Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is a British historical period drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, and in the United States on PBS, which supported production of the series as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011.

The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era—with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. Events depicted throughout the series include news of the sinking of the Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series; the Irish War of Independence leading to the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series; the Teapot Dome scandal in the fourth series; and the British general election of 1923, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the Beer Hall Putsch in the fifth series. The sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints towards the eventual decline of the British aristocracy.

Downton Abbey has received acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011. It earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total (after two series).[1] It was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited.[2]

On 26 March 2015, Carnival Films and ITV announced that the sixth series would be the last. It aired on ITV between 20 September 2015 and 8 November 2015. The final episode, serving as the annual Christmas special, was broadcast on 25 December 2015. A film adaptation, serving as a continuation of the series, was confirmed on 13 July 2018.
The first series, comprising seven episodes, explores the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary Earls of Grantham, and their domestic servants. The storyline centres on the fee tail or "entail" governing the titled elite, which endows title and estate exclusively to male heirs. As part of the backstory, the main character, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, had resolved his father's past financial difficulties by marrying Cora Levinson, an American heiress. Her considerable dowry is now contractually incorporated into the comital entail in perpetuity; however, Robert and Cora have three daughters and no son.

As the eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley had agreed to marry her second cousin Patrick, the son of the then-heir presumptive James Crawley. The series begins the day after the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 14/15 April 1912. The first episode starts as news reaches Downton Abbey that both James and Patrick have perished in the sinking of the ocean liner. Soon it is discovered that a more distant male cousin, solicitor Matthew Crawley, the son of an upper-middle-class doctor – has become the next heir presumptive. The story initially centres on the relationship between Lady Mary and Matthew, who resists embracing an aristocratic lifestyle, while Lady Mary resists her own attraction to the handsome new heir presumptive.

Of several subplots, one involves John Bates, Lord Grantham's new valet, and Thomas Barrow, an ambitious young footman, who resents Bates for taking over the position he had desired. Bates and Thomas remain at odds as Barrow works to sabotage Bates' every move. After learning Bates had recently been released from prison, Thomas and Miss O'Brien (Lady Grantham's Lady's maid) begin a relentless pursuit that nearly ruins the Crawley family in scandal. Barrow — a homosexual man in late Edwardian England - and O'Brien create havoc for most of the staff and family. When Barrow is caught stealing, he hands in his notice to join the Royal Army Medical Corps. Matthew eventually does propose to Lady Mary, but she puts him off when Lady Grantham becomes pregnant. Cora loses the baby after O'Brien, believing she is soon to be fired, retaliates by leaving a bar of soap near the bathtub steps, causing Cora to slip while getting out of the tub, and the fall resulting in a miscarriage. The series ends just after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914.

Series 2: 2011
Main article: Downton Abbey (series 2)
The second series comprises eight episodes and runs from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. During the war, Downton Abbey is temporarily converted into an officers' convalescent hospital.

Matthew, having left Downton is now a British Army officer and has become engaged. His fiancée is Lavinia Swire, the daughter of a Liberal minister. William Mason, the 2nd footman, is drafted, even after attempts by the Dowager Countess of Grantham to save him from conscription. William is taken under Matthew's protection as his personal orderly. Both are injured in a bomb blast. William dies from his wounds but only after a deathbed marriage to Daisy, the kitchen maid. While Daisy does not believe she loves William, she marries him in last days as his dying wish. It is not until a brief encounter with the dowager countess that she begins to realise that her love was real but she was unable to admit it herself at the time.

Mary, while acknowledging her feelings for Matthew, becomes engaged to Sir Richard Carlisle, a powerful and ruthless newspaper mogul. Their relationship is rocky, but Mary feels bound to Carlisle after he agrees to kill a story regarding her past scandalous indiscretion. Bates's wife, Vera, repeatedly causes trouble for John and Anna, who is now his fiancée, and threatens to expose that indiscretion. When Mrs Bates mysteriously commits suicide with an arsenic pie, leaving no note, Bates is arrested on suspicion of her murder. Matthew and Mary realise they are still in love but Matthew remains staunchly committed to Lavinia in order to keep his word and promise to her regardless of his own spinal injury from the blast. Unknown to them both, Lavinia, ill with Spanish flu, sees and overhears Matthew and Mary admit their love for one another while dancing to a phonograph gifted as a wedding present to Matthew and Lavinia. The Spanish influenza epidemic hits Downton Abbey further with Cora, taken seriously ill, as well as Carson, the butler. During the outbreak, Thomas attempts to make up for his inability to find other employment after the war by making himself as useful as possible. Lavinia dies abruptly, which causes great guilt to both Matthew and Mary. Bates is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. When the sentence is commuted to life in prison, a servants ball is rescheduled and Mary and Matthew finally find their way to a marriage proposal on a snowy evening outside the Abbey.

Lady Sybil, the youngest Crawley daughter, begins to find her aristocratic life stifling, falls in love with Tom Branson, the new chauffeur of Irish descent with strong socialist leanings, but is talked out of elopement by her sisters and eventually receives Lord Grantham's reluctant blessing.

Ethel Parks, a new housemaid, is seduced by an injured officer, Major Bryant. Mrs Hughes finds them together in bed and dismisses Ethel, but takes pity on her and helps her when Ethel realises that she is pregnant. She has a baby boy and names him Charlie after his father, but Major Bryant refuses to acknowledge that he is the baby's father.

Series 3: 2012
Main article: Downton Abbey (series 3)
In the third series, covering 1920 to 1921, Mary ends her engagement to Richard Carlisle, despite his vindictive threats to expose her past indiscretion. Mary and Matthew are married in the series premiere, but Robert (Lord Grantham) learns that the bulk of the family's fortune (including Cora's dowry) has been lost, due to his well-intentioned but bad investment in the Grand Trunk Railway. In the meantime, Edith has fallen hard for Sir Anthony Strallen, whom Robert discourages from marrying Edith due to his age and infirm condition. At Edith's insistence, Robert gives in and welcomes Sir Anthony, but the latter cannot accept the fact that there is no reservation from the Grantham family, and at the altar on their wedding day announces that he cannot go through with the marriage, devastating Edith.

Meanwhile, Bates's cellmate tries to plant drugs in his bedding, but Bates is informed by a fellow prisoner allowing him time to find the hidden drug package before a search and hide it. Back at Downton, Mrs Hughes finds out she may have breast cancer, which only some of the household hear about, causing deep concern, but the tumour turns out to be benign. Tom Branson and Lady Sybil, now pregnant, return to Downton after Tom is implicated in the burning of an Irish aristocrat's house. After Matthew's reluctance to accept an inheritance from Lavinia's recently deceased father and then Robert's reluctance in turn to accept that inheritance as a gift, Matthew and Robert reach a compromise in which Matthew accepts and uses the inheritance to invest in Downton, giving him an equal say in how the estate is run.

Tragedy strikes when Sybil dies from eclampsia shortly after giving birth. Tom, devastated, names his daughter Sybil after his late wife. Bates is released from prison after Anna uncovers evidence clearing him of his wife's murder. Tom becomes the new estate agent at the suggestion of Dowager Countess Violet. Barrow and Miss O'Brien have a falling out, after which O'Brien leads Barrow to believe that Jimmy, the new footman, is sexually attracted to him. Barrow enters Jimmy's room and kisses him while he is sleeping, which wakes him up shocked and confused. In the end, Lord Grantham defuses the situation. The family visits Lady Violet's niece Susan and her husband "Shrimpie", the Marquess of Flintshire, in Scotland, while awaiting the birth of Matthew and Lady Mary's baby. The Marquess confides to Robert that the estate is bankrupt and will be sold, making Robert recognise that Downton has been saved through Matthew and Tom's efforts to modernise. Mary gives birth to the new heir, but Matthew dies in a car crash while driving home from the hospital.

