title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 8 March, the count of cases in the state rose to 484. Of these, 277 were in Heinsberg. Bochum recorded its fourth case after a woman tested positive after returning from a holiday in South Tyrol, Italy. She went into quarantine at home. A 44-year-old Münster resident tested positive and underwent quarantine with his family. Düsseldorf confirmed its fourth case, a man who had contact with individuals in Heinsberg. All cases in Düsseldorf were reported to be asymptomatic, or with mild symptoms. There were six new infections in Erkrath, Mettmann district. An additional three people were infected with the virus in Bergkamen, Unna district. They are believed to have come into contact with an infected person during a visit to Hamburg.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 9 March, the first COVID-19 deaths in Germany, an 89-year-old woman in Essen and a 78-year-old man in Heinsberg, were reported.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: By the evening of 10 March, the count of cases in the state rose to 648. All mass events in North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 1000 participants were banned with immediate effect.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 11 March, the number of positive cases in North Rhine-Westphalia increased to 801, including three deaths.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In September, the city of Hamm became a hotspot after the obligation to wear masks and to keep distance had been ignored at three events with some 500 guests surrounding a Turkish wedding in early September. By 24 September, some 179 individuals from that wedding were described as "acute infected" by the local government. The number of infections per 100,000 citizens rose to 100 and new restrictions were introduced: Masks would have to be worn in schools for upper secondary education, events with more than 25 people would have to file an application and with 50 up to 150 participants, a concept for infection prevention would be required. On 6 October some 300 infected were linked to the wedding.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In October, the city of Cologne presented its #diesmalnicht (English: #notthistime) campaign discouraging gatherings, parades and similar hazardous behaviour for the commencement of the Cologne Carnival at 11:11 a.m. on 11 November 2020. Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker announced that there would be a ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol outside of restaurants and pubs on 11 November 2020, with many establishments voluntarily remaining closed or not selling alcohol on that date.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 26 February, a 41-year-old soldier who worked in Cologne-Wahn military airport and had attended a carnival event in Gangelt with the 47-year-old patient from North Rhine-Westphalia was admitted to Bundeswehr Central Hospital, Koblenz, the first case in Rhineland-Palatinate.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 February, a 32-year-old man from Kaiserslautern, who had been in Iran, tested positive and was admitted to Westpfalz-Klinikum.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 10 March 2020, Saxony-Anhalt reported eight confirmed cases of COVID-19, making it the last federal state to be affected by the disease. As of 26 March, the subdivisions of Jessen and Schweinitz in the municipality of Jessen (Elster) are under quarantine, with no one apart from emergency workers allowed in or out. The cause is reported to be an increased number of COVID-19 infections in a retirement home there.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In late March 2020, a group of patients from Lombardy in Italy and the border region of Alsace in France were treated in Germany.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 1 February 2020, around 90 German citizens left Wuhan on a flight arranged by the German government. Upon arrival, they were quarantined in Rhineland-Palatinate for 14 days.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 2 February, two of the arrivals from China tested positive and were moved from the quarantine location in Germersheim to an isolation unit at the University Hospital Frankfurt.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The first case of what was later named the Alpha variant was confirmed by authorities on 24 December 2020. It was detected in a woman who had been travelling by plane from London to Frankfurt.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 21 January 2021, an analysis by the Berlin Charité hospital of a coronavirus sample from a patient in a recent outbreak in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was published. The report said that, contrary to initial concerns, the sample did not show a new mutation, but rather a variant of the virus that had first been detected in March 2020. Up to the time of the report, 66 patients and staff at a hospital in Germisch-Partenkirchen had tested positive for that variant.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The first case in Germany of the Beta variant was confirmed by authorities on 22 January 2021 in a traveller who had arrived at Frankfurt airport from Brazil one day earlier. He showed no symptoms. Also on 22 January, the total death toll in Germany crossed the 50,000 mark, according to the Robert Koch Institute.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 24 April 2021, Germany banned flights from India with effect from 26 April, due to concern about the Delta variant that had emerged in that country and was suspected to be responsible for the steep rise in COVID-19 cases there. Germans and foreigners with German residence permit, among others, would be exempt upon presentation of a negative test result before entry; a 14-day mandatory quarantine would still be required. As of 23 April, there were 21 cases of infections with the variant reported in Germany.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 7 July 2021, the RKI announced that, based on data from 21 to 27 June, the Delta variant had become the dominant strain, making up 59 per cent of newly reported infections within that week.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: After their emergence, the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants successively went on to become the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 9 November 2020, the German vaccination commission STIKO, an independent advisory group which is part of the RKI, published a position paper jointly with the German Ethics Council and the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences on how access to a future COVID-19 vaccine should be regulated, given that sufficient quantities of such a vaccine would not immediately be available to everybody willing to undergo vaccination. The document highlighted the need to comply with medical, legal and ethical principles, and urged for the prioritisation scheme to be made transparent to the public.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 18 December, Health Minister Jens Spahn unveiled the government vaccination plan at a press conference. He warned that "we will have to live with this virus for a long time yet." The plan deviated from a STIKO proposal published the previous day in that it subdivided the population into three groups, instead of five as proposed by STIKO; and it allowed for priorisation within each of the groups, which Spahn defended against criticism from general practitioners and police as "allow[ing] a certain flexibility on the ground".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The first 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were delivered to Germany's 16 states on 26 December. The state of Saxony-Anhalt started vaccinations the same day, one day before the official start. The first to receive the vaccine were German residents over the age of 80, as well as caregivers and hospital staff who were considered to be at particular risk.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: A first batch of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, of about 63,000 doses, arrived in Lower Saxony on 11 January 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: By early January 2021, criticism was mounting over the slow progress of the vaccination program. The government tasked the RKI with investigating if, as in other countries, the second jab could be postponed in order to use available doses for more people. On 8 January, the German Health Ministry announced that regulators of the European Medicines Agency had approved the extraction of six, instead of five, doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from each vial, and that this practice would be immediately adopted in Germany.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Production issues hampered the rollout of vaccines in the European Union and consequently also in Germany, as the country had ordered its vaccines through the bloc. On 22 January, it transpired that AstraZeneca would, after the expected approval of its vaccine by the European Union on 29 January, only be able to deliver 31 million doses, instead of the agreed 80 million doses. There were also difficulties reported with the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. AstraZeneca said on 31 January that it would supply 9 million additional doses during the first quarter, while BioNTech said that its new production plant in Marburg would allow them to increase their supply to the European Union from the initially planned 1.3 billion to 2 billion.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 3 February, Spahn said that he expected that citizens would be able to choose between the three EU-approved vaccines in a few months. He flagged that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine could be produced in Germany. Spahn had said in late January that Germany would be open to the adoption of vaccines from Russia and China after EU approval, provided that they were safe and effective.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: By 10 February, the number of second vaccinations – two vaccinations being necessary for each of the three vaccines approved as of that date – had risen to above 1.1 million, comprising about 1.32 per cent of the population. Difficulties with vaccine delivery had prompted authorities to retain vaccines for use in the second vaccination and consequently, a decrease in the daily number of first vaccinations.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 15 March, Germany temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine "as a precaution" according to the Health Ministry, with Health Minister Spahn saying that the risk of blood clots developing after administration of the vaccine was low but could not be ruled out. While the German Medical Association supported the decision, others including epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach criticised it. Vaccinations with AstraZeneca resumed on 19 March after the European Medicines Agency deemed the vaccine "safe and effective".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 30 March, on recommendations of Germany's vaccine panel, the use of AstraZeneca was restricted to patients 60 and older, except for patients for whom a COVID-19 infection was expected to pose a high risk, and who additionally had agreed to take the vaccine despite the small risk of serious side effects. The Vaccination Commission revised this on 22 April to allow for use in younger ages, subject to their consent to medical advice about the risks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 8 April, Spahn said that as the European Commission was not intending to buy the Sputnik V vaccine for the entire bloc, Germany would enter exclusive negotiations with Russia, in spite of an agreement of the bloc in early 2021 to shun exclusive negotiations with suppliers. Any purchases would be subject to approval from the European Medicines Agency.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 6 May, the AstraZeneca vaccine was made available to all adults. Previously the vaccination campaign had considerably gained speed. On 10 May, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was likewise made generally available. As with the AstraZeneca vaccine, a prior consultation about the risks was mandated for under 60-year olds.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Rüdiger von Kries, a member of the vaccination commission STIKO, said on 25 May that, as "practically nothing" was known about long-term adverse effects of vaccinations on 12- to 15-year-old children and adolescents, STIKO would likely recommend them only for children with other risk factors. On 10 June, STIKO made such a limited recommendation, while also saying that healthy teenagers may also be vaccinated with the consent of themselves, their parents, and doctors. In explaining the recommendation, which was more restrictive than that at EU level, STIKO head Thomas Mertens cited the concerns of von Kries, adding that very children fell ill with COVID-19 as opposed to older people. In the light of new safety data from the United States and new research on the infection risk for children and adolescents in the age range from 12 to 17 years, STIKO updated its guidance on 16 August to include a recommendation for vaccination for that age range.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: A digital vaccination pass was rolled out on 10 June. Health Minister Spahn announced that day that the pass was expected to be available to everyone in Germany who is fully vaccinated, by the end of June; and that it was planned to make it an acceptable proof of vaccination status also in other countries.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 5 August, it was reported that Germany, along with France and Israel, would give booster doses to immunocompromised patients, the very elderly and nursing home residents from September. In response to recent criticism from WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to halt boosters until at least the end of September due to global inequity in vaccine supply, the German health ministry said that it would donate at least 30 million vaccine doses to poorer countries and "support the vaccination of as many people in the world as possible".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: A study by the Robert Koch Institute published on 9 August found that vaccinations had prevented an estimated 38,000 deaths from COVID-19, as well as prevented over 76,000 hospitalizations and almost 20,000 admissions to intensive care units. The study used data from the preceding six and a half months, from the approximate beginning of the third wave of the pandemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Health minister Spahn said on 22 September that unvaccinated workers who were forced to quarantine after returning from travels to high-risk areas would no longer receive governmental subsidies for lost income from 11 October at latest. He argued that the taxpayer could not be expected to pay for the costs incurred by those who were able to choose to get vaccinated but did not do so.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 5 November, against the background of rapidly rising case numbers in the fourth wave of the pandemic, Health Minister Spahn said that he had agreed with state ministers to offer a third dose of the vaccine to everyone six months after their previous injection.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 10 November, national advisory committee STIKO revised its recommendations, saying that those under 30 should only receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, as the Moderna vaccine had shown a larger incidence of heart inflammation in that age group. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was also recommended as the only vaccine for pregnant women of all ages.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: With the number of COVID-19 deaths passing the 100,000 mark on 25 November and the health care system being under strain from the increasing number of cases, there were increasing calls for making vaccination mandatory. Among the supporters of this step were also the state leaders Volker Bouffier and Winfried Kretschmann, and Berlin mayor Michael Müller.</onlyinclude>


