title: European wars of religion

text: The fragile compromise came to an end in 1584, when the King's youngest brother and heir presumptive, François, Duke of Anjou, died. As Henry III had no son, under Salic Law, the next heir to the throne was the Calvinist Prince Henry of Navarre. Under pressure from the Duke of Guise, Henry III reluctantly issued an edict suppressing Protestantism and annulling Henry of Navarre's right to the throne.


title: European wars of religion

text: In December 1584, the Duke of Guise signed the Treaty of Joinville on behalf of the Catholic League with Philip II of Spain, who supplied a considerable annual grant to the League. The situation degenerated into the Eighth War (1585–1589). Henry of Navarre again sought foreign aid from the German princes and Elizabeth I of England. Meanwhile, the solidly Catholic people of Paris, under the influence of the Committee of Sixteen, were becoming dissatisfied with Henry III and his failure to defeat the Calvinists. On 12 May 1588, a popular uprising raised barricades on the streets of Paris, and Henry III fled the city. The Committee of Sixteen took complete control of the government and welcomed the Duke of Guise to Paris. The Guises then proposed a settlement with a cipher as heir and demanded a meeting of the Estates-General, which was to be held in Blois.


title: European wars of religion

text: King Henry decided to strike first. On 23 December 1588 at the Château de Blois, Henry of Guise and his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, were lured into a trap and were murdered. The Duke of Guise had been highly popular in France, and the league declared open war against King Henry. The Parliament of Paris instituted criminal charges against the King, who now joined forces with his cousin, Henry of Navarre, to war against the League.


title: European wars of religion

text: Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, then became the leader of the Catholic League. League presses began printing anti-royalist tracts under a variety of pseudonyms, while the Sorbonne proclaimed that it was just and necessary to depose Henry III. In July 1589, in the royal camp at Saint-Cloud, a monk named Jacques Clément gained an audience with the King and drove a long knife into his spleen. Clément was executed on the spot, taking with him the information of who, if anyone, had hired him. On his deathbed, Henry III called for Henry of Navarre and begged him, in the name of Statecraft, to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused. In keeping with Salic Law, he named Henry as his heir.


title: European wars of religion

text: The situation on the ground in 1589 was that King Henry IV of France, as Navarre had become, held the south and west, and the Catholic League the north and east. The leadership of the Catholic League had devolved to the Duke de Mayenne, who was appointed Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. He and his troops controlled most of rural Normandy. However, in September 1589, Henry inflicted a severe defeat on the Duke at the Battle of Arques. Henry's army swept through Normandy, taking town after town throughout the winter.


title: European wars of religion

text: The King knew that he had to take Paris if he stood any chance of ruling all of France, and this was no easy task. The Catholic League's presses and supporters continued to spread stories about atrocities committed against Catholic priests and the laity in Protestant England, such as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The city prepared to fight to the death rather than accept a Calvinist king. The Battle of Ivry, fought on 14 March 1590, was another victory for the king, and Henry's forces went on to lay siege to Paris, but the siege was broken by Spanish support. Realising that his predecessor had been right and that there was no prospect of a Protestant king succeeding in Catholic Paris, Henry reputedly uttered the famous phrase "Paris vaut bien une messe" ("Paris is well worth a Mass"). He was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1593 and was crowned at Chartres in 1594.


title: European wars of religion

text: Some members of the League fought on, but enough Catholics were won over by the King's conversion to increasingly isolate the diehards. The Spanish withdrew from France under the terms of the Peace of Vervins. Henry was faced with the task of rebuilding a shattered and impoverished Kingdom and reuniting France under a single authority. The wars concluded in 1598, when Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted a degree of religious toleration to Protestants.


title: European wars of religion

text: France, although always ruled by a Catholic monarch, had played a major part in supporting the Protestants in Germany and the Netherlands against their dynastic rivals, the Habsburgs. The period of the French Wars of Religion effectively removed France's influence as a major European power, allowing the Catholic forces in the Holy Roman Empire to regroup and recover.


title: European wars of religion

text: In 1524, King Christian II converted to Lutheranism and encouraged Lutheran preachers to enter Denmark despite the opposition of the Danish diet of 1524. Following the death of King Frederick I in 1533, war broke out between Catholic followers of Count Christoph of Oldenburg and the firmly Lutheran Count Christian of Holstein. After losing his main support in Lübeck, Christoph quickly fell to defeat, finally losing his last stronghold of Copenhagen in 1536. Lutheranism was immediately established, the Catholic bishops were imprisoned, and monastic and church lands were soon confiscated to pay for the armies that had brought Christian to power. In Denmark, this increased royal revenues by 300%.


title: European wars of religion

text: Christian III established Lutheranism by force in Norway in 1537, Faroe Islands in 1540, and Iceland in 1550. In 1536/1537, he also made Norway a puppet state under the Danish crown. It would be a puppet state until 1814, when Frederick VI renounced his claims to the Crown of Norway in favor of the King of Sweden as part of the Treaty of Kiel.


title: European wars of religion

text: In 1625, as part of the Thirty Years' War, Christian IV, who was also the Duke of Holstein, agreed to help the Lutheran rulers of neighbouring Lower Saxony against the forces of the Holy Roman Empire by intervening militarily. Denmark's cause was aided by France, which, together with England, had agreed to help subsidize the war. Christian had himself appointed war leader of the Lower Saxon Alliance and raised an army of 20,000–35,000 mercenaries. Christian, however, was forced to retire before the combined forces of Imperial generals Albrecht von Wallenstein and Tilly. Wallenstein's army marched north, occupying Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and ultimately Jutland. However, lacking a fleet, he was unable to take the Danish capital on the island of Zealand. Peace negotiations were concluded in the Treaty of Lübeck in 1629, which stated that Christian IV could keep his control over Denmark-Norway if he would abandon his support for the Protestant German states.


title: European wars of religion

text: The Reformation came to Britain and Ireland with King Henry VIII of England's breach with the Catholic Church in 1533. At this time there were only a limited number of Protestants among the general population, and these were mostly living in the towns of the South and the East of England. With the state-ordered break with the Pope in Rome, the Church in England, Wales and Ireland was placed under the rule of the King and Parliament.


title: European wars of religion

text: The first major changes to doctrine and practice took place under Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell, and the newly appointed Protestant-leaning Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. The first challenge to the institution of these reforms came from Ireland, where "Silken" Thomas Fitzgerald cited the controversy to justify his armed uprising of 1534. The young Fitzgerald failed to gain much local support, however, and in October a 1,600 strong army of English and Welshmen arrived in Ireland, along with four modern siege-guns. The following year Fitzgerald was blasted into submission, and in August he was induced to surrender.


title: European wars of religion

text: Shortly after this episode, local resistance to the reforms emerged in England. The dissolution of the monasteries, which began in 1536, provoked a violent northern Catholic rebellion in the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was eventually put down with much bloodshed. The reformation continued to be imposed on an often unwilling population with the aid of stern laws that made it treason, punishable by death, to oppose the King's actions with respect to religion. The next major armed resistance took place in the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, which was an unsuccessful rising in western England against the enforced substitution of Cranmer's English language service for the Latin Catholic Mass.


title: European wars of religion

text: Following the restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary I of England in 1553, there was a brief unsuccessful Protestant rising in the south-east of England.


title: European wars of religion

text: The Reformation in Scotland began in conflict. Fiery Calvinist preacher John Knox returned to Scotland in 1560, having been exiled for his part in the assassination of Cardinal Beaton. He proceeded to Dundee where a large number of Protestant sympathisers and noblemen had gathered. Knox was declared an outlaw by the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, but the Protestants went at once to Perth, a walled town that could be defended in case of a siege. At the church of St John the Baptist, Knox preached a fiery sermon that provoked an iconoclastic riot. A mob poured into the church and it was entirely gutted. In the pattern of Calvinist riots in France and the Netherlands, the mob then attacked two friaries in the town, looting their gold and silver and smashing images. Mary of Guise gathered those nobles loyal to her and a small French army.


title: European wars of religion

text: With Protestant reinforcements arriving from neighbouring counties, the queen regent retreated to Dunbar. By now, Calvinist mobs had overrun much of central Scotland, destroying monasteries and Catholic churches as they went. On 30 June, the Protestants occupied Edinburgh, though they were only able to hold it for a month. Even before their arrival, the mob had already sacked the churches and the friaries. On 1 July, Knox preached from the pulpit of St Giles', the most influential in the capital.


title: European wars of religion

text: Knox negotiated by letter with William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Elizabeth's chief advisor, for English support. When additional French troops arrived in Leith, Edinburgh's seaport, the Protestants responded by retaking Edinburgh. This time, on 24 October 1559, the Scottish nobility formally deposed Mary of Guise from the regency. Her secretary, William Maitland of Lethington, defected to the Protestant side, bringing his administrative skills. For the final stage of the revolution, Maitland appealed to Scottish patriotism to fight French domination. Support from England finally arrived and by the end of March, a significant English army joined the Scottish Protestant forces. The sudden death of Mary of Guise in Edinburgh Castle on 10 June 1560 paved the way for the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh, and the withdrawal of French and English troops from Scotland, leaving the Scottish Calvinists in control on the ground. Catholicism was forcibly suppressed.


