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: On 1 May 2018, it was announced that FilmNation Entertainment was producing "Ironbark", a film about British spy Greville Wynne from a script by Tom O’Connor. Dominic Cooke was set to direct the film and produce alongside O’Connor, Ben Pugh, Rory Aitken, Adam Ackland, Josh Varney, and Leah Clarke. Production companies involved with the film include SunnyMarch.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Alongside the initial production announcement, it was confirmed that Benedict Cumberbatch had been cast as Greville Wynne. In October 2018, it was announced that Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, Merab Ninidze, Angus Wright, and Kirill Pirogov had joined the cast of the film.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: Principal photography for the film commenced in London on 15 October 2018 and it lasted until 7 December 2018.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2020, under the title "Ironbark". Shortly after, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. Under the new name "The Courier", the film was given an original 28 August 2020 theatrical release in the United States. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed to 16 October 2020. It was scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2020. It was delayed again to 19 March 2021, and was eventually released on 13 August 2021.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: "The Courier" grossed $6.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $19.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $26 million.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: In its domestic opening weekend, the film grossed $1.9 million from 1,433 theaters in its opening weekend, finishing third at the box office. The film made $1 million in its second weekend.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""The Courier" delivers a rousingly effective old-school spy adventure elevated by a thrilling fact-based story and Benedict Cumberbatch's nervy central performance." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to PostTrak, 82% of audience members gave the film a positive score, with 62% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: The Courier (2020 film)

text: "The Washington Post"s Ann Hornaday gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying: ""The Courier" makes a smart, stylish stand for the kind of old-fashioned period spy thriller that is increasingly being turned into bingeable series for streaming services. Its modesty and carefully managed ambitions define its strong suit at a time when such films are scarcer every day." Peter Debruge of "Variety" called the film "solid if dull-by-definition espionage story" and said: "["The Courier"s] hook is that it's based on true events, and the underlying history deserves to be shared."


title: Alma mater

text: Alma mater (; pl. [rarely used] ) is an allegorical Latin phrase used to identify a school, college or university that one formerly attended or/and graduated from.


title: Alma mater

text: "alma mater" is also a honorific title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. Later, in Catholicism, it became a title of Mary, mother of Jesus.


title: Alma mater

text: The term entered academic use when the University of Bologna adopted the motto "Alma Mater Studiorum" ("nurturing mother of studies"), to celebrate the university's historic status as the oldest and longest continuously operating university in the world.


title: Alma mater

text: The term is related to "alumnus", literally meaning a "nursling" or "one who is nourished", that frequently is used for a graduate.


title: Alma mater

text: Although "alma" (nourishing) was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with "mater" in classical Latin. In the "Oxford Latin Dictionary", the phrase is attributed to Lucretius in his "De rerum natura" where he used the term as an epithet to describe an earth goddess:


title: Alma mater

text: After the fall of Rome, the term came into Christian liturgical usage in association with Mary, mother of Jesus. "Alma Redemptoris Mater" is a well-known eleventh century antiphon devoted to Mary.


title: Alma mater

text: The earliest documented use of the term to refer to a university in an English-speaking country is in 1600, when the University of Cambridge printer, John Legate, began using an emblem for the university press. The first-known appearance of the device is on the title-page of a book by William Perkins, "A Golden Chain", where the Latin phrase "Alma Mater Cantabrigia" ("nourishing mother Cambridge") is inscribed on a pedestal bearing a nude, lactating woman wearing a mural crown.


title: Alma mater

text: In English etymological reference works, often the first university-related usage is cited as 1710, when an academic mother figure is mentioned in a remembrance of Henry More by Richard Ward.


title: Alma mater

text: Many historic European universities have adopted "Alma Mater" as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The Latin name of the University of Bologna, (nourishing mother of studies), refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. Other European universities, such as the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig, Germany, or Alma Mater Jagiellonica, Poland, have used the expression similarly in conjunction with geographical or foundational characteristics. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, an international university founded by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2010, uses the term as its official name.


title: Alma mater

text: In the United States, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the "Alma Mater of the Nation" because of its ties to the founding of the country.


title: Alma mater

text: At Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the main student government is known as the Alma Mater Society.


title: Alma mater

text: The ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant (e.g., at the Palatine Hill in Rome).