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 25 January 2021, the Health Ministry announced that Germany had bought 200,000 doses of experimental antibody cocktails for €400 million, to be administered at university hospitals only, and to be used only on high-risk patients at an early stage of the illness. The drugs, Bamlanivimab and REGN-COV-2, had been used on US President Donald Trump after he caught the virus in October 2020. The use of the drugs, which had not received approval by the European Medicines Agency, was permitted under a compassionate use clause.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 December 2021, the German government announced that it had ordered one million doses of Paxlovid. Health minister Lauterbach said he had liaised with the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices about emergency approval for the drug, which he expected to be granted in time for the first deliveries before the end of January 2022. Wholesale marketers started to receive the drug on 23 February. Its uptake appeared to be quite slow in the first months, however, with one German newspaper reporting that by April it had been prescribed less than 9,000 times. In a tweet on 21 May 2022, health minister Lauterbach expressed his satisfaction about new research results indicating the high efficacy of the drug, but said that more preparation was still needed to determine its "optimal use".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Germany officially entered a recession given that its economy contracted 2.2% during the first quarter of 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: As of 1 April 2020, almost half a million companies in Germany had sent their workers on a government-subsidized short-time working scheme known as Kurzarbeit. The German short-time work compensation scheme is similar to schemes in France and Britain.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 8 April, Germany reverted a travel ban for seasonal agricultural workers, allowing 80,000 Eastern Europeans to enter between April and May to harvest seasonal foods.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In a press release from 29 April, the Federal Government predicted that gross domestic product to decline by 6.3 per cent in 2020,


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: with the sharpest drop in economic output, and the peak in Kurzarbeit short-time working, occurring in the second quarter.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 22 May, in an article published in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the German Council of Economic Experts stated its views on the design of the planned coronavirus recovery package. In particular, it weighed in on the debate about whether the recovery package should include a higher cash incentive for buying electric cars, a plan which the Merkel government had favoured. The Council recommended against any sector specific aid measures, and advocated focusing on investments in education and infrastructure, lowering the cost of energy, and allowing companies to balance losses with gains from previous and expected gains for future years.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 3 June, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) announced that the jobless figure in Germany had risen in May to 2.813 million, a year-on-year increase of 577,000, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.1 per cent. In his analysis, BA director Detlef Scheele stated that even though the coronavirus crisis had hit the labour market with unprecedented severity, it was coping reasonably well in his opinion.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: According to the Federal Statistical Office, exports dropped in April by 31 per cent compared to the previous year, which was unprecedented since 1950, when trade balance statistics began to be collected.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In late August 2020, the Federal Statistical Office reported a decrease in gross domestic product of 9.7% in the second quarter of 2020 as compared to the first. This was attributed to the collapse in exports as well as health protection measures during the pandemic; the latter had shut down whole industries such as those related to conferences and concerts. Economists expected a rebounding of the economy in the third quarter due to the easing of coronavirus related restrictions, but saw the possibility of a second wave of infections hanging as a threat over those predictions.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Based on preliminary calculations, the Federal Statistical Office reported on 14 January 2021 that the gross domestic product had shrunk by 5.0 per cent in 2020 as compared to the previous year. While price-adjusted private consumption had shrunk by a record 6.0 per cent, this had been partly offset by a government consumption increase of 3.4 per cent, in which the purchase of protective equipment and hospital costs had played a role. For the first time since 2011, Germany recorded a budget deficit, which at 4.8 per cent was second only to that of 1995, when the debts of the Treuhand were transferred to the federal budget.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 26 March, the Federal Constitutional Court stopped a German law for the roll-out of an aid package totalling €750 billion that had been agreed by the European Council in summer 2020. The legal challenge had been mounted by Bernd Lucke and others, who rejected the repayment of debts in the name of all EU countries jointly. The European Commission expressed optimism that the package could still be rolled out from the end of June 2021 as planned. On 24 April, the court rejected the legal challenge. The main court proceedings were still pending.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: According to a study by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research whose results were published on 20 April 2021, private consumption had dropped in 2020 by 6.1 per cent, the largest amount in 70 years, translating to €1,250 per capita. The drop was ascribed to an increased savings ratio and lower incomes during the pandemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 31 March, city-county Jena, Thuringia, was the first large German city to introduce an obligation to wear masks, or makeshift masks including scarves, in supermarkets, public transport, and buildings with public traffic, from 6 April, very successfully. On 2 April, the Robert Koch Institute, the federal epidemic authority, changed its previous recommendation that only people with symptoms should wear masks to also include people without symptoms. The district of Nordhausen, Thuringia, followed the example of Jena, with effect from 14 April, the city of Erfurt on 22 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: German chancellor Merkel and state governors first gave "strong advice" to wear face masks in public starting 20 April. Saxony made it mandatory from that day, Saxony-Anhalt followed starting 23 April and (the rest of) Thurinigia starting 24 April, then finally the governors agreed to make it mandatory, so most other states followed starting 27 April, except Schleswig-Holstein, which introduced requirements starting 29 April, and Berlin, where shops were initially excluded but were then included starting 29 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: As of 24 April, most German states had no penalties for not wearing a mask. However, not wearing masks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania can result in a €25 fine, in Hesse a €50 fine, and in Bavaria, not wearing a face mask while on public transportation or in a shop can result in a €150 fine for first-time offenders. There are exceptions for mask wearing for young children, severely disabled persons, or with those with respiratory diseases such as asthma.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In March 2020, car manufacturers announced donations of several hundred thousand masks to hospitals, and health authorities. Daimler donated 110,000 masks of their pandemic protection reserve and BMW donated 100,000 breathing masks. Volkswagen announced a donation of 200,000 masks of FFP-2 and FFP-3 types and were looking into manufacturing medical equipment parts. On 8 April, the CEO of BMW, Oliver Zipse, announced the production of FFP-2 masks both for the general public and for its workers with a target of hundred of thousands of masks each day, together with the donation to Bavaria of two million simpler masks within the following two weeks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 March, more than three million protective masks bought by Volkswagen arrived at Frankfurt airport from Shanghai. They were the first shipment of a larger donation of medical equipment worth 40 million euros which were brought to hospitals and federal agencies in Hesse and Lower Saxony.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In April, a German company placed an online order for 10 million masks, valued at €15 million, to a fraudulently cloned website of a Dutch supply company. Irish Garda Síochána and Dutch authorities recovered €880,000 from a Dutch account and €498,000 from a Nigerian account, both tied to the scam.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 3 April, Berlin's Senator of the Interior Andreas Geisel accused the United States agents of appropriating a shipment of 200,000 3M-made face masks meant for Berlin police from the airport in Bangkok. Andreas Geisel considered it an "act of modern piracy", SPD acting chairman Rolf Mützenich asked for an investigation and a response from the government, and Berlin mayor Michael Müller blamed Trump for it and called it "inhuman and unacceptable". However, these claims were rejected by 3M officials, who stated that they have "no records of an order for respiratory masks from China for the Berlin police" and Berlin police later admitted the shipment was not seized by U.S. authorities, but was believed to have been bought at a better price, possibly by a German merchant or China. As a result, Berlin opposition member Burkard Dregger accused the Berlin senate of deception for the purpose of covering up their failure to provide the masks. "Politico Europe" reported that "the Berliners are taking a page straight out of the Trump playbook and not letting facts get in the way of a good story."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: German officials reported that U.S. buyers were paying far above the market price and were outbidding European buyers for masks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In early March 2021, members of the German parliament Nikolas Löbel and Georg Nüßlein resigned from the ruling CDU/CSU party over a scandal that had broken about them having allegedly earned six-figure sums from brokering sales contracts for face masks. Löbel also resigned from the parliament. Later , a lawmaker in the Bavarian state parliament, was embroiled in the same scandal and resigned from the CSU. The scandal (which came to be known as , "mask affair" in Germany) led to a public discussion on transparency and ethics for such dealings. In response to the scandal, the CDU/CSU party tightened its pertaining rules. The previous day, it had performed poorly at two state elections, which observers saw as being connected to the loss in popularity due to the scandal. In November 2021, the Oberlandesgericht in Munich cleared Nüßlein and Sauter of corruption accusations, arguing that the two had not acted in their parliamentary roles, but instead had made use of their authorities and contacts, to which situation the relevant corruption law did not apply. Löbel had already been cleared of the accusations in July.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Over the weekend of 5 and 6 June, German weekly "Der Spiegel" reported that uncertified face masks from a burst of orders in early 2020 had been considered by the Health Ministry for distribution among the homeless and those with disabilities. In a press statement on 6 June, Health Minister Spahn sharply rebuked accusations that he had intended to distribute inferior masks to vulnerable groups as "outrageous", saying that the masks in question had been thoroughly tested and fulfilled all the necessary safety requirements. Nevertheless, within less than a week, the controversy grew to be regarded as the main friction point in the ruling Grand coalition as the country was approaching the 2021 German federal election in late September. A "Tagesschau" analysis pointed out that there were two different standards for medical and labour products; and that it remained unclear whether the masks were actually able to reliably protect their wearer.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 29 February 2020, it was reported that supermarket chains, such as Aldi and Lidl, had seen an increase in demand, particularly for tinned food, noodles, toilet paper (whose sales rose by 700% from February to March) and disinfectants. The Ministry of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia advised against panic buying, especially of masks, medications and disinfectants, to leave them for those really in need, assuring there would be no shortage of supply even in the event of a quarantine. A day earlier, after recent drastic price hikes and shortages especially of masks, medications and disinfectants which were the result of a steep increase in demand, calls had been made to consumers to leave these products for hospitals and medical practices.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Since April 2020, several protests have been held in Germany in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the initial cause for the protests were governmental measures to combat the pandemic, in particular the lockdown that had been imposed in March and the mask requirement that came into force in late April, they were also fuelled by negative sentiments regarding a future coronavirus vaccine that the German government – as others in the world – portrayed as the conclusive way out of the pandemic. The vaccination sceptics, or "anti-vaxxers", built in part on beliefs of Anthroposophic medicine.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: As of May 2020, only a minority of the German population (an estimated 3%) completely rejected any vaccinations, and the percentage of people who responded in May they would take a COVID-19 vaccine was higher compared to the United States (63% in Germany vs 55% in the US). However, that number was down 16 per cent from the month before, where 79% were sure about getting vaccinated. German health officials and other experts have expressed concerns that the pandemic might allow Germany's anti-vaccination movement to grow its support base.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Apart from a common belief that the government measures were a strongly disproportionate diminishing of constitutional basic rights, the aims of the protesters varied widely: what was described as a "bizarre mix of people" included conspiracy theorists, radical extremists, antisemites, football hooligans and anti-vaxxers as well as "hippie moms" and advocates of alternative medicine. Many protesters vented their anger at Chancellor Merkel, Health Minister Spahn and virologist Drosten. The ire of the protesters also regularly targeted Bill Gates, who they suspected to intend to implant microchips for manipulative purposes through a future COVID-19 vaccination. Some protesters likened themselves to the persecuted in Nazi Germany, which led to strong rebukes by politicians.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Weekly rallies which became known as (hygiene demonstrations) established themselves in several cities including Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The in Berlin on 25 April 2020 attracted around 1,000 participants. During May, attendance at the generally decreased sharply. Observers attributed this to a variety of factors, including the relaxation of the lockdown, and a high level of satisfaction in the general population about the government's handling of the crisis. Another factor was considered to be the participation of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), and on some occasions, violent or extreme right-wing individuals sprouting conspiracy theories, including vegan chef Attila Hildmann, at rallies. Hildmann was apprehended by police in Berlin in July 2020 and charged with Volksverhetzung.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: A resurgence of protests occurred from mid-year as cases began to rise again and the government considered a second lockdown. The group emerged as the main force in organising protests in Stuttgart – giving rise to the name "Querdenken 711", after the dialling code of the city – and other cities. Two separate rallies on 29 August 2020 drew a total of around 38,000 participants, with police making around 300 arrests. The protest drew particular attention for the attempted storming of the Reichstag, which houses the German parliament, by several hundred people, some of whom were holding insignia from the Reichsbürger movement. There were increasing concerns that the rallies were becoming a platform for far-right, and even extremist, views.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: After a hiatus in large protests spanning several months, a protest in Kassel on 20 March 2021 drew over 20,000 attendants; violent scuffles with police occurred that day. As the third wave of the pandemic receded between April and June 2021, protests became smaller; politologist Josef Holnburger said to broadcaster MDR that a downward trend in followership of social media channels of the "Querdenken" movement had been observed by him and colleagues as early as November 2020, which they related to repeated failures of setting up large street demonstrations since that time. Holnburger expressed worries about radicalization of parts of the chats he observed, however.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 18 September 2021, a radicalized opponent of the measures to contain the pandemic fatally shot a 20-year-old student working at a gas station in Idar-Oberstein. The student had refused to sell beer to the 49-year-old perpetrator as he was not wearing a mask. The perpetrator left the gas station, only to return some time later with a gun and shot the cashier in the head. After turning himself in to police, he stated that he "wanted to set an example". The act was condemned by broad sections of the media, politics and the population, while the increasingly radicalizing corona deniers and corona gamblers celebrated the perpetrator and the act in their areas of retreat on the Internet. Chancellor Angela Merkel called the act "heinous". The three main contenders in the federal elections on 26 September all expressed their shock at the killing. Minister for Justice Christine Lambrecht said that the country had to "counter the radicalisation of coronavirus deniers who are willing to use violence with all possible means".


