title: Joakim Brodén

text: Brodén's father, Ulf Olof Brodén, is from Sweden and his mother, Anna, is from former Czechoslovakia. He holds dual citizenship in Sweden and the Czech Republic. He has said that he became a metalhead when he was three or four years old because of the music video for Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It". He was a competitive swimmer in his youth.


title: Joakim Brodén

text: Brodén once joined Stormwind for a tour as a keyboard player. Brodén founded Sabaton in 1999 with bassist Pär Sundström; he is the lead vocalist and keyboardist and an occasional third guitarist. He is also the one who came up with the name "Sabaton" for the band.


title: Joakim Brodén

text: Brodén is known for wearing an unusual vest with metal plates when performing with Sabaton; it has been described as resembling a bulletproof vest. He is also known for his distinctive mohawk hairstyle and "squared" facial hair. He is a baritone.


title: Joakim Brodén

text: In 2015, Brodén lost a bet with his bandmates that committed him to travelling to Sabaton's next gig on foot; he had not realized their next engagement was in Trondheim, Norway, some 350 miles (560 km) away. Brodén stayed in the homes of several fans along the way.


title: Joakim Brodén

text: On 26 November 2016, Brodén entered the Český slavík singing competition in the Czech Republic and was voted into fifth place with 9,286 points. The next year he entered again, but was removed from the competition due to a new rule that competitors had to primarily perform in the Czech Republic.


title: Joakim Brodén

text: In 2016 and 2017, Brodén took part in the Swedish national pinball championships, placing 167th the first time and 255th the second time.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: Saludos Amigos (Spanish for "Greetings, Friends") is a 1942 American live-action/animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the sixth Disney animated feature film and the first of the six package films produced by Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s. Set in Latin America, it is made up of four different segments; Donald Duck stars in two of them and Goofy stars in one. It also features the first appearance of José Carioca, the Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot. "Saludos Amigos" premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. "Saludos Amigos" was popular enough that Walt Disney decided to make another film about Latin America, "The Three Caballeros", to be produced two years later. At 42 minutes, it is Disney's shortest animated feature to date.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State commissioned a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in the US, Central, and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. This was being done because several Latin American governments had close ties with Nazi Germany, and the US government wanted to counteract those ties. Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters were popular in Latin America, and Walt Disney acted as ambassador. The tour, facilitated by Nelson Rockefeller, who had recently been appointed as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), took Disney and a group of roughly twenty composers, artists, technicians, etc. from his studio to South America, mainly to Brazil and Argentina, but also to Chile and Peru.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film itself was given federal loan guarantees, because the Disney studio had over-expanded just before European markets were closed to them by the war, and because Disney was struggling with labor unrest at the time (including a strike that was underway at the time the goodwill journey began).


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film included live-action documentary sequences featuring footage of modern Latin American cities with skyscrapers and fashionably dressed residents. This surprised many contemporary US viewers, who associated such images only with US and European cities, and contributed to a changing impression of Latin America. Film historian Alfred Charles Richard Jr. has commented that "Saludos Amigos" "did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the Americas in a few months than the State Department had in fifty years".


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film also inspired Chilean cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger to create Condorito, one of Latin America's most ubiquitous cartoon characters. Ríos perceived that the character "Pedro", a small, incapable airplane, was a slight to Chileans and created a comic that could supposedly rival Disney's comic characters.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: This film features four different segments, each of which begin with various clips of the Disney artists roaming the country, drawing cartoons of some of the local cultures and scenery.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: In this segment, American tourist Donald Duck visits Lake Titicaca in Peru and meets some of the locals, including an obstinate llama.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: "Pedro" is about a small anthropomorphic airplane from an airport near Santiago, Chile, engaging in his first flight to retrieve air mail from Mendoza, with disastrous consequences. He manages to safely return to the airfield with the mail, which happens to be a single postcard. RKO Pictures released this particular segment as a theatrical short on May 13, 1955.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: Chilean cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger (known popularly as "Pepo") was disappointed with how the character Pedro represented his country. In response, he developed the character "Condorito", who went on to become one of the most iconic comic magazine characters in Latin America.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: In this segment, American cowboy Goofy gets taken from Texas to the Argentinian pampas by the Narrator to learn the ways of the native gaucho. This segment was later edited for the film's Gold Classic Collection VHS/DVD release to remove one scene in which Goofy is shown smoking a cigarette. This edit appears again on the Classic Caballeros Collection DVD. This sequence has since been restored as the unedited version has been much requested. The fully unedited version is available as a bonus feature on the "Walt & El Grupo" DVD release and fully unedited and restored on "Saludos Amigos And The Three Caballeros 75th Anniversary Edition 2-Movie Collection" Blu-Ray. When the film was released on Disney's streaming platform Disney+, the edited version of the sequence was used despite disclaimers of the film being presented in its original format with "outdated cultural depictions" and tobacco usage, but it has since been changed to the unedited version.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: "Aquarela do Brasil" (Portuguese for "Watercolor of Brazil"), the finale of the film, involves a brand-new character, José Carioca from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showing Donald Duck around South America, having a drink of cachaça with him and introducing him to the samba (to the tunes of "Aquarela do Brasil" and "Tico-Tico no Fubá").


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film's original score was composed by Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, and Charles Wolcott. The title song, "Saludos Amigos", was written for the film by Charles Wolcott and Ned Washington. The film also featured the song "Aquarela do Brasil", written by the popular Brazilian songwriter Ary Barroso and performed by Aloísio de Oliveira, and an instrumental version of "Tico-Tico no Fubá", written by Zequinha de Abreu. "Aquarela do Brasil" was written and first performed in 1939, but did not achieve much initial success. However, after appearing in this film it became an international hit, becoming the first Brazilian song to be played over a million times on American radio.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film's soundtrack was first released by Decca Records in 1944 as a collection of three 78rpm singles.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: "Saludos Amigos" premiered in Rio de Janeiro on August 24, 1942. It was released in the United States on February 6, 1943. It was theatrically reissued in 1949, when it was shown on a double bill with the first reissue of "Dumbo".


title: Saludos Amigos

text: The film returned rentals to RKO by 1951 of $1,135,000 with $515,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada.


title: Saludos Amigos

text: It was later released on both VHS and DVD on May 2, 2000 under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection banner, and again on DVD on April 29, 2008 under the "Classic Caballeros Collection" banner. The film received a third DVD release on November 30, 2010, as a bonus Feature on the "Walt & El Grupo" DVD. A fourth release, the first on Blu-ray, was released on January 30, 2018 as "Saludos Amigos And The Three Caballeros 75th Anniversary Edition 2-Movie Collection)".


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The Flower-class corvette (also referred to as the "Gladiolus" class after the lead ship) was a British class of 294 corvettes used during World War II by the Allied navies particularly as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy ships of this class were named after flowers.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Most served during World War II with the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Several ships built largely in Canada were transferred from the RN to the United States Navy (USN) under the lend-lease programme, seeing service in both navies. Some corvettes transferred to the USN were crewed by the US Coast Guard. The vessels serving with the US Navy were known as Temptress- and "Action"-class patrol gunboats. Other Flower-class corvettes served with the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Hellenic Navy, the Royal New Zealand Navy, the Royal Yugoslav Navy, and, immediately after the war, the South African Navy.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: After World War II, many surplus Flower-class vessels saw worldwide use in other navies, as well as civilian use. is the only member of the class preserved as a museum ship.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The term "corvette" was originally a French name for a small sailing warship, intermediate between the frigate and the sloop-of-war. In the 1830s the term was adopted by the RN for sailing warships of roughly similar size, primarily operating in the shipping protection role. With the arrival of steam power, paddle- and later screw-driven corvettes were built for the same purpose, growing in power, size, and armament over the decades. In 1877 the RN abolished the "corvette" as a traditional category; corvettes and frigates were then combined into a new category, "cruiser".


