title: Citadel of Qaitbay

text: As the Ottoman military became weak, the Citadel began to lose its military importance. In 1798 AD, during the French expedition of Egypt, it fell into the hands of the French troops, mainly because of the weakness of the Citadel garrison, and the power of the French modern weapons at that time. Inside, the French found some crusader weapons, which dated back to the campaign of Louis IX. These may have been spoils from the Battle of Al Mansurah.


title: Citadel of Qaitbay

text: When Muhammad Ali Pasha became the ruler of Egypt in 1805, he renovated the old Citadel, restoring and repairing its outer ramparts, and he provided the stronghold with the most modern weapons of the period, particularly the littoral cannons. We can consider the reign of Mohammed Ali as being another golden era for the Citadel.


title: Citadel of Qaitbay

text: The Citadel retained the interest of Mohammed Ali's successors until the year 1882 when the Orabi Revolt took place. The British fleet bombarded Alexandria on 11 July 1882 and damaged a large part of the city, especially in the area of the Citadel. This attack cracked the fortress, causing great damage. The north and western facades were severely damaged as a result of cannon explosions, aimed directly at the structure. The western facade was completely destroyed, leaving large gaps in it.


title: Citadel of Qaitbay

text: The Citadel then remained neglected, until 1904 when the Ministry of Defence restored the Upper floors. King Farouk wanted to turn the Citadel into a royal rest house so he ordered a rapid renovation on it.


title: Citadel of Qaitbay

text: After the revolution of 1952 the Egyptian Naval troops turned the building into a Maritime Museum. The biggest restoration work dates to 1984, when the Egyptian Antiquities Organization made ambitious plans to restore the fort.


title: Ed Henry

text: Edward Michael Henry Jr. (born July 20, 1971) is an American journalist. Henry was the co-host of "America's Newsroom" on the Fox News Channel, along with Sandra Smith. On June 20, 2011, he left CNN, to become the Fox News White House Correspondent. On July 1, 2020, he was fired after an investigation by the network into allegations of sexual misconduct, which he contests.


title: Ed Henry

text: Henry was born July 20, 1971, in the Astoria neighborhood of the borough of Queens, New York City, New York, the son of a dairy-manager father and a bookkeeper mother. He attended St. Joseph's Grammar School until the family moved to Deer Park, New York, on Long Island. He then attended St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School, in nearby West Islip. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from Siena College in Loudonville, New York. He began his career with Jack Anderson.


title: Ed Henry

text: In 2003, he began providing political analysis for the "WMAL Morning News" and "The Chris Core Show", two local radio shows on WMAL, Washington, D.C.


title: Ed Henry

text: He covered Capitol Hill for "Roll Call" for eight years, writing that newspaper's "Heard on the Hill" column, and has been a contributing editor at "Washingtonian". He was a 2011–12 member of the board of associate trustees at Siena College, his alma mater.


title: Ed Henry

text: Henry was the moderator of CNN's "Inside Politics". After covering the White House for CNN since March 2006, Henry became CNN's senior White House correspondent in December 2008.


title: Ed Henry

text: Starting in 2022 Henry is co host with Karyn Turk on the Real America's Voice TV's weekday morning show.


title: Ed Henry

text: On June 20, 2011, it was announced that Henry was leaving CNN to become the Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel. CNN insiders said that network management had already told Henry that his contract would not be renewed. In 2012, Henry said he had no regrets about leaving CNN. He also worked as one of the hosts of "Fox and Friends Weekend" and as the chief national correspondent. He last worked as the co-host of the TV show "America's Newsroom", along with Sandra Smith. In 2016, Henry was suspended for four months after media reports revealed his affair with a Las Vegas cocktail hostess.


title: Ed Henry

text: On June 25, 2020, Fox News suspended Henry following an allegation of sexual misconduct. After investigating the incident, the network fired Henry on July 1. In an internal memo announcing the firing, Fox News commented that the network "strictly prohibits sexual harassment, misconduct, and discrimination". Henry denied the allegation, and his lawyer said he remains confident of his eventual vindication. A federal lawsuit alleged Henry raped a woman he had "groomed" and "coerced" into having a sexual relationship when she did not comply. The lawsuit, filed by Douglas Wigdor and Michael Willemin on behalf of Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu, also alleges Fox News supported and promoted Henry after receiving complaints of sexually inappropriate behavior and only fired him earlier in [July 2020] because they were aware of an impending lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges Henry sexually harassed both women and raped Eckhart.


title: Ed Henry

text: Henry received the 2005 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress from the National Press Foundation. Henry provided breaking news coverage for CNN's "America Votes 2004", as well as an exclusive March 2005 interview with Jeb Bush about the Florida governor's inability to intercede for Terri Schiavo. The NPF judges stated:


title: Ed Henry

text: In 2008, the White House Correspondents' Association presented Henry with the Merriman Smith Award (in the broadcast category) for presidential reporting under deadline pressure. Henry won for his February 14, 2007, news coverage of the Bush administration's irreconcilable assertions that Iranian officials were behind the authorization to send improvised explosive devices to Iraq. The panel of judges wrote that Henry's reports on CNN "got better with each ensuing update throughout the day".


title: Ed Henry

text: Henry married Shirley Hung, a CNN senior producer, in June 2010 in Las Vegas. The couple have two children.


title: Ed Henry

text: In 2019, Henry donated a part of his liver to save his sister, Colleen (born May 1973), who had been diagnosed with liver failure.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth ( , ; meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the parliamentary constituency of Monmouth. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8,877 in 2001. Monmouth is the historic county town of Monmouthshire although Abergavenny is now the county town.


title: Monmouth

text: The town was the site of a small Roman fort, Blestium, and became established after the Normans built Monmouth Castle . The medieval stone gated bridge is the only one of its type remaining in Britain. The castle later came into the possession of the House of Lancaster, and was the birthplace of King Henry V in 1386. In 1536, it became the county town of Monmouthshire.


title: Monmouth

text: A market town and a focus of educational and cultural activities for the surrounding rural area, Monmouth has become a tourism centre at the heart of the Wye Valley.


title: Monmouth

text: The name Monmouth is an English contraction of 'Monnow-mouth'. The Welsh name for the river, "Mynwy", which may originally have meant "fast-flowing", was anglicised as Monnow. The town was originally known in Welsh as "Abermynwy" ("mouth of the Monnow"), replaced by "Trefynwy" ("Monnow town" – the initial "m" of "Mynwy" mutating in Welsh to "f" pronounced /v/) by the 1600s.


title: Monmouth

text: Excavations undertaken by the Monmouth Archaeological Society on sites along Monnow Street have uncovered details of the early history of the town. The Council for British Archaeology has designated Monmouth as one of the top ten towns in Britain for archaeology.


title: Monmouth

text: Evidence of a Bronze Age boat building community, including three long channels adjoining the site of a now-vanished lake, was discovered in September 2013, during archaeological investigations by the Monmouth Archaeological Society of the Parc Glyndwr housing development site, immediately north-west of the town.


title: Monmouth

text: The excavations later revealed the remains of a Neolithic dwelling. The dwelling was constructed on stilts on a human-made island away from the lake shore in water up to deep. Oak timbers had been "skillfully" cut with stone or flint axes to form stilts, of posts and poles, which "probably" rested on three parallel fully-grown tree 'sleeper beams', up to wide, laid horizontally on the lakebed. Timbers from the structure were radiocarbon dated to 4867 years before present (BP).


title: Monmouth

text: The first recorded settlement at Monmouth was the small Roman fort of "Blestium", one of a network of military bases established on the frontiers of the Roman occupation. This was connected by road to the larger Roman towns at "Glevum" (Gloucester) and "Isca Augusta" (Caerleon). Archaeologists have found Roman pottery and coins within the modern town centre. During the later Roman period, between the 2nd and late 4th centuries, it appears to have been a centre for iron working, using the local iron ores and charcoal also worked at nearby "Gobannium" (Abergavenny) and "Ariconium" (near Ross-on-Wye).


title: Monmouth

text: After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the area was at the southern edge of the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng. The only evidence of continuing settlement at Monmouth is a record of a 7th-century church, at an unknown location within the town, dedicated to the Welsh saint Cadoc. In 1056, the area was devastated by the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, on his way with an army of Welsh, Saxons and Danes to defeat Ralph, Earl of Hereford, and sack the Saxon "burh" at Hereford, to the north.


title: Monmouth

text: Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Earldom of Hereford was given to William FitzOsbern of Breteuil, Normandy, one of King William's closest allies, who was responsible for defending the area against the Welsh. A new castle was built at Monmouth, holding commanding views over the surrounding area from a sound defensive site and exerting control over both river crossings and the area's important resources of farmland, timber and minerals. Initially it would have been a motte and bailey castle, later rebuilt in stone, and refortified and developed over time. A town grew up around it, and a Benedictine priory was established around 1075 by Withenoc, a Breton who became lord of Monmouth after Roger, the son of William fitzOsbern, was disgraced. The priory may have once been the residence of the monk Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was born around 1100 and is best known for writing the chronicle "Historia Regum Britanniae" ("History of the Kings of Britain").


title: Monmouth

text: The town was recorded in the Domesday Book as part of Herefordshire, and expanded thereafter. There was early burgage development along Monnow Street, and the suburb of Overmonnow, west of the river and protected by a defensive moat called the Clawdd-du or Black ditch, began to develop by the 12th century. Charters from the period refer to the town's trade in iron, and to forges making use of local ore and charcoal. The cinders produced by the forges formed heaps, and were used in building foundations; the name of Cinderhill Street in Overmonnow dates from this period.


title: Monmouth

text: During the period of turmoil between the supporters of King Henry III and the barons who sought to curtail his power, the town was the scene of a major battle in 1233, in which the king's forces were routed by the troops of Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. Later, the castle was extended by Henry's son Edmund Crouchback, after he became Earl of Lancaster in 1267. In about 1300, town walls were built, and the bridge over the Monnow was fortified. The bridge, now pedestrianised, remains in place today, the only such fortified bridge in Britain and reputedly one of only three similar crossings in Europe.


