title: Richmond, London

text: Edward II, following his defeat by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, founded a monastery for Carmelites at Sheen. When the boy-king Edward III came to the throne in 1327, he gave the manor to his mother Isabella. Edward later spent over £2,000 on improvements, but in the middle of the work, Edward himself died at the manor, in 1377. Richard II was the first English king to make Sheen his main residence, which he did in 1383. Twelve years later, Richard was so distraught at the death of his wife Anne of Bohemia at the age of 28 that, according to Holinshed, the 16th-century English chronicler, he "caused it [the manor] to be thrown down and defaced; whereas the former kings of this land, being wearie of the citie, used customarily thither to resort as to a place of pleasure, and serving highly to their recreation". It was rebuilt between 1414 and 1422, but destroyed by fire in 1497.


title: Richmond, London

text: Following that fire, Henry VII built a new residence at Sheen, and in 1501 he named it Richmond Palace. The theatre company to which Shakespeare belonged performed some plays there during the reign of Elizabeth I. As Queen, Elizabeth spent much of her time at Richmond, as she enjoyed hunting stags in the "Newe Parke of Richmonde" (now Old Deer Park). She died at the palace on 24 March 1603. The palace was no longer in residential use after 1649, but in 1688, James II ordered its partial reconstruction, this time as a royal nursery. The bulk of the palace had decayed by 1779, but surviving structures include the Wardrobe, Trumpeters' House (built around 1700), and the Gate House, built in 1501. This has five bedrooms and was made available on a 65-year lease by the Crown Estate Commissioners in 1986.


title: Richmond, London

text: Beyond the grounds of the old palace, Richmond remained mostly agricultural land until the 18th century. White Lodge, in the middle of what is now Richmond Park, was built as a hunting lodge for George II, and during this period the number of large houses in their own grounds – such as Asgill House and Pembroke Lodge – increased significantly. These were followed by the building of further important houses, including Downe House, Wick House and The Wick on Richmond Hill, as this area became an increasingly fashionable place to live. Richmond Bridge was completed in 1777 to replace a ferry crossing that connected Richmond town centre on the east bank with its neighbouring district of East Twickenham. Today, this bridge, together with the well-preserved Georgian terraces that surround Richmond Green and line Richmond Hill to its crest, now has listed building status.


title: Richmond, London

text: As Richmond continued to prosper and expand during the 19th century, much luxurious housing was built on the streets that line Richmond Hill, as well as shops in the town centre to serve the increasing population. In July 1892, the Corporation formed a joint-stock company, the Richmond (Surrey) Electric Light and Power Company, and this wired the town for electricity by around 1896.


title: Richmond, London

text: Like many other large towns in Britain, Richmond lost many young people in the First and Second World Wars. In the Second World War, 96 people were killed in air raids, which also resulted in the demolition of 297 houses. The Richmond War Memorial, which now commemorates both wars, was installed in 1921 at the end of Whittaker Avenue, between the Old Town Hall and the Riverside.


title: Richmond, London

text: The town of Richmond is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames which is governed by Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council. The most recent election was in May 2022 when the Liberal Democrats retained control of the council. Richmond is divided into two wards – North Richmond, which has three Liberal Democrat councillors, and South Richmond, which has two Liberal Democrat councillors and one from the Green Party.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond town forms part of the Richmond Park constituency for the UK Parliament. The Member of Parliament, since 2019, is Sarah Olney from the Liberal Democrats. Richmond is also part of the South West constituency for the London Assembly, which has been represented by Nicholas Rogers from the Conservative Party since 2021.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond, earlier known as "Shene", was part of the large ancient parish of Kingston upon Thames in the Kingston hundred of Surrey. Split off from Kingston upon Thames from an early time, the parish of Richmond St Mary Magdalene formed the Municipal Borough of Richmond from 1890. The municipal borough was expanded in 1892 by the addition of Kew, Petersham and the North Sheen part of Mortlake; in 1933, Ham was added to the borough. In 1965, the parish and municipal borough were abolished by the London Government Act 1963, which transferred Richmond to Greater London. Together with the former Municipal Borough of Twickenham and the former Municipal Borough of Barnes, it formed a new borough, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond sits opposite East Twickenham on what is technically the south bank of the River Thames but, owing to the way this stretch of the river's meanders, the town is immediately north and north-east of its nearest stretch of river. The Thames curves around the town, and then Kew, in its course; starting from Petersham, it reverts to a more definitively west–east axis. The river is still tidal at Richmond, so, to allow major passenger and goods traffic to continue to operate during low tide, a half-tide lock was opened in 1894 and is used when the adjacent weir is in position. This weir ensures that there is always a minimum depth of water of 5 ft. 8in. (1.72 m) toward the middle of the river between Richmond and Teddington, whatever the state of the tide. Above the lock and weir there is a small footbridge.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond is well endowed with green and open spaces accessible to the public. At the heart of the town sits Richmond Green, which is roughly square in shape and together with the Little Green, a small supplementary green stretching from its southeast corner, is 12 acres (0.05 km) in size. The Green is surrounded by well-used metalled roads that provide for a fair amount of vehicle parking for both residents and visitors. The south corner leads into the main shopping area of the town; at the west corner is the old gate house which leads through to other remaining buildings of the palace; at the north corner is pedestrian access to Old Deer Park (plus vehicle access for municipal use). The park is a Crown Estate landscape extending from the town along the riverside as far as the boundary with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This contains wide green lawns and sports facilities, and the Grade I listed former King's Observatory erected for George III in 1769. The town's main shopping street, George Street, is also named after the king.


title: Richmond, London

text: The town centre lies just below 33 ft (10m) above sea level. South of the town centre, rising from Richmond Bridge to an elevation of 165 ft (50m), is Richmond Hill. Just beyond the summit of Richmond Hill is Richmond Park, an area of 2,360 acres (9.55 km; 3.7 sq mi) of wild heath and woodland originally enclosed for hunting, and now forming London's largest royal park. The park is a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation and is included, at Grade I, on Historic England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. It was created by Charles I in 1634 as a deer park and now has 630 red and fallow deer that roam freely through much of the park. The park has a number of traffic and pedestrian gates leading to the surrounding areas of Sheen, Roehampton, Putney, Kingston and Ham.


title: Richmond, London

text: The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, of which Richmond North and South make up two of its wards, has the least poverty in London. The town of Richmond has the largest commercial centre in the borough and is classified a major centre according to the London Plan. It is an established up-market shopping destination. Its compact centre has approximately 50,000m of retail floor-space that is largely focused on George Street, The Quadrant and Hill Street. It comprises almost exclusively high street chains, the largest of which are Marks & Spencer, Boots, Tesco Metro and Waitrose. A Whole Foods Market with 20,000 ft of floor space within a new development opened in 2013. The remaining town centre stores are largely single units.


title: Richmond, London

text: Mostly independent businesses line the narrow alleyways running off George Street towards Richmond Green and up Richmond Hill, and there is a farmers' market in Heron Square on Saturdays. Richmond has one large stand-alone supermarket, Sainsbury's, with parking for 420 cars to the east of the town, near North Sheen railway station.


title: Richmond, London

text: A range of convenience shopping, restaurants and cafes can be found on the crest of Richmond Hill lining Friars Stile Road, as well as along Kew Road towards the Botanical Gardens, and on Sheen Road.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond also offers a wide variety of office accommodation and is the UK/European headquarters of several multi-national companies, including eBay, PayPal and The Securitas Group, as well as the head offices of a number of national, regional and local businesses. London's "Evening Standard" has described Richmond as "the beating heart of London's growing technology industry".


title: Richmond, London

text: The Thames is a major contributor to the interest that Richmond inspires in many people. It has an extensive frontage around Richmond Bridge, containing many bars and restaurants. Richmond Riverside owes much of its neo-Georgian style to the architect Quinlan Terry, who was commissioned to restore the area (1984–87). Within the river itself at this point are the leafy Corporation Island and the two small Flowerpot Islands. The Thames-side walkway provides access to residences, pubs and terraces, and various greens, lanes and footpaths through Richmond. The stretch of the Thames below Richmond Hill is known as Horse Reach and includes Glover's Island. There are towpaths and tracks along both sides of the river, and they are much used by pedestrians, joggers and cyclists. Westminster Passenger Services Association boats, licensed by


title: Richmond, London

text: London River Services, sail daily between Kew and Hampton Court Palace, calling at Richmond in each direction.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond Green, which has been described as "one of the most beautiful urban greens surviving anywhere in England", is essentially square in shape and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to roughly twelve acres. On summer weekends and public holidays the Green attracts many residents and visitors. It has a long history of hosting sporting events; from the 16th century onwards tournaments and archery contests have taken place on the green, while cricket matches have occurred since the mid-18th century, continuing to the present day. Until recently, the first recorded inter-county cricket match was believed to have been played on Richmond Green in 1730 between Surrey and Middlesex. It is now known, however, that an earlier match between Kent and Surrey took place in Dartford in 1709.


title: Richmond, London

text: To the west of the Green is Old Palace Lane, running gently down to the river. One of the oldest roads in Richmond, it was originally a route from the river, where goods were loaded and unloaded by crane, to the "tradesman's entrance" to Richmond Palace. Adjoining to the left is the renowned terrace of well-preserved three-storey houses known as Maids of Honour Row. These were built in 1724 for the maids of honour (trusted royal wardrobe servants) of Queen Caroline, the queen consort of George II. As a child, the Victorian explorer Richard Burton lived at No. 2.


title: Richmond, London

text: Today the northern, western and southern sides of the Green are residential while the eastern side, linking with George Street, is largely retail and commercial. Public buildings line the eastern side of the Little Green and pubs and cafés cluster in the corner by Paved Court and Golden Court – two of a number of alleys that lead from the Green to the main commercial thoroughfare of George Street. These alleys are lined with mostly privately owned boutiques.


title: Richmond, London

text: Partway up Richmond Hill is the Poppy Factory, staffed mainly by disabled ex-servicemen and women, which produces the remembrance poppies sold each November for Remembrance Day.