title: Alma mater

text: Modern sculptures of "Alma Mater" are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, most notably, the a bronze statue of "Alma Mater" by Daniel Chester French situated on the steps of Columbia University's Low Library; the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also has an "Alma Mater" statue that was created by Lorado Taft. An altarpiece mural in Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library, painted in 1932 by Eugene Savage, depicts the "Alma Mater" as a bearer of light and truth, standing in the midst of the personified arts and sciences.


title: Alma mater

text: There is an "Alma Mater" sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the University of Havana, Cuba, which was based on the one at Columbia. The statue was cast in 1919 by Mario Korbel, with Feliciana Villalón Wilson as the inspiration for "Alma Mater". It was installed in its current location in 1927, at the direction of architect Raul Otero.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marines can trace their origins back to the formation of the "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" on 28 October 1664, and can trace their commando origins to the formation of the 3rd Special Service Brigade, now known as 3 Commando Brigade on 14 February 1942, during the Second World War.


title: Royal Marines

text: As a specialised and adaptable light infantry and commando force, Royal Marine Commandos are trained for rapid deployment worldwide and capable of dealing with a wide range of threats. The Corps of Royal Marines is organised into 3 Commando Brigade and a number of separate units, including 47 Commando (Raiding Group) Royal Marines, and a company-strength commitment to the Special Forces Support Group. The Corps operates in all environments and climates, though particular expertise and training is spent on raiding, amphibious warfare, arctic warfare, mountain warfare, expeditionary warfare, and its commitment to the UK's rapid reaction forces.


title: Royal Marines

text: Throughout its history, the Royal Marines have seen action in a number of major wars – including the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, World War I and World War II. The Corps has been largely deployed in expeditionary warfare roles in conflicts such as the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War, the Kosovo War, the Sierra Leone Civil War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. The Corps of Royal Marines has close international ties with allied marine forces, particularly the United States Marine Corps and the Netherlands Marine Corps (). The Royal Marines Commandos have undergone many changes over time.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines traces its origins back to 28 October 1664 when at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot was formed.


title: Royal Marines

text: On 5 April 1755, His Majesty's Marine Forces, fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, were formed by Order of Council under Admiralty control. Initially Marine field officer ranks were honorary sinecure positions awarded to senior Royal Navy officers. This meant that the furthest a Marine officer could advance was to lieutenant colonel. It was not until 1771 that the first Marine was promoted to colonel. This attitude persisted well into the 1800s. During the rest of the 18th century, they served in numerous landings all over the world, the most famous being the landing at Belle Île on the Brittany coast in 1761. They also served in the American War of Independence, notably in the Battle of Bunker Hill led by Major John Pitcairn.


title: Royal Marines

text: In 1788 a detachment of four companies of marines, under Major Robert Ross, accompanied the First Fleet to protect a new colony at Botany Bay (New South Wales). Due to an error the Fleet left Portsmouth without its main supply of ammunition, and were not resupplied until the Fleet docked in Rio de Janeiro midway through the voyage. Some scholars contend that the Marines deliberately spread smallpox among Australia's Indigenous population in order to protect the settlement, but this incident does not appear in contemporaneous Marine or government records and most researchers associate the disease outbreak with other causes.


title: Royal Marines

text: In 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the Earl St Vincent, they were titled the Royal Marines by King George III. The Royal Marines Artillery (RMA) was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in bomb ketches. These had been manned by the Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery, but a lawsuit by a Royal Artillery officer resulted in a court decision that Army officers were not subject to Naval orders. As RMA uniforms were the blue of the Royal Regiment of Artillery they were nicknamed the "Blue Marines" and the infantry element, who wore the red uniforms of the British infantry, became known as the "Red Marines", often given the semi-derogatory nickname "Lobsters" by sailors. A fourth division of the Royal Marines, headquartered at Woolwich, was formed in 1805.


title: Royal Marines

text: During the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Marines participated in every on board the Royal Navy's ships and also took part in multiple amphibious actions. Marines had a dual function aboard ships of the Royal Navy in this period; routinely, they ensured the security of the ship's officers and supported their maintenance of discipline in the ship's crew, and in battle, they engaged the enemy's crews, whether firing from positions on their own ship, or fighting in boarding actions. In the Caribbean theatre volunteers from freed French slaves on Marie-Galante were used to form Sir Alexander Cochrane's first Corps of Colonial Marines. These men bolstered the ranks, helping the British to hold the island until reinforcements arrived. This practice was repeated during the War of 1812, where escaped American slaves were formed into Cochrane's second Corps of Colonial Marines. These men were commanded by Royal Marines officers and fought alongside their regular Royal Marines counterparts at the Battle of Bladensburg. Throughout the war Royal Marines units raided up and down the east coast of America including up the Penobscot River and in the Chesapeake Bay. They fought in the Battle of New Orleans and later helped capture Fort Bowyer in Mobile Bay in what was the last action of the war.