title: Monmouth

text: King Edward II was briefly imprisoned at Monmouth Castle in 1326 after being overthrown by his wife Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, the Earl of March. In the mid 14th century, the castle and town came into the possession of the House of Lancaster through the marriage of John of Gaunt to Blanche of Lancaster. John of Gaunt strengthened the castle, adding the Great Hall, and the castle became a favourite residence of the House of Lancaster. In 1387, John of Gaunt's grandson was born to Mary de Bohun, in the Queen's Chamber within the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle, while his father Henry Bolingbroke was hunting in the area. The boy was known as Henry of Monmouth before his coronation as Henry V; supported by longbowmen from the area, he won the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Monmouth's links with Henry are commemorated in the naming of the main town square, Agincourt Square, and in the statue of Henry on the front of the Shire Hall.


title: Monmouth

text: From the 14th century onwards, the town became noted for the production of woollen Monmouth caps. However, as a border town, its prosperity suffered after nearby areas, including Usk and Grosmont, were devastated through attacks by supporters of Owain Glyndŵr around 1405, though Monmouth itself did not come under attack.


title: Monmouth

text: In 1536, Henry VIII imposed the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, abolishing the powers of the Marcher Lords and integrating the administration of England and Wales. A new shire was created covering the area west of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, and Monmouth became its county town. The town gained representation in the English Parliament at the same time, and its priory was dissolved. In 1605, James I granted Monmouth a town charter by letters patent. The granting of the charter included the charge that the town "at all perpetual future times ... be and remain a town and borough of Peace and Quiet, to the example and terror of the wicked and reward of the good". The layout of the town as depicted in Speed's map of 1610 would be easily recognisable to present day inhabitants, with the layout of the main axis clearly visible from the castle via the main street, Monnow Street, to the bridge. Monnow Street is a typical market street, in being wide in the middle (for those selling) and narrow at each end, to help prevent livestock escaping.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth School was founded by William Jones in 1614. The castle changed hands three times during the English Civil War, and Oliver Cromwell passed through on his way to retaking Chepstow Castle and laying siege to Pembroke Castle in 1648. Monmouth castle was slighted after the wars ended, but the town itself grew in prosperity. Great Castle House, built in 1673, is now the home of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia), the oldest regiment in the British Army. The Shire Hall was built in 1724, and was used for the local Assizes, with the area beneath the building serving as the town market.


title: Monmouth

text: By the end of the 18th century, the town had become a popular centre for visitors undertaking the "Wye Tour", an excursion by boat through the scenic Wye Valley taking in the picturesque sights of Ross-on-Wye, Goodrich, Tintern, Chepstow and elsewhere. Poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and Robert Southey, as well as painter J. M. W. Turner, were among those who visited the area.


title: Monmouth

text: The town was visited in 1802 by Admiral Horatio Nelson, who knew the importance of the area's woodland in providing timber for the British Navy and approved a Naval Temple built in his honour on the nearby Kymin Hill. Wooden ships up to 500 tons were built at a shipyard just south of Monmouth bridge until the new bridge at Chepstow was opened in 1816. Priory Street, the town's first bypass, was built in the 1830s, with the town slaughterhouse beneath. In 1840, at Monmouth's Shire Hall, Chartist protesters John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones became the last men in Britain to be sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered after being found guilty of treason following riots in Newport that led to 20 deaths. The sentences were later commuted to transportation to Van Diemen's Land.


title: Monmouth

text: Until the establishment of an official police force in 1857, Monmouth had a parish constable assisted by beadles to keep law and order. The appointed constables held office for a year and were often men who had experience in other local government or community roles. William Fuller who held office as Monmouth's constable for over twenty years in the early to mid 19th century, also served as Inspector of Nuisances, Chief of the Fire Brigade, Inspector of Weights and Measures, Clerk of the Market, and Conservator of the Wye.


title: Monmouth

text: Fuller is also recorded as having rescued people from drowning, acted as emergency midwife, and rescued a woman from a flooded house. The types of crime that Fuller and subsequent police officers had to deal with in and around Monmouth as the century progressed were recorded in detail in the local newspapers, the "Merlin" and the "Monmouthshire Beacon". These crimes included theft of livestock, clothing, food, valuables, fuel (wood and coal); assault; vandalism; highway robbery; fraud; passing counterfeit coin; prostitution, and indecent exposure, as well as the more serious crimes of concealing the death of an infant, carnal knowledge without consent, and murder. The constable would have been present in court at Shire Hall when many of these cases came before the Quarter Sessions or Assizes. Once the court had passed sentence there was a wide range of punishments available to the authorities. Capital offences were dealt with at Monmouth County Gaol, as were whippings and sentences of hard labour. Although a police force of four constables and a sergeant was established in Monmouth in 1836, uncertain finances meant that within two years the force was reduced to just two constables.


title: Monmouth

text: Four railways were built to serve Monmouth between 1857 and 1883: the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway, the Ross and Monmouth Railway, the Wye Valley Railway, and the Coleford Railway. All of these closed between 1917 and 1964.


title: Monmouth

text: In 1896 a hydroelectric power station was built on the River Monnow at Osbaston, providing electrical power to the town until 1953. A new hydroelectric station was built on the same site and has operated since 2009, typically generating 670,000kWh annually.


title: Monmouth

text: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Monmouth had close links with the Rolls family, who built a mansion at The Hendre just outside the town. In 1904, Charles Rolls established a new car making business with Henry Royce, but in 1910 he was killed in an aeroplane crash at the age of 32; he is commemorated by a statue in Agincourt Square. St Mary's Church contains a memorial to the men of who died in HMS "Monmouth", which was sunk with all hands on 1 November 1914, by German cruisers SMS "Scharnhorst" and SMS "Gneisenau" off the Chilean Coast at the Battle of Coronel during the First World War; the church hosts an annual service in remembrance. Seven Royal Navy ships have been named after the town, including a Type 23 frigate launched in 1991 which is still in operation.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth remained a relatively sedate and quiet small town for most of the 20th century; its passenger rail services ended in 1959, but its road connections greatly improved with the new A40 bypassing the town in 1966, and later connecting the town to the motorway system. These improved communications contributed to the development of the town, with suburbs extending beyond the rivers Wye and Monnow to the south-east, west and north of the old town centre.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth is the focus of MonmouthpediA, the first Wikipedia GLAM project to cover a whole town, creating Wikipedia articles on interesting and notable features and aspects of the town. It uses QRpedia QR codes to deliver articles to users, in English, Welsh or alternative languages.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth is in an area of Devonian age Old Red Sandstone, at the point where the River Wye is joined by its tributary, the River Monnow, and immediately north of the point at which the smaller River Trothy flows into the Wye from the west. Immediately to the south, the Wye enters a valley, incised into sandstone and, in particular, Carboniferous Limestone. The town is surrounded by wooded hills to its north, east and south, including Buckholt Wood (), The Kymin (), and The Graig (), with more gently undulating terrain to the west. The town centre itself is sited on a low-lying spur between the floodplains of the Wye and Monnow, and has frequently suffered from severe flooding. The water-meadows to the north and south of the town centre, known respectively as Vauxhall Fields and Chippenham Mead, have generally remained free of development.


title: Monmouth

text: In climatic terms, the town is located between those areas around the Severn Estuary which show a maritime influence, and the cooler and drier conditions of the English Midlands further inland. The nearby Ross-on-Wye weather station shows average daily maximum temperatures ranging from in January to in July, with 1504 hours of sunshine per year, and an average annual rainfall of .


title: Monmouth

text: Since 1966, the A40 dual carriageway road runs past Monmouth linking with the M50 motorway at Ross-on-Wye. South of the town, the road passes through a short tunnel beneath Gibraltar Hill. It follows the River Wye valley from the northeast of Monmouth. The A466 road, also known as the Wye Valley Road, crosses the A40, linking Chepstow and Hereford, and provides access to the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway. The distances of airports from Monmouth are, Bristol Airport , Cardiff Airport and London Heathrow Airport . Regular but infrequent bus services run between the town and Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Coleford, Chepstow, Newport and Abergavenny. Monmouth has been without passenger rail services since January 1959; goods trains ran until 1964. Monmouth's main railway station, known as Monmouth Troy, was a coal distribution depot and a base for heavy goods vehicles for many years after its closure as a part of the rail network, but the building has now been dismantled and re-erected at Winchcombe railway station on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. The other station at Monmouth was Monmouth May Hill on the Ross and Monmouth Railway, built on the opposite bank of the Wye to the town centre. This operated for many years as Monmouth Sawmills and Gas Works after its closure as part of the rail network.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth is administered by Monmouthshire County Council, one of the 22 unitary local authorities in Wales formed in 1996. Its offices were located until 2012 at the former Gwent County Hall at Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran; most staff are now in offices at Usk and Magor. The town elects five county councillors, for the wards of Dixton with Osbaston, Drybridge, Overmonnow,Town and Wyesham; currently, all councillors are Welsh Labour and independent. The town also has its own town council, comprising 19 councillors elected every five years.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth had a mayor and burgesses in medieval times, and the town gained its first charter, from Henry VI, in 1447. It was included within the Hundred of Skenfrith after the county of Monmouthshire was formed. Following the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, the town elected a borough council, comprising a mayor, aldermen and councillors. In 1974 that corporation was abolished, and the town became part of the much larger Monmouth District (becoming Monmouth Borough in 1988), which until 1996 formed one of the five districts of Gwent.