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Progressive Christianity represents a post-modern theological approach, and is not necessarily synonymous with progressive politics. It developed out of the liberal Christianity of the modern era, which was rooted in the Enlightenment's thinking. Progressive Christianity is a "post-liberal movement" within Christianity that "seeks to reform the faith via the insights of post-modernism and a reclaiming of the truth beyond the verifiable historicity and factuality of the passages in the Bible by affirming the truths within the stories that may not have actually happened."


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Progressive Christianity, as described by its adherents, is characterized by a willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity, a strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and the oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth. Progressive Christians have a deep belief in the centrality of the instruction to "love one another" (John 15:17) within the teachings of Jesus Christ. This leads to a focus on promoting values such as compassion, justice, mercy, and tolerance, often through political activism. Though prominent, the movement is by no means the only significant movement of progressive thought among Christians.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Progressive Christianity draws influence from multiple theological streams, including evangelicalism, liberal Christianity, neo-orthodoxy, pragmatism, postmodernism, progressive reconstructionism, and liberation theology. The concerns of feminism are also a major influence on the movement, as expressed in feminist and womanist theologies.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Although "progressive Christianity" and "liberal Christianity" are often used synonymously, the two movements are distinct, despite much overlap.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: A priority of justice and care for the down-trodden are a recurrent theme in the Hebrew prophetic tradition inherited by Christianity. This has been reflected in many later Christian traditions of service and ministry, and more recently in the United States of America through Christian involvement in political trends such as the Progressive Movement and the Social Gospel.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Throughout the 20th century, a strand of progressive or liberal Christian thought outlined the values of a 'good society'. It stresses fairness, justice, responsibility, and compassion, and condemns the forms of governance that wage unjust war, rely on corruption for continued power, deprive the poor of facilities, or exclude particular racial or sexual groups from fair participation in national liberties. It was influential in the US mainline churches, and reflected global trends in student activism. It contributed to the ecumenical movement, as represented internationally by the World Student Christian Federation and the World Council of Churches internationally, and at the national level through groups such as the National Council of Churches in the US and Australian Student Christian Movement.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: The ascendancy of evangelicalism in the US, particularly in its more socially conservative forms, challenged many people in mainline churches. Recently, a focus for those who wish to challenge this ascendancy has been provided by Jim Wallis of "Sojourners", who described himself as a progressive evangelical Christian, although "Sojourners" has rejected advertisements urging mainline churches to welcome gay members. This has enabled many Christians who are uncomfortable with conservative evangelicalism to identify themselves explicitly as "Progressive Christians". At the onset of this new movement to organize Progressive Christians, the single largest force holding together was a webring, "The Progressive Christian Bloggers Network", and supporters frequently find and contact each other through dozens of online chat-rooms.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Notable initiatives within the movement for progressive Christianity include the Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Beatitudes Society, the campaigning organization CrossLeft, the technology working group Social Redemption and The Progressive Episcopal Church (TPEC).


title: Progressive Christianity

text: CrossLeft joined with Every Voice Network and Claiming the Blessing in October 2005 to stage a major conference, Path to Action, at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Among the speakers were E. J. Dionne, Richard Parker, Jim Wallis, Senator Danforth, and David Hollinger.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: In the United Kingdom, the movement is represented by the Progressive Christianity Network Britain. Notable related UK organisations include the Center for Radical Christianity at St Marks, Sheffield, and the UK-based Sea of Faith network.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: As Wolsey mentions, Progressive Christianity "leans toward panentheism rather than supernatural theism..." The role of panentheism in Progressive Christianity shifts the emphasis from belief to contemplative practice and experiential faith. So Progressive Christianity is often characterized by contemplative or meditative forms of worship. This finds perhaps its most poignant expression in "Finding God in the Body: A Spiritual Path for the Modern West" by Benjamin Riggs:


title: Progressive Christianity

text: According to Archbishop Wynn Wagner of the former North American Old Catholic Church, holding to the ideals of progressive Christianity sets the movement apart from traditional Christianity. Inclusiveness and acceptance is the basic posture of progressive Christianity.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the liberal wing describe themselves as "progressive Adventists". They disagree with some of the traditional teachings of the church. While most are still of evangelical persuasion, a minority are liberal Christians.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: As Bruce Sanguin writes, "It's time for the Christian church to get with a cosmological program (...). We now know, for instance, that we live in an evolving or evolutionary universe. Evolution is the way that the Holy creates in space and in time, in every sphere: material, biological, social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual. This new cosmology simply cannot be contained by old models and images of God, or by old ways of being the church."


