title: Das Rheingold

text: The American premiere of "Das Rheingold" was given by the New York Metropolitan Opera in January 1889, as a single opera, with Seidl conducting. The production used Carl Emil Doepler's original Bayreuth costume designs, and scenery was imported from Germany. According to "The New York Times", "[t]he scenery, costumes and effects were all designed and executed with great art and caused admirable results." Of particular note was the performance of Joseph Beck who sang Alberich: "a fine example of Wagnerian declamatory singing, His delivery of the famous curse of the ring was notably excellent in its distinctness and dramatic force". On 4 March 1889, with largely the January cast, Seidl conducted "Das Rheingold" to begin the first American "Ring" cycle. Thereafter, "Das Rheingold", either alone or as part of the "Ring", became a regular feature of the international opera repertory, being seen in Saint Petersburg (1889), Paris (1901), Buenos Aires (1910), Melbourne (1913), and Rio de Janeiro (1921), as well many other major venues.


title: Das Rheingold

text: After the 1896 revival, "Das Rheingold" was being performed regularly at the Bayreuth Festival, although not every year, within a variety of "Ring" productions. Until the Second World War, under the successive artistic control of Cosima (from 1896 to 1907), her son Siegfried (1908 to 1930) and Siegfried's widow Winifred (1931 to 1943), these productions did not deviate greatly from the stagings devised by Wagner for the 1876 premiere. With few exceptions, this generally conservative, even reverential approach – which extended to all Wagner's operas – tended to be mirrored in performances outside Bayreuth.


title: Das Rheingold

text: The Bayreuth Festival, suspended after the Second World War, resumed in 1951 under Wieland Wagner, Siegfried's son, who introduced his first "Ring" cycle in the "New Bayreuth" style. This was the antithesis of all that had been seen at Bayreuth before, as scenery, costumes and traditional gestures were abandoned and replaced by a bare disc, with evocative lighting effects to signify changes of scene or mood. The stark New Bayreuth style dominated most "Rheingold" and "Ring" productions worldwide until the 1970s, when a reaction to its bleak austerity produced a number of fresh approaches. The Bayreuth centenary "Ring" production of 1976, directed by Patrice Chéreau provided a significant landmark in the history of Wagner stagings: "Chéreau's demythologization of the tetralogy entailed an anti-heroic view of the work ... his setting of the action in an industrialized society ... along with occasional 20th century costumes and props, suggested a continuity between Wagner's time and our own". Many of this production's features were highly controversial: the opening of "Das Rheingold" revealed a vast hydro-electric dam in which the gold is stored, guarded by the Rhinemaidens who were portrayed, in Spotts's words, as "three voluptuous tarts" – a depiction, he says, which "caused a shock from which no one quite recovered". According to "The Observer"s critic, "I had not experienced in the theatre protest as furious as that which greeted "Das Rheingold"." Eventually this hostility was overcome; the final performance of this production, in 1980, was followed by an ovation that lasted ninety minutes.


title: Das Rheingold

text: The iconoclastic centenary "Ring" was followed by numerous original interpretations, at Bayreuth and elsewhere, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The 1988 festival opened with Harry Kupfer's grim interpretation of "Das Rheingold", in which Wotan and the other gods were represented as gangsters in mafioso sunglasses. This entire "Ring", says Spotts, was "a parable of how the power-hungry cheat, lie, bully, terrorise and kill to get what they want". In August Everding's Chicago "Reingold" (which would become part of a full "Ring" cycle four years later), the Rhinemaidens were attached to elasticated ropes manipulated from the wings, which enabled them to cavort freely through the air, using lip sync to co-ordinate with off-stage singers. Edward Rothstein, writing in "The New York Times", found the production "a puzzle ... cluttered with contraptions and conceits" which, he imagined, were visual motifs which would be clarified in later operas. Keith Warner, in his 2004 production for Covent Garden, portrayed, according to Barry Millington's analysis, "the shift from a deistic universe to one controlled by human beings". The dangers of subverted scientific progress were demonstrated in the third "Rheingold" scene, where Nibelheim was represented as a medical chamber of horrors, replete with vivisections and "unspeakable" genetic experiments.


title: Das Rheingold

text: From the late 1980s a backlash against the tendency towards ever more outlandish interpretations of the "Ring" cycle led to several new productions in the more traditional manner. Otto Schenk's staging of "Das Rheingold", first seen at the New York Met in 1987 and forming the prelude to his full "Ring" cycle two years later, was described by "The New York Times" as "charmingly old fashioned", and as "a relief to many beleaguered Wagnerites". James Morris, who sang Wotan in the 1987 production, and James Levine, the original conductor, both returned in 2009 when Schenk brought his "Ring" cycle back to the Met for a final performance.


title: Das Rheingold

text: "Das Rheingold" was Wagner's first attempt to write dramatic music in accordance with the principles he had enunciated in "Opera and Drama", hence the general absence in the score of conventional operatic "numbers" in the form of arias, ensembles and choruses. Rather than acting as the accompanist to the voices, the orchestra combines with them on equal terms to propel the drama forward. According to Barry Millington's analysis, "Das Rheingold" represents Wagner's purest application of the "Opera and Drama" principles, a rigorous stance that he would eventually modify. Even in "Rheingold", as Jacobs indicates, Wagner was flexible when the dramatic occasion warranted it; thus, the Rhinemaidens sing in the disavowed ensembles, and there are several instances in which characters sing melodies that appear to be musically independent from the general flow. The music is continuous, with instrumental entr'actes linking the actions of the four discrete scenes.


title: Das Rheingold

text: The prelude to "Das Rheingold" consists of an extended (136-bar) chord in E major, which begins almost inaudibly in the lowest register of eight double-basses. The note of B is added by the bassoons and the chord is further embellished as the horns enter with a rising arpeggio to announce the "Nature" motif, outlining the lower partials of an harmonic series with an E fundamental. This is further elaborated in the strings; the lower-register instruments sustain the E note throughout the prelude, while the chord is increasingly enhanced by the orchestra. The "Rhine" motif emerges, representing what Osborne describes as "the calm, majestic course of the river's character The composer Robert Erickson describes the prelude as drone music – "the only well-known drone piece in the concert repertory". Millington suggests that the protracted chord does not simply represent the depths of the Rhine, rather "the birth of the world, the act of creation itself".


title: Das Rheingold

text: When the prelude reaches its climax the curtain rises and the key shifts to A as Woglinde sings a "greeting to the waters". The first two and last two notes of this short, lilting passage form a falling musical step which, in different guises, will recur throughout the opera, signifying variously the Rhinemaidens' innocence, their joy in the gold and conversely, in the minor key, Alberich's woe at his rejection by the maidens, and his enslavement of the Nibelungs. The first appearance of the gold is signified by a muted horn call in the lower register, played under a shimmer of undulating strings, conveying, says Holman, "the shining, innocent beauty of the Rhinegold in its unfashioned state." The motif for the ring itself first appears in the woodwind, as Wellgunde reveals that a ring fashioned from the gold would confer on its owner the power to win the wealth of the world. This is followed by what is sometimes known as the "renunciation" motif, when Woglinde sings that to fashion such a ring, the owner must first renounce love. Confusion arises because this same motif is used later in the "Ring" cycle to represent affirmation rather than rejection of love; Roger Scruton suggests the motif would be more appropriately labelled "existential choice". Alberich duly curses love, seizes the gold and departs, to the sounds of the despairing shrieks of the Rhinemaidens.


title: Das Rheingold

text: During the first entr'acte, the Ring motif is transformed into the multipart and oft-reiterated "Valhalla" music – four intertwined motifs which represent the majesty of the gods and the extent of Wotan's power. Scene two begins on the mountaintop, in sight of the newly-completed castle, where Fricka and Wotan bicker over Wotan's contract with the giants. This duologue is characterised by Fricka's "Love's longing" motif, in which she sighs for a home that will satisfy Wotan and halt his infidelities. Freia's distressed entrance is illustrated by "Love", a fragment that will recur and develop as the "Ring" cycle unfolds. The Giants' entrance is signified by heavy, stamping music that reflects both their simple nature and their brute strength. The "Golden Apples" motif, of "remarkable beauty" according to Scruton, is sung by Fafner as a threatening reminder to the gods that the loss of Freia means the loss of their youth and vigour; it is later used by Loge to mock the gods for their weakness after Freia's departure with the giants. The "Spear" motif, a rapidly descending scale, represents the moral basis of Wotan's power and the sanctity of the treaties engraved on it. The phrase of five descending notes known as "Woman's Worth", first sung by Loge, is described by Holman as one of the most pervasive and appealing motifs in the entire "Ring" cycle – he lists 43 occurrences of the motif throughout the cycle. Many of the "Ring"s characters – Wotan, Froh, Alberich, Fasolt and Erda in "Das Rheingold" – either sing this phrase or are orchestrally referenced by it.


title: Das Rheingold

text: The descent of Wotan and Loge into Nibelheim is represented musically in the second entr'acte, which begins with the "renunciation" and "spear" motifs but is quickly overwhelmed with the insistent, rhythmic 9/8 beat of the Nibelung motif in B, briefly foreshadowed in Loge's scene 2 soliloquy. In the climax to the entr'acte this rhythm is hammered out on eighteen anvils. This motif is thereafter used, not just to represent the Nibelungs but also their enslavement in a state of relentless misery. During the scene's opening interaction between Alberich and Mime, the soft, mysterious "Tarnhelm" motif is heard on muted horns; this is later combined with the "serpent" motif as, at Loge's behest, Alberich uses the Tarnhelm to transform himself into a giant snake. The transition back to the mountaintop, following Alberich's entrapment, references a number of motifs, among them Alberich's woe, the ring, renunciation and the Nibelungs' enslavement.