title: Richmond, London

text: The view from the top westward to Windsor has long been famous, inspiring paintings by masters such as J. M. W. Turner and Sir Joshua Reynolds and also poetry. One particularly grand description of the view can be found in Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Heart of Midlothian" (1818). It is a common misconception that the folk song "Lass of Richmond Hill" relates to this hill, but the young woman in the song lived in Hill House at Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales.


title: Richmond, London

text: Apart from the great rugby stadium at Twickenham and the aircraft landing and taking off from Heathrow, the scene has changed little in two hundred years. The view from Richmond Hill now forms part of the Thames Landscape Strategy which aims to protect and enhance this section of the river corridor into London.


title: Richmond, London

text: A broad, gravelled walk runs along the crest of the hill and is set back off the road, lined with benches, allowing pedestrians an uninterrupted view across the Thames valley with visitors' information boards describing points of interest. Sloping down to the River Thames are the Terrace Gardens that were laid out in the 1880s and were extended to the river some 40 years later.


title: Richmond, London

text: A commanding feature on the hill is the former Royal Star and Garter Home; in the 2010s it was sold for development and converted into residential apartments. During World War I an old hotel on this site, the Star and Garter, which had been a popular place of entertainment in the 18th and 19th centuries but had closed in 1906, was taken over and used as a military hospital. After the war it was replaced by a new building providing accommodation and nursing facilities for 180 seriously injured servicemen. This was sold in 2013 after the charitable trust running the home concluded that the building no longer met modern requirements and could not be easily or economically upgraded. The trust opened an additional home in Solihull, West Midlands, and the remaining residents in Richmond moved in 2013 to a new purpose-built building in Surbiton.


title: Richmond, London

text: At the top of Richmond Hill, opposite the former Royal Star and Garter Home, sits the Richmond Gate entrance to Richmond Park. The park is a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and a Special Area of Conservation. The largest of London's Royal Parks, it was created by Charles I in 1634 as a deer park and now has over 600 red and fallow deer. Richmond Gate remains open to traffic between dawn and dusk.


title: Richmond, London

text: King Henry's Mound, a Grade II listed Neolithic burial barrow, is the highest point within the park. From the mound there is a protected view, established in 1710, of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London over 10 miles (16 km) to the east. At various times the mound's name has been connected with Henry VIII or with his father Henry VII. However, there is no evidence to support the legend that Henry VIII stood on the mound to watch for the sign from St Paul's that Anne Boleyn had been executed at the Tower and that he was then free to marry Jane Seymour.


title: Richmond, London

text: King Henry's Mound is in the grounds of Pembroke Lodge, which is Grade II listed. In 1847 this house became the home of the then Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, who conducted much government business there and entertained Queen Victoria, foreign royalty, aristocrats, writers (Dickens, Thackeray, Longfellow, Tennyson) and other notable people of the time, including Giuseppe Garibaldi. It was later the childhood home of Lord John Russell's grandson, the philosopher, mathematician and social critic Bertrand Russell. It is now a popular restaurant with views across the Thames Valley.


title: Richmond, London

text: Also in the park and Grade II listed is Thatched House Lodge, a royal residence. Since 1963 it has been the home of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Second World War it was the home of General Dwight D Eisenhower, who later became President of the United States.


title: Richmond, London

text: The Museum of Richmond, in Richmond's Old Town Hall, close to Richmond Bridge, has displays relating to the history of Richmond, Ham, Petersham and Kew. Its rotating exhibitions, education activities and a programme of events cover the whole of the modern borough. The museum's highlights include 16th-century glass from Richmond Palace and a painting, "The Terrace and View from Richmond Hill, Surrey" by Dutch draughtsman and painter Leonard Knyff (1650–1722), which is part of the Richmond upon Thames Borough Art Collection. Admission to the museum is free.


title: Richmond, London

text: The Riverside Gallery, also at the Old Town Hall, features temporary exhibitions by local artists including paintings, prints and photographs. Admission is free.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond has two theatres. The Richmond Theatre on Little Green is a late Victorian structure designed by Frank Matcham and restored and extended by Carl Toms in 1990. The theatre has a weekly schedule of plays and musicals, usually given by professional touring companies, and pre-West End shows can sometimes be seen. There is a Christmas and New Year pantomime tradition and many of Britain's greatest music hall and pantomime performers have appeared here.


title: Richmond, London

text: Close to Richmond railway station is the Orange Tree Theatre which was founded in 1971 in a room above the Orange Tree pub. As audience numbers increased there was pressure to find a more accommodating space and, in 1991, the company moved to its current premises within a converted primary school. The 172-seat theatre was built specifically as a theatre in the round. Exclusively presenting its own productions, it has acquired a national reputation for the quality of its work for staging new plays, and for discovering undeservedly forgotten old plays and neglected classics.


title: Richmond, London

text: The town has two cinemas, the arthouse Curzon in Water Lane and an Odeon cinema with a total of seven screens in two locations, the foyer of one having the accolade of being the only high street building visible from Richmond Bridge, and the second set being situated nearby in Red Lion Street. The Odeon on Hill Street, built in 1930, is in Art Deco style and is Grade II listed.


title: Richmond, London

text: Numerous public houses and bars scattered throughout Richmond's town centre, and along the river and up the hill, with enough variety to cater to most tastes. One of the oldest is The Cricketers, serving beer since 1770, though the original building was burned down in 1844. It was soon replaced by the present building. Samuel Whitbread, founder of Whitbread Brewery, part-owned it with the Collins family who had a brewery in Water Lane, close to the old palace. Grade II listed pubs include the White Cross, the Old Ship and the Britannia.


title: Richmond, London

text: Many of the major restaurant chains can be found within 500 metres of Richmond Bridge. There are also plenty of privately owned restaurants with culinary offerings from around the world, including French, German, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Thai.


title: Richmond, London

text: The Bingham Riverhouse hotel was awarded its first Michelin star in 2010. Overlooking the Thames, it is in a Grade II listed building dating from about 1760.


title: Richmond, London

text: The Richmond Local History Society explores the local history of Richmond, Kew, Petersham and Ham. It organises a programme of talks on historical topics and visits to buildings of historical interest. The Society publishes a newsletter three times a year, an indexed annual journal ("Richmond History") and other publications.


title: Richmond, London

text: The Richmond Society is a civic society and conservation group which was founded in 1957 by a group of local residents, originally to fight against the proposal to install modern lamp posts around Richmond Green. It acts as a pressure group concerned with preserving Richmond's natural and built environment, monitoring and influencing development proposals and presenting annual awards for buildings and other schemes which make a positive contribution to Richmond. It also organises meetings on topics of local interest and a programme of guided walks and visits, and publishes a quarterly newsletter. Anita Anand, Professor Ian Bruce , Peter Hendy, Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill , John, Lord Lee of Trafford , Sir Trevor McDonald , Ronny, Baroness van Dedem and Lord Watson of Richmond are the Society's patrons.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond Opera (formerly Isleworth Baroque) holds rehearsals in Richmond and gives performances in the local area.


title: Richmond, London

text: With a third of the borough being green and open space, Richmond has much to offer in the way of leisure activities.


title: Richmond, London

text: Skiffs (fixed seat boats) can be hired by the hour from local boat builders close to the bridge, with opportunities to row upstream towards the historic properties Ham House and Marble Hill House. In addition, Richmond Canoe Club, founded in 1944 and now Britain's biggest canoe club, is also on the towpath south of Richmond Bridge.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond is part of the London Cycle Network, offering on and off-road cycle paths throughout the area, including along the Thames towpath and in Richmond Park.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond Park also has bridle paths, and horses can be rented from a number of stables around the perimeter of the park.


title: Richmond, London

text: Ham Polo Club is on the Petersham Road at the bottom of Richmond Hill. The club was established in 1926 and is now the only polo club in London; it is popular with picnickers during the summer months.


title: Richmond, London

text: Old Deer Park provides open recreation areas, football, rugby and other pitches, and has a leisure centre, Pools on the Park, run by the borough council, with 33m indoor and outdoor pools and a fitness centre. The park also includes the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club with both golf and pitch and putt courses, and the Richmond Athletic Ground, home to Richmond F.C. and London Scottish rugby clubs. An additional sports ground is home to both the Richmond Cricket Club and the London Welsh Rugby Union club, as well as tennis courts and a bowling green.


title: Richmond, London

text: The town and the borough of Richmond have been popular destinations for German expatriates and German British since at least the 19th century. Richmond resident Sir Max Waechter, a German-born businessman and advocate of a federal Europe, donated Glover's Island to the local council in 1900. The German School London opened in nearby Petersham in 1971, continuing the popularity of Richmond for German families settling in London.


title: Richmond, London

text: Thirty per cent of Richmond households do not have a car or van. This figure is well above the borough average of 24%, which may be related to the excellent transport links in the area and the lower proportion of families as reported in the 2001 census. A half of households have one car, in line with the borough average.


