title: Olivia Newton-John

text: The provocative lyrics of the "Physical" title track prompted two Utah radio stations to ban the single from their playlists. (In 2010, "Billboard" magazine ranked this as the most popular single ever about sex.) To counter its overtly suggestive tone, Newton-John filmed an exercise-themed video that turned the song into an aerobics anthem and made headbands a fashion accessory outside the gym.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: She helped pioneer the music video industry by recording a video album for "Physical", featuring videos of all the album's tracks and three of her older hits. The video album earned her a fourth Grammy and was aired as an ABC prime-time special, "Let's Get Physical", becoming a top-10 Nielsen hit. Newton-John said that "Like everyone, I've got different sides of my personality. I've my dominant self, my need-to-be-dominated self, the sane Olivia and the crazy Olivia. Playing these different characters gave me a chance to show strange parts people haven't seen much."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: The success of "Physical" led to an international tour and the release of her second hits collection, the double-platinum "Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2" (No. 16 Pop), which yielded two more top-40 singles: "Heart Attack" (No. 3 Pop) and "Tied Up" (No. 38 Pop). The tour was filmed for her "Olivia in Concert" television special, which premiered on HBO in January 1983. The special was subsequently released to video, earning Newton-John another Grammy nomination.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John reteamed with Travolta in 1983 for the critically and commercially unsuccessful movie "Two of a Kind", redeemed by its platinum soundtrack (No. 26 Pop) featuring "Twist of Fate" (No. 5 Pop), "Livin' in Desperate Times" (No. 31 Pop), and a new duet with Travolta, "Take a Chance" (No. 3 AC). Newton-John released another video package, the Grammy-nominated "Twist of Fate", featuring videos of her four songs on the "Two of a Kind" soundtrack and the two new singles from "Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: That same year Newton-John and Pat Farrar (formerly Pat Carroll) founded Koala Blue. The store, originally for Australian imports, evolved into a chain of women's clothing boutiques. The chain was initially successful, but it eventually declared bankruptcy and closed in 1992. Newton-John and Farrar later licensed the brand name for a line of Australian wines.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John, a supporter of Australian rules football Carlton, performed the Australian national anthem at the 1986 VFL Grand Final between Carlton and Hawthorn.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's music career cooled again with the release of her next studio album, the gold "Soul Kiss" (No. 29 Pop), in 1985. The album's only charted single was the title track (No. 20 Pop, No. 20 AC). The video album for "Soul Kiss" featured only five of the album's ten tracks (concept videos for the album's singles "Soul Kiss" and "Toughen Up" as well as performance videos of the tracks "Culture Shock", "Emotional Tangle" and "The Right Moment").


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: After a nearly three-year hiatus following the birth of her daughter Chloe in January 1986, Newton-John resumed her recording career with the 1988 album "The Rumour". The album was promoted by an HBO special, "Olivia Down Under". Its first single, the title track, was written and produced by Elton John. Both the single (No. 62 Pop, No. 33 AC) and the album (No. 67 Pop) faltered commercially as the nearly 40-year-old Newton-John seemed "old" when compared with the teen queens Debbie Gibson and Tiffany ruling the pop charts at that time. (The album was praised by critics as more mature, with Newton-John addressing topics such as AIDS ("Love and Let Live"), the environment and single-parent households.)