title: Das Rheingold

text: After Wotan seizes the ring from the captive Alberich, the dwarf's agonised, self-pitying monologue ("Am I now free?") ends with his declamation of the "Curse" motif – "one of the most sinister musical ideas ever to have entered the operatic repertoire", according to Scruton's analysis: "It rises through a half-diminished chord, and then falls through an octave to settle on a murky C major triad, with clarinets in their lowest register over a timpani pedal in F sharp". This motif will recur throughout the cycle; it will be heard later in this scene, when Fafner clubs Fasolt to death over possession of the ring. Tranquil, ascending harmonies introduce the reconvention of the gods and giants. The subsequent dispute over Wotan's reluctance to part with the ring ends with Erda's appearance; her motif is a minor-key variation of the "Nature" motif from the prelude. After her warning she departs to the sounds of the "Downfall" motif, an inversion of Erda's entry that resembles "Woman's Worth". The scene ends with a rapid succession of motifs: "Donner's Call", a horn fanfare by which he summons the thunderstorm; Froh's "Rainbow Bridge" which provides a path for the gods into Valhalla; the "Sword" motif, a C major arpeggio that will become highly significant in later "Ring" operas, and the haunting "Rhinemaidens' Lament", developed from the falling step which earlier signified the maidens' joy in the gold. Scruton writes of this lament: "And yet, ever sounding in the depths, is the lament of the Rhine-daughters, singing of a natural order that preceded the conscious will that has usurped it. This lament sounds in the unconsciousness of us all, as we pursue our paths to personality, sovereignty and freedom...". These are the last voices that are heard in the opera, "piercing our hearts with sudden longing, melting our bones with nostalgic desire", before the gods, "marching in empty triumph to their doom", enter Valhalla to a thunderous orchestral conclusion, made up from several motifs including "Valhalla", "Rainbow Bridge" and the "Sword".


title: Das Rheingold

text: Although it is sometimes performed independently, "Das Rheingold" is not generally considered outside the structure of the "Ring" cycle. However, as Millington points out, it is a substantial work in its own right, and has several characteristics not shared by the other works in the tetralogy. It is comparatively short, with continuous music; no interludes or breaks. The action moves forward relatively swiftly, unencumbered, as Arnold Whittall observes, by the "retarding explanations" – pauses in the action to clarify the context of what is going on – that permeate the later, much longer works. Its lack of the conventional operatic devices (arias, choruses, ensembles) further enable the story to progress briskly.


title: Das Rheingold

text: Since it was written as a prelude to the main events, "Das Rheingold" is in itself inconclusive, leaving numerous loose ends to be picked up later; its function, as Jacobs says, is "to expound, not to draw conclusions". The fact that most of its characters display decidedly human emotions makes it seem, according to a recent writer, "much more a present-day drama than a remote fable". Nevertheless, Philip Kennicott, writing in "The Washington Post" describes it as "the hardest of the four installments to love, with its family squabbles, extensive exposition, and the odd, hybrid world Wagner creates, not always comfortably balanced between the mythic and the recognizably human." Certain presumptions are challenged or overturned; John Louis Gaetani, in a 2006 essay, notes that, in Loge's view, the gods are far more culpable than the Nibelungs, and that Wotan, for all his prestige as the ruler of the gods, "does much more evil than Alberich ever dreams of".


title: Das Rheingold

text: Live performances of "Das Rheingold" from Bayreuth and elsewhere were recorded from 1937 onwards, but were not issued for many years. The first studio recording, and the first to be issued commercially, was Georg Solti's 1958 Decca version, part of his complete "Ring" cycle, 1958–1966, which marked the beginning of a new era in recorded opera. Since then "Das Rheingold" has been recorded, as part of the cycle, on many occasions, with regular new issues.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Swedish Fish is a fish-shaped, chewy candy originally developed by Swedish candy producer Malaco in the late 1950s for the U.S. market. They come in a variety of colors and flavors.


title: Swedish Fish

text: One of the ingredients in Swedish Fish is invert sugar, a combination of glucose and fructose. Invert sugar is important in Swedish Fish due to its ability to retain moisture.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Swedish Fish contain modified cornstarch which is used primarily to form its shape. It is utilized as a medium in trays when the product is put in them to be molded. In addition, white mineral oil is added to these trays to supplement the starch, prevent the candy from crumbling, and give it a shiny coating.


title: Swedish Fish

text: In Sweden, a large share of confectionery sales are sold as pick and mix. Wine gums are sold in many different shapes, of which fish is just one. The Swedish Fish candy is marketed under the name "pastellfiskar", literally "pastel fish", and under the Malaco brand among others. The fish-shaped candies are also part of a Malaco bag of mixed candy called Gott&blandat. This popular candy bag was introduced in 1979 and over the years many variations of it has been made.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Today the Swedish Fish consumed in North America are made in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Turkey by Mondelēz International. In Canada, Swedish Fish are distributed under Mondelez International's Maynards Bassetts brand.


title: Swedish Fish

text: The fish are distributed in the U.S. by Mondelēz International. The fish-shaped candy gained enough popularity on its own to where the Malaco, and later Cadbury, company had to do little advertising for the product, until this past decade. A recent resurgence in popularity has resulted in greater accessibility in supermarkets and convenience stores where they are often sold prepackaged in plastic bags. Building upon this resurgence, the company recently created "Giant Fish" television advertisements and a "Treadin' Water" YouTube mini-series, which follows the miscellaneous adventures of four friends and a Giant Swedish Fish sharing an apartment. The first few episodes of the mini-series were published onto YouTube on May 9, 2016.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Originally colored red with a flavor unique to the candy (often guessed to be lingonberry, but never verified), they are now also available in several different colors, such as Orange & Lemon-Lime. Purple Swedish Fish in grape flavor were discontinued in 2006. The fish come in two different sizes. Initially, the smaller fish came only in red; now fish of both sizes are available in all flavors. According to a visit to the factory on the Food Network's show "Unwrapped", green is not lime, but pineapple flavor, while yellow is a lemon-lime flavor.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Although well known in the U.S., Swedish Fish were only launched on the U.S. market in the late 1950s. The original owner of these candies was the Swedish company Malaco, which wanted to expand its sales to North America and entered partnership with Cadbury. Wanting to create a product that reflected the culture of Sweden in some way, a fish-shaped gummy candy was created. Fishing was and is still a large part of Sweden's culture, and fish is a considerable part of the Swedish diet. Mondelez distributes the candy in the U.S. today, but the fish gummies are still distributed by Malaco in Sweden.


title: Swedish Fish

text: In 2009, Rita's Italian Ice, a U.S. chain which serves Italian ice and frozen custard, introduced a red Swedish Fish flavored Italian ice as a cobranded product.


title: Swedish Fish

text: Trident, a gum company owned by Mondelez Global, produced a Swedish Fish flavored product, which is advertised as "Berry + Lemon" flavor.