Series 4: 2013
Main article: Downton Abbey (series 4)
In series four, covering 1922 to 1923, Cora's maid Miss O'Brien leaves to serve Lady Flintshire in India. Cora hires Edna Braithwaite, who had previously been fired for her interest in Tom. Eventually the situation blows up, and Edna is replaced by Miss Baxter.

Lady Mary deeply mourns Matthew's death. Matthew's newly-found will states Mary is to be his sole heir and thus gives her management over his share of the estate until their son, George, comes of age. With Tom's encouragement, Mary assumes a more active role in running Downton. Two new suitors — Lord Gillingham and Charles Blake — arrive at Downton, though Mary, still grieving, is not interested. Middle daughter Lady Edith, who has begun writing a weekly newspaper column, and Michael Gregson, her editor, fall in love. Due to British law, he is unable to divorce his wife, who is mentally ill and in an asylum. Gregson travels to Germany to seek citizenship there, enabling him to divorce, but is killed by Hitler's Brownshirts during riots. Edith is left pregnant and with help from her paternal aunt, Lady Rosamund, secretly gives birth to a daughter. She intends to give her up for adoption in Switzerland and places the baby with adoptive parents, but reclaims her after arranging a new adoptive family on the estate: Mr and Mrs Drewe of Yew Tree Farm take the baby in and raise her as their own.

Anna is raped by Lord Gillingham's valet, Mr Green, which Mr Bates later discovers. Subsequently, Mr Green is killed in a London street accident. A local schoolteacher, Sarah Bunting, and Tom begin a friendship, though Robert (Lord Grantham) despises her due to her openly vocal anti-aristocracy views. In the final Christmas special, Sampson, a card sharp, steals a letter from the Prince of Wales to his mistress, Rose's friend Freda Ward, which, if made public, would create a scandal; the entire Crawley family connives to retrieve it, though it is Bates who extracts the letter from Sampson's overcoat, and it is returned to Mrs Ward.

Series 5: 2014
Main article: Downton Abbey (series 5)
In series five, covering the year 1924, a Russian exile, Prince Kuragin, wishes to renew his past affections for the Dowager Countess. Violet instead locates his wife in Hong Kong and reunites the Prince and his estranged wife. Scotland Yard and the local police investigate Green's death. Violet learns about Edith's daughter, Marigold. Meanwhile, Mrs Drewe, not knowing Marigold's true parentage, resents Edith's constant visits. To increase his chances with Mary, Charles Blake plots to reunite Gillingham and his ex-fiancée, Mabel. After Edith inherits Michael Gregson's publishing company, she removes Marigold from the Drewes and relocates to London. Simon Bricker, an art expert interested in one of Downton's paintings, shows his true intentions toward Cora and is thrown out by Robert, causing a temporary rift between them.

Mrs Patmore's decision to invest her inheritance in real estate inspires Mr Carson, Downton's butler, to do likewise. He suggests that head housekeeper Mrs Hughes invest with him; she confesses she has no money due to supporting a mentally incapacitated sister. The Crawleys' cousin, Lady Rose, daughter of Lord and Lady Flintshire, becomes engaged to Atticus Aldridge, son of Lord and Lady Sinderby. Lord Sinderby strongly objects to Atticus's marrying outside the Jewish faith. Lord Merton proposes to Isobel Crawley (Matthew's mother). She accepts, but later ends the engagement due to Lord Merton's sons' disparaging comments over her commoner background. Lady Flintshire employs underhanded schemes to derail Rose and Atticus's engagement, including announcing to everyone at the wedding that she and her husband are divorcing, intending to cause a scandal to stop Rose's marriage to Atticus; they are married anyway.

When Anna is arrested on suspicion of Green's murder, Bates writes a false confession before fleeing to Ireland. Miss Baxter and Molesley, a footman, are able to prove that Bates was in York at the time of the murder. This new information allows Anna to be released. Cora eventually learns the truth about Marigold, and wants her raised at Downton; Marigold is presented as Edith's ward, but Robert and Tom eventually discern the truth: only Mary is unaware. When a war memorial is unveiled in the town, Robert arranges for a separate plaque to honour Mrs Patmore's late nephew, who was shot for cowardice and excluded from his own village's memorial.

The Crawleys are invited to Brancaster Castle, which Lord and Lady Sinderby have rented for a shooting party. While there, Lady Rose, with help from the Crawleys, defuses a personal near-disaster for Lord Sinderby, earning his gratitude and securing his approval of Rose. A second footman, Andy, is hired on Barrow's recommendation. During the annual Downton Abbey Christmas celebration, Tom Branson announces he is moving to America to work for his cousin, taking daughter Sybil with him. Mr Carson proposes marriage to Mrs Hughes and she accepts.

Series 6: 2015
Main article: Downton Abbey (series 6)
In series six, covering the year 1925, changes are once again afoot at Downton Abbey as the middle class rises and more bankrupted aristocrats are forced to sell off their large estates. Downton must do more to ensure its future survival; reductions in staff are considered, forcing Barrow to look for a job elsewhere. Lady Mary defies a blackmailer, who is thwarted by Lord Grantham. Lady Mary becomes the estate agent. Edith is more hands-on in running her magazine and hires a female editor. Lady Violet and Isobel once again draw battle lines as a government take-over of the local hospital is considered.

Meanwhile, Anna suffers repeated miscarriages. Lady Mary takes her to a specialist, who diagnoses a treatable condition, and she becomes pregnant again. Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes disagree on where to hold their wedding reception but eventually choose to have it at the schoolhouse, during which Tom Branson reappears with Sybil, having returned to Downton for good. Coyle, who tricked Baxter into stealing, is convicted after she and other witnesses are persuaded to testify. After Mrs Drewe kidnaps Marigold when Edith is not looking, the Drewes vacate Yew Tree Farm; Daisy convinces Tom Branson to ask Lord Grantham to give her father-in-law, Mr Mason, the tenancy. Andy, a footman, offers to help Mr Mason so he can learn about farming, but is held back by his illiteracy; Mr Barrow offers to teach Andy to read.

Robert suffers a near-fatal health crisis. Previous episodes alluded to health problems for Robert; his ulcer bursts and he is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. The operation is successful, but Mary and Tom must take over Downton's operations. Larry Merton's fiancée, Amelia, encourages Lord Merton and Isobel Crawley to renew their engagement, but Lady Violet rightly suspects Amelia wants Isobel to be Lord Merton's caretaker in his old age.[5] Daisy and Mr Molesley score high marks on their academic exams; Molesley's are so exceptional that he is offered a teaching position at the school. Mary breaks off with Henry Talbot, unable to live with the constant fear he could be killed in a car race. Bertie Pelham proposes to Edith, but she hesitates to accept because of Marigold. Lady Violet, upset over Lady Grantham replacing her as hospital president, abruptly departs for a long cruise to restore her equanimity.