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond's main arterial road, the A316, running between Chiswick and the M3 motorway, bisects Old Deer Park and the town to its north. The town's only dual carriageway, it was built in the 1930s, cutting off Richmond from Kew and entailing the construction of Twickenham Bridge. This road expands into three lanes and motorway status three and five miles west respectively.


title: Richmond, London

text: The town centre is on the A307, which used to be the main link between London and north-west Surrey, and was previously one of the main routes of the Portsmouth Road before that was diverted.


title: Richmond, London

text: The nearest acute hospitals, both of which include accident & emergency units and maternity units, are:


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond has eight groups of almshouses. They are all managed by Richmond Charities, which also manages Candler Almshouses and Wright's Almshouses in Twickenham. Six are of historical interest and some were founded in the 16th century:


title: Richmond, London

text: An eighth set of almshouses is 10–18 Manning Place (with nine almshouses), just off Queen's Road. The property was built in 1993 and was purchased by The Richmond Charities in 2017.


title: Richmond, London

text: The "Richmond and Twickenham Times" has been published since 1873. The "Twickenham & Richmond Tribune", a weekly online newspaper, has been published since 2016.


title: Richmond, London

text: For centuries, Richmond was home to the country's royal family. It also has a long list of famous residents, both past and present.


title: Richmond, London

text: As well as a location for films, Richmond Park is regularly featured in television programmes, corporate videos and fashion shoots. It has made an appearance on "Blue Peter", "Inside Out" (the BBC regional current affairs programme) and BBC "Springwatch". In 2014 it was featured in a video commissioned by The Hearsum Collection and in 2017 in a television film featuring and narrated by David Attenborough, which was produced by the Friends of Richmond Park.


title: Richmond, London

text: The village green, divided into The Green and Little Green, has Georgian splendour, stately listed buildings and paved alleyways leading to the high street. It is a magnet for film crews, particularly when recreating a city square or row of townhouses of bygone years. In 2011, "The Crimson Petal and the White" was filmed there, as was "Downton Abbey" in July 2014. Many other films and TV shows have featured The Green or Little Green, including "Agatha Christie's Poirot", "Simon Schama's Power of Art", "Peter Rabbit 2" and the 2020 sports comedy TV series "Ted Lasso".


title: Richmond, London

text: Richmond Theatre ranks as a major film location; it has featured in "The Naked Truth" (1957), "Bugsy Malone" (1976), "The Krays" (1990), "Evita" (1996), "Bedazzled" (2000), "The Hours" (2002), "Finding Neverland" (2004) and "The Wolfman" (2010).


title: Ourang Medan

text: The SS "Ourang Medan" was a supposed ghost ship which, according to various sources, became a shipwreck in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) in the Straits of Malacca waters, or elsewhere, after its entire crew had died under suspicious circumstances, either in 1940, 1947 or 1948, depending on the newspaper source. Most people agree that the story of the "Ourang Medan" is an urban legend due to the fact that there were never records of a ship named the "Ourang Medan".


title: Ourang Medan

text: One English reference to the ship and the incident was published in the May 1952 issue of the "Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council", published by the United States Coast Guard. An earlier English reference was published on October 10, 1948 in "The Albany Times" of Albany, New York and references its original source as "Elsevier's Weekly". The word "Ourang" (also written "Orang") is Malay or Indonesian for "man" or "person", whereas Medan is the largest city on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, giving an approximate translation of ""Man of Medan"". Accounts of the ship's accident have appeared in various books and magazines, mainly on Forteana. Their factual accuracy and even the ship's existence, however, are unconfirmed, and details of the vessel's construction and history, if any, remain unknown. Searches for any official registration or accident investigation recorded have proven unsuccessful.


title: Ourang Medan

text: The story's first appearance was a series of three articles in the Dutch-Indonesian newspaper "De locomotief: Samarangsch handels- en advertentie-blad" (February 3, 1948, with two photographs, February 28, 1948, and March 13, 1948). The name of the ship that found the "Ourang Medan" is never mentioned, but the location of the encounter is described as southeast of the Marshall Islands. The second and third articles describe the experiences of the sole survivor of the "Ourang Medan" crew, who was found by an Italian missionary and natives on Taongi Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The man, before perishing, tells the missionary that the ship was carrying a badly stowed cargo of oil of vitriol, and that most of the crew perished because of the poisonous fumes escaping from broken containers. According to the story, the "Ourang Medan" was sailing from an unnamed small Chinese port to Costa Rica, and deliberately avoided the authorities. The survivor, an unnamed German, died after telling his story to the missionary, who told the story to the author, Silvio Scherli of Trieste, Italy. The Dutch newspaper concludes with a disclaimer: "This is the last part of our story about the mystery of the "Ourang Medan". We must repeat that we don't have any other data on this 'mystery of the sea'. Nor can we answer the many unanswered questions in the story. It may seem obvious that the entire story is a fantasy, a thrilling romance of the sea. On the other hand, the author, Silvio Scherli, assures us of the authenticity of the story." Silvio Scherli is said to have produced a report on Trieste "Export Trade" on September 28, 1959.


title: Ourang Medan

text: New evidence found by The Skittish Library shows there were 1940 newspaper reports of the incident taken from the Associated Press in British newspapers the "Daily Mirror" and the "Yorkshire Evening Post". Again, there were differences in the story: the location being the Solomon Islands, and the SOS messages different from later reports. The story still appears to originate with Silvio Scherli in Trieste.


title: Ourang Medan

text: According to the story, at some point of time in or around June 1947 (Gaddis and others list the approximate date as early February 1948), two American vessels navigating the Straits of Malacca, the "City of Baltimore" and the "Silver Star", among others passing by, picked up several distress messages from the nearby Dutch merchant ship "Ourang Medan". A radio operator aboard the troubled vessel sent the following message in Morse code: "S.O.S. from "Ourang Medan" * * * We float. All officers including the captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead * * *." A few confused dots and dashes (of Morse code) later, two words came through clearly. They were "I die." Then, after that chilling message, there was nothing more heard of. When the "Silver Star" crew eventually located and boarded the apparently-undamaged "Ourang Medan" in an attempt at a rescue, the ship was found littered with corpses (including the carcass of a dog) everywhere, with the dead bodies found sprawled on their backs, the frozen (and allegedly badly-frightened) faces of the deceased upturned to the sun above with mouths gaping open and eyes staring straight ahead, with the corpses resembling horrible caricatures. No survivors were located and no visible signs of injuries on the dead bodies were observed. Just as the ship was to be prepared for a tow by the "Silver Star" to a nearby port, a fire then suddenly broke out in the ship's No. 4 cargo-hold, forcing the boarding party to hastily evacuate the doomed Dutch freighter, thus preventing any further investigations to be carried out. Soon after, the "Ourang Medan" was witnessed exploding before finally sinking.


title: Ourang Medan

text: Bainton and others hypothesize that "Ourang Medan" might have been involved in smuggling operations of chemical substances such as a combination of potassium cyanide and nitroglycerin or even wartime stocks of nerve agents. According to these theories, sea water would have entered the ship's hold, reacting with the cargo to release toxic gases, which then caused the crew to succumb to asphyxia and/or poisoning. Later, the sea water would have reacted with the nitroglycerin, causing the reported fire and explosion.


title: Ourang Medan

text: Another theory is that the ship was transporting nerve gas which the Japanese military had been storing in China during the war, and which was handed over to the U.S. military at the end of the war. No U.S. ship could transport it as it would leave a paper trail. It was therefore loaded onto a non-registered ship for transport to the U.S. or an island in the Pacific.


title: Ourang Medan

text: Gaddis puts forward the theory that an undetected smouldering fire or malfunction in the ship's boiler system might have been responsible for the shipwreck. Escaping carbon monoxide would have caused the deaths of all aboard, with the fire slowly spreading out of control, leading to the vessel's ultimate destruction.


title: Ourang Medan

text: Several authors note their inability to find any mention of the case in Lloyd's Shipping Register. Furthermore, no registration records for a ship by the name of "Ourang Medan" could be located in various countries, including the Netherlands. While author Roy Bainton states that the identity of the "Silver Star", reported to have been involved in the failed rescue attempt, has been established with high probability, the complete lack of information on the sunken ship itself has given rise to suspicion about the origins and credibility of the account. Ships logs for the "Silver Star" did not show a record of any such rescue attempt. Bainton and others have put forward the possibility that accounts of, among others, the date, location, names of the ships involved, and circumstances of the accident might have been inaccurate or exaggerated, or that the story might be completely fictitious.


title: Ourang Medan

text: One British researcher has found the story of the "Ourang Medan", transposed to the Solomon Islands, but also with a Trieste connection, in two British newspapers in 1940 ("The Yorkshire Evening Post" for 21 November 1940 and "The Daily Mirror" for 22 November 1940), both quoting AP (The Associated Press) news agency.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Jessica Chobot (born Jessica Lynn Horn; July 7, 1977) is an American on-camera host and writer. She has hosted the IGN shows "IGN Strategize" and "Weekly Wood", which also runs on Xbox Live; she previously worked as presenter of the "IGN Daily Fix". Since 2013, she was the primary host of "Nerdist News" and "Nerdist News Talks Back" for Nerdist Industries. In 2014, she launched her own podcast titled "Bizarre States". She left Nerdist on August 5, 2019. She currently stars in a show called "Expedition X".


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Jessica Lynn Horn was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Novi, Michigan. Her family moved from town to town frequently during her youth. Before entering high school, she lived in several places on the East Coast and the Midwest.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Chobot gained exposure when Kotaku published a photo of her licking a Sony PSP online in 2005. The photo has been widely parodied since, even appearing on Sony-branded advertising.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: In 2006, Chobot was hired full-time by IGN.com to take over hosting responsibilities for the network's IGN Weekly show which is still running. Her segments included stand-up introductions as well as "woman-on-the-street" pieces. Starting in 2009 and ending in 2011, Chobot hosted a daily show titled "IGN Daily Fix"; the first episode aired March 23, 2009. In addition, she contributes columns, features and reviews and runs a blog on IGN. Chobot is also a former contributor to "FHM" UK, Mania.com, and has made multiple appearances on G4's "Filter" and "Attack of the Show!". She has also hosted a videogame preview segment for Fuel TV's, "The Daily Habit", and co-hosts on Lifeskool TV's, "Gamer's Dojo". She also contributes as a weekly guest on "Maxim Radio", where she answers caller questions for an hour each Monday. Chobot and Ryan Dunn starred in "Proving Ground", a program whose airing cycle was disrupted by Dunn's death in an automotive crash on June 20, 2011, after the end of production; the program was pulled from airing for a month before returning to finish its run beginning on July 19, 2011.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Chobot has appeared on commercials for ADV's Anime Network On Demand cable station, and lent her likeness to Symbiote Studios Toy Company for two limited-edition anime-style sculptures. In addition, she has modeled for the J!NX female gamers clothing line. In 2006-2007, she co-wrote a sci-fi script with writer/director/creator of "Tron", Steven Lisberger, for "Soul Code".


