title: Emilie de Ravin

text: She was to star as Anthony LaPaglia's character's daughter in the new drama series "Americana" in 2012, but ABC passed on the pilot. She starred in the 2015 indie film "The Submarine Kid".


title: Emilie de Ravin

text: De Ravin has graced the covers of numerous international fashion magazines, including US' "Entertainment Weekly", "FHM", "InStyle Weddings, 944, Life, Where, LA Baby" and "Giant;" Finland's "Demi" Belgium's "Ciné Télé Revue"; Australia's "Sunday" and "People"; and UK's "Fabric". She has also modeled for "CosmoGirl, Stuff" and "BPM Culture." She has appeared in advertising campaigns for JCPenney and Hanes. In 2005, she ranked #47, #65 in 2006 and #68 in 2008 on "Maxim"'s Hot 100 list. De Ravin has been included on "Maxim's Hot 100 list three times: in 2005 (No. 47), 2006 (No. 65), and 2008 (No. 68).


title: Emilie de Ravin

text: After three years of dating, actor Josh Janowicz proposed to De Ravin on New Year's Day 2003 in Melbourne, which she said "was very impromptu and very sweet". She met Janowicz in Los Angeles, and said that "our life together always comes before work. You can't buy love or family." While filming "Lost", De Ravin flew to and from Hawaii "once or twice a week" to return to her home in Burbank, California, which she shared with Janowicz and their poodle.


title: Emilie de Ravin

text: The couple married 19 June 2003 in Melbourne, Australia. They separated six months after they married, and then reconciled. In June 2009, it was reported that they were living separately and had filed for divorce. In October 2009, she called off the divorce after a trip to Japan with her husband. On 8 July 2014, de Ravin filed for divorce from Janowicz. According to court documents, the pair wed on 19 June 2003, despite their wedding ceremony on 26 June 2006; the documents further confirm that the couple separated on 1 November 2013.


title: Emilie de Ravin

text: On 3 October 2015, de Ravin announced via Twitter that she was expecting her first child with her boyfriend Eric Bilitch. In 2016, she gave birth to a daughter. The couple announced their engagement on 6 July 2016.


title: Emilie de Ravin

text: On 29 June 2018, de Ravin announced her pregnancy with the couple's second child, a son, via social media. He was born in December 2018.


title: Email client

text: An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email.


title: Email client

text: A web application which provides message management, composition, and reception functions may act as a web email client, and a piece of computer hardware or software whose primary or most visible role is to work as an email client may also use the term.


title: Email client

text: Like most client programs, an email client is only active when a user runs it. The common arrangement is for an email user (the client) to make an arrangement with a remote Mail Transfer Agent


title: Email client

text: (MTA) server for the receipt and storage of the client's emails. The MTA, using a suitable mail delivery agent (MDA), adds email messages to a client's storage as they arrive. The remote mail storage is referred to as the user's mailbox. The default setting on many Unix systems is for the mail server to store formatted messages in mbox, within the user's home directory. Of course, users of the system can log-in and run a mail client on the same computer that hosts their mailboxes; in which case, the server is not actually "remote", other than in a generic sense.


title: Email client

text: Emails are stored in the user's mailbox on the remote server until the user's email client requests them to be downloaded to the user's computer, or can otherwise access the user's mailbox on the possibly remote server. The email client can be set up to connect to multiple mailboxes at the same time and to request the download of emails either automatically, such as at pre-set intervals, or the request can be manually initiated by the user.


title: Email client

text: A user's mailbox can be accessed in two dedicated ways. The Post Office Protocol (POP) allows the user to download messages one at a time and only deletes them from the server after they have been successfully saved on local storage. It is possible to leave messages on the server to permit another client to access them. However, there is no provision for flagging a specific message as "seen", "answered", or "forwarded", thus POP is not convenient for users who access the same mail from different machines.


title: Email client

text: Alternatively, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) allows users to keep messages on the server, flagging them as appropriate. IMAP provides folders and sub-folders, which can be shared among different users with possibly different access rights. Typically, the "Sent", "Drafts", and "Trash" folders are created by default. IMAP features an "idle" extension for real-time updates, providing faster notification than polling, where long-lasting connections are feasible. See also the remote messages section below.


title: Email client

text: The JSON Meta Application Protocol (JMAP) is implemented using JSON APIs over HTTP and has been developed as an alternative to IMAP/SMTP.


title: Email client

text: In addition, the mailbox storage can be accessed directly by programs running on the server or via shared disks. Direct access can be more efficient but is less portable as it depends on the mailbox format; it is used by some email clients, including some webmail applications.


title: Email client

text: Email clients usually contain user interfaces to display and edit text. Some applications permit the use of a program-external editor.


title: Email client

text: The email clients will perform formatting according to RFC 5322 for headers and body, and MIME for non-textual content and attachments. Headers include the destination fields, "To", "Cc" (short for "Carbon copy"), and "Bcc" ("Blind carbon copy"), and the originator fields "From" which is the message's author(s), "Sender" in case there are more authors, and "Reply-To" in case responses should be addressed to a different mailbox. To better assist the user with destination fields, many clients maintain one or more address books and/or are able to connect to an LDAP directory server. For originator fields, clients may support different identities.


title: Email client

text: Client settings require the user's "real name" and "email address" for each user's identity, and possibly a list of LDAP servers.


title: Email client

text: When a user wishes to create and send an email, the email client will handle the task. The email client is usually set up automatically to connect to the user's mail server, which is typically either an MSA or an MTA, two variations of the SMTP protocol. The email client which uses the SMTP protocol creates an authentication extension, which the mail server uses to authenticate the sender. This method eases modularity and nomadic computing. The older method was for the mail server to recognize the client's IP address, e.g. because the client is on the same machine and uses internal address 127.0.0.1, or because the client's IP address is controlled by the same Internet service provider that provides both Internet access and mail services.


title: Email client

text: Client settings require the name or IP address of the preferred "outgoing mail server", the "port number" (25 for MTA, 587 for MSA), and the "user name" and "password" for the authentication, if any. There is a non-standard port 465 for SSL encrypted SMTP sessions, that many clients and servers support for backward compatibility.


title: Email client

text: With no encryption, much like for postcards, email activity is plainly visible by any occasional eavesdropper. Email encryption enables privacy to be safeguarded by encrypting the mail sessions, the body of the message, or both. Without it, anyone with network access and the right tools can monitor email and obtain login passwords. Examples of concern include the government censorship and surveillance and fellow wireless network users such as at an Internet cafe.


title: Email client

text: All relevant email protocols have an option to encrypt the whole session, to prevent a user's "name" and "password" from being sniffed. They are strongly suggested for nomadic users and whenever the Internet access provider is not trusted. When sending mail, users can only control encryption at the first hop from a client to its configured "outgoing mail server". At any further hop, messages may be transmitted with or without encryption, depending solely on the general configuration of the transmitting server and the capabilities of the receiving one.


title: Email client

text: Encrypted mail sessions deliver messages in their original format, i.e. plain text or encrypted body, on a user's local mailbox and on the destination server's. The latter server is operated by an email hosting service provider, possibly a different entity than the Internet "access" provider currently at hand.


title: Email client

text: Encrypting an email retrieval session with, e.g., SSL, can protect both parts (authentication, and message transfer) of the session.


title: Email client

text: Alternatively, if the user has SSH access to their mail server, they can use SSH port forwarding to create an encrypted tunnel over which to retrieve their emails.


title: Email client

text: There are two main models for managing cryptographic keys. S/MIME employs a model based on a trusted certificate authority (CA) that signs users' public keys. OpenPGP employs a somewhat more flexible "web of trust" mechanism that allows users to sign one another's public keys. OpenPGP is also more flexible in the format of the messages, in that it still supports plain message encryption and signing as they used to work before MIME standardization.


title: Email client

text: In both cases, only the message body is encrypted. Header fields, including originator, recipients, and often subject, remain in plain text.


title: Email client

text: In addition to email clients running on a desktop computer, there are those hosted remotely, either as part of a remote UNIX installation accessible by telnet (i.e. a shell account), or hosted on the Web. Both of these approaches have several advantages: they share an ability to send and receive email away from the user's normal base using a web browser or telnet client, thus eliminating the need to install a dedicated email client on the user's device.


title: Email client

text: Some websites are dedicated to providing email services, and many Internet service providers provide webmail services as part of their Internet service package. The main limitations of webmail are that user interactions are subject to the website's operating system and the general inability to download email messages and compose or work on the messages offline, although there are software packages that can integrate parts of the webmail functionality into the OS (e.g. creating messages directly from third party applications via MAPI).


title: Email client

text: Like IMAP and MAPI, webmail provides for email messages to remain on the mail server. See next section.


title: Email client

text: POP3 has an option to leave messages on the server. By contrast, both IMAP and webmail keep messages on the server as their method of operating, albeit users can make local copies as they like. Keeping messages on the server has advantages and disadvantages.


title: Email client

text: Popular protocols for retrieving mail include POP3 and IMAP4. Sending mail is usually done using the SMTP protocol.


title: Email client

text: Another important standard supported by most email clients is MIME, which is used to send binary file email attachments. Attachments are files that are not part of the email proper but are sent with the email.