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: The second single, "Can't We Talk It Over in Bed", did not chart, but was released in 1989 by Grayson Hugh, the song's arranger, and became a top-20 pop hit as "Talk It Over".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In September 1989, Newton-John released her self-described "self-indulgent" album, "Warm and Tender", which reunited her with producer John Farrar, absent from her previous LP, and also marked a return to a more wholesome image of herself. Inspired by her daughter, who appeared on the cover, the album featured lullabies and love songs for parents and their children. This album, the last one produced by Farrar, also failed to revive her recording career, as the disc reached only No. 124 Pop.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John was primed for another comeback in 1992 when she compiled her third hits collection, "", and planned her first tour since her "Physical" trek ten years earlier. Shortly after the album's release, Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing her to cancel all publicity for the album, including the tour. She received her diagnosis the same weekend her father died. Newton-John recovered and later became an advocate for breast cancer research and other health issues. She was a product spokesperson for the Liv-Kit, a breast self-examination product. She was also partial owner of the Gaia Retreat and Spa in Byron Bay, New South Wales.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's advocacy for health issues was presaged by her prior involvement with many humanitarian causes. Newton-John cancelled a 1978 concert tour of Japan to protest the slaughter of dolphins caught in tuna fishing nets. She subsequently rescheduled the tour when the Japanese government assured her that the practice was being curbed. Her concern for these "beautifully evolved creatures" (as she called them in the "Warm and Tender" liner notes) is also expressed in the 1981 self-penned piece, "The Promise (the Dolphin Song)", described as "one of the most tender, heartfelt vocals of the singer's career." Newton-John said that "The Promise" (from "Physical") was inspired by (and even channelled by) dolphins she met at Sea Life Park in Hawaii and attested: "It was strange. The morning after I was in the pools, I woke up and the words and melody were in my head. I think it was a gift from them."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: She was a performer on the 1979 "Music for UNICEF Concert" for the UN's International Year of the Child televised worldwide. During the concert, artists performed songs for which they donated their royalties, some in perpetuity, to benefit the cause. She was appointed a Goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Environment Programme.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 1991, she became the National Spokesperson for the Colette Chuda Environmental Fund/CHEC (Children's Health Environmental Coalition) following the death from Wilms' tumour of five-year-old Colette Chuda, daughter of Newton-John's friend Nancy Chuda.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's cancer diagnosis also affected the type of music she recorded. In 1994, she released "", which chronicled her ordeal. Co-produced by Newton-John for ONJ Productions, "Gaia" was originally issued by Festival in Australia but also distributed by various independent labels in Japan and Europe. In 2002, there was an American distribution by Hip-O Records, and a subsequent re-release in 2012 by Green Hill featured an alternative cover photo. "Gaia" was the first album on which Newton-John wrote all the music and lyrics herself, and this endeavour encouraged her to become more active as a songwriter thereafter. The single "No Matter What You Do" entered the Australian top 40, and the second single, the environmentally themed "Don't Cut Me Down", was also used in the film "It's My Party". The Latin-fuelled "Not Gonna Give into It" eventually became heavily showcased in concert performance; "The Way of Love" was featured in the telefilm "A Christmas Romance", and "Trust Yourself" was incorporated into both the TV-movie "The Wilde Girls" and the theatrical flick "Sordid Lives".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2005, she released "Stronger Than Before", sold exclusively in the United States by Hallmark. This was her second exclusive album for Hallmark Cards after her successful first Christmas album "Tis the Season" with Vince Gill five years earlier. Proceeds from the album's sales benefited breast cancer research. The album featured the song "Phenomenal Woman" based on the poem by Maya Angelou that featured guest vocals from Diahann Carroll, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Delta Goodrem, Amy Holland, Patti LaBelle and Mindy Smith – all survivors of or affected by cancer.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: The following year, Newton-John released a healing CD, "Grace and Gratitude". The album was sold exclusively by Walgreens, also to benefit various charities including Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization. The CD was the "heart" of their "Body — Heart — Spirit" Wellness Collection, which also featured a re-branded Liv-Kit and breast-health dietary supplements. She re-recorded some tracks from "Grace and Gratitude" in 2010 and re-released the album as "Grace and Gratitude Renewed" on the Green Hill music label. The "Renewed" CD includes a new track, "Help Me to Heal", not featured on the original album.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2008, she raised funds to help build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia. She led a three-week, 228 km walk along the Great Wall of China during April, joined by various celebrities and cancer survivors throughout her trek. The walk symbolised the steps cancer patients must take on their road to recovery.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: She released a companion CD, "A Celebration in Song", the following month in Australia and later worldwide, featuring new and previously recorded duets by "Olivia Newton-John & Friends", including Jann Arden, Jimmy Barnes, John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Delta Goodrem, Sun Ho, Richard Marx, Cliff Richard, Melinda Schneider, Amy Sky, and Keith Urban. In 2016, Newton-John re-teamed with Amy Sky and Beth Nielsen Chapman to form a trio for the album "Liv On".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John was featured in UniGlobe Entertainment's breast cancer docu-drama, "1 a Minute", released in October 2010. The documentary was made by actress Namrata Singh Gujral and featured other celebrities who had survived breast cancer or who were affected by the disease. During the same month, Bluewater Productions released a comic book featuring Newton-John to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John continued to record and perform pop-oriented music as well. In 1998, she returned to Nashville to record "Back with a Heart" (No. 59 Pop). The album returned her to the top 10 (No. 9) on the Country Albums chart. Its first single was a re-recording of "I Honestly Love You" produced by David Foster and featuring Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds on background vocals that charted on the Pop (No. 67) and AC (No. 18) charts. Country radio dismissed the song, though it did peak at No. 16 on the Country Sales chart. The album track, "Love Is a Gift", won Newton-John a 1999 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song after being featured on the daytime serial, "As the World Turns".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: During October–December 1998, Newton-John, John Farnham and Anthony Warlow performed in The Main Event Tour. The album "Highlights from The Main Event" peaked at No. 1 in December, was certified 4× platinum, won an ARIA Award for Highest Selling Australian CD at the 1999 Awards and was also nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: For the 2000 Summer Olympics, Newton-John and Farnham re-teamed to perform "Dare to Dream" during the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony. Broadcast of the ceremony was viewed by an estimated 3.5 billion people around the world.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In December 1998, following a hiatus of about 16 years, Newton-John also resumed touring by herself and in 2000 released a solo CD, "One Woman's Live Journey", her first live album since 1981's "Love Performance".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's subsequent albums were released primarily in Australia. In 2002, she released "(2)", a duets album featuring mostly Australian artists (Tina Arena, Darren Hayes, Jimmy Little, Johnny O'Keefe, Billy Thorpe and Keith Urban), as well as a "duet" with the deceased Peter Allen. In addition, "(2)" offered a hidden 12th track, a samba version of "Physical" which Newton-John later performed occasionally in concert instead of the more rock-style original. The album's 2004 Japanese release includes the bonus track "Let It Be Me", a duet with Cliff Richard with whom she had previously been coupled on "Suddenly" and "Songs from Heathcliff".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Produced by Phil Ramone and recorded at the Indigo Recording Studios in Malibu for ONJ Productions, "" was released in October 2004 in Australia. The tribute album featured Newton-John covering songs by artists such as Joan Baez, the Carpenters, Doris Day, Nina Simone, Minnie Riperton. She dedicated the album to her mother, who had died the previous year of breast cancer. "Indigo" was subsequently released in the UK in April 2005 and in Japan in March 2006. A rebranded and resequenced version called "Portraits: A Tribute to Great Women of Song" was eventually issued in the United States in 2011.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John also released several Christmas albums. In 2000, she teamed with Vince Gill and the London Symphony Orchestra for "Tis the Season" sold exclusively through Hallmark. The following year, she released "The Christmas Collection", which compiled seasonal music previously recorded for her Hallmark Christmas album, her appearance on Kenny Loggins' 1999 TNN Christmas special and her contributions to the "Mother and Child" and "Spirit of Christmas" multi-artist collections. (Green Hill Records re-released this album with different artwork in 2010.) In 2007, she re-teamed with her "Grace and Gratitude" producer, Amy Sky, for "Christmas Wish" (No. 187 Pop) which was sold exclusively by Target in its first year of release.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John acted occasionally since "Two of a Kind". She appeared in a supporting role in the 1996 AIDS drama, "It's My Party". In 2000, she appeared in a dramatically different role as Bitsy Mae Harling, a bisexual former-convict country singer, in Del Shores' "Sordid Lives". Newton-John reprised her role for "" which aired one season on the LOGO television network. The series featured five original songs written and composed by Newton-John specifically for the show. In 2010, Newton-John starred in the film "", released in Canada. She portrayed Hope Gordon, the mother of a home-schooled hockey prodigy. The film opened the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's television work included starring in two Christmas films, "A Mom for Christmas" (1990) and "A Christmas Romance" (1994) – both top 10 Nielsen hits. Her daughter, Chloe, starred as one of her children in both "A Christmas Romance" and in the 2001 Showtime film "The Wilde Girls". Newton-John guest-starred as herself in the sitcoms "Ned and Stacey", "Murphy Brown" and "Bette" and also made two appearances as herself on "Glee".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2008, Newton-John took part in the BBC Wales program "Coming Home" about her Welsh family history. Also, in 2008, Newton-John joined Anne Murray on Murray's last album, titled "". She sang Gordon Lightfoot's hit "Cotton Jenny" with Murray.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: For her first "Glee" appearance, Newton-John recreated her "Physical" video with series regular Jane Lynch. The performance was released as a digital single which peaked at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2010. In Australia, Newton-John hosted the animal and nature series "Wild Life" and guest-starred as Joanna on two episodes of the Australian series "The Man From Snowy River".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John released another concert DVD, "Olivia Newton-John and the Sydney Symphony: Live at the Sydney Opera House" and a companion CD, her third live album titled "Olivia's Live Hits". An edited version of the DVD premiered on PBS station, WLIW (Garden City, New York), in October 2007.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In January 2011, Newton-John began filming the comedy "A Few Best Men" in Australia with director Stephan Elliott, in the role of mother of the bride. The groom is played by Xavier Samuel.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John was actively touring and doing concerts from 2012 to 2017 and also performed a handful of shows in 2018. Her dates for A Summer Night with Olivia Newton-John even included stops in Asia and Canada and culminated in a rare concert appearance in London in 2013. Her March 2013 UK trek also encompassed Bournemouth, Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff, Wales.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In November 2012, Newton-John teamed with John Travolta to make the charity album "This Christmas", in support of The Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre and the Jett Travolta Foundation. Artists featured on the album include: Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Chick Corea, Kenny G, Tony Bennett, Cliff Richard and the Count Basie Orchestra.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: A 2013 residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas was postponed due to the May 2013 death of her elder sister, Rona (aged 72), from a brain tumour. Newton-John resumed performing, doing 45 shows beginning in April 2014. Along with the Vegas shows, Newton-John released a new EP in April 2014 entitled "Hotel Sessions", which consisted of seven tracks of unreleased demos that were recorded between 2002 and 2011 with her nephew Brett Goldsmith. The CD contains a cover of "Broken Wings" as well as the popular-with-fans original "Best of My Love", which had leaked on the internet many years prior.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Her Vegas stay was eventually extended beyond August 2014, and her Summer Nights residency finished in December 2016 after 175 shows. Her successful three-year run even prompted a fourth live album, "Summer Nights: Live in Las Vegas" (2015). In 2015, Newton-John also reunited with John Farnham for a joint venture called "Two Strong Hearts Live".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2015, Newton-John was a guest judge on an episode of "RuPaul's Drag Race". That same year, she scored her first number-one single on "Billboard" Dance Club Songs chart with "You Have to Believe" with daughter Chloe and producer Dave Audé. The song was a re-imagining of her 1980 single "Magic", which she noted was to celebrate both the 35th anniversary of "Xanadu" and as a dedication to her daughter. About the latter, Newton-John stated "I met Chloe's dad on the set of "Xanadu", so, without that film, Chloe wouldn't be here. She was the real 'magic' that came out of that film!" The song became the first mother-daughter single to reach No. 1 on the "Billboard" Dance Club Play chart.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2017, she collaborated with two North American singer-songwriters, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Amy Sky, on a joint concert tour entitled "Liv On" and produced a CD by the same name.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: On 7 May 2019, Newton-John's elder brother Hugh, a doctor, died at age 80; his death left Newton-John as the sole surviving sibling.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In recognition for "her work as an entertainer and philanthropist", she was bestowed Australia's highest honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in June 2019.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In December 2019, Newton-John and Travolta also re-teamed for three live "Meet 'n' "Grease"" sing-along events in the Florida cities of Tampa, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville. Subsequently, a sing-along re-broadcast of "Grease" aired on CBS television.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In February 2020, Newton-John appeared at the Fire Fight Australia charity event. This was her final public performance.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In January 2021, Newton-John released her final single, "Window in the Wall", a duet about unity which she recorded with her daughter Chloe Lattanzi. The music video for the song peaked at No. 1 on the iTunes pop music video chart the week of its release.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2019, it was announced that Newton-John was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: On 2 November 2019, Julien's Auctions auctioned hundreds of memorabilia items from Newton-John's career. The sale raised $2.4 million. Newton-John's "Grease" outfit garnered $405,700; her pants and jacket were purchased separately by two different billionaires. Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, bought Newton-John's black skintight pants from "Grease" for $162,000. The anonymous buyer who acquired her famous "Grease" leather jacket for $243,200 (£185,000) returned the item to her and said: "It should not sit in a billionaire's closet for country-club bragging rights [...] The odds of beating a recurring cancer using the newest emerging therapies is a thousandfold greater than someone appearing out of the blue, buying your most famous and cherished icon, and returning it to you." All proceeds were donated to her cancer and wellness research centre in Australia.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's first boyfriend, Ian Turpie, once said of her early appearances: "In those days she had a small voice, but it was very pure. She could sing prettily in tune...The improvement in her singing since she went to England has been remarkable. She told me Shirley Bassey has been a big influence on her. After hearing Bassey, she worked at developing her head voice to sound like a chest voice, the way Bassey uses hers. The power she's developed is amazing."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Michael Dwyer of "The Sydney Morning Herald" maintains that following Newton-John's career was like watching "our slightly older and braver sister growing up in public" and her passing "feels today like a lost member of the family". Rachel Syme of "The New Yorker" also suggests that her familial, down-to-earth demeanor and humanity may have even superseded her singing accomplishments: "Her most lasting legacy might be as the rare celebrity who was almost universally well liked, and thought of as an essentially kind and warmhearted person".