title: European wars of religion

text: The return of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Scotland in 1560, led to further tension between her and the Protestant Lords of the Congregation. Mary claimed to favour religious toleration on the French model, however the Protestant establishment feared a reestablishment of Catholicism, and sought with English help to neutralise or depose Mary. Mary's marriage to a leading Catholic precipitated Mary's half-brother, the Earl of Moray, to join with other Protestant Lords in open rebellion. Mary set out for Stirling on 26 August 1565 to confront them. Moray and the rebellious lords were routed and fled into exile; the decisive military action becoming known as the Chaseabout Raid. In 1567, Mary was captured by another rebellious force at the Battle of Carberry Hill and imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, where she was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her one-year-old son James. Mary escaped from Loch Leven the following year, and once again managed to raise a small army. After her army's defeat at the Battle of Langside on 13 May, she fled to England, where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth. Her son James VI was raised as a Protestant, later becoming King of England as well as Scotland.


title: European wars of religion

text: The Rising of the North from 1569 to 1570 was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.


title: European wars of religion

text: England, Scotland and Ireland, in personal union under the Stuart king, James I & VI, continued Elizabeth I's policy of providing military support to European Protestants in the Netherlands and France. King Charles I decided to send an expeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots whom Royal French forces held besieged in La Rochelle. However tax-raising authority for these wars was getting harder and harder to raise from parliament.


title: European wars of religion

text: In 1638 the Scottish National Covenant was signed by aggrieved presbyterian lords and commoners. A Scottish rebellion, known as the Bishops War, soon followed, leading to the defeat of a weak royalist counter-force in 1640. The rebels went on to capture Newcastle upon Tyne, further weakening King Charles' authority.


title: European wars of religion

text: In October 1641, a major rebellion broke out in Ireland. Charles soon needed to raise more money to suppress this Irish Rebellion. Meanwhile, English Puritans and Scottish Calvinists intensely opposed the king's main religious policy of unifying the Church of England and the Church of Scotland under a form of High Church Anglicanism. This, its opponents believed, was far too catholic in form, and based on the authority of bishops.


title: European wars of religion

text: The English parliament refused to vote enough money for Charles to defeat the Scots without the King giving up much of his authority and reforming the English church along more Calvinist lines. This the king refused, and deteriorating relations led to the outbreak of war in 1642. The first pitched battle of the war, fought at Edgehill on 23 October 1642, proved inconclusive, and both the Royalists and Parliamentarians claimed it as a victory. The second field action of the war was a stand-off at Turnham Green, and Charles was forced to withdraw to Oxford, which would serve as his base for the remainder of the war.


title: European wars of religion

text: In general, the early part of the war went well for the Royalists. The turning-point came in the late summer and early autumn of 1643, when the Earl of Essex's army forced the king to raise the siege of Gloucester and then brushed the Royalist army aside at the First Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643. In an attempt to gain an advantage in numbers Charles negotiated a ceasefire with the Catholic rebels in Ireland, freeing up English troops to fight on the Royalist side in England. Simultaneously Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for their aid and assistance.


title: European wars of religion

text: With the help of the Scots, Parliament won at Marston Moor (2 July 1644), gaining York and much of the north of England. Oliver Cromwell's conduct in this battle proved decisive, and demonstrated his leadership potential. In 1645 Parliament passed the Self-denying Ordinance, by which all members of either House of Parliament laid down their commands, allowing the re-organization of its main forces into the New Model Army. By 1646 Charles had been forced to surrender himself to the Scots, and the parliamentary forces were in control of England. Charles was executed in 1649, and the monarchy was not restored until 1660. Even then, religious strife continued through the Glorious Revolution and thereafter.


title: European wars of religion

text: The wars of religion in Ireland took place in the context of a country that had already rebelled frequently against English rule in the previous decades. In 1534, Thomas Fitzgerald, known as Silken Thomas, had led what was called the Silken Thomas Rebellion. In the province of Ulster in the North of the country, Shane O'Neill's Rebellion occurred from 1558 to 1567, and in the South of the Country the Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the province of Munster.


title: European wars of religion

text: Ireland entered into a continuous state of war with the rebellion of 1641, with most of the island controlled by the Irish Confederates. Increasingly threatened by the armies of the English Parliament after Charles I's arrest in 1648, the Confederates signed a treaty of alliance with the English Royalists. The joint Royalist and Confederate forces under the Duke of Ormonde attempted to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding Dublin, but their opponents routed them at the Battle of Rathmines (2 August 1649). As the former Member of Parliament Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Oliver Cromwell could land at Dublin on 15 August 1649 with an army to quell the Royalist alliance in Ireland.


title: European wars of religion

text: Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. The siege of Drogheda and massacre of nearly 3,500 people—comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests—became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the last three centuries. However, the massacre has significance mainly as a symbol of the Irish perception of Cromwellian cruelty, as far more people died in the subsequent guerrilla warfare and scorched-earth fighting in the country than at infamous massacres such as Drogheda and Wexford. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653, when the last Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered. Historians have estimated that up to 30% of Ireland's population either died or had gone into exile by the end of the wars. The victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to the Parliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English people who had settled there before the war.


title: European wars of religion

text: The execution of Charles I altered the dynamics of the Civil War in Scotland, which had raged between Royalists and Covenanters since 1644. By 1649, the struggle had left the Royalists there in disarray, and their erstwhile leader, the Marquess of Montrose, had gone into exile. However, Montrose, who had raised a mercenary force in Norway, later returned but did not succeed in raising many Highland clans, and the Covenanters defeated his army at the Battle of Carbisdale in Ross-shire on 27 April 1650. The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to Edinburgh. On 20 May, the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day.


title: European wars of religion

text: Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Moray on 23 June 1650 and signed the 1638 National Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant immediately after coming ashore. With his original Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, King Charles II became the greatest threat facing the new English republic. In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned to England.


title: European wars of religion

text: Cromwell arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650 and proceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh. By the end of August disease and a shortage of supplies had reduced his army, and he had to order a retreat towards his base at Dunbar. A Scottish army, assembled under the command of David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland.


title: European wars of religion

text: In July 1651, Cromwell's forces crossed the Firth of Forth into Fife and defeated the Scots at the Battle of Inverkeithing (20 July 1651). The New Model Army advanced towards Perth, which allowed Charles, at the head of the Scottish army, to move south into England. Cromwell followed Charles into England, leaving George Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck took Stirling on 14 August and Dundee on 1 September. In 1652, the army finished off the remnants of Royalist resistance, under the terms of the "Tender of Union".


title: European wars of religion

text: In late 1688, William of Orange successfully invaded England. After the Convention of Estates deposed the Catholic king James VII on 11 April 1689, they offered the royal title to William and his wife Mary (the Protestant daughter of James), which they accepted on 11 May 1689. During the subsequent Jacobite rising of 1689, instigated by James' Roman Catholic and Anglican Tory supporters, the Calvinist forces in the south and lowlands of Scotland triumphed. Despite this defeat, many Scottish Highland clans remained either Catholic or Episcopalian in sympathy. The Catholic Clan MacDonald was subject to the 1691 Glencoe Massacre for being late in pledging loyalty to the new Protestant king William II. Highland clans also rallied to the support of Catholic claimants to the British throne in later, failed Jacobite risings of the erstwhile Stuart King James III in 1715 and Charles Edward Stuart in 1745.


title: European wars of religion

text: The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in Yorkshire in 1536–37 against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church.


title: European wars of religion

text: Bigod's rebellion was an armed rebellion by English Roman Catholics in Cumberland and Westmorland against King Henry VIII of England and the English Parliament.


title: European wars of religion

text: These figures include the deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle and possible massacres and genocide.


title: European wars of religion

text: The wars listed were the most severe in casualties; the remaining religious conflicts in Europe lasted for only a few years, a year, or less and/or were much less violent. Huguenot rebellions were possibly the most damaging conflict after the German Peasants' War and may have taken up to 100,000 lives.


title: European wars of religion

text: At the Reformation's zenith around 1590, Protestant governments and/or cultures controlled about half of the European territory; however, as a result of Catholic reconquests, only about one fifth was left in 1690.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon ( or ), known as (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of . Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS).


title: Charon (moon)

text: With half the diameter and one eighth the mass of Pluto, Charon is a very large moon in comparison to its parent body. Its gravitational influence is such that the barycenter of the Plutonian system lies outside Pluto, and the two bodies are tidally locked to each other.


title: Charon (moon)

text: The reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon is composed of tholins, organic macromolecules that may be essential ingredients of life. These tholins were produced from methane, nitrogen and related gases which may have been released by cryovolcanic eruptions on the moon, or may have been transferred over from the atmosphere of Pluto to the orbiting moon.


title: Charon (moon)

text: The "New Horizons" spacecraft is the only probe that has visited the Pluto system. It approached Charon to within in 2015.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon was discovered by United States Naval Observatory astronomer James Christy, using the telescope at United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS). On June 22, 1978, he had been examining highly magnified images of Pluto on photographic plates taken with the telescope two months prior. Christy noticed that a slight elongation appeared periodically. The bulge was confirmed on plates dating back to April 29, 1965. The International Astronomical Union formally announced Christy's discovery to the world on July 7, 1978.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Subsequent observations of Pluto determined that the bulge was due to a smaller accompanying body. The periodicity of the bulge corresponded to Pluto's rotation period, which was previously known from Pluto's light curve. This indicated a synchronous orbit, which strongly suggested that the bulge effect was real and not spurious. This resulted in reassessments of Pluto's size, mass, and other physical characteristics because the calculated mass and albedo of the Pluto–Charon system had previously been attributed to Pluto alone.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Doubts about Charon's existence were erased when it and Pluto entered a five-year period of mutual eclipses and transits between 1985 and 1990. This occurs when the Pluto–Charon orbital plane is edge-on as seen from Earth, which only happens at two intervals in Pluto's 248-year orbital period. It was fortuitous that one of these intervals happened to occur soon after Charon's discovery.