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Central to this recovery of awe in the cosmos is the epic of evolution, the 14-billion-year history of the universe. Scientists (Edward O. Wilson, Brian Swimme, Eric Chaisson, Ursula Goodenough and others) initiated this story which has been perpetuated with a religion component by some liberal theologians (Gordon D. Kaufman, Jerome A. Stone, Michael Dowd, etc.).


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Evolutionary evangelist and progressive minister Michael Dowd uses the term Epic of Evolution or Great Story to help construct his viewpoint of evolution theology. His position is that science and religious faith are not mutually exclusive (a form of religious naturalism). He preaches that the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution, revealed by science, is a basis for an inspiring and meaningful view of our place in the universe and a new approach to religion. Evolution is viewed as a religious spiritual process that is not meaningless blind chance.


title: Progressive Christianity

text: Geoff Thompson argues that the rhetoric of Progressive Christianity, as represented by Gretta Vosper and John Shelby Spong, "often over-reaches its arguments." In particular, he concludes that "[i]t is very difficult to see how what [Vosper] proposes needs any church or even the minimalist, idiosyncratic definition of Christianity which she offers.


title: Linda Porter (actress)

text: Linda Porter (January 31, 1933 – September 25, 2019) was an American actress. She appeared in numerous feature films, television programs, advertisements and music videos—most prominently in the series "Superstore" and "Twin Peaks" and the film "Dude, Where's My Car?". She died of cancer on September 25, 2019.


title: Linda Porter (actress)

text: Porter appeared as the sample lady in a series of Nature Valley Cereal television commercials, which aired in the United States. She played the bakery owner on Gilmore Girls. She also played the part of the demonic old lady at the end of the Tenacious D music video "Tribute".


title: Trilogy

text: A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part works that are considered components of a larger work also exist, such as the triptych or the three-movement sonata, but they are not commonly referred to with the term "trilogy".


title: Trilogy

text: Most trilogies are works of fiction involving the same characters or setting, such as "The Deptford Trilogy" of novels by Robertson Davies, "The Apu Trilogy" of films by Satyajit Ray, "The House" of a single anthology stop motion animated film, and "The Kingdom Trilogy" of television miniseries from 1994 to 2022 by Lars von Trier. Other fiction trilogies are connected only by theme: for example, each film of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours trilogy explores one of the political ideals of the French Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity). Trilogies can also be connected in less obvious ways, such as "The Nova Trilogy" of novels by William S. Burroughs, each written using cut-up technique.


title: Trilogy

text: The term is seldom applied outside art. One example is the "Marshall Trilogy", a common term for three rulings written by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall from 1823 to 1832 concerning the legal status of Native Americans under U.S. law.


title: Trilogy

text: Trilogies ( "trilogia") date back to ancient times. In the Dionysia festivals of ancient Greece, for example, trilogies of plays were performed followed by a fourth satyr play. "The Oresteia" is the only surviving trilogy of these ancient Greek plays, originally performed at the festival in Athens in 458 BC. The three Theban plays, or Oedipus cycle, by Sophocles, originating in 5th century BC, is not a true example of a trilogy because the plays were written at separate times and with different themes/purposes.


title: Trilogy

text: Modern fiction trilogies were popularized by the publication of "The Lord of the Rings" in three volumes for economic reasons (although it was written as a single novel). In addition, technical changes in printing and film in the mid-to-late 20th century made the creation of trilogies more feasible, while the development of mass media and modern global distribution networks has made them more likely to be lucrative.


title: Trilogy

text: The term is less often applied to music, such as the "Berlin Trilogy" of David Bowie which is linked together by musical sound and lyrical themes, all having been recorded at least partly in Berlin, Germany.


title: Trilogy

text: Creators of trilogies may later add more works. In such a case, the original three works may or may not keep the title "trilogy".


title: Jeff Dean

text: Jeffrey Adgate "Jeff" Dean (born July 23, 1968) is an American computer scientist and software engineer. Since 2018, he is the lead of Google AI, Google's AI division.


title: Jeff Dean

text: Dean received a B.S., "summa cum laude", from the University of Minnesota in computer science and economics in 1990. He received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington in 1996, working under Craig Chambers on compilers and whole-program optimization techniques for object-oriented programming languages. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009, which recognized his work on "the science and engineering of large-scale distributed computer systems".


title: Jeff Dean

text: Before joining Google, Dean worked at DEC/Compaq's Western Research Laboratory, where he worked on profiling tools, microprocessor architecture and information retrieval. Much of his work was completed in close collaboration with Sanjay Ghemawat.


title: Jeff Dean

text: Before graduate school, he worked at the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS, developing software for statistical modeling and forecasting of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.


title: Jeff Dean

text: Dean joined Google in mid-1999, and is currently the head of its Artificial Intelligence division. While at Google, he designed and implemented large portions of the company's advertising, crawling, indexing and query serving systems, along with various pieces of the distributed computing infrastructure that underlies most of Google's products. At various times, he has also worked on improving search quality, statistical machine translation and internal software development tools and has had significant involvement in the engineering hiring process.


title: Jeff Dean

text: He was an early member of Google Brain, a team that studies large-scale artificial neural networks, and he has headed artificial intelligence efforts since they were split from Google Search.


title: Jeff Dean

text: Dean was the subject of controversy when the ethics in AI researcher, Timnit Gebru, challenged Google's research review process, ultimately leading to her departure from the company. Dean responded by publishing a letter on Google's approach to the research process that was the subject of further criticism and controversy.


title: Jeff Dean

text: Dean and his wife, Heidi Hopper, started the Hopper-Dean Foundation and began making philanthropic grants in 2011. In 2016, the foundation gave $2 million each to UC Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University to support programs that promote diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).


title: Jeff Dean

text: Dean was interviewed for the 2018 book "Architects of Intelligence: The Truth About AI from the People Building it" by the American futurist Martin Ford.


title: Progressive tax

text: A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The term "progressive" refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the person's marginal tax rate. The term can be applied to individual taxes or to a tax system as a whole. Progressive taxes are imposed in an attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with a lower ability to pay, as such taxes shift the incidence increasingly to those with a higher ability-to-pay. The opposite of a progressive tax is a regressive tax, such as a sales tax, where the poor pay a larger proportion of their income compared to the rich.


title: Progressive tax

text: The term is frequently applied in reference to personal income taxes, in which people with lower income pay a lower percentage of that income in tax than do those with higher income. It can also apply to adjustments of the tax base by using tax exemptions, tax credits, or selective taxation that creates progressive distribution effects. For example, a wealth or property tax, a sales tax on luxury goods, or the exemption of sales taxes on basic necessities, may be described as having progressive effects as it increases the tax burden of higher income families and reduces it on lower income families.


title: Progressive tax

text: Progressive taxation is often suggested as a way to mitigate the societal ills associated with higher income inequality, as the tax structure reduces inequality, but economists disagree on the tax policy's economic and long-term effects. One study suggests progressive taxation can be positively associated with happiness, the subjective well-being of nations and citizen satisfaction with public goods, such as education and transportation.


title: Progressive tax

text: In the early days of the Roman Republic, public taxes consisted of assessments on owned wealth and property. For Roman citizens, the tax rate under normal circumstances was 1% of property value, and could sometimes climb as high as 3% in situations such as war. These taxes were levied against land, homes and other real estate, slaves, animals, personal items and monetary wealth. By 167 BC, Rome no longer needed to levy a tax against its citizens in the Italian peninsula, due to the riches acquired from conquered provinces. After considerable Roman expansion in the 1st century, Augustus Caesar introduced a wealth tax of about 1% and a flat poll tax on each adult; this made the tax system less progressive, as it no longer only taxed wealth. In India, the Dahsala system was introduced in A.D. 1580 under the reign of Akbar. This system was introduced by the finance minister of Akbar, Raja Todar Mal, who was appointed in A.D. 1573 in Gujarat. The Dahsala system is a land-revenue system (system of taxation) which helped to make the collecting system be organised on basis of land fertility. Polaj land, Parati land, Cachar land, Banjar land.