title: Swedish Fish

text: In 2016, Nabisco created a test-market product Swedish Fish Oreos, available at Kroger grocery stores in the US.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla (; 1159 – 25 July 1190) was Queen of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. She reigned alongside her husband Guy of Lusignan, to whom she was unwaveringly attached despite his unpopularity among the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla was the eldest daughter of King Amalric and the only daughter of Agnes of Courtenay. Her father died in 1174, making her heir presumptive to her younger brother, King Baldwin IV. When it became clear that 13-year-old Baldwin had contracted leprosy, the matter of Sibylla's marriage became urgent. The regent, Count Raymond III of Tripoli, arranged for her to marry William Longsword of Montferrat in late 1176, but William left her a pregnant widow, and in possession of the County of Jaffa and Ascalon, in 1177.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Shortly after giving birth to a son, Baldwin, Sibylla came to be associated with her brother in public acts, thereby being designated as next in line to the throne. Sibylla's second marriage, to Guy of Lusignan, was arranged in 1180 by her brother likely to foil a coup planned by Raymond, but it deeply divided the nobility. By 1183, King Baldwin had become completely disabled as well as disillusioned with Guy's character and ability to lead. In order to prevent Guy's accession to the throne, he had Sibylla's son crowned as co-king and attempted to separate Sibylla from Guy, but she refused.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla's brother, Baldwin IV, died in 1185, having named Raymond to rule as regent for Baldwin V instead of Sibylla or Guy. The boy king died the next year, and Sibylla moved quickly to claim the throne against Raymond's ambitions. She agreed to her supporters' demand to set Guy aside on the condition that she could choose her next husband. At her coronation in mid-September 1186, she outwitted her supporters by choosing Guy and crowning him herself. Saladin took advantage of the discord in the kingdom to invade in 1187, reducing the Kingdom of Jerusalem to a single city, Tyre. Sibylla visited her husband, who had been taken captive at the decisive Battle of Hattin, and procured from Saladin his release. She died, along with their daughters, of an epidemic outside Acre while Guy was besieging it.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla was the elder of the two children of the count of Jaffa and Ascalon, Amalric, and his first wife, Agnes of Courtenay. She was born between 1157, when her parents married, and 1161, when her brother, Baldwin, was born. On her father's side, Sibylla was the niece of the then-reigning King Baldwin III and granddaughter of Queen Melisende. The ruling class of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states, called the Franks, were French-speaking Catholics who had arrived in the Levant from Western Europe and remained Western in culture. Sibylla was named after her father's half-sister, Sibylla of Anjou.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: When King Baldwin III died in 1163, the High Court forced Amalric to agree to an annulment of his marriage to Agnes in order to be accepted as the new king. He succeeded in having his and Agnes's children declared legitimate by Pope Alexander III. In common with Western practices, Sibylla was educated by the king's aunt Abbess Ioveta, Queen Melisende's youngest sister, at the Convent of Saint Lazarus near Jerusalem. She consequently had little contact with her mother or brother, who was heir apparent to their father. With his second wife, Maria Komnene, the king had two daughters, of whom Isabella survived infancy.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: King Amalric feared that, like his brother and their father, King Fulk, he too would die young, before his heir reached the age of majority. Having no close male relative who could rule as regent on his son's behalf if the latter ascended as a minor, Amalric authorized the archbishop of Tyre, Frederick de la Roche, in 1169 to find a husband for Sibylla in Western Europe. The candidate had to be an older man of high-enough rank and with enough experience in government. Amalric chose Count Stephen I of Sancerre, the brother-in-law of King Louis VII of France and relative of the English royal house. Stephen thus came to Jerusalem in 1171. Sibylla's brother was suspected of having contracted leprosy, then an incurable disease that would prevent him from marrying and having children, and Amalric may have seen Sibylla and Stephen as eventual monarchs. Stephen rejected the match, however, for unknown reasons.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: When King Amalric died of dysentery in July 1174, the High Court met to discuss who should succeed him. Sibylla's 13-year-old brother, Baldwin, would have been the obvious successor had there not been for fears of his incipient leprosy. The only serious alternative to him was Sibylla, then aged about 15. Female succession had been grounded in recent law and had precedent, as Amalric's mother, Melisende, preceded her sons on the throne. But unlike her grandmother, Sibylla was young, inexperienced, and unmarried. No bachelor in the Latin East was fit to marry her; Count Raymond III of Tripoli and Baldwin of Antioch were too closely related, and a marriage to one of the barons in the kingdom could have caused resentment among the others. A match had to be found abroad, but that would have taken too long. Baldwin IV was therefore chosen, with the expectation that a husband would be found for Sibylla to succeed him if he proved to be affected during his minority.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Count Raymond of Tripoli, who was by then also prince of Galilee in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, became regent for the young king due to being the nearest male relative. He allowed Sibylla and Baldwin's mother, Agnes, to return to court. The siblings came to be strongly influenced by their mother in the following years. Baldwin's condition deteriorated rapidly after his accession, and there was no longer any doubt that he was affected by leprosy. A brother-in-law was quickly sought. The groom chosen by Raymond and the High Court was William Longsword, son of Marquis William V of Montferrat and cousin of both Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and King Louis VII of France.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: By the time William arrived in the East in October 1176, the barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were no longer so well disposed towards him, likely because Emperor Frederick had suffered military setbacks against the Lombard League and could no longer be expected to aid Catholics in the East. But the marriage had to go forward because if she were to be jilted again, Sibylla's marriage prospects could irreparably diminish. The couple married in November, and he was granted the County of Jaffa and Ascalon. Sibylla was the only countess in the kingdom beside her mother, who had been granted the title after the annulment of the royal marriage, which conferred a certain distinction. Baldwin may have offered to abdicate in William's favour, but William would have declined because he knew he lacked support among the nobility.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Around April 1177, shortly after he and Sibylla conceived a child, William fell critically ill. He died in June, by which time her pregnancy was known. Sibylla was left as the "suo jure" countess of Jaffa and Ascalon. Sibylla and Baldwin's first cousin Count Philip I of Flanders arrived in Jerusalem soon after, but declined regency when Baldwin offered it to him. Philip's only goal was to arrange for Sibylla and her half-sister Isabella to marry Robert and William, respectively, sons of his favourite liegeman Robert V of Béthune. The High Court countered that custom entitled the widowed Sibylla to a year of mourning, which was especially seemly given her pregnancy. Philip and the High Court could not agree on which of them had the final say in choosing Sibylla's next husband. The opposition to Philip was led by the lord of Ramla, Baldwin of Ibelin, who hoped to be the chosen suitor.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla gave birth to a son, named Baldwin in honour of her brother, in the winter of 1177–78. Her mourning period ended in June 1178, and it became appropriate to negotiate a new marriage. Baldwin of Ibelin's suit having been rejected, his brother Balian was allowed to marry Queen Maria, stepmother of Sibylla and the King. On 1 July 1178, Sibylla began to be associated with her brother in public acts, reminiscent of Melisende's association with her father, King Baldwin II. Baldwin IV thus confirmed Sibylla's status as his heir presumptive.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: The High Court agreed unanimously that Sibylla should next marry Duke Hugh III of Burgundy. The king so desperately needed a brother-in-law that he wrote to the king of France, empowering him to choose an alternative candidate if Hugh refused. Hugh intended to sail to the East in early 1180 and marry Sibylla at Easter. A group of crusaders from France, led by Count Henry I of Champagne, Peter I of Courtenay, and Philip of Dreux, arrived in July 1179. They failed to prevent the Egyptian ruler Saladin from destroying the crusader fortress of Le Chastellet, but remained in the kingdom in the hopes of assisting at Sibylla and Hugh's coronation the following year.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Things took an unexpected turn during the Holy Week in 1180. The brewing conflict in France that followed the accession of King Philip II prevented Hugh from leaving his domain. Contemporary chroniclers Ernoul and William of Tyre relate the events differently. According to Ernoul, Sibylla wrote to Baldwin of Ibelin when he was in Saladin's captivity, promising that she would persuade her brother to allow their marriage if he could ransom himself, but was persuaded by her mother to marry Guy of Lusignan, a Poitevin knight, instead. Historian Bernard Hamilton argues that Ernoul's account, though accepted in older historiography, is biased in favour of the Ibelins.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: William of Tyre reports that during the Holy Week in 1180 Count Raymond III of Tripoli and Prince Bohemond III of Antioch were marching towards Jerusalem to stage a coup against King Baldwin. Hamilton concludes that their intention was to force the king to have Sibylla marry Baldwin of Ibelin and to then abdicate, and that the king foiled their plan by arranging her marriage to Guy. Baldwin of Ibelin had never been approved by Sibylla's brother, possibly because his family had only recently risen to lordly rank. Another factor was that Saladin had been informed by Raymond and Bohemond's conspiracy to enthrone Baldwin and therefore set Baldwin's ransom to that of a king; a successor with such a debt was not desirable.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: From 1180, Sibylla held Jaffa and Ascalon with Guy, and had four daughters with him. Their marriage divided the nobility into a faction supporting Guy (Sibylla; the king; their mother, Agnes; their stepfather the lord of Sidon, Raynald; their maternal uncle, Joscelin of Courtenay; and the lord of Oultrejordain, Raynald of Châtillon) and a faction opposing him (Sibylla's paternal kinsmen Bohemond of Antioch and Raymond of Tripoli; Baldwin and Balian of Ibelin; and her stepmother, Maria Komnene). In order to prevent the opposing party from setting up a rival claimant, the king took his mother's advice and, in October 1180, betrothed his half-sister Isabella, Maria's daughter and Balian's stepdaughter, to Humphrey IV of Toron, stepson of Raynald of Châtillon. From March 1181, both Sibylla and Guy were associated with King Baldwin in public acts.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Baldwin IV's leprosy progressed quickly; in 1183 he lost his sight and could no longer walk unsupported or use his hands. Having developed a life-threatening fever, the king summoned the High Court in June and made Guy regent. Baldwin retained only the royal title and the city of Jerusalem. But Guy proved far too unpopular to be an effective military leader, and gravely insulted the incapacitated king by refusing to exchange Jerusalem for Tyre.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Saladin attacked Kerak Castle in late 1183 while the wedding of Sibylla's half-sister Isabella to Humphrey of Toron was celebrated. Baldwin summoned his troops. Not trusting him to efficiently command the army, the king deprived Guy of regency and, effectively, of his place in the line of succession. The succession was then deliberated by the assembled nobility, which included Guy, Agnes, Bohemond of Antioch, Raymond of Tripoli, Raynald of Sidon, and the Ibelin brothers, but not Sibylla's supporters Raynald of Châtillon and Joscelin of Courtenay. Eventually Agnes's proposal that Sibylla's five-year-old son, Baldwin V, be crowned co-king was accepted because his was the next strongest claim after Sibylla's. The coronation took place on 20 November, and the boy received the homage of all the barons except his stepfather. Baldwin IV and his army then relieved the siege of Kerak.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: The question of who would rule the kingdom as regent for Baldwin V troubled the disabled king. Sibylla and Guy would have the best claim to regency if Baldwin IV died. Her brother knew that this could only be prevented by having their marriage annulled and discussed the matter with the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius. Baldwin failed to take into account Sibylla's steadfast devotion to Guy as well as Guy's friendship with Heraclius, who may have warned the count about Baldwin's intentions. Instead of going to Jerusalem with the rest of the army after lifting the siege of Kerak, Guy went straight to Ascalon and sent a message to Sibylla, who joined him there. The annulment could not proceed without their presence, and the couple's refusal to leave Ascalon despite the king's summons frustrated the scheme to separate them. Baldwin next attempted to confiscate Jaffa and Ascalon, but only succeeded in revoking Jaffa.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: On Baldwin IV's deathbed in early 1185, the right to rule the kingdom as regent in the name of Baldwin V, then a sickly child, was offered to the count of Tripoli. Raymond and his party were determined to prevent Sibylla and Guy's accession, and he accepted the regency on the condition that the pope should, on the advice of the Holy Roman emperor and the kings of England and France, decide whether the crown should pass to Sibylla or Isabella in case of Baldwin V's premature death. The High Court accepted the conditions and swore an oath to him in the presence of Baldwin IV. Guardianship of the boy was awarded to his granduncle Joscelin of Courtenay. Baldwin IV died in March 1185 or before 16 May 1185 at the latest, when Sibylla's son, Baldwin V, is recorded as the sole king. Baldwin V's paternal grandfather, Marquis William V of Montferrat, arrived in Jerusalem to safeguard the young king's rights.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla's son died in Acre in August 1186. Her mother had died by then too. Raymond summoned the High Court to Nablus. It was attended by half-sister Isabella; Isabella's husband Humphrey and her stepfamily, the Ibelins; and likely by Raymond's stepsons. Contemporaries believed that Raymond intended to claim the throne for himself. Meanwhile, Sibylla's uncle Joscelin of Courtenay took possession of Acre and Beirut in her name. Sybilla hurried to Jerusalem to attend her son's funeral. She and Guy garrisoned the city with their strong armed escort.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: The count of Tripoli underestimated the support for Sibylla. The lord of Oultrejordain and her father-in-law the marquess of Montferrat came to Sybilla's side. She was also backed by the patriarch and the master of the Knights Templar, Gerard of Ridefort, who both resided in Jerusalem, as well as by the constable, Guy's brother Aimery; the chancellor, Peter of Lydda; and the seneschal, her uncle Joscelin. The nobility and clergy assembled in Jerusalem wished to settle the succession immediately. They concurred that Sibylla had the best claim, but disagreed on whether Guy should become king alongside her. In the end, Sibylla's supporters required her to give up Guy in return for their recognition of her rights. Sibylla acquiesced on three conditions: legitimisation of her daughters by Guy, Guy's retention of Jaffa and Ascalon, and ability to personally choose her next husband. The conditions were accepted.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: On the advice of Heraclius and Gerard, Sibylla sent an invitation to the nobles at Nablus to attend her coronation. Possibly in an attempt to appease Raymond and his party, Guy was not mentioned in it; Sibylla proclaimed that the kingdom had passed to her by right of inheritance. They nevertheless refused to attend, arguing that doing so would violate the oaths taken at Baldwin IV's deathbed, and went so far as to send a delegation of monks to forbid the coronation. The master of the Knights Hospitaller, Roger des Moulins, also declined to be present, more likely due to the oath than out of any opposition to Sibylla. He was nevertheless persuaded to surrender his key to the chest containing regalia. The city gates were barred ahead of the coronation to prevent disruption by the opposing party, and instead of by the attendees, Sibylla was acclaimed queen by the citizens of Jerusalem at the urging of Raynald of Châtillon.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: As was traditional, the coronation was held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, likely in mid-September. After crowning her, the patriarch gave a second crown to Sibylla and asked her to choose a new consort. She astonished the attendees by calling forth Guy and placing the crown on his head. Having agreed that she should choose a husband after setting Guy aside, they could raise no objection to her choice. Upon hearing about this turn of events, Raymond proposed crowning Isabella and Humphrey as rival monarchs, but Humphrey sneaked out of Nablus at night and rode to Jerusalem. Upon arrival, he demanded an audience with the queen, who agreed after initial reluctance. He swore fealty to her, and she took him to see Guy, to whom he paid homage. Roger des Moulins and Heraclius mediated peace, and all the barons except Raymond of Tripoli and Baldwin of Ibelin came to Jerusalem to submit.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla was well-positioned to wield power because Guy's authority was entirely dependent on her. She was associated with her husband in public acts in the first months of their reign, but this was cut short by Saladin's invasion. In an act of continued defiance, Raymond had retired to his fief of Galilee, allied with Saladin, and garrisoned Tiberias with Muslim troops. The sultan attacked the kingdom on 26 April 1187. After Muslim troops annihilated the combined armies of the Templars and the Hospitallers at Cresson near Nazareth on 1 May, Raymond was forced by his own vassals to submit to Guy. Though now unified, the kingdom had been critically weakened by the defeat at Cresson. The Christian army led by Guy suffered a crushing defeat at the Horns of Hattin on 4 July. The king was taken prisoner; Raynald was executed; and Raymond died of an illness in Tripoli in September.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: At the time of King Guy's defeat and imprisonment at Hattin, Queen Sibylla was in Jerusalem. The queen went to Ascalon with her daughters to defend the city and only surrendered it to Saladin in return for Guy's release, but the sultan nevertheless kept him imprisoned. In September, Saladin besieged Jerusalem. The queen commanded the defence with the assistance of Patriarch Heraclius and Balian of Ibelin, but intense bombardment forced them to surrender. Saladin allowed the defeated to ransom themselves, and Sibylla was further permitted to visit Guy in Nablus while she travelled to Antioch. She was apparently prevented from embarking there for Europe when her ship was seized by Conrad of Montferrat, her first husband's brother who had taken up the defence of Tyre. Sibylla instead joined her stepmother, Queen Maria, in Tripoli. In the months following the Battle of Hattin, all of the kingdom except Tyre fell to Saladin.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Sibylla repeatedly pleaded with Saladin for Guy's release, and the sultan granted her request in July 1188. The couple reunited on the island of Arwad near Tortosa, from where they went north to Antioch and then back south to Tripoli, gathering an army along the way. They marched to Tyre in April 1189. The city's defender, Conrad, refused to allow the king and queen into the city, forcing them to spend months outside its walls. Conrad posited that Guy had forfeited the kingdom at Hattin and that Tyre was being held in trust for the Holy Roman emperor and the kings of England and France, who would decide to whom the government should be assigned.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: The Third Crusade was launched in 1189, and Sibylla accompanied Guy to the siege of Acre along with Humphrey, Isabella, Maria, and Balian. An epidemic struck the crusaders' camp in 1190. Sibylla died on 25 July, a few days after her remaining daughters, Alice and Maria. The "Itinerarium" recorded accusations of foul play against Guy, but in truth their deaths deprived Guy of any right to the throne. Sibylla's heir was her half-sister Isabella I.