title: Monmouth

text: The town was first represented in Parliament in 1536, when it was allocated one seat and the shire two further seats. By the late 17th century, the electorate of the three seats comprised the resident freemen of Monmouth, Newport and Usk, and after the Great Reform Act of 1832 the constituency was generally referred to as the Monmouth Boroughs. The Representation of the People Act 1918 led to Newport becoming a parliamentary borough in its own right, and Monmouth was included in the new Monmouth county constituency. The town has remained part of the Monmouth constituency in subsequent elections, although the constituency boundary has changed several times. Notable Members of Parliament (MPs) for the area have included the industrialist Crawshay Bailey from 1852 to 1868; Peter Thorneycroft, Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1957–58 and Chairman of the Conservative Party 1975–81, who was the town's MP from 1945 to 1966; and John Stradling Thomas, MP from 1970 to 1991. The constituency has returned a Conservative MP at most recent elections; the current member is David Davies, first elected in 2005. In elections for the Senedd, the town is part of the Monmouth constituency; the current MS is Peter Fox (Conservative). Until January 2020, Monmouth was within the Wales constituency for the European Parliament.


title: Monmouth

text: The Laws in Wales Acts created an anomaly in that, although Monmouthshire was noted as being in the 'Country or Dominion of Wales', it was made directly responsible to the courts of Westminster rather than falling under the Court of Great Sessions in Wales. Ecclesiastically, until 1836 the town of Monmouth fell within the diocese of Hereford, rather than that of Llandaff. These arrangements gave rise to the widespread belief that the area was part of England rather than Wales, although most legislation for Wales was applied to it using the phrase "Wales and Monmouthshire". Following the Welsh Church Act 1914, the Church in Wales established the Diocese of Monmouth in 1921, and in 1949, Monmouthshire was included within the remit of the Council for Wales and Monmouthshire, an appointed precursor of the Welsh Office. The issue of whether Monmouth should be considered as part of Wales for administrative purposes was finally clarified in law by the Local Government Act 1972, which incorporated Monmouthshire within Wales.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth developed primarily as a market town, and agricultural centre, rather than as a centre of industry. The wool industry was important in its early growth, and the town was a centre for the production of the very popular knitted and felted Monmouth caps, from the 15th century onwards. Historically, Monmouth also had iron and tinplate works, together with paper and corn mills. The town was also an important river port, with warehouses and wharves along the Wye later removed for the building of the A40 relief road.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth is now primarily a centre for service industries and tourism, and its good road communications have encouraged commuting to larger centres in the West Midlands, South Wales, and Bristol. The Monmouth and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce represents businesses in the town and aims to support and encourage their development.


title: Monmouth

text: The town has a variety of both national and independent shops, most situated along Monnow Street. There are a number of supermarkets, a range of banks and many independent cafes and restaurants. Church Street, a cobbled pedestrianised street, contains craft shops, a book shop, a traditional greengrocer, chemist, coffee shops and restaurants. Monmouth has been a Fairtrade town since 2005. A regular market takes place close to the Monnow Bridge, and occasionally in the traditional market place in Agincourt Square. There are numerous public houses in the centre of the town, including the Old Nags Head, the Queen's Head, the Punch House, the Griffin, the Gloucester, the Vinetree, the King's Head (Wetherspoon), the Three Horseshoes, the Green Dragon and the Gatehouse.


title: Monmouth

text: According to the 2001 census, Monmouth had relatively high proportions of its population working in the retail and wholesale sectors of the economy (19.5%, compared with 16.3% for Wales as a whole), education (11.8%, compared with 8.1% across Wales), and property services (10.8%, compared with 8.5% across Wales). The proportion working in manufacturing was lower than the average (16.5% compared with 17.3% across Wales), as was the proportion in public administration (4.3% compared with 6.8% across Wales). In terms of occupational groups, the proportion of residents in managerial and professional posts was higher than average (30.1% compared with 22.7% across Wales), and the proportions in administrative and processing work were lower (8.7% in each group, compared with 12.2% and 10.2% respectively across Wales).


title: Monmouth

text: The usual resident population in the 2001 census was 8,877. Of that total, 1,760 (19.8%) were aged 15 or younger; 1,227 (13.8%) between 16 and 29; 1,687 (21.1%) between 30 and 44; 1,849 (20.8%) between 45 and 59; 1,386 (15.6%) between 60 and 74; and 968 (10.9%) aged 75 or over. The median age of residents was 42, in comparison to a Wales-wide median age of 39. The town's population increased from 5,504 in 1961 to 8,877 in 2001, a growth of 61% over forty years.


title: Monmouth

text: There are three primary schools in the town: Kymin View, Osbaston, and Overmonnow. A Welsh language parent-and-toddler group "" operates with the support of .


title: Monmouth

text: The secondary schooling needs of the town are served by Monmouth Comprehensive School which had over 1,600 pupils in 2012. Welsh medium secondary education is provided at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in Pontypool. Monmouth also has independent schooling including; the Monmouth Schools, a group of four boarding and day schools. Monmouth University of the Third Age (U3A) offers educational and leisure activities for retired and semi-retired people.


title: Monmouth

text: Health care services are provided by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, part of the National Health Service. Following the closure of the Cottage Hospital in 2006, health services are provided at the Monnow Vale Integrated Health and Social Care Facility.


title: Monmouth

text: The "Bridges Community Centre" in Drybridge House adjacent to the Health and Social Care Facility provides support services to disadvantaged and vulnerable people.


title: Monmouth

text: In the 2001 census, 74.2% of the town's resident population gave their religion as Christian, with 16.7% stating "no religion". Minority religions included Muslim (0.2%), Sikh (0.2%), and Buddhist (0.2%).


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth contains churches of several denominations. Within the Church in Wales, the Monmouth Group of Parishes includes the Priory Church of St Mary, which holds regular weekly services. The church was founded as a Benedictine priory around 1075. It fell into ruin after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, but was rebuilt as a parish church in 1737, and then completely rebuilt again in 1882. The church spire is prominent in views of, and within, the town. Other Anglican churches in the local group of parishes are St Thomas' at Overmonnow, and the churches at Mitchel Troy, Wonastow and Buckholt. The Diocese of Monmouth, the cathedral of which is the Cathedral Church of St Woolos in Newport, is one of the six dioceses of the Church in Wales. The churches at Wyesham and Dixton, though within the boundaries of Wales, are administered by the Church of England, and fall within the Diocese of Hereford.


title: Monmouth

text: St Mary's Roman Catholic Church was the first Catholic church to be built in Wales after the Reformation, and its construction followed the relaxation of laws against Catholics in 1778. The building was extended on several occasions in the 19th century. Monmouth Methodist Church is noted for both its exterior and interior architectural features. The Baptist Church was founded in 1818, though the current church was not constructed until 1907. There is a Christian Fellowship church at Wyesham.


title: Monmouth

text: The town's small traditional theatre and cinema, the Savoy Theatre, on Church Street, is believed to be the oldest working theatre in Wales. Monmouth is also home to the Blake Theatre, which opened in 2004. Local performance groups include the Off Centre Theatre Company, Monmouth Operatic Society, Monmouth Choral Society, and the Merlin Society, one of the largest music societies in the country. The Monmouthshire Show (formerly the Monmouth Show) has been held each year, traditionally on the last Thursday of August, since 1919, though its history can be traced back to 1857. Prior to that there had been an agricultural society in the town dating back to the 1790s, which held ploughing competitions. The show, now held on the third Saturday in July, is the largest one-day agricultural show in Wales, with over 350 trade stands.


title: Monmouth

text: The Monmouth Museum, formerly the Nelson Museum, is home to one of the largest collections of Nelson material, bequeathed to the town by Lady Llangattock, mother of Charles Rolls. It also displays the only known example of an original Monmouth cap, dating from the 16th century. A small Regimental Museum established in 1989 is housed in Great Castle House, a former town house built on the site of part of Monmouth Castle. The Monmouth Festival, a free nine-day music festival, has been running every year since 1982 and is one of the largest free music festivals in Europe. The town also holds the Rockfield Country Music Festival and the Monmouth Women's Festival each year. An annual regatta is held, each May, and a raft race takes place each year for the St David's Foundation. Location scenes for two episodes of the BBC drama series "Doctor Who" were filmed in Monmouth: "The Unquiet Dead" (2005) and "The Next Doctor" (2008). Monmouth was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017. Monmouth was designated a Bee Town in 2020 and is host to the UK's only Bee Festival, which takes place in the Nelson Garden and Chippenham Fields. The Welsh language and culture are actively promoted in the area under the auspices of the Monmouth & District Welsh Society "(Cymdeithas Gymraeg Trefynwy a'r Cylch)". Monmouth is twinned with the French town of Carbonne, and Waldbronn in Germany.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth is home to Monmouth Town F.C., a football club founded around 1905 and enjoying a relatively successful run of form. Monmouth Town F.C. plays in the Ardal League South East (third tier) at the Chippenham Sports Ground, located at Blestium Street. The town has a leisure centre, on the site of the comprehensive school, with a 20m x 10m swimming pool. In 2011 the swimming pool underwent a £300,000 refurbishment. There is an 18-hole golf course on the edge of the town, as well as the Rolls Golf Club at The Hendre. Monmouth is also home to Monmouth Rowing Club, taking advantage of the River Wye. There are also cricket, bowls and rugby clubs. Monmouth is the current training base for the Welsh Men's National Lacrosse team. The team trained at Monmouth Girls School in preparation for the 2014 world championships.


title: Monmouth

text: Monmouth has been established as a tourist centre for some 200 years. It is in close proximity to the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. Tourist attractions within the town include the castle, the museum, the Nelson Garden and the Shire Hall where the Tourist Information Centre and visitor centre is located. The area is also attractive to walkers. Both the Offa's Dyke Path, a long-distance footpath beginning in Chepstow and finishing in North Wales, and the Wye Valley Walk passing through the town. In May 2020 the specialist international beekeeping charity organisation Bees for Development announced that Monmouth had become a "Bee Town", the first of its kind in the UK. As well as being home to the charity, the town hosts an annual Bee Festival" various bee-themed events, and its County and Town Councils have special policies in place for pollinators.


