text: Later, in the 2021 assembly election, the AIADMK, which had the support of the same National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and a few other smaller parties, won 66 seats compared to the DMK's 133 seats and was pushed out of power by the DMK-led secular progressive alliance. After the election, the AIADMK emerged as the main party of the opposition in the assembly. On 11 May 2021, party joint coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami was recognized as the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, and on 14 June 2021, party coordinator O. Panneerselvam was recognized as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly by M. Appavu, Speaker of the Assembly.


title: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

text: After that, V. K. Sasikala and T. T. V. Dhinakaran had appealed to the Delhi High Court, which rejected their appeal and said that O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami were the original AIADMK.


text: Following that, T. T. V. Dhinakaran filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of India on March 15, and the bench of the Chief Justice of India dismissed his appeal against the Delhi High Court's decision in favor of the O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami camp.


text: Following this, the General Council passed a resolution removing V. K. Sasikala from the post of General Secretary. V. K. Sasikala and T. T. V. Dhinakaran jointly filed a suit in the High Court challenging the decision of the General Council. Since it was a civil case, the case was transferred to the City Civil Court. During the hearing on 9 April 2021, Dinakaran told the court that he would withdraw from the case as he had started a party called Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam. At the same time, Sasikala told the court that she wanted to continue the case. The court dismissed her plea following an interlocutory application from AIADMK Coordinator O. Panneerselvam and Joint Coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami.


text: In June 2022, the AIADMK and BJP were at odds publicly. AIADMK organisation secretary C. Ponnaiyan accused the BJP-led Central government of stealing Tamil Nadu's revenue, as well as blaming AIADMK for election losses, the loss of minority community support, and "anti-Tamil" policies, particularly those affecting students. He also called the alliance an "electoral adjustment," claiming that the BJP was attempting to expand at the cost of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and that its ideology is diametrically opposite that of the AIADMK. The event reportedly had party cadres reiterating these sentiments, albeit in a lighter tone, and agreeing that the BJP was attempting to wrest control of the state's opposition from the AIADMK.


text: On 14 June 2022, citing the party's troubles in the polls, AIADMK district secretaries and other senior party members spoke out to shun the "dual leadership" system and came out publicly in favor of a strong unitary leader to strengthen the organisation.


text: Supporters of Edappadi K. Palaniswami pushed for the change in the party's leadership structure by staging a political coup against AIADMK Coordinator O. Panneerselvam, who had become weak within the party. According to many sources, of the AIADMK's 75 district secretaries, hardly 10 supported him. Of the party's 66 MLAs, only three were reportedly on O. Panneerselvam's side, and less than 20 percent of the party's general council members were behind him ahead of the crucial general council meeting on 23 June 2022, which was expected to elect the single leadership to the party.


text: On 23 June 2022, A. Tamil Magan Hussain was unanimously elected as the Presidium Chairman of the party at a general council meeting held at the Shrivaaru Venkataachalapathy Palace in Vanagaram, Chennai. On the same day, Presidium Chairman Tamil Magan Hussain announced that the next general council meeting of the party would be held on 11 July 2022.


text: On 30 June 2022, Edappadi K. Palaniswami wrote a letter to O. Panneerselvam asserting the latter ceased to be the party coordinator as the amendments made to the party's bylaw in the December 2020 executive committee meeting were not recognised in the general council meeting held on 23 June 2022.


text: On 11 July 2022, an AIADMK general council meeting was held at the Shrivaaru Venkataachalapathy Palace in Vanagaram following the dismissal of a petition by O. Panneerselvam in the Madras High Court. The party general council abolished the dual leadership model, empowered Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the interim general secretary, and called for organisational elections in 4 months. Before the general council meeting, there was violence at the Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai in Royapettah, where the supporters of Palaniswami and Panneerselvam threw stones, bottles, and plastic chairs at each other and damaged several vehicles nearby. Following this, the Revenue Department of Tamil Nadu sealed the Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai. Overall, 47 people were injured in the clashes.


text: The general council meeting made 20 amendments to the AIADMK bylaws, including the removal of rule 20, which had described J. Jayalalithaa as the "eternal general secretary,"  reviving the post of general secretary, transferring all the powers of the coordinator and joint coordinator to the general secretary, and abolishing the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator. These changes effectively ended the party's dual leadership.


text: In the general council meeting held on 11 July 2022, the general council members passed the resolution and expelled the former coordinator O. Panneerselvam, the former deputy coordinator R. Vaithilingam, P. H. Manoj Pandian, and J. C. D. Prabhakar from their respective posts and primary membership in the party for "anti-party" activities.


text: On 11 July 2022, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K. Palaniswami was unanimously elected as the interim general secretary of the party in the general council meeting held at the Shrivaaru Venkatachalapathy Palace in Vanagaram, Chennai. Palaniswami appointed Dindigul C. Srinivasan as the treasurer of the party, replacing O. Panneerselvam. On 19 July 2022, Palaniswami appointed R. B. Udhayakumar as the deputy leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, replacing Panneerselvam, who declared this in the party's legislative members meeting held on 17 July 2022.


text: On 20 July 2022, the Madras High Court ordered to remove the seal of Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai and hand over the keys to the interim general secretary, Edappadi K. Palaniswami. It was previously locked and sealed on 11 July 2022. On 12 September 2022, the Supreme Court of India dismissed the petition of O. Panneerselvam challenging the Madras High Court's order to handover the keys to Palaniswami.


text: The Madras High Court on 17 August 2022 ruled in favor of O. Panneerselvam and declared the AIADMK general council meeting held on 11 July 2022 which had abolished dual leadership as void ab initio. The court called for the restoration of the status quo as it existed on June 23 and has prevented the party from convening any meeting of the executive council or the general council of the party without joint consent from both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, thus effectively restoring dual leadership. The court cited procedural lapses to declare the general council meeting held on July 11, invalid and found that there was no data to prove Edappadi K. Palaniswami's claim that 95% of the 1.5 crore (15 million) primary party members supported unitary leadership under him.


text: Edappadi K. Palaniswami appealed the single-judge court order to a larger bench of judges. Following the order, O. Panneerselvam appealed for party unity, which included the splinter AMMK group. Palaniswami dismissed this appeal as a power-hungry move by Panneerselvam and held him responsible for violence at the Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Maaligai.


text: On 2 September 2022, a division bench of the Madras High Court upheld the decisions of the AIADMK general council meeting held on 11 June 2022, and set aside the previous court order of the single judge in the appeal case of Edappadi K. Palaniswami, thus effectively restoring unitary leadership.


text: Being a popular actor, M.G.R.'s fan clubs became a source for electoral mobilization. The head of his fan club, R. M. Veerappan, became a lieutenant, and fellow actress J. Jayalalithaa was groomed as a possible heir apparent. During M.G.R.'s reign, there was a near-collapse of the administrative system, and the state's rank in industrial production fell from third in the country in 1977 to thirteenth in 1987. Populist schemes that consumed two-thirds of the state's budget resulted in long-term economic costs. M.G.R. was running a centralised administration, which took a severe toll on the state administration during his extended period of illness.


text: J. Jayalalithaa was also accused of creating a personality cult, with fans and party activists calling her "Amma" (meaning "mother" in Tamil). Her face adorned food canteens, pharmacies, salt packets, laptop computers, baby care kits, bottled water, medicine shops, and cement bags. Following her imprisonment on 27 September 2014, her supporters held protests and wept openly. Her replacement, the party's former chief minister, O. Panneerselvam, also wept during his inauguration, with colleagues saying they were in mourning. Due to the centralised leadership of Jayalalithaa, the state of Tamil Nadu experienced policy paralysis, with most legislators and party cadres protesting against her convictions with hunger fasts and road and rail blockades. The entire Cabinet would fall into line and bow in front of the helicopter in which it was flying. Members of the party, at all levels, never found it difficult to prostrate before her in full view of the public. Even after her death, the AIADMK leaders continued to prostrate themselves before her tomb in the M.G.R. and Jayalalithaa Memorial Complex.


text: The overall debt burden of Tamil Nadu is expected to reach more than 5 lakh crore by March 31, 2022, during the AIADMK government. In 2011, the state debt as a percentage of GSDP increased by about 5% during J. Jayalalithaa and the AIADMK's tenure. It was 16.92% in 2011–12. It was 21.83% as of April 2021, during the Edappadi K. Palaniswami government. The opposition criticised the financial mismanagement by the AIADMK, which left 62 thousand per person in the state. The opposition criticised the fact that the entire debt of the state government in the 2006–11 DMK regime was only 44 thousand crore, but the AIADMK regime has a debt of 3.55 lakh crore. The overall debt the AIADMK government left behind as of 31 March 2021, is estimated to be 4,85,502.54 crore, and as of 31 March 2022, it is estimated to be 5,70,189.29 crore.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the "Pokémon" franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devices with GPS to locate, capture, train, and battle virtual creatures, called Pokémon, which appear as if they are in the player's real-world location. The game is free-to-play; it uses a freemium business model combined with local advertising and supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items. The game launched with around 150 species of Pokémon, which had increased to around 700 by 2021.