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The months leading up to World War II saw the RN return to the concept of a small escort warship being used in the shipping protection role. The Flower class was based on the design of "Southern Pride", a whale-catcher, and were labelled "corvettes", thus restoring the title for the RN, although the Flower-class has no connection with pre-1877 cruising vessels.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: There are two distinct groups of vessels in this class: the "original Flower-class", 225 vessels ordered during the 1939 and 1940 building programmes; and the "modified Flower-class", which followed with a further 69 vessels ordered from 1940 onward. The modified Flowers were slightly larger and better armed.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Flower-class vessels, of original and modified design, in USN service were called "Temptress"- and "Action"-class gunboats; they carried the hull classification symbol PG ("patrol gunboat").


title: Flower-class corvette

text: In early 1939, with the risk of war with Nazi Germany increasing, it was clear to the Royal Navy that it needed more escort ships to counter the threat from Kriegsmarine U-boats. One particular concern was the need to protect shipping off the east coast of Britain. What was needed was something larger and faster than trawlers, but still cheap enough to be built in large numbers, preferably at small merchant shipyards, as larger yards were already busy. To meet this requirement, the Smiths Dock Company of South Bank -on-Tees, a specialist in the design and build of fishing vessels, offered a development of its 700-ton, whaler (whale catcher) "Southern Pride". They were intended as small convoy escort ships that could be produced quickly and cheaply in large numbers. Despite naval planners' intentions that they be deployed for coastal convoys, their long range meant that they became the mainstay of Mid-Ocean Escort Force convoy protection during the first half of the war.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The Flower class became an essential resource for North Atlantic convoy protection until larger vessels such as destroyer escorts and frigates could be produced in sufficient quantities. The simple design of the Flower class using parts and techniques (scantlings) common to merchant shipping meant they could be constructed in small commercial shipyards all over the United Kingdom and Canada, where larger (or more sophisticated) warships could not be built. Additionally, the use of commercial triple expansion machinery instead of steam turbines meant the largely Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve crews that were manning the corvettes would be familiar with their operation.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Flower-class vessels were slow for a warship, with maximum speed of . They were also very lightly armed as they were intended solely for anti-submarine warfare; many of the RCN's original Flower-class ships were initially fitted with minesweeping equipment, while virtually all of the modified Flowers were fitted with a limited anti-aircraft capability. The original Flowers had the standard RN layout, consisting of a raised forecastle, a well deck, then the bridge or wheelhouse and a continuous deck running aft. The crew quarters were in the forecastle while the galley was at the rear, making for poor messing arrangements. The modified Flowers saw the forecastle extended aft past the bridge to the aft end of the funnel, a variation known as the "long forecastle" design. Apart from providing a very useful space where the whole crew could gather out of the weather, the added weight improved the ships' stability and speed and was applied to a number of the original Flower-class vessels during the mid and latter years of the war. The original Flowers had a mast located immediately forward the bridge, a notable exception to naval practice at that time. The modified Flowers saw the mast returned to the normal position immediately aft of the bridge; this does not seem to have been done in all of the modified builds or conversions of the original vessels. A cruiser stern finished the appearance for all vessels in the class.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The RN ordered 145 Flower-class corvettes in 1939, the first 26 on 25 July with a further batch of 30 on 31 August, all under the 1939 Pre-War Programme. Following the outbreak of World War II, the British Admiralty ordered another 20 on 19 September (all from Harland & Wolff) under the 1939 War Programme. This was followed by an order for a further ten Flower-class corvettes from other British shipbuilders two days later. Another 18 were ordered on 12 December and two on 15 December, again from British shipbuilders. The RN ordered the last ten vessels (under the 1939 War Programme) from Canadian shipbuilders in January 1940.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: By the end of January 1940, 116 ships were building or on order to this initial design. The ten vessels ordered from Canadian shipbuilders were transferred to the RCN upon completion. Another four vessels were ordered at Smiths Dock Company for the French Navy, the first ship being completed for the Free French Naval Forces in mid-1940 and the other three being taken over by the RN. Another 31 Flowers were ordered by the RN under the 1940 War Programme but six of these (ordered from Harland & Wolff) were cancelled on 23 January 1941.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The RN ordered 27 modified Flower-class corvettes under the 1941 and 1942 War Programmes. British shipbuilders were contracted to build seven of these vessels under the 1941 Programme and five vessels under the 1942 Programme; two vessels (one from each year's Programme) were later cancelled. The RN ordered fifteen modified Flowers from Canadian shipyards under the 1941 programme; eight of these were transferred to the USN under reverse Lend-Lease.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The RCN ordered seventy original and 34 modified Flower-class vessels from Canadian shipbuilders. The Canadian shipbuilders also built seven original Flowers ordered by the USN, which were transferred to the RN under the Lend-Lease Programme upon completion, because wartime shipbuilding production in the United States had reached the level where the USN could dispense with vessels it had ordered in Canada. The RCN vessels had several design variations from their RN counterparts: the "bandstand", where the aft pom-pom gun was mounted, was moved to the rear of the superstructure; the galley was also moved forward, immediately abaft the engine room.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Shortly after the outbreak of war the French Navy ordered 18 Flower-class vessels, 12 from UK yards, two from "Ateliers et Chantiers de France" at Dunkirk and four from "Ateliers et Chantiers de Penhoët" at Saint-Nazaire. The two At. & Ch. de France ships are listed as "cancelled" but the four Penhoët ships were under construction at the time of the Fall of France and were seized by Nazi Germany. Three were completed for "Kriegsmarine" service and commissioned in 1943–44 as the "Patrouillenboot Ausland" patrol ships.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The original Flower class were fitted with a 4-inch (102 mm) gun on the bow, depth charge racks carrying 40 charges on the stern, a minesweeping winch and a 2-pounder (40 mm) pom-pom gun on a "bandstand" over the engine room. Due to shortages, a pair of Lewis guns or quadruple Vickers HMG was sometimes substituted for the pom-pom, which would have left the ship very vulnerable to aircraft attack in its envisaged role of coastal convoy escort and patrol in the North Sea. The long-range endurance of the vessels, coupled with early war-time shortages of larger escort warships, saw Flowers assigned to trans-Atlantic convoy escort where "Luftwaffe" aircraft were rarely encountered. Vessels assigned to the Mediterranean Sea usually had more anti-aircraft guns fitted. Underwater detection capability was provided by a fixed ASDIC dome; this was later modified to be retractable. Subsequent inventions such as the High Frequency Radio Detection Finder (Huff-Duff) were later added, along with various radar systems (such as the Type 271), which proved particularly effective in low-visibility conditions in the North Atlantic.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The Flower class had been designed for inshore patrol and harbour anti-submarine defence and many required minor modifications when the Allied navies began to use them as trans-Atlantic convoy escorts. These small warships could be supported by any small dockyard or naval station, so many ships came to have a variety of weapons systems and design modifications depending upon when and where they were refitted; there is really no such thing as a 'standard Flower-class corvette'


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Several of the major changes that vessels in the class underwent are indicated below, in a typical chronological order:


title: Flower-class corvette

text: A ship could have any mix of these, or other specialist one-off modifications. Ships allocated to other navies such as the RCN or USN usually had different armament and deck layouts. A major difference between the RN vessels and the RCN, USN, and other navies' vessels was the provision of upgraded ASDIC and radar. The RN was a world leader in developing these technologies and RN Flowers were somewhat better-equipped for remote detection of enemy submarines. A good example of this is the difficulty that RCN Flowers had in intercepting U-boats with their Canadian-designed SW1C metric radar, while the RN vessels were equipped with the technologically advanced Type 271 centimetric sets. In addition, RCN vessels were incapable of operating gyrocompasses, making ASDIC attacks more difficult.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Flower-class corvettes were used extensively by the RN and RCN in the Battle of the Atlantic. They also saw limited service elsewhere with the RN, as well as the USN and several Allied navies such as the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Hellenic Navy, the Free French Naval Forces, the Royal Indian Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy. The Belgian Navy used some of these vessels during World War II, and have continued to use Flower names for their minehunters. Most Royal Navy Flower-class ships drew their officers and crew from the Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). Many RN Flowers had captains drawn from the Merchant Navy.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Service on Flowers in the North Atlantic was typically cold, wet, monotonous and uncomfortable. Every dip of the forecastle into an oncoming wave was followed by a cascade of water into the well deck amidships. Men at action stations were drenched with spray and water entered living spaces through hatches opened for access to ammunition magazines. Interior decks were constantly wet and condensation dripped from the overheads. The head (or sanitary toilet) was drained by a straight pipe to the ocean; and a reverse flow of the icy North Atlantic would cleanse the backside of those using it during rough weather. By 1941 corvettes carried twice as many crewmen as anticipated in the original design. Men slept on lockers or tabletops or in any dark place that offered a little warmth. The inability to store perishable food meant a reliance on preserved food such as corned-beef and powdered potato for all meals.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The Flowers were nicknamed "the pekingese of the ocean". They had a reputation of having poor sea-handling characteristics, most often rolling in heavy seas, with 80-degree rolls, 40 degrees each side of upright, being fairly common; it was said they "would roll on wet grass". Many crewmen suffered severe motion sickness for a few weeks until they acclimatised to shipboard life. Although poor in their sea-handling characteristics, the Flowers were extremely seaworthy; no Allied sailor was ever lost overboard from a Flower during World War II, outside combat.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: A typical action by a Flower encountering a surfaced U-boat during convoy escort duties was to run directly at the submarine, forcing it to dive and thus limiting its speed and manoeuvrability. The corvette would then keep the submarine down and preoccupied with avoiding depth charge attacks long enough to allow the convoy to pass safely. The top speed of the Flower-class ships made effective pursuit of a surfaced U-boat [about ] impossible, though it was adequate to manoeuvre around submerged U-boats or convoys, both of which ran at a typical maximum of and sometimes much less in poor weather. The low speed also made it difficult for Flowers to catch up with the convoy after action.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: This technique was hampered when the "Kriegsmarine" began deploying its U-boats in "wolf-pack" attacks, which were intended to overwhelm the escort warships of a convoy and allow at least one of the submarines to attack the merchant vessels. Better sensors and armament for the Flowers, such as radar, HF/DF, depth charge projectors and ASDIC, meant these small warships were well equipped to detect and defend against such attacks but the tactical advantage often lay with the attackers, who could mount attacks intended to draw the defending Flower off-station. Success for the Flowers should be measured in terms of tonnage protected, rather than U-boats sunk. Typical reports of convoy actions by these craft include numerous instances of U-boat detection near a convoy, followed by brief engagements using guns or depth charges and a rapid return to station as another U-boat took advantage of the skirmish to attack the unguarded convoy.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Continuous actions against a numerically superior U-boat pack demanded considerable seamanship skills from all concerned and were very wearing on the crews. Thirty-six ships in the class were lost during World War II, many due to enemy action, some to collision with Allied warships and merchant ships. One, sunk in shallow water, was raised and repaired. Of the vessels lost to enemy action, 22 were torpedoed by U-boats, five were mined and four were sunk by aircraft. The Flower-class corvettes are credited with participating in the sinking of 47 German and four Italian submarines. Construction of the Flower-class was superseded toward the end of the war as larger shipyards concentrated on s and smaller yards on the improved design. The Flower class represented fully half of all Allied convoy escort vessels in the North Atlantic during World War II.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The following tables list all Flower-class corvettes which served in the Allied navies during World War II.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: In 1940 four Flower-class corvettes were being built in St. Nazaire-Penhoet for the French Navy. They were seized by the "Kriegsmarine" (German Navy). Three were completed in 1943 and 1944, while the fourth was never finished. Their designation "PA" stood for "Patroullienboot Ausland" (foreign patrol craft).