title: Email client

text: Most email clients use a "User-Agent" header field to identify the software used to send the message. According to RFC 2076, this is a common but non-standard header field.


title: Email client

text: RFC 5068, "Email Submission Operations: Access and Accountability Requirements", provides a survey of the concepts of MTA, MSA, MDA, and MUA. It mentions that "" Access Providers MUST NOT block users from accessing the external Internet using the SUBMISSION port 587"" and that ""MUAs SHOULD use the SUBMISSION port for message submission.""


title: Email client

text: Email servers and clients by convention use the TCP port numbers in the following table. For MSA, IMAP and POP3, the table reports also the labels that a client can use to query the SRV records and discover both the host name and the port number of the corresponding service.


title: Email client

text: Note that while webmail obeys the earlier HTTP disposition of having separate ports for encrypt and plain text sessions, mail protocols use the STARTTLS technique, thereby allowing encryption to start on an already established TCP connection. While RFC 2595 used to discourage the use of the previously established ports 995 and 993, RFC 8314 promotes the use of implicit TLS when available.


title: Email client

text: Microsoft mail systems use the proprietary Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) in client applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, to access Microsoft Exchange electronic mail servers.


title: Clarence House

text: Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the Duke of Clarence, the future king William IV.


title: Clarence House

text: Over the years, it has undergone much extensive remodelling and reconstruction, most notably after being heavily damaged in the Second World War by enemy bombing during The Blitz where little remains of the original structure as designed by John Nash. It is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England. The house is open to visitors for approximately one month each summer, usually in August. The four-storey house is faced in pale stucco.


title: Clarence House

text: Clarence House currently serves as the London residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Clarence House was also the official residence of Prince William from 2003 until April 2011, and of Prince Harry from 2003 until March 2012. From 1953 until 2002 it was home to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and before her, it was the official home of her daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Clarence House

text: The house was built between 1825 and 1827 to a design by John Nash. It was commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, who in 1830 became King William IV of the United Kingdom (reigned 1830–1837). He lived there in preference to the adjacent St James's Palace, an antiquated Tudor building which he found too cramped.


title: Clarence House

text: From William IV, the house passed to his sister Princess Augusta Sophia, and, following her death in 1840, to Queen Victoria's mother, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. In 1866 it became the home of Queen Victoria's second son Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (also Duke of Edinburgh), until his death in 1900.


title: Clarence House

text: Alfred's younger brother Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Queen Victoria's third son, used the house from 1900 until his death in 1942. During his tenure, for a brief period in the 1930s, it was the location of the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, until all universities in London were evacuated in 1939 and the school temporarily relocated to Cambridge.


title: Clarence House

text: During World War II, Clarence House suffered damage by enemy bombing during The Blitz (1940–1941). Following the death of the Duke of Connaught in 1942, it was used by the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance Brigade as their headquarters during the rest of World War II.


title: Clarence House

text: Following their marriage in 1947, it became the residence of Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Their daughter, Princess Anne, was born there in August 1950. In 1953, after the death of her father King George VI (d. 6 February 1952), Princess Elizabeth acceded to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II and moved to Buckingham Palace. Her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and sister Princess Margaret moved into Clarence House. Also at the start of her widowhood, the Queen Mother purchased the Castle of Mey in Scotland as a summer residence.


title: Clarence House

text: Princess Margaret later moved into an apartment in Kensington Palace following her marriage in 1960, whilst the Queen Mother remained at Clarence House and at the Castle of Mey, until her death in March 2002.


title: Clarence House

text: Currently, Clarence House is the London residence of King Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla. The King and Queen consort will continue to utilize Clarence House as their London home until at least 2027 while renovations to Buckingham Palace are ongoing. Buckingham Palace will remain the administrative headquarters for the monarchy and location of state events during this time.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from the fifth century onwards. The area became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth century. After the Reformation started by Martin Luther in the early 16th century, many people left the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutheran and Calvinist.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 2021, around 52.7% of the population were Christians among them 49.7% members of the two large Christian churches. About half of Christians in Germany are Catholics, mostly Roman Catholics; Catholicism is stronger in the southern and the western part of the country. About half belongs to the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) predominant in the northern regions, and the rest to several small Christian denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Jehovah's Witnesses. Estimations for the percentage of Muslims vary between 3.5% and 6.7%, while much smaller religions include Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Yazidism. The rest of the population is not affiliated with any church, and many are atheist, agnostic, or otherwise irreligious. 60% of German residents say that they believe there is a God, 9% say that they believe there is a higher power or spiritual force and 27% say that they do not believe there is a God, higher power or spiritual force. In another survey, 44% said that they believe there is a God, 25% said that they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force and 27% said that they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force. 35% of residents identify with their religion or belief.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Demographics of religion in Germany vary greatly by region and age. Non-religious people represent the majority in some of Germany's major cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, and the absolute majority of 70–80% in the eastern states of what between 1949 and 1990 used to be East Germany.


title: Religion in Germany

text: By contrast, rural areas of the western states of what in the same period used to be West Germany are more religious, and some rural areas are highly religious.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Ancient Germanic paganism was a polytheistic religion practised in prehistoric Germany and Scandinavia, as well as Roman territories of Germania by the first century AD. It had a pantheon of deities that included Donar/Thunar, Wuotan/Wodan, Frouwa/Frua, Balder/Phol/Baldag, and others shared with northern Germanic paganism. Celtic paganism and later Gallo-Roman syntheses were instead practised in western and southern parts of modern Germany, while Slavic paganism was practised in the east.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In the territories of Germany under the control of the Roman Empire (the provinces Raetia, Germania Superior and Germania Inferior), early Christianity was introduced and began to flourish after the fourth century. Although pagan Roman temples existed beforehand, Christian religious structures were soon built, such as the Aula Palatina in Trier (then the capital of the Roman province Gallia Belgica), completed during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine I (306–337).


title: Religion in Germany

text: During the Carolingian period, Christianity spread throughout Germany, particularly during the reign of Charlemagne (r. 768–814). Religious structures built during the Carolingian period include the Palatine Chapel, Aachen, a surviving component of the Palace of Aachen built by architect Odo of Metz during the reign of Charlemagne.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Territories of the present-day Germany, like much of Europe, were entirely Roman Catholic with religious break-offs being suppressed by both the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Roman Catholicism was the sole established religion in the Holy Roman Empire until the advent of the Protestant Reformation changed this drastically. In the early 16th century abuses (such as selling indulgences in the Catholic Church) occasioned much discontent, and a general desire for reform emerged. In 1517 the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luther's 95 Theses detailing 95 assertions which Luther believed showed corruption and misguidance within the Catholic Church. The Reformation demonstrated Luther's disagreement both with the way in which the higher clergy used and abused power, and with the very idea of a papacy. In 1521 the Diet of Worms outlawed Luther, but the Reformation spread rapidly. Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German, establishing the basis of the modern German language. A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language of that time. After the publication of his Bible translation, his dialect evolved into what is now standard modern German.


title: Religion in Germany

text: With the protestation of the Lutheran princes at the Imperial Diet of Speyer (1529) and rejection of the Lutheran "Augsburg Confession" at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), a separate Lutheran church emerged.


title: Religion in Germany

text: From 1545 the Counter-Reformation began in Germany. Much of its impetus came from the newly founded (in 1540) Jesuit order. It restored Catholicism to many areas, including Bavaria. The Holy Roman Empire became religiously diverse; for the most part, the states of northern and central Germany became Protestant (chiefly Lutheran, but also Calvinist/Reformed) while the states of southern Germany and the Rhineland largely remained Catholic. In 1547 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Protestant rulers. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 brought recognition of the Lutheran faith. But the treaty also stipulated that the religion of a state was to be that of its ruler ("cuius regio, eius religio").


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 1608/1609 the Protestant Union and the Catholic League formed. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, played out primarily in German lands, but involved most of the countries of Europe. It was to some extent a religious conflict, involving both Protestants and Catholics.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Two main developments reshaped religion in Germany after 1814. There was a movement to unite the larger Lutheran and the smaller Reformed Protestant churches. The churches themselves brought this about in Baden, Nassau, and Bavaria. However, in Prussia King Frederick William III was determined to handle unification entirely on his own terms, without consultation. His goal was to unify the Protestant churches, and to impose a single standardised liturgy, organisation, and even architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralised royal control of all the Protestant churches. In a series of proclamations over several decades the Evangelical Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the more numerous Lutherans and the less numerous Reformed Protestants. The government of Prussia now had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognised as the leading bishop. Opposition to unification came from the "Old Lutherans" in Prussia and Silesia who followed the theological and liturgical forms they had followed since the days of Luther. The government attempted to crack down on them, so they went underground. Tens of thousands migrated to South Australia and the United States, where they formed the Missouri Synod. Finally, in 1845 the new king, Frederick William IV, offered a general amnesty and allowed the Old Lutherans to form separate free church associations with only nominal government control.