title: Monmouth

text: People associated with Monmouth include Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Oxford-based cleric, born in about 1100 and believed to be originally from the area, who wrote "Historia Regum Britanniae", the "History of British Kings". Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and Guardian of England, died at the castle in 1295, and King Edward II was briefly imprisoned there in 1326. The future Henry V, the victor at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, was born in the castle in 1386. Philip Evans, Jesuit priest and martyr, was born in the town in 1645.


title: Monmouth

text: Horatio Nelson visited Monmouth on several occasions, and in 1802 after giving his approval to the Kymin Naval Temple gave a speech In the Beaufort, a local inn, in which he praised the local people and their dedicated loyalty to the monarchy of the United Kingdom. After his death, the garden where he famously dined with Lady Hamilton after the speech was named the Nelson Garden. A museum dedicated to him is also in Monmouth. William Allen was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879), and is buried in Monmouth Cemetery. Despite severe wounds, he and Frederick Hitch kept communication with the hospital open, enabling its patients to be withdrawn.


title: Monmouth

text: Rockfield Studios, situated just outside the town, are where the band Queen recorded parts of their hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 1975, and where Oasis recorded their multi-million selling album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" in 1995. Musician Dave Edmunds, a "permanent fixture" at Rockfield Studios for twenty years, lives in the town. Other former or current residents of the area have included poet and singer-songwriter Jake Thackray, rugby international and commentator Eddie Butler, television presenter Kate Humble, historian and TV presenter Professor Saul David, astrologer Russell Grant, and historian Keith Kissack. Monmouth is the home of composer, organist and choirmaster Robert Jones.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Igor Dodon (; born 18 February 1975) is a Moldovan politician who previously served as the president of Moldova from 23 December 2016 to 24 December 2020. He currently serves as the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova. He served as minister of trade and economics in the governments of Vasile Tarlev and Zinaida Greceanîi from September 2006 to September 2009 and was a member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2009 to 2016. He lost his bid for re-election in 2020 to Maia Sandu in a rematch whom he had defeated four years earlier in 2016.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Igor Dodon was born on 18 February 1975 in Sadova village in the Călărași District of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Moldova) to Nicolae (died 2012) and Galina Dodon, a Romanian language teacher in his native village.


title: Igor Dodon

text: He graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the State Agrarian University of Moldova in 1997, then the Faculty of Management at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova in 1998. He later graduated from the Faculty of Law in economics at the International Management Institute. He obtained the scientific title of Doctor in Economic Sciences at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, the Department of Banks and Stock Exchanges.


title: Igor Dodon

text: From 1997 to 2005, Dodon also carried out pedagogical activities. This is where he would meet his wife Galina in May 1995. Thus, he holds the positions of assistant lecturer at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (Banks and Stock Exchanges Department), senior lecturer at the Free International University of Moldova (Banks and Stock Exchanges Department), the International Institute of Management (Finance Department) and the State University of Moldova. Igor Dodon is also a member Examination Committees at the university graduation exams within ULIM and IIM.


title: Igor Dodon

text: After graduating from educational institutions, since July 1997 Igor Dodon has been employed at the Moldovan Stock Exchange. Thus, between 1997 and 2001 he worked as a senior specialist of the Clearing Department, of the Listing Department, administrator of the Electronic Trading Systems and then, Director of the Marketing, Listing Department within the Moldovan Stock Exchange.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Between November 2001 and May 2005, he served as chairman and member of the Board of Directors of the National Depository of Securities of Moldova SA. From September 2002 to May 2005 he was the chairman of the Universal Commodity Exchange of Moldova.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Between February 2003 – May 2005, Igor Dodon is a member of the expert committee to the National Securities Commission of Moldova. Also, between March 2004 – May 2005, he is also a member of the Arbitration Commission of the Stock Exchange. He publishes scientific articles in scientific journals, being the editor of the Newsletter "Stock Exchange of Moldova" and of the Stock Market Bulletin of the Universal Commodities Exchange "Stock Exchange – Stock market quotations".


title: Igor Dodon

text: Dodon was appointed to the post of Associate Minister of Trade and Economics in May 2005, during the second Tarlev Cabinet. He assumed the position of Minister of Trade and Economics in September 2006. He held the position until September 2009, when the government of Zinaida Greceanîi ended. Dodon also held the post of Associate Prime Minister under Greceanîi from 2008 until 2009.<ref name="Presedinte.md/eng/biography_2019-07-08"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In 2005, the PCRM also had won the elections<ref name="E-democracy.md/elections/parliamentary/2005/info/_2019-07-08"></ref> having an open pro-European platform, with a pro-European slogan "I Vote", where the European stars surrendered the hammer and sickle on the red Communist wallpaper.<ref name="E-democracy.md/elections/parliamentary/2005/opponents/pcrm/_2019-07-08"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In 2007, a trend for all political forces was to adopt a pro-European platform for the elections in 2009. In this regard, Igor Dodon, during his work trips to Brussels, had assured the high rank European officials on how he and an entire Communist party were pro-European.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In September 2009, after 8 years of governing, the Communist Party came into opposition. Igor Dodon had lost his ministerial position. He became an MP in the Parliament, which was reelected in November 2010. He had the 6th position in the PCRM list of the candidates.<ref name="E-democracy.md/elections/parliamentary/2010/opponents/pcrm/list/_2019-07-08"></ref> The Communists has changed the European vector, and in 2010 they drifted to east, and self-declared as pro-Russians.<ref name="E-democracy.md/files/elections/parliamentary2010/electoral-program-pcrm-2010-ro.pdf_2019-07-08"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: Igor Dodon, in only a year, since 2009 by 2010, became a convinced pro Moldovan – no Europe, neither Russia. "Moldova can become a contact point for different countries; an area where first of all will interfere the economic interests of our neighbors and partners. We are in a very advantageous position in terms of the common interest of CIS and EU and this objective shall become an issue of the external policy."<ref name="Dodon.md/moldova-moldoveni-moldovenesc/_2019-07-08"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In June 2011, Dodon lost to Dorin Chirtoacă at the elections for mayor of Chișinău. He took 49.4% of the votes. The local elections have been an occasion for the Communist Party to return to power, at the least at the local authority level. During the election campaign, Igor Dodon went to Brussels where he had meetings with the European officials in order to establish the potential partnerships: "I am at the working trip in Brussels, where I have several meetings in my agenda, including with the Mayors of some big towns of Belgium, with the acting Prime Minister of Belgium and some high rank officials of the European Commission".


title: Igor Dodon

text: Inside the PCRM, an internal fight had existed between Igor Dodon and Mark Tkaciuk. Dodon has had some separate opinion on some policy issues. This independence had raised some fears from the Tkaciuk side, and Dodon was considered a social threat. Dodon has shown that he had an internal support, from some rayon committees of the party. An independent position of Igor Dodon, his rating within the party and in the society, his political ambitions in overtaking the power, first of the Mayor Office and then, in PCRM – all this were interpreted by Tkaciuk as a threat, the fact that made him to speed up and force the actions that led to marginalization of Dodon in PCRM, by misinforming methods in order to prevent him to be delegated at the position of the Mayor of the Capital.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In November 2011, Dodon left the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) citing hopes that a deal could be worked out with the ruling Alliance for European Integration to elect a president and end a constitutional crisis that had dragged on since the resignation of Vladimir Voronin in 2009. Greceanîi and Veronica Abramciuc left at the same time. "Our decision has a common and complex goal: to avoid early elections, the elections of the president of the country, reshaping of the government and political and social stability. This is the society wish, and this is what the Republic of Moldova is needed – a stability and the economic development once and for all… We left the PCRM in order to cut the 'Gordian knot' of the hate and distrust which for the last two years made impossible any constitutional decision needed for the Republic of Moldova stability" Igor Dodon has declared.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 18 December 2011, Dodon joined the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) and, at the Xth Congress of PSRM, he was elected chairman of the party.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 16 March 2012, three former communists (Dodon, Greceanîi and Abramciuc) voted for the Alliance for European Integration (AIE) candidate Nicolae Timofti as president of Moldova. Later, Dodon stated that he regretted his vote for Timofti.


title: Igor Dodon

text: After he was elected as the president of Moldova, due to specifics of Moldovan law, Dodon resigned as PSRM chairman and left the party, being replaced by Zinaida Greceanîi as interim leader.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Dodon was sworn in on 23 December 2016 in the Palace of the Republic. Three days later, the flag of Europe that had flown next to the Moldovan flag from the building of the Moldovan presidential administration was removed. On 4 January 2017, in the Dodon met with the president of the breakaway republic of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky. This meeting was the first meeting of the leaders of Moldova and Transnistria in 8 years. In October 2017, Dodon signed a law that provides for the reform of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In 2018, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was the first foreign head of state to meet Dodon in Moldova. Dodon has also acted to make the Russian language mandatory in Moldovan schools.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 5 May 2018, Dodon announced a campaign, which would bring legislation into parliament, which would transition Moldova from a parliamentary republic to a presidential republic. According to the polls carried out in 2019 related to the most respected politicians of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Dodon enjoys the highest trust, ranking first among politicians in which Moldovans have the highest trust.<ref name="Ziarulnational.md/sondaj-cate-mandate-de-deputat-ar-obtine-psrm-acum-si-pd-in-cricumscriptia-nationala-partidul-sor-la-limita/_2019-02-13"></ref> In the early years of his presidency, steps were taken to renovate the Presidential Palace in Condrița with the help of the Turkish government. Some of the renovations included a play ground for Dodon's young children and a wine cellar. The renovated palace was opened on 17 October 2018 by Dodon and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 16 October 2018, Dodon declared that his country would be prepared to host a Pan-Orthodox Council, where the situation with the Ukraine autocephaly and the Moscow–Constantinople schism should be discussed. He also said that "Moldova will remain a canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate." He strongly opposes the pro-Romanian Metropolis of Bessarabia. In early 2019, President Dodon ordered a National Coordination Committee to plan national events and celebrations dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Moldova in the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive. The events would include the restoration or reconstruction of monuments and military graves and the filming of a documentary on the offensive. At the same time, Dodon presided over the celebrations of the 660th anniversary of Moldovan statehood in early February.