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Her musical abilities on their own merits were also impressive. In her 1982 "Olivia in Concert" performance of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," Newton-John showcases a down-falling note range covering three octaves; however, author Lauren O'Neill writes: "She sang with clarity and precision, her high notes bright and open like a window on a summer morning, but her voice was never clinical – a sultry purr, euphoric cry or breathy gasp seemed always available to her...Her vocal [on "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from "Grease"] is clean and soaring, but to hear it is to be right down in the dirt with Sandy too; to feel, and perhaps even identify with, her total frustration with herself. As she slides between notes while singing 'I’m out of my head,' she shows us her emotional freefall as well as telling us about it."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Long before and after the career summit of "Grease", Newton-John proved herself to be a fairly versatile performer. Maura Johnston of "Vulture" assesses: "Newton-John was a regular chart-topper...throughout the ’70s, her lithe soprano adapting well to the soft pop sound" of the era with ""AM Gold" staples and tracks from the folk and country world...As it turned out, Newton-John’s voice was pretty well suited to the spiky dance pop that would become popular in the early 1980s" too. However, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of the "Los Angeles Times" offers a counterpoint on her career decline in the mid-1980s: "Hardness never was Newton-John's comfort zone, though, and the 1980s were a much harder decade than the 1970s. The inherent warmth of 1970s studio sessions gave way to the cold, synthesized gleam of the 1980s, a sterile sound that suited her well only once: the candied faux-new wave of 'Twist of Fate'", produced by David Foster. Johnston further maintains: "Her pop heyday transcended any attempts to musically pigeonhole her"; and by the time she stopped having many new hits, "her musical legacy ... had been pretty well solidified."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John's work has inspired many other female vocalists, including Juliana Hatfield, Lisa Loeb, Kylie Minogue, Delta Goodrem, Natalie Maines and Alanis Morissette. Pink staged a commemorative Newton-John cover during the 2022 American Music Awards. At the 2022 ARIA Music Awards, a special tribute in her honour featured performances by Natalie Imbruglia, Peking Duk and Tones and I.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In the mid-1960s, she dated Australian actor and singer Ian Turpie, her co-star in the 1965 musical film "Funny Things Happen Down Under". They met in late 1962 when Turpie attended the coffee shop where Newton-John's group Sol Four performed. The relationship continued until Newton-John returned to England in 1966.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 1968, Newton-John was engaged to but never married Bruce Welch, one of her early producers and co-writer of her hit "Please Mr. Please". In 1972, Newton-John ended her relationship with Welch, who subsequently attempted suicide.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 1973, while vacationing on the French Riviera, Newton-John met British businessman Lee Kramer, who became both her new boyfriend and manager. Newton-John lived with Kramer on and off and they stayed a couple until 1979; she called their turbulent pairing "one long breakup". Kramer subsequently returned to England and married. He also managed vocalist Krishna Das. Kramer died in 2017.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John married her long-time partner, actor Matt Lattanzi, in December 1984. The couple had met in 1980 while filming "Xanadu". They divorced in 1995. According to People magazine, people close to the couple cited the disparity between her spiritual interests and his more earthly ones as a key factor in the dissolution. The couple remained friends. Their daughter, Chloe Rose, was born in January 1986.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John met gaffer/cameraman Patrick McDermott a year after her 1995 divorce from Matt Lattanzi. The couple dated on and off for nine years. McDermott allegedly disappeared following a 2005 fishing trip off the Californian coast. Newton-John was in Australia at her Gaia Retreat & Spa at the time of McDermott's disappearance. A United States Coast Guard investigation, based on then-available evidence and released in 2008, "suggest[ed] McDermott was lost at sea", with a friend telling investigators McDermott had appeared sad though not despondent after their breakup. In April 2010, a private investigator, hired by an American television program, claimed that McDermott is alive and had faked his death for a life insurance payout – but did not provide proof beyond their own statement that they were confident. Unsubstantiated claims have been made, particularly in Australian tabloids, that McDermott is living in Mexico.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John married John Easterling, founder and president of the Amazon Herb Company, in an Incan spiritual ceremony in Peru on 21 June 2008, followed by a legal ceremony nine days later (30 June 2008) on Jupiter Island, Florida.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Although principally raised in Australia, she remained a British subject through her childhood and did not formally become an Australian citizen until 1981 with an application that was expedited by the then prime minister, Malcolm Fraser.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: After relocating from Britain to America in 1974, Newton-John set up residence in Malibu, California, where for 40 years she owned several properties, including a horse ranch and beach houses.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In June 2009, Newton-John and her second husband, John Easterling, purchased a new $4.1 million home in Jupiter Inlet, Florida. In 2013, a contractor named Christopher Pariseleti committed suicide on the estate, which at the time was up for sale. Following the death on the premises, the property lingered on and off the market for two years but was eventually sold in 2015 to a Swedish advertising executive for $5.1 million.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2015, the couple purchased a $5.3 million, 12-acre horse ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley outside Santa Barbara. It was offered for sale in 2019 but not sold, and she was living there at the time of her death.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In 2019, Newton-John sold her 187-acre Australian farm, which she had owned for nearly 40 years and is located near Byron Bay in New South Wales. The Dalwood estate sold for $4.6 million; in 1980, Newton-John had paid $622,000 for the property, which had additional land adjoined in both 1983 and in 2002.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: When asked in 2017 whether she considered herself to be a British, Australian or American citizen, she said, "I am still Australian." In December 2019, she expressed: "As a girl born in Cambridge [England], I am very proud of my British ancestry and so appreciative to be recognized in this way by the United Kingdom."


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In May 2017, it was announced that Newton-John's breast cancer had returned and metastasised to her lower back. Her back pains had initially been diagnosed as sciatica. She subsequently revealed this was actually her third bout with breast cancer, as she had a recurrence of the disease in 2013 in addition to her initial 1992 diagnosis. With the 2017 recurrence, the cancer had spread to her bones and progressed to stage IV. Newton-John experienced significant pain from the metastatic bone lesions and had spoken of using cannabis oil to ease her pain. She was an advocate for the use of medical cannabis; her daughter Chloe owns a cannabis farm in Oregon.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: Newton-John died from cancer on 8 August 2022, at age 73 at her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California. Tributes were paid by John Travolta, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Albanese and many other celebrities. As a mark of respect, Melbourne and Sydney lit up many of their landmarks.


title: Olivia Newton-John

text: In September 2022, Newton-John's family held a "small and very private" memorial service in California for the singer, who asked to be cremated and have her ashes scattered in Byron Bay, on her Santa Ynez ranch and "in other places that I love". A larger memorial is slated to take place in Melbourne, Australia, after the State of Victoria offered Newton-John's family a state funeral, which her niece Tottie Goldsmith has accepted.


title: Old (film)

text: Old is a 2021 American thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on the French-language Swiss graphic novel "Sandcastle" by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott. The plot follows a group of people who find themselves aging rapidly on a secluded beach.


title: Old (film)

text: Shyamalan decided to adapt "Sandcastle" into a film after receiving it as a Father's Day gift in 2017. The then-untitled project was announced in September 2019, with the filmmaker revealing a partnership with Universal Pictures. The following year, filming took place in the Dominican Republic for three months, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cinematographer Michael Gioulakis. "Old" premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 19, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 23. The film was a box office success, grossing $90 million worldwide against an $18 million budget while receiving polarized reviews from critics.


title: Old (film)

text: Guy and Prisca Cappa are going through a divorce. To avoid saddening their young children Maddox and Trent, the couple take them to a tropical resort as a final family vacation. At their hotel, Guy and Prisca are given complimentary drinks and the children befriend the resort manager's nephew, Idlib. At night, Maddox and Trent overhear their parents arguing and play a message decoding game with Idlib.


title: Old (film)

text: The next morning, the manager invites the family to a secluded beach where three additional parties are present: rapper "Mid-Sized Sedan", and a female companion; surgeon Charles, his elder mother Agnes, his wife Chrystal, and their young daughter Kara; and Jarin and Patricia Carmichael, a close-knit husband and wife. Trent discovers the corpse of Mid-Sized Sedan's companion. Charles grows suspicious of Mid-Sized Sedan, who reveals that he has been experiencing nosebleeds because of his hemophilia. After the children rapidly turn into teenagers and Agnes suddenly dies, the families conclude that the beach is rapidly aging them, with the occupants undergoing the equivalent of one year of aging every 30 minutes. At least one member of each family has an underlying medical condition. They discover that trying to leave will result in them blacking out and waking up back to where they left.


title: Old (film)

text: In a fit of rage, Charles cuts Mid-Sized Sedan with a pocket knife and the group watches as his injury quickly heals. After Prisca develops a stomach tumor, Charles performs a successful surgery to remove it. Mid-Sized Sedan discovers that the body of his companion has fully decomposed in a matter of hours. Kara and Trent continue to age and after having sex with each other, Kara gets pregnant. She manages to give birth, but the baby dies due to the time rapidly passing. Trent and Maddox discover the notebook of a previous traveler, along with indications of them being watched. The attempts to leave grow tenser when Charles's worsening schizophrenia causes him to kill Mid-Sized Sedan. Jarin drowns, Kara falls to her death, Patricia suffers a fatal epileptic seizure, and Chrystal's hypocalcemia results in her bones rupturing, killing her. At night, Charles attacks Guy in a schizophrenic episode, but Prisca slashes him with a rusted knife, instigating a fatal blood infection that kills Charles. An elderly Guy and Prisca make amends before dying moments apart from each other.


title: Old (film)

text: With only the now-middle-aged Maddox and Trent remaining by the next morning, the pair construct a sandcastle. They revisit a secret message given to them by Idlib, which Trent deduces is connected to an underwater coral passage. Believing that the passage will allow them to leave the beach without losing consciousness, he and his sister start swimming through the coral. After they seemingly fail to emerge from the water, a resort employee monitoring them reports that the entire group has died. He gives the news to the manager, who mentions a previous incident where a guest had almost escaped from the beach before announcing that trial 73 has concluded.


