title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Amid the Euromaidan unrest, Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. The interim Yatsenyuk Government which came to power, initially said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO. However, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority. On 23 December 2014, the Ukrainian parliament renounced Ukraine's non-aligned status that "proved to be ineffective in guaranteeing Ukraine's security and protecting the country from external aggression and pressure". Ukraine and NATO have since held joint seminars and joint tactical and strategical exercises and operations.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Since the start of the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, public support for Ukrainian membership in NATO has risen greatly. Since June 2014 polls show that about 50% of those asked voice support for Ukrainian membership. By early 2022 (just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began), support had risen further to 62% as Russia built up forces near the Ukrainian border. In March 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, stated that he did not anticipate Ukraine joining NATO in the near future. However, in September 2022, he announced that Ukraine has applied for NATO membership under an accelerated procedure, following Russia's claimed annexation of Southeastern Ukraine.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: In 2006, the then United States Ambassador to NATO Ivo H. Daalder together with James Goldgeier conceived the term "Global NATO". Subsequently, ideas for membership of various states were floated: Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, India, Israel, and most frequently of Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Colombia. The idea is to transform the Cold War institution into a "Global alliance of democracies".


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: The issue of Australian NATO membership is often brought forward. Australia is even referred to as a "de facto member of NATO". Australia is referred to by NATO as one of their "partners across the globe", agreeing to work on crisis and conflict management, post-conflict situations, reconstruction and facilitating humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. NATO and Australia signed a joint political declaration in June 2012 followed by a signature of an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme in February of the next year.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: General Knud Bartels, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee at the time, stressed the need for "substantial and practical cooperation, to learn from each other, share best practices and develop common standards because NATO and Australia have a strong partnership and are committed to enhancing their abilities of working together in order to better tackle future global challenges".


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Colombia is NATO's latest partner and Colombia has access to the full range of cooperative activities NATO offers to partners. NATO and Colombia have concluded a partnership agreement with a view to strengthening dialogue and cooperation to address shared security challenges. A close strategic ally and trade partner of NATO members the U.S. and Spain, Colombia has been a strong supporter of NATO and its actions. In 2009, the Colombian Government asked to be part of the ISAF and work with the Spanish contingent in mine detection operations, but this didn't materialize due to the internal conflict that Colombia faced. In March 2011, Colombia voted in favor of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, thus officially allowing for NATO military intervention in the Libyan Civil War. In April 2012, Colombia was amended into the NATO ATP-56(B) which gave Colombia "associate" status and to re-establish air-to-air fueling capabilities with NATO member countries.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: On 4 June 2013, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that Colombia will be signing a Cooperation Agreement with NATO in hopes of eventually joining the military alliance. Santos also stated that: "If we can achieve peace, the army will be in a place where it will be able to distinguish itself internationally as well. We are already doing it on many fronts." In response, the U.S. government noted, "Our goal is certainly to support Colombia as being a capable and strong member of lots of different international organizations, and that might well include NATO. Ultimately this is a decision that all of the NATO members would have to make."


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: However, on the same day, a Colombian and NATO official both objected to NATO membership for Colombia. Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon stated his country merely wished to sign a cooperation deal with NATO, and a NATO official noted that, "There is no immediate plan for establishing a formal partnership between the alliance and Colombia, but we are exploring the possibility of carrying out specific activities together...and we are currently developing a security of information agreement which would allow the exchange of classified information between the alliance and Colombia."


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: On the 10th of March 2022, in the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and amidst talks of new oil negotiations with Venezuela, US President Joe Biden announced Colombia had been designated Major Non-NATO Ally, in a bilateral meeting at the White House.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: In September 2011, The NATO alliance invited India to be a partner in its ballistic missile defence (BMD). According to the reports a top NATO official stated addressing Indian representatives, "You have a missile threat that confronts you. We have a missile threat that confronts us. It's a different one, but our ability to defend against it could be the same. We have cooperation on those kind of issues. [..]Democracies face challenges that are common. We need to work together and resolve. We need to cooperate, because individually we cannot deal with such threats. It is better to deal with such issues commonly than deal with them individually." V. K. Saraswat, the architect of Indian BMD program, subsequently informed, "We are analysing the report. It is under consideration."


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Then-U.S. NATO Ambassador Ivo H. Daalder has suggested that India should turn away from its non-aligned role and join NATO. A Voice of Russia analysis quoted Robert Pshel, head of NATO's Information Office in Moscow as saying "I agree with Mr Daalder that many modern threats are global, and tackling them without emerging powers like India is hardly possible." Daalder further stated, "The dialogue should be on how India's concept of its own security and of international security fits in with NATO's concept of international security and how NATO as an actor and India as a country can work together to promote security."


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: The United States and India have already studied the possibility of a joint missile defence system, although former Defence Secretary Robert Gates stated that "talks were only in their early stages." Boris Volkonsky of the "Russian Strategic Research Institute" was quoted as saying, "an ally like India would strengthen Washington's hand in South and Southwest Asia and other world areas." A Voice of Russia analysis speculated on an additional, ulterior motive from a shared Indian and American fear of the "rising dragon of China".


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: And while most members of the Indian strategic community readily admit that NATO's Afghanistan mission coincides with India's own strategic interest in stabilising that country, they do not necessarily conclude from this that India and NATO should develop closer cooperation. It is believed that many Indian analysts harbour doubts about the possible implications for their country's international position should it develop closer ties with NATO. In a report published by "NATO review" it said, "The choice should be clear: exploiting NATO's potential as a forum for consultation and cooperation is a 'win-win' situation, both for India and for the Alliance."


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Israel was designated as a major non-NATO ally in 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and has since cooperated with NATO in the areas of technology, counterterrorism and other areas.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Cooperation between Japan and NATO began in 1990, and Japan was one of the first "partners across the globe" when the relationship became more formalized. Japan deepened their relationship in April 2013 with a joint political declaration, and in May 2014 signed accords relating to counter-terrorism and counter-piracy efforts. Japan has also been involved in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and with stabilization efforts in the Balkans during the 1990s.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: On June 29 2022, Prime Minister of Japan attended the NATO Summit for first time, as the trans-Atlantic alliance seeks to deepen ties with Asia-Pacific partners amid China's rise.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: South Korea is a global NATO partner and major non-NATO ally which has cooperated with NATO in multiple areas. For example, South Korea contributed substantially to rebuilding efforts after the 2001 war in Afghanistan. South Korea has also worked with NATO in the areas of non-proliferation and anti-WMD initiatives, advanced scientific and technology research as well as taken measures to ensure interoperability with NATO forces, including through joint exercises with NATO member countries through events such as RIMPAC and participation at NATO leadership meetings.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: The NATO–Mongolia Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme was approved on 19 March 2012. It is the first application of the new policy for flexible partnerships with global partners. Mongolia has worked with NATO on initiatives relating to interoperability, military modernization and officer training, as well as provided troops to support NATO's operations in Afghanistan from 2009-2014. More recently, Mongolia has been working together with NATO on Science for Peace and Security Programme, which focuses on cybersecurity and reducing the environmental impact of military sites.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: In 2001, NATO and New Zealand signalled their commitment to strengthen cooperation with the joint signature of an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme in June 2012. New Zealand has made valuable contributions to NATO-led efforts in Afghanistan, first as part of the International Security Assistance Force and now under the new mission (known as "Resolute Support") to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces and institutions.


title: Foreign relations of NATO

text: Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally, cooperating in several main sectors: fighting insurgency and terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan, military cooperation, transportation and logistics operations support to Afghanistan, and non-proliferation.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Edoardo Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi (born 19 November 1983) is an English property developer. He is the founder and chief executive of Banda Property, a property development and interior design company. He is married to Princess Beatrice, a niece of King Charles III.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi was born at the Portland Hospital in West End, London. He is the son of Alessandro "Alex" Mapelli-Mozzi, British Olympian and member of an Italian noble family whose ancestral seat is the Villa Mapelli Mozzi in the Bergamo province of Italy. The BBC states that Mapelli Mozzi is a count, though titles of nobility are not officially recognised in the Italian Republic. That title of nobility of the Kingdom of Italy was given to his family in 1913 by King Victor Emmanuel III to all male descendants bearing the surname of the noble family of Mozzi, that was incorporated to the family of Mapelli.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi's mother is Nicola "Nikki" Williams-Ellis MBE (née Nicola Diana Burrows), granddaughter of Sir Robert Abraham Burrows. She was later married to businessman and Conservative politician Christopher Shale. In 2017, she married the sculptor David Williams-Ellis. Mapelli Mozzi has an older sister, Natalia Alice Yeomans (born 1981), and a younger half-brother, Alby Shale (born 1991).


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi attended Radley College before obtaining an M. A. in Politics at the University of Edinburgh. At the age of 23, with the support of his family, he started Banda, a property development and interior design company, which claims to develop homes in "undervalued" parts of London. This has been challenged by property experts on Twitter and "Forbes", who argue that "there is nothing undervalued in Notting Hill", where Mapelli Mozzi's latest project is located, and describe the district as "a super prime residential destination".