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Current collaborations include an anime-style collectible figurine in development with Symbiote Studios, a representative of JiNX.com women's apparel line.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Chobot is also writing the "Ask Jess, Dammit!" blog for Maxim. She was named the 88th most desirable woman of 2008 by "AskMen" magazine and 14th hottest woman of business 2009 by Business Pundit. Chobot also hosts a weekly show featured on Inside Xbox called "IGN Strategize". In 2011, Chobot placed at #57 in the 2011 Askmen's Top 99 Women poll.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: Chobot voiced news reporter Diana Allers, a non-player character modelled in her likeness who is a potential romance option of Commander Shepard, the main character of the 2012 video game "Mass Effect 3". Although Chobot hosted a preview of the game for G4 in January 2012, Chobot and the media organizations she worked for at the time had made it known that she would not review the game in any official capacity. Her involvement in the video game was criticized by many as a conflict of interest; in response, Chobot emphasized that she is an on-screen personality who never considered herself to be a journalist, and that BioWare never asked her for any favors in return. In a retrospective comment about the controversy, Chobot noted that she was never asked for her side of the story by people who write about her in the media.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: On November 4, 2013, Chobot began work as the main host of "Nerdist News", a news show focusing on nerdy pop culture updates airing 5 days a week on Nerdist.com. Chobot served as the writer for "Daylight", a survival horror video game by Zombie Studios. The game launched on April 29, 2014. On June 26, 2014, Chobot launched her own podcast dedicated to the weird and supernatural titled "Bizarre States". The show is co-hosted by fellow Nerdist Industries's employee Andrew Bowser and features occasional guests.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: In 2015, Chobot was the contestant interviewer on the revived sixth series of robotic combat game show "Battlebots", and she acted as Samus Aran for the movie "Metroid: The Sky Calls", which was produced by a studio named Rainfall. She played the role along with another actress named America Young.


title: Jessica Chobot

text: On August 21, 2011, Chobot became engaged to Blair Herter and they married on February 18, 2012. They had their first child on March 6, 2013. The family currently lives in the Netherlands, where they moved in 2022 after Herter left G4 and joined Team Liquid.


title: Murders of William and Patricia Wycherley

text: At some point over the Early May bank holiday weekend in 1998, William and Patricia Wycherley were shot and killed in their home in a suburb of Mansfield, England, by their daughter Susan and her husband, Christopher Edwards. The Edwards then buried the bodies in the garden behind the house and went on to use the Wycherleys' identities to commit various acts of fraud intended to fund their hobby of collecting expensive Hollywood memorabilia.


text: The crime went undiscovered until 2012, when Christopher contacted his stepmother to ask for money and confessed. At this point the Edwards were living in Lille, France, having moved there when the UK's Department for Work and Pensions requested an interview with William Wycherley to assess his needs, as he would have been approaching his 100th birthday. They eventually agreed to surrender themselves to police at St Pancras railway station in October 2013 after travelling back to the UK.


text: The couple were found guilty of murder in June 2014 and were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. The case was the basis for a 2021 docudrama miniseries titled "Landscapers".


text: William Wycherley served in the British Merchant Navy, and married Patricia in 1958. After their deaths, the investigating police officers only found two photographs of William and none of Patricia. They could not trace any friends of the couple, and only managed to find relatives of Williamsome niecesalthough they did not know him well at all. Neighbours described Patricia as "old-fashioned", and William as "like a Victorian father, head of the family".


text: Christopher Edwards met Susan Wycherley via a dating agency, and the couple married in 1983. Christopher worked as a credit controller and Susan was a librarian, although she gave up work after marriage. They lived in a small flat in Dagenham, East London. The couple shared a hobby of collecting Hollywood memorabilia which developed into obsession; the couple purchased many expensive items that they could not reasonably afford, including spending £20,000 on a signed photograph of Frank Sinatra. Susan forged letters supposedly from French actor Gérard Depardieu to her husband, writing in poor English and using a franking machine purchased on the Internet to add a fake French postmark.


text: William and Patricia Wycherley were each shot twice in the chest using a .38 calibre revolver dating from the Second World War at some point between 1 May and 5 May 1998; they were 85 and 63 years old respectively. The Edwardses maintain that Patricia shot William before taunting Susan. They claim that Patricia said that "[Susan] had never been wanted as a child" and that "she [Patricia] had been having an affair with Christopher", provoking Susan into shooting her mother. At trial, the prosecution argued that this story was unlikely. They asserted that the ballistic evidence pointed to careful shots by the same, experienced shooter. Christopher had admitted in his police interviews that he had once belonged to a gun club, and thus the prosecutors argued that Christopher had pulled the trigger.


text: One night soon after the killings, Christopher dug a large hole in the back garden of the Wycherleys' house and buried their bodies in it. To conceal his actions, he planted shrubs in the ground above. Although a neighbour saw the hole being dug, they did not believe the act was suspicious enough to warrant informing the police.


text: The Wycherleys were not particularly socialone neighbour said that "[t]hey didn't mix [...] or communicate with anyone"and so many assumed that they had simply moved away. The Edwardses told anyone who asked that the Wycherleys were travelling. To keep up the pretense, the couple sent Christmas cards to relatives containing invented stories of extended holidays, forged replies to correspondence and regularly visited the house to mow the lawn, clear gutters and pay bills.


text: On Tuesday, 5 May 1998, Susan Edwards opened a joint bank account in her name and that of her mother using forged documents, and moved her parents' savings of just over £40,000 into it. The couple proceeded to redirect private and state pension payments, industrial injury payouts and winter fuel payments to themselves. They also took out personal loans in the names of the Wycherleys. The couple spent almost all of the money on more memorabilia, including many signed photographs of the actor Gary Cooper. In 2005, believing that sufficient time had passed since the killings, they sold the house in Mansfield, again using forged signatures, for just under £67,000 in an attempt to pay off their debts. By this point they were paying creditors around £700 per month, but were still making memorabilia purchases of ten times that amount.


text: In late 2012, the Department for Work and Pensions wrote to William requesting a meeting to assess his needs. This frightened the Edwardses, and they fled the UK, living for a year in Lille, France. Unable to find work in France, the couple ran out of money, and Christopher contacted his stepmother, Elizabeth, and told her the version of the story they would tell in courtthat Patricia had shot William, and then Susan had shot her mother after provocation.


text: Elizabeth Edwards contacted the police, and an investigation was launched under Detective Chief Inspector Rob Griffin. After initial inquiries lent credence to the story, police excavated the garden of the Wycherleys' former home, discovering their bodies in October 2013. After a brief email correspondence, the Edwardses agreed to surrender to UK police at St Pancras railway station after returning from France on the Eurostar three weeks after the discovery of the bodies. At the time of their arrest, the couple were £160,000 in debt.


text: The Edwardses were put on trial at Nottingham Crown Court in 2014. Susan pleaded guilty to the lesser crime of manslaughter, but denied murder. Christopher pleaded not guilty to the killings. The couple both pleaded guilty to two counts of interfering with the duties of a coroner and theft of a credit balance.


text: Prosecutors argued that the crime was premeditated, and that Christopher had shot both Wycherleys with the intention of stealing their money. A jury found both Christopher and Susan guilty of murder in June 2014, rejecting Susan's claims of provocation.


text: Both Christopher and Susan were convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years. Susan applied for leave to appeal against her sentence in 2015, claiming that her father had sexually assaulted her and that the judge did not take this "provocation" into account. The Court of Appeal dismissed her application, with Lady Justice Rafferty stating that "the crown court judge was entitled to reach the conclusions she did when setting the minimum term".


text: The case was the basis for a 2021 docudrama miniseries, "Landscapers", directed by Will Sharpe. Christopher was played by David Thewlis and Susan by Olivia Colman. The series received positive reviews from viewers and critics, and has a "certified fresh" 98% status on Rotten Tomatoes.


text: In 2021-2022 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a five-part documentary, "Bodies in the Garden: The Wycherley Murders".


title: HMD Global

text: HMD Global Oy, branded as HMD and Nokia Mobile, is a Finnish mobile phone manufacturer. The company is made up of the mobile phone business that Nokia sold to Microsoft in 2014, then bought back in 2016. HMD began marketing Nokia-branded smartphones and feature phones on 1 December 2016. The company has exclusive rights to the Nokia brand for mobile phones through a licensing agreement. The HMD brand is only used for corporate purposes and does not appear in advertising, whereas the name "Nokia Mobile" is used on social media.


title: HMD Global

text: HMD has a partnership with Google, and uses the Android operating system under the Android One program on their smartphones, whereas HMD's feature phones use the Series 30+ platform, or most recently, the Firefox OS-derived KaiOS.


title: HMD Global

text: HMD is headquartered in Espoo, Finland, and is largely run by former Nokia executives. The first CEO was Arto Nummela, a Nokia veteran of 17 years, until July 2017, when company president Florian Seiche took over as CEO. Manufacturing is outsourced to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile. Nokia has investment in HMD, and remains a partner, setting mandatory requirements and providing patents and technologies, in return for royalty payments. HMD uses a marketing strategy advertising Nokia phones as "pure, secure and up to date" (referring to a stock Android interface and its commitment to fast updates) as well as brand trust and nostalgia.


title: HMD Global

text: Nokia was a leading global mobile phone and smartphone maker until it began to struggle in maintaining market leadership due to the rise of more innovative smartphone offerings from Apple, Samsung and Google. Due to various factors, including the shift in the mobile market to smartphones, and the poor choice of mobile operating systems, Nokia was unable to maintain the popularity it once had back in the 2000s. Its initial partnership with Microsoft to use its operating system did not help either as Windows Phone's mobile app offerings were not as comprehensive as the ones available on Apple's iOS and Google's Android.


title: HMD Global

text: At this point of time, Nokia had a lineup of feature phones, and a range of low- to high-end smartphones under the Nokia Lumia and Nokia Asha product lines.


title: HMD Global

text: By the early 2010s, Nokia had lost major market share in the mobile phone market, and was overtaken by Apple and Samsung.