title: Old (film)

text: It is revealed that the resort is a front for a research team from the pharmaceutical company Warren & Warren which was conducting clinical trials of new medical drugs, which are administered to guests with medical conditions by spiking their drinks. Since the beach naturally accelerates the lives of the guests, the researchers have been able to complete the lifelong drug trials within a day. The researchers lure a new group to the beach, but are interrupted by Trent and Maddox, who survived their underwater swim, using the notebook as evidence which they gave to vacationing police officer Greg Mitchel, who informs his boss of the researchers' crimes. The researchers are mentioned to have been arrested with subpoenas sent to the rest of Warren & Warren as Mitchel plans to reunite Trent and Maddox with their aunt.


title: Old (film)

text: Additional cast members include Kathleen Chalfant as Agnes, Charles' mother, Gustaf Hammarsten as the resort manager who heads the secret research team for the pharmaceutical company Warren & Warren, Francesca Eastwood and Matthew Shear as resort employees Madrid and Sidney, Kailen Jude as the manager's nephew Idlib, Daniel Ison as vacationing police officer Greg Mitchel, and M. Night Shyamalan as the resort employee who drives the guests to the beach and monitors them.


title: Old (film)

text: When "NME" Beth Webb asked about the different themes tackled in "Old", Shyamalan responded, "It's definitely about our relationship to time and, in my opinion, our dysfunctional relationship to time that we all have. Until we're forced to examine it, whether it's a pandemic or the factors that are on this situation for these characters, that they're trapped on this beach and they have to reflect on their relationship to time. You see some characters unable to navigate this and then some characters find peace. Why did they find peace and how did they find peace in the midst of all of this chaos? So there's this conversation about that, the one that I'm having of myself with time."


title: Old (film)

text: At the Tribeca Film Festival, Shyamalan said that the film's focus on aging reminded him of his father, who has dementia, and his children as he watches them grow up. During the event, Alex Wolff compared the film to the COVID-19 pandemic, "Coming out of COVID it feels like time just stopped. And that's what the movie's literally about." At the film's premiere, Wolff was asked for his interpretation of the film and said it was "an allegorical existential sort of meditation on getting older." Other cast members chimed in; Nikki Amuka-Bird said the film was about not taking nature for granted, Gael García Bernal said it was about questioning how time travels differently for other people, and Vicky Krieps found that it was about "love and family and all these things that are much stronger than any fears — the fear of aging and the fear of death."


title: Old (film)

text: In September 2019, Universal Pictures announced its plans to distribute two then-untitled independently-financed thriller films written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. In a statement, Universal Pictures President Peter Cramer said that these projects contained "highly original stories," while Shymalan added, "There are wonderful studios out there, but Universal has made it a mandate to release original films. They are the best at finding an audience for new stories with unexpected tones. I believe original films are crucial to the longevity of the theatrical experience."


title: Old (film)

text: In May 2020, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, and Vicky Krieps entered negotiations to star. That June, they all joined the cast alongside Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Ken Leung. In July, it was reported that Shyamalan, Marc Bienstock, and Ashwin Rajan would produce the project through Perfect World Pictures and Blinding Edge Pictures, with Gael García Bernal also being cast. In August, Rufus Sewell, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott were all announced as part of the ensemble cast. That same month, Bryan Cranston said he had declined a role in the film due to a scheduling conflict caused by his involvement with filming "Your Honor" in New Orleans.


title: Old (film)

text: On September 26, 2020, principal photography began in the Dominican Republic and to celebrate, Shyamalan revealed the film's title and published its first promotional release poster. That same day, "Collider" reported that the film was an adaptation of "Sandcastle", the French graphic novel by Swiss authors Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, which Shyamalan had received as a collective Father's Day gift from his three daughters in 2017. "Old" marks the first film of Shyamalan's career to have no shooting take place around his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With an $18 million budget, filming took place during the COVID-19 pandemic with cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, using 35mm film, and concluded on November 15, 2020. After filming wrapped, Shyamalan said "Old" was the first film to be shot during the pandemic in the Dominican Republic and that throughout the shoot, no one tested positive for the virus as he paid for the production crew's ten-week stay at a hotel.


title: Old (film)

text: "Old" was inspired by films created during the Australian New Wave, including "Walkabout" (1971) and "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975), along with "The Exterminating Angel" (1962), "Kuroneko" (1968), "Jaws" (1975), and "The Twilight Zone". To create a claustrophobic feeling, Shyamalan employed several filming techniques from Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950) and "Ran" (1985). As a result, "Old" was mostly filmed in a single location, the Playa El Valle beach located between two mountains on the north coast of Santa Bárbara de Samaná. Additional filming took place at Pinewood Dominican Republic Studios in Juan Dolio and in several locations around Samaná. To capture footage of the surrounding nature, Shyamalan's daughter, Ishana, served as the film's second unit director. His other daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, wrote an original song for the film titled "Remain" that was inspired by the topic of marriage vows and U2's "With or Without You," used to "highlight the relationship between Guy and Prisca and the love that exists between them."


title: Old (film)

text: Several cast members recalled Shyamalan using storyboards to frame every shot in the film. Ishana Shyamalan described her father's choice as a "very prescribed and programmatic" approach, while Wolff said the director "had such precision in terms of what age he wanted you to be and where he wanted you to be at that age. Night would just guide you where you needed to be emotionally, and then it would happen naturally." In an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", Wolff said he and McKenzie were the first actors to be cast after submitting audition tapes, and recalled passing out during the filming of the pregnancy scene due to high temperatures. During post-production, editing was completed by Brett M. Reed. The film's score was composed by Trevor Gureckis and released by Back Lot Music on July 23, 2021.


title: Old (film)

text: "Old" was originally going to be released by Universal Pictures on February 26, 2021, but in April 2020, the film was removed from the studio's release schedule after its film "Nobody" was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, Universal Pictures announced that "Old" would be theatrically released on July 23, 2021. A premiere for the film was held at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 19, 2021, which was attended by its cast and crew.


title: Old (film)

text: On February 7, 2021, during Super Bowl LV, Universal Pictures aired a 30-second television spot for "Old". Anthony D'Alessandro from "Deadline Hollywood" said the teaser reminded him of a two-part episode of "The Brady Bunch", where an ancient tiki brings the group bad luck and causes Greg (Barry Williams) to suffer a surfing accident. Writing for "Syfy Wire", Josh Weiss said the teaser "definitely bears Shyamalan's signature slow-boil tension." On May 27, 2021, a theatrical release poster and an official trailer were released, which "Variety" Antonio Ferme said brought "thrills and chills," and Weiss described as "a reverse "Benjamin Button" situation that the characters need to reverse before they shrivel up and die." That July, an exclusive image of the film was released in a magazine issue of "Empire".


title: Old (film)

text: Summarizing the film's marketing results, RelishMix wrote that it was being compared to "A Quiet Place Part II" and "The Conjuring 3", Shyamalan's "Split" and "Glass", and Edgar Wright's "Last Night in Soho", as well as ABC's "Lost". The site added that there were "Conversational tones swings from excitement, fear, curiosity, caution, warnings to the characters in the film — to questions about the pregnant girl and numerous guesses about how the films ends and plot twists." By July 2021, the film's promotional content had been viewed a total of 113.2 million times, which included 41.2 million views from three YouTube videos and 30.3 million views from nineteen videos on Facebook. According to Universal Pictures, the Super Bowl teaser was viewed at least 100 million times, but overall, videos promoting the film "[fell] short of the norm along with daily click-rates." A Snapchat aging filter created for the film also gained 23 million views worldwide on its first day after it was used by celebrities such as Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley.


title: Old (film)

text: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released "Old" on Digital HD via digital distribution on October 5, 2021, with a physical release on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 19. Special features include deleted scenes; "Shyamalan Family Business," a look into how Ishana and Saleka Shyamalan contributed to the film; "All the Beach Is a Stage" and "Nightmares in Paradise," a detailing of how filming took place; and "A Family in the Moment," featuring cast members describing a specific night of filming.


title: Old (film)

text: "Old" grossed $48.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $41.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $90.2 million.


title: Old (film)

text: A week before its release, "Variety" and "Deadline Hollywood" reported that film analytics had predicted the film would make $12–15 million in its opening weekend, with some noting that its competition, which had the same target audience, could impact box office revenues. Released alongside "Snake Eyes" and "Joe Bell" on July 23, 2021, in 3,355 theaters, "Old" made $6.9 million on its first day, including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews. With audiences that were 52% female and 62% at or over the age of 25, it went on to debut to $16.85 million, making it the sixth film of Shyamalan's to top the box office, though it marked the lowest opening weekend of his career.


title: Old (film)

text: Describing the openings of "Old" and "Snake Eyes" as "weak," Michael Cieply wrote an analysis to explain the audience decline at the box office, streaming sites, and television by using Occam's razor, "Maybe, as a group, we are suffering from 'screen fatigue' — not in the narrow sense of migraines, eye strain, and Computer Vision Syndrome, but in a much bigger way, as a culture. We are tired of Zoom calls. We are tired of event television. We are really tired of looking at ourselves on media screens, large and small." In its second weekend, the film suffered a 60% decline and grossed $6.86 million. After making $4.1 million in its third, "Old" dropped out of the box office top five in its fourth weekend with $2.4 million. In its fifth and sixth weekends, the film fell to the bottom of the box office top ten, making $1.15 million and $840,810, respectively.