title: Charon (moon)

text: After its discovery, Charon was originally known by the temporary designation S/1978 P 1, according to the then recently instituted convention. On June 24, 1978, Christy first suggested the name "Charon" as a scientific-sounding version of his wife Charlene's nickname, "Char". Although colleagues at the Naval Observatory proposed "Persephone", Christy stuck with "Charon" after discovering that it coincidentally refers to a Greek mythological figure: Charon (; ) is the ferryman of the dead, closely associated in myth with the god Hades or Plouton (, ), whom the Romans identified with their god Pluto. The IAU officially adopted the name in late 1985 and it was announced on January 3, 1986.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Coincidentally, nearly four decades before Charon's discovery, science fiction author Edmond Hamilton referred to three moons of Pluto named Charon, Styx, and Cerberus in his 1940 novel "Calling Captain Future".


title: Charon (moon)

text: There is minor debate over the preferred pronunciation of the name. The mythological figure is pronounced with a sound, and this is often followed for the moon as well. However, Christy himself pronounced the initial as a sound, as he had named the moon after his wife Charlene. Many English-speaking astronomers follow the classical convention, but others follow Christy's, and that is the prescribed pronunciation at NASA and of the "New Horizons" team.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Simulation work published in 2005 by Robin Canup suggested that Charon could have been formed by a collision around 4.5 billion years ago, much like Earth and the Moon. In this model, a large Kuiper belt object struck Pluto at high velocity, destroying itself and blasting off much of Pluto's outer mantle, and Charon coalesced from the debris. However, such an impact should result in an icier Charon and rockier Pluto than scientists have found. It is now thought that Pluto and Charon might have been two bodies that collided before going into orbit about each other. The collision would have been violent enough to boil off volatile ices like methane () but not violent enough to have destroyed either body. The very similar density of Pluto and Charon implies that the parent bodies were not fully differentiated when the impact occurred.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon has no significant atmosphere. There has been speculation about a minuscule atmosphere surrounding the moon, but there has been no indication of anything substantial.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Pluto does have a thin but significant atmosphere, and under some conditions Charon's gravitation pulls some of Pluto's upper atmosphere, specifically nitrogen, from Pluto's ice formations, toward Charon's surface. The nitrogen is mostly caught in the combined center of gravity between the two bodies before reaching Charon, but any gas that does reach Charon is held closely against the surface. The gas is mostly made up of ions of nitrogen, but the amounts are negligible compared to the total of Pluto's atmosphere.


title: Charon (moon)

text: The many spectral signatures of ice formations on the surface of Charon have led some to believe that the ice formations could supply an atmosphere, but atmosphere supplying formations have not been confirmed yet. Many scientists theorize that these ice formations could be concealed out of direct sight, either in deep craters or beneath Charon's surface. Similar to how Pluto transfers atmosphere to Charon, Charon's relatively low gravity, due to its low mass, causes any atmosphere that might be present to rapidly escape the surface into space. Even through stellar occultation, which is used to probe the atmosphere of stellar bodies, scientists cannot confirm an existing atmosphere; this was tested in 1986 while attempting to perform stellar occultation testing on Pluto. Charon also acts as a protector for Pluto's atmosphere, blocking the solar wind that would normally collide with Pluto, damaging its atmosphere. Since Charon blocks these solar winds, its own atmosphere is diminished, instead of Pluto's. This effect is also a serious potential explanation for Charon's lack of atmosphere; when it begins to accumulate, the solar winds shut it down. Although, it is still possible for Charon to have an atmosphere. As previously stated, Pluto transfers some of its atmospheric gas to Charon, from where it tends to escape into space. Assuming Charon's density is 1.71 g/cm, which is the rough estimate we currently have, it would have a surface gravity of 0.6 of Pluto's. It also has a higher mean molecular weight than Pluto and a lower exobase surface temperature, so that the gases in its atmosphere would not escape as rapidly from Charon as they do from Pluto.


title: Charon (moon)

text: There has been significant proof of CO gas and HO vapor on the surface of Charon, but these vapors are not sufficient for a viable atmosphere due to their low vapor pressures. Pluto's surface has abundant ice formations, but these are volatile, as they are made up of volatile substances like methane. These volatile ice structures cause a good deal of geological activity, keeping its atmosphere constant, while Charon's ice structures are mainly made up of water and carbon dioxide, much less volatile substances that can stay dormant and not affect the atmosphere much.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon and Pluto orbit each other every 6.387 days. The two objects are gravitationally locked to one another, so each keeps the same face towards the other. This is a case of mutual tidal locking, as compared to that of the Earth and the Moon, where the Moon always shows the same face to Earth, but not vice versa. The average distance between Charon and Pluto is . The discovery of Charon allowed astronomers to calculate accurately the mass of the Plutonian system, and mutual occultations revealed their sizes. However, neither indicated the two bodies' individual masses, which could only be estimated, until the discovery of Pluto's outer moons in late 2005. Details in the orbits of the outer moons revealed that Charon has approximately 12% of the mass of Pluto.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon's diameter is , just over half that of Pluto. Larger than the dwarf planet Ceres, it is the twelfth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System. Charon is even similar in size to Uranus's moons Umbriel and Ariel. Charon's slow rotation means that there should be little flattening or tidal distortion, if Charon is sufficiently massive to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. Any deviation from a perfect sphere is too small to have been detected by observations by the "New Horizons" mission. This is in contrast to Iapetus, a Saturnian moon similar in size to Charon but with a pronounced oblateness dating to early in its history. The lack of such oblateness in Charon could mean that it is currently in hydrostatic equilibrium, or simply that its orbit approached its current one early in its history, when it was still warm.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Based on mass updates from observations made by "New Horizons" the mass ratio of Charon to Pluto is 0.1218:1. This is much larger than the Moon to the Earth: 0.0123:1. Because of the high mass ratio, the barycenter is outside of the radius of Pluto, and the Pluto–Charon system has been referred to as a dwarf double planet. With four smaller satellites in orbit about the two larger worlds, the Pluto–Charon system has been considered in studies of the orbital stability of circumbinary planets.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon's volume and mass allow calculation of its density, , from which it can be determined that Charon is slightly less dense than Pluto and suggesting a composition of 55% rock to 45% ice (± 5%), whereas Pluto is about 70% rock. The difference is considerably lower than that of most suspected collisional satellites. Before "New Horizons"' flyby, there were two conflicting theories about Charon's internal structure: some scientists thought Charon to be a differentiated body like Pluto, with a rocky core and an icy mantle, whereas others thought it would be uniform throughout. Evidence in support of the former position was found in 2007, when observations by the Gemini Observatory of patches of ammonia hydrates and water crystals on the surface of Charon suggested the presence of active cryogeysers. The fact that the ice was still in crystalline form suggested it had been deposited recently, because solar radiation would have degraded it to an amorphous state after roughly thirty thousand years.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Unlike Pluto's surface, which is composed of nitrogen and methane ices, Charon's surface appears to be dominated by the less volatile water ice. In 2007, observations by the Gemini Observatory of patches of ammonia hydrates and water crystals on the surface of Charon suggested the presence of active cryogeysers and cryovolcanoes.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Photometric mapping of Charon's surface shows a latitudinal trend in albedo, with a bright equatorial band and darker poles. The north polar region is dominated by a very large dark area informally dubbed "Mordor" by the "New Horizons" team. The favored explanation for this feature is that it is formed by condensation of gases that escaped from Pluto's atmosphere. In winter, the temperature is −258 °C, and these gases, which include nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane, condense into their solid forms; when these ices are subjected to solar radiation, they chemically react to form various reddish tholins. Later, when the area is again heated by the Sun as Charon's seasons change, the temperature at the pole rises to −213 °C, resulting in the volatiles sublimating and escaping Charon, leaving only the tholins behind. Over millions of years, the residual tholin builds up thick layers, obscuring the icy crust. In addition to Mordor, "New Horizons" found evidence of extensive past geology that suggests that Charon is probably differentiated; in particular, the southern hemisphere has fewer craters than the northern and is considerably less rugged, suggesting that a massive resurfacing event—perhaps prompted by the partial or complete freezing of an internal ocean—occurred at some point in the past and removed many of the earlier craters.


title: Charon (moon)

text: In 2018, the International Astronomical Union named one crater on Charon, as Revati who is a character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata.


title: Charon (moon)

text: Charon has a series of extensive grabens or canyons, such as Serenity Chasma, which extend as an equatorial belt for at least . Argo Chasma potentially reaches as deep as , with steep cliffs that may rival Verona Rupes on Miranda for the title of tallest cliff in the solar system.


title: Charon (moon)

text: In a released photo by "New Horizons", an unusual surface feature has captivated and baffled the scientist team of the mission. The image reveals a mountain rising out of a depression. It's "a large mountain sitting in a moat", said Jeff Moore, of NASA's Ames Research Center, in a statement. "This is a feature that has geologists stunned and stumped", he added. "New Horizons" captured the photo from a distance of .