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The relatively small Flowers were among the first warships to be declared surplus by Allied navies following the end of World War II. They had seen years of hard service in the North Atlantic and were made obsolete by the numerous destroyer escorts and frigates that entered service in the latter part of the war.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: 32 vessels from the RN, RCN, and USN were transferred to Argentina, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Greece, India, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and Venezuela. These were typically operated according to their original design, as coastal patrol vessels, with many serving until the 1970s.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The Irish Navy bought three Flowers in 1946 (, , and ). The fledgling navy had intended to buy three more corvettes, as well as a number of surplus minesweepers, but severe budget restrictions cancelled these plans, leaving the original three to serve alone through the 1950s and 1960s despite antiquated armament, poor accommodation, and maintenance problems. Taken out of service 1968–1970 and scrapped shortly afterwards. Replaced by s before the building of a similar size vessel, LE "Deirdre". Entry into the European Economic Community in 1973 assisted in funding for the building of three future ships.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: 110 surplus Flowers were sold for commercial use. These saw various careers as mercantile freighters, smugglers, tugs, weather ships, and whalers. The remainder were scrapped. Of particular interest is the story of . She was declared surplus by the RCN and sold as a towboat specializing in deep-sea salvage. In November 1955, she rescued the freighter "Makedonia" in the North Pacific, towing the vessel for over one month through severe weather, becoming one of the most famous salvage ships of all time.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The surplus RCN Flowers and were sold as mercantile freighters but were subsequently acquired in 1946 by the "Mossad LeAliyah Bet", a branch of the Jewish Defense Association ("Haganah") in the British Mandate for Palestine. "Mossad Le'aliyah Bet" organized Jewish immigration from Europe into Palestine, in violation of unilateral British restrictions. The corvettes were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea during the summer of 1946 by the destroyer and interned in Palestine. After Israel became independent in 1948, these commercial ships were commissioned into the Israeli Navy as the warships "Hashomer" and "Hagana" respectively.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: Allied navies disposed of their Flowers so quickly following the war, the RN could not supply a single vessel to play "Compass Rose" in the 1953 film production of Nicholas Monsarrat's novel "The Cruel Sea". The Royal Hellenic Navy supplied (formerly ) for the role prior to her scrapping.


title: Flower-class corvette

text: The only survivor of the entire class is , owned by the Canadian Naval Memorial Trust. She was laid up in reserve in March 1946 and converted in 1952 to a research vessel for Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries, a role she served in until the early 1980s when she was acquired by the trust. She has been restored to her wartime appearance and serves in the summer months as a museum ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while wintering securely in the naval dockyard at CFB Halifax under the care of Maritime Forces Atlantic, Maritime Command. "Sackville"s presence in Halifax is considered very appropriate, given the port was an important North American convoy assembly port during the war. "Sackville" makes her first appearance each spring when she is towed by a naval tug from HMC Dockyard to a location off Point Pleasant Park on the first Sunday in May to participate in the "Commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic" ceremonies held at a memorial in the park overlooking the entrance to Halifax Harbour. "Sackville" typically hosts several dozen RCN veterans on this day and has also participated in several burials at sea for dispersing the ashes of RCN veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic at this location.


title: Pan-African colours

text: The colour combination was borrowed from the flag of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian flag has influenced the flags of many Pan-African organizations and polities. Except for relative brief periods of influence and occupation by the Kingdom of Italy, Ethiopia remained outside European control during the colonial era by defeating the Italian army at the battle of Adwa, Ethiopia, in 1896, ending the Italian protectorate. As a result, the country drew the admiration of many newly independent states in Africa. The adoption of the Ethiopian national colours by many Pan-African entities is a consequence of this. The first African state to adopt a gold, red and green flag upon independence was Ghana in 1957, designed by Theodosia Okoh.


title: Pan-African colours

text: The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA) founded by Marcus Garvey has a constitution that defines red, black, and green as the Pan-African colours: "red representing the noble blood that unites all people of African ancestry, the colour black for the people, green for the rich land of Africa." The UNIA flag was designated the official colours of Black Africans by the UNIA at its convention in Madison Square Garden on August 13, 1920, in New York City, United States.


title: Pan-African colours

text: The following are countries and territories that use one or both sets of Pan-African colours in their official flags:


title: Pan-African colours

text: Although the following flags contain a pan-African colour scheme, they were not officially designed to symbolise pan-Africanism. The designs may or may not be influenced by pan-African colours.