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Historian Bernard Hamilton disagrees with Ernoul's characterization of Sibylla as fickle, foolish, and sentimental, arguing that the portrayal "bears little relation to the known facts". Influenced by the prevailing medieval perception of ideal queenship, Sibylla's contemporaries and near-contemporaneous chroniclers were interested more in her relationship with Guy than in her military activity. Standing by her husband won her approval of her contemporaries; Roger of Wendover described her as:


title: Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem

text: Due to the distortion of her image by contemporary gender ideals, resourcefulness and loyalty remain Sibylla's chief traits in modern historiography.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: Larry Dee Scott (October 12, 1938 March 8, 2014), nicknamed "The Legend" and "The Golden Boy," was an American IFBB professional bodybuilder. He won the inaugural 1965 Mr. Olympia competition and defended the crown at the 1966 Mr. Olympia contest before retiring.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: Larry Dee Scott was born in Blackfoot, Idaho to Thea Scott and machinist Wayne Scott. He began training at age 16 and won the Mr. Idaho competition in 1959 at age 20. After moving to California, he promptly won Mr. California (1960), Mr. Pacific Coast (1961), Mr. America (1962), and Mr. Universe (1964). When Joe Weider created the IFBB's Mr. Olympia title, Scott won the first two contests in 1965 and 1966. Although retiring after his 1966 Olympia win, he staged a brief comeback in 1979 before he finally retired from competition in 1980. He studied electronics at the California Air College, and was known to be a devout Mormon. He married Rachel Scott (née Ichikawa). The Scotts had five children: daughter Susan, and sons Erin, Nathan, Derek, and Michael. Derek died in a motorcycle accident in 1992, and Michael died in 1993.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: He played a minor role in the 1964 movie "Muscle Beach Party". When he started weight training in 1956, his narrow shoulders were a particular weak spot. He trained with Vince Gironda, a well-known bodybuilder of the time, and became best known for his arm development, particularly his impressive and unusually long biceps. He attributed his biceps to an exercise called the "Preacher Curl", invented by Gironda, later known as the "Scott Curl" due to its association with Scott.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: Scott stated in a 1965 "Iron Man" interview that his diet consisted of "a lot of meat, cheese and eggs", coupled with protein supplements. Scott was a popular physique model during the early to mid-1960s, working for photographers Bruce of Los Angeles, Don Whitman (of the Western Photography Guild), and Pat Milo. Milo introduced Scott to a larger audience and helped him hone his posing and photographic persona: the "boy next door". Larry regularly appeared in all of Joe Weider's bodybuilding magazines, including "Mr. America" and "Muscle Builder", also appearing in "Demi Gods," "Muscleboy," "Muscles a Go-Go" and "The Young Physique". As an IFBB member, he wrote exclusively for Joe Weider's publications.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: From 1960 until his first retirement in 1966, Scott was bodybuilding's top superstar. Bodybuilding magazines soon began capitalizing on his clean-cut, all-American image. His popularity become known as "Larry Fever" and reached its apex at the first Mr. Olympia competition in 1965, winning the "jewel"-encrusted crown against Harold Poole. Scott defended his title and won the 1966 Mr. Olympia title, receiving a $1,000 prize.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: News of his retirement at the age of 28 shocked the sport, but he prioritized his second marriage and felt he had done all he could in competitive bodybuilding after two Olympia wins.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: Rod Labbe, a freelance writer and fan, collaborated with Scott on five articles: a two-part interview in "Flex" magazine, two articles in "Ironman", the "Poetry in Motion" article in "MuscleMag International", a promotional article/interview for "Scarlet: the Film Magazine" about American International's "Muscle Beach Party" (1964), with Don Rickles. Five years after his passing, Labbe wrote a Scott tribute article for the March 2019 issue of Muscle & Fitness entitled, "My friend, Larry Scott."