title: HMD Global

text: In 2014, Nokia's mobile phone business was sold to Microsoft, along with the right to use the Nokia brand for mobile phones for ten years. The sale did not end the woes of the business. Microsoft used the brand primarily as a means of introducing its Windows Phone mobile operating system, which was itself struggling to establish any kind of significant market presence. The range of Nokia Lumia smartphones did not gain significant traction in the highly competitive smartphone market dominated by Android and iOS devices. There were further internal struggles, as Microsoft tried to reconcile the Nokia brand with its own objectives under Microsoft Mobile. By October 2014, Microsoft decided to drop the Nokia brand in favour of its Microsoft-branded Lumia smartphone range with the release of Microsoft Lumia 535, while only the featurephone segment kept the Nokia brand.


title: HMD Global

text: The CEO of Nokia, Rajeev Suri, said in June 2015 that the Nokia brand would return to smartphones. Earlier that year Nokia Technologies released the N1 tablet running Android. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement with Microsoft, Nokia could not sell Nokia-branded phones until 31 December 2015. Suri said in February 2016 that he wanted the company to be in a position where it co-designs with another manufacturer, but keeps "appropriate control measures".


title: HMD Global

text: On 18 May 2016, Microsoft Mobile announced the sale of its feature phone business to HMD Global and FIH Mobile. The sale included design rights, and its rights to use "Nokia" brand on all types of mobile phones and tablets worldwide until 2024, except in Japan, where Nokia-branded mobile phones have not been sold since 2008. HMD also signed a licensing agreement with Nokia Corporation which included giving it use of cellular standard essential patent licenses. Nokia has said this move is "uniting one of the world's iconic mobile brands with the leading mobile operating system". Some factories of Microsoft Mobile, including one located in Vietnam, had been sold to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer.


title: HMD Global

text: It was agreed that HMD products would be manufactured in the FIH/Foxconn factories. The total sale to both HMD Global and FIH Mobile amounted to US$350 million. HMD have decided to spend US$500 million in supporting the marketing of the new products over the next three years. In addition the company is backed by a Luxembourg-based private equity fund called Smart Connect LP, run by Jean-François Baril, who was senior vice president of Nokia from 1999 to 2012.


title: HMD Global

text: On 1 December 2016, the Nokia website showed mobile devices for sale for the first time since 2014. Their first devices, Nokia 150 and 150 Dual SIM feature phones, was announced on 13 December 2016, while their first Android smartphone, Nokia 6, was announced on 8 January 2017. At Mobile World Congress in February 2017, HMD announced the relaunch of the iconic Nokia 3310, along with two new Android devices named Nokia 3 and Nokia 5. The first Nokia branded Android smartphone, Nokia 6 was released in China and a few other Asian markets starting January, while Western releases commenced in June starting with Finland, with a full worldwide release of all three Android devices by August 2017.


title: HMD Global

text: On 6 July 2017 HMD partnered with Carl Zeiss AG to provide camera lens optics for Nokia smartphones. Nokia previously used Zeiss optics in its mobile phone lineup from 2005 to 2014.


title: HMD Global

text: On 27 July 2017, HMD purchased 500 design patents from Microsoft Mobile that were originally created by Nokia. One notable patent is the Lumia Camera user interface, which had been highly praised by critics since appearing on the Nokia Lumia 1020.


title: HMD Global

text: On 16 August 2017, HMD introduced their first flagship Nokia smartphone, the Nokia 8. Its most distinguishing features are Dual Sight, allowing live streaming with both the front and rear Zeiss cameras (referred to as "bothie", a pun on "selfie"), and OZO Audio, which contains spatial 360° audio technology derived from Nokia's high-end OZO camera.


title: HMD Global

text: On 25 February 2018, A new high-end flagship was introduced, Nokia 8 Sirocco, featuring a curved all-glass design and its name referring to the older Nokia 8800 Sirocco, as well as Nokia 7 plus, and ultra-low-cost smartphone, Nokia 1. In addition, HMD re-introduced the Nokia Pro Camera app for ZEISS camera phones. The classic 8110 was also reintroduced.


title: HMD Global

text: For the Chinese market, Nokia X6 was announced, which got a worldwide release as Nokia 6.1 Plus. Another Chinese-market device, called Nokia X5, was later announced. Both of these have bezel-less screens.


title: HMD Global

text: In late August 2018, HMD acquired PureView branding, the imaging technology brand which had previously been implemented on high-end Nokia/Lumia smartphones since the Nokia 808 PureView in 2012.


title: HMD Global

text: On 19 March 2020, HMD held an online event and announced Nokia 8.3 5G, the first ever Nokia-branded 5G smartphone, and the "world's first truly global 5G device". Other products announced the same day were Nokia 5.3, Nokia 1.3, and revival of Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. Besides that HMD introduced HMD Connect, which is a global roaming data SIM card, with associated plans. This works in 120 countries. Nokia 6.2 and Nokia 7.2 get exclusive 007-branded Kevlar cases in conjunction to the HMD marketing campaign with James Bond movie "No Time to Die".


title: HMD Global

text: In July 2020, HMD Global acquired Valona Labs, a mobile software cybersecurity products and solutions company.


title: HMD Global

text: The product naming of Nokia devices has historically been based on the numerical system, with new Nokia-branded Android smartphones being named from 1 to 9; with Nokia 1 series being the lowest-end entry level smartphone, and the Nokia 9 series being the highest-end offering of the portfolio. For device successors, and new products launched under the same series, the decimal system (similar to the naming convention of software versions) is being used to denote the different smartphone versions (for e.g. Nokia 6 (2017), Nokia 6.1 (2018), Nokia 6.2 (2019), Nokia 6.3, and so on...)


title: HMD Global

text: In April 2021, a new two-digit nomenclature was introduced with the launch of the G series and X series alongside the existing C series.


title: HMD Global

text: HMD is in partnership with Google, and their Nokia-branded smartphones run Google's Android operating system. The software has minimal customizations and is stock Android, with some notable customizations including tweaked icons with a more general blue theme, a different camera app, and the additions of the classic Nokia startup tone and the Nokia tune ringtone. HMD calls it "pure, secure and up-to-date", claiming it does not contain bloatware or additional software and that the phones will get fast software updates compared to other OEMs. It can be seen as a spiritual successor to Google's former Nexus series, which were known for running stock Android. HMD's launch devices came preloaded with Android version 7 "Nougat". Devices released after 2017 come preloaded with Android 8 "Oreo" or Android 9 "Pie". Devices released after December 2019 come with Android 10 "Q", however it is confirmed that some phones will get an update to Android 10 "Q".


title: HMD Global

text: Former CEO Arto Nummela, said in a June 2017 interview that HMD is a "first tier partner with Google."


title: HMD Global

text: In August 2019 Counterpoint research said that "Nokia Leads the Global Rankings in Updating Smartphone Software and Security [out of 3rd party Android OEMs]". According to Exhibit 2: Time Taken by Top 10 Manufacturers to Upgrade Portfolios to the Latest Android Version, Nokia were, over the 12 months following Android 9's launch, in first place for % of [Smartphone] Portfolio Updated to Android Pie.


title: HMD Global

text: However, with the increasing product portfolio Nokia could not keep to this high standards and updates are delayed longer and distributed less frequently. The phones typically receive updates for two to three years.


title: HMD Global

text: On feature phones, HMD has used Series 30+, Smart Feature OS powered by Java for Nokia 3310 3G and KaiOS for Nokia 8110 4G and in the Chinese market, YunOS.


title: HMD Global

text: After the announcement of Google's Open Handset Alliance in November 2007, Nokia said it "considered" joining the alliance, despite its majority stake in Symbian Ltd. Nokia eventually did not join and instead created the rival Symbian Foundation in 2008 after taking control of the Symbian operating system and making it open source. In 2010 as competition stiffened, Nokia lost some partners of the Symbian Foundation who then supported Google only. By now Nokia planned to replace Symbian with the Linux-based MeeGo after the N9 flagship. As MeeGo and Android are based upon Linux, some speculated that this would be a roadmap in Nokia's eventual adoption of Android.


title: HMD Global

text: Under CEO Stephen Elop the company chose to halt the MeeGo project in favour of adopting Windows Phone, which resulted in a partnership with Microsoft in 2011, with Symbian to be relegated. Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt confirmed that the company held extensive "confidential negotiations" with Nokia to encourage using Android. Despite this, Nokia still experimented with Android that year and leaked images showed a Nokia N9 prototype running Android. In late 2013 when Microsoft announced its intention to purchase the Nokia mobile phone division, the "New York Times" reported that a team at Nokia were secretly testing Android on Lumia devices, but that Microsoft was aware of this. Some analysts think Microsoft bought the business because Nokia were thinking of switching to Android, which could have resulted in Microsoft losing its dominant Windows Phone OEM. In December 2013 there were leaks of a Nokia Android smartphone codenamed "Normandy", which was eventually introduced as the Nokia X series in February 2014, featuring a heavily customized version of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and released in emerging markets. The acquisition was completed just two months later, and Microsoft discontinued the X series soon afterward. In an interview with "Forbes", former HMD CEO Arto Nummela stated that the Nokia X family surprisingly became popular with users of high-end Samsung and Apple smartphone devices, despite the fact that it was a mid to low end device series.


title: HMD Global

text: After the sale, the Nokia Technologies division developed the N1 Android tablet, featuring the Z Launcher interface, released in China in 2015. Later that year, images of an N1-like phone with Android called the "C1" were leaked. Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri confirmed the return of the Nokia brand to smartphones in June 2015 through a licensing strategy, and the formation of HMD Global was finally announced in May 2016. Nokia 6 was announced in January 2017, almost six years after declining to use Google/Android and partnering with Microsoft.


title: HMD Global

text: Smart Feature OS is an operating system providing some smartphone capabilities in devices with a feature phone form factor. Smart Feature OS is based on Java for Nokia 3310 3G, Nokia 215 4G, Nokia 220 4G, Nokia 225 4G and KaiOS for Nokia 8110 4G, Nokia 800 Tough, Nokia 2720 Flip, Nokia 6300 4G and Nokia 8000 4G and was debuted on Nokia 3310 3G, and on Nokia 8110 4G. The newer KaiOS-based system is integrated with many of Google's services, as opposed to Microsoft's on Series 30+.