title: Royal Marines

text: In 1855 the infantry forces were renamed the Royal Marines Light Infantry (RMLI). During the Crimean War in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross, two in the Crimea and one in the Baltic. In 1862 the name was slightly altered to Royal Marine Light Infantry. The Royal Navy did not fight any other ships after 1850 and became interested in landings by Naval Brigades. In these Naval Brigades, the function of the Royal Marines was to land first and act as skirmishers ahead of the sailor infantry and artillery. This skirmishing was the traditional function of light infantry. For most of their history, British Marines had been organised as fusiliers. In the rest of the 19th Century the Royal Marines served in many landings especially in the First and Second Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860) against the Chinese. These were all successful except for the landing at the Mouth of the Peiho in 1859, where Admiral Sir James Hope ordered a landing across extensive mud flats.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines also played a prominent role in the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900), where a Royal Marine earned a Victoria Cross.


title: Royal Marines

text: Through much of the 18th and 19th centuries Marine officers had a lower standing status than their counterparts in the Royal Navy. A short-lived


title: Royal Marines

text: effort was made in 1907, through the common entry or "Selborne scheme", to reduce the professional differences between RN and RM officers through a system of common entry that provided for an initial period of shared training.


title: Royal Marines

text: By the early twentieth century the Royal Marines had achieved a high professional status, although there was a serious shortage of junior officers. Numbering about 15,000 during the Edwardian era, enlistment for other ranks was for at least 12 years, with entitlement to a pension after 21 years of service. After basic training new recruits were assigned to one of three land-based divisions and from there to warships as vacancies arose. From 1908 onwards one gun turret on each battleship was manned by RMA gunners. The RMLI continued their traditional role of providing landing parties and shore-based detachments. Specialist positions on board ship, such as postmen, barbers, lamp trimmers and butchers, were reserved for Royal Marines. After 1903 the Royal Marines provided bands for service on board battleships and other large vessels.


title: Royal Marines

text: During the First World War, in addition to their usual stations aboard ship, Royal Marines were part of the Royal Naval Division which landed in Belgium in 1914 to help defend Antwerp and later took part in the amphibious landing at Gallipoli in 1915. It also served on the Western Front. The Division's first two commanders were Royal Marine Artillery Generals. Other Royal Marines acted as landing parties in the Naval campaign against the Turkish fortifications in the Dardanelles before the Gallipoli landing. They were sent ashore to assess damage to Turkish fortifications after bombardment by British and French ships and, if necessary, to complete their destruction. The Royal Marines were the last to leave Gallipoli, replacing both British and French troops in a neatly planned and executed withdrawal from the beaches.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines also took part in the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918. Five Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross in the First World War, two at Zeebrugge, one at Gallipoli, one at Jutland and one on the Western Front.


title: Royal Marines

text: After the war Royal Marines took part in the allied intervention in Russia. In 1919, the 6th Battalion RMLI mutinied and was disbanded at Murmansk. The Royal Marine Artillery (RMA) and Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) were amalgamated on 22 June 1923. Post-war demobilisation had seen the Royal Marines reduced from 55,000 (1918) to 15,000 in 1922 and there was Treasury pressure for a further reduction to 6,000 or even the entire disbandment of the Corps. As a compromise an establishment of 9,500 was settled upon but this meant that two separate branches could no longer be maintained. The abandonment of the Marine's artillery role meant that the Corps would subsequently have to rely on Royal Artillery support when ashore, that the title of Royal Marines would apply to the entire Corps and that only a few specialists would now receive gunnery training. As a form of consolation the dark blue and red uniform of the Royal Marine Artillery now became the full dress of the entire Corps. Royal Marine officers and SNCO's however continue to wear the historic scarlet in mess dress to the present day. The ranks of private, used by the RMLI, and gunner, used by the RMA, were abolished and replaced by the rank of Marine.


title: Royal Marines

text: During the Second World War, a small party of Royal Marines were first ashore at Namsos in April 1940, seizing the approaches to the Norwegian town preparatory to a landing by the British Army two days later. The Royal Marines formed the Royal Marine Division as an amphibiously trained division, parts of which served at Dakar and in the capture of Madagascar. After the assault on the French naval base at Antsirane in Madagascar was held up, fifty Sea Service Royal Marines from commanded by Captain Martin Price were landed on the quay of the base by the destroyer after it ran the gauntlet of French shore batteries defending Diego Suarez Bay. They then captured two of the batteries, which led to a quick surrender by the French.