title: Charon (moon)

text: Since the first blurred images of the moon , images showing Pluto and Charon resolved into separate disks were taken for the first time by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s . The telescope was responsible for the best, yet low quality images of the moon. In 1994, the clearest picture of the Pluto–Charon system showed two distinct and well defined disks . The image was taken by Hubble's Faint Object Camera (FOC) when the system was 4.4 billion kilometers (2.6 billion miles) away from Earth Later, the development of adaptive optics made it possible to resolve Pluto and Charon into separate disks using ground-based telescopes.


title: Charon (moon)

text: In June 2015, the "New Horizons" spacecraft captured consecutive images of the Pluto–Charon system as it approached it. The images were put together in an animation. It was the best image of Charon to that date . In July 2015, the "New Horizons" spacecraft made its closest approach to the Pluto system. It is the only spacecraft to date to have visited and studied Charon. Charon's discoverer James Christy and the children of Clyde Tombaugh were guests at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory during the New Horizons closest approach.


title: Charon (moon)

text: The center of mass (barycenter) of the Pluto–Charon system lies outside either body. Because neither object truly orbits the other, and Charon has 12.2% the mass of Pluto, it has been argued that Charon should be considered to be part of a binary planet with Pluto. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) states that Charon is considered to be just a satellite of Pluto, but the idea that Charon might be classified as a dwarf planet in its own right may be considered at a later date.


title: Charon (moon)

text: In a draft proposal for the 2006 redefinition of the term, the IAU proposed that a planet be defined as a body that orbits the Sun that is large enough for gravitational forces to render the object (nearly) spherical. Under this proposal, Charon would have been classified as a planet, because the draft explicitly defined a planetary satellite as one in which the barycenter lies within the major body. In the final definition, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet, but the formal definition of a planetary satellite was not decided upon. Charon is not in the list of dwarf planets currently recognized by the IAU. Had the draft proposal been accepted, even the Moon would hypothetically be classified as a planet in billions of years when the tidal acceleration that is gradually moving the Moon away from Earth takes it far enough away that the center of mass of the system no longer lies within Earth.


title: Charon (moon)

text: The other moons of Pluto Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx orbit the same barycenter but they are not large enough to be spherical and they are simply considered to be satellites of Pluto (or of Pluto–Charon).


title: Millvina Dean

text: Eliza Gladys Dean (2 February 1912 – 31 May 2009), known as Millvina Dean, was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" on 15 April 1912. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.


title: Millvina Dean

text: Dean was born in Branscombe, Devon, England, on 2 February 1912, to Bertram Frank Dean (1886–1912) and Georgette Eva Light (1879–1975). She had an older brother, Bertram Vere Dean, born 21 May 1910. She never married and had no children. Her father died on the "Titanic"; her mother died on 16 September 1975, aged 96; and her brother died on 14 April 1992, age 81, the 80th anniversary of the iceberg collision.


title: Millvina Dean

text: Dean's parents decided to leave the United Kingdom and emigrate to the United States; they were planning to move to Wichita, Kansas, where her father had relatives, and his cousin owned a tobacco shop that he was going to co-own. They were not supposed to be aboard the "Titanic", but due to a coal strike, they were transferred onto it and boarded it as third-class passengers at Southampton, England. Dean was nine weeks old when she boarded the ship. Her father felt its collision with the iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, and after investigating, returned to his cabin, telling his wife to dress the children and go up on deck. Dean, her mother, and her brother were placed in Lifeboat 10. Her father did not survive, and his body, if recovered, was never identified.


title: Millvina Dean

text: As was the case with many of "Titanic"s immigrant widows, Etta Dean surrendered any notion of remaining in the United States once it was clear her husband had not been saved. In the 2000 PBS documentary "Lost Liners", in giving her account of the disaster, Millvina described the state her mother was in during the aftermath of the disaster:


title: Millvina Dean

text: The White Star Line offered Etta and her children passage back to England aboard . While aboard the ship, Dean attracted considerable attention. An article in the "Daily Mirror" dated 12 May 1912 described the ordeal:


title: Millvina Dean

text: It was not until Dean was in her seventies that she became involved in "Titanic"-related events. Over the years, she participated in numerous conventions, exhibitions, documentaries, radio and television interviews, and personal correspondence. In 1997, Millvina sailed to New York, along with several members of the Titanic Historical Society, aboard the "Queen Elizabeth 2" (QE2). After a few days in New York, Millvina travelled to Kansas City, and visited the house that her uncle owned, and to where her family was going to settle. Several of her uncle's descendants met Millvina for the first time. In 1998, she travelled to the United States to participate in a "Titanic" convention in Springfield, Massachusetts, and another in 1999 in Montreal, Quebec. She had also been scheduled to appear at a commemoration of the 94th anniversary of the sinking in 2006, but a broken hip prevented her appearance. She also appeared in the History special "Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces".


title: Millvina Dean

text: Dean staunchly refused to see James Cameron's film "Titanic" (1997). She recalled having nightmares after seeing "A Night to Remember" (1958), the film based on Walter Lord's book, and did not wish to imagine her father as one of the people in the crowd of passengers stranded on the sinking liner. She declined invitations to the premieres of "Titanic" and "Ghosts of the Abyss" (2003). In December 2007, she also criticised the BBC and its television programme "Doctor Who" for including an episode with a starship "cruise liner" called the "Titanic" which was similar in appearance to the historical liner. Speaking from her nursing home, she said: "The "Titanic" was a tragedy which tore so many families apart. I lost my father and he lies on that wreck. I think it is disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy." A spokeswoman for the show said: "No offence was intended. 'Voyage of the Damned' is set on a spaceship called "The Titanic" and not a boat."


title: Millvina Dean

text: In April 2008, Dean had accepted an invitation to speak in Southampton at an event commemorating the 96th anniversary of the sinking, but ill health resulting from a respiratory infection forced her to cancel.


title: Millvina Dean

text: In December 2008, at age 96, Dean was forced to sell several of her family's possessions to pay for her private medical care following a broken hip. These included a letter sent to her mother from the "Titanic" Relief Fund, and a suitcase given to her and her mother in New York following the sinking. Their sale raised approximately £32,000. In February 2009, she announced that she would be selling several more items to pay for her increasing nursing home costs which she said exceeded £3,000 a month.


title: Millvina Dean

text: Dean died of pneumonia on the morning of 31 May 2009, 97 years and seven weeks after the "Titanic" sailed, at a care home in Ashurst, Hampshire. She was cremated, and on 24 October 2009, her ashes were scattered from a launch at the docks in Southampton where the "Titanic" set sail. Since October 2007, Dean had been the last "Titanic" survivor, following the death of Barbara West Dainton, who died aged 96 in England.


title: Millvina Dean

text: In response to the escalating cost of Dean's care, The Millvina Fund was set up in April 2009 by the Belfast, British, and International Titanic Societies with the exclusive aim of taking care of her nursing home bills. It was given a boost by the Irish author and campaigning journalist Don Mullan at the opening of his worldwide Nokia photographic exhibition, "A Thousand Reasons for Living" (featuring a portrait of Dean), in Dublin on 22 April 2009. Mullan introduced an additional portrait of Dean's hands, as she signed a card for a "Titanic" autograph collector, which he produced as a limited edition of 100 copies. He made the edition available at €500 each and then challenged the director and stars of the film "Titanic" (1997) – James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kate Winslet – singer Celine Dion, and the corporations Sony Music, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures to match him euro-for-euro to support her with her bills. DiCaprio and Winslet led the way with a joint contribution of US$20,000. Cameron and Dion donated US$10,000 each.


title: Brianne Howey

text: Brianne Howey (born May 24, 1989) is an American actress. She has appeared as a series regular on the Fox supernatural horror "The Exorcist" (2016) and the Fox thriller "The Passage" (2019), in addition to a recurring role in the first season of The CW superhero drama "Batwoman" (2019–2022) as Reagan Pye. Howey has also portrayed the main character Georgia Miller in the Netflix comedy-drama "Ginny & Georgia" since 2021.


title: Brianne Howey

text: Brianne Howey was brought up in Pasadena, California to her young and single mother, whom she later took inspiration from in her role as Georgia, and is the oldest of five siblings. She attended an all girls’ Catholic high school in Pasadena, where she joined the improv team. She continued her acting education and studied theatre at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. During her time as a student, she starred in the short films "Party Favors" in 2008, "Appropriate Sex" in 2009, and "Suckerpunch" in 2010.


title: Brianne Howey

text: Her first TV role was on "90210", when she played Stacy while continuing at NYU. Howey has starred in "Twisted Tales" in 2013.


title: Brianne Howey

text: In 2014, Brianne starred as Candy in the comedy film "Horrible Bosses 2" alongside Jason Bateman. In 2015, Brianne moved to London to film her first regular starring role which was in the British television series "I Live with Models". In 2016, Howey landed the role of Kat Rance in the television series "The Exorcist", sister of the possessed girl played by Hannah Kasulka. In 2019, Howey starred as Shauna Babcock, a "Viral", in Justin Cronin’s "The Passage". The same year, Howey starred in the romantic comedy "Plus One".


title: Brianne Howey

text: Howey attracted further attention for her role as Georgia in the Netflix series "Ginny & Georgia". The series was released on February 24, 2021, and quickly became popular, attracting 52 million subscribers on Netflix. It was renewed for a second season on April 19, 2021.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Rhodri Paul Gilbert (born 18 October 1968) is a Welsh comedian and television & radio presenter who was nominated in 2005 for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award. In 2008 he was nominated for the main comedy award (as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were then branded).