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Pokémon Go" was released to mixed reviews; critics praised the concept but criticized technical problems. It was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide by the end of the year. It is credited with popularizing location-based and AR technology, promoting physical activity, and helping local businesses grow due to escalated foot traffic. However, it attracted controversy for contributing to accidents and creating public nuisances. Various governments expressed concerns about security, and some countries regulate its use. The game had over monthly active users by May 2018, over a billion global downloads by early 2019, and grossed more than in revenue by 2020.


title: Pokémon Go

text: After establishing a game account, players create and customize their own avatars. Once created, an avatar is displayed on a map based on the player's geographical location. Features on the map include 'PokéStops' and 'Pokémon Gyms'. These PokéStops can be equipped with items called 'Lure Modules', which attract additional wild, and occasionally rare, Pokémon. Gyms serve as battle locations for team-based king of the hill matches. PokéStops and Gyms are typically located at places of interest. These locations were initially re-purposed portals from "Ingress", Niantic's previous augmented reality (AR) game. This has led to PokéStops and Pokémon Gyms being placed at dangerous or inconvenient locations, such as a now-deleted Gym at the Korean Demilitarized Zone and Bagram Airforce Base, which was abandoned by U.S. forces in July 2021. Since 2019, these locations also include submissions from "Go" players which are largely reviewed by other players.


title: Pokémon Go

text: As players move within their real world surroundings, their avatars move within the game's map. Different Pokémon species reside in different areas of the world; for example, Water-type Pokémon are generally found near water. When a player encounters a Pokémon, it may be viewed either in AR mode or with a live rendered, generic background. If the player flees, the Pokémon will face the spot it was last engaged, except Nosepass, which will always face north because of its Pokédex entry. AR mode uses the camera and gyroscope on the player's mobile device to display an image of a Pokémon as though it were in the real world. Players can take screenshots of the Pokémon they encounter either with or without the AR mode activated.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Although the game is free to play, it supports in-app purchases, where players can purchase additional Poké Balls and other in-game items. These items include Incense, which attracts Pokémon to the player as they move for sixty minutes, Lure Modules, which players use at PokéStops to attract Pokémon to their current location near the PokeStop, and Lucky Eggs, which double experience points gained for a thirty-minute period from use. All Pokémon are displayed with a Combat Power, which is a rough measure of how powerful that Pokémon is in battle. Generally, as players level up, they catch Pokémon with higher CP and Pokémon are somewhat harder to catch. The player can check how strong their Pokémon are by the "Appraisal" system.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Unlike most other installments in the "Pokémon" series, players in "Pokémon Go" do not battle wild Pokémon to catch them. During an encounter with a wild Pokémon, a player may throw a Poké Ball at it by flicking it from the bottom of the screen up toward the Pokémon. If the Pokémon is caught, it will come under the ownership of the player. Factors in the success rate of catching a Pokémon include the Pokémon's catch rate, the timing, the type of Poké Ball used, etc. After catching a wild Pokémon, the player is awarded two types of in-game currencies: Candies and Stardust. The Candies awarded by a successful catch depend on what evolutionary chain a Pokémon belongs to. A player can use Stardust and Candies to raise a Pokémon's level and hence "Combat Power" (CP). However, only Candies are needed to evolve a Pokémon, except for certain Pokémon that might need special items. Each Pokémon evolution tree has its own type of Candy, which can only be used to evolve or level up. The maximum level a player can achieve is originally level 40, but expanded to 50 as of November 30, 2020. The player can also transfer the Pokémon back to the Pokémon Professor Willow to earn more Candies and create room for more Pokémon. Shiny Pokémon are available through multiple ways, mostly by chance. One popular goal of the game is to complete the entries in the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon logbook, by catching and evolving them to collect every one in it.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In September 2016, Niantic introduced a "Buddy Pokémon" feature, which allows players to pick a Pokémon to appear alongside them on the profile screen, and receive in-game rewards and bonuses based on the chosen Pokémon. The feature was released later that month. Certain Pokémon have different distances that they need to be walked in order to receive candy. The more the player walks in real time, the more candy they can earn. During the same update, Niantic made it impossible for players with rooted or jailbroken devices to log into the game in an effort to reduce and prevent cheating.


title: Pokémon Go

text: On January 20, 2018, "Pokémon Go" held the first Community Day, a monthly event that increases the appearance rate of a specific Pokémon and offer an exclusive move to the final evolution of the featured Pokémon only if caught or evolved during the event window. Players also have a higher chance to catch the Shiny variant of the featured Pokémon. The first Community Day featured Pikachu, with the exclusive move Surf to Raichu.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game is regularly updated with new Pokémon, and as of March 25, 2022, there are just over 730 Pokémon in the game (not including regional varieties) out a total 898.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Regional Pokémon are often released together, such as Hoenn region Pokémon released in December 2017, Alolan variants in May 2018, Sinnoh region Pokémon(along with the Sinnoh Stone item used to evolve them) released in October 2018, Unova region Pokémon (and the Unova Stone) in September 2019, Kalos region Pokémon in December 2020, and again more Alola region Pokémon in March 2022.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Mythical and legendary Pokémon are often released individually (or in pairs/trios) in special events or quests. The first Legendary Pokémon released was Groudon, in December 2017. The Mythical Pokémon Meltal and its evolved form, Melmetal are so far the only Pokémon to have made their debut on Pokémon Go. Their release coincided with the release of on the Nintendo Switch, "Pokémon Go" introduced the new Mythical Pokémon Meltan originally as a teaser, later to be available to capture only in Pokémon Go via a "Mystery Box" item that could be obtained through transferring Pokémon from "Pokémon Go" to either Nintendo Switch Pokémon games, or by completing new Research Tasks.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In August 2020, Mega Evolution came to "Pokémon Go" with four Pokémon able to Mega Evolve into five forms.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Players earn experience points for various in-game activities. Players rise in level as they earn experience points (XP), with various features being progressively unlocked. Most-notably, at level five, the player can battle at a Pokémon Gym and join one of three color-coded teams (red for Team Valor, blue for Team Mystic, or yellow for Team Instinct), which act as factions battling for control of Gyms within the "Pokémon Go" world.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In June 2017, Niantic announced that the game mechanics of Gyms would be revamped for a more teamwork-oriented experience; Gyms were disabled on June 19, 2017, with the new Gyms being released with the next app update a few days later. As of the update, Gyms included a spinnable component to receive in-game items such as Potions and Poké Balls. Additionally, Gyms are capped at containing six Pokémon, each of which must be unique in that Gym. Coins are now earned based on the amount of time the defending Pokémon has been in a Gym, as opposed to a one-per-day gym defender bonus of 10 coins per current defending Pokémon. Legendary, Mythical and Buddy Pokémon cannot be placed in Gyms.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In July 2017, Raid Battles were introduced. Raid Battles consist of a group of players gathering to confront an over-leveled Pokémon located in a Gym. If the Pokémon is defeated, the players gain the chance to catch a regular version of it. Raid difficulties range from 1 to 5, with 1 being of the lowest difficulty, and 5 being the most difficult to defeat. Level 5 raids are exclusive to Legendary Pokémon. The first of these, Articuno and Lugia, were released on July 22, 2017, after the Go Fest, with Moltres and Zapdos following. From September to November, the 3 Legendary Beasts: Entei, Raikou and Suicune, were released shortly after, rotating regions every month. Following their departure, the Legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh appeared in Raid Battles from November 27, 2017, to December 12, 2017. In August 2020, level 3 Mega raids arrived with the introduction of Mega Evolution. At the same time, Level 2 and 4 raids were combined into Level 1 and 3 raids.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In May 2022, Raid Battle were updated to include the addition of Mega Legendary Pokémon, which were turned to 6 stars, the highest currently in the game. The only Pokémon included in these Raids were Mega Latios and Mega Latias.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In October 2022, a new form of raid battle called "Elite Raids" were introduced. Elite Raids differ to normal raids in a number of ways, most notably that they can only be battled in person, take 24 hours to start, and are extremely difficult, often requiring a large number of players to defeat the Pokémon. The only Pokémon featured in Elite Raids so far has been the "Unbound" form of Hoopa.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In December 2018, Niantic added player vs player Trainer Battles. In January 2020, Niantic rolled out an online battle format Go Battle League which allows players to fight other players worldwide. Unlike the Trainer Battles format introduced in 2018, Go Battle League does not require physical proximity, scanning QR code on each other's phone, knowing each other's friend code, or any other real-world interactions between players. Instead, participating players are automatically paired by the game server via some variant of the Elo rating system.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In July 2019, "Pokémon Go" introduced Team GO Rocket battles. Team GO Rocket NPCs could be battled at PokéStops indicated with it twitching and being a dark color or in Team GO Rocket Balloons which follow the player on the map. After victory, the player has the opportunity to capture a "Shadow Pokémon" which are relatively low-leveled, angry-looking Pokémon. Shadow Pokemon have a higher attack stat but a lower defense stat than a normal Pokémon. After capture, the player can choose to purify the Shadow Pokémon. Purified Pokémon are higher-leveled than their Shadow counterparts, can learn an exclusive move when purified, and need fewer candies to evolve.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The concept for the game was conceived in 2014 by Satoru Iwata of Nintendo and Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokémon Company as an April Fools' Day collaboration with Google, called the . Ishihara was a fan of developer Niantic's previous transreality game, "Ingress", and saw the game's concept as a perfect match for the "Pokémon" series. Niantic, a subsidiary of Google, used the crowdsourced data from "Ingress" to populate the locations for PokéStops and gyms within "Pokémon Go", data from Google Maps to spawn specific Pokémon on certain terrain, and map display from OpenStreetMap since December 2017. The game's application logic uses the open source Kubernetes system - and due to the game's sheer scale of users, a number of bugs with the Kubernetes system was discovered and later fixed. Niantic was spun off from Google as an independent company in 2015 following the company reorganization into Alphabet Inc.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In 2015, Ishihara dedicated his speech at the game's announcement on September 10 to Iwata, who had died two months earlier. Tatsuo Nomura, who joined Niantic in 2015 after he developed the Google Maps Pokémon Challenge, acted as Director and Product Manager for the game. The game's soundtrack was written by longtime "Pokémon" series composer, Junichi Masuda, who also assisted with some of the game's design. Among the game's graphic designers was Dennis Hwang, who previously created the logo of Gmail while working for Google.