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: Scott retired to Salt Lake City, operating his personal training company "Larry Scott Fitness & Nutrition". The company manufactured and sold custom gym equipment and health supplements. He was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 1999. His last public interview about his life was in 2012 on K-TALK Radio.


title: Larry Scott (bodybuilder)

text: On March 8, 2014, Scott died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Salt Lake City, at the age of 75.


title: Ant Group

text: Ant Group ()"," formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group. The group owns the world's largest mobile (digital) payment platform Alipay, which serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants, with total payment volume (TPV) reaching in June 2020. It is the second largest financial services corporation in the world, behind Visa. In March 2019, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Ant's flagship Tianhong Yu'e Bao money-market fund was the largest in the world, with over 588 million users, or more than a third of China's population, contributing cash to it.


title: Ant Group

text: In October 2020, Ant Group was set to raise US$34.5 billion in the world's largest IPO at the time, valuing the company at US$313 billion. On the eve of the IPO, China stopped the process from moving forward. It was reported that the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping personally scuttled the Ant IPO. On 12 April 2021, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that under the pressure from the Chinese government, Ant Group would be transformed into a financial holding company overseen by China's state-controlled central bank.


title: Ant Group

text: In July 2022, Chinese authorities give a tentative green light to Ant Group to revive its initial public offering plans in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.


title: Ant Group

text: Alipay was rebranded as Ant Group Services on 23 October 2014, and the company changed its name to Ant Group Co., Ltd on 13 July 2020. In 2015, Ant Group raised $4.5 billion in a funding round with investors including China Investment Corp (CIC), CCB Trust, China Life, China Post Group, China Development Bank Capital and Primavera Capital Group. In 2015, the company was valued at about $45 billion. As of 26 April 2016, Ant Group had around 450 million annual active users, with Credit Suisse estimating that 58% of China's online payment transactions went through Alipay. In September 2016, Ant Group bought EyeVerify Inc. and the company was rebranded as Zoloz.


title: Ant Group

text: By late January 2017, Ant Group had a valuation of $60 billion. On 26 January 2017, Ant Group Services Group announced a deal to acquire MoneyGram International for $880 million. In January 2018, the companies decided to terminate the deal after approval was not granted from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States due to U.S. national security concerns. The same month, the Cyberspace Administration of China stated that Ant Group had failed to meet the country's personal data protection standards.


title: Ant Group

text: In September 2017, Ant Group formed a joint venture with Sir Li Ka-shing's CK Hutchison Holdings to launch a digital wallet service in Hong Kong. In June 2018, the company launched a blockchain-powered cash remittance service that will allow real-time cash transfers between Hong Kong and the Philippines.


title: Ant Group

text: On 9 June 2018, the company raised around US$14 billion, which the "Times of India" called "the biggest-ever single fund-raising globally by a private company".


title: Ant Group

text: In November 2019, the company announced to be raising $1 billion for a new fund, with the aim to expand the firm's investment activities in India and Southeast Asia. According to media reports, the fund is meant to provide late-stage funding to startups.


title: Ant Group

text: In 2020, Ant Group intended to complete an initial public offering, aiming to raise $34 billion by listing. This would have been the largest such offering by any company to date, above the $29.4 billion raised by Saudi Aramco as a result of its 2019 offering.


title: Ant Group

text: Due to Ant Group's scale—the company has approximately one billion users in China—and its operations, which include lending services, the company has attracted regulatory scrutiny in the past. The China Securities Regulatory Commission previously imposed new restrictions on money-market funds, a move attributed to the size and growth of Yu'e Bao, an Ant offering. Though the company asserts it does not function as a bank or a financial institution, Chinese banks have voiced their belief that Ant draws deposits away from them, so undermining the banking system. The People's Bank of China requested data from banks that lent through Ant in mid-2020 and the State Administration for Market Regulation informally began an investigation earlier in the year into whether Alipay and WeChat Pay, a Tencent subsidiary, had abused their size to hamper competitors.


title: Ant Group

text: Several days before the IPO was to take place, in October 2020, the company's founder and controlling shareholder, Ma, made negative statements about Chinese regulators and the governing political party, the Chinese Communist Party. Ma criticized regulators for their focus on risk mitigation. Soon after the comments were made, Ma and other senior Ant executives were summoned to a meeting with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange as well as representatives from the country's central bank, the People’s Bank of China. Ant Group issued a statement disclosing that the Ant and government representatives discussed "Views regarding the health and stability of the financial sector".


title: Ant Group

text: After the meeting, and two days before the IPO was set to occur, the offering was suspended by the Shanghai Stock Exchange; the Shanghai Stock Exchange referenced "major issues" as the reasoning behind the suspension. The exchange further indicated that the company no longer conformed with listing requirements. Ant subsequently suspended the Hong Kong listing. The "Wall Street Journal" attributed the suspension to the personal will of Xi, who had become infuriated by Ma's comments, citing "Chinese officials with knowledge of the matter", though these assertions have also been characterized as "rumors". The suspension was unexpected, surprising bankers working on the transaction, the broader financial industry, and consumers prepared to invest in the offering. It has been referred to as "abrupt" and "shocking". Ant began working to address regulator concerns in January 2021, though no public plans for an IPO have been announced as of September 2021.


title: Ant Group

text: Jack Ma retreated from the public eye after the IPO's suspension. Some speculated that Ma had left China altogether. He did not appear in public between October 2020 and January 2021. In January 2021, he spoke in a live-streamed video. In the video, he discussed his commitment to philanthropy and improving quality of life for those in rural China.


title: Ant Group

text: On 4 December 2020, Ant Group's unit and a consortium comprising Greenland Financial Holdings Group, Linklogis Hong Kong Ltd, and Beijing Co-operative Equity Investment Fund Management, have been selected to receive the digital wholesale bank (DWB) licences in Singapore. Ant Group was later ordered by the People’s Bank of China on 26 December 2020 to "rectify" its business and formulate an implementation timetable. The central bank also summoned Ant executives, saying that the Group lacked an effective governance mechanism, defied regulatory compliance requirements and engaged in regulatory arbitrage.


title: Ant Group

text: On 15 January 2021, Ant Group announced that it will overhaul its business structure in accordance with the Chinese central bank and its financial regulators' wishes. State spokesmen announced that the Ant Group's consumer finance branch will be regulated as a financial institution, in lieu of a technology startup.


title: Ant Group

text: In April 2021, Ant Group applied to become a financial holding company under the direction of the Peoples' Bank of China. The move separated Ant Group's consumer lending businesses, credit card-like Huabei and micro-loan provider Jiebei, from Alipay’s other financial offerings with effect from September 2021. This development dismantled the Alipay super app that serves more than 1.2 billion users. Huabei and Jiebei share approximately 500 million users.


title: Ant Group

text: In January 2022, Ant Group launched a new investment advisory service named "Golden Choice Investment Consultants (金选投顾)" in partnership with six financial institutions – Aegon-Industrial Fund, Southern Asset Management, Zhong Ou Asset Management, GF Fund Management, Harvest Wealth, and Caitong Securities. The service was briefly available to all Alipay users before it was taken down less than ten days later as Ant Group does not hold a fund rating license that is required before an entity can assess and publicly share information about the investment prospects of financial instruments.


title: Ant Group

text: In April 2022, the company took over Singapore-based payments firm 2C2P to further digital payment adoption.


title: Ant Group

text: In November 2022, Reuters reported that the People's Bank of China was readying to fine Ant Group around US$1 billion, potentially ending its two-year overhaul.


title: Ant Group

text: Driven by the growing numbers of Chinese tourists around the world, Ant Group has sought to expand its services into Europe and the United States. In Europe, the company had tripled the number of merchants that are accepting the Alipay app, according to the firm's head of Europe division. Partnerships exist between Alipay and various European digital wallet apps, including ePassi (Finland), Vipps (Norway), MOMO (Spain), Pagaqui (Portugal) and Bluecode (Austria).


title: Ant Group

text: On 14 February 2019, Ant Group acquired the British international money transfer services provider WorldFirst for $700 million.


title: Ant Group

text: In March 2019, UK's Barclaycard expanded an agreement that enabled British retailers to accept the Alipay app in their stores.


title: Ant Group

text: By September 2020, it was reported that U.S. authorities are considering restrictions on Ant Group's payment system, with the U.S. State Department recommending that Ant Group be added to the Entity List, but subsequently withdrew plans to sanction the company.


title: Ant Group

text: It operates Alipay, the world's largest mobile and online payments platform as well as Yu’e Bao, formerly the world's largest money-market fund. It also runs Zhima Credit, a third-party credit rating system. As of September 2017, Ant Group unveiled its facial recognition payment technology through its Alipay services.


title: Ant Group

text: In September 2018, the company launched the Ant Group Technology brand for all of its technology products and services.


title: Ant Group

text: In 2015, Alibaba and Ant Group Services Group created online-to-offline local services company Koubei as a joint venture . Ant Group also operates credit payment company Huabei, and owns a 30% stake in the online bank called MYbank.


title: Ant Group

text: In 2015, Ant Group launched Ant Fortune, a wealth management platform. Yu’e Bao is one of the products on the platform. Ant Fortune offers hundreds of products from more than 80 Chinese fund institutions.


title: Ant Group

text: In June 2017, Ant Fortune launched a Fortune Account () service platform that allows financial institutions to publish content and sell their financial products there.


title: Ant Group

text: In October 2018, Ant Group launched the Xianghubao mutual protection plan that attracted 50 million people to sign on in half a year. Operating somewhat like a collective, Xiang Hu Bao has no sign-up charges and participants contribute evenly to payouts of as much as 300,000 yuan when a member falls critically ill. Such products may help fill a yawning gap in medical protection for vulnerable populations in China, as the rate of critical illnesses rises.


title: Ant Group

text: In September 2019, a product within the Alipay app called Ant Forest received a Champions of the Earth award, the United Nation's highest environmental honor, for turning the green activities of half a billion people into real trees planted in some of China's most arid regions. Users are encouraged to record their low-carbon footprint through daily actions, such as taking public transportation or paying utility bills online. For each move, they receive "green energy" points with which they can exchange for the real trees, which they can view in real time via satellite.


title: Ant Group

text: In 2021, Ant Group revealed at the Digital China Summit that it has been cooperating with the People's Bank of China since 2017 to develop and test e-CNY, an official digital currency.


title: Ant Group

text: Ant Group is among the early-stage investors of Megvii, a Beijing-based company known for providing artificial intelligence products to various businesses including Ant itself. In May 2019, Human Rights Watch reported finding Megvii's Face++ code in the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a police data system used by Xinjiang authorities for mass surveillance, particularly in relation to the Uyghur community. Human Rights Watch released a correction to its report in June 2019 stating that Megvii did not appear to have collaborated on IJOP, and that the Face++ code in the app was inoperable. The Trump administration later added Megvii to the Bureau of Industry and Security's Entity List, accusing it of participating in human rights violations in the Chinese government's campaign against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.


title: Ant Group

text: In September 2020, former Google China president and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee said in a public speech that Sinovation Ventures had assisted Megvii in obtaining a large amount of private facial data from Ant Group to “analyze how to enter various industries.” Following Lee's speech, Ant Group denied providing Megvii facial data. Lee later said he “misspoke” on the issue.