title: Religion in Germany

text: From the religious point of view of the typical Catholic or Protestant, major changes were underway in terms of a much more personalised religiosity that focused on the individual more than the church or the ceremony. Opposing the rationalism of the late 18th century, there was a new emphasis on the psychology and feeling of the individual, especially in terms of contemplating sinfulness, redemption, and the mysteries and the revelations of Christianity. Pietistic revivals were common among Protestants. Among Catholics there was a sharp increase in popular pilgrimages. In 1844 alone, half a million pilgrims made a pilgrimage to the city of Trier in the Rhineland to view the Seamless robe of Jesus, said to be the robe that Jesus wore on the way to his crucifixion. Catholic bishops in Germany had historically been largely independent of Rome, but now the Vatican exerted increasing control, a new "ultramontanism" of Catholics highly loyal to Rome. A sharp controversy broke out in 1837–38 in the largely Catholic Rhineland over the religious education of children of mixed marriages, where the mother was Catholic and the father Protestant. The government passed laws to require that these children always be raised as Protestants, contrary to Napoleonic law that had previously prevailed and allowed the parents to make the decision. It put the Catholic Archbishop under house arrest. In 1840, the new King Frederick William IV sought reconciliation and ended the controversy by agreeing to most of the Catholic demands. However Catholic memories remained deep and led to a sense that Catholics always needed to stick together in the face of an untrustworthy government.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Chancellor Otto von Bismarck would not tolerate any base of power outside Germany and launched the Kulturkampf ("culture war") against the power of the pope and the Catholic Church. This gained strong support from German liberals, who saw the Catholic Church as the bastion of reaction and their greatest enemy. The Catholic element, in turn, saw the National Liberals as its worst enemy and formed the Center Party.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Catholics, although about a third of the national population, were seldom allowed to hold major positions in the Imperial government or the Prussian government. After 1871, there was a systematic purge of Catholics; in the powerful interior ministry, which handled all police affairs, the only Catholic was a messenger boy.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The German Empire passed the Pulpit Law (1871), which made it a crime for any cleric to discuss political issues, and the Jesuits Law (1872) drove this order out of German territory. In 1873, Bismarck, as prime minister of Prussia, launched further anti-church measures: Public schools and the registration of births, marriages and deaths were transferred from religious authorities (including the Protestant state church) to the state. Germans could now change their religious affiliation through the civil registry. Other German states followed through with similar measures. Nearly all Catholic bishops, clergy, and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws, and were defiant facing the increasingly heavy penalties and imprisonments imposed by Bismarck's government. Historian Anthony Steinhoff reports the casualty totals:


title: Religion in Germany

text: As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile. ...Finally, between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The British ambassador Odo Russell reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism:


title: Religion in Germany

text: The German Bishops who were politically powerless in Germany and theologically in opposition to the Pope in Rome – have now become powerful political leaders in Germany and enthusiastic defenders of the now infallible Faith of Rome, united, disciplined, and thirsting for martyrdom, thanks to Bismarck's uncalled for antiliberal declaration of War on the freedom they had hitherto peacefully enjoyed.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Bismarck underestimated the resolve of the Catholic Church and did not foresee the extremes that this struggle would entail. The Catholic Church denounced the harsh new laws as anti-catholic and mustered the support of its rank and file voters across Germany. In the following elections, the Center Party won a quarter of the seats in the Imperial Diet. The conflict ended after 1879 for two reasons: Pope Pius IX died in 1878 and was succeeded by the more conciliatory Pope Leo XIII. Bismarck was also looking for greater parliamentary support after his alliance with the National Liberals ended over Bismarck's tariff changes and Social-Democrats emerged as new threat. Following negotiations with Leo XIII, peace was restored: the bishops returned, and the jailed clerics were released. Laws were toned down or taken back (Mitigation Laws 1880–1883 and Peace Laws 1886/87), but the Jesuits Law and the Pulpit Law were not repealed until 1917 and 1953, respectively. The changes concerning schools, civil registry, marriage and religious disaffiliation remain in place today. The Center Party gained strength and became an ally of Bismarck, especially when he attacked socialism.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The national constitution of 1919 determined that the newly formed Weimar Republic had no state church, and guaranteed freedom of religion. Earlier, these freedoms were mentioned only in state constitutions. Protestants and Catholics were equal before the law, and freethought flourished. The German Freethinkers League attained about 500,000 members, many of whom were atheists, before the organisation was shut down by the Nazis in May 1933.


title: Religion in Germany

text: When Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, it sought to assert state supremacy over all sectors of life. The Reichskonkordat neutralized the Catholic Church as a political force. Through the pro-Nazi Deutsche Christenbewegung ("German Christians movement") and the forced merger of the German Evangelical Church Confederation into the Protestant Reich Church, Protestantism was brought under state control. Following a "gradual worsening of relations" in late 1936, the Nazis supported "Kirchenaustrittsbewegung" ("movement to leave the church"). Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example. Those who left the churches were designated as "Gottgläubig": they believed in a higher power, often a creator-God with a special interest in the German nation, but did not belong to any church, nor were they atheists. Many were Germanic neopagans. This movement, especially promoted by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, remained relatively small and by 1939, 3.5% of Germans identified as "Gottgläubig"; the overwhelming majority of 94.5% remained Protestant or Catholic, and only 1.5% did not profess any faith. Since 1933, Jews in Germany were increasingly marginalised, expelled and persecuted for a combination of religious, racial and economic reasons. From 1941 to the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, they were actively massacred during the Holocaust.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In the aftermath of World War II, two states emerged in Germany in 1949: West Germany under the aegis of the Western Allies, and East Germany as part of the Soviet bloc. West Germany, officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, adopted a constitution in 1949 which protected freedom of religion and adopted the regulations of the Weimar Constitution; consequently, secularisation in West Germany proceeded slowly. East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, had a communist system which actively tried to reduce the influence of religion in society; the government restricted Christian churches and discriminated against Christians. In the 21st century, eastern German states, including the area of the former eastern capital, East Berlin, are less religious than western German states.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Religious communities which are of sufficient size and stability and which are loyal to the constitution can be recognised as "Körperschaften öffentlichen Rechtes" (statutory corporations). This gives them certain privileges – for example, being able to give religious instruction in state schools (as enshrined in the German constitution, though some states are exempt from this) and having membership fees collected (for a fee) by the German revenue department as "church tax" ("Kirchensteuer"): a surcharge of between 8 and 9% of the income tax. The status mainly applies to the Catholic Church, the mainline Evangelical Church in Germany, a number of free churches, and Jewish communities. There has been much discussion about allowing other religious groups (such as Muslims) into this system as well. In the 21st century, eastern German states, including the area of the former eastern capital, East Berlin, are less religious than western German states.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 2018 the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Bremen made Reformation Day (31 October) a permanent official holiday. This initiative began after the day had been held as a nationwide holiday in 2017, due to the 500th Reformation anniversary of the Reformation, and also due to the fact that the northern German states have significantly fewer holidays than the southern ones.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 2019 the Catholic News Agency reported that the Catholic church in Germany had a net loss of 216,078 members the previous year. The Protestant churches in Germany had a similar net loss of membership of about 220,000 members. While the total of Catholic and Protestant church membership stands at 45 million or 53%, demographers predict that based on current trends it will fall to 23 million by 2060. In 2020 it was reported that the Catholic church in Germany had a 402,000 loss in membership, the largest ever single year decrease up to that point. The Protestant churches in Germany also had a large drop in membership of about 440,000.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Nowadays, Protestants are concentrated in northern and central Germany, while Catholics are predominant in the south and west, while unaffiliated people are concentrated in the east, where they make up the majority of the population, and are significant in the north and west of the country, mainly in metropolitan areas. With the decline of Christianity in the late 20th and early 21st century, accentuated in the east by the official atheism of the former German Democratic Republic, the northeastern states of Germany are now mostly not religious (70%), with many of the people living there being agnostics and atheists.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Immigrations in the late 20th and early 21st century have brought new religions into Germany, including Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Orthodox Christianity is practised among immigrated Greeks, Serbs, Russians, Romanians and other communities. Most Muslims are Sunnis and Alevis of Turkish origin, but there are a small number of Shi'a Muslims and other currents. Moreover, Germany has Europe's third-largest Jewish population (after France and the United Kingdom).


title: Religion in Germany

text: Throughout history, in modern Germany several census had been carried out. Since the reformation until the 1960s the majority of the German population was Protestant (mainly Lutherans belonging to the Evangelical Church in Germany) while approximatively one third of the population was Catholic. After the German reunification, the religious landscape was significantly changed, as found by the 2011 Census, the first one since the 1960s.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The latest census in 2011 found that Christianity was the religion of 53,257,550 people or 66.8% of the total population, among whom 24,869,380 or 31.2% were Catholics, 24,552,110 or 30.8% were Protestants of the Evangelical Church in Germany, 714,360 or 0.9% were members of Protestant free churches, and 1,050,740 or 1.3% were members of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. A further 2.6% was affiliated to any other Christian denomination. Jews were 83,430 people or 0.1%, and 4,137,140 or 5.2% were members of other religions. The remaining 22,223,010 people, or 27.9% of the total German population, were not believers in or not members of any religion (including atheists, agnostics and believers in unrecognised religions).