title: Pokémon Go

text: On March 4, 2016, Niantic announced a Japan-exclusive beta test would begin later that month, allowing players to assist in refining the game before its full release. The beta test was later expanded to other countries. On April 7, it was announced that the beta would expand to Australia and New Zealand. Then, on May 16, the signups for the field test were opened to the United States. The test came to an end on June 30.


title: Pokémon Go

text: At the Comic-Con 2016, John Hanke, founder of Niantic, revealed the appearances of the three team leaders: Candela (Team Valor), Blanche (Team Mystic), and Spark (Team Instinct). Hanke conveyed that approximately 10% of the ideas for the game were implemented. Future updates, including the addition of trading, more Pokémon, implementation of Pokémon Centers at PokéStops, a patch for the "three step glitch", and easier training, were also confirmed. He also stated that Niantic would be continuing support for the game for "years to come". In an interview with TechCrunch in September 2016, Hanke hinted that player vs. player Pokémon battles would be released in a future update. In December 2016, coffeehouse chain Starbucks and telecommunications company Sprint collaborated with Nintendo to add PokéStops and gyms at certain locations of theirs throughout the United States. That same month, a companion app for Apple Watch devices was released, which allows users to receive notifications about nearby Pokémon, but does not allow for them to be caught. In January 2017, an additional 5,000 more Starbucks locations became available as gyms. In February 2017, an update was released which introduced over 100 species based in the Johto region from the second generation of the core Pokémon series, which were added alongside the original 151. The update also included the addition of new berries, new Pokémon encounter mechanics, and an expanded selection of avatar clothing options. Some of the Pokémon introduced in "Ruby and Sapphire" were added in late 2017, starting with a Halloween event in October and 50 more in December. A weather system was added alongside the latter, allowing real-world weather to affect gameplay. In November 2018, a game developed by Game Freak and heavily inspired by "Pokémon Go", was released on the Nintendo Switch. This game will feature "Pokémon Go" style catching with Joy-Con and there has integration between the two games. In addition, new Pokémon Meltan was revealed in September, becoming the first new Pokémon to be released through "Pokémon Go". On October 10, 2018, The Pokémon Company and Niantic announced plans to introduce Pokémon from "Diamond and Pearl" into "Pokémon Go". On October 12, Niantic teased one of the Generation IV Pokémon that would be coming to "Pokémon Go". On October 25, a feature known as Adventure Sync was announced, which will record the player's walking data in the background. On October 26, Niantic announced research tasks for Bug type Pokémon that will give players a chance to catch Shedinja throughout November.


title: Pokémon Go

text: According to John Hanke in a January 2019 interview with "Business Insider", 2018 saw "Go" become the game initially envisioned by Niantic.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In 2020, Niantic made major changes to gameplay mechanisms to account for the COVID-19 pandemic which saw many players unable to leave their homes to play. These development shift saw changes like the addition of indoor step tracking to count toward in-game distance challenges, long distance PVP battles, increased "incense" effectiveness, increased spawn points, and a doubled player radius.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The "Pokémon Go" Plus is a Bluetooth Low Energy wearable device, developed by Nintendo's Platform Technology Development division, that allows players to perform certain actions in the game without looking at their smart device. When a player is near a Pokémon or PokéStop, the Plus vibrates. The player can then press the button to capture the Pokémon or receive items from the PokéStop; the player cannot check what they have received until the next time they sign into the app onto their mobile device. The design consists of a Poké Ball and the shape of the Google Maps pin. The decision to create the device rather than create a smartwatch app was to increase uptake among players for whom a smartwatch is prohibitively expensive. It was released in the United Kingdom and North America on September 16, 2016.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game's official launch began on July 6, 2016, with releases in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Due to server strain from high demand upon release, Niantic CEO John Hanke stated that the release in other regions was to be "paused until Niantic was comfortable" fixing the issues. European releases started on July 13, and the game became available to most of the continent over the following ten days. The Japanese launch was initially reported to be on July 20; however, the game was delayed after a sponsorship deal with fast food chain McDonald's was leaked, instead releasing two days later. Although the game was proposed to be released in France on July 15, it was postponed until July 24 out of respect and due to safety concerns following a terrorist attack in Nice on July 14. Following the shut down of third-party apps and websites in late-July 2016—significantly reducing server strain—Niantic was able to continue pushing release worldwide. Central and South America and most of Southeast Asia subsequently saw releases in early August. Indonesia was the first Asian country to have the game playable, despite the game not being officially released in that region until August 6.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In South Korea, the game was not officially released as major restrictions on the use of online mapping data exist. However, due to a glitch, a small area around Sokcho in the northeastern part of the country was considered a part of Niantic's North Korea mapping region, making the game fully playable in that area. Numerous people took advantage of the gap to play the game. Bus tickets from the capital city of Seoul sold out and people living within Sokcho shared information on free Wi-Fi areas to tourists. Players also discovered a gym in Panmunjom, along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; however, Niantic later removed it from the game. Following the release of "Pokémon Go" in Japan, parts of Busan also became playable as parts of the city are considered part of Japan's mapping area due to the proximity of Tsushima Island. The game officially released in the country in January 2017.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In mainland China, Google services are banned by the Great Firewall, whereas the GPS function in the game is blocked by Niantic. Players of "Pokémon Go" in China have to download the game with App Store IDs from other regions and use VPN to access Google services in order to load the game, and some even use a GPS spoofing app to bypass the GPS blocking. Some players also downloaded a clone app called "City Spirit Go", which was released shortly after "Pokémon Go" beta test in Japan. As of 2020, the official game is still unplayable in most parts of China with GPS modules being blocked in-game.


title: Pokémon Go

text: During its launch in Southeast Asia in August 2016, the game officially excluded Myanmar, but users in Thailand discovered that the game was fully playable in border cities near the nation. The game was released in the Balkans, Macau, and Central Asia in September 2016, and was also released throughout Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia by the end of the year.


title: Pokémon Go

text: On September 11, 2018, the game appeared in Russia's App Store and Google Play Store over two years after the first launch. However, Niantic did not officially announce the release.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Investors were buoyed by the response to the initial release of "Pokémon Go" on July 7, with Nintendo's share price rising by an initial 10% and by July 14 shares rose to as high as 50%. Despite Nintendo only owning a 32% stake in The Pokémon Company and an undisclosed stake in Niantic, Nintendo's market value increased by US$9 billion within five days of release of "Pokémon Go". The trend continued for more than a week after the game's release and by July 19, the stock value of Nintendo more than doubled as compared to pre-release. Turnover sales reached a record-breaking ¥703.6 billion (US$6.6 billion); and trading of the stock accounted for a quarter of all trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board. The "Financial Times" believed that investors were speculating not on "Pokémon Go" as such, but on future Nintendo app releases being as successful as the company moves more into the mobile app market—an area they were historically reluctant to enter in the belief it would cannibalise its portable console and video game sales. Nintendo plans to release four more smartphone app games by March 2017, and investors remarked that "Pokémon Go" showed Nintendo still has some of the "most valuable character intellectual property in the world" with franchises such as ""Super Mario"", "The Legend of Zelda", and "Metroid".


title: Pokémon Go

text: By July 22, Nintendo gained ¥1.8 trillion ($17.6 billion) in market capitalization since the game's launch. However, following clarification from Nintendo that the company did not produce "Pokémon Go" nor had tangible financial gains from it, its stock fell by 18%—equating to a ¥708 billion ($6.7 billion) loss in market value—on July 25. This was the largest single-day decline for Nintendo since 1990 and the maximum one-day exchange of finances allowed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company has an approximate 13% "effective economic stake" in the game, according to Macquarie Securities.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The surge in stocks extended beyond Nintendo, with Tomy, TV Tokyo, and the Bank of Kyoto, among other companies, all seeing significant gains. Similarly, Zagg, which owns a company that manufactures battery cases, saw a 25% rise in its stock in relation to "Pokémon Go".


title: Pokémon Go

text: At launch, the game suffered from frequent server outages due to extreme usage. The global server usage expectation for the game was surpassed within 15 minutes of the game's release in Australia and New Zealand, and peaked at 50 times expected traffic, or 10 times the expected worst-case scenario. Frequent crashes and authentication errors plagued the game's release and persisted for several days. For the first two days after launch, players were unable to access the game through their Pokémon Trainer Club accounts; only Gmail-based accounts were able to gain access to the game. Servers again suffered frequent outages in Australia on July 11; players blamed people in the United Kingdom for bypassing local servers and using Australian ones to play the game before its official release. On July 16, a few hours after the release in many European countries, the game's servers temporarily went down. The outage was claimed by a hacking group called "PoodleCorp", who said they used a DDoS attack to take them down, although the problem was fixed later that day. The next day, the servers went down again as the game was launched in Canada. John Hanke issued an apology for the server issues at San Diego Comic Con 2016, stating "we weren't provisioned for what happened".


title: Pokémon Go

text: Some early iOS installs of "Pokémon Go" required users to provide the app with full access to their Google accounts, thereby allowing the app to "access players' Gmail-based email, Google Drive-based files, photos and videos stored in Google Photos, and any other content within their Google accounts". The Pokémon Company and Niantic responded to the concerns, recognizing that the iOS app, at the time, "... erroneously requests full access permission for the user's Google account ..." However, Adam Reeve—the person who initially made claims of the security issues in a Tumblr post—later backtracked on his claim and was not "100 percent sure" it was valid. Dan Guido, CEO of the security company Trail of Bits, analyzed the app's programming and discovered that although the game did request full account access, this did not enable third-party usage as initially conveyed. Guido found that this did enable Niantic to access people's email addresses and phone numbers unintentionally. A subsequent iOS app update reduced the scope of access. Niantic also issued a statement assuring users that no information was collected nor was any information beyond what was necessary to use the app accessed.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Alongside server issues, "Pokémon Go" suffered from several glitches. One of the more prominent bugs appeared in mid-July 2016 and rendered the game's tracking feature useless. Normally, this feature shows between zero and three footprints to inform the player of how close they are to a nearby Pokémon; however, it universally became "stuck" at three steps, earning it the name "three-step-glitch". Niantic removed the footstep feature altogether on July 30, sparking criticism from players. By August 1, players reported a new glitch that swaps their captured Pokémon with another creature at random. Another bug, confirmed by Niantic in August, inadvertently made capturing Pokémon more difficult. Some legendary Pokémon, which are rare and powerful versions of the creatures, were also obtained by players in a glitch, though they were later removed from the accounts of the trainers to keep the game fair.