title: Ant Group

text: In January 2021, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that China's regulators were trying to make Ant share the troves of personal data in its payment and lifestyle app, Alipay, which is used by over a billion people. The data include consumers' spending habits, borrowing behaviors, and payment histories. According to people familiar with the issue, in the past, Jack Ma had resisted the authorities' attempts to grab the data owned by Ant. In late December 2020, China's central bank criticized Ant for its "defiance of regulatory demands" and asked the company to restructure its business.


title: Ant Group

text: On 15 August 2021, investor and business writer Andy Kessler wrote on "The Wall Street Journal" that "Back when Alibaba was private, Mr. Ma benefited when Chinese regulators and the Chinese Central bank forced a spinout of their payment system, Alipay, basically taking away value from existing Alibaba shareholders, like Yahoo and SoftBank, and giving it to Chinese investors. That was a money heist."


title: Ant Group

text: Whilst there is no direct accusation or evidence that Alibaba office holders lobbied Chinese officials, the Ant IPO prospectus showed complex ownership structure with "Hangzhou Junhan" owning 29.86%, "Hangzhou Junao" owning 20.66%, and Alibaba itself holding 32.65%. Meanwhile, another entity named "Hangzhou Yunbo" controls the top two stakeholders, "Hangzhou Junhan" and "Hangzhou Junao", as their executive and general partner. Jack Ma was "Yunbo"s single largest stakeholder with 34%. Three other Ant officials, Chairman Eric Jing, CEO Simon Hu and non-executive director Jiang Fang, held equal stakes in the remainder of "Yunbo", with 22% each.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The Willoughbys is a 2020 computer-animated comedy film directed by Kris Pearn and co-directed by Rob Lodermeier. Based on the book of the same name by Lois Lowry, the film's screenplay was written by Pearn and Mark Stanleigh, and stars the voices of Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Seán Cullen, and Ricky Gervais, who also narrates the film and follows four kids (including the twins) trying to find new parents to replace their self-centered and neglectful ones.


title: The Willoughbys

text: "The Willoughbys" was released on April 22, 2020, with 37 million people viewing the movie. It received positive reviews for its animation, acting, story, and soundtrack by Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as Cara's song, "I Choose". It has received six Annie Award nominations, including Best Animated Feature.


title: The Willoughbys

text: A cat narrates the story of the Willoughby siblings: Tim, Jane, and twins both named Barnaby. The Willoughby family legacy has an accomplished history, but the children's parents only care about each other. They despise all children and deprive the siblings of love, food, and music. Tim longs for his family's past glory and unity.


title: The Willoughbys

text: Jane discovers an orphaned baby on the family's doorstep. She brings the baby inside despite Tim's warnings, and the baby wreaks havoc. The Willoughby parents throw their children out of the house, forbidding them to return unless they get rid of the baby. The children follow a rainbow to the doorstep of Commander Melanoff's candy factory, and believing it to be a suitable home, name the baby "Ruth" and leave her there. On their way home, the siblings hatch a plan to improve their lives by getting rid of their parents. The siblings put together a vacation brochure full of deadly destinations that could potentially kill their parents.


title: The Willoughbys

text: Their parents are excited by the brochure and leave immediately. Tim tries to take care of his siblings alone, but flounders until the nanny hired by their parents arrives. The nanny, Linda, proves to be much warmer and more caring than their parents, and Jane and the Barnabys warm up to her almost immediately; Tim, however, remains distrustful. When Linda learns about Ruth, she rushes to the candy factory with the children in tow. Melanoff explains that he originally intended to hand the baby over to the Department of Orphan Services, but grew attached to her; Linda is assured that Ruth will be well cared for in the factory.


title: The Willoughbys

text: Meanwhile, the Willoughby parents have somehow survived several hazardous destinations, but soon discover they're out of money. Unwilling to return home, they decide to sell their house in order to further finance their vacation. They tell Linda by voice message, and Linda assures them she will take care of the children. Tim steals Linda's cell phone and finds the voice messages. He mistakenly assumes Linda means to dispose of the children, and secretly calls Orphan Services to report her.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The Willoughby parents hire a realtor to sell the house to potential buyers, but the children scare off all but one family. Linda scares the last family off for them. Tim finally realizes how much Linda cares. However, Orphan Services arrive in response to Tim's call. Heartbroken by Tim's betrayal, Linda leaves in tears, and the Willoughby siblings are forcibly taken away and placed in separate foster homes until their parents' return. Tim repeatedly runs away from his well-meaning foster families and runs to the Willoughby home just in time to watch its demolition. Orphan Services decides to detain him in a cell at their Headquarters.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The narrator cat finally intervenes by giving Tim's helmet to Linda. She decides to reunite the children. Disguised as a janitor, Linda sneaks into Tim's cell, reconciles with him, and breaks him out with Orphan Services in pursuit. Linda then retrieves and reunites the other Willoughby children.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The children decide to go back to their parents so Orphan Services will leave them alone. With the help of Linda, Ruth, and Melanoff, the Willoughbys build a dirigible to rescue them from the "Unclimbable Alps" in Sveetzerlünd, a parody of Switzerland, which is the final and deadliest destination on their parents' trip. The siblings decide to take the dirigible and leave the adults and Ruth behind. As they reach their destination, they follow a trail of their mother's yarn to the top of the mountain, where they find their parents nearly frozen to death. The siblings and the cat save them. The children confess that they sent them away but hope to reunite as a family. However, their parents are selfish as always, stealing the dirigible and abandoning the children. However, not knowing how to steer the dirigible, Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby crash into the ocean.


title: The Willoughbys

text: With no way off the mountain, the siblings start to freeze to death, with no way down back, Jane sings for them. Thankfully, Ruth, Melanoff and Linda followed the dirigible and heard Jane's song, finding the siblings just in time. Now officially orphans, the Willoughbys are adopted by Linda and Melanoff, living much happier lives together with Ruth and the Cat at Melanoff's candy factory. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby are shown to have survived the dirigible crash and are stranded at sea, whereupon they are attacked by a shark.


title: The Willoughbys

text: In November 2015, Bron Studios acquired the animated film rights to Lois Lowry's book "The Willoughbys", and hired Kris Pearn to adapt it into a screenplay with Adam Wood to direct the film, with Aaron L. Gilbert and Luke Carroll producing. In April 2017, Ricky Gervais was cast in the film to play the narrator as well as one of the characters and it was reported that Pearn would co-direct the film with Cory Evans. The screenplay however was replaced by Pearn and Mark Stanleigh with a story by Pearn who also executive produced the film. In June 2017, the cast was expanded to include, Terry Crews, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, and Seán Cullen. Will Forte and Alessia Cara (in her film debut) also provided their voices, with Netflix set to distribute the film.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The film was produced at the Bron Animation studio in Burnaby, British Columbia. The characters in the film were designed by character designer Craig Kellman, who designed characters for DreamWorks Animation’s "Madagascar" and Sony Pictures Animation’s "Hotel Transylvania", as well as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s "The Addams Family".


title: The Willoughbys

text: The music in the film was composed and conducted by Mark Mothersbaugh, who previously worked with Pearn on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2". The original song "I Choose" (performed by Alessia Cara, who plays the voice of Jane in the film) was released independently by Def Jam Recordings.


title: The Willoughbys

text: The film was digitally released on April 22, 2020, by Netflix. It was viewed at least in-part by 37 million households over its first month of release.


title: The Willoughbys

text: On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "An appealing animated adventure whose silliness is anchored in genuine emotion, "The Willoughbys" offers fanciful fun the entire family can enjoy." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating a "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Willoughbys

text: Renee Schonfeld of Common Sense Media, gave the film four stars out of five, noting that the film is a "wonderfully whimsical tale with dark themes [that] is softened by warmth, humor, and stellar performances by talented comic actors who brighten the already inventive and luminous animation." "The Hollywood Reporter"'s David Rooney said that "the Netflix animated family comedy-adventure has an oddball charm that works surprisingly well." Natalia Winkelman of "The New York Times" said that the film "is charming on a moment-to-moment basis. Running gags, like how the nanny triggers a car pileup whenever she crosses the street, help to round out an unruly world. The composer Mark Mothersbaugh contributes a jazzy score and original song (performed by Cara) that punctuate the giddy mood. Though it tends to feel disjointed as a whole, 'The Willoughbys' thrives when it embraces its grim plot and lets mischief reign."


title: 1989 World Series

text: The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants. The Series ran from October 14 through October 28, with the Athletics sweeping the Giants in four games. It was the first World Series sweep since 1976, when the Cincinnati Reds swept the New York Yankees.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This marked the fourth World Series matchup, and first since 1913, between the two franchises. The previous three matchups occurred when the Giants were in New York and the Athletics resided in Philadelphia. The then New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series four games to one, the Athletics defeating the Giants in the 1911 World Series four games to two, and then again in the 1913 Fall Classic four games to one. The series would be historic in other ways as well: the 76-year gap between matchups was the longest in World Series history, a record this World Series would hold until 2018 when the Red Sox and Dodgers met for their first World Series meeting in 102 years; it also marked the first time two franchises had faced off in the World Series after having once played each other when both were based in a different city.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Fay Vincent, who had just taken over as Commissioner of Baseball after the sudden death of his predecessor Bart Giamatti in September, presided over his first World Series and dedicated it to his predecessor's memory.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This Series was also known as the "Bay Bridge Series," "BART Series," "Battle of the Bay," and "Earthquake Series" as the two participant cities lie on opposite sides of San Francisco Bay, connected by the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that occurred before the start of Game 3. It was the first cross-town World Series (involving two teams from the same metropolitan area) since 1956, and only the third such series that did not involve New York City (the 1906 and 1944 World Series, which featured matchups between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns respectively, were the others).


title: 1989 World Series

text: On October 17 at approximately 5:04 pm, prior to the start of Game 3, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, causing severe damage to both Oakland and San Francisco (specifically the Cypress Street Viaduct in the former and the Marina District in the latter) as well as the Bay Bridge's upper deck. Candlestick Park in San Francisco suffered damage to its upper deck as pieces of concrete fell from the baffle at the top of the stadium and the power was knocked out. The game was postponed out of concerns for the safety of everyone in the ballpark as well as the loss of power, with Vincent later saying that he did not know when play would resume. The series resumed on October 27 and finished the next day.