title: Igor Dodon

text: During the 2019 Moldovan constitutional crisis, Dodon was temporarily relieved of the powers and duties of the presidency by a Moldovan court because of the reluctance to dissolve the parliament as mandated by the Constitutional Court of Moldova in a previous ruling and replaced by the former prime minister Pavel Filip as the acting president of the country.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In late October, he met with Transnistrian President Krasnoselsky at his residence in Holercani ahead of the Bavaria Conference, scheduled for 4–5 November.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In 2020, the he ordered the creation of a National Heraldic Commission that would look into the concept of awarding medals to war veterans in honor of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. On 15 April, he ordered the postponement of the Victory Day celebrations to 24 August (Liberation Day) due to the coronavirus pandemic in Moldova.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Dodon announced his candidacy for another term on 9 September, saying he is doing it "on behalf of the people". In his campaign message, he pledged to dissolve the parliament after the elections.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 17 October 2017, the Constitutional Court of Moldova decided that Dodon was temporarily unable to perform his duties for failing to swear in proposed Defence Minister Eugen Sturza.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 2 January 2018, the Constitutional Court of Moldova decided that Dodon was temporarily unable to perform his duties for failing to swear in a number of seven ministers.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Several days later the Constitutional Court once again temporarily suspended Dodon, due to his veto on a bill on restricting Russian news broadcasts. This allowed the parliament to bypass his veto and enact a law restricting Russian television broadcasts. The law bans television channels from broadcasting news and analytical programs from countries that have not signed the regional agreement for the European Broadcasting Area, such as Russia.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 24 September 2018, he was again suspended from his duties for not approving the candidate for Minister of Health.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 9 June 2019, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova decided to temporarily suspend Igor Dodon as president, and Prime Minister Pavel Filip was appointed the interim president, who signed the decree on the dissolving parliament and holding early elections on September the 6th. The document was cancelled on 11 June 2019 on the ground that it did not comply with the constitutional standards.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In January 2017, Dodon stated that Moldova would not officially recognize Crimea as Russian, stressing that "we need to build friendships with Ukraine, we need to solve the Transnistrian problem." In September of that year, Ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova Ivan Hnatyshyn stated that he does not expect a visit to (Ukrainian capital) Kyiv by Dodon because he "doesn’t respect the territorial integrity of my country". During a meeting with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Dodon reiterated that the Gagauz city of Taraclia, which is inhabited by ethnic Bulgarians, will not be affected his government's planned territorial administrative reform.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Throughout his presidency, Dodon never undertook an official visit to the Romanian capital of Bucharest. In March, he announced his belief that Romanians who support the Unification of Romania and Moldova as the country's "number one enemy", going further in an interview with Radio Free Europe by saying that the Bucharest government supports any attempt at unionism. During a meeting with President Klaus Iohannis in New York City, Dodon told his Romanian counterpart that the development of Romanian relations was a "key priority" for his government.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Igor Dodon is considered a pro-Russian politician and in favor of the federalization of Moldova, which is in line with the views of Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Kozak and his 2003 Kozak memorandum. In late September 2019, months after the constitutional crisis, Dodon stated that the country had abandoned its anti-Russian stance through its partnership with the Party of Action and Solidarity led by Prime Minister Maia Sandu. In late August 2020, he announced his plans to take the Russian COVID-19 vaccine during a visit to Russia in September–October, justifying this by saying that he has "more trust in a Russian vaccine than in an American one".


title: Igor Dodon

text: During a 2020 speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, he stated that "we support the idea of creating a united Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok."


title: Igor Dodon

text: Speaking in Comrat in August 2018 when referencing the country's allies, Dodon said "we have friends who are close to Gagauzia, and I believe to Moldova, as well, they are Russia and Turkey." In December 2018, following his state visit to Israel, he reportedly said that he is considering moving the Moldovan embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In July 2017, he was criticized by pro-EU politicians for welcoming an official delegation of the Workers' Party of Korea led by former Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong to participate in the 20th anniversary of the Moldovan Socialist Party. MP Iurie Leanca wrote, "Comrade Dodon, please stop! It’s time to become civilized and think maturely!", saying that "We are in Europe, we’re supposed to be Europeans, where the values of democracy are at the basis of all states." Dodon said in his meeting that he thinks that North Korea "has a huge potential for developing commercial ties, being interested in several categories of agricultural products from the Republic of Moldova, especially about the Moldovan wines".


title: Igor Dodon

text: Dodon has regularly changed his stance on the future of Transnistria. At the beginning of his presidency, he suggested that Moldova be federalized. Currently, Dodon believes that the region should receive autonomous status like Gagauzia. In relation to this, he has said the following: "Pro-Russian president Igor Dodon, elected in December 2016, has indicated that Transnistria's attempts to gain independence have failed: 'They either have Moldova or Ukraine to unite with. Nobody else [...].'" In regards to the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers, Dodon supports the Moldovan parliament on this issue.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 3 October 2017, Dodon became the first Moldovan leader to ever hold a working meeting with commanders of units in the National Army. During this meeting, he laid out his vision for the armed forces, according to his foreign policy doctrine he instituted the previous month. The doctrine he outlined had called for a complete ban of the participation of servicement from the Moldovan National Army in overseas exercises without his consent.


title: Igor Dodon

text: His first two international visits were to Moscow, and Brussels. Since he took office in December 2016, he has made 47 foreign visits to 19 countries, with 20 of those visits being to Russia. In late October 2019, he visited Istanbul to attend the opening ceremony of Istanbul Airport as well as the ceremony for the Turkish Republic's 95th anniversary. In February and September 2019 respectively, he attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany and the Seventy-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City both for the first time. During the UN visit, he referred to his attendance as "a successful one" during which he and his delegation "were able to promote the interests and aspirations of the Republic of Moldova on the international arena". He attended the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Moscow in June 2018 and the 2019 European Games in Minsk just over a year later. In October 2018, he attended a summit of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie in Yerevan where he delivered a speech in the French language.


title: Igor Dodon

text: After the first round, he criticized the Moldovan diaspora as being out of touch with the Moldovan mainland when the polls showed their preference for Maia Sandu, referring to them as "in a real way, a parallel electorate for Moldova.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 3 November, during the second round of the elections, while Dodon was talking about his opponent Sandu, he modified a proverb and said (do not change the pigeon on your hand by the magpie on the fence), referring to himself as the "pigeon". This resulted in an outbreak of memes on social media in Moldova. This has also been used as an insult by citizens opposing Dodon, including members of the diaspora, who were attacked by him earlier. Sandu responded to this by declaring that "an injured pigeon came out to the press and began to chant songs of mourning" and later uploaded a video to her TikTok account feeding pigeons, saying that "they are not at fault".


title: Igor Dodon

text: The day after the elections, Dodon met with the parliamentary faction of the PSRM, thanking them for their support in campaign. During the meeting, the Socialist deputies proposed the idea of Dodon to returning to the helm of the PSRM.


title: Igor Dodon

text: He came under fire for not allocating to president-elect Sandu a guard from the State Protection and Guard Service, which is traditionally given to the incoming president at the instructions of the incumbent president. After Sandu was sworn in on 24 December 2020 in the Palace of the Republic, she met Dodon at the Presidential Palace, for a ceremony in which Dodon officially transferred power to her.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In a telephone conversation with Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak, he announced that he would be visiting Russia as head of the PSRM. During his visit, he negotiated the extension of the tariff-free preferential exports from Moldova to Russia. Dodon said in an interview with TASS in Moscow that he had discouraged people from pouring into the streets after the election in order to prevent a "Maidan" scenario in the country. He also said commenting on the election results that "there will be a sobering up of a very large number of people who will understand that they were wrong." He also accused Sandu of trying to usurp power in the country. He would later declare the composition of her Supreme Security Council to be a threat to national security. During the 2021 Russian protests, he accused "Western geopolitical players" of "trying to destabilize the situation around Russia", adding that he did not believe footage released by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny about "Putin's Palace" to be authentic.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 6 May 2021, he visited Minsk with Zinaida Greceanîi to unveil a monument to Moldovan Hero of the Soviet Union Ion Soltys. During the visit, he met with President Lukashenko at his private home in the capital.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In May, he, alongside former President Vladimir Voronin, formed an electoral alliance known as the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists, which will contest in the 2021 Moldovan parliamentary election. The announcement came as a surprise as Dodon and Voronin have accused each other of treason and political corruption.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In 2010, the Party of Communists (PCRM) started promoting a new official flag for Moldova. In March 2012, Igor Dodon and the Party of Socialists (PSRM) invited PCRM to initiate a referendum to change the national flag of Moldova from the original tricolour (similar to Romania's, except charged with Moldova's coat of arms) to a red-blue bicolor flag. The proposed flag is considered by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova as a "pure political invention".


title: Igor Dodon

text: In November 2012, Dodon posted on his Facebook profile a photo that shows him wearing clothes printed with a patch of the Russian flag, which was criticized as a sign of Dodon's alleged Russophilia.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In October 2016, during the presidential election campaign, Igor Dodon affirmed that Crimea, the subject of a territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine, "is a territory of the Russian Federation".