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Pokémon Go" released to "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Upon release, critics called the experience enjoyable, but noted the game's technical issues.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Critics praised various aspects of "Pokémon Go". Oscar Dayus ("Pocket Gamer") said that the game was an immensely enjoyable experience and continued with how "the very personal nature of catching Pokémon in your own neighborhood made me smile more than any game has for years". Jeremy Parish ("US Gamer") compared the game and its social aspects to a massively multiplayer online game. Reviewers also praised the game enabling the promotion of physical exercise. Terri Schwartz ("IGN") said it was "secretly the best exercise app out there" and that it changed her daily walking routine. Patrick Allen ("Lifehacker") wrote an article with tips about how to work out using "Pokémon Go". Julia Belluz ("Vox") said it could be the "greatest unintentional health fad ever" and wrote that one of the results of the game that the developers may not have realized was that "it seems to be getting people moving". Users took an extra 194 steps per day once they started using the app, which approximated to 26% more than usual. "IGN" named it the 100th best video game of all time in 2018.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Philip Kollar and Allegra Frank ("Polygon") both agreed that "Pokémon Go" was "an exciting social experience", but were not sure how long the game and its popularity would last, stating it could either last for coming years or "end up as a brush fire craze that the whole gaming world is talking about for a few weeks and then is forgotten".


title: Pokémon Go

text: Other critics expressed more negative opinions of the game, with many citing frequent crashes and other technical issues, along with shallow gameplay. Kallie Plagge ("IGN") said that although the game lacked in polish and depth, the overall experience made up for it. Matt Peckham ("Time") criticized the game for its frequent crashes. Mike Cosimano ("Destructoid") also took issue with the game, saying the original idea showed promise, but was improperly executed. Kat Brewster ("The Guardian") wrote that although she thought "Pokémon Go" was not a good game, it was "a great experience". The server problems also received negative press. Miguel Concepcion ("GameSpot") said that although he enjoyed the game's strong social appeal and visual design, the game's "initial iteration is a buggy mess on all levels", with one of the reasons being the constant server problems. Another glitch that appeared a few days after launch was the "three-step glitch", reviewers also gave this bug negative press. Patricia Hernandez ("Kotaku") said, "the three step glitch adds to what has been a terrible launch for "Pokémon Go"". Paul Tassi ("Forbes") said that due to this bug it's "anyone's best guess where Pokémon are 99% of the time" and that it "renders almost all traditional methods of tracking pointless". Critics also emphasized on the large gap between the rural and urban players. Rural players seem to be at a major disadvantage when playing the game, while city players have access to more PokéStops and Gyms.


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Pokémon Go" rapidly rose the American iOS App Store's "Top Grossing" and "Free" charts. The game has become the fastest game to top the App Store and Google Play, beating "Clash Royale", and it became the most downloaded app on the App Store of any app in their first week. Within two days of release, it was installed on more than 5% of Android devices in the United States, according to SimilarWeb, According to Sensor Tower, the game was downloaded more than 10 million times within a week of release, becoming the fastest such app to do so, and reached 15 million global downloads by July 13. According to SurveyMonkey the game became the most active mobile game in the United States ever with 21 million active users on July 12, eclipsing "Candy Crush Sagas" peak of 20 million. By July 15, approximately 1.3 million people were playing the game in the Netherlands, despite the app not being officially released in the country at the time. On the day of release in Japan, more than 10 million people downloaded the game, including 1.3 million in the first three hours. By July 31, the game exceeded 100 million downloads worldwide, according to App Annie and Sensor Tower. On August 8, "Pokémon Go" reached the milestone of over 100 million downloads on Google Play alone after barely 33 days on the market.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Through in-game purchases, the game generated more than by the end of July 2016, with App Annie reporting that "Pokémon Go" had generated around in revenue every day that month. The same month, Sensor Tower reported that the game had passed more than in worldwide revenue, beating every existing record set by Clash of Clans and Candy Crush by a wide margin. On August 12, 2016, the "Financial Times" reported that "Pokémon Go" reached in revenue after five weeks counting only the U.S., British, and German markets. The average daily usage of the app on Android devices in July 2016 exceeded that of Snapchat, Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Due by the game's massive popularity, several app developers became focused on developing similar AR apps using available software development kits (SDK). By September 2, 2016, "Pokémon Go" had generated more than $440 million in worldwide revenue, according to Sensor Tower. By September 30, it had received downloads and grossed in 80 days, according to market research firm Newzoo. Pokémon Go reached the milestone of $600 million in revenue after only 90 days on the market, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Besides in-game purchases, partnerships with retail chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, Sprint, pay Niantic Labs for "Foot Traffic" on-demand of the retail shops.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game was awarded five "Guinness World Records" in August 2016: most revenue grossed by a mobile game in its first month (); most downloaded mobile game in its first month (130 million downloads); most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month (top game in 70 different countries); most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month (top grossing in 55 countries simultaneously); and fastest time to gross $100 million by a mobile game (reached in 20 days on July 26). By September 2016, "Pokémon Go" had been downloaded over 500 million times worldwide, and became the fastest game to make over $500 million in revenue. "Pokémon Go" was awarded the App Store's breakout hit of 2016. "Pokémon Go" was reported to be the most searched game on Google in 2016.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Usage of the game in the United States peaked on July 15, and by mid-September, had lost 79% of its players there. "Forbes" said "the vaguely curious stopped playing and the more committed players ran up against a fairly unsatisfying endgame". In October 2016, Niantic released a Halloween-themed event, which saw a surge in revenue up to 133% as reported by Sensor Tower, placing the game back to top of the charts of highest grossing apps. It was reported that the game earned approximately $23.3 million between October 25 and 29, up from approximately $10 million between October 18 and 22. According to App Annie, "Pokémon Go" grossed an estimated in 2016.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In February 2017, "Pokémon Go" was awarded being the best app at the Crunchies award event. By February 2017, the game has been downloaded more than times worldwide, with a reported in revenue made, becoming the fastest mobile game ever to do so. By June 2017, the game was downloaded more than 750 million times, with an estimated revenue of according to Apptopia. According to mobile app research firm Apptopia, approximately 60 million users were still playing the game a year after launch. In May 2018, The Pokémon Company announced that the game reached over 800million downloads worldwide. "Forbes" estimated that the game may have come close to 900million downloads by September 2018. The top five countries where it has received the most downloads are the United States (21%), Brazil (9.3%), India (8.6%), Mexico (5.5%), and Indonesia (5%). As of February 2019, the game has been downloaded by over 1billion people worldwide.


title: Pokémon Go

text: A report from SuperData Research ranked "Pokémon Go" as the 9th highest grossing mobile game of 2017, with an annual revenue of . Bloomberg estimated that "Pokémon Go" generated up to in total revenue by late 2017. Two years from its initial launch, analyst firm Sensor Tower estimated the game had grossed over from in-app purchases, reporting that players around the world continue to spend each day. SuperData Research reported that, in May 2018, "Pokémon Go" grossed in monthly revenue and had monthly active players, its highest since Summer 2016. In July 2018, "Pokémon Go" was the top-grossing mobile app of the month. Since the introduction of trading and friends features, Sensor Tower has reported that players spend an average of per day. Apptopia reported that, by September 2018, the game had grossed over from in-app purchases; the top five countries where it has received the most revenue are Japan (), the United States (), Germany (), the United Kingdom (), and Australia (). It was the fourth highest-grossing game of 2018, with , and in 2019 alone "Pokémon Go" earned , according to Superdata Research, a division of Nielsen Media Research. "Pokémon Go" live events earned in tourism revenue during 2019. According to Sensor Tower in November 2020, "Pokémon Go" had accumulated nearly unique installs and generated almost in revenue from in-game purchases via the iOS App Store and Google Play. Its largest market in terms of both installs and revenue is the United States, followed by Japan and Germany in revenue and by Brazil and Mexico in installs.