title: 1989 World Series

text: At the time, October 28 was the latest end date ever for a World Series, surpassing the 1986 World Series by one day, even though the 1986 series went the maximum seven games and the 1989 series only lasted the minimum four games. Had the Series run the full seven games, a Major League Baseball game would have been played in November for the first time in history.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The San Francisco Giants won the NL West division by three games over the San Diego Padres, then defeated the Chicago Cubs four games to one in the National League Championship Series. The Oakland Athletics won the AL West division by seven games over the Kansas City Royals, then defeated the Toronto Blue Jays four games to one in the American League Championship Series.


title: 1989 World Series

text: It was the Giants' first World Series appearance since , while the Athletics were playing in their second straight Fall Classic following the Series.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Game 3 was originally slated for October 17 at 5:35 pm; however, it was postponed when an earthquake occurred at 5:04 pm.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Prior to Game 1, a tribute to late Commissioner Bart Giamatti was held; Giamatti's son Marcus threw out the first pitch, and the Whiffenpoofs from Yale University (Giamatti's alma mater) sang the national anthem. Dave Stewart, the Athletics' ace, took on Giants pitcher Scott Garrelts in Game 1 of the Bay Bridge series.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Oakland took the lead in the bottom of the second when Dave Henderson walked, advanced to second on a Terry Steinbach single, and scored on another single by Tony Phillips that moved Steinbach up to third. Walt Weiss then sent a soft ground ball toward first, but Giants first baseman (and NLCS MVP) Will Clark threw the ball low and to the right of catcher Terry Kennedy. Steinbach knocked the ball out of Kennedy's mitt, scoring the second run of the inning. Kennedy was charged with an error, and Phillips advanced to second. Rickey Henderson then drove in Phillips on a single to right field; the second inning ended with Oakland leading 3–0.


title: 1989 World Series

text: A's designated hitter Dave Parker tattooed a home run to lead off the third off of Garrelts, and Weiss added a lead off home run in the fourth. Oakland starter Stewart dominated the Giants, allowing five hits in a complete game, handing the A's a one-game edge in the Series. "We ran into a buzz saw", Clark said of Stewart's pitching.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Little League World Series MVP and future NHL star Chris Drury threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Game 2. Oakland starter Mike Moore took on Giant Rick Reuschel.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Oakland got off to a fast start; Rickey Henderson led off the bottom of the first with a walk. Henderson promptly stole second, and scored one pitch later when Carney Lansford hit a double to right field. The Giants scored their first run of the Series in the top of the third; José Uribe reached first on a fielder's choice, advanced to third via a Brett Butler single, and scored on a Robby Thompson sacrifice fly.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The A's regained the lead in the bottom of the 4th when Dave Parker drove a line shot off the wall that was both an inch from being foul and an inch from being a home run. Jose Canseco, who drew a walk earlier that inning, scored on the play. Parker stood at the plate for a moment to watch the flight of the ball, and started to run as soon as the ball hit the wall; Giants right fielder Candy Maldonado appeared to throw Parker out at second, but second base umpire Dutch Rennert called Parker safe. After Dave Henderson walked and Mark McGwire struck out, Terry Steinbach hit a three-run home run off Reuschel to left field, scoring both Parker and Henderson. The Giants had no answer for Oakland's relievers, and the A's won 5–1 and took a 2–0 lead in the Series.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake struck on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Game 3 was scheduled to start at 5:35 p.m. at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and thousands of people were already in the stadium when the quake hit. It was the first major earthquake in the United States to be broadcast by live television. Experts credit the timing of the Series as a lucky break that prevented massive loss of life in the region; key in reducing the loss of life was the fact that many people on both sides of the bay had left work early or were staying late to participate in after-work group viewings and parties, reducing the traffic that would otherwise have been on the collapsed freeways at 5:04 p.m. on a Tuesday (indicating that 42 people had died in the collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland). A Goodyear Blimp that was covering the telecast was used to coordinate emergency efforts.


title: 1989 World Series

text: At the time the earthquake hit, ABC's crew was in the booth as Tim McCarver was presenting a highlight package. The earthquake hit while the video was playing and temporarily knocked the feed out, and just before it was knocked out Al Michaels could be heard on air saying "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth-" with the feed cutting out just before he finished. The feed ended up being replaced with a green ABC Sports "World Series" telop graphic as used for technical difficulties. Michaels, McCarver, and third man in the booth Jim Palmer grabbed for whatever they could to brace themselves and grabbed on to one another's legs, leaving all three men with thigh bruises. The audio was restored, first to be heard was the sound of the fans cheering, then Michaels began talking over a screen bumper until the video was restored jokingly saying that the earthquake was the "greatest opening in the history of television, bar none!"


title: 1989 World Series

text: By contrast, the broadcasting team in the CBS Radio booth next door, consisting of Jack Buck, Johnny Bench, and John Rooney, was off the air when the earthquake started because their show was in a pretaped segment being played from New York. Bench ran to a spot underneath a steel grate, to which Buck later quipped, "If he moved that fast when he played, he'd never hit into a double play. I never saw anyone move that fast in my life."


title: 1989 World Series

text: The ESPN live coverage of the Series (ESPN and ABC at the time produced separate broadcasts) was interrupted during then-television analyst Joe Torre's pre-game report on the field. Their equipment van was the only one with a generator, and they continued their live coverage with Chris Berman and Bob Ley.


title: 1989 World Series

text: In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, ABC aired a rerun of "Roseanne" (and later, "The Wonder Years") before Ted Koppel began anchoring news coverage from Washington, with Michaels acting as a de facto reporter. The Goodyear Blimp (which was already aloft for the game) provided video of structural damage and fires within the city. The ABC opening for this telecast (leading up to Al Michaels informing the viewers of the earthquake) was used at the beginning of a 1990 television movie (documenting the Loma Prieta earthquake) called "After the Shock".


title: 1989 World Series

text: As for the Series itself, Fay Vincent decided to postpone Game 3 (although he did not tell anyone before doing so, resulting in an umpire protest, though the original reason for the postponement was loss of power in the stadium, concern about possible structural damage, and the danger of possible aftershocks) initially for five days, resulting in the longest delay in World Series history. It was postponed for another five days (until October 27) because of delays in restoring transmission links. Then San Francisco mayor Art Agnos wanted to wait a month before resuming it, with Vincent responding to Agnos by telling him that he might move it elsewhere if the delay would be that long. With that, Vincent quickly had several other National and American League parks put on standby, including Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago, The Kingdome in Seattle, The Astrodome in Houston, or Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium in New York City. (Moving the game to the opponents' stadium was not an option, because the Oakland A's were also based in the SF Bay area. Also, it was noted in the news media that there were three major league stadiums in southern California.)


title: 1989 World Series

text: Players for the Oakland Athletics returned home, but had to travel via State Route 237 in San Jose, adding an extra 90 minutes due to the collapse of the Bay Bridge and the I-880 Cypress Street Viaduct. Not long after returning, Jose Canseco (still in full uniform) and his wife Esther were spotted filling up their car at a self-service gas station. As noted in his later book "", Canseco noted that someone wrote an article portraying him as chauvinistic forcing his wife to pump the gas, but that in reality, she told him to let her do it because if people saw him in his full uniform, it would cause a scene.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The earthquake would affect the National Anthem performances for the games at Candlestick Park as well. Stevie Wonder, who was slated to play the National Anthem on his harmonica at Game 3 on October 17, pulled out days following the earthquake, and in his place Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, who had been slated to perform at Game 4 on October 18, would sing the National Anthem when Game 3 was finally played on October 27.


title: 1989 World Series

text: During the ten-day delay, Candlestick Park was inspected, and found to have only minor damage. This was quickly repaired, and the stadium was deemed safe to use. At the start of Game 3, emergency responders who had aided during the earthquake, including police officers and firefighters, were honored and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The starters were the Game 1 starters, Stewart and Garrelts. The ten-day delay due to the earthquake allowed both staff aces to start.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Dave Henderson just missed hitting three home runs for the A's as his first inning shot bounced off the top of the wall for a double.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Giants catcher Bill Bathe became the fifth National League player in World Series history to hit a home run in his very first at-bat.


title: 1989 World Series

text: When Game 3 was originally scheduled for October 17, the scheduled starting pitchers were Bob Welch for the A's and Don Robinson for the Giants. Meanwhile, Ken Oberkfell was slated to start at third base for the Giants, with Matt Williams moving over to shortstop instead of the benched José Uribe. Also, Pat Sheridan was slated to take over for Candy Maldonado in right field for the Giants. Maldonado told ESPN that he was in the clubhouse getting ready when the earthquake hit. The first person he saw in the midst of all of this was his teammate, Robinson, who told Maldonado that he sensed that an earthquake was occurring. For Oakland, Ron Hassey was slated to be the starting catcher for Game 3 in place of Terry Steinbach, as Hassey was at the time Welch's personal catcher.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This game set a record for most combined HRs hit in a World Series game (7) as well as tying a record for most HRs hit by a single team (5) in a World Series game (the New York Yankees won Game 4 of the 1928 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, which like this series, would end in a sweep). This record for combined HRs in a World Series game would endure until Game 2 in 2017, in which the Astros and Dodgers combined for 8 HRs.