title: Pan-African colours

text: Rastafari colours also originate from the Ethiopian flag, but though Rastafari thought harbours pan-African sympathies, its use of the Ethiopian flag is historically rooted in the veneration of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Oprah with Meghan and Harry is a 2021 television special hosted by American media personality Oprah Winfrey, that featured an interview between Winfrey, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The special premiered March 7, 2021, on CBS in the United States, and in the United Kingdom the next day on ITV.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Filmed in Santa Barbara County, California, the interview came the year after Prince Harry and Meghan announced their decision to step down as working members of the British royal family in January 2020. The interview included discussion of their courtship, wedding, their second child's sex (female), mental health struggles including Meghan's suicidal thoughts, and a shared sense of abandonment in terms of emotional and financial support. Moreover, Meghan critiqued the British monarchy as an institution, while they both said one or more comments had been made privately to Harry by an unidentified individual within the royal family in relation to the skin color of their then-unborn son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. Also discussed was a royal title for Archie, the personal security of the couple, and Harry's estrangement from his father, Charles, and brother, William. Meghan's own relationship with her estranged family was also briefly touched upon.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: The interview received high viewing figures, generated extensive media attention and mixed reaction from political figures. The special was nominated for a 2021 Television Critics Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a People's Choice Award.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Although Winfrey was a guest at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, the couple first discussed their experiences with the media and public life in the 2019 ITV documentary "Harry and Meghan: An African Journey" with Tom Bradby. In March 2020, Harry and Meghan stepped down as working members of the British royal family to move to North America and become financially independent, subject to a 12-month review period should they change their minds. In June 2020, a home was purchased in Montecito, California, within the same "super-wealthy" enclave as Winfrey and other Hollywood celebrities.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On February 19, 2021, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan would not be returning as working members of the royal family, and that the Duke would step down as honorary Captain General of the Royal Marines and relinquish all other honorary military appointments held. Both Harry and Meghan also relinquished their royal patronages, including the presidency and vice-presidency, respectively, of The Queen's Commonwealth Trust. On February 26, "The Late Late Show with James Corden" released a 17-minute film segment, titled "An Afternoon with Prince Harry & James Corden", with Meghan making a cameo appearance by video call.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In March 2021, "The Times" reported that a complaint of workplace harassment had been made in 2018 against Meghan by her former senior royal advisor, after separate incidents with three other employees. Representatives of the Duke and Duchess denounced the reports as "misinformation" and stated that "it's no coincidence that distorted several-year-old accusations aimed at undermining The Duchess are being briefed to the British media shortly before she and The Duke are due to speak openly and honestly about their experience of recent years."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Winfrey initially denied reports of a "tell-all interview" in January 2020. Royal biographer Andrew Morton claimed that Harry had been in contact with Winfrey at least since November 2018. ITV News first reported that Meghan and Harry were finalizing an interview deal in February 2021, and it was subsequently confirmed by CBS. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that CBS paid "a license fee of between $7 million and $9 million" for the broadcasting rights. The network also sought $325,000 for 30 seconds of commercial advertising time during the broadcast. Meghan and Harry were not paid for the interview.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Produced by Winfrey's Harpo Productions, the taping took place outdoors in Santa Barbara County, California, at the home of an unnamed friend of Winfrey's. The special premiered on March 7, 2021, on CBS, and aired the following day on ITV in the United Kingdom. ViacomCBS Global Distribution handled distribution internationally. Winfrey appeared on "CBS This Morning" on March 8 to present footage not included in the special.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Various topics were discussed in the interview. Meghan spoke about "stepping into life as a royal, marriage, motherhood" and "how she is handling life under intense public pressure". She stated they were married in their backyard in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury three days prior to their public wedding ceremony. Harry joined her later, and the pair talked about their move to the United States from the United Kingdom in 2020 and their plans for the future, as well as revealing the sex of their second child, a daughter due to be born in "the summer" of 2021.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan drew a distinction between the royal family, and those that run the institution of the monarchy: "It's hard for people to distinguish the two, because it's a family business right, there's the family, and then there's the people that are running the institution, those are two separate things ... the Queen, for example, has always been wonderful to me." She said "she phoned the Queen after Prince Philip went into hospital" in February 2021. Although Meghan said that she knew some things about the royal family, discussion of them was not regular when she was growing up. She commented on "naively" entering the royal family, as she did not do her own research because she felt that Harry was telling her all she needed to know. Meghan said that she was not provided with proper training on royal protocols, and recounted practicing how to curtsy with help from Sarah, Duchess of York, outside the Royal Lodge prior to first meeting the Queen. Meghan said that a reported incident of her making her sister-in-law Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, cry was actually misreported, and that, in fact Catherine had made her cry about flower girl dresses. She stated that Catherine had apologized about it subsequently, sending her a note and flowers. Meghan also criticized the institution for knowing the truth about these events, but not showing any efforts to correct the story.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Otherwise, Meghan said that during her time as a senior royal, she had been silenced. She believed that, by not commenting on her life, she would receive protection, but said that such reciprocity did not occur. Meghan said that, when she was pregnant with her and Harry's son, Archie, she was told that the Palace would not give the baby the title of prince, nor would he receive personal security. She believed that this was attributable to her son's mixed ethnicity, and worried about a lack of security for him, particularly given the manner in which tabloids had treated her. She said that Harry had "conversations" with an unnamed member of the royal family about "how dark" Archie's skin would be. However, when later pressed for greater details, Harry said he is "never going to share more" about "that conversation" which took place "right at the beginning".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan discussed contemplating suicide by saying "I did not want to be alive anymore". She said she had gone to several senior palace officials to seek help or be checked into a hospital, but was told that would not be good as a public image. She added that one of the people she reached out to during that period and has remained in contact with was a best friend of Harry's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Meghan discussed feeling trapped, telling Winfrey that her driver's license, passport, and credit cards had been taken from her prior to her wedding, and been made unavailable to her. Harry discussed the way in which Meghan was treated: "I saw history repeating itself," drawing comparisons to his late mother, and worried that a tragic ending may repeat itself with Meghan. Harry said that he only stepped back as a royal after it became clear that the help he was asking for was not forthcoming. He believed that after he and Meghan toured Australia in October 2018, members of the royal family were jealous of the "effortless" manner in which Meghan had been able to interact with people in the Commonwealth and "how good she was at the job". According to Meghan, they had discussed with the royal family moving to a Commonwealth country, particularly South Africa or New Zealand, as part of their stepping back.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Harry said that there was a period of unspecified duration in which his father, Prince Charles, would not return his phone calls, and he felt "really let down". Harry also expressed affection for his older brother Prince William, saying that he "loved him to bits", but stated, "we're on different paths".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Harry and Meghan denied having "blindsided" the Queen with their decision to step back as senior royals, and they also said that they had held discussions with the royal family beforehand. In response to Winfrey's question about whether he would have left the monarchy if not for Meghan, Harry said that he would not have. Meghan had opened his eyes as to how trapped he was inside the "institution" into which he had been born. Harry said that he and Meghan had not initially planned to make commercial deals like those which they had forged with Netflix and Spotify, but that they needed to make arrangements for their safety after the royal family refused them further security protection, then cut off financial support in early 2020. The couple later revealed that after royal security ceased, Tyler Perry provided them with a secure house in Beverly Hills until they were able to make an alternative plan. Harry added that he was able to provide for the family with inherited money from his mother. Harry and Meghan both said that they initially did not intend to completely leave their roles in the royal family, but only wanted to step back into smaller roles. At the conclusion of the interview, Harry declared that his relationship with Meghan had "saved" him, while she added that his decisions had saved their entire family, referring to the two of them and Archie.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Four clips that were unaired during the main program were shown the following day on "CBS This Morning". When asked if racism played a role in their decision to leave the UK, Harry responded: "it was a large part of it". He also added that he did not believe that the UK is bigoted. Harry went on to say that after he informed the Palace about their decision to leave, the Queen cancelled a pre-planned meeting with the couple in Sandringham due to a busy schedule. Harry's request for another meeting was denied over the phone directly by the Queen, though he attributed her decision to the influence of her advisors. The couple also talked about Meghan's tabloid coverage, and (according to them) an alleged toxic environment within the royal institution. Harry attributed this perceived toxicity to the "control and the fear by the UK tabloids", and opined that his ancestral family had adapted to such an environment.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan added that what she experienced after she joined the royal family was different from the experience of her sister-in-law, Catherine, mainly because social media did not exist in its current form. She also spoke of the bad press coverage that the whole royal family had to deal with, but said that the bad press coverage which she herself had to deal with also had an element of racism. Additionally, Meghan talked about her conversation with her own father, Thomas Markle, in the days leading up to her wedding, mentioning that despite the fact that his relationship with the press could have been damaging to her reputation, he did not reveal his actions to her. She expressed sympathy for him because he was "hunted" by the press, but praised her mother Doria Ragland for being in the same situation but remaining "in silent dignity." She further stated that she barely knew her half-sister Samantha Markle, and questioned her credibility for writing a tell-all book. She added that her half-sister had changed her surname back to Markle only after realizing that she was dating Harry. In another clip released by "O, The Oprah Magazine", Meghan talked about "a basic right to privacy". She acknowledged that, as public figures, they never asked for complete privacy, but it should be up to them to decide what parts they want to share with the public.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: As heir apparent to his father's Dukedom of Sussex, Earldom of Dumbarton, and Barony of Kilkeel, Archie is customarily entitled to use Prince Harry's senior subsidiary title Earl of Dumbarton as a courtesy. At the time of Archie's birth, it was reported that it had been Meghan and Harry's decision not to have him use a courtesy title, in accordance with their wish that he grow up as a private citizen.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: A Royal Decree by King George V in 1917 limited the "prince" or "princess" titles to children of the British monarch, grandchildren in the male line, and the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. As Harry's father, King Charles III, has ascended the British throne, Archie is automatically accorded the title of prince, as the grandson of the monarch. In 2012, the Queen issued letters patent for all of Prince William's children to be titled prince and princess (William being the elder son of the Prince of Wales at the time); the 1917 legislation had not anticipated her longevity. Since Archie was not also granted the title of Prince, Meghan mooted a future grievance that the rules set by the 1917 letters patent could be changed to "prevent" Archie from becoming a prince. However, according to Bob Morris from the Constitution Unit, this could be attributable to King Charles III's long standing idea of a slimmed-down royal family, the mechanism for which has not been announced yet. "Finding Freedom" author Omid Scobie later stated that Meghan was incorrect in her understanding of royal procedure regarding the issue, but added that there was "much more to this story" than is known to the public.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Historian Robert Lacey explained that Meghan handing in her driver's licence would have been a requirement under security rules, as she "would not be protected" if she went driving by herself. Royal commentators said that her passport would still have been used when she was travelling internationally – only the monarch does not use one – but that it would have been kept with other royals' personal documents in a safe and accessible place, which "really was routine, and probably anything would be accessible to her if she wanted it."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: HM Treasury is the UK government department responsible for paying the costs associated with protecting members of the royal family. The Royal and VIP Executive Committee is the body responsible for determining which royals and public figures should get round-the-clock protection. Royals who do not constantly represent the monarchy, like Princess Anne and Prince Edward, do not get 24/7 security and get state-funded protection only when carrying out royal duties. Harry's cousins Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have been paying for their own security using their private incomes after a Scotland Yard review in 2011 cut off their state-funded protection. However, their father, Prince Andrew, who has stepped back from public life due to connections with Jeffrey Epstein, was allowed to keep his £300,000-a-year security even after a recommendation by the Metropolitan Police to lower his level of security. The Queen has continued to pay for his protection using her income from the Privy Purse.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had round-the-clock protection, which included their son, while working for the royal family. (While on-site, all residents of Windsor Castle and its grounds benefit from the fact that the property contains the Victoria Barracks, Windsor, which is the base of the 560-strong Coldstream Guards.) Harry claimed, however, that their security cost the British taxpayers £1 million per year and was cut off during the negotiations on the terms of their exit, despite there being no change in the level of threat to their safety.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In the interview, Harry claimed that security protection and financial support had been cut off by the royal family in "the first quarter" of 2020, which ended in April, when they were in Canada. This apparently contradicted an initial agreement, based on which "the monarchy had previously advised" that Harry's father, Prince Charles, would continue to provide financial support for a period of one year. During a Clarence House briefing on finances preceding the annual Sovereign Grant report, a spokesperson stated that Charles had "allocated a substantial sum" to support the Duke and Duchess until the summer of 2020.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Once the couple left the UK for Canada, their security became the responsibility of the Canadian government. On February 27, 2020, the Canadian Minister of Public Safety issued a statement saying, in part, "As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis. At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: During their five-month stay on Vancouver Island, Harry and Meghan were protected by the Metropolitan Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a cost to Canadian taypayers of $56,384.00 (CAD).