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert appears on television and radio panel shows, has performed stand-up on the Royal Variety Performance, and hosted a weekly show on BBC Radio Wales.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In September 2014 Gilbert started presenting the BBC Two panel show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", ending a run of five series without a permanent host, although the show ended in May 2015.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales, one of three siblings to two teacher parents, his father hailing from Ebbw Vale and his mother from Abertillery. He attended Maridunum Comprehensive School and went on to study languages at Exeter University. For the first three weeks, such was his painful shyness that Gilbert was unable to eat with other students in the canteen or even make friends with the student in the next room.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: After graduating, Gilbert travelled for a year and a half around Australia and Asia before returning to Carmarthen and working as an admin assistant for the Welsh Office. He later worked as a qualitative researcher for several market research agencies in London.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert got into professional comedy in 2002, after taking part in the Amused Moose Stand Up and Deliver course, but only "thanks to a girlfriend’s constant nagging". Within 18 months, Gilbert had already won several different talent competitions and was nominated for the "Perrier Newcomer" award for his first solo show in 2005 at Edinburgh Fringe entitled "1984." He has since performed worldwide.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Many of Gilbert's stories are drawn from real life events, and his life in the wholly fictionalised village of Llanbobl. In 2008, Gilbert wrote a sitcom about life in Llanbobl, which featured on BBC Radio 2.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In his 2006 Edinburgh Fringe show "Knocking on Heaven's Door", Gilbert told stories from his life, weighing up whether he would be admitted to heaven. His 2007 show, "Who's Eaten Gilbert's Grape?", saw Gilbert return to Llanbobl and pick up the story following the "1984" show narrative. His 2008 show, "Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie", saw Gilbert question his sanity, his career and his life after suffering a mental breakdown brought on by the award-winning mince pie at a motorway services.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: On 18 and 19 June 2009, Gilbert made the last performances of "Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie" show at the Bloomsbury Theatre, which was recorded and released as a DVD on 16 November 2009. The DVD also contains several special features, including his rant about lost luggage, outtakes from the performance, in which he chats with the audience and deals with hecklers and a mockumentary called "Back to Llanbobl" in which Gilbert shows the viewer around his fictional home town, filmed in Talgarth, Powys.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert's 2009/10 show, "Rhod Gilbert and the Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst" previewed around the UK in small venues before being performed at the Edinburgh Festival. The show toured UK theatres from September 2009. The tour included dates at many prestigious theatres such as London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo. A DVD of the tour was released on 15 November 2010.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: On BBC One, Gilbert has made a number of guest appearances on "Would I Lie to You?". He has appeared five and three times respectively on the BBC Two panel shows "QI" and "Mock the Week", and presented two episodes of "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" in October 2009 and December 2011 before becoming the permanent presenter for the final series. He hosted three episodes of "Have I Got News for You" in April 2011, October 2017, and May 2018; has appeared as a guest on Channel 4's "8 out of 10 Cats"; and wrote and narrated BBC Three's 2007 "Goals Galore", "Pranks Galore", "Football Gaffes Galore" and "TV Gaffes Galore" programmes. He also presented BBC 2W's "Rhod Gilbert's Teen Tribes", providing an insight into the worlds of "Emos", "Chavs" and "Goths".


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert was Paramount Comedy's continuity writer and announcer between September 2004 and October 2005, providing end-credit voice-overs for their peak time programme schedule.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In December 2008, Gilbert was signed for a campaign to promote tourism in Wales and became the official Voice of Wales for the country's tourist board, fronting the 2009 Visit Wales television advertising.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In November 2008, Gilbert appeared on the BBC's "Live at the Apollo" as a guest. In December 2009, he hosted the show, introducing fellow comedian John Bishop. On 6 June 2009 Gilbert appeared as the headline act on "Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow" on BBC One, and as a guest on "8 out of 10 Cats" on 17 July 2009. He also provided voiceover material for the sketch show "Walk on the Wild Side".


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: On 19 January 2010, "Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience" aired on BBC One Wales. Zipline Creative Limited worked freelance as producer/directors, editors and also camera and sound on the series for Presentable RDF. The four-part series saw Gilbert attempt a number of jobs including hairdresser, refuse collector, soldier and parent. Following the show's success on BBC One Wales, the series aired nationally on BBC2 from 10 March.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In August 2010, the BBC commissioned eight episodes of "Ask Rhod Gilbert" following a successful pilot earlier in 2010. The show featured Gilbert, Greg Davies and Lloyd Langford answering random trivia questions, such as 'Who would win in a race, Usain Bolt or a grizzly bear?', posed by the public and celebrities, with additional celebrity guests on the panel. The show ran for two series.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: On 7 March 2011, series 2 of "Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience" began airing on BBC One Wales. In this series he tried out jobs as a farmer, butler, tattoo artist and firefighter. In January 2012, Gilbert began filming series 3 of the show. It aired on BBC One Wales from 7 May 2012 and saw him take on jobs such as primary school teacher, zookeeper, drag artist and police officer. A fourth series was broadcast in June–July 2013. This series, the jobs were wedding planner, scout leader, tour guide and male model. Series 5, which had four episodes, began on BBC One Wales in September 2014 and was repeated on BBC Two from February 2015. Series 6 was broadcast on BBC One Wales starting February 2016.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In September 2014, Gilbert started presenting the BBC Two panel show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", ending a run of five series without a permanent host. In May 2015, however, the BBC ended the show. The documentary "Rhod Gilbert vs Kilimanjaro", chronicling the attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro for charity made by Gilbert and several fellow celebrities, was shown on the BBC in December 2014.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: He replaced comedian Jack Dee as the host of "" beginning in 2016. In 2019, he stepped down and was replaced by Tom Allen.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In September 2018, Gilbert appeared as a contestant of the 7th series of "Taskmaster" alongside James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman and Phil Wang.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In 2006, Gilbert hosted the BBC Radio Wales comedy panel show "Jest a Minute", live from The Comedy Store in London. The second series of "Jest a Minute" was recorded in late 2008 in Cardiff's Glee Club, hosted by Gilbert and featuring regular team captains Chris Corcoran and Lloyd Langford, and guests from the comedy circuit such as Elis James, Greg Davies, Lucy Porter and Jon Richardson. A third series was also broadcast.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert was also the host of BBC Radio 4's "4 Stands Up" comedy series which aired in the Autumn of 2008 and has also appeared twice on Radio Four's "Just a Minute", Radio 2's "Does the Team Think?", and BBC Radio 4's "Act Your Age".


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In December 2008, a pilot of his sitcom "Rhod Gilbert's Leaving Llanbobl" was broadcast on BBC Radio 2; the sitcom was written and starred Gilbert and Greg Davies, with additional writing by Sian Harries. Lloyd Langford played Gilbert's amiable younger brother Emrys; Di Botcher played Brenda, a gossipy hairdresser; and Mike Hayward played Gilbert's father Gurnos. The show was produced by Ed Morrish. Gilbert has hinted in interviews that the sitcom is likely to move to TV when it is completed as he found that he was "seeing it" as he wrote it.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert has also made several appearances on the BBC Radio 4 comedy program "The Unbelievable Truth".


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In 2011, he recorded a radio show for BBC Radio 2 called "Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs" with comedians Lloyd Langford, Greg Davies and Sarah Millican. Each show also featured live music from bands such as Athlete, Scouting for Girls, Kid British and The Hoosiers. It has since been repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: From 2006 to 2019, Gilbert also fronted his own radio show, "The Rhod Gilbert Radio Show", broadcast by BBC Radio Wales on Saturdays between 11:30am and 1:30 pm, often co-hosted by fellow Welsh Comedians Bennett Arron, Lloyd Langford or Chris Corcoran.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert married his long-term girlfriend, writer and comedian Sian Harries, in August 2013. They divide their time between London and Wales. The two have no children and in 2021 Gilbert took part in a documentary series about the stigma of male infertility.