Bertie Pelham unexpectedly succeeds his late second cousin as marquess, moves into Brancaster Castle, and Edith accepts him. Then Mary spitefully exposes Marigold's parentage, causing Bertie to walk out. Tom confronts Mary over her spitefulness and her true feelings for Henry. Despondent Barrow attempts suicide, and is saved by Baxter, causing Robert and Mr Carson to reconsider Barrow's position at Downton. Mary and Henry reunite and are married. Edith returns to Downton for the wedding, reconciling with Mary. Mrs Patmore's new bed and breakfast business is tainted by scandal, but saved when the Crawleys appear there publicly. Mary arranges a surprise meeting for Edith and Bertie with Bertie proposing again. Edith accepts. Edith tells Bertie's moralistic mother Miranda Pelham about Marigold; she turns against the match, but is won over after all by Edith's honesty. Barrow finds a position as butler and leaves Downton on good terms, but he is unhappy at his new post.

Lord Merton is diagnosed with terminal pernicious anemia, and Amelia blocks Isobel from seeing him. Goaded by Lady Violet, Isobel pushes into the Merton house, and announces she will take Lord Merton away and marry him – to his delight. Lord Merton is later correctly diagnosed with non-fatal anemia. Robert resents Cora's frequent absences as the hospital president, but eventually comes to admire her ability. Henry and Tom go into business together selling cars, while Mary announces her pregnancy. Molesley accepts a permanent teaching position and he and Miss Baxter promise to continue seeing each other. Daisy and Andy finally acknowledge their feelings; Daisy decides to move to the farm with her father-in-law. Carson develops palsy and must retire. Lord Grantham suggests Barrow return as butler, with Mr Carson in an overseeing role. Edith and Bertie are finally married in the series finale, set on New Year's Eve 1925. Lady Rose and Atticus return for the wedding. Anna goes into labour during the reception, and she and Bates become parents to a healthy son.

Film
Main article: Downton Abbey (film)
On 13 July 2018, the producers confirmed that a feature-length film would be made,[6] with production commencing mid-2018.[7] The film, which is scheduled to be theatrically released on 13 September 2019 in the United Kingdom, revolves around a visit by King George V and Queen Mary to Downton Abbey in 1927, causing a stir among the Crawleys and servants alike.

King George V and Queen Mary were regular visitors to Yorkshire during the 1920s especially after the marriage of their only daughter Princess Mary to Viscount Lascelles in 1922 and the birth of their first grandchild in 1923. The Royals visited every year to stay with them at their family homes of Goldsborough Hall 1922-1930 and later Harewood House, the Royals would often visit and stay with other Yorkshire estates whilst in the area or on route to their Scottish Estate of Balmoral.

Crawley family
The series is set in fictional Downton Abbey, a Yorkshire country house, which is the home and seat of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, along with their children and distant family members. Each series follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family, their friends, and their servants during the reign of King George V.

Full moon

The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (more exactly, when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°).[3] This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth – the near side – is completely sunlit and appears as a circular disk. The full moon occurs roughly once a month.

The time interval between a full (or new) moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a synodic month, averages about 29.53 days. Therefore, in those lunar calendars in which each month begins on the day of the new moon, the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th day of the lunar month. Because a calendar month consists of a whole number of days, a month in a lunar calendar may be either 29 or 30 days long.
A full moon is often thought of as an event of a full night's duration. This is somewhat misleading because its phase seen from Earth continuously waxes or wanes (though much too slowly to notice in real time with the naked eye). By definition, its maximum illumination occurs at the moment waxing stops. For any given location, about half of these maximum full moons may be visible, while the other half occurs during the day, when the full moon is below the horizon.

Many almanacs list full moons not only by date, but also by their exact time, usually in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Typical monthly calendars that include lunar phases may be offset by one day when prepared for a different time zone.

Full moon is generally a suboptimal time for astronomical observation of the Moon because shadows vanish. It is a poor time for other observations because the bright sunlight reflected by the Moon, amplified by the opposition surge, then outshines many stars.

On 12 December 2008, the full moon was closer to the Earth than it had been at any time in the previous 15 years. This was referred to in popular media as a supermoon.[4]

On 19 March 2011, there was another full "supermoon", closer to the Earth than at any time in the previous 18 years.[5]

On 14 November 2016, there was another full "supermoon"; this time it was closer to the Earth than at any time in the previous 68 years.[6]

Formula
The date and approximate time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from the following equation:[7]

{\displaystyle d=20.362000+29.530588861\times N+102.026\times 10^{-12}\times N^{2}}{\displaystyle d=20.362000+29.530588861\times N+102.026\times 10^{-12}\times N^{2}}
where d is the number of days since 1 January 2000 00:00:00 in the Terrestrial Time scale used in astronomical ephemerides; for Universal Time (UT) add the following approximate correction to d:

{\displaystyle -0.000739-(235\times 10^{-12})\times N^{2}}-0.000739-(235\times 10^{-12})\times N^{2} days
where N is the number of full moons since the first full moon of 2000. The true time of a full moon may differ from this approximation by up to about 14.5 hours as a result of the non-circularity of the Moon's orbit.[8] See New moon for an explanation of the formula and its parameters.

The age and apparent size of the full moon vary in a cycle of just under 14 synodic months, which has been referred to as a full moon cycle.

Lunar eclipses
When the Moon moves into Earth's shadow, a lunar eclipse occurs, during which all or part of the Moon's face may appear reddish due to the Rayleigh scattering of blue wavelengths and the refraction of sunlight through Earth's atmosphere.[9][10][11] Lunar eclipses happen only during full moon and around points on its orbit where the satellite may pass through the planet's shadow. A lunar eclipse does not occur every month because the Moon's orbit is inclined 5.14° with respect to the ecliptic plane of Earth; thus, the Moon usually passes north or south of Earth's shadow, which is mostly restricted to this plane of reference. Lunar eclipses happen only when the full moon occurs around either node of its orbit (ascending or descending). Therefore, a lunar eclipse occurs about every six months, and often two weeks before or after a solar eclipse, which occurs during new moon around the opposite node.

In folklore and tradition
Full moons are traditionally associated with insomnia (inability to sleep), insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon.[12] They find that studies are generally not consistent, with some showing a positive effect and others showing a negative effect. In one instance, the 23 December 2000 issue of the British Medical Journal published two studies on dog bite admission to hospitals in England and Australia. The study of the Bradford Royal Infirmary found that dog bites were twice as common during a full moon, whereas the study conducted by the public hospitals in Australia found that they were less likely.

Full moon names
Historically, month names are names of moons (lunations, not necessarily full moons) in lunisolar calendars. Since the introduction of the solar Julian calendar in the Roman Empire, and later the Gregorian calendar worldwide, people no longer perceive month names as "moon" names. The traditional Old English month names were equated with the names of the Julian calendar from an early time (soon after Christianization, according to the testimony of Bede around AD 700).

Some full moons have developed new names in modern times, such as "blue moon", as well as "harvest moon" and "hunter's moon" for the full moons of autumn.

Lunar eclipses occur only at full moon and often cause a reddish hue on the near side of the Moon. This full moon has been called a blood moon in popular culture.[13]

Harvest and hunter's moons
The "harvest moon" and the "hunter's moon" are traditional names for the full moons in late summer and in the autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, usually in September and October, respectively.