title: Progressive tax

text: The first modern income tax was introduced in Britain by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798, to pay for weapons and equipment for the French Revolutionary War. Pitt's new graduated (progressive) income tax began at a levy of 2 old pence in the pound (1/120) on incomes over £60 and increased up to a maximum of 2 shillings (10%) on incomes of over £200. Pitt hoped that the new income tax would raise £10 million, but actual receipts for 1799 totalled just over £6 million.


title: Progressive tax

text: Pitt's progressive income tax was levied from 1799 to 1802 when it was abolished by Henry Addington during the Peace of Amiens. Addington had taken over as prime minister in 1801, after Pitt's resignation over Catholic Emancipation. The income tax was reintroduced by Addington in 1803 when hostilities recommenced, but it was again abolished in 1816, one year after the Battle of Waterloo.


title: Progressive tax

text: The United Kingdom income tax was reintroduced by Sir Robert Peel in the Income Tax Act 1842. Peel, as a Conservative, had opposed income tax in the 1841 general election, but a growing budget deficit required a new source of funds. The new income tax, based on Addington's model, was imposed on incomes above £150. Although this measure was initially intended to be temporary, it soon became a fixture of the British taxation system. A committee was formed in 1851 under Joseph Hume to investigate the matter but failed to reach a clear recommendation. Despite the vociferous objection, William Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1852, kept the progressive income tax, and extended it to cover the costs of the Crimean War. By the 1860s, the progressive tax had become a grudgingly accepted element of the English fiscal system.


title: Progressive tax

text: In the United States, the first progressive income tax was established by the Revenue Act of 1862. The act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, and replaced the Revenue Act of 1861, which had imposed a flat income tax of 3% on incomes above $800. The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1913, permitted Congress to levy all income taxes without any apportionment requirement. By the mid-20th century, most countries had implemented some form of progressive income tax.


title: Progressive tax

text: Indices such as the Suits index, Gini coefficient, Kakwani index, Theil index, Atkinson index, and Hoover index have been created to measure the progressivity of taxation, using measures derived from income distribution and wealth distribution.


title: Progressive tax

text: The rate of tax can be expressed in two different ways; the "marginal rate" expressed as the rate on each additional unit of income or expenditure (or last dollar spent) and the "effective (average) rate" expressed as the total tax paid divided by total income or expenditure. In most progressive tax systems, both rates will rise as the amount subject to taxation rises, though there may be ranges where the marginal rate will be constant. Usually, the average tax rate of a taxpayer will be lower than the marginal tax rate. In a system with refundable tax credits, or income-tested welfare benefits, it is possible for marginal rates to fall as income rises, at lower levels of income.


title: Progressive tax

text: Tax laws might not be accurately indexed to inflation. For example, some tax laws may ignore inflation completely. In a progressive tax system, failure to index the brackets to inflation will eventually result in effective tax increases (if inflation is sustained), as inflation in wages will increase individual income and move individuals into higher tax brackets with higher percentage rates. This phenomenon is known as "bracket creep" and can cause fiscal drag.


title: Progressive tax

text: There is debate between politicians and economists over the role of tax policy in mitigating or exacerbating wealth inequality and the effects on economic growth .


title: Progressive tax

text: Progressive taxation has a direct effect on decreasing income inequality. This is especially true if taxation is used to fund progressive government spending such as transfer payments and social safety nets. However, the effect may be muted if the higher rates cause increased tax evasion. When income inequality is low, aggregate demand will be relatively high, because more people who want ordinary consumer goods and services will be able to afford them, while the labor force will not be as relatively monopolized by the wealthy.


title: Progressive tax

text: High levels of income inequality can have negative effects on long-term economic growth, employment, and class conflict. Progressive taxation is often suggested as a way to mitigate the societal ills associated with higher income inequality. The difference between the Gini index for an income distribution before taxation and the Gini index after taxation is an indicator for the effects of such taxation.


title: Progressive tax

text: The economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez wrote that decreased progressiveness in US tax policy in the post World War II era has increased income inequality by enabling the wealthy greater access to capital.


title: Progressive tax

text: According to economist Robert H. Frank, tax cuts for the wealthy are largely spent on positional goods such as larger houses and more expensive cars. Frank argues that these funds could instead pay for things like improving public education and conducting medical research, and suggests progressive taxation as an instrument for attacking positional externalities.


title: Progressive tax

text: A report published by the OECD in 2008 presented empirical research showing a weak negative relationship between the progressivity of personal income taxes and economic growth. Describing the research, William McBride, a staff writer with the conservative Tax Foundation, stated that progressivity of income taxes can undermine investment, risk-taking, entrepreneurship, and productivity because high-income earners tend to do much of the saving, investing, risk-taking, and high-productivity labor. According to IMF, some advanced economies could increase progressivity in taxation for tackling inequality, without hampering growth, as long as progressivity is not excessive. Fund also states that the average top income tax rate for OECD member countries fell from 62 percent in 1981 to 35 percent in 2015, and that in addition, tax systems are less progressive than indicated by the statutory rates, because wealthy individuals have more access to tax relief.


title: Progressive tax

text: Economist Gary Becker has described educational attainment as the root of economic mobility. Progressive tax rates, while raising taxes on high income, have the goal and corresponding effect of reducing the burden on low income, improving income equality. Educational attainment is often conditional on cost and family income, which for the poor, reduces their opportunity for educational attainment. Increases in income for the poor and economic equality reduces the inequality of educational attainment. Tax policy can also include progressive features that provide tax incentives for education, such as tax credits and tax exemptions for scholarships and grants.


title: Progressive tax

text: A potentially adverse effect of progressive tax schedules is that they may reduce the incentives for educational attainment. By reducing the after-tax income of highly educated workers, progressive taxes can reduce the incentives for citizens to attain education, thereby lowering the overall level of human capital in an economy. However, this effect can be mitigated by an education subsidy funded by the progressive tax. Theoretically, public support for government spending on higher education increases when taxation is progressive, especially when income distribution is unequal.


title: Progressive tax

text: A 2011 study psychologists Shigehiro Oishi, Ulrich Schimmack, and Ed Diener, using data from 54 countries, found that progressive taxation was positively associated with the subjective well-being, while overall tax rates and government spending were not. The authors added, "We found that the association between more-progressive taxation and higher levels of subjective well-being was mediated by citizens’ satisfaction with public goods, such as education and public transportation." Tax law professor Thomas D. Griffith, summarizing research on human happiness, has argued that because inequality in a society significantly reduces happiness, a progressive tax structure which redistributes income would increase welfare and happiness in a society. Since progressive taxation reduces the income of high earners and is often used as a method to fund government social programs for low income earners, calls for increasing tax progressivity have sometimes been labeled as envy or class warfare, while others may describe such actions as fair or a form of social justice.


title: Progressive tax

text: There are two common ways of computing a progressive tax, corresponding to point–slope form and slope–intercept form of the equation for the applicable bracket. These compute the tax either as the tax on the bottom amount of the bracket "plus" the tax on the marginal amount "within" the bracket; or the tax on the entire amount ("at" the marginal rate), "minus" the amount that this overstates tax on the bottom end of the bracket.


title: Progressive tax

text: For example, suppose there are tax brackets of 10%, 20%, and 30%, where the 10% rate applies to income from ; the 20% rate applies to income from ; and the 30% rate applies to all income above . In that case the tax on of income (computed by adding up tax in each bracket) is formula_1. The tax on $25,000 of income could then be computed two ways. Using point–slope form (tax on bottom amount plus tax on marginal amount) yields:


title: Progressive tax

text: Geometrically, the line for tax on the top bracket passes through the point formula_3 and has a slope of 0.3 (30%).


title: Progressive tax

text: Alternatively, 30% tax on $20,000 yields formula_4, which overstates tax on the bottom end of the top bracket by formula_5, so using slope–intercept form yields:


title: Progressive tax

text: Geometrically, the line for tax on the top bracket intercepts the "y"-axis at −$3,000 – it passes through the point formula_7 – and has a slope of 0.3 (30%).


title: Progressive tax

text: In the United States, the first form was used through 2003, for example (for the 2003 15% Single bracket):


title: Progressive tax

text: Most systems around the world contain progressive aspects. When taxable income falls within a particular tax bracket, the individual pays the listed percentage of tax "on each dollar that falls within that monetary range". For example, a person in the U.S. who earned US of taxable income (income after adjustments, deductions, and exemptions) would be liable for 10% of each dollar earned from the 1st dollar to the 7,550th dollar, and then for 15% of each dollar earned from the 7,551st dollar to the 10,000th dollar, for a total of .50.


title: Progressive tax

text: In the United States, there are seven income tax brackets ranging from 10% to 39.6% above an untaxed level of income based on the personal exemption and usually various other tax exemptions, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and home mortgage payments. The federal tax rates for individual taxpayers in the United States for the tax year 2021 are as follows: 10% from $0 to ; 12% from to ; 22% from to ; 24% from to ; 32% from to ; 35% from to ; and 37% from and over. The US federal tax system also includes deductions for state and local taxes for lower income households which mitigates what are sometimes regressive taxes, particularly property taxes. Higher income households are subject to the alternative minimum tax that limits deductions and sets a flat tax rate of 26% to 28% with the higher rate commencing at in income. There are also deduction phaseouts starting at for single filers. The net effect is increased progressivity that completely limits deductions for state and local taxes and certain other credits for individuals earning more than . In order to counteract regressive state and local taxes, many US states implement progressive income taxes. 32 states and the District of Columbia have graduated-rate income taxes. The brackets differ across states.