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: Gilbert has also played badminton, including as a doubles partner with former gold medallist Anthony D. Jordan, relating his story on an episode of the BBC panel show "Would I Lie to You?"


title: Rhod Gilbert

text: In July 2022, Gilbert announced he had been diagnosed with cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, of which he is a patron. In December 2022 fellow comedian Jimmy Carr promoted Gilbert's DVD "The Book of John" on Channel 4's "The Last Leg" on Gilbert's behalf.


title: Prosecutor

text: A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically, the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are typically lawyers who possess a law degree, and are recognised as suitable legal professionals by the court in which they are acting. This may mean they have been admitted to the bar, or obtained a comparable qualification where available - such as solicitor advocates in England and Wales.


title: Prosecutor

text: They become involved in a criminal case once a suspect has been identified and charges need to be filed. They are employed by an office of the government, with safeguards in place to ensure such an office can successfully pursue the prosecution of government officials. Multiple offices exist in a single country, especially in those countries with federal governments where sovereignty has been bifurcated or devolved in some way.


title: Prosecutor

text: Since prosecutors are backed by the power of the state, they are subject to special professional responsibility rules in addition to those binding all lawyers. For example, in the United States, Rule 3.8 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct requires prosecutors to "make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense." Not all U.S. states adopt the model rules; however, U.S. Supreme Court cases and other appellate cases have ruled that such disclosure is required. Typical sources of ethical requirements imposed on prosecutors come from appellate court opinions, state or federal court rules, and state or federal statutes (codified laws).


title: Prosecutor

text: In Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Kenya, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Kenya, and South Africa, the head of the prosecuting authority is known as the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and is appointed, not elected. A DPP may be subject to varying degrees of control by the attorney general, a formal written directive which must be published.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Australia, the Offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions institute prosecutions for indictable offences on behalf of the Crown. At least in the case of very serious matters, the DPP will be asked by the police, during the course of the investigation, to advise them on sufficiency of evidence, and may well be asked to prepare an application to the relevant court for search, listening device or telecommunications interception warrants.


title: Prosecutor

text: More recent constitutions, such as South Africa's, tend to guarantee the independence and impartiality of the DPP.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors in Australia come in a few distinct species. Prosecutors of minor criminal cases in lower courts are Police Sergeants with a traineeship in prosecution and advocacy lasting approximately 1 year in duration, although they may hold law degrees. Crown Prosecutors are always lawyers, and typically barristers, and they represent the State or Commonwealth in serious criminal cases in higher courts, County Court and above. Aside from Police prosecutors and Crown prosecutors, government agencies have the authority to appoint non-lawyers to prosecute on their behalf, such as the RSPCA Inspectors.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Canada, public prosecutors in most provinces are called Crown Attorney or Crown Counsel. They are generally appointed by the provincial Attorney-General.


title: Prosecutor

text: The prosecution landscape in England and Wales is highly varied, meaning that a 'prosecutor' can refer to a number of different individuals and roles.


title: Prosecutor

text: The primary prosecutor in the jurisdiction is the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which is led by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The CPS prosecutes on behalf of the Crown and also takes forward prosecutions originating from police investigations. While the DPP must be a suitably qualified lawyer under s71 Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, the DPP does not take on cases themselves and instead plays an administrative and leadership role. In this way, while the DPP may be referred to as a 'prosecutor' the individual in the role would not take any cases to court. The DPP is appointed by the Attorney General and the Attorney General also has a supervisory authority as the 'sponsor' of the CPS, however, the CPS is an independent body and the Attorney General cannot direct particular prosecutions. Unlike in the United States of America and other jurisdictions, the Attorney General is not a prosecutor in England and Wales. Rather, the role is a political office of the chief legal advisor to the executive.


title: Prosecutor

text: Crown Prosecutors are lawyers who work for the CPS. They are responsible for researching, advising police investigations, preparing cases for trial and sometimes presenting the case at trial. These lawyers may also be referred to as 'prosecutors'. A number of other bodies have authority to bring prosecutions in England and Wales include the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Service Prosecuting Authority and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These organisations and their legal representatives may be called 'prosecutors.' This is the same for any person, organisation or their representatives during a private prosecution.


title: Prosecutor

text: Finally, when cases are brought to trial a barrister, or solicitor with higher rights of audience, may present the case before a magistrate, judge or jury. In these instances, referring to the 'prosecutor' would refer to the lawyer conducting the case during trial. In most serious offences, the CPS or other prosecuting authority will instruct a barrister to represent them. In the most serious cases this may be a King's Counsel, and barristers may work in teams with a leader directing 'juniors'. Unlike in the United States, these prosecuting barristers will work on a case-by-case basis and so may also engage in defence work - they will not be employed to solely undertake prosecution advocacy.


title: Prosecutor

text: Crown Prosecutors are bound by a strict code of conduct, known as the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which governs how cases are charged and trials conducted. This fundamental code is supported by a range of other policies, most notably the DIrector's Guidance on Charging. The first stage in prosecuting a case is deciding to charge the suspect - it is this process which begins the prosecution. The CPS have authority to decide whether a person is charged in all offences, though the police may charge all summary offences, and either-way offences when there is an anticipated guilty plea and the nature of the offence is suitable for sentence in magistrates’ court.


title: Prosecutor

text: In order to charge the circumstances must meet the Full Code Test. In some urgent cases, a lower Threshold Test can be applied to get a charge quickly, but the Full Code Test must then be applied at the earliest opportunity. The Full Code Test has two stages, both parts are equal and must be met before a prosecution can be brought.


title: Prosecutor

text: The Threshold Test must be kept under proactive and continuous review, and should only be used in rare and urgent circumstances.


title: Prosecutor

text: State investigative agencies such as the SFO and FCA, alongside independent prosecutors like the Service Prosecuting Authority, may all bring prosecutions themselves without using the CPS. Nevertheless, these prosecutors will follow the standards set by the Code of Crown Prosecutors alongside their own prosecution policies, which may deal with issues specific to the types of crime they engage with.


title: Prosecutor

text: There may at times be a confusion as to which agency is responsible for having brought a prosecution. Which agency is prosecuting may effect whether an offence can be properly tried - as not all agencies can investigate and prosecute all offences. In "R. v Stafford Justices ex parte Customs and Excise Commissioners" (1991) 2 All ER 201 it was found by the court that a prosecution is instituted by the police only when they have investigated, arrested and brought the arrested person to the custody officer. A case is not instituted by the police simply because a custody officer at a police station charges the suspect. Applying the same principle, proceedings are instituted by another prosecuting agency when they have been solely responsible for the investigation and arrest of the suspect, even though the suspect is taken to the police station to be charged by a custody officer.


title: Prosecutor

text: The CPS advise that a case should probably be conducted by another prosecuting authority if any of the following factors apply:


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutions under certain acts require the consent of the Attorney General or DPP before they can proceed. In practice the following types of consent may be required:


title: Prosecutor

text: The range of offences which require consent is wide, a list of the offences can be found at Annex 1 - Consents to Prosecute.


title: Prosecutor

text: In England and Wales there is a statutorily protected common law right for any person to institute a private prosecution. This right is retained by s6(1) Prosecution of Offenders Act 1985. Some organisations regularly use private prosecutions on a large scale to achieve an institutional goal, for example the vast majority of prosecutions under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 are prosecuted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) as private prosecutions. The Post Office has also recently under taken a wide array of private prosecutions against post masters, leading to a subsequent scandal in which these prosecutions have widely come to be seen as a miscarriage of justice. The RSPCA have come under strong criticism for lacking sufficient independence to act as a prosecutor from the independent 'Wooler' review; the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and the Justice Select Committee, given they also investigate the offences and campaign politically for animal rights.


title: Prosecutor

text: The ongoing issues with private prosecutions outlined above has led to the Justice Select Committee calling for a closer examination of the process and regulation by government.


title: Prosecutor

text: It is usually practically difficult for an individual to bring a private prosecution given the high cost - estimated by the Ministry of Justice at £8,500 on average. Even if a private prosecutor is not legally qualified, they must meet the usual legal requirements lawyers must undertake including the Criminal Procedure Rules and appropriate disclosure standards.


title: Prosecutor

text: The DPP has authority to take over any prosecution instituted by another person or organisation, and to discontinue the prosecution if they see fit. The CPS have set out public guidance on when they will take over a prosecution, this indicates that the CPS should take over and continue with the prosecution if the papers clearly show all of the following:


title: Prosecutor

text: The final consideration is designed to cover the situation where, for whatever reason, the investigative authorities with which the CPS usually deals have not brought the case to the CPS' attention and yet it is a case that merits the prosecution being conducted by a public prosecuting authority rather than by a private individual.


title: Prosecutor

text: In New Zealand, most crimes are prosecuted by a Police Prosecutor, an employee of the New Zealand Police. The most serious crimes - about 5% of all crimes - is outsourced to a lawyer working at private law firm known as a Crown prosecutor.


title: Prosecutor

text: Though Scots law is a mixed system, its civil law jurisdiction indicates its civil law heritage. Here, all prosecutions are carried out by Procurators Fiscal and Advocates Depute on behalf of the Lord Advocate, and, in theory, they can direct investigations by the police. In very serious cases, a Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute or even the Lord Advocate, may take charge of a police investigation. It is at the discretion of the Procurator Fiscal, Advocate Depute, or Lord Advocate to take a prosecution to court, and to decide on whether or not to prosecute it under solemn procedure or summary procedure. Other remedies are open to a prosecutor in Scotland, including fiscal fines and non-court based interventions, such as rehabilitation and social work. All prosecutions are handled within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Procurators fiscal will usually refer cases involving minors to Children's Hearings, which are not courts of law, but a panel of lay members empowered to act in the interests of the child.


title: Prosecutor

text: The director of a prosecution office is known by any of several names depending on the jurisdiction, most commonly district attorney. Other names include state's attorney, state attorney, county attorney, and commonwealth's attorney.


title: Prosecutor

text: The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case against an individual or a corporation suspected of breaking the law, initiating and directing further criminal investigations, guiding and recommending the sentencing of offenders, and are the only attorneys allowed to participate in grand jury proceedings.