title: Royal Marines

text: In addition the Royal Marines formed Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisations (MNBDOs) similar to the United States Marine Corps Defense Battalions. One of these took part in the defence of Crete. Royal Marines also served in Malaya and in Singapore, where due to losses they were joined with remnants of the 2nd Battalion of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Tyersall Park to form the "Plymouth Argylls". The Royal Marines formed one Commando (A Commando) which served at Dieppe. One month after Dieppe, most of the 11th Royal Marine Battalion was killed or captured in an ill staged amphibious landing at Tobruk in Operation Agreement. Again, the Marines were involved with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, this time the 1st Battalion. In 1942 the Infantry Battalions of the Royal Marine Division were re-organised as Commandos, joining the British Army Commandos. The Division command structure became a Special Service Brigade command. The support troops became landing craft crew and saw extensive action on D-Day in June 1944.


title: Royal Marines

text: A total of four Special Service Brigades (redesignated Commando brigades in December 1944 as the "SS" abbreviation was unpopular) were raised during the war, and Royal Marines were represented in all of them. A total of nine RM Commandos (Battalions) were raised during the war, numbered from 40 to 48. 1 Commando Brigade had just one RM Battalion, No 45 Commando. 2 Commando Brigade had two RM battalions, Nos 40 and 43 Commandos. 3 Commando Brigade also had two, Nos 42 and 44 Commandos. 4 Commando Brigade was entirely Royal Marine after March 1944, comprising Nos 41, 46, 47 and 48 Commandos. 1 Commando Brigade took part in first in the Tunisia Campaign and then assaults on Sicily and Normandy, campaigns in the Rhineland and crossing the Rhine. 2 Commando Brigade was involved in the Salerno landings, Anzio, Comacchio, and operations in the Argenta Gap. 3 Commando Brigade served in Sicily and Burma. 4 Commando Brigade served in the Battle of Normandy and in the Battle of the Scheldt on the island of Walcheren during the clearing of Antwerp.


title: Royal Marines

text: In January 1945, two further RM Brigades were formed, 116th Brigade and 117th Brigade. Both were conventional Infantry, rather than in the Commando role. 116th Brigade saw some action in the Netherlands, but 117th Brigade was hardly used operationally. In addition one Landing Craft Assault (LCA) unit was stationed in Australia late in the war as a training unit. In 1946 the Army Commandos were disbanded, leaving the Royal Marines to continue the Commando role (with supporting Army elements). A number of Royal Marines served as pilots during the Second World War. It was a Royal Marines officer who led the attack by a formation of Blackburn Skuas that sank the Königsberg. Eighteen Royal Marines commanded Fleet Air Arm squadrons during the course of the war, and with the formation of the British Pacific Fleet were well represented in the final drive on Japan. Captains and Majors generally commanded squadrons, whilst in one case Lt Colonel R.C. Hay on HMS "Indefatigable" was Air Group Co-ordinator from HMS "Victorious" of the entire British Pacific Fleet.


title: Royal Marines

text: Throughout the war Royal Marines continued in their traditional role of providing ships detachments and manning a proportion of the guns on Cruisers and Capital Ships. They also provided the crew for the UK's Minor Landing craft, and the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group manned Centaur IV tanks on D Day; one of these is still on display at Pegasus Bridge.


title: Royal Marines

text: Only one marine (Corporal Thomas Peck Hunter of 43 Commando) was awarded the Victoria Cross in the Second World War for action at Lake Comacchio in Italy. Hunter was the most recent RM Commando to be awarded the medal. The Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment under Blondie Haslar carried out Operation Frankton and provided the basis for the post-war continuation of the SBS.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Corps underwent a notable change after 1945 however, when the Royal Marines took on the main responsibility for the role and training of the British Commandos. , since their creation in 1942 Royal Marines Commandos had engaged on active operations across the globe, every year except 1968. Notably they were the first ever military unit to perform an air assault insertion by helicopter, during the Suez Crisis in 1956. They were also part of the land element during the 1982 Falklands War.


title: Royal Marines

text: During the Cold War the Royal Marines were earmarked to reinforce NATO's northernmost command Allied Forces North Norway. Therefore, 3 Commando Brigade began to train annually in Northern Norway and had large stores of vehicles and supplies pre-positioned there. At the end of the Cold War in 1989 the structure of the Royal Marines was as follows:


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines Commandos are an elite fighting force, they are part of the Naval Service and under the full command of the Fleet Commander. The rank structure of the Corps is similar to that of the British Army. Uniquely, in the Royal Marines, officers and all other ranks undergo initial, commando and specialist training together at the Commando Training Centre, Royal Marines (CTCRM). Since 2017 there has been no restriction on women applying, though as of 2022 none have passed the training. On average, 26,000 people apply to join the Royal Marines Commandos every year, but only 400 make it.


title: Royal Marines

text: At its height in 1944 during the Second World War, more than 70,000 people served in the Royal Marines. Following the Allied victory the Royal Marines were quickly reduced to a post-war strength of 13,000. When National Service was ended in 1960, the Marines were again reduced, but this time to an all Commando-trained force of 9,000 personnel. As of 1 January 2021, the Royal Marines had a strength of 5,968 Regulars, and a combined strength of 6,500 when including reserves., The Royal Marines are also the only British naval unit capable of conducting amphibious operations at brigade level.


title: Royal Marines

text: The overall head of the Royal Marines is King Charles III, in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces. The ceremonial head of the Royal Marines is the Captain General Royal Marines (equivalent to the Colonel-in-Chief of a British Army regiment). In October 2022 King Charles was announced as the new Captain General on the occasion of the 358th anniversary of the foundation of the corps. Full Command of the Royal Marines is vested in the Fleet Commander (FLTCDR) with the Commandant General Royal Marines, a major-general, embedded within the Navy Command Headquarters (NCHQ) as Commander UK Amphibious Force (COMUKAMPHIBFOR).


title: Royal Marines

text: The operational capability of the corps comprises a number of battalion-plus sized units, of which five are designated as "commandos":


title: Royal Marines

text: With the exception of the 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group and Commando Logistic Regiment, which are each commanded by a full colonel, each of these units is commanded by a lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Marines, who may have sub-specialised in a number of ways throughout their career.


title: Royal Marines

text: Operational command of the five commandos and the Commando Logistics Regiment is delegated to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, of which they are a part. Based at Stonehouse Barracks, the brigade exercises control as directed by either CINCFLEET or the Permanent Joint Headquarters. 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group is a battalion-sized formation providing information operations capabilities, life support and security for the Brigade Headquarters.


title: Royal Marines

text: 43 Commando Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines, responsible for the security of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent and other security-related duties was originally outside the brigade, but was incorporated into it from April 2012. It also provides specialist boarding parties and snipers for the Royal Navy worldwide, for roles such as embargo enforcement, counter-narcotics, counter-piracy and counter-insurgency activities of the Royal Navy. It is the largest unit in the brigade, at 790 strong.


title: Royal Marines

text: 40 and 45 Commando are each organised into six companies, further organised into platoon-sized troops, as follows:


title: Royal Marines

text: In general a rifle company Marine will be a member of a four-man fire team, the building block of commando operations. A Royal Marine works with their team in the field and shares accommodation if living in barracks. This structure is a recent development, formerly Commandos were structured similarly to British Army light infantry battalions.


title: Royal Marines

text: Formerly known as the Amphibious Ready Group, the Amphibious Task Group (ATG) is a mobile, balanced amphibious warfare force, based on a Commando Group and its supporting assets, that can be kept at high readiness to deploy into an area of operations. The ATG is normally based around specialist amphibious ships, most notably , the largest ship in the British fleet until she was decommissioned and sold to Brazil in 2018. "Ocean" was designed and built to accommodate an embarked commando and its associated stores and equipment. The strategy of the ATG is to wait "beyond the horizon" and then deploy swiftly as directed by HM Government. The whole amphibious force is intended to be self-sustaining and capable of operating without host-nation support. The concept was successfully tested in operations in Sierra Leone.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) forms part of the Fleet Air Arm. It comprises three helicopter squadrons and is commanded by the Joint Helicopter Command. It consists of both Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Marines personnel. RN personnel need not be commando trained. The CHF is neither under the permanent control of 3 Commando Brigade nor that of the Commandant General Royal Marines, but rather is allocated to support Royal Marines units as required. It uses both Merlin HC4/4A medium-lift and Wildcat AH1 light transport/reconnaissance helicopters to provide aviation support for the Royal Marines.