title: Pokémon Go

text: During 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing restrictions on the ability of players to play "Go" outside their homes, Niantic implemented new features which allowed players to play the game from inside their homes, and this was credited with increasing its playerbase throughout the year despite the restrictions. Despite a brief drop early in the pandemic, the number of monthly active users of the game rose by 45 percent between January and August 2020, and the game's revenue in 2020 was the highest in its history, exceeding even its 2016 revenue. The game generated more than of revenue in the first 10 months of 2020 according to Sensor Tower, and it was the top-grossing mobile game of December 2020. "Pokémon Go" was one of the top five highest-grossing games of 2020 with an annual revenue of according to SuperData Research, bringing the game's cumulative revenue to by 2020. The game generated a further in the first half of 2021.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game was referred to as a "social media phenomenon" which has brought people together from all walks of life. 231 million people engaged in 1.1 billion interactions that mentioned "Pokémon Go" on Facebook and Instagram in the month of July. Numerous media outlets referred to the surge in popularity as ""Pokémon Go" Mania", or simply "Pokémania". The massive popularity of the game resulted in several unusual positive effects. For example, the game placed players where they can help catch criminals and report crimes in progress, although it has also placed some in harm's way, and has even aided law enforcement's community relations, albeit with caveats. Businesses also benefited from the nearby presence of PokéStops (or them being PokéStops themselves) with the concomitant influx of people, and the intense exploration of communities has brought local history to the forefront. The game was also seen bringing its players to places of worship, as many Pokégyms are located there. Despite some criticism by religious leaders, this was received positively by religious groups, who saw it as reminding adherents to come and pray. Some establishments considered purchasing lures in the game to attract additional players to PokéStops on their property. Within a week of its release, a secondary market emerged for the game, both for the resell of high-level accounts on Craigslist and PlayerUp, and for the sale of expert advice on Thumbtack. Wireless provider T-Mobile US started an offer for free data for a year for "Pokémon Go" sessions, and Yelp added a filter that only shows businesses which have a PokéStop nearby. National parks across the United States saw an influx of visitors due to the game, with "hundreds or thousands" of people visiting the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C. on the weekend following "Pokémon Go" release in the country. Small museums with PokéStops placed at exhibits also reported increased attendance, such as the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Boca Raton, Florida. Charity organizations also sought engagement from players, with animal shelters offering dog walks to people who want to hatch eggs.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Eduardo Paes, then-mayor of Rio de Janeiro, stated that he hoped the app would be released in Brazil before the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics in the city (and it was, on August 3), and United States presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton mentioned the app during their 2016 election campaigns. In late July 2016, during a public address, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, compared a political issue about the date of an incoming referendum as preposterous as the hunt for the Pokémon. Shortly after the game's release, Bellator mixed martial artist Michael Page celebrated a knockout of his match opponent, Evangelista Santos by putting on a red Ash Ketchum-like hat and rolling a prop Poké Ball in Santos's direction. On July 25, Dwayne Johnson released a promo video featuring MatPat and Ali-A with himself as a tough, rare Pokémon.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game was credited for popularizing AR, and was praised by genderfluid groups for letting the players choose a "style" instead of "gender". The game also had a positive impact among individuals with autism. The "Pokémon Theme" from the animated series saw a 630% increase in listeners on music streaming platform Spotify during the month of the game's release. Meanwhile, streaming services such as Hulu experienced an increased viewership of the "Pokémon" series and films. Nintendo reported that sales of the 3DS Pokémon games rose as a result of the game's popularity. A Twitch channel, "Twitch Plays Pokémon Go", was created that mimics the crowd-played "Twitch Plays Pokémon" channel, allowing viewers to direct a virtual avatar in the game using an iPhone programmed to spoof its location. Niantic later issued permanent bans to those who cheated the game by means such as GPS spoofing and bots. "Pokémon"-themed pornography increased in popularity after the release of the game. xHamster, an adult video streaming website, reported that within 5 days of the game's release, "Pokémon" related terms were the most searched for videos. Another adult video streaming website, Pornhub, reported that "Pokémon" related searches spiked 136%. "Pokémon Go" was spoofed in the Maroon 5 music video, "Don't Wanna Know". In the 2016 "Doctor Who" Christmas special, "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", the Doctor creates a distraction by "flood[ing] the downstairs with Pokémon", causing the people to run off with their cell phones. In the episode "Looking for Mr. Goodbart" from the 28th season of "The Simpsons", the people of Springfield become addicted to "Peekimon Get", a parody of "Pokémon Go".


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Go"s release resulted in a resurgence in popularity for the "Pokémon" franchise as a whole. The "Pokémon Sun" and "Moon" games for the Nintendo 3DS, released later in 2016, was the best-selling video game for the 3DS with over 16 million copies sold, and this was partly attributed to the new fans to the series brought in by "Go". In an interview, director of "Sun" and "Moon" Shigeru Ohmori remarked that the "Ultra Sun" and "Ultra Moon" sequels were designed partly to facilitate entry for newcomers to the franchise brought in by "Go". The first "Pokémon" games for the Nintendo Switch, , took significant inspirations from "Go". A line of official "Go" merchandise was released in November 2019.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In addition to standard gameplay, the game has held several in-game and live events. The first live event officially held by Niantic was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, in May 2017. In July 2017, a community event was held in Grant Park, Chicago, in honor of the first anniversary of the game's release. Despite the fact that almost no information about the event, including ticket prices and attractions, was released by Niantic ahead of the ticket sale, over 20,000 tickets sold out within a half hour. During the event itself, attendees suffered connectivity issues and crashes, due to the heavy amount of localized cellular activity. Afterwards, Niantic announced that they would refund everybody who bought a ticket, as well as give them $100 of in-game currency. Following the event, around two dozen attendees filed suit against Niantic, seeking travel reimbursement.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Following the event in Chicago, other events have been held in Chester, Yokohama, and San Jose. In September 2017, a series of events named "Safari Zone" was held in Unibail-Rodamco shopping centers in Oberhausen, Paris and Barcelona, with events the following month in Copenhagen, Prague, Stockholm and Amstelveen.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In January 2018, Niantic announced monthly community event Community Day which aims to get players to meet up in their local areas. During a multi-hour period, players can encounter more frequent wild spawns of a particular Pokémon, an exclusive move for that Pokémon (or its evolution), an increased probability for the shiny form of that Pokémon, and bonuses such as extra stardust or XP. The Community Days in 2018 featured Pikachu (January 20), Dratini (February 24), Bulbasaur (March 25), Mareep (April 15), Charmander (May 19), Larvitar (June 16), Squirtle (July 8), Eevee (August 11–12), Chikorita (September 22), Beldum (October 21), and Cyndaquil (November 10).


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Pokémon Go in Syria" is a photography series published in 2016 by Syrian artist Khaled Akil. Akil places Pokémon characters in destroyed Syrian streets as a reminder for a world lost behind the screen. While Pokemon Go was trending worldwide, Akil couldn't help but notice how the media forgot about the war in Syria. So he visualised his idea in the form of digital collages. Khaled's Pokemon series quickly went viral across the globe after he posted it online. This photography series was exhibited in various locations including the American University Museum.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The app was criticized for using locations such as cemeteries and memorials as sites to catch Pokémon, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Arlington National Cemetery, the ANZAC War Memorial, and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Niantic later removed content from sensitive areas such as the Hiroshima Memorial and Holocaust Museum. The game sparked complaints from Dutch company ProRail, who said that players entered their railway tracks, and fire stations told players to not impede their staff by congregating outside.


title: Pokémon Go

text: The game's distribution of PokéStops and gyms (derived from the portals in "Ingress", Niantic's science fiction-themed AR game) was noted to be sparser in many minority neighborhoods in a reflection of American demographics. Players in rural areas also complained about the lack of Pokémon spawns, PokéStops, and gyms in their area. "Pokémon Go" was criticized for game accessibility issues by players with physical disabilities. The AbleGamers Foundation COO, Steve Spohn, said that when "Pokémon Go" was compared to other mobile games, it "excludes disabled players to a significant degree".


title: Pokémon Go

text: Police departments in various countries issued warnings, some tongue-in-cheek, regarding inattentive driving, trespassing, and being targeted by criminals due to being unaware of one's surroundings. In the state of New York, sex offenders are banned from playing the app while on parole. Bosnian players were warned to stay out of minefields left over from the 1990s Bosnian War. In Russia, a 21-year-old video blogger, Ruslan Sokolovsky, was arrested in September 2016 for two months after playing "Pokémon Go" at the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg, and eventually received a suspended sentence for three and a half years in prison for charges of blasphemy.


title: Pokémon Go

text: People have suffered various injuries from accidents related to the game. In Japan, the first accident occurred within hours of the game's release. The first death in Japan attributed to "Pokémon Go" occurred in late August 2016. A distracted driver playing the game killed one woman and seriously injured another. The 39-year-old farmer did not notice the women crossing a street and struck them with his truck. The woman died of a broken neck. Japan's National Police Agency said it was the 79th "Pokémon Go"-related accident in the country. On August 11, 2016, a young girl in Cambodia was reportedly killed after being hit by a car while trying to capture a Pokémon on a road. The case was the first death related to "Pokémon Go" among Southeast Asian countries. In January 2017, Chinese-American civilian Jiansheng Chen was shot dead while playing "Pokémon Go".


title: Pokémon Go

text: Al-Azhar University in Cairo described the game as "harmful mania." A Cossack leader declared that it "smacks of Satanism", Kuwait banned the game from government sites, Indonesian officials deemed it a national security threat, and in Israel the IDF banned the game from Army bases out of security considerations. In Saudi Arabia, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars declared, in light of a 2001 fatwa banning the "Pokémon" card game as a form of gambling, that the electronic app required a new ruling. This was also followed by both Indian and Malaysian Islamic leaders telling Indian and Malaysian Muslims to avoid the game.


title: Pokémon Go

text: During Thailand's 2016 constitutional referendum polling, "Pokémon Go" players were told to refrain from entering polling stations. Thus the Thai National Broadcasting and Communications Commission intends to ask Niantic to remove Pokémon characters and PokéStops from locations such as government facilities, historic and religious sites, private property as well as dangerous spots such as narrow footpaths and rivers. Cambodia has banned the game in a former genocide site after Pokémon players showed up at the site. Vietnam has banned players from entering the government and defense offices. The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications is also considering the game's negative impact to Vietnamese society, where many people left home at night, crossed the road or drove on the street with their eyes kept focused on phones, which brought the need to ban the game in the country. Following the move by other Southeast Asian neighbors, the Philippines also banned the game in all administration offices. According to a survey by Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), around 4% of employers in Malaysia fired their staff for playing the game during working hours.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Russia also voiced their concerns over the application, with Nikolay Nikiforov, the country's Minister of Communications and Mass Media, suspecting foreign intelligence agencies using the application to collect information, while some fundamentalist religious groups in the region claim it to be demonic. The Supreme Council of Virtual Space in Iran officially banned the game in August 2016 over security concerns. The same month, The Pentagon facility in U.S. restricted the use of the game on their property, citing security risks by collecting secret information. In the United Kingdom, 290 police incidents were reported to have occurred in July 2016 in the country due to the game. In September 2016, Niantic stopped supporting the CyanogenMod mobile operating system. This prevented users playing on CyanogenMod from playing the game from that point forward.