title: Religion in Germany

text: Only certain religious group publish updated figures on their official membership, and this kind of data is collected in order to levy taxes on the registered membership of those churches, which corresponds to 9% of the total income tax (8% in Baden-Württemberg). Many members choose not to formally register to their church anymore in order to have lighter taxes, since that those who opt out don't have the duty to pay it. According to a study, approximately 44% of the persons who unregistered to their church in 2018 did so in order to avoid to pay the church tax. According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, around 20% of people who are not registered to any church consider themselves Christians. Therefore, the official church count may underestimate the actual number of people who consider themselves as Catholic or Protestant, as noted by the 2011 Census, which provides comparable data on the religious statistics based on self-identification and the church register.


title: Religion in Germany

text: According to these church stats, Christianity is the largest religious group in Germany, with around 44.9 million adherents (53.9%) in 2020 of whom 22.2 million are Catholics (26.7%) and 20.2 million are Protestants (24.3%).


title: Religion in Germany

text: According to other estimates, Orthodox Christianity has 1.6 million members or 1.9% of the population. Other minor Christian religions counted together have approximately 0.8 million members, forming 1.1% of the total population.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The second largest religion in Germany is Islam, with around 2.9–4.7 million adherents (3.5–5.7% of the population), almost all of whom have full or partial foreign background. Smaller religious groups include Buddhism (0.2–0.3%), Judaism (0.1%), Hinduism (0.1%), Yazidis (0.1%) and others (0.4%). At the end of 2020, 33.8 million or 40.7% of the country's population were not affiliated with any church or religion.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Demographers estimate that in Germany there are around 100,000 religious Jews (Judaism), and a further 90.000 ethnic Jews with no religion, around 100,000 Yazidis, 130,000 Hindus, and 270,000 Buddhists.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 2016, the survey Politbarometer provided data regarding religion in each of the states of Germany for adults who are entitled to vote (18+), as reported in the table below. Christianity is the dominant religion of Western Germany, excluding Hamburg, which has a non-religious plurality. Northern Germany has traditionally been dominated by Protestantism, especially Lutheranism. The two northernmost provinces of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony have the largest percentage of self-reported Lutherans in Germany. Southern Germany has a Catholic majority, but also a significant Lutheran Protestant population (especially in Northern Württemberg and some parts of Baden and Franconia (Northern Bavaria)), in contrast to the almost entirely Protestant Northern Germany. Irreligion is predominant in Eastern Germany, which was the least religious region amongst 30 countries surveyed in a study in 2012.


title: Religion in Germany

text: According to a survey by Pew Research Center in 2017, 60% of German adult population believe in God, while 36% do not believe in God (9% don't believe in God but in a higher power, 27% do not believe in God or any higher power):


title: Religion in Germany

text: At its foundation in 1871, about two-thirds of the population of the German Empire belonged to a state Protestant church; in 2020 the Evangelical Church in Germany was the faith of 24.3%. In 1871, one-third of the population was Roman Catholic; in 2020 its membership was 26.7%. Other faiths have existed in the state, but never achieved the demographic significance and cultural impact of these denominations.


title: Religion in Germany

text: As of 2020, Christianity, with around 44.9 million members, was the largest religion in Germany (53.9% of the population) Consequently, a majority of the German people belong to a Christian community, although many of them take no active part in church life. About 1.9% of the population was Orthodox Christian in 2020, and about 1.1% followed other forms of Christianity (including other Protestant churches, Jehovah's Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and others).


title: Religion in Germany

text: As of 2021, 34.9 million or 42% of the Germans are irreligious. Before World War II, about two-thirds of the German population was Protestant and one-third was Roman Catholic. In the north and northeast of Germany especially, Protestants dominated. In the former West Germany between 1945 and 1990, which contained nearly all of Germany's historically Catholic areas, Catholics have had a small majority since the 1980s. Due to a generation behind the Iron Curtain, Protestant areas of the former states of Prussia were much more affected by secularism than predominantly Catholic areas. The predominantly secularised states, such as Hamburg or the East German states, used to be Lutheran or United Protestant strongholds. Because of this, Protestantism is now strongest in two strips of territory in the former West Germany, one extending from the Danish border to Hesse, and the other extending northeast–southwest across southern Germany.


title: Religion in Germany

text: There is a non-religious majority in Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. only 19.7% belong to the two main denominations of the country. This is the state where Martin Luther was born and lived most of his life.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In what used to be East Germany both religious observance and affiliation are much lower than in the rest of the country, after forty years of Communist rule. The government of the German Democratic Republic encouraged a state atheist worldview through institutions such as Jugendweihen (youth consecrations) — secular coming-of-age ceremonies akin to Christian confirmation which all young people were encouraged to attend. The number of christenings, religious weddings, and funerals is also lower than in the West.


title: Religion in Germany

text: According to a survey among German youths (aged 12 to 24) in the year 2006, most German youths are non-religious (51%). 30% of German youths stated belief in a personal god, 19% believe in some kind of supernatural power, 23% share agnostic views and 28% are atheists.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in the country. There are between 2.9 and 4.7 million Muslims, around 3.5% of the population. The majority of Muslims in Germany are of Turkish origin, followed by those from Pakistan, countries of the former Yugoslavia, Arab countries, Iran, and Afghanistan. This figure includes the different denominations of Islam, such as Sunni, Shia, Ahmadi, and Alevi. Muslims first came to Germany as part of the diplomatic, military, and economic relations between Germany and the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Jewish communities in German speaking regions go back to the fourth century. In 1910, about 600,000 Jews lived in Germany. After Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, he began systematically persecuting Jews in Germany. The systematic mass murder of Jews in German-occupied Europe began with the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of World War II, around 6 million Jews had been killed by the Nazi government.


title: Religion in Germany

text: About ninety thousand Jews from the former Eastern Bloc, mostly from ex-Soviet Union countries, settled in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is mainly due to a German government policy which effectively grants an immigration opportunity to anyone from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic states with Jewish heritage, and the fact that today's Germans are seen as more significantly accepting of Jews than many people in the ex-Soviet realm.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Recently, antisemitic abuse against Jews in Germany has increased. The Central Council of Jews urged Jewish Germans to avoid wearing their kippahs in public.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Buddhists are the third largest group of believers in Germany after different religious denominations of Christianity and Islam. There are around 270.000 Buddhists who are living in Germany.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Most of them are followers of the Buddhist school of Theravada especially from Sri Lanka. Furthermore, there are followers of Vajrayana, also referred to as Tibetan Buddhism as well as followers of Nichiren Buddhism mainly from Japan and Zen Buddhism from Japan, as well. Around 59,000 Buddhists are from Thailand who follow the school of Theravada and keep 48 temples in Germany and form one of the largest Buddhist community of Buddhists of Asian origin in Germany. A large portion of Buddhists in Eastern Germany are part of the Vietnamese community. Most of the different Buddhist schools and organisation in Germany are members of the non-profit association Deutsche Buddhistische Union e.V. (DBU).


title: Religion in Germany

text: There are approximately 100,000 Hindus living in Germany. Most of them are Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka (around 42,000 to 45,000); from India are around 35,000 to 40,000; of German or European origin are around 7,500 and around 5,000 Hindus are originally from Afghanistan. There are also Hindus from Nepal in Germany however this number is very low.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In addition, there are Hindus in Germany who are followers of New religious movements such as Hare Krishna movement, Bhakti yoga, Transcendental Meditation. But the total number of these followers in Germany is comparatively low.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Between 10,000 and 20,000 Sikhs are living in Germany. Many Sikhs in Germany have their roots from Punjab region in the north of India, as well as from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Germany has the third highest Sikh population in Europe after United Kingdom and Italy. The city Frankfurt is also known to the Sikhs, as Mini Punjab, because of a great Sikh Population, residing there.


title: Religion in Germany

text: There is a large Yazidi community in Germany, estimated to be numbering around 100,000 people. This makes the German Yazidi community one of the largest Yazidi communities in the Yazidi diaspora.


title: Religion in Germany

text: In 2020, there were more than 10,000 Druze living in Germany, with the largest concentration in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia. The number of Druze has increased in recent years with thousands of Syrian refugees of the Syrian Civil War entered Germany to seek refugee status. Druze in Germany are mostly of Syrian descent, and they practice Druzism, a monotheistic religion encompasses aspects of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Greek philosophy, among influences.


title: Religion in Germany

text: A 1997–8 estimate is of 4000 Bahá'ís in Germany. In 2002 there were 106 Local Spiritual Assemblies. The 2007-8 German Census using sampling estimated 5–6,000 Bahá'ís in Germany. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 11,743 Bahá'ís.Following the German reunification in 1989–91 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany handed down a judgment affirming the status of the Bahá'í Faith as a religion in Germany. Continued development of youth oriented programs included the Diversity Dance Theater (see Oscar DeGruy) which traveled to Albania in February 1997. Udo Schaefer et al.'s 2001 "Making the Crooked Straight" was written to refute a polemic supported by the Evangelical Church in Germany written in 1981. Since its publication the Evangelical Church in Germany has revised its own relationship to the German Bahá'í Community. Former member of the federal parliament Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker commended the ideas of the German Bahá'í community on social integration, which were published in a statement in 1998, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl sent a congratulatory message to the 1992 ceremony marking the 100th Anniversary of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Neopagan religions have been public in Germany at least since the 19th century. Nowadays Germanic Heathenism ("Germanisches Heidentum", or "Deutschglaube" for its peculiar German forms) has many organisations in the country, including the "Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft" (Communion of Germanic Faith), the "Heidnische Gemeinschaft" (Heathen Communion), the "Verein für germanisches Heidentum" (Association for Germanic Heathenry), the Nornirs Ætt, the Eldaring, the Artgemeinschaft, the Armanen-Orden, and Thuringian Firne Sitte.