title: HMD Global

text: The design language of Nokia smartphones from HMD consists of typical Scandinavian design and aesthetics, and are considered to be reminiscent of the previous Lumia series, with clean and minimal styling. When HMD was formed in 2016, it stated that it wanted to develop phones that stay loyal to Nokia's popular heritage of "design, robustness and reliability". The company's design team is headed by Raun Forsyth and Alasdair McPhail.


title: HMD Global

text: The Nokia 5, 6, and 8 are made from a single block of 6000 series aluminium, while the 7 is crafted from 7000 series aluminum. The Nokia 8 Sirocco is crafted from a single block of stainless steel.


title: HMD Global

text: In 2017 Nokia started resurrecting its classic devices. This began in May 2017 when a new 3310 handset was introduced at the Mobile World Congress. It sported an updated but similar design language to the original, which debuted in September 2000. This device was still a feature phone but it shipped with a fresh operating system, colored display, and Nokia native applications. After the success of this initiative, Nokia again rebooted one of its classic phones, the Nokia 8110, which featured a 4G update, excellent battery life, and classic Nokia apps.


title: HMD Global

text: Nokia and ZEISS has been partners since the development of the Nokia N90 in 2005. The partnership between the two companies continued until Nokia's departure from the mobile industry in 2013. In the same year, the partnership was carried over to Microsoft when it acquired Nokia's mobile business. The last Microsoft smartphone with the ZEISS was the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL released in 2015.


title: HMD Global

text: In 2016, Microsoft sold its feature phone business to HMD Global and FIH Mobile. This was then followed by the licensing of the Nokia brand for smartphones from Nokia Corporation. In July 2017, HMD Global and ZEISS rekindled its "exclusive" partnership. The first Nokia Android smartphone with ZEISS lens was the flagship Nokia 8.


title: HMD Global

text: In 25 July 2022, ZEISS confirmed through the European website, Nokiamob, that the partnership between the two companies ended in 2021. It is clear that the partnership became non-exclusive at that point. This makes Vivo and Sony Mobile the last remaining partners of ZEISS. "After long and successful collaboration, in 2021 ZEISS and HMD Global have mutually agreed not to prolong their non-exclusive partnership which included collaboration for imaging technologies of “Nokia” branded smartphones with ZEISS as consulting and development partner."The Nokia XR20 is the last Nokia smartphone with the ZEISS lens, while the Nokia 8.3 5G is the last Nokia device with the PureView technology. The last Nokia flagship with both ZEISS and PureView was the Nokia 9 PureView back in 2019. The Nokia X30 5G is the first Nokia device with PureView technology but without ZEISS lens.


title: HMD Global

text: The highlights of HMD's Nokia smartphones have been build-quality and design. "TechRadar" noted the premium build of the Nokia 5, despite its low cost, whereas "GSMArena" said, that the Nokia 6 was "built like a tank." Juho Sarvikas, chief product officer at HMD, said "it has the build quality that you expect from Nokia." The result of a Nokia 6 build has been called an "aluminium unibody with the highest level of visual and structural quality." "TechRadar" called Nokia 8 "one of the most – if not the most – beautiful phones we've ever seen with the Nokia branding emblazoned on the rear."


title: HMD Global

text: HMD have also been initially praised for its commitment of providing zero-day and monthly security patches, as well as stock Android without an additional user interface. However starting around late 2020 and early 2021, several Nokia smartphone updates to Android 11 were delayed to Q2 2021 (and beyond). In late 2021, HMD announced the high end Nokia 9 PureView devices will not receive an update to Android 11 after all, resulting to HMD offering affected customers a 50% discount on a Nokia X family device. This goes with a strong consumer dissatisfaction in recent time. Advertisement on instant updates has been reduced in a large scale on HMD's Nokia website.


title: HMD Global

text: The Nokia 3310 reboot has been praised as a clever marketing strategy that revived interest in the brand, with one analyst calling it a "PR stunt."


title: HMD Global

text: According to ZDNet on March 5, 2020, Nokia smartphones ranked second highest in resale value in 2019, just below iPhone. The average depreciation rate in 2019 was 27.68%, the lowest among Android smartphone brands.


title: HMD Global

text: A common criticism of some of the Nokia smartphones has been the choice of system-on-chips (SoCs) on several models. The original lineup, Nokia 3, 5, and 6, uses an older entry-level SoC, which put a strain on software performance. The 2019 models Nokia 6.2, 7.2, and 9 PureView uses the older Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs from 2017 to 2018. Analysts have also noted the new Nokia 3310 as being "overpriced," and that similar basic phones can be bought for almost half the price.


title: HMD Global

text: HMD executive Juho Sarvikas said on 16 August 2017 that the company had shipped "millions of units of the 3, 5 and 6," with demand "far outstripping" supply. As of June 2017, demand of the new Nokia 3310 has been up to seven times higher than expected in the UK.


title: HMD Global

text: By Q2 2017, HMD had 0.4% market share in the smartphone market, making it the 11th largest in Europe, and 5th largest in Finland. An IDC analyst called it a "great start." According to Counterpoint Research on 1 December 2017, – the first anniversary of HMD – the company was the 8th largest mobile phone vendor in the world (this includes both smartphones and feature phones). It was ranked 5th in India, 4th in Russia, 3rd in the UK, and 1st in the Middle East. It also became the 4th vendor in Germany as of Q3 2017.


title: HMD Global

text: 1.5 million Nokia smartphones were sold in the first half of 2017, up from virtually zero the year before.


title: HMD Global

text: In Q4 2017, HMD was the best-selling mobile phone vendor overall in Vietnam and most Middle Eastern countries, and also the no. 1 feature phone vendor worldwide. It was also the 3rd best-selling smartphone vendor in the UK, the first time for the Nokia brand since 2010. In Q3 2018, HMD had the biggest year-on-year sales growth of 71% to 4.8 million units shipped that quarter, making it the 9th largest smartphone vendor worldwide.


title: HMD Global

text: The CEO and presidency role is fulfilled by Florian Seiche, formerly Nokia Europe's senior vice president of sales and marketing, who also had stints at Siemens, Orange and HTC. The original CEO was Arto Nummela, who joined Nokia in 1994 and served in several positions including product creation and portfolio before moving to Microsoft Mobile when it was formed 2014. On 19 July 2017 Nummela left the company by "mutual agreement", leading to the president, Seiche, to become acting CEO.


title: HMD Global

text: On 15 August 2016, Pekka Rantala, former CEO of Rovio Entertainment, became HMD's chief marketing officer, commenting that Nokia will "rise again." Rantala previously held several positions at Nokia from 1994 to 2011 such as leader of Nokia's European operations.


title: HMD Global

text: HMD were originally based at Building 2 of the Nokia Campus in Karaportti in Espoo, Finland, opposite Nokia Corporation's headquarters. In November 2018, HMD moved to a new premises away in Bertel Jungin aukio, a square named after former Finnish-Swede architect Bertel Jung. The same building also houses TNS Mobile Oy, a subsidiary of FIH Mobile which distributes HMD Global's products. HMD's other main offices are located in London, England; Noida, India and Dubai, UAE.


title: Al Aoula

text: Al Aoula ( or 'The First'); formerly called RTM (; , lit. 'Moroccan Television'), is the first Moroccan public television channel. It is a part of the state-owned SNRT Group along with Arryadia, Athaqafia, Al Maghribia, Assadissa, Aflam TV, Tamazight TV and Laayoune TV. The network broadcasts programming in Arabic, Berber, French and Spanish. Its headquarters are situated in Rabat.


title: Al Aoula

text: Launched in 1962, Al Aoula was the first television network to produce and transmit its own programmes in the country. In 1972 it began colour broadcasts. It initially had a monopoly on television audience, until 2M gradually gained its own popularity and the creation of private channels was allowed in 1993. Despite the broadening of television offerings, Al Aoula remains popular amongst locals.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Beirut, also known as The Negotiator in the United Kingdom, is a 2018 American political thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Tony Gilroy.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Set in 1982 during the Lebanese Civil War, the film stars Jon Hamm as Mason Skiles, a former U.S. diplomat who returns to service in Beirut in order to save a colleague from the group responsible for the death of Skiles' family. Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris, Shea Whigham, Larry Pine and Mark Pellegrino also star.


title: Beirut (film)

text: The film premiered on January 22, 2018, at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on April 11, 2018. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who called it "absorbing despite its flaws" and praised Hamm's and Pike's performances.


title: Beirut (film)

text: In 1972, Mason Skiles is a U.S. diplomat in Lebanon living in Beirut with his Lebanese wife, Nadia. They have recently begun caring for Karim, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who claims he is without a family. While hosting a party, Skiles is confronted by his friend, CIA Officer Cal Riley, who wishes to question Karim as Karim's brother, Rafid Abu Rajal, has been linked to the 1972 Munich massacre. The party is suddenly attacked by Rafid and his group, who abducts Karim; in the ensuing gunfight, Nadia is killed.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Ten years later, Skiles has become an alcoholic and is working as a self-employed labor arbitrator in New England. While struggling to keep his small firm afloat, he is approached by Sully, an old client, on behalf of the U.S. government. Sully discloses that Skiles has been requested for an 'academic lecture' in Lebanon, and hands him money, a plane ticket, and a passport. Skiles is initially resistant but decides to travel to Beirut. He meets Bernard, a local fixer, and several government officials, including CIA Officer Donald Gaines, CIA Officer Sandy Crowder, Colonel Gary Ruzak of the National Security Council, and Ambassador Frank Whalen, and learns that Cal Riley was recently abducted in Lebanon. The kidnappers have specifically requested Skiles as the negotiator.