title: Pokémon Go

text: In India, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to Niantic, the developer of the popular AR-based game, on the grounds of "posing danger to public safety".


title: Pokémon Go

text: The notice was issued on a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) seeking a ban on the location-based AR reality game in India. In addition,


title: Pokémon Go

text: a second PIL was filed against the developers of "Pokémon Go" for hurting religious sentiments by showing images of eggs in places of worship of different religious groups. But the Indian Government refused to ban the game.


title: Pokémon Go

text: "Pokémon Go"s targeted local advertising has been described by Shoshana Zuboff in "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" as an experiment that initiated from Google to move targeted advertising from the digital domain (cost per click) into the physical domain (cost per visit) by the use of sponsored locations. "In the end we recognize that the probe was designed to explore the next frontier: the means of behavioral modification. The game about the game is, in fact, an experimental facsimile of surveillance capitalism's design for our future."


title: Pokémon Go

text: Multiple unofficial, third-party apps were created to correspond with "Pokémon Go". Notable apps include "Poké Radar" and "Helper for "Pokémon Go"", where players can crowdsource much of the Pokémon that can be found in the game at a particular time. At its peak of popularity, "Poké Radar" hit #2 on the Apple App Store, behind "Pokémon Go" itself.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Another app, GoChat, which allows players to leave messages for other players at specific locations, accrued more than 1 million downloads in five days and reached the top 10 in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. However, the app's developer Jonathan Zarra chose to leave the app unmonetized and had financial trouble keeping the app's servers online until bringing on angel investor and board member Michael Robertson. After acquiring significant funding, the app reached over 2 million active users. According to RiskIQ, at least 215 fake versions of the game were available by July 17, 2016. Several of these fake apps contained malicious programming and viruses.


title: Pokémon Go

text: Launched on July 22, 2016, "Pokévision" enabled players to find exactly where Pokémon spawned and how much time was left until they despawned; the site used data hacked directly from the game. In the five days following the website's launch, 27 million unique visitors used the site. On July 31, multiple search apps and sites, including Pokévision, were disabled as they violated Niantic's terms of service.


title: Pokémon Go

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Niantic responded by implementing new changes and features in the game which allowed players to easily play remotely. However, starting on August 1, 2021, Niantic began rolling back these changes as part of their Exploration Bonus Updates. Players in New Zealand and the United States were the first to receive the post-pandemic changes, and gradually, they will be rolled out to the rest of the world "in accordance with recommendations from global health organizations." In fear of violations in health and personal safety regulations, as well as negatively impacting players with disabilities, the company has since received heavy criticism from the player base (including top players Brandon Tan and Nick Oyzon) due to their reverting safety measures implemented during the pandemic, in which gym and Pokéstop interaction distances were increased from 40 to 80 metres. Despite increasing rates of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in various U.S. states (resulting in overflowing hospitals), Niantic are firm on not keeping the pandemic bonuses. Players began boycotting "Pokémon Go" since in first week of August 2021.


title: Pokémon Go

text: On Twitter, the #HearUsNiantic started trending worldwide as fans and players voiced their censure towards Niantic's decision in removing the pandemic bonuses. A letter was sent to Niantic, which responded to the community by stating that the pandemic changes will not stay. As Niantic are an AR company, part of their business strategy is to sell user data by players after completing AR Mapping tasks where they can log their surroundings at marked PokéStops in their in-game maps. The reduced distance means an increased potential for Niantic to generate more revenue. Another reason for their changes is for Niantic to preserve their image of being an AR tech giant; on their blog post they stated that it is their "mission" to "encourage outdoor exploration" and "to connect [people] to real places in the real world, and to visit places that are worth exploring." Players have also speculated that Niantic are rolling back the pandemic bonuses in an effort to send players closer to sponsored businesses such as McDonald's (marked by a PokéStop or gym), from which Niantic have made a lot of money.


title: Maury Povich

text: Maurice Richard Povich (born January 17, 1939) is an American retired television personality, best known for hosting the tabloid talk show "Maury" which aired from 1991 to 2022. Povich began his career as a radio reporter, initially at WWDC. In the late 1980s, he gained national fame as the host of tabloid infotainment TV show "A Current Affair", based at Fox's New York flagship station WNYW. In 1991 he co-produced his own show "The Maury Povich Show", which in 1998 was rebranded as "Maury".


title: Maury Povich

text: Povich was born on January 17, 1939, into a Jewish family in Washington, D.C., the second of three children born to Ethyl (née Friedman) and "Washington Post" sportswriter Shirley Lewis Povich. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Povich, emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1878 at age 12. Maury graduated from the Landon School in 1957, and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962 with a degree in television journalism.


title: Maury Povich

text: Not long after graduation, Povich got his first job on Washington radio station WWDC, where he did publicity and worked as a reporter. By 1966, he was a news reporter and sportscaster for WTTG, the independent station owned by Metromedia. In 1967, he became the original co-host of the station's popular midday talk show, "Panorama", which brought the rising star widespread acclaim and national recognition.


title: Maury Povich

text: Seeking to further his career, Povich left Washington in late 1976 for what would become a series of high-profile, short-lived television jobs, beginning with WMAQ-TV in Chicago in January 1977. Hired to co-anchor evening newscasts, he joined the NBC-owned station to much fanfare—ahead of his arrival, WMAQ-TV produced promotions featuring testimonials from U.S. senator Hubert Humphrey and actress Carol Channing, among others, touting Povich's credentials. But Povich left after only eight months when, after being promised a long-term contract, the station's management failed to present him one.


title: Maury Povich

text: Povich then headed to CBS-owned KNXT in Los Angeles—where he co-anchored alongside Connie Chung—but was ousted after a six-month stint following a change in the station's news management. Povich moved next to San Francisco, where he co-hosted "AM San Francisco" and co-anchored news for ABC-owned KGO-TV.


title: Maury Povich

text: Povich returned to the East Coast in April 1980, when Group W–owned KYW-TV in Philadelphia hired him to anchor newscasts and host "AM/PM", a midday audience-participation talk show which, in February 1981 would be retitled "People Are Talking". He departed KYW-TV after three years and brought his career full-circle with a return home to Washington in June 1983, resuming as host of "Panorama" and anchoring "The 10 O'Clock News" for WTTG.


title: Maury Povich

text: When Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch and 20th Century Fox acquired WTTG and the rest of Metromedia's television station group in 1986, one of the first moves made by the newly christened Fox Television Stations was to bring Povich to New York to host "A Current Affair". Initially launching on WNYW in July 1986 before landing on the other Fox-owned stations, and into national syndication in 1988, "A Current Affair" was considered a tabloid infotainment show that often focused on celebrity gossip, it also made time for compelling human-interest stories. Critics praised the show for trying to be both informative and entertaining, much like "a good afternoon newspaper." Povich hosted "Affair" until 1990. While at WNYW, Povich also anchored the station's 7:00 p.m. newscasts. He also served two consecutive terms as president of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.


title: Maury Povich

text: In September 1991, he began to host "The Maury Povich Show", which was nationally syndicated and distributed by Paramount Domestic Television in partnership with his own production company, MoPo Productions, from 1991 to 1998. For raising awareness of National Adoption Month, Povich was honored by New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1995.


title: Maury Povich

text: In 1998, the show was taken over by Studios USA (then a division of USA Networks, later renamed Universal Television after being sold to Vivendi Universal; and NBCUniversal Television Distribution after VU Entertainment was sold to NBC owner General Electric). When Studios USA took over production of the show, it was renamed simply "Maury". The show often veered into what critics called trash TV, and in 1998 it became known for a segment called "Who's the Daddy?" during which men who were denying or trying to establish paternity were given DNA tests and the results were revealed on the air.


title: Maury Povich

text: On January 9, 2000, Povich hosted the short-lived primetime revival of the classic game show "Twenty One" on NBC. Reruns of the show have been aired on GSN.


title: Maury Povich

text: In November 2005, MSNBC announced Povich would co-host a weekend news program with his wife, Connie Chung. The program titled "Weekends with Maury and Connie" debuted on January 7, 2006, but was canceled due to low ratings. The final episode aired on June 17, 2006.


title: Maury Povich

text: He appeared as himself in the fourth episode of the sixth season of the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother". He is portrayed as a New Yorker who is apparently seen everywhere in the city—often in several places at once. He also appeared as himself in the film "Madea's Big Happy Family".


title: Maury Povich

text: In May 2007, he launched the "Flathead Beacon", a weekly print newspaper and online news source in Montana's Flathead County, where he has a home and is a member at the Eagle Bend Golf Club.


title: Maury Povich

text: From 1962 to 1979, Povich was married to Phyllis Minkoff. Maury and Phyllis have two daughters together, Susan Anne and Amy Joyce Povich. Their daughter Amy is married to physician and author David Agus.


title: Maury Povich

text: In 1984, he married news anchor Connie Chung, whom he had met while working in the news department at WTTG. In 1995, Chung and Povich adopted a son, Matthew Jay Povich.