The "harvest moon" is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox (22 or 23 September), occurring anytime within two weeks before or after that date.[15] The "hunter's moon" is the full moon following it. The names are recorded from the early 18th century.[16] The Oxford English Dictionary entry for "harvest moon" cites a 1706 reference, and for "hunter's moon" a 1710 edition of The British Apollo, where the term is attributed to "the country people" ("The Country People call this the Hunters-Moon.") The names became traditional in American folklore, where they are now often popularly attributed to Native Americans.[17] The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is a yearly festival in West Lafayette, Indiana, held in late September or early October each year since 1968.[18] In 2010, the harvest moon occurred on the night of the equinox itself (some 5​1⁄2 hours after the moment of equinox) for the first time since 1991.[19][20]

All full moons rise around the time of sunset. Since the Moon moves eastward among the stars faster than the Sun, lunar culmination is delayed by about 50.47 minutes[21] (on average) each day, thus causing moonrise to occur later each day.

Due to the high lunar standstill, the harvest and hunter's moons of 2007 were special because the time difference between moonrises on successive evenings was much shorter than average. The Moon rose about 30 minutes later from one night to the next, as seen from about 40° N or S latitude (because the full moon of September 2007 rose in the northeast rather than in the east). Hence, no long period of darkness occurred between sunset and moonrise for several days after the full moon,[22] thus lengthening the time in the evening when enough twilight and moonlight to work to get the harvest in.

Farmers' Almanacs
The Maine Farmers' Almanac from around the 1930s began to publish Native American "Indian" full moon names. The Farmers' Almanac (since 1955 published in Maine, but not the same publication as the Maine Farmers' Almanac) continues to do so.[23]

An early list of "Indian month names" was published in 1918 by Daniel Carter Beard in his The American Boy's Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols for use by the boy scouts. Beard's "Indian" month names were:[24]

January: Difficulty, Black Smoke
February: Raccoon, Bare Spots on the Ground
March: Wind, Little Grass, Sore-Eye
April: Ducks, Goose-Eggs
May: Green Grass, Root-Food
June: Corn-Planting, Strawberry
July: Buffalo (Bull), Hot Sun
August: Harvest, Cow Buffalo
September: Wild Rice, Red Plum
October: Leaf-Falling, Nuts
November: Deer-Mating, Fur-Pelts
December: Wolves, Big Moon
Such names have gained currency in American folklore. They appear in print more widely outside of the almanac tradition from the 1990s in popular publications about the Moon. Mysteries of the Moon by Patricia Haddock ("Great Mysteries Series", Greenhaven Press, 1992) gave an extensive list of such names along with the individual tribal groups they were supposedly associated with.[25] Haddock supposes that certain "Colonial American" moon names were adopted from Algonquian languages (which were formerly spoken in the territory of New England), while others are based in European tradition (e.g. the Colonial American names for the May moon, "Milk Moon", "Mother's Moon", "Hare Moon" have no parallels in the supposed native names, while the name of November, "Beaver Moon" is supposedly based in a Algonquian) language.

The individual names (some inconsistent) given in Farmers' Almanac, which is not authoritative, include the following:[clarification needed]

January: "Wolf Moon" (for December in Beard 1918),[26] "Old Moon"
February: "Snow Moon", "Hunger Moon"
March: "Worm Moon", "Crow Moon", "Sap Moon", "Lenten Moon"
April: "Seed Moon", "Pink Moon", "Sprouting Grass Moon", "Egg Moon" (c.f. "Goose-Egg" in Beard 1918), "Fish Moon"
May: "Milk Moon", "Flower Moon", "Corn Planting Moon"
June: "Mead Moon", "Strawberry Moon" (c.f. Beard 1918), "Rose Moon", "Thunder Moon"
July: "Hay Moon", "Buck Moon", "Elk Moon", "Thunder Moon"
August: "Corn Moon", "Sturgeon Moon", "Red Moon", "Green Corn Moon", "Grain Moon"
September: "Harvest Moon", "Full Corn Moon"
October: "Hunter's Moon", "Blood Moon", "Sanguine Moon"
November: "Beaver Moon", "Frosty Moon"
December: "Oak Moon", "Cold Moon", "Long Night's Moon"
The Long Night's Moon is the last full moon of the year and the one nearest the winter solstice.[27]

"Ice Moon" is also used to refer to the first full moon of January or February.[28]

Hindu full moon festivals
See also: Purnima
In Hinduism, most festivals are celebrated on auspicious days. Many of the Hindu festivals are celebrated on days with a full moon at night. Different parts of India celebrate the same day with different names, as listed below:

Chaitra Purnima – Gudi Padua, Yugadi, Ugadi, Hanuman Jayanti (April 15, 2014)[29]
Vaishakh Purnima – Narasimh Jayanti, Buddha Jayanthi (May 14, 2014)[30]
Jyeshtha Purnima – Vat Savitri Vrat Vat Purnima (June 8, 2014)[31]
Guru Purnima – the full moon of the Ashadh month
Vyas Purnima – important day for starting education and honoring teachers[31]
Shravan Purnima – good day for starting Upanayan day, Avani Avittam, Raksha Bandhan- conceptually Onam also comes on this day.
Bhadrapad Purnima – start of Pitrupaksha, Madhu Purnima
Ashvin Purnima – Sharad Purnima
Kartik Poornima – Thrukkarthika
Margasirsha Purnima – Thiruvathira, Dathatreya Jayanthi
Pushya Purnima – Thaipusam, Shakambharee Purnima
Magha Purnima
Phalguna Purnima – Holi

Democratic debate

The 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates have taken place among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.

Many forums, in which candidates do not respond directly to each other, have also taken place.
Schedule
In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the preliminary schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six debates in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. Candidates are allowed to participate in forums featuring multiple other candidates as long as only one candidate appears on stage at a time; if candidates participate in any unsanctioned debate with other presidential candidates, they will lose their invitation to the next DNC-sanctioned debate.[1][2]

If any debates will be scheduled to take place with a location in the first four primary/caucus states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina), the DNC has decided such debates, at the earliest, will be held in 2020.[1] The DNC also announced that it would not partner with Fox News as a media sponsor for any debates.[3][4] Fox News had last held a Democratic debate in 2003.[5] All media sponsors selected to host a debate will as a new rule be required to appoint at least one female moderator for each debate, to ensure there will not be a gender skewed treatment of the candidates and debate topics
Climate change debate
On April 22, 2019, Jay Inslee proposed that the DNC dedicate one of its presidential debates to climate change,[149] giving candidates a chance to elaborate in full detail on how they intend to implement climate action and achieve the goals presented by the Green New Deal (a progressive climate resolution proposed by Democratic members of congress in the House).[150] Recent polls of both Democratic voters and the electorate in general had identified this topic to be of the highest importance (for example, a CNN poll[151] found 80% of Democrats wanted presidential candidates to make climate change a top priority, and a Morning Consult poll[152] of registered voters nationwide found that 63% said it's either important or a top priority for Congress to pass a bill to address climate change). Despite support from seven other candidates (Sanders, Warren, Gillibrand, Castro, Bennet, Delaney[153] and Moulton[154]), several progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, CREDO Action, Sunrise Movement, Friends of the Earth Action, Public Citizen, 350 Action, MoveOn, Youth Climate Strike), at least two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate,[150] and over 52,000 signatories of a petition,[155] the DNC turned down the idea of limiting some of their debates to only one debate topic.[156][2] On June 29, 2019, however, the DNC referred to a committee a proposal "calling for an official debate on climate change".[157] On August 22, the resolutions committee voted to reject the proposal.[158]