title: Progressive tax

text: There has been a hefty decline in progressivity of the United States federal tax system since the 1960s. The two periods with the largest tax progressivity reductions occurred under the Reagan administration in the 1980s and the Bush administration in the 2000s. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 implemented by President Trump greatly affected the United States tax system, making it much less progressive than it once was. The act took steps to dramatically lower taxes for high-income households, open deduction loopholes for businesses, and cut the federal corporate tax rate down to 21 percent. It maintained the structure of seven tax brackets for personal income, but lowered five of the seven by one percent or more.


title: Progressive tax

text: Belgium has the following personal income tax rates (for the income year 2021): 25% from EUR€0 to €13,540; 40% from €13,540 to €23,900; 45% from €23,900 to €41,360; and 50% from €41,360 and any amount over.


title: Progressive tax

text: Canada has the following federal tax rates on income (for the year 2021): 15% from C$0 to ; 20.5% from to ; 26% from to ; 29% from to ; and 33% on income over .


title: Progressive tax

text: Denmark has the following state tax rates regarding personal income: 12.11% for the bottom tax base; 15% for the top tax base, or income exceeding DKK 544,800. Additional taxes, such as the municipal tax (which has a country average of 24.971%), the labour market tax, and the church tax, are also applied to individual’s income.


title: Progressive tax

text: Germany has the following personal income tax rates for a single taxpayer (for the 2020 tax year): 0% up to EUR€9,744; 14-42% from €9,744 to €57,918; 42% from €57,918 to €274,612; and 45% for €274,612 and any amount over.


title: Progressive tax

text: Norway has the following personal income tax rates (for the year 2020): 1.9% from NOK180,800 to NOK254,500; 4.2% from NOK254,500 to NOK639,750; 13.2% from NOK639,750 to NOK999,550; and 16.2% from NOK999,550 and above.


title: Progressive tax

text: Sweden has the following state income tax brackets for natural persons: 0% on income up to SEK 413,200; 20% from SEK 413,200 to SEK 591,600; and 25% from SEK 591,600 and any amount over.


title: Progressive tax

text: The United Kingdom has the following income tax rates: 0% from GBP£0 to £12,570; 20% from £12,571 to £50,270; 40% from £50,271 to £150,000; and 45% from £150,000 and over. In Scotland, however, there are more tax brackets than in other UK countries. Scotland has the following additional income tax brackets: 19% from £12,571 to £14,667; 20% from £14,667 to £25,296; 21% from £25,297 to £43,662; 41% from £43,663 to £150,000; and 46% for any amount over £150,000.


title: Progressive tax

text: As of April 1st 2021 New Zealand has the following income tax brackets: 10.5% up to ; 17.5% from to ; 30% from to ; 33% from to ; 39% for any amount over ; and 45% when the employee does not complete a declaration form. All values are in New Zealand dollars and exclude the earner levy.


title: Progressive tax

text: Australia has the following progressive income tax rates (for the 2012–2013 financial year): 0% effective up to ; 19% from to ; 32.5% from to ; 37% from to ; and 45% for any amount over .


title: Susie Porter

text: Susie Porter (born 1970 or 1971) is an Australian television, film and theatre actress. She made her debut in the 1996 film "Idiot Box", before rising to prominence in films including "Paradise Road" (1997), "Welcome to Woop Woop" (1997), "Two Hands" (1999), "Better Than Sex" (2000), "The Monkey's Mask" (2000), "Mullet" (2001), "Teesh and Trude" (2002), and "The Caterpillar Wish" (2006). Porter is also highly recognised for her roles in television series, most notably, as Patricia Wright in "East West 101", Eve Pritchard in "East of Everything", and as Marie Winter in the prison drama, "Wentworth".


title: Susie Porter

text: Porter was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, to Bill, a doctor, and Jenny, a nurse. She has two older sisters, Cathy and Jackie, and a younger sister, Louise. Porter attended Newcastle Grammar School and earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Newcastle. She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1995.


title: Susie Porter

text: Porter began her acting career in an episode of "House Gang", a short lived television program. She then had small roles in other Australian television programs in the late 1990s, including "Big Sky", "Wildside" and "Water Rats".


title: Susie Porter

text: In 2006, Porter had a leading role in "RAN", an Australian mini-series, which won her a Best Leading Actress in a Television Drama at the AFI Awards. In late 2007, she appeared in "East West 101", a six-part drama series that aired on SBS. In 2008, Porter appeared in "East of Everything" (a six-part drama series that aired on the ABC) and in the mini-series "Make Or Break" (an English and Australian production that aired on Foxtel's UKTV).


title: Susie Porter

text: In 2009, Porter appeared on the second seasons of both "East of Everything" and "East West 101", and first run "The Jesters" and "My Place". In 2010, she appeared on the telemovie "Sisters of War" as Kay Parker. In 2011, she appeared in the third, and final season, of "East West 101". In 2012, she appeared on Channel Ten's mini-series "". She played Pam Knight in "Puberty Blues" from 2012 to 2014.


title: Susie Porter

text: In 2017, Porter was cast in the Foxtel drama series "Wentworth" in the main role Marie Winter; the role was originally portrayed by Maggie Millar in "Prisoner". Porter first appeared in "Wentworth" during the fourth episode of the sixth season, broadcast on 10 July 2018. She reprised her role as Marie Winter in the seventh season in 2019, and again in the eighth and final season which premiered in 2020 and ended in 2021. She made her final appearance in penultimate episode of the final season.


title: Susie Porter

text: In 1996, Porter made her film debut in "Idiot Box". In 1997, she starred as Angie in the Australian comedy "Welcome to Woop Woop". In 1999, she had a major role in "Two Hands". In 2000, she starred in the film "Bootmen" and in the crime drama film "The Monkey's Mask", which she plays a lesbian private detective who falls in love with a suspect, for which she won the award for 'Best Actress' at the Dallas OUT TAKES festival in 2001. In 2001, she appeared in the Australian movie "Mullet" and had a small role in "".


title: Susie Porter

text: In 2005, Porter had a supporting role in the Australian film "Little Fish". In 2006, she had a role in the film "The Caterpillar Wish" which won her Best Supporting Actress in the AFI Awards.


title: Susie Porter

text: Porter appeared in 2022 film 'GOLD' as Stranger/Strangers sister which was filmed in South Australia.


title: Susie Porter

text: In 2011, Porter starred as Olive in the play "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" at the Belvoir Theatre, Sydney.


title: Gill

text: A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist. The microscopic structure of a gill presents a large surface area to the external environment. Branchia (pl. branchiae) is the zoologists' name for gills (from Ancient Greek ).


title: Gill

text: With the exception of some aquatic insects, the filaments and lamellae (folds) contain blood or coelomic fluid, from which gases are exchanged through the thin walls. The blood carries oxygen to other parts of the body. Carbon dioxide passes from the blood through the thin gill tissue into the water. Gills or gill-like organs, located in different parts of the body, are found in various groups of aquatic animals, including mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fish, and amphibians. Semiterrestrial marine animals such as crabs and mudskippers have gill chambers in which they store water, enabling them to use the dissolved oxygen when they are on land.


title: Gill

text: Galen observed that fish had multitudes of openings ("foramina"), big enough to admit gases, but too fine to give passage to water. Pliny the Elder held that fish respired by their gills, but observed that Aristotle was of another opinion. The word "branchia" comes from the Greek , "gills", plural of (in singular, meaning a fin).


title: Gill

text: Many microscopic aquatic animals, and some larger but inactive ones, can absorb sufficient oxygen through the entire surface of their bodies, and so can respire adequately without gills. However, more complex or more active aquatic organisms usually require a gill or gills. Many invertebrates, and even amphibians, use both the body surface and gills for gaseous exchange.


title: Gill

text: Gills usually consist of thin filaments of tissue, lamellae (plates), branches, or slender, tufted processes that have a highly folded surface to increase surface area. The delicate nature of the gills is possible because the surrounding water provides support. The blood or other body fluid must be in intimate contact with the respiratory surface for ease of diffusion.


title: Gill

text: A high surface area is crucial to the gas exchange of aquatic organisms, as water contains only a small fraction of the dissolved oxygen that air does. A cubic meter of air contains about 250 grams of oxygen at STP. The concentration of oxygen in water is lower than in air and it diffuses more slowly. In fresh water, the dissolved oxygen content is approximately 8 cm/L compared to that of air which is 210 cm/L. Water is 777 times more dense than air and is 100 times more viscous. Oxygen has a diffusion rate in air 10,000 times greater than in water. The use of sac-like lungs to remove oxygen from water would not be efficient enough to sustain life. Rather than using lungs, "[g]aseous exchange takes place across the surface of highly vascularised gills over which a one-way current of water is kept flowing by a specialised pumping mechanism. The density of the water prevents the gills from collapsing and lying on top of each other, which is what happens when a fish is taken out of water."


title: Gill

text: Usually water is moved across the gills in one direction by the current, by the motion of the animal through the water, by the beating of cilia or other appendages, or by means of a pumping mechanism. In fish and some molluscs, the efficiency of the gills is greatly enhanced by a countercurrent exchange mechanism in which the water passes over the gills in the opposite direction to the flow of blood through them. This mechanism is very efficient and as much as 90% of the dissolved oxygen in the water may be recovered.