title: Prosecutor

text: The titles of prosecutors in state courts vary from state to state and level of government (i.e. city, county, and state) and include the terms District Attorney in New York, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Oklahoma; City Attorney in California cities (typically prosecute only minor and misdemeanor offenses) Commonwealth's Attorney in Kentucky and Virginia; County Attorney in Nebraska, Minnesota, and Arizona; County Prosecutor in New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana; District Attorney General in Tennessee; Prosecuting Attorney in Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Washington, and West Virginia (as well as in Missouri where cities additionally use "City Attorneys" to prosecute on their behalf); State's Attorney in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, North Dakota, and Vermont; State Prosecutor; Attorney General in Delaware and Rhode Island; and Solicitor in South Carolina. Prosecutors are most often chosen through local elections, and typically hire other attorneys as deputies or assistants to conduct most of the actual work of the office. United States Attorneys are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. They represent the federal government in federal court in both civil and criminal cases. Private attorneys general can bring criminal cases on behalf of private parties in some states.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are required by state and federal laws to follow certain rules. For example, the government must disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense; must disclose matters affecting the credibility of prosecution witnesses, such as an agreement to dismiss the witness's own charges in exchange for their testimony; must not destroy potentially useful evidence in bad faith; and must not use false testimony to secure a conviction. Failure to follow these rules may result in a finding of prosecutorial misconduct, although a 2013 investigation found that actual discipline for prosecutorial misconduct was lacking.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are also tasked with seeking justice in their prosecutions. "The United States Attorney," explained the U.S. Supreme Court, is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the two-fold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor—indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors in some jurisdictions have the discretion to not pursue criminal charges, even when there is probable cause, if they determine that there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction. Prosecutors may dismiss charges in this situation by seeking a voluntary dismissal or nolle prosequi.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the Commonwealth. In California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New York, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the People. In the remaining states, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the State.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are typically civil servants who possess a university degree in law and additional training in the administration of justice. In some countries, such as France and Italy, they are classed as judges.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Belgium, the Senior Crown prosecutor ("Procureur du Roi/Procureur des Konings" in trial courts and "Procureur Général/Procureur-Generaal" in appellate courts) is supported by subordinate Crown prosecutors ("substituts/substituten"). They open preliminary investigations and can hold a suspect in custody for up to 48 hours. When necessary, a Crown prosecutor will request an examining judge ("juge d'instruction"/"onderzoeksrechter") be appointed to lead a judicial inquest. With a judge investigating, Crown prosecutors do not conduct the interrogatories, but simply lay out the scope of the crimes which the judge and law enforcement forces investigate ("la saisine"). Like defense counsel, Crown prosecutors can request or suggest further investigation be carried out.


title: Prosecutor

text: The Crown prosecutor is in charge of policy decisions and may prioritize cases and procedures as need be.


title: Prosecutor

text: During a criminal trial, prosecutors must introduce and explain the case to the trier of fact, i.e., judges or jury. They generally suggest a reasonable sentence which the court is not obligated to follow; the court may decide on a tougher or softer sentence.


title: Prosecutor

text: Crown prosecutors also have a number of administrative duties. They may advise the court during civil actions.


title: Prosecutor

text: The Minister of Justice can order a criminal investigation but cannot prevent one ("droit d'injonction positive"/"positief injunctierecht").


title: Prosecutor

text: In Brazil, the public prosecutors form a body of autonomous civil servants—the Public Ministry ("Ministério Público")—working both at the federal and state level.


title: Prosecutor

text: Members of the Federal Prosecution Service are divided in three ranks, according to the jurisdiction of the courts before which they officiate.


title: Prosecutor

text: Federal Prosecutors ("Procuradores da República") officiate before single judges and lower courts, Federal Circuit Prosecutors ("procuradores regionais da República") before federal appellate courts, and Associate Federal Prosecutors General ("subprocuradores gerais da República") before superior federal courts. The Prosecutor General of the Republic ("Procurador Geral da República") heads the federal body, and tries cases before the Brazilian Supreme Court.


title: Prosecutor

text: At the state level, the career is usually divided in state prosecutors ("promotores de Justiça") who practice before the lower courts and state apellate prosecutors ("procuradores de Justiça") who practice before the state courts of appeals. There are also military prosecutors whose career, although linked to the federal prosecutors, is divided in a manner similar to state prosecutors.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Brazil the prosecutors' main job is to promote justice, as such they have the duty of not only trying criminal cases, but, if during the trial, they become convinced of a defendant's innocence, requesting the judge to acquit him. The prosecutor's office has always the last word on whether criminal offenses will or will not be charged, with the exception of those rare cases in which Brazilian law allows for private prosecution. In such cases, the prosecutor will officiate as "custos legis", being responsible to ensure that justice is indeed carried out.


title: Prosecutor

text: Although empowered by law to do so, prosecutors conduct criminal investigations only in major cases, usually involving police or public officials' wrongdoings. Also, they are in charge of external control over police activity and requesting the initiation of a police investigation.


title: Prosecutor

text: The power of individual prosecutors to hold criminal investigations was controversial and, although massively supported by judges, prosecutors and the general population, it was contested before the Supremo Tribunal Federal, but in 2015, this Court decided favorably to its power (RGE n. 593.727-MG).


title: Prosecutor

text: According to a 2012 law, the chief of police ("delegado de polícia"), as the police authority, is responsible for conducting the criminal investigation in Brazil by means of a police investigation ("inquérito policial") or other procedure provided by law that has the purpose of ascertaining the circumstances, materiality, and authorship of criminal offenses. Similar provisions are found in the Code of Criminal Procedure and in article 144 of the federal constitution.


title: Prosecutor

text: Beside their criminal duties, Brazilian prosecutors are among those authorized by the Brazilian constitution to bring action against private individuals, commercial enterprises, and the federal, state and municipal governments, in the defense of minorities, the environment, consumers, and the civil society in general.


title: Prosecutor

text: In France, the Office of the Prosecutor includes a Chief Prosecutor ("Procureur de la République" in trial courts and "procureur général" in appellate courts or the Supreme Court) and his deputies and assistants ("avocats généraux" and "substituts"). The Chief Prosecutor generally initiates preliminary investigations and, if necessary, asks that an examining judge ("juge d'instruction") be assigned to lead a formal judicial investigation. When an investigation is led by a judge, the prosecutor plays a supervisory role, defining the scope of the crimes being examined by the judge and law enforcement forces. Like defense counsel, the chief prosecutor may petition or move for further investigation. During criminal proceedings, prosecutors are responsible for presenting the case at trial to either the bench or the jury. Prosecutors generally suggest advisory sentencing guidelines, but the sentence remains at the court's discretion to decide, to increase or reduce as it sees fit. In addition, prosecutors have several administrative duties.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are considered magistrates under French law, as in most civil law countries. While the defense and the plaintiff are both represented by common lawyers, who sit (on chairs) on the courtroom floor, the prosecutor sits on a platform as the judge does, although he doesn't participate in deliberation. Judges and prosecutors are trained at the same school, and regard one other as colleagues.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Germany, the "Staatsanwalt" ("state attorney") is a life-tenured public official in the senior judicial service belonging to the same corps as judges. The Staatsanwalt heads pre-trial criminal investigations, decides whether to press a charge or drop it, and represents the government in criminal courts. The Staatsanwalt not only has the "professional responsibility" not to withhold exculpatory information, but is also required by law to actively determine such circumstances and to make them available to the defendant or the defense attorney. If the Staatsanwalt is not convinced of the defendant's guilt, the state attorney is required to plead against or in favor of the defendant according to the prosecutor's own assessment. Prosecution is compulsory if the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to convict.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Italy, a Prosecutor's Office is composed of a Chief Prosecutor ("procuratore capo") assisted by deputies ("procuratori aggiunti") and assistants ("sostituti procuratori"). Prosecutors in Italy are judicial officers just like judges and are ceremonially referred to as "Pubblico Ministero" ("Public Ministry" or P.M.).


title: Prosecutor

text: Italian Prosecutors officiate as "custos legis", being responsible to ensure that justice is indeed carried out. They are obligated under the Constitution to initiate preliminary investigations once they are informed or take personal notice of a criminal act—"notitia criminis"—or receive a bill of complaint. They can direct investigations or conduct them through orders and directives given to (judicial) police detectives, who can make their own parallel investigations in coordination with the Prosecutor. If enough evidence has been gathered in order to proceed, the prosecution is compulsory and it must move from preliminary investigations to initiate trial proceedings. At trial, the prosecuting attorney has to handle the prosecution but has an overarching duty to promote justice. In practice, this duty means that prosecutors are prohibited from withholding exculpatory evidence and must request that the judge acquit the defendant if, during the trial, the prosecutor becomes convinced of the defendant's innocence, or agrees that there is no evidence that proves his guilt beyond any reasonable doubt.


title: Prosecutor

text: In appellate courts, the Office of the Prosecutor is called "Procura Generale" and the Chief Prosecutor the "Procuratore Generale" (PG). The "Procuratore Generale presso la Corte di Cassazione" is the Chief General Prosecutor before the Corte di Cassazione, the Supreme Court of Italy.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors are allowed during their career to act in the other's stead, but a recent ruling by the Italian Constitutional Court stated that prosecutors, who wish to become judges, must relocate to another region and are prohibited to sit or hear trials that they themselves initiated.


title: Prosecutor

text: In Japan, are professional officials who have considerable powers of investigation, prosecution, superintendence of criminal execution and so on. Prosecutors can direct police for investigation purposes, and sometimes investigate directly. Only prosecutors can prosecute criminals in principle, and prosecutors can decide whether to prosecute or not. High-ranking officials of the Ministry of Justice are largely prosecutors.