Bullock qualification for first debate
According to the official qualification rules published and updated by the DNC respectively on February 14 and May 9,[20] and the rule guidance given by the DNC on June 10 and 11,[60] there was no official public release of an additional rule, that "polls based on open-ended questions will not be considered". This additional rule was initially just orally communicated between DNC chairman Tom Perez and the Bullock campaign in March 2019, and was only publicly confirmed via a statement to a Politico reporter on June 6,[23] but was never confirmed in writing by any primary DNC sources ahead of the qualification deadline.[159]

On June 12, the Bullock campaign wrote a certification letter to the DNC claiming that Bullock qualified for participation in the first debate through the polling criteria (as they believed an open-ended poll from ABC News/Washington Post should be counted as a third qualifying poll - according to the official published rules).[160] Had Bullock been ultimately determined to have qualified by the DNC, then 21 total candidates would have qualified by the polling criteria, which would have triggered the tiebreak rules, leading to Bullock and Swalwell being tied equally for the last 20th spot with 1% as the highest polling average and three polls with a result at minimum 1%. In that scenario, the DNC would either have had to accept inviting 21 candidates, or invent a supplementing final tiebreak rule (for example, drawing lots for the last spot, or deciding the further tie by their number of unique donors).[159] Ultimately, Bullock was determined not to have qualified for the first debate,[18] though he qualified for the second debate.[62]

Big Ideas Forum stage invasion
On June 1, during the Big Ideas Forum 24-year-old animal rights activist named Aidan Cook stole Sen. Kamala Harris's microphone while she answered a question about equal pay.[161] Security officials and Harris's husband removed Cook from the stage. After the incident, Sen. Cory Booker told CNN he watched the video and was upset with the interference saying, "He crossed a line, this election's going to go on and I'm really hoping that we see Secret Service and others begin to step in because that really could have been a horrifying moment. Kamala's like a sister to me, I love her and that makes me very upset."

Microphone complaints in first debate
Yang, Williamson, and Swalwell complained of microphone problems not allowing them to speak unless called upon when other candidates seemed to be able to freely interject at all times, though NBC/MSNBC denied the claim.[162] The issues spurred frustration from Yang supporters and prompted #LetYangSpeak to trend on Twitter much of the following day.[163]

Protest in second debate about death of Eric Garner
On the second night of the second debate, protesters motivated by the death of Eric Garner and the continued employment of Staten Island police officer Daniel Pantaleo shouted during de Blasio's opening remarks, and then entirely halted Booker's, disrupting the debate for nearly 30 seconds.[164]

Yang qualification for third debate
After Andrew Yang had received what he considered to be his fourth qualifying poll, the DNC revealed that qualifying polls conducted by different organizations would not be counted separately if they were sponsored by the same DNC-approved sponsor. The ruling was controversially disclosed by the DNC on July 30, less than one day after Andrew Yang had obtained 2% in four polls, rather than on July 19 when the second of these polls had been completed.[165] In spite of this, Yang qualified for the third debate.[15]

Poll inclusion controversy regarding third debate
On August 23, Gabbard's campaign protested what it described as unclear standards of inclusion for different polls for the third debate. In the campaign's statement, they alleged that certain "DNC-certified" polls were rated lower than non-certified polls by organizations such as the American Research Group and FiveThirtyEight, and questioned why only four qualifying polls were released following the second debate, while fourteen were released following the first debate.[166][75] The campaign further argued that the lack of polling was “particularly harmful to candidates with lower name-recognition.”[75] They called on the DNC to revise the set of polls it considers for qualifying, citing "numerous irregularities in the selection and timing of those polls," and also asked them "to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness."[167][168][169][170]

The Williamson campaign has also criticized the lack of polling since July.[169]

Craig Hughes, adviser to the Bennet campaign, wrote to DNC Chairman Tom Perez requesting clarification on the process of how qualifications were set and what those would be for the remaining debates. "To date, the DNC has not provided information on how or why its unprecedented debate qualification requirements were set nor what the criteria will be for the eight future debates."[171] Steyer has also criticized the strict rules for poll inclusion.[172][173]

FiveThirtyEight analyzed which candidates would qualify for the third debates if changes to the DNC's rule set were made. If all polls would be considered, Gabbard would qualify with 9 polls and Tom Steyer with 7 polls..[174]

Gabbard third qualifying poll for October debate
On August 8, a Washington Post/ABC poll was released. An initial report from ABC claimed that Gabbard had not received the 2% necessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, but the Gabbard campaign announced that she had indeed received the 2% neccessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, citing the Washington Post figures directly. [175][176] To further complicate matters, FiveThirtyEight claimed that it had received confirmation from the DNC that the poll did not count for Gabbard but the Gabbard campaign countered by stating that no official DNC ruling had been stated and that FiveThirtyEight did not name their source from the DNC.[177][178][179] As of this point, no official DNC ruling has been made, but it is important to note that previously DNC policy has been passed down orally, and only confirmed later by statements to the press, without any official ruling, as was done with the Bullock controversy above.

The confusion stems from the fact that the poll data was presented with two columns, one of "all" adults, and one of "registered" voters, even though the question was only asked to those who "leaned" toward the Democratic party. Gabbard had 1% in the "all" column and 2% in the "registered" column. An identical DNC approved poll conducted on the 1st of July was also located in the data, but it is unclear which category was used for the qualification for the debates, as no candidate had 2% in one category and 1% in the other, although FiveThirtyEight claims the above DNC source told them the sample for the "debate qualification will be the adult sample", and Politico used the "registered" column for their data compilation.

BC Hydro

The BC Hydro and Power Authority is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia, generally known simply as BC Hydro. It is the main electricity distributor, serving 1.8 million customers in most areas,[3] with the exception of the City of New Westminster, where the city runs its own electrical department[4] and the Kootenay region, where FortisBC, a subsidiary of Fortis Inc. directly provides electric service to 213,000 customers and supplies municipally owned utilities in the same area.[5] As a provincial Crown corporation, BC Hydro reports to the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines, and is regulated by the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). Its mandate is to generate, purchase, distribute and sell electricity.

BC Hydro operates 32 hydroelectric facilities and three natural gas-fueled thermal power plants. As of 2014, 95 per cent of the province's electricity was produced by hydroelectric generating stations, which consist mostly of large hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Peace Rivers.[6] BC Hydro's various facilities generate between 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, depending on prevailing water levels. BC Hydro's nameplate capacity is about 11,000 megawatts.[7]

Electricity is delivered through a network of 18,286 kilometers of transmission lines and 55,254 kilometers of distribution lines. For the 2013-2014 fiscal year, the domestic electric sales volume was 53,018 gigawatt hours, revenue was $5.392 billion and net income was $549 million
BC Hydro was created in 1961 when the government of British Columbia, under Premier WAC Bennett, passed the BC Hydro Act. This act led to the expropriation of the BC Electric Company and its merging with the BC Power Commission, to create the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BCHPA).[9]

The BC Power Commission had been established with the Electric Power Act in 1945 by Premier John Hart. The mandate of the Power Commission was to amalgamate existing power and generating facilities across the province not served by BC Electric, and to extend service to the many smaller communities without power.[10]

BC Electric Company began as the British Columbia Electric Railway (streetcar and lighting utility) in Victoria, Vancouver and New Westminster in 1897. Power was generated by coal-fired steam plants. Increasing demand in the Edwardian boom years meant BC Electric sought expansion through developing Hydro power at Buntzen Lake, and later at Stave Lake. Sensible growth and expansion of the power, streetcar and coal gas utilities meant that BC Electric was a major company in the region. An English financier named Robert Horne-Payne had secured investment funding and created a large company from what had been a patchwork of small regional electric railway and steam, hydro and diesel plants.