title: Gill

text: The gills of vertebrates typically develop in the walls of the pharynx, along a series of gill slits opening to the exterior. Most species employ a countercurrent exchange system to enhance the diffusion of substances in and out of the gill, with blood and water flowing in opposite directions to each other. The gills are composed of comb-like filaments, the gill lamellae, which help increase their surface area for oxygen exchange.


title: Gill

text: When a fish breathes, it draws in a mouthful of water at regular intervals. Then it draws the sides of its throat together, forcing the water through the gill openings, so it passes over the gills to the outside. Fish gill slits may be the evolutionary ancestors of the thymus glands, parathyroid glands, as well as many other structures derived from the embryonic branchial pouches.


title: Gill

text: The gills of fish form a number of slits connecting the pharynx to the outside of the animal on either side of the fish behind the head. Originally there were many slits, but during evolution, the number reduced, and modern fish mostly have five pairs, and never more than eight.


title: Gill

text: Sharks and rays typically have five pairs of gill slits that open directly to the outside of the body, though some more primitive sharks have six pairs and the Broadnose sevengill shark being the only cartilaginous fish exceeding this number. Adjacent slits are separated by a cartilaginous gill arch from which projects a cartilaginous gill ray. This gill ray is the support for the sheet-like interbranchial septum, which the individual lamellae of the gills lie on either side of. The base of the arch may also support gill rakers, projections into the pharyngeal cavity that help to prevent large pieces of debris from damaging the delicate gills.


title: Gill

text: A smaller opening, the spiracle, lies in the back of the first gill slit. This bears a small pseudobranch that resembles a gill in structure, but only receives blood already oxygenated by the true gills. The spiracle is thought to be homologous to the ear opening in higher vertebrates.


title: Gill

text: Most sharks rely on ram ventilation, forcing water into the mouth and over the gills by rapidly swimming forward. In slow-moving or bottom-dwelling species, especially among skates and rays, the spiracle may be enlarged, and the fish breathes by sucking water through this opening, instead of through the mouth.


title: Gill

text: Chimaeras differ from other cartilagenous fish, having lost both the spiracle and the fifth gill slit. The remaining slits are covered by an operculum, developed from the septum of the gill arch in front of the first gill.


title: Gill

text: In bony fish, the gills lie in a branchial chamber covered by a bony operculum. The great majority of bony fish species have five pairs of gills, although a few have lost some over the course of evolution. The operculum can be important in adjusting the pressure of water inside of the pharynx to allow proper ventilation of the gills, so bony fish do not have to rely on ram ventilation (and hence near constant motion) to breathe. Valves inside the mouth keep the water from escaping.


title: Gill

text: The gill arches of bony fish typically have no septum, so the gills alone project from the arch, supported by individual gill rays. Some species retain gill rakers. Though all but the most primitive bony fish lack spiracles, the pseudobranch associated with them often remains, being located at the base of the operculum. This is, however, often greatly reduced, consisting of a small mass of cells without any remaining gill-like structure.


title: Gill

text: Marine teleosts also use their gills to excrete osmolytes (e.g. Na⁺, Cl). The gills' large surface area tends to create a problem for fish that seek to regulate the osmolarity of their internal fluids. Seawater contains more osmolytes than the fish's internal fluids, so marine fishes naturally lose water through their gills via osmosis. To regain the water, marine fishes drink large amounts of sea water while simultaneously expending energy to excrete salt through the Na/K-ATPase ionocytes (formerly known as mitochondrion-rich cells and chloride cells). Conversely, fresh water contains less osmolytes than the fish's internal fluids. Therefore, freshwater fishes must utilize their gill ionocytes to attain ions from their environment to maintain optimal blood osmolarity.


title: Gill

text: Lampreys and hagfish do not have gill slits as such. Instead, the gills are contained in spherical pouches, with a circular opening to the outside. Like the gill slits of higher fish, each pouch contains two gills. In some cases, the openings may be fused together, effectively forming an operculum. Lampreys have seven pairs of pouches, while hagfishes may have six to fourteen, depending on the species. In the hagfish, the pouches connect with the pharynx internally and a separate tube which has no respiratory tissue (the pharyngocutaneous duct) develops beneath the pharynx proper, expelling ingested debris by closing a valve at its anterior end. Lungfish larvae also have external gills, as does the primitive ray-finned fish "Polypterus", though the latter has a structure different from amphibians.


title: Gill

text: Tadpoles of amphibians have from three to five gill slits that do not contain actual gills. Usually no spiracle or true operculum is present, though many species have operculum-like structures. Instead of internal gills, they develop three feathery external gills that grow from the outer surface of the gill arches. Sometimes, adults retain these, but they usually disappear at metamorphosis. Examples of salamanders that retain their external gills upon reaching adulthood are the olm and the mudpuppy.


title: Gill

text: Still, some extinct tetrapod groups did retain true gills. A study on "Archegosaurus" demonstrates that it had internal gills like true fish.


title: Gill

text: Crustaceans, molluscs, and some aquatic insects have tufted gills or plate-like structures on the surfaces of their bodies. Gills of various types and designs, simple or more elaborate, have evolved independently in the past, even among the same class of animals. The segments of polychaete worms bear parapodia many of which carry gills. Sponges lack specialised respiratory structures, and the whole of the animal acts as a gill as water is drawn through its spongy structure.


title: Gill

text: Aquatic arthropods usually have gills which are in most cases modified appendages. In some crustaceans these are exposed directly to the water, while in others, they are protected inside a gill chamber. Horseshoe crabs have book gills which are external flaps, each with many thin leaf-like membranes.


title: Gill

text: Many marine invertebrates such as bivalve molluscs are filter feeders. A current of water is maintained through the gills for gas exchange, and food particles are filtered out at the same time. These may be trapped in mucus and moved to the mouth by the beating of cilia.


title: Gill

text: Respiration in the echinoderms (such as starfish and sea urchins) is carried out using a very primitive version of gills called papulae. These thin protuberances on the surface of the body contain diverticula of the water vascular system.


title: Gill

text: The gills of aquatic insects are tracheal, but the air tubes are sealed, commonly connected to thin external plates or tufted structures that allow diffusion. The oxygen in these tubes is renewed through the gills. In the larval dragonfly, the wall of the caudal end of the alimentary tract (rectum) is richly supplied with tracheae as a rectal gill, and water pumped into and out of the rectum provides oxygen to the closed tracheae.


title: Gill

text: A plastron is a type of structural adaptation occurring among some aquatic arthropods (primarily insects), a form of inorganic gill which holds a thin film of atmospheric oxygen in an area with small openings called spiracles that connect to the tracheal system. The plastron typically consists of dense patches of hydrophobic setae on the body, which prevent water entry into the spiracles, but may also involve scales or microscopic ridges projecting from the cuticle. The physical properties of the interface between the trapped air film and surrounding water allow gas exchange through the spiracles, almost as if the insect were in atmospheric air. Carbon dioxide diffuses into the surrounding water due to its high solubility, while oxygen diffuses into the film as the concentration within the film has been reduced by respiration, and nitrogen also diffuses out as its tension has been increased. Oxygen diffuses into the air film at a higher rate than nitrogen diffuses out. However, water surrounding the insect can become oxygen-depleted if there is no water movement, so many such insects in still water actively direct a flow of water over their bodies.