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: , they were required to pay for their own protection. This has historical precedent from when Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, lost the security provided by the British Government after abdicating and before settling abroad in 1937. The couple said they would have reimbursed the money spent on their security. Harry added that he used the money he inherited from his mother to take care of his family. She left him £6.5 million, which was invested and has earned substantial interest; an additional estimated £10 million was given to Harry on his 30th birthday in 2014. Harry's great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, left him and his brother £14 million in total, with Harry getting a larger share since he is not expected to ascend the throne. Meghan's wealth was estimated at $5 million, most of which was acquired through her role in "Suits", and for which she continues to get paid through residual checks from streaming services. The Duke and Duchess also stressed that they used the money they made from their Netflix and Spotify deals to pay for the renovation costs of their UK residence Frogmore Cottage, which was initially paid for by British taxpayers.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In the interview, Prince Harry stated that their commercial deals with Netflix and Spotify were "never part of the plan" and came into fruition on the suggestion of a third party to afford security costs after being cut off financially. "The Daily Telegraph" later reported that Meghan and Harry had held meetings surrounding "well-developed proposals" with the now-defunct streaming service Quibi a year before their departure from the royal family. The couple reportedly met with Jeffrey Katzenberg and other executives "throughout 2019", with alleged plans to "discuss [...] their own series of 10-minute videos". Andrew Morton, who wrote Diana, Princess of Wales's authorized 1992 biography and later published a book on Meghan, claimed that the Queen not only gave the couple the opportunity to choose which country they wanted to go to, but also suggested that Meghan could continue her acting career if she was not willing to carry out full time royal duties.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In July 2021, "The Telegraph" reported that Meghan had pitched an animated television show, "Pearl", to Netflix in 2018. The show, created by the Duchess, was announced to be in development at the studio earlier that month. Representatives for Meghan responded that "any discussions with Netflix dating back to 2018 were exclusively about" "Pearl" and stated that it was among the "one-off creative advocacy projects" that had been "brought to her" as a royal.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In the interview, Meghan relayed second hand (comments that had allegedly been said to Harry, not to her) that there had been "concerns and conversations about how dark [Archie's] skin might be when he's born". In contrast to the suggestion of multiple conversations and comments, when asked about the same topic Harry stated it was a single instance: "That conversation, I'm never going to share. But at the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked. That was right at the beginning when she wasn't going to get security". Winfrey later stated that the comments were made by neither the Queen nor Prince Philip.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Author and socialite Lady Colin Campbell later said that the comments were made by Harry's aunt Princess Anne, however there was a "misunderstanding" and according to different sources the conversation had been "twisted". Campbell stated that Anne's comments were on Meghan's "conduct and character", and added "There were no concerns about Meghan's color. Princess Anne was rightly concerned that if the marriage proceeded and there were children, there would be huge problems. Not because of Meghan's color, but because of Meghan's inability and determination to remain unable to appreciate the cultural differences, and to have respect for the institution into which she was going to marry. Harry ran to Meghan with the objections, Meghan weaponized them on the grounds of color". Journalist Christopher Andersen claimed in his 2021 book "Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan" that the comments came from Prince Charles upon the announcement of his son's engagement, who "in a very kind of benign way" asked his wife Camilla, "What do you suppose their children's complexion might be?" Andersen argued that the comments were twisted by the courtiers and then passed down to Harry and Meghan. A spokesperson for Charles stated that the claim "is fiction and not worth further comment". Author and investigative journalist Tom Bower claimed in his book "Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors" that the comments were made by Camilla, who jokingly told Harry "Wouldn't it be funny if your child had ginger Afro hair?" Harry laughed in response but Meghan later found the comments offensive. Sources close to Camilla described the allegations as "nonsense".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan said that they had in fact married three days before their public wedding, with a private exchange of vows on May 16 in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Harry supported this by commenting "Yeah, just the three of us". This earlier exchange of vows was not an official religious or legally recognized marriage, both of which require at least two witnesses. Later in March, a spokesperson for the couple confirmed that they merely exchanged "personal vows", and the private event was neither a "legal" nor "official" service. The couple's official marriage certificate also shows that they were married on May 19, with Harry's father and Meghan's mother as witnesses. The Archbishop of Canterbury also clarified their claim, stating "The legal wedding was on the Saturday [May 19]. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false". As is customary for clergy, Archbishop Welby refrained from commenting on the nature of any private meetings with the couple, but added he "had a number of private and pastoral meetings with the duke and duchess before the wedding".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In the interview, Meghan stated that when suffering from mental health issues she tried to seek help from the palace HR department, but she was refused as she was not a "paid employee of the institution". According to journalist Jonny Dymond "There's no HR department for working royals because it's a family affair", and HR managers are responsible for helping lower level royal staff and the household. Notwithstanding, seeking private therapy has precedent in the royal family and royal biographers questioned Meghan's claim of being turned away. In her own 1995 interview, Harry's mother, Diana, stated that she "received a great deal of treatment" after suffering from postpartum depression. In 2017, Harry himself acknowledged that he sought counselling years after his mother's death.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Months after Meghan wed Harry, a widely reported story, damaging to her public image, was published in the British media that she had made her sister-in-law, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, cry in a dispute over flower girl dresses. In the interview, Meghan insisted that the actual incident had seen the opposite occur, with Catherine causing Meghan to cry. She added that "[Catherine] apologized, and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing", after which she "forgave" her, but sources close to the palace told "The Times" that Meghan had "slammed the door in Kate's face" when she took a bunch of flowers to Nottingham Cottage to apologize. Another source later told "People" that "both women were in tears over the incident". Andrew Morton claimed in the revised version of his book, "Meghan: A Hollywood Princess", that Meghan had given Catherine and six of her friends gold bracelets following the royal wedding, a move that was described as "an elegant peace offering".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In a piece for "Harper's Bazaar" fashion magazine, "Finding Freedom" author Omid Scobie alleged that when Kensington Palace asked Harry to co-sign a statement to quash rumors of his brother William bullying Meghan and him, Meghan responded by email: "Well, if we're just throwing any statement out there now, then perhaps KP can finally set the record straight about me [not making Catherine cry]." Scobie said that Meghan's suggestion was ignored, with the palace saying that the Duchess of Cambridge cannot get involved in such gossip. However, in December 2018 a spokesperson for Kensington Palace denied rumors of a rift between the two women. In "Finding Freedom", Scobie had previously said that, according to a source, "There were no tears from anyone. And in the end, the fitting was fine. Kate and Meghan were both a little stressed but professionals in the room". In March 2021, Camilla Tominey, the journalist who broke the story, stated that she still believed her original reporting to be true. In his 2022 unauthorized biography of Meghan and Harry titled "Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors", author and journalist Tom Bower alleged that Meghan and Catherine had a disagreement over the length of Princess Charlotte's hemline and whether the flower girls "should wear tights". Meghan then allegedly compared her friend Jessica Mulroney's daughter "favourably" against Charlotte, and Catherine, who was exhausted after having recently given birth to Prince Louis, burst into tears.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On March 12, lawyers for Associated Newspapers wrote a letter to ViacomCBS demanding a retraction of a montage shown in the special "that purported to feature headlines from British newspapers". Among examples given were an image broadcast containing the "Daily Mail" headline "Meghan's seed will taint our Royal Family", which the company stated was an edited version of the original, which reported the suspension of a UKIP politician over racist texts. Representatives argued that the headlines were either doctored or taken out of context to present a "misleading" display. A third of the headlines were from gossip magazines published in Australia or the US, not the UK.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Among the featured headlines that according to Winfrey "left [Meghan] with no option but to quit" was a column by Michael Deacon titled "The real problem with Meghan Markle: she just doesn't speak our language", which was in fact published in December 2020, eleven months after the couple decided to leave the UK, and was about her use of "hippie corporate management speak". Harpo Productions later released a statement in response, saying: "Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, shared in the interview their personal story. We stand by the broadcast in its entirety." ITV later said that it would edit out some of the misleading headlines.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan and Harry claimed in the interview that they were financially cut off by the royal family, with Harry saying that the royal family had, "literally cut me off financially". In June 2021, accompanying the royal family's annual financial report on its financial activities under the Sovereign Grant, Clarence House, Prince Charles's residence, released an additional statement revealing that he had provided financial support to Meghan and Harry as they were departing the royal family. The statement claimed that Charles had provided them a "substantial sum" to support their transition out of the royal family. The statement also noted that such financial support ceased in the summer of 2020. Some media outlets argued that this meant that the assertion in the interview had been false. However, other sources argued that their claim had not been false, since financial support, according to Clarence House's statement, had ceased during the summer of 2020, and Harry and Meghan had, themselves, per the royal family's financial report, repaid the royal family $3.3 million in reimbursement for renovations to Frogmore Cottage.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: A spokesperson for Meghan and Harry stated in June 2021, "The Duke's comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the U.K., which starts annually in April. This is the same date that the 'transitional year' of the Sandringham agreement began and is aligned with the timeline that Clarence House referenced."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: During the interview, Meghan claimed that "there's no class on how to speak, how to cross your legs, how to be royal," and added that it might have existed for other members but not offered to her. In response to the claims, a former member of her staff told CNN, "They bent over backwards as far as I could see. I think there was complete hospitality and kindness and grace." Another royal source added, "Everyone wanted to make it a success. The Queen's senior team were directed to avail themselves to ensure she had all the support needed." It was also reported that the Queen had personally instructed her aides, including her lady-in-waiting Susan Hussey, Baroness Hussey of North Bradley, and her dresser Angela Kelly, to assist Meghan and offer her advice at Kensington Palace, which was described as "an unprecedented gesture of support" for a new member of the royal family.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: There was a wide and polarized global reaction to the interview. The reaction was varied across different countries with more sympathy for the Queen and Royal Family in the UK, whereas in the US sympathy lay mostly with Harry and Meghan. On September 9, 2021, a clip of the Oprah interview was shown at the British 26th National Television Awards, and "the audience reportedly started booing when Harry and Meghan appeared on-screen." The special was also nominated for an American Emmy Award and a 2021 Television Critics Award. In December 2021, "Vogue" named the interview among "The 10 Best Pop-Culture Moments of 2021". It also became the most searched interview in Google Trends history.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Prior to the broadcast of the interview, American television network NBC wrote of "daily episodes of royal drama in the shape of leaks, counterstatements and well-timed preview clips", which "may have been designed to build tension ahead of the interview". However, a CNN analysis following the broadcast noted that, despite the preview clips generating attention in the week ahead of the broadcast, "[Winfrey]'s team ensured that nothing leaked" in regards to the biggest claims in the interview, resulting in "maximum shock value". On the day of the U.S. broadcast, comment was made in British newspaper "The Observer" that "in the United States, anglophiles and amateur royal watchers are simply sitting back and lapping up the show."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Linda Holmes of NPR stated that the special was "painful and personal and unsparing about the cost of all this to Meghan particularly, and it was not anything the royal family would be excited to have people hear." "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that the garden setting and Meghan's wardrobe "endow[ed] the two-hour interview with a kind of California casualness that belied the many upsetting and emotional revelations to follow." The publication also said it was "shocking how relatively open Harry was about his family". "The Economist" wrote that the interview's revelations "echoed Princess Diana's experience" and "also represents a burning of bridges." Talking to the BBC, Katie Nicholl argued that "Meghan isn't followed or chased by the paparazzi in the way Diana was", and added "I think Meghan has come under just as much scrutiny as any other member of the Royal family". She believed it was normal for the press to report on the royal family, "but it has to be fair and has to be impartial". In his report for CNN, Max Foster outlined "inconsistencies" in the interview, including the couple's decision to be interviewed by a well-established journalist on a major network which was in contrast to their initial pledge to engage with "grassroots media organizations and young, up-and-coming journalists", as well as Meghan's claim of getting married three days before her and Harry's wedding despite the marriage license showing May 19 (date of the wedding) as the official date of legal marriage.