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi holds directorships in a number of companies, some of them with his mother, Nikki Williams-Ellis, and his brother-in-law, Tod Yeomans. Ahead of the 2016 London mayoral election, Mapelli Mozzi wrote an article for "Property Week", urging the future mayor to insist on redevelopment projects in central London. He has also criticised politicians Andrea Leadsom and Jeremy Corbyn.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi is a co-founder of the British-Rwandan charity "Cricket Builds Hope", which aims to use cricket as "a tool for positive social change" in Rwanda. Previously known as the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF), the charity was founded in 2011 to build Rwanda's first grass wicket cricket ground, now known as Gahanga International Cricket Stadium. Mapelli Mozzi's stepfather Christopher Shale came up with the idea for the charity but died before he could get it off the ground. Shale's family and friends set up the foundation after his death; Mapelli Mozzi's half-brother, Alby Shale, is on the board of trustees. The charity's patrons are Jonathan Agnew, Brian Lara, Heather Knight, Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent, Sam Billings and Makhaya Ntini. In 2012, Mapelli Mozzi cycled overnight in London in the Nightrider Challenge to raise funds for the foundation.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi was engaged to American architect Dara Huang until 2018. They have a son, Christopher Woolf, born in 2016.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: In 2018, Mapelli Mozzi began a relationship with Princess Beatrice of York, whom he had known since childhood. His family have been close friends with her parents, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York, for decades. In March 2019, Beatrice attended a fundraising event at the National Portrait Gallery, London, accompanied by Mapelli Mozzi. Following his proposal in Italy, the couple's engagement was announced on 26 September 2019. Mapelli Mozzi was reported to have designed the engagement ring along with British jeweller Shaun Leane. They intended to marry at the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace on 29 May 2020 but postponed the ceremony in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. A private wedding took place at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park on 17 July 2020. Beatrice gave birth to their daughter, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi, on 18 September 2021 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The child was 11th in line to the throne at the time of her birth.


title: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

text: Mapelli Mozzi is active on social media, including Twitter, where he has spoken against plastic pollution in the oceans and whaling in Japan and shared messages about gun control in the United States. He has criticised British politicians Dame Andrea Leadsom and Jeremy Corbyn in the past, and used the hashtag "ImWithHer" on Twitter on the night of the 2016 United States presidential election to show his support for the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.


title: Deadlift

text: The deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell or bar is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground. It is one of the three powerlifting exercises, along with the squat and bench press.


title: Deadlift

text: Two styles of deadlift are commonly used in competition settings: the sumo deadlift and the standard deadlift. While both of these styles are permitted under the rules of powerlifting competition, only the conventional stance is used in strongman deadlifting contests.


title: Deadlift

text: The conventional deadlift can be broken down into three parts: the setup, the initial pull or drive, and the lockout.


title: Deadlift

text: Setup: When performing a deadlift, a lifter sets in a position that eccentrically loads the gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, biceps femoris, semitendinosus and semimembranosus while the muscles of the lumbar contract isometrically in an effort to stabilize the spine.


title: Deadlift

text: Drive: The next section of the deadlift produces the highest amount of force. By pushing down through their heels while simultaneously pushing up and forward with their hips and maintaining a depressed scapula and a long tense spine, an individual can remain safe during this motion. This is considered the most difficult part of the entire movement due to the amount of work required to drive the bar off the ground initially.


title: Deadlift

text: Lockout: The finish is the most critical aspect of the motion. This requires being totally erect with a neutral spine and forceful hip extension to engage the muscles of the lumbar spine and abdomen in unison with the glutes.


title: Deadlift

text: Lowering the weight: Performing the above steps in reverse order. As the muscles of the back and core must remain tight throughout the motion, one should simply hinge at the hips and knees to bring the weight down. Lowering the chest towards the knees while keeping the bar close is the safest way to complete the motion.


title: Deadlift

text: There are a few common errors during the performance of the deadlift. Protracting the shoulders disengages the back muscles which stabilize the spine. Slack should be taken from the bar prior to the lift, by squeezing the back muscles first and straightening the arms; the bar should then be lifted in a smooth motion without jerking. As the objective of a deadlift is to hinge the hips, the knees should not be bent so deeply as to form a squat. If the bar is too far from the lifter, the lifter may compensate by rounding the back or shifting the weight to the front of the foot. Both result in shifting which muscles are used and could cause injury. Rounding the back in general is controversial; it is often recommended that during the lift, the back is flat with a spine neutral. Some lifters prefer to slightly round their back; but an excessively rounded back may result in the load being lifted awkwardly and placing too much stress or pressure on the back, which may lead to injury. The knees should be bent more fully on the descent of the bar to preserve a neutral spine.


title: Deadlift

text: Deadlifts can be performed using dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells with one hand or two hands, and with one leg or two legs. Other variations are the side deadlift or suitcase deadlift, rack pulls, deadlift lockouts, deficit deadlift or deadlift from a box (pulling from the floor while standing on a built or improvised low platform).


title: Deadlift

text: Each of these variations is called for to address specific weaknesses in a lifter's overall deadlift. For instance, if the athlete has difficulty breaking contact at max weight, deficit deadlifts are performed to strengthen the gluteus maximus and hamstrings due to the greater range of motion required by standing on the low platform or low box. On the other hand, if the lifter has no problem with breaking contact with the floor but has difficulty locking out, they should perform rack pulls to strengthen their upper back, posterior deltoids, and trapezius muscles while de-emphasizing the gluteus and hamstrings.


title: Deadlift

text: Typically, there are three grips used: overhand (pronated), a mixed overhand-underhand (supinated) (sometimes called "offset," "staggered," "alternating", or "mixed") grip, or a hook grip. Depending on forearm strength, the overhand grip may result in the bar potentially rolling about. Mixed grip is capable of neutralizing this through the "physics of reverse torsion." The mixed grip allows more weight to be held for this reason.


title: Deadlift

text: In order to prevent the bar from rolling out of the hands, some lifters have been known to use an Olympic weightlifting technique known as the hook grip. This is similar to an overhand grip, but the thumbs are inside, allowing the lifter to "hook" onto them with the fingers. The hook grip can make it easier to hold heavier weights using less grip strength, and keeps both shoulders and elbows in a symmetrical position. While it theoretically takes much of the stress off the joints which might be created by the twisting of a mixed grip, it has the disadvantage of being extremely uncomfortable for the thumbs, something which those who advocate it says will pass once a lifter becomes accustomed to it. Another, but rarely used method is a combination of the mixed overhand-underhand grip and the hook grip, preferred by people who lift heavier weights than their grip can handle, but who don't want to rely on lifting straps or other supportive gear.


title: Deadlift

text: Many powerlifters adopt the overhand grip for their lower weight sets and move to the mixed grip to lift larger weights so they can achieve their one rep max.


title: Deadlift

text: A neutral grip can be achieved by the use of a trap bar; which is a hexagonal shaped bar which the lifter stands inside whilst holding the two side handles. The neutral grip provides the lifter with slightly different posturing which can help reduce the risk of injury.


title: Deadlift

text: A barbell deadlift is a compound exercise and works the gluteus maximus with further work on the quadriceps femoris, hamstrings, trapezius, lats, and erector spinae. The quadriceps, hamstrings, adductor magnus, and soleus serve as synergists during the exercise.


title: Deadlift

text: A deadlift suit is a special piece of powerlifting assistance clothing. The suits are made from very tight material. The material tightens on the squat on the way down, storing energy, that gives an extra boost with the stored tension to lift up. Thus, records are recorded with and without the suit. The starting position with a suit is slightly different to maximize use, so training with a suit is different. Wrist wraps are sometimes used to provide support, not necessarily to increase the weight lifted, as a suit does.


title: Deadlift

text: Straps can help in a deadlift in case of a weak grip. Figure 8 straps are allowed in some strongman competitions. They allow the lifter to hold the bar in his fingertips and can reduce the distance travelled by over an inch.


title: Deadlift

text: Chains and thick elastic bands can be attached to either end of the barbell in order to increase or decrease resistance at different phases of the lift. This is known as a variable resistance deadlift.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Jason Thomas Mraz (; born June 23, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come" (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", that reached the top 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. His next two studio albums, "Mr. A-Z" (2005), and "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." (2008), peaked in the top five on the "Billboard" 200; with the latter album spawning the Grammy Award winning singles "Make It Mine", and "Lucky" with Colbie Caillat.


title: Jason Mraz

text: The album's lead single "I'm Yours", reached the top ten on the "Billboard" Hot 100, while spending a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100, and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His fourth album, "Love Is a Four Letter Word" (2012), peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200, becoming his highest-charting album to date, and spawned the single "I Won't Give Up", which became his second top ten on the Hot 100.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Along with receiving two Grammy Award wins, Mraz is also the recipient of two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums, and over 11.5 million in digital singles. His musical style, from rhythmic feeling to his use of nylon string guitars, has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz was born and raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He is of Czech descent through his grandfather, who moved to the United States from Austria-Hungary in 1915. His surname is (, ). His parents, Tom (Tomáš ) Mraz and June Tomes, divorced when he was five years old, leaving Mraz to live with his father while his sister lived with his mother. His father is a postal worker, and his mother is vice president at a branch of Bank of America.