title: Religion in Germany

text: Other Pagan religions include the Celto-Germanic "Matronenkult" grassroots worship practiced in Rhineland, Celtoi (a Celtic religious association), and Wiccan groups. As of 2006, 1% of the population of North Rhine-Westphalia adheres to new religions or esoteric groups.


title: Religion in Germany

text: The German government provides information and warnings about cults, sects, and new religious movements. In 1997, the parliament set up a commission for "Sogenannte Sekten und Psychogruppen" (literally "so-called sects and psychic groups"), which in 1998 delivered an extensive report on the situation in Germany regarding NRMs. In 2002, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the governmental right to provide critical information on religious organisations being referred to as "Sekte", but stated that "defamatory, discriminating, or falsifying accounts" were illegal.


title: Religion in Germany

text: When classifying religious groups, the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) use a three-level hierarchy of "churches", "free churches" and :


title: Religion in Germany

text: Every Protestant (church whose canonical jurisdiction extends over one or several states, or ) and Catholic episcopacy has a ( delegate) from whom information about religious movements may be obtained.


title: No true Scotsman

text: No True Scotsman, or appeal to purity, is an informal fallacy in which one attempts to protect their universal generalization from a falsifying counterexample by excluding the counterexample improperly. Rather than abandoning the falsified universal generalization or providing evidence that would disqualify the falsifying counterexample, a slightly modified generalization is constructed ad-hoc to definitionally exclude the undesirable specific case and counterexamples like it by appeal to rhetoric. This rhetoric takes the form of emotionally charged but nonsubstantive purity platitudes such as "true", "pure", "genuine", "authentic", "real", etc.


title: No true Scotsman

text: Philosophy professor Bradley Dowden explains the fallacy as an "ad hoc rescue" of a refuted generalization attempt. The following is a simplified rendition of the fallacy:


title: No true Scotsman

text: An appeal to purity is commonly associated with protecting a preferred group. Scottish national pride may be at stake if someone regularly considered to be Scottish commits a heinous crime. To protect people of Scottish heritage from a possible accusation of guilt by association, one may use this fallacy to deny that the group is associated with this undesirable member or action. "No Scotsman would do something so undesirable"; i.e., the people who would do such a thing are tautologically (definitionally) excluded from being part of our group such that they cannot serve as a counterexample to the group's good nature.


title: No true Scotsman

text: The description of the fallacy in this form is attributed to British philosopher Antony Flew because the term originally appeared in Flew's 1971 book "An Introduction to Western Philosophy". In his 1975 book "Thinking About Thinking", he wrote:


title: No true Scotsman

text: The essayist David P. Goldman, writing under his pseudonym "Spengler", compared distinguishing between "mature" democracies, which never start wars, and "emerging democracies", which may start them, with the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. Spengler alleges that political scientists have attempted to save the "US academic dogma" that democracies never start wars against other democracies from counterexamples by declaring any democracy which does indeed start a war against another democracy to be flawed, thus maintaining that no democracy starts a war against a fellow democracy.


title: No true Scotsman

text: Author Steven Pinker suggests phrases like "no true Christian ever kills, no true communist state is repressive and no true Trump supporter endorses violence" are explained by the no true Scotsman fallacy.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic medication used to treat and prevent a number of types of cardiac dysrhythmias. This includes ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF), and wide complex tachycardia, as well as atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. Evidence in cardiac arrest, however, is poor. It can be given by mouth, intravenously, or intraosseously. When used by mouth, it can take a few weeks for effects to begin.


title: Amiodarone

text: Common side effects include feeling tired, tremor, nausea, and constipation. As amiodarone can have serious side effects, it is mainly recommended only for significant ventricular arrhythmias. Serious side effects include lung toxicity such as interstitial pneumonitis, liver problems, heart arrhythmias, vision problems, thyroid problems, and death. If taken during pregnancy or breastfeeding it can cause problems in the fetus. It is a class III antiarrhythmic medication. It works partly by increasing the time before a heart cell can contract again.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone was first made in 1961 and came into medical use in 1962 for chest pain believed to be related to the heart. It was pulled from the market in 1967 due to side effects. In 1974 it was found to be useful for arrhythmias and reintroduced. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 198th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2million prescriptions.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone has been used both in the treatment of acute life-threatening arrhythmias as well as the long term suppression of arrhythmias. It is used both in supraventricular arrhythmias and ventricular arrhythmias.


title: Amiodarone

text: Defibrillation is the treatment of choice for ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia resulting in cardiac arrest. While amiodarone has been used in shock-refractory cases, evidence of benefit is poor. Amiodarone does not appear to improve survival or positive outcomes in those who had a cardiac arrest.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone may be used in the treatment of ventricular tachycardia in certain instances. Individuals with hemodynamically "unstable" ventricular tachycardia "should not" initially receive amiodarone. These individuals should be cardioverted.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone can be used in individuals with hemodynamically stable ventricular tachycardia. In these cases, amiodarone can be used regardless of the individual's underlying heart function and the type of ventricular tachycardia; it can be used in individuals with monomorphic ventricular tachycardia, but is contraindicated in individuals with polymorphic ventricular tachycardia as it is associated with a prolonged QT interval which will be made worse with anti-arrhythmic drugs.


title: Amiodarone

text: Individuals who have undergone open heart surgery are at an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation (or AF) in the first few days post-procedure. In the ARCH trial, intravenous amiodarone (2 g administered over 2 d) has been shown to reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation after open heart surgery when compared to placebo. However, clinical studies have failed to demonstrate long-term efficacy and have shown potentially fatal side effects such as pulmonary toxicities. While amiodarone is not approved for AF by the FDA, it is a commonly prescribed off-label treatment due to the lack of equally effective treatment alternatives.


title: Amiodarone

text: So-called 'acute onset atrial fibrillation', defined by the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (NASPE) in 2003, responds well to short duration treatment with amiodarone. This has been demonstrated in seventeen randomized controlled trials, of which five included a placebo arm. The incidence of severe side effects in this group is low.


title: Amiodarone

text: The benefit of amiodarone in the treatment of atrial fibrillation in the critical care population has yet to be determined but it may prove to be the agent of choice where the patient is hemodynamically unstable and unsuitable for DC cardioversion. It is recommended in such a role by the UK government's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).


title: Amiodarone

text: Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant are strongly advised to not take amiodarone. Since amiodarone can be expressed in breast milk, women taking amiodarone are advised to stop nursing.


title: Amiodarone

text: It is contraindicated in individuals with sinus nodal bradycardia, atrioventricular block, and second or third degree heart block who do not have an artificial pacemaker.


title: Amiodarone

text: Individuals with baseline depressed lung function should be monitored closely if amiodarone therapy is to be initiated.


title: Amiodarone

text: Formulations of amiodarone that contain benzyl alcohol should not be given to neonates, because the benzyl alcohol may cause the potentially fatal "gasping syndrome".


title: Amiodarone

text: At oral doses of 400 mg per day or higher, amiodarone can have serious, varied side effects, including toxicity to thyroid, liver, lung, and retinal functions, requiring clinical surveillance and regular laboratory testing. Allergic reactions to amiodarone may occur. Most individuals administered amiodarone on a chronic basis will experience at least one side effect. In some people, daily use of amiodarone at 100 mg oral doses can be effective for arrhythmia control with no or minimal side effects.


title: Amiodarone

text: Side effects of oral amiodarone at doses of 400 mg or higher include various pulmonary effects. The most serious reaction is interstitial lung disease. Risk factors include high cumulative dose, more than 400 milligrams per day, duration over two months, increased age, and preexisting pulmonary disease. Some individuals were noted to develop pulmonary fibrosis after a week of treatment, while others did not develop it after years of continuous use. Common practice is to avoid the agent if possible in individuals with decreased lung function.


title: Amiodarone

text: The most specific test of pulmonary toxicity due to amiodarone is a dramatically decreased DL noted on pulmonary function testing.


title: Amiodarone

text: Induced abnormalities in thyroid function are common. Both under- and overactivity of the thyroid may occur.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is structurally similar to thyroxine and also contains iodine. Both of these contribute to the effects of amiodarone on thyroid function. Amiodarone also causes an anti-thyroid action, via Plummer and Wolff–Chaikoff effects, due its large amount of iodine in its molecule, which causes a particular "cardiac hypothyroidism" with bradycardia and arrhythmia.


title: Amiodarone

text: Corneal micro-deposits (cornea verticillata, also called vortex or whorl keratopathy) are almost universally present (over 90%) in individuals taking amiodarone longer than 6 months, especially doses greater than 400 mg/day. These deposits typically do not cause any symptoms. About 1 in 10 individuals may complain of a bluish halo. Anterior subcapsular lens deposits are relatively common (50%) in higher doses (greater than 600 mg/day) after 6 months of treatment.