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Rachel Brodsky of the London "Independent" wrote: "[T]he couple may never be free from the tabloids' monster grip. But at least, as Harry and Meghan have compellingly shown in their first real foray into taking back their narrative, they can be part of the conversation. And that is their choice to make." Writing for the same paper, Jamie Williams argued that the truth behind the couple's motives for emigrating lay somewhere between escaping the toxic treatment of Meghan by the British press and their desire to live a glamorous celebrity lifestyle, but he added that, nevertheless, "Meghan and Harry had the potential to become Britain's greatest branded asset as the decade unfolded, and for whatever reason, we, or they, or perhaps all of us, have screwed it up. Royally." In the lead sentence in "Time", Candy Lang wrote, "There was one clear thread throughout Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s dynamic interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday night: They believe they were driven from the royal family because of racism".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Jonny Dymond of BBC wrote that the great contradictions due to "the merging of personal and public roles" within the family was the main factor which prompted the couple to leave. He wrote that the interview could be "a catalyst for change", but added that "the Crown has been around for a very long time, and change does not come easily to a body in which the past plays such an outsize role". Anita Singh from "The Daily Telegraph" cited the interview as "a mix of straight-from-the-heart and stagey" and wrote that it "was really the Meghan and Oprah show, and the two women complemented each other perfectly." Writing for the same paper, historian Andrew Roberts believed the couple "took the deliberate decision to damage the institution of the monarchy as much as they possibly could on the way out", and added "if the monarchy really is a sinister racist institution, Harry and Meghan ought to resign their HRH titles and the Duchy of Sussex forthwith".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Allison Pearson from "The Daily Telegraph" also criticized the interview and the couple's attitude, saying "The only truthful lens is their own. Anyone who comes up with facts which contradict their feelings is either frightened of the tabloids, trapped or racist – quite possibly all three". She also believed that Winfrey's lack of knowledge on the UK and its royal family made her unable to query the couple's unclear answers. Lucy Mangan of "The Guardian", however, praised Winfrey for her "patented blend of warmth, empathy and persistence [that] makes her still the best in the business" and wrote that Winfrey's reaction of "disbelief" toward comments made about Archie's skin spoke "to a fascinating level of general ignorance [...] in the way the English aristocracy operates." Writing for "The Observer", Barbara Ellen was critical of the interview, stating "In this sprawling "nothing off-limits" interview, where were the questions the couple didn't want to answer? [...] as race featured, why wasn't Harry directly grilled about the well-documented dismaying episodes of his youth, if only to give him the opportunity to show how far he'd come?" She also doubted that the couple would be able to form a close relationship with the American upper class, most of whom "are unlikely to feel true kinship with people who give explosive gut-spilling interviews, never mind leak private family conversations to showbiz journalists". Russell Myers, "Daily Mirror"s royal editor, called into question Meghan's claim regarding the Palace throwing "holiday parties" for the tabloids, stating he "never got a ticket".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On 10 March 2021, Ian Murray, the executive editor of the Society of Editors, was interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire on BBC News. Contradicting claims made by Prince Harry during the interview, Murray said, "the UK media is not bigoted and will not be swayed from its vital role holding the rich and powerful to account". In response to this, several news organisations withdrew from the society's Press Awards, as did ITV presenter Charlene White, who was due to host the event. Over 160 journalists also issued statements, disagreeing with Murray's claims. Murray resigned the following day. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism stated the society's "statement denying bigotry and racism in the UK media shows a lack of awareness and understanding of deep-rooted and persistent problems that we see".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: "The Washington Post" assessed the British media as reacting "in horror" to the interview. British tabloids, whose practices were heavily criticized in the interview, were particularly negative in their coverage of the interview. The United States media reacted generally favorably and sympathetically towards the interview. However, many conservative media outlets in the United States reacted negatively to the interview, and were defensive of the monarchy.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On the March 8, 2021 edition of ITV's morning show "Good Morning Britain" after the interview's U.S. airing, anchor Piers Morgan—who was briefly a friend of Meghan before she became the Duchess of Sussex, but claims she cut him off early in her relationship with Prince Harry—disputed the veracity of Meghan's contemplation of suicide, stating "I don't believe a word she says. [...] I wouldn't believe her if she read me a weather report." Morgan's remarks were met with immediate backlash from viewers and other critics; broadcasting and telecom regulator Ofcom received over 41,000 complaints over the program. British mental health charity Mind (which is a partner of a charity campaign with ITV's "Britain's Got Talent") expressed "disappointment" in the remarks, stating that mental health issues should be "treated with dignity, respect and empathy."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On "Good Morning Britain" the following morning, Morgan distanced himself from his previous comments, stating that "if someone is feeling that way they should get the treatment and the help that they need every time. Every time. And if they belong to an institution like the royal family they should seek that help and be given it. It's not for me to question if she felt suicidal; I am not in her mind and that is for her to say." During the program, co-anchor Alex Beresford also criticized Morgan for his repeated on-air criticism of Meghan; "She's entitled to cut you off if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I don’t think she has but yet you continue to trash her." In response to the comment, Morgan walked off the set; Beresford apologized to viewers, arguing that Morgan "spouts off on a regular basis" and "has the ability to talk from a position where he doesn't fully understand".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Later that day, Ofcom announced that it would investigate the March 8 "Good Morning Britain" for violations of its Broadcasting Code. Shortly afterward, ITV announced that Morgan would leave "Good Morning Britain" effective immediately. ITV News later reported the Duchess had complained directly to ITV's CEO about Morgan's comments about mental health, although the broadcaster was not officially commenting on these reports. Meghan also complained to Ofcom about Morgan's comments. Her staff also reportedly emailed the BBC about their "Today" programme, and referring to the four commentators brought to discuss the interview, warned the corporation that having "three middle-aged white men discussing issues of race" was not ideal. The BBC responded by saying that they could not confirm or deny whether they had been contacted by an PRs, but added that they "had a broad range of voices on [their] output and don't believe there are any issues".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In response to the backlash, Morgan issued a statement on Twitter on March 10, saying, "On Monday, I said I didn't believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I've had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don't. Freedom of speech is a hill I'm happy to die on." He later stated, "I think the damage she's done to the British monarchy and to the Queen at a time when Prince Philip is lying in hospital is enormous and frankly contemptible." On March 17, it was revealed that complaints against Morgan had reached 57,000, breaking Ofcom's record. Morgan remained defiant, stating "Only 57,000? I've had more people than that come up and congratulate me in the street for what I said. The vast majority of Britons are right behind me." Ofcom cleared ITV of any wrongdoing in September 2021 and added that restricting Morgan's views would be a "chilling restriction" on freedom of speech but criticised his "apparent disregard" for the subject of suicide. Morgan described the ruling as "a resounding victory for free speech and a resounding defeat for Princess Pinocchios."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: UK prime minister Boris Johnson declined to comment when asked if he believed the royal family was racist, saying "when it comes to matters to do with the Royal Family, the right thing for prime ministers to say is nothing". The UK Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zac Goldsmith criticized Harry on Twitter and said, "Harry is blowing up his family. 'What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.'" UK opposition leader Keir Starmer said that Meghan's allegations about racism and a lack of mental health support should be taken "very, very seriously". Shadow education secretary Kate Green said the allegations were "really distressing" and "shocking". Labour MP and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said she could cite "story after story when Meghan was treated quite differently from white members of the Royal Family". She also believed that with opening up about her mental health issues, Meghan could encourage black and mixed-race women to talk about their issues and vulnerabilities. After enquiries about a debate in the House of Commons in response to the couple's interview, Holly Lynch, who was the organizer of an open letter of support by 72 female MPs to the Duchess in 2019, said she and the other MPs who penned the letter were considering what necessary steps should be taken to prevent the "hounding" of high-profile women such as Meghan by the press.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In the UK and elsewhere, there were also calls for the abolition of the monarchy. "The monarchy has just been hit by its worst crisis since the abdication in 1936. Whether for the sake of Britain or for the sake of the younger royals this rotten institution needs to go", said Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, whilst Ken Ritchie of Labour for a Republic claimed the interview was evidence that the royal family were "no better" than the public. Ritchie said "The monarchy has always thrived on an air of mystery that just cannot be maintained in this age of the media," adding, "It is simply more likely that things like this are going to come out." "The New York Times" published an op-ed, "Down With the British Monarchy", in which Hamilton Nolan said "You cannot turn a bottle of poison into a refreshing drink, no matter how much sugar you pour into it."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Australian prime minister Scott Morrison commented: "My personal position, I have always supported the constitutional monarchy." Conversely, Morrison's predecessor (and chair of the Australian Republican Movement from 1993 to 2000) Malcolm Turnbull argued that the interview strengthened the case for Australia becoming a republic by ending the monarchy of Australia. Meanwhile, when asked to comment following the interview, prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern stated that she has "not sensed an appetite from New Zealanders" to review the country's constitutional structure as a monarchy. New Zealand MP and co-leader of the Māori Party Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who had criticized the Crown in the past, commented on the allegations of racism and said, "I don't know why everyone is so surprised that the Crown is racist".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau stated "I won't comment on what's going on over in the U.K., but I will continue to endeavour to fight against racism and intolerance every single day in Canada". He also sent his best wishes to the members of the Royal Family, adding that the people had the right to talk about constitutional change but the government's priority at the moment was to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, also commented on the matter and said the Canadian monarchy "is in no way beneficial to Canadians in terms of their everyday life. And with the systematic racism that we've seen, it seems to be in that institution as well".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: A spokesperson for US president Joe Biden said he would praise anyone for having the courage to speak out about mental health. When asked about the interview in a press briefing, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki described Harry and Meghan as "private citizens" who were "sharing their own story in their own struggles". Former United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton defended Meghan, saying: "This young woman was not about to keep her head down, you know, this is 2021". Commenting on Meghan's allegations of racism within the palace, former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama said, "it wasn't a complete surprise to hear." Speaking on the royal family, Obama also commented, "I pray for forgiveness and healing for them so that they can use this as a teachable moment for us all." In response to rumors that Meghan may run for president in 2024, former US president Donald Trump commented: "I'm not a fan of her. I know the Queen, as you know, I've met with the Queen and I think the Queen is a tremendous person and I am not a fan of Meghan." Otherwise, Trump reportedly stated: "You realize if you say anything negative about Meghan Markle, you get canceled. Look at Piers [Morgan]."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In an interview with BBC, Prince Albert II of Monaco criticized the couple's decision to do a tell-all interview and stated, "These types of conversations should be held within the intimate quarters of the family, it doesn't really have to be laid out in the public sphere like that".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: According to BBC News, the interview led to "crisis meetings involving senior royals". On March 9, Buckingham Palace released a statement in response, saying: "The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members." When asked about the interview by the reporters during a visit to an East London school on March 11, Prince William responded to the allegations of racism by saying, "We're very much not a racist family". Reporting on the couple's relationship with the royal family, "CBS This Morning" presenter Gayle King stated that Harry had started conversations with his father and brother but "those conversations were not productive". In response to the allegations of racism, a source close to the palace stated that in order to tackle the issue they had "the policies, the procedures and programmes in place but we haven't seen the progress we would like in terms of representation and more needs to be done, we can always improve". They added that it was "too early" to announce any "firm plans", but the royal family was supportive of the idea to have someone in charge of diversity and inclusion in the royal households.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: On March 9, Meghan's father Thomas Markle appeared on "Good Morning Britain" and apologized to his daughter for cooperating with the media outlets and making her feel betrayed. He added that he still remained estranged from Meghan. On March 25, Thomas Markle "hand delivered a letter to Oprah Winfrey – asking her to interview him about his relationship with estranged daughter Meghan".