Also about this time, sawmills and factories converted to electricity, further increasing the demand for electric power. BC Electric developed more hydro stations in the province. Similarly, small towns also built and operated their own power stations. More power transmission lines were also built. Dams and hydro-electric generating stations were built on Vancouver Island on the Puntledge, Jordan, and Elk rivers in the 1920s.

BC Electric created one of the largest streetcar and interurban systems in the world in the Lower Mainland of BC with some 200 miles of track running from Point Grey to Chilliwack. There were both city street cars and interurban cars servicing Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster, Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Victoria.

By the time of the First World War, private cars and jitneys were beginning to affect streetcar traffic. The expansion of private automobile ownership in the 1920s further constrained the expansion of streetcar lines. New dams were planned, including the diversion from the Bridge River to Seton Lake, near Lillooet, but the economic depression of the 1930s halted this business expansion. Also with the depression came an increase in the ridership, and a decrease in the maintenance of the streetcar system.

In 1947 the BC Power Commission completed the John Hart Generating Station at Campbell River. In the early 1950s the ageing streetcars and interurban trains were replaced by electric trolley buses, and diesel buses. BC Electric finally completed the Bridge River Generating Station in 1960. BC Hydro continued to operate the transit system by funding it with a small levy on electricity bills, until the transit system was taken over by BC Transit in 1980.

In 1958 BC Electric began construction of the Burrard Generating Station near Port Moody. It opened in 1961 and, although it is now fueled only by natural gas, and operated only intermittently when needed, it continues to generate controversy due to its proximity to Vancouver and its associated greenhouse gas emissions. In 2001 it represented over 9% of BC Hydro's gross metered generation.[11] With completion of new transmission capacity to the Lower Mainland from the interior of BC, Burrard Thermal Station is being converted into a large Synchronous condenser facility.

On August 1, 1961, just days after company president Dal Grauer died, the BC government passed the legislation which changed BC Electric from a private company to a crown corporation known as BC Hydro. In 1988 BC Hydro sold its Gas Division which distributed natural gas in the lower mainland and Victoria to Inland Natural Gas. Inland was acquired by Terasen Gas in 1993.

Modern era
Between 1960 and 1980, BC Hydro completed six large hydro-electric generating projects. The first large dam was built on the Peace River near Hudson's Hope. The WAC Bennett Dam was built to create an energy reservoir for the Gordon M. Shrum Generating Station, which has a capacity of 2,730 Megawatts of electric power and generated 13,810 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year on average 2012-16. When it was completed in 1968, the dam was the largest earth-fill structure ever built. The Williston Lake reservoir is the largest lake in British Columbia. A second smaller concrete dam was later built downstream, closer to Hudson's Hope for the Peace Canyon Generating Station which was completed in 1980.

Under the terms of the Columbia River Treaty with the US, BC Hydro built a number of dams and hydro-electric generating stations including two large projects at Mica and Revelstoke on the Columbia River. The Keenleyside Dam on the Columbia River north of Castlegar and the Duncan Dam north of Kootenay Lake were also built under the same treaty and are used mainly for water control. Two generators were installed at Keenleyside in 2002, though these are owned and operated by the Columbia Power Corporation (a separate Crown Corporation). Kootenay Canal Generating Station on the Kootenay River between Nelson and Castlegar was completed in 1976. The Seven Mile Dam and Generating Station on the Pend d'Oreille River near Trail were completed in 1979.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s BC Hydro investigated the feasibility of geothermal power production at Meager Creek, north of Pemberton. They concluded from their testing that the underground rock wasn't permeable enough to justify large-scale production of electricity.[12] Around the same time, BC Hydro initiated a project to develop a coal-fired thermal generating station at Hat Creek near Cache Creek, but abandoned the effort in 1981 due to strong environmental opposition.[13]

In 1989 the Power Smart and Resource Smart programs were initiated by BC Hydro to promote energy conservation as an alternative to the cost of creating new generating facilities. Since 2001, BC Hydro has focused on its conservation and energy efficiency programs, re-investing in its existing facilities, and purchasing clean, renewable energy from Independent Power Producers. According to the "British Columbia Energy Plan",[14] released in 2007, BC Hydro must ensure that clean or renewable electricity generation continues to account for at least 90 percent of total generation. As of 2014, 97 percent of BC Hydro's electricity generation comes from clean or renewable sources and this generation only emits 730,000 tonnes of CO2 annually from thermal plants.[15]

Organization and financial performance
In 1980 the BC Government established the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) to regulate public energy utilities and to act as an independent, quasi-judicial regulatory agency regarding energy rates. In 2003 the BC government passed several pieces of legislation to redefine and regulate power utilities in British Columbia. The Transmission Corporation Act created the British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC) which plans, operates and maintains the transmission system owned by BC Hydro.

Also in 2003, BC Hydro privatized the services provided by 1540 of its employees in its Customer Service, Westech IT Services, Network Computer Services, Human Resources, Financial Systems, Purchasing, and Building and Office Services groups. These services are now provided under contract by Accenture.[16]

Site C Dam
While BC Hydro initially looked at Site C on the Peace River near Fort St. John in the late 1950s, it wasn't until 1982 that it submitted a Site C development project to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC). It was turned down by the BCUC at that time.[citation needed] Another attempt to revive it in the 1990s was blocked by environmental concerns.[17] In 2004 the BC government's Energy Plan[18] instructed BC Hydro to begin discussions with First Nations, the Province of Alberta and communities to discuss Site C as a future option.[19] In May 2014, a federal-provincial Joint Review Panel released a report into the project's environmental, economic, social, heritage, and health effects.[20] A notice of Site C construction commencing in 2015 was issued July 2015.[21] Revelstoke Dam built in 1984 was the last new dam built by BC Hydro.

Independent Power Producers
The BC Hydro Public Power Legacy and Heritage Contract Act requires BC Hydro to meet the province's future needs for power through private developers. These acts have allowed Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to sell power to BC Hydro, which is required by law to buy it from them even at a loss.[22] In 2011 BC Hydro spent $567.4 million on electricity from IPPs. In 2013, BC Hydro had 127 Electricity Purchase Agreements in its supply portfolio, representing 22,200 gigawatt hours of annual energy and over 5,500 megawatts of capacity.[23] In 2013 those purchases will be $781.8 million in 2013 and $939.8 million in 2014, representing about 20% of domestic supply.[24][25]

Exports
BC Hydro exports and imports electric power through its wholly owned power marketing and trading subsidiary, Powerex, which was established in 1988. Powerex also markets the Canadian Entitlement energy from the Columbia River Treaty.[26] BC Hydro belongs to a power sharing consortium which includes electric utilities in Alberta, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. In 2013 British Columbia's minister of energy and mines, Bill Bennett spoke to why BC Hydro was agreeing to a $750 million settlement with California over claims Powerex manipulated electricity prices.