title: Beirut (film)

text: The group meets with the kidnappers and find Karim now heading the organization. Karim demands the release of his brother in exchange for Riley, despite the Americans' protest that they do not have Rafid in captivity. Skiles suspects that Israel is holding Rafid, and travels with Ruzak to secure his release. The Israelis reveal that they do not have Rafid, and Skiles returns to Beirut to meet with Alice, Riley's wife. Alice holds Skiles responsible for Riley's abduction, believing that Riley has remained in Lebanon over the guilt he feels for Nadia's death.


title: Beirut (film)

text: The next day, while Skiles is conducting the lecture at the American University of Beirut (the official reason for his visit), a car bomb is set off outside the building. In the ensuing chaos, Skiles is instructed to leave to meet Karim. Karim brings him to Riley, who covertly tells Skiles that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is holding Rafid and that Gaines is not to be trusted. Before releasing Skiles, Karim threatens he will sell Riley to Iran unless Rafid is returned later that night. Skiles returns to Riley's apartment to search for clues, where he encounters Crowder. She reveals that Gaines had been stealing money from the embassy and that Riley has made a written report, but didn't deliver it to CIA authorities, shortly before his disappearance. Skiles convinces Crowder that the PLO is holding Rafid, and she steals $4 million from the CIA office to trade for Rafid.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Crowder and Skiles lead an attack on a PLO officer in order to force a trade for Rafid. After a payoff to his PLO captors, they bring him to the exchange with Karim. After trading Riley for Rafid, Rafid is shot and killed by a Mossad sniper. The Americans successfully escape, and the audience sees the sniper is actually Bernard. Bernard escapes with Sandrine, the mistress of the PLO officer whom Skiles attacked, who is also an Israeli agent.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Before departing Beirut, Skiles learns that Gaines has unexpectedly retired and that Ruzak has left Beirut. Crowder announces her intention to apply for the newly vacant station chief job, and Skiles offers his services as a negotiator.


title: Beirut (film)

text: As the film ends, news footage is shown of the subsequent 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, increasing international involvement in the country, and, finally, the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Marine Corps' barracks.


title: Beirut (film)

text: The screenplay for the film, originally titled "High Wire Act", was written by Tony Gilroy in 1991. In May 2015, Deadline Hollywood reported that "High Wire Act" would be directed by Brad Anderson and that Jon Hamm had signed on to star. In July 2015, Rosamund Pike joined the cast. In May 2016, ShivHans Pictures came on board to produce and finance the film. Dean Norris, Shea Whigham, Larry Pine and Mark Pellegrino joined the cast. Filming began in Tangier, Morocco in June 2016.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Bleecker Street acquired the U.S. distribution rights to "High Wire Act" in July 2017. In January 2018 the film, which had been retitled "Beirut", premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. It was theatrically released in the United States on April 11, 2018.


title: Beirut (film)

text: By its June 14, 2018, closing "Beirut" had grossed $5,019,226 in the United States and Canada, and $2,490,210 in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $7,509,436.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Playing in 755 theaters, the film made $1,734,497 in its opening weekend, finishing 13th at the box office. In its second weekend, the film made $1.1 million (a drop of 39%) and finished 17th.


title: Beirut (film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""Beirut" tells a complex, tightly plotted tale of international intrigue, further elevated by strong central performances from Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Beirut (film)

text: Dennis Harvey of "Variety" called the film an "agreeably old-school form of cinematic espionage intrigue." John DeFore, writing for "The Hollywood Reporter", characterized it as a "period political thriller whose motivations remain timely." The "Financial Times" Damon Wise wrote that ""Beirut" proves surprisingly sensitive in its handling of the Middle East, mapping out an area of nuanced power struggle rather than a cartoon Casablanca-style warzone." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com said that "this is Hamm’s best leading role to date, a reminder of how good he can be when he’s given the right material."


title: Beirut (film)

text: The film's trailer received criticism from social media users for dehumanizing Arabs and Muslims, having a white savior narrative, ignoring political complexities of the Lebanese Civil War, and failing to show Lebanese people as fully formed characters. The trailer's closing tagline of "2,000 years of revenge, vendetta, murder... welcome to Beirut" has been criticized as a confusing misrepresentation of the history of Beirut and Lebanon, a diverse country with multiple religions and different sects of Muslims and Christians.


title: Beirut (film)

text: The trailer was criticized by Sopan Deb in "The New York Times". He called it offensive, portraying a stereotypical image of Lebanese, Arabs and the Middle East at large. He points out that no Lebanese actors are featured in the film, and cites a social media hashtag, #BoycottBeirutMovie, as evidence of the trailer's reception in Lebanon.


title: Beirut (film)

text: Walaa Chahine, writing for the "Huffington Post", echoed similar criticisms, arguing that the trailer "seems to follow the same rhetoric so many other Middle East thrillers like to portray - Arabs are barbaric and uncivilized, and their countries are a mess".


title: Formula 4

text: FIA Formula 4, also called FIA F4, is an open-wheel racing car category intended for junior drivers. There is no global championship, but rather individual nations or regions can host their own championships in compliance with a universal set of rules and specifications.


title: Formula 4

text: The category was created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)—the International sanctioning and administrative body for motorsport—as an entry-level category for young drivers, bridging the gap between karting and Formula 3. The series is a part of the FIA Global Pathway. Former Formula One driver Gerhard Berger was appointed as the FIA Single-Seater Commission president to oversee the creation of the category as a response to declining interest in national Formula 3 championships due to rising costs and alternate pathways to Formula One such as the then Formula Renault and GP2 and GP3 Series, which had seen several national Formula 3 championships discontinued. In the place of the expensive categories, a number of separate categories running under the Formula 4 name had been created, for example the British based the former BRDC Formula 4. There was no commonality between the cars from country to country. The FIA-endorsed category was formally created in March 2013, when it was approved by the World Motor Sport Council.


title: Formula 4

text: Initially, these Formula 4 championships started in 2014 as a single-make category before the regulations were opened up to multiple chassis and engine manufacturers. Each championship uses a single make of engine, with the regulations mandating a capacity and capping the maximum power output at , higher than Formula Ford and lower than Formula Renault. The engines are equalised so that no one Formula 4 championship is faster than the others, with the long-term intention being to bring the cost down to under €100,000 per year to compete.


title: Formula 4

text: To become eligible for FIA Formula 4, the chassis must meet the FIA homologation requirements respecting technical and commercial regulations.


title: Formula 4

text: To become an eligible FIA Formula 4 engine, the engine must meet the homologation requirements. According to the homologation requirements a FIA Formula 4 engine must last at least 10,000 km and have a maximum purchasing price of €9,500. According to the FIA Formula 4 technical regulations only four cylinder engines are allowed. Both normally aspirated and turbocharged engines are permitted. The power output has been capped at 160 bhp. The engine displacement is unlimited. Currently six engines are homologated for use in the FIA Formula 4.


title: Formula 4

text: These championships are held to Formula 4 regulations and approved by the FIA as the national Formula 4 series. Drivers participating in these series can receive FIA Super Licence points, which are required to drive in Formula One. For a series to be eligible for Super Licence points, a season must be held over at least 5 events at a minimum of 3 circuits, according to FIA Appendix L.


title: Formula 4

text: Formula Academy Finland is a racing series based in Finland. Its first season was 2018. Formula Academy Finland uses same Tatuus-Abarth FIA Formula 4 car as ADAC Formula 4, Italian Formula 4 Championship and several other series. The series, however, is not approved by the FIA. There are plans to apply for Finnish Championship status for 2019 season. The series is organized by Koiranen GP.


title: Formula 4

text: The FPU Western Championships take place at west coast tracks in the United States. It is a feeder series to the FIA recognized United States F4 Championship, and utilizes the identical chassis, engine, and tire package.


title: Formula 4

text: The Fórmula Academy Sudamericana (Portuguese: Fórmula Academy Sul-Americana), previously known as Fórmula 4 Sudamericana, is a Formula 4 racing class that debuted in 2014. The class uses the same Signatech chassis and Fiat engines used previously in the Brazilian-based Formula Future Fiat.


title: Formula 4

text: Japan Formula 4 is a formula racing series in Japan. The series was founded in 1993 by the Japan Automobile Federation as a class between the FJ1600 series and the All-Japan Formula Three Championship. Japanese Formula 4 is an open formula, where competitors can choose the chassis and engine manufacturers.


title: Formula 4

text: This is based on a non-FIA formulae, instead using 750cc motorcycle engines as power plants. Chassis are typically locally produced such as Xpit and Gamma and cars are fueled by methanol. Popular in the CASC Ontario region at a club level only since 1974.


title: Formula 4

text: Although it's an FIA zone championship, the single-seater races in the FIA CEZ Championship have a division for Formula 4 cars, but they are not part of the FIA ladder. The races are co-organized with the Austrian, Czech and Hungarian national championships, as well as the Italian Topjet F2000 Trophy and Austrian Drexler AFR Pokale, the latter allowing cars of similar performance to FIA cars in its F4 division, such as Formula BMW, Czech F1400 and ADAC Formel Masters.


title: Formula 4

text: Organised by Andersen Promotions, the promoter of the Road to Indy USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 for the United States Auto Club, the USF Juniors series for 14 and 15-year old drivers transitioning from karts will initially use the Ligier JS4 currently used by United States Formula 4 with the homologated Honda engine provided by the Road to Indy spec engine builder (which is different from the US F4 championship, where the engines come from Honda itself), before switching to the Tatuus USF-22, a variant of the Tatuus F4 chassis with the Mazda MZR engine, in 2023. Unlike the Hankook tires for North American series, the USAC series will have tyres provided by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company featuring Cooper branding. This series will not be part of the FIA ladder and instead will be feed to the Road to Indy ladder, with six meetings, one of which will be an NTT IndyCar Series meeting, and also events at a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series round, Road to Indy Summit training, and the winner earning a funded drive in the next season's USF2000 championship.


title: Formula 4

text: Organized by MSV in the collaboration with British Racing Drivers' Club. The GB4 Championship races alongside GB3 Championship during the British GT Championship events and acts as its feeder series and requires lower financial contribution than F4 British Championship certified by FIA. It uses Tatuus F4 T-014 chassis, Abarth 414TF 1.4L engine and Pirelli tires. Despite using the same package as the most continental European Formula 4 championships prior 2022, only one national F4 series can be recognized by FIA, thus it is ineligible for the Super License points.