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: In response to Meghan's claim that she had seen her half-sister "at least 18 or 19 years ago", Samantha Markle provided "Inside Edition" with photographs of the two of them throughout the years, including one from Samantha's college graduation in 2008. Samantha also refuted Meghan's claim that she had changed her surname back to Markle after realizing that Meghan was dating Prince Harry by showing a petition for name change from 1997 as well as her college diploma, on which her surname appears as Markle. She also commented on her half-sister's mental health issues, stating that she had "no sympathy" for Meghan as "depression is not an excuse for treating people like dishrags and disposing of them". On March 3, 2022, Samantha sued Meghan by filing a defamation lawsuit in Florida, seeking damages in excess of $75,000. She accused Meghan of making "demonstrably false and malicious statements" which subjected her to "humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale," as well as damaging their father's reputation to fabricate a "rags to royalty" narrative. Meghan's lawyers described the lawsuit as "a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior." In a response filed in May 2022, Meghan's attorneys argued that her half-sister's claims were "demonstrably false", and the statements made by Meghan during the Oprah interview were either "non-actionable opinion or substantially true". In June 2022, Meghan's initial motion to dismiss the case was rejected by a judge following amendments made by Samantha in her complaints. She filed a second motion in the same month, stating that the deletion of "numerous specific factual allegations and exhibits from her original complaint" combined with the lack of facts had undermined Samantha's case, and argued a judge or jury would not be able to pass judgements about the state of their relationship. Meghan's lawyers have argued that her comments regarding her upbringing in the interview were unfalsifiable and subjective statements of her feelings, rather than objective facts.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: A poll conducted by YouGov on March 8, after the American and Canadian broadcasts but ahead of the broadcast in the United Kingdom, found that a majority of adults in Great Britain had little sympathy for the royal couple. While 56% responded that they had "none at all" or "not very much" sympathy, 17% had "a fair amount" of sympathy, 12% had "a lot" of sympathy and 15% stated that they did not know. Another poll by YouGov in the same timeframe found that 21% of British adults thought that the interview was "appropriate" and 47% thought it was "inappropriate"; by contrast, 44% of American adults described it as "appropriate" and 20% described it as "inappropriate."