title: Old (film)

text: Worldwide, "Old" made $6.5 million in its opening weekend in 23 markets; the top countries were Russia ($2.1 million), the United Kingdom ($1.1 million), Mexico ($800,000), Italy ($600,000), and France ($500,000). In its second, the film had a 35% drop and grossed $7.5 million, including a $1.2 million opening in Spain. After making $4.4 million in its third weekend, it made $2 million in its fifth and held a Korean opening in a mere 453 theaters, a decision by the Korea Theater Association to release local titles instead. In its sixth weekend, "Old" was screened in 57 markets and made $1.64 million. It made $277,000 in its ninth weekend and $169,000 in its tenth across 60 foreign markets.


title: Old (film)

text: Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 61% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 37% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: Old (film)

text: "Old" received criticism for its screenplay, dialogue, and acting. Wendy Ide of "The Observer" said the film's exposition felt "ponderous and mannered" and asked: "If we can't believe the characters, how are we meant to accept the film's central premise?" WXIX-TV Terrence "TT" Todd gave a similar response and said that while the premise was interesting, the plot was confusing and could have been explained better as its own television series. From "Vox", Alissa Wilkinson wrote that "Shyamalan has not grown any more skilled at writing dialogue over the years," but found that at its best, the film was comparable to Luis Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel". Barry Hertz of "The Globe and Mail" said that the film had "stilted dialogue that runs in circles, dumb-dumb plot holes, [and] a bizarre determination to have his performers act as unnaturally as possible." However, some critics enjoyed the gallows humor in the movie. Germain Lussier of "Gizmodo" said the movie was made with sadistic glee and surprising emotion. Nick Allen of "The Playlist" called it a pitch-black comedy and self-aware horror. Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" said it would have benefited from an R rating and described it as a "relentless and mean little chiller".


title: Old (film)

text: The film's cinematography and premise received praise. While criticizing the film in general, Jocelyn Novec from the Associated Press said it had "an enticing premise and pretty scenery." In his "Deadline Hollywood" review, Pete Hammond wrote, "I don't expect this one to age very well, and some of it is just laughably bad. At the very least, as a summertime theatrical release, the stunning location should give audiences a nice respite from the heat." Critic Richard Roeper described the film's main location as "absolutely breathtaking," and "The New Yorker" Richard Brody wrote that "with spare methods and sharp images, the director turns a simple premise into potent fantasy."


title: Old (film)

text: The film's themes and twist ending received a polarized response. "Sandcastle", the novel the film is based on, ends without explaining why the beach ages its guests, and Wilkinson found that ending to be "more satisfying." From ABC News, Peter Travers said he was "shocked" to find "how clumsily [Shyamalan] handles potent themes about sudden death and the collapse of time that should resonate powerfully in the COVID-19 era. Even his argument for family values in the face of global youth worship feels rote." Writing for "The New York Times", Glenn Kenny said, "Shyamalan's fluid filmmaking style serves him especially well here [and] the way he switches out his actors as their characters age is seamless," but found that "while Shyamalan is often cited for his tricky endings, it's arguable that he doesn't quite stick the landing with this one."


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare. The second largest city is Bulawayo. A country of roughly 15 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most common. It was once referred to by Samora Machel as the "Jewel of Africa" for its great prosperity during the early years of Robert Mugabe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Beginning in the 9th century, during its late Iron Age, the Bantu people (who would become the ethnic Shona) built the city-state of Great Zimbabwe which became one of the major African trade centres by the 11th century, controlling the gold, ivory and copper trades with the Swahili coast, which were connected to Arab and Indian states. By the mid 15th century, the city-state had been abandoned. From there, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was established, followed by the Rozvi and Mutapa empires.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes demarcated the Rhodesia region in 1890 when they conquered Mashonaland and later in 1893 Matabeleland after a fierce resistance by Matabele people known as the First Matabele War. Company rule ended in 1923 with the establishment of Southern Rhodesia as a self-governing British colony. In 1965, the white separatist minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. The state endured international isolation and a 15-year guerrilla war with black nationalist forces; this culminated in a peace agreement that established universal enfranchisement and "de jure" sovereignty as Zimbabwe in April 1980. Zimbabwe then joined the Commonwealth of Nations, from which it was suspended in 2002 for breaches of international law by its government under Robert Mugabe and from which it withdrew in December 2003.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU–PF party won the general election following the end of white minority rule; he was the President of Zimbabwe from 1987 until his resignation in 2017. Under Mugabe's authoritarian regime, the state security apparatus dominated the country and was responsible for widespread human rights violations. From 2000 to 2009 the economy experienced decline and hyperinflation before rebounding after the use of currencies other than the Zimbabwean dollar was permitted, although growth has since faltered "The Zimbabwean dollar once had a 100 trillion dollar bill". On 15 November 2017, in the wake of over a year of protests against his government as well as Zimbabwe's rapidly declining economy, Mugabe was placed under house arrest by the country's national army in a coup d'état, and Mugabe resigned six days later. Emmerson Mnangagwa has since served as Zimbabwe's president.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The name "Zimbabwe" stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, a medieval city (Masvingo) in the country's south-east whose remains is now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word. Many sources hold that "Zimbabwe" derives from "dzimba-dza-mabwe", translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as "houses of stones" ("dzimba" = plural of "imba", "house"; "mabwe" = plural of "bwe", "stone"). The Karanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day Masvingo province. Archaeologist Peter Garlake claims that "Zimbabwe" represents a contracted form of "dzimba-hwe", which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of Shona and usually references chiefs' houses or graves.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia (1898), Rhodesia (1965), and Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979). The first recorded use of "Zimbabwe" as a term of national reference dates from 1960 as a coinage by the black nationalist Michael Mawema, whose Zimbabwe National Party became the first to officially use the name in 1961. The term "Rhodesia"—derived from the surname of Cecil Rhodes, the primary instigator of British colonisation of the territory during the late 19th century—was perceived by African nationalists as inappropriate because of its colonial origin and connotations.


title: Zimbabwe

text: According to Mawema, black nationalists held a meeting in 1960 to choose an alternative name for the country, proposing names such as "Matshobana" and "Monomotapa" before his suggestion, "Zimbabwe", prevailed. A further alternative, put forward by nationalists in Matabeleland, had been "Matopos", referring to the Matopos Hills to the south of Bulawayo.


title: Zimbabwe

text: It was initially unclear how the chosen term was to be used—a letter written by Mawema in 1961 refers to "Zimbabweland" — but "Zimbabwe" was sufficiently established by 1962 to become the generally preferred term of the black nationalist movement. In a 2001 interview, black nationalist Eddison Zvobgo recalled that Mawema mentioned the name during a political rally, "and it caught hold, and that was that". The black nationalist factions subsequently used the name during the Second "Chimurenga" campaigns against the Rhodesian government during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1964–1979. Major factions in this camp included the Zimbabwe African National Union (led by Robert Mugabe from 1975), and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (led by Joshua Nkomo from its founding in the early 1960s).


title: Zimbabwe

text: Archaeological records date human settlement of present-day Zimbabwe to at least 500,000 years ago. The earliest known inhabitants were probably San people, who left behind arrowheads and cave paintings. The first Bantu-speaking farmers arrived during the Bantu expansion around 2,000 years ago.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Societies speaking proto-Shona languages first emerged in the middle Limpopo River valley in the 9th century before moving on to the Zimbabwean highlands. The Zimbabwean plateau became the centre of subsequent Shona states, beginning around the 10th century. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Arab merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, helping to develop the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the 11th century. This was the precursor to the Shona civilisations that dominated the region during the 13th to 15th centuries, evidenced by ruins at Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo, and by other smaller sites. The main archaeological site used a unique dry stone architecture. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first in a series of trading states which had developed in Zimbabwe by the time the first European explorers arrived from Portugal. These states traded gold, ivory, and copper for cloth and glass.


title: Zimbabwe

text: By 1220, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe eclipsed Mapungubwe. This Shona state further refined and expanded upon Mapungubwe's stone architecture, which survives to this day at the ruins of the kingdom's capital of Great Zimbabwe. From 1450 to 1760, the Kingdom of Mutapa ruled much of the area of present-day Zimbabwe, plus parts of central Mozambique. It is known by many names including the Mutapa Empire, also known as "Mwene Mutapa" or "Monomotapa" as well as "Munhumutapa", and was renowned for its strategic trade routes with the Arabs and Portugal. The Portuguese sought to monopolise this influence and began a series of wars which left the empire in near collapse in the early 17th century.


title: Zimbabwe

text: As a direct response to increased European presence in the interior a new Shona state emerged, known as the Rozwi Empire. Relying on centuries of military, political and religious development, the Rozwi (meaning "destroyers") expelled the Portuguese from the Zimbabwean plateau in 1683 by force of arms. Around 1821 the Zulu general Mzilikazi of the Khumalo clan successfully rebelled against King Shaka and established his own clan, the Ndebele. The Ndebele fought their way northwards into the Transvaal, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake and beginning an era of widespread devastation known as the Mfecane. When Dutch trekboers converged on the Transvaal in 1836, they drove the tribe even further northward, with the assistance of Tswana Barolong warriors and Griqua commandos. By 1838 the Ndebele had conquered the Rozwi Empire, along with the other smaller Shona states, and reduced them to vassaldom.