title: Jason Mraz

text: While attending Lee-Davis High School, Mraz was a member of the cheerleading squad, school chorus, and drama club. He starred as Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and as Snoopy in a play about the Peanuts characters. Mraz graduated in 1995.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz credits an early girlfriend as being one of the influences that drove him to songwriting. She encouraged him to write his thoughts on paper which helped him get "all of the voices in my head to shut up" and "become something I could follow."


title: Jason Mraz

text: After high school, Mraz attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City for about a year and a half, originally to work in musical theater. When his roommates played guitar he would provide the vocals. Eventually, a friend gave him a guitar that was about to be thrown away and Mraz learned to play and write his own music.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz moved to the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, where he took a series of odd jobs, including elementary-school janitor, and joined the Ashland Stage Company. Mraz then enrolled at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, on a scholarship. Instead of attending classes, he headed west on a road trip that ultimately brought him to San Diego, where he decided to stay.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Soon after moving to San Diego in 1999, Mraz became a roadie for the band Elgin Park. He met future band member Toca Rivera at Java Joe's, a coffee house in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego known for being formative in the careers of Jewel and Steve Poltz. Mraz performed once a week for nearly three years, building a following in San Diego and online.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz released "A Jason Mraz Demonstration" in 1999, "From the Cutting Room Floor" and "Oh Love, In Sadness (The E Minor EP in F)" in 2001, which were self-released and pressed in a limited number of copies. In 2001, Mraz released the live acoustic album "Live at Java Joe's," performing with percussionist Rivera and bassist Ian Sheridan. The album featured Mraz's freelancing vocal style and several songs he would later re-release, including "1000 Things", "You and I Both" and "Halfway Home." The album was made available to download on iTunes on March 11, 2008, under the title "". Mraz returned to perform at Java Joe's for the 15th anniversary of the album on January 29, 2016. Mraz' last self-released album was "Sold Out (In Stereo)" on March 21, 2002.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In late 2001, Mraz signed a recording contract with Elektra Records and moved to Los Angeles. In 2002, he opened for Jewel on her tour. On October 15, 2002, Mraz released his first major label debut album, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come", which peaked at number 55 on the "Billboard" 200. The first single, "You & I Both," was sent to radio stations time for the album's release, but received minimal airplay, which led Elektra to reconsider whether a mid-tempo song was the right way to introduce Mraz.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In early 2003, the label took a new approach with the more upbeat "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)." The track was co-written by music production team The Matrix, and became Mraz's first top-40 single on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at number 15, becoming one of the biggest songs of 2003. The song was inspired by a high school friend who was diagnosed with cancer. At the time of the album's release, Mraz said that he did not like "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" and had not wanted it on the album because it had started as a special and experimental song and the record label had "chalked up this chorus". The day after the album's release, Mraz played on "The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn".


title: Jason Mraz

text: Elektra would return to "You & I Both" a second time, shooting a music video and re-releasing it as the second official single.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On May 19, 2005, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come" was certified Platinum, for selling 1 million units.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz opened for Tracy Chapman in 2003 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2004, while on tour, Mraz released a live album with an accompanying DVD, "". He performed with his touring band, including drummer Adam King, Rivera, Sheridan and keyboardist Eric Hinojosa, along with a guest appearance from Blues Traveler frontman John Popper.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On July 26, 2005, Mraz released his second major label album, "Mr. A–Z", produced by Steve Lillywhite for Atlantic Records. The album's lead single, "Wordplay", was produced by Kevin Kadish, and entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 5. The album earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while Lillywhite received a nomination for Producer of the Year.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz began a long-running tour in support of "Mr. A–Z" at the San Diego Music Awards on September 12, 2005. The tour featured several opening acts, including Bushwalla and Tristan Prettyman, with whom he had written the duet "Shy That Way" in 2002. Mraz opened for Alanis Morissette during her 2005 "Jagged Little Pill Acoustic" tour, and for the Rolling Stones on five dates during their 2005–06 world tour. In March 2006, he performed in Singapore as part of the annual Mosaic Music Festival. That May, he toured mostly small venues and music festivals in the U.S., along with a few shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland where he supported James Blunt The tour included a May 6, 2006 acoustic show with P.O.D., Better Than Ezra, Live, and The Presidents of the United States of America. Mraz was featured as a headlining guest of St. Louis's annual Fair St. Louis and performed a free concert at the base of the Gateway Arch on July 1, 2006. During this time, Mraz was also the opening act at several dates for Rob Thomas' Something to Be Tour.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In 2005, Mraz was one of many singers featured in the fall advertisement campaign for The Gap entitled "Favorites", singing a cover of Bob Marley's "One Love". 2006 saw the release of "Selections for Friends", the live, online-only album recorded during the Songs for Friends Tour. In 2007, "The Beauty in Ugly", an earlier track penned by Mraz originally titled "Plain Jane", was rewritten for the ABC television show "Ugly Betty". The song was featured as a part of ABC's "Be Ugly in '07" campaign. Also that year, on "American Idol", contestant Chris Richardson performed a cover of Mraz's "Geek in the Pink".. In a 2006 concert at EBS Space Gonggam, Mraz said in an interview that he was going to make an acoustic album based on his first two albums.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On May 13, 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." The album debuted at number 3 on the "Billboard" 200. It broke into the top 10 of many international music charts, and reached number 3 in the US and Australia. In March 2009, it was certified Platinum for selling 1 million units. Mraz has said that the album title was taken from the work of Scottish artist David Shrigley. Prior to its release, Mraz released three EPs, each with acoustic versions of songs from the album.


title: Jason Mraz

text: The lead single, "I'm Yours", was written in August 2004 and originally released as a free acoustic B-side when "Mr. A-Z" came out. Through Mraz's live performances of the song, it gained in popularity with fans. When he played it at a festival in Sweden in 2007, the fans were ecstatic and singing along, after which Mraz realized the song's popularity and decided to make it the centerpiece of his next album. "I'm Yours" became Mraz's first Top 10 hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100, peaking at #6 on September 20, 2008. It ultimately spent 76 weeks on the Hot 100, longer than any other song in the magazine's 51-year history (a record since broken by Imagine Dragons with "Radioactive" in 2014). It was a major commercial success in the US, receiving a 7x multi-Platinum certification from the RIAA for digital sales of over seven million. The song was also successful internationally, topping the charts in New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, and peaking in the top ten on the charts in 11 other countries. By May 2012, it had gained over 125,000,000 hits on YouTube. It was the first song to top the charts in four different radio formats: Mainstream Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40 and Triple A. It also made the Latin Pop and Smooth Jazz charts.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz won his first two Grammy Awards in 2010, for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance ("Make It Mine") and Best Pop Collaboration ("Lucky" with Colbie Caillat). At the 2009 Grammy Awards, "I'm Yours" was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "I'm Yours" was also named ASCAP's 2010 Song of the Year.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz's 2008 world tour took him all over the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. His personal photo travelogue from the world tour was published as a book, titled "A Thousand Things" (2008). The book contains Polaroids from his time touring and backpacking around Europe, and was launched with a photo exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in New York City at the end of 2008. Also in 2008, Mraz played with Eric Clapton to a crowd of 45,000 in Hyde Park, London, sold out London's Royal Albert Hall and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo. That year also marked his Music, Magic & Make Peace Tour with Bushwalla, The Makepeace Brothers, and magician Justin Willman. Mraz brought along the magician after picking up magic as a hobby during recording sessions for "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." On January 31, 2009, Mraz was the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live", performing "I'm Yours" and "Lucky", which peaked on the Hot 100 at number 82.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In 2009, while preparing for his new album, Mraz recorded "The Way Is Love", an unreleased Roy Orbison song, as a duet with Willie Nelson. In November 2009, he released the live CD/DVD "", recorded in Chicago during the Gratitude Café tour. The following year, he went to Brazil to record "Simplesmente Todo" with Milton Nascimento, who sings in Portuguese while Mraz sings in English. He also did some writing with Dido, and recorded new material with producer Martin Terefe. Mraz then released two live EPs: the "Life Is Good" EP on October 5, 2010, and the "Live Is A Four Letter Word" EP on February 28, 2012.


title: Jason Mraz

text: "Love Is a Four Letter Word" was released on April 13, 2012. It reached number 2 on the "Billboard" 200, and the top 20 in 10 other countries. The lead single, "I Won't Give Up", debuted at number 8 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and number 1 on the Digital Songs chart. It charted in 15 countries in total, and in October 2013 was certified 4x multi-platinum, for selling in excess of 4 million units. Mraz premiered the track live during his 2011 tour, before an official version had been released. It began to receive a lot of attention through live performances, as well as online. The official lyric video gained over 2.5 million views in its first 10 days on YouTube.