title: Amiodarone

text: Optic neuropathy, nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (N-AION), occurs in 1–2% of people and is not dosage dependent. Bilateral optic disc swelling and mild and reversible visual field defects can also occur.


title: Amiodarone

text: Abnormal liver enzyme results are common in people taking amiodarone. Much rarer are jaundice, hepatomegaly (liver enlargement), and hepatitis (inflammation of the liver).


title: Amiodarone

text: Long-term administration of amiodarone (usually more than eighteen months) is associated with a light-sensitive blue-grey discoloration of the skin, sometimes called ceruloderma; such patients should avoid exposure to the sun and use sunscreen that protects against ultraviolet-A and -B. The discoloration will slowly improve upon cessation of the medication, however, the skin color may not return completely.


title: Amiodarone

text: Use during pregnancy may result in a number of problems in the infant including thyroid problems, heart problems, neurological problems, and preterm birth. Use during breastfeeding is generally not recommended though one dose may be okay.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is sometimes responsible for epididymitis. Amiodarone accumulates in the head of the organ and can cause unilateral or bilateral inflammation. It tends to resolve if amiodarone is stopped.


title: Amiodarone

text: A study published in 2013 showed a possible association between amiodarone and an increased risk of cancer, especially in males, with a dose-dependent effect.


title: Amiodarone

text: The pharmacokinetics of numerous drugs, including many that are commonly administered to individuals with heart disease, are affected by amiodarone. Particularly, doses of digoxin should be halved in individuals taking amiodarone. Amiodarone may also interact with sotalol.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone potentiates the action of warfarin by inhibiting the clearance of both (S) and (R) warfarin. Individuals taking both of these medications should have their warfarin doses adjusted based on their dosing of amiodarone, and have their anticoagulation status (measured as prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR)) measured more frequently. Dose reduction of warfarin is as follows: 40% reduction if amiodarone dose is 400 mg daily, 35% reduction if amiodarone dose is 300 mg daily, 30% reduction if amiodarone dose is 200 mg daily, and 25% reduction if amiodarone dose is 100 mg daily.


title: Amiodarone

text: The effect of amiodarone on the warfarin concentrations can be as early as a few days after initiation of treatment; however, the interaction may not peak for up to seven weeks.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone inhibits the action of the cytochrome P450 isozyme family. This reduces the clearance of many drugs, including the following:


title: Amiodarone

text: In 2015, Gilead Sciences warned health care providers about people that began taking the hepatitis C drugs ledipasvir/sofosbuvir or sofosbuvir along with amiodarone, who developed abnormally slow heartbeats or died of cardiac arrest.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is extensively metabolized in the liver by cytochrome P450 3A4 and can affect the metabolism of numerous other drugs. It interacts with digoxin, warfarin, phenytoin, and others. The major metabolite of amiodarone is desethylamiodarone (DEA), which also has antiarrhythmic properties. The metabolism of amiodarone is inhibited by grapefruit juice, leading to elevated serum levels of amiodarone.


title: Amiodarone

text: On 8 August 2008, the FDA issued a warning of the risk of rhabdomyolysis, which can lead to kidney failure or death, when simvastatin is used with amiodarone. This interaction is dose-dependent with simvastatin doses exceeding 20 mg. This drug combination especially with higher doses of simvastatin should be avoided.<ref name="urlInformation on Simvastatin/Amiodarone"></ref>


title: Amiodarone

text: Excretion is primarily via the liver and the bile duct with almost no elimination via the kidney and it is not dialyzable. Elimination half-life average of 58 days (ranging from 25 to 100 days [Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy 21st edition]) for amiodarone and 36 days for the active metabolite, desethylamiodarone (DEA). There is 10-50% transfer of amiodarone and DEA in the placenta as well as a presence in breast milk. Accumulation of amiodarone and DEA occurs in adipose tissue and highly perfused organs (i.e. liver, lungs), therefore, if an individual was taking amiodarone on a chronic basis, if it is stopped it will remain in the system for weeks to months.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is categorized as a class III antiarrhythmic agent, and prolongs phase 3 of the cardiac action potential, the repolarization phase where there is normally decreased calcium permeability and increased potassium permeability. It has numerous other effects, however, including actions that are similar to those of antiarrhythmic classes Ia, II, and IV.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone is a blocker of voltage gated potassium (KCNH2) and voltage gated calcium channels (CACNA2D2).


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone slows conduction rate and prolongs the refractory period of the SA and AV nodes. It also prolongs the refractory periods of the ventricles, bundles of His, and the Purkinje fibres without exhibiting any effects on the conduction rate. Amiodarone has been shown to prolong the myocardial cell action potential duration and refractory period and is a non-competitive β-adrenergic inhibitor.


title: Amiodarone

text: It also shows beta blocker-like and calcium channel blocker-like actions on the SA and AV nodes, increases the refractory period via sodium- and potassium-channel effects, and slows intra-cardiac conduction of the cardiac action potential, via sodium-channel effects. It is suggested that amiodarone may also exacerbate the phenotype associated with Long QT-3 syndrome causing mutations such as ∆KPQ. This effect is due to a combination of blocking the peak sodium current, but also contributing to an increased persistent sodium current.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone chemically resembles thyroxine (thyroid hormone), and its binding to the nuclear thyroid receptor might contribute to some of its pharmacologic and toxic actions.


title: Amiodarone

text: The original observation that amiodarone's progenitor molecule, khellin, had cardioactive properties, was made by the Russian physiologist Gleb von Anrep while working in Cairo in 1946. Khellin is obtained from a plant extract of Khella or "Ammi visnaga", a common plant in north Africa. Anrep noticed that one of his technicians had been cured of anginal symptoms after taking khellin, then used for various, non-cardiac ailments. This led to efforts by European pharmaceutical industries to isolate an active compound. Amiodarone was initially developed in 1961 at the Labaz company, Belgium, by chemists Tondeur and Binon, who were working on preparations derived from khellin. It became popular in Europe as a treatment for angina pectoris.


title: Amiodarone

text: As a doctoral candidate at Oxford University, Bramah Singh determined that amiodarone and sotalol had antiarrhythmic properties and belonged to a new class of antiarrhythmic agents (what would become the class III antiarrhythmic agents). Today the mechanisms of action of amiodarone and sotalol have been investigated in more detail. Both drugs have been demonstrated to prolong the duration of the action potential, prolonging the refractory period, by interacting among other cellular function with K+ channels.


title: Amiodarone

text: Based on Singh's work, the Argentinian physician Mauricio Rosenbaum began using amiodarone to treat his patients who have supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias, with impressive results. Based on papers written by Rosenbaum developing Singh's theories, physicians in the United States began prescribing amiodarone to their patients with potentially life-threatening arrhythmias in the late 1970s. By 1980, amiodarone was commonly prescribed throughout Europe for the treatment of arrhythmias, but in the U.S. amiodarone remained unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration, and physicians were forced to directly obtain amiodarone from pharmaceutical companies in Canada and Europe.


title: Amiodarone

text: The FDA was reluctant to officially approve the use of amiodarone since initial reports had shown increased incidence of serious pulmonary side-effects of the drug. In the mid-1980s, the European pharmaceutical companies began putting pressure on the FDA to approve amiodarone by threatening to cut the supply to American physicians if it was not approved. In December 1985, amiodarone was approved by the FDA for the treatment of arrhythmias. This makes amiodarone one of the few drugs approved by the FDA without rigorous randomized clinical trials.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone may be an acronym for its IUPAC name (2-butyl-1-benzofuran-3-yl)-[4-[2-(diethylamino)ethoxy]-3,5-diiodophenyl]methanone, where ar is a placeholder for phenyl. This is partially supported by dronedarone which is noniodinated benzofuran derivative of amiodarone, where the arylmethanone is conserved.


title: Amiodarone

text: Orally, it is available under the brand names Pacerone (produced by Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc.) and Cordarone (produced by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories). It is also available under the brand name Aratac (produced by Alphapharm Pty Ltd) in Australia and New Zealand, and further in Australia under the brands Cardinorm and Rithmik as well as a number of generic brands. Also Arycor in South Africa (Produced by Winthrop Pharmaceuticals.). In South America, it is known as Atlansil and is produced by Roemmers.


title: Amiodarone

text: In India, amiodarone is marketed (produced by Cipla Pharmaceutical) under the brand name Tachyra. It is also available in intravenous ampules and vials.


title: Amiodarone

text: The dose of amiodarone administered is tailored to the individual and the dysrhythmia that is being treated. When administered orally, the bioavailability of amiodarone is quite variable. Absorption ranges from 22 to 95%, with better absorption when it is given with food.


title: Amiodarone

text: Amiodarone IV should be administered via a central venous catheter. It has a pH of 4.08. If administered outside of the standard concentration of 900 mg/500mL it should be administered using a 0.22 micron filter to prevent precipitate from reaching the patient. Amiodarone IV is a known vesicant. For infusions of longer than 1 hour, concentrations of 2 mg/mL should not be exceeded unless a central venous catheter is used.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Neue Deutsche Härte (; "new German hardness"), sometimes abbreviated as NDH, is a subgenre of rock music that developed in Germany and Austria during the early-to-mid 1990s and during the early 2000s. Alluding to the style of Neue Deutsche Welle, the term was coined by the music press after the 1995 release of the German rock and metal band Rammstein's first studio album "Herzeleid".