title: Royal Marines

text: On 11 April 2017 the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, announced that the Royal Marines Commandos were to be restructured, and will be capable of deploying on special operations as part of the Future Commando Force (FCF) Programme. Indeed, the Ministry of Defence has also said that under the FCF programme, the Royal Marines Commandos will take on many of the traditional tasks of the SAS and SBS, alongside a new Army Ranger Regiment. As part of this programme, Navy Command is also creating the staff and intellectual horsepower for a land littoral strike division programme. An example of the FCF was depicted by young engineering graduates from the UK Naval Engineering Science and Technology forum (UKNEST). There will be two Littoral Response Groups: One based East of Suez, one based in the High North. On 27 June 2020, the Royal Marines announced they will adopt a new uniform with the MultiCam camouflage instead of the MTP camo.


title: Royal Marines

text: Royal Marine Commandos are required to undergo the longest and one of the most physically demanding specialist infantry training courses in the world. Recruit training lasts for 36 weeks for Royal Marine Commandos and 64 weeks for Royal Marine Commando Officers. Potential recruits must be aged 16 to 32 (18 to 25 for Commissioned Officers). Applicants must undertake a series of interviews, medical tests, an eye/sight test, psychometric tests, a PJFT (Pre-joining fitness test), a CPC (Candidate Preparation Course), and a ROP (Recruit Orientation Phase). If a potential recruit passes these phases, then they will get selected for a place in recruit training. Potential officers undertake a POC (Potential Officer Course) instead of the CPC (Candidate Preparation Course) – both of which take place at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) in Lympstone, Devon. Officers must also take the Admiralty Interview Board (AIB). Upon passing the three-day course, recruits then start basic recruit training (RT) at CTCRM. A large proportion of training is carried out on Dartmoor's inhospitable terrain and Woodbury Common woodland.


title: Royal Marines

text: Throughout recruit training, Royal Marines Commando recruits learn and develop a vast amount of knowledge and warfighting skills such as weapons handling, marksmanship, proficiency with a variety of different firearms and weapon systems, unarmed and armed close quarters combat (CQC), develop elite levels of physical fitness and mental resilience, demolition, reconnaissance, small team tactics, small boat operations, breaching, raiding, direct action, SERE training, fieldcraft skills such as camouflage and stalking, survival skills, bushcraft, mountaineering, fast-roping (helicopter), abseiling, vertical assault, underwater escape, chemical biological radiological nuclear (CBRN) training, military communications and signals, map reading and navigation, leadership and teamwork skills, first aid, patrolling and sentry duty, amphibious landings training, personal administration, and marching and parade ground skills.


title: Royal Marines

text: The best recruit to finish training is awarded the Kings Badge. King George V directed that his Royal Cypher, surrounded by a laurel wreath, would be known as the King's Badge, and would be awarded to the best all round recruit in the King's Squad, provided that he was worthy of the honour. The badge was to be carried on the left shoulder, and worn in every rank. The King's Badge is not awarded to every squad, and is only presented if a recruit measures up to the very exacting standards required.


title: Royal Marines

text: Throughout their career, a Royal Marine Commando can specialise in a number of different roles upon completion of their respective courses after spending one to two years as a general duties (GD) rifleman at a unit. Examples of some specialisations and different courses includes the mountain leader (ML), physical training instructor (PTI), Assault Engineer (AE), Royal Marines police (RMP), sniper (S), medical assistant (MA), pilot, reconnaissance operator (RO), drill instructor (DL), driver (D), clerk (C), signaller (SI), combat intelligence (CI), armourer (A), and heavy weapons (HW). Royal Marines can also apply for swimmer canoeist/Special Boat Service selection (SBS) or any other branch of the UKSF. All Royal Marines will also conduct training exercises on differing military skills on a regular basis including development in mountain, arctic, jungle, amphibious and desert warfare. They can also be involved in exchange training programs with other countries' forces – particularly the United States Marine Corps and the Netherlands Marine Corps/Korps Mariniers.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines Museum (established in October 1958) is an institution dedicated to the history of the Royal Marines. In 2011, it became part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, which has since been the executive public body of the museum in the Ministry of Defence. It will soon be moving from Eastney Barracks to Portsmouth Dockyard.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines have a proud history and unique traditions. With the exceptions of "Gibraltar" and the laurel wreath for the Battle of Belle Island, their colours (flags) do not carry battle honours in the manner of the regiments of the British Army or of the US Marine Corps, but rather the "globe itself" as a symbol of the Corps.