title: Igor Dodon

text: In September 2018, seven Turkish teachers, from the "Orizont" High School administration were declared undesirable by the government and expelled from the country. Due to this, on 11 June 2019, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Republic of Moldova, and imposed the Republic of Moldova's government to pay 25,000 Euros to five of the seven Turkish citizens.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Opposition leaders accused President Igor Dodon and the Democratic Party of Moldova, the ruling party, of intentional violations of law and human rights in order to gain benefits from Ankara authorities, including the renovation of the Presidency building from Turkey's money. The "Our Party" municipal councilor Ilan Cașu considered that this SIS's operation was the President Dodon payment for the renovation of the Presidency building that was renovated with Turkish money. Previously, before coming to power, the ACUM's block position was based on the fact that behind the Turkish teachers "expel" would be Igor Dodon. The PAS's statement, published on the party's Facebook page, was mentioned, "For money designed to the renovation of the Presidency building and for the other goods procurement, the human rights are violated in Moldova and this is inadmissible". The leader of the Dignity and Truth Platform Party, Andrei Năstase, the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Internal Affairs compared the SIS with the NKVD. In his opinion, the workers of this institution have acted on the command of the leader of the Democratic Party Vladimir Plahotniuc and of the president Dodon. However, their position changed after the establishment of the Parliamentary majority with PSRM. The chairman of the National Security Commission and the MP of the Dignity and Truth Platform, Chiril Moțpan, who is investigating the expulsion of Turkish teachers, claimed that the president had no attribution to this case.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 7 June 2019, at the Democratic Party headquarter, according to Andrian Candu, President Igor Dodon negotiated with Vladimir Plahotniuc the conditions of establishing the coalition between PSRM and DP. Andrian Candu announced only some "criteria for creating the coalition". According to him, the socialists asked for federalization of the Republic of Moldova and providing the special statute to the Transnistrian region, launching the negotiation among Republic of Moldova, European Union and Russian Federation on trade policy, changing the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, and the election of the President of the Republic of Moldova by the Parliament.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 8 June 2019, before the Meeting of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, the temporary coalition ACUM-PSRM was established, Dodon has declared that there were some pressure on him to tender the resignation, anticipating the appearance of some compromising videos.<ref name="Ziarul de Gardă_2019/06/08"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: Later, after the statements made by Andrian Candu, deputy head of the DPM, some videos have appeared at the Publika TV, one of the TV posts owned by the democratic party leader, where Igor Dodon has confirmed to Vlad Plahotniuc, that he has received the money from the Russian Federation on a monthly basis for PSRM maintenance, and also about presentation of federalisation plan of the Republic of Moldova coordinated with Russian Federation. The President Igor Dodon had recognized that the negotiations took place to establishing the majority, the discussion at which had included the participation of the businessman Serghei Iaralov.<ref name="Tv8.md/2019/06/08/igor-dodon-primele-comentarii-la-inregistrarile-video-de-la-negocierile-de-ieri-cu-plahotniuc-de-la-sediul-pd-ului/_2019-06-11"></ref> Regarding the videos that have appeared in public space he has declared that "All these, and some of them are ripped out of context or were montages."<ref name="Ziarulnational.md/dodon-despre-inregistrarile-cu-bani-de-la-putin-si-federalizare-discutii-au-avut-loc-evident-ca-au-avut-loc/_2019-06-11"></ref> Vladimir Plahotniuc has confirmed the fact that negotiated with Igor Dodon within 3 months period: "The coalition DP+PSRM was almost made, but failed, because I refused to sign for the country federalization".<ref name="Tv8.md/2019/06/08/vlad-plahotniuc-timp-de-trei-luni-am-avut-multe-discutii-cu-igor-dodon -coalitia-pd-psrm-era-aproape-facuta/_2019-06-11"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In November 2014, the socialist politician of Russian ethnicity accused Igor Dodon of being an "instrument of scenarios that would cause 'bloodshed' in Moldova", and labeled the Party of Socialists as "being in the service of another country" such as Russia. He also accused the party of becoming a threat to the "stability, peace and the very existence" of the Republic of Moldova and its extraordinarily large base of financial resources — the origin of which bear "reasonable doubt".


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 29 August 2017, the criminal complaint against Igor Dodon was submitted by Maia Sandu at the General Prosecutor's Office, by which was requested the criminal liability for Igor Dodon for committing the offense of Treason against the State and for the crime related to Instigation to hate, differentiating and division by national, ethnical, racial and religious criteria.<ref name="Unpaspentru.md/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/denunt-procuratura-generala-impotriva-lui-igor-dodon.pdf_2019-08-20"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: The Party of National Unity had filed a criminal complaint at the General Prosecutor's Office against President Igor Dodon. On 8 August 2019, at the press conference with the topic ""Presentation of the criminal complaint against Igor Dodon. Arguments and facts"" the criminal complaint was presented by Anatol Șalaru, the executive president of the party, an MP in the first Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and the deputy-president of the Liberal Party. The reason serves the video tape that reflected the discussions held among Igor Dodon and former PD leader Vladimir Plahotniuc, which appeared in the press in June 2019.<ref name="Anticoruptie.md/ro/dosare-de-coruptie/denunt-penal-impotriva-lui-igor-dodon-depus-de-partidul-unitatii-nationale_2019-08-20"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In October 2019, Octavian Țîcu requested to be established the investigation Committee “to investigate the acts of treason committed by Igor Dodon”. The Bloc “ACUM”s MPs, Iurie Reniță and Lilian Carp, have joined these initiative.<ref name="Ziarulnational.md/doc-creste-numarul-deputatilor-care-cer-anchetarea-lui-igor-dodon-pentru-tradare-de-patrie/_2019-10-15"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: The MP Iurie Reniță at the press conference has accused the socialists of money laundering in the large proportions, requesting the Prosecutor General to hold the involved persons liable. According to the documents, to which the MP has referred, the money have been transferred to Moldova through Exclusive Media Ltd., that belonges to Corneliu Furcutliță, who is the MP from PSRM side. Based on some loan contracts, the billions of Moldovan lei have been transferred from this company to the party's sponsors. In the document published by Reniță, the reporter officer has mentioned that the money came from offshore have been used in the presidential electoral campaign, that at the end has been won by Igor Dodon, the PSRM leader at that time.


title: Igor Dodon

text: In March 2020, the MPs Iurie Reniță, Octavian Țîcu and Lilian Carp have presented the documents that would confirm the PSRМ's MPs implication. According to the documents at least 30 MPs affiliated to the Socialist Party, have received from Russia, through an off-shore account in the Bahamas some funds, whose main beneficiary is Igor Dodon.<ref name="Ziarulnational.md/doc-actele-care-ar-confirma-implicarea-deputatilor-psrm-in-schema-de-spalare-de-bani-din-bahamas-avandu-l-ca-principal-beneficiar-pe-igor-dodon-dovezile-incontestabile-trebuie-sa-devina-un-test-stoianoglo/_2020-03-21"></ref><ref name="Ziarulnational.md/ultima-ora-video-instituirea-starii-de-urgenta-motiv-pentru-a-clasa-dosarul-privind-finantarea-psrm-din-rusia-via-bahamas-avem-dovezi-clare-avem-dispozitiile-de-plata-in-original/_2020-03-21"></ref><ref name="Tv8.md/2020/03/17/dezvaluiri-noi-in-dosarul-bahamas-cine-sunt-socialistii-care-au-beneficiat-de-imprumuturi-fara-dobanda-prin-intermediul-exclusiv-media/_2020-03-21"></ref> Later, the MP Iurie Renița has published a document that demonstrated the First Lady of the Republic of Moldova, Galina Dodon has a right for the banking signature on behalf of the "Exclusiv-Media" LLC. The MP has mentioned that: "one of the sources for illegal financing of the presidential campaign of Igor Dodon held in 2016 was from the Russian Federation through Bahamas, via laundering of about 1,5 million Euros. Further these money were "lend" through the "Exlusiv-Media" LLC to several PSRM."<ref name="https://protv.md/_2020-05-17"></ref>


title: Igor Dodon

text: In May 2020, the former head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office Viorel Morari declared, during the show "Cabinetul din Umbră" on Jurnal TV, that in the bag that Ilan Shor has shown to the public at the press conference at the beginning of 2019, sending a message to President Igor Dodon, it would have been 1.5 million Euros. According to Viorel Morari, the Dodon family would have accepted the payment of the flights and luxury trips from the money coming from the economic agents managed by Ilan Shor.


title: Igor Dodon

text: According to the 4 July 2020 article published by "The Brussels Times", several voices in the Republic of Moldova believe that the pro-Russian government crosses all red lines in order to maintain power in Chișinău in the interest of Russia. The source mentions that "the case of Dr. Gațcan shows how far President Igor Dodon can go, who actually controls power in Chișinău." The source also refers to the increasingly frequent accusations regarding the establishment of the dictatorship in the Republic of Moldova, but also to the efforts of opposition politicians to mobilize their forces to reduce the influence of Igor Dodon and the administrative resources he can benefit from at the election campaign in autumn.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, Dodon congratulated President Alexander Lukashenko on his controversial victory. After this, a group of protesters demonstrated in front of the Belarusian embassy in Chișinău, coming with banners saying "Down with dictatorship!", "Down with censorship!", and "Belarus will be free!". The protesters particularly criticized Dodon for allowing himself to congratulate Lukashenko on behalf of the Moldovan people, in spite of the negative feelings towards the Belarusian leader at the time.