title: Zimbabwe

text: After losing their remaining South African lands in 1840, Mzilikazi and his tribe permanently settled in the southwest of present-day Zimbabwe in what became known as Matabeleland, establishing Bulawayo as their capital. Mzilikazi then organised his society into a military system with regimental kraals, similar to those of Shaka, which was stable enough to repel further Boer incursions. Mzilikazi died in 1868; following a violent power struggle, his son Lobengula succeeded him.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In the 1880s European colonists arrived with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company (chartered in 1889). In 1888 Rhodes obtained a concession for mining rights from King Lobengula of the Ndebele peoples. He presented this concession to persuade the government of the United Kingdom to grant a royal charter to the company over Matabeleland, and its subject states such as Mashonaland as well. Rhodes used this document in 1890 to justify sending the Pioneer Column, a group of Europeans protected by well-armed British South Africa Police (BSAP) through Matabeleland and into Shona territory to establish Fort Salisbury (present-day Harare), and thereby establish company rule over the area. In 1893 and 1894, with the help of their new Maxim guns, the BSAP would go on to defeat the Ndebele in the First Matabele War. Rhodes additionally sought permission to negotiate similar concessions covering all territory between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika, then known as "Zambesia". In accordance with the terms of aforementioned concessions and treaties, mass settlement was encouraged, with the British maintaining control over labour as well as over precious metals and other mineral resources.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In 1895 the BSAC adopted the name "Rhodesia" for the territory, in honour of Rhodes. In 1898 "Southern Rhodesia" became the official name for the region south of the Zambezi, which later adopted the name "Zimbabwe". The region to the north, administered separately, was later termed Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia). Shortly after the disastrous Rhodes-sponsored Jameson Raid (December 1895 - January 1896) on the South African Republic, the Ndebele rebelled against white rule, led by their charismatic religious leader, Mlimo. The Second Matabele War of 1896-1897 lasted in Matabeleland until 1896, when Mlimo was assassinated by American scout Frederick Russell Burnham. Shona agitators staged unsuccessful revolts (known as "Chimurenga") against company rule during 1896 and 1897. Following these failed insurrections, the Rhodes administration subdued the Ndebele and Shona groups and organised the land with a disproportionate bias favouring Europeans, thus displacing many indigenous peoples.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The United Kingdom annexed Southern Rhodesia on 12 September 1923. Shortly after annexation, on 1 October 1923, the first constitution for the new Colony of Southern Rhodesia came into force. Under the new constitution, Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony, subsequent to a 1922 referendum. Rhodesians of all races served on behalf of the United Kingdom during the two World Wars in the early-20th century. Proportional to the white population, Southern Rhodesia contributed more "per capita" to both the First and Second World Wars than any other part of the empire, including Britain.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The 1930 Land Apportionment Act restricted black land ownership to certain segments of the country, setting aside large areas solely for the purchase of the white minority. This act, which led to rapidly rising inequality, became the subject of frequent calls for subsequent land reform. In 1953, in the face of African opposition, Britain consolidated the two Rhodesias with Nyasaland (Malawi) in the ill-fated Central African Federation, which Southern Rhodesia essentially dominated. Growing African nationalism and general dissent, particularly in Nyasaland, persuaded Britain to dissolve the union in 1963, forming three separate divisions. While multiracial democracy was finally introduced to Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Southern Rhodesians of European ancestry continued to enjoy minority rule.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Following Zambian independence (effective from October 1964), Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front government in Salisbury dropped the designation "Southern" in 1964 (once "Northern Rhodesia" had changed its name to "Zambia", having the word "Southern" before the name "Rhodesia" became unnecessary and the country simply became known as "Rhodesia" afterwards). Intent on effectively repudiating the recently adopted British policy of "no independence before majority rule", Smith issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965. This marked the first such course taken by a rebel British colony since the American declaration of 1776, which Smith and others indeed claimed provided a suitable precedent to their own actions.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The United Kingdom deemed the Rhodesian declaration an act of rebellion but did not re-establish control by force. The British government petitioned the United Nations for sanctions against Rhodesia pending unsuccessful talks with Smith's administration in 1966 and 1968. In December 1966, the organisation complied, imposing the first mandatory trade embargo on an autonomous state. These sanctions were expanded again in 1968.


title: Zimbabwe

text: A civil war ensued when Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), supported actively by communist powers and neighbouring African nations, initiated guerrilla operations against Rhodesia's predominantly white government. ZAPU was supported by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact and associated nations such as Cuba, and adopted a Marxist–Leninist ideology; ZANU meanwhile aligned itself with Maoism and the bloc headed by the People's Republic of China. Smith declared Rhodesia a republic in 1970, following the results of a referendum the previous year, but this went unrecognised internationally. Meanwhile, Rhodesia's internal conflict intensified, eventually forcing him to open negotiations with the militant communists.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In March 1978, Smith reached an accord with three African leaders, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who offered to leave the white population comfortably entrenched in exchange for the establishment of a biracial democracy. As a result of the Internal Settlement, elections were held in April 1979, concluding with the United African National Council (UANC) carrying a majority of parliamentary seats. On 1 June 1979, Muzorewa, the UANC head, became prime minister and the country's name was changed to Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The Internal Settlement left control of the Rhodesian Security Forces, civil service, judiciary, and a third of parliament seats to whites. On 12 June, the United States Senate voted to lift economic pressure on the former Rhodesia.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Following the fifth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 1 to 7 August in 1979, the British government invited Muzorewa, Mugabe, and Nkomo to participate in a constitutional conference at Lancaster House. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and reach an agreement on the terms of an independence constitution, and provide for elections supervised under British authority allowing Zimbabwe Rhodesia to proceed to legal independence. With Lord Carrington, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, in the chair, these discussions were mounted from 10 September to 15 December in 1979, producing a total of 47 plenary sessions. On 21 December 1979, delegations from every major interest represented reached the Lancaster House Agreement, effectively ending the guerrilla war.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 11 December 1979, the Rhodesian House of Assembly voted 90 to nil to revert to British colonial status (the 'aye' votes included Ian Smith). The bill then passed the senate and was assented to by the president. With the arrival of Christopher Soames, the new governor on 12 December 1979, Britain formally took control of Zimbabwe Rhodesia as the Colony of Southern Rhodesia, although on 13 December Soames declared that during his mandate the name Rhodesia and Zimbabwe Rhodesia would continue to be used. Britain lifted sanctions on 12 December and the United Nations on 16 December.


title: Zimbabwe

text: During the elections of February 1980, Mugabe and the ZANU party secured a landslide victory. Prince Charles, as the representative of Britain, formally granted independence to the new nation of Zimbabwe at a ceremony in Harare in April 1980.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe's first president after its independence was Canaan Banana in what was originally a mainly ceremonial role as head of state. Mugabe was the country's first prime minister and head of government.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Opposition to what was perceived as a Shona takeover immediately erupted around Matabeleland. The Matabele unrest led to what has become known as "Gukurahundi" (Shona: 'the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains'). The Fifth Brigade, a North Korean-trained elite unit that reported directly to Mugabe, entered Matabeleland and massacred thousands of civilians accused of supporting "dissidents". Estimates for the number of deaths during the five-year "Gukurahundi" campaign ranged from 3,750 to 80,000.


title: Zimbabwe

text: During the 1990s, students, trade unionists, and other workers often demonstrated to express their growing discontent with Mugabe and ZANU–PF party policies. In 1996, civil servants, nurses, and junior doctors went on strike over salary issues. The general health of the population also began to significantly decline; by 1997 an estimated 25% of the population had been infected by HIV in a pandemic that was affecting most of southern Africa.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Land redistribution re-emerged as the main issue for the ZANU–PF government around 1997. Despite the existence of a "willing-buyer-willing-seller" land reform programme since the 1980s, the minority white Zimbabwean population of around 0.6% continued to hold 70% of the country's most fertile agricultural land.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In 2000, the government pressed ahead with its Fast Track Land Reform programme, a policy involving compulsory land acquisition aimed at redistributing land from the minority white population to the majority black population. Confiscations of white farmland, continuous droughts, and a serious drop in external finance and other support led to a sharp decline in agricultural exports, which were traditionally the country's leading export-producing sector. Some 58,000 independent black farmers have since experienced limited success in reviving the gutted cash crop sectors through efforts on a smaller scale.


title: Zimbabwe

text: President Mugabe and the ZANU–PF party leadership found themselves beset by a wide range of international sanctions. In 2002, the nation was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations due to the reckless farm seizures and blatant election tampering. The following year, Zimbabwean officials voluntarily terminated its Commonwealth membership. In 2001, the United States enacted the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA). It came into effect in 2002 and froze credit to the Zimbabwean government. The bill was sponsored by Bill Frist and co-sponsored by U.S. senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Russ Feingold, and Jesse Helms. Through ZDERA Section 4C ("Multilateral Financing Restriction"), the Secretary of the Treasury is ordered to direct U.S. Directors at the International Financial Institutions listed in Section 3 "to oppose and vote against-- (1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or (2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution."


title: Zimbabwe

text: By 2003, the country's economy had collapsed. It is estimated that up to a quarter of Zimbabwe's 11 million people had fled the country. Three-quarters of the remaining Zimbabweans were living on less than one U.S. dollar a day.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Following elections in 2005, the government initiated "Operation Murambatsvina", an effort to crack down on illegal markets and slums emerging in towns and cities, leaving a substantial section of urban poor homeless. The Zimbabwean government has described the operation as an attempt to provide decent housing to the population, although according to critics such as Amnesty International, authorities have yet to properly substantiate their claims.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 29 March 2008, Zimbabwe held a presidential election along with a parliamentary election. The results of this election were withheld for two weeks, after which it was generally acknowledged that the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) had achieved a majority of one seat in the lower house of parliament.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 10 July 2008, Russia and China vetoed UN sanctions on Zimbabwe pushed by the United Kingdom and the United States. The United States drafted the file, which would have placed an arms embargo on Mugabe's regime. However, nine of 15 countries on the UN Security Council opposed it, including Vietnam, South Africa and Libya, which argued that Zimbabwe was not a 'threat to international peace and security.'


title: Zimbabwe

text: In late 2008, problems in Zimbabwe reached crisis proportions in the areas of living standards, public health (with a major cholera outbreak in December) and various basic affairs. During this period, NGOs took over from government as a primary provider of food during this period of food insecurity in Zimbabwe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In September 2008, a power-sharing agreement was reached between Tsvangirai and President Mugabe, permitting the former to hold the office of prime minister. Due to ministerial differences between their respective political parties, the agreement was not fully implemented until 13 February 2009. By December 2010, Mugabe was threatening to completely expropriate remaining privately owned companies in Zimbabwe unless "western sanctions" were lifted.


title: Zimbabwe

text: A 2011 survey by Freedom House suggested that living conditions had improved since the power-sharing agreement. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in its 2012–2013 planning document that the "humanitarian situation has improved in Zimbabwe since 2009, but conditions remain precarious for many people".