Catherine Frot

Catherine Frot ([kaˈtʁin_ˈfʁo]; born 1 May 1956) is a French actress.[1] A ten-time César Award nominee, she won the awards for Best Actress for Marguerite (2015) and Best Supporting Actress for Family Resemblances (1996). Her other films include Le Dîner de Cons (1998), La Dilettante (1999) and Haute Cuisine (2012).
Early life
Frot was born in Paris, France, the daughter of an engineer and a mathematics teacher. Her younger sister, Dominique, is also an actress.[2] Catherine demonstrated comic talent at an early age, and enrolled in the Versailles conservatory when she was fourteen and still at school. In 1974, she began her education at the Rue Blanche school and afterwards took up full-time studies at the conservatory.

Career
In 1975, Frot appeared at the Festival d'Avignon with the Compagnie du Chapeau Rouge (Red Hat Company) which she founded with the help of others. From then on, Catherine put all her energy into theatre performances in roles such as the Présidente de Tourvel in the play Les Liaisons dangereuses in 1987. She performed in a number of classical plays such as La Cerisaie, directed by Peter Brook in 1982, and La Mouette directed by Pierre Pradinas in 1985.

In films, Frot won the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1996, for playing Yolande, 'the sweet silly wife of a provincial bully' in Cédric Klapisch's Un air de famille and was funny and moving as a wealthy, rebellious nuisance in La Dilettante (1999). In 7 ans de mariage, she played a prudish banker, wife and mother, who is drawn by her bored, sexually frustrated husband into the world of Parisian "clubs échangistes" ("wife-swapping clubs"). She is an officer of the Ordre national du Mérite

Marine Le Pen

Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (French: [maʁin lə pɛn]; born 5 August 1968) is a French politician and lawyer serving as President of the National Rally political party (previously named National Front) since 2011, with a brief interruption in 2017. She has been the member of the National Assembly for Pas-de-Calais's 11th constituency since 18 June 2017.

She is the youngest daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and the aunt of former FN MP Marion Maréchal. Le Pen joined the FN in 1986 and was elected as a Regional Councillor (1998–present), a Member of European Parliament (2004–2017), and a municipal councillor in Hénin-Beaumont (2008–2011). She won the leadership of the FN in 2011, with 67.65% of the vote, defeating Bruno Gollnisch and succeeding her father, who had been president of the party since he founded it in 1972.[1][2][3] In 2012, she placed third in the presidential election with 17.90% of the vote, behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.[4][5][6] She launched a second bid to become President of France at the 2017 presidential election. She finished second in the first round of the election, with 21.30% of the vote, and faced Emmanuel Macron of centrist party En Marche! in the second round of voting. On 7 May 2017, she conceded after receiving approximately 33.9% of the vote in the second round.[7]

Described as more republican than her nationalist father, Le Pen has led a movement of "de-demonization of the National Front" to soften its image,[8] based on renovated positions and renewed teams, and expelling controversial members accused of racism, antisemitism, or Pétainism. She expelled her father from the party on 20 August 2015, after he made new controversial statements.[9][10] She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party's previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting unconditional abortion and withdrawing the death penalty from her platform.[11][12][13] A vocal opponent of the United States and NATO, she has pledged to remove France from their spheres of influence.[14]

Le Pen was ranked among the most influential people in 2011 and 2015, by the Time 100.[15][16] In 2016, she was ranked by Politico as the second-most influential MEP in the European Parliament, after President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz
Childhood
Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen was born on 5 August 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine,[18] the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Breton politician and former paratrooper, and his first wife, Pierrette Lalanne. She was baptized 25 April 1969, at La Madeleine by Father Pohpot. Her godfather was Henri Botey, a relative of her father.

She has two sisters: Yann and Marie Caroline. In 1976, when Marine was eight, a bomb meant for her father exploded in the stairwell outside the family's apartment as they slept.[19] The blast ripped a hole in the outside wall of the building, but Marine, her two older sisters and their parents were unharmed.[20]

She was a student at the Lycée Florent Schmitt in Saint-Cloud. Her mother left the family in 1984, when Marine was 16. Le Pen wrote in her autobiography that the effect was "the most awful, cruel, crushing of pains of the heart: my mother did not love me."[21] Her parents divorced in 1987.[22][23]

Legal studies and work
Le Pen studied law at Panthéon-Assas University, graduating with a Master of Laws in 1991 and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in criminal law in 1992.[24] Registered at the Paris bar association, she worked as a lawyer for six years (1992–1998),[24] appearing regularly before the criminal chamber of the 23rd district court of Paris which judges immediate appearances, and often acting as a public defender. She was a member of the Bar of Paris until 1998, when she joined the legal department of the National Front.

Personal life
Le Pen was raised Roman Catholic.[25] In 1995, she married Franck Chauffroy, a business executive who worked for the National Front. She has three children with Chauffroy (Jehanne, Louis, and Mathilde).[22] After her divorce from Chauffroy in 2000, she married Eric Lorio in 2002, the former national secretary of the National Front and a former adviser to the Regional election in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. They divorced in 2006.

Since 2009, she has been in a relationship with Louis Aliot, who is of ethnic French Pied-Noir and Algerian Jewish heritage.[26] He was the National Front general secretary from 2005 to 2010, then the National Front vice president.[27] She spends most of her time in Saint-Cloud, and has lived in La Celle-Saint-Cloud with her three children since September 2014. She has an apartment in Hénin-Beaumont. In 2010, she bought a house with Aliot in Millas.[28]

Early political career
1986–2010: Rise within the National Front
Marine Le Pen joined the FN in 1986, at the age of 18. She acquired her first political mandate in 1988 when she was elected a Regional Councillor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In the same year, she joined the FN's juridical branch, which she led until 2003.

In 2000, she became president of Generations Le Pen, a loose association close to the party which aimed at "de-demonizing the Front National".[22] She became a member the FN Executive Committee (French: bureau politique) in 2000, and vice-president of the FN in 2003.[22] In 2006, she managed the presidential campaign of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She became one of the two executive vice-presidents of the FN in 2007, with responsibility for training, communication and publicity.[24]

2010–11: Leadership campaign
Early in 2010 Le Pen expressed her intention to run for leader of the FN, saying that she hoped to make the party "a big popular party that addresses itself not only to the electorate on the right but to all the French people".[3]

On 3 September 2010, she launched her leadership campaign at Cuers, Var.[29] During a meeting in Paris on 14 November 2010, she said that her goal was "not only to assemble our political family. It consists of shaping the Front National as the center of grouping of the whole French people", adding that in her view the FN leader should be the party's candidate in the 2012 presidential election.[30] She spent four months campaigning for the FN leadership, holding meetings with FN members in 51 departments.[31] All the other departments were visited by one of her official supporters.[32] During her final meeting of the campaign in Hénin-Beaumont on 19 December 2010, she claimed that the FN would present the real debate of the next presidential campaign.[33][34] Her candidacy was endorsed by a majority of senior figures in the party,[32] including Jean-Marie Le Pen, her father.[35][36]

On several occasions during her campaign she ruled out any political alliance with the Union for a Popular Movement.[37][38] She also distanced herself from some of Jean-Marie Le Pen's most controversial statements,[39] such as those relating to war-crimes, which was reported in the media as attempts to improve the party's image. While her father had attracted controversy by saying that the gas chambers were "a detail of the history of World War II", she described them as "the height of barbarism".[40][41]

In December 2010 and early January 2011, FN members voted by post to elect their new president and the members of the central committee. The party held a congress at Tours on 15–16 January.[42] On 16 January 2011, Marine Le Pen was elected as the new president of the FN, with 67.65% of the vote (11,546 votes to 5,522 for Bruno Gollnisch),[24][43] and Jean-Marie Le Pen became honorary chairman.