title: Formula 4

text: Organised by Campeonato Nacional de Carreras Federado, the series uses the Tatuus FA010 chassis from Formula Abarth, one of the predecessors of the Formula 4 car.


title: Formula 4

text: The Australian Formula 4 Championship was held from 2015 to 2019 before its discontinuation due to a lack of entries.


title: Formula 4

text: The BRDC Formula 4 Championship was an entry level motorsport series based in the United Kingdom which began in 2013. Run by the British Racing Drivers' Club and MotorSport Vision, the series used identical cars built by Ralph Firman Racing and engines from Ford, before switching to FIA Formula 4 regulations in 2015, using the Tatuus F4–T014 chassis. Although run to the FIA's regulations, it was not recognised by the FIA as an official Formula 4 championship. In 2016, the series was upgraded and renamed the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship.


title: Free Fire

text: Free Fire is a 2016 British black comedy-action film directed by Ben Wheatley, from a screenplay by Wheatley and Amy Jump. It stars Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley and Noah Taylor.


title: Free Fire

text: The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2016, and also served as the closer of the 2016 BFI London Film Festival on 16 October. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2017, by StudioCanal UK, and in the United States on 21 April 2017, by A24.


title: Free Fire

text: On a cold night in 1978, while driving to meet IRA members Chris (Cillian Murphy) and Frank (Michael Smiley), Stevo (Sam Riley) tells Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) that he was beaten up the previous day by the cousin of a woman he assaulted. The group meet outside a Boston warehouse with intermediary Justine (Brie Larson), and a representative, Ord (Armie Hammer), leads them inside. The group is there to buy guns from arms dealer Vernon (Sharlto Copley) and his associates, Martin (Babou Ceesay), Harry (Jack Reynor) and Gordon (Noah Taylor). Despite tensions between the two groups and the fact that Vernon supplied the wrong rifles, the weapons are unloaded from a van and Chris’ group hands over the money in a briefcase.


title: Free Fire

text: Stevo realizes that Harry was the one who beat him up the day before, and refuses to go near him, irritating Frank. Harry eventually notices and lashes out at Stevo, furthering the tensions between the groups. Stevo seemingly apologises, but then brags about what he did to Harry's cousin. Infuriated, Harry shoots Stevo in the shoulder. Both groups split off and begin shooting at each other. Martin, who was holding the briefcase, is grazed by a bullet in the head and collapses. The briefcase now lies in the open, with Vernon attempting to coerce his men to get it.


title: Free Fire

text: Bernie is shot in the back by Vernon as he attempts to leave and dies shortly after. Soon, two hit-men with rifles begin shooting at both groups. One of them, Jimmy (Mark Monero), is killed, and the other is recognised by Ord as Howie (Patrick Bergin), who explains that he was hired to kill everyone and take the money. Before Howie can reveal who hired him, he is shot dead by Chris's group. Chris, defending Justine, requests that Vernon's group let her go. Gordon crawls after her, intent on killing her.


title: Free Fire

text: As the shooting continues, a telephone rings in one of the offices. Realising that they can call for backup, Chris sends the wounded Frank to the office, pursued by a wounded Vernon. Gordon chases Justine to the warehouse entrance, but she manages to kill him. As Chris, Ord, Stevo and Harry engage in another shootout, Vernon is severely burned by a fire set by Frank but manages to kill him as he reaches the phone.


title: Free Fire

text: Martin suddenly regains consciousness and begins deliriously shooting at his own group. He reveals that he planned to double-cross Vernon and hired Howie and Jimmy to kill the others. Martin gets the briefcase, but soon dies from his injuries. After getting past Ord and Harry, Chris reaches the office and kills Vernon. Using the phone to call his associates, Chris is cut off by Ord while Harry distracts Stevo. Returning to the warehouse, Justine takes Jimmy's rifle but passes out.


title: Free Fire

text: One of Chris's associates, Leary (Tom Davis), arrives at the warehouse in search of his IRA comrades, but is beaten to death by Harry. Taking the briefcase, Harry attempts to escape in the van while being fired at by Stevo and Ord. Harry runs over Stevo's head, killing him, but not before Stevo shoots him in the rear and killing him as well. The fire Frank caused spreads and the sprinklers come on. Exhausted and out of bullets, Ord and Chris agree to stop fighting, take the money, and attempt to escape before the inevitable arrival of the police.


title: Free Fire

text: Justine shoots Ord in the head and, unintentionally, Chris in the stomach. Lying on the ground, Chris tells Justine he regrets not having known her better as he begins to succumb to his wounds. As Justine limps to the warehouse entrance with the money, the sound of sirens grows louder. When red and blue flashing lights appear under the bottom of the exit, Justine realizes although she survived, she will not escape.


title: Free Fire

text: In October 2014, Olivia Wilde, Luke Evans, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Michael Smiley joined the cast of the film, with Ben Wheatley set to direct from a screenplay he wrote with Amy Jump. Wheatley and Andy Starke produced under their Rook Films banner, and Film4 Productions produced and financed the film. In April 2015, Brie Larson replaced Wilde, who had to drop out due to a schedule conflict.


title: Free Fire

text: Principal photography on the film began on 8 June 2015 in Brighton, East Sussex. Production concluded on 17 July 2015.


title: Free Fire

text: Most of the film was shot in the former print hall of "The Argus" newspaper in Hollingbury, Brighton. Dock scenes were filmed at Shoreham Port.


title: Free Fire

text: In February 2015, it was announced that StudioCanal had acquired distribution rights to the film in the United Kingdom, while Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions had acquired the rights in Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Scandinavia and Spain. In November 2015, it was announced that Alchemy had acquired United States distribution rights to the film. However, on 10 March 2016, in the wake of rumours of Alchemy's financial troubles, distribution of the film was bought by A24. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and served as the closing night film of the London Film Festival, on 16 October 2016. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2017, and in the United States on 21 April 2017.


title: Free Fire

text: "Free Fire" grossed $1.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.2 million in other territories, for a total of $2.6 million.


title: Free Fire

text: In the United States and Canada, "Free Fire" opened alongside "The Promise", "Born in China", "Unforgettable" and "Phoenix Forgotten", and was projected to gross around $3 million from 1,070 cinemas in its opening weekend. However, it ended up debuting to $994,430, finishing 17th at the box office.


title: Free Fire

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Free Fire" has an approval rating of 70%, based on 239 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Free Fire" aims squarely for genre thrills, and hits its target repeatedly and with great gusto—albeit with something less than pure cinematic grace." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 63 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews."


title: Lantern Festival

text: The Lantern Festival (), also called Shangyuan Festival (), is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance.


title: Lantern Festival

text: During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night carrying paper lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns (). In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, and only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones. In modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs. For example, lanterns are now often made in the shape of animals. The lanterns can symbolize the people letting go of their past selves and getting new ones, which they will let go of the next year. The lanterns are almost always red to symbolize good fortune.


title: Lantern Festival

text: The festival acts as an Uposatha day on the Chinese calendar. It should not be confused with the Mid-Autumn Festival; which is sometimes also known as the "Lantern Festival" in locations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Lantern Festivals have also become popular in Western countries, such as the Water Lantern Festival held in multiple locations in the United States. In London, the Magical Lantern Festival is held annually.


title: Lantern Festival

text: There are several beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. However, its roots trace back more than 2,000 years ago and is popularly linked to the reign of Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty at the time when Buddhism was growing in China. Emperor Ming, an advocate of Buddhism, noticed Buddhist monks would light lanterns in temples on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. As a result, he ordered all households, temples and the imperial palace to light lanterns on that evening. From there it developed into a folk custom. Another likely origin is the celebration of "the declining darkness of winter" and community's ability to "move about at night with human-made light," namely, lanterns. During the Han dynasty, the festival was connected to Ti Yin, the deity of the North Star.


title: Lantern Festival

text: There is one legend that states that it was a time to worship Taiyi, the God of Heaven in ancient times. The belief was that Taiyi controlled the destiny of the human world. He had sixteen dragons at his beck and call and he decided when to inflict drought, storms, famine or pestilence upon human beings. Beginning with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, all the emperors ordered splendid ceremonies each year. The emperor would ask Taiyi to bring favorable weather and good health to him and his people.


title: Lantern Festival

text: Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty directed special attention to this event. In 104 BC, he proclaimed it to be one of the most important celebrations and the ceremony would last throughout the night.


title: Lantern Festival

text: Another legend associates the Lantern Festival with Taoism. Tianguan is the Taoist deity responsible for good fortune. His birthday falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. It is said that Tianguan likes all types of entertainment, so followers prepare various kinds of activities during which they pray for good fortune.


title: Lantern Festival

text: Another legend associates with the Lantern Festival with an ancient warrior named Lan Moon, who led a rebellion against the tyrannical king in ancient China. He was killed in the storming of the city and the successful rebels commemorated the festival in his name.


title: Lantern Festival

text: Yet another common legend dealing with the origins of the Lantern Festival speaks of a beautiful crane that flew down to earth from heaven. After it landed on earth it was hunted and killed by some villagers. This angered the Jade Emperor in heaven because the crane was his favorite. So, he planned a storm of fire to destroy the village on the fifteenth lunar day. The Jade Emperor's daughter warned the inhabitants of her father's plan to destroy their village. The village was in turmoil because nobody knew how they could escape their imminent destruction. However, a wise man from another village suggested that every family should hang red lanterns around their houses, set up bonfires on the streets, and explode firecrackers on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth lunar days. This would give the village the appearance of being on fire to the Jade Emperor. On the fifteenth lunar day, troops sent down from heaven whose mission was to destroy the village saw that the village was already ablaze, and returned to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor. Satisfied, the Jade Emperor decided not to burn down the village. From that day on, people celebrate the anniversary on the fifteenth lunar day every year by carrying lanterns on the streets and exploding firecrackers and fireworks.