title: Prosecutor

text: The highest-ranking prosecutor office of the Prokuratura in Poland is the Prokurator Generalny (General Prosecutor)—chief of the Prokuratura Krajowa (National Public Prosecutor's Office). The GP has 5 deputies. Structure of Public Prosecution in Poland is 4-level:


title: Prosecutor

text: Prokuratura Krajowa — National Public Prosecutor's Office --> prokuratury regionalne — provincial public prosecutor's offices (11) --> prokuratury okręgowe — regional public prosecutor's offices (45) --> prokuratury rejonowe — district public prosecutor's offices (358).


title: Prosecutor

text: Apart from a brief period between 2010 and 2016, the position of Public Prosecutor General has been held concurrently by the Minister of Justice.


title: Prosecutor

text: Prosecutors can conduct crime investigations directly or indirectly. They are responsible for the entire process of investigations and court prosecutions. Since Korean modern law was designed after civil law, the role of Korean prosecutors is similar or identical to that of European equivalents in commanding investigations, determining indictable cases and prosecuting process. A prosecutor has the power to prohibit a defendant or an accused individual from departing the Republic of Korea via an "international hold".


title: Prosecutor

text: In Sweden, public prosecutors are lawyers who work out of the Swedish Prosecution Authority () and direct police investigations of serious crimes. For all criminal cases, public prosecutors decide arrests and charges on behalf of the public and are the only public officers who can make such decisions. Plaintiffs also have the option of hiring their own special prosecutor ("enskilt åtal"). The exception is cases concerning crimes against the freedom of the press for which the Chancellor of Justice acts as the prosecuting attorney. In court, the prosecutor is not necessarily in an adversarial relationship to the defendant, but is under an obligation to investigate and present information that may incriminate or exhonerate the defendant. The prosecutor is not a judicial officer, nor do they participate in the private deliberations of the court.


title: Prosecutor

text: Public prosecutors are the only public officers who can decide to appeal cases to appellate courts. Otherwise, appeals are initiated by defense counsel, the plaintiff, their representatives, and other parties to the case ("målsäganden"). When a case has been decided by an appellate court, the right to appeal to the Supreme Court passes from the case's prosecutor to the Prosecutor-General ().


title: Prosecutor

text: A Public Procurator is an office used in Socialist judicial systems which, in some ways, corresponds to that of a public prosecutor in other legal systems, but with more far-reaching responsibilities, such as handling investigations otherwise performed by branches of the police. Conversely, the policing systems in socialist countries, such as the Militsiya of the Soviet Union, were not aimed at fulfilling the same roles as police forces in Democratic countries.


title: Prosecutor

text: A Public Procurator is a position in the People's Republic of China, analogous to both detective and public prosecutor. Legally, they are bound by Public Procurators' Law of the People's Republic of China. According to Article 6, the functions and duties of public procurators are as follows:


title: Prosecutor

text: In many countries, the prosecutor's administration is directly subordinate to the executive branch (e.g., the US Attorney General is a member of the President's cabinet). In some other countries, such as Italy or Brazil, the prosecutors are judicial civil servants, so they have the same liberties and independence that judges traditionally enjoy.


title: Prosecutor

text: In other countries, a form of private prosecution is available, meaning persons or private entities can directly petition the courts to hold trial against someone they feel is guilty of a crime, should the prosecutor refuse to indict.


title: Prosecutor

text: In the early history of England, victims of a crime and their family had the right to hire a private attorney to prosecute criminal charges against the person alleged to have injured the victim. In the 18th century, prosecution of almost all criminal offences in England was private, usually by the victim. In Colonial America, because of Dutch (and possibly French) practice and the expansion of the office of attorney general, public officials came to dominate the prosecution of crimes. However, privately funded prosecutors constituted a significant element of the state criminal justice system throughout the nineteenth century. The use of a private prosecutor was incorporated into the common law of Virginia, but is no longer permitted there. Private prosecutors were also used in North Carolina as late as 1975. Private prosecution has been used in Nigeria, but the practice is being phased out.


title: Prosecutor

text: Bruce L. Benson's "To Serve and Protect" lauds the role of private prosecutors, often employed by prosecution associations, in serving the needs of crime victims in England. Libertarian theory holds that public prosecutors should not exist, but that crimes should instead be treated as civil torts. Murray Rothbard writes, "In a libertarian world, there would be no crimes against an ill-defined 'society,' and therefore no such person as a 'district attorney' who decides on a charge and then presses those charges against an alleged criminal."


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Electro (Maxwell "Max" Dillon) () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, he was introduced in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #9 (Feb. 1964) as an adversary to the superhero Spider-Man. Electro has since endured as one of the web-slinger's most prominent foes, though he has also come into conflict with other heroes, most notably Daredevil. He is a founding member of the Sinister Six, and the leader of the original incarnation of the Emissaries of Evil, the first supervillain teams to oppose Spider-Man and Daredevil, respectively.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: In the original version of the story, Max Dillon was a lineman for an electric company who turned to a life of crime after being struck by lightning while working on a power line and becoming a living electric capacitor. Electro's superpowers revolve around controlling electricity, which he can absorb to "charge" himself and become more powerful, gaining additional abilities such as flight and enhanced physical attributes. Since his conception, the character has undergone several design changes, from his original green and yellow costume, to his modern look with blue skin and a bald head.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: During the time that Max Dillon was dead between 2016 and 2021, a second Electro named Francine Frye was introduced.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Outside of comics, Electro has been featured in various media adaptations of "Spider-Man", including feature films, television series, and video games. Jamie Foxx portrayed the character in the live-action films "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (2014) and "" (2021).


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: The Max Dillon incarnation of Electro was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #9 (Feb. 1964). The character is also known as the member of the Frightful Four battling the Fantastic Four. He is also the first major Marvel villain to be written in publication history as battling Daredevil, even being the founder and leader of the supervillain team that oppose him, the Emissaries of Evil.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: The second incarnation of Electro, Francine Frye, was created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos, and first appeared in "The Amazing Spider-Man" vol. 3 #2 (July 2014), though she did not become Electro until "The Amazing Spider-Man" vol. 4 #17 (October 2016).


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: While Maxwell "Max" Dillon, an electrical engineer and lineman, is repairing a power line, a freak lightning accident causes a mutagenic change that transforms him into a living electrical capacitor. His powers are initially weak, so he spends some time stealing electrical equipment from Stark Industries to charge himself. During this time, he is approached by Magneto, who considers him a potential recruit for his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, claiming that Dillon's power rival his own, but Dillon refuses. The following day, Dillon is confronted by a small-time thug from whom he was borrowing money to pay for the machinery he needed. When the thug draws a gun on him because he did not paid back the money yet, he responds by shooting a blast of lightning through the thug's chest—the first time Dillon ever kills anybody.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Soon taking the name "Electro", he turns to a life of a professional crime, his first victim being J. Jonah Jameson. Electro breaks into the "Daily Bugle" Building and steals from Jameson's safe right in front of him. Jameson accuses Spider-Man of being an alternate identity of Electro, prompting Spider-Man to prove the publisher wrong. During their first ever confrontation, Spider-Man is nearly killed after touching the electrically charged villain. Spider-Man eventually uses a fire hose to short-circuit Electro while wearing rubber gloves to protect himself.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Electro next confronts Daredevil for the first time when trying to break into the Baxter Building. He is again defeated. Electro later joins the original Sinister Six led by Doctor Octopus, and is the first member of the group to fight Spider-Man, battling him at a Stark plant. Spider-Man enters the fight believing he lost his powers, however after dodging a bolt of electricity from Electro he realizes his powers returned. Electro loses his power when the power is cut off by Spider-Man, who gets a card from him that leads him to fight Kraven the Hunter. Electro attacks the Fantastic Four at the wedding of Sue Storm and Reed Richards, under the influence of Doctor Doom's mind-control machine, but he has no memory of this due to the actions of Mister Fantastic. He later recruits the Emissaries of Evil in a plot of revenge against Daredevil for previous defeats. This group consists of Gladiator, Stilt-Man, Leap-Frog, and the Matador.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Electro is later hired by J. Jonah Jameson to defeat Spider-Man on national television. He encounters Daredevil again in San Francisco, at which time he temporarily dons a modified costume. He then takes control of a Protarian android seeking the destruction of Omega. Electro then teams with Blizzard against Spider-Man and Daredevil. Electro then attempts to aid a band of criminals escaping the Defenders. Electro later joins the Frightful Four. As part of the Frightful Four, he uses Spider-Man as bait to trap the Fantastic Four. Subsequently, he battles the Falcon but is defeated, partly because he does not consider the Falcon to be a serious threat. Electro later learns that he can electro-statically disrupt Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability. Chameleon and Hammerhead then send the Shocker to try to recruit Electro into their organization. Instead, he later accepts Doctor Octopus' invitation to rejoin the Sinister Six, and battles Spider-Man.


title: Electro (Marvel Comics)

text: Electro fights Spider-Man countless times, either on his own or as part of a group such as the Sinister Six. He also fights such other heroes as Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the New Avengers. Despite his immense power, he almost always is defeated, usually as a result of his foes outsmarting him or taking advantage of his weakness to water while charged. As a result of his frequent and often embarrassing defeats, Electro tries to take over New York City's power supply in an attempt at glory and respect. Spider-Man thwarts this plan, however, and convinces Electro to quit his criminal career. When Kaine (Spider-Man's insane clone) starts killing enemies of Spider-Man, Electro begins to fear for his life and temporarily joins Hobgoblin's(Jason Macendale) Sinister Seven, which were formed to combat Kaine. This group os quickly disbanded, and following Kaine's subsequent disappearance, Electro returns to retirement.