Controversy
Marine Le Pen received substantial media attention during the campaign as a result of comments, made during a speech to party members in Lyon on 10 December 2010, in which she compared the blocking of public streets and squares in French cities (in particular rue Myrha in the 18th arrondissement of Paris) for Muslim prayers with the Nazi occupation of France. She said:

For those who want to talk a lot about World War II, if it's about occupation, then we could also talk about it (Muslim prayers in the streets), because that is occupation of territory ... It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of districts in which religious laws apply ... There are of course no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is nevertheless an occupation and it weighs heavily on local residents.[44]

Her comments were widely criticised by media commentators across the political spectrum.[45][46][47] The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF),[48] the French Council of Muslim Faith (CFCM)[49] and the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA)[50] condemned her statement, and groups including MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples)[51] and the French Human Rights League (LDH)[52] declared their intention to lodge a formal complaint. The imam of the Great Mosque of Paris and former president of the CFCM, Dalil Boubakeur, commented that though her parallel was questionable and to be condemned, she had asked a valid question.[53]

Le Pen's partner Louis Aliot,[26] a member of the FN's Executive Committee, criticized "the attempted manipulation of opinion by communitarian groups and those really responsible for the current situation in France".[54] On 13 December 2010, Le Pen reasserted her statement during a press conference at the FN headquarters in Nanterre.[55][56][57] After Jean-François Kahn's comments on BFM TV on 13 December 2010, she accused the Élysée Palace of organising "state manipulation" with the intention of demonizing her in public opinion.[58][59]

On 15 December 2015, a Lyon court acquitted her of "inciting hatred", ruling that her statement "did not target all of the Muslim community" and was protected "as a part of freedom of expression".[60]

Leadership of the National Front
De-demonization of the FN
Marine Le Pen is often judged to be generally more moderate than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.[citation needed] Commentators have highlighted how her calm image contrasts with the stereotypes generally attributed to her political family.[61] At the beginning of her media rise, she often talked about her particular treatment as the daughter of "Le Pen" and of the 1976 attack (then the biggest bomb explosion in France since World War II).[61][62] It has been seen as a way to humanize her party.
For example, Bernard-Henri Lévy, a strong opponent of the FN, talked about "a far-right with a human face".[64] Journalist Michèle Cotta claims that the fact she is a young woman condemning racism and refusing her father's "faults" (notably his enjoyment of shocking other people) contributed to her strategy of de-demonization of the National Front.[65] References to World War II or to the French colonial wars are absent from her speeches, which is often looked on as a generation gap.[66] She distanced herself from her father on the gas chambers he famously called "a detail in the history of World War II", saying that she "didn't share the same vision of these events".[67] L'Express wrote that the expulsion of Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2015 was the completion of her endeavour. The opponents of the FN denounce it as a more-dangerous strategy because of its evident success.[68]

In a 2010 RTL interview, Le Pen stated that her strategy was not about changing the FN's program but about showing it as it really is, instead of the image given to it by the media in the previous decades. The media and her political adversaries are accused of spreading an "unfair, wrong and caricatural" image of the National Front. She refuses the qualification of far-right or extreme-right, considering it a "pejorative" term: "How am I party of the extreme right? ... I don't think that our propositions are extreme propositions, whatever the subject".[69] However, the radical far-right (e.g., Minute, Rivarol, Patrick Buisson, Henry de Lesquen) reproached her for abandoning or softening her stances on immigration, gay marriage and abortion. In her speech in Lyon on 10 December 2010, she mentioned the fate of gays living in difficult neighbourhoods, victims of religious laws replacing the republican law.[70][71][72]

In 2014, the American magazine Foreign Policy mentioned her, along with four other French people, in its list of the 100 global thinkers of the year, underlining the way she "renovated the image" of her party, which had become a model for other right-wing parties in Europe after her success in the European elections.[73] At a European level, she stopped the alliance built by her father with some right-wing extremist parties and refused to be part of a group with the radical Jobbik or the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. Her transnational allies share the fact that they have officially condemned antisemitism, accepted a more liberal approach toward social matters, and are sometimes pro-Israel such as the Dutch PVV. French historian Nicolas Lebourg concluded that she is looked upon as a compass for them to follow while maintaining local particularities.[74][75]

While other European populists embraced Donald Trump's candidacy as US President in 2016, she only supported him by saying: "For France, anything is better than Hillary Clinton". However, on 8 November 2016 she posted a tweet congratulating Trump on his presidential victory.[76] Nevertheless, her strategy has difficulties as her image seems to remain controversial: Germany's Angela Merkel has said she "will contribute to make other political forces stronger than the National Front" and Israel still holds a bad opinion of her party.[77][78] Nigel Farage has said: "I've never said a bad word about Marine Le Pen; I've never said a good word about her party".[79]

Her social program and her support of SYRIZA in the 2015 Greek general elections have led Nicolas Sarkozy to declare her a far-left politician sharing some of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's propositions. President François Hollande said she was talking "like a leaflet of the Communist Party". Eric Zemmour, journalist for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, wrote during the 2012 presidential election that the FN had become a left-wing party under the influence of adviser Florian Philippot. She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party's previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting unconditional abortion, and withdrawing the death penalty from her platform.[80][81][11]

First steps as a new leader: 2011
As a president of the Front National, Marine Le Pen currently sits as an ex officio member among the FN Executive Office (8 members),[82] the Executive Committee (42 members)[83] and the Central Committee (3 ex officio members, 100 elected members, 20 co-opted members).[84]

During her opening speech in Tours on 16 January 2011, she advocated to "restore the political framework of the national community" and to implement the direct democracy which enables the "civic responsibility and the collective tie" thanks to the participation of public-spirited citizens for the decisions. The predominant political theme was the uncompromising defence of a protective and efficient state, which favours secularism, prosperity and liberties. She also denounced the "Europe of Brussels" which "everywhere imposed the destructive principles of ultra-liberalism and free trade, at the expense of public utilities, employment, social equity and even our economic growth which became within twenty years the weakest of the world".[85] After the traditional Joan of Arc march and Labour Day march in Paris on 1 May 2011, she gave her first speech in front of 3,000 supporters.[86][87] On 11 August 2011, she held a press conference about the current systemic crisis.[88]

On 10 and 11 September 2011, she made her political comeback with the title "the voice of people, the spirit of France" in the convention center of Acropolis in Nice.[89] During her closing speech she addressed immigration, insecurity, the economic and social situation, reindustrialization and 'strong state'.[90] During a demonstration held in front of the Senate on 8 December 2011, she expressed in a speech her "firm and absolute opposition" to the right of foreigners to vote.[91] She regularly held thematic press conferences[92] and interventions[93] on varied issues in French, European and international politics.

كاترين دينوف

كاترين دينوف (بالإنجليزية: Catherine Deneuve)، ممثلة فرنسية شهيرة الملقبة بالأيقونة.