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 24 May 2022, Dodon was detained by the Moldovan authorities. He was accused of corruption and treason charges. Investigators searched his home. He was then put under house arrest for 30 days. It was discovered he had an airline ticket for leaving Moldova on 26 May, which raised suspicion about his actions. Dodon accused Sandu of having politicized judicial cases against him. The Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Andrei Rudenko said that Russia would assure the rights of Dodon and that any prosecution would respect international practice. Dodon's brother-in-law, Petru Merineanu, was also put under preventive detention for 30 days.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Dodon married Galina Dodon in 1999 and together they have three children: Bogdan, Vlad, and Nicolae. His oldest son, Vlad, is a passionate player of water polo. His brother Aleksander is a co-owner alongside Igor Chaika (son of Yuri Chaika, Prosecutor General of Russia) of the Industrial Ecological Operator company which deals with waste.


title: Igor Dodon

text: Aside from his native Romanian (which he considers Moldovan), he also speaks Russian, French, and English. However, he has only used the latter two in public speeches. He is considered to be good friends with Colonel General Victor Gaiciuc, who is currently one of his advisers. Dodon had proposed Gaiciuc for the position of defense minister after rejecting Eugen Sturza's candidacy. He is a supporter of the Union of Officers of Moldova, where he holds the honorary rank of "Major of the Reserve".


title: Igor Dodon

text: On 9 September 2018, Dodon was involved in a car accident on the Chișinău-Călărași highway. Although Dodon wasn't injured himself, his mother and his middle son Nicolae sustained serious injuries.


title: Rathore

text: Jodhana, Vadhel, Jaitawat, Kumpawat, Champawat, Meratiya, Udawat, Karamsot etc. are the branches or subclans of Rathore Rajputs.


title: Rathore

text: This article discusses the "Kanaujiya" Rathores of Marwar and lineages, thereof; Norman Ziegler had noted of 12 other similar branches ("shakhas") of Rathores — Sur, Shir, Kapaliya, Kherada, Abhepura, Jevamt, Vagula, Karaha, Parakra, Ahrao, Jalkheda, and Camdel. Scholarship about those branches are scarce to non-existent.


title: Rathore

text: A section of historians argue for a Rashtrakuta origin. Branches of Rashtrakutas had migrated to Western Rajasthan as early as late tenth century; multiple inscriptions of "Rathauras" have been located in and around Marwar dating from tenth to thirteenth century; the Rathores may have emerged from one of the Rashtrakuta branches.


title: Rathore

text: Muhnot Nainsi, employed by the Rathores of Marwar, chronicled Nainsi ri Khyat, a bardic genealogical history of the Rajputs in western Rajasthan c. 1660; one of the oldest extant historical records of the region, the "Khyata" collated information from existing oral literature, genealogies and administrative sources in a chronological fashion. Nainsi had noted of the Rathores to have originated from Kannauj before migrating to Marwar.


title: Rathore

text: These bardic claims of descent have been since deemed to be largely ahistorical by Ziegler. Ziegler notes the theme of migrations to be common across Rajput genealogies; a construct, borrowed from literary cannon of other regions. Later genealogies of Rathores went as far as to derive origin from Gods of the Hindu pantheon — Indra, Narayana et al.


title: Rathore

text: The first Rathore chieftain was Siho Setramot, grandson of the last Gahadavala king Jayachandra. Then known as Raja Singhsen, Setramot abdicated the throne of Kanauj to become an ascetic but got embroiled in a royal rivalry and eventually married the daughter of a Gujarati ruler, who birthed him three sons. Asthan, the eldest, was raised at Paltan after Siho's death (at Kanauj) and he went on to establish the first Rathore polity in Pali (and few adjoining villages), after winning over the local Brahmins by defeating an oppressive king named Kanha Mer. Other contemporary sources claim the same descent and construct slightly variable narratives about migration from Kanauj: Setramot fled the Ghurid Sultanate to Marwar and established the first Rathore polity. The Bithoor inscription provides the date of Siho's death in 1273 CE and calls him the son of Set Kunwar, however it does not claim any Gaharwal origin.


title: Rathore

text: Under Asthan's regime, and that of his successor-rulers, the Rathore territories significantly expanded courtesy confrontations and diplomatic negotiations with other pastoral groups; the primary base shifted multiple times. Marital alliances with any warrior-group operating out of Thar were especially favored and they were welcome to be inducted in the Rathore fold. Multiple new Rathore branches seem to have split out in these spans.


title: Rathore

text: The precise accuracy of events which allegedly occurred across these spans is questionable and may not be relied upon except for a generic reconstruction.


title: Rathore

text: Chunda, who was ninth in descent from Asthan, was gifted the territory of Mandore as a dowry by Eenda Parihars, which became their new capital c. 1400. This prompted a significant sociopolitical shift: the hitherto nomadic lifestyle frequented with cattle raids etc. would gradually give way to landed aristocracy. His son Ranmal was assassinated in 1438; Marwar was annexed by Sisodias whilst other parts were captured by Delhi Sultanate.


title: Rathore

text: In 1453, Rao Jodha regained Marwar, and expanded his territories by entering into multiple alliances with fellow Rajputs; the Jodhawat line was established with his consecration of a new capital at Jodhpur. Rao Jodha was successful in annexing several territories from the Delhi Sultanate, due to which the Rathores of Marwar became the most powerful kingdom in Rajputana during his reign. Among his sons, Rao Bika found a new state in Bikaner in 1465; he and his successors would go on to expand territories therefrom, adopting similar tactics. This Bikawat branch became the new bearer of Rathore legacy, even bringing Gahdavala-time emblems and heirlooms from Marwar. Another of Jodha's sons Rao Varsingh found a new state at Merto in 1462, establishing the Mertiyo branch.


title: Rathore

text: Rao Maldeo's regime (1532-1562) harbored another significant shift from clannish rule to monarchy; Malde forced his distant relatives, who conquered new territories, to submit to him or else be deprived of gains. Bikaner was raided, too. Large palaces were constructed and fortifications were committed to, in what signaled the effective end of pastoral lifestyle. By mid-sixteenth century, the Rathors had a firm hold over entire Rajasthan.


title: Rathore

text: All these while, multiple matrimonial and military alliances with local Islamic kingdoms; the Delhi Sultanate have been noted; Hindu-Muslim relations were largely fraternal.


title: Rathore

text: The situations deteriorated once Akbar was ordained as the Mughal Emperor, and rao Maldeo died. His son rao Chandrasen Rathore defended his kingdom for nearly two decades against relentless attacks from the Mughal Empire. The Jodhawat Rathores lost much of their territory rapidly and were effectively subsumed. The Bikawat Rathores entered into friendly relations with the Mughals, led their armies, and were extensively patronaged to the extent of being allowed to control the Jodhpur Fort. In 1583, Uday Singh finally accepted Mughal suzerainty and in return, was granted part of a Pargana in Jodhpur; this would enable the Jodhawat Rathores to become all-weather allies of the Mughals though punctuated with discords.


title: Rathore

text: This span of cohabitation led to the introduction of strict endogamy into Rathore folds and hypergamy with Mughals. It was also under the Mughals, that bardic genealogies were crafted to present themselves as worthy appointees of the Mughals and distinguish themselves from other "once-fraternal" communities, thereby staking a claim to power irrespective of temporal situations. Also, by this time, the nomadic memories were better suppressed and the Rathores had themselves rebranded as the elite "protectors" of local cattle-rearers; in a couple of centuries, figures from early Rathore polity would be deified.


title: Rathore

text: The Rathore ruler of Jodhpur Man Singh, initially refused to form treaties with the British. However in 1805-1806 he approached the British for military advice and paid the British to protect his state against the predatory actions of the Marathas and Pindaris. By 1816 the British changed this treaty and expelled all foreign influence in Jodhpur, they also started arbitrating in state matters. By 1818 the alliance was cemented and in 1832 the Rajputana agency was formed. The Rathore raja Man Singh was not always cordial with the British during this time, in 1829 Man Singh gave shelter to Mudhoji II Bhonsle and antagonized the British. Mudhoji was zealously protected by Man Singh and lived his remaining life in Jodhpur till his death in 1840. The 1857 rebellion sparked uprisings amongst several Rajput chieftains of the Rathore clan in Jodhpur State. Prominent amongst them was Kushal Singh of Auwa. After several failed attempts by the British, the rebellion was quelled by the British army under the command of Brigadier Holmes.


title: Rathore

text: During the 20th century the lower castes in India tried to uplift their social standing by adopting surnames of other castes. The Rajput clan name "Rathore" was adopted as a surname by the Teli community in 1931, who started calling themselves Rathore Vaishyas for caste upliftment. During the same period of British Raj, the Banjaras began styling themselves as Chauhan and Rathor Rajputs.


title: Rathore

text: The various cadet branches of the Rathore clan gradually spread to encompass all of Marwar and later founded states in Central India and Gujarat. The Marwar Royal family is considered the head house of Rathores. At the time of India's independence in 1947, the princely states ruled by various branches of the Rathore clan included:


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: As an employee at video game companies Quest in 1989 and later Square in 1995, Matsuno became well known for his work in the tactical role-playing game genre, specifically the "" (1993) and "Final Fantasy Tactics" (1997) series, in addition to "Vagrant Story" (2000) and "Final Fantasy XII" (2006). After disruptions from staff leaving his development team, he resigned from Square Enix due to prolonged illness. During a freelance period, he worked on games for Nintendo's Wii such as "MadWorld" (2009). He joined Level-5 in 2011 where he helped create "Crimson Shroud" for the Nintendo 3DS.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: In 2016, he created his own company called Algebra Factory, and during this period was asked by Square Enix to create a scenario for "Final Fantasy XIV" expansion "Stormblood" (2017). He created a raid called "Return to Ivalice", the land of Ivalice being a setting from previous "Final Fantasy" games he had worked on. Matsuno was subsequently asked to create another scenario, which was titled "Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr" and included in "Shadowbringers", another expansion for the game.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: Matsuno grew up in a rural area, where he felt his only entertainment were movies, television, and books. His hobbies included making dioramas. He was particularly fond of World War II dioramas, that he used to make by researching at the local library. He would incorporate story elements into each of his creation.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: His introduction to video games was playing "Space Invaders" and "Xevious" at the arcades while waiting for the train. He was fond of "The Legend of Zelda" and "Dragon Quest" on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and played heavily on the Amiga and PC, including "Ultima Online". He attended Hosei University for foreign policy but dropped out after three years. Shortly thereafter he found work as an economic reporter but found the work unfulfilling. In 1989 Matsuno left his job as a reporter to work at Quest Corporation.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: Matsuno began his career at the Japanese video game developer Quest Corporation. In 1993, he served as the director of "" for the Super Famicom. It is the first installment of an episodic series of tactical role-playing games. On naming the game, Matsuno was inspired by rock band Queen's second album, which contained two songs titled "Ogre Battle" and "The March Of The Black Queen". Even the Rhyan Sea, a location in the "Ogre Battle" world, is named after "Seven Seas of Rhye". The next game he worked on was "", released in 1995 for the Super Famicom in Japan. The dark political narrative of the game revolving around the reality of war was inspired by Matsuno's outside perspective on events that unfolded during the Yugoslav Wars in the early 1990s, including the Bosnian Genocide.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: Although "Let Us Cling Together" is the second entry released in the "Ogre Battle" franchise, it featured dramatically different gameplay than its predecessor. While "Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen" was more akin to a grand strategy role-playing game (RPG), "Let Us Cling Together" was a more intimate, squad-based, isometric tactical RPG. "Let Us Cling Together" then launched a sub-series within the franchise with "Tactics Ogre" being used to distinguish the two forms of gameplay in later sequels (notably ""). "Let Us Cling Together" has since been well received and in March 2006, readers of the Japanese magazine "Famitsu" voted it number seven among their 100 all-time favorite games.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: In 1995, Matsuno joined Square after quitting Quest. At Square, Matsuno directed and wrote "Final Fantasy Tactics" for the PlayStation. Similar in design and gameplay to "Tactics Ogre", it was lauded for its highly intricate story. After the game's release, Matsuno and his team began development on "Vagrant Story". Smaller in scope than "Final Fantasy Tactics", it was highly regarded by critics and has gained somewhat of a cult following since its release. Matsuno supervised PlayOnline, Square's online multiplayer gaming software prior to its first beta release in 2001. He then served as producer for "Final Fantasy Tactics Advance" for the Game Boy Advance system, which shares the "Final Fantasy Tactics" system but has an entirely different storyline.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: In 2001, Matsuno was assigned to work on "Final Fantasy XII" as director together with Hiroyuki Ito. He came up with the game's original concept and plot. Matsuno reportedly was temperamental and refused to come to work for a month after part of the "Final Fantasy XII" team had left Square Enix to join Hironobu Sakaguchi's new company Mistwalker. In August 2005, it was officially announced that he had stepped down from his position on the project due to a prolonged illness.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: In 2006, Matsuno expressed his interest for Nintendo's Wii console in a promotional video, stating that he was impressed with the intuitive functionality provided by the remote controller. He was approached by his friend, the PlatinumGames producer Atsushi Inaba, to work on the scenario for the Wii game "MadWorld". While developing the setting, story and script, Matsuno often consulted with the development team and received conflicting orders from the staff members: the game designers wanted to emphasize extreme violence but the producers wished to tone it down instead. Matsuno's ideas and writing for the game were influenced by the necessity to balance these two different points of view. In October 2007, composer and longtime collaborator Hitoshi Sakimoto mentioned that he was working with Matsuno on "some stuff". When the original developers of "" were assembled to work on a for the PlayStation Portable. Matsuno was called upon to handle the game design and new story elements.


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: Soon after the port was finished, Level-5 president Akihiro Hino entered talks with him to convince him of joining the company. In June 2011, it was announced that Matsuno had entered Level-5 based on his impression of the "Professor Layton" and "Inazuma Eleven" series and in order to create the games he wanted to. During his stay there, he developed the fantasy RPG "Crimson Shroud" for the Nintendo 3DS, which is part of the collaborative project "Guild 01" of Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda, Sega's Yoot Saito and comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai. Matsuno left Level-5 in October 2012 and explained "With my work done on the domestic and overseas version of my latest 3DSWare game, it was good timing for me to step down and take a short break in order to recharge for my next project." In September 2013, he announced a partnership with the American company Playdek to develop "Unsung Story", a strategy game similar to Matsuno's previous titles and set in a medieval fantasy world. In 2020, Matsuno revealed that he had left the project before it was handed off to Little Orbit, the company currently developing the game; calling Playdek's version a "Final Fantasy clone". He met with Little Orbit, and they confirmed that the current game was based on Matsuo's original concept, however he had no influence on the current game; stating that "I look forward to enjoying it with the same fresh eye as any other gamer".


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: Matsuno founded a "planning, screenplay, and production" oriented company named Algebra Factory in 2016. During the Algebra Factory era, he was hired by Square Enix to produce the "Return to Ivalice" raid for the MMORPG 's expansion "" and once more for the "Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr" storyline for the "Shadowbringers" expansion, and by Cygames Corporation for game drafts and management for the mobile game "Lost Order".


title: Yasumi Matsuno

text: His games usually feature story driven adventures with tactical or strategical combat. He has described the development culture at Quest as having been a "kind dictatorship" while Square's was more "democratic", and is not personally fond of other team members having input on his narrative work.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: The 2020 California wildfire season, part of the 2020 Western United States wildfire season, was a record-setting year of wildfires in California. By the end of the year, 9,917 fires had burned , more than 4% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history (according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection), though roughly equivalent to the pre-1800 levels which averaged around 4.4 million acres yearly and up to 12 million in peak years. California's August Complex fire has been described as the first "gigafire", burning over 1 million acres across seven counties, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The fires destroyed over 10,000 structures and cost over $12.079 billion (2020 USD) in damages, including over $10 billion in property damage and $2.079 billion in fire suppression costs. The intensity of the fire season has been attributed to a combination of more than a century of poor forest management and higher temperatures resulting from climate change.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: On August 18, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and on August 19, 2020, reported that the state was battling 367 known fires, many sparked by intense thunderstorms on August 16–17 caused by moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fausto. Response and evacuations were complicated by a historic heatwave and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On August 22, President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration (DR-4558), which provides Individual Assistance and/or Public Assistance.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: In early September 2020, a combination of a record-breaking heat wave and strong katabatic winds, (including the Jarbo, Diablo, and Santa Ana) caused explosive fire growth. The August Complex became California's largest recorded wildfire. The Creek Fire expanded in the Big Creek drainage area, temporarily trapping hundreds of campers near the Mammoth Pool Reservoir. The North Complex explosively grew in size as the winds fanned it westward, threatening the city of Oroville, triggering mass evacuations, and causing 16 fatalities.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: Governor Newsom's request for a federal disaster declaration for six major wildfires was approved on October 17 after having been rejected the previous day.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: On November 10, 2020, the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) reported that there were around 3,400 firefighters plus personnel fighting the wildfires in the United States.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: Early in the year, there was a concern for the 2020 fire season to potentially be prolonged and especially grave, due to the unusually dry months of January and February, one of the driest such periods of any calendar year on record. On March 22, a state of emergency was declared by California Governor Gavin Newsom due to a mass die-off of trees throughout the state, potentially increasing the risk of wildfires. However, throughout March and April, rain began to consistently fall in the state, which alleviated the drought conditions. Despite this, Northern California was still expected to have severe wildfire conditions due to the moderate or severe drought conditions in the area, whereas Central and Southern California were expected to have serious fire conditions later in the year due to the late wet season and precipitation.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: On June 18, climate scientist Daniel Swain predicted the 2020 Arizona wildfire season was a sign of what was to come in California, due to similar drought and weather conditions between Arizona and Northern California.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: The year 2020 was the largest wildfire year recorded in California history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. From a historical perspective, the average annual acres burned prior to 1850 were probably significantly larger than years since reliable fire records began. Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley, estimated that prior to 1850, about burned yearly, in fires that lasted for months. Activity peaked roughly every 30 years, with up to burning during peak years. The indigenous peoples of California historically set controlled burns and allowed natural fires to run their course.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: The peak of the wildfire season usually occurs between July and November when hot, dry winds are most frequent. The wildfire season typically does not end until the first significant rainstorm of autumn arrives, which is usually around October in Northern California, and early November in Southern California.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: As wildfire becomes more frequent, the wildland–urban interface has increasingly become more dangerous when it comes to property damage and risk to life.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: Scientists believe that, prior to development, California fires regularly burned significantly more acreage than has been seen in recent history. Wildfires have been aggressively suppressed in recent years, resulting in a buildup of fuel, increasing the risk of large uncontrollable fires. There is broad scientific consensus that there should be more controlled burning of forests in California in order to reduce fire risk. A 2020 ProPublica investigation blames a combination of climate change and a history of insufficient controlled burning for the increase in "megafires." A sharp increase in the population and development of fire-prone areas has also contributed to the increase in flammable tinder.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: Climate change increases the temperature of wildfires in California, the risk for drought, and potentially also the frequency of such events. David Romps, director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center summarizes the situation as follows: "To cut to the chase: Were the heat wave and the lightning strikes and the dryness of the vegetation affected by global warming? Absolutely yes. Were they made significantly hotter, more numerous, and drier because of global warming? Yes, likely yes, and yes."


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: Similarly, Friederike Otto, acting director of the University of Oxford Environmental Change Institute states, "There is absolutely no doubt that the extremely high temperatures are higher than they would have been without human-induced climate change. A huge body of attribution literature demonstrates now that climate change is an absolute game-changer when it comes to heat waves, and California won't be the exception." Susan Clark, director of the Sustainability Initiative at the University at Buffalo argues, "This is climate change. This increased intensity and frequency of temperatures and heat waves are part of the projections for the future. [...] There is going to be more morbidity and mortality [from heat.] There are going to be more extremes."


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: The National Interagency Fire Center's (NFIC) National Interagency Coordination (NICC) reported that monthly outlooks for the entire country will still drive wildfires across the country but especially California. The main drivers through fall and winter seasons will be La Nina, and drought conditions are going to continue through California, causing the wildfires to continue. The shift will start from Northern California to Southern California as precipitation will lessen the impact of wildfires across northern California.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: In August 2020, a suspect was charged by the Monterey County Sheriff with arson relating to the Dolan Fire; however, this has not been officially determined as the cause of the fire. In April 2021, another suspect, already arrested and charged for the murder of a woman, was charged with arson relating to the Markley Fire, one of the wildfires involving in the LNU Lightning Complex fires; according to authorities, the fire was set to cover up the aforementioned murder. Arson has also been suspected as the cause of the Ranch 2 Fire in Los Angeles County.


title: 2020 California wildfires

text: The following is a list of fires that burned more than , or produced significant structural damage or casualties.