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Subsequent polling conducted on March 12 found that 48% of British respondents had a negative attitude of Harry compared to 45% with a positive view, "the first time his net favorability rating had been negative". Additionally, three in 10 people had a positive view of Meghan, while 58% held a negative opinion. Another YouGov poll after the interview found at 68% of American adults surveyed either had "a fair amount" or "a lot" of sympathy with Harry and Meghan, whereas only 22% of British adults surveyed had sympathy with Harry and Meghan.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Meghan and Harry witnessed a decline in their popularity with the British public. In polls conducted a month after the interview aired, the public opinion of most senior royals improved. In contrast, Meghan and Harry's popularity further decreased between April and August 2021.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: Polling by Morning Consult found United States residents had a far more favorable view of Meghan and Harry than the British did. It also found that Meghan and Harry were viewed more favorably by those who watched the interview. In addition, it found that the interview had done little damage to the favorability of other members of the royal family with United States residents who watched the interview. A more recent YouGov US poll, taken between March 13 and 17, found that Harry and Meghan's popularity in the United States declined after the interview.


title: Oprah with Meghan and Harry

text: A poll by "The New Zealand Herald" after the Oprah interview found that a majority of New Zealanders were more sympathetic to the Royal Family than to Meghan and Harry. Polling by Léger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that, after the interview, an increased number of Canadians believed that the Canadian monarchy is obsolete. Polling conducted after the interview by extra.ie found the Irish public to be unsympathetic to Harry and Meghan.


title: Cytokine storm

text: A cytokine storm, also called hypercytokinemia, is a physiological reaction in humans and other animals in which the innate immune system causes an uncontrolled and excessive release of pro-inflammatory signaling molecules called cytokines. Normally, cytokines are part of the body's immune response to infection, but their sudden release in large quantities can cause multisystem organ failure and death.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Cytokine storms can be caused by a number of infectious and non-infectious etiologies, especially viral respiratory infections such as H1N1 influenza, H5N1 influenza, SARS-CoV-1, and SARS-CoV-2, Influenza B, Parainfluenza virus, and Ebola. Other causative agents include the Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, group A streptococcus, and non-infectious conditions such as graft-versus-host disease. The viruses can invade lung epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages to produce viral nucleic acid, which stimulates the infected cells to release cytokines and chemokines, activating macrophages, dendritic cells, and others.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Cytokine storm syndrome is a diverse set of conditions that can result in a cytokine storm. Cytokine storm syndromes include familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, Epstein-Barr virus–associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, systemic or non-systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis–associated macrophage activation syndrome, NLRC4 macrophage activation syndrome, cytokine release syndrome and sepsis.


title: Cytokine storm

text: The term "cytokine storm" is often loosely used interchangeably with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) but is more precisely a differentiable syndrome that may represent a severe episode of cytokine release syndrome or a component of another disease entity, such as macrophage activation syndrome. When occurring as a result of a therapy, CRS symptoms may be delayed until days or weeks after treatment. Immediate-onset (fulminant) CRS appears to be a cytokine storm.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Nicotinamide (a form of vitamin B) is a potent inhibitor of proinflammatory cytokines. Low blood plasma levels of trigonelline (one of the metabolites of vitamin B3) have been suggested for the prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 death (which is thought to be due to the inflammatory phase and cytokine storm).


title: Cytokine storm

text: The first reference to the term "cytokine storm" in the published medical literature appears to be by James Ferrara in 1993 during a discussion of graft vs. host disease, a condition in which the role of excessive and self-perpetuating cytokine release had already been under discussion for many years. The term next appeared in a discussion of pancreatitis in 2002, and in 2003 it was first used in reference to a reaction to an infection.


title: Cytokine storm

text: It is believed that cytokine storms were responsible for the disproportionate number of healthy young adult deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. In this case, a healthy immune system may have been a liability rather than an asset. Preliminary research results from Taiwan also indicated this as the probable reason for many deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003. Human deaths from the bird flu H5N1 usually involve cytokine storms as well. Cytokine storm has also been implicated in hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.


title: Cytokine storm

text: In 2006, a study at Northwick Park Hospital in England resulted in all 6 of the volunteers given the drug theralizumab becoming critically ill, with multiple organ failure, high fever, and a systemic inflammatory response. Parexel, a company conducting trials for pharmaceutical companies claimed that theralizumab could cause a cytokine storm—the dangerous reaction the men experienced.


title: Cytokine storm

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, some doctors have attributed many deaths to cytokine storms. A cytokine storm can cause the severe symptoms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which has a high mortality rate in COVID-19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 activates the immune system resulting in a release of a large number of cytokines, including IL-6, which can increase vascular permeability and cause a migration of fluid and blood cells into the alveoli leading to such consequent symptoms as dyspnea and respiratory failure. In an autopsy study from Karolinska Hospital, 29 pleural effusions of deceased COVID-19 patients, were analyzed using Olink® Inflammation and Organ Damage panels. Out of 184 protein markers, 20 markers were raised significantly in COVID-19 deceased patients. A group of markers showed over-stimulation of the immune system, including ADA, BTC, CA12, CAPG, CD40, CDCP1, CXCL9, ENTPD2, Flt3L, IL-6, IL-8, LRP1, OSM, PD-L1, PTN, STX8, and VEGFA; furthermore, DPP6 and EDIL3 indicated damage to arterial and cardiovascular organs. The higher mortality has been linked to the effects of ARDS aggravation and the tissue damage that can result in organ-failure and/or death.


title: Cytokine storm

text: ARDS was shown to be the cause of mortality in 70% of COVID-19 deaths. A cytokine plasma level analysis showed that in cases of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, the levels of many interleukins and cytokines are highly elevated, indicating evidence of a cytokine storm. Additionally, postmortem examination of patients with COVID-19 has shown a large accumulation of inflammatory cells in lung tissues including macrophages and T-helper cells.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Early recognition of a cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients is crucial to ensure the best outcome for recovery, allowing treatment with a variety of biological agents that target the cytokines to reduce their levels. Meta-analysis suggests clear patterns distinguishing patients with or without severe disease. Possible predictors of severe and fatal cases may include "lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and high levels of ferritin, D-dimer, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, neutrophils, procalcitonin and creatinine" as well as interleukin-6 (IL-6). Ferritin and IL-6 are considered to be possible immunological biomarkers for severe and fatal cases of COVID-19. Ferritin and C-reactive protein may be possible screening tools for early diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome in cases of COVID-19.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Due to the increased levels of cytokines and interferons in patients with severe COVID-19, both have been investigated as potential targets for SARS-CoV-2 therapy. An animal study found that mice producing an early strong interferon response to SARS-CoV-2 were likely to live, but in other cases the disease progressed to a highly morbid overactive immune system. The high mortality rate of COVID-19 in older populations has been attributed to the impact of age on interferon responses.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Short-term use of dexamethasone, a synthetic corticosteroid, has been demonstrated to reduce the severity of inflammation and lung damage induced by a cytokine storm by inhibiting the severe cytokine storm or the hyperinflammatory phase in patients with COVID-19.


title: Cytokine storm

text: Clinical trials continue to identify causes of cytokine storms in COVID-19 cases. One such cause is the delayed Type I interferon response that leads to accumulation of pathogenic monocytes. High viremia is also associated with exacerbated Type I interferons response and worse prognosis. Diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are all risk factors of cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients.


title: Elton Brand

text: Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player and the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selected with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, and later played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks. He was a two-time NBA All Star and an All-NBA Second Team selection in 2006.


title: Elton Brand

text: Brand attended Peekskill High School, where he was immediately added to the varsity basketball roster. He averaged 40 points and 20 rebounds per game, played AAU basketball with future NBA players Lamar Odom and Ron Artest, and by his senior year he was consistently ranked among the top high school basketball players in the country and was selected as New York State Mr. Basketball. At the same time, he became something of a cult hero in Peekskill, helping his team win two state championships. Recruited heavily after his successful high school career, Brand decided to enroll at Duke University alongside a cluster of other high school stars, including Shane Battier.


title: Elton Brand

text: As a sophomore, Brand was the dominant inside presence for a Duke team that is widely regarded as one of the most talented teams in recent NCAA history. After leading the Blue Devils to the championship game of the Final Four—where they were upset by the Connecticut Huskies—Brand was named the consensus National Player of the Year. He subsequently decided to leave Duke after his sophomore season and declared for the 1999 NBA draft. Brand, sophomore William Avery, and freshman Corey Maggette, were the first three players under Mike Krzyzewski to leave early for the draft and not play the full four years at Duke.


title: Elton Brand

text: On June 30, 1999, Brand was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft. On November 19, Brand scored 29 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, and blocked 4 shots in the ninth game of his career, a 103-95 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He was later named the most valuable player of the Rookie Challenge over All-Star Weekend. He ended the season with averages of 20.1 points and 10 rebounds per game, and he shared NBA Rookie of the Year honors with Houston Rockets guard Steve Francis. Despite his personal success, Brand and the Bulls finished with the second worst record in the league at 17-65.


title: Elton Brand

text: Through much of the 2000–01 season, Brand was hailed as the linchpin of a possible new Chicago dynasty. On December 31, Brand scored a season high 31 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a 86-75 win over the New Jersey Nets. Brand averaged 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game; his 3.9 offensive rebounds per game were the second-best in the NBA. As a team however, again the Bulls struggled, finishing with an even worse record at 15-67.


title: Elton Brand

text: After two successful seasons with the Bulls, Brand was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in June 2001 for Brian Skinner and the draft rights to Tyson Chandler. In 2002, Brand became the first Clipper since Danny Manning (in 1994) to be selected to the All-Star team.