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Neue Deutsche Härte describes a crossover style that is influenced by Neue Deutsche Welle, alternative metal and groove metal combining it with elements from electro-industrial and techno. The lyrics are generally in German. NDH uses the basic setup of instruments for metal: electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals, along with keyboard, synthesizers, samples and sometimes additional percussion. Emphasis is on a demonstration of predominance, by over-pronouncing certain syllables and sounds (such as the uvular or alveolar trill). The vocals are dominantly presenting in deep, male and clean voice. Some bands use screaming and death growls, which is also common, being heard in certain songs by Oomph!, Rammstein, Joachim Witt, Megaherz and Eisbrecher. NDH imagery is often strongly masculine and militaristic. Guitars are tuned low, usually to drop D or drop C, and are generally heavily distorted.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: The rudiments of the NDH style were established by Oomph! on their seminal second album, "Sperm" (1994), and by Rammstein with their first album "Herzeleid" (1995). In those days, Oomph!'s biggest influence were groove metal bands such as Prong, Pantera and Sepultura. Rammstein, who take inspiration from a wide array of bands including Depeche Mode and Ministry, is the style's most famous and successful practitioner. NDH is especially successful in continental Europe; Rammstein have sold nearly four million records in Germany, while accumulating gold and platinum records in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and Finland.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Oomph! achieved a gold record for their 2004 "Augen auf!" single in Austria and Germany. Eisbrecher's 2004 self-titled debut album entered at No. 13 on the Deutschen Alternative Top 20 Chart, while the group's second album ("Antikörper") reached the No. 85 position on the German main chart. Other NDH groups include Hanzel und Gretyl, L'âme Immortelle and Unheilig.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: In 2011, comic and musician Bill Bailey parodied the neue Deutsche Härte style by releasing a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" in the style of Rammstein. The lyrics are translated verbatim and mostly do not make sense in German.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Platz, Nym and Balanck describe Neue Deutsche Härte, in Nym's compilation "Iridescent Dark", as a pronounced and powerful merging of German metal with hardcore influences and elements of techno – all coming together with the capabilities of modern music production. The instrumentation usually consists of guitars, bass guitars, drums, vocals, electronic synthesisers and sometimes drum machines. The electronic components of the instrumentation are often employed to create string arrangements, melody samples and loops, or background elements.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Previous descriptions of the style of NDH make reference to it being a stylistic crossover of many different subcultures. During its first surge in popularity, NDH proved to be a music direction which made use of hard metal and hardcore influences as well as elements of techno with German lyrics. According to Martin Büsser, the style is characterised by its visual aesthetic of "searching for the best possible and most marketable midway." As a result, NDH incorporates electronic sound and martial rhythm with musical elements of heavy metal, dark metal and oftentimes light amounts of rapping.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Typical features such as highly technical distorted guitar riffs have been adopted from hard rock and heavy metal and are often modified post recording to add further effect to their sound. The guitar riffs are often played in staccato with a monotonous sound and are similar to those of popular modern metal from the 1990s. The rhythm focused riffs resemble those of alternative metal and groove metal bands. Just like groove metal, NDH bands lean towards mid-tempo riffs, which gain additional rhythm dominance through the use of syncopation. Additionally, strong distorted power chords and palm muting are typically incorporated into this style, and distorted and dominating basslines are also commonly used. The employment of electronic effects from synthesisers and keyboards are also characteristic of NDH, in which they are used to provide artificial string arrangements, melodic components and loops – both melodic hanger loops and background elements. The use of synthesisers and relatively simple rhythms is closely related to 1990s techno. The rhythm is occasionally created through the use of drum machines.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: The vocals are mostly performed by men using a deep voice "enunciating every syllable". Female vocalists – such as Luci van Org from Übermutter, or Greta Czatlos in some releases from Untoten are rarely represented as lead singers in the genre of NDH.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: The rolled 'R' – popularised by Rammstein – is a frequently occurring feature. The vocal melody merges with the backing track and sometimes becomes "Sprechgesang".


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: The lyrics often contain phrases laden with meaning and connotation in simple rhyme schemes that are semantically connected and often get repeated. The texts are often about general topics such as love, hate, jealousy, sexuality, religion and death, with a certain tendency to break taboos by dealing with shock topics like extreme forms of sadomasochism, necrophilia, incest, cannibalism and sexual abuse of children. Büsser calls this manner a gladiator show and display of masculinity that is simply based on shock. Vocals, instruments and manner are intended to display strength. Bands who use indulgent militaristic aesthetics or who make ambiguous reference to Nazi Germany or other absolute monarchistic systems have been harshly criticized; Rammstein and Joachim Witt in particular have been confronted regarding this issue many times. "Rammstein" has made several songs distancing themselves from Nazism, specifically "Links 2 3 4" and "Deutschland". A striking characteristic of the genre are the many band names that consist of conjoined substantives and that are intended to sound hard and strong when pronounced.


title: Neue Deutsche Härte

text: Although NDH is popular, no separate youth subculture exists. The music genre developed independently from any scenes and instead finds its listeners in various subcultures such as the heavy metal subculture or the dark culture. Popular dark culture magazines such as "Orkus", "Sonic Seducer" and "Zillo" frequently feature interviews and reviews about representatives of the NDH music genre. The popularity of the genre spread especially due to many NDH bands appearing at big events showcasing a multitude of genres (indie pop, alternative rock or alternative metal festivals) such as the Wacken Open Air festival but also by holding concerts and going on tours. Rammstein for example performed as a supporting act of the band Project Pitchfork, a band situated in the dark wave genre, on their "Alpha-Omega" tour in 1995.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Alcohol flush reaction is a condition in which a person develops flushes or blotches associated with erythema on the face, neck, shoulders, and in some cases, the entire body after consuming alcoholic beverages. The reaction is the result of an accumulation of acetaldehyde, a metabolic byproduct of the catabolic metabolism of alcohol, and is caused by an aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 deficiency.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: This syndrome has been associated with lower than average rates of alcoholism, possibly due to its association with adverse effects after drinking alcohol. However, it has also been associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer in those who do drink.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: "Asian flush" is common in East Asians, with approximately 30 to 50% of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans showing characteristic physiological responses to drinking alcohol that includes facial flushing, nausea, headaches and a fast heart rate. The condition may be also highly prevalent in some Southeast Asian and Inuit populations.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: The most obvious symptom of alcohol flush reaction is flushing on a person's face and body after drinking alcohol. Other effects include "nausea, headache and general physical discomfort". People who experience the reaction may be less prone to alcoholism as it tends to discourage them from drinking.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Many cases of alcohol-induced respiratory reactions, which involve rhinitis and worsening of asthma, develop within 1–60 minutes of drinking alcohol and are due to the same causes as flush reactions.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Disulfiram, a drug sometimes given as treatment for alcoholism, works by inhibiting acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, causing a five-to ten-fold increase in the concentration of acetaldehyde in the body after drinking alcohol, as happens spontaneously in people subject to flush.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Alcohol flush reaction is a condition that is experienced more frequently by people of East Asian descent, giving rise to names such as "Asian flush" or "Asian glow".


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Around 30–50% of East Asians carry the rs671 (ALDH2*2) allele on chromosome 12, which results in a less functional acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme, responsible for the breakdown of acetaldehyde, and accounts for most incidents of alcohol flush reaction worldwide. According to the analysis by HapMap project, 30% to 50% of people of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ancestry have at least one "ALDH2*2" allele, while it is rare among Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: The rs671 allele is native to East Asia and most common in southeastern China. Analysis correlates the rise and spread of rice cultivation in South China with the spread of the allele. The reasons for this positive selection are not known, but it has been hypothesized that elevated concentrations of acetaldehyde may have conferred protection against certain parasitic infections, such as "Entamoeba histolytica".


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Additionally, in around 80% of East Asians, the rapid accumulation of acetaldehyde is worsened by another gene variant; in this case the allele "ADH1B*2," which results in the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme converting alcohol to toxic acetaldehyde more quickly than other gene variants common outside East Asia.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Those with facial flushing due to ALDH2 deficiency may be homozygotes, with two alleles of low activity, or heterozygotes, with one low-activity and one normal allele. Homozygotes for the trait find consumption of large amounts of alcohol to be so unpleasant that they are generally protected from esophageal cancer, but heterozygotes are able to continue drinking. However, an ALDH2-deficient drinker has four to eight times the risk of developing esophageal cancer as a drinker not deficient in the enzyme.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: Because most East Asians have a variant in the ADH gene, this risk is lowered somewhat because the ADH variant reduces the risk of esophageal cancer four-fold. However, ALDH2-deficient people who do not carry this ADH variant are at the highest risk of cancer as these risk factors act in a multiplicative manner through increasing exposure time to salivary acetaldehyde.


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: The idea that acetaldehyde is the cause of the flush is also shown by the clinical use of disulfiram (Antabuse), which blocks the removal of acetaldehyde from the body via ALDH inhibition. The high acetaldehyde concentrations described share similarity to symptoms of the flush (flushing of the skin, accelerated heart rate, shortness of breath, throbbing headache, mental confusion and blurred vision).


title: Alcohol flush reaction

text: For measuring the level of flush reaction to alcohol, the most accurate method is to determine the level of acetaldehyde in the blood stream. This can be measured through a breathalyzer test or blood test. Additionally, measuring the amount of alcohol metabolizing enzymes alcohol dehydrogenases and aldehyde dehydrogenase through genetic testing can predict the amount of reaction that one would have.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe's two main club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The winner of the second division, the RFU Championship is promoted to the Premiership and until 2020, the team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season was relegated to the Championship. The competition is regarded as one of the three top-level professional leagues in the Northern and Western Hemispheres, along with the Top 14 in France, and the cross-border United Rugby Championship for teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and South Africa.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The current champions are Leicester Tigers. The most recently promoted side are Saracens, who returned to the top flight in 2021.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The governing body of rugby union in England, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), long resisted leagues as it was believed that the introduction of leagues would increase 'dirty' play and put pressure on clubs to pay their players (thereby contravening the amateur ethos). Instead, clubs arranged their own fixtures and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship – the former played by clubs and the latter by County representative teams. "The Daily Telegraph" and a few local newspapers – such as the "Yorkshire Post" – compiled 'pennants' based on teams' performances, but as the strength of fixture lists varied, it was at best an estimate of a team's performance throughout a season.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup – the RFU Club Competition, the predecessor to the Anglo-Welsh Cup – followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, by national merit tables. One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of some traditional games as the new fixture lists didn't allow time for all of them.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The league system has evolved since its start in 1987 when the Courage Leagues were formed – a league pyramid with roughly 1,000 clubs playing in 108 leagues, each with promotion and relegation.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In the first season, clubs were expected to arrange the fixtures on mutually convenient dates. The clubs involved were Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester, Moseley, Nottingham, Orrell, Sale, Wasps and Waterloo. That first season was an unqualified success, with clubs in the upper echelons of the national leagues reporting increased crowds, interest from both local backers and national companies, and higher skill levels among players exposed to regular competition. The fears that leagues would lead to greater violence on the field proved largely unfounded.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: By the next season, the RFU allocated fixed Saturdays to the league season, removing the clubs' responsibility for scheduling matches. There was no home and away structure to the leagues in those early seasons, as sides played one another only once.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: Initially two teams, Bath and Leicester, proved to be head and shoulders above the rest in the Courage League, and between them dominated the top of the table.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In 1994 the league structure expanded to include a full rota of home and away matches for the first time. The 1994–95 season was the first to be shown live on Sky Sports, a relationship which continued until the 2013–14 season when BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The league turned professional for the 1996–97 season when the first winners were Wasps, joining Bath and Leicester as the only champions in the league's first decade. Clubs like Saracens, Newcastle and Northampton were able to attract wealthy benefactors, but the professional era also had its casualties, as clubs like West Hartlepool, Richmond and London Scottish were forced into administration when their backers pulled out.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The start of the 2000–01 season brought with it a re-vamping of the season structure. In 2000–2001 an eight-team playoff (the Championship) was introduced. However, the team finishing top of the table at the end of the regular season was still considered English champions ("Premiership title").


title: Premiership Rugby

text: Halfway through the 2001–02 season, with Leicester odds-on to win their fourth title in succession, it was controversially decided that the winners of the eight-team playoff would be crowned English champions. There was an outcry from fans and this proposal was dropped.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: From the beginning of the 2002–03 season, a new playoff format was introduced to replace the 8-team Championship. The format required the first-placed team in the league to play the winner of a match between the second- and third-placed teams. Critically, the winner of this game (the Premiership Final) would be recognised as English champions. Although Gloucester won the league by a clear margin, they then faced a three-week wait until the final. Having lost their momentum, they were beaten by second-placed Wasps (who had defeated third-placed Northampton) in the play-offs. The playoff structure was reformatted in the 2005–06 season in which the first-placed team would play the fourth placed team in a semi-final (a Shaughnessy playoff).


title: Premiership Rugby

text: Since the implementation of the playoff system, only five teams have won both the regular season and playoffs in the same year: Leicester in 2000–01 (the first year of the playoffs), 2008–09 and 2009–10, Sale Sharks in 2005–06, Harlequins in 2011–12, Saracens in 2015–16 and Exeter in 2019–20.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: Of all the Premiership teams, Wasps have made a reputation for playing the competition format to perfection, peaking at the right time to be crowned English Champions in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Wasps did not lead the league standings at the end of the season in any of these years. Conversely, Gloucester have garnered an unfortunate reputation for leading the table at the end of the regular season, only to fall short of winning the Premiership title, losing finals in 2003, 2007, and 2008. Gloucester's single victory in the playoffs, in 2002, occurred when league leaders Leicester were still considered English champions, meaning Gloucester's Championship victory was considered secondary.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The 2011–12 season saw Harlequins add their name to the trophy on their first attempt, winning 30–23 against the nine-times champions Leicester. Leicester would have to wait until 2012–13 for their 10th championship, where they defeated Northampton in the final.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The 2013–14 Aviva Premiership season saw Northampton become the 8th different team to win the trophy. This was achieved when they defeated Leicester Tigers in the semi-final 21–20, thus denying Leicester a 10th Consecutive Final. In the final, they defeated Saracens 20–24 with a try in the last minute of extra time to win the 2013–14 Aviva Premiership.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: With the future of the Heineken Cup uncertain beyond 2013–14, due to a row between England's Premiership Rugby Limited and France's LNR on one side and the sport's governing bodies on the other, Premiership Rugby Limited explored several moves toward expanding its brand into the United States. In May 2013, Premiership Rugby Limited and U.S.-based RugbyLaw entered into a plan by which the two organisations were to help back a proposed U.S. professional league that could have begun play as early as 2014. The first phase of the plan was to involve two preseason exhibitions featuring an "American Barbarians" side that would combine international veterans and young American talent. The "Barbarians" were intended to play matches in August 2013 in the U.S. and London, but those plans fell through, and the matches were indefinitely delayed.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In August 2013, Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom confirmed that Premiership Rugby Limited had discussed the possibility of bringing select Premiership matches to the US. The first match played in the USA was on 12 March 2016 when London Irish were defeated by Saracens at the Red Bull Arena in the New York Metropolitan Area. This match was intended to be the first of a three-year deal which would have seen London Irish play one home match each season in the US, but their relegation from the Premiership at the end of the 2015–16 season scuttled that plan. A new deal was reached with American sports marketing company AEG in 2017 which was intended to see at least one Premiership match taken to the US for four seasons starting in 2017–18. The first match under the new deal was held on 16 September 2017, with Newcastle Falcons taking their home fixture against Saracens to the Talen Energy Stadium in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. In 2018–19, although no match was scheduled to take place in the US, the round 6 match between Saracens and Harlequins was the first broadcast on network television in the US of a Premiership Rugby game. The game was shown live on NBC. In 2019–20, and 2020–21 once again no matches were scheduled to take place in the US.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: 2018 also saw a revamp of the league's secondary competition with the launch of the Premiership Rugby Shield.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In December 2018 it was announced that the Luxembourg based investment advisory firm CVC Capital Partners had bought a 27% stake in Premiership Rugby in a deal worth £200m. A previous offer to purchase a 51% majority share was rejected. The money from the investment was planned to be used to improve facilities at clubs and grow the game globally.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: In March 2019, allegations emerged that Saracens may have broken the league's salary cap. In June, Premiership Rugby announced that they would investigate the allegations. In November 2019, Saracens were found to have been in breach of the salary cap regulations due to failure to disclose player payments in the 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, which would have taken them over the senior player cap. They were handed a 35-point deduction for the 2019–20 season and fined £5.3 million. The judgement found that Saracens had been reckless in entering into the arrangements with players without disclosing them to Premiership Rugby.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: On 18 January 2020, Premiership Rugby announced that Saracens would be relegated to the RFU Championship for the 2020–21 season. Premiership Rugby CEO Darren Childs said this punishment was due to Saracens lack of cooperation in a mid-season audit to prove compliance in the 2019–20 season.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: On 23 January 2020, Lord Dyson's full report into Saracens' spending was published, it revealed that Saracens had overspent the salary cap by £1.1m in 2016–17, £98,000 in 2017-18 and £906,000 in 2018–19. These included £923,947.63 of property investments between Nigel Wray and three unnamed Saracens players. It also included Saracens claim that the Salary Cap was unenforceable under competition law, this defence was rejected. On 28 January 2020, Premiership Rugby applied a further 70 point deduction for the 2019–20 season to ensure Saracens would finish bottom of the league table.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all elite sports in England in spring 2020. The RFU initially suspended both the Premiership and Championship before eventually cancelling the Championship season. Newcastle Falcons, who topped the Championship table at the time of the season's premature end were promoted based on their playing record and would replace Saracens in the Premiership the following season.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The 2019–20 Premiership Rugby season recommenced on 14 August and the final was held 24 October 2020.


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The disruption of the 2019–20 season meant the 2020–21 season commenced 10 weeks late on 20 November 2020 and ran over a reduced timeframe of 32 weeks (down from 42).


title: Premiership Rugby

text: The financial impact of the pandemic also caused the salary cap to be temporarily reduced for a maximum of 3 seasons from the 2021–22 season.