title: Gill

text: The inorganic gill mechanism allows aquatic insects with plastrons to remain constantly submerged. Examples include many beetles in the family Elmidae, aquatic weevils, and true bugs in the family Aphelocheiridae, as well as at least one species of ricinuleid arachnid. A somewhat similar mechanism is used by the diving bell spider, which maintains an underwater bubble that exchanges gas like a plastron. Other diving insects (such as backswimmers, and hydrophilid beetles) may carry trapped air bubbles, but deplete the oxygen more quickly, and thus need constant replenishment.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: The Sonora Cartel, also known as Caro Quintero Organization, was a Mexico based criminal cartel. Upon the cartel's disintegration, its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: The Sonora Cartel was considered by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to be one of the oldest and best-established cartels. The Sonora cartel was headed by Miguel Caro Quintero, brother to Guadalajara Cartel co-founder Rafael Caro Quintero, and operated out of Hermosillo, Agua Prieta, Guadalajara and Culiacán, as well as the Mexican states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora. The Sonora cartel's roots are in the Guadalajara Cartel, which dissolved after the 1989 arrest of its co-founder, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. The Sonora cartel had direct links to Colombian drug cartels and operated routes into California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Rafael Caro Quintero was arrested in Costa Rica in 1985 in connection with the torture and death of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Miguel Caro Quintero would eventually be arrested in 1989, however it was believed he still maintained control over the organization from behind bars. By 2007, however, the Sinaloa Cartel had acquired the Sonora Cartel.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: The Sonora Cartel is believed to be one of the earliest cartels to begin shipping cocaine from Colombia, particularly from the Cali Cartel. The cartel was involved in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana primarily, however secondary functions include the transportation and distribution of methamphetamine.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Operating out of northern central Mexico, the cartel was believed to smuggle drugs into Arizona, Texas and California from a network of ranches along the northern border region where the drugs are stored prior to shipment. The Sonora Cartel has been specifically linked to operating out of Hermosillo and Agua Prieta in Sonora, but also less so in Guadalajara in Jalisco, Culiacán in Sinaloa, and the States of Nayarit and Durango.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Acquired by the Sinaloa Cartel by 2007, the Sonora Cartel was reported as defunct at the time of Miguel Angel Caro Quintero's conviction in 2010.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Despite their eventual releases from prison, the Caro Quintero brothers have lost influence in the Mexican drug business, with ex-DEA agent Mike Vigil even stating in the June 2020 that Rafael Caro Quintero "will fall before he dies of old age." Vigil also revealed that Sinaloa Cartel's Los Salazar affiliate was now a major figure in Sonora's drug trafficking business. However, both Rafael and Miguel Caro Quintero had recently rejected offers to join the Sinaloa Cartel due to a fallout with the sons of imprisoned former leader Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán over leadership status. Despite this, both were said to be on good terms with de jure Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who was now in poor health.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Miguel Caro Quintero was born in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico, in 1963. Previously arrested in 1992 on charges of tax evasion, he was found not guilty, which the DEA attributes to the use of threats and bribes by Caro Quintero. While imprisoned, it is believed Caro Quintero was still running the Sonora Cartel, where he is purging a prison sentence for racketeering, drug smuggling and money laundering. Caro Quintero was arrested in December 2001 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Prior to his arrest he repeatedly stated he is innocent of the charges and has accused the DEA of pursuing a vendetta against him for his brother, Rafael Caro Quintero's, alleged role in the death of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Miguel Caro Quintero is noted as having called into a radio station to profess his innocence, stating: "If I had a cartel, I'd have a lot of money and my brother wouldn't be there (in jail)" and claiming to be an innocent rancher. He further stated he does not believe his brother was involved in the killing of the DEA agent.


title: Sonora Cartel

text: Rafael Caro Quintero is the co-founder, with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, of the Guadalajara Cartel and Sonora Cartel. He was arrested in Costa Rica on April 4, 1985, for the kidnapping, torture and murder of federal agent Enrique Camarena, and was also charged with violent crimes in aid of racketeering, possession with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine, murder, continuing criminal enterprise.


title: French braid

text: A French braid, also called a French plait, is a type of braided hairstyle. The three-strand gathered plait includes three sections of hair that are braided together from the crown of the head to the nape of the neck.


title: French braid

text: In the simplest form of three-strand braid, all the hair is initially divided into three sections, which are then simultaneously gathered together near the scalp. In contrast, a French braid starts with three small sections of hair near the crown of the head, which are then braided together toward the nape of the neck, gradually adding more hair to each section as it crosses in from the side into the center of the braid structure. The final result incorporates all of the hair into a smoothly woven pattern over the scalp.


title: French braid

text: If the main mass of hair is initially parted into two or more sections along the scalp that are kept separate from one another, multiple French braids may be created, each in its own section. One unique feature about the French braid is that an individual can braid their own hair without the help of others. (The difficulty of braiding can depend on the type of hair the individual has, however, as some styles of hair are easier to braid than others.) The length of hair also plays a role in the ability to braid; shorter hair can be more of a challenge. Bobby pins can be useful when braiding shorter hair or hair with many different layers to keep all of the hair in the French braid in place. There are many different ways of French braiding that make it unique; for example, a person can braid at a slant, braid into a bun, or only braid the bangs (fringe).


title: French braid

text: Compared to the simplest form of hair braid, a French braid has several practical advantages: it can restrain hair from the top of the head that is too short to reach the nape of the neck, and it spreads the weight and tension of the braid across a larger portion of the scalp. Its sleek appearance is often regarded as being elegant and sophisticated. A French braid is more difficult to construct than a simple braid because of its greater complexity. When performed on one's own hair, it also requires a more prolonged elevation of the hands above the back of the head, and leaves more tangled hair along the scalp when unbraiding.


title: French braid

text: In this style of braid, start on top of the head and braid it till the end of the hair. Braiding in this manner can be done with different braid types but the most popular are the classic braid and the fishtail braid. A sister braid to the French braid is the Spanish braid. The Spanish braid is like a French braid but in the beginning, instead of grabbing three sections of hair, only two are used.


title: French braid

text: The phrase "French braid" appears in an 1871 issue of "Arthur's Home Magazine", used in a piece of short fiction ("Our New Congressman" by March Westland) that describes it as a new hairstyle ("do up your hair in that new French braid"). However, no visual illustrations are provided for that context, making it impossible to tell whether it refers to the same hairstyle described above.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket Wystri Warrick, commonly known as Wicket W. Warrick, is a fictional character from the "Star Wars" franchise, first introduced and portrayed by Warwick Davis in the 1983 film "Return of the Jedi". Warrick appeared in two made-for-television movies, an animated series, and promotional media for "Star Wars" from 1983 to 1986, all of which are a part of the "Star Wars" Legends continuity. Davis reprised the role in the 2019 theatrical film "The Rise of Skywalker", appearing in a brief cameo. Wicket is a diminutive teddy bear-like creature known as an Ewok, living on the forest moon of Endor and eventually participating in the Battle of Endor as an ally of the Rebel Alliance.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: In concluding his original "Star Wars" trilogy, George Lucas had foreseen the decisive battle in the Galactic Civil War taking place between the Wookiees and the Empire; however, he considered Chewbacca too skilled with technology, and wanted a more primitive species than the Wookiees to defeat the Empire. A few different creatures, such as the stilt-legged Yuzzums, were proposed before the diminutive bear-like design of the Ewoks was settled on. Although neither the word Ewok nor any of the Ewok names are actually mentioned in "Return of the Jedi", a handful of Ewoks were named by the production, mentioned in the novelization, and first appeared in the Kenner action figure line based on the movie.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: The main focal point of this new Ewok species was to be Wicket Wystri Warrick, a small young male scout and warrior. Generally considered to be the most well known of the Ewoks, Wicket would be given the lead role in almost all subsequent Ewok related media released after "Return of the Jedi".


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket was portrayed by Warwick Davis in 1983's "Return of the Jedi". The then 11-year-old actor came to be involved in the film after his grandmother heard a radio ad calling for short actors. Davis began work on the film in January 1982. Originally cast as a generic Ewok, Davis caught the eye of George Lucas with aspects of his performance, such as his ability to stick his tongue through his Ewok mask and the inquisitive tilting of his head (which was inspired by Davis' dog). Kenny Baker (who also portrayed R2-D2) was originally set to take the role of Wicket; however, Baker fell ill with food poisoning, and Davis was called in as a replacement.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: The character made his first appearance in the 1983 film "Return of the Jedi". Wicket was the first Ewok to appear on screen, encountering Princess Leia Organa after she survived her speeder bike chase, bringing her to his tree-top Ewok village, and making contact with the Rebel Alliance during the Battle of Endor. Wicket was also featured in the later village scenes, as well as helping the Alliance during the Battle of Endor itself, attacking Imperial stormtroopers with his slingshot.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: At the end of "The Rise of Skywalker", Wicket makes a brief appearance alongside Pommet Warrick, his son, celebrating the defeat of Darth Sidious and the Sith Eternal. Warwick Davis reprised his character role, alongside his real life son Harrison Davis, who played Pommet.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: In April 2014 (with the sequel film "The Force Awakens" in production), Lucasfilm separated the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe (rebranded as "Star Wars Legends") from official "Star Wars" canon.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket was featured in the 1984 TV film "The Ewok Adventure" (set before "Return of the Jedi"), theatrically released as "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure". In the film, he accompanies stranded brother and sister Mace and Cindel Towani as he and the Ewoks help find and rescue the children's missing parents from the giant Gorax. Wicket is revealed to be the son of Deej and Shodu, and has two older brothers, Weechee and Widdle.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket would return the following year in a sequel, "". In this film, Wicket helps Cindel and new allies Noa (Wilfred Brimley) and Teek defeat King Terak and his Sanyassan Marauders. This film strengthened the bonds between Wicket and Cindel, with Wicket rescuing his family and learning to speak some Galactic Basic (which he seems to have forgotten by the time of "Return of the Jedi").


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket was the main character in the animated series "Ewoks", which ran for two seasons in 1985 and 1986, consisting of 35 episodes. This children's cartoon series, set in the fictional Bright Tree Village, mostly featured the antics of Wicket and his family (in line with the TV movies). Wicket's friends Kneesaa and Latara were introduced, and further backstories for existing Ewok characters Teebo, Paploo, Chief Chirpa, and Logray were established. The series's would also often showcase Wicket and the Ewoks' battles with the Duloks, Morag the witch, and other creatures on the moon of Endor.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: In the 1980s, Wicket was heavily featured in several promotional items, toys, children's books, read-along records and cassettes and comic books.


title: Wicket W. Warrick

text: Wicket and the Ewoks are a controversial addition to "Return of the Jedi" and the Star Wars Universe in general, and are seen by some to be the weakest link of the original trilogy. According to Tami Katzoff of MTV News, "a prevailing theory among Ewok-haters is that the creatures were originally conceived as a sure way to appeal to small children and sell plush toys to their parents." The Ewoks have some defenders, and have proven to be very popular with children from their introduction in the 1980s to the present day.