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 17 January 2013, Vice-president John Nkomo died of cancer at St Anne's Hospital, Harare, at the age of 78. A new constitution approved in the Zimbabwean constitutional referendum, 2013 curtails presidential powers.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Mugabe was re-elected president in the July 2013 Zimbabwean general election which "The Economist" described as "rigged". and the "Daily Telegraph" as "stolen". The Movement for Democratic Change alleged massive fraud and tried to seek relief through the courts. In a surprising moment of candour at the ZANU–PF congress in December 2014, President Robert Mugabe accidentally let slip that the opposition had in fact won the contentious 2008 polls by an astounding 73%. After winning the election, the Mugabe ZANU–PF government re-instituted one party rule, doubled the civil service and, according to "The Economist", embarked on "misrule and dazzling corruption". A 2017 study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) concluded that due to the deterioration of government and the economy "the government encourages corruption to make up for its inability to fund its own institutions" with widespread and informal police roadblocks to issue fines to travellers being one manifestation of this.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 22 October 2015, president Robert Mugabe was awarded the Confucius Peace Prize, a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to the nation's political and economic order.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In July 2016 nationwide protests took place regarding the economic collapse in the country, and the finance minister admitted "Right now we literally have nothing."


title: Zimbabwe

text: In November 2017, the army led a coup d'état following the dismissal of Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, placing Mugabe under house arrest. The army denied that their actions constituted a coup. On 19 November 2017, ZANU–PF sacked Robert Mugabe as party leader and appointed former Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa in his place. On 21 November 2017, Mugabe tendered his resignation prior to impeachment proceedings being completed. Although under the Constitution of Zimbabwe Mugabe should be succeeded by Vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko, a supporter of Grace Mugabe, ZANU–PF chief whip Lovemore Matuke stated to the Reuters news agency that Mnangagwa would be appointed as president.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 30 July 2018 Zimbabwe held its general elections, which were won by the ZANU-PF party led by Mnangagwa. Nelson Chamisa who was leading the main opposition party MDC Alliance contested the election results claiming voter fraud, and subsequently filed a petition to the Constitution Court of Zimbabwe. The court confirmed Mnangagwa's victory, making him the newly elected president after Mugabe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In December 2017 the website Zimbabwe News, calculating the cost of the Mugabe era using various statistics, said that at the time of independence in 1980, the country was growing economically at about five per cent a year, and had done so for quite a long time. If this rate of growth had been maintained for the next 37 years, Zimbabwe would have in 2016 a GDP of US$52 billion. Instead it had a formal sector GDP of only US$14 billion, a cost of US$38 billion in lost growth. The population growth in 1980 was among the highest in Africa at about 3.5 per cent per annum, doubling every 21 years. Had this growth been maintained, the population would have been 31 million. Instead, as of 2018, it is about 13 million. The discrepancies were believed to be partly caused by death from starvation and disease, and partly due to decreased fertility. The life expectancy has halved, and deaths from politically motivated violence sponsored by the government exceed 200,000 since 1980. The Mugabe government has directly or indirectly caused the deaths of at least three million Zimbabweans in 37 years. According to World Food Programme, over two million people are facing starvation because of the recent droughts the country is going through.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa, lying between latitudes 15° and 23°S, and longitudes 25° and 34°E. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, and Mozambique to the east and northeast. Its northwest corner is roughly 150 meters from Namibia, nearly forming a four-nation quadripoint. Most of the country is elevated, consisting of a central plateau (high veld) stretching from the southwest northwards with altitudes between 1,000 and 1,600 m. The country's extreme east is mountainous, this area being known as the Eastern Highlands, with Mount Nyangani as the highest point at 2,592 m.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The highlands are known for their natural environment, with tourist destinations such as Nyanga, Troutbeck, Chimanimani, Vumba and Chirinda Forest at Mount Selinda. About 20% of the country consists of low-lying areas, (the low veld) under 900m. Victoria Falls, one of the world's largest and most spectacular waterfalls, is located in the country's extreme northwest and is part of the Zambezi river.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Over geological time Zimbabwe has experienced two major post-Gondwana erosion cycles (known as African and post-African), and a very subordinate Plio-Pleistocene cycle.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe has a subtropical climate with many local variations. The southern areas are known for their heat and aridity, while parts of the central plateau receive frost in winter. The Zambezi valley is known for its extreme heat, and the Eastern Highlands usually experience cool temperatures and the highest rainfall in the country. The country's rainy season generally runs from late October to March, and the hot climate is moderated by increasing altitude. Zimbabwe is faced with recurring droughts. In 2019, at least 55 elephants died because of drought. Severe storms are rare.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe contains seven terrestrial ecoregions: Kalahari acacia–baikiaea woodlands, Southern Africa bushveld, Southern miombo woodlands, Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands, Zambezian and mopane woodlands, Zambezian halophytics, and Eastern Zimbabwe montane forest-grassland mosaic in the Eastern Highlands.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The country is mostly savanna, although the moist and mountainous Eastern Highlands support areas of tropical evergreen and hardwood forests. Trees found in the Eastern Highlands include teak, mahogany, enormous specimens of strangler fig, forest Newtonia, big leaf, white stinkwood, chirinda stinkwood, knobthorn and many others.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In the low-lying parts of the country fever trees, mopane, combretum and baobabs abound. Much of the country is covered by miombo woodland, dominated by brachystegia species and others. Among the numerous flowers and shrubs are hibiscus, flame lily, snake lily, spider lily, leonotis, cassia, tree wisteria and dombeya. There are around 350 species of mammals that can be found in Zimbabwe. There are also many snakes and lizards, over 500 bird species, and 131 fish species.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Large parts of Zimbabwe were once covered by forests with abundant wildlife. Deforestation and poaching has reduced the amount of wildlife. Woodland degradation and deforestation caused by population growth, urban expansion and use for fuel are major concerns and have led to erosion which diminishes the amount of fertile soil. Local farmers have been criticised by environmentalists for burning off vegetation to heat their tobacco barns. The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.31/10, ranking it 81st globally out of 172 countries.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe is a republic with a presidential system of government. The semi-presidential system was abolished with the adoption of a new constitution after a referendum in 2013. Under the constitutional changes in 2005, an upper chamber, the Senate, was reinstated. The House of Assembly is the lower chamber of Parliament. In 1987 Mugabe revised the constitution, abolishing the ceremonial presidency and the prime ministerial posts to form an executive president—a presidential system. His ZANU-PF party has won every election since independence—in the 1990 election the second-placed party, Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), obtained 20% of the vote.


title: Zimbabwe

text: During the 1995 parliamentary elections most opposition parties, including the ZUM, boycotted the voting, resulting in a near sweep by the ruling party. When the opposition returned to the polls in 2000, they won 57 seats, only five fewer than ZANU-PF. Presidential elections were again held in 2002 amid allegations of vote-rigging, intimidation and fraud. The 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections were held on 31 March, and multiple claims of vote rigging, election fraud and intimidation were made by the Movement for Democratic Change party and Jonathan Moyo, calling for investigations into 32 of the 120 constituencies. Moyo participated in the elections despite the allegations and won a seat as an independent member of Parliament.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In 2005, the MDC split into two factions: the Movement for Democratic Change – Mutambara (MDC-M), led by Arthur Mutambara which contested the elections to the Senate, and the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) led by Morgan Tsvangirai which was opposed to contesting the elections, stating that participation in a rigged election is tantamount to endorsing Mugabe's claim that past elections were free and fair. The two MDC camps had their congresses in 2006 with Tsvangirai being elected to lead MDC-T, which became more popular than the other group.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In the 2008 general election, the official results required a run-off between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. The MDC-T challenged these results, claiming widespread election fraud by the Mugabe government. The run-off was scheduled for 27 June 2008. On 22 June, citing the continuing unfairness of the process and refusing to participate in a "violent, illegitimate sham of an election process", Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off, the election commission held the run-off, and President Mugabe received a landslide majority. The MDC-T did not participate in the Senate elections, while the MDC-M won five seats in the Senate. The MDC-M was weakened by defections from members of parliament and individuals who were disillusioned by their manifesto. On 28 April 2008, Tsvangirai and Mutambara announced at a joint news conference in Johannesburg that the two MDC formations were co-operating, enabling the MDC to have a clear parliamentary majority. Tsvangirai said that Mugabe could not remain president without a parliamentary majority.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In mid-September 2008, after protracted negotiations overseen by the leaders of South Africa and Mozambique, Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed a power-sharing deal in which Mugabe retained control over the army. Donor nations adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude, wanting to see real change being brought about by this merger before committing themselves to funding rebuilding efforts, which are estimated to take at least five years. On 11 February 2009 Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister by Mugabe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In November 2008, the government of Zimbabwe spent US$7.3 million donated by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A representative of the organisation declined to speculate on how the money was spent, except that it was not for the intended purpose, and the government has failed to honour requests to return the money.