title: Maury Povich

text: Povich believes in the superiority of the nuclear family as a family model and believes that children are best served when both parents are in the child's life; this was a major factor in "Maury's" frequent emphasis on paternity testing. Povich took a journalistic approach to each story and took pride when an appearance on "Maury" would lead to the father and mother of a child reconciling.


title: Maury Povich

text: In 2017, Povich became an investor and part owner of the Washington DC bar and restaurant Chatter, along with other DC notables Tony Kornheiser and Gary Williams.


title: Maury Povich

text: Maury is an avid golfer and has been playing golf since he was a child. He is a frequent player at Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Farm Neck, and Old Course in Scotland. He still plays in amateur senior tournaments with a 2.4 handicap and in 2007 was placed in "Golf Digest" top 100 celebrity golfers. In 2000, Maury participated in the U.S. Senior Amateur championship where he lost in the first round of the match play competition. Maury occasionally plays golf with Steve Wilkos, his fellow NBCUniversal talk show host who shares the same studio as the "Maury Show".


title: Maury Povich

text: On April 24, 2006, former "Maury" producer Bianca Nardi filed a lawsuit against Povich for sexual harassment, alleging that she was "forced to expose her breasts for photographs for the show and ordered to watch pornography in a private room with an executive producer." According to a spokesman for the show, Nardi's allegations were dismissed after an internal investigation. In August 2006, a Manhattan judge ruled that the case be taken to closed-door arbitration. In November 2006, a gag order was requested by Povich's lawyer.


title: Maury Povich

text: Povich was mocked in a 2002 "South Park" episode called "Freak Strike". He also appeared in a mock episode of his show in the film "Madea's Big Happy Family". On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Povich was spoofed overseeing a paternity testing involving Matt Damon, Kimmel and Kimmel's wife Molly McNearney with Martin Short standing in for Povich.


title: Maury Povich

text: In 2021, musician Lil Nas X collaborated with Povich to create a full length faux episode of "Maury", featuring Nas X performing as his Montero character, in a love triangle with his football playing teammate lover and wife.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, (Leopold George Duncan Albert; 7 April 185328 March 1884) was the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Leopold was later created Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence, and Baron Arklow. He had haemophilia, which contributed to his death following a fall at the age of 30.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Leopold was born on 7 April 1853 at Buckingham Palace, London, the eighth child and youngest son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During labour, Queen Victoria chose to use chloroform and thereby encouraged the use of anesthesia in childbirth, recently developed by Professor James Young Simpson. The chloroform was administered by John Snow. As a son of the British sovereign, the newborn was styled "His Royal Highness The Prince Leopold" at birth. His parents named him Leopold after their common uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: He was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace on 28 June 1853 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Bird Sumner. His godparents were his first cousin once removed, King George V of Hanover; his fourth cousin once removed, Princess William of Prussia; his first cousin once removed, Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge; and his maternal uncle by marriage, Prince Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Leopold inherited the disease haemophilia from his mother, Queen Victoria, and was a delicate child. There was speculation during his life that Leopold also had mild epilepsy, like his great-nephew Prince John.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: The Prince's intellectual abilities were evident as a boy; Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and his friend, philosopher James Martineau, were familiar with the Queen's children and had noted that Leopold, who had often "conversed with the eminent Dr. Martineau, was considered to be a young man of a very thoughtful mind, high aims, and quite remarkable acquirements". His daughter, Princess Alice, wrote in her memoirs that his "literary and artistic inclinations were encouraged and developed by his beloved tutor, Robert Collins". He was also tutored by Canon Duckworth and for two years before that, by a young Eton master called Mr. Shuldam.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: In 1872, Prince Leopold entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied a variety of subjects and became president of the Oxford University Chess Club. On coming of age in 1874, he was made a privy councillor and granted an annuity of £15,000. He left the university in 1876 with an honorary doctorate in civil law (DCL), and then travelled in Europe. In 1880, he toured Canada and the United States with his sister, Princess Louise, whose husband John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, was Governor General of Canada. Leopold was a prominent patron of chess, and the London 1883 chess tournament was held under his patronage. Incapable of pursuing a military career because of his haemophilia and the need to avoid even minor injuries, Leopold instead became a patron of the arts and literature and served as an unofficial secretary to his mother. "Leopold was the favourite son, and through him her relations with the Government of the day were usually kept up." Later he pursued vice-regal appointments in Canada and the Colony of Victoria, but his mother refused to appoint him, to his great unhappiness.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Despite his inability to pursue an active military role, he had an honorary association with the 72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders, and from 1881 served as the first Colonel-in-Chief of the Seaforth Highlanders, when that regiment was formed through the merger of the 72nd regiment with the 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot. A portrait of Prince Leopold in military uniform is held in the Royal Collection. The Seaforth Highlanders paraded at Prince Leopold's funeral, a fact recorded by William McGonagall in his poem "The Death of Prince Leopold".


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Prince Leopold was an active Freemason, being initiated in the Apollo University Lodge, Oxford, whilst resident at Christ Church. He was proposed for membership by his brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who was at the time the Worshipful Master of the Lodge, and was initiated in a joint ceremony with Robert Hawthorne Collins, his friend and tutor, who later became Comptroller of his Household. He served as Master of the Lodge from 1876 to 1877, and was later the Provincial Grand Master for Oxfordshire, still holding that office at the time of his death. In 1882 he laid the foundation stone of the Masonic Hall on Marlborough Street in Banbury.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Prince Leopold, stifled by the desire of Queen Victoria to keep him at home, saw marriage as his only hope of independence. Due to his haemophilia, he had difficulty finding a wife. He was acquainted with Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for whom Lewis Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and was godfather of Alice's second son, who was named after him. It has been suggested that he considered marrying her, though others suggest that he preferred her sister Edith (for whom he later served as pall-bearer on 30 June 1876).


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Leopold also considered his second cousin Princess Frederica of Hanover as a bride; they instead became lifelong friends and confidantes. Other royal and aristocratic women he pursued included heiress Daisy Maynard, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse-Kassel, Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Princess Stéphanie of Belgium and Princess Victoria of Baden. Leopold was very fond of Mary Baring, daughter of Lord Ashburton, but though she was equally fond of him, at 19, she felt she was too young to marry.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: After rejection from these women, Victoria stepped in to bar what she saw as unsuitable possibilities. Insisting that the children of British monarchs should marry into other reigning Protestant families, Victoria suggested a meeting with Princess Helen Frederica, the daughter of George Victor, reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, one of whose daughters had already married King William III of the Netherlands. On 27 April 1882, Leopold and Helen were married at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, and his income was raised by parliament to £25,000. They enjoyed a happy, albeit brief marriage. In 1883, Leopold became a father when his wife gave birth to a daughter, Alice. However, he did not live to see the birth of his son, Charles Edward.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Prince Leopold had haemophilia diagnosed in childhood, and in early years had various physicians in permanent attendance, including Arnold Royle and John Wickham Legg. In February 1884, Leopold went to Cannes on doctor's orders: joint pain is a common symptom of haemophilia and the winter climate in the United Kingdom was always difficult for him. His wife, pregnant at the time, stayed at home but urged him to go. On 27 March, at his Cannes residence, the 'Villa Nevada', he slipped and fell, injuring his knee and hitting his head. He died in the early hours of the next morning, apparently from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was buried in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor. The court observed official mourning from 30 March 1884 to 11 May 1884.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Having died six years after his older sister Alice, Leopold was the second, but the youngest of Queen Victoria's children to die, being only 30 years old at the time of his death. His mother outlived him by seventeen years, by which time she had also outlived a third child, Alfred. Leopold's passing was lamented by the Scottish "poet and tragedian" William McGonagall in the poem "The Death of Prince Leopold". Queen Victoria wrote in her journal:


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Another awful blow has fallen upon me & all of us today. My beloved Leopold, that bright, clever son, who had so many times recovered from such fearful illness, & from various small accidents, has been taken from us! To lose another dear child, far from me, & one who was so gifted, & such a help to me, is too dreadful!


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: The haemophilia gene is carried on the X chromosome, and is normally passed through female descent, as in the past few haemophiliac men survived to beget children. Any daughter of a haemophiliac is a carrier of the gene. Leopold's daughter Alice inherited the haemophilia gene, and passed it to her elder son Rupert.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: Leopold's posthumous son, Prince Charles Edward, succeeded him as 2nd Duke of Albany upon birth four months later. Charles Edward succeeded his uncle Alfred as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1900. Through Charles Edward, Leopold is the great-grandfather of Carl XVI Gustaf, the current King of Sweden.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: In 1856, at the age of three, Prince Leopold was granted a personal coat of arms – the arms of the kingdom, with an inescutcheon of the shield of Saxony (representing his father), and all differenced by a label argent of three points, the first and third bearing hearts gules, and the second a cross gules.


title: Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany

text: On 30 January 1884, the University of Durham conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) upon Prince Leopold. The ceremony, held in Durham Cathedral Library, attracted many spectators. He later wrote to the university expressing a wish to become a member of University College.


title: Trimurti

text: The Trimūrti (; Sanskrit: त्रिमूर्ति "", "three forms" or "trinity") are the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified as a triad of deities. Typically, the designations are that of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. The Om symbol of Hinduism is considered to have an allusion to Trimurti, where the A, U, and M phonemes of the word are considered to indicate creation, preservation and destruction, adding up to represent Brahman. The Tridevi is the trinity of goddess consorts for the Trimurti.


title: Trimurti

text: The Puranic period from the 4th to the 12th century CE saw the rise of post-Vedic religion and the evolution of what R. C. Majumdar calls "synthetic Hinduism".