title: Jason Mraz

text: "Love Is a Four Letter Word" was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. Mraz won a 2013 People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Artist. He performed at Farm Aid 2011 in Kansas City. In 2012 he played sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Madison Square Garden in New York and the O2 Arena in London, and performed at President Barack Obama and family's lighting of the national Christmas tree at the White House; a noted Obama supporter, he has also performed at numerous other events involving Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Also in 2012, he performed "You Did It" at the presentation ceremony for the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, won that year by Ellen DeGeneres.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz's fifth studio album, "Yes!", was released on July 15, 2014. It is his first acoustic album, and was recorded with all-female folk rock band Raining Jane. They had previously co-written "A Beautiful Mess" for Mraz's 2008 album "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things". Aside from a cover of the Boyz II Men song "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", every song on "Yes!" was written by Mraz and Raining Jane. The lead single, "Love Someone", was released on May 19, 2014, with Mraz performing an acoustic version of the song for "Time". On June 20, 2014, he released "We Can Take the Long Way", a music video trilogy for the first three songs on "Yes!" – "Love Someone", "Hello, You Beautiful Thing" and "Long Drive". It premiered on the "USA Today" website.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On September 27, 2017, it was announced that Mraz would make his Broadway debut in the musical "Waitress". He took on the role of Dr. Pomatter on November 3, 2017 for a 10-week run. Sara Bareilles re-joined the cast during his run and he extended his time as Dr. Pomatter playing his final show on February 11, 2018. He had previously sung "Bad Idea" and "You Matter to Me" on Sara Bareilles' 2015 album (based on the show's music) "What's Inside: Songs From Waitress".


title: Jason Mraz

text: Prior to and following his involvement in "Waitress", Mraz began work on a follow-up album to "Yes!". In June 2018, he announced his sixth studio album, "Know."—a play on the previous album's title— it was released on August 10, 2018. He referred to the new album as "bright and shiny" and a "classic-sounding pop acoustic, vocally driven record with positive lyrics and love songs."


title: Jason Mraz

text: Inspired by a blessing he received from a Buddhist monk during a trip to Myanmar in 2012, Mraz wrote the song "Have It All" with Raining Jane and producers David Hodges, JKash, and Andrew Wells. The song was released as the lead single to the new album on April 27, 2018, and accompanied by a video filmed with performing arts students from his hometown of Richmond. With the announcement of the album in June 2018, Mraz released a second track off of "Know." called "Unlonely". In July 2018, Mraz shared the lyric video for the song "More Than Friends", a duet with Meghan Trainor. On August 7, 2018, he partnered with Fathom Events on the one-night-only release of "Jason Mraz - Have It All The Movie", a concert film and behind the scenes footage of the making of the "Have It All" video, in 600 movie theaters throughout North America. On August 10, 2018, his sixth album, "Know.", was released. In 2019, he was featured on the album "The Secret" by Alan Parsons as lead vocalist of the song "Miracle". On August 13, 2019, Mraz was named the first-ever District Advocate Ambassador to continue the fight for music creators' rights. In June 2020, Jason Mraz signed a three multi-album agreement with BMG led by Vice President of A&R Jaime Neely, Executive Vice President of Repertoire & Marketing Thomas Scherer, Vice President of Marketing and Recorded Music Cyndi Lynott, and Vice President of Creative Synch Jonathan Palmer.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz was engaged to singer-songwriter and long-time close friend Tristan Prettyman on Christmas Eve 2010; they broke off the engagement six months later.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz lives a health-conscious lifestyle and has said that he eats mostly raw vegan foods. His vegan diet has also influenced his music. He owns a five-and-a-half acre avocado farm in Oceanside, California. He is an investor at Café Gratitude, a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, and named his 2011 tour Gratitude Café in its honor. His hobbies include surfing, yoga and photography.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On October 25, 2015, Mraz married his girlfriend, Christina Carano, in a private ceremony in his hometown of Mechanicsville, Virginia.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In June 2018, Mraz penned a "love letter" to the LGBT community, as part of a "Billboard" feature during gay pride month. A line in the poem, "I am bi your side. / All ways" led some media reports to state that the poem represented Mraz's coming out as bisexual. In an article published on July 19, 2018, by "Billboard", Mraz said he has had previous experiences with men, even while dating Carano. Mraz said Carano defined him as a "two-spirit", a description that was criticized by some as misappropriating a word originally designed solely for the native population, and for distorting the term's meaning. In August 2018, Mraz confirmed in an interview with the "New York Post" that he now identifies as bisexual, speaking of the burden of being closeted ("I honestly didn’t know how to come out and sing these happy love songs..."; "It was tough, 'cause not even my mom knew it, you know? [...] And I realized that’s the struggle that people in the LGBT community have. It can be a very stressful secret that we carry") and the lack of backlash once he came out ("And I think that’s the cosmic joke. We carry around these secrets, and then once you say something, nobody cares").


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz is a social activist whose philanthropic efforts span wide-ranging issues, including the environment, human rights, and LGBT equality.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In 2003, after learning one of his beer bottles was listed for sale on eBay, Mraz was inspired to auction off items of his wardrobe online, raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation.


title: Jason Mraz

text: During early tours, he encouraged his fans to drop off food items as they arrived at the venue, an effort to support local food banks.


title: Jason Mraz

text: In 2009, he participated in a rescue mission to Ghana with members of Free the Slaves, a global nonprofit working to liberate children sold into slavery. In 2012, he was featured as the first-ever straight man on the cover of "Instinct" magazine in recognition of his efforts in support of LGBT rights.


title: Jason Mraz

text: The Jason Mraz Foundation was established in 2011, with a mission to support charities in the areas of human equality, environment preservation and education. Organizations supported by the foundation include VH1's Save The Music Foundation, MusiCares, Surfrider Foundation, Free the Children, Life Rolls On, the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the True Colors Fund, which promotes LGBT equality.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz was named the 2010 Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) Humanitarian of the Year. He also received the Clean Water Award in 2010 from the Surfrider Foundation, for helping to preserve the world's oceans and beaches. That same year, he teamed up with The Nature Conservancy and created a PSA using his song "I'm Yours" to raise awareness about the nonprofit organization's efforts to protect the earth.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On December 16, 2012, Mraz headlined the Milestone Concert in Myanmar to raise awareness about human trafficking, making him the first foreign artist to play an open-air concert in Myanmar. The concert was organized by MTV EXIT and held in the People's Square in Yangon, with over 70,000 people in attendance, as part of an initiative to raise awareness about human trafficking in Myanmar. Also in 2012, Mraz spent a week in Antarctica with a group of environmentalists, scientists and researchers on a mission led by Al Gore, to learn about the effects of climate change.


title: Jason Mraz

text: Mraz is a continued supporter of WhyHunger, a grassroots support organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty in the United States. The organization was founded by late musician Harry Chapin and Radio DJ Bill Ayres in 1975.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On June 19, 2020, Mraz announced he would be donating all profits from his album "Look for the Good" to Black Lives Matter and other organizations working toward equality and justice.


title: Jason Mraz

text: On October 24, 2019, Mraz endorsed Bernie Sanders for President in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries stating, "Bernie is the perfect candidate to follow Trump & continue to shake up the system for the benefit of true American values: Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness".


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right in German politics.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 January 2022. The CDU is the second largest party in the Bundestag, the German federal legislature, with 152 out of 736 seats, having won 18.9% of votes in the 2021 federal election. It forms the CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, also known as the Union, with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The group's parliamentary leader is also Friedrich Merz.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Founded in 1945 as an interdenominational Christian party, the CDU effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer. The party also included politicians of other backgrounds, including liberals and conservatives. As a result, the party claims to represent "Christian-social, liberal and conservative" elements. The CDU is generally pro-European in outlook. Black is the party's customary and historical electoral colour. Other colours include red for the logo, orange for the flag, and black-red-gold for the corporate design.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU is currently in opposition at federal/governmental level. It previously led the federal government from 1949 to 1969, 1982 to 1998, and 2005 to 2021. Germany's three longest-serving post-war Chancellors have all come from the CDU, more specifically: Helmut Kohl (1982–1998), Angela Merkel (2005–2021), and Konrad Adenauer (1949–1963). The party also leads the governments of six of Germany's sixteen states.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU is a member of the Centrist Democrat International, the International Democrat Union, and the European People's Party (EPP). It is the largest party in the EPP with 23 MEPs. Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission, is also member of the CDU.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Immediately following the end of World War II and the foreign occupation of Germany, simultaneous yet unrelated meetings began occurring throughout the country, each with the intention of planning a Christian-democratic party. Consequently, the CDU was established in Berlin on 26 June 1945 and in Rheinland and Westfalen in September of the same year.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The founding members of the CDU consisted primarily of former members of the Centre Party, the German Democratic Party, the German National People's Party, and the German People's Party. Many of these individuals, including CDU-Berlin founder Andreas Hermes, were imprisoned for the involvement in the German Resistance during the Nazi dictatorship. In the Cold War, years after World War II up to the 1960s (see "Vergangenheitsbewältigung"), the CDU also attracted conservative, anti-communist, former Nazis as well as Nazi collaborators into its higher ranks (like Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer but also future CDU president and West German chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger). A prominent anti-Nazi member was theologian Eugen Gerstenmaier, who became Acting Chairman of the Foreign Board (1949–1969).


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The result of these meetings was the establishment of an inter-confessional (Catholic and Protestant alike) party influenced heavily by the political tradition of liberal conservatism. The CDU experienced considerable success gaining widespread support from the time of its creation in Berlin on 26 June 1945 until its first convention on 21 October 1950, at which future West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (a prominent anti-Nazi who was imprisoned during the Nazi dictatorship) was named the first Chairman of the party.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In the beginning, it was not clear which party would be favored by the victors of World War II, but by the end of the 1940s the governments of the United States and of Britain began to lean toward the CDU and significantly away from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), especially due to geopoltical reasons. The latter was more nationalist and sought German reunification even at the expense of concessions to the Soviet Union, depicting Adenauer as an instrument of both the Americans and the Vatican. The Western powers appreciated the CDU's moderation, its economic flexibility, and its value as a pivotal oppositional force to the communists, in keeping with US/UK foreign policy. Adenauer was also trusted by the British.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The party was split over issues of rearmament within the Western alliance and German unification as a neutral state. Adenauer staunchly defended his pro-Western position and outmaneuvered some of his opponents. He also refused to consider the SPD as a party of the coalition until he felt sure that they shared his anti-communist position. The principled rejection of a reunification that would alienate Germany from the Western alliance made it harder to attract Protestant voters to the party, as most refugees from the former German territories east of the Oder river were of that faith, as were the majority of the inhabitants of East Germany.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Therefore, the CDU was the dominant political party for the first two decades following the establishment of West Germany in 1949. Adenauer remained the party's leader until 1963, when former Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard replaced him. As the Free Democratic Party (FDP) withdrew from the governing coalition in 1966 due to disagreements over fiscal and economic policy, Erhard was forced to resign. Consequently, a grand coalition with the SPD took over government under CDU Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The SPD quickly gained popularity and succeeded in forming a social-liberal coalition with the FDP following the 1969 federal election, forcing the CDU out of power for the first time in its history. The CDU and CSU were highly critical of Chancellor Willy Brandt's "change through rapprochement" policy towards the Eastern bloc "(Ostpolitik)" and protested sharply against the 1970 treaties of Moscow and Warsaw that renounced claims to the former eastern territories of Germany and recognised the Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. The Union parties had close ties with the "Heimatvertriebene" associations (Germans who fled or were expelled from the eastern territories) who hoped for a return of or in these territories. Seven Bundestag members, including former vice chancellor Erich Mende, defected from the FDP and SPD to the CDU in protest against these treaties, depriving Brandt of his majority, and providing a thin majority for the CDU and CSU. In April 1972, the CDU saw its chance to return to power, calling a constructive vote of no confidence. CDU chairman Rainer Barzel was almost certain to become the new Chancellor. But not all parliamentarians voted as expected (it was later revealed that two CDU/CSU deputies had been bribed by the East German Stasi): Brandt won the vote and stayed in office. Thus, the CDU continued its role as opposition for a total of thirteen years. In 1982, the FDP withdrew from the coalition with the SPD and allowed the CDU to regain power.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: CDU Chairman Helmut Kohl became the new Chancellor of West Germany and his CDU/CSU–FDP coalition was confirmed in the 1983 federal election.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: After the collapse of the East German government in 1989, Kohl—supported by the governments of the United States and reluctantly by those of France and the United Kingdom—called for German reunification. On 3 October 1990, the government of East Germany was abolished and its territory acceded to the territory of the Basic Law already in place in West Germany. The East German CDU merged with its West German counterpart and elections were held for the reunified country. Public support for the coalition's work in the process of German reunification was reiterated in the 1990 federal election in which the CDU–FDP governing coalition experienced a clear victory. Although Kohl was re-elected, the party began losing much of its popularity because of an economic recession in the former GDR and increased taxes in the west. The CDU was nonetheless able to win the 1994 federal election by a narrow margin thanks to an economic recovery.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Kohl served as chairman until the party's electoral defeat in 1998, when he was succeeded by Wolfgang Schäuble. In the 1998 federal election, the CDU polled 28.4% and the CSU 6.7% of the national vote, the lowest result for those parties since 1949; a red–green coalition under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder took power until 2005.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Schäuble resigned in early 2000 as a result of a party financing scandal and was replaced by Angela Merkel, the first woman and the first person from East Germany to lead the federal party. She remained the leader of the CDU for more than eighteen years. In the 2002 federal election, Merkel ceded the position of CDU/CSU's joint candidate for the chancellor's office to the leader of the sister party, Bavarian minister-president Edmund Stoiber. CDU and CSU polled slightly higher (29.5% and 9.0%, respectively), but still lacked the majority needed for a CDU–FDP coalition government and stayed in opposition.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In 2005, early elections were called after the CDU dealt the governing SPD a major blow, winning more than ten state elections, most of which were landslide victories. The resulting grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and the SPD faced a serious challenge stemming from both parties' demand for the chancellorship. After three weeks of negotiations, the two parties reached a deal whereby CDU received the chancellorship while the SPD retained 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet and a majority of the most prestigious cabinet posts. The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November. Merkel was confirmed as the first female Chancellor of Germany by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November. Since her first term in office, from 2005 to 2009, there have been discussions if the CDU was still "sufficiently conservative" or if it was "social-democratising". In March 2009, Merkel answered with the statement "Sometimes I am liberal, sometimes I am conservative, sometimes I am Christian-social—and this is what defines the CDU."


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Although the CDU/CSU lost support in the 2009 federal elections, their "desired partner" the FDP experienced the best election cycle in its history, thereby enabling a CDU/CSU–FDP coalition. This marked the first change of coalition partner by a Chancellor in German history and the first centre-right coalition government since 1998. CDU candidate Christian Wulff won the 2010 presidential election in the third ballot, while opposition candidate Joachim Gauck (a Protestant pastor and former anti-communist activist in East Germany, who was favoured even by some CDU members) received a number of "faithless" votes from the government camp.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The decisions to suspend conscription (late 2010) and to phase out nuclear energy (shortly after the Fukushima disaster in 2011) broke with long-term principles of the CDU, moving the party into a more socially liberal direction and alienating some of its more conservative members and voters. At its November 2011 conference the party proposed a "wage floor", after having expressly rejected minimum wages during the previous years. Psephologist and Merkel advisor Matthias Jung coined the term "asymmetric demobilisation" for the CDU's strategy (practised in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 campaigns) of adopting issues and positions close to its rivals, e.g. regarding social justice (SPD) and ecology (Greens), thus avoiding conflicts that might mobilise their potential supporters. Some of the promises in the CDU's 2013 election platform were seen as "overtaking the SPD on the left". While this strategy proved to be quite successful in elections, it also raised warnings that the CDU's profile would become "random", the party would lose its "essence" and it might even be dangerous for democracy in general if parties became indistinguishable and voters demotivated.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: President Wulff resigned in February 2012 due to allegations of corruption, triggering an early presidential election. This time the CDU supported, reluctantly, nonpartisan candidate Joachim Gauck. The CDU/CSU–FDP coalition lasted until the 2013 federal election, when the FDP lost all its seats in the Bundestag while the CDU and CSU won their best result since 1990, only a few seats short of an absolute majority. This was partly due to the CDU's expansion of voter base to all socio-structural groups (class, age or gender), partly due to the personal popularity of Chancellor Merkel. After talks with the Greens had failed, the CDU/CSU formed a new grand coalition with the SPD.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Despite their long-cherished slogan of "There must be no democratically legitimised party to the right of CDU/CSU", the Union has had a serious competitor to its right since 2013. The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded with the involvement of disgruntled CDU members. It drew on the discontent of some conservatives with the Merkel administration's handling of the European debt crisis (2009–14) and later the 2015 refugee crisis, lamenting a purported loss of sovereignty and control or even "state failure". Nearly 10 percent of early AfD members were defectors from the CDU.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In 2017 the Bundestag voted to legalise same-sex marriage. Merkel had allowed the conscience vote to happen despite her personal objections. While she herself and the majority of the party's representatives voted against the proposal, a number of CDU deputies supported it. In the 2017 election, the CDU and CSU lost a large portion of their voteshare: With 26.8 percent of party list votes, the CDU received its worst result since 1949, losing more than fifty seats in the Bundestag (despite an enlargement of the parliament). After failing to negotiate a coalition with the FDP and Greens, they continued their grand coalition with the SPD. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would step down as leader of the CDU that December and not seek reelection, but wanted to remain as Chancellor until 2021.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: On 7 December 2018, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as federal chairwoman of the CDU. Kramp-Karrenbauer was considered Merkel's ideological successor, though holding more socially conservative positions, such as opposition to same-sex marriage. Kramp-Karrenbauer's election saw a rise in support for the CDU in national polling, and her personal popularity was initially high. However, she suffered a sharp decline in popularity in the lead-up to the 2019 European Parliament election, in which the CDU/CSU suffered its worst ever result in a national election with just 29%. Kramp-Karrenbauer thereafter remained one of the least popular politicians nationally.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CSU's Manfred Weber was the "Spitzenkandidat" for the European People's Party in the 2019 European Parliament election. However, the EPP group ultimately nominated the CDU's Ursula von der Leyen as their candidate for President of the European Commission; she was elected in July 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the office.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned as party chair on 10 February 2020, in the midst of the 2020 Thuringian government crisis. The Thuringian CDU had been perceived as cooperating with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to prevent the election of a left-wing government, breaching the long-standing taboo in Germany surrounding cooperation with the far-right. Kramp-Karrenbauer was perceived as unable to enforce discipline within the party during the crisis, which she claimed was complicated by unclear positions within the party regarding cooperation with the AfD and The Left, which party statute holds to be equally unacceptable. While the Thuringia crisis was the immediate trigger for Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation, she stated the decision had "matured some time ago", and media attributed it to the troubled development of her brief leadership.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Kramp-Karrenbauer remained in office as Minister of Defence and interim party leader from February until the leadership election was held in January 2021. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ultimately held online. Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet won the election with 52.8% of delegate votes. His main opponent Friedrich Merz, was seen as more right-wing, who won 47.2% of vote; Merz had also run against Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018 and been defeated. Laschet's election was seen as an affirmation of Merkel's leadership and the CDU's centrist orientation.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: On 7 October 2021, Armin Laschet, signaled that he would step down after a disastrous general election result, with the CDU suffering its worst general election result since the 1949 West German federal election. A new leadership election was called in December and Friedrich Merz, of the right-wing faction of the CDU, was elected by a large majority of 62,1% of voters, defeating pro-Merkel candidates Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun. The Congress of the CDU officially elected Merz as new party Chairman on 22 January 2022, and he assumed office on 31 January 2022.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: While Adenauer and Erhard co-operated with non-Nazi parties to their right, the CDU has later worked to marginalize its right-wing opposition. The loss of anti-communism as a political theme, secularization and the cultural revolutions in West Germany occurring since the 1960s have challenged the viability of the CDU.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In her 2005 campaign, Angela Merkel was unwilling to express explicitly Christian views while maintaining that her party had never lost its concept of values. Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert have been keen to clarify that CDU references to the "dominant culture" imply "tolerance and living together". According to party analyst Stephan Eisel, her avoiding the values-issue may have had the opposite effect as she failed to mobilize the party's core constituency.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU applies the principles of Christian democracy and emphasizes the "Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God". However, CDU membership consists of people adhering to a variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from political Catholicism, Catholic social teaching and political Protestantism as well as economic liberalism and national conservatism. The party has adopted more liberal economic policies since Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998).


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: As a conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and involvement on the part of the Bundeswehr in cases of domestic anti-terrorism offensives. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses and aims to further control immigration. Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In terms of foreign policy, the CDU commits itself to European integration and a strong relation with the United States. In the European Union, the party opposes the entry of Turkey, preferring instead a privileged partnership. In addition to citing various human rights violations, the CDU also believes that Turkey's unwillingness to recognise Cyprus as an independent sovereign state contradicts the European Union policy that its members must recognise the existence of one another.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU has governed in four federal-level and numerous state-level Grand Coalitions with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as in state and local-level coalitions with the Alliance '90/The Greens.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU has an official party congress adjudication that prohibits coalitions and any sort of cooperation with either The Left or the Alternative for Germany.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The party congress is the highest organ of the CDU. It meets at least every two years, determines the basic lines of CDU policy, approves the party program and decides on the statutes of the CDU.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU party congress consists of the delegates of the CDU regional associations, the foreign associations and the honorary chairmen. The state associations send exactly 1,000 delegates who have to be elected by the state or district conventions. The number of delegates that a regional association can send depends on the number of members of the association six months before the party congress and the result of the last federal election in the respective federal state. The foreign associations recognized by the federal executive committee each send a delegate to the party congress, regardless of their number of members.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The federal committee is the second highest body and deals with all political and organizational matters that are not expressly reserved for the federal party congress. For this reason it is often called a "small party congress".


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU federal executive heads the federal party. It implements the resolutions of the federal party congress and the federal committee and convenes the federal party congress. The CDU Presidium is responsible for executing the resolutions of the federal executive committee and handling current and urgent business. It consists of the leading members of the federal executive board and is not an organ of the CDU in Germany.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Before 1966, membership totals in CDU organisation were only estimated. The numbers after 1966 are based on the total from 31 December of the previous year. In 2018, the CDU had 420,240 members.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: In 2012, the members' average age was 59 years. 6% of the Christian Democrats were under 30 years old. A 2007 study by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation showed that 25.4% of members were female and 74.6% male. Female participation was higher in the former East German states with 29.2% compared to 24.8% in the former West German states.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Both the CDU and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) originated after World War II, sharing a concern for the Christian worldview. In the Bundestag, the CDU is represented in a common faction with the CSU. This faction is called CDU/CSU, or informally the Union. Its basis is a binding agreement known as a "Fraktionsvertrag" between the two parties.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU and CSU share a common youth organisation, the Junge Union, a common pupil organisation, the , a common student organisation, the Ring Christlich-Demokratischer Studenten and a common "Mittelstand" organisation, the .


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU and CSU are legally and organisationally separate parties; their ideological differences are sometimes a source of conflict. The most notable and serious such incident was in 1976, when the CSU under Franz Josef Strauß ended the alliance with the CDU at a party conference in Wildbad Kreuth. This decision was reversed shortly thereafter when the CDU threatened to run candidates against the CSU in Bavaria.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The relationship of CDU to the CSU has historic parallels to previous Christian-democratic parties in Germany, with the Catholic Centre Party having served as a national Catholic party throughout the German Empire and the Weimar Republic while the Bavarian People's Party functioning as the Bavarian variant.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU. The CSU and the state of Bavaria decided not to sign the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany as they insisted on more autonomy for the individual states. The CSU has actively participated in all political affairs of the Bundestag, the German government, the Bundesrat, the parliamentary elections of the German President, the European Parliament and meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is the think-tank of the CDU. It is named after the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and first president of the CDU. The foundation offers political education, conducts scientific fact-finding research for political projects, grants scholarships to gifted individuals, researches the history of Christian democracy and supports and encourages European unification, international understanding and development-policy cooperation. Its annual budget amounts to around 120 million euro and is mostly funded by taxpayer money.


title: Christian Democratic Union of Germany

text: The CDU does not contest elections in Bavaria due to the alliance with Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria.


title: James Newton Howard

text: James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores include "Pretty Woman" (1990), "The Fugitive" (1993), "Space Jam" (1996), "Peter Pan" (2003), "King Kong" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008) which he composed with Hans Zimmer, and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016). He has collaborated extensively with directors M. Night Shyamalan and Francis Lawrence, having scored eight of Shyamalan's films since "The Sixth Sense" (1999) and all of Lawrence's films since "I Am Legend" (2007).


title: James Newton Howard

text: Howard was born in Los Angeles. He is from a musical family; his grandmother was a violinist. His father was Jewish but he did not want his children to know he was, so he changed his last name from Horowitz to Howard.


title: James Newton Howard

text: Howard began studying music as a child, taking classical piano lessons at the age of four. He went on to attend the Thacher School in Ojai, California and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California with Reginald Stewart and Leon Fleischer. He then attended the University of Southern California, studying at the School of Music as a piano performance major, but dropped out after 6 weeks because "He wanted to do other things than practicing the piano."


title: James Newton Howard

text: After Howard left college, he joined a short-lived rock band called Mama Lion. The band was led by Neil Merryweather (bass, backing vocals) and featured lead singer Lynn Carey, Coffi Hall on drums, and Rick Gaxiola on guitar. Mama Lion recorded two full-length albums. Members of Mama Lion also formed the band Heavy Cruiser with Merryweather now on lead vocals, recording two albums whose genre was closer to hard rock but also displayed psychedelic and progressive influences. He then worked for a couple of years as a session musician with artists including Diana Ross, Ringo Starr, and Harry Nilsson. In the early 70s, he described himself as being "dirt poor", until his big break in 1975 when his manager got him an audition with Elton John. He joined John's band and toured with them as keyboardist during the late 70s and early 80s. He was part of the band that played Central Park, New York, on September 13, 1980. Howard also arranged strings for several of John's songs during this period including the hits "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", and played additional keyboards and synthesizers on studio albums including "Rock of the Westies" (1975), "Blue Moves" (1976), "21 at 33" (1980), and "The Fox" (1981).


title: James Newton Howard

text: In 1982, Howard was featured on "Toto IV" as the strings conductor and orchestrator for "I Won't Hold You Back", "Afraid of Love", and "Lovers in the Night". In 1984 the Sheffield Lab direct-to-disc album "James Newton Howard and Friends", was released, which featured Toto's David Paich (keyboards), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Jeff Porcaro (drums), and Joe Porcaro (percussion).


title: James Newton Howard

text: In 1983, Howard was co-producer, musician (keyboards), and orchestrator of Riccardo Cocciante's album "Sincerità".


title: James Newton Howard

text: In 1984, Howard composed his first piece of score for a film, receiving a co-writing credit with David Paich for the cue "Trip to Arrakis" in Toto's music for the David Lynch film "Dune".


title: James Newton Howard

text: After briefly touring with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, he took an opportunity brought to him by his manager to write a score for a film. This career move would lead to his becoming a successful film music composer. During this early foray into film music, he did not entirely abandon his previous musical path and returned for a brief collaboration with Elton John on his Tour De Force of Australia in the fall of 1986. He conducted both his own and Paul Buckmaster's arrangements during the second half of the set, which focused on orchestrated performances of selected songs from the Elton John catalog.


title: James Newton Howard

text: Howard scored the surprise blockbuster romantic comedy "Pretty Woman" (1990) and received his first Academy Award nomination for his score for Barbra Streisand's drama "The Prince of Tides" (1991). Setting the musical mood for numerous films throughout the decade, Howard's skills encompassed a plethora of genres, including four more best original score Oscar nominations, for the Harrison Ford action feature "The Fugitive" (1993), the Julia Roberts romantic comedy "My Best Friend's Wedding" (1997), M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" (2004), and "Michael Clayton" (2007). In addition, Howard scored the Western epic "Wyatt Earp" (1994), Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" (1995), and "Primal Fear" (1996). His collaborations on songs for "One Fine Day" (1996) and "Junior" (1994) garnered Oscar nominations for Best Song. Along with scoring small-scaled, independent films such as "Five Corners" (1988), "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992), and "American Heart" (1993), Howard proved equally skilled at composing for big-budget Hollywood spectacles, including "Space Jam" (1996), "Dante's Peak" (1997) (theme only – score was composed by John Frizzell), and "Collateral" (2004). He has also scored four Disney animated feature films: "Dinosaur" (2000), "" (2001), "Treasure Planet" (2002), and "Raya and the Last Dragon" (2021). Although he concentrates primarily on films, Howard has also contributed music for TV, earning an Emmy nomination in 1995 for his theme to NBC's ratings smash "ER" (Howard also scored the two-hour pilot); he also provided the themes for "The Sentinel" and "Gideon's Crossing", winning an Emmy for the latter.


title: James Newton Howard

text: He has scored many of Shyamalan's suspense thrillers, "The Sixth Sense" (1999), "Unbreakable" (2000), "Signs" (2002), "The Village" (2004), "Lady in the Water" (2006), "The Happening" (2008), and "The Last Airbender" (2010), notably dropping the intense, yet subtle, opening credit music for "The Sixth Sense" from the corresponding soundtrack album.


title: James Newton Howard

text: On October 14, 2005, Howard replaced Howard Shore as composer for "King Kong", due to "differing creative aspirations for the score" between Shore and director Peter Jackson. The resultant score earned Howard his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score. His work on "Michael Clayton" earned him an Oscar nomination. He followed in 2008 with his eighth Oscar nomination for Edward Zwick's "Defiance". He also collaborated with Hans Zimmer on the scores for "Batman Begins" and its record-breaking sequel "The Dark Knight".


title: James Newton Howard

text: Further works were "The Happening", his sixth film with M. Night Shyamalan, "Blood Diamond", "Michael Clayton", "", "I Am Legend", "Charlie Wilson's War", and Shyamalan's film adaptation of the Nickelodeon series "."


title: James Newton Howard

text: Howard debuted his work for symphony orchestra, "I Would Plant A Tree," in February 2009 as part of the Pacific Symphony's annual American Composers Festival. The debut took place at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, California, with the Symphony under the direction of Carl St.Clair.


title: James Newton Howard

text: After being replaced in later seasons, his original theme song for the hit TV show "ER" returned for the final episode of the series.


title: James Newton Howard

text: In September 2010, he was appointed visiting professor of media composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.


title: James Newton Howard

text: From 2012 to 2015, James Newton Howard scored the music for the critically acclaimed "Hunger Games" franchise.


title: James Newton Howard

text: From 2014 to 2015, Howard saw major success with "" when he composed the score for the movie, which included "The Hanging Tree", featuring vocals from actress Jennifer Lawrence. The song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest-charting single from "The Hunger Games" movies and both Howard's and Lawrence's first chart single.


title: James Newton Howard

text: Howard composed the score for the fantasy drama "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", a spin-off/prequel of the "Harry Potter" film series, and for its sequels, "" and "".


title: James Newton Howard

text: In 2015, James Newton Howard was named the new artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.


title: James Newton Howard

text: On March 23–24, 2019, "Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra" gave the world premiere of Howard's Concerto for Cello & Orchestra with LACO principal cello Andrew Shulman as the soloist. The "Los Angeles Times" described the work as having "an elegiac tone, along with thematic material from the beginning and closing titles of "Red Sparrow"" the score of which Howard was working on while first composing the concerto.


title: James Newton Howard

text: When delving into his family history, twenty-five years after the death of his father, Howard learned that his father was Jewish (the family's original surname was "Horowitz"). Although raised Protestant, Howard later became a practicing Reconstructionist Jew.


title: James Newton Howard

text: James Newton Howard was married to Rosanna Arquette in 1986, they divorced one year later. In 1992, he married Sophie Howard and they have two children: Jackson and Hayden.


title: James Newton Howard

text: In 2009, he was awarded a Grammy alongside Hans Zimmer for the score soundtrack album to "The Dark Knight".


title: James Newton Howard

text: In October 2015, he was honored with the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award during the annual Hollywood in Vienna concert.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a 2014 first-person shooter video game published by Activision. The eleventh major installment in the "Call of Duty" series, the game was developed by Sledgehammer Games for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, while High Moon Studios developed the versions released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and Raven Software developed the game's multiplayer and the Exo-Zombies mode.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: "Advanced Warfare" was the first "Call of Duty" title to be developed primarily by Sledgehammer, following the supporting work the studio did on "" alongside Infinity Ward in 2011. Though the game was released on November 4, 2014, a special edition entitled the "Day Zero Edition", which came with bonus in-game content, was released on November 3 for people who pre-ordered the game.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Before the development of "Advanced Warfare", Sledgehammer were originally working on a game set during the events of the Vietnam War. Development for "Advanced Warfare" began in late 2011, shortly before the release of "Modern Warfare 3". The game became the first entry in the "Call of Duty" series since "Call of Duty 2" to feature a game engine that has had its majority re-written and built from scratch. For the game's single-player campaign mode, Sledgehammer employed veteran actors Troy Baker and Kevin Spacey in lead roles. The game's story features a futuristic setting, set between 2054 and 2061, and follows Jack Mitchell of the United States Marine Corps and his involvement with Atlas, a private military corporation that sells its services to the highest bidder.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" was released to a positive critical reception and was declared an improvement over its predecessor, "". Many critics praised the visuals, voice acting, single-player campaign, the fast, dynamic, and exciting gameplay, and content-rich multiplayer, but some criticized the predictable plot in the single player campaign. The game won several awards and was considered a commercial success.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: "Advanced Warfare", like the other "Call of Duty" titles, is presented in a first-person shooter perspective. The game features several significant changes; unlike other installments, "Advanced Warfare" does not use a traditional heads-up display (HUD); instead, all information is relayed to the player via holographic projections from the weapon equipped. The general gunplay remains unchanged, apart from new mechanics, such as 'Exo' movements. These Exo movements are performed from the Exoskeleton, which allow the player to boost, dash, and sky jump. The game is the first in the "Call of Duty" series that allows the player to choose differing types of conventional weaponry; for example, the game features regular conventional firearms, but the player can choose to use laser or directed energy weaponry, both of which have differing attributes. In addition to Exo movements, the game features different Exo abilities, such as Exo Cloak, which allows players to turn transparent for stealth for a period of time.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: The single-player campaign features one playable character, Jack Mitchell, as opposed to multiple characters in most previous "Call of Duty" games. It uses pre-rendered cinematic cut scenes, similar to "", to assist in the story aspect of the campaign. After each mission, the player is given a certain number of upgrade points that can be used to upgrade the Exo suit or weapons. The player can upgrade detection, armor, resistance, tactical, lethal grenade, sprint, recoil, flinch, reload, quick aim, and battery. The number of points that are given is determined by the players performance in the missions. The player may earn additional points by completing specific side objectives, one of which is collecting the game's collectable 'Intel'. The player can switch between different grenades, all of which possess distinctly different abilities.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Apart from the Exo movement, "Advanced Warfare"s multiplayer retains certain similarities to previous "Call of Duty" titles. The Pick 10 system in "Black Ops II" returns as Pick 13, allowing players to pick weapons, attachments, perks and score-streaks within a total of 13 allocation points. Score-streaks are also upgradable with different modules, allowing for additional abilities/effects, at an extra score cost. "Advanced Warfare" introduces weapon variants, which contain various different stats compared to the base weapons. This allows the game to contain over 350 weapons, both variants and base versions. Supply drops allow players to earn new gears through playing the game. The content of each supply drop is randomized, and can range from weapon variants to player customization items, as well as bonus experience points (XPs) time. Players can complete daily challenges to earn supply drops.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Exo Survival was first introduced as "Advanced Warfare"s cooperative game mode. Considered to be a new version of the Survival Mode from "Modern Warfare 3", Exo Survival allows up to four players to engage in a wave-based match against A.I.-controlled enemies. Players can choose from four different classes of Exo, which grant different abilities and score-streaks. Weapons and score-streaks can be upgraded throughout each match. After a certain number of rounds, players are given objectives to perform, such as defending a location, or collecting intel from fallen enemies. Completing the objectives grant players bonus upgrade points; not completing them result in the players being punished, such as having their Exo suits temporarily disabled or activating hostile security turrets. Exo Survival is played on the game's multiplayer maps, with a total of 13 maps divived into four tiers. Each tier can be unlocked by playing the previous tier and survive a specific number of rounds.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Exo Zombies was first teased at the end of the Exo Survival map "Riot", and was officially announced with the "Havoc" downloadable content (DLC) pack. The game features zombies that utilize exo suits, giving them more maneuverability. The game mode stars five brand new characters.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Exo Zombies plays similarly to the original Zombies game mode that has been featured in Treyarch's "Call of Duty" games since "": up to four players must survive against endless waves of undead enemies, with an optional story quest that can be completed at any time during a match. Players earn points by injuring and/or killing zombies, and use those points to open doors/clear obstacles, or buy new weapons and perks to strengthen their chance of survival. Players can also acquire exo suits in the game mode, allowing them to utilize new movements. Different types of zombies are present in the game, including Charger zombies that have increased movement speed, and Electro-magnetic zombies (EMZs) that can disable the players' Exo suit in close proximity.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: The first Exo Zombies map, "Outbreak", was released as part of the "Havoc" DLC map pack. The second map, "Infection", was released as part of the "Ascendance" DLC pack. The third map, "Carrier", was released as part of the "Supremacy" DLC pack. The final map, "Descent", was released as part of the "Reckoning" DLC pack.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: In 2054, United States Marines Private First Class Jack Mitchell (Troy Baker) and Private Will Irons (Paul Telfer) help repel a North Korean invasion of Seoul, under the command of Sergeant Cormack (Russell Richardson). During the fight, Will is mortally wounded and Mitchell loses his arm, resulting in him being medically discharged. Following Will's funeral, Mitchell accepts a position at the Atlas Corporation, a private military corporation, by its CEO Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey), Will's father, and is given a prosthetic arm.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: A terrorist group called the KVA, composed of former Chechen separatists led by Joseph "Hades" Chkheidze (Sharif Ibrahim), begins staging attacks. Mitchell, Gideon (Gideon Emery), and other Atlas operatives rescue the Nigerian Prime Minister and capture a KVA technologist in Lagos during an international summit. By 2055, Mitchell and his team fail to prevent a more sophisticated KVA from forcing a nuclear reactor meltdown on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The KVA launch simultaneous attacks against nuclear power plants worldwide, irradiating numerous cities and killing thousands. Atlas emerges as the world's dominant military force by aiding displaced civilians and repelling the KVA.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: In 2059, Mitchell and Gideon are dispatched to Detroit to find and capture Dr. Pierre Danois (Erik Passoja), the KVA's second-in-command. Danois reveals that Hades is at Santorini, Greece, where the KVA is holding a conference. In Greece, Mitchell finds and kills Hades; before dying, Hades warns them of Irons and gives Mitchell a data chip. Atlas operative Ilona (Angela Gots) analyzes the chip. It reveals that Irons killed the NVA technologist after learning of the global attacks, and deliberately allowed them to happen to improve Atlas' profit. Irons attempts to have Mitchell and Ilona arrested by Atlas military police, but they escape Atlas' headquarters in New Baghdad, guided by an unidentified soldier, while Gideon stays with Irons for further investigation. The soldier reveals himself to be Cormack, now a member of the Sentinel Task Force, a Tier One global US-led task force created to investigate the KVA, but now re-purposed to prevent Atlas' rise to power.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: In 2060, Mitchell, Cormack, Ilona, and Knox (Khary Payton) infiltrate Irons' private residence in Bangkok. The team discovers that Danois is collaborating with Irons to produce a bio-weapon called "Manticore". They track and intercept a plane carrying Manticore bound for Argentina, which crashes in Antarctica. Gideon helps the Sentinels defeat the Atlas soldiers, allowing them to retrieve a sample of Manticore. They discover that the weapon is designed to attack the specific DNA of an individual and kill them; the only exceptions are Atlas members. Sentinel and Gideon infiltrate and destroy an Atlas bio-weapons laboratory in Bulgaria, destroying many Manticore samples. With his plan revealed, Irons declares war on the United Nations General Assembly, believing that the world would be better off without wars if Atlas were in control. The team discovers that, despite destroying the laboratory, Irons is planning a preemptive strike on the United States via an Atlas attack in San Francisco. Atlas destroys the Golden Gate Bridge, trapping the United States Navy's Third Fleet in the Bay Area in an attempt to destroy them, but are stopped by Sentinel forces. The United States and the rest of the world declare war on Atlas, forcing Irons to retreat to his headquarters in New Baghdad.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: In 2061, the Sentinels and the United States Army attack New Baghdad to capture Irons. However, Atlas releases Manticore, killing Knox and most of the troops. Being former Atlas soldiers, Mitchell, Ilona, and Gideon are spared. They and Cormack are captured and brought to an Atlas prison camp, which runs Manticore experiments on its inmates. The team escape the facility, but not before Irons shoots Cormack and severely damages Mitchell's prosthetic arm. After Cormack dies, the others discover that Irons is preparing to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles loaded with Manticore against every military base in the world. Using armored battlesuits, Mitchell and Gideon launch an assault on Atlas' headquarters and destroy the missiles. They find Irons as the other Sentinels prepare to bombard the building, but Irons disables their exoskeletons. Mitchell chases and tackles Irons at the edge of the building; Irons hangs onto Mitchell's prosthetic arm, but Mitchell severs it, sending Irons falling to his death. Gideon pulls Mitchell from the ledge, and Mitchell notes that the war against Atlas is far from over.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Following a failed attempt to contain a riot at a prison in New Baghdad, Atlas releases the Manticore bioweapon in order to quell the uprising. However, instead of killing the rioters, the Manticore bomb reanimates them as zombies. 3 Atlas platoons are sent in to cage the undead forces, but only one survives, and the others are brought back to an Atlas research facility for further studies. The research is carried out in secret, without the knowledge of the employees, in a hidden area known as Sublevel 6. One night, the captured zombies break out of their containment and overrun the facility. Amidst the chaos, four Atlas employees - ex-Sentinel Task Force operative and Atlas janitor Oz (John Malkovich), Atlas IT specialist Lilith (Rose McGowan), Atlas security officer Decker (Jon Bernthal), and Atlas executive Kahn (Bill Paxton) - attempt to evacuate, but both of their rescue helicopters are destroyed. The four survivors mount a last stand against the zombie horde, but are eventually overwhelmed. However, they are rescued by Atlas forces, who then take them to an urban facility, for medical treatment. When the four survivors recover, they are thrown into another battle against the infected, ensuring the survival of not only themselves but also innocent citizens trapped in the vicinity.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: Eventually, the group is rescued by Sentinel Task Force operatives, but their leader, Captain Lennox (Bruce Campbell), claims that Oz is the source of the zombie infection. Lennox executes Oz and has Lilith, Decker and Kahn injected with anesthetic. However, Atlas forces ambush them and reclaim the ex-Atlas employees. Sentinel tracks them down, leading them to an Atlas aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean. Oz, however, begins to reanimate while being transported on one of the Sentinel's transports. Upon arrival within the carrier, Lennox locates the three Atlas survivors and leads them in battle against the combined forces of the zombies and Atlas soldiers. Lennox reveals to the other three that Oz was once part of Sentinel, and that he was present at the prison when Atlas released the Manticore bomb, making him one of the first people infected. He also claims that Oz was planted in Kahn's facility by Atlas in order to start the zombie outbreak. The group decides to sink the carrier to the bottom of the ocean, in order to prevent the infection from spreading. They set the ship to self-destruct, but before they can extract in an emergency pod, they briefly encounter Oz, now fully zombified while retaining his intelligence.


title: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

text: The group escapes and decides that Oz must be eliminated, and head to a nearby Atlas underwater survival facility, the Trident Retreat. Oz, however, has already arrived at the facility and murdered all Atlas employees within the base. The group bands together for one final battle against the undead horde, including Oz himself. After undertaking various challenges set by Oz, they are teleported into a digital representation of Oz's memory, where Kahn, Lilith and Decker learn the truth: while they are immune to the Manticore virus' effect, they can be used as a cure for the infection, unlike Oz. Having finished all of Oz's challenges, the group finally confronts him and discovers he has mutated into a monstrous figure. After a long fight, Oz is finally killed, and the group proceeds to burn his mutated corpse, vowing vengeance against Atlas. In the aftermath of the incident, Lennox is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and he helps Decker enlist in Sentinel as a full-fledged soldier; Kahn files a lawsuit against Atlas, with the help of Lilith, who now works as a hacktivist. Unbeknownst to the group, Atlas has already created clones of Oz, all kept hidden under the Trident facility.