title: 1989 World Series

text: At the time, October 28 was the latest end date ever for a World Series, even though the series only lasted the minimum four games. (The 1981 Series, which went six games, had also ended on October 28. This record was tied again in 1995, and has since been surpassed several times, beginning with the terrorism-delayed 2001 Series, which ran from October 27 through November 4. The World Series now regularly concludes at the end of October or beginning of November due to the addition of the Division Series and Wild Card Games to the postseason.) After Nell Carter sang the National Anthem, Willie Mays (who was initially scheduled to throw out the first pitch on October 17 and was about to be interviewed by ABC's Joe Morgan when the earthquake hit) threw out the ceremonial first pitch.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The A's led from the first batter of the game on as Rickey Henderson's home run set the tone. Kevin Mitchell's homer would bring the Giants closer as they cut an 8–0 deficit to 8–6 in two innings. But it would prove to be too little too late for San Francisco as they would lose 9–6.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This was also Candlestick Park's final World Series game. The Giants' four subsequent National League pennants have come since their move to Oracle Park, in 2002, 2010, 2012 and 2014 (with the last three appearances also ending in World Series championships).


title: 1989 World Series

text: Out of respect for the Loma Prieta earthquake victims, the Oakland Athletics chose not to celebrate their World Series victory with champagne, as is normally customary for the winning team in the World Series.


title: 1989 World Series

text: ABC play-by-play man Al Michaels, who spent three years in San Francisco as an announcer for the San Francisco Giants, was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting after giving an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the earthquake at Candlestick Park.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This would be the last World Series that ABC would televise from start to finish (and also the last they would produce themselves), and Game 4 was the last MLB game on ABC until July 1994. The television rights would move exclusively to CBS the following year (ABC had shared coverage with NBC since 1976 up until the end of the 1989 season). ABC would next televise a World Series in 1995, but only broadcast Games 1, 4, and 5 (the other games were covered by NBC, who had a joint venture with ABC and MLB called The Baseball Network).


title: 1989 World Series

text: Due in part to the earthquake and subsequent interruption of play, as well as the four-game sweep by the A's, ABC only drew an overall Nielsen rating of 16.4 for the Series. This was the first World Series since the introduction of prime-time games in 1971 to draw a rating of less than 20.


title: 1989 World Series

text: As previously mentioned, CBS Radio also covered the Series. Jack Buck returned for his seventh and last World Series as the radio voice for CBS, as he was to move to the television side the next year. He was joined by Johnny Bench as his analyst, who replaced Bill White when he was appointed to replace Giamatti as president of the National League earlier in the year. Buck was replaced by Vin Scully the next year, who made his return to CBS Radio following NBC Sports' loss of television rights to CBS. Bench covered four more World Series for CBS Radio with the 1993 series being his last.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The A's would return to the World Series the following season, making it three years in a row. However, they were unsuccessful in defending their championship as the Cincinnati Reds swept them in the 1990 World Series. Oakland has not returned to the World Series since then and has only made two appearances in the American League Championship Series—losing in 1992 to the Toronto Blue Jays and in 2006 to the Detroit Tigers—and a total of 12 times in the postseason (1992, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2020) since the 1990 Series. At the time of the 1989 World Series, the Oakland franchise had not seen a World Series win since .


title: 1989 World Series

text: The Giants, meanwhile, failed to repeat as National League Champions and would not return to the playoffs until 1997, when they were swept by the Florida Marlins in the NLDS. The Giants would not return to the World Series until , when they lost a seven-game series to the Anaheim Angels after holding a 3–2 series lead. It took the Giants until 2010 to get back to the World Series, and they won their first world championship since 1954, when the team was still located in New York, by defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. In , the Giants would go back to the World Series and defeat the Detroit Tigers in a four-game sweep, and in they would beat the Kansas City Royals in seven games to capture their third World Series crown in five seasons.


title: 1989 World Series

text: On the A's, players Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco would later play for other teams. McGwire would be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997, where he would beat Roger Maris' single-season home run record in 1998 and retire as a Cardinal in 2001. Canseco was traded during the 1992 season to the Texas Rangers and after that bounced around from team to team including a return to Oakland in 1997. He would later win the 2000 World Series with the New York Yankees. Canseco retired in 2001 after a stint with the Chicago White Sox. Manager Tony La Russa remained with the A's until 1995, when he resigned to take the managerial position in St. Louis, where he again got the chance to manage McGwire. La Russa would remain with the Cardinals through 2011 after having led the team to three World Series and two world championships. In 2021, he began a two-year stint as manager of the Chicago White Sox.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Giants manager Roger Craig (affectionately known as "Humm Baby") was fired after 1992 season and replaced by Dusty Baker, who managed the team to their next World Series. The final member of the 1989 team, Matt Williams, was traded to the Cleveland Indians after the 1996 season in a trade that brought future Giants star Jeff Kent to the team. Williams would eventually win a World Series as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, and retired in 2003.


title: 1989 World Series

text: Kevin Mitchell would never regain the form that helped him win the National League MVP award in 1989, and after his production declined in the next two seasons he was traded to the Seattle Mariners in the 1991 offseason. Brett Butler would leave after one more season with the Giants, going to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Wins leader Rick Reuschel was gone after the following season, retiring in 1991. Finally, Will Clark was let go by the Giants after 1993 due to a decline in production thanks in large part to injuries that kept him out of the lineup for much of the previous three seasons. Clark signed with the Texas Rangers and despite not being able to escape the injury bug, he was a productive member of the team for the next five seasons. Clark retired following the 2000 season, where he made one last trip to the postseason as a member of La Russa's Cardinals.


title: 1989 World Series

text: On June 13, 2009, immediately prior to the second game of the interleague regular season meeting between the Giants and A's, the Giants honored 27 members of their 1989 team.


title: 1989 World Series

text: The A's victory continued a string of success for any Bay Area-based professional sports team. The San Francisco 49ers of the NFL continued its '80s dynasty by winning Super Bowl XXIII and XXIV in between the Athletics' World Series triumph. The next championship for the city of Oakland came in 2015, when the Golden State Warriors of the NBA won the 2015 NBA Finals. Later, the Golden State Warriors would win the 2017 and 2018 NBA Finals, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers.


title: 1989 World Series

text: This would be the first time that the World Series ended in the last week of October, until the 2001 World Series when the 9/11 attacks delayed the NFL and MLB games for a week, and caused the World Series to end in November. The 1981 World Series also finished on October 28.


title: Bangui

text: Bangui () (or Bangî in Sango, formerly written Bangi in English) is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic. It was established as a French outpost in 1889 and named after its location on the northern bank of the Ubangi River (); the Ubangi itself was named from the Bobangi word for the "rapids" located beside the settlement, which marked the end of navigable water north from Brazzaville. The majority of the population of the Central African Republic lives in the western parts of the country, in Bangui and the surrounding area.


title: Bangui

text: The city forms an autonomous commune ("commune autonome") of the Central African Republic which is surrounded by the Ombella-M'Poko prefecture. With an area of , the commune is the smallest high-level administrative division in the country, but the highest in terms of population. it had an estimated population of 889,231.


title: Bangui

text: The city consists of eight urban districts ("arrondissements"), 16 groups ("groupements") and 205 neighbourhoods ("quartiers"). As the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui acts as an administrative, trade, and commercial centre. The National Assembly, government buildings, banks, foreign enterprises and embassies, hospitals, hotels, main markets and the Ngaragba Central Prison are all located here. Bangui manufactures textiles, food products, beer, shoes and soap. Its Notre-Dame Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangui. The city is also home to the University of Bangui, inaugurated in 1970. It is also served by the Bangui M'Poko International Airport.


title: Bangui

text: Archaeological studies in and around Bangui have yielded at least 26 ancient Iron Age sites that contain many metallurgical tools and objects, illuminating the pre-European history of the city and surrounding area. The archaeological sites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on 11 April 2006 in the Cultural category. The site closest to Bangui is Pendere-Sengue, from Independence Avenue, where archaeologists and conservation agencies have carried out studies. It is a paleo-metallurgical site where several thousand shards of ceramics, iron tools, pottery, and an iron spatula weighing have been unearthed. Its dating, compared with similar sites in Nigeria and Sudan, could be close to the 9th century BC.


title: Bangui

text: Bangui was founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac on 26 June 1889, in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo, the present-day Congo (Brazzaville). The original site was south of the Ubangi rapids. Its territory was organized first into the territory of the Upper Ubangi ("") and then as the separate colony of Ubangi-Shari. The initial capitals of these areas were at les Abiras and Fort de Possel further upstream, but the rapids at Bangui blocked them from direct communication along the river and caused the settlement there to grow in importance until, in 1906, it was chosen as the new headquarters for the French administration. Bangui retained its importance as a military and administrative centre when the colony was folded into French Equatorial Africa and under both Vichy and Free French control during World War II. The French operated a radio transmitter in Bangui, which was described in 1932 as "the most remote radio station in Africa".


title: Bangui

text: The colony of Ubangi-Shari received its autonomy in 1958 as the Central African Republic and this became independent from France in 1960. In 1970, President Jean-Bédel Bokassa inaugurated the University of Bangui. He established the national airline Air Centrafrique the following year and ordered the construction of two new luxury hotels in Bangui. With tensions mounting between Bangui and Paris as a result of Bokassa's uncontrollable expenditures, western banks refused to lend him any more money. Relations with the French worsened still further in April 1974, when Brigette Miroux's body was discovered in a hotel room in Bangui. It was reported in the French media that she had been Bokassa's mistress and that he was responsible for her murder. As a result, Bokassa banned imports of French newspapers and assumed control of the Agence France-Presse office in Bangui. By 1975, Bangui had a population of 300,723.


title: Bangui

text: In March 1981, widespread violence took place in Bangui following elections, after Operation Caban led the French to drop Bokassa (who had begun to call himself Emperor Bokassa I), and replaced him with David Dacko. Opponents of the President met in Bangui and were forced to flee the country. After returning voluntarily to Bangui in the autumn of 1986, Bokassa went on trial. Initially faced with the death penalty, in February 1988 he was instead sentenced to life imprisonment. His successor was General André Kolingba, army chief of staff of Dacko's army, who took over control from the local French military on 1 September 1981 under the pretext that the country was heading towards civil war. Although he attempted to combat corruption and control the national economy, he was unable to achieve his reforms. By the middle of the 1980s the country's economic situation had deteriorated as 80% of the revenue went towards meeting the salaries of the staff.