title: Trimurti

text: This period had no homogeneity, and included orthodox Brahmanism in the form of remnants of older Vedic faith traditions, along with different sectarian religions, notably Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism that were within the orthodox fold yet still formed distinct entities. One of the important traits of this period is a spirit of harmony between orthodox and sectarian forms. Regarding this spirit of reconciliation, R. C. Majumdar says that:


title: Trimurti

text: Its most notable expression is to be found in the theological conception of the , i.e., the manifestation of the supreme God in three forms of , , and ... But the attempt cannot be regarded as a great success, for never gained an ascendancy comparable to that of or , and the different sects often conceived the as really the three manifestations of their own sectarian god, whom they regarded as Brahman or Absolute.


title: Trimurti

text: The identification of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva as one being is strongly emphasized in the " Purāṇa", wherein 1.6 Brahman is worshipped as Trimurti; 1.9 especially inculcates the unity of the three gods, and 1.26 relates to the same theme. Noting Western interest in the idea of trinity, historian A. L. Basham explains the background of the Trimurti as follows:


title: Trimurti

text: There must be some doubt as to whether the Hindu tradition has ever recognized Brahma as the Supreme Deity in the way that Visnu and Siva have been conceived of and worshiped. The concept of Trimurti is also present in the "Maitri Upanishad", where the three gods are explained as three of his supreme forms.


title: Trimurti

text: Temples dedicated to various permutations of the Trimurti can be seen as early as the 6th century CE, and there are still some temples today in which the Trimurti are actively worshiped.


title: Trimurti

text: In general it can be said that the trimurti has less of a role in the Hinduism of recent centuries than in ancient India.


title: Trimurti

text: Shaivites hold that, according to Shaiva Agama, Shiva performs five actions – creation, preservation, dissolution, grace, and illusion. Respectively, these first three actions are associated with Shiva as Sadyojata (akin to Brahma), Vamadeva (akin to Vishnu) and Aghora (akin to Rudra). Thus, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra are not deities different from Shiva, but rather are forms of Shiva. As Brahma/Sadyojata, Shiva creates. As Vishnu/Vamadeva, Shiva preserves. As Rudra/Aghora, he dissolves. This stands in contrast to the idea that Shiva is the "God of destruction". Shiva is the supreme God and performs all actions, of which destruction is only but one. Ergo, the Trimurti is a form of Shiva Himself for Shaivas. Shaivites believe that Lord Shiva is the Supreme, who assumes various critical roles and assumes appropriate names and forms, and also stands transcending all these.


title: Trimurti

text: Despite the fact that the Vishnu Purana describes that Vishnu manifests as Brahma in order to create and as Rudra (Shiva) in order to destroy, Vaishnavism generally does not acknowledge the Trimurti concept; instead, they believe in the avataras of Vishnu like Narasimha, Rama, Krishna, etc. They also believe that Shiva and Brahma are both forms of Vishnu. For example, the Dvaita school holds Vishnu alone to be the Supreme God, with Shiva subordinate, and interprets the Puranas differently. For example, Vijayindra Tîrtha, a Dvaita scholar interprets the 18 puranas differently. He interprets the Vaishnavite puranas as satvic and Shaivite puranas as tamasic and that only satvic puranas are considered to be authoritative. The tradition of Sri Vaishnavism in the south holds that all major deities that are hailed in the Puranas are in fact forms of Vishnu, and that the scriptures are dedicated to him alone.


title: Trimurti

text: The Female-Centric Shaktidharma denomination assigns the eminent roles of the three forms ("Trimurti") of Supreme Divinity not to masculine gods but instead to feminine goddesses: Mahasarasvati (Creatrix), Mahalaxmi (Preservatrix), and Mahakali (Destructrix). This feminine version of the Trimurti is called "Tridevi" ("three goddesses"). The masculine gods (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) are then relegated as auxiliary agents of the supreme feminine Tridevi.


title: Trimurti

text: "I am Adi Parashakti. I am the owner of this universe. I am the Absolute Reality. I am dynamic in feminine form and static in masculine form. You have appeared to govern the universe through my energy. You are the masculine form of Absolute Reality, while I am the feminine form of that Reality. I am beyond form, beyond everything, and all the powers of God are contained within me. You must know that I am the Eternal limitless energy.


title: Trimurti

text: She then said: Brahma! You will be generator of the universe; the Goddess Sharada (Saraswati) is your consort, she will be recognized as the goddess of wisdom and the primeval sound. Lord Brahma, this goddess will be with you when you create the universe.


title: Trimurti

text: She continued: Lord Narayana (Vishnu)! You are formless, yet you take form. I assign you to be the preserver of the universe. You will take different incarnations in order to save this universe's inhabitants. Oh Narayana! You have created Lord Brahma, and Brahma will further create thirty three kinds of gods and goddesses. I am goddess Mahamaya, who has made you reappear from your mystic sleep. Your consort will be goddess Lakshmi. Lord Vishnu, this goddess will be with you when you rule/maintain the universe. When life evolves, you will take the form of Vishnu, the one who will perform the task of observing and preserving this universe.


title: Trimurti

text: At Last she instructed: "Oh Lord Rudra Shiv, the Great God, you are the personification of time, which is above all. You will perform the task of destroying and regenerating this universe. When you are formless, time stands still. It is due to my power that you become dynamic and are capable of bringing about the destruction and regeneration of this universe. Mahakali is myself, my full form, whereas Laxmi and Saraswati are just my clones, my partial forms but due to meditation, you will surpass all my forms. It is then that I will incarnate from your left half in my manifested form. This form will be my truest manifested form. Lord Shiva, She will perform the task of destroying evil and will be your consort.<nowiki>"</nowiki>


title: Trimurti

text: Smartism is a denomination of Hinduism that places emphasis on a group of five deities rather than just a single deity. The "worship of the five forms" () system, which was popularized by the ninth-century philosopher among orthodox Brahmins of the Smārta tradition, invokes the five deities Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Shakti and Surya. later added Kartikeya to these five, making six total. This reformed system was promoted by primarily to unite the principal deities of the six major sects on an equal status. The monistic philosophy preached by made it possible to choose one of these as a preferred principal deity and at the same time worship the other four deities as different forms of the same all-pervading Brahman.


title: Trimurti

text: The Saura sect that worships Surya as the supreme personality of the godhead and saguna brahman does not accept the Trimurti as they believe Surya is God. Earlier forms of the Trimurti sometimes included Surya instead of Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva or as a fourth above the Trimurti, of whom the other three are manifestations; Surya is Brahma in the morning, Vishnu in the afternoon and Shiva in the evening. Surya was also a member of the original Vedic Trimurti, which included Varuna and Vayu. Some Sauras worship either Vishnu or Brahma or Shiva as manifestations of Surya, others worship the Trimurti as a manifestation of Surya, and others exclusively worship Surya alone.


title: Anita Bryant

text: Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940) is an American singer known for anti-gay activism. She scored four "Top 40" hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses" which reached No. 5 on the charts. She was the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and a brand ambassador from 1969 to 1980 for the Florida Citrus Commission.


title: Anita Bryant

text: In the 1970s, Bryant became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights in the U.S. In 1977, she ran the "Save Our Children" campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Her involvement with the campaign was condemned by gay rights activists. They were assisted by many other prominent figures in music, film, and television, and retaliated by boycotting the orange juice that she promoted. Though the campaign ended successfully with a 69% majority vote to repeal the ordinance on June 7, 1977 (Dade County restored the ordinance in 1998), it permanently damaged her public image, and her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was terminated three years later. This, as well as her later divorce from Bob Green, damaged her financially. Bryant never regained her former prominence and filed for bankruptcy twice. She lives in her home state of Oklahoma.


title: Anita Bryant

text: Bryant was born in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, the daughter of Lenora A. (Berry) and Warren Bryant. After her parents divorced, her father went into the U.S. Army and her mother went to work as a clerk for Tinker Air Force Base, taking her children to live with their grandparents temporarily. When Bryant was two years old, her grandfather taught her to sing "Jesus Loves Me". She was singing onstage at the age of six, at local fairgrounds in Oklahoma. She sang occasionally on radio and television, and was invited to audition when Arthur Godfrey's talent show came to town.


title: Anita Bryant

text: Bryant became Miss Oklahoma in 1958, and was second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant (held September 6, 1958) at age 18, right after graduating from Tulsa's Will Rogers High School.


title: Anita Bryant

text: In 1960, Bryant married Bob Green (1931–2012), a Miami disc jockey, with whom she eventually raised four children: Robert Jr. (Bobby), Gloria, and twins Billy and Barbara. She divorced him in 1980, attracting allegations of hypocrisy from the Christian right, who cited the indissolubility of Christian marriage which Bryant had championed, and "the deterioration of the family" against which she had preached. She appeared early in her career on the NBC interview program "Here's Hollywood" and on the same network's "The Ford Show", starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.


title: Anita Bryant

text: Between 1964 and 1969, Bryant performed at multiple White House functions, including both the Democratic Convention in Chicago and the Miami Republican Convention in 1968.


title: Anita Bryant

text: From 1961 until 1968, Bryant frequently joined Bob Hope on holiday tours for the United Service Organizations. She again traveled with Hope for televised shows during the Vietnam War. Bryant was given the Silver Medallion Award from the National Guard for "outstanding service by an entertainer", and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Leadership Gold Medallion.


title: Anita Bryant

text: Bryant had a total of 11 songs on the U.S. Hot 100. She had a moderate pop hit with "Till There Was You" (1959, US No. 30), from the Broadway production "The Music Man". She also had three hits in "Paper Roses" (1960, US No. 5, and covered by Marie Osmond 13 years later), "In My Little Corner of the World" (1960, US No. 10), and "Wonderland by Night" (1961, US No. 18), originally a hit for Bert Kaempfert. "Paper Roses", "In My Little Corner of the World", and "Till There Was You", each sold over one million copies, and were awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.