title: Zimbabwe

text: In February 2013, Zimbabwe's election chief, Simpson Mtambanengwe, resigned due to ill health. His resignation came months before the country's constitutional referendum and elections.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The status of Zimbabwe politics has been thrown into question by a coup taking place in November 2017, ending Mugabe's 30 year presidential incumbency. Emmerson Mnangagwa was appointed president following this coup and was officially elected with 50.8% of the vote in the 2018 Zimbabwean general election, avoiding a run-off and making him the third president of Zimbabwe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The government has received negative comments among its citizen for always shutting down the internet in the past amid protests such as the one planned on the 31st of July. 2020.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The Zimbabwe Defence Forces were set up by unifying three insurrectionist forces – the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), and the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) – after the Second Chimurenga and Zimbabwean independence in 1980. The integration period saw the formation of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) as separate entities under the command of General Solomon Mujuru and Air Marshal Norman Walsh, who retired in 1982 and was replaced by Air Marshal Azim Daudpota who handed over command to Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai in 1985. In 2003, General Constantine Chiwenga, was promoted and appointed Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Lieutenant General P. V. Sibanda replaced him as Commander of the Army.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The ZNA has an active duty strength of 30,000. The Air Force has about 5,139 standing personnel. The Zimbabwe Republic Police (includes Police Support Unit, Paramilitary Police) is part of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and numbers 25,000.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Following majority rule in early 1980, British Army trainers oversaw the integration of guerrilla fighters into a battalion structure overlaid on the existing Rhodesian armed forces. For the first year, a system was followed where the top-performing candidate became battalion commander. If he or she was from ZANLA, then his or her second-in-command was the top-performing ZIPRA candidate, and vice versa. This ensured a balance between the two movements in the command structure.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The ZNA was originally formed into four brigades, composed of a total of 28 battalions. The brigade support units were composed almost entirely of specialists of the former Rhodesian Army, while unintegrated battalions of the Rhodesian African Rifles were assigned to the 1st, 3rd and 4th Brigades. The Fifth Brigade was formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1988 after the demonstration of mass brutality and murder during the brigade's occupation of Matabeleland in what became known as "Gukurahundi". The brigade had been re-formed by 2006, with its commander, Brigadier General John Mupande praising its "rich history".


title: Zimbabwe

text: There are widespread reports of systematic and escalating violations of human rights in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe administration and the dominant ZANU–PF party. According to human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch the government of Zimbabwe violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law. In 2009, Gregory Stanton, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, stated there was "clear evidence that Mugabe government was guilty of crimes against humanity and that there was sufficient evidence of crimes against humanity to bring Mugabe to trial in front of the International Criminal Court.”


title: Zimbabwe

text: Male homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe. Since 1995, the government has carried out campaigns against both homosexual men and women. President Mugabe has blamed gays for many of Zimbabwe's problems and viewed homosexuality as an "un-African" and immoral culture brought by European colonists and practised by only "a few whites" in his country.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of reprisals by the police force, such as the crackdown on an 11 March 2007 MDC rally and several others during the 2008 election campaign. Police actions have been strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the European Union, and the United States. There are also concerns over Fox Southwest media rights and access. The Zimbabwean government is accused of suppressing freedom of the press and freedom of speech. It has been repeatedly accused of using the public broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, as a propaganda tool. Newspapers critical of the government, such as the "Daily News", closed after bombs exploded at their offices and the government refused to renew their licence. BBC News, Sky News, and CNN were banned from filming or reporting from Zimbabwe. In 2009 reporting restrictions on the BBC and CNN were lifted. Sky News continues to report on happenings within Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries like South Africa.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 24 July 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concerns over allegations suggesting that Zimbabwean authorities may have used the COVID-19 crisis as a pretext to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful assembly on the streets. OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell stated that people have a right to protest corruption or anything else. The authorities in Zimbabwe used force to disperse and arrest nurses and health workers, who were peacefully protesting for better salaries and work conditions. The reports suggest that a few members of opposition party and investigative journalists were also arbitrarily arrested and detained for taking part in a protest.


title: Zimbabwe

text: On 5 August 2020, the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign on Twitter drew attention of international celebrities and politicians towards human rights abuses in the country, mounting pressure on Emmerson Mnangagwa's government. The campaign was in response to arrests, abductions and torture of political activists and the incarceration of journalist Hopewell Chin'ono and the Booker Prize author Tsitsi Dangarembga.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Zimbabwe has a centralised government and is divided into eight provinces and two cities with provincial status, for administrative purposes. Each province has a provincial capital from where government administration is usually carried out.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The names of most of the provinces were generated from the Mashonaland and Matabeleland divide at the time of colonisation: Mashonaland was the territory occupied first by the British South Africa Company Pioneer Column and Matabeleland the territory conquered during the First Matabele War. This corresponds roughly to the precolonial territory of the Shona people and the Matabele people, although there are significant ethnic minorities in most provinces. Each province is headed by a provincial governor, appointed by the president. The provincial government is run by a provincial administrator, appointed by the Public Service Commission. Other government functions at provincial level are carried out by provincial offices of national government departments.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The provinces are subdivided into 59 districts and 1,200 wards (sometimes referred to as municipalities). Each district is headed by a district administrator, appointed by the Public Service Commission. There is also a Rural District Council, which appoints a chief executive officer. The Rural District Council is composed of elected ward councillors, the district administrator, and one representative of the chiefs (traditional leaders appointed under customary law) in the district. Other government functions at district level are carried out by district offices of national government departments.


title: Zimbabwe

text: At the ward level there is a Ward Development Committee, comprising the elected ward councillor, the kraalheads (traditional leaders subordinate to chiefs) and representatives of Village Development Committees. Wards are subdivided into villages, each of which has an elected Village Development Committee and a headman (traditional leader subordinate to the kraalhead).


title: Zimbabwe

text: Since the early 2000s, Zimbabwe has been under sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union that have shaped Zimbabwe's domestic politics as well as the country's relations with the Western nations. In 2002, Zimbabwe held general elections and ahead of that election the EU sent observers, but the election observer team was forced to leave the country. In February 2002 the EU placed targeted or restrictive measures on Zimbabwe. At least 20 government officials were banned from entering Europe, and EU funding was halted. Prior to the elections there was $128 million that was budgeted for the Zimbabwean government from 2002 to 2007, this was cancelled. Nevertheless, the EU only stopped funding the government directly but it continued sending money only through aid agencies and NGOs.


title: Zimbabwe

text: After some years the EU and Zimbabwe resolved some of their disputes and a lot of the EU sanctions were removed. Only Mugabe and his wife remained on the list while other government officials were removed. However, the EU still did not give Zimbabwe money. So, the government channels money through NGOs as it was seen in the 4 March 2019 – 21 March 2019 Cyclone Idai.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The United States also imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. There are two types of U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe. The first one is Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) and the second one is the Targeted Sanctions Program. ZIDERA made several demands, the first one was that Zimbabwe must respect human rights, second Zimbabwe must stop its interference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, third Zimbabwe must stop the expropriation of white farms. If none of these demands were met, the U.S. would block the IMF and the World Bank from lending money to Zimbabwe. A new ZIDERA came into effect in 2018 with the motto that, Restore Democracy or there won't be any friendship, there must be free elections, free media and human rights, Zimbabwe must enforce the ruling of the SADC Tribunal. The Targeted Sanctions Program was implemented in 2003, which lists Zimbabwean companies and people who are not allowed to deal with U.S. companies. The sanctions on Zimbabwe have been in place for more than two decades. In March 2021 the U.S. renewed its sanctions on Zimbabwe.


title: Zimbabwe

text: The main foreign exports of Zimbabwe are minerals, gold, and agriculture. Zimbabwe is the largest trading partner of South Africa on the continent. Taxes and tariffs are high for private enterprises, while state enterprises are strongly subsidised. State regulation is costly to companies; starting or closing a business is slow and expensive. Tourism also plays a key role in the economy but has been failing in recent years. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force released a report in June 2007, estimating that 60% of Zimbabwe's wildlife had died since 2000 as a result of poaching and deforestation. The report warns that the loss of life combined with widespread deforestation is potentially disastrous for the tourism industry. The information and communications technology sector has been growing at a fast pace. A report by the mobile internet browser company Opera in 2011 ranked Zimbabwe as Africa's fastest growing market.


title: Zimbabwe

text: Since January 2002, the government has had its lines of credit at international financial institutions frozen, through U.S. legislation called the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (ZDERA). Section 4C instructs the secretary of the treasury to direct international financial institutions to veto the extension of loans and credit to the Zimbabwean government. According to the United States, these sanctions target only seven specific businesses owned or controlled by government